Overlooked Orchid

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Laura Jensen Walker is an award-winning writer, popular speaker, and breast-cancer survivor who loves to touch readers and audiences with the healing power of laughter.

Born in Racine, Wisconsin (home of Western Printing and Johnson’s Wax—maker of your favorite floor care products) Laura moved to Phoenix, Arizona when she was in high school. But not being a fan of blazing heat and knowing that Uncle Sam was looking for a few good women, she enlisted in the United States Air Force shortly after graduation and spent the next five years flying a typewriter through Europe.

Her lifelong dream of writing fiction came true in Spring 2005 with the release of her first chick lit novel, Dreaming in Black & White which won the Contemporary Fiction Book of the Year from American Christian Fiction Writers. Her sophomore novel, Dreaming in Technicolor was published in Fall 2005.

Laura’s third novel, Reconstructing Natalie, chosen as the Women of Faith Novel of the Year for 2006, is the funny and poignant story of a young, single woman who gets breast cancer and how her life is reconstructed as a result. This book was born out of Laura’s cancer speaking engagements where she started meeting younger and younger women stricken with this disease—some whose husbands had left them, and others who wondered what breast cancer would do to their dating life. She wanted to write a novel that would give voice to those women. Something real. And honest. And funny.

Because although cancer isn’t funny, humor is healing.

To learn more about Laura’s latest novels, please check out her Books page.

A popular speaker and teacher at writing conferences, Laura has also been a guest on hundreds of radio and TV shows around the country including the ABC Weekend News, The 700 Club, and The Jay Thomas Morning Show.

She lives in Northern California with her Renaissance-man husband Michael, and Gracie, their piano playing dog.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sales clerk, barista, telemarketer, sign waver…

At twenty-five, free-spirited Becca Daniels is still trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. What Becca doesn’t want to be is bored. She craves the rush of a new experience, whether it’s an extreme sport, a shocking hair color, or a new guy. That’s why she quit her bookstore job, used her last bit of credit to go skydiving, and broke her leg.

And that’s why, grounded and grumpy, Becca bristles when teased by friends for being commitment-phobic. In response, Becca issues an outrageous wager—that she can sustain a three-month or twenty-five date relationship with the next guy who asks her out. When the guy turns out to be “churchy” Ben—definitely not Becca’s type—she gamely embarks on a hilarious series of dates that plunge her purple-haired, free-speaking, commitment-phobic self into the alien world of church potlucks and prayer meetings.

This irrepressible Getaway Girl will have you cheering her on as she “suffers” through her dates, gains perspective on her life’s purpose, and ultimately begins her greatest adventure of all.

If you’d like to read the first chapter of Becca By The Book, go HERE

I’ve been thinking about getting some life insurance quotes to extend my life insurance to make sure the girls are taken care of, if anything should happen to me. Things are starting to get crazy busy around here though, so the quotes will probably have to wait for a few weeks or months.

We are looking to move, as well as get another vehicle. On top of that, I am busy taking the girls to school and home again, and have been very busy with my blogging business lately.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A Note From Wanda:

Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a writer. When I was in the second grade, I wrote my first poem about a moth. Luckily, I received encouragement from my teacher. During my teen years, I wrote skits that my church teen group performed during special holidays.

It wasn’t until 1980, that I took a course on writing for children and teenagers. I became serious about a career as an author. Soon after that, I began to write stories, articles, poems, and devotionals, which appeared in a variety of Christian publications. Later, I had 5 books of puppet/ventriloquist scripts published. *These books are currently available by contacting me. (wanda@wandabrunstetter.com)

My first novel was released by Barbour Publishing’s book club, Heartsong Presents, in Dec. 1997. I have now written nearly fifty books, with over 4 million books in print. Many of the novels I’ve written are Amish-themed.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Life for Kelly McGregor is a daily drudge of driving her overbearing father’s mules along Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Canal. She dreams of one day owning an art gallery where her own drawings and paintings are on display. But these dreams don’t include marriage. . .not after seeing what her father has done to her mother. How then can Mike Cooper, a general store owner, make her realize he is different than her father and wants to support her artistic talent? Will Kelly learn that dreams can walk hand in hand with a love created by God?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Kelly’s Chance , go HERE.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Thrills, mystery, suspense, romance: Margaret penned it all. Nothing wrong with this, except Margaret happened to be writing for the church newsletter. After making the church picnic read like a Grisham novel, her former pastor took her aside and said, “Maybe God’s calling you to write fiction.”

