What's in a Title?

Good morning! Jenna Mindel here, working on a new book and wondering about how titles grab the reader.  Or don't.  As an author, I try to convey the emotional aspect of each book I write through a title.  Sometimes my editors accept my working title from the get-go like with my first Love Inspired novel, Mending Fences.  And sometimes they don't.  When they don't, I have to come up with something else, typically putting together a list of possibilities that my editor and I then pick from.



I remember buying a book written by Jodi Thomas because the title grabbed me from the start. And I loved that book.  It was not her usual, either.  The Secrets of Rosa Lee - something about that title, and maybe the name Rosa Lee made me curious to read more. So, I did.  :)

 
As a reader, do certain titles attract your attention?  If so, why?  

Check out my growing list of titles (I thank the Good Lord for that!) at my website. 
www.jennamindel.com

Have a great day!

Giveaway - Surprise Box of Christian Books

Camy here! I have a bunch of Christian books given to me to give away, so I’m pulling a bunch of them together into a surprise box. They’ll include non-fiction and fiction, a mix of genres. There’ll be something in there for every taste!

To enter:

You must join my email newsletter to be eligible for this contest. Fill out the form below. Be sure to read the rules.

Extra Twitter entries: Get one extra entry per day if you tweet about this giveaway:
Giveaway of Surprise Box of Christian Books! http://is.gd/8cgpWQ @camytang
(Be sure to include @camytang so I can see your tweet and give you your extra entry.)

Extra Facebook entries: Get one extra entry per day if you share this Facebook post on your own Facebook profile and/or page: https://www.facebook.com/CamyTangAuthor/posts/10151795097867620
(Be sure you share the post at the link above--go to the link and then click "share". Make sure you set the privacy of your share to “public” so I can see that you shared it and give you your extra entry even if I’m not on your friends list.)

Allie Pleiter on Falling

I love Fall.  

It seems to be my favorite season for lots of reasons:  October brings “knitting weather” (although I knit all year long!), I begin my daily ritual of breakfast in front of the fire, the holiday candy and baked goods seasons are upon us, and I’m no longer wilting in the summer heat.  There’s something about the clear, bright slant of Fall sunshine that simply makes me smile.

This season, however, there’s more than just the meteorological version of Fall going on.  Falls--figurative and literal--play crucial roles in my November book THE FIREFIGHTER’S MATCH.  JJ Jones is falling for the mystery guy on her dock, her brother is trying to recover from a traumatic fall, and Alex’s company is falling to pieces around him.  All this chaos creates the perfect opportunity for love’s healing power to save the day.

What do you like about Fall?

Can I have your attention, please? Lenora Worth

I am a bit late today because my brain got confused. Easy for me. But now that I have your attention, I was wondering about being thankful and thinking about food that is far too fattening for me. You know, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoe pie, coconut pie. Yes, I have a thing for pie. So that is our subject for today. What kind of pie do you like? This is not a scientific poll. Nor a political poll, thankfully :) This is just me wondering why pie is such a comfort food. Is it the crust, all crumbly and buttery? Is it the filling, all gooey and creamy and sweet? Is it the whole package? With whipped cream on top? I think pie is a lot like a book. We like a good cover. We like to sink our teeth into the sweet stuff. And we like to explore the inside until we reach the end! So how do you see pie? Friend or enemy? Like an open book or more like a horror waiting to happen to your hips? Here's a little teaser to get us started:

I'm signing for Literacy--Lenora Worth

Next week, I will head to Anaheim, California for the RWA 2012 conference. Along with my friend and fellow Love Inspired writer Winnie Griggs (who is also in charge of securing all the wonderful workshops we'll be having this year) I will arrive on Monday and stay till the following Sunday. On Tuesday, Winnie and I will go along with several Harlequin authors on a Hollywood tour. I've always wanted to do this but the last couple of times I was passing through, I wasn't able to take an extra day to have some fun. I'm looking forward to seeing the homes of movie stars, the Hollywood sign and some of the other attractions around L.A. Then on Wednesday night, about four hundred of us will be part of a huge open-to-the-public book signing at the convention center across from our hotel. I always enjoy these signings because I get to go around and find my friends and hopefully buy their books and I get to watch the amazingly long lines to some of the more famous tables of writers such as Nora Roberts and Susan Elizabeth Phillips. But the best part is this--all the books sold are donated either from the publishing houses or the authors and all the money goes toward literacy. We're talking thousands of dollars--five figure type thousands of dollars.

