I have to make a big apology for the past months that I have not written. In the last months I have been distracted by broken bones, illness, and a medical mission trip to Indonesia. But I also have another reason, a bigger reason, of why I am excited to write to you. I have been working on a big project that I would like to share with you.

I have been focused on a new project- Virtual Author Day- that I think could completely change the way children’s authors connect with the readers of their books. This project will also change the way classrooms and homes across our country relate to authors, learn about writing kids books, and grasp the messages from published authors.

Imagine sitting in your child’s classroom. You are enjoying a video of a reading from an author of a delightful book, sitting in their yard or home, speaking directly to your kids. Then, your kids get to see a second video of the author speaking directly to them about why they wrote the book and more about its message. With these two videos, they will see authors as real, relational people. Then your kids get puzzle worksheets that help them understand the message more clearly. And to top it off, they get a scheduled live interview with the author by live video or phone. They can think of their own questions to ask! And if that’s not enough the teacher or parent has access to an author blog that enriches the teacher. This is the essence of Virtual Author Day.

I have been a published children’s author for 29 years. I know the ins and outs of writing, publishing, and marketing kids books. Direct contact with parents, teachers, and students has been by far the most successful. But direct contact is difficult and expensive to make, outside of one’s nearby towns.

All of the videos and PDFs are delivered monthly with additional bonuses, by Virtual Author Day, to the teacher or parent. Kids will feel like they know the author personally when they have seen them, read the book, heard their story, and been able to live-interview them. This is designed to bring new excitement, new perspective, and the kids will look forward to “author day” in their home or classroom. Sounds like fun, huh!

This is all going to be available soon through www.VirtualAuthorDay.com. We are in stage 2, of 3 stages.

Stage 1 is completed- The platform is all designed and ready to go.

Stage 2 is in progress- We are in the process of enlisting authors to become Virtual Author Day Authors. So if you know any children’s authors, send them our way! This will be the least expensive and most far-reaching advertising that they can do.

Stage 3 will be the final stage when we enlist teachers and parents to join (for an extremely small fee) to receive the monthly author listing where they can get to know and interact with the author personally.

So before Virtual Author Day can be fully functioning, we need to enlist 11 or more authors. Then we are ready to go! This should be easy to do when authors see the value they will get.

So here is what I would like to do for you. I am going to give you the first month’s sample listing. After you sign up, feel free to use it with your kids and see the huge advantage of having this monthly in the future. You can sign up for the free listing at

https://www.virtualauthorday.com/offers/2pTtn6d2

This takes you behind the curtain to the actual platform, where you can see the design of Virtual Author Day. You will see what it will look like when you have your listing. When you are inside, click on this page, go to the middle link, which is the grade 1-3 link and you will see the link to the sample.

If you like it, do you think it would be possible to do something for me?

I would also really love it- if you do like it- could you give a testimonial that we could use in future advertising? You could write in the comments of the videos or email me. That would be REALLY helpful!

Could you pass this on to a children’s author that you might know. (Or even one that you don’t know!) That is what will get the ball rolling. Once it starts to grow, I think it will have very far reaching impact!

Of course I will let you know when this will be fully available for teachers and parents on a monthly basis. Thanks for being a faithful subscriber to www.LaurieDonahue.com. I have enjoyed our relationship and I look forward to it continuing. When you sign up for the sample, it will include an interview with me. That will be fun. Please plan to introduce yourself if we haven’t met yet.

So l’ll be talking with you soon!

Laurie
L aurie@virtualauthorday.com
Laurie@lifesongpublishers.com

Your free sample of Virtual Author Day here

Please contact me with any questions! I will be happy to answer any and all!
Laurie Donahue is an author and speaker who lives in Southern California. She has written or co-written 6 books for children and teens, including the bestseller, “God Should I Be Baptized?” She holds a California Community College Teaching Credential. Laurie’s website is www.lauriedonahue.com.

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Posted on Thursday, November 5, 2015

Thanksgiving Thought for November

by Laurie Donahue

A Wrong Kind of Thankful

Did you ever consider that there could be a wrong kind of thankful? This was a Thanksgiving thought I had not considered. I hadn’t really thought of it much. All my life I was told to be thankful for things, so I was. The Bible says be thankful, so I was. (Let me make it clear that I’ve not been perfectly thankful all the time. I’m sure you could have already guessed that.) So, how could “being thankful” possibly ever be wrong?

