Captain’s Log, Stardate 12.30.2005 Update 2/2006: I have a more current version of this list on my website , and I'll keep updating it there. Man, a cold hit me hard yesterday and today I’m miserable. Bad, bad coughing. I read, but it was a bad book—illogical character decisions just ruin the story for me. I think I’ll do crits today instead of writing. I keep a list of Christian Chicklit books that are out there (it’s current as of today’s date, anyway). I didn’t think it would be useful to anybody else besides me, but then someone requested Christian Chicklit titles on the ACFW loop. Some of these I’ve read. Some I haven’t, but I’ve heard about them from friends. Here it is for anybody who’s interested. It’s not in any particular order. Chicklit: THE TROUBLE WITH TULIP by Mindy Starns Clark THE WHITNEY CHRONICLES and THE MILLION DOLLAR DILEMMA by Judy Baer MADE OF HONOR by Marilynn Griffith DREAMING IN BLACK AND WHITE and DREAMING IN TECHNICOLOR (the Phoebe Grant novels) an...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 12.29.2005 Okay, I admit to procrastinating today, too. I started a new blog called Camy’s Scrapbook for all my pictures. That way, I can organize them and enable people to view them, but I won’t cause problems for anyone without high-speed internet. Carrie Turansky’s up on First Novel Journey in a great interview today. Tomorrow is a book review on WEDDED BLISS? romance anthology (review by Ane Mulligan). Writing: I’m starting to meld my heroine together more in my head. Because of the career I’m having her do, her personality needs to mesh with the demands of it. It’s a bit different from the original personality I envisioned for her. I need to do more research. Mary Griffith has a “word” for each year that the Lord gives to her. This year when I read her blog post, the first word that came to mind was PERSEVERANCE. Yikes! Lord, you gotta be wiggin’ out here. Who in their right mind wants to persevere? Hello? I envision horrible things. My new agent pitches...

Captain's Log, Stardate 12.28.2005 Here's my new goals for 2006 Long-term goals: Complete three manuscripts by December 2006. Take my ACFW Mentoring group through my articles based on TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER by Dwight V. Swain and critique their first three chapters by September 2006. Short-term goals: Write three short stories this year--be more prolific! Write at least one article each month. Critique one piece each week on Writing.com. Update my website each month with something new. Write in my blog at least once a week, but preferably everyday for accountability of my writing progress. Daily goals: Spend one hour each day critiquing. Spend at least four hours each day writing or researching for my ms. Spend three hours each day in marketing, website, blogging, and learning craft. Project goals: Finish first ms by April 30th, but finish first chapter to send for critique at Mt. Hermon Christian Writers Conference by March 15th. Finish second ms by August 30th. Fini...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 12.27.2005 Made mochi with Kara and co. yesterday. That was fun and yummy, although my husband was less than ecstatic over eating fresh mochi. We had a lot of fun talking and hanging out with the Kawanamis and the Cathcarts. If you haven’t already, hop over to First Novel Journey today and tomorrow for a two-part interview with agents and author Janet and Ron Benrey. I visited Robin Lee Hatcher’s blog today (she has this uber-sexy pic of a hottie I think is Ken Watanabe) and found this best-selling author PROCRASTINATING! (hanaokolele!) She’s such a sweet lady and a great author, I guess we’ll forgive her. ;) I just listened to her “Keys to Creativity” workshops on my 2004 ACFW/ACRW Conference MP3s. If none of you have that, listen to it—she gives some great exercises. Anyway, here is what she was procrastinating on: * My name ... Camy Tang * My childhood ambition ... to be a writer OR a singing idol * My fondest memory ... marrying my wonderful husba...

Captain's Log, Stardate 12.26.2005 Oops, I was too busy yesterday to do my Sunday prayers. My husband and I led music for worship at church, so we were up bright and early. Anybody have prayer requests? Leave them 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. 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. I've got a couple fly-by prayer requests and a growing list. Lord God, thank you for this opportunity to come before you. Thank you for Christmas, for this season to remember your love for us. Please be with Squirl in India. Continue to bless and protect her. Give Pammer your strength and peace this season, despite all her cares and worries. Please provide for her. Help the car continue to work well. I pray Julie's lumps are b...

Captain's Log, Stardate 12.24.2005 Well, I didn't make all of my goals from 2005, but I liked making them and having them up for me to see. How well did I do? Long-term goals: I completed only two manuscripts by the end of December rather than the three I was aiming for. Two completed mss is more than the previous year, which was one ms. Next year, I want to up the ante and write three manuscripts. I didn't come up with new Chick-Lit or Suspense series proposal ideas, although I'm working on the Chick-Lit now, it's just not finished yet. I did find two new critique partners. Short-term goals: I don't think I wrote even one short story this past year, and I was supposed to write one a month. I wanted to spend the time focusing on my novels instead. I think that's okay--short stories are nice, but I prefer the larger projects. I didn't have a goal for it, but I ended up writing several articles. Maybe I'll change this goal to articles instead. I didn...

Captain's Log, Stardate 12.23.2005 I feel much better now that I can see the floor. Naw das wot I is talkin' about! Yim Kaimun is a young Christian woman in Singapore who emails me occasionally. She wrote this interesting article on three strong women warriors, breaking the stereotype of submissive or fantasy Chinese females. These are the kind of chickies I like to write about! My high school kids are truly nuts I might be the only one who thinks these guys are funny. Ain't No Mountain The Bathroom Door Incident Writing: Enjoying my researching. Got a bleeding crit from Robin and I looooooove it. I am totally warped.