NEWSDAY TUESDAY

SOME FUN NEWS

My son (aka Abe Lincoln) and his 3-4-5 grade classmates wowed a crowd of 300+ guests last week with their orations and period dances during the performance of a Civil War Peace Cotillion. 

Until the day of  dress rehearsal, my son wouldn't let me hear his oration of The Gettysburg Address nor watch him and his classmates rehearse the complicated dances he and his fellow classmates practiced (often on their own time) for months before the two hour live performance.

 I find it simply amazing what kids can do when we raise the bar! He knows more about the Civil War now than I'll ever pretend to know!

AND SOME SAD NEWS

Dan Penwell, the longtime publisher at AMG Publishers and a wonderfully
gentle man, passed away yesterday after a long bout with cancer. Dan
was a fixture at many Christian writing conferences, offering wisdom to
anyone looking to talk with a longtime publisher professional. He'll be
missed.

AUTHOR NEWS AND REVIEWS

Christian Fiction Library
Journal says this of a few recent releases by authors we represent:

Janice Thompson's romantic comedy, Weddings
by Bella, is "full of laugh-out-loud moments … and
sure to appeal to fans of Adriana Trigiani's more secular Lucia,
Lucia."

In their review
of RITA® Award winner Irene
Hannon's In Harms Way, LJ said Hannon is a "master at
character development" and said new readers will want to go back and
read the first two titles in the series (Against All Odds; An Eye
for an Eye).

Called Riva Riva's Heading Home
"essential for parents and teens who want a YA story with elements of
romance that aligns better than many popular YA novels with their moral
beliefs."

And
here's what they said about debut author Carla Stewart's Chasing Lilacs: "This
nostalgic debut is perfect for readers who enjoy Christian
coming-of-age stories."

UPCOMING SEMINARS

Here's what Susan Meissner says about the upcoming Master Seminars workshops she's teaching:

"I want each successive book to plunge deeper, to snag more
acutely the reader in the most tender and savage of ways, so that my
books are to them memorable, unique and evocative. The best books I've
read are the ones whose prose is so lovely and sharp you don't even
know you're bleeding.

Writing of that caliber reads easy and fluid but churning it out can be
like mining for gems in solid granite. But it can be done. It should be
done. But it takes a concerted effort. At least for me, it does. And
there's no better place to hone your mining skills than in the company
of other miners.

The wildly talented Lisa Samson and I are teaming up to teach a two-day intensive and intimate fiction
workshop called Adding Depth to Your Fiction 
that will be offered twice this year in two different spots in the nation.
The first one is coming up May 7-8 in Orlando and a second one is set
for Detroit in July, as part of the Masters Seminar series sponsored by
Command Performance and MacGregor Literary. Lisa and I have been working
on our class materials for this first workshop, and I must say I am
getting more excited every day to share with writers what I have learned
about adding depth and dimension to a story. And I love the idea that
ours will be an intimate group which means there will be lots of
indepth, one-on-one feedback, insights and mentoring.

If you're a novelist or you know a novelist, pass on the above link to
them. We're going to have an amazing time together spelunking in the
prose cave with our axes, picks and little yellow hats with the lights
on top.

SANDRA'S 2010 CONFERENCE APPEARANCES

Keep an eye out for Sandra at the following conferences, and be
sure to let her know if you're going so she can save room on her dance card for you …

Oklahoma
Writers Federation 42nd Annual Conference
April
29-May 1st,
2010

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
http://owfi.org/Conference

Northwest Christian Writers Renewal
May
7-8, 2010
Bothell, Washington (Seattle area)
http://www.nwchristianwriters.org

Colorado Christian Writers Conference
May 12-15, 2010

Estes Park, Colorado
http://www.writehisanswer.com/

Write to Publish
June 9-12, 2010
Wheaton, Illinois
http://www.writetopublish.com

ICRS
St. Louis, Missouri
June 27-30
http://www.christianretailshow.com/

Oregon Christian Writers Conference
August 2–5, 2010
Canby Grove, Oregon (South of Portland)
http://www.oregonchristianwriters.org/

ACFW in St. Louis
September 17 – 20, 2010
Indianapolis, Indiana
http://www.acfw.com/conference/