Gone

Well, the boys went up to the cabin tonight. Jorja's still at EFY. Mom and I had a bit of time to ourselves. We've been reading Gone With the Wind together. We're still in the early chapters of the book, but we discuss each one as we finish. I enjoy the book for lots of reasons, so it's nice that I can read it with her and talk about my thoughts.

Splash Pad

A few months ago, this free park called Wardle Fields opened up not far from where we live. Brett and Rachel are in town with their kids, and they wanted to know if we'd like to join them, Matt, Grandpa, and some other relatives there. Stockton voted to stay home (Especially since he had to go to his bowling class later), but Preston and I went with Mom. It's a "splash pad", so we dressed in our swim suits and met up with our cousins at Grandpa's house. The air conditioning in our van is still broken, so we hitched a ride to the park in Grandpa's car instead. They had slides, jungle gyms, zip-lines, and all sorts of fun things!

I enjoyed climbing on the jungle gyms a lot, but it was hard to ride the slides! I ended up having to walk most of the way down. It was certainly an interesting place, because kids were free to go nuts with parents as the only supervisors. So, no one monitored the top of the slide or anything, so tons of kids would squeeze through the line and barrel down after each other. Lovely. Well, I never heard anyone crying, so I suppose they managed themselves okay!

I really enjoyed this jungle gym shaped like a cone. Not only could you climb it, but it spun, too! It was crazy how many kids loved running in circles spinning that thing, with all the kids hanging off it.

Marie and Preston at the top

I went back to the pavillion where we had set our things for awhile to find that some of our relatives had brought cake. Nice! I had a piece along with some goldfish and cookies. It's almost like we were at Lagoon. It's nice that Mom's side of the family is always willing to share when we meet at family gatherings.

I spent a lot of time with Anne. She said she was "scared" of "the splashes", so we mostly hung around the dry land stuff, or walked in the shallow water areas and climbed on boulders.

Anne catching Jeff. What a sweet big sister!

Anne really wanted to ride the wings, so Preston and I pushed her in a large plastic yellow seat that even had a piece fold down over her head, if that makes any sense... like a rollercoaster seatbelt. That was pretty good thinking. Preston and I were pushing her so high sometimes, she was pretty much lying on her back at a 90 degree angle! She loved it and didn't want to get off at all.

As I walked Anne back to the pavilion when we were finally done, we realized someone's shoe was on the roof! Uncle Brett climbed up to get it.

Preston and I had become pretty thirsty, but it was still going to be a little bit before we went home. We snuck down to see if we could drink from the waterfall. Preston then decided to try one of the squirty fountains that shoots from the ground. When he leaned forward to try, I pushed his face down so he got blasted. He then chased me around until he wrestled me into the water too, so my hair got soaked. As we passed the waterfall on our way out, I ducked behind it, and grabbed Preston's wrists to yank him through. He claims that only his shirt got wet, of course.

Mom said that she didn't have enough time to drop us off at home and be on time to pick up Stockton from his bowling class. We hung around Grandpa's house for a bit, and then piled into the car and drove down to the old bowling alley where his class was. Of course, he was about twenty minutes late getting out, so Mom could have taken us home, but it was fine. We grabbed food and/or milkshakes from Arctic Circle. I had Oreo marshmallow- nice!

Although Stockton didn't get to enjoy the Splash Pad today, we showed him pictures, and he just might be tempted to join us next time around. Sure was a cool place for somewhere that was free.

Wednesday's Simple

I talked to some online friends today and did some drawing. But mostly, I wrote. I've been struggling with some writer's block for awhile, but I think I'm getting over it. I'd really like to take advantage of this summer to get a lot done.

I also found out who my new roommate will be at Utah State! Or at least, I think I did. She seems really nice and she even has the same last name that I do. I wrote her an email, so we'll see if she responds back any time soon.

Custom Fit

Not the most exciting day today, but a productive one! Mom and I went bra shopping. Shannon recommended a place where they do custom fittings and things, which is really great for someone of my body type. The last time Mom and I went shopping, we were literally on the floor at Kohl's digging through a heap. The bras there were organized by brand, not by size. Who does that?

