Facebook, how I love thee

Good grief, I'm spending way too much time on Facebook. It is way too addicting. And since all my favorite blogs are starting to go offline (Haiku Mama, please don't leave me!) I have a wee bit of extra time to spend on things like sending pretend plants to my friends and getting my butt kicked at Scrabulous.

Actually, I haven't been spending nearly as much time on Facebook as I could be because I've been writing like the dickens trying to get this blasted book done. And I'm so close! I'm guessing 3-5 chapters left. Then I take a five minute break before jumping into the next book, or rather, into outlining the next book, since at this point I have lots of ideas in my head and absolutely nothing on paper.

I'm putting together the first newsletter--have you signed up yet??? I've gotten some pretty good entries for the "Name the Newsletter" contest, but if I don't have your idea yet, there's still time to submit it! The first issue launches Father's Day, so get your submission in by Saturday the 14th--let's say noon PST so I have time to agonize over which name to choose. Don't forget, winner gets prizes!

Tag, I'm it!

Julie over at Joy's Hope (the WAHM I mentioned in my last blog) tagged me for this little survey. Haven't gotten one of these in a while!

What I was doing 10 years ago
Let's see, 1998. Well, if we get specific and say May of 1998, then I was packing up my gear down at U of Illinois in preparation for moving home for the summer. I'd just finished my second junior year (or first senior year--I was on the 5 year plan thanks to my stint abroad in Scotland the year before), ended a rebound relationship I had no business being in in the first place, and was preparing to start an internship with the Axis ministry at Willow Creek Church.

Five things on my to-do list today
Since I'm in La Jolla today and not home, I don't really have a to-do list--this is like a mini vacation. Were I at home, the list would be pretty mundane: get the dishes done, clear up the kitchen, figure out something decent for dinner, try to get some writing in, spend way too much time on the internet.

Snacks I enjoy
Oh man, this is just cruel to ask--it makes me think of all the things I can't have now that I'm dairy-free. Big ol' bowl of cereal, cheese puffs, chocolate...hold on while I mop up this drool...

Things I would do if I were a millionaire
Relocate. Bail some folks I know out of debt. Donate to a handful of ministries. That's probably it. A million bucks doesn't go as far as you'd think when you start to really calculate. If I were a MULTI-millionaire the list would be amended to say "a lot" instead of "a handful" of ministries.

I don't know how many people I'm supposed to tag, but I'll tag my hubsters, Meg, Kelli, and Kyle.

The newsletter!

So I'm finally taking the leap and creating a newsletter. It's something I've been contemplating for a while, and since I've never been busier in my life than I am right now, it seemed logical to throw caution to the wind and pile one more spoonful of potato salad onto the overflowing buffet plate that is my life. Why not, right?

The first issue will come out this June, and at this point it will be a bi-monthly affair. Every issue will have a contest (with fun prizes!), an article, Q & A, book release and writing news, book reviews and recommendations, and the WAHMmy Corner, which will profile one or two Work At Home Moms who make awesome stuff that everyone should know about. I've developed a heart for WAHMs lately, not only because I am one and I know how hard it is to balance work and motherhood, but because I want those moms to be able to continue staying home with their babies, and the more customers they get, the more likely it is they'll be able to!

The first contest is starting now, before the first issue even releases. My newsletter needs a name! So sign up to receive it, then put on your thinking cap, get creative, and send me your idea. The winner will be announced in the first issue, and the prize is a signed copy of Worlds Collide and a movie pass pack!

Know of a WAHM who deserves international recognition? Have a question for the Q & A column? Email me! And don't forget to sign up--the form is in the sidebar!

WAHMs rock! (edited to correct a url)

My foray into the world of cloth diapering has made me much more aware of just how many mamas are out there busting their butts to work from home so they can stay with their babies. I can't tell you how many hundreds of diaper brands there are out there, but only a small percentage of them are companies. The rest are moms who decided to make diapers the way they wanted them, and then started selling them to others who liked their approach and style. Discovering all these WAHMs (work at home moms) has made me want to buy from them whenever I can, be it for diapers, or nursing covers, or wet bags (for dirty cloth diapers), nursing pads, whatever. I know what a tremendous blessing it is for me to be able to stay home with our girls, and I want to help those moms however I can.

