the lonely crowd at Christmas

I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the word seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.

-Taylor Caldwell

It is possible to walk down Fifth Avenue in New York City with a mob of shoppers and window watchers on a Saturday afternoon during the Christmas season . . . to attend a packed church service to experience Handel’s Messiah . . . to stand in a long line at the local movie theater on the opening night of the latest holiday blockbuster everyone has been waiting to see . . . even to attend the neighborhood Christmas progressive dinner with people you know and greet regularly . . . it is possible to do all these things and still feel lonely.

David Riesman, a Harvard professor and prominent psychologist of the 1950s, described this “modern” phenomenon as being a member of the “lonely crowd.”

Christmas reminds us we are never alone.

If you are feeling disconnected, isolated, and alone in the world, well, you’re not alone. As easy as it seems to simply reach out to others, in our fast-paced, media-saturated, competitive, busy, self-centered, preoccupied society, really connecting can be an imposing challenge. Is it any wonder that so many people turn almost exclusively to the virtual world of cyberspace for dating, chatting, socializing, and experiencing relationships rather than savoring flesh and blood encounters?

Excerpted from the Simple
Blessings of Christmas.

You can do Christmas shopping online to avoid the crowds and connect with friends on Facebook, but you just can’t do Christmas by yourself. So even if you find yourself alone in a crowd at Christmastime, the spirit of the season—the One who came to bring peace to all people, to reconcile God and man, to lift up and redeem people from every walk of life—will touch your heart. Even if you don’t know how to reach out to Him or others, He will reach out to you.

What does it take from you? Nothing more than an open heart. Why try? You just don’t know how, when, where, and with whom you’ll realize you are not alone.

“The virgin shall be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means “God with us.”

Matthew 1:23

 

Christmas Teaches Us Gratitude

From the Simple Blessings of Christmas
Published by Simple Truths

Christmas day is a day of joy and charity. May God make you very rich in both.

 - Phillips Brooks

 There is a simple attitude that determines in our own minds whether we are rich or poor, blessed or cursed, and fundamentally positive or negative about life. To make that enormous of a difference, that attitude must be incredibly powerful. And it is. That attitude is gratitude.

One person gets a job and is thrilled to be a contributing member of a team—and to be paid for it to boot. Another person gets the same job with the same company and with the same pay and benefits and feels cheated. One person literally has a great job and the other has an equally crummy job. Why? The difference is an attitude of gratitude.

One teen looks under the Christmas tree, finds a simple and thoughtful gift from her mom, and knows she is loved; all that another teen can think about as he tears the glossy wrapping paper from the box is the new cell phone model he didn’t get. She had a great Christmas morning and got absolutely everything she wanted; he had a lousy Christmas and didn’t get anything good. Again the only difference was gratitude.

After a long pregnancy that generated more questions than congratulations; that nearly led to a marriage ending before it started; that included a painful and arduous journey; that culminated in her son being born in conditions fit for animals but not for humans, how did Mary respond?

Luke tells us that she “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (2:19). In Bethlehem, among the animals, she found joy. She could have complained that God was doing nothing good for her, that her husband was a lousy provider, that the innkeeper should be put in prison for denying her a bed in the house, but instead she declared the “great things” God had done (Luke 1:49).

This central Christmas story—and the joys and challenges of our modern holiday—remind us that gratitude changes everything. Whether there are gifts stacked to the ceiling with your name on them or you aren’t sure anyone is going to give you anything, stop and give thanks to God, the Giver of all good and perfect gifts. You’ll receive a special blessing in your spirit and discover you have everything you need.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17


1Q84 by Haruki Murakami - review

First things first. The title has nothing to do with IQ. The first character is the number 1 so the title is a play on George Orwell's 1984. Just in case you were wondering if I selected the title because of a possible correlation in title and my intellect!

If you aren't familiar with Japanese author Murakami, his novels are critically acclaimed - he has been awarded the Franz Kafka Prize, the Jerusalem Prize and many others - and are a fantastical mix of surrealism and a rich (sometimes dense) detailing of everyday life. He consistently deals with themes of loneliness and alienation and soul, the self and reality (and especially perception/imagination and reality). 1Q84 tackles all that and adds acute questions of the-ends-justify-the-means murder, religion and cults, destiny, sexual abuse, revenge, and parallel realities. Oh, it takes a while to catch on, but first and foremost, it is a love story.

