Make today Extordinary and a life changing book

To those of you who are new to this blog. Welcome. You will notice that Blush aka Linda has been carrying us for quite a while. We love her posts and would like to invite you to visit some of the archived posts. Someday I might even do my top ten from last year. There were some good ones.
So what is new this week? Well, if you were at LTUE last weekend then no doubt you have heard James A Owen's keynote address about "The Power of Choice." It was fabulous. Meeting James and having dinner with him and our awesome writing group was even cooler as I was able to discover that he is one of the most genuine people I have ever met. He cares about his readers and he is a crafty marketing guru. Most of all he doesn't sweat the small stuff.

This week on his blog he has made his book "Drawing Out the Dragons..." available on ebook for free for five days. He said to share the link with someone we love. I must say that I would like to share it with everyone I know. My 10 year old read it and he said, "It changed my perspective on the world." He has been drawing dragons every day since.
Here is the link. Go and download the book and read it with your family this weekend.

CLICK HERE!

I'm at LTUE

I'm currently sitting in a conference room at BYU listening to great authors discuss the difference between Urban Fantasy and Contemporary Fantasy. Good news its selling well right now.

Wish you could all be here. We will let you know how it goes.
Comment on who you want to know from and I'll get you quotes for next week.

Later

Quotes:
In the art of podcasting Dan and Howard are talking about how much recognition they get from their podcasts.

Info you need for this quote: Their podcast is calledWriting Excuses:
"15 minutes long, because you're in a hurry and we're not that smart."

Dan said, "I can't even tell you how many times I've been in a hallway at a conference and people stop and say, "I know that voice. You're Dan Wells. You're not that smart."

Howard said, "That's better than my experience at Storymakers where these sweet LDS women come up to me and say, 'I know you. You're Howard Tayler. You're 15 minutes long."


In a discussion about answering the question about why he has put supernatural elements into an otherwise 'crime' story. He said he put it in because he wanted to he thought the idea was awesome. Then he said this:

"That's Awesome" is arguably the best reason for making every decision you make while writing a story. Dan Wells

The Schedule is Up!! LTUE 2010

So I didn't know what to blog about this week, mostly because I'm under deadline for the newsletter and that's a lot of deadline. BUT then inspiration hit in the form of the Life, the Universe & Everything conference schedule for the FREE writing conference in February at BYU!! It's gonna be so fun. See the schedule here.

And check out these totally awesome tidbits from the schedule:
Thursday Main speaker: James C. Christensen...enough said.
Friday afternoon Dan Wells is giving a workshop on his pacing and story structure program. PEOPLE! This is one hour of hard core writing organizational boot camp. Can't wait.
Friday main address: Marty Brenneis. I had no idea who he was, so I googled him. It turns out that if there has been a cool Sci-Fi or Fantasy movie in the last 20 years he has worked on it. You can find info on Marty Brenneis on IMDb.
Saturday Main speaker: Brandon Sanderson...enough said.
This year the conference planners seem to have chosen a major artist, filmmaker, and author for the three main addresses and let's face it that just rocks!

Awesome authors and Publishing folks planning to present:
The aMAZEing James Dashner, bright newbie Karen Hoover(debut author), the multi-talented author/editor Lisa Mangum, the Fable-istic Brandon Mull, the fantabulous Tristi Pinkston, the queen of romance Julie Wright, scary but likable Dan Wells, the extraordinary Stacy Whitman and many many more.

Here is the tiny disclaimer...all scheduling is tentative at this time. Still I can't wait.