Dawn's Early Light

by Kerry Blair

Prologue:

The last time my son was a youth speaker in sacrament meeting, he was assigned to speak after the bishop's daughter, a girl known for her spirituality, intelligence, and eloquence. He wrote a talk -- his mother saw to that -- but when it was his turn to speak, he folded up his notes and shoved them in his pocket before approaching the stand. He carefully adjusted the microphone, made eye contact with the congregation, said, "What she said. In the name of . . . " then sat back down.

Following Stephanie and Julie in the blogging rotation around Thanksgiving, I know just how my son felt. I'm grateful for so much, but unable to express myself quite as well as my fellow Writers. (I do, however, edge out the Frog.) So . . . in regards to Thanksgiving: What she said.

Blog:

Since we're "officially" entering the Christmas season today, I have a gift for you: a heads up about one of the best series you'll read this, or any, year. (Also a chance at winning great prizes!)

The series is Free Men and Dreamers and the author is L.C. Lewis, a truly remarkable writer. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Laurie was a double finalist in 2008's National Best Books Competition. (Yes, wow.)

The series is set against the background of the War of 1812. Many characters are the firstborn American generation--children of the Founding Fathers; the generation who received the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (It gives me goose bumps just writing it.) It began with Dark Sky at Dawn and continued in Twilight's Last Gleaming. (If those last three words sound familiar, well, yep, that's what the book's about, all right.) At long last for Laurie's legion of fans (look for me in the front row) Volume Three, Dawn's Early Light, has just been released.

True confession: I am a snob when it comes to historical fiction. (And some other things, too, she hastened to admit before Anonymous could point it out in the comments.) I am an American History junkie, I freely admit. I read it, watch it, study it, and live in it. (That latter thing because of my love of antiques. More than one of my kids' friends have asked them if our living room is a museum.) Because of this fixation, I read very little American historical fiction. Frankly, the errors, oversights, and twisting of facts to facilitate a storyline tend to annoy me no end. (I've thrown more than one book across the room, I'm embarrassed to say.) Thus, when a good friend at Covenant gave me Dark Sky at Dawn I waited until I was desperate for something to read before finally picking it up. True story: from the time I first picked up Free Men and Dreamers I have had trouble putting it down. Dawn's Early Light may, in fact, be my favorite.

Laurie is an incredible writer. Her characterization is brilliant and her voice sparkles. The stories move along and are often breathtaking in complexity and meaning. But that's not even what I love the best. What I most admire and appreciate is the thousands of hours of research, thought, preparation, and prayer Laurie has put into this gift to latter-day patriots. Her work and and thought and inspiration show. My gosh, does it show! Many of her sources are original -- meaning she tracked down actual historical documents herself, rather than pulling a book off the shelf and thereby relying on somebody else's possibly flawed and/or biased scholarship. This is rarer in writers of modern historical fiction than you can believe. What is rarer yet is the . . . meaning . . . Laurie brings to her work.

I have to confess: I don't really know Laurie Lewis. I met her once -- at the Storymaker's Conference last spring. She was pulling books out of a box in the bookstore. I stood star-struck -- as I usually am around writers I admire. But she's very kind, very gracious, and incredibly humble. (If I had written this series I would not be humble; I would be insufferably proud of myself.) I tell you that I don't know her because I want to make it clear that what I'm going to say next is "gospel according to Kerry" and Laurie may not even like me saying it. When I was reading an advance manuscript of Dawn's Early Light, more than once I thought, This woman was called (foreordained) to write this series. She has had some serious heavenly support.

Anyway, when Laurie offered to stop by the Frog Blog on her release tour, I hesitated one-eighth-of-a-second before shooting off an e-mail, begging her to make it on a Friday. And now, I fear, I can't do it justice. I've also promised 14 people supper at 5 PM. It is now 4:55 and, alas, I cannot write reviews and cook at the same time. That is the bad news. The good news is that I can give you an opportunity to enter Laurie's contest. All you have to do is ask Laurie a question in the comment on this blog before December 18. That's the day Laurie will draw winners (from the combined sites on this tour) for an autographed copy of her new book and (or) an incredibly beautiful "Liberty" necklace. As a bonus, she'll answer all your questions in a future blog.