Was it listening to Janacek's Sinfonietta that sent Aomame ("sweet pea") into another world with two moons? Did Tengo see the same two moons when he rewrote Fuka-eri's crude draft of Air Chrysalis? (And by the way, was that a story from the fevered imagination of a 17-year-old girl or was she describing things that actually happened?) Will either of them survive the revenge of a cult group called Sakigake and the brilliant and relentless pursuit of Ushikawa - a man with a large misshapen head that shouldn't be able to follow anyone without being noticed? And what of the "Little People" - who seem to hold special powers in 1Q84 and that seem to be looking for a bridge to 1984 - are they neutral or as malevolent as we suspect? And the big question: did Aomame and Tengo have to enter 1Q84 to find each other after 20 excruciating years of separation from each other and disconnect from the world around them? I don't think it's a spoiler alert to say that they became soul mates at age 10.

Enough. You're with me or not. If I've scared you off completely, don't run away before reading the last sentence of this paragraph. If you've read other reviews I've written what you might have already discovered is I don't actually review books - I recommend books. Sometimes quite different books.  I know Murakami is not for everyone - though 1Q84 sold a million copies in Japan alone - and I'll have to admit, it's not my usual fare. But I recommend this book for its dense, other-worldly beauty - reading it creates that curious sensation of wanting (even needing and willing) it to be done and to never end.

The original Japanese was publishing in 2010-11 and the English translation was introduced in 2011. I read the lovely boxed set (very reasonably priced on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and others) that was given to me as a gift by my son Merrick.

is micropublishing for you? (should I consider self-publishing?)

Micro Publishing from Mark Gilroy

the simple blessings of Christmas - already?

No - this isn't another article on how early Christmas decorations go up in retail settings.

I would like to give a quick promo to a book of 31 Christmas devotions I wrote a couple years ago. If you want a book of daily readings that focuses on the Advent season, this might be just what you are looking for.

And I would quickly add it has sold out the last two years by the end of November. I'm not confident it will be available to order in December.

It is available directly from Simple Truths, the publisher (a free gift card is included if sending as a gift), as well as Amazon and other online retailers.

Click HERE to enjoy a short inspirational "movie" that is on a DVD included in the book.

stay strong sean!

My son Zach and a group of his Ravenwood High School buddies met on our back porch this week to shave their heads as a sign of love and support for their classmate and great friend, Sean Karl, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

Sean is a star tennis player who has won the last three state AAA championships and is committed to play for University of Tennessee tennis team.

A Facebook page, Pray for Sean Karl, has been created to show support. Sean was recently received a message of encouragement on youtube from the world's top tennis player, Roger Federer.

Stay strong - and I know the guys would have loved if you could been there for the head shaving festivities!

first time to vote

This is my 10th time to vote in a presidential election, going back to Carter v. Ford. This is #1 for Zach. I'm proud he took the time to register and vote!

PEFS - presidential election fatigue syndrome

My first year to vote in a presidential election was 1976 - Carter v. Ford. I was a freshman in college and stayed up most of the night - at least until coverage ended, which was probably two o'clock or so - back when there were three main channels and a couple fuzzy ones that required constant fiddling with the rabbit ears or that UHF loop in the middle.

I really enjoy presidential elections. In fact, Amy and I held watch parties for all three presidential candidate debates and the VP debate that was ... uh ... well ... unusual. (I say that will all respect and a really big smile.)

I'm not a news junkie as a rule - unless its football season - but I scan a couple subscriptions and read a blog or article or two most days of the week. But during a presidential election campaign I have one of the cable news channels on almost every night and read a couple articles every day. I love listening to the pundits parse every phrase and analyze poll updates. In detail.

The problem with this election, the 2012 Romney v. Obama election campaign, is that it has gone so long. The GOP nomination process was closely fought and lasted until June - that contest started in earnest more than a year ago with what seemed like a couple hundred debates. As long as the Republicans stayed in the news cycle, good or bad, the Democrats weren't going to be left out of the conversation and were running political ads as early as late winter and early spring - basically long enough to have a baby.

I love this stuff and I even know who is going to win the election and why. But I'm finally there. I am tired of the campaign and am ready for next Tuesday to get here. I officially have PEFS - presidential election fatigue syndrome.

I'll still watch coverage and stay up  too late tonight. And tomorrow night. The cure doesn't arrive until November 6. Well, actually sometime around three or four a.m. on the seventh!

