Vacation Recap--Bear Lake, Utah!

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So for the past week I've been largely absent from the blogosphere because I've been vacationing with my family up at Bear Lake, Utah. Bear Lake is huge, beautiful, and ice cold. It's the kind of place that's almost too cold to swim in even in August. This early in the year, well let's say we all ran into the lake once and called it good. Stay in the water for more than twenty minutes at a time, and you find yourself in danger of hypothermia.

Still, we had tons of fun. My dad's company owns a condo up there that the employees can rent out for a week at a time. We do it every year, but it's really more of an R and R thing than an active vacation. We swim in the lake or (much less cold) pool, lounge in the hot tub (which is freaking hot! About 200 degrees Fahrenheit, we think) and just chill, visit, and have family time. We also play plenty of beach-y sports like volleyball and soccer, and watch plenty of movies.

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Write for the Heights Literary Fair II

Just a quick note for your Saturday morning! I'm presenting at a literary fair today! I'll be putting on a workshop at 10:30 am. I really should have started telling people about this a week ago, but what can I say? I'm terrible about telling people about my own events in advance.

So, if anyone's in the South Salt Lake area today, drop by! It's a free event at the Whitmore Library. My topic is, "The Big Opening." As in, the first scene of your story as well as keeping the reader turning pages until the end.

Wish me luck! And happy Saturday! :D

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Book Signing Update + Announcements

So maybe this is stating the obvious, but Barnes and Noble is definitely the place to do a book signing! I've done several signings over the past couple of months and each time I've only sold a handful of books--like less than five, with three being the golden number. When you're an unknown author, that's just the way it goes, and I'm always grateful for any sale. Then, on Saturday, I went to the B & N in Layton and sha-zam! I sold like a dozen books in under two hours! Can everyone say boo-yah!

It occurred to me that it's probably because, in other places there are books, but also other things. If people come in to Hastings to rent movies, they are often reluctant to plunk down money on an extra, unforeseen purchase. I get a lot of requests for digital copies in those cases. But when people walk in to B & N, they're there specifically there to buy books--so my sales are much higher. Yea!

As for the next events, I'll be presenting a workshop for the Write for the Heights conference on 5/4. My topic is 'The Big Opening,' as in, the big opening of your story. I'll also be presenting to Wasatch Writers, a chapter of the League of Utah Writers on 5/13. At that event, I'll be talking about traditional vs. self-publishing. Both will be held in Utah, but if anyone wants to attend, just email or comment and I'll give you details.

Anyone else had any awesome, successful bookish events lately?

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A Little Spontaneity Can be Refreshing!!!

This is a silly, personal post but I had a fun weekend and wanted to share it! My dad is the coolest guy in the world. I'm sure there's lots of people out there who feel that way about their fathers, but most people--even those who aren't related to him--feel that way about my dad.

His 55th birthday was on Sunday, but we decided to do a surprise party for him. He went to the Priesthood session of the LDS General Conference, which went from 6pm-8pm, and then all the guys in the family who attended went to my grandfather's house for ice cream. (This is a tradition.)

So, we all got to his house about 8pm to tape up balloons and banners. We told my younger brother, Micah, who also attended the conference to get my dad home ASAP. I told him to fake a tummy ache if need be. (Totally going to hell over here for encouraging my 12-year-old brother to lie. Hehe.)

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The Importance of Being Personally Historical...or Something.

It's family history day--uh, for me, that is. :D As all my followers know, I love history, and there's a special place in my heart for the middle ages. No, I do not bask in the disease-ridden unwashedness (totally a word!) of the medieval era, but I do like the darker, broodier, more twisted aspects of this time period. It makes for awesome fiction! 

That said, more recent history--that is, our own--is also important and fun to learn about. It can be funny, tragic, and even dark and twisty on occasion. (Sometime I'll have to post about the two different sets of murders that occurred on my mother's side of the family several generations back! Muah-hah-hah...)

Anyway, I got a little piece of family history last week and thought I'd share it. My dad, my sister and myself all went down to Provo together (about an hour south of us) to drop my nineteen-year-old brother Abram off at the LDS MTC. (For all you clueless non-Utahns out there, LDS is an abbreviation for our religion and the MTC is the Missionary Training Center. My bro is going to serve a Christian mission for the next two years. Go Abe! :D)

Anyway (am I saying that a lot?) after we dropped him off I noticed my dad, who was driving, wasn't headed for the interstate. I asked where he was going and he answered, "I want to show you something."  He took us to this house.

He said he and my mom lived there for a while not long after I was born. (I was born in Orem, a suburb of Provo, so this made perfect sense. Isn't it great when the world makes sense?) I had him pull around so I could snap a picture with my smart phone. (All the while praying the current residents weren't calling 9-1-1 to report creepy Mormon stalkers taking pictures from a silver Ford Focus.)

Why is this important? It's really not to anyone but me. I just thought it was cool to have a picture of a house I might have learned to walk or crawl in, or maybe just trashed all around, being the annoying teeny-bopper that I, no doubt, was.

Personal history is important. My slogan says, Knowledge of our past is our inheritance. What we do with that knowledge will shape our destinies. While this is true of all history, it is perhaps most important with our own personal histories, because they most directly shape who we are and who we will become, even if we don't fully realize it. 

Is your personal history important to me? Unless there's some specific relevance, probably not, but it's personal and important to you. We should always be trying to learn new things about ourselves. What better way than in the form of our own, unique histories? No one else lived in this house as a toddler with my parents and older sister, did they? So this truly, uniquely mine. (So cool!)

What was the last cool thing you found out about your personal or family history?

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Cures for Writing: Bear Lake

So I've always heard about writer's retreats and how awesome they are. You know the kind I mean? Where you go up to a cabin and write all day long and then meet with all the other writers in the evenings to discuss?  I always thought they sounded totally wicked, but I've never been rich enough to participate in one.  Don't hold your breath--I'm not participating in one even now.

I am, however, vacationing with my family at Bear Lake in northern Utah.  The lake is ginormous--like loch size--and pale blue.  It's so cold this time of year that it's difficult to breathe when you wade into the water.  There was much screeching and gasping as we all ventured in for the first time.  As with most water sources, the more time you spend it in, the more you get used to it.  The problem here is that by the time you get used to it, you can't feel certain tiny bits of yourself anymore, and you start to contemplate the blissful feeling that drifting endlessly on lake tides would bring...and realize it's time to get out.  Fast!

Never underestimate the effect an idyllic setting can have on your creative senses.  If you've ever experienced writer's block (or if you're more like me and more often than getting blocked simply have a hard time getting yourself in the right mood or mindset to write) one of the best ways to push through is to change your setting.

On top of the peaceful, grandiose or creepy lake (depending on your mood/genre) there was also some mild thundershower-type weather.  Nothing gets my imagination firing away like a charcoal gray, rumbling sky!

Of course, I might suggest not trying to write while on vacation with your teen-aged brothers. My time has been commandeered by volleyball and soccer games, dips in the lake alternated with mad dashes to the hot tub,  a little bit of TV time, a LOT of chow time, and some good, old-fashioned hang-out-and-chat sessions.  It's been great!  Relaxing, liberating--everything a vacation should be.

The only catch is...I'm not getting much writing done! :D

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