Asundry Items

For those of you in the general area, don't forget the Utah Valley Writers Workshop being held on July 27& 28. Because the Alpine School District is partnering with the iWriteNetwork (and teachers can get continuing education points), it's a killer deal--only $50 for two days and lunch is provided both days. If you can only come one day, that's fine, too. Single day registrations are available.

For details on the class schedule and registration, you can check the iWriteNetwork blog.

On a humorous note, you gotta love these editing marks.

I'd like to thank Nutschell over at  

The Writing Nut for the Sunshine Award.

A to Z - Dream Launcher

I would like to acknowledge Tara Tyler who kindly awarded this to me back in March. I just figured it would too good an A to Z post to pass up.

I've always had stories going on in my head. Over two years ago, after finding out about NaNoWriMo too late to participate, I decided to do my own personal one and see if I could even write a novel length story. Thirty days and eighty thousands words later, I found I can.

And I fell in love with writing. The stories in my head are so much more satisfactory now that they are on paper and complete.

Well, kinda complete. I've never met a page I didn't want to edit.

Consider yourself tagged.

What/who helped you launch your writing dreams?

Book Review - Queen in Exile . . . Plus Awards & Querying

I've got a guest blogger today. Her name is Bobbie Staley, and she's one of my clerks at my day job. She's not an author or an aspiring author. She's one of those people we're all hoping to bring into our camps

She's a Reader.

All right. So am I. So are you. But you know what I mean.

She's highlighting Queen in Exile by Donna Hatch.

Isn't this a great cover?

Book Description:
Rumors of War hang over Princess Jeniah's peaceful country of Arden, a land that shuns both magic and warfare. Following a lifelong dream, Jeniah forms a telepahtic bond with a revered creature called a chayim, who is prophesied to save her kingdom. But when a Darborian knight comes upon Jeniah with her chayim, he sees only a vicious monster about to devour a maiden, and he slays the beast.

Devastated by the loss of her chayim, and fearing that her own magic is evil, Jeniah doubts her destiny. When an enemy invades Arden City, they slaughter the people, storm the castle, and execute the entire royal family except the princess. Rescued by the knight who slew her chayim, Jeniah is now heir to the throne of Arden and the only hope for freeing her people from tyranny.

On the run and hunted by enemy soldiers, Jeniah must place her life and the fate of her kingdom in the hands of this trained killer. Torn between embracing her destiny as queen af Arden, and her love for a mere knight, she must ultimately rely on her magic to save herself and her people from death and tyranny. 

What does Bobbie think?

As I began to read yet another book about magic I was skeptical since I have read a few lately.  I was pleasantly surprised to find this one caught my  attention right away with the bond that Jeniah has with her Sacred animal.

I was taken with the tale of trials and love and anger and tears and oh-my-gosh moments that kept me wanting to read till the weee hours of the night.  I love this book, and I would recommend it to all ages.  I am going to have my 13-year-old read it because I know she would love this book.

Awards

I want to acknowledge the kind ladies who gave me a couple of awards this week:

• Robin Weeks granted me the Kreative Blogger Award.
• April Plumber over at If This Doesn't Scare You gave me a different Versatile Blogger Award. 

 You can check out the charmers here.

Querying

I hope you all had a great weekend. On Saturday I clicked the "send" button for the second time. It was harder in some ways because this one was unsolicited. I'm surprisingly calm about everything.

Hubby and I are going to go out to dinner every time I hit 10 rejections. I got my inspiration from author James Dashner as he mentioned in LTUE last year that that's what he did. The hard part will be those unofficial rejections because the agency has a "no reply" policy. You just tick off the time, and when you haven't heard anything just assume it's a "not interested".

*Rubs hands together*

Where shall we go out to eat?

Coming Home and Awards . . . and Stress

I'm en route back to the mainland after a delightful trip. We had some beautiful days and some horribly rainy ones--I mean flash flood heavy rains on Tuesday. We watched as the lawns outside and across the street became little rivers. Reminded me of the monsoons when I lived in the Philippines as a girl--one year we had 29 inches of rain--in September alone.

But that's okay. We played a variety of board and video games. And the weather the day before (Monday)--when we went to a local luau--was very pleasant. The Smith Family Luau was so much fun. Beautiful grounds, great food, and a fun show. Just a few sprinkles--the lull before the storm.

