I’m so happy to be able to show this to you. Here is my cover for Things Hoped For, coming on on November 23rd – just in time for Christmas shopping. Hint. Hint. Hint.

Isn’t it beautiful?! Big thanks to Tamra Hyde with Modern Expressions Photography for the beautiful cover art and design!!

Each book in the Of Great Value series tells the story of one girl gaining a testimony of one of the Young Women Values.

Here is the back cover copy:

16 year old Fran Jensen has been a member of the LDS Church all her life. But her faith is deeply shaken when she loses her best friend, her sister Anna, to a horrible accident. Suddenly everything that she has always believed isn’t so easy anymore. Her faith is rocky, at best, and her relationship with her family starts to crumble.  Only her friendship with Seth, a handsome young sculptor, offers her refuge from the pain that surrounds her. But Seth has his own tragedy to deal with. He has his own secrets and his own questions. As he begins his quest for answers, Fran wonders if their friendship will survive through their changing attitudes toward faith. When Seth’s awful secret is revealed, Fran suddenly finds herself without an anchor. She has to decide to find out once and for all what she believes or risk losing everything  . . . and everyone that matters to her.

And if that wasn’t all fun enough – I’m doing a giveaway to celebrate!

The Prize

I’m giving away two $20 gift cards to Amazon. You could use them to buy my book (of course) or anything else that suits your fancy.

How to Enter

One entry will be given for each of the following:

-leave a comment on this post

-share this post on facebook

-share this post on twitter

Two entries will be given if you blog about Things Hoped For. Make sure to link back to this post.

Make sure to post a comment here to let me know what you did so you can be entered in the giveaway. You have until Friday at noon to enter. The winners will be drawn by putting all the names in a hat and letting my four year old pick two.

So, there you go! Get busy and let me know what you think!

EDITED TO ADD: Posting on Pinterest is also worth a vote. Remember, if you post on facebook, twitter, pinterest or if you blog make sure to tell me in the comments section so your extra entries can be counted!

I’m bouncing up and down in my chair with excitement. Wanna know why?

My cover for Things Hoped For is GORGEOUS! And I get to show it to you . . . on Monday. I can’t wait for you to see it. This is all getting more real. Five week from now this book will be on sale. The nerves are also starting to set in but for now, I’m just excited!

So, come back Monday and I’ll have a fun give-away to celebrate!

This last week has been filled with ups and downs. It started out last Thursday with a photo shoot for Things Hoped For, the first book in my Of Great Value series. I’d decided to self-publish it after traditional publishers were unwilling to take the burden of an 8 book series. (which I totally understand). Being that this is a niche market (Young Women) within a niche market (LDS themes), as well as the fact that I have a pretty solid platform to start from – well it all seemed like a logical jump.

At first I was feeling a little defeated but after Thursday, seeing the beautiful cover drafts and getting my interior formatting done, I’m getting really excited!

So that was the “up” part.

The “down” came when an agent that seemed to be really interested in A Sister’s Witness ended up declining. It’s always hard to get your hopes up and then have it not work out, but for some reason this one was especially tough. She wrote a very nice, detailed and personal note, however. That was helpful and encouraging.

So this morning I got a fresh batch of queries out and BAM! We had a request from one of the agents before lunch. Another UP!

I guess with everything going on, I’m going to title myself a hybrid author. There are unique challenges in handling both the traditional and independent publishing worlds at the same time. But I guess I’m ready for the challenge.

What are the challenges you are facing as an author? Any other Hybrids out there who want to share their experiences?

EDITED TO ADD: Just as I was about to post this, ANOTHER request came in. Two in one day can’t be bad, right? I should re-title this post UP, Up and Away!

My book Things Hoped For, the first book in the Of Great Value series, is coming out next month just in time for Christmas Shopping! As a bonus to my readers, I’ll be offering a free ebook, Faith, My Sure Foundation. I am looking for authors who would like to contribute short stories to this collection. It’s a great opportunity for you to market yourself to the LDS youth community and share your own testimony of the value of Faith. Click here for details and submission guidelines.

Summer is crazy in the Clawson household. My husband and children and I all put on a big event called Knights of Freedom Summit. We train boys ages 8-12 (and over 70 youth volunteers) in leadership skills. It’s a huge mountain of work and the best part of my year.

