Where Oh, Where, Has She Gone?

j0178537.jpgSorry, I haven’t been around much. Was pretty sick last week, most of the week. Then Friday my agent and I chit-chatted via phone and came up with a game plan. She wants me to write some historicals to submit, to which I’ve gotten right to doing. Tell ya what, it was hard at first because I had to re-route my brain and think mid-1800′s. It’s getting easier now. It’s not like I’ve never written in this time period. Albeit it was like when I was in my early 20′s.

Found out this week I didn’t get the ACFW conference scholarship. Rats. So, brought it up with hubby, and that didn’t go over too well. His solution to my wanting to go was, he’d cover the travel and petty cash expense, I had to find a means to pay for the conference registration fees. (I’ll be bunking with my CP who lives outside of Denver, so no hotel fees to pay for.) To tell ya the truth that didn’t go over too well for me. But I’m like major PMSing, so nothing goes over well at this time. Luckily, said CP calls me that night and we chat and she gets me all calmed down and coming up with some options. And today, I may have found them, as long as they pay. Trying to figure that out. Might have to call the employer posting the jobs to be sure.

If they do pay, it works perfectly for me, as they’re substituting jobs at a local school. I’d work when they’d need me, during school hours while my kiddos are at school, and leaves me with plenty of time to write and be home if needs be. And if a new coaching opportunity pops up, it gives me the time to do that too. I’m really balking at going to work full-time, or even part time, cause financially it doesn’t make sense when my husband’s job is military and he could deploy again, and my children are still too young to be left without supervision, of which someone would have to pay for. I’m leaving this all up to God on this one. He’s the orchestrator of all this and if I need to work, He’ll provide the means.

Which leads me to my huge impatience at not being published yet when there are so many indicators out there that I should be. In this business you need to create a thick skin. Problem is, some times you get a thick head too. I’m not the most laid back person in the world and my pursuit of publication has been a 12 year process, of which the last 4 have been my best years so far. I know it’s all in God’s timing, and things have popped up to put me out there, but I’d really love to see my books in people’s hands reading whatever it was God laid on my heart at the time I wrote that book. I have no doubt this a learning process for me, and I’m not ready to take that final step, cause God only knows when I will be.

So that’s it in a nutshell for now. Better get back to that historical.

Adios!

Wanna Help Me Brainstorm?

How would you like to help me come up with a concept for a new historical I’m working on, per my agent’s request?

It’s the mid-1800′s America, think 1860-1880. ‘Kay?

I need a secret that one man would hide from a group of men who would kill to obtain it. This secret must pertain to the time period. If you come up with the idea I choose I’ll acknowledge your help in the book it it’s published.

So, any ideas?

Baby on Board

j0178844.jpgAnd no, that’s not me. My SIL is about to have her first child and I’m going to be an aunt for the first time. Went to her baby shower this weekend and I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around the whole being an aunt thing. For the longest time, I was the mother of the grandkids, I was the one having the kids. Now, I’m an aunt. Dh hasn’t quite got the hang of being the uncle yet either. I think once the bj0409276.jpgaby is here it’ll be easier to digest the whole aunt and uncle thing.

Spring has sprung! Finally. I love this time of the year, the ground warms up and you can smell the freshly turned fields. The local farmers will be planting soon, I’m already seeing tractors and plows going up and down my road. Got plans to build a garden box and grow some of our favorite veggies this summer. We’ll need to get crackin’ on that soon.

On the writing front. I’ve got a good start on this new book idea. And well, I intended not to do it, swore I could write a book without one, and then I caved and put one in. There’s a horse in this book! LOL! It’s set in western Kentucky, near Lousiville, how can you not put a horse in the book. Oh, one day, probably soon too, I’ll write a book set in the horse racing world. I love that about as much as I do rodeo.

