In picking a residence, be specific to locate things in it that you have actually always desired. Building your home is an unique opportunity that needs to be achieved with utmost care and you need to make an effort to include all which you would certainly love to have in your dream home, based on schedule of funds. Measurement When you're beginning to identify how you prefer your home to look, bear in mind the bigger the home, the more expensive it'll be. As a problem of reality, when you have a residence on the ocean, you truly will require to keep on top of it or to make the most reliable initial impression.Whether you're developing a residence or marketing one, a fantastic houseplant is crucial.
If you're planning on creating a residence, you must look for the aid of a designer. For your home to be stylish and have all the features that you desire, you must ensure that the plan is created by means of a professional that understands what should certainly be performed. Your brand-new residence is one of the largest financial investments that you will certainly ever make. A three-bedroom residence may be the very best measurement for a huge selection of configurations. How to obtain the very best Residence Plans The greatest bet for locating the appropriate residence strategies is to surf various sites offering residence strategies and pick the most respectable one.
You are able to think about specifically the number of tales you would certainly like your house to be as well, offered that room enables it. When you remodel your house, if it's your cooking area, your washroom, master bedroom area or a various component of your residence, it is able to make your residence more attractive and earn a living setting which will supply you with a terrific offer of satisfaction for a variety of years into the future. Prior to purchasing the house makes on-line you will need to review the evaluations of the site which takes care of hose pipe plans.
For lots of, the excellent house is a small one. Offering an incomplete residence may be an uphill work in the event the appropriate selection isn't taken.With our incredible choice of plans, it's possible to situate a style to show your tastes and desires. In truth, any kind of design and style can be made with log cabin residences. Many designs are created with steel cases. The right residential design is most likely to make most of the return on your financial investment. Obtain a small enthusiastic with your dream house and produce the very best residence design you may think of before getting going on the true thing.With log cabin floor plans you have actually obtained an endless series of styles and designs to develop.
Unsurprisingly, you can find various good manners of residence plans and designs which are unbelievably made to suit various way of livings. Nowadays you get your design in place and have purchased all your materials, you can begin the structure practice. The strategy of your residence will assist figure out the sort of floor that you'll be having. You're able to choose from over 400 existing house designs and a vast array of materials.
19 photos of the "20 Lovely Gingerbread House Plans"
Related Posts of "Gingerbread House Plans New southern Colonial House Plans Lovely House Plan"


text:
phpunit --log-junit php://stdout _files/StatusTest.php
--FILE--
<?php declare(strict_types=1);
$_SERVER['argv'][] = '--do-not-cache-result';
$_SERVER['argv'][] = '--no-configuration';
$_SERVER['argv'][] = '--no-output';
$_SERVER['argv'][] = '--log-junit';
$_SERVER['argv'][] = 'php://stdout';
$_SERVER['argv'][] = __DIR__ . '/../_files/basic/unit/StatusTest.php';

require_once __DIR__ . '/../../bootstrap.php';

PHPUnit\TextUI\Application::main();
--EXPECTF--
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<testsuites>
  <testsuite name="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" file="%sStatusTest.php" tests="12" assertions="4" errors="4" failures="2" skipped="5" time="%f">
    <testcase name="testSuccess" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="1" time="%f"/>
    <testcase name="testFailure" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="1" time="%f">
      <failure type="PHPUnit\Framework\ExpectationFailedException">PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest::testFailure%A
Failed asserting that false is true.
%A
%sStatusTest.php:%d</failure>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="testError" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="0" time="%f">
      <error type="RuntimeException">PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest::testError%A
RuntimeException:%w
%A
%sStatusTest.php:%d</error>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="testIncomplete" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="0" time="%f">
      <skipped/>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="testSkipped" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="0" time="%f">
      <skipped/>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="testRisky" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="0" time="%f">
      <error type="PHPUnit\Framework\RiskyTest">PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest::testRisky%A
This test did not perform any assertions</error>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="testSuccessWithMessage" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="1" time="%f"/>
    <testcase name="testFailureWithMessage" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="1" time="%f">
      <failure type="PHPUnit\Framework\ExpectationFailedException">PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest::testFailureWithMessage%A
failure with custom message
Failed asserting that false is true.
%A
%sStatusTest.php:%d</failure>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="testErrorWithMessage" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="0" time="%f">
      <error type="RuntimeException">PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest::testErrorWithMessage%A
RuntimeException: error with custom message
%A
%sStatusTest.php:%d</error>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="testIncompleteWithMessage" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="0" time="%f">
      <skipped/>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="testSkippedWithMessage" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="0" time="%f">
      <skipped/>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="testRiskyWithMessage" file="%sStatusTest.php" line="%d" class="PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest" classname="PHPUnit.SelfTest.Basic.StatusTest" assertions="0" time="%f">
      <error type="PHPUnit\Framework\RiskyTest">PHPUnit\SelfTest\Basic\StatusTest::testRiskyWithMessage%A
This test did not perform any assertions</error>
    </testcase>
  </testsuite>
</testsuites>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: "more elements supplied than there are to replace" when trying to generate date in columns R Hello i have run into a problem when trying to itreate a functionm and organizing them into colmuns. Basically i want to create a dataset of fake stocks:
[][v1]  [v2]  [v3]  [v4]  [v5]
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
However when i it i get the error: "Error in stock_gen[[i]] <- as.matrix(rtsplot.fake.stock.data(n, y0 = 10,  :
more elements supplied than there are to replace"
here is my code:
library("rtsplot")
i = 5
n = 5
stock_gen <- matrix(ncol = n, nrow = i)

for(i in stock_gen){
stock_gen[[i]] <-
as.matrix(rtsplot.fake.stock.data(
  n,
  y0 = 10,
  stdev = 0.1,
  ohlc = FALSE,
  method = c("normal", "adhoc"),
  period = c("day", "minute"),
  remove.non.trading = FALSE
))}

A: If it doesn't have to be a matrix (and even then you can easily convert back from dataframe to matrix), here's one possible blueprint:
library(rtsplot)

i = 5 ## row count
n = 5 ## column count

stock_gen <-
    as.data.frame(
        structure(lapply(1:n, function(x){
            rtsplot.fake.stock.data(n = i,
                                    y0 = 10 ##, other arguments ...
                                    )
        }
        ),
        names = paste0('series_',LETTERS[1:5]))
    )

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A love of flowers led Jil Schlisner to buy an existing flower shop in 2006, rename it and build her business by creating inspirational, beautiful atmospheres for clients. She believes people should wear flowers more often, in the form of corsages and boutonnieres—and on ordinary Wednesdays, not only proms or weddings.
Moss Pink Flora & Botanicals, located on E. 23rd and Dexter streets in Denver, provides clients with beautiful shopping environment, as well as personal attention.
"I had no idea how to go about buying a business. The Denver Metro SBDC gave me the straight facts and helped guide me through the process," she said.


By legislation, any candidate with a surplus who is not running in the next election is required to report the final disposition of the surplus. The candidate may either donate the money to a registered charity of their choice or donate it to the City of Edmonton.
2016 by-election candidates who file final disposition statements with the City of Edmonton will be posted when they are received.
The following 2013 election candidate(s) filed final disposition statements with the City of Edmonton.
The following 2010 election candidate(s) filed final disposition statements with the City of Edmonton.


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Superior warmth and protection for long days on the slopes. Hestra's ski glove is made with windproof, waterproof and breathable HESTRA Triton/polyamide fabric with Army Goat leather on the palm and fingers for superior performance. Features snow lock, strap with velcro closure, eagle grip, carabiner and handcuffs.


