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I’ve set up a “meet-up” group for
Christians interested in studying the law of attraction and God’s other
universal laws. We’ll meet in person on the 2nd Thursday of each
month. If you are in the vicinity, you may
find details at
Hope to see you there!
I decided to do something fun with our photos from the trip to Utah for the LDSBA Convention and the Clean Romance Club Meet and Greet. I set the photos to music -- "My Brown Eyed Girl" performed by my nephew, Noah Collins. This is a live recording of the song from a Christmas party a couple years ago. Hope you enjoy it!
I have a feeling that this week will be one I'll look back
on and call pivotal. Greg and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary on
Monday. He gave notice at his "summer job" and will be giving his
personal chef business more attention for the fall and winter when things
generally pick back up. We went to lunch yesterday and discussed our
expectations, etc. With him gone and working so much, it's renewed my understanding of how important it is to be together as a family and do those things that
strengthen our marriage and children.
Which brings me to the heartbreaking news I received
yesterday - one of my best friends has been diagnosed with breast cancer and must
have a radical mastectomy with radiation. It breaks my heart to know my
beautiful, vibrant friend must endure this pain and heartache. It doesn't seem
fair, doesn't seem right that this young mother of three small children must
endure such suffering.
And then my mind goes back to the law of polarity … that
within every horrible thing there is an equal and opposite good. Somewhere in
this pain is joy. Somewhere amidst this heartache is happiness. Inside this
challenge are lessons and treasures that could be obtained in no other way.
It is my prayer that she and her family will find those blessings hidden amidst this challenge and receive the miracle that awaits at the journey's end.
I got back from Utah Saturday night. What a whirlwind trip! I was on the go the whole time. Marcia picked me up at the airport Tuesday night. We ate dinner at Joe's Crab Shack in Sandy and sang along to Bon Jovi as we headed for our hotel in Provo. On Wednesday, Marcia had a signing in a room Granite arranged just outside the main convention hall. We connected with our old friends Grace and Danielle Edwards (book buyers).
Because the table was outside the main convention hall, traffic was thin. So Marcia and Grace started singing "I'll Be There" in perfect harmony and started drawing people in. What voices those two have! I wish I had a camcorder!
After Marcia's signing, we talked to the folks at Granite a little and left for a light lunch and a movie. I'm glad we took the time to kickback and see Stardust while we could because it's about the only downtime we had to just have fun and enjoy ourselves.
After the movie Marcia dropped me off at the convention center where I met up with my friend/editor Julie Bellon. She was manning the Whitney Awards booth with Robison Wells and BJ Crowley. The convention closed at 5pm, and Julie and I went to dinner at Chili's, dropped by her house and watched a movie and then went for a drive, ate ice cream and talked. It was a nice relaxing evening. I tease Julie and tell her she's my therapist. :) She's an excellent listener.
It was approaching midnight by the time Julie dropped me off at my hotel in Provo. Marcia was still out visiting with an old friend so I caught up on some computer work for a few minutes before she arrived. It was nearly 1pm by the time we got to sleep.
Thursday morning, we arose bright and early to return to the convention center for Marcia's primary signing in the convention hall. The lines for "A Touch of Sage" were incredible. It's a good example of "anticipation" getting people excited about a new book. This book had been delayed in its release and everyone was chomping at the bit to get it.
The salesman at Granite was cracking me up because he kept calling Marcia "Steamy McClure." I don't think she liked it, but I thought it rather fitting and funny. :) If you like "sizzle without the sin" you'll enjoy The Touch of Sage!
We spent most of Thursday hanging out at convention. We did take a break to grab some burgers at Fudruckers. We had our marketing meetings with Granite, and I turned in an expanded version of Savannah Nights to them for possible inclusion in The Love Notes Series. We'll see if they like it or if it fits what they're looking for...
After convention we headed back to the hotel and just relaxed a while, talking and reading chapters from each other's works in progress. Marcia had me laughing so hard my sides were splitting... thus the silly expression in this photo. :) After a quick dash across the street to Dairy Queen (and hours of talking) we hit the hay... again close to midnight.
Friday morning, we didn't have to get going quite so early, so we ended up talking and almost arrived late for our meeting at Granite to pick up books for our Meet, Greet and Eat. After a brief meeting, we loaded down Marcia's compact car and her sister-in-law's VW with books and started for Layton. We grabbed our food on the run and went to my mother-in-law's in Layton to unpack and rest for an hour or so before going out to shop for the evening's event. Can you see us both - pushing very heavy-laden carts around Wal-Mart - 5 cases of bottled water in each? I really need to work out before I go to these things! The heat was sweltering - around 100 degrees. As we were unloading, we realized we'd neglected to pay for some name tags. So Marcia ran back in to pay for them while I unloaded 10 cases of water into Marcia's car.
Her poor little vehicle looked like a low rider by the time we were done - the trunk filled with cases of books that she'd have to take home with her and the backseat loaded down with 10 cases of bottled water. On top of that, one of her tires had a slow leak so we kept having to stop and put air in the tire.
After a brief stop at my mother-in-law's to prepare the prizes and hop in the shower, we reached the pavilion around 5:30. People had already arrived to help out. And low and behold - there were no light bulbs in the facility AGAIN this year. I'll be honest, I was a bit miffed because I'd specifically told them to check the light bulbs. Last year we had to clean up in the dark. Fortunately, they gave us an emergency number - which I called - and after an hour or so some fellows showed up to add light bulbs.
