Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

In case you hadn't noticed based on the bloggy silence, these last few months have been incredibly busy around here, and unfortunately this blog has taken a big hit. I really want to continue posting here, as it's a great way to keep in touch and share with everyone. No promises, but I'm going to give it my best shot. There are two big changes in my life that have provided a major scarcity in free time. The first is a change in my work responsibilities. I'm still a software engineer for Onyx Graphics in Utah, working from home. However, rather than just working on whatever the product manager gives me to do, I am the product manager in a way. Each of us driver developers now have a handful of device manufacturers that we are responsible for, both developing the code and managing the relationship. One of the things this means is more work related travel. I took four work trips in all of 2010. I've already been on three this year, and will likely have some 20 or so b...

Okay - so it's been ten days since the last roundup. They have been busy days, and I'm doing good to get this update posted at all. I traveled to Utah last week for work, and managed to have some fun while I was there. One of the things I did was go to the Devil's Food Cake book launch party for the lovely and talented Josi Kilpack. I talked my mom into going with me. You can read more details on my writer's blog . I'm giving away a copy of the book over there, so you'll want to check it out. While I was driving on dry streets in Utah, Kara and the girls enjoyed a record-setting, school-closing snow storm. They made cookies, too. Lots and lots and lots of cookies. I went to the UVU Culinary Arts School Valentines Dinner with my dad and Candy. The dinner was great. The next day, my nephew Nathan was baptized. I got a picture of most of the cousins. Plus one of me and Nathan. Then on the way home, I ran into my friend Ron at the airport. I had Monday off work, so...

As those of you who are my Facebook friends already know, today I signed a contract to have my novel published by Cedar Fort Inc , a regional publisher based in Springville, Utah. Wooo Hoooo! And now the real work begins. They actually made their offer based on the submission I sent in last September, yet I've spent the last three months or so revising and rewriting. The updated story is much stronger. It's also much longer - by about 40 pages, which is how many pages Cedar Fort wants me to cut . So I've been working on going through and trimming out a bunch of stuff. Not fun. But I have a few ideas how to make it work. Another thing they asked for is a new title . I guess The Flight of Na Pua Lei doesn't work for them. I've come up with a handful to give them, but I could really use your help - hence on my writing blog, the contest for this month is the title game . So far I have one suggestion - left as a comment on my Facebook blog simulcast. Now's your cha...

There's a new Christmas story collection available, and I'm part of it! The book is called Stolen Christmas and it's a compilation of winning stories from the LDSPublisher blog annual Christmas story contest. These books are being sold for the very affordable amount of $7.99. You can't even buy a hardback bestseller from Wal-Mart for that price! To purchase your very own copy (or two or three), click here . By Lds Publisher, Roger Bonner, Don Carey, Laura Craner, Joyce DiPastena, Sarah M. Eden, L. T. Elliot, Gussie Fick, Melanie Goldmund, M. Gray, Taegyn Hutchinson, Angie Lofthouse, Lori Nawyn, Tristi Pinkston, Brian C. Ricks, Sandra Sorenson, Janice Sperry, Christine Thackeray What happens when you're so poor you have to steal your Christmas presents? Have you ever taken a punch in the face as your Christmas gift to the girl you love? Or saved Christmas while hunting were-weevils? These award-winning Christmas stories are the best of the best from the L...

The Christmas Story Contest at LDSPublisher is over. The Editor's Choice winners aren't announced yet, but neither one of us got the votes for the Reader's Choice. Still, we both got some nice comments, and had fun writing. Here are the links to our stories: A New End Of It , by Don. Jaina's Christmas Magic , by Anna. Given that Anna is not yet twelve, I think she did a fantastic job on her story.

There's a Christmas Short Story contest going on over at LDSPublisher's blog, and both Anna and I have entered. Voting begins on Monday. Go over and read the stories, and then vote for us. I can't tell you exactly which stories are ours, but mine is the good one and Anna's is the other good one. Actually, I've been reading along as the stories were posted, and the quality of entries is quite good this year. We may win; we may not. But I know both of us had a lot of fun writing our stories. So set the AC to 60, brew up some hot cocoa, enjoy some late summer Christmas cheer, and vote for the stories you like best.

Time for an update. Here are a few of the things that have happened since the last post: 1. Alyssa went to the eye doctor. Her eyes are getting better, but her lazy eye is still lazy. Patching doesn't seem to be helping much. Surgery is an option, but I doubt that will get the full 2/3 majority vote required. 2. Alyssa also had the wire come out of her braces yesterday, and it poked her in the cheek. Ouch. We managed to get it trimmed off. We're going back to the orthodontist on Tuesday. 3. I got an email back from the publisher I sent my book to. They liked it, but not enough to buy it. Read the whole story on my writing blog. I will be submitting it to more publishers soon. 4. After nearly five months at the shop, our microwave/vent finally got repaired. No wonder people just throw things away rather than getting them fixed. 5. Anna wore some of her new clothes this week. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to take her shopping this weekend, though. Here are the pho...

