By Debbie Kaufman

You’ve seen the shows. Woman who devotes her every waking hour to coupon clipping? Anxiety attacks at checkout if one coupon fails to go through? Shelves of cereal, diapers, toilet paper and every condiment known to man back home already?

Well, that’s not me.

Oh, I used to be a coupon fiend, just not to that extent. However, when my four children were young, I always saved at least 15-20% or more at the grocery. Most items in my overstuffed buggy had a matching coupon in my hand.

The fact is I rarely buy anything at its regular price. Anything.

And, if it’s a big purchase, I usually research the heck out of it to know the best/most reliable item. For example, when I bought my last used car over ten years ago, it was the convertible of my dreams. I researched convertibles, found out which models had few to no known defects, zeroed in on the model I wanted, and then watched the classifieds for a deal. When I finally found it, I ended up with a ten-year-old BMW 325CI convertible for $3000 under book prices. It’s now twenty years old and needed its first major repairs last year.

It was a two year process for me to make that purchase.

I tell you this to illustrate that I love a bargain. A quality bargain. And I’m usually patient about getting one. So, when I went looking for a treadmill recently, it should come as no surprise to you that I researched well before I purchased and eventually bought a new, under warranty Sole F65 treadmill from the Sears Outlet Store in Morrow, GA.

And thus we come to when a bargain ISN’T.

After only one workout, the treadmill belt hesitated, jerked, and shut down flashing a code that Sears, who holds the warranty service for the first year or so, couldn’t identify. However, they would be willing to send a technician out, just not for 14 days.

I’m surprised you couldn’t hear me screeching after I got off the phone.

Long story short: I talked to the manufacturer who diagnosed the problem, called Sears back and scheduled the service, got a technician who agreed to ship parts ahead. Oh, yeah, did I mention they were originally sending a guy to diagnose the problem WITH NO PARTS to fix it AND that it takes 4-10 days every time they need a part. Let’s not forget that they are only shipping three of the four parts that the manufacturer says it needs because their computer knows better. At best, my new treadmill will be working in two weeks. At worst, it could be months.

Why not just return it?

My husband signed the paperwork when I ran off to pick up the grandchild from school. It specifies NO RETURNS unless their technician says it isn’t repairable. When I read that, I wanted to throw up. I will never purchase anything from a Sears Outlet Store every again.

What about you? Ever bought a “bargain” that wasn’t? A purchase that turned into a nightmare? Share with us today and I’ll send you a signed copy of my first book, THE DOCTOR’S MISSION and a $10.00 Starbucks card for one lucky commenter to drown their sorrows in caffeine while losing themselves in my African jungle setting.

By Debbie Kaufman

Tis’ the season.  Okay, I can say that now that Thanksgiving is officially over.  Typically I refuse to think of any other holiday until the turkey is a vague memory.  But, once the last slice of pumpkin pie has hit my thighs, I start in on my Christmas gift-giving list.  This year I’m slow off the mark since it is my release month and somebody still expected dinner and all the trimings.

Whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year, you’re probably like me and tasked with a lot of the buying.  Every year I struggle with the gift-giving for the same two people.  And, like me, I’m betting you too have at least one difficult person to buy for every year.

The first is my younger son.  The problem?  He has no dependents, disposable income, and a strong impulse to buy what he wants when he sees it.  Oh, I know what he likes and would want, the problem is that he’s already bought it.  Heaven forbid I should buy that new video game and put it under the tree cause its twin is already in one of the game consoles before my credit card has finished the full swipe.  Gift cards are my friend.

The second is my husband.  He has most tools known to man, and even if he didn’t, I wouldn’t know a useful tool if it threatened to ratchet me.  The other problem is he doesn’t want anything for himself.  Problem solved, right?  Wrong.  Apparently I can’t handle him not having a present to open when all the rest of us are busy ripping paper.

So, I’ve found a compromise that makes both our hearts happy and gives back to others at the same time.  Perhaps it is one you can use too.  I give my dear one a charitable donation every year in his name.  I can’t begin to tell you how excited he is to know that some village somewhere got a goat or a chicken or a sewing machine in his name.  He lights up like a kid who just saw Santa’s sleigh fly off the roof.

