Catching up

What a busy, busy summer! Seems like I've been home very little, but that's not really true, either. However, I have made several trips to Mesa, AZ, to be with my hubby. The good news on that front is that after eight months of waiting and working toward a building permit for the church he's supposed to build there, he got word on Friday that everything has been approved and the building permit will be issued this week. You would not believe the nitpicky details this city has put this church through in order to get to this point. So for a building that should be almost finished, hopefully they will be moving dirt and actually getting a start on this thing before the end of the month. We certainly hope and pray that the inspections won't be quite so intense.

We made a trip to San Diego in July, as well. My first time at my brother's house in Carlsbad since they moved there almost fourteen years ago! I know. Very sad. With Roger working in Mesa, though, it makes it easier to get there for us. And we'll be returning the end of September for my niece's wedding.

Late in July I flew to Philadelphia and the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference to assist Marlene Bagnull, the director, with running that conference. I went a week early to help her with the last-minute details, many of which didn't get completed until after the conference started. We had a different setup this year that we had to work around, but the conference was excellent. This was my first time on faculty at this conference, and it was a great experience. About fifty people showed up at my self-editing tips workshop on punctuation. Wow! I had no idea punctuation could be so popular! LOL And I met many people from new writers just starting out to the more experienced. What a blessing it was to serve at that conference again.

Next week I'll fly back to Mesa for a couple of weeks, then come home to attend the American Christian Fiction Writers annual conference here in Denver. It's great that it will be here, but it does add some responsibility onto those of us who are ACFW members here in Colorado. My main responsibility will be coordinating the airport pickups for the faculty, board members, editors, and agents who will be here, as well. So . . . more fun times! Thankfully, a sweet friend has offered to be my "slave" for this time, so I plan to put her to work as soon as I have more details to work with.

In the meantime, after several months of the Lord making it very plain that I'm to be writing, I started this last week dedicating two hours every day to write. Now if I could just get it to work with my editing schedule (that didn't go so well last week), I'd be a happy camper. But I do know that God rewards obedience, and it will take a few weeks to get used to this new schedule. So . . . I do have two deadlines this week. Definitely could use some prayer support.

I'm ready to post a few more reviews that I'm behind on. From now on you will only see reviews and information on the books that I have committed to read and review. Those will still be posted on Wednesdays and Fridays of the weeks they are scheduled. On the other days, I'll try to be more consistent with self-editing tips and suggestions for revisions and writing as I work through my own projects and learn what works for me and what doesn't. And of course, I'll have the occasional devotional.

In spite of the busy week ahead, I do plan to get back in the swing of posting most weekdays. I hope you will join me and leave the occasional comment, too.

Have a blessed and productive week!