Welcome! Grab a cup of over-priced coffee, settle back in a comfortable chair, and pretend you’re browsing my books at Barnes and Nobles. (Put on some New Age music to complete the effect.)

Plus, if you’re not completely satisfied with one of my books or products, I’ll personally buy it back from you regardless of where you purchased it.

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Killing Widows and Orphans: A Lexicon of Literary Lingo (2020)

Publishing is a bloody business. Editors kill widows and orphans, set deadlines and issue kill fees. Graphic designers maintain a morgue and bleed in the gutter. And printers are racists demanding color separations.

So don’t be a dummy. Here’s a free guide to the literary lingo you need to know to survive in the business. Yep, free! Just click here.

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Intimacy with Christ: Beyond Information and Involvement (2019)

Most churches are great at sharing information about Christ and many are fairly good at providing opportunities for involvement for Christ. What is missing is intimacy with Christ. This guide for personal or group study explores seven ways to become one with Jesus Christ utilizing Scripture readings and excerpts from The Imitation of Christ devotional book.

• Free download for PC and mobile
• Paperback edition

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God, I Don’t Understand: Unanswered Prayer, Unfulfilled Promises, and Unpunished Evil (2019)

“This book is for everyone who’s ever questioned God’s goodness, love, or faithfulness. With his trademark wit and wisdom, James Watkins addresses the hard questions, validates our pain, and offers a shoulder to cry on. This book shines a light on the blackest spaces of our lives and finds the hope that hides in the dark.”
Renae Brumbaugh Green, author of Morning Coffee with James.

Read excertps
• Why? Some thoughts on life’s tough questions
• Contents, Introduction

Buy
• Amazon.com
• Barnes & Noble

Free downloadable group study guide
Click here

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Overcoming Fear and Worry

(2019)Award-winning author, and recovering worrier, James Watkins explores the practical biblical, and behavioral principles for successfully living without worry. With his seasoned experience and signature humor, Watkins shows us that God wants us to draw on His love, peace, and power to break the worry habit.

Browse
Read the Introduction

Buy
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Christian Books

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Imitation of Christ: Classic Devotions in Today’s Language (2016)

The classic devotional by Thomas à Kempis arranged and organized into 90 devotional readings.

“The Imitation of Christ is one of the great spiritual works of the Church. More than five hundred years later, it remains not just a classic, but a road map to the life the Lord wants each of us to live.”
Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan: Archbishop of New York

About the book
• About Thomas à Kempis
• Read an excerpt
• My exclusive interview with Thomas à Kempis
• Daily quotations: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
• The story behind this book

Buy and review: available as ebook, hardcover and leather bound
• Amazon hardcover leatherbound
• Barnes & Noble
• Christianbook all formats
• Lifeway all formats

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Why? Why questions, wise quotations (2014)

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there sickness and death? Why doesn’t God answer my prayers? Why . .?

For over twenty years, I’ve been collecting quotations that attempt to address those difficult questions. So here are over three thousand’s years of wisdom: from King David (circa 1000 BC) to modern-day pastors, priests, philosophers, politicians, poets, and ordinary people from around the world.

Browse
• Browse excerpts

Buy
• Order Why? Wise Quotations for Why Questions today. And order extra copies for friends and family.

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Over the Hill—Onto the Mountain Top (2014)

Louise Looney and I refuse to believe we are “over the hill”! We’re continuing to climb higher and higher as we journey with hope and humor. So it was an honor to contribute my one-liners on aging to her warm, witty and wise devotional book for the AARP demographic. I also contributed an Appendix, since people our age don’t have one.

The perfect gift for the seniors in your life!

Browse
• Appendix: Ten Wishes on My 50th Birthday
• Hope & Humor cartoons on aging

Buy
• Amazon (paperback and ebook)

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Jesus: His Life and Lessons (2013)

This user-friendly book arranges His life in chronological order and His teachings by topics, plus a glossary to make it even easier to explore the gospels. No commentary, no doctrinal statements, just 100% Jesus. A perfect gift for anyone seeking to learn more about Jesus. Buy one for yourself and another for a friend.

Foreword by Mary DeMuth

Browse
• Introduction
• Life: The story of his birth
• Life: The story of his death and resurrection
• Lessons: On love
• About the translation, World English Bible

Buy
• Paper back $14.99
• Ebook $4.95

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Squeezing Good Out of Bad (2013)

Life is filled with lemons! So here are top ten ways to squeeze the good out of those life-puckering situations. And James Watkins is a great guide since he’s felt the squeeze of cancer, unemployment, family crises and chronic nose hair. Join him in the journey with humor and hope.

