Preacher's Daughter

2009-08-10T13:49:00.001-04:00

This blog has been moved to
http://jamiecarie.com/wordpress

Thanks for visiting!

Jamie

2009-07-31T16:57:00.004-04:00

Day 15 - Myrtle Beach, SC

We are having problems uploading photos today so I will add those when we get home. Home! We fly out tomorrow and will be back in Indy by 3:00 pm!! Can't wait to get home and sleep in my own bed.

Tonight we are headed to the Myrtle Beach Books-A-Million store for a signing from 6:00-8:oo pm. I've heard it is a really busy store so it should be a good signing event! Julie, my publicist will be there and I'm very excited to see her again.

Funny story - last night Tony and I drove in to Myrtle Beach and arrived at 11:45 pm. We rushed to get unloaded and then walked out across the sand and waded in the water. It was dark and a little scary but fun. Anyway, we realized that we hadn't eaten all day and were hungry. But when we got back to the room everything was closed. We didn't want to lose our parking spot so we ate dinner from the vending machines! LOL! I had popcorn and salt and vinegar chips and Tony had Cheetos, pretzels and TGI Friday's Taters. Yum!

2009-07-30T10:04:00.007-04:00

Day 14 - Columbia SC

Well, we're on day 14 of the tour and got a call from home saying our 12 year old cat, Tigger, was really sick. My mom and boys took him to the vet . . . we ended up having to put him to sleep. Tony and I are trying to hold it together as we drive to the BAM stores in the area to do drive by signings. Good bye sweet Tigger :-(

2009-07-29T19:20:00.005-04:00

Day 13 - Albany GA - Columbia SC

The Last Long Haul

Today we drove from Albany, GA to Columbia, South Carolina. Whew, I'm feeling a bit low. I'm missing my family (my boys!) my friends and neighbors and my mom and sister!! I called and 3-way talked to my sister, Jen and my mom last night. It was great! I can't imagine not having them in my life. I also miss Indianapolis!! I LOVE Indy and didn't realize how much until being gone from there for so long. I always thought I was a gypsie at heart but I think I'm getting older and love my roots now too. Tony is toast - ready to go home.

BUT - the Lord is giving us strength and grace when we walk through those doors to sign books. I believe He still has some amazing moments in store here in South Carolina. I AM TOTALLY looking forward to seeing Myrtle Beach. What a great way to end this wonderful adventure.

Here are some pics of Georgia back country (the Garmin took us on the back roads today). This land has a nostalgic feel about it of the old south. We saw cotton fields and old looking, must have been in their day, plantations. There were some small towns that looked hundreds of years old. And the trees here! They grow them in rows, like a field of oaks or maples, leading up to the plantation house. I've got to reread Gone With The Wind when I get home :-).

Met a French woman at the Albany booksigning and she bought Love's First Light (I told her not to in case I had messed up the French history - lol!). So, in her honer I will sign off now.

Chow, ya'all.

Jamie

2009-07-28T23:02:00.002-04:00

Day 12 - Albany GA

Albany Georgia Books-A-Million Store Manager - Jeff

Thanks LifeWay for placing my book on the LifeWay Recommends section.

Such a lovely setup by LifeWay Store Manager - Mike

Norma

Sandra

Debbie

The Albany Georgia LifeWay crew - Mike, Heather, Mary, and Jodi

LifeWay Store Manager - Mike

2009-07-27T10:46:00.011-04:00

Day 11 - Macon GA

Up at 4:00am to do a TV interview with the local NBC affiliate, WMGT-TV 41. You can catch the interview here. I am so not a morning person!

The Lamb’s Well Christian Bookstore Signing

Please Help! - We misplaced the card where we listed all the names for this event. If you see your photo, email me and I'll be glad to add it.

At the Lamb's Well we met some really great people. The weather was heating up and I was kicking myself for wearing black pants, but the signing turned out to be very enlightening - lol!

Hector

The Lamb’s Well Christian Bookstore Team

Another BAM store manager - Sharon. Thanks for letting me do a "drive by" signing!

The Macon Georgia LifeWay Team - Samantha, Terri, Angie, Elise and Rebecca. Thanks for making me feel so welcome! Angie was such a great help and so kind. A big thanks to Kevin (hope you get those windows done soon:) God's blessing to you all.

Gloria came out from the back of the store later. She is a real sweetheart!

Newlyweds Fred and Evelyn - they were just glowing! Congratulations!

David - Books-A-Million Store Manager and so funny! He was making me crack up the whole time I was there.

BAM

2009-07-26T14:16:00.002-04:00

Day 10 - Macon GA

Books-A-One Store Signing

2009-07-25T10:30:00.007-04:00

Day 9 - Columbus GA

The Second Half of Our Journey Begins

Today I had a signing at the LifeWay in Columbus, Georgia. The manager, Kevin, and his staff were once again, beyond friendly and welcoming!! Lots of ladies came in with their books that they had already read and bought a copy of LFL (my shorthand for Love's First Light). It's always such a fun jolt to meet women who have read my books - I'm still in that zone where I think I have to lure people to my table with bookmarks and then pitch my stories in my most engaging manner. But when I see a Snow Angel in hand or a Duchess, wow! I have readers!

The highlight of today was an interview with Kim Ford of Window to my World blog. Kim wrote my all time fav review of Wind Dancer so I was really excited to meet her in person. She will post the interview on her blog in the next few days. Thanks so much Kim! You are a jewel in God's kingdom!!!

Patti

Kelly

Margaret, Jo, and Jo's sister-n-law

Mary Catherine

Sheila

The LifeWay Crew - Minnie, Kevin, Pam, Dana, and Kevin

Kim Ford

2009-07-23T23:10:00.004-04:00

Day 8 - Columbus GA

On the road again...

1,500 miles and slap happy

2009-07-23T12:21:00.006-04:00

Day 7 - Hunstville and Decatur Alabama

WYAM-TV Interview

Suzie Wiley

Just returned from an interview with Suzie Wiley at WYAM-TV in Decatur, AL. She is a hoot, as we say in Indiana and made the interview so much fun!! I'm still laughing thinking about the conversation we had. That's what it was like, more of a conversation with your hilarious friend than an interview. I will post the interview here as soon as we recieve it. Can't wait to see it myself!!

Next stop, booksigning at LifeWay Christian from 5:00-7:00. The manager, Scott, and the employees were super! I met Betty, an avid reader of my books and she said she had come in earlier today to get a copy of Love's First Light thinking I would have such a long line that she might miss out. I laughed at that and signed all the books she brought from home. Maybe one day I will have a line out the door, Betty!

The highlight of the day was seeing Sandy and her son Jesse and Jesse's children (see pic below). Jeff (sorry you had a business trip and we didn't get to see you too!) and Sandy were my parents friends back in our Vincennes days. It was so great to see them again!!

After the signing Tony and I drove to two BAM stores for drive-by signings. I was able to sign all the stock in both stores which was so cool. And I got to meet Joy and Shenika at the big BAM store (they were kind enough to take a quick photo with me:). Thanks girls!

A big thanks to everyone who turned out today. May God bless you!!!

Betty

Keely, Jesse, Sandy, and Lex Biggs - Old friends from home!

Teresa

The Hunstville LieWay Gang - Tamela, Jessica, Melanie, and Gayle

Books-A-Million - Joy and Shenika

2009-07-22T08:49:00.009-04:00

Day 6 - Huntsville, Alabama

Driving.... Driving... Driving...

Whew, you would think a day of driving would feel like a break but Tony and I are ready for some major zzzzz's. :-) After checking into our hotel in Huntsville, which is a gorgeous city btw, we drove to Fayetteville, TN to meet my agent for dinner. Wes is always a calming presence for me. Tony and I have said many times that he is the coolest Christian we know! Cool in the Jesus sense if that makes sense - lol! He is working on his own book and while I'm not a big non-fiction reader, I am looking forward to his insights on men and relationships. I'll be sure and blog on that one after I read it.

I have a 30 minute TV interview tomorrow morning (eeck! that's a long one) and am praying it goes well and the Holy Spirit is leading what comes out of my mouth!!!

Here are a few pics of Wes and Fayetteville.

Tony got really excited. Something about seeing an SR71 or something like that. Men...

Downtown Fayetteville TN

We felt like we stepped back in time in the quaint downtown area.

Cahoots used to be and old jail and certainly looked like it from the outside. The food was fried and yummy.

My dear agent Wes. God sure blessed me with great one! Ditto on the hubby :)

2009-07-21T15:02:00.008-04:00

Day 5 - Dothan Alabama

Day 5 is a blur!

Today I had two interviews - one on TV with the wonderful Jenna Zibton of WDHN 18 ABC Tri-States Today show. Jenna is a polished professional who made me feel right at home during the interview. Next stop was a Bible bookstore, the Dove Christian Supply. The employees were very kind and welcoming. We rushed back to the hotel for an interview with Laurie McLoughlin for Internet Voices Radio "Today's Women." It was a challenging interview and Ms. McLoughlin asked questions that I hadn't been asked before. Also, she was that kind of person that made me think . . . which I loved. Her take on Love's First Light was a perspective that made me hang on her every word. It was different than mine in some ways, but that is my prayer for every book I write. I ask God to annoint, through the Holy Spirit, within the perspective of the reader (and everyone is different!) the message, the light He wants to shine to that reader. I think that is the very best part of being in the creative arts. What I see and create is just one side to that prism of split light that Christophe knows (hero in Love's First Light). Someone else will have another perspective that is just as beautiful as the color blue to one person is the color red to another. It really blows my mind.

The rest of the day is something of a blur as Tony and I are exhasted. Tomorrow we drive to Huntsville, Alabama. It's a long drive but at the end of that drive I get to see the face of one of my favorite people - my agent, Wes Yoder. I can't wait to see him!

WDHN 18 TV Interview

Segment 1 - http://dothanfirst.com/content/fulltext/?cid=71752
Segment 2 - http://dothanfirst.com/content/fulltext/?cid=71762

Jenna Zibton

Dove Cristian Supply

Retha

Myrtle

Donna and Jesse

LifeWay Store

Cheyenne

Denisha, Hayze, Haddley and Nic

Elizabeth and Kyle

2009-07-21T01:19:00.024-04:00

Day 4 - Columbus, Mississippi

New Life Christian Supplies in Columbus was our first stop this morning and oh my! Walked in to such a warm and wonderful reception. Cheri, the owner, sure knows how to run a great store and the other ladies that work there, Millie and Linda were amazing in their excitement to get a book signed. They had read several of my books (Snow Angel and The Duchess and the Dragon were big favorites) and knew my stories as well as I do. It is such a cool, almost indescribable feeling to know people are being blessed by these stories God has given me. I think a couple of women even took off work to come by and get a signed copy! One of the highlights was getting to pray for two, lovely little girls. A big thanks to everyone who came by. I hope you are blessed as much as I was.

Stopped at the BAM store in Columbus on the way out and signed their stock. Love’s First Light is their Faithpoint September Book Club pick so they were happy to have signed copies to sell. Now, we’re off to Pelham and The Amen Corner. Ready for some lunch first. Taco Bell anyone?

Millie and Linda

Betty

Bernice

Pamela and grandchildren

Madison and Caleigh

Robyn

Cheri, Linda and Millie

Pelham, AL

The Amen Corner. Wow, great day so far! The second signing of the day was steady and so much fun! I think the highlight was meeting Erica and her family. Erica reminded me so much of me when I was her age (15) – a fellow bookworm! She had read The Duchess and the Dragon and expressed how much she loved the book. Her face lit up when she saw me which was both humbling and cool as it makes all the hard work and effort, all the times I was stuck while writing something and called out to the Lord to give me that next scene, worth it. Keep writing Erica! God has big plans for your life!! I also met some other teens who are now giving my books a try – such a blessing to minister to that age group. A big thanks to Darrel, Linda and Janet for being so kind and welcoming. Now we’re off to the BAM store in Birmingham.

Meagan and Courtney

Erin and Erica

Linda, Darrel and Janet

Birmingham, Alabama

BAM Signing in Birmingham. Well, first of all Birmingham is gorgeous. We found out that the population is about the same as Indianapolis and I must be a real city girl at heart because I felt right at home! The mall where the BAM store is located was in one of the beautiful outdoor malls like our Clay Courts in Carmel (I wanted to shop!!) and the store itself was two storied with lots of ambiance. Then Christine and Will hung out with us during the signing and made us very comfortable. They were like old friends! The cool thing was that this store has had lots of book signings and they told us about some of the big name authors like Paula Dean and Nicholas Sparks. There was a guest book where the authors had signed their thanks to the store. It was amazing to think that I was sitting in the same chair and signing that book like those authors. Wow, the Lord really does have plans for us that we never imagine! A big thanks to the guy making coffee too (sorry, I forgot to write down his name and my brain is mush about now). He made sure my iced, vanilla coffee was perfect. The best moment was meeting Stephanie and Michelle from Samford University – great gals! Michelle had read all my books and was picking up a copy of Love’s First Light, I hope she likes it as much as she loved the others.

Wow!

Fun family

Michelle and Stephanie

"More bars in more places" :) - Christine and Will

2009-07-19T19:35:00.018-04:00

Day 3 - Meridian, Mississippi

The Bible Belt has some really friendly people! We are enjoying the south – great food, pretty landscape and people who are so polite! A big thanks to the Books-A-Million store in Meridian, Mississippi for a great signing. We even met a family originally from Indiana – the Srogi family. Rachelle has family in my hometown of Vincennes, Indiana and Tony was even babysat by her great aunt when he was a child. Small world!

Books-A-Million - Meridian Mississippi

Greeting people at the door

Joy

The Srogi Family - Ryan, Rachel, and Mason

Bridgette and Diann

2009-07-18T23:49:00.012-04:00

Day 2 - Laurel and Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Today we were in Laurel and Hattisburg, Mississippi. There are some real nice people here.

We did three book signings in seven hours - yes, I'm tired but the folks around here made it fun. Went to the Baptist Bible Book Store, Books-A-Million and a LifeWay Store. Thanks to everyone who came out.

PS - Still working on the Flip video camera issue. Will get video up as soon as I can. :-)

Baptist Bible & Book House - Laurel Mississippi

Greeting people

Signing Postcards at Books-A-Million

Signing at Lifeway in Hattiesburg

2009-07-18T09:42:00.010-04:00

Day 1 - New Orleans, Lousiana

Flew in to New Orleans today. I haven't been here since 1987 and from what I remember some things are the same (The French Quarter) and some things are quite different. Of course, Tony and I thought about Hurricane Katrina and all the devestation that happened down here, but the people are wonderfully friendly and the city seems to be recovering.

It's now 12:36 my time and I'm really tired, but I'm so excited about the coming two weeks that I can't sleep. Our new Flip Camera is having problems so we may have to buy another one. In the meantime I will post pics from the digital camera here and on Facebook.

Our new home for the next 2 weeks.

Historic French Quarter

Louis Armstrong

New Orleans Skyline

Local cuisine at Fisherman's Cove. The Swamp Platter (Turtle soup, fried alligator, frog legs, crawfish tails, crawfish soup, and alligtor sausage.) Tony was brave! I just had a bite of the crawfish soup :)

2009-07-16T19:15:00.003-04:00

Some Photos

from ICRS in Denver

What a great trip! My hubby, sister and I stayed at Estes Park for two day prior to the convention. The rocky mountains are gorgeous and we lived in the hot tub on the deck of our cabin! At ICRS (International Christian Retail Show) I signed 150 books in about 40 minutes. It was so cool to meet booksellers from all over the world. Then I gave a 3 minute speech at the Heart of an Author Luncheon. Public speaking is a real challenge for me and yes, I shook from head to toe while up on stage. But I think I shared my heart for writing these stories and I hope people were blessed despite my nervousness!

Here are some pics from the trip!

Jennifer on a giant boulder (they were everywhere!)

2009-06-24T16:53:00.011-04:00

SUMMER BOOK TOUR

It's here!

My summer book tour schedule has been confirmed! I am so excited about my tour through the beautiful south to promote my summer release, Love's First Light (out in one more week!)!! If you or someone you know will be close to any of these areas, please stop by to see me.

A huge thank-you to Amanda Willis from PR by the Book! These ladies rock at publicity and Amanda has been wonderful and amazing as the coordinator for this tour. Thanks to Julie Gwinn (as always!) at B&H for sanctioning this and everything you do. I can't wait until you and Karen Ball (my wonder editor) join me at the end of the tour in Myrtle Beach, SC! That is going to be so much fun!

Another HUGE thanks goes to Book-A-Million, LifeWay Christian Stores and the independently owned Bible bookstores for letting me come and do a signing! I promise to do my best to make every signing lots of fun!

Okay, drum roll please. . .

SATURDAY, JULY 18
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 1:00-3:00 PM CT
Books-A-Million No. 431
Turtle Creek Crossing
6143 U S Highway 98 #40
Hattiesburg, MS 39402Phone: 601-268-2431
http://www.booksamillion.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

SATURDAY, JULY 18
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 4:30-5:30 PM CT
Baptist Bible & Book House
605 Commerce Street
Laurel, MS 39440-3923
Phone: 601-649-7682
The event is free and open to the public.

SUNDAY, JULY 19
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Sunday, July 19, 2009 at 1:00-3:00 PM CT
Books-A-Million No. 616
131 S. Frontage Rd.
Meridian, MS 39301Phone: 601-485-2278
http://www.booksamillion.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

MONDAY, JULY 20
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Monday, July 20, 2009 at 11:00 AM-12:00 PM CT
New Life Christian Supplies
1920 Highway 45 N
Ste. 2
Columbus, MS 39705-1922

Phone: 662-327-4602
The event is free and open to the public.

MONDAY, JULY 20
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Monday, July 20, 2009 at 3:30-4:30 PM CT
The Amen Corner
2637 Pelham Pkwy
Pelham, AL 35124-1353
Phone: 205-663-2370
http://www.amenweb.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

MONDAY, JULY 20
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Monday, July 20, 2009 at 6:00-8:00 PM CT
Books-A-Million No. 180
757 Brookwood Village
Birmingham, AL 35209Phone: 205-870-0213
http://www.booksamillion.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

TUESDAY, JULY 21
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 2:30-3:30 PM CT
Dove Christian Supply
3112 Ross Clark Cir # B
Dothan, AL 36303-3048Phone: 334-793-5691
http://www.dovechristiansupply.us/
The event is free and open to the public.

