TODD AND JEDD HAFER and their book: BAD IDEA a novel (with coyotes) (NavPress TH1NK Books, August 22, 2006) Headline: Are we there yet? Griffin Smith is making his first interstate road trip, an adventurous rite of passage that will take him from his Midwestern home to his freshman year at college in Southern California. Yet this is no ordinary A to B trip, as Griffin will find his attitudes and ideas challenged by some surprising events and an unlikely band of travel companions: his best bud, who will test the limits of their friendship; his father, who will challenge his concept of manhood; his younger brother; and his father’s trophy girlfriend, who may just be too young in general. Soon this journey begins to take random detours, as he experiences a bittersweet reunion with his biological mother, confronts a terrible betrayal, and encounters one angry coyote. And as the states blur by, Griffin encounters life lessons that will show him the healing found in forgiveness and an unex...

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Our church youth group held its annual overnighter, this time with only the junior highers because the high schoolers were leaving early the following day for a rafting trip. (Even for high schoolers, a rafting trip after an overnighter (usually with no sleep) is probably not a good thing.) I hate to admit it, but I am just getting too old. I sat to play Poor Deprived Child with one group (David, the junior high group leader, had split them into two groups to pit them against each other Survivor -style, and to get them to bond with each other). Poor Deprived Child is actually quite fun. Everyone starts off with 10 or more markers or chips, then each one takes a turn. “I’m a poor deprived child because …” You try to list something you’ve never done or been that you think other people in the group would have done or been. If you say something you haven’t done—for example, “I’m a poor deprived child because I’ve never traveled to Japan.”—then everyone who has ...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 07.29.2007 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 e-mail me. If I forgot your prayer request, e-mail me. Not to be mean or anything, but if you don't e-mail me or comment to update your prayer request, I'm only going to pray ONE Sunday. I’m trying something new with my Sunday Prayer. I’m really bad about doing it on Sunday , so I’ll be updating it during the week. Dear Lord, I pray for complete healing for Doug and Tony. I pray for minimal side effects for Bruce from his chemo treatments, for a successful stem cell harvest, for no side effects or illnesses, and for continued peace, strength, and comfort for his family. Please continue to heal Cheryl. Please also give her wisdom and clear answers to her questions. Thank you for guiding her. Amen.

Captain's Log, Supplemental I’ve put up my pics only from ICRS here on my scrapbook blog . The pics are mostly the same, but there are a few new ones, including this: SUSPENSE WRITER STEPS OFF THE DEEP END AND TRIES TO KILL CHICK LIT AUTHOR AGAIN! Brandilyn Collins, who tried to kill Camy Tang once before on her blog , again attempts homicide at the 2007 ICRS convention during their joint booksigning. More pics from my booksigning here on my scrapbook blog .

Captain's Log, Supplemental My husband and I joined a local organic produce co-op, also called a CSA (community-supported agriculture program) that delivers a huge basket of fresh organic veggies every week. We’re loving it—the produce is so much better and cheaper than the supermarket. We don’t get to choose what vegetables we get, and I ended up with six leeks. I made clam chowder one night, but couldn’t figure out what to do with the other leeks (we weren’t partial to leek and potato soup, although I did half-heartedly suggest it). Then I hit on the idea to make Chinese scallion pancakes, but using the leeks instead of green onions. I’d never made scallion pancakes before, but my husband and I love them when we get them from Chinese restaurants. I found this recipe and decided to try it. They turned out REALLY GOOD! I made them thin and used a little less oil than the Chinese restaurants use (they pour it on), and while they weren’t quite as good, they were close. Captain Caff...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 07.22.2007 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 e-mail me. If I forgot your prayer request, e-mail me. Not to be mean or anything, but if you don't e-mail me or comment to update your prayer request, I'm only going to pray ONE Sunday. I’m trying something new with my Sunday Prayer. I’m really bad about doing it on Sunday , so I’ll be updating it during the week. Dear Lord, I pray for complete healing for Doug, Bruce, and Tony. I pray for justice for Case. Please heal Cheryl completely and very quickly. I pray her injury is not serious at all. Please ease her worry over it. Please heal Pammer’s legs, and I pray it’s not a clot. Please help her to feel better soon. Please provide buyers for Christa’s houses. You know what they need. I pray the sales go through qu...

