Spring Break, Thumbelina, & Golden Spiral

Hello anonymous/imaginary people who read this blog! :)

Just a quick update on how things are going for me. This week is Spring Break at Weber State. It's been nice sleeping in, getting lots of writing done and other things on my to-do list, but it doesn't really seem like Spring Break. This is for two reasons:

1) I've still had to go to work. Not that I don't like work. I love my job and the people I work with. They're all so fun and nice! And Julie (one of my coworkers) makes the cutest little gifts and the yummiest treats for everybody! Like for Saint Patrick's Day she made some cute leprachaun treasure treats. Very darling. But I still don't like spending my break working.

2) I have to take a test during Spring Break. What kind of professor does that? Makes you go up to campus the one week that semester you have off and make you take a test? So I spent most of today studying sociology and learning about how sex and gender are not biologically set in anybody (this course definitely has some values that do not coincide with gospel principles). Yeah, go figure that one out.

But I'm very super duper excited because I got something amazing in the mail today! I shall not tell you what it is . . . Okay, maybe I will. But you have to promise not to judge me too harshly . . . I bought the Thumbelina Soundtrack!!!!!! Yes, it may not be the most practical investment I've ever made. And yes, it may have cost me a little bit of money. But it's something that me and my friends will enjoy and hopefully will bring my children joy. I'm very happy with my decision. *Sigh* I really love it.

This cd has been out of print since 1994, so it's pretty hard to come across. Barry Manilow wrote all the music for Thumbelina, so that should tell you how absolutely amazing the cd is. I get chills all over everytime I listen to it. It's like I'm wrapped up in a cocoon of Manilowy goodness. And the fact that Jodi Benson does the voice of Thumbelina makes it even better. Then there's the nice little inside joke between me and my friends regarding almost every single character in Thumbelina that makes listening to the music particularly satisfying.

So, I got my Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Lisa Mangum's "The Golden Spiral", second book in the Hourglass Door series. Can I just say how AMAZING it was? I think I liked this one even better than the first just because everything was in place and explained so that I could enjoy the characters and the story. I really want an Italian time-traveling boyfriend. Is that too much to ask?

Anyway, that's pretty much all with me. But how are all of you, anonymous/imaginary blog readers? I really want to know.

Have a good weekend! :)

Good friends, good books, and good writing

Hi everybody! Apparently yesterday was national update your blog day. But since I'm an individual (and procrastinator) I am updating a day late. :)

This month has been full of many, many good things. First of all, it's been full of great and amazing friends! If you ever look at my Facebook page, you may notice it's pretty much dominated by three girls: Ashley L., Ashley R., and Megan D. They're some of my best friends in the whole world! I have so much fun with them and am so blessed to have them in my life.



This photo is from October, when we all went to the Institute dance as fairies. Our amazing make-up was done by Ash (or Ashley R. for those who care to know). She is awesome. From right to left: Megan, Ashley R., Ashley L., and me. Megan was the dark fairy, which is really funny and ironic if you know her at all.

The four of us have actually been talking about going on a trip to St. George this summer, to celebrate making it through our first year of college. I'm super excited. These girls are the best and make my life A LOT more interesting. :)

Next, I've been able to read a lot of good books lately. Let's bust out the list, shall we?

-Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George (She was one of the authors in my group at a writers conference I went to this summer. She's really funny and down to earth. Plus her stories are awesome.)

-The 13th Reality: The Hunt for Dark Infinity by James Dashner (This is the second book in his 13th Reality series. Have I ever talked about James on here before? No? I'll have to change that.)

-Farworld: Land Keep by J. Scott Savage (This, also, is the second in a series. Recognize him? He's the one who really gave me my drive, in an odd, roundabout sort of way.)

-Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George (Another Jessica Day George novel. She's great!)

-The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (I finally gave in and read it. But now I am bidding my time before reading the next book in the series, so I won't have so long of a wait for the last book.)

-Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (This book I got for Christmas from another of my best friends, Staci. It's kind of a gothy Twilight. But it was written by 2 people! How crazy is that? That right there takes a lot of talent from all involved.)

-The Secret Journal of Brett Colton by Kay Lynn Mangum (THE best LDS fiction I've ever read. EVER.)

-Graceling by Kristin Cashore (This was the book I had been so excited to read. After reading the synopsis and reviews, I desperately wanted to read this. But, alas . . . Not such a great read. I just couldn't agree with the value system set forth in the book and was extremely disappointed.)

-Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (They're making this into a movie you know. Check out the trailer.)

-The Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball (Confession time. I haven't finished this book yet. But it's great and has really got me thinking about things.)