And when she answers your questions (around the 18th) I will also include the review I owe you. (Not that I haven't hinted strongly already that I love this book!) I wish I could do it now, but I am way outnumbered by a hungry mob. (Each of whom I am grateful for.)

Read this book. Ask Laurie a question. Have a marvelous weekend with your families. Love you all!

Thank You

by Julie Coulter Bellon

Thanksgiving is a time for reflection and gratitude. There are so many things I’m grateful for today. As I think about the blessings in my life, I’m reminded of how important the little things are. Like the paper turkey my little boy made for me today, or the laughter and fun that we enjoy in our family. But there are so many other things and people that I’m grateful for I wonder if I could truly list them all. Thomas S. Monson reminded me of some things about gratitude and blessings in September 2005 and I wanted to share part of what he said with you today.

"We are thankful for blessings we cannot measure, for gifts we cannot appraise, “for books, music, art, and for the great inventions which make these blessings available[;] … for the laughter of little children[;] … for the … means for relieving human suffering … and increasing … the enjoyment of life[;] … for everything good and uplifting. . . ”

“I would like to mention three instances where I believe a sincere “thank you” could lift a heavy heart, inspire a good deed, and bring heaven’s blessings closer to the challenges of our day.

First, may I ask that we express thanks to our parents for life, for caring, for sacrificing, for laboring to provide a knowledge of our Heavenly Father’s plan for happiness.

From Sinai the words thunder to our conscience, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

I know of no sweeter expression toward a parent than that spoken by our Savior upon the cross: “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!

“Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”

Next, have we thought on occasion of a certain teacher at school or at church who seemed to quicken our desire to learn, who instilled in us a commitment to live with honor?

The story is told of a group of men who were talking about people who had influenced their lives and for whom they were grateful. One man thought of a high school teacher who had introduced him to Tennyson. He decided to write and thank her. In time, written in a feeble scrawl, came the teacher’s reply:

“My Dear Willie:

“I can’t tell you how much your note meant to me. I am in my 80s, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely and like the last leaf lingering behind. You will be interested to know that I taught school for 50 years, and yours is the first note of appreciation I have ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has for years.”

We owe an eternal debt of gratitude to all of those, past and present, who have given so much of themselves that we might have so much ourselves.

Third, I mention an expression of “thank you” to one’s peers. The teenage years can be difficult for the teens themselves as well as for their parents. These are trying times in the life of a boy or a girl. Each boy wants to make the football team; each girl wants to be the beauty queen. “Many are called, but few are chosen” could have an application here.

Let me share with you a modern-day miracle which occurred several years ago at Murray High School near Salt Lake City, where every person was a winner and not a loser was to be found.

A newspaper article highlighted the event. The article was entitled “Tears, Cheers and True Spirit: Students Elect 2 Disabled Girls to Murray Royalty.” The article began: “Ted and Ruth Eyre did what any parents would do.

“When their daughter, Shellie, became a finalist for Murray High School homecoming queen, they counseled her to be a good sport in case she didn’t win. They explained only one girl among the 10 candidates would be selected queen.

“As student body officers crowned the school’s homecoming [royalty] in the school gym Thursday night, Shellie Eyre experienced, instead, inclusion. The 17-year-old senior, born with Down syndrome, was selected by fellow students as homecoming queen. … As Ted Eyre escorted his daughter onto the gym floor as the candidates were introduced, the gym erupted into deafening cheers and applause. They were greeted with a standing ovation.”

Similar standing ovations were extended to Shellie’s attendants, one of whom, April Perschon, has physical and mental disabilities resulting from a brain hemorrhage suffered when she was just 10 years old.

When the ovations had ceased, the school’s vice principal said, “ ‘Tonight … the students voted on inner beauty.’ … Obviously moved, parents, school administrators and students wept openly.”

Said one student, “I’m so happy, I cried when they came out. I think Murray High is so awesome to do this.”

