My Award-Winning Writing

Please don't hate me because I won a writing contest. You, too, if you work hard and write every day, may be able to win something... someday. Or, if you religiously visit every blog listed in your blog roll on a daily basis, you might stumble across a gem of a contest.

The tale: Charlene Ann Baumbich at a physical therapy appointment. The therapist needs to work on Charlene's toe. The PT's comment: "I'm going to distract your big toe now." For the full story check out the post on Angie Hunt's blog.

My entry into the How Do You Distract a Big Toe Contest:

See, there's this big toe, see, and he wants to go to the market, but I want to stay home, so I send my best friend out to meet him when he's leaving and she offers him some roast beef, but my friend's husband yells at him that it tastes nasty and he didn't have any himself, so now I'm resigned to a shopping trip, but little Piggy--he's our son--rides up on his bicycle a few blocks from our house and then Daddy has no choice but to turn around, commandeer the bike, put Piggy on the handlebars, and pedal all the way home. The whole time I hear Piggy 'whee-ing,' all I can think is how glad I am that I don't have to go to the market!

(If you don't get this at all, brush up on your little piggies by grabbing the closest foot to you--which quite possibly would be your own--and saying, "This little piggy went to the market, this little piggy....")

Charlene's comment: "The rules said one or two sentences, and by golly, she wins on two counts: creative story and causing us to hold our breath between sentences while we read!"

Then she awarded me first place! Who cares about all the hoopla surrounding the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest? I won a toe mood ring!

Quick Claim to Fame

I'm the star of Robin Lee Hatcher's blog! Okay, not really me. But a movie I recommended is! (Notice she and I are on first name basis?)

If you check it out, leave a comment saying Christina sent you. Take a minute to read her posting about her WIP. I love hearing the nitty-gritty from a published author.

If you watch the movie, drop me a line.

Cleaning Up

I have family visiting from Texas right now. Yeah, they came to the Pacific Northwest to get away from the rain!

I'll be adding quite a few Recent Reads to the side column and giving longer descriptions of the books, but I want to post a line from Jane Kirkpatrick's A Tendering in the Storm, which will surely end up in the top books of 2007.

"Timing was as much a factor in success as effort."

As a writer, I can usually find a way to relate any idea which strikes a chord in me to--surprise!--writing. This timing statement is especially true right now as we've been told one of our favorite editors is revisiting On the Threshold this week. Oh, we're so hopeful he will want to move forward with it! But the timing is in God's hands.

Watched Invincible last night. A great film to renew your determination to follow your dreams.

Comments on the slide show in the last post:

Why are the children holding feet? Because only an idiot says no to a foot massage.

Why all the groceries? We fed about 40 people for 4 days. Shopped for 5 1/2 hours. By the time we hit the last store, people were actually pointing and laughing when we opened the back to unload the carts and the van was already full.

Why all gussied up? Headed to a wedding. The bride presented her purity ring to the groom. A young, gorgeous couple who publicly testified to having done it the right way. Despite having dated for years, she thanked her husband-to-be for never pressuring her. Brought tears to my eyes!

A Bit of Fun

Believe it or not, there's a reason for every picture! Leave a comment if any of them puzzle you. I spend most of my computer time "working," so I thought it was time to play.

A New Critique from Tina Helmuth

Update: One of the conditions of my publishing contract is that no portion of the book be published, so I had to ask Tina to delete her critique in Nov. '08.

Tina Helmuth, a new acquaintance from ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers), started a blog called The Ink's Not Dry to help her fellow authors. She's looking for submissions of 1,000-1,500 words, which she will post a critique of for the author and others to learn from. Guess who was her first?

Christina Berry. :-)

Make sure to stop by to read what she has to say. For any of you fairly-new or secretive writers, this would be a great opportunity to get feedback on your precious manuscript. Tina is letting the first people who sign up preview her comments before she posts, but this perk will soon disappear when the supply of submissions exceeds the demand. You can remain anonymous or allow her to credit you.

Stop by...and tell Tina I sent you!

Piercing: A Post about (Earring) Posts

The Before:













The Story: A few weeks ago--actually the last weekend before school was out--I took Andrea to get her ears pierced. She choose a pair of pink earrings and, smiling, climbed up on the stool to await the actual piercing.

Why is it we never notice how asymmetrical our faces are until we A) get a haircut or B) get ears pierced? My dad once took a picture of me, cut it in half, and made two pictures with the mirror image filling in the other half of my face. I looked like two different people. I've also read that classic beauty is recognized across cultural lines as a symmetric face. Oh, well...at least I never claim to be gorgeous!

So, back to Andrea. She sat there with a smile as they marked the location of the holes, loaded the earring gun, and grasped her lobe. Thunk. Her smile didn't falter. Thunk. She never even blinked.

There you have it. My beautiful--but I'm just her mom--brave girl.

The After:


Notice that the earrings are NOT pink. That's right. They pierced her with the wrong earrings! Since there was nothing we could do about it, we just kept smiling.

The Writer as an Athlete?

Hagg Lake. Only ten minutes from my house. The site of the 2007 Age Group Nationals USAT Triathlon. (1.5K Swim, 40K Bike, 10K Run)

This past weekend, our church had the pleasure of hearing Barb Lindquist, an elite retired triathlete. It's unbelievable how many times this woman has been on the podium. If you ever get a chance to hear her speak, run/bike/swim as fast as you can to get there!


Having gone into college (Stanford!) as the top swimmer Wyoming ever produced, Barb was expected to deliver great results for her team. She experienced A LOT of success, both academically and athletically, but there came a time when fear of failure crippled her. She stopped swimming.

Only after she truly understood that her identity did not come from her swimming times or her grades, but from the Lord Jesus Christ, did she get the competitive drive back. This time, she turned to the triathlon. The first year she went pro, she searched for a way to know whether her competing again was in God's will or not.

Two things happened that year which confirmed her decision:
1) During a home stay where she was placed with an extremely popular triathlete, she shared her, up 'til now, personal faith. Never had witnessing come so easily to her.
2) Injured the day before she was to compete in Japan, she worried she might not be able to complete the race. She never felt the injury at all.


I hope I haven't embellished her story in any way as I'm doing this sans notes, but her journey is an amazing one. I couldn't help but relate it to my journey as a writer. I feel a confirmation in my soul that I am following God's path for my life when:
1) I find myself in conversation that begin with me being asked, "What do you do?" and end with me sharing how the Lord is working in my life.
2) Rejections--the writer's injury--don't even phase me anymore.

As Barb said, "God could have had me win the race if He had wanted me in the 2000 Olympics." (She did compete in the 2004 Olympic Games.)

God, in all His awesome power, is not bound by a publishing committee's decision. He can publish me whenever He wants.