To that end, when I start my newsletter (yes, I'm starting a newsletter! More on that later!), I'm going to feature one or two WAHMs in each issue so you can show them a little love the next time you're in need of what they're making.

But until then, here's a WAHM I just learned of when my friend Marcela gave me one of her wares as a baby gift. I thought this was just one of the cutest ideas ever: it's a picnic pack for a baby!

This is what it looks like all folded up and velcro-d closed:



And when you open it up, it has pockets with all these goodies:



It has a bib (handmade in matching fabric), a pack of rice cereal, two jars of baby food, a spoon, and wet wipes to tackle the post-meal mess. How brilliant is that? And how adorable is that fabric?!

Julie is the mastermind behind this project, and her store is located at hallelulu.etsy.com. She's in the middle of restocking her supply, but she also has some other great products available at her other store, joyshope.etsy.com. Super cute and creative stuff, and fantastic gift ideas. She's going to be launching a new website this summer; I'll include it in my newsletter.

Do you know of a WAHM whose products deserve a wider audience? Leave a comment with their contact info and I'll consider them for a newsletter!

Embrace Me by Lisa Samson

My homegirl Lisa has a new book out! She rocks! Go buy it! Here's the CFBA blurb for Embrace Me.

Lisa Samson is a Christy Award-winning author of 19 books, including the Women of the Faith Novel of the Year, Quaker Summer. Lisa has been hailed by Publishers Weekly as "a talented novelist who isn't afraid to take risks."


In Embrace Me, the latest novel by acclaimed author Lisa Samson, readers are privy to the realization that regardless of outward appearances…hideous, attractive, or even ordinary…people are all looking for the same things: love, forgiveness, and redemption.

This story explores a world that is neither comfortable nor safe, a world that people like Valentine know all too well. Masterfully crafted by Samson and populated by her most compelling cast of characters yet. It is a tale of forgiveness that extends into all spheres of life: forgiving others, forgiving oneself, forgiving the past.

She lives in Lexintgon, Kentucky, with her husband and three kids.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Biting and gentle, hard-edged and hopeful...a beautiful fable of love and power, hiding and seeking, woundedness and redemption.

When a "lizard woman," a self-mutilating preacher, a tattooed monk, and a sleazy lobbyist find themselves in the same North Carolina town one winter, their lives are edging precariously close to disaster...and improbably close to grace.

Valentine, due to her own drastic self-disfigurement, has very few friends in this world, and it appears as if she may be destined to spend the rest of her life practically alone. But life gives her one good friend, Lella, whose own handicap puts her in the same freakish category as Valentine. As part of Roland's Wayfaring Marvel and Oddities Show, a traveling band of misfits, they seem to have found their niches in an often curiously cruel world.

Residing in a world where masks are mandatory, Valentine has a hard time removing hers, because of her disfigured face but more so because of her damaged soul. It is much easier for her to listen endlessly to different versions of a favorite song, Embraceable You, and escape reality. Yet, life has more in store for her when she meets Augustine, replete with the tattoos, dreadlocks, and his own secrets. With his arrival, Valentine's soul takes a turn.

Sick.

Head colds SUCK. This one whammed me around 3 this afternoon after a few days of being a small, mildly irritating cold. Now I can barely hear, my head is all pressure-y, and my throat is chronically dry. I sang all Abby's lullabies an octave lower than usual and kept having to swallow back coughing spells.

Zicam, do your thing!!!!

Eight million things

Alright, so, eight million is a bit of an exaggeration, but that's what it feels like. It's been forever since I've had time to sit down and blog more than a brief note. Hopefully I'll remember everything I've been wanting to write about.

1. Abby prays on her own now at nap and bedtime. It's so cute the things she thinks to say thank you for. The other day she included outside, the swingset, the gardeners, and Jesus. Tonight when she was done she said, "Jesus loves me!" So sweet.

