RWA Utah Chapter-Park City

Several months ago, I found a Romance Chapter online that I decided I was going to attend. But it meant that I had to join the Romance Writers of America. It worked out, and I went ahead and joined. Following that I planned on attending their conference.

Since that time, I have been attending meetings in Salt Lake area once a month. I've made some friends, but of course they all live down in Utah. It has made finding a critique partner a little tricky.

I have learned from experience, that I do not do well with online critiquing. I am one of those types that requires face to face battles! As a result, I have officially hired two of my neighbors to be my partners. They are getting paid in goldfish, laughter and all the free water they can drink. They knew nothing about writing when I first ask them to help me, but I have been teaching them what I know as we go. Together, we've been sorting out my manuscript.

This past weekend, I made several new friends. I still feel confident that face to face critiquing is best for me, but I do hope to be of help to my new friends, should they ask me to help them.

Andrea lives in the Logan area, and she was my roommate for the conference. She is a wonderful person, and I had a great time with her. She has a great sense of humor and we think a lot alike on most things.

Michelle was also a delight to meet, and we have a lot in common! I am excited to watch what happens with the manuscript that she pitched. The cutest little agent I've ever seen requested 50 pages from her. Awesome!!!

Another fun friend I met is Caitlin O'Hanlon. She works for a company called Wattpad. Its an online reading website that is growing amazing fast. Its a global company with readers everywhere around the world. And while I'm confident our paths may not crossed again in real life, I do think that someday they will cross in the virtual world.

A fun friend that I have known for a while now, but got to spend more time with is Irish Winters. I'm using her pen name, because it's just delicious. She has been a great support to me and I was grateful to bounce some ideas off of her.

There were several classes during the conference that were very encouraging but there was one that reached somewhere deep down inside of me and unearthed a beast that I've been trying to keep locked away.

I have always known there's a second story in me, a companion story that goes with my first one. Everytime it surfaces, a beat it back with a stick, unwilling to let it interfere with my first story. But this weekend, the beast was awakened and there's no turning back.

I'm going to try to hash out the story this year during NaNoWriMo. This will be my first year attempting such a feat. At the very least, I hope to get a nice skeleton manuscript going.

November is going to be a very busy writing month! And I couldn't be more excited about it. I admit that this excitement stems from the loving support of my husband, the fabulous critique partners I have created, and my friend friends in Utah, and the small group that I found locally that is doing NaNo.

I have decided to never underestimate the power of a conference. While it may not be the most educational, or perhaps I feel that some of the classes do not fit my needs, or the cost is a concern... there's something to be said about immersing yourself among friends and other writers.

LDStorymakers

LDStorymakers was held May 9th-11th, 2013, and this year was my first year attending.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  I admit I was put off by the idea of going to a conference that had LDS in the very name.

But to my delight it wasn't to church-y.  Funny thing, maybe coming from the Bishop's Wife.  What I'm writing isn't LDS oriented, and I was pretty sure that would be a big part of this conference.  Thank goodness, it wasn't.

I would have wasted money, had it been.

Anyway, I didn't take my camera, which bums me out, but I had the tablet and I took a few pictures with it.

I wanted to re-cap a few of the classes I attended, because it helps the lessons I learned while there sink in further.  Before I go into re-cap mode, I thought I'd jot down a few of my favorite moments, in no particular order.



-Getting lost more than once.  I swear, I can't go to Utah without this happening to me.  I hate it.

-Staying with Dana!  it was wonderful to see her and spend a bit of time (Not nearly enough!) with her.

-Boot Camp.  More on that later.

-Creating a critique group.  I'm especially excited to have a support group now.

-Meeting a few faces that I won't soon forget.  Though they may not even remember me.

-Visiting with a literary agent who was super kind and while I don't feel she's the right fit for me, feeling pressure to finish revisions on this dang MS is a priceless treasure I walked away with because of her.

-Realizing Brooklyn was totally content to play with her cousins for 2 days without missing me too much.

-Driving with Brooklyn and having time to talk to her.  She's so funny!  I'm blessed to have her in my life, despite all the trouble she gets into.

-When I came home to a clean house and loving family who spoiled me on Mother's Day, I knew I had been blessed to have 4 amazing days in a row, which doesn't happen often.  At least, not in a row like that.  I'd been on a mini-vacation, even though it was a overload of information and the after shock is still wearing on my mind.



Okay, that's it for today.  More to come!

My One Line Solo

So March and April flew past me without a second thought as how I felt about it.  Rude, huh!  All I accomplished was being in a musical and managing to keep the house up and running, kids fed and laundry under control.

That was it.  Nothing more was accomplished.  I swear it.

I think everyone knows that I was Mrs. Potiphar in our Stake Musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She has a one line solo.

"Come and lie with me, Love."

And then gets to little one word lines.

"Evil!"

and

"Pity!"


And I had the best time playing her. But let's not talk about that.  It could get awkward.

Something I wanna tell you....

It's true.  We do.  If you read this post, just know I mean it.

