NAME THE BABY CONTEST

Come up with a name for the newest addition to our family and win my latest novel, City of a Thousand Gods. He / she, born on June 30th at about noon, is a heifer or bull of dazzling red with a snow white face. Since we don't know the gender of the calf yet, the name will need to be appropriate for either a boy or girl.

I'll announce the winner by Saturday, July 14th. If I choose your the name you gave the baby, you'll win a copy of my novel. 

We already have three nominations: Cheers, Fourth of July and RootBeer. You can do better than that, can't you! Enter today and submit as many names as you'd like. Look at those long eyelashes and the red rings around her / his eyes. How can you resist naming that adorable little (if 80 pounds can be considered little) thing.

Late yesterday, I uploaded my just-finished picture book, Pumpkins Party All Night, to Youtube.

I started the project approximately five years ago and had finished half the illustrations when a life-threatening illness struck my husband. I stopped everything to care for him. Then, within three weeks of the onset of Ray's problems, I started losing my vision, but couldn't afford the time to go to the doctor and get it checked. Ray needed me at home. Eight weeks later, when his kidneys began functioning again and we could stop at-home IV's, I visited the eye specialist. He told me I had Dry Macular Degeneration (the slow-moving type) as well as wrinkled retinas. The wrinkles had left several blind spots in each eye and he could do nothing for the MD except suggest vitamins that could slow it down. The floaters and strings should go away on their own.


For the next two years, I was afraid to even attempt detailed illustration work. But to my great joy, I could still see well enough to work on the computer. The floaters disappeared and the MD didn't get worse. I ignored the words jumping on the page when I read my Bible. I didn't mind that I read slowly and could no longer finish the introduction to Star Wars scrolling across the screen. I was just thrilled that I could work and drive.

I painted a few large abstracts, savoring every minute of the creative process, and spent my days writing the novel City of a Thousand Gods. When I finished writing the book two years later, without even thinking about it ahead of time, I started painting a cover for the novel. I was shocked when I realized what I was doing! And that I could see just fine. Though my vision hadn't actually improved, I no longer noticed it as much -- kind of like the pea-sized spot in the middle of my computer glasses that is now invisible to me.

So I took up where I left off with the pumpkin book, and in the middle of the process I made a greeting card featuring the illustration above which I sent to a friend. A general-market publisher saw the card and contacted me, letting me know they were interested in the book. We communicated a few times before I decided not to give the book to them.

But that didn't change my purpose for the book -- I wrote Pumpkins for Christians to use with their children during the Fall season when others celebrated with witches and goblins. Unfortunately, the book doesn't 'fit' a Christian publisher.

That's why I uploaded to Youtube and have no plans to submit the book to any publisher. And that's why I need your help. If enough people go to Youtube and look at the book now, by October parents should be able to find it. So please go look for it and then pass the word along to friends with children.

The address for Pumpkins Party All Night is  http://youtu.be/ZCYe0jWPM0Y. If the link doesn't work just go to the Youtube site and type my name and the book title into the search bar.

Thank you so much! Remember, it's free on Youtube! I love that! 

The Sky Speaks

(Photo courtesy Riki Meyers)

“The heavens tell of the glory of God.

The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.

Day after day they continue to speak;

Night after night they make him known.

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

Their message has gone out to all the earth,

And their words to all the world.”

Psalm 119: 1-4

For thousands of years mankind has lifted eyes to the heavens knowing the sky would BE.

Never changing.

A constant.

Constantly changing.

For thousands of years never once exactly the same.

The sky moves continuously as it fulfills its purpose

DECLARING GOD’S GLORY.

The sky whispers God’s quiet beauty.
The rising sun paints white puffs with pinks and lavender.

Azure melts into the deep blue of a cloudless summer sky.

Filmy orange stripes stretch across the horizon at sunset.

The cobalt night sky twinkles with specks of light.

The sky sighs God’s presence in the warm breeze that swirls around us,

embracing us,

caressing upturned faces.

The wild sky calls out the wonder of a wild God.

Roaring God’s power in the storm that pulsates brilliant orange and yellow, then darkens. 

