Traci Hunter Abramson, Author

Royal Secrets cover revealed!

2011-11-16T06:31:00.000-08:00

Last night I received the cover for my next book, Royal Secrets, which will be released in February 2012. Below the cover, I included the summary from the back of the book.

It's been three years since the tragic Christmas Eve when CIA agent Alora DeSanto returned from a doctor's appointment to find her husband dead and her Paris home destroyed by a terrorist firebomb. Still mourning her heavy loss, she seeks a new life for herself and her two young sons by accepting a job offer from her friend and fellow agent Janessa Rogers, who is engaged to marry Prince Garrett of Meridia. As Janessa's personal assistant, Alora takes up residence in the royal chateau in Bellamo, where Prince Stefano is recovering from a possible assassination attempt and reeling from some life-shattering news of his own. As their paths repeatedly cross, Alora and Stefano are surprised by a budding attraction that draws them together in friendship. But as their hesitant affection evolves into romance, royal secrets plunge them into plots of espionage and blackmail that threaten all they hold dear-- including each other. And as enemies arise to crush the Meridian monarchy, Alora must confront the fears that destroyed her past before they destroy her future.

News and signings

2011-09-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

I always love getting good news and a couple of weeks ago my editor gave me the news I was waiting for, the news I was hoping for. The manuscript I had submitted has been accepted. Royal Secrets, a spin-off of Royal Target, is expected to come out in February, 2012. Yeah!

I know a lot of people wanted me to write a true sequel to Royal Target, and I did try. But then there were these two other characters, Prince Stefano and Alora DeSanto. They're very interesting characters, both in the way they developed as well as the way they hijacked the story. I had planned on them being minor characters, maybe part of a fun subplot. They had other ideas. So needless to say, this story isn't quite what I had planned, which only proves that I shouldn't try to plan what I'm writing. It never turns out the way I expect anyway.

My other news is that I'm heading to Utah in a couple of days and will be doing three book signings while I'm there. For anyone who is local to them, I'd love to see you. Here are the details:

Friday, September 30: 1pm - 3pm at Seagull Books, 1720 S. Redwood Road, Salt Lake City, Utah
Saturday, October 1: 12pm - 2pm at Seagull Books, 1625 W. 9000 S., West Jordan, Utah
Saturday, October 1: 6pm - 8pm at Deseret Book (Ladies Night), 989 S. University Ave., Provo, Utah

Books and things

2011-09-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

Obsession is out and has been spotted in Utah. I still haven't seen the book in person, but I have pictures, or at least the cover art. I have received a few emails from people who have read it and so far all of them have been positive. (I love those kinds of emails!)

I am also excitedly setting up my visit to Utah for Conference weekend. I will be at the Seagull Books on Redwood Road in Salt Lake City (1720 S. Redwood Road) on September 30th from 1pm to 3pm. There are a couple of others that I'm still in the process of setting up.

If all goes well, the Christmas book I contributed to will also be available. It's a collection of true Christmas stories from fourteen authors who all publish with Covenant Communications. Most of the authors are probably familiar names to most, although I know at least one is probably new to most people. I believe Krista Jensen's first novel with Covenant is slated to come out sometime next spring and she has several more that have been accepted so her name will become familiar sooner than later. Having met Krista a couple of times, I'm excited to see what she brings us. She is a lot of fun and since we share the same editor, I know how excited everyone at Covenant is about her upcoming projects.

Now, one last thing before I go back to work on the novel I'm supposed to be writing right now. My friends with the Whitney Awards asked that I (and my other author friends) remind everyone to nominate their favorite 2011 novels. The rules to be eligible for a Whitney are listed on the Whitney Awards website, but the basics are that the book has to have been published in 2011, be over 50,000 words, and have been written by an LDS author. The button to the left will take you straight to the nomination page. The deadline is December 31, 2011, but the earlier the nominations get in, the easier it is for the judges. Hopefully you've read lots of books worth nominating!

I'm on You Tube

2011-09-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

For the past few decades I have happily stayed behind the scenes as my mother, Dianne Hunter, spent more than 25 years in front of the camera with her television show, The Home Hunter. My sister joined her on the show about 10 years ago and except for a couple of cameo appearances on Mothers' Day, I have avoided having a camera pointed in my direction. Until now. My publisher just happened to schedule author interviews during one of my trips to Utah. Here is the result:

And yes, you can tell me what you really think.

Visiting BYU

2011-08-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Over the past several weeks, my 18-year-old daughter and I have been preparing to take her out to college for the first time. She set her sights some time ago on attending Brigham Young University. When it came time to apply for college, she only sent in one application.

Now, for anyone who knows much about BYU, they can tell you that it isn't exactly the easiest of schools to get into. Rumor has it that BYU turned down more students this year than Harvard. So understandably I was a bit concerned that she didn't have a plan B. I should know better than to second-guess Christina. When she wants something, she works hard and makes sure she gets it.

Once we received the good news that she made it in, we turned our focus to the decision about housing. We knew she would live on campus, but several options were available. She decided she wanted one of the cooking dorms for several reasons. First, she liked the idea of making her own meals and not having to pay so much for the meal plan. Also, the location of the older cooking dorms have the best proximity to the heart of campus. When she chose her room, she surprised me and chose the same apartment that I had lived in when I attended the Y. Different bedroom, same apartment.

Her first couple of days were spent in the traditional dorms when she began the late summer honors program. Then last Saturday evening she got to move in. Can I just say that I have never seen a Wal-Mart so packed as I did that Saturday night? College students everywhere, buying groceries and stuff for their rooms. And the official move-in date isn't until today. So beware residents of Orem and Provo. Avoid the stores (and the streets) today at all costs. The college students have arrived!

Luckily my daughter and I managed to get everything she needed (we think) and by the next morning she was all unpacked and everything was organized. Now comes the hard part. Waiting to meet the new roommates. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they all like each other!

Obsession - Coming Soon!

2011-06-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

Since several of you asked what this book is about, here's the backliner. Obsession will be available this September.

Pop singer Kendra Blake grew up in the spotlight as the daughter of a prominent actor. Now famous in her own right, she's had enough with bodyguards shadowing her every move. So when a bomb goes off backstage at one of her concerts, she gives in to her urge to flee. In search of the privacy she's lacked her whole life, Kendra escapes to a remote cabin in Arizona. Little does she know, FBI agent Charlie Whitmore has been assigned to keep her safe and is staying right across the street.

Stranded in severe weather, the two develop a friendship that hovers on the verge of romance—with Charlie frantically trying to keep his personal and work life separate and Kendra enjoying a new-found freedom from her glamorous world. But when law officials discover that there may be a link between a notorious serial killer and Kendra, she has far greater concerns that her independence.

Sneak peek

2011-06-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

I just received a preview of the cover for my next book, Obsession. What do you think?

Foggy with a Chance of Murder

2011-06-13T07:45:00.002-07:00

When I was asked to review G.G. Vandagriff's latest novel, Foggy with a Chance of Murder, I had two purposes. One was to sit down and enjoy a good book, and the other was to see if G.G.'s main character, Chloe Green, reminded me of anyone. You see, G.G. had e-mailed me a couple of months earlier to tell me that to her surprise, Chloe had taken on several Traci-like qualities.

Here's how the comparison came out:

Chloe is a former lifeguard and strong swimmer. Yes. Definite similarity.
Chloe is a best-selling mystery/suspense author. Well, I'm not a New York Times type of best selling author like Chloe, but we definitely write in the same genre.
Chloe is an excellent shot and enjoys releasing tension on the shooting range. I know how to shoot, but I think I'll stop there with that comparison.
Chloe is considering renewing a relationship with a man who had left her for another woman years earlier. Nope. Definitely NOT like me. If a man had betrayed my trust to that extent, I'm quite certain that if he showed up years later the only thing I would be considering would be which door I could show him to the fastest.

As for the storyline itself, personally I found Foggy with a Chance of Murder to be less of a suspense novel and more of an emotional journey by the characters. Both Chloe and the other main character, Rob Stevens, are dealing with a lot of emotional struggles as well as the challenges that come from having close family members who are alcoholics.

Romantic tension between the characters is complicated when Chloe's old boyfriend emerges on the scene and a suspense element complicates Rob's life. In the midst of their struggles, Chloe and Rob both begin a journey of spiritual enlightenment and several attempts are made on Rob's life.

Overall, I found Foggy with a Chance of Murder to be an enjoyable way to spend a few hours as I journeyed with the characters on their paths to self-discovery. G.G. is a talented writer and she showcases her abilities particularly well in the depth of her characters.

LDS Storymakers Conference

2011-03-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note that the registration deadline for the LDS Storymakers writers conference is April 15th. I will be teaching two classes at the conference, one on writing action and the other on writing mystery/suspense. If you want to sign up for the conference, you can find all of the information here.

Highlights

2011-03-24T10:00:00.001-07:00

As evidenced by my lack of posts over the past few months, life has been a bit crazy for a while. Here are the highlights to what has been going on in my little corner of Virginia:

1. The high school swim team that I co-coach had an amazing season. Both teams only suffered one regular season loss, and my girls' team repeated as district champions by a narrow margin -- only one point. Best of all, I had the opportunity to work with some amazing people and the girls' district title was the result of some impressive teamwork.

2. My daughter who is graduating from high school this year made it into the only college she applied to: BYU. Yeah! Despite her wonderful grades and strong ACT score, I admit that I was on pins and needles waiting for the news that she had earned the right to go to her first choice school, especially since she refused to consider a second choice. I've got to love her confidence!

3. In celebration of my son's seventh birthday, his pet guppy had babies...37 of them. We now have two fish tanks instead of one.

4. My novel Crossfire was selected as a Whitney award finalist this year so thanks to everyone who nominated it!

5. Last but not least, I have finally figured out which book I'm going to write next. I would tell you, but I'm afraid my characters will stop cooperating if I do. I promise to update the status on this adventure within the next week or two if those pesky characters will let me. I think I hear them calling me again, so I guess it's time to post this and get back to work.

Latest news

2010-12-31T17:09:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit late in sharing the news, but right before Christmas I received word that my latest manuscript has been accepted for publication. Yeah! Obsession is the story of Kendra Blake, a famous singer, and Charlie Whitmore, the FBI agent who has been assigned to protect her without her knowledge. For those of you who have read some of my previous works, you may remember Charlie. His older brother, Matt Whitmore, was one of the main characters in the Undercurrents trilogy and his younger sister, Amy, was a main character in Freefall.

Unless something changes (which is always possible), Obsession, will be released in October 2011.

I am also excited that my newest novel, Smokescreen, has already been sighted in a few stores in the western U.S. The official release date is Monday, January 3rd 2011 but rumor has it that it made it into the stores early. Maybe this means my author copies will be arriving soon. :)

Coming up for air

2010-12-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

Life has been crazy over the past several weeks as I wrapped up my book signing tour, started swim season and finished rewriting a manuscript. Now I'm looking forward to planning for upcoming swim meets, setting up more book signings in anticipation of Smokescreen coming out, and preparing for my nephew's wedding. Oh, wait. Isn't Christmas this month too. Yeah, I might need to do a little shopping before too much longer.

The good news is that my swim team looks great so far this year, a lot of great kids who have untapped potential and are generally fun to be around. Thanksgiving brought all of my family together, which was wonderful. Oh, and my books are now coming out on Kindle. Yeah! Here's are the links if you want to check them out:
Backlash
Smokescreen.

Meridian review of Backlash

2010-10-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

The first few weeks after a new book is released are both exciting and nerve racking. Will everyone like it? Will anyone like it? Will anyone even READ it? Thankfully, the answers are usually yes, except for the "will everyone like it" question. As any author can attest, no one book is going to please every reader. All we can hope is that those who don't appreciate our efforts will be professional and kind in their criticisms.

Yesterday, I received a couple of emails informing me that Jennie Hansen's review of Backlash appeared in Meridian Magazine. Jennie is one of those people that I have come to trust when considering what fiction I might invest both my time and my money. Having her write a positive review absolutely made my week. Here it is if you want to check it out.

Unveiling Smokescreen...

2010-10-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of my trip to Utah (although there were many!) was dropping in to see my editor and some of the other people who work at Covenant. While I was there, I got my first look at the cover for my next book. I'll admit that it's pretty strange to have one book that just came out in September and I'm already looking forward to the next one which will be released in January. Regardless, Smokescreen will head to the printer shortly and here is the sneak peek at the cover:

The Book Academy

2010-10-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to present at The Book Academy, a one day writers conference held at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. First of all, it was fabulous. The organizers did a great job in every aspect. All of the classes I attended were wonderful and the food was great. A publishers panel was held during lunch which included a question and answer segment so that aspiring authors could gain a better understanding of how the acceptance and publication process works.

The conference started off with the keynote speaker, Brandon Mull, and then everyone broke off into classes. I taught during the first hour and was stunned that my class had standing room only. In fact, the organizers had to bring in extra chairs to make sure we weren't breaking fire codes. Like I said, I was stunned!

Then, as if having 90 people show up at my class wasn't surprising enough, I actually saw people taking NOTES! Now, I will admit that I did spend quite a bit of time preparing for my class, even enlisting a lot of opinions from some friends and family who are English teachers. My cousin Jana and I stayed up late the night before tweaking it because, well, that's what we do.

I was so honored to be invited to present, and I wanted to make sure that no one was disappointed. I did have a few people come up to me afterward and say they enjoyed the class, so hopefully they represent the majority rather than the minority. All I know, is that I was extremely lucky to have so many interesting, engaging people choose to attend and I was impressed with every other presenter I had the opportunity to see.

That author

2010-09-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

Today I decided I really needed to focus on proofing my next novel since it's due by next week. The problem is that if I read more than about twenty pages at a time, I get too caught up in my storyline to notice any potential typos. (I know, it's weird that I can lose myself in my own books. I guess I'm easily entertained.) Anyway, I decided to take a break and visited the Frog Blog to read Kerry Blair's newest post.

As always, I only made it a few lines before Kerry had me chuckling to myself. In it, Kerry discussed the oddity of being an author. It is a strange profession, one that everyone is convinced they can do if only they had the time...and the big break...and maybe a story idea. It is also a profession of extremes.

When I am writing a new novel, I sometimes hide in my office for several weeks straight, only coming back to reality for brief periods of time when my stomach is so loud I can't hear myself think or when I realize that the blood curling scream echoing through the house wasn't made by a fictional character. Other times, like next week, I get to travel across the country, do some signings and school visits, and hopefully meet people who have at least heard of my books.

Of course, transitioning between the two extremes of this business can be a bit tricky. Some authors need to get out and meet their fans. Others would love nothing more than to avoid any and all book signings, prefering to stay at their keyboards and hope fan mail will find its way into their inboxes.

Personally, I like both sides of the business. In moderation. I love meeting my fans, coming face to face with people who enjoy the same books I do. I also love getting lost in a story I'm creating, experiencing that incredible rush when my fingers can't keep up with my characters.

Transitioning between the two is the hard part. I'm always afraid to get too deep into a new novel until I'm sure I really have at least six to eight weeks I can commit to it. If I have other obligations hanging over my head, I simply can't stay focused. So, for the next week I'm going to proofread Smokescreen one last time and enjoy my travels. When I get home, I'm determined to convince Charlie Whitmore that it's time for his story to be told.

Organized chaos

2010-09-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

Today I am looking around my house, at my cluttered desk and the toys on the floor. The dirty dishes on the counter and the two bags of groceries on the table I have yet to put away after last night's trip to the store. And I'm starting to wonder, do I have to get organized before I can organize my thoughts?

I admit, the last couple of weeks have been a bit overwhelming. School started right after Labor Day and I was really excited about getting a lot of things done. Unfortunately, I didn't really consider exactly HOW MUCH I needed to get done. So I've decided it's time for me to get serious and set some priorities.

I was trying to put my work-in-progress as my first priority (after my family and church, of course), but now I'm realizing that I'm having trouble focusing on it because there are too many other things pulling at me. I took care of a few things this week, but these are the big ones I still have to take care of before I can get back to my book.

1. Clean my house, preferably with the help of the three children I still have living at home. I'm not talking about a serious spring cleaning, but at least enough tidying so that the kitchen looks the way I want it to and the floors are no longer an obstacle course.

2. Prepare for my upcoming class at The Book Academy in Utah on September 30th as well as my planned visits to two high schools, Summit Academy High School in Draper, Utah and Mingus Union High School in Cottonwood, Arizona. I have a lot of ideas of what I want to do, but I need to get them down on paper (or in computer) so that I can feel more organized.

3. Organize a few more details for my upcoming high school reunion. (I'm still not sure exactly how I ended up in charge of it.)

4. Take care of some administrative issues for my high school swim team before our first team/parent meet.

5. WRITE! Or rather, rewrite. Either way, Charlie Whitmore is demanding that his story get finished and I'm ready to find out what really happens.

Race for Backlash

2010-09-13T18:38:00.000-07:00

As my family can attest, I am always very excited to get the box from my publisher that contains my new books. Now that I've been through the waiting game a few times, I know that I probably shouldn't expect to see the FedEx truck heading for my house until after I've received at least a couple of online reviews or emails from people who have already read it. This time was a bit different.

The first indication that my book was out this time was a text message from an old college roommate (so thank you Lori!) I was starting to wonder if Backlash was really on the shelves or if it was perhaps I was off by a few days on the release date. Then Jon commented on my last post (thank you Jon!) and I started feeling a little more confident that my newest release really had been released.