This is us with the family of one of my son-in-law's coworkers.

Having received some awards lately, I figured it was time to acknowledge the wonderful givers.

I've received the Great Commenter Award twice, once each from Nancy Thompson, Leigh Covington, and J.A. Bennett.

 Earlier this week Kelley over at Between the Bookends gave me the two awards below, and Sara at Live to Write...Edit When Necessary gave me the Versatile Blogger. J.A. Bennett gave me the Versatile Blogger, too.

I'm supposed to provide trivia about myself, but I've bored everyone stupid with tidbits about myself in previous posts so I'll pass this time.

I wish I had the time to track down a list of some bodacious bloggers out there who deserve these. However, things are crazy right now, so I'm merely going to acknowledge the awesome ladies who were kind enough to think of me. I invite you to visit their blogs and encourage you to follow them if you aren't already.

Seriously, speaking of crazy. How the heck did I end up on the boards of three different writing associations? I have eight years before I can retire, so I work full-time (plus). 

Don't misunderstand. These really are wonderful networking opportunities, and I love the people I'm working with. But when am I going to have time to write?


Do you find yourself getting in deeper than you probably should, making commitments you worry you won't be able to fulfill? I hate doing things halfway.

At what point do you have to step back from some things?

#Poetry Summer and an Award

Week 5: #PoetrySummer

(This is from Dan Well's Summer Poetry Challenge.)

I totally stole this from Sarah Eden. She was kind enough to suggest it when I cried for help on Twitter, since I'm old and need short things to memorize. By the way, I can't wait for her book Seeking Persephone to come out in September. It's a prequel to Courting Miss Lancaster, and I've already fallen in love with the characters.

Here's the poem I'm memorizing this week.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

~~Emily Dickinson

Hey, Robin. I didn't even realize until now that you're mentioned in this poem. Are you a fainter? You seemed sturdier than that.

BLOG AWARD

I've also been honored with another awarding of The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award by Kimberly Krey. You should check out her blog. I must be really sweet, because this is the third time I've been given this particular award. Thanks, Kimberly.

Feel free to stop reading (like you're not free to anyway) if you're tired of reading random things about me.

Rules of the The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award (some rules varied but these were the most popular):
1. Copy and paste the award to your blog.
Check

2. Thank and link to the person(s) who nominated you.
Check

3. Share seven random facts about yourself.
One
I hate the sensation of falling--that feeling of your stomach being higher up than the rest of your body. The kind you get when you're, you know, falling. I'm not afraid of heights. On roller coasters I'm fine going upside down and doing the corkscrew turns. Just not the falling.

When my family went on vacation to Disneyland a few years ago and we spent four days park hopping, one of my family's favorite rides was California Screamer. My daughter assured me it was not bad at all. I went.

As we got off, she said, "See, there were only one or two times when there's that sensation."

Um. No. Try five. I counted them.

Tower of Terror anybody? Why don't you just shoot me?

Two
I have an associate degree from Brigham Young University in University Studies with a focus on genealogy (they didn't have a major).

Three
The only bones I've ever broken are a toe and my tail bone (twice).

Four
I'm a serious Harry Potter geek. And proud of it. You can find me at the Leaky Lounge where I'm a moderator. As of last night I have 12,878 posts. I think I'll have to retire when I hit 13,000. =D

Five
My favorite color is green. Just about any shade, though after wearing olive drab everything for a couple of years I was a little off that shade of green for a few decades. When I got to my permanent duty assignment in Nurnberg, even my dang bedroom walls were painted OD. Ugh.

Six
Dark Chocolate. I like the other versions, but if I have a choice, dark chocolate wins every time. The darker, the better.

Seven
When I was a little girl, I was in love with musicals. I would sit in my classroom at school, just waiting for my teacher to break out in song and dance. Such a disappointment.

This video is totally the stuff of my dreams. How come I'm never in a place where they do this? Life's not fair.



4th rule: Pass the award along to 5 deserving blogging buddies.
Jordan McCollum  (Jordan's got choice writing info and is tekkie resource as well)
James Duckett (the writer, not the guy on death row)
Deanna Barnhart (a fellow member of my critique group and host of July's Gearin' up to Get An Agent Blog O Rama)
Amber over at Litpool (she's counting down until Harry' Birthday with HP trivia and prizes)
Candace's Book Blog (I LOVE her blog background)