CFBA Review Breach of Trust, by DiAnn Mills

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Breach Of Trust

Tyndale House Publishers (February 5, 2009)

by

DiAnn Mills

MY BOOK REVIEW: Oh my, oh my, oh my! Did I ever wish this book had not ended. I hated to even put it down, but alas, my family has needs that I had to attend to. The pacing, the twist and turns, and the big surprise at the end was so worth the hours I lost during the day to read Breach of Trust. DiAnn Mills touches on a subject I doubt the average Christian doesn’t think about: What does a Christian do when the job God has lead you into requires deception for your survival? She handles Paige’s situation beautifully, allowing us to see that despite anything we may do, God has it well under control.

On the suspense side of the story, DiAnn had me running down every rabbit trail following all her red herrings. I was blown away with the actual mole, tho I never took the bait when it came to Miles, the hometown football coach hero!

This book is like Friday Night Lights and Alias all rolled into one with a decidedly strong Christian theme. So you fans of those shows find this book and pick it up. You’ll love it. I guarantee!  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Award-winning author, DiAnn Mills, launched her career in 1998 with the publication of her first book. Currently she has over forty books in print and has sold more than a million copies.

DiAnn believes her readers should “Expect an Adventure.” DiAnn Mills is a fiction writer who combines an adventuresome spirit with unforgettable characters to create action-packed novels.

Six of her anthologies have appeared on the CBA Best Seller List. Three of her books have won the distinction of Best Historical of the Year by Heartsong Presents. Five of her books have won placements through American Christian Fiction Writer’s Book of the Year Awards 2003 – 2007, and she is the recipient of the Inspirational Reader’s Choice award for 2005 and 2007. She was a Christy Awards finalist in 2008.

DiAnn is a founding board member for American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Inspirational Writers Alive, Romance Writers of America’s Faith, Hope and Love, and Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. DiAnn is also a mentor for Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writer’s Guild.

She lives in sunny Houston, Texas. DiAnn and her husband have four adult sons and are active members of Metropolitan Baptist Church.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Paige Rogers survived every CIA operative’s worst nightmare.

A covert mission gone terribly wrong.

A betrayal by the one man she thought she could trust.

Forced to disappear to protect the lives of her loved ones, Paige has spent the last several years building a quiet life as a small-town librarian. But the day a stranger comes to town and starts asking questions, Paige knows her careful existence has been shattered.

He is coming after her again. And this time, he intends to silence her for good…

Paige Rogers is a former CIA agent who lost all she treasured seven years ago when her entire team was killed in a covert mission. She blames their leader—Daniel Keary—whom Paige believes betrayed them. Disillusioned and afraid for her life, she disappeared and started a new life as a librarian in small town Split Creek, Oklahoma.

But her growing relationship with high school football coach Miles Laird and the political ambitions of her former boss threaten to unmask her. When Keary announces his candidacy for governor of her state, he comes after Paige to ensure that she won’t ruin his bid for office by revealing his past misdeeds. He threatens everything she holds dear, and Paige must choose between the life of hiding that has become her refuge . . . or risking everything in one last, desperate attempt to right old wrongs.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Breach Of Trust, go HERE

Near and Dear to My Heart

Top-ranked Enlisted Leader Praises Guard Members in Combat Zones

Master Sgt. Mike Smith
3/12/2009

CAMP PHOENIX, Afghanistan. – The National Guard’s non-commissioned officers should be proud of the leadership they provide both inside and outside the wire in the nation’s combat zones, said the National Guard Bureau’s senior enlisted leader here during a recent town hall meeting.

Command Sgt. Maj. David Ray Hudson recently returned from Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait where he lauded the work of Citizen-Soldiers and -Airmen deployed in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Read More Here!

Oh No, She Didn’t!

A week ago, I got fed up with my current WIP and the fact that my characters quit talking to me, literally. And these are two of my favorite j04326651.pngcharacters, Cody and Remy. (If you don’t know who I’m talking about head over to my WIP and books link and read up.) Remy eventually chimed in for another 800 words, then clammed up again. Drat those Cajun cops!