This weekend started a chain of events that was definitely new to me. On Friday my college age daughter went to the bookstore at BYU-Idaho and sent me a picture message of my book there. Then, with her wicked sense of humor, the same darling daughter bought Backlash and successfully gained possession of it before me...by one day. The stars aligned here in Virginia on Saturday and when I returned from driving one of my other daughters to her ACT exam, my box of books was waiting for me. :)

Five days and counting...

2010-08-27T06:31:00.000-07:00

It's amazing that when I look at how fast my kids are growing up, time seems to be flying by. Yet when I have a new book about to come out, the days start slowing down.

I am looking forward to September, yet I'm also dreading it's arrival. My book comes out in five days (I think), but within days of its release, my oldest daughter heads across the country to go back to school. Two days after she leaves, the rest of my kids start their school year. And I'm not ready yet!

Okay, I'll admit that I'm ready to get back onto a routine and I am looking forward to having some quiet in the house, especially since I'm anxious to get Obsession rewritten. On the other hand, I have really enjoyed having all of my kids home and I would love to have more time to spend with them (preferably at the beach NOT getting sunburned.)

I also know that starting tomorrow my life starts getting pretty crazy. I have a local author book signing at Porter Library (in Stafford, Virginia) and then I'll have a series of signings throughout September and October, including heading out to both Utah and Arizona this fall. I love doing book signings and getting the chance to meet new people, but I have a feeling that by the time I start swim season in November, I'm going to miss the lazy days of summer.

Back to the keyboard

2010-08-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer I finshed writing a new novel called Obsession. I wrote it rather quickly, in only about five weeks, and then managed to go through several edits within a couple of weeks. Realizing that I had made it the best that I could by myself (and with the help of my sister-in-law, Rebecca, who helps me edit), I submitted it to my publisher, Covenant Communications. And I waited. Nervously.

I admit, I'm always a bit nervous when I submit a novel, but this one really had me worried. Something wasn't sitting quite right with it, but no matter how hard Rebecca and I tried, neither of us could put our finger on what needed to happen to make it better. So after several weeks of waiting, impatiently waiting, I received an email from my editor yesterday. It wasn't the ideal, "Yes, we love the book. Here are a few minor changes we need to make." Instead it was more of a "the book has promise but it needs to be rewritten." In other words, try again.

As much as I would have loved to get the ideal answer to my submission, I kind of figured I would be getting the second response. The good news is that along with the request for a rewrite, I also received a list of suggestions and some detailed evaluator comments.

Since I've been writing, I've discovered that there are two types of writers. The first are the authors who look at the comments and suggestions and get very frustrated, even insistent that the evaluators just didn't get what they were trying to do. I'm the other type of writer, the one who wants the feedback, even looks forward to it. I know the evaluators and the people at my publishing house are trying to make me better. They understand what I'm trying to do. They see the possibilities and the potential, and they're pushing me to fulfill them. And I want to explore those possibilities and fulfill that potential.

I also understand that my publisher and I are in complete agreement in one respect. Neither of us wants to see a book with my name on the front cover and have people disappointed by what's inside. So now it's back to the keyboard. I've brainstormed with my editor (who I love, by the way) and we've come up with a plan to make the major fixes. Now I just hope that my characters will embrace the changes and help me get their story right this time.

The calendar lies!

2010-08-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

It's official. My calendar is definitely lying to me. I've been helping plan my high school reunion. My 25 year high school reunion. If my logic is still sound, this means that by teenage standards I'm...OLD. But I'm not old. I don't feel old.

I've been trying to figure this phenomenon out for a while now. How can I be old enough to have a daughter in college and another heading there next year? How is it possible that I've been coaching high school swimming for fifteen years? Or that the young women I used to work with at church are now married with kids of their own or career women with a couple of years of experience behind them?

I can only think of one explanation. My calendar is faulty. And it's not just mine that's messed up. Every time I talk to someone who is around my age (and no, the dinosaurs were NOT roaming the earth during my childhood), I find the same sentiment. We don't feel any older, so how is it that everyone else is growing up so fast?

Perhaps it's because time is relative. And perhaps we really are only as old as we feel. I'm looking forward to seeing my old classmates, many of whom I haven't seen in 25 years, but I have little doubt that when I do, the years will melt away. My high school days will once again seem like yesterday, and those 25 years will become yet another example of the phenomenon of the unexplained passage of time.

Conquering my website

2010-08-18T08:01:00.001-07:00

I admit it. My website and I haven't been getting along for a while. Okay, for a LONG while. The program I use was designed for people like me, those who are totally clueless and have zero interest in learning about html codes. So when I upgraded the program like I was told to do, all of the images stopped working. Thoroughly annoyed, I did what any good procrastinator would do: I ignored it.

Now, I have to admit that I'm REALLY bad at procrastinating. When I don't take care of problems right away, those problems just stay on my list of things to do and never seem to go away. (Which explains why my desk has been under a mountain of paper since April even though cleaning it has been on my "To Do" list since then.) Anyway, last night I realized that with a new book coming out, I really needed to get the latest information on my website. I also realized that my home page still listed Lockdown as my newest release even though Crossfire has been out since January.

I had tried to work on my website several times over the past few weeks, but with the kids home for the summer, I have struggled to find the time to deal with the problems that didn't want to go away. Then I realized that my password had somehow gotten reset so that put me back another few days. Last night I finally sat down, fully assuming that I would once again fail to fix the problem, and it all started working. Yeah! So now my new releases are no longer on my coming soon page, my upcoming booksignings are accurately listed under events, and the images are all where they're supposed to be.

I love it when I can cross something off of my To Do list! Now if I could just find that list under all of this paper on my desk....

Sand and sunburn

2010-08-16T05:34:00.001-07:00

On the spur of the moment, I took off for the beach with my four kids. My oldest daughter didn't have to work all weekend, and my youngest has been dying to go to the beach all summer. I'm not even sure how the six-year-old remembers so much about the beach since he hasn't been to one since we went to the Dominican Republic three years ago. Anyway, last Thursday I spent a couple of hours searching for hotel rooms that would accommodate all five of us. (My husband is still overwhelmed with work because of the oil spill in the gulf so he wasn't able to join us.)

After throwing a few things into some suitcases, we left early Friday morning for Virginia Beach which is about a three hour drive from here when you don't have to deal with the typical weekend beach traffic. I was thrilled that we made it all the way there without any significant traffic. We left around eight and by noon we were on the beach after already checking into our hotel and eating lunch.

My kids had a blast that first day. My son is normally shy, but he hit that water and was grinning ear to ear, playing and laughing without any inhibitions. My younger daughters made a couple of new friends to hang out with and my oldest happily tanned on the beach. Unfortunately, our sunscreen wasn't as waterproof as we thought and everyone but my oldest (who is already tan) ended up sunburned.

Everyone had different ways of dealing with it, but needless to say we all became good friends with solarcaine. My youngest two kids and I all put on T-shirts over our clothes to protect our tender shoulders and still went out and enjoyed the rest of our weekend on the beach. My seventeen-year-old decided she was in too much pain and instead chose to spend some time with her rollerblades on the boardwalk.

After an $8 purchase on our first evening, my younger two also had a new adventure to conquer: body boarding (although I always called it "boogie boarding.") I was really surprised at how well my youngest did at it considering he can't swim. His fear of the water seemed to melt away over the past few days and I'm curious to see if that will translate to a new comfort level at the local swimming pool. My youngest daughter also loved the new adventure and I was thrilled that she and her younger brother were so good about sharing their new toy.

So other than some sunburned shoulders and legs, we had a nice getaway. If only all of the sand had stayed on the beach.

Tomatoes and manuscripts

2010-08-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I took my two oldest kids to Baltimore. They had an event they wanted to attend and I had the brilliant idea that I would hang out at the hotel and write. For those of you who are wondering, so far Janessa and Garrett have been talking the loudest so by the end of the weekend I actually had 25 pages written on a sequel to Royal Target.

When I took a break for lunch, I checked my email to find a couple of unexpected items of business. First, the release date for my next novel, Smokescreen, may be moved up to January 2011 rather than the spring. This news definitely changes my timeline for my upcoming projects. Instead of trying to get a new novel finished in the next six weeks, I now have to take a quick break to edit Smokescreen again. Thankfully, my editor is fabulous and has already sent me the fixes that need to be resolved and they are pretty minor.

The second bit of news was that I have been invited to be a presenter at The Book Academy, a writers conference at Utah Valley University on September 30th. I am really excited about it. I was already planning on coming out to Utah to participate in a book signing or two for conference weekend so the timing worked out perfectly.

Anyway, back to Baltimore. Despite my excitement that I would be attending Book Academy and that I might be able to wrap up a project early, I got back to work and even took an hour or two off to take my girls to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory in the inner harbor...on National Cheesecake Day. (The Reese's cheesecake was fabulous!) When I returned to the hotel, I had the chance to talk to my husband. After talking for a couple of minutes, he told me, "I have a bone to pick with you."

Of course, I instantly wondered what I had done that I shouldn't have...or hadn't done that I should have. Then he continued, "Or rather tomatoes to pick...." He had gone out to check on my garden for me, a modest 10' by 10' backyard garden, and picked 32 tomatoes. Now, in my defense, I only planted six tomato plants, and I just picked some the day before (8-10 of them), but these tomato plants are producing like crazy. I'm giving tomatoes (and cucumbers) to my friends, my family, my neighbors. I even took a couple of dozen to church on Sunday to share the wealth.

So now I get to balance my energy between editing a book, trying to keep up with my overachieving garden, and creating a new novel. I wonder which project will win my attention today.

Decisions...decisions...decisions

2010-07-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am at that stage again when I want to start writing something new, and I have no idea where to start. This dilemma doesn't stem from a lack of ideas , but rather from an abundance of ideas. I have so many plotlines running around in my head that I find myself confused when I sit down to write. Characters are arguing with each other, characters that are from completely different book ideas, and I don't know who is shouting the loudest.

Is it Prince Garrett and his finacee Janessa Rogers from Royal Target? So many people have asked me to write a sequel to that novel that I've had ideas warring inside my head for years...literally.

Could it be Quinn Lambert from the Saint Squad who is insisting that his story isn't quite finished? (His story, Smokescreen, will come out next spring, but he isn't sure that there isn't more to tell.)

Maybe it's Charlie Whitmore, younger brother to Matt Whitmore from my Undercurrents series.

Then there's Jay Wellman, a minor character from my upcoming book, Backlash. He definitely has a story brewing on the horizon.

See my problem? And yes, I'm writing this blog because I am avoiding the four open Word files on my computer, each of them only three pages or less, while I wait for one of those characters to yell WRITE MY STORY NOW!!!

I'm listening... Still listening....

Summer goals

2010-07-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

Once again, I've joined Tristi Pinkston's BIAM, this time for the month of July. She does a great job of inspiring me to push myself to write even when circumstances aren't conducive to the creative process. My goals for this book-in-a-month challenge are threefold:

First, I wanted to finish the submission materials needed to submit my latest creation to my publisher.

Second, I need to complete the initial edit on my recently accepted manuscript, Smokescreen.

Third, I want to write at least 20,000 words by the end of the month.

Of these goals, the last will be the hardest. I've been in my writing mode for several weeks now and I know it's time to shift gears back into editing for a while, but sometimes shifting back and forth between these two aspects of creating isn't easy. I was excited to complete my first goal earlier today. Obsession is officially in the hands of my editor and will hopefully go out to evaluators within the next few days.

I'm really nervous about this one because it's the first one I've written in a while that wasn't part of my Saint Squad series. I knew I needed a break from that series for fear that I would become too formulamatic, and this newest novel did write itself relatively quickly even though I felt like it was fighting me the whole time.

Now my challenge is to try to forget that I sent that submission e-mail and focus on my next task at hand, editing Smokescreen. I am looking forward to reading through that story again. I've missed my Navy SEALs for the past couple of months. :)

New cover and good news

2010-06-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

This has been a good week. First I got the news yesterday that the novel I just submitted was accepted by my publisher. Yeah! Smokescreen, the fifth in my Saint Squad series, is now scheduled to come out sometime next spring. Smokescreen is Quinn Lambert's story which takes place after Taylor Palmetta returns from a year living and painting in Europe. For those of you who have read Lockdown, you've already met Taylor when she first met and started dating Quinn.

Today I also got my first look at the cover for Backlash which comes out this September. What do you think?

Going West!

2010-03-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

After months of looking, and test driving, and looking some more, my husband and I finally found a used car for my oldest daughter. We have been hoping to find her a car to take with her out to college, especially since we aren't sure if she'll be living at home within the next year or so. Now that we found her a car (it's actually a small SUV), we are making plans to drive from Virginia to Utah.

So the good news is that I get to come do a few book signings in Utah and visit some family. The news that may not be good is that I'm going to be spending three days straight fighting over what kind of music we're going to listen to on our 32 hour drive. Is it a universal law that kids can't like the same music as their parents?

Anyway, I'm not sure what my schedule is yet, but I'll be doing some signings around Utah Valley on April 10th and April 12th. I'm also really excited about going to the ballroom dance concert at BYU on the 10th to see two of my cousins perform. (Technically, one of them is my husband's cousin, but close enough, right?)

Now I just have to hope and pray that the SUV we bought my oldest daughter passes the reliability test...and that we won't have to use AAA's services on our journey next month.

Snowed In!

2010-01-30T14:23:00.000-08:00

We planned, we packed, we drove. A family event, a missionary farewell, tempted us to travel into southern Virginia despite the expected winter storm. After all, what's a few inches of snow anyway? So far, it's a little more than a few inches. Like ten or eleven.

The drive to Bedford wasn't that bad. My husband had left earlier in the day since we knew we would have to take two cars anyway (we don't fit in one) and all of my kids either didn't want to leave earlier or had conflicts until later in the day. Personally, I had a deadline to meet before departing which is why I had originally planned to leave today (Saturday). When I managed to finish my work early, my family and I decided we would head down late Friday night so that we could beat the storm.

We beat the storm all right. It arrived at the same time we did...and proceeded to dump 7 inches before nine o'clock the next morning.

Realizing that I probably wouldn't be able to make it the rest of the way to my friends' house because of the difficult roads in their neighborhood, I headed out to Wal-Mart for emergency supplies. Three bags of groceries, two new games, and a pair of snow boots later, my five-year-old and I headed back to our temporary home to begin our latest adventure.

Thankfully the employees at the hotel (Super 8 in Bedford, VA) have been fabulous. One woman helped me clear off my car when I headed out this morning and no one seems to mind that the eating area in the lobby has been turned into a mini-playground for my son and another little girl staying here. Even more impressive is that three of my kids are staying with me in one hotel room and they are all getting along. They're even playing together. Maybe being snowed isn't so bad after all.

Internet troubles

2010-01-20T06:19:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I received an e-mail from my editor asking for one minor change in the manuscript we're currently editing. I had a busy weekend planned, so I read over the suggestion, let it simmer in the back of my mind for a few days even though I knew that I could have completed the edit in about fifteen minutes. Then yesterday, I dutifully went to my computer and input the necessary changes.

Simple, right? I did the work somewhat efficiently. Sending the electronic file back and forth via e-mail is quick and convenient. At least it's supposed to be. When I was ready to send the manuscript back to my editor so she could move it along into the next stage of editing, I had a familiar problem. My file wouldn't attach to the e-mail.

This problem has occurred before, ironically at least three times when I was trying to submit a manuscript to my publisher for consideration, and a couple more times when I had edits that were due.

Even though I should have known the outcome of my efforts, I waited...and waited...and waited. For literally an hour. So I downloaded the file onto my flash drive and tried sending it from my husband's computer. This time I only waited ten minutes before giving up.

With my flash drive in hand, I grabbed my keys, got in the car, and drove the six blocks to the library. Three minutes later, I sat down at a library computer, logged onto my e-mail, attached the file (which took less than a minute), and drove back home. I sat down at my desk to see that the e-mail I had originally tried to send was still trying to load the attachment.

This experience has driven home three simple facts. One, my internet only works when I'm NOT trying to send in a manuscript. Two, I can WALK to the library to send a file faster than sending it from home when my internet is on strike. And finally, I am reminded that Murphy's law is alive and well.

First Crossfire Review

2010-01-09T11:13:00.001-08:00

I just received an e-mail from a friend to tell me that the first review of Crossfire is on the internet. Yeah! Of course, I still haven't received my copy of my book yet, but that's an irony I have learned to laugh about even as I anxiously watch for the UPS truck, or mail truck, or whatever truck is going to make my day sometime soon. But I digress. The review my friend forwarded to me is over at the Reading for Sanity blog. If you want to check it out, click here.

Miracle of writing

2010-01-08T05:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I wrote a guest blog for Tristi Pinkston as a part of her current Book in a Month (BIAM) challenge. She had asked me to write about how I'm able to stay productive as an author. As a result, I spent some time wondering how the miracle of writing occurs.

I admit that as a child, I dreamed of being an author. I can't say that I ever really thought about being a best-seller or being famous, which probably explains why I'm always surprised when someone recognizes my name or says they have read my book. This also probably explains why I've been able to continue to write without getting distracted by trying to become famous or a best-seller. I'm writing to please myself.