This week, I was challenged by this Thanksgiving thought. There is a correct “thankful,” and it’s worthy of our attention. Many years in the past, our family has shared around the dinner table at Thanksgiving, each person telling of one thing they’re thankful for. I thought it was great. But looking at it now, I was missing something really important.

What Was Missing?

I was missing the object of our thankfulness. It’s not enough to be thankful for our family if we don’t know WHOM we are thanking. We can be thankful for our food, shelter, family, and friends, and many specific blessings, but if we’re not directing our thanks to somebody or something, it means very little. In fact, if we are thanking the tree for its shade, and no more, it is worship of the creation instead of the Creator.

A Thanksgiving Thought

So this Thanksgiving, I plan to be mindful of this. I will not be thankful to an unknown source. I won’t be thankful to the creation instead of the Creator. And they won’t be thankful to “nobody.” Because that’s what being thankful without an object is– it is being thankful to nobody.

So my wish for you is a very happy Thanksgiving in which you are thankful to God of the Bible. Join me in being thankful to the God who has created us, redeemed us, provides for us, and loves us from eternity past through eternity future. And this Thanksgiving thought is what we want to teach our kids.

Here is a post about thanking God for things we often don’t thank Him for. Maybe it will trigger more Thanksgiving thought for your prayer time.

Would you click below and tell Whom you are thankful to and also for what you are thankful this year? Thanks! It would mean a lot to me and others!

Posted on Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Emphasis Makes a Difference!

as in six steamy knits...

by Laurie Donahue

Be Accurate

I think that one of the most important things in teaching kids the Bible is to be accurate to the Bible writers’ intentions. Although men first wrote the words on stone or papyrus, the ultimate writer of Scripture was God. Boy, we really don’t want to mess His words up! We really want to do our best to relay His message, accurately, to the best of our ability.

Know Scripture and Context

This could mean that we have to be a bit more mindful about a few things. We certainly need to know Scripture well. We need to know the heart of God through His words. So proper preparation and overall biblical knowledge is really important. We also need to understand the context of the passage by reading the surrounding text. History and setting are both really important to clearly know the intention of the writer.

So when we teach kids, we need to present Scripture, as it is written, without changing its content or intent of what the author was trying to convey. But even if we don’t alter its content, there are ways we can actually alter the message without changing it at all.

Don’t Teach What You Want it to Say!

Sometimes we might decide what we want Scripture to say. We might have preconceived ideas of what it means based on our own thoughts or we may want Scripture to line up with our culture. Both of these are dangerous as we can change Scripture by reinterpreting it. Don’t do it!

Don’t Change the Emphasis

If we change the emphasis, we can project a completely different message than the written Word intended. Several years ago, I was at an extended family gathering and someone brought the game, Mad Gabs. I hadn’t seen it before, and it was a lot of fun. Maybe you have played it. You have to read the words on the card and figure out the answer to a clue by changing the emphasis of the words. If you changed the emphasis, it said something completely different than what was written on the card. We laughed at all of them but one was especially funny! I think the clue had something to do with seconds. The words were:

“Six Steamy Knits.”

I will let you think about it for awhile so you can have some fun with it, and give you the answer at the end of this blog.

What a difference it made when the emphasis was place on a different syllable and the punctuation was changed. It meant something completely different.

We have probably all changed emphasis to change perspective, (I am sorry to say.) It is sometimes difficult to face our imperfections (sins). I am sure somebody reading this may identify with this experience or something similar. After showing up late to an event, have you ever said something like this? “I am so sorry I am late! The traffic was so bad!” While this is very true, it is just more convenient to leave out the fact that you left late and wouldn’t have made it on time anyway. You didn’t say anything untruthful, yet, you have altered the perception of what really happened. This is so easy to do. (I know this because this example came to my mind because I have done it. I was convicted at one point and I have been conscious to be entirely truthful these days.)

We want to be very careful to teach Scripture in such away that we don’t alter its meaning by over or under emphasizing any part so the intention is changed. You can be more accurate if you know Scripture well, Know the context, prepare well, and be sure to teach what it says and not what you might want it to say.

And the answer to the game was: Sixty Minutes.

Posted on Sunday, June 21, 2015

Daddy Please Hurry Home

A Tear Jerker

by Laurie Donahue

When my daughter was 12, she recorded this song on the 4-Ever His! Album with her sisters. She s now 30 with a daughter of her own. But Daddy Please Hurry Home still brings tears to listeners ears! (One person told me they had to pull off the freeway because they began crying too hard.) It was written for her to sing by Jim Covell.

This is a tribute to all fathers out there! Happy Fathers Day!

Daddy Please Hurry Home on You Tube.