Contest with author Laura Bingham!

Visit Laura Bingham's blog and enter her contest with tons of cool prizes (mostly books, yay)!
 http://alvor-daretodream.blogspot.com/

I loved reading Laura's first book, Alvor and can't wait until NEXT month when her long awaited sequel, Wings of Light, comes out. Twins Erin and Bain have become ELVES and continue their quest to find their mother.

Little Women, The Opera

I went to the opera last night with my husband and 3 of our 4 little women. (The 15 year old really, really didn't want to dress up and listen to people singing all night.) It was better and worse than I expected.

They started with Laurie coming back from France married to Amy. Jo became upset with how things change and turned back time a few years. They didn't cover the younger years but picked up where John Brooks has taken Meg's glove and will soon propose to her.

First favorite, the way Mr. Brooks was portrayed was great. He became almost a romantic figure instead of the awkward, half developed character I never liked in the book. He was never really a problem in the book--I just never liked him much. In the opera he sings a sweet little love song and captures Meg's heart.

I also liked the insight into the relationship between Jo and her Aunt March. There's not much time spent on it but there is a well defined connection that makes sense when Aunt March leaves Jo Plumfield.

Negatives, they left out two of the best lines in the book. First, the one where Beth is dying and says she gets to be the brave one for once and go first, and second, Mr. Behr's proposal.

Also, confession, I didn't love the music. It was fine, and probably wonderfully modern, and there were parts I enjoyed, but I really would have liked to come away with some tune in my head I could hum. (Sorry for the run on sentence, that's how I think.) It was moving and did a great job evoking emotions--which is the point I think, but a couple of memorable melodies would have been great.

Grades from the kiddos:
18 year old-enjoyed it
12 year old-okay
11 year old-wished she hadn't come (but I'm glad she did)
I very much enjoyed it and so did my husband.

Hmm, maybe I like the opera. Who knew?

Secret Sisters

"Ida Mae Babbitt didn't know what kind of cookie to serve with bad news."

With an opening line like that you know it's going to be great--and Tristi Pinkston doesn't disappoint. I LOVED this hilarious book. Here's the blurb from the back:

Ida Mae Babbitt, president of the Omni 2nd Ward Relief Society, didn't mean to become a spy. But when visiting teaching stats are low,andshe learns that one family under her care is in financial trouble, she'll do whatever it takes to make sure they have what they need. If that includes planting surveillance cameras in their home and watching them from a parked car in the woods . . . well, isn't that what any caring Relief Society president would do?

With the help of her counselors, Arlette and Tansy, Ida Mae soon learns that there's more to the situation than meets the eye.

But it's all in a day's work for the Relief Society.

The zany antics of this well-meaning grandmotherly wanna-be detective keep the story moving as Ida Mae works to uncover what's going on at the Dunn's house. She's helped along the way by her nephew and her two counselors. There are also other important happenings in town and Ida Mae's got her work cut out for her trying to keep everything organized and everyone fed.

This is a great read.

Open Letter to My Daughter

Dear Sam,

You’re off to spend a fun, exciting week at Jr. Miss.

I am proud of you, I love you, I miss you . . . and I worry about you. To be honest, I worry about all of the girls there. How will you/they come away from your week? There are not enough prizes to go around; some will walk away with nothing. What would that do to you—to walk away with nothing after all your hard work and time spent? What will that say about you, to you?

Here’s what I hope for.

Please know that your worth is not dependant on your talents or how good you make a dress look. It is true that every girl there is talented and beautiful and beloved to her family. But the girls back home—the ones who didn’t make it to State or who never even tried—have just as much worth as each of you beautiful and talented girls. You have to understand that your importance as a human being does not depend on how you look or what you can do. It’s inherent, simply because YOU ARE.

Now don’t get me wrong, what you do with yourself, how hard you work to improve yourself and develop talents is very important. You are in the process of creating yourself and who you can be. Your hard work will create of you a masterpiece, but really, it will all be for naught if you can’t recognize the beauty inside yourself and everyone around you. It is our differences that make the tapestry of humanity so interesting and perfect.

