• 4 Strategies for Overcoming Life’s Obstacles

    I’m so grateful to author DiAnn Mills for inviting me to share this post with her readers on her beautiful blog. DiAnn is an award-winning, best-selling romantic suspense author with a heart from Jesus, love for her readers, and passion for helping other writers. I hope my post on overcoming life’s obstacles encourages you today. 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 helping me improve my technical skills.…

  • Italy Adventures: Choose Joy and Enjoy the Journey

    Ciao from Italy! I’m so thankful to be here, visiting some settings in my next novel, exploring this beautiful country with my colleague, and working remotely. However, lest you think the writer’s life and remote work life are purely magical (and oftentimes, they are), keep reading. Here’s what this trip has taught me so far. #1: You can’t plan for everything. Perhaps you’re wondering, Wasn’t Kristen going to blog while she’s traveling abroad? The answer is that yes, I was. However, when I turned on my laptop in Orvieto, I discovered that it would not charge. My colleague and I tried everything from reinstalling battery drivers and various other online…

  • The Lincoln Memorial and a Mother’s Day Tribute

    Of all the monuments and memorials in the National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial might be the most famous. (By National Mall, I don’t mean a shopping plaza with a food court. It’s the name of the national park lined with many of D.C.’s monuments.) Engraved on either side of Lincoln’s statue are both his Second Inaugural Address and his Gettysburg Address. The lesser well-known of the two is his inaugural address, which focuses on the Civil War conflict that had been tearing the nation apart during his presidency. I want to share with you an excerpt that reveals our sixteenth president’s faith and humility. Neither party expected for the war,…