TAG!

My awesome best friend who happens to be my next door neighbor tagged me. I haven't been tagged for AGES, so though I'm a bit late in following up with this, I am finally doing so and excited to do it, despite the lateness of the hour. So, here goes!

Do you think you're hot?
Only when the temperature is over eighty, then I'm super, sweaty hot.

Upload a picture or wall paper you are using at the moment
It's my wallpaper today

When was the last time you ate chicken meat?
Is there another kind of chicken that isn't meat? I guess there's the living, walking around, kind, but I wouldn't eat those. Too many feathers. I think I ate chicken last week. I lose track of days.


The Song(s) you listened to recently?
"I Will Show You Love" by Kendall Payne

"Still Here" by Natasha Beddingfield

"Chinese" by Lily Allen

"Address in the Stars" by Caitlyn and Will

"I Miss You" by Miley Cyrus

"Daughters" by John Mayer

"I Miss You" by Austin Kyle

What were you thinking as you were doing this?
That it's nice to have friends who are sweet enough to include me in these things. :)

Do you have nicknames?

My little brother called me Stubs or Stubby, seeing as I'm short.

My kids call me Mom.

My friends call me Kay.


Tag eight Blogger friends
(You are it!)

Lara Taggart

Jessica Foster

Rebecca Blevins

Kimberly Vanderhorst

Michelle Jefferies

Paulette Inman

Julie Wright

Cheri Chesley

Who's listed as number one?
Lara Taggart, my soul sister. Love that gal more than I can say.

Say something about number 5.
She is inspiring. She works harder at most things, including being a writer, than most people I know, and she never gives up, no matter how hard things get. I admire the heck out of her.

How did you get to know number 3?
Through Sprint Writers Central. We once stayed up until five a.m. just talking online.

How about number 4?
I saw her at the LDStorymakers Conference a few years ago, and have followed her online for years, and we've talked online and through e-mail, but didn't meet in person until this year at the LDStorymakers Conference. She is AWESOME. Amazing writer, and a sweetheart of a gal.

Leave a message for number 6.
Hey, Paulette. I know things have been a bit tough as of late, but I know you'll make it through. You inspire me, and you are an amazing harpist! I love what you can do. :)

Leave a lovey-dovey message for number 2.
Oh, that could get bad, seeing as we shared a bed for the LDStorymaker Conference. lol All right, I'll give it a go. "Hi Jess! You are amazingly talented and I'm so grateful to call you friend. Love your guts! (and the rest of you too!)"

Do number 7 and number 8 have any similarities?
Yes. They are both published authors whom I love dearly.

Catch Up and My New Project

I've really got to start blogging more often. There should be some big changes in the future, as I'm going back to the scheduled type of writing. Themes for each day. One day for flash fiction, another for poetry (and you guys get to participate if you want), Book reviews, and more-and even some weekly prizes! It should make it more interesting for all of us, and then I don't have to think quite so hard about what to write.

The LDStorymakers Writing Conference was AMAZING! One of the best I've been to yet, which is saying a lot, since this is my favorite conference to attend and I've had a lot of awesome things happen there. Before I was published I placed in their first chapter contest four times in three years, the last year winning me the grand prize. It's a happy place for me, full of wonderful friends who have taught me how to write and I admire the heck out of. These are the people who taught me how to write and made me the writer I like to hope I am. It is always a joy to see them, but this year was different, in that I got to join them. Since the conference, I have become an official member of the LDStorymaker guild, but while there, I got to teach a class on How to Become an Idea Factory, and be a leader for an awesome table at Boot Camp. It's an intense, day long experience of reading each member of a small group's first fifteen pages and giving feedback on what works and what doesn't. It's where I learned the most when I was attending before I was published, and I still learned this year, even being the leader. There was not a single person at my table whose book I wouldn't have read. They were all absolutely fantastic and I would not be surprised if every one of them is published someday.

While at the conference we had a little party for the sister group to LDStorymakers, called Authors Incognito. We had a TON of people there--more than I've ever seen at a mix and mingle before. One of my friends had told me to bring a nerf gun because we were going to get one of the guys all at once. Well, it turned out he couldn't come to the conference and I was the only one who brought a gun, so I had a blast for the next two hours shooting my friends in the backside. It was the most fun I've had in years!

