About Sandra

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Hi there. Thanks for stopping by to visit. I’m Sandra Pavloff Conner, and I love communicating online. I’m pretty sure you do too, or you wouldn’t be here. You meet so many nice people from all over the world through this medium, and it makes life richer.

It’s interesting to me that I enjoy it so much, when I don’t enjoy phone conversations at all. In fact, I go out of my way to keep them to a minimum. But, frankly, I can sit at my computer with one of my blogs on the screen and talk to friends from around the globe all day.

Of course, that’s a “no-no,” because if I spend too much time writing to people, I can’t spend as much time writing for them, and that’s where my heart is. If you read my “Welcome” page, you already know that I’ve been writing since I was in elementary school, and that I come from a family of writers.

I guess you’d say I’m one of those people who literally can’t keep from writing. Nor can I keep from reading. No matter where I am or why I’m there, I inevitably find myself reading something. I can be standing in front of someone’s desk, and before I know it, I’ve glanced down at the desktop and started reading whatever written matter is lying there — even if I have to read it upside down. I suppose some people would consider that a character flaw, but I figure it just goes along with my love of the work I do.

Writing isn’t my only occupation. I’m an ordained minister, a school teacher, and a professional musician. My love for the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important thing in my life, and I’ve realized that, no matter which career hat I’m wearing at any given time,  I generally try to use it to help people get to know the Lord better and help them receive the blessings He wants to give them.

My inspirational novels are focused strongly on that goal. I trust that the stories I write will help make God real to everyday people in their everyday lives. My non-fiction books are aimed at teaching the great truths from God’s Word on a level that is very easy to understand, and my devotional books are an effort to give folks a little lift even when they don’t have time to read anything lengthy. Even when I was a newspaper reporter, my favorite assignments were human interest stories where I could help show the readers something excellent or something hopeful in the stories I wrote.

Occasionally, I write pieces that are not necessarily “Christian” in nature. Most of those are works that help hone my craft or let my imagination have room to grow in different directions. But, hopefully, even a lot of those help give readers a positive experience, even it its just allowing them to focus on something outside their own daily problems and aggravations.

Besides this author’s website, which has it’s own blog, I also have two ministry blogs that you may enjoy: “Radical About Jesus Ministries” and “Healing From Jesus.” Besides those, I have created a special Christmas blog — because I love, love, love(!!!) Christmas. If you enjoy Christmas a lot, be sure to visit my “Merry Christmas World” site. And then — believe it or not — I have another online site, but this one isn’t for promoting my own writing or my own whims. I teach creative writing at the college and adult level, and I have created an online magazine to feature work by my creative writing students. So if you’d like to check out some work by a few brand new authors who are just learning how to hone their craft, visit the Debut Writers Journal.

I’m hoping you’ll enjoy your visit here and that you’ll keep coming back often enough to get a good sampling of everything. If you’d like more information about my books, the easiest way to obtain it is from my Amazon Author’s Page. A couple of my Christian teaching books are currently offered for free reading on the ministry sites as well.

The website you’re on gives you links in the sidebar to my Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages, and readers who want to contact me personally may do so at the following e-mail address:
sandrapavloffconner@gmail.com

That’s about it, folks. Hope to have an opportunity to chat with you often via our “Comments” sections. Thanks again for stopping by.

Happy Reading and Writing!
Sandra

(Revised March, 2022)

66 thoughts on “About Sandra”

