Upcoming Adventure

I feel an adventure coming on. Tomorrow I will head to the Northwest Regional Swim meet here in Virginia. Two coaches, one bus driver, eighteen teenagers. Sounds simple enough. The only problem is that Murphy tends to follow me on away meets. (You know, that guy that invented Murphy's Law?)

I am fortunate that most of my regular season meets are at the pool around the corner from me. My team typically only travels at most twice a year except for post season. And we almost always get lost. Sometimes we don't realize that the bus driver was given the wrong destination until after we miss our exit. Some pools are incredibly difficult to find...and the bus driver won't ask for directions. And other times, no one has directions and we end up relying on some 16 or 17-year-old to help us find the pool. Now that's adventurous.

Yet, with all of the times we have taken wrong turns, chewed our fingernails as the bus tried to do a U-turn on a residential street, or placed our faith in a teenage driver's sense of direction, we never get lost during our post season. (Well, maybe a wrong turn on occasion, but not really lost.)

I expect this year might be a bit different. You see, we are swimming at a new pool...in a town I haven't visited since before I started coaching thirteen years ago.

The funny thing is, I'm kind of looking forward to getting lost. All throughout this swim season something has been missing on my team: a sense of unity. Most of the swimmers advancing to regionals are underclassmen, and many of them swim on year-round teams in the area. The thing I've always loved about high school swimming is that sense of team. I love the way these kids who have been trained to think only of their own personal times start stepping outside of themselves and start thinking about their teammates. I enjoy the strategy sessions when these talented teenagers start understanding my sometimes far-fetched logic that helps us win as a whole even when it doesn't make any one of them the superstar.

Looking back on this season, I realize that we didn't have any real adventures. Sure, we had to rely on a teenager to direct us to our one away meet, but we didn't really get lost. The swimmers were so talented that they breezed through their regular season undefeated without having to understand how we did it. And as a result when we faced a uphill battle to go for the district championship, they didn't know how to reach for the goal as a team. Could we have won? I don't know. We were supposed to lose by forty or so points and these kids narrowed the gap down to less than 10. I'm proud of them individually, but I can still see so much untapped potential for them as a unit.

So as I prepare myself for the next championship meet, I find myself actually hoping for a wrong turn or two. Maybe some shared experiences will help them all see that we can succeed as individuals and still reach for the same goals.

Trophy seeking

The past few days have had some interesting ups and downs. On Saturday night I was at the district swim meet. My team was the long shot to win, but I was hoping and praying we could pull it off. My swimmers did great, they dropped time everywhere, and even broke a school record. And we still took second place. Oh, well. There's always next year.

Though I would have loved for my team to have walked away holding that trophy, I got just about everything else I wanted on Saturday night. Nearly everyone who had a shot at advancing to Regionals did so. Several kids outperformed even my expectations and we walked out of the meet knowing that as a team we had done our best.

Yesterday, I was playing the underdog role once more. You see, the finalists for the Whitney Awards were being announced yesterday morning. I was extremely fortunate last year to have my novel, The Deep End, named as a finalist and I admit I was hopeful that at least one of my novels would earn me that honor once more.

What I didn't expect is what actually happened. BOTH of my 2008 novels were named as finalists...and they are competing AGAINST each other. That's right. Freefall and Royal Target are both finalists in the mystery/suspense category for the Whitney Awards.

I find myself both excited and mystified. You see, while both of my books can certainly be categorized as suspense novels, neither one of them are purists in the category. Freefall would really be better classified as government action/intrigue with some romance thrown in. Royal Target I consider more of a romance with some government suspense thrown in.

With this said, and knowing that judges are likely to vote for a book that truly fits the category, I want to congratulate all of the Whitney Finalists. And until April 25th I will continue to wonder which of the other three authors in the mystery/suspense category is going to beat me out not once, but twice, to win the award.

Footprints

After months of waiting, we finally got our first snow here in Virginia. It was only an inch or two, but it was enough for the kids to want to bundle up, grab their hats, scarves and gloves and head outside to play in the white, wintery weather. My ten-year-old daughter took Luke, my four-year-old son, out to play while I tended to some things inside including putting the kettle on so that I would be ready with hot chocolate when my two youngest decided they'd had enough.

Not an hour after they had come inside, Luke decided that he wanted to go out again. This time I went out with him. I wanted to take some pancakes that I had made over to my mother-in-law's house next door so that was as good of an excuse as any to go out. While I visited with Mom for a few minutes, Luke happily played outside. He then helped me clear Mom's driveway and sidewalk even though he wasn't happy that we were clearing away the footprints he had made in the process.

I assured him that he had made plenty of footprints in the snow, and that he would be able to make plenty more. Later that afternoon, his sister took him out again, and they moved to the pristine snow in the backyard so they could make more footprints.