Next March 12th we are celebrating by boat with MSX machines.
MSX Cruise 2019 starts 12th of March and ends 14th of march 2019.
Finland Helsinki to Stockholm Sweden and back to Finland on same boat.
i hope page will open tomorrow 31.12.2018. Page maker knows this is last dead line.
we need 20+ MSX members on this trip. Bring your own machinen with you.
Invite also your other MSX friends with us.
Price is 160 euros including all.
Foods, cabins , conference room , sauna , friends.
there can also sell msx stuff to other members..
pages should be in english too.
Hi Mika I have made payment see you soon!
Is this the chat topic? I would like to bring a MSX eprom burner if anyone knows how it works and has some eproms?? I would like to learn to use it.
And I have a JVC Midi controller I don't know how to use.
Can suomi people bring a monitor with rgb connector for that card?
If people need MSX stuff let me know I have a lot stuff spare. I only need laservideo games and panasonic msx audio cartridge, everything else I got already. I have many philips music modules (with midi and sampler) and many msx machines spare.
If you manage to figure stuff out, let me know 'cause I have one as well and am interested .
I forgot I also need a Denyonet!
You live in utrecht right? I can code asm but not really good at pcb. I tried to get the british software that came with this cartridge but never received a reply that I send to the address I found.
I wonder if the zx spectrum software and msx software were the same except vdp.
Had to pass this cruise. Couldn't take the whole week off from work.


text:
t f i
Every bus going west from Clapham Junction stops on East Hill just a minute from pub itself. Alternatively jump out at Wandsworth Town Rail Station walk past The Alma (I know it's tempting) and carry on up the hill to the pub.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Guest Blogger: Rest Because You Can by Jonathan Parnell
March 8, 2018 March 8, 2018 / pastordave52
Stop making bricks — you can stop.
Because of who God is, this reality rings as true today as it did in the life of ancient Israel, dating all the way back to their slave labor in Egypt just before the exodus.
The hysteria of that exodus is meant to distance us from the deplorable conditions of Israel's servitude, not distract us from their significance in the story of God's salvation. But chances are, by the time we get to Exodus 20, after walking through the plagues and crossing the Red Sea, we're prone to forget the impossible workload that was shackled to Israel's feet.
Therefore, God reminds us, as a preface to the Ten Commandments, "I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Exodus 20:2). This deliverance reverberates throughout the entire Bible as the key moment in the Old Testament where God's faithfulness was put on display. It is the dramatic, identity-shaping act where God, through his mighty works, calls his people to himself — and away from Egypt.
Remember Egypt
So what was Egypt like, again?
It was bricks — more bricks, all day, everyday. It was work, work, work, an infatuation with the bottom line, with no restraints on how to get there (Exodus 5:4–9). It was about production, not flourishing; strict commerce, not neighborly love. It was about the commodity of idols, not the imaging of God. In other words, it was a world in opposition to humanity's purpose — and one not too unlike sectors of our society today.
Ancient Egypt, like many modern cultures, was itself enslaved to a merry-go-round economy — one whose value is measured by its size and speed, one whose passengers keep yelling "faster, faster, faster," one whose bars, once you grab hold of and start pushing, you mustn't let go. Run and keep running. Push and keep pushing.
And then, on the other side, simultaneous to the endless churning and mulling and doing to be bigger, better, and more popular, is the insatiable buying and earning and trading to get bigger, better, and more popular things. The result is restlessness. Old Testament scholar Walter Bruegemann writes that this creates "a society of 24/7 multitasking in order to achieve, accomplish, perform, and possess" (Sabbath As Resistance, Locations 88–92). He explains that "the rat race of such predation and usurpation is a restlessness" that twists and turns throughout all of life, leaving an aftermath of inescapable anxiety that is often unmanageable. Which is to say, unbearable. It is a weight that leads people to do unthinkable things like jump off bridges and sacrifice their children, whether literal or metaphorical.
And all of it, in essence, says something about the deity under whom they live.
So Says the Deity
As Bruegemann shows, Egypt's relentless drive to produce points to the commitment of their gods. The gods of Egypt were as devoted to the aggrandizement of Pharaoh's system as anyone because Pharaoh's glory meant their glory. They demanded to be served by human hands because they needed the good promotion. There was a void to be filled, an ever-increasing glory quota that had to be met, and therefore, there was no time for stopping.
It is against this background that we're to understand the meaning of Sabbath. Our English word "Sabbath" is simply a transliteration of the original Hebrew which means "rest" — first appearing in verb form in Genesis 2:2, "and [God] rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done." It later became a prescribed observance to the people of Israel upon their exodus (Exodus 20:8). But far beyond a mere command to his people, the Sabbath is meant to say something powerful about God himself.
God, as we see in creation, isn't a deity wringing his sweaty hands in panic, trying to milk dry every last drop of what's there. No. He speaks and it comes to be, out of nothing, and he does it in six days, resting on the seventh just because he can. He wants us to know, right from the start and in the rhythms of our lives, that he doesn't need anything. He is the one who works, in perfect precision, neither too little nor too much, and we exist to bask in his glory, not barter for its increase. We exist to magnify his radiance, not supplement his worth.
And because this is the case, in a world where everyone's deity says to do, do, do, the God of Israel says to stop. The air we breathe of this fallen world is anxiety: Keep busy and stay nervous. And it's into this mess, striking through the smog like flashes of lightening, the fundamental message of God's salvation resounds: Trust me and rest.
Then Stop
The principle of Sabbath is a glorious picture of God's self-sufficiency and unwavering ability to provide. As God's people, our rest becomes "a decisive, concrete, visible way of opting for and aligning with the God of rest" (Location 278). Perhaps as much now as in that early biblical context, one of the most head-turning, soul-stirring moves we make as a witness to God's holiness is when we stop.
At night when we go to bed, on a whole day when we pause our projects, in a season of vacation or Sabbatical, our stopping work is our saying Enough! to the merry-go-round. We don't have to ride this thing. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9–10). Rest, then, becomes our regular dramatization of the heart of the gospel: "To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith will be counted as righteousness" (Romans 4:5).
We can put down our tools. We can close our computers. We can forbid those thoughts about that next meeting or those emails waiting for a reply or how the numbers aren't as high as we'd like. We can stop and trust him who justifies the ungodly. We can trust that when Jesus died in our place on the cross, he died to destroy all the anxieties of our lack, to still our ceaseless striving, to hush the winds of our self-justifying labor, to irrevocably connect us to the abundance of his grace we possess by his work, not ours.
We can trust the Lord of Rest who came to give us rest, and say, because of who he is: Stop making bricks — you can stop.
Jonathan Parnell
Pastor, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Article found at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/rest-because-you-can
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From the Coaches Corner: Work Hard and Be Coachable (Part One) by Jon Rocha →


This past weekend I traveled down to Iowa, again, to visit my good friend Cassidy. I'm sure if you have been reading my blog you know who she is!
We had a nice relaxing weekend in Iowa and it was so good to see her after 3 weeks (it doesn't seem long but it felt like forever!). While we were in Iowa we went to a lot of cute little cafes, restaurants, and I met a bunch of people from her home town.
Here is Cafe Fresh which was in Moline, IL! I had a lovely steak wrap and it was super yummy. The decor of the restaurant was also beyond darling. I love this sign that was leaning up again the outside. They had a bunch of cute little chalkboards like this.
The next morning we went out to breakfast with some of our Pi Phi sisters that live in the area! I had the waffle breakfast at the Indigo Cafe and it was very tasty. Around where I live there are NO good breakfast places so I was impressed with this delicious meal. Not to mention you got a lot for your money!
Here is a picture from one of our nights. Yes we are very weird I know!
The next day I went to one of Cassidy's family friends graduation parties, drove around, and went to see "the river" as they call it. Also known as the Mississippi river. We took a few cute pictures on the dock because we have to take pictures everywhere we go!
On the last night we went and saw Maleficent which was AMAZING! I have been wanting to see it and it definitely met my expectations. I wont' ruin the movie for you but it for sure was not what I expected. They turn the story in a very interesting view of Maleficent and I love how they tied the cartoon movie in with this film. Overall, I would highly suggest you go see it! And lets be honest who isn't a sucker for a Disney movie?


