Christian Indie Authors Network Blog

        A  DAY IN THE LIFE                         I usually head to my desk around eleven a.m. After checking my email, I go to my X account, do some posting, and respond to posts. Then I check Facebook to see what’s happening there.             ​                         If I’m honest, it’s easy to spend too much time on X. My monitor is divided into two sections. My work in progress (WIP) is on the right, other things on the left. That work in progress keeps calling to me, telling me to get going. But it’s easier to look at X than to figure out what comes next in the plot line. Pulling myself up by the bootstraps, I move my eyes to the right.                                    Once I get back into the WIP, I’m totally immersed. In fact, when I stop writing, it takes me a minute to get my head back into reality. While writing, there is constant rewriting and going back over what I’ve written. For example, I don’t want to leave my main character standing by a window in one paragrap

  My first book published by Elk Lake Publishing, Inc. in The Victory Series, a three-book series, is Hope Doesn’t Disappoint (2022).                  A mother and wife addicted to gambling loses everything – her husband and two girls, her job, and her home. Disliking shelters, she chooses to live out of her car. Although she receives therapy for addicted gamblers, she still can’t kick the habit. When the addiction takes her to the bottom, the only way she can look is up. When she does, she finds the only One who can remove burdens, destroy yokes, and give her hope that doesn’t disappoint.        The idea for the book came from watching someone close to me struggle with the addiction and seeing how rapidly it took hold. While doing research for the book, I attended a peer group for addicted gamblers where I met personally those struggling to overcome the addiction. I visited casinos, and witnessed first-hand the complete absorption of those waiting for the digital sounds of winnin

                       Seventy Times Seven is my first Christian romance fiction book, published by Friesen Press in 2021. It is a story of forgiveness, courage, survival and love – the love between a man and a woman, the love of family, and the faithful love of God, the source of all love, for His children.         Part of the book is situated in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. On a vacation there, the idea began to form in my imagination. The book was many years in the making, due to the fact other things got in the way of writing it. When I retired in 2019, I went back to the manuscript and reworked it.                            The main theme is forgiveness. It took a long time for God to bring me to the place where I could forgive a family member who hurt me. But when I did, it brought freedom.                         The following is the trailer for the book: Three strangers cross paths and their lives converge. One is a young woman from a small fishing village in the Yu

  Hello Readers! I live in Canada, 150 kilometers east of Toronto, Ontario. Usually by mid-December, we have snow. It is January 3 and the ground is bare (not that I’m complaining!). Is there unusual weather where you live? The following is the trailer for the third book in the Victory Series, Caused to Triumph, coming out in the fall of this year, 2024. Anne-Marie, oldest daughter of Cassie and Jon Bailey, is on top of the world. She has graduated from university and obtained a position in her field of medical research. On a trip to Las Vegas with her boyfriend, Liam, they decide on a whim to get married.          Liam suspects one of his chartered accounting clients to be involved in shady business dealings.  When the client is arrested and charged with money laundering, Liam is subpoenaed to testify at his upcoming trial.          This puts Liam in jeopardy, and he and Anne-Marie end up running for their lives. When she miscarries their first baby, her world falls apart. It take

  Hello, Readers. Happy New Year!  What are your plans for 2024? Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? More importantly, do you intend to keep them?            Naturally, I love to read. Every day, you’ll find me at my favorite coffee  shop, reading. When people come into the store and ask about me, they say, “You know, the lady who always comes in here and reads.” There’s nothing nicer than a hot cup of tea, a treat, and a book. I enjoy thrillers, mysteries, and contemporary fiction. Currently, I’m reading David Baldacci’s latest book, The Edge . At the beginning of the book, after one action scene, things moved slowly, but as I keep reading, they’re beginning to pick up speed.   In addition to reading, I am the author of three published contemporary Christian novels and have another one coming out in the fall of this year, Caused to Triumph . I started writing seriously in 2019 when I retired from over thirty years of employment in social services. My experience in this field p

  JOYCE CRAWFORD, CHRISTIAN AUTHOR Why I Write   I am certain every author has at one time, or another been asked, “Why do you write?” For me, at least three reasons come to mind. First, I started writing children's books because I love teaching children. It thrills me to see their little eyes light up when they “get it.” Children are little sponges. They are eager to absorb anything, and there is so much I want to share with them, both temporal and spiritual. The second reason I write is very personal. I write for my children, so they will know the background of our families, and I enjoyed the extended trip down memory lane. Our newer generation has never experienced the joy of opening a box of laundry detergent and finding a dish towel hidden in the box. I want them to know how we licked trading stamps to fill a book because we did not have the money to buy items we wanted or needed. I want my grandchildren to know what things cost when I was young. I want them to know