Writing
My Top 5 Books of 2018
For a writer, I’ve never felt like I read enough. I always have a book going, but I’m not what people call a “voracious reader.” Without being intentional, I average a book a month, sometimes two. So this year for the first time ever, I set a reading goal: two books a month, 24 books…
Read MoreWhat Releasing a Book Has Taught Me, One Year Later
One year ago today English Lessons was born. To commemorate this book’s first birthday, I would like to write it a thank you note/birthday card. If you think this is strange, don’t worry, it is. But when you write a book, it kind of becomes its own entity. A person in itself. You birthed it,…
Read MoreWhen I Am Certain of Nothing Else
The first part of 2018 has looked very different from my past few years as a full-time writer. As a writer, I spend most of my days alone typing at my computer, with the occasional phone call thrown in. But this year, I’ve had several speaking engagements that have required preparation and travel. I’ve been…
Read MoreWhen You Study the Bible for a Living
A few weeks ago my community group at church discussed this question: What is your relationship with scripture right now? I thought about it for a while and said, “It’s complicated. Scripture can feel like my job sometimes.” I study the Bible for a living. A lot of my freelance work over the years has…
Read MoreAnnouncing A New Project: Breathing Room
This is how my ideas come to fruition: I have an idea. I think about that idea for a long time. I say the idea out loud, but only to myself. One day, I say the idea out loud to a trusted friend. Then, I say it to more friends. I practice speaking the idea.…
Read MoreWhy I Get Off Social Media on the Weekends
Every Friday at 5 p.m. I get off social media. I delete my apps from my phone and try my hardest to resist logging in on my laptop for the rest of the night and all day Saturday and Sunday. Then on Monday morning, around 8, I get back on. I reload the apps on…
Read MoreThe Book. The Product
Well it’s here. It’s a real life, bound beauty of a thing isn’t it? I would like to talk about how this all got started. This whole book thing. I want you to know, and I need to remind myself because lately English Lessons has felt less like a book and more like something else.…
Read MoreShould You Pre-order English Lessons? Probably. Here’s Why.
So the process of releasing a book is in full swing. This time last year I was hardly able to tell you what the book was about. Now, I can tell you everything! It’s so great. I don’t know if you’re into pre-ordering books or not. I am, but only for special books. For example,…
Read MoreEnglish Lessons Launch Team: How You Could Be On It
I tell a story in the book about this time in Oxford when somebody stole a battery from me. I rode a bike everywhere in Oxford. I didn’t have a car, so I depended on that bike to get me from here to there, rain or shine. It was illegal to ride a bike in…
Read MoreEnglish Lessons: The Book Cover and How Writing Makes You Crazy
Around this exact moment on this day last year, I hit SEND on my manuscript. I had spent the previous nine days in a bit of a frenzied state. I did not speak to other people. I holed up in a garage apartment in the country for a couple of days. My physical appearance got…
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