I’m famous-ish

Posted on April 23, 2009 by lizjohnson

Just wanted to give a huge shout out to TheSuspenseZone.com. Susan Sleeman over there absolutely rocks! I have the pleasure of working with her in my day job. And she just posted my bio and book cover on her site. It’s cracking me up that my bio and info is right next to Jerry Jenkins on the author list–you know alphabets and everything. 🙂 Anyway, you can totally check out my author photo there too. My hair is pretty awesome in that pic, if I do say so myself, and it’s all thanks to Katie and Stephanie my photo shoot stylists. You guys rock!

Anyway, I don’t think People magazine is going to call this week, but I sure appreciate the support from Susan, especially as she is an author too–her new book Nipped in the Bud is due out soon from Heartsong. Congrats!

Hanging out with Jerry (at least on TheSuspenseZone.com) until next time. -LJ

Monday Movie – You’ve Got Mail

Posted on April 20, 2009April 18, 2009 by lizjohnson

On Saturday I woke up from a lovely afternoon nap and flicked on the TV while I made a wonderfully delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I flicked channels a bit until I landed on a classic favorite: You’ve Got Mail.

youve-got-mail

This is one of my family’s favorites. I remember going to see it in the theater years ago with my parents. My dad and I especially love Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movies. (Have you seen Joe Versus the Volcanoe? It’s a classic!) Anyway, if you’ve been living on the moon for the last ten years and haven’t heard of You’ve Got Mail, it’s the sweet story of Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox who meet in an online chat room (yea, it totally dates itself) and don’t have any idea who the other is or even their name as they e-mail back and forth.

Kathleen owns a small children’s bookstore that her mother opened years before. Joe is the owner of Fox and Sons Books, a chain mega book store. When a Fox and Sons opens across the street from Kathleen’s store, she goes “to the mattresses” to fight the big, bad mega store. As they fight in person, Kathleen and Joe continue e-mailing each other, each unaware that their online penpal is their nemesis.

My favorite part of the film is when Joe discovers that Kathleen is his e-mail buddy and he realizes that he’s in love with her. He messes with her just a bit as he woos her. It’s my favorite!

Oh, also, it’s filled with great one-liners. Like when George, one of Kathleen’s employees, says, “I’m off to by a eucalyptus candle, because it makes my apartment smell moss-ay.” My dad and I always quote this line to each other, and it did prompt him to buy me a eucalyptus candle when I moved into my first apartment. After four moves, I still have it. Thanks, dad!

This movie is so fun, and after re-watching it this weekend, I’m inspired to read Pride and Prejudice, which is Kathleen Kelly’s favorite book. I love when Joe Fox tries to read it at her suggestion but keeps putting it down because it doesn’t entice him in the least. If you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely a must.

Loving great rom coms until next time. -LJ

Oh, dear! I’m a fangirl!

Posted on April 18, 2009April 16, 2009 by lizjohnson

fangirl (plural fangirls)

(fandom) Someone (a female) who is utterly devoted to a single subject or hobby, often to the point where it is considered an obsession.

Holding my breath until July 15. -LJ

Teaser Tuesdays – The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips

Posted on April 14, 2009April 13, 2009 by lizjohnson

teaser_tuesdays1 MizB of Should Be Reading hosts the Teaser Tuesdays weekly event

Here are the rules:
* Grab your current read
* Let the book fall open to a random page
* Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12
*You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
* Please avoid spoilers!

This week’s teaser is:

“I told you how nervous we were about pinning the case on the testimony of an either-year-old kid. But the kid had to testify.'”
– From The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips by Stephen Baldwin and Mark Tabb, page 158

I devoured the first 2 chapters of this book. It’s a really thrilling read and told very uniquely through the eyes of the son of detective on the case. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

death-and-life-of-gabriel-phillips

Friday Favorite – Louie Giglio and the Hubble Space Telescope

Posted on April 10, 2009April 8, 2009 by lizjohnson

I first saw Louie Giglio speak in person on the Indescribable Tour with Chris Tomlin. As you will likely guess, Chris was singing his song Indescribable and Louie … well, Louie was speaking about the magnitude of who God is. He used pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope to talk about how huge God is. When we consider that God spoke the heavens into existence (according to Isaiah) and then think about how massive they are, it’s pretty incredible the size of the God who still knows us each by name.

One of the things that Louie said that really stuck with me was that the heavens are created to bring glory to God. That the starry hosts tell His story and declare it to us. In honor of Good Friday and Easter this Sunday, I thought I’d share a couple pics from Hubble that tell the story of Jesus Christ.

But first, a quick note about Hubble and where I found these and you can find other amazing pictures of God’s creation: According to the official website www.hubblesite.org Hubble Space Telescope’s launch in 1990 sped humanity to one of its greatest advances in that journey. Hubble is a telescope that orbits Earth. Its position above the atmosphere, which distorts and blocks the light that reaches our planet, gives it a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes. It has beamed hundreds of thousands of images back to Earth, shedding light on many of the great mysteries of astronomy.

Officially this is called "X" Structure at Core of Whirlpool Galaxy (M51). Unofficially, I call this amazing!

