Write Thinking

FINAL POST ON WRITE THINKING

As detailed in an earlier post, I have relocated my four blogs (Write Thinking, Fact and Fiction, What's New in Christian Fiction, and Thanksgiving Journal) all into one blog on my web site. I'm doing this to make for a better reading experience. My web site is undergoing a makeover, but when it launches, I think readers will be really pleased with what they find.

So if you are a follower of Write Thinking on Feedblitz (via email) or on Typepad, please take a moment to visit robinleehatcher.com and subscribe (via email or RSS reader) or follow (via WordPress) to the new blog location. It only takes a moment. Wouldn't want you to miss any contests or book releases or special events.

In the meantime, here are the covers of two upcoming releases.

~robin

 

Typepad Does Make Exceptions

Yea! After my post and tweet about the policy stated in their Help section, Typepad contacted me and said they do make exceptions to that rule. I'm happy to say that I received my refund and that my old blog archives have been downgraded to a free Microblog. That means I don't have much choice about how the blog looks, but I'm fine with that. I just want it for historical purposes and have no plans to post here in the future. (Although never say never, right?)

~robin

 

Movin' on Up

My web site is getting a total refresh. It'll be a month or two before it goes live, but I've already moved my blog (including all the archives from the past decade) to its new location. When the web site is finished, the blog will be more fully integrated into it for a better reading experience.

If you enjoy Write Thinking and reading my miscellaneous musings, I hope you'll join me at robinleehatcher.com. I'll be closing down this blog in a few weeks as it has a paid host, so I don't want to linger long. Please change your bookmarks and RSS feeds.

~robin

 

My Blogging Personality; Who Knew I Had One?

I got this from Angela Hunt who got it from Cindy Swanson (whose blog I read but the feed for her blog only gives a few opening lines so sometimes I miss good stuff if I don't click through).

I like having an "Artistic and Passionate" blogging type.

Your Blogging Type is Artistic and Passionate

You see your blog as the ultimate personal expression - and work hard to make it great. One moment you may be working on a new dramatic design for your blog... And the next, you're passionately writing about your pet causes. Your blog is very important - and you're careful about who you share it with.

What's Your Blogging Personality?

So what's your blogging personality?

~robin

a bit of housekeeping

This post is primarily for those who follow this blog through the Typepad dashboard. I am slowly importing my archived blog posts from my original blog location (Diaryland) to this one. Those posts were made between January 2002 and October 2004. I doubt those older posts will be of any interest to most readers. I'm just doing this in order to have all of my archives in one location.

Unfortunately, all of these posts will show up in the Typepad dashboard, so here is my blanket apology for those readers this affects.

~robin

Refreshing My Website & Blog

Every so often, I get a yen to change my on-line presence, giving my web site and this blog a new look. It's sort of like moving the sofa or the bed to a different location in the living room or bedroom. It just feels good.

Another change I've made is that this blog is now more closely tied to my web site with a new address: http://robinlee.typepad.com. You can still get to Write Thinking with the old Typepad address, but if you link to my blog, I'd love it if you would change your link address to this new one.

Finally, if you previously "Liked" my blog under the old Typepad address, I'd love for you to go to the new blog address, then "Like" Write Thinking again (see the link in the right sidebar).

So what do you think of the new position of the sofa? {{grin}} I thought the little bird in the header was perfect for a Robin. Now back to work on the WIP.

~robin

Is Your "About" Page Current?

Boy, mine wasn't! I apparently haven't looked at my blog's About Page for a long, long time. It was creaking with age when I opened it. So I gave it a once over and here's what I came up with:

Biography:

I'm a woman whose life is full of wonderful relationships (family and friends). I'm a follower of Jesus, doing my best to walk according to His will and not my own. And finally, I'm a novelist with over 60 published books.

I began blogging back in early 2002. My plan was to record what it was like to write a novel. I quickly discovered that doesn't make for very interesting reading. Most days go like this: Get up, shower, dress, eat, go to office, check and answer email, open work-in-progress, write, break for lunch, return to office, check email, write, when head starts to explode give up for the day. Next day get up and do it again. B-o-r-i-n-g! So I began to blog about my spiritual journey and about things I like: My family, my dog, reading, the theater (especially the Idaho Shakespeare Festival), the Idaho outdoors, movies, TV shows, knitting, MacBooks and iPhones, etc. In other words, Write Thinking is rather eclectic, like me.

A reporter once told me that after reading my website and blog she felt like she'd just spent a morning sitting at my kitchen table and sipping coffee while we visited. She felt she really had come to know me. I took that as the best of compliments.

So come on in for a visit. Look around Write Thinking, and if you have the time, drop over to my web site, too. I hope you'll feel warmly welcomed.

