Showing Grace and a Big Announcement

By Nichole Giles

Last Sunday, a lady in Relief Society asked about my upcoming book release and, after hearing the details, turned to the woman sitting next to her and said, “Did you know Nichole’s a famous author?” The statement took me aback. My book hasn’t even been released yet. And though it’s at the printers even as I write this blog (release details to follow), even when it is in stores and on shelves nationwide (I hope) does that really make me a famous author?

Not really. The truth is, very few people will ever associate my face with that cover—or any other cover of a book I write—unless one of my books becomes a New York Times bestseller. And while I do have goals of reaching that list, I believe it takes a book of Twilight and Harry Potter proportions to connect book covers with author faces. At least for most people. (Maybe I’ll be the exception? I certainly hope so.)

But that doesn’t mean I won’t meet hundreds, or thousands of people in my travels, and those people will come to know me—the person—and my actions and behavior toward them will most definitely color their opinion of my work as an author. It may not be fair for people to think that way, but that’s one of life’s truths, so I may as well be prepared to always be gracious and kind to those I meet.

Grace is not something that comes naturally to everyone, but it is necessary in the life of an author to never forget the importance of first, second, and last impressions. That does not mean, of course, that I have to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe, but it does mean I should be conscious of how I present myself when making a public appearance. It means I should always be conscious of how I come across when I speak, and greet my fans, and when I discuss other authors and their books. It is imperative to my future that I come across as a good person, and an author who cares about the world and those in it.

In case you’re wondering why this topic is so forefront in my mind that I’d choose to blog about it today—the week of Thanksgiving—I actually do have a reason. And I have a big, new reason to be thankful. Mormon Mishaps and Mischief has officially gone to press. Yahoo!

Those interested in advance purchase can already order it online here, here, or here.

Because the book will be arriving in stores with only two weeks to spare before the big holiday, Cindy and I are in the midst of planning a whirlwind week of signings, starting off with an enormous launch party at Barnes and Noble in Orem, Utah on December 9th from 6-9:00 pm. We’ve also set up a second signing date at the Barnes and Noble in Sandy, Utah on December 19th, and since this one is a Saturday, we’ll be in the store from 11:00 am-1:00 pm. More dates to follow later.

Guess what? Everyone is invited. And when I say everyone, I mean you, your family, your neighbors, your ward members, friends you haven’t talked to since your school days, friends you talk to now, and total strangers you just met on the street.

The launch is going to be a party of massive proportion, and by showing up, you’ll have the opportunity to meet more authors than just Cindy and me. We've invited many of our contributors, and expect to see lots of them there, so this is indeed a rare opportunity. Come have your books signed, eat treats, enter drawings, win prizes and share a fun night out that you won’t soon forget. I promise you won’t be sorry you stopped by. And if you can’t make the launch, show up to one of the signings later in the month. We’ll be doing giveaways at all events in December.

To stay updated on scheduled events, be sure to check the LDS Humor blog regularly. While you’re there, become a follower and sign up for our newsletter. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Have a wonderful, incredible holiday, and don’t forget to share a few laughs with the important people in your life. Those people are the gifts for which we should truly be the most thankful.

Until next time, write on.

Nichole

Happy Thanksgiving!

By Trina Boice
http://www.boicebox.com/

Happy Thanksgiving! What a wonderful holiday…a whole day to eat to our heart’s content, play outside like a kid, relax on the couch like a potato, and tell our loved ones how much we appreciate them. And we get to take the day off work to do that? And everyone agrees that all dieting is off? Sweet!


Thanksgiving is all about family and giving thanks. To kick off this week’s noshing and thanking, I wanted to share a few fun ideas that will save you time so that your extra energy can be spent on writing more or hitting the stores on Black Friday!

• Cover the inside of a door with a large sheet of paper where visitors who enter and exit can write down what they’re grateful for.

• Share the ABC’s of gratitude by taking turns naming blessings from A to Z.

• Set out a white tablecloth with permanent markers at each place setting where guests can draw pictures of their blessings. Each year you’ll be able to see who shared the dinner together and where they sat.