2. We went to the Jana Alayra concert last weekend. If you have children between the ages of about 18 months and 8 years, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend her stuff. They're such great songs, super catchy, and the concert DVDs (at least the second one, I haven't seen the first) are really fun. She does all these hand motions to the songs, and Abby walks around doing them as best she can and singing in her monotone alto. Adorable. They perform all over the country; if they're ever in your area you totally have to go. Anyway...we got there super early so I could get in line for the first-come, first-served seating. The girls napped in the car and I wrote thank you notes and read. I was first in line, which was awesome, because we wanted to get close enough to let Abby feel like she was a part of the action without having to go down into the mosh pit of children, which of course she would never do. She was pretty overwhelmed by the whole experience; this was her pose for the majority of the concert:



though towards the end she did start doing some of the motions very small in front of her. I think she enjoyed it, though; at least, she says she did, so that's good.

3. Ron Paul is coming to San Diego on the 23rd! He's doing a book signing somewhere in Balboa Park. We're getting decked out (kids too!) in RP gear and going down to see him. I can't wait to meet him. I'm going to bring a copy of Violette Between for his wife. :)

4. I just found ShoutLife. If you're on it, send me a friend invite! I'm giving up on MySpace; it's too overwhelming for me. ShoutLife is a Christian version--or at least, a much more safe version, you don't have to be Christian to join, but they're strict on appropriateness of photos, etc. I can't believe how many friends requests I got on MySpace from totally skanked-out women. Hello!?

5. I'm in the home stretch for my current WIP. Chapter 18 is mere paragraphs from completion, and I think I'll have about 27 altogether, so that's less than 100 pages left to go! Woohoo! My chapters have come out surprisingly even in length, especially considering I don't plan the out ahead of time. They're all between 9 and 11 pages long. I'm over 70,000 words, so I'll be just over 100,000. Right on target! Way past when I'd hoped to complete it, though, but oh well. I've been putting a lot of thought into the next book, so as soon as I wrap up this one I should be able to jump in and start with it. No title yet, though, which is weird; typically titles come to me right away when I start thinking about a book. This one, though, hasn't offered up anything yet. It actually makes it a little harder for me to connect with it when I don't have a proper name for it. "Untitled" or "Current MS" just don't cut it.

6. My friend Meg recently made the jump to cloth diapers for her son, who is a few months younger than Abby. She has completely inspired me. As she points out in one of the first posts she wrote about her decision, the #2 landfill item is diapers. Every single one ever worn is still out there, not any more decomposed than it was when it was first thrown away. GROSS. So even though we're probably not that far from being potty trained (I HOPE), we're making the switch for Abby, too, and once I'm comfortable with the process, for Penelope Jane, too. I just bought my first diaper, which should arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday. Yay! But I'm not stopping there. I'm aiming to stop using paper towels, tissues, and disposable napkins as well. I'm actually going to get out my sewing machine, get it serviced (I don't know WHAT I'm doing wrong, but the thread keeps getting messed up in the bobbin case when I use it), and going to work making my own kitchen cloths, hankies, and napkins. I mean, why not, right? And while I'm at it I'm going to FINALLY get the curtains made for my office, and once Dan's done with class (less than two weeks left in the semester, yay!) we're going to put up the shelves we bought at IKEA an embarrassingly long time ago.

7. For some reason, over the last two or three weeks I've had a major energy shift. I finally reached my personal limit for being lazy, for procrastinating, for shying away from the mundane tasks I just couldn't be bothered with. I know I'm supposed to have less time and energy now that I have another baby, but it's just not true. I'm exercising, I'm cooking dinner, I'm going to the farmer's market again, I'm writing nearly every day, I'm planning an insane amount of sewing, I'm reading my Bible again...it's awesome, I'm so psyched.

