I got some Advanced Reader Copies of There You’ll Find Me (subtitle: The Book I Rewrote Exactly 1.5 Million Times and Still Am Not Speaking To).  I will be giving one or two away. Soon. Eventually. Probably. Most Likely. TYFM is available for pre-order on Amazon. (Search: There You’ll Find Me; don’t search my name.) Here’s the scoop on the story:

In a charming B&B in rural Ireland, Finely comes face-to-face with the hottest teen actor . . . and her past.

When Finely books her trip to the “Emerald Isle” as a foreign exchange student, she hopes to create a new identity and get some answers from God. After all, since her brother’s death, God seems to have forgotten she even exists.

Now all she wants to do is let her heart heal, see the sights in her brother’s favorite country, and work on her college audition piece for a prestigious music conservatory. She plans to use her brother’s journal from his time as Ireland as her guide, yet from the moment she boards the plane and sits next to Beckett Rush, teen star of the hottest vampire flicks, nothing goes according to her well-ordered plan.

The peace and beauty of the Irish village are no match for the chaos that soon becomes her life. When she gets roped into working as Beckett Rush’s personal assistant, she finds this famous wild child is not quite what he seems. And as she grows closer to the mysterious actor, her own secrets refuse to stay put.

As things begin to unravel, Finley takes desperate measures to control her own life and fill the empty spaces her brother left behind. When it all comes crashing down, Finley must discover how to give her past to God . . . if there’s to be any hope in her future

This book is a spin-off of Save the Date, a book I am speaking to. (Save TD and I had to have a lot of time apart as well though. But we eventually worked through our differences.)  While Save the Date was not YA (though still appropriate), There You’ll Find Me is eighteen-year old Finley’s story. In Ireland. With a vampire. (Okay, vampire actor.  Though saying it’s a story with a vampire kind of ups my cool factor, so I might just start telling people that.  I also might start telling people there are twenty dollar bills pasted in all pages ending in zero.)

So this is my yearly week of awesome celeb photo opportunities, as it is the Wal-Mart Shareholder’s Meeting week. I will see celebs Tuesday and Friday and will report back. Tuesday’s celebs are country music musicians, so I might not tell you about those since many of you are not right with the Lord and do not enjoy country music. (Sin! Sin!) But Friday…dude, Friday is bout near awesome. (Minus the fact that the American Idol winner always sings at the meeting, and you may or may not know that I am not happy with this season. Or last season. Or the season before that. (And where are the winners from the previous two seasons? Nowhere. Because I made them disappear. With my mind.) Scotty’s performance style makes me uncomfortable. So this will be the portion of the meeting when I will go get a third round of free chocolate covered mini-donuts. I don’t want to, but Scotty, you force me to it.)

Since I have no celebrity or Scotty pictures now, let’s get back to random. Here are some things that have caught my attention of late:

1. Cover Girl’s post on this artist and book cover art. Adore that second to last picture.

2. Adrianne Curry and Christopher Knight (Peter, Brady Bunch) have broken up. I was shocked they lasted this long–five years! If you ever saw their reality show years ago, you would know what I mean. They were Cray-Zay! I loved this quote from Knight’s manager: “After starting a relationship with what seemed to be irreconcilable differences, the couple has reached a period where those differences are no longer appreciated.”

3. I often get emails asking for YA book recommendations. You should checks out the new blog by my friends Cara and Janna, two lovely ladies who read and review books from a “we need some clean but fab reading material for our kids” view point. You can check it out HERE.

4. Saw this on Target.com and knew I needed it. For what, I’m not sure. But somehow I know this would either make me the coolest aunt. Or the biggest gamer on the block.

5. Aren’t these cool Alice in Wonderland prints on Etsy?

6. Have I already shared this amazing catch?

Love the comment on YouTube that says, ” Chuck Norris has a daughter?”

