MMW Giveaway!

I want to extend a big welcome to all the Mormon Mommy Writers Readers who are visiting this blog today. Mmmwah! Glad to see you. Grab a piece of candy, pop it in your mouth and join the sugar rush going on over here day in and day out.

Over on Mormon Mommy Writers my awesome friend (who writes like a DREAM) Megan Oliphant has interviewed me about writing and about my new upcoming book Big in Japan, how it came to be, and a little bit about what it was like to get inside the head of a six-foot-six hefty blond sumo wrestler--even though I'm a short brunette who NEVER goes out in just a diaper. It was a really fun interview to do.

And now, for the BEST part. Along with her interview, there is (drumroll, please) a GIVEAWAY. I know how we all love a giveaway. Follow the rules posted on MMW, and you can enter to win a selection of awesome Japanese candies AND a signed copy of Big in Japan as soon as it is released.

COOOOL!

And when will that be, you ask? I got an email from Jolly Fish Press, my publisher, and they have moved up the release date from fall to JULY 21st!

Yee haw. The world has barely 6 months left to wait to read its very first (and will it be a last and only as well? We'll see!) sumo wrestler love story!

Here's the blurb I like to share, the "elevator pitch," if you will.

24 year-old Buck is a big fat nobody until he goes to Japan and accidentally becomes the first blond sumo wrestler. There he has to win the Emperor's Cup and save the girl.

Now, be honest with yourself. Haven't you always subconsciously been waiting for a story just like this? Haha. Me too.

Go enter! Win!

So Exciting--I feel like I ate too much candy

Got some grrrrreat news yesterday (yes, that's my Tony the Tiger impersonation. I have to include it because not only did I get grrrrreat news, I also ate three bowls of Frosted Flakes.) The book I've been slaving over for 2 years, *Big in Japan,* has been selected by a publisher, Jolly Fish Press, for their fall 2012 list!

Yeeehawww!

I started shopping it around in September, and found Jolly Fish shortly thereafter. The minute I read about them, I had a gut feeling this was going to be a great fit. They were my first choice.

Doing a jolly jig over here.

So, about the book. All these months I've been writing it, I've been asking myself this question: is the world really ready for a novel with a love story plot for a sumo wrestler?

I guess we'll see!

Big in Japan is the story of an overweight nobody guy from Texas who goes to Japan and accidentally becomes the first blond sumo wrestler. He has to defeat his biggest enemy and win the Emperor's Cup to get the girl.

I had a ton of fun researching and writing it. I loved finding out all about sumo--a sport we Americans have a tough time imagining as being as amazing as it is. I watched a LOT of youtube videos of sumo matches. The power, people! They are just enormous and strong! It was fun to get to troll through my fun memories of living in Japan and to get to use some of my Japanese language again (although I excised most of it as drafts progressed.) I spent a lot of time outlining it and using the tips I learned as I studied writing guides like Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell, and How to Write a Damn Good Novel, by James Frey. I holed up in my writing lair and did major rewrites while my kids watched waaay too much TV and decimated the blue carpet. Now, I'm so excited! So thrilled! It's so sweet, it almost feels like I just ate too much candy.

(If there is such a thing. I'm not sure.)