For additional information, see the Global Shipping Program terms and conditions – opens in a new window or tab No additional import charges on delivery Delivery: I do not see the results of the script? I have seen routers up to MBps. Fulfillment by Amazon FBA is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board. Customers who viewed this item also viewed.
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You are covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee if you receive an item that is not as described in the listing. A lot of people say its the drivers which are ATH5K driver which i have tried to run a new install of the driver, tried to wllan ndiswrapper which removed my wireless completely tried the madbull drivers, ad5009 tried a backporting the driver.
Subject to credit approval. The item may be missing the original packaging, or in the ar009 packaging but not sealed. Amazon Rapids Fun stories for kids on the go. Fulfillment by Amazon FBA is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products.
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text:
SINGAPORE ASSOCIATION FOR COUNSELLING
Congratulatory Messages
SAC'S 40TH ANNIVERSARY SYMPOSIUM
20 Oct 2022, Thursday
2.00pm-6.00pm
Raffles Town Club
Join the Singapore Association for Counselling (SAC) in celebrating 40 years of caring for the Nation!
In conjunction with SAC 40th Anniversary, we will be organising the first SAC Symposium 2022 after a long period of hiatus. The Symposium would feature a keynote address by Dr Lee Boon Ooi. Dr Jessica Leong and Ms Ruth Chua would also share interesting topics you would not want to miss.
There will also be a breakout room segment where you will be able to sign up for topics you are interested in.
Participants will be awarded with double Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours
40 Years of Caring for the Nation, Building Communities of Carers
Member: $60, Non-Member: $85
The Place of Culture in Counselling: Context, Diversity, and Symbolic Meaning
The professionalization of counseling in Singapore has come a long way since the establishment of Singapore Association for Counseling in 1982 and the Register of Counselors in 2003. This development brings the necessary social legitimacy to counseling as a therapeutic method for alleviating emotional distress. However, counseling in a multicultural society of Singapore can be a challenge. Since culture and social contexts shape the meaning, experience, expression and coping of distress, counselors must be competent in adapting their approaches when working with diverse ethnocultural groups. In this presentation, Dr Lee shows that the way culture is operationalized in counseling goes beyond the social construct of ethnicity or any demographic variables. It is about recognizing counseling as a symbolic healing system constructed in a specific clinical reality or a mythic world in which the counselor evokes a culturally legitimized myth consistent with the client's explanatory model, and then transforms the client's personal and bodily experience through symbolically meaningful interventions. In this sense, counseling is more concerned with the personal and social meanings that clients attach to their distress in a diverse lifeworld rather than truth.
Lee Boon Ooi, Ph.D., is Senior Lecturer and Program Leader of MA in Counseling and Guidance with the Psychology and Child & Human Development Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. He is interested in culture and mental health, in particular, indigenous healing systems, multicultural therapy, cultural psychopathology, alteration of consciousness, health beliefs, somatization, and embodiment. His current research investigates the relevance of indigenous healing systems to mental health, and the relationship between alteration of consciousness (e.g., dissociation, trance) and mental health.
Structured Presentation 1
Cultivating a Care Contagion - A Personal Journey
Reflecting on her own personal life journey, Dr Jessica Leong will share how adverse childhood experiences set her on a path to yearn for care. Later encounters with significant persons would give her an experience of care, and inspire her to bring compassion to various communities where individuals were also searching for it. The roles she has undertaken through this journey, which include being a co-founder and CEO of the Executive Counselling and Training Academy, have convinced her that the decision to care for another person is a transmission of compassion that will go on to resonate through even more lives and communities. Dr Leong, a teaching and supervising Transactional Analyst, will also take this opportunity to explain how counsellors can use a Transactional Analysis framework to offer empathy and compassion to those who need it.
Dr Jessica Leong is the CEO of JC Integra (TA) Pte Ltd and Berne TA Center Pte Ltd. She is the Clinical Director and Academic Director of the Executive Counselling & Training Academy Pte Ltd. She is also the Director, Swinburne University - ECTA Programmes in Singapore. Jessica also provides employee counselling to multi-international companies.
Nurturing Counsellor's resilience to navigate the "VUCA" world
In this presentation, Ms Ruth Chua adapted the acronym, "VUCA" from the business sector to mean "Vulnerabilities, Uncertainties, Complexities and Ambiguity". The acronym describes the counsellors' experiences of working with the individuals, families and their related complex web of social support networks. In the constantly changing global environment, the role of Counsellor has evolved and expanded beyond the comfort zone of the counselling room to include working with and responding to the demands and expectations of stakeholders and partners such as funders, community agencies, medical, educational and legal systems etc.
With immense external pressure, Counsellors will require resilience to navigate the "VUCA" world and manage the job effectively and sustainably. The term 'resilience' refers to the ability to be resourceful, flexible and bounce back from life's adversities. VUCA poses four distinct types of challenges, which are "Vulnerabilities, Uncertainties, Complexities and Ambiguity" that are unique and yet interconnected. The presentation will seek to expound on the values, principles and techniques to help counsellors nurture resilience to navigate the VUCA world. Additionally, it will propose an integrated approach with emphasis on the role of supervisors and organisation in nurturing counsellors' resilience.
Ms Ruth Chua has been a Counsellor for more than 25 years. She has been the Clinical Consultant and Trainer for Social Service Professionals working in Family Service Centres, community agencies, healthcare and educational institutes. She is also an advocate for professional and personal development of counsellors to enhance their competency to meet the rising demands. She is a Clinical Supervisor and registered Counsellor with the Singapore Association for Counselling.
Participants are welcome to attend one of two workshop tracks:
(1) Trends and approaches in working with children, youths and families in Singapore
(2) Working with diverse populations and cultures.
View Programme
Symposium: Resources
©2022 by Singapore Association for Counselling.


It's during evenings like this present one that I wish I lived in a house. I am blessed with this apartment. It's a great place for Lauren and I to begin our life together, but it can be noisy. I'm sitting the porch reflecting on my day, anticipating Lauren's arrival, enjoying a wonderful beer, but all of that continues to be interrupted by whiny children yelling across the apartment complex. I know that every neighborhood deals with their own unwanted noises, so I'm not thinking that a house would provide the utopia that I dream of. But I can't shake the dream of having a house some day. I know that Lauren and I aren't the "settle down and get a house" type of people (not that there's anything wrong with that), and our conversations about a house often involve other people living there with us. I want a house that creates a community. I want the whiny children to be my children (well, not really, but you know what I mean). I want a back yard that is filled with vegetables, people, tree swings, and laughter. I want a house that welcomes the stranger and the broken and the healing. I want a house that knows the needs of the neighbors and is quick to help however it can. I want a house that shares in the rhythm of the seasons through school calendars, holiday celebrations, and planting cycles.
This is the house that I dream of. A house who's dwellers share life and all that entails.
that really does sound lovely.
i would like to have that house one day.
and share tomatoes with them that they pick off our vines.
and we can hang up all the hammocks we'll have collected over the years.
or at least stay a while on their way through town.
i don't think that's such a far-reaching dream.
i think i've already been planning on that.
i want a house too.
big enough for at least 3 kids (probably at max 3 kids)…one of them not borne of me.
with a kitchen big enough to bake cookies for our neighbors.
with a living room big enough to welcome our friends and family.
with a yard big enough to play in.
with space enough to love, laugh, dream, sleep, rest, and to find security and comfort.


↑ "Population and population density in 2008 by province". General Statistics Office of Vietnam. สืบค้นเมื่อ September 5, 2010.
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Introduction". Government of Vietnam. สืบค้นเมื่อ 2010-06-25.
↑ "Introduction (Giới thiệu chung vềam Thái Nguyên". Thai Nguyen, Government of Vietnam. สืบค้นเมื่อ 2010-06-25.
หน้านี้แก้ไขล่าสุดเมื่อวันที่ 19 เมษายน 2562 เวลา 06:38 น.


The United States of America is far and away the most technologically advanced country in the world, and as much as it appears in the news these days about how unstoppable this digital prowess has become, there will always be that one exception to the rule.
The Federal Registry, the self described "Daily Journal of the United States Government," publishes a website on all the orders, laws, and public operations the government carries out in a single day. Over 100 posts are accounted for everyday on the website, showing that it has the capability of using modern day technology efficiently.
However, the employees who physically transfer the data to be published do this with 3.5 floppy disks, the least efficient and most obsolete method of data transfer known to man apart from maybe 5.25-inch or 8-inch floppy disks. On occasion, the branch is allowed to use CD-ROM to transfer the documents, but SD cards and flash drives are strictly forbidden. Even the email network set up by the agency has yet to be fully adopted by all of its employees.
"You've got this antiquated system that still works but is not nearly as efficient as it could be," Chief Executive of the Professional Services Council says. "Companies that work with the government, whether longstanding or newcomers, are all hamstrung by the same limitations."
Sounds a little antiquated and embarrassing to be seeing the world leader of technology using such means, but hey, at least we are not writing on typewriters. What are the odds of a spy being able to pick up a computer with a 3.5 inch disk drive? Am I right?