So if you happen to be in Anaheim next week--come on by and see us. And buy books. It's for a good cause. I can't imagine not being able to read. Education makes the world a better place and brings people together. Reading is a big part of having an education. The magic of being able to read books can open doors for people all over the world. I'm proud to be part of an organization that believes in literacy. Thank you RWA, publishers, writers and readers for making RWA Literacy for Life Autographing such a success year after year. Have you ever been to one of these affairs and if so, do you have any stories to tell about your experiences? Share with the class!

Grace Livingston Hill

Camy here, and today I’m a bit nostalgic because I’m reorganizing my bookshelves, which is actually a fun thing for me to do (I think I should have been a librarian rather than a biologist).

I’m on a shelf that has all my old Grace Livingston Hill books, and while I haven’t read all of her books, I’ve read a good number of them.

I’m not sure exactly why I like them. They’re a bit cheesy and more evangelistic than I’m used to, but there’s something about them that’s magical, romantic, and uplifting. They’re a complete escape from real life.

It helped me appreciate them more when I first looked at the original copyright date. Grace Livingston Hill wrote these novels from the late 1910s to the early 1940s (?) so when I saw the copyright date, I knew that the book was set in that time period.

My favorite is the book cover pictured, Crimson Roses. It’s just really romantic and a bit of a Cinderella story. It’s very sweet and something nice and light to make me feel good. It’s set in the 1920s, so I can imagine the characters dressed up in twenties outfits and the dialogue itself is so authentic to the time period.

I also loved The Enchanted Barn a lot. It was another one of those where I finished reading it and felt so good!

Have you read any Grace Livingston Hill novels? If not, why not give one a shot? Crimson Roses is being reissued by Barbour this year and you can preorder it at Amazon or BarnesandNoble.com. You can also order a used copy. The one I have is this one, with the slightly Hispanic looking girl on the cover.

The Enchanted Barn is actually available for free as an ebook from BarnesandNoble.com or from Google Books (the BN version is the same as the Google Books version, which has some typos from the computer software used to scan the book into electronic form) or you can buy a slightly edited version on both Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com.

If you love GLH as much as I do, which one is your favorite and why?

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Out now is the third book in her Sonoma series, Stalker in the Shadows. She is a staff worker for her church youth group, and leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she ponders frivolous things like knitting, running, dogs, and Asiana. Visit her website to sign up for her quarterly newsletter.

Click here to find out how you can join my Street Team—it’s free and there’s lots of chances to win prizes!

A Box of Books

This is Merrillee, who is going to follow Camy's example and share my box of author copies for my January book, MONTANA MATCH. Here's the box that was waiting for me when we returned from a recent trip.



The excitement of receiving my author copies never goes away. I will admit that receiving my very first book held a little more thrill, but seeing each new book in its final form for the first time never gets old. Just as Camy's book has a character based on a friend, two of my characters, the hero's twin daughters, are based on a friend I had in elementary school while I lived in Montana. Rose, a Native American, had the same dark pigtails, that my fictional Rose has. There the resemblance ends. Also, in a sense, the heroine, Brittany Gorman, is an old friend. She was a teenager in one of my earlier books, LOVE WALKED IN, and she makes an appearance in the book that followed, THE HEART'S FORGIVENESS. I am excited to share her grownup story.



Are there things in your life that never lose their excitement? Do you have a friend you would like to see portrayed in a book?

