Personal

Tis the Season for Stories!

By Karen Ballon December 10, 2014

December has to be my favorite month of the year. I love all the preparations and decorations and celebrations for the Christmas season. But two of my favorite things about the Christmas season are the books and movies we savor every year because, for those of us in the Ball household, it just isn’t Christmas without:

Books

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. (“Hey! Unto you a child is born!”)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Debbie Macomber’s Angels series (LOVE Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy!)

Movies

Christmas in Connecticut (the Barbara Stanwyck version)

White Christmas (I sing along, of course)

Ernest Saves Christmas (Yes, I’m serious…knowwhaddImean, Vern?)

Die Hard (Hey, it’s a Christmas movie!)

Babes in Toyland (“This is the forest of no retuuuurrrnnnn…”)

A Muppets Christmas Carol (“You may be a bit of undigested beef…”)

How about you? What books or movies to you just have to read or watch when December rolls around?

Thankful

By Karen Ballon November 26, 2014

Holidays. People love them…people hate them. For my family, we fall in the “love ‘em” category. Thanksgiving always means getting together, sharing laughter and great food and playing all kinds of games. We bake and decorate and spend time watching football. Even the challenging Thanksgivings become a source of fun. Like the first time I fixed a turkey for Don and me. I made a huge bowl of …

Category: Faith, PersonalTag: Faith, thanksgiving

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

By Dan Balowon November 25, 2014

Everyone is thinking about being thankful this week so it is comforting knowing that I am not alone on this bandwagon. When President Obama said the words, “You didn’t build that,” back in 2012 and drew such ire from opponents, I was troubled. I understood what he was trying to say…that no one does things on their own without help from someone else. He probably could have found better words to …

Category: Career, Personal, TheologyTag: Personal, thanksgiving, Theology

Fun Fridays – August 22, 2014

By Steve Laubeon August 22, 2014

Today is the 33rd wedding anniversary of my wife and I. The comic below is perfect to mark the occasion. Happy Anniversary Lisa! [click through for a larger picture]

Category: Fun Fridays, Personal

Pardon Our Dust

By Steve Laubeon June 30, 2014

We have been working for the last month on an updated look to our entire website, including the blog. It is great to see all it up and running this past weekend. Kudos to the team at AuthorMedia for their hard work! A number of features have been added or upgraded. The site is now completely mobile-friendly across all devices. This is not as easy as it sounds because there are thousands of screen …

Category: Agency, Personal

A Favorite Character Trait

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon June 12, 2014

When I was younger, I felt that some of my friends allowed me to take on a disproportionate amount of expense when we did things together. Sometimes, I felt taken advantage of, even used. Now I don’t feel that way. Probably because I now have super friends and I have more money. But still, I had to learn how to navigate these minefields because I didn’t know how. Why? Because I was …

Category: Personal, TamelaTag: Personal

And the Winner is…ME!

By Dan Balowon June 3, 2014

Once upon a time, a man set out on the ocean in a small boat for a three-hour tour. The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed, if not for the courage of the fearless crew (of one) the boat would have been lost. The boat landed on an uncharted island and the man was stranded, but alive. Twenty years later, a larger ship happened upon the island and noticed a beautifully built …

Category: Career, Communication, Dan, Personal, TheologyTag: Career, Communication

Happy 10th Anniversary!

By Steve Laubeon May 26, 2014

by Steve Laube It is hard to believe that this weekend marks ten years since I made the decision to open The Steve Laube Agency in 2004. I can honestly say it has been a blessing to have the opportunity to serve the industry and our authors in this capacity. It is stunning to realize we have secured contracts for over 1,000 books. And the books that have been published have sold over 13,000,000 …

Category: Agency, Personal, SteveTag: Agency, Anniversary

How Do You Define Summer Reading?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon May 22, 2014

Now that summer is nigh, I’m thinking about what I’d like to read over the next few months. I have not yet decided. But at least now I can choose for myself. At my college prep school, we were assigned summer reading. To enter eighth grade, we were assigned The Ox Bow Incident and Pride and Prejudice. This went for boys and girls. I’m so glad, because I never would have read The …

Category: Craft, Creativity, Personal, Reading, Tamela, Writing CraftTag: Reading

Last Words

By Karen Ballon May 14, 2014

Publishing lost a good man on Sunday. No, more to the point, the world lost a good man. Ron Benrey–author, publisher, one-time agent, master debater, theologian, teacher, and a wonderful husband and father, a man possessed of deep kindness and wisdom–passed from this world to God’s side on Sunday. Just moments before the heart attack that ushered him into eternity, he was doing …

Category: Communication, Craft, Creativity, Karen, Personal, TheologyTag: Communication, Personal