Out and In--08 to 09

Moments I could have lived without in 08:

*The midnight knock on my bedroom door that rocked my world. We’ve made great progress since that day, but I’ve lost the naive belief that doing my best means my kids won’t have to face certain trials.

*The realization that someone I love (not the same one that knocked on my door) really doesn’t want to change and that I can’t fix her. This realization has been several years coming, but this year I felt like I really put myself out there to make the difference, and I believe this person truly faced a couple chances to change her life—and she turned her back on every one of them. I’ve crossed the line of no longer feeling capable of making myself vulnerable to manipulation, which means that I can no longer fool myself into believing that I have anything else to give her. I've also realized that my attempts to help her seem to hurt me and my family too much to risk it anymore. Thank goodness I believe in prayer so that I know there is still something I can do that will help her more than I ever could.

*Opening the door and being served papers filed by the guy that already ripped us off. His choices have put my family on the precipice, and yet he’s alleging we owe him even more. This has shaken my belief that people are basically good. It will likely influence 2009 a great deal and I’m dreading that.

*Hubby working in Las Vegas. I miss him and home isn’t the same without him and yet I’m accepting that this will be our life for awhile.

*Ending the year five pounds heavier than I started. I'm gunna have to give up my daily baking fetish. I miss it already.

*Giving pets away. This still just makes my heart ache and overwhelms me with feelings of failure. I wish I’d never had the animals in the first place—please remind me of that if I find myself tempted again!

*My computer crashing—but y’all have heard enough about that.


Favorite Moments of 08:

*Celebrating 15 years of marriage to a man that proves to me everyday that God loves me. When I look back at these 15 years I marvel at who we started as and who we've become. I am grateful beyond measure that although we've both grown in different ways, we've stayed together throughout our journeys.

*Winning The Whitney Award for Sheep’s Clothing—this was such an incredibly validating moment for me and even though I was a big baby when I accepted it, I will never forget that evening. For those that think it's unfair Her Good Name is ineligible--one of the reasons I joined the committee was so Her Good Name wouldn't be eligible--then I can say I've won the Whitney every year I was eligible :-)

*Celebrating 10 years of writing—I wasn’t published until 2000, but I started writing ten years ago and now I marvel that I ever had a time where I wasn’t overwhelmed with the problems of fictional characters.

*KB started first grade which meant I have 6 hours to myself five days a week—priceless

*Jeanie received high honors at her school and was invited to a special award ceremony for it—this was something both of us really needed and it was wonderful to see her accomplish so much.

*Running—I have truly loved running this year. I ran my first 5K and loved the rush of it. I feel like I found a little bliss I had been missing and I’m proud of myself for sticking to it long enough to learn to love it.

*Vacationing in Costa Rica with my family--I lost the pictures, but I'm glad to have the memory.

*Discovered Isagenix and feel like I got my emotion/mood issues under better control than I’ve had for awhile.

*Deseret Book accepted my first book in a new series—Lemon Tart. I can’t wait for it to come out and it’s been a whole new experience!

*Great blogs that inspire and advise me, good family and friends that make life worth living, and the gift the Gospel gives me in knowing that hard things don’t last forever and that every day is a new opportunity to do a little better than I did the day before. I am every grateful for a Heavenly Father that loves me and wants good things for me.

Four Hopes for 09 (things I don’t really have control over):

*A new house without a house payment
*The resolving of the business issues we’re facing
*Have two books published
*Have the economy turn around WITH the lessons we’ve learned remaining in tact.


Five Resolutions for 09 (things I do have control over):

*RSVP. I was a real loser on this but I commit to RSVPing in 09.
*Run a half marathon—I’m so excited and overwhelmed by this but I’m gunna do it!
*Find my abs again—they got lost somewhere and I’m determined to find out where they are hiding.
*A compliment a day for every member of my family—they are all great, so this shouldn’t be too hard but it doesn’t come naturally.

I Made it!!!!!!!!!

Typically, using several exclamation points such as I did in the title of this blog is frowned upon and is a sign of ignorance. I'm never one to defend my ignorance, but I do know that rules are made to be broken and hence this announcement is worthy of such grammatical impudence. Talk about starting the day off with a BANG--today, at 7:00 a.m. the finalists for the first annual Whitney Awards were posted at www.whitneyawards.com and I made the top five in the mystery/suspense category!

Whoo-freaking-hoo!!!

Big HUGE sloppy thanks to all of those readers that nominated Sheep's Clothing, there is no doubt I'd have never made it without readers that liked the book enough to take the time to vote, so thank you, thank you, thank you! It is a huge validation to have my cover among so many great writers. In my category are some absolutely amazing authors that I greatly admire and I'm on cloud nine to be in a group with them even though I've little doubt they will kick my butt into next Tuesday--still, I'm in their club for the moment.