• Write a letter to someone in the military who is away from their family during the holidays. You can do it for free in about 15 seconds at

• Print out some Thanksgiving poems to share before eating dinner at www.usathanksgiving.com

• Send a free Thanksgiving ecard to someone you appreciate at www.americangreetings.com and www.dayspring.com

• Take a Thanksgiving quiz to see how well you know your pilgrim history at:

http://lds.about.com/library/weekly/aa112802a.htm

* Make a cornucopia placemat by following instructions at:

http://familycrafts.about.com/od/thanksgiving/a/ThanksgivingPlacemat.htm 

* Look up free recipes to help you prepare your Turkey Day Feast at: http://www.recipes.alot.com/

• Follow these 10 tips for an eco-friendly Thanksgiving celebration:.  I'm sure Al Gore will write you a thank you letter.  http://environment.about.com/od/greenthanksgiving/tp/ef_thanksgiving.htm

• Read some Thanksgiving prayers at:
http://christianity.about.com/od/thanksgivingverses/a/thanksgivingpra.htm

• Find a ton of Thanksgiving crafts, games, recipes, and other activities to help you celebrate your Thanksgiving feast at: http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/thanksgivingtheme/a/101600a.htm

• Print out some fun hanksgiving Word Search games at:
http://homeschooling.about.com/od/holidays/ss/thanksprint.htm

* Download free Thanksgiving Day screensavers at:
www.tnpsc.com/thanksgiving.htm


May your stuffing be tasty

May your turkey plump,

May your potatoes and gravy

Have nary a lump.

May your yams be delicious

And your pies take the prize,

And may your Thanksgiving dinner

Stay off your thighs!

G.I.V.E. -- Writing Tips All Wrapped Up

Thanksgiving and Christmas, are my favorite holidays. One is about gratitude. The other is about giving--two very good things. With “Turkey Day” now only days away, I’ve started transitioning from what I’m grateful for to what I’m going to give. So, with thoughts of “giving” on my mind, I've created some writing tips, all wrapped up in the word GIVE.


• G is for GIVE yourself permission to be emotional. When you sit down to write, let your emotions flow. Don’t stop writing until you’ve given your all. You can edit and fine-tune your transitions later. Real emotion can’t be forced. If you hold back on the giving in the beginning, you might have a hard time trying to fake it later. Don’t miss out on the crowning emotion and raw energy that will make your piece stand out. Emote! Give way to your emotions.

• I is for IMAGINE the possibilities. In the beginning, it’s important to imagine all that is possible. This is about brainstorming. Don’t stop to evaluate whether or not your thoughts are good enough to keep. Just keep writing down ideas. Evaluate later. One writing coach suggests the following: “When you can't think of another word, wait a while. Often the most powerful idea will surface after you have cleared all the less valuable ideas out of the way.”

• V is for VERBALIZING your thoughts clearly using strong action words, correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. A sloppy presentation can cloud clever writing. It’s imperative to understand and apply correct grammar rules and proper punctuation. Pay attention to spelling. Even computer spellcheckers don’t catch everything. It’s worth the extra effort to check for accuracy. Verbalize with clarity using strong verbs and nouns. Personally, I’m working on this one. One idea is to circle all of the action verbs on your page. Come up with at least one alternative word and choose which one is best.

• E is for EDIT after everything else. This is tough for me. I write a paragraph and immediately I want to fix it. But that often wastes precious brainstorming time and emotional flow. Remember to EDIT at the end. As one writing tip expert advises: “If you worry about spelling, grammar, or how to sell your book while you write, you are writing with a dull pencil.”

Well, I know this isn’t the traditional, touchy-feeling GIVE list that we’re accustomed to seeing during the holidays, but I hope you feel thankful for the gift. Happy Turkey!

Sincerely,

Jodi Robinson, Author, “Women of Virtue”, http://www.jodimarierobinson.blogspot.com/

Public speaking

By Heather Justesen

Okay, so I've always been a bit of a wimp when it comes to standing in front of a big group and giving a talk--which is crazy, right? I mean, I've done it loads of times when I was in Young Womens and when I conducted in Relief Society in college, but the thought still scared me.

Then I started attending writing conferences and everyone I met was doing firesides and speaking at book clubs and Enrichment meetings. That's when I realized public speaking was a very real part of published author's lives.

And I was going to have to do it someday.

Gulp.

After I presented to high school students in my home town last week, the librarian (who is the sweetest person you ever met) told me I didn't look a bit nervous. Yay me!

Wish I could say I wasn't actually nervous, or that I didn't say 'um' about a zillion times. On the other hand, because I've been psyching myself up for public speaking for several years, I wasn't nearly as nervous as I expected to be. Many of the kids were honestly excited that someone from Fillmore could publish a book with a regular publisher, and get it into stores and everything. (There are lots of writers in my area with books in print, but very, very few who published through traditional channels--okay, I only know of one other, and she lives on the 'other' side of the county. If there are more out there, they're keeping that a secret.)

I admit I was tickled when several of the students (and a couple teachers) approached me to talk about writing, and I was able to get their names and email addresses to contact about starting a local chapter of the League of Utah Writers, which would be very cool since we're 70 miles from the closest chapter now. There are no writer's conferences within 100 miles, and I'm not aware of continuing ed classes in my area for writing. Hopefully we can solve some of those issues.