There’s nothing wrong with toys, books, clothes, electronics, etc. on your gift-giving list.  However, if you have a difficult person to buy for or someone who is devoted to a particular cause, giving a gift in their name might be the solution.  My husband feels he has

Gospel for Asia-$25.00

enough stuff and would much rather I spend the money where it would do some good.  And it follows along the family devotion to missions and outreach (www.debbiekaufman.com/missions )

I haven’t decided what barnyard animal he’s giving or what missionary might receive a lantern or a bicycle in his name, but below are a few of my favorite donation sites.  Feel free to share yours.  Or tell us what you do for that difficult to shop for person on your list.

www.gospelforasia.org

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

www.compassioninternational.org

Monkeys, malaria, and cannibals. If you’d asked me when I first started writing, I probably would have sworn an oath that these things wouldn’t be found together in any book I was writing. But today is the release of my debut novel, an inspirational historical adventure, The Doctor’s Mission, and it has all three and more. I consider it a bit of “Indiana Jones meets missionary love.” To order a copy, paper or Kindle go HERE, or for paper or Nook, go HERE

If that isn’t a strange enough twist, then let me add one more. As I’ve been researching China missions for a future book, it’s stirred up a lot of memories of Divine events that happened to me while I did some relief and adoption work in China back in the 1990’s. And one particular memory has surfaced with an interesting tie to my eventual writing of Pastor/Missionary William Mayweather’s and Dr. Mary O’Hara’s African adventures.

To tell you this story, I’m going to have to tell you a bit of an odd thing about me—After I became a Christian at age 14, I had a series of very specific visions that have come true either literally or figuratively as I saw them. Each vision turned out to be a game-changer in my understanding of the future events once I was in the middle of them. Each vision has been 100% accurate and only two remain unfulfilled.

And no, I didn’t have a vision of this book. Not at all. I was firmly planted in writing suspense. The Doctor’s Mission began, I thought, with a sweet gesture on the part of my daughter and son-in-law, bringing me a book they thought I might find interesting, a book with a rather provocative title–Before We Kill and Eat You. It was a true story of a pioneering missionary and his wife in 1918 Liberia, Africa.

After I finished the story one evening while in reading in bed, I remember turning to my husband, who was sitting next to me working a Times crossword puzzle (in pen), and rather passionately telling him about some of the missionaries’ miraculous experiences. (Not exactly the kind of passionate talk my husband was expecting. For the record, I don’t recommend bizarre talk about cannibals as a romantic incentive, but that’s another blog post entirely.) Finally I said, “I wonder if I could set a romance there.”

Next thing I knew, I was knee-deep in Liberian missionary accounts and The Doctor’s Mission went from a spark of an idea to a 75,000 word inspirational historical. To read an excerpt, go HERE:

I’ve always given credit for the story to exactly those events. But now I’m asking myself if that was really the very beginning of the story of how I came to have a passion to write about this subject. In some ways, I’m no stranger to missions, at least the short-term version. Missions have always been one of my passions. But unlike Dr. Mary O’Hara’s medical focus in The Doctor’s Mission, my focus is orphans.

My first mission adventures, a series of four separate trips to China, took place in the 1990’s. And just like Dr. Mary O’Hara, I jumped right into a country where I knew little, didn’t speak the language, and yet with every twist, turn, God was with me. (Yep, that’s another blog post, or two, or fifteen entirely). Unlike Dr. O’Hara, I didn’t have a trusty companion and my romance hero was at home with our first three kids.

Part-way through my first trip, I was put on a train by the orphanage in Yangzhou (the one where child #4 eventually came from) to travel to a neighboring town. The train itself was old, like something off a Western movie set. Soon we left behind highly-populated, smoggy cities for lush rolling fields, making innumerable stops at rural train stations where vendors came to your window selling bottled water and food.

Despite all the incredible things that had happened to this point, I was exhausted and homesick, and even worse, tempted to get on a plane, cut the journey short and just go home. As we pulled out of the station on one of the last stops, the landscape changed dramatically.

