Writing and Illustrating For Young Readers (WIFYR): Check it Out!

Writing and Illustrating For Young Readers (June 18-22) in Sandy Utah. You can get more information over on their blog here! Even if you're sort of interested, go check it out now because class sizes are limited and fill up fast. 

Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults	A.E. Cannon
Picture Book Class	Trudy Harris
Illustration Class	Julie Olson
Middle Grade Novel	Tim Wynne-Jones
Beginning YA Novel Class	Kimberley Sorenson
Fantasy Class	Matt Kirby
Science Fiction Class	Mette Ivie Harrison
Paranormal Class	Cynthia Leitich Smith
Writing the LDS Middle Grade and Young Adult Novel	Kirk Shaw
Advanced Class	Greg Leitich Smith
Advanced Class	Carol Lynch Williams
Writer's Boot Camp	Ann Dee Ellis

Also, be sure to check out this years Scholarship/Contest! 

Anyone going this year? I love to live vicariously through my friends who get to go soak up the wisdom and motivation. Have you gone before? 

Marriage Monday: Choices

"Marriage relationships are constantly changing. Attitudes shift, emotions fluctuate, and the way spouses treat each other ebbs and flows between loving and not so loving. Sometimes, change is beyond our control. Life is full of unanticipated changes. Our only choice as couples is in how we will respond."

Quotes in this post were found in The Four Seasons of Marriage by Gary Chapman (Author of The Five Love Languages)

You can find my other Marriage Monday's here.

Book Club: Everneath (Special Guest Brodi Ashton)

For book club this month we hosted author Brodi Ashton for her book Everneath. I have been looking forward to having Brodi as the guest of honor at my book club for a while so I was thrilled when the night was finally here and I got to see how all of our plans came together! My friends have serious talent people. Let me highlight them for you. :)

Dinner was The Soup Kitchen (from scenes in the book) where we feasted on homemade soups, salads, bread sticks, artichoke dip and more.

The dining room was the Park City High, home of the Miners. These are home made lockers (made out of cardboard. How cool, right!? --Shauna I'm still in awe!) that are of course near the drinking fountain where Nikki ate lunch everyday while she knitted.

The party favors part 1 by Dano: Filled w/ seed packets so we could create our own 'evermore', crackled guitar pics, candy and cinnamon bears (Brodi's favorite treat). 

After dinner we played games. This was part of our 'purse game' where we had scenarios dealing with the book places/characters and had to get ourselves out of a sticky situation using only the items in your purse.

"Cole is screen printing at the park city TShirt company and has run out of supplies. AND his tools have all broken. He’s got a large order of custom shirts to fill in the next few days. Whats a guy to do?" 

(You may note that there is an actual screen--we were at Christie's house so we gave her some leeway with the props she used. Haha!)

This one was pretty hilarious.

Becks dad is running for Mayor. Make a catchy campaign poster using items you have.

Emily & Dano did a great job complete with an actual parade cheer around the room and noise makers. (And yes that is a sanitary napkin used as an adhesive.)

Or here's one more just for fun:

 Jacks brother Will is drunk again and needs to be occupied in the backseat so he doesn’t throw up while they try to get him home. How would you entertain him with items from your purse? 

Party favor part 2: Actual water bottles from THE Park City High School. Our own Fancy Nancy drove up and got us each our very own!

We also played a great game of Mad Libs Persephone -style created by Shauna. We went around the room naming the fill-in-the-blanks (it's best to go crazy and wild with this) and then read the story aloud for us all to laugh at. Brodi's posted it on her blog if you're interested. 

And of course the group shot with all the party folks! 

(Aka: the best book club in the world!) 

And if you look closely behind the row of those standing you will see our 

black curtain ala entrance into the "Everneath". 

Marriage Monday: Complicated Creatures

"We are all complicated creatures whose actions and reactions are governed by a wide array of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories. In other words, reality is subjective, which is why your partners perspective on the past may be different from yours without either of you being right or wrong about what really happened."

"The bottom line of this approach is that there isn't one reality when a couple misses each other in little ways. There are two equally legitimate perspectives. Once you understand and acknowledge this you'll find that reconnecting just comes naturally."

Qutoes in this post are from The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John M. Gottman, Ph.D., and Nan Silver

*emphasis in quotes above added.

You can find my other Marriage Mondays here.