Sharon Dunn

Hi Readers, today I'm interviewing Sharon Dunn who is the author five mysteries including book two in her Bargain Hunters mysteries, Death of a Six Foot Teddy Bear. By the way, Book One in this series is called Death of a Garage Sale Newbie. Sharon in lives in a house where she has discovered that it is easier to make pets out of the dust bunnies than try to get rid of them. You can read more about Sharon’s humorous who-dun-its at www.sharondunnbooks.com and check out the bargain hunting tips left by readers.

Q - Sharon, if you could pass along one bit of cleaning/organizational advice to someone just starting out with their first home, what would it be?

A - You are starting out with a clean slate, make it a rule that anytime you bring something into the house, you need to toss or donate something that takes up the same amount of space. This will help prevent clutter from taking over.

Q - Fill in the blank: I am to cleaning as a ____________ is to _______________.
A - I am to cleaning as a monkey is to getting a PHD in Physics.

Q - How does your housekeeping style compare to that of your parents when they were your age?

A - My mom spent her whole day cleaning and then fretting over how messy her house was. I refuse to do that. I have books to read, people to hug and when the sun is shining, I want to feel it on my face. None of that happens if you are cleaning the dust off of houseplants.

Thanks for your thoughts Sharon!
Readers, stay tuned for another author interview next time!

Robin Caroll

Today I'm interviewing Robin Caroll. Like me, she was born and raised in Louisiana, Robin Caroll is a Southern belle right down to her “hey y’all.” Her passion has always been to tell stories to entertain others. Robin’s mother, bless her heart, is a genealogist who instilled in Robin the deep love of family and pride of heritage—two aspects Robin weaves into each of her books. When she isn’t writing, Robin spends time with her husband of eighteen years, her three beautiful daughters, and their four character-filled cats at home—in the South. She gives back to the writing community by serving as President of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) for 2007 and 2008. An avid reader herself, Robin loves hearing from and chatting with other readers. Although her favorite genre to read is mystery/suspense, of course, she’ll read just about any good story. Except historicals! To learn more about this author of deep South mysteries of suspense to inspire your heart, visit Robin’s website at http://www.robincaroll.com/.

Robin's books include Bayou Justice-Oct 2007, Bayou Corruption, Bayou Judgment, Bayou Paradox-June 2008, Bayou Betrayal-January 2009, Framed!-February 2009, and Our Armor of God in Soul Savors for Women.

Now on to our interview!

Q - Robin, what is your biggest housecleaning challenge?
A - Finding the time to keep the house clean with 3 kids, a dog, 2 cats, and defending my writing time. I've learned to lessen my expectations.

Q - What is your favorite household hint?
A - A once-used dryer sheet is great for dusting--it "grabs" dust off tvs and ceramic tile counters and makes your room smell better. I also put a new dryer sheet in my bagless vacuum. As I clean the floor, I don't get that smell that comes into the air that seeps past the HEPA filter. I get a fresh smell. With a child that has extreme allergies, this is very helpful to me.

Thanks Robin!

Readers, please come back next week for another interesting interview!

Household Chat with Rachel Hauck

Today I'm interviewing Rachel Hauck, who is is a multi-published author living in Central Florida. Her current release is Sweet Caroline from Thomas Nelson.

Q – Rachel, what's your biggest housekeeping challenge?
A - Papers!! I just don't know what to do with papers or things I want to keep around for awhile. If I "file" them away, I forget about them. I also struggle with what to do with books. Otherwise, I'm neat and clean, but with neat stacks of papers and magazines on my desk.

Q – How does your housekeeping style compare to that of your parents when they were your age?
A - I'm very similar to my mom. I personally believe most of us emulate the environment we grew up in. If our parents were messy, we struggle with being messy. My mom was neat and organized and clean. So much of my home reflects her and the home she created for us. She used to turn on music to clean the house. I've not done that in awhile and think I might do that again.

Thanks so much, Rachel! Readers, check back soon for another exciting interview.

