Wreader Fun

As many of you know, I attended the American Christian Fiction Writer's Conference in Minneapolis, Minn from 18-21 Sept. Fantastic experience. I want to go next year, too. When that was over, I drove due north for about 6 hrs until I reached my mom's house in Thunder Bay, Ontario and visited with her for a week. Yesterday am, I left Thunder Bay and drove all day and into the evening. By the time I stopped for the night in Brandon, Manitoba, it was 11:30 pm and I was only 3 hrs from home. I pulled into a rest area and slept for a couple hours. Then I was back on the road. At 03:30, I was getting real tired again when the Lord provided me with another rest area. I pulled in, shut the van down and covered up again. I slept until 06:30. by 0745, I was pulling into our yard, 1200 km/800 mls since leaving Thunder Bay. The boys were down at the barn but dropped their buckets and golf clubs (???) when they saw me. I had a chance for hugs and kisses with them and my daughter before the ...

I'm still visiting my mom in Thunder Bay, Ontario (6 hrs north of Minneapolis), and I'm at the library since Mom doesn't have internet service, so I haven't much time to do this, but here are my pics from the ACFW conference in Minneapolis. I have to admit I probably could've snapped pics of my favourite authors everytime I saw them but I only took my camera out when one of them did as well. Why? Well, as I told my hubby - I wanted to be a friend and not a groupie. So, I apologize for the quality, but I like them. In this first photo, I'm with Margaret Daley. Left to right: Love Inspired Susense authors: Lynette Eason (River of Secrets) Margaret Daley (Forsaken Canyon) Ginny Aikens (Danger in a Small Town) and eHarlequin.com Steeple Hill host: Dream aka Danica Favorite Here's Margaret Daley teaching the WRITING INSPIRATIONAL ROMANCES 101 class. It was great! Here's a pic of some of the Steeple Hill crowd after the Sat night awards ceremony: The libr...

Bet you’ve been wondering where I”ve been, eh? Well, I left my home and family last Tues, Sept 16th, and travelled down to Minneapolis, MN to attend the 2008 American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) conference. And what a conference! One of the smartest things I did was divide the driving into 2 days which left about 6 hrs of driving each day. My travel odometer read 1250 km (800 mls) by the time I hit the Sheraton Hotel in Minneapolis South - the location of this year’s conference. Wed night found me sitting in the Sheraton lobby, trying to keep my right palm dry in case someone I recognized came along. My feelings bounced from anxiety and fear to disbelief that I had actually arrived. (Hello, Kristine and Christina) My first attempt at writing this blog entry mentioned names of people who became friends over the course of the conference. But after the first dozen names, I quit. There were just too many. Instead, I’m going to tell you where I originally found these people and then y...

A Soldier's Family (Wings of Refuge) by Cheryl Wyatt Love Inspired #438 - Mar 08 I like this book just as much as the first one in the series - A Soldier's Promise. It's also going to my Top 10 list. Yeah, I know, this will make it 12, but what else can I do? This was a totally satisfying book. I can't wait for Book 3 Cheryl Wyatt brings the characters to life with all the human frailties, emotions and temptations you would find in everyday life. I laughed and cried with them as if they we my friends. The heroine, Celia Munoz, is still struggling to carry on with life for herself and her teenage son even after five years of widowhood. Her husband died violently and the last thing she wants is to fall into a relationship with another man who works a dangerous job. Manny Pena recognized Celia's...attributes...the first time he saw her. That fateful encounter happened while he was drunk. It wasn't until after she gave him a fat lip he realized he'd treated her ...

Okay, so I'm doing a happy dance all over the house... And I know this is probably waaaaay too much info for you, but just in case there are others who are thinking of entering the contests.... As some of you know, I started entering contests this year for the feedback and to get my stuff in front of the editors b/c the slush pile didn't seem to be working. But, I garnered enough courage to try my hand via the contest route after a daily douse of the Seeker blog at http://seekerville.blogspot.com/ Back in the spring, I subbed 2 entries in ACFW's Genesis contest and then blogged about the results here. Then, I took the critiques I rec'd from those 3 judges, revised my 2 ms's, and sent them off to my CP's. When they came back, I revised some more then submitted the 2 entries into the ‘From the Heart' Romance Writers Golden Gateway contest. This was back in July. I know they didn't get as many entries as they wanted b/c they even extended the deadline to dr...

