The Good, The Bad, And The Super Exciting!

The ACFW conference was, as it always is, a wonderful experience! My brain is still processing all that I learned and trying to remember all the new faces I met. I created some new friendships and had a blast hanging out with my crit buddies, and meeting my agent in person, finally! Rachelle is awesome and I'm still thrilled to death that we're working together.

I had two extremely wonderful highlights of this year's conference. The first happened quite unexpectedly. The second, well, we knew it was coming! First things first, a MASSIVE Congratulations to my dear friend and critique partner, Jenness Walker, who WON the Genesis award for Romantic Suspense! That's us the night of the Awards Banquet. I have to say I think I was even more excited than she was. I am so proud of her, and cannot wait until I hold her published, autographed first copy (okay I'll take the second or third copy..) in my hands. She's a talented author who really inspires me and I'm so blessed to have her as one of my critique partners. It's so important to have people in your life reading your work who really 'get you'. She'll probably say she's faking it half the time, but whatever. :0)

The second really cool thing that happened was totally a God thing. I love it when He does these things!
On Friday night all the Wordserve clients went out for dinner. It was a wonderful evening although I have to say, I think Rachelle represents the most eclectic (no, I did not say eccentric...) bunch of authors I've ever met! I had a blast getting to know them. I sat beside a writer called Patti Lacy. Never heard of her, but we started chatting. As writers will, of course we talked about our books. Duh. When she heard I had written a book with the Vietnam War as a backdrop, she was so encouraging. I told her it's been a really hard book to get any editors interested in, and she basically looked me straight in the eye and said something like, "Don't give up on that story..." Anyway, as I said, it was a really encouraging conversation because I've been quite down about this book not garnering the interest we'd hoped for.
So, Saturday morning rolls around. I'd already had three editor appointments by this time and was about to go in for my last one of the conference. Up to this point I hadn't been pitching Yesterday's Tomorrow, just Hidden in the Heart. Rachelle told me to go ahead and pitch both to this editor, so I did. I have to say it was the fastest fifteen minute appointment I ever had, and the best. For the first time, I actually felt comfortable talking to someone about my work, and although I'm sure I probably rambled and bumbled a bit, she seemed interested. And then she asked for the full manuscript.
I think I might have passed out at that point were it not for the fact that the next appointment was standing there, and I knew we were out of time...I had to clap a hand over my mouth to stop myself from asking, "You know it's about Vietnam, right??"
Yeah, she knows. And she wants to read it anyway.

Isn't that just like God?
When the world says no, He says "Oh, really? Watch what I can do..."
He's so awesome and I am so undeserving, but so, so blessed.

Even if nothing comes of this, I will never, ever forget that moment in time. Not just because an editor wants to read an entire manuscript of mine, but because I knew without a doubt that I was sitting in the middle of one of God's stories.
He's the most talented author I know.

What a privilege it is to be a part of His book.

Off to Minneapolis!

The mad dash has begun! I leave on Wednesday for conference! Very excited about that and looking forward to meeting
old friends, making new ones and just spending time in the midst of a wonderful group of writers!
I won't be blogging from Minneapolis, so I'll be back in about ten days or so with a full report!
Bye for now!

Let's put it in perspective...

Whether you're a Liberal, a Conservative, a Conservative Liberal, a Liberal Conservative who doesn't eat meat, out of your tree or just don't give a rat's rear, I think you'll enjoy this.
If not, don't blame me, I didn't make it!

