The Coming Year

I had so hoped to spend the final days of 2008 with a superpower (and I don't mean Russia). I had an appointment yesterday to get my new permanent tooth, but apparently there are slackers working the fiery forges at the secret tooth laboratory, and they are good at slacking.

I still possess the temp composite wrapped around the titanium post, but I now believe the superpower resides in the actual crown itself.

Then again, maybe I am obsessed with something that exists only in my mind (along with the multitude of voices). Perhaps the really good superpowers take longer to forge.

2009 is almost here. The year of the superpower. The year after 2008. The year of employment (I hope). The year before 2010. The year of 365.25 days. The year of the Ox (starting 1/26). The year I blog more. The year of 2 book releases. The year of the shiny new tooth.

As my 3-year old granddaughter would say "That's hilarious, Gran."

All I Want for Christmas is My New Front Tooth!

Monday started out as a terrible, horrible, no-good very bad day and ended much the same way when one of my front teeth BROKE off at the roots! It was a 15-year old crown that covered the stump-end of a root-canaled tooth so in the world of dentists and pain it was not a surprise departure.

In my world--it was trauma at level 10 (level 1 being a normal day, level 4 being without diet Coke and chocolate, etc.) I cried and laughed at the same time. My 17-year old daughter said, "You know you're a redneck when your teeth fall out at dinner." I had just commented on how tender the chicken was...I guess it wasn't tender enough!

Knowing that humor eventually prevails in my world, I took a self-portrait of my hillbilly state. (Caution: Disturbing image, proceed at your own risk.) My oldest daughter begged me to send it to her and I made her promise that it would not end up on her blog. She told me I should blog about it. I found I could not prounounce "f" words with my missing tooth. (I meant "Ferran", what did you think I meant?)

I went to the dentist the very next day and Dr. Vargo worked magic (he also performed some dental work). I entered his office a toothless old hag and exited 2 1/2 hours later an old hag.

Like a rapper with a shiny new tooth, I couldn't stop smiling!

So, for the price of less than a C-section and more than one of my sister-in-law's purebred puppies, I am the owner of a temporary tooth. The price includes a titanium post, a pretty porcelain crown crafted in the fires of the forge of a secret laboratory--and, I'm almost certain, will come with a SUPERPOWER!

I can't wait to find out what superpower I get!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a quick post to express my thanks for something before I completely forget it...I'm thankful my memory isn't TOTALLY gone!

I promised to post the Having Hope cover blurb. Here it is. Click on it to enlarge and read it. When I read the blurb, I thought "Wow! Excellent blurb. It makes me want to read this book. Whoever wrote it actually read the book and hit the important points perfectly." I eagerly showed it to all who would take a minute to look and listen.

The following day, I pulled up the submission I sent with the manuscript. (Authors are requested to send in a suggestion for the back cover blurb.) The blurb I sent in for Finding Faith was pathethic! I was relieved when someone in marketing wrote a better one for me.

Anyway, I pulled up my blurb for Having Hope, hoping to compare the two and learn how I could improve my craft. To my surprise, as I read what I submitted, I realized that I WAS THE ONE WHO WROTE THE BACK COVER BLURB! Only two words were changed! Apparently the blurb-writer not only read the book, but actually wrote the book!

I must've written it in a moment of inspiration or amnesia or something...Who knew? I guess I'd better stop bragging about what a great blurb it is and start working on memory-building skills. You just have to laugh!

Having Hope Book Cover

I'm very excited to have the cover proof for Having Hope! I think it is practically perfect in every way (along with Mary Poppins). I'm posting it here and will get my personal computer geek (who also happens to be the love of my life) to help me update the home page of my website. I can't wait for March!

I hope you love it as much as I do. The folks at Cedar Fort do an excellent job on their book covers.

I read the cover blurb and was so excited...it made me want to read the book! I'll post that in the next couple of days. Stay tuned...

