Currently: Still Alive

 

It's been forever since I've done a weekly wrap up "currently" post. Thought I'd give it a try again. Even though life is mostly boring.

Listening: This past week I've rediscovered a couple of favorite groups that have recently received a ton of attention thanks to their two respective members being in a very buzzed about kdrama. Those groups are Dongkiz and KNK. Both very small, not well-known groups, but groups that should actually have ALL THE LOVE in the kpop world. So first off, I discovered I love this song called Fade, by KNK, which went unnoticed by me before. Here's a live stage of it:

(This group has members all over six feet tall. Can you tell?) 

And then the song from Dongkiz that I will push on everyone without restraint is called Lupin. The choreo is SO COOL!

Watching: Well, I watched the drama mentioned above starring the boys from those two groups. More on that later. I've started another drama called A Business Proposal which includes every single kdrama trope you can think of it.  IT'S SO PERFECT! We also started a new season of Survivor. Can't believe that thing is still going strong. 

Reading: I'm stuck on the second book of the Black Witch chronicles called The Iron Flower. It's good, but I'm just taking forever with it. I read the first chapter of Nine Perfect Strangers for book club next week. And I'm doing a bunch of beta reading for writer friends. 

Writing: I finished catching up on what I've written for the unnamed space opera book. (Please, someone figure out a title for me!) And now I just need to figure out how to finish up this story. I also need to add a bunch of stuff to the middle. I'm so bad at this! I have also sent out my 80's high school story to several beta readers. Anxiously waiting for that feedback, and then we'll figure out what the next step is for THAT book. 

Blogging: I'm happy that several author events have happened in the past few weeks, and more will be happening coming up. It  makes me feel like life is going back to normal more than almost anything else. I've missed it so bad.

YouTubing: I was on two live streams on my friend's channel hyping up a couple of different kpop book series. (I've blogged about them both here.) So that was fun.  I thought up a fun, fast way to introduce groups to people wanting to learn the members. I hope to make more of these types of videos. (I'll embed that one here because it would be cool if you clicked.)  I posted my favorite songs from February. And I made a snarky video about how I'm the worst kpop fan ever. 

 

Health Watch: I am loving exercising. But am discouraged that it seems to truly not make a difference in anything except that it lets me know how old I am because it makes my knees hurt. But whatever. I love it, so... sorry body. You have to do it. My diet is basically normal right now, with the few exceptions of life changes that stuck with me after the low carb thing. That doesn't really seem to matter either because the weight is coming back. Surprise surprise. I continuously argue in my head which is the worse thing... hating life because you can't eat fun things. Or being fat. I haven't come up with an answer yet....

Misc: 

* I want to find time to get going on another tshirt quilt. But my sewing machine says "are you kidding  me?" and needs a tune up and/or repair before that can happen.

* A family trip to Mexico is coming up (with my siblings and parents.) Wish me luck!

* We are one of the tens of thousands of lucky ones who ended up with a ticket to the BTS concert in April in Vegas! I will be shouting about that as the time gets closer!

* I went to a funeral for a friend who had brain damage from an accident 8 years ago. Her family finally decided to pull live support and let her go. It's been quite the reminder about how to enjoy life no matter the craziness it brings us. 

Author Event: Jennifer A. Nielsen and Heather Clark

 Not only are concerts back, but authors too!

I've really been missing going to author events but this past week, they are back! This event was to launch the debut book for Heather Clark called Lemon Drop Falls. And her author friend Jennifer A. Nielsen, and a favorite author of all or ours, was there as part of it. 

This book is a middle grade book about a girl dealing with her anxiety and fear after her mom dies. I think. Heather told us about when she herself almost died and how rough it was on her kids and especially her one daughter. So that's the inspiration for the story. 

The both of them told several other stories and it was all very inspiring. Hearing Jen's publishing story of how she tried and tried and tried and was rejected by everyone even the place that takes everyone, was really inspiring too. It really just hits home how if you want something bad enough, you just can't give up.