Captain's Log, Supplemental The ACFW Conference is only a couple months away! I’m totally excited about the awards ceremony. Besides the Genesis contest winners, ACFW will also announce the Book of the Year winners, the Mentor of the Year, the Editor of the Year, and the Agent of the Year! Today I’m very happy to have my agent Wendy Lawton with me. Wendy is one of the nominees for Agent of the Year, and I heartily hope she wins it! Wendy Lawton, me, and Debbie Macomber You've attended various conferences over the years. In your opinion, what makes ACFW's conference stand out from the others? The content is focused entirely on fiction, the presenters are knowledgeable and approachable, the atmosphere is fun and friendly and the attendees are among the best prepared anywhere. Any advice you'd like to offer to a 1st time conference attendee? I'd love for attendees to remember that building a writing career is usually a slow process. It takes a number of meetings, lots ...

Captain's Log, Supplemental Ane Mulligan tagged me! Update: Amy Wallace and Robin Caroll tagged me, too! Update: Crystal Miller tagged me, too! 1. What's the one book or writing project you haven't yet written but still hope to? My six-part fantasy series (I’m totally not kidding) 2. If you had one entire day in which to do nothing but read, what book would you start with? I read pretty slowly, so I probably wouldn’t get through more than two books. I’d start with something by Mary Ann Gibbs or Norma Lee Clark, two of my favorite Regency romance/historical romance authors. 3. What was your first writing "instrument" (besides pen and paper)? My family’s old Apple IIe computer. 4. What's your best guess as to how many books you read in a month? Here’s my dirty secret—if a book doesn’t interest me by the end of chapter three, I don’t finish it. Why? Because life is too short to waste on uninteresting books. So ... I probably start...

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Sorry for not blogging yesterday, but I was celebrating! I finished the third book in my Sushi Series, The Lone Rice Ball , in the wee hours on Monday morning and so I took off Tuesday to rest. (By “rest,” I mean I slept a lot and overate at dinner, which was my husband’s smoked pork shoulder. Yum!) I also just got my developmental edits for Only Uni from my editor on Monday, and they’re due at the end of the month. From what I’ve heard from my friend Robin Caroll, she only has two weeks for her line edits, also. This is my second round of edits. My first was my macro edits, which I got on March 13th, and sent back to my macro editor (Rachelle Gardner) on April 20th. We did one more set of minor tweaking before she sent it to my senior editor on May 15th. This set of edits is my developmental edit—also called a line edit—sent to me by my developmental editor, Becky Shingledecker. (She does figure skating in her spare time! Isn’t that just way cool?) After t...

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.16.2007 Today I have a guest blog post by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson  talking about their latest novel, The Potluck Club Takes the Cake ! Is the Potluck Club becoming the Bridesmaids Club? When the six members of the Potluck Club meet once again, things are about to heat up. Wedding plans and romantic desires abound as the six friends continue to share food, friendship, prayer—and new adventures ranging from hilarious to dangerous! Shocking rumors, family secrets, and a mountain avalanche threaten the friends’ sense of security, their relationships, and even their lives. As Evangeline’s wedding day draws near, Lisa Leann’s matchmaking ways threaten to cause trouble in more than one relationship. Will the Potluck Club be able to put their differences aside and help each other survive the storms of life and love? And now, here’s Linda and Eva! The Potluck Club Series; How Two Friends Came to Write About Six Friends Linda...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 07.15.2007 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 e-mail me. If I forgot your prayer request, e-mail me. Not to be mean or anything, but if you don't e-mail me or comment to update your prayer request, I'm only going to pray ONE Sunday. I’m trying something new with my Sunday Prayer. I’m really bad about doing it on Sunday , so I’ll be updating it during the week. Dear Lord, I pray for complete healing for Bruce, Doug, and Tony. Please be with Christina on her missions trip. Bless her, bless her team, and bless everyone she will come into contact with. Use her for your glory, and give her everything she needs to serve you. I pray everything turned out well for Belladonna, and that you continue to watch over her. Guide her and nudge her spirit as to what you want ...

