Elise Caroline Miller: First granddaughter, and second grandchild in 2 1/2 months
Just the headlines
- Grandpa's journal, part 2
- Just released: The One-Stop History of the Bible
- Coming in July: A Visual Walk Through Genesis
- Casual English Bible, Steve's new paraphrase of Genesis
- 2 years as Amazon's best-selling Bible handbook: Complete Guide to the Bible
- Recent book: A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible
- Two of Steve's most popular blog articles of winter
- Free review books
DAY ONE. Elise is a Sunday child, born on March 13, 2016. My wife, Linda, and I got the text message from our son during our drive to church. He said they were at the hospital and that he'd call us when they were ready for a visit. Here's the 3-minute video of our meeting: Introducing Elise.
Grandpa's journal: first granddaughter
OKAY, I KNOW THIS FEELS LIKE DEJA VU. As though I'm recycling my January newsletter from last quarter. I featured my first grandchild there, Owen. He was born December 30, the son of my daughter and my son-in-law.
Up next, my son and his wife.
They had their first child on Sunday, March 13 – my first granddaughter. Born in the same hospital where my daughter was born; same weight, too: 7 pounds, 11 ounces (3.5 kg).
The doctor recommended that my son and his wife take a couple of hours or more for just the three of them, once the baby arrived. Good advice, I think.
The first visitors were my daughter-in-law's mom, sister, and some of the close family.
We gave my son and daughter-in-law some time to recover from that visit. I sent him a text message and asked if he wanted us to bring any food for them. He asked for Jimmy John's.
Apparently, pregnant women are not supposed to eat deli lunch meat. So my daughter-in-law had been craving that for many months. We were happy to deliver the sandwiches, and they seemed happy to eat them.
The sandwiches sat for a while, though, because we wanted to spend time with Elise, and I think my son and daughter-in-law wanted to watch us get acquainted.
We captured a few video clips. I quickly pieced some of them together in a short video:
Introducing Elise.
Swaddled as a flannel soccer ball When we first walked into the hospital room, Elise was lying in a tiny bed beside her mother. Elise was bundled up in two soft blankets, tightly swaddling her. She looked a little like a flannel soccer ball with a beautiful little head sticking out of the top.
The first thing I thought when I saw her was, "My goodness. She looks so much like her mother."
I stood beside the little girl and gently stroked the top of her head, which was draped with a thin stocking.
My son finally said, "You can pick her up."
That was all I needed to hear.
I scooped her up and held her face close to mine. I didn't want to kiss her yet, for fear that she might catch some of my cooties, germs, or bad manners. She will be kissed plenty later.
My son has two dogs: a black lab and a Siberian Husky. We watched the dogs while my son and his family were at the hospital.
We still had their two dogs with us, along with our black lab, on the following Tuesday when we got to babysit our grandson all day for the first time.
Friendly dogs that have not been around miniature people, as it turns out, are curious creatures who seem to enjoy exploring baby skin by licking it.
So much so that they had to spend most of the day in the backyard.
They simply cannot be licking my grandbabies.
Our dog Buddy seems particularly interested. He stays close, initially walking circles around the person holding our grandson, occasionally sneaking a lick when we sit in a chair. He eventually parks on the floor beside us. It seems as though he thinks the baby is his puppy.
Conventional wisdom says that by the time you get grandkids, life starts to slow down.
Actually, I've discovered, the slowest time is after the kids leave the nest. But once the kids build their own nests, momentum shifts back into high gear – if you are lucky enough to live just a short flight from their nest. Like 15 minutes. That's a good distance for a grandparent.
I am looking forward to being Grandpa. As I type this I'm babysitting my grandson. Or he's grandpa-sitting me.
He's going to keep me on my toes.
I am not being figurative.
JUST RELEASED
APRIL 2016The One-Stop History of the Bible is a new, condensed, text-only edition of a book that won the non-fiction Book of the Year Award in England, The Bible: A History.
I recruited my friend and former Reader's Digest Books editor Bob Huber to help me write that original edition. For this condensed book, Bob did the work of fitting our original book into the new, more concise format.
Thank you, Bob.
