One Thousand Gifts-30

Captain’s Log, Stardate 12.18.2006

I’m participating in the “One Thousand Gifts” list from Christian Women Online. Click on the picture to find out more about it.

751. I got to sit out from the high school small groups at youth group and work on my manuscript. I got a lot done.
752. Leading worship at youth group was fun
753. My husband and I had a good discussion in the car about marriages, divorce, etc.
754. We had a good youth group leaders meeting, talking about future direction
755. We mailed off a bunch of packages and all our Christmas pictures to family.
756. We gave out some of our Christmas gifts to the youth staff (early this year!)
757. I had some very yummy potstickers
758. Tasting the liquid chocolate ganache was wonderful
759. I finally synched my iPod.
760. I read a few more pages from my Betty Neels book
761. My scarf is done!
762. I learned a neat way to cast off my scarf
763. I made a pretty fringe on my scarf!
764. Captain Caffeine and I made LOTS of chocolate truffles to give as gifts. They taste pretty good, even though they look like cat turds. Camy’s Chocolate Doo-Doos. LOLOLOL
765. I slept a LOT
766. My hands have been dry, so I’ve been able to use more of my lovely smelling hand lotion lately
767. Captain Caffeine is being a sweetie and washing dishes from the chocolate making.
768. My husband bought me some pate from Cosentino’s today—very yummy
769. He also fixed it so that I can now connect my Windows desktop to my Mac laptop
770. I got an opportunity to submit my testimony to Christian Women Online, their January edition
771. It’s fun watching CSI Miami and seeing the familiar character actors and making guesses as to who is guilty based on how well-known they are.
772. I have enough yarn left over to make another scarf
773. I had a yummy veggie burrito and veggie enchilada from Burrito Factory
774. I now have time to make more cards, both to give as gifts and to mail for Christmas
775. Captain Caffeine used up the excess chocolate by making—what else?—chocolate covered espresso beans

Comments

Brainstorm - character occupation

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.23.2009 Hey guys, I could use some help. In my current manuscript, The Year of the Dog , which is a humorous contemporary romance, I have a minor character, Eddie. He’s my heroine’s ex-boyfriend, and they’re on good terms with each other. He’s a bit irresponsible, but not so much so that he’s a complete loser. He’s got a very easy going attitude, he forgets to pay his bills sometimes, he’s friendly and charming. He’s adventurous and fun to be around, but he’s a little forgetful sometimes, and he tends to spend a little outside his income. I need an occupation for him. What would a charming, easy going, slightly irresponsible guy do for a living? He’s not too irresponsible, because otherwise readers will wonder what in the world my heroine saw in him to date him in the first place. She was attracted to his charm, his easy going attitude (her family’s uptight, and he was a nice contrast), and his adventurousness. But his forgetfulness and irresponsibility ...

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...

Window shopping

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 ...

Japanese language learning process in more detail

I blogged a few weeks ago that I’ve jumped back into my Japanese language learning after being lazy and letting it slide. I’ve been keeping my Japanese language study habit for about a month now, and I wanted to blog about my process in more detail. One thing I had noticed about my Japanese is that I tended not to do it if I left it to do at the end of the day. I realized that it was just like my exercise—if I didn’t do it first thing in the morning, it never got done. So I started doing my Japanese right after my exercise in the morning. I treated it like one of my “frogs,” as I read about in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time . The book is based off of a Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It suggests doing your “frogs”—your important things that you’re likely to procrastinate doing—first thing in the morning in order to get it done, and ...

I GOT A CONTRACT!

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.29.2006 I had a wonderfully funny blog post planned for today, but I got sidetracked by some news yesterday! Zondervan has offered me a three-book contract on my Asian chick-lit series ! I’m still stunned by everything that’s happened. The series is actually a 4-book projected Asian chick-lit series about four cousins who fall under the infamous family title "Oldest Single Female Cousin," and their ruthless, wealthy grandma applies pressure on each of them to improve their lack of love interests. I think the first book is tentatively scheduled to be released in August 2007. The blurb on the series is on my website here . Brandilyn Collins posted to the ACFW loop about my writing journey, and Tamara Cooper asked that I share it. And since you all know how much I like to talk , here it is. My writing journey: Like most writers, I have wanted to write since I was very young. (In high school, I wrote a fantasy novel that will never see the light of day ...

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