RWA Conference and The RITAs

Today I flew home from the Romance Writers of America conference in Washington DC.

I went without any of my buddies, but left with many new and improved relationships. My roommates, Jane Thornton, Nancy Hines and Cecelia Dowdy were strangers on Wednesday but friends by Sunday.

Friend and fabo author Leanna Ellis became a better friend. I deepened my relationship with fellow Buckeye and author Debbie Giutsi, Darlene Buchholz and Missy Tippens.

Lingering with Leanna, Sarah Sumpolec, Robin Lee Hatcher in the hotel lounge after a nice dinner with Linda Hall, we bonded with the glue that is laughter.

Friday afternoon, I prayed with Terri Reed, Deanne Gist, Cara Slaughter, Judy Duarte and another author that I cannot remember. I'm so sorry, friend, for forgetting!

I visited with the lovely and kind Siri Mitchell, unable to stop bragging on her book, Love's Pursuit. Oh man, what a GREAT book. You have to read this story. Siri went to a new level in her writing and story telling. As if she wasn't awesome already.

While I missed the vivacious and bubbly Susan May Warren, I had a great time kind of floating. I could go with whoever. . . whenever. It was fun. God seemed to provide the right friend at the right moment. For both them and me. I went to the conference thinking I would not see many if any people I knew. I left hearing Leanna's voice in my ear, "You know everyone."

I visited with my local RWA Star sisters, too. It was good to connect with them, especially JoMarie DeGioia and Lee Duncan.

The most amazing moments were the God encounters - having opportunity to tell two women, one a major super star author, that God thought she was beautiful. The other, a young woman looking to one day be a major super start author who needed to hear Jesus was real and she could have assurance of faith.

Both Susie and I were up for the Rita Award for best inspirational fiction. I told Leanna during lunch, "I feel nervous like I'm going up on the stage."

But, I didn't have the same feeling about winning. Oh, I wanted to win. Prayed to win. But above all, I prayed to love the person who one with the love of Jesus.

Susie won the Rita. I walked to the stage with a broken shoe (let's not talk about the weekend's wardrob malfunctions) and accepted the award for her. The moment I hit the stage, my heart was overwhelmed with love and joy. Tears hit my eyes. My own disappointment was a thin, pale shadow on the far wall of my heart.

My "gold statuess" for me last Saturday night was what the Lord did in my heart. I'm not going to go into great detail, but let me just say sometimes the highest prize is not the obvious one. Saturday was Susie's night to win the Rita, but it was my night to have some thing deposited in my heart that will go far beyond this life. The Lord answered my prayer in a way I never imagined, then applied a thick layer of grace to keep it in place!

Sunday Jane, Nancy and I, along with an old friend of Jane's, toured the War Memorials in Washingtong. As Nancy and I walked the WW II memorial, we paused to take pictures, tearing up. Please, don't let their sacrifice be in vain!

I ate too much junk food. But who's counting? :)

If I left anyone out, please tell me! After all, I did know "everyone!" How can I keep them all straight.

I'm home now, ready to get to work on rewrites. Take time to thank the Lord for a blessing that you didn't expect. A friend. A family member. Speak graciously of someone who wronged you. Set your eyes on the prize of Christ Jesus!

How has the Lord blessed you in a way you didn't expect, but know it will linger throughout all of eternity?

Bundle of Joy by Robin Lee Hatcher

This book looks so fun and wonderful! I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but if it's from acclaimed and award winning author Robin Lee Hatcher, it's has to be good!

About Bundle of Joy

Alicia Harris says she's happily married and expecting a baby - but only the last part is true. She can't bear to disappoint her grandfather by telling him she's two months away from single motherhood.

Then Grandpa Roger, still recovering from a heart attack, drops in unexpectedly to spend the holidays with Alicia and her husband, and to protect her beloved grandfather from unnecessary stress, Alicia needs to find a fill-in - fast.

Childhood friend Joe Palmero fits the bill and is willing to play along. Still, the longer they spend playing their parts, the closer Alicia and Joe come to discovering what love, faith and marriage truly mean.

*****************

Robin Lee Hatcher discovered her vocation as a novelist after many years of reading everything she could put her hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes and ketchup bottles.

The winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction (Whispers from Yesterday), the RITA Award for Best Inspirational Romance (Patterns of Love and The Shepherd's Voice), two RT Career Achievement Awards (Americana Romance and Inspirational Fiction), and the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, Robin is the author of over 55 novels, including Catching Katie, named one of the Best Books of 2004 by the Library Journal.