I am always sad to leave the conference. I said to somebody, I wished we could all just move in together. They feel like family and I miss them when it's over, but thus is life. We must go on.

On another front, I'm writing again, working on that grand prize winning chapter, and turning it into something more. I'm not sure where it's going yet, but I'm having a ball getting there. About a week ago, Tristi Pinkston had a twelve hour sprint writing thingamajig. She timed us for like fifty minutes, then we got a ten minute break to get up and stretch, before we were on to the next fifty minutes. It was amazing. I wrote a grand total of 10,424 words that day. More than I've written in ages. It was total free writing, what my friends call "pantsing" it, (because you're writing by the seat of your pants), but I found it to be a very successful method for me and could hardly wait to do it again, so I took matters into my own hands and created a place for writers to go and do sprint writing any time they want. It's called Sprint Writers Central. We have a moderator in place, most of the time, but there is a timer on the site, so even if it's three o'clock in the morning and a couple of people want to sprint, they can use the timer and go it alone.

One of my favorite aspects of Sprint Writers Central is what I call The Chatterbox. It's a chat box that has multiple purposes. One, to just visit with other writers. So many of us feel alone in this writing world and it's nice to connect and know that we aren't all by our lonesome. The other, and primary purpose, is while doing these sprint runs, if anyone has a question, be it about character names, or needing an alternate word for something, or a list of swear words (yes, these have all come across The Chatterbox), we can ask one another for help. It makes it a brainstorming tool for writers as well as a way to connect. It makes me feel like I'm in a cabin surrounded by writers such as myself and we're all pounding away at our own works, when somebody shouts out a question. I love it. Running this site, with the help of Miss Tristi Pinkston and a few others, has made me happier than I've been in I don't know how long, and believe me, I was in serious need of a dose of happiness. It feels awesome.

So, if you don't have a critique group, or don't want a critique group, but want the benefit of having other writers to write (or edit) with, come check out Sprint Writers Central and join us in the fun! You won't regret it. That I can promise.

Quote of the Day: "The most important thing for a Christian writer to do, in my opinion, is to keep the Lord their primary focus. Pray about your writing. Pray with an attitude of absolute surrender . . . no strings attached. Hard as it is, I still try not to focus on the publishing. The goal of life is to complete the work God gave me to do, whatever that may be, and of pleasing Him. We cannot know until it happens if we will ever see our books in print, just as we cannot know anything about our futures. Life isn’t about being published. It’s about obeying Jesus Christ."

~Unknown~

Conference Time and Updates

Well, it's that time of year again. Tomorrow morning I'll be heading off to the LDStorymakers conference. The last two years have been very different than the previous four or five, in that I get to present as well as attend. This is the conference that taught me how to write, particularly their Boot Camp portion. Boot Camp is very intense. It's several hours of small group sessions sitting with a published author workshopping your writing and learning how to deal with critiques. It's challenging, I won't lie, but wow is it worth it!

I am very blessed in this year, for the first time ever, I get to be one of the instructors for Boot Camp. I get to give back some of what I've learned over the years and I can hardly wait! I won't know who is in my group until I get there Thursday, but I am sure it will be awesome. Friday and Saturday are the actual conference, where I get to teach a class on How to Become an Idea Factory. My friend Ted is going to record it for me and hopefully we can take portions of that and portions of my power point and put them on my new website in the near future.

Yes, that's right, I have a new website and it is FABULOUS! It's not live yet, but will be soon enough at karenehoover.com. Check out my web designers at thedesignauthor.com. If you're looking for someone to design your website, I would highly recommend them. They do very professional and beautiful work. They are easy to work with, and affordable. Check them out, and if you decide to use their services, tell them I sent you!

Now, for those of you waiting for book two of The Wolfchild Saga, The Armor of Light, I've got some bad news. Due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, my publisher is closing its doors and will not be able to publish the rest of the series. Yes, it's disappointing and frustrating, but I'm not going to let it stop me. There is another publisher who took on the series of a friend of mine mid-series, and they are currently looking at The Armor of Light. I am keeping my fingers crossed and praying my heart out that they will finish the series for me. I've heard very, very good things about them, so keep your fingers crossed with me, will you? One way or another, I'll get the book out, I will promise you that, and hopefully you won't have to wait beyond summer.

