Scribble and Scrambles - Even Better than Laughing Babies...

Mid-week har, har, har. Haven't figured my sense of humor out yet? Here's a huge clue. This kind of stuff totally cracks me up.

I laughed. I cried. I yodeled.

Serials and Scenarios - Trish Ryan HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT

Click on the book cover for more info, and here to visit Trish Ryan's site. Hmm. I tried to match the toad's lipstick. I think I got it.

Here's my review of this engaging book.

HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT is a well-written and engaging memoir along the lines of those penned by Donald Miller, and reminding me very much of Lauren Winner's Girl Meets God.

Trish Ryan lays out her journey from stars and crystals to a tentative step forward, three-step- back, and final two-handed grasp of the truth of Jesus as her source of spiritual fulfillment. The road is winding and full of poetic sarcasm and sweet, struggling surrender.

Miller fans, women who despair of finding that perfect Christian man, those on the brink of a spiritual journey, or ones beaten down by religion and empty promises may find soul-balm in this book. Baby-steppers in Jesus, wheel-spinners, spiritual quicksand dwellers and ditch rollers may find fresh air and relief from the struggle in the truths that Trish discovered while wrestling spirituality.

However, warning to the sensitive. Trish is transparently generous with her thoughts and not all will please more conservative readers. Trish has embraced freedom in Christ and though I highly recommend and sometimes long for that path, my Baptist upbringing cautions me far too often. So, if you are easily offended by the idea of a Christian drinking alcohol or sharing thoughts that wouldn't pass the prim Sunday School teacher appropriateness test....do yourself a favor and don't go there. Because, if you do go there you are going to not glean the truth from the book but get hung up in the details.

Sensitive parents will also want to review the book before allowing OLDER teens to read it because Trish delves into dysfunctional relationships, including her own issues.

The chapters covering Trish's growth into wife material really should be must-reading for all females who love Jesus and want a husband real bad.

Serials and Scenarios - Athol Dickson Worth the Wait

Thanks, Athol. These were worth the wait, and you were very generous. I appreciate the time you invested in the Dregs.

Fiction character you would most like to be or most identify with and why?

The protagonist of Patrick O’Brian’s series, Captain Jack Aubrey, comes to mind. O’Brian is a wonderful writer, and I’d be a full-time sailor in another life. It blows my mind that guys really used to do the kinds of things O’Brian describes Aubrey doing.

If you could ask any person, living or dead, a random question -- what question would you ask of whom?

How could I possibly narrow this down to one person? “Jesus” is too obvious. So are “Abe Lincoln,” and “Alexander the Great” and so forth.

Maybe I’d go back in time and ask my high school sweetheart why she broke up with me. Sniff.

Some out there in writing land have strange rituals. Share yours.

A fifty-fifty mix of grape and peach juice in a coffee cup, a set of good headphones dialed into Mozart, an easy chair and a laptop. That’s all I need.

If you could change something in any novel, what would you change about it and why?

There was a line in my first novel, WHOM SHALL I FEAR?, that goes something like: “Christians don’t despair.” I’ve lived a little since writing that, and I know it isn’t always true. It would be great if is WAS true, but it’s not. So I’d take it back if I could, and try to be a bit more realistic.

What crayon in the box describes you on a good day? Bad day? Which one do you aspire to be?

These are good questions. I’m not smart enough to answer most of them. Will you be grading on a curve?

Pick one…..Pink iguana, purple cow, periwinkle giraffe. Which one and why? Can be negative or positive.

“Periwinkle giraffe”, for two reasons. “Giraffe” is a strange word if you stop to think about it. There are words that sound normal but look weird, and “giraffe” is one of them.

Plus, I’ve never been quite sure what color “periwinkle” is, so this way I get to find out. Is it kind of like chartreuse?

Favorite turn of phrase or word picture, in literature or movie.

“Rosebud.”

If you were assured of writing a best-seller, what genre would it be? Give us a sliver of information, a characteristic or glimpse of a scene.

Genre, schmenre! I just write, and the marketing guys figure out how to sell it. They say it’s “suspense,” so I say, “okay, it’s suspense.” But mainly I just try to keep the reader interested. One thing you can count on: I’m going to do my best to come up with SOMETHING in the story that I have never seen or heard of anybody else doing before. It’s good to be original!

What period of history intrigues you the most?

I like it all. There are some places and times were I would NOT want to go…it would be a drag to hang with the Aztecs, for example. All those body parts on the dinner table, you know. But other than a few exceptions along those lines, I think it would be wonderful to travel around in time. I’d love to witness a Beethoven premier, or see a Titian or a Monet unveiled. But if I had to narrow it down, I think I’d like to tag along with the Israelites during the Exodus. Can you imagine seeing those walls of water? Wow.

What would you write if there were no rules or barriers? (epic novels about characters in the Bible, poetry, greeting cards, plays, movies, instruction manuals, etc.)

I’m writing it. Seriously, I don’t see rules and barriers as a problem in art. They’re a necessary framework, and art is only good if it works within them. A musician might as well complain that there are too few keys on a piano, or a sculptor that limestone is too heavy. A major part of doing art is working within the world as it is to make it something more.

What makes you feel alive?

My wife. And Jesus, when I’m not too focused on me.

How does something worm its way into your heart? Through tears, truth, humor or other?

A good comedy is fun, but it’s the sad stories I remember.

Book, music, person, food you would take with you on a very long trip.

Bible. Enya. My wife. Ritz crackers.

Where would you most like to travel ----- moon, north pole, deep seas, deserted island, the holy land or back to a place from your childhood, somewhere else? – and why.

