by Josiah DeGraaf | Dec 9, 2019 | Articles |
Three and a half years ago, I spent my summer studying recent Christian fiction releases to see if the genre still had significant problems. (Spoiler alert: it did.) To be fair, I also stumbled across several great books—though the poor ones outnumbered them....
by Josiah DeGraaf | Nov 21, 2019 | Articles |
“Bad books are a myth because the only measuring stick is people’s whims.” I ended my first article in this mini series with that provocative and troubling conclusion. But hopefully you followed my reasoning. Since even literary-minded readers occasionally...
by Josiah DeGraaf | Nov 18, 2019 | Articles |
Have you ever ordered a popular book and eagerly dove into it the day it arrived, only to discover it isn’t as amazing as it’s chalked up to be? It’s riddled with cardboard characters, confusing pacing, and a contrived climax. You can’t fathom why anyone would endorse...
by Josiah DeGraaf | Aug 12, 2019 | News |
Last summer at our annual staff retreat, we ran into a dilemma. Many people want to become published authors. But that dream often gets buried under rejections, discouragement, and life’s responsibilities. So they give up. Since we desire to help Christian...
by Josiah DeGraaf | Jun 10, 2019 | Articles |
At a conference I attended last summer, a New York Times best-selling Christian author taught a session on why people read fiction. During it, the speaker made an interesting claim: while most Christian authors are passionate about their stories’ messages, readers...
by Josiah DeGraaf | May 17, 2019 | Articles |
A couple weeks ago, I saw the teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. One shot captured me instantly: Rey, Finn, and Poe overlooking the shattered remains of (presumably) the second Death Star. Those few seconds made me more excited for the trilogy’s...
by Josiah DeGraaf | May 6, 2019 | Articles |
Over the years, I’ve repeatedly encountered certain mistakes in Christian fiction, and since I hope to eventually break into the genre, I don’t want to commit the same errors. Thus, I’ve formulated a few guidelines: Don’t depict Christian characters as perfect....
by Josiah DeGraaf | Apr 3, 2019 | News |
One year ago, we founded Story Embers, and we weren’t sure what would happen from there. Over the past 365 days, we… Reached 20,000+ visitors on the site. Got a listing in the Christian Writers Market Guide. Crafted a manifesto that defines the attributes of...