So I ended up with both of their books and we stood in line for quite awhile waiting for them to be signed. When it was our turn ,Jennifer give me my own personal writing pep talk and I felt fired up for... about an hour. Now that I've come down from the evening, I still feel very... I think what I mostly feel is that I'm just riding some band wagon and that I'm not for real enough in this writing quest... and I guess until I take myself seriously, no one else will either. It's a hard thing to do and something I will struggle with forever I'm afraid. 

Anyway, the biggest thing I took away from that pep talk is there are people out there who need my stories and why should I let MY fear get in the way of that happening...like just suck it up and stop worrying about it so much. 

It was a great night and I'm so glad I went. Next week the library is having its annual best books of the year talk and we plan on supporting that one too. I wish I had more time to do all the things, like read all those books that they will make me want to read!

Here's some pictures from the night:

With Jennifer. 

With Heather

Can you see our smiling eyes?

So exciting to be back at it, supporting the authors!

In Which, WE WON!

The other day, thanks to the peer pressure of Kami and Jenni, we (Toto and I) went to the Provo Library and joined in on their book trivia night. Together, we formed a team, along with a random other teammate who came to the event alone and joined up with us. We called ourselves The Reading Mongooses... or some such thing.

There was about six or so other teams and we proceeded to play nine rounds. Each round had ten questions along a theme... like... books to movies, significant others, villains, etc. The genres represented were across the board, from classics to picture books and everything in between.

We did well. We only missed a few questions. It was surprisingly fun! We added our score and then it was time to reveal. I figured we were doing about the same as all the other teams. And we did... and it was close. But in the end, we had ONE MORE POINT than all the next best team!

WE WON! Who knew? I mean, those other guys were pretty up on their book trivia too! And then I wondered, is the fact that we won just sort of a bragging right? Did we get to take home an extra pile of candy?

And then, they passed out our prizes and each one of us on the team got our own $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble! I was like, wow. This is a legit prize! Who knew?

Anyway, yeah. It turned out to be really fun and totally worth the effort. So the other day Toto and I happily went to the store and spent our money. Here's what we got:

Better yet, I plan to actually read them! (Well, except Empire of Storms... since I'm really not up on that series at the moment.)

Stay tuned!

Author Signings: Jeff Kinney, Cressida Crowell, Marissa Meyer, Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman, Shannon Hale, Jennifer Nielsen, James Dashner

We've had a plethora of author signings lately, so I figured it was time to catch you up! Plus a few that happened that I never reported on. Because... life.

Last night we managed to BARELY get to Jeff Kinney! (Dumb traffic and dumb accidents!) It was in an auditorium full of crazy excited kids! And I felt just like one of them. I don't know what it is about these books, but they make me laugh pretty much like nothing else. It was fun to see what this author was like and see his method of drawing and planning and plotting. I'm amazed how such a simple idea has been so popular and successful for him. It's awesome. 

He came through the audience answering questions
and walked right by us. Here's the blurry result.

They had the most awesome balloons out front of the event!

The night before last we meet the author of the famous and popular How to Train Your Dragon books, Cressida Cowell. She was an absolute blast.. so animated and funny and spunky!

Sangi meets Cressida Cowell

Toto meets Cressida Cowell

Tori and Sangi with Cressida Cowell

 The week before that was Marissa Meyer, who we've met too many times to count now. She has a new book in a new series out about the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland fame... and what she was like as a teenager. It's called Heartless. Yeah. I hope to fit it in somehow. When we talked to her, we asked her if there as any truth to the fact that she was inspired by the in real life Kai from the kpop group EXO for her very own Kai... she said... no.. but when someone sent her a picture she said... I approve! That's him!!!

Kai from EXO

We got a pretty good crowd of friends to go to this one with us! 