I extend a heartfelt “thank you” to one and all who made this night one ever to be remembered. The Scottish poet James Barrie’s words seem appropriate: “God gave us memories, that we might have June roses in the December of our lives.”

President Monson’s words are so eloquent in reminding me to express my gratitude more often for all the people in my life like my parents, my teachers, and my peers. I am so grateful for all of them and for what they’ve done for me. I have a lot of wonderful memories for the December of my life thanks to love and friendship, including those of you on this blog---both readers and contributors.

Thank you---and Happy Thanksgiving.

Books and Gratitude

by Stephanie Black

Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing for a copy of Jennie Hansen’s new suspense novel, Shudder. The winner is . . . Ronda Hinrichsen! Congrats, Ronda! Email me your snail mail address and I’ll mail you Shudder.

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, it seems appropriate to express some gratitude. Here are a few things I’m grateful for:

*That I have NOT seen that zombie movie Rob talked about.
*That no one is planning to buy me an Edward Barbie doll for Christmas.
*That I do not have to go shopping on Black Friday. My daughter and I got a little weird last year and decided to give it a try. We walked into Kohl’s, saw that the line went all the way to the back of the store, screamed, and fled. Okay, I'm kidding about the screaming, but we did leave without buying anything. Unless they’re giving away free bricks of gold, no way is that kind of wait worth it.
*Pie. I am grateful for pie.

Random note: have you ever made your shopping list for Thanksgiving, and you go to the grocery store and you’re getting celery for stuffing and apples for pie and potatoes and suddenly you realize that there are two dinners left before Thanksgiving and you haven’t thought of anything to eat for those nights?

Now for some book-related gratitude:

*I’m grateful for the authors who’ve poured countless hours into writing books that gave me countless hours of enjoyment. I’ve always enjoyed reading—my mother says that I loved books from the time I was old enough to grab the pages. I can’t even imagine what life would be like without good stories to read. Three cheers for imagination!

*I’m grateful for the opportunity to write books as well as read them. An analogy: I play the violin—never practiced as much as I should have, but it’s fun, and I’ve enjoyed playing with some community orchestras. Reading a good book is like listening to music you enjoy. Writing a book is like playing it—it takes the experience up a notch, or ten. It’s not all a party, of course—writing a novel is a lot of work, and sometimes it’s a struggle. But writing books is something I love to do.

*I’m grateful for all the support and friendship I’ve received in the LDS writing community. I’ve made so many new friends through writing. There are always people ready to support you, give you advice, hold your hand, and walk you through the bad patches. In the good patches, there are always people cheering you on and celebrating your achievements. I’m grateful for Jeff, Rob, Julie, Kerry, and Sariah, my wonderful fellow Frog Bloggers, and for all of you who read the blog.

*I’m grateful for the people who read my books. Thank you for picking them up and giving them a chance, and Julie, I’m sorry about giving you the creeps. Well, sorta sorry. Okay, not sorry at all. More . . . gleeful. The wanting-to-steal-your-kid’s-nightlight comment is one of my favorite comments of all time. And thank you to everyone who has taken the time to drop me a comment or a note letting me know that they enjoyed my work. Those notes mean the world to a writer.

*I’m grateful for my publisher. They’ve been great to work with, and I’ve been blessed with two awesome editors. And I’m grateful for the bookstore staff who promote my books to customers.

*I’m grateful for the news I got from my editor yesterday telling me that my new manuscript has been accepted for publication. Waaahooo!!!! I’m very excited. And I’m grateful to Brian, Karlene, Jon, Anna, Sue, Dianna, Amy B., Amy M., and my Dad for their help with the book.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And remember: Friday morning=pie for breakfast.

Books and TV and Movies, Oh My!

by Robison Wells

It's 10:45pm, and I'm hepped up on Lortab in an effort to kill a migraine. However, I feel like I ought to blog. If I don't, then that would mean four of the last five weeks have been blogless, and frankly, that's disgusting. If I don't blog despite being strung out on narcotics then the terrorists win.