Well, I think that's about it for books. There are a couple more, but that's a pretty hefty list. If you see anything that sounds interesting, feel free to hit me up! I've decided to open my own library out of my bedroom.

So, between all this fun with good friends and reading of good books, what do I do? Work. What else? write.

I've been digging in a lot lately and doing some editing on The Elements. It's hard, but suprisingly fulfilling at the same time. I've also been doing a lot of writing for my classes. There have been a lot of papers due for my English 3080 class. And then there's my creative writing class, where, *gasp*, we've actually started WRITING! Go figure.

Well, I should probably wrap up this obscenely large post. And, technically, I still haven't completely finished my creative writing fiction project that's due tomorrow.

Have a great week! :D

P.S. Looking at the previw, this post isn't as obscenely long as I thought it would be. It only took me an obscenely long time to write. Haha. Yes, I am putting off my homework some more. But I'm really stopping now . . . really . . . right . . . . . . . . . . . . now.

. . . . Yeah . . .

Hello dear friends! I haven't blogged since 2009. I was hoping to save my first post of 2010 for something epic and major. But since nothing epic and major has happened yet and it's almost February I figured I'd better write something.

So . . . How have you all been? Is your year going well? . . .

I started a new semester of school, so for lack of something better to write about, you're going to now read all about it! :) Aren't you just so excited?

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have English 3080 with my dear friend Ash. She's my soul sister. We have a Professor who is a tree hugger, who offered 4% extra credit in the class if we went to a lecture someone was giving on air pollution. Ash and I went and . . . well . . . It was not so much fun.

The class itself however is pretty fun. I get to talk with my best friend Ash about all the works we're reading. Right now we are in the middle of William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying". Ever read it? It's very confusing unless you know how to navigate Sparknotes (or have the patience to get halfway through it, where things start to turn up). Actually, you know I should probably be reading rather than blogging . . . Oh well. :)

So that is my only class on M/W/F, although I do have an institute class on Monday and Wednesday right after. I'm taking Women in the Scriptures. I love it so much! The teacher is just my kind of style and I'm learning a lot of new things. Also, I love the people in my class and am making a lot of new friends. (There are even a few cute boys who go to that class. Anybody want to venture a guess as to why?) ;)

Tuesday and Thursday I have my Communications 1020 (or in layman's terms: Public Speaking) and a English 2250 (Creative Writing). I like both of these classes okay. The only problem is how early Public Speaking is (9:00 is early for me, okay?) and how crazy and odd my Creative Writing professor is. I wrote down some examples of this craziness to post on the blog. Aren't I just so studious?

First crazy thing: He always drops a random word in a sentence and replaces it with "what".

Example: "We had to fight the civil what? . . . war."
"We had to see it to its what? . . . conclussion."
"And so that is what your what means? . . . Your name."

See how crazy that is?!

Also, you never quite know when the words coming out of his mouth are his own or if he's quoting a poem or something. And then there's the fact that he speaks so poetically . . . so poetically it's ridiculous! I can hardly take anything the man says seriously!

So, that's my tuesday/thursdays. I also have a new work schedule, so instead of working M/W/F I work T/Th/F. Same hours basically, different days. The good news is that now that I'm working Tuesday and Thursdays I'm here when the Weber State Football team is in working out. :) However, I get to see them spit into the garbage can, which is not very appealing. So I guess it sort of balances out.

I guess that's all . . . Oh wait! You say you want to know how the writing is going? Why on earth would you want to know that? Okay, fine. Stop begging, I'll tell you! Sheesh. ;)

The writing is going great, just a bit slowly. It's hard finding time between all the reading, eating, and sleeping I have to do in order to function and not die. I've currently got 5-ish projects in the works. That's a lot. I'm not sure if I like being able to switch between stories or not. Sometimes it's nice, like when one story just isn't getting the juices flowing, then I can switch to another story. But most of the time the writers block carries over between stories. Plus, I wonder if I'm ever going to finish a book with all those story lines.

Another little writing tidbit, I'm going to another writer's conference! It's a big league writer's conference. We had to book a hotel room and everything. It's the LDS Story Maker's conference, held down in Provo at the Marriott hotel. That's where they used to hold all of our FCCLA conferences in high school. I'm very excited to be going back there. The conference is in April, the weekend of my birthday! So as to save those of you who don't know when my birthday is the embarassment of admiting it, my birthday is on April 22nd. Earth Day! And writer's conference day! This conference, I've decided, is my birthday present to myself. :D

Well, really, that's all. See, my life is so exciting. But how are you doing, all you anonymous blog readers out there?