It is one girl’s privilege to walk away as the winner at the end of the week. She will have scholarship money and many responsibilities—that each of you, no doubt, would happily accept. But 33 of you will walk away with less. Less scholarship money, less responsibility, fewer pats on the back, but hopefully not less in your feelings of self worth. I believe it is one girl’s destiny to walk that path, but for the rest of you, your path will be different. Some will walk away with nothing . . . but the memories of your great experiences and hopefully a greater appreciation of who you are and who you can become. The feelings you walk away with are entirely up to you.

Make a lot of friends, enjoy your experiences, learn to interview well and balance your life, learn to appreciate and serve those around you, and bring your changed self home to bless the lives of those around you. Enjoy this experience that few will have, and learn to see the beauty in every person, no matter what talents they have, how much money, how they look—and sometimes even how they behave.

I would say this on behalf of every mother of every girl there this week: We love you and are proud of YOU—for what you have accomplished but also for who you are. Have a GREAT week, no matter what happens at the end of it.

Love,

Mom

Basketball Madness

My life right now is completely submerged in basketball--and I love it. I have two daughters on basketball teams, and I'm running an ongoing basketball tournament for 10 teams of girls through our church. I also play on a team on Wednesday evenings.

I got wind of a comment that was made today by a father to his daughter as they were leaving the game. He told her to be more aggressive and that the level of her aggressiveness would be determined by the officials. He was telling her to do whatever she could do to dominate.

Here we go, I feel a good rant coming on.

I still play basketball as often as I can. When I was introduced to a couple of new players last week they said, "This is Marilyn. She always calls her fouls." We don't play with refs, and I don't mind playing hard, nor do I mind being fouled, but if I feel myself commit a foul I call it.

In our girls program, we call them young women, the refs are volunteers. Most of them don't know as much as they think they do about officiating a basketball game. The most common issues:

• Blow the whistle loud, don't be afraid of it.
• Tell the scorekeeper who made the foul and/or what violation was committed.
• You've got to call the foul quickly or the moment is gone.
• Figure out how the possession arrow works.
• A made shot is a live ball (no substitutions).
• Three seconds, five seconds, ten seconds. Always counting.
• A foul can be committed without even using the hands.

That said, I'm very grateful for our volunteer refs and I take what I can get. I myself am not such a great ref--not a fun job. I always encourage the girls to play with integrity. If they knocked the ball out of bounds, admit it. If you're called on a foul, take the call. Don't fight with or talk back to the refs. Don't complain about the calls or lack of calls. We're all doing our best.

I was saddened that a father would undermine his daughter's integrity in such a way as to tell her to get away with as much as she can. It goes against how I feel the game should be played both on and off the court. Maybe you could justify it with more experienced refs and I admit that I often up my play according to how my opponents are playing, but nobody likes a dirty player. And that certainly should not exist in this basketball program with young inexperienced players and refs. Teach them integrity on and off the court. To be honest, that's how these girls play naturally and I love it. Here's what I hear on a regular basis:

• "Oops, I hit it out."
• "Sorry, did I hurt you?"
• "Oh, was that a foul? Sorry!"
• "My bad."
• "Let me help you up."

They have a lot of fun and help each other. They sometimes cheer when the other team scores (if the scores are vastly uneven.) Please, fathers, please don't take that away from them.

I'm probably overracting, but from where I stand these girls are just out to have a little fun. I'll be talking with them this week about integrity on the court and balancing that with playing hard and having fun.

Review: Oh, Say Can You See? by L.C. Lewis

I was recently given the opportunity to review Oh, Say Can You See? by L.C. Lewis. This is the fourth book in her Free Men and Dreamers series. I have not read the preceding books . . . yet, but after this one I really want to go back and read those first three! There were a couple of spots where I wanted to know more of the history of some of the richly drawn characters, but the story was well crafted to stand on its own.

