Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.30.2006 Leave any prayer requests in the comments and I’ll be praying this week. You don’t have to be Christian to leave a prayer request. If you’d rather not advertise to everyone on the blogosphere, just leave an unspoken prayer request or email me. If I forgot your prayer request, email me. Not to be mean or anything, but if you don't email me or comment to update your prayer request, I'm only going to pray 3 Sundays. Thank you, Lord, for another day with you. Please comfort those who are grieving. Cover them with your spirit and give them peace. Thank you for fixing Heather's laptop and giving her a new client. I pray for a continual stream of business for her. Please heal Pammer's eyes and give wisdom to her doctors and her about what to do. Please heal Squirl's hip completely, and give her and her doctor's wisdom about her surgery. Thank you that Dineen's daughter got into her program! Please lead and guide Dineen in her writ

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.29.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is THE REMEDY FOR REGRET and A WINDOW TO THE WORLD by Susan Meissner . My Thursday book giveaway is MOTHER OF PREVENTION by Lori Copeland . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for Susan Meissner's books and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Care packages: I am one lucky girl. I don't know if it's just my parents, or if it's all Asian parents, or if it's parents in general, but my folks send me care packages all the time. It's just like college. A few weeks ago, my dad sent my husband a case of home-made beer. Porter stout. Yesterday, I got a huge box filled with Styrofoam chips and three packages of taro chips, because they know it's hard for me to find those here in my area. I admit, occasionally call home and ask for something. A few weeks ago, I asked Mom for

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.28.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is THE REMEDY FOR REGRET and A WINDOW TO THE WORLD by Susan Meissner . My Thursday book giveaway is MOTHER OF PREVENTION by Lori Copeland . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for Susan Meissner's books and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Four things: I’ve been tagged by Susan Hatler , a chick-lit writer from the Bay Area whom I met at RWA National last year. FOUR THINGS (not in any order) 4 movies you would watch over and over • Lord of the Rings trilogy • Pride and Prejudice (BBC) • Firefly series, including the movie Serenity • Bubblegum Crisis (old and new versions) 4 Places you've lived: • Wahiawa, Hawaii • San Jose, California • Stanford, California • Santa Clara, California 4 TV shows you love to watch • CSI • Prison Break • Bones (LOVE the dialogue! Wish I could wr

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.27.2006 TMI: Todai: Todai is a Japanese buffet restaurant that serves sushi and other Asian-y dishes. I hadn't gone in a long time, but a friend suggested we eat there last night. Now before Robin goes off on how I'm supposed to be writing , I was interviewing my friend for my book. She has worked with female professional video gamers. Yeah, way cool. One of my characters is a professional gamer. Back to Todai . It's not bad, for the price. The raw fish isn't slimy or smelly. But you are talking to someone who grew up in Hawaii--read: surrounded by water --and who is Japanese American. I try to visit Hawaii at least once a year partly because of the food. Mom and Dad take me (and my husband, when he can take off work to travel with me) to Kabuki , a Japanese restaurant in Pearl City. We've been going there since I was in high school. Mom and Dad know the sushi chefs so well that they joke and laugh with them (and give them

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.26.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is A BABY FOR DRY CREEK by Janet Tronstad . My Monday book giveaway is THE REMEDY FOR REGRET and A WINDOW TO THE WORLD by Susan Meissner. You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for A BABY FOR DRY CREEK and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Continued from Mount Hermon recap, part 7 : Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference is held every year during the weekend of Palm Sunday. This year, it was April 7th – 11th. An unofficial tradition has been when the Night Owls gather in the coffee lounge to gab, check email, get slap-happy, and then get kicked out when maintenance closes the lounge at midnight. Last year in September at the ACFW conference in Denver, Brandilyn Collins had a meeting of all the “BGs”—the blogger friends who read her blog—and created a round robin story that she posted on h

