Captain's Log, Stardate 09.28.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is FURY by Bill Bright and Jack Cavanaugh . You can still enter. Just post a comment on that blog post. On Monday, I'll draw the winner and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Here are the ACFW Book of the Year winners! In Contemporary Novella Category: 1st place: "Strawberry Angel" by Pamela Griffin in One Christmas Angel , Barbour Publishing, Rebecca Germany, Editor 2nd place: Dear Baby Girl by Jane Orcutt , Tyndale, Jan Axford, Editor 3rd place: "Reunited" by Kristy Dykes in Wedded Bliss , Barbour Publishing, Rebecca Germany, Editor In General Fiction, which includes Sci-Fi and Young Adult: 1st place: Daughter of Prophecy by Miles Owens , Realms Fiction, Jeff Gerke, Editor There was a tie for 2nd place: Circles of Seven by Bryan Davis , AMG Publishers, Dan Penwell, Editor The Reveal by Sarah Anne Sumpolec , Moody Publishers, Andy McGuire, Editor In the ...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 09.27.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is FURY by Bill Bright and Jack Cavanaugh . You can still enter. Just post a comment on that blog post. On Monday, I'll draw the winner and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Not blogging today. Why? Cuz I’m plain lazy. And parents coming into town tomorrow, so I might be AWOL the rest of the week. TMI: Writing: Today I wrote another post about agents at my Story Sensei blog . I also posted a review (below) on Violet Dawn by Brandilyn Collins . Diet: I haven't exercised this week yet! I ate a salad for dinner...after I ate half a bag of potato chips. I need therapy.

Violet Dawn (Kanner Lake series, book 1) by Brandilyn Collins From the back cover: Something sinuous in the water brushed against Paige’s knee. She jerked her leg away. What was that? She rose to a sitting position, groped around with her left hand. Fine wisps wound themselves around her fingers. Hair? She yanked backward, but the tendrils clung. Something solid bumped her wrist. Paige gasped. With one frantic motion she shook her arm free, grabbed the side of the hot tub, and heaved herself out. Paige Williams slips into her hot tub in the blackness of night—and finds herself face to face with death. Alone, terrified, fleeing a dark past, Paige must make an unthinkable choice. In Violet Dawn , hurtling events and richly drawn characters collide in a breathless story of murder, the need to belong, and faith’s first glimmer. One woman’s secrets unleash an entire town’s pursuit, and the truth proves as elusive as the killer in their midst. Camy here: This is a strong suspense novel with...

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is FURY by Bill Bright and Jack Cavanaugh . You can still enter. Just post a comment on that blog post. On Monday, I'll draw the winner and post the title for another book I'm giving away. ACFW Genesis contest winners! First of all, a great big thank you to all the entrants to helped make the Genesis Contest's first year such a success. Second, mucho gracias to the judges who so graciously volunteered their time to judge. We all really appreciate it. Here are the winners and titles: In the Contemporary Romance Category: The 3rd place winner is…. Kristian Tolle, Flirting with Danger The 2nd place winner is… Kaye Dacus, Happy Endings, Inc. The contemporary romance category winner is Glynna Sirpless, A Reason to Dance In the Historical Romance category: The 3rd place winner is… Charlene Glatkowski, Halfway Home The 2nd place winner is… Andree Eisenberg, The Legend of Ruby Sanchez The Historical romance ...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 09.26.2006 Today I have a guest blog from author Jack Cavanaugh, whose novel with Bill Bright released this month. He also wrote  Fury , the next book in the Great Awakenings series set in 1825-1826: HE JUST WITNESSED A MURDER...AND NOW THE KILLER IS ON HIS TRAIL. BUT NO ONE WILL BELIEVE HIM! Daniel Cooper: the son of a famous preacher, he’s running from more than “religion.” Hannah Robbins: a spunky farmgirl and someone’s “intended”...but could she be what Daniel needs? Cyrus Gregg: an esteemed businessman, he’s after two things. And he’ll do anything to get them. Ever since his parents drowned while crossing the Atlantic after a revival, Daniel Cooper has felt as if the world is out to get him. For the past year he's had to live with his Uncle Asa and Aunt Camilla -- and all their rules. One night, deciding he's had enough, Daniel sneaks out his bedroom window and flees to the alley behind his employer's casket shop. What he sees there ...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 09.20.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is SQUAT by Taylor Field . My Monday book giveaway is WISHING ON DANDELIONS by Mary DeMuth . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for SQUAT and the winner for WISHING ON DANDELIONS and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Something That Lasts by James David Jordan . When Ted Balik rises from his pew to speak, no one in the crowded sanctuary of the O'Fallon Bible Church can imagine that their peaceful community will be shattered by his shocking disclosure: Reverend David Parst, beloved husband and father and pastor, committed the unthinkable crime. He had an affair with Mrs. Balik. As the church members explode into an uproar, Ted silently grabs a gun out of his pocket, raises it to his temple and pulls the trigger. These few moments of horror plunge the reverend, his wife and their twelve-year-old son i...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 09.19.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is SQUAT by Taylor Field . My Monday book giveaway is WISHING ON DANDELIONS by Mary DeMuth . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for SQUAT and the winner for WISHING ON DANDELIONS and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Imagine that, I read more books. I posted a couple reviews today of books by two of my favorite people: Hot Flashes and Cold Cream by Diann Hunt The Secret Life of Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck Go buy their books! TMI: Writing: I am almost packed for the conference. I am going to try to bring my Victoria’s Secret khakis which I’ve never worn before, but which I can comfortably squeeze myself into now. The khakis I usually wear are a little too casual. Let’s hope I don’t split a seam. The Powerpoint presentation for the Book of the Year and Genesis awards is done! I’m looking forward to m...