*********************

For those looking for a more professional biography, here you go:

Robin Lee Hatcher is the best-selling author of over sixty books. Her well-drawn characters and heartwarming stories of faith, courage, and love have earned her both critical acclaim and the devotion of readers. Her numerous awards including the 2000 Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction, the 1999 and 2001 RITA Awards for Best Inspirational Romance, Romantic Times Career Achievement Awards for Americana Romance and for Inspirational Fiction, and the 2001 RWA Lifetime Achievement Award. Catching Katie was named one of the Best Books of 2004 by the Library Journal.

Robin began her writing career in the general market, writing mass market romances for Leisure Books, HarperPaperbacks, Avon Books, and Silhouette. In 1997, after several years of heart preparation, Robin accepted God's call to write stories of faith and hasn't looked back since. She has written both contemporary women's fiction and historical romances for CBA publishers, and in 2009 her 60th book, A Vote of Confidence, was released, launching a new series (The Sisters of Bethlehem Springs) that looks at the question, "Who says a woman can't do a man's job?" The setting is Idaho during the WWI era.

Robin enjoys being with her family, spending time in the beautiful Idaho outdoors, reading books that make her cry, and watching romantic movies. She is passionate about the theater, and several nights every summer, she can be found at the outdoor amphitheater of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, enjoying Shakespeare under the stars. She makes her home on the outskirts of Boise, sharing it with Poppet the high-maintenance Papillon.

---

So what do you think? Have I captured the tone of who I am and what I blog?

~robin

50 things that changed our lives in the aughts

After reading this article in my local paper, I just had to share with my blog friends.

50 THINGS THAT CHANGED OUR LIVES IN THE AUGHTS
By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer

NEW YORK – Was it only a decade ago that a blackberry was a mere summer fruit? That green was, well, a color, and reality TV was that one show sandwiched between music videos on MTV?

There were, of course, huge political and social upheavals that roiled our world in the past decade. But there were also the gradual lifestyle changes that you don't always notice when they're happening — kind of like watching a child grow older. Here's an alphabetical look at 50 things that changed our lives since the beginning of the millennium:

AIRPORTS: Remember when you didn't have to take your shoes off before getting on a plane? Remember when you could bring a bottled drink on board? Terrorism changed all that.

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: From acupuncture to herbal supplements to alternative ways of treating cancer, alternative medicine became more mainstream than ever.

APPS: There's an app for that! The phrase comes from Apple iPhone advertising, but could apply to the entire decade's gadget explosion, from laptops to GPS systems (want your car to give you directions to Mom's house in Chinese, or by a Frenchwoman named Virginie? There was an app for that.)

AARP cards ... for boomers! Some prominent Americans turned 50 this decade: Madonna. Prince. Ellen DeGeneres. The Smurfs. Michael Jackson — who also died at 50. And some prominent "early boomers" turned 60: Bruce Springsteen and Meryl Streep, for example.

AGING: Nobody seemed to look their age anymore: Clothes for 50-year-old women started looking more like clothes for 18-year-olds, tweens looked more like teens, long hair was popular for all ages, and in many ways women's fashion seemed to morph into one single age group.

BLOG: I blog, you blog, he blogs ... How did we spend our time before blogging? There are more than 100 million of these Web logs out there in cyberspace.

BLACKBERRIES: Considered essential by corporate CEOs and moms planning playdates. Introduced in 2002, the smartphone version is now used by more than 28 million people, according to its maker, Research In Motion Ltd.

BOOK CLUBS: Thanks in part to Oprah Winfrey, the decade saw not only a profusion in book discussion clubs but a growing reliance on them by publishers.

CABLE: Cable 24-hour news made the evening network news seem quaint, cable dramas reaped Emmys ... and at decade's end, even Oprah was making the move to cable.

CAMERAS: Remember those trips to get film developed? Nope? Even your grandmother has a digital camera, and she's probably e-mailing you photos right now or uploading them to a photo-sharing site.

CELEBRITY CULTURE: Celebrity magazines fed a growing obsession with celebrities and the everyday minutiae of their lives. By decade's end, we were still obsessed, though Britney Spears and Angelina Jolie had ceded many covers to reality stars like Jon and Kate Gosselin. Celebrity Web sites like TMZ took hold mid-decade.

a new blog award

It's always nice to receive a compliment. Dawn at the Solicitous Scribe has paid one to Write Thinking by passing along the Butterfly Award for an Awesome Blog. Thanks so much. I'm honored.

Getting an award on a morning when I lack something to say makes me feel a little guilty. So pardon me if I just ramble.