Long time readers of this blog will know what happens when I have nothing to talk about: I talk about media that I have recently consumed. Here it is.

Movies:
Night of the Living Dead
I'm not a fan of horror movies--I'm not a fan of Halloween generally--but I am a fan of film, and Night of the Living Dead was one of those movies that I was always embarrassed to say I'd never seen. While it's no Citizen Kane, it is surprisingly good cinema, despite the fact that it's "just a zombie movie".

My wife and I tried to watch it, but she gets nightmares just by hearing the word "zombie", let alone watching a movie about them. So, we turned it off after thirty minutes. However, my fat croupy baby went through a long phase of staying awake all night, and he and I finished the rest of it in the middle of the night.

I have to say: it has one of the most awesome movie twists ever which I won't mention because you should rent the movie and see it for yourself. Unless you're the type of person who doesn't like seeing the undead feasting on the living. (If you're that type: boo on you.)

But the best part of the Night of the Living Dead experience is that a few days after we watched it, I was out of town and my wife was home alone with the kids. At three in the morning she was watching TV with the aforementioned croupy baby, when the power transformer in the backyard exploded! She searched the dark house for a flashlight, but there was none to be found (because my four-year-old son likes to play with them and waste the batteries) (and because I'm not big into all that preparedness nonsense). So, at 3am she was wandering the pitch-black house looking for a light, and she suddenly remembered: ZOMBIES! So, she and croupy baby barricaded themselves into the kids' room, her back against the closed door, and they all sang Primary songs until dawn.

(It's a good thing she hadn't watched the entire movie, particularly the part where the little girl zombie eats her mom. That probably wouldn't have helped things.) (Also, I just spoiled the neat twist that I mentioned a moment ago. Spoiler Alert! Retroactively!)

Nosferatu
I discovered that my dad has a collection of old, public domain monster movies, including the 1922 vampire silent film, Nosferatu. It was quite awesome, with terrible effects and crazy acting and awesome makeup and stop-motion filming that probably filled 1922 audiences with horror (but looked like a third grade art project now).

Ladies, please note: Nosferatu neither sparkled nor played baseball. Instead, he looked like this. My favorite scene:

Bella: I love you more than everything else in the world combined. Isn't that enough?
Nosferatu: Blaaarg! [Eats Bella]

The Last Starfighter
This movie scared the pants off me as a kid, but also filled me with complete delight. The premise: a kid plays a video game (the stand-up, arcade variety) so well that aliens come down to earth and ask him to be a starfighter! That's every little boy's dream! It's still my dream. I swear, one day the Joint Chiefs of Staff are going to knock on my door and say "Son, America's hopes rest on your shoulders. We can't get through that mine field without your ace sweeping abilities!" And then I'd sweep too fast, trying to beat the record, and I'd die.

Anyway, did you know that The Last Starfighter stars The Music Man!? What the heck? And he takes his face off!

Here's a possible flaw in the aliens' plan. They have a huge Star League, consisting on hundreds of planets, and they're trying to defend it with ONLY NINE STARFIGHTERS! What a dumb strategy. Fortunately, the enemy's "armada" consists of one crappy ship and twenty crappy fighters, and it only takes one starfighter to destroy them all. So, I guess nine starfighters is kind of overkill.


TV:
The Prisoner
I had high hopes for this. I loved the old series (though it was often campy and always weird). And the remake stars Ian McKellen (Magneto in X-Men), Jim Caviezel (Christ in The Mel Gibson Movie That I Can't Recall the Title Of), and What's Her Name, The Homely Girl Who Played Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre).

Well, I'm sorry to report that The Prisoner has a serious case of The Borings. Here's the problem: The Prisoner is supposed to be a very sinister paranoia show where we don't know what's real and what's not. However, this re-imagined version has come up with an interesting twist (the people in The Village seem to believe that it is the only place on earth), but they've tried so hard to hammer that home that they've take all the sinisterness out of the story. When he escapes, he is stopped by...heat exhaustion? The big bubble shows up once, but it manages to be unexciting.