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.25.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is A BABY FOR DRY CREEK by Janet Tronstad . My Monday book giveaway is THE REMEDY FOR REGRET and A WINDOW TO THE WORLD by Susan Meissner. You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for A BABY FOR DRY CREEK and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Continued from Mount Hermon recap, part 6 : Pray for Jeff Dunn (RiverOak). He had gall bladder surgery and couldn’t make it to the conference. This is for all you writers. I’m afraid I was remiss in taking better notes at the editors’ panel, but the questions some of the attendees asked weren’t very interesting to me, either. So I popped up with a question: “Are there any secrets you (the editors) could give away about trends of the market genres?” Andy McGuire (Moody) thinks readers will start to demand more straight mystery series (like Sue Grafton’s alpha

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.24.2006 Today it’s my pleasure to post an interview with Susan Meissner , who won the Mount Hermon Writer of the Year award! Susan’s a total sweetie—I got to meet her for the first time at the Mount Hermon conference two weeks ago. Susan's latest books are  THE REMEDY FOR REGRET and A WINDOW TO THE WORLD . And now, here’s the fabulous Susan Meissner! Congratulations on winning the Mount Hermon Writer of the Year award! Woot!woot! Did you at least get a few days' reprieve from cleaning toilets when you got home? Actually, my husband has taken upon himself the lowly act of toilet cleaning. Honestly, he's the one who does it. He has for years. I think it's because I have always had to be the one to take care of those things that should have found their way to a toilet and didn't. And that's all I've got to say about that. I came home to four men (three sons and a husband) who had managed pretty well without me, but w

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.23.2006 Leave any prayer requests in the comments and I’ll be praying this week. You don’t have to be Christian to leave a prayer request. If you’d rather not advertise to everyone on the blogosphere, just leave an unspoken prayer request or email me. If I forgot your prayer request, email me. Not to be mean or anything, but if you don't email me or comment to update your prayer request, I'm only going to pray 3 Sundays. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts. Father, please fix Heather’s computer quickly, cheaply, and completely. I pray for complete healing for Pammer’s eyes. Give wisdom to her doctor, and peace for her and her family. Heal Cheryl’s hip. Give wisdom to her and her doctors about surgery. I pray Dineen’s daughter gets into her program, and I also pray you give Dineen wisdom and divine guidance about the new project she’s been thinking about. Protect her from spiritual warfare and help her to follow only your will. I pray for justice an

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.22.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday (well, really Tuesday) book giveaway is the Flanagans series (4 books) by Marta Perry . My Thursday book giveaway is A BABY FOR DRY CREEK by Janet Tronstad . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for the Flanagans series and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Continued from Mount Hermon recap, part 5 : In the coffee lounge, Sarah had to leave to teach her Night Owl class, and so Chip left, too. I joined some other friends gabbing, and then I went to the dining hall to get hot tea. There weren’t many people in there chatting, so I zeroed in on the caffeine. Then I heard a voice, “Camy!” Chip sat at a round table with three other women, one of them Laura Christianson (my blogging buddy and classmate in the Media Mania class). I met Jenn Doucette, who is a long-time friend of Chip’s, and Karen Kennedy. All of the

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.21.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday (well, really Tuesday) book giveaway is the Flanagans series (4 books) by Marta Perry . My Thursday book giveaway is A BABY FOR DRY CREEK by Janet Tronstad . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for the Flanagans series and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Continued from Mount Hermon recap, part 4 : I have never pitched to Chip MacGregor, even before he went to work at Warner Faith. He’s been at, I believe, every conference I’ve gone to with the exception of RWA National in 2005, but he doesn’t know who the heck I am since I’m not a very good stalker (I keep losing him). I was chatting with Sarah Anne Sumpolec one night when Chip walked into the coffee lounge. Sarah called him over to talk about the book idea with an FBI profiler co-author, which they’d emailed about previously. “Chip, have you met Camy?” “

