Salt Lake Comic Con 2017

It's interesting how you can have low expectations for something and then have them totally reversed by the end of the day. That's what happened this year at Comic Con, for me.

Now, I always have high expectations for the Salt Lake Comic Con. It's run well and it's always interesting, and the guests are always so great. However, this year I was only able to go for half a day. How much fun can you have in half a day, and is it worth the ticket price?

But I went anyway. I am working on two nerdy stories, so I needed the research, and I wanted to buy a nerdy lanyard for work. I did all I could to maximize my experience. I cosplayed as Vanessa, aka Human Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

I went to panels.

And I enjoyed the sights.

And I had a really, really good time!

The panels alone would have been worth the ticket. It was great hearing Elijah Wood talk about doing the Lord of the Rings movies and how it felt returning to the set for The Hobbit, and Zachary Levi is a really, really good guy. He was funny and dorky and so humble and fun. I enjoy getting to know the celebrities that come to Comic Con, just a little bit. It always makes me like them more when I find out that they're good people for real.

Zachary Levi would hug you for $20, which would go to charity. I wanted to do that, but he was leaving just as I got there. So bummer.

I got my sister a nerdy shirt at Comic Con, which I found fun because this particular sister isn't geeky and normally wouldn't like this stuff, but she is a fan of Stranger Things, so I took a little joy in getting her a nerdy shirt at a nerd convention, knowing she'd like it. It was one of these:

One of the highlights of the day was meeting Heather Dixon!

She's my favorite blogger. If you haven't read her blog Story Monster, you should. It's fun and interesting, and she talks about everything from her art and books to funny and sad things that happen in her life. And then, you should read her books Entwined and Illusionarium. There's a real magic to her work, and I love it all.

I totally fangirled over her, and I hope it didn't freak her out. She was one of the few people who recognized my costume. And I got a signed print of Tiffany Aching! If you read this, you know how much I love Terry Pratchett.

So, yeah, highlight. It was a good day. I'm glad I went, even though I couldn't stay for very long. I got my lanyard and some chocolates shaped like Baby Groot's face, so that was good, too.

I'm currently working hard on several projects, so I'm pretty busy. I'll keep you posted with any developments with Arts and Thefts or my work in progress. Thanks for reading, as always!

Here are this week's debuts:

Middle Grade:
Kim Ventrella - Skeleton Tree (9/26)
Patrick Moody - The Gravedigger's Son (9/26)

Young Adult:
Margaret Rogerson - An Enchantment of Ravens (9/26)
Jared Reck - A Short History of the Girl Next Door (9/26)
Kes Trester - A Dangerous Year (9/26)

The Goose is Getting Fat

It has been a wonderfully, autumnly cool week in Utah, so I, being me, started getting excited for a perfectly seasonally appropriate holiday.

Christmas.

Okay, now you're laughing (maybe at me, or maybe at the pug) or screaming in rage. That's fine. I love Christmas. My love for Christmas and Christmas music doesn't diminish my love for the other holidays; somehow, I've perfected the ability to be equally excited for Halloween and Christmas at the exact same time. But come on, people. Look at this trailer!

It's a movie about Charles Dickens writing A Christmas Carol. How was I not supposed to get in the right mood with this?

Over the years, I've received a lot of criticism for starting to listen to Christmas music too early (I start in August or September, on Sundays and when I feel like it), and for enjoying the holiday before Thanksgiving has passed. Again, I love Thanksgiving, and I get just as excited for it as anyone else does. But I still find myself defending enjoying the holiday too early.

I could, and do, make reasonable arguments about how the music makes me feel loving toward others and inspires goodness and joy. I tell people I save certain songs and movies specifically for the season. But that takes too long.

Maybe you also are a Yuletide early celebrator. Here are some good, short responses for when people ask about it and you don't have time to debate.

Them: "Why are you listening to Christmas music? It's not even Halloween yet!"

You:

- Say nothing. Hand them a candy cane.
- Again, say nothing. Sprinkle tinsel on their head.
- "HO HO YOLO!"
- "I do what I want."
- "What do you have against peace on earth, good will toward men?"
- "Better not shout, better not cry about it."
- "Because gingerbread."
- "Are you still mad about the mistletoe incident?"
- "I used to be normal like you. Then I took a peppermint arrow to the knee."
- "Nah." (and walk away)
- "I like things before they're cool."
- "I tried to avoid it, but the visions of sugarplums are relentless."
- "To fulfill prophecy."

These could be adapted for other holidays and interests. Anyway, they're yours to use. Happy holidays!

Here are this week's debuts:

Middle Grade:
Emily Blejwas - Once You Know This (9/19)

Young Adult:
Axie Oh - Rebel Seoul (9/15)
McKelle George - Speak Easy, Speak Love (9/19)

Arts and Thefts Is Coming!

Hey, all!

I've had a busy but good week. I started a new job, which is lovely, I saw the One Republic concert in Salt Lake (which was my first rock concert and it was a BLAST!) and I learned that the new local edible cookie dough shop is actually quite delicious. Oh, and my ARCs came.

