As I’m busy writing my next book, I’m also poring through all of my files. Stacks and stacks of papers. Printed blog posts and online articles. Handwritten notes scribbled over the years as I read books in bed, late at night. Scraps of paper and receipts with “brilliant” ideas that I scribbled as I drove,...

Courtney DeFeo is a friend of my agent, and that’s how we connected, but it seems we have lots in common. One of her creations is Alphabet Scripture Cards, which are pretty cool. Her bio describes her better than I could: Courtney DeFeo believes our kids can light up the world. As a former marketing...

God has an amazing way of connecting us with each other. Becky Kopitzke and I share the same agent. During the reach-out-to-everyone-you-know phase of my book promotion, I wrote to her. Turns out, she lives near where my daughter Anna goes to school in Wisconsin. And attends the church that Anna had hoped to check...

“So, did you design your book cover?” I hear that a lot. The answer is no. “But you’re a graphic designer!” I know that. But people say this often enough that I thought I’d briefly explain. If you self-publish, you can design your own cover. And from what I’ve seen, sometimes with smaller publishers, the...

Don’t worry. This post isn’t about The Dress. Well, not really. As a graphic designer, I pride myself on how I perceive color, on noticing the nuances of hues and shades and being able to describe them to my clients. So I confess that this has been kind of hard on me. One, I like...

Book titles change fairly often. I started out expecting my book to be called Praying Upside Down. Then the folks at Tyndale suggested The Art of Praying Upside Down. I liked that, too. But then there were reasons to be made for shortening it back to Praying Upside Down—all of which I agree with—so I had...

Emily Freeman is one of my favorite bloggers—if you don’t already know her, check out chattingatthesky.com. Every month, she does a “what I learned” post, and this week she’s posting her year-end roundup. I decided to join in the link-up. These are just a few of the things that I learned this last year, in...

So…whaddaya think? I’ll tell you why I like it. It’s hand-painted and hand-lettered (by one of Tyndale’s fabulous designers), so that brings in the art aspect. This optical illusion—the faces and/or chalice—is one that’s featured in the book. (But you’ll have to wait until then to read the whole story behind it.) The image depicts...

Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of God. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To create is to reflect the image of God. To create is an act of worship.” ~Erwin McManus