Now, ballots will be sent to the academy, which includes LDS fiction industry professionals such as publishers, bookstore owners, reviewers, and the members of LDStorymakers which is a writer's guild made up of LDS published authors. They will vote for one title among the five finalists and the winners will be announced at The Whitney Award Gala on March 22nd, following the LDStorymakers writers conference (which, BTW, is half full, so if you were planning to register but haven't gotten around to it yet, understand that there is a cap on this years attendance and we're filling up a lot faster than we had planned on. You can register online through www.ldstorymakers.com)

As for the other finalists, here is a list:

Best Novel of the Year

Dragon Slippers
by Jessica Day George

Out of Jerusalem, Vol. 4: Land of Inheritance
by Heather Moore

On the Road to Heaven
by Coke Newell

The Operative
by Willard Boyd Gardner

Upon the Mountains
by Gale Sears

Best Novel by New Author

Dragon Slippers
by Jessica Day George

Wet Desert
by Gary Hansen

Counting Stars
by Michele Holmes

Beyond the Horizon
by Judy C. Olsen

On the Road to Heaven
by Coke Newell

Romance/women’s fiction

Counting Stars
by Michele Holmes

Desire of Our Hearts
by Sariah Wilson

Eclipse
by Stephenie Meyer

The Independence Club
by Rachel Ann Nunes

Loyalty's Web
by Joyce DiPastena


Mystery/Suspense

The Deep End
by Traci Hunter Abramson

Grave Secrets
by Marlene Austen

Hazardous Duty
by Betsy Brannon Green

The Operative
by Willard Boyd Gardner

Sheep's Clothing
by Josi Kilpack

Young Adult/Children's

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians
by Brandon Sanderson

Bullies in the Headlights
by Matthew Buckley

First Day
by Allyson B. Condie

How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend
by Janette Rallison

Rise of the Evening Star (Fablehaven, Book II)
by Brandon Mull

Speculative Fiction

Book of a Thousand Days
by Shannon Hale

Dragon Slippers
by Jessica Day George

Hunting Gideon
by Jessica Draper

The Lights of Mahonri Moriancumer
by Phyllis Gunderson

The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, Book II)
by Brandon Sanderson

Historical

Beyond the Horizon
by Judy C. Olsen

Out of Jerusalem, Vol. 4: Land of Inheritance
by Heather Moore

On the Road to Heaven
by Coke Newell

Spires of Stone
by Annette Lyon

Upon the Mountains
by Gale Sears

*I'm ashamed to admit I haven't read several of these, but I'm putting them on my list, my goal is to read all of these books by the time of the Gala. Knowing that these were the best of each category gives me confidence that the time won't be wasted.

My Space

I went to a bookgroup the other night where all the members had chosen one of my titles to read the previous month. It was a really fun evening--what's better than being able to talk about all my books--but one woman relayed some information I had not heard yet, and I'm relaying it now to you.

Back in May, Myspace had deleted 7,000 profiles made by known sex offenders, but they would not share the information with authorities even though for sex offenders on parole or probation using the internet is usually a violation. However, they changed their mind, possibly due to several lawsuits sent their way by parents of children who have been assaulted by sex offenders they met through MySpace. As of last week they have deleted 29,000 profiles by known sex offenders and they are not done yet. Not only are they working hard to make MySpace a safer place to surf, but they are also working with a separate company to develop a national sex offender database rather than the state ones that currently exist.

However, if this makes you feel better, and makes MySpace seem safer, consider that the average sex offender has engaged in an average of 112 events BEFORE they get arrested and there are over 600,000 registered sex offenders in the US and 16 of the 50 states do not have a registry at all. My point: The threat is real.

I have a MySpace profile, both a personal and one for my book, Sheep's_Clothing. It's been a good marketing tool for me, and a way to keep in touch with family members and freinds. I'm not surfing it every day like many people, but I do not believe that MySpace is evil in and of itself and they mandate that kid's have to be 14 in order to have a page. However, it's potential is frightening and this information is just one more reminder of why it's such a big deal right now.

I'm not a zealot, nor an activist. I'm not out to change laws--and some people find my book and this topic too creepy (see the most recent review left on Deseret Book--at least she felt it was well written) but I am about awareness, and learning the risks facing our kids. I learned a lot in writing Sheep's_Clothing, and it's my hope the readers do too.

For more information, go to this article, or buy a copy of Sheep's_Clothing :-) If you'd like to find how many registered sex offenders are in your area, go here. They certainly aren't only on MySpace.

Know your neighborhood and what your kids do online--What you can give them (education and supervision) is the best protection they have.

First Review of Sheep's_Clothing

So, when you write a book you get a certain number of free copies (this will be stated in your contract). Well, they might not be free, really, their payed for with your blood-sweat-tears-and many a hot dog dinner during the writing process. But they feel free cause you don't have to charge em to your visa. These books are called Author Copies.
Anyhoo, so I got my Author Copies on Monday. Score! And immediately I signed copies earned by those that also put their blood-sweat-tears and hot dog dinners into helping me out. My first copy is signed to my hubby who by far sacrifices the very most for everything I write, then I signed copies to Julie Wright, Bob & Shirley Bahlmann, Heather Moore & Tristi Pinkston--awesome freinds that edited for me and weren't afraid to tell me when parts of the story sucked. BJ Rowley did my final line edit and Crystal Liechty helped me pry off that rock I'd been living under and set up a page on Myspace. Then my Mama and my Mama-in-law get free copies because of that whole child birth thing they did awhile back.

I've now given away half my author copies (with six more slated for people helping with my Opening Night, more on that later), and on Monday my 13 year old daughter saw the books and asked if she could read one. For the next two days that's exactly what she did, finishing last night around 10:30 (I let her stay up cause I'm such a nice mom). I asked her to write me a review before she took off to school this morning--the first review of the actual bound book. And here's what she had to say:

I really like this book because the characters were easy to related to and I was able to understand their feelings really well. The book kept me thinking of the possibilities of the next page every second and I could hardly put it down.

So, there you have it. Out of the mouths of babes...