• Life has yet to deliver the day when I don’t want to write–as a craft, as a hobby, as a personal development tool…and yes, sometimes for “work”. Below are some of the projects that represent the many kinds of writings touching my life these days.
• My friend Brad Johnson released the e-book Four Laws of Forgiveness. Brad is a life-long pastor and counselor who has poured his own experiences–both successes and failures–into capturing how forgiveness really works. I had the pleasure to work on the developmental editing behind the book and can tell you it freshly challenged my laziness in the face of opportunity to forgive. People of the Second Chance fans, this is right up your ally.
• Speaking of POTSC, if you read Gracenomics and have the heart to seek second chances group-style, there are Participant Guides and Videos to make grace a community experience.
• On another front, I’m loving curating and editing a book project for Moody press that will bring together many writers and artists from the STORY community. It’s called Inciting Incidents and deals with pivotal moments in life, where the decisions made in crucial moments direct us closer to or away from our best futures. More to come.
• Doing some work on Josh Shipp’s upcoming second book too. I was largely unfamiliar with Josh’s work, outside of knowing his name was somehow attached to “youth speaker”. But after spending some time immersed in his life story and observing where it’s taken him (far beyond “youth speaker”), I’m sold. This guy is an automatic win for a youth/college audience seeking life direction.
• In other news, this week, I have the privilege to help capture the story of a successful anesthesiologist who overcame a life-altering, disabling injury in his late teens. Believe me, half the notes I take will be for my own learning. Determined to let some faith and perseverance rub off on me.
• Still working on a newly contracted book which will resource people of faith and/or church communities who want to intentionally study and get to know the community they serve.  You can get a little taste of the exercises and subscribe to get future exercises and sample chapters here.
• There will also be new free guides coming to the “How to Start a Book” section of this website so make sure to add your name to the 70 people already somewhere on their book-writing journey. (It’s free. Save your pennies.)
• Do you have an opinion on what is the best word to capture the concept of “brotherhood”? I’d love to hear it as I work on the pitch for another book I’m currently working on. Weigh in here.
• As always, if you’re in the beginning stages of writing a book and have questions about the process, please feel free to drop me a line. I try to answer all questions received through emails either personally or via a blog post (if the info would be helpful to many). I’d love to share anything I know which might be of service to you or to help point you in the direction of good information if your question lies outside my expertise. When a good idea advances, we all advance.
• Find a few minutes to sneak away and write this weekend!

Several of my current writing projects touch on a similar theme: brotherhood.

Or at least that is how I, ironically a hyper-skinny, middle class white girl, would term it.

The word “brotherhood” conjures up more than just a dictionary definition … for me.

It provokes a feeling of deep camaraderie, and automatically sets off a daydreamed mashup of real life and movie-esque displays of allegiance (think secret societies, Musketeers, grass roots revolutionaries, disciples).

The term brotherhood, almost by itself, seems to infer something I believe: that people can transcend norms and develop deep and purposeful bonds that stir goodness in the world.

But, there are some downsides to this specific word, which advisers keep alerting me to in hand-scribbled notes in the margins.

Even though I have always read “brotherhood” in a very universal way, seeing myself and other women as easily fitting underneath it’s umbrella, there is probably a better term than would more intentionally include women.

And then there’s the fact that the word brotherhood has been hijacked and pasted on all kinds of social and political movements. Thus, the word may trigger people to think about specific agendas or positions, which my writing is not pushing.

And so people throw out recommendations… synonyms–words like friendship and community–and I struggle over each of them, trying to decide whether it holds the same romance and imagery as knights sworn in allegiance to a king…as people intimately connecting over cause and family.

And I’m having a hard time finding an alternative term that fits as incredibly into the metaphor of spiritual brotherhood that I see in the language of Jesus, the disciple John, or the apostle Paul. Daughter, your faith has made you well. Adopted heirs with Christ. Anyone who hates his brother…

And it leads me to ask this question, what term best inspires you to feelings of brotherhood?

I would love to hear your opinion if you would click the comment link and offer a few ideas.