NASA, ESA and W. Harris (McMaster University, Ontario, Canada) FoxNews.com called this the Crown of Thorns Galaxy. Wow!

That Christ suffered the crown of thorns and the cross so that we could have forgiveness and life amazes me. I hope it amazes you this Easter too.

And because I love Louie too and he speaks truth, here’s a clip of the end of his Indescribable talk. It’s available on dvd along with several other great talks by him. Check out his cool Passion ministry here.

Just thankful for grace until next time. -LJ

Where I Was

Posted on April 9, 2009April 8, 2009 by lizjohnson

So as I mentioned, I was in Estes Park last weekend on a mini writing retreat. I decided I needed to get away from all of the distractions at home (yes, even blogging) and set about the task of finishing my second book. But after booking a cabin near Rocky Mountain National Park, I suddenly worried that it might not be any fun going alone. So I asked Jess B if she wanted to join me.

She said yes, and the rest is history! We tooled on up to Estes Park (I made her listen to the Dr. Horrible soundtrack no less than 3 times) and arrived at our cabin. It was beautiful. It was inspiring. It was FREEZING! Here’s the story of our stay in pictures. (And because I know you’re going to ask as there are no pictures of us writing, I did get 14,000 words written in 3 days, and finished my rough draft of the next book just 2 days after we returned. Jess finised her work in progress, and now we’re both in the rewrites stage. Ugh!)

Oh, and we had one mega Spider Solitare tournament. I lost. Badly!

picture-024 — we whipped up some amazing(ly quick) meals in this kitchen

: our cabin from the outside

: the creek behind the cabin

: Jess standing in the creek in her new wellies

: the funny sign about not standing in the creek

: me and Jess (not standing in the creek)

: Rocky Mountain National Park – sans elk

: Beautiful, but where are all the elk?

: Ah, yes. They’re in my parking spot.

Teaser Tuesday – Miss Match

Posted on April 7, 2009April 6, 2009 by lizjohnson

teaser_tuesdays1 MizB of Should Be Reading hosts the Teaser Tuesdays weekly event

This week’s teaser is:

“‘So I assume that purple thing over there is yours?’ Derek asks, his truck chugging into the student parking lot.
‘Yeah. The other cars are intimidated by it.'”
– From Miss Match by Wendy Toliver, page 101

I think I should confess that while I can’t seem to finish the Newberry Medal-winning The Graveyard Book, I had no problem at all sailing through this YA in one night. Lost out a bit of sleep, but it was a cute story. Fun little read.

miss-match

Lost and Found

Posted on April 2, 2009April 2, 2009 by lizjohnson

March 17, 2009: I lost a library book. I chronicled my initial realization and the hunt for said book here. I further continued to post twitter updates about my continued search for the book. This lead to the discovery that the Pikes Peak Library District is following me on twitter and left me a message suggesting I check at the library in case it was accidentally reshelved without being checked back in.

Imagine my worry and concern that I’m being followed by the PPLD. But that wasn’t my biggest problem.

I’d offered Encyclopedia Brown 25 cents for the safe return of my book, but he didn’t take me up on my offer, so I was willing to make the same offer to anyone else. Still no book. I called the gym thinking I might have left it there. They said they didn’t have it. Days and weeks passed with no sign of it.

April 1, 2009: My book was due back to the library, and I couldn’t renew it any more. It was time to bite the bullet and pay for the book. $17 for a book I wasn’t really enjoying. I had a pleasant conversation with the very helpful librarian Holly (only the third to suggest I check under the seats in my car), and she told me books always show up right after people pay for them.

I didn’t believe her.

After all, I’d searched high and low, torn my life apart looking for that book. It was gone. I was sure of it.

April 2, 2009: I finally got to go to the gym after a week of snow and travel keeping me from going. On a whim, I decided to ask if my book was in their lost and found.

AND IT WAS!!!!!

I don’t know what the people at the desk were thinking when I called the three times before, but I promptly took the book back to the library and was refunded $15 by Holly, the very same librarian.

Book returned. I’m only out $2. Let this be a lesson to me. I’m not sure what that lesson is yet … but I’ll think on it. If you can come up with one, let me know. I don’t want to spend too much time thinking about it.

Reading FREE books once again until next time. -LJ

The Kidnapping of Kenzie Thorn Cover!

Posted on March 26, 2009 by lizjohnson

How exactly does one celebrate her first official cover of her first novel? I don’t know, but let’s start by posting it for the world to see! 🙂

kenzie-cover3

I’m just so thrilled and thankful to everyone at Steeple Hill for taking a chance on me. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the cover.

Confession: Sometimes when I’m having a really hard day, I open up the file of my cover art and look at it, and it makes me smile. 🙂 Hope you enjoy as much as I do. -LJ

Quality time with Brandon Heath

Posted on March 25, 2009March 26, 2009 by lizjohnson

So I heard that Brandon was interviewed last week for CBS Evening News, and I was looking forward to watching the segment. But when I watched it, it was so not what I was expecting. The segment is on how Americans are losing their religion. A pastor of a “non-demoninational” church is interviewed almost as if attendees of a non-denom don’t consider themselves traditional Christians.

Anyway, as a whole, it just made me sad. I could go on and on, but I’ll just let you watch the video and offer your thoughts if you like.

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