Captain’s Log, Stardate 06.08.2006 Many of you know Allison Bottke from her GOD ALLOWS U-TURNS books, but Allison just released her debut novel from Bethany House, A STITCH IN TIME ! Debut novelist Allison Bottke introduces Dee Decker, a successful fundraising executive in Southern California, who is out to prove that a middle-aged Christian woman can be faithful, fashionable, and fabulous! Dee works in a world populated by highly competitive, impossibly thin, perfectly coiffed, and designer outfitted women. Dee has never felt like she fits in, but nonetheless enjoys a well-earned reputation as being cool, calm, collected, and in control. When she discovers that her husband is having an affair, Dee embarks on a journey of self-discovery (and plastic surgery) that will transform her inside and out. But it is Dee’s spiritual transformation that will bring real change to her life and the lives of her family. In the course of one year Dee Decker . . . . . . has gastric bypass su...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 06.05.2006 I am honored and tickled pink to have my good friend and writing mentor Sharon Hinck with me today! Sharon's totally cool, besides the fact that she somehow thinks I'm a nice person. :) Sharon's new mom-lit novel is  THE SECRET LIFE OF BECKY MILLER ! 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 P...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 06.04.2006 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. Our heavenly father, we praise you for your grace on us. Thank you for helping Heather with her writing. Please continue to help her to finish her book. Please cover Pammer with your peace and grace. Fill her with assurances of your love for her. Thank you for the opportunities and support you’ve given Squirl. Please help her to have focus, wisdom, and everything else she needs to do the revisions requested. Be with Dineen as she writes her manuscript. I pray you will bless her new graphics design business abundantly. I pray for justi...

Captain's Log, Stardate 06.03.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is EVERYTHING’S COMING UP JOSEY by Susan May Warren . My Thursday book giveaway is HEARTS ON THE LINE by Margaret Daley . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for EVERYTHING’S COMING UP JOSEY and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Subscribe to my blog via email! Now you can option to read my posts as an email instead of visiting my blogsite or using an aggregator like Bloglines. I have a new FeedBlitz box on the sidebar to the right (after the Blogroll) so that you can enter your email address. You still have to visit my site to comment, though. I used to have Blog Flux but they totally annoyed me with their web dashboard and the email format, so I switched. I'll see how I like FeedBlitz instead. TMI: Writing: So I just finished my Marketing Information Sheet for Zondervan, and they wan...

Captain's Log, Stardate 06.02.2006 The Barclay Sterling contest: Hey, I finaled in the Inspirational Romance category! And it’s totally legal! I even asked the coordinator, and she said that since I wasn’t contracted when I entered (technically, I’m still not contracted since my agent just finished okay-ing the contract with Z), then it’s fine for me to stay in the finals. My chick-lit novel will be judged by Amanda Bostic at Westbow. My agent is super excited about it, because it adds more credits and glam to my name as an author—some of the intangible stuff that’s also important in this writing business. My friend Tina Russo also finaled! She’s way nice and a brilliant writer. I hope something fabulous comes out of having Amanda judge her entry, although I know it’s a longshot. God can do anything, right? TMI: Diet: I had a good workout yesterday with Denise Austin’s two morning exercise programs. I’m glad, too, because I pigged out a bit at our writer’s meeting last ...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 06.01.2006 I’m so lucky to know Margaret Daley . She’s sweet, she’s savvy, and she’s in one of the most giving careers in the US—she’s a teacher. Today, she’s guest blogging with me about her newest book (out today!), HEARTS ON THE LINE , the concluding book in the 6-book Faith At the Crossroads series from Steeple Hill! TO: AL_CRANE@CSSENTINEL.ORG FROM: COLLEEN_MONTGOMERY@CSSENTINEL.ORG Boss, I’m finishing up all my articles before Alessandro and I get married later this month. He’s thrilled his uncle Max is out of the hospital and can attend the wedding. If only Baltasar Escalante weren’t still out there—Alessandro believes he’s plotting against the Vance and Montgomery families. My cousin Quinn has been busy restoring detective Becca Hilliard’s house, but he’s also on alert following the explosion at the hospital. I’d be thrilled if Quinn and Becca became a couple but I wonder how safe it is to fall in love when there’s a madman on the loose.... ...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 05.29.2006 Susan May Warren is one of the nicest writers I know, and today I get to interview her! Her latest book is from Steeple Hill Café, and it’s about a single chick who goes to Russia for a missions trip. EVERYTHING’S COMING UP JOSEY "I need you," the tall, good-looking missionary had said . . . but he'd been speaking to Josey's entire church at the time. Had she taken it too literally? Because she was no longer in Gull Lake, Minnesota. She was a missionary. In Russia. For a year. True, Josey had wanted to skip town when her sister married her ex, and her secret crush/best friend got engaged. But Russia? Yet after a few weeks the idea grew on her. She could speak enough words to buy fruit at the Moscow market, and the missionary role was feeling . . . right (although her bagel-thieving roommate tested her daily). Even the frosty Russian weather was no big deal for this Minnesota girl -- it was getting her love life to thaw tha...