Okay, I'll admit that I'm hoping to please readers, reviewers and editors too, but I find that the people who read my books only inspire me to do better the next time. I have been truly fortunate that the reviews on my novels have been mostly positive. Even when my editors push me to improve my work-in-progress, they stress not only the weaknesses, but the strengths as well. As a result, it's relatively easy for me to identify what needs to be changed.

When I woke up this morning with my mind swimming with ideas, I found myself grateful for the friendships and associations I've forged through my love of writing. I'm also grateful that I'm able to do something I love even if I don't understand the miracles that occur when the inspiration begins to flow.

Quality or quantity

2009-10-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

I know I've been terribly neglectful of my blog as of late. I took Tristi Pinkston's challenge to try to write a book in a month (BIAM) so I have been busily trying to achieve that goal. I had given myself a little head start by beginning my current work in progress the last week of September and for the past several weeks, I have been working on the next installment of my Saint Squad books.

Knowing that my editor is sure to want me to edit Backlash (book 4) before too much longer, I've been hoping to finish the rough draft of this one before that work starts. Sure enough, I received an e-mail from my editor today asking a quick question as she was beginning the editing process. In the publishing world, I take it that I'll have a week (give or take) before I'll start getting the e-mails that remind me that it's time to spend some quality time with that project.

So today after spending the last four weeks focusing on just getting the words down on paper (or in computer as the case may be), I realized that I'm nearing the climax of this book and I still haven't quite got it figured out. Now, this isn't really anything new for me. I often don't know who the bad guy is until a scene unfolds, but this does get problematic when I'm trying to tie up loose ends.

Today I decided to take a day and not worry so much about quantity, but rather focus on the quality of what I have down so far. I skimmed through the first 200+ pages, tweaking a few inconsistencies and even giving a few nameless characters an identity to call their own. My word count was low throughout the morning, slowly building as the day went on as I added little pieces here and there. Ironically by the time I finished up, I actually had over 3,000 words, which is around what I shoot for each day.

I'd like to say that quality and quantity don't have to be mutually exclusive, but I also know that I still have a lot of editing to do before this current work will be ready for submission. Rather what I found was that by slowing down a bit, I rediscovered the enjoyment of the story and the excitement of looking forward to what happens next. Now if I can just figure out who the bad guy is!

Crossfire Cover

2009-09-22T13:40:00.001-07:00

It's here! I know this book isn't scheduled to come out until January, but one of the wonderful editors at my publisher (Covenant) sent me the cover image for Crossfire today and I thought I would share.

This is the third book in my Saint Squad series, although I will admit that I keep getting confused which book is which. The first two are easy enough to keep straight, but I was doing the final proofs for Crossfire at the same time I was doing the first bit of editing for the next book, Backlash. That and the fact that the timelines for the two books overlap a bit have definitely forced me to stay on my toes.

With Crossfire ready for print and Backlash ready for editing, I've turned my attention to the fifth book in the series I have been diligently working on it since school started two weeks ago. Unfortunately, I managed to write the first fifty pages only to decide that I didn't like it at all. I figure that if I'm not excited to get up in the morning to write it, no one is going to find themselves staying up all night to read it. So I went back to page one, literally. And I'm glad I did. I only have the first fourteen pages written, but already I like the way it's going. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will keep on moving!

Twenty years ago today...

2009-09-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago today I drove through the front gates of CIA Headquarters. It was the first time I did so as an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. It was a strange feeling, being stopped by the guards, having them find my name on the list of new employees, and being directed through the multipe layers of security to ultimately find my destination: new employee orientation.

At the time, I thought the CIA was going to be a lifelong career. It definitely could have been, but after six years, three months, and two children, I ultimately decided to shift my priorities. Still, I enjoyed the work at CIA, both the challenges and the feeling that I was living history as it was being made. I also loved the atmosphere in those halls and the way the employees seemed to connect so well with one another. Perhaps it was because we had all been so carefully screened to get there, or because we all knew that when we passed through those gates each night we could no longer speak of what we had seen or what we had done that day. Whatever it was, many friendships were formed and many confidences were shared.

As I look back on the years I worked at the CIA, I find myself a bit nostalgic. I miss the energy of those halls, the feeling of unity of the employees, and the shared ambition to keep this country safe. Mostly, I miss the people.

So I have spent today remembering my early days with the Agency and the wonder of being a new employee. And when the school busses dropped my children off in staggering intervals, I was reminded of what was important enough to make me want to give up that part of my life.

Kids in school! All of them!

2009-09-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

That's right. For the first time in my life, all four of my children are in school at the same time. Four kids. Four different schools. But they're all at school all day. That's right. All day. Of course, I'm already amazed at how short "all day" is.

Starting time for the schools here in Virginia are staggered so that they can use the same buses for the different age groups. This basically means that I start shuffling kids out the door at 6AM (for early morning seminary) and don't actually get the last one out the door until almost 9AM (the kindergartener.) Then the first one arrives home at 2:30.

Theoretically, this means that I should have 5 1/2 hours to myself. If only it weren't for those pesky dishes and laundry that seem to breed every time I turn my back on them!

The good news is that I have started a new book. Or at least I'm trying to start a new book. Beginnings are always tough for me. Okay, the first fifty to a hundred pages are tough on me, but who's counting? In three days, I'm only up to page 20, but I'm trying to be optimistic. After all, that's 20 pages I didn't have last week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that next week I'll get past the 50 page mark and I'll figure out what this book is actually about. :)

2009-09-03T07:19:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I know I have been terrible this summer about keeping up with my blog, but this morning really showed me how crazy things have been and I thought I would share. About 7:30 this morning, my five-year-old son came in determined to wake me up. I had been up late last night gathering and organizing school supplies so I was hoping to sleep in. No such luck.

I was barely even coherent when my son asked me what day it was today. I rolled over, tried to open one eye and mumbled, "Thursday." To this he responded, "No, I mean what DAY is it today?"

I managed to open both eyes, which was quite an accompishment since I was still half-asleep, and I told him again, "It's Thursday."

He just shook his head and said, "But what do we have to do today?"

Yeah, we haven't had a lot of sit at home and do nothing days this summer. Today's answer was going to meet his kindergarten teacher at open house, watching a friend's child for an hour or so, and getting one of my older daughters to soccer practice. All of this has to be done without a car, mind you, because my oldest daughter picked up an extra shift at work and will be in Fredericksburg all day with my car and my husband won't be home until everything is over.

As my week was beginning, I counted everything up that I had to do including the three open houses, two trips to the airport, four soccer practices, a piano lesson, a coaches' meeting, various dentist and doctor appointments, etc. And of course, with only two cars right now, my oldest has my car more than I do since she's trying to squeeze in as much work as possible before she leaves for college this weekend.

So the real question is, what am I going to do with myself NEXT week when everyone is at school? Hey! Maybe I'll write a book!

The waiting game

2009-07-08T06:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I completed my first writing goal for the month, to submit my latest manuscript to my publisher. Now I begin the waiting game to see if it is good enough for publication. Every time I submit a manuscript I go through the same thing, the worry that what I've written won't be well received or that somehow I will disappoint the editors who have been so supportive of my past efforts.

Books like this one are the hardest to send, ones that are different from what I've done before. This novel isn't my typical boy meets girl while overcoming some outside forces together. Rather it explores the challenges a married couple face when adversity comes knocking on their door. I'm pleased with the results, but will my publisher feel the same way?

Even more difficult is the fact that I'm not already in the middle of a project. It is so much easier to press the send button when I have another novel started, one that is demanding my attention. My problem is that I have too many options and I still haven't figured out which of those possibilities are the most compelling right now. Not to mention that I have to start naming characters again. I hate that part!

So my goal for the day is to make a list of possible names for some of the novels I want to write...and to write something, even if it's only a page. Maybe that will help me forget that I'm playing the waiting game. :)

What next?

2009-07-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

I can't ever resist a challenge. With that said, my friend Tristi Pinkston is doing another BIAM (Book in a Month) this month on her blog Tristi's Challenges, so of course I had to sign up. I'm already a little behind since it started yesterday and I'm still trying to figure out what my goals should be.

The first thing I want to accomplish for the month of July is to submit my next novel to Covenant. It's written, it's approved by the CIA, and now it's in the hands of my very capable sister-in-law (Rebecca) for that last edit or two. So today, instead of trying to start a new project, I've been working on the submission materials that will accompany my manuscript.

My second goal is to complete the edit of Crossfire. My editor at Covenant e-mailed me to say I should be getting that back from her next week, so I will definitely make that a priority when I receive her edits.

My last goal is the hardest. I have to decide what to write next. Do I write another Saint Squad novel? Do I start a sequel to Royal Target? Should I try something completely new? I'm not sure what the answers are to these questions, so my final goal will be to start something. I don't know what I'm going to start, but I hope to have at least a chapter or two written by the end of the month. Wish me luck!

Great surprises

2009-06-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

I love surprises...as long as they're the good kind. For the past week, I've been trying to improve my novel, Crossfire, in preparation of it being considered for publication. I had submitted it to my publisher back in April, and finally all of the evaluations were in.

I always look forward to reading the evaluations. Usually the evaluators have at least something positive to say, but more than that, they also point out what I can do to make my book better. And I'm all about trying to get better.

So, assuming that it would be a couple of weeks before my book would be presented to the committee, that group of individuals who would ultimately determine the fate of my new book, I set about incorporating the advice that had been passed on to me.

A few obstacles had appeared this week, so I wasn't as quick in my editing as I had hoped to be, but this morning I finished up the latest version of Crossfire. Knowing that I should read through it one more time, I decided to e-mail my editor to let her know that I would be resubmitting my novel to her tomorrow. Then I opened my e-mail. Among the two dozen other new unread e-mails was an e-mail from ...you guessed it...my editor. The subject line: woo hoo!

Of course, I had to open it up. Sure enough, it was the good news I was hoping for without even knowing it was possible yet. Crossfire has been accepted. Although publication dates are always prone to shift throughout the year, it looks like it will be coming out in January 2010, which is more than I could have hoped for.

So now I'm going to get back to reading through Crossfire one more time. And if all goes well, my editor will enjoy reading it tomorrow.

Mr. Sticky Guy

2009-06-11T18:30:00.001-07:00

A question was posted to my online writers group today asking for advice on how to have a successful book signing. I am certainly no expert on how an author should act at a signing. When I have one, I see it as an opportunity to meet people. I might sell a book or three, or I might not, but I typically enjoy myself because I see signings as a social event.

Still, the question got me thinking...and remembering. Often when I go to a book signing, I take a little treat for the bookstore staff. After all, what success I've had is due largely to these people who have taken the time to familiarize themselves with my book and who are interacting with customers day after day.

Last August, I visited a lot of stores in Utah and Idaho. In the goodie bags I made up for the bookstore staffs were those little sticky men that you get in the party aisle in Wal-Mart. One of the books I was promoting was Freefall in which one of the main characters was literally trying to climb up the side of the building during a hostage rescue situation. I thought the little sticky guys would be fun and they actually had something to do with my book.

It turned out, I wasn't the only one who had fun playing with these little toys. Booksellers, store managers, other authors, patrons, and, of course, yours truly had a blast throwing these sticky guys at windows, walls and doors. Perhaps the best adventure with my creative gift came after I left a signing at the Seagull Bookstore in Taylorsville. Someone was playing with one of the toys and threw it too high...and it stuck to the ceiling. And didn't come down.

After a few days, I received an e-mail from Paige who was on staff there to tell me about a poll they were having about how long Mr. Sticky Man would stay up on the ceiling. Crystal, the manager, won that particular contest with her guess that he would stay there until he was removed by force. As far as I know, he's still there.

Ironically, when I went to a book signing in Spanish Fork in April, I looked up and saw...you guessed it...another Mr. Sticky Guy. Apparently, he too and ended up on their ceiling, also refusing to come down without being physically removed. I laughed when they opened up the latest goodie bag and found a second sticky man. This time I hadn't even left the store before Mr. Sticky Guy, Jr. had joined Senior up on the ceiling.

If nothing else, I have fun at book signings. And I'm remembered long after I'm gone!

The light at the end of the tunnel

2009-05-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

Every few days I see that light at the end of the tunnel. I think to myself that if I can just survive another day or two, if I can just get these few more things done, that I will be able to put my life in order and find two minutes to sit down and relax. At this point I would settle for 30 seconds...make that 15.

My sister-in-law who has graciously edited for me for years has fallen prey to cancer again. She was widowed several years ago when her youngest child was an infant. Her two oldest children are away from home now, one on a mission and the other at college, so we are blessed to have her living close by so that we can help out with her seven-year-old. Unfortunately, this sister doesn't ever do things the easy way. No she didn't just get cancer, she keeps getting other diseases to overcome at the same time...shingles, nasty viruses, and the lastest, pneumonia.

Unfortunately, my husband and I also have been managing my mother-in-law's former residence since she moved into the house next door to us last summer. We finally decided to rent it out since we weren't able to sell it. We found a renter, and were within ten days of the renters moving in when the basement flooded. The new residents are supposed to move in this weekend and we are frantically trying to get wallboard and flooring replaced so that the inconvenience to these renters will be minimal.

Both of these situations are overwhelming in themselves, but we have a few other challenges we also have to deal with over the next few weeks and still others that are finally starting to wind down. The problem is that each time I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel, the train turns and it disappears again. Does this train that I'm on not understand the whole concept of the straight and narrow?!?!

I look and my husband and kids and see the exhaustion in their eyes that matches my own and I can only hope and pray that we're about to come around that corner that leads to the light. Can anyone spell SOON???!!!

Fun, fun, fun...and research

2009-04-25T11:25:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you just have to have a lot of fun. Last night was one of those nights. I was invited to go to Norfolk to visit a book club there. I generally have a good time when I meet new people, but I didn't expect to have THAT MUCH FUN! Everyone who came was wonderful and made me feel so welcome.

This picture was sent to me by LeAnn, but more pictures are up on Deborah Henseley's blog here.

My hosts, Hap and Vicki Cluff, had me over for dinner before the book club which was wonderful, complete with my absolute favorite vegetable...asparagus. I know some people aren't big on asparagus, my mother-in-law included, but I love the stuff and don't get to eat it nearly as often as I would like.

After dinner, about a dozen people arrived and I had a great time answering questions and finding out more about them. Among the attendees was another author (Greg West) who will be visiting the group next month.

One of the fun things about the trip was the fact that the book I'm currently working on has some scenes in Norfolk. In a way, I guess my trip served a dual purpose...having fun and doing research.

As for the members of the book club, what great people! We talked, we laughed, we ate crepes. The crepes were a spur of the moment thing, at least on my part. The ladies in attendance had made plans to kidnap another friend and take her out for her birthday. I was lucky enough to get invited along and everyone had a great time. Yes, we were sometimes a bit loud as we talked and laughed together, and we were all a bit overdosed on chocolate by the time the evening was over. I decided not to think about the number of calories I consumed...especially since our waitress insisted that all of the desserts were zero calories. Instead, I considered dessert just one part of an incredible evening, one with great food, fun conversation and the best of company.

Life is good...so why is everyone else falling apart???

2009-04-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

Everything has been going great for me lately. I have a new book out that's doing well, another finished and submitted, and yet another one in progress. My family is healthy and happy (most of the time) and my oldest daughter is FINALLY at college where she is happiest.

So how can my life be so great when everyone around me is going through such huge trials? I'm not talking about the little bumps in the road either. One of my closest friends is facing stage 4 cancer, again. Another is dealing with a child's serious illness, one that has the child in a top hospital located almost two hours away. Several other friends are facing serious financial difficulties.

Seeing my friends' struggles, I desperately want us all to be on the same plane of happiness...MINE! I keep hoping and praying that they will all get their miracles. I want the sick to be healed, the weary to find strength, and the distressed to find hope. That isn't too much to ask, is it? Oh, yeah. And I want my life to stay great!

453...

2009-04-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

unread e-mails. This is what I found when I booted up my computer after being away for several days. While on my trip to Utah and Idaho last week, my internet access was limited to what I could accomplish on my cell phone. I thought I was being so clever to check my e-mails every day to make sure there wasn't anything critical that I needed to take care of. I just never realized exactly how many I was skipping over.

So yesterday I opened up my inbox and was stunned at the number of unread e-mails in my inbox. I mean, I know I get a lot of e-mails, but normally I check it a couple of times a day and clean everything out as the day goes on.

I started reading e-mails at 10AM yesterday...and finished cleaning out the new ones around 5PM. Yes, I did have a few I needed to respond to, and I admit I did delete many without reading them. I think the next time I travel, I'll figure out where the delete button is on my cell phone BEFORE I leave town!

Whitney voting

2009-04-02T06:04:00.000-07:00

The Whitney Award voting is coming to a close. The Whitney Committee, comprised of various authors, reviewers and bookstore owners and managers have all been frantically trying to read the last of the finalists, hoping to find a clear favorite in each category by the end of this week.

As for me, I had to pick and choose which categories to vote in. Living in Virginia where I don't have easy access to LDS books, I was faced with a choice. Buy the majority of the books on the finalist list (except for the mainstream ones that are available in my library) and stop writing for two months so I would have time to read them all, or I could keep writing and read what I could. I chose the second option.

Last year I tried the first. The result was no new novel written by me last year. Lockdown, which came out this month, was written in the spring of 2007. My previous three novels (The Deep End, Freefall, and Royal Target) were written in the spring of 2006. In the spring of 2008 I didn't write. I read.

