Persistence pays off!

By Lynn Parsons

A couple of months ago, I noticed that my clothes started getting tighter. Since these were my "fat" clothes, this was obviously not a new experience for me.

But this time, I decided to fight back. I found a diet that would fit into my schedule. While discussing this with a coworker, she mentioned that she passed Curves, a gym that caters to women, on the way home every day, but had never stopped in. We signed up that afternoon (after wangling a deal from the owner), and have been going at least 3 times per week for nearly 3 months.

As of two weeks ago, I had lost ten pounds and eleven inches overall. I just put on my former skinny pants, and can now take them off without unzipping them. I'm down two sizes, and the third is slipping away!

Why is it working now when I have failed so often in the past? I decided to approach this like a writing project, problem at work, or other challenge. When I hit a plateau, decide I'm too tired to work out, or face another problem, I look past it for a path to my goal. And one appears!

Time to just keep on keepin on. . . sounds simpler than it is.

ANWA Rocks LDS Storymakers Conference

by Valerie Ipson

I wonder if anyone has a count of how many ANWA sisters attended Storymakers. I just know that we were everywhere. Teaching classes, winning awards, receiving offers to submit (Cindy W! and maybe even others), recruiting new members, mixing and mingling, and some of us meeting each other for the very first time.

Congratulations to fellow-chapter member, conference-buddy, and friend Tamara Passey for placing third in the First Chapter Contest in General Fiction. I know there were others from our group that placed as well--Cindy Williams did in the nonfiction category. I wish I had a picture of her to include here. Winners please toot your horns on the ANWA Social line.


Fortunately, many of us were on hand at the Whitney Awards following the conference to cheer Liz Adair's (and publisher Cecily Markland's) big win for Counting the Cost in the Best Romance category.

[We tried to collect as many of us as we could afterward for a photo op--shown above. Liz is there in the middle holding her Whitney and I'm next to her hoping some of her goodness will rub off]

Note: For more of Storymakers go to valerieipson.blogspot.com. I'll be posting on the subject throughout the week.

I am a little sad

By Stacy Johnson

I am sad today. Depressed really. My best friend is moving away. She just told me today that she will be completely moved out on the 11th…of this month. What? This is just not enough time for me to prepare myself. I have three finals this week, I have a toothache, I need to get my son’s graduation announcements out in the next few days, I have a teething baby and this weekend is Mother’s Day. To top it all off, I started a weight loss challenge on the 1st, and have cut back on all the things that make me feel good, like too much sugar and my beloved diet pepsi. The only upside is that I am trying to increase my exercising, which we all know gives us endorphins. Endorphins make us happy. I may get more exercise this month than I had planned on…I’m gonna need it.

But this morning, I have a crying headache to go with my caffeine withdrawl headache and my toothache. I’ll get on the exercising and my finals after I take a nap. Then, later, I’ll go to my friend’s house and help her pack and clean. I just need a few minutes to pull myself together. (sad face)

Some LDStorymaker Writers Conference Snippets

by Cindy R. Williams

I'm going to play a game with my blog and write short fragments with an explanation on some about my impressions of the LDStorymakers 2010 Writers Conference. I have no doubt that other attendee's experiences will be like night and day compared to mine, but here goes.

Four different hotel rooms for a three night stay. (Marriott kept giving our room away. When questioned about it, one manger started to cry and had to go home. Weird huh?)

Lots of cinnamon bears and sun chips. (No outside food allowed at the conference . . . oops.)

Tried a new pen name and was told it sounded like someone whom writes cheap romances, or something of that nature. (Hmmmm . . . a genre I have yet to try . . . I wonder . . .)

Made many new writer friends and connections. (Everyone I met was great. It seemed that most egos were checked at the door.)

On a roll with my pitch until my killer ending. "I think Im' going to go throw up now." (I don't recommend you try this at a pitch session.)

I didn't throw up, but the toilet exploded as I walked out of the stall. (I think there must have been an air bubble in the pipe. Only the back of my crinkle skirt got hit, thank goodness.)

Ate dinner at Tucano's near Provo Canyon which is the most fabulous Brazilian restaurant ever. (Super salad bar with to die for cheesy rolls. You turn a small wooden column so the green painted end is up, and darling waiters bring 17 different kinds of meats, vegetables and pineapple cooked on spits to your table. They keep coming over and over again until you turn your wood block upside down so the red end is up meaning stop, enough, or you are so full you might throw up. There's that throw up thing again. Pitiful. You simply MUST save room for desert. Lisa had the most incredible Cream Brule. Melinda had the richest cheesecake ever. Morena had the brownie with ice cream and drizzled with caramel. I had the endless, sinful chocolate cake. Yeah, this was one of the high-lights of the conference.)

Midnight, in bed and just about asleep when Melinda sneaked into our adjoining room and climbed on the bed between Lisa and I to talk the night away. (It was like all those giggle, slumber parties growing up and every bit as fun. We also solved all the world’s problems by about 2 am.)

Invited to send full’s of three of my books. (I'm preparing to send them within the next few weeks. No pressure there. Yeah, right. Good pressure though.)

Hobnobbed with and ogled a plethora of great writers. (I began to name them here but the list grew so long, and it was getting late. I was too tired to check the spelling plus I might leave out some great author, which would offend them, so I used the greatest tool known to a writer; the delete key, and deleted the list.)

ANWA's very own Liz Adair won a Whitney Award for her COUNTING THE COST, published by another talented ANWA member, Cecily Markland's company.

Stopped by the Murray Cemetery and visited the grave sites of my dear father, grandparents, brother-in-law and some great-grandparents, great-grand aunts and uncles and double and triple greats. (It was a lovely, windy day and my heart was full to be there on sacred ground.)

Drove around my old stomping grounds from Provo to SLC. I'm proud to say I'm a Jordan Beetdigger. Any other Beetdigger’s out there?

Some great classes and a dud or two. (I'm sure that one writer's dud is another writer's favorite class. It just depends on where you are on your writing journey.)

Saw Kari Pike, and Sarah Eden, two wonderful ANWA ladies that left the sunshine of AZ for the snow of Utah.

Always wonderful to come home to my family. You rock. To quote Dorothy from one of my favorite books and movies, "There's no place like home."