“You can’t stay where you are and go with God.”
from Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby and Claude King
May 31, 2007
May 29, 2007
INTRODUCING…SHELLEY BATES and OVER HER HEAD
Thanks, Christa, for having me as a guest on your blog! Be sure to check out the other stops (two weeks’ worth) at
http://www.shelleybates.com/news.html.
I’m so excited about my new release from FaithWords, Over Her Head, which came out last week. It’s the story of Laurie Hale, a small-town mom and community leader whose life is perfect–until her teenage daughter, Anna, is accused of murder.
Someone once said to me, when I mentioned I wrote contemporary
stories for Christian women, “Well, at least you don’t have to do much research.”
I had to laugh, because researching women’s fiction novels has led me to:
(a) Earn a motorcycle license
(b) Learn to sail
(c) Bodysurf a Wyoming river
(d) Take up Regency dancing
(e) Learn to play a Celtic harp
My life would be much poorer in experience without research.
However, it isn’t all fun. In writing Over Her Head, I had to know what would happen to the body of a homicide victim once the crime scene technicians had processed the scene. My secondary hero is the cop who investigates the murder, and if I were writing in his point of view, this is the kind of thing he would know.
That’s how I found myself at my county’s coroner’s office one rainy Monday morning, being escorted into a holding bay where the results of the weekend-13 bodies-waited for the coroner to get to them. Since I’d never actually seen a body outside of a funeral home, this was a new experience for me, as was the lieutenant’s explanation of the autopsy process, the equipment used, and the specific details of the workings of death.
Afterward, I was so shaken I had to go give myself some concentrated retail therapy. But the experience made Over Her Head a deeper, more emotional read from that character’s point of view, so it was worth it. After all, research is all about making the reader’s experience as intense and personal as possible. And if the side effect is that it makes my life richer, then everybody wins.
Thanks!
Shelley
May 27, 2007
And the beat goes on
The Music of Our Lives by Madison Richards
“Scientists have discovered some fascinating things in recent years. Did you know that our DNA, if decoded and played through a keyboard, has an actual melody? That means that each and every one of the 6 billion + people on this planet really does “dance to their own music.”
Are you ready for this? They found that the “song” of a healthy mouse’s cellular DNA translated on the keyboard to a fairly lively, upbeat melody. However, the “song” of the DNA taken from a mouse that had cancer had complete sections of it that have been matched to Chopin’s “Funeral March.”
Freak-ier still: Chopin wrote that song while he was dying of what they used to call ‘consumption.” Now we call it cancer.”
Read the rest of Madison’s post here, at The Master’s Artist.
May 26, 2007
HELP FIND MADELEINE
This is four-year-old Madeleine. She was snatched from her parents’ home in Portugal on May 4. Pray.
May 25, 2007
It’s not about the dwarfs
“What if Prince Charming had never shown up? Would Snow White have laid in that glass box forever? Or would she have gotten up, spit out the apple, gotten a job and a health care plan, and moved on with her life? “
sent to me by my daughter Shannon…a quote from Sex & the City
May 24, 2007
For my grandson, BAILEY RAMON CADOREE 4/23/00-5/24/00…We’re standing on God’s promises, in joyful anticipation…
can only imagine
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3LUc78vbDk]