Lifting birds and driving them backwards.

Shooting jagged fire east to west. 

Thunder shouts. 

Clouds swirl and collide then descend as tornadoes, snatching up houses and massive oaks.

After the storm, the sky murmurs God’s love, arching His rainbow-promise of protection through lingering droplets.

The sky’s beauty beckons us, stirs a longing to merge with God’s glory.

We ascend in metal shells, the sky encloses us, shaking tons of steel traveling through clouds as easily as it flutters an aspen leaf.

We scale the tallest peaks to touch the sky. 

Its heights freeze us. 

Thin oxygen sucks breath from our lungs.

No one can survive the naked embrace of God’s sky.

Yet it reaches down to touch us and utters comfort.

Settling to the earth as fog

Obliterating massive mountains.  

Blanketing cities with white that halts human activity.

Granting permission for warmth to pass through and coax food from frozen ground.

Releasing water to paints flowers with brilliant color and rush over waterfalls.

The sky ceaselessly speaks God’s glory.

It will never pause until the day it trumpets the glory of 

Christ’s return

And  melts with fervent heat.

Christian Picture Books on Youtube

A couple of days ago, my daughter-in-law sent me this video of my barely-two grandson declaring his love for God. In the middle of a chat they were having about some scones he helped make, he changed the subject to say he'd been watching Grandma's books on Youtube, and then . . . the declaration. Check it out.

Titus Loves God 

What a thrill!

That video reveals precisely why I write and illustrate picture books, why I consider books for young children possibly more important than books for grown-ups and why I've put several of my out-of-print and never-published books on Youtube.

And why I hope other Christian authors will do the same.

I've included the links for seven of my Youtube books below. You can click on these or cut and paste them into your browser or just type my name into the Youtube search bar. I hope that you'll pass these links along to anyone you know with young children or grandchildren.

            1.    Am I Praying . . .  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdVfDFZOzxg&context=C41e31c3ADvjVQa1PpcFMvZ1qjgHEDOh_pJI9MDbUSCnOQl6tNtlg=  

2.     Does God Have A Job . . . . http://youtu.be/wbQJNg5w_ic

3.     You Wouldn’t Love Me If You Knew . . .  http://youtu.be/JpgnH1IanQI

4.     Sleepwalking Susan  . . . http://youtu.be/QsgZubPFOVU

5.     Bubba was a Bad Boa . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imKt74QWmA8

6.     Bridget’s Bubbles . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3CgVYrRrJY&feature=relmfu

7.    Why Did God Create Me? http://youtu.be/hzr-_Ov9zP4

             Second copy only slightly different -- http://youtu.be/m3r2Uto2He8

Am I Praying? Now On Youtube

Over the past few months, several people have contacted me to say they've searched for my picture book, Am I Praying?, but can't find it. Anywhere. Not even used. 

While it isn't strictly true that there are no copies (there are always a few on Amazon)  most available ones are way overpriced. The first time I checked the Internet I found only two and they cost upwards of $1,000.00 each! One was $997.00 and the other was priced a little higher. I suspect neither of those sold. Usually copies are more reasonably priced, though they still often cost from thirty dollars to over three hundred dollars. 

   Am I Praying?

That's sad for me because I write as a ministry -- not for the money -- and I want everyone to read Am I Praying because of the fun way it teaches about prayer. One time a seventy-two-year-old electrician told my husband and I that after reading the book he knew for the first time in his life when he was praying and when he was not. He 'got' prayer!

I love that! 

I want everyone to 'get' the concept of prayer. Especially children. I want children to hear all about Jesus and all the benefits of following him as early as possible. Did you know that only ten percent of Christians find the Lord after the age of fourteen? And an astonishing number fall away from the faith in their adult years. Though there are no guarantees since God gave us free will, I hope that good solid instruction in how to follow Christ will make a difference, and I believe Am I Praying? offers one small way parents can help establish their children in the faith.

So I hope you will click on the link above, listen to the book in Youtube and then pass the word to your friends. The more people who go to my channel, the more people Youtube will send there. That means even non-Believers will be tempted to listen. And that makes me smile.

