I'm baaaaaack! While flying home from Utah yesterday, I thought about all the things I was returning to - laundry, dishes, diapers, cooking, cleaning, the heat - and I almost turned right back around. I had such a fun weekend visiting with old friends, hobnobbing with writerly folk, and talking about books, books, books. The Conference was excellent - I met lots of great people, learned a ton about writing and just had a ball. I'm exhausted, so I'll post more later, but I wanted to let you all know that I'm alive and well.

I have tons to catch up on, blog-wise and life-wise. Be patient with me! A couple of quick things:

- I take pride in helping out with blog tours, and I try to follow the guidelines the author/publicist asks me to follow. When I wrote my last post, I was at the conference, running on very little sleep and using my friend's teensy tiny computer. Needless to say, I did not have a chance to edit the post, so it was very garbled and typo-filled. Sorry about that! Hopefully, it makes more sense now.

- I wanted to make sure you know that the tour for The Ocean Between Us by Susan Wiggs is still going. I believe the next stop will be tomorrow at The Pink Chandelier. I could be wrong about that, but it's a fun blog, so check it out anyway.

- Big Honcho Media, who is running the tour, has generously offered one of my readers the chance to win a $50 Visa gift card to use toward the purchase of their own copy of The Ocean Between Us. Cool, huh? Click here to enter.

- Speaking of Susan Wiggs' book, I finished it while I was in Utah. Look for a review soon.

Okay, I think that covers it. I've got to get my kiddos off to school. After that, well, my bed is looking awfully inviting!

So, I'm leaving for Utah in the morning and my suitcase is still lying on my bed, half-packed. As I was trying to stuff everything in it this afternoon, my 11-year-old was curled up under the covers moaning about his headache while my 8- and 5-year-old were trashing the family room in an attempt to keep the baby entertained. Said baby? Yeah, she was happily splashing her hands in the toilet. And her diaper was so rank I could smell it from upstairs. As I groaned in frustration, my daughter said, "I bet you're going to be really happy to get on that plane tomorrow." She's absolutely right - my kids are making it very, very easy for me to want to leave.

One thing I had planned to do before taking off was finishing The Ocean Between Us by Susan Wiggs. It didn't happen. I will be reading it on the plane, though, and as soon as my computer and I are reunited, I will post a review.

In the meantime, enjoy these fun extras from a fellow Susan. To read the first chapter of the book, plus a special message from the author, click below:








Also, I am thrilled to announce that Big Honcho Media is offering one of my readers a $50 VISA check card. Yes, you read that right - one of you lucky ducks will receive $50 to buy your own copy of The Ocean Between Us. The deadline is going to be short on this one - you have until May 5. All you have to do to enter is comment on this post. Good luck!

P.S. The card can only be mailed to addresses in the U.S. If you live elsewhere, you may enter the giveaway as long as you have someone in the U.S. who is willing to accept your prize by mail.

So, way back when - before surgery, before radiation, before I had any clue what this year was going to hold for me - I signed up to attend the LDS Storymakers Conference in Provo, Utah. At the time, I thought it would be good for me to sign up for Boot Camp, two sessions of intense manuscript critiquing. Since I've started writing countless novels, but have never even come close to finishing one, I thought this would be the perfect thing to pressure me into getting my ideas out of my head and onto the computer screen. I had until April to come up with something. Plenty of time, I thought. Well, guess what? It's now April. I leave for Provo on Thursday. So, yeah, I've been writing. I've managed to hammer out almost 20 pages. Don't laugh. Considering that I still can't make it through the day without an afternoon nap and a very early bedtime (like 8), I'm actually pretty proud of myself. My pages suck big time, but at least I have pages, right?

Even though writing has kept me from blogging, creating fiction is good for me as a reviewer. It reminds me that crafting a novel is A LOT harder than it looks. It's easy for me to glance at someone else's work and pick out its every weakness - the process becomes much, much more difficult when I'm evaluating my own "baby."

Anyone else going to be in Provo this weekend? I'd love to meet up with some of my "bloggy friends" at the conference. I'm still sad that I won't be in NYC for Book Expo America, but I'm glad I'll be able to do a little bit of book/author hobnobbing in Utah. It's almost the same thing.

All this rambling is my way of explaining why I've been away from the blog for a week. I'm still reading. In fact, I'm in the middle of The Ocean Between Us by Susan Wiggs. Look for a review of the book and a very exciting giveaway on April 23.

I also need to announce the winner of my Kaki Warner giveaway. Congratulations to Linda, who wins a copy of Pieces of Sky (which I reviewed here). If you'll email me your address, I'll send it on to Kaki's publicist, who will get your book in the mail right away.

Okay, it's 9:30 and I'm fading fast ... Have a great week everyone!

The book involves Tess, a high schooler who has just moved from Chicago to the smallish town of Grand River, Michigan. While her parents' impending divorce brings mostly relief, Tess still isn't completely thrilled with the move. Sure, she's got a couple of school friends, her music and a close relationship with her mom, but she's still lonely, anxious and bored in her new town. Then, she notices Micah. His broody good looks seem to confirm the rumors - the guy's some kind of genius. She's even more intrigued by his odd on-again-off-again relationship with the beautiful Daisy. Tess' new friends warn her away from the strange couple, but she feels inexplicably drawn to them. When she finally gets the chance to know Micah, Tess finds that he's everything she thought he would be - smart, sophisticated, and mysterious. Maybe he does come off as weird, but that's only because no one understands him like Tess does.
As Tess falls deeper under Micah's spell, she realizes some disturbing truths about the guy. Something about the way he toys with her emotions just seems ... wrong. Is it her fault for being too clingy? Is Tess pushing away the only person with whom she's managed to really connect in Grand River? Why would Micah choose her anyway, when he already has the attention of the lovely Daisy? What does Tess have to do, exactly, to get Micah to look at her the way he looks at Daisy? How far will she go to win his love? In this dark tale of young love and dangerous obsession, Tess has to break away before the chains of codependency can drag away every last bit of self-respect she possesses.