Grand Opening Provident Book/Humdinger Toys & Games

Provident Book/Humdinger Toys & Games
661 W State, Pleasant Grove, UT

Saturday, November 15th
9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Drawings for free, cool stuff!
Sword of Laban ($350 value)
Liahona Ball ($350 value)
LDS Book Package ($300 value)
Toy/Game Gift Certificate ($100 value)
and MORE!

Authors Signings throughout the day.

Here's the author signing schedule for the day:

10:00 A.M. Christy Hardman Larry C. Porter

11:00 A.M. H.B. Moore,Michelle Ashman Bell ,Tristi Pinkston

12:00 P.M. Julie Coulter Bellon, Monte Shelley

1:00 P.M. Terri Ferran, Nancy Anderson

2:00 P.M. Jewel Adams, Herman DuToit, John Telford

3:00 P.M. Jennie Hansen, Doris R. Dant, John (Jack) Welch

4:00 P.M. N.C. Allen, Gilbert W. Scharffs, K.L. Morgan

5:00 P.M. Candace Salima, Alan Cassidy

6:00 P.M. Blair Tolman, Haley Freeman

7:00 P.M. Monte Nyman, Brent L. Top

Stop in and check out this new independent book & toy store and meet some great people!
I hope to see you there!

Update on Booksigning

Provident Book has re-scheduled their grand opening for Saturday, November 15th. They will still be open on the 8th, but the author signings and the drawings for free, cool stuff won't happen until the 15th. I'll post an updated author list with times as soon as it is available.

Keep reading! Hope to see you on the 15th!

Attention: Come and Meet the Authors!!!

This Saturday is the grand opening of Provident Book/Humdinger Toys located at 661 W. State, Pleasant Grove, UT

Stop by and meet a favorite author or two! Here are the authors currently scheduled for signings. This is a great time to get an early start on Christmas shopping and meet some amazing people.

10 am Christy Hardman, Robert Freeman, Larry C. Porter

11 am H. B. Moore, Angela Hallstrom, Tristi Pinkston

12 noon David G. Woolley, Julie Coulter Bellon, Monte Shelley

1 pm Terri Ferran, C.S. Beza, Janet Burningham

2 pm Rachel Ann Nunes, Stacy Gooch Anderson, John Telford

3 pm Jennie Hansen, Michele Ashman Bell, Nancy Anderson

4 pm N. C. Allen, Gilbert W. Scharffs

6 pm John (Jack) Welch

Book signing at a great new book store

Provident Book in Pleasant Grove, UT is having their grand opening on Saturday, Nov. 8th!

I'm scheduled to be there at 1 pm to do book signings and I know they have booked several other authors as well.

Take some time out of your Saturday to enjoy meeting some authors and discover a great little bookstore.

Provident Book
661 W State
Pleasant Grove, UT

New World Record for Me!

Great news today--Having Hope, which had been pushed to an April 2009 release date, is back at a March 2009 release date. Yippee! That means it will be out and in stores in time for Mother's Day. Let's cross our fingers that we see it in the Deseret Book Mother's Day catalog.

It's a personal first for me--I've posted two times in one month. Every now and then I remember I need to update my blog and put it off long enough to forget it. My husband suggested I schedule a time each week to update it. Eeeek! The pressure of it all! He entered a reminder in his Outlook to remind me to blog every Monday. Too late! Monday is already Presidency meeting and Laundry day. I'm all full up here.

Incentive to Blog: When your daughter starts a blog and has three comments within the first half hour. Hmmmm, maybe I'm going to have to blog more often. Maybe I'll have to give out my blog address to people!

The Final Semester

Here it is October already! I'm faithfully trudging through that last semester of college; the end is in sight! Between schoolwork and family obligations I haven't had a lot of time to write for pleasure.

I am still working on the rough draft of Skunkworks, the novel that my husband and I are writing together. It's totally different from Finding Faith and Having Hope. It is really exciting to work on a project together.

