January 28th, 2012
Today we have Diana Ault for a visit on my blog. She will tell us all about LTUE http://ning.it/xoTnKL
Named after the clever sci-fi book by Douglas Adams, the Marion K. “Doc” Smith, “Life, the Universe, & Everything” Science Fiction and Fantasy Symposium is in its 30th year, making it one of the largest and longest-running symposiums of its kind. (The whole title is probably the biggest mouthful too so let’s just call it LTUE.)
What began as a small meeting of
Brigham Young University speculative fiction enthusiasts in 1982, is now a full-on, three day, academic symposium for amateur and professional writers and artists.
Traditionally held on BYU campus, this year the symposium will be
held at the Utah Valley UniversitySorensen Student Center Feb. 9 – 11, 2012.
LTUE Links:
Why am I featuring LTUE today? Because it’s an awesome event, I’m on the planning committee,
Preregistration ended last Monday!
Prices have gone up. (If you are a presenter, gopher, or student, you get in free! Huzzah!)
And the super real reason for this post?
Is to give you a list of the youth authors and illustrators who will be present!
Elana Johnson (Possession)
James Dashner (The Maze Runner series)
Lisa Mangum (The hourglass Door trilogy)
Elizabeth Mueller (Darkspell)
Danyelle Leafty (The Fairy Godmother Dilemma)
Mette Ivie Harrison (The Princess and the Hound, Tris & Izzie)
Michaelbrent Collings (Billy: Messenger of Power)
Laura Bingham (Alvor, Wings of Light)
Jenni James (Jane Austen Diaries)
Brodi Ashton (Everneath)
Heather Frost (Seers)
Bron Bahlmann (
Bone Warriors)
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (bunches. I’m sure there are teens in some of them.)
Tracy Hickman (same goes for this one)
David Farland/Wolverton (same could be said for this guy too, but look for his book Nightingale)
edit: Morgun Wolf (Remnants of Betrayal series, co-authored with Heyden Redding)
Middle-Grade Authors:
Tyler Whitesides (Janitors)
E. J. Patten (Return to Exile)
Brandon Mull (Fablehaven, Beyonders)
Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz series)
Andrea Pearson (The Key of Kilenya series)
James Dashner (The 13th Reality series, Jimmy Fincher Saga)
(also YA)
J. Scott Savage (Far World series)
Berin Stephens (The Dragon War Relic, Time Gangsters)
Clint Johnson (Green Dragon Codex)
Jennifer A. Neilsen (The Underworld Chronicles, The Lost Prince)
David Farland/Wolverton (The Ravenspell trilogy)
Children’s Book Authors:
Rick Walton (too many books to mention)
Illustrators:
Will Terry (Armadilly Chili, Three Little Gators)
Kevin Wasden (Hazzardous Universe)
Jess Smart Smiley (Upside Down: A Vampire Tale)
(comic creator)
Howard Taylor (Shlock Mercenary)
(comic creator)
Tags: A Vampire Tale, Alcatraz series, Alvor, Armadilly Chili, Billy: Messenger of Power, Bone Warriors, Brigham Young University, bunches, Darkspell, Diana Ault, Educators' Conference, Eternal Starling, Everneath, Far World series, Green Dragon Codex, Hazzardous Universe, illustrators, Jane Austen Diaries, Janitors, Jimmy Fincher Saga, John Cleaver trilogy, LTUE, Marion K. Smith, Nightingale, Partials, Possession, Remnants of Betrayal series, Return to Exile, Seers, Shifting, Shlock Mercenary, Sorensen Student Center, speculative fiction, symposium, The 13th Reality series, The Canticle Kingdom, The Dark Divine trilogy, The Dragon War Relic, the elf and the princess, The Fairy Godmother Dilemma, The hourglass Door trilogy, The Key of Kilenya series, The Last Archangel, The Lost Prince, The Maze Runner series, The Princess and the Hound, The Ravenspell trilogy, The Underworld Chronicles, The Yara Silva trilogy, Three Little Gators, Time Gangsters, Tris & Izzie), Upside Down, Utah Valley University, Variant, Wings of Light, Witch Song, writers conference, youth authors
Posted in For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
January 21st, 2012
This time travel story is one of the best I have seen for awhile. An exiting and well develop tale that will spellbound you from beginning to end. Well written, with great descriptions and likable characters.
Jenifer is visiting her uncle for the first time at a hundred year old family home in England. While exploring the county side she found a tall, lone and dark stone that seam to call on her. At first scared and latter with a growing need, she visit the stone frequently.
