I returned from the northern Idaho writers’ retreat on Monday afternoon. After a couple of days of catching up (laundry, banking, paying bills, sorting mail, buying groceries, cleaning up, etc.), it was time to dig into the manuscript and make some of the necessary changes that resulted from great brainstorming. Which is why I haven’t posted a blog for a week. Just plain too busy.
Yesterday I took my mom to her usual Thursday lunch. Normally I drop her off and run other errands while she eats with her friends. But I decided to dine with them. The ladies were 93, 93, 91, and 89. I was the young pup. It was kind of a hoot.
When we got home from lunch, there was an email waiting for me that two of my 2006 releases (both of them hardcover novellas) are finalists in the ACFW Book of the Year contest. Diamond Place (Revell) is the 3rd book in the Hart’s Crossing series. A Carol for Christmas (Zondervan) is, as the title makes clear, a Christmas story, a prequel to this summer’s release, Return to Me. Winners will be announced at the American Christian Fiction Writers conference, held in Dallas in September.
Speaking of Return to Me, it was the featured release this week on the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance. I was stunned to discover it managed to reach #2 on Technorati’s Popular Books list on August 2nd. Why surprised? Because Harry Potter has been ruling the roost for the past two weeks. All seven Potter books have been eating up the ratings because so many bloggers are talking about them. One just cannot fight with a cultural phenomenon. Regardless, thanks to the bloggers who were talking about RTM and to those who read and reviewed the book.
I’ll be keeping my head low for a few more weeks as I finish the WIP, but I’ll try to drop in now and then.
-rlh-
Technorati Tags: ACFW contest, Diamond Place, Carol for Christmas, Return to Me, Robin Lee Hatcher