Naming a Character

This cracks me up.  I have a character named Tennley, and that name didn't go over well with a few people, but that's okay with me.  Because when Jocelyn came home from school with her Valentines, I found this:
 
                        

Clearly, in SE Idaho, this name DOES work.

*It should be noted that SE Idaho, especially Rexburg, and Mormons in general, have a bad reputation for naming their kids HORRIBLE names.  I'm not kidding.  And while you might be thinking I'm lying or being mean, there is some truth to it.  I've watched YouTube videos and read blog posts and new paper articles on this very subject.  All to which have creditable sources on baby names.


With that said, naming characters is hard and fun, and kind of like naming children you'll never have.  There are reasons behind the names I choose.  And while some people may hate the names I choose, I don't care.  It's the same for naming babies.  I'm the mom. It's my right to choose their name.  And while I hope that what I select isn't going to be a life-long problem for them, it might be.  But not intentionally.

I don't think all mother's feel that way though.  I've heard some names that made me think bad thoughts about that woman being allowed to be a mother.....

Anyway, silly, but I'm not changing Tennley's name.  Maybe when they re-read it someday, Tennley won't seem so horrible next to Luvena.

Smell This

I hosted a Scentsy Party Friday and honestly, I was shocked at the response and support! I decided to do it because Scentsy brought back my FAVORITE SMELL!  SPICED ORANGE HARVEST.  I know it's not everyone's favorite, but it was the reason I decided to host the party   If I was going to spend $40 on the scent, I might as well host a party in it's honor!  I wasn't aware until later in the day that my party had qualified me for free product, and I felt suddenly grateful and spoiled!  It was so wonderful!

I made Harvest Muffins, Zucchini Bread, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Fruited Chicken Salad, The Bomb Diggity and Wassail.  I don't  know for sure, but I hope the food was a draw!  I spent 4 hours preparing, baking and cleaning and 9 hours as hostess, and I had the most fun, I swear.  Well, maybe the kids had just as much fun, as I heard a lot of giggling downstairs.

We had the greatest surge of people at lunch time.  I had hoped for this as the invitation had invited everyone to come around the lunch hour for for a light lunch.  My house was packed with laughter and chatting and lovely ladies smelling everything from Ace to Zeppelin.  (Yeah, those are actual scents, and they're delicious.)

At the end of the day, Mom, Paula, and Grandma Betty arrived.  Debra, Lacy and Chelsie arrived at the same time, and that made it extra fun to have family at the same time.

I had several outside orders from friends who were unable to attend on Saturday and by Saturday afternoon I was ready to close up the party and tally the results.

Woa.



I really was spoiled. I earned $90 in free products and because it's double Host Rewards I was able to order 6 items at half cost.  In all, I am receiving roughly $270 dollars worth of products!  I excited to have 3 new warmers, a Candle Wrap, and 36 scent bars.

The Porta

These are what they look like--- 36 of them!!! eeeek!

The Jane Warmer

The Castille

We gave away 8 door prizes and one Grand Prize drawing and lots of chocolate.  And I wanna host this same party next January, with more giveaways.  I loved giving stuff away to my friends.  I can't thank Arin Layton enough for her help as my consultant!

Hopefully, I ordered enough of my favorite smell. I hate that they've discontinued it.  It will be like liquid gold and I'll probably only burn it on days that are special enough to enjoy it.  Like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my birthday.  I'm seriously wondering if 8 bars is enough to last me until they bring it back again.....

New Year, New Day, A New Me

You know this Michael Buble song?  Well, it's a favorite of mine. And it always seems to come around in my mind at this time of year. Do you have a song that resurfaces at the turn of a new year?

One of my silly New Year's Resolutions has nothing to do with writing a book.

No, this one is all about Facebookthetimesuckerupper.

Yesterday, throughout the day,  I wrote down 3 'status updates' I thought about posting, on a piece of paper instead of on Facebook. I decided to test myself. Instead of updating my 'status' yesterday at all, I chose to save those thoughts.  Looking at them today- scribbly as they are- they're not of any value to anyone except me. Thank goodness I saved myself some embarrassment, right?

And so my new year's resolution of silliness, is this: I plan to blog them instead.  In short, instead of ''updating anything'' I plan to blog whatever it is that I want to shout out at the world, because the only one really listening to me, besides God, is me.

But not on here.  On my private, personal blog where my the good thoughts I do have, will be saved for another day, another generation to view.

Thought I might be dreaming that my kids would ever care to read what their mother had to say.....

In truth, I am not leaving facebookthetimesuckerupper.  Because it's a special place where I can like the world, reconnect with friends I don't remember and share photos that are fake and photoshopped.....

No, I'm not leaving Facebook.  It's also where I can talk to my family who lives far away, support and help my closest friends through our private group, and where I message the mothers of The Wreckers, my son's little basketball team that I am coaching.

Yes, this year is bound to be great.  I can feel it! Now, I'm off to watch YouTube videos....