Here's a teaser:
Though the capital smolders, the battered Constitution and the presidency have survived. But the British left the struggling government no home. Gone are the symbols of America--the Capitol Building and the President's House, and nearly every relic of the infant nation. Britain's next target is the port city of Baltimore, but has the raid on Washington stiffened the Americans' backs? As the Willows women mourn their absent men - gone to war, or wounded, or captured - they await the birth of a blessed child. Miles away, attorney Francis Scott Key embarks on a diplomatic mission that will leave an everlasting mark on America. Proving that the pen can indeed by more powerful than the sword, Key records the fears and hopes of his embattled people. His epic poem soon set to music and titled "The Star-Spangled Banner," rallies a shattered nation to rise from its knees to claim the dream of "one nation under God" during the closing hours of the War of 1812.

L.C. Lewis has the remarkable gift of being able to create three-dimensional characters who step into incredibly detailed and accurate historical accounts of real-life events. I can’t say it enough, the detail was excellent. I read on a blog interview, here, that she was motivated to write about these events as historical fiction because, there are people “who learn history best when it is personalized and wrapped around a compelling storyline.” Okay, true confessions—that would be me. I know, I know, I should read biographies and non-fiction and good for me stuff, but the books I can’t put down are all fiction. What can I say, I have no will power when it comes to books, and I’m always drawn to a good romance.

Sooo, for those of you worried about the factual stuff—don’t. There’s plenty of romance and storyline for those of us who need relationship development to pull us along. And for those, like my husband, who love the story of the war and real-life events, there’s plenty of that as well. L.C. Lewis has developed a character driven, historically accurate story that pulls the reader into early America and the War of 1812, highlighting Francis Scott Key’s experiences that compelled him to write the poem Defense of Fort McHenry, which later was put to music and became The Star-Spangled Banner. Oh,Say Can You See? is a beautifully written tale of the heroic defense of a brand new nation and the struggle to survive as free men.

This was the first book I’ve read by L.C. Lewis—but it won’t be the last. She’s a talented writer and masterful storyteller, and I can’t wait until the fifth book comes out in March. She also writes under the name Laurie C. Lewis and has two books out under that name, Awakening Avery and Unspoken.

It's blog tour time for

Oh, Say Can You See?

L.C. Lewis

Set against the War of 1812 and the penning of "The Star Spangled Banner," Oh, Say Can You See?, the latest novel in the FREE MEN AND DREAMERS series by L.C. Lewis, brings this often overlooked period to life.

THREE people will win a copy of Oh, Say Can You See? One GRAND PRIZE WINNER will win this beautiful patriotic necklace!



Blog tour runs from December 13th--December 22nd.

It's easy to enter.

1. Visit the fabulous reviews and leave a comment letting us know why "The Star Spangled Banner" means so much to you. Remember to include your email address.

2. If you tweet about the blog tour, or post about it on your blog or facebook, leave the link in the comments section and you'll receive an additional entry.

Good Luck! Entries close at midnight (MST) on December 31.

December 13
Braden Bell

December 14
Marsha Ward

December 15
Rachelle Christensen

December 16
Anna Del C. Dye

December 17
Stephanie Abney

December 18
Lynn Parsons

December 20
Susan Dayley
Marilyn Bunderson

December 21
Liz Adair
Valerie Ipson

December 22
Kathi Oram Peterson
****

Review: Taken by Storm and Unbroken Connection by Angela Morrison

Taken by Storm by Angela Morrison

From the back of the book:

Leesie Hunt’s Unbreakable Rules:

No Kissing (at least not of the French variety) . . . No Sec (hah! Not even close to happening anyway) . . . No Dating Outside the Mormon Faith (what would be the point?) . . . ABSOLUTELY No Falling in Love with the Wrong Boy (would ruin everything)

Leesie thinks she has her whole life planned out: get into the school of her dreams, write her poems, meet the perfect guy, and settle down. Then she meets Michael—a boy whose parents were killed in a diving accident during a terrible storm.

