What is a Sundial in the Shade?

My Domestic Nerd Saturday Project

2012-01-28T20:39:00.000-08:00

While at my sister's house in Enoch last week I was impressed by a drop down shelf she had put into a high cupboard, I love handy little things like that. Like many people, my spice cupboard is my nemesis and I have to reorganize it every few months and yet it's almost immediately a mess again. So, per my sister's help in finding the rack (which took two different Wal-marts, thank you very much) I finally found them and bought three. (The Cheetos wrapper is not mine, I swear)

Here's what the two cupboards looked like before:

It took me the better part of an hour to empty and install the shelves. I used a tape measure, Phillips screwdriver, and a drill and did have to take off one cabinet doors and rearrange the shelve heights to make sure the pull down shelf would fit. I only drilled the holes wrong SIX TIMES; I'm extraordinarily handy like that. In the end, however, the cupboards looked like this:

When you pull down the shelves, they look like this--no more hunting past bottles to try and find the one I need:

I fit all the same spices and medications in the cupboards as I did before. I did not bleed at any time in this process, didn't even swear! And I've left the cupboards open most of the evening so I can smile at my accomplishments. I love it when things work out! I'm sure the drill will sit on the counter for a week before I put it back in the garage.

Lee than treated me to sushi at Tona's in Ogden. All in all, a very good day.

I hope you had an equally satisfying Saturday!

St. George Half Marathon 2012 Report

2012-01-21T21:43:00.000-08:00

Today, January 21 2012, I ran the St. George 1/2 Marathon. This was my first time running this particular race, but the second St. George race I'd run (the first was Snow Canyon 2011). I think I really like St. George races. Because I live in Northern Utah, I'm almost convinced that coming down in elevation helps me, since my more northern races have been slower than both of these Southern Utah runs, but I have no scientific proof of this. Anyway, here's my recap.

I have never run in the winter. I enjoy running spring through fall, but I always stop running when it gets cold, then pick it up again in the spring. This year, I wanted to keep up my running throughout the winter specifically in hopes of getting faster. I have no doubt that running with my friend Holly Freeman made a HUGE difference in my speed. She is passionate about fitness and fitness goals and she and I have run about once a week since October. She runs faster than I do, much faster, but her slow runs are my fast ones and keeping up with her, learning to do intervals, and braving hills was a huge help to me. I only ran about 10 miles a week until early December, when I began increasing my runs. I didn't follow a set training schedule, I just tried to run 3 or 4 days a week, usually 3-5 mile runs and then a longer run somewhere that week. I didn't get over 20 miles a week until the two weeks before the race, then tapered to 4 miles Monday, 3 miles Tuesday, and 2 miles Wednesday the week of the race per my friend Jaime Theler's advice and reference to Hal Higdon's training schedule.

I'd been in Cedar City for some promotional things and presentations the days before the run, so Friday night my two favorite Crystals (I have a sister and a sister in law named Crystal--they are both wonderful) came with me to St. George where I'd rented a hotel room. We went to the Dixie Expo Center first to get my packet, where I had to serpentine through all these booths and such to get to where I picked it up. Brilliant to make us walk through the expo to get to the end. After I got my number, we went to a movie (Tower Heist) where I ate 1/2 a jumbo tub of popcorn and then went to dinner at Olive garden where I finished the carb-fest. We got to the hotel a little after 10:00 and I took a Tylenol PM. I slept pretty well and woke up at 7:45 to get ready. My sister drove me to the Dixie Expo Center, where the race started. It had rained during the night and was still sprinkling when we got to the race. I ate 3 shot-blocks for energy and drank some water before she dropped me off, then stayed inside the Expo Center and stretched--ran into Jill Dallon from Brigham City--and waited for the race to start. I had worn my long sleeved running shirt, a jacket, gloves, and a hoodie, because it was cold, but I peeled off the jacket and hoodie right before the race started and began looking for a place to put my drop bag. None of the volunteers knew where it was, none of the runners did either. I ended up stashing it under a tree next to some other ones. My cell phone was in there, as was $80 worth of gear, so I was nervous, but I didn't feel like I had a choice. The next clothing drop wasn't until mile 2.

The race put "pacers" into the race who held signs proclaiming how fast they were running so you could run with them--I'd never seen this before but really liked it. I started with the 2:10 crowd, but passed the pacers about 2 miles into the run in hopes of catching up with the 2:00 pacers, but I never even saw them. It was sprinkling, but just barely and the temperature was perfect--about 35ish degrees, I think. The first 8 miles was a lot of uphill, I was so glad I'd trained on hills with Holly, but they weren't steep, more of rolling, and wound through neighborhoods. The streets were well "manned" by volunteers and barricaded off, if felt very safe. I took the 5 hour energy I'd hidden in my secret pocket at about mile 6--I was feeling good but didn't want to burn out. At about mile 7 1/2, a seasoned pro passed and told us that it was all downhill from that point forward. Thank goodness! Around mile 8 I met a gal named Erica, also running alone. She and I talked and ran together for about 3 miles, which was wonderful. We were pretty evenly paced and conversation is always a welcome distraction. The race went from roads to a bike path that followed the river, very nicely paved with beautiful views into St. George. At mile 11 I was feeling good so I sped up a little bit. The rain increased about this time, but it wasn't obnoxious, I just had to keep wiping the water from my face. At mile 12 I was still feeling good so I sped up even more. I had hoped to come in close to 2:10, and was thrilled to come in at 2:07:10 instead.

At the end of the race they snipped off my chip, gave me a medal, and the finish line led right through the after-run snacks. I came through the snack line to find my sister waiting for me, which was wonderful. She's a great cheerleader.

I decided not to wait around for the awards, I was soaked, or my official time. By my GPS watch I was 7:29, but I had set it before I crossed the line. My stuff was still under the tree, so I picked it up and got back to the hotel in time to take a shower before out late check out was over with. Once back at the hotel, soaking wet, I realized I hadn't brought a change of underwear--I wear LDS temple garments and somehow left all the clean ones at my sister's house. Luckily, they sell them in town so I took an extra long shower while my sister picked me up a pair. I'd run in the ones I had and there was no way I could wear them twice. I was very grateful that it worked out as well as it did. I felt good enough to go shopping and get lunch and enjoy our free time before we had to return to Cedar.

In summary, I really liked the course which was a challenging one for me in regard to the hills, but definitely doable. I liked the organization of the race as well, all the information I got leading up to the race was well stated and easy to follow. The after-run snacks were good, the weather, though I was worried about it, was quite perfect. My training was really good and I had a great experience over all. I purchased some Altra shoes before I got serious about the training in December and feel like I can now proclaim how much I LOVE them. I've put about 80 miles into them and have had no knee or arch pain since using them. They are barefoot running shoes which are supposed to make your body move more naturally, and I am converted. You can find more info at www.zrunning.com

What I didn't like was that the volunteers I interacted with weren't super in-the-know, they seemed to know their job, but not much else. I never found the drop site before the race and would have liked to have put my stuff in a safer place. The shirts were men's cuts, and the small is big on me so I will probably never wear it, which is a shame because it's very well designed. I have also accepted that I must get better running pants. The ones I've been running in are cotton and with the rain they were soggy and heavy and stuck under my shoes by the end. I definitely need new pants.

I had a really good day and now have a new PR to beat at my next race, which is still up in the air. There are a few I'm looking into, but none that are "singing" to me just yet. I'm sure enjoying running right now in my life, I think it might be my version of an antidepressant as I just feel better when I'm consistent with it. Thanks to everyone who's been such a support to me, I appreciate it very much.

And Here it is, 2012

2012-01-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

I think I wrote 8 blogs in 2011, I didn't read other people's blogs much more often than that. There was a time when I wrote 3-4 times a week, which mostly serves as a commentary on how things change and the necessity to revise the way I spend my time. However, I really like reporting on my goals and setting new ones so here I am, giving my report and signing up for a new list of challenges that, even if I don't reach the goal, makes me better than I was before I set it.

Report on 2011:

1--Love my body. I made progress in this area despite the fact that I'm a few pounds heavier than I was this time last year.

How do I feel about that?

Really good. I turned 37 years old in 2011, my husband turned 40 and I am mindful of the changes age makes, however, I am very pleased with how I am moving into these monumental years. I'm heavier than I've been, but I think I'm in better shape. I feel stronger. I sleep well, I can physically do pretty much whatever I want. If I decided, tomorrow, to take up rowing, or rock climbing, or dancing in one form or another, I could do it. I have the base I need. I love that feeling and though I'm not fitting into the clothes I would prefer and some of my 'shape' isn't the shape I want to be, I'm quite pleased with where I am and it feels SO good to feel good about those things.

2--Run a 1/2 Marathon in 2:10--Um, no. In fact my fastest time was 8 minutes slower than my slowest time in 2010.

How do I feel about that?

Not too bad, really. I ended up with unexpected gallbladder surgery in June that seriously interfered with my running goals, and yet I still managed to run two 1/2 marathons. I was slower, but I did them and they were great experiences.

3--Complete 3 novels--Totally did it! I finished "Pumpkin Roll" and "Banana Split"--books 6 and 7 in the Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery Series--and "Daisy" which is my contribution to a parallel novel series written with three of my favorite writers. You can learn more about that series on the blog dedicated to the books.

How do I feel about that?

Stinkin awesome! Could not be more pleased with how my writing career is going. I'm humbled by the continual opportunities and proud of myself for making it work. Daisy was a joy to write, a good break from Sadie, though I do love her so, and I thoroughly enjoyed writing with Heather, Annette, and Julie.

4--52 Thank You Cards--Totally did this one, and I think I sent closer to 70 cards instead of the 52 I had planned.

How do I feel about that?

Really good. Having set this as a goal kept me more aware of the things people around me do. I sent cards to kids who spoke in primary who I could tell were nervous but did it anyway. I sent thank you cards to people who deserved it long before I ever took the time to say so. I tried to make note of those moments that were such a part of someone's nature that I usually just glossed it over with "Oh, she likes to do that kind of thing." And I so enjoyed this experience.

5--Keep a Better House--I've definitely improved.

How do I feel about that?

Great. A clean home makes me feel better. It's that simple and I have worked hard to keep up on the day to day as well as work on the deep cleaning before it's drowning me. Right now, though there isn't a room in my house that's perfect, I feel good about the state of my home. I know where most things are and I feel like I'm being a good steward of the temporal blessings I've been given.

6--Develop and Follow a menu plan--epic fail. I did worse this year than last year. Boo.

How do I feel about that?

Frustrated, like I did last year when I didn't meet this goal. I love to eat dinner with my family, so why don't I make it happen? There are weeks when I cook one meal and all the other nights just expect everyone to fend for themselves. I hate it, but am really struggling to get into a rhythm. I'm honestly not sure where to start.

7--Expand and keep up on my freelance work--Did it, but not in the way I expected to. I didn't write any articles, but I did some web copy writing work that I really enjoyed.

How do I feel about that?

Good. The essence of the goal was for me to be developing my other writing skills outside of novel writing which I feel makes me a better writer overall and keeps me from becoming to overwhelmed with my fiction. Taking on the freelance projects definitely changed things up for me and helped me learn new skills. And I loved doing web content and hope do do more of it in the future.

Goals for 2012:

1--Run a 1/2 marathon in 2:10. I think I can do this with proper training and consistency. I am also nearly out of expendable organs so I don't forsee having to have anything surgically removed this year.

2--Sit down meal twice a week. I need to get over some of the things that get in my way like not having everyone home, not being in the mood, and not having the ingredients. If I plan on two full meals a week where whoever is home sits down together, I should be able to pull it off. I can have the ingredients on hand and make it happen. Maybe if I do this and have positive experiences with it, I will be better motivated to do it more often.

3--Take a crochet class. I really like handiwork and I really like crochet, but I can only do two stitches. I'd like to take at least one crochet class and improve my skills. I'd love to be able to crochet baby blankets by the time I'm a grandma, which could very well happen in the next five years. I used to put myself into learning all kinds of things but as my writing has taken off I have focused primarily on those skills that benefit my career. I'd like to expand into some other things.

4--Journal once a month. I know that doesn't sound like much, but I've read over my journal of the last five years and average about 3 entries a year. I'd like to do better and so will try to journal on the first Sunday of each month.

5--Attend the temple once a month. This is a hard goal for me. I know it's not politically correct to say so, but I don't love going to the temple. I feel good there and I'm glad when I go, but I rarely have really powerful experiences and it becomes easy for me to be off. For me, I think attending is more a matter of obedience than seeking revelation, but I want to do better. I only attend two or three times this year and I don't think I've ever gone 12 times in a year so this will be a good spiritual goal for me to work toward.

6--Be nice. Both in words and in thoughts, I would like to be a nicer person. I would like people to feel better for having been with me, and I would like to focus on good things more than negative. This isn't something that comes easy to me but one I've made enough progress on to know that setting my mind to it makes it a possibility. I'm not sure how I'll measure it, but I would like to feel 'nicer' by 2013.

Come back next year and we'll see how I did :-)

Book Bomb!

2011-11-10T05:31:00.000-08:00

I have been blessed to meet many wonderful people through my writing career. Rob Wells is one of those people. He founded the Whitney Awards, has written amazing books, championed so many people in their own careers, and he's made incredible sacrifices for his education and family. Beyond that, I've had an exclusive seat to a few backstage battles he's taken on where he stood up and made unpopular statements without apology because they were the right thing to do. I'm grateful to have been able to see just how dedicated he is to important things and it's been a blessing to me in my current position within The Whitney Award organization because I've had to do hard things and he set the stage for it.

He's currently facing a personal battle involving Severe Panic Disorder that has changed his life and recently led to him losing his job. It might be easy to say "He's a national author, he got an advance, he's fine," but it doesn't work that way. In this Appendix Podcast he explains how the money works--very eye opening.

All that goes back to the fact that, in his own way, Rob has changed the world, and some of the people who think he's amazing are out to change HIS world a little bit.

There are several bloggers hosting contests for this Book Bomb, where we'll buy his books, up his online ranking, increase his sales, and just show him that we not only wish him well, but we'll do our part to prove it. And instead of doing my own blog contest about it, I would like to refer you to my friend Luisa Perkin's blog. She not only explains the campaign wonderfully, but she's hosting a contest to help encourage it. I couldn't do better than that, so I'm going to support her efforts instead (And I'm hoping to win a copy of her cookbook Comfortably Yum). Please head over to Novembrance and read up on how she's contributing to this cause.

AND, if you haven't read Variant (Rob's book) it is AWESOME and Publisher's Weekly agrees with me. Click HERE to learn why.

I'll be following Luisa's example and buying copies for my kid's school libraries as well as some Christmas gifts. Would love for you to join in!

Help me Name Book 8!

2011-11-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

I have encountered serious writer's block in regard to naming Book 8. The story is coming together (sort of) but the title has eluded me. Shadow Mountain came up with a solution--ask readers to help. I thought that was a brilliant idea, so consider this your official invitation to go through your recipes and see if you have just the right dish. Here are the things to keep in mind:

The recipe must be a dessert
The book is set in New Mexico, specifically Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
The recipe should reflect the Southwest
The submission must include the recipe so we can try it out.

If your submitted recipe is chosen you'll get a copy of the book when it comes out in Fall 2012, you will also become a character in the book, and you get a 12 cup Cuisinart Food Processor!

For full details and to submit your Southwestern dessert recipe, go HERE Do NOT submit to me--Shadow Mountain is heading this one up and all submissions must go through them.

Thanks so much for the great support!

Entries due by November 27!

Josi

SoJo 2011 1/2 Marathon Re-cap

2011-10-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

This was the first time I've done the SoJo, in fact I had never even heard of it before a friend told me about it. After that, I did see it listed on some running sites, but if I weren't looking for it, I wouldn't have realized what it was AND even when I was looking for the website, it was really hard to find in google searches--often not coming up on the first page of results which would make me re-enter criteria in an attempt to find it. In fact, that was my biggest complaint about the event, the website lacked good SEO and the writing could have been tighter and more clear in explaining things. Actually, that's my only complaint because other than that, it was awesome and if I had to choose one detail to be off, it would be the website. Here's how it went:

First, I signed up for this race because I was unable to do the Snow Canyon 1/2 marathon on November 5th and felt like I needed another race after Top Of Utah to keep me from sitting on my tush after I finished that race. I mentioned this in a facebook group I belong to (Buns of Steel) and one of the other members, Alison Taylor, gave me the race info. Honestly, SHE was the very best thing about this race. I had a ton of things going on and she kept checking in with me and helping me stay connected to the event. She was absolutely fabulous.

I ended up signing up via the paper registration option on the very last day the event was open to early registration--Sept 15. I had only done short runs after Top of Utah and it wasn't until I mailed in that registration that I started doing longer and more consistent runs. In the four weeks between registration and the race, I averaged running 20 miles a week until this week, when I only ran 4 miles. I hit this weird "I hate running" bubble and could not get myself out the door. Because of that I really worried about the race today. I had only gotten back up to 11 miles on my long runs and just didn't feel like I'd trained the way I would have liked to, but I hoped that it wouldn't be too bad.

A couple days before the race, I decided to get a hotel room. I was going to stay at my sister's house in Sugarhouse but worried about sleeping on a couch and waking up everyone else when I had to get up in the morning or being late to the start so I found a reasonably priced room at the Sleep Inn in South Jordan which ended up being about a mile away from the finish line. My son and nephew were both running the 5 K, which started and finished at the Marathon finish lines, so I picked Chris up from school and picked up Trevor in Salt Lake on the way to the hotel. I dropped them off, then drove down to Alison's house where she drove me through the course which started at a school in Daybreak, and ended at West Riverside Park in South Jordan. I have this idea in my head that the west side of Salt Lake is downhill from the East side, so coming from West Daybreak up to nearly I-15 would be uphill the whole time. Totally not true. There were two small hills but other than that most of the run was either flat or on a very gentle downgrade. I was really glad we did that, it made the next days run much more familiar to me.

Driving the course brought us to the finish line (surprise, surprise :-) and we got our packets nice and easy--they included a vinyl decal which was awesome--the volunteers were great. I was back at the hotel around 7:30 and took the boys to Sweet Tomatoes to carb up. Turned out to be a great choice (Thanks Alison for the suggestion) and I had salad and soup and pasta and dessert to my little heart's content. The boys were able to eat and eat and eat as well. We got home a little before 9:00 and the boys went swimming while I obsessively set out my stuff. I took a melatonin for fear that I wouldn't sleep and by the time the boys got back at 10:30 I was ready for bed. I slept great and though I was in and out after 4:00 a.m. it was the best pre-race sleep I've had for any race so far.

This morning, we got up at 5:50 and got ready. The boys had the complimentary breakfast the hotel provided and I had a protein shake--my breakfast of choice before long runs. We headed for West Riverside Park, where the boys were going to wait on their own. The weather was a bit nippy, but not too bad. I left the boys in the car and waited for Alison and her husband to pick me up. This race allowed runners to get dropped off at the start, which was great because it meant we didn't have to wait for the bus which meant we didn't have to be there so early. Alison picked me up around 6:45 and we went to Riverton where we picked up her friend Carrie and then Alison's husband, Mark, took us to the start. I'm not sure how many runners were registered, but it was a very reasonable number. The potty lines were great and there wasn't a 'congested' feel to it at all which I liked a lot. Top of Utah was packed and I enjoyed the extra elbow room.

They called us to the start almost 15 minutes before they actually started, which was kind of annoying but not that big a deal. I like to start at the back of races, being in the 'pack' makes me kind of anxious so I left Carrie and Alison to run with the wolves and went to the back of the runners. I had time to put my jacket in a gear bag, it wasn't that cold at all and I didn't want to bother with it later. They started with the release of some balloons and a confetti pop, which was fun, and we started moving. In the other races I've done the start line is a carpet covered strip that activates your 'chip' and I kept looking for that but didn't see it anywhere. I thought we were heading toward the start line for over a minute and then realized I must have missed it. I found out later the start was two thin wires stretched across the road. Had I been at the front of the race, I'd have probably heard that :-) So I didn't start my watch until 2 minutes into the run. I also started the audiobook I'd purchased for this race--Variant by Robison Wells. Turned out to be a great choice, I might audiobook every race I ever run from here on out since it distracted me just enough to keep me from obsessively tracking my distance. And it's a great book.

The sun was up within fifteen minutes of the start, which worried me due to how lousy the sun was for me at TOU, but the morning chill made our relationship must better this time around and it wasn't a big deal. The course went through Daybreak, then in front of the Oquirrih Temple--hill number one--and around some other neighborhoods. The mile signs were awesome and easy to find, the aid stations were fabulous, they had police directing traffic at all the intersections, there was variety in the 'view' as we ran, there was a lot of shade, the road was clearly marked off, the potty stops were excellent and without lines--honestly the course and the resources set up around it were fabulous. The full marathon used the 1/2 marathon route for the last 13 miles, so each mile mark had one sign for the 1/2 and one for full. They had extra snacks for the marathon runners, like pretzels and de-fizzed Coke, and several other things. I'm sure if I'd taken some they'd have let me, but I didn't need it. There were people here and there along the route cheering on the runners, which is always fun.

I was worried about burning out like I did with TOU so I didn't push things but kept pretty consistent at 11 1/2 minute miles. I had taken a 5 hour energy 20 minutes before the start and took a GU pack at mile 6, following it up with some water and rinsing my mouth to make sure I didn't get sticky-mouth from it, like I did last time. They provided Poweraide gels but since I'd never tried those, I was nervous about taking it so I passed. I only took one potty stop at mile 8 and there was no line, which was sweet. By mile ten I was still feeling really good and I considered really speeding up but didn't dare so I kept things steady. At mile 11 we entered a trail area which was awesome, very pretty, shaded, smooth, and I always like getting away from traffic. At mile 12 I finally felt confident enough to speed it up. At mile 12 1/2 a guy about 50 yards ahead of me collapsed. I feel bad I didn't stop, but a couple of women already had. He was trying to crawl forward and they were trying to convince him to sit. I felt bad for the guy--he was so close, but I ran right past cause I'm compassionate like that, and sent a little prayer in his direction, then laid it on even thicker.

There were lots of people lined up along the last 100 yards and they cheered and clapped and just really kept the energy up. This was the first race I've done where they called out your name as you crossed the finish, but it was awesome, and there were people all over the place clapping and cheering for me. They handed me my medal and removed the ankle bracelet timing chip (which I thought I would hate, it looked horrible, but I didn't even feel it as I ran) Great finish!

They had the best after-race snacks I have ever seen! First, the station was RIGHT behind the finish line so I didn't have to look for it. Chick-Fil-A was the main sponsor and they had chicken sandwiches available (if you like chicken, which I don't but the boys loved) They also had Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches, yogurt parfaits with granola topping, Winder Dairy Chocolate recovery drink which tastes like chocolate milk, water, Gatorade, fruit, multi-grain bagels--honestly it was awesome and the boys had been waiting there for two hours and were therefore stuffed by the time I arrived. People milled around but it wasn't congested.

My time ended up being 2:28.05 which was probably slower in actual run time than TOU (which was 2:30) because my one potty stop was so quick on this one, and about 5 minutes at the other one. However, I felt good at the finish and hadn't trained really well and so I'm very happy with how it worked out. Trevor placed 2nd in his age division--he ran a 5K in 20 minutes. Holy moley! Chris shaved 4 minutes off of his 5K PR, coming it at 30 minutes. I was very proud of both of them and they were wonderful sports about all the waiting around they did.

I will definitely run this race again and suspect it will quickly become one of the more popular 1/2 marathon's in the valley. As I said, my only complaint was the website and maybe the ankle chip but that didn't turn out to be so bad. The time of year worries me because it COULD have been rainy, and yet today's weather was absolutely perfect. It was cool, but not cold, the sun was out, but not hot. I thought they started it at the perfect time (I think TOU could have started 1/2 an hour earlier) the course was great and the overall planning and organization was the best I've ever seen.

All in all, a very good race--my favorite of the three I have run. The only thing that would have made it better would be to have had my sister, Crystal, there with me. She's been at both the other races and is just great company. Alison made a fabulous replacement, however, and was beyond supportive and helpful to me. She really did make this possible for me. I'm am blessed to have great people in my life!

I somehow managed to not take a single picture. Lame! If a race photo ends up half decent I'll post it later.

Where I was on September 11, 2001

2011-09-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

I was 5 1/2 months pregnant with my youngest child and partial bed rest, meaning I did as little as I could. Lee's niece, Lindsy, was living with us during her senior in high-school. She was getting ready for school and I'd just woken up Breanna who was in second grade. A neighbor boy, Josh Crittenden, sometimes got a ride with Lindsy in the morning and he came to the front door and told us a plane had just hit a building in New York. I turned on the TV and we all watched the live report. I had no doubt it was a horrible accident. How could a plane go off course like that?

Smoke was pouring out the building, they were talking about all the people trapped on the top floors and then while we watched, a second plane hit a second building. We all went quiet--the whole world did as all doubt that this was an accident disappeared. Lindsy and Josh left for school, I finished getting Breanna ready. Just before she left, the first tower fell. It was horrible. I thought of all the moms who'd sent their kids to school that morning before going to work. All the people with pregnant wives or who were pregnant themselves--people like me who'd had a normal morning. I sat on the couch, watching the replay over and over again and wondering what would happen next. Then the plane hit the pentagon. And then the flight in Boston crashed into the field.

I had never been so grateful to live in little Willard, Utah. I felt safe here. I watched all the broadcasts until I couldn't take it anymore. I cried, I prayed, I wondered what the future would be like for my children.

Six weeks later I had my last child two months early. The following April my oldest child was baptized. In June Lindsy got married. Life went on. I didn't know anyone who died in the towers. I didn't know anyone who knew anyone who died in the towers. But it did change things. My children have grown up in a world that has been at constant war. Some of Lee's family have joined the armed forces. My oldest daughter wants to go into the military. I have the same fear of the future I had then, and yet I have the same faith I had too. Faith that we are strong, that we will move forward, and faith that those people who died were embraced by loved ones on the other side. I believe the intensity of September 11th will happen again. Perhaps several times in my lifetime. It scares me to think about that. I hope that fear is a healthy one, though. That it drives me to hold my children a little tighter, and teach them a little better about what I believe life is about. I still get emotional when I think of that day, and I still pray for those who lost so much. And I still hope for the strength to endure what might come next.