There's no apparent double agents and no elaborate schemes. It's just: everyone lives in The Village; Magneto seems a little shady; people have dreams that maybe they lived somewhere else at some point, but--meh.

I have stopped watching it.

V
I also had high hopes for this, because apparently I like remakes of paranoia shows.

While it definitely has some problems, it still manages to be entertaining. The problems are: sometimes-bland characters, sometimes-unrealistic decision making, and a tendency to make the plotline override common sense. (For example: sometimes the Visitors have amazingly awesome surveillance that sees everything, and sometimes they miss obvious, stupid things. Whatever the plot needs at the moment.)

But, it's good popcorn fun. I'm not sure if this is a new series or a mini-series. I kind of hope it's the latter. I'd like there to be a solid conclusion.

Books:
A Lot of Whitney Stuff
I have boxes and boxes of Whitney nominees littering my living room, and I've been reading through them all. Some are quite good. Some, not so much. I don't like to review Whitney books (and thus, most LDS fiction) since I am a judge. But, suffice it to say: there's a book that you probably haven't heard of that is marvelous. And there's a book that you hear about all the time that is: meh. And there are others.

The Once and Future King
The only non-Whitney book that I've read recently is The Once and Future King. It's about King Arthur. I've read a lot of King Arthur books, and I've seen a lot of King Arthur movies, and this is about the most bland of them all. Granted, this is the one that most of them spring from--this isn't trying to be King Arthur With A Twist--and so I shouldn't fault it. But, man. I was disappointed. Captain Picard has led me astray for the last time.



If the previous post has amazed with its brilliance, then you have really low standards. You'd be a perfect follower of mine! Join me on Twitter.

Decision

Thanks for all the well wishes. A big part of me wanted to not say anything about signing with an agent until the book actually sells. If it doesn't for whatever reason, (and trust me, getting a great agent does not guarantee a sale) it will be annoying to admit that. But most of you have been with me a long time. I want to be able to share with you all of the ups and downs of this writing life I've chosen. When I do make a sale, you will be the first people I celebrate with. When I don't, I'll painfully admit it here. And the thing to remember is, even if you don't sell your first book through your agent, you still have a great agent. And something WILL get sold.

Which is not to say, I think Demon Spawn won't sell. In fact I can't remember ever being so excited about a book before. I love the story, the characters, and especially the setting. All of the agents who were interested in this have really raised my hopes about how this book could succeed.

This was an incredibly hard decision. I would have been happy with any of the agents who offered to represent me. I lost a ton of sleep. But ultimately the agent who I thought had the best chance to sell Demon Spawn is Michael Bourret, of Dystel and Goderich. Michael has an incredible track record--especially in YA. He has done very well with foreign rights. He really seems to know the industry inside and out. And he is a great guy from everything I've seen.

For those of you who don't know, Michael represents three other Utah authors: Sara Zarr, Emily Wing Smith, and . . . James Dashner. I know, I know. This was actually a pretty big concern for me. James and I are great friends and he has been an incredible support on everything I've been trying to accomplish. But there was a part of me that knows people will be saying, "Oh, look, he's just riding James' coat tails. That's why he got the agent."

The truth of the matter is that if I was going to ride on anyone's coat tails, James would be an awesome choice. I have learned a ton about the industry from talking to him. His feedback definitely played a big part in deciding who to go with. I know that Sara's feelings were a big part of the reason James chose Michael as well. But it's also true that knowing an author who is represented by a certain agent doesn't get you a special "pick me" card. I know this for sure, because I pitched another project to Michael several months ago and was rejected. It's still about the work.

So there it is. The plan is to write and polish over the rest of the year, as most publishers tend to take the holidays off, and start submitting in January if all goes well. In the mean time, I have just a few other books out there. So go buy them for your friends! And stick around. I'll keep you updated.

What to do When the Answer is—Finally—Yes!

Most of us have had plenty of experience with what we do when an agent says no. We pout, cry, pound our fists, and after [choose one or more: __eating, __running, __screaming,__ stabbing stuffed animal repeatedly ], we get back to writing. (Side note: If you checked off number four, you are one sick puppy. Get help immediately and/or stop writing/submitting.)