  2. I am ashamed to admit, I am just now finding this About page…and realizing many things about you…Are any of your books available other than Ebook, or downloads? I didn’t know you were a song writer either…wow, awesome. Is there a site to hear, or see the lyrics? I once wrote, and sang a bit in …, some places I no longer care to think about. Sang and played a few in churches for a while too. I sort of lost interest in songwriting for many reasons some time back, and though I really don’t care to remember the ones I wrote pre-1999, I was blessed to write a few that I do care about since. I had a 4 track recorder, and a few of them I over dubbed etc… with lead, and other instruments as best I could at one time. Not saying they were professional grade by any means…but, they did sound better than what few I was able to get recorded on this petrified, dinosaur computer I’m using.. Here’s the site I have a few of my songs on. It’s a free web site if you’re interested in putting yours online, though, I really don’t have the equipment, or the know how to add mine in the correct file form..etc…Anyway, you can get a free-webs site there if you like…

    http://godandmetunes.webs.com/

    Bless You
    paul

    Reply

    1. Oh, I will DEFINITELY check out your songs. I doubt that I would make any effort to put mine online though. Just have so many irons in the fire already. They are primarily worship songs, but I do have about 5 that are the score for a Christian musical. If that musical gets off the ground, I might seriously think about posting those songs. But the audio recording to post to the websites is one phase of technology that is still a big mystery to me.

      About my books, yes they are in some bookstore and specialty gift stores. I think I mentioned in one of our communications about the Smokies that the lodge featured on the front of those books also sells them. You can find them online, but the best prices at this point are on the publisher’s website. We are actually working on getting several of them formatted for digital readers, and if we do, those will be on Amazon. Right now Amazon takes way too big a slice of the money for the printed books to make using them practical. It’s ridiculous. I’ve had some problems with them personally anyway. They posted one of my books that came out several years ago on their site without my permission, and because they couldn’t get any into their stock, they have it listed as “out of print.” I waged a battle to get that removed, but there’s no one who will stand with me in any government office to get the job done. So I just gave the book a brand new title, and we have published a new edition of it. It is now marketed under a completely different title, so that what Amazon says will not hinder sales at other places.

      And as I see that so many authors are offering their stuff in digital format for as low as $.99, I am even more impressed to offer more of mine for free reading. So many people can be helped by them who can’t afford to just buy all the books they want. So if you think you want to read more, you may just want to wait until I post another one online. Most of the books also have their own Facebook page that gives more details and links back to the publisher and allows visitors to read excerpts free.

      By the way, if you do end up liking “Set Free” well enough to finish it, you might give me your opinion about what I should post next. I’m trying to decide whether to post the second book in that series on this blog site — or whether I should post “Quenton’s Honor,” which includes more intrigue, espionage, and angelic visitations. I’d like to keep a free novel going on this blog, so I’m praying about what to post next. But then, of course, there’s the “anti-witchcraft” novel (that my friend was so surprised about), and a lot of people feel that has really important points that people need to know. Of course, I feel it has a lot of important stuff, but after all, I’m like any other mother. That book is my baby, so of course its the greatest thing to be born in the past decade!

      Reply

    1. Yes, I got both of your messages, and I went to visit the page. Very nice. Thank you for letting me be the one to sort of “kick it off.” I left you a more involved note on that page. Let me know if it did not post all right.

      Reply

    1. Thank you for taking the time to visit and comment. I have to leave for work right now, but as soon as I have a little time, I will come by and visit your site.
      Blessings.
      Sandra

      Reply

  7. Sandra, Good morning! Today I was happily surprised to find out that I was nominated by a fellow blogger for the “Very Inspiring Blogger” Award. This involves some kind of participation (as you probably already know)! One of the things I had to do was to propose 15 bloggers for the same award. Truth is, you popped up in my mind immediately! So, there you go my friend! Participate! http://goomfh.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/728/ This is a link to my page, where you will find the instructions! Thank you for being such an inspiration to me! 🙂

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much for your kind words — and kind thoughts. I will receive the award with pleasure. I don’t know how well I will do at following all the instructions, but I’ll give it my best effort.

      Have to get ready to leave for an appointment right now, but will hop over there soon and get the details. Thanks again.
      Sandra

      Reply

  8. I am so glad to find another Christian to correspond with. Sometimes you need the qualified opinion of one with a similar focus to cut down on the preliminary explanations of why you ask a certain question. I look forward to reading your work and building our friendship.

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much. And thanks for your comment on the Friday Fictioneers piece. I’m still trying to make it around to everyone’s site. I think I have only about half of them done.

