I live in a community, Jesus People USA, a real-life intentional community with 250 other people. That means I experience a lot of connecting, but not much quiet. In 2002, having lived in community for 10 years, I was so restless and distracted I could barely function. Communal living has so many blessings, but it […]
Writing
Stirrings
This is an excerpt from Suanne Camfield’s new book, The Sound of a Million Dreams: Awakening to Who You Are Becoming. The stomach flu was a bad one. Eric was sick. Clay was sick. Sadie had just gotten done being sick. It was the eighth time we’d had the stomach flu in four years, one of […]
2017: Entering In
We are excited to leap into 2017 with you and have some exciting announcements to share!! Sad news first. We’re saying goodbye to Abby Norman, who has been with us since the beginning. She is pursuing her dream of becoming a pastor and needs to focus her time and energy on seminary. We will miss her […]
Go to Jail
Ten years ago, I sat around a table with a group of six girls, trying to teach them creative writing. We shared poetry, short stories, and personal memoirs. I wasn’t that much older than them, and yet our worlds were oceans apart. For we sat in the library of a local juvenile correctional facility, and […]
Jesus Speaks for the Marginalized
I thought I had to be white if I wanted to be a real writer. I loved writing since as early as I can remember – first grade, Mrs. Kazekwa’s class. I was the girl who, when given a picture of a clown to describe, would write a life story specifically for him. In high school, […]
A Mudroom Exclusive: An Interview with Shannan Martin
Hi guys, Ashley Hales here. At The Mudroom, we love to let you know you’re not alone. We can sit in The Mudroom together, drop off all of our stuff, and know that we have a tribe who listens, understands, and can help hold all the crazy. And we’re privileged to do that even virtually, […]
Lessons Learned Through Revision
Last winter I mustered up the courage to query an agent in New York about a novel I’ve been working on. I sent him the first fifty pages of it. It’s a big fat fantasy love story that just so happens to hold the keys to my heart. It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever […]
Being A Witness – A Review of Assimilate or Go Home
What does it mean to be a witness? Do we know what it’s like to ‘look into the wounds of Christ and not feel them’? How do we make the pain real, the burden heavy enough that we can’t lift it alone? A lot of us around the Mudroom are huge fans of D.L. […]
The Book Mudroom Readers Are Desperate For! Plus, an interview!
You guys! Seriously. This is the book Mudroom readers are desperate for. Not only does it have essays by two of our regular writers (!!) (Tammy Perlmutter and Tanya Marlow), it has so many voices in it all saying the same thing in gorgeous, unique ways: You Are Not Alone. Soul Bare is a new […]
Soul Bare Giveaway!!
A small hybrid press announced a new community project called Soul Bare: Reflections on Becoming Human, created by Cara Sexton. The original call for submissions was announced on July 12, 2012, with a deadline of November 1, 2012. It was to be a collection of raw, personal stories by some well-known Christian writers […]
Meet our Newest Writers!!
We’ve added some new writers to our Mudroom family and can’t wait to introduce you to them. You may already know them from their online presence and stunning writing. These women are thoughtful, gritty, and engaging, and you should be following them everywhere. Please join us in welcoming . . . Grace P Cho […]
Reflections on the Festival of Faith & Writing
The Festival of Faith and Writing in April was extra special for us. Most of us were meeting each other for the first time, after a year of building The Mudroom. In that time some of us had experienced deep depression, overwhelming disappointment, loss of loved ones, career setbacks, parenting and marriage stressors. We walked through it […]
The Curious Blessing of Rejection
Ten years ago, in 2006, I was rejected by a publisher. It went like this: after four years of student ministry and thinking about a post-modern culture, I had an idea for a book that explored characteristics of student ministry in the context of postmodernism – a sort of analytical, practical, theological-yet-readable sort of book. […]
Suffering Is Not for Its Own Sake
I know I’m supposed to write a brilliant, moving post about the amazing people of Guatemala and how God is doing incredible things, and how deeply I was touched and changed by the experience. I don’t know if I can write that post. I have been changed by the experience but I know I will […]
Lifting the Veil
Our collective imagination is haunted by a certain image of the artist: a solitary bard, brooding alone, awaiting a burst of inspiration from a mysterious and magical muse. We see the person with the creative spirit as one who stands above and apart from the common lot, a secular priest who mediates between regular folks […]
We Need Whitespace to Create
The responsibilities keep piling on. The calendar gets filled up with more events. We’re moving from one thing to another with barely a moment to breathe. I run the family around from home to church, on errands, on playdates, to Target and back. Everything is always rushed. My temper is short, and my patience is […]
Can We Survive on Inspiration?
I was more surprised than anyone when I signed up to run a half marathon two years ago. I’d never been much of a runner and had not participated in an organized race before; starting with 13.1 miles was, I admit, a little bold. I had some friends running with me and was looking for […]
The Everyday Words
I’m not sure why it came as such a surprise to me. A few months into a period of not-writing-much-at-all, I discovered that I was suffering from what some might call writer’s block. I had gone from blogging a few times a week to a few times a month, if that. Pitches and proposals had […]