PenWorks of the Word | Featured Author | Jackie McBride

All the Way My Savior Leads Me

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I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

~ Isaiah 42:16 ~

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Six-year-old Frances knelt with her beloved grandmother beside the old lady’s rocking chair, praying earnestly for one thing—that she could go to school and learn like other children. Most children would find the request strange, as the refrain that echoes down the centuries is how tedious most kids find school. Frances literally ached for knowledge—she longed for it more than anything else--but she had a serious problem. She was blind.

PenWorks of the Word | Featured Author | Shannon Skåer

 

For the Love of Disaster

Do you enjoy disasters—fire, flood, warfare, or plague—in your hometown?

If you answered no, may I suggest that you haven’t given the question enough thought? 

I, for one, would love a good disaster in my backyard. I think a battle would be my preference. My clever little caveat is that I would only enjoy said disaster if it happened a comfortable century before I was born.

Now you’re nodding your head! 

PenWorks of the Word - Opening Remarks

 

The PenWorks of the Word Blog Tour begins today, and I am grateful to welcome you into this month of shared creativity. Every October, something shifts in the rhythm of our days. The air cools. The pace slows. Our attention sharpens. It becomes easier to notice the quiet work God is doing beneath the surface of our lives. That is the spirit behind this tour. A gathering of writers and readers who believe that Scripture still breathes life into imagination and still shapes the stories we tell.

PenWorks of the Word Blog Tour 2026 - Author Line Up!

Greetings,

I’m thrilled to announce the author lineup for the PenWorks of the Word Blog Tour! Throughout October, we’ll be journeying alongside writers from a variety of genres: Biblical Fiction, Christian Fantasy, Historical Romance/Fiction, and Devotional Content. Posts will be shared here on my ministry website, on my author blog, The Gathering Room, in our Facebook public events, and other platforms, offering glimpses into the hearts and stories of these authors.

A Quick Update for My Readers

I want to take a moment to say a big thank you to all of you who follow along with this ministry blog and read the content I release here. Your support and encouragement mean the world to me!

I am sharing a quick update about the posting schedule. My current series, The Heart Behind the Pen, is going to be placed on hold for the next month or so.

The reason for this short break is that I am currently hard at work behind the scenes finishing up my upcoming book release, A Broken Embrace. Writing a new book takes a lot of time and focus, but I am so excited to share this story with you soon!

If you want to get a peek at what I have been working on and learn more about this project, you can check out my author blog post, Unlocking A Broken Embrace.

Thank you so much for your patience, your kindness, and your enthusiasm for these stories. I cannot wait to bring you fresh content for The Heart Behind the Pen as soon as I wrap up this next phase of the release!

See you in the pages, 

MJE

Finding Joy in Hard Times: A Devotional Thought

 Philemon 1:7 (NIV)

"Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people."

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Labor Day is often celebrated with backyard barbecues, a day off from the daily routine, and a well-deserved rest from hard work. But behind the long weekend, many of us carry unseen burdens. We carry the weight of demanding jobs, personal struggles, and the quiet exhaustion that comes from navigating a broken world. When we are weary, our natural inclination is to pull inward, protect our energy, and focus solely on our own survival.

The Heart Behind the Pen: Finding Your Creative Voice

 “When I am with Him there, nothing frightens me. But the slightest diversion away from Him is painful to me. Spending time in God’s presence doesn't weaken the body. Leaving the seemingly innocent and permissible pleasure of the world for a time will, on the contrary, give us comfort. The only requirement is that we place our confidence entirely in God. Abandon any other concerns, including any special devotions you’ve undertaken simply as a means to an end.”

~ 3rd Letter, The Practice of the Presence of God (Whitaker House, 1982)

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Discovering Faith-Driven Purpose Through Brother Lawrence 

If I could use the entire letter here, I probably would. The third letter in my copy of this timely little book is just that meaningful to me. Never in my life have words been so plainly stated that I dropped everything to digest them.

When I read this the first time, I wasn’t trying to build a lifelong career out of being a faith-based author or Christian storyteller. My focus wasn’t on creating stories that could possibly stand the test of time; I was trying to figure out who I really was as a person.

The Heart Behind the Pen: Finding God in the Distraction

 “Encourage him to put all his confidence in God, Who is always with him. He should communicate with God at all times, especially in the greatest dangers. Lifting our hearts up to God is sufficient. Remembering Him briefly or praising Him even in the midst of battle is very pleasing to God.”

~ 7th Letter, The Practice of the Presence of God (Whitaker House, 1982)

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Navigating the Battle of ADHD and Writing Distractions

On many occasions, as I write I find myself battling my ADHD on all sides. I get distracted very easily and my mind tends to pick up details that won’t ever matter to the story I am writing.

When I know something needs to be written and a deadline is swiftly coming upon me, the pressure almost always pulls me away from the story and into something else.

As I began to understand this more in my life, I thought back to the quote for today from the 7th Letter in The Practice of the Presence of God. It has never been something that just pops into my head either, although that does happen from time to time.

This time the quote stuck out to me on a recent read-through of this little book and I connected the dots as I pondered what to write this week.

The Heart Behind the Pen: The Silence of a Blank Page

Sometimes overcoming blank page syndrome when starting a story you feel called to write can be overwhelming. As a Christian fiction author, it was that way with A Broken Embrace, which is the novel I plan to release for the 2026 year. The idea of the man from Bethesda found its way into my imagination shortly before I published The Hope of Inheritance, my award-winning novel from 2025.

PenWorks of the Word Blog Tour 2026

 

✨ Join the Second Annual PenWorks of the Word Blog Tour

 October 2026 • Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays

 

Friends and fellow storytellers, the PenWorks of the Word Blog Tour is returning for its second year. This time, we’re expanding our reach while deepening our roots.

 

Last year’s tour gathered 12 Christian creatives and upwards of 150 entries into the King Sumo giveaway from across genres — Biblical Fiction, fantasy, sci‑fi, historical romance, devotionals, and more. All of us were united by one message:

The Heart Behind the Pen: Transforming Your Writing Process into an Act of Worship

There is a practice that every author comes into when their stories find their way through the dark and scary spaces of writing a first draft.  It is a distinct kind of silence that exists between the desire to write something meaningful and the calling to write something purposeful. The faith-based creative process becomes the calling.

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Embracing the Unseen Space from the beginning

The ideas come to us still in the infancy phase of their existence and even the thought of outlining something seems providential. It sparks something genuine and encouraging to our very essence, the idea… I could really be seen through this.

But then, reality sets in and you’re overwhelmed with everything all at once. How am I ever going to get this done? Why should I even be doing this? Who am I that I could even fathom writing something that others may, or may never, pay attention to. 

It’s just you, a blank page, and the quiet weight of what you feel you were always meant to share.