Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.30.2005 Mt. Hermon gave me a COLD. This racking cough just won’t go away, and I feel exhausted even though I had nine hours of sleep last night. Luckily, I don’t have a fever or congestion. I came home early from work today because I have to go in on Thursday and Friday to set up a big study. I printed off almost all of my ACFW Noble Theme Contest entry. I forgot until today that the deadline is tomorrow. I’ll finish it tonight and get it in the mail tomorrow afternoon. <br> Wrote a kickin’ fight scene yesterday, helped by my “ Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ” DVD. Hehe. I love the fight scenes--both watching and writing them. Maybe Chicklit/suspense/action is the right place for me. I’m still revising the manuscript, almost done. When I’ve gotten to the point where I haven’t finished writing, I’ll send it to be critiqued while I finish the last few chapters. Efficient use of my time, yes? I’ve b

ADRENALINE by John B. Olson From the back cover: Time is running out . . . James Parker is waging a frantic search for a cure. Though he is a brilliant biochemistry student with a promising career ahead, a crippling disease is stealing his future. Now desperation threatens to carry him beyond the limits of medical ethics. A phantom is terrorizing the campus . . . The menace that haunts Darcy Willams's dreams is now threatening her friends and community. Can she muster the courage to confront her nemesis before further attacks? Will they be able to expose the source of deadly evil? Camy here: This thriller had non-stop action and an unforgettable hero suffering from multiple sclerosis. Parker’s brilliant mind is contrasted by his weakened body, making the reader admire him for his abilities and sympathize with him as the underdog. Clues unfold piece by piece in the drama around Parker’s accidental discovery of a possible cure

DOUBLE VISION by Randall Ingermanson From the back cover: Dillon Richard is a brilliant and meticulous engineer, respected by his coworkers at CypherQuanta, but he has never had a woman interested in him before. Now he's got two, and they've giving him double vision . . . Rachel Meyers is a quirky, erratic biophysicist who has just developed a quantum computer that will change the world. If Rachel and Dillon can bring it to market, CypherQuanta will be worth billions. But someone is determined to steal the secret . . . and create a rift between Rachel and Dillon. Keryn Wills is a mystery novelist and part-time chief financial officer at CypherQuanta. She desperately needs to keep Rachel and Dillon working together to finish the project, but she desperately doesn't want them to be friends. Somehow she needs to unravel this mystery -- before it unravels her. Camy here: Any suspense fans should run to buy this book. Each character is vivid an

THEODORA'S WEDDING by Penny Culliford From the Back Cover: I’ve actually done it! I’ve kept up my diary for over a year. I may not have grown very much spiritually, nor have I been hailed as the next British supermodel, but I have gained a fiancÈ, even if he is football mad. And to cap it all, I weigh half a stone less than I did this time last year. Welcome back to Theodora’s world. Now a bit older but not much wiser, thirty-something Theodora Llewellyn begins her second year as a diarist. And as usual, the results are endearing, hilarious and delightfully human. Joy, bliss, ecstasy! Have just tried my holiday clothes on and they are actually too big! What a fabulous excuse to go and buy some new ones. Unfortunately, bank account doesn’t agree. Saving to get married is such a nuisance. In her search for life, love and a plentiful supply of chocolate, Theodora discovers that the course of true love never runs smoothly, especially when a voice from the past

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.24.2005 Got back from Mt. Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference on Tuesday afternoon. My friend Sharon Hinck and her daughter stayed overnight with us and left on Wednesday. It was wonderful to spend time with her, although we were both so tired from the conference that we just smiled and yawned at each other. The conference was terrific. I learned a lot spiritually more than anything else. God had to remind me again to give up my control-freak tendencies and remember that my success or failure is all in His hands, by His will, in His timing. I also was reminded that this is a CHRONIC problem with me. He can be so gentle even in a rebuke. God has a grand sense of humor. I hadn’t specified anyone for a roommate, I figured I’d just go with whoever I got matched with. Lori Kincaid is one of the nicest and funniest people on the planet. She and I hit it off. We’re both fiction writers, from California , and almost the same age. We were loud

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.16.2005 Okay, I freely admit I am procrastinating. I should be working on my ms but I’m not. Ha! Actually, I did work on it a little earlier tonight. Knee update: Doctor said to stay off the cycling to see if that causes the swelling to go down, in case the exercise is causing it. The ultrasound and interferential something-stimulation that the PT did on Monday seems to have helped, or maybe just the extra attention after I’d missed PT for a week. Regardless, since I have Mt. Hermon this weekend, I’ll see how the swelling is without the cycling and other stuff. I go back to PT on Friday next week to see how things are. Chicklit: Okay, the girl who only window shops was a stupid idea. Why? Because she was lonely but distanced herself from people on purpose. I didn’t like her, and if I don’t like her then the reader won’t either. But I came up with an idea about how a girl feels when people only window-shop with her--they only see

