For the first time, the Written Voices Blog managing editor and two of our columnists will have a booth at the festival. If you are in the area, stop by Written Voices Blog Authors | Booth #211. We would love to meet you in person. For the schedule and list of other authors, visit http://scbookfestival.org

Tyora Moody, Managing Editor – May 18th

COLUMN: DIYwithTy

Tyora Moody is the author Soul-Searching Suspense novels, When Rain Falls (March 2012), When Memories Fade (April 2013) and Deep Fried Trouble (June 2013). As an literary-focused entrepreneur, she has assisted countless authors with developing an online presence via her company, TywebbinCreations.com. Popular services include virtual book tours, book trailers, customized WordPress websites and book covers for independent authors.

DIY with Ty is an instructional and consulting company owned and operated by Tyora. She aims to take the mystery out of the “geeky” stuff in a way anyone can understand and learn how to do-it-yourself.

For her writing endeavors, visit her online at TyoraMoody.com.

Becky DeWitt – May 19th

COLUMN: The Journey

As a Christian author, Becky DeWitt’s writings reveal trials and tribulations as well as edification to the soul. Her books express the need to talk about Jesus Christ from the ordinary everyday perspective with titles that are uncommon and the cover art as well.

In 2008 she published her first children’s short story, “Destiny’s Closet,” which developed into a book by 2009. “Destiny’s Closet” teaches children the importance of developing a personal relationship with God. The success and well-reception of “Destiny’s Closet” inspired Becky to follow-up with a sequel, titled, “Destiny’s Closet -Circle of Friends,” which was published in November 2010. “Destiny’s Closet – Circle of Friends” continues the adventures of Destiny, Becca, and Mauri and their growing relationship with Jesus. “Destiny’s Closet – The Wonder School” is the third book in the series where the children are in the school that they prayed and asked Jesus for.

She has published four adult inspirational books with Brentwood Christian Press. The Fruit of Your Lips is the latest book that was published in July 2011 with Authorhouse. Her articles are also published in the Christian Voice, the local area Christian magazine, that is published and distributed throughout the Carolinas. Becky is currently working on a new project focusing on the Indie Gospel artists, Devine Glory Magazine based out of the Florence, SC. She also works with The Columbia Writer’s Alliance Group, www.colawriters.com.

Jacqueline Goodwin – May 18th

COLUMN: Healing in the Vessel

Jacqueline Goodwin is the author of Healing in the Vessel. Healing in the Vessel is about Jacqueline Goodwin’s testimonies. She shares how God elevated her to a level of faith. The book exposes how she allowed the power of God to work in her life. Goodwin discuss openly about how God healed her from HIV, a death trap Satan sent to her not by a stranger but by someone she trusted. Among an abundance of other miracles, Goodwin discuss a near fatal accident that could have claimed her entire immediate family if God had not given the order for death to stand still. Visit Jacqueline online at http://healinginthevesselministry.com

What Are Your Writing Sins?
by Vanessa Riley

If a list of your writing sins were presented to you, what would you do?

In my debut release, Madeline’s Protector, my hero, Lord Devonshire, is a reforming rake. As a second son, the one his father thought was expendable, he’s lived his life seeking the approval he never gained from the ‘old man’. Just as Devonshire’s about to commit his life to the heroine, a list of all the scandalous things he’d ever done is presented, and he’s mortified. The shame takes him down a destructive path.

As a writer, a list of our sins frequently arrives from critique partners, agents, editors, and sometimes readers: unintentional telling, an accidental head-hop, a sentence so purple it could be mistaken for eggplants. Once you’ve dusted yourself off and stopped drinking gutter water, use these steps to help make it better:

1. Put down the list and do something to get your mind in a positive place: Go for a jog, eat a piece of good chocolate.
2. Hours or days later, give the list a second look and decide if the critique is fair and accurate. Try to avoid explaining why you wrote what you did. The reader won’t have the benefit of knowing these reasons. It is okay to agree that something is wrong or not written as well as it could be. Or, sometimes a dog is just a dog. No amount of cute sweaters (or excuses) will make a pup a human child. Critiques require an open mind. You will never improve if you can’t handle honest criticism.
3. Take proactive steps to “improve”. Even if you’re not sold on all the items on the list, you are a writer. Imagine how you could make the sentences better so it conveys your intent and voice but doesn’t stumble the reader or pull them from the story.
   1. Maybe this paragraph could be more exciting and draw a reader into the action if I show the happenings.
   2. Okay, I’m trapped in the hero’s head. What is he thinking? Can he interpret the heroine’s thoughts from her facial features.
   3. Okay, I’ll scrap four of the adjectives and the precious metaphor to get the point across more clearly.
   4. Reward yourself. Celebrate your professionalism with a bite of dark chocolate. This will get those happy endorphins going enabling you to write more.