Anyway, they didn't have a bra in my size at this store, but they're ordering some in that should be here in three weeks. It'll be great to have a bra that actually fits me for once!

Mom and I picked up pizza on the way home. I sent Stockton a text so he and Preston would know we were on our way and they didn't have to feed themselves. This is what he sent back:

Hot Car

Well, Jorja headed off to EFY today! Mom and I drove her up to BYU. If you bring a copy of your grades in to Krispy Kreme, they'll reward you with a donut for each A. Since Krispy Kreme isn't near our house, I grabbed my laptop and settled into the car for the long ride up.

The air conditioning hasn't been working in the van, so it was pretty hot. Definitely too hot to stay in the car while Mom got Jorja registered! I followed them around as Jorja got settled into her room. She's rooming with a girl in our ward named Ebony Liu.

Ebony and Jorja

After that was all done, Mom and I hit up Krispy Kreme for those donuts! ... Except, apparently they've changed policies, so only 6th grade and below are allowed to receive free donuts for their As. They were probably giving too many donuts away (between Stockton, Jorja, and I, I think we left with three free boxes last year). Mom bought me a cake batter donut and a donut with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles anyway. Those were nice.

We stopped by the dōTERRA building on our way home so Mom could change an automatic order that she'd made. It was nice to have some time with my mom to myself, and we talked about a lot of things on our errands today in the hot car.

Taco Train

Today, we fasted as a family because we'll be up at the cabin next Sunday. Also, we found out that our stake patriarch died yesterday. He's the one who gave me my patriarchal blessing, and he was always very nice, so it's bittersweet to let him go.

I caught up to Preston as we were walking home from church. We were surprised to see a deer resting on our front lawn! Preston and I walked carefully to the front door to avoid scaring her off.

Last night, Dad took Jorja shopping, since she'll be going to EFY next week. While out, he grabbed a gallon of chocolate milk, so after we all broke our fast, we enjoyed that. And, Dad made tacos for dinner. 

We visited our cousins the Smiths tonight to show off the two games Dad received for Father's Day. There was also lots of ice cream. I talked with Erica about her life and writing, and caught up on some blog posts too.

I've mainly been sleeping in the guest room since coming home from college. Tonight, I slept downstairs with Jorja, and we talked about her life and career and things. It's crazy that my little sister is growing up. I hope she finds a good path to walk in life.

Apples and Betrayals

Anne, Jeff, and Greg came over this morning so we could watch them while Matt and Sam attended the temple. Greg slept the whole time, and Anne mostly played with Preston. Mom and I kept Jeff entertained with a cheap I-Spy book for a long time. He liked that. Later, he also found a grape that he seemed to think was a bouncy ball. I think he liked that too.

We played Disney Apples to Apples together; specifically, Anne was on my team and we played against Stockton, Preston, and Mom. The Disney version is nice because it has pictures, which kept Anne's attention, although sometimes she wanted to vote for which picture she liked best, regardless of the adjective we were supposed to be judging for.

Jorja went to a friend's house tonight, and Mom, Dad, and Preston played Betrayal at House on a Hill again. I sat nearby with my laptop so I could do some writing, but still listen in. It worked out, because I was able to help Mom when she turned out to be the traitor again (Zombie Lord, this time). She ended up turning the other players into zombies and winning the game, so she was pretty happy about that.

Plans 4 Life

I've been thinking about getting a minor in marketing. I talked about it with Mom, and she was really nice and worked out a potential schedule for my next few years of college. Glad I have a mom who likes to do things like that! Saves me lots of time and trouble.

It seems like it may be possible for me to graduate with a psychology major, an English major with a creative writing emphasis, and a marketing minor. Everything would have to fall into place, but it would be great!

We watched an episode of "Doctor Who" tonight as a family, followed by "Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog", which is a YouTube video with Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible. Someone at WIFYR recommended it as an example of character fleshing and development, so it was kind of cool to watch.