I've spent the first seven days of the new years taking care of tax papers for my corporation and for my homeowners association (I'm the treasurer), as well as working on the early pages of my new WIP (set for release in May 2010). Yesterday, I began to feel like my writing feet are now on firm ground and I'm ready to start setting my daily writing goals. Yea!

Before Christmas, my publisher sent me a comp of the cover for my November 2009 release, which I will refer to at this point only by its initials, FTBT. Although it was very close, it still needs tweaked, so it will probably be a number of weeks before I can share it with my blog readers.

And finally, just after the new year, I received hot-off-the-press copies of my February release, When Love Blooms. That means the books are wending their way through the distribution channels and could begin showing up in stores in another week or two. Keep your eyes peeled.

-rlh-

a blog award

A great big thanks to Britannie over at the Book Lover blog for awarding Write Thinking with this blog award. I'm honored by your appreciation.

I suppose every blogger gets into it for different reasons. Way back in 2002, I began to blog because I thought readers of my books might like to see what my days looked like as I wrote a novel from beginning to end. I found out that my days as a writer sounded pretty boring when put on paper. Today I wrote ten pages. Today I wrote eleven pages. Today I wrote... Big deal. Yada, yada, yada. {grin}

Very soon I found myself using the blog more as a spiritual diary, writing down things I felt God was showing me. After I migrated over to Typepad, I began to think of my blog as a place to share a glimpse of me, as a writer, as a person, as a Christian, as a daughter, as a sister, as a mom and grandma, as a friend, as a neighbor, as a book lover and a movie buff, as an observer of our culture, as a patriot — and all the other parts that make me, me. And so the blog became more eclectic.

So thanks, readers, for stopping by Write Thinking. I love it when you participate by leaving comments. I love knowing you're "out there" somewhere.

-rlh-

Monday post at Writes of Passage

Today over on Writes of Passage, one of my readers/prayer team members shares her surprise at how different the publishing process is from what she thought it was. Plus I mention my new historical series. Pop over for a quick look.

-rlh-

livin' it on Writes of Passage

I am posting today over on Writes of Passage about the need for an author to get out and experience life if they want to have experiences to share in their stories. I included a mini interview of my granddaughter and one of her horses, soon after she'd been bucked off when her mare spooked. Drop over and have a quick look.

-rlh-

My interview on Favorite PASTimes

I was interviewed recently by Favorite PASTimes, and the first part is up today on their site. Hope you enjoy.

-rlh-

what would you take back with you in time?

I'm blogging about my creature comforts and time travel over on Writes of Passage today. Drop over and tell me your list of must have items that you could fit into a tote bag.

-rlh-

a love of history

I'm blogging today over on Writes of Passage about my love of history. Pop on over and check out this new historical writers' blog.

-rlh-

PS It is early morning at the end of our Plot, Play & Pray retreat. The house has only begun to stir. Two of our nine had to leave last night and the rest of us will head for the airport this morning. What a blessing these women are to me -- my prayer partners, my sisters, my dearest of friends, my trusted confidantes. Praise His name for knitting us together in such a special way.

a new blog for historical romance readers

A new blog is on the horizon, one I hope you'll read and enjoy. It's called Writes of Passage, and it will feature blog posts from five authors of historical fiction: Robin Lee Hatcher, Tamera Alexander, Lori Copeland, Kim Vogel Sawyer, and Tracie Peterson.

The blog will go live on July 28th, and I hope you will help spread the word about it. Although we have yet to begin, I anticipate that this will be an eclectic blog, sometimes about writing and sometimes about the every day lives of writers whose minds are often stuck in the past. We hope you'll join us.

-rlh-

Dirty Harry's Place

I discovered Dirty Harry's Place via Barbara at Church of the Masses and I get quite a kick out of this guy's posts. Here is his Mission Statement:

To what extent this site can, we will promote, aid, and encourage those in the entertainment community doing right by liberty and America.

To what extent this site can, we will shame those in the entertainment community still capable of feeling shame into doing right by liberty and America.

To what extent this site can, we will expose and ridicule the shameless who seek to do harm to liberty and America.

A favorite recent post from the 4th of July:

Top Five: Movies That Say Great Things About America

Today’s list isn’t about the holiday, the American Revolution or the Founding Fathers… Think about it this way; a cute, little, innocent alien from a peaceful planet lands in your backyard and wants to know about America. Not the dry historical stuff, but who we are as a people and nation. What we represent and believe. Before you hand your new found friend over to the CIA for interrogation and dissection, which five movies would you screen? Here are mine with the short comment I’d make after explaining the choice:

1. Glory (1989) - Every generation, better than the last.

2. They Were Expendable (1945) - What men this country creates.

3. An American In Paris (1951) - What art this country creates.

4. Rocky Balboa (2006) - Only in America.

5. Independence Day (1996) - You sure you came in peace?

Imagine what liberals would show the poor thing. All that porn, Al Gore and Michael Moore… No, the CIA is definitely more compassionate.

