Writing and Publishing Christian Fiction

January 24, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

A question I often get from writers is how I naturally (or “gently,” as some readers have said) meld faith and fiction in my children’s books. I answer this question and others in this interview with Timarie Friesen of the GCD Writers’ Guild.

Nature is marking this long trail of days

May 15, 2020.Reading time 4 minutes.

I just barely remember my first walk in the woods. My grandmother took me. Maybe it was in the patch of forest across the street from her square little house with the wringer washer and the beagle who ate locusts.

Holding the wild story in small hands

August 17, 2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

My father had watched the rabbit’s nest for days and didn’t see the mother return. Still heartbroken over the event and not realizing then that the mother was probably caring for the remaining babies early in the morning, he decided we needed to rescue them…

Settings: the places that shape us

November 24, 2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

All the seconds run together now, and clocks don’t seem to matter much. Maybe they never did in a place where time and work and rest were measured more by when the rooster crowed and the sun set . . . when the rain came or didn’t and the first frost threatened.

Staying resilient, slaying parasites

August 16, 2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

The man made a beeline for me.

I, and a few authors, had just finished leading a discussion about the importance of the voices of “midlife” writers.

This particular writer, who had been in the audience, almost seem dazed–eyes glassy, lips parted as if what he needed to verbalize hadn’t fully formed yet and was resting between them.

Then…

Two stories and one picture from the other side

July 8, 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

by Amanda Cleary Eastep We stepped up to our ankles in the cold water, careful to keep our footing on the gray and brown mosaic of smooth stones beneath our pale feet. This simple act was a pinnacle moment–leaving our shoes on the gritty sand of the “bonny, bonny bank” and walking together into Loch […]

Keep Pedaling: the slow and steady climb to writer

May 8, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

I struggle with the “that’s it” part. I want to race myself and win. I want to master the incline like I have the writer thighs of Ernest Hemingway.

Saying Yes and Staying Humble: A Lesson from the Festival of Faith and Writing

April 21, 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

I felt shook up. A little like I imagined author Kwame Alexander felt after the car accident that rolled him and his family over and over on the road one day, sending boxes of his father’s beloved books for the city book fair strewn across the road like litter…

This is us: the story of midlife writers and co-conspirators

December 8, 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep It was a year ago November that Michelle Van Loon and I met for the first time. I was attending the Deeply Rooted conference in Chicago with my daughter and two friends, and Michelle was a speaker. She delivered her message about restlessness (which just happens to be my middle name) […]

Less Drama, More Purpose: When your midlife career change is more of a pivot than a leap

September 17, 2017.Reading time 2 minutes.

February 2017 — Journal Entry I’ve been getting that weird feeling again. The one I get when things are going to change… Several times throughout my life, I have felt an odd vacancy open up somewhere above my heart that has inevitably signaled an eventual shift. One time in particular had to do with a […]