Marissa Meyer

Last year I was disappointed that these awesome authors of my favorite book last year, Illuminae, came on a night that I couldn't go. But they came BACK! All the way from Australia! Thank you for that Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman! So I got to see them this time and.. it was awesome. I find them to be pretty amazing and I've started the next book, Gemina, and am reading while cringing... it's so intense!

Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Probably last month it was, these group of crazy authors came to the library, all sporting read hair like Squirrel Girl... whoever that is. LOL! I'm not totally up on my superheros... but they've all written stuff to do with her and so they came together and talked. They are: Dean Hale, Ryan North, Margaret Stohl, and Shannon Hale.

And then there was on my other favorites, Jennifer Nielsen. She was promoting her latest book called The Scourge about a plague of sorts.

Jennifer Nielsen

And I just had to throw in this picture because he's so freaking famous now... we said hi to James Dashner at Comic Con, and yes, he still remembers me from back in the days when he was still a little author.

Toto and Sangi with Mr. Dashner Dude

Hmmm.... it seems like we went to see Brodi Ashton this past summer too, but I must not have taken pictures. Wait, Really?


I can't remember who's in the queue coming up! But I'm sure there's someone!!! What fun authors have you all seen these days?

Author Signings: Ally Condie, Julie Berry, Darren Shan, Maggie Stiefvater

There's been a bunch more author events! Time to catch up with a few pictures!

DARREN SHAN

Here we are with Darren Shan, famous for the Cirque du Freak series.
My daughter-in-law was ecstatic to meet him so we gave her the position of
honor... to be straggled by him! I guess this is his trademark pose.
How fun is that!?

My DIL Jenniffer talking to her most favorite author!

Darren Shan reads from his book.
And he knows how to read!
I'm wondering if he does his own audio books. He's dang good!

JULIE BERRY

Here we are with Julie Berry, one of my favorite authors.
I can' wait to read this latest book, The Passion of Dolsa.

Julie Berry gave us a most awesome medieval history lesson.

ALLY CONDIE

Here we are, (sister Megs included) with Ally Condie.
Toto won a shirt with Ally's face on it. Funny!

Talking with Ally Condie.

Ally Condie signing books.

Sister Megs got to visit and attend this event with us. We had a blast!

MAGGIE STIEFVATER

Maggie Stiefvater signing books.
I love her look!

We had a pile go together for this one.
Kathy, Jenni Elyse and Jenny. 

There was a huge crowd and we are glad we got a spot to sit!


That's it until the next time! What authors have you seen lately?

More Author Events: Kathryn Purdie, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black

Last night we found ourselves at a pretty big author signing event. It was Cassandra Clare and Holly Black! I've seen them doing promotions together for awhile and wondered if we'd have a turn in our area. Well, last night was it!

The auditorium was filled and many people were fangirling and even weeping in awe over meeting their favorite authors. It was fun to watch and I totally understood the feelings. Mostly.

We got a bunch of books signed, but they herded us through the line like cattle. Yeah, it frustrates me when that happens. Maybe I'll save that rant for another day. Maybe I've already done that rant, I can't remember.

But we had a great time and here are the pictures!

Cassandra Clare and Holly Black

Here we are in the crowd, waiting!
From front to back:
Jenny
Catie
Jenni Elyse
Jayne
and Toto

 

When I saw how she signed her name I was like,
seriously? :) 

 Last week we took part in a book launch for the debut of another Utah author, Kathryn Purdie. Her book, Burning Glass, sounds awesome.

Getting our books signed!
Left to right:
Kami, Toto, Jenny, Kathryn, Jayne, Abbie, me and Jenni Elyse

Here's Jenni getting her book signed.

Kami had to get off her pregnant swollen feet!
But isn't she cute!!

I love this picture of our group waiting in line.

Kathryn Purdie

And that's it.. until the next time! There are more coming up! It never ends...

