Francine Rivers's Blog, page 24
September 13, 2013
Addicted to Travel
Recently, I was asked about memorable road trips. My first experiences were with my mom and dad and brother. My parents only had two weeks of vacation a year, and they wanted to visit as many National Parks as possible. Hence, we spent long hours in a car without air conditioning to get to the goal – wherever it happened to be. Sometimes they drove until after dark and parked the small trailer along the road side (until one night when we could hear a distant river and discovered in the morning it was hundreds of feet down a cliff face a few yards from the trailer steps).
September 6, 2013
Writers' Retreat
Over Labor Day week-end, I joined a group of writer friends, both men and women, all veterans who have survived the ups and downs and ins and outs of the publishing industry over the last twenty to thirty years. You’d know their names. Some have sold millions of books all over the world. Several had written more than one hundred books, one – over two hundred.
August 23, 2013
My Office
Now that Bridge to Haven is in Tyndalean hands and moving toward publication, it’s time for me to clear my working space. To my left is a wall-length bulletin board on which I’ve pinned pictures of my characters. Some are people you would recognize; others are unknowns whose pictures I found in magazines or newspapers. I also created the town of Haven, complete with a grid of streets, with pictures I took of stores (giving them new names) and family homes, and where the river runs through my imaginary town. I love towns with a western/Victorian feel.&n
August 17, 2013
KLOVE Cruising
I’ve been listening to KLOVE Radio since Rick and I moved to Sebastopol in 1985. It was a small start-up station then, conceived by San Francisco DJ Bob Anthony, with Dick Jenkins as general manager. I wasn’t a Christian yet, but loved the “positive alternative” music with lyrics that fed my soul and made me dance (or sing along when I was alone in the car). When KLOVE sponsored concerts in Santa Rosa, I brought my three young children along. Petra was one of our favorite bands. We used to sing “This Means War” at the top of our voices.
August 9, 2013
Coming Spring 2014 - Bridge To Haven
To those who matter in 1950s Hollywood, Lena Scott is the hottest rising star to hit the silver screen since Marilyn Monroe. Few know her real name is Abra. Even fewer know the price she’s paid to finally feel like she’s somebody.
Files:
Bridge to Haven cover.jpg August 2, 2013
Gettysburg and Philadelphia
No sooner did I get back from the Oregon trip with my daughter, elder son and three grandchildren, than Rick and I packed and headed off with a couple from our Bible study to see Philadelphia and Gettysburg. We’d been planning this trip for almost two years, eager to get a taste of history with the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.
July 26, 2013
Bridge to Haven - Coming Soon!
Yesterday, I emailed my third and final scene to my editor. She has already completed the deletions and sent me the “clean copy” and will be dropping the new scene in when I’ve finished my read-through. I must admit, when I saw the small pile of work, I gulped. Is that all that’s left of 200,000+ words and eighteen months of hard work? But then, it is single-spaced with wide margins, and not the double spaced manuscript format I submitted. Whew.
July 19, 2013
Oregon or Bust!
When my children were young, I took them up to Brookings-Harbor, Oregon each summer to visit with my parents who lived up the hill and across the highway from Whaleshead Beach. We usually spent 7-10 days. Mom always had “stone soup” waiting for our arrival – and a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. Mom got up early every morning and prepared a picnic basket. Dad often kept the kids occupied in the forest behind their house or making sling shots or hunting salamanders. We’d a
July 5, 2013
Pot Farming and Snowy Owls
A number of years ago, environmental groups went to war with the lumber industry over the plight of the snowy owl. It nests in redwoods, and people wanted its habitat protected. People climbed and camped in trees. Some chained themselves to redwoods. Eventually, they won and lumber mills were shut down in northern California. Some towns went into rapid decline with high unemployment. Some are still struggling to survive.
June 30, 2013
Taxes
No one likes paying taxes, but they’re necessary to keep the country going. However, the last thing we want to see is a bunch of IRS workers doing line dances and dressing up as Trekkies on taxpayer money at conferences that tally up to $50M. And we don’t want to hear the IRS targeting any group, be it conservative, religious or liberal. Targeting anyone is not what our country is all about, or wasn’t until recently. We don’t want a government that behaves like a kingdom.
Here’s my solution, not that anyone will listen.
