WCCW News for October 2025

Last Minute Conference Details, Author Mary Hauser Interview and MORE!

Oct 16, 2025

West Coast Christian Writers (WCCW) is a 501c3 nonprofit; we are writers helping writers.

Hidden in the Margins

What You and Ruth Have in Common

The Bible contains a fascinating story in the book of Ruth. It shows how God works through the ordinary pieces of our lives that we don’t expect and often overlook. The story shows how Ruth, a poor foreigner and widow, comes to live in Bethlehem where she has no income and is resigned to glean (the process where harvesters leave a margin of crop uncollected around their fields where the poor can gather the scraps for food).

Ruth acutely felt the raw and exacting emptiness of her situation. With nowhere else to go, she found the solution to her problem in the margins of a nearby field. Our fight in the modern world may be the same or wildly different from Ruth’s, but we share this similarity with her - we are all more than depleted. Our ongoing drive and labor, despite unlimited conveniences and available distractions, doesn’t let us escape from the truth lurking in the shadows: our modern abundance hasn’t saved us and we can still find ourselves in an exhausting and barren place.

Perhaps the solution Ruth found in that ancient town over 3,000 years ago is still true for us today, because it reaches into the commonplace and answers the most basic of questions: where can I go when I’m in need?

Time and again we mistakenly think the areas of life where scraps lay are insignificant, but they are so much more. They are often the unrealized fertile ground for us to hear the still, small voice and find provision. We can discover that the moments we choose to hold back in and not fill everything to the brim become the important margins of our lives, and let me tell you:

God meets us in powerful ways in the margins.

Something curious and counter intuitive occurs when I’ve stopped my endless drive to produce, push forward and use up all my energy to the very edge. When I choose to simply “be” - things start to change, I start to change. Sitting in silence can yield great reward and not multitasking is often the most efficient thing I do.

It’s not just our bodies that are in need of rest, our souls are weary too. As writers, it’s easy to load up our days well above the “max fill” line, but what are we missing when every second is used up? What happens to our writing and to us as writers when we don’t make room to encounter God in the stillness?

If Ruth could speak with us now, I think her message would be don’t neglect the margins!

These areas of our lives aren’t meant to be overlooked and they aren’t insignificant either. We are missing a lot when we dismiss them because they can be entry points into a deeper and richer relationship with Jesus. He longs for us to place the whole of our trust in Him so He can give us the biggest blessing of all – Himself. Desiring that we may:

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“…grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Eph 3:18b-19

I’m excited for the Southern California WCCW Conference this month where we’ll dive into learning what may be hidden in our margins. See you soon!

Conference Sponsors & Online Event Details

Gold Sponsor: Abundance Books

West Coast Christian Writers is grateful to gold event sponsor Abundance Books for sponsoring our 2025 conference. Abundance Books pursues life-changing stories celebrating God’s transformational love and grace. Together with retail and distribution partners, they strive to bring excellence and innovation to the Christian book industry by developing emerging authors and publishing works that inspire, instruct, and encourage. Recognizing the challenge emerging authors face in publishing their work, Abundance Books reserves 50% of new release titles for authors with fewer than five books in print.

If you’re attending the conference, stop by the Abundance Books table to meet Jenn Dafoe-Turner, Chief Acquisitions Officer, and Teresa Janzen, Editor-in-Chief. Both will be available to talk about your writing journey and explore possible publishing opportunities with Abundance Books.

Learn more at Abundance Books

Silver Sponsor: Author Kim Engelmann

West Coast Christian Writers is grateful to silver event sponsor, author Kim Engelmann, sponsoring our 2025 conference. If you’re a fan of The Chronicles of Narnia, you’ll enjoy The Joona Trilogy! Journey with Margaret and her companions to Joona—a fabulous land of beauty, color, and music. Meet Laurel the talking swan who seems to know every detail about Margaret and all of her friends. Will Margaret find a way through her sadness as Laurel becomes her fast companion?

Learn more at Kim Engelmann Author

Bronze Sponsors:

West Coast Christian Writers is grateful to our bronze event sponsors for supporting our 2025 conference.

Community is Just a Click Away

Join fellow Christian writers online Oct 23-25 for workshops, networking, and encouragement in your writing journey. Our hybrid conference allows us to welcome attendees from all over the world! Enjoy the connection, teaching, and encouragement of WCCW from the comfort of your couch. Or maybe a sandy waterfront in your hometown. Your conference location possibilities are endless! Come explore how we rest, create, encounter, and discover in the margins, and how that fuels our writing life.

The $249 online ticket includes:

Live streams of three keynote addresses

Live Zoom meetups to connect with other attendees

Participation in our conference Facebook group

30+ pre-recorded workshop videos

Online conference bookstore

All recordings will be available until December 31, 2025.

If God has given you a message to share through the written word, make an investment that will help you share it with excellence. You can expect to come away encouraged and equipped.

Register now → Find all the details at www.westcoastchristianwriters.com/wccw-online

WCCW Interviews: Mary Hauser

Bend Without Breaking: How Struggles Build a Resilient Faith

Click here to watch the interview.

BIO: Mary Hauser is a second-generation storyteller. She’s worked for an all-female Fortune 500 company as a technical and copywriter and graduated with honors in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina. God’s redemptive story became the focus of her writing—specifically as He walked beside her through a journey of surviving cancer five times. She writes for ministries, schools and for businesses and has served as an art teacher, an art journalist, a spiritual mentor and as a creator of church and school curriculums. Her new release and first book, Bend Without Breaking: How Struggles Build a Resilient Faith offers strategies for building a strong and resilient faith no matter what.

Connect with Mary online at maryhauser.com or on Facebook @mary.h.hauser.9

Purchase her new release here.

Interested in being interviewed for the newsletter? Email newsletter@westcoastchristianwriters.com

Upcoming Events For Paid Members:

Mini-Masterclass - “Finding Your North Star: How to Plan Out Your 2026 Writing Year” - Jan 2026

You can become a member for just $70 annually. WCCW membership empowers your writing journey through Christ-centered community. Perks include priority conference registration, participation in critique groups, connecting with fellow writers, and access to free mini masterclasses. Polish your skills, pitch to agents, analyze bestsellers, and share your work through our newsletter—all within a supportive network that nurtures both your craft and faith. Join Today

WCCW Author New Release

BIO: Megan Huwa is a poet, author, and former higher education editor and instructor. A rare health condition keeps her and her husband from living near her family’s fifth-generation Colorado farm, so her writing reaches for home, both temporal and eternal. A classically trained pianist, she melds her writing with aurality, rural life, and empathy through the varied voices and lives of those dear to her and those she observes. Her work has been published widely in literary journals and magazines. She holds a BA in English from Colorado State University and an MA in English from the University of Northern Colorado. Read more of her work on her Substack @meganhuwa or her website: meganhuwa.com

Find her book on Amazon.

Community Corner

A Fall Favorite Recipe

WE ARE WRITERS SUPPORTING WRITERS

WCCW is more than just a conference; we’re also a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that supports writers in many different ways. We offer a hand-up to further the ministry of writers. Applications reopen in 2026.

Want to find out more about joining our Community of Champions, a group of committed donors? Click here to make a difference in the life of a Christian writer (and it’s tax deductible!)

APPLY FOR AN E-BLAST

Do you have special promotional news to share? Consider applying for a WCCW e-blast to share your message, service, or product with our audience. Apply here.

West Coast Christian Writers

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