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Check out an excerpt of 'Sweet Valley' spin-off 'The Sweet Life' -- EXCLUSIVE
By Kristen Baldwin Updated July 06, 2012 at 02:00 PM EDT
Remember when Sweet Valley Confidential came out last year and it made you realize how much you've missed Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, Sweet Valley High's impossibly beautiful but oh-so-human twins? You were not alone — the book peaked at No. 14 on the New York Times' Hardcover Fiction list — and now Sweet Valley creator Francine Pascal will feed your brain's nostalgia center yet again with more tales of Liz and Jessica's grown-up travails. On July 15, St. Martin's Press will launch The Sweet Life, a six-part series for e-readers that picks up three years after Confidential left off. And you won't have to wait long for each new installment — the first two books debut July 15, with a new novella ($1.99 each) following every Sunday through August 12. (As someone who vividly remembers begging my mom to take me to the mall so I could scour the "young adult" section at B. Dalton for the latest SVH book, the one-week waiting period is a major plus.) Just in case your inner 13-year-old hasn't passed out from excitement yet, there's one more bit of Sweet Valley news to absorb: Starting October 1, St. Martin's will re-release the first twelve Sweet Valley High books for e-readers (awesome original covers included).
Before you read the excerpt from chapter one of The Sweet Life, here's a little background: Jessica is now married to Todd Wilkins (still can't get over that!) and Lizzie is shacking up with reformed bad-boy Bruce Patman. Wait a minute, shacking up? Bruce didn't put a ring on it? Francine Pascal, please explain yourself! "Well I think they just weren't ready at the moment to get married, and maybe they never are going to get married," Pascal tells EW.com. "It's okay for Elizabeth, she's been such a straight arrow — and I want her to be a little unexpected." In totally expected news, Jessica and Todd's marriage is on the rocks. "Todd has this problem about who his wife should be," says Pascal. "He's working off that high school Jessica and she's not that person anymore." Click through to read the excerpt (you can read the entire first chapter on Sweet Valley Confidential's Facebook page this Monday), and to read more of my interview with Pascal, who explains why she loves Bruce Patman, hates the Real Housewives, and what she thinks about the long-in-development SVH movie.
NEXT: Read the exclusive excerpt!
EXCERPT FROM Chapter One of THE SWEET LIFE #1 by Francine Pascal
"Thank you, everybody," Jessica said. "I would love to stay and listen to more, but I really am late." She scooped up her laptop bag and, like the star she was, left them wanting more.
These were the times when she absolutely loved her work. Sometimes, hours would pass in the day when she didn't think about anything else. Not even Jake, her two-year-old. Of course, she was always there if he needed her. One call and she'd be out the door.
She checked her watch. It was six thirty, and by the time she got home she'd be almost an hour late and Todd would be furious.
"Jessica." Michael Wilson followed her out the door. "This will only take a couple of minutes."
She really liked Mike. He was a great boss, about thirty-seven and very good to look at. He was also single. And sort of interested in her, maybe more than sort of, but he kept his distance. If you didn't know the situation, you wouldn't, except everyone in the office did already. Gossip, that's what coffee machines were for.
"What's up?" Jessica asked.
"We should talk about the green paint stuff."
"I was just on my way out. I'm really late."
Now here was the running problem: the mother/wife stuff. At the office, they didn't want to think about her personal obligations. And she couldn't look like she was letting them cut into her work. Not a whole lot different from Todd's problem with her, only inverted.
Which kept her always teetering on the brink between crazy and balanced.
"You can't give me ten minutes?"
"Can't." Being a pro, she took the coward's way out. "Theater tickets."
And it worked.
"Oh, sure. It can hold till tomorrow. Enjoy the show."
Theater tickets he understood. Motherhood, not so.
"See ya." She caught a glimpse of Katy's knowing look, winked, and was out the door.
And inside of three minutes, she was in front of her silver BMW that was waiting in its own parking space, the one with her name printed on the wall: Jessica Wakefield-Wilkins. As much as she pitched "going green" at work, she would never be caught dead driving a Prius!
She was very late, but luckily there wasn't much traffic, and inside of twenty minutes flat she was home in Sweet Valley Heights.
She left the car on the street in front of her town house, which looked exactly like every other one on the block. The only thing they let you choose was the color of the front door. Being Jessica Wakefield, she chose pink. Yves Saint Laurent Pink Ice number 22, to be specific. No one ever had trouble finding Jessica.
As soon as she opened the car door, she heard her son's squeals of terror and delight. She could see the monster box game through the window. A moment of silence and then Jake's favorite two-year-old word: "More!" And by the time she got to the door, he was squealing again.
She opened the door and Jake saw her. He was torn. He loved his mommy, but he loved the game, too. Todd was on the floor with him, holding a cardboard box over his head, ready to raise it and make the big growl noise that had delighted Jake for months now. Todd's face was turned away from her, but she knew he had to be pissed.
She watched Todd raise the box in one grand finale of monster roar, get the expected scream of joy, and put the box down on the floor and free Jake to run to his mother.
Jessica scooped her precious baby into her arms and covered him with kisses. The chill coming from Todd, who was on his feet now, folding up the cherished box that was practically collapsing on its own from overuse, was almost palpable.
If she could just keep kissing Jake, she could postpone the bad part that was coming. But unfortunately she couldn't because Jake was squirming out of her arms, rushing to get back to the game. But the game was over.
For her, too.
NEXT: Read what Francine Pascal herself has to say about The Sweet Life.
EW: After reforming Bruce Patman in Confidential, he's at the center of a scandal in The Sweet Life series. Do you like this guy?
Francine Pascal: I like him very much. I like him because he loves Elizabeth and he's loved Elizabeth for years and has never wavered. Also he's exciting because he's obviously smart and talented and successful and still a good person. I think they make a wonderful couple.
EW: So my dream of Liz and Todd getting back together is dead?
FP: I'm not going to tell you a thing!
EW: Other fan-favorites show up in TSL, including Lila Fowler, who joins a reality show called True Housewives of Sweet Valley. Have you ever seen The Real Housewives?
FP: Never in my life! I went online and I picked up some dialogue from the first fifteen minutes from one of the Housewives, and I don't even know which one it was, to get the feel… I don't watch it purposely, but I couldn't resist using it.
EW: Will you do another e-book series if TSL does well?
FP: Well let's see what happens. No one has done this — we are first. I wanted [the installments] to be further apart, but [the publisher] said no, this is the way it should be. It's going to be available on smart phones and things like that, and because it's a novella it gives you a feeling that you can actually read it quickly.
EW: What's happening with Diablo Cody's Sweet Valley High movie?
FP: You could probably ask [anyone] sitting next to you and get more information on it. Unfortunately when people sell things to the movies, that's the end of you. I have not even seen the script… Diablo is terrific, she's my dream writer for it, and it's a musical and they've got a Tony-award winning composer and lyricist… My daughter, who lives in LA, went to a reading — this was quite a few months ago — and she said it was coming along very nicely, the music is very good. Everything looked kind of good, there needed to be work done on it, but other than that it was sort of exciting… At this point, I've lost interest. It would be nice if it came out and it was a proper success, and then it might bring back the entire series.


Since my last post was about March Madness and how bad I am at predicting the winners during the national championship, I decided I would update you and let you know how I did. I really thought this year I had chosen the correct upsets, but this image will show that I did no such thing.
Yes, loser. Loser me. I came last in our pool. It's not like it's a big deal or anything because the small amount of money goes to charity. Only the winner and loser got certificates, so hey, at least I can say that I received a certificate and that's more than most people in the pool got, which is nothing. Ha!


When I stood back and laid my eyes on this painting upon completion, the word that came instantly to mind was Shy. I feel like I want to come to her defense, to comfort her and let her know she doesn't have to worry. "I would never hurt you." I cannot help but to relate to that shyness. I can be out going and have fun with friends and easily meet new people. But there is always an introvert side of me that just wants to go home and not deal with being around people. And that's okay, too.
Size of painting is 24″ wide x 36″ high x 1 1/2″ deep (60.96 cm wide x 91.44 cm high x 3.81 cm deep).
With frame this piece is 28 1/2″ x 40 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ deep (72.39 cm wide x 102.87 cm high x 3.81 cm deep).


Light brown, basic brown, cappuccino, and chocolate -- you can easily use food coloring to mix a whole range of hues for the color brown. Just follow these instructions.
Note: These colors can be used in a variety of recipes or crafts, but to best show you the different variations of brown, we're using buttercream frosting as our visual "canvas."
Typically the ratio to make brown food coloring is to mix 1 drop of red dye into every 1 drop of green food dye. This will make a very warm brown color. But if you desire a cooler brown color, you can add in a drop of blue food dye every now and then into your base.
Begin by mixing the red, green and blue food dyes into the base that you wish to color.
To make light brown food coloring, add in 3 drops of red food coloring and 3 drops of green food coloring. Mix to combine then use as required.
To make basic brown food coloring, add in 35 drops of red food coloring, 40 drops of green food coloring and 3 drops of blue food coloring. Mix to combine then use as required.
To make cappuccino food coloring, add in 50 drops of red food coloring, 60 drops of green food coloring and 6 drops of blue food coloring. Mix to combine then use as required.
To make chocolate food coloring, add in 150 drops of red food coloring, 160 drops of green food coloring and 6 drops of blue food coloring. Mix to combine then use a required.
To make vibrant colors for all of your baking creations, you have to know the exact ratios to get it right.


