Laurie L.C. Lewis's Blog: Bloggin' It Up Here, page 74

AWOL

I've been "blog-awol" lately. After weeks of pushing hard to complete the revisions on Dawn's Early Light, we headed straight into vacation, a week of babysitting, and now we're prepping the house for a wedding open house.

Do any of you panic at the thought of hosting the wedding open house back in your home town? I thought I had made peace with the occasional dust bunny under the sofa and the toast crumbs in the silverware drawer. In fact, we have so many ward functions here, people jokingly ref

AND WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

The winner of this gorgeous book, "The Declaration of Independence, a Museum in a Book", is Laura Shipp Lewis from North Carolina, who not only answered the contest question correctly, she also hit the bonus question on the head as well. (Gotta love those home-schooling moms!)

I'll be starting a new contest soon, so stay tuned, and thanks for playing!

A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE

A friend died suddenly. He was one of those fun, vibrant personalities people couldn't imagine growing old and feeble, but his death hits those who knew him very hard. For ten years we sang in an annual amateur review to benefit Boy Scouts. It was a very good show considering that most of the principle singers were simply a bunch of mommies and daddies. Dan was always priceless-a comedian whose vocals were upstaged by his wide-eyed enthusiasm and crazy dancing. He was a young bishop as well--a s

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION. . . .

Tell me July isn't really over! I feel as if some time-traveling thief stole at least two weeks of this month right out from under my pressed-to-the-grindstone nose. But what I remember of this month was glorious, so even if it was mysteriously reduced by half, I received two-months worth of happiness from it.

First of all, Angela, my editor on Dawn's Early Light, and I were joined at our cyber hips from May through the middle of July, completing the edit on the manuscript. All that remains is to

Another GOD-BLESS-AMERICA-MONDAY

JAMESTOWN

Our First American Colony

I apologize for not posting last week. We were on vacation with our entire family, and despite well-intentioned plans to post this article last Monday, when push came to shove, I chose family fun over writing. I'm sliding back into work now, but let's pay a visit to Jamestown first.

America's 400th birthday party was celebrated for 18 months between 2006 and 2007, but how many of us even noted it? How many of us knew to where, or why Queen Elizabeth and Prince P

ACCORDING TO LIZ:

Like other tradespeople, authors help each other out. Since I don't need a new toilet or vinyl siding, fellow author, Liz Adair, offered to read and review my books: Dark Sky at Dawn and Twilight's Last Gleaming .

The review was so lovely I'm considering buying my own books. (Just kidding, but you go ahead and feel free to do so if you're so inclined. Thanks, and happy reading.)

Thanks, Liz!

"AWAKE, AWAKE FROM A DEEP SLEEP. . ."

The title of this post comes from a scripture in the Book of Mormon, II Nephi 1:13. Most LDS people will recognize it, but regardless of your religious persuasion, the sentiments are timely and critical. Americans have been complacent for too long, and now it is time to awaken.

If you know much about American history and the tumultuous birth of this nation, it's hard to deny the hand of the Lord was in it--that we survived the Revolution at all, and that a passel of minds, such as those of our Fo

Another GOD-BLESS-AMERICA-MONDAY

YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA


Today, we're looking at Yorktown, an exquisite, essential slice of American history. Ironically, mere miles separate Yorktown—the place where America's independence was essentially procured—from Jamestown, the first established American settlement, making this corridor both the beginning of American colonization and the beginning of America's independence. Add Williamsburg to mix, and there's no question as to why this corridor is a must-see stop for every American.

The Yorktow

BOOK REVIEW

HEARTS OF COURAGE

by John M. Tippets


In my own experience, the drama of real-life almost always trumps fiction, and such is certainly the case in John M. Tippets' wrenching saga, Hearts of Courage. Tippets is the son of a survivor of the famed Gillam plane crash, so named for noted Alaskan bush pilot, Harold "thrill-'em, spill-'em, no kill-'em" Gillam, who piloted this ill-fated Alaska-bound flight. The story is drawn heavily, and with harrowing understatement,

WHAT WILL WE BECOME?

I was sharing my thoughts about this economy with a friend yesterday, and both of us know people who've already been affected by cutbacks, job losses, rate hikes, price increases and slumps in their investments. It's affected each of us in some way.

But I keep thinking about our parents and/or grandparents, depending on your age--that generation Tom Brokaw dubbed, "The Greatest Generation That Ever Lived." They didn't rise from a generation of wealth and prosperity. They rose from The Great Depr