Along with that, Athol recently posted a note on his blog from Terri Blackstock that I'd encourage you to read as well. A thought-provoking and grace-filled challenge to us as voters in the coming elections.
Here's Athol's introduction to Terri's guest blog post:
Terri Blackstock does not blog, but recently I saw a copy of an important email she sent to several friends, and asked if she would offer something similar here. To my delight, she graciously agreed.
Terri is always doing something gracious. For example, although we had never met, soon after the publication of my first novel she took time out of a busy book tour schedule to have dinner with my wife and me, along with my mother who was a big fan. I will never forget the encouragement Terri offered me as a writer that night, the amazing humility she displayed by treating me, then a one-novel author, as if I was a peer, and the powerful sense of God’s guiding hand I felt as she spoke of her recent decision to risk a well established writing career for the (then) very risky proposition of Christian fiction.
Writing for houses such as HarperCollins, Harlequin, and Silhouette, thirty-two Terri Blackstock titles had been published and 3.5 million books in print when she decided to switch to Christian fiction. At that time the Christian fiction market was untested, and the quality of the novels available was mostly very poor. It was a huge risk for her career, a true leap of faith. But Terri felt a calling and obeyed.
Since making that decision, she has sold 2 million novels and over thirty titles that explore faith in Jesus Christ, many of which have been number one best-sellers. Her latest book, True Light, reached number one on the Top 50 of all Christian books the first full month it was in stores, and Night Light was the winner of the 2007 Retailer’s Choice Award for General Fiction. You can learn more about Terri’s journey by reading her testimony on her website. But first, here’s what Terri wrote…
Click here to read what Terri wrote. And please take the time to read Athol's blog too. Excellent!
Now, to the very important task (ahem...)of sharing some Jack pics!
I've got a window in my office and Jack has his "chair" that he lazes in as I write. If the weather's nice, I'll open the window and he lies there and watches the birds and the squirrels, or tries to attack (then lick to death) the UPS man as he comes up the walk. Ferocious little Silky! ;)
Thanks to those of you who asked about him recently. He's doing great!
P.S. I just noticed that Jack's pictures are larger than those I posted of my kids. Oh brother...I'll never hear the end of this!