But it takes all summer which means that my writing time gets limited. Jennifer and I kept at it right up until the end of August but then I had to be done for a few weeks. Now we are digging back in and my brain is starting to fire in all those wonderful, story-creating ways. I’ve pulled out a project I’m working on for LDS Young Women and pounded through 50% of the revisions in the last couple of days and I’m working on the plot for a scary story in honor of October. I’ll be posting that as a freebie here next month so check back.

I find that getting back to writing means updating my entire routine. I can’t expect to have the time to dive into the delicious world of story, setting and character arc unless I carve it carefully out of my otherwise full day. I do have four children after all.

So I’ve had to make some changes for fall.

1 – Get up earlier.

During the summer I tend to stay up later and sleep in a bit. Now that I’m getting back on track I’m using an alarm again. It’ll only take a few weeks until I adjust completely and wake up naturally. In the meantime, I’m grateful for cheerful music to start my day.

2 – Walks in the morning.

This always gets the creative juices flowing. Being outside first thing, especially when it’s so beautiful outside, wakes up my body and my brain. And that’s a great combination.

3 – Work first, play second.

Of course, summer is completely opposite, but my kids and I are getting back in the swing of things with chores and school coming first (we home school). That allows the afternoon for writing (the play part). When I flip-flop things, we end up cranky and I get that guilt-thing going on. That’s not conducive to a happy family OR creativity.

4 – Take things a bit at a time.

Just because I’m back in the writing-groove, doesn’t mean that I can or even should do it all at once. There is no need to sprint to the burn-out finish line. Working steadily not only makes my family happier, it trains my brain to think like a writer every day, instead of just during those slap-dash times.

So how about you? What steps are you taking to set yourself up for a successful writing Fall?

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the creative process. It started with me “cleaning house” and releaseing unnecessary emotional baggage. One of the ways I’m doing that is by learning to let go of worrying about what people think. I’m trying to find ways to be happy and experience the journey of life, just because it’s my life. Not because it’s approved of by someone else.

While I’m in the middle of this learning curve I’ve questioned how writing falls into that. And it all boils down to a catch 22 about creativity.

I write the very best work when I am writing it for me and no one else. When it is something that I enjoy, that calls to me when I’m not working on it and whispers, “You’re happier here. Come and play. Sink into me.” That’s the kind of story that drags me through by my belly button. As soon as I start wondering what someone else is going to think about my writing I’m doomed to second guess myself, self-edit, and homogenize the characters all in an attempt to try to make that imaginary audience happy.

The catch? Without an audience, what is art? Art, in all its forms, is the medium by which ideas and emotions are portrayed the most powerfully. Can you imagine the sadness of an original Frederick Lord Leighton painting (“Flaming June” pictured above) hidden in a closet or Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor never being heard (my favorite piece of all time)?

I’m not going to even dream of comparing my writing to Leighton or Mendelssohn but I know that we writers desperately need an audience for our books. They are only brought to life once they are read.

So how do you not worry about what people think and simply allow the creative juices to flow?

Here are a few tips:

1 – Draft with the door closed. Revise with the door open. This comes from Stephen King’s On Writing (which is excellent if you can handle the foul language). He talks about the fact that when he drafts, and he is a pantster, he has to write it just for him. He just lets the story unfold for him and never lets anyone read what he writes until the first draft is complete. Then when it’s time to revise, that’s when hetakes to his readers and gets their input, fixes the things that make no sense, reworks character arcs, etc. I learned this in my critique group with Julie Bellon and Jordan McCollum. I found that when we were critiquing something that I was in the middle of drafting, it killed it for me. I couldn’t keep going. On the other hand, taking a finished draft to group was awesome!

2 – Never write to the market. The saying is often heard, “Write what you know.” I say, “Write what you love.” If what you love is dragon-slaying cowboy action romance, go for it. Even if you’ve heard that your genre is taboo (anything Dystopian right now) keep going if you really love it. When you write to the market without loving that genre, there won’t be any life in it. You won’t love writing it and no one else will love reading it.

3 – Keep the romance alive. Just like with a successful relationship, a romance takes work. Sometimes you start a story but halfway through that feeling starts to fade. You have to remind yourself why you fell in love in the first place. What were you doing when the inspiration for your story struck? Did you watch a movie or listen to a song that triggered the idea? Revisit the place or environment that first got your creative juices flowing. Fall in love again. Don’t just try to push through it without that loving feeling. Recapture it!

