The TEEN AUTHOR BOOT CAMP is once again being held for teens only! No adults allowed. (Except the presenters, I’m assuming.)

Basic info:

Sat. March 10, 2012, at UVU
Brandon Mull and ten other authors will be there.
Cost: $39 all day includes tuition, lunch, all-you-can-drink soda,
backpack, and entry into a first chapter contest (up to ten pages
critiqued. First prize worth $100)

click here

Now, you have to understand that I’m not the type of person who curses, and I don’t allow my kids to use certain words. My husband is even more strict with his language than I am. But ‘crap’ is not on my ‘banned words’ list. It strikes me as funny that such a non-potty-mouthed person as I think myself to be had to be censored by her editor.

Okay. I’ll comply. From now on you’ll find no more crap in my middle grade novels.

However . . .

my editor said that ’crud’ is just fine!

The creator of this site, Kim Norman, is a pro at school visits. Click here to check out her personal website.

See, the boys would not have appreciated what turned out to be our number one favorite activity of the trip–shopping. We did some other fun things as well, but we stumbled across a sale in the outlets at Park City that held our attention for hours! While my sisters were in differents stores, I wandered into Wilson’s Leathers–just to look around. I found a rack of amazingly discounted (I’m talking almost %85 off!) and jackets that were so, so cute! Before long the rest of my female family joined me, and we tried on practically every coat on that rack.

Now, if you’ve read THE LIMIT, you can probably guess what my positions on finances, debt and spending money are. (Rest assured, none of us went into debt during our shopping spree.) I also love to find a great deal. It’s sort of like  a treasure hunt, finding the best quailty items possible at the lowest price. Not much better!

It was so great, in fact, that even though we had bought so many coats and jackets that we could barely fit them into the back of our two vehicles, we found ourselves back in that very same store the next day. Over the nighttime hours we had each come up with a list of loved ones who deserved the gift of a great new coat that we could by at a fraction of the original price!

Yeah. Right.

My weeks have been full of driving kids to camps, lessons and activities. We’ve had some house-guests, and we’ve also had a couple of fun family vacations. We went camping and hiking in some really cool places in south-east Utah that I’ve never been before. I live in an amazing state. One of the hikes was in a slot canyon–which was so narrow in places we had to walk sideways. Extremely cool, though. We spent this past weekend boating and beaching at Bear Lake–which straddles the Utah and Idaho boarder. The water is a bit chillier than I prefer, but it is the most gorgeous blue water you’ll see that’s not in the ocean.

A couple of weeks ago I had the unpleasant surprise of receiving notice that I’d been called up for jury duty. Ugh! The letter said to call in after 5:00 on Tuesday evening to see if I’d really have to go. A lot of time cases are postponed or settled and you don’t have to go in. (I know this because this is the third time I’ve been called in for jury duty in the 9-plus years I’ve lived in Utah. They say it’s a random selection, but I don’t believe it!) So on Tuesday at 5:05 I called in. There was a recorded message–but it was for the previous day! Nobody updated the message. By this time the office with real live people had closed for the day. Augh! I was so mad. I kept calling back all evening, hoping someone would realize they’d forgotten to update the message and would run back to the courthouse to do it. No luck. It wasn’t until 8:10 the next morning–five minutes before I would have to leave home to get there in time–that someone came into the office and picked up the phone. They told me yes, I did have to come in. At least my kids are old enough I could just leave them home without worrying about finding a babysitter. Every prospective juror had the same story to tell–and we were all pretty mad. They let us cool off by making us wait about an hour. Sheesh!

When I was given the randomly selected juror number of three, I knew I was in trouble. The lower the number, the greater chance you have of being chosen. I told #1 and #2 that we were in for it and–yep–we all got picked. The judge assured us this was an easy criminal case that should only take one day. Right. It lasted two full days, and we weren’t released until 2 AM after the second day. Let me note that we, the jury, only deliberated for one hour–and we had five counts to decide on. The lawers and judge needed to take a lesson from us on efficiency.

Overall, the experience was interesting. I’m glad I got to serve, but I would have been much happier if the case had only lasted that one day the judge promised.

So after all this busyness, I haven’t been able to do quite as much writing as I’d hoped I would by this point in the summer. I’ve done a decent amount, though, so I feel okay.

I’m making a goal to update my blog every week–especially as we draw near the publication date of THE LIMIT. I did get my Kirkus review–and it’s pretty good! Now that I’ve published this goal, life is going to hit me with a few surprises, I’m sure. But, hey, that’s what makes life interesting!