Household Chat with Gayle Roper

Today I'm interviewing Gayle Roper who has always loved stories, and as a result she's authored more than 40 books, most recently See No Evil and Caught Redhanded(Steeple Hill/Love Inspired Suspense). Fatal Deduction will be released in June, 2008, and Lost and Found in September, 2008. Gayle has won the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award for Best Inspirational Romance and finaled repeatedly in both the RITAS and the Christys. Several writers conferences have cited her for her contributions to the training of writers. She enjoys speaking at writers conferences and women's events, reading and eating out. She adores her kids and grandkids, and loves her own personal patron of the arts, her husband Chuck. Visit her at http://www.gayleroper.com/

Q: Gayle, why do you think people like household hints?
A: We love household hints because we're always looking for a better, easier way to do this job that we generally dislike. It's like buying the latest diet book or trying the latest diet fad. Help me do this hard job in a less painful and boring way!

Q: Do you have a favorite and/or interesting household hint you'd like to share?

A: My best housekeeping tip is: grow your kids up and out of the house! We're empty nesters now, and it's amazing how much neater the house is. Of course it's less exciting, less interesting, and less ulcer-producing too.

Thanks for the chuckle, Gayle! Readers, check back soon for another interesting interview!

Household Chat with Tricia Goyer

Today I'm interviewing Tricia Goyer who is the author of seven novels, six non-fiction books, and one children's book. Tricia was named Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference "Writer of the Year" in 2003. In 2005, her book Life Interrupted was a finalist for the Gold Medallion. Also in 2005, her novel Night Song won ACFW's Book of the Year for Long Historical Romance. In 2006, her novel Dawn of a Thousand Nights also won Book of the Year for Long Historical. She's written over 300 articles for national publications and hundreds of Bible Study notes for the Women of Faith Study Bible. Tricia lives in Montana with her husband and three kids where she homeschools, leads children's church, and mentors teenage mothers.

Q - Tricia, why do you think people like household hints?
A - We don't have time to spend HOURS on our home. Tips help us work faster and smarter.

Q - Do you have a favorite and/or interesting household hint you'd like to share?
A - Sharpie markers work GREAT for covering up scratches in wood. Just find a shade (brown) similar to your piece of furniture.

Q - What's your biggest housekeeping challenge?
A - I am always behind in 1) putting clean laundry away, 2) mail, and 3) sweeping my floors. They always seem dirty!

Q - If you could pass along one bit of cleaning/organizational advice to someone just starting out with their first home, what would it be?
A - Houseclean in short bursts ... don't wait for it to pile up. Dishes only take five minutes after a meal. It takes five minutes to wipe down a bathroom if you do it every other day. Also, if you're going to watch TV, then do something little besides, such as fold laundry or dust the living room.

Q - Fill in the blank: I am to cleaning as _____ is to ______.
A - The basketball is to the net. As much as I love days when I get a 3-pointer and everything is clean ... I settle for a layup down and then in small, fast spurts. (Can you tell high school basketball season just finished at our house?)

Q - How does your housekeeping style compare to that of your parents when they were your age?
A - My mom was EXTREMELY neat. Everything was perfect. I'm messier, but mostly because I homeschool and write. We have people around here 24/7.

Thanks so much, Tricia! Readers, be sure to check back soon for another exciting interview. And if, like Tricia, your floors always seem dirty, make sure you've got mats inside and outside every exterior door, as that really helps to cut the dirt. Also, think about getting a rechargeable vacuum cleaner that's light and easy to use, or at least a portable central vacuuming unit (like my SweepEze from Westinghouse that I profiled in a previous post.) I'm a big fan of whatever makes the job of floor-cleaning that much easier. Until next time…keep it clean!

Order door mats here

Order rechargeable vacuums here

Win a Box of Brand New Books!

This is a post from the Chapter-A-Week folks.

It's hard enough to find books that are just right for everyone. Chapter-a-Week gives readers the opportunity to read sample excerpts from a broad range of Christian fiction every week without having to paya cent! Plus it's a great way to discover new authors you might not have found otherwise. We don't fill your inbox with needless emails. Only one email per week is all it takes to discover great new titles.

Founded in February 2002 by beloved novelists Jane Orcutt and AngelaHunt, Chapter-a-Week has had a steadily growing readership. In honor of our 1000th member, Chapter-a-Week is giving away autographed books by your favorite Christian novelists! We'll send a box of books to our 1000th member and if they tell us that you recommended them we'll send two free books to your snail mail address too!