Bowling For Soup (I Mean Sandwiches)

Today, I went with Mom as she dropped Stockton off at the bowling alley (he's taking a summer school class for bowling). Then, she and I went to Zupa's. I had a grilled cheese, which came with a soup that I gave to Mom. We talked about my writing and things. Kind of nice just to have some one-on-one time with her.

A Deer

Preston went to scout camp today, so I mostly stayed home with Mom. Though, when Preston did come back, he and I looked out the kitchen window and saw this deer:

 

Welcome to the Web

I worked to set up some social media accounts today. Once upon a time, traditional publishers did most of the marketing themselves. All the author had to do was provide the book. These days, publishers have tons of authors and social media is a thing. They're less interested in authors who can't give them much help when it comes to promotion- especially if they don't consider that author something really special.

So, I put some things together today. I have a professional Twitter account now where I expect to talk about my books at times. This should be interesting.

No Critiques Today

I still haven't looked at the comments my WIFYR critique group left on my manuscripts. I'm a little nervous because they didn't seem too impressed with me when we were critiquing verbally, and I'm a little too close to the material right now for that.

Another few days, I suppose, when I'm farther along in the project and more confident in my choices. Because in the end, it is my story. Even if my peers thought Ethel flinched because she had a crush on Gavin, I still know it was because he was covered in boiling acid. And I still know why she seems like a jerk at times and why it's crucial for the story, and I know that the reason she can speak a few phrases in other languages is because she worked at a hotel waiting on tourists all the time.

So there are things in the first chapter that will be explained later. I just have to remind myself that even if my beta readers thought some of my ideas were clumsy and ridiculous, I know why I put them there. Sure, I can choose to make things more clear, but I don't have to pull them from my story just because some people think fantasy is a confusing and dumb genre.

Dad's Games

Because it was Father's Day, we gave Dad some games. One is a Mafia-style game called One Night Ultimate Werewolf. The other is a build-the-board-as-you-explore haunted mansion game called Betrayal at House on the Hill. You can trigger many different stories and endings, so it was pretty neat.

We wore some ties to church for Father's Day

Matt and Sam's new baby, Greg, was getting blessed today, so we paid their ward a visit. It was a little hard to hear some of the talks, which was too bad since one boy told a neat story about his dad losing the keys to the family car in a hole where a snake lived, and what they had to do to get them out. I'd have liked to listen to the whole thing.

This evening, we had a large family dinner with members of Sam's side of the family. There were quite a lot of people in our kitchen, but we made it work. It is kind of nice to have had that remodel- our old kitchen had a much harder time fitting people like this.

Our family played Dad's new games around the low living room table tonight. That Betrayal game certainly was long! I think it took us longer to make our Haunt roll than is typical. Mom ended up being the traitor; her player died and morphed into a giant two-headed snake monster. We played a few rounds like that, but ended up putting the game on hold. Some other day we'll finish it, but for now, we played a game of Werewolf instead.

Yummy Macaroni

A simple day... Did some writing and such. I made macaroni for myself and the other kids using my red pot. It came out better than it usually does, I think! I guess I had the right amount of butter in (three tablespoons instead of the recommended four, when usually I put in only two).

I suppose my pot has been used and washed enough that it doesn't taste like metal anymore, too. That's always pleasant.

Parcheesi Piece

I attended my last day of WIFYR. It's always a lot of work, but good fun too, and very helpful. Surprisingly, Mom picked me up. The plan had been for she, Dad, and the boys to go to Wyoming for a diving competition, but there were some issues in registration and in the end, they decided not to go.

Instead, Stockton went off to a scout camp. Jorja had gone to girls' camp that morning, so the four of us were left alone. They wanted to play a game, so Preston went to find one he knew I couldn't resist: Parcheesi! It went pretty long, but that was partially my fault. I did set up a gate pretty early and block people for a long time. Preston ended up winning the game, but it came down to the wire.