      I know what you mean about appreciating other Christian voices on here. There are two other people with sites here that you may enjoy. I’ll give you the links in case you haven’t discovered them yet.
      http://stevensawyer.wordpress.com/
      and
      http://awalkintheword.wordpress.com/

      Also, you’re welcome to visit two other blogs that I have, both of which are primarily ministry blogs (as compared to this site, which centers more around my own writing.) I’ll include the links to them as well just for convenience’s sake.
      http://hanginoutwithgod.wordpress.com/
      and
      http://healingfromjesus.wordpress.com/

      I’ll also try to get over to read your story before the day’s over.

      Reply

  10. Hi Sandra,

    You’re exactly right – it’s a pay phone with just one part of the actual phone left. I found this thing when I was waiting to get lunch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was freezing cold (I think it was sometime after Christmas) and I had not much else to do but watch the world go by. So I kept looking at this incredible relic and eventually pulled out my camera and took a couple of shots specifically for Friday Fictioneers. That’s about it for backstory. Pay phones are obsolete, and I’m sure this thing’s days are numbered. I’m just glad I got a photo!

    By the way, Rochelle did not mention this, but I’ve licensed the photo as Creative Commons – with Attribution. It means anyone can use this photo (even commercially) as long as they acknowledge that I took it. Feel free to use it in your class if you like!

    You’re perfectly welcome to borrow my blog title for your creative writing class. I would love it if the word “glossarch” got thrown around, or even entered regular usage. As far as I’m concerned, treat it as any other word. You can say I coined it, of course, but I claim no copyright or any other rights whatsoever on it.

    Thanks for stopping by,

    Danny

    Reply

    1. Hey, thanks so much for the information, Danny. And I’m excited to share with students about your invention of the term “glossarch” because one of the things I want to emphasize in this summer’s course is that we as writers really do have “control” over words — and therefore have power through those words to create and even “control” things and people. It’s a huge responsibility to be a writer because how we control words can make or break lives.

      Reply

    1. Actually I started a photo challenge called “Thursday’s Windows,” which ran for several months. But it takes a lot of time to visit all the sites of those who participate, and, of course, I wanted to comment on each. Eventually, running the challenge became too time consuming, and I had to let it go. I had intended it to be a temporary thing anyway, and it was much more popular and ran much longer than I expected. When I announced that I needed to give it up, one of the other participants asked to take it over. So she now calls it “Thursday’s Lingering Look at Windows,” and you will find her site here:
      http://lingeringvisions.wordpress.com/

      If you look in her navigation bar at the top of her blog, you will see the link to the Thursday challenge. Hope you enjoy it.

      Reply

    1. That has to mean you lived in Paris for a while. Do you still live there?

      I’m sure I’d love spending hours there myself, simply because I’m that way about almost any well-stocked bookstore, but I’ve never been close enough to stop by.

      My sister loves Paris, and this picture is one she took when there a couple years ago. She just got back Friday from a visit there, and I think she’d really like to live there. If she could pack up the kids and grandkids and take them with her, I think she’d change addresses today.

      Glad you enjoyed the picture.

      Reply

  14. Sandara, your blog has been selected by me for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award. Your poetry prompts are inspiring! Even if you prefer not to accept this award, please accept this as a compliment and an indication of appreciation for your creative work. The philosophy of the award is: “The Dragon’s Loyalty Award is an award for the loyal fan/commenter, whether the recipient is a fellow blogger or just someone who follows and comments regularly.” Congratulations!
    -tjbarkerseattle

    Reply

  15. I entered the blogging world two years ago because I found photographic forums extremely stressful. I belonged to a dozen of them and in each case people were not kind to each other, overly opinionated and downright rude.

    Two separate friends suggested blogging as a method to avoid all that testosterone. Males tend to dominate the photographic sites. I gave it a try and the rest is history. I pulled out of every forum, as peacefully as I could. I have met a few good people there, one encouraged me to blog.

