Today I would like to welcome Joni Lamb, co-founder and vice president of A Larry Ross Communications!
Her story fascinated me and I had just one question for Joni:
What were your struggles starting the network, writing the book and how did those experiences change and cause you to grow?
I can honestly say that when posed with the opportunity to write a book that I was a bit hesitant. I didn’t realize the effect my life story would have on me as I relived past events, struggles, victories and heartfelt moments I would rehearse in the book. There have been tremendous struggles throughout our lives as we have endeavored to build that first Christian television station in Montgomery, Alabama to eventually some years later building and founding the Daystar Television Network in Dallas, Texas. Neither Marcus or I realized how difficult this process would be or we might have run the other direction. J I share in the book those early days when we were all alone with a dream from the Lord. A young married couple wanting to be used by the Lord to help others. We worked diligently doing everything from sweeping floors, cleaning toilets, building sets to answering telephones. Whatever needed doing, we did. I think of that scripture that says “despise not small beginnings”… It was indeed a small beginning but it was important for us because it was in those moments that character, faith and perseverance would be built along with an unwavering faith in God. That’s why I titled my book “Surrender All”… because it was only with the help and leading of God that anything was accomplished. What I learned in the process is how to surrender again and again. I learned that every day I must choose to love and forgive. I learned that if I don’t give up, that eventually I will overcome… of course, this is all tied to the One who created me. Without that crimson chord that connects me with my Heavenly Father, I would have been lost. The beautiful part of surrendering to your Creator is understanding that you are connected to the most powerful force in the Universe.. You are not alone and it is my greatest desire to convey that message to those who feel alone and have lost their hope. The most important responsibility I have is as a wife and mother and what changed in me the most while writing this book is realizing how important family is. They are more precious to me today than ever before so as I was writing, I realized the importance of balancing family, work and ministry.
A Larry Ross Communications is a full-service media and public relations agency focusing on bridging the gap between faith and culture. Joni Lamb is co-founder and vice president, along with her husband, President and CEO Marcus Lamb, of Daystar Television Network, the fastest growing Christian network in the world. She is executive producer and host of "JONI," a talk show addressing relevant Godly issues for today's complex problems, and co-hosts "Celebration" with Marcus. She released her debut book, "Surrender All," in late 2008. In addition, she is full-time wife to Marcus and mom to three children, which she considers her foremost and greatest accomplishment.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
And Now For Something Completely Different...
"Your Lupins or your life!"
Okay, it was a BUSY week in the world of books...
Writing Humor Part I - Sia McKye’s Thoughts
Longest Book Titles- Jane’s Ride
from Babbling About Books, and More-
Bad Author Behavior - Alice Hoffman
Interview with Sourcebooks Publicist Paul Samuelson - Interview
Store’s experience with Expresso Book Machine – Southern Review of Books
Structuring Our Life article – thanks, Lynn! - The Literary Lynnch Pen
From Carolyn Howard-Johnson – a new service! - Sharing with Writers
Advice on Conferences from Helen Ginger's Straight From Hel - How to Choose & More to Schmoozing
Advice for publishers (and authors!) - School Library Journal
Generating more Traffic for Your Blog- By: Penny Sansevieri - Isnare Article
And a free tag generator- EGM Strategy
And is your blog feed on FaceBook? Mine is! - Spunk On A Stick’s Tips on FaceBook
News of the Weird...
This is news of the wild!
This is for all the vanilla 'popular' bands out there -
Europe's prog-rock band, Nightwish, has over 25.6 MILLION hits on their YouTube video for Amaranth:
Yes, that's 25.6 MILLION views!!!!! Gotta be a music industry record...
MOVIE REVIEWS
Watched quite a few in the past week...
TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE FALLEN - B
Leave your brain at the door and just enjoy the eye candy!
ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS - B+
"Buck" and the baby T--Rexes steal the show - and the 3D is amazing! (And I am a total junkie for this series...)
