It seems like every year I realize I’ve filled my time with things that take up too much of my time! As I’ve been praying over 2013 during the month of January, I’ve been feeling I need to (once again) simplify my life. So I’m stepping back from a blog I contribute to. I’m also aiming for less participation in some of my Goodreads groups (that is truly a time suck! Fun, but time suck.) My book writing schedule is still very busy, so I’ll be doing no more critiques with my Story Sensei business in the first half of the year so that I can focus on my books, on writing what God wants me to write. I’m going to focus my energy on my own blog --I’m aiming to post 3-4 times a week, as well as posting contests more regularly. I’m also going to be more active on my Goodreads group and my Facebook page , posting contests there as well. And I absolutely DEPEND on those three outlets for help when naming characters, since many of you know how pathetic challenged I am in coming up wit...

Like many knitters, I have a lot of extra yarn, almost all leftovers from other projects, and I didn’t know what to do with it because there wasn’t quite enough to make anything except perhaps hand mitts or a scarflette, and I have tons of those. So I decided to combine them all to make a blanket using Tunisian crochet! I think it’s pretty! Here’s the Ravelry link in case you were interested: http://ravel.me/camytang/sbb I showed the blanket to Captain Caffeine first, then to my friend Dineen Miller. After my visit with Dineen, I complained to the Captain: Me: I showed Dineen my pink fuzzy blanket and she expressed the proper exclamations of praise for it. Captain: Like what? Me: “Oh, is this your pink fuzzy blanket? It’s so nice! I can’t believe you used all your stash yarn for it! I love how the pink fun fur makes it so cute and fuzzy! It’s so heavy! It’s so soft! It’s so pink! It’s so you!” (I pause for dramatic effect and give the Captain a Significant Look.) Captai...

The winners of the two True Large Print versions of my Love Inspired Suspense, Narrow Escape , are: Jane S. Michelle F. Congratulations! (I've emailed you. Please email me at camy {at] camytang[dot}com if you didn’t get the email message.) I know that all of you who didn’t win are now crying in your Wheaties. Cheer up and order the book! Back cover blurb: KIDNAPPED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT Arissa Tiong and her three-year-old niece are snatched off the street by members of a notorious drug gang. Having lost her police officer brother to a drug bust gone bad, Arissa knows the danger she's in. But she has no idea why they want her. Desperate to protect the little girl, Arissa escapes and runs straight to Nathan Fischer. She knows the handsome, weary former narcotics cop hasn't told her everything about the night that ended her brother's life and Nathan's career. But he's all that stands between her and dangerous thugs who are after something she doesn't e...

Some of you guys might know that I--in addition to several other authors--write for the Guideposts women’s fiction series, Miracles of Marble Cove . My next novel in the series, Steps of Faith released recently and I did an interview on Guideposts.org . I talk a bit about the series, the book, my personal bucket list and also some tips for writers. I hope you click on the link to read the interview!

I got this idea from an author friend of mind--every year, she prays and asks God for a word or a short phrase that is her “theme” for the year. It’s something she works on for the year. One year, my word was “fear.” It sounds weird, but I wanted to understand what it meant to fear and revere the Lord. During my Bible reading that year, I started highlighting every passage that mentioned the word “fear” in relation to God, and it was really eye-opening to understand what it really means to “fear” the Lord. This year, my word is “prayer.” I want to work on my prayer life and learn how to pray more often and with more intensity. The first thing I did was get an app. :) I got the “Let’s Pray” app on my iPhone because you set up an account and then it’ll sync your prayer requests across all your devices. I usually pray with my iPad since I use an iPad Bible app for my Bible reading (Olive Tree, because it lets me write notes as long as I want!), but if I happen to ever not have my iP...

Source: tvrage.com via Camy on Pinterest I’m Japanese and my husband is Chinese, but I have several friends who are Filipino, which is why I decided to write a Filipino heroine for Narrow Escape . However, I had to do lots of research, especially for the character names. I had a hard time coming up with the name of the Filipino drug gang in the book, but there are several real-life Filipino gangs who just use initials for their names. So I picked the phrase, laki sa layaw, which means “pampered while still young” in Tagalog (a Filipino dialect), and shortened it to the gang name, LSL. The phrase seemed appropriate for a young, tough, attitude-saturated gang of drug dealers. I don’t actually know the meaning of Arissa’s last name, Tiong, but I liked it because it was easy to read and pronounce (sort of) for non-Filipino readers. :) Some of the Filipino surnames are really long and complicated to pronounce for an American like me! Charity’s uncle is Johnny Capuno, is a captain...

Most of you guys already know how much I suck at coming up with names, right? So when I needed to come up with names for Narrow Escape , I ran a contest with the prize of naming my characters in my then-untitled Love Inspired Suspense manuscript. Huge thanks to my winners who named my characters: Jennifer F. was the grand prize winner, and she named Arissa and various characters, including Arissa’s discipler at church! I didn’t need a true Filipino name for her first name, but Jennifer actually did some internet research and came up with some Filipino names! Charity L. named Arissa’s niece, Charity! Holly M. named Arissa’s brother, Mark! I would have allowed one of my winners to pick the hero’s name, but he had already been mentioned in Stalker in the Shadows . :) Are you good at naming characters? I’m always working on a new manuscript, so keep your eyes on my blog and Facebook for when I post for help! Don't forget to enter my Narrow Escape contest for January! Clic...