For more information about Robin and her books, visit her web site and her Write Thinking Blog, or find her on Facebook and become a Fan!

The 12 Authors of Christmas - Kathryn Mackel

Please welcome author and friend, Kathryn Mackel. She's written us a very honest and heart felt interview with a desire to comfort and touch those who may have grown up without the ideal Christmas.

Thank you, Kathy!

When Rachel offered the opportunity to revisit our Christmas memories, I jumped at the chance. Who doesn't love Christmas? I put my tree up early, consider November 1 the kick-off for Christmas music, can't wait for the snow to blanket the woods.

But in answering Rachel's questions, I have to admit that there is a deliberate gap in my memories, a stone I have placed across a tomb of emotion. I grew up in an alcoholic home. About the time I realized that Santa didn't come down my chimney, I also understood my father had a drinking problem. This problem caused Christmas and other occasions to be a time of anxiety and dread, rather than joy. I don't need to go into details because if you have also experienced this, you know the drill.

I hesitated to share this - not because that tomb is filled with decay - but because I did not want to dishonor my father. Rachel and I emailed and prayed and it seems fitting to share this because so many others share this pain.

And what is so important is this. Despite the drinking and the horrific holidays, my father loved me and my sisters deeply. When I was in my mid-twenties, he stopped drinking. I don’t know why - I still consider it something of a miracle. And so the memories pick up from there, with my own children to love. With all the wounded Christmases, my sisters have been marvelous in offering new memories. Golden, blessed memories of family and warmth and love.

This is God's redemption, not just for my life but also for my parents.

This is the true gift of Christmas, the gift of God: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." (Ez. 36:26)

(rh: Said so well, Kathy.)


Tell us about your first Christmas memory?

We had an awesome advent tradition. On the first day of December, my parents put 24 pennies on the window sill. Every night we'd remove one. I remember being barely tall enough to see over the sill, and watching those pennies disappear. When we got to the very last penny, I was nearly out of my mind with excitement.

(rh: What a great tradition!)

Growing up, did your family have Christmas traditions? Tell us how you incorporated them into your family life. Or, how you created new ones.

The best presents under our tree were from Uncle Henry. He was generous and also very artistic so they would be amazingly wrapped. When we got home from church on Christmas Eve, my parents allowed my sisters and I to open one of Uncle Henry's presents.

My husband's birthday is Christmas Eve so it's always a challenge to celebrate with him and still make it out of the house in time to do church. We have a birthday lunch and then enjoy friends stopping by.

Around 4, we'll open all our presents. This allows my adult kids to sleep in the next day while Steve and I visit a couple of our friends and see what Santa has brought them!

I'm trying to initiate a new tradition with my grandson (almost 4). I bought him a Nativity set and we play with it, going through the Christmas story. He loves saying the line "do not be afraid!"

(rh: A great line to love. )

I help direct youth choir so I have to be at our early Christmas Eve service. It is quite raucous and wonderful. My grandson comes with me and sits in the front pew, pretending to sing as I direct the choir. I hope someday he will actually sing in his own choir.

When do you put up your tree? At my house, it goes up right after Thanksgiving. My husband works assembly and outside lights. I do the rest. Describe the decorating at your house.

We always had real trees and would put them up a couple weekends before Christmas. A few years ago, I put up the tree and had a three-day migraine until I dragged it out to the front porch. Since then, we've had an artificial tree which allows me to put the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This year, my grandson (visiting from Ohio) put it up with me. It takes a long, long time - maybe 8 hours - but he hung in with the process.

We have many beautiful blue spruces around our property but I haven't yet talked my husband into outside lights.

What is your favorite Christmas song or album? I grew up with a Johnny Mathis Christmas CD and it's still one of my favorites. My other is a copy of Mel Torme singing his "Christmas Song."

My favorite Christmas song is "Welcome to Our World" by Michael W. Smith. I love the line "Word now breaking heaven's silence." Even typing it gives me chills.

Growing up, I loved Bing Crosby's White Christmas album.

Christmas morning, my parents didn't want us in the living room until the tree was plugged in. So, we'd wake up early, five a.m. or so, and bang on the floor to stir my parents awake. Relive your childhood Christmas mornings for us.

I waited until I smelled coffee brewing. Then I knew I could get up. The problem was getting my sisters up, they're 4 and 7 years older, so they were past Santa around the time I was really digging him.

Seems to me snow and Christmas go together, but I've been a Florida girl for 33 years! Tell us about your Christmas setting?