    Your blog as well as your comments have inspired me to stick with the blogging world and I must admit I still love it. It lets me share my world through photographs while helping others do the same. Thanks for being here in my corner. – Bob

    Reply

    1. Hey, thank you for the kind words, Bob. I think you know I feel the same about your contribution to the blogging world. By the way, I posted your photo and a note about you on my Facebook page — in connection with the upcoming new book. In fact, I just retired my original personal Facebook page and created one that was intended to offer only my original stories (Called Sandra Conner’s Storybook).

      It did not work right, so I now have a new “Author” page as well that lets people connect with the Storybook page (Oh the wonders of technology that doesn’t work right!!!!) Anyway, I included the link to the Ungawa blog in that note, so I hope that sends a lot of other people to check out your Ungawa blog.

      Reply

    1. Hello, Belsbror. I want to thank you for honoring me with the nominations for these awards. I honestly do not consider that a light thing. However, I made the decision a couple years ago to stop accepting any awards that have rules attached. If you would like a full explanation of why and how I came to that decision, I have a full article on the subject here:
      https://sandraconner.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/lets-talk-about-blog-awards/

      But, again, I thank you sincerely for thinking of me and making me feel good about the work I do here.

      Reply
  17. Pingback: Imagine by Sandra Conner | The Day After

    1. You are very welcome, Dennis. They are sincere. I haven’t been reading — or writing — a lot lately. Just too busy trying to make money. Hopefully, I’ll get back to some regular interaction on here before long.

      And I’m so glad you posted your comment on this page, because I came over here and realized that no one can read the words. I had changed the text to white when I had a dark background on another theme (and this text didn’t change the way it was supposed to). But when I came back to a white background, I forgot that I had manipulated the color. I’ll get that corrected before I leave this page.

      Reply

    1. When I have my page on my screen set at 75%, I see the whole title the way you want it to look. If I boost the page size (by holding down “Control” and clicking the + sign) anything larger than 75% still separates the letters into odd arrangements. And going down in size does the same thing. But that happens to text on a lot of blogs. I’m not sure how to solve that problem — other than putting the text on a picture as I mentioned. Then the whole picture changes size, so the relationship between letters stays the same. But, of course, then you have to go to the trouble of embedding the image into your sidebar.

      Reply

    2. I figured out which theme you’re using, and I created a sample of your title as a picture. It’s not exactly the same color of gold though. But if you want to see what it would look like — assuming we could get the exact color — you can follow this link. I put it on my Test Blog only, and no one can see it except me — or you if I send you this link.

      The theme says the left sidebar will not show on small screens — like mobile phones I guess. But I took my screen size down to 50%, and it still shows up.

      The other negative is that I don’t think you can get the title to sit right at the top of the sidebar. It sits about an inch down from the very top. At least you can see what I’m talking about, and that will give you another possible option. But if you experiment on different screen sizes, with the one you’ve just done, and it doesn’t change too much on your screen, you may want to just keep that one.

      Anyway, feel free to check this out if you want to. Everything on that page is a test of some kind that I’ve done over the past several months, so I don’t even remember what all is on there, but we’re only concerned with your title.

      http://spclabsite.wordpress.com/

      Reply

    3. Okay, I just figured out how to get the picture of the title to sit at the top. I loaded it in as the header– instead of your original picture of the birds.

      So you could use it in that space, and let it be your title, or you could use it in a little larger size a little ways down (the second one) and still use your other picture as your header.

      You don’t have to decide about this today. I can leave this on here a while because no one else even knows it’s here — except WordPress. You can just let me know if you decide to use one of these, and I can e-mail you the pictures. We can also make it a little darker gold if you want to.

      But you may decide not to use these, and that’s totally fine. I had a little time this morning, so I just decided to see if we could make something work. One of my jobs is as graphic artist for a small publishing company, so I like doing this kind of stuff instead of housework.

      Reply

      1. Wow! Thanks for all your work. I managed to play with the fonts and found one that would let me fit the words in. The biggest problem was every time I shrank the main title, the blog titles got smaller also. Some of the fonts made them totally unreadable. I’ll look at what you did. Just sent a request to see it.

