Believing in Ourselves

I've been doing a little research in a book entitled "On Being the Creator of Your Own Destiny. One chapter tells we that we create our own beliefs. We can create beliefs that support us, or not.

I would like to add something. I believe that what we dream helps to make us what we are. Dreams fill our imaginations, and it is the imagination that gives us power to believe that we can become that which is our destiny.

Bernard Edmonds said, "To dream anything that you want to dream; that is the beauty of the human mind. to do anything that you want to do; that is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test you limits; that is the courage to succeed.

In my book, Prince Etcheon and the Secret of the Ancient, I believe these very things are proof of his destiny. First he is given the dream, then the strength of will, and finally the trust of those who have prepared him, as he finds himself battling the evil tricks of magic in order to save his people.

His mentors include two Great Danes, a panther, a two-headed lamb, an owl, a horse, a beautiful princess, and the ancient of trees. What they teach him makes him more powerful than the evil and twisted wizard he must battle in order to reach the kingdom he must save. But it's not only the wizard he has to contend with. An equally wicked King, who holds his mother and father prisoners, watches for his arrival.

Now, I would like to give a copy of "Prince Etcheon and the Secret of the Ancint" to someone. But who will it be. If you are interested simply e-mail me at bjarnold@infowest.com

Thank you for visiting. and because my Visiting Treachers are coming in a few minutes and I'm still at the computer in my pj's, I think I had better go get dressed

JoAnn

Giveaways Galore at Best I've Read 2010

It's begun! Nine awesome book review blogs have joined together for a great 2010 best reads giveaway. Throughout the next week there will be a lot of fabulous titles given away each day. Just click on the link to their blogs below and enter to win.

I can't say enough good about these people and their fabulous blogs! Love them!

Best I've Read 2010
I'm a Reader, Not a Writer
Fire and Ice
Page Turners
Books Complete Me
Mundie Moms
Once Upon a Twilight
Late Bloomer Online
A Reader's Ramblings
Between the Covers

Growing up Gracie by Maggie Fechner Giveaway

by Rachael Renee Anderson

Growing up Gracie is charm in a book. It was like reading a modern day Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea all rolled into one. Filled with humor, depth, strong bonds of friendship, and yes, romance (my favorite), Maggie takes the reader on an adventure so real and poignant, it will make you wish you grew up in a small town.

And not only is her book wonderful, but she is too.

Me: When I read a book I always wonder how much of the author is in the main character. Are you anything like Gracie? And if so, what are the two biggest similarities?

Maggie: A lot of people who know me now think I am Gracie. But those who knew me growing up know I wasn't at all. I come from a smaller family and I always envied those huge families. My parents are great, but only one of them is a member of the church. At times we weren't completely active when I was growing up.

Also, I often wanted to be with the more popular crowd instead of staying true like Gracie did. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a Chelsea, but I was somewhere in between.

I DID grow up in Cody though, and I do LOVE that place with all my heart. I DID have great friends too and I DID marry an amazing man who was shy as heck until he came out of his shell (and I think he did have some dorky glasses back in high school although I didn't know him then).

Me: Ooohh, I love romantic stories. How did you meet your hubby?

Maggie: We have a fun story. The first time I saw Dan we both lived in Washington. He came driving up to a singles ward canoeing activity in a huge black truck and I thought, "now this looks like a Wyoming guy, I think I could like him." We dated for a few weeks and broke up because he was just so shy he would barely talk. THEN with the pressure of being boyfriend/girlfriend off, his shyness faded away and we became absolute best friends. About six months later I had plane tickets to go into the Americorp in Maryland and was getting ready to go. Dan surprised me by proposing. We weren't even dating! Now that took guts. I said yes and the rest is history.

Me: So cute! It's the perfect love story and your husband sounds as wonderful as you. I love it! Now maybe it's because I grew up in a city, but I have to know, have you ever milked a cow or gone cow-tipping?

Maggie: Never milked a cow. Never gone cow tipping. I have been on pack trips and things like that, but my family was a town family, not a country one. That's another thing I always wished for. Now that I think about it, it seems like Gracie isn't me, but was the me I wished I was when I was a kid. :)

Me: That's what makes writing so fun, isn't it? But you do more than write, don't you? In fact, I've decided that you are far too talented, so if you had to choose between writing and photography, which would it be?