When it did, I sat my tired body up with a renewed energy and stared out my window. Every fiber of my being began to quake as the vision I’d had as a teenager, one of myself on this exact train, looking out the window with this exact scenery, came flooding back to me. Not déjà vu, mind you, but a vision I’d described to my husband in detail many years before. I know the other passengers wondered why tears began to stream down my face while God spoke to me and said that this was my destiny.

I went on to finish out what else God had planned on that trip with a renewed energy and sense of purpose. That trip ended with one of the last adoption programs that China would accept for many years to come being established. Less than six months later, trip number two ended with a beautiful 10 month old girl in my arms, and similar experiences for the adoptive parents I took with me on that and two other trips before handing over the reins to an in-country representative.

Many wonderful things came out of that adoption program (its still operating today), but why, you ask, is this related to a book set in 1918 Liberia, Africa? Because that trip ignited a spark in my heart for missions, one that eventually found a renewed passion in writing about missionaries and their experiences. Yes, it’s different. The trip was orphans and bureaucracy while the book is medicine, romance, and cannibals. But the passion is strangely the same.

Did The Doctor’s Mission start with a “chance” exchange of reading material, or was my passion for missionaries a product of something long before? A part of destiny perhaps? I know what I think, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide. Have you ever felt you knew something was destined in your life? Or have you ever been on a mission trip? Have you found something life-changing you are passionate about in life?

Answer any one of these questions or just leave me a comment below and I’ll enter you into a drawing today for a copy of The Doctor’s Mission!

This is just part of the story of how The Doctor’s Mission came to be written. You can read the first part of the writing story HERE:

The second part here: HERE: and I told more about myself and the story recently HERE:

I just returned from this year’s Georgia Romance Writer’s Moonlight & Magnolias conference, and, as always, it was wonderful.  Out of the multitude of things I took away from this conference, I found a lot of things pertinent to me since my first novel, The Doctor’s Mission debuts November 1, 2011. But all of these five items are things you need to know, published or not.

#5. Editors and agents all want the same thing: The interesting thing is that they aren’t looking for something following a so-called trend. Trends seem to be disappearing and genres balancing out. What they all want is a good, quality story.

#4. All authors, both aspiring and published, need a quality headshot: Among a lot of other brilliant tips, Author Susan Carlisle (Heart Surgeon, Hero…Husband?) pointed out we all need professionally done headshots. No, not the one your cousin, husband, or critique partner took. Then use it to brand yourself on your website and all social media. Not sure what to look for when getting a professional headshot? Then read HERE

#3. The main goal of using social media is to drive traffic to your website: According to the amazing Kim Castillo, Romance Author’s Best Friend using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media should ultimately result in more traffic to your website. Once readers get to your site be sure navigation is easy and your site is up-to-date.

#2. There’s an 80/20 rule for social media: Don’t spend more than 20% of your online social media time promoting yourself. Instead, find like-minded authors and cross promote each other. For the other 80% find interesting things to say about your life besides the fact that you painted the bathroom. Or at least make painting the bathroom funny and interesting.

#1. You get the most bang for your conference buck at small, well-run regional conferences: If you’re on a budget, or if you’re the type to get lost in the crowd, you can’t beat a smaller conference. Find one with a great editor/agent lineup and speakers you find interesting. Next year’s Moonlight and Magnolia’s conference has Julia Quinn for a keynote and always has a diverse list of top editors and agents.

Be there! Did you attend this year’s M & M or another conference you really enjoyed? Share something you learned with the rest of us!

By Debbie Kaufman

This blog is about hearing voices.  Just not about the kind you need meds to stop.  And no, even though I’m a writer, it’s not about the characters clamoring to get on paper.  This blog is about that little voice that tells you something you need to do or not do, a place you should go or not go, an action you should take or not take.

Come on, you know the one.  It’s the voice you later regret ignoring, but don’t think it will matter at the time.

You can call that voice whatever you want, but I firmly believe it is God looking out for me.   And I sincerely wish he would take out billboard ads sometimes instead of that quiet little voice.

Cause maybe I would have paid attention to the billboard.