As a result copies of The Sapphire Flute in hardback are going for pretty cheap, so get your autographed copy with the original cover while you can. They make great gifts, for old and young, and in-between.

So I'm hoping to see many of you at LDStorymakers, and if I haven't had the pleasure of making your acquaintance in the past, please come and introduce yourself and visit with me for a while. I promise I dont' bite, and you never know--you might just make a new friend.

Quote of the Day: Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.

- Hermann Hesse

Book Review: Depth of Deceit by Betty Briggs

"Blonde and beautiful, fledging attorney Stephanie Saunders vows to protect the innocent even though as indigent defense attorney her clients rarely are. Does that include Josh Durrant who seems to be following her? Stephanie is dismayed when her peers begin calling her “Prom Queen” as her boyfriend, Todd Saxton, often does. Desperately trying to prove her worth, she falls prey to those who steal her innocence. Although she plans to forgive Todd for his ultimate betrayal, she is never given the chance. Her boss, Attorney Charles Connelly, offers solace, but is Stephanie’s welfare, or his own, top priority? The only thing that keeps Stephanie sane in her insane world are the horses she loves but does not own, especially the abused mare, Riskie Business, whose example helps Stephanie make the most difficult decision of her life. Relying on wit and courage, Stephanie must save herself and another during the final showdown where she proves a loyalty of which she never knew herself capable."

2010 Winner of the Silver Quill for second place in the Fiction category for the League of Utah Writers Publication Awards.

This book intrigued me from the moment I read the backliner, and I found myself very drawn to the characters. As most of you know, I am a character writer. That's why I write series'. I get attached to people and don't want to let go. The interplay between these characters was interesting, though I found myself frustrated with Stephanie's passivity at moments, by the end of the book I had come to truly love her as a character.

I think it was her relationship with the horses that did it. You see, I'm a farm girl at heart. My grandfather owned 100 acres in Kennewick, Washington, and farmed it well. We lived there for four years and then moved to Noble, Oklahoma where we had 45 acres and had everything from chickens to pigs, to horses. I'm an animal lover and though I didn't compete like Stephanie did in the book, I know that love for these big animals. Add to that her relationship to the pregnant mare, Riskie Business, and how she related to that horse and cared for its foal, and my heart connected with this character.

I must admit the ending was my favorite bit though. I love surprise endings, so I won't ruin it for any of you, but believe me, it's worth reading the book just for the ending alone.

Betty Briggs definitely gets a thumb's up from me!

If you wish to purchase the book, follow the link here: PURCHASE

And for more information about the author and her books, please visit her website.

Bees in My Butt Blogfest

I'm excited to announced the first ever Smartboys Club Blog Fest to celebrate the release of Bees in My Butt in paperback. Everyone who participates will get the first 4 Smartboys Club books for free as ebooks and a coupon code to buy the paperback Bees in My Butt for only $3 instead of the list price of $6.99. In addition, for every hundred people that join us in the blog fest we'll have a drawing to give away a Kindle.
For details on how to participate, visit the Wonder Realms Books website. I look forward to seeing you there.

I've got a son who's a reluctant reader, and by reluctant, I mean he will sit for an hour and stare at the pictures in a book rather than read the words. He hates reading with a passion. I know, funny with me for a mom, but that's the way he is.

Well, this week I got a hold of a kindle version of Rebecca Shelley's Bees in My Butt and asked him if he wanted to try reading it for his reading time. He reluctantly agreed, (though he did seem excited to be able to mess around with my kindle) and after about an hour I went downstairs to check on him, assuming he'd tried reading a chapter book and given up. Lo and behold, he was still reading! He loved it!

If Rebecca Shelley can get my son to love reading, I'll buy every book she ever publishes. All I can say is, Thanks Rebecca!

Quote of the Day: "Fear departs when faith endures . . . I try to remember that."

~Valerie Ipson~

Purchase Bees in My Butt

Take Monkey, a literary genius with flatulence; Bean, a science and math guru; Vinny, a computer whiz who can't keep her mouth shut; and Art, an artist who can shoot a basketball like a pro, confront them with a mess of fourth grade trouble, and watch the fun explode.
In Bees in My Butt, the first book of the Smartboys Club series, the members of the Smartboys Club use their skills to battle a group of crazed Ninjas that take over the school. And it happens on a day when Monkey has the worst case of flatulence imaginable.