I don't know what it is about springtime that gets the creative juices flowing for me, but I've decided not to fight it...or postpone it...this year. I'm excited to have finished a rough draft of my next novel and have started on another one that I hope to have drafted by the end of April. If all goes well, I will have something to submit to my publisher within a few weeks as I edit the first.

In the middle of this productive time for me though, I am waiting anxiously to know who will win this year's Whitney awards. I am realistic enough to know that even though I wrote two of the five finalists in the suspense category, I am expecting to lose. Really. Even if I win, I lose. So, knowing that the honor really is in being nominated, and even more so being selected as a finalist, I have to wonder: If the choice was only between my two books, which would win? Royal Target or Freefall? Opinions anyone?

Pretending to be a celebrity

2009-03-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

The fun thing about having a new book out (Lockdown was released this month) is that I get to pretend to be famous for a little while. I've been very fortunate that Lockdown has garnered some positive press in the past few weeks. Today an interview with me was posted on LDS Bookcorner, which is mostly a get-to-know-you kind of interview. I even admit what kind of music I listen to when I have control of the radio.

Besides this recent interview, I also found out that Lockdown has been reviewed by Deseret News (a duplication of a review in The Mormon Times), the Association of Mormon Letters, and Meridian Magazine. I was even featured in an article in my dad's home town newspaper (The Verde Independent.) I know for a big-name author, this might not seem like a lot, but for me it's pretty exciting. Normally, the only time I get this much attention is when I'm fixing dinner and all of my kids are starving (or so they say.)

In addition to the interview and articles, Davis Bigalow recently honored me with an award called the “Premio Symbelmine” which means "Sublime Award". So thanks Davis!

I'm supposed to pass this award on to seven other blogs that I feel deserve "sublime" status so, in no particular order, here it goes:

Stephanie Humphrey's Write Bravely - Stephanie has a wonderful way of looking at things and so often she gives encouragement with her gift of words without even realizing what a talent she has.

Kersten Campbell's Life on the Funny Farm - Kersten's book Confessions of a Completely (In)Sane Mother was released recently as is gaining some great reviews.

The Dashner Dude (aka James Dashner) - How could I not mention James? Besides the fact that his second 13th Reality book is out (which yes, my daughter Christina says I have to get an autographed copy for her), he cracks me up. Check out his blog and you can't help but be entertained. I'd add that he's a talented writer too, but that might go to his head.

Twas Brillig - Another blogger with a fabulous way of stringing words together to evoke emotion and bring life into focus.

Scattered Jules - I met Julie Wright last summer at Booksellers in Sandy, Utah and found out first hand what a fun person she is. She not only has a great way of looking at life, but she also has a way of making people face their own vulnerabilities and learn how to laugh at them.

My Paige - Michele Paige Holmes is a very talented writer and I'm hoping she'll get to sleep soon (her newest addition is still denying her that luxury) so she can produce another novel that will keep me turning pages late into the night like her Whitney Award winning book, Counting Stars.

And last but not least, Mamablogga -Jordan's blog helps me keep life in perspective. After all, the most important job I'll ever have is that of a mother. This blog reminds me that even when I'm pretending to be famous, I'll always just be the keeper of the bandaids and the finder of clean socks.

Taxes!!!

2009-03-14T13:03:00.001-07:00

I kept putting it off until last night I couldn't stand it any more. I did my taxes. I kept thinking I should do the taxes for a family trust that I manage first, but I finally decided that I needed to shorten my list of things to do and one of the big ones looming over me was my own family's taxes. So I started yesterday evening...and kept going until 3AM this morning. But they're done. YEAH!!! I was so excited, I even did my daughter's taxes. I don't think she'll be quite as excited as I was to have them done since she's only getting about $10 back from the federal government, but still, any money is worth having these days.

I'll admit that the hours sitting at the computer making friends with TurboTax were more painful that I would have liked (have you ever put in 16 years worth of dividend reinvestment income before?), but I can't believe how much more focused I feel now that it's over. I know that I'm not very good at procrastinating. That's not to say that I don't procrastinate, but rather that I'm really bad at getting away with it.

I have a book that has been just begging to be finished (and I want desperately to get it done!) but I know that with these kinds of obligations, the things I enjoy doing always end up at the bottom of the list. So my goal this week is to finish up the trust taxes, get my mother-in-law's taxes done, and just maybe reacquaint myself with those characters that have been impatiently waiting for me. Wish me luck!

Whirlwind

2009-03-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

Life has been moving so quickly, I've barely been able to take a breath since swim season ended. For those of you who read my last post, we did have a few adventures, but not as many as expected. Armed with my new GPS-capable cell phone, we only endured only six U-turns and a lot of laughter.

After naviagating through the state swim meet, I thought I would have time to catch my breath, but that wasn't to be. My youngest turned five that following weekend so I had a lot of preparations for that. (The main obstacle was figuring out how to get his new bicycle home now that I don't have a van, but luckily it fit in the backseat.) Then I found out a friend had a shorter deadline than anticipated for finishing off her basement.

My husband and a friend have been doing the work for her, but then we realized that her carpeting is coming any day now, ready or not. So we spend the past week building walls, and then mudding, taping and sanding. I wish I could say it was done, but at least the walls are up!

Now with tax deadlines looming (did I mention that I'm the poor soul in my family that does everyone's taxes?), a dozen books to read before voting for the Whitney awards, and a almost finished novel, I almost don't know where to start. I suppose I should get to planting my garden soon too. Maybe it's time to make a list. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can start checking things off!

Upcoming Adventure

2009-02-12T05:43:00.000-08:00

I feel an adventure coming on. Tomorrow I will head to the Northwest Regional Swim meet here in Virginia. Two coaches, one bus driver, eighteen teenagers. Sounds simple enough. The only problem is that Murphy tends to follow me on away meets. (You know, that guy that invented Murphy's Law?)

I am fortunate that most of my regular season meets are at the pool around the corner from me. My team typically only travels at most twice a year except for post season. And we almost always get lost. Sometimes we don't realize that the bus driver was given the wrong destination until after we miss our exit. Some pools are incredibly difficult to find...and the bus driver won't ask for directions. And other times, no one has directions and we end up relying on some 16 or 17-year-old to help us find the pool. Now that's adventurous.

Yet, with all of the times we have taken wrong turns, chewed our fingernails as the bus tried to do a U-turn on a residential street, or placed our faith in a teenage driver's sense of direction, we never get lost during our post season. (Well, maybe a wrong turn on occasion, but not really lost.)

I expect this year might be a bit different. You see, we are swimming at a new pool...in a town I haven't visited since before I started coaching thirteen years ago.

The funny thing is, I'm kind of looking forward to getting lost. All throughout this swim season something has been missing on my team: a sense of unity. Most of the swimmers advancing to regionals are underclassmen, and many of them swim on year-round teams in the area. The thing I've always loved about high school swimming is that sense of team. I love the way these kids who have been trained to think only of their own personal times start stepping outside of themselves and start thinking about their teammates. I enjoy the strategy sessions when these talented teenagers start understanding my sometimes far-fetched logic that helps us win as a whole even when it doesn't make any one of them the superstar.

Looking back on this season, I realize that we didn't have any real adventures. Sure, we had to rely on a teenager to direct us to our one away meet, but we didn't really get lost. The swimmers were so talented that they breezed through their regular season undefeated without having to understand how we did it. And as a result when we faced a uphill battle to go for the district championship, they didn't know how to reach for the goal as a team. Could we have won? I don't know. We were supposed to lose by forty or so points and these kids narrowed the gap down to less than 10. I'm proud of them individually, but I can still see so much untapped potential for them as a unit.

So as I prepare myself for the next championship meet, I find myself actually hoping for a wrong turn or two. Maybe some shared experiences will help them all see that we can succeed as individuals and still reach for the same goals.

Trophy seeking

2009-02-10T10:55:00.001-08:00

The past few days have had some interesting ups and downs. On Saturday night I was at the district swim meet. My team was the long shot to win, but I was hoping and praying we could pull it off. My swimmers did great, they dropped time everywhere, and even broke a school record. And we still took second place. Oh, well. There's always next year.

Though I would have loved for my team to have walked away holding that trophy, I got just about everything else I wanted on Saturday night. Nearly everyone who had a shot at advancing to Regionals did so. Several kids outperformed even my expectations and we walked out of the meet knowing that as a team we had done our best.

Yesterday, I was playing the underdog role once more. You see, the finalists for the Whitney Awards were being announced yesterday morning. I was extremely fortunate last year to have my novel, The Deep End, named as a finalist and I admit I was hopeful that at least one of my novels would earn me that honor once more.

What I didn't expect is what actually happened. BOTH of my 2008 novels were named as finalists...and they are competing AGAINST each other. That's right. Freefall and Royal Target are both finalists in the mystery/suspense category for the Whitney Awards.

I find myself both excited and mystified. You see, while both of my books can certainly be categorized as suspense novels, neither one of them are purists in the category. Freefall would really be better classified as government action/intrigue with some romance thrown in. Royal Target I consider more of a romance with some government suspense thrown in.

With this said, and knowing that judges are likely to vote for a book that truly fits the category, I want to congratulate all of the Whitney Finalists. And until April 25th I will continue to wonder which of the other three authors in the mystery/suspense category is going to beat me out not once, but twice, to win the award.

Footprints

2009-01-28T08:16:00.000-08:00

After months of waiting, we finally got our first snow here in Virginia. It was only an inch or two, but it was enough for the kids to want to bundle up, grab their hats, scarves and gloves and head outside to play in the white, wintery weather. My ten-year-old daughter took Luke, my four-year-old son, out to play while I tended to some things inside including putting the kettle on so that I would be ready with hot chocolate when my two youngest decided they'd had enough.

Not an hour after they had come inside, Luke decided that he wanted to go out again. This time I went out with him. I wanted to take some pancakes that I had made over to my mother-in-law's house next door so that was as good of an excuse as any to go out. While I visited with Mom for a few minutes, Luke happily played outside. He then helped me clear Mom's driveway and sidewalk even though he wasn't happy that we were clearing away the footprints he had made in the process.

I assured him that he had made plenty of footprints in the snow, and that he would be able to make plenty more. Later that afternoon, his sister took him out again, and they moved to the pristine snow in the backyard so they could make more footprints.

Last night when I went out to take the garbage to the curb, the road was a little icy so I walked through the snow to Mom's house to check on her and take out her trash. When I was walking home I finally slowed down long enough to really look at Mom's front lawn and the footprints that were streaked across it. Dozens of trails led from my house to Mom's house and back again. More were streaked across our adjoining back yards. I had to smile. Those tracks might not mean much to someone passing by, but to me they reminded me of what's really important: family.

Behind the scenes at Inauguration Day

2009-01-19T20:03:00.000-08:00

We’re only hours away from the inauguration of our next president. Millions have come to Washington, DC and the areas surrounding the capital to see this historic event. People are talking about the high cost of the festivities, the historic significance of our first African-American president being sworn into office, and the record crowds.

Personally, living in the shadows of Washington, DC, I’m staying away from the city. And my heart goes out to those who have to be there. Several of my friends and acquaintances moved into their offices over the weekend, sleeping bags in tow, in preparation for the festivities. And I know they aren’t alone.

I’m talking about the FBI, Secret Service, law enforcement officers, and the many other individuals who are required to report to work on Inauguration Day, not only because that’s part of their job, but because their sense of responsibility is so great. What many don’t realize is that while the news may touch on the fact that there aren’t any hotel rooms to be had within forty (or more) miles of Washington, many members of these protective agencies are without a place to stay.

The road closures in the area, the expected high volume on the subway, and the lack of hotel rooms left many without any other choice but to go into work on Sunday night and not come home until Wednesday after the inaugural events have concluded. After all, these are people who are willing to throw themselves in front of a bullet to protect our new president. They aren’t about to take a chance of not making it to work on time.

I imagine President-elect Obama is only beginning to understand how truly great this country is, and how privileged he is to have such dedicated men and women working for him to ensure his safety and the safety of his family.

New release date

2009-01-08T16:28:00.000-08:00

I know I've been telling everyone that my next book, Lockdown, is coming out in February. Today I found out that it's been pushed back a month and the new release date is March. My editor was very apologetic, but I think I'm the one person who isn't really going to notice. After all, I've already read the book. :) With that said, I really am excited to see Lockdown in print and have a copy in my hot little hands.

Every so often, I start writing and I am absolutely stunned when several weeks later, I have this manuscript on my desk that I can't quite figure out how it came to be. Lockdown was one of those books.

I can still remember the day I walked away from the television and started writing Lockdown. It was April 17, 2007, the day after the Virginia Tech shootings. The television was still on in the family room as other family members watched and listened. All of the people that we knew at Tech were safe, but our hearts broke for the families of those who hadn't been so lucky. I remember having a similiar reaction after the Columbine shooting. I wanted to watch the television to see what had caused this horrible event to happen, but at the same time I couldn't believe what I was watching.

Lockdown really was my therapy, my way of learning how I deal with those kinds of senseless tragedies. What I found is that through it all, there is always hope for a better day tomorrow.

Missing Kathleen

2008-11-06T10:26:00.000-08:00

I received word last week that one of my on-line friends was missing. My first thought was that she was simply not answering e-mails or hadn't been communicating with anyone. Then I found out it was far more serious than that. Sheila "Kathleen" McBroom was really missing. Kathleen lives in Anchorage, Alaska and apparently never arrived for work on Monday. A few days later her truck was discovered, her wallet and cell phone still inside.

So the question remains, where is Kathleen? Her family has been frantic with worry, and I can't even imagine what they must be going through right now. Nothing about her disappearance seems to make sense. She had been looking forward to one of her daughters coming home for a visit and she seemed excited about what lies ahead for her.

Kathleen is such a positive, vibrant person that everyone who communicates with her has come to love her. Kathleen always has something positive to say about everyone and has always encouraged her friends in all of their endeavors. Now all of those friends are praying for her. We are praying for her safe return, and we are especially praying for her family in this difficult time. Hopefully they know that they aren't alone. We are all missing Kathleen.

Lockdown

2008-10-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

Look what I found! I decided to check my publisher's website today to make sure my new book was listed on their site. Lo and behold, not only was my new book, Royal Target, listed there, but so was my next book. Lockdown isn't even scheduled to come out until February 2009, so I never dreamed that the cover image would already be available on the internet.

I did know that the cover was done, but I hadn't yet seen a copy until I found it on Covenant's website.

Oddly enough, I spent the day working on another book, one that spins off of this one and Freefall.

I'm having to remind myself that it takes a great deal of discipline to write novels. I know that I will ultimately spend hours at the computer and that if I'm lucky, the story will take on a life of its own. I hope and pray that will happen, while dreading that possibility at the same time. I know that if a story is really going to work, it has to find its own life. The problem is that when that happens, I find myself putting everything else on hold so I can stay at my computer and find out how the story ends.

Seeing a cover image like this one, or anticipating my author copies arriving in the mail for Royal Target, reinforces the fact that all of the hard work is worth it. Now I just have to keep myself at my desk enough hours of the day so that I can get to the good part, whatever that might be.

A new project

2008-10-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

I signed up for Tristi Pinkston's Book In a Month Challenge...again... and I'm determined to succeed this time. I have done it before, written a book in a month. In fact, in one particularly productive spring, I wrote three books in three months. I did a complete rewrite of The Deep End in March 2006. The next month, in April 2006, I wrote Royal Target, which will hit the bookstores any day. The following month, I spent hours at the computer only to have Freefall (Feb. 2008) magically appear on my desk.

I look back at that particular spring and I'm amazed that three completed manuscripts were created in that short period of time. I also keep wondering what I have to do to recreate the magic that happened in those few months. I remember getting up early each morning, beginning my day at the computer around 5:30 or 6:00AM. I wrote for an hour or two, taking many breaks to get my kids off to seminary and three different schools. My son was taking naps at the time and he went down for a three-hour-nap each day. He was good-natured enough that he often played for an hour before falling asleep and let me rob another hour of writing time in the afternoons.

Although the days of my son napping are long gone, I have resolved to wake up early again and try to recapture that quiet time before my house comes to life...complete with sound effects. It amazes me how much more productive I feel when I get up that extra hour or so earlier and have some time to myself doing something I truly enjoy. Now if I can just find that magic again and hope my alarm clock and I can get along for a whole month.

I'm done! (kind of)

2008-09-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't finished writing another book. I haven't even finished editing another book. Instead, I finally finished with my mother-in-law's basement. My husband and I moved her into the house next door in July (yes, this is a good thing!) and immediately started finishing off her basement to give her more space for the things she loves, specifically her crafts and sewing. Knowing that our time would need to be spent helping her move and prepare her other house to sell, we made the decision to hire a contractor.

Overall, the contractor was okay, but.... Let's just say, I'm used to running the job myself. When we finished off our own basement, I hired all of the subcontractors, bought and ordered all of the supplies. I did everything from sweeping up after my brother while he and my dad were framing the basement for us to screwing in drywall. And let's not talk about painting. I'm more experienced than I would like to admit...and I have the wardrobe to prove it.

I had hoped that using an experienced contractor would make this process easy this time, but it wasn't to be. Instead we stumbled over one delay after another. What took my family four weeks to do, the contractor took more than twice that long. Now, I realize that eight to ten weeks is pretty normal for finishing off a basement, but I'm not a very patient person. This is why when our contractor didn't show up for the last day of the job, my husband and I went over to Mom's house and finished it ourselves. The contractor had a valid reason for not being there, but we were ready to be done.

