Alaska Adventure #2...

As we continued our amazing research trip into the interior of Alaska, we had the privilege of seeing one of Alaska's (and the United States') most incredible sights. The Alaska Pipeline.







And another part of our interior Alaska trek was North Pole, Alaska. Here's a great picture of Julee at Santa Claus' House hugging a giant stuffed Polar Bear.




North Pole, Alaska is where our characters' are from in NO SAFE HAVEN. This deliciously yummy croissant french toast is from a little cafe' in North Pole and probably the best french toast I've ever had!




Guess what this is? Any idea how much mail they receive here every year? Take a guess...



Julee, myself, and Karen at the Cafe' North Pole - which will be featured in Book #2. The research was oh, so hard...




This trip was full of great memories, but more than anything - great friends. This is one of my best friends, Leah. I miss her.



Keep watching for more pictures and fun stuff from our trip back to our beloved Alaska...

From Kayla's Perspective #4 - REVISION RAMBLINGS

UGH!! Revisions, schoolwork, swimming, crit group chapters. Where has the day gone?

As we travel down this amazing-ly busy, terrib-ly funny, tiring-ly draining, and genuine-ly crazy path, (since this is a blog I can use all the “LY” adverbs I want, LOL) I realize what “not enough time in the day” really means. (“Sleep? What is this sleep you talk about?”)

Also, now Mom and I have a new challenge, a puzzle: Taking apart and then putting back together our story. (Duhn, duhn, duhn, duh!) Otherwise known as, REVISIONS.

“Let me splain… No, too much, let me sum up…” (Come on, you’ve gotta love The Princess Bride) we’re each making a separate document for our character's scenes so that we can re-tweak them, finding out where to add new scenes, which then means going back and labeling all the old ones. Whew.

Confused? Don’t worry, so am I! But I’m just going along with it, Mom knows what to do, so I’ll just follow her. Again, LOL. (It's a good time to only be 12+1 years old. I don't have to have all the answers.)

Being a writer is hard work, which is why I always keep my stash of M&Ms close by. FYI-M&Ms work magic when writing! And sweet tea, sweet tea’s great too. You’ve gotta be prepared when going onto the battle field, right? (Just go along with it.)

Then again, every once in a while it’s nice to sit back and relax, ya know? Most of the time that means watching a movie (like Bolt, Up, or The Ultimate Gift) or reading a book (like one of The Dragon Keeper Chronicles or The Chronicles of Narnia).

But no matter how relaxing that is, it’s still a job to do revisions! (Revisions themselves aren’t the bad part, the bad part is when you over-do your editing and destroy your scene. How do I know? Just trust me, I know.)

But, it’s always fun when Mom comes into the room (In that moment it’s like angels start singing the Hallelujah chorus) and she starts making me laugh.
(Just a little piece of valuable info here, Mom and I are both very silly and love to laugh at each other’s mistakes, for instance as I was writing “Most of the time that means watching a movie or reading a book” above, I put “watching a book or reading a movie”.) Hey, you’ve gotta at least chuckle!! Come on, chuckle… you can do it… come on…

I guess that’s just how life is though, full of surprises, trials, laughs… and confuzzling sentence skeletons (Ick). But, at least I know that I’ve got God, so what am I worried about? I may do horrible in my worst subject, (English, are you surprised?) but I guess that’s what perseverance is for, right? (Nod your head so I know you’re paying attention.)

Little voice inside head also known as Holy Spirit: BE THANKFUL!
Me: Yes, sir.

Oh! I think I hear lunch calling me, it’s saying “Kayla… eat me…” echo, echo, echo. (Have I succeeded in making you smile yet?)

I guess I’ll go eat lunch and then get to my Revisions, Math, and English (woop-a-dee-doo… hint, hint).

Have a wonderful day and God bless!
-Kayla
Remember: Bad things aren’t the only things that happen in life so thank God for your blessings (yes, English included), even when you’re down in the dumps.

Book Cover for NO SAFE HAVEN!!!!!!!!!!

WOOHOO!! Check out our amazing cover for Book #1 - No Safe Haven - releasing March 15, 2011 from B&H Publishing Group!

We're Ba-aaaaack!!! Alaska update #1

Whew! I don't think I will ever catch up. Ever. Again. LOL
I've taken a little break from "social media" to get a breather and regroup (and recover from the crud I picked up on the way home.) :)

The kids and I are back from our incredible trip to Alaska - it was full of breathtaking scenery, tons of research, great friends, and our amazing editors/friends Karen Ball and Julee Schwarzburg. So, to give you a little teaser, I'm going to share a few pics and a little about our trip...

We arrived in Anchorage and I had several speaking engagements and radio interviews. These first two pictures are from an incredible school - Grace Christian - in Anchorage, where the kids were amazing and SO much fun.





About a week into our trip, we were joined by Karen and Julee. The first day we headed down the Seward Highway (one of the most beautiful drives in the world) and snow followed us the whole way! But it was beautiful!



After breathtaking Alaska weather, we headed toward Trapper Creek up the Parks Highway as we chased "The Mountain" - (I'll explain in a minute) - This picture is outside our cabin in Trapper Creek.



Chasing "The Mountain" - is attempting to get as close as you can to Denali (Mt. McKinley) the highest mountain in North America, and "seeing" it. Denali in native Athabascan means, "The High One" - and true Alaskans only refer to it by its original name. (There's a LONG story behind that one...)

Anyway, we chased the mountain from Anchorage, (hundreds of miles away), because the mountain was "out." But sadly, by the time we got to Trapper Creek, it had draped itself in clouds once again.

Karen and Julee were very fortunate though... Many, MANY people come to Alaska and never get the opportunity to see Denali, but as you can see below - we chased him down and we saw hundreds of views of this massive mountain.