When You Fall Off the Horse, Just Climb Back On

Well, hello, my faithful followers and friends. I apologize for my lengthy absence. The last few months have been full of many changes and abundant challenges, and I'm afraid I've let a lot of things slide, including my blog. I've got some good stuff coming up in the near future--things I will be sure to announce here first. A new website. A new book. And various other surprises that will hopefully make up for the lack of my status updates.

I guess the first thing I should talk about are some of the splatters that have been happening. The falling off the horse things. About two months ago I went to the emergency room with a severe pain in my side. I thought I was having a gall bladder attack or kidney stones or some such thing, but after various tests and several hours in the hospital, it turns out that it was pleurisy. Now, for those of you who don't know what pleurisy is, it is an inflammation of the lining of the lung, and let me tell you, it hurts like heck! Well, the last step in making sure it was not a serious problem was to get a blood test done to be sure there were no clots, especially in my lungs. When the doctor came back with the blood results, he said, "well, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that there were no clots found in your blood." Of course I was relieved to hear that, but my stomach clenched with his next question. He met my eye and in a quiet voice asked, "Have you ever been tested for diabetes?" My mouth went dry and my heart sank to my stomach. "I was tested about 3 years ago," I told him, "and was prediabetic."

He shook his head and with some compassion lining his features, said, "well, it's not 'pre' any longer. Your blood sugar is 424." Now, I knew from talking to the doctor three years before that my blood sugar needed to be close to 100 to be normal and it was four times that. My stomach dropped to my feet. "We're going to give you an insulin shot now, and I want you to get in with your doctor tomorrow. Do NOT take no for answer," he said. Thankfully, my kids already had appoints for well child check ups for the next day, so I stole their appointments and went in.

Since then, I've gotten my blood sugar down to close to 100. It varies from day to day. This week's average is about 125. I'm doing everything I can to lose weight and eat healthy and exercise so that I can put this thing into remission. I am determined to make it happen.

Now, if only the rest of my life would get out of the way. Too much stress and too many decisions hit me hour by hour, and I'm afraid it makes it hard to keep on track the way I would like, though my quality of life and my eating and exercise habits are tremendously better than they have ever been.

I feel like the last year, since my book was published, I've been riding along on this lovely horse, my hair flowing behind me in the wind, and the last few months, the saddle has slipped and sent me tumbling into the mud--cut, scraped, bruised, and dirty. It's been a challenge climbing back on the horse, especially when the horse keeps running away from me, but I'm trying.

I'm trying.

Last month I had the opportunity to go to Arizona not once, but twice. Once to the Changing Hands Bookstore for their Authorpallooza event. I was able to sit with wonderful authors like Janette Rallison, Lisa Mangum, Bree Despain, and Angela Morrison. Obert Skye was there, as well as Jessica Day George, and a ton of others. I had dinner with a lovely lady who told us amazing stories about Stephenie Meyer and when she was first published and her events at the same bookstore. It was fabulous. And I got to room with the amazing Lisa Mangum, who is not only a wonderful writer, but is also an editor for Shadow Mountain and was the first and only editor to give me a phone call rejection, which is not as bad as it sounds. It was the first rejection I ever got that said, "We like you and we love your work, we just don't have room in our publishing schedule for you." There have never been hard feelings, and I had a fantastic few days with her tootling around Phoenix and Mesa. I took my GPS,which is voiced by Darth Vader, and we had many a laugh as the told us to "Take the Highway" and "Stay in Formation."

After that, Lisa went home and I stayed another day so that I could go and visit with the wonderful kids at The American Leadership Academy. My friend Theresa put me up for a couple of nights in her home, her lovely daughter having sacrificed her room for me. I was so very grateful! Theresa works at the school and made arrangements for me to come, and what a thrill it was! Those kids are fantastic and I wish I'd had more time to visit with them and not just rush from class to class and do my presentation. I hope I will have the chance to go and visit with them again.

A few weeks later, I went back for the ANWA writing conference, where for once I did not present, but was there only as an attendee. I rode down with my best friend Shari and my new wonderful friend the "Other" Karen. It was a long drive, but tons of fun and I loved spending it with these ladies. I met editors and agents and many, many fellow writers. I think my favorite class was Elana Johnson's. The woman is brilliant and hilarious and I love her to pieces. Kirk Shaw kept picking on me in classes so people kept coming up to me after and asking if I was a Covent author. I had to tell them, no, we're just friends and have been to a ton of the same conferences. I met an agent who is interested in the first book in another series I've written. That was cool.