Worth it or not worth it? Our approach is focused on lifestyle topics, like travel, aviation, cars, watches, architecture and yachts. Our aim is to give you some support to answer the question.
We believe in complete or good selected lists with ratings. This helps you to find what fits best for you. It takes months to collect information from different sources. All topics are finally edited, rated and recommended by independent professionals.
We are a countermovement in indiscriminate and confusing listings and ratings published in the web, classified by "authentic" reviews of contributors, mostly nonprofessionals. Those reviews are often based on emotion and not on neutral knowledge. Yes, most are customers, but perhaps in the wrong place or wrong vehicle. For example: How can La Mamounia Hotel in Marrakech, with no doubt, one of the best hotels in the world being rated 77 of 506 hotels in Marrakech?
Our listings and ratings are easy to read and fast to download. Always one list in one post with the best available images (15,000+) and a short description. Our website is designed and suitable for your computer and all portable devices.
Enjoy! For comments and suggestions, please write to the editor.


A Spanish tourist died in the early hours of Tuesday morning after falling from one of Berlin's landmark bridges and into the Spree river.
The 46-year-old man fell from the Oberbaum Bridge linking Kreuzberg with Friedrichshain at 3.40am. Police said in a statement he had been climbing the bridge with his 27-year-old friend when he slipped and fell into the river.
He grabbed onto a pillar at the bottom of the bridge and then tried to swim to shore but drowned, The Local Germany reported.
Passers-by and several of his friends jumped into the water and dragged him to shore.
Paramedics attempted to resuscitate the man at the shore but failed. He was pronounced dead in the ambulance.


