C.J. Redwine

1. Last week was wild, incredible, and exhausting (but in a good way). 2. The Skip A Starbucks Day fundraiser brought in a little over 1/2 of what we need to raise, which is AWESOME! 3. If you donated, blogged, tweeted, emailed ... thank you. Those two words are truly inadequate in the face of how much you've blessed our family, but it's all I've got. 4. I'm leaving the donate button up on the sidebar because donations keep trickling in. Again, thank you. 5. The only downside to being totally focused on fundraising last week? 6. The laundry saw my momentary distraction, whispered sweet nothings into the ears of my three boys ("Yessssss, go roll down that muddy hill, change your shirt, and then do it again! Your mom won't even notice!), and staged what shall hence forth be referred to as The Laundry Mutiny . 7. I realized the imminent danger with only hours to spare. Mostly because I had to be somewhere IN PUBLIC Sunday night and discovered I was going

First, I want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you who donated, blogged, tweeted, and went above and beyond to rally others to help bring our little girl home. I can't tell you how many times I had tears in my eyes as I read your notes of encouragement and saw the impact of my online community's incredible generosity. We raised fully half of what we needed to raise, and that is AWESOME. We've been so blessed by this. I can't wait to show Johanna my archived blog post one day so she can see how many people pulled together to bring her home. Now, I get the exciting task of announcing the winners of the Grand Prize Giveaway goodies! Yay! Prize Pack One : Harry Potter Boxed Set : Christina Gearheart Chest of Custom-made Soap : Lola Sharp Set of Signed Kris Kennedy Books : Jennifer Petitjean $25 Amazon Card : Dextra Chambers Set of Signed Kelly Gay Books : Kait Nolan Prize Pack Two : The Twilight Saga : Lyn Palmer Shadow Hills w/Signed Bookmark : Amanda

Thank you all who donated today during the MOCKINGJAY giveaway time frame! The winner (chosen by random.org) is: Kara Critzer ! Congratulations, Kara, and thank you all so much for your incredible support. More winners announced tomorrow so you still have time to enter the other giveaways. And yes, I realize you'd donate no matter what, but I do love being able to give back a tiny portion of the joy you've given us these past three days.

Weekend Update : We've now raised $4100! Our family is humbled and blessed by your support of our daughter's journey home. Thank you just doesn't seem to cover it! We still have $3900 left to raise, so I'm leaving the donate button up on the sidebar since donations continue to come in. Thank you again for caring about my daughter. Our Story : What do a skipped cup of coffee, a little Chinese orphan girl, and you have in common? I'll get to that in a minute, but first, I want to tell you our story. We had three biological boys in four years, and then I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. I had a hysterectomy and while I mourned the fact that I couldn't have any more biological children, I was certain our family wasn't finished. My husband wasn't so sure. :) I'd talked about adopting and I always saw us with a little girl from China. He came up with a ton of reasons why now wasn't the right time to adopt. Then, on Mother's Day of 2005, he

Starshine : I think it's awesome you want to save 100k from your birthday money to purchase a Ferris wheel for our backyard. On a related note, if you ever DO get 100k for your birthday, it wasn't me who cashed the check and went to Vegas. I promise. Acquaintance from years ago : If you don't bother to keep in touch with me, what makes you think spamming my facebook page with an ad for your new direct marketing business is going to be successful? Unless, of course, your definition of success includes me deleting you from my FB friends list. If so? Huzzah! Mission accomplished. Johanna : I finally get to see your picture in the next few weeks. I'm absolutely giddy at the prospect. New Employee : The spectacle you witnessed yesterday while I tried to simultaneously swallow soup, cough, and answer a question on my headset? That's just the tip of the iceberg. Consider yourself warned. Clint : What an amazing husband you are. Person who found my blog by searching f

1. I survived last week's foray into corporate training fun. 2. The fact that I got along well with my roommate helped tremendously. 3. Despite (or maybe because of) the fact that she liked to sniff Expo markers and refused to wear pants. 4. I have to clarify that statement (for her sake) by saying that while she didn't wear pants, she did wear skirts. 5. Very modest skirts. 6. I still promised her I'd call her the Expo-Sniffing Pantless Wonder on my blog. 7. I once had an apartment-mate in college who wore clogs. 8. And nothing else. 9. Every morning. 10. And she liked to pace up and down the hall while the rest of us slept, slapping her clogs against the linoleum floor and daring us to get mad enough to poke our heads out of our doors to be treated to an eye-full of HOLY COW PUT THAT AWAY BEFORE I'M TRAUMATIZED BEYOND RECOVERY. 11. Speaking of eyes, I had my annual check up with the eye dr on Friday. 12. You'll recall the last time I was in, he rol