        Reply

        1. Clicking on that link should take you right to the page that shows the two styles of your title. The one on top is in the header photo spot, and you wouldn’t be able to put a small picture there. The second one is in the second spot on that sidebar, so it is bigger, and you could still use a picture above it. The color needs to be a little darker gold to look like what you had, but that’s pretty easily fixed. But now if you don’t care for either of those, please feel free to say so. I won’t be the least little bit offended. I just thought it was worth a try. I do this kind of stuff all the time, and sometimes it ends up being a success and sometimes not.

          Reply

          1. Also, Lee, when you’re on that page of my test blog, play around with changing the size of the page on your screen (by clicking Control and the + sign at the same time — or Control and minus.) That way you’ll be able to see if the titles stay the same even when the page changes.

    1. Hey, Jane. Thanks for thinking of me. I actually told another blogging friend last week that I would try to do this, but I just haven’t had the time. However, your nomination has reminded me again, and I will try to find the time soon. I have four blogs — two of them for the ministry that I do — and I work three jobs, so just keeping up with what I would normally blog is sometimes a big challenge. I almost didn’t get a couple of the poetry course assignments done on time, but I squeaked by just under the wire. That was a lot of fun.

      Reply

      1. I read your blog, and realised how busy you are, but you’re the right sort of person, and i thought it was worth a try. I’m sure you’re busy spreading love everywhere anyway, and that’s what is really important. No problem if you can’t manage it.

        Reply

    1. Well, now, this is the third prompt I’ve had about this challenge, and I think I’m just going to have to do it. I won’t be nominating other people because I don’t want other blogging friends to feel pressure about it. (That’s why I never participate in blog awards that include rules anymore either). But I will encourage my readers to take the challenge as well. Thanks for thinking of me.

      Reply

      1. Please don’t feel pressured! Only participate if it would be fun and bend the rules all you want. These blogging events either are enjoyable or they feel like a chain letter! I have three awards that I have yet to “accept” because of the ” rules.” I have seen others bend the rules in very lovely ways and have come to the conclusion that it’s best to do things in your own way. I think the rules are really just suggestions as to how to pass on recognition to other bloggers. 🙂 When I get around to those awards, if I ever do, I will have tweaked the rules 🙂
        I passed this on to you because I have enjoyed your writing and thought perhaps you might enjoy the challenge!

        Reply

  25. Wonderful “about” Sandra. Even without one of those deep quotes…I am so impressed with your fantastic journey in becoming a published author as well as your upbeat life attitude. I too love to write and have written many short humorous stories on my blog, primarily about my lovely mother and father. Perhaps if you have time you might enjoy “Whisked Away” “Please Mom May I’ve Some More” or “In The Company of Women” all brief and in my monthly archives. My first love is writing but I have lately been addicted to the one word photo challenges wherein I can combine a creative photo coupled with a few accompanying words to make me feel like I am writing! One of these days I hope to write a book containing a collection of short stories about my one of a kind Irish mother. Just not sure where to start. Have great evening.

    Reply
  26. Pingback: Shoutout: Imagine by Sandra Conner |

    1. Thank you, Renard. I really do appreciate your visit and your encouraging words. I’m also thrilled to have a visitor from Blogger. I tried a couple blogs on Blogger a couple years ago and visited many other sites and left comments on pieces I especially enjoyed. But, for some reason, not one blogger I visited ever even responded to my comments. Nor did anyone ever visit and comment on anything I posted. So I gave up on that blogging network and focused on WordPress. In general, the WP bloggers all love to interact. But I’m glad to know that there really are some on Blogger who feel that way as well.

      Reply

      1. [ Smiles ] Oh, I know the feeling all too well.

        Unfortunately, a lot of people on Blogger are not into reciprocating.

        I am different though; I support other bloggers; even those who are not on my own blogging platform.

        And, thank you for checking out my blog!

        Reply
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Hey, don't you dare go away without leaving me a note!