Robin here: Every one of those movies makes sense to me for the reasons stated. And, secret confession ... I watch Independence Day whenever I stumble across it on cable. No, it is not great filmmaking or a classic by any means. But there is just something fun about whipping those bad aliens who are out to destroy all mankind.

-rlh-

the way things aren't anymore

Dan over at Cerulean Sanctum has written a great post called "No Shield Big Enough." It's so good, I don't want my readers to miss it.

I think about "innocence lost" often, especially when I'm with my grandchildren. But Dan is right. There is no going back now.

-rlh-

Excellent Blog Award

A couple of weeks ago, I learned that Cindy at Notes in the Key of Life had bestowed the Excellent Award to Write Thinking. I kept meaning to blog about it, but hadn't yet found the time. Then this morning, I learned that Curtiss Ann Matlock at Pressing On, who recently discovered my blog, has bestowed it as well. (Tit for tat, Curtiss Ann awarding me the E caused me to discover her blog.)

Deadline being what it is, I still lack the time to ponder who I want to pass along the award to, but here is a quick list of blogs I always enjoy:

Angie at A Life in Pages

Dan at Cerulean Sanctum

Randy at Eternal Perspectives

Kristin, Colleen, Denise, and Diann at Girls Write Out

There are many more blogs in my Bloglines, but this is where I'll begin. Excellent blogs that I highly recommend and upon which I am now bestowing the Excellent Award.

---

I am off to get a massage (boy, do I need it), and then it is home to pound out another ten pages. It's going to be tough trying to finish this week (deadline is Tuesday but I may need at least a couple more days). Still I'll give it the old college try.

Spring has arrived this weekend (again). We will have temps in the mid to high 70's. From furnace to AC in a few short days. Well, I won't run the AC. I will open windows and let in the fresh air. Hope it is lovely where you are, too.

-rlh-

God and Dog Walking

I have really fallen in love with Kathryn Mackal's blog, God and Dog Walking (I walk the dog — and grace willing—God meets us out there on the path). I subscribe to it on Bloglines so that I never miss an entry.

Today's entry is a favorite since it features my Poppet (both my joy and my headache). So bop on over and find out more than you ever wanted to know about my pooch, then take some time to poke through past entries. You'll be glad you did.

-rlh-

Blogrush

Over on the right hand side of my blog, you'll find a widget for Blogrush, a cool new way to build traffic to your blog. If you have a minute, I recommend clicking on that bottom tab (where it says BlogRush) and taking a look at this free program to help you build buzz about and traffic to your blog. There are videos on the site that you can watch to help you learn about this free service. You get to choose the category your blog is in. I've chosen blogs about "Writing and Literature." (New categories come out this Friday, so I'm hoping I can narrow mine a little bit.)

So check it out. Join the network.

-rlh-

PS The blog graphic I'm using in this post is one meant to show the color of the widget only. It isn't how the widget shows on your blog. This one is Licorice (black). The one I'm using in my sidebar is Cherry (red). And there are two widths as well.

this and that

Sorry for the protracted silence/spotty blog posting. I'm still deep in revision-land, trying to keep track of the various changes I've made as I work my way through this old manuscript. But I have a few things to say today, so here goes:

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My latest book has arrived at my house. It isn't in stores just yet, but it should be available soon. The book is Hearts Evergreen (Steeple Hill, November). There are two Christmas romance novellas in this book, mine (A Cloud Mountain Christmas) and one by Katheryn Springer. This is a mass market romance, and that means it comes and goes from stores in the blink of an eye. If you want a copy, buy it soon.

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Jill Eileen Smith has an interview spotlight with me on her web site that some of you might find interesting. She asked lots of writing related questions.

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I am currently involved in the Breaking Free bible study by Beth Moore. I believe Beth is a truly anointed teacher, and I never do one of her studies without God revealing something to me that I never expected going in. If you've never done one of her studies, I highly recommend them, especially Believing God.

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Heads Up!  Would you like a chance to win one of three hardcover copies of Amy Grant's new book, Mosaic? Well, tune into this blog the week of October 15th for details. I'm currently reading a copy of it now, and it's a lovely mixture of lyrics and memories, bits and pieces of Amy's life so far.

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I would really like to own an iPhone. Seriously, I would. They are too cool. But AT&T's cellular service in the Boise area is not good. Too many complaints about it for me to leave Verizon which has been the best cellular service for me. Plus I've got lots of long distance friends on Verizon, too, and I enjoy our free chats.