TUESDAY, JULY 21
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 5:00-7:00 PM CT
LifeWay Christian Store Dothan
Shops On The Circle3500 Ross Clark Circle
Suite 310Dothan, AL 36303 Phone: 334-678-1718
http://www.lifewaystores.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

THURSDAY, JULY 23
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 5:00-7:00 PM CT
LifeWay Christian Store Westside Centre
6275 University Drive NW
Ste 42A
Huntsville, AL 35806
Phone: 256-971-1646
http://www.lifewaystores.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

SATURDAY, JULY 25
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM ET
LifeWay Christian Store Columbus
Columbus Park Crossing
5555 Whittlesey Boulevard
Unit 1300
Columbus, GA 31909
Phone: 706-653-8662
http://www.lifewaystores.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

MONDAY, JULY 27
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Monday, July 27, 2009 at 2:30-3:30 PM ET
The Lamb’s Well Christian Bookstore
115 Margie Dr.
Ste. E
Warner Robins, GA 31093-7583
Phone: 478-971-2677
http://www.lambswell.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

MONDAY, JULY 27
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Monday, July 27, 2009 at 5:00-7:00 PM ET
LifeWay Christian Store Macon
Eisenhower Crossing
4664 Presidential Parkway
Macon, GA 31206
Phone: 478-405-0428
http://www.lifewaystores.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

TUESDAY, JULY 28
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 5:00-7:00 PM ET
LifeWay Christian Store Albany
Albany Exchange
1218 North Westover Boulevard
Albany, GA 31707
Phone: 229-435-7822
http://www.lifewaystores.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

THURSDAY, JULY 30
BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 6:00-8:00 PM ET
Books-A-Million No. 277
164 Forum Dr.
Columbia, SC 29229Phone: 803-788-4349
http://www.booksamillion.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

FRIDAY, JULY 31

BOOK SIGNING EVENT
Friday, July 31, 2009 at 6:00-8:00 PM ET
Books-A-Million No. 658
Colonial Mall
10177 N. Kings Hwy.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29572Phone: 843-361-1674
http://www.booksamillion.com/
The event is free and open to the public.

It's gonna be a whirlwind!!!!!!!

2009-06-19T13:26:00.002-04:00

Would You Like to Win A Copy of Love's First Light (before it's out in stores!)? It's the Five for Five Contest!!

To celebrate the coming out of my fourth novel, Love's First Light, I am running a very special contest! (I'm so excited!!) All you have to do to enter is get FIVE people to sign up for my free e-newsletter then email me your name and the five names who agreed to sign up! Your name will be entered in the drawing. It's that easy to enter! I will draw FIVE names on Friday, June 26th for a free signed copy. To sign up for my e-newsletter just go to my website www.jamiecarie.com and type in the name in the box on the upper right side of the homepage. To email me just click the "Contact Jamie" button right below the sign-up box.

Big announcement coming soon!!! Check back in a few days for my SUMMER BOOK TOUR SCHEDULE!! This July I will be touring in the glorious south - so come on by if you're able, ya'll!!!

2009-06-14T15:48:00.005-04:00

The Twins Are Here!

My brother, Jason, and his wife, Heather, welcomed their twins, Maegan and Aidan, into the world a week ago! They are so cute and sweet. We are very excited to have babies in the family again!

2009-06-03T10:39:00.003-04:00

First Interview for Love's First Light

Stop over at Window to My World blog to check out my first interview for Love's First Light with Kim Ford on Friday, June 5th. She asked me some really thought provoking questions! Thanks Kim!

Updated link!! Sorry for the confusion/delay!

2009-05-26T11:57:00.007-04:00

Great Time at the Spirit of Vincennes Rendezvous!

We had a blast as reenactors at the rendezvous. I saw people I haven't seen in years, met many new friends and sold a lot of books! The funniest stories involved the "rat man" Silas Moore. He walked around with a giant rat in his cage and talked to kids in character. He claimed to have found the rat in the food court and then asked my sister to marry him. Jen is terrified of rats and called him repulsive, running back and shielding her eyes with her hand to ward him off. That only made him more determined to have her! He explained that he had 140 acres in Kentucky and as his first wife had run off (taking their thirteen children with her) he was ready to start on the second thirteen. It was too funny!! Other reenactors throughout the day ran up to our lean-to and asked, "Is it true? Are you really going to marry the rat man?"

Rat Man's wife meets Jen!

One of my readers stopped by from Olney, IL - Wilma Cotterell. She told me to write faster and make my books longer - ha!

At the end of the event I drew ten names for a free copy of Wind Dancer! And the winners are!

Harold Edwards
Christina Brothers
Teri Brewer
Evan Wildebrand
Hanna Wise
Linda Werling
Caroline Sumner
Laura Branson
Nelda Judge
Marcia Henson

A big thanks to everyone who stopped at my "lean-to" and a special thank you to Junior Fischer for allowing me to attend and to Leo for, well, everything!

God bless you all!

Jamie

2009-05-15T09:15:00.003-04:00

Eye Opening

I have been working on the discussion questions for my fifth book, Angel's Den, and delving deeper into the topic of domestic violence. I found this article on verbal abuse that was pretty eye opening! I also found an article titled Biblical Battered Wife Syndrome: Christian Women and Domestic Violence that raises all sorts of questions and issues. What do you think about abused women leaving their spouses to seek help and/or divorce?

Oh, and isn't this book cover great?? I just saw it this week. A big thanks to Diana Lawrence over at B&H for another fantastic job!!!

2009-04-29T17:37:00.002-04:00

What Do You Think?

I am currently reading the third book, Eclipse, in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers and I gotta say, I can hardly put them down! I started the first book to see what all the fuss was about, thinking I would critique her writing, plotting, characterization, etc.

Umm, I kinda forgot to do all that.

I became so wrapped up in the story that I didn't really care how good or bad or whatever she was as a writer. This is a sign that something special is going on! The fact that so many other people have become as obsessed (too strong a word?:) leads me to believe that I am not the only one. So then, the question becomes - what's so great about these books? What has Ms. Meyers done so thoroughly to draw us in? I've given this some serious thought, but before I take a stab at it, what do you think her "magic" is?

2009-04-27T09:37:00.000-04:00

Gotta Love Him
He looks so sweet doesn't he? And Seth is!! But Thursday he tried to lift his brother's Buick!! Yes, a car . . . a very big and heavy car!

He hurt his back and had to rest all weekend. Thank God he is improving as I heard a story once about some guys (plural!) that tried to lift a car and ended up with lifelong back pain. My first reaction to hearing Seth had pulled this stunt was anger and fear. I prayed through it, but what is it about children that make them act without thinking? I guess the Bible verse about "foolishness being bound up in the heart of a child" explains what science has said. Their brains are not fully developed (I heard this from Dr. Dobson) and they can't reason through all of the consequences of their actions before they do something. Must be why God made them so flexible and able to heal quickly. Praise God I think he is going to be okay!!

That must mean that by the time we are aged and our bodies take so much longer to heal we should have gained some wisdom, right? Lesson of the week for us - think before you act/speak.

2009-04-21T09:41:00.000-04:00

Latest Fun Pics

Powder Room remodeling project is almost finished! I love how the faux painting turned out and it was so easy to do!

Spring Blooms!!!

My hilarious 10 year old's headboard last night! Ha!!

2009-04-15T10:07:00.000-04:00

A Blog Post From my Author Friend Cara Putman
My heart goes out to Sara and her family.

This interview ran on Monday -- and I just learned that Sara's husband died of a heart attack on Tuesday. He was young -- 40 -- and I am so grieved for Sara and her children. If you've considered buying one of these books, please follow the links at the end of this post to buy one or both books. I thoroughly enjoyed both, and may go buy them again they were that good.

Miss Fortune and Miss Match are delightful books set in NYC in 1947. Tell us how you got the idea for Allie and these books...

I got the idea for Miss Fortune in the middle of the night, when all good ideas come to me:
One sleepless night I was watching The Maltese Falcon and I started to wonder how different the story would be if Sam Spade had been a woman. She'd never have fallen for Miss Wunderly's charms and lies. She'd have been smart and tough and she would have solved the case in half the time it took Sam because she wouldn't spend all of her time smoking cigarettes and calling her secretary Precious.

The thought of a hard-boiled female detective got my mind whirling.

I paused the movie and sat in my darkened living room thinking about how much fun a female Sam Spade could be. Intrigued but not yet ready to dash to my computer, I changed disks and put on Casablanca (my all time favorite movie ever). The sweeping love story, a tale full of hard choices and sacrifice was what finally made the whole idea click in my mind. If I could just combine the P.I. detective story of the Maltese Falcon with the love story from Casablanca, and make Sam Spade more of a Samantha, I could have the best of all worlds.

These books are so good, I wish I'd written them. How did you set the stage to capture that gritty PI feel without being dark?

I find that a lot of PI stories are gritty and dark, focusing on the worst of the humanity, and while I wanted the Allie Fortune mysteries to be exciting and tension-filled I didn’t want them to be stark and hopeless.

One of the things I tried to do to counteract the darkness was to give Allie a multi-layered life. She has cases, relationships, friends and family, all of which I hope combine to make the stories textured, rich and full of life.

Allie is a character I'd love to have coffee with. What did she teach you while you wrote these books?

Allie was a great character to write. One of the things I learned from her was that human relationships (man/woman, mother/daughter, friends) are complicated and full of unspoken rules and expectations. Allie is a rule-breaker at heart and it complicates her life on a regular basis. One of the storylines I loved most is Allie’s relationship with her mother and how it grows and changes and how it’s shaped her.

Another dimension of Allie’s character that really taught me a lot was her willingness to do whatever was needed to help those she loves. There is no price on that kind of friendship and it’s a characteristic I’d like to see more of in myself. Okay I admit it, I’ve got a bit of a friend-crush on Allie. LOL.

One last question: If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would that be and who would you take with you?

If I could go anywhere right now I’d head to Monterey, California (I’m writing a book set there right now) and I’d plant myself on the beach with a notebook, writing my story as the waves crashed. Sounds like my idea of heaven on earth. There’s something about the wind-shaped Cypress trees and the crash of the surf in Monterey that calls to me. I don’t know why, it just is.

Miss Fortune, Allie Fortune Mystery Series #1

By Sara Mills / Moody Publishers

In 1947 Allie Fortune is the only female private investigator in New York City, but she's kept awake at night by a mystery of her own: her fianci disappeared in the war and no one knows if he's still alive. Until Allie finds out, she will have no peace. When there's a knock on her office door at four in the morning, Allie suspects trouble as usual, and Mary Gordon is no exception. Mary claims someone is following her, that her apartment has been ransacked, and that she's been shot at, but she has no idea why any of this is happening. Allie takes the case, and in the process discovers an international mystery that puts her own life in danger.

Meanwhile, the FBI is working the case as well, and she is partnered up with an attractive, single agent who would be perfect for her under other circumstances-if only she knew whether her fianci was still alive.

Miss Match, Allie Fortune Mystery Series #2

By Sara Mills / Moody Publishers

FBI agent Jack O'Connor receives a letter from Maggie, a woman he used to love, saying she's in trouble in Berlin. The FBI refuses to get involved, so Jack asks Allie Fortune to help him investigate. Allie and Jack pose as a missionary couple who want to bring orphans back to the United States.

A child finds important documents that everyone in the city - Soviets and allies alike - want for themselves. Maggie refuses to tell Jack what the documents are, saying if things go wrong, they are better off not knowing. Through the course of the search, Allie's past is brought back to her, half a world away from home.

Copied with permission.

2009-04-07T14:49:00.000-04:00

Great Article by Literary Agent Steven Axelrod and Julie Anne Long!

Why Publishing is Making You Crazy—and What You Can Do About It: The Tao of Publishing

Steven Axelrod:
Without question, the most exciting piece of non-fiction I have read in years was an article in the NYT Magazine last spring entitled IS JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE A PRODUCT OF CUMULATIVE ADVANTAGE? by Duncan J. Watts[1].

I’m not a Justin Timberlake fan, but this article rocked my world.

In his introduction, Watts, then a professor of sociology at Columbia University, describes the conventional world view of people in creative businesses, whether its music, fashion, movies or publishing.

This view holds that if you’re smart or clever enough, you can predict success in creative fields. You either need a “golden gut” to recognize a future hit or you need to analyze exactly what elements in, say a song or a film, are attracting people in the first place and then just give people more of the same.

But if this view accurately describes our world, then why do so many new TV shows, films, music acts and, sad to say, books fail to succeed?

Maybe, Watts then suggests, the truth lies in the “nobody knows anything” view of things, first famously expressed by the screenwriter William Goldman. In this view, there aren’t any real experts just a bunch of fast-talking hucksters all claiming expertise they don’t have.

In his book, Adventures in the Screen Trade, Goldman quotes David Picker, former head of Paramount, who, looking back on his career, said, “If I had to say yes to all the projects I turned down and no to all the other ones I took, it would have worked out about the same.”

The problem with the “nobody knows anything” school, though, is that it doesn’t give you any help in planning your career, whether as an editor, agent or writer.

But there’s a third way to look at things, Watts explains. The key to understanding success in creative markets is to know that even though we might believe we judge things “independently of each other…people almost never make decisions independently.”

He points out that we’re profoundly social beings and one subtle consequence of our need to connect socially is that our attraction to things is frequently due to the very fact that other people like them. We need common experiences—indeed we seek them out. It’s part of who we are.
One consequence of this is that if we really like things simply because other people like them, predicting which cultural products will succeed commercially (and which will fail) becomes impossible.

What Watts learned is that,
“…when people tend to like what other people like, differences in popularity are subject to what is called “cumulative advantage,” or the “rich get richer” effect. This means that if one object happens to be slightly more popular than another at just the right point, it will tend to become more popular still. As a result, even tiny, random fluctuations can blow up, generating potentially enormous long-run differences among even indistinguishable competitors — a phenomenon that is similar in some ways to the famous “butterfly effect” from chaos theory. [The idea is that a butterfly's wings might create tiny disturbances in the atmosphere that would result in other changes that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado.] Thus, if history were to be somehow rerun many times, seemingly identical universes with the same set of competitors and the same overall market tastes would quickly generate different winners: Madonna would have been popular in this world, but in some other version of history, she would be a nobody, and someone we have never heard of would be in her place.”

To test his theory, Watts conducted a very clever but admittedly elaborate experiment using a group of music sharing web sites he and his collaborators set up.

He created 9 separate sites and a total of more than 14,000 people registered for free music downloads from unknown bands. People were invited to listen to the songs, rate and download whichever songs appealed to them. Each site stared with zero downloads and users on eight of the nine sites could see how many times each song was downloaded—but on their site only. Since users on these sites were aware of what other users on the site were downloading, these eight sites were considered “social-influence” sites. On the ninth site (which they refer to as the “independent” site), users didn’t get any information at all about what their fellow users had downloaded—and made their minds up independently.

As time went on, each site evolved differently. Very differently.

Watts found that at the eight social-influence sites,
” the most popular songs were much more popular (and the least popular songs were less popular) than in the independent world. At the same time, however, the particular songs that became hits were different in different worlds.”

“Introducing social influence into human decision making, in other words didn’t just make the hits bigger; it also made them more unpredictable.”
And Watts concluded,
“So does a listener’s own independent reaction to a song count for anything? In fact, intrinsic “quality,” which we measured in terms of a song’s popularity in the independent condition, did help to explain success in the social-influence condition. When we added up downloads across all eight social-influence worlds, “good” songs had higher market share, on average, than “bad” ones. But the impact of a listener’s own reactions is easily overwhelmed by his or her reactions to others. The song “Lockdown,” by 52metro, for example, ranked 26th out of 48 in quality; yet it was the No. 1 song in one social-influence world, and 40th in another. Overall, a song in the Top 5 in terms of quality had only a 50 percent chance of finishing in the Top 5 of success.”

Let me repeat that: “Overall, a song in the Top 5 in terms of quality had only a 50 percent chance of finishing in the Top 5 of success.”

And if we apply these findings to our world, the world of book publishing, we could assert that a book in the Top 5 in terms of quality has only a 50 percent chance of finishing in the Top 5 of success.

For me, reading this article was a Eureka! moment. It offered an explanation of how wonderful books failed to find an audience and why some second-rate books (all represented by other agents, of course) succeeded. In a flash of insight, the sheer illogic of 30 years of publishing experience made a kind of “sense”.

Now, what to make of this insight? Knowing what I’m telling you today, how can a writer sit down at her desk and face a blank page every day?

It’s enough to make you crazy—very, very crazy.

It’s crazy-making because Watts is saying that 50% of the factors affecting your career could be totally outside of your control—totally random—and, as we’ll see, the human brain is just not well suited to randomness.

Freud, I think, nailed it when he said, “Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.”

And frankly, if publishing isn’t making you a little neurotic, you’re just not paying attention.

But it gets better: George Wolford, a Dartmouth psychology professor says, “There appears to be a module in the left hemisphere of the brain that drives humans to search for patterns and to see causal relationships even when none exist.[2]”

This is mind-blowing. Our brains are hard-wired to attempt to find order in chaos—which is fine, even good. No doubt it helped enormously in our hunter/gatherer days. But if we can’t find order, our brains are hard-wired to just make something up.

Indeed, as Wolford says, “A constant search for explanations and patterns in random or complex data is not a good thing.”

But that’s of course what we do. All the time.

Think of the most wrong-headed publishing advice you ever got from a writer, editor or agent and I’ll bet this is where it came from.

With perfectly good intentions, all of us look back over the recent publishing successes and disappointments and use that what we see to formulate “rules” to achieve future success. But we inevitably overlook the random factors at play because, as Leonard Mlodinow points out in The Drunkard’s Walk (whose title refers to a classic description of randomness), “people have a very poor conception of randomness; they do not recognize it when they see it….[3]”

But unless we can separate out those random factors which contributed to an author’s past success, anything we can say or predict about why she succeeded will invariably be way off-the-mark.
And random is random, no matter how smart you are. Sir Isaac Newton once remarked after losing a fortune in the stock market, “I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of men.”

And what’s interesting—and chilling, as well—is that there’s evidence that the harder a person works to make sense of a random event, the farther they’ll end up from the truth.