I was disappointed to find that one of my Parcheesi pieces was missing. I'd taken it to college and only played it once or twice, and thought I'd been so careful not to lose any. But, Preston found one to 3D print as a replacement. He does love that 3D printer!

300th Post

This is the 300th post on this blog! I've come a long way. Crazy to think I've been doing this for almost a year. I guess that means I go back to college soon. Yikes!

We critiqued a couple more manuscripts this morning. I found it interesting how my group showered the praise on one of the women. She wrote about a Chinese boy who went diving for crabs and things and ended up facing a shark, and killing it in the process. I mean, it was interesting, I guess, but it was slow and full of punctuation errors and things. Historical isn't my genre. Plus, the main character holds his breath for like eight to ten minutes while fighting a shark. 

I don't know- I just thought it was interesting how everyone was telling her this is the kind of book that would be up for a Newbery award. It was... humbling.

Last night, I worked on my query letter for The Worth of Ink. As part of the conference, everyone in my morning workshop was assigned to meet with an agent at some point during the week. Jorja even put some make-up on me this morning. 

We were to submit two pages of our writing along with our query letter. I was nervous, since my first two pages weren't my strongest. Mom pointed out that my note never said they had to be the first two pages, so I sent 12 and 13, along with the proper page number to be sure my agent got it.

Lo and behold, the printer chopped off the upper half of the heading and the agent didn't realize he wasn't reading pages 1 and 2, so when he told me how little sense of place I had and I mentioned what I'd done, he told me I could ignore most of the comments he'd written. Well...

Anyway, I only met with him for like five minutes or so. When I prompted him, he offered me a comment about how to improve my query letter, though I wish we would have focused on that more. He was in a rush because his last meeting had gone over and he wanted to get back on schedule. At least I did get to hear what he had to say, even though his comments weren't optimistic.

This afternoon, I attended a workshop about humor and voice. I sat next to one of my morning groupmates, Hillary, and we talked for a bit before our class started. We had talked the day before as well (and her friend had gone to see the same agent I had, so she passed along his query letter advice). Anyway, I do like Hillary. She had nice things to say about my manuscript and really enjoyed my worldbuilding. 

During our one-on-one chat, she asked me what my characters looked like, since I had described Gavin as having some feathers and Ethel as being a creature called a "fauner" (which is more or less a human, but in a world where that term doesn't exist). I showed her a drawing I had done of them, as well as the one Linzie drew for me. Hillary was very impressed, and I passed Linzie's contact information along to her, since Linzie takes commissions. She loves it when authors approach her asking if she'll help them design their characters a reference, so it would be great if things worked out for those two!

Diverse Sandwiches

Everyone in my morning critique group is a woman, except for one man- by the name of Lindsey. It was his turn to be critiqued today (along with two other manuscripts, of course). After our workshop yesterday, he sought me out during lunch to request my email and send me a PowerPoint that I silently dubbed "the shame PowerPoint", since the implication was that he singled me out as someone who needed extra help in worldbuilding areas that I had thought myself strong in. Well, I'll take it as a compliment anyway. It was pretty nice of him to think of me and find me during lunch.

An editor came and talked to us today. We spoke about agents, publishing companies, and some terms that I didn't know (like publishing companies auctioning for a really good manuscript they all want). We also discussed the difficulties of writing outside our own ethnicity- specifically, how publishers tend to resist taking on manuscripts that contain mentions of other cultures if the book is written by a white author, particularly with the "Own Voice" movement sweeping the nation. After she left and we talked amongst ourselves, that discussion got... messy. 

It's such a silly thing. So many of us want to promote diversity by normalizing non-white protagonists, but apparently people out in the world get upset when we do because we're white and shouldn't be allowed to do that? One of the authors in our group is writing about green elves, and she's not a green elf coming from a long history of North Pole culture. Diversity is a tricky subject.

While neither Ethel nor Gavin is white, I feel like I should be in the clear seeing as I'm writing a fantasy that takes place on another planet, and I didn't springboard off their ethnicities' cultures when designing Sikhoria (In a world where everything except wood dissolves in the acidic ocean, I ended up with a people who prize wood, and where the polluted water can be used as a weapon, so it certainly has its own culture going on there).

