Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Exciting Things Are Afoot.

First off, time for celebration! Both of my Whitney Award ballots are submitted. Done. Finito. Woohoo! My eyeballs are ready to drop out of their sockets, but I'm done! Now we all get to wait a couple more days to find out the results. Squeeeee!

Second, two of my bestest writer friends are featured in this month's issue of Mormon Artist magazine, Julie Wright and Robison Wells.

Julie is one of those people I call when I need a shoulder to cry on or someone to vent to, and she's always in your corner, cheering you on. Everyone deserves a Julie in their lives. (Plus, she's a great writer, to boot.) I don't remember when I first met Julie, but I can honestly say that she's one of the brightest spots in my life. Any time I see her, I can't help but smile, because I know I'll get a big hug and that she'll just ooze love.

Rob is in my critique group. He's another great writer, and he keeps us grounded. Among other things, he's great at big-picture problems and making sure our men don't act like girls. I'll never forget one of the first things he said about a scene of mine. "This scene isn't funny. In fact, it's egregiously unfunny." Awesome. (He was right, by the way. Humor is tough to write.) He's also the Whitney Awards founder and president. I found out things about him in this interview I never knew. It's fascinating.

Read both interviews (linked to at their names); they're worth it.

Finally, some fun for those attending the Storymaker's writers conference in April. For Friday night's dinner, the organizers have some special guests (among them: David Farland, Jessica Day George, James Dashner, and singer Shawn Barrows).

Attendees may get a chance to sit at one of the tables with these guests if they simply help spread the word about the conference a bit: blog about it, tweet it, become a Facebook fan, put up a badge on your sidebar that says you're coming (like the one I've got up saying I'm speaking), and the like.

For all the contest details, visit Make Me a Story, conference co-chair Jaime Theler's blog.


8 comments:

TheOneTrueSue said...

Thanks for the heads up Annette - I'm going to go tweet about it now :)

Luisa Perkins said...

Oooh, a contest! I'm in. (That means I'll have to post something to my poor, ailing blog.)

Can't wait to read the Mormon Artist interviews.

Congrats on getting all that reading done!

Anonymous said...

I loved those interviews. Both of them also had great pictures up. You're totally right about Julie being a bright spot. Every time I hear from her, it makes my day!

Helena said...

I didn't know there was a Mormon Artist magazine. Cool!

Sarah M Eden said...

The powers that be should know that I am perfectly willing to volunteer a "reserved seat at a table with Sarah M. Eden" as some sort of consolation prize. I'm not famous and they won't learn anything useful, but I can almost guarantee that some kind of liquid will shoot out their nose in a moment of inopportune laughter before the evening is over.

Annette Lyon said...

I'm calling Sarah's table!

Shelley said...

You always make me wish I lived in Utah. Except I hate snow. But anyway, you said to let you know when Maddie got her licence and she went and did it last week. I posted about my angst, which is getting less and less each time she runs an errand for me.

* said...

Glad your eyeballs are still in their sockets, lol. :)

Going to check out the Mormon Artist magazine now.

And you're right, exciting things *are* afoot!

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