Fine, I do think chocolate offers a panacea of benefits. For me, it makes the pain go away as I improve my craft.

About the Book

If all the young men of England leapt off a cliff, Madeline St. James wouldn’t care. Then she’d have peace. Her nightmares of courtship would end, and she’d cozy up with a Psalm in her aunt’s quiet sculpture garden.

Yet, a chance meeting and a bullet wound change everything, and Madeline must trust the Good Shepherd has led her to the altar to marry a dashing stranger, Lord Devonshire.

Death and pain are no strangers to Justain Delveaux, Lord Devonshire, and he vows his dutiful bride will be kept safe and in her place. Though this compromised marriage is in-name-only, his wife and her unwavering faith both intrigue and allure him. Perchance when he thwarts his brother’s killer, Justain will tempt the unpredictable Madeline with the comfort of his arms.

But can Madeline and the stubborn earl forge a true bond before the next disaster strikes?

 About the Author

The Regency and Victorian eras have always been a magnetizing draw for Vanessa Riley. Even as she worked to complete her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, she made time for renaissance fairs and any novel or cinematographic work depicting these genteel societies of old. Perhaps, the attraction arises from the kinship she feels with the period being brought up in the restrictive Southern Bible Belt with its stringent definitions of decent behavior and life expectations. Perhaps the common dominator to this appeal is her own thirty day Christian courtship or even the arranged marriages of her uncles; each is emblematic of the nuptials of those earlier times.

A technology muse like Dr. Vanessa Riley is probably not the immediate choice to write about haute ton English society set in the 1800′s. With her most recent published work being “Reducing Deformation by Phase Manipulation,” the common visceral reaction is that Providence has given another mule a voice to tell His story. Nevertheless, this mule uses her determined spirit and dogmatic tenacity to master the subject and to discover the hidden nuances of a character making him believable, her human and both ready to be used of God.

Vanessa holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and a masters in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. She also earned BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Penn State University. She has been a radio anchorwoman and church announcer. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association and Romance Writers of America.

Today, Vanessa juggles mothering a eight year old, her seventeenth wedding anniversary, engineering, writing and speaking at women’s events. She is known for her humorous delivery of poignant truths. Vanessa is currently, editor in chief of an online social network, www.busymama.net.

• I can be found at: http://www.christianregency.com
• My twitter: @VanessaRiley
• Like my facebook: http://facebook.com/ChristianRegency

ORDER THIS BOOK ONLINE AT:

Madeline’s Protector can be purchased at BN, Amazon, CBD:

• BN: http://tinyurl.com/bworjjr
• Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/c24a55p
• The CBD: http://tinyurl.com/cxsdron

Walls, chains, bars, and doors lock behind me as the guard walks away with the key to my freedom.  This cold, dreary, isolated, dark place that I speak of is prison. Prison is defined as a state of confinement or captivity, jail, a place where people who have been convicted are sentence or awaiting trial.

This place of confinement is where Satan has many of us today bound in captivity.  I remember from the age of three and all during my school years that I was sentenced to a conviction of fear.  Satan was the guard who walked away with the key as I look through the bars of anxiety.  I was being held captive without even physically being placed in a prison.

The cell which contained me was my past of being told by some one that I would never amount to anything and I was not smart enough.  The words had been spoken into my spirit and the seed was planted just like Satan intended.  I dread going to school because I felt different from my classmates.  I would know the answer to the questions that my teacher would ask but I was afraid of being called a nerd and picked on by classmates.

Though I had an usually way of expressing myself, my soul felt locked down and confine not to explore the depths of being free.  Yes, Satan had sentenced me and walked away with the key. When all the teenagers my age were planning to go drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, and party I simply wanted to learn more about God, read, and write poems and stories but I did not pursue the things of my heart because I was in prison.  The seed that Satan had planted began to take root Fear of not being liked by the popular girls, fear of being called a freak.  Yes, Satan had confined me to prison.

Satan plan was for me was to serve a life sentence but one day at the age of eighteen when I attended a revival at a small church in the country I met the man who held the key to unlock my prison door.  His name was Jesus.  As I sat in the back of the church something drew me to the altar as the preacher called people to come down for prayer.  For the first time I did not fear what others would say about me.  I did not fear being unique because I wanted to be free.

After I got up off my knees and face I was no longer bound and my soul was release out of prison.  As I walked away from the altar I felt a sense of freedom that I never knew exist, a freedom to become who I was ordained to be before I was conceived in my mother’s belly.  I realized that I no longer had to be shackled by the grips of Satan tactics and lies.  I was free to be an individual and not a prisoner!   I was free to see the potential that God had placed in me and I was now able to move freely towards reaching my full potential.