How the Irish Saved Civilization

How The Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. Anchor Books.

In 406 A.D the Rhine River froze solid - and the barbarians crossed this temporary bridge to strike one of the final blows to a lazy, corrupt, and aging empire. When Alaric, king of the Visigoths, showed up at Rome's gates in 410 A.D., the citizens still didn't know the end was at hand. Unable to defend themselves - it was a lot of effort after all - they negotiated a "sack" to spare the city from bloodshed:

"So they kept their lives, most of them. But sooner or later they or their progeny lost almost everything else: titles, prosperity, way of life, learning: especially learning. A world in chaos is not a world in which books are copied and libraries are maintained. It is not the world where learned men have the leisure to become more learned."

While working through Gibbons' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for my nightstand reading, I realized I needed a shorter "boost" to keep going, so I decided to reread Thomas Cahill's much heralded work that shows the disappearance of learning, scholarship, and culture from the European Continent from the fall of Rome to rise of Charlemagne. All the great works of western civilization would have been lost were it not for the fact that as the Continent became illiterate, one small "unconquered people" at the edge of the Empire were just learning to read and write - with gusto. As peaceful Rome turned to chaos, chaotic Ireland grew more peaceful - the key word being more. Following the lead of their eclectic and passionately spiritual patron saint, St. Patrick, and his spiritual son, Columcille, they built centers of learning that not only drew visitors from the Continent, but sent a wave of missionaries that restored and returned the Greek, Roman, Christian and even "pagan" classic literature to Europe.

Just a fun note or two on Patrick. He was not actually Irish. He was a Briton - "almost Roman" - that was captured, enslaved and brutally mistreated by the Irish as a young boy. Following a vision from God - like King David he was a shepherd and solitude and deprivation turned his thoughts toward God - he escaped Ireland and received a seminary education. But his heart beat for Ireland. In one of history's unique footnotes, he became the first missionary since the Apostolic Age. Also, he didn't drive snakes out of Ireland, but he did curb the Irish passion for violence - curbing the passions of that day for hard drink and, um, ah, for a liberated sense of sexuality, is another matter. One of the reasons Patricus was so well received by his one-time tormentors was that he may have been the only man to stand up to the Irish of his century and say, "I am not afraid of you, I fear only God." That they liked and respected.

I'm only one in a long line of many to recommend Cahill's short, poetic, sometimes rambling, but always charming narrative that brings history to life.

self promotion: I wanna talk about me

How many times can I work in a reference to Toby Keith's big hit, "I wanna talk about me"? Funny song and a great reminder straight from Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People - everyone wants to get a word in edge-wise. It also raises the question of self-promotion with people you know.

So when promoting your activities - particularly with friends - particularly in the social media age we live in - how much is too much? not enough? orjust right?

Be aware you will always get one of three responses:

• Anything you say to promote yourself will be too much with some.
• Others sincerely want to know what you're doing. 
• Still more aren't going to notice anything you say anyway - so who cares?

Of course some argue the issue on moral grounds, pointing out that humility is a God ordained virtue and boasting is sinful. The counterpoint is that followers of God should be bold and believe in what they are doing; they ask the question, if you don't believe in yourself and what you're doing, who else should and will?

There is obviously no single answer. You can already read my mind on the topic. My typical response: the answer is yes and no, more and less.

Better go with your own comfort level, but know you can't control your intended responses no matter how careful or capricious you are. My simple counsel - as much a reminder to myself as a word to anyone else - is:

1. keep a spirit of humility and sense of humor - your project is not the center of the universe or a matter of life and death for others - even if your cause is life and death.
2. do not overdo it lest you become a nuisance - the rule of thumb for Facebook and other high relationship networks is three times a week; Twitter unlimited.
3. same as general conversation, make sure you listen as much as you speak - do you know what others are up to?
4. if you are on social media, at least in part, to promote something you are doing, be sure to return the favor to others.
5. keep it "soft sell" as most people don't like to be pushed.

book review: istanbul passage: joseph kanon

Istanbul in World War II? Whose side were they on? Allies or Axis? No peeking!

I'll admit, until I picked up Kanon's post WWII novel I didn't know either. As a city straddling two continents with competing histories from the East and West, no surprise they were neutral.

Their geography also made it not surprising that they were a shipping and smuggling center for both sides. I was surprised to learn that for much of WWII they were the safest transfer link in smuggling Jews from Europe to Palestine.