Yep, I failed to listen the last two times I heard it.  The first time was about my car.  Early 2010, I kept feeling like I should sell the classic 1991 BMW 325CI that I’ve owned for the last ten years now.  But in the ten years I’ve owned it, the only major thing I’ve had to do was to put on a new top when I bought it.  NOTHING but tiny, easily fixable by hubby stuff had ever happened.  And besides, I like my car.  So what if it doesn’t have cup holders (my only complaint).  Instead of selling, I reasoned away the idea by telling myself I probably just had the wants for something newer and I should just be content.

I lost some of my contentment after replacing the muffler, the air conditioner compressor, finding a part for the frame of the top, and planning for the soon replacement of the converter.

In my car’s defense, I was replacing all original parts on a 20 year-old car.  And yes, my convertible baby is a very well-made car.  But you don’t even want to know what those parts cost or the trouble it was to find a couple of them.  Or how those expenses almost literally couldn’t have come at a worse time.   Of course, the good news is I don’t have to worry about selling and replacing it, because it’s now in great shape.

     So about a month ago, I was on a writing retreat and I started hearing that voice again.  This time it was about buying a new laptop.  Yep, you guessed it.  I reasoned myself right out of it despite of its age.  In my defense, I’d just forked over a lot of car money and met several other unexpected financial needs as well.

But yesterday, I saw the blue screen of death.  If you’ve ever seen it, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  If you haven’t, pray you never do without backups.

Fortunately for me, the bluescreen hiccupped and my computer came back up.  I immediately backed up all files to a more current status and sat my husband down for a talk.

Anybody know a really good deal on a laptop?  Or have thoughts on what I should or shouldn’t get?  How about that little voice?  Want to share a time that listening or not listening made a big difference in your life?

NEVER CRY WEREWOLF

Author Heather Davis
http://www.heatherdavisbooks.com

Harper Teen

ISBN 978-0-06-134925-6

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal

From the back cover:

Moonlight can totally change your life.  And it all starts so simply. You. Him. The moon.  You’re toast.

Okay, so maybe Shelby has made a few mistakes with boys lately (how was she supposed to know Wes had “borrowed” that Porsche?).  But her step-mother totally overreacts when she catches Shelby in a post-curfew kiss with a hot senior.  Suddenly Shelby’s summer plans are on the shelf, and she’s being packed off to brat camp.  It’s good-by, prom dress; hello, hiking boots.  Things start looking up, though, when Shelby meets fellow camper (and son of a rock star) Austin Bridges, III.  But soon she realizes there’s more to Austin than crush material—his family has a dark secret, and he wants Shelby’s help guarding it.  Shelby knows that she really shouldn’t be getting tangled up with another bad boy…but who is she to turn her back on a guy in need, especially such a good looking one?  One thing’s for sure, that pesky full moon is about to get her into trouble all over again.

My take:

Never Cry Werewolf is the first book in the Never Cry Werewolf series by Heather Davis, a sweet young adult paranormal that delivers on realistic teen issues without being high on the teen angst meter.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which was a quick read at 216 pages.  The twist at the end was unexpected and a strong reason to download book two, a novella called Sometimes by Moonlight.  If you enjoy young adult fiction or have a teen in your life who loves to read, I recommend Never Cry Werewolf as a good addition to any reading shelf.

BY: Debbie Kaufman

Traditionally, January is the month of assessment, goal-setting, and new directions.  February or March is the next step: disillusionment and the return of old habits.  August?  Well for me, August is the month that checkpoints came into my life.

Recently, I’ve gone back to setting very specific goals in my life: goals for writing, home improvement, self-improvement, and especially goals for what I want out of life.  Unlike previous attempts, I’ve kept the goals small, doable, and focused.  Most importantly, I’ve finally learned that without moments of assessment and accountability, goals are practically useless.  So, I’ve built checkpoints into my life to keep me on track.

Now when I think about the word checkpoint, the instant word association is “Checkpoint Charlie.”  Yes, I know that

Courtesy of Berlincitytours.com

association labels me as part of the generation who saw the Berlin Wall fall and understood the full significance of that event. For those of you who have forgotten or never knew, Checkpoint Charlie was the infamous gateway between the two halves of Berlin.  Like any border crossing, this checkpoint was a time of intense inspection.  You either passed or failed, crossed over or not.