THE SECRET LIFE OF BECKY MILLER by Sharon Hinck From the back cover: Faster than a speeding minivan, able to leap piles of laundry in a single bound. It’s a bird, it’s a plane. It’s Supermom! Move over, Walter Mitty. Here comes Becky Miller. A young mother with grandiose daydreams and a longing to do “Big Things for God” searches for direction amid the chaos of daily life and the disappointment of failed opportunities. Becky’s rich fantasy life helps her cope with the pressure to be a Wonderful Wife and Marvelous Mom. But she keeps hearing the tape play: “Your mission, should you choose to accept it: support your husband when he loses his job, nurture an eccentric circle of friends, raise perfect Christian children, live a life full of grand Purpose, all while standing on your head and whistling Dixie. Your fantasy will self-destruct in five seconds.” Camy here: This was a funny and fun read. The Walter Mitty-style fantasy segments were both exciting and very apropos for each chapter,...

HOT FLASHES AND COLD CREAM by Diann Hunt From the back cover: An eccentric best friend, a leaky Chihuahua, a teenager in trouble, and a workaholic husband with a gorgeous new colleague. Those are the ingredients for Diann Hunt's wise and funny story about growing...well, older...with grace. Midlife isn't a crisis for Maggie Hayden until the day a former classmate fails to recognize her--and her world starts to spin out of control. With an empty nest, a body that's heading south (generating heat waves all the way), and a marital spark that seems to be sputtering, she knows she has to do something. But what? Exercise? Romantic dinners? Herbal supplements? A job? She tries them all, with mixed success-but nothing seems to squelch that underlying worry that her best days are behind her. Can Maggie come to terms with her new life and learn to trust what she cannot see? Can she reclaim her marriage and find a new sense of purpose? Can she discover a miracle cure for the aging pr...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 09.18.2006 Mary DeMuth is one of the COOLEST people on the planet! She is an award-winning writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and she's a wild karaoke singer. She and her family are missionaries in France. I met her online and then met her in person at ICRS in July this year . Mary’s latest book is  Wishing on Dandelions . At seventeen, Natha admittedly has some trust issues. Though the abuse by a neighbor boy has stopped, Natha is anything but healed. Now her best friend has left for college, the trials of dating have begun, and God, ever since he spoke to her underneath the pecan tree years ago, has remained elusive. So when brash Georgeanne Peach blows in to take over the only place Maranatha's ever called home—leaving trails of fabric swatches and cloying perfume in her wake—she rouses Maranatha's issues with trust. Like every teenager, Natha tries to sort out the confusing layers of love—of friends, of family, of suitors, and, des...