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.20.2006 Got a lot today, so here we go. Continued from Mount Hermon recap, part 3 : I got a chance to get to know Sarah Anne Sumpolec better. She’s a funny, fresh firecracker of energy. Loved her. If you have teen girls, they’ll love her Beka novels. I hooked up with my friend Donna Fleisher again. That woman is walking encouragement, let me tell ya. I’m giving away an autographed copy of her latest novel, VALIANT HOPE , on my website contest . I met Judy Gann for the first time, and she is such a sweet, gentle, sweet woman. And did I mention how sweet she is? She gave me a copy of her devotion book, THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT , for those living with the challenges of chronic illness. Now don’t freak out, I don’t have a chronic illness, but I will always suffer from the surgeries on my knee, and she wanted to encourage me with her book. Isn’t she just da bomb? I hung out and made mischief with my friend Charise Olson, who lives down the road from th

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.19.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is AND BABY MAKES FIVE by Debra Clopton . My Monday (well, really Tuesday) book giveaway is the Flanagans series (4 books) by Marta Perry . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday I'll draw the winner for AND BABY MAKES FIVE and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Continued from Mount Hermon recap, part 2 : I met Laura Christianson in my Media Mania class. She’s a professional blogger for Adoption.com, doing the Christian Adoption blog . She also has a personal blog called Exploring Adoption , and she just got a contract for a non-fiction book, What’s So Great About Adoption?: A Self-Guided Tour for the Uninitiated . She gave a blogging workshop and afterward, we ended up talking about blogging and marketing for almost two hours. We both admit that blogging is addictive. She gave me terrific tips. And I was able to b

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.17.2006 Have I got a treat for you, sports fans! (Okay, so you don’t have to be sports fans to appreciate this treat.) I’ve got a new interview with romantic suspense author Marta Perry ! (The crowd goes wild with excitement) And now, here’s the Marty and Camy show! Your new book IN THE ENEMY'S SIGHTS just came out. Tell us about it. IN THE ENEMY’S SIGHTS is Book Four in the Faith at the Crossroads mini-series. Each author wrote one book, and although each one stands alone, together they create a complete suspense arc with a common villain behind all the bad stuff. My story deals with search and rescue dog trainer Julianna Red Feather and injured Air Force pilot Ken Vance. Ken returns to his home town of Colorado Springs to recuperate, determined to conquer his vision problems and return to flying, but he’s drawn into what seems to be a campaign of vandalism against his friend Quinn’s construction company. This brings him into contact with

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.17.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is AND BABY MAKES FIVE by Debra Clopton . You can still enter. Just post a comment on that blog post . I was supposed to have another giveaway today, but it’s not yet ready so I’ll post it tomorrow.. On Thursday I'll draw the winner for AND BABY MAKES FIVE and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Continued from Mount Hermon recap, part 1 : It was very good timing that I got my contract just before I went to Mount Hermon, because I was able to focus my learning goals. I took the Media Mania class with Ellie Kay , assisted by Sharon Durling . Wow, that was terrific! It was media training—stuff I had no clue about. I went into sponge mode. I learned about sound bytes—15 second answers (to very short questions) that are appropriate for radio and television (mostly television) interviews. Fifteen seconds is about 25 words, and it goes much faster when you’re miked th

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.16.2006 Leave any prayer requests in the comments and I’ll be praying this week. You don’t have to be Christian to leave a prayer request. If you’d rather not advertise to everyone on the blogosphere, just leave an unspoken prayer request or email me. If I forgot your prayer request, email me. Not to be mean or anything, but if you don't email me or comment to update your prayer request, I'm only going to pray 3 Sundays. Thank you, Father, for your grace on all of us. Lord, please fix Heather’s computer. Heal Pammer’s finger, and continue to affirm her in her writing. I pray for complete healing for Cheryl’s hip. Give her and her doctors wisdom about the surgery. Thank you for the good news from Mount Hermon for Dineen. Please continue to lead and guide her in what you want her to do. Give peace and strength to Robin and her family. Lord, we pray for justice—please defend her family. I also pray you will open doors for her writing career. Father, affi

