Yeeehaw! It's Party Time!

I been talkin' 'bout this here lil' shindig for a spell now. And it be that time to strap on yer silver spurs an kick up yer 'eels! Grab yer rockin' horse, yer hobby horse, yer mechanical horse, or your steel horse causn we're bout to have us a rootin-tootin good time!

Welcome to the Hang ‘em High Hoedown, counting down the days until the release of Tristi Pinkston’s new novel Hang ‘em High, the third installment in The Secret Sisters Mysteries.

When Ida Mae Babbitt receives an invitation to visit her son Keith’s dude ranch in Montana, she’s excited to mend their broken relationship, but not so excited about spending time with cows. Arlette and Tansy go along with her, ready to take a vacation that does not involve dead bodies or mysteries of any sort—one must have a break from time to time. But it seems a no-good scoundrel has moseyed into Dodge City and is bent on causing all sorts of trouble for the ranch. Unable to keep her curiosity in check—especially when it seems her own son is the most likely culprit—Ida Mae decides to investigate. Can she lasso the varmint and get him to the sheriff in time?

You are invited to the launch party:

When: Saturday, August 13th, 12 – 4 pm
Where: Pioneer Book, 858 S. State, Orem
Prizes, games, Dutch oven cobbler (first come, first served)
Tristi will be joined by authors Nichole Giles, Heather Justesen,
Cindy Hogan, and J. Lloyd Morgan


To count down to this book launch, Tristi is holding a contest, and you can win a ton of great prizes!

On my blog, you can win:

Mark of Royalty + Music Video DVD

Unaware of her royal heritage, Sarah Benavente is taken from her home and raised with a secret which ultimately traps her between two men and their fight for the crown.

To enter:

1. Be a follower of my blog.
2. Go to Tristi’s blog at and become a follower of her blog. http://tristipinkston.blogspot.com/
3. Leave Tristi a comment and tell her you’ve been to my blog, and tell her one reason why you’d like to win my book.

All entries must be received by midnight, August 5nd, MST.

Be sure to check Tristi’s blog every day for information about the next prize – you’re in for a rootin’-tootin’ good time as we count down the days!

TerminologyTuesday

Ah. There is nothing like being awakened at 3:53 am by a blood curdling "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!! I WAAAANT TO READ A BOOOOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Yeah.

The other day a friend of mine was writing about her daughter who is just a couple three months older than my own little girl.  The two of which could be considered sisters in more than one manner. One prominent reason being in the way she described her daughter. It was such an unusual and incredibly vivid word yet I had to go to my trusty online dictionary to make sure I knew exactly what it meant.  I was surprised to find that in it's definition it included : "Stephonie's daughter, Penny."  

Ok, so I am exaggerating a bit. Here's what it did say. 

mercurial

1. changeable; volatile; fickle; flighty; erratic: a mercurial nature

2. animated; lively; sprightly; quick-witted.

3. pertaining to, containing, or caused by the metal mercury. 

 

 So the third definition doesn't relate so much, but the first two do. Actually, all nine of those fit Penny in some fashion or other.  I found other related words and phrases to describe mercurial when I consulted my beloved thesaurus. They are: 

flighty, temperamental

agile, physically or mentally nimble, deft

capricious, given to sudden behavior change

changable, erratic 

 unpredictable, wandering

excitable, easily upset or inspired

fickle, vacillating, blowing hot and cold

fleet, quick in movement

Among other things.  I see this in Penny nearly every day.  Sometimes children are a product of their environment. Sometimes their environment influences their personality traits. And sometimes there are kids who come with great big personalities and their environment has little influence on them.  

 

Yup. My little copper Penny brought it with her. It is equally a delight and a distress. She is a wonder and as I was once told, "She sure does live life with enthusiasm!"   That she does!

Your challenge for today is to somehow slip mercurial into an everyday conversation.  Let me know what how and what was the reaction of those you were talking to.

-Steph

PS

Don't forget to check back on Tristi Pinkston's blog. She's having her "Hang Em High Hoedown"  (the button to your right will take you right to it) to celebrate the release of her new book. She's having nearly 2 weeks of awesome giveaways so keep an eye on her blog and mine and Jennifer's (we're participating in it as well)!!

Dreams

Have you ever found something unexpectedly and discovered to your utter amazement that you absolutely LOVE what you just discovered.  Not only do you love it but you long to do it.  Oh, but not just participate in any way possible.... Nooooo!  You have an unexplainable desire to do something incredible!!