It was a great evening - really hot - but it went well. We had around 120 people in attendance according to our estimations. The Touch of Sage was a hit and the cowboy hats we had for our "posse" were very popular. Marcia kept calling the helpers we'd lined up "our posse" so I thought it would be fun to give them my favorite cowboy hats to wear. That way people could tell who to go to for help with buying books or what-not. We also gave a few hats away, and they ended up being the "collector's item" of the evening. :)
A special thanks to Shoshanna, Danielle, Weezy, Denee, Kristy, Julie J., and Jody and the others who chipped in and helped with the event - many of which stayed til after eleven to help us clean up! We couldn't have done it without you all!
Marcia left early Saturday morning to get a couple new tires for her car before driving 8 hours to Colorado. My plane left at 1pm and I arrived in Chattanooga without luggage at 9pm. Fortunately they rounded up my book-laden suitcases and delivered them the next afternoon.
For more photos, click here.
This is our second day at the LDSBA Bookseller’s Convention
in Sandy Utah. I thought I’d take a moment to
post a note and a picture of Marcia signing books at Granite’s booth (which she's doing right now). Book
buyers receive free copies of her latest two releases – The Touch of Sage and
Divine Deception along with bookmarks of her inspirational hero husband – Kevin –
in cowboy attire.
It’s been a blast hanging out with Marcia. She’s one of
those magnetic personalities that people gravitate to because she makes everything fun. This morning on the drive to the convention center, I asked her how she
does it. For heaven’s sake, she had a 19-year-old boy hanging around asking
her about her books yesterday!
She gave me her secret. Do you want to hear it? Shhhh… don’t
tell her I told you… Come a little
closer and I’ll reveal the secret she told me. The secret is that her goal with
every person she meets – whether it’s a waiter at a restaurant, a postal
worker, or a shipping boy at her publisher's –- is to make them feel special and important.
Paraphrasing what she told me this morning, “People have so
many hard things in their lives, and I just want them to meet someone who makes
them feel special – one person who brightens their day.”
It’s that kind of positive thinking about other people that
draws others to her. It comes through in her smile, in her eyes and in the way
she interacts with others. Marcia makes it sound simple, but I have a feeling
that it’s a way of thinking that’s taken years to develop. It's a way of thinking I'd like to try to emulate. Think about it... what if each of us looked at every person we met and thought,
“This person is a child of God and is special. I want them to feel that way
today.”? I think the world would be an amazing place – a heavenly place to
live. Maybe we'd all be walking around smiling and feeling as great as I have this week hanging out with Marcia!
I'm gearing up for my trip to Utah this week. I'll be there for the LDSBA Convention in Sandy, Utah on Wednesday and Thursday with my pal Marcia Lynn McClure. She's launching her long-awaited "The Touch of Sage" at convention and I'm so excited for her! This book is definitely one of her best. It's absolutely hilarious!
We're having our 4th annual "Meet, Greet and Eat" with readers in Layton, Utah on August 17th from 6:30pm - 9:30pm. Details are on the Clean Romance Club site. We're both excited to see everyone! It's always a blast to meet readers and enjoy an evening of food and fun.
Last Thursday I bought a notebook computer and a Sprint broadband wireless air card for it. After 17 years of operating on dialup, I finally have high speed wireless! It zips right along and the great thing about this gizmo (my daughter despises that word, so I'm using it here for her benefit) is that it inserts through a USB port so I can use it on my desktop when I'm at home and then move it to the notebook when I'm on the road. Have wireless will travel! If you need something like this, Sprint is definitely the best. I tried Cingular/AT&T's and it was slower than my dialup! Needless to say, I took that back and went for Sprint. Thankfully, they're living up to their name.
Back to the world of books... In Love We Trust & Second Sight
Well, that's my recap for now. I'll try to keep in touch from Utah, but if I don't you'll know it's because I'm having too much fun!
I know ... I know ... I've fallen behind in my blog writing again. But it has been crazy around here. First, our water main broke last week. It's on our private drive so the water company won't fix it. The "men folk" spent all day Saturday working on it to no avail. So we had absolutely no water from Sunday morning until Tuesday morning. Not fun. I can so appreciate all those people I write about who lived with no running water. Poor, poor, people. God rest their souls.
Fortunately, my brother-in-law Chris is a whiz-bang at water pipes, having formerly been the superintendent for the City of Lombard, IL water company. He had it fixed in about 30 minutes. Now, why oh why, didn't we call him on Saturday? I told the other men to call him, but I guess they thought they didn't need him. From now on my motto is "call in the professional - myself!"
Now that I can bathe and do mounds and mounds of dishes and laundry, that's what I've been doing. Along with getting my latest release to the printer. It's a two-stories-in-one volume which includes former ebooks "In Love We Trust" and "Second Sight." It should be ready for the "Clean Romance Club Meet, Greet and Eat" in Layton, Utah on August 17th. Details on that are here.
I've been working like a busy bee getting all that arranged. When I've worked myself to complete exhaustion (like I did today), I'm kicking back with Donna Andrews' techno-mystery "You've Got Murder (A Turing Hopper Mystery)
It's so good, I don't want to put it down. Then again, my six children have to be fed every once in a while and customers do need my attention. But I hope to finish it tonight. Tomorrow, I'll head back to the library to find some more books in the series. Okay... off to finish the book.
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