Vacationing in Orlando

After the Advanced Writers and Speaker's Association conference and the Golden Scroll banquet, Hal and I enjoyed a few days in Orlando. We visited the Universal Resorts theme park and had a great time riding the rides for two days! Including getting totally drenched in Jurassic Park.

Then we spent a day at the Holy Land Experience, which was just plain awesome. If you ever get to Orlando, I hope you'll go. Here are some highlights:



Worship center before the Temple.

Worship starts every day here in front of the Temple. If you know me at all, you know that my passion is studying the Holy Temple, so it was fantastic for me to sit before this replica of it. I'm hoping to write what I've learned about the Temple, and there are some possibilities for doing so on the horizon which I am very excited about.

Me and Hal with a replica of the Jesus Boat at the Holy Land Experience.

Here is me and Hal, with Magnificent Hope, in front of a life-sized replica of the Jesus Boat. It was fun to see this since I recently wrote an article about this very Jesus Boat for www.FindingGodDaily.com.





Replica of first century Jerusalem with Herod's Temple

Here is a replica of Jerusalem just after the time of Christ. Of course front and center is the Temple where Jesus often visited, known at Herod's Temple. Of course it wasn't to worship Herod at all, but was so called because Herod the Great built it. Herod added greatly to the grounds. I'm sure you know the Temple is no longer standing, destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D., but the western wall is still there. One day this Temple will be rebuilt, according to Bible prophecies.

One place I couldn't photograph was the Scriptorium. If you visit the Holy Land Experience, you truly must take the hour tour of the Scriptorium. It is a museum of Bibles and their history. Most impactful for me was the Matthew's Bible with the brown stain smeared across it, which is the blood of the owner who was martyred simply for owning it.

It was a great trip and a fun place to visit. I hope you'll make the trip to the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida, some time soon.

Deliver Me a Finalist at AWSA's Golden Scroll Nonfiction "Book of the Year"

No way! Has it really been nearly three months since I posted to this blog?! It has been a busy, busy but exciting summer. Let me fill you in, but it will take several posts.

Waaaay back in my May 28th post I told you I had just learned that my book, Deliver Me, was selected as a finalist for the 2012 Golden Scroll Nonfiction Book of the Year award. The award is presented at the annual banquet hosted by the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association (AWSA). This year the banquet was in Orlando on July 15, 2012. It was wonderful to have Hal there with me for the first time on one of my business trips!

Hal accompanied me to the 2012 AWSA Golden Scroll banquet in Orlando, Florida

I felt so honored to be one of four finalists for the Nonfiction Book of the Year award! The other three finalist books were all published by well-known traditional publishers, so for me to be standing on that platform in front of about 150 agents, editors, publishers, and authors with my self-published book was a wonderful recognition of my book and its quality and worth to readers.

In then end we didn't win the award, but to simply be a finalist was huge. I was awarded a beautiful framed certificate by the founder of AWSA, Linda Evans Shepherd. It was a moment I will truly treasure for a lifetime.



Dianne with AWSA founder Linda Evans Shepherd who presented a certificate to Deliver Me
 for being a finalist in the 2012 Golden Scroll Nonfiction Book of the Year awards.

This was Deliver Me's second nomination for Book of the Year. Earlier this year Deliver Me won the Christian Small Publishers Association's "2012 Book of the Year" in the Family/Relationships category.

Thank you Linda and AWSA for such a beautiful award and for the wonderful recognition.

Finalist for 2012 Golden Scroll Nonfiction Book of the Year Award!

I just learned Deliver Me is a finalist for the "2012 Golden Scroll Nonfiction Book of the Year" award!

The Golden Scrolls are awarded by the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association.

Last month Christian Small Publishers Association awarded Deliver Me "Book of the Year" in the Family/Relationships category. I'm very excited and humbled!

Book Signing at ICRS and Radio Interview about Deliver Me

What a great trip I had! So much happened I'm going to be writing about it for several posts. I took a computer with me, but I was so busy I never got a blog posted.

My book signing on Monday went really well, I think. I spent the morning walking the aisles of the convention with my little fliers I'd made with the information about my book signing. It had a copy of my book's cover, the title, and then the book signing info:

Monday, July 11

BOOTH: #338

3:00 - 4:00

Christian Small Publishers Association Booth

I'd made 500 of those little fliers (four to an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet) and I was determined to hand them all out. I didn't make it. But I did hand out a bunch of them! My goal was to get enough business to give away all the copies of my book that I had brought.

The Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA) required me to supply 75 books. At this book signing (at ICRS -- the International Christian Retail Show) we don't sell books. We give them away. (Crazy, right?)

I was one of five CSPA authors. The others are David Hope, Peter Stanway, David Yanez, and new member Joy Schneider. We helped each other with our book signings by standing in the aisle with CSPA catalogs and directing passersby to the book signing.

Don't forget that I missed all the deadlines to be in the daily newspaper that tells which personality is signing which book in which booth at what time. (Yeah, now I'm a "personality.")

Anyway, my strategy must have worked because by 4:05, all my books were gone! I've got to hand it to the CSPA folks. They seemed to know that a person can sign 75 books in an hour. I had a couple of lulls, but that was it. I would guess that 90% of the people in my line were folks I recognized from handing them a flier, so it was good that I did that.

The response to my book has been tremendously positive. I haven't had a negative reaction yet. Whenever I tell people about my book, I can see their face light up. That's a good sign. Lots of people say the cover is "beautiful," and that's huge since people really do judge a book by it's cover.

There was another CSPA author signing right before me. So as soon as he got up, I sat down and away we went. And do know who stood in line to get one of my books? It was about the second or third person in line. I looked up and there was Cecil Murphey! I have stood in line at past ICRS shows to get one of Cec's books. To see him in line to get one of mine, well... I think that might have just been the coolest thing ever. It was because Cecil graciously gave me a scholarship to the AWSA conference that I was even at the ICRS convention. What a blessing that man is.

Then, I guess it was about half way through the signing that I looked up and there was another familiar face stepping up for one of my books. This time it was Linda Evans Shepherd. Now Linda is not only my friends, but the founder of AWSA (Advanced Writers and Speakers Association), and it was she who urged me to join the group and come to the AWSA conference and so I wouldn't have been there without Linda either.

And if all of that wasn't enough, David Yanez invited all these authors to be on his Internet radio show! And so after I finished my book signing, Linda Evans Shepherd, Joy Schneider, and I walked down to the media room and did the interview. You can listen in at David Yanez Ministries. Linda was interviewed first, and then me, and then Joy, so if you don't want to listen to Linda's, you can fast forward. My interview starts at about 17:30 and runs about nine minutes to approx. 26:45. I hope you'll take the time to give it a listen, link to it, and/or leave a comment.

That was only my Monday! It was a great experience. More highlights from my other days to come...