Here are a few obvious pointers for speaking in public that we sometimes have to remind ourselves about.

1) Be prepared. I know, I said the suggestions would be obvious, but it's amazing how many times I see someone get up to speak with only a few jotted notes. Basic notes worked fine for my 'how to write a story' presentation for middle school and younger because the kids were writing the story, but not for other presentations.

2) Target your audience. When I was in Kanab and Orderville this week I gave essentially the same presentation to both middle and elementary schools, but I targeted things for each group. And I learned where I need to tweak the presentation before going to San Juan to speak to their students in a couple of weeks.

3) Involve your audience. My high school presentation would have gone over a lot differently if I had been presenting only to people who wanted to be writers. Under the circumstances, before I present to a high school again, I'll make some tweaks to the presentation to try and draw the student in more. I think the way I did it went well enough, but it could have been better.

4) Just as I have to rewrite my books multiple times, we need to be open to reworking the presentations for future audiences. Yes, even speakers need edits.

5) Have fun. No, this is not impossible. If you're enjoying the presentation, those watching you will too. If you are nervous out of your mind, you'll make more mistakes and everyone will notice them. Don't apologize for being nervous or unprepared, brazen it out and see how confident you can appear. You might be surprised how many people you'll fool.

Rhythmic Writing

Rhythm can be found all around us. In music, poetry, and the beating of our hearts--just to name a few. But I have discovered a natural rhythm beginning to form in my writing.

My youngest child is in Kindergarten. This means that if I get all my chores and errands done before he leaves in the afternoon, I can have 2-1/2 hours of potentially uninterrupted writing time. I've been trying this, and what has happened?

I have found that my brain doesn't work top notch at this time. I don't know why, but I find myself, after an hour's time, staring blankly at the computer monitor with only a few paragraphs.

But after dinner, I'm pumped. I plug in my iPod, (which drowns out all background noises rather nicely), sit down at my computer, and in an hour have roughly four double-spaced pages. Creativity just comes to me better at this time of day more than at any other. So I've decided to go with my my body's natural creative rhythm, which is between the hours of 7 and 10:00 p.m.

Along with doing this, I have found that I can devote 1-2 hours a day to writing, and end up with roughly twenty pages a week, which I then send to my writing support group. (Support is the key here at this time, since I'm working on a rough draft.)

I have also learned that I like to write at a speed which will help me get my rough draft done fairly quickly (a few months vs. a few years) yet not so fast and hard that I get burned out.

This is the writing rhythm I'm discovering, and it works well when I keep in tune to my natural pace and rhythm.

What is your pace and rhythm?

What If?

We all make decisions, daily, and sometimes they're good and sometimes they are a little unfortunate. We learn from them, and hopefully we don't repeat our mistakes.

Sometimes in our more wistful moments, we might think, "What if?" What if we had taken a different class in college, what if we had married the first guy who asked us, what if we took that job in California, what if ... what if ...

We often decide that we're happy where we are now. Each experience makes us wiser, and when we weigh our blessings, we realize that we are truly rich.

Sometimes, though, we're plagued by the "what ifs" of failure. What if we get rejected, what if we can't really write, what if we're meant to always strive and never achieve?

There's another type of "what if" I'd like to talk about today.

What if you woke up tomorrow morning and decided that you were going to tell everyone you met that you are an author?

What if you ordered a whole bunch of business cards and handed them out?

What if you gave yourself permission to let your other projects slide for an hour and devote some time to your story?

What if you changed the subject when your aunt started criticizing your crazy dream?

What if you held your head a little higher, walked a little straighter, and spoke with more confidence about your goals and dreams?

We can't control when we'll get a contract. We can't control who will accept our manuscripts or when they'll publish them. But we can control ourselves. We can choose to honor our talents and our gifts. We can choose to listen to our inner voices, to follow our guts, to reach a little higher and stretch a little further. We can choose to be proud of what we do rather than feeling the need to hide it. We can choose to look to the future with faith.

Because what if all your dreams came true tomorrow?

Winner of $20 Gift Certificate

by Rebecca Talley

Woo hoo, we have a winner. The winner is . . . . Carrie Christina. Please, email me at rebeccaATrebeccatalleyDOTcom. I'll get your info and set up a gift certificate at Amazon to help with Christmas gifts ('cause books make the best gifts, right?). Congratulations!

Thank you to all of you for participating and helping me spread the word about Altared Plans. I appreciate your help!

Let's make this Christmas season the season of books!