WHAT A GIRL WANTS by Kristin Billerbeck (An Ashley Stockingdale novel, book 1) Book blurb: Ashley Stockingdale, 31, has a respectable (read: boring) job in Silicon Valley as a patent attorney. It's the kind of life that causes her mother to ask repeatedly, "Now what exactly do you do there, dear?" Given that in Silicon Valley the single men outnumber the women 2 to 1, Ashley can't help but wonder why a cute, eligible, Christian girl ("with absolutely adorable shoes") sits home most weekends. Even her church singles group fails to satisfy, endlessly watching The Matrix and "splurging", obnoxiously, on un-cool dinners at Applebee's and unhip franchise restaurants. So Ashley resolves to go for it! If only she knew what "it" she's going for. Perhaps that ever-illusive promotion that would give her the glamorous career girl image she's longed for? Or maybe the wardrobe to end all wardrobes, turning her glowing, possib...

ROMANCE RUSTLERS AND THUNDERBIRD THIEVES by Sharon Dunn (A Ruby Taylor Mystery, book 1) From the back cover: No one makes a fool of Ruby Taylor . . . or her friends. A tough cookie with an attitude, but also a soft heart, Ruby finds herself in a perilous search for a young man who disappeared just days before he was to be married. Her sometimes harrowing yet often hilarious quest to right the wrongs of love pit her against helicopters, wild buffalo, and some desperate people who have every reason to want Ruby to fail. Camy here: EXCELLENT book! The heroine, Ruby Taylor, is real and gritty, and non-Christian at the beginning of the book. She's awesome. Her hero/love interest is also a "real" Christian guy, still suffering through the mistakes he made in his own past. I've been so tired of so-called "tortured" heroes, where it turns out their only sin is a decision made in ignorance that resulted in something bad happening to them. Puh-leez...

6/30/04 Just random thoughts, today. I'm not feeling well and called in sick at work. I don't think I'm prego (and I hope I'm not) but I also know that anything's possible with God. There's an interesting discussion about Secular and Christian fiction on the ACRW email discussion loop (American Christian Romance Writers, www.acrw.net). Where do I fit in? I'm not very interested in "sweet" romances, but my current wip(s) are turning out to be too "preachy" to be secular. Will God allow me to be published? Will He allow me to write full-time someday? I had a good evening last night developing the storyline and characters for my wip. God is so good. The ideas just flowed, despite the fact I wasn't feeling very well. I've almost got a handle on Aiden's story. I also got an idea to link my first ms THE CORINTHIAN RULES with Aiden's story into a series. Four cousins, all Christians, trying to cope with the stigma of OSFC: Oldest...

6/17/04 The time has just sped by. I finally finished a bit of Spring Cleaning, and now that I can see the floor in my guest bedroom, somehow my mind feels less cluttered, too. The biggest news is from yesterday. I received a call from Sharon at Arabella Magazine, who said that they want to publish a short story I submitted to them in March! I'm so stoked. The story is "Dom Perignon," a romance about love at first sight in a San Francisco art gallery gala. God is soooooo good. This is a faboo publishing opportunity He's given to me. I'll also have an article being published in "Nikkei Heritage," a quarterly journal published by the National Japanese American Historical Society. The Fall/Winter edition is themed "War," and my piece is a light-hearted description of how World War 2 impacted life in the Hawaiian country town of Waialua, O'ahu, where my grandmother lives. I had a great time interviewing my grandmother and my mother, and I learn...