Living next to the New Hampshire woods, we're Currier and Ives. We can look out at our ancient stone wall that borders the white woods, and just breathe in beauty. No matter how deep the snow, I hike those woods every day.

(rh: If I was there, I'd hike with you, Kathy! Sounds beautiful.)

It's Christmas Eve, describe your day and evening.

See my Christmas tradition for the day, but evening-wise, I do early family service because I help with youth choir. Steve and I sing in the sanctuary choir so we do the late service together.

I know my kids are getting old (28 and 30) because they now come to the early service so they can get to bed. Then again, rumor is that a couple years ago, they went home and watched the Simpsons all night.

Confession time. Shop on line or at the mall?

I hate shopping. (I do love spending money, however.) It's all online. We're big into watching television shows on DVD so this year we should be getting Lost, Season 3, and Heroes, Season 1.

(rh: Online does make shopping easy, doesn't it?)

Christmas grows more and more commercial every year. Setting the hustle and bustle aside, what does Christmas really mean to you?

We are so blessed to miss the hustle and bustle. We have the online shopping, the woods, the music.

In the quiet of my heart, apart from all the family activities, Christmas comes down to this - and I'll quote Michael W. Smith's song again.

Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born.

Both my son and grandson were born right before Christmas. When I held them in my arms and understood their utter helplessness and innocence, I got the smallest glimpse of what God had done to allow His son to be born as man. I love this season but I remind myself what His coming cost both Father and Son, and why.

It's Christmas day, what's for dinner? Do you make cookies or other traditional foods?

I'm part Slovak so our traditional Christmas meal is stuffed cabbage. My kids won't eat it but my husband and I love it. And it's so healthy! I don't make cookies because I'll eat them but I do put out the foil-wrapped peanut butter cups and Hershey kisses. (And eat them instead.)

(rh: Okay, Kathy, I'm all for traditions, but stuffed cabbage? I'm with your kids. LOL.)

I also make Christmas breads, in the form of a wreath, tree, or sometimes snow man!

(rh: That sounds fun!)

Tell us about your favorite Christmas memory.

Probably my son's first Christmas. He was a couple weeks old, a big baby already in size 6 month clothes so he filled out his red outfit. He made his debut with Steve’s family on Christmas and a week later with my family.

Not to leave my daughter out, she played John the Baptist when she was 3 months old. Kind of pretty to be a locust-eating prophet but she filled the role beautifully.

What are you plans for this season?

Very, very quiet because both our kids and their families will probably be out of state. We'll do the two church services, visit our friends, relax. Go to a movie, visit Steve's family.

We see my family in Connecticut at the end of January. It's a wonderful way to celebrate because the hustle and bustle is long over, everything's on sale, and the kids love having a second Christmas.

(rh: I love celebrating after Christmas either with family or shopping!)

Any final thoughts on Christmas?

It's the little things that count. Playing with the Nativity set. Making cookies together. Watching the Simpsons with your adult kids and enjoying them double over with laughter will last long beyond any gift under the tree.

(rh: You are so right, Kathy. I love to laugh, especially with family and friends.)


The official word on Kathryn Mackel:

Kathryn Mackel is an accomplished screenwriter and novelist who has worked extensively in both mainstream and Christian-themed entertainment.

Kathryn has written for Disney, Fox, and Showtime. She was the credited screenwriter on her own novel, Can of Worms, and for Frank Peretti's Hangman's Curse (with Stan Foster).

Her novels include the Christy-finalist The Hidden, as well as the fantasy series The Birthright Project. Writing as Kathy Mackel, she is the acclaimed author of Can of Worms and other novels for middle readers published by Putnam, Avon, HarperCollins, and Dial Books. Her latest release is the thriller Vanished, from Realms.

FREE BOOK ALERT!

Leave a comment to enter to win a free book! Kathy is giving away three copies of her latest release, "Vanished." Woo hoo.

Visit Kathryn's web site and blog at www.kathrynmackel.com
www.godanddogwalking.blogspot.com

The 12 Authors of Christmas Tour!

Hey y'all!

Starting tomorrow, December 1st, I'm hosting " The 12 Authors of Christmas." Stop by each day to read Christmas memories and traditions of your favorite authors, and perhaps a few new-to-you authors.

I'll be hosting the first half of December with the lovely and gracious Tricia Goyer hosting the last half of the month and the sweet and smiling Camy Tang running overlap mid month on her site.

We even have a few bonus authors* on the tour.

Look forward to celebrating cyber Christmas with you all.