Michael is drowning in tragedy. And all Leesie wants is to save him. With each day, her heart hurts more. Could it be perfect Leesie is falling from grace? Or is she just falling in love?

But if Leesie gives in to temptation, who is going to save her?

My Review:

I have never read a book like this. Leesie and Michael take turns telling their story through Michael’s dive logs and Leesie’s poems and chatspot conversations. The dual perspective propels the story forward while allowing the reader to understand both sides of the relationship. Michael is struggling to come to terms with the storm and the loss of his parents. Leesie’s trying hard to reconcile her beliefs and upbringing with the passionate feelings she has for Michael. His emotions are raw and poignant. When she reaches out to him she becomes the air for his drowning soul.

On top of their personal struggles, they constantly disagree on how their relationship should play out. Leesie believes that love means more than the physical part and has made a commitment to save herself for marriage. Michael doesn’t understand her need to wait and thinks that her rules will kill the growing love between them—that the only way to truly love is to share everything with each other. Sprinkled throughout the book are Leesie affirmations of her strong religious beliefs as she reinforces her will and occasionally preaches to Michael in an honest attempt to help him heal.

At this point I have to say that the content is definitely PG-13. It’s listed as a book for age 12 and up but I think it depends on the 12 year old. For someone confronted with similar issues at school and in their own personal relationships, this is a great book on finding your limits and exploring the pros and cons of premarital sex. For other teens who are perhaps more sheltered, this book delves pretty far into passions with frank sexual talk and discussions. On a personal level, since my three teenage daughters are more on the sheltered side, I will not be recommending this book for them to read. However, if I felt one of them were dancing a little close to the lines, I might pull it out and have them read it.

The writing is perfection; the story is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Angela does a masterful job of developing her characters. I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it for the right audience.

Check out Angela’s website: http://www.angela-morrison.com/. You can read the first chapter and see a trailer for this book. You’ll also hear the beautiful song she wrote for her book SING ME TO SLEEP.

Unbroken Connection by Angela Morrison

From the back of the book:

Against all odds, the couple that swept you away in TAKEN BY STORM is back. Michael is in Thailand diving his dream. Leesie is at BYU living hers.

And they just can’t leave each other alone.

Their romance rekindles, deeper than before. They grow desperate to see one another again. To hold one another again. Michael decides there is only one directin their relationship can go and asks Leesie the ultimate question. Her answer challenges everything Michakel is and wants to be.

Can she change for him?


Can he change for her?


Enough?

My Review:

Written in the same format as TAKEN BY STORM, UNBROKEN CONNECTION picks up the story of Michael and Leesie’s romance. Even though they are on opposite sides of the world (symbolic of how incongruent their beliefs and behaviors are) they can’t suppress the passion that pulls them together. The questions that keep coming up challenge their relationship. Can they find a way to make it work or will they have to give up too much or who they are? How important are core beliefs in the face of all consuming love?

Once again, I enjoyed the book and the growing relationship between Leesie and Michael. I can’t wait until I can read the third book, CAYMAN SUMMER. If anything, this book was more passionate than the first so I must add the same strong cautions. This is a great book for the right audience.

Check out Angela’s website: http://www.angela-morrison.com/. You can read the first chapter and see a trailer for this book. You’ll also hear the beautiful song she wrote for her book SING ME TO SLEEP.

Author Interview with Angela Morrison

I recently had the opportunity to do reviews on two of Angela Morrison's amazing books, TAKEN BY STORM, and UNBROKEN CONNECTION. She was also nice enough to let me interview her. If you want to learn more about her after reading her interview, visit her website: http://web.me.com/angelamorrison/Angela_Morrison/Welcome.html

1. Your characters are very well developed and a joy to discover. How do you create such strong characters? Are they based on people you know?


