Captain’s Log, Stardate 01.31.2006 Shirlee has got to be one of the coolest people I know, plus she has the BEST suspense ideas whizzing out of her brain. I met her face-to-face (versus keyboard-to-keyboard) at the 2005 ACFW Conference in Nashville, and she’s as fun and creative in person as online. Now heeeeeeeeeere’s Shirlee! CT: Who do you write for--moms, singles? What do you want to say to that demographic? SM: I write for anyone who loves a good story. I hope my stories inspire people to seek whatever it is God wants for their lives. CT: Where would you like to see your writing going, in terms of genre and scope, in the next several years? SM: I'd like to continue writing romantic suspense, but am hoping to write a few longer novels. Maybe something more family drama with suspense mixed in. CT: Do your kids influence your writing at all? How? How about hubby? SM: My kids and husband always giving me ideas for new stories. If only I could write as fast as th...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 01.30.2006 Bible in 90 Days: day 22. It’s sad to see how Solomon was led astray in the latter years of his reign. At the same time, it’s amazing how David’s obedience influenced God’s judgment on his ancestors. He was so gracious even when David’s son and grandson sinned so badly. I’m also struck by how the kings’ disobedience happened over years of time. I’ve only been truly serving God since college. For Israel, it was often an entire generation who sinned or repented. That’s a lot of years compared to my few years of being a Christian. Writing: Finished my chapter last night! I’ll be taking my rest day today since I wrote yesterday. Thanks to Robin for doing a crit this morning so fast! I used my “new to me” Alphasmart 3000 . I blazed through the chapter even though I had changed the scene entirely and started from scratch. I figured out why—by only showing four rather short lines and not having a mouse, the Alphasmart is not conducive to editing, an...

Captain's Log, Stardate 01.29.2006 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 you don’t see yourself and you want to, email me or leave a comment. 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, Father, for today. It’s a good day. Lord, please heal Heather from this lingering fever and weakness. Help her to feel strong again and give her energy for all she has to do. Lord, please help Pammer to work through this fear. Give her wisdom about what she should do about the Genesis. Thank you for taking care of everything for her husband’s dental work. Please heal her family from the flu. Father, please be with Jules. I pray that her surgeries go well and that you can heal her completely....

Captain’s Log, Stardate 01.28.2006 My Monday book giveaway (THE TROUBLE WITH TULIP) is here . My Thursday book giveaway (CALIFORNIA) is here . You can still enter both of them. Just post a comment on those blog posts. Next week Monday, I'll draw TULIP’s winner and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. Bible in 90 Days: day 20. The story of David’s children is so sad. David was wrong in not disciplining his sons or his officers, but they made bad choices on their own. David’s relationship with God was so strong. He certainly wasn’t perfect, but he always returned to God and faced the consequences of his sin. Writing: I’m so grateful for my husband and his Chinese American background. I decided to change my first scene dramatically and needed his help on cultural family nuances. Hopefully this new book will open with a colorful bang. I need to add more conflict. In writing this manuscript, I’m trying to abandon my internal editor and see how that works. P...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 01.27.2006 Thanks to Heather , I figured out how to use the cool Citrus Moon background I found a few days go. What do you guys think? My Monday book giveaway (THE TROUBLE WITH TULIP) is here . My Thursday book giveaway (CALIFORNIA) is here . You can still enter both of them. Just post a comment on those blog posts. Next week Monday, I'll draw TULIP’s winner and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned. I’m also totally excited to interview romantic suspense author Shirlee McCoy on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. I’m also giving away a copy of her latest novel, EVEN IN THE DARKNESS . Just post on either of the two days that I interview her, and I’ll draw a name the day after the interview (Thursday). Which is also when I draw the winner for CALIFORNIA. Bible in 90 Days: day 19. I am amazed at how the Lord is teaching me about Himself. When He makes a promise, it stands no matter what. And David understood Him in ways I don't, at l...

Captain’s Log, Stardate 01.26.2006 Bible in 90 Days: day 18. Dude, King Saul was weird. Moody. Hormonal, even. And I do not get how these Biblical guys take so many wives. It’s just gross to me with my 21st century mindset. Writing: Thanks to lots of great critiquers, I think I figured out a problem with my Inciting Incident, which of course influences practically everything else in the book. Now I have to rewrite the synopsis. Diet: I had ramen for lunch, but with lots of veggies (650). I’m exhausted today, maybe cuz I’ve been staying up so late working on this proposal. I need more self-control on my food choices and portion sizes. It’s especially hard when I’m hungry, so I shouldn’t let myself get to that point.

Captain’s Log, Stardate 01.25.2006 I just saw the movie Serenity today with Dineen . WOW the writing is terrific. CGI is good. I think I appreciated the nuances in the movie much better because I’d seen the TV show Firefly . The dialogue was fantastic. Funny without spoiling the mood. Phenomenal subtexting. It’s so neat to hear the unusual dialect Joss Whedon made up for his universe. Characterization for Firefly was diverse. I personally think the conflict between characters is greater in the new Battlestar Galactica series, but Firefly had a good push-pull. The new villain in Serenity is very three-dimensional and rather unique. The writing and the casting made the character larger than life. I also liked how Joss Whedon showed backstory, especially since the series had already set up so much characterization. Whenever backstory showed up onscreen, it was always in response to someone needing to know the information, or to a strong emotional reaction to past information come up to ha...