Books, Books and More Books by Merrillee Whren

Marta's post yesterday about what is happening in the world of books made me think about all of the books I own--many of them still unread. My to-be-read pile is huge. Here is a photo of a portion of one of my bookshelves. I have only read a small fraction of these books, but I keep collecting more on the Nook I received from my daughters for Mother's Day this year. I'm thinking it's a good thing since I don't have any room on my bookshelf. Some of these shelves are double stacked. On the other hand, since I don't have to worry about where I'm going to put more books, I can get more. Now instead of having a to-be-read pile, I will have a to-be-read list.



How big is your to-be read pile?

Time to Read--Merrillee Whren

Before I became a published author, I was a reader. I read different kinds of books--classics, mysteries, thrillers and non-fiction, but when I discovered romances, I knew I had found my favorite reads because they always have a happy ending. I don't have as much time to read anymore because the time I used to spend reading is used for writing. My to-be-read pile is so huge that I'm afraid I will never find the bottom of it.

So when do I have time to read? This week. I'm looking forward to the next couple of days. One of our daughters is coming for a visit, and we will climb over the sand dune in the photo below, put our chairs on the sand close to the water's edge and read.



You might find us looking something like this, although we will probably have an umbrella to shade us from the sun. If we get too involved in our books, the umbrella will keep us from getting a sunburn.



What is your favorite place to read?

Cataloguing my books!

Camy here! Thanks to my friend Dream, who’s also the eHosty at the Love Inspired forum boards, I found a cataloguing program for all my books. I used to use an Excel file, but I wanted something a bit more robust which would also have a matching iPhone app so I can take a copy of my catalog with me on my phone, and that way if I’m at a store and I don’t know if I already have a particular title, I can look it up really quick.

She actually gave me several programs to look at, and I eventually decided on Booxter, because it works on a Mac and the other programs I looked at didn’t quite do it for me. One was made mostly for music, so the item descriptions were stuff like “label” for publisher and “artist” for author’s name, which confused me!

Booxter is neat because you input the book’s ISBN number (I’ve been using Goodreads to help me with that) and Booxter searches Amazon and the Library of Congress and the British Library databases for the ISBN. Then it automatically fills in all the fields for you, like title, author, publisher, etc. It will even bring up a thumbnail of the book cover sometimes. I can fill in the other fields as I want. I can put location--where the book is on my shelves, which are numbered so that I can find a book easily--and also notes if I read the book and anything I wanted to comment on. It’s so awesome!!!

Booxter isn’t without it’s glitches. I found out that when you input a book’s ISBN number, and Booxter pulls the information from the web, it will input the price the book is selling for on Amazon or any other bookstore which sells books through Amazon. Many of my books were out of print, and the used prices for some of them was WAY high, like in the billions of dollars!

I found out that it’s because many online bookstores have a program that scans the web for the same book being sold by another online bookstore, and the program automatically increases a book’s price a little higher than the next highest price available. If you have two bookstores with the same program, the two programs play price leapfrog and the price of the book skyrockets to insane amounts.

The problem is that Booxter automatically adds up how much your collection is worth. I had a few books in the billions of dollar range, and it overloaded Booxter’s price summary, causing the program to not save my catalog even when I hit Save. I would input books and try to save it, but the next time I opened the catalog, the books had disapepared. I finally figured out it was the astronomical prices and when I deleted the prices, Booxter was able to save my catalog fine.

I have to admit my complete geeky side because I love cataloguing my books! I think I should have been a librarian. I love making sure the series line is inputted correctly and that I have the series number down. I have been inputting how much I paid for a book (for each book, there are two fields--how much the book is selling for online, and how much I paid for it). I also input any name in the copyright that’s different than the name on the cover, which enabled me to find the pseudonyms of some old Regency authors. Cool!

Booxter has also enabled me to input all my ebooks, which were not completely catalogued on my old Excel file. The only problem is that Booxter searches Amazon and the Library of Congress, but they don’t necessarily have the (non-Kindle) ebook ISBN in their databases. I have been using Goodreads to find alternate ISBN numbers for the same book to input into Booxter so the program can find my books in the databases and fill out the fields for me, and then I will usually change the ISBN later to reflect the actual ISBN of the ebook I own. (Yes, I know I am anal.)