Coming in July:
GENESIS
—Magazine-style commentary
—Pictures & maps
—Discussion guide
...LOOK INSIDE
FREE BONUSES:
—Steve's Genesis paraphrase,Casual English Bible
—over 350 discussion questions
WHAT I DID for the Complete Guide to the Bible, which is one of my bestselling books, I just did for Genesis.
I created a fast-paced, easy-reading book to help folks understand the story of Genesis and the history behind the story: A Visual Walk Through Genesis.
There are 50 chapters in Genesis. And I've got 50 magazine-style articles in A Visual Walk Through Genesis, one for each chapter. I've also got about 150 pictures and maps. Lots of fun sidebars, too.
After I wrote the Complete Guide to the Bible, a 500-plus-page book introducing the Bible to folks, I wanted to do the same for some of the most popular books in the Bible.
That's what I just got to do with Genesis.
Steve's most complete book about GenesisIn all of the easy-reading Bible handbooks I've written, Genesis gets just a few pages in each. Even in my word-driven Complete Guide to the Bible, Genesis gets only 15 measly pages.
It gets more in my newest release, A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible: 27 pages.
But in A Visual Walk Through Genesis, I get to fill up 227 pages with words, photos, and illustrated maps to help Bible newcomers tour every one of the stories in all 50 chapters of Genesis.
Genesis stirs up lots of questions because it’s loaded with weird and wild stories.
A talking snake
God making Eve from Adam’s rib
Fallen angels and human women making baby giants
A flood that covers the entire planet
A 100-year-old man and his 91-year old wife having a babyI hope you have as much fun reading this book as I did researching and writing it.
SNEAK PEEK. This is a snapshot of what will become the homepage of the Casual English Bible. We expect to take it live in a few weeks. Our coding guru is working with it now.
Genesis: Casual English Bible™
I KNOW IT SEEMS IMPERTINENT to create my own Bible paraphrase.
But it started, humbly enough, as a private Bible study experiment. Only later did it churn into an idea about how to help readers get the most out of my next book, releasing in July: A Visual Walk Through Genesis.
While I was writing that book – which is an easy-reading, illustrated guide to the Book of Genesis – I decided to put each of the 50 chapters of Genesis into my own words, to help me better understand the book.
I didn't plan on doing anything more with it.
But it later occurred to me that Bible study groups might actually want to use my book to study Genesis.
So the first thing I did was to write a bunch of discussion questions. I wrote over 350 – clusters of questions for each of the 50 chapters in Genesis. These are tough questions that a news reporter might ask after reading the sometimes odd stories in each Genesis chapter.
I think these questions will be more than enough to help discussion leaders get the class talking.
I had so many questions that in order to fit them into the back of the book we had to edit them down to bare bones, cutting most of the content.
What to do?
Birth of the Casual English Bible websiteI decided to put the expanded edition of discussion questions onto a website to make them available to readers. Initially, I was going to put them on a PDF, for free download.
That's when it occurred to me: "Why not give them my paraphrase of Genesis, too? I already wrote it, at least in a beta edition."
So I talked with my son who is an online marketing manager and with the designer/web guru who runs my website. We agreed it would be a fine idea to release the Casual English Bible(Genesis edition) as a website, along with the expanded discussion questions, which Bible study leaders could print and take to class.
I like working on my own paraphrase, as a way of studying the Bible. It's thought-provoking and enlightening. I'd recommend it as a Bible-study technique to just about anyone.
I'm going to paraphrase more books of the Bible.
I'm working now on the Gospel of Luke. Then comes its sequel, Acts.
Once I get those two books done I will have paraphrased one fourth of the New Testament.
I should be a little smarter by then. And maybe a little kinder and gentler. The Bible often has that effect on people.
Still Amazon's bestselling Bible handbook
COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE BIBLE
FOR OVER TWO YEARS Amazon has listed the Complete Guide to the Bible as the #1 Bible handbook.
Each day, it battles with a few other top contenders for the #1 slot. But as I type this, it's #1.