Captain's Log, Stardate 09.17.2006 Sorry, all you cool cats--in between meeting a Z deadline on Friday, church youth group Saturday night, leading for worship service today, and getting ready for the ACFW conference, I didn't get a chance to do Sunday prayer. I'll be at the conference next Sunday, too, but the prayer is still going on (just not online). Pray with me!

Captain's Log, Stardate 09.16.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is JADE by Marilynn Griffith . My Thursday book giveaway is SQUAT by Taylor Field . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for JADE and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Here's a card I made:

Captain’s Log, Stardate 09.15.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is JADE by Marilynn Griffith . My Thursday book giveaway is SQUAT by Taylor Field . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for JADE and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Warrior Princesses: I liked the title of this chapter, but when I started reading it, I was confused about what she meant. The chapter started off describing women who went to war or fought battles, taking on the roles of men. But then the chapter went into how we fight as women, and talking about fighting our spiritual enemy, Satan. Okay, that’s fine. But what did that have to do with the physical warrior women at the start of the chapter? All Christians must fight Satan as our enemy. Spiritual warfare isn’t anything unique to women. I’m wondering if she’s addressing women who feel they aren’t qualified or equipped to battle spiritual warfa...

Captain’s Log, Supplemental I apologize this post is late—the power went out last night before I could finish posting. Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is JADE by Marilynn Griffith . My Thursday book giveaway is SQUAT by Taylor Field . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for JADE and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Prayer: My friend Danica came up with the most fabulous idea of starting a blog to pray for our enemies. Yup, you read that right. She was inspired by Philip Yancey’s new book. There’s a great quote that I want to copy here: "God loves his enemies," concludes Bonhoeffer; "that is the glory of his love." We defeat our enemies by loving them, and prayer activates that love. Here’s the blog post that explains her thoughts on this, and here’s the blog she set up to pray for our enemies . TMI: Writing: I am finishing my Marketing Info sheet ...

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Blog book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is A FAMILY FOREVER by Brenda Coulter . My Monday book giveaway is JADE by Marilynn Griffith . 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 FAMILY FOREVER and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Websites: As writers, we all hear about how we need an author website. But sometimes a custom-made site using website programs looks blocky. They’re also a pain to update—trust me on this one, I speak from experience. The best way is to pay someone to make your website and update it for you. However, if you’re a control freak like me, you probably want to update your website on your own. If you know html and have a hosting site, you can have someone design your website template, and then you can update it yourself by changing the text code. However, if you’re not html-savvy, I wrote an article called “How to Make a Blog Y...

SQUAT by Taylor Field From the back cover: "We live in a squat. We don’t know squat. We don’t have squat. We don’t do squat. We don’t give a squat. People say we’re not worth squat." In the shadow of Wall Street’s wealth, homeless citizens with names like Squid, Saw, and Bonehead live in abandoned buildings known as "squats" where life is hand to mouth, where fear and violence fester. The light in lovable Squid’s obsessive-compulsive mind’s eye is Rachel, a loving soup kitchen missionary who tells him about faith and unfaith, hypocrisy and justice, the character of God and finding identity in Him. But among the squats and so many other abandoned lives, will such talk be enough to make Squid believe that his life may actually amount to something? All author proceeds from Squat will go to Graffiti Community Ministries, Inc., a service arm of the East Seventh Street Baptist Church on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where Field preaches. Click here for an excerpt of c...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 09.08.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is BAD HEIRESS DAY by Allie Pleiter . My Thursday book giveaway is A FAMILY FOREVER by Brenda Coulter . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for BAD HEIRESS DAY and post the title for another book I'm giving away. “Small kid time”: (I think only Malia will get that reference) Delia tagged me to share my favorite childhood memory. Like I commented on her blog, my favorite childhood memories tend to involve blood in some way. Maybe I should have been a suspense writer instead of a chick-lit romance writer. Okay, here’s a good, non-bloody memory. I absolutely loved when I was writing my first novel (an extremely bad fantasy) on our old Apple IIe. Does anybody else remember those??? I had all summer and the computer had been moved to the big living room, and I sat and wrote whatever came to mind. I don’t even remember the...

