Cause and Effect. Occasionally in life a person is able to point to specific events which caused other things to happen. I can honestly say, that without this particular writers conference, and the fact that I attended last year, and that I met specific people who also attended, I would not be published next month.

Sure, the classes were awesome. I learned so much that I couldn’t take notes fast enough. But the networking . . . meeting people I had known in the blogosphere . . . was priceless. Without this conference, I would not have made the contacts necessary to learn what I needed to know, and finally get that contract.

Do you live close to Utah? Or can you afford to fly? I highly recommend this yearly event as the best conference in the west. Don’t let the title of the conference scare you off. Although presented by the LDS Storymakers group (a group of published LDS authors, both regionally and nationally published), this is not an LDS sponsored event. There are plenty of folks with other religious views who come to this conference and say that it is one of the best they have ever attended.

Here is a link for more information:

http://www.ldstorymakers.com/conference_2010.php

Come see us! I will be presenting a class on setting up an author’s website with a couple of top-notch guys.

Hope to see you there!

(P.S.  There is a contest going on for the conference! If you are attending, check this out:  http://ldstorymakerauthors.blogspot.com/2010/02/show-your-love-for-storymakers-contest.html )

I have integrated my blog with my website, folks! The entire site runs on Wordpress now, and has a few new features.

I am still trying to figure out how to have a “followers” box on the site, but have not been able to find such a widget for wordpress. If any of you have such an animal, let me know how you did it.

Spend a few minutes and explore, if you don’t mind. Let me know if you find broken links, typos, etc.

Thank you!

I was not able to financially contribute to the startup of this publisher, but since I admire and respect the editor who started this project, I still wanted to help them out where I could. During the month of December, I helped to spread the word about their fund drive on twitter and facebook. I am here today to let folks know they are now open for business.

As of this week, they are accepting submissions for “multicultural fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults.”

You can check their submission guidelines here: http://www.tupublishing.com

My thanks to Darvell Hunt for the idea to do this today. He blogs over at http://ldswritersblogck.blogspot.com

I have been really lax about my blog lately. Too busy I suppose. I am working on my galleys now and hope to have them done within a week or so. Once those are back in to Valor Publishing, the proofs will go to press and it won’t be long before I see ARC copies. I am getting really excited to see my book in print!

In order to be more consistent with my blog, perhaps a schedule with specific types of things to blog about each day of the week would do me some good. I’ll have to give that some thought. Since I was given a gentle nudge from a friend to provide some pictures of the new arrival, I thought I would play along.

Here are some pics of Baby. She is a cutie if I say so myself.

Proud Grandma:

Proud Grandpa:

The Star of the Show:

I am sorry about the lighting in this video, but the sound turned out pretty good, considering. This is a double-quartet that I participated in this evening. We assembled at 6pm to do a warmup/practice before our Stake General Priesthood Meeting at 7pm. My friend Rob Robertson brought his Flip camera.

I am the 4th from the left, in the back. We were in a semi-circle so it looks like I am really short.  Whereas I am a Baritone and usually sing Tenor in a SATB arrangement, this arrangement is actually a men’s 4 part, so I am singing the melody. I hope you enjoy it!

I have never gotten a blogger award before. Today I was listed on C. LaRene Hall’s blog for the Kreativ Blogger award. Here it is:

And here is the list of people she mentioned for the award:

Darvell Hunt
Daron Farley
Marsha Ward
Joyce DiPastena
Cathy Witbeck
Gaynell Parker
Karen Hoover

Now I must say, that is a great group there. I have met most of them, and they are all outstanding examples of personality, talent, and fun… except for that Daron Farley guy. He is a shady character. In fact, if you all knew him a little better, you would be beating down his door to get written permission to use him as the villain in your next writing project.

That is what makes me REALLY glad I am not Daron Farley.

So here is my list of interesting (or not so interesting) facts about me according to the rules for the award:
1. I am Daron FRALEY. My wife’s maiden name is FARLEY. Freaky, eh? Yeah, it still freaks me out. So am I offended about the misspelling? Absolutely not. Them Farleys are good folk. Except for that one I already mentioned…
2. When I was a boy I practiced mental telepathy on people. Nobody ever noticed. I guess it never worked.
3. I heard Pope John Paul give an outdoor mass in France.
4. I tried fly fishing for the first time this summer. I almost got the hang of it. Except for the time I pulled the fish over my head and the fish landed on the bank, and I landed in the water.
5. I don’t have a favorite color.
6. I know what triboluminescence means. And I’ll bet you don’t.
7. Once again I had to reward myself with chocolate to get through this. I never have liked these chain type things (for myself that is, for others I am sure they are just fine). I prefer to be quiet and boring and unapproachable.

Now to the part I am going to break the rules on. Rather than pass this on to another 7 people, I would prefer to just say that Connie Hall is one of the sweetest gals I have met in a long time. I met her at a writers group, and we have traded emails, seen each other at book signings, and I got to talk to her at the LDS Storymakers conference in the spring. She has a new book out, “Martha’s Freedom Train”. I think you ought to check it out!

Off to camp.

I will take my two sticks and bang them together so the cougars (and bears) stay away.

See you next week.

I have wondered for a while if anybody has actually seen a particular something on my blog. It has broken links. And the links have been broken for a long, long time. Not a single person has ever mentioned it. I suppose that means there is little interest. So, I may just leave it the way it is. But perhaps my mere mentioning it will act like an invitation to a treasure hunt . . .

If you figure out what it is, and you want to get your hands on “it”, here are the rules:

Become an official blog follower. Leave a comment and ask for “it”; tell me how to get in touch with you. Then I will send you the “treasure”, because obviously the links are broken. Or if you don’t want to put your email info in the comment, you can send me your address: lachishatgmaildotcom. You know what to do there…