SNEAK PREVIEW – Hoonah, Alaska book soon published!

Well, I got the proof for the cover of Surviving the Storms: Real-life Stories from Hoonah, Alaska this week! It is the third book I’ve project managed, published by Good Catch Publishing , where I serve on staff. (Click on the graphic to read the back cover copy.) It is an edgy dramatic narrative compilation of seven true stories. I do not write the stories – I work with a freelance base of 20 incredible writers from around the country, and with the storytellers and the clients who commission our books. Surviving the Storms should be out by mid-October and available on Amazon for $14.95. (We are always looking for good dramatic narrative writers who like to interview people and write their true stories. For more information, go to the Good Catch Publishing website, bottom righthand corner of Home page.)

Good Catch Publishing has published over 70 books and two were from churches in Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin’s hometown! They are: Though They Walk Through the Valley with a picture of the Mat-Su Valley on the cover (where Wasilla is located), published for Wasilla Assembly of God. And Velocity: Moving at the Speed of Life  was published for The Church on the Rock. Both were published just a few months ago, in Dec 2007, before hardly anyone knew Sarah.  One is the church Sarah supposedly attended for quite a while before she became governor so the people whose stories we tell may have been friends of hers from church!

We are currently working on another Wasilla book which should be published before the end of the year. You should be able to find many of our books on www.Amazon.com and our website.

Welcome to Marla’s Blog!

So glad you came by!!!

 

Thank you so much for visiting! 

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- Blessings!
Marla

Out of Her Hands Book Launch!

Please come celebrate with us! This is Megan DiMaria’s second book release in 2008; the first was Searching for Spice. This debut, Out of Her Hands is real fiction, with real characters living real life.

Cycling Heaven, Part 2 – Tooling around Frisco, CO!

I remember only about three years ago when Dillon lake was a pitiful sight – half the water was drained leaving ugly brown scrub and mud. The Colorado drought dried up our tourist-loving waterways and lakes. It warmed my heart to see the clear blue water lapping up all the way to the edge of the Marina during my bike ride.

 

 

Of course I have to include this photo of the lighthouse at the Frisco Marina. Don’t laugh, those of you who know me! Since I collect lighthouse replicas, it is only proper that I collect one on my blog!

The women’s mentoring group that I have been participating in for over three years (seven of us on the leadership team at this time – you’ll learn more about this crazy group as time goes on) has acquired quite an affinity for tandem bikes; it is a wonderful metaphor for us. We ride Tandem with Jesus – let Him take the Captain, or front seat, in our lives. We also ride the tandem journey with some awesome younger women.

Sept 6 Open Book Ministries had our very first fall First Saturday gathering and I was given the role of sharing our “illustrated message.” Vicki Bustos and I called all over town trying to find a tandem bike to use as a demonstration. We could not find one anywhere! We came very close to strapping a brand new one on top of Vic’s SUV – but didn’t. You can read the essence of my message, titled “When Riding Tandem, Somebody Has to Be Second!” HERE – in which I faked it in Marsha Dunn’s back yard using my regular mountain bike and a clip art of a tandem bike with its two riders atop taped to the cross bar!

So, you can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw this bicycle shop in Frisco that was actually selling its rentals from last year. One of the salesguys (he may have been the owner, for all I know) enthusiastically answered every question I had about tandem bikes. They had two different kinds. The one pictured here is  a model that has been on the market for only three years. It is a new concept in tandem riding: it is designed for an adult and a child, and the child sits in the front. That almost blows the concept of having the Captain in front, as I talked about in my presentation at First Saturday – except for the fact that the child has no control over the steering or brakes. It makes a lot of sense to allow the child to be in front so he or she can actually enjoy the view.

So now we know, ladies, where we can rent a tandem bike!

CUTE ALERT!!! As I was leaving the bike shop, a cart of 3-year-olds rolled by! One adult was pushing this darling custom-made wagon while another walked alongside.

“How did you get so many little ones?” I asked.

“These are kids from our day care,” one of the proud adults answered. They agreed to pose for a quick photo before rolling on down the street, probably for lunch and a nappy.   

This is a typical creature carving you’ll find in these mountain town resorts.
Mr. Moose here is perhaps larger than most.

It was getting close to 4 p.m. and I needed to head back to Copper Mountain to turn in my bike rental. But before I did, I saw this hilarious sign posted in one of the retail shops:

Do you notice the fine print? They even have a web site: www.TheEvilPineBeetle.com! My family has had its share of warding off Evil Pine Beetles at our small historic cabin in Allenspark! See the post about Tree Dudes, dear husband Chet and Steve Nuss as they cut over 125 trees one weekend last spring. (Only a few of them were actually beetle-infested. We were working with the local and state forest service to prevent the problems that have occurred on this side of the mountain.)

