Friday, June 17, 2011

June Updates

Sorry I've had so few updates lately. Been a very busy month. I've just sent in my final rewrites for my Guidepost book, so I'll take a little breather before I jump back in to my new book for Revell. Here's what's been going on.

The BIGGEST thing happened at the beginning of June, my son Isaac got married. We love our new daughter-in-law, Stephanie. She already feels like a part of the family, and she and my wife Cindi are good friends. Isaac and Steph are high school sweethearts and have been going together since they were 16 years old (he just turned 21 last month). He works fulltime as a medical coder for the county's ambulance service and Steph just received her bachelor's degree in May (she's hoping to become a school teacher this Fall).

I love this pic someone sent us, looks kind of old-timey. They were just leaving the reception to go on their honeymoon. If you click on it, it gets a little bigger (those are bubbles floating around).

Next, we did a little traveling. Had the best time visiting the Christian Ladies Book Club in Perry, FL on Thursday, June 9th. Drove all the way across the state to a part of Florida neither my wife or I had ever seen. Pretty area, not far from the famous Suwanee River. Most of the ladies had read all 3 of my books, but we spent the most time discussing my latest novel, The Deepest Waters. They even asked me to bring all the books I'd used in my research.

Talk about Southern hospitality...they put us up for 2 nights on a beautiful house that sits right on the Steinhatchee River. We ate some great food, took some wonderful walks, got a lot of pictures (do not be surprised if this area doesn't show up as a setting in a future book). That's Beverly Parker on the left, who leads the group and her good friend Juliet Horner (Juliet's 13-year-old son came, too; a promising young writer). And the 2nd picture is a view off the deck during my quiet time the morning after (click on them to see a bigger view).

There's one more significant thing I'd like to mention. I've already mentioned I just finished my rewrites for my Guidepost book. It's Book #5 in a series called Miracles of Marble Cove. My book should come out around November of this year (called "Morning Glory"). But Book #1 is hot off the press and set to release sometime in early July (that's a few weeks away). You can only get these books through Guideposts website (they come in the mail, one about every 4-6 weeks). If you'd like to check it out, click here. On the website, you can get a preview of the first couple of books, and order book #1 if you'd like.

It was a wonderful and somewhat challenging experience writing a novel as part of a team, with each book moving the story further, developing the friendships between the main characters, as well as the unfolding mysterious goings-on at the lighthouse.

This coming week, I jump back into my 6th novel for Revell, which I'll be writing throughout the rest of the summer.