What's Up in 2024 Update

I was looking at my last blog post and thought I'd give an update on how '24 is coming along. 

February:

·       It's well into February now and Shirley and I have turned in the finished manuscript for the second in our new devotional series. This one will be called "Wonder & Worship Through The Year" and will not release by Entrusted Books until spring of '25. We've also completed our second round of edits on the first "Wonder & Worship" which is releasing in April of this year. Soon we'll get galley edits and more excitingly, soon we will have a cover reveal for it! Stay tuned. 

·       I also have gotten back the final version of an article I co-wrote with a friend, Annette Teepe, for “Answers in Genesis” kid’s magazines about eagles. We are not sure when this article will be published but our final version has been accepted and contracts signed.

·       I got back the final layout of an article I wrote a few weeks ago about my father writing a prescription for an ice cream cone in 1957 that will be published in “Blue Ridge Country” magazine in the next month or two.

·       I was asked to write a spring article for “Hearts of Hospitality” magazine and now have finished it and turned it in to the editor.

·       And I registered for the EPA (Evangelical Publications Association) conference in April. Yay! 

·       I still do not know if I will have finger joint replacement surgery on the 15^th but my guess is it will get pushed back yet again.

March:

·       The new thing on my writing agenda for March is that I was asked by much-loved Christian author, Liz Curtis Higgs, to teach a workshop on memoir writing at a conference she is holding at Christ Methodist Church, a large Methodist church here in Louisville, called the “Called to Write” conference. I am excited about this opportunity. If I had not had hand surgery scheduled on 2/15, I would have been in Memphis the same weekend at the MidSouth Christian Writers Conference and would not have been able to accept this request. God has a way of working things out.  

But in other news … I was inspired to write a novel last September when I took a vacation trip to Hilton Head, SC and went on a one-day excursion to Savannah, GA. And now I am 40,000 words into it and loving writing it! I’ll tell you more about it at a later time. For now I’ll just tell you that it has pirates in it. 😊

What's New

I haven't posted in a few months. That is not the norm for me but truth-be-told, working with this blog and my other one frustrates me because it won't let me make paragraphs, so I now just make short posts. That said, as I am typing this it looks different and maybe this blog will allow indentions now. Here's to hoping that problem has been fixed. 

So, what has occupied my time since the last post?

 A lot of things. For one I've been working hard on writing that new devotional book that I signed a contract on. Over the summer I've managed to get my parts written and self-edited. It will go through many more rounds of edits before the final version. I completed a devotional assignment for seven devos  for "The Quiet Hour", have submitted a few freelance articles, and am working on a few other things, some of which I am not ready to mention yet, and I've been working with the other members of the faculty committee for the MidSouth Christian Writer's Conference to find faculty for next year's conference. In addition, I am about to embark on working with a website designer on an author website. I will post more about this including the link to it once it's up and running. I will also post the title of the devotional book Shirley and I are working on that will release in '23 and its cover when we have these. So stay tuned. Meanwhile, the pic on today's post are two pics from a photo shoot I had in the spring to get new author pictures for my website. Like everyone else, I grow older with every passing day. I have made a personal choice to update my author pics about every five years at least so when people actually meet me in person, they won't be too shocked with how much older I look in person compared to my author pics. lol!