Laura Domino's Guest Post

Thanks so much to all of you who took the time to answer my questions from yesterday. Some of your answers were really touching, and I so appreciate the encouragement.

Now for today--here's the guest post from Laura Domino, one of the "caption winners." Kind of ironic, what her post is about. Another real encouragement. When she wrote this, she had no idea of the post I had planned for yesterday.
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Dear Brandilyn,

You get plenty of letters from readers (mostly good letters, I’ll bet). I’ll try to keep this from being fan mail. I’m glad my humor won an opportunity to speak out what I’m sure many of us think about you: You are a funnel of God’s love.

As uniquely scary as your books are, they’re still Christian Fiction and show God’s love to anyone who picks up one of your books.

So in an effort to give back to a special author who gives to so many people, I decided to tell just a tiny bit of how God has blessed me through you. I’m sure others will speak up in the comments section to alert you to moments that were special to them.

1. Getting Into Character: I’ve read your non-fiction to get myself in position to write credible, emotional scenes. I didn’t get it all the first time through, so I read it again and studied the parts that were difficult for me. I enjoyed the workshop CDs you taught on how to write, but the book is a little closer to my desk than the CD player. I do refer back to it occasionally.

2. Your Blog: I’ve read it from the beginning and felt the love you have for your BGs. I’ve learned a lot from the various posts on craft and the publishing business and everything else. The dentist story is hilarious. Haven’t we all felt a little uneasy about going to the dentist? Your story opened our mouths not in practicing our “Ahh”, but in hearty laughter. And when we heard of your foot injury, I’m sure most of the BGs prayed for your comfort and quick healing.

3. Your Web Site: I’ve read your story about the Lyme disease healing – and spoke with DiAnn Mills about how the wheelchair got away from her and Kathleen at Mount Hermon while you were still fighting off Lyme. Aside from the funny picture I get in my mind at your description of the runaway wheelchair (was that in the blog?), I know that was a difficult time for you. Right now, many people are fighting off Lyme disease while they deal with questions from people like me who know (knew) nothing about the disease. Your web article and blog posts about your experience help to educate others and bring an awareness about it.

4. Kanner Lake series Scenes and Beans blog: I was especially thrilled to be a part of the series blog. I loved the idea of a character blog. Coming up with ideas to write about was challenging, but fun. I kept track of the characters as they had their say. Easy as it was to picture the whole gang in Java Joint, Bailey’s establishment, I knew they were characters. I pulled myself away from wondering what Bailey was doing when others were typing in their blog posts. So cool to include a novelist (S-man) in the story. So cool to have a real gift shop in the story. So cool that I got to be a part of the blog.

So let’s hear from the rest of the BGs now.

Thanks, Brandilyn!

In love and unity,
Laura Domino

PS. I didn’t even say anything about how much fun you are as the Emcee of the ACFW conference.