Josh and Kayla had a blast posing for pictures and telling Karen and Julee all about their favorite parts of Alaska.



Did you know that Denali is actually the tallest mountain in the world from base to top? Everest beats it because of elevation...



In the picture above, we're still a good 50 miles away from Denali. In the foreground, you see Karen and Julee hiking up to a lookout point (during the summer, that's actually a parking lot they'd be standing on). Isn't it amazing how massive the mountain is? And it's surrounded by other massive mountains...

Stay tuned, more pictures and Alaska fun facts coming in the next blogs...

Off On Another Adventure...

Alaska here we come!
Be watching for pictures and updates as Kayla, Josh, and myself take a research trek back up to our beloved Alaska with editors Karen Ball and Julee Schwarzburg. I'm SO looking forward to learning and growing as a writer under these two amazing women.

Now that No Safe Haven (first draft) is done, we're havin' a ball working on the details for book #2. Lots more details to come, but we are excited to share our writing journey with you all.

So... Stay tuned! We'll have LOTS to share with you all in the next few weeks...

Well Done… My Slightly Good and Partially Faithful Servant?

***Note from Kim:
Kayla wrote this blog last night and it blew me away. Out of the mouths of babes... has no better meaning than this. I pray that you are blessed, encouraged, and hopefully even have your toes stepped on. I known mine have been. And I'm thankful for it. Remember, this was written by Kayla, not me. She's twelve. I hope I continue to learn from her. Wow.
***

Have you ever wondered why God made you? Have you ever questioned Him about His intentions and motivations??

There’s no need to question God about these things… you just need to ask yourself them. We know that God knows what He’s doing. But what are WE doing each and every day?

What are your intentions?
What are your motivations?
Why are you on this earth?

But the biggest question (that will basically answer the rest) is:
WHO ARE YOU LIVING FOR?
On my personal blog, Dragon Claws, Dog Paws, Swimming Laws… I told of an adventure of my heart that I had, ever since then I’ve been trying harder to live FULLY for God.

I mean, think about it: EVERY thought and EVERY motive and EVERY action is, whether we want to admit it or not, for ourselves. We're selfish.

Really, think about it.

If you were to die right now, or if Jesus were to come this very minute, would He be able to say, “Well done my good and faithful servant” or would He say, “Well done, my slightly good and partially faithful servant?”

Really dig deep inside of yourself and, like I said, question your motivations and intentions.

Did you think about it?

Now, I’m not going to go into detail about how and why you should live for Christ, I’m sure you already know. (If you don’t, then try reading the Bible) :) But I am going to say this:

If you are not FULLY and COMPLETELY DEVOTED to Christ, you cannot truly call yourself a Christian. Most people call themselves Christians because they go to church or simply because someone in their family is one, but seriously. We all know that’s not true. The thing that everyone in this world misses is:
WE ARE NOT ON THIS EARTH FOR OURSELVES.

We are here for a loving God who was kind enough to not only create us but also give His Son as a symbol of faith, assurance, love, righteousness, and devotion.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”
Or in other words
“Devote yourself to God and He will devote Himself to you”

If you give God the chance to rule your life moment by moment and step by step, I can guarantee that your life will become that much better. (Not easier. But better.)

And you will have an even happier life in heaven because you can live up to God’s “Well done”.

It’s okay if you’re scared to give everything to God, we all want to grab onto our earthly desires and wishes and hang on, but I can assure you that life will be SO much easier if you just give God your EVERYTHING. After all: when you invite someone into your house, do you leave them standing in the foyer or do you invite them in to talk to them and feed them and welcome them?

If you give devotion to people, how much more devotion should you give to God?
I challenge you today to devote your life FULLY to God.

Trust me, it’s not going to be easy.

You’ll have to ask Him almost every moment of the day to take your life again and mold your life and heart into what He wants it to be.

But, like I’ve said before… IT IS SO TOTALLY WORTH IT.
At least try it, even for a few minutes. I am positive that those few minutes that you give to Him will be the best few minutes of your entire life.

I hope God uses some of the words in this blog to change you. I just typed what He put into my mind, so…
Have a nice day, and God bless.
-Kayla

From Kayla's Perspective #3

From Kim:
So many people contact us on a regular basis about how Kayla does certain things with her rare nerve disorder. Well, this past month was no exception. Kayla and I are writing our novels together, and she overheated a few weeks ago (which can be life-threatening.) But, I'm thankful to say that she is recovering well. She's still really tired, but her sense of humor is still intact. She's amazing. Here's a little note from her perspective about the ups and downs of writing when you hit a speedbump:

From Kayla:
Once again, I learn how much of an adventure writing can be within the tight confines of life. (Especially when you have a rare nerve disorder and overheat at swim team.) {Smile.}

As you might’ve already guessed, life is a wee bit crazy at our house. You should have seen us when Holly lived here, but that’s another story.

Anyway, the fact is that when you overheat at swim team—when you’re not even working all that hard-- things get a little bit strange. (Especially when you can’t feel pain and can’t tell your mom how it feels.)

Yes. I know this from experience. A few weeks ago this fascinating event happened. LOL Since then, we, my Mom and I, have been attempting to write while I try and get some rest. Again, LOL. But, it’s just a little weird trying to write when you’re tired, or in some cases even asleep. (I don’t suggest attempting the latter. Doesn’t work well.)

One thing’s for sure: when I overheat, I get really tired. Which means sleeping for eleven to fourteen hours at night and then taking a two-three hour nap that evening.
Like I said, I don’t sleep-write. Personally, I don’t really think anyone does. {Smile.} Although if I did, I would probably come up with some very interesting stories, don’t you think?

So I guess I’ll just stick to writing while I’m awake, if that’s okay. Jesus, writing and swimming, what a life. {Smile.}
-Kayla