February 18, 2024
Story setting is more than just the physical stuff. It’s the mood and culture, period and genre, and many other things all wrapped into one. But it’s worth parsing out to find the sticky spots in your work that need more detail.
January 31, 2024
Enjoy the twists and turns, unexpected results, heart-warming joys and bittersweet moments of this special issue, inspired by the theme of pirates and seafaring adventures.
November 18, 2023
Your characters are worldbuilding tools, but they are also much more. Use them correctly, interact with them as if they were real, and you’ll see them come to life. They’ll become the guides to your storyline and world.
October 26, 2023
Your map represents the world your characters live in. It might be as small as a doll’s house or as large as a multi-galaxy supercluster, and that’s fine…provided you can keep it all straight.
October 12, 2023
The first time I went to a convocation, I felt I could die of joy. My hummingbird heart, an anxious pet, sang a dawn song. It wasn’t the entrance hymn, “O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing.” It wasn’t the chancellor in his indigo-velvet cap and doily collar, although his literal orb and scepter made me weak and strong. It wasn’t the presence of so much earnestness, furnish me though it did with purpose and pleasure.
August 15, 2023
May you find encouragement to face your own trials, commiserate in your own struggles, and generally just enjoy these works by the gifted authors and artists the world over.
July 30, 2023
Dots align in constellations. Meaning makes its way out of my maelstrom and onto the page, legible and lithe. I believe I was hand-placed in this particular sky. I believe I will never forget again.
July 16, 2023
The story is only a part of the story. It only thrives if the world built under it can stand in the face of your readers’ scrutiny.
July 11, 2023
One of the standards I have run across many times myself as a writer and journalist has been that of punishing writers for speaking their minds and expressing their voices. I can think of many times a professor, a fellow journalist, or writer’s club member has mentioned being suppressed at the hands of their editor(s). The editor holds all the power.
April 15, 2023
Unintentionally, the MockingOwl Roost family chose this topic, Unknown & Unseen, for our first triannual issue in 2023 for a time in which the family would […]
November 7, 2022
But as I have developed my career as a writer and editor myself, I’ve learned to embrace and celebrate being edited. (And I do use this phrase intentionally; when our words are edited, it feels like we are being edited.)
September 12, 2022
You see, writing theology papers isn’t just a school task for me. It’s an exploration of what I’m learning, how I’m growing, how I’m changing, how I’m developing as an adult human. So much of youth was spent regurgitating rote memorization and trying to make a grade. But now, in seminary I’m synthesizing and expanding the knowledge I’m gaining. And it is an utter delight!