ACFW Conference --- Amazing!

I have been back from Minneapolis for two days and am just coming out of my brain fog that I've been in ever since I walked into my condo Sunday night at about seven p.m.

I flew up to the Twin Cities a week ago today and was met by a couple crazy ladies, better known as two of my fellow Penwrights, a crit group I belong to. They stood there in the baggage claim area holding an ACFW sign upside down. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't.

Wednesday was spent in board meetings most of the day and evening, then the next morning the conference began revving up with early bird sessions. Being on the ACFW Board I only made it to one workshop, but will be getting recordings of all the sessions which I look forward to getting because the workshops covered a gamut of different topics.

It was good to catch up with friends I haven't seen for a while like Winter Peck who is with me here. And Deb Raney and Rachel Hauck who are in the pic below.

My appointments with editors resulted in requests for proposals for my romance and my mystery both! I'm working on honing my mystery manuscript and getting ready to send it to an interested editor and, at the same time, will be working to finish the romance manuscript which is about half done. I have my work cut out for me! But it's fun work. God is good.

Saturday we held a massive book-signing at Mall of America. We had over 100 authors signing books. I joked I needed to contract a book so I could sit down! Almost three hours after I arrived to help, I finally sat down on the shuttle bus, hot and tired. Those several hours were frenzied and loud, but at the same time so satisfying to see Christian fiction being spotlighted. While the authors were signing, interviews of other authors like Angie Hunt (our keynote speaker), Brandilyn Collins, Terri Blackstock, etc. were taking place on the rotunda stage.

Then it was back to the hotel for more workshops before we cleaned up for the awards banquet. We all cleaned up good too! The Genesis writing contest winners and the Book of the Year winners were all announced in addition to the Mentor of the Year which I had the pleasure of announcing. This year's award was especially gratifying. Janice Thompson, the 2008 winner, had just come through Hurricane Ike, and for a while it didn't look like she and the other Houstonian members would make it to the conference. Here's a pic of me with Dineen Miller, the graphic artist who designed all our banners and the conference book cover.

I'm sure by tomorrow my brain will be a bit more alive than it is right now, but the memories will be as clear as ever. Next year it's Denver and I can't wait!

Book Review: Suspicious Minds by Christy Barritt

I am so happy to have a working computer back. I've been waiting a couple weeks to be able to post my review for a new mystery that's out for your reading pleasure.

About a year ago or so I came across Christy Barritt's Hazardous Duty and literally inhaled it. I've always loved mysteries, especially those with recurring sleuths, and was very happy to meet Gabby Sinclair, a crime scene cleaner. Gabby is sassy, at times insecure, and drawn to solving crimes, most notably murders. When Christy asked for reviewers for her second book in the series, Suspicious Minds, I jumped at the chance, excited to see what Gabby was up to now.

When the book arrived, I knew immediately I was going to enjoy the read. How could I not with the legs pictured belonging to none other than Elvis. Yep. This story is about Elvis whom Gabby finds dead in a crawl space. Well, not really Elvis. After all, he passed years ago. The victim is an Elvis impersonator, called a tribute artist. When the police seem to be lagging in their investigation, the dead man's widow asks Gabby to investigate. Well, what's a girl with a penchant for rooting out the truth supposed to do but accept?

Gabby faces ups and downs during her investigation, including facing the truth about her relationship with her boyfriend. What she finds harder is to face her real feelings for another man or her need for God.

Barritt writes a fast-paced story that manages to mix humor with the seriousness of murder in a way that works. You will love this sassy but emotionally-vulnerable heroine and find yourself rooting her on.

I don't know if Barritt has more stories up her sleeve in the Squeaky Clean Mystery series, but I sure hope so.

You can find your own copy of this great read at Amazon or Christianbook.com.

My Trusty Laptop is Almost Dead R.I.P.

This past week has not been easy. I have been working hard on reducing the word count of Murder for Breakfast to submit to a publisher who has requested it. Working so hard that I even took my trusty laptop on my Labor Day vacation!

The day after Labor Day I started getting weird error messages that I didn't have enough RAM. I cleaned out my temporary files and I still got the same message. At times the system would crash because it couldn't support the software. I tried all sorts of things. Shut off the Spy Ware, shut off the virus protection, etc. etc., re-configured the RAM settings and still I was told I didn't have enough RAM. I spent the entire day up until late afternoon trying everything and nothing worked.

Under normal circumstances this may have been a job for the Geek Squad or some other computer guru, but problem is that I had this manuscript to work on and worst of all, the ACFW conference is coming up. I leave in about another week! I need a trustworthy working laptop. I'm secretary on the board and must take the minutes of two board meetings.

I've been saving for a Mac laptop so I finally caved and went to the Apple store and got the laptop I've had my eye on. I put the money saved down on it, but will be paying off the good old credit card instead of my savings account to pay for it.

I have to say I looooooove the MacBook! And I'll love it even better when I get the Office for Mac software I ordered. Until then I can still use the other laptop to work on Word docs, if that's all I do. No email, no anything else. Then I save to a flashdrive for transfer to the Mac once the software arrives. I've been tracking this package since Wednesday and it's taking the proverbial slow boat to China. For the past two days it's been in the Chicago area, but it has yet to get to my local post office. I'm praying for tomorrow!