This insight comes from the work of Alex Bavelas, a social psychologist from MIT, who demonstrated how, like with the butterfly effect, the smallest degree of contamination of an intellectual framework by incorrect information can result in profoundly mistaken results[4].
What this means is that if you can “rationally” explain what are in fact random aspects of other writers’ experience in publishing, you’re basically making stuff up—and the more elaborate your explanation, the more inaccurate it will be. And if you act on any of this made-up information, well, we all know that that way lies madness….

Too many times I’ve seen authors undertake expensive and time-consuming promotions that come to naught. And their justification for doing it inevitably is, well author X did this and she hit the Times list. But as we now know, the odds are even that random factors were at play and we have no way of knowing if the promotion did really contribute to the author X’s success or if it had nothing to do with author X’s success at all.

John Wanamaker, founder of one of the first great department stores, was smart enough to know what he didn’t know. He famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half" He was a marketing genius and he didn’t pretend to know whether an ad or promotion would work. We’re kidding ourselves if we think we can.

As a result of all this, I’ve come to believe that as an author, you should pace yourself for a long journey. A career in publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. Assume that you won’t succeed overnight and never bet the farm on one throw of the dice. As Leonard Mlodinow says, “What I’ve learned above all is to keep marching forward… one important factor in success is under our control: the number of at bats, the number of chances taken, the number of opportunities seized.” Or as Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM put it, “If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.”

This isn’t true in all fields. If you’re an actor or a director, a singer or a musician and you don’t grab the brass ring the first time it comes around, you may never get another chance. And even if you have early success, you could become the subject of a “Where Are They Now” episode after just one flop.

But book publishing is different. If you have the talent, editors and publishers are very willing to give you another chance even if your first—or your fifth—book didn’t succeed. It’s something unique and really quite wonderful about our business.

The explanation is in the numbers. For example, there were only 190 major motion pictures released in the US in 2005 (which is no big surprise given that each one costs an average of $100 million in production and marketing). [5] Compare that with the 172,000 books published in the US in the same year[6] and you’ll see that the odds are way better for writers. If you have talent and you’re committed to a career in publishing, the one thing I can guarantee you is that you will get more than one chance to succeed.

And a corollary of all this is that you will inevitably be better off taking the time, energy and money you want to put into a promotional idea that worked for someone else and put the time, energy into your writing. If despite your best, focused efforts, your career isn’t going where you want it to go, you may need to completely reinvent yourself by writing under a new pen name or in a different genre. Let the money you saved by forgoing random promotions buy you time to write yet three more sample chapters or even a full book on spec if that gives you another, fresh chance to succeed.
Certainly there are overnight successes in our business, but I believe that the overwhelming majority of highly successful writers were anything but. It took these writers years to succeed and when it happened, it was frequently under a different name or in a different genre from where they started.
Believe in yourself but remember that randomness plays a large role in your career as well.
And whatever you do, don’t let some random event stop you from pursuing your goals. Thomas Edison said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

President Franklin Roosevelt was famously described as “a second-class intellect but a first-class temperament.” I always thought this meant that Roosevelt’s greatness as a president was due less to his intellectual firepower (which, in any event, probably was only second-class when compared to, say, Sir Isaac Newton’s) than to Roosevelt’s ability to function in a world where some degree of randomness will always play a role.

So finally, let me suggest that the author’s ability to accept and rebound from those random events publishing throws at her will have a decisive say in how long and successful her career is.
Of course, just telling writers to ignore the parts of your career over which you have little control might be good advice but it’s useless advice as well-- unless writers can learn how to focus on the work and how to screen out the inevitable distractions, as well.
© 2008 by Steven Axelrod.
[1] The New York Times Magazine, April 15, 2007
[2] Your Money & Your Brain by Jason Zweig (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
[3] The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow (Pantheon, 2008)
[4] How Real Is Real? Confusion, Disinformation, Communication by Paul Watzlawick, MD (Random House, 1976)
[5] http://www.mpaa.org/2007-Theatrical-Market-Statistics.pdf
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_per_year

Julie Anne Long
When the publisher of the 2006 surprise, smash bestseller EATS SHOOTS AND LEAVES‑which is about punctuation, if you’ll recall –was asked why it sold so well, they explained: “It sold well because lots of people bought it.” Oh, I loved that. It neatly (and dryly) captures the fact that no matter how we try to influence or predict the success of a book, none of us—not even publishers—have any real control over the sheer gorgeous randomness of the publishing universe.

Nevertheless, we of course still try to control things. Steve just gave you a sort of macro look at our collective love affair with attempts to create meaning from random events and then stripped you of any illusions you might have had about predicting or controlling your own success, but if you’re feeling a little wobbly now, don’t worry: We’re going to hand a new and improved form of control back to you now. This is where we put the “Tao” in the Tao of Publishing.

But first, I’m going to give you a micro look at a few examples of how and why we try to control our success. As Steve explained, because we’re human, uncertainty and ambiguity freak us out. And we’re not only clever about creating a semblance of order out of nothing; we’re hard-wired to do this. Consider, for instance, the concept of time. We essentially corralled the vast amorphousness of the universe into 60 minute parcels we call hours, then we broke those hours down into 60 second parcels we call minutes, and etc., which is why we’re able to tune into American Idol at 8:00 p.m. or pick up our kids at soccer practice at 3 p.m. or hit the snooze button at 6:00 a.m. Brilliant, isn’t it, when you think about it? It gives us a sense of order and helps us “plan” well into the future, despite the fact that we know what often happens to “best laid plans.”

Examples of the ways we create this sort of order abound. For instance, we proceed through school in a series of numbered grade levels, and we generally need to pass tests with certain scores in order to move on to a higher grade level, and eventually (in the United States, anyway) we take a big test called the SAT, and the score resulting from that test can determine where we go to college and where we get to work and how much money we eventually make. I’m generalizing quite a bit, but doubtless you get the picture.

Now, these numbers—test scores and the like—only have meaning in relationship to other numbers belonging to other people—meaning we learn early on to rank ourselves against others. This of course means we also learn to be competitive early on, because this system of ranking fosters a sense that one can only be successful if someone else is not. And because we’re human, with all the strengths and frailties and ego that entails, we want some way to measure our inherent worth. We often define our worth, then, by our accomplishments, and how we think they stack up next to someone else’s. Numbers always seem like a handy way to measure our worth.

So here we have what I’ll call “Human Rules of Order.” You know, a bit like Roberts Rules of Order, but on a human-wide scale. They go:

1) High scores and progress are a reward for hard work;
2) Good reviews lead to advancement;
3) Ranks tell us our “worth” and how we measure up.

It’s not the best system, but it’s not a terrible system. It’s one we understand. It helps us keep chaos at bay, to some extent.

Ah, but then…but then we sell our first book and enter the magical world of publishing. And…well, we quickly discover it’s a like plummeting down the rabbit hole a la Alice in ALICE IN WONDERLAND.

Because those rules don’t apply in the publishing universe.

The world of publishing is one where your reviews can be unanimously glorious but your sales can stink. Or your reviews can stink, and your sales can be glorious. (Of course, both might be glorious. Or both might stink.) Where two authors in the same genre can experience identical sales volume in the same timeframe and one will show up on the USA Today list—and the other won’t. Where one author can be a bestseller with her very first book and another writing in the same genre can labor in obscurity for a decade ore more before cracking a list—if she ever does—even if both authors are showered with accolades and awards. Where the concept of competition simply doesn’t apply—because a) this is not a race; because b) anything can happen at any time to affect sales or the trajectory of your career. Again, it’s like the proverbial butterfly effect that Steve described, where the flap of one little wing on one side of the world might ultimately impact the weather on the other side of the world.

What do we do when we gradually realize that publishing doesn’t make the kind of “sense” we recognize—apart from panic a little, lose sleep, eat an impractical amount of chocolate, etc.? Intrepid creatures that we are, we attempt to make sense of it anyway by applying those “Human Rules of Order.” We try to extrapolate our sales or suss out ways to influence or control our success using in part what looks familiar to us—lists, of course, for starters. We’re madly in love with lists. Lists featuring numbers! I mean, there’s a reason the reason the Amazon.com rank took ferocious hold of our little author psyches from its advent. It’s psychologically brilliant, that rank. It taps into a very primal place for all of us. I used to call it my Self-Worth-o-Meter.

But we also have Bestseller lists like USA Today and Nielsen Bookscan . We have that Ingram phone number, which we can call to hear…more numbers. We also use reviews and award nominations to try to predict or measure our success or determine “where we stand.” Lists and ranks and awards and formal accolades abound in the publishing world.

Later in this piece I’ll explain why attempting to use lists, etc., as oracles, measures of our worth, or indicators of our sales is about as about as productive as using a Russian dictionary to translate a Sanskrit scroll into English. It can’t be done.

But going through the machinations of trying to predict or control our success does make us feel as
though we’re getting somewhere, and gives us that critical illusion of control. As Steve just explained, the harder we try to make sense of things, the further from the truth we’ll actually get.

And again, that way lies craziness.

There’s a way out of the craziness, however. If our goal is to not only peacefully survive but thrive—in other words, not lose sleep, friends, money, and our marbles—in the publishing universe, we need to learn a new set of rules, and they’re pretty simple.

Here’s comes the Tao part.

I’m going to tell you a story. It’s a Taoist parable that I think both illustrates the publishing journey and contains the crucial clues for surviving it with our marbles intact.

There was once a poor farmer who could afford to own just one horse. He took very good care of it, but one night it broke through a weak fence and ran away. The farmer's neighbors offered sympathy when they learned what had happened. "What bad luck!" they exclaimed. The farmer replied, "Maybe. Maybe not."
A week later, the farmer's horse returned, bringing with it three wild horses, and the farmer and his son managed to corral all of them. "What great luck!" his neighbors enthused. "Maybe," the farmer replied. "Maybe not."

The farmer's son set to work taming the wild horses, but while attempting to ride one of them, he was thrown to the ground and his leg was badly broken. "What terrible luck!" the neighbors said this time.
The farmer replied, "Maybe. Maybe not."

The next day, soldiers visited the farmer's village to draft all the local young men into the army of a warlord. Because of his broken leg, the farmer's son was the only young man not taken. The neighbors descended upon the farmer again. "What wonderful luck!" they exclaimed.
"Maybe," the farmer said. "Maybe not."

That’s it. That’s the story.

Now, you’re going: you call that a bloody story? There’s no arc. And no ending. And it’s not even a little bit sexy. (Though I suppose it depends upon how you feel about farmers. Or warlords.)
But here’s the thing: even though this farmer’s life seems pretty exciting and unpredictable, what with the wild horses and warlords, he stays pretty mellow. And I think he, and this story, hold the two keys for maintaining our sanity in the midst of publishing craziness. They are:

1) Stay in the moment; and
2) Go with the flow.

“OK, Julie, you big hippy,” you’re saying. “Stay in the moment? Go with the flow? “ We’ve all heard that kind of stuff before. But what does it really mean? Why does staying in the moment and going with the flow help us stay sane, and how do exactly do we do either of those things?

Well, part of staying in the moment is not projecting into the future. Most of the people reading this article are storytellers with fertile imaginations, and it’s difficult not to spin entire, elaborate happily-ever-after scenarios from one wonderful career moment or inflate a single disappointment into a career-ending catastrophe. How we spin something has a lot to do with our individual psychologies, of course. But why do we do this? Because, as we’ve established, uncertainty and ambiguity freak us out. We can’t stand not knowing where we stand or what will happen next.

One way we attempt to predict the future and determine where we “stand” compared to other authors is by sort of “Frankensteining” together lists and ranks and reviews, components of our careers that seem to indicate to us some sort of “measure” or “worth.” In so doing, we’re vulnerable, as are all humans, to what economists Linda Babcock and George Lowenstein refer to as “self-serving bias.” Babcock, Loewenstein and a few of their colleagues conducted an experiment in which participants were presented with a tort case and assigned either to the side of the plaintiff or the defendant. Every participant was presented with the same set of evidence to analyze and requested to predict the judge’s award in the case. Those assigned to the plaintiff’s predicted a much bigger award than those on the other side did.

In short: the way we see the facts is literally shaped by the outcome we desire.[7]

Because it’s currently nearly impossible to know how well our books are selling in real time—and because we find it so difficult to stay in the moment—authors often similarly attempt to predict outcomes: For example, we think, ”Ok, my reviews are fabulous and my Amazon rank was 700 and I was nominated for three awards—my book sales must be rocking!”

Well….and then you get your royalty statement.

Whereupon you might discover that reality is—ahem—startlingly different than the outcome you predicted.

Whereupon the angst kicks up a notch.

Why? Because we’ve attempted to make sense of something that defies “sense” as we traditionally understand it, and as Steve explained, that way lies madness.

I call this approach Frankensteining, because no matter how you cobble together lists, ranks, awards or any other component aspects of our careers that seem to indicate some sort of “measure” or “worth,” you will never really get a full working picture of your career standing.

To better understand the problem with the Frankenstein approach, let’s take a look at how bestseller lists work.

First, what is a bestseller list?
Loosely defined, it’s anywhere between 10-to 150 or more titles ranked by sales figures accrued during a particular timeframe, usually a week, such as those compiled by USA Today, Borders, Nielsen BookScan, or the New York Times.

And it’s a marketing tool.
Bestseller lists were invented either by booksellers as a means of promoting and selling books or by publications as a means of selling ad space. Publishers also use bestseller lists to promote titles. We already know why this marketing technique is effective, because Steve told us how cumulative advantage works: if a book is a “bestseller” we tend to think it must be worth reading, since so many other people seem to have found it worth reading.

What isn’t a bestseller list? Well, do bestseller lists provide an accurate or comprehensive picture of the total sales of a given book? No. Are they accurate indications of the size of a book’s print run? No. Are they lists of the “best” (a subjective term, of course) books available for sale, or indicators of the quality or value of an author’s work? No. Are they even lists of the books selling the most that week? No.

Why not? Because a number of factors influence whether a book appears on a bestseller list such as BookScan or USA Today, and one of the most important is distribution--where are your books are being sold? Because not every retail outlet that sells books reports their sales to every bestseller list. For example, Wal-Mart doesn’t report book sales to Bookscan, but it does report sales to USA Today. Wal-Mart plays a huge role in romance sales. So if a book isn’t being sold in Wal-Mart, it might rank very highly on Bookscan but not show up at all on the USA Today list. [read Julie Anne Long's detailed article on how besteller lists are compiled here]

And will your publisher tell you where your books are being distributed? Maybe, maybe not. Philosophies regarding how much to divulge to authors regarding distribution vary from publisher to publisher, and distribution varies based on a number of factors, such as an author’s sales history and a publisher’s distribution philosophy, and of course, like everything else in our careers, is subject to change.

And other things come into play when it comes bestseller list appearances, such as sales velocity (how fast are they being sold?), consistency and timeliness in shipping (are your books being sold in bookstores a whole month ahead of release date by various retailers? Or are they shelved right on the date of release? Do they show up in stores late? Do they show up in stores at all? For example, a blizzard in the Midwest might have closed bookstores the week of your release).

What about Ingram? If you’re a published author, by now you probably know Ingram has a number you can call (and I’m not going to feed anyone’s obsessive tendencies by listing it here) to get a recording that will obligingly tell you (if you punch in an ISBN) the number of your books on order, the number of your books sold last week, this week, and year-to-date. Now, theories abound about how to use those Ingram figures to extrapolate overall sales information for your particular book. All of those theories are wrong. It can’t be done.

This is because Ingram is a wholesaler, and bookstores (and chains) go to Ingram when they need more books fast. So if your Ingram numbers are up per the recording, it might mean that your book is out-performing everyone’s expectations (which would cause them to reorder in a hurry)—or it might mean that your publisher just didn’t get enough copies in the stores in the first place. Conversely, if your Ingram numbers are down, it might just mean that your publisher just convinced the stores to order the “right” number of copies to begin with—and not that your sales have gone into a death spiral.

And let’s put Amazon.com in perspective here. As I mentioned earlier, it has a ferocious grip on our psyches because we can watch that rank go up and down (along with our blood pressure), and hey—it’s a number! We love numbers. I tell you, I’m breathless with admiration for whoever invented that rank. Boy, does that keep our eyes on Amazon! I mean —it plays to our sense of worth and our sense of competition, doesn’t it?

But honestly—Amazon still only represents a teeny percentage of romance sales. Truly. According to HarperCollins über sales guy Mike Spradlin, the accounts that still by far play the biggest role in romance sales are Wal-Mart, Borders, Barnes & Noble and other big chains. Overall online sales may be increasing, but there are dozens of places to buy books online. So that Amazon rank is only an indication of how books are selling against each other on Amazon each hour.

And as for Amazon or other online reviews? Whether they’re five stars or one star, they’re really, really not going to make or break your romance career. Those reviews are incredibly vivid to us, because we spend our lives grafted to our computers; honestly, in the vast random scheme of things that Steve described, they have very little total impact. We love and appreciate the articulate, enthusiastic reviews posted there; but the…other kind…aren’t going to hurt or affect anything besides your feelings, or your mom’s feelings, or your friend’s feelings.

All ranks, lists and reviews are marketing tools and valuable and enduring aspects of our careers, and that’s how we should view them and use them.

But like everything in our careers, all of this is subject to change. Which brings us to…

Going with the flow.
Ok, so how do we go with the flow? Part of going with the flow involves not “labeling” events. And what I mean by this is: As we’ve discussed, part of the “thrill” of publishing is that anything can happen. Nasty reviews. Brilliant reviews. Blizzards that prevent your books from getting into stores in the Midwest. Astounding bidding wars for your book. Your best friend’s book soars; yours tanks. Events that stir up anything from rage to elation to gut-churning jealousy.

But let’s look at that farmer. A horse broke down his fence and ran away. Most of us would be bummed if a horse broke down our fence; we might be tempted to swear or sulk and agree with all the neighbors about how much that sucks. But the farmer refused to call that event “good” or “bad” or “lucky” or “unlucky.” Why? No amount of teeth-gnashing or hair-tearing or tail-chasing analysis will turn back time and undo what’s done, and labeling an event as “good” or “bad” limits its possibility and keeps you from moving on to the next moment. When you refuse to judge a moment, it’s interesting how much more…well, interesting some of the more difficult moments in our lives become. Difficult-seeming moments are often just linkages or doorways to marvelous-seeming ones. Be there in the moment, and understand that the moment you’re in is a necessary link in the continuum of what came before and what lies ahead.