A Report on LTUE 2016

It's been nine years now since I discovered this little gem of a writing conference, and I haven't missed it since. It's an amazing deal and so much fun... even if I can't seem to get my writing (or bookish) friends to go with me!

My writing resolve has suffered pretty much since I wrote the enthusiastic post about how great I was going to do this year. I've been feeling guilty ever since. I was hoping this conference would kick start the enthusiasm, but so far, it hasn't.

Not to say it wasn't great, because it was. Just to say that I'm not feeling the writing thing at the moment and that makes me all sorts of crazy sad.

Anyway, here are a few highlights from the event:

• watching two hours straight of six episodes of Writing Excuses. I got tired sitting there, but my brain was engaged the whole time. Subjects they talked about: fashion in writing, the question of wonder, environment in writing, self-publishing, how to get the great ideas, and etc. It was awesome all around.
• Shannon Hale's keynote speech about gender bias when it comes to books and reading and how boys should have the choice to read and like any book, the same as girls do. It was passionate and powerful.
• Kevin J. Andersen's keynote speech about how it's important to just jump right in and get your hands in all sorts of projects. I loved the stories he told about his friendship with the band Rush and how he wrote many of his books inspired by their music. So awesome.
• I tend to enjoy the one person presentations over the panels. I went to presentations about tips on productivity, how to write horror, techniques to show more and tell less. I feel like in presentations I take a ton of notes whereas in panels I just listen and absorb.
• some stuff I starred: come up with a sentence memorable elevator pitch hook, think of an event and go back ten steps answering "why" and go forward ten steps answering "what if," all writing is telling but we need to show by giving the reader triggers to feel stuff, cliches work if you do them right....
• the program was printed wrong which made me miss the panel on finding your tribe, which is something I really need to do. So that made me sad. I was hoping they'd say something really enlightening that I hadn't thought of that would make all the difference.

And a few pictures:

Brandon Sanderson, Lee Modesitt, and Mary Robinette Kowal

Dan Wells and Howard Taylor

Shannon Hale

Kevin J. Anderson

Learning about the future.

Anyway, it was a great time as usual and I look forward to next year already! 

Bookish Events These Past Couple Months

I don't know what it is about this time of year, but the book signings and book events are coming at us in droves. The thing is, I want to go to ALL of them. But alas, other stuff happens in live too besides book things and it's pretty much impossible!

But I thought it would be fun to share through pictures some of the events of the past little while. In few months, I'll do another one, because there are many coming up too!

Just the other night we visited with Lindsey Leavitt,
whose books I enjoy so much I pretty much bought them all!
And look at that fun crowd we pulled together to hang with!
Awesome!

Just last week the friends went to see Marissa Meyer.
I couldn't go since I had tickets for the The Producers the same night.
And I was so sad to miss it especially since
  it was the first time friend Jayne (on the right) got to come!
And she won the ARC of Heartless!
She was the star of the night!

This is Bil Lepp.
He's on of the best storytellers that comes every year to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival.
Here's an example of what he's like.
A couple weeks ago he came and did a special telling just for us library employees.
He was awesome as expected and had us in stitches.

The regular crowd seeing Ally Carter for the second book
in her Embassy Row series, See How they Run.
I need to try some of her books! 

Ally Carter.

Ally Carter... she was very funny.
Lots of lovely stories.

Here's Toto with Lindsey Stirling and her sister who helped her
write this book: The Only Pirate at the Party.
Don't know Lindsey Stirling?
Check out her amazing talent here.

We waited in a 2 1/2 hour line to see her.
It was crazy and they shoved us through,
so that was maddening, but all in all, still lots of fun.

During the Christmas break we had a family girls night
and brought the crowd to the launch party for
Endure by Sara B. Larson.

Sara Larson signing books!

Sara Larson,
She always has fun stuff to say and wins the award for cutest author I think.

Here we are waiting!

Ah...so much fun going to author events! In a month or so, I'll have another bunch to post!