Either way, it'll be interesting to see what happens when this story gets published. I want either my non-white lead characters on the front cover, or something that symbolizes the story with no mention of their skintones at all; Janette was telling us that she wrote a black main character once, but the publishers designed a cover with a white kid on it. She said she was fine with it, because she didn't specifically SAY in the story that the main character was black- just that he was in her mind. She also told us all about how we shouldn't get our hopes up about our covers, because unless they're self-publishing and specifically commissioning a design on their own, the author has very limited say about it. Well. I think as long as my characters don't get whitewashed, I'll be happy.

Today, we had lunch with our critique group. The consensus for where we would get our food was Village Baker. They have $8 sandwiches there. That seemed like a lot to me, and I hadn't been hungry the last two mornings. So, I opted to bring my own lunch today. It was kind of nice to have the class assistant take orders and bring food here, because when I went to WIFYR two years ago, we all went out to a Chinese place and carpooled, and were squished in with some other groups. This was nice.

Roast the Children

More WIFYR today. It was my turn to have the first twenty pages of my manuscript critiqued. All in all, it went about as well as I'd anticipated. I'd marked some things on my copy and as expected, those were brought to my attention by the group. They also brought up some other interesting points... Namely, how Ethel flinching when she touched Gavin's wrist was "too obvious" and "sickeningly romantic" and a cause for eye rolls... while I thought it was pretty clear that she was flinching because he's covered in boiling acid and it hurts to touch him. Also, she did specifically mention that she didn't find him attractive. Ah, well.

Two other people sitting near me were critiqued as well. I think we all were able to share our thoughts and learn a lot from hearing others- the woman who wrote "and the Shadow of Darkness would be my ally" was quite surprised to hear that I couldn't take the villain seriously, which I thought was funny. I think after I pointed it out to her, she realized how blatant and simple her villain was. He might pass in a middle grade piece, but not in YA, I think! If that manuscript gets published someday, I'll bet it will be a lot stronger! And hopefully I can look at my own in the same way.

WIFYR Begins

Well, it was a long and WIFYR-filled day. Mom and I hit the road just after 7:00. I won't need to be there that early for the rest of the week, but I wanted to be there in plenty of time for registration. Once we got me signed in, I said good-bye to Mom for the day.

After the opening ceremony, I attended my group workshops, and we shared our critiques on the first twenty pages of two manuscripts we'd reviewed. It went pretty well; everyone was nice, though no one was my age (I think the closest was mid-twenties). Janette Rallison led my class.

I'd packed a lunch box, and during lunch, I talked to some girls who were working on their query letters. One, Whitney, is starting Utah State next year. We'll see if we ever meet up!

As I was finishing my food, someone came over and asked if anyone would be interested in doing a video interview. The other girls looked uncertain, so I volunteered. It went well! I thought it was interesting that they had me run the microphone cord under my shirt so it wouldn't be so noticeable. I guess they'll use the interview for a video ad about WIFYR or something, maybe on their website.

Auditorium sessions came next. The last time I was at WIFYR (two years ago) we used the main auditorium. Recently, they switched to the other side of the Waterford campus, so we had a large carpeted room full of chairs. Odd how it gave the place a slightly different feel. Anyway, an editor spoke to us and discussed the growing popularity of narrative nonfiction books. 

Our next speaker told us about how to punctuate dialogue. Useful information, but something that I would have liked to know five years ago; I don't need to hear it now. So, it was kind of a long time to be in the auditorium without much of a break, but I survived.

I think when I attended the conference two years ago, they had two workshop sessions in the afternoon. This year, they only had one. I selected a class on plot.

At 5:00, Dad arrived to take me home, and I had some time to rest. The first long and helpful day in a hopefully long and helpful week!

More Manuscripts

Pretty simple day, really. Church, the last of my manuscripts to read, and an episode of "Doctor Who". Tomorrow I go to WIFYR, and that should be pretty fun!

