Going Through the Motions

I haven’t updated this blog very much lately because I’ve been busy with the other blog for Susan’s case, plus all the regular efforts to find her.  Also, I’ve found myself in a sad and strange situation.  When Susan disappeared nearly 4 months ago, mine and my family’s life got put on hold.  Every thought, [...]

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Book Reviews

I’ve just finished a couple of books.  The first one, Mira, Mirror by Mette Ivie Harrison, was pretty good.  This book is fairy tale-ish along the lines of Snow White.  But instead of re-telling the fairy tale, the story follows the wicked queen’s magic mirror.  The story begins with two peasant girls, apprentices to a [...]

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Food Blogs

I just finished my bi-monthly post to the Utah Children’s Writers blog and it was on a subject I’ve been thinking about lately: food blogs, recipes, and cooking.  I’ve known for years that I need to jazz up our boring, “same ten recipes” dinner menu.  But I always come up with excuses: “Bran’s allergic to [...]

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Inspirational Faith-Promoting Story

Today in church the missionaries in our stake talked.  One of them is from Germany.   The other is new and has only been out of the MTC a couple of weeks, I believe. The German elder talked first and he gave a great talk.   He was so confident and spiritual and shared such a nice [...]

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“Worst First Line” Contest

I just read on Twitter tonight that there’s a *yearly contest for the worst first sentence in a fake novel.  W-O-W, there are some howlers!  I gasped and choked and snorted until, breathless with laughter, I couldn’t stand it anymore and had to read one to my husband—it was the Spiderman entry that put me [...]

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Catching Up!

All week I’ve wanted to write a post here, but got busy and forgot or else didn’t have pictures ready.  So today I’m just going to play a little “catch up” game and write about several different events. On Thursday, June 11, some of my sisters and I went to This is the Place heritage [...]

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Summer School: Hogwarts style!

I always do school with the kids year-round, but this summer we’re going to add something that will make school REALLY fun and get the kids very excited about learning.  A friend at our homeschool co-op got the ball rolling, and some others have joined in, making this a truly fun and awesome adventure (thanks [...]

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Provo Children’s Book Festival: Part 4: Author signings

In the afternoon more than 30 authors had signings for their books.  It was very exciting to meet some of the authors of my favorite books!  My kids were very excited, too, especially my oldest daughter.  She’s inherited my love of reading.                  First up is Brandon Mull, author of the very-popular Fablehaven series.  Brandon [...]

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Provo Children’s Book Festival: Part 3: Shannon and Dean Hale Reading and Interpretive Dance

Shannon Hale needs no introduction.  If you haven’t read her books yet, they are wonderful and I highly recommend them.  She and her husband Dean co-wrote their first graphic novel last year, Rapunzel’s Revenge.  The sequel, Calamity Jack, will be out…possibly sometime next year?  I didn’t hear a date for that one yet.  It’s got [...]

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Provo Children’s Book Festival: Part 2: Fantasy Panel

Immediately after Laura Seeger’s presentation ended, the Fantasy panel started across the hall.  6 authors participated: Jessica Day George, Brandon Mull, James Dashner, Shannon Hale, J. Scot Savage, and Brandon Sanderson, who was also the moderator.  He asked the panel questions and gave each author time to answer.  Unfortunately, they were rudely interrupted before question [...]

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