Friday, December 14, 2007

December 2007 Update...

Rather than try to keep everyone up-to-date on my "happenings" via emails and long phone conversations, I'm going to post a monthly update here. Stop back often to see what new projects I'm digging into!

I'm excited this week to announce that I'm working on two new books that will be published in 2008 -- although I'm not sure of the exact date. While my agreement with the publisher won't allow me to provide a lot of details, I can say that I'm writing two books (for kids ages 9-12) ...each book will highlight a popular music star. One is a very popular hip-hop artist...the other a well-known rapper. My deadline is January 31, 2008, so I have a lot of work to do in a short time...but it's going to be a fun experience, I'm sure.

On the article front, well, I'm going to have to slow that pace down a bit while I focus on the book deals. For the past few months, I've been writing a lot of articles on a variety of subjects and sending them out for consideration in publications. For the most part, though, I've been digging into interviews with some really fantastic Christian music artists. Since July, I've hung out/talked with Leeland, Kutless, and Grey Holiday. (Their articles already appear on CBN.com, and will also appear as the cover story for several issues of Credo magazine next year.) In the next few weeks, I'll be adding Sanctus Real, Michael Gungor Band, and RE:ZOUND to that list. Just this week, I also had the great fortune of speaking with Dr. Gary Chapman about his Love Languages for Children book. I'll be taking his information and developing a few articles for publication.

Back to the book front...two books that I contributed to were released in October. One Year Life Verse features my daily devotional for a day (I can't remember which one!) in July. The other book, Along the Way for Teens, is a super book that's a collection of true stories that are sure to inspire our youth. My chapter "Three Moments of Glory" is the first chapter in the book!

And then there's all that other stuff that would fill up too much space in a blog...additional book chapters, greeting cards, a permanent spot with a quarterly magazine and the possibility of a column with a large teen magazine.

Gotta run...gotta write!

Monday, December 10, 2007

It's winter...live with it!

It occured to me last night that the winter blah's are setting in, and there's really no way around it. As he flipped through the pages of the calendar, my five-year-old son reminded me this morning, "Hey Mom, the first day of winter is still coming!" With 16 inches of snow covering the ground already, it feels like winter found its way to Wisconsin months ago!

I'm not a big fan of winter. Call me silly, but where's the fun in this?
  • Melted snow in my front hallway after all the neighborhood kids decided to "stop in" for a few minutes. (Not to mention that I stepped in one big puddle just two minutes after putting on a pair of socks!)
  • Mismatched mittens in every corner of the hallway, car, closets, but not one pair to be found anywhere!
  • Slushy snow lining every parking lot, making it nearly impossible to move to and fro' without splashing some on the back of your pant leg...or into your shoes!
  • Frozen car seats and steering wheels.
  • A fading summer tan.
  • Mean holiday shoppers pushing their way through the aisles, not even sparing the smallest of children.
  • 20 degrees below zero...and a wind chill factor of -58!

"So move!" you say. "Quit whining and move South." Yes, you're not the first one to offer up that bit of advice. And while I seriously consider that option between the frigid months of November and March, I'm reminded of these things:

  • Family. Everyone lives within an hour of my home, so I can avoid interstate traffic and FAA regulations when I want to spend time with loved ones during the holidays.
  • Snowmen, snow angels and shovels. Nothing tops watching a five-year-old playing in the snow!
  • Crackling fireplaces.
  • Imagery. There's just something about a light snowfall that makes the season complete. It's a little hard to get that in a warm climate.
  • Deer tracks in the snow across my front lawn.
  • Big sweaters that conceal the extra holiday pounds!

So, whine I will...at least until the first signs of spring. I've been in denial, thinking that maybe this is the one year that winter will forget to rear its ugly head. I've been hoping that 80 degree weather, leaves and green grass will magically appear some day before the crack of dawn. It's not looking too good, though. It's almost winter...and I'm going to have to live with it!