Top of Utah 1/2 Marathon 2011 Report

2011-09-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, August 27th, my sister Crystal and I ran the Top of Utah 1/2 Marathon in Cache Valley Utah. It was my second 1/2 marathon. Because I had surgery in June, my training was affected (Yeah, yeah, that's it, nothing else like laziness got in my way. Certainly not). I started running again in mid-July and was back up to 7 miles by August. I ran between 12 and 25 miles a week for the next three weeks and did my last long run (12.5) 9 days before the race. I felt ready.

Crystal came up from Southern Utah two days prior and that was great too, she is so much to fun to hang out with and we really enjoy our time together. Friday afternoon we drove up to Providence and stood in line for our goodie bag with our number, some coupons and our shirt. The shirt was AWESOME. It was a woman's fit and I absolutely love it. I didn't know what I was going to wear until I got it, and then I knew I would be wearing that shirt. I've worn it for every run since then and am considering buying a second one if I can figure out how.

Friday night we carbed up on spaghetti and salad and ice cream. I over-hydrated myself which meant I was up every hour most the night to use the bathroom--not sure I will do that again. I did not sleep great and finally took 1/2 a Tylenol PM. I slept about four hours, but I felt good when I got up. We left my house in Willard at 4:50 and stood in line for a good 20 minutes waiting to get on the bus. At one point we both popped out of line to use the bathrooms, but that was scary cause it was dark and there were two thousand people there and we got close to losing one another, but we reconnected, got on the bus, and headed up the canyon and drank our 5 hour energies.

It was getting lighter by the time we arrived and since we are girls and we were nervous, we got in line for the bathrooms again. They had lots of port a potties which was so appreciated. Just as we got up to our 'turn' in line, they told us to start lining up. We are seasoned pros and therefore smirked as people took off from the lines they'd been waiting in for the potties to get in line. We knew there was still a good ten minutes. We took our second pit stop and mosied over to the starting line. TOU put up signs that helped the runners 'seed' themselves based on how fast they expected to be. This was a great idea, I thought, and we got in line but then spotted another bathroom and thought 'what the hell' let's go one more time. It was a chipped run, meaning you have a microchip that's activated once you cross the starting line. Until you cross the line, your clock doesn't start. We used the bathrooms and because of our time-takingness we were the very last two people to cross the line. But this is brilliant, in my opinion, because you only pass people for the first little while.

The canyon was awesome. It was beautiful, only a few annoying cars that couldn't figure out how to pass 2,600 people (losers!), downhill but not a steep grade. For most of the canyon part there was a breeze that was just right. At the six mile mark I stopped to use the potties (Yes, I'm paranoid) and made squinty eyes at all the men who would just hop of the trail for thirty seconds and then hop back on. Not fair, but I can buy cuter running clothes so I guess it all works out.

After that pit stop, which took about 6 minutes, I set my cap to catch up with Crystal and was feeling pretty dang good. The sun came up over the mountain at about mile 8. I no like running in the sun and I could honestly feel my energy begin to plummet after that. We entered some neighborhoods at the base of the canyon with blessed shade and at mile 9 I took a GU packet and some water. I caught up to Crystal at mile 10 and didn't feel like the GU kicked in. By mile 11 I was really struggling. I was starting to feel sick to my stomach and the blasted sun was killing me. We'd been running for two hours by that point and I was barely getting my feet off the ground. Thank goodness for Crystal. She kept me talking and reminded me to lift my knees and keep my arms moving.

At mile 12 we caught up with a friend of Crystals who had slowed to a walk. Crystal cheered her on too. She ran with us until the last 1/2 mile when she finally had to walk again. I was seriously sick by this point and although I could see the finish line, I did not know that I was going to make it. It was the hardest mile I have ever run. Crystal was a trooper though and just kept pumping me up. Finally when there was only about 200 yards left I told Crystal to go and she was able to move ahead. I hope I wasn't holding her back. I don't know that I've ever been so relieved when I finally crossed that finish line. They handed me the snazzy medal and Crystal was there to hug me. She's fabulous. then we went on the hunt for water. We could see people with cups but couldn't tell where it was, which was really frustrating. There were two thousand people milling around this tiny area and it felt like it took forever for us to find the water and food station. They had some fruit and rolls and fat boy ice cream sandwiches. All I wanted was a banana and lots of water. I was really feeling icky.

They did prize drawing for an hour. The prizes were awesome, and they were running it quickly, but it was still an hour and I felt like absolute garbage by the time they finished. The trophies were awesome--little native American metal cut outs on natural stone. I didn't even come close to winning one but they were cute and unique.

After the prizes (of which neither of us won) We headed to Jamba Juice for smoothies and Einstein's for bagels. Yum, Yum. We ate and rehashed the race and figured out everything they needed to do to improve it while agreeing it was still a good run. Then we headed home.

Now, as a little aside, my dad was a track coach when I was younger which meant as a teenager I had no choice but to hate running because he loved it. I also hated avocados and artichokes for the same reason. I grew up, love avocados and artichokes and ... running. When he was track coach at Taylorsville High he created what he called the Buick club based on the fact that when someone throws up, they make a sound kind of like the word Buick. He made up t-shirts and when one of his runners ran so hard they pukes, they got a shirt. It was very cool.

I have never run hard enough to buick. Never. There's only been a time or two that I ran hard enough to feel queasy. However, on the way home from the run the queasy I'd felt since mile 12 started getting worse. I tried to ignore it but about the time we came around the bend and I could see Mantua reservoir I knew I was not going to make it home. I announced my situation to Crystal and then started pulling over. I made it about ten yard off the highway before I lost my smoothie and bagel into the sagebrush. I had officially joined the Buick club. It wasn't nearly as cool as I thought it was when my dad made up those shirts, though.

Crystal drove the rest of the way home and shortly thereafter Lee took all our kids to the pool in North Ogden. The goal was to shower and sleep while they were gone. The shower part was great, but though I laid there for an hour, I couldn't sleep. Instead, I got myself a coke Slurpee on my way to the pool to relieve Lee (He's working on his Master's degree and has homework all the time). I stayed at the pool for a few hours while Crystal cleaned the house for a BBQ (certainly my being gone wasn't part of a bigger plan :-) We had a great BBQ and then we went to bed. I couldn't sleep again, but took another 1/2 a Tylenol PM and manged to get a little bit.

I had an awesome Sunday nap, though.

So, all in all, it was a good run on a great course. I wish I'd trained better (I only ran three times a week) and I wish it hadn't been so hot. I wish the water station had been easier to find at the end, but other than that it was great. I would like to run it again. My time was not great, 2:30:29--8 minutes slower than my time at the Snow Canyon 1/2 last year, but I'd only had 6 weeks to train after my gall bladder surgery and I'm 5 pounds heavier.

Crys and I are trying to find another 1/2 to do this fall/winter and I'm working hard to improve my time.

BUT I can officially say "I ran Top of Utah and I have the shirt to prove it!"

iPad Contest, Wanna enter?

2011-09-02T04:18:00.000-07:00

I am so excited for the release of Pumpkin Roll! This book will be published by, Shadow Mountain, my publishers national imprint and have better availability nationwide. In addition, Deseret Book has recently added their own ebook line, DB Bookshelf, which is available a free app for iPhone, iPad, and iPad Touch. To celebrate these exciting events for us, Shadow Mountain and I are sponsoring a contest for a new iPad2 as part of the national launch for Pumpkin Roll. There are multiple ways to enter between now and November 1, 2011. Winners will be announced and notified November 3^th2011.

How to enter:

*Leave a comment on a participating blog

*Become a participating blog and post about the contest

*Post contest or book release announcement on Social Networks

*Pre-order or purchase a copy of Pumpkin Roll

*Enter drawing at a Live Event

*Answer a question from Chapter One of Pumpkin Roll available at www.josiskilpack.com

Click HERE for detailed entry information.

Book Winner--Diana!

2011-06-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who entered the first round of the Book Bloggers Cookbook contest. We had 15 entries, each of whom are still eligible for the Kindle portion of the contest, and of those "Diana" was the winner of the cookbook and a signed copy of Lemon Tart. Diana, please contact me at kilpack@gmail.com and I'll get your address information so we can get the books to you.

Don't forget that the second phase of this contest for a brand new Kindle e-reader is still open until July 22nd. To enter, leave a comment on the original post, HERE, before July 22nd. You can get additional entries by posting about the contest on Facebook, Twitter, and your own blog. Go to that original post for more information.

Thanks for participating, y'all. Also, don't forget the Countdown to Summer. The drawing takes place in just a few more days, don't miss your chance to win!

Wanna Kindle? Wanna Cookbook?

2011-06-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I was contacted by Christy Dorrity about a project she was working on—a Book Blogger cookbook with recipes from authors. She wanted to know if I would like to participate with my book, Lemon Tart and it's featured recipe. Yes I did! That project is now a Kindle e-book and available on Amazon.com for the amazing price of 2.99. I bought my copy last week and am very, very impressed with both the recipes and the overall format and design of this book. The books pared with recipes are awesome and include, The Maze Runner, The Hourglass Door, Wings, and Princess at the Midnight Ball. This was my first Kindle cook book, but what a great one to start with!

I also have the opportunity to blog about the book, Christy, and give you the chance to enter a couple promotional contests. The first contest will be for a copy of the ebook and a copy of my book featured there, Lemon Tart--only those who comment on this post will be entered. In addition to that contest, by commenting here you will also be entered into a larger contest to win your own Kindle and some books from Book Bloggers. To enter both contests, just leave a comment in the comment thread of this post. The winner of my contest will be chosen on Monday, June 20^th. The winner of the overall contest will be drawn on July 22nd. You can get more entries through spreading the word via Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blog--just come back here and tell us where you talked it up, your entries will be counted.

AND, if that isn’t enough, I got to interview Christy for this blog, which was a lot of fun. So, without further ado, here’s a little more about the project straight from the top:

What inspired this idea?
When I started a blog, the two things I wanted to write about were food and books. I saw a contest on Debbie’s blog over at Cranberry Fries <http://cranberryfries.blogspot.com/> that challenged readers to make a cake based on the Hunger Games series. I love the idea of putting food and reading together to create an experience.

Right now this is a Kindle book, do you anticipate other formats in the future?
Hmmm. It’s hard to say. I would love to publish it in hard copy at some point. In fact, I did approach a few publishers about the cookbook. Although there was interest, I really feel that the book is better suited to ebook. There are links to bloggers’ and authors’ websites in the cookbook that would be clumsy in a hard bound copy.

How did you choose which authors you asked to participate?
When I started my blog I didn’t have the cookbook in mind so I read whatever I was interested in. From the books I reviewed in the past year, I chose the twenty books that I thought would appeal to a wide, mainstream audience. Each book in the Book Blogger’s Cookbook is one that I highly recommend.

On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your personal level of skill in the kitchen?
Ha! Right now I am a busy mom and writer, and gourmet often consists of macaroni and cheese from a box. But I love to try new recipes, especially desserts. I would rate myself an 8. My husband and I plan to attend cooking school in the distant future. Perhaps then I will be a 10.

What is YOUR favorite personal recipe and why?
One of my favorite recipes I recently paired with Elana Johnson’s book Possession <http://www.dearestdreams.com/2011/06/possession-by-elana-johnson.html> . I call it Jagged Ham < http://www.dearestdreams.com/2011/06/tasty-tuesday-jagged-ham.html> and it’s the perfect recipe-easy to make, and everyone loves it. My other stand-by recipe is a cookie recipe that one of my college roommates shared with me. My son recently made a batch that cooked up 12 dozen!

Do you have any ideas for a follow up project?
You bet. The 2011 Book Blogger’s Cookbook is the first in a volume of books that will be published every summer.

For more information about the featured books and how to order the book for just $2.99, go to The Book Blogger website for all the details!

Thank you, Chrissy, for the chance to participate. I wish you guys the very best.

Hello? ( tap, tap) Is This Thing on?

2011-06-09T18:54:00.000-07:00

When I was a younger mom and my kids were little I couldn't wait until they were older and all in school so I would have more time to get things done. I was certain nothing was harder than raising young children and trying to keep up with them.

Ignorance was bliss.

I had no idea that as I got older, my interests, abilities, and goals would increase in direct proportion to my children's interests, abilities, and goals. My world was smaller back then, as was theirs, and now they are exploring and I'm the ball boy running hither and yon trying to keep the game in motion. I think I've finally accepted the truth many people have tried to tell me--it doesn't get easier, the playingfield just changes.

But some things haven't changed. I'm still trying to get them to do things my way--although I lose more than I used to. I'm still trying to get them to bed at a decent hour--although that's now midnight instead of 9:30. I'm still trying to get them to finish their dinners--although dinner is frozen pizza more often than it's a casserole. And I'm still trying to teach them what's right and wrong--only they can make those choices for themselves more than they used to.

This year has been a whirlwind but I'm giving up the fantasy that it's going to stop anytime soon. I guess that's okay, I just need to keep the goggles on and be ready for anything.

So in the process of the madness, I haven't kept up with my blog as well as I'd have liked. I love blogging, and I love reading blogs but there is not more room in this ten gallon hat of mine. So I'll be here, and I hope to see familiar faces in the comments when I do, but I understand that life takes so much that there isn't always much left over.

I hope life is treating you all well or that, like me, you're managing to keep up, if just barely.

Happy Summer, all.

Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

2011-03-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

*My sister Lizz shared this poem with me last week and I loved it. I must be growing up because what I once thought was beautiful is morphing. Maybe that's my own middle-age justification coming through, but ... so what? It feels good to notice beautiful eyes on someone who is relatively average or note a nice shape even if it's not a size 2. It's nice to look in the mirror and not mind the imperfections that once made me crazy (now they only make me crazy half the time :-). I thought this poem summed up what really makes a woman wonderful--the last stanza (probably the wrong word) is my favorite and I believe as we embrace this kind of confidence, life just gets better. I know it's something I'm working on. Enjoy~!

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Maya Angelou

Welcome 2011--Now, what will I do with you?

2011-01-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

**I accidentally posted this to the wrong blog--so surprising, right?--so I am reposting it here for my own journalling purposes.
____________________________________*

I've said it before and I'll say it again and again and again :-) I enjoy setting goals. I do get annoyed when I don't meet them the way I plan to, but can take pride in "Working Toward" rather than simply "Did It" and that's the spirit in which I shall report on 2010 and lay out my goals for 2011.

1--Lose 5 pounds --um. . . not only did I not lose five pounds, I gained ten. I am at my highest non-pregnancy weight of my adult life.

How do I feel about that?

I'm not even going to embarrass myself by answering. How does anyone woman feel about having 10 extra pounds?

Next...

2--Run a 10K --I did not run a 10K, but I DID run a half marathon, which had been a 2009 goal I hadn't met that year.

How do I feel about that?

Stinkin' Awesome! I continued to have knee problems, but I resolved them. In March of 2010 I signed up for a triathlon and a 1/2 marathon spur of the moment . . . then ended up with major surgery in July that made both events impossible. But my sister, Crystal, ran a half and watching her do it kept my fire lit. Following surgery I was able to train for a November race and and not only did I complete the marathon, but I ran the whole thing. My final time was 2:22 and I could not be more pleased with that time. It was a fabulous, wonderful, confidence boosting experience.

3--Love better --I really made it a focus to love the people around me, and learn more about love. I discovered that when I'm judging people, I can't love them. So, the root of love was not being so dang judgmental. And this lended itself toward judging myself as well and therefore loving myself better.

How do I feel about that?

Really good. I'm very proud of myself for working on this--it didn't just happen. It took focus, it took prayer, and it took working through some very hard emotional baggage that was getting in the way of my ability to truly trust people, which is a big part of love for me. Not only do I feel good about what I accomplished, I am so very grateful for having set it as a goal in the first place. It was a little ambiguous a goal to set and yet the results are solid and life changing. I still have distance to cover, but I made some profound discoveries and feel good about that.

4--Read 50 books. --I did not read 50 books. I was probably closer to 35.

How do I feel about that?

Disappointed. I really wanted to read more this year and instead I think I read less than I did last year. I'm only counting books I finish, and I bet I started 15 books that simply didn't hold my interest. That's disappointing, and yet I read some wonderful books that I really enjoyed. For instance, I discovered Kate Morton, who has a beautiful way with words. I read Train to Potevka which was wonderful, and The Message which was also very good. So, while I didn't meet my goal of 50 books, I'm still glad I set it and worked toward it.

5--Cook dinner. --I had hoped to cook dinner 4-5 times a week. I didn't do this consistently and probably averaged 2-3, which is more than it was in 2009 but not what I was shooting for.

How do I feel about that?

Frustrated. I love to cook and I love food and I love to eat with my family, so not fulfilling this goal means I missed out on three things I love. I am glad I improved and that's encouraging but I had hoped to make it more of a priority and I didn't do that.

6--Write at least 1 hour a day, 6 days a week. --HA--I did not even get close to this one. I started out strong, but it completely fell apart come March. Everything this year felt rushed and my writing was no different. I ended up doing most of my writing in chunks of time I had to carve out of regular life. Daily writing hasn't happened for me in months.

How do I feel about that?

Angry. Not sure why that's the one word answer, but that's how I feel. It should not be THAT hard for me to find 1 hour a day to write, and I know from experience that when I write this way I am much more calm and focused on my writing. I'm angry that I didn't make more time...and yet, this was a really tough year in a lot of ways and I did complete two novels and make good progress on another one. The result, therefore, was still good, but I would have liked a better process.

So, what's in store for 2011:

1--Love my body. Though I gained weight this year, and I'm not thrilled about that, I had several experiences this year that made me realize how unappreciative I am for the body I have. Both in regard to health and appearance, I am blessed and have not been kind to myself about that. This year, I'm not going to focus on weight, but instead am going to work on my fitness and my feelings toward the body I have, which is a gift from my Father in Heaven and deserves to be treated as such.

2--Run a 1/2 marathon in 2:10. That would be 12 minutes off my time, which would be almost a minute per mile faster than I did the one this year.

3--Complete 3 novels. I'm almost half way in one, another is started and another is only a pipe dream, but I want to finish them all by the end of the year.

4--52 Thank you cards. I often have the thought to send a thank you card to people, I have lots of thoughts, but I don't send many because the process to do so takes more time than I can find. I've recently started using an online greeting card company that sends real cards and it makes it so easy that I can take that thought and make it into an action without too much trouble. I have so many wonderful people in my life that I'm excited to do a better job at showing them. One thank you card a week shouldn't be that hard to do. (I also learned that Melanie Jacobsen is working on a book with this title, which is super awesome.)

5--Keep a better house. I've really let myself and my family fall into bad habits of not cleaning up after ourselves but I have pushed it to the back burner because it's not the most important thing I've needed to deal with. However, I feel better when my house is picked up and I feel that I have the ability and the commitment to do better this year.

6--Develop and follow a menu plan. I need to organize my dinner plans and have things on hand so I can make meals without having to take a trip to the store.

7--Expand and keep up on my freelance work. I have been able to develop my writing abilities through freelance work in the past, and I really enjoy it--both the challenge and the security of knowing I can write in a variety of ways. I didn't do much in 2010 and want to keep it fresh this year. I'd like to submit 4 articles in 2011 and keep my eyes open for other opportunities.

I think that will do it--if I can make progress on all of these things, I will consider 2011 a success!

A Salute to Orthadontia

2010-11-29T13:11:00.000-08:00

Orthodontics Phase I:
Age: 5 years
Concern: Severe cross bite and narrow upper jaw creating a 'duck bill' protrution of her front teeth.
Plan: Series of permanent appliances and removable retainers that will widen the upper jaw and help correct the cross bite in hopes of avoiding jaw surgery later on.
Cost: $1800.00

Orthodontics Phase II:
Age: 7 years
Concern: Continued cross bite but, also, widening the upper jaw has created spacing that needs to be addressed in order for perminent teeth to come in properly.
Plan: Braces on top teeth, continued permanent appliance in upper jaw.
Cost: $2200.00

Orthodontics Phase III:
Age: 9 years
Concerns: While the upper jaw has shown significant improvement and most spacing issues are resolved, potential surgery is still probable. Spacing also needs to be retained until all perminant teeth are in place. Perminant teeth that have grown in so far are HUGE, needing more space than previously expected.
Plan: A new series of perminent retainers that will hold the spacing in place while perminent teeth come in and continue widening the jaw to allow room for the teeth.
Cost: $1600.00

Orthodontics Phase IV:
Age: 13 years
Concerns: Perminent teeth are in and jaw has widened nicely, but teeth are not straight and alignment between top and bottom teeth is not matching up. Surgery is still a possibility.
Plan: Full braces on top and bottom teeth with continual rubber band placements that will hopefully forgo surgery to expand upper jaw with plates, screws and implants.
Cost: $4,000.00

But results like this...

Priceless!

Check out the Cover for Blackberry Crumble

2010-11-22T15:52:00.000-08:00

Shauna Gibby at Deseret Book never ceases to amaze me. She's come up with yet another fabulous cover and I couldn't wait to share it! Blackberry Crumble will hit stores in March of 2011.

“Modern Miss Marple: A Magnet for Murder?”

by Jane Seeley, feature reporter, The Denver Post

Local “celebrity” Sadie Hoffmiller has been involved in a number of unfortunate situations that have taken her to crime scenes from London, England, to Miami, Florida, and even in her own backyard of Garrison, Colorado. But is she truly an unwitting bystander in all these investigations? Or is she something more? Is she, perhaps, even the cause . . . ?
***

The word is out about Sadie Hoffmiller’s amateur detective work, but it’s not the kind of publicity Sadie wants. When Jane’s article threatens Sadie’s reputation in the community, she accepts her first investigation-for-hire and travels to Portland, Oregon—if only to give herself some space from her whispering neighbors. And from Pete, who's sending her mixed signals about their budding relationship.
Sadie hopes the Portland air will clear her head, and she is eager to get to work for May Sanderson, who has suspicions about her father’s untimely death. Putting her detective skills to the test, Sadie delves into a complicated past that includes a business partnership that didn’t end well, several unsavory family secrets, and more than a few motives for murder.
Sadie is afraid she might crumble under the pressure, but in a new place with new recipes, she finds herself more determined than ever to uncover the answers buried in scandal, insatiable appetites, and pure and simple greed.

Thou Shalt Not Procrastinate the Cleaning of your Raingutters

2010-10-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

It rained on Saturday. A lot. I came home from running errands and noticed the rain was running over the edge of the gutters on the front of the house. I came in, and told Lee we should clean those out soon. He agreed, then we both agreed on how bad we hated cleaning out the rain gutters. The day continued, the rain continued off and on, the rain gutter issue was forgotten.

Until Sunday night.

Or Monday morning, if you want to be picky. 12:40 Monday morning, to be exact. Yes, we were asleep at the time. Our 14 year old came bursting into our room to tell us that her room was flooding. We grabbed our robes and dashed downstairs to find a rather pretty waterfall cascading from the base of her window. Behind the glass was abut 8 inches of not so pretty water quickly building up in the window well. We got dressed in record time and Lee took to the gutters to try and clean out the clog that was sending the water over the side of the gutter and into the window well. By default of not wanting to stand on a ladder in the middle of the night in the rain, I was given the job of bailing the window well out.

I honestly can't quite find another life experience equal to jumping into a foot of water in the middle of the night with buckets of water raining down on you from above. It was a full three minutes before I could breath without gasping with shock each time I exhaled--by that time things started to numb. But they never numbed entirely. While I was hoisting buckets of water out of the window well, Lee was gasping from above me where he had to take the downspout off of the gutter, which meant all the water, leaves, and dead bugs came directly into his face, but it diverted the water from the window well. He tried to knock out the clog while the water assaulted him, and then had to put the downspout and gutter back together. Meanwhile, inside, my sister Cindy was shop-vacing the water while Madison used towels to try and soak up even more.

It was about 15 minutes before the window well was empty--then Lee and I sloshed around the house in our now 20 pound Levi's, finding two more downspouts clogged. The window wells closest to them weren't filled to the glass yet, but we're on their way. within about 25 minutes, we were done with the ominous task and came inside, soaking wet and shaking from the cold. The hot shower helped. The hot cocoa helped even more, but I didn't sleep well because I couldn't seem to get warm.

It was an adventure, to say the least, but as I've reflected back on it I found several "tender mercies" that may have made all the difference between an adventure and a disaster:

Lee's been working nights for months, but he wasn't working Monday night.
Of all our children, Madison is our lightest sleeper. Had it been one of the other kids, they likely wouldn't have heard the water for quite some time, if at all.
We had been painting Madi's room earlier in the week and she'd only been sleeping in there for the last few nights. Had she not been sleeping in her room, it would have gone on all night or until it broke the window, and we'd have likely had two other rooms flood because we didn't remedy those other clogs.
When Madi moved back into her room, she put her bed on the far side of the room instead of under the window where it used to be. Had it been under the window, it would have soaked up the water which would have been difficult, if not impossible, to get out of the mattress.
My sister, Cindy, has been staying with us and was able to help clean up.
While it was raining and cold, it wasn't as cold as it could have been in late October.
Cindy had been using the shop-vac at her new apartment, but brought it back that evening after having had it there for several days.
Cindy knew how to use the shop vac.

Beyond all that, the fact remains, that had we cleaned out the gutters as we were supposed to (we haven't cleaned them out for two years) or even when I'd thought about doing it, this wouldn't have happened in the first place. We can all say, now, however that we have officially learned that cleaning out rain gutters on a Saturday afternoon is a far better experience than cleaning them out in a rainstorm at night in late October.

Funny how life teaches you things like that.

The Whitney Award Rules Change

2010-10-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

**Please feel free to post this on your blog AND be sure to nominate your favorite books by LDS Authors published in 2010!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15

A major change has come to the Whitney Awards! By unanimous vote, the Whitney Committee has elected to allow nominees to win in any category for which they are nominated. The previous rule, which allowed books to win in only one category, gave the second place finisher in genre categories the top prize if the first place novel won an overall award.

For example, if Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford had the strength to win top honors in multiple categories, such as Best Novel, Best Novel by a New Author, and Best Genre Novel, it would be allowed to take the prize for all three rather than allowing the award in lesser categories go to the second or even third place winner in that category. This new award system provides greater recognition for truly outstanding books that merit such.

