Great News on Two Fronts

Yesterday, I became a grandpa.

Our daughter, Rebekah, gave birth to our first grandchild: Caden Alexander Mosier (sounds like it could be the name of a great author). He was born just a little after the noon hour, EST, weighing in at 8 lbs even, and 20 inches long. She had to give birth by C-section, so no conehead here. Caden's got a perfectly little, hairless round head.

My wife, Cindi, was there in TX where they live (Ft Worth area). I'm not scheduled to go out till Tuesday, because of the Word Weaver's retreat I'll be speaking at this weekend. Of course, Caden wasn't due until Feb 9th, so it seemed like a good idea when we hatched the plan. But seeing as he came out weighing 8 lbs, I guess he was ready now. We're so grateful to God, both mother and son are healthy and well.

On top of my great news yesterday about our grandson, I got a call from my publicist at Revell, Karen Wiley. Publisher's Weekly (PW) wants to set up a call for an interview in their magazine about The Deepest Waters, my next release, coming out in April. PW is to Publishing what the Wall Street Journal is to Finance. It's been running continuously for 138 years, read by almost everyone in the publishing industry.

It's a great opportunity and hopefully will help the book reach a whole new block of readers.

Busy, Busy

2011 has begun with a bang. Way busier than I thought I'd be, but that's a good thing. Just glad I didn't make any New Year Resolutions.

I found out just before Christmas I'd been awarded a contract for a new book with Guideposts, for a new series they've started called Miracles of Marble Cove. About 4 friends living in this charming seaside town in Maine. The thing is, I needed to start working on it in January, get the plot all figured out and a detailed outline put together by Jan 19th. An additional challenge, and a first for me, is I'd be writing as part of a team. My book would actually be the 5th book in the series, so I needed to find out everything that had already happened in the 4 books before mine.

Well, I got it all done and the outline turned in 2 days early (awaiting approval so I can start writing the book itself, which is due in May). One top of this, I'm still finishing Book 5 for Revell, which is due in April. Another first for me, writing 2 books at the same time.

On the business side, we made the decision (under the advice of a CPA) to incorporate, so we've had to set all this up this month, too. Tons of details. And this week, we're packing up to fly my wife, Cindi, out to Texas to be with our daughter, who's expecting our first grandson any day now.

Yesterday was Cindi's last day at her job at Hobby Lobby. It was a sad/happy time. She really enjoyed the people she worked with, but is very excited to be working at home again. After a month in Texas, she'll take care of the books for "Dan Walsh Books, Inc," as well as function as my "first editor" again (I don't send anything in Cindi doesn't like). She's also hoping to do something she's wanted to do for as long as I've known her...take a dog training course and work with dogs, maybe even start a side business doing this.

This big change for Cindi has been made possible by the Guidepost contract and some new book deals in the works. Actually, some good things are brewing there (thank God). Hope to share more details about it very soon.

And that's not all, the last weekend of this month I'll be the keynote speaker at the Word Weaver's writing retreat in Florida, as well as teaching a workshop there. I'm really looking forward to it, but it's another first for me. Preparing messages and speaking about Writing.

Busy, busy. But I'm not complaining. For a writer, busy is good.

Novels I've Read & Recommend from 2010

It's been a busy year for me. The year ahead looks to be fuller still. But there's always time (or should be) to read a good book. Here are a few of the books I've read and really enjoyed this past year. This isn't a Top 10 kind of list. The order is just from most recently read till earlier in the year.

The Cross Gardener - by Jason F. Wright. A great book by one seriously talented writer. He's the NY Times bestselling author of The Wednesday Letters and The Christmas Jars. I became aware of Jason this past year because Amazon kept linking our books together. Well, I guess our readers connected us together, because the same ones were buying both of our books. So I decided to find out why. Now I'm a fan and plan to make my way through all of his books in 2011.

The Book of Days - by James L. Rubart. This is Jim's 2nd novel, following on the footsteps of his successful debut novel, Rooms. It's a brand new release. I liked Rooms, but I liked this one even better. Jim has also become a good friend this past year, and I was honored when he asked me to read and endorse it. Then relieved, when I liked it so much. Here's what I said: “James Rubart is officially now one of my favorite writers. He takes grand concepts, weaves them together with mystery, suspense, some mischievous fun and a serious thread of hope. Book of Days is a great read, why people buy novels.”


Lost Mission - by Athol Dickson. This novel won the Christy Award in 2010 in the suspense category. Winning awards is nothing new for Athol. He's won many Christy's and other awards for his books. Lost Mission is certainly suspenseful, but it also depicts fascinating characters, meaningful and relevant themes, and a complex multi-layered plot which Athol weaves together in masterful fashion to a satisfying climax.




A Distant Melody - by Sarah Sundin. This is the first book in Sarah's Wings of Glory series. Sarah is a fellow Revell author and a fellow WW2 history buff. When it comes to WW2, Sarah really knows her stuff. A Distant Melody is a wonderful WW2 love story, set mostly on the homefront. But it also has plenty of action and suspense. Fans of my first 2 novels should definitely read this book and check out the other Wings of Glory novels. The second book, A Memory Between Us, came out in September (on my reading list) and the third comes out this coming August.

I may add a few more to the list but, right now, I have to run out and buy the pizza (not kidding).

Happy New Year everyone!