Finally, it was time to head back to Copper Mountain. I did not realize that my 25-minute journey downhill to Frisco would become an hour-and-a-half huffing and puffing bike trek back! Needless to say, I did not make it in time to turn the bike in before the shop closed at 5 p.m.

 

 

 

Cycling Heaven! Part 1…

Knowing how much I love to ride, Chet rented me a bike on Tuesday while he was working the RMRPPR Trade Show in Copper Mountain. I didn’t get a chance to use it until that afternoon as I needed to work on my books for Good Catch Publishing.

But at 3:00 Mountain Time, I was whizzing across Highway 70 to catch the bike trail from Copper to Frisco. What breathtaking scenery on a perfect fall day! From trailhead to trailhead, it was 7.6 miles of bike path flanked on one side by a rushing creek and on the other still ponds with Canadian geese, yellow-green aspen, evergreens and mountainside rock.

“I LOVE THIS!” I kept saying to noone in particular, thoroughly enjoying to ride. “This IS THE LIFE!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took me only 25 minutes to get to Frisco.  Good thing I enjoyed the cool breeze, colors and natural surroundings on the way down…little did I realize I would be heaving and heaving up the hill for an hour and a half pedalling mostly in gear 1-1 on the way back! Payback time!

As I entered Frisco, I saw a very peculiar sight…rock creatures to my left and right! Either space aliens landed in this pristine mountain area and decided to create self-portrait sculptures…or some bored kids were having a bit of fun! I tend to think the latter…

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one even has the ring in its snout.

Riding through Frisco on the path reminded me of my walks with Jan Tennyson, Director of Dare to Dream Children’s Foundation. We holed up for several days in one of the gorgeous mountain homes banging away at Part One of her Dare to Dream book. We worked hard, ate good food and took walks around the lake and on the path. Frisco is a darling little resort town. I fantasized what it would be like to live there year around.

Who would have thought that one would run across a Cart o’ Kids wheeling its way down Main Street? And guess what Open Book Mentors and Mentees – I found two different kinds of Tandem bikes to rent – or buy! Also, took a refreshing walk around the Marina. Many of the boats were moored there, but quite a few the owners had pulled out of the water and parked in winter quarters. AND – most surprising of all – I discovered, in an effort to ward off a very serious problem that has ravaged the landscape, the quirky humor of the small mountain town folks …

All these and more in the next blog entry! (Awwww, shucks!!!)

Chet Works the Trade Show

While I am having a blast traveling the stunning colorful fall bike path and exploring the small mountain town of Frisco, CO, my dear husband Chet is working his heart out at the Rocky Mountain Region Promotional Products (RMRPPR) tradeshow. (I will have to say, I worked my job as book project manager for Good Catch Publishing on my laptop in the condo until late lunch time.)

He bought a box lunch for both of us, so I snuck over around 1 p.m. and sat with him for a while, munching while Chet helped customers.

Chet is a manufacturer sales rep in four states – Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona – for several lines of sporting apparel. The two lines he was showing here were his top-producing line, Holloway (whose corporate office is in Ohio) and the fast up-and-coming fun line, Boxercraft.

Although it is hard to trace product sales to a specific show or road trip, Chet felt really good about this one: he said he got to talk to a number of people interested in the apparel.

It’s a wonder I actually got Chet to pose for a photo – and SMILE!!!

Hiking in Copper Mountain, Part 2

 

On our hike, Chet and I viewed the beautiful town of Copper Mountain, built around a ski resort from the mountain across the highway. Though the tourist center tries to attract people for the summer sports, such as bicycling and golf, Copper Mountain’s mainstay is still the winter ski season.

As we neared a forest area on our path, an interesting homo sapien confronted us. At first, it looked like a soldier wearing fatiues with mud on his face, carrying a weapon. We soon learned this was Bob and here at 10:30 am, he was returning from an unsuccessful day of bow hunting.

It is archery season here. Bob says 15 years ago he decided he wanted to hunt elk, but took up this method for more of a challenge.

“I heard one bugling this morning,” he told us. “But some horse outfitters who travelled the trails recently must ‘ave mostly scared ‘em off.” Bugling, for those of you who may not know, is when the male elk call out for females during mating season. It also happens to be hunting season.

The day was perfect, with a refreshing cool breeze blowing; the sky was chrystaline blue, no clouds. The air smelled a bit musky. At first Chet thought that could be elk scent, then ruled it out. A stereophonic buzzing filled the air all around us, especially up the mountain. Very loud grasshoppers? Chet thought they were dragonflies and my DH even gave a poetic description: “neon lights burning out.”

The rocks were very colorful and had more character than any other mountain rocks I’ve encountered.

