Joshua is improving now that he has started chemo. He is also doing radiation. He is talking some and eating soft food. He still has trouble ambulating due to left sided weakness and dizziness from the tumor itself. Pray that his spirits remain high despite all the set backs he has had. Everyday his mom has him say positive, uplifting things out loud to encourage himself. He has been moved from ICU to a room. He still has a long, hard road ahead of him. But he and his family are greatly loved and supported.

Miss you Josh and hope you are home and healed real soon!

prayforjoshua.com

Josh is my pastor's son. He is 14 years old and has an inoperable brain tumor. This family needs your prayers.Visit his website and leave a message of encouragement on the message board.Josh came home from the hospital Friday, but had to be transported by ambulance back to Egleston this morning. Lets claim total healing for this brave young man. Josh is a warrior and a such a free-spirit! So, please pray to whomever you call your Higher Power. And if you are not a prayer person, please send healing thoughts and good wishes his way. Hugs,Angie

What an F'd Up world in which we reside.













As quiet as it is in our lovely little town of Pine Mountain, GA, we have once again been touched by a national tragedy. Jamie Bishop, son of Sci-fi novelist Michael and wife Geri Bishop,was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old undergraduate senior majoring in English.

Fox News says this about Jamie:
Bishop, 35, wore his hair long, rode his bike to campus and worked alongside his wife in the foreign languages department at Virginia Tech, according to the Los Angeles Times. He was known for his gentle manner and generosity toward students.
"I don't think he was the type of person who had an enemy," Troy Paddock, a close friend whose wife also teaches in the German program, told the Times. "He was a very friendly person. He was a nice and helpful person."
The Georgia native was an avid hiker, movie and Atlanta Braves fan, and was said to be very popular with students.
"He was very outgoing, a very personable individual," Richard Shryock, the chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, told the Times. "He was someone who took teaching very seriously and was a good colleague to be with."

The media vultures have descended upon Pine Mountain, harrassing the locals for any little scrap of info they can unearth. Scavengers. Part of me understands they are just doing their jobs, but part of me absolutely abhors the intrusion.
I have kids the same age as some of those victims. My God. What a world.

The Amazing Jill Shalvis, Author Extraordinaire!

At least I think she is amazing and I'll tell you why....
Every so often an author come along who is both talented and personable.
One whose writing combines all the elements of a good story. Relationships, humor, strong primary characters, memorable secondary characters and engaging storylines.
To me Jill is an author of that caliber. But don't just take my word for it. Read any one of her books. She is one of my auto-buy authors...yes, she is that good!

And may I suggest you come visit her newly designed web-site and hang out on her highly entertaining blog when Jill share snippets of life as a glamorous, jet-setting member of the beautiful people. For daily updates, click here
http://jillshalvis.com

One of my personal favorites so far is "Aussie Rules." And I just found out, Aussie Rules has been nominated for a RITA!! Go Jill!! I'm not good at book reviews, so let me quote what Harriet Klausner had to say:

Melanie "Mel" Anderson manages more than just the North Beach Airport in California; she helps her employees and her business partner with their scrambled lives. To Mel this is her family though she misses her surrogate mother the airport owner Sally, who disappeared a few years ago.

Australian Bo Black owns the deed to the airport and plans to take control of it. He wants to find his father's missing plane and regain what should have been his except Sally conned his dad when they briefly married. However, his plan goes awry as he needs a revision because all he wants to do is sleep with the enemy who to his amazement he loves; even more shocking is Mel reciprocates Bo's deepest regard while everyone else thinks they make strange bedfellows while wondering if it is AUSSIE RULES or Yankee control.

The key to this fun contemporary filled with eccentric characters is the background North Beach Airport seems normal so anchors the delightful story line from veering to far from the tarmac. The war between Mel and Bo is fought on several fronts elating the audience as they skirmish in the skies, on the ground, and in the bedroom. Though the climax seems to gentle of a landing for such a zany soaring tale, Jill Shalvis rules with this fine battle of the sexes.


Her latest, which is on the top of my TBR pile is "Smart and Sexy". This is the first of a three book series featuring Noah, Shayne, and Brody, running an exclusive air charter service named Sky High Air.

Smart and Sexy is Noah Fisher's story. Again, not my words:

Noah Fisher has worked for months to make Sky High the most prestigious charter airline in California. He’s long overdue for a break - something involving ski slopes, cold beers, and hot ski bunny babes, not necessarily in that order. The itinerary doesn’t include being hijacked by Bailey Sinclair, gorgeous widow of one of Sky High’s wealthiest (ex-) clients. But here they are, and being crammed in a cockpit with the scared, stubborn, unbelievably sexy former model he’s been fantasizing about invokes Superman tendencies that could get Noah in serious trouble.

