I feel blessed the I am a member of the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) group. It has been through this group that I have received the obvious, lots of help improving my writing. But more than that I have start to form some of the most wonderful friendship. The road that it took me to get to this group has been an interesting one but God knew in his timing when the right time would be. On my www.kristenatunstall.com website, I have started to new weekly columns. One is where I … [Read more...]
It’s been 4 years…
The month of July can mean so many different things to so many different people. The first thing that comes to mind for most Americans is our Independence Day. On July 4, 1776, we truly became an independent nation. There have been many struggles, hardships, good times and excitement but it is on this day that we celebrate our independence as a nation for the freedoms that have been given to us. For some this month is the end of Summer break as so many get ready to start a new school year … [Read more...]
Writing Mari’s story
Today has been an interesting day as I try to take "Her Hospital Story" and make it into a full length book. I came to a section where it kind of stumped me as to how I really should write it. I have so many things that I feel are so important to make sure they are included in this story to get it right. Probably the most important is the emotional aspect. I want the reader to be able to feel how I felt during this time. And to do this requires that I tap into those emotions from that time … [Read more...]
Starting to work on Mari’s book again
I think many of you know I had put off writing Mari's book for a little while but I may not have gone into why I did so. Through different writing forums I became apart of I found out the book I had completed would be a great one for family and friends as long as that is where it ended. But if I wanted it to be read by more than just people I knew then it needed to be done in a completely different way. One thing I kept being told is I needed to add fiction elements to her book. At first … [Read more...]
The “Softening”
In a month, Mari will have been gone for four years. I have talked several times over the last four years in how the day she died is not an anniversary as this signifies happiness to me. My eighteen year wedding anniversary was this past February. That is a happy time. Mari’s death, anything but. However, I have come to call it the mark. When Mari died I became wrapped up in the utter sorrow and sadness of it all. My heart felt like it had been ripped open and a gaping would left in its … [Read more...]
Pursuing true happiness, I mean joy
When I look at those around us and the hustle and bustle that is constantly going on around us, it seems like everyone is in the pursuit of true happiness. Some think their pursuit of money will bring them their desired happiness. Yet, at the end of the day, it never brings anyone happiness. In fact, it only seems to make people more miserable and unhappy as the inanimate object of money can do nothing for them. Some think their pursuit of making and finding new friends will bring them … [Read more...]
Being Thankful
You know the old saying, “God works in mysterious ways?” Well, I so believe that can happen in so many different ways. I think back on my writing journey and I’m amazed at where it has ended up. I first started looking at how to publish Mari’s book on March 5, 2011. I joined Createspace. It is a subsidiary of Amazon.com. It was really neat to be part of a community of writers for the first time in my life. For me, I had no interest whatsoever in fiction writing. All I was looking for was … [Read more...]
Joining GoodReads
I finished reading this book from a fellow author of mine that I know through ACFW. Her name is Rhonda Gibson. She is the recently published author of The Marshal’s Promise. I love the book. I purchased it as an e-book. After finishing it this evening, I read the last page where she wrote a short letter to the reader. On it, it mentioned her website www.rhondagibson.net. I went to go check it out because I wanted to write a comment to let her now I had finished it and how much I truly enjoyed … [Read more...]
Hitting “The Mark”
I went and visited a website of someone I knew in our grief group back in Chicago today. The reason I visited it was because on the old blogger site I had started this one on (which is technically still up and running, don’t ask me why, it does redirect people to here however :) ) I have this woman’s website listed under Blogs of Importance. Under the listing, it shows a title of the most recent blog post. This one was labeled, “Letting go.” I thought that meant she was letting go of her … [Read more...]
Needing prayer please
It has come to my attention by a close friend that I may need to rewrite some of what I wrote below. My husband is the love of my life and in no way do I want to shed him in a bad light. If I have done that I am truly sorry. I will put *** by the part where I have rewritten this post so you know where to start if you are looking for the update. Thank you. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ I am reaching out right now to all my … [Read more...]