Grandpa's journal: first granddaughter
OKAY, I KNOW THIS FEELS LIKE DEJA VU. As though I'm recycling my January newsletter from last quarter. I featured my first grandchild there, Owen. He was born December 30, the son of my daughter and my son-in-law.
Up next, my son and his wife.
They had their first child on Sunday, March 13 – my first granddaughter. Born in the same hospital where my daughter was born; same weight, too: 7 pounds, 11 ounces (3.5 kg).
The doctor recommended that my son and his wife take a couple of hours or more for just the three of them, once the baby arrived. Good advice, I think.
The first visitors were my daughter-in-law's mom, sister, and some of the close family.
We gave my son and daughter-in-law some time to recover from that visit. I sent him a text message and asked if he wanted us to bring any food for them. He asked for Jimmy John's.
Apparently, pregnant women are not supposed to eat deli lunch meat. So my daughter-in-law had been craving that for many months. We were happy to deliver the sandwiches, and they seemed happy to eat them.
The sandwiches sat for a while, though, because we wanted to spend time with Elise, and I think my son and daughter-in-law wanted to watch us get acquainted.
We captured a few video clips. I quickly pieced some of them together in a short video:
Introducing Elise.
Swaddled as a flannel soccer ball When we first walked into the hospital room, Elise was lying in a tiny bed beside her mother. Elise was bundled up in two soft blankets, tightly swaddling her. She looked a little like a flannel soccer ball with a beautiful little head sticking out of the top.
The first thing I thought when I saw her was, "My goodness. She looks so much like her mother."
I stood beside the little girl and gently stroked the top of her head, which was draped with a thin stocking.
My son finally said, "You can pick her up."
That was all I needed to hear.
I scooped her up and held her face close to mine. I didn't want to kiss her yet, for fear that she might catch some of my cooties, germs, or bad manners. She will be kissed plenty later.
My son has two dogs: a black lab and a Siberian Husky. We watched the dogs while my son and his family were at the hospital.
We still had their two dogs with us, along with our black lab, on the following Tuesday when we got to babysit our grandson all day for the first time.
Friendly dogs that have not been around miniature people, as it turns out, are curious creatures who seem to enjoy exploring baby skin by licking it.
So much so that they had to spend most of the day in the backyard.
They simply cannot be licking my grandbabies.
Our dog Buddy seems particularly interested. He stays close, initially walking circles around the person holding our grandson, occasionally sneaking a lick when we sit in a chair. He eventually parks on the floor beside us. It seems as though he thinks the baby is his puppy.
Conventional wisdom says that by the time you get grandkids, life starts to slow down.
Actually, I've discovered, the slowest time is after the kids leave the nest. But once the kids build their own nests, momentum shifts back into high gear – if you are lucky enough to live just a short flight from their nest. Like 15 minutes. That's a good distance for a grandparent.
I am looking forward to being Grandpa. As I type this I'm babysitting my grandson. Or he's grandpa-sitting me.
He's going to keep me on my toes.
I am not being figurative.
JUST RELEASED
APRIL 2016The One-Stop History of the Bible is a new, condensed, text-only edition of a book that won the non-fiction Book of the Year Award in England, The Bible: A History.
I recruited my friend and former Reader's Digest Books editor Bob Huber to help me write that original edition. For this condensed book, Bob did the work of fitting our original book into the new, more concise format.
Thank you, Bob.
Coming in July:
GENESIS
—Magazine-style commentary
—Pictures & maps
—Discussion guide
...LOOK INSIDE
FREE BONUSES:
—Steve's Genesis paraphrase,Casual English Bible
—over 350 discussion questions
WHAT I DID for the Complete Guide to the Bible, which is one of my bestselling books, I just did for Genesis.
I created a fast-paced, easy-reading book to help folks understand the story of Genesis and the history behind the story: A Visual Walk Through Genesis.
There are 50 chapters in Genesis. And I've got 50 magazine-style articles in A Visual Walk Through Genesis, one for each chapter. I've also got about 150 pictures and maps. Lots of fun sidebars, too.
After I wrote the Complete Guide to the Bible, a 500-plus-page book introducing the Bible to folks, I wanted to do the same for some of the most popular books in the Bible.
That's what I just got to do with Genesis.