Leon, an ex-pat American businessman - he buys Turkish tobacco -  has run low level operations - errands might be the better word for it - for the Americans and Allies. With Germany's surrender, he is asked to take on one more assignment. The more he is told how simple and safe it will be, the more he knows something big is afoot. He just needs to meet a small boat at the docks, take the passenger to a safe house, ask no questions, and deliver him to an airfield a few days later.

He escapes the ambush with the passenger alive - and quickly learns that the world political conflict has shifted between the US and Soviet Union. He has no one to trust - and both of the surviving superpowers, along with his Turkish hosts suspect he knows more than he is letting on.

Leon visits his Jewish wife - who is tucked in a sanatorium - every day - she hasn't spoken since a ship with children she was trying to save was sunk. Will he find answers in the silence?

Kanon is a great wordsmith - his almost drawl understated style ratchets up the internal highly reflective conflict of sorting through the shifting sands of friends and enemies on personal - and geopolitical - levels.

____

Mark Gilroy is author of the critically acclaimed novel Cuts Like a Knife. His second novel, Every Breath You Take, releases on October 23, 2012. A 30-year veteran of the publishing industry, he has served as publisher and executive vice president at several companies and currently runs a company that services retailers, publishers, ministries, and other organizations in the industry.

10 signs football is upon us

10. every morning at 6:30 your house's windows shudder and shake unevenly from the percussion section of local high school marching band practice - six miles away.

9. coverage of the US presidential election and European bailouts drop to pages four and five respectively when the USA Today NFL preview edition hits newsstands.

8. ESPN begins advertising the two-hour pre preseason special guide to new fall beer commercials.

7. a stack of decade-old-plus t-shirts your spouse, girlfriend or mom has been asking you to get rid of is carefully boxed and carried to the crawl space - and replaced by a box of decade-old-plus sweatshirts your spouse, girlfriend or mom had been asking you to get rid of that was carefully stored in the crawl space.

6. you are momentarily overcome by a light-headed giddy sense of euphoria that you won't have to watch any more baseball games to get a sports fix until the World Series is played sometime during football season in what appears to be blizzard conditions.

5. colleges and universities allow young people that are are into extracurricular activities like "pursuing a degree"and "hitting the library"back on campus in time for the first football game of the year.

4. you realize you know the first and middle names of every member of the offensive line of your alma mater even if you can't get first names of your own kids right every time.

3. ignoring pain from bunions and planter fasciitis you have your youngest child hold a football vertically on the ground so you can see if you can still kick a game-winning field goal as measured by the back of your garage roof.

2. you call your niece - at her father's and fiance's request - to see if you can talk her out of that Saturday afternoon wedding in the fall she is considering.

1. as you stretch out the inflamed rotator cuff and extend the half-locked knee joint, you think back fondly on all your old football injuries - even if you never played the sport.

____

Mark Gilroy is author of the critically acclaimed novel Cuts Like a Knife. His second novel, Every Breath You Take, releases on October 23, 2012. A 30-year veteran of the publishing industry, he has served as publisher and executive vice president at several companies and currently runs a company that services retailers, publishers, ministries, and other organizations in the industry.

book review: the long goodbye by raymond chandler

Once a decade I get an irresistible urge to revisit the hardboiled crime noir classics I was introduced to in high school but didn't appreciate at the time.

My latest binge included Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me, Kenneth Fearing's The Big Clock, James Ellroy's LA Confidential, James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, and two books from Raymond Chandler.


Particularly with Ellroy, Hammett, and Chandler, their anti-hero heros are troubled, rebellious, and cynical - but can't ever escape from that ember of honor and hope smoldering deep inside. The authors paint a dark, bleak picture of the underbelly of society - usually LA. Why LA? Why not LA? Where the lights shine brightest the shadows cast deep and wide.

Their outlook was shocking when they wrote their novels - especially Thompson when he wrote from the killer's perspective - but is standard fare today. (Today, you might need to write with a positive buoyancy to shock people!)

I still read crime novels, but I'm not sure anyone has really bested the patron saints, Hammett and Chandler. That begs the question, who had the greatest character? Was it Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe?

I like both characters - but Marlowe is my favorite and I believe he was at his best in The Long Goodbye - which just edged The Lady in the Lake in my mind.

