Harry Update--The Latest

I'm a little over halfway through Book 7. All I can say is, I've still got something to look forward to in the Harry Potter series. Unlike the rest of the world. So there.

Surreal

We just learned of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis that happened this evening. We were in the area just yesterday. We didn't go over that particular bridge, though. That would have been really surreal.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. At this time we hope the rescue crews are able to work quickly and save as many as possible.

Harry Potter 7 Update

No, I haven't finished the book and this post isn't going to be full of spoilers. In fact, we're still barely at the beginning. Our tradition has been to read the Harry Potter books aloud together as a family, and finding times when we're all ready and able to read together has been a little tricky. So, alas, I am still unaware of how things work out for Harry--whether he lives or dies (though I suspect he lives), whether Snape is good or evil, who dies, whether Ron and Hermione end up together, and all that other stuff.

So, if you start spilling information about book 7, I'm going to stand here with my fingers in my ears and HUM LOUDLY so I won't find out anything too early. Unfortunately, I know this strategy won't work forever. It won't be too long at all before the world is freely discussing everything that happens.

You'll have to excuse me now...I've got some reading to do.

A Moving Experience

Packing up everything in your home and moving it someplace else can be an overwhelming task. You don’t realize how much “stuff” you have until you try to pack it up and fit it in a truck. Just when you think you have things under control, you find another cupboard you forgot to empty, or you run out of boxes to pack things in. Some of the worst things are the odds and ends scattered throughout the house that manage to avoid getting packed into boxes until the very end.

During the past couple of days, we’ve had the opportunity to help a family in our ward prepare to move to another city. Despite their good-natured accusations that we’ve just been trying to get them out of here faster, we’re sad to see them go; they’ve been good friends and great assets to our ward.

As we and several other ward members helped this family last night with those pesky odds and ends and the ever-looming house-scrubbing, I remembered the help we received during one of our own moves. It was when we moved from our apartment in student housing to a house in the city. Feeling over-ambitious, we decided to fix some things in our new house before packing up our apartment. We were sure we had enough time to make our renovations before we had to get packed.

To make a long story short, the work we wanted to do on our new house was much more difficult and time-consuming than we’d anticipated. We finally had to admit defeat and turn our attention toward packing and cleaning our apartment. And the evening before we had to be out (by 7:00 in the morning), we weren’t anywhere near finished. We were already exhausted from the packing and moving we’d done so far, and all the work we’d tried to do on the house before that. At that point, I felt very small and pathetic as I followed the move-out checklist from student housing and attempted to clean the windows of our apartment with a bottle of Windex and a stack of newspapers and tried not to think about the catastrophe in the rest of the apartment.

One of the nice things about student housing at the University of Utah is that your apartment complex is also your ward. Ward leaders, home and visiting teachers, and those you have stewardship over yourself are all right there. And when the Relief Society president strolled by and saw me struggling with the windows, she not only offered to help but she also rounded up a couple of other sisters to come help as well.

That was several years ago, and it still means a lot to me now. The few hours that they spent cleaning windows and scrubbing the kitchen probably made the difference between us getting out on time and paying a fine, for starters. But there was more to it than that. It meant so much to know that others cared enough to help us with our struggles—even though those struggles could have been avoided if we’d used our time more wisely in the first place. They didn’t judge us for that. They didn’t even ask why we had so much to do at the last minute. They just went to work, knowing full well that we were moving out of the ward and we wouldn’t be around to repay the favor when they needed help in the future. It was help we perhaps didn’t deserve, but desperately needed all the same.

I’d like to wrap this up with a profound statement, but anything I can think of to say only sounds arrogant. I just know that, no matter how often I have to remind myself of this, helping others truly feels good. The Lord meets the needs of His children through the hands of others. Sometimes that means others are sent to help us. Other times it means we are sent to help others.

Spotlight the Youth Contest

To finish out the week, I wanted to put in a plug for the contest that fellow LDS YA author Anne Bradshaw's running over on her blog. It's your chance to give a special young person the recognition he or she deserves.

Here's what Anne says:
"Because of my concern for our young people's sense of worth, I’m creating some space in my blog for a competition of sorts. It’s a way of featuring young people out there who are doing fine things with their lives, maybe against all odds—or who love to serve others in some way, large or small—or who have an unusual talent."

For complete information and rules, visit http://annebradshaw.blogspot.com/2007/07/contest.html

There are some fabulous prizes lined up for the winners, so send those entries in and show those youth you care!

LDStorymakers New Releases Newsletter

This week I'm spotlighting a few new resources in the LDS publishing world that bring authors and readers together. Earlier I mentioned the Whitney Awards. Today I'd like to discuss the LDStorymakers New Releases Newsletter.

The Newsletter is distributed via e-mail. It comes out bimonthly, with full-color images, and it features recently published books written by members of LDStorymakers. Many of your favorite LDS authors are members of this group. Check the bios page of the LDStorymakers website for a current list--we've got quite a group going here! Be sure to scroll all the way down--authors with last names that start with "P," for instance, don't show up until you're well through the list.

One of my favorite parts about the New Releases Newsletter is that upcoming releases are spotlighted (spotlit?) as well. So you get all the juicy information on new books that won't even hit stores for another month or two. Usually you get pictures of the covers as well.

We also include big news items. Our upcoming issue is going to cover the Whitney Awards and the "Spotlight the Youth" contest that is currently running. Previously we covered author Annette Lyon's "Best of State" award. There's always something important going on!

To subscribe to the LDStorymakers New Releases Newsletter, visit www.ldstorymakers.com and click on "New Releases" at the top. You'll be taken to a page with a button to bring you to the subscription page. You can also find us on yahoogroups.com, but I think it's easier to just visit the Storymakers website and click the button. If you're having trouble with any of the links, you can find the LDStorymakers website at www.ldstorymakers.com. Follow the links to the page you want.

There's still time before the next issue comes out, so be sure to join soon.

Announcing the Whitney Awards!

You've heard of the Pulitzers, the Oscars, the Grammys, the Pearls...now Latter-day Saint fiction has an award all its own : the Whitney Awards! Best of all, you don't have to just hope your favorite book gets nominated. You can submit your own nominations right now.

An online nomination form is available at the Whitney Awards site at www.whitneyawards.com, along with complete rules. I think it's pretty cool. However, while I know everyone is dying to nominate my book Just the Way You Are, only books published in 2007 are eligible for awards.

Send in your nominations!