Captain's Log, Stardate 09.07.2006 TMI: Writing: Today was a lazy day. I stayed up watching our Tivo’d shows, like Blade, Eureka, House, Justice, Bones, Standoff, Prison Break . . . I can’t remember which other ones. I had a great time in front of the TV. :) Back to work tomorrow. What are you guys’ favorite TV shows? I can’t wait for 24 to start again. Okay, I lied. I wasn’t totally lazy. I posted on the CAN Marketing Blog today about blog marketing for fiction writers. Diet: And why was I lazy today? Because I had a tea lunch with my friend Charise at Lisa’s Tea Treasures tea house. It was so relaxing and cute and fun. Food was fabulous. I had a wedge each of four different kinds of sandwiches, plus a scone, a mushroom cheese puff pastry, a chocolate-covered cream puff, a tiny chocolate tart, a Madeleine, and a gingerbread cookie. I didn’t eat it all, too—brought some home in a doggie bag. I love the Devonshire cream they serve there. It’s delectable. And their ...

JADE (Shades of Style, book #2) by Marilynn Griffith From the back cover: HAVING THE PERFECT LIFE ISN'T ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE. Designer Lily Chau doesn't know if she's finally got it together or if life is starting to unravel. With a successful boyfriend and a great job at up-and-coming fashion house Garments of Praise, it seems she has the perfect pattern for success. But her mother's health is failing, her boyfriend just won't pop the question, and being a pattern maker is a far cry from having a clothing line of her own. Lily is sure her hands are just too full to draw her deepest dreams. Raya and Chenille, Lily's pals at Garments of Praise, offer plenty of advice and sympathy. And Jean, Lily's co-worker and second mom, even goes behind Lily's back to boost her chances of success. When she's chosen for the reality show The Next Design Diva, it seems like the chance of a lifetime for Lily. But the mysterious designer chosen to mentor her s...

EMILY EVER AFTER by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt From the back cover: A quirky and quick-witted girl moves to Manhattan and holds on for dear life. Emily Hinton needs out. She comes from a small town in California where the church handbell choir concert passes for a decent way to spend a Saturday and she’s known all the boys since kindergarten. She dreams of sophisticated people, love, and Louis Vuitton. When she lands a job at the world-famous publishing house Morrow & Sons in New York, she knows that she is finally on her way. She packs her bags, says good-bye, and sets out for Manhattan, where she will fit in, even if it kills her. In spite of her naïveté, she quickly becomes friends with the girls at work and begins to learn a thing or two about how things are done in Manhattan. She soon attracts the attention of the handsome Bennett and is swept into a whirlwind romance, but an overnight visit to his parents’ home at Thanksgiving and his seemingly idle flirtations with one ...

A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND (Spa Girls Collection #2) by Kristin Billerbeck From the back cover: THREE FRIENDS. ONE SPA. AND AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF OVERSHARING! From the outside, Morgan Malliard has it all: diamonds at her disposal, a willowy figure, a doting daddy and all the elegance that money can buy. But money can’t buy happiness—or an identity to call her own—and Morgan is realizing her perfect life has no purpose other than spectacular grooming (which isn’t really a purpose at all . . . unless you’re a chimpanzee). Then a falling-out with her father drop-kicks Morgan into the real world, and she is suddenly forced to get an actual job, wear affordable shoes and cope with public transportation—not to mention deal with that mysterious hottie who may or may not be stalking her! It’s time for a spa getaway with her best gals, Lilly and Poppy—because there’s just something about lying under a pile of sweet-smelling papaya plaster that can help a girl figure things out. Like the fact tha...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 09.05.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is PINK by Marilynn Griffith . My Monday book giveaway is BAD HEIRESS DAY by Allie Pleiter . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for PINK and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Some humor: I don't know if this is truly from Quantas because I also found this list under Air Force flight crews, but regardless, it's hilarious. QANTAS Gripe Sheet 25-VIII-2003 After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form called a gripe sheet, which conveys to the mechanics problems encountered with the aircraft during the flight that need repair or correction. The engineers read and correct the problem, and then respond in writing on the lower half of the form what remedial action was taken, and the pilot reviews the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews and engineers lack a...