“Originally, we wanted to give as many great LDS authors a chance to win as possible,” said Whitney committee member Crystal Liechty. “But we feel like we’ve had enough exposure at this point so that there’s no need to prevent a book from sweeping every category it’s in if that’s what the voters want.”

The Whitneys are an awards program for novels by LDS authors. Elder Orson F. Whitney, an early apostle in the LDS church, prophesied “We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own.” Since we have that as our goal, we feel that we should also honor those authors who excel and continually raise the bar.

"Allowing novels to win multiple categories follows the precedence of other nationally recognized award programs, such as The Academy Awards,” said Josi Kilpack, Whitney Awards President. “We’re excited about this change and the continuing excellence in writing that The Whitney Awards both supports and cultivates.”

The Whitney Awards honor novels in the following categories: General Fiction, Romance, Suspense/Mystery, Speculative Fiction, Youth Fiction, Historical, Best Novel of the Year, and Best Novel by a New Author. Novels can be nominated by any reader (via this website or by mail), and nominees are voted on by an academy of industry professionals, including authors, publishers, bookstore owners, distributors, critics, and others. For more information on the Whitney Awards or to nominate a book, visit www.WhitneyAwards.com.

Review Contest Winners!

2010-09-08T04:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, you guys, thank you SO much for the amazing reviews! A total of 59 reviews or mentions went out as part of this contest, and I just can't thank you enough. Word of mouth is the most trusted form of advertising, especially in a day and age where advertising is everywhere. Thank you for sharing those words in a variety of mediums.

So, this post has two parts--part 1 is where I list who won the contest! I put each persons name into random.org according to how many points they had. So, Stephanie S. had 18 entries, Alice had 10, etc. I then ran the list one time to mix it all up, and then ran it four more times. I did made the executive decision to not let anyone win more than once, which was lucky for three of the winners since Jordan McCollum had a very, very lucky day :-)

Part 2 is where I will answer some of the questions posed in the comments. If you already know everything about me (Heather B) or are just tired of hearing from me you don't have to read that part.

Thanks to EVERYONE who played, honestly, I could never do what you guys can do and I appreciate your help very much.

And here we go...

Part 1--Winners.

*If you are a winner, please e-mail me at kilpack@gmail.com with your mailing address. If you won books, I also need to know who you want them signed to!

Chocolate Cook Book:     Jordan McCollum

Key Lime Pie and Sunkist Fruit Chews:       Stephanie Skidmore

Key Lime Pie:      Karlene Browning

Lincoln Wheat Ear Pennies:       Alice

Congrats, Ladies, I hope you all enjoy the prizes very much, especially Alice :-)

Part 2:

Martha--When it comes to books like Gone With the Wind, shelving it and watching the movie is perfectly acceptable. Same with any Star Wars or Jurassic Park book, or anything by the Bronte Sisters. That's why we have those movies, to save us the agony of the words :-) (Okay, that's not true for everyone--Jane Eyre is probably someone's favorite book but, honestly, I can't do it and as long as I don't read the book I'll never know if the movie was worse :-) Oh, and I LOVE my Prius and am tickled you thought of me when you saw those super-smart old people pull up :-)

Mable--As of right now there are 8 books planned for the series. Blackberry Crumble (Portland) will be book 5, to be followed by Pumpkin Roll (Boston), Banana Split (Hawaii), and then Wedding Cake (Garrison...probably) to finish it up. After the books are done (they are scheduled to finish up in Fall 2012) we'll be putting together Sadie's Little Black Recipe Book with all the recipes from all the books.

Wendy--No one else's opinion matters :-) So glad you're enjoying the books, thanks for spreading the word!

Don--I did enter you for having done your blog contest (shhhh, don't tell anyone)

Heather B--I did give you all those points--well earned! The most awesome part of me is the awesome people I can count as friends. Thanks.

Pam--I'm so glad you like Sadie, who's your friend who said she was obnoxious, I'll egg their house! Kidding, of course, I know Sadie isn't everyone's favorite character but I'm always glad to hear
when someone likes her enough to see what she's gotten herself into this time. As to To Have or To Hold, that's one of my favorite stories. I had challenged myself to use a rather timeless plot structure from Regency romances (marriage of convenience) and make it modern. I was a bit surprised when it morphed into Andrew's story the way it did, even more surprised to have written a conversion story (which I had sworn I would never do) but I loved the end result and am so glad you did too. Keep up the writing and submitting and analyzation of this market--it's worth it, I swear.

Barbara--Is everything okay? Being out of commission is a big deal, I hope you're okay. Key Lime Pie should be on shelf at all LDS bookstores, as well as most online stores. I hope you can track down a copy.

Brittany--I certainly don't mind having you write them down. In the future, I do have the recipes on a PDF you can download from my website www.josiskilpack.com--I think I need to post something about it in my sidebar, I feel horribly guilty when I hear people have risked hand cramps to transcribe but I'm definitely flattered to hear it!

Kim--thank you for being my token Canadian! It's important to be diverse and you feel that for me :-) And Sadie things you're pretty amazing too.

I NEED REVIEWS! a blog contest

2010-08-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

It's that time again, the time of year when Josi begs and pleads for happy words about her books to infiltrate the literary worlds and woo fair readers into hypnotic credit-card-swiping moods of grand effusement and joy.

What? Effusement isn't a word says my spell check. Then a pox; a pox on such dictionaries that don't recognize such feedudulement of vocabularic variousness! (incidentally, vocabularic does seem to be a word.)

Alas, I do not simply beg for help without the understanding of reciprocation and therefore the current contest is thus:

Contest runs from 8/31/10-9/7/10
Points are only awarded for nice things said during the dates noted above
For each point you earn, you get entered in to what will be a random drawing done on www.random.org. Hence, if you have 509 points, your name is entered 509 times and you can egg my house if you don't win.

*Points are earned in the following ways:

Mention me or any of my books in a positive way in your facebook status
Mention me or any of my books in a positive way in your twitter update
Retweet someone else's positive mention in their twitter update
Blog about me or any of my books in a positive way (you can copy and paste this blog contest post if you would like)
Leave an online review on any of the following sites for any of my books (you can use the same review on multiple sites)

www.amazon.com
www.deseretbook.com
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.seagullbookandtape.com
www.goodreads.com
www.shelfari.com

Once you have earned your points, come back here and leave a comment on this blog with how many points you earned and a brief description of how you earned them. (remember where liars go if you are tempted to exaggerate). You will be subsequently entered into the contest once for each point earned.

Prizes are as follows:

Grand Prize: An autographed copy of Annette Lyon's Chocolate Cookbook (will be sent when the book is released in October 2010)
Second Prize: An autographed copy of any one of my books AND a bag of Sunkist Fruit Chews because they are so yummy and don't melt like Pretzel M & M's which I don't dare send in the mail.
Third Prize: An autographed copy of any one of my books.
Fourth Place: THIS because I think the world is a better place when everyone who wants a collection of wheat ear pennies has that opportunity.

Keep in mind I can send prizes to someone else in case there is someone you really need to kiss up to right now :-) Christmas is coming, whose naughty list are you on?

PS--you get double points for any reviews left for Key Lime Pie :-)

Coming Soon--Key Lime Pie!!

2010-07-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak peek of Key Lime Pie:

When Sadie Hoffmiller's new friend, Eric Burton, receives word that his missing daughter's body may have been found in Florida, he immediately packs his bags. Sadie is determined to stay home and prove to everyone that she is not a busybody. But when she senses Eric is hiding something, Sadie is compelled to take action. Before she knows it, she's in the heart of Miami, trying to piece together a trail that might just give Eric the answers he's so desperately searching for. In the process, Sadie finds herself in the company of some colorful characters and some good ol' southern cooking. But despite the drama and intrigue, all Sadie really wants is to go home ... as soon as she does just one more thing.

Includes eight new mouthwatering recipes, tested and approved by the official bakers of Sadie's Test Kitchen.

www.josiskilpack.com

http://deseretbook.com/item/5044691/Key_Lime_Pie

Stay tuned for info about the launch party!

36 Years of Wisdom...Sorta

2010-05-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I turn thirty-six years old. Wow. I could be termed in my 'late thirties' although I'll hang out in the mid-thirties for another couple of years. I think I've stated before that I don't mind aging. I mean, I don't like to LOOK old, but I'm happy with how I look so that isn't an issue and I still feel like I'm catching up with myself due to the fact that I have simply always felt old. The whole process is helped by the fact that there is no one time in my life I can look back on and say "Gosh, I wish I were able to do that again." Maybe a day here and there, but I can't think of a single block of time (meaning months) that I want to repeat. However, I'm a firm believer in age equating with wisdom and therefore I get smarter every year! And, seeing as how I am so very wise I am going to impart 36 of my best advice:

1--Do not leave laundry in the washer for a week.
2--Peanut Butter should have child proof lids.
3--I will always hate my hair no matter how good I think it looks that particular day.
4--You can learn from your mistakes or make them again--you choose.
5--Most talents are discovered after the age of 20.
6--Everyone has demons.
7--Some people's demons hate you.
8--People with demons who hate you are better avoided.
9--Prayer is your opportunity to try to help people with demons who hate you and are better avoided.
10--My demons hate some people and have caused them lots of pain.
11--Sometimes it feels impossible to make things better.
12--Prayer is good.
13--Cheesecake is also good.
14--Prayer and cheesecake together is practically celestial.
15--Philosophies are much easier to think about then to execute.
16--Most of my philosopies rise up to bite me in the butt.
17--Some people just are not happy for other people's success.
18--Kids really do come with their own personalities.
19--Sometimes complaining about something really does make you feel better.
20--There is no sin in leaving the kids home when you go on couple vacations.
21--The future is far more interesting than the past.
22--Family is awesome, but just because they are family doesn't mean that their demons don't hate you.
23--It is possible to love someone and yet want nothing to do with them. Healthy sometimes even.
24--Time really does move faster as you get older.
25--Metabolisms really do slow down as you get older.
26--Typically it's easier to remember the stupid things you do than the cool stuff.
27--Didactic ponification is of the gods.
28--For every person who's impressed when you use big words there's someone else rolling their eyes.
29--Forgiveness doesn't really make sense until someone forgives you when they didn't have to.
30--Looking for ways to deal with your own demons is a worthy pursuit that might take a lifetime.
31--Parenthood is a priceless look into the heart of God.
32--There will always be someone smarter, prettier, funnier, more talented, and more generous than you.
33--Just because someone else might be better, doesn't mean that YOU won't be a better self for working toward the same goal.
34--Nothing feels as good as being kind.
35--It's fun to be a girl.
36--Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people but good things also happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people and there really isn't anyone out to get us, just trying to teach us a thing or twelve.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, it's been a long, somewhat dreadful, insecure, whirlwind, and yet essentially good year. :-)

Things Mom Would Never Say

2010-05-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

"How on earth can you see the TV from way back there?"

"Yeah, I used to skip school a lot too."

"Just leave all the lights on, it makes the house look more cheery!"

"Let me smell that shirt...yeah, it's good for another week."

"Go ahead and keep that stray dog, honey, I'll be glad to feed and walk him everyday."

"Well, if timmy's mom says it's okay that's good enough for me."

"the curfew is just a general time to shoot for. It's not like I'm trying to run a prison or something."

"I don't have a tissue, just use your sleeve."

"Don't bother wearing a jacket, the wind chill is bound to improve."

And, last but not least (and the only one I can take credit for.)

"Anything you want honey, I only care about your instant gratification."

Happy Mother's day, I hope it was a good one.

Review: Women of the Book of Mormon by Heather Moore

2010-05-07T05:11:00.000-07:00

I remember, years ago, realizing that only three women were mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon. Sariah, Abish, and Isabelle. One is the wife of a prophet, one is a servant, and the third is a hooker. All these amazing stories are told, but it seemed that women played such a small role in those events. My semi-feminist heart took exception to this because part of my journey on this earth has been a continual quest for proof that I mattered. It is a testimony to my belief that I do matter when I see that other women did too. It's why I love the story of Esther and Ruth and Naomi from the Old Testiment--they mattered enough to have their stories told and continue to be my favorite stories. I want to be inspired by strong women, I want to see myself in them, and I need that reminder that having trials does not mean I've done something wrong.

A few years ago I came to what was, for me, a rather amazing discovery in regard to the righteousness=ease debate that always takes place in my mind. I can only hope others of you have had the same battle play out "But I read my scriptures every day this week and a kid still pooped in the tub?" or "I paid my tithing, how can I be out of money?" but I realized that the GREAT people from the scriptures didn't have it easy. The great women were no exception.

Mary, the mother of Christ, was labeled an adulteress, her life spared by her betrothed who married her despite the fact that she was pregnant months before the wedding. She fled to Egypt when her young son's life was threatened, then back again when things were safe. She was married to a carpenter and lived a simple life. She lost God's son during Passover for three days and 20 years later watched her oldest child, the son of God, tortured to death. Ruth was widowed as a young woman living in a foreign land. She had learned too much about her husband's culture and religion to find peace with her own people and lived in poverty, caring for her mother in law, until she married Boaz. Esther was one wife of many to a king who nearly destroyed her people. The wife of Nephi watched her husband be beaten, bound, and nearly killed by his brother's more than once. She bore children in the desert even though she'd been raised with ease. Once they finally arrived in the Promised land, they had to flee in the night and find somewhere else. Yet, these women could be called 'choice'. They had huge responsibility, often times the responsibility of nations and generations, placed upon their shoulders and within their wombs--it was a hard journey. Their righteousness did not equal ease, so why do I assume mine should?

I came to this realization, but it still bothered me that their stories were usually sidelines. I want to know them because I am one of them--a woman with great responsibility. I want to see how they succeeded and learn from them. But how do I do that when their stories are not available except in snippets?

Thus enter Heather Moore's book, Women of the Book of Mormon. As I said there are only three women mentioned by name who lived during the course of time covered by the Book of Mormon. However, there are other women mentioned--like Eve and Mary--and others referenced, like the Daughter of Jared. Heather found them all, and then she hunted for details. The result is a beautifully written account of their stories, put into context with the cultures they lived within. Heather has combed articles and other books, then compiled the information in a format that is easy to read and focuses on those elements that helps me know these women better than I ever have. When I heard about the book I was excited at the prospect, when I read it I was humbled by many things. Chief among them was the realization that these women were a product of their culture just like I am. They did not live in my time, therefore they had far less by way of rights and opportunity. This was huge to me because it wasn't that the prophets were ignoring them when they wrote the scriptures, it was that they were bound by the time in which they lived. I guess you could say that none of them, men or women, knew any better. But these women were important, which is why there is any mention of them at all. Heather brings them to life, puts meat on the bones of who they were and how they lived. After gaining an understanding of their cultures, I went from wondering why so little was written to realizing how much was written. We have whole sermons that we don't read in the Book of Mormon, but Mormon took the time to tell us of Sariah's heart ache and of the brother of Jared's daughters treachery. Now, Heather Moore has taken the time to tell us the rest of their stories.

In the process of reading this book I was edified by my role in the lives of my family. A lot of what I do is background and foundational--but it matters. Both for their growth and mine. I can't wait until I need to give a lesson where I can pull this information from her book. I can't wait until my daughters ask why there is so little mention of women in the Book of Mormon. This book is a powerful witness to the fact that life is hard for everyone--that is how we become strong, it is how we learn to carry the yoke of being a daughter of God.

You can find this book wherever LDS books are sold, specifically at DESERET BOOK ONLINE. Also, Heather will be signing with me at the South Jordan Seagull (11573 So. Main District Drive, South Jordan) tomorrow, May 8th--just in time for Mother's day :-)

The Hug Factor

2010-05-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

In the early months of marriage I came back from grocery shopping and brought all the grocery bags into the kitchen and commenced to put them away in the appropriate cupboards. About 3 bags into this, Lee came in and started helping me. He put the cereal on top of the fridge, put the vanilla in the cup cupboard, cheese in the vegetable drawer, and found a spot between the canned corn and beans for a bag of chocolate chips. I stopped him and showed him how we had a baking cupboard for baking items, a deli drawer for cheese, and a whole cabinet for cereal. He nodded and then commenced to put the mustard on the shelf (not the door) of the fridge and the powdered sugar on top of the fridge where the cereal had been moments earlier. This was my KITCHEN, MY space, with all of MY things and I went just a little psycho wife. I told him to stop helping me, that he was messing it all up and that I would rather do it myself than spend ten minutes trying to find my paprika when I next made deviled eggs. He put up his hands in surrender and said "Fine, I won't help."

At the time I thanked him for this since I didn't want his help. Well, fast forward 17 years and four kids--unloading groceries is MY job. I now get 18 bags minimum when I go grocery shopping. Like many things that started out organized, putting stuff away is now a dash to the finish because I'm usually late for something. A few years ago as I'm 20 minutes into unloading groceries while Lee is on the couch I asked him to help me. He eyed me carefully. "You WANT me to help put away groceries? Are you sure?"

And thus here I am facing another lesson of stating ones opinions too strongly, without having adequate basis for having formed that opinion. Which brings me to hugs.

I will attempt to say the rest of this as non-creepy as possible. It won't be easy.

A couple years ago there was a debate on LDStorymakers about hugs. I don't remember who brought it up or why but I pulled out my soap box and stated my opinion loudly and with fervor. I didn't like hugs. I didn't like feeling obligated to have such a physical exchange. It made me uncomfortable, I worried there was a sexual connotation to it with certain men, and seemed insincere when everyone just hugs everyone for any reason. I waited for people to line up behind me agreeing with my stance "non-huggers unite!" A few people admitted that they could take hugs or leave them, others said some people overdid it, but none of them were as anti-hug as I was. I've no doubt I came across as rather neurotic and it got me wondering about that very thing. What was so difficult about a hug? Why was it hard for me?

Ah, the romantic notion of going back in time and burning that soap box.

Following this debate some people from LDStorymakers no longer hugged me when we got together--well, except Julie Wright because she didn't buy my defense. There were a few times when every other person is hugging and I'm shaking hands. They weren't being mean, and I knew this, they were simply respecting my loudy-stated wishes. But it felt weird. I hadn't realized certain benefits of hugging until I was getting less and less of it. The most awkward moment was after I'd been with someone, maybe for lunch and we're saying goodbye. It becomes a weight shifting "Well, okay, I'll see you later." That just feels weird. There were times I was REALLY glad to see someone, or REALLY grateful for something hey did and found myself unsure of how to show that. I missed the power of a hug and didn't know how to get it any other way. And it made me look at myself in regard to all kinds of affection which takes us to some deep seated emotional issues I'll keep off the blog :-)

Anyway, I stood by my pronouncement, and I hugged people but didn't seek it out and wondered if I was really screwed up. Then, last fall, Julie Wright and I went on the book tour. Now, if you've spent any time with Julie you know she is a bundle of energy and just makes people feel good. I've had the chance to spend lots of time with Julie over the last several years, but never this much time all at once. From the get-go I was well aware of my hug issues. People go out of their way to come to signings, do I hug them? Have they heard I don't hug? Will they be offended if I don't hug them? If I do hug them will they assume I'm being insincere? There were people I hugged automatically, without thinking about it at all, but someone else would have me wondering what I should do. Julie, of course, had none of these thoughts. She hugged everyone. I had a moment or two in the beginning of thinking, what if people don't like being hugged? She's forcing them to hug against their wishes!

But guess what. I didn't see one person flinch, pull away, or seem the least bit ill at ease. And Julie hugged hundreds people on that tour. Instead of flinching and teeth gritting, I saw people literally melt when Julie embraced them. At least two women literally held on to her and it made me wonder when the last time was that someone had hugged them. After she greeted people this way, things were different. Pretenses dropped, we heard people's stories, they opened up about who they were, what they struggled with, and they bought Julie's books like crazy. To summarize it, I saw all these people connect to her. I hugged too, but it was watching Julie and the people she embraced that changed something in the way I viewed a good ol' hug. There was power in it and because Julie sincerely cared about these people, the hugs weren't weird, no one was uncomfortable and good things happened. Was my problem that I didn't care about people? No. Was I being arrogant or germ-o-phobic? No, I just didn't know how to do it very well. So, I started practicing and hugging in the right situation. Instead of telling myself my personal space was being invaded I just enjoyed the closeness (I know, quickly descending into creepy. I'm done)

At the LDStorymakers conference last week L.T. Elliot came up to me--for the record, she is one of the best huggers around, you know she's absolutely sincere in her regard and I swear she transfers energy through some cosmic force. She said "I know you're not a hugger, but..." And I felt so embarrassed. Not because she'd said it, but because I had told the world that I didn't want or need such basic affection. I made her give me a hug and told her I was converted. She laughed and said she was glad and she went on her way. The thing is, I don't remember telling her I wasn't a hugger. I don't know where she got it. Granted, I might have told her, but what if I didn't and it was just one of those things that spread. It could be a conspiracy that's might be all my fault!

So, now I find myself in a very weird position. I told people I didn't like hugs, I avoided them, and now I find that, like Julie said, people need to be touched in ways like that. People like me need it, even if we felt sure we didn't. And yet, hugging still doesn't come naturally for me. I way overthink it, worry that people won't want me to hug them, worry that they know I've stated my dislike and therefore won't know how to accept it from me. Will they think I'm faking it? Will they they pull away? After people read this I'll worry that they think I hug them so that they'll buy my books.

But either way, here I am, raw with confession, squirmy in my seat for both having stated my original opinions and now going back on them. I don't think I'll ever be Julie, but I'm growing in this one part of my life, I guess. And growth is uncomfortable sometimes.

2010 LDStorymakers Conference my POV

2010-04-27T07:07:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday already? So not fair. Honestly I could have done another two days easy. So, here is my recap--I ask in advance that you forgive me for not linking--it takes too long and I've already spent a couple hours at work catching up with the e-mail that piled up (disclaimer: I don't get paid and I'm sleeping with my boss so I can take such liberties. I do not recommend that you take advantage of your employer in this way--or that you sleep with him for privileges unless you are legally and lawfully married to him/her.)

Before leaving home I set up a treasure hunt for Breanna (also called Jeanie on this blog, but since she's on facebook and linked to me I decided the pseudonym wasn't necessary any more) It was her 16th birthday that day and although we celebrated the night before and she was okay with my not being there, I felt aweful and thus the treasure hunt made me feel much better about myself. That's what it's all about, right? After setting it up I headed to Salt Lake where I picked up a case of books and headed to the airport. I picked up Nephele Tempest (prounounced Neffalee--not that I said it right all weekend, grrr) and we spent the next few hours touring Salt Lake. We went to Saltaire marina (thank you Wikipedia for teaching me all about Saltaire so I could sound like I knew my landmarks) and then we went to lunch with Lisa Mangum at The Garden and had deep fried pickles. Not bad. After that we toured Temple Square, then headed for Provo.

After getting early check-in (thank you Marriott!) I ran some errands, got checked into the hotel, helped put together syllabus binders and then went to dinner with Nephele Tempest (agent Knight agency), Laura Rennert (agent Andrea Brown), Krista Marino (editor Delacort), Annette Lyon, Heather Moore, Julie Wright (three of my favorite people in the world), Marion Jensen, Jeff Savage, and James Dashner. We went to Tucanos--a low-carb girls dream restaurant! and had a great time getting to know one another. After that it was back to the hotel, chat time with Heather and Annette who were my roomies for the evening and to bed.

Friday started at 5:30 since I helped with registration and then bootcamp. My bootcamp table was the bomb! Jewel Allen, Melanie Jacobsen and Kim Coats were gals I knew before--Sadie Starling was new to me, but fit right in. What wonderful women and wonderful writers. We weren't able to find Sadie for the picture but she is there in spirit I'm sure. :-) After bootcamp the conference began. I was the chairperson for the agents and editors so I stressed about that, taught a class on Book Launch parties and thwarted Dan Wells and Howard Taylor's attempts to hijack me--phew--after that I manned 'doors' for the pitches, caught part of a class here and there and got to hug lots of people. I had the chance to explain my spiritual philosophy to one very talented writer I deeply admire--she knows who she is--and it put me in a reflective mood that I needed, perhaps more than she did. Thank you for that, we all need those reminders and I was grateful for the chance to reflect on my own beliefs of why I do what I do.

Friday night was full of great conversation and camaraderie and just added to the high I'd been on all day. I worried I wouldn't sleep well that night, but I slept like a rock--apparently 14 hours straight of high energy takes it's toll. The next day was bootcamp again at 7:00 and then more pitches and another class, this one on Characterization where I told a particular story about myself that has been bugging me every since. Sigh. I talk too much. Anyway, I think it went pretty well and when it was over I was back to pitches again. When the pitches finally came to an end I had the chance to sit in on the entire agent/editor panel, which was awesome and the only class I was in for its entirety, and then it was time to break the party up and get ready for the Whitneys.

I had already come to the realization that it was not my year. You think I'm being all noble, but I'm not. I was up against some amazing writers and even though I hadn't read any of my competitors books (on purpose) I know them and their writing and am just glad that no one publishes the ranking so I can PRETEND I came in second :-) Now, let me say I WANTED to win, I really, really did, but I'm also a realist and had thoroughly enjoyed being a finalist amid such fabulous talent. Stephanie Black earned that award and I was perhaps the first one to applaud for her. If you didn't see the Mormon times article on the award gala, you should check it out HERE. The picture of Stephanie is priceless.

The rest of the evening was wonderful. I was at a table with Brandon Mull, Lisa Mangum, Gerald Lund and his wife Lynn, and Chris Schobinger and his wife Jennifer. It was very cool to tell Elder Lund what an impact his books have had on me, specifically The Kingdom and the Crown series to which I attribute 75% of my understanding of the New Testiment. The speeches and acheivement tributes were amazing--reminding me of how powerful words can be and what a gift it is to serve by teaching, both through books and actually teaching skills and craft. I left feeling even more uplifted and validated in the area I've chosen to invest to much of my life within.

I got home around 11:30 that night to find 3 of the 4 kids had waited up for me. They'd made a sign that said "Congratulations, you ALMOST won the Whitney!" It was awesome and so good to be home, hugging my kids, and remembering the OTHER great blessings I have in my life.

All in all it was a wonderful, fabulous weekend. A few other hightlights?

Hugs from Laura Elliot--she gives the best hugs ever and is just such a ray of sunshine in my life.