The Holy Land would be great. I think the “why” is obvious for a Christian. Other than that, I’ve always wanted to hang out in Scotland. My father’s side of the family comes from there, which is why I was named “Athol”.

Favorite season and why?

Winter is the least favorite. I hate being cold. But favorite…I guess I’ll have to go with Spring, because of the promise of a new beginning and all that.

Favorite book setting and why?

I love Dickens’s England. I love Twain’s Mississippi. I love the high seas in Patrick O’Brian’s novels, as I already mentioned. Really, any well drawn setting is a wonderful place to go in literature.

Which compliment related to your writing has meant the most and why?

Getting a Christy Award made me feel like I really was a writer. I don’t think I had quite allowed myself to believe it before that.

What criticism has cut the deepest and why?

An editor once told me I couldn’t save a rough draft, because it was too flawed. I still plan to prove him wrong one of these days.

What would you do today if you knew you had only a week to live?

Pray, and hug my wife.

What is your favorite word?

Love.

What word annoys you more than any other?

It’s two words, but I find “No problem,” very annoying when it’s substituted for “You’re welcome.” It betrays a self-centeredness that really bothers me.

Superhero you most admire and why?

I was a huge fan of Spiderman in my youth. I think it was because Peter Parker was a regular guy. Also, I thought it would be groovy to spray that web stuff everywhere.

Super power you'd love to borrow for awhile?

The ability to fly.

Favorite chore :

Washing my boat.

Anything you'd do but don't because of fear of pain? What is it? Ex.

Bungee jumping, sky diving, running with scissors.

All of the above. But it’s not fear of pain so much as fear of death.

Grammatical pet peeve…sound off.

There’s that “no problem” thing. Other than that, I get really frustrated by all these improper apostrophes we’re seeing on plural nouns. You see it all the time anymore, like: “No dog’s allowed.” How come people all of a sudden started thinking that you have to hook an “s” onto words with an apostrophe? I don’t get it.

Societal pet peeve…sound off.

Again with the “no problem” thing. It’s really a very serious scourge, which I fear will be the ruin of us all.

CREATIVE CORNER: Pick any of the following and have fun with it.

This is too much like showing off!

Scribble and Scrambles - Nada Post

Just zipping through. We held a honken garage sale today and had loads of fun...if you can call that fun. Our "nephew" Josh came all the way from Minnesota to experience an Iowa garage sale.

There we are.

We are heading out to see the movie Expelled so I'll do a review soon.

And good news, Athol Dickson sent his Dregs answers so I'll post those next week.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Serials and Scenarios - Athol Dickson's Winter Haven

I'd love to be able to give you more personally gleaned info. But alas, I've not read the book, though I want to, and Athol had an ugly deadline so he wasn't able to get to the questions.

As per usual, click on the book cover to see more from Amazon. Here to find out more about Athol and here to see what Kim had to say about it all.

Since Athol has the questions he may just pop in and surprise us some day.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Scribble and Scrambles - In Progress

I've decided that my in-progress house reflects me far more than I ever realized.

For starters, the direction you point your gaze is going to give you very different facets of me. You've by now read some of my remodeling stories. One corner of my house holds massive, beautiful oak bookcases full of books. If you look that direction you're going to think the house is pulled together. Of course, to fully see the bookcases, you'll be standing on the unfinished stairs next to the huge one floor drop-off with the two by four safety railing.

This is me. Catch me on a good day and you might think I've got life, God, marriage, and parenting all figured out. That is if you only spend a few minutes with me. : ). Underneath the polished, sturdy surface with multiple eclectic statements, like my bookshelves, are the raw two by four building blocks that just might offer up a sliver.

Come further into my home and you will find the party ceiling...exposed studs with party globes in happy colors. In the next room is the ceiling with a hole from an unfortunate friend's leg plunge through the drywall the day he came over to help with the second floor. Most of my house contains construction dust that occasionally gets wiped down, and each room, with the exception of one, holds at least one small or large project that is unfinished. Just like me. Except I'm pretty sure I don't even have the one area that is nailed down and presentable.

The part I like best. No, the part I love best is the fingerprints. My house is full of fingerprints. From the generous Christmas gifts from parents and grandparents that have gone into the purchase of windows and flooring and insulation and a furnace, to the hours of investment from friends and family as they come over to lend a hand on a project, I can't turn around in a room without a memory attached to why it looks the way it does. My parents plugging away late into the night when my husband decided to start a project at eleven p.m. makes me smile. My father-in-law inspecting and helping with plumbing joints, especially when the resident carpenter had reached plumbing overload. Before we put the sheetrock (drywall) up, I couldn't help but remember all the hours that our kids spent playing among the rafters. With permanent markers they decorated the studs in their rooms and even penned spiritual blessings. How many people in my life have shaped me, left their marks and been exactly who I needed at exactly that moment? Too many to count. I love the idea that I'm covered in the fingerprints of others.

Finally, this house is a labor of love. My husband has built me a home. Not only has he built me a home, but he has made sure that he has invested the best of himself into it. Has it always come first? He'd be the first to laugh. Often it comes last. But it's always from his core. Who he is and how much he loves his family is reflected in the artistry, the time, the sturdiness of this home. What a picture of God. He has given the most precious parts of Himself to me. He has invested His blood, sweat and tears into my life.

Thank you, God, for building projects and for grace.

Thanks to you, too, since you have scribbled on my walls and left fingerprints on my life.

Scribble and Scrambles - Mid-Week Gigglefest

Need a laugh?


Click below for your har-haring pleasure.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=-wIEihDAcpU Ha.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=bk5V68KfHBI Ha. Ha.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=di5OlFJoGWQ Ha. Ha. Ha.




Now, I can face the rest of the week.