Cruelty to Animals

This is my baby. Her name is Allie, and she's thirteen. Definitely a member of the family. When we bought our place in Canada and decided to spend extensive periods of time there over the summer holidays, we knew we couldn't subject Allie to six weeks in the kennels while we lived it up on the lake. After doing some investigating we discovered it would be relatively easy to have her travel with us. She just needed to be vaccinated against Rabies and obtain the required health documents and she could travel in and out of Canada without any problems.
Not anymore. Oh, no. Air Canada has taken it upon themselves to make it as difficult as possible to travel with animals during certain times of the year. Summer and Winter. The two time periods we are most likely to travel in.
Now, instead of checking in with the dog as we would normally do, she must travel CARGO. You cannot book her on the plane when you book your own tickets, you have to wait 10 days before your date of travel to book her kennel space. If the flight is already full, you're out of luck. Previously, it cost around $70 to $100 dollars to take her on the plane with us. Now the cost of her travel is based on weight. We paid more for her fare than we did our own. And that was one way. You can't book a round trip.
But when you add up the cost of keeping her in a kennel here for six weeks, I suppose it evens out. Not really, but what are we to do? Like I said, she's part of the family.
Now, money issues aside, let's take a look at how these new procedures are harmful to my poor baby.
Normally we can drop her off and pick her up within an hour or so of take-off and landing.
She went into her travel crate at around 10am the day we flew. We landed in Toronto at around 3pm, take off an hour for time difference. It took about 40-45 minutes for us to get through customs and get our luggage. Then we discover we cannot pick up our dog in the same terminal we have landed at. We have to go to Air Canada Cargo. Does anyone know where that is?
Neither did we.
We rented our car, which took probably another half hour, got on the wrong road, got off again, afternoon traffic on the 401 is NOT fun, eventually found Air Canada Cargo, but they can't help us. Infact they're not even sure if they have a dog from Bermuda. And they're not real happy campers either. Join the club, bubba.
We're told we need to go to Canada Border Control or something along those lines, and it's in a building down the road. We have to drive there. Of course every other person in the world and all their cousins are also there.
Finally we're called to the window and the kid who must have flunked out of high school and now works for the Canadian government doesn't have a clue about importing dogs into Canada. No matter that we've done it five years in a row and have the paperwork to prove it.
Finally, after forking out more money, we schlep back to Air Canada Cargo and demand that our dog be released. By the time we got her and hit the road, it was close to 6pm. That's almost eight hours in a crate for Allie.
If that's not cruelty to animals then I don't know what is.
The saga of the return trip would take up just as much space on the page, but suffice to say Air Canada wanted her there FOUR hours prior to departure. And our flight left at 8am. You can fill in the blanks.
This is not fair to animals, nor is it fair to the families that do not wish to part from them for extended periods of time. We should be allowed to travel with our animals without these ridiculous rules in place.
If you have a dog and you plan to use Air Canada, be warned.
We'd switch, but it's the only way to get to Toronto from here as the US doesn't fly dogs during the summer at all.
I think I'll write a letter of complaint, but I doubt it will do any good.
I'm happy to report that my poor pup is none the worse for wear, but I'm kind of wondering what we're going to do next summer if she's still around and we have Noah to fly with as well.
Oy vey.

Who's Living in Your House?

We're home! After a very long day of traveling, we got in yesterday. It's good to be home.
Don't ask me if I've unpacked yet. I'm getting to it.
Since my hubby is a pediatrician, the only way we can travel for extensive periods of time (longer than a week) is if he
brings in a locum. Sometimes a locum doc will bring his or her family, sometimes they come alone, but they always
stay in our house whilst we're gone. Unfortunately, the cost of hotels are too great on the island. It's also good to know
our house isn't sitting empty for any length of time. However, things don't always go smoothly in this process.
Over the last few years we've been pretty fortunate to find the house in good shape, but I remember one year, while we
were still renting a tiny cottage before we bought our home, we came home to a red (formerly gray) carpet - covered in mud, a dishwasher full of dishes with coffee grinds caked on everything, and a dead fish in the refrigerator, oh, and mold everywhere.
Yes, that was fun.
So I value people who respect my home and its contents. Of course there are always the little things, like dishes in the wrong spot and the cutlery not quite the way I like it, but those are minor complaints.
But as I sorted a few things out last night, I started thinking about our 'houses' - the physical ones.
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." (1 Corinthians 6:19)
How many of you ate or drank far too much this summer? Me and I have the rolls to prove it. Of course I didn't mean to, but a steak and a fine Merlot on a cool summer night as the sun sets over the lake...well, you know how it goes. Don't forget the blueberry pie and the best ice cream in the world made at Kawartha Dairy.
I tried to justify it by going for long walks, but somehow I still piled on those extra pounds. I suppose it's a sensitive subject for some people, but I've always believed in being healthy and watching what I put into my body. Overeating can be a way we abuse our bodies, just my opinion.
We also have to be careful to take care of our minds, which are part of the body. I can't count the many times I've told my kids over the years, (and hubby too) "Garbage in, garbage out." What you watch and listen to can have a direct result on the things that come out of your mouth or the thoughts that filter through your mind.
When we're not in control of our 'houses', when we forget we're not alone in this world and we really can't do all the enticing things we think might be okay if nobody's looking, the dirt piles up in an alarming manner. When we give ourselves away in an unhealthy manner, our lives can head into a tailspin quicker than an approaching hurricane reaches land.
Those kinds of messes are a lot harder to fix than a cutlery drawer with a few knives in the wrong slot.
I was grateful for a few things being in the wrong place today as I thought about all this. And I'm grateful too, that I'm not alone. I can change the things I do that aren't good for me, I can hopefully lose a few of those extra pounds, but more than that, I can immerse myself in the Word, and really rely on God to guide me in every aspect of my life.
After all, He's living in my house, right? Something tells me He's the only perfect houseguest out there.