So, I’ve begun to utilize checkpoints by having an accountability partner.  Maybe you’re disciplined enough that you don’t need this, but I find that it is a lot harder to ignore my lack of progress when I know I have to report to someone.

How does it work?  For us, at the beginning of each week, we set our own personal goals for the week.  Mid-week, we check-in to report where we stand.  Week’s end, we report our success or failure.  Simple emails accomplish our communication, although we might also pick up the phone.  However, emails keep the chattiness down and excuses are more literally black and white.

Have you ever failed at making goals that are important to you?  Does your life have any checkpoints built-in that keep you focused and accomplishing what you want to do?  What works for you?

Change is in the air at my house.

No, literally.

The paint fumes are constant.

When I’m not writing, I’m painting.

Seems I got this bug to change things up, hoping to either make updates that might finally sell my house or just get it like I want it anyway and take it off the market.

I still don’t know which way that wind will blow.

The winds of change, however, have turned into more of the tornado of chaos.

Courtesy of NSSL

You know how it goes. At first, it was let’s just freshen up the paint. Then, it was more like as long as we’re painting, we could change some of the colors. Next thing you knew, I had a decorator consultation and she helped me come up with all new colors and a way to make some of my rooms work better for our family’s needs.

The good news is that her plan included using a lot of what I already own and repurposing it in ways I hadn’t considered.

The bad news is it meant changing out a few things beyond the paint colors.

I should have remembered from all those years of renovating the old Victorian we once lived in, that projects take on a life of their own: they grow, they expand, they take more time and money than you planned, and can really take over your life. What started as a simple desire turned into a full-blown project with me as the main contractor. Frankly, it reminds me of that Star Trek episode where the cute, furry little Tribbles just kept multiplying out of control.

So, have you ever taken on anything that went from a kernel of an idea or desire and found that your original plan morphed into Tribbles, totally taking over in unexpected ways? Share with us your story and I’ll award one contributor a signed copy of Celeste Bradley’s SCOUNDREL IN MY DREAMS, a goody from the recent RWA11 in NYC.

It wasn’t to be so.  At least not on the scale of the Jetsons.  Flying cars?  While my little convertible has a lot of get up and go, its only attempts at flying would likely get me a ticket from my local law enforcement.

Of course the Jetsons wasn’t really about flying cars.  To me, it was about all those time-saving devices at the Jetsons’ disposal.  So much in their life was accomplished at the touch of a button.  In a hurry for work? Sonic showers and dressing at the push of a button saved time every morning.  Carpool lines?  Just pass near the school and encapsulate your child for delivery.  Cooking dinner?  Just dial it up.  Cleaning the house?  Well, every household needs its own Rosie the Robot!

In some ways we do live the Jetsons’ lifestyle.  Electronic mail is slowly taking over items that previously came hand-delivered.  Dishwashers take on the daily chore of washing our used dinnerware and utensils.  There are even dryers that will text to say your load is dry.

Of course, the one thing from the Jetsons I always hoped to have was Rosie the Robot, and in one small way I do.  No, there’s no sentient robot managing my household, but I do have a small prototype that manages one part of my life.  The vacuuming part!  In a household with two large, shedding dogs, that’s a Jetsons’ moment.

Thanks to IRobot.com, my little piece of a Jetsons’ future is called Roomba. I simply program it with a daily schedule, watch it do its regular cleaning and dock itself to recharge, empty the dirt bin when it’s full, and enjoy a clean floor.  There’s still other housecleaning to do, but with my floors reasonably clean on a daily basis, I can focus on other things I want to do, like writing my second historical adventure or spending time with the kids and grands.  Now if they’d only come out with a sentient version that also grocery shops and cooks!

What about you?  Do you have a little piece of the Jetsons in your life?  Or maybe just a time-saving tip to save with us today?  I have a copy of a great new Love Inspired Historical, Hannah’s Journey by Anna Schmidt, to give away today to one lucky person who leaves us a great time-saving tip today!

Oh, and special thanks to The Jetsons Unofficial website, http://www.scarlet.nl/~ivo/, for the Jetsons’ pics and a bit of fun reminiscence.

Well, okay, not by my kids, they still expect dinner, lunch money, a babysitter for their children, and all that other mom stuff.