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.15.2006 Blog Book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is AND BABY MAKES FIVE by Debra Clopton . You can still enter. Just post a comment on that blog post . On Monday, I’ll have another giveaway. On Thursday I'll draw the winner for AND BABY MAKES FIVE and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Interview! I’ll continue my Mount Hermon recap on Tuesday. Today I have an interview with Colleen Coble ! Her latest romantic suspense, ALASKA TWILIGHT , is a Women of Faith novel. I’m giving away an autographed copy of ALASKA TWILIGHT for my monthly website contest. Go to Camy’s contest page to enter. Also, subscribers to my newsletter YahooGroup “Camy’s Loft” get a chance for two extra entries in the contest. Information is on this post . Make way for Colleen! You've written several romances and historicals. How did you get into suspense writing? I've always wanted to write suspense. In fact, if you look at some of my earlier

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.14.2006 Blog Book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is AND BABY MAKES FIVE by Debra Clopton . You can still enter. Just post a comment on that blog post . On Monday, I’ll have another giveaway. On Thursday I'll draw the winner for AND BABY MAKES FIVE and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference: I had a great time meeting new friends, seeing old ones. But man did it rain. Not as much as last year, but enough to wet the books I bought to give away on my blog! Waaaaaaaaaa I roomed with Meredith Efken , my cohort in crime from the ACFW conference in Nashville last year. We are perfect roommates because we’re both night owls, and there’s no danger of waking the other one up when we get into the room at night. They put us in a quaint wooden lodge at the bottom of the gully, by a small stream, nestled within towering redwood trees. I am not a bug person. Creepy crawlies are not my thing. This i

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.13.2006 Today I’m so lucky to have Steeple Hill author Debra Clopton write a guest blog post! Deb is the sweetest person and I’m really blessed to know her. When you read her books, you can hear her Texas accent in the story! Her latest book is AND BABY MAKES FIVE . TWO STUBBORN HUMANS, HIS DOG, HER DONKEY...AND A BRAND-NEW BABY. A donkey with a penchant for breaking and entering...in search of alfalfa? Cort Wells had never heard of such a thing, until he and his dog moved into Mule Hollow. And the dokey’s eight-months-pregnant owner was LillyTips, raised by her man-hating grandmas. So when Lilly wound up in his barn—and in his arms—Cort began to think the donkey was going to be the least of his worries... Debra Clopton’s Blog Column Thank you for this opportunity Camy. AND BABY MAKES FIVE is my second book in my Mule Hollow series and I loved writing this book! When I first came up with the concept of a matchmaking donkey...well, you can imag

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.09.2006 Here at Mount Hermon, Brandilyn Collins is BLOGGING. And yes, that needs to be in capital letters, because when Brandilyn BLOGS at a writer's conference, strange and unusual things appear on her BLOG. To find out the meaning of my post title, go to Forensics and Faith right now .

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.05.2006 Blog book drawings: My Monday book giveaway (ALONG CAME LOVE) is here . You can still enter. Just post a comment on those blog posts. On Wednesday, April 12th, I'll draw the winner for ALONG CAME LOVE, and on Thursday, April 13th, I'll post the title of another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Mt. Hermon: Well, my friend Meredith Efken is staying with me tonight and tomorrow, and then we’re heading to Mt. Hermon Christian Writers Conference . Hence, tomorrow is a shopping day. At the very least, I have to pick up Trader Joe’s dark chocolate for the conference. Survival food, you know. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. Meredith and I were talking about this today, how there’s something about being the company of writers that just invigorating. I might even get writing done this weekend, who knows? If you think of it, say a pray for me: That I would listen and obey God’s voice in my ear, absorb His peace, trust