After much ado from engagements to interviews, ladies and gentlemen, we present your fall Writing Team Interns and Kingdom Pen’s newest permanent staff member, the Director of Marketing. Prepare to unleash your best barbaric yawp in greeting these fine folks who will serve on the front lines of wordsmithing and kingdom expansion.

’Twas a noble contest of great proportions. Many lances were splintered, and many inkwells emptied. In the end (and after significant deliberation), we crowned four victors, but for those knights and ladies not selected, we would like to remind you that there will be another opportunity to join the Kingdom Pen Writing Team in the spring! We are so proud of each of you who applied; it is truly overwhelming how much talent and passion the KP community has to offer!

So, today we invite you to lay down your battle axes and swords in favor of some appropriately nerdy confetti and goblets full of sparkling grape juice and welcome those who have been elected to serve the KeePer’s Kingdom.

The Writing Team

Christine “Christi” Eaton

christiChristine Eaton is a high school senior who loves stories and hopes to publish children’s books. She lives in Southern California with her parents and her younger brother. Along with her love for wearing flip-flops in December, she spends as much time as she can at Disneyland. Besides writing, she loves drama and is a part of a small theater group called Alethia Christian Theater. Broadway musicals can usually be heard blasting through her bedroom. Half of her closet is full of costumes, and she jumps on any activity that calls for one. Christine is also involved in HSLDA’s Generation Joshua by participating in their Student Action Teams, which campaign for Conservative issues all over the United States. She has also attended their iGovern camp at Patrick Henry College in Virginia. Art is one of her largest passions, and her walls are covered in her sketches and paintings. Christine yearns to use her skills to glorify God by illustrating and writing her own children’s books that will teach children more about Jesus. Some of her favorite authors include A.S. Peterson, Francine Rivers, Louisa May Alcott, and Andrew Peterson.  Kingdom Pen is a community that she is excited to be part of because of its encouragement to her and other young writers. She hopes to be able to share some of the same encouragement she received with fellow KeePers.

Brandon Miller

View More: http://takeacarefulpicture.pass.us/millerfamilyphotosseptember2016“Well, I’m back.”

The emotion those words spark in Lord of the Rings fans across the world perfectly describes how Brandon feels on a daily basis when he finishes writing and starts working on homework. (Yes, writing comes first.) His fictional worlds, where the suns never set and Rutel is Servant-Lord of the Sky, leave him wanting more…but unfortunately life is still a thing. When Brandon can’t hang out in Faërie, he fills his time with normal mortal things like homework, work, friends, (oxford commas) and family. He enjoys backyard football (or any sport), board games, English country dancing, and reading. He doesn’t particularly enjoy (but still spends time) driving, doing math, and waiting for youtube ads to end.

Brandon enjoys writing-related-but-still-not-actually-writing activities including critiquing, outlining, and updating his blog: The Woodland Quill. Some of his favorite books (there are too many to list) are The 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson, The Lamb Among the Stars by Chris Walley, and Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. (Due to his Lord of the Rings reference at the beginning of this blurb, he’s not going to bring that pinnacle of literary genius up again, although he probably should and sort of just did.)

Brandon lives on the Nebraska plains, where the people don’t actually live in teepees but do plant as much corn as the stereotypes suggest. His wonderful family keeps him somewhat grounded in reality, his friends keep his extroverted personality from imploding while he’s writing, and his ice cream keeps him…happy.

Poor ice cream.

Sierra Ret

sierraSierra Ret is a homeschool student who spent nearly her entire childhood with her nose buried in a book, and she consequently decided she wanted to write one of her own (preferably filled with dwarves and elves). Getting her thoughts down on paper regularly has proven to be a far greater challenge than she first thought, but Kingdom Pen was kind enough to step in and give her some much-needed deadlines by honoring her with a temporary spot on their writing team. Past writing accomplishments include having two of her short stories published in national collections, winning the 2015 Polly Prize for Creative Writing, and earning actual income as a freelancer. She also has an avid fan club amongst her circle of friends for her yet-to-be-published dwarf and elf story, no doubt due to the fact that she wrote them all in as characters.

When not hermiting behind a laptop screen, Sierra enjoys gallivanting across Canada and makes her home in rural Ontario with her family. Currently her chief fantasies include making a living as a travel blogger and someday moving to New Zealand. But, above all, her chief aim is to live a passionate and meaningful life for the glory of God.

Director of Marketing

Michael Stanton

michaelMichael Stanton has had what he describes as a scatterbrained adventure of a life that has recently led him to working at Kingdom Pen. When he wasn’t teaching underprivileged children in Uganda and rafting on the White Nile, he was either in Canada’s capital city studying the history of Christianity or in Michigan learning how to make films. Originally from Banner Elk, North Carolina, Michael grew up homeschooled and surrounded by the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains. Those mountains inspired Michael’s love of writing (and, let’s face it, the Lord of the Rings movies also helped).

Many years and adventures later, Michael found himself getting a marketing degree, and low and behold, Kingdom Pen was in need of a Marketing Director. What are the odds that God didn’t see that coming? All divine providence allusions aside, Michael is super excited to get to work in an organization that so closely matches his desires to see more quality content streaming from the minds and hearts of his fellow Christians.

May your swords be sharp as you battle the foes of our Kingdom, such as the infamous Procrastination, in the coming months! We are honored to have you on board.

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