My friend Crystal Miller tagged me with this question: Quick: What were you doing ten, twenty and thirty years ago? Ten Years ago: It was 1997. I was 23 and had just started my first semester of law school at George Mason Law School. I’d been married almost two years and lived in an apartment in Alexandria, Virginia with my …
Celebrating the random in life
This has been a weekend of random — and oh, so good things. Eric tackled a couple jobs on our to-do list, and my heart is singing. Our shutters all look the same color! Woohoo! Sometime in the five years we’ve been here, they faded into three different colors. No more! Our house looks fresh, and the shutters look great. …
Finished Another Book!
Late Friday night/early Saturday morning, I finished the first draft of Sandhill Dreams! Woohoo! Let me tell you, it is a great feeling to type in the last word and then the final period. I have lived with this story for about five weeks. About six of every seven nights I would sit down to write. The characters felt like …
Who Vol. 2: setting the scene
A crime has been committed in 1880s Kentucky—and it’s up to you to figure out WHOdunit! Play the game for a chance to win one of THREE autographed copies of Sharlene MacLaren’s LOVING LIZA JANE. Here’s what you do: read through each of the scenes below. Collect the KEYWORDS from each scene (except Brook’s). Note: keywords point to the NOVEL, …
Spring Reading Thing Update
Back in April I posted about the Spring Reading Thing Challenge over at Callapidder Days. Now that I’ve been reading for awhile, I decided it was time to check my progress: My to be read pile has shrunk considerably! * Lightning and Lace by DiAnn Mills (Barbour) Finished! * Grave Risk by Hannah Alexander (Steeple Hill) Finished! * Get Out …
Research Joy!
Yesterday I drove 475 miles round trip to conduct on site research for Sandhill Dreams. Fort Robinson is way up in the corner of Nebraska, tucked near South Dakota and Wyoming. It is remote country, but God’s country. Absolutely beautiful though very remote. I hadn’t been in that corner of the world for about 12 years, since working on a …
Spring Reading Thing
Today Brandilyn Collins alerted her readers to the Spring Reading Thing over at Callapidder Days. I hadn’t run across this blog, but it looks delightful. The Spring Reading Thing is a challenge to get out that stack of books and actually read them. 207 people including yours truly have joined in. Somehow Bethany House found out about this and sent …
It’s here!
No, not the hot off the presses copy of my book. Yesterday, in the first mail delivery in three days, I got my first check! Eack, Ack, however you want to spell it! Not only have I gotten to go to CBA Advance, not only do I have my first content edit, I now have part of my advance. Yippee! …
I’ve been tagged: Weird Things About Me
I don’t like to think of myself as weird. Though I’m sure I’m … unique! But my friend Pam Meyers, over at A Writer’s Journey, tagged me so here goes. Six unique things about me. Drum roll, please…. 1) My first completed manuscript sold…like Pam says that’s really a God thing … and a very long and fun story. 2) …
Two Great Books
This week I had time to read two great books. The first was Death, Deceit and some Smooth Jazz by Claudia Mair Burney. The second was If the Shoe Fits by Marilyn Griffith. These were the first books I’d read by both these women, but won’t be the last. If the Shoe Fits focuses on the life of Rochelle Gardner, …