Scattered Jules

On the way home from CONduit, it was raining. Insane raining. And the car in front of me spun out and off the road, taking out a speed limit sign (those things are useless anyway), a guard rail, and a fence. I hurried to pull off the road to see if everyone in the car was okay. I ran through the tall wet blades of grass to find that the window had been blown out of the car and a bleeding arm hung limply out of the window. Blood dripped down the fingertips and onto the ground.

I blinked the rain out of my eyes and had a moment of panic. I have no life saving skills. I can’t resurrect a once beating heart with cpr. I can’t do mouth to mouth unless we’re talking about kissing, and I certainly don’t know the first thing about cuts and bleeding. When the arm moved, I almost screamed. Instead I yelled out, “Are you okay?”

The young driver wasn’t dead, but looked pretty shell shocked. He scrambled out of the car on the other side since his side was thrashed and the door no longer opened. I had him sit in my car where it was warm, dry and glass free while we waited for the police. After my initial shock of seeing blood, I realized the kid’s cuts were all surface–ugly, but non  life threatening. I figured keeping him talking would be the best thing to do so I asked where he was going. Sheepishly, he said, “I know it sounds kinda nerdy, but I was going to play some RPG with my friends.” RPG means role playing games.

I grinned. “Well, it sounds kinda nerdy but I’m just coming home from spending a weekend at a fantasy/science fiction convention.”

So that’s how I gained  a new friend.

The CON was great! I loved getting to be with my fav people. I’d start name dropping on how I know way cool people, but you all already know that Lee Modesitt, Jessica Day George, James Dashner(who is new york right now and he didn’t even invite me!), Aprilynne Pike (who hit number one on the NYT list–Congrats Aprilynne!), Mette Ivie Harrison, Jaime Thelar, Howard Tayler and his beautiful wife Sandra are all my friends. Oh wait . . . did I say I wasn’t going to name drop? Karen Hoover was a great roommate. And the ah-ha moment of the weekend was the realization of how much I love these people. LOVE them. And am grateful for the many things they are in my life. It might be kinda nerdy, as the car accident victim said, but I love hanging out at science fiction and fantasy conventions.

It is official that Eyes Like Mine ships to bookstores on July first. I am planning my launch party and will post more info when I have it, but I am so excited to see this book become a reality. My editor is awesome . . . have I mentioned that yet today?

And I finished the first chapter of my new novel. It kicks butt. I am beyond thrilled with this new book. There is a perfect amount of conflict, humor, adventure, and romance. I love it when I know where is a story is going right from the beginning.

AND I’ve been working a lot, writing a lot, and volunteering for a lot so if I seem to be missing online, don’t call the police to start searching for the body. It’s just buried under a heavy pile of have-to-do. Happy writing and reading everyone!

At the storymaker conference we decided to add some entertainment and give the attendees a music video. Heather  Moore and Crystal Liechty wrote the lyrics and Stephanie Fowers did the filming. It is hilarious! You’ll note there is a scene where I look like I’m having a seizure. It’s a good reminder to never get silly when someone has a camera rolling.
I hope you have as much fun watching it as we did in the creation.

It’s mother’s day, and I’d like to wish all the women out there who influence children for the better a happy day. Mother’s day has not always been my fav day of the year. In fact, for many years I’ve shunned the entire month of May for miscreant reasons of my own. But I’m trying to do better if only for the fact that I love my kids and love being a mother and if I have to endure a day where I wonder how much I fall short, then so be it. I’ve including a little video here:

Have a great day to ladies everywhere!

My husband has always wanted me to write a mystery novel. I mean ALWAYS. He’s even bought me all kinds of “how to” books on writing mysteries. I’ve got books on weapons, poisons, motives–the works. It is a huge disappointment to him that I haven’t cracked the spine of one of those how-to books. But the next best thing to ME writing one is my best friend writing one, isn’t it?

I think so.

Josi is so incredibly busy planning writing conferences, and doing book stuff that I decided to forego the usual interview for her. I mean really, we all know that Josi is awesome and rocks the literary foundations of the world, so what more do we need to know about her (aside from the fact that she’s incredibly organized, snarky enough to make me laugh out loud, has awesome taste in food and music, and obviously has awesome taste  in friends, because she does like me enough to answer her phone when I call)?  Besides, once a person reaches Goddess status, it becomes just too much for us mere mortals. This is why I decided to interview one of the main characters of her new book (the mystery I will never write . . . sorry, honey).

There are all kinds of characters in the book who I could interview. I could interview the detectives, the murderer(though the murderer seemed a little unstable and wasn’t up to answering questions), the murder victim (though she was dead boring), the murder victim’s son (but let’s face it, what could he tell us since he was missing for the entire book?) or I could interview our heroine, Sadie Hoffmiller, but I hear this sassy culinary detective is on another case . . . somewhere in England if rumors are right.