Here's the line up

Dec 1 - Colleen Coble
Dec 2 - Kathryn Mackle
Dec 3 - Janelle Scheinder
Dec 4 - Deb Raney
Dec 5 - Gayle Roper
Dec 6 - Kristen Heitzmann
Dec 7 - Terri Blackstock
Dec 8 - DiAnn Mills
Dec 9 - Jill Nelson
Dec 10 - Donita Paul
Dec 11 - Marlo Schalesky
Dec 12 - Linda Hall
Dec 13 - Gail Martin*
Dec 14 - Tricia Goyer!*

On the 13th, hop over to Tricia's site for the next round. Here's the line up.

December 13 -- Linda Ford

December 14 -- Rachel Hauck

December 15 -- Camy Tang

December 16 -- Bonnie Leon

December 17 -- Tamara Leigh

December 18 -- Kim Sawyer

December 19 -- Roxanne Henke

December 20 -- Rene Gutteridge

December 21 -- Nancy Moser

December 22 -- Susan Meissner

December 23 -- Karen Ball

December 24 -- Neta Jackson

December 25 -- Maureen Lang
*Bonus* Mindy Clark

Return to Me by Robin Lee Hatcher

A lot has changed since Roxy escaped small town life to become a Nashville star. Her former boyfriend Wyatt has found Christ and plans to become a minister. Her sister Elena, who comforted Wyatt when Roxy ran away, is now his fiancee. Her father Jonathan, a successful businessman, is heartbroken over the estrangement of Roxy from the family.

Now Roxy - her inheritance from her grandmother squandered, her hopes of stardom dashed-finds her way home ... not by choice but because it's her only option. Her father's love and forgiveness surprise her, but her very presence throws the contented Burke family into turmoil, filling Roxy with guilt and shame.

Elena is shocked to discover doubt and resentment in her heart after her father's easy acceptance of Roxy into the family circle. Wyatt wrestles with doubts about marrying Elena. And Roxy struggles to accept forgiveness. Isn't she more deserving of rejection? As the story of the prodigal plays out, each member of the Burke family must search for and accept God's grace.

****
AUTHOR BIO:

Robin Lee Hatcher discovered her vocation as a novelist after many years of reading everything she could put her hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes and ketchup bottles. However, she's certain there are better plots and fewer calories in her books than in puffed rice and hamburgers.

The winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction, two RITA Awards for Best Inspirational Romance, and the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, Robin is the author of over 50 novels, including Catching Katie, named one of the Best Books of 2004 by the Library Journal.

Robin enjoys being with her family, spending time in the beautiful Idaho outdoors, reading books that make her cry, and watching romantic movies. She is passionate about the theater, and several nights every summer, she can be found at the outdoor amphitheater of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, enjoying Shakespeare under the stars. She makes her home in Idaho, which she shares with Poppet the Papillon.


SO, DID YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BE A WRITER?

No, I didn't, although I loved books and stories even before I could read. In fact, I went to my first day of first grade with only one goal in mind - learn to read. When they didn't teach me how that very first day, I told my mom there was no point in going back. Fortunately, my mom knew who was boss, and I did go back to school.

When I was young, what I wanted to be most in all the world was a movie star. My closest friends all nod their heads, I'm sure, when I say this, knowing my theatrical nature. I took ballet for seven years, and I was in various theater productions, both in school and as a young adult.

My storytelling career began in grade school when I told my fifth grade friends that my mother was born in a covered wagon while coming west on the Oregon Trail. It seemed plausible. My mother was, after all, 47 years old at the time. My word! Had they even invented the wheel when she was born? [Sorry, Mom.]

Fast forward to high school. I was a compulsive writer, scribbling stories and poetry in notebooks and on binders. This wasn't work. This was fun! Writing could transport me to any place, any time. How cool. I also was a lover of horses and spent many years riding and competing and raising them.

Marriage and family filled the next decade. I read voraciously. I daydreamed. In my mind, I reworked the endings of both movies and books any time they didn't suit me. I performed with a Christian theater troupe. We raised a few horses. Then I got an idea for a story, a Gone With The Wind type saga. I talked about it with others for about six months. Finally, I sat down and began to write. I wrote long hand on yellow legal pads and typed the pages on the office Selectric typewriter during lunch hours and coffee breaks. Nine months later, I had a book, and two years after that, it was published.

The rest, as they say, is history. These days, the nest is empty. My daughters are grown with families of their own, and I am the ridiculously young grandmother of six. My mother (past her 93rd birthday - who was not born in a covered wagon) lives with me, as does Poppet the high-maintenance Papillon.