Huge thank yous to the judges, to ACFW for sponsoring the contest and to Mindy Obenhaus whose time and effort makes this well-run and highly respected contest such a pleasure to enter. And I'm so grateful to Melissa Endlich of Love Inspired books who gave this new writer a chance. God surely blessed me that day, Melissa!
I'm happy dancing here in upstate New York!
And (GULP).... I finaled with Irene Hannon and Linda Goodnight.
OH MY STARS....
'Sall I'm sayin'... OH MY STARS... I'm honored, blessed and excited to be makin' the short list with these two!
Congrats to Mary Connealy, my good bud!
IT WASN'T.
THANKS, MARE!
SHEESH....
Congratulations to all the finalists. It's truly an honor to be with you.
Hi Ruth:
ReplyDeleteWho is your fight manager?
You’re going up against two very experienced, RITA award-winning, authors with your first book!!! (OMG, everyone loves Linda Goodnight -- even my wife and I. Linda’s a school teacher and a nurse!)
I think we’ll have to change your name to Rocky!
Vince
Ruthy!! I was happy dancing for you when I read that! Congratulations!! I have two Ruthy books on my shelf to read. Looking forward to getting to know the Men of Allegany. Hope you're going to be at ACFW to accept when they call your name. :-)
ReplyDeleteMega congratulations, Ruthy! I'm thrilled for you.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteOne More Thing:
ROCKY WON!!!
.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
ReplyDeleteOh my stars, isn't this just wonderful? Marvelous? Vince, they're both so stinkin' sweet I can't even BEGIN to fight with them. Dagnabbit, what's a street kid like me to do? And interestingly enough, I bought a bunch of Irene's books to study last year, and Linda's this year because I have no problem trying to follow in their esteemed footsteps!
YOWZA! :)
Lisa, I hope you love the Men of Allegany County. I know I do... And I'm not sure which one is my fave, but I just found out there are THREE MORE COMING...
So that's SUH-WEEEEET! And Keli, thank you, my sweet friend! I'm still dancing in the streets up here. The neighbors have gotten way past 'annoyed' and gone to 'resigned'.
Who can blame them?
Hi Ruth:
ReplyDeleteYour comment:
”I'm still dancing in the streets up here. The neighbors have gotten way past 'annoyed' and gone to 'resigned'.”
Makes me think that you are in an ideal situation to come up with “The Five Stages of Ecstasy”.
You would consult with Derek Jeter who got so excited with 3,000 hits that he couldn’t go to the all star game.
I hope you’ll be able to make it to St. Louis.
Vince
I'm coming to St. Louis. Plane ticket bought, room reserved with my buddy Cara Lynn James, and just need to hand over the conference fee! And I opted out of RWA because I knew I was going to ACFW, so how sweet is this???
ReplyDeleteAnd Vince, you know what my ring tone is on my cell phone?
The theme from "Rocky"!
How funny is that? Great music is great music and I LOVE A GREAT UNDERDOG! :)
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSO WELL DESERVED!!!!!!!!
I'm going to leave this as anonymous so no one will know I'm this stinkin' nice.
Didja think I wouldn't know who it was????
ReplyDeleteReally?????
:)
Back at ya', Toots! I'm still happy dancing. It's almost ridiculous, but fun!
I'm happy dancing for you too, Ruthy -- well with me these days it's more happy hobblin' but there spirit is in it! LOL
ReplyDeleteHow exciting for you, Ruth! When you left that comment on 777 Peppermint Place, I just had to run over here and see which book was a finalist. I'll be entering my debut novel, Give the Lady a Ride, in the 2012 Carol competition, and I'm nervous about it already.
ReplyDeleteCongrats also about your contract with Love Inspired. Yea!
Linda, hey, welcome! Oh my stars, that was a pretty sweet phone call! ;) And I'm just thrilled to final with Irene Hannon and Linda Goodnight. I mean, SERIOUSLY????? Those ladies get their names in BIG FONT.
ReplyDeleteAnd then eeensy weeensy titles. What an honor.
And I'm thrilled that LI has offered me another three-book contract. Tickled pink. And my sweet husband cannot believe someone is actually PAYING ME CASH MONEY! ;)
Men.
Kav, my hobbling friend! Do I mention often enough the wonderful things you quietly do/say for Christian fiction? You rock, my friend. Totally. Unbelievably!
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