I'm three days into my trip now, and it has been great. Friday and Saturday I was at the LDStorymakers conference in Provo, and it was a lot of fun. I met a bunch of new friends, connected with people I knew only from the internet, and caught up with friends from last years conference. I will post pictures and more details on my writing blog throughout the week, so if you're interested, click on over to see. In a nutshell: I was convinced to finally get over myself and admit that the novel I have written is a romance. I'm a romance writer. (There - I said it.) I pitched my novel to an editor at Covenant Communications, and he asked me to send him the full manuscript to read. This is promising, although it could still come to nothing. I need to knock off a few rough edges and apply some of the things I learned at the conference, and then I will submit it. There was a first chapter contest at the conference, and I had two entries. My full novel (which I now admit is a romanc...

This weekend, I'm going to trade my delusion in for a healthy dose of reality. Maybe. As I've mentioned before, my hobby for the last few years has been writing. I've recently finished the last of several drafts of my 80,000 word novel. This writing bit has been the height of my delusion. But this Friday, that delusion meets reality as I have an appointment to pitch the book to the editor of a publishing house. What will happen? I have no idea. I still don't know if I'll be wearing my beardlet then or not. I've gotten some good feedback from some readers. Others took the manuscript but never gave me any feedback, which I'm assuming means they didn't like it and don't want to hurt my feelings. Which really hurts my feelings. (jk) I also have a couple of entries in a First Chapter contest, being held by the same writers conference that set up the pitch sessions. I may win big, proving that I'm an awesome writer after all. Or I may just lose a bit o...

This past week while I was visiting Utah for work, I carved a few hours out of my Saturday morning to attend the annual Life, the Universe, and Everything symposium at BYU. It was very well worth the time and effort. I regret that I only got to spend 4 hours in what was a 3-day event. L. E. Modesitt, Dave Wolverton (aka David Farland), Brandon Sanderson, and Eric James Stone. It appears that successful SciFi/Fantasy writer guys need to wear black shirts and stare authorially into the distance. Laura Hickman, James Dashner, L. E. Modesitt, Dave Wolverton, Brandon Sanderson, Mette Ivie Harrison, and Paul Genesse. Someone needs to give the Dashner Dude that black shirt memo. (Apparently girls can get away with turtlenecks) Tracy Hickman gave the day's main address. Jessica Day George, Clint Johnson, Laura Swift, Stacy Whitman, Dan Wells, Aprilynne Pike, Julie Wright.

It seems like there's nothing to blog about for a long time, and then all of a sudden everything happens at once. Here are a few bloggy tidbits from the last few days: I went running today. Outside. It was nice. I ran a mile. My time (13+ minutes) was absolutely pathetic. But it felt good. I got the State Inspection done on the truck yesterday. This is significant, as the truck has sat in the driveway since the sticker expired last May. We just haven't had much need for a second car, and I didn't think it would pass with a cracked windshield, but fortunately it did. We will need a second car the week after next, so I can drive it to the airport. I will be going in to the home office in Utah for a week to work on a variety of projects. This trip to Utah coincides somewhat with Life, the Universe, and Everything: The Marion K. “Doc” Smith Symposium on Science Fiction and Fantasy at BYU. Since it's free, I'll slip into a couple of the Saturday morning workshops befor...

I've mentioned a time or two my recent writing hobby (see my other blog for details). The book that I'm working on falls into the category of LDS Fiction, and it won't get out no matter how hard I try. ;-) Last year, a group of LDS authors began an award program to recognize excellence in LDS Fiction. It's called the Whitney Award, and right now they are having a benefit auction to raise money for the award. There are quite a few items up for bid - some are geared towards writers, but many are not. You can find out more about the auction by going here , or you can go straight to the ebay auction by clicking here . Both the award and the auction are super ideas, but the lackluster economy seems to have stalled the bidding, and the items are selling for far less than expected. What this means to you is that you can get some great stuff for a great price. I intend to win a Whitney Award at the 2011 banquet, (this is a blog about my delusions, after all) so I want to do my...

...The Boys make noise. And a mess. Today we get our new roof, to replace the one damaged in the hail storm this past April . My buddies at work say it's only fair that I have to suffer through some pounding and banging, as the main office has been under renovation for the past few weeks. So today, we get to join in the fun. I also made some scones this morning. This is part of a test kitchen project for my writerly buddy Josi Kilpack , who is writing a culinary mystery and needs bakers to help test the recipes. Since I was often mistaken for a Baker growing up, I decided to volunteer. This is the first recipe, and I think it turned out pretty good. In fact, the scones should be cool enough that I can go try one. Short post today - there's food in the kitchen! Update: The scones turned out good, if a little big and underdone. Second batch the next day turned out much better! The things are all bagged and frozen for weekend breakfasts so I don't gain back in a day the few p...