Sometimes I will use the Kindle ASIN number for Booxter because the program almost always will be able to pull up the book information from a Kindle ASIN. Actually, since I’ve been searching on Amazon so much lately, that’s how I found out that my January Love Inspired Suspense, Stalker in the Shadows, is not available for pre-order! There’s no picture yet, but at least it’s available for people to buy. (Go and order your copy today! :)

So how do you catalog your books?

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Out now is the fourth book in her Sushi series, Weddings and Wasabi. She is a staff worker for her church youth group, and leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she ponders frivolous things like knitting, running, dogs, and Asiana. Visit her website to sign up for her quarterly newsletter.

Click here to find out how you can join my Street Team—it’s free and there’s lots of chances to win prizes!

Goodbye Borders

I don’t remember the first time I entered a Borders. Seemed to me, my feet led me into bookstores every time I entered a mall. Bookstores in busy malls made sense. I’d go there when I needed something – say a new shirt or perhaps a movie fix – and a trip to the bookstore was inevitable. “I’ll just walk through a bit,” I’d think to myself. Right! Three or four books later, I’d leave the store. Sometimes I went to the mall just to hit the bookstore. Three or four books later – but no new shirt or movie fix – I’d leave the store.
I was in a mall bookstore that I discovered LaVeryl Spencer. I told the clerk, “I want a historical with a teacher heroine.” It took her all of two seconds to scoot to the book Years, which I've now read three times.

Ten Things You Need to Know About Borders.

1. Borders originated from two brothers who, in 1971, opened their first store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They soon opened more stores and their success came because they tried to make their stores offering fit the needs of the community. (Cool! Makes me think of the Poison Pen mystery bookstore here in Scottsdale, Arizona.)
2. In 1992, Kmart got ahold of Borders. They’d purchased Waldenbooks in 1984 and now they tried to merge the two. (I’m always a little sad when a mom and pop store goes the way of big box.)
3. In 2001, Borders teamed up with Amazon.com as a web-based delivery service. (Sounds like a good idea to me.)
4. 2003: Borders peak year with 1,249 stores (including Waldens).
5. In 2006, Borders was making money. (Some of it from me!)
6. In 2007, Borders ended its alliance with Amazon.com. (Hmmm.)
7. In 2007, Borders lost money.
· What? We need to sell on the Internet!
· What? People can find DVDs someplace else for less!
· What? Rent is how high!
· What? Who says we have much inventory!
· What? Whose coffee is this, really!
8 Did you notice how of the five bullet points above, only the first one had to do with actually putting a book in the hand of a consumer. (That would be me, a book lover and book reader)
9. In 2009, Former CEO George L. Jones received a severance package of $2.09 million. (I’ve tried doing the math. I haven’t made that yet, in my lifetime, and no, I’m not telling you how long I’ve been employed.)
10. 2011. Borders closes.
My research came from the following sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borders_Groupwikipedia.org/wiki/Borders_Group
http://www.quora.com/Borders-Books/Why-is-Barnes-and-Noble-performing-well-as-a-business-while-Borders-has-filed-for-bankruptcy
http://www2.wjbf.com/news/2011/jul/19/3/borders-seeks-approval-liquidate-close-stores-ar-2159491//19/3/borders-seeks-approval-liquidate-close-stores-ar-2159491/

Pamela Tracy's book Once Upon a Cowboy is available now - but, unfortunately, not at Borders.

Fan Mail

Merrillee here. One of the nicest things about being an author, for me at least, is getting fan mail. Readers often tell me how the story I wrote touched them or made them see one of God's truths more clearly. Others may say that the story related to their lives in some way or the story reminded them of a good time or sometimes even a difficult time in their lives that they got through with God's help. The story helped them remember how God works in our lives.

Recently, I received an e-mail from a soldier in Iraq. He told me he had read my February 2008 book, FOUR LITTLE BLESSINGS. How exciting to think that one of my books is halfway around the world and that the story brought a blessing to a soldier.