Anyway, I decided to try out the new iPod Touch, having been led to believe it would work as my PDA for contacts and calendar. Ooh, truly cool device. It's so thin and light. It is the iPhone without cellular service. Only I got it home, and I learned that, unlike the iPhone, the Touch doesn't allow me to add new appointments to the calendar. Contacts, yes. Calendar, no. How stupid is that? It is the same technology as the iPhone, and they leave off that capability. I took it back to the Mac store since it does me no good if I can't enter appointments in it when I'm out and about.

At the end of the month, when I'm eligible for the new every two, I'm going for a Verizon Blackberry and putting an end to my iPhone envy.

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This week the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is featuring Kristin Billerbeck's The Trophy Wives Club. I featured it in an earlier blog post. It was delightful! In her usual witty chick lit voice, Kristin tackles a serious topic. This is now my favorite Billerbeck novel.

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Okay, back to the revision salt mines.

-rlh-

blog tours in the NYT

Angie Hunt sent me a link to an article in the New York Times that is definitely worth reading if you are a writer and/or a blogger. (You must have a NYT log-in to read, but it's free, so sign up if you need to.)

The Author Take Q.'s Now:

“When you’re not in the book business you think, of course they’re going to send you around,” she said.

Chances are, unless an author is especially high-profile or promising or willing to pony up for expenses, they’re not.

Fortunately for Ms. Cohen, her memoir has made it onto at least one best-seller list even without a traditional reading and signing tour. She credits a write-up in People magazine, along with a newer publishing tool: the blog book tour, in which an author pops up on a series of blogs, usually over days or weeks, variously writing guest posts, answering questions from the host or sitting for a podcast, a video interview or a live chat. The blogs’ readers may comment and leave more questions. Ideally, they follow links to the author’s Web site and to an online retailer like Amazon.

Again, worth reading.

-rlh-

PS  Please note that both of the authors pictured in the NYT article are using Apple laptops as is the author pictured above. Must be significant in some way. Don't you think?

my garden spot

I am always inspired by writers who wax poetic about planting and tending and growing beautiful flower gardens. I love to see what they've created. But the truth is, I'm not much of a gardener myself (love to look at gardens, hate to weed them). My thumb is several shades away from true green. My new home has rose bushes and shrubs planted out front, but in back, I've opted for pots of plants. Quick to water. No weeding. Next year I will add more.

Friend and fellow author Deborah Raney has created a fun new blog about authors and their gardens, called The Plot Thickens. I finally sent her a couple photos of my "garden." Authors are listed alphabetically by last name, so be sure to scroll through them all. It's really fun to see.

-rlh-

tagged again

Some memes I ignore, but how could I ignore one created by BJ Hoff for writers and readers? I couldn't so here are the questions and answers.

1. What's the one book or writing project you haven't yet written but still hope to?

I'd love to write a modern day parable about Peter walking on the water. I just haven't come up with the story that goes with the concept. But it's been rolling around in my head for years, so maybe the answer will come to me some day.

2. If you had one entire day in which to do nothing but read, what book would you start with?

I try to always begin my days with time in my Bible. But if it was a whole day just to read, I have a stack of To-Be-Read novels. In that stack are the latest novels of several of my favorite novelists, both historical and contemporary. It would depend on my mood which one I reached for first. If a new Francine Rivers' book was in the stack, it would probably be my first choice.

3. What was your first writing "instrument" (besides pen and paper)?

I did write my first two and a half books with pen and paper at home. Then I typed them on an IBM Selectric at the office where I worked. My boss allowed me to use it on coffee breaks and lunch hours. I bought my first computer the month my first novel was released (Feb 1984). That computer had two floppy disk drives, no hard drive, and an orange monochrome screen.

4. What's your best guess as to how many books you read in a month?

I'm a very slow reader. My pleasure reading is done at bedtime and I don't usually last very long before it's lights out, even when the book is good. My guess, one novel per month, and usually one non-fiction every month or two.

5. What's your favorite writing "machine" you've ever owned?

I became a Mac enthusiast in early 2006, and I love both my MacBook and my iMac (both are Intel versions).

6. Think historical fiction: what's your favorite time period in which to read? (And if you don't read historical fiction--shame on you.)

I can't name just one: WWII era (USA or Europe); Regency and Victorian England; American West of the 1800s.

7. What's the one book you remember most clearly from your youth (childhood or teens)?

Old Bones, the true story of a race horse. That was a favorite grade school read of mine. Little Women was a standout from my early teens. And I used to own every single book from the Trixie Belden series.


Now, I think I shall take the easy way out. If you are a writer and/or a reader, take these questions to your blogs and answer them yourself. Then leave a comment to this entry so others can go read your answers. Of course, if you do it correctly, you're supposed to tag seven people. Or you can be lazy like me and see if you get some volunteers.