HORTON HEARS A WHO - C+
NetFlix rental. Dr. Seuss is weird enough and the movie tries to make it weirder...
RIFF TRACKS: PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE - B+
Officially one of the most awful movies ever made - and the only way to watch it is with Riff Tracks from the guys who gave us Mystery Science Theater 3000!
And the photo of the day:
God Bless America!
Okay, it was a BUSY week in the world of books...
Writing Humor Part I - Sia McKye’s Thoughts
Longest Book Titles- Jane’s Ride
from Babbling About Books, and More-
Bad Author Behavior - Alice Hoffman
Interview with Sourcebooks Publicist Paul Samuelson - Interview
Store’s experience with Expresso Book Machine – Southern Review of Books
Structuring Our Life article – thanks, Lynn! - The Literary Lynnch Pen
From Carolyn Howard-Johnson – a new service! - Sharing with Writers
Advice on Conferences from Helen Ginger's Straight From Hel - How to Choose & More to Schmoozing
Advice for publishers (and authors!) - School Library Journal
Generating more Traffic for Your Blog- By: Penny Sansevieri - Isnare Article
And a free tag generator- EGM Strategy
And is your blog feed on FaceBook? Mine is! - Spunk On A Stick’s Tips on FaceBook
News of the Weird...
This is news of the wild!
This is for all the vanilla 'popular' bands out there -
Europe's prog-rock band, Nightwish, has over 25.6 MILLION hits on their YouTube video for Amaranth:
Yes, that's 25.6 MILLION views!!!!! Gotta be a music industry record...
MOVIE REVIEWS
Watched quite a few in the past week...
TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE FALLEN - B
Leave your brain at the door and just enjoy the eye candy!
ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS - B+
"Buck" and the baby T--Rexes steal the show - and the 3D is amazing! (And I am a total junkie for this series...)
HORTON HEARS A WHO - C+
NetFlix rental. Dr. Seuss is weird enough and the movie tries to make it weirder...
RIFF TRACKS: PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE - B+
Officially one of the most awful movies ever made - and the only way to watch it is with Riff Tracks from the guys who gave us Mystery Science Theater 3000!
And the photo of the day:
God Bless America! Happy Fourth of July everyone!
Thursday, July 02, 2009
The Thursday Excerpt - MBryn!
Today I welcome a very talented young writer who goes by MBryn. (Bryn is her middle name.)
MBryn challenged herself to write a short story (she writes novel-length stories and poems) and asked her friend to suggest a picture for inspiration. This photo was sent to her - We Live in the Tide - and she set to work.
Not only did MBryn complete the piece, it also won first place in the Short Story Category in Victor Valley College's Writing Contest in May!
Congratulations, MBryn! Way to stretch those skills!
We Live in the Tide by MBryn
When Mermaids die, their bodies dissolve into sea foam. That’s what they say in The Little Mermaid at least. According to The Last Unicorn sea foam is actually the Unicorns attempting to step on land while fear of the Red Bull drives them away. I’m not sure what other people say about it–aside from the normal scientific explanations, that is.
I’m watching the sea foam run over my bare toes and wonder if I’m touching Unicorns or dead Mermaids or bubbles with an unusually resilient nature. I’m thinking about what you would have told me, and how you’d probably make a joke about the content of whale urine in the ocean. Thinking about how you’d probably tell me that I smelled like whale pee because I’d been splashing in the tide.
In this moment I’m not sure if I miss you or if I’m relieved you’re gone.
I take a seat on a large piece of driftwood and watch the waves crash against the rocks. There are seagulls calling to me, accusing me of hiding bread in my sweatshirt and demanding that I share. I shout at them and kick sand in their direction, but stubbornly they wait for me to surrender some morsel to their care. I pick up a piece of bark from who-knows-where and toss it in their direction, smirking as they squabble over a piece of trash.
I can almost hear you lecturing me about tricking the poor birds that don’t know any better. I mentally argue that they’re probably crapping on my car, so really it’s just a way of leveling the scales. You would argue that two wrongs don’t make a right, and I’d probably tell you that two rights make a left, and we’d stop talking for ten minutes until the argument was forgotten.
