Maggie Awards, Saturday October 3, 2009

The Georgia Romance Writers held their Moonlight & Magnolias Conference this weekend and Saturday night was the Maggie awards.

A very special treat for me... my hubby came along as my date. Here we are before the Awards Ceremony.

And here are the results:

1st Place ~ Keli Gwyn, Violets & Violins

Kelli was in California and unable to attend the Maggies. She gave a wonderful acceptance speech from her cell phone, while our own GRW member, Walt, held the phone to the microphone. If I'd been using my head, I would have taken a picture of Walt holding the phone to the mic!

Congratulations, Kelli! I know we've seen you visit the FAITH blog in the past! We're celebrating with you!

2nd Place ~ Christine Johnson, The Aviatrix

3rd Place ~ Belinda Peterson, Dreaming of You


Look how beautiful she looks!!! Lindi is such a wonderful encourager! I will never forget my second GRW meeting (the first had been about 2-3 years earlier and I'd been too afraid to return until 2006). I sat down beside Lindi and she made me feel like we'd been friends forever. And then she introduced me to Missy, another great encourager, and ACFW... The rest is history. Congratulations, my friend!


4th Place ~ Cara Slaughter, Love on Assignment


Honorable Mention
~ Christy LaShea, The Bridge Between
~ Dianna Shuford, Racing Against Time

~ I was honored to have tied with my critique partner.

It was an honor to have been a Maggie finalist, especially with these two great ladies!

What are you celebrating? I'd love to learn about it and celebrate with you!

ACFW Conference Highlights

Worship is always awesome at ACFW. It brings us back to why we write and who we're writing for. Praising God for our accomplishments and guidance to our goals.
This song is so meaningful to me. While I'm waiting, I will serve You Lord... those are just some of the lyrics. We need to apply that to every aspect of our life... from hard times with family, to challenges at work when we wonder or ask God - "Lord, why am I here?" - to waiting for our dreams to come true. Remember to serve Him while you wait on His answer!


Here, Rachel Hauck leads worship. Her Glory band is fabulous!














FAITH Sisters Mindy and Angie ~ They are a wonderful support for me and I'm glad to call them sisters in Christ!













Here is best selling author Debbie Macomber.

Debbie has been one of my favorite authors for years and it was such a treat hearing her speak at ACFW Conference this year. She overcame obstacles of dyslexia, to many years of rejection. Perserverance pays off!








A view from the Marriott at the Denver Tech Center.














One of the best views I could grab of the mountains in the distance.

ACFW - Arrival in Denver

Today was a beautiful day to fly... Here is my view from seat F. I sat beside two ladies in route to a wedding.

For a yet-to-be-published writer, I think it can be a bit uncomfortable when someone asks you what you write. I'm sure I blushed when these ladies grilled me about who I was and what I wrote as the plane parked and we all started to file out of the tiny aircraft. Sometimes, it's hard to remember what you write and please don't ask me about the book I've been working on for five years... I wasn't ready to pitch! I thought I'd only have to pitch to editors and agents - not my flight buddies!



I tried to steer them toward my two published friends sitting ahead of me, Julie Garmon and Missy Tippens, but these ladies were intent on trying to figure if they'd read anything I'd written, or trying to plant in their mind my name. Such sweet ladies and hopefully, if I'm ever published, they'll remember to look for Christy LaShea on the bookshelves, instead of remembering the fluttery red-head who couldn't remember her name or the current book she was working on.


Then again, that flight to Denver may be one fat fog for them...


Ah! The Hotel! This is the Marriott at the Denver Tech Center.
It's a gorgeous hotel. Multicolored red carpet blankets the corridors. Stone is laid near the entryway and elevators. There are columns of what I think may be flagstone.
The hotel is huge and spacious. The staff is polite and accommodating and I think I can make this home for the next four days.

View for your day

"Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
So why do you worry about clothing? Consider, the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
Matthew 6:26-30 (NKJV)

Doll Face is 4 today!

I've been tagged... the 6th folder/6th picture....

I've been tagged by Kimi to find the 6th folder in My Documents and the 6th picture...
Here's mine:



This is my Mom, Downey and my mom's dog Chelsea at Mom's home in Blairsville.

