There are so many things going on in bloggityville. I just checked over at the 5 Minutes for Mom Ultimate Blog Party, and there are over 430 blogs signed up. Wow! That’s a lot of people. The party will go through Friday — so you’re still invited to join in the fun.

The new issue of Christian Women Online is out this month — so you’re probably seeing this cover picture of Ellie Kay on people’s blogs. I hope you’ll find a chance to go read my interview with her. My Book Buzz column focused on Ellie’s new book, 1/2 Price Living, published by Moody. She’s known as “America’s Family Financial Expert.” And she’s a mom of seven children who also skydives! She has some great tips on how to live on one income — and why it’s worth it.

I browsed through the whole issue last night — and every article and column was so inspiring. I especially enjoyed Allison Bottke’s Boomer Babes Rock column this month, entitled Seven Things You Can Do Today to Start Living Your Dreams. She shares about a big risk she took recently and what she learned from it. Allison is someone who inspires me because she says she didn’t publish her first book until she was 45 years old. But within six years, she’s become the bestselling author of over 20 books — the God Allows U-Turns series, as well as other non-fiction books and two novels (one not yet released). I read Allison’s A Stitch in Time novel, and she’s a fabulous, funny writer! The theme of her column is “It’s never too late!” I love this. Don’t you?

Other things going on:

I joined in the Carnival of Christian Writers last Monday at Gina Conroy’s Writer … Interrupted site. There are submissions from several authors and two literary agents who acquire books in the CBA. Every one of these posts is rich with information — but I must say that Chip MacGregor’s post on Ten Changes in Christian Publishing is truly fascinating.

I wanted to thank author Jenn Doucette for sharing about me and my book on her blog. Out of all the blog tours I’ve given, she’s the first person who has ever taken the time to write a post about each one of her tour hosts. How nice! I like hosting blog tours — but it does take up time to upload the right-size author photo and book cover — as well as devote a day to it. So this was much, much appreciated!

Tricia Goyer is one of the most prolific writers I know — and she somehow manages to keep up with at least a half-dozen of her own blogs. She recently posted an article from me, Six Tips for Building a Savvy Blog Readership on her It’s Real Life blog. This stemmed from something I’d posted to an online group, giving me a chance to expound a little bit on one of my pet peeves — I find it unnerving when someone I barely know writes and asks me to link to them! I link to other bloggers when I’ve gotten to know them or I really like something specific they’ve written. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this way, because there’s some more about this at Shannon and Chilihead’s Blogging Basics 101 site, which is packed with useful information.

I also want to thank Bethany House publishers for including my interview with C. Hope Flinchbaugh on the front page of their site this month. They have a section entitled Authors in the Media, which I think is a great way to interact with readers. I don’t know many publishers who do this — but check out the left side of their home page. The Bethany House site is always fresh with updates — a bonus for their authors!

And last but not least, I wanted to thank author Sharon Hinck for linking to me in her Around the World Blog Tour. This is one of the most fun tours I’ve given — and it’s no wonder Sharon’s novels have become so popular (besides the fact that Becky Miller is an inspiring, funny character) — she treats us little people like we matter. I thought it was neat that she had a “travel agent” set up her tour. I’ve never heard this expression before (in the context of blog tours) — but I thought it was a nice way of thanking an assistant who took care of all the correspondence required to set this up.

I think I’m caught up now — this is what happens when I take off a week!