It didn’t took long for her to find that the cold stone shadow has a unsinkable power … it transports her into the past to the same place, but way before her time. There, Jenifer meets Perran one of her ancestors and they become best friends. He take her all over the country side exploring and learning from the past.
Soon she figured out that the time travel only work when there is a shadow from the sun and that when is raining or overcast she can’t go to her new friend’s era.
One day while together, they decide to try and see if Perran could travel with her to her time, because he had try on his own and nothing happened. They held hands and touched the stone as she has done many times and this time it work…at least that is what they thought until Perran is taken as a slave and Jenifer to the priestess home.
This book has all the components for a great story and will be like from pre-teens up. A great job, though it throw me off when Jenifer asked her uncle to explain why he had said that she was Guinevere. (“But why do you say I was named after her?”) When actually there isn’t any place in the story that supports such claim. Beside that it is a great story.
Tags: hundred year old family home, lone stone, pre-teens, time travel, ya, YA author
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
January 14th, 2012
For readersfavorite.com reviews
This book is done in the good old comic book fashion. It is full of pictures that tell the story more than the words do. It includes the Wow! Screech! Huff! and Wham! that are so fun and expected in this kind of book. The style of drawing is simple and effective, mostly black and white, with some color in it.
The story is that of a typical family with a teen boy named Reese who feels misunderstood by his parents. He has a much younger sister Janie. The sister is very fond of her pet snake; even after the pet is dead she continues carrying it around. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
January 7th, 2012
For readersfavorite.com
This book contains a very new concept for a story: certain people talk with animals by means of special telekinesis powers. This power sets them apart from the majority of the citizens who don’t have this power. As always, the different guy becomes the heart or the hero of the story and in this case so it is with Arno. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips | No Comments »
December 31st, 2011
For readersfavorite.com
This is a great book for teens and young adults alike. It portrays a coming of age saga for young men. Girls will enjoy getting into the minds of the opposite gender. It is a well-written book with not only insights to what motivates a boy, but also the pain of great loss and how our human mind works. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
December 24th, 2011
For readersfavorite.com
I love Sherlock Holmes mysteries and I looked forward to reading Whitechapel by Bernard J. Schaffer. However, I was very disappointed as I read his version of Holms in this book. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
December 17th, 2011
For readersfavorite.com
This is a witty and entertaining book made up of entries in a diary. It is written by a fourteen-year-old girl named Melissa. It depicts her life after she is given a diary by her twelve-year-old sister, Megan, right before she starts her first year in High School. The writing is that of a fourteen-year-old, full of drama, sarcasm and sprinkled with great humor.
Melissa is happy that her body finally is looking like that of a teenage girl. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
December 10th, 2011
For readersfavorite.com
This is an interesting story. It is the second book in a series that starts as the protagonist(s) return from winning a war (or a battle.) It assumes that the reader knows what happens before, but throws in enough information here and there to make the book understandable by someone who has not read the previous one.
Keya is the real protagonist. She starts the story as a 20-year-old exceptional warrior who is accompanied by four or five of her fellow warriors that belong to her inner circle. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
December 4th, 2011
For readersfavorite.com
This is one of the most charming books I have read for a while. It has a Halloween-y feel to it and kids from 7 years old on will love it. It is written in an easy English, lightly witty and flowingly well done. It will be a refreshing read for all boys and girls who don’t get scared of their shadows. It has the most intriguing cover, a perfect picture of what you will find inside the pages of this book. Released just in time for Halloween, I recommend it as a “must have,” for every English speaking home.
Josephine, a 12-year-old only child, has just moved one more time in her young life. She is crabby and doesn’t want to be happy in their new home. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Reviews | No Comments »
November 27th, 2011
For readersfavorite.com
Here is another great story from Karleen Bradford. It is as good as the other two I have read from her, although I found this one a bit slower paced than the others. It took me a bit longer to get immersed in the pages.
Elizabeth, a thirteen-year-old girl, is on a school trip to a ghost town commemorating a big battle the British and Americans fought. She isn’t very keen on the facts of when and why this battle happened, a fact that she later greatly regrets. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: british american battle, clean reading, coming of age, family, family reading, friend, friendship, ghost story, ghost town, karleen bradford, school trip, trip to the past, ya, young Adult
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
November 16th, 2011
Tags: authors, blog, expertise, facebook, follower, forums, guess interview, interview, professional, promote books, promotion, twitter
Posted in For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
November 5th, 2011
A readersFavorite.com review.