Last night when I went out to take the garbage to the curb, the road was a little icy so I walked through the snow to Mom's house to check on her and take out her trash. When I was walking home I finally slowed down long enough to really look at Mom's front lawn and the footprints that were streaked across it. Dozens of trails led from my house to Mom's house and back again. More were streaked across our adjoining back yards. I had to smile. Those tracks might not mean much to someone passing by, but to me they reminded me of what's really important: family.

Behind the scenes at Inauguration Day

We’re only hours away from the inauguration of our next president. Millions have come to Washington, DC and the areas surrounding the capital to see this historic event. People are talking about the high cost of the festivities, the historic significance of our first African-American president being sworn into office, and the record crowds.

Personally, living in the shadows of Washington, DC, I’m staying away from the city. And my heart goes out to those who have to be there. Several of my friends and acquaintances moved into their offices over the weekend, sleeping bags in tow, in preparation for the festivities. And I know they aren’t alone.

I’m talking about the FBI, Secret Service, law enforcement officers, and the many other individuals who are required to report to work on Inauguration Day, not only because that’s part of their job, but because their sense of responsibility is so great. What many don’t realize is that while the news may touch on the fact that there aren’t any hotel rooms to be had within forty (or more) miles of Washington, many members of these protective agencies are without a place to stay.

The road closures in the area, the expected high volume on the subway, and the lack of hotel rooms left many without any other choice but to go into work on Sunday night and not come home until Wednesday after the inaugural events have concluded. After all, these are people who are willing to throw themselves in front of a bullet to protect our new president. They aren’t about to take a chance of not making it to work on time.

I imagine President-elect Obama is only beginning to understand how truly great this country is, and how privileged he is to have such dedicated men and women working for him to ensure his safety and the safety of his family.

New release date

I know I've been telling everyone that my next book, Lockdown, is coming out in February. Today I found out that it's been pushed back a month and the new release date is March. My editor was very apologetic, but I think I'm the one person who isn't really going to notice. After all, I've already read the book. :) With that said, I really am excited to see Lockdown in print and have a copy in my hot little hands.

Every so often, I start writing and I am absolutely stunned when several weeks later, I have this manuscript on my desk that I can't quite figure out how it came to be. Lockdown was one of those books.

I can still remember the day I walked away from the television and started writing Lockdown. It was April 17, 2007, the day after the Virginia Tech shootings. The television was still on in the family room as other family members watched and listened. All of the people that we knew at Tech were safe, but our hearts broke for the families of those who hadn't been so lucky. I remember having a similiar reaction after the Columbine shooting. I wanted to watch the television to see what had caused this horrible event to happen, but at the same time I couldn't believe what I was watching.

Lockdown really was my therapy, my way of learning how I deal with those kinds of senseless tragedies. What I found is that through it all, there is always hope for a better day tomorrow.

Missing Kathleen

I received word last week that one of my on-line friends was missing. My first thought was that she was simply not answering e-mails or hadn't been communicating with anyone. Then I found out it was far more serious than that. Sheila "Kathleen" McBroom was really missing. Kathleen lives in Anchorage, Alaska and apparently never arrived for work on Monday. A few days later her truck was discovered, her wallet and cell phone still inside.

So the question remains, where is Kathleen? Her family has been frantic with worry, and I can't even imagine what they must be going through right now. Nothing about her disappearance seems to make sense. She had been looking forward to one of her daughters coming home for a visit and she seemed excited about what lies ahead for her.

Kathleen is such a positive, vibrant person that everyone who communicates with her has come to love her. Kathleen always has something positive to say about everyone and has always encouraged her friends in all of their endeavors. Now all of those friends are praying for her. We are praying for her safe return, and we are especially praying for her family in this difficult time. Hopefully they know that they aren't alone. We are all missing Kathleen.

Lockdown

Look what I found! I decided to check my publisher's website today to make sure my new book was listed on their site. Lo and behold, not only was my new book, Royal Target, listed there, but so was my next book. Lockdown isn't even scheduled to come out until February 2009, so I never dreamed that the cover image would already be available on the internet.

I did know that the cover was done, but I hadn't yet seen a copy until I found it on Covenant's website.

Oddly enough, I spent the day working on another book, one that spins off of this one and Freefall.

I'm having to remind myself that it takes a great deal of discipline to write novels. I know that I will ultimately spend hours at the computer and that if I'm lucky, the story will take on a life of its own. I hope and pray that will happen, while dreading that possibility at the same time. I know that if a story is really going to work, it has to find its own life. The problem is that when that happens, I find myself putting everything else on hold so I can stay at my computer and find out how the story ends.

Seeing a cover image like this one, or anticipating my author copies arriving in the mail for Royal Target, reinforces the fact that all of the hard work is worth it. Now I just have to keep myself at my desk enough hours of the day so that I can get to the good part, whatever that might be.