Debut novelist James Rubart toasted Christian retailers at the Heart of the Author Breakfast, thanking them for helping make his efforts and those of others available.

"You are not just selling books, you are not just selling music, you are not just selling gifts," he said. "Let me remind you that you are changing lives by the things that you give your customers. By what you do in your stores every day, you are part of the process of setting people free, and you are healing the brokenhearted."

Rubart offered his encouragement after talking about his B&H Publishing Group novel, Rooms, which he said he wrote after God spoke to him about overcoming fear to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a novelist.

Rubart was one of more than a dozen writers who spoke about the inspiration for their projects, in a fast-moving session emceed by author Tosca Lee. Robin Caroll, author of Deliver Us From Evil (B&H), a novel about child trafficking, echoed Rubart's appreciation. "You get our stores, pieces of our hearts, into the hands of people," Lee said. "There's no greater gift."

Famed songwriter Lynn DeShazo led everyone in a chorus of her well-known "More Precious Than Silver" before introducing her new book of the same name from WinePress Publishing. It tells some of the stories behind that song and others like "Ancient Words" and "Be Magnified."

Vic Kennett, president and CEO of apparel company Kerusso, raised laughs when he told the group that he had not written a book, "but I have authored over 600 T-shirts, and together that might make a couple of short stories."

He told of a survey his company had conducted in which 7% of respondents said they had led someone to Christ through conversations initiated by the gospel T-shirts they were wearing. Kennett introduced a video report of testimonies from people who had impacted others' lives through wearing Christian-themed tees.

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