Plotting Workshop : Workshop starts next week. Lessons are emailed so you can do the homework on your own schedule. Includes an intense 1 hour private brainstorming chat with me. I have TWO spots left . Grab them if you want them! Query Workshop : Starts in September. Includes multiple critiques of your query letter until it shines! Four spots left . *Please note that due to my uncertainty over when I'll be traveling to China, I'm not sure when (or if!) I'll be able to offer any more workshops in the next few months.*

As always, I used random.org to choose the winner of the beautiful glass slipper bookmark from author Kay Cassidy. And the winner is Heather ! Congratulations! Please get in touch with me with your address so I can forward it on to Kay. Thanks for reading!

1. Day one of Corporate Training Week of So Not Awesome has begun. 2. This time, I have an assigned roommate. 3. Which means any further run-ins with the bathroom door will have a WITNESS. 4. If she can't be bribed with lemon bars, I may have to ditch her body in the back forty. 5. Remember my earlier angst about the stunning lack of wifi in the area? 6. Turns out the hotel DOES offer internet service. You just need a special cord to access it. 7. So nice of them to offer me this magic cord LAST time I was here. 8. Anyway, this means I can bring you scintillating updates on prepackaged muffins, the Shuttle of Death, and hours spent shivering in an icebox of a classroom. 9. You're welcome. 10. In other news, I need to sign up for Goodreads. My friend and CP Myra McEntire's book HOURGLASS is now on there (It comes out next summer and you WANT this book. It is awesomeness squared.) I'd like to be a pal and add it to my reading list. 11. I just have to find th

I get to spend most of next week locked in a classroom all day, every day with virtual strangers doing my second mandatory stint of corporate training. This means several things: 1. I will be showering in a shower whose makers had never heard of the concept of slip-resistant floors. 2. Which means I get to spend 90% of my shower time bracing my feet on either side of the tub to avoid doing a stop, drop, and roll with no one around to call 911 and explain to my hubby how I broke my neck. 3. It (referring to my week of corporate training, NOT my graceless attempts at personal hygiene) also means I'm in danger of once again hitting myself in the face with the too-large bathroom door which SHOULDN'T be five inches wider than a normal door thereby tripling my chances of giving myself a black eye with an inanimate object, but which is, nonetheless, a nemesis not to be underestimated. 4. It also means I'll be choosing from prepackaged muffins, blueberry yogurt, or curiously f

*Please note that THIS is the post the dastardly blog thief stole while I was away at work on Wednesday. I hunted it down through the blogosphere and nabbed it for myself again with the clever use of stilettos, duct tape, and some really delicious tacos. Enjoy* I met Kay Cassidy in the spring of 2008 when we were both Golden Heart finalists. She was warm, generous, and intelligent, and I was so excited when she sold her debut book THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY to Egmont for release in spring 2010. A few months later, my book was getting attention from several agents, and Kay stepped in with an introduction to her agent: Holly Root. The rest, as they say, is history, and I'm forever grateful to Kay for her generous introduction to my agent of awesomesauce. :) When I started inviting authors to be interviewed on the blog, I couldn't wait to include Kay! Here's a peek at THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY: What's a girl to do when the glass slipper fits, but she doesn't want to we

This morning, I worked for an hour and a half putting together a post where the Were-llama interviews author Kay Cassidy. Tonight, I returned from work to find it was gone. GONE. Obviously, there's a blog thief in our midst who has absconded with my lovely post. THIS WILL NOT GO UNPUNISHED. I shall hunt down the perpetrator. Or, failing that, I shall work another hour and a half to put the post together again. Which would be just so awesome. I'd rather find the blog thief. And carve out his heart with a spoon.

1. I don't have very much time to devote to blogging today. 2. To make up for it, I gave you a picture of an Emo Goat. 3. You're welcome. 4. The other day, I was driving to work when I got passed by a tank of a Cadillac. 5. A GOLD Cadillac. 6. Did I say passed? I meant LAPPED. SCHOOLED. Sent home to my mama to sit in the box of shame. 7. The Caddy whipped past me (my hubby will tell you that's no small feat, but he LIES) and tailgated the car in front of me. 8. And I mean TAILGATED. With judicious application of horn honking and everything. 9. I got close enough to get a look at the driver while the Caddy languished behind an SUV showing the temerity to go 80 instead of the Caddy's preferred 120 and discovered the woman behind the wheel was pushing 80 herself. 10. Like Betty White with a death wish. 11. Sort of awesome, in a flirts with death sort of way. 12. Know what wasn't awesome? 13. The guy on the road a few weeks ago who was transporting a