I have discovered a couple of things like that in the past years. These are things that speak to me and whisper that I would love doing it and it is completely doable!  Images float in and out of my conscious mind throughout the day and poke their heads into my dreams at night.  I look up information on it and I find myself feeling excited like I haven't felt in a very long time.

And then reality:
Time.
Money.

So maybe later.

Terminology Tuesday

There have been rare occasions where I find myself in need of some rhyming help.  I have found the internet to be full of linguistically related resources. Some of those being the many online rhyming dictionaries.

So for today's Terminology Tuesday we delve into the world of rhyme.

In the English language there are no words that rhyme with angst, scalp, purple or month.  Some say that orange and silver do not have rhymes but one might argue that orange and syringe rhyme and that silver and pilfer rhyme.  I am of the faction that they do. It all depends on if you accept near rhymes or if they have to be true rhymes. 

A near rhyme would be bachelor and spatula. In this particular case I don't find it a particularly pleasing rhyme, do you?

Then there are some more difficult words to rhyme.  The odd words that end in -th such as eighth, ninth, tenth, twelfth, breadth, depth, and width.  Of which they can rhyme with themselves.   More difficult or impossibly rhyming words are: almond, angst, aspirin, breadth, chocolate, chimney, depth, different, elbow, engine, film, foible, fugue, galaxy, golf, hostage, iron, justice, luggage, neutron, office, olive, pizza, plankton, sanction, sandwich, transfer, width, and wolf.

This, of course is not anywhere near an exhaustive list, but it is food for thought.

Home Again...

Sorry for copying from my other blog. I'll post some more original content soon.

...  home again, jiggity jog!! (If your interested in the nursery rhyme you can find it here.)
Anyway, I am officially home! It has been nice to sleep in my own bed. And even more amazing is that Penny now has her own big girl bed and she slept in it last night without any big fanfare or problems. It was awesome beyond words!

Some of you might notice the cute little button on the right side of the screen.  Well that's because the very talented Tristi Pinkston has a new book coming out next month! She is having some very awesome giveaways to celebrate. I hope that you will take some time to go visit her blog and then for the next couple of weeks you'll want to keep an eye on it to see what amazing and awesome stuff she'll have to give away.

In other news,  I had a book signing in Nauvoo at Latterday Harvest Book Store. It went pretty well. Things were a bit confusing for some reason. The owner of the store didn't know when I was actually coming. She didn't know if it was Fri., Sat., or next Sat.  I don't know why or how that became confusing. I had talked to her three times in the previous two weeks.  Unfortunately I had some stiff competition. There was one guy selling Living Scriptures, and another guy selling his book. Granted each of us had a very different target audience, but they both were placed by the door and I felt a bit guilty for approaching people after they had already been approached by two other people.  On the hand the other author was very nice and he had a very interesting book. Once I have a little bit of money I will have to purchase a copy.  I don't have his card handy or I would link up  his book.  So I'll have to do it another day.

Now that I am home I hope to keep things a little more updated. I have a lot of things to work on and some exciting things in various stages of completion.   Hope you'll check back from time to time.

-Steph

Still Here... well not exactly

I have been traveling Utah for the past 5 weeks.  Internet access has been infrequent at best and my time has been at a premium.  This week my daughter and I will be driving back home.  I am returning home as our little town recovers from a terrible storm.  It was the equivelant of a Cat 3 hurricane.  Many of the large trees in town are gone and there are still some without power. The Braille School (the school that Mary Ingalls attended) lost it's roof along with a great amount of damage to other homes, and structures.  Blessedly our little home sustained no damage at all. (Actually it is a miracle!!) The only thing that we had happen was that Penny's swing set got blown over.

Anyway, I have some interesting words for Terminology Tuesday once I am back home and have had a minute to breath.  I should be arriving home on Friday and Sat. I have a book signing in Nauvoo. So it will be after that.

Hope all is well with you.

Terminology Tuesday

I have been packing and running around like a crazy person today. So instead of going into the word I had seen today on a billboard alongside the freeway I decided that this one would work just as well.

Have you ever wondered what to call someone? Is she married? Is she not? Is it Mrs., Miss., or Ms.?

I think you will find this interesting.  What is “Mrs.” short for? The answer may make you blush (or at least laugh)