Sadly, this resort area has not esaped the brown that has blemished so much of the green Rocky Mountain landscape. Pine Beetle infested trees.  In the next entry, I’ll tell you of a humorous way the mountain community is fighting the epidemic the end of the month…

Hiking in Copper Mountain, Part 1

Chet and I hiked along the beautiful Gore Mountain Range on Monday! It was a perfect, cool day, in the 60s, with the sun warming us at an altitude of almost 10,000 feet.

Why are we here in Copper Mountain? It is Chet’s annual Rocky Mountain Region Promotional Products (RMRPP) show, where he brings his Holloway and Boxercraft wares to show to distributers. (He’s a manufacturer’s rep for several lines of sporting apparel.) And Chet invited me to come with him.

He made reservations for us to stay three nights at the Passage Point condos. Since we are in the off-season – between summer vacations and winter skiing, and just before  the full-fledge colorful burst of the Rocky Mountain fall colors, it is almost deserted here. Only four restaurants are open in the entire village.

The RMRPPR show itself would run only 1 1/2 days – half a day for set-up, Monday afternoon, and all day Tuesday. Because Chet and I had some extra time Monday morning, we decided to go for a hike.

The trail ran along I-70. As we crunched along the gravel path, a cool breeze tickled our long sleeve shirts. To our left were small shallow ponds. The aspen trees nestled among the pines were hinting at changing color; most were green with flashes of gold.

 

 

 

 

 

The photos speak for themselves, wouldn’t you say?

While walking along the path, we encountered an interesting character. In the next post I will TELL ALL!

Kudos to the Faithful Bloggers!

I congratulate those of you who faithfully add to your blogs day after day! It ain’t easy! I have written a thousand blog entries in my head since I started this blog in May! Very few of them have made it into WordPress.

I don’t like to write simple entries. The insatiably curious journalist in me will not leave well enough alone; if I start writing about something – say, the interesting color of the rocks in Copper Mountain, I want to know how they got that way. Was this town founded on mining copper? Do companies still excavate? How many tons of copper were lifted from the place at its peak? And as I observe the rocks seem to be more extraordinarily colorful and striated than other rocks I’ve seen throughout many hikes throughout Colorado, I want to know if that is merely my imagination, or if I have discovered a true gem of information.

See what I mean? I can’t leave it alone! Then I have to go out on the web, searching and searching till I find these answers. And, of course, in the process, I will discover many other nuggets (no pun intended!)

And, of couse I want YOU to know what I know, I so I add links to these websites. I also realize that if I were to actually write out all the information I find, my blog would be way too LONG – one of the cardinal sins of blogging. And besides, I’d like to give you the option of clicking on the link – or not. You may not care like I do!

Do I have the time to do that? It entails not simply downloading photos, but putting them in the computer and logging them in so I know where to find them later.  And  of course, uploading them into the blog; a blog entry without photos is a boring blog! No matter how fantastic  the writing, people like pictures! Since I carry my camera around almost everywhere (got a huge purse for that very reason), taking the photos is not usually the problem. But taking the right photos, the photos that illustrate my blog points, now that takes some thinking! Or I have to write my blog around the photos I took. This takes some storytelling technique. Plus – and this is where I get hung up the most – do I know where my downloading cable is to download the photosrrect spot on my hard drive with the correct labels so I can find them later. (This is a photo I took yesterday while hiking with Chet in Copper Mountain. More about that later – if I can get around to it!)

And even though you may have the latest and greatest computer equipment and internet connection, it may still be painfully slow waiting for even one image to upload! You get tired of finding other things to do while you wait!

Phew! By now, no matter how many times I’ve written that blog entry in my head, the chances of it getting into my blog are very small!

Can you relate AT ALL???

Maybe not.

Which is why give those of you who actually complete a blog entry a CYBER STAR for your faithful blogging!

DNC – A Cup of Cold Water!

What a blessing it was helping out at the One Church Metro Denver booth at the Democratic National Convention in Denver! Jude and Cindy Del Heirra of Confluence Ministries did a fantastic job coordinating 60 churches! We gave out cold, refreshing cups and bottles of water, as well as sunscreen, to delegates traversing quickly from the Convention Center to the Pepsi Center, picked up trash around downtown. And some awesome bands played great worship music.

We had a fantastic location, thanks to the winner of the draw by Orchard Road Christian Center! Jude and Cindy and friends set up three “watering” booths and a registration area for volunteers. The bands, which played from Sunday through Thursday day and night, were situated right in the middle of the park. The bike path went right around the band area, so cyclists got to enjoy music as they rode around the little square seating area!

I can’t tell you how many times delegates and other convention goers, with sweat pouring down their faces, gratefully took the cups of water, thanking us for being there. Many from states near sea level were not used to having to stay so hydrated in the Mile High City and were unprepared.

DARN! I tried to send photos from my phone and they didn’t come over! I will have to settle for this photo from the American Chronicle!