Luisa Perkins sharing with me her excitement to have had her manuscript requested. I laughed because she was telling me how the book was a dark, dark, dark YA thriller, and I couldn't get past the strand of pearls around her neck and little black dress she was wearing. That's what we call irony :-) But I was touched that she shared that with me--I admire her very much.

Kim Vanderhorst brought me Canadian candybars, which no longer exist. They were DIVINE and I was just so touched to be one of the people she thought of as she got ready to come to the confernece. I feel very out of touch with some of my favorite blog-writer-friends and was glad that she still has warm feelings toward me. And, it was Canadian chocolate, I mean THAT is love.

Shanda, Hillary, and Sheila with the LDS Women's Book Review podcast. They are phenomenal cheerleaders to have on the side of LDS fiction and I just love the opportunity to spend time with them.

Becky Clayson took second place in the First Chapter Contest! Becky has been in my writing group for four years and she's very talented but like many of us wonders if she can compete. Well, she can--I already knew that--but the judges validated that for her and I about shot out of my chair in excitement when they named her book.

Don Carey--one of Sadie's Test Kitchen Bakers--brought me guava jam! GUAVA! Is that not the coolest? He made it himself and brought it all the way from Texas. He's a class act and I'm glad to know him.

Stephanie Humphries and Margot Hovely also won and I was so very glad to hear their names announced. I'm sure I forgot some others, my apologies.

Rooming with Annette Lyon and Heather Moore is, as always, an absolute highlight. I just love those women so much and feel like I just soak up confidence and elegance by being in their presence.

I'm sure I'm missing many things and many people, forgive me, but know that I"ll remember later and feel like crap for forgetting in the first place so justice will be served. I'm already counting the days until next years conference and hope that if you didn't make it to this years, you'll be able to attend in 2011. It's worth the juggling it takes to get there, I swear it is.

Top 10 Favorite Smells

2010-04-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

What does a girl do at 11:00 on a Friday night when she's brain dead from revisions? She blogs of course! The fact is it's spring and with spring comes some of my favorite smells which makes me think of my other favorite smells and the result is, voila, a incredibly inspiring post. Possibly one of my very best. This is not a David Letterman top 10--I'm not nearly that funny--and it's in no particular order.

1--Smoke. The only kind I don't like is smoke generated by burning food, garbage, or flesh--not good. But burning leaves, sticks, paper, charcoal, fields, and even cigarettes is good stuff. That said, I don't like the smell of smoke in anything but air--not in someones hair or on their breath or in their clothes, but I love the smell of someone smoking a cigarette behind me at a baseball game and especially love the smell of burning weeds or fruit wood trimmings. Mmmmmmm. Love it.

2--Lilacs. We planted several along the side of the house and the month of May just smells so delicious. I think that's why May is usually my best month for running because all of Willard is just wafting in Lilacs and I can't wait to get out there and soak it up.

3--Lee. Since I first met him Lee just smells good all the time. He's very mindful of it and always wears cologne, never forgets his deodorant and showers after every time he gets sweaty. I can probably count on two hands the times I've smelled body odor on him and it makes him so very snuggable. I hear people complain about stinky husbands--I feel very sorry for them. Lee is a good smelling man...unless he farts. That's not so good but it doesn't last long cause I run.

4--Other people's babies. I leave my babies out of this because I hate, hate, hate bathing babies. I don't know why other than it's just such a pain in the butt and so much work. So I would bathe them as little as possible. Only when I hold other people's babies do I realize how good smelling those little blessings can be. I would usually then go wash my kids up, enjoy it for a day or two and then avoid bath time again. I guess that's what comes from being a young, lazy mother. Thank goodness other people do better than me.

5--Bleach. I love the smell of chlorine bleach. It means clean to me. I only wish I dared clean with it but I haven't figured out how to do that and preserve my clothing. I love doing laundry with bleach because the whole house gets lit up with the scent.

6--Baking bread. I don't really need to explain this one, do I? I didn't think so.

7--Rain. This one doesn't really need an explanation either. I love the smell of wet ground and leaves and just the heaviness of the air after a rain storm. It is so relaxing to me.

8--Books. Do you ever just thumb the pages and inhale? I love the smell of the paper and ink, there's such depth in it, such...history I guess. I have loved my kindle, but I still read paper books for the feel of it in my hand and the smell of it in the air as I get lost in a story.

9--Mountains. This might go along with the smoke and the rain, but there is just a smell to trees and dirt and bushes that takes the weight off my shoulders. I love to just lay there and soak it in.

10--Cedar. I know that Cedar repels bugs or something and that's why they line cedar chests with it, but the smell of the cedar is just awesome. I love that every time I open my cedar chest the smell fills the room and I love that the things I put in there come out all scented and wonderful. I wish I had a room made of cedar, I'd just go sit in there all day long.

There's my top ten, what are yours?

Join me for the PEG Write-a-Thon!

2010-04-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

Next Thursday, April 8, 2010, I will be participating in the Precision Editing Group Write-a-Thon. They're inviting writers to show how many words they can write in 4 hours! The person who writes the most words will receive their choice of a $50 Amazon.com gift card OR a 50 page content edit by one of the Precision Editing Group Editors. Another winner will be chosen at random from among all those who participate for a $30 gift card from Amazon.

Here's how it will work:

1-The Write-a-thon will officially begin at 6:00 Eastern Daylight Time.

2-The blog titled "Write-a-Thon Starts Now!" will post at 6:00 EDT--you need to enter your starting time and starting word count in the comment section of the blog.

3-Write for four hours--set a timer if you need to!

4-When finished, come back to the PEG blog and put your end time, end word count, and total words written in those 4 hours as another comment on the blog.

5-All "end time" posts must be posted by 12:15, Pacific Daylight Time (we're giving you 15 minutes to tally your numbers). To calculate how much time YOU will have, based on where you live, go HERE

6-Please be honest. You are your own time/word keeper and we are trusting that none of our dearly beloved readers would sell their integrity for $50 or 50 pages :-) You must have posted a start comment AND an end comment to be eligible to win.

7-The winner will be posted on Friday, April 9th here on the PEG blog.

They'll also be adding up everyone's words to see how many words can be written in a night.

Feel free to spread the word to other writers (Facebook, Twitter, personal blogs), wherever they may live--send them to the PEG blog, www.writingonthewallblog.com to read up (though it's the same info I've put here.)

I'm betting I can write 4,000 words :-) I could sure use it in my current WIP! I'll be writing from 8:00-midnight for my 4 hours--the kids will be fed, I'll have my Coke Zero at my side, and a pile of notes to keep me on track!

A lot can Happen in 17 Years

2010-04-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

Namely:

2 miscarriages
4 rounds of bed rest
4 live births
3 of them were premature births
1 of them resulted in a 1 month NICU stay
5 years (cumulative) of raising Lee's niece, Lindsy
6 surgeries (3 mine, 2 Lindsy's, and 1 Lee)
3 Grandparents passed away
Each of us lost a sibling tragically
Lee's parent's moved to Lousiana
3 visits to Lousiana--2 as a family one Lee went himself
My parents moved to Milford and back again
5 of my siblings and 1 of Lee's siblings got married
Planned and paid for Lindsy's wedding
5 baby blessings (4 of ours, 1 of Lindsy's)
4 children baptized
8 places of residence
13 family members have lived with us at one time or another
4 elderly people lived in our home for paid 24 hour care
2 miserable trips to disneyland
1 awesome trip to Europe
4 fabulous trips to Costa Rica
3 Cruises (two together, one writing one for me)
2 Grandkids, sorta (Lindsy's boys)
Built 4 Assisted living Centers
Managed 7 Assisted living Centers
65 or so love letters
40 or so chickens
2 dogs
3 cats
2 goats
15 cumulative years of kid's orthidontics
2 5K races
Half a dozen fights
3 failed business ventures
12 thriving business ventures
17 cars
1 flood
3 car accidents
Thousands of hugs and kisses
Every place on the financial spectrum from broke to wealthy
1 college graduation (his)
11 published novels (mine)
80 birthday celebrations
17 christmas mornings together
Too many falling outs with family members, most of them recovered from
3 beds (ours, not the kids)
4 painful betrayals from people we loved
About 1,000 jars of canned peaches
6 or so spiritual crisis
6 or so re-conversions
400 or so pounds gained and/or lost
1 deep freezer
1000 utterings (at least) of "What would I do without you?"

Set up for Success

2010-03-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

I had a great day yesterday--I did a career presentation at a jr. high school, which is always fun, but in addition to the kids I had a mom and a couple of teachers come into the presentation. The mom, Wendy, will be attending the LDStorymakers conference and I had the chance to chat with her about her writing, which is always inspiring to me. I just love people with passion and hearing about theirs sparks my own.

After the career day I got to be part of the ribbon cutting for Deseret Book's "Flagship" store in Downtown Salt Lake. I arrived feeling a little awkward, not realizing until I rushed in, heaving due to the run in heels I'd just finished, that it was an open house. I wasn't late and didn't need to risk life and limb to get there. And I didn't recognize anyone. So I started wandering, feeling out of place and telling myself not to. The first person I recognized was Michael McLean. I didn't know him, but I knew who he was. He was talking to a cute blond. I continued browsing. I saw Sheri Dew, but I don't think she knows who I am--Emily Watts does, though, and I chatted with her for a minute. Leigh Dethman is an employee at Deseret Book Corporate who just always seems to be helping me out. I got to chat with her...and then wandered again, wondering if I shouldn't have come. I was feeling like the loser wanna-be kid and wished I'd bribed my husband to come with me. This went on for about fifteen minutes and then I turned a corner just as Micheal McLean (blond-less) adjusted his name tag. He looked at me and asked if it was straight.

"Um, yeah," I said, not knowing what else to say. He immediately put out his hand and introduced himself. I said I was pleased to meet him and asked how was he doing.

"For a middle aged clinically depressed type two diabetic, I'm doing great!"

How do you not laugh at that? He asked about me, had me show him my books, showed me his book/CD (Mission to be Happy--very cute) and essentially removed all my awkwardness, introducing me as his new BFF. I met Grant Neilson from KSL as well as a few Deseret Book (heretofore referred to as DB cause I'm tired of spelling it) employees. Not long after that the 'cute blonde' he'd been talking to approached me. Turned out she was Jaime Lawson with LDS living magazine. She talked to me about a fun project she'd like to do with my Sadie books, and then I completely monopolized her so that I didn't have to be alone again. We got our yummy lunch, I met the rest of the LDS living staff, learned more about Jaime and got to see the ribbon cutting. Michael and I swapped books, I said hi to a few more people and then headed home--glad to have gone, gladder to have had Micheal and Jaime to make it more comfortable for me.

After a blessed 30 minutes of peace and quiet, the kids came home and the afternoon games begin. I chauffeured and shuffled and wrote checks and dropped off recycling and assigned chores and cleaned the kitchen--typical stuff, then I got to go to the office and have my write nite while Lee held down the fort. My write nite partners, Nancy Campbell Allen and Jen Moore, came as well and I made some progress with my revisions, cleaned up some e-mail folders and toured blogs--I have been horrible on reading other blogs lately, shame on me.

And after I got home and snuggled into bed I thought about the day and something Micheal had said. He has a blog that he started January 1 2010 where he writes one thing for each day that made him happy. He said that even on tough days there is usually something beautiful or inspiring or kind that he's seen or done. I thought over my day--there were a lot of good things. But the thing that stood out was when I was teaching the career day and going over things writers needed in additon to being able to write. One of those things is confidence. Telling a fourteen year old kid to be confident is kind of like trying to explain the color red to a blind person. Even if they have it, they don't really know they do. And it's something I've struggled with and continue to struggle with all the time. Even if I'm confident in one area, I'm always feeling not-quite-right about several others, and yet I can see the growth within myself. As I looked at those kids and remembered 14 I was a little overwhelmed with all the great things I have in my life--and I realized how essential confidence is to all those things. That was the moment that stood out to me today--both a realization of my own relationship to the topic and the chance to advise these kids on how to find it.

So, how do we find 'confidence'--well, I have an easy answer. You might even call it simplistic, but it's what worked for me and it's what I look for every time I feel my confidence waning--the key to confidence is by succeeding at something. I'm not saying big things like climbing Everest or learning a foreign language--those things are actually an accumulation of thousands of little successes. I mean little things like walking a mile or learning how to say hello in Italian. Find something you CAN do, and do it. When you achieve it, celebrate it. One way to celebrate is to have a reward for yourself, another one is to find other people who will celebrate with you, a third one is to write it down. If nothing else, post it as your status on facebook--your friends will cheer you on and you'll gain confidence by making note of what you've done well. DON'T get caught up in the "It wasn't enough" or "I should have done THIS" just enjoy what you DID do. Sometimes it's setting a goal and accomplishing it, other times it's just realizing you did something well when the opportunity presented itself. If it is a goal, make sure the end result isn't dependant on someone else, like "I will take first place" or "I will convince my husband to rub my feet" you have limited control over those types of situations, and if you fail, then you can affect your confidence in the negative. Beat your own time, speak nicer to your husband, submit your book (don't set the goal to get it published in 30 days), put on make-up that day, lose five pounds--things in your power. And, again, celebrate!

Here are my successes from yesterday:
*I had the right time, day, and location for the career day! YEAH ME!
*I was on time and my power point worked! YEAH ME!
*Michael McLean now knows who I am! YEAH ME!
*I get to do a project with LDS Living! YEAH ME!
*I got the piles of recycling off my back porch! YEAH ME!
*I helped KB finish a stupid school project we put off until the last day! YEAH ME!
*I did a write nite without Coke Zero! YEAH ME!

So, this morning I went to Michael's blog to see what his happy moment was from yesterday. No, it wasn't meeting me--it was his grandson going poop in the potty for the first time :-)

Now, what's your "Yeah Me" and what are your ideas on how we can grow our confidence in ourselves?

Reflecting on the Year

2010-03-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

A year can be a funny thing. It can seem like an eternity if someone you love is ill, and go by at lightening speed if you forget to sit back and enjoy it now and again. A child can change into a whole new person--go from gurgling to talking, toddling to a full on run. Their hair color can change, they can double in size and go from 6 diapers a day to training pants (well, unless your the world's worst potty trainer, than it takes a little longer than a year).

Today I came to work, opened the bills, started making phone calls, updated the accounts, requested an insurance certificate, printed some new file labels and created three new vendor files. That's when it hit me--a year ago, I didn't know how to do any of that. A year ago I was getting ready to take over the books for our company which, back then, I still referred to as Lee's company. I was not learning how to apply vendor credits because I wanted to, I was learning how to do it because we were scared to death about what the next few months held for us and our family. We couldn't afford an office manager, and I had the time...sort of.

So I took a Quickbooks class, and cried at least once a week on the way home. I didn't WANT to do this! It wasn't fair. My youngest was finally in school all day, I could be a real writer, I could keep up on the housework, I could read every day. On March 24th, I went to work and kept crying on the way home; drowning in my own self-pity.

I resented it for a long time. I didn't know what I was doing, and what I did do wasn't done well. I wouldn't say I'm a perfectionist, I just like to do everything right :-) and numbers have never been my friend. The situation also put me 'in the know' of where things really were. It wasn't good but I realized how much of the burden Lee'd been shouldering on his own, realizing that because I didn't understand how the buisness worked, I didn't have any way of really understanding the issues we were facing. We were involved in a lawsuit, we weren't making any money, we were in disputes with a landlord, and I wasn't very good at my job. It was a heavy load to help carry and I longed to not be so aware.

For awhile I whined about every little thing I had to do in order to make sure Lee realized this was a sacrifice. We kept waiting for things to turn around...and waited...and waited. In August we had a long discussion about whether the company was even viable to keep going, but we'd put so much into it and we still had the lawsuit to contend with--quitting wasn't an option, and I don't say that in a romantic "Aren't we heroic" kind of way, I mean we really didn't have an option. It was at least paying the legal fees.

In September a key employee in our Vegas office quit without notice. I cried some more. I thought there was no way we could do this without him. We interviewed and hired a woman we thought would be prefect--she quit after two days. I went to Vegas again. I missed my deadline with my latest book. We called our second choice and I did my best to train her, but held my breath. During training we'd realized that we had a huge number of jobs that hadn't been billed--and the companies had filed bankrupcy since then. We were out $30,000.00 and still had never recieved a paycheck. It was dark, ugly, and really discouraging. I was six weeks past my deadline before I turned in Devil's food cake and I wondered how on earth I was supposed make all this work? It had been 6 months and I was still trying to figure out what I was supposed to do.

And then, finally, the change began to take place. The new employee was AMAZING. She was diligent and detailed oriented and anything she didn't know, she figured out. As she got settled she took over billing, and found dozens of jobs that hadn't been billed but, unlike the ones I'd found, they still could be billed. We collected on these jobs and found ourselves in the black for the first time in months. The economy, though nothing like it had once been, stablized in Vegas a little bit and we realized that a lot of our competition hadn't made it through the year. We felt horrible for them, knowing what it felt like to lose your business, but it left more of the market share. Our salesman in Vegas never gave up, even when he wasn't pulling any commissions, and he hit the ground running now that there was work again. I didn't have to negotiate extentions on the bills anymore and in January Lee got his first paycheck from the company he'd owned for a year and a half.

Today he asked me a question about the attorney bill--something I take care of without discussing with him because it raises so many ugly feelings. I told him it wasn't too bad and not to worry about it. He looked at me and said "Gosh, you take really good care of me, don't you?"

He left to run some errands and I reflected on that statement and realized how much had happened in the last year. I went through my own process of accepting my role, and Lee went through his processes of pushing forward and making this work. But we did it together and it brought us together and while I was given a bird's eye view of the burden he's been lugging around, he got an up front seat to the sacrifices I was making too. I came to understand what he meant when he was venting about something, and he came to understand how necessary my writing time was and worked hard to give it to me because he could see how hard I was working to do my part. My kids have learned a new level of independance and they've learned that they are an essential part of our family. We need them to be responsible, and they've risen to the challenge.

It's been a hard year, one of the hardest we've faced in our marriage, but we made it! We'll celebrate our 17 year wedding anniversary in a few weeks. I have officially been married to Lee longer than I lived without knowing him. I can see this last year as a gift to us, a means of drawing us together in a common goal and remembering that we are people and partners and parents and really, truly, very best friends.

Would I wish for the hard things we've trudged through this year? No, and yet maybe I prayed it into life all those times I prayed for the Lord's help in keeping my family strong, in helping me support my husband, and in asking that He help me overcome my weaknesses. Either way, I can look back and be grateful for what I've learned, how I've stretched myself, and where we are now. That is something I'd have never imagined a year ago.

I was at a bookgroup a few weeks ago, talking about individual gifts we all discover about ourselves throughout our lives. One of the women said "And don't you think it's our trials that lead us to those discoveries?" I had never thought about it like that, but I've pondered on that theory a lot since then. I learned to cook because I was tired of Tuna Helper. I learned to write because I was on bedrest and falling victim to depression and self-pity. I learned patience because I had toddlers that didn't understand things the first time. I learned faith when I had nothing left within myself to push me forward and needed to believe in Him.

Yes, a year can be an amazing journey, and each time one ends, another is just beginning. I wonder what the next year will hold...

Book Review-The Sapphire Flute

2010-03-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

First, I must start out with five reasons I think Karen Hoover is awesome--these are listed in no particular order:

1--She's a certified massage therapist and OFFERS to give me neck massage when we're together. I honestly think she can 'read' my tension and if she weren't so nice she would force me to sit, but she is nice so she doesn't force me, just talks me into it. It's a really hard sell :-)
2--Her sons are biological brothers who Karen fostered and then adopted SPECIFICALLY because she and her husband wanted to a) have children b) be part of keeping siblings together. Not only did she build her own family, but she preserved theirs. I can hardly think about it without getting teary.
3--Karen looks AWESOME in hats. I have definite hattitude envy when I'm around her.
4--If I could summarize Karen in three words it would be "Dancin' in the Rain." Since I've known Karen she's had a lot of thunderstorms come her way, some complete with tornado sirens and flash flood warnings. She has managed to build herself a very sturdy canoe and will be the first to tell you that thunderstorms suck, but they happen and must be forded. She's an excellent forder and just keeps singin' when the storms wash through.
5--Karen is a fabulous writer. I was lucky enough to read one of the first drafts of The Sapphire flute a few years ago. I'm a critical reviewer, but Karen weighed out every word of advice I gave her and pushed forward. She is not only talented, but she is passionate, not only about her writing, but about other people's writing too. She is classy, optimistic, and after years of writing, she is now a Novelist!

In lieu of a book review, I conducted an interview with one of Karen Hoover's new fans, my fifteen year old daughter we refer to on this blog as Jeanie. By virtue of being my daughter, Jeanie is not your average 15 year old reader. We discuss plot holes, character development and the use of foreshadowing as normal conversation when discussing books. She doesn't like everything she reads and is pretty darn articulate--especially compared to her mother twenty years ago. So, her opinion is one you can trust:

1) Can you summarize for us the story told in The Sapphire Flute?

    Kayla's life if flying high as she is finally being recognized for who she is and her talents. Striving to be important, Kayla excels in her flutist abilities while hiding her genealogy as everybody comes to adore her. The king has recognized her skill and her values, so he has assigned her a special role. Guardian of the Sapphire Flute.
    Meanwhile, Ember is lost in her feelings. Her stepfather's health has declined so far that he is racked with coughs. Ember's relationship with her mom isn't so great either and whenever Ember asks her mom about her real father she clams up. Odd dreams, lonely nights, and a confusing future dampen her life too. That's when her fate starts to look up.
    Both girls are destined to fight the evil forces of C'Tan with the help of magic but have no idea who each other are. In this upbeat book their lives take huge turns together and are always in sync, despite the miles in between.

2) Which character did you like, or relate to, the most? Why?

     I could relate to Kayla the best because I share the same love of music and I love how she expresses it.

3) You've read a lot of fantasy books, how did The Sapphire Flute compare?

Pretty good, it was always moving so at times it seemed breathless but it sure did keep you turning the pages.

4) Who would you recommend this book to?

   Anyone who is a sucker for magic this book uses it at its best, giving magic its different colors and characters.

5) Anything else you would like to say about The Sapphire Flute?

   The characters were fun to follow as they grew in the good times and bad. When I first saw the cover I thought it was a book for younger kids. I also thought the cover was kind of busy, but after I read it it made more sense why it was the way it was. It was a really great book and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

So, there you have it--a first hand account of The Sapphire Flute. Happy Reading!

Finding GOOD LDS Fiction...Enter, LDSpublisher

2010-03-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

If you don't know who LDSpublisher is, well, join the club--most of us don't know who she is. But if you have any interest in LDS fiction--as a reader or a writer--you ought to know what she does, even if you don't know who she is.

I do know people who know who she really is, but they ain't talkin' and although the curiosity has been intense at times, I've come to realize over the years she's been doin' her thing, that she couldn't do it at all if she were outted. So, I gave up the hunt mostly because if she lost the secrecy of her identity, she probably couldn't do what she does. And what she does is a definitely benefit to the LDS Market.

Here's what I do know:

She's female
She either works for or has worked for a publisher who publishes LDS books
She tells the truth
She is passionate about good books
She watches the national market pretty closely
She's captain of the LDS market cheerleading team
She knows when to say nothing at all
She's a major supporter of The Whitney Awards
She really, truly, and without apology wants to make LDS fiction better.

That makes us BFFs, even if I don't know who she is because she and I have a lot in common.

Over the years since she's been blogging, she's done reviews, contest, lists, groups and, recently, reinvented "Recommended Reads" where she will display the covers or two books she read and liked and recommends. She accepts books to consider, but makes no promises--she'll only recommend books she truly wants to recommend and will not be bullied. I say that because I DID NOT bully her into putting Devil's Food Cake up as a recommended read for March. I didn't. I would have, if I'd thought she would give in, but the woman simply doesn't cry uncle and then there would be criminal charges, awkward newspaper articles, and a general black mark on my oh-so-easy-to-get-along-with reputation.

And the fact that I didn't have to resort to brass knuckles means that she REALLY did like my book! All in all, things are great and I'm honored to hang out on her sidebar for the next month. I'm not the only title there, and, in addition to Recommended Reads, she also has free book contests each month, writing contests a few times a year and all kinds of other reader and writer resources. You should totally check her out. Well worth your time.

Thanks for the Reviews!

2010-03-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

I had 34 reviews posted at various places last week! Thank you, thank you; it really does make a difference for online sales when people can read other people's thoughts. You guys are awesome...sniff, sniff.

So, without further ado, here are the winners:

1--Smilinmera
2-Taffy

And I know I said I was doing two winners, but Cheri Chesney posted 13! When she didn't toggle as a winner I was shocked, first off, but since she posted almost half of the reviews, I decided to make her Miss Perfect, now I'm going to sing

The Little Miss Perfect Pageant,
where all your dreams come true.
The Little Miss Perfect Pageant
where the special one is you.

And Cheri didn't even have to put in fake teeth and get a spray tan for that! But she doesn't get a crown either, so I guess it all evens out in the wash.

So, for those of you who won, please e-mail me you address to kilpack@gmail.com and let me know which of my book titles you would like and who you want it signed to. Thank you EVERYONE for the great support. I swear I'll do a blog post about something NOT writing related in the next week or so.

I Need Your Reviews Contest!

2010-02-20T09:11:00.000-08:00

I'm looking to increase my online reviews for my Sadie Books--Lemon Tart, English Trifle, and, especially, Devil's Food Cake. Reader reviews are one of the best motivating factors in book sales and something I can't do myself--well, I could, but that's kind of classless, isn't it?

Here's the rules:

1--Post a 'permanent' online review people will find when searching for a book title through a website. For instance: Goodreads, Librarything.com, Shelfari, Amazon, Deseret Book, Seagull online, Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc. (Not individual blogs or facebook please--I love the mentions, but I'm looking for reviews that are static and will remain linked to the books in a specific database)

2--The review must be for Lemon Tart, English Trifle, or Devil's Food Cake.

3--One entry per review (copying and pasting the same review in numerous places totally works)

4--Any reviews you've done for these books in the month of February count.

5--Deadline is Midnight February 28th

6--Leave a comment telling me where you posted reviews--you'll get an entry for each review at each location.

The Prize is a copy of any one of my books--your choice, signed and shipped to whoever you want. I'll be giving away two books and will randomly draw two name via www.random.org on March 1st.