But what do you do when an agent says yes? Or even tougher when more than one agent says yes? Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve begun submitting proposals for my YA novel, with the working title of Demon Spawn. Here’s the “pitch” section of my query letter.

Blaze, a sixteen year old demon spawn, thinks her biggest worries this year will be fitting in at academy and getting used to guarding the humes damned to a lifetime of servitude in Hell. That’s before her close friend, Jazz, a third year, is involved in an attempted hijacking of the J-trans that bring new humes from Judgment every month, and an injured seraph shows up in the dorm room of Blaze and her best friend, Cinder, asking for help. In order to clear Jazz’s name, the three friends agree to help the Seraph return to his home before the atmosphere of Hell kills him. They are joined by a mute hume who seems to have memories of the outer circles of Hell and what dangers lie on the way to the mountains of Judgment, and the woman who translates for him.

On the journey, Blaze and the Seraph become attracted to each other—to the point that he lowers his blinding aura enough that they can touch and even kiss. When they finally manage to reach the city Blaze must decide whether to stay in Hell with her friends or live a life of hiding with the man she thinks she loves. But all of that is about to be turned on its head when she learns the real truth about Judgment, Hell, and the identity of the Seraphs.

Of course the day after I e-mailed out my query, I received two rejections. One was a form, the other said that the first chapter didn’t live up to her hopes. Form too? Maybe, it was hard to tell. Of course I immediately did one or more of the above listed actions and convinced myself that my story was lousy, my writing was lousy, and I’d be better off selling shoes in the mall. Then, an amazing thing happened. Several of the agents asked for the first fifty pages. And then, an even more amazing thing happened. A wonderful agent offered to represent me. Hurray! Right? So I let the other agents know I had an OOR. (Publishing speak for Offer of Representation—with caps and all!)

Then I got another OOR. And another. Wait, what? More than one agent is saying yes? Great news. But also kind of scary news. I know what to do if all the agents say no. Cry loudly. I know what to do if an agent says yes. Dance joyously. But what do you do when multiple agents says yes? I got on the phone, checked the Internet, talked to other published authors, and learned a few things. Now—assuming you kept reading after I told you about my great luck, as opposed to cursing me and punching the computer, because Savage of all people doesn’t deserve this good fortune—I will share my gained wisdom with you.

1) When you finally get an offer of representation, don’t immediately say yes. Talk to the agent and let them know you will consider their offer carefully while you let the other agents you have queried know that you have an offer. Ginger Clark, of Curtis Brown has a great post about this, here, http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2007/10/guest-blog-ginger-clark-on-how-to.html.

2) I assume if you are like me, you will want to know how many books each agent has sold, what type of books they have sold, and maybe even the range of the advances. You would then like to be able to compare one agent to another to see who might be the best match. There may be some magical free site to do this, but I couldn’t find it. However, there is a magical fee-based site which provides a ton of useful information. It is http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/ and for the agent researching author, it is a godsend. Best twenty dollars a month I ever spent! You might be surprised at how some of the top selling agents in your genre are not with the agencies you’ve heard of the most.

3) With all your stats, comparisons, and research gathered, it’s time to talk to each of the agents who has offered to represent you. I know you are scared to death. These are conversations that could change your life. Believe me, I was pacing like a caged panther as I awaited the time for each call. What if I say something dumb? What if it’s a mistake and they think I am someone else? Please tell me they really like me, and, even more important, that they like my work. You need to set aside those fears, and remember, you are interviewing them. They are people like you. Write down all your questions so you don’t forget any. You’ll have your own questions, but here are a few I asked:

What about my work appealed to you?

Who do you see selling this to?

How do you handle foreign rights?

Can I speak to some of your other clients?

How will you communicate updates to me?

Do you feel this is ready to send out now or are there changes you think I should make?

What types of manuscripts like this have you sold lately?

Do you have other clients with this type of story?

How could that help or hurt me?