Technorati Tags: meme

Seven random things

My friend Angie tagged me with the seven random things meme. (Little known fact: Richard Dawkins coined the term meme, which first came into popular use with the publication of his book The Selfish Gene in 1976. Dawkins based the word on a shortening of the Greek "mimeme" (something imitated), making it sound similar to "gene".)

Here are the rules: Each blogger should list 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to then report this on their own blog with their 7 random facts as well as these rules. They then need to tag 7 others and list their names on their blog. They are also asked to leave a comment for each of the tagged, letting them know they have been tagged and to read the blog.

Okay . . . here goes.
1. I first became a grandmother at the age of 41.
2. I used to raise horses and compete in timed events (barrel racing, pole bending, etc.). I was also in the Ada County Sheriff's Mounted Posse-ettes (a drill team on horseback).
3. My favorite girlhood books were the Trixie Belden series. Nancy Drew was okay, but Trixie rocked.
4. One of my favorite all time novels is Gone With The Wind, and I love the movie too. Thus my very first novel was what I refer to as "the poor man's Gone With The Wind." (It didn't quite measure up to the classic.)
5. When I was still doing theater, a director told me that I was a "natural born ham." No comment.
6. I'm working on my 55th book.
7. I'll have a devotional published in a Bible next year, a first for me.

I'm tagging Colleen Coble, Robin Bayne, Tammy Alexander, Camy Tang, Deb Raney, Katy Raymond, and Rachelle Gardner.

Happy Saturday!

-rlh-

Rockin' Girl Blogger Award

Angie at A Life in Pages has presented me with a Rockin' Girl Blogger Award. I'm honored, of course, but I've been so remiss in posting regularly since I began the moving process that I feel a bit guilty accepting it. Add to the problem that Angie passed along the award to lots of my favorite girl bloggers and she got the award from one of my favorite bloggers. Thus, I have a real dilemma giving it to five more favorite reads.

Wait a minute. I can take care of four with one blog.

Girls Write Out (Kristin Billerbeck, Colleen Coble, Denise Hunter, and Diann Hunt)
These gals are a fun, fun bunch. Their posts are usually humorous, although they do sometimes tackle serious topics.

No Rules. Just Write. (Brenda Coulter)
Always interesting.

Congrats, gals, and thanks for the great reading, both blogs and books.

Robin

Technorati Tags: Blogger awards

Thinking Blogger Award

Cindy over at Notes in the Key of Life gave me a "Thinking Blogger Award." I'm really honored, especially since my recent posting has been mostly of the "lite" variety due to deadline and preparations for selling my house.

In presenting me the award, Cindy said: "Another terrific fiction writer who blogs, Robin's blog is always fresh and relevant, and prompts me to think about all kinds of things--cultural, faith-related, fiction-related or otherwise."

Thanks, Cindy. I'm honored and humbled.

-rlh-

Technorati Tags: Blogger awards

happy blogday to Write Thinking

Five years ago today (January 26, 2002), I wrote my very first blog post of what I thought would be a record of writing a novel from start to finish. It wasn't long before I found I enjoyed blogging about my faith walk more than saying, "Wrote five pages yesterday." It was clear to me that, like most jobs, much of the day to day of writing a novel is not exciting or interesting to others.

My readership really kicked up a notch when I left Diaryland and moved to Typepad in October 2004. That's also when I began to read more blogs and gain on-line friends.

A few days ago, I read on BJ Hoff's Grace Notes that blogging is down. Maybe so, but I'm still enjoying it. However, I've never felt the pressure to make this a job. It's fun, like calling up one of my BFFs and having a chat over the phone.

That's about as deep as this particular post is going to get. I've had a busy week writing, then was at the hospital with my mom again in the ER, and then caught some sort of bug. Fortunately, it doesn't feel like it (the bug) is going to stick around. As for Mom, she's bounced back too. We probably won't know what caused her illness, but at least we ruled out most of the bad stuff.

And now I'm getting back to work.

-rlh-

Technorati Tags: blog birthday

the Bible in America

From Michael Hyatt's weblog, From Where I Sit, this post:

The December 18 issue of New Yorker magazine has a great article entitled, The Good Book Business: Why Publishers Love the Bible. It focuses on the Bible publishing industry in general and Thomas Nelson in particular. It mentions several of our own employees—and former employees. Here’s an excerpt:

The familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact: the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year. Calculating how many Bibles are sold in the United States is a virtually impossible task, but a conservative estimate is that in 2005 Americans purchased some twenty-five million Bibles—twice as many as the most recent Harry Potter book. The amount spent annually on Bibles has been put at more than half a billion dollars.

