And the Winner Is...Plus, Weekend Plans

And the winner of  the Warriors in the Crossfire giveaway for true BFF and fellow author Nancy Bo Flood?  My own sister-in-law, Shannon Smith, who commented on my blog via Facebook!  Congratulations, Shannon!  I promise I did not rig this, even though now it means I won't have to actually package and mail the book!  Nonetheless, I did not rig this. In other news, I am leaving for St. George basically as soon as I finish typing this (in other words, next year) (no, really, I have to be there tonight).  Why?  Because I'll be on a panel for the Utah Library Association Conference tomorrow, and I'm speaking bright and early with  YA writer friends Bree Despain, Sydney Salter, and Bobbie Pyron.  If you're a librarian and will be there, come say hey!  If you'll be in St. George because, for example, you live there, let me know and we can figure out a way to still say hey.  Because I don't discriminate.  Although I do love librarians...

Then, on Saturday, I'll be speaking on another panel.  This time the venue will be the historic Provo Library, for the Provo Children's Book Festival.   We'll have Utah authors and illustrators galore, plus Jenni and Matthew Holms of BabyMouse  fame, and the event is FREE.  So there's really no excuse not to be there.

Most importantly, one of my girls will be in her school's  Broadway-style musical revue Friday night, and there's no way I'm missing it.  Break a leg, Mariah!

What are your weekend plans?  If you don't have any as of yet, I'd love to see you.  And if you're some crazy-A stalker-type...I'd probably still love to see you.

The Happiest Post on Earth

Awhile ago, back when I was feeling semi-confident in my ability to maintain a weekly blog, my buddy Nancy Bo Flood emailed me.   I've been told I overuse BFF, to the point that when people find out I'm actually friends with said BFF, they're  surprised.  So Nancy is not my BFF, but it sure seemed like it as we brushed our teeth together in a dorm bathroom  at Vermont College, where we were both getting our MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Now Nancy has written a YA novel, Warriors In The Crossfire, just out from Front Street Books.  And I promised to do an in-depth, cool profile of her/ her piece de resistance.  Then I forgot to blog.  So this post is a pre-post to Thursday's blog, a professional, awesome post (unlike...well...the posts up to now).  This way I'll have time to spread the word about Nancy, and the post won't have only one reader.

Also on Thursday:  there will be prizes!  So tell everyone you know.

To prep myself for writing an actual blog with, you know, information, I decided to start with something easy:

Don't you hate it when something that is supposed to be easy is actually NOT easy?  That's how it was with this picture.  But it was worth it, wasn't it?  I mean, check out that Chocolate Cheese Pie.  It, along with its cousin, the Heath Mud Pie, were two of my favorite things about our Disneyland vacation.

This was the other one:

Yep.  Disney-wrapped chocolates at turn-down every night!

There was more, much more,  to the trip than chocolate.  But really, how can anything  follow that?

See you Thursday.