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.14.2005 Knee update: I went to the doctor today for a checkup, and saw his assistant. I’ve been concerned because there’s still inflammation in my knee joint, and it’s been almost 4 months since the surgery. She said she’d talk to the doctor about it tomorrow and call me. Sometimes he suggests laying off the PT to see if that causes the inflammation to go away, but I don’t know if that will work because lately I’ve been pretty active outside of PT. At PT today, the therapist did ultrasound and some sort of electrical current on the joint. Hopefully that will make the inflammation start to go down. I’ll know by tomorrow, probably. Writing: Mt. Hermon conference starts this Friday! On Thursday night, I’ll be at the Santana Row Borders bookstore to help out (and hopefully learn a bit, too) at a booksigning for several of the ACFW authors who are attending Mt. Hermon . That should be lots of fun. I had a good brainstorming time at

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.12.2005 Okay, before I start on my manuscript, I checked email and surfed a few blogs. Mick Silva’s blog listed TheOOZE , which is a rather neat site. I’m not sure how to describe it, except that they use a lot of abbreviations I don’t understand and have a modern view of the Church, or rather, what it should be. It’s a little more political than I’m comfortable with, only because of my woeful ignorance. There are a lot of people who comment on how many churches don’t fit their needs, which is true. It’s hard to find good churches these days. The church body tries, but people are flawed or they just don’t understand. Not a crime, but makes for a very biased community of believers within that particular building. People also comment quite a bit on hypocrisy among Christians, another true and hot topic. Maybe I’m too laissez faire about it. My thinking is that people are human, Christians forgive, God convicts. Hypocrisy will always b

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.11.2005 I’ve been trying to brainstorm the villain for my Chicklit suspense, and I realized that since it’s a Chicklit, the villain doesn’t have to make sense. I thought of that TV show “Monk” where the villains are often rather silly. It’s a humorous show, so the villains don’t have to be of the same “evil caliber” as Jeffrey Dahmer. Or like the old “Batman” series with the bad guys in neon-colored spandex, sporting all those dazzling names. A Chicklit villain could be a “Riddler” or a “Penguin.” This might be fun! Diet: Had PT today and got my butt kicked. But it’s all good.

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.10.2005 I went running again today! With my dog! Okay, my legs hurt a little, but I figured I should exercise while I still feel motivated to do it, because I might not feel motivated tomorrow or next week. I might feel like being a bump on a log, and I’ll regret not taking advantage of my “exercise” mood. Diet: We had free pizza at work today, and I pigged out on four small slices (hence the exercise mood). I’ve been trying to figure out how many calories that is. But for dinner I had vegetable soup, plus four pieces of my husband’s leftover spicy hamachi sushi roll (bwahahahaha). I think I’m doing okay since I ran, but I have to be better tomorrow. Writing: Uh . . . off to work on it now. I’m having problems with my scene because I can’t come up with a good reason why heroine would risk her life to help ID the bad guy. I mean, if I were a perfectly sane heroine, I certainly wouldn’t put myself in danger, would you?

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.09.2005 I went running today! With my dog! It felt great! My dog is tired! Hallelujah! I just found out (or reminded myself) that my Chicklit for the anthology project isn’t due until June or July. Where did I get April? Beats me. Anyway, now I don’t feel so stressed about trying to pound it out in a few weeks. I think I’ll aim for May 1st, though. Mt. Hermon conference is coming up. I’m so excited. I WILL get some writing done tonight. Diet: Went to a restaurant for lunch and had a calzone, but only ate about 2/3 of it. Good, right? I intend to have vegetable soup for dinner. Had plenty of water today! And did I mention I went RUNNING!

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.08.2005 I’m procrastinating. I put together my submissions for Mt. Hermon editorial critique, Bethany House and Zondervan. I checked out the current catalog for each publisher and it just seemed like those two would be a good match for my suspense. It does deal with a controversial issue, but it’s also very entertainment-oriented, not so much obvious Christianity (at least I think so). I named the first book “Furious Dragon” and the series is called “The Dragon Queens” because of the three sisters. I also put together my entry for the Daphne du Maurier unpublished award contest. I’m still a little bit worried that my Chinese “Alias” storyline might be TOO out of the box for the more conservative judges. But oh well, it’s in God’s hands anyway, I shouldn’t worry about it. I might enter ACFW’s Noble Theme contest too, but I’m not certain yet. After getting singed by a few ultra-conservative judges last year with my Chicklit entry, I’m a

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.05.2005 Taking a break from writing (which is what I should be doing) and indulging myself in my blog. Funny thing is, I don’t have that much to say. I just like writing these darn things. I finished my proposal for the Mt. Hermon Christian Writers Conference going on March 18-22. I really can’t NOT go, seeing as it’s only 45 minutes away and a terrific conference to learn and grow and smooze with some really nice people. It’s cost is a bit prohibitive--I thought long and hard about going, did I already blog about this? Oh well.--but decided to hand over the money and have a great time. I’m getting really excited. I know several people who will be going, including my friend Cherise whom I haven’t seen since Mt. Hermon last year, where we met. I’ll actually be having lunch at her house next weekend. She took the plunge and quit her job so she could open her own store in Santa Cruz , an ice-cream/hot soups shop. It’s right near