 

Satirical Painting: the Center of Our Universe

    I occasionally enjoy painting a good satire, and three weeks ago the urge to create one coincided with the need to decorate a room for my two-year-old grandson's visit to our home. Earlier, I had painted the room where he sleeps bright yellow and sketched the beginnings of a mural: A cow holding onto a clock joyfully danced across the wall in vine charcoal. 

    But because Titus doesn't often visit for extended periods, I didn't want to make the room for children only. Besides his interest in cows has waned recently and he is already adopting the family and national addiction: sports. He loves balls. Every ball. Any kind of ball. He begs anyone in sight to "make a hoop" so he can shoot a ball through the circle formed by arms.  

    I wiped the mural off the wall.

    Making a quick trip to Jo Ann's Fabrics, I grabbed four yards of fleece printed with basketballs, soccer balls and footballs, fringed the edges as a finishing touch, and tossed it over his bed. Adding a couple of pillow shams in the same fabric proved simple.  
    
   Then I created a painting to match. I was afraid Titus wouldn't like it, but he did. Numerous times he asked to accompany him  to the "basketball bedroom" so so he could find and point to each ball in the painting.

    The canvas is a four foot by five foot gallery-wrapped acrylic titled The Center of Our Universe. 

    Does it make you smile? 

   


    

     


   

 

A Fun Way to Keep in Touch with Grandchildren

Every time I’m interviewed for my book Culture-proof Kids, at least one grandparent calls in asking how to develop a relationship with distant grandchildren. During one program three questions in a row dealt with that identical topic. Three! And I didn’t have a good solution.

Now I do.

It’s a slap-your-forehead no-brainer. Simple yet brilliant. My daughter-in-law initiated the idea when she kept her smart phone close at hand and recorded brief videos of her children throughout the day -- usually when she caught them doing something naughty. Then she texted them to me. Right on the spot! I felt like part of their lives. Wow!

After receiving several of those, I wanted to send something back. But what? With nothing better to photograph, I aimed my smart-phone (any digital camera set on “video” would work equally well), at my husband as he carried an armload of sticks down the driveway. (Yep. Sticks.) And with the camera set on the video function, I asked the sort of questions a child might ask. Watch that here.

 A few seconds later, I sent the clip via text to my daughter-in-law, scoring an instant hit.(If I’d used my digital camera I would have emailed the video.) Our grandson begged to watch again and again and my daughter-in-law permitted it since videos of grandparents are guilt-free babysitting for a tired mama, don’t ya know.

Here's what I’ve learned in my vast experience as a grand-videographer.

Move Over Spielberg

• I keep it simple and brief because any video lasting longer than a few seconds gets boring. (Besides, my phone flashes “Too long” and refuses to send.)
• Anything with Grandpa is wildly popular. He’s stage hand and leading man. I yelled questions up to my husband when he climbed on the roof. I caught him just waking from a mid-afternoon nap. (The snoring was a fun bonus and – Okay! Okay! I admit I woke him up just for fun.)
• Favorite toys hopping around like puppets is fun. One fluffy pen decorated with feathers primped and chatted with our grandson. (And because Grandpa belongs to the male gender, the pen inevitable fought with another fluffy pen. But I hesitate to speak of the dark side of videoing. Sigh.)
• When city workers came to our property to feed branches into a chopper, I yelled over the noise of the machine to explain what they were doing.
• Since we live on a small farm cows are always in demand, but turning the camera on your dog or cat would be at least as good. Or find a squirrel and capture his antics while you whisper into the camera.
• Blurry videos? Get over it! Who really cares? Professional quality is not a requirement for pleasing family. 

A Surprising Bonus

While you’re at it, try sending the videos to slightly older family members. I discovered that my thirty-something-just-married daughter wants them, so I pass them along to her! Makes me wonder if homesick college students might like to have Grandma and Grandpa stored on their phone as an on-demand-when-needed reminder of how much they are loved.or computer for times they awaken in the middle of a lonely night.