Christian Writers' Market Guide 2007

Remember the Fuel song Bad Day? It's felt like my theme song this week. "She said I'm sorry I, I had a bad day again." The RA is beating me up again, and I'm tired. I feel like I'm not taking good care of my family when I can't keep the house up. Mia and I spend a lot of time cuddling on the couch, and I work on genealogy on Ancestry.com and reading books to review. I'm being productive in some form if I'm at least keeping my mind busy.

We're getting new neighbors, possibly this weekend. Jesse's cousin John and his family just bought the house down the road. I'm so excited! John and his wife Tina are good friends of ours, and their six-year-old son Tyler is one of Mia's best friends. I forsee lots of summer bonfires and game nights in our futures.

We've been watching Animaniacs Vol. 1, the complete first season. I had forgotten just how clever and hilarious this show was. How come there is nothing on there's nothing on TV like this today? I believe that the collective family favorite is Bumbie's Mom. The parody of Bambi is razor sharp with subtle commentary on the wide gap between actors and their roles and the impact movies with traumatic themes have on children. All of these sly observations tucked in a short cartoon that has left the whole family walking around saying, "Bumbie's mom's AHHHHHH!" To see some classic Animaniacs humor check out this clip.

I ordered some purses and totes from Freesetbags on Monday, and they arrived yesterday. I love them! Christianity Today wrote an article about the creators of the company. They sell jute purses, gift bags and totes made by women in India. The women are former prostitutes who have been taught how to make these bags to earn a living for themselves and break free form the slavery of sexual abuse. You can buy the bags at Better Way Imports, they are reasonably priced and look terrific. And you know that your money is going to help someone make a better life for themselves. Jesse liked my messenger bag so much I had to order one for him too!

Christian Writers' MarketGuide 2007 by Sally E. Stuart is an amazing resource for Christian writers and wanna-be writers. The sub-title The Essential Reference Tool for the Christian Writer is absolutely true. It has publishers, periodicals, agents, conferences, groups and more for the aspiriing writer. Each listing has a brief summary of the important details, and the lists include secular markets as well as Christian ones, offering considerable opportunities for everyone. Stuart also summarizes the information in most categories to help writers find the right market for them. A DVD with the complete text is included with the book for easy searching. I'm impressed with the quantity and quality of information offered here. There's also a list of websites for help with more topics than I could ever think of listing, including my personal bogeyman: writing a query letter. Writing that one letter is more intimidating to me that the last 100 pages of my book I have yet to write. But with the recommendations in here and all of the helpful sites, I think I'm be off the writer's block in no time. This is not a book to be used once and set aside; this is a book of lasting value to be used again and again, at least until next year's edition comes out.

Have a wonderful weekend! It's supposed to be warmer this next week, thank God!