Chapter-a-Week is a Yahoo! Group, so simply sign on to be a subscriber of the list and you'll start receiving your excerpts every Friday.

Just go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChapteraWeek/ and click "join this group."

Christian Authors Weigh In

Hi friends, I thought you might like to hear from some of your favorite authors about their cleaning issues, favorite household tips, and more, so I'll be interviewing some of them on this very blog. Check back often to see who pops up next!

Today, I'm interviewing Kristin Billerbeck, author of What a Girl Wants and The Trophy Wives Club.

Q - Kristin, why do you think people like household hints?
A - Because people are convinced there is one simple answer to hold their house together and all women secretly want to have Martha's house with Mary's heart.

Q - Do you have a favorite and/or interesting household hint you'd like to share?
A - Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. These things are like gold and I hoard them. They prevent repainting a wall, they get everything off of painted surfaces! I love them!

[Mindy's note: I love these too! To try them for yourself Order them here]

Q - What's your biggest housekeeping challenge?
A - Keeping up after four kids. It seems no matter how hard I work, someone is coming behind me leaving things along cleaned-up surfaces. Like their sole purpose in life is to obliterate flat surfaces.

Q - If you could pass along one bit of cleaning/organizational advice to someone just starting out with their first home, what would it be?
A - If no one ever taught you how to organize a home, hire a professional organizer. Learning the process helped me immensely. I was driving blind for fifteen years. Best $3000 I ever spent!

Q- Fill in the blank: I am to cleaning as _____is to_____.
A - I am to cleaning as fish are to bicycles.

Q - How does your housekeeping style compare to that of your parents when they were your age?
A - It doesn't. My mom is a neat freak.

Thanks for your fun and interesting answers, Kristin! Readers, be sure to check back soon for more Q&A with your favorite authors.

How do I dust lampshades?

Try a lint roller, the kind that's made with sticky paper that you peel and use. Works great!

Chapters of the Week

Sweet Caroline By Rachel Hauck

When a Southern waitress inherits the Lowcountry cafe where she works, she suddenly has to balance more than just her next food order. Caroline Sweeney has always done the right thing--the responsible, dependable thing--unlike her mother who abandoned her family. But whenher best friend challenges her to accept an exciting job adventure in Barcelona, Spain, Caroline says "yes" to destiny.Then, without warning, ownership of the run-down cafe where she's been waitressing falls right into Caroline's lap. While she's trying to determine the cafe's future, handsome Deputy Sherriff J.D. Rand captures Caroline's heart. But when her first love, Mitch O'Neal, comes back to town, fresh fromthe heat of his newly-found fame as a country music singer in Nashville, Caroline must make some hard choices about love and the pursuit of the sweet life.

"Hauck's adorable novel contains the multi-layered charactersreaders have come to expect from her books. The enjoyable story andunpredictable ending entertains and offers much to think about." -4.5 Stars, Melissa Parcel, Romantic Times Book Club

Every Secret Thing by Ann Tatlock
Every Secret Thing is the story of a woman who returns home after many years away. Beth Gunnar hasn't lived in Delaware since high school graduation, but when she's offered a teaching job at Seaton Preparatory School--her alma mater--she accepts. Once there, she's faced with an unresolved loss that she and her friends experienced during their senior year. She realizes that the suicide of a favorite teacher has haunted her all her life, and she wants to find out the truth about what happened that night. There's a little bit of mystery and a little bit of romance, and ultimately it's a story of faith and reconciliation.

"Intelligent, introspective, and beautifully, hauntinglywritten…." - Tom Morrisey, author of In High Place

I've got six kids and we're headed to an amusement park. How can I keep track of them?

Buy six vividly-colored t-shirts, one for each, in all the same color. It's easier to keep your eye out for the shirt color than for children in more individual outfits.

Readers, do you have any other suggestions? I'd love to hear more great ideas about this very common challenge.

How do I get my kids to scoop the doggy doo?