Bailey is desperate to find the stash of money hidden by her conniving, thieving late husband - before the bad guys he owed find her. It’s a long shot, but nothing compared to the gamble she’s taking by being so close to Noah. Every minute in his company has Bailey thinking about doing crazy, reckless things like touching, grabbing, kissing… Suddenly, seat-of-your-pants seems like the only way to fly.

I know you want more, so click here for an excert:

http://jillshalvis.com/excerpts#excerpt12
So now that you know about the fabulous Jill Shalvis, go forth and purchase!! Smart and Sexy will be a good start, but once you have read Jill's entertaining brand of story-telling I know you will on a back-list hunt for the rest of her titles!

You know the old saying, "If it's not broke, don't fix it?" Thats kind of how I feel about authors who develop a huge following for a series they are writing. When they first hit the scene, all their releases are paperback, (i.e. affordable). Once the PTB discover they have a cash cow on their hands, new releases are all hardback. And unless I can coerce my local librarian into purchasing the HB, I have to
beg, borrow, or steal until the PB release comes out. (Luckily she likes me and knows I have good taste in reading material)
Do you know how much I hate that? Unfortunately, when it comes to books, I am an instant gratification kinda gal. And until I get my hands on that book, I feel like I am missing something.
Like there was a party and I was the only loser that was not invited. *sigh*
Welp, it looks like another of m auto-buy authors has been thrown on to that bandwagon.
And don't get me wrong, I am extremely happy for Ms. Harrison (can I call you Kim? I feel like I know you.... :) ) The general population equates HB to credibility, which in turn means better visibility, better promotion by your publisher, increased revenue and better book sales. (or at least I assume so, I'm no publishing insider!)
That being said, anybody want to lend me Kim Harrison's newest, "For a Few Demons More"? It releases on 03/20/2007 and if it is as good as her previous installments, we are in for a treat.
Now where did I put the number to my library?

This is a new-to-me author and I am spreading the word!
Also see my myspace blog for the same meme.

http://blog.myspace.com/angie_lah

The VISIONS OF HEAT meme
1. Which psychic power would you most like to possess?
The power to read minds. Although my spawn swear I already posses that ability.Being an empath would probably be ok, though. Running around reading minds all the time sounds like it might be exhausting.

2. If you could see the future, what would you like to see?
Do my spawn ever learn to make a bed or put away laundry?

3. Imagine you woke up one day and could shapeshift - what would you shift into?
One of my dachshunds..Think about it. Sleep all day. Get taken on walks. Have tennis balls thrown for you when you wanted. Get cool doggie treats and yummy dog food (of which I only eat the little tan squares and bone shaped pieces, leaving the big, brown round pieces untouched) I can think of worse ways to spend a day....

4. What kind of a paranormal creature would you invite over for dinner if there were no limits on who you could ask?
I already have dinner with two teenaged boys every night. Any paranormal creature would be an improvement.

5. Which future innovation do you wish would hurry up and get here already? i.e. flying cars, a transporter, computers with artificial intelligence, an auto chef?
Auto chef sound cool. Then my spawn would stop complaining that there is nothing to eat in the house.

This meme was begun by Nalini Singh to get the word out about her next book, Visions of Heat http://www.nalinisingh.com/visions (releasing March 6). Want to play, too, and enter to win a $50 Amazon voucher plus an ARC? Click here http://nalinisingh.blogspot.com/2007/02/visions-of-heat-meme.html for details.

The small miracle that is Chai Tea....(from this point on to be known as CT, since I am too lazy to actually spell it out every time.)Could it be only a year ago that I discovered the joys of CT? So much so that it has almost rivalled my obsession with all things coffee? I just came off of a 21 day fast where I gave up caffeine, all processed foods, white rice and flour, bread meat, candy and junk food. (It was a church thing)Basically it was a vegan diet and guess what? I didn't hate it! And my cholesterol levels actually dropped to normal AND I lost ten pounds! What does this have to do with CT, you ask? The first thing I broke the fast with was CT. It was like a little slice of joy......The worst part of this whole fast thing was giving up coffee and tea. And ok, bread and pasta, after all I am Italian and you know how we love our carbs. But I did find a really good whole wheat pasta that I topped with a nice Puttanesca sauce. So, if you have never had CT and you enjoy things that taste slightly like pumpkin pie, go forth immediately (if not sooner) and indulge. No, no. No need to thank me.Just sharin' tha love.

One Freaky Picture!

Okay, how weird is this? I cannot imagine that kind of cold. I get frostbite in 40 degree weather...not really, but I hate the cold!

I just read the best book ever. Deborah Smith's "Crossroads Cafe". It was awesome. This is how her website describes it:

A beautiful woman, scarred for life.

A tortured man, seeking redemption.

Brought together by fate in a small town high in the majestic Appalachian mountains.

Live. Love. Believe.

What are you waiting for?? Read it!