Monday, May 11, 2009

Winner!

I'm tooting my horn for a friend of mine, writer Carol Lynch Williams, who was selected as this year's winner of the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Fellowship award for fiction. She is a wonderful author who has given so much of her time and talent toward mentoring and teaching aspiring children's writers like myself. Her newest book, The Chosen One, has been receiving high praise across the industry, and is definitely worth reading. And if you find yourself in Utah, her writing workshops are top-notch.



And guess what? I'm a winner, too! Although I laugh when I think how it pales in comparison.... But I won a B&N $50 gift card! That's right. Fifty bucks to spend on books, just by being one of the lucky seekers of a treasure chest on writer Bree Despain's website. She's another talented Utah author who will see her first book, The Dark Devine, in print by February 2010. Her website is great and definitely worth checking out. While you're there, tell her I said, hi!



Sunday, May 3, 2009

Storming Sunday


I love thunderstorms.

I don't know why, but for me, they always signal a time for putting work aside and cozying up with family to read books or play games. It's time when life can slow, and we can hang together indoors where it's safe and warm.

We don't get many thunderstorms in Utah, but we're having one now. The rain is patting at the windows, the chimes are blowing in the trees, the thunder is rolling and rolling and rolling, high across the dark tumbling sky, and my children are luring me with puzzles.

Utah, though, is different from Iowa, and I know I wouldn't be saying this if I still lived there. In Iowa, thunderstorms terrified me. Tornadoes were a common occurrence, and my safety zone? A mobile home on top of hill--the only one, it seemed for miles around. All too often, with one of the rainiest seasons on record during my stay, I was left hunkering down in a feeble shell of a tin can that seemed to scream, Come and get me!

But none did. So the wild dance remains. As do my children, who are calling me. It's puzzle time.

Happy Thunder Day!