text:
When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. (Romans 4:18 MSG)
Posted by Marjorie Vawter at 5/31/2011 08:00:00 AM No comments:
Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD! (Psalm 150)
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Reluctant Detective Monarch Books (April 30, 2011) by Martha Ockley
Martha Ockley is the pen-name of Rebecca Jenkins. She read history at Oxford University, and spent several years working alongside her father, the Rt. Revd. David Jenkins (Bishop of Durham 1984-94) during the turbulence of the 1980s. She lives in Teesdale in the North East of England where the landscape and history provide the inspiration for her Regency detective, F R Jarrett. Since September 2009 she has been Royal Literary Fund Fellow and Writer in Residence at York St John University. She is a full-time author, writing both fiction and non-fiction. (She should not be confused with a Canadian actor and singer, also called Rebecca Jenkins.)
The Reluctant Detective sees Faith Morgan arriving back in the region of her birth - Winchester in Hampshire. Recently ordained, she had been working as a curate in an Anglican inner-city church. Within an hour of her arrival at Little Worthy, she witnesses the sudden shocking death of a fellow priest during a communion service at St James's. He had been poisoned with a pesticide mixed with the communion wine. The senior police officer who arrives at the scene turns out to be Detective Inspector Ben Shorter, Faith's ex long-term boyfriend.
She is urged by the Bishop to stay on to look after the parish of Little Worthy. As she meets her parishioners she learns some surprising facts about her apparently well loved predecessor, and starts to suspect a motive for his death. And it is she who finally identifies the murderer.
The story gets off to a dramatic start with the previous vicar collapsing as soon as he drank the communion cup, and it holds the interest throughout. There is some romantic interest too. Inspector Ben Shorter starts by sneeringly telling his sergeant, "Ms Morgan is a vicar. One of the ordained," Ben emphasized the word. "She's a card-carrying professional at the touchy-feely stuff." But he soon starts to feel differently about her again, although she is well aware that he "didn't understand the reality she experienced through her faith. He didn't even recognize its existence. That was the gulf between them." Her own beliefs and doubts are convincingly described, for even she can't help wondering, "What if there is no truth to it?" But for her, as for Pascal before her, it was a gamble worth taking.
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Reluctant Detective, go HERE
Labels: CFBA, Christian fiction, Martha Ockley
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. (Nahum 1:7 ESV)
I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness. (Psalm 145:1–6)
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Over the Edge B&H Books (May 1, 2011) by Brandilyn Collins
Brandilyn Collins is an award-winning and best-selling novelist known for her trademark Seatbelt Suspense®. These harrowing crime thrillers have earned her the tagline "Don't forget to b r e a t h e..."® Brandilyn's first book, A Question of Innocence, was a true crime published by Avon in 1995. Its promotion landed her on local and national TV and radio, including the Phil Donahue and Leeza talk shows. Brandilyn is also known for her distinctive book on fiction-writing techniques, Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors (John Wiley & Sons). She is now working on her 20th book.
In addition, Brandilyn's other latest release is Final Touch, third in The Rayne Tour series—young adult suspense co-written with her daughter, Amberly. The Rayne Tour series features Shaley O'Connor, daughter of a rock star, who just may have it all—until murder crashes her world.
Torn from the front lines of medical debate and the author's own experience with Lyme Disease, Over the Edge is riveting fiction, full of twists and turns—and powerful truths about today's medical field.
Janessa McNeil's husband, Dr. Brock McNeil, a researcher and professor at Stanford University's Department of Medicine, specializes in tick-borne diseases—especially Lyme. For years he has insisted that Chronic Lyme Disease doesn't exist. Even as patients across the country are getting sicker, the committee Brock chairs is about to announce its latest findings—which will further seal the door shut for Lyme treatment.
One embittered man sets out to prove Dr. McNeil wrong by giving him a close-up view of the very disease he denies. The man infects Janessa with Lyme, then states his demand: convince her husband to publicly reverse his stand on Lyme—or their young daughter will be next.
But Janessa's marriage is already rocky. She's so sick she can hardly move or think. And her husband denies she has Lyme at all.
Welcome to the Lyme wars, Janessa.
"A taut, heartbreaking thriller. Collins is a fine writer who knows how to both horrify readers and keep them turning pages."
--Publishers Weekly
"Tense and dramatic. Holds its tension while following the protagonist in a withering battle." –NY Journal of Books
"A frightening and all-too-real scenario. Very timely and meaningful book." –RT Reviews
"If you know someone who suffers from Lyme, you need to read this compelling novel." –Lydia Niederwerfer, founder of Lyme-Aware
If you would like to read the Prologue of Over the Edge, go HERE
Labels: Brandilyn Collins, CFBA, Christian fiction
He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, . . . "I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding." (Daniel 9:22–23)
2011 Inspirational Reader's Choice Award Finalists
The House on Sugar Plum Lane by Judy Duarte (Kensington)
Chasing Lilacs by Carla Stewart (FaithWords)
Plain Paradise by Beth Wiseman (Thomas Nelson)
Long Contemporary
Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes (Tyndale)
The Six-Liter Club by Harry Kraus (Howard)
Long Finds You in Sugarcreek, Ohio by Serena Miller (Summerside)
Short Contemporary
Tender Mercies by Mary Manners (White Rose)
White Roses by Shannon Taylor Vannatter (Barbour)
Rodeo Redemption by Teri Wilson (White Rose)
Long Historical
The Preacher's Bride by Jody Hedlund (Bethany House)
Abbie Ann by Sharlene MacLaren (Whitaker House)
A Memory Between Us by Sarah Sundin (Revell)
Short Historical
Walker's Wedding by Lori Copeland (Harvest)
The Substitute Bride by Janet Dean (Steeple Hill)
A Matter of Character by Robin Lee Hatcher (Zondervan)
Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason (Revell)
Forget Me Not by Vicki Hinze (Waterbrook)
Nightshade by Ronie Kendig (Barbour)
The Snowflake by Jamie Carrie (Broadman and Holman)
Once Upon a Christmas Eve by Anita Higman (Summerside)
A Bodine Family Christmas by Marta Perry (Steeple Hill)
2011 Christy Award Nominees
These were announced several weeks ago, but with the conference and other obligations taking up most of my time, I am just now posting them. The winners will be announced in July.
The 2011 Christy Award nominees are:
Contemporary Romance/
Blood Ransom
by Lisa Harris (Zondervan)
by Kristin Heitzmann (WaterBrook Press)
Sworn to Protect
by DiAnn Mills (Tyndale House Publishers)
Contemporary Series, Sequels, and Novellas/
The Reluctant Prophet
by Nancy Rue (David C. Cook)
by Beverly Lewis (Bethany House Publishers,
a division of Baker Publishing Group)
The Waiting
by Suzanne Woods Fisher (Revell Books,
Contemporary Standalone/
Almost Heaven
by Chris Fabry (Tyndale House Publishers)
Lady in Waiting
by Susan Meissner (WaterBrook Press)
A Season of Miracles
by Rusty Whitener (Kregel Publications)
First Novel/
Crossing Oceans
by Gina Holmes (Tyndale House Publishers)
by Anne Elisabeth Stengl (Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
Historical/
Chosen: The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther
by Ginger Garrett (David C. Cook)
For Time & Eternity
by Allison Pitman (Tyndale House Publishers)
While We're Far Apart
by Lynn Austin (Bethany House Publishers,
Historical Romance/
The Girl in the Gatehouse
by Julie Klassen (Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
She Walks in Beauty
by Siri Mitchell (Bethany House Publishers,
by Tamera Alexander (Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
Suspense/
by Steven James (Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
The Bride Collector
by Ted Dekker (Center Street)
by Terri Blackstock (Zondervan)
Visionary/
To Darkness Fled
by Jill Williamson (Marcher Lord Press)
Konig's Fire
by Marc Schooley (Marcher Lord Press)
The Last Christian
by David Gregory (WaterBrook Press)
Young Adult/
The Charlatan's Boy
by Jonathan Rogers (WaterBrook Press)
The Healer's Apprentice
by Melanie Dickerson (Zondervan)
Motorcycles, Sushi, and One
Strange Book
by Nancy Rue (Zondervan)
Labels: Christy Awards
Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness! . . . Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; for I trust in You; Teach me the way in which I should walk; for to You I lift up my soul. Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; I take refuge in You. Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground. (Psalm 143:1, 8–10)
The DMZ by Jeanette Windle
Today I'm focusing on a re-release of Jeanette Windle's book, The DMZ. I received my copy through LitFuse Publicity who has done a lot of the publicity on this book. At the Colorado Christian Writers Conference last week, I asked Jeanette if she would do an interview for us, and she graciously agreed. The DMZ is an intriguing read for those who like political thrillers.
1. How did you get started writing, and where has that journey taken you that you may not have expected starting out?
I have written much of my life, whether thesis papers, journals, or communication to family and ministry constituency. During my growing up years at a missionary kids boarding school, we had a heavy emphasis on writing and literature; we were doing full papers with footnotes in middle school and thought that was normal. But as for publication, I had one story published in college, then became a missionary and pastor's wife and never really thought again about writing for publication until I was stuck down in a small town in southern Bolivia with three preschoolers, no transport, phone, radio, or TV, and my husband gone for two weeks at a time to the Bolivian jungle and mountain churches. By the time I'd read my few English books until I had them memorized, I was so bored I wrote my first book in the evenings once my babies were asleep. That became Kathy and the Redhead, a children's novel based on my growing-up years at an American missionary kid boarding school in the Andes mountains of Venezuela.
From there I began writing Spanish-language material for women and children at risk as well as writing as a journalist for a variety of international and Christian ministry publications. I branched out to fiction in part because I was sitting in the middle of stories too big—and sometimes too sensitive—to tell in any non-fiction format open to me. A YA mystery-suspense series, The Parker Twins Adventures, set in a multi-cultural background, led to my first adultfiction release, CrossFire, a 630-page political/suspense novel set in the counter-narcotics war in Bolivia where we were living at the time. Since then have come five more political-suspense novels, most recently Veiled Freedom, a 2010 Christian Book Award and 2010 Christy Award finalist, and its sequel Freedom's Stand, set in Afghanistan.
What I love about writing fiction is the tapestry it offers to weave together countless scattered threads—historical, political, social, spiritual—and the very real people involved, to create a single impact, a single focused spiritual theme. While the books I write are fiction, the peoples and places and issues they bring to life are only all too true. As to where this journey has taken me that I didn't expect, when I wrote those first articles, stories, and even children's book, I definitely never dreamed I'd ever write full-length political-suspense or that I even had that capacity in me. All to say, learn your craft well now, use your gifts faithfully as God opens the doors, and who knows where God's life path for you may lead!
How do you balance family life with writing?
One task at a time! The reality is that we each have only 24 hours a day. We all have a little bit more to do than we would like to fit into that period. Yet with God's help, we all manage to get through one more day. I will say that my writing life has changed greatly since my children were small. Then I wrote much smaller projects, largely in missions journalism and ministry material. As my children grew, and I had more hours with an empty house, I began writing full-length books.
Now I am basically an empty-nester with three adult sons and a 19-year-old daughter rarely home, so solitude for uninterrupted writing isn't so hard to come by. But my husband is president of an international missions organization, and both of us are involved in ministry that involves extensive travel, so balancing our ministry schedules with quality writing time is the biggest challenge at this stage. Basically, when I'm off the road, I am at my computer writing by 7 AM every day but Sunday.
How does your walk with the Lord affect your writing? And how do you balance time with the Lord with your writing schedule?
The most vital way in which my walk with the Lord affects my writing is that it is always the spiritual struggles, lessons, hope and redemption through which God has brought me that come alive in the pages of my books. If I am madly scribbling away with tears pouring down my cheeks as my characters wrestle through issues birthed out of my own spiritual journey, I've learned by experience those are the very scenes readers will write me about later, sharing how that message impacted their own lives--and how tears streamed down their own faces as they read. As to time with the Lord, I spend time in personal devotions and prayer every morning before diving into my writing, a spiritual discipline I was taught well as a child and still maintain as a non-negotiable in my life.
Since my blog is geared to writers who want to improve their self-editing, could you briefly take us through your process of writing a novel—from conception to revision?
Hmm, that could be an entire book in itself. To describe my process in one word: messy! I'm not one of the 'plan to the last conversation' writers. I begin with research. Before I tackle a book set in a new country or political environment, whether Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Afghanistan, or most currently, the Democratic Republic of Congo, I saturate myself in that place. Histories, biographies, political commentary, regional literature, travelogues, video documentary--I will have easily read 20,000 pages material before I ever pick up a pen or computer keyboard.
From there I do use internet, video documentary, country maps on my wall, tourist guides giving details of every town and even streets (Google Satellite Maps are incredible for detail). For every place I write about, I also keep a Google Alert set for daily news digests. I follow blogs and travelogues of 'boots on the ground' whose lives and professions mirror the characters I am writing about. And of course on-site travel and extensive input from contacts on the ground who are real-life counterparts of my characters, whether Special Ops, DEA, humanitarian aid, jungle pilots, locals on the ground, etc. Every part of my manuscript will be read by these same sources before going to print to make sure I have no mistakes.
Once I've researched the setting, I have a detailed idea of characters and the first part of the story, a basic outline, what political and spiritual theme I want to weave through. AND I know the ending ( an essential because if you don't know the ending, I can testify by experience that you can end up painting yourself into a corner or wasting months of dead-end writing you have to cut). But my middle outline tends to be rather broad, the details filling in as I get to that part of the story.
In rough draft, I will take a week or two brainstorming all kinds of speeches, personal feelings and spiritual thoughts, descriptions of places I've been or researched, thoughts, interviews with DEA, Special Forces, etc. that give me authenticity to those characters, ideas I plan to work into the book, even if I don't know the order they will come into the story. Then as I actually write the story, I will go back and pull those nuggets from my files. I also keep a notebook through each book so that if I think of anything, even if it is for a future part of the book, a conversation, thought, etc., I jot it down so I have it when I get to that part of the story.
As you can see, my books tend to grow rather like an out-of-control tree rather than a nice, neat building. Which is why if there is one piece of advice I'd give writers, it is to give yourself permission to write badly. Too many new novelists I work with get bogged down in their first chapters because they are trying to write them perfectly. Instead, be willing to write badly, but just get the story down. By the time I'm done my rough draft, I will have a great story with terribly messy prose. Then it is time to prune that overgrown foliage. My brain switches over into edit mode once the story is birthed. Starting back at the beginning, I focus on rewriting, rearranging, filling in plot holes, etc. Then comes one last polish for actual prose and grammar. Since I am as excellent an editor as I am a messy writer, at this point, I am always surprised and excited at how well it has all come together.
What kinds of things do you have to revise once the editor at a publishing house gets done with your manuscript?
