Territorial Birthday Gift

Oklahoma is 100 years old this year. I'm having a birthday too but I'm not quite that old. However, I love old historical things and Oklahoma is full of late 1880s history. In fact, one town, Guthrie is a step back int time. The old buildings and homes of this first state capital town have been beatifully perserved. Every December, Guthrie hosts the Territorial Christmas celebration. Townsolk dress up and step back in time. There are carriage and trolly rides, historical tours, and at night a Victorian Walk in which the shop windows are filled with living Christmas cards, shop owners welcome you inside with a cup of wassail and warm cookies, carolers abound, children in period dress sell peanuts on the streets, and an entire building is filled with Christmas trees decorated by hand in wonderful old-time methods.

Visiting Guthrie and partaking of the great historical fun was my birthday present this year. And it was also GREAT research for the historical Christmas novella I am currently writing for Barbour.

Miracle of a new baby

I had the most amazing experience yesterday. My son and daughter-in-law invited Gene and I, along with her mom and grandparents, to a 4-D ultrasound of our unborn grandson, Noah. The place was set up very nicely with a large sectional for family and a nice twin bed for Mommy. Daddy had a chair beside the bed. A large screen, plus a TV screen were positioned so all could see. And then, the miraculous show began. Baby Noah, whom we await with great excitement anyway, is now so real to us. We've seen his precious face with the big eyes like his Daddy had, the tilted little nose and the perfect, round face. We've watched him kick his legs, cross his feet, and suck his fingers. He is a real, unique little person, blood of my blood, bone of my bone, that we have yet to meet.

Today's technology is marvelous. A baby is a miracle.

Advent thoughts

My family never celebrated advent. In fact, I didn't understand the concept until recently when I decided to put more Christ into my Christmas and less of the media's idea of the 'holiday'. I will never be politcally correct because, no matter how much a small, deluded group of people try to change it, Christmas is Christ. And more importantly, Christ is everything. And everything He brings into life, everything He stands for and wanted for us, is so wonderful and so positive and so loving. I cannot understand why anyone would want to push Him out of the season--or out of their lives, for that matter.

One of the ways I'm keeping focused on Jesus this season is by reading a scripture each day from the Old Testament that pointed to the coming Messiah. I am amazed and blessed to see how clearly God heralded Christ's birth and ministry over a thousand years before it happened! Check it out for yourself: Isaiah 9: 6 is perhaps the most amazingly clear, but there are many others.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Middle School kids are great!

I had the nicest experience recently. Moore West Middle School invited me to speak to 9th graders during their career day. I'll admit some trepidation. Ninth graders are not known to suffer fools gladly or to be polite or even politically correct unless they want to be. Well, I was wonderfully blessed by this group of kids. Six classes rotated through to hear my spiel on the joy of being a working novlist. They were awesome. The questions they asked were insightful and intelligent. They were polite and listened as though my words were gold. They were warm and welcoming. I think I may have even met a future John Grisham and a future Amy Tan.

Sure, some of them had weird hair and funky outfits. But beneath the tatoos and the orange dos, were a building full of great kids. I hope they invite me back some time.

Life is short--Pray hard and play hard, too!

Life is too short for drama & petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly!"--unknown

I don't know who wrote that, but I wish I had! It truly describes my feelings about life. We just don't have time for pettiness and unforgiveness. Life is a gift from God to relish and live as fully as we can. One thing I've learned along the journey is an absolute truth: Happiness is a choice that we make or don't make. And every moment we spend fussing or unhappy is a moment we'll want back some day.

Be blessed and joyful today and every day throughout this holy season of Jesus' birth.

FINISHED!

The only thing more fun for an author than starting an exciting new book is the pleasure of typing "The End". Yesterday I finished a 2009 book for Harlquin Romance which, as yet, has no title. Today I'm working on AFS or the art fact sheets Harlequin authors fill out to help the art department come up with the perfect cover. Most people don't realize that the authors don't create the covers. In fact, we don't have total say on the title either. That's why the book I just finished has no name. :-)

Anyway, back to the AFS. These are extensive questions about the book that include a short synopsis, three scene ideas that show the tone of the story, a ton of information about the characters' looks, personality, and character, plus descriptions of the setting, which in this case is the glorious Rocky Mountains. Preparing the AFS is a great deal of work, but the end result is a better cover.

Thanksgiving tradtions at our house

Thanksgiving was awesome at our house! We were incredibly blessed to have family, friends, and folks we hadn't seen in a very long time come for dinner. Being a traditional family, we had all the usual things with the addition of fried wild turkey. If you haven't tried this, friends, it is incredibly good.

After everyone was shamefully stuffed, several of the men headed for their deer stands to hunt while others plopped down to watch the Dallas Cowboys. We ladies purused the sale papers for Friday's big shopping day and later, played some dangerous games of Scattergories and Scrabble. For a person who makes a living with words, I am really, really terrible at Scrabble. But the fun and laughs and commraderie are worth the humiliation of getting 'whupped' in word games.

So, what does your family do on Thanksgiving?

EGG-splosion

Someone once told me never to put a cat in the microwave. Well now, that made perfectly good sense. I don't cook cats. Why would I ever consider such a thing? However, I do cook eggs, but I learned a valuable lesson about microwaves and eggs. Never, ever try to boil an egg in the microwave. Here's egg-zactly what happened.

I boiled an egg the regular way and after peeling away the shell, I was egg-zasperated to realize the inside was still a little soggy. So I popped it into the microwave for a few seconds. All was well until I removed the egg and cut into it with a knife. POP! Suddenly, I was blinded, momentarily thank goodness. When the smoke, or I should say, egg cleared, I was covered with yellow dots. I was covered, my kitchen was covered, everything except the chicken salad, the real destination for my egg, was covered. I'm not egg-zaggerating. My daughter and I spent the next thirty minutes removing egg from some strange places including the ceiling .

After all the egg-citement my chicken salad sandwich remained eggless. I wasn't about to try that egg-speriment again!

Bet you don't want to come to my house for Thanksgiving dinner!
Linda

FREE Booksigning in Dallas!

I'm back. My goodness, it's been a busy year. But if you live in the Dallas area I am coming your way! June 13, Friday from 10-11:30, I will be with 39 other Harlequin/Steeple Hill authors at the Dallas Hyatt Regency giving away free books! Yes, free. Can you believe it? It's a promotional opportunity in conjunction with the Romance Writers' of America's national conference. I am so excited about meeting some of you and giving you a free, autographed copy of my brand new August release from Love Inspired--MISSIONARY DADDY.

Don't miss it! Be sure and tell me you read about it on my blog. I can't wait to see you!