Blog Tour Stop Day 16: Michelle's place.

Wordless Wednesday: Halloween 2000

Listen In

This Thursday I'm scheduled to talk with station WCTS (Minneapolis) at 9 AM Central. If you want to listen to the live broadcast, go here.

Meanwhile, check out this interview and book review on my continuing blog tour. Find out which of my books is my favorite and of which I'm most proud and why.

Win a Book

Enter to win a copy of Informed Consent by leaving a comment here. (Last time I checked, you had a 100% chance of winning!)

On the Columbia

My schedule for the day has me meeting with my speaking agent (she handles booking my speaking) and sitting in board meetings. I have a room on the Columbia overlooking Mt. St. Helens (sorry you can't see it in the haze). Yesterday my niece took me to a fab breakfast and then asked what would, basically, make my day, week, life... I said "To drive up the Columbia River Gorge in the fall colors and see Multnomah Falls." No sooner had I said it than off we went. I said goodbye to my great grandmother at the falls, and the whole experience was part breathtaking beauty, part meaningful, moving memory.

After that we met my folks for lunch, again overlooking the river. Then my sister Carrie and her hubby showed up for five minutes to surprise me with a vase of red roses. I just happened to be in the lobby when they got here, so they had no trouble finding me!

From there I went to dinner with board members out at a place called Claim Jumpers. The dessert was the most decadent I'd ever ordered. I asked for a piece of chocolate cake and received a slab that measured about nine inches long. With everyone at the table helping, we got through half of it. Dante would have been appalled. (He has a thing about portion control.)

We used my friend Doug's GPS to find our way to and from the restaurant, where the server was the son of someone in our party. We joked about the irony that people pay hundreds of dollars to get a voice telling them the same directions they've resented hearing from "back seat drivers."

Today's blog-tour host is Jenny. Hope you're having a great weekend!

Friday's Stop

Today's blog-tour stop is at Carla's. Stop by and have a read.

Mirtika also followed up her original post about Informed Consent with a thorough review. And I also found this cool review by seasoned reviewer, Becky.

I awoke in Portland, Oregon. I stayed up until really, really late last night having one of those memorable heart-to-hearts with my niece, Heather. She and her hubby, Chris, are the coolest! This morning Heather and I are off to enjoy coffee, food, and fall color. Fall in Oregon. Ahhh.

Today's blog tour stop: Eliana's Place. Be sure to read her own amusing profile!

Wordless Wednesday

Informed Consent blog tour stop, day 8: Mirtika's Place. (Once there, you can enter to win a free copy!)

How Sex Changed

In my U.S. Women and Gender History class we just finished discussing How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in America. Until we talked about it, I had not noticed how much approval of having sex-change surgeries is entering into mainstream thought. But my classmates pointed out the popularity of movies such as Transgeneration, 20 Centimeters, Transamerica and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Shows like Ugly Betty, Big Shots, and Dirty, Sexy Money also have characters exploring their "otherness." And a couple of weeks ago, Oprah featured some kids using hormones to "make the switch." (I was having my nails done at the time, and a couple of women in the salon with me blurted out, "That ain't right!")

Contrast such thinking with what you'll find in Eve's Revenge by Lilian Calles Barger. In this work Barger builds a case that the body cannot be ignored in accounting for the desires and frustrations of contemporary people. But where she differs with the direction of contemporary gender thought is in suggesting that the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth are uniquely relevant to the questions people are asking about the body and its significance. As Publishers Weekly notes, "She offers a fresh reading of Jesus for our body-haunted culture, suggesting that only flesh-and-blood suffering and resurrected divinity can do justice to the wounds and wonder of our humanity."

Catching My Breath

Today on the Informed Consent blog tour we stop by Michelle's place.

I'm catching my breath this morning, throwing mounds of laundry into the machine. After a great weekend in Memphis, I head to Portland this Thursday for board meetings (Evangelical Press Association) and some time with my niece, sis's family, and parents. I also hope to get a "beauty fix," assuming the cloud cover lifts long enough for me to drink in the mountains and some fall colors.

The temps in Texas dipped this morning. What a way to discover the heater broke...again. (We went through this last year, too.) Last night after class at UTD I had a flat tire. Life as usual, eh?