You may have never spent time in a physical prison but you are still imprisoned.  Satan has held you captive and sentenced you to a life time of fear, unforgiveness, shame, low-self esteem, and brokenness but don’t despair because Jesus is standing with the key to unlock your prison door that your soul may be free.   Satan will no longer deprive you of a bountiful life.  You do not have to wait for the guard to come and release you because Jesus is standing with the key now.  He wants to heal you emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21) and the tongue of others will keep us in prison because we will not move forward from our past.  No matter what my past and yours consisted of Jesus has the key to unlock the door.  I encourage you to walk out the prison door and be release from your past so you may embrace your destiny just as I have.

I was born in Akron, Ohio to Nigerian parents. I spent my childhood and early adulthood years in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance & Banking and a Masters of Business Administration degree in Global Management.

My job is in the business field but my talent and gift is in writing. I am a lover of all things books. I also loves, travelling, watching movies, listening to music and family time. I presently resides in Atlanta, GA with my husband and two kids

I believe my ministry is to share faith, hope and love of God through writing aimed at encouraging people through all facets of life

How do you find time to connect with God?

I make the time. Staying connected with Him is very important to starting my day of right.Being a wife, mom, full time worker and a writer now author, it can be tough but necessary feat. Some tricks I have developed are;one not to leave the bed in the morning with out communing with God, two,as a family we set a specific time everyday when we pray together.

We have this early evening so that one, we don’t get too engrossed in ourselves and forget and two so that the kids learn at a younger age that this is a crucial part of life.

Who are your favorite authors? Favorite books?

Oh my there are too may to mention. If I could I would list them all, but the authors that have had the most effect on me are Pat Simmons; her Guilt series is just out of this world, so also is Crowing Glory. There is also Rhonda McKnight, loved What Kind of Fool. Sherri Lewis; Dance into Destiny, My Soul Cries out etc. Victoria Christopher Murray with Destiny Divas and lastly the one I started reading first Kendra Norman Bellamy. I have read everything she has written.

Tell us about your journey to publication. 

I started writing a number of years ago. I would write 500+ word count blogs and that would be it. I spent most of my time reading and reading and reading. When I got married my husband took one look at my library and asked where was my book? He harassed my all the way to publication and I’m thankful for it. I am independently published with KevStel Publications.

Tell us about your current book, An Unexpected Blessing?

An independent Nigerian woman in Diaspora; Feranmi Adewunmi is threatened with the suggestion of an arranged marriage because by her parent’s calculations, she should be married by now. She is however determined to beat them at their own game, but she needs a man, not just any man but a Nigerian man.

Alex Montgomery, CEO of Montgomery Construction has no space in his life for a woman. An unfortunate incident changed his life forever; therefore rebuilding his business has become his sole focus.

For Feranmi time was running out, so Alex would just have to do. After all how hard could it be? What they weren’t prepared for was an attraction they couldn’t ignore. Their only option is to lean on the Lord to fix their hearts and minds but will his past confirm her stereotypical beliefs and come in the way of a future together?

An Unexpected Blessing is a story of love, forgiveness, and being open to God’s plan in your life. The best blessings often come in unexpected packages.

How did you come up with ideas for this book?

Although I was born in Akron Ohio, I spent my formative years in my native country Nigeria before I came back to the US about fifteen years ago. The issue of a marriage prospect at a certain age is nagging problem for most single ladies abroad. After a certain age, people want to know ‘whose wife’ you are and not ‘what accomplishments’ you have achieved. Then there is the unspoken expectation that you should marry from your culture.

I decided to write the story based on experiences all around me . Also wanted to shed light on the fact that sometimes what we want might not be what we need.

What valuable lessons do you want readers to learn from your book? 

Forgiveness and the rewards we get when we let go of past hurt and pain. Also that the best blessings often come in unexpected packages.

What’s next for you?

I am writing another book, which will release next year. And I’m currently working on three novellas.

Please tell us where we can connect with you online.

I have a couple of online homes;

• For twitter @unwankwor
• Facebook –  http://www.facebook.com/unoma.osiegbunwankwor
• goggle plus - https://plus.google.com/u/0/100491854772747890957/posts?tab=XX
• blog: http://inhissaftey.com/

The born again experience has enlisted many into a mighty army above class and rank of the ordinary. An emissary is one who is a part of this exceptional class, an agent of change, sent on missions representing the government of the Kingdom of God. Emissaries are dangerous because they know their true identity and are not deceived easily by the world system. They are equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit and are called to transact Kingdom business.