Yes sirree!

They came! I got ARCs for Arts and Thefts!

It's real! And it's great to see the cover of the book and hold the thing in my hands and feel its weight. Wow. A few years ago, I was dreaming of publication, and now I have two books. Life is interesting.

So, Arts and Thefts comes out February 13, 2018, and is the sequel to Under Locker and Key. Here's the summary, straight from Amazon:

Middle school retrieval specialist Jeremy Wilderson must team up with preteen private detective Becca Mills once again to solve his most mind-boggling case yet in this action-packed MAX novel.

Ahh, summer vacation! Jeremy Wilderson, Scottsville Middle School’s first (and only) retrieval specialist, is enjoying a slower-than-usual season of retrieving (NOT stealing) lost objects in order to help the under thirteen population of Scottsville.
But crime doesn’t take a vacation! And when sabotage strikes Scottsville’s event of the year—the Summer Art Show—threatening to ruin the burgeoning painting career of Jeremy’s best friend, Case, it’s up to Jeremy to figure out what’s going on. Of course, his archrival Becca Mills, who just happens to think Jeremy, Case, and their friend Hack are involved in the crime, is also looking into it.
Jeremy has only a few precious hours to stop the sabotage before more contest entries—and kids’ dreams—are slashed and burned.
But Jeremy’s specialty is retrieval…not detective work! The only solution is to team up with Becca to solve the case, something Jeremy’s not exactly thrilled to do. Not to mention, he has to keep his alliance with Becca a secret from Case and Hack, who will disown him if they see him working with the enemy. Somewhere between being stuck inside an air vent and slathered in red paint, Jeremy has to wonder: is he in over his head?

If you're interested in learning more, or preordering it (because that's available now), you can check it out at this link. I'm hoping to have some promotional events soon regarding Arts and Thefts, including an ARC giveaway, and I'll keep you posted on anything coming.

This was a lot of fun to write, so I hope it's fun to read. Right now, I'm working on a new project that is also a lot of fun (superheroes), and I look forward to keeping you posted about that one's development.

To close, I want to share this link. It's a site that navigates good charities to donate to or help, and here's their page for charities helping with Hurricane Harvey. If you're interested in helping out, this is a good starting place:

Hurricane Harvey: Charity Navigator

Here are this week's debuts:


Young Adult:
Scott Reintgen - Nyxia (9/12)
Ismee Williams - Water in May (9/12)

The Choosing Ones

Happy Labor Day!

This past weekend I was asked what my favorite and least favorite writing tropes are. Among my least favorite were:

1. The hunky, violent, abusive love interest
2. The "strong female character" who does nothing to further the story OR is just all the masculine ideals in a female body
3. When characters have little to no motivation for doing what they do (I'm looking at you, Zack Snyder)

Seriously, why is she even there?

And my favorites?

1. Breaking the fourth wall
2. When the villain is defeated not by brute strength but by some cunning plot set up well in advance by the heroes
3. When the hero has to decide to be a hero, turning his/her back on a normal life
4. A character is special because of who, not what, they are

I want to talk about this last one in today's post.

This isn't the "Chosen One" idea, where someone is born special and is destined to save the world because they're the Chosen One. This is actually the opposite of that, so I sometimes call this character the "Choosing One."

*thunder sounds as the post title is stated in the post*

The more I read and write, the more I find myself drawn to the characters who are not born special. They are not royalty, they have no special powers, and no one has made a prophecy about them. In fact, there's no reason for these characters to be part of the heroic team, or even to be the protagonist. They are perfectly justified in staying home.

But they don't.

These characters are good people, heroic people, not because of any outside force pressuring them to be (though that can be very fun when said CO (Chosen One) rebels against those pressures), but because they want to do the right thing, even when it's hard.

Really, any of the hobbits fit this description.

I really admire these characters. Not only are they good because they want to be good, they aren't inherently special. They show that anyone can be heroic, not just someone with a special power, or foretold destiny, or whatever. I find it so much interesting to see a normal person, who wants to help and do the right thing, put in situations where he or she feels maybe a little inadequate and wonders why he or she is even part of this fight. But then, rise above it and do the right thing anyway.

This is the kind of heroism I respect more, and I love seeing it. These characters aren't perfect, but they're heroes because that's who they are, not what they are. In my own writing, I tend toward these kinds of characters: the nobodies who are somebody not because they are Chosen, but because they Choose.

Here are this week's debuts:

Middle Grade:
Eric Bell - Alan Cole is Not a Coward (9/5)

Young Adult:
Katherine Locke - The Girl With the Red Balloon (9/1)
Linsey Miller - Mask of Shadows (9/5)
Heather Fawcett - Even the Darkest Stars (9/5)
F.M. Boughan - Cinderella Necromancer (9/5)
McCall Hoyle - The Thing With Feathers (9/5)
Meg Kassel - Black Bird of the Gallows (9/5)