That isn’t to say the difficult feelings go away even when you’re not labeling an event. When you feel anxious or jealous or disappointed or angry, notice those feelings, feel them—acknowledge them with compassion and maybe even humor for yourself or for any other people involved (for example, the reviewer who was so misguided as to not enjoy your beautiful book)—but you don’t need to invest in them, spin stories from them, or beat yourself up for having them, and you don’t need to feel compelled to act on them by retaliating or responding in kind. You the person are not in any way diminished as a person by the snarky review or the computer glitch that kept your books out of stores.

So what do we do when difficult feelings hit? Rise above. And I don’t mean, “feel superior.” Remember, it’s not a competition, and we’re not ranking ourselves against each other. Think of the way an airplane gains altitude in order to avoid a storm or turbulence. The airplane doesn’t judge or try to fight the storm. The storm simply is. It’s a fact. It’s happening. The airplane simply climbs until the air is quieter, and continues its journey.

In the face of difficult events or emotions, think of this, and try to gain a sort of internal altitude, a place of perspective.

Of course, some people might genuinely hate our books and feel compelled to share their feelings with the world via a review, but keep in mind: some snarky reviews or bulletin board comments could very well be a result of someone else’s anxiety or fear or pain over the illusion that there isn’t enough success to go around, anxiety over her own worth, or misapprehension of the impact a review, a rank, or an award nomination means in the overall picture of anyone’s career. A lot of what I’ll call “acting out” is actually a result of fear or insecurity.

Once we understand this, I think it’s easier to be compassionate with ourselves and with other people, because we’ve all felt insecure. Insecurity is inherent in the nature of the business. And even if a review stings, we can still gain a little distance—a little altitude, so to speak. It doesn’t mean we have to tolerate something that might be actionable, but we genuinely have a choice regarding how we react to it and how much we worry or suffer over it.

And then there are always the moments that feel wonderful. Celebrate the momentous occasions (and notice that the root of “momentous” is “moment”)—your first published book, your first appearance on a list, your first six-figure contract—and share the joy, because every moment will eventually pass. It, too, is part of everything that came before and everything that will ensue.

Taking each moment as it comes doesn’t diminish joy, either. It deepens it.

Going with the flow also means: Don’t be too attached to outcomes and release expectations
You know what Steve said about promo? How we’re better off channeling any energy and ingenuity we put into it into writing another proposal? Well, I think a good philosophy around self-promotion is…do what you feel comfortable with. The problem with doing “what we feel comfortable with” is that…we don’t feel comfortable doing what we feel comfortable with. We all want to know what works, and do that. The truth is, we can’t ever know for certain what works. Promotion trends are as ephemeral as anything else in publishing, and it’s nearly impossible to quantify the impact, if any, of a given attempt at self-promotion. Will the promotion one author swears worked wonders for her work for you?

Maybe, maybe not. If you decide to try a promotion, launch it with hope and release expectations of the outcome, and you’ll never be disappointed. Self-promotion, in fact, is another one of those things that make us feel like we can actively control or influence our success. In many ways, it’s more of a ritual than anything that can really impact the velocity of our career growth. It harkens back to those aforementioned Human Rules of Order, specifically the one that states that we can earn our success by working for it—when in fact, in publishing, success can be an overnight affair or decades in the making—whether or not you do any self-promotion at all.

Going with the flow also means doing an occasional gut check: sometimes we get so caught up in doing what we’re doing that we lose sight of our motivations for doing it. Don’t be afraid to do that gut check: what are your motives for writing? Are you engaged in what you’re doing because it brings you joy or growth or income? Or has it become a habit? Are you happy? Do you even like what you’re doing anymore? Steve talked about the possibility of needing to change your author name or genre in order to reboot or re-energize your career. Staying in the moment and going with the flow will help you stay more in touch with who you are as a writer, and in this way you’ll know instinctively where your career should go.

OK: So there we have it—your rules and tools for surviving the publishing craziness, and two very simple resolutions for 2009.

And here’s a way to test how well these new rules work: Try a sort of fast from Amazon, or Ingram phoning, or bulletin board haunting, whatever obsessive little habit you might have—we know you have one or two—for a week or so. Maybe, if you’re feeling brave…don’t look at any of that stuff for the duration of the cycle of one entire book.

And notice how nothing about your career will change as a result of this.

Except: you’ll feel much lighter and stronger. Giving up obsessing about these things doesn’t mean you’ve become passive or apathetic. Quite the opposite. Because you’ve made a conscious choice to control your actions, rather than being controlled by the need to control. You’ll end up with much more energy and confidence and serenity, all of which you can redirect into doing your very best work, which is in fact the only thing we truly have any real control over.

And here’s the seeming paradox: once you give up the need to control outcomes or predict your future, you’ll feel more in control of your career than ever.

And you know, Steve talked about pacing yourself for a long journey. And girls, we really are all in this journey together. This is not a competition or a race any more than the traffic heading south down Highway 101 a few minutes away from my house right now is a race. Picture those cars on the freeway: they’re all heading in the same direction, but do we really know their ultimate destinations? Is one car really “ahead” of another? A car at the head of the pack might be hopelessly lost. Some of those cars are filled with carpoolers, other drivers are going it alone—there’s no one right way to embark on this journey. Another car might be forced to take the next exit because the needle’s just about on empty. Another might see an intriguing exit and impulsively take a detour. I can endlessly flog this metaphor, but you get the picture. You never, ever know.

So stay present, stay in the moment, go with the flow, stay curious about what will happen next…and enjoy the ride.

2009-03-25T18:25:00.000-04:00

FYI - Sorry to all the people who made comments in the last month! I just now figured out that they were not coming to my new email address to be moderated and were sitting in my "to be moderated" file here on eblogger. I have approved them. Thanks to everyone who comments here so much!

Jamie

2009-03-25T16:39:00.000-04:00

This is an amazing video that describes the Economic Crisis! I finally understand!!!

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

2009-03-08T17:08:00.000-04:00

Too Funny!!

My husband has become addicted to Facebook of late and has been chatting with some of his high school classmates. Somehow they found out about my books and Dwayne Cooper made a Top Ten List - Reasons why guys should not read my books - ha! I laughed so hard I cried!! Thanks Dwayne!

And here it is:

Top 10 reasons why Dwayne should think twice before reading a Christian romance novel:

1. Goodbye SUV + bass boat. Hello horse carriage + gondola!

2. Hank Williams Jr. + bluegrass gospel will lose playtime to Celine Dion + Yanni.

3. Instead of vacations w/buddies to Tennessee River, how about romantic bed n' breakfast on the Cape w/wife?

4. Eating out at Cracker Barrel loses favor to fancy schmancy French restaurants.

5. I'll finally give in and allow the family to buy a cat and we'll probably call it "Fabio".

6. Goodbye Indiana house overlooking fishing pond. Hello highrise overlooking downtown Chicago's Magnificent Mile.

7. My "Bass Pro Shop" catalog will be replaced with a Bloomingdales catalog.

8. Instead of my mug landing on the cover of Bassmaster magazine, I'lll end up on the cover of GQ.

9. Can you say no more Friday night dates with the wife to Lowes or WalMart?

10. Bc I'll likely give up the practice of law and start writing romance novels of my own!!!

Dwayne - bass fisherman meets tackle store owner. She's wearing a camo t-shirt and kacki shorts and handles worms without a blink. He's looking for a parts store for his broken down Mercury 300. She shurgs, pulls out a wrench from her back pocket and suggests that she can fix it. Huh? huh? You could be a romance author yet!!

2009-03-04T12:01:00.000-05:00

Quick News Update

I have been in writer's cave mode preparing book five for my April 1st deadline but I wanted to share some quick news.

Wind Dancer will be in 2500 WalMart stores across the nation!! The test marketing went well, so they have decided to carry it (this is huge!). Please check your local WalMart store in the coming weeks! I'm so excited about this!! You can also buy it online at CBD or Amazon. I would love more reviews on these two sites! If you have read Wind Dancer (or any of my books) and have the time/inclination to post a review, please do!

Cara Putman (a wonderful writer friend) reviewed Wind Dancer and her review brought tears to my eyes. You can read it here.

Another great review at TitleTrakk.

The docs took my sling off and I am going to last hand therapy appointment today - yippee!!

Visited my son, Jordan, at IU last Saturday. Fun Photos below.

2009-02-23T08:56:00.000-05:00

Winner Announced!!

I'm thrilled to announce that Dawn Crandall is the winner for the www.edressme.com gift certificate and a signed copy of Wind Dancer!

Jim Rubart said "love the moxie she gives Isabelle" and Twila Belk commented that "she put a lot of thought into it and came up with a great story."

Congratulations, Dawn!! Please email me or comment here with your contact information. My email is jamie@jamie carie.com (no space).

2009-02-16T12:06:00.001-05:00

My publisher is offering a free download of Snow Angel to every person who enters the "Romance that Warms the Heart" contest. Here is the blurb and link to enter:

"Enter to win the B&H Publishing Group "Romance that Warms the Heart" contest! In honor of the biscuit scenes in Wind Dancer and Snow Angel, B&H Publishing Group is offering a Deluxe Breakfast Sampler from Cracker Barrel to one lucky winner! This $105.00 value prize includes:

Four (3 to 4 oz.) Country Ham Steaks
Two 1 lb. packages of Country Bacon
12 oz. bottle of 100% Pure Natural Syrup
28 oz. jar of Cracker Barrel Apple Butter One
16 oz. pkg. Cracker Barrel Premium Coffee
Two (28 oz.) jars of Cracker Barrel Fried Apples
5 lb. bag of Cracker Barrel Grits
1 lb. Country Ham Biscuit Cut
1 lb. Country Pepper Coated Bacon, sliced
Two (2 lb.) boxes of Cracker Barrel Pancake Mix

All contest entrants will also receive Jamie Carie's award-winning debut novel Snow Angel as a free digital download. Just enter your email address in the box below (Go here to enter) to enter the contest and receive your download. B&H Publishing Group offers e-newsletter subscribers a recurring chance to win great prizes! Enter your e-mail address in the box below any time there's a new giveaway item, and each month we'll choose the winner(s)."

Praise for Snow Angel
"Carie is a welcome new voice in the inspirational fiction market."--Romantic Times
"A truly engaging story . . . fascinating." --DancingWord.net
"The romantic tension is both powerful and convincing" --TCM Reviews

One entry per customer. Your entry grants B&H permission to subscribe you to its "Book & Bible Update" and "Fiction Club" e-newsletters. Prize winner will be notified by e-mail. B&H respects your privacy and will never share your e-mail address with other companies. Official Rules...

2009-02-16T11:49:00.000-05:00

Review for Wind Dancer

I received this review of Wind Dancer from sbcIMPACT (the e-newsletter/website for the Southern Babtist Convention) this morning and thought to pass it along.

"“Wind Dancer” - A Review Written by: Guest Author is Kim Baggett, wife of Geoff Baggett, and an avid reader of Christian fiction. She generously volunteered to read and review Wind Dancer by Jamie Carie.
***
Just recently, I was asked to read the book Wind Dancer by Jamie Carie, and offer a review. Being an avid reader of Christian historical fiction, I was somewhat skeptical, having never read anything written by Carie. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book grabbed my attention and kept it to the very end. The book is set in the year 1778 on the Kentucky frontier. It tells the stories of Isabelle Renoir and Samuel Holt. Isabelle is portrayed as a free spirit who bucks against the traditional role of women in that era. She is strong and brave while also being graceful and compassionate. Carie shows a spiritual side of Isabelle that is very moving to the Christian reader. Isabelle meets her match in Samuel Holt, a soldier with the “Long Knives” of Kentucky under the command of George Rogers Clark. The book tells of their journey through the wilderness, their struggle to survive an Indian capture, and ultimately their personal struggles which could pull them apart in the end.

The book is a well-written blend of romance, history, and adventure … although it is somewhat predictable. Historically, it is very accurate in recounting the details of the campaigns of George Rogers Clark and the “Long Knives” of Kentucky. Carie was very masterful at placing fictional characters right in the middle of actual historical events. If you enjoy this genre of reading, Carie’s book is well worth your time."

2009-02-05T11:27:00.000-05:00

Just Burned An Hour

Okay, I just found this fashion blog and these girls are so witty it's ridiculous! I think my favorite part was Heather's pic of herself on the Meet page! They have a book out that gives out awards to the "worst and dimmest in celebrity fashion and style." Hilarious!

So why am I perusing fashion blogs when I should be working to meet my April 1st deadline you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. It's because most of my readers are apparently not interested in winning a $150 dress and I'm on the hunt for fashionistas! :-) I would give a lower right molar (you know, the one really back in the back so no one would notice it missing) for a crack at this contest! So I’m burning the morning looking for fashion savvy people to offer this great deal to and bam! I spend an hour laughing myself silly on this blog.

Come on, ladies! Help me spread the word about this contest (see next entry)! Please!!!

2009-02-03T16:10:00.000-05:00

Contest Held Over! You Still Have Time . . .

It's here! The big contest where you could win a $150 gift certificate for a dress like this one from www.edressme.com (you get to pick the dress) and a signed copy of Wind Dancer! All you have to do is tell me how/where you think Samuel and Isabelle would meet if they had their first encounter today.

In my version, Isabelle, her brother Julian, and their guide are taking cover from a nasty thunderstorm under a tree in the forest. Lightning strikes a tree close by causing Isabelle to scream. Samuel is walking through a nearby clearing when he hears the scream and heads toward them to investigate. He circles around to the back of the threesome and then Isabelle suddenly turns and points her long rifle straight at his heart. Isabelle demands he come forward and interrogates him. Samuel finds himself both repelled and fascinated by her fierce boldness. There is some heated banter between them and then Julian steps in to rescue Samuel from his sister's brazen manners. Instant chemistry!

Now it's your turn. How and where might they meet today? Just click on comments at the end of this post and type your answer in the box that pops up. If you don't have an eblogger account you can choose anonymous but then be sure to add your name in the post so that I can reach you if you win! If that seems too confusing you can always email me at jamie@ jamie carie.com (no spaces!) and I will post it for you.

The judges:
Jim Rubart - http://www.jimrubart.com/ (He has a wonderful book coming out soon called ROOMS!)

Julie Gwinn - B&H Publishing's Marketing Maven (I just call her Supergirl!!)

Twila Belk - The Gotta Tell Somebody Gal! (One of the warmest, kindest people I've ever met!)

This contest will be up until Thursday, February 19th. One week to go!! God bless!

2009-02-01T14:49:00.001-05:00

Look Alikes??

My little sister, Jennifer, and I playing with our hair. (Yes, I'm wearing slippers and they look as ridiculous as my splint! Ha!). Everyone says we look alike but we don't know. Do you think we look alike?

2009-01-28T13:22:00.000-05:00

And The Winner of Last Week's Contest Is...

Ladystorm!!

Both Jim and Julie thought her pick of Cote de Pablo to play Isabelle and Hugh Jackman to play Samuel were great choices. (Okay, okay I got a little carried away with the photos of Hugh:-).

Congratulations!! Ladystorm please email me, jamie@jamie carie.com (no space), with your mailing address!!

2009-01-26T09:44:00.000-05:00

Isabelle and Samuel - Frontier First Encounter!

It's here! The big contest where you could win a $150 gift certificate for a dress like this one from www.edressme.com (you get to pick the dress) and a signed copy of Wind Dancer! All you have to do is tell me how/where you think Samuel and Isabelle would meet if they had their first encounter today.

In my version, Isabelle, her brother Julian, and their guide are taking cover from a nasty thunderstorm under a tree in the forest. Lightning strikes a tree close by causing Isabelle to scream. Samuel is walking through a nearby clearing when he hears the scream and heads toward them to investigate. He circles around to the back of the threesome and then Isabelle suddenly turns and points her long rifle straight at his heart. Isabelle demands he come forward and interrogates him. Samuel finds himself both repelled and fascinated by her fierce boldness. There is some heated banter between them and then Julian steps in to rescue Samuel from his sister's brazen manners. Instant chemistry!

Now it's your turn. How and where might they meet today?

The judges:

Jim Rubart - http://www.jimrubart.com/ (He has a wonderful book coming out soon called ROOMS!)

Julie Gwinn - B&H Publishing's Marketing Maven (I just call her Supergirl!!)

Twila Belk - The Gotta Tell Somebody Gal! (One of the warmest, kindest people I've ever met!)

This contest will be up until Sunday, February 1st. The winner of last week's contest will be announced sometime this week, so keep checking back.

God bless and have fun!!

2009-01-25T23:28:00.000-05:00

Sob Night - This One Is For The Girls!

Tonight I watched Extreme Home Makeover and THEN the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, "Loving Leah."

Yeah, it was a double hitter.

With a husband and three sons there are times that I have to warn them . . . "I'm planning to cry my eyes out for the next three hours, so if you need me, there better be blood or the house on fire, cause' basically, leave me alone while I have my crying time.

Tony, bless his analytical heart, hides in the office playing on the Mac. The boys scurry off to their bedrooms, and I? I get my monster box of Kleenex out, settle myself deep within the down covers of my bed and press play.

You know, I always wanted a daughter, someone who would cuddle up next to me in these moments and we could cry onto each other's shoulders at the beauty of RELATIONSHIPS being played out by reality TV and a good ol' fashioned romance on the Hallmark Channel. But I have friends with daughters . . . and I have seen that it's not quite that cozy and easy. So I'm thankful for my comforting box of lotion tissue, I'm thankful they (the men in my house!) are a little afraid of me when I'm in this mode and that they leave me to my tears - alone!

There's nothing like a good three hours worth of crying time, is there? I feel a little sorry for men. They have to be so strong and manly all the time :-) They don't know our secret. That, sometimes, a lot of times, it feels really good to be so vulnerable and, well, the shoulder-shaking-sob-filled bliss of it all.

Sometimes, it just feels good to be a girl.

Tomorrow - my biggest contest ever. I am so excited!!!!

Love to you all,

Jamie

2009-01-20T00:21:00.000-05:00

2009-01-19T11:17:00.000-05:00

Week One Contest!!

This week I am really excited to announce a movie themed contest for Wind Dancer!! I imagine most writers would be thrilled to see their stories made into movies and I am no exception! I think my books would make great period pieces, especially Wind Dancer as it has such a strong The Last of the Mohicans feel to it. The winner will receive a The Last of the Mohicans DVD and a Pride and Prejudice DVD along with the signed copy of Wind Dancer.

