. . .today, came a spontaneous devotional. Who knows, maybe I will be more spontaneous in the future! I usually don’t get super spiritual in my Love Inspired Suspense books. I write with a Christian worldview, sure, and sometimes the characters’ spiritual struggles are palpable, other times not so much. But in this story (the second Mountain Cove book), I could feel my character, Heidi, crying out to God. And maybe. . . just maybe that was ME crying out to God. Crying out to God from the deepest part of your heart is good. He wants that. …
Scavenger Hunt Stop 23
Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! Make the loop to collect all the clues—you’ll find those in red at the bottom of each post. Make sure to write them down as you go. Things will start to make sense before you know it. The hunt officially begins on April 4th at noon (Mountain Time Zone), starting at RobinLeeHatcher’s blog. You have until April 6th at midnight (Mountain) to collect all the clues. Since you have the whole weekend, there’s no need to rush, so take your time, read about the authors and their books. And enjoy! Prizes: A Kindle …
Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt
Oh yeah. You’re going to want to take part in our Spring scavenger hunt, April 4-6. If you don’t win the Kindle Fire HDX plus $100 in Kindle credit, you could win one of two prize packs including ALL OF THESE BOOKS! To enter, you’ll start at Robin Lee Hatcher’s site that first weekend of April and follow the links to each of the other sites, gathering the clue on each one, and submitting the answer at the end. Easy peasey. (Don’t fret about the “how to’s” now–it will be obvious. There’s no reason to race through; you …
Review of Balanced: Finding Center as a Work-at-Home Mom by Tricia Goyer
How do you juggle the writing life and family and home schooling? People ask me and I’m still asking that question myself! How do I do it all? How can I make it happen? As a multi-published author and home schooling mom, I was excited when I saw Tricia Goyer’s new book, Balanced (for short). I knew I had to get my hands on it and read it so I could find answers to my biggest question. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked how I do it all. Often the question comes in blog interviews and …
Healer of Carthage by Lynne Gentry
I recently read Healer of Carthage by Lynne Gentry, one of my dear friends. I didn’t read it because she’s a friend and I could then post a review, I read it because I couldn’t wait to read what she had coming next.You see, I’ve read Lynne’s debut novel, Reinventing Leona, and some of her unpublished works and this lady is not only classy, she’s one exceptional writer. I read part of Healer of Carthage a few years ago when she was still working on the story she referred to as the Cave of Swimmers—an actual cave with rock …
Movie Review: Frozen
Years ago we started a new tradition for our family–seeing a movie on Thanksgiving Day. Sometimes it’s the day before or after, but it’s our holiday movie tradition. This year my family, along with my brother’s family, went to see FROZEN for our movie. Even though our kids are teenagers and in their early twenties, we all love the Disney movies. (Though maybe the men only tolerated for the sake of tradition.) I love snow and ice and mountains and princess stories, so of course it was a good mix for me. The story emphasized not getting engaged to …
Square Ideas
This week I’m still editing (still writing and fleshing out) Winter Wonderland (A Grand Teton Sleigh Ride)—and wow, I’ve learned so much about the 1920’s to write this story. First of all, just because something happened in the Roaring Twenties, didn’t mean it happened in Jackson’s Hole (as it was called then). But that’s another blog post. I’m happy to report I’m having great fun with the characters, especially with my heroine who is a professional photographer. What is it with me and photographer characters? I’m amazed at how much technology changed in the twenties, and that so many changes …
I’m Starting a Street Team
It takes “a village” to write a novel. Sure, the writer gets the words on paper, but he or she bounces ideas off friends and family and experts to get there. Agents and editors take it from there. And it takes a village to make that novel a success. Years ago, a book’s success could be attributed to a publisher’s marketing efforts. That, and word-of-mouth. But we-the-people have a lot of power in the digital age. So I’m building my village, or street team. If you enjoy my novels, I’d love for you to be involved. First, it’s fun and …
Review of Unlimited by Davis Bunn
I recently took a road trip to Illinois with my DH. Of course, if the kiddos had joined us on the trip, they would have sat in the back seat engrossed in their electronic devices and untouched by the beauty of the heartland. When I think about all the long road trips I took with my family growing up, it makes me sad that my kids don’t enjoy gazing out the window at the countryside passing by. On the other hand, I didn’t do so much gazing myself this time. While my husband drove, I spent some of the …
A Place Called Jackson Hole
This week I received the research book that I plan to use for my historical novella in A Grand Teton Sleigh Ride. The novella collection doesn’t release until next fall, but we start writing our stories far in advance. This particular collection I’m writing with one of my good writing friends, Lynette Sowell. We talked about this writing this set for a couple of years before we got around to submitting it to our editor at Barbour, and it sold almost immediately. I’ve spent many an anniversary skiing at Teton Village near Jackson, and visiting the town, as well …