A proven system for getting more done in less time than you ever thought possible or
The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success
This book is an enthusiastic way of showing how your time is power and how it extends from your office to create a satisfying and successful personal life. Just because you have more time doesn’t mean that you have the motivation to do that what is needed. In this book, Brian Tracy, a 20 plus years veteran motivational consultant, will help you to not only to succeed, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Business Success, control your time, motivation, motivational speaker, personal life, positive motivation, self control, self mastery, stop procrastination, time is power
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
October 29th, 2011
What can you expect when you have a young man named Enoch who lives in a city called Zarahemla and has a dream of crossing the world to see the Messiah in person? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Book of mormon, Christ Child, Christmas, Christmas story, Enoch, faith, fantasy, fantasy writer, historical, Jerusalem, Joshua, LDS writer, religion, siblings, star prophesy, Zarahemla, zenos
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
October 22nd, 2011
Usually it takes motivated parents to get a kid to read.
For example, Monica has four boys and she started reading to them when they were babies. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 13 Reality, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Alexander Key, Alexandre Dumas, Anna del C. Dye, Bobbsey Twins, book, Brandon Mull, Brothers Grimm, Carolyn Keene, Charles Dickens, Chris Heimerdinger, Daniel Defoe, Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Ella Enchanted, Emerine’s Nightmare, Enid La Monte Meadowcroft, Escape to Witch Mountain, Fable Haven series, Franklin W. Dixon, Gail Carson Levine, Gertrude Chandler Warner, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Hardy Boys, Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, J. R. R. Tolkien, James Dashner, Jill Ammon Vanderwood, Jo’s Boys, Jules Verne, Kathryn Kenny, Kenneth Grahame, kid's books, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Laura Lee Hope, Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, Louisa M. Alcott, Maria Augusta Trapp, Mark Twain, Oliver Twist, Patricia C. Wrede, Paul Genesse, reading for kids, reading tablets, Rebecca Shelley Nancy Drew, Robinson Crusoe, Secret Railway, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Boxcar Children, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, The golden Cord, The Little Lame Prince, The Lord of the Rings, The Prince and the Pauper, The Red dragon Codex, The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren, The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, the silent warrior trilogy, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, The Tennis Shoe (series), The Three Musketeers, The Wind on the Willows, Through the Rug, Trixie Beldon, Wendy Toliver
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
October 15th, 2011
Review for readersfavosite.com
The writing in Three for Avadar is simple and should be understood by anyone with basic English reading skills. The tale hasn’t been overused and the author did a good job with the theme. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: clean, easy read, High fantasy, princess, sorcerer, tactful sex scene, Three for Avadar, warrior
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | 1 Comment »
October 2nd, 2011
If you are a well-known author your name will bring sales, but for most of us that isn’t the case. Here we’ll review some important points to make our books stand out from the rest.
- You need to use the right color scheme
If you use pastel colors, especially pink or lilac, you are sending the message that this book is a cute book. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: back blurb on cover, celebrity endorsement, color on cover, color scheme, cover, cover abc, cover artist, cover construction, cover template
Posted in For Writers, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
September 24th, 2011
My review:
This book talks about a boy who is afraid of the new kid that is coming to school. His called Bust them up Bill. With a name like that one can only assume that he is a menace to society. Thus the rumors start and all the students spend their time telling tales of his wickedness, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: bad rumor, children's book, gossip, kid's book, kids, new kid, new student, rumor, witty book
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
September 12th, 2011
Mental Rehearsal:
At night before you got to sleep:
- Imagine yourself doing the things you want to be good at. Fake it until you make it.
- Internalize your ideas, think of how you would teach them to someone else. This will have more result than thinking about it for yourself. Soon these internal thoughts will become external.
- After you learn this share it with others and become a mentor. The more you do it, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: discipline, goal, mental rehearsal, personal discipline., personal goal, personal management, positive mental attitude, Positive thinking, positive thought, take action, time management, weigh management
Posted in For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
September 4th, 2011
This is a totally entertaining book for adults. I say adults because they should have the patience to go through it and love it. There is nothing against a young adult reading it, only that is written in a way to help you savor every detail and the youth of today want to skim through too quickly to really enjoy it.
As the story line begins we are introduced to one of the main characters, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: adult, battle, clan, fantasy, fantasy author, magic, teens, tribe, war
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
August 27th, 2011
This is a delightful book, written for children with parents in the military, that will be loved by all children. It is an easy book that helps a child cope with his/her feelings resulting from the absence of one of the parents. It fits not only those in the military, but also those families that both parents can’t be in the same home. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: C-130 airplane, child cope, children feelings, children's books, deployment, grief, military kids, military life, parent gone, separation, troops
Posted in Book Reviews, For Writers, Relationship's tips, Writing and Literacy | No Comments »
Bree Despain (The Dark Divine trilogy)