I am honored to have been asked to participate in a blog tour for my internet writing buddy, Tristi Pinkston and her new book Season of Sacrifice . This book is at the top of my summer reading list. It has received very good reviews (See them here: 1 2 3 4 ), and I am excited to read it myself. Her other books have all been greatly enjoyed by everyone here at the Carey house. Click here to learn more about Tristi's works. I first "met" Tristi through the October Book In A Month (BIAM) challenge she hosted on her blog last year. This has been followed by two other BIAM challenges in the last few months. Tristi, what prompted you to host these challenges on your blog? I'm the kind of person that needs accountability in order to really succeed. When I report my progress to others, it helps me stay on track. I started the Book in a Month Challenges for myself, to give me an accountability system. When I feel tempted to slack off, I think, "yeah, but I don't...

I should really be sleeping now, but I was awakened an hour ago and just can't get back to sleep. A perfect opportunity to blog! Yesterday was the first day of the LDStorymakers Writer's Conference. I enjoyed the panels and workshops, but the highlight of the day was meeting some wonderful people that until then I had known only from the blogosphere. I had very nice visits with Tristi Pinkston , Candace Salima , Autumn Ables , Marsha Ward , Marcia Mickelson , Stephanie Humphries , Shirley Bahlmann , Rachael Ann Nunes , Janette Rallison , Annette Lyon , plus quite a few others wonderful people whom I met for the first time. I took my camera, but it never came out of my bag the whole 13 hours I was there. Bad, bad delusional blogger! I will repent and do better today. The girls had a lot of fun playing with their cousins. Alyssa was recovering well from her sixth tooth extraction, which occurred on Wednesday. Poor little mouth! She and Auntie Noreen spent some nice quality time t...

It's been a busy couple of days - but busy in a (mostly) good way. Monday started with a trip to the dentist for Alyssa. The poor kid had one filling and five (5!) extractions. Yowsa! It was good to see everyone at work. We had a St. Patrick's Day potluck barbecue. I got up early and made Irish soda bread - it's a Carey family tradition. Today after work we went to Ikea for dinner, then Carly guided the girls and I to The Kings English Bookshop so we could meet James Dashner . As mentioned earlier on this very blog, I was given an Advance Reading Copy of his book The 13th Reality - The Journal of Curious Letters , and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, reading time has been scarce so I'm still not done with it, but I've read about half, which is more than enough to know that my nieces and nephews will like it. I picked up three for the cousins who just had their birthday last week. It was really great to meet the Dashner Dude in person. He seemed like ...

I finally received my Advanced Reader Copy of James Dashner 's The 13th Reality - The Journal of Curious Letters . First of all, let me just say that I am very honored to have the esteemed Mr. Dashner recognize my accomplishments as an Advanced Reader in this way. Thank you. When I first learned this book was coming to me, I immediately made plans to insert it into the bedtime story rotation. However, the girls and I are currently trying to discover the identity of the Half-Blood Prince, after which we will need to learn about the Deathly Hallows. By that time, the book will have been officially released - and what's the point of getting an early copy of a book if you don't read it before everyone else gets the chance? So I have made the executive decision to shelve the book I'm currently slogging through, and begin reading about Atticus Higginbottom on my own. It's commonly accepted in the publishing world that you can learn everything you need to know about a boo...

It's been a bit too long since my last post. If you think that's because I've been busy, you're right. I've been trying to live life in the "Do It All" zone, and I've had some success. I've been planning out my days with taskmaster-style efficiency, and applying liberal quantities of stick-to-itiveness. I'm doing another Book in a Month challenge , and I have been fairly successful at meeting the writing goal I have set for myself ( see my other blog for progress reports. ) I sometimes question the wisdom of spending any time writing when there are so many other, more tangible things that need to be done. But the writing is something I really look forward to, and it is really because of this time spent that I have the willpower to make a schedule and stick to it. I really think I get more done when I take time to write, because I am motivated to make the best use of my other time.

Actually, there were five winners over at LDSPublisher's Christmas Story Contest. One of them was me! I'm very excited! You can read my story here . Congratulations to the other winners , and everyone who entered the contest. I enjoyed reading the stories.

There's a Christmas Story contest over at LDSPublisher's blog . There are some pretty good stories there. One of them was authored by yours truly. But I won't tell you which one - that wouldn't really be fair, would it. I will tell you that mine is one of the baker's dozen in the unpublished author's category. Check 'em out. I'm curious to see if anyone can spot my voice among the entrants.