8. We got our new swing set! Old, crappy, screws-jumping-out-of-it set:


New, stable, doesn't-give-you-splinters-or-move-when-you-swing set:


The little house at the bottom has much potential; I can just imagine the girls eating lunch out there on rainy days. Here's Abby in there with her buddy Bryson:



9. A couple weeks back on Dancing With The Stars, they had some of the Riverdance performers on doing a number in between announcements of who was in danger of getting kicked off. They also had two kid couples who were contestants in their junior championship. Abby FELL IN LOVE with Riverdance and those two couples. Most mornings we watch that five or six times before our usual Blue's Clues. And now when we watch it she dances around the living room. "Wow--the feet are so fast!" she says when they show the Riverdance people. For Mother's Day Dan bought me a two-disc Riverdance performance, so Abby and I started watching it this morning. I LOVE that show. I've seen it five times, I think--London, Edinburgh, Chicago, and twice here. I saw the London show the first week I moved out to the UK in college, and listened to the soundtrack the whole year I was there, so now whenever I hear it I'm thrown back to my funky little room in Maclay Hall up on Park Terrace in Kelvingrove Park. Ah, the memories! Anyway, I'm happy Abby is so into it; I'm really hoping she'll want to take dance lessons in a couple years. There's even a big Irish dance studio not far from here. Nana took Irish dance lessons as a child; maybe the talent will run in the family!

Well, I think that about catches me up, save for Penny Jane news which I'll post on the baby blog. I'll leave you with a pic of the ladies of the family, taken today in my mom's rose garden. Happy Mother's Day!

Oh what a night (Drama part III)

THIS is why I never throw anything away! Old computer to the rescue!

It's sad how slow my writing life has been over the last year, but it's also a really good thing, because I was able to recover pretty much everything in that corrupted Books file by retrieving the folder off my previous laptop. The only un-updated thing was my current MS, which I've been saving chapter by chapter on Google Documents and was also able to save through Word into the new folder.

So, as far as I can tell, disaster has been averted. Time for bed.

I am my own worst enemey (Drama part II)

"Oh good!" I said to myself. "I can just restore that Books folder with the one on my external drive! But it's been awhile since I backed everything up--better do that first." So I selected everything on my desktop, dragged it to the external drive, and let it do its thing.

A warning box came up that said, "A file already exists with this name." I clicked "replace," then clicked in the handy "apply to all" box, knowing much of what is on my desktop is already on the drive and not wanting to have to click "replace" a million times.

'Course, what does that mean I replaced? The uncorrupted Books file with the corrupted one.

Just how stupid can I get? Not sure; research is ongoing.

Unfortunately.

Could it be...Satan?! (Drama part I)

Something is wrong with my Books folder on my desktop. It was fine, I was using it, all was well, and now...it won't open. At all. And if I try to open it through another program (like to upload a file from it, which is what I was trying to do when I first discovered this issue, and which is what I had just done when it was working), it shuts down that program. All my other folders are fine. Just the one that I need to build my career, the one with all my manuscripts and research and ideas. What the heck!?!?

At least I backed everything up. I certainly learned my lesson after the Great Hard Drive Crash and Burn of 2007. But still--why that one folder, out of the ten folders on the desktop? Coincidence? I don't think so...

A million things to blog about...

...but because I really want to exercise before I go to bed, I'm only going to mention this one.

Freerice.com

Had never heard of this before, and for a word freak like me it's heaven! Build your vocabulary and feed the hungry--if there's a better way to kill time, I don't know what it is. Try it out.

God is so good

Last year there was a horrific accident on the I-5, just about 10 minutes from where we live. A semi truck barreled into the back of a minivan, killing all three of the family's young children. The community here really rallied around the family--every tree and lamppost and signpost had two pink ribbons and one blue one tied onto them in memory of Emma, Katie, and Kyle. It made it really hard for me to drive because I'd start crying every time I saw them. The anniversary of their death is this coming Sunday.

But guess what happened this past Wednesday?

The mother gave birth.

To triplets.

Two girls and a boy.

As far as I know these folks aren't Christians. To me, this is just an example of how God extends the most amazing and beautiful grace to people even when they don't choose to acknowledge him. Like a parent who can't help but continue to reach out to a rebellious child, God is continually trying to get our attention and show us, his sinful, selfish children, that he is real, and that he loves us so very much.

Welcome to the world, Ashley, Ellie, and Jake.

Abbyisms

The kid has been keeping us laughing lately with the things she comes up with:

At a restaurant:

Me: Abby, can I give you a hug?
Abby: No Mommy, I'm playing guitar on my straw.