Revision, revision, revision. It took me so long to finally sell TAKEN BY STORM, so I had YEARS of listening to Michael and Leesie talk in my head. I got to know them better with each rejection and consequent revision. I think that's the key to creating strong characters--listening to them. Are they based on people I know? I have to laugh when people ask me that. I put Leesie in my high school and she lives in the farm house where I lived from junior high through high school. I even made her the only Mormon girl in the school. Then I started giving her all of my worst high school experiences. It was great catharsis, but lousy fiction. I had to cut a lot of the me, so she could be Leesie. I gave her my sister's long, beautiful hair, another sister's mad driving skills, and a retro suede leather jacket one of my son's friends wore. I still had difficulty conveying her motivation until my daughter gave me a recording of Kelly Clarkson's, "Beautiful Disaster!" That song is exactly Leesie. I'd listen to it whenever I drove kids to school and then be in the perfect mood to come home and revise some more. Leesie truly came into her own when I let her speak through poetry.

2. What led you to make the decision to use dive logs, chat records and poetry to tell the story?

Desperation. An editor at Candlewick said she'd look at my manuscript a second time if I revised it all from Michael's point of view. I'd do anything for Candlewick, so I tried it. She missed the suspense created from Leesie discovering Michael's situation. She asked me to revise again, bringing back the dive logs that I used to tell Michael's part of the story, and replacing Leesie's first person narration with third person. I tried it. Bleck. She said it was stiff. Yup. At that point, I looked at my manuscript, and it was broken. I asked myself, "How do I want to tell this story?" I'd just returned from a workshop with Markus Zusak and read THE BOOK THEIF. He is so inventive with all the pieces he brings together to narrate the story. I'd also recently read Tobin (M.T.) Anderson's OCTAVIAN NOTHING: TRAITOR TO A NATION, Kelly Bringham's SHARK GIRL, and Ellen Yoeman's RUBBER HOUSES. Tobin's book uses Octavian's journal entries interspersed with letters and other items from other narrators. He lists himself as the compiler. Kelly and Ellen's books are both exquisitely crafted poetry novels. Kelly introduces letters to round out the narrative.

I studied my past three or four revisions with Markus Zusak's advice to "keep the gems," ringing in my ears. Michael's dive logs were the best thing I had. I could use those to tell Michael's side of the story. I'd already incorporated chats into the novel, but I used them like dialogue. I decided to take them out and insert them as transcripts, but what about Leesie? She'd been a poet from the start. Her poem about her grandmother was one of the first things I wrote. And her and Kim's relationship was all about writing poetry. I tried a few of Leesie's scenes as free verse poems and was excited about the result. Poetry is my dessert, so I was excited about getting to write lots of poetry. This form is called a collage novel. I love it, but it's challenging. It fits Michael and Leesie. I'm not sure if I'll use it again.

3. Do you use an outline when you write and if so, how detailed is it?

Outlines make me grimace, shudder, run away crying. I do use a calendar (you can see it on my blog) to keep track of what's going on. When ideas for the story come thick and fast, I scribble them down into a rough plot summary. I wrote SING ME TO SLEEP under contract, and I had to come up with a fairly detailed story "pitch." I'm getting better at that, but it's a learned skill. Plans always get changed when characters get involved. I'm a hero's journey writer and highly recommend Voegel's, THE WRITER'S JOURNEY.

4. What character do you connect with the most?

Probably Leesie. I divested her of a lot of me, but there's still some in there haunting the poor girl.

5. How long did it take you to write your first novel? Has the time frame changed any now that you are an experienced writer?

I wrote the first draft of TAKEN BY STORM over the course of my first two semesters studying for my MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts. (Incredible program, writers check it out!) I remember how amazed I felt when I wrote the last scene and knew I'd actually written a novel. I revised it off and on for two more semesters, but also started writing MY ONLY LOVE, an historical novel that required zillions of hours of research. After I graduated, I marketed STORM for three and a half years before I sold it. And then we did major revisions to get it in shape for Razorbill's audience. That's almost six years of effort, rejection, faith in this story, and never giving up. I didn't work on it full-time, but consistently through those years. I wrote SING ME TO SLEEP in three months--and only had a few weeks for my editors changes. Good thing she didn't ask for a lot. I was in a panic to meet my deadline and wrote so much I hurt my hands! Now, I average about six months for a novel--but I know I can do it in less if I have to.