In my case, it is ALWAYS basic word count. I am a very 'full', detailed writer, my books running closer to a Tom Clancy or Fredrick Forsythe in length than an Agatha Christie or Mary Higgins Clark. No matter how much I trim myself, the project editor can always find more to trim and tighten. Because I research well and have experts reading the manuscript before it is turned in, I rarely have technical mistakes or plot holes that need addressed. But often the project editor will have good ideas on how to combine or shift around scenes to tighten up the book and action (it always helps to have that fresh eye, because after writing a book for months, you get to the place where you can't see your own faults).
Would you tell us a little about your future projects?
Along with Kregel release The DMZ, set in the guerrilla zones of Colombia where I grew up, my Tyndale House release, Freedom's Stand, sequel to Veiled Freedom, set in Afghanistan, hits bookstores this month. Because of the strong human rights, freedom of faith, and persecuted church themes of Freedom's Stand, I am just beginning a radio/TV interview tour addressing those urgent issues. And of course I am always writing that next fiction title, currently Congo Dawn, set as the name suggests in the Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically in the conflict zones of its northeast Ituri rainforest.
Finally, would you discuss The DMZ? The research, the idea, and the scope of the project?
The idea originated simply because I'd written my first suspense novel, CrossFire, set in the counternarcotics war in Bolivia where I'd spent 16 years, and my publishers wanted another. I'd grown up in what are now the guerrilla zones of Colombia, so it was an obvious setting. But as I began to research, I was stunned to uncover the completely unpublicized involvement of Islamic militant groups in Colombia's guerrilla conflict. Then I came across a Colombian news item that never made our media of Iran trying to push through a "humanitarian aid project" to build a meat-packing plant, complete with airport, in a small jungle town smack in the middle of the guerrilla demilitarized zone, or DMZ--and incidentally 300 kilometers from the closest cattle ranching area. That set me to questioning just what Iran was doing there, which birthed The DMZ.
In real life, the U.S. embassy managed to derail that Iranian project, which permitted me to use it for my fiction plot. But I'd always wondered what Iran's Plan B was. Interestingly, that Plan B has actually materialized very closely to my plot line within the last year on the Venezuelan side of that same jungle zone in an alliance between Iran and Hugo Chavez, another startling example of seeing my fiction in the headlines.
The theme of The DMZ is best summed up by a statement made by one of the characters in the book: "Those who are not willing to bleed and die for what they hold dear will always be held captive by those who are." A brief synopsis of the story:
When the US loses three major military assets in Colombia within weeks, attention turns to the demilitarized zone, a Switzerland-sized piece of territory handed over to the guerrillas in the vain hope it would make them start talking peace. The death of three American environmentalist activists in the same area bring a UN inspection/ media team to the scene, including environmental journalist Julie Baker. For Julie it is at once a career opportunity of a lifetime and a revisiting of old hurts and terrors as she returns to the place of her birth—and her parents' deaths at the guerrilla hands.
As Julie's probing unleashes a terrorist plot that spans from the rainforests of Colombia to the Middle East and the very heartland of America, she must confront resurging issues from her own past. Does God have a right to demand our total sacrifice? Does He have the right to demand our sacrifice of those we love? "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds . . . If anyone comes to me and does not hate (count as of lesser importance) his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters¾yes, even his own life¾he cannot be my disciple (John 12:24; Luke 14:26). Are these just words or a philosophy of life God seriously expects us to apply beyond our comfortable suburban neighborhoods?
When Julie's own abduction sets off a time bomb that has been ticking under the figurative feet of the United States for more than a decade, her answer to these questions becomes the catalyst that will determine the future course of at least two countries, if not the entire world.
Thank you so much, Jeanette! We appreciate your time and the opportunity to spotlight your work.
Posted by Marjorie Vawter at 5/21/2011 01:53:00 PM 1 comment:
Labels: Christian fiction, Jeanette Windle, LitFuse
ACFW May Releases
I'm a little late getting these up this month. Last week's conference and editing have taken most of my time so far this month.
May ACFW Authors New Releases For Your Reading Pleasure!
With the beginning of a new month, we have a brand new list of new releases for our reading pleasure. Please note that at any time, you can access Fiction Finder to read about upcoming new releases as well as your favorite authors' backlists. Make use of the left-hand sidebar to search and sort titles and authors by months and by ACFW members and nonmembers.
All this information and more in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW FictionFinder website.
A Great Catch by Lorna Seilstad — General Fiction from Revell. She wants to change the world. He wants to change her mind.
A Killer Among Us by Lynette Eason — A Thriller/Suspense from Revell. Kit Kenyon is a first-rate hostage negotiator. Noah Lambert is a good detective with excellent instincts. The new partners have hardly had time to get used to each other when they are thrown into a grisly murder case.
Deep Trouble by Mary Connealy — A Romance from Barbour. Gabe Lasley finds Shannon Dysart stranded in a mountaintop cave and saves her. She is on a quest to prove her father's research isn't the work of a madman, that he really did find a treasure in the wild west.
Died in the Wool by Elizabeth Ludwig — A Mystery from Barbour. Can Monah and proven sleuth Casey Alexander find the real killer before this librarian is booked for murder?
Fade to Blue by Julie Carobini — A Romance from B & H Publishing. When confronted with her most painful, past decisions, will Suz Mitchell second guess herself? Or will she learn to let God restore all that once seemed lost?
Journey's End by Dora Hiers — A Romance from White Rose. When Chelsea Hammond is snatched from her home, can she put aside her fear, and trust Trey Colten with her life? Can she forgive him for destroying her past and let him help to rebuild her future?
Montana Marriages Trilogy by Mary Connealy — Romance from Barbour. The complete Montana Marriages series all under one cover. One volume encases three acclaimed novels by Mary Connealy.
Over The Edge by Brandilyn Collins — Thriller/Suspense from B & H Publishing. Torn from the front lines of medical debate and the author's own experience with Lyme Disease, Over the Edge is riveting fiction, full of twists and turns—and powerful truths about today's medical field.
Promise of Time by S. Dionne Moore — A Romance from Barbour/Heartsong. Time promises to heal all wounds, but will Ellie and Theo allow God to work His timing in their lives and bring a new promise of love?
Revealing Fire by Connie Stevens — A Romance from Barbour/Heartsong. Two people in their September years are blessed with a second chance at happiness, but unexpected arrivals of a long-estranged son and a long-forgotten former admirer threaten to unravel the cords that bind two hearts.
Secrets of the Heart; Ravensmoore Chronicles, Book One by Jillian Kent — A Romance from Realms. When Lady Madeline Whittington rescues a runaway from a nearby lunatic asylum her life will be forever changed.
The Art of Romance by Kaye Dacus — A Romance from Barbour. Two artists are drawn together by matchmaking matriarchs.
The Unexpected Bride by Debra Ullrick — A Romance from Love Inspired. Haydon Bowen has no intention of marrying. Unfortunately, his brother has other plans. Even when beautiful, cultured Rainelle Devonwood learns she's a mistakenly ordered bride, she won't let Haydon drive her away.
Threat of Exposure by Lynette Eason — A Thriller/Suspense from Love Inspired. In book 5 of the Texas Ranger Justice series, DEA Brock Martin and Texas Ranger Gisella Hernandez must work together to decipher codes, uncover clues, and protect themselves from a killer who doesn't want his secrets known.
To Win Her Heart by Karen Witemeyer A Romance from Bethany House. A blacksmith with a criminal past. A librarian with pacifist ideals. Do they have a fighting chance at finding love?
Undercurrent by Michelle Griep — A Science Fiction/Time Travel from Risen Books. People go missing every day—many meet with foul play, some leave the social grid by choice, but others are never accounted for. . .where do they go?
When Sparrows Fall by Meg Moseley — A Romance from Waterbrook/Multnomah. When an isolated homeschooling widow makes a stealthy bid to escape a cultic group, an outspoken professor encourages her to stand up to her abuser but brings his own set of complications.
Wyoming Weddings by Vickie McDonough, Susan Page Davis, and Diana Brandmeyer — Romance from Barbour. Three modern Wyoming women face mountains on the road to love.
Labels: New releases
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. (Psalm 139:23–24)
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting; do not forsake the works of Your hands. (Psalm 138:7–8)
I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing praises to You before the gods. I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word according to all Your name. On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul. (Psalm 138:1–3)
Hidden Affections by Delia Parr
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Hidden Affections Bethany House (May 1, 2011) by Delia Parr
Delia Parr, pen name for Mary Lechleidner, is the author of 10 historical novels and the winner of several awards, including the Laurel Wreath Award for Historical Romance and the Aspen Gold Award for Best Inspirational Book. She is a full-time high school teacher who spends her summer vacations writing and kayaking. The mother of three grown children, she lives in Collingswood, New Jersey.
Betrayed by her husband, Annabelle Tyler wears the burden of legally being a divorcee, a difficult position for an upstanding young woman to find herself in.
While attempting to start a new life for herself, an unexpected turn of events once again has Annabelle married--this time to Harrison Graymoor, the most eligible, yet elusive, bachelor in Philadelphia. Harrison assures her that he will secure an annulment immediately, unaware that the constable has sent word of the marriage to the press in Philadelphia. And here things continue to go awry.
Harrison's past, a philanthropic cousin with his eye on Annabelle, and the appearance of Annabelle's ex-husband threaten the tentative relationship growing between Harrison and his "wife." For two individuals set against marriage, there are certainly a lot of second thoughts regarding the one forced upon them.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Hidden Affections, go HERE.
Labels: CFBA, Christian fiction, Delia Parr
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing To Win Her Heart Bethany House (May 1, 2011) by Karen Witemeyer
Karen Witemeyer is a deacon's wife and mother of three who believes the world needs more happily-ever-afters. To that end, she combines her love of bygone eras with her passion for helping women mature in Christ to craft historical romance novels that lift the spirit and nurture the soul.
After growing up in California, Karen moved to Texas to attend Abilene Christian University where she earned bachelor and master's degrees in Psychology. It was also there that she met and married her own Texas hero. He roped her in good, for she has lived in Texas ever since. In fact, she fell so in love with this rugged land of sweeping sunsets and enduring pioneer spirit, that she incorporates it into the pages of her novels, setting her stories in the small towns of a state that burgeoned into greatness in the mid- to late1800s.
Karen is living her dream by writing Christian historical romance novels for Bethany House. When she visited her publisher back in January of 2010, she was interviewed by the staff. If you'd like a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how she develops her story ideas and a description of her bumpy journey to publication, click here to listen to a podcast of that interview.
After completing his sentence for the unintentional crime that derailed his youthful plans for fame and fortune, Levi Grant looks to start over in the town of Spencer, Texas. Spencer needs a blacksmith, a trade he learned at his father's knee, and he needs a place where no one knows his past.
Eden Spencer has sworn off men, choosing instead to devote her time to the lending library she runs in the town her father founded. When a mountain-sized stranger walks through her door and asks to borrow a book, she's reluctant to trust him. Yet as the mysteries of the town's new blacksmith unfold, Eden discovers hidden depths in him that tempt her heart.
Eden believes she's finally found a man of honor and integrity. But when the truth about Levi's prodigal past comes to light, can this tarnished hero find a way to win back the librarian's affections?
If you would like to read the first chapter of To Win Her Heart, go HERE.
Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.] (John 14:27 AMP)
Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. (Philippians 4:6 NLT)
The Gift by Bryan M. Litfin
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Gift Crossway Books (April 30, 2011) by Bryan Litfin
Bryan earned a bachelor's degree in print journalism from the University of Tennessee as well as a master's degree in historical theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. From there he went to the University of Virginia, taking a PhD in the field of ancient church history. He is currently professor of theology at Moody Bible Institute in downtown Chicago, where he has been since 2002. He teaches courses in theology, church history, and Western civilization from the ancient and medieval periods. He is the author of Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction (Brazos, 2007), as well as several scholarly articles and essays. Bryan has always enjoyed epic adventure stories as well as historical fiction, but most of his reading these days is taken up by academia.
Today Bryan lives in downtown Wheaton in a Victorian house built in 1887. He and his wife Carolyn are parents to two children. For recreation Bryan enjoys basketball, traveling, and hiking anywhere there are mountains. The Litfins attend College Church in Wheaton, where Bryan has served on the Board of Missions and as a deacon. He also helped start Clapham School, a Christian primary school in Wheaton using the classical model of education.
The Chiveis Trilogy takes readers hundreds of years into the future. War and disease have destroyed civilization as we know it. Much technology has been discarded and history is largely forgotten. Slowly, the few survivors have begun to build new communities, and kingdoms now prosper in a kind of feudal order. But the Word of God has been lost for centuries.
After the finding of an Old Testament in book one of the trilogy, The Gift picks up the story of Teo and Ana. Exiled from their homeland and trying to survive in unknown and dangerous lands, they search for any record of the missing Testament.
Their journeys lead them into the region we know as Italy. An elite society welcomes Ana, who finds she must choose between her new life and her dream of returning to Chiveis. Will Teo and Ana's relationship withstand the circumstances and new enemies pulling them apart? And can Teo keep ahead of a powerful and mysterious force opposing his search for the New Testament?
If you'd like to read the first chapter of The Gift, go HERE.
The Gift Trailer from Crossway on Vimeo.
Labels: Bryan Litfin, CFBA, Christian fiction
Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. (Isaiah 59:1)
"The LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell." (Isaiah 58:11–12)
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Judgment Bethany House (April 5, 2011) by Beverly Lewis
Not until her own children were well into middle school did Bev seek to publish her work, first in magazines such as Highlights for Children, Dolphin Log, and Guideposts for Kids. Her first book followed in 1993—Mountain Bikes and Garbanzo Beans—presently retitled Big Bad Beans (book #22 in the popular CUL-DE-SAC KIDS series of chapter books—see list of Bev's children's books).
Booksellers across the country, and around the world, have spread the word of Bev's tender tales of Plain country life. A clerk in a Virginia bookstore wrote, "Beverly's books have a compelling freshness and spark. You just don't run across writing like that every day. I hope she'll keep writing stories about the Plain people for a long, long time."
A member of the National League of American Pen Women, as well as a Distinguished Alumnus of Evangel University, Lewis has written over 80 books for children, youth, and adults, many of them award-winning. She and her husband, David, make their home in Colorado, where they enjoy hiking, biking, and playing with their three grandchildren. They are also avid musicians and fiction "book worms."
Rose Kauffman is engaged to Silas Good, a well-liked Amish fellow, so why does she still pine for Nick Franco, the former foster son of the bishop? Especially now that Nick has left the Amish community under a cloud of suspicion after the death of the bishop's biological son? Will Rose marry Silas, even while struggling with romantic feelings for Nick? Meanwhile, Rose's older sister, Hen, has returned to live at her parents' farm with her young daughter. Hen and her modern husband, Brandon, are separated by mutual agreement, although he is threatening to sue for custody of their daughter if Hen does not return soon. Will the judge rule in Brandon's favor? Is there any way Hen can reestablish her place among the People without sacrificing her marriage?
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Judgment, go HERE


