CALEB Award Review | SHE by Jen Gibbs

By Iola Goulton @iolagoulton

Omega Writers is a Christian writing group serving Australian, New Zealand, and South Pacific Christian Writers. They held their annual writing conference the last weekend on October, in Adelaide, South Australia.

One much-anticipated part of conference is the Saturday night award ceremony for the CALEB Award. CALEB stands for:

Christian Authors Lifting Each others' Books

Today I'm checking out the winner of the non-fiction award, SHE by Jen Gibbs (with a little help from Kara Isaac and Christine Dillon).

I bought SHE at the conference, and I have started reading it. The writing is excellent, and it's a great topic. However, it's not the light Christian romance I ususally read, and it's going to take a while to read.

The cover gives the impression of a memoir or self-help book based on personal experience. SHE is that, but it's so much more. It's also an in-depth Bible study, looking at women of the Bible, at how Jesus treated women, and examining the underlying Hebrew and Greek.

For example, Gibbs points out that they word for "noble" in that famous passage in Proverbs 31 is also used to describe Gideon (where it's translated as "mighty warrior") and King David (brave warrior). That places quite a different emphasis on our famous "woman of noble character", and I'm looking foward to digging deeper into SHE and finding similar nuggets.

Kara Isaac says:

Part biblical exploration, part personal narrative, Jen Gibbs has crafted a compelling look at women of the Bible, their context and what we can learn from them as we wrestle with living lives of faith, hop, and love in the 21st century. An exciting addition to an important conversation.

Christine Dillon says:

An easy, encouraging read for any women who might doubt that God really seems them as valuable and precious. A book full of delving into women of the Bible who showed faith, hope and love. Plenty of discussion questions for groups or individuals. Sprinkled throughout are stories from Jen’s experience and doubts she’s wrestled with. I loved it that she didn’t have to give answers but was willing to raise questions.

About SHE: A Journey of Faith, Hope & Love with Women of the Bible:

Faith, Hope and Love. We get it, right? They are important. But sometimes they feel so intangible. How are we supposed to relate? What do we do with our faith through suffering? Why is hope even included in the "top three"? What does extravagant love really look like?

In this book Jen dives deep into Faith, Hope and Love as revealed through the lives of some incredible women of the Bible. Their lives point us to the heart of God for women. Through them we see a God who cherishes, strengthens, commissions, commends, esteems and cannot help but love us!

You can read the introduction to SHE: A Journey of Faith, Hope & Love with Women of the Bible below:

Book Review: Dealing with Python: Spirit of Constriction by Anne Hamilton

Review by Judy Rogers

For years I have listened to Anne Hamilton speak on destinies, thresholds, names and covenants. Covenants that date back to Biblical times—covenants that have guided and destroyed men and women. Covenants that have guided and destroyed Nations. Covenants that have released blessings and hope and promise. It has been this book, ‘Dealing with Python: Spirit of Constriction’, that has consolidated this information and turned on the light in my mind.

‘As far as the word threshold goes, whenever it is used in a spiritual sense here, it denotes the entry point into our destiny. It’s essentially the ‘doorway’ or the ‘opening’ into the individual calling God has appointed for each of us before the foundation of the world’ 

‘This book focuses on one of the most common of all threshold issues: a sentinel spirit known as Python.’

Discover his rights, his tactics, his colleagues and his downfall.

Do you ever find yourself on the brink of a new venture or a new project only to find it go belly-up just as you are ready to step into conquest? Maybe through constriction, silence or ambiguity. Maybe through intimidation, seduction or illness. Maybe through wasting or rejection. Maybe the world seems like it’s shutting you down. This book may help you sort through to your victory.

Do you want to understand more about thresholds, threshold covenants, name covenants and what just might be holding you back in life? Anne will show you how to recognise the blockages, how to overcome them and how to walk in victory through the Power of the Lord who is the Name about all Names.

Although this book is easy to understand, it’s not a book to be read in one sitting, or two sittings or three, but it is a book to be read. Read and mulled over, read and prayed over, read and rejoiced over.

If you read it and heed it—your life will be changed.

Non-Fiction Book Review: James Scott Bell x2

by Andrea Grigg

For all your writers out there, I’ve got two beauties for you, both written by the highly-esteemed James Scott Bell. This man knows his stuff, believe me. Let me introduce you to the first book, one that leapt out at me simply because of the title:

Marketing For Writers Who Hate Marketing.

The tagline’s great, too: The No-Stress Way to Sell Books Without Losing Your Mind.

I know, right?

I don’t totally hate marketing, but I know a lot of writers who do, writers who wish they could just hide in their garrets and pound their keyboards, and not have to worry about beastly old marketing. If you’re one of those people, then this book is for you. And if you’re not, then this book is still for you.

I’m paring down a lot of things in my life at the moment, and Marketing For Writers Who Hate Marketing totally hits the spot. For a start, it’s short. According to the ‘about the book’ pop-up, it can be read in one hour and thirty-eight minutes. I read it in less than that, but I’ll be going back to it many times. I’ll tell you why.

As James Scott Bell (a.k.a. JSB) points out on the second page, “You don’t have to love marketing, nor do you have to get sucked into its vortex in order to be good at it.”

Reassuring, hey? Empowering, even.

He goes on to prioritize the basics (yay for basics!), and explains them succinctly in manageable, bite-sized chunks. He states the number one marketing tool (nope, I’m not telling, but you’ll be relieved when you find out what it is) and then outlines the importance of a book’s first impression, the cover. There’s a whole chapter devoted to it. Then comes the following:

·      Tips for writing cover copy, your elevator pitch, a tagline, your author bio, the opening pages

·      An explanation of the mysteries of categories, keywords and search terms

·      Advice on pricing your book and the variables involved; advice concerning giveaways

·      What’s needed in a website, your Amazon author page

·      Advice on book launches, reviews, and key influencers

·      A chapter each on Live Networking, Things That Suck Time, (funnily enough there’s no mention of Social Media in that one, although it is mentioned in another chapter), 15 Things That Cost Money, and more.

Another chapter is devoted to Short Writing as a Marketing Tool, which I found totally intriguing, and leads straight into my second - albeit brief - review:

How To Write Short Stories and Use Them to Further Your Writing Career.

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I found this fascinating. Like novellas, short stories have their place, mainly because ‘time is of the essence’ more than ever. Short stories can be used as giveaways for people who sign up to your email list, or in a collection to be read on the bus or train on the way to work.

JSB suggests a short story should be between 1000-7000 words. Obviously, they’re quicker to write, but there’s a unique skill to it, which he explains beautifully.

Within this ‘short’ book, JSB explains exactly what a short story is and outlines the structure; gives a “big key” then shows you how to use it; suggests publishing strategies; gives easy-to-follow steps to put your short story up on Amazon Kindle Select program (should you wish to do so). The book also includes five short stories (one of which is by JSB himself) all of them containing the elements outlined.

At $3.99 USD each, Marketing For Writers Who Hate Marketing, and How to Write Short Stories and Use Them to Further Your Writing Career, are fantastic value, and well-worth purchasing for your writing craft library.

Andrea Grigg lives on the Gold Coast, Queensland, and is author of two contemporary Christian romance novels, and a novella. She would love to connect with you via: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/author.andreagrigg?ref=hl

Twitter: @andreagrigg https://twitter.com/andreagrigg

Email:    andreagrigg@live.com