How can you help me shape my career?

4) Talk to other authors represented by this agent. Make sure you get their dislikes as well as the likes.

5) Remember that each agent has their own way of doing things. If you get conflicting ideas or proposals from one agent, contact the other agents and get their thoughts.

6) Be careful of being blinded by the bright lights. One of the agents I spoke to worked for an agency that has some extremely well known clients. But when I talked to her, I found that she had a way of doing business that I wasn’t comfortable with. Nothing unethical in any way, just an approach that felt less like a team approach to me, and more of being on trial. I want an agent who is with me 100% and will put in the time and commitment to provide me with the best chance of success.

7) Finally, give yourself the chance to think rationally and calmly before making a decision. It’s easy to get swayed by one conversation. But you have to weigh all of the pros and cons with no pressure from anyone else. Remember, you are tied to an agent for life contractually, but hopefully they will be with you for the rest of your career. So choose for the long term.

Tomorrow. Who I chose.

Over the (New) Moon

by Sariah S. Wilson

I can tell my grandkids that I was officially there.

Opening night to see "New Moon."

It gave a new definition to royal craziness.

I wanted to go opening weekend. I'm not exactly a Twihard, but I did really love the first two books (and enjoyed the first movie). So I wanted to see "New Moon," particularly before anyone could tell me anything about it. I didn't want to go in with any preconceived notions.

Turns out I wasn't the only one.

I had to arrange for a babysitter (which is one of my least favorite things about my family moving far away) and since there was a stake dance Saturday night, she agreed to come over on Friday. We also try to go out after our kids are in bed 1) because we want people to come back and babysit for us again and 2) we're never really sure how our oldest son will (or won't) behave.

Before we finalized our plans, I made sure to go out and buy my seats from movietickets.com, because it would have been no fun had we shown up to the theater only to find all of the shows sold out. This was also due to the fact that my husband had heard on the radio that "New Moon" had managed to break the pre-sales record of any other movie. Better safe than sorry.

Our movie theater is located in an area that has several restaurants, bookstores, and some other cutesy niche type stores. We came over the rise and saw that every single stall in every single establishment was taken. There were cars driving everywhere looking for spots, and no one leaving the movie theater. I've never seen anything like that before.

We managed to find a spot on a street behind the entertainment complex and ran over to the theater. People EVERYWHERE. Lines and lines and lines of people.

Now, I went opening weekend for the second set of Star Wars movies. And these were movies that people had grown up with - had watched and rewatched multiple times. I remember the frenzied anticipation and giddiness over "Phantom Menace." And even that, IMO, didn't compare to what I saw for "New Moon." People were lined up inside for shows that started anywhere from half an hour to two hours later. Hundreds and hundreds of people.

We got into our show, and while looking for seats, someone offered to scoot over so that we could sit together in a very good row.

Now, I would recommend that if you plan on going to see "New Moon" that you definitely go to a showing that has multiple teenage girls. They make the movie more fun and will give you infinitely more laughs than you'd probably typically have (although some of the movie is unintentionally funny - you'll know what I mean in the scene where someone "sees" Alice's vision). Every time good old Jacob took off his shirt, we had a nearly Beatles-sized reaction in the audience. Totally funny.

As to my thoughts on the movie - very faithful adaptation of the book. I actually sort of like movies like Harry Potter's "Prisoner of Azkaban" where they remain faithful to the story, but have little new touches either in the scenery or scenes like the shrunken head talking. I think it makes it more fun to have something unexpected. For me, there was nothing like that in "New Moon." I knew exactly what everyone was going to say and going to do the entire movie, and I think that made it a little less fun for me.

The production values on this movie are infinitely better than the first. The special effects probably won't want to make you laugh in this one. The cinematography/background scenery is just gorgeous. And everybody is very pretty in this one.