During bath time:

Abby: [Rubber] ducky is hungry, Daddy.
Dan: Well I don't have any food for him. Do you?
Abby: Yes.
Dan: You do? What is it?
Abby: Applesauce.
Dan: Oh, where is it?
Abby: In my bebo*. (She puts the duck to her stomach; its bill firmly planted in her 'bebo.') Okay. He's eating now.

*That's 'bellybutton' for those of you who aren't familiar with Sandra Boynton's "The Bellybutton Book".

In the Chik-fil-A play area, where there are animals painted on the wall:

Abby: (pointing to the animals) Monkey says "cheep cheep".* Lion says "roar". Doggie says "woof woof". Kitty says "Hey-o!"

*Not really sure where "cheep cheep" came from, either.

And then, just now at bedtime, she melted my heart with her first spontaneous, original "thank you" to God. We have been spending a ton of time in the backyard the last few days because we got a new swingset and sandbox. So anyway, we pray at night by me saying a line and her repeating it. We say the same three thank you's every night, and then list individual things that happened that day. So after I did our three usual ones...:

Me: Thanks for the time with Gigi and Boppa.
Abby: Thanks for time with Boppa-Gigi.
Me: Thanks for the beautiful weather.
Abby: Thanks for boo-ful weather. And thanks for outside!

This is the way we write a book...

...write a book, write a book
This is the way we write a book
When baby wants to cuddle:



Yes, I managed to type with the baby sleeping on my chest. Man, do I love laptops and comfy couches.

And speaking of writing, I did. A lot! Every day but one this past week, in fact! That is the first time I've written consistently since I started this manuscript. Some days I only got a few sentences, other days whole pages, but I'm not so much concerned with quantity right now as I am with establishing the habit.

Also speaking of writing, the conference last weekend went very well. I had 17 students and their general consensus was that the class was helpful, so thank heavens for that. I ended up not hosting a table for lunch, but some of the folks from my class wanted to eat with me, so we found a half-filled table hosted by romance writer and fellow ACFW member, Cathy Hake, and crashed her party. After lunch I got to hang out some more with my agent, Chip, with whom Dan and I had dinner the night before. It was so great to finally meet the guy!

In other news, Abby has spent three nights in her own bed so far. That is, she's stayed in it until morning; the other nights since we got it, minus a few when she spent the whole night with us, she's lasted in there until 4 or 5 and then woken up weepy and come into bed with us. It's strange falling asleep without her snuggled up against me. Obviously it's nice to have the space, but I think I'm having a little separation anxiety. Not that it's going to last long. I'm sure PJ will end up with us in the next few months. Anyway, I keep meaning to take a picture of Abby's adorable bed nook but I keep forgetting. Hopefully this week.

Hey SoCal Writers!

If you're in SoCal and looking to polish your writing skills, please attend the OCCWF's annual day-long conference this Saturday! I'm teaching a fiction 101 class, my fantabulous agent (whom I'll finally get to meet in person!) will be teaching a class on branding (like, creating your professional brand, not marking cows) and lots of other great authors are teaching a variety of things. Meals are provided! It's a really great opportunity, especially if you've been considering giving writing a shot (either as a hobby or as a career) and are having trouble getting started. There are consultation times, too, where you can meet with some of the presenters one-on-one and get their advice and insights on your manuscript, and some of us are hosting a table at lunch. Come sit with me if you attend!

Oh my gosh, I'm watching a reality show

So I caught the first episode of "Dancing With The Stars" a couple weeks ago, and I have to admit I was kinda hooked. Not enough to actually remember what day or time it's typically on--or to even bother expending the energy to figure out how to search the guide on our cable and set up a timer to record it--but enough to put it on when I happen to see it playing. I just tuned in and Kylie Minogue was singing "Can't Get You Out of My Head" and one of the couples was dancing to it. They were awesome! Kylie, however, sounded like she was doing karaoke. Her voice sounded so shaky--like she was nervous or something. Very weird.

Anyway, I love dance. And I love to dance. I was really big into swing dancing in college and really miss it. I love club dancing, I love just bopping around the living room when no one else is around. I've always wanted to take tap and ballroom dancing--maybe I'll try to do that in the next couple years. If nothing else it would be awesome exercise, and heaven knows I need more fun ways to exercise because otherwise I just don't do it.

