Sunday, June 5, 2011

Utah Festival of Books Fun!

Did you miss it?  Then you missed out!

I attended The Utah Festival of Books this last weekend.  June, 4th 2011.  It was on the BYU campus in Provo, UT.

I've been looking forward to this for months.  Unfortunately a last minute family thing came up and we had to cut our visit short.  However I managed to get in an authors panel and I visited briefly with two of my favorite people.  ( I have a lot of favorite people!)

First was Aprilynne Pike.  She is the author of Wings as you see in my hands.  I followed up with her from her last visit at the Kings English, but stupidly forgot the question  had for her.  So I opened my mouth and said something really intelligent. 
"I have book.  Sign please."  Sorry, fan boy moment.  But I didn't want it to end there so I uttered another word in one syllable.  "Writer. Me."

My wife got a kick out of me going total pre-school IQ in front of the authors yesterday.  That said the police didn't get called and I walked away with a signed and personalized book with advice and inspiration I can look back on at 4am when I'm trying to put words of value to the splattering of words I like to call stories.

Click here for Aprilynne's site.

I also met with Kevin J. Anderson.  I've never met with him before so I wasn't sure what to expect.  Admittedly I was nervous.  However he's this really cool guy who's so willing to talk and answer questions.  I happened to catch him setting up early for his signing time so I got a few minutes with him.  He shared with me some valuable resources for new writers and even pitched me on the Superstars Writing Seminars.  Which sadly is not likely to be in my budget this decade.  If you can I agree, do so.  You'll never get brighter stars to shine on you.

Click here for what I believe to be Kevin J. Anderson's site.

The whole event was really nice.  Great for the family.  Sun was intense and finding shade or an indoor event was mandatory.  I crisped up a bit and resemble a lobster now.  The kids enjoyed the bounce house, hot dogs, icy flavored ice treats and other activities and prizes.  My sweet patient wife enjoyed meeting American Idol pop star David Archuleta, having him sign her CD and listen to the hundreds of screaming teen and pre-teen girls pitch their voices at new deafening levels.
Scary stuff.

This thing runs twice a year.  Don't miss the next one.  Check it out linked here.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Winner Announced - A New Cool

Congratulations to the winner of the giveaway for a brand new copy of The New Cool by Neal Bascomb.

Jonnie H

Thank you to Crown Publishing for supplying the free copy to giveaway on my blog.

Jonnie H, I'll reach out to you today for delivery info.

Thank you to everyone who showed interest in my blog and this giveaway.  This was a rough month for me and writing and I really appreciate the support you've shown for my writing.

I want to apologize briefly for the delay in announcing the winner.  There was suprise death in the family that took me out of state for the last few days of the month and then I returned ill.  But all is better now.