Here are links to some of the sites I'd love reviews on, but feel free to choose others as well.

Lemon Tart:
Deseret Book
Amazon
Seagull Book
Barnes & Noble
Borders
Goodreads
Librarything
Shelfari

English Trifle:
Deseret Book
Amazon
Seagull Book
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads
Librarything
Shelfari

Devil's Food Cake
Deseret Book
Amazon
Seagull Book
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads
Librarything
Shelfari

In gathering these links I found out that Lemon Tart and English Trifle both have Kindle editions--so cool!

Thanks for your help! I appreciate it so very much.

Look out, I'm on a roll

2010-02-17T05:32:00.000-08:00

So I finished my book yesterday morning and sent it off. I spent all day thinking "Maybe I should have Sadie go to..." or "Ooo, I should fix that scene where..." and then I'd realize I didn't have the book anymore--no more changes for awhile. The big problem for many writers is that by the time you send the book off, you hate it. Key Lime Pie isn't any different. I'm sure it's the lamest book I've ever written, that my publisher is making faces at it and that in six months I'm going to have to brace myself for "I used to really enjoy Josi's books but something's...happened." However, lame or not, it's done and THAT is something to appreciate. So, what did I do with my newfound freedom?

Well, I got my eyebrows threaded, that was cool. I've been wanting to do it for months, since my sister in California told me about the process, claiming you don't breakouts or have to give up a layer of skin. Here's a youtube video about it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlxWQDgK0eg it was a very cool process. If you know any stylists who might want to learn how to do it, the lady I went to is going to be doing some training before she moves this summer. I hope, I hope, I hope someone learns how to do it. I liked it way better than waxing. At the first of the year I decided to reward myself with pampering for every 14 days I wrote for at least an hour, then I got so busy I didn't have time. I've got three saved up, and I used one yesturday, I'll get a pedicure within the next week and a haircut soon to follow. Those will be very happy days!

And then, after I got home I started digging in to all the projects that have been waiting for me all these weeks (Okay, years.) I reorganized my "gift wrapping" supplies and decided on a new home for them (I've been tripping over bags, tissue paper and ribbon in my closet and bedroom since Christmas) and then I pulled out my vapor steamer and took on The Grout. Yes, it is supposed to be capitalized as it is a fearful foe. Turns out The Grout really isn't black. Who knew? I spent hours, and 3 nylon and two metal heads, scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing, and I only got the kitchen (the photo is of the border into the hallway, proving I have more work to do) but it looks SO nice! And it felt so good to be sweating over something physical. Today I'm going to seal it, so it stays beige for awhile and then I'll be moving on to...The Master Bedroom Closet. Dun, dun, dun.

I've also put a home organizing book on hold at the library--I'm sure this phase will only last me a couple of weeks, but I'm prepared to take full advantage of this mood to deep clean, organize, and pamper my home in the meantime.

If you've got any fun little organization tips, I'd love to hear them.

Opening NIght Party in Review

2010-02-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

Thank you, thank you to all of you who came to the opening night, it was such a great turn out and I was pleased to only have a couple cakes come back home with me :-) In case you weren't here, this is the recap:

First off, yesterday was I-N-S-A-N-E. I'd been up til 3:30 writing at the office, and then up at 6:30. I was sure I'd have time to take a nap. Nope. Being that I am 4 days from a deadline, I finished up a reader evaluation (Thank you Annette!) and then got to work. I finished the frosting, frosted the cakes, and swore as I made about 200 chocolate curls. We were doing a total 9 cakes--I spared you the intermediate photos since my kitchen was far from pretty at that point.

I tried to make some dark chocolate decorating frosting, to make the cakes look two toneed and super fancy. It looked like wet coal dust and my kids thought it tasted like black licorice. So the triple batch of frosting went in the garbage. BUT, there was no time to cry about it so we carried on. Thank goodness I'd made the actual cakes over the weekend and for my fabulous helpers who came home from school and got to work so I could take a shower and run to piano lessons and a final trip to the store.

The one benefit of being a little bit late, is that people are waiting. And I wasn't really late, but I was only 5 minutes early, which is late when you're doing an event. But I have to wonder if part of it isn't psychological in that I like having a crowd when I get there. That doesn't say much about my character does it?

It's overwhelming to me when people come out to these events. I almost feel guilty that they took time to come see me, but I enjoy being able to catch up with everyone that I get over my guilt pretty fast :-) Reflections of Utah set up a whole corner of the store with tables and chairs, which was really fun.

My good friend Melissa (denim) came, as well as Becki and Ronda (Ronda's new book, Missing, is great, BTW) are part of my writer's group, which has been such a great blessing for me in many ways. They already had the book, but came out just to support me, which was so sweet of them both. Though not in the picture, my step-sister-in-law came with her little girl, Hannah. Her dad and my mother in law got married just a few months before Lee and I got married and so being as how all of us were grown, and our parents moved to New Orleans a few years after that, we don't see each other much, but it was great to see her and I was touched that they came out. Fellow author Frank Richardson came up from Fruit Heights and it was fun to catch up with him.

We had a steady stream of people coming throughout the night--my friend Heather B. came and about made me cry when she gave me a hug and told me how proud she was of me. She's been to every opening night party I've had and is always such a great cheerleader and friend. I didn't get a picture of her either :-( but it was highlight. Lee brought the two little kids toward the end--they get a little ballistic if they're there for too long, and it's always so nice to have them come and be all excited (it helps that I let them both have two pieces of chocolate cake). I had several other people stop in--Anna, Michele, Tiff, Denice, Marion, Tana, Pam, Jodi, Bonnie, Ashlea, McCall, Brenna, Wesley, Kate, Ilean, Leda--and several others.

Just as the evening was winding down, I got a couple more surprises. First, Julie Wright and Karen Hoover came all the way up from Provo. They'd been at a conference and must have flown out of it as soon as their panel was over in order to get there. Julie is...well, she's my Julie and is always front row to my life and career. And Karen is a solid, inspiring, and oh-so-positive person. I'm so glad to know her and so excited for her book which will be out in 32 days (check back on March 3 for my review--The Sapphire Flute) I did get a photo of them, but it was crappy. My camera isn't so good. So, if anyone has a better copy, please send!

Then, I look up and this guy walks in. My first thought was "Boy, he looks a lot like Don Carey. That's weird since Don lives in Texas." Then about .8 seconds later I realize it IS Don Carey! Don is a good friend, an inspiriting husband and father, and one of my test kitchen cooks. He just had his first novel accepted for publication and I couldn't be happier for him. Apparently he was up for work this week and so he made the drive from Provo to come be a part of the opening night. Is that not so cool? His mom came with him, and what a sweetheart she is--putting up with Karen, Julie and I and all our book and writer talk. The event was supposed to go til 7:00, but we were there to almost nine just chatting and catching up. It was such a great end to the night.

I came home and spent an hour making stupid valentines for stupid valentine's day, but that's another blog post so I'll refrain.

Over all it was a great event--thank you to everyone who came, everyone who sent good vibes, and thought about me last night. I have to say that this whole writing thing has been a remarkable journey for so many reasons. I love the Opening Night parties for many reasons, but one of the best is the reminder I have of how many people I'm connected to in this life of mine. It's a powerful realization, to see just how un-alone I am. The support is priceless; thanks for sharing these moments with me any way you can.

Review Winners

2010-02-09T10:46:00.000-08:00

Thank you SO much to everyone who mentioned Devil's Food Cake in their blogs. I had the chance to lurk through most of them and just so appreciate everyone helping me to spread the word. I did the list of entries through www.random.org and sorted it twice, choosing the #1 position from each roll to choose the two free book winners.

Kristi from http://kunz-4.blogspot.com/http://kunz-4.blogspot.com/

*If you don't know Kristi, you should stop by her blog. She's a powerhouse and a woman worthy of the inspiration she shares. While I wish I could give a book to everyone, I'm really happy to give it to someone I admire so much.

&

Melbell from http://www.steinerstory.blogspot.com/

*I wasn't familiar with her blog until now, but she seems like a ton of fun--if I ever get called to YW I'm going to have her give me a crash course in how to make it a good time. I don't remember ever seeing her on my blog before now, either, so it's fun to give a book to a new friend.

If you ladies could e-mail me at kilpack@gmail.com with your addresses, I'll get those books mailed out as soon as I can.

Thank you, again, to everyone for playing and for the great support Devil's Food Cake has already received. It's #6 on Deseret Book's overall fiction list--which is awesome with it being so new. Remember, also, that your library might just buy the book for you :-)

Thanks again, you guys are awesome.

Wanna Win a Book? Devil's Food Cake Blog Contest

2010-01-29T16:47:00.000-08:00

I'm giving away two copies of Devil's Food Cake to a random blogger who advertises the book on their website. You are welcome to link to the book cover on my website or here on my blog. It doesn't have to be a review--unless you have already read it--and it doesn't have to be long.

Here's the rules:

1--Between now and February 8th post an announcement about the release of Devil's Food Cake, book three in the Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery Series.

2--Be sure it includes a link to my website, where they can read the first chapter, AND a link to Deseret Books website in case they want to buy the book ( www.josiskilpack.com and http://deseretbook.com/item/5033744/Devil_s_Food_Cake )

3--Come back here and leave a comment telling me where it's posted.

4--Cross your fingers!

EXTRA ENTRY: If you HAVE read Devil's Food Cake, leave a review on Deseretbook.com, goodreads, library thing, shelfari, or Amazon.com--get an entry for EVERY review posted (just copy and paste the same one if you want) Let me know where you posted them. If you don't want a copy of Devil's Food Cake (since you might already have one), you can choose any of my other titles.

On February 8th I will draw two random names from the list using www.random.org and will announce the lucky winners. Thanks for playing, you guys, and for spreading the word. MUCH appreciated.

Devil's Food Cake is Here!

2010-01-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

Devil's Food Cake: Book three in the Sadie Hoffmiller series.

Delivered: 6 weeks early
In stores, February 10th, 2010 (Possibly sooner)

Isn't she cute? (never mind the words being backward and all that, it's not that way in the actual book

PS--I am working on the opening night party. Details to follow.

Another Question: Why do I hate holidays? Alisha

2010-01-05T11:44:00.000-08:00

Why is it that you are a scrooge about the holidays? (asked with a smile) I'm trying to remember a holiday that you didn't comment about looking forward to being over. :)

There is a short answer and a long answer to this question:

Short: I'm not a fun person.

Long:

Holidays, for the most part, are a bother for me. I like the family part, I like the days off part, and I like the opportunity to reflect on the focus of that holiday. All that's good and if that was all the holidays were, I would be as Bob Cratchit as the rest of all y'all. However, that seems to comprise about, oh, 5% of any given holiday. The rest of it is crap.

Crap as in:

Decorations: Cost a lot of money, clutter up my house, take up space to store for the other 11 months of the year, break, don't match each other let alone my regular home decor, and are never quite right. They go out of style, they displace other things I would prefer to look at, and, let's face it, most of them are cheesy. I mean, really, how many black cat candle holders do you need? And would any of us CHOOSE to decorate our living room with fat men and snowflakes full time. No. If we WANTED to decorate our house that way, we would do it year round. So why bother with it for one month? And I don't even mind the basic decorating, like a christmas tree. Christmas trees are awesome. Unless they are real. They they are a nasty mess. But you can't JUST do a Christmas tree. You have to have stockings and froo-froo stuff all over the place. My living room ends up looking like a garage sale, and yet many of the things I put up have some sentimental meaning, so then I feel guilty for making squinty eyes at them all the time.

Money: Some of you don't believe me when I say this, but I am cheap. Yes, I will spend money on things, but I prefer to spend as little as possible on things that matter. Every time I go to pick out a gift for someone else I wonder if this will be important to them, or if it will end up at DI next summer. This holds for any holiday, not just Christmas. I work very hard to get the 'perfect' gift, but in all my years I think I've managed to do that, like, twice. So, I always feel like I'm wasting my money. And then, after the holiday passes, I'm certain that I should have gotten them THIS instead of THAT and if I were just a more in tune I'd have gotten it write the first time. There's also money on food, dishes, postage, all those things that add up quickly and manage to suck the fun out of most holidays for me. I have a budget, and it always gets blown when a holiday comes up, and I have to spend the next month recovering, which is why we have cheap dog food. Sorry Tex.

Pictures: I hate taking pictures. I really do. I love having them, but I hate taking them because in order to take the pictures, you have to step out of the moment. Rather than watch my child blow out candles, I'm taking shots, then going through them to delete the ones that don't work. If there are several people we want recorded, I will inevitably leave someone out. Then there's the added frustration of feeling like I'm making myself the center of attention. Everyone notices the person taking pictures, and either tries to look cute, or tries to avoid them. I would like to just enjoy the moment and not worry about preserving it, or worry about what my hair looks like, or how clean my kitchen is. Every holiday, however, it is requisite that the pictures get taken and since no one else thinks of doing it, I either step out of the moment and feel awkward and do it, or I don't do it and then regret having not captured the moment. It's yet one more source of stress.

Distraction: Probably the biggest reason I dislike all of the above entitles aspects of the holidays is that I do not have the attention span to give these things the time they need, and still get the 'point' of the holiday. Halloween should be a fun time with my kids where we read spooky stories, dress up and eat candy. Instead all the decorations, picture taking, and money take away from that for me to the point where I just want it over with. Same with Christmas, Easter, and the 4th of July. They are just too busy and after all the prep and planning are done, I'm burnt out. Again, I still enjoy the family time and I try to let myself remember the point of it all, but more often than not at the end of that day I'm so very glad it's over.

Perfectionism: I like things to be just right, and nothing ever is. For each holiday I tend to build up how I want things to be; the traditions I'd like to start, the closeness I'd like to have, the peace I'd like to feel. But the irony is I'm not very good at being in the moment, I'm usually thinking ahead (or taking pictures) and so I end up regretting how I spent my time, wishing I'd done better. I agree it's dumb and with this amazing insight I have, I should fix it. But I don't know how to do that, so I just keep trying a little at a time.

All that said, I do enjoy the actual holiday itself. I like to give gifts (and getting gifts doesn't suck either), I love seeing the kids light up with all the fun holiday stuff, I like fireworks (kinda), and New Year's kisses. I love the food and playing games. Those things are awesome and I do realize that without all the other crap, I wouldn't get those moments. So, for that reason, I guess it's all worth it, but the annoyances are still there, taunting me every few months.

Won't I be a fun Grandma?

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. It's all about food and hanging out with friends and family. Not much wrangling and decoration expectations. I wish they were all like that.

And, to be just a little more obnoxious, one of my favoritest things about Christmas are the cards. Both giving and receiving them. It makes no sense since they are a lot of work and quite a fair amount of money, but I love em and Lee and I fight about how long I can keep them up on the wall. So far I've got him convinced that taking them down before Valentine's Day is a sin.

So, Alisha, aren't you glad you asked? I bet you can't wait to spend a holiday with me now, can you :-)

NY Resolutions get a Bad Rap

2010-01-03T10:48:00.000-08:00

It seems there is something for everyone on the spectrum of resolutions; some of us take it seriously, some of us don't want anything else to feel guilty about and ignore them completely.

As for me, I think I fall somewhere in the middle. I have written out resolutions in the past; I've broken them and been hard on myself. Sometimes I just think them, and forget them eventually. As we entered 2010 and I wondered whether to do them or not, I had a thought, why NOT set goals?

I mean, yes, there's the chance you won't fulfill it, but isn't working toward something, even if it's only for a little while, and even if you don't fufill it perfectly, isn't the 'journey' toward being better or accomplishing something worth it? Isn't the mere WANTING of something better a good thing?

I think it is.

So, here are some of my resolutions from LAST year, and how I did on them:

1--Lose 10 pounds: I did lose ten pounds, but I didn't keep it off once November rolled around. I'm officially six pounds lighter today than I was this time last year.

How do I feel about that?

AWESOME. I'm six pounds lighter, AND I learned a lot about myself, about food, and about how to feel good. I might not have accomplished my goal, but the journey was worth it and I feel primed to truly accomplish it in 2010. I fit in my jeans, and that's awesome.

2--Run a half marathon: Not only did I not run a half marathon, I didn't get even close. I ran one 5K in 2009. Not long after that I started having trouble with my IT band on my left leg. I eventually got a brace, but it was uncomfortable and being in pain takes a lot of the fun out of running for me thus I didn't train as well as I wanted to and I didn't even attempt another 5K, let alone a longer race.

How do I feel about that?

Okay. I mean, I did run, and I even kept running after my knee started hurting. I had some great mountain runs with my husband, which were times I truly cherished. I got out of my house, pushed myself, and while I didn't accomplish what I wanted to accomplish I still accomplished something and I'm stronger because of it. I also ran my personal longest distance 6 1/2 miles, which was awesome!

3--Establish a new relationship with a certain family member: I'm not really at peace with where this 'relationship' is, but as the year progressed and certain drama came up, I was able to pull myself out of it better than I ever have before. I came to realize there is no quick fix to this situation, it's one I've dealt with a long time and will continue to deal with a long time in the future.

How do I feel about that?

Optimistic. I have room for improvement on my part, lots of room, but I did make some important 'discoveries' in regard to this this year and I believe I can continue to improve things little by little if I continue to ask the Lord for help, continue to evaluate myself and my actions, and continue to WANT something better than what I have right now. I'm very glad I set this goal and gained the insights I gained.

4--Read more books. I had hoped to read a book a week. For some people, that isn't very many. There was a time when this was a paltry amount of reading for me, but over the last the five years life has become such that reading has gone by the wayside. In 2008 I think I read less than 20 books, which is almost embarassing. I did do better in 2009, and I think I read closer to 35 or 40 books.

How do I feel about that?

Really good. I would like to read at least 50 books a year; it keeps me up to date on the market and also helps me with my own writing. I also think that it's a good 'break' for me, and I give myself very few of those. I'm glad I set this goal because otherwise I wouldn't have pursued reading the way I did.

And now we are 2010--and here are my goals:

1--Lose 5 pounds (this will be easier than it was last time because I did it before and know how to do it again, now that the holidays are over I can get back some of the control I've given up. Hopefully I'll be able to maintain it through he year this time. We'll see.)

2--Run a 10K (this will be tricky, but not impossible. I need to sign up for a race so that I'm forced to train for it or risk losing the money)

3--Love better (I beleive that Love is the key to both forgiveness and acceptance of other people. It's hard for me to give sometimes, but I've learned a thing or two this year about myself and want to be more giving of the love I feel, but sometimes hesitate to share)

4--Read 50 books. (that's not even a book a week. Reading the Whitney finalists alone will get me halfway there. Thank goodness for the online library option where I can hold books from home)

5--Cook dinner. (Making changes to my eating took a lot of fun out of cooking and I've gotten to where I make an actual meal only once or twice a week. I find that pathetic and am determined to do better this year. I've pulled out a couple recipe books and marked recipes that I'm interested in. I've invested in $20 worth of cool spices I had to order online. I'm shooting toward at least one new recipe a week and at least 4 actual meals a week.)

6--Write at least 1 hour a day, 6 days a week. (So far, I'm 100% on this one :-) and have written 4,000 words in the new year. I love timers, so timing helps a lot. I'm worried for how it will work when the kids are back in school and I'm back at work, but if I can keep to it, I'll avoid the stress of deadlines from last year. I will reward myself for every 15 days I write 1 hour; a hair color, pedicure, massage--things like that.)

So, it's your New Year too--how did 09 go and what are you planning for 2010?

The fourth A--Cheri Chesley

2009-12-24T06:33:00.000-08:00

Cheri chimed in with another question--number 4;

What's your absolute, all time favorite dessert?

Oh man! If not for wanting to fit into my jeans, I would eat a version dessert with every meal. Here's a sample menu of a perfect day:

Breakfast:

Pumpkin Pancakes with homemade cinnamon syrup.

Bacon

Lunch:

Crepes filled with peaches, strawberries and mixed berries, topped with whipping cream.

bacon

Dinner:

Cheesecake

Brownie sundae

Sausage patties

Dessert:

Cookies and milk.

So, asking my favorite dessert is a rough question for me to answer. Never mind that I'm also writing a book series with dessert titles, which means I've been fairly obsessing about desserts for, oh, a year. Add to that the fact that I've been low-carbing for about 8 months (and back in my jeans because of it, thank you very much) and therefore horribly deprived in the dessert department (except for the last week which I refuse to count against myself because there would be no peace on earth if I were denying myself for the holidays) and you've walked into a veritable landmine question by asking my favorite. But, here is my answer, now that I've set the stage.

My all time favorite dessert is Chocolate pumpkin cheesecake. Here's what it is:

Crust layer--graham if you have to, but if you can make an almond cookie crust, all the better.

Chocolate layer--a 1/2 inch layer of chocolate; not chocolate chips which will harden as they cool, but something that will have enough ingrity to hold the cream cheese mixture above it, but remains gooey when you eat it. Hot fudge works great best, but freeze or refrigerate it before topping with the cream cheese to make sure it doesn't get all mixed in.

Pumpkin cheesecake layer--at least three inches thick with the perfect amount of cloves and ginger, just a hint of cinnamon (I think cinnamon easily overwhelms too many recipes, blocking the ginger which is the real zing to anything pumpkin, IMHO)

Bake and then chill at least four hours, until the cake is well set. Drizzle with hot fudge before serving. The beauty of this recipe is that it can be made low carb too.

So there you have it, my favorite dessert of all time--although I have yet to meet a dessert I don't like.

These questions have been fun, if anyone else has something they'd like me to answer, send it my way.

Third A--from Me Again

2009-12-23T04:56:00.000-08:00

I don't mean, ME as in Josi, but Me Again as in that's her blogger name. Here's her question:

How do you feel about LDS fiction stories that not only stray from the probable, but take a summer vacation into the not even possible?

I think that, regardless of the market (LDS, national, etc) believability is an essential characteristic of plot. That's the whole point of fiction--creating a world that feels 'real' enough that the reader can put aside their own life long enough to immerse themselves in this fictional realm. And yet, there is also a necessary element of the reader suspending their own beliefs enough to follow along. So there are two parties at play, the author and the reader.

Author: It's a tricky line; balancing the necessary elements of plot (characters, conflict and climax) against it 'feeling' real. In real life, people do things with very complex motives, they act out of character, they don't always make sense. In fiction, that doesn't work. Everything must have a reason; characters must have motives, the actions must be 'in' character, they must make sense on some level, and everything they do must lead somewhere. It's at times hard to do, and often takes another person to point out when something needs clarification. Too often, an author is seeing where they want to go and lose sight of the steps that are taking them there, often resulting in contrived or unbelievable scenes. They do the job of getting the character where they need to be, but their 'method of transportation' works against the integrity of the story. This is a shame since there was likely a better way to get from point A to point B; a mode the author would have discovered on their own if they would have questioned themselves about it. One of the best questions an author can ask themselves, and one I put into many manuscripts I edit is "Would he really?" meaning, would the character really do or say this; or are you the author taking advantage of your role as fiction-God and taking too many liberties?

Also, on the author side, it is sometimes impossible to be objective enough about your own work to see the breakdown of believability in our own stories which is why I am such a big proponent of having other 'writers' or editors read your book; someone who will tell you the truth so that your story makes sense.

I'm a big believer that a writer can write about anything; new worlds, weird people, incredible circumstances--but it has to be written right and it has to feel real.

Reader: Different types of readers have different levels of ability when it comes to suspending belief. For instance, I have a difficult time with Science Fiction and Fantasy because I find so many elements of the genres hard to picture in my mind. My ability to suspend belief is rather low when it comes to new worlds. Whether that's because I lack imagination, or simply practice, I don't know, but it results in the fact that because it's difficult for me to 'believe' those types of stories, I don't enjoy them very much. Now, there are some I absolutely love, but overall I dislike more than I enjoy. Same with a lot of mystery novels, which is ironic since I write them, but many of them just annoy me because I can't clearly see the process of discovery--the detective too often just 'knows' something that leads to the conclusion (I'm guilty of this as well--as a few readers have pointed out but I'm really, really working on it). Some people have a difficult time with LDS fiction because there is a lot of inspiration, feeling the spirit, and intuition that often makes the plot work. Some people are very open to that--likely people that acknowledge those same workings in their lives, but others of us (myself included) struggle with the way this is portrayed at times and that makes it seem contrived in order to make the plot work or to make their character appear spiritual. A reader that struggles with certain genres ought to be very selective in the books they read within that genre which is why The Whitney Awards are so very cool--look for past winners to get a feel for the best out there; these are books that have literally been read by hundreds of people that cast votes that put these books in the positions they are in. A valuable tool, especially for those of us that are selective within genres.

On the reader's side there is also the factor of becoming a more discerning reader. I've gone back and read books I loved fifteen years ago, only to find myself rolling my eyes now. As I've matured and become more well read, I've learned what I like and what I don't like. I've developed a much more critical eye and my taste in reading has become more sophisticated. If a reader finds themselves displeased with several books within a shared reading level or genre, it might be that they have reached a 'reading' level beyond their comfort zone and need to move on to something with a bit more 'meat' to it.

It's always frustrating to me when a book makes it into print without having the unbelievable factors ironed out. I'm not sure why it happens. Are there other parts of the story that were so strong to the editors of the book that they didn't notice? Am I hyper sensitive? Regardless, it's a frustration. I find that in regard to believability and other elements of writing, I give books a 100 page rule (it used to be 50 but I've taken a gracious turn) if by page 100 I'm not dying to finish the book, I don't. There are excellent books out there which means I don't have to waste my time on ones that were almost excellent.

So, dear readers, where do you fall on the believability scale? Are there genres you find harder than others?

The next A--Kimberly

2009-12-22T04:43:00.000-08:00

Kimberly asked: Has blogging affected your writerly life at all, for good or bad?

I would have to say that it has affected my writerly life in both ways, good and bad.

Good: I have made wonderful connections through my blog and through reading other blogs; met people I might not have met other wise and realized I liked people that, again, I might not have liked otherwise. It's also served as a kind of journal for me and I love having my thoughts 'contained' somewhere. I recently had the first three years of my blog put into a book and it's been fun to read over it. In that sense of enjoyment, blogging has also been good because I really like it. I like the unisolation I get from being part of blogworld, and through the other blogs I've found I've received great advice and inspiration as well.

