Proofreading

I know, it' only funny because it's true. I used to work at a newspaper, and they would post signs in the bathroom reminding us about meetings and such. The signs often had misspellings and homonym problems. And as the copy editors often had pens on them (read:us) they also often had corrections in red pen.

Right now I'm proofreading the third book in my series and am hoping to get it submitted really soon. Once I get it done I promise to return to more normal blog posts.

August goals and upcoming appearances

July is over and I'm pretty happy with the goals I reached as I added 30,000 words to my WIP and finished two other edits. August is just beginning so it's time to set new ones--two goals this month:

1) finish my rough draft of SAB

2) Get over the heartbreak of red ink dripping from the pages of Shelly's story (Which has been through so many edits, it really ought to be perfect by now) and get the edits done (yes, I edited it last month, yes, it needs another round). Submit before month's end.

Oh, and 3) Come up with a real title for that book, because Shelly's story, isn't very interesting.

That done, I have a full few days ahead of me.

Tomorrow, Friday and Saturday I'll be at a booth at the Millard County Fair with D.N Giles selling our books. Well, I'll be leaving a bit early tomorrow because I have an event at the LDS Bookseller's Association Convention tomorrow night mingling with other authors and bookstore owners. I admit, getting together with other writers is one of my favorite parts of this job. There's always something I can learn, a fun new personality to become familiar with, hints and tricks being shared.

If the fair goes well, Nichole and I will be hitting a few more before fair season ends. I'm also gearing up for a round of visits to young women's meetings, Relief Society enrichments, book clubs and more. If you're looking for a speaker, drop me a line and we'll see if we can work out a date.

Reaching July's goals!

I know I've been a complete blogging slacker this month. I'm going to blame my laptop being in for repairs for the past few weeks for part of my slackerliness because using my husband's computer is a major pain (and I can't always get it online).

But my near-absence from all thing online has brought forth good fruit.

1) I submitted a manuscript earlier this month. I should get a response, oh, sometimes around Christmas. *sigh* I hate waiting.

2) I have another book edited and sent out for a last round of critiques from the fabulous Tristi Pinkston (so I am bound to be gnashing my teeth and wailing when I get it back, but hey, what's a good book without a lot of teeth gnashing in it's super-secret history?)

3) Despite two family weddings, a family reunion, the Fourth of July (and the accompanying time spent in the fireworks stand), and the computer issues this month, I have added no less than 30,00 words to my next manuscript--Yay me!

The top two items and a 10,00 word minimum were my goals for Tristi's Challenges quarterly challenge, so I'm pretty darn happy (and was I supposed to blog about my goal like four weeks ago? Whoops--that's what happens when I disappear off the blog-o-spere.)

I had some great experiences this month, from weddings, to EMT trainings, to cool family history moments--so I have plenty to blog about in the next week or two. Tomorrow I head north to work with my sister Kristi on my sister Pauline's totally nontraditional topsy-turvy wedding cake for her wedding Saturday--this is going to be fun!

Also, I got some great reviews on "Rebound" this month, crowned with the very awesome review from Jennie Hansen at Meridian Magazine, which you can find here. I'll share an awesome quote (and promise to post links and quotes from a couple of other reviews next week when it's not the wee hours of the night.)

"The plot is well crafted, fast, and fun. I enjoyed Justesen's down-to-earth, easy dialog and style. The characters are multi-dimensional and show growth as the novel progresses." --Jennie Hansen

Book Review: "Leaning Into the Curves"

Nancy Anderson and Carrol Hofeling Morris are two parts of a trio of ladies whose writing careers melded with their series The Company of Good Women, written with Lael Littke. With this new venture, Nancy and Carrol explored a side of LDS life I hadn't known existed.

It was funny, because at my last writer's conference I sat at a lunch table with these three women, as they chatted, discussing someone and a trial they were going through. Then a thought occurred to me and I turned to the ladies, "Hey can I ask a question?"

"Sure."

"Are you talking about a real person, or one of your characters?"

Of course they had been discussing a character for a story they were working on as if she were real--which she was to them! We writers are weird people!