Browse
• Table of contents, endorsements
• Read an excerpt on pain
• Read my interview on the book

Buy book
• Direct from publisher (Paperback and ebook)

Listen to book
• Audio.com Listen to the complete book

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Writing with Banana Peels
Principles, Practices, and Pratfalls of Writing Humor (2011)

“A milk-out-the-nose funny book for both writers and readers”
Rhonda Rhea, author of Amusing Grace and The Purse-uit of Holiness.

I had so much fun teaching “Writing Humor” at Taylor University, that I compiled all my notes (and some of my funniest columns) into a book!

Browse
• Table of contents, endorsements
• Read an excerpt

Buy
• Paperback $14.95
• Barnes & Noble Paperback

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Communicate to Change Lives (2007)

“I laughed, I gulped, and I learned as I read Jim’s book. As a writer, speaker, and teacher of writing, Jim knows what he is talking about. Best of all, he knows how to put the teaching at a level that we can easily grasp and apply. Here’s the book that will help you to change lives.”
Roger Palms, Writer, teacher, speaker, former editor of Billy Graham’s Decision Magazine

Browse
• Book outline
• Read an excerpt: Using Psychological Appeals

Sponsor a Communicate to Change Lives seminar
Click for details on using it as training and/or fund-raiser for your organization.

Buy
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Christian Book Distributors
• Wesleyan Publishing House Paperback eBook
• Buy an older version, The Persuasive Person

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Writers on Writing
Top Christian Authors Share Their Secrets for Getting Published (2005)

“Here’s a terrific smorgasbord about different aspects of the writing business. Whether you want to write magazine articles, devotionals, fiction or nonfiction, humor or screenplays, you will gain a taste of what it takes from someone who practices this particular discipline.”
Terry Whalin, best-selling author

Browse
• Seven habits of highly effective writers

Buy
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Christian Book Distributors
• Wesleyan Publishing House Paperback eBook

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The Why Files: Are There Really Ghosts?
Questions about angels, the supernatural, and the “Psychic Friends Network” (2000)

". . . a must read for every student and adult who works with them."
Richard Wynn, former president of Youth for Christ

Browse
• Are demons, exorcisms real?
• Are there really ghosts?
• Healing: faith or fake?
• Vampires and werewolves are real!

Buy
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble

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The Why Files: Is There Really Life After Death?
Questions about school shootings, grief, and coming back as a gerbil (200)

"It fields questions from real kids and answers these questions in realistic and compassionate ways . . . realistic and infused with wit and humor."
Lurlene McDaniel, best-selling author on death issues for teens

Winner of a Campus Life "Book of the Year" award

Browse
• Dealing with death and grief
• I just want to die [on suicide]

Buy
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Death & Beyond (An earlier edition)

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The Why Files: When Can I Start Dating?
Questions about love, sex, and a cure for zits (2000)

"Here it is—the absolute truth about sex. If you have some questions you’re afraid to ask, or if you’re carrying around myths instead of facts, this book is for you!"
Susie Shellenberger, Brio magazine

"Helpful . . . straightforward,"
Campus Life magazine.

Browse
• Breaking habits before they break you
• Breaking up without breaking down
• Can I become a virgin again?
• Falling in love . . . and getting back up
• The hidden habit: masturbation

Buy
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Sex Is Not a Four-Letter Word (An earlier edition)
• The Teen Sex Survival Manual (An even earlier edition)

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Characters: Comedies and Dramas (1993)

Humorous and witty . . . edifies the Body and glorifies God in an entertaining way.
Creator magazine

Browse
• Six of our favorite scripts online
• Performance of “Peter and Brother Bob Blessing” (YouTube)

Buy
• Get five of our favorites online for a donation
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble

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Should a Christian Wear Purple Sweat Socks?
How to decide what’s right and wrong for you (1987)

"Reading this book will give you principles right from the Bible to help you make a decision. I loved the book! I think you will too!
Keith Drury, author and professor at Indiana Wesleyan University

Browse
• God’s will is not lost, for those trying to “find” it

Buy
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble

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Devotional Pursuits: Trivia and Truth (1986)

James Watkins has taken several hundred bits of trivia and related them to timeless truth from God’s Word in this unique devotional book. You will learn about self-worth from dwarf throwing. The secret to Christian living through the real story of vampires and learn about God’s peace from The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. And you will find real help in the categories of love, self-worth, emotional ups and downs, spiritual growth, the future, relationships, and more.

Yikes, I can’t believe my very first book from 1986 is still available online! (It’s based on my column that ran for six year in the In Touch teen magazine.)

Buy
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble

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But wait! There’s more.

You can get a list of books to which I’ve contributed. (Sorry, no Ginsu Carving Knives!)