All you have to do is pick an actress and actor who you think would be ideal to play Samuel and Isabelle in a movie. If you haven't read the book yet, you can go to my website and read a little about the characters, see the book trailer and even read the first chapter. This should give you enough of a feel for them that you could choose the actors. Just comment with your choices on this blog entry and my three judges (see next entry) will decide which one they think is most fitting!

I will announce the winner next Monday along with the details of next week's contest. Have fun with it! I can't wait to hear your ideas!!

2009-01-13T14:11:00.000-05:00

BIG CONTESTS COMING!!

During the last two weeks of January I will be running two wonderful contests to win free, signed copies of Wind Dancer AND other great prizes. Week One will have a DVD package and the winner of Week Two will receive a $150.00 gift certificate for a red dress from edressme.com! Tell your friends and check back January 19th for your first chance to win!!

I won't ask you to jump through too many hoops :-) but this won't be a draw the name out of a hat kind of contest. Week One I will ask you to read anything online about Wind Dancer (or read the book!:) and suggest the actor and actress best to play Samuel and Isabelle. You can find information and a sample chapter on my website http://www.jamiecarie.com/. Week Two I will give you a brief description of how Isabelle & Samuel met, then ask you to suggest where/how their first meeting might occur if it happened today. You can make it funny, serious, or somewhere in-between. So be thinking about their first encounter!

The judges will be author and marketing guru Jim Rubart, the "gotta tell somebody" publicist extraordinaire Twila Beck and the lovely B&H publicist and marketing maven, Julie Gwinn! (I'm not sure which one will be like Simon Cowell, but they are all very nice, I promise!)

I can't wait to hear your ideas!!

2009-01-06T10:51:00.000-05:00

Character Spotlight On Relz Reviewz
http://relzreviewz.blogspot.com/2008/01/sneak-peek-character-spotlight-jamie.html

Rel is such a great friend. I love her idea of spotlighting characters from books (instead of the author - LOL). This spotlight is on Isabelle from Wind Dancer and has some great photos of actors we would like to see play Samuel! Hunky blond anyone???

2009-01-05T11:51:00.000-05:00

Wind Dancer In Stores Now!

I recieved my first review of Wind Dancer last week and WOW it is a really a great review! Check it out here!

Wind Dancer is available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, LifeWay Christian (and most Christian bookstores), CBD (podcast interview on CBD) and Amazon. Order your copy today!

2008-12-30T11:40:00.000-05:00

Have You Heard of DearReader.com?

Suzanne Beecher runs a lovely book club where every day she "sends you a 5-minute portion of a book." This means that, for free, you can receive two or three chapters of a new book each week. (You can sign up for Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Good News, etc.). This is a great way to sample books from the comfort of your home or office! Suzanne also holds contests and writes a personal little blurb about what's going on with her at the beginning of each email. I started to feel like she is a friend!

So why am I so enthused with this book club? This week, Snow Angel, is being featured in the "Good News" category!! Thousands of club members will receive a "5-minute" portion of Snow Angel Monday-Friday of this week. If you haven't read Snow Angel yet, this is a great time to try a chapter or two for free. Just sign up at DearReader.com! Then click on the Snow Angel cover!

There is also a forum where you can discuss Snow Angel. I will be stopping by to chat with readers every day this week. And I would love to hear from you!

2008-12-03T17:11:00.000-05:00

Writing Class

I just got home from teaching a writing lesson to my son's third grade class. They were SO cute! I had wondered if I could fill the thirty minutes - ha! That was no problem! They had so many questions, were so sweet and curious about being a novelist and, in the end, reminded me how blessed I am to have this job.

With all the economic turmoil going on in our county, I find myself especially thankful and filled with gratitude for the people out there buying books. Some days this writing life feels more like a job than a ministry (a job I love! I'm not complaining) but as I prayed about it today, and then taught this class, God reminded me that He has plans for my books. They aren't mine!! Sometimes I forget that and take on the whole burden onto my own shoulders. It feels incredibly freeing to be reminded (again!) that He has everything under control and that His plans will be made manifest. Once again, all I have to do is have faith.

So a big thank you to anyone buying my books! I believe God will bless you beyond measure as you read them.

Wind Dancer will be out in less than a month! I can't wait to hold the final copy in my hands. It's the same feeling with every book and doesn't diminish in excitement at all! You can pre-order a copy on CBD or Amazon today!

2008-11-21T13:07:00.000-05:00

Worst
Cooking
Show Ever!!

My mother and I whip up some sourdough biscuits like Noah made for Elizabeth in Chapter Three of Snow Angel.
Check it out here.

The bloopers are hilarious!!!!

Snow Angel Recipies

Basic Sourdough Starter Without Yeast

1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Sugar
Mix all ingredients. Place in a loosely covered container and refrigerate several days until doubled in size. May take 4-14 days. Ready to feed and use when doubled.

Basic Sourdough Starter With Yeast

2 Cups Flour
2 Cups Warm Water
1 Package Yeast
Mix all ingredients. Let stand uncovered in a warm place overnight or up to 48 hours. The longer mixture stands the stronger the ferment. After fermenting the starter is ready to store. Feed once before using.

Sourdough Feeding

1 Cup Flour (all purpose)
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Milk

Feed every 5-7 days or it will die.
Keep in tight covered container in refrigerator.
Do not use the day it is fed.
Always leave 1 Cup of starter to feed.
Feed every day if you want to build your supply. Just don't use the day you feed. (Donna feeds hers after she measures what she wants to use).
If some watery substance appears, just stir it in and use.
Read more...

2008-11-21T13:02:00.000-05:00

Part Three of Karen's Questions About CBA Publishing

Check out part three of the conversation! She asks, "What do YOU think holds publishers, editors, and writers back from writing the kinds of books they want to do? The kinds of books many of you have said you want?" Visit her blog to see the entire article.

More comments about this at Cara Putman's blog.

2008-11-13T14:31:00.000-05:00

More Questions From Karen Ball

Today Karen asked her readers the following: "First, I want to know who you think today's Christian fiction reader is? Why do you think s/he reads fiction? What are you hearing from the readers around you about the books they're reading? And, if you care to share, what novel have you read lately that lived up to your expectations?" Go here for the article and all the comments. Here was my reply. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Boy, some tough questions. To be honest, I don't know very many "readers." A lot of my friends are too busy and tired at the end of the day and would rather be entertained by the TV for an hour than pick up a book. (I do this too!) Sadly, the true book lovers have shrunk in the middle and younger generations, I think, giving way to other types of media. But there are still a lot of books being sold every year, so readers must be out there. As to what they want? I guess we could look at bestseller lists? I don't really have a clue.

My favorite fiction in this last year was The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

It's written in a free form prose that reminds me more of a very long poem. McCarthy breaks the rules but the result is so compelling, gripping, hauntingly beautiful that I had to put it down at times to emotionally recoup so that I wasn't walking around the house like a shell-shocked zombie. It truly plunged me into another world.

Whether light and funny or dark and dangerous, I want to get lost in the story and fall in love with the characters. That's what I look for in fiction.

2008-11-12T13:04:00.001-05:00

What Makes A Christian Novel - Christian?

My editor, Karen Ball, has a lively discussion going on at her blog about what makes a Christian novel "Christian." There are lots of great comments! I thought I would copy/paste mine here.

I agree with Crystal's comment on the movie Braveheart. When I think of Les Misérables and how the priest loves and forgives Jean Valjean, giving him a redemption chance of forgiveness, or the movie, The Count of Monte Cristo, when Edmond loses all hope in prison and the old man, Faria, painstakingly teaches him, encourages him, and finally gives his life helping him dig out, I think the Spirit of Christ - more than interwoven in the story - it becomes the backbone of the story.

Romans 8:9 (NIV) "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ."

As a writer I must be directed by "the Spirit of Christ" to have any chance of portraying a story that is both real, relatable, righteous and redeeming. When my sin nature gets in the way (and it does! I thank God for my editor!!) I allow some of that junk (be it obvious like graphic sex or obsinities or subtle like flat characters, badly written "fake Christianease" dialog, etc.) to spill into the story. This requires my full surrender of "my story" to seek out and know "His story."
When John the Baptist leapt for joy in his mother's womb as Mary neared with Jesus in her womb - wow - that is our reaction when we meet with the Spirit of Christ whether in a book, a film, a work of art, a play, another person, a sunset…anything that is filled with HIM. It's more than hope we gain, it's our eternal Groom, our Saving Grace. How lovely that God has imprinted His likeness in our spirit and that it craves Him and leaps for joy when we see a glimpse of Him in His creation.

2008-11-11T09:26:00.000-05:00

Where Do My Characters Come From?

I'm asked this question quite a bit so I thought I would try to answer it today. When I begin a new story I have an idea of who my main characters are but it isn't very fleshed out. It's hard to describe, but it's more of a feel for them.

Maybe this will help explain it. You know when you meet someone for the first time? Do you get a feel for who they are right away? I usually do. It's more than a first impression - more like a peek into their spirit, their heart. This isn't to say I know everything about them right away! I just get a feel for who they are and that leads me to what they might say or do and how they might act and react.

Maybe this is something that actors/artist/writers/musicians (basically artsy people) have a knack for, I'm not sure. But I take this "feel" for someone and transfer it to my character. I don't fill out those character development sheets (I tried that once and it took all the joy of discovery out of the process for me). Instead, I just go with this gut feel and then watch in amazement as they come to life. That's the fun part!!

Also, I think there is a little of me in most of my characters! LOL! Some characters, like Jane in Snow Angel, closely match my personality and how I handle difficulties and trauma. Other characters, like Serena in The Duchess and the Dragon, are more a melding of some favorite people in my life (my sister!). But the best thing is when a character suddenly becomes real and takes off on their own. It’s like having a child. You see some of yourself in him/her and then they do something or say something that totally surprises and delights you. That’s when God’s vision for the character really shines through.

I'm thinking Scarlet Johanson looks a bit like Emma, the character I'm currently creating.

What about you? If you write, how do you create your characters?

2008-11-05T19:52:00.000-05:00

Check Out A Character Spotlight of Elizabeth (from Snow Angel) at Relz Reviewz!

My friend Rel has had another great idea! She is spotlighting hero and heroines from all our favorite novels on her blog at: http://relzreviewz.blogspot.com/2008/11/character-spotlight-jamie-caries.html

This week she is spotlighting Elizabeth and Noah (and the actresses and actors who might play them). This is so much fun!

Also!! There is a new interview for The Duchess and the Dragon at another great blog: A Christian Writer's World . . . Characters Who Grip Your Heart. Comment on the interview for a chance to win a free copy!!

Side Note: If you would like a signed copy of Snow Angel or The Duchess and the Dragon to give out as Christmas presents email me at jamie_@jamiecarie_._com (no spaces). I only have a few Snow Angel's left in my personal stash so hurry if you want one. ($10.00+shipping).

2008-11-03T13:11:00.000-05:00

Fall 2008 - NEWSLETTER

Wind Dancer Hits Stores In Two Months!

Raised in the small frontier town of Vincennes, Isabelle Renoir longs for a life of purpose and meaning. She dreams of the day when she can escape the simple life and embrace the feeling that she is destined for something rare and wonderful. Unable to fit in with the women around her, Isabelle feels more at home in the woods with her long rifle grasped in her right hand and a wicked-looking knife tied up under her skirts. Escape turns tragic, though, when her first true adventure leads her into a trap. She wakes to a nightmare: Wounded and alone, her brother is missing, as is the man who has joined them, a stranger named Samuel that she can't seem to forget.

One of the Long Knives of the great George Rogers Clark, Samuel Holt is a guardian, protecting and providing for the scattered Colonial forts dotting the Northwest Territory. He keeps his scalp attached with finely honed skills in weaponry, stealth, and cunning. When war becomes inevitable, Samuel joins friend Clark in taking the important posts along the great Ohio River. He hadn't planned falling in love again anytime soon, but then he never imagined Isabelle, a raven-haired temptress who dances in the moonlight. But in this man, with his golden hair and piercing amber eyes, Isabelle has met her match. And when the Shawnee take them prisoner, intent on assimilating them into their tribe, both must rise up to meet their greatest challenge and plumb the depths of their faith. Together they might be able to escape captivity-captivity of body and captivity of soul.

This book was one of the most difficult I've ever written. Isabelle is one of those people who know who they are - their created self - and is determined to live that out. But God allows her to go through some really hard things in order to build her back up in the way that He wants her. The strength she has at the beginning of the book becomes a beautiful masterpiece that He made "in His image" for eternity. For me, it is a gripping and challenging tale that God is using in my own life, reminding me of the safety and completion that comes in surrendering (total and complete) to Him. Check out the book trailer and more info on Wind Dancer at http://www.jamiecarie.com/undefined

Pre-order Wind Dancer today at Amazon CBD LifeWay and your local bookstores!

CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Congratulations to our August, September and October winners of a copy of The Duchess and the Dragon . And the winners are:

Audrey Larson

Lisa Gordon

Eva Silkka

(Remember , all you have to do to be automatically entered in each month ’s drawing is subscribe to this newsletter! So please pass this along to your family and friends!)

NEWS FROM THE HOMEFRONT

I'm really excited about the book The Love Dare . My husband and I have been married for twenty years and honestly, we have a pretty solid marriage. God intervened on our behalf to get us together (it's a pretty amazing story and someday I'm sure I will write about it) but we've had our difficulties over the years too. When I came back from the BAM (Books A Million) convention I had two copies of this book with me. We started doing the devotionals/dares last week and wow! It's been eye-opening for both of us. It's like looking into a truth mirror and seeing all the selfishness and pride and fear looking back.

Some of the dares have been encouraging, like the one on jealousy. We have been each other's greatest cheerleader and have encouraged each other in our goals and dreams. So that wasn't too painful. Others have been challenging, like the appreciation room vs. the deappreciation room. I have to admit to writing past failures on the walls and bringing those up (out of my fear) when we are heading into a decision or direction that didn't turn out so well in the past. For me, it always goes back to the same thing: Am I going to trust God to take care of my emotions in the face of sin (mine or his) or am I going to try to control a situation so that I don't risk getting hurt. How liberating to trust God completely in the good and bad! And how difficult!

Lately, the Lord has been showing my how His joy can be my strength. Nehemiah 8:10 "This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." I pray that the Lord will fill us with his joy and that we all might live in that strengthened place in Him.

NEWS

Jamie wins scholarship through the Cec Murphey Publicity Scholarship : I am blown away by God's provision and plans for this next book! God has blessed me with a publicity scholarship worth $5,000.00!! Cec Murphey is the author (with Don Piper) of the bestseller, 90 Minutes in Heaven , and many other books. He has an amazing heart for the Lord and is a wonderful speaker too! His website is http://themanbehindthewords.com/
New Friends: In winning the publicity scholarship, I have had the great pleasure to meet Twila Beck and Jim Rubart. Jim has a book coming out next year entitled ROOMS. I've read the first half and can hardly put it down. Aside from being a great fictional novelist, Jim is a marketing expert. You can read the blog he shares with Laura Chritianson at http://heblogssheblogs.com/about/ for solid, smart advise "that'll help you polish your writing, blogging and marketing skills."
Favorite Fan Email for this month is . . . “Dear Jamie, I have been listening to The Duchess and the Dragon on audio during my commute this week. Before I proceed, let me tell you that I'm an avid reader who has tended to stay away from Christian fiction because of my frustration with the lack of good stories. Lately, I've been convicted to only spend my time with things that edify me so I've tried again. A co-worker has always talked so passionately about your books, and recently another good friend of mine described Duchess as "unbelievable" so I thought I'd give it a shot. I have thoroughly enjoyed it -- I sit out in my car long after I get home just to keep listening. I look forward to reading "Wind Dancer" as well. Great Job Jamie! Lauralin
B&H Fiction: Check out the great fiction from my publisher B&H at their new fiction portal here - http://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/fiction/
Wind Dancer in Walmart: I've heard a rumor that Wind Dancer might make it into Walmart stores sometime this spring! Please be praying with me for this! It would be HUGE!
New and improved website . . . again! Visit JamieCarie.com and let me know what you think! Lots more content and a poll!
Love's First Light - I just turned in my forth book to my publisher, B&H. It will be out June 2009. The cover is stunning! My favorite so far!! The book trailer will be on my website in the next week - check it out!

Please help spread the word! If you enjoy my books, please tell your family and friends! And forward this newsletter on to anyone you think might be interested in reading inspirational, historical fiction! Grass roots - word of mouth - marketing is the BEST! Thanks so much!!!

2008-10-27T11:48:00.000-04:00

I'm really excited about the book, The Love Dare. My husband and I have been married for twenty years and honestly, we have a pretty solid marriage. God intervened on our behalf to get us together (it's a pretty amazing story and someday I'm sure I will write about it) but we've had our difficulit times over the years too. When I came back from the BAM (Books A Million) convention I had two copies of this book with me. We started doing the devotionals/dares last week and wow! It's been eye-opening for both of us. It's like looking into a truth mirror and seeing all the selfishness and pride and fear looking back.

Some of the dares have been encouraging, like last night's on jealousy. We have been each others greatest cheerleader and have encouraged each other in our goals and dreams. Other day's dares have been challenging, like the appreciation room vs. the deappreciation room. I have to admit to writing past failures on the walls and bringing those up (out of my fear) when we are headed into a decision or direction that didn't turn out so well in the past. For me, it always goes back to the same thing: Am I going to trust God to take care of me and my emotions in the face of sin (mine or his) or am I going to try to control a situation so that I don't risk getting hurt?

How liberating to trust God completely in the good and bad! And how difficult! Lately, the Lord has been showing me how His joy can be my strength. Nehemiah 8:10 "This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." I pray that the Lord will fill us with His joy and that we all might live from that strengthened place in Him.

2008-10-19T17:40:00.000-04:00

Wow! Am I a Lame Blogger or What?

The last two weeks have been a blur of travel and activity which has me waaay behind on things like blogging! I attended the BAM (Books a Million) Sales Conference in Birmingham, Alabama two weeks ago and the B&H Sales Conference last week in Nashville.

The BAM conference was wonderful. I heard Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea speak on his mission to "build schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan." It is an amazing story of the impact of education, especially girls. One of his slides told of an old African proverb which says, "if you educate a boy, you educate an individual-if you educate a girl you educate a community." There were hundreds of photos of the schools he has built. I can't think of a better anti-terrorism strategy than giving these children a better future, more choices than falling in with terrorists groups out of fear and ignorance.

