Mom's Vacation

February 14-16 I had the wonderful opportunity of going on vacation all by myself. It was terrific. Actually, it was wonderous, stupendous, fabulous, marvelous, delicious, and any other -ous I can possibly think of.

You see, Brigham Young University held their Life, the Universe, and Everything symposium and I was blessed to go. If you've never heard of LTUE, I'm not surprised. I had never heard of it until about a month before it when a friend in my writing group emailed me with a link to a site all about it. Basically it's a writer's conference for those interested in writing Science Fiction and Fantasy and an opportunity for students to present papers they've written on SciFi/Fantasy topics. (Harry Potter: A Hero for the Ages.) I didn't go to any of the papers since I went to hear the famous authors talk and learn about writing.

It was amazing! There were so many people there whose books I love, as well as people that I am now prepared to love: Orson Scott Card, Gail Carson Levine, Julie Wright, James Dashner, Jessica Day George, Brandon Sanderson, and many others whose names I'd have to look up from my notes to remember at the moment.

They had all kinds of panels to attend and they were all great. They had everything from world building to putting romance in sci-fi/fantasy to working with an illustrator. I took notes as well as I could in each panel and tried to talk to the authors on the panels to make connections. I've already met a few of the authors quite a few times from going to the LDStorymakers writing conferences the last couple years and so it was fun to mingle with them. I plan on attending that conference again this year in March. I can't wait! At the conference I have an appointment with an editor from Deseret Book to talk about my embarrassing stories book!

My first day at LTUE I went to the BYU bookstore, bought Elantris for my brother's birthday and got it signed by Brandon Sanderson. I also got all of Nathan's Orson Scott Card books signed. That night I took a trip to another bookstore and bought two books by Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Life, the Universe and Everything (yes, the symposium was named after this book). The next day I found another bookstore (the BYU bookstore sold out) and bought Fairest for my sister's birthday and a Disney fairy book for Megan and Emma (got Gail Carson Levine to sign them as well as my copy of Ella Enchanted).

I learned so much while I was there and will hopefully be more motivated now to keep writing every day. I guess I have to right now because I have two days to send in my entry for the first chapters contest for LDStorymakers and I need to get more than just the first chapter ready for my appointment with the Deseret Book editor.

The symposium also gave me ideas for other stories, and so now I'm just trying to get enough notes on those ideas that I'll be able to let them stew for a bit while I finish these other stories I'm already working on.

I need to add that I owe huge thanks to my in-laws who took care of Megan and Jeremy during those three days, my wonderful friends Leanne and Danny who let me crash at their house in Orem, not ten minutes away from BYU, and Nathan, who let me skip out on Valentine's Day. Not that he minded much, he didn't have to buy me anything since his gift to me was just letting me go down there. THANK YOU!!