Another project I have been working on is a humorous book, short and easy-to-read. I call it the ABC book and need to get it finished soon. I'm still trying to find out which genre I like best--and which genre I write best!

Finding Faith & Having Hope

I could spend this entire post apologizing for the length of time it's taken me to post again, but suffice it to say--I am a slacker! Enough said.

My mother-in-law got married, my family vacationed in Disneyworld, my two little granddaughters are amazing! The kids are back in school and so am I. My final semester is happening now and I've had to put some of my writing on hold--although I am working on a joint project with my husband, Tod, with a working title of Skunkworks. I should graduate in December and then plan on putting my full effort back into writing.

I've been asked a few questions about Finding Faith--the main ones being "Is it your story?" or "How much of it is your story?"

The story and its characters are fictional. There are moments of reality intertwined in the story. I am a convert to the Church, like Kit. I had a friend whose family invited me into their home and that is where I first felt the Spirit. Fortunately, my friend and her family are all still alive; although they had no idea of their wonderful influence on me until recently--they think they are just ordinary. You may remember in the book that Janet talks about a lady in her ward who adopted three children after not being able to have more of her own. My husband and I adopted three children after we were unable to have more after our first three.

A couple of questions about Having Hope: 1) Is it a sequel? and 2) What happens?

Having Hope is a continuation of the story of Kit Matthews and you'll recognize many of her friends and family in the story. I will tell you that Kit goes to Romania. As to the rest, I'll borrow a line from one of my very favorite authors, the late Robert Jordan, and say RAFO!

(RAFO means "Read and Find out!)

New Blogs for Old Dogs

Being new to blogging this year, I'm not yet very good at it. When you combine new blogs with procrastination, you get very few posts and even less traffic.

I tell myself I have nothing interesting to say, so I put it off for another day. Then another day passes, the days turn to months, and you have an inactive blog.

Many of us think "You can't teach an old dog new tricks", but as I attended a writers' conference last weekend, it got this "old dog" pumped up to share things on my blog. We all have interesting things to say and shouldn't let us tell ourselves anything different!

It's summer! I just finished the rought draft of my second book "Having Hope"! I have a brand new grand baby! My mother-in-law is getting married in 10 days! We're taking our children to Disneyworld in August! There are lots of fun things to look forward to; and lots of twisted ways to look at them!

This old dog is going to blog more often! See you in the blogs!

A Short Post from Cancun

This post is quick because my Livestrong computer has a "die soon" battery. The life is about 35 minutes and I'm at minute 34. Kind of like life! Today I spent the day at airports, on the plane, in one line, in another line, then wait--still another line, oh yeah--one more line, or as I should say "Uno mas!"

I can live with all the lines because, unlike Disneyland, the ride here in Cancun will be a long luxurious week, rather than an intense 30-60 seconds.

The blog screen is all in Spanish and I don't understand a lot of it! I hope I get it right & get it posted.

Hasta luego! (See you later--maybe next week, maybe longer if I can find a hammock to stay in down here for the 180 days my tourist visa was stamped for!

What was that resolution???

Here it is only one week to Cancun and not only have I not succeeded in losing XXX pounds (yes, you could translate that as 30 in Roman numerals although that wasn't exactly what I meant!) but I have also missed a couple of other great goals I set for myself, pre-2008.

I was going to finish my current manuscript by February 29th and , oops!, I missed that goal. I am about a third of the way there, but that's 2/3 short of where I wanted to be. I was also going to blog every week, so I'm only about nine weeks behind.

I'm taking nine credit hours this semester through the USU extension program and have been doing taxes for almost every family member I'm related to (the price for being the family CPA), not to mention some contract audits, so I have been justifiably busy...but so is everyone else.

Yesterday morning I set aside my homework and wrote on the book first, before my creative juices all drained out through my tear ducts. It felt empowering. Of course I panicked as my midnight English assignment loomed ever closer.

I also just joined a blog with several other authors--details will be forthcoming.

What's next? I'll think about it while I'm on the beach in Cancun. Adios!