I must have sat on that piece of driftwood for hours, until the tide came in and threw more sea foam on my bare toes. I try not to think about Unicorns and Mermaids and whales. I try not to think about your argumentative nature and the way we were toxic to each other. I realize that even if we were wrong for each other, you were still a big part of me.
I stand up and reach into my pocket. Clenched in my fist is a medical bracelet, the kind they give you when you’re checked into the hospital. My name is printed, last name first, in bold capitals, and beneath that is my date of birth in smaller numbers. Also stated are the date that I was admitted and the attending physician.
I stare at the bracelet, trying to discern some meaning from it. I almost wish that it told why I had been in that place, so that when I let this little piece of plastic drift off with the tide, someone will find it and know exactly who I am and what I was. I want them to understand, and this will offer them no understanding.
This bracelet won’t tell them that I was admitted to the psychiatric ward when I was sixteen, or that you lived inside of me like a second person. It won’t tell them of all the sessions with the shrinks, all the medications they adjusted, or the radical treatments the doctors used just to erase the voice in my head. They won’t know that you were the only friend I had growing up, and that the day the doctors took you from me was the worst day of my life.
There is a pen in my pocket and I take it out, flipping the bracelet to its reverse side. I prop it against my palm and write, “I wish they hadn’t cured me” in neat, bold capitals. The pen disappears back into my pocket. I continue to stare at the bracelet in my hand.
The doctors took you away from me, but I never asked them to. I wanted to keep you forever, as my other half and my sometimes savior. You didn’t deserve to be killed, to be turned into something as insubstantial as the foam on the ocean waves. You deserved to live within me, to live as a part of me.
I deserved to keep you.
I close my fist around the bracelet for just a moment, kissing my fingers and muttering something that might be a prayer or might be a curse. Then I fling out my arm and open my hand wide, tossing us both into the ocean to be swallowed up by the tide.
You and me, that’s where we belong. I don’t care if the sea foam is dead Mermaids, or trapped Unicorns, or if I think of whale urine every time I look at it. We belong in the tide, we live in the tide, and that’s where we are now.
On the drive home, I turn on the radio to fill up the silence that used to be yours.
©2009 *MBryn
You can find this piece on her Deviant Art account, along with her other incredible work: We Live in the Tide
Thanks for visiting, MBryn!
Technorati Tags:
MBryn, short story, Victor Valley College, award winning story
MBryn challenged herself to write a short story (she writes novel-length stories and poems) and asked her friend to suggest a picture for inspiration. This photo was sent to her - We Live in the Tide - and she set to work.
Not only did MBryn complete the piece, it also won first place in the Short Story Category in Victor Valley College's Writing Contest in May!
Congratulations, MBryn! Way to stretch those skills!
We Live in the Tide by MBryn
When Mermaids die, their bodies dissolve into sea foam. That’s what they say in The Little Mermaid at least. According to The Last Unicorn sea foam is actually the Unicorns attempting to step on land while fear of the Red Bull drives them away. I’m not sure what other people say about it–aside from the normal scientific explanations, that is.
I’m watching the sea foam run over my bare toes and wonder if I’m touching Unicorns or dead Mermaids or bubbles with an unusually resilient nature. I’m thinking about what you would have told me, and how you’d probably make a joke about the content of whale urine in the ocean. Thinking about how you’d probably tell me that I smelled like whale pee because I’d been splashing in the tide.
In this moment I’m not sure if I miss you or if I’m relieved you’re gone.
I take a seat on a large piece of driftwood and watch the waves crash against the rocks. There are seagulls calling to me, accusing me of hiding bread in my sweatshirt and demanding that I share. I shout at them and kick sand in their direction, but stubbornly they wait for me to surrender some morsel to their care. I pick up a piece of bark from who-knows-where and toss it in their direction, smirking as they squabble over a piece of trash.
