Mormon Mishaps

Today, I'm going to be a part of a blog tour for the humorous book, Mormon Mishaps & Mischief by D. N. Giles and C. L. Beck. At the end of my blog I will tell you how to win a $20 Gift Card to Barnes & Noble!

This book contains about two-hundred short stories, and it’s a quick read. One thing I like about this book is you don’t have to read the entire thing at one sitting. After one short minute you can put it down, that is if you want to. I didn’t want to and I read the entire book in just a short time. While preparing a talk for church, if you’re looking for something short and humorous this book will help. Almost anyone would love to receive this inexpensive gift for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

I am including three short anecdotes that I really liked.

Swimming Stress by D. N. Giles
At the baptism of a family member, six-year-old John became overly agitated when the divider was opened and the full baptismal font was revealed for all to see. When his mother south out the reason for his distress, he cried, “I didn’t even bring my swimming suit. Why didn’t you tell me they had a pool at the church?”

The Plea by C. L. Beck
Tired of sitting, a bored little girl began fidgeting and acting up during sacrament meeting. Seeing a potential for disaster on the horizon, Mom picker her up, tucked the youngster under her arm- with the little girl’s head sticking out behind-and got up to leave. As they hurried down the aisle, the little girl’s impassioned plea to the congregation trailed behind, “Save me! Somebody please save me!”

Read Your Scriptures by C. LaRene Hall
At stake conference, a speaker told how one night his daughter didn’t want to stay in bed. He firmly told her she had better not get up. Soon, he and his wife heard the youngster asking for a snack. Her mother told her no and tucked the girl back into bed with another warning to stay there. She soon returned, holding a paperback Book of Mormon, and said, “But what about Mosiah 4:14?”
The speaker looked at the children in the congregation and said, “The scripture reads, ‘And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry.’ I want you all to remember this scripture because you might need it someday.”
When the next speaker spoke, he said, “I want to do something similar. Will all the young women stand? When your dates pick you up, I want you to tell them this scripture. It is Mosiah 13:3, and it says: ‘Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay your hands upon me.’”

Click on my sidebar where it says Giles/Beck and you can read a fun blog by the girls who put this humorous book together.

I asked both of them to do an interview with me.

Question – What inspired you to put this book together?

Beck – I love humor. I love to hear people laugh, to say things that make them laugh (although I'm not very good at being a stand-up comedian) and because of that, I'm always ready to laugh. Which means when something funny happens in church, I'm one of those who gets the giggles. It seemed to me to be a shame for so much humor to take place in the LDS culture and for it to be lost once people moved onto the next event in life, so I started writing down the funny things I saw happening. And it's my hope that people's spirits get a lift when they read the stories.

Giles – I love to laugh, and it occurred to me at some point that Heavenly Father does too. It gave me a whole new outlook on church meetings or activities and why they can often be so enjoyable--spiritually, emotionally and physically. If your stomach aches when you get home, you know you've had a great time.

Question – Will there be a sequel?

Beck – Let's hope so, because I need to pay some bills. Oh, you didn't mean for that reason? Okay, well, I already have copious notes and I'm sure Nichole does, too. And we have about 20 stories already sent in by contributors, so that's all there is to it. There has to be a sequel.

Giles – We're ready to write one as soon as the publisher gives us the okay.

Question – I notice you each have several short stories in this book. How did you come up with so many humorous things?

Beck – Observation, my dear Watson. Or is it dear Sherlock? At any rate, my ward sacrament bulletin is usually scribbled full of notes by the time church is over on Sunday, because people do and say the funniest things. For example, the other day during Sacrament meeting, a mom sent her little girl to the bathroom to get some TP, probably to blow her nose. The next thing you know the little girl comes running down the aisle in the chapel, with a long ...
Well, I'll save the story for the sequel, and you can read about it then. (Sorry Connie, I know you hate not knowing the full story. :)

Giles – I either witnessed them all, or had close family members or friends who were party to the stories. The truth is, I have a tendency to find humor everywhere. The trick was figuring out how to share it.

Question – How long did it take you to put this all together?

Beck – Hmm, I hope Nichole's answer and mine match here. Maybe we should have put our heads together before answering this one, huh? I'd been collecting stories for some time, but once we decided to write Mishaps, it took about 6 months to get all the contributors stories edited, our stories written and edited, and the manuscript ready for submission. From there it took almost a year and a half or so ... but it felt like ten ... to go through the publishing process.