The next day we had a GREAT booksigning. Boy, I sure do love signings where the books are free. I must have signed a couple of hundred copies and got to talk to all kinds of great BAM managers from all over the country. Oh! And it looks like I might get to do a little book signing tour in North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi and Texas! If you live in those areas I would love to meet you! I'll keep you posted on the dates.

Here are some photos of my recent travels:

Chelsea, me, Julie and Matt at BAM
	Julie (my wonderful publicist!) and Karen Ball - Editor Extraordinaire!

The Art Team! Greg does the book trailers and Diana does the covers!!

Karen and I at the hotel	The wonderful team at LifeWay. I got to learn all about what they do to keep the LifeWay retail side running! They were incredibly kind!



The wonderful B&H Sales Guys

The gang with my agent, Wes Yoder (the most amazing guy on the planet aside from my hubbie:)

2008-10-02T10:13:00.001-04:00

101 Best Websites for Writers by Writer's Digest

Here's a list of the best websites of 2008 for writers. Some great stuff here for anyone wanting to know more about writing and the writing life. http://www.writersdigest.com/101BestSites

2008-09-23T12:38:00.000-04:00

IN GOD WE TRUST

I received some comments on http://www.redroom.com/blog/jamie-carie/the-sarah-palins-are-back-in-vogue#comment-11319 about my Sarah Palin post which made me question why I like her so much. Is it just that she's a breath of fresh air in the stagnant Republican party and pretty and I look a little like her? Am I that shallow?? LOL! Possibly. But as I began writing my rebuttal, I was pleasantly surprised by what God has placed in my heart for her. I thought I would share it here too:

Well . . . Sarah Palin says she never tried to ban a book, but even if she did, I've been guilty of making some pretty boneheaded decisions in the name of religion. (Evil, evil Santa Claus!) And yes, like all the candidates, she probably made some mistakes during her shooting-star political rise. The reason I am for Sarah Palin is that I believe she will be lead by the Holy Spirit should she be elected Vice President.

When Jesus was "taken up into heaven" he told his disciples to wait for a gift. "For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 1:5 NIV) They thought he was referring to restoring Israel, but once again God's plan is so much bigger than our thinking. Jesus then told them, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8 NIV) They were about to get the promise that Jesus spoke to them earlier about in John 14: 16-17 "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--17.the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."

When I am allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and guide me I find myself doing God-ordained things instead of self-ordained things (I don't do this as well as I should - all of the time:). It's like the fishes and the loaves that Jesus increased. When I'm allowing to the Holy Spirit to lead the direction of my days, I am able to do more, be more, say more and love more. He increases my efforts to follow His leading according to His plan for my life. Give this a try! Pray and ask him into your life to lead you and guide you. If Sarah Palin is doing that (which my convictions about her tell me she is) then she will lead this country into God's provision for it. God has great plans for America. We all just need to get out the Bible and seek Him.
Here are more scriptures on the Holy Spirit: http://beta.biblestudytools.com/search/?keyword=holy%20spirit&type=bible&translation=niv

Oh and separation of church and state? Ha! What a joke! We, all of us, in any position of leadership bring our values, morals, prejudices, hopes, fears, faith, etc. to the table when we lead. We're all a mess to one degree or another. No one is qualified to lead. No one is wise enough, good enough, able enough to be President of the United States. So my hope lies in the person who will be lead by the Holy Spirit. God is so much bigger than any of creation has ever grasped. We use words to describe him like omniscient but we really can't wrap our minds around what that means. He (God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit) are the only One who can rescue us and our country. It may look like everything is falling apart around us, but His master plan is the same as when He created us. He has everything fully under His control. We can only succeed when we align ourselves with His plan. And to do that we need the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 3:10-31
10.As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;
11.there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
12.All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
13."Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips."
14."Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
15."Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16.ruin and misery mark their ways,
17.and the way of peace they do not know."
18."There is no fear of God before their eyes."
19.Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
20.Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
21.But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22.This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
23.for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24.and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
25.God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--
26.he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27.Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.
28.For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
29.Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,
30.since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
31.Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

So, Holy Spirit for President!! Or the person who is willing to follow Him.

Aren't you glad I put in my two cents worth?

Blessing to you all!!! Blessings to America!!!

2008-09-18T14:45:00.001-04:00

TWENTY YEARS!!! Whoo-Hooo!

Yesterday, Tony and I celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary! We went out for a lovely dinner at Maggianos. The waiter found out it was our twentieth and surprised us with a HUGE plate of dessert (a serving of every dessert they offer) with curly candles sticking out of it. I wish I had taken a picture. We ate so much we could hardly walk out of there!

When we got home we popped in our wedding video into an old VHS player. I don't think we've watched it in about ten years. It was hilarious to look back on my Madonnaesque, fingerless lace gloves and bubble hem wedding gown - (Why didn't someone (MOTHER!) try to stop me from wearing that!?!). We look so young - just babies! And at 21 and 23 we were young.

Tony and I have been through a lot and I have to admit to a feeling of accomplishment and "pride" for sticking it out and loving each other through the good times and bad. We got married young, had children young, and were both pretty immature. We've grown up together. But as much as people insist waiting until you have yourself and your life in order to get married is the best route, I don't think it would have been for us. It's been hard, we've been broke and desperate at times, but the Lord has always been at the center of our relationship. And with Him on our side, we've made it this far more in love than the day we got married.

God is faithful to complete the work that He begins! PTL!!

Love you, honey!!! Here's to twenty more years!!

2008-09-07T13:04:00.000-04:00

Watch Out America!

The Sarah Palins Are Back in Vogue!

I went to the bank yesterday and saw a woman with her hair piled on her head, proudly sporting her glasses. Then I noticed some of the news women on CNN wearing the half-up, half-down style. (I'm a news junkie now and actually excited about politics!!:) Thinking I would give it a try, I dressed up in a suit, put my hair up and got out my glasses (which I never wear in public!!). My sister came over and took some photos and then some of our neighbors came by to see what all the fuss was about. We were all cracking up at the resemblance.

The really cool thing is that WIND DANCER (January 2009) is a story of overcoming captivity and full of "Go America" patriotism. I think Sarah and Cindy McCain would really like it.

Send me your photos and "What You Love About Vice-Presidential Nominee, Sarah Palin" via email ("Contact" button on my website, http://www.jamiecarie.com/ ) and I will post your photos too!!!

2008-08-25T23:50:00.000-04:00

A Love Letter to my son, Jordan

I love your laugh
and when glee fills your eyes
When you were little, I loved your messy finger-painted hands as you created art that I thought was brilliant at 2 and then 3 and 5 and 7. I loved your messy sweet-potato face and then the spaghetti dinners where you plastered your high chair and your face with tomato sauce.

I love your questioning mind that makes me think and realize how much I don't know . . .
how much I need God to raise such a mind - your mind IS amazing.

I loved your growing up years where I was able to homeschool you - those moments where we both had epiphanies and I thought with a deep, indrawn breath, "Oh, Lord. What plans do have for this one?" You blew me away over and over and over again, until I didn't know how to fill the enormous potential that God has given you. You are so gifted. Never take it for granted.

I loved how you rose to the challenge when I placed you in "private, Christian" school. I loved even more, how you rose up even higher when you were placed in public school and the "real world." Your life has been God's perfect map for you. Don't doubt it. He has a plan for all your experiences . . . for His glory and your eternal life and glory.

I love it when you are strong, and you always seem strong, but those small moments when you are weak, when you are broken, I LOVE YOU.
I love you when you doubt or when you are so cocky sure of your opinion. I love you when you rise to a challenge or when you hug me and I feel you still need a little bit of my comfort.

I LOVE YOU.

Today, as I drop you off at college, I love you for being brave.
I love you for knowing what you want and yet keeping the future open for God's plans.
Because, I AM SURE, that you have not yet seen all that God has planned for you. I don't think we've even imagined it yet.
God will give you it to you a little at a time, a light that will guide your steps as you go forward into your future.
You don't have to have it all figured out . . . ever. It's the thing you like best in books.

The grand adventure.

And I know that I know that I know, that you will follow that dim and bright and flickering light into the glory of your future.

I love you in all your stages and ways. In all your weaknesses and strengths. And if I, as your mother, have this overwhelming, all-consuming love for you, then I can only imagine what God's love for you is like.
My prayer for you: (Download it on itunes - Casting Crowns - East to West).

Here I am, Lord, and I'm drowning
in your sea of forgetfulness
The chains of yesterday surround me
I yearn for peace and rest
I don't want to end up where You found me
And it echoes in my mind, keeps me awake tonight

I know You've cast my sin as far as the east is from the west
And I stand before You now as though I've never sinned
But today I feel like I'm just one mistake away
from You leaving me this way

Jesus, can You show me just how far the east is from the west
'cause I can't bear to see the man I've been come rising up in me again
In the arms of Your mercy I find rest
'cause You know just how far the east is from the west
From one scarred hand to the other

I start the day, the war begins, endless reminding of my sin
Time and time again Your truth is drowned out by the storm I'm in
Today I feel like I'm just one mistake away from You leaving me this way
(Chorus)
I know You've washed me white, turned my darkness into light
I need Your peace to get me through, to get me through this night
I can't live by what I feel, but by the truth Your word reveals
I'm not holding on to You, but You're holding on to me
You're holding on to me

Jesus, You know just how far the east is from the west
I don't have to see the man I've been come rising up in me again
In the arms of Your mercy I find rest
'cause You know just how far the east is from the west
From one scarred hand to the other
One scarred hand to the other
From one scarred hand to the other

I pray you have an overwhelming, all-consuming, sure-foundation picture of the love of God for YOU.

To my precious one. Love always and forever,

Mom

P.S. Dad feels this and more.
P.S.S. Have you prayed for your miracle today? One every thirty days. Don't forget.

2008-08-07T12:51:00.000-04:00

Photos From RWA

Well folks, I didn't win the RITA, but I did make some wonderful friends and sat in on some very educational workshops! Terri Garey won and I was soooo happy for her. Her acceptance speech brought me to tears!

And San Francisco is amazing! My husband and I had a great time seeing all the sights. We stayed a few extra days (to celebrate our up and coming 20th year wedding anniversary!!) and went to Muir Woods, Salsalito and Napa Valley. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Rosemary, Emily, Terri, Hank and Me at the Practice Ceremony

Rosemary and me all decked out!

My handsome husband, Tony!

The Redwood Forest - Gorgeous!

2008-08-06T18:12:00.000-04:00

Wind Dancer - Coming Soon!! My Most Intense Book Yet:)!!

Raised in the small frontier town of Vincennes, Isabelle Renoir longs for a life of purpose and meaning. She dreams of the day when she can escape the simple life and embrace the feeling that she is destined for something rare and wonderful. Unable to fit in with the women around her, Isabelle feels more at home in the woods with her long rifle grasped in her right hand and a wicked-looking knife tied up under her skirts. Escape turns tragic, though, when her first true adventure leads her into a trap. She wakes to a nightmare: Wounded and alone, her brother is missing, as is the man who has joined them, a stranger named Samuel that she can’t seem to forget.

One of the Long Knives of the great George Rogers Clark, Samuel Holt is a guardian, protecting and providing for the scattered Colonial forts dotting the Northwest Territory. He keeps his scalp attached with finely honed skills in weaponry, stealth, and cunning. When war becomes inevitable, Samuel joins Clark in taking the important posts along the great Ohio River. He hadn’t planned falling in love again anytime soon, but then he never imagined Isabelle - a raven-haired temptress who dances in the moonlight. But in this man, with his golden hair and piercing amber eyes, Isabelle has met her match. And when the Shawnee take them prisoner, intent on assimilating them into their tribe, both must rise up to meet their greatest challenge and plumb the depths of their faith. Together they must escape captivity—captivity of body and captivity of soul.

Pre-order it here: http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=445343&netp_id=557908&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW&view=covers

Or here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Wind-Dancer-Jamie-Carie/dp/080544534X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218061302&sr=1-6

Go to my website at http://www.jamiecarie.com/ to view the new book trailer for WIND DANCER (left side on the homepage).

Thanks eveyone!!

2008-07-24T10:49:00.000-04:00

A Candy Store In Town!

We just discovered the new candy store in our area and it is so much fun! They have lollipops of all shapes and sizes, fudge (my weakness), giant jawbreakers on a stick, cotton candy, colored caramel popcorn, gelato and Dipping Dots, nostalgic candy like red, hotdog gum, Big League Chew and soda pop fizz candy, and the list goes on and on!

It is such a bright and cheerful place that my kids want to go back everyday!! So as not to break the bank we decided to make some candy of our own and my hubby found this amazing website http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/recipe-taffy.html that explains the candy recipies. Our first attempt will be taffy!

I remember my brother and I making taffy with my great grandmother and mother one fall. Coloring it and stretching it was a blast. I have to admit that the recipie looks a bit challenging (I haven't been in the cooking mode in a while:). I'll let you know how it turns out!

What about you? Any favorite candy recipies? Favorite memories of making candy or going to a candy store? Tell me what you think of the Exploatorium website!

Have Fun!!!!

Jamie

2008-07-21T09:44:00.000-04:00

AND THE WINNERS ARE!!!

Thanks so much for all the comments on these wonderful interviews. As I said, each author will choose a winner who will then recieve a copy of their RITA Nominated book! AND I will choose a GRAND PRIZE WINNER who will recieve all of our books including SNOW ANGEL.

Go to the comments page to find out if you've won one of the individual contests (the authors will be posting the winners throughout the day today, so keep checking back:).

And the GRAND PRIZE winner is . . .

jeannie!!! Congratulations Jeannie!! I will email you for your address today!

Jamie

2008-07-17T07:59:00.000-04:00

Last of the RITA Nominated Interviews (sniff) :-). Next time I talk about the RITA's I'll be back home from SF!

Introducing Emily Gee from New Zealand!! (Her nominated book THIEF WITH NO SHADOW is currently out of stock, so there might not be a contest winner for this interview - but please comment anyway:) Welcome Emily!

How did you get started in the publishing business?

I wrote, and wrote, and wrote—the typical apprenticeship. My sixth book sold … just when I was on the point of giving up!
Any surprises? Biggest challenge so far?

My biggest challenge has been juggling the demands of work and writing. Something has to give—and unfortunately it’s usually the writing!
What is the best part of being a novelist?

The license to daydream as much as I like!
What’s the average day in the writer’s life look like for you? Are you scheduled and organized or are you more the “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” type?

I’m much happier when I’m organized. Typically I get up and go for a long walk, then write until it’s time to go to work. In the evening I may do some more writing—with a glass of wine!
What are your inspirations for your stories? Any tips and tricks for someone who is stuck?

No inspirations! I just daydream far too much…
Whenever I’m stuck, I go for a walk around the hills. By the time I get home I’ve worked out the answer to my problem.
Have you had a mentor, critique group or teacher that has helped you get where you are today? Have you been a mentor to someone else?

A very generous writer named Lisa Chaplin (Melissa James) read and critiqued a fantasy novel of mine. She made me rethink how I’d written each scene in the book. Without her help I may never have signed with an agent--or sold a book!
What does it mean to you to be nominated for a RITA award? How did you feel when you got the call? And what do you think the RITA means for the romance novel genre?

I was quite stunned to be nominated—and I walked on air for several days!
This may be the wrong analogy, but for me the RITA is the equivalent of the Oscars—the best of the best, as judged by peers. Just perhaps not so high profile as the Oscars!
What are you wearing to the RITA Awards Ceremony in San Francisco? (LOL) Do you have the dress picked out? Any stories?
Well … I wasn’t planning on attending the San Francisco conference (the cost was prohibitive) but fortunately I received a conference scholarship, so I’ll be there! My dress is something my sister found in an op shop—but it looks expensive (or at least, that’s what I tell myself!)

Are you preparing a speech in case you win?

I haven’t yet, but my writing mates Downunder are determined that I shall!
Congratulations on your RITA nomination. Any last thoughts?

I’m thrilled to have been nominated and I’m looking forward to San Francisco—and meeting my fellow nominees—with great excitement!

2008-07-14T17:53:00.001-04:00

Introducing the Lovely and Talented Hank Phillippi Ryan with her Double RITA Nominated book - PRIME TIME!

(Remember, to win a free copy of Hank's book PRIME TIME, just comment on the interview and you will be included in the drawing:) Happy Reading, everyone!

How did you get started in the publishing business?

Really really started? When I was 19, I worked as a proofreader for a publishing company. My colleague and I read the entire Indiana Code of Laws OUT LOUD, including punctuation and capitalization. Then we made the index for the whole set of books, using—index cards.
Fast forward through 30 years of being a TV reporter—and then one day, I had a great idea for a mystery. I can remember the moment I thought—secret messages in computer spam? It still gives me goosebumps. And that was the beginning of this amazing journey.
Now book three in the Charlotte McNally Mysteries, Air Time, will be published by MIRA next year, and then Drive Time. Very very exciting. And now I’m doing my own proofreading!

Any surprises? Biggest challenge so far?

Everything is a surprise. It has been a long time since I was the new kid at anything. So—writing a book? Writing a whole book? Getting an agent? A publisher? Writing a mystery series? It was all a challenge, and all a surprise. But I must say—one of the loveliest surprises was how wonderful all my new book world friends are—generous, patient, kind and gracious.

What is the best part of being a novelist?

Getting to say I’m a novelist! And seeing my book in a bookstore. No—here’s the real answer. I was in the post office the other say, and a woman came up to me and said—are you Hank Phillippi Ryan? I’m kind of used to being recognized, since I’ve been on TV here for so long, so I said yes, sure, hi. And she said—I love your books! And pulled a copy of Prime Time out of her purse. It just doesn’t get better than that. (Winning the Agatha for Best First Novel was also astonishing.)

What’s the average day in the writer’s life look like for you? Are you scheduled and organized or are you more the “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” type?

My average day is coming to work at Channel 7. Working a full day as the investigative reporter. Then dashing home, and ducking into my study to write. (My husband has eaten a lot of pizza over the past few years, and has done a lot of laundry. He’s really learned some survival skills!) I am extremely and totally organized. Have to be. Lists upon lists. I even have a chart of how many words I day I have to write. Most often, I’m behind. But at least I know how behind I am. It’s such a pleasure though, to create Charlie McNally’s world—the time just disappears.