Marlowe befriends Terry Lennox - wealthy but haunted by his demons from serving in war and by the escapades of his nymphomaniac wife. No good deed goes unpunished and soon both the cops and the gangsters are after Marlowe when he begins to investigate the death of Lennox's wife after being told to back off. Telling Marlowe to back off is like pouring gasoline on a fire.

Rereading Chandler is a graphic reminder that California has always had problems - and a guilty pleasure from an era of tough guys, dames in distress, partnerships between the gangsters and dirty cops, and the discovery that even heros have flaws.


__________
Mark Gilroy is author of the critically acclaimed novel Cuts Like a Knife. A 30-year veteran of the publishing industry, he has served as publisher and executive vice president at several companies and currently runs a company that services retailers, publishers, ministries, and other organizations in the industry.

what is your opinion of expressing political views on Facebook - a survey

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Distractions and Focus

Since we are surrounded by so many examples of faith, we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially sin that distracts us. We must run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up. We must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith. He saw the joy ahead of him, so he endured death on the cross and ignored the disgrace it brought him. Then he received the highest position in heaven, the one next to the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-3, God’s Word)

Hebrews chapter 11 is known as the “Faith Hall of Fame”. It provides a cast of characters that walked by faith and endured incredible challenges and disappointments, despite never receiving the full measure of reward they were expecting.

How did they do it? How did they overcome?

They kept their eyes on the prize. Their faith was empowered by an unwavering hope.

These first three verses of Hebrews 12 continue that theme. For Christians, keeping the faith in tough times happens by focusing on Jesus. Not only is he the “source and goal of our faith”—he modeled the very same focus in His life. When going through the agony of His death, “he saw the joy ahead of him, so he endured.”

In addition to a call to focus in these verses, there is also the command to get rid of the distractions that take our attention from what matters most. We live in a culture that is filled with distractions. Many of us have lost sight of what really matters chasing after things that are meaningless at best and destructive at worst.

What a great paradigm for walking in faith. But the twin commands to get rid of distractions and stay focused on what matters are great for almost every area of life, from business success in tough times to family unity when there are areas of disagreement.

What is slowing you down? What do you need to get rid of? What do you need to focus on? It will make all the difference in your life, no matter what you are enduring right now.

____

Mark Gilroy is author of the critically acclaimed novel Cuts Like a Knife. A 30-year veteran of the publishing industry, he has served as publisher and executive vice president at several companies and currently runs a company that services retailers, publishers, ministries, and other organizations in the industry.

what to do when you've been knocked down

the golden rule of twitter - and back rubs

Twitter numbers are huge and still growing. As of 2012 there were 500 million users, doing 350 million daily tweets, and conducting 1.3 billion searches. We're halfway through 2013 and I'm sure the numbers have moved upwards dramatically.

Whether you are on Twitter to entertain, network or sell something, how in the world do you gain followers and then get them to read and share your tweets?

If you follow someone on Twitter and they don't follow you back, you are a fan. If they follow you and you don't follow back, you have a fan.

For most people the "fan" model doesn't really work.

Most of the 500 million of us on Twitter aren't going to command a huge fan base based on setting up an account with our name or a clever penname and posting some tweets - and once you follow 2,000 people, you have to have at least half that many followers to follow more.

So most of us need to follow the Golden Rule of Twitter.

It just so happens that the Golden Rule of Twitter is very much like the Golden Rule that Jesus spoke of in the Bible: Do to others as you would have them do to you (Luke 6:31, NIV).

If you want follows, mentions, and retweets - yes, by all means, make your account and tweets as good as possible - but the more certain route is to follow, mention, and retweet others yourself.

People appreciate fair play and will respond in kind. Sometimes it's nothing more than quid pro quo - but why shouldn't a social network be based to some degree on mutual back rubs?

Mark Gilroy's novels are available in paper and ink, as an audio book, and as an e-book. Check out reviews or purchase now.

when is it time for hip replacement surgery?

Just a quick update to let my friends know that next Tuesday I'll be having hip replacement surgery - the plan is to have the other hip done in August.

I was diagnosed as bone-on-bone arthritic in both hips about 6 years ago. At that time I had two microfracture surgeries to delay replacement as long as possible. The surgeries had some positive benefit - but it's been steady pain the whole time. It's best to keep original equipment as long as possible - but my doctor's message has always been that life will be much better once they are switched out.

53 isn't young (or that old) -  but still younger than they like to do replacements - the old rule of thumb used to be 60. However, after latest rounds of X-RAYS it took next to no time for the doctor to say it's time.