Since this book is the first in a series about three brothers, I decided that it would be nice if he could read the stories of the other two brothers, MOMMY'S HOMETOWN HERO and HOMECOMING BLESSINGS. When I e-mailed the soldier to tell him that I would be sending a package, he was excited. So I went to the post office and picked up one of those priority boxes. I've put in several other Love Inspired books as well as my own and some other goodies as well. I was really tempted to eat the Twizzlers myself, but I didn't. Here's the box almost ready for a trip to the post office.



What kind of goodies would you include in a care package for a soldier?

Ruth Logan Herne in Woman's World Magazine!

Missy Tippens, here. I was at the grocery store last week and was so excited to finally see the July 5th issue of Woman's World Magazine. My friend and fellow Love Inspired author, Ruth Logan Herne, has her debut novel mentioned as one of the best beach reads for the summer! Her book, Winter's End is featured as the book to read if you you're looking for an inspirational love story. So I hope you'll check out the magazine issue--but even more, I hope you'll check out her wonderful story!

Commend, laud, honor, acclaim, extol, venerate.

In other words, praise.
Pat Davids here.
This blog is in praise of Roget’s Thesaurus. Roget’s is my third most favorite writing resource. Number one is my imagination. Number two is my computer.




My Roget’s is dog-eared, tattered, ripped, rent, and damaged. I love it. I simply adore finding the perfect word that makes a sentence sing.



For the most part, my writing style is simple. I have no illusions about what I write. It’s entertainment, easy, uncomplicated, pleasing as stroll down a shady lane, but sometimes I just need a better word. Maybe I used handsome three times on one page. I try to avoid those echo words that writer’s notice, but ordinary readers gloss right over. Shift+F7 gives me the thesaurus in Microsoft Word. I use it frequently, but there is something more satisfying about grabbing the book with the broken spine and falling out, ragged pages. Leafing though all those wonderful words often gives me new ideas. Sometimes they take my story or my characters in a whole new direction. Handsome = attractive, good-looking, elegant, stately, majestic, gorgeous.



Elegant is the word that fits best tonight.


The elegant Dr. Peter Mark Roget created his thesaurus in 1805 but it was not released to the public until 1856. Imagine what it must be like to create a book every writer looks to. He's been called the man who became a book. I like that. His is the book that helped me become a writer.

Besides Roget, I can name four other books that seriously influenced me in my career.
The Bible.
The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen Woodwiss (my first romance)
Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer. (the best character study of a hero ever)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby (proof that a writer can write no matter what)



What books have been an inspiration in your career or life?

Books you read again and again

Camy here! So I’m curious, what books are “re-reads” for you? And what exactly defines a re-read book for you?

I might be in the minority, but there are very few re-reads on my bookshelf. Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen are my most often re-read books. I also re-read French Women Don’t Get Fat because I find it inspiring and helpful in my weight loss goals. And once in a while I’ll re-read Dragonsong and Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey.

Other than that … I guess there are just so many new books to read that I don’t have time for re-reading. I’m always excited to pick up the new Love Inspired Suspense novels each month, so I don’t often re-read any old ones since there are new ones just begging to be opened!

The only times I reread books are when I’m tired and want some “comfort reading.” LOL Is there such a thing? I think I just made that up. But I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about—those books that give you warm fuzzies no matter how many times you read them. You don’t have to think, you just have to wrap yourself in a familiar book like that holey-yet-warm granny square blanket your grandma crocheted for you when you were a kid and you always love.

So what books do you re-read, and why? What defines a re-read for you?
Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Her novels Single Sashimi and Deadly Intent are out now. She runs the Story Sensei critique service, is a staff worker for her church youth group, and leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels and ponders frivolous things. Sign up for her newsletter YahooGroup for giveaways!

Carolyne Aarsen is discarding friends . . . .