I’m taking my own advice today as I dive back into a big project that’s been somewhat on hold for almost a month. Best wishes on your goals for JumpStartWriMo this month! How are you doing?

The other day I was feeling pretty exasperated with myself. Here I sit with my book at 30,000 words and it suddenly gets hard. And I mean rock-and-a-hard-place, up-a-creek-without-a-paddle HARD.

It’s oh, so tempting to just close the file and relegate that book to the dusty recesses of my “Writing Projects” folder where other unfinished work sits. Thinking of that folder I went and opened it up and started reviewing some of those unfinished projects. I was surprised to see that all SEVEN of my unfinished projects sits right around 30,000 words.

REVELATION!

In a fit of pique I typed into google, “getting past 30,000 words” and I found this post by SG Redling. Go read it.  I love the take and the fact that it’s NOT JUST ME! This author has commiserated with many other authors who have all experienced the same difficult point.

A little more research showed me that 30,000 words is a very common place to find trouble. I think that the newness of the book has worn off, plot holes become more apparent, character arcs more challenging and then there is that voice in our heads. You know that voice, the one that says, “What were you thinking? You can’t pull this off!” or “Writing is what SMART people do. (insert derisive laughter here).”

Somehow I’ve managed to break through that 30,000 word mark before and I’ll manage it again. Simply knowing that I’m not alone in the struggle is comforting.

Emily

My awesome and amazing critique partner, Julie Bellon, is hosting a JumpStartWriMo in June. I’ve accepted the challange which is basically to just set a goal for yourself, one that pushes you but is realistic, and make it happen.

This is just what I need to help me really focus on my projects and burn through them.

So here are my two June goals:

1 – Finish revising the 50 pages I am sending to a wonderful agent who requested them at a conference. I’m getting close with this one.

2 – Finish the first draft of A Sister’s Witness: The Powell Family Tragedy so I can start tearing it apart and rebuilding it. I always struggle with self-editing when I’m in the drafting process. I’m excited to have this goal so I can remind myself to focus on just letting the words come. I’ll fix ’em later.

Summer is crazy for me, our Leadership Training that my husband and I do takes a huge, and I mean HUGE chunk of our time during the summer, our auto-shop is crazy busy meaning that my husband and oldest son are working all kinds of hours, and there is this wonderful sunshiny world that calls to me. All that being said, there is a time to buckle down and just burn through it and this is the time. Sister’s Witness is a story that needs to be told. I know in my heart of hearts that it will save at least one life. That can’t be forgotten.

If you would like to join JumpStartWriMo, hop on over to Julie’s blog and pick up this free badge for your site.

Spread the word and share your goals. We can do this!

Emily

I somehow missed this in the middle of all the trial stories but this story ran a couple of weeks ago detailing the wonderful healing process that writing this book has been for Jennifer.

She continues to amaze with the grace and dignity she has as she faces each new level of this trial. I am humbled to share this journey with her.

Here is a link to the interview and article. It’s the top listed article on their page today. That’s not too shabby.

It was kind of a surprise last Wednesday. I needed to stop by Jennifer’s house for something unrelated to the book. I texted her and told her when I’d be there and she replied, “Great, then you can meet Ben Winslow!” I knew him to be a reporter from our local Fox channel and opted at that point to skip the errand I was headed to and go home to shower and change. Good call on my part. I didn’t just meet Ben Winslow, he also interviewed me on camera.

Now, Jennifer is used to whole reporters thing, but I’m still a baby at it. Still, I didn’t slobber or snort in the interview so I consider it a success. Besides, I made very little of the final cut. Everyone would rather hear from Jennifer. I would rather here from Jennifer!

The great news is word of our project is starting to spread. We have our proposal out right now with an agent and I have a pitch session this week with another one. We are ready to get this moving forward. With the trial coming up in a week, Jenn will be plastered on the news again and, sadly, that is great publicity. We would much rather be writing a book about the successful return of Susan and the boys but as Jenn states in her interview, “We can’t help Susan. She’s actually in a great place now. She doesn’t need our help anymore. But we can help the people who remain.”

That is our goal.

I have a beautiful picture of Susan, Charlie and Braden at my desk. It is there to remind me why I am doing what I am doing. I feel that they are with us through the process. It is a very humbling experience.