Susan Dayley's Blog, page 51

Weighed and Measured

One of the acts of King Hezekiah for which he is noted was that he established a standard of weights and measures throughout the kingdom of Judah. Weights had been figured for thousands of years, usually based on a volume of grain such as wheat or barley. (The carat was a unit that came from a measure of carob and is still used today in determining the value of precious stones.) King Hezekiah recognized the need to standardize weights and measures to ensure an honest exchange of goods, land, ...

The passing of a piece of my life.

My Aunt Norene is one of the people in my life that seemed like a constant. More real in my memories than you'd expect from someone who for most of my life lived so far away. I grew up in Pocatello. My Aunt Norene and her seven girls were in Seattle. When I was five I went with my dad and Grandma Hatch to visit for a week. Aunt Norene was married to Uncle Vail then. They had a white house on a hill that had a 'den' down the hall. Very modern—like the Brady Bunch. That visit has left pieces of...

My father-in-law's cousin's friend

I love the feedback I am getting from my book. My daughter is reading it aloud every night to my unborn granddaughter. Just think, the voice is her mother's but the words are mine and the scriptures.

My father, who rarely is able to say to his children how pleased he is with them (I think it's just too intimate an experience for him), has written to me to say how much he is enjoying my book.

My father-in-law who rarely if ever reads a book, has read it cover to cover. He talked to Mark about i...

Lights, Camera, Nobody move!

This morning I had to make some life altering, crucial decisions. Should I wear a skirt? What color of polish should I put on my toes? Straight hair or curled? At nine am I had an appointment to film an interview about Redemption. It will air on the local cable channel for Spanish Fork City and I was as nervous as if it were some national show.

The show is called "Turning the Page" and it's host is the local "Confetti Antiques & Books" owner, Donnie Morris. Today Donnie interviewed a local ne...

Making the trailer for Redemption

The first time I saw the Youtube video Lost Generation was a couple of weeks ago. It captured my attention and immediately I began to consider the possibilities of using that concept but applying it to a book trailer for Redemption. It was late at night, but I couldn't get the ideas that started to flow to settle down. I got up from bed, turned on the light and wrote down the first draft right then. My script was much shorter, more like a poem than a statement of belief. Also whereas Lost...

Finding joy

I sat on the back row in Primary today. For Sharing Time the leader played a video clip of the Savior's Crucifixion. For Senior Primary, ages 7-11, it was an emotional experience. When the crown of thorns was pushed down upon his head, the children's gasps could be heard. When the scourging whip was produced they again murmured with protest, and some began to cover their eyes, though no actual violence was shown. And then when our Savior's hand was portrayed as being stretched out on the beam...

A Synonym is a Word You Use when You Can't Spell the Other One.

With Redemption gone (into the vague hazy world of distribution), I find myself rereading it and wishing I still had Jonah with me each day, finding our way to Nineveh. I feel the same about my children. Wouldn't it be great to take just snippets of their lives and make minor adjustments here and there? Like the time my son spent a week at scout camp and never changed his socks!

As a parent, I'm now at the phase where I watch my children as adults, like a spectator along a parade route. They ...

excerpt from the prologue of my book

In the middle of a vast, green world flourished the great and terrible civilization known as the Assyrian Empire. Through the middle of this most terrible of empires ran two legendary rivers: the Euphrates and the Tigris...The Euphrates and the Tigris were the main highways for trade among the cities of Assyria and the lands beyond. Sooner or later, from the caravans to the west bringing goods from the Great Sea, or rafts traveling up the Tigris River with wares from the populous cities to th...

I'm safe as long as no one gives me away.

I was teaching at a small private school a few years back. We were in an old school building the district had sold and that we rented. The building was shaped like an 'L' with the bathrooms, cafeteria, gym, and stage down one wing and classrooms down the other. In the middle was the office, which had the only printer in the school. At the east end of the office were two large windows that looked out onto the hall, one faced the west hall and the other faced some previously empty rooms at the ...

From a wringer washer to a microwave.

My great grandpa, Lamoin Hatch, homesteaded in the town of Victor. It is located in a mountain valley on the Idaho side of the Teton Mountains. The peaks of the Grand Tetons can be seen from the valley. There are pine forests and Quaking Aspen groves and lush meadows. The streams are filled with salmon and trout with fresh watercress along the banks and wild chokecherries and huckleberries. The winters are unbelievably harsh though. To travel from Victor to Jackson Hole in the winter took two...