What are your inspirations for your stories? Any tips and tricks for someone who is stuck?

I forget who said—Somerset Maugham maybe? I only write when I’m inspired. And I make sure I’m inspired every morning at 9am.
That’s kind of how it goes for me. I’ve spent so many years as a reporter, when you absolutely can’t miss a deadline, that I just have learned to power through times when it’s not working. I say to myself—just GO ON. Just write something. And then, I make it better later.
Tips? It’s all there in your brain. Just don’t be afraid to let it come out. I have a quotation on my bulletin board: “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

Have you had a mentor, critique group or teacher that has helped you get where you are today? Have you been a mentor to someone else?

Hmm. I was halfway through Prime Time when I finally took my first course in how to write a mystery. Hallie Ephron was the teacher, and she’s become a wonderful friend and mentor. Katherine Hall Page shepherded me a great deal, and Sisters in Crime has been an endlessly wonderful resource. I’m a mentor at for the debut authors at Thriller Writers, and that’s fantastic.
Critique group? Forgive me, but no. I’m just not the critique group type. Until my brilliant and amazing editor gets my manuscript, I guess I think I know best. I do adore editing other people’s work—but beware. I’m incredibly tough.
What does it mean to you to be nominated for a RITA award? How did you feel when you got the call? And what do you think the RITA means for the romance novel genre?
I’m laughing. I was in the midst of work chaos when I got the call, and had no idea it was RITA day. After the person said “I’m calling from the RITAs, and congratulations”…I fear I didn’t hear much after that.
I do remember asking, in disbelief and with apprehension about getting too excited—you mean—I’m a finalist? Nominated? Or just in a group where you’re still choosing the nominees? And the person said: Honey, this is the Oscars. You can put this on our tombstone!” That’s when I knew it was real. But I still smile whenever I think about it. When the second phone call came, for a nomination in the Romantic Suspense category, I was still floating. That caller certainly has no eardrums left.
Last Christmas, I gave my agent a first edition Nancy Drew, and a silver picture frame. I said—maybe we’ll put our RITA photo in it. That was a…well… Not a joke. But certainly a dream. I am full of joy and wonder to be on the list with such incredibly talented people.

What are you wearing to the RITA Awards Ceremony in San Francisco? (LOL) Do you have the dress picked out? Any stories?

Oh, the tension. No, I Don’t have my dress yet. Last year, the glam Michelle Buonfiglio wore the same ultra-slinky red dress that’s on the cover of Prime Time—I couldn’t believe it when I saw her! I’ll have to do some fast shopping—another RITA perk.

Are you preparing a speech in case you win?

No. Yes. No. Yes. Maybe. Am I superstitious? Or prepared? Hmm.

Congratulations on your RITA nomination. Any last thoughts?

You, too! And I wish we could all win. In fact, I think we already have. I’m so grateful. And so inspired. And I can’t wait to meet you all.

Thanks Hank for the inspiring interview! Learn more about Hank Phillippi Ryan and her books at http://www.hankphillippiryan.com/

2008-07-09T21:19:00.000-04:00

Next Up! Kelly Parra with the YA Novel (And Double Nominated for a RITA Award!) GRAFFITI GIRL!

Kelly recently did an interview on Writers at Play http://www.writersatplay.com/ where I learned that Graffiti Girl has been mentioned in TEEN mag, become a Latinidad Top pick, and been selected for the NYC Book Up program to encourage middle grade students to become long time readers. She calls it her "Little Book That Could" and after reading the interview I felt so proud of her! (I'm almost old enough to be her momma!)

Please welcome Kelly Parra!

Hello Jamie! Thanks so much for inviting me to your blog along with these talented RITA nominees! :)

Kelly, how did you get started in the publishing business?

Creativity has always run through my blood. It wasn’t until I was home and expecting my first child that I took up reading Romance. I’ll always remember reading Nora Roberts’s BORN IN ICE…that hooked me on my path to becoming a faithful Romance reader and eventually writing. After joining RWA and writing short stories and failing miserably at contests, I became serious when I hooked up with two fabulous writers, Dianna Love and Tina Ferraro. From there it was finishing that book, learning the craft, and eventually querying agents, signing, and reaching that precious goal of selling!

Any surprises? Biggest challenge so far?

For me, everything is a surprise when I first experience it. My biggest challenge came very quickly after selling a novel to the Bombshell line and having my Romantic Suspense not published after the line closed. My young adult sale came quickly after and with my spirits down, it was mentally difficult to finish my second book, but I pushed myself and GRAFFITI GIRL was turned in. When it was published it meant so much more to hold it in my hands. That’s why this nomination and my nomination for Young Adult Romance are such a surprise and both a wonderful honor.

What is the best part of being a novelist?

Creating characters and stories all from my imagination. Sometimes I wonder where do these images in my head come from, but then I think I don’t care as long as they never stop. Being able to write stories is a gift, and one I don’t ever want to take for granted.

What’s the average day in the writer’s life look like for you? Are you scheduled and organized or are you more the “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” type?

Oh man, I am so unorganized it’s not even funny! Okay, maybe a little bit. I have a chicken scratch list of tasks I need to take care of that is always growing. I really just switch my plentitude of hats every hour or so: Mom, wife, writer, blogger, interviewer, promoter, reader. Sometimes I have to wear them at the same time. Haha, talk about busy! ;)

What are your inspirations for your stories? Any tips and tricks for someone who is stuck?

My inspiration has always been wonderful books. When I read a novel that makes me feel I want to share that gift with other readers. I often become stuck, so when that happens I start to write from a different scene that will hook me back into the book. Works like a charm. :)

Have you had a mentor, critique group or teacher that has helped you get where you are today? Have you been a mentor to someone else?

I would have to say Dianna Love (http://www.authordiannalove.com/) has been my mentor for years. I met her on-line before either of us sold, and she was a Golden Heart finalist. She would take the time to answer my many questions and read my work. Through the years she has accomplished so much from becoming a Golden Heart winner, selling, RITA winner, and now recently a NYT bestseller with PHANTOM IN THE NIGHT. I am very proud of her!
My cyber partner and most valuable player in my writing life is young adult author, Tina Ferraro (http://www.tinaferraro.com/). We hooked up through a critique service years ago and have been best buds ever since. We share our hard times and our triumphs and I could not ask for a better critique partner and friend.
The mentoring I’ve done has been through judging contests and doing my best to share my thoughts and experience on my Words of a Writer blog. This RWA conference I’ll be taking part in a workshop with Shelley Adina, Carol Culver and agent, Jennifer Jackson. Hopefully, I’ll be able to speak past shaking with nerves!

What does it mean to you to be nominated for a RITA award? How did you feel when you got the call? And what do you think the RITA means for the romance novel genre?

As I mentioned, it is a wonderful honor to be nominated. I was in shock when I received my call and trembling! By the time I got my second, I thought pigs were surely flying, and until I saw the official announcement I wouldn’t believe it. What a day that was! I think the RITA is an honor to those who write Romance and for finalists and winners. Something to be proud of. :)

What are you wearing to the RITA Awards Ceremony in San Francisco? (LOL) Do you have the dress picked out? Any stories?

LOL, is right! I have never been to a RITA ceremony and I’m allergic to panty hose and heels. (Just kidding!) It is going to be quite the task picking a dress I feel comfortable in.

Are you preparing a speech in case you win?

I have not prepared a speech, and I may draft something, but the competition is so fierce for me it’s just been such a pleasure to be nominated! I never dreamed to be a finalist, but I’m always willing to take a chance.

Congratulations on your RITA nomination. Any last thoughts?

Thank you, Jamie! It’s been a pleasure chatting with you. I’m sending my congrats to all of the finalists in every category as well as our own. Best of luck, Everyone, and I can’t wait until San Francisco!

Visit Kelly's site at http://www.kellyparra.com/

2008-07-08T10:15:00.000-04:00

RITA Dress!

I've had several people ask if I've gotten my dress for the RITA Awards Ceremony and the answer is YES!! My sister and I went shopping together and when we saw it, we both knew it was the one! But it was a little big, so I thought I would have to keep looking. Then the sales woman showed me how it could be altered (she was a really good sales woman! LOL) and I decided to go for it! The beading is just gorgeous. Let me know what you think!

What is your favorite dress that you've ever bought (wedding dresses don't count:)? What was the occasion? I would love to hear your stories!!

2008-07-05T18:39:00.000-04:00

Introducing Terri Garey with her RITA Nominated book - DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY

This interview had me cracking up and tearing up! Terri is such a sweetheart! Enjoy! To be a part of the drawing for a free copy, just comment on the interview:)

How did you get started in the publishing business?

I decided back in 2001 that if I was truly going to succeed as a novelist, I needed to educate myself about the industry. I got on the Internet and discovered Romance Writers of America—they were having a conference in New Orleans that year, and it seemed like the perfect place to start. (The Garden District, the Cajun cuisine, Jackson Square… all of it dear to this Southern girl’s heart.) So, not knowing a soul, not knowing a query from a question mark, a synopsis from a synonym or “category” from cat food J, I registered, got on a plane and went to every workshop I possibly could, soaking it all up like a sponge.
And I’ll be honest with you—it was baffling. It was overwhelming. It was more scary than the tour I took one afternoon of the local cemeteries and voodoo shops. J So much to learn, so much to sift through. But it was also inspiring – I met so many women who were excited and enthused and interested in what they were doing. I remember seeing all the women in their beautiful dresses heading toward the RITA and Golden Heart Awards ceremony, and thinking how very special it must feel to be nominated for an award like that. It truly is a dream come true to be one of those women seven years later!

Any surprises? Biggest challenge so far?

I’d have to say that the biggest surprise for me was learning how little control an author has over the actual “marketing” of their book once it’s been sold. The cover, the title, the release date, the back cover copy—all the things that you envision as you’re writing it become subject to the decisions made by your publisher and their team of experts. My publisher, Avon HarperCollins, has been absolutely wonderful about allowing me input in all those areas, but the ultimate decisions are always up to them.
The biggest challenge? I’d say coming to the realization that once you’ve finished that book, you really need to get busy on the next one! We focus so hard on getting published—I think in order to truly succeed, you have to realize that as an author, your job is never really done. The book may be done, but your job as a storyteller isn’t. There are people out there who are clamoring for more stories!

What is the best part of being a novelist?

You mean besides hanging out with Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp? Fielding movie offers? Dodging the paparazzi? J The best part of being a novelist (besides making my own schedule and making up stories like the fairy tale above), is knowing that there are people out there who are reading and enjoying my work. The emails I get from readers, the fun I have knowing I’ve made people laugh and taken them out of their daily routine, if only for a little while, is by far the best part for me.

What’s the average day in the writer’s life look like for you? Are you scheduled and organized or are you more the “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” type?

I’m an “early-to-bed-early-to-rise” type who finds herself much more creative and productive in the morning than in the afternoon. I don’t have a set schedule, but after breakfast with my husband, I take a power walk with the dog and then sit down to work at my desk. I take a short break for lunch (usually reading while I eat), and then I’m back to work. I’m still there at 5:00, but I have a harder time focusing in the late afternoon, so lots of times I find myself blog surfing, answering emails or shopping online by then. (Don’t tell my editor!)

What are your inspirations for your stories? Any tips and tricks for someone who is stuck?

I get inspired by great settings or quirky things and/or people I see on the news. I’m a big believer in the “real life is stranger than fiction” example. I find music is a great way to get my mind going, but I absolutely can’t have music playing while I write—I need quiet for that. I also do a very small collage at the start of each book, with pictures and phrases that represent what I’m “going for” in that particular story. I keep it by my monitor until the manuscript is finished.

Have you had a mentor, critique group or teacher that has helped you get where you are today? Have you been a mentor to someone else?

I’ve never had a mentor, but I’ve had a couple of really wonderful authors who encouraged me along the way, particularly NYT best-selling romantic suspense author Mariah Stewart. We were total strangers when we met at a conference in NJ, but she’d read my work in a contest. She took the time to sit down and give me some excellent career advice, which led (by a bit of a roundabout route) to me signing with my agent. I strongly believe that having a great literary agent is a necessity in this business.

As for critique partners, I have to give a tremendous amount of credit to my very first critique partner, Sheila Raye, who hounded and nagged me through the first full draft of DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY, my RITA finaling book. I don’t think I could’ve done it without her. That was four years ago, but since my editor is now the ultimate “critiquer” of my work, Sheila has gone on to critique for others. I’ve tried to “pay it forward” by acting as judge in writing contests, and try to be as encouraging and informative as possible to anyone who’s interested in writing.

What does it mean to you to be nominated for a RITA award? How did you feel when you got the call? And what do you think the RITA means for the romance novel genre?

It’s truly a dream come true, which started back in New Orleans in 2001. Getting that phone call was one of the most exciting moments of my life—getting a second call fifteen minutes later was indescribable! I actually thought there’d been a mistake, and they’d notified me twice in error! It wasn’t until the very nice lady from RWA explained to me calmly that I’d finaled in two different categories (Best First Book and Best Paranormal Romance), that it sunk in. (Well, actually, it took another few minutes after I’d hung up to sink in… I think I was numb at that point!)

What are you wearing to the RITA Awards Ceremony in San Francisco? (LOL) Do you have the dress picked out? Any stories?

Ah, yes, the dress. *sigh* I absolutely adore it. Full length, bronze/gold satin with banding and a teeny bit of bling at the bodice, with a cute little bolero jacket. I’d gone shopping and narrowed it down to two choices, then called a dear friend and begged her to come down and help me choose. When I stepped out of the dressing room expecting only her, there were five women standing there waiting for an empty dressing room—total strangers all—who oohed and aahed and had very definite opinions on which dressed looked the best! LOL It was unanimous for the bronze/gold satin!

Are you preparing a speech in case you win?

No speech. Just a short list of people to thank.

Congratulations on your RITA nomination. Any last thoughts?

Thank you, and congratulations to you, as well! This has been such an exciting journey, and it really is true what they say about just being honored to be nominated—win or lose, I wouldn’t have missed this for the world!

To read more about Terri go to http://www.tgarey.com/

Thanks Terri!!

2008-06-28T18:56:00.000-04:00

Next Up in our RITA Nominated Interviews!

Introducing Deanna Raybourn - Author of Silent in the Grave!

How did you get started in the publishing business?

Slowly. I wrote my first novel when I was 23. I did not sell Silent in the Grave until I was 37. In between were six or seven other novels that live quietly in a box in the attic, and we won’t even talk about how many rejection letters I got. But when MIRA bought Grave they bought two sequels as well, so overnight I went from being a girl who couldn’t get a second look from the publishing industry to a writer with a multibook deal. It was terrifying and wonderful, and I still haven’t quite recovered.

Any surprises? Biggest challenge so far?

My biggest fear as a writer was having to write a book I’d already been paid for. I was terrified. But when my agent sold Silent in the Grave, she might have accidentally given the impression I was a teeny bit further along with the sequel than I actually was. I had a very short time to finish it, and for six weeks after I signed the contract, I was paralyzed with fear. Then I looked at the calendar and nearly infarcted on the spot. I sat down and wrote like a demon for the next few months. After that I had to learn how to revise because I had never revised anything in my entire life, not a paper, not a book, not a paragraph. My editor was very tough, and incredibly good. She pushed me just far enough to get my best and not so far that I curled up fetal under the bed. Writing the third book was infinitely easier and more enjoyable!

What is the best part of being a novelist?

Readers! I love hearing from people who have been immersed in the world I’ve created and didn’t want to leave. The most touching response I have received was from a young woman who was flying home for a funeral and found my second book in the airport bookstore. She read it on the flight and said that for a few hours she forgot why she was traveling. That is hugely gratifying. To know that you can make someone’s day a little bit better, whether they are sick or bored or grieving or stressed out, means that what we do matters. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that when you’re sitting alone in front of the computer in your nightgown!

What’s the average day in the writer’s life look like for you? Are you scheduled and organized or are you more the “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” type?

I am an organized pantser. My methods are hugely idiosyncratic. What works for me probably wouldn’t work for anyone else. When I start a book, I know precisely where I’m going—just not how I’m going to get there. I have a very general outline scrawled on huge pieces of art paper and taped to the wall. I work my way from point to point. I start at about nine in the morning because that’s when my energy is highest and when the house is quiet. I work for two or three hours, no more. I have a page minimum when I first start a book, then a page maximum toward the end. Those guidelines force me to keep my pacing even. Otherwise I would rush toward the payoff at the end! When I’m through writing for the day, I still spend a lot of time thinking about the book, and often I find I “see” a scene the next morning when I’m drifting between sleeping and waking. It’s always the scene I’m getting ready to write, so often when I work it’s like taking dictation from myself. For me, the time I spend not writing, when I’m just noodling over the book in my head, is just as important as the time I am physically at the computer, pounding the keyboard. I also write every day when I’m working through a draft—no exceptions. I will take several weeks off between drafts, but when I am fully engaged in a book, I don’t want to be away from it.

What are your inspirations for your stories? Any tips and tricks for someone who is stuck?

Inspiration comes from a snippet of something I’m reading—a biography or a journal, an obscure fact, a forgotten mystery. Then I start playing the “what if” game and change everything, twisting and turning until I have something approaching a plot. From there I might think about the sort of people who would be involved in a situation like the one I’ve created, or a setting which would be unusual or provocative. As far as being stuck, the best tip is not to let yourself get there in the first place, and I don’t mean that to sound flippant. The most effective way to deal with block is preventive. I work every day, at the same time, for the same length of time. I always end a scene or a chapter with some sort of hook that will make the reader excited about turning the page, but it also helps to keep me excited about writing the next page. People talk a lot about inspiration and the muse, but in my experience, discipline counts for just as much.

Have you had a mentor, critique group or teacher that has helped you get where you are today? Have you been a mentor to someone else?

I don’t use critique groups, ever. They are divine for some people, but I just don’t work that way. My editor has been a tremendous mentor for me—and still is! I am learning incredible things from her, and over the course of three books I can already see how she is shaping my fiction to be the best it can be. I would love to put together a workshop to share what I’ve learned about the process so far. I’m thinking Morocco in 2009!

What does it mean to you to be nominated for a RITA award? How did you feel when you got the call? And what do you think the RITA means for the romance novel genre?

