When you are drawn to the story, as I am, you can be touched by any sort of story -- a "reality" show (because, really, we all know that a lot of that "reality" is created in the editing room, right?), a TV series, a movie. But music tells a story as well. In fact, I think that many musicians are our modern day poets. For that reason, I decided to feature a contemporary Christian music CD giveaway that I was offered over at my personal blog right here. Audrey Assad's debut work The House You're Building is awesome. Seriously, I love it. It's somewhat mellow, it sometimes rocks, it's original, and the lyrics are introspective but not overly deep or convicting. Listen to the songs at her myspace or
Category Archives: Writing
Julie Andrews —
Legend of the Screen, Literacy Advocate
Just days before I arrived at the Despicable Me movie press junket, where I expected to meet and interview Miranda Cosgrove, Steve Carell, Jason Segel, and Chris Melendrani, the producer (linked to my interviews), I found out that Julie Andrews was also going to be there. Julie Andrews. Everyone has some sort of love for Julie Andrews, a true screen legend. People immediately think of Mary Poppins, or Maria von Trapp, or possibly even the Queen of Genovia. But what I thought when I found out I was going to meet her is "I'm going to get to meet the author of one of my all-time favorite books from my childhood, Mandy, Julie Andrews" (linked to my review). I will take the chance to implore you ...
On Reading: The Author Visit
Her name was Joan Lowery Nixon, and she was talking about her book The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore. I was in the fourth or fifth grade at Lantern Lane Elementary School, and I was impressed. The author shared details about how she mapped out her novels and the writing process. She told us that as the author she did not have input on the cover image, which featured Christina’s hands tied behind her back -- which never happened in the story. Why do I remember those specific details all these years later? Because I was a reader, and like many avid young bookworms, I fostered the dream of one day writing novels that would captivate others, making them feel the same way I did each time I opened a book. I recently covered an author's visit at Amanda's intermediate school. The author was Ann Haywood Leal ...
This Is Not the Story You Think It Is
Did you ever finish reading a book and just want to say "Thank you" to the author for writing it? That's exactly what happened to me as I was reading This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness. This is a story of trust. Trust in what Laura Munson knew was real, in spite of appearances. It's a story of risk as well -- risking her heart and her pride. It's an unlikely story of her own happiness. Laura Munson chose happiness. Her husband shut down and checked out of their marriage and their family. She knew that she could not make him do anything. She couldn't change his mind about what he thought he was feeling. She couldn't make him understand what ...
On Reading: Balancing Writing and Family
We are happy to welcome New York Times Bestselling author Susan Wiggs. Her latest novel is The Oceans Between Us. Find out more about her and her novels at SusanWiggs.com: Like Grace, the main character in my novel The Ocean Between Us, most writers I know perform a daily juggling act to balance family and career. I’m no exception. I wrote my first novel with a colicky newborn in my lap, and sold it when she was 18 months old. I had the added bonus of a full-time teaching job thrown into the mix. Working at home is a mixed blessing. You either feel like you never go to work, or you never leave. Finding balance somewhere in the middle is the key. I could tell you to make a schedule, carve out a discrete area ...
Traveling with Pomegranates
We go through so many stages as women: first being a child, dependent on our own mothers for everything; then a teenager, raging with hormones and aching for freedom and independence; as young adults we try to figure ourselves out; then we are young women, perhaps wives; motherhood is a distinct and life-changing phase, but soon our children need us less and less; we adjust to the empty nest phase which brings more hormone fluctuations and is a rebirth and a dying as we ask "What now?" Fifty-something Sue Monk Kidd and her twenty-something daughter Ann Kidd Taylor explore these stages of a woman's life in Traveling with Pomegranates. We have two copies to give away -- to anyone. U.S. and International residents welcome! Click on through to read my full review at 5 Minutes for Mom. I've ...
On Reading: What I Read When I Write
When friends found out that I was writing a book about the year I changed my life by following the advice found in women's magazines, they all said the same exact thing. "Do you know what book you should be reading?" they shouted. "Eat, Pray, Love." I ignored their directives, of course, but for a reason that may surprise you: I didn't want Elizabeth Gilbert to psyche me out. Even though Gilbert's method was different (her inner makeover occurred as she globe-trotted through Italy, India, and Indonesia), our basic story line was the same. Like Gilbert, I was just coming out of a divorce, dating a woefully inappropriate guy, and feeling profoundly lost and unhappy. And like Gilbert, I write candidly and often with a self-deprecating sense of humor. I was worried that if I read her book as I was writing my own, I'd be plagued with the sense ...
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Jennifer Donovan
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