Storymakers 2023

 Last year when I went to Storymakers, it was 60% fun and 40% stress. Last year I wasn't sure I belonged. I worried I was a faker. I wasn't sure how it would go. This year I knew I belonged. It was 95% fun and 5% stress. And the stress was also kind of fun...so it was probably more like 99% fun. 

IT WAS SO FUN!

Imagine this: A weekend of talking to people about books and writing. Everyone you meet just wants to talk about books and writing. Nobody wants to talk about their kids or what their spouses do for a living or the weather or what's playing on Netflix. Books and writing, every conversation, for an entire weekend. Heaven!

Of course Amanda was there, too, soaking in all the goodness. And we also met some of our other Texas writing friends, Heidi and Jessica. 

This year Amanda and I signed up for a Thursday workshop. The one we got into was First 10 Pages. So we sent the first ten pages of a manuscript to two other writers plus an instructor, and we critiqued each other's work. It was such a good experience. My instructor was Stephanie Black who writes mystery. And I had Kent Crookston and Jamie Harmon in my group. They were all amazing. I felt especially fortunate to have met Kent. He is a retired BYU professor working on his first novel. He wrote beautifully. And he brought these lilacs for our table. He struck me as such a gentle, good-to-the-core, salt-of-the-earth kind of person. And now we're writer friends! He had also published a book about the ecology of the Book of Mormon. He generously gave me and my dad a copy even though I tried to pay him. I needed a birthday present for my dad, and this was perfect! Most of the other books in the bookstore were historical romance.    

Speaking of good-to-the-core, salt-of-the-earth people...I also got to see my parents and the Olveras and Abbie and Aunt Kathleen and Aunt Charlotte. It was lovely to see them. The last time I was with my family, I was on Accutane and birth control (because of the Accutane), and I think I was a little bit depressed. I blame the birth control, not the Accutane. Anyway, it was nice to be with my family and not be weird in the head. TMI? That was probably TMI. Yay for family!

Happiness!!

Okay, so I knew Brandon Sanderson was going to be at the conference this year. He comes to this conference every few years because he's always giving back and hasn't let himself become too cool for us (at least that's how it seems to me). I was excited to go to his class on marketing. But I told Felicia, "I'm probably not going to stand in line and get a book signed. I mean, I don't care that much about getting books signed. It's not that big of a deal. Whatever." Well. Then I got the golden ticket under my chair (about a third of attendees did) and so did Amanda, and we had the opportunity to stand in line and get a book signed. And suddenly I sent my mom and sister on a goose chase all over Utah Valley for Brandon Sanderson books. Mom and sister very generously brought me a copy of Mistborn so I could have my moment basking in the awesomeness of Brandon Sanderson. He really does strike me as a good person, not just a good writer. I guess I care a little bit about getting books signed. 

I also met this author whose book I am currently reading. Her name is Rachel Rueckert. A sister in my ward loved her book and bought copies for several of us. So I told her this, of course, and we became immediate best friends. She made my day, and I think I might have made hers. 

Sarah M. Eden gave a keynote address on Saturday afternoon. She talked about how books are like bridges. A writer writes a book, and a reader crosses the bridge when they read the book. And whether or not your story gets read by five people or five million people, you still made a connection. She said it more eloquently, but it was a good thought for me. Writing books is about connection, not fame.  

Favorite quote from a class: "I'm 11 years into my 10 year plan to become an overnight success." --Johnny Worthen. 

It was seriously such a magical weekend. I felt so blessed to be able to go. I'm grateful for the ways I've grown as a writer and the confidence I've gained. It's so good to connect with other people and love the same thing together. 

Texas Spring

Texas is a very hot place. But there are also months of really lovely weather. This year we had an extra long, delicious spring. It only started getting truly hot this week. We had Young Women camp during spring break in March. And we were actually cold! 

Young Women camp is a dramatic place. Lots of feelings. There were at least four times where I came across a girl just randomly sobbing. And my cabin had a case of covid, which added to the excitement. Our stake had the YCLs really take charge of planning and running camp. That was awesome! But I think the YCLs perhaps planned too many activities. I think they may have exhausted themselves. Which is a wonderful, leader-y lesson to learn! 

It was fun to go to camp with Annie, my main girl. Third year in a row we've been together at camp. Annie has not been to camp without her mother. And I think she's been okay with that. 

I was also in charge of the skits at camp. I recruited a friend and fellow leader, Ali, to help me. Our assignment was to make them short and not boring. Doing this was a little trickier than I thought it would be. I brought simple scripts and ideas for the girls to use as a jumping off point. I passed out script options, each group chose one, and we set them loose. But when I went around to check how things were going, it was pretty clear that none of the groups understood why their chosen script was funny. So they changed it to make it more funny (which definitely made it less funny). And they all wanted the skit to end with everyone dying and/or running off stage screaming. Direction was needed! But it was difficult to direct them away from their own ideas and the desire of each individual girl to be "the funny one" instead of working together to make the skit as a whole funny. By helping them, I learned a lot about storytelling, working generously in a group, and what makes something funny or not. And, in the end, they all got it. The audience laughed at the right spots, and they felt successful. They were successful. It was fun! 

Springtime also brought an end to our year at CC. We all learned a lot from the experience. And we decided to do it again next year. I especially loved their writing programs. Scotty wrote an end-of-year essay about Shakespeare. Here he is all dressed up.

This is Shakespeare and Ned Kelly together. Zach (under the helmet) and Penny were a kid/mom duo we made friends with this year. They were great (and fellow Latter-day Saint).

Annie's writing program was harder for me to understand. So about 2/3 of the way through the year, I decided to do one of her assignments. I wrote an essay on The Secret Garden. And it changed my perspective of the writing curriculum completely! Now I love it. And understand how to help her with it.

Annie made a skin cake for one of her end-of-year projects. It looked very accurate, which made for an unappetizing cake. She and her friend worked on it for about 8 hours one Saturday. It was difficult to get the hair follicle to look follicle-y instead of fecal-y.

It was wonderful to rub shoulders with all the good folks at Classical Conversations. I was very grateful to be accepted into a Christian group. It has been hard to have so many Christian groups exclude us as non-Christians. It hurts! I get where they're coming from and respect their right to exclude us. But I really feel like I'm a Christian! And I want to connect with fellow believers. I'm so glad someone finally let us in. I learned so much from them. I hope we strengthened each other in Christ.

Scotty also turned 11 this spring. He was in a Rubik's cube lull, so he requested dominoes for his present. But his real present was being taken to an allergist. $662 later, we know that he's allergic to everything except rodents. Which is excellent news for our (not including Aaron) plan to get pet rats. But the most helpful thing about going to the allergist was that she recommended an OTC drug combination that actually relieved Scotty's seasonal allergy symptoms. Xyzal plus Flonase. That's what did it! We are glad Scotty has only been bothered by allergies about six weeks out of the year.   

Bluebonnets! Butterflies! Hikes!

Aaron was able to go to Las Vegas to ordain William a High Priest. It was a quick but special trip. We miss having these guys in Texas!!