Captain's Log, Stardate 05.01.2006 Today I get to interview the fantabulous Tricia Goyer ! Many of you know her for her powerful WWII novel, FROM DUST AND ASHES. I met her at Mount Hermon in April and she's totally fun to talk to. And now, here’s my interview with Tricia Goyer! It was so much fun meeting you at Mount Hermon! How many years have you gone to Mount Hermon Writers Conference? What are you favorite memories from the conference? I attended my first Mt. Hermon Writer's Conference in 1994. I was 22-years-old and pregnant with my third child. No joke! I have many wonderful memories--my hands shaking with nervousness as I sat at an editor's table, meeting other wanna-be-writers who are now heart-friends, presenting my proposals to wonderful editors such as Steve Laube and Karen Ball (they were helpful despite the fact I had no idea what I was doing!). I also remember joining with the others to sing and pray in the auditorium during the main sessions...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.30.2006 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. Thank you, Lord, for another day with you. Please comfort those who are grieving. Cover them with your spirit and give them peace. Thank you for fixing Heather's laptop and giving her a new client. I pray for a continual stream of business for her. Please heal Pammer's eyes and give wisdom to her doctors and her about what to do. Please heal Squirl's hip completely, and give her and her doctor's wisdom about her surgery. Thank you that Dineen's daughter got into her program! Please lead and guide Dineen in her writ...

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.29.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Monday book giveaway is THE REMEDY FOR REGRET and A WINDOW TO THE WORLD by Susan Meissner . My Thursday book giveaway is MOTHER OF PREVENTION by Lori Copeland . You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for Susan Meissner's books and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Care packages: I am one lucky girl. I don't know if it's just my parents, or if it's all Asian parents, or if it's parents in general, but my folks send me care packages all the time. It's just like college. A few weeks ago, my dad sent my husband a case of home-made beer. Porter stout. Yesterday, I got a huge box filled with Styrofoam chips and three packages of taro chips, because they know it's hard for me to find those here in my area. I admit, occasionally call home and ask for something. A few weeks ago, I asked Mom for ...

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.27.2006 TMI: Todai: Todai is a Japanese buffet restaurant that serves sushi and other Asian-y dishes. I hadn't gone in a long time, but a friend suggested we eat there last night. Now before Robin goes off on how I'm supposed to be writing , I was interviewing my friend for my book. She has worked with female professional video gamers. Yeah, way cool. One of my characters is a professional gamer. Back to Todai . It's not bad, for the price. The raw fish isn't slimy or smelly. But you are talking to someone who grew up in Hawaii--read: surrounded by water --and who is Japanese American. I try to visit Hawaii at least once a year partly because of the food. Mom and Dad take me (and my husband, when he can take off work to travel with me) to Kabuki , a Japanese restaurant in Pearl City. We've been going there since I was in high school. Mom and Dad know the sushi chefs so well that they joke and laugh with them (and give them...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.26.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is A BABY FOR DRY CREEK by Janet Tronstad . My Monday book giveaway is THE REMEDY FOR REGRET and A WINDOW TO THE WORLD by Susan Meissner. You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for A BABY FOR DRY CREEK and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Continued from Mount Hermon recap, part 7 : Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference is held every year during the weekend of Palm Sunday. This year, it was April 7th – 11th. An unofficial tradition has been when the Night Owls gather in the coffee lounge to gab, check email, get slap-happy, and then get kicked out when maintenance closes the lounge at midnight. Last year in September at the ACFW conference in Denver, Brandilyn Collins had a meeting of all the “BGs”—the blogger friends who read her blog—and created a round robin story that she posted on h...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.25.2006 Blog book giveaway: My Thursday book giveaway is A BABY FOR DRY CREEK by Janet Tronstad . My Monday book giveaway is THE REMEDY FOR REGRET and A WINDOW TO THE WORLD by Susan Meissner. You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for A BABY FOR DRY CREEK and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Continued from Mount Hermon recap, part 6 : Pray for Jeff Dunn (RiverOak). He had gall bladder surgery and couldn’t make it to the conference. This is for all you writers. I’m afraid I was remiss in taking better notes at the editors’ panel, but the questions some of the attendees asked weren’t very interesting to me, either. So I popped up with a question: “Are there any secrets you (the editors) could give away about trends of the market genres?” Andy McGuire (Moody) thinks readers will start to demand more straight mystery series (like Sue Grafton’s alpha...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.24.2006 Today it’s my pleasure to post an interview with Susan Meissner , who won the Mount Hermon Writer of the Year award! Susan’s a total sweetie—I got to meet her for the first time at the Mount Hermon conference two weeks ago. Susan's latest books are  THE REMEDY FOR REGRET and A WINDOW TO THE WORLD . And now, here’s the fabulous Susan Meissner! Congratulations on winning the Mount Hermon Writer of the Year award! Woot!woot! Did you at least get a few days' reprieve from cleaning toilets when you got home? Actually, my husband has taken upon himself the lowly act of toilet cleaning. Honestly, he's the one who does it. He has for years. I think it's because I have always had to be the one to take care of those things that should have found their way to a toilet and didn't. And that's all I've got to say about that. I came home to four men (three sons and a husband) who had managed pretty well without me, but w...