As a professional writer, I attend writers conferences whenever I can. Since I write in the Inspirational (Christian) genre, I prefer to visit Christian conferences to catch up on industry news and trends. But occasionally, I’m invited to speak at secular writers conferences (generally larger than Christian conferences), where I find myself in a parallel ...
Peace in the Stress-Pool
I’m a landlubber. Yes, I’ll admit it – my sea legs are as wobbly as a newborn colt’s. Probably has something to do with my first experience aboard a cruise ship while celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary. Wait. Did I say ship? My bad. it was more like an oversized cork, bobbing up and down on ...
We’ve Got Some Winners!
First of all, MANY thanks to all of my BFFs who entered the giveaway to celebrate the miraculous anniversary of my 2 millionth (is that a word?) book in the Too Blessed to be Stressed series! It was too hard to pick only three names out of the fedora. So I didn’t. I picked four. ...
Milestones
I’m so excited – it’s my miracle anniversary! It was during this week last year (2023) I was notified about a very important milestone in my writing career: 2 million copies of my Too Blessed to be Stressed series had sold! Inconceivable! (nod to the Princess Bride there) But that’s what miracles are … inconceivable to ...
Court Lessons
As you may know, if you’ve followed my blog for a while, I’m a diehard tennis fan (I wanted to say “diehard tennis player” there, but since I’m benched betwixt knee replacements, to my utmost regret, it’s not true at the moment). But I am still a huge fan and in case you aren’t, I ...
Getting No Satisfaction
A few days ago I was doing a little yardwork when I was startled by a sharp metallic tat-tat-tat noise above my head. Backing away, I noticed a red-headed woodpecker pecking away at the aluminum rain gutter beneath the eave of the house. Not the wisest use of his time, I suggested. Ten minutes later, ...
Your Secret Talent
I was watching an interview and the host asked the celebrity interviewee to tell the audience something about themselves that no one else knew. At least something that wasn’t common knowledge (maybe a couple of other people know and that’s okay!). A secret talent. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? So let’s do it! I put ...
Paying Back and Paying Forward
Just when you think kindness is going the way of the dodo bird (becoming extinct), you hear a story like this one. Thank heavens – hope lives! A couple days ago, as soon as the sun came up, my cousin Howard (age 72) spent four hours working in his vegetable garden in north Florida until ...
Rules of Life
I recently ran across an account of a marvelous Frenchwoman named Jeanne Louise Calment (who was born in 1875) and I just have to share some of the wit and wisdom Jeanne wrote about herself at age 120, which she called “The Rules of Life” (she passed away at 122). I would have loved to ...
They’re Everywhere!
I glanced up during my prayer walk on the Smoky Mt. trail and stopped in my tracks. I declare my mouth fell open. The entire mountainside was covered in gorgeous white flowers called trillium (I learned this from my fauna app). Part of the lily family, unimpeded trillium bulbs apparently proliferate like wildfire and spread ...