Friendly Cars

We woke up today and headed out for Lagoon. Our first ride of the day was Cannibal. Grandpa decided not to ride. I opted to take the single-rider line, since I thought I could get through quickly and wait with him. Everyone else made it to the front of the line before me, though. They just weren't taking a lot of single riders because they could load so many cars at a time, and rarely had only three. Several of the guys in line near me weren't very happy with this arrangement. I guess they thought the line would move faster. But, I was able to get on as the rest of my family was getting off, so they didn't need to wait for me long.

After another round on Jumping Jeeps, we found our pavilion for the Parry family reunion. I think it was called the Pine Terrace, next to Bombora. It seemed pretty nice. We hung around for a bit before Mom and Dad went back to the motorhome to get games, coolers, chips, and other food. It sure took them a while to get back. During that time, Preston, Max, and Stockton went to Rocket. I stayed with Jorja at the Terrace. We were quite surprised when they beat Mom and Dad back.

We had lunch, went on a couple more rides, and played some games. Mom and I walked to Lagoon-a-Beach with Preston, Max, and Grandpa. We didn't get in the water, but we did scope the area. The others headed off to the motorhome while we were gone. Mom and I kept expecting them to and occasionally requesting via text that they come back, though it was a long time before anyone did, and then it was Stockton to drop off Grandpa's crock pot and some hot dogs.

Mostly, I hung around the terrace and did a lot of writing on Google Docs. I'd asked Mom to go on Spider with me. First, though, she talked to some of her relatives for a long time. Then she cooked the hot dogs Stockton brought, and we agreed that she probably shouldn't leave them in the middle to ride rides instead. Finally, after a couple of hours, we did go see Spider- only to be greeted by a very long line. That's one thing about Overstock Lagoon Day: It ruins lines for you.

I ended up going to the motorhome myself for another hour or two. While I charged my phone, I watched Stockton play "Bowser's Inside Story" (until he accidentally jolted the DS against the table and froze the game long after his last save point) and a high favorite of ours, "Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time".

I returned to the park in the late evening, but before Spider with Mom, I waited in line with Anne to ride Dinosaur Drop. That took awhile; they had to call over a couple different people to look at the controls. Anne loved it, though. That ride is always nice.

Mom and I finally had our chance to ride Spider once we made sure Matt, Sam, and their kids were all together (Jeff enjoyed the gentle boats). Much shorter line at that time of day! Mom really wanted to go on another ride before leaving the park, so I reluctantly agreed to go on Rocket with her, even though it's not a ride I find enjoyable.

On our way there, we passed Matt and Sam at the kids' bumper cars. That was an experience, to say the least. The employee had obviously about reached his limit, and didn't recite the safety instructions or even check to ensure everyone was buckled in! Even with parents calling out for him to do so, he started the ride anyway. Belts dragged on the ground, and I was worried someone would run one over and either tear it up or jolt a car. That didn't seem to happen, though. And my favorite part was when a couple of kids pinned a younger boy's car against the wall and leaned over to help him buckle in. Seemed like Friendly Cars more than Bumper Cars!

Mom and I enjoyed three rounds of this, then moved on to Rocket (Blast-Off). When that was done, we cleaned up the pavilion. Anne was quite sad when everything began shutting down and the lights went off. She enjoyed Lagoon a lot, and kept telling us so. Good to know!

Eyes

Today we all had an eye appointment. Mom was worried the lack of sleep would interfere with our tests, and I don't have an answer there. I do know that Dad and I both picked out cool glasses with magnetic sunglass lens attachments. It'll be neat when those come in the mail.

Last night, I was thirty crowns short of the 1,2000 required to unlock the Chelsea Court location in Wizard 101. Today I had the chance to score them, and Preston also showed me his new pet. He'd won it during a fight with a dungeon boss, but it had an eleven-hour hatch time and he refused to tell me what it was until the timer was up. Of all the days for that to happen, stay-up-all-night night...! The pet turned out to be a crocodile mummy, and he's pretty pleased with himself.

