9/30/04 I went to Sonoma (actually, Healdsburg north of Sonoma) today with my parents, who are in town. We went to Rodney Strong and Murphy-Goode and had a great time tasting wines. I bought a bunch, so did Dad. I have to admit I sometimes felt a bit impatient with my parents, but at the same time, I want to enjoy this time I can spend with them. I don't see them often, and they're still in relatively good health, able to travel. Lord, help me to love my parents even more now, when I'm old enough to fully appreciate their company. I went running yesterday with the dog, it felt great. I've been praying for God to give me a desire to exercise. I figured, it wouldn't hurt, right? And I know God wants me to take care of my body. I've been praying for God to give me a desire for His Word, so why not something a bit more trivial? Hehe. Well, let's see how it goes. Somehow I feel that the prayer to desire His Word is more momentous than the desire to exercise. LOL ...

9/29/04 OK, I just read Mary Griffith's blog and I am just blown away. http://rhythmsofgrace.blogspot.com/ Wow, what a woman of God. What a writer! Now that is what I'd like to aspire to in my writing--prose that just grabs you by the heart and squeezes your feelings out of you until you breathe deep and feel free, light, peaceful. See? Just reading her blog makes me feel poetic. It seems I'm just so blessed to know all these writers with incredible gifts for poetic, symbolic prose. Mary, Sharon Hinck. Their writing makes me realize how far I have to go. It keeps me humble (hopefully) and it gives me something concrete to aim for. In them, I can see the contemporary equivalent of Tolstoy, Austen, Steinbeck. Along the same lines, I IM'd with Heather tonight about the spiritual depth in our friends. Pammer is so humble, and her spiritual understanding comes across so subtly. Squirl's love for God shines through, and she affirmed to me His presence in my life. And Hea...

9/24/04 From Publisher's Weekly: In the year 2134, Dr. Graysha Brady-Phillips comes to Goddard, humanity's newest habitable world. An inherited genetic disorder promises that she will die an early death, and although her stated purpose on Goddard is to work as a soils microbiology specialist, Graysha's secret goal is to seek out the reported gene-healers known as the Lwuites for assistance. But human gene tampering is illegal, and her search for healing is soon twisted by those who would prosecute the Lwuites. Someone wants Graysha dead, however, and the planet itself is in danger of destruction. Camy here: I thought this was a terrific story. I'm very satisfied with the way Kathy Tyers rewrote her original "Shivering World." She writes so intelligently, I have to--I WANT to--read slowly to absorb and follow what's going on. She has SUCH an incredible grasp of sociology and politics and power struggles, it blows my mind. It makes the characters, their ...

9/23/04 The conference was a terrific time. I was especially relaxed because I already had an agent, and didn't feel the urge to take advantage of the opportunity to speak to agents and editors. I sauntered into mealtimes and just nabbed a seat wherever there was space, and ended up talking to neat people. I finally met Pammer, Squirl, and Heatherdi from the Steeple Hill discussion boards. Pammer and I roomed together, and Squirl and Heather roomed together. Pamela is a wonderful woman of God. We stayed up late talking about all kinds of things, and her spiritual insight into the things I shared with her really blessed me. She's been through so much in her life already, and has such a rich and scarred past. She was like the older sister I never had. Cheryl Wyatt (Squirl) is cute and funny, and her brain is going a mile a minute. She was fun to talk to, and I hope I was able to encourage her in her writing, because she was feeling a bit discouraged by the end of the conference. ...

9/21/04 Got back late Sunday night from the ACRW conference in Denver, CO. Terrific time. I finally got a chance to meet Heather Tipton, Cheryl Wyatt and Pamela James, whom I met on the Steeple Hill discussion boards and have been IM'ing the past year or so. I also met Ziongirl (Julia), Margaret Daley, Marta Perry, Jaen (Janet Spaeth) and Dream from the Steeple Hill boards. We had a great time at the House of Windsor for lunchtime tea. I'm still composting my conference experience, I'll post it later. Had a good quiet time today. Thank You, Lord, for what You're teaching me. I pray, Father, that You will give me a desire for Your Word. I want to crave it. I want it to be utterly precious to me. Ephesians 4:1-6: A church saved through the same Savior, the same death and burial, the same resurrection power. A church acting as a unit, empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit. "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." I need to ...

9/15/04 Today at work I was called on in a meeting to present results, which I wasn't expecting. But more than that, I had been so busy doing hoodwork and benchwork that I hadn't spent enough time looking at the data to observe trends and formulate my own conclusions (in conjunction with the conclusions my supervisor makes). I floundered through the presentation of the data, and later talked with my supervisor. I asked her to allow me more time away from the hood and bench to let me look over the study results. She completely understood my desire and hopefully I'll be able to understand the studies better. My friend Pamela James (www.pamela-james.com) IM'd me last night and we chatted. She told me about a quote from Martin Luther, I think: Pray and let God worry. That's a terrific quote. Every time I started feeling anxious today, I remembered that and started praying. Too often I forget to pray. Now why is that? Shouldn't that be the first thing I do? I need mo...

9/14/04 Great news today from Sharon Hinck--while her proposal for "Crouching Children, Hidden Laundry" was turned down by one house, another was fired up to read the entire manuscript. I'm so glad for her, she's worked so hard the past few years to perfect her writing and keep everything in God's hands. She's a marvelous woman of God. I'm so thankful God introduced us at Mt. Hermon. I need to get writing done today. Once I do that, I'll treat myself to my latest DVD from Netflix. I've been renting the discs from the first three seasons of Star Trek: Voyager and thoroughly enjoying it. Since I've been studying plotlines and character development, I've been noticing how the writing on Voyager keeps to a rather high standard. Characters are much more interesting than Next Generation, a bit more complex and 3-dimensional. Storylines have clear disasters that box the characters in, requiring the lead character for the episode to make some sort ...