Have a great week! :D

P.S. Psych comes on tomorrow at 10/9 central. WATCH IT!

All I want for Christmas . . .

Hello all! I'm back. Actually, I never left, but sorry that I haven't blogged for a month. You all must have missed me so much, right? Right? *pokes your arm*

Well, this last month has been kind of crazy for me. I had finals up to the second week of December and passed all of my classes. Can you believe I survived my first semester of college? Yeah, me neither.

And then, my life changed dramatically one night. I was typing away on my laptop, working on a new story I'd thought of. It was one of those things where I just had to get it down on paper (or laptop, in my case). So when I was finished writing about the first-ish chapter of this new book I went to save my work and guess what? It wouldn't save. My flash drive was dead. Dead. Kaput. No more. I didn't really think much of it at the time. I thought maybe it was tired of being plugged into my computer. So I went to sleep, thinking it would be all better in the morning. But it wasn't. This is when I started freaking out a bit. All of my books, stories, ideas, characters, outlines, EVERYTHING, was on that flash drive. All of it. And then it was suddenly gone.

So, I went to the geek squad. They told me it was dead, was getting no power to it whatsover. The nice geeky guy I talked to told me he could send it off to a special lab to recover my data for a minimum of $699.99. Did you catch that? MINIMUM of SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS! I'm a college student. I can't afford to pay seven hundred dollars for anything, even if it is my life.

Thus I went home and sulked. Hundreds of hours of my life gone. The Elements, gone. Slim or Bust, gone. Elora, gone. Ideas, gone. Gone. . . :(

But! After sulking I decided it wasn't so bad. I had the Elements saved on a cd that I'd given to my mom and sister. It just wasn't as edited and nice as the one on my flash drive. Slim or Bust was saved on my laptop from when I had switched over from the home computer to my laptop. It wasn't as far along as the one on my flash drive, but I could work from where it had been left off. Elora . . . Well, that just sucked. Elora is my new project that I'm absolutely in love with. It's like fire just struck with that idea. But I only had that saved on my flash drive. So it was gone for good. And as for my ideas, I have plenty of ideas.

So, being my optimistic self, I got back to work. I began editing the Elements that was on my computer, working from where I'd left off on my other stories, writing scenes from books to come. It felt good to get back into the Elements again. But I still never gave up hope that my information on my flash drive might be recovered. If I saved the flash drive, some sort of technology would eventually be invented to enable people to get my information back for less than seven hundred dollars, right?

One day when I was searching on Google, I came across an add for A+ Perfect Computers. You should check out their website. It's pretty awesome.

This guy would get my information back for $145 and I would only have to pay him IF he got my stuff back. I had a really good feeling about this guy. He had great reviews, was a legitimate business, had success stories. So I decided to give it a shot. I sent my flash drive off to Connecticut and about four days later I got the call. They were able to recover all of my data! I was so happy! Honestly, I couldn't stop smiling and I think I must have thanked the secretary who called me about three or four hundred times.

All in all, it cost me a little less than $200 to get my information back. But that is a price I gladly paid. To have all my hard work back in my hands and be able to work on it again makes me so grateful. I did learn my lesson though. Flash drives are not where you save important documents. That's what your hard drive is for and that's why you back-up your files. (And, can I just say, I still don't know how to back-up my files. Ryan, a little help?) Flash drives are for transportation only. And I will never make that mistake again.

So, since we're all so happy I got my stuff back, I'm going to give you all a little taste of my work. Aren't you so excited?! No, I don't blame you for not being. But I just felt like showing you a little bit of what I've been doing with my life. So, here is the first chapter of Elora. :)

One Chapter for Blog

My awesome, exciting, novel related adventures featuring Lisa Mangum and Brandon Mull!

Hey everybody! I'm not quite sure where to begin. These past two days have been some of the best of my life. I suppose I'll start with yesterday when I met Lisa Mangum . . .

This, my dear friends, is Lisa Mangum. As soon as I got home from work I was yelling to my family, "Let's go!" Then the whole time we were driving to Barnes and Noble I had to ask my dad, "What's the speed limit here? Go faster!" I was so excited to meet her.

So we got to Barnes and Noble at around 7:30 and there she was, sitting at the table. It looked like she had sold a lot of books already. There were only about five left and by the time I was done there, there was only 2 left. I'll let you do the math. :)

Lisa is so nice! I feel really bad for being kind of jerky about her in my blog up to this point. She totally deserves all the success she's gotten and I shouldn't have ever doubted that. Her book is awesome and you should all check it out!

