By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Readers of Trace of Doubt have asked me about the jewelry pieces in the story. This post gives you the inside scoop of the jewelry designs and their names. My heroine, Shelby Pierce, accomplished three valuable feats while in prison: She earned a master’s degree in business. She learned the art of designing jewelry. She became

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 Writers travel a sacred adventure—a journey of the soul fueled by the opportunity to touch the lives of countless people. We have been given a treasured gift, the gift of writing. Writing is not an easy journey, but it’s one filled with holiness. Writing is a path each writer takes alone, but in the stillness, we

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

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills This week reminds us of our many blessings, gratitude, and the love of family and friends. Below are twenty quotes and Scripture that help me value Thanksgiving. “Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” – Lionell Hampton “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your

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

DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Guest post: Candy Arrington @CandyArrington In this age of high-speed Internet, search engines, and cell phones, we have access to instant information at our fingertips, or by asking a voice-activated assistant like Alexa or Siri. Because we are so conditioned to immediacy, waiting has a negative connotation. From traffic snarls to drive-thru lines, we chafe at delays.

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills We are all living a unique season of life, but are we embracing the events and circumstances around us? Good times when health, wealth, and peace surround us can give us a lift in our walk. We smile and optimism rules the day. Then when a season punches us in the gut, it’s tough facing a

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills This summer we took a family vacation to the Rocky Mountain National Park, a favorite respite for my husband and me. This time, we had our son, daughter-in-law, and three enthusiastic grandkids to hike and enjoy park activities. One morning I took a walk outside our cabin along the Fall River near Estes Park, Colorado. I