A Soldier’s Promise (Wings of Refuge) by Cheryl Wyatt Love Inspired #430 – Jan 08 I held off reading this book for months. Why? Because it’s Cheryl Wyatt’s debut novel and although I only know Cheryl over the internet so far, I do enter her monthly prompt contest and try to publicize it as well. But I’d never actually read anything of hers – blog posts excluded. I’d heard and read so much about A Soldier’s Promise that I wanted to love it to. And I did. So much that it’s #11 on my Top 10 list for 2008. Okay, I'll worry a bout my math at the end of the year. You know how readers always say a book was so good they couldn’t put it down? Well, not only was it like that, but I also wanted to prolong it b/c I didn’t want it to end. So I took longer to finish it than I usually do. And I still loved it when I was done. A totally satisfying book. This book is about a young cancer orphan who wants to meet a real Special Forces soldier almost as much as he wants a family of his own. Pararesc...

Deadly Texas Rose by Lenora Worth Love Inspired Suspense #85 – Jan 08 I really like this author’s books – both the Love Inspired and the LI Suspense. In this book, Julia Daniels brings her daughter to small town Texas for safety but it seems like they’ve been followed. Someone wants Julia even to abduct her at gunpoint in front of witnesses in broad daylight in a diner right across the street from the sheriff’s office. Now that’s desperate. The gunman is desperate enough to shoot Eric Butler when he, as deputy sheriff, tries to interfere. Eric realizes this isn’t a normal robbery and begins the investigation to find out who and why someone is after Julia. What I especially like about this book was that I guessed a third of the way through what the bad guys were after – well not exactly, but sort of – you know? The author dropped enough red herrings along the way, however, that although my guess was a bit off, the conclusion was very satisfying. -------------------- Heat Level: Affectio...

Wilderness Courtship by Valerie Hansen Love Inspired Historical #13 - Aug 08 The heroine in this book is Charity Beal. If you think the name sounds familiar, you'd be right. Charity is the younger sister of the heroine in a previous LIH book Frontier Courtship which I previously blogged about. And if you remember Charity from that book, you'll be wondering how the author could ever turn her into a heroine we'd...well, to put it bluntly...like. But, she did. Charity has learned from her youthful experience. She's a serious young woman of faith who's made a vow to never lose her heart again after the disastrous choice she made the first time. fine with Thorne Blackwell who's still agonizing over a previous error in judgment with another woman. He needs Charity's help, not a romantic relationship. So Charity accompanies Thorne and his family up into the wilderness of Oregon and along the way falls in love not only with Thorne, but his 3 yr old nephew. ---------...

A Cowboy's Honor (Pennies From Heaven) by Lois Richer LI #441 - Apr 08 I loved this book. It's about a guy who disappears as a newlywed leaving a wife and daughter behind. And where has he gone? He had amnesia. Now, I know what you're saying...another boring amnesia story...but this book is anything but boring. In fact, it's very bittersweet. And it made me cry. Gracie Henderson has lived the last 6 years in a fog of misery after her husband disappeared. Alone and pregnant, battered from the ‘I told you so's" of her father, Gracie hits rock bottom. Elizabeth Wisdom steps in and gives Gracie the means to finish her schooling and become a vet. Now, it's payback time. Gracie agrees to work at Elizabeth's ranch for handicapped kids. It's a good, safe place to raise her daughter. Then, Dallas returns and suddenly, her daughter's turning to him for advice and comfort. And he's letting their daughter do all sorts of things that Gracie had decided...