Bad: I still have not figured out how to implement the 28 hour day. Time, like money, does not grow on trees no matter how much I wish for it. Time spent blogging takes away from other things--often from my actual novel writing. It's not unusual for me to sit down to blog and an hour later realize I'm out of writing time for the day and I never opened my current work in progress. That can be insanly frustrating. Blogging also makes it very easy to avoid writing if I'm not in the mood. Beyond that there are times I don't want to blog, don't feel I have anything to say, and yet because my blog is partly here for promotion purposes I feel as though it's something I need to do. That sucks the fun out of it entirely.

What about you guys, how has blogging affected you?

The A of Q & A

2009-12-21T04:43:00.000-08:00

Most of you that commented on my 'ask a question' post did not, in fact, ask a question which can only mean that I talk so much, specifically about myself, that I've answered anything you might have questioned otherwise. That is something I must ponder on, no longer being a woman of mystery. Sigh.

But, a few of you did ask a question--so some mystery must remain? right?

The first question was posed by Don: If you were a tree, what kind would you be, and why?

Its rather remarkable he asked this question since I've been waiting years to be asked something such as this. And yet, I find it nearly impossible to answer for a variety of reasons. Here is my thought process:

One of my favorite trees, aesthetically, is a Russian olive tree. I love the shape, the color of the leaves, the sound of wind through it's leaves. But it is excessively messy, shedding leaves constantly as well as the little 'olives' it produces. Would I want to be such a burden? Not really. Next, I love Juniper trees, but they aren't really a tree, rather they are a shrubbery, so that doesn't count. Next on the list would be a birch, the ones with the white bark, but that's only because I find them beautiful. If I only wanted to be a birch for beauty, does that make me vain? Putting appearance above all other measures of self? Which then brings me to the list of trees I would NOT want to be: Blue spruce=pretty and strong, but prickly, Locust=large and good for climbing but the female tree creates those horrid pods that are such a nusense, and the male tree produces thorns that fall from the tree as leaves to and therefore makes jumping into a pile of leaves a painful prospect. Chinese Elms are also pretty, with dainty little leaves, but they attract box elder bugs almost as well as Box Elder trees do. Willows, in nearly any variety, are a favorite, but their root systems are shallow and therefore they are not very strong.

And then all this rumination brings me to one simple truth--a tree does not get to choose what kind of tree it will be. It's 'breed' so to speak is determined by it's seed, and then it simply has to make due with it's strengths and weaknesses just as we as humans must do the same. So, in reply to Don's question I suppose I would be whatever kind of tree the Lord chose for me, and then, because I'm contrary, I'd probably whine about it forever. Except trees don't speak, or think, or blog. Hmmmmm.

What about the rest of you? What are you ruminations regarding trees you would like to be?

Just . . . Stuff

2009-12-18T08:31:00.000-08:00

So, the other night I pulled a 'best mom in the world' card and abandoned my children. Lee was out of town, but my friend, Sam (short for Samantha, thank you) and I wanted/needed to watch Tess of the D'urbervilles because we hadn't read the book and bookgroup was the next night (yes, I abandoned the kids that night as well.) I'd tried to read the book in high-school, gave up on page, oh, 7 or so, and then I read the Cleff notes. Passed the test.

The movie was quite good; ya know, for being based on a classic tragidy. Still, we enjoyed it. I got home around 11:30 and as I headed for my room there was half a bowl of salad on the floor in front of my door and a note next to it, written in purple sharpie.

Mom,

Please wake me up at 5:30 or earlier.

Love you so so so so so so sooooooooo much.

Love

Little Man

PS You can have the salad.

Is that not the cutest dang thing? Boy I love that kid. And I love those little notes the kids leave. I've realized lately that the days of such notes are coming to a close, so I'm saving them all. I giggled for five straight minutes after that one. Such a cutie.

Additional to my cute kid notes, I am brain dead. Melanie J just posted about having commenters leave questions in order to give her foder for future posts. She's freaking brilliant; I say that because I only copy brilliant people. Which is why I'm copying her.

So, if you have some deep burning question you'd like to ask, let me know. I'll blog about the answers and give you credit for having asked them.

TTFN

Am I a Good Person?

2009-12-13T07:17:00.000-08:00

I've now seen The Blindside twice. One of the best movies I have ever seen--so much that I've wondered if it's THAT bad to take a camcorder to the movie theater. I'm not going to sell it, just watch it over and over again.

There's a line in there that got me the first time, it struck me, but it made me cry the second time. In a scene where her motives are being questioned she asks "Am I a good person?" You've just watched a film that shows the amazing things she's done for someone else, and yet in her mind she's boiled it down to the question of motive. Why did she do those things? Were her reasons pure? If she did them for the wrong reasons are the things she did also wrong?

I ask myself this question a lot, and after so many years I still don't have the answers.

Am I a good person for having raised someone elses child, or was I simply looking to be a hero?

Now that the whole hero thing has backfired, would I have done it again knowing what I know now?

Is that only because it didn't go the way I hoped?

Do I only do good things because I want a good result?

Am I still a good parent when I resent the messes, the hours of cleaning, the unappreciation of my efforts?

Am I good person even though I find it so hard to forgive?

Is it fair that I divide my time between my family and the fictional characters in my head?

Yesterday was supposed to be my youngest daughter's baptism. She turned 8 in October, and I was planning to have her baptism in November, a couple of days before my book tour. Turned out that this year the stake baptisms are on the second Saturday of the month, not the first. Right in the middle of my tour. We had to put it off until December. I felt horrible and even though I realize it was simply a mistake, this is a BAPTISM, and it got bumped because I had a book tour--two weeks away from my family. It has not sat well with me, but I simply focused on the 12th of December and moved forward. Yesterday it snowed all day. Most of the family members canceled; and for good reason. I don't want them to take unnecessary risks, and the roads were really horrible. But as the day ticked on and the snow got deeper I realized that the chances were good that no one would make it; even those who lived just an hour a way. I saw two options: 1) Have the baptism anyway, but with only us. 2) Reschedule for January and hope more family members could make it. My husband thought we should do it anyway, but you know what? As we thought and talked about it I kept going back to the part where if we'd done it in November, all those people would have been there. It was my fault it hadn't worked that way. Therefore, I felt responsible for the fact that after building up this event, KB's memories would be of only having her siblings and parents at her 'big' day. Lee and I finally decided to let KB decide.

I sat her down and explained the situation. Did I present it honestly? Without trying to prod her into making one choice over another? I don't know. I tried to focus on the important aspect being the ordinance, not all the extra stuff. Did I make it clear enough? I don't know that either.

She went into her room to think about it, and when she came out her eyes were red and her face was swollen. She's the only girl in her class who hasn't been baptized. She didn't like that she wouldn't be baptized until she's in a whole new primary class--9-10 year olds. She's been eight for two months already. She wanted to wear her new dress to church.

Did I appreciate those things enough? If I'd have just said "This is your day, Kylee, let's do this and forever have very special memories of the people closest to you being there?" would she have chosen another direction?

She chose to wait. I admit that I was relieved. Is that wrong too? Then I started calling people to tell them. Everyone was very nice, but I could hear an undercurrent "You're canceling an eternal ordinance because some people can't come?" I braved through all that using the "I'm doing what KB wants." but did she understand it enough to really know? Was it fair to leave the choice to her?

I don't know. I do know that I was unsettled about it all day, that I'm worried about what people think, and the message I've sent to KB and my other children. Today she should be welcomed to our ward as the newest member. But she won't be. Am I a good person even though ...

When I really think it through I do believe I'm a good person, for the most part. I try to do good things, and try to be fair minded and encouraging to others. And yet even making that declaration makes those things I've been wrong about glaringly apparent as they rise up as arguments against me.

And so I'm curious if we all do that to ourselves. I'd like comments to be left in the format of "Am I a good person even though...."

I'm not asking in hopes to make myself feel better--or am I? I don't know.

Cover for Devil's Food Cake!

2009-12-01T15:52:00.000-08:00

Wohoo--see that pic on the side, yeah, well in case you didn't figure it out, that's the new cover. Not what I expected--I thought it would be a light brown, but it's catchy, eh? Release date: March 3, 2010.

The first two chapters are available on my website www.josiskilpack.com as well as info on how to pre-order autographed copies.

Register 4 the 2010 LDStorymakers Writers' Conference

2009-12-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't heard, registration is OPEN for the 2010 conference. We're having more breakouts then ever, more agents and editors than ever, and more space than ever. It's at the Provo Marriot again and sure to be thebomb.com (that's not a real website) To register go to www.ldstorymakers.com and follow the links. And, just a little fyi, the agents and editors go fast and they are good ones. Don't delay, sign up today!

Booktour Contest Winners!

2009-11-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

As part of the booktour, Julie and I ran two contests--one for those that made online comments to blogs or facebook updates or twitter posts, and the other contest for those people we met during the tour. We got over 100 entries in both contests and drew out our winners:

Online contest for a $15 gift card to Amazon.com goes to:

Lisa Banks Bennett

In-store contest for a $40 gift card to her choice of location goes to:

Susan Farnsworth

I'll be contacting both these ladies individually to let them know but wanted to thank everyone for the great support we received on the tour. It was awesome to meet so many of you in person, and a huge benefit to have the online comments continually cheering us on. Thanks so much and I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving weekend.

Final Day on Tour

2009-11-22T16:28:00.000-08:00

This morning Julie and I had lunch with Heather Horrocks, author of How To Stuff a Wild Zucchini. She and her sister had come down to St. George for a book signing and took us to breakfast, which was delicious. Sit down meals definitely beat Taco Bell. It was fun to chat with her and hear the incredible range of things she's written and plans to write. AND Josi forgot her camera. She's really awesome that way. It was very fun though and I'm excited to see where she'll go from here.

Then we picked up Julie's daughter and were ready to head toward Cedar City when I realized I didn't have my credit card. Not a good moment. The last place I'd used it was Outback Steakhouse the night before, so we held our breath and headed that direction, hoping some prep cook was already there. They were. I asked about my card, and they had it but asked for ID to verify I was really Josi. That was awesome and EXACTLY what they should have done. I'm so writing an e-mail to tell them how awesome their manager was.

Then we headed for Cedar City, got there early and hit Wal-mart to replace Julie's brush I'd taken out of her bag and left at Janette's. Hey, wait, did I end up buying it or did Julie pay for it? I better check with her. Then we hit Sally Beauty Supply--they have the best bobby pins ever and the last two times I've gone in they were sold out.

Then we went to Cedar City. It was a Hannah Montana day. Vicki C. and Ali C. had come down from Milford to see New Moon and stopped by the store. Awesome to see them for the first time in years--AND I didn't get a picture. I suck. Not long after they left, Deann, my sister-in-law Crystal's mom came in. She is so much fun; spunky, encouraging and just so dang positive. The only draw back is that she has cuter hair than me. Dangit! But I got over it :-) and was so glad to see her. Right behind Deann was my Aunt Pam who I haven't seen for quite some time. My sister Crystal showed up a little while later, and then my brother Sam and his wife Whitney. It was awesome! In between all the great family reunion I sold a bunch of a books and THEN Lee Modesitt showed up with gifts for Julie; five copies of his books in Swedish! Lee has been a great friend and mentor to Julie for quite some time and it was awesome that he took the time to come and see her.

When the signing was over, Julie, her daughter and my fam got to go to lunch--it was a perfect ending to a great day and a really awesome book tour. After we left Cedar City, we headed for Julie's house in Oak City and managed to cram in yet even more topics of discussion. We reached Oak City around 6:30, unloaded, lost the keys, found the keys, gave final goodbye hugs and I headed for Salt Lake. I met up with my family at the rental car return center, and thier eyes about bugged out of their heads when they saw the miles. I was hiding in my own car at this time, while my husband turned it in. for whatever reason I was certain I was going to get in trouble even though we had unlimited miles. But they were very nice to Lee and we left without being told about some fine print that was going to cost me $500.00.

It was GREAT to hug my kids, kiss my husband and just be home. I love it here!

Vegas to Utah

2009-11-20T21:58:00.000-08:00

I was able to leave the trunk to the car open for a couple hours while I was at work (mostly I blogged, I'm such a great boss.) It dried out really well and we were able to reload, then I picked up Julie and we serpentined all over Vegas before finally calling the store--Dora apparently does not like Vegas and she refused to help us. I think she was really mad we didn't get to cheesecake factory last night too.

We got to the store and were able to get a grand tour of the new digs. Deseret Book has launched a pilot program where they combine the DB bookstore with a distribution center, complete with garments and temple clothes. The Vegas store was the second of these remodels we'd seen--the Lake Oswego store had also recently rennovated. It's a nice gig for both stores and customers; giving them a one stop shop. The Vegas store is particularly nice because it has a whole level dedicated to the distribution items and has a lot of room.

We got to chat with some more fun people down there but discovered that the hot temperatures had ruined the chocolate we'd been giving out. We ate several of them and although they tasted great, they looked a little funny so we decided we would give the rest to our kids who wouldn't care that they looked funny. Bummer for the rest of the people coming to our signings though. Sorry.

After Vegas we hit the road, yet again and headed over the state line to our signing in St. George. We crossed yet another time zone but it was still warm, which was nice. We met up with a freind of mine, Nida Lloyd at the Hope Chest Thrift store where I found a few awesome shirts! $18 for six of em--yeah baby! Then Julie and I headed to Deseret Book. They had also just added a distribution center to their store--so we were in 3 of the 6 stores they are trying this in, which is kinda cool. Paul, the manager there, is awesome, and Alexis came up from Mesquite to see us--it's always fun to meet cyber people in person. We got to chat with people and sell some books and a cute little 7 year old came in that made me miss my KB more than ever.

After the signing we headed for Julie's parent's house, where we are staying tonight. We had a great dinner and Julie got to see her daughter who lives in St. George too. We are now blogging and uploading and getting ready for bed. I am SO excited to be home, but am also glad Cedar City is our final signing. I have some friends coming and so it's a great way to end the tour.

I'm not sure when I'll find time to blog the wrap up for the tour--I'm missing my family like crazy and suspect that this weekend will be a lot of catching up with them. So, in case it takes a few days for me to get to it I'd like to thank everyone who set up a signing, came to a store, told someone about a signing, read the blog, twitter, facebook updates and wished us well. Honestly, the tour exceeded our expectations. Even with the hiccups we encountered it was a really great trip. When we finish with Cedar City tomorrow we will have hit 23 stores, driven about 4,000 miles, met hundreds of people and signed hundreds of books. We've seen places we've never seen before, had conversations we'd never had, and made friends with people we'd have never met. Thanks for the great support, it really is priceless.

Topics discussed today & yesterday: Porn, jobs, Parumph, hitting deer, J. Golden Kimball, bracing cacti and chocolate cinnamon bears.

Arizona-check!

2009-11-20T09:25:00.000-08:00

When we arrived at Janette's house on Monday night, this room was clean. This is what it looked like after a few hours. We certainly made ourselves right at home, didn't we?

We left for Thatcher, thinking we--again--had lots of time. Wrong! The GPS routed us through Tucson, which added another 30+ miles to our trip. We are FOR SURE going to talk to the locals next time rather than rely solely on Dora to get us back and forth. We were half an hour late. Argh. We just felt horrible. BUT, the perk is that we had people waiting for us! Had we been on time they would have trickled in, but since we were late we got to feel like rockstars coming into a crowd. The Thatcher store was awesome--I have been so impressed with the independant bookstores we have come across in small areas. Thatcher was no exception. We sold quite a few books, signed stacks of books people brought in and had an all together great time at their store. AND they gave me chocolate covered cinnemon bears!

The store owners let us get a photo with their daughter Megan, who was such a sweetheart and kept coming back for hugs. Another 'rock star' moment for us. I swear we took a photo with the employees but I don't have it on my camera--I must have a black hole on there. Maybe they can send me a copy of the one they took.

After the signing, we headed for Phil and Alice Prey's house, where we were staying. They are our good friend Alison Palmer's parents and not only offered their home for us to stay in, but also got a book group together at their house. We had a fun meeting and fabulous refreshments, it was an impressive turn out and the Prey's were wonderful hosts, you'd have thought they were our own parents for how sweetly they treated us. I now know at least two reasons Alison is such a sweetheart herself; she had good teachers. We got to see some pictures of Alison when she was younger--big hair and all :-) She's a doll and it was a great night, even if thier dog was scared to death of us.

We hit the road at 7:15--taking the RIGHT route this time and made it to Mimi's Cafe in time to have lunch with friends Marjean, Marsha and Connie. We haven't seen Marsha or Connie for awhile and it was fun to visit with them and have a great meal. After lunch/brunch/breakfast we went to the Deseret Book where Amy the imposter (also known as Kim) and the Craigs (manager and assistant manager are both named Craig) greeted us with big smiles and lots of compliments. Very fun store. We got to visit with a particular woman who was buying Christmas Presents for her nieces and chatted with us for awhile. Should she read this I hope she knows how touched we were by her story and we wish her the best. Lisa P. came to this store as well--she had bought a copy of English Trifle for me a few months ago and I sent it off without signing it. We'd gotten it resolved back then, but I felt like an idiot anyway. She came all the way in to meet me and assure me it was not a big deal. Very fun. Marjean was there with us again, orchestrating all the details, which was wonderful, and we had a great time visiting with the emloyees and customers. Very fun store.

After that signing we hit the road for Nevada. Long drive. We can definitely feel the 3,800 miles catching up with us and the drive from Arizona to Nevada is just plain boring--unless you're driving with Julie Wright. Then it is fun. She makes everything fun. We got to Vegas in time to hit the Disney Outlet. All my razing aside, I have no particular dislike of Disney and I got my last two 'kid gifts' there which will be much enjoyed. We then headed for our final presentation of the trip, a book group in seven hills. Stefanie was the hostess, and the book group was awesome. We had some rather intensive discussions on merits of books and authors. I was impressed with the depth of their questions and we had a really good time with these women. It's been really fun to have the sit-down meetings with these groups. We realize they aren't easy to put together, but have enjoyed each one of them so much.

After the bookgroup we realized--to abject horror--that a water bottle had leaked in the trunk--and our boxes of books had done thier best to absorb the water. Julie took the worst of it and we're both sick over the dozens of books that were ruined. Once again she amazes me with her 'scope' of dealing with tough things. But we had to skip Cheesecake Factory in favor of trying to save the rest of our stuff. Who knew a water bottle could be so disastrous. It kinda took the wind out of our sails and we got to the hotel very tired and more than a little bit frustrated. I dreamed all night that Julie and I got into a horrible fight, where she left the hotel and I had to find her in Vegas. Not fun at all.

This morning I got up to find Julie safe and sound at the hotel, reading a magazine through a slit of light coming through the bathroom door--she didn't want to wake me up. I got ready in a dash and came into work where I have a few things to deal with but, more importantly, have internet. We haven't had any since we left Janette's, which is why we're so behind on blogging. And because I changed our hotel last night to one closer to my office, we didn't get free internet like we'd have had if we'd stayed with the hotel Julie's husband had set up for us. I bungled that one completely and feel like a heel (it doesn't help that I'm the one that put the water bottle in the trunk in the first place, but it's Julie's books that got ruined). Currently I have unloaded the car and am letting the desert sun dry up the water in the trunk--I'm sure my employees are very impressed with having the sidewalk full of my luggage and such.

Anyway, we're heading for the Vegas signing in about an hour and then we'll drive into St. George. We get to stay with Julie's parents tonight--great people--and we get to see Julie's daughter, which will be a lot of fun as well. Another full day, that's for sure, but hopefully a good one.

Arizona Sunshine

2009-11-18T09:24:00.000-08:00

It was so nice to have a kick back morning and get some laundry done on Tuesday. The weather is perfect in Mesa this time of year and Janette Rallison was a wonderful hostess. We left for the signing at the Glendale Deseret Book and quickly realized that Glendale-Chandler-Mesa are isn't like Sandy-Sugarhouse-Murray in Salt Lake. They are all their own cities rather than suburbs of each other and driving from one to the other is like driving to Provo from Salt Lake. And so we were late--again. Argh. I really hate being late and yet you wouldn't guess it by how good I'm getting at it.

Anyway--great store, fun signing. Marjean is a resident of the Mesa area who volunteered to help us with our signings here. She made up mailing list sign ups, directed people to our table, and was a kind of director for the signing. It was fun to meet her and the employees and we had a good time at Glendale. Then we went to lunch with Peggy and Cindy, the manager and assistant manager of the Seagull bookstore in Mesa. What fun women, and what a wonderful meal! They took us to the Landmark restaurant in Mesa which is in a building that was the first meetinghouse in Mesa. It was a beautiful building and the food was phenomenal.

After the meal they announced that Julie had received a delivery to their store that morning. Ooooooooo. It turned out to be this awesome cookie boquet sent by Julie's sister in law, Pearl. It was awesome! I've heard about those but never seen one. Wow. It was such a thoughtful (and delicious) gift. Julie shared with all of us at the signing, I beleive I was the first one to finish my cookie despite the big meal we'd just had. Go me.

The Mesa signing was great. Wendy and Mary--online friends--came out to see us, as well as Kim C.'s aunt who about cleaned Julie out of books. It was really, really fun to see these people in real life--thanks for the great support. Peggy at that store was just wonderful--what a bundle of fun energy. And I found christmas gifts for my visiting teaching sisters that are darling but I can't tell you what they are because they sometimes read this and I don't want to give it away. and because I bought the same thing for my sister Crystal (who will get hers in Cedar City on Saturday) and Melanie J (who will get hers as soon as I get to a post office to mail it). Now they are going to get all excited and think it's amazing, so I totally set myself up.

Anyway, once we finished that signing we hurried to a book group in Mesa and got there just in time. Janette joined us for a presentation where we talked about our experiences in writing and how we got here. It went really well and the women there were just wonderful, warm, and very engaged. Sandra, the woman who put it all together, insisted we take some of the leftover refreshments. Twisted our arm terribly. We said we were taking them home to Janette's kids but instead we're eating cream-puffs and grapes for breakfast. It was delicious.

All in all it was a really great day, full of wonderful people who really went out of their way to take great care of us. Today we're bumming around Janette's house for a little while before we head for Thatcher where we have a signing and presentation.

Topics discussed: We didn't drive much, and when one was driving the other was talking to her husband on the cell phone where we talked about school, laundry, church talks, and when we will be home.

Welcome to Arizona

2009-11-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

Sunday was awesome. We slept in, the hotel had yummy waffles as part of their continental breakfast and we were just a few miles away from Newport beach. The weather could not have been more beautiful AND we found a parking space.

While walking the beach we found a man blowing bubbles—huge bubbles like we’d never seen before. We stopped and watched, then moved on, and then passed him again. This time, however, he was telling someone how he sold the homemade wands for $5. We were all over it. While he went to the car to get the wands, Julie stepped up to take his place. She’s amazing and had it figured out within minutes.

After Newport we headed for Huntington Beach, where the beautiful and amazing Melanie J. had offered us a place to stay. First of all, the area of Huntington Beach is incredible. It seems impossible, but it felt like a small town. Everything is within walking distance; the beach is only a couple blocks from her house. It was instantly welcoming and comfortable. Anyone who knows Melanie online knows she is funny and smart and sassy all at once; she’s even better in person. She’s got darling kids, and a wonderful husband, Kenny, who actually made Julie and I christmas ornaments to commemorate our trip (photo to follow). That night we went to Kenny’s parent’s house for dinner. Wow. The food was the bomb, but his parents also have a boat dock behind their house. We got the ‘backyard’ tour of the houses along the harbor. I’d never seen anything like it. We got to meet several members of Kenny’s family as well as Melanie’s brother, his girlfriend and some neighbors. You would think meeting that many strangers would be overwhelming, but it honestly felt like we’d known them for years. They were so kind, so comfortable and did I mention the food was awesome?

On the way home Kenny dropped us three girls off at the beach so we could walk along it in the dark. It was so surreal to be in such a place with such women. We returned home and, of course, talked for hours before finally going to bed. It could not have been a more perfect Sunday for us. We really needed the break and couldn’t have choreographed a better one. Monday morning we (Julie, Melanie, Melanie’s son, and I) went to breakfast at a restaurant at the pier before Julie and I headed to our first signing at Fountain Valley’s store, The Bookport. We met Glen and Sue the owners and were able to see Melanie one last time (but I totally forgot to take pictures, we didn't get one with the three of us which makes me want to cry)

After Fountain Valley we spent 2 more hours in LA traffic to get to our final California stop, The Book Castle in Newhall. Wow. They had a HUGE poster on the front door talking about signing and had mailed out postcards to their customers. We sold a bunch of books and laughed for two full hours. The employees were awesome, the store owner, Heather, was awesome, the store itself was cute and the customers were so nice, so personable. It was a perfect way to end our time in California.

We had realized over the weekend that when we routed our trip, we had made a mistake. I don’t know why, but amid our original mapquesting, mapquest had sent us on the 40 into Arizona. This required us to up to the forty, then over, then back down to the 10 which was a straight shot into Phoenix. We’d mentioned this to a couple people and they were surprised, pointing out that going our way added four hours to the drive. The problem was we’d gotten our hotel rooms at a great price which did not allow cancellation and we were supposed to stay in Lake Havesu that night. We talked, debated, called for help, and eventually chose to ditch out on the hotel room in favor of saving four hours. It’s not an easy choice to make when everything is so budgeted and specific, but we’d have spent two tanks of gas and priceless time sticking to our schedule and felt it would be silly to do so. Instead, we left Newhall at 4:00 and drove straight through to Mesa—calling our friend Janette Rallison (who we were planning to stay with on Tuesday night) to see if we could stay Monday as well. We arrived around 1:00 in the morning, and went straight to bed. Slept like a couple rocks.

No we find ourselves at Tuesday of week two. We have a signing at the Glendale Deseret Book from 12:30 to 2:00, then a signing at the Mesa Seagull 4:30-6:00 and a book group tonight. Before all that, we’ve got laundry in desperate need of being done and could really use a shower.

Topics discussed over the last two days: Battlestar Galactica, childbirth, metabolism, pressure canning, terrorists, civil unions, engineers, narcotics, book contracts, barnacles, and eating low-carb.

And This is L.A.