It turns out God was and Margaret did. She now has more than 20 novels to her credit. In addition, she’s written many Christian articles and a non-fiction book. Still, it took a lot of prodding from God before Margaret tried her hand at writing inspirational fiction which led to her Rocky Creek series. “I love writing about characters at different stages of faith,” she says of the new direction her writing career has taken, “and I’m here to stay.”

Happily married to her real-life hero, Margaret and her husband live in Southern California.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sarah Prescott has never known a respectable life; just a hardscrabble childhood and brothers who taught her to shoot straight.

Justin Wells left Boston in disgrace, heading out alone on the dusty trail to Texas. But when the once-respected clergyman encounters a feisty redhead in handcuffs with a dying US Marshall at her side, their journey takes a dramatic turn.

His high society expectations and Sarah’s outlaw habits clash from the start. With a price on her head and a sweet orphan in tow, Justin and Sarah make the difficult journey toward Rocky Creek. There justice will be meted out hopefully with a portion of grace.

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Lady Like Sarah, go HERE

Watch the Book Trailer:

It’s been a long and rather frustrating week. I had been noticing for about a week that the ignition had a kind of catch in it before it started. I was going to talk to Dad about getting it checked out over the weekend, but the car beat me to it Friday morning. I went out and started the car, and then it died, and then the key would just spin….I thought it was the ignition switch, so Dad got another one, and we spent all day trying to get it put in, with him sick and all, but than discovered we had another ignition problem.

Anyway Bubble ended up having to pick up Dad Friday, and the girls ended up missing school.

A guy that I had been emailing for a few days came over on Saturday and helped us discover exactly the problem. I was able to pick up the new part this morning, but now we have to find someone to put it in for us. The guy I had emailed said he would do it for us, so I emailed him and let him know that I would have the part today, even though I knew he couldn’t come over until the weekend to put it in, and he replied that he would do it, but he would like for me to come over and help him out at his place. I’m not completely agains the idea of helping out at his place, but he didn’t say what he wanted me to help with, and the weekends are my time with the girls. It was bad enough this last weekend that I had to spend 2 days fooling with the car instead of spending time with them. We’ll just have to see how it works out I guess.

Hmm, now here would be an interesting job I think. How about a business plan consultant. I think it would be interesting hearing about everyone’s business ideas, although I don’t think I would like the part when I would have to tell them that their business plan isn’t up to snuff, or that their business is just not practical for the area they live.

People should dream, should try to make their dreams come true, but in some areas it’s just not a good idea.

Other than washing my face, and sometimes using a mild astringent, I never really had any experience with other acne solutions. Now with Des traveling the road of puberty I need to start looking at that stuff again. She has such good skin that I’m hoping she won’t have any serious problems with acne, but I would like to find a good mild face cleanser for her. Meg isn’t far behind on needing that stuff either.

Well here’s a new topic for me, and an interesting one at that. herpes simplex type 1 Even with my medical background I don’t know that much about herpes. I could look it up in medical dictionaries, tell you what treatments and prescriptions you would probably get, but that is about the extent of my knowledge.

I’ve never taken any kind of diet pill, never bought into the story that you had to be skinny to be happy. I’ve never been skinny, at the same time I’ve never been really over-weight either. While I haven’t always been comfortable with my weight, I’ve always found other ways than taking diet pills to get myself to a comfortable weight. I’ve heard too many stories of girls being weight obsessed to the degree of being underweight. I hope that I am up to the task of teaching the girls that weight isn’t everything.

There are just some things I’m happier not knowing about. Like the benefits of colon cleanse, or what boy my daughter has a crush on today, or if my sister is upset with me today or not.

*LOL* Yes, I am a loving, interested mom, but I’m just happier not thinking of her being old enough to start being interested in boys. She’s not seriously interested, and I know that, but she is growing up, while I still think of her as my little baby. I am thrilled with the young woman she is becoming, but…but….but…she’s my baby!