Now, I really like Kristen Stewart (Bella) and Robert Pattinson (Edward), and I think they do good work in this movie. Taylor Lautner (Jacob), not so much. I can't help it - every time I look at him I think of him as being Shark Boy (from "Shark Boy and Lava Girl" - possibly one of the stupidest movies ever made, but my second son had a phase where it was his favorite movie so I was forced to watch it a lot). Things I loved character wise with Jacob I felt like was sort of glossed over or Taylor Lautner wasn't able to play it so that we understood how he was feeling. That was a bit of a disappointment to me.

Apparently I'm the only one who didn't think this was the best movie ever made. Don't get me wrong - I did like it and my husband liked it ("Yeah, it was good," he just said in an offhand way), but I didn't love it. I understand that this makes me weird because every other person I've talked to fanatically loved it (and said it was the best movie they ever saw and that it made them more Team Jacob than Team Edward, which I don't get because we all pretty much know how that team thing works out in the end). And box office numbers were astronomical - and broke a lot of records - nipping at the heels of "The Dark Knight" and "Spider-Man 3" for best opening weekend.

If you read that article about the record breaking, you'll see that they're negotiating with Stephenie Meyer for "Breaking Dawn." If that were me, I'd be giving Summit Entertainment instructions on where to bring their armored truck with my boatload of money. (And I still can't wrap my mind around what it must be like to be Stephenie Meyer and to have caused all of this.)

Have you seen "New Moon?" What did you think? Will you go and see it if you haven't already? Do you have any expectations for the movie?

Goodwill For All!

by Kerry Blair

It's Friday? Again? Already?

I've lost the last two weeks to another life -- a wonderful life wherein a marvelously quirky character wins the lottery and sets out to give away millions. Have no fear, this hilarious new novel is coming soon to a bookstore near you. At least it will be if I meet my deadline (Monday) so the author can meet hers at the end of the month. Sadly, I'm not only behind, but I still have to go back and revist the chapters I edited last night . . . apparently in my sleep.

Fortunately, you don't need me. There are blogs everywhere! I recently came upon one I particularly love. I met its author, Laura Lofgreen, at a speaking engagement in Mesa -- a fun event that got me mentioned (albeit in passing) in the same blog as Barbara Kingsolver. (!) Laura is the author of a soon-to-be-released YA novel, Colors of the Sea and she has a thing for mermaids. But that's not why I like her. At least it's not the only reason I like her. Laura is one of my new best friends because she genuinely shares my affinity for junk.

You've heard the expression "One man's trash is another man's treasure". Truer words were never penned. (No, not even by Mormon. Everything he carved in stone was as true, certainly, but not all that much truer.) I love other men's trash! A swap meet is to me what Disneyland is to children. All my family (save one -- hurray for Scott!) and most of my friends regard a foray into a thrift store in the same light as a trip to the dump. (I'd probably like the dump, too, but our local landfill won't let you take anything from it, even if all they plan to do is bury great stuff alive. So strange.)

I could go on about my secondhand fixation all day, but I have a fictional world to get back to. One recent example, then. For years I have lusted after a room-sized, hand-tied, Victorian-style wool rug in shades of beige, coral, and cream. Even at 70% off, they tend to be about a thousand dollars out of my price range. Two weeks ago, I dragged my daughter down to the local Goodwill under the guise of making a donation. As long as we were already there, I convinced her it wouldn't hurt to look around for "just a minute" or two. (Or twenty.) At the back of the store, under a matted Christmas tree, one-third of a room divider, and two cartons of old utensils, tools, and anything else they didn't know where else to put, I spied the tufted end of a rolled-up carpet. While it would have been easier to extract a 300-lb man from a mining disaster, I managed to drag it out into the daylight once again. Then I fainted. Well, almost. For $25 -- less the 20% they give you when you make a donation -- I now have in my living room an 8'x10' hand-tied 100% wool rug. Not only is it in perfect condition, it's . . . get ready for it . . . beige, coral, and cream.

Write your own moral to the story.

For more -- and even more fun -- testimonials to the joy of "trash-collecting," you just have to visit Laura's blog: My Dear Trash. Tell her I sent you, please. I want to prove that what I lack in star power I make up in appreciation and admiration. (I'll bet Barbara Kingsolver never sent anybody her way.)