I was hugely thrilled and very honored to be nominated for two RITA Awards. When I got the call that I was nominated for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements, I was delighted. About an hour later I got the second call, and I thought they had made a mistake! I thought it was just a repeat of the first call until she said, “Best First Novel”, and then I about hollered down the house. I made her repeat it to me—I just could not believe I was nominated in two categories. It is just such a gracious welcome by the RWA family. My books tiptoe down the line of what a romance novel traditionally is, so to be nominated felt like RWA was saying, “We like you anyway!” It was a complete Sally Field moment.

What are you wearing to the RITA Awards Ceremony in San Francisco? (LOL) Do you have the dress picked out? Any stories?

You will have to wait and see! (That sounds like I’m trying to create suspense, but really I just haven’t shopped yet!) They just did a gorgeous cover shoot for the mass market release of Silent in the Sanctuary and if I could get my hands on the black corset dress they commissioned for it, I would wear that!

Are you preparing a speech in case you win?

No. If I win, my hands will be shaking so hard, I would tear the paper before I got to read it. I prefer the heartfelt, off-the-cuff speeches anyway.

Congratulations on your RITA nomination. Any last thoughts?

Thanks for having me!

Read more about Deanna at her awesome blog! http://deannaraybourn.typepad.com/

2008-06-24T11:25:00.000-04:00

Let the Fun Begin!!

As I mentioned in my newsletter, I will be doing an interview with the RITA Nominees in the First Books Catagory! If you would like to win a copy of their book, just comment on the interview and you will be automatically entered to win! Be sure and leave your email (you can cloak it like this jamiecarie @ comcast.net. I'll know to leave out the spaces!)

I've read the answers and I can tell you that these authors are inspiring and lovely - inside and out! Enjoy the fun!!
And our first nominee is . . . (drumroll please:)

Double RITA Nominated Helen Brenna with TREASURE!!

How did you get started in the publishing business?

I’ve always been a romance reader, but NEVER dreamed of writing one. I’d just quit my job to stay home full-time for a few years with my then two year old daughter. (YIKES, she’s now 19 and in college!!) She was taking two hour daily naps, and I was bored. Finished a LaVryle Spencer novel one day and thought, “I could do that!”

Any surprises? Biggest challenge so far?

It was much, much harder than I expected, especially for someone like me with no writing background. I’m an accountant, geesh.
The biggest challenge has been tackling my fear. I’m full of it. There’s always something new to worry about. What if I write another book and it doesn’t sell? What if I finally get published and I get a bad review? What if readers don’t like my books? What if the publisher doesn’t buy another book? I could go on and on.

What is the best part of being a novelist?

Getting to write the books I’d like to read.

What’s the average day in the writer’s life look like for you? Are you scheduled and organized or are you more the “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” type?

I’m fairly scheduled. Get up early with the hopes of getting my work done first. Doesn’t always happen, but I try. I’ve got 4 books coming out in 2009, so I have to be disciplined.

What are your inspirations for your stories? Any tips and tricks for someone who is stuck?

I’ve had writer’s block before, and I’ve been stuck with a book. There’s a big difference. With writer’s block, I couldn’t string a sentence together to save my soul. In those situations, I think a writer needs to cut herself some slack and recharge. If you’re simply stuck, you just have to writer through it. Get something down every day and trust the clouds will clear.

Have you had a mentor, critique group or teacher that has helped you get where you are today? Have you been a mentor to someone else?

I’ve had a lot of help! Two different critique groups and a study group and a couple of people within those groups who have held my hand a lot, not only helping me become a better writer, but also helping me keep the faith. It’s so easy to become disheartened in this business.
I’ve done workshops at our local chapter and offered critiques as fundraisers for our local group, so I hope I’ve helped a little.

What does it mean to you to be nominated for a RITA award? How did you feel when you got the call? And what do you think the RITA means for the romance novel genre?

Wow. Wow.
TREASURE was a double nominee, so I was beside myself. I was in Colorado on a ski trip with my family and found out through emails. When I saw the first email, I was ecstatic. With the second one, I started crying. Sobbing, actually. Made quite a fool out of myself.

What are you wearing to the RITA Awards Ceremony in San Francisco? (LOL) Do you have the dress picked out? Any stories?

No clue yet. I get freaked out just thinking about it!

Are you preparing a speech in case you win?

You know, I go back and forth on this. But, in the end, yeah, I’ll prepare a speech, just in case. I think I’d be a basket case if I don’t put together something. I’ll still be incredibly nervous, but at least I’ll be able to calm myself a bit knowing I’m prepared.

Congratulations on your RITA nomination. Any last thoughts?

I wish everyone the best of luck! And I mean that. This best first book category has some very stiff competition and as a series author, I’m proud to have been nominated! I’ll be cheering loudly no matter who wins!

2008-06-18T13:21:00.000-04:00

June 2008 - NEWSLETTER

SNOW ANGEL WINS FORWARD MAGAZINE AWARD FOR BEST ROMANCE
Wow! Snow Angel wins another award! I'm so blown away at how well this Alaskan love story is doing. The press release reads: ForeWord magazine has announced the winners of its tenth annual Book of the Year Awards. At a ceremony at BookExpo America in Los Angeles, 212 winners in 60 categories were honored. These books, representing the best work from independent publishers in 2007, were selected by a panel of librarian and bookseller judges. Snow Angel by Jamie Carie, released by B&H Publishing Group, August 2007, was named ForeWord Book of the Year in the Romance Category. The other 210 winners were selected by dozens of ForeWord readers from across the country, who are experts in the subject matter of the books they judged, and who make purchasing decisions daily for their collections or bookstores. The complete list of ForeWord's Book of the Year Award winners, searchable by title, author, publisher, and category, is available at ForeWord's Web site (www.forewordmagazine.com/botya).

CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED
Congratulations to our April, May, and June winners for a copy of The Duchess and the Dragon. And the winners are:
Chris Swanson
Anna Campbell
Pam Dudley
(Remember, all you have to do to be automatically entered in each month's drawing is subscribe to this newsletter! So please pass along the word!)

NEWS FROM THE HOMEFRONT
With my son's high school graduation behind me, I have been busy working on the final edits for my fourth book, as yet untitled, but I'm calling it Red Like Scarlett (isn't that a cool title?). I have learned so much about the differences between the American Revolution vs. the French Revolution. We are a blessed people to have had men like George Washington and others lead America into what truly is a promise land. This Fourth of July is going to be particularly special to me because of my research this past year.

I am also really excited about the RWA Conference and the RITA Award Ceremony in San Francisco - August 2nd!! If you haven't heard, (I posted it everywhere - LOL) Snow Angel has been nominated for a RITA Award (this is BIG, like the Oscars of the romance biz!!) in the First Books category. I about dropped to the floor in a dead faint when I received the call. PTL!!! God's plans for this book keep blowing my mind! I'm going dress shopping (yes, I get to wear a full-length gown!!) next week. It is such an honor to be nominated!

Duchess reaches number 4 in Amazon's Books>Romance>Religious category.You can also purchase it at CBD, LifeWay and your local bookstores!

Winner of USA Book News Best Books of 2007 in the Religious: Fiction and Literary Category!

Snow Angel wins Gold for Best Romance of 2007!

NEWS:

RITA Nominees Band Together: I am proud to introduce my fellow authors in the First Book Category for the RITA! There is some amazing talent here and such lovely women. In the time leading up to the awards ceremony, I will be interviewing each author on my blog to find out all about them. We will be having drawings for free books and other goodies. Just drop by and comment on the interview with your name and email address and you will be added to the drawing! Here is a sneak peak of the authors and their nominated books:

Dead Girls Are Easy by Terri GareyHarperCollins Publishers, Avon Books(978-0-06-113615-3)Erika Tsang, editor

Graffiti Girl by Kelly ParraSimon & Schuster, MTV Books/Pocket(141653461X)Jennifer Heddle, editor

Prime Time by Hank Phillippi RyanHarlequin Enterprises, Harlequin NEXT(9780373881352)Ann Leslie Tuttle, editor

Prom Dates From Hell by Rosemary Clement-MooreRandom House Publishing, Delacorte Press(978-0-385-73412-7)Krista Marino, editor

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn Harlequin Enterprises, MIRA(978-0-7783-2410-2)Valerie Gray, editor

Thief With No Shadow by Emily Gee BL Publishing, Solaris(978 1 84416 469 1)Mark Newton, editor

Treasure by Helen BrennaHarlequin Enterprises, Harlequin Superromance(0373714033)Johanna Raisanen, editor

Favorite Fan Email for this month is . . . "Jamie, I just finished Snow Angel and it was one of the best books I have read in all my 63 years. I laughed and cried with and at the characters through out the book. From the minute I picked it up I couldn't lay it down until I finished it. I am anxiously awaiting your next one. Sincerely, Barbara Smotherman from Tennessee" Thank you so much Barbara!

New and improved website! Visit www.jamiecarie.com/ and let me know what you think!

Wind Dancer - I just heard that my publisher, B&H, is working on an awesome book trailer for my third book, Wind Dancer (January 2009). Check back on my website in a few weeks where I should have the final cover and new book trailer. I'm so excited about this third book!!

Sign up for this newsletter! Just go to http://www.jamiecarie.com/ and click on the "Newsletter" button to sign up! If you enjoy my books, please tell your family and friends! Thanks so much!!!

2008-05-27T11:19:00.000-04:00

Hip
Hip
Hoorah

My son, Jordan, graduated from high school on Saturday. I can hardly believe how fast the time has flown by. Sometimes it seems that he went to bed my little boy and woke up this towering young man.
We had a graduation party for him and made him a video from birth until now. While Tony and I worked on it we became keenly aware of all the changes and events of his life. We weren't perfect parents, we have some proud moments and some regrets, but overall we can see the hand of God over his life.

Deann (Tony's mom) and Jordan

Tony wrote this to Jordan at the end of the video:
Jordan,

Today, four simple words describe
my thoughts for you.

"You are the man!"

We love you, congratulate you, and look
forward to seeing you through at least the
next four years of college.

In your time at college the most important
thing you will ever memorize is this:

(Inserted his cell phone number here)

I will always be there for you and wish you
the best.

Here are some photos of the big day!

Uncle Roger and Jordan

Grandma Great Flo and Jordan

From Left to Right - Donna and Jim (my parents), Tony, Jan and Jerry (Tony's dad and step-mom), Tony's Grandma Flo, Me, Deann (Tony's mom), Aunt Pat and Uncle Roger (Tony's aunt and uncle).

2008-05-14T12:04:00.000-04:00

Next Book - Wind Dancer!!

Okay, I've been asked several times about when my next book is coming out, and I'm thrilled to announce that I just recieved a draft (it's not finished yet) of the cover for my third book - Wind Dancer!

The book will be out in stores January 1, 2009. Seems like a ways away, but time does fly, doesn't it?

I'm really excited about this next book as it is set in my hometown of Vincennes, Indiana during the Revolutionary War time period. Vincennes boasts a massive, granite memorial to George Rogers Clark who secured the forts in Vincennes, Cahokia and Kaskaskia for the Americans. If you like the movie, The Last of the Mohicans, I think you will love Wind Dancer!

Let me know what you think of the cover so far!

2008-04-23T00:06:00.000-04:00

In the Shadow of His Wings

Today I read the first negative review of my work. It struck me as a blow. Like some stranger had passed by and proclaimed my child ugly, unworthy to be born.

I suppose I have been spoiled thus far in my journey as an author, as it was the first to wound me so. I found myself questioning everything, even my heart’s cry to proclaim the love of God as I pour all I have into these stories.

As I read the words I wanted to explain, to bend and weave my own magic to change a mind and seduce a heart. But no. That wasn't right.

Instead I soaked in the pain and felt it and breathed it and knew it. Suddenly, in the car to pick up my son from school, I remembered and prayed:

Lord, you are God over my emotions. You are the one that feeds
me and knows my deepest heart. I lay this at Your feet.

I cast off my burden of fear and rejection and left it to Him to do with as He willed. Whether to change me or still me. My eyes were on Him.

Later in the day, I received an email from a woman who had recently read one of my books. Her words were like the balm of Gilead:

Dear Jamie,

Since I know you receive so many letters telling you how much Snow Angel was enjoyed, I find myself at a loss to know how to express myself differently and sincerely to a person who is a natural at expressing emotion...... But, I'll try....... I have been an avid reader since I could read at about age 4, so you can imagine that if I had kept a list of read books, it would be very long. I tried it once, but in 7th grade when my notebook held a list of 200 books for the school year, I discontinued the practice. Having said that, my interests cover a wide range. But this book, this Noah and Elizabeth,..and Jane.....your ability to express emotion and stay pure without becoming bogged down in just words......is wonderful. I must say that at 65, being a romantic at heart, I have read a lot of quality romances.....but this one was not only beautiful, but exciting, informative (Alaska, goldrush)and full of suspense. I could hardly put it down! All that with a lovely Christian ribbon running through it. I read with a 10x magnifier, and have had to do that for a lot of years now..and have been in the talking book program for about 30 years.but readers read,...and in your case, writers write! Thank you so very much for writing Snow Angel. (Would you consider a sequel to Noah & Elizabeth's life in Alaska? I can just imagine Jane and Ben resettling there, close to the Wesleys..........)

Very Sincerely, Sue Bridges Niles, Mi

How eloquent, how dear to my heart, how timely her email was. It was, to me, a gift from God and a message that renewed my strength. I know I will never please everyone, but the woman in me wants to. Her words, coming from a woman who has read so much, probably seen so much, and like me, is a true romantic at heart, meant more to me than she could ever know.

All For His glory and hiding in the shadow of His wings . . . as I am nothing,

Jamie

2008-04-15T12:42:00.000-04:00

The Making of the
Romance Novel Cover

Romance novel covers have changed so much since I began reading them in the late 1970's. Remember the bodice ripper covers? Fabio? Brunette Fabio? I was embarrassed to take them out in public! Then, the pub houses got smart and realized that more people would risk the stigma of reading a good romance if the covers didn't look so trashy. But enough women must have decried the lack of eye candy and, for a while, they came to a compromise. The outside cover now held a flower or a ring or some benign article from the story. (Remember the peek-a-boo cutouts? Ha!) But open the cover and there for your viewing enjoyment was Fabio, shirtless and brandishing a sword! Ah, the good old days.

Now covers seem to run the gauntlet of sweet to steamy. Of course, B&H and the lovely Diana Lawrence are doing a superb job with my books! I can't wait to see what my third book's cover, just titled WIND DANCER, will look like!

To learn more about the process check out this video on creating romance novel covers by Better.TV http://better.tv/bettertv/?cid=507869917&lid=1328166604&tid=1493152359

TO KISS A SPY by Jane Feather is one of my favs. What's your favorite cover of all time?

2008-04-09T09:57:00.000-04:00

Bizarre Celebrity Couples!!

I dreamed last night that Barbara Walters was dating Ponch from the 1970's show, CHIPS! LOL! I had just watched Barbara's special on living to be 150 so I know where she came from, but Eric Estrada? Haven't (honestly, I promise) thought of him in years! I did have a serious crush on him as a teenager, but was shocked to find him in my dreams. He is still pretty good looking . . . maybe Barb should give him a call!

Help me out here. What is the wackiest celebrity couple you can come up with?

2008-04-01T22:52:00.000-04:00

American Idol . . .

I am thankful for American Idol this season because it has introduced me to the song "Hallelujah" sang by Jason Castro. Oh, my. Have your heard it? Have you seen these lyrics also sang by greats like Jeff Buckley and John Hiatt? No? Let me share my joy:

Well I heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth,
the minor fall and the major lift
And the baffled king composing
Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah...
Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
And she tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah...
(Yeah but) Baby I've been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor, (You know)
I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I've seen your flag on the marble arch
and love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah...
Well there was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show that to me do ya
But remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah...
Maybe there's a God above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
And it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelu...
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelu...
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Jeff Buckly died in an accidental drowning. But his version of this song lives on. Wikipedia says of him, "On March 7, 2008, Buckley’s version of the Leonard Cohan song, “Hallelujah”, went to No. 1 on the iTunes chart, selling 178,000 downloads for the week, after being performed by Jason Castro on the seventh season of the television series American Idol. The song debuted at #1 ..., giving Buckley his first #1 on any Billboard chart.

Leonard Cohan's version goes like this:

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like thisThe fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied youTo a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
There was a time you let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even thoughIt all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Personally, I LOVE Jason Castro's version. I voted for him last week and plan to contine voting for him. If this is his only great song performance ever . . . it is enough for me.

This song will carry its own legacy. It is simply . . . brilliant.

2008-03-27T11:47:00.000-04:00

Next Big News!

Snow Angel has been nominated by Romance Writers of America® as a RITA® finalist in the First Books category!! The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in San Francisco on August 1st. I’m so thrilled and honored to be included in this group of talented writers!! To view the list of 2008 RITA finalists, visit www.rwanational.org/cs/2008_rita_finalists.

It was a long tough road to publication of this story. Being nominated validates my belief that God has great plans for this book! I'm so glad He wouldn't let me give up when the going got tough. (If you haven't heard my story on this, here is an interview describing it on Novel Journey - http://noveljourney.blogspot.com/2007/08/author-interview-jamie-carrie.html)

And here is my praise to the Lord!

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Serve the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations. (NIV)

Be blessed by our great God!!

Jamie Carie

2008-03-25T19:18:00.000-04:00

Lots of Upcoming News!!!

Let's get this party started with my new book trailer for The Duchess and the Dragon!!! I hope you like it as much as I do!!! Without further ado!! (Oh, that rhymed:-).

2008-03-18T13:11:00.000-04:00

Presidential Elections - 2008

Psalm 2

"Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.
Let us break their chains, they say
and throw off their fetters.
The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
Then he rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
"I have installed by King
on Zion, my holy hill.
I will proclaim the decree of the Lord:
He said to me, "You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.
Ask of me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
You will rule them with an iron scepter;
you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry
and you be destroyed in your way,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (NIV)

Wow. This scripture makes me think of the upcoming elections. How God is really in control, has given His son, Jesus, rulership over us but He still cautions us to be wise, serve him with fear and kiss the Son (give homage to Him). I'm glad He added that line at the end!

I've been so busy lately that I haven't really prayed very much about the upcoming presidential election. (To be honest I don't like any of the candidates;). I plan to remedy that though. It's important to take up our role as citizens and prayerfully vote. I know God is in ultimate control of this earth, but I forgot that I have a role and responsibility to do my part.

Any thoughts?