Thursday, January 28, 2010

State of the Union

President Obama said something last night in his paragraph about national security that puzzles me deeply:

"I know that all of us love this country. All of us are committed to its defense. So let’s put aside the schoolyard taunts about who is tough. Let’s reject the false choice between protecting our people and upholding our values."

Huh? Who has proposed such a choice? The Republicans? Conservatives?

What on earth did the President mean?

What do you think?

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Author Interview: Christine Thackeray

Today I'd like to introduce you to my friend Christine Thackeray. Christine lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest, and writes both fiction and non-fiction.

Welcome, Christine!

~ Thank You!!!!

I heard you just moved when someone unexpectedly bought your home. That's kind of brutal. Has it changed your writing schedule?

~ Yes. We recently moved and I’m suddenly HOMESCHOOLING. And my husband is home full time. I thought toddlers were time consuming.

Yikes! As a former homeschooler, I know how much time and effort that involves. I hope you can still fit writing time into your life. I understand you have published two books. Tell us about them.

~ Last year I had my first two books published. The first was fiction entitled “Crayon Messages: A Visiting Teacher Adventure.” It’s about a woman who is given the worst visiting teaching route ever and how it becomes her greatest blessing. You can still purchase it from the publisher, Cedar Fort, and it is still in some LDS book stores.

What was the other book?

~ The second was a collaborative non-fiction work that I did with my sister, Dr. Marianna Richardson, called “C. S. Lewis: Latter Day Truths in Narnia.” We were fascinated to find out that C. S. Lewis had been quoted hundreds of times in LDS church magazines and General Conferences so we worked to define C. S. Lewis’s themes in terms of what he intended versus what has been said of him. I thinks it’s an intriguing study. The end of the book contains a complete index of Lewis’s quotes by topic and who he has been quoted by. It’s a great resource for lesson preparation.

C.S. Lewis is a wonderful author. I'm glad you did that book. What's ahead? Do you have other work coming out?

~ Yes. For Mother’s Day 2010 look for a small gift book entitled “Could You Be An Angel Today?” It’s a fun story about a typical Mom who has an angel come to her asking for a day off. The woman agrees to take on the angel’s responsibilities for one day and through that experience realizes that anyone can be an angel--even her.

Very nice. I'll keep my eyes open for it. A little bird told me you have another book in the pipeline. What can you tell us about that?

~ My next visiting teaching adventure is on the way. It should be out by this summer and is called, “Lipstick Wars.” It’s the story of a young mother with an escaping toddler. Her son’s escapades take her to the door of a reclusive artist and together these women make miracles happen.

That sounds terrific! I enjoyed the first book in the series, so I look forward to reading this one, too. Thanks for being here today, Christine.

~ Thank you for the opportunity.

You can visit Christine at her website, http://www.christinethackeray.com/ , or on her blog, http://www.christinethackeray.blogspot.com/ .

No books were injured in the production of this blog. Oops! Wrong disclaimer. In case the FTC is monitoring this post, I purchased one of Christine Thackeray's books.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

2010 ANWA Writers Conference

The 2010 ANWA Writers Conference

Saturday, February 27, 2010.

Open to all writers

Register at http://anwa-lds.com/conference.html

The Best Western Dobson Ranch Inn

1666 South Dobson Road

Mesa AZ 85202-5699

480-831-7000 or 1-800-528-1356

www.dobsonranchinn.com

If you are serious about your writing, and ready for the next step,

this is the place to be!

J. Scott Savage, author of the “Farworld” Series, is the Keynote speaker.

Other presenters are:

Aprilynne Pike, New York Times best-selling Author of “Wings”

Doug Johnston, Publicist Extraordinaire

Nancy E. Turner, Author of “These is My Words”

Dr. Pamela Goodfellow, Writing Coach, Editor and Owner of Goodfellow Publishing Services

Sara Fujimura, Author and Magazine Writer

Helen Bair, Counselor and Author of “Finding the Healer in Me”

Marsha Ward, author of the “Owen Family” Series

Book signings at end of conference

For writers travelling a far distance, follow these instructions for hotel reservations at a special ANWA Writer’s Conference discount at “Dobson Ranch Inn”

Phone

Call our Front Desk toll-free – 1-800-528-1356.

Refer to either Group Name: “ANWA” or Group Number: 804341

This will allow our staff to make your reservations for you to receive the ANWA Conference group rate.

Internet (available to book online starting Wednesday, Dec 9)

Go to the hotel website at www.dobsonranchinn.com

At the bottom of the "Reserve Your Stay" box, click on “Groups”

Enter the password – ANWA-Dec

Complete your reservation

For questions contact, the ANWA 2010 Conference Chair Person, Cindy R. Williams at cindywilliams@q.com or

Conference Registrar, Krista Darrach at kristadarrach@yahoo.com

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Good Family News

Some of you know that my daughter-in-law, Katrina, has been battling heart problems for some time now. She recently went under the knife for a procedure that was to cure the problem, only to have the diagnosis changed on the spot and a different procedure called for.

Yesterday she had the new procedure. Lo and behold, not only was the new diagnosis correct, but so was the first one!

The first call was that she had what amounted to an extra electrical circuit in her heart that caused her heart rate to be erratic and elevated. This is known as AV nodal reentrant tachycardia, or AVNRT. The second diagnosis said she had an overactive sinus node, causing the same problem. The truth is, she had both!

My last call to my friends for prayers was that her sinus node would be sufficiently distant from the nerve controlling her diaphragm that the doctor could ablate the troublesome portion. Those prayers were answered, dear friends. The doctor was able to totally ablate the extra circuit and ablate the more active portion of the sinus node. After a week of restricted activity, she should be able to do many of the things she hasn't been able to do previously, such as slip into a pair of shoes without her heart rate going to 180!

Thank you for your prayers. You have brought much comfort and peace to my daughter-in-law, my son, and myself. I'm sure the medical team's minds and hands were guided by your faith and prayers.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Preditors & Editors' Readers' Poll

If you have read my latest novel, Trail of Storms, and think it has merit, please vote for it in the Preditors & Editors' (they misspell on purpose) Readers Poll. You have until January 14.

Scroll down--it's alphabetical. Some folks ask all their friends to vote for their book, even if they haven't read it. I won't be picky if you want to do that.
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