Now I'm tagging Jenn, Mindy, Missy, Lindi, Angie and Amy!

Burt's Pumpkin Farm

Beyond Dawsonville Georgia located at 4801 Highway 52 is a place I know has become a tradition for many families. Burt's Pumpkin Farm is a place my family has gone for years, every year as the seasons turn from summer to fall. Here are some photos.

Note this very informative and important message from Management at Burt's Pumpkin Farm:

Downey tries to push the pumpkin!

Gotta get you some deee-licious boiled peanuts!

My niece Savannah with all those pumpkins!

My nephew Landon, Downey in the background, climbing and sitting on the pumpkins.

As you can tell, the Smith's don't adhere to directions very well ;)

Landon and his dad Blake waiting in the looong line for the Hay ride!

And we always have to get a slushie.

Downey, Savannah & Landon's Nana musing over the kids.

More pics to come....

ACFW Conference 2008 - Wednesday!

I flew into Minneapolis around 5:30. I wasn't alone for long. There were a lot of ACFW folks waiting for the hotel shuttle. Once we settled in at the hotel, a group of about 15-20 of us invaded the Olive Garden for dinner...


Here's two of my good friends, Amy Wallace(Author of Ransomed Dreams and Healing Promises) and F.A.I.T.H. girl, Jennifer Hudson Taylor




And here's my roomie, and fellow F.A.I.T.H. Girl Mindy Obenhaus with new CBA author Beth Wiseman (Author of Plain Perfect)




And with F.A.I.T.H. Girl Angie Breidenbach is her Agent Tamela Hancock Murray.




Texas Ladies Anne, Dawn and Lena Nelson Dooley (Multipubbed author of more books than I have room to mention here!) share a delicious Gelato!



And here's the whole gang! I know the good people of Olive Garden were glad when all of us chatty authors left. But we had a great time. If you're ever in Minneapolis, visit the Olive Garden not far from the Sheraton. Don't ask me how to get there. I couldn't begin to tell you....But we sure had fun!

July 2008, Lake Lanier

You never know what you'll find along the banks of Lanier...

This is an old boat ramp. The dock is out so far you can't see it in this picture. I remember swimming in this area and the water clearly covered the concrete pad near the tree line.

A cove about dry.

Here, we stopped on an island and started exploring!

A Proud Day

For my dear husband... Check out Billy and this 23 pound Striper he caught on Lake Lanier today!

Writing Retreat!

My crit partner, Christina graciously opened her Lake Hartwell Cabin to us last weekend. This time last week, I was scrambling to get my daughter to Grandma's and be back by the afternoon to meet my other crit partner Dianna to drive together to our weekend of writing, writing, writing!






Let me also mention, I won a critique for my local ACFW chapter. By Monday I was to turn in the first five pages of my WIP. I knew this weekend I would have ample time to work on those pages and have them ready to go come Monday. I hoped I would have more than the five pages accomplished. As a matter of fact, I was sure of it!




It was beautiful at Christina's cabin made me a little homesick for the house I grew up in on Lake Lanier. The water was clear and like a bath to swim in, which I did later in the afternoon. This picture below was taken shortly after sunrise. Unfortunately I didn't capture the beautiful rose hue the sky held when I first woke up. But you can see a little shadow of that pink over the water.























I ran back up to the house, eager to start my full day of writing.

I made coffee. I put my laptop on the screened in porch and prepared to write something marvelous. I read over things I had written. I read over files and files of revisions for the same story. I considered doing a character sketch. I thought about the weather there at Lake Hartwell. I read over some of my CP's work. We brainstormed a little. My CP's got to work writing. I moved from the table to the couch, back to the screened in porch.












The scene below invited me back to the water. My creative senses were dry. It didn't take long to realize this. Perhaps they needed a drink.




I took off down to the water and ended up spending a few hours swimming and sunbathing, trying to think of where to go with my story. My CP's joined me after a while and we went for a boat ride. It was warm and refreshing. When I returned, I briefly sketched four new characters for another story I've been cooking on the back burner in my brain.