We headed out to Lagoon tonight in the motor home. I hope I get some good rest, because the family reunion tomorrow promises to be a busy day!

Stay-Up-All-Night Night

Today was spent reading manuscripts in preparation for writers' conference next week. Making progress!

As is tradition, since school is now out for all four kids, Mom left us with pizza and we were permitted to "stay up all night", or as long as we wanted. Jorja wasn't interested in hanging out with the rest of us, but Stockton, Preston, and I played a lot of Mario Party and Pac-Man. Stockton and I were both shocked to find ourselves stomped in the former- both games. We're getting out of practice.

Around 5:00, I settled into bed to take advantage of my time and get some writing done, knowing I would probably fall asleep. Oh well! I had fun playing with my brothers- That's what Stay-Up-All-Night Night is for!

S'more Masterpiece

Another day of marking manuscripts! Slowly pushing through 'em!

Today was Preston's last day of school, and he was a little disappointed that Stockton and Jorja had celebrated with Leatherby's on Monday. Since school hadn't been out for him at the time, he didn't feel it was a real celebration of the end of his school year.

So, he and Dad cooked up a s'mores pizza instead by baking a giant cookie covered with marshmallows, chocolate, and bits of graham cracker.

It was a bit tough and crunchy, but it tasted pretty great!

Tonight we played another board game: Masterpiece. Dad said that he used to play it all the time when he was little, though by himself. Today I ended up victorious with $34 thousand dollars. Awesome!

Pac-Man Yard

I spent the day reading and marking up the first twenty pages for each of the manuscripts my fellow WIFYR conference attendees. To be more specific, we're divided into groups that will last for our week-long session, and my group has fourteen people in it, plus an instructor, I think. I got started on doing the manuscript reads today, and finished four. Still nine to go! I squeezed in a bit of drawing between them, which lightened the load. 

Tonight, Mom and Dad wanted to play games with the family. We started with Pac-Man DS- one person plays as Pac-Man, and the rest of the players are the ghosts, who play with their map blacked out. Whoever kills Pac-Man gets to be the new Pac-Man, and the former Pac-Man becomes one of the ghosts. The goal is to play to a certain point score- 7,000, 10,000, or 15,000. I won three games in a row (much to everyone's annoyance) until I finally lost the last one.

Then we played a board game called Scotland Yard. I was Mr. X, a criminal on the run, and all the other players were trying to corner and catch me. Kind of like a Pac-Man board game. Sort of like Stop Thief, though not quite as fun, in my opinion.

I didn't end up winning that game, but it's nice to enjoy games with the whole family- and we enjoyed some leftover Leatherby's ice cream from yesterday too. Summer is going to be great!

Co-Authors and Leatherbys

I received an email from Sam today. One of Covenant's authors emailed her asking for co-author recommendations, and she forwarded the conversation to me and suggest I look into it, because it might be a good opportunity. I'll avoid giving any details because put simply, I was very unimpressed. The first few pages looked decent structure-wise, even though the writing itself was rather clumsy, but but soon enough you get to places where paragraphs aren't divided when the characters speak, and indents and quotation marks are abandoned. Reminded me of my ten-year-old days, but with scriptures cited every five sentences. I think it was an attempt at an allegory, but I'll take the Dragons In Our Midst series any day.

I wrote the author and stated that I had given the opportunity some thought, but didn't think I was the right co-author for them. I did at least start feeling a lot better about the first chapter of The Worth of Ink, which I'd submitted to WIFYR even though I felt it wasn't my best work. I need to stop feeling better about my abilities when I see others doing more poorly. It's probably unhealthy.

Since it was Stockton and Jorja's last day of school, we celebrated by going out to Leatherbys. I got my usual cake batter Kenny's milkshake- and a tasty grilled cheese too.

Preston with his banana split

Stockton's super-chocolatey treat and Mom's

peanut butter thing

School's out for them now and summer can begin!