6. Is there any message you have for your fans?

I'd like to invite you all to read TAKEN BY STORM and UNBROKEN CONNECTION and then join us over at http://caymansummer.blogspot.com where I'm blogging Michael and Leesie's last book as I write it. I love getting readers input along the way and there's a big contest running, too. I hope to see you there.

Ski Utah!

I took my four youngest skiing/snowboarding on Saturday. I figured if we live in Utah, they had better learn to ski. I signed them up for lessons at Park City and the older three were excited to go. The two who took snowboarding lessons had been skiing before and loved it and were excited to try something new. Park City has this deal for locals who are first time skiers, very inexpensive.

My youngest was not excited--to put it mildly. He spent his first 8 years in Taiwan, and though he loves snow he gets cold very quickly. I told him he had to try it one time, so I layered him up with snow pants, a warm coat, gloves, hat, and hand warmers. I think he ended up putting the handwarmers in his pockets because he didn't need them. I even bought him goggles to keep the wind from his eyes. He looked a little nervous when I dropped him off but he was a good sport.

The three girls were a bit more enthusiastic.

When I picked him up three hours later he was all smiles. He loved it and couldn't wait to go again. So glad. Can't wait to go again--maybe I'll take some snowboarding lessons myself.

Amazing Giveaways!

Tristi Pinkston is hosting an absolutely huge contest over on her blog to celebrate the release of her new book, "Dearly Departed."  A new prize will be offered every twenty-four hours, and with multiple chances to win, you can't go wrong!  Prizes include books, jewelry, perfume, movies - and the grand prize is a free night's stay at the Lion Gate Manor in Lava Hot Springs.  Visit Tristi's blog for rules and more details.  http://www.tristipinkston.blogspot.com/

Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card

Rebecca Talley is hosting a contest for preordering her book, The Upside of Down.

Natalie Drake certainly has her hands full raising a large family, dealing with her difficult mother, and maintaining a relationship with her rebellious teenager. Just when things seem to be going smoothly, she finds out another unexpected surprise—she’s going to have a baby. Faced with so many challenges, Natalie must learn to trust in a plan that isn’t what she imagined and discover that every situation has an upside.

Beloved author Rebecca Talley carefully creates this touching and heartfelt story that is sure to inspire you. With true-to-life characters and situations, The Upside of Down will reignite your faith and remind you of the importance of family.

To enter visit her blog:
http://rebeccatalleywrites.blogspot.com/2010/11/pre-order-contest-upside-of-down.html

Fun Giveaway

I wanted to let you all know about a book giveaway I found out about today. You can find the details at Ann Bradshaw's Place. Angela Morrison's books sound great, though I haven't read them yet. I am planning on it.

Check it out!

Summer Is Over

I think I just need to admit to myself that I can't work over the summer. There, I've done it.

I always plan to get a lot of work done but then I get so busy with the kids nothing else gets done. Well, summer is over and it's back to regular hours, deadlines, and getting my writing done. I do work better with a deadline staring me down.

Soooo . . . I'm going to start posting my progress. I haven't wanted to do this because, truth be told, I'm just a slow writer. However, I'm going to try this and see if it can push me along. I have three books in various stages of completion but one is on the back burner until the other two are done. I plan to finish my current WIP (work in progress) by the end of October--I'm really going to have to rush it. Then with a month of revisions I'll be able to send it off to a professional editor before I submit it. (I won a drawing several months ago for a free edit of a manuscript but it has to be in before the end of the year.)