Now we just have to move everything into the newly finished basement. Have you ever seen what a ton of fabric looks like? Believe me, I won't need to hit the weight room for a work out for a while yet.

Small world

2008-08-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

I love books, so I knew that I walking into an LDS bookstore with a credit card could be ... well... dangerous. I decided before starting my book tour in Utah that I would be really good about not buying any books, at least not until I had a chance to decide which ones I really wanted.

After hanging out with Jeri Gilchrist (pictured with me and David Wooley), I knew that I had to get her book. Jeri is so much fun and I have heard wonderful things about her new book, Shadow of the Crown. Another book I was determined to come home with was Servant to a King by Sariah Wilson. I was lucky enough to hang out with Sariah on the first day of Booksellers and it was so great to get to know her. After visiting with so many incredibly talented authors, I wasn't sure which other books I might want to bring home for me and my family.

During the excitement of Booksellers, I had forgotten that for the better part of the summer, my fifteen year old daughter had been harassing me about buying her some books. Not just any books. She wants the sequels for a particular book she had been given when the summer began.

Since we don't have an LDS bookstore near us, I told her that I would buy her the books she wanted when I went to Palmyra, NY for my book signing there during the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I called her up to find out the titles only to find that Latter-day Harvest was sold out. I then promised her that I would buy the books when I went out to Utah for Booksellers. After all, I knew I would be visiting more than a dozen LDS bookstores so surely I could find her the books she wanted.

I visited seven bookstores on my first day in town, and completely forgot about my daughter's request. I then spent the next two days at Booksellers having a blast...and still forgetting about the books my daughter wanted. When I talked to her on Thursday night, she reminded me of her request. I told her to text me the name of the books, or at least the name of the author so I could get them for her. She then proceeded to tell me the author was David G. Woolley. My response, "Oh, you mean the same David Woolley I was hanging out with today?" Her response: "WHAT?!?!" Okay, so I have a little trouble with my memory.

I had already thought how ironic it was that when talking to David, I discovered that he loves soccer. I mentioned that my husband used to play semi-pro ball in Utah and found that David knew many of his former teammates.

Later that evening I went to visit some friends that I've known since college. While there, I relayed the story of how annoyed my daughter was that I had been hanging out with one of her favorite authors without realizing it. My husband's childhood friend, Greg, looked at me confused. He then responded, "That's right. David Woolley does write books." Come to find out that they know David quite well. David has coached two of their sons in soccer. In fact, Greg has told David about his old roommate (my husband) who played soccer at BYU and then played semi-pro. Yes, David, everyone is telling you about the same person. Talk about a small world!

The good news is, I did manage to find the sequels to David's first book in his Promised Land series and bring them home to my daughter. Needless to say, I haven't seen her much since I got home!

LDSBA Booksellers

2008-08-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

I admit it. The LDSBA Booksellers Convention was something I looked forward to all year. I pushed aside the guilt for abandoning my family for a week, got on the plane, and didn't look back. Well, okay, I did call and check in on the kids and my husband a few times...and I definitely remembered them in my prayers as I considered how lucky I am to have a family who supports me...but other than that I went out to Utah and played the whole time.

This was only my second time to go to booksellers, and I have to say that this year was even more fun than last year. And I had a lot of fun last year!

This year I was known as the author who wrote the pink book aka Royal Target. Kat Gille and Rachel Langlois (pictured above) are two of the people who put a lot of effort into helping my pink book come into being. Kat is my editor and Rachel does a great job on the marketing and promotion end of things.

Royal Target will be released in October and you can tell by the cover that it is a bit different from the other books I've written before. It's still suspense, but this one just feels more FUN than the others I've written in the past.

When I first saw the cover I was a bit concerned that the men would be hesitant to read the pink book, so I began telling people that "Real men read pink." It didn't take long before one of the real men at the convention decided to prove me right. Clint Harrison from Garden Gate Bookstore in Vernal, Utah sat right down and picked up the pink book. In fact, he had already finished the book by the time I returned home to Virginia. And yes, he liked the pink book. :) So spread the word! Real men (and women) read pink!!!!

Surprise Packages

2008-08-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to interview the three very talented authors of Surprise Packages, recently released by Deseret Book. I admit I am extremely curious how three women can write a book while living in three different towns. Nancy Anderson is from Sandy, Utah, Lael Littke is from Pasadena, California, and Carroll Hofeling Morris from Green Valley, Arizona.

So ladies, tell me how you came up with the idea of writing together.

We were vacationing together in Moab, Utah, when Nancy said, “Why don’t we write a book together?” We sat down right then and brainstormed about what we wanted the themes of our novel to be. We still have the notes that Carroll wrote in aqua ink!

I know you three have vacationed together a lot. What’s your favorite vacation spot?

Our favorite place is Carlsbad, CA, but Moab, Utah, and Sedona, Arizona, are right behind.

I went to high school a few miles from Sedona. What did you enjoy the most there?

Carroll: The fantastic red rock scenery and the energy of the place. Even though it’s become incredibly commercial, there still is a grandeur and spirit about it that touches me deeply. I love parking off Red Rock Loop just past the high school at sunset. If you walk out to a vantage point and look east, you can watch the formations turn even more fiery as the sun goes down.

Lael: I especially enjoyed the cave dwellings we climbed up to. I liked thinking about the safety factor of being open only on one side so that you could always see what was coming at you. And I loved the view from up there, the canyons and streams and mountains.

Nancy: I liked the fantastic air and the fabulous company as well as the place.

I know Surprise Packages is the last book in your trilogy, The Company of Good Women. Tell me what makes your trilogy unique.

It’s the story of three women in three different parts of the country and their quest to become Crusty Old Broads—written by three women from three different parts of the country who are self-professed Crusty Old Broads! Readers praise it for offering a realistic—but hopeful—view of the issues faced by LDS families.

With such a successful partnership in writing this series, you must have all learned to use each other's strengths. What do you each consider to be the main thing that each of you contributed to this latest book?

Carroll: The technical part of merging text form all of us and making all the corrections on the galley proofs.

Lael: I had the great good fortune of having studied for many years with Helen Hinckley Jones, whom I and the rest of her students regarded as the best writing teacher in the world. (At last count, the old students we know of have produced well over 1,000 books.) So I passed along what I learned from her about structure and substance.

Nancy: I’ve learned so much from Carroll and Lael through the last two books we didn’t have to make anywhere near the amount of changes on my manuscript as before!

How long did this book take you to write?

Carroll: About a year, which was four months past the deadline our editor gave us. Aargh, as Deenie would say. We were wiped out after meeting the deadline for Three Tickets to Peoria and we were starting from scratch. We had a structure to work from but nothing—nada, zip, zero—on the page. That, plus the complexities inherent in a book written by three co-authors, put us way behind. But we’re very happy with the way the book turned out and the early response to it.

Lael: ‘Nuff said.

Was this one easier to write than the first two, or did you find it difficult to tie up all of the details as you concluded this trilogy?

Carroll: We’re all “big picture” thinkers, so keeping track of all the details over three books—names, dates, events—was a challenge. But the greater challenge was bringing home the three storylines in a way that would satisfy us and, more particularly, the readers. For me personally, book three was easier to write than book two, because my character, Erin, was moving past the trauma of her divorce from Cory, and I got to write the romance between her and Vince.

Lael: After we got going, I found the last book a bit easier than the others because we had the characters set in our minds by then and didn’t have to work too hard to figure out how they’d react to a new challenge.

Nancy: I agree with both Carroll and Lael. And I found the third book easier because I have learned so much. But I struggled with not including every thing I wanted to readers to know about all the characters who have lived in my head for the last four years.

What is your favorite part of Surprise Packages?

Lael: Gradually bringing Juneau and her husband, Greg, closer so that eventually they “speak the same language.”

Carroll: The romance between Erin and Vince Gerlach. Much of the Erin material is quite serious and dramatic, but the romance was fun to write.

Nancy: Deenie discovering that being a Mormon woman raised in Utah doesn’t make her better than other people. She learns a lot about herself and other as she sees life with this new self-awareness.

What age group do you think your books appeal to the most?

Carroll: Women from the twenties onward.

Lael: I’d say thirtysomething and beyond.

Nancy: The most interesting responses I’ve received have been from readers 65+ who consider themselves Crusty Old Broads already and feel they have found a voice in our books.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

That no matter what situation a person is in any moment, the story isn’t over yet. Never, never, never give up—on others or on yourself!

Do you three have a new project in the works?

We have an idea for a book that will have the same format as the series—we’ll each write from the viewpoint of a character. It’s a stand-alone novel set in Powell, Wyoming, during World War II. But it is on the back burner while we’re working individual projects.

Finally, have you decided if the three of you qualify yet to really be considered "Crusty Old Broads?"

Carroll: The answer to that is on our blog: crustyoldbroads.blogspot.com: In our trilogy, "The Company of Good Women," a COB—a Crusty Old Broad—is a woman who, in the face of whatever life sends her way, "pulls up her socks and goes on." We all feel that we’ve pulled up our socks many times!

Lael: I’m old enough now that if I haven’t achieved Crusty Old Broadhood, I’ll never make it. I’ve had a lot of experience in pulling up my socks and going on. I like the description of a COB that Nancy provided in the first book: “’Like a fine sourdough bread,’ Willadene added. “Warm and nourishing with some real texture.’”

Nancy: As Deenie would say, “Heckuba! I think I was born a crusty old broad. Just without the experience and the wisdom.”

Now that we've all seen how this book came into being, check it out here!

Do real men read pink???

2008-07-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

When the cover for my next book arrived, I couldn't wait to open the file to see the finished product. Then I simply stared. Don't get me wrong. I like the cover...I just didn't expect it to be so, well, pink.

Royal Target is different than anything I've ever written before. It has been a lot of fun throughout the writing process, the main character proving to be an unusual balance between carefree and dedicated. I also thoroughly enjoyed writing about the CIA life that I was once a part of. (You can all decide how much is based on fact and how much is pure fiction.)

Since all of my previous books were targeted for the suspense genre, I was understandably surprised to see a romantic style of book cover. This is especially true since the past several edits of this novel had been focused on helping me beef up the suspense.

Still, I think the cover does capture the fun and romance that is a significant part of the story. It fits the book perfectly with one possible exception. Will the men who traditionally read my novels be willing to read this one...and will they dare be seen in public reading a pink book? I'd love to hear all of your opinions on this one!

Summer Reading Challenge

2008-06-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

I am probably crazy for doing this, but I'm going to try to join the Summer Book Trek. This summer is already incredibly hectic, but what can I say? I love to read.

Here are the books I'm hoping to start with, not including Royal Target and Lockdown (my two novels that I expect to read through one or two more times as we work through the final edits):

Fool Me Twice by Stephanie Black

The Ten Cow Wives' Club by Joni Hilton

The Operative by Willard Boyd Gardner

For those of you who are interested in joining in on the fun, check out LDS Publisher's site here.

Spring

2008-04-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I was out running errands and came home to pick up one of my teenage daughters. She came out with a look of wonder on her face and then gave me a wry grin as she approached the car. As soon as she climbed into the passenger seat, she shared what had caused her to look so puzzled when she walked outside. She thought it was snowing...in Virginia...in April. I know some of you out there occasionally see snow in April (I remember the sensation from my college days in Utah) but it doesn't happen here. The source of the confusion, the pear tree in our front yard. The white blossoms have started to fall, and the breeze had kicked up and taken a good number of them from the tree making the pedals look like snow.

As I considered how much I enjoyed the look of my house with that pear tree in bloom, I couldn't mind too much that it was losing it's blossoms because the cherry trees in several nearby yards were now coming into full bloom. I love the Washington, DC area during this time of year as it comes alive with color. In fact, when my husband considered briefly taking a job outside of Virginia a couple of years ago, the thing I thought I would miss the most here (besides my friends) was the dogwood tree in the backyard.

Year after year I look forward to seeing it wake up each spring, first with beautiful white blossoms and then with brilliant green leaves. I think those two or three weeks that my dogwood is in bloom reminds me how quickly time passes and how I need to enjoy each moment while it is here.

I've always been the type of person who is planning for the future, and I often forget about the present in the process. So as spring is in full force here in the shadows of the nation's capital, I'm planning on enjoying every minute of it. I hope all of you do too.

Sirens

2008-04-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

A fire truck raced by me today with its sirens blaring when I was on my way home from the store. My first thought was "please don't let it be headed for my house." Quickly following that was concern for other family members that weren't at home and friends and neighbors.

I know some people see emergency vehicles on their roads often, but here in suburban Virginia they are not terribly frequent, especially in the middle of a weekday. Another thing that heightened my concern was the direction the fire truck was traveling. It had clearly come from the station to the east of me, and my neighborhood is one that is served by two stations. Rarely does this particular department go further west that where I live. It did today.

As I watched it travel at high speeds past me, a police car pulled onto the road, also with its sirens on. My concerned heightened as I considered that they were headed toward the high school where my two oldest children attend. Being an overprotective and sometimes paranoid parent, I did what anyone would do. I passed the turnoff to my house and drove by the high school just to make sure everything was okay. To my relief, the only emergency vehicle in sight was the deputy's car that is always parked out front.

I headed back home, still with a prayer in my heart for whoever had called those emergency vehicles. As I sat down to start working on another novel I thought about the many situations we have faced in my area over the past few years. The sniper attacks were perhaps the most stressful although 9/11 certainly probably ties with it. Then there are a few personal incidents when friends and family members were taken to the hospital, some surviving, some not. As I tried to turn my focus to more positive thoughts I realized that perhaps I spend too much time thinking about suspenseful situations. Then again, truth is usually stranger than fiction.

Inspirations

2008-04-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

The funeral is Saturday. I didn't know Justin Whitaker personally, or if I did, he was one of the many nameless friendly faces in the halls of the high school where I coach. Justin's reputation however has taken on a life of itself over the past two years. He had cancer. Justin was a bright young athlete, a friend to many and an inspiration to all who knew him or even knew about him.

He lost his battle with cancer last week at the age of 18 and the green ribbons the students wore to remember him have been prominent around school. The students have lost one of their own, but they have come together to remember him and support those closest to him. Some days have been more difficult than others since his death. His long-time girlfriend watched prom invitations get handed out knowing that the dress she had already bought would not be seen by Justin. This young woman and so many others at school have shown such strength and courage that it's difficult not to admire them.

Today I walked the halls of the school to see many wearing Virginia Tech t-shirts, some with green ribbons pinned to them. Today is the first anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting, a day that is close to all of us here in Virginia. As my heart aches for those who have lost loved ones, I find myself drawing on those emotions as I prepare to start writing yet another book. I don't know what will come when I sit down at my computer. I only know that these everyday heros will continue to feed my characters' emotions and refuel my well of ideas. I can only hope that those who inspire me will all find their happily ever after.

Visiting Arizona

2008-03-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a whirlwind visit to Arizona for my sister's wedding and I still can't believe how much fun I had. I had two booksignings on Saturday, first at Seagull Book in Mesa and then another one at the Deseret Book in Chandler. Seagull Book was having their Celebrating Sisterhood day, complete with ongoing raffles and giveaways. The manager is one of the nicest people. She and her staff made me feel so welcome even though they were incredibly busy during the first hour or so.

I also had the added bonus of meeting Kerry Blair whose book signing overlapped mine. For those of you who have met Kerry, I'm sure you know what an absolute sweetheart she is. I had gotten to know her a little bit through e-mails, but it was simply wonderful to meet her in person. In fact, Mary Walker (above center) who is in one of our e-mail groups (Forever Friends) was kind enough to come visit both of us at the store and bring her camera. Now I have proof that I was in the same room as Kerry!

At my second signing, I walked in just as a customer was looking at a copy of Freefall. Talk about making me feel good! Of course, she had me sign it for her which made me feel even better! I then found the area where my display was set up, complete with a six foot tall poster hanging from the ceiling behind me. The staff members were wonderful and by the time I finished, I was already making plans to try to visit both stores again in the future. It's always nice to leave a signing (or in this case two signings) and have a touch of writer's cramp!

Camping at the White House

2008-03-23T06:41:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I experienced something I had never done before. I went with a few friends to camp in line to get tickets for the White House Easter Egg Roll. Now, when I say "camp" I mean it in the literal sense. We had tents, sleeping bags, blankets and chairs. So did the hundreds (literally) of other people who were in the line that circled the elipse in front of the White House and spilled out onto the side lawn.

There was a great sense of comraderie, people visiting with those nearby, children running around in the grassy area at ten o'clock at night, card and board games being played everywhere. Even the bicycle cops and park rangers were friendly as they patroled the area, greeting the campers as they made their rounds.

As the seven o'clock hour approached (that's AM), everyone had to break camp and many were in the process of eating breakfast and beginning to form the line to receive our tickets. On the first of my multiple trips to the van to load up, I noticed an older man sleeping on the sidewalk. I remember wondering if perhaps I should wake him up so he wouldn't miss out on getting his tickets. When I passed him a second time, I noticed that his blanket was a bit tattered, and he was using a backpack of some sort as a pillow. The thought occurred to me that he wasn't one of the many who were camping out by choice, but rather he was sleeping on the street because he had nowhere else to go.

