Rebecca Talley's Blog, page 34

The Upside of Down Release Date

I've heard from my publisher that my next book, The Upside of Down (LDS Women's Fiction), will be released in January 2011. Woo hoo!

I'll be hosting some contests, a blog tour, and attempting some book signings (although the idea of doing a book signing and having no one show up makes me nauseous). I'll keep you updated on the progress.

This book is particularly important to me because of its message. What do you think of this tagline:
Every baby is a gift, even if its wrapping is a little...

The Passionless Bella

My older kids talked me into going to the midnight showing of Eclipse. I may be one of only a handful of people in the universe who isn't a fan of the Twilight saga. Actually, I think the storyline is very interesting and I like the twists that Stephenie Meyer put on the vampire myth.

But, I simply cannot stand Bella. She's so boring. I think my main gripe is that she's so dispassionate. I'm extremely passionate about certain things like my family, the gospel, abortion, education, patriotism/...

River Rafting

For a belated Father's Day gift, we took my husband river rafting. It was a blast! The water was a little on the freezing side, but we had such a great time, even when it started raining on us. The raindrops hitting the water was mesmerizing. We rafted 5 miles on the beautiful Animas River.

Dress Success

We traveled to Utah at the beginning of this week in search of a modest wedding dress. We shopped from 10:00 am until 9:00 pm on Monday and it was exhausting. Tuesday we started about 10:30 am and shopped all day long until we couldn't shop one more second. By Wednesday morning, my daughter had narrowed her choice to 3 dresses.

Dress #1 at Allyse's Bridal in the University Mall. It was a unique dress that fit her body perfectly. It had a cowl around the shoulders and made her mid-section look ...

A Real Grandma

My husband's grandmother, Vera Adams Hunt, passed away last week. She was a month shy of turning 93. We attended her funeral service on Monday in Thatcher, AZ. It was a celebration of her life. She was such an amazing woman who fiercely loved her family. She was always in the service of others, looking for ways to help those around her. She made so many quilts. I cherish the quilts she made for my kids.

Every time we visited her, she was so excited to see us. She'd pull out toys for the kids ...

Writing Stuff

I actually finished cutting down my new novel, The Upside of Down, from over 80,000 words to about 74,000. It was brutal, but I think the end result is a much tighter story. I ended up taking out some redundant dialogue and scenes, combining tags with actions, and purging it of some of my "pet" words. I'm hoping it didn't harm the story, but rather made it better.

I still don't have a release date but I'm thinking it'll be springish 2011. I hope it'll be out before the next LDStorymakers Conf...

Fishing Trip

Saturday we took our kids fishing. I'm bummed that I forgot the camera because it was a momentous occassion--we actually caught fish.

We've been on numerous fishing trips and come home empty-handed each time. It isn't easy taking a bunch of kids fishing, especially young ones who have a two-minute attention span. Generally, someone has to keep track of/chase after the little kids so the olders ones can fish.

The upside of all of our fishing trips has been the gorgeous scenery--mountain lakes s...

Eclipse Contest

Karlene Browning at Inksplasher is featuring a Countdown to Eclipse contest and today I'm the sponsor. You have to answer this question:

What is unique about my youngest son?

If you know the answer go to http://inksplasher.blogspot.com/2010/05/chasing-twilight-sponsor-question-june.html and leave the answer in the comment section. You can also answer other questions--the more you answer the better chance you have to win the grand prize: a basket full of Twilight-themed goodies. And each day you...

Eclipse Countdown Contest

Karlene Browning over at Inksplasher is sponsoring a super cool contest with lots of great prizes as she takes a virtual road trip to Forks, Washington to countdown to the premiere of Eclipse. I'm sponsoring one of the days so be sure to check back here tomorrow to answer my question. (It'll be easy, especially if you've followed my blog).

To find out more about the contest http://inksplasher.blogspot.com/2010/05/chasing-twilight-contest.html
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To find out about the super cool prizes http...

Summer Treasure Hunt: Dig for Clues and Win

Didn't I promise you a big, awesome summer contest? Now didn't I??? Here it is!


Welcome to our second annual "Summer Treasure Hunt: Dig for Clues and Win" Contest! Last year, some author friends and I put together a month long contest where we gave away a prize a day for the entire month of June. The contest was so successful that my friends and I have decided to do it again…only this time we've gathered together enough prizes to last through the first week of July! Again, we have something fo...