Jay Bakker in Town



Went to go see Jay Bakker speak this morning and was glad I did. I've been following Jay via podcast from the Revolution Church in NYC.

If your not familiar with Jay and Revolution I'd recommend you check out some of the Sundance channel's show One Punk Under God.

Jay is, in his own words, transparent and it is refreshing. No big front, rather humble and quit a funny guy. His message, though controversial because of his stance of the gay and lesbian community, is really about grace and love.

Now I have to explain to my pastor why I skipped church to go hear another preacher ;)

Starfish on my Jeep



Hope Community Church is raising money to build a hospital in Haiti. To do this, they gave everyone in the congregation an envelop containing money. They said each person should find a creative way to increase the funds.

In my envelope, I received ten dollars. For my project I have decided to paint starfish on my jeep. for one dollar I'll tell you the Starfish Story and then paint a starfish on my jeep. You can even pick the color.

Don't know the starfish Story? Well here it is...

The Starfish Story
Original Story by: Loren Eisley

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.
Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”
The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”
“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!”
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…”
I made a difference for that one.”

Ha! Now you own me a dollar! ;) What color starfish do you want??

One of my writer friends, Janelle, suggested on her blog that we let one of our characters answer the following Meme questions. This should allow us to see how well we really know him, and lets us get a better feel for his thoughts, his voice, etc... so I'm up to the challenge.

From my wip ms The Pole Gallery

WHO ARE YOU? (A Character Meme -- By Splat)

1.) What are your nicknames?
Splat, I know, it doesn’t fit me at all, but I didn’t give it to me.

2.) What game show and/or reality show would you like to be on?
I’m not the game show type cause you never really know what’s going on

3.) What was the first movie you bought on VHS or DVD?
I never bought one but I’d like to get a copy of Underdog

4.) What is your favorite scent?
Peanut butter and jelly

5.) If you had a million dollars that you could only spend on yourself, what would you do with it?
I’d buy Char something and buy Mr. Rival a plane ticket…

6.) What one place have you visited that you can’t forget, and want to go back to?
I’ve never left Newhillville, but the IGA sells donuts on Sundays.

7.) Do you trust easily?
Yes. Everyone in Newhillville follow the rules

8.) Do you generally think before you act, or act before you think?
Everyone thinks before they act. I think before I act. Even if Mr. Rival doesn’t think so

9.) Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Mr. Rival!!

10.) Do you have a good body image?
I’m sort of skinny

11.) What is your favorite fruit?.
Bananas, but I bet that is everyone’s, except Ms Morehead, she probably only eats apples

12.) What websites do you visit daily?
We are probably the only family in Newhillville that doesn’t own a computer. My dad says it will melt our brains

13.) What have you been seriously addicted to lately?
Mostly, I do the same thing every day so I never really get addicted to it, though I do like to try to stump Char by asking her to guess the capitals of states

14.) What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Someone who wrote me

15.) What’s the last song that got stuck in your head?
That country song about riding the horse, I don’t really know the words that well

16.) What’s your favorite item of clothing?
I just wear whatever is in my drawer and that is mostly jeans and t-shirts. I don’t own anything special

17.) Do you think Rice Krispies are yummy?
I don’t think they sell rice Krispies in Newhillville. I think because they might be rambunctious.

18.) What would you do if you saw $100 lying on the ground?
Take it into the IGA and give it to the manager.

19.) What items could you not go without during the day?
My shoes so my feet don’t get tired

20.) What should you be doing right now?
Well Ms Morehead would like it if I read, my dad wants me to learn to mow the lawn, but I really should be trying to figure out how to get everyone out of trouble.

SCBWI-NC Conference 2008

Spent the weekend at the SCBWI-NC Conference and I gotta tell you, I'm remotivated! It didn't even take all that much time for the remotivationism to start working. Friday night, Pam Zollman and her 2 godzillion handouts was all I needed.

The thing is, I was pretty demotivatedismed. A few close calls hit Holyfield harder than simple form letter rejections. i know I shouldn't be such a baby. But there you have it..

So I'll write more all about it but later after sleep and cookies and more sleep. In the meantime I'll leave a few tips to those in attendance.

1. Thanks Pam! I needed that.
2. Anita Silvey: Great hats. Plus, wow! You did your research.
3. Alyssa Henkin: remember to breathe!
4. Martha Mihalick; Of course, i'll let you publish my book! Silly!
5. Stephanie Greene: I love you in Love Among the Ruins
6. Alan Gratz: Grrrrrr! I was here first!
7. Maggie Moe: Ouch! That's gonna bruise!

ttfn

What's Coming Up in October??

How to Milk a Dinosaur will make it's debut on Amazon. You can't buy it yet so for now you'll just have to sit back and bask in the glory that is its cover art ;)



You may remember How To Milk a Dinosaur from it's winning of Editorial Anonymous best first lines contest. She wrote, and I quote,"I do want to know about the cow."

So here comes that chance to find out about that cow...