I love this suggestion, given to me by a friend: "We have two dogs and a big yard, and no matter how much nagging I do, my kids never seem to get around to scooping--or they do, but they rush it and miss half of what's out there. (Obviously, we don't get around to it all that often!) I even bought a long-handled scooper so they don't have to bend over or get their hands dirty, but it's still a thankless job that's never done well, if at all.

Yesterday, however, I walked into the family room while they were watching TV and plunked down twenty $1 bills. I said, 'Here's twenty bucks, just for you guys. Go outside and scoop the poop. When you're done, I'm going to go out and look around. For every poop I find, I'm deducting a dollar. Whatever's left when I'm finished, you get to keep.'"

Twenty dollars may seem a little steep for a job that takes just twenty minutes, but in their case my friend said it was money well spent. Apparently, the kids filled almost half of a paper grocery bag with doggy doo, missing only one that their mother could find. Nineteen bucks for a poop-free yard? I'd say that was priceless.

Chapters of the Week

Learning to Fly by Roxanne Henke

New mom, Susan Schaffer, looks down at her newborn daughter, Lily, and wonders if she has what it takes to be a great mom. Each stage seems to bring a new challenge and Susan is filled with doubt. A chance meeting with former classmate, JoJo Nash, also a new mom, gives the two mothers a friendship to help each other, and their daughters, learn and grow. As the girls approach high school graduation their mothers are faced withthe question: Are the girls ready to `fly' on their own? Learning to Fly is a novel about living, loving and letting go.

Andrea Sisco of Armchair Interviews.com writes: "All the self-help books or parenting classes in the world will not score a direct hit like Henke's message...a must read for all mothers and mothers-to-be.

Forty to Life by Dave Jackson

"He came to pay a debt he didn't owe. Because I owed a debt I couldn't pay." Murderer. It's a word few people ever expect to apply to them. But for fourteen-year-old Ray, it's suddenly a reality. Provoked by a gang leader into the random shooting of an innocent guy, Ray now faces a forty-year sentence in Chicago's in famous prison system. As far as Ray is concerned, it might as well be for life. In prison, Ray finds his gangbanger ties difficult to escape and even necessary for survival. Just when he's resigned himself to this new existence, though, Ray receives an unexpected gift--forgiveness. Even ashe learns that the source of this forgiveness is God, Ray struggles with accepting it. And then the ultimate test comes: When faced with the man who ruined his life, can Ray extend the same forgiveness that has been handed to him?

Review: "Forty to Life reads ... like a documentary account ... taking you into life on the mean streets of Chicago." --Randy Brandt,

Q - My husband sometimes cuts himself when he shaves--but he can't go to work with a little piece of tissue stuck to his face. Any other options?

A - Tell him to skip the tissue and try a little dab of Chapstick instead. Sometimes, that's all that's needed to stop the bleeding--and it's not nearly as noticeable as toilet paper on your face!

Chapters of the Week

For Better or For Worse by Diann Hunt
She's a wedding coordinator. He's a divorce attorney. She begins marriages. He ends them. How could these two possibly find common ground?

The Max & Me Mysteries by Patricia Rushford
You'll enjoy meeting Jesse Miller and Max Hunter, both twelve, who form a deep but unlikely friendship. Jesse is thin and frail and hasleukemia. Max is wild and adventurous, with spiked hair that changes color from day to day depending on her mood. Jesse has no real friends until Max comes along. She sees Max as being very brave and adventurous and tries to keep Max out of trouble. Then Jesse discovers Max's dark secrets and must lead Max into danger in order to set her free. There are three books in the series, The TroubleWith Max, Danger at Lakeside Farms, and Secrets of Ghost Island.

To read a chapter from this exciting new title, sign up for ChapterAWeek at this link: http://www.mindystarnsclark.com/contact.php or to order the title go to Amazon.com.

Be sure to check back for another tip from Tulip!

How do I get water rings out of my wooden coffee table?

Unfortunately, once the damage is done, nothing short of refinishing will remove those rings entirely. However, here's a trick you can use to minimize their appearance in the meantime: Sand the rings down a little, then make a paste of cigarette ashes and vegetable oil to rub into the wood. As long as it's not too big of an area, this should nicely darken the wood nicely so the rings don't stand out as much. Good luck!