News and thank yous

Hello! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Our Christmas was very merry. We gathered as a family to thank God for the birth of His Son and express our love for each other. My mother’s absence from this earth was on our minds, but with every smile from our grandbabies, we glimpsed the heart of Mom. We know we’ll see her again.
It’s been awhile since my last post, so let me catch you up a bit:

• As you read this, I’m probably in Shanghai, China. For the second time in 12 months, I’m teaching leadership here (January 10-21). I’m feeling amazingly blessed with this opportunity, and I hope to truly add value to everyone I meet.
• You might remember that I had knee surgery in early December. Well, I’m pleased to say that my recovery has been swift. Physical therapy has gone well, and my knee now feels BETTER THAN normal. Thank you for your encouragement and prayers.
• Do I need to remind you of my upcoming book? If you’ve been reading here for awhile, probably not. But if you’re new and want to see how a book was taken to a new level by a blog’s community of readers , this post will fill you in.

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect will be published and on bookshelves on March 30th of this year. And this is what everyone who picks up the book will see:

• EVERY commenter, whether their comment made it into the book or not, listed in the Acknowledgements as a valued contributor.
• SEVENTY + contributors quoted by name within the book (with their names also cited in the End Notes).
• 200+ photos INSIDE the book or on the cover. (We used as many as possible in the graphic on the dust jacket, and will display ALL on the end papers inside the front and back covers.)

What the average reader won’t see: the incalculable value that was added to the entire book by your participation. It won’t be obvious that we reordered an entire chapter when you said it was unclear. Most readers will never know how many errors you caught. They won’t see the stories we removed in favor of better stories from YOUR lives.

But I’ll know. And I want YOU to know, again, how grateful I am for your help. THANK YOU for not only communicating, but connecting.