Sheepgate — Emily H. Jeffries

The characters we read and watch as children become our heroes. The heroes for teens today tend to appeal to every part of the teenaged experience that should be tempered: dictatorship of emotions, the lure of "forbidden love", violence in the face of oppression, tendency toward wrath ... I could go on.

If you are a parent or a concerned teacher (as I was when I decided to write a book), here is a handy guide that will help you distinguish which stories are harmful to your child's moral development and which are helpful.

Young Readers, Reading, StoryEmily H. JeffriesJuly 15, 2015 Comments

Working on a Manuscript? How to Crank out a Complete Draft

Here's a made up statistic for you: 99.9% of published authors had to work around full-time jobs to write their first book. In other words, it is well within your grasp to finish a manuscript, even if you already feel your time is fully consumed. All it takes is dedication and a realistic set of goals.

So for all you lovely readers with Word documents on your laptops filed under "To Be Continued, Never," I have put together a very simple program to get your manuscript from secret status to query-time status.

Classic Film Stars and the Art of Femininity, Pt. 2

When was the last time you watched Joan Crawford delight in something? She seems so calculated, as though life were one long chess game. She doesn't strike me as the type of woman who stops to smell the roses. There can be a lot of appeal to this kind of woman -- the allure of an icy, unshakable queen who reigns supreme. And that's cool, if that's your thing. But characteristic of the classically feminine? Maybe of the classical feminine villain. Oooh! That would be a fun blog post ...

Femininity, Humorous, VirtueEmily H. JeffriesJuly 1, 2015Feminine, Film, Confidence, Classical, Katharine HepburnComment

Classic Film Stars and the Art of Femininity

If you don't like Mryna, you are a doofus. She is just the utmost and I challenge anyone who says otherwise to a duel.

Myrna Loy is a very different kind of woman than Priscilla Lane. There is nothing bubbly or effervescent about her. She is calm, cool, and collected. But she is a WOMAN in every sense of the word. Here is what Myrna brings to the discussion of the classically feminine:

7 Easy Ways to Avoid Writing Like a Newb

Some people write for years and years making the same mistakes.

The mature writer takes a good, hard look at her writing and identifies the weaknesses. The immature writer fights to the death for every word she wrote as though it was inspired scripture. The latter might die with all her self-confidence in tact, but she won't die a better writer.

Revising, Story, Writing, Book BusinessEmily H. JeffriesJune 16, 2015Comment

The Problem of the Christian Artist: Popularity vs. Mediocrity

It's not that I want to fight fire with fire, and drum up millions of dollars to produce a "Passion of the Christ II". I simply feel that art touches a place in the soul that no other experience can. If our spiritual lives exist apart from that place, then our relationships with God and man are seriously lacking. Therefore, I almost agree with Mark Judge: artists need to be drawn to the Church so they can share their gifts with art-starved Christians.

Here is what I suggest:

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