Yesterday I went to the nutritionist, and the suite next to hers is a dance studio. We were a little early for the appointment so we were sitting in the car ("we" being my mom and the girls), and all these little girls in pink leotards and tights and black tap shoes were going in. So cute! It made me wonder if Abby or Penny will want to take dance classes. I didn't take a dance class until high school, and when I realized how much I loved it it made me sad I hadn't done it earlier. I don't want to push my kids into activities, but at the same time, I do want them to experience a lot of different things and make sure they've had the chance to dabble in lots of different areas. I pigeon-holed myself into music and writing pretty early on, and it wasn't until much later that I realized how much I loved art and theater and dance--all things I'd have pursued through classes and such had I known earlier that I enjoyed them and was actually not too bad at them.

Well they've moved on to the elimination portion of Dancing With the Stars, so I've shut it off--I may like watching the dancing, but I hate all the other "reality" crap. I was even muting it during the interviews and other random non-dancing things they insist on throwing into those shows. I did keep it on long enough to see that Marlee Matlin made it to the next show--I haven't seen her dance yet; isn't she deaf? Or is she only mute? Someone tell me...

Betrayed by Jeanette Windler

CFBA's book of the week is Betrayed:


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

As the child of missionary parents, award-winning author and journalist Jeanette Windle grew up in the rural villages, jungles, and mountains of Colombia, now guerrilla hot zones. Her detailed research and writing is so realistic that it has prompted government agencies to question her to determine if she has received classified information. Currently based in Lancaster, PA, Jeanette has lived in six countries and traveled in more than twenty. She has more than a dozen books in print, including political/suspense best-seller CrossFire and the Parker Twins series.

ABOUT THE BOOK


Fires smolder endlessly below the dangerous surface of Guatemala City’s municipal dump.

Deadlier fires seethe beneath the tenuous calm of a nation recovering from brutal civil war. Anthropologist Vicki Andrews is researching Guatemala’s “garbage people” when she stumbles across a human body. Curiosity turns to horror as she uncovers no stranger, but an American environmentalist—Vicki’s only sister, Holly.

With authorities dismissing the death as another street crime, Vicki begins tracing Holly’s last steps, a pilgrimage leading from slum squalor to the breathtaking and endangered cloud forests of the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere. But every unraveled thread raises more questions. What betrayal connects Holly’s murder, the recent massacre of a Mayan village, and the long-ago deaths of Vicki’s own parents?

Nor is Vicki the only one demanding answers. Before her search reaches its startling end, the conflagration has spilled across international borders to threaten an American administration and the current war on terror. With no one turning out to be who they’d seemed, who can Vicki trust and who should she fear?

A politically relevant tale of international intrigue and God’s redemptive beauty and hope.

Sweet Caroline by Rachel Hauck

When I saw the email in my inbox yesterday that this book was our CFBA selection for the week, I totally got that Neil Diamond song stuck in my head. Between that and "Stand Up" from one of Abby's Veggie Tale videos, my brain has been singing nonstop. So anyway, here's the lowdown on Sweet Caroline and its author, Rachel Hauck.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
I graduated from Ohio State University (Go Buckeyes!) with a degree in Journalism. As a member of Phi Mu sorority, I partied my way though the last few years of college.

But, the truth is, and always will be, I belong to Jesus. At the age of six, I knelt at the altar of a Tulsa Methodist church and gave my life to the One who loves me.

After graduation, hired on at Harris Publishing as a software trainer, determined to see the world. And I did it without a laptop, a cell phone, an IPod or portable DVD player. Those were hard times.

But, I traveled to Ireland, Spain, Venezuela, Mexico, Australia, Canada and the U.S. from California to Maine. But, life on the road is difficult. Working twelve to fourteen hour days, one doesn't get to see many of the sites. In Ireland, our company's distributor drove me around at night so I could see something of Dublin.

I met Tony, my husband, in '87, at church, of all places. We got married in '92. Tony has been a pastor for twenty years. I've worked with him in eighteen of those twenty. Our heart is to see teens and adults passionate, radical and whole hearted for Jesus.