I was considering what I might be able to do for the man when I returned for the third time. I couldn't help but smile when I noticed a woman placing a brand new package of donuts, some water bottles and other food at the man's side. While he slept, she quietly returned from where she came leaving the offering for the man she had never met. With a nod of approval, I passed by grateful that the spirit of Easter is still alive and well.

Springtime

2008-03-12T05:51:00.001-07:00

I love the spring. The birds start singing outside of my window again, the plants that have been dormant throughout the winter begin to pop up through the fertile soil. The swim season that I dedicated my winter months to becomes a cumulation of fond memories and my time once more becomes my own.

I start thinking about all of the plot lines that have been developing in my mind just waiting for this time of the year so that I can sit down at my computer and really let them take shape. Then I remember about taxes.

Generally filing my income taxes aren't that complicated. I plug all of the numbers in, I e-file and wait a week or two for my refunds to appear in my bank account. Unfortunately, it isn't always quite that simple. You see, over the past few years I have been collecting people, friends and family, that I help with their taxes. I don't do this as a business or anything. It's just one of those friendly offers of, "Hey, maybe I can help you out with that." Am I insane or what???

Last month I finished my taxes along with my sister-in-law's and my neice's. A few days later my nephew arrived to work on his, which were thankfully very simple. My mother-in-law made her appearance on Monday. Anticipating her visit, I had to finish up the taxes for my father-in-law's trust. Then of course there are the tax relief papers that need to be filed, estimated taxes, etc., etc. I could go on, but you get the picture.

My list of tax filings I have yet to complete is down to only three. If only those birds would stop chirping outside of my window, maybe I could concentrate and get them all finished. Oh yeah, I love the spring.

Interviewed by Marsha

2008-02-29T07:59:00.000-08:00

I just thought I would mention the interview Marsha Ward did with me over on her blog. If anyone's interested, it's at www.marshaward.blogspot.com. It's kind of exciting seeing this interview pop up at the same time my newest reviews about my new novel are starting to hit the internet. Below are the links to the first two reviews on Freefall. So far, they're all good. :)

AML review

Meridian review

They're here!!!

2008-02-27T06:09:00.000-08:00

Yes, after weeks of waiting anxiously, my copies of my newest novel finally arrived on my doorstep. Ironically, the package was delivered when I wasn't at home. A friend had just started work yesterday and I had offered to watch her son so that she wouldn't have to deal with getting both herself and her four-year-old out the door during her first week. With this in mind, I spent the first part of the day at my friend's house.

I would love to say that this bit of service kept me from thinking about the impending arrival of my books, but I admit I had a few moments when I wondered if the UPS driver would think to put my package in a plastic bag to protect it from the falling rain. Thankfully, I have a very efficient UPS delivery man and my box was sitting on my front step in a large plastic bag when I got home.

I pulled the package inside, ripped away the wet plastic and rushed to my desk to grab a pair of scissors.... No scissors. Two pairs are usually in my pencil holder on my desktop, but both were missing. I pulled open my top desk drawer to find my third pair, the pair that I keep hidden from the rest of the family. Nothing.

Refusing to get annoyed at my children for borrowing my scissors and not returning them AGAIN, I pulled open my husband's desk drawer to borrow his. Again, nothing. Now, at this point I am wondering how I can have a family with six people in it and have four pairs of scissors disappear in a matter of a day or two. The only scissors I could find were the three pairs I had purchased at Costco a week before, all still safely guarded behind the thick plastic packaging. Of course, they didn't do me any good because I couldn't open them without... you guessed it... scissors!

Still too excited about my books to get annoyed at my children, I went into the kitchen for the kitchen scissors only to discover that they too were not where they were supposed to be. I did a quick search of the kitchen counters and finally gave up. Instead I ran up to my bedroom and found the last pair of hidden scissors.

Still wondering who in my family is hording the scissors, I opened up the package and pulled out my newest creation. The cover looked even better than I had imagined, and I am looking forward to stealing a few minutes (or hours) in the next few days to read my book and see how it turned out.

I just hope everyone else doesn't have this much trouble getting to a copy of my book!

My books are coming...

2008-02-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

...next week. My impatient self couldn't take it anymore. I had to call my editor about a question on my next book and I broke down and asked the receptionist if she could find out if my author copies of Freefall had been shipped yet. Thankfully, all of the people who work at my publisher are wonderful to me, and she managed to find out that the books were shipped out and are due to arrive around the 26th.

If nothing else, this buys my husband a brief reprieve of listening to me say, "I want to read my book!" Okay, I'll probably still be saying it, but at least I won't run to the window every time I hear a delivery truck outside.

I know this may seem odd to some people, but I really look forward to reading my finished novels. Even though I read each of my books dozens of times during editing, I always love the moment when I have the actual book in my hands and I can see what ended up on the pages. The transition from rough draft to finished product is often so subtle that I sometimes forget how the latest version played out, especially since the editing was finished months ago and I've long moved on to other projects.

Now if I can only wait until Tuesday....

Freefall Reviewed

2008-02-20T14:15:00.000-08:00

I received an exciting e-mail today from my publisher that contained my first review on my latest book, Freefall. I braced myself as I started reading. Obviously I love my novel, but I'm always a bit nervous to see what reviewers think I could have done better. So far I have been extremely fortunate to have positive reviews on all of my books. Of course, some have been better than others.

As I began reading this latest review which posted yesterday on AML's website (http://www.forums.mormonletters.org/yaf_postst319_Abramson-Freefall.aspx), I was thrilled to see that it was entirely positive. Excited by the reception my novel had received, I e-mailed it to my husband. His response was almost immediate, and extremely humorous. He wrote back something along the lines of "Sure you're a good author and everything, but he didn't answer the really tough questions like will she make me dinner or will she ever find her desk under the mount of paper."

Maybe making dinner isn't my strong point, and yes my desk had been buried for the entire four months of swim season, so I could hardly do anything but laugh. Admittedly, I had spent several hours over the weekend clearing off my desk, and I fully acknowledge that my husband does his fair share of cooking and then some. My response was simply, "Hey, I can see my desk. As for dinner...." Is it too much to hope that he'll be willing to cook dinner tonight...again?

Freefall is out...I think.

2008-02-13T13:35:00.000-08:00

Aside from the thrill of getting a call from an editor saying that a novel is being accepted for publication, the best part of being an author is receiving fan mail. Finding out that someone enjoyed one of my books as much as I did always gives me a boost and definitely makes up for the long weeks and months of writing and editing that take place to create a novel.

The thing that has struck me this week is the fact that I am beginning to get e-mails about my newest book, Freefall, and I have yet to even see a copy of it. This isn't a new occurance, but I find humor in the situation just the same. One would think that the author would be one of the first people to see a new publication, but that simply isn't the case in my genre. The books ship out to the stores to get them on the shelves about a week before my author copies are sent to me. The fact that I live on the opposite side of the country from my publisher adds to the number of days I have to wait to see my latest creation.

So now I play the waiting game, each afternoon hoping that the UPS truck will drive down my street and deliver the package that I am waiting for. In the meantime, I'll keep my fingers crossed that people in the West are reading my book and enjoying what I've written as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Districts

2008-01-28T19:16:00.000-08:00

The last few days have flown by in a blur. The district meet for my high school swim team was on Saturday night so my co-coach and I have been diligently working toward preparing our team for the big event, all the while hoping and praying that our girls' team would perform at the level we knew they were capable of to bring home the district championship.

My focus was somewhat scattered with trying to prepare and also going about my normal daily activities. As I struggled to keep up with everything, a few simple moments stood out to remind me how lucky I am. One day late last week my husband gathered his keys and informed me that he was going to the grocery store. This is a chore I normally take care of and by the state of the refrigerator, I clearly had neglected my duties over the past week or so. He teased me a bit when he said that he had to go since his wife kept forgetting. In his typical good-natured way, he did the shopping so that I would have one less thing to do as I prepared for the big meet.

I was thinking of how fortunate I am to have such a wonderful husband when I stopped by the nearby cemetery. My brother-in-law died a few years ago at only 32 years old and is buried a short distance away from where my friends' recently buried their twin 15-month-old sons. I can't say why I've been drawn to visit the cemetery so much recently, but each time I drive that way I find myself stopping in and driving to the back to visit these two gravesites. I look down at the simple markings and marvel at how tragic their deaths were and how lucky I am to have my family healthy and whole.

My husband had everything well under control when I left for the meet, and I remember resolving to enjoy the day. I was looking forward to the motivational speech that the team's captains had prepared and the girls were so excited about the possiblities. The girls won the first event, and then the second. There was a great photo taken after the conclusion of the second event in which the girls who came in first and second were hugging each other after the race. The winner was a senior captain, the second-place finisher a freshman.

It was early Sunday morning when I arrived home after the district championship meet. I shifted the trophy in my hands as I slipped through the door and tip-toed up the stairs to check on my sleeping children. Once I was assured that they were all well, I looked down at the trophy and smiled at the many wonderful memories that had been made that night. My team swam so well and had so much fun cheering for each other. More than anything though, I was grateful to be home and know that my family was safe and all was well.

Whitney finalist???

2008-01-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

I received word that I had been nominated for a Whitney award for my book, The Deep End, in early August. Another author for whom I have a great deal of respect had nominated me and e-mailed me to inform me of the nomination. She went on to tell me how much she had enjoyed my novel. I was floored! I didn't know what a Whitney award was at the time, but it sounded good.

While in Utah a week or so later, I met some authors from LDS Storymakers at the LDS Booksellers convention. They explained that the Whitney awards are a new program that recognizes LDS authors. Authors have to receive at least five nominations to be eligible for the award, and then a panel decides which five books in each category will be the finalists.

With that information I pretty much discounted the possibility of becoming a finalist. It was great that I was nominated, especially by another author, but since many people I go to church with don't know that I write (unless they happened to see my name in a catalogue or a copy of my book at an LDS bookstore), I figured I would end up with just the one nomination.

Several weeks later I received some more good news when an e-mail informed me that I was in the top ten of the Deseret Book's bestseller list. I was excited about this milestone even thought I have tried not to let such things take too much importance. Instead I try to stay focused on writing stories I enjoy and hoping that others will enjoy them with me.

This morning I received a string of e-mails relaying the information that the finalists for the Whitney awards would be posted this morning at 7am MST. It was about 8:30 here in Virginia so I went about my business for an hour or so before I got back on my computer and checked my e-mail. I had one from another author who was understandably excited that she had made it as a finalist.

Curiosity got the best of me and I decided I would see who else made the list. Since I didn't really expect to see my book on it, I started looking through each category, noting the books that I have read and others I am considering adding to my list of those I would like to read. I took note of the best novel of the year nominees, then the best new author books. I saw that a book I read this summer, Counting Stars, had also made it as a finalist in the Romance category. Then I got to the Best Mystery/Suspense category and stared. My book was the first one listed. (I'm sure this is because I'm first alphabetically, but I was still shocked!)

The other books in the category are all ones I have heard good things about and I amy truly humbled to find my book displayed beside those of several talented authors. After overcoming my shock of seeing my book on the finalists list, I find myself excited about all of the authors who are undoubtedly sharing the same euphoria that I am, the idea of being recognized for creating something worthy of recognition when the product is simply the result of doing something we love.

Welcoming 2008

2007-12-31T18:57:00.001-08:00

A new year is here giving us all new opportunities to evaluate our lives -- what we like and what we don't like about how we are living right now. While many of us consider making new resolutions on what we want to change in our lives, I hope we also consider what we want to keep the same.

My resolutions for this new year are much the same as last year's. I want to write a new book (or two or three). I want to do a better job at cleaning my house (or convincing my kids to clean it for me). I hope to do a better job of having family dinners every night instead of just a few nights a week. I also want to strive to keep my life balanced, giving enough time to my family while I pursue my personal interests.

Thankfully, the list of things I want to change in my life is far shorter than the list of things I want to keep the same. I love the fact that my family sets aside one night a week to spend together. My teenagers may complain about it as often as not, but it really makes a difference in how my children interact with one another.

I also hope to keep the lines of communication open between me, my husband and my children. I have been so fortunate to have a great family that I enjoy talking with. So far my older daughters have been good about sharing most things with me (often because they're afraid I'll find out anyway and they know I'll go easier on them if they are honest with me to begin with!)

Another thing I hope to maintain throughout the new year is my commitment to help others. Over the past few months I have rediscovered the incredible benefits from serving and the way that I benefit from my service to others far more than those I'm privileged to help.

So as I consider the new year beginning, I find myself planning to improve where I can, but mostly I'll feel truly blessed if I can have another year like the one we are leaving behind us.

Raising good citizens

2007-12-28T17:19:00.000-08:00

Over the past several days I have gained a heightened awareness of what a great job my in-laws did at raising their children. My father-in-law, a well-educated man who loved to learn, passed away several years ago, but we are fortunate to still have my mother-in-law living within an hour's drive.

I was talking to one of my brother-in-laws on the phone, and we got on the topic of charity. His opinions so closely reflected those of my husband's and of mine that it gave me cause to stop and think how we all came to believe the way we do. His attitude was simple. If someone needs something and you can help, then you help. I'm convinced that he and his siblings learned this lesson first hand by watching their parents.

My father-in-law used to visit a friend in a nursing home every Sunday after church, usually taking several of his children with him. He did this for years simply because he couldn't imagine what it would be like to be stuck in a nursing home without someone to talk to. I doubt many of his friends were aware of this service, but his children certainly learned what it was to quietly serve another when it was needed. Ironically, when my father-in-law was in his final months of life, he lived in an assisted living facility and was visited by at least one family member every day right up until the day he died.

While my father-in-law was well-educated, my mother-in-law didn't attend college until her own children were all out of the house. I remember her telling me once of a class she took at the community college. The professor asked each student to share what their greatest accomplishment was so far in their lives. Many of the students were young professionals and the answers were understandably worldly. My mother-in-law's greatest accomplishment in her mind was that she had raised all five of her children to be good citizens. The professor was a bit surprised by her answer, but ultimately said, "I can't imagine a better accomplishment than that."

As many of us consider making new year's resolutions, I find myself hoping that I can simply duplicate my parents' and in-laws' success...to raise my children to be caring, responsible citizens.

Teamwork

2007-12-17T06:46:00.000-08:00

The holiday season is a time that everyone has so much to do, so many people to see. We are all busy shopping, decorating, socializing, and serving others. For me, this is also the time for teambuilding. As a high school swim coach, I begin my season as we are ushering in Thanksgiving and most of my meets are completed before Christmas.

This year I have been especially gifted with a great group of teenagers who are not only talented, but have great potential to be exceptional people. Their team cheers before the meet are deafening, they cheer each other on throughout the meet, and they generally seem to truly like each other. Beyond their energy is the fact that their collective talents have combined to make them unbeatable so far.

As I was preparing for last Friday's meet, I felt the pressure of being undefeated and going up against a formidable opponent. Several kids were fighting illness and I knew they weren't likely to perform as well as usual. My boys team is rather small, and I worried when the meet was about to begin and one of my swimmers informed me that he was too sick to swim. Another was already inactive for the night after having his wisdom teeth out the day before.

Thought I'm not usually one for inspirational speeches, I made a point of addressing my team before the meet. The main thing I told them is that we couldn't afford any mistakes and that they needed to watch out for each other. Sure enough, not even halfway through the meet, one of my swimmers made a critical error that cost us seven or eight points. He felt terrible, and I realized that I might be able to put him in another race to make up for the error.

I dug out the rulebook and found what I was looking for. I could probably get away with putting him in another race and gain some points, but I would also be breaking a rule. No one would know, except me and my team. Even though we might lose, I knew I couldn't do it. After all, my main priority has always been to help these teenagers make themselves better people, not just better swimmers. Showing them that it's okay to bend the rules to win is definitely not what I want them to learn. Instead I informed my swimmer that swimming an extra event was against the rules and that we would just have to overcome the mistake. Throughout the rest of the meet, we tried to focus on the fact that it wasn't a lost cause. If they all worked together, they could still win the meet.

Great swims followed. These boys were determined to keep this one mistake from costing them their undefeated season. Swimmers achieved personal bests, relays worked together beautifully to win tight races. At the end of the meet, we all knew that our girls team had won. The boys on the other hand were within five points of the other team, but we didn't know if we were on the winning side or the losing side. As I approached the score table, I was surprisingly calm that we might have lost the meet. The team had already forgiven the teammate that had erred and they had united in a way many coaches dream of. Even more importantly was the knowledge that no matter what the outcome, we had earned it honestly.

The final score, my team 144, the opponent 140. We won the meet that night, and we won in all the other things that truly matter.

First snowfall

2007-12-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

Last night the rumors were already flying that we might see our first snowfall in Virginia today. Kids were running through all of their crazy superstitions (like wearing their pajamas inside out and flushing ice cubes down the toilet) to encourage the winter weather. As always happens when snow is in the forecast, the grocery stores were packed. Heaven forbid someone run out of milk or toilet paper during the day that the snow might last!

My friends who live in areas in the country that get a lot of snow don't understand what an impact a few flakes can have here. Schools go in late or release early. If there is enough snow in the forecast, they cancel altogether. The snow had barely started accumulating on the sidewalks today when the decision was made to release school an hour early. Why does this happen in suburban Virginia when six inches of snow doesn't slow down the school busses in other parts of the country?