7. When Miller’s bad, I pull up this video and threaten to send him to the Wild West.

8. So Nicolas Cage’s son got married. When I first saw the photo, I was like, his son doesn’t look anything like him!
Then I saw this.

9. I don’t know if I will ever accept the fact that the Olsen Twins are guh-billionaire fashion entrepreneurs. Because their pictures usually say, “We dated Nicolas Cage’s son.”

10. Recently an OLD student found me on Facebook and it was fun to catch up a bit. She was one of my drama stars, and I had encouraged her to pursue theater if that was what she truly wanted to do. She graduated from high school about eight years ago. When I asked how she was, this was her response:
“Actually, I’m the back half of a horse costume for the kiddie attraction at Medieval Times. It probably won’t land me that Academy, but it feeds the kids (well three of them anyway). I tend bar at the VFW on Tuesdays; they call me Babs. Thanks for encouraging me to pursue my dreams of professional theatre! Billy Bob and I owe it all to you. We named our fourth after you.”

Remind me in December, I need to send her, Billy Bob and little Jenny some SPAM for Christmas.
I am off to stalk celebrities. Have a great week!

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It is really hard to compose a blog when you spend every evening of the week sitting in front of the TV with the phone next to your hand and your purse and cat carrier by the door, waiting for the weather man to say, “Take shelter now.”

Since Sunday night, the evening the devastating tornado hit Joplin, my corner of Arkansas has been under one warning after another. One storm, one hail storm, one flood after another. We are tired, we are worn out, and we are thankfully done with this. My portion of the world came out pretty well, but not so far away, a different story. You know of Joplin, only 45 minutes away, devastated and partially destroyed. They lost, among others, some teenagers who graduated that night, only to come home and meet the end of their journey.  A family member, who lives only an hour away, lost everything, including her beloved pet. I am incredibly grateful for the wholeness of my home and family.

All week I’ve listened to Joplin radio, where they’ve suspended the normal programming of Lady GaGa, Kesha, and Cee-Lo, and are doing 24 hour storm outreach, where people call in begging for information about missing loved ones or call in with offers for housing or some other form of assistance. I’ve heard the story of the manager of Pizza Hut gathering folks in the food cooler where the door wouldn’t shut. He tethered it closed, but the tie wouldn’t hold. So he held it himself. Until the wind proved too strong, and he was pulled out the door. This father of two sacrificed his life and saved a restaurant of people.  There is the quirky story of the horse that was sucked into the tornado, only to land into a pool. . .and live. There is the Joplin church where the youth group was meeting when the warning sounded. They were right in the path of the massive EF-5 tornado going 200 mph. They began to pray together, and miraculously, the killer tornado skipped right over them and then continued its assault. I’ve visited this very church. It’s a Healing Room location and opens up its doors once a week so their trained prayer warriors can pray for any who will come. The stories abound this week. As does the sorrow and grace. The hope and the tears.

If you would like to contribute to these devastated towns, from Arkansas to Missouri to Oklahoma and beyond, you can give to Samaritan’s Purse, text donations to the Red Cross. (Go to Red Cross for your specific location you’d like to give to.)  You can donate blood. Joplin currently has all they need, but that is because they’ve taken from local states who are now lacking. This week O negative has been a critical need. And finally, you can donate to Messenger International, a ministry of John and Lisa Bevere, who will give 100% of funds donated to disaster relief. You can read about their trust-worthy mission HERE.

And you can pray. As the DJ said on the Joplin radio station today, “Remember us three weeks from now. When everyone else has forgotten.” As my family was reminded a few weeks ago, life goes on, even when it’s radically changed, forever altered, when the things that were. . .are no more. And that’s when you need the prayer the most. These towns will need ours.

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Thank you for all the kind thoughts sent my way and to my family during the last few weeks. We really appreciate it and have absolutely felt those prayers. Y’all are the best. Truly.

