I was shocked, teary-eyed, and upset yesterday to find out that author Dee Stewart (Miranda Parker) had passed away due to heart failure. I knew of her health issues from our Facebook interactions but…I guess I just didn’t think she’d die. I know she’d said she wasn’t feeling well…I’m still processing this.

Dee was a big advocate, a huge voice (in my opinion) for the genre of Christian fiction. She ran a popular Christian fiction blog, and she was also a columnist for the Christian Fiction Online Magazine (Multicultural Fiction column).

She’s also an author, and her second book for her Angel Crawford series was released last June.

I met Dee back in 2006 at the ACFW conference. I recall spending a good amount of my conference sitting on the couch in the reception area and talking to her about writing, blogging, marketing, and lamenting about the pain of rejection. Since that initial meeting, we’ve  communicated online ever since. She’s always been warm, friendly, helpful, endearing, and kind. Her faith shined and I know she will be missed by many, myself included.

RIP Dee Stewart.

~Cecelia Dowdy~