My CP's critiqued the first five pages that I intended to send in to the critique I'd won. They agreed that was the revision I should go with. They made some helpful suggestions and I made the changes I agreed with. While Dianna was able to scoot through several of her chapters and get them revised, and Christina plowed through chapter 19 of her rough draft, I twiddled my thumbs, frustrated with myself that I wasn't more productive.







By Monday when the weekend was over and I was back home, I had a creative push work its way through my thick skull. I got seven pages down to five of the first chapter and sent them off to my local chapter for a critique that will take place later this month. Of course the week at work has been insane, jerking any energy I may have for writing completely out of me. But I would like to close in assuring you all that the weekend was not a loss. Not one bit.




The weekend gave me the rest I needed. Christina didn't let me lift a finger. Both she and Dianna gave me the reassurance I needed to keep going. All in all, the weekend reminded me that my passion is for writing and one day it's something I want to be doing full time. It forced me to realize I have to fulfill promises I've made and submit my manuscript. I have to continue to strive to reach my goals, no matter what conflicts are thrown at me.

Pray for Tonka

Poor Tonka is probably super humiliated in this picture, taken a few months ago, but today I ask you to remember my little puppy dog in your prayers.

She started getting sick on Sunday and today I will be taking her back to the doctor. It's expected she will have surgery as we believe she has an obstruction. Tonka has been through many tests and x-rays. The doctors started off suspecting she had Lepthospirosis and now we believe she has swallowed something that has gotten lodged somewhere near her stomach area. She is eight years old and a part of our family. I am praying for healing and for the doctor's wisdom to help Tonka feel better.

A Mother's day Funny

Isn't this cute!


Downey made it Wednesday night in her Missions Friends class at church.

When we first left the class, it had two plastic bottle tops glued to either side of the cup. This made it look like a wheelbarrow. Of course by the time we got home, all ten minutes later, the wheels were gone. Its still cute, though.

What's funny? Well, when I picked Downey up from her class, she showed me what she made and I oohhed and ahhhed over it, because it was cute! I wasn't being fake.


But Downey informed me, her little flower in the wheelbarrow was for her Daddy.

So when Daddy came home that evening, I told her to show him what she made HIM for Mother's Day. And she did. "Look what I made you, Daddy!"


By Mother's Day, I was helping Miss Ruby with our Sunday School class. The kids were making cards for their mom. Of course Downey was in one of her ill-red-headed moods(These are moods brought on for no apparent reason, but my deep rooted belief is there is something about our red hair that makes our tempers volatile from time to time).

Downey didn't want to participate in the class, and sat on the floor a couple of times, crying and being fussy. Even the other kids weren't sure what was up with her. Finally, when she did come to the table, she chose a pink piece of construction paper and started to color on it. She announced that her card was intended for her Daddy. Fooey on Mommy.

Ruby chuckled and said, "Well, maybe she'll make you something on Father's Day."

I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Little Darling & her Daddy

Home in my Heart

This may look like a peculiar and worn stairway to you, but to me, it takes me toward a path I traveled the first 20 years of my life.




To me, this wooden rail and stairs is not old. Its new. The last time I walked onto that rocky Lake Lanier beach, this structure wasn't built.

The rocks weren't there. We never had the money to invest in securing the erosion of this bank.

You may think this yard needs weeding, but this isn't part of anyone's yard. It's Corps property. Part of Lake Lanier shore exposed when the water levels went down and are slowly returning.

The new owners of this property have made some nice additions. This walkway and the rock was needed. It was something my grandparents weren't able to do. My grandmother moved from this location when I married, at 22. I've missed this property ever since.








Look closely at this picture.

Nestled behind the trees is the house I grew up in. Behind the thickness of the vines and ivy is a lovely lake cottage, built in the fifties. The new owners have built a deck around the front of it and maintained it. This quaint gray house belongs to someone else. But to me, it will always be home in my heart.

THE WATCH DOG

TONKA: Ferocious(not!) Bulldog ~ Barking at nothing.

Happy Birthday, Billy!

Happy 32!!!

I Love you!!

In Flight

A boom of birds scattering near Lake Lanier Islands.