So, it turns out that she actually recognized me from facebook and my blog. That's right. She read my blog (which is another reason why I feel so horrible about being a jerk to her. Sorry Lisa.). When I told her my name she asked me, "Did you just recently have the swine flu?". I was kind of taken aback but told her that yes, I had. Then she told me that she read my blog post. I guess her husband found it and forwarded it to her. But she was really sweet and didn't mention my rudeness. Instead she was great and we talked a bit about me and my budding writing career. When I told her I'd submitted something to Shadow Mountain she asked what the name of it was. She said that they'd recieved a couple submissions dealing with people who can control the elements, but thought she recognized it. Then she told me she would keep her eyes open for my next submission. So, like I said, she is so great and sweet and awesome. Go buy her book! Right now! :)

Then today, we met Brandon Mull. I went with my friend Ashley. She's my reading and singing and movie buddy. And then my mom and dad came along too, but we don't care about them as much (just kidding family! I love you!).

There was a pretty long line for Brandon, you know, since he's a rockstar and everything. My mom was nice and held our place in line while Ash and I went scouring the store, trying to find the fourth Fablehaven book. Apparently they'd sold out. Did I mention that we got there for him only like half an hour after he opened up shop? Yeah. That's how great he is.

While we waited in line Ash and I discussed what questions we were going to ask him. We had one main question: "How could he die like that? How was that possible? And is he really gone?" For those of you with no clue what I'm talking about, read Fablehaven and find out! For those of you who do have a clue what I'm talking about, yes. He really is dead and is not coming back. And Brandon said it was the only way he could think to do it. But then Brandon helped heal my heart a little bit by telling us that there is someone waiting for Kendra in book five. I guess I'll have to trust him.

Here's my mom with Brandon. She bought his newest book "Pingo" for her first grade class. It's such a cute book about a boy who's imaginary friend becomes his imaginary enemy. If you have little kids, you should definitely get this for them! I think it would be a great Christmas gift.

Speaking of Christmas, here's an idea. Get people books for Christmas! Like any other industry during these hard economic times, the publishing industry is having some problems. So buy books. Please? For me? :)

Okay, that's enoug guilt tripping for one blog. But let me just say that meeting these amazing writers and people has been one of the greatest things. They are both sweet and humble. Everytime I meet writers and get to speak with them I realize how much I want to be a part of this world. I want to work with these people and have fun with them. Writer's are the best.

So, have a great Thanksgiving and buy lots of books! :)

A simple piece of paper made my dream come true . . . . .

YAHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited, friends! SO excited! Three of my favorite authors are coming to the Barnes and Nobles in Layton this Friday/Saturday. For those of you who don't know, that means they will be twenty minutes from me! Oh, how this makes my heart happy. :D

So, who are these favorite authors of mine you ask? Good question. First and foremost there is Mr. J. Scott Savage, author of the Farworld series (he's written several other books, but I've only read Farworld). I got to meet him at the Writing for Charity event held up in Ogden over the summer. Guys, he's seriously awesome possum. I lurve him. He's the person who introduced me to Shadow Mountain publishing.

You see, now that I write books and have to look around for people who may actually want to publish one of them, there are two things I always check a book for now. First, I look at the publisher. When I picked up Scott's book I noticed he was published by Shadow Mountain. After getting home I did some research and fell in love with them. Based in Utah, sell nationally, home of authors such as Brandon Mull and James Dashner. It was like a match made in heaven . . . well, will be if I ever actually get a contract with them. *Sigh* Anyway, the second thing I do is look at the acknowledgements. I look to see if the author thanks an agent. Then I can maybe query said agent if they represent my genre and seem like a good match.

So yeah. J. Scott Savage has been a huge influence on me. I don't think he actually knows how big of an influence. Maybe I'll get to tell him this Friday/Saturday. :)

Then there is Brandon Mull, author of the Fablehaven series. I just recently jumped on the B Mull band wagon. I mean, I've always seen the Fablehaven series at book stores and what not but I never actually picked up his book until recently. I kept thinking, "Oh I'll get to it eventually." So over the summer I started reading his books and they are AMAZING! I can totally see why he's a New York Times bestselling author. I also had the pleasure of meeting him at the Writing for Charity event. The line for him was so long. He is a rockstar among authors. Plus he has a really cute chin dimple. :)

And last but not least . . . . Lisa Mangum. Alright, I know what you're saying-- "Weren't you just whining about her and her book in the last post?" Yes, I was. Sort of. I started the Hourglass Door and am almost halfway through it. When I let myself get lost in the story I actually really like it. It's those times when the jealous monster creeps into my head and says "She's published. You're not", that I start whining. But I'm VERY excited to meet her for two reasons: 1) I need her to sign my copy of Hourglass Door :). And 2) This is a great face time opportunity! She's the freaking EDITOR at Shadow Mountain! She's the lady I'm going to address my next query to, and my next, and my next until they finally take me (seriously, I'm going to write as many books as I can and send them all to SM. They'll have to accept one right?). This is what people always tell you in the publishing world. Get out, meet agents and editors, see what they're looking for, make sure they remember your name. That's what I'm going to do this Friday/Saturday. It's going to be awesome!

