By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Hope is as much a part of our lives as breathing. We thrive on a better tomorrow and long for a spark of optimism in a world that appears to have turned upside down. Your hopes, dreams, and aspirations are not the same as mine, but that doesn’t change the importance. In our still moments, we

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills We writers are a passionate, emotional group. While these traits help us create beautifully worded fiction and non-fiction, nothing slashes the heart deeper than a harsh critique of our work. We might catch ourselves reading a harsh critique and thinking: “Even an idiot would get this.” “What? You’ve got to be kidding?” “Obviously, my style doesn’t

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Today is National Author’s Day, and whether you are a reader, writer, or both, it’s a good reason to show an author that you care. Books thrill, inform, inspire, educate, entertain, show us new cultures, and how people lived in historical eras. We can do none of this unless we have authors who will learn how

DiAnn Mills By DiAnnMills Most of us are familiar with King David of the Bible. His story is in 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Psalms, and many other parts of the Old and New Testament. For many of us, one of our first childhood Bible stories showed us how David took five smooth stones and used a

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills We writers are in the business of learning the craft, using our imaginations, writing, editing, rewriting, and the process repeats. That’s horizontal writing. We’re depending on people and earth’s resources to help us reach our publishing dreams and goals. While we prayerfully consider wise counsel and seek knowledge, too often we forget that we are called

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills I’m ready for this 2022 New Year to be wrapped in optimism. For that to happen, I must make a conscious decision (sometimes moment by moment) to declare joy in all things: ups, downs, and in-between times. It’s easy to write out that declaration, but to enlist optimism and joy, I need help—supernatural help and a

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills ‘Tis the Christmas season, and with all the hustle and bustle, we sometimes lose our Christmas spirit. When moments of irritation and frustration threaten your joy, look at these ten ways to bring hope back into your Christmas. Change your music selections to Christmas carols. As you sing along to the familiar classics, think about the

DiAnn Mills @ DiAnnMills Guest Blogger: Deborah Sprinkler @DebbieSprinkle About two months ago, I asked a simple question: How do you define family? The answers proved to be complicated. One reply summed up the difficulty in finding a definition. She wrote, “We have the family we are born into, the family we chose, and the family we join.” Is one

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills A survivor is someone who has lived through a tragic event. Survivors aren’t only those who lived while others died; sometimes resurfacing after enduring physical, emotional, or spiritual turmoil also makes us a survivor. Using the acronym for SURVIVOR, we can look at a few qualities needed to walk through fire and endure the heat. S

By DiAnn Mills @diannmills Guest Post by Kristen Hogrefe Parnell @KHogrefeParnell When my now-husband James and I were dating, he helped me purchase my first mountain bike. I knew he loved off-road biking and that this investment would give us hours of quality time together. Going on three years now, I’ve been riding my Cannondale with him, and he’s been