Are you like me and stunned that this is already the last day of January?
Since our minds are blown, let’s enjoy some mindless fun with marbles playing music in today’s video.
Blog
Tips for Mentoring Writer Friends
You’ve undoubtedly done everything listed below since you’re one of our readers. However, based on the many unsolicited submissions we receive, many new authors still need to follow good advice. If you’re mentoring new authors, we suggest recommending the following: Please Read and Follow Our Guidelines As Steve Laube says, “We are not hiding.” We feature our …
What Entered the Public Domain in 2025?
I try to post something about this every year. This year is no exception. In the United States, under U.S. copyright law, works published in 1929 and earlier are now in public domain. One can publish them or use them without securing copyright permission. In case you are wondering about the specifics, the Copyright Term Extension Act (passed in 1998) gave works published from 1923 through 1977 a …
Fun Fridays – January 24, 2025
The 1972 Olympic Games saw one of history’s most iconic come-from-behind races. Watch it again today and be inspired by Dave Wottle. (The 800 meter race is twice around the track.) The lesson? When it seems you are too far behind. When it looks like every other writer already knows everything. When you probably should just give up. Keep running. Keep working at your craft. Every writer you …
Book Birthdays: 2025 Edition
Significant books are published every year. Here’s a personally curated list that I hope sparks some good memories and honors the work of the past: Radical, by David Platt (2010) – 15 years Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas (2010) – 15 years Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand (2010) – 15 years End of the Spear, by Steve Saint (2005) – 20 years Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, by David Gregory (2005) – 20 …
How to Write Your First Novel – an Interview
Thomas Umstattd Jr. interviews Steve Laube Thomas: So, you’re thinking about writing a novel. You’ve tried your hand at writing a few times, but the story just hasn’t come together. Or maybe you wrote and wrote, but you didn’t quite like what you wrote. The method of starting to write and hoping for the best is the hardest way to write a novel. It’s like trying to …
Fun Fridays – January 17, 2025
Collecting autographs can be fun but often a daunting challenge if you are a bit shy about asking. Even more fun as an author to be asked! Today’s video is an incredible story of a man who traveled the world and collected 50,000 signatures … in one large book. Wow!
What I Am Looking For (Lynette Eason)
(Updates 1/15/2025) Books, books, and more books! Gimme all the books! That’s been my motto for as long as I can remember. I grew up reading whatever I could get my hands on. Mostly mysteries and suspense like Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Sweet Valley High, Alfred Hitchcock, Erle Stanley Gardner, Agatha Christie, C.S. Lewis, and so on. And then, I found Christian fiction in the form of Dee …
Bring the Books (What Steve Laube Is Looking For)
(Updated 1/13/2025) “Bring the books, especially the parchments,” is a sentence in 2 Timothy 4:13 that has teased readers for 2,000 years. What books did the Apostle Paul want to read while waiting for trial? Theology? History? How-to? (Maybe a little escape reading? Pun intended.) Another writer chimed in a while ago by saying, “Of making many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). And if …
Fun Fridays – January 10, 2025
Question for the crowd. Look carefully at today’s picture. Would you rather live by the sea and commute to work in the city below? or Would you rather live in the city and commute to work by the sea? Leave your comments below. In case you are wondering, this is in Greece. Fira, Santorini.