Many of the early disciples recognized that the enemy was subject to them through the name of Jesus. (Luke 10:17). When Jesus said “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you, ” it was after they realized the power of His name. (Luke 10:19 KJV). They had no idea the magnitude of the power that was with them until they went out. The Body of Christ has not even begun to realize the power that is within.

After the resurrection, when Jesus visited the disciples He breathed on them. “Then Jesus said to them again, Peace to you! Just as the Father has sent Me forth, so I am sending you. And having said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit!” John 20:21-22 AMP). Then He gave instructions to wait for the promise of the Father. “ But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.” Acts 1:8 AMP). We have the promise of the Father, but where is the evidence and manifestation of the power? Signs shall follow those who believe. Where is the proof of their belief? Where are the dangerous ones equipped with such boldness that they are a threat to the world system of the enemy? Yes, there is a sign of speaking in tongues, but that is not enough. There is a God work force that is arising that are prepared with the power and waiting to be unleashed to go into a city, a nation, a territory or region to ignite the change where there will be no denying the power and glory of the living God!

The apostle Paul was the most dangerous emissary. In Acts, chapter 9, he goes from fierce hatred of Christians, to being one of the most radical in Body of Christ. Although he never physically met Jesus, his radical and zealous faith took him on many missionary journeys. He was determined to spread the gospel. When He entered a city, chaos erupted into a riot because the enemy knew that exposure was eminent and the truth would be revealed. (Acts 19). When will our voices rise with power to enter into the city limits and pull down and annihilate the strongholds of the enemy that are holding people hostage? “The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.” (Psalm 97:5).

The enemy has been waging war to block the evidence of the supernatural power of God by attempting to distort and distract our faith in God, using the natural element of time to wear out the saints. He desires to sift the Believers like wheat. (Luke 22:31). But Jesus knows the plan of the enemy and has interceded on our behalf, as He is our High Priest seated on the throne in heavenly places next to the Father.

God plants us among the unbelievers so that His power can be displayed. He has equipped and continues to equip us from faith to faith and from glory to glory. Jesus prayed that we would be one with the Father after he ascended so that we could become carriers of His presence. “Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are.” (John17:11). It is in that oneness, that we began to think those thoughts of His that we can handle and receive the sight to see the truth or our existence and abilities for the manifestation of power. “God stands in the assembly of the representatives of God; in the midst of the magistrates or judges He gives judgment as among the gods. How long will you magistrates or judges judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! I said, You are gods since you judge on My behalf, as My representatives; indeed, all of you are children of the Most High.” (Psalm 82: 1-2,6 AMP).

Awaken and arise mighty men and women, warriors of the most High GOD! The Lord has need of you. “Besides this you know what a critical hour this is, how it is high time now for you to wake up out of your sleep, rouse to reality. For salvation, final deliverance is nearer to us now than when we first believed, adhered to, trusted in, and relied on Christ, the Messiah.” (Romans 13:11 AMP). Every time we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, there should be a stirring on the inside of us to get up out of the old. There is an activation of the new from the eternal realm. During this high holy time, some things should get up in our spirit. Every thing that the enemy thinks that he has put to sleep or in a dormant state should arise and break free.

“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use,and prepared unto every good work.”

(2 Timothy 2:19-21).

© April 2013

All rights reserved

By Becky DeWitt

A great blogging option is when a group of writers or bloggers unite together to create a community blog.  These are known as group-authored blogs. Each contributing writer can be assigned one day a week (or month) to add a blog post.  Often opportunities arise for guest bloggers too. This is pretty much the way WrittenVoicesBlog.com has grown since 2006.

I really enjoy visiting blogs where you can read a variety of posts from aspiring to veteran writers. Below are a few blogs that follow this model. I have included the blogging platform used in [ ]. I write suspense, so I follow quite a few suspense and mystery blogs. Just in case you notice!

Jungle Red Writers
Blog – http://www.jungleredwriters.com/ [Blogger.com]
Contributors – See the top of the website

Murder She Writes
Blog – http://www.murdershewrites.com/ [Blogger.com]
Contributors -  See left side and top of the website

Novel Rocket
Blog – http://www.novelrocket.com/ [Blogger.com]
Contributors: http://www.novelrocket.com/p/ground-control.html

Seekerville
Blog – http://seekerville.blogspot.com/ [Blogger.com]
Contributors – http://seekerville.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html (Authors names on right)

The Kill Zone
Blog – http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/ [Blogger.com]
Contributors – See right side bar

Setting up a Group-Authored Blog

If you use WordPress, here is a video that walks you through setting up contributors (users) to your blog.

If you want to learn more about using the self-hosted version of WordPress, check out the eCourse below.