Steve's most complete book about GenesisIn all of the easy-reading Bible handbooks I've written, Genesis gets just a few pages in each. Even in my word-driven Complete Guide to the Bible, Genesis gets only 15 measly pages.
It gets more in my newest release, A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible: 27 pages.
But in A Visual Walk Through Genesis, I get to fill up 227 pages with words, photos, and illustrated maps to help Bible newcomers tour every one of the stories in all 50 chapters of Genesis.
Genesis stirs up lots of questions because it’s loaded with weird and wild stories.
A talking snake
God making Eve from Adam’s rib
Fallen angels and human women making baby giants
A flood that covers the entire planet
A 100-year-old man and his 91-year old wife having a babyI hope you have as much fun reading this book as I did researching and writing it.
SNEAK PEEK. This is a snapshot of what will become the homepage of the Casual English Bible. We expect to take it live in a few weeks. Our coding guru is working with it now.
Genesis: Casual English Bible™
I KNOW IT SEEMS IMPERTINENT to create my own Bible paraphrase.
But it started, humbly enough, as a private Bible study experiment. Only later did it churn into an idea about how to help readers get the most out of my next book, releasing in July: A Visual Walk Through Genesis.
While I was writing that book – which is an easy-reading, illustrated guide to the Book of Genesis – I decided to put each of the 50 chapters of Genesis into my own words, to help me better understand the book.
I didn't plan on doing anything more with it.
But it later occurred to me that Bible study groups might actually want to use my book to study Genesis.
So the first thing I did was to write a bunch of discussion questions. I wrote over 350 – clusters of questions for each of the 50 chapters in Genesis. These are tough questions that a news reporter might ask after reading the sometimes odd stories in each Genesis chapter.
I think these questions will be more than enough to help discussion leaders get the class talking.
I had so many questions that in order to fit them into the back of the book we had to edit them down to bare bones, cutting most of the content.
What to do?
Birth of the Casual English Bible websiteI decided to put the expanded edition of discussion questions onto a website to make them available to readers. Initially, I was going to put them on a PDF, for free download.
That's when it occurred to me: "Why not give them my paraphrase of Genesis, too? I already wrote it, at least in a beta edition."
So I talked with my son who is an online marketing manager and with the designer/web guru who runs my website. We agreed it would be a fine idea to release the Casual English Bible(Genesis edition) as a website, along with the expanded discussion questions, which Bible study leaders could print and take to class.
I like working on my own paraphrase, as a way of studying the Bible. It's thought-provoking and enlightening. I'd recommend it as a Bible-study technique to just about anyone.
I'm going to paraphrase more books of the Bible.
I'm working now on the Gospel of Luke. Then comes its sequel, Acts.
Once I get those two books done I will have paraphrased one fourth of the New Testament.
I should be a little smarter by then. And maybe a little kinder and gentler. The Bible often has that effect on people.
Still Amazon's bestselling Bible handbook
COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE BIBLE
FOR OVER TWO YEARS Amazon has listed the Complete Guide to the Bible as the #1 Bible handbook.
Each day, it battles with a few other top contenders for the #1 slot. But as I type this, it's #1.
Deluxe edition with new maps
The publisher recently released a leather-bound edition.
Recent release:
A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible
BIBLE ATLAS IN DISGUISE. That's how I thought of this book as I was writing it and filling it with more than 300 color pictures and more than 100 illustrated maps.
As usual, I've written in a fast-paced, magazine style.
I've written Bible handbooks before. But none with this many maps, which are 3D-style, to give you the lay of the land.
...LOOK INSIDE
Sneak peek at Amazon
Two most-read blog articles
HERE ARE THE TWO MOST POPULAR blog articles I posted over the winter months.
I post new articles every Tuesday and Thursday. The subscription is free. All you need is a name and an email address. I give away free, signed copies of my books every week.
Sign me up.
When Christianity doesn't make a difference
The publisher recently released a leather-bound edition.
Recent release:
A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible
BIBLE ATLAS IN DISGUISE. That's how I thought of this book as I was writing it and filling it with more than 300 color pictures and more than 100 illustrated maps.