So Harold Camping and his followers state that the world as we know it is ending Saturday. Now, I didn’t get to sleep in last weekend, so the timing of this is super inconvenient. I don’t believe Harold and the Dooms Dayers for a number of reasons, but the top one being that God is a merciful God. So clearly he’d take us all home on a Monday. Or a Sunday night so Monday doesn’t even have to happen.

But we live in a world where the CDC now acknowledges the very real possibility of the Zombie Apocalypse, so anything could happen I guess.  So let’s just say the world is ending. How would you spend those last few days?

I would:

1. Finally watch Friday Night Lights. (Just got DVD set of season one. I know, I know. Where have I been?)
2. Eat. A lot. (And how is this different from any other day? )
3. Forgo working out. (And how is this different from…)
4. Obviously get in people’s face about Jesus. (Because that has a history of being a really successful tactic…)
5. Cancel number four and visit loved ones with the message of Christ. Sang to the melody of my favorite Michael Jackson hits. Which would prompt number six…
6. Finally, FINALLY figure out that dang moon walk.  (Seriously, do y’all have olive oil on your shoes  or something?)
7. Stay out in the sun without sunscreen or worries of: melanoma, wrinkles, or a need to purchase stock in retinol.
8. Make my mother fix strawberry shortcake.
9. Wrap Miller in swaddling blankets, stick him in a basket with kibbles and a note, then place him on a doorstep of some really nice atheists. (Woolite carpet cleaner will be included, as well as the book How to Deal with Your Bulimic Cat With Love and Tranquilizers.)
10. Compose my list of questions for Jesus and safety-pin it to my bra, so I don’t lose it when I’m sucked up to Glory.  (Because he and I REALLY need to talk about the point of cellulite and property taxes.)

What about you? How would you spend your last few days?

P.S. We’ve had a LIVELY discussion going on at a blog about the evils/blessings of Christian fiction. If you’d like to weigh in (to offer insight, not lambast, not that you would), check it out here. And don’t forget, once you post, it’s there forever. Like if you go all drama queen and snippy. Like me. I don’t recommend that. I’m not exactly proud of my phrasing. But in my defense, I’d been at home for a few days….with Miller…and corn chips…

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I will be taking a blog break this week.

Saturday night my step dad unexpectedly passed away, and I will be spending the week with my family. This man meant the world to me, one of those things I never communicated enough. He voluntarily took on the role of father years ago and did the job better than anyone else could. My next book is dedicated to him, but he won’t get to see that. He was Mr. Fix-It, Mr. Supportive, a grandfather who intentionally made memories, a wonderful cook, as quotable as Twain, a man with a stunning intellect and brilliant sense of humor. For those of you girls/ladies who had a parent who bailed, you will understand the heart-breaking loss of a man who stood in the gap and said, “Be her dad? You bet I want that job.” You never outgrow the need for that. He was the guy who drove almost 4 hours with my mother my freshman year of college on a week night to attend some small potatoes choir concert, only to take me to dinner afterward, then drive the four hours back. I have thousands of stories just like that. I am grateful for the time we had.

He was the man who fixed everything–from my toilet to some encouragement for a broken heart. The man who came to my house in the middle of the night when I set off a house alarm I didn’t even know was connected, waking up my entire town. The man who picked up my car in another state at 3:30 in the morning because it had broken down, and I’d had to leave it, and he knew I was upset. He was the dad who shared my dislike for visitations, funerals, weddings, and awkward situations, events where I would gradually fade to the back, knowing he’d meet me there and put his arm around my shoulder and not have to say anything at all And this week when we say our final goodbye, he won’t be there to hug me to him and give me that smile that said, “You and me gotta stick together.”

He was my dad, my friend, one of my biggest cheerleaders; and while we know God is in control, right now we also know our family will never be the same, and there will be a gap now permanently open. I appreciate your prayers for my family and for his.

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In honor of Mother’s Day weekend, tell me your mom’s name (or stepmom or mom figure) and 3 words that describe/described her.
Here’s mine:

Beverly: generous, big-hearted, beautiful

Your turn!

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