GUEST BLOGGER:
My guest blogger today is my writer friend, J.D. Wininger. I first met J.D. online through mutual writing aquaintances, Katy Kauffman and her parents (Lighthouse Bible Studies). Later, we had the blessed privilege to meet face-to-face at an Enrich Conference. J.D. is a stellar writer and loves to share spiritual and biblical insight by way of lessons he learns while working on his ranch. You'll absolutely love God's truth he points out at "Around the Cross-Dubya," his delightful blog. Visit his site here. 

Please enjoy his guest blog and check out his bio below. You'll be so glad you did! 

Those Nasty No See Ums

By J.D. Wininger 

When April rolls around and days are warmer, they emerge; fleas, flies, ticks, gnats, skeeters, bark scorpions, snakes, and yes No See Ums. Smaller even than most midges, No See Ums are microscopic little blood-sucking biting flies (technically a midge) that pack a mean punch. While only the females bite you, it’s disconcerting when you can feel something land on you, crawl across your skin, but you can’t see them. Next thing you know, you feel a painful bite, which is really an injection, and then you itch like crazy.

Unexpected Blessings From Quarantine Time
By Julie Lavender

(Note: My story below is part of a longer article on the Guideposts.org site. I think you'll enjoy the rest of the "unexpected blessings" contributions, and you'll find the entire article here.)

The Full Empty-Nester
Julie Lavender from Statesboro, Georgia

When our son Jeb moved out last summer, he was the last of our four children to go, and my husband David and I were left with a sad and empty nest. Jeb even took our beloved grand-dog Caramel! For most of our lives, we’d been used to having a lively, loving household, and I felt pretty down about it.

He Exults With Loud Singing

By Julie Lavender

(Note: A shorter version of the article below appeared first on the Christian Authors Network (CAN) blog. Here's a brief synopsis of CAN, as quoted from their website here "CAN is a group of traditionally published Christian authors who have joined together in a supportive association to spread the news about books to book lovers everywhere. We operate as a cooperative, Christ-centered marketing organization, to encourage and teach one another, and get the word out about CAN authors’ books to readers, retailers, and librarians." 

What's Your Biggest Writing Fear? 
by Julie Lavender

(This post first appeared on The Write Conversation, a wonderful blog site that has a plethora of writing tips and encouragement every week. Check out the site here for the article below in its entirety, and look for other great posts by fellow writers while you're there.) 

What’s your biggest writing fear? 

• Fear of rejection?
• Fear of not finishing the job?
• Fear of not being good enough?

A Dozen Days in June to Celebrate God's Creativity
By Julie Lavender




Ever since my kids were little, I've loved an excuse to celebrate silly holidays. I usually worked the holiday inito our lesson plans in some fashion, and we celebrated accordingly. 


Every day is a gift from God, a day that's meant for rejoicing, a day of gladness.




Rejoicing comes easy for me when I'm outdoors, surrounded by God's creativity. The world may be troubled around me, but God's creations remind me that He is holy and perfect and GOOD. And worth celebrating! 

Twenty Newspaper Writing Tips for '20
By Julie Lavender

My monthly post on Edie Melson's writing website, The Write Conversation, listed twenty tips for newspaper writing and anazlyed most of them with an actual newspaper story. 



I'll list the twenty tips below, but check out Edie Melson's blog here to see the whole article and examples of the tips. 

1. Make sure the headline, which serves as the title of the newspaper article, is informative, yet also engaging and interesting, and typically between five to seven words. Here’s the headline of an article I wrote recently.

Guest Post

My sweet writing friend, Melissa Henderson, loves being involved with community and church. Her first children's tail .... see what I did there .... released in 2018 and is called Licky the Lizard. She hopes to write more children's books in the near future. Please enjoy her post below, and connect with her from the info in her bio. 

What a beautiful day! The sun is shining. The sky is blue. Temperature is in the 70's. A very nice South Carolina day!

T