Alright, not by my husband who still expects three meals a day, a clean house (LOLOLOL), and someone who caters to his needs when he returns home from Zumba.

Sheesh! And not by my close friends who are all bored with the whole “my new book” thing. Hmm. Maybe I’m delusional about this idea that people treat me differently…

Basically, when it comes right down to it, only unpublished authors and contest chairs that need published judges really treat me differently. Oh, and the baker at my local cupcake shop who called her mom over to meet me one day.

Small wonder. I’m still the same person published as I was before the contract. What a lot of people want isn’t to worship at my feet, and thank heavens for that because I’m behind on the laundry and these could be yesterday’s socks. No, they want to know how I got to this point. And, more importantly, how can they become published too.

So here are all my tricks and secrets, well, except for the one about…oh, nevermind. I’m NOT telling that one. EVER!

TEN TRICKS TO FOLLOW ON THE ROAD TO PUBLICATION:
OR
What I did before the contract:

Wrote regularly: Developing the habits before you have deadlines is one of the more important things you can do. Ask yourself how many days, weeks, months since you picked up your WIP and wrote something?

Researched the business side: Read blogs, read books, research like a mad woman so you can avoid a lot of misunderstanding and mistakes. Talk to published authors. Where can you find one? Well, I…

Attended local RWA meetings: If possible, do this and learn. I rarely missed one Talk to the authors there, buy their books, and ask questions. No local RWA? Join one of the online chapters and read back through the message history. When you’re up to speed, contribute and ask questions.

Helped published authors: I listened for needs I could fill and genuinely wanted to help. For example, because I was familiar with blogging, I helped a published author and booked her blog tour. Not only did I learn the ins and outs of blog tours for myself, something I’ll use for my November release, but the author later offered to do a critique for me. I also worked with my local chapter and assisted with VIP’s at conferences. I was very careful not to ask questions or pitch unless asked to do so. Guess what? They appreciated that fact and asked me. Just be sure you don’t give just to get something in return. Do good and it will come back to you.

Listened to critique partners and contest judges: Okay, I did blow off the judges who’d obviously just skimmed me or something, LOL! But, I was always open to revisions. And I often used or modified things my critique partner, Sandra Elzie, suggested. The bottom line was I always listened to comments I received more than once, a sure sign I needed to change something. Even if I didn’t want to change it.

Chose my contests wisely: I looked for those with a good reputation for critiques. Sure, I won some, but the feedback was the most valuable part. Oh, and that Daphne finalist ribbon I wore at Nationals? Led directly to getting an agent.

Chose my agent wisely: I didn’t scattershot my work. I researched. And researched some more. And then I submitted. Never, ever, ever, submit to an agent unless you know they accept your genre and you’ve followed their guidelines. Period.

Sent the best product: I chose not to run screaming at the idea that I needed to fix something else in my story. Instead, I sucked it up and did it. After the writing was finished, I utilized my secret weapon—a husband who proofed for me and wouldn’t let me get away with anything in grammar, story consistency, anything. My official editor later said it was the cleanest manuscript she’d ever seen. And no, you can’t borrow him, but find someone with a good eye to do it for you.

Carefully chose workshops and conferences: The most helpful workshops to me? BreakIntoFiction and ones based on screenwriting. I did do Nationals, but I also faithfully attended GRW’s Moonlight and Magnolias, where I am a chapter member. Regional conferences are often the best bang for your buck. Just check the lineup before you send money!

Bought an editor critique on the Brenda Novak auction for Diabetes: No, I’m serious. I bid on a critique from a Love Inspired Editor with a meeting at Nationals. Lovely meeting. Never got a critique, instead I got a contract  My theory? Who better to get a critique from than who you want to sell to? Can’t afford the editor of your dreams? Look at the auction under author critiques – no, do a search on them at the auction because not all critiques are under that category. One I donated is here: http://tinyurl.com/3s3xcue Not your genre? No problem there are a ton more out there at www.brendanovak.auctionanything.com

Okay, these are most of my secrets. I know. There not really all that secret, are they? But which one is the most helpful to you? Or maybe you have some advice to add. I certainly don’t know it all. Comment away. Oh, and one lucky commenter today will win a copy of two current Love Inspired Historical novels.