The State of the Blog Address, Part Deux

My prayers go out to all the families affected by the tornado in Oklahoma yesterday. So, so sad. :'(
Zach Sobiech (from last week's video) passed away yesterday as well. What an amazing kid to touch so many lives, and I'm glad we talked about what we did, even if it was difficult. Now on to this week's lighter, fluffier topic! (That sounds a lot like chocolate mousse! Yum! See, things are better already!)

Two years! Can you believe it? Honestly, I can't! I was really worried that I'd start this blog and then lose steam after a week or two and never get back to it. I have so much faith in myself, don't I? But here we are, 170 posts and 1300 comments later! THANKS Y'ALL! The success of this blog is due to you guys and your patience, endurance, support and forgiveness. That sounds like the definition of a saint, and it's all too true: I hereby promote each of you to SAINT status. That means you can pick your own day where we celebrate YOU!

I'm so proud that I've never had an offensive comment left on my blog, nor has anyone ever attacked me or any other commenter. I know that's really rare and again, it's all due to my amazing readers. Sadly, I may have offended my commenters a time or two in my pathetic attempts to be funny and/or promote sibling rivalry. I need to be more saintly like the rest of you guys. I will not be awarded my own day of commemoration anytime soon.

The internet says that blogging is even more dead than it was last year when I asked the all important question: IS BLOGGING DEAD? But guess what? I don't care what the internet says! As long as I enjoy blogging, I will continue to do so, even if it's no longer the hot spot of social media. How about you guys? Will you continue to blog? Read blogs? Or have you found that spend you less time with Blogger and more time on other social media sites?

What Blogaway topics were your favorites this past year? What would you like to see more of? Anyone feeling an itch to do a guest post? :)

And ... summer is upon us. Yay! I LOVE summer, and I know we all want to be outside and away from our laptops so ... Blogaway is going on hiatus for the summer. WHAT? Just kidding. I wanted to see if that gave anyone a panic attack. But, I do want to move to an every-other week format for the summer. Rather than taking weeks off when it's convenient for me and possibly not for you, I thought this might be a better option. This way if you are on vacation for a week when there is a post, you can still come back the next week and catch up. I'll still do a prize giveaway once a month; every time you see the second post for the month, you will know to check back on Thursday to see who won that month. And you'll only have to comment two times a month to be qualified. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Since next week is a holiday week, we'll start by taking that week off.  I'll try and post a calendar somewhere on the blog so you know when to watch for posts and we will move back to the normal format in September. That sound fair to everyone? (BTW, if you are reading The Mae Project, I will still post weekly until I'm out of things to teach about, which might be in a few weeks or it might be never. You just never know with me, do you?)

I think there's about 200 questions for you in this blog, so you better get busy answering them. Once you tell me about your blogging preferences and suggest some fun topics and such, you do have to  answer this: since you are now a saint, what day of the year do you pick to celebrate YOU? And once you have your day scheduled on the calendar: what do you want the general population to do to celebrate your sainthood? Will there be a parade? Will there be a gift exchange? A feast? A nap? It's your holiday! Make it fun for us!

Since I'm not a saint yet, I don't get to give you an example of what St. Lori's day would be like, but I will say that when I learn to be like you guys and therefore do get to sainthood, I would like my day to be laundry free, have all pets banned to the great outdoors, and children would not fight: no, not even once! Plus, an endless chocolate fountain for everyone! Sounds like a good day to me. :)

And here's a big hug from me to you! Thanks Blogaway friends!

Words to Live By

Goodish Morning! Sorry for the delay: we were without power, both last night and this morning! Wind + trees + powerlines = family fun! Did you know when you have well water instead of city water that when the power is out, you lose water also? See what I mean by family fun? Anyway: 

There's a topic that I've wanted to discuss for a long time, but then I chicken out because I don't want everyone thinking that I'm morbid. Or that I have a death wish. But I'm not going to worry about that anymore. Today, we are going to talk about death.

I don't know why I worry that it's such a taboo topic. We all die eventually. I guess it's the worry that the eventually might be sooner rather than later. But have you ever wondered how you would live your life differently if you knew you might not live to be a ripe old age? (Which age is considered ripe BTW? I am getting sun spots on my face. Bananas get spots when they go ripe. Does that mean I am beginning to "ripen?")

I spoke with a woman once who had become a second wife and a step-mother to a large family after their mother had lost a long bout with cancer. The woman said it was difficult to become a part of their household because they were accustomed to neglecting day-to-day details and focusing more on the fun, happy things of life. Housework, for example, was not a priority because the terminally ill mother didn't want to waste her time cleaning when she could be playing with her kids instead. That's interesting, because I think if I knew I was dying, I would clean my house more. I wouldn't want to pass away and then have people come clean up my mess. And I would worry that after I was gone, those left behind would grumble that I didn't know how to properly get rid of hard water stains. Isn't that silly?

If I knew my time was limited, I hope I would be more inclined to just sit and visit with people instead of worrying about all the stuff that needs done. I hope I would play with my children more. I hope I would be more focused and not get distracted by texting and the internet. I hope I would worry less about superficial things like how to get longer eyelashes and how to get rid of cellulite. I hope I would be less concerned about what others were thinking of my actions. I hope I would be more compassionate and I hope I would give of my heart more freely.