. . . that's how I felt a couple of weeks ago when I felt I needed to make some changes in my life. I was dealing with a return of vertigo which seems to come and go when my life has stress or is disorganized and messy. Messy was hardly a word to describe the plethora of books in my life. I had books piled up in the living room, filling end tables, spilling off the numerous bookshelves in our house. They were double booked on my bookshelf in my husband's office and mine. I had glanced at this literary cataclysm so many times it no longer jarred. But when the vertigo came back, so did the disquiet over the mess I saw every day. It was time to simplify at least this area of my life and when the vertigo eased, I dug in. I thought the job would be easy. If the book hadn't been read in the past two years, out it went. But books are peculiar things. They attach themselves to in you unusual ways.

In the book, Inkheart, Mo, a bookbinder, tells his daughter, " . . The book begins collecting your memories. And forever after you have only to open that book to be back where you first read it . . .books are like flypaper- memories cling to the printed page better than anything else."

And this is exactly what happened to me as I started my heartless purge. I pulled down a tattered a copy of Captains and Kings and remembered sitting in my small living room in my first home, curled up in our third-hand loveseat, snatching moments between feeding my firstborn and laundry. I could feel the sun coming in the living room window, I could see the fields, covered with snow, stretching away from our little house.

And so it went. Roots, a book my husband and I discussed while doing chores together in our pig barns (now long sold), my collection of LaVyrle Spencer romances, lovingly collected as my children grew, the collection growing and moving with me from trailer to rented home to renovated home to where we live now. Assorted fantasy novels that transported me to other worlds when my own world with four biological children and one handicapped foster child could be so complicated and unsure.

Each book I pulled off my shelf carried a memory even if the story itself was not so memorable or meaningful. Could I truly get rid of these? But what was the alternative? I knew I wouldn't stop buying books and my book collection was truly getting out of control. So I hardened my heart and started pitching. And as I did I realized some books were not my friends. Some had not delivered on the promise the offered when I lovingly held them in the store, touching their pages, waiting to be taught and transported.

But it was still hard. Even though I own hundreds of books, I struggled to discard a small portion of my library. I felt as if I was getting rid of friends. Some maybe not such good friends, but they had come into my home and into my life and some of my memories had stuck to them, like flypaper. Discarding the books did not discard the memory, but the mind is a fickle thing. Memories can be lost if not resurrected enough and in our busy lives, who has time to meander through the past when the present demands so much of our attention?

I know I will buy new books and as I read them some will enter my life and hold my memories. Some will be fleeting and maybe unimportant, but some will weave their story around my heart and become intertwined with my life. Those are the ones I will keep and those are the ones I'll hold out to my family and friends and make the introduction - "You've got to read this book" and wait to see what they thought.

And when I'm gone, my children can pick them up and puzzle as to why in the world mother kept three copies of The Moonflower Vine, Little Women and Pride and Prejudice. (One for keeping and one for sharing and one a backup in case I lost one of the other two)

Check out some of my own books at www.carolyneaarsen.com

Meet Me in Magnolia, Georgia!

Missy Tippens, here. And I’m excited to announce my new Love Inspired book, His Forever Love, is on the shelves now! Here’s a little bit about it…

In Magnolia, Georgia, local legend says that a couple who holds hands around the “forever” tree will have an unending love. Even so, Bill Wellington held Lindsay Jones’s hands around that tree years ago...and then left her behind. He chose the big city, and now he wants to bring his grandmother there. But to his amazement, he finds that Granny has a boyfriend—and a vibrant life. A life that includes Lindsay, Granny’s caregiver. Bill never thought he’d want to come home, yet Magnolia clearly has its charms. As does Lindsay, who makes him long for a second chance at forever love.

I hope you’ll take the time to visit my fictional town of Magnolia, Georgia, and meet some folks I’ve gotten attached to (yes, we get to know our characters and kind of hate to see them leave when the book is over!). :)

I thought I’d share a couple of photos of beautiful magnolia trees with you. They were blooming in May when I chaperoned a group of 8th graders on a 3-day trip to Savannah, Georgia. I hope you can see the blooms. Enjoy!



And now, I'd love to hear about your town. Do you live in a small town like Magnolia? Or are you in a city?