119 Verses

Another simple day at church today! In Gospel Doctrine, Dad was asked to read Chapter 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants. It has 119 verses. At least he was allowed to start on 11, and skip about thirty of them in the middle. But it was a lot. He joked with me that if he had to leave to grab something for Mom from home for her lesson, as his oldest child, I would inherit the rest of the verses and reading duty.

The lady teaching Relief Society shared a cool quilt today. I think it's about 125 years old, and made by a girl (one of the lady's ancestors?) who recorded some stories of Joseph Smith in her journal. Apparently she helped with his embalming after he died (I think that's what it's called when you prepare a body for death). Hyrum too. That's a pretty cool story.

Preston and I played some Wizard101 again, though I warned him that I was only playing because it was the weekend. Tomorrow, I go back to doing writing work. I still have a ton of manuscripts to read through and mark up. Lots left to do before conference!

Writing By the Pool

I had another laser hair removal appointment this morning (in the now-remodeled building), and then Mom and I went shopping for groceries. We wanted to grab a few things like chips, soda, and buns for hamburgers and hot-dogs. I asked her if we could get some liquid cheese dip too, because I wanted to put it in the chip and dip pottery bowl that I made years ago. We've had salsa in it before, but never cheese. When the party started and I came outside with it, Matt swam over with Anne and reached up for them. Grandpa made begging sea lion noises too. Stockton's not a fan of cheese, but even he wanted to get in on the chip action. What fun!

Mom wanted to go to the wedding of one of the boys from my old Sunday School class. I talked a lot with Jorja, did dishes, and cleaned the kitchen while she was gone. Surprisingly, even though she left for the wedding pretty late and went all the way to Lehi, she beat our guests here.

People swam. I can't be in the sun for a week before or after my laser hair removal treatments, but since it was shady and getting late, I took my laptop outside and wrote while snacking on nachos and ice cubes. It was perfect! Nice to have a change of environment, and since Cathy (and later my dad) had their laptops too, it was awesome to be able to watch other people enjoy themselves while I did something that I enjoyed, and without having to feel guilty.

Dutch Oven

Those of us who weren't Mom (still sick) went to the annual ward Dutch oven cookout tonight. Jorja made brownies and Stockton frosted them. Preston and I ducked through the "secret" gap in the fence and cut across the field to the pavilion. Even though we'd come late the line was pretty long, but at least it moved relatively quickly. I got the last of the Ruffles chips, and there were some nice desserts too.

Some sister missionaries greeted us as we were eating on the grass. I think my parents fed them a few weeks ago while I was up at college, so they didn't recognize me and wanted to talk. They seem to be enjoying their mission, so that's always nice!

We all slipped through the fence on the way back home- except Dad, who wanted to see if he could fit in the gap, and then didn't. I wanted to get a picture of him, but I was too slow. Oh well!

Olden Days

I've been thinking about moving my oldest stories to Google Docs for posterity. I looked into that today, though after scouring my computer, I couldn't find one of my early pieces, "Owlet", which was about a dragon adopted by owls. I had the first chapter and a half saved, but the rest was missing from my computer entirely. Not an awesome feeling; that was one of my longer ones, and I was very proud to have it completed. I remember printing out a copy and giving it to my fourth grade teacher, but I doubt she still has it lying around.

Back when we lived in Georgia, I printed out many of my old stories and placed them in sheet protectors inside plastic folders. Mom was still feeling sick today, but I asked her if she knew where they were. I checked under my bed, the garage, and several closets without any luck. Finally, when Dad came home, I asked him. I said, "I'm looking for a set of tall, thin white drawers." My folders, I thought, were in the large bottom one.

Fortunately, he knew what I was looking for! He told me those drawers were in the shed in the backyard, so we went and checked it out. My old stories were in fact there! Not "Owlet", unfortunately, but several of the others. I flipped through a few and got super nostalgic, so I drew the character from "Tears For a Lost Dragon" Books 8 and 9 who eventually morphed into my beloved Rudy, the universe jumper-

Gosh, it's hard to believe he's been with me for almost a decade now... What a good boy.