So, that's my exciting news. When my mom came in and dropped a piece of paper in my lap, I had no idea how happy it was going to make me. This is going to be a good week. :D

Did I also mention how on Thursday I'm going to see New Moon with my friends . . . a day before it officially comes out in theaters? Now I just have to survive two midterms and a 10 minute presentation . . . .

Swine Flu, Lisa Mangum, more Swine Flu, and Hit'n'Runs (Oh, and more Swine Flu).

Hi friends. Well, this week of my life has been more or less pointless. I have been stuck inside the house with the dreaded swine flu. It all started Monday night when I got home from work and just started feeling weird. I was unusually tired and just wanted to curl up in bed (which is exactly what I did). But before I crawled into bed I took my temperature. Nothing too bad. It was like 100.2 or something like that. But the next morning I felt even worse and my fever was up in the 101 area. I was coughing like a chain smoker and my nose was so plugged up that I couldn't even taste food (sad day, I know). So I stayed in bed and slept another few hours until my fever made me get up. I went and sat on the couch, knitted a bit, but mostly just sat there until my parents got home at 5 and Mom made me take some aspirin. The next day I was feeling even worse and woke up at 6. That's right, 6!!!!!!!!!! I didn't even know that time of day existed. By then my temp was 102, inching towards 103. So I texted my buddy Lori and told her I was sick. She's such a dear and took care of all my work worries for the rest of the week. I owe her. She's my lifesaver. So I spent that day lying on the couch, alternating between watching TV and sleeping. Needless to say it wasn't the funnest day I've ever spent. By the time my parents got home I was bored to tears. Sitting on the couch and being sick is fun for about one day. Then it gets not so fun. When I told my mom this she asked what she could do, so I told her. "Go buy me a book to read . . . . Oh, and some chocolate." So she did. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my mommy?

The book she got me (and that I requested) was "The Hourglass Door" by Lisa Mangum. Recognize that name? She works for Shadow Mountain, my dream publisher. She's the editor I addressed my query to. I'd heard good things about her book, so I wanted to check it out. So far I like it all right. Lori really liked it, so that gives me some hope. :)

So, where was I? Oh yes. Swine Flu. Thursday I woke up and my fever had finally seemed to break a little. It was now steadily in the 99-100 area and I felt okay. But I was still coughing a lot and had to carry a box of tissues around with me. My wonderful mom took a half day off work to come be with me before ditching me later that night for Collin Raye. (Just kidding Mom! I would have ditched me for him too. His voice is so dreamy!). So, I spent that night watching Law and Order SVU online in her bed. Throughout this whole thing I think I've probably watched about ten hours of Law and Order SVU. Yeah. That's a lot of Special Victims Unit.

When I woke up this morning I am glad to say I was feeling better, though I still haven't reached the nice 98.6 temperature yet. My nose is still plugged up and my throat is sore from breathing through my mouth all the time, but I AM feeling better. I just like complaining and making other people feel sorry for me. ;)

But tonight I actually got out of the house! Yay! I went with my family out to Salt Lake to take Allison to her friend Amy's wedding reception. Don't worry. I stayed in the car and didn't lick anybody. If anybody else gets sick it's not my fault. We ate dinner at . . . Hardie's? Harry's? I can't remember. It's some place in Salt Lake where you order from your car and they bring the food to you. All I know is they serve the "Big H" burger. But while we were ordering our food, somebody backed into my car. They backed into my car! MY CAR!!!!! And then they just drove away. I was really mad, both because I was starting to think my leaving the house hadn't been a good idea based on how I was feeling, and because, well, they just backed into MY CAR!!!! Luckily it didn't damage my car, but Allison says she thought she saw a dent in the other cars bumper as they drove away to the yelling of my mom. That made me feel a little bit better.

And now, I'm sitting here at home typing up this blog post of my not so eventful, yet totally eventful week. Oh, and just for the record, we don't know if I actually have swine flu. But all the symptoms are here and I've never felt this way before. Be smart. Get a shot if you can or risk losing a week of your life to the couch and TV.

Anyway, have a good weekend. I am going to write and then go to bed. :)