Missy
http://www.missytippens.com/

Pet Perspective

We live on a farm at the intersection of No and Where. We've been through many dogs. Some we had to dispose of ourselves, some got run over, some just disappeared. Mostly we had a que-sera-sera attitude toward the dogs. When you live on a farm, most animals have to serve a purpose and that includes dogs and cats and horses and cows. When we got Toby, the dog in the picture here, we chose her for a purpose. Both her parents were excellent cattle dogs. And, we discovered, so was Toby. She was a natural and lived for the days when we had to move the cows to work with the calves or move them from pasture to pasture. But what set Toby apart from all the other dogs that roamed in and out of our lives is the fact that she was smart, loving, cute - and she stayed alive for fourteen years. She was the only dog that we had this long and, as a result, became a part of our family like no other dog had. She was loved and adored and appreciated by our children, by my family and by our own friends. She loved children and was always gentle with them. She let our 18 month old granddaughter sit beside her and put hats on her head. She would go with me on long walks as I untangled twisted story lines, prayed for my children and simply enjoyed being outside. For fourteen years, as I headed down trails and roads, always in my peripheral vision, was the sight of her black tail, waving like a plume, her head up, sniffing the air.

Over the past year she started showing her age. When we went out for a walk she would stay a bit closer to me and didn't go charging out after deer, or running off into the field following the scent of a coyote or scurrying off into the trees to chase down a rabbit. But she as always game to head out no matter how cold or hot. My husband had always taken her to the mountains when he went out on week long trail rides with his horses. This was the highlight of her year, but this year, we knew it wasn't going to be possible. She was just getting to old for eight hour long rides. We started to think that maybe, one day, this dog might not be with us. I started to wonder when we would have to make that fateful trip to the vet, though I knew it wasn't going to happen soon. Toby was still in such good health and I didn't want to contemplate having to make that hard decision.

Then, one night, last month, she and a visiting dog, headed off to check something out in the back field. The visiting dog returned and Toby didn't. I called and called, and when she didn't come bounding up to me, mouth open, tongue hanging out, looking as if she was laughing at some private joke, I knew something had gone horribly wrong. But it was 11:00 at night and cold and I didn't know where to start looking for her in the forest surrounding our home. Neither my husband nor I could sleep that night and as soon as it got light, we went out to look for her. Awhile later, we found her, dead, in the snow only fifty yards from the house. Killed by two wolves according to the tracks we found and the way she had been killed. As I knelt down beside her broken body, I could not believe how deeply I grieved the loss of this dog and how much it hurt. I used to chuckle at people who grieved pets, thinking, how much can you love a dog? Well, last month, I choked on my own words. I found out exactly how much you can love a dog. I found out exactly what kind of a hole they leave in your life when they go. Especially when all the kids are out of the house and sometimes the only conversation I would have was a one-sided one with my dog.

Toby now lays under a pine tree on a sunny hillside overlooking a field. A fitting final resting place for a dog who loved to run up and down those self same hills or sit beside us when we would enjoy the warm sun. My husband and I have had deeper, harder sorrows in my life. We buried a child, each of us a father, grandparents and cousins. We've stood by graves of friends, of children of friends. I know where to put this sorrow for our dog in the grander scheme of things. But it is still a sorrow and I know that anyone who has ever had a beloved pet understands.

Someday I'll find a way to channel this into a story. I'm a writer. That's what writers do. We take the good and bad events of our lives and shift and re-shape them and then put them in a book. It's a way of dealing and controlling events we have no control over. So some day, when you're reading one of my books, you might have the privilege of meeting Toby for yourself. I hope you enjoy her as much as we have.

Backlists and Ebooks...

I just love it when I hear from readers. Truly. Every time I get an email I'm all giddy that someone has read one of my books.

Since my next release is Her Only Protector, I've been thrilled to hear from the bookclub readers who've already read the book and couldn't wait to email me to tell me how they liked it. I'm also surprised at how many people are still picking up a copy of Cradle of Secrets and writing me to tell me they enjoyed the book. They're always thrilled to know they won't have to wait long for the sequel. Just a few weeks and Her Only Protector will be hitting the bookstore shelves.