Here's the blurb:

Molly is happy with her life the way it is, but everything changes when her husband, Hank, retires. When Hank brings home a Gold Wing motorcycle and joins the Temple Riders Association, a “Mormon motorcycle gang” that combines road trips with temple work, things go from bad to worse. Faced with the prospect of being left behind as Hank hits the road with his new group of friends, Molly starts making some changes of her own.

A funny, often poignant, look at the challenges of reinventing life after sixty.

I reviewed the last book in The Company of Good Women series when it came out and was impressed with the way the three women wove their talents together to create books with three point-of-view characters. I've heard more than once that co-writing is actually more work than writing a book alone, especially when you have to meld writing styles. I attributed much of their previous success to the fact that they were writing from three different points of view--and that the three characters *ought* to have different styles of thought and speech.

That left me wondering how these ladies would tackle a book that is all in a single point of view. They did it well, so well there was no discernible change in writing style that I could see. Maybe that comes from years of writing as a team, or maybe it comes from diligent and thorough editing. Either way, I'm very impressed!

I liked that Molly had a good reason for her hatred of motorcycles, that her feelings about them were well established long before her husband brought his Gold Wing home. I love that she was always taking classes and playing with different hobbies--I think many women get so bogged down with our homes and families that we forget to keep stretching ourselves and pushing to learn more and be more. And I appreciated the book's message that things change, and even though we hadn't planned a change in our lives, if we're willing to lean into the curves, we can grow and stretch and find something more out there than we ever expected.

This is another great read by Nancy and Carroll with realistic characters, a complex plot, and plenty of life's lessons along the way!

New baby birds in the barn yard

Tonight I got a fun surprise when I went out to collect eggs and check on my birds. First I came across a tiny white chick--which stupid idiot that I am, took me several minutes to realize it was actually a guinea keet. This was totally exciting since I've incubated dozens of guinea eggs this summer and not hatched a one. Last week I had two geese, two ducks, a guinea, and a chicken all sitting on nests. Oh wait--make that two chickens, yes, that's a lot of nesting mommies.

A few minutes after I found the keet running around I found one of my duck hens running around--with five tiny ducklings following after her! Okay, seriously, that's the coolest thing ever, and she's being such a great little mommy. It's too bad I really can't keep any more ducks (One has to set a limit sometime, right?) and I have someone who wants some ducklings, so I'll let her play mommy for a few more days before I take them away. The thought makes me sad, but I know the lady who wants them and the little quackers will have a lot of fun running through her huge, gorgeous back yard.

Cute, aren't they? Baby ducklings are the cutest things ever!

In other news, I did a fun interview with Nichole Giles on her book blog, and Diony George reviewed Rebound on her blog, here's a quote from her blog: "Rebound is a well-written, clean, and engaging romance novel that held my attention from the first chapter on."

Final winners for my giveaway!

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway this week. It's been a blast! here are the final three prizes in the giveaway chosen by Random.org--

Santa Maybe goes to Stephanie Humphreys!

Keeping Keller goes to Valerie Ipson!

And the Scrapmabob goes to Elizabeth Morgan!

Congratulations ladies! I'll contact you to get your mailing addresses.

And two more stops on the blog tour: Jenn Wilks reviewed Rebound on her blog, and said this: "The characters were rich and the issues were pretty complex."

And Tamara Hart Heiner reviewed it on her blog. She said: "Overall, it was a fun read, and romance is always fun because it helps us remember the feelings of falling in love with our own dear ones."

Thursday's winners!

Thursday's prizes include The Wednesday Letters, and Divinely Designed--both books I added to my personal shelf.

The Wednesday Letters goes to Brendajean

Divinely Designed goes to Melissa Seager!

Congratulations, ladies! I'll be getting in touch with you to get your mailing addresses!

And in the Summer Treasure Hunt winner for yesterday was Cydni Tongish of Utah! There are still a couple of weeks left to enter this contest, check this out to see what prizes are being given away and how to enter!

Today's bog tour stop is Mary Gray, who said "For me, this was a great reminder of true romance."