I can almost hear you lecturing me about tricking the poor birds that don’t know any better. I mentally argue that they’re probably crapping on my car, so really it’s just a way of leveling the scales. You would argue that two wrongs don’t make a right, and I’d probably tell you that two rights make a left, and we’d stop talking for ten minutes until the argument was forgotten.
I must have sat on that piece of driftwood for hours, until the tide came in and threw more sea foam on my bare toes. I try not to think about Unicorns and Mermaids and whales. I try not to think about your argumentative nature and the way we were toxic to each other. I realize that even if we were wrong for each other, you were still a big part of me.
I stand up and reach into my pocket. Clenched in my fist is a medical bracelet, the kind they give you when you’re checked into the hospital. My name is printed, last name first, in bold capitals, and beneath that is my date of birth in smaller numbers. Also stated are the date that I was admitted and the attending physician.
I stare at the bracelet, trying to discern some meaning from it. I almost wish that it told why I had been in that place, so that when I let this little piece of plastic drift off with the tide, someone will find it and know exactly who I am and what I was. I want them to understand, and this will offer them no understanding.
This bracelet won’t tell them that I was admitted to the psychiatric ward when I was sixteen, or that you lived inside of me like a second person. It won’t tell them of all the sessions with the shrinks, all the medications they adjusted, or the radical treatments the doctors used just to erase the voice in my head. They won’t know that you were the only friend I had growing up, and that the day the doctors took you from me was the worst day of my life.
There is a pen in my pocket and I take it out, flipping the bracelet to its reverse side. I prop it against my palm and write, “I wish they hadn’t cured me” in neat, bold capitals. The pen disappears back into my pocket. I continue to stare at the bracelet in my hand.
The doctors took you away from me, but I never asked them to. I wanted to keep you forever, as my other half and my sometimes savior. You didn’t deserve to be killed, to be turned into something as insubstantial as the foam on the ocean waves. You deserved to live within me, to live as a part of me.
I deserved to keep you.
I close my fist around the bracelet for just a moment, kissing my fingers and muttering something that might be a prayer or might be a curse. Then I fling out my arm and open my hand wide, tossing us both into the ocean to be swallowed up by the tide.
You and me, that’s where we belong. I don’t care if the sea foam is dead Mermaids, or trapped Unicorns, or if I think of whale urine every time I look at it. We belong in the tide, we live in the tide, and that’s where we are now.
On the drive home, I turn on the radio to fill up the silence that used to be yours.
©2009 *MBryn
You can find this piece on her Deviant Art account, along with her other incredible work: We Live in the Tide
Thanks for visiting, MBryn!
Technorati Tags:
MBryn, short story, Victor Valley College, award winning story
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Author Brandilyn Collins
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing
Exposure Zondervan (June 1, 2009)
by Brandilyn Collins
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Brandilyn Collins is an award-winning and best-selling novelist known for her trademark Seatbelt Suspense®. These harrowing crime thrillers have earned her the tagline "Don't forget to b r e a t h e . . ."® Brandilyn's first book, A Question of Innocence, was a true crime published by Avon in 1995. Its promotion landed her on local and national TV and radio, including the Phil Donahue and Leeza talk shows. Brandilyn is also known for her distinctive book on fiction-writing techniques, Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors (John Wiley & Sons). She is now working on her 20th book.
In addition to Exposure, Brandilyn’s other latest release is Always Watching, first in The Rayne Tour series—young adult suspense co-written with her daughter, Amberly. The Rayne Tour series features Shaley O’Connor, daughter of a rock star, who just may have it all—until murder crashes her world.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Someone is watching Kaycee Raye. But who will believe her? Everyone knows she’s a little crazy. Kaycee’s popular syndicated newspaper column pokes fun at her own paranoia and multiple fears. The police in her small town are well aware she makes money writing of her experiences. Worse yet, she has no proof of the threats. Pictures of a dead man mysteriously appear in her home—then vanish before police arrive. Multisensory images flood Kaycee’s mind. Where is all this coming from?