One main reason is the heavy volume of vehicles that use the roads here. Not only do we have a lot of cars on the road, many are driven by people who are not accustomed to winter weather. Also, we don't always have the preparation that is common in some northern states. Our school busses aren't equipped with snowtires or chains. Snowplows and other equipment needed to treat the roads is used only on the main thoroughfares because we simply don't get enough winter weather to justify maintaining a whole fleet of such vehicles.

So, while someone in Montana or Idaho or upstate New York may watch the snow fall and simply see wintery weather, here in Virginia it will continue to be a magical day of wintery scenery and time off from school.

New Book Cover

2007-11-27T18:01:00.000-08:00

I generally love getting e-mails from my editor. For one thing, I've been blessed with a string of great editors who happen to also be nice people. Beyond that, each e-mail gives me something I need: advice, encouragement, or the next set of instructions on how to improve my current work-in-progress.

Today was an especially good day. My editor sent me a copy of my newest book cover. I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this particular image. This story was one I really enjoyed writing and was especially pleased with how it turned out. Seeing what it's going to look like makes this book feel so much more real! Of course, I expect the time will drag by until it comes out in February, but at least now I know what it will look like!

Time is money...except on black Friday

2007-11-23T03:02:00.000-08:00

Only once before had I dared to get up early and go out shopping on Black Friday. . . and I swore I would never do that again. I remember going into Toys R Us, the lines winding through the whole store so that you couldn't even walk down the aisles to find the empty space where the item you wanted desperately should have been. I remember the grumpy faces, the me, myself, and I attitude. Over the past few years, I have happily stayed in bed, enjoying the fact that I wasn't among the masses fighting over the last item in the store with the unbelievable price.

Unfortunately, with time memories fade and I forgot just how bad it really was. A friend and I were looking over the ads, thinking how we could get most of our shopping done in just a couple of hours before our children woke on the day after Thanksgiving. So I pulled up at her house at 4:45 this moring (already concerned that I had heard a neighbor's car leave an hour earlier) and we drove our minivans to the local Wal-Mart -- after all, we might need separate vehicles to carry all of those wonderful purchases.

Oh, how naive we were. We got separated on the way over there, but I wasn't worried. After all, how many cars would be at Wal-Mart at 5AM? Well, I honestly wasn't willing to count that high. The lot was nearly full. Two sets of deputies were on the scene in addition to the Wal-Mart security personnel to make sure that people didn't cut in line as the store opened. The line stretched down the full length of the store and around the corner. Ten minutes after the store opened, the end of the line finally came into sight.

By this time, my girlfriend and I had found one another and decided that early though it might be, we weren't completely insane. So we went to our respective cars and went home. Though the temptation to go back to bed was huge, I got online and did the next best thing. I managed to buy over half of the items I wanted at Walmart, several of which will be shipped for free to my local store where I can pick them up when there isn't a line that stretches out of sight.

So once again, I am vowing to avoid the stores on Black Friday. I may however consider the 5AM on-line shopping spree for next year. Best of luck holiday shoppers! And don't forget the holiday cheer!

And the truth is...

2007-11-09T18:29:00.000-08:00

Number 1, 2 and 3 are all true. Josi and Stephanie guessed correctly that number 4 isn't true, although there is a lot of truth in it. Since I worked for the CIA, I do have a lifelong secrecy agreement, but I only have to submit manuscripts and other things that I write that pertain to intelligence. My book, Freefall, which comes out in February, is the first book that had to go through the review process with the CIA. In fact, the reason my first books were about FBI and Witness Protection is because I could avoid this step!

As for the other statements, they are all very true. My sister used to be the personal assistant for the actor Bill Murray, so I have been to his New York estate and spent time with his family. While spending the summer in Caracas as a foreign exchange student, I usually had my foster sister carry my passport in her purse and twice we were stopped to show our papers. On one of those occurences, my foster sister was in a different car and the cops didn't believe that I was from the U.S. Even yelling at them in rapid English didn't completely convince them until my foster sister arrived with my passport.

As for the coke incident, it is completely true. I guess you could say I ended up Mormon because of a lie. One way or another, I'm grateful for the friends that helped me find my way into the church. I can't imagine how difficult life would be without an understanding of how much the Lord loves each of us.

I'm a liar - meme

2007-11-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

Josi Kilpack tagged me for this meme. I am supposed to list four things about me, one of which is a lie. I should tell you now that I'm not a very good liar, which is rather ironic since I used to work for the Central Intelligence Agency. (Yes, I really did work there. This isn't one of the four things I'm listing about myself.)

Okay, here is goes:

1. On the way to my uncle's house several years ago, I was invited to stop and visit the home of actor Bill Murray. My kids and I drove up for the day and hung out with Bill's family on his New York estate.

2. While living in Venezuela, I was stopped by the local authorities and nearly deported ... to Columbia. The authorities thought I had illegally entered the country from Columbia and that I was a native Spanish speaker. When I started speaking in rapid English, they thought it was just a ploy to convince them I was a legal resident. Only when a friend showed up with my U.S. passport did they finally let me go.

3. I joined the Mormon church because I didn't like Coca-cola...sort of. I was at a party and I didn't want a coke, but that was all they had. Then some of my Mormon friends said they couldn't drink coke because they were Mormon. I piped in and said that I was Mormon too so I could drink something else. My friends blackmailed me into going to church with them since I had said I was the same religion as them. A couple of years later I ended up getting baptized.

4. Like all former and current employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, I had to sign a lifelong secrecy agreement. Because of this, all of my novels have been reviewed by the Central Intelligence Agency before publication to make sure I didn't inadvertently give away any classified information.

Now that I've given you my list of things about me, which of these isn't true? I'll give you the answers next week. As for who I'm going to tag, I choose Michele Paige Holmes, Tristi Pinkston, and Stephanie Humphreys.

It takes a village

2007-10-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

Several times over the past week, I've heard the comment "It takes a village to raise a child." This comment is often followed by the phrase, "And it takes a village to bury one." In this case, we buried two.

Tragedies come in all shapes and sizes. Some affect only a few people, others concern millions. This week as the news has been all about the wildfires in Southern California, a family in my community experienced a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. Two young children, twin boys, drowned in a bathtub. What comes to mind first when reading this? Where were the parents? Who would leave young children unattended in the bath? These common questions led to a number of negative blogs and reports, harsh comments that could only add to the unbearable agony of the parents and family members of these young boys.

I heard of the accident shortly after it happened. The news literally took my breath away. This couldn't be true. These precious little boys couldn't be gone. I couldn't fathom how the accident had occurred, but I did know that I didn't have the whole story. Knowing the parents, I couldn't imagine the boys being left unattended, especially in the bath. Perhaps the reason I couldn't imagine it was because the reality was so completely different from what the news had led people to believe.

The twins hadn't been left in the tub. They had gotten there all by themselves. How they bypassed several safety measures, we aren't sure. What I do know is that the outpouring of love this family has received has been simply overwhelming.

Their hearts are still broken. This new reality is one they don't want to live in, yet they have experienced so much love and kindness and their home is constantly filled to overflowing with people wanting to help. The parents want to celebrate the lives of their children who were taken so early from this life and so many people want to help them remember the good times.

Friends and family have traveled from all over the world. Neighbors and acquaintances have bonded together, each offering their unique talents to give the family as much support as possible. No one can bring their beloved twins back, but perhaps together family, friends, neighbors, and yes even our little village, can lift them up as they mourn their loss and learn to heal and hope again.

Target Practice

2007-10-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

As I picked up my son at preschool today, the ground rocked from a round of artillery at the nearby military base. He stopped walking and looked up at me to ask, "What was that?" It took me a minute to figure out what he was asking about. After all, over the past dozen years I've gotten used to the sound of artillery in the distance and the ground shaking on occasion.

Until Luke asked the question, I hadn't thought about the fact that the firing ranges have been relatively quiet over the past few months. I can only guess that the drought has limited the military's ability to use some of the ranges for fear of wildfires. Last night it rained for the first time in weeks giving Virginia a little relief from the drought, and the Marines are clearly taking advantage of the wet fields.

As the ground shook again, I stood in the middle of the sidewalk next to my son's school and tried to find a way to put into words what was going on at the military base. After all, I'm a writer. I should be able to describe something as simple as an artillery shooting range to a three-year-old. Still, I found myself hesitant to use words like bombs and guns. It's not the kind of stuff you want to tell a little boy about when they're being fired close enough to rattle his school and house.

Before I managed to find an adequate answer, a teenager walked out of the school with his mom. Another round went off and the boy nodded in the direction of the base. "Sounds like the Marines are having target practice again."

Luke looked up at me and said, "Mom, it's target practice."

Gee, why couldn't I have thought of that?

Have you read a Whitney lately?

2007-10-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

I have been asked to blog today on the Whitney awards and the exciting news that ExclusivelyLDS.com is sponsoring this new award program which will now award cash prizes to the winners as well as trophies.

If you haven't heard of the Whitney awards, well, I hadn't either until August. In fact, the first time I heard mention of them was when I was notified that I had been nominated for one. When I was out in Utah for the LDS Booksellers Convention, the booth for the Whitney awards was near my publisher's booth so I was able to ask about them. The Whitney Awards are brand new, beginning with books published in 2007. Here are the basics:

To be eligible for a Whitney award, books have to have been published in the calendar year of 2007 and had to have been written by an author who is LDS. (A list of eligible books can be found at www.ldspublisher.blogspot.com.) The categories a novel can be nominated in are Best Romance/Women' s Fiction, Best Mystery/Suspense, Best YA/Children' s, Best Speculative Fiction, Best Historical, Best Novel by a New Author and Best Novel of the Year.

Books have to receive at least five nominations to be considered for an award, and anyone can make a nomination as long as they don't have a financial interest in the book they are nominating. Apparently the five books that receive the most nominations in each category will be considered finalists, and then a committee will decide on the winner. More information can be found at www.whitneyawards.com.

So, if you've read a good book lately written by an LDS author, now's your chance to cast your votes (or nominations.)

As Apostle Orson F. Whitney said: We shall yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own. . . . In God's name and by His help we will build up a literature whose tops will touch the heaven, though its foundation may now be low on the earth.

Finding balance

2007-10-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

Are today's kids overscheduled? I met with my potential swim team a couple of weeks ago, and was innundated with the typical questions of how I will deal with conflicting schedules between my high school practices and the local year round team practices. I generally try to find a good balance so that my swimmers feel like they are part of my high school team and still don't overtrain. Still, it got me thinking.

Some of these swimmers are already attending ten practices a week. Added to that, they will be required to attend three high school practices each week. Of course, they also have the hours they spend at school and doing homework. It seems like every minute of their day is jammed packed, and many of these kids have had their schedules dominated by structured activities since early childhood.

While structured activities are certainly important, is today's society taking away our kids' childhoods? Homework starts in kindergarten where I live. When I was a kid, we didn't have any homework until 3rd or 4th grade. We were excited about getting homework because that meant we were big kids. We participated in sports, but we had a different sport for each season. Year round teams meant you were trying to make the Olympics. Today, kids almost have to participate on year round teams if they want to compete even at the high school level.

When my oldest daughter decided to go out for the JV cheerleading squad at school, her friends all thought that I wouldn't let her since being a cheerleader would prevent her from being on the swim team. They assumed that since I am the swim coach that swimming is my top priority. Thankfully, my daughter knows that I want her to be active in things that she enjoys regardless of whether it's something I'm involved in or not.

Still, I worry about how many teenagers I talk to who are going out for sports because their parents are making them. Many parents feel that they have invested too much money in a particular sport to let their child give it up. Maybe they don't realize that the rewards are supposed to come from their child's happiness, not some bragging rights of how good their child is or how far they have gone in a particular activity.

This fall I have one daughter on the JV cheer squad, one daughter playing rec. soccer, and another daughter in piano lessons. I enjoy watching each of my girls in their different pursuits, but the thing I enjoy most is looking outside my window and watching my little ones running out in the yard with the neighbors. I love seeing the kids at play, using their imaginations to have fun. These are the days that they'll remember, the ones when they were simply allowed to be kids.

Hi, Luke

2007-10-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

Wandering the halls of the local high school is a normal occurence for me. No, I'm not a teacher, or an administrator. I don't substitute or volunteer. I'm just a coach. I've been coaching the swim team there for more than a decade and during that time I have been a frequent visitor at the school, often with a child in tow.

Yesterday, after picking my son up from preschool, I had several errands to run at the high school. Coincidentally, he attends preschool in the early childhood education classroom at the same high school where I coach. Together we went into the front office where one of his preschool teachers serves as an office aide. She saw us walk in and shouted out a greeting to Luke as we passed by. As I approached the finance office, the athletic director's assistant heard my son's little voice and called out for him to come visit her. He did. After all, she always has candy on her desk.

We then left the office, my son carrying his funsize candy bar in his little hand, and headed through the cafeteria where a lunch shift was just beginning. Every five seconds someone shouted out, "Hi, Luke!" Though Luke is often on the shy side, he waved at several of them, saying "hi" to others. After my three-year-old greeted several of his teenage friends (and one of my swimmers greeted me), we went into the library so I could check out some needed equipment. We were barely in the door when someone sitting at a nearby table looked up and said, "Hi, Luke."

At this point I'm wondering what's going on. Granted this child has spent much of his life in the halls of the high school, but usually the greetings are from people I know, and it's usually my name being called out. My son only started preschool last week, and he is already being treated like the most popular kid in school.

I realize that he has already been in the high school yearbook a couple of times (the swimmers insisted he be in their team picture), and several of my swimmers on the boys team figured out early on that having a baby around was a sure way to attract girls, but still! As I'm laughing to myself about my three-year-old's sudden popularity, my oldest daughter appeared in front of us. She was in the library studying with her history class and offered to take Luke for me while I talked to the librarian. I gladly took her up on her offer.

With my hands now free, I took care of my business, learned how to use the equipment needed for a rules clinic that evening and headed back into the library where my son was happily sitting next to his sixteen-year-old sister. I scooped him up, thanked my daughter for her help, and headed for the door. I hesitated for a moment at the counter to thank the librarian. The words "you're welcome" were barely out of his mouth when the aide standing next to him looked up and said, "Oh, hi Luke."

Daily sacrifices

2007-10-18T04:15:00.000-07:00

Last night I was going on about my daily life, serving my one day a week in the library at church in case anyone running youth night needed anything. A friend came in trying to locate some electronic equipment for an upcoming activity and mentioned that her husband's plans for the evening had changed drastically. You see, there had been a hostage situation in a nearby county and the gunman was still a threat. She said it so casually, her concern tempered by experience.

Her husband isn't one of the front line police officers, but rather one of those individuals who works for the government in an area that requires him to put his life on hold every time a major emergency arises. Even though I used to work in one of these types of jobs, it still hits me every time something like this happens. Many of us watch the news and forget about the people living it first hand, not just the victims but the emergency responders who perform in so many roles.

We expect our armed forces to keep our country safe, we expect the police and fire departments to protect our communities. We even expect the intelligence community to be practically superhuman in ferreting out the information that will keep evil at bay. What we don't always think about is the training these people go through day in and day out, the mundane tasks that ensure important details will be available when needed, and even those extra hours they put in because of unexpected dangers that arise.

So this morning, I'm reminding myself that there are a lot of people out there worrying about their husbands or wives, sons or daughters, fathers or mothers. They are praying for the safety of these family members to return home safely, whether it's from a hard day on the job or months away at war. Maybe the rest of us can offer up some prayers, too, that peace will rein today and that the Lord will watch over those protecting our freedoms.

Thermostat Wars

2007-10-17T03:12:00.000-07:00

Every couple seems to have one person in it that is always hot and the other that is always cold. I sometimes wonder if the Lord planned it this way, sort of a test to make sure we can negotiate on the trivial stuff to help prepare us for life's bigger challenges.

Early in my marriage, my husband and I had the very logical discussion about how I should win this battle half of the year and he should win the other half. After all, if we kept the house a little warmer in the summer and a bit colder in the winter, it would help save energy ... and money. This wasn't to last however. After all, logic rarely wins out in relationships, especially once kids get involved. Believe me. My kids get involved...and they're on their dad's side.

I'm the one in my family that's always cold. I don't know if this is a result of growing up in the Arizona desert or genetics or just my own quirkiness, but I'm definitely prone to sneak over to the thermostat when no one is looking and turn it up by a degree or two. It never lasts. One would think that out of four kids, at least one would take after me. Not one. Everyone else in the house seems perfectly content to live inside a house that is just a few degrees warmer than a refrigerator.

You would think that with a background in intelligence I could win this battle, but no. I had to go out and marry someone who is both brilliant and observant (and constantly teaching our children to be the same.) These are the times when I have to remind myself that these are good qualities...just annoying sometimes.

Just how bad can it be? Fall is beginning and I'm already sleeping with three blankets instead of two. I'm rarely seen around the house without a sweatshirt on, even in July. I've even been known to keep an extra pair of socks in my desk drawer for when I forget to bring some downstairs from my room. After all, with a commute like mine I wouldn't want to have to backtrack...it would take a whole, oh thirty seconds.

So I sit here wearing my flannel pajamas, sweatshirt and thick socks and consider. The man who always wins the thermostat wars in my house is also the one who has to commute 90 miles each day for work. I only have to walk down the stairs. He actually likes the fact that I'm home to be here for our kids instead of being out in the workforce earning a second paycheck. He doesn't complain that the house is often messy because I spent all day playing with the kids or writing on the computer. He's supportive of my dreams, even those that seem out of reach, and often sacrifices to help them come true. Maybe this is why I really keep losing the thermostat wars. After all, what's a little sacrifice for the one you love?