Maggie: Ooh tough one. Photography is definitely more expensive, but also pays a lot better. ha ha. I guess if I HAD to choose I'd write still and give up photography (as a business). But there's no way I'd stop photographing my kids and you couldn't pry my camera from my fingers if you tried. It's one of my babies!

Me: So funny, and I can see why. You are an exceptionally gifted photographer as well. And I'm so glad to hear you'd never give up writing. Do you have any more books in the works? Please say yes.

Maggie: I currently have three projects in the works. One The Letters Never Sent is a mainstream family saga that is currently in revision stages. Second is another book about the All-Mormerican Family the Fremonts! This one will focus on Danielle, one of Gracie's older sisters. I hope to eventually write one on each of the six kids. And last I have a start on another novel called Ever After Emmy that is a mainstream romance based in the 1950s.

Me: I love your titles, and your writing style, and can't wait to read them all. Hurry, hurry, hurry! :) And for anyone who's looking for a wonderful book to curl up and get cozy with, definitely check out Growing up Gracie by Maggie Fenchner.

Enter to win a copy here: Rachael Renee Anderson

Buying an e-reader for Christmas?

                                                                   By Trina Boice
                                                              www.boicebox.com

E-readers are on every book-lover's wish list this Christmas, and probably on yours too.   The prices are getting so much more reasonable these days too.   Here is a quick comparison guide in case it's on your shopping list this year.  If you're the avid reader in the family, then print out this blog post and leave it where your loved ones will see it and get the hint.

What are your choices?
*  Amazon's Kindle 2 or DX
*  Barnes & Noble Nook
*  Borders' Kobo eReader
*  Sony's Reader Pocket, Daily, or Touch Edition
*  Apple's iPad
*  Kogan Technologies eBook Reader
*  Spring Design Alex eReader
*  Skiff Reader

Things to look for:
*  Battery life: 20,000-30,000 page turns
*  Software that allows you to purchase from your favorite bookstore
*  Comfortable hold
*  Can be registered as an Adobe Digital Edition reader
*  Decent photo viewer
*  Memory card slots for additional storage
*  Bookmark feature
*  Can navigate through the index and pages easily
*  Displays a pdf layout larger than 6 inches
*  Comes with free ebooks
*  Headphone jack
*  Protective cover
*  Decent price!
*  Wireless
*  Size of display

Which one do I want for Christmas?  Whichever one ends up under my tree!  Otherwise, I'll be using this one:

Here's a great site I found with some pretty thorough reviews:   www.ereaderleader.com/reviews/
Don't worry if you missed Cyber Monday; there are plenty of great deals still out there.  Good luck!

November writing challenge a great success

By Heather Justesen

So November is over and hundreds of thousands of NaNoWriMo participants around the world are taking a break from pounding their keyboards. I've participated in the yearly novel-in-a-month challenge four times now, but this is the first year I've actually completed the 50K words during the month of November. That's not to say I haven't managed that many words during other months of the year, but November is always insane for me, so I've never managed it before during the annual challenge.

This year I decided I needed to plow through as quickly as possible, so I started the month strong, and with the help of a three-day writing retreat I managed to complete the 50K goal by November 8, and am currently working on my third draft of the manuscript--but if I'd tried to write just the daily allotment each day instead of speed-writing, I wouldn't have finished, because, again, the last half of the month has been crazy.

I learned a number of things from this year's challenge:

1: I can accomplish anything if I just stick my rear-end in the chair and go to work.

2: Writing mysteries can be fun!

3: Plotting in advance, even if the plot is sketchy, makes the writing go so much smoother (Okay, so I've known this before, but it was good to have it reinforced)

4: Character sketches and journaling from the characters' point of view is extremely helpful to understand them. I've never journaled for my characters before, but it was totally great!

5: Having friends cheer you on is great motivation. There were 32 people from my original writing group all participating in Nano this year, and 15 of us reached the 50K goal. We had a spreadsheet with everyone's total words available so we could see where everyone was, and we held writing sprints several times each day to help us get and stay on task. Also, it turns out I've got a healthy competitive streak I usually ignore.

6: Sometimes even the writer doesn't know who dunnit until the climax scenes are written. I know that might sound odd, but I *thought* I knew who the murderer was until I went to write the climax, and it just wouldn't come. As soon as I changed the murderer's identity, everything fell into place and the scene practically wrote itself.

7: A supportive spouse can never be overvalued when you have a major goal. Mine is completely great about allowing me time to focus on my writing and at understanding that means either he's going to cook a lot, or we're going to be eating scads of leftovers. Thanks sweetheart!

