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!

Thank You for Being a Friend (and the jeans fit)

Spent the day feeling like a crummy writer and hopeless and worthless and all those "-less" adjectives. Thought about hanging up my laptop. Thought about switching hobbies to ... something else. Maybe housework or weed pulling. (Okay. That's a lie.)

THEN...

I was scrolling through my blog roll and came across Joyce DiPastena's September Blog hop and noticed she was giving away a copy of my book Delicious Conversation as a prize and she had scores of entries of ladies *wishing* to win that book. They said things in their entries like, "Who wouldn't want to read about romance and chocolate." Et cetera.

And someone called Judy was the winner. Congratulations, Judy! I hope you enjoy the story!

And suddenly the clouds parted and a ray of sunshine shone through.

There are the ups and downs of writing and getting published and being a creative person. (Not that I'd necessarily ever describe myself that way.) It's probably pretty universal to get bummed when in the querying process. Rejection--not that great for the old ego, right? Seriously, I feel really lucky and blessed to have friends who happen to support me just when I find myself getting down.

Now, to return the compliment, I'd be ungrateful if I didn't give a little plug for my friend Joyce's writing. She has a style all her own, in that she writes Medieval Romance. She's a scholar, and the research that goes into her books is exhaustive and you can just feel the love she has for the period and the characters pulsating off the pages she writes. She includes a bibliography at the end of each book of the sources she researched for the story, and the romance is sweet but still compelling. Love it.

Joyce, thank you. You brought me back from the bummers.

I think I'll go have a gummy Vitamin D berry to celebrate. (Since I'm STILL curbing the sugar, if you don't count the three pieces of cinnamon coffee cake I downed yesterday at the family get together. Family get togethers are my nemesis. But my skinny jeans fit. No, they don't get tapered at the ankle, I am talking the JEANS that fit when my weight is DOWN. So, yeah. Back to the gummies!) And if the writing success (or lack thereof) isn't something to smile about, the skinny jeans are.