Silence is Golden?

There is a new trend sweeping America.

Silence.

Everywhere, everyone wants you to be quiet.

I used to think, growing up in church, that it was just church people that wanted me to be quiet (I am a Christian not a church person). Don't sing, Don't dance. Be a good little girl. I remember sitting in church all my life knowing there was more to God. I remember as an adult experiencing the presence of God, only to have it quenched so a someone on the stage could read a quote from the latest Christian book.

Whatever.

But I have learned something extremely important over the last two years of my life.

It is not just church people who want you to be quiet.

People who don't know God... people who drink, party, smoke cigarettes, smoke pot and/or sleep around also want you to be quiet.

You see, in the PC world we live in you can do almost anything.

As long as you are quiet.

You can smuggle illegals across the border. You can boss people around. You can have sex out of wedlock. You can molest children. You can smoke pot, get drunk, take other illegal substances and transport drugs, all without a social security number if you like while taking advantage of goverment programs without paying the taxes it takes to fund them while concurrently taking home twice the amount of money as someone who actually has to pay taxes.

By the way Paul and I pay taxes. We both have since we were sixteen and we will until we retire. The Bible says, "Render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's..."

Perhaps this makes sense on the surface. Naturally, those who are breaking the law prefer to fly under the radar. After all, they don't want to get caught and face the music. But let me take a moment to tell you what you can't do in America that might be sometimes loud, but is not a sin in God's eyes.

You can't discipline your children. Even though the Bible says, " Spare the rod spoil the child."

You can't have a heated discussion with your spouse. Even though the Bible says, "What God has brought together, let no man separate."

You can't worship God in your own home. Even though the Bible says, "In the last days I will pour out my spirit..." and "Now is the time when God is looking for true worshipers. Worshipers who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth."

As long as you are quiet in church you can commit any sin you want.

As long as you are quiet in the world you can commit any sin you want.

But if you are loud in the church or in the world and are living a pure life, people will judge you all the more.

Dance is loud.

Music is loud.

Singing is loud.

Drama is loud.

Artists are usually loud.

But if there is no room in the church for artists and no room in the world for purity... Then where does a Pure Artist go?

Launch Pad.

Hope to see all of the Pure Artists there.

UPDATE: The Launch Pad meeting place isn't quite ready and won't be until later this year. Sorry. We'll post here when the space becomes suitable to meet. Thanks in advance!

Exciting News!There's a Future for "Chance for the Future"

I have very exciting news to share today concerning my writing career.

This week, I signed a three-book deal with Blademaster Press, a small press out of Las Vegas, Nevada, to publish the first three Fairlight novels. The publisher is very committed to the books and has high hopes for their success.

Granted, an earlier version of each of these novels have been published in the POD trade paperback format in the past and therefore have been theoretically available online at (what I think are) bloated prices (and these POD editions will shortly be discontinued to make way for the Blademaster editions). But, even though Blademaster is a small press and the advance is modest, it marks the first time my work has been published in a non-self-publishing model. And this is THE distinction. I am no longer merely self-published. The Blademaster editions of my Fairlight novels makes me a published author.

Although the schedule has not been completely worked out and assuming all goes as planned, I'm told that the hard cover edition of "Chance for the Future" should release sometime in the summer of 2008. A mass-market paperback edition will follow sometime in the fall of the same year. Both editions should contain a new Chance short story (I'm working on it even now so it's REALLY new) so even if you have a copy of CFTF, you'll want to pick up a new one for that reason alone. But wait! There's more! The new edition of CFTF is also a brand new edit. CFTF was the first novel I published and I've grown a lot as a writer since I wrote it. Indeed, there were passages that made me cringe when I glanced back through it. Therefore, I've given the entire novel a polish and it's much better off for it. I'm very pleased with the new edit!

Summer of 2009 should bring the hard cover edition of "Hope for Tomorrow" with a mass-market paperback edition following in the fall of the same year. I'm told "Faith in the Past" will mirror the same schedule for hard cover and mass-market paperback in 2010. Both sequels will get a new polish as well, but they won't be as extensive as what I did for CFTF. Also, both sequels will probably also get a short story to distinguish the new editions.

So it's exciting to be me this week! I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity to revisit these novels in the larger marketplace. Lori was also very excited at this news and we're already thinking of ways to proactively promote and market the novels when they release. So expect future event news as well. Very exciting times, indeed.

And did I mention we're buying a house? See previous post...

Here We Go Again!

Well it saddens me to say that the previous post is already obsolete. Melody's last day at preschool has already occurred. At least at that particular preschool. Why? Because we're moving.

Again.

But this time, the good news is, we're buying a house! I'm not going to post the address here but suffice it to say that it's a really cool 1915 Craftsman house in the downtown area of Long Beach... about a five minute drive from my job at The Designory! It's on a really large lot and has a really long driveway. The garage is only about two years old and it even has a bedroom-sized basement (in addition to the three official bedrooms).

Unfortunately, life goes on hold again for the duration... probably until after January. Certainly Launch Pad will be on hiatus until then and I probably won't get much writing done between now and then either. But we're very focussed on this and it's all coming together swimmingly.

As with most nearly-100-year-old houses, there are some things we want to do to it before we move in, so we're going to be overlapping about two weeks with our apartment so we can make the new place ready without having to scoot around furniture to make it happen.

Escrow closes the day before Thanksgiving. The current owners get three days to vacate (basically the long weekend) and then it's time to get to work. I'm booking my moving truck rental for December 15. So it's move it in, set it up and put up the Christmas tree!

Lori is very excited that we'll finally own again and Melody is looking forward to FINALLY having a back yard. As usual, if I can keep my girls happy, it makes for a happier me.

Perhaps in January, when the dust settles and the holidays are behind us, we'll find Melody another preschool closer to our new home. We'll assess anew at that time.