Here's some trivia to make you smile: In my U. S. Women and Gender class at UTD, this week's assignment is to read an illustrated book titled The Manly Art of Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting. Doesn't that sound like a book you'd love to have on your nightstand?

Happy Birthday, Karen!
Geaux Tigers, Kelley!

Monday's Stop

On today's book tour through cyberspace, stop here and leave a comment.

I had a great weekend outside of Memphis. Perfect weather. Fall colors starting to show their brilliance. Great fellowship with some fabulous women. Now to get caught up on my reading for class. Which is why I'll keep this short!

Good Morning from Memphis

Greetings from the land of Elvis. Well, not technically. My friend Crickett drove me two hours out of town through some fall colors to a State Park overlooking the lake (when the sun comes up). Not a bad place to drink a cup of joe and contemplate the meaning of life.

Why don't you go grab a cup for yourself and check out day six of my blog tour here at Gina Conroy's site?

Tour Day Five

This weekend I'm in Memphis speaking at a women's retreat while my husband and daughter find themselves antiquing in Austin. And day five in the blogosphere book tour for Informed Consent finds me here. Wow. Loved this review! (Follow the link to read it.) I don't know the reviewer and I didn't bribe her. Honest!

Day Four of the Tour

Today's stop on the Informed Consent blogosphere book tour is at The Writer's Journey blog. One of the side benefits of following me on this tour is that you'll find some blogs like this one that perhaps you didn't know about. If you've not yet seen the "Mom's Overture" (the mom who sang one day's worth of parenting quotes to the tune of the William Tell Overture), you must see it on Pam Myers's site.

Are You a Mugger?

Erin over at SoulPerSuit has made these coffee cuffers, and so far only six people have entered for a possible three winners. So your odds are good! You don't have to love Starbucks to win. Anybody who does the hot beverage thing with a paper instead of ceremic cup needs one of these to keep the fingers from burning. I keep the one she made me in my purse.

Even if you don't enter, go read what she wrote. The girl is funny!

One Thing I Can Do

Some of us don't have the opportunity to influence national or international policy about caring for the planet. But here's something everybody with a car can do to make a difference: Fill your gas tank only at night.

Why?

Ozone forms when fuel emissions react in the presence of sun and heat. So filling up when the sunlight is less intense reduces the chances of producing ground-level ozone. Emissions that occur early in the day are the most likely to cause ground-level ozone formation because they linger in the air, and the hotter it gets, the more they "bake" in the atmosphere. So wait as late in the day as possible to fill your tank.

Day Three

D'Ann is hosting day three of my blog tour for Informed Consent. When you get there, be sure to scroll down and check out the sign she photographed. Too funny!

Day Two

Today on my book's blog tour Geaux2girl, Kelley Mathews, looks at the writing process. Find out why I never get writer's block. Or what I love and dislike most about the writing process.

Welcome to My Book Tour

Today is day one of my blogosphere book tour for Informed Consent. The first stop is on Erin's fun, creative blog. Check it out. And while there, be sure to see the pictures she took of her kids acting out the Ruth story.

What Were You Doing?

Quick: What were you doing ten, twenty, and thirty years ago?

Ten years ago: I had a two-year-old daughter. I released my first book, When Empty Arms Become a Heavy Burden and finished my last semester of Greek at seminary. Yipee! (That meant I could move on to Hebrew. Oy!)

Twenty years ago: I was working full-time as an employee publications editor at Southland Life Insurance Company in Plano, Texas, in what was at the time the EDS office park. My window looked out over cows grazing in the field. (Today it's, like, practically downtown Plano!) My husband had been a grad-school grad for one year and we were enjoying a "no tuition" year while we worked with college students at church. My former boss's birthday was October 13, and because he was a huge University of Texas football fan, we'd decorate his office in OU colors. Or hang a picture of the OU head coach on his wall. Or fill his office with red balloons. Or hang his little glass longhorn by the neck from a rubber band hanging off his desk pen. Ah, those were the days!

