Ahhhhh!

For Christmas this year, my family got me a shiatsu massaging cushion for my office chair. Wow. It feels so good I don't want to do anything but sit at my desk all day. I'm thinking this may be the perfect gift for writers who tend to procrastinate. AHHHHH!!!!!

New website

Bethany House (my publisher) just launched their new website. It is awesome! Click here to check it out.

Christmas memories

Happy December 18!
Titletrakk.com is currently listing the favorite Christmas memories of several authors (31, to be exact). You can click here to go read them. Mine is toward the bottom of the page.
What's your favorite Christmas memory?

Waiting for Daybreak

My second book finally has an official title. "Waiting for Daybreak" will release in October 2008.
Woo hoo! Now, if I can just get the final rewrites done, all will be well!
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

Book signing this weekend

I'll be signing books at Borders this weekend. If you're in the Santa Barbara area, I'd love to see some friendly faces, so please drop by. As an added bonus, if you're buying A Promise to Remember as a Christmas gift, I'm giving away cute Christmas themed padded mailers.
Here are the details:
Sunday, December 16 2 PM
Borders, Goleta
7000 Marketplace Drive
Goleta, CA
Phone:805.968.1370
Hope to see you there!

Miracle Monday

Kristy Dykes, a Christian fiction writer, was diagnosed with a brain tumor a few weeks back. She's had surgery to remove much of it, but the prognosis is still quite dim. She goes in for her first radiation treatment today, and thousands of Christians all around the country are banding together to pray for her at that time.
Will you join with us?
A Miracle on Monday
3:30 PM, EST, Dec. 10, 2007
If you want to read more of Kristy's story, you can go to her blog by clicking here.

There's the normal way...

and there's the Cushman way.

While most families are content to simply stand on tiptoes and decorate a six-foot tree in their living rooms... well... let's just say, the Cushman family is not most families.

If it doesn't involve heavy machinery, and at least one person dangling off the end of it risking life and limb to put a star on top, well... it's just not a Cushman Christmas tree.

Unfortunately, my camera batteries died before the real action started, but my sister-in-law got some more. Stay tuned for pix of my nephew Chad hanging from the top of this contraption, as well as my daughter and hubby in the bucket of a bulldozer, putting on ornaments.

Heroes in Action

I may not live in Gotham City or Metropolis, but yesterday I saw some real life super heroes in action.
My sister-in-law, aka VisionGirl, spotted smoke coming from the brush across the canyon. She quickly notified my brother-in-law, aka WaterMan. Faster than a speeding bullet (and without bothering to find a phone booth so he could twirl fast and put on his cape and mask) he jumped into a water truck (it's one of the big construction site water trucks, he's been using it on his orchards and for other projects around their new rural home). Before you could say "who was that masked man?" he was at the scene, spraying the fire with gallons and gallons of water.
Soon after, more caped crusaders arrived in Batmobiles, which were cleverly disguised as fire trucks, and even two helicopters!!
The evil fire was banished within the hour, and its devastation limited to only one acre, thanks to quick and heroic action by all.