2009-11-14T20:38:00.000-08:00

Today was busy, busy, busy. After staying with the Gunther's in Redland, and enjoying a fabulous breakfast courtesy of Jay Gunther, we headed for our first store in Temecula. I'd never been to any of the Ensign stores and it was fun to see what a great job they have done. We arrived to find a gal waiting for me to sign a book for her mom, who was unable to make it. Very sweet. I hope she got lots of daughter points for that one.

After Temecula, we raced on yet more California feeways to the Riverside store. Helen and Judi were both wonderful and we were glad we were with Victoria Gunther since she has a lot of friends :-) Julie had a family of fans bring in every one of her titles--which was awesome.

We then went to the Upland store, where I ran into an old acquaintance from high-school--very strange, but in a good way--and Lael Littke showed up. She is just awesome, and it was fun to chat with her and catch up on things. I swore we took pictures with her but they aren't on my camera. Maybe I used someone elses?

By the time the signing was over, we were exhausted. We parted ways with Victoria and had our second sit down meal of the trip at Applebee's. It was super yummy and since we hadn't had time for lunch, very much appreciated. Then we gave Dora the address to our hotel and headed for 'home' at least tonight's version of home.

We ... are...so...tired. 40 hours of driving is starting to catch up with us. We've driven over 2,500 miles in 6 days, which just seems completely unreal. The rental car is going to kick themselves on the whole 'unlimited miles' thing.

Tomorrow we are going to be heathens and skip church in favor of sleep--the Sabbath is the day of rest, right? Then we get to hang with Melanie J. who is graciously allowing us to stay with her tomorrow night. We are really looking forward to it.

Not sure if we will report on tomorrow, but I might. Who knows? Monday we'll be in Fountain Valley and Newhall before heading toward Arizona. We found out today that Mesa is only about 6 hours from L.A., however, mapquest had shown us going through Lake Havasu, which is longer. Nice. Since our hotel rooms are non-refundable, we have no choice but to take the longer route. sigh. Next time we will talk to locals before we plan everything out.

Anyway, it's been a great week, we're half way through the tour and still not making squinty eyes at one another, that's rather remarkable.

Topics discussed today: Bipolar, Hugh Grant, chick flicks, snorty laughs, kids, back surgery, and reorganizing stake boundaries.

Traffic Gods

2009-11-13T23:04:00.000-08:00

I have come to realize that one of two things is an absolute fact:

A) The traffic gods hate us.
B) The traffic gods hate California.

Either way, we are not getting much help from them, which made today a little rough.

We left Sacramento around 8:45. I decided that since I was very tense yesturday, I would be chill today and not become a traffic nazi. We had 2 1/2 hours to make an hour and a half drive, and ended up half an hour late to our Oakland signing which was only an hour long. The final 10 miles took nearly an hour. Argh!! John and Marilyn were wonderful to us, and so understanding. They have a very cute store and we got to chat with some customers and get to know them and sign a bunch of books. Certainly not a wasted trip on our part, but we hate letting them down. AND because we had to get to Bakersfield by 4:00 we couldn't stay longer, which was equally aggravating.

I realized last week that the drive from Oakland to Bakersfield was going to be an issue. We had only given ourselves 4 hours to make the drive--which, according to our preliminary mapquest was plenty of time. When we did the detailed maps, however, we realized the drive was 4 1/2 hours. So we flew out of the Oakland signing, grabbed some almonds and cookies from our snack pack and headed south on the 5. We did pretty good until the low fuel light went on, which meant we had to stop for gas--and the pump didn't give us a receipt (we need all our reciepts in order to get reimbursed) so I had to stand in line behind 10 truckers only to find that not a single employee could figure out how to print a receipt. I asked for a hand written one and they said they couldn't do that because they couldn't verify the amount. It was now 3:45 and we had 20 miles to get to Bakersfield. I had no choice but to leave in a huff. It cost us a precious 10 minutes, which made us 20 minutes late. But...awaiting us at Beehive Books in Bakersfield was this:

I know! And just in case you missed the details, Vicki (the store owner) had made a lemon tart, English trifle, and a chocolate trifle. Not to mention 'rabbit food' and sandwiches. It was as good as it looked and Julie and I both snarfed--cookies and nuts are not a good substitute for a meal, but Vicki took good care of us. (I don't know why I look like I just swallowed a bug in this picture, I didn't) We got to meet a writer/reader and hear about her story, which is fabulous, we got to visit with Vicki and enjoy her cute store. She really is an amazing woman, with so much enthusiasm and energy. It's so satisfying how no matter where we go, we find ourselves among freinds. Both Seagull and Beehive Books were so gracious today, despite our tardiness.

After the Bakersfield signing, we headed for LA where we are staying tonight with fellow author Victoria Gunther. She has written a book called Girl in a Whirl and will be traveling with us to the Ensign Book stores tomorrow. She was wonderful to offer us a place to stay tonight, so after three more hours of driving we arrived at her house and are now settling in for the night.

We drove for ten hours today and we are very, very tired. We determined that it was a blessing we didn't have evening signings this week. I don't know how we would have done it. Next week we have a little more wiggle room and so I'm glad the presentations are then, not now.

Julie is already asleep, the Gunther house is getting quiet and I need to get to bed as well. Tommorrow we will be at three of the Ensign Book stores in the greater LA area. Go to my website for details www.josiskilpack.com

Topics discussed today: foster care, grain silos, pedicures, girl scout cookies, temple work and farting.

Cali-Nevada-Cali

2009-11-12T21:49:00.000-08:00

We left around 7:30 this morning and headed to Reno, taking the route through the Lassen national forest. Wow. It was absolutely breathtaking, lots of big pinion pine trees, beautiful vistas and fun little highway towns. I got my first postcard sent off to my kids (I said I'd send one every day, oops) and Julie took several pictures that actually worked despite the fact that I refused to stop. Poor Julie--I am a scrooge to her free spiritedness.

Despite a little snow and ice on the roads, we made it to Reno with enough to time to make a quick stop to laminate a poster for Julie and hit the Easter Seals Thrift Store. Julie got a very cute jacket (black, surprise, surprise) and I got a red button up shirt (equally surprising). They were $3 each--we call that a deal.

The Reno store was fun and the employees were awesome. We had a great time with John, Gay, and Jill. There was pretty good traffic and it was just a great store with fun people. When we finished, we hit the road, yet again, and took I-80 over yet more beautiful mountain passes and back to Sacremento where we made our first mistake.

We thought that since the hotel was only life five miles from the store, we had time to quickly check in, take our bags to our rooms, maybe put on a little more deodorant and make it to the signing in time.

What we forgot was that we were in CALIFORNIA where five miles is kinda like fifteen thanks to traffic and lights that I swear are twice as long as they are in Utah. We ended up spending half an hour getting to the hotel, five minutes checking in and twenty minutes cursing the fact that we tried to go to the hotel at all. We were almost fifteen minutes late to the signings, which makes me feel horrible; and yet in the end it turned out just fine (like Julie said it would)

My sister was waiting there with her darling baby girl, and getting a hug from my sis, and a smile from my sweet little niece was priceless. My sister took the train from San Jose with a four month old baby to see me tonight--gosh it makes me misty to even think about. She also brought her sisters-in-law and mother in law to the signing who hung out the whole evening. I haven't seen Cindy in over a year, so it was really great to spend the evening with her.

I also got to reconnect with a friend I haven't seen for over a decade. Audrey was one of the members of the book group that read my very first book--Earning Eternity before it was published. She, along with the other women in the group, gave me feedback on that book and helped convince me to submit. It was wonderful to catch up on our lives and see that she is the same sweet, kind girl with the brilliant smile she was back then--full plate and all :-)

After the signing Julie and I went to dinner with Audrey, my sister Cindy and her in-laws. I can't even remember the name of the place, but it was very yummy--especially the Pina Coladas. It was the first real meal Julie and I have had and it was so great to share it with these women. I don't know all of Cindy's family well but it was amazing to look around the table, knowing some of the trials each of us have faced, and yet seeing how we've overcome, who we have become because of those things, and where we're all headed. I don't know why it was so deep and reflective to me, but it really was. Life is just ... hard and we don't know how hard it is for most of the people around us and yet it is also so great. Tonight was a kind of realization, I guess, of that fact that while none of us get off 'scott free' we can go forward and find great joy.

Hmm. The waxing philosophical stuff is kinda weird. My apologies.

Anyway, it was a great day with a great ending and I am now very, very tired. Tomorrow we go to Oakland for a lunch signing and then to Bakersfield before heading to LA for the night. Phew. I'm still having to borrow Julie's mascara because we haven't had time to stop and get me some (but we did have time to buy shirts, hmmmm)

Topics discussed today: Family, mystery shoppers, thift-shoppin, California traffic, the abundance of cops on the road, late people, insanity and salvaged title vehicles.

California Here we Come

2009-11-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

We left Portland around 8:30 and finished out Oregon with lots of "Oh my word, is that not the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" and "I love rain" and "I'm totally bringing my husband and kids here." We absolutely loved Oregon, what a georgeous place. My hair...didn't. I thought my curls would be so happy. Drunk is more like it, but I would totally wear ponytails everyday if I had to.

And thanks to Krista we now know what the barns of dirt are for--it's actually fine gravel stored in the barn-like buildings and used to dust the roads when they get icy. Makes lots of sense. We use sand in Utah, and they use gravel over here. Thank you Krista for clearing it up, we debated it far more than it deserved and will now sleep easy.

We drove, and drove, and drove today--almost 7 hours. We arrived at our signing ten minutes before it starts--Josi does not like to be late and might have an ulcer because it was cut so close. But it was a beautiful drive and well worth it. It just so happened that Classic Books in Cottonwood was having their annual 'Girls Night Out' and since we didn't end up with a presentation, we were invited to stay. We thought that sounded cool. We had no idea.

Sarah and Valaun and Kayla were wonderful, as was Terry (the owner) and the other employees that put that night together. Dozens of women from the area came out, bought books, ate super yummy food (chocolate cupcakes with peppermint patties in the middle, uh, yeah) and chatted with us. We were there for three hours and yet it flew by. The store is darling and offers a great variety of books as well as crafts, artwork and boutique items. Super cute stuff (Josi spent $30 but it couldn't be helped) AND we left with goodie bags and hugs all around. Really, Classic knows how to throw a party and I am just thanking the lucky stars that we just happened to schedule on this particular day. If we ever have the chance to come back, we will be there in a heartbeat.

We got to our hotel around 8:30--12 hours after we left Oregon and spent some time re figuring our rental car. It seems we've both managed to ooze all over the car. We were able to repack and thus reduce our items by two boxes--much better fit. Did we mention we rented a car for this trip? Neither of us had a car that was reliable and good enough on gas to make the trip, so we rented a little Kia Sephia. Great car!

So, now we are finishing up the day and preparing for our trip to Reno first thing in the morning, and I do mean first thing. We'll be heading out at 7:00, arriving in Reno for our 11:30 signing and then heading 3 hours to Sacramento. BUT, in addition to those two signings I get to see my sister Cindy and her new baby who I have not yet met. I'm so excited!

Ought to be a great day.

Topics discussed today: Premarital sex, Sweden, trolls, national agents, good husbands, tweezers, and moss.

Along the Oregon Trail

2009-11-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

We left Boise before the sun came up, but not before the traffic began. But it was okay because we were going OUT of Boise, not into it. We have come to realize that Eastern Oregon and Southeastern Washington look a lot like Idaho which looks a lot like Utah. There was a pretty pass in Oregon for a few miles (which had one rest stop which was closed) but then it turned to sagebrush again. I had always thought Oregon was pure trees. Not so.

For those of you that read my twitter post about the barns full of dirt, I don't think it was potatoes. It was in Oregon that we saw them, and they were seriously full of dirt. We saw about half a dozen of them, just piled up with dirt; some were in a tree area, and others a no tree area. We seriously can't figure it out. Hmmm.

And the speed limit was 65 the WHOLE way through Oregon. I kept waiting for it to go up, but instead it went DOWN to 60 when we got to Washington. Weird. Lucky for us, Dora, our GPS unit warns us when we get over 9 miles past the speed limit. We owe her cookies for helping us avoid a ticket.

The Kennewick signing at Far West Books was awesome, thank you to those ladies that came out for that--we sold some books, chatted with the excellent staff and tried on some dresses. Anyone looking for dresses for the Whitney Award Banquet (April 24th 2010) really ought to check out the Dress Shop they have put together--they've combed catalogs for modest dresses and they were so darn cute. These are the two I'm trying to decide between. Anyone have a vote?

Then we headed toward Lake Oswego, which is apparently in the Portland area. Anyone that remembers my 'fantasy World' post from a couple months ago knows I have a dream-like-affection for Portland. It's the place I go in my head when my real life seems complex. However, I'd never actually been there.

Holy Cow.

All that 'hoping for trees' from the first trip of the day was totally rewarded. Closer we got to Portland the more trees there were, and then there is a huge city springing up on the edges of a gorgeous river. Wow. I could so live here. My fantasy world just blossomed before my eyes and I'm feeling even more regret for never having visted Mike and Alisha when they lived here. It is gorgeous.

Julie had never been to Trader Joe's, so we had to go in and get some Vanilla Meringues and Triple Ginger Cookies. If you've never been to Trader Joe's, well, I'm very sorry. You should go! They have amazing stuff you can't find anywhere else.

Cookies and merengues in hand we went to the Deseret Book store. They didn't know we were coming TODAY, but if being unprepared always ends in as great a signing as we had, we shouldn't have made any plans at all. Ryan, the manager, threw together a table and chairs, Julie whipped out her table cloth and we settled in for what should have been an hour and a half and easily stretched to 2 hours. They have recently remodeled this store to have a distribution center in it--like last week. But it's a rather brilliant idea as many people come by the distribtion center on their way to the temple which is right up the road. We had good traffic, good conversation and they gave us Utah Truffle bars on our way out the door.

We went up to see the temple, but missed our turn. As we weaved around, catching glimpses of the temple through the trees, we eventually found a little cement path that led to the temple ground. It was covered with fall leaves, wet with rain, and I could have pulled out my sleeping bag and camped there. The temple was beautiful, even if the pictures I got were so lousy I daren't include them here and included one instead from about the vantage point we had, although our view was in the dark. Very pretty.

We are now at the hotel with full tummies, tired eyes, and 7 hours of driving in the morning. We'll be at Classic Books in Cottonwood California from 4:00-5:30 tomorrow, November 11th.
Now, off to my 68 e-mails...

Topics of conversation: In-laws, free agency, Jay's Journal, eBay, barns of dirt, thrift shop finds, Lancome mascara and dead people.

Day One--Ho Idaho!

2009-11-09T19:32:00.000-08:00

So we got to Idaho Falls around 10:30--just in time to have Breakfast/lunch with the wonderful Erin Klingler--a good freind and fellow author (look for her next book Spring 2010). Not only did we have a great meal, but she PAID for us. We are now beholden to her for life. Thanks Erin.

We had a signing at the Deseret Book in Ammon, sold some books, hung with some peeps--specifically this is my brother and sister-in-law--i.e. the other Kilpacks. They brought us a half gallon of Reeds chocolate milk, thickened with pototaoe flakes instead of sugar. So yummy. Everyone that came in afterward would look at the jug and say "Oh, Reeds? That is so good!" They also gave us a potato peeler to commemorate our trip--very fun.

So far we're making out like Bandits in Idaho!

Just as we were finishing we got a call from the Idaho Falls Seagull, apparently they had been told we were coming there. Yikes. We were able to run over and sign a few books left by a girl who's mother had taken her out of school to come. Yes, we felt horrible--especially since she'd had to go back to school before we arrived. She'd left her books, which we signed. Sorry Emily. The store employees were very nice about it.

We then started the 4 hour drive to Boise, made good time, and arrived at the Meridian Seagull half an hour early. Monday nights are not so great for book signings, but the employees were fabo and we did get to chat with a few people--one gal in particular may very well be THE reason we went to that store. Even when the sales aren't great, there is usually a purpose.

Now we are at the Super 8 where Julie's husband found us a great deal. Were in a mild panic because we have a 4 1/2 hour drive in the morning and we THINK we also cross a time zone, meaning we have to start an hour earlier than we planned--which means we might be leaving at 5:00 AM. Hmmmmm. Who planned this anyway? Oh yeah, we did.

We're looking forward to tomorrow--Kennewick at 11:00 and Lake Oswego at 5:00. Nine hours of driving.

Today's topics of discussion as we drove: Anacondas, Joseph Smith, almonds, good husbands, and Marion Jensen. Not necessarily in that order. (does that worry you, Marion? :-) It shouldn't).

And Off We Go...

2009-11-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

The car is packed, the gas tank full, the kids off to school, and the energy high! We are officially on our way to our first stop, Idaho Falls. Just as a reminder, here are the two contests we'll be doing during the tour:

*In Person: For those people who are able to come to one of the bookstores, you'll have the chance to enter a drawing for a $40 gift card to either Olive Garden, Best Buy, or Bed, Bath and Beyond.

*On-line: Anyone that comments on a blog, facebook status, or twitter update will be automatically entered into a drawing for a $15 gift card to Amazon.com

Both contests will end when we get home; winners to be announced and contacted on Monday the 23rd.

I will be updating my twitter and facebook via cell phone throughout the tour, so if you're not subscribed to me on either of these forums and would like to be, please go to my pages at www.twitter.com or www.facebook.com

We've had people tell family members in some of the cities about the signing, other people have announced it in their wards and we just can't thank you enough for the amazing support we've been given. It's truly priceless!

Blog 2 Print 4 U~contest

2009-11-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons I started my blog 3 1/2 years ago was because I wanted a record of my thoughts and stuff--ya know, in addition to inspiring the world :-) I started out very 'instructional' but as with many things in my life it's become far more casual as time has gone on; become more like the real me, I suppose. At some point I heard that you could turn your blog into a book--very cool! I looked into it and every program seemed very complicated; most of them required downloading a program which just didn't make sense to me since I would be using it for one blog book a year or so. My hard drive space is precious, people.

So I kept looking and finally found a program that's completely online--you just upload your blog to it, set the date perimeters and BAM, it's all there. There is no charge until you publish the book. It has each post titled and dated just like the blog, it includes all the pictures and you can choose to keep comments or not. I did find that the comments for my older posts didn't come through, but after being disappointed in that for about five seconds I realized that keeping comments was going to triple the size of my book. I then decided to not include any comments at all, since it was the posts I wanted most to preserve.

Without comments my book ended up being 295 pages long--9 of those pages is a very user friendly title of contents which allows me to find specific post easily. I have a dedication page and got to choose a template for the front and back cover, to which I uploaded my own photos. The best part about it was that it was so, so, so easy. I uploaded it and then spent a total of about 2 hours going through it, but this two hours was over a 2 month time period. When I was ready to publish it I hit the 'publish' button and a week later I had my finished book. the binding is good, the pages of a good weight, the photos well rendered. I really couldn't be happier.

A few tips to get the most out of Blog 2 Print:

*Know what dates you want to use before you start the process if you're doing a date-specific book--such as 5/21/06-3/13/09. I couldn't figure out how to fix this once I put in the dates the first time. (that's not to say it can't be done, only that I lack the ability to be patient enough to figure it out)
*You can hand pick posts if you prefer.
*If you keep comments, understand they take up a lot of room due to the spacing in between each one.
*Pictures turn out great and do a good job of breaking up the pages of words, and words, and words. Upload any photos you want in the book itself before you upload your blog content.
*Realize it isn't cheap, but that said I wasn't horrified. My book cost $143 w/shipping and is 295 pages long and covered 3 years of posts. I've recently done some digital scrap booking and this price is comparable.
*Blog 2 Print works with Blogger, Typepad, or Wordpress.

AND--after I finished the book I was sent a quick survey. Upon completion I received coupon for 20 free pages but since I don't plan to publish my blog for awhile (I like big thick books) I thought I'd pass it on to someone else whose been looking for a blog-book solution. So, if you're interested, just leave a comment saying as much. In a few days I'll do a random drawing to find the winner. The coupon doesn't have an expiration date.

IN THE MEANTIME, Blog 2 Print has given me permission to share a 20% discount with all of you, BUT it expires on 11/9/09. You can totally do your book in that time, it's really simple, so if you're interested in that option the code is: fall4b2p and you'll put it in at checkout. It must be used by 11/09/09 so time is of the essence!

Anyway, leave me a comment if you're interested in the free 20 pages (can't be used with the 20% off). Happy Blogging!

My Halloween Protest

2009-11-01T18:38:00.000-08:00

I wore no make-up

I dressed 'down'

I acted LESS witchy than normal

I did not eat a single piece of candy

So there.

All Kinds of Jiggly inside

2009-10-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

Ohhhh, so many happy things going on, where do I start?

Well, first, Julie and I leave on our booktour in 10 days. Wow. I am so, so, so excited. I've heard from several people who are planning to come out and I'm stoked for the support, and for the chance to meet some people I've only known via facebook and e-mail. Julie and I have our rental car rented, our sleeping arrangements made, and Julie has a GPS, although she informs me it only speaks Swedish. Lucky for me, she's fluent--or GPS fluent anyway. I've updated the itinerary on my website to reflect our new stops in Reno, Fountain Valley and Newhall. We've about given up on the last few presentations, but if you have a last minute request--or just want to go to a movie with us or something in the cities where we haven't gotten anything scheduled, be sure to let us know.

Second, I find it a lucky qirk of fate that my booktour coincides with English Trifle being featured as a title selection for Time Out For Women. I was stoked when Lemon Tart made their list, but English Trifle too? Wow, wow, wow. I was interviewed for their site HERE, so check it out, I don't think I sound too stupid, which is always nice.

Third, Devil's Food Cake is done and under review with Deseret Book. I'm so glad to be finished, it frees up my brain to start thinking about the next book which will be titled Key Lime Pie. Yummmmmm. I can't tell you what it's about because...well, I don't know yet :-) But it's gunna be good and take place in Florida.

And Fourth, I got my computer back. It was $400 but they fixed everything, everything, everything, and seriously, after the hours I log on this thing it deserved a spa day; or week. I'm relieved it's all glammed up for the trip and that I don't have to use the timer on the kid's computer anymore, that was totally lame.

And there's only two more days of stupid Halloween crap to deal with. What could be better? Other than only one day of stupid Halloween crap left.

Withdrawl

2009-10-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

I can't feel my feet, that's a bad sign, right? And the room is spinning. I'm a little sick to my stomach and no matter how hard I try to tell myself that I'm going to be okay, my mind refuses to believe what must surely be a lie. I am not okay.

There are substitutions available but it seems to make it worse--reminding me how good it once was. The replacement's very incompleteness triggers my anxiety until I fear that I've made a grave, grave mistake. Is imperfection worthy of separation? Am I selfish and arrogant to believe I deserve the best? Why am I so hard to please? So demanding? Is nothing better than almost perfect?

These thoughts have spun around my cortex for the last two days, but I have told myself that I only had to hold out until Friday, then my fears would be laid to rest and this parting would seem a distant, albeit, painful memory. Alas, there is a delay in our reunion and seeing as how it is Friday, that delay will stretch for the rest of today...all day tomorrow...throughout all of Sunday (which, truly seems sacrilegious) and until Monday when I receive the triumphant call that all is well. Only then will I be at peace, comforted by my vice without whom I am simply not myself.

Oh Monday, sweet Monday, I long for the comfort you will bring.

In the meantime, what advice do you have for me? How do you cope when your computer's in the shop?

In Brigham City Tonight?

2009-10-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

If you are, come by Reflections of Utah Bookstore for Ronda Hinrichsen's new novel, Missing. Ronda's a good friend of mine and I am so excited for her debut novel! Opening night party will be from 5:00-7:00 (47 So. Main street)

I Swear I'm not Selling Soap!

2009-10-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

My apologies to anyone that sells Amway--I'm not against it, per se, but it's not my thing. Was once; and I sucked at it and didn't get the vision of it all even if I did really like the product itself. The whole 'call everyone you know' and 'if you care about them you'll tell them about this product' just wasn't my bag.

As a writer, I'm constantly having to 'sell myself' not on a street corner or anything like that, but I do book signings, I tell people I'm a writer even though I know some of them will make squinty eyes at me. However, one thing I haven't ever done before now is try and schedule presentations.

I give a lot of them, several a month, but I am usually invited. A couple months ago I had a signing in Idaho and asked some of my mailing list people if anyone of them would like me to do a presentation in the area on my way home. I sent the request to 50 people and had two of them respond almost immediately. I ended up with a great presentation in Malad Idaho, a place I likely wouldn't have gone. The lady that set it up did a fabulous job putting it together and we had a great time.

So, with that in mind, when Julie Wright and I were planning our book tour we thought, sweet--we can do presentations! I mean, when will I ever be back in Lake Oswego Oregon again? But we'll be right there and what a fun opportunity for all of us, right. Right?

Apparently wrong.

See, this whole promotion thing is a tricky little beast and while the Idaho presentation came together for me so smoothly, these other ones...not so much. When we call the stake leaders to tell them we're going to be in town they're a little suspicious. They don't seem to believe us when we say we aren't selling books, and when we try and tell them we're great presenters, well, they are even more convinced we are coming to sell books. Maybe this is because they don't have a lot of people come present? Or maybe we waited too long to send out the dates and so it seems like we're trying to sneak in. I don't know, but either way we're selling something they don't seem to want.

Kinda like soap.

It's been rather uncomfortable and although we've managed to line up dozens of book signings, and we have a couple presentations set up, it's looking like most of the cities we'll be hunkering in overnight are a-scared of us. Rather harsh on the old self-esteem, bringing me back to those Amway days...and Xango...and pre-paid Legal...and Malaluca (sp). So, instead of presentations, Julie and I might just have to go to movies, paint each other's toe nails and do Chinese fire drills around our rental car.

Sometimes, it seems, an invitation makes all the difference.

(However, if you assumed that we had them set up, we're still looking for events in Lake Oswego, Sacramento, LA, Mesa, and Thatcher--we would love for you to save us from ourselves!

Bloggy Award and Meme

2009-10-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

The Amazing Sandra chose me and four other bloggers for this blog award—which was very sweet. Here’s what she said by way of her reason:

3.Josi: if you don't know Josi, then you don't know how to look at the hard parts of life and still smile

I hope this is true—but I must say I don’t see it very much. I think I whine about many things that are rather trite compared to what I see other people facing. But when people say things about me that surprise me, I try to absorb them and find the proof. So I’m going to be doing that, and I was very touched by the insightful comment. Thank you, Sandra, I appreciate it very much.

