Of Mice and Me

I don't like mice. I really, really, really don't like mice. The first time I had to deal with mice actually inside our house was shortly after we purchased our first home and the same week I found out I was pregnant with #2. The two things did not mix well.

And then there was the mouse in the wall incident a few years later. If you've never experienced this, it's something along the lines of this:


scritch-scritch-scritch, patter-patter-patter, THUNK, patter-patter, scritch-scritch-scritch, THUNK.


It's repeated all day and all night. Until the mouse dies. Inside the wall. (Shudder.) This incident happened at the same time our deep freeze died and we discovered bags of rotting chicken inside. It was July and the temperatures soared. It was unpleasant, to say the least.

I blame the mouse.

To make me even MORE paranoid, another mouse fell down the same wall in the same spot a few months later. My husband was dispatched to seal up any holes around the house. Or anything that might look like a hole. Or anything that might someday remotely resemble a hole.

I have a hard time falling asleep now if I hear anything that sounds like it could possibly be a mouse in the wall. Things like twigs scraping against the house in the wind and eyelashes against my pillow. Last night it was the light rain. I knew it was the rain, but every time I heard the light pattering, I jumped. Needless to say, it wasn't a restful night. But at least it wasn't a mouse!

In other news, I'm going to be out of town next week and won't be blogging. I hope you all have a wonderful last week of April!

Book Review: ENTWINED by Heather Dixon

For several months, I was in a bit of a book funk. It seemed like nothing I read struck any chord with me and I rarely finished reading anything. 

Things have changed.

Lately, I've been having a hard time putting down books. One of my recent reads was ENTWINED by Heather Dixon. 

I love fairy-tale retellings and this is a gorgeous version of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." Heather created a cast of characters that I adore--from the King to the Keeper, from Lord Teddie to the magic tea set. ENTWINED is charming, delightful, heart-wrenching, and everything a fairy-tale retelling should be. I loved it!

Excerpt: “Azalea remembered the frigid air, how the rosebushes scratched, and how they had to huddle together for warmth. The ballroom radiated gold through the frozen panes. The girls pressed their noses on the glass and oohed at the dancers, especially Mother, who danced like an angel.

            “They had fallen asleep right there in the rosebushes, burrowing together like mice. When the girls were discovered missing, Mother had stopped the ball and made everyone—including the musicians—search for them. Prime Minister Fairweller had found them. Azalea had awoken in shivers to see him holding a lamp over them and frowning.

            “The girls had pelted him with snowballs.”

Heather is hosting a coloring contest on her blog to win a copy of ENTWINED. She also has a more boy-centric coloring page here. I love Heather's pictures--all of them make me smile. The deadline for the contest is Friday, so pull out the crayons and paints and get coloring!

The Highest Praise

I am trying to write a Middle Grade novel. I've never done this before and my internal editor keeps shouting at me how completely awful it is. But I'm still trying and, when I stop worrying about whether it's good or not, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

My son asked to read it the other day. He's in second grade and reading has been a struggle for him this year. I think the main problem he has is that he's not interested in the books and if he's not interested, he's distracted.

Anyway, I intended the book for someone a little older, but when he asked to read it, I let him. Of course I let him! He sat down with my laptop and started reading. I pretended to do something else, but really, I was watching his reaction. I expected him to get bored soon, but he didn't. What's more, he actually laughed out-loud! Yay!

He read until bedtime (it was only about half an hour, but still, him voluntarily doing that was a big deal) and then, when he handed the laptop back to me, he had to sit and tell me what had happened. I thought that was cute since I have a pretty good idea what happens in the books I write. Most of the time.

His reaction to my story makes me want to finish it, no matter how bad I might think it is as I write. Because, really, is there any higher praise than a reluctant reader wanting to read more?

Have a wonderful weekend!

LDS Writer Blogfest: "What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Bo?"

I love when General Conference comes around every six months. I love feeling refreshed and inspired to try to be a better person. And I love the feeling that I can do it, that I can be a better person.

One of my favorite talks was "What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?" by Elder Lynn G. Robbins. In this talk, Elder Robbins spoke about the difference between to be and to do. 

"Be begets do and is the motive behind do.”

I am the sort of person who tends to get caught up in getting things done. I want to check things off, move on to the next project, and be done with it. While this is great for some things, it doesn’t work for other things and tends to make me frustrated. I forget to think about why I’m doing certain things.

Like having family dinner.

I believe eating together is important, but I have a tendency to want to hurry, hurry, hurry get-dinner-over-with-and-move-onto-the-next-thing. I forget that the doing (the actual eating) isn’t as important as being together and spending quality time together.

“Many of us create to do lists to remind us of things we want to accomplish. But people rarely have to be lists. Why? To do’s are activities that can be checked off the list when done. To be, however, is never done.”

I think the main reason this talk struck me so hard was that it made me slow down and think about why I’m doing so many of the things I’m doing. Most of the things I do are because I want to be a certain kind of person, but when I forget about the being and focus on the doing, it never ends up well. I end up getting annoyed with the kids for talking instead of eating and telling too many knock-knock jokes.

