Daron D. Fraley's Blog, page 18

Did you know, Congress is back in session?

 I am sure the restaurant in Cozumel won't mind . . .  if Congress only borrows the idea and makes their own sign. Hopefully one of them won't go to the island and steal it.

Editing All Them Words

In the last few days, I wrote about 500 words on book 2 and spent about 10 hours editing chapter 9 of book 1. Thank heavens my editor is patient. My brain is mush.

In celebration of this grand accomplishment, the time has finally come to use a picture taken while in Cozumel in May on a company trip (Yeah, I was spoiled, but I did get food poisoning the last day in Mexico, so don't be too jealous).

This is my new excuse for all current and future writing mistakes:

 Works for me!

A sad goodbye to James Dashner

No, he didn't die.

He's still writing and still tweeting as of this morning.

But I need to let you all in on a secret. You see, whether he knows it or not, James has been a huge support to me over the last year. We have been all over the internet together. As my picture has been smiling at the world on facebook, twitter, my website, my publisher's website... James has been there in the shadows. Always supportive. Always making me feel strong. He has been there with me ever since I first met him at

Editing underway!

My editor at Valor Publishing, the illustrious and talented Tristi Pinkston, has been working with me this week to get "The Chronicles of Gan: The Thorn" ready for publication. All kidding aside, she has greatly impressed me with her skill. I had no idea editing could be such a load of fun. If you folks ever get the chance to work with her on a project, don't pass it up. We will be on chapter 6 tonight (I do my corrections at night, because my day job gets in the way).

Someday I hope to make the

Calming Influences

I am not sure why I woke up at 4:30 this morning. May have had something to do with the noisy truck which went by.
Yesterday was a fun day. I took the family up American Fork Canyon for a picnic. Of course that means a car load of noisy kids. And teenagers can be SO LOUD.

In reflection I realized that there are some great calming influences available in the world. I was much calmer after I got out of the car.

Here are some of my favorites:

1. The bubbling of a mountain stream2. Instrumental music -

Blogger Awards

I have never gotten a blogger award before. Today I was listed on C. LaRene Hall's blog for the Kreativ Blogger award. Here it is:


And here is the list of people she mentioned for the award:

Darvell Hunt
Daron Farley
Marsha Ward
Joyce DiPastena
Cathy Witbeck
Gaynell Parker
Karen Hoover

Now I must say, that is a great group there. I have met most of them, and they are all outstanding examples of personality, talent, and fun... except for that Daron Farley guy. He is a shady character. In fact, if you all

Twitter sometimes not so twitterific

This will be a short blog post. I thought I would be helpful to my friends out there who use twitter and want to keep their followers list clean. Clean as in toilet-scrubber-and-lysol-clean.

I made the mistake at looking a bit more closely at some of the followers that suddenly showed up on my list. "Hmmm. Who is this? Do I know this person?" Needless to say, a single click got me an eye-full.

Here is a tip for you twitter usin' folks:

Login to your twitter account.
Click on the "Settings" link in t

Writing Tip - Word Repetitions

Today I am going to share something I have learned as a writer: frequent word repetitions can be the ugly wart on Nanny McPhee's face. Have you seen the movie? I thought it was great fun. And the wart was hideous. So was the snaggletooth. I digress...

Frequent word repetition can pull a reader out of the story. They make the reader stare at the page. Or the wart.

Them thar' words might indicate a tendency for the author to write in passive voice (too many be / was words). Or they might be an autho

Am I Not A Man?

Utah State Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's ground-breaking new novel, "Am I Not A Man: The Dred Scott Story" is now available for preorder at a reduced price.

An illiterate slave, Dred Scott trusted in an all-white, slave-owning jury to declare him free. But after briefly experiencing the glory of freedom and manhood, a new state Supreme Court ordered the cold steel of the shackles to be closed again around his wrists and ankles. Falling to his knees, Dred cried, "Ain't I a man?" Dred answered

New Website

Yep. I am official. Of course the website needs some tweaking, but it doesn't look too bad for a first round attempt.

Check it out:

http://www.daronfraley.com

Let me know what you think!