Heart's Haven (Pennies From Heaven) by Lois Richer LI #435 - Mar 08 This is the 2nd book in the Pennies From Heaven series. In this book, Chef Cassidy Preston has to work in a shelter kitchen for 6 months to repay a debt to Elizabeth Wisdom for pulling her up out of a destitute situation and sending her to Europe for career training. But she has dreams - big dreams. So, she'll pay her dues and then get out. Tyson St John is the man who runs the shelter while learning how to get along with his orphaned nephew (although the excerpt on the inside page says it's his stepson which was rather confusing). The main problem with Ty is that he suffers post traumatic disorder after a stint in the Gulf War. And I'm talking major suffering here - not a minute of his day goes by when he is scared about something bad happening. I found it hard to relate to Ty. I'm used to strong, take-charge men and apparently Ty had been like that, but he wasn't any more. However, I liked the...

Healing Tides (Pennies From Heaven) by Lois Richer LI #432 - Feb 08 What a shock! GloryAnn Cranbrook was born and raised in the extremes of the Arctic but must live in Hawaii for 6 months to pay off a debt. And she doesn't want to go! Before her missionary mother passed away, GloryAnn promised she'd go back and doctor to the Inuit. She promised . Dr. Jare Steele is used to doctors - female and otherwise - parading through his clinic, giving orders, changing things, then leaving again. He's built up an immunity to people walking out on him. What started as a personal tragedy has evolved into a wall of stoicism that no one - including the children in his care - can breach. GloryAnn just wants to do her 6 months then leave. She doesn't want to enjoy the warm tropical breeze, the refreshing morning swims, the abundance of fresh fruit. She knows when she goes north, everything will be weeks if not months old and terribly expensive so she mustn't get used to this kind of ...

The Redemption of Jake Scully by Elaine Barbieri Love Inspired Historical #10 - Jun 08 This book was the first I've read by this author and I really enjoyed it. It's a suspenseful tale of a young orphan and the ‘old' man who took her in. Saloon keeper, Jake Scully had only one friend in the world and when that man died, his grandchild walked all the way to town to find Scully because her Grandpa said Scully would take care of her. Scully did. He sent her east for schooling and to become a lady. Now, it's 10 yrs later, and the lady is coming home. Lacey Stewart doesn't remember much about the man who took her in all those years ago, except that he owned a saloon and by now must be fairly old. But she owed him a debt for her schooling, so she'd take care of him in his old age. Imagine her surprise when she alights from the stage to find a man only a decade or so older than herself. She might have been sheltered while at school, but the feelings she feels developin...

Masked By Moonlight by Allie Pleiter - Love Inspired Historical #9 - Jun 08 This book is heading to my 2008 Top Ten list because I didn't want to put it down. I loved the old Zorro, Lone Ranger and Robin Hood shows and this rated right up there with them. This is the 3rd book I've read from this author and I love her sense of humour. When I first heard about this book, I heard the hero, Matthew Covington referred to as a reluctant hero who becomes a masked crusader by accident. That intrigued me. How can someone don a mask and cape and yet not want to be a hero? Allie Pleiter has woven Matthew's reserve and charm into a very likeable hero that will have you aching for him to succeed whether it's in a seemingly impossible task in life or love. Georgia Waterhouse, the heroine, is a writer living in a world when women were seen but not heard. So, she writes under a pen name. She is emotionally tied to San Fransico and can't even think about living anywhere else. Matth...

My Monday (and final) report goes like this: I froze my butt off today! Well, not really - but it was only 8c/46F all day long! And rainy to boot. It's the middle of harvest and not a single combine was moving b/c everything is so wet it'll take a week to dry out. And here I was worrying about having to bring a fan into the RV from the heat. Ha! I could've used a heater, though. Instead, I just wore warm clothes and tucked an old blanket around my legs and feet. At least it wasn't below freezing like last year during NaNo when I wrote in my van while the kids were working on a TV set. Now, that was cold! So, other than the cold my biggest problem was that we have only 1 bathroom in the house. Normally this isn't a problem for us - okay, I lie - it's usually a problem - but when things get really bad, we just run outside and find a tree. We have lots of trees and no neighbors within view so that isn't a problem. Well, I don't know if it was the cold weath...