I knew this was coming - I put on 30 pounds in the past 18 months and have struggled to workout - my weight has always had some flux but not wanting to work out is very unlike me. I've lost 15 pounds in prepping for this- but the next 15 will have to come post-surgery.

I've spent 6 nights in a hospital in my life - 3 with my son Bo and 3 with my Dad - Bo doesn't talk in his sleep as much Dad! I'll stay in hospital 2 nights on each hip. I've been told I'll be walking as soon as I wake up.

I'm feeling great about the decision and have no worries here. Your prayers are still appreciated!

10 ways google can help you as a writer

I'm not getting paid by Google to write this and I use a variety of production tools besides Google - some more helpful than the Google counterpart. But just familiarizing yourself with the array of Google products can add productivity to your work as a writer. Here are a few obvious and not so obvious ways that Google can increase your productivity and quality as an author.

1. Docs. Upload and share working document with peer review groups, co-writers, editors, publishers, and anyone else you are asking to make your writing better. Google Docs will soon become Google Drive with more space and features.

2. Calendar. The obvious use of Calendar is time management - and I also use it to sync my appointments between devices - but I also found it incredibly helpful to create a calendar while writing a novel to keep track of days, weeks, and months for the events in my storyline.

3. Maps. Want to add authenticity to the addresses, streets, cities, and other places in your writing - Maps even has pictures of the landmarks at street level.

4. Blogger. An easy way to set up an author website with simple push-button publishing. I've used it for years and recommend it - though I know many authors like WordPress better.

5. Youtube. Set up a channel to serve as home for your video blogs to promote your book. I use Youtube as the source for my vlogs on this website.

6. Translate. Want to add some phrases in another language to your book? Translate is an unbelievably easy and valuable tool to use. Now includes 50 languages.

7. Web Search. I never felt the need to switch to Microsoft's Bling. Maybe it's better but I find that hard to believe. No one has helped more people find the information they are looking for faster and more accurately than Google Search. You have an entire library at your fingertips.

8. Groups. Create mailing lists and discussion groups to promote your writing or interact with like minded creators. This feature might be falling behind and fading fast - but I predict they replace it with something rivals the leading apps in the near future.

9. Specialized Search. Did you know that Google has tools to help you examine search trends - content of blogs - content of scholarly papers - and more? They do.

10. Analytics. Keep track of what and how people follow your v/blog. And as a bonus "code" - if you have a huge online following, you don't want to be without Google Ads to generate income from page views. It takes an enormous amount of page views to add up - but better to set it up early in your online writing career.

You can use iGoogle as your homepage and set up your Google apps - and other apps - just the way you want to see them as on online dashboard.

Google has a great array of products that can help you focus on what your best at, maximizing the value you deliver. And whether your prefer other tools over one or more Google apps, their suite will at least alert you as to what is available to make your work easier and more focused.

Mark Gilroy's debut novel, Cuts Like a Knife, is in the market and is available in print and ink, as an e-book, and as an audio book. Check out reviews or purchase now. On October 23, 2012, the second Kristen Conner novel, Every Breath You Take, releases.

do you have to be a reader if you want to be a writer?

My 100 Mile Bike Ride - made it!

Last year I did the 62-mile loop for the Harpeth River Ride that starts in the parking lot of Nissan's North American headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, and winds through some beautiful scenic roads. I had just got back into riding a couple months earlier and the ride was just about more than I could handle. I started off strong but then hit Pulltight Hill for the first time and struggled the rest of the way to the finish line.

I've been on the bike at least once a week and usually twice since then - so I've "let" my neighbor talk me into the 100-mile loop - which goes 101 miles. I'm pretty sure it's going to be just about more than I can handle - but I can do it!

So if you see a triumphant update on my ride on Monday - you'll know I made it - even if my pace doesn't break any land speed records. If I am unusually quiet next week you might be right when you assume I switched to the 62-mile loop midcourse. But I'm not even going to think that way. 101 miles here I come.

Prayers and best wishes are welcome!

ADDENDUM: I made it! In fact, I took a wrong turn and added 4 miles, so I made 105 miles. I wasn't the last rider in - but I was definitely near the back of the pack. I expected that knowing that the majority of the 100-mile participants would be the better riders and I didn't think I could catch any of the stragglers riding the 62-mile or 44-mile loops. Next year? Might return to the 62-mile loop!

Nissan's Official Harpeth River Ride Vehicle