Which brings me to the backlists and ebooks subject line of my post. As many readers know, Steeple Hill books are available in paperback for just one month on the bookstore shelves. If you happen to find a great author or a series you love mid-way through the series, it's hard to go back and find those first books unless you can get them at a used bookstore. But not anymore.

All Steeple Hill books are available on EBOOK! So it doesn't matter if you miss a couple of books from a great author. You can always go back and purchase an ebook to download to either the Kindle or some other software platform. These ebooks can be read on your computer, a PDA or ebook reader.

I have to be honest with you. I love the feel of a paperback book in my hands, love to turn the pages and look at the cover. But I also love the idea of being able to load a ton of books on one device and store it there. I have a friend who just emailed me to tell me she won a Kindle in a contest. I must admit that I'm green with envy. But alas I can't justify purchasing another device to read ebooks since I already have one. I still have my old Rocket Ebook Reader that I purchased 10 years ago! While not as light and easy to use as the Kindle and certain not able to hold as many books, the Rocket is a great little device to load 8-10 books on as well as my own manuscripts for editing and final read throughs.

My point (and yes, I do have one) is that I love that technology has given us choices. I no longer have to hunt down a book I missed when it was on the shelf. I can buy an ebook from a new favorite author. And I no longer have to choose which books to bring with me on a trip because I can't fit them all in my suitcase on one device. I can bring enough books to last me an entire vacation! (I love reading while I'm camping. And the Rocket is great for night reading since I don't have to hold a flashlight and a book at the same time!)

I'd love to know your thoughts on ebooks and ebook devices. And if you're one of the lucky readers who has a Kindle, let me know what you think. I have a feeling, despite the fact that I still love my Rocket, that the Kindle may go on my Christmas List.

Until next time, many blessings! Lisa Mondello

Be sure to visit the CRAFTIE LADIES of SUSPENSE at http://www.ladiesofsuspense.blogspot.com/

Winning isn't everything

With my book, Keeping Her Safe, out this month, I've discovered something once again. That winning isn't everything.
I had entered four contests with last year's book, and didn't final in a single one of them. Oh, well. I was disappointed, but I'll let you in on a little secret. God won't let me win, until I learn to be a graceful winner. (I have a sneaky suspicion I wouldn't be one) LOL!
Anyway, in the meantime, friends and family alike have won at writing. If you'll allow me to boast for a moment, my daughter won an essay contest on a Canadian provincial premier. (he'd be the equivilent to a governor in the States) and she will receive $250! Pretty cool, eh, and let me tell you, everyone in the house now knows about Daniel Lionel Hannington, Premier of New Brunswick in 1874. We know ALL about him!
Bragging aside, I told my daughter she's done something I have yet to achieve. I've never won a contest. I got honourable mention in one about 10 years ago, if that counts for something.
But it doesn't matter anymore.
At my kids' school awards evening, a woman, mother of a friend of mine, sought me out, and told me something really wonderful. She absolutely loved my book. She couldn't put it down. She sat in her living room and read it cover to cover. Is that great or what?
And a writer friend took the time to write me to say how much she enjoyed the book, and loved the hero's prayer in it. It hit her right in the heart.
Just as these little compliments get me right there. They are way better than a contest. I've touched someone's life with my story and it gives me a knot in my throat. We writers write for various reasons, creative outlet, need to tell a story, the love of reading are some of the reasons, but we rarely sit at the computer and say, "I'm going to touch someone's life with this story."
We just hope we do. And when it happens, we are so incredibly thrilled, touched, a whole lot more than winning a contest.
Of course, I have never won a contest, so I may be off the wall here, but I don't think so.
You mothers out there can say that even when your son or daughter doesn't make the highest mark, or draw the best picture, the one they drew for you, the one they added, 'I love you' to, is way better than any ribbon or certificate.
Let's take the time to see how personal things matter so much more. How we can help each other, lift each other up, and encourage each other. It's worth a thousand contest wins.
Enjoy your summer!
Barbara Phinney