Prairie Sounds

I love to take a walk on the prairie early in the morning.  

See the tall prairie grasses? They're about up to my waist. When the wind blows they sound like a gentle voice saying, "Hushhhh."

Goodbye Dear Friend

My sweet friend Sharen Watson is moving back home to Texas. Today. I'll miss her terribly. 

I met Sharen in 2005 when she moved to Colorado, and we promptly became very good friends. Through a God-cident Sharen started a local chapter of WFTJ (Words For The Journey Christian Writers Guild). She appointed me assistant director. The past three years have been a blessing to me and many other writers in the metro-Denver area.

She said goodbye to Words For the Journey Christian Writers Guild Rocky Mountain Region on Tuesday night.

Here's a photo of Jan and Sharen.

There was a hug line.

For more information on WFTJ visit the new blog that Sharen created.

Is it just me. . .

Is it just me, or does that silly, clueless little creature on the left crack you up too?

Writing with Kay!

This morning I got an email from my friend Kay, asking me to meet her at Panera Bread to write together. 

This is the two of us hard at work. To be honest, I think she wrote more than I did. 

Hop over to Novel Journey

I'm happy to share that I'm featured on Novel Journey today. 

If you're a writer or a book lover you should be familiar with that site. It's wonderful. It has amazing interviews with authors, publishers, agents, publicists and all types of literary folk. 

Novel Journey has recently been named one of Writer's Digest 101 most valuable websites for writers in 2008. Wow. That's quite an accomplishment. Those ladies who run the site are very sharp, in-the-know gals. 

Do yourself a favor, and read through the Novel Journey blog. It's got a wealth of information for the writing community. 

Thanks to my friends and book giveaways

I was delighted to receive my friend's newsletter this week. Author Kim Sawyer graciously endorsed Searching for Spice and is giving away a copy. For a chance to win, sign her guestbook between now and June 14th. 

Check out her newsletter,  sign her guestbook and take a peek at her newest gbaby. Also spend some time visiting Kim's site and reading about her wonderful novels. 

And when you're surfing the web also check out Niki Nowell's lovely post about me and Searching for Spice. Niki is also doing a giveaway, so be sure to enter for a chance to win a copy of SFS. Niki manages two blogs, her other one is very cool--Sex, Love and Marriage has a lot of thought-provoking posts.

National Fiction Day

Oh, what fun!

I had the pleasure of meeting lots of book lovers and Colorado author Robert Liparulo. It was a lovely afternoon. 

The appearance was hosted by LifeWay, they were terrific and welcoming. I was at the store in the Yosemite Park Shopping Center (behind La-Z-Boy Furniture) in Centennial. What a beautiful store. If you haven't been there, do yourself a favor and check it out. 

National Fiction Day, May 17th, 2008!

I'm sure you're all aware of this, but tomorrow is National Fiction Day. 

As part of the celebration, I hope you come over to LifeWay Christian Store at 8222 S. Yosemite Street in Centennial. 

I'll be there from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. I look forward to meeting all the book lovers and signing copies of Searching for Spice. Also appearing at LifeWay will be author Robert Liparulo. 

Please stop by and say hello!

My Friends Smell Good

Yeah, I thought that title would catch your attention.

2 Corinthians 2:15

For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 

About once a quarter I get together with some of my girlfriends for dinner and prayer. It's difficult to find words to explain how wonderful a time is it with those dear women. The freshness of our Lord surrounds us. If you could peer into the spiritual realm, I'm sure it would be beautiful. In my imagination we all sparkle like super novas in a galaxy, fragrant with the scent of everlasting life. 

We eat.

We laugh.

We pray.

We cry.

We pray. 

We met again last week, and this time we shared communion. How special.

My family jokes about my "prayer dinners" because it's not uncommon for me to be out until 2:00 a.m. on prayer nights. And believe me, that's late for me. 

Thank God for friends, laughter and prayer. 

Searching for Spice goes cruising!

Two of my best friends couldn't make it to my book/career launch party--but I understood their absence. They had long before made plans for a Mediterranean cruise.

And what's the perfect book to bring along on a cruise, do you ask? Why Searching for Spice, of course.

Here's Leah at the Acropolis of Athens in front of the Erechtheum.

And I think Ron's posing in front of the Parthenon.

To give you some insight as to how good of friends they are--they're not sharing a book. They each purchased their own copy. How sweet is that? His and hers copies of Searching for Spice.

Oh, and the tiny teeth marks in the upper left corner of the photos are courtesy of my little dog Belle. She was kind enough to pick up the photos from the footstool where I had left them and bring them to me.

Sorry

Hi Friends,

I'm sorry my blog's been static for a week. Stuff's been going on. 

First, when I tried to post, I was denied access. It seems blogger has robots that roam the site on the lookout for spam blogs. Apparently the robot decided my blog was spam, so I was shut down. All I had to do to reverse that ruling was to request that a human look at my blog to determine it's not spam and unlock it. That and be patient for a few days. 

Then my email started giving me fits. Aaargh! I spent four hours with tech support from three different companies. Everyone said the problem was not their issue. I became so convinced that my computer was messed up that last weekend I went out and bought a new MacBook. The next day I realized that my email STILL was not working. It was a problem with my Internet provider. Aaargh, again! On Sunday I spent another hour with tech support, and it seemed my issues were resolved. 

Then Tuesday rolled around and I discovered my emails were leaving my outbox and evaporating. I spent another 40 minutes on the phone with tech support today. The outcome? The techie is stumped. 

Swell. 

I now have a new gmail account that I'll be using. So if you were expecting an email from me and it never arrived, it's probably because the Internet ate my email. 

Oh, about the MacBook. It's very nice.  :)

Happy May 1st

I was so looking forward to working outside on my patio today.

But it snowed.

This is where I would have been sitting if the temperatures were in the mid-80s like it was yesterday.


I hope you had a great day and that you remembered to bow your head in observance of National Day of Prayer. I did.

Book Reading/Signing at Barnes & Noble

As I said to the audience Tuesday night at Barnes & Noble, I am living the dream every wanna-be novelist has. To enjoy the warm company of friends at a local bookstore and have a successful book signing. I did just that. Thank you, Jesus!

I started the evening by discussing one of my favorite parts of being a writer--marketing.

Then I read excerpts.
I don't look very happy in this photo, but my heart was singing.

I had a nice group of writers and book lovers who were very kind in giving me their attention.

And look, Robbie's even taking notes, bless her heart.

And then I signed my books!

Look at Darcie (in the red shirt) hamming it up for the camera.

Okay, I have to share the following because it just makes me laugh. Remember that old Elmer Fudd (Warner Bros.) cartoon song, "Kill the Wabbit?"

If you substitute the words, "Eat the chocolate," then you'll see our WFTJ fearless leader, Sharen Watson, singing her heart out. LOL. And she does this at every meeting. :)

"Eat the chocolate!"
"Eat the chocolate!!"

And then her voice gets a little deeper, and she sings, "Eat the chocolate!!!"