Be critical of but not brutal with your writing. If something isn't essential, get rid of it. Remember that good dialogue can serve a whole passel of purposes in your novel, and to overlook one of them is to overlook one of the tools of the craft. Like hitting a nail with a screwdriver, if you know what I mean.

Work on what is real rather than worry about what is unreal.

When we don't understand and don't agree with the way life has gone, we are to bow before God and once again confess that we can't understand His wisdom. In faith, we are to accept His wisdom, His Word, and His workings, trusting in Him and obeying His commands.

Of all my children, you were always the hardest on yourself. You were always looking for the right way to behave, so concerned you might make a mistake. But, darling, there are no mistakes. There are only our wishes, our actions, and the consequences that follow both. There are only events, how we cope with them, and what we learn from the coping." "That's too easy," he said. "On the contrary. It's monumentally difficult.

When we promote the well-being of others God has placed in our lives our service glorifies God.

I attempt to write a good novel. Whether it is literature or not is something that will be decided by the ages, not by me and not by a pack of critics around the globe.

God begins molding a mother after His own heart on the inside-in the inner woman and her heart-and then works outward.