As soon as that is done I can work on the next book. Here's my big admission, *blush* the 2nd book is the sequel to The Mark. There are several reasons I've put it second:

1. I need to complete a book before the end of the year in order to take advantage of the free edit job from Precision Editing. I'm very excited for their help.
2. The book I'm working on is shorter so I think I can finish it faster.
3. I would really like to work on improving my writing before I tackle the sequel. I do have an outline and have even started the writing but I think doing this book in between will help me nail down some improvements in style.
4. There were a couple of storyline decisions I wanted to make before I started and I needed some thinking time to work those out. They are now worked out so I am ready to go as soon as I finish this other one.

You're welcome to come along with me on my push to finish. Feel free to egg me on any time.

See you at the finish line!

Hunger Games

Yup, I'm finally reading Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

I've waited to read it. To be honest, I can't promise that I'll finish it, though I probably will. I've heard so many people say how much they loved it even though they didn't like the subject matter that it got me curious.

STOP READING HERE if you don't know what it's about and you don't want to know.

The writing would have to be excellent for people to rave about the book in spite of the fact that it's about children killing children for sport, right? It is not my intention to bash the author for her subject matter, I'm sure she had her reasons and we as the consumers decide what we will read and what we won't read. In fact part of my curiosity that led me to pick up the book revolves around why this author would ever choose to write about this? And why we would all read it.

Perhaps if I went to her website or blog I could find an answer but I don't want to do it that way--yet. I want to find the answer from the book itself. See if it has something to teach me, something to say. If I get to the point in the book where I have to put it down and say I can't finish, it's too disturbing then I will go to her website and discover it there. But I don't think I'll have to.

And so I'm reading it slowly. Carefully. (Slowly meaning 2 or 3 days instead of finishing tonight) And yeah, it's well written.


I readily admit that I'm selective about what I watch and read. I don't have a stomach for scary movies. I went off PG-13's for several years, until I could see that it made dates with my husband way too hard. Now I'm just careful. I don't like books with anything raunchy and swearing bugs me. So I'm nervous. A few things that might make me put down the book:

1. If Katniss sends one of her arrows through someone. Don't know if I could handle that.
2. The amount of time and depth of description given to the deaths that must happen.

 So we'll see. But one opinion I have already. Suzanne Collins writes very well and I applaud her success.

Wasatch Back

It's done. I finished.

June 18 and 19 I participated on a 12 woman team that completed the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's a 188.2 mile race from Logan to Park City in Utah. There are Ragnar Relays in places besides Utah, but the one here is called the Wasatch Back. Each team member has 3 legs of the race. There are 6 people in each car and the first car does their first leg and then they rest while the second car does their first leg. Then we do that two more times.

I was runner 3 in car one and my legs totaled 18.4 miles. It's interesting that I had that leg because it's the 2nd longest route and I'm the slowest runner on the team but for various reasons that's how it ended up. I don't mind running for a long time, as long as I don't have to do it quickly. I did improve my time this year by one minute a mile.

It was hot, parts of the route were dusty, there were a lot of hills and a lot of people. So why do we do it? I think a lot of people do it because they love to run. I don't really. But I do love the challenge. Training for the race gives me a goal to work towards. I also love to work toward that goal with a group of friends. It's almost worth it just to see all the goofy other teams. People go all out. Two men ran their entire first route in full out prom gear; suit, tie, belt, boutonniere, the works. Another guy ran the last leg in a full length white wedding dress. There's always a team that thinks of a way to incorporate the little plastic bums they attach to their backside. Our team was called the Wonder Women and we had a slogan on our shirts that said "I WONDER what this WOMAN was thinking."

Our team finished the race in 33 hours and 33 minutes. Someone was running the whole time. We placed 58 out of 99 in the Women's Open division. Our team member who ran the Ragnar Hill (killer hill, 4 miles straight up) took 6th place in the Women's Open division.

It was a lot of fun. I may lose a couple of townails. Would I do it again?

Hmmm, I think I would.