Tony and I don't have any children of our own, lots of kids-in-the-Lord and we love them all. However, we do have a very spoiled dog, and an even more spoiled cat.

I've always wanted to be a writer. My dad used to tell me, "You're a writer." I have letters he wrote me post college, exhorting me to write. In this, I believe he had the heart of God.

In '93, I started an epic WW2 novel with two plots. It was well rejected. After that ordeal, I took a break and put efforts into my job as a software project manager. But, I missed writing and in late ' 99, I took up the craft again.

With a little help from my friends, my first book was published in ' 04, Lambert's Pride, a romance novel. I love writing chick lit and romance. I love writing. What an honor.

Rachel has several other books that have been received with great praise, including Diva Nash Vegas and Lost In Nash Vegas

You can purchase copies of Rachel's books, signed personally for you,
at this site: Signed by the Author.com

ABOUT THE BOOK:
When a Southern waitress inherits the Lowcountry cafe where she works, she suddenly has to balance more than just her next food order.

Caroline Sweeney has always done the right thing--the responsible, dependable thing--unlike her mother who abandoned her family. But when her best friend challenges her to accept an exciting job adventure in Barcelona, Spain, Caroline says "yes" to destiny.

Then, without warning, ownership of the run-down cafe where she's been waitressing falls right into Caroline's lap. While she's trying to determine the cafe's future, handsome Deputy Sherriff J.D. Rand captures Caroline's heart.

But when her first love, Mitch O'Neal, comes back to town, fresh from the heat of his newly-found fame as a country music singer in Nashville, Caroline must make some hard choices about love and the pursuit of the sweet life.

Um...

It's funny how much press Ron Paul's getting now that he's dropped out of the race. Suddenly everyone that ignored him throughout the whole campaign is eagerly reporting how he's thrown in the towel.

Except he hasn't.

The mainstream media is just SO FREAKING STUPID sometimes!

Truffles by the Sea by Julie Carobini

THis week's blog tour book is Truffles by the Sea, the second book by fellow Californian Julie Carobini. She's an award-winning writer whose stories often spotlight her family, the sea, and God's timely work in the lives of those around her. She lives with her husband, Dan, and their three children in Ventura Beach, California.

She also likes to blog! Go leave her a comment at Waves of Grace.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

If you read, Julie's first book, Chocolate Beach, then you might remember Gaby as Bri’s dramatic, lovesick best friend. Unfortunately, things get worse—much worse—for her before they get…well, best not to give it away.

Sometimes all a girl has left is chocolate...

Gaby Flores has a penchant for drama and an unfortunate knack for dating Mr. So Wrong. After breaking off yet another relationship, watching her apartment building burn to the ground, and discovering that her dippy delivery guy has run off with most of her business, Gaby decides it’s time to turn things around.

So she moves to a tiny waterfront loft and takes on a new motto: “Be gullible no more!” With help from her friends, she works to rebuild her flower shop—and her life. But when legal troubles and quirky neighbors and two surprising romances enter her beachy world, Gaby’s motto and fledgling faith are put to the test.

Can a young woman prone to disaster in both work and love finally find happily ever after?


"Truffles by the Sea is delightful! Julie Carobini has a new fan in this reader, and she's earned a spot on my keeper shelf." --Kay James, RomanceReaderatHeart.com


"This book is a delight to read, and the author has us rooting for Gaby from page one. This girl's never-say-die attitude is incredible, and her life is filled with all kinds of foibles. This is chick lit with heart – about so much more than finding a man.... While keeping the light chick lit tone, this book satisfied while avoiding the tired old formulas. Just when I’m ready to give up on the genre, I stumble across an author who can write without relying on stereotypes." --Cara Putman, writerinterrupted.com


"I liked Julie Carobini's first novel, Chocolate Beach, but her sophomore release, Truffles By The Sea, greatly surpasses it. I thoroughly enjoyed Carobini's second book and felt her writing was much stronger throughout. The characters are deeper and yet funnier – a great combination.... It's a great read for a cold winter day – you can curl up with the book, a nice fire and pretend you're the one by the sea." --Jill Hart, RadiantLit.com