Thirty years ago: I was a senior in high school, and I landed a solo part in West Albany High's production of "Fiddler on the Roof." My boyfriend, Gary Glahn, was 3,000 miles away and we talked about once every two weeks. No e-mail. No text-messaging. Can you imagine? Yeah, that was totally the olden days.

****Mary DeMuth started this little game to see how many degrees we can separate (kind of like Kevin Bacon, only in the blogosphere). So feel free to take the baton and run with it. Either leave your comment here answering the 10-20-30 question or, if you have a blog, post your 10-20-30s there (if you're too young to do 30, skip it rather than making vague reference to primordial ooze) and then link back to the Mother Ship (http://www.relevantblog.blogspot.com/). This isn't to build her blog empire; it's to find out how far one blog can reach.

Many people I'd normally tag are already sponsoring my book on its upcoming blog tour (I'm already taking up their blog space in the near future), so I'll leave it to everyone to consider him- or herself invited. Let the linking and socializing begin!

Good Times!

My niece was Horn High School's band sweetheart last Friday night. Here you can see her with her parents (my sis and bro-in-law), her sister, and with the other two Charlie's Angels.

Proud of our 'Boys!

Monday night football last night. And I fell asleep right after the "other team" ran a 103-yard return. I was tired and it looked hopeless.

But somewhere in the twilight, I heard my non-football-watching husband whisper in my ear, "We won by one point with two seconds left!"

I managed to say, "That sure musta surprised the other side."

"Yeah. Their fans are still standing there stunned."

When I awoke this morning, he gave me the play by play, telling how the kicker made a once-in-a-lifetime beauty from sixty yards--only to learn it was "no good" because the other team had squeezed in a time out. So, wonder of wonders, he did it again!

My dad raised me to love football, but I married a guy who didn't care much for it...until last night. Never ever has he awakened me to tell me a score!

If anybody knows how I can see the final few minutes of the game, send me a link!

On Wisconsin!

That's me. I'm on Wisconsin.

I'm up here at Elmbrook's women's leadership conference. I spoke three times today, and while I loved doing it, at the moment I have the stamina of wet spaghetti. I had a ticket to hear Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz) tonight, but I blew it off to keep talking with two of my fave authors, Carolyn Custis James and Sarah Sumner. The three of us ended up sitting together at a speaker's dinner tonight, and we kept going well after everyone else had left. It was a rich time. Forget celebrities. Give me thinking women!

Picture this. Three women theologians. Two of them adoptive mothers of only-children daughters. The other preparing to adopt a daughter. All three working in the academic world. All three authors. I could not have planned it better if I'd tried!

Random about Being Intentional

I spent yesterday in Atlanta thanks to my publisher taping a talk show. I plan to post a link when it airs later this month or early in November. I love how publishing Informed Consent has given me a platform to talk about having a Christlike response to the AIDS crisis. What are your ideas for ways we can show compassion? One that immediately comes to mind is to support works that help AIDS widows and orphans in Africa. Your thoughts?

Speaking of compassion...scroll down to the bottom of this blog each time you visit and you'll see different samples of Kiva's people profiles. Kiva is an organization that links you with business owners. You get all your money back, too, as your cash is loaned, not donated. And in the meantime you help people in desperate situations get their feet on the ground through offering small business loans.

Later today I head to Milwaukee to speak at a conference for women in leadership. I'm teaching three workshops, including one on how to expand your sphere of influence by writing for publication. If that topic interests you, you can view a couple of short videos on my web site's writing page. You'll also find links to free resources for writers.

Wait. I can't stop thinking about that compassion thing. Do you support a child through Compassion, World Vision, Feed the Children or some other organization that links you with kids in need? I'd love to hear about your child. Ours is Ryan in Indonesia. Recently he wrote us this killer letter that said, "Thank you for sponsoring me and praying for all my family. I am so happy to have sponsors like you. I will always pray for your family that your family will not have problems." Gulp. Ryan's education, clothing, healthcare, and food cost our family 1.5 dinners at Chili's monthly. Yeah, we're talking serious sacrifice here, huh? For me personally that's one and a half chicken tender salads about every four weeks. Rough.

Review of Premium Roast with Ruth

Saturday's Baptist Standard, the newspaper of Texas Baptists, included a review of Premium Roast with Ruth. Check it out!