Must set my imagination aside and focus on accounting. focus. on. accounting. Squirrel!

Quick Change Artist (Author)

I’ve been fortunate enough to attend two writing conferences lately. The most recent was the LDStorymakers’ Writers’ Conference. I realized that not only was my creative genius (a term I use loosely) fed, but I was hanging out amongst rich and famous writers.


Famous writers at least. I think the rich ones may have been camouflaged since I couldn’t see any, and the ones I suspected were rich, refused to show me their balance sheets although I flashed my CPA credentials at them…

Speaking of flashing credentials, when it came time to change from my casual business conference-wearing attire to my rich-and-famous writer attire for the Whitney Awards, I realized I could either: 1) Change in the bathroom; or, 2) Ask to use someone’s hotel room.

Since I had alienated the writers who were potentially wealthy enough to afford a hotel room by my Jack Bauer-like attempts to find out if they were rich and famous, and I had already spent enough time in the bathroom that day (I sure love Diet Coke), I decided to come up with another option:

My 2010 Cyber Gray Metallic Camaro SS. (Which, incidentally, was not parked in the parking garage, but out in an open lot by a busy traffic light).

My mission—change from frumpy, grumpy Terri Ferran, CPA to glamorous, genius Terri Ferran, Author. In my Camaro. In daylight, without alerting the fashion police or the real police.

Mission accomplished. Yes, I changed in my car. Yet another reason to love my Camaro!

Here are pictures of a couple of rich and famous authors I mingled with. (Disclaimer—I cannot vouch for their actual richness)

Janette Rallison, me, & Rebecca Talley

Janette Rallison & me all dolled up (Rebecca disappeared, maybe I should check the Camaro trunk...)

Rachel Rager, me (my vision was blurring as I snapped this, Need. Diet. Coke.)

and, the Piece de Resistance:

My vision has cleared. Apparently chocolate works as well as Diet Coke.

Re-framing the moment

It’s all in how you frame things…


This week has been a little rough for various reasons. As I drove to yet another commitment tonight, I felt like I’d been dragged backwards through a knothole. Then I realized I could re-frame it. I could either be:

A) The migraine-induced-innards-turned-outtards old worn out unit that has shared my skin all week, or…

B) I could be the three-time author, rocketing forth in my cyber-gray metallic 2010 Camaro SS, tunes blasting, on my way to a dinner honoring authors.

Here’s what I decided:

If you can’t tell if I chose option A or option B, I have much bigger problems than I thought!

So I had a lovely dinner, courtesy of my publisher CFI, got to visit with some of my favorite author friends.

Here are two of them below:

This is me and my new friend, Jane Still, author of Mother's Daze at the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop. Jane's goes 90 miles an hour--without a muscle car, all on her own power. If you click on her link above, you'll see her own self-portrait on her book!

This is me and my friend Janet Burningham, author of Monday Nights in Jerusalem (and 2 other books in the series) at the CFI authors' dinner. She claims her life has gone downhill since she met me, but I think she's doing great--a lot better than the character Janet in my first book, Finding Faith

It was a fun evening and reminded me that life is fun, even when it's hard. Need a light read? Read this handy, dandy book:

Available at Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Cedar Fort or me!

If you already have it, please leave a review at one or more of these sites.

Loved Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop!LDStorymakers Writers' Conference-2 days, & BYU Women's Conference-8 days. I'm bursting with inspiration!