Robin here: I confess that I buy many Bibles. I buy new ones for my own study and I buy new ones to give away. I am also given new Bibles by my publishers. I have been given so many Bibles in recent years that I recently gave away ten unused ones to a women's prison in Idaho. Sometimes when I think how persecuted Christians in other countries are overjoyed just to get their hands on a few lines of Scripture, let alone an entire Bible, I feel guilty. Can it be a sin for a Christian to own so many Bibles? Sometimes I think it must be.

I have my favorite Bibles, of course. They are underlined and highlighted and have notes scribbled in the margins and at the top and bottom of the pages. They worn and torn and wrinkled and are beloved because God has used them to speak to my heart. I like to have different versions of the Bible so I can compare translations and gain a deeper understanding. But there is something quite sad about an unused Bible. Better for me to have one less translation than for someone who needs a Bible to do without.

In the grip of His grace,
Robin

brainstorming & the intuitive writer

I missed the fact that a column of mine, Brainstorming & the Intuitive Writer, is up over on Charis Connection, posted on Thanksgiving Day. I guess I was too busy eating turkey to check blogs.

-rlh-

From the Deep Places

I'm blogging today over on Charis Connection. My post is called From the Deep Places. Here's a clip:

Soon after my first CBA novel, The Forgiving Hour (a story that deals with adultery and forgiveness), was released in 1999, I paid a personal visit to my publisher. One of the sales representatives made a comment that he thought the story rang so true because I'd experienced that particular betrayal (twenty-five years earlier). I remember saying something to the affect of, "If I have to personally experience every story the way I did this one, it'll kill me."

I'm not dead yet, but I have found myself mining those deep places of personal experience in the books I've had released since The Forgiving Hour. How can a writer do otherwise? No matter the subject matter of the novel I'm writing, the lessons God has taught me and is teaching me find their way into the fabric of my stories. They can't help it, and neither can I.

Pop over and read the entire post. And leave a comment if you feel so inclined.

In the grip of His grace,
Robin

got a story to tell?

Rachelle over at Seek First His Kingdom is looking for stories about women for a book she is writing. Why not pop over for a visit and see if you have something you might want to submit?

Here's a snippet from her post:

Falling Forward

Most of us remember, as young girls, singing, “Ashes, ashes, we ALL fall down.”

As grown women all too familiar with faltering, stumbling and falling, we might hear that song in our heads and think, “Ain’t it the truth!”

Christian women are not immune to failure. At times, we’re vulnerable to falling down a variety rabbit holes, and landing ourselves in Not-So-Wonderlands.

What’s your rabbit hole? For some it is depression or despair. For others it is falling into discontent or restlessness. Sometimes we fall into hopelessness or grief. We are all susceptible to discouragement and feelings of unworthiness.

Other times we fall into sin. The pressures of our lives mount up and we fall into addictions to numb our pain: overeating, alcohol, drugs. Our desire to be loved and cherished can cause a fall into relational or sexual sin. Success in life can lead us to fall into pride. Then there’s shopaholism, jealousy, gossip, anger—need I go on? You get the picture. Even the best fall down sometimes.

And when we do—what’s next?

We all learn from others in the body of Christ. Perhaps your story can lift and encourage your sister.

-rlh-

a chuckle for your morning

I have nothing worthwhile to say this morning. I need my head in my manuscript. So I thought I would post this photo I got a few days ago with the caption:

HOW TO TELL THAT YOU ARE DRIVING TOO FAST

Have a great day and slow down!

-rlh-

confess your secret

Check out this site: MySecret.tv

saturday sundries

My Garden:

I do not have a green thumb by any stretch of the imagination. I do not enjoy digging in the dirt, planting, weeding, etc. That is not my gift. I fully appreciate the beauty of those who do garden. While the front of my house is landscaped, including purple wildflowers, roses, potentillas, shrubs (which are in the process of being trimmed as they are out of control), some sort of pretty ground cover, a mock orange, etc., my backyard is lawn, a curly willow tree, and a huge lilac bush. I did have some rose bushes, but they were in too much shade and never did well. I had them ripped up and sod laid. My dogs were also a detriment to the roses, especially Poppet who loves to run the length of the back fence where said rose bushes used to be.

I love my backyard (except for the size of it when it comes to mowing and weed whacking). The curly willow casts shade across it starting in mid-afternoon and lengthening as the day progresses. Mom and I enjoy sitting on the patio on the porch swing in the cooler parts of the day. But we have missed the color that flowers bring to a yard. So this week I bought a "portable garden" in an urn, and it's amazing how it brightens things up.

