Andrew Peterson’s Adorning the Dark is an artists’ retreat captured in book form. That’s the simplest and truest way I can describe its impact on me. Adorning the Dark is part-memoir of Peterson’s artistic journey and personal life, part-spiritual reminders for creative souls, part-guidebook for artists. The book isn’t just for your typical “creatives”—writers, musicians, …
Continue reading Book Review: Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson
I didn’t write a single new book in 2019. Sure, I did edit two different novels. I created and plotted a whole new series. And this isn’t the first year I haven’t written a new novel. I didn’t complete a new one in 2017 either, and, in fact, I made more writing progress this past …
Home has always been a complicated concept for me. Moving to new places every few years was a constant given for our family during my childhood. Because of that transience, I often longed for the days when I would be able to settle in one place for a long time. In particular, I dreamed of …
Continue reading I’ll Be Home for Christmas…But What is “Home”?
Note: I would consider these reviews to be spoiler free. However, I do mention (in vague language) what I liked or disliked about each book/series. I also provide my impression of the ending (i.e. whether it satisfied me or not). Again, I don’t give any detailed or specific spoilers, but I wanted to place an …
Fall is on the horizon and I can’t wait for the weather to get chillier! But, seeing as Texas is still in the upper 90s, I might have to wait a long time… Other than the colder weather, Fall also brings back two of my favorite things: football and school. Speaking of school, you might …
In recent weeks, I’ve written on how I’m pursuing of Student Affairs as my fulltime career (by attending graduate school first) over writing. Though focusing most of my time and energy on a career besides writing seems like it would conflict with my creative work, there are actually a few overlaps between my two professional …
Continue reading Writing for & Working With Young Adults: The Overlap
As I type this, I’m sipping my morning cup of coffee. It’s a daily occurrence for me, usually followed up by another cup in the early afternoon. The morning cup I usually have over (or after) a dive into God’s incredible Word. I like to save the afternoon cup for writing time. I entered my …
How is it already August?! In spite of my disbelief for how quickly time flies, this post’s delay actually isn’t because I lost track of the time. I wanted to give my Gap Year post (read it here) some space before posting again, and I honestly didn’t know if I’d get to writing this by …
Vulnerability alert! I failed hard last year. Okay, maybe I’m being hard on myself, but last summer I certainly felt like the World’s Biggest Failure of 2018 and Life. It took many months to rebuild my confidence, my sense of life direction, and pieces of my relationship with God. So what happened? Great question. The …
Continue reading My Unexpected, Unplanned, Unwanted Gap Year
Christians and the Creative Writing Process, Part 5 “but [God] disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” – Hebrews 12:10b-11 (NASB) …
By Madelynn Orion 