The second is Oregon Christian Writers, “Guarding the Good Treasure,” August 12-15, at the Red Lion, Jantzen Beach.

If you’re a writer or interested in writing, consider attending one of these–or both!

Here’s a great video about YL in the Portland metro area. Prayers appreciated for camp this week and the on-going ministry.

Thank you!

Leslie

He’s sold 38 million copies of his books, touching readers around the world with his stories.

Peter and I were wowed by Hosseini’s first book The Kite Runner. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, encouraged me to fully support Peter’s deployment to Afghanistan from 2011-2012.

Monday night, Hosseini encouraged Peter with his hopes for Afghanistan’s future. For example, he cited that in 2001 only 1 million children, nearly all boys, attended school in Afghanistan. In 2010, 7+ million students attended school, 2.7 million who were girls. The numbers have continued to grow over the last three years. Hosseini feels the educated youth of Afghanistan are the countries biggest hope–but of course only time will tell.

Peter took care of the children of Afghanistan while he was there, along with Afghan adults and U.S. soldiers. It was reassuring to him to have someone connected to Afghanistan’s past and present be optimistic about the country’s future.

We’re looking forward to reading Hosseini’s third book, And the Mountains Echoed.

I managed to get a really bad photo with my phone as Hosseini was leaving the stage–we were in the second balcony–but it’s still nice to have an image of the evening.

Emma won a copy of Romeo and Juliet!

And Sharon Miller, Mary Ellen Ashenfelder, and Kathleen B. won copies of Adoring Addie!

I’ll email the winners for their mailing addresses and then get the books out this week.

Enjoy!

Leslie

Joy, Maxie, Carmen, Halita, and Wendy!

Expect your copy in the mail soon!

Thank you to all who participated. I’ll be posting another contest today so stay tuned!

Leslie

Carmen (in her beautiful home, where I visited her book group a few years ago and heard wonderful stories…)

Cindi (who very creatively captured the cover of Courting Cate)

Halita (love her smile!)

Maxie (love this photo too!)

Laurie (full disclosure, she’s my sweet sister who couldn’t decide which one is her favorite! She didn’t actually enter the contest)

My hubby Peter (who couldn’t decide which is his favorite either–and also didn’t enter the contest, lol)

Thank you to everyone who participated in this contest. The next post will announce the winners.

Leslie

In the meantime, here are a few, randomly selected photos of readers.

Joy

Kate

Randi (…my 6th grade teacher, isn’t that great! She’s holding our class photo, along with Beyond the Blue. She was just out of college and the best teacher I ever had. So thrilled to be in contact after all these years.)

Wendy (…who sent her copy of Courting Cate to her MIL after she read it. I love it when my books are shared–best compliment ever.)

I’ll post more photos tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who has participated!

(Back to working on rewrites for Minding Molly. They’re due on Monday. I’m really enjoying seeing this story come together–it’s been quite the process on this one!)

Leslie

·Find one of my books (pick your favorite!) and have someone take a picture of you holding it. Or if you no longer have a copy, write the title on a piece of paper and hold it up for the photo.

·Next, email the picture to me at leslie@lesliegould.com by May 29.

·Within 2 days of the deadline, I will randomly select five winners out of everyone who sends me a picture and will notify you by email.

·I will post pictures on my blog, Facebook page, and Pinterest, so look for your pictures there!

Let me know if you have any questions! I’ve already received quite a few photos and will post them soon–I love seeing my readers! (It makes me so happy.)

Photo courtesy of reader Courtney Phillips (thank you Courtney!)