Maybe she is going over the edge.
High action and psychological suspense collide in this story of terror, twists, and desperate faith. The startling questions surrounding Kaycee pile high. Her descent to answers may prove more than she can survive.
To read the first chapter, go HERE.
“More twists and turns than a Coney Island roller coaster! Highly recommended.” ~CBA Retailers
“Mesmerizing mystery…authentic characters…a fast-paced, twisting tale of desperate choices.” ~TitleTrakk
“Brandilyn Collins is a master of suspense, and Exposure is her best book yet!” ~Dianne Burnett, Christianbook.com
The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0310276438
Exposure Zondervan (June 1, 2009)
by Brandilyn Collins
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Brandilyn Collins is an award-winning and best-selling novelist known for her trademark Seatbelt Suspense®. These harrowing crime thrillers have earned her the tagline "Don't forget to b r e a t h e . . ."® Brandilyn's first book, A Question of Innocence, was a true crime published by Avon in 1995. Its promotion landed her on local and national TV and radio, including the Phil Donahue and Leeza talk shows. Brandilyn is also known for her distinctive book on fiction-writing techniques, Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors (John Wiley & Sons). She is now working on her 20th book.
In addition to Exposure, Brandilyn’s other latest release is Always Watching, first in The Rayne Tour series—young adult suspense co-written with her daughter, Amberly. The Rayne Tour series features Shaley O’Connor, daughter of a rock star, who just may have it all—until murder crashes her world.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Someone is watching Kaycee Raye. But who will believe her? Everyone knows she’s a little crazy. Kaycee’s popular syndicated newspaper column pokes fun at her own paranoia and multiple fears. The police in her small town are well aware she makes money writing of her experiences. Worse yet, she has no proof of the threats. Pictures of a dead man mysteriously appear in her home—then vanish before police arrive. Multisensory images flood Kaycee’s mind. Where is all this coming from?
Maybe she is going over the edge.
High action and psychological suspense collide in this story of terror, twists, and desperate faith. The startling questions surrounding Kaycee pile high. Her descent to answers may prove more than she can survive.
To read the first chapter, go HERE.
“More twists and turns than a Coney Island roller coaster! Highly recommended.” ~CBA Retailers
“Mesmerizing mystery…authentic characters…a fast-paced, twisting tale of desperate choices.” ~TitleTrakk
“Brandilyn Collins is a master of suspense, and Exposure is her best book yet!” ~Dianne Burnett, Christianbook.com
The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0310276438
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Photo Tuesday - Self-Esteem
How critical is self-esteem?
For each and every one of us, it determines how far we'll go in life.
"Our self-esteem is the deciding factor in whether we succeed or fail in life. It is an intangible possession of incredible power. What exactly is this internal force and what shapes its attributes?
"Self-esteem can be described as a sense of personal worth. It is self-respect, confidence, and genuine joy on the positive side and self-doubt, worthlessness, and unhappiness on the negative side. Our ability to handle situations and accomplish goals is determined by the amount of self-esteem we possess. At any given time, this can also fluctuate between sufficient amounts or serious deficiency...
"A good self-image is critical to long-term success. If we are to live a life filled with joy, achievement, and a sense of worth, we must cultivate a positive image of ourselves. Even if our lives were overwhelmed with negative contributions, we can raise our self-esteem. Once we recognize this fact and acknowledge the need and desire for improvement, we can begin to make the necessary changes.
"Beginning is half the battle. If your self-esteem resides in the negative, only you can make the decision to change that fact. Once you have opted to modify your self-image, you are ready to take the next step and start leading a life enriched with personal value, fulfillment, and genuine joy."
- from "Overcoming Obstacles with SPUNK! The Keys to Leadership & Goal-Setting" by L. Diane Wolfe
* * *
I know where my self-esteem used to reside and it was one of my greatest struggles. What about you? Is your self-image where you want it to be? Do you possess the required confidence to accomplish your goals? Or are you still seeking that inner peace...?
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