MY TURN AT BAT

Since we agreed we’d all take turns blogging and I came up second, I get to have a say right at the beginning of this venture. As a group we’ve been together a long time. We’ve seen a lot of sunshine and rain together. We’re all published authors and sometimes we will write about writing, other times we’ll write about what we’re reading, and sometimes we’ll simply share our thoughts, our testimonies, and our love and appreciation for the many gifts God gives us. You might hear some of our frustrations too, since we’re certainly not exempt from those. Of course, we’ll love hearing from other members of the writing community, after all, the LDS writing community is fairly small and most of us know and admire each other, but I’m hoping that we’ll receive comments, questions, and suggestions from other readers as well.

Hm-m, do you mind if I start out with a blatant commercial? The last book in my Bracelet series is due to be released next week! I’m really excited about it since it has been a year since I had a new book published. It’s my nineteenth novel, but I’m as jittery, hoping it will be liked, as I was with my first. It’s titled The Ruby and has a bright red cover. My signing schedule is posted on my web page. Then just a week after The Ruby lands on bookstore shelves The Spirit of Christmas will be released. It has a lovely black and red with gold cover. I didn’t write this Christmas book by myself. Two of my favorite writers are co-authors, Betsy Brannon Green and Michele Ashman Bell. (You’ll hear more from them later).

Nancy caught you up a little on what she’s being doing the past few years, so perhaps I should do that too. The biggest change in my life is a call to serve two days a week in the Jordan River Temple. I love it, but it’s a lot more work and much more rewarding than I ever imagined. Actually, I’d given little thought to ever working in the temple until the call came, but now I’m the first to suggest to everyone eligible you ought to march right into your bishop’s office and volunteer to work in the closest temple.

If you’ve seen my web page, you already know something about my family, so I’ll just say my husband and I have five adult children who are all married to wonderful companions and they’ve provided us with ten grandchildren. When they’re all here it probably sounds like twice that number, but we love them and our family is the center of our world.