I've had to put this all in the right perspective or I'd go nuts waiting. Things could be a whole lot worse. I had the means to get the new computer. I will still have a week before I leave for conference to get things loaded on the Mac and printed out, etc. I have my health, the weather is good, God is blessing me in hundreds of ways, and in a few days this will all be a memory!

September 12, 2008: I wrote the above last week, but gave up because of the problems I was having. But now I'm good to go. . . I think. And I discovered yesterday that the PC had three viruses on the thing!!! Did one person ever suggest I check that out? No. Yes. I had Virus protection, but they still got in. Go figure.

Anyway, I am so jazzed about this new MacBook so all is well.

CFBA Book of the Week: A Passion Redeemed

Last year I about fell over gushing over Julie Lessman's A Passion Most Pure. That woman's book hooked me into liking historical reads again. Well now the long awaited sequel, A Passion Redeemed, is out. And I am so bummed because I've been too busy tweaking a requested manuscript (that's the good news!) that I haven't yet had a chance to finish reading it!!! (That's the bad news.)

I've started the book and love it just as much as I did the first book. If you read that one then you know what a "brat" Charity was in that story. Well, this book is starting out with much the same of Charity's less-than-scrupulous or virtuous ways, but I have a hunch that is about to change and I can't wait to see how it happens.

I will be back when I have finished this book and will feature either a review or interview with the author along with a drawing for a copy of the book. Meanwhile, below is a description of the story to whet your appetite.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:






Julie Lessman is a debut author who has already garnered writing acclaim, including ten Romance Writers of America awards. She is a commercial writer for Maritz Travel, a published poet and a Golden Heart Finalist. Julie has a heart to write “Mainstream Inspirational,” reaching the 21st-century woman with compelling love stories laced with God’s precepts. She resides in Missouri with her husband and their golden retriever, and has two grown children and a daughter-in-law. A Passion Most Pure was her first novel.





ABOUT THE BOOK

No man can resist her charms. Or so she thought. Charity O'Connor is a woman who gets what she wants. Her stunning beauty and flirtatious ways have always succeeded with men. Until Mitch Dennehy, that is.

Brilliant and dangerously handsome, Mitch is a no-nonsense newspaperman who wants nothing to do with her. Charity burned him once, destroying his engagement to the only woman he ever truly loved. He won't play with matches again. But Charity has a plan to turn up the heat, hoping to ignite the heart of the man she loves. And she always gets what she wants--one way or another.

Or does she? Will her best-laid schemes win his love? Or will her seductive ways drive him away forever? Book 2 in the Daughters of Boston series, A Passion Redeemed will captivate your heart and stir your soul with a story of faith and redemption rising from the ashes of temptation, desire, and shame.

Praise for the first book in the series:

"Full of romance, humor, rivalry, and betrayal, A Passion Most Pure will captivate readers from the first page." --Historical Novels Review "Superb! Incredible!

"I loved Julie Lessman's A Passion Most Pure from the second I picked it up until the very last moment I stopped reading." --Armchair Interviews

"I devoured this book and loved every single page. . . . This is a thick, juicy read, and one I would pick up again in a heartbeat." --christianreviewofbooks.com

If you would like to read an excerpt from A Passion Redeemed, go HERE.

Buy it from Amazon!

Book Review: The Faith of Barack Obama

I've always been somewhat of a political junkie so when the election cycle includes the presidential election, I gear up. This year that cycle seems to have been around forever and we haven't even had the conventions yet!

Living in Illinois, I've been aware of Barack Obama a lot longer than much of the nation. I've seen him rise from local Chicago politics to becoming a state senator and finally a U.S. senator. And in all that time I haven't known much about the man except that his politics and mine don't exactly mesh.

A few weeks ago Thomas Nelson Publishers made an offer of their new book by Stephen Mansfield, The Faith of Barack Obama, to anyone who would agree to read it and post a review on their blog, favorable or unfavorable. How could I resist?

At the same time I was reading Mansfield's book, Senators Obama and McCain appeared in a forum at Saddleback Church in California in an informal like interview with Rick Warren of Purpose Driven Life fame. I found having the book and seeing Obama and McCain in that setting at the same time to be an invaluable experience.

Mansfield's book shows that the author did his homework. I'd heard spatterings of Obama's backstory before. We've all heard how as a child he spent several years in Indonesia and was enrolled in a Muslim school there. That his biological father was also muslim. But, what I didn't realize was that his spiritual formation began way before with his grandparents eshewing the fundamental Christan beliefs in which they were raised, and later his mom declaring that she was an athiest and adopting a rather detatched view of anything religious or spiritual.

Last year most Americans were shocked to hear the pastor Obama had been sitting under for many years verbally attack the United States from the pulpit. I, too, was appalled at what I heard. Having read this book, I have a far greater understanding of where the man is coming from and how his style is very much in line with many black preachers, especially from that generation. I still don't agree with their style, but I do have a different understanding of it.

Also included in the book is a snapshot view of the faith of John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and George Bush. It's easy to see that we cannot judge a person's faith by what they say publicly. Sometimes a faith is real, deep and personal, yet so personal it's difficult for someone, even one used to speaking in public about many things, to share. Yet another will so easily talk the talk and sound like a believer when they are not.

I highly recommend this book to anyone of voting age. Evangelicals in particular need to read this book and weigh what it reveals. In my humble opinion, the future of our country depends on it.