Another thing I loved about this talk was the focus on parenting (although it can apply to any relationship). He quoted Carol Dweck as saying, “Never let failure progress from an action to an identity.”

This is wonderful advice for parenting, and wonderful advice for life in general. Just because someone, ourselves included, fail at something, does not make them failures. Nor does it mean that they always fail at doing that thing. 

“Disappointing behavior, therefore, should be considered as something temporary, not permanent—an act, not an identity.”

Like Elder Robbins, I believe that we are all God’s children. That is our true identity. I believe that God will help us as we strive to become more like the Savior—to do the things He would do and become as He is—and that gives me hope.

Other writer’s participating in the LDS Writer’s Blogfest: 

Annette Lyon: “Desire”
Annie Cechini: “The Spirit of Revelation”
Ben Spendlove: “The Atonement Covers All Pain”
Chantele Sedgwick: “LDS Women Are Incredible!”
Charity Bradford: “LDS Women Are Incredible!”
Jackee Alston: “The Eternal Blessings of Marriage”
Jenilyn Tolley: “What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?”
Jennifer McFadden: “Establishing a Christ-Centered Home”
Jessie Oliveros: “Establishing a Christ-Centered Home”
Jolene Perry: “It’s Conference Once Again”
Jordan McCollum: “What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?”
Kasey Tross: “Guided by the Holy Spirit”
Kayeleen Hamblin: “Become as a Little Child”
Kelly Bryson: “The Atonement Covers All Pain”
Krista Van Dolzer: “Opportunities to Do Good”
Melanie Stanford: “What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?”
Michelle Merrill: “The Eternal Blessings of Marriage”
Myrna Foster: “Opportunities to Do Good”
Nisa Swineford: “Desire”
Sallee Mathews: “The Eternal Blessings of Marriage”
Sierra Gardner: “The Atonement Covers All Pain”
Tamara Hart Heiner: “Waiting on the Road to Damascus”
The Writing Lair: “Waiting on the Road to Damascus”

Book Review: Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith

My friend Chersti Nieveen was fortunate enough to win an ARC of Emily Wing Smith's new book at the Utah Book Bloggers social at the beginning of March. And by "win," I mean that she fought her way through the crowds, trampling the small children in her wake, and emerged victorious with the book in her hands. Back When You Were Easier to Love comes out on April 28th, but Chersti was kind enough to let me borrow the ARC.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this. Was it a romance? Was it a coming of age story? Just what was it? I'm still not sure how to classify it. It definitely has romantic elements. The main character definitely learns and grows and finds herself in the book.

My first thought on finishing this was, "Well, that was cute." But I don't like the word "cute" and I don't think it's powerful enough to describe this book.

In any case, I closed the book and went about my day. But I kept thinking about the book and thinking of more and more things that I liked about it. "Ooh, I like that . . ." "Oh, I liked that, too!"

So there you go. This is one of those wonderful, quiet books that makes you think and smile and laugh and ache. And can I just say that I love the title?

Happy reading!

Markus Zusak, Carrie Ryan, and Zombies

I planned on getting a lot of writing done in March and I did--just not as much as I'd hoped. But I went to some really awesome events including the Utah Book Bloggers social, Markus Zusak's signing, and Carrie Ryan's signing. I don't personally have any pictures of these events because if I bring my camera, I don't take pictures and if I want to take pictures, I don't have my camera. I should really work on that. Anyway, my friend Chersti Nieveen has pictures of both the Carrie Ryan signing and the Markus Zusak signing. And, yes, the zombie apocalypse has definitely been a subject on my mind.

The thing that I loved the most about meeting these two amazing people is how genuinely kind and humble they were. Markus Zusak was obviously embarrassed and uncomfortable by the thunderous applause he received just by walking into the room. And even after signing books for hours, he was still thinking of the people who had come to see him. He wouldn't even eat until he'd signed everyone's book.

I forgot to take notes at Carrie Ryan's signing, but here are some of the things I wrote down that Markus Zusak said:

"You have to have bad things happen because they give you the best stories."

"I don't have a great imagination, I just have a lot of problems."

He also said that he's not a writer because he's some sort of brilliant person with lots of imagination. He's a writer because he tries to do the simple things well.

One of the simple things he tries to do is include details. He told us a story about him and his brother growing up to demonstrate the details, things like the color of the cooler and the fact that they sat on paint cans while they ate lunch. Those details made us believe him and believe that the story was true. The details you give in a story help you to own the story and convince others that it's true.

He rewrote the first 80 pages of The Book Thief between 150-200 times. He also thought that this would be the least popular of his books by far. Much of this book is based on experiences his parents had growing up and this book means the most to him.

If you are willing to try and fail, then you will get there.

You're a writer when you would be willing to write the next book knowing that it would never be published.

One thing that doesn't come across in my notes is just how funny he was. My very favorite thing he said was telling us about a beginning to The Book Thief that did not work. It was far too creepy-stalkerish. It began with Death saying: "This is the story of a young girl. Do you like young girls? I do. Then again, I like everyone."

Anyway, how was your March? Did anything fun and interesting happy for you?