So, the five fabs I will give it to are the following: Each of them have a quality I am working toward developing in my life, hence they getting my notice:

LT Elliot—this woman is sunshine personified. Every time I see her she is just bubbly and so generous with her enthusiasm and optimistic attitude.

Ronda Hinrichsen—Ronda and I have been friends for several years and her first book comes out in a couple of weeks (If you’re in the Brigham City Area, it’s October 22 at Reflections of Utah). She's a solid woman with a strong work ethic and unfailing support of the people she loves. I very much admire her calm determination.

Don & Kara—They joint blog, so it goes to both of them, but together, and apart, they are such examples of what life really is. They have some trials, big ones that I can’t imagine, and yet if you ever read their blog they have such joy in their lives, in each other, and in their two daughters. AND, despite their family focus and optimism amid trial, they are generous and motivated toward the accomplishment of their own goals and dreams. That is a very rare gift indeed.

Julie Wright—She is my best (girl) friend and my mentor in so many ways. She just makes me feel good and when life gets hard she’s the first one I vent too—she’s always very validating and encouraging for whatever I might be facing. I just love her.

Jenna--Is the mother I want to be and I find her a very capable, courageous and inspiring woman. AND I love sending her these things because her answers fascinate me.

Now, on to the questions.

1. Where is your cell phone?.... I don’t know. Car or kitchen or pocket of the hoodie I wore last night. I do think it is charged, however.

2. Your hair? ...... Is really icky right now. I wore it curly yesterday, and the product I use is kind of sticky. I pulled it up with a red elastic this morning and need to get in the shower.

3. Your mother? ...... One of the best people I know

4. Your father?..... Gets better with age (probably my age, mostly)

5. Your favorite food? ...... Cheesecake

6. Your dream last night?.... Annoying—or I should say my husband was annoying in it. We were supposed to go to dinner with this old lady, but got distracted by a finance company who’s files Lee wanted to go through. So he rolled himself up in a sleeping bag and snuck into their office with some sidekick woman I think was his personal assistant. I was just ticked off the whole time since we were late for the poor old ladie’s dinner and then some teenagers were playing chicken in the pond out front and I finally left with Ronda Hinrichsen who was just as annoyed, but far more calm than I was about the whole thing.

7. Your favorite drink?.... Honestly, water. Boring huh.

8. Your dream/goal? .... to be at peace with myself and the people I love.

9. What room are you in? ...... kitchen

10. Your hobby? .... Oh, lots. My chickens, reading, bloggging, cooking

11. Your fear? ..... failure

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?... #8

13. Where were you last night?.....At the Box Elder High School Homecoming game—Jeanie was in the pep band who did the half-time show—it was awesome. First homecoming game I’ve ever been too.

14. Something you aren't?..... Comfortable with myself

15. Muffins? .....bran with craisens and white chocolate chips (Old Grist Mill-mmmmm)

16. Wish list item? ...... Sound canceling headphones

17. Where did you grow up?...... Salt Lake City

18. Last thing you did?...... Made pancakes for the kids and their sleepover friends

19. What are you wearing? ...... black sweat pants, black flip-flops, and an oversized Tommy Hilfiger hoodie. (flip flops were my daughters who hated them; mine now. Sweat pants were $10 on sale 5 years ago and I’ve only recently been able to fit back into them comfortably. Sweatshirt was $2 at DI about two years ago. It’s XL so super comfy and very unflattering. Good thing I’ve already got my man J)

20. Your TV? ..... 15 feet away—The Closer is on. I love TV.

21. Your pets? ......... 1 dog, Tex, and 6 chickens—who Tex would like to eat.

22. Your friends? ...... priceless and unexpected. I did not plan to have these kinds of friendships as an adult. I’m very blessed.

23. Your life?...... pathetically crazy

24. Your mood? .... anxious—I’m so far behind on my deadline and it kills me to not be living up to the expectations of my publisher. Ironically, that feeling then blocks my ability to finish the story and yet I’ve spent how much time on this blog post? It’s all very neurotic. I have a book signing today and then family pictures after that.

25. Missing someone? ..... Not really. Maybe myself a little bit.

26. Vehicle? ......Honda Odyssey (apparently creative advertising doesn’t make that big a difference when it comes right down to whether or not you’ll sell the car)

27. Something you're not wearing? ...... Make-up

28. Your favorite store? .......Deseret Industries—love that place. I get to go to the new one in Ogden today! I need some jeans and a Scout shirt. Wish me luck!

29. Your favorite color? ...... Black

30. When was the last time you laughed? ...... Last night, little man pulled his pants up to his armpits, sucked in his bottom lip and turned out his knees for the walk to our car after the game. He called himself Bartholomew Finkelton and kept snapping his fingers and saying “Ah Shucks”. It was the funniest dang thing I’ve ever seen. The kid is a crack-up

31. Last time you cried? ..... A couple weeks ago when I was alone in Vegas and feeling completely incapable of accomplishing anything in front of me.

32. Your best friend?...... My husband. I’d be lost without him.

33. One place that I go over and over? ....... Costa Rica. It is my bliss.

34. One person who emails me regularly?....... Lee—we exchange e-mails about a dozen times a day.

35. Favorite place to eat? ....... Oh, I’ll eat anywhere J

If you’re someone I tagged, be sure to tell me so I can read your answers.

I Feel Good!

2009-10-06T10:48:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have days when you just feel good? I have plenty of them when I just feel lousy, but today is not one of them. I feel so good, in fact, that I'm conspiring with my siblings to make someone miserable. That someone would be my dad. It's his birthday tomorrow and since the last few gifts we have given him have fizzled, I decided to do one that while it won't make him happy, it will fit the remembered-by-my-children bill AND his students will get a kick out of it.

What d'ya think?

Maybe you have to know my dad to know how hilarious I am to give him something that is a) Completely impracticle b) silly and c) slightly feminine.

It's just his bum luck to have a birthday at a time when I feel good.

Last week, I'd have bought him socks. The week before that I'd have sent him five bucks and told him to buy something nice for himself (okay, who am I kidding. I usually forget his birthday entirely). That's how those weeks were going for me, but today. WELL, he gets the full benfit of my feeling good.

So, why does Josi feel good?

Let me count the ways:

1) We are finally getting paid from some of our Vendors who have had outstanding invoices for months and months! This means I can pay bills. It's glorious.
2) I'm not DONE with Devil's Food Cake as in finished, but I am DONE with Devil's Food Cake as in I know how it's gunna end so long as I can write down my thoughts without them feeling rediculous.
3) I wore pants today that 6 months ago gave me a stomachache. Now they fit :-)
4) I have strawberries in my fridge at home.
5) We hired a new bookeeper/receptionist for our Vegas location and she's wonderful. All the books are updated. I could just hug her.
6) I've been in Vegas for the last two weeks (two or three days at a time) and I'M NOT THERE RIGHT NOW!
7) While I'm here in Ogden, they are moving to a new office in Vegas and I'M NOT THERE RIGHT NOW!
8) It's sunny, which means I can do the thing I planned to do for scouts today and don't have to make some stupid crap up to do at the last minute.
9) The Qwest guy fixed my internet.
10) I'm doing laundry. I recently went back to having one day for laundry, which is how I did it for years before trying to do a load a day instead. I like one day better--it means that on the day after I finish, 98% of my families clothes are clean!

So, anyway, enjoy my good mood while it lasts. Anyone else feeling good? If so, what's going well?

Book Tour Itinerary!

2009-10-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

I am so dang excited for this book tour with Julie--I've never done anything like this and it makes me feel all kinds of adventurous. We are still looking to schedule several evening presentations, so if you live in these areas and have a group you'd like us to meet with, please let us know. We've both presented to all types of groups--youth groups, Releif Society, Bookgroups, writing groups, youth at risk groups. We speak on a variety of subjects from religious to secular--your topic or ours.

Oh, and I'm on Twitter now because I looked at my daily schedule and said "Hey, I've got like 39 seconds between getting home from work and the kids coming home from school, what should I put there?" I haven't yet figured out how to go about finding people, so if you know how then maybe you can find me first :-)

Without further ado, here's the schedule.

Monday, November 9th

Start: Willard Utah.

*Idaho Falls, ID: Deseret Book 11:30-12:30
(208) 525-2500

*Boise, ID: Seagull 5:30-7:00

Tuesday, November 10th

*Kennewick, WA: Far West Books & Gifts, 11:00-12:00
(509) 735-1402

*Lake Oswego, OR: Deseret Book 5:00-6:30
639-6359

*Evening Presentation in Lake Oswego?

Wednesday, November 11th

*Cottonwood CA: Classic Books 4:00-5:30
   (530) 347-2200

*Evening Presentation in Cottonwood?

Thursday, November 12th

Sacramento Lunch: 12:00-2:00 (details to follow)

*Sacramento, CA: Deseret Book 4:30-6:00
(916) 967-5725

*Evening Presentation in Sacramento?

Friday, November 13th

*Oakland, CA: Seagull 11:00-12:00

*Bakersfield, CA: Beehive Books Bakersfield 4:00-5:30
(661) 322-7276

Saturday, November 14th

Ensign books Los Angeles Area: Details to follow

Sunday, November 15th

*Evening Fireside Orange county?

Monday, November 16th

*Orange, CA: Deseret Book (new location: details to follow) 12:00-2:00
279-3960

*Late Lunch 2:30 (details to follow)

Tuesday, November 17th

*Glendale, AZ: Deseret Book12:30-2:00
439-4809

*Late Lunch 2:30 (details to follow)

*Mesa, AZ: Seagull 4:30-6:00

*Evening Presentation in Mesa area?

Wednesday, November 18th

*Tucson AZ: Latter Day Cottage12:30-1:30
885-2635

*Thatcher AZ: Bookworms book signing 4:30-6:00
428-8089

*Evening Presentation in Thatcher?

Thursday November 19th

Start: Thatcher, Arizona

*Chandler, AZ: Deseret Book 12:00-1:00 (480) 899-5469

*Evening Presentation in Las Vegas area?

Friday, November 20th

*Las Vegas, NV: Deseret Book (location not yet confirmed) 11:00-12:30

*St. George, UT: Deseret Book 4:30-6:00
(435) 628-4495

Saturday, November 21st

*Cedar City, UT: Deseret Book 12:00-1:30
(435) 865-1253

Three Cheers--Ronda Hinrichsen

2009-09-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

I've said before that one of the blessings of writing is the really great people it's brought into my life--one of those people is Ronda Hinrichsen. She and I presented at the same Enrichment night--I talked about writing books and she talked about the dozens of articles she'd written over the years. I think she was the one that thought up the idea of forming a writing group. As I came to get to know Ronda, I have been consistently impressed with the woman she is. She played the piano and teaches lessons, sings and teaches lessons, helps run their family farm, and currently serves as the Young Women's president in her ward. She has three kids, two of which are serving missions in Brazil right now and a radiant smile that she liberally applies to life. She's a steady woman, a hard working woman, and a woman who keeps her priorities and principles in the right place at all times. Therefore, it's exciting to see her attaining the goals she has worked toward for so many years.

Throughout the six years we've been in the same writing group, both of us have moved forward and experienced the ups and downs of the writing profession. This week has been a GREAT week for Ronda! She'd had a novel accepted last spring, and finally got the cover and release date this week. You can see it at her BLOG and it will be available in October. She also won first place in the League of Utah Writer's contest for her other book, Trapped--which is an AMAZING story. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. There are so many not-so-great moments in a writing carreer, and it just thrills me that Ronda has been able to experinece so many of the golden moments this week.

It's exciting to see all the hard work beginning to pay off, and it's only the beginning--Ronda is both talented and persistent, two of the most important things any writer can have.

Way to go Ronda! I wish you the very best. Run over to her blog and give her a pat on the back, she totally deserves it.

Four Sell!

2009-09-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

*My ad as posted on KSL today. It's okay to have a little personality, right? Sales price $9,600 due to the high miles. Actual ad is HERE

*****

THIS is a mini van with style! No, that is not an oxymoron. Seriously, this is loaded.

I'm going to start with the not-quite-perfect parts of my van. Because, while I love and am dang impressed with the condition it is in, we drove it off the lot 6 years ago and we have four kids. This is a working van and some of that 'work' has taken it's toll. However, I'm hoping that my honesty will endear you enough that you read through the good stuff--cause it's pretty awesome.

1) 140K is a lot of miles, I won't argue that point. However, you have to undertand that we live 10 miles from everything, and I work 20 miles away in the other direction. Just to do basic things we have to cover a lot of ground. Most of that ground is affectionately termed I-15 in these parts. So, while the miles are high, most of them are freeway miles. We get 20-25/gallon too, which is dang good for a minivan.

2) There are exactly two tears in the leather interior. They are both on one of the headrests for the middle seats. Apparently, this head rest took a little adventure into the flower bed for an undisclosed amount of time. I cleaned it up once I discovered it among my Petunias, which is when I found the tears. It is also stained from it's adventures and hence is not the prettiest headrest you've ever seen. If I had any idea how the headrest got there, that kid would be so grounded! The rest of the interior is in perfect condition.

3) There is a 3/4 inch scratch in the dashboard above the jockey box. I don't know how it got there. It could be easily covered with a smiley face sticker from wal-mart. Your kids would thing that was very cute.

4) There is some kind of scratch or scrape on each of the four sides of the exterior of the van. This is due to my apparent lack of depth perception. None of them are down to the metal or otherwise serious, but they are there. However, my depth perception aside, I have never been in an accident and there has been no body repair done on the vehicle.

5) About two years after we purchased the van, the headphone system for the DVD began to screech. The kids hated that. The DVD still works, you just have to listen to it through the stereo system. The upside is that the kids don't fight over who gets the nice headphones. I took it to the dealership to get it fixed but or course it didn't do it when it was in the shop. Go figure. I just make sure I take my iPod so I can listen to something other than Scooby Doo.

6) I mentioned the 6 years and 4 kids, right? Yeah, well that kind of equation does not yeild pristine carpets. I think most of it would shampoo out, but there are no guarantees.

There you have it; all the negatives. Now for the good stuff:

DVD, CD/tape stereo, all leather seats, middle seats are removable--I can do it myself--and can be in a variety of arrangements (okay, by variety I mean three, but still, that's cool, right?), back seat folds into back storage compartment, storage compartment is big; like Costco big, and includes a washable bin so that should you spill, I don't know, laundry soap, back there you can clean it up really easy. Duel automatice doors (and let me tell you, it's the coolest thing ever. There are button controls on the key chain and by the steering wheel. You never have to let your kids in and out again!) Power windows & doors, front and back AC/heat, cruise control, seat heaters, an adjustable middle console area, power outlets in the front and the back--we had the AC recharged for the first time in June, so it's nice and cool. Van does great in the snow. Back windows are tinted.

We put new brakes in 5/09 and new tires 8/09. I'm paranoid about breaking down, so we've been obsessive about maintenance and we started using synthetic oil when we hit 100,000 miles. We have had no mechanical problems with this vehicle. Most the maintenance has been done by the dealership. We do not smoke and we do not transport pets in the car.

A couple extra things I love--a 'secret' compartment under the passenger seat; great for hiding cookies. Little hooks that drop down from the 'chicken' bars in the back are perfect for dry cleaning. When the back seat is down and the middle seats are out you can fit like 80 cases of girl scout cookies back there! I think it would fit a full size inflatable mattress too, but I haven't tried it.

We've had this paid off for a few years but want to sell it so we can pay off our other vehicle. It's really been a great car for our family, but one we don't need the way we did in the beginning. If I somehow didn't answer any of your questions, feel free to drop me a line.

Catching up

2009-09-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

Well, the monsters went back to school last week--normal kids, like mine, did too. It was fabulous. Not only to have some time in a quiet house, but also to have their brains occupied with something other than facebook, PS2, and picking fights with one another. They like school with varying degrees of enthusiasm but like I tell them "Enjoying what you do is a luxury. Get over it." I like to lift their spirits with inspirational sayings like that. Another favorite is "Don't worry what people think of you, cause they don't." That was one I got from my father, you know, the type you swore you'd never repeat. Yep, I'm repeating and my kids like it about as much as I did back then. Such is the eternal round of parental mistakes.

BEFORE they went back to school, I had the opportunity to do a podcast with the lovely ladies of the LDS Women's Book Review--always an awesome time to chat with these gals, and I got to share the podcast with Michele Holmes, whose second novel, All the Stars in Heaven, has just come out with Covenant. Her first book, Counting Stars won the Whitney Award for romance in 2007. Anyway, it was a fun time. You can listen to or download the podcast HERE.

Included in the podcast is a super-fun-and-exciting announcement--I won't spill the beans here because we're still working on some details, but it's gunna be awesome and if you listen to the podcast you'll have the heads up before I announce it in detail here :-)

AND, I'm on the final, final leg of my current book--Devil's Food Cake. No, I don't know who did it for sure, and I'm not done. Yes, it is giving me an ulcer, which takes a lot of the fun out of the writing process. But, I'm still optimistic that I can have it done by my deadline, which is the 15th. Cross your fingers, light a candle, say a little prayer, bake cookies or something otherwise inspiring if you have a minute. I could use all the help I can get!

So, that's what's up with me. More to come next week, I hope.

The Life She Lived--Anne Creager

2009-08-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

I first met Anne about five years ago, I think, at a writer's conference. She was there in her capacity as a teacher, I was there as a writer, and Julie Wright and I ended up sitting with her and a bunch of other strangers. As we ate, we talked and she asked us about our books, we asked her about her teaching and family and eventually it came out that she was a writer--though she said she hadn't done much with it. This was her last year teaching though and she was so excited to be home with her two daughters and get some writing done. She'd sold an article to The Freind so far, and blew that off even though Julie and I were both wanting to get an article in a church magazine.

Some time after the conference, she contacted me about a writing group I had recently begun with some gals in my area. She didn't live to far away and began attending--often with her darling little girls in tow. My first impressins of Anne were that she was smart, sweet, didn't like to inconvenience anyone, and was excited and anxious about being able to put more time into her writing. I'm not sure when I noticed the scar on her upper arm for the first time, but I remember being curious as to the story behind it. It was mostly hidden by the sleeves of her t-shirts, but it looked as though whatever it had once been had been painful. However, even I have manners sometimes so I didn't ask.

Eventually, she told me about the scar--Melanoma she'd had removed a few years earlier. Yikes. I'd never met anyone that had actually had skin cancer. And she was so young--she'd have been in her early 20's when they'd found it. Her husband was a dentist, so it had taken place during his schooling, and not to long before her first daughter was born. She didn't make a big deal about it, and so neither did I but it put a bit more focus on her and the way she lived her life. She'd faced demons most of us won't face, and she was refined by it. No wonder she had such evenness and compassion.

As our friendship continued she had another little girl, asked how she could still write when she had so much 'mothering' to do, wondered if she should wait until her girls were older, worried she was wasting her time. Most writers have these same thoughts and one of the best parts of a writing group is the support and solutions we can give to one another.

Last February after a ski or bike trip with her husband (I'm afraid I can't remember which) she had a pain in her chest; what she thought was a pulled muscle. But it didn't go away. I won't forget the e-mail where she told us (the writing group) what happened, she said it was a blessing that her husband had become so incredibly sick that they'd had to take him to an emergency doctor's appointment. While there she casually mentioned the pulled muscle in her chest that didn't seem to be healing. I don't know what test the doctor ran but within a week or so they discovered a tumor the size of a football growing in her chest. Apparently when Melanoma comes back, it doesn't go away. But Anne was determined to get every minute out of this life that she could get.

What came next was months of traveling to Denver for treatments, surgeries, cyberknife--anything and everything she could get to help keep the cancer at bay. And yet it continued to grow. It wrapped around her heart, it snuck up on her thyroid, and as of last month it had attached to her liver. She fought it, and yet that's not all she did. She also took trips with her kids, did photo shoots for family and friends (including me) and continued to be a mother and wife to her family. She lost her hair and it came in black and curly instead of straight and auburn. She lost weight and gained weight--and lamented the toll the medication took on her skin. Every time she sent an update she thanked God for her blessings and pointed out the miracles happening in her life. And she wrote.

She'd been working on a book when she was diagnosed, and she finished it and began shopping agents. She had an article published in the New Era a few months ago. She began a project about growing up for girls, admitting that one of the reasons was that she knew she might not be there to tell them what she wanted her daughters to know. She began recording childhood memories--beautifully written childhood memories. She wasn't able to come to group very often, but when she did she'd read us these moments from her life and we would realize how much we didn't know about her. I'll never forget the Boot of Stew story or the one that had us all bawling where she talked about the experience of braiding her hair into three braids before cutting them off before chemo took her hair from her. She wanted a braid for each of her girls--so they would remember Mama's copper braids. Sometimes she worried that she shouldn't be spending so much time writing, and yet Ward (her husband) said "But it's what you love." And it was what she loved. She loved to write, and amid the horrific changes in her future she didn't want to lose any of those life memories. The picture included in this blog was taken at the 2009 LDStorymakers Conference. She'd always wanted to come, and finally did even though she had to leave early as she wasn't feeling well.

I saw Anne for the last time at writer's group about a month ago--her hair was gone again and she laughed as she said that she hated that her youngest daughter would only remember her bald, since she'd only been about two when Anne lost her hair the first time. She read us an article she'd written for the Ensign about preparing for death. We all cried through it. She said she'd finished writing all the letters to her daughters that would be given to them as they passed milestones she would not see. They'd moved to a home near her husband's parents, and she said how much fun it was, how glad she was to be able to be there with her family. Treatments had run out, she wasn't feeling well but was still looking into her options. I can't remember if I hugged her goodbye that day. I sure hope I did.

Last week she posted this to her blog:

I have no doubt that if it is Heavenly Father's will, I will be healed. But even if I'm not, I have to admit that I feel at peace. The last month has been fraught with panic and frantic anguish, but now I feel differently. I trust Him. I look forward to asking WHY all of this had to happen. I'm not going to ask it now, because I know that He can see the whole picture and I know that whatever His will is, things will be okay. My girls will be okay because they have Ward. I know that Ward will be okay because he has them. And we all have each other--FOREVER--and that's what really matters.

Today, this was posted in her behalf:

We wanted to let you know that Anne is in the hospital and has taken a turn for the worse. She is not expected to live much longer ...

I love Anne. And I will miss her. Though I was not part of her inner circle of friends and family, I was blessed to know her, to hear her words, and watch this final journey she has made. I am strengthened for the strength she has shown, and yet my heart is simply full of sorrow for the things she is leaving behind. She has a beautiful life HERE and I want her to stay in it. I don't understand why she's being called away, it's not fair. But she has accepted the path her life has taken, and I have no doubt that many loving arms will embrace her on the other side just as many arms here will ache.

Thank you, Anne, for your example, for your friendship, for your beautiful smile and your realistic view of life and love and family. I am greatly blessed to have known you and am glad that through the words you took the time to write, you will live on for generations to come.

May you and your family feel peace--you have earned it.

Why I can't color my hair

2009-08-12T13:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who gave me their feedback on the Kindle, I had no idea there were other e-readers out there so I need to look into them before I make my final decision. However, I have decided that an e-reader at some point will be mine, oh yes, it shall be mine.

Now onto other things:

So, when we got back from Snowbird last week, my van--which had not gone with us--had a flat tire. Really flat. Dear hubby pumped it up and life went on.

Yesterday, I went to work and at some point looked out the window to see that the tire was flat again. Really flat. Aggravating.

I left work, pumped up the tire and drove to Brigham City and my favorite tire store, Les Schwab (they came to my rescue when I had a bulging tire and the people that sold me that tire said they couldn't do anything to help--sorry). We're close enough that I just call him Les. Worried that the tire wouldn't hold air the whole 20 miles, I adjusted my side mirror so I could watch the tire throughout the drive. I'm very detail oriented like that. Lucky for me, it looked great. Phew.

I arrived as Les Schwab, pointed out the injured tire and wrote 900 words on my WIP while I waited. Strangely enough, Les couldn't find anything wrong with the tire. I was shocked, but maybe it was one of those self-healing tire things. It happens. They didn't charge me, which was sweet since it wasn't their tire giving me trouble, I went home and forgot all about it.

Until I went to work today and looked out the window. The tire was flat. Really flat. How is that possible? Les didn't find anything wrong with the tire, and yet it was flat? What about my self-healing tire theory? I liked that theory.

My co-worker came in a little later and said "Whoa, your tire is flat--really flat." I said I knew that and explained the whole story.

"They should have put it in water, if they had they'd have found the hole--tires don't get THAT flat in 24 hours unless there is one heck of a leak."

I told him they DID put it in water, I knew this because the tire was all clean and shiny when I drove away from Les the day before. And as I described this to him, I looked back out the window. Wait a minute.

The tire that was flat now, isn't the tire that was flat yesturday...or at least, it's not on the same side of the car. That's when I realized that tires don't really heal themselves. Instead, the tire I pointed out to Les wasn't actually the tire that was flat. That means that the tire I watched through the side mirror all the way to Brigham City, wasn't the one that had been flat either. Huh, how about that?

Good thing I'm not a brunette, then I'd really have some explaining to do. As it is, everyone just smiles at me sympathetically when this kind of thing happens. . . and then they sell me four new tires.

Kindle Questions

2009-08-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

I know some of my wonderful blog readers own Kindles and therefore I am going to take full advantage of you and beg for information. If you're not a Kindle owner, rest assured that your opinion still matters.

I have been stalking the idea of owning one myself for a few months. You have to understand I was against them when they first came out--they seemed like a total geek-toy that could never replace the joy of a book I can hold in my hands. However, as time has passed I'm seriously tempted. The idea that I could go on vacation with a dozen books that weigh 10 oz. is cool. The idea that if a book I'm reading sucks, I can just move onto the next one is intriguing. But will I like it? Will I miss the 'book in hand' thing and will it make me cry because it's so hard to use. I no good at hard stuff.

I have a couple specific questions for Kindle owners:

1--Wan you upload ANY ebook? My library recently started doing ebooks, can I check those out and put them on my kindle?

2--Is it cost effective? At $300 to buy it and an average price of about $10/book, does it pay for itself in a short amount of time?

3--Were there surprises you think I should be aware of?

So, what are your thoughts/experiences/friend's experiences/prejudices/fears/intrigue in regard to the kindle?

PS--thank you!