Hey, y’all! Jeff Gerke, the former fiction manager for NavPress and once-helm-director of Realms, has gone freelance. This is awesome news for those of you who need an intense, highly-qualified critique of your manuscript. I’m telling you, Jeff gave me *awesome* help on my manuscript that was under consideration at NavPress. He worked with me and was ever so gracious. I highly recommend you consider contacting him for either a synopsis review or manuscript critique. Contact Jeff at jeff@jeffersonscott.com Oh–and be on the lookout. This man has a great new website coming. I plan to promote it here!———————————————————————————-Well, my twin/clone Dineen tagged me on a meme created by “the secretly wants to be a suspense writer but writes chicklit,” Meredith …

Well, I had someone email me and say, Wow, Ronie. You’ve been going through a lot. And it hit me that my posts have been about trials and tough times. Since life is about much more than the trials, let’s concentrate on good stuff. So, I thought I’d start a tag list…you know, one of those dastardly things where you tag someone and make them follow suit. Mwuh-hahhahahaahaha. 😀 So often we see the trials in our lives, the bad times, but I want to focus on the good things, the blessings. Thus, we’re going to count off our blessings like this: A friend who has blessed me: (there are so many…) Dineen An unexpected gift: an editor recommended my …

This morning, I woke up with this song on my mind: Something On My Mind (by Hawk Nelson)Take the train,Go separate ways,And leave it long forgotten.I’ll hang my hat,and I won’t be back.On my way out,I’m feeling lame.Am I to blame?Or am I just too jaded?And I won’t be back,what’d ya think of that? When it feels like life’s wastin’ away,I can say: that whenThere’s something on my mind,It takes my concentration.Just wanna lay it on the line,Avoid all confrontation.I’m gonna say this one more timefor all my generation,you’ll never, ever pull my lever not today and not forever (not today and not forever) Those last two lines are the ones that were repeating over and over in my head …

And the winner of the FREE copy of Tricia Goyer’s Arms of Deliverance is Pam Meyers. Congratulations, Pam!! Please email me your snail mail address so I can get this in the mail to you. For those who didn’t get their names drawn, I hope you’ve enjoyed the sample chapter so much you’ll run out and purchase a copy. I promise, you won’t be let down!!

Arms of DeliveranceChapter 1 Katrine squared her shoulders and instinctively pressed a hand to her stomach as she stepped through the open doors of the café, past the yellow sign that read NO JEWS ALLOWED. She paused as the strong aroma of coffee and cigarette smoke hit her face. Men and women clustered around tables. Beautiful people in the height of their glory. Looking around at the room’s flocked wallpaper, ornate light fixtures, and marble flooring, she found it hard to believe that not too far away a war stormed. Not only battles for land and power, but a war against a people—her people . . . or what used to be her people. Tucked between France, Holland, and Germany, …

I’m thrilled to host as my very first authoer interview, TRICIA GOYER, for her Arms of Deliverance blogtour. I’ve visited many others who have participated in this blogtour, and while they may hold some claim to fame on knowing Tricia, I don’t. But that’s kewl by me. 😀 I love WWII-era historicals and totally flipped over Tricia’s. Her stories are intriguing and her characters, compelling. On the ACFW e-loop, Tricia sent a teaser for this book, and I positively drooled at her characterization of those characters, how in one paragraph she could make me care about a girl I’d never met!! I e-mailed her and told her I loved, loved, loved her writing. Well, she said just for that, she …

Well, since Blogger is being so doggone finicky…I’ll post these pictures separately. SIGH. First is me and bestest bud, Neen. *sigh* Nothing like feeling complete — after all, we are emotional clones. 😀 Right, Neen? She’s da bomb, y’all. And I’m keeping her–and I get downright possessive. tee-hee. Sorry, I’ll behave. (maybe) This other photo–well, we’re fast-forwarding to the ultimate purpose for our trip. Brian’s sister, Julie, got married July 11. She and surfer (now-)hubby Mike said their nuptials at the beach you see behind us in this family photo. Following the ceremony, food and cake were served. We won’t mention the chocolate cake taht started melting and was soon dubbed, Lava Cake. :- After the wedding, we all downshifted …

Well, I won’t unneccessarily bore you. 😀 After Truckee, we headed back to San Rafael where we had a 4th of July/Ciara’s birthday BBQ. We watched fireworks from the train tracks across the street. By about this time, we were having vehicle problems–again! Last year, we made this same trip, but with Brian’s parent’s travel trailer and luxury van. Sadly, the van broke down because of a mechanic’s error in prepping the van for travel. *sigh* anyway, so this time, we arrived in our 1997 Expedition–which was shuddering as if she had a bad cold. It’s not a good thing when the CHECK ENGINE light comes on–it’s worse when the thing is blinking at you like a sparkler! So, anyway, …

Wowzers! it’s been eons since I posted, but I have a legitimate excuse…I was on vacation. We left Texas early the morning of July 1, which was my eldest daughter’s 13th birthday. With that note, the first picture I’m posting is of Ciara (pronounced KIRA) and some of her birthday celebrations… The girl is amazing. She’s already 5’6″ and has this very “exotic” taste in clothing and style (which she was born with–imagine matching your clothes at 2 years of age, when other children are worried about which wall to use markers on!!). Ciara is a very laid back young lady, except when it comes to spiders (tee-hee). She’s very into nature and animals, and oh–let’s not forget her obsessive …

Jeff Gerke is guest blogging at: http://rebeccaluellamiller.wordpress.com about his un-hostile takeover of the editor’s panel discussion at Mt. Hermon. Because I write often in this genre, my bestest bud, Dineen Miller told me about Mr. Gerke’s comments, as did Camy Tang. Naturally, I savored these nuggest and his borderline-prophetic claim that Christian sf/f would make its comeback in 2-5 years. If you’re looking for encouragement in speculative fiction, check out this blog entry. ———————————————————————————– Dear friend Beth Goddard gave me an idea Friday. I think i’ve made her uncertain about approaching me with ideas, because I tend to horde what little bit of “free” time I actually have after homeschooling and college work every day. But this idea…it restored my …