As usual, I've written in a fast-paced, magazine style.
I've written Bible handbooks before. But none with this many maps, which are 3D-style, to give you the lay of the land.
...LOOK INSIDE
Sneak peek at Amazon
Two most-read blog articles
HERE ARE THE TWO MOST POPULAR blog articles I posted over the winter months.
I post new articles every Tuesday and Thursday. The subscription is free. All you need is a name and an email address. I give away free, signed copies of my books every week.
Sign me up.
When Christianity doesn't make a difference
IN NAME ONLY? Does believing that there is a Jesus qualify us to be a Christian? Or do we have to be Christlike, too?
SOMETIMES I WONDER if the only thing that makes someone a Christian is that they believe there’s a Jesus out their somewhere.
They don’t act like him.
They don’t seem to follow his teachings.
And their general demeanor hints that they suffer from a chronic bowel obstruction.Read more.
Donald Trump & the King of Kings
SOMETIMES I WONDER if the only thing that makes someone a Christian is that they believe there’s a Jesus out their somewhere.
They don’t act like him.
They don’t seem to follow his teachings.
And their general demeanor hints that they suffer from a chronic bowel obstruction.Read more.
Donald Trump & the King of Kings
A CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE? When we compare Donald Trump's words to the words Jesus spoke on similar topics, it seems fairly clear there's a tad bit of a clash.
WHO CARES WHAT I SAY about the emerging candidates for president.
It doesn’t bother me that people don’t care what I say. Which is why I haven’t said anything.
Here’s what bothers me.
Some Christians don’t seem to care what Jesus had to say, either.
Donald Trump is a candidate like none other in American history...Read more.
REVIEW BOOKS
If you can write a review
If you're willing to write a one- or two-sentence note in the review section of an online website that sells books, such as Amazon, I have some review books to give away.
I still have a few copies of A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible.
To write a review of this book on Amazon for example, use the book title to search on Amazon.com. When you come to the page that sells that book, scroll down to the section with reviews, and click the button that says "Write a customer review."
If you're Stateside and willing to write a review, send me an email note (subject line: Free review book).
Or if you know someone who might like the book but wouldn't otherwise get a copy, let me know.
Once I get your email note, I'll send you an email confirmation and you can tell me where to mail the book.
Just so you know, there are four things people can do to help Christian writers in their ministry:
Buy their books
Write reviews of their books
Talk about their books
Say nice things about their grandkids on their Facebook page
Last word
"May the LORD continually bless you....May you live to enjoy your grandchildren."[Psalm 128:5-6]
Stephen M. Miller
Facebook
Twitter
Website
Subscribe to blog
Forward to a friend
Our mailing address is:
Stephen M. Miller Inc
PO Box 2712
WHO CARES WHAT I SAY about the emerging candidates for president.
It doesn’t bother me that people don’t care what I say. Which is why I haven’t said anything.
Here’s what bothers me.
Some Christians don’t seem to care what Jesus had to say, either.
Donald Trump is a candidate like none other in American history...Read more.
REVIEW BOOKS
If you can write a review
If you're willing to write a one- or two-sentence note in the review section of an online website that sells books, such as Amazon, I have some review books to give away.
I still have a few copies of A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible.
To write a review of this book on Amazon for example, use the book title to search on Amazon.com. When you come to the page that sells that book, scroll down to the section with reviews, and click the button that says "Write a customer review."
If you're Stateside and willing to write a review, send me an email note (subject line: Free review book).
Or if you know someone who might like the book but wouldn't otherwise get a copy, let me know.
Once I get your email note, I'll send you an email confirmation and you can tell me where to mail the book.
Just so you know, there are four things people can do to help Christian writers in their ministry:
Buy their books
Write reviews of their books
Talk about their books
Say nice things about their grandkids on their Facebook page
Last word
"May the LORD continually bless you....May you live to enjoy your grandchildren."[Psalm 128:5-6]
Stephen M. Miller
Website
Subscribe to blog
Forward to a friend
Our mailing address is:
Stephen M. Miller Inc
PO Box 2712
Olathe, Kansas 66061, United States
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