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.13.2007 My plane was leaving Atlanta at 4:45 pm, so I had a few hours to kill before heading over to the airport. I went and took some pictures of the ICRS floor: Here’s the Zondervan booth: On your way down to the conference floor, you have to use four elevators going down to the exhibit hall level. Zondervan made a huge banner for the 2nd elevator, and guess who’s on it with her name even bigger than Karen Kingsbury??? Um, yeah … I kind of took a lot of pictures of MY NAME BIGGER THAN THE SIZE OF MY CAR!!! Update: My husband mentioned that the above might seem like crowing or bragging. I hope it didn't come across that way. I was just awed and excited at what Zondervan has been doing for me, a mere debut author. I feel very blessed in the publisher God has given to me. I chatted a bit with Kay Marshall Strom, who is just the nicest person. I also saw Rachelle Gardner (my macro editor), her friend Vicki Caruana, and Jenn Doucette. We had a lively co...

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.12.2007 Today I have an interview with Jenny Jones talking about her debut novel, In Between . A Katie Parker Production (Act I) Katie Parker knows life isn't fair. After all, when your mom's in jail and your dad's a no-show, you figure things just aren't going your way. But hey, she can deal. Then she finds out she's being sent to live with a foster family—in In Between, Texas. What kind of town has a name like In Between? And what kind of family wants a kid like her? One thing's for certain: None of this will be good. Sure enough—thanks to some new "friends" and her non-Mom's crazed mother, Mad Maxine—life sails right past bad to stinking. Then again, she's just a temporary kid, they're just temporary parents, and she definitely doesn't have any ideas about making any of this permanent. God, on the other hand, may have other plans altogether. And now, here’s me and Jenny! What inspired the s...

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.11.2007 I started the day with a great meeting with Al Hsu , an editor at InterVarsity Press. We discussed Asian Americans—fiction, non-fiction, the church, family. He’s been in publishing for many years and is very wise. We had a great discussion. I also met his wife Ellen, who’s totally nice and is also into card-making! I wandered the floor and happened to meet Robin Jones Gunn. She asked if I’d eaten yet, and since I hadn’t, said to join her for lunch. On the way to lunch, we met Mark Mynheir, and he gave me a copy of his book, got The Void . Isn’t that cool? Robin has so much wisdom. I loved having lunch with her. She gave me such good advice, both professionally and spiritually. I hope I’ll get a chance to have lunch or dinner with her at the ACFW conference in September. I met up with agent Steve Laube, and walked with him to his next meeting, but on the way we were hailed by Cec Murphy and agent Jeff Dunn. Jeff had been the first editor to request...

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.10.2007 I overslept this morning and didn’t make it to the CAN breakfast meeting, but I did get up just in the nick of time to get to Sharon Hinck’s booksigning of The Restorer . She had a great signing—lots of people in line. I met up with Meredith Efken and Tracy Higley, and we “seeded” the line for a little while until it became apparent the line would propagate itself. I also got to meet Tosca Lee in person (she’d commented on my blog a couple days ago, I think) and get a copy of Kimberly Stuart’s Bottom Line to give away. Siri Mitchell saw me and came up to graciously give me a copy of Moon Over Tokyo , since she was signing at the Personality Party and non-exhibitors couldn’t get in. Isn’t that nice of her? I also saw Jenn Doucette, Laura Christianson, and Jennifer Schuchmann while walking the floor. I also saw Marilynn Griffith briefly. We went to Harry Kraus’s signing and I got All I’ll Ever Need . Then we went to WaterBrook Multnomah, but were t...