Straight Up:

I was fortunate enough to be asked to do an advance read of Lisa Samson's next book, Straight Up (September 2006). PW gave it a very lovely review, and I concur. Here is what I had to say:

What if we chose differently in life? Straight Up is pure Lisa Samson — original, raw, and laced with grace. As always, Lisa's characters came to life in my imagination, becoming my friends. This book made me cry and also allowed me hope. What a treasure.

Lisa Samson has an original voice, and she doesn't pretty up the realities of life for her fiction.

What Brings People to Write Thinking:

Every once in a while, I look to see what people search for on Google and other search engines that ends up causing them to follow a link to my blog. Sometimes they are just down right funny. Typepad only shows this information for 24 hours so these are just what I can find in that time frame as of about 6:45 a.m. MDT:

Golf AND blister AND right thumb
How to write ten pages per day
Robin Lee
Mining theme for Christian women's retreat
I have an ugly thumb on my left hand
"Philip Anschutz" trusted assistant
Write farewell note
Hand pain golf
Write cheerful farewell notes

It appears that the problem with that blister on my thumb from golfing has created quite the traffic. Not sure about those farewell notes. And who is Philip Anschutz? Hmm. I must have quoted him or something.

---

Well, that's the end of my Saturday Sundries.

Until next time, may God keep you ...

In the grip of His grace,
Robin

a friday feast kind of friday

I'm working on my book, trying to keep up with the yard work, running errands for the household, etc. But none of those things have generated any good blog material. Thus, I haven't blogged in a few days. So I'm going to indulge in a Friday's Feast. Here goes:

Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you like your job?

A 10. Oh, there are plenty of parts of being a writer that I dislike at times, but those times come and go. No job would suit me better, that's for certain.

Soup
When was the last time you think you were lied to?

Yesterday.

Salad
Share some lyrics from one of your favorite songs.

All things work for our good
though sometimes we can't see how they could
struggles that break our hearts in two
sometimes blinds us to the truth

Our Father knows what's best for us
His ways are not our own
So when your pathway grows dim, and you just can't see Him
Remember you're never alone

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart

He sees the master plan
And He holds our future in His hands
So don't live as those who have no hope
All our hope is found in Him

We see the present clearly
But He sees the first and the last
And like a tapestry He's weaving you and me to someday be just like Him

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart

He alone is faithful and true
He alone knows what is best for you
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand trust His heart
*****(Trust His Heart by Babbie Mason on the Timeless album)

Main Course
What do you do/take when you are in pain?

I ice it or heat it, and eventually I'll take an Aleve if necessary.

Dessert
Fill in the blanks:  My __________ is very __________.

My Papillon dog Poppet is very high maintenance but still brings me joy. (Photo above is of Poppet sitting on my mom's bed.)

-rlh-

feedblitz on typepad

Typepad has added some new features, one of which is the ability to sign up for FeedBlitz. All you do is enter your email address in the little sign up box over in my sidebar. For subscribers (that's you), here is how it works:

• Register with FeedBlitz
• Add the blog or web page URLs to track
• You get a simple daily digest of any changes

FeedBlitz monitors the information you care about and delivers it to your inbox. Simple. No popups - ever. No gurus required. No software to install. And because it's email, unlike typical web services, you can look at the content offline in your email software - on your laptop, phone, PDA, at the airport, wherever you can read your mail.

Multiple Feeds, One Daily Email. Each night (US East Coast) the free service checks on your feeds, figures out the changes, and sends you a single, easy to read email with all the information at your fingertips. If there are no changes, you won't get a message, so FeedBlitz won't clutter up your email system with worthless emails. Even with an online aggregator having a daily digest backup is useful, as your email software has search, sort and indexing capabilities that many aggregators simply don't.

Looks like a nice little feature. You might want to give it a try.

-rlh-

oops

If you tried to follow my link to Kristin Billereck's blog post yesterday, I apologize. I pasted the link to Terry Whalin's blog into both of my recommendations. Sorry! Some of you already have these two blogs linked, so I know you made it there despite my oops. The error has now been corrected.

-rlh-

i'm moving

Yes, I'm in the process of moving, but not from one house to another. From one platform to another. I have joined that Mac "cult." After 22 years of using PCs, I am now learning to think and compute in a new way. I've been considering this change for more than two years. Probably closer to four. What's stopped me is WordPerfect. It is the best word processor out there. But WP stopped making software for the Mac. Now I shall be forced to use Word all the time instead of just for the Track Changes during editing. Sigh...

Still, for a number of reasons, I decided now was the time to make this move. I'll be quiet for a number of days as I move files and get everything working the way I want it. But never fear. I'm alive and kicking and also getting very close to finishing my rewrites.

Oh, I finished my Scripture memorization class. I came away with a lot of ideas and tips. My first goal: Romans 12. I'll let you know how it goes.

-rlh-