And on the fun side, if I knew my time was limited, I would want to go whitewater rafting. I would stay in the sun as long as I wanted without worrying about wrinkles and skin cancer. I would jump on the trampoline instead of fixing dinner. I would rent an RV and travel across America, visiting family and long lost friends and seeing the beauty of God's creations. I would have dentures put it so I could chew all the ice I wanted. I would get all my family photos put in scrapbooks for each of my children so they could have lasting memories. I would stay up late every night so I could finish writing all the books I want to write, and would hope that my words would be a treasure to everyone left behind. I would laugh, hug, love.

How would your life be different if you knew the Grim Reaper was hanging out just outside your door? (You wouldn't be reading my blog today, that's for sure!) What would you worry more about? What things would no longer be a stress or a concern to you?

If you have some extra time this week, you need to watch this. It's touching and inspiring. My son's 5th grade class has been following Zack's story this year and my son and one of his friends are singing "Fix Me Up" at the school talent show today. I love how the internet makes it possible for people we've never even met to touch our lives. Let's all take his words to heart: "You don't have to be dying to start living." 

Book 'Em!

Let's talk about something fun this week! Books! Who doesn't like books? (That was rhetorical. We don't want the names of people who don't like books because then someone might egg their house!) I know we've talked about books before, but we haven't for awhile, and I want to know: what are you guys reading right now? Anything good?

I got to see this book art exhibit at BYU a few years ago. Inconceivable! (Really!)

I'm finally reading The Five Love Languages and I'm learning that I have the same problem with those languages as I do with English. (No comprehendo mucho.) Great book though. The other book I enjoyed recently was also non-fiction, which is odd because that's not typically my genre, but I loved The Gift of An Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison. (Thanks to my gifting and extraordinary friend bigskyboys! And bigskyboys can now thank me for mentioning that book because now she doesn't have to leave a comment, since it is her recent favorite too.)

As far as novels, I've really struck out lately. I've been reading a lot of books set in the early 1900's, and so far nothing has jumped out at me. That's because the world is waiting for my next awesome book with a butt load of Gilded Age history to knock them off their feet. How long will the world have to wait for that untitled book? FOREVER. I don't know how to be productive anymore.

What books have wowed you lately? I want to read something that I just can't put down. I want to read something that makes me think of the characters for days or weeks afterwords. Can you guys recommend anything?

How about novellas? I've read a bunch lately, and I can't say I'm a huge fan. I like a more complicated plot and you just can't have that in a novella.

Just found this website with art that is carved into books. Again, inconceivable! Love, love, love!

What are your favorite books of all time? What genre is your favorite? What makes you like a character? What makes you stop reading a book and never have the desire to pick it up again? When was the last time you stayed up well into the night to finish a book? Do you still read on paper or have you gone paperless? How many books do you read a month? Do you always have a book with you?

Tell us all about your reading habits and tell us all about what books you love. And this is for posterity. I'm teaching a mini-class at a retreat this weekend all about books. I really want to share your favorites with everyone!

And, other friends who write--in case you missed it, check out my new blog The Mae Project, where I can show you what I did wrong in my first novel. Clicky clicky. 

Winning Trees

Weird week, huh? I'm not sure what's to blame for the sluggishness of the blog traffic, but I have a few theories.

1. No one wants a paperback book that is about trees when, ya know, trees died to make the paperback. Oh the irony!
2. There was an internet outage throughout 1/3 of the Western United States.
3. No one likes to listen to whining/complaining/boohooing.
4. Everyone is staying off the internet so they don't accidentally read Iron Man 3 spoilers.
5. It's just a fluke

Just so you know, I always, always appreciate the time you guys spend reading, comment or no comment, and I completely understand when you don't have time to read or comment. I have a hard time keeping up with all the blogs I love to visit too! Thank you from the bottom of my keyboard (where your treasure is there will be your heart also) for making the time for me. You guys are the best!

Before I tell you who the winners are (Jenna and Nicole, you were neck and neck there for a while), I'm going to tell you about that other thing. I recently read through the first novel I wrote, which was completed more than a decade ago! I had hopes of revising it and getting it ready for publication, but guess what? IT IS TERRIBLE! I mean TERRIBLE! It was a true practice novel. But rather than just putting it back on the shelf to gather more dust--or worse, dousing it in lighter fluid and putting it on the grill--I realized that the book can still be good for something. I can use it to teach how NOT to write a novel. So, starting today, there will be a post every week with a different lesson in writing. But not on this blog! Oh no, that would be too confusing! It's on this blog right here. And I'll add a linky to it somewhere yet to be determined that will always stay on the blog background.

I realize that this new blog isn't for everyone. It's only for the coolest of the cool. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) It's for aspiring authors or anyone who is interested in the mechanics of writing. If this topic doesn't interest you, no sweat! I won't feel bad if you don't read it. But surely you know someone who is interested in writing don't you? It's as common a hobby as making prom dresses out of duct tape. So be a share bear and spread the news!

OK, enough about me. It's back to you. Let's see who won the book written by ... ME! (I'm so narcissistic!)

I clicked Random.org twice to get our two winners ... and they are: #1 and #5. Wahoo Jenna and Team C! Although this makes me feel super bad for the other three who didn't win. How about I offer you guys the book at a discount? Email me if you want to take me up on the offer. But Jenna and Team C, I'll be sending your book in the mail shortly! (Hey Team C, didn't you just move? Shoot me a line with your new address!)

Thanks everyone for all the support!