December is going to be chock full of edits for various projects (I have so many in need of editing it's not even funny), in addition to the usual Christmas preparations. I'm excited for everything in store.

Bring Back Thumper's Rule

Ever since I was a little girl and saw Bambi for the first time, I've loved Thumper's rule. I'm sure you know it, and can almost hear that cute little voice saying: "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all."

Thumper's rule is oft quoted in my family, and something I think if I could really master in my life, I would be in good shape. And let me tell you, lately I've found myself wishing we could all live this rule a little more.

It seems like every day I hear or see something about how mean words are being thrown around like footballs. Kids being bullied at school. Politicians being called every name in the book.

Enter the internet, and things get even crazier. Public figures are having multiple surgeries to "fix" the "problems" they're read online they have. People are finding photos of themselves on websites with horrible captions and comments. Even comments on some of my favorite blogs and sites, like Goodreads, can get downright mean.

So, I've decided I'm going to do something over the next two weeks. I am going to try to live Thumper's rule a little better, and I'm going to keep a daily log about it. In my next post, I'll report on the results.

Here's to saying something nice or nothing at all. Here's to you, Thumper.

Ready to Launch!

An important part of the marketing campaign for my first novel is the launch party. Without a track record or an established reputation as an author, I need to make the release of this book an event to be remembered, a LAUNCH in every sense of the word. It's not just a celebration, it's a marketing kickoff that will have an impact on long-term book sales. In this post, I'll detail the things I'm doing to prepare for the party. My next post on Dec. 15th will be a post-mortem on what worked and what didn't at the party, scheduled for Dec. 13th.

First of all, who to invite? For me, the more the merrier. I am mailing out about 100 invitations to family and friends, and will get an invite to every home in my ward. I'll leverage Facebook, blogs and email lists to get the word out as far and as deep as possible. It all starts right here -- YOU are invited!

Next, the venue. Can't hold it at my house (too small) or at the church (against Church policy). I don't want to impose upon relatives who have big houses, and I'm operating on a budget here, so hotels and restaurants are out. Eventually, the perfect place was found--a nearby city park with an "indoor pavilion", a 2,000 square foot room with a fireplace, round tables, folding chairs, restrooms and kitchen facilities. We were able to rent this place from 5pm-10pm for about $60.



It looks big and empty now, but on the night of the party it will be filled with gorgeous holiday decor, music, and food. I've had two 20"x30" posters of the book cover made (best deal is at Costco - $8.99 each), one to go behind my signing table and one by the buffet table. There will be several Christmas trees, and one of them will be covered with promotional bookmarks (nextdayflyers.com will make you 1,000 full color glossy bookmarks on cardstock for about $60) using ornament hangers.

What about food? Unless you are independently wealthy, expect your book to be a New York Times bestseller, or expect a small crowd, feeding everyone dinner is probably not an option. We're planning to serve various hors d'oeuvres and treats as light refreshments. The party is open-house, so people can have dinner before or after they stop by.

We want to make it fun. There will be some nice door prizes we will award every 30 minutes, giving people some incentive to hang around and enjoy each other's company. The story and cover of The Rogue Shop involve formal wear, so I will be in a full tuxedo and my family will be in matching red, white, and black semi-formals. Everyone else can come as they are, we're not enforcing the theme! We found some cute little tux and bow tie favor bags at Zurchers, and the table coverings and balloons will all match nicely (my wife is in charge of this, so it is guaranteed to be nice).

How many books to have on hand? A hard question, and no matter which number I choose, I'm bound to either run out of stock halfway through the party, or wind up with a big pile of unsold books. We opted for cautious optimism with 100 books. If we run out, I have an "I'm sorry" flyer with instructions on how to order the book that includes a drawing for those who buy it elsewhere within 72 hours. Other handouts include an intro to my "WOMBAT" marketing program and a "For Your Consideration" flyer linking to the Whitney Awards website.

Will it all come together like I dream it will? Meet me back here on the 15th and I'll have a complete rundown. Meanwhile, if you'll excuse me, I need to go get fitted for my tux.

The Rogue Shop - A Book Release Celebration

Monday, December 13, 2010 6-9pm Open House

500 E. 8680 S. Sandy Utah

5 WOMBAT points for attending party, 1 point per adult guest you bring up to 5 more.