And life goes on. I'll be attending Writer's Fest at Clarke Johnson Jr. High in Tooele next Friday, the 25th of March, and will be attending an author event in Ephraim on April 9th.

And for those of you waiting for book 2, I know it was supposed to be out like three days ago--but it isn't, and I honestly have no idea when the release date will be. As soon as I know, you will, I promise.

And that's about it for now. Hopefully my next post will be happier. I could use some happy posts, and I'm sure you could as well. The one thing I've learned through all of this, is that it's important to just keep chasing the dream. Get back on the horse when it kicks you off. Keep doing the work that will get you there and I have no doubt, that someday, we'll all catch the ring and win the prize.

When You Can't Say Something Nice . . . .

My mom raised me with the saying, "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Well, how long has it been since I've written a heartfelt post? Ages, it feels, but the reason is that exact phrase. Despite all the interesting things happening with signings and being published and all, life has been very, very difficult and I've felt like if I couldn't talk about the good stuff going on, then I should just go into hermit mode and write nothing for a while.

The problem is, when I go into hermit mode, it makes things worse, not better. I'm going to go out on a limb here and share some of the challenges I've been having for two reasons--one, in the hope it will help somebody out there know they are not alone, and two, because if I don't share all this garbage with somebody I am going to explode--quite literally, it feels. I'm going to end up with one of those lovely white shirts with the extra long sleeves and spend my days in a padded room.

When my mom died three years ago, I lost my best friend and greatest confidante. She was my cheerleader, my writing buddy, and my greatest support, and in a matter of three days, she went from being strong and healthy to being gone. Forever. You can't tell me that kind of pain goes away with time. The intensity might ease, but the deep, empty, aching spot inside of me is like a black hole that gets bigger with time until it consumes all that I am.

A little over a year ago I had a total breakdown. I was outside, bawling my head off, arguing with my husband over something stupid, and I just snapped and started banging my head on the wooden stairs, and would have done it on the concrete if he hadn't stopped me. The next day I alternately laughed hysterically and cried as I had some energy work done. I couldn't help myself. For a week after that I wore earplugs because any sound was like nails on a chalk board.

You might wonder why I'm telling you all of this. Well, after my breakdown, I started doing some research about what might have caused it aside from the grief, and after going to see a psychologist and getting some testing done, it was discovered that I was bi-polar and losing my mom just set things off in a big kind of way. Now, unbeknownst to me, there are many kinds of bi-polar. I'm the manic type, but I still get depressed. More likely though I will stay up all night working on a project and have a hard time making myself sleep. I talk a lot when I'm excited. I am not suicidal, nor am I the type to stay in bed for weeks on end.

But once the sun goes down for the winter and fall, I get depressed in a big sort of way. I lose hope in everything. I wonder why I bother to write when nobody will like it or it will never see the light of day. I want to spend my days playing World of Warcraft and reading books or watching movies to escape the pain of just being alive. I feel like nobody likes me. I get paranoid about whether my friends still want me around. Life just gets HARD. I know it's not logical, but depression has nothing to do with logic.

For some reason this year in particular has been really hard. I think it's because my mom, who always KNEW I would get published, wasn't here to see it all happen. It was a shared dream for us, and now it's here and she doesn't get to see it, not in her earthly form. And I miss her so much I have no words.

So, there you have it, guys. The innards of Karen E. Hoover splattered all over her blog. It's a big bloody mess, isn't it? Thanks for reading anyway. Hopefully I can find some different help soon and find a way to be happy again, but in the meantime, I'll just keep climbing out of bed every day and make the best of the time I have. I'm trying to make a difference in what ways I can. School visits. I'd like to do some writing workshops. When I talk about writing is the only time I really feel alive, so if any of you out there would like me to come talk to your classes, writing groups, youth groups, church groups, anything, please give me the opportunity. I desperately need to feel alive.

Oh, and I can sing and play the flute too. :) Thanks for listening, all my bloggy friends. Hugs to you all.

Karen

Quote of the Day: "Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head."

~ From the movie Finding Forrester