So I interviewed the only other character available who was present for all the exciting stuff: the lemon tart. He was very obliging and doesn’t seem to mind the lime light even if he wishes it were lemon.

Me: So, wow, you were Anne’s last concern before she met her untimely demise. How does that make you feel?

Tart: Well, of course that makes me feel pretty special, but then . . . all tarts are special. Do you have any idea what kind of work goes into making a masterpiece like me? If you’re leaving this world with a lemon tart on the mind, you’re leaving this world happy.

Me: I do imagine you would feel special, but it might be a bit extreme to say she left the world happy. She was murdered after all.

Tart: Murdered schmurdered. She had a perfect lemon tart in the oven. She was happy; believe me.

Me: I’ll have to take your word for that. So what did you think of Sadie?

Tart: I knew right away she was one classy dame, right? She was the only one of the inefficient bozos to notice I was still baking. You have no idea how hot it gets when you start overbaking. When Sadie rescued me, I knew right away she’d figure out the whole murder thing.

Me: And figure it out she did. You have to admire a woman who can solve a murder case and make perfect applesauce on the side.

Tart: Hey. Why don’t you stay on topic huh? We’re not talking about any second rate applesauce. We’re taking about lemon tarts here. Didn’t you notice I am the cover model for this book? Didn’t you see my great pose? Applesauce has got nothing to do with this, got it?

Me: Um . . . er . . . right. Oh hey, look at the time. We’re going to have to cut this short but I appreciate you talking to me before your big finale.

Tart: Finale? What finale? Hey, who are all those guys with the spoons looking at me all hungry like that? Wait a minute! You set me up! Sadie! I’m sorry I insulted your applesauce! Sadie! Come save me!

Me: Well folks, that’s the end of our interview. I mean it . . . he’s all gone now. They didn’t even save me a bite. But you can take a bite out of a delicious read by going out and buying your own copy of Lemon Tart by Josi Kilpack today! And to share a little in the excitement, Josi’s Lemon Tart hit number one on the Deseret Book bestseller’s list. Josi really does rock!

What’s on the mp3 player: Eve 6 Inside Out

Last week , some weird things took place.
I received an email Tuesday asking me for the full manuscript on a query I sent out. I sent the query as an afterthought since I was sending it with another book the agent had asked for the full manuscript on. And hindsight tells me I sent that query prematurely being that the book wasn’t done, but I thought the agent would take longer in getting back to me.

She was fast. 

And the book still wasn’t done.

And I panicked. So I took the day off work Wednesday and wrote. I’m surprised the keyboard didn’t catch fire because I wrote 5000 words by noon. I felt pretty excited about that, but the book still wasn’t done. I needed a break so went to the store, chatted with that cute man I’m married to, came home, checked my email and guess what I found in my email box.

ANOTHER email requesting the full manuscript of this same yet uncompleted novel, but by a different agent. Exhilarated, and feeling under extreme pressure, I went back to writing. At 12:30 am, I ended the day after having written 10, 979 words and completing a manuscript. That is the equivalent of 44 pages. In one day!

And the ending was awesome. And the writing was easy–it just flowed. Thursday, I spent doing edits. Friday, the manuscripts were mailed off. I wasn’t going to post any of this because I feared that the agents in question might read my blog and discover what a flake I am. But by gum I am so proud of the fact that I wrote 44 pages in one day that I cannot help but tell all of you about it! Who knew I was capable of that much writing in one day. And instead of being drained and exhausted when I was done, I was lit up and filled with energy. What an absolute rush! It wouldn’t have happened if Mr. Wright hadn’t been so supportive and been so willing to take the kids to a movie to give me the night in an empty house. And if Thursday night he hadn’t been willing to take the boys to pack meeting and then stay up with me until 2:30 am while I read out loud to him.

It really smoothes out the editing process to read out loud to someone with a discerning ear. I know how lucky I am to have him.

So when you all start wondering about this crazy writing gig you’re getting involved in, and you’re thinking maybe you can’t finish that book, you just remember, if Jules can do it, so can you! I had no idea I could write so much at once until I did. And you won’t know what you can do . . . until you get it done.

And I also found out I am the new Webelos leader. If you know my feet dragging attitude toward the scouting program, you’ll understand the irony that I would be asked to do this. Hopefully this will be a good experience where I can grow as an individual or something like that . . .

And last but not least you guys had some excellent high school woe stories. I laughed and cringed and felt your pain. And the winner is Blue. I’ll email you and get your address for the high school sucks prize. And just so you all know, high school kids should always be nice to future writers. We always get the last word. And those mean girls? Oh yeah, they are the victims of incompetent villains in my books.