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The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships Class of 2019
Agata Sorotokin, 2019
MM, SUNY Stony Brook
Agata Sorotokin is the child of immigrants from Russia
Fellowship awarded to support work towards an MM in Piano Performance in the studios of Gilbert Kalish and Christina Dahl at SUNY Stony Brook
Agata Sorotokin was born in Rochester, New York, to two engineers who had emigrated from Moscow after the collapse of the USSR. Her family moved to Silicon Valley in 1998.
Agata started taking piano lessons as a five-year-old. By age ten, she was performing in New York City's Carnegie Hall and Vienna's Großen Ehrbar-Saal. As she entered high school and joined the Pre-College division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, her musical interests evolved in an interdisciplinary direction, expanding to include composition and conducting. Joining the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra as a keyboard specialist, Agata assisted the director as a conducting apprentice. At this point she also made her first attempts to set up a bridge between contemporary Russian music and Western audiences. She presented works by several living Russian composers, premiering piano pieces by Ivan Sokolov and performing Sofia Gubaidulina's music on NPR's "From the Top."
Agata's multi-faceted approach has continued to drive her academic and artistic pursuits as an undergraduate Literature major at Yale. She directed and performed in productions of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale and Bach's Kaffeekantate. She also co-produced "Silenced Voices," three lecture-recitals on the lesser-known classical music of Soviet Russia, which brought together students and professors from Yale College and the Yale School of Music for a series of performances at the university. More recently, Agata has concentrated her studies on literary translation and translation between words and music. For her Yale senior thesis, she is translating twentieth-century Russian poetry by Osip Mandelstam and Olga Sedakova, composing music for a song cycle based on these texts. She is then writing about the process of both listening to the poems' vocality and responding to it in musical form.
After she completes her BA in Literature, Agata plans to pursue a master's degree in piano performance, continuing to share more contemporary voices through her collaborative projects and compositions.
BA Literature and Comparative Studies | Yale University
MM Piano Performance in the studios of Gilbert Kalish and Christina Dahl | SUNY Stony Brook
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The 2020 application is open. Are you a New American who is 30 or younger and who will be in graduate school full-time in the 2020-2021 academic year? Check out the full eligibility requirements, learn about the Fellowships and apply by November 1, 2...
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