Visiting Venezuela

2007-10-16T03:58:00.000-07:00

Marsha asked me what I had been doing in Venezuela when I had the lovely experience of no water for five days. She got me thinking, and remembering. Quite simply I was an exchange student.

I guess it was the overachiever in me (yes, I was chronic in my youth) that gave me this need to finish learning Spanish. I hated to do anything halfway, and taking a couple of years of Spanish in high school didn't seem like it was going to teach me as much as I wanted to learn. Somehow my mother understood this and when she stumbled across an opportunity for me to be an exchange student, she made it happen. I found out years later that she had borrowed the money to send me, and I'll always be grateful for her understanding my need to go.

I was seventeen when I left, having just finished up my junior year in high school. I went on a summer program -- after all, I wanted to learn Spanish, not give up my only chance at a senior year in high school! I flew all day to get from Phoenix to Miami and then stayed the night in a hotel in Miami. Believe me, this was a big adventure for a seventeen year old with sisters. Having the bathroom all to myself was, well, there simply aren't words to describe it.

My travel to Caracas was a little more complex, but that's a story for another day. Let's just say unexpected layovers, diverted flights, eventually arriving at six in the morning....

The family that took me in for my summer stay was incredible. They had two children, a daughter a year older than me who had just spent the school year in the U.S. and an older son who was married and out of the house. The parents spoke little English, but were kind, generous and patient. Their home could best be described as a three bedroom condo. It was on the sixth floor of the building that housed their jewelry store on the ground level. The bakery was across the street, the photo shop right next door.

I had lived in Phoenix, but never had I experienced this kind of city living, the kind where you went to the bakery for fresh bread every morning, or to the butcher for fresh meat each afternoon. The shops closed down for two hours each day for siesta and we went out every night (except when we watched Miss Venezuela win Miss Universe on television.) Gasoline was only $0.24 a gallon so travel was cheap. We, along with just about everyone else in the city, traveled to one of the beach towns each Friday afternoon, returning on Sundays.

Discos, restaurants, shops, and parties. Life was never dull and somehow through the whole experience I learned the culture and how to speak the language. I can still remember the morning I left. I stood out on the balcony staring out at the early morning sky. I was trying to remember every detail, the sounds of the city, the beauty of the sunrise, the feeling of belonging I had found with this family I now considered my own.

When I left that day, I had already starting making plans to return. I would try to get into the University somehow. Returning to Caracas was paramount in my mind, but it wasn't to be. I think deep down I knew I wouldn't be coming back, at least not any time soon. My early acceptance letter to BYU was waiting for me when I got home, and almost instantly reality struck. I wasn't going to see my family in Venezuela again.

I always feel a pang of homesickness when I see Venezuela on the news even though I know it is a changed country since I lived there. Still I doubt there will ever be a time that I won't look back on that summer abroad with fond memories. Someday, just maybe, I'll be able to go back and make some new ones.

Simply water

2007-10-15T03:45:00.000-07:00

Today is blog action day, the day I promised to write about something environmentally related. I thought about the many things in our society that we could do to improve our environment, but I kept coming back to the same thing. Conserving water.

This life-sustaining resource is simplistic. We keep it clean, we drink it, we use it in our daily lives. We don't even think about it...unless there isn't any. I grew up in the Valley of the Sun. To the uninitiated, that's Phoenix and it's surrounding communitities. Every year when I go back to visit, I see the commercials about conserving water. The advice seems so simple, yet someone is paying to drill it through everyone's head for a reason. Water is scarce in the desert, a most precious resource.

The commercials tell us simplistic things like not running a dishwasher that is half full, using lower water settings on the washing machine, not to run the water continually while you're brushing your teeth, and so on it goes. Each time I visit Phoenix, I am reminded of the reasons these habits are so ingrained in me. After all, I spent my entire childhood in Arizona watching these commercials. Okay, I didn't watch television all day, but I still saw plenty of commercials during my 18 years there.

Usually after a visit, I come home to Virginia and revel in the lush greenery and the fact that water is a resource that many take for granted. Watering lawns doesn't have to be monitored because it isn't necessary. My husband still laughs about the time I first came to visit his parents' home in Virginia and I asked why they didn't have a sprinkler system. When he stopped laughing at my question, he explained that they let the rain water the lawn. Only rarely did they have to do it themselves.

That rarity is here now, only we can't water our lawns. You see, my county is under mandatory water restrictions. That's right. Here in typically lush Virginia we have a drought. The reservoirs are dangerously low, rainfall is practically non-existent. The lawns are turning brown and outdoor plants are dying off. Restaurants can't serve water to their customers unless it's requested. Prayers for rain are increasing daily.

I've been without water before, truly without it. When living in Caracas, a water main break caused the city to cut off water supplies to four major sections of the city for five days. I know exactly how much water it takes to fill up a toilet, what it's like to crave a shower but have to settle for a washcloth and a cup full of water, what it's like to not be able to drink anything that didn't come from a carton or a can even though you can't stand the contents. Perhaps it was this experience that gives me the understanding that I can go without electricity for days, just don't make me go without water!

When circumstances (or nature) deals us this kind of blow, all we can hope for is that we're prepared for it. We need to keep a basic water supply. Two weeks is ideal, but at least three days worth if at all possible. After all, if a natural disaster hits, that's usually how long it takes for help to arrive. We have to do the basics as well, just keeping our water clean. We need to make sure that we don't litter, that we don't dump harmful waste into our sewer systems. As a community, we need to take care to protect this natural resource daily. After all, we never know when the day will come that water is the most important resource of all.

It is my hope and prayer that none of us are ever truly without water. I also hope that we will all live as though today might be that day. After all, we don't know what the future will hold, but we still have to prepare for it.

Cleaning chaos

2007-10-14T05:16:00.000-07:00

I did it! Sort of. Now don't get too excited. I didn't finish writing another manuscript. My editor didn't call to tell me that they're accepting a novel I already submitted. No, my great accomplishment of the weekend is a clean house. Sort of.

To understand the significance of this accomplishment, let me help you visualize the normal state of my beloved home. I have a three-year-old...need I say more? Okay, I also have two very active teenagers, one of whom prefers to be anywhere but at home, and the other who prefers to hide in her room (I think her room is behind that door) to read books, draw, and pursue other solitary activities. The nine-year-old wants only one thing: to be outside playing with the neighbors. My husband commutes 90 miles a day, so he is understandably not likely to do a lot of housekeeping when he is home. (I'm grateful that he sometimes cooks dinner!) The result of these very active lives that intersect at my address is, quite simply, chaos.

People who live around these parts can tell you I'm not the sort that gets embarrassed if people drop by unannounced and find me sitting at my computer amidst a cluttered house. After all, why should I get embarrassed about getting caught living my normal life? Walking through the door is often an obstacle course, causing the visitor to pick their way through shoes, toys, and yes even broken airplanes. The antique cradle that sits inside my front door to hold my family's shoes is usually surrounded by flip flops, cletes and tennis shoes. The cradle itself is often empty.

My son's building project of the day is usually in the middle of the family room except on Monday nights when we insist everyone pitch in to help clean it so that we can have our weekly family activity nights. (By Monday nights, we usually have mulitple projects to clean up.)

So what changed my normally chaotic atmosphere this weekend? No games. That's right. Not one. No soccer games, no football games, not even a piano recital. We had the whole weekend with the kids at my command, list of chores in hand, and the threat that no one was leaving until I could see every surface in the house. As they started on their lists, I did mounds and mounds of laundry -- eight loads counts as mounds, doesn't it? Every time I came down the stairs after sorting yet another load, I could see a little more progress.

Sure enough, by the the time I went to bed last night, I could see all of my floors, the laundry was done, and the shoes were all in the shoe box. You know what this means, don't you? No one is coming over today. After all, they would probably think that they were in the wrong house! I heard about a sign not long ago that I need to get to hang by my front door. It reads something like, "My house was clean yesterday. Sorry you missed it." It fits, don't you think?

Broken Plane

2007-10-13T05:13:00.000-07:00

My son's plane broke. This shouldn't be a big deal. After all, toys break all of the time. (At least they do in my house.) Unfortunately, the minute the toy plane broke, it became my son's all-time favorite toy. When he asked me to buy him a new one, I tried to explain that we had gotten it from the museum gift store, that we can't replace it at the regular stores we go to. He's not asking for a new plane anymore. He's asking to go to the museum. He's three-years-old. Is this a good thing?

Yes, the beloved plane came from the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. The plane itself was only about five dollars, cheap by gift store standards. The museum isn't that far away... only about an hour drive from here (assuming no traffic, which happens from approximately 1am to 2am daily.) Entrance to the museum is free. The problem is that in DC parking is at a premium. Okay, I exaggerate. Parking is nonexistant (unless you really do go there around 2am, but that's too scary to consider.)

I had hoped that this obsession with the plane would cease, but every day since the plane broke my little one has asked to go to the museum. My next course of action was to explain that we can't replace every broken toy, especially one that was purchased so far away. I thought I was winning this argument until the rest of the truth came out. My son hadn't broken his plane, a sibling had. It was an accident to be sure, but the bottom line was that his plane was broken beyond repair by a big sister, and my son is devastated because apparently this plane has always been a favorite toy.

So now, I am contemplating making the drive into Arlington (down the road from the National Cemetery), catching the Metro (subway), and then walking with a three-year-old the 1/2 mile (or more) to the museum just because my son's plane broke. Summing it up, I will get to spend three hours in traffic, an hour on the subway, an hour at lunch in Arlington (not bad if you don't consider dining with a three-year-old), thirty minutes walking between the subway and museum, and an hour or so at the museum, and five minutes in the gift shop (because I am not buying anything else besides a new plane!) Then we also add in parking in Arlington, $4, subway fare, $6, toy airplane, $5, Tylenol for the headache and back ache that are sure to ensue, $3, spending time with my three-year-old alone in Washington, DC, it had darn well better be priceless!

The fiction vs. non-fiction brain

2007-10-11T05:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a non-fiction day. I wanted to work on my next novel. Really I did. I just made the mistake of starting on non-fiction activities too early in the morning and that completely ruined my plans. I don't know why I can't write fiction and non-fiction in the same day. Actually, it isn't just the writing. It's the living. If I start paying my bills, managing investments, and planning for the future, I get so entrenched in reality I can't seem to pull myself loose. This is definitely not a good scenario for a fiction author!

I know the reverse can be equally true. On the days that I get up early, start writing and really get going, wild horses can't drag me away from my computer. Okay, maybe a wild three-year-old can, but barely. On days like these, I lose myself completely in my fictional world. I start caring so much about these characters that were born in my imagination that I think about them all the time. The characters take on a life of their own. Their future is as unknown to me as it is to them, and I find myself typing faster and faster so that I can see what happens.

As for finding the balance between the fiction and non-fiction aspects of my life, that's an ongoing challenge. I find that the non-fiction side of my brain tries to be dominant whether I want it to or not. The obstacles that come up are endless, some of them unavoidable (feeding hungry children) and some which can be planned around (phone calls and surfing the internet.) For today, I'm going to find that story that's brewing in my mind...and take the phone off the hook.

Honesty and integrity

2007-10-10T05:59:00.000-07:00

Are we teaching our children how to be honest and develop integrity in their daily lives? I was forced to ask myself this question this morning when I went to talk to my daughter's interim cheerleading coach. We had gotten word that my daughter was going to be benched for today's game because she had a dentist appointment yesterday and had to miss practice. I promptly went in to see the coach (we'd cleared the appointment with the previous coach) and provided documentation for the missed appointment. The woman was extremely nice and said that she had been informed of why my daughter was absent, but that she was just waiting for the note from the dentist before she would allow her to cheer in the game. Logical, right? I thought so.

What got me wondering about honesty and integrity was the fact that the documentation is needed in the first place. I have been coaching high school sports for more than a decade and one thing I have found to be alarmingly true is that if the parents put their child's participation above all else, the child isn't the only one who is going to lie to get their way. Over the years, I have seen forged doctor's notes, forged school passes, and had parents straight out lie to me in order to convince me that their child shouldn't be benched. I should say here that fortunately I haven't seen much of this personally. Generally I coach terrific kids from great families. It's those few that don't have great examples to follow that I worry about.

The simplest lies, the seemingly harmless stretched truths can be devastating when seen through our children's eyes. If I have someone say I'm not home so that I can avoid a phone call, what am I teaching my children? If I write a note that my daughter is sick so that she won't have to participate in the activity she hates most in PE, I have taught her that lying is okay to get what you want. Kids face this kind of deceitfulness far too often, from the media, from their friends, and sometimes from the adults in their lives. These kids are going to be our future leaders. It's about time we all step up and take responsibility for our actions. We need to be willing to honestly say, "That was my fault," or "I was wrong." After all, if we want our kids to follow our example, we'd better start setting one.

Preschool

2007-10-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

The day I had been waiting for was finally here. The day that my youngest, my baby, would go to preschool for the first time. I foolishly thought that the three hours of uninterrupted time would translate into some productive writing time, but I should have known better. I was a bit nervous dropping him off. After all, my son, like many three-year-olds, doesn't particularly care to have Mom drop him off anywhere and then leave. I braced myself for the tears, which thankfully never came. He looked a little shell shocked when I left, but he didn't cry.

I got home, got the last of my children off to school, and then wondered what I was supposed to do now. Almost an hour passed before I realized that I didn't have to watch the Disney channel. I could watch anything I wanted on television. Well, I didn't want to watch TV anyway, but the point is that I could! I got on the computer, uninterrupted. I set an alarm on my watch so that I could write for a while without worrying that I wouldn't lose track of the time. (I do that sometimes, especially when I'm writing.) I even managed to do the dishes and get somewhat organized for a meeting I was conducting tonight. Still, I struggled to concentrate on anything for long. I couldn't get used to the absolute quiet in the house.

Still a bit nervous about how my little boy was faring at his first day of school, I left early in case there was traffic on the mile stretch of road between my house and the school. Before I made it to the preschool room, I got caught by a few acquaintances at the school, passed a few minutes chatting, and then eagerly slipped in the back door of the classroom. No one was crying. Definitely a good sign. I looked around, searching for my child, and he was nowhere to be seen.

Now, I have to give myself a pat on the back here that I didn't panic. After all, his older sister pulled the same trick five years ago. Wise to the ways of preschoolers, I peeked in the plastic tunnels and found my little boy playing happily inside with two darling little girls. Smart boy, huh? I told him it was time to go, he looked at his new friends, looked back at me and said, "Can we stay a while longer?" So much for him getting traumatized by his first day at school. Maybe tomorrow, I'll get adjusted too!

I'm Done!

2007-10-09T04:35:00.001-07:00

I'm done! Kinda, sorta, maybe. I signed up to participate in the book in a month challenge which ends today. Little did I know exactly what that would entail when I started. I began with a blank page on that first day a month ago with the goal of putting in roughly fifty pages a week. Since my last few books have been drafted in about a month's time, I was excited to go through the process with other writers to help cheer me on and that I could help encourage.

Not even a week passed before my goals changed drastically. My novel, Freefall, is coming out in the spring and it dawned on me that I had not yet been asked to abridge it for the audio book. I foolishly hoped that an abridgement wouldn't be necessary, but deep down I knew better. So, after checking in with my editor, I put my newest project (all 27 pages) on a shelf and started on the abridgement process. (If you want to see how painful it was, look at my earlier posts!)

I was just finishing that process when I received another novel that my sister-in-law had been reviewing. That led me to decide to do some editing on that one (Lockdown) and prepare it for submission. That was three weeks ago.

Here's where I should put a plug in about how you should never ask a question if you aren't ready to hear the answer. As I was submitting Lockdown, I asked my editor what was happening with yet another novel (working title Royal Hearts) that I had submitted a few months earlier. The evaluations were in, but only two were favorable. The third suggested some major changes. So, my book in a month challenge became a "submit two books in a month challenge" instead. My editor sent me the evaluations, which I looked over and tried to dissect. I rewrote the novel, sent it out to my sister-in-law for her invaluable suggestions and then rewrote again.

Yesterday morning, finally, I was able to send in the revised manuscript. Now I am keeping my fingers crossed (at least when I'm not typing) that the two novels I've submitted will be well received by my publisher. Whoever thinks it's tough writing a novel hasn't yet suffered through the long weeks, sometimes months, of waiting to see if the fruits of their labors will be realized. For those of you out there playing the waiting game, I feel your pain!

Predictions

2007-10-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

Last spring during the General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), my brother-in-law told a comical story of his four-year-old son, James. Somehow, James had made the connection that all of three members of the first presidency for the LDS church had first names that also belonged to characters on the show Thomas the Tank Engine. James eagerly looked forward to watching conference so that he could see Gordon (B. Hinckley), Thomas (S. Monson), and James (E. Faust.)

After receiving the sad news that James E. Faust had passed away recently, several members of the church speculated on who would take his place as the 2nd counselor in the first presidency. My brother-in-law came up with the sure fire way to figure it out. Looking through the first names of the remaining twelve apostles, he noted that only one had a first name that was the same as a character on Thomas the Tank Engine. Good luck in your new calling Henry! (I mean President Eyring.)