Julie Wright's Blog, page 10

Oh for the love of . . .

. . . my kids.

Mr. Wright is out of town tonight, so it's just the Wright brothers and me.  Already we've argued about what will be on the television while I make dinner. The argument was over whether we'd watch the Disney Channel or Unwrapped on the food channel. I lost.

So guess what we're watching . . .

Yep. Unwrapped on the food channel. I swear these children are not mine. Why would they want to learn something on TV when they can have mindless entertainment? So, instead of a silly but fun ...

Whitney Awards!!!

Oh wow . . . my book Eyes Like Mine is actually a finalist for the Whitney Award!!!! I had so completely prepared myself for disappointment and overeating while watching movies with no value to them today. I am in absolute shock. I think I'll snap out of it soon and be bouncing off the walls, but for now–just . . . wow!

And I'm trying really hard not to think of how pretty that glass book with my name on it would look sitting on my desk . . .

But at least go look and see how pretty my book...

Another Book!

So I'm sitting in my store today, eating the world's most expensive hamburger, and typing furiously to finish the novel I'd meant to finish last month and my youngest calls me from home.

"Mom! You need to call your editor RIGHT NOW!" he says. Even at his young age, he understands that a phone call from my editor trumps a phone call from pretty much anyone else (except my agent, who is an absolute equal).

Editors only have a handful of reasons to actually make phone calls.

To reject youTo tell...

LTUE, Interviews, and Service Projects

LTUE is the symposium at BYU for fantasy and science fiction writers. It is the only free writers conference sort of thing that I am aware of, and it is awesome. Lots of talented artists and authors come together to teach a little of what they know.  I am so excited for Thursday's main address since James Christensen (the artist) will be speaking and I am so in love with his work. I have several signed, numbered paintings of his in my home, but I've never been able to meet him. This will be a...

Family Home Evening

For people who may not be aware of the Mormon teaching of Family Home Evening, I thought I'd give a little recap of the concept and the reality of what those words mean. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we are encouraged to hold Family Home Evening in our own homes with all members of our family every Monday evening. The purpose of this is to strengthen home and family, to bring us closer together, and to help families learn how to interact socially with each other. ...

2009 Gone

So after taking stock of what I accomplished in the last year, I realized I:

Wrote over 100,000 wordsRead only 26 books (which is really genuinely horrible, but if you count all the manuscripts I edited, I really read something closer to 50).Ate at Cheescake Factory only twice (which is also genuinely horrible)Lost to my daughter at Dance Dance Revolution more times than I am willing to admit in a public forumBored young Webelos bad enough they wanted to gouge out their eyes 32 times (because...

Janette Rallison

Janette Rallison rocks.

It's totally true. Her books are everything teen books ought to be. I'd be bitter with jealousy except, well . . . Janette rocks. She is, as a person, as awesome as her books. And she's got a new book trailer. So I thought I'd share it here so everyone can see how cool Janette is. I included her previous book trailer for My Fair Godmother too. If you're looking for a Christmas gift for your teen, I genuinely recommend any and all books by Janette Rallison.  You won't...

Days 10, 11, 12, and 13

Day Ten was Wednesday. We awoke at Janette's house where she helped me with the revision of the ending of a book where the ending vexed me, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Janette is brilliant and someone I just genuinely love. I hated saying goodbye to her.

From Janettes, we went to Thatcher Arizona to the bookstore called Bookworms. It's always fun to have a line of people waiting when you arrive! It was nice to see a few faces who used to live in my home town and now abide in...

Days 7,8,9

flowers from Pearl!

Josi

Sorry I have been negligent in blogging updates. It's been a lot of time on the trail and when I get in, I am so exhausted, I seem to crash rather than spend much time on the computer. Sunday was a great day of rest–sooooooo needed. We stayed with Melanie Jacobson who is just the bomb. She lives in Huntington Beach just a few blocks from the ocean. I LOVE the ocean. Her husband made us these awesome inlaid wood ornaments commemorating our tour and they welcomed...

Days 5, and 6

Day five was Oakland Seagull Book and Tape and Beehive Books. As Josi mentioned in her blog, the traffic gods either hate us, or they hate California roads, but either way it affects us the same. Mr. Wright always drives in California so I never have had to deal with it before, but this trip I have Dora and though I love her, she is no replacement for Mr. Wright. I've seriously yelled at Dora. And yelled at the drivers sharing the freeway with me. But once we arrive at the bookstore, we are g...