Captain's Log, Stardate 09.04.2006 TMI: Writing: I posted another "Health and the Writer" post at WriterQuotes , and another synopsis tip at my Story Sensei blog . Diet: Youth group is going to kill me. Or more specifically, my diet. We started youth group meetings again this past Saturday after taking August off. After every meeting, we have chips, cookies, and soda for the kids. I can usually hold back on the soda because it eats away at the enamel on my teeth (read: pain), but I have a hard time keeping my grubby hands off those chips. And sometimes the cookies, too, if they’re good ones. It’s just that they’re there. You know what I’m talking about. They lie there crying, Eat me! Eat me! Brain dislocates from stomach, and hand reaches into the chip bowl. I need more self-control. That or chop off my hand.

MURDER, MAYHEM, AND A FINE MAN (Amanda Bell Brown mystery series #1) by Claudia Mair Burney From the back cover: For Amanda Bell Brown, turning forty is murder! How's a woman supposed to grapple with romance and faith when she finds herself in the middle of mysteries--and not the God kind? Life as a forensic psychologist isn't quite as cool as prime-time television would have us believe, and most of us just don't have closets full of red-carpet gowns and bling. Instead of painting the town red in a drop-dead gorgeous dress, this boring therapist finds herself at the scene of a crime. Amanda Bell Brown just may know who the killer is. She needs to spill her guts, but not on the lead detective's alligator shoes. A complicated murder investigation unearths not just a killer but a closet full of skeletons Amanda thought long gone. Murder, mayhem, and a fine man are wrecking havoc on her fortieth birthday, but will she survive to see forty-one? Camy here: What a cool story!...

GEORGIA ON HER MIND by Rachel Hauck From the back cover: HOW DO YOU EMCEE YOUR CLASS REUNION WHEN YOUR LIFE IS ON A TILT-A-WHIRL? Until 10:30 a.m., Monday, February 6, Macy Moore was Miss Most Likely To Succeed, a corporate executive on the fast track, with a marriage-material boyfriend and a cool city condo. By noon she was as good as fired…and dumped. How in the world could she go home to Beauty, Georgia, now? Thank goodness for the Single Saved Sisters. With loyal friends Lucy, Adriane and Tamara by her side, Macy retreated to the House of Joe for coffee, consolation and consultation. Could they help her put her life back on the right path? Camy here: This is such a fun book! It starts off on possibly the worst day of Macy's life, and the heroine's sassy humor kept me riveted to the page. I really like how the author addresses the struggles of single women in the corporate sphere--not in a glamorous New York or Los Angeles job, but in a decent company in bustling Atlanta, G...

Captain's Log, Stardate 09.03.2006 Sorry guys, I never got around to doing the Sunday prayer. I had a deadline today so that took up all my time.

Captain’s Log, Stardate 09.02.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is the Coffee Cup Bible Study books by Sandra Glahn . My Thursday book giveaway is PINK by Marilynn Griffith . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winners for the Coffee Cup Bible Study books and post the title for another book I'm giving away. ICRS, revisted: Mark Goodyear was kind enough to mention my blog when he blogged himself in response to a negative LA Times article about ICRS. Birthday fun: I got this from Dream . You go to Wikipedia and type in your birth month and day (but not year) in the search box. Some highlights: Events: 303 - On a voyage preaching the gospel , Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens , France . 1890 - Yosemite National Park established in California . 1970 - The Partridge Family debuts on ABC-TV and would run for four years. (I never saw this show.) 1981 - Sandra Day O'Con...

Captain's Log, Supplemental Hey Prayer Warriors, please pray for Robin and Case as the Spirit leads you. Thanks.

Captain's Log, Supplemental Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is the Coffee Cup Bible Study books by Sandra Glahn . My Thursday book giveaway is PINK by Marilynn Griffith . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winners for the Coffee Cup Bible Study books and post the title for another book I'm giving away. FIRST: This month’s novel excerpt is SQUAT by Taylor Fields (posted below). Marketing for writers! The members of the CAN ( Christian Authors Network ) Marketing blog entitled We Can! promote our books, formally welcome you to join our little corner of cyberspace. Check us out at: http://canblog.typepad.com/canbookmarketing/ Twelve authors will be participating in this blog: Monday: Tricia Goyer and Gail Gaymer Martin Tuesday: Cyndy Salzmann and Allison Bottke Wednesday: Suzie Eller and Sharon Hinck Thursday: Susie Larson and Camy Tang Friday: Mary E. DeMuth and Kathi Macias Saturday: Jil...