I’m floundering, desperate to write cause my fingers just itch to type. I glance over at my bookshelf and see three hardback books from Avalon, a nice publishing house that mostly sells to libraries. I bought two books that were right up my ally in regards to horses, cowboys, rodeo, and romance, and there’s one old RS they don’t sell anymore. I thought, “Man, I’d love to just write a book for fun. No worries over the complicated stuff. Something totally not me.”

And then she spawned. Lila, a sassy blonde, with glasses. I recall long ago creating this character and never developing her for anything. I’m sitting there, gathering an idea and then I wonder who is her hero? I grab up a notepad and start jotting things down, and here comes Blake.

I don’t know these people. I want to know them and why they don’t fit my normal mold of cowgirl or cowboy, or cop. Why this isn’t a suspense? They don’t feel like suspense characters. I’m out of my comfort zone here, people, and I don’t know what to do. In fact, I didn’t even know what Lila did.

j0236539.gif(Isn’t this a great look inside a writer’s head? We’re all different in how we create, like jelly beans, each a unique experience.)

Images flash through my head. She’s a chef! ARG! I don’t know one blessed thing about being a chef. I love to cook, granted, but I’m not an expert. And Blake, well, I can’t get away from those Alpha male heroes, he’s a firefighter. (That was me sighing over here.)

I locked myself in the bedroom that night and went to play with my new characters. Got a good opening started, then flounder. Lila’s backstory sucked! I hatedj0356720.gif it. Gave up the next day and didn’t touch it until yesterday. I couldn’t get them out of my head and I really wanted to try my hand at this book. I wanted to make sure I’m not locking myself into a certain type of book for everything I write. Via e-mail, one of my CP’s and I got the gears rolling. And last night, once more locked away in my bedroom, I went to work and came up with a better backstory for Lila. I managed to jot down some scenes I hope will find their way into the book too.

I have no clue who I’m gearing this for. Just want to write it and see where I go with it. Should be interesting. Like I said, I’m out of my comfort zone. No bodies, blood, cowboys, horses, and cops.

Oh, and the working title. I love this one! A Dash of Cinnamon. Interesting, huh?

So You Wanna Enlist in the Army?

My latest article is up at Take Root and Write on enlisting. Check it out! And while you’re there check out our new digital magazine. trwdmemaillogo-1.jpgOur founder and creator, Noelle Mena has brought us out and in a wonderful way. I can honestly say I’m semi-published now! Woo hoo!

How Well Read Are You?

I got this from Camy’s blog. She’s great about putting stuff up like this, and I’m good at pilfering them. <};^D

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read.
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.
5) Another one: put a # by those you’ve started but not finished.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen #*
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien x+
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling x
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee *
6 The Bible x+
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott x+
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare #
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien x+
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell x+
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald #

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis x+
34 Emma – Jane Austen*

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen #*

36 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini *
37 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
38 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

39 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne #
40 Animal Farm – George Orwell x
41 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

42 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
43 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
44 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
45 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery x+
46 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
47 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

48 Lord of the Flies – William Golding x
49 Atonement – Ian McEwan *
50 Life of Pi – Yann Martel

51 Dune – Frank Herbert

52 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
53 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen #*

54 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
55 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
56 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens #
57 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

58 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
59 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
60 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
61 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
62 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
63 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold *
64 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas x+
65 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
66 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
67 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

68 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
69 Moby Dick – Herman Melville x
70 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
71 Dracula – Bram Stoker

72 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett x+
73 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
74 Ulysses – James Joyce
75 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
76 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
77 Germinal – Emile Zola
78 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
79 Possession – AS Byatt
80 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens x
81 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
82 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
83 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
84 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
85 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
86 Charlotte’s Web – EB White x+
87 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
88 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle x+
89 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
90 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
91 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
92 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
93 Watership Down – Richard Adams

94 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
95 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
96 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas *

97 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

98 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

99 A Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett x+
100 Twilight series – Stephenie Meyer *

X (read) =16

# (not finished) = 7

* (plan to read) =9

Some of my not finished I’m gonna try again when I get the chance. Now that my reading tastes have matured I’m gonna go back at the Jane Austen books.