Giles – From the original idea, to writing proposals, accepting stories, putting the book together, editing and finally publication--about two years. However, now that we have it down, the next one shouldn't be nearly as long of a process. I hope. Thanks Connie, for the interview and for contributing so many stories to the book. This has been fun.

Now for the good news – GIVEWAY –

Giles/Beck will have a giveaway for a $20 gift card to Barnes and Noble for one lucky tour commenter. How do you enter to win? Each time you leave a comment here telling me about what you did, I will enter your name in the drawing.

1. For your first entry, you can become a follower on my blog, and leave me a comment. If you’re already a follower leave me a comment telling me.

2. Post about my blog and this contest on Twitter or Facebook.

3. Blog about this contest and link back to my blog or the Mishaps website or humor blog.

4. Leave a positive review on Amazon, Deseret Book, Goodreads, or any other book-reviewing site – then leave me a link.

You may enter as many times as you like for the prize drawing. Just remember to always leave a comment here so I can keep track of all that is going on. You need to do this soon, because the drawing closes on Feb 19 and they will announce the winner on Monday, Feb 22.

You might want to check out the other stops on this blog tour, and maybe enter the drawing on their blog as well.

Feb 5th Rachelle Christensen
Feb 6th Ronda Hinrichsen
Feb 10th Cathy Witbeck
Feb 11th Dan Olsen
Feb 12th Danyelle Fergusen

Two Writing Conferences in February

I’m excited about two writing conference during February. The first one, Life, The Universe & Everything, (free) takes place next week from Thursday, Feb 11th until Saturday, Feb 13th.

I’ve been the past two years, and I’m looking forward to next week. I won’t be able to go to everything, but from past experience, I know that I’ll gain some inspiration from attending, and I’ll be more enthusiastic about my writing. For some reason I need this motivation to keep me going during the blah winter months.



At the end of the month I’m real excited about the ANWA Writer’s Conference, that is being held at the Best Western Dobson Ranch Inn in Mesa, Arizona on Saturday, February 27 from 8 am until 5 pm.

I’m registered, have my airplane flight reserved as well as the room at the Inn. J Scott Savage is one of the speakers and from other times I’ve heard him speak, I know my time won’t be wasted. I’m counting the days.

Following Blogs

I'm really going to try writing on my blog every week. One thing I do every day is read the blogs of my friends. I don't always comment, but when I have time I try to say something.

Many of my friends tell about some book they have just finished reading. If you're looking for some good stories this is one way to really find out what the book is about. Several of my friends post contests on their blogs. Last year I won some great books and even some music, and I've alread won a book this year.

If you are looking for some good blogs to read go down to My Blogging Friends and click on them. I think you'll be glad you did.

Maybe you have a favorite blog that I haven't listed. If so, please comment and leave the link for me.

A Blog Award

It's always fun to be recognized. Yesterday, my fabulous friend Rachelle gave me this award. You can find her at http://rachellewrites.blogspot.com/ Rachelle's a great writer, and I'm lucky to have her as a friend. She's always there cheering me on and watching out for me. Rachelle has two fantastic books coming out this year - Lost Children: Coping with Miscarriage and also a romantic mystery, Wrong Number. I'm read the second one and can tell you it is a great story, and one you will not want to miss.

Now, I now have the honor of passing on this award to others in accordance with the following rules: Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award on to up to 15 other blogs that you enjoy. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award. I enjoy reading many blogs each day. Unfortunately, Rachelle gave this award to several of my friends whose blogs I already read each day, but I'll see how many more I can come up with. Here they are - Joyce DiPastena, Doug Johnston, Daron Fraley, and Karlene.

A Holiday

Yeah, that's my excuse - I took a holiday. A day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observation is warranted. It was a leave of absence. One that I decalred.

It wasn't a planned one and it wasn't any time off from work. The only reason I can give is - I was just plain lazy and didn't take the time to write anything to post here.

I wish I could say that I've been busy. That isn't even my excuse. I've actually been extremely lazy and didn't want to do anything more than was required. I probably spent more hours sitting in front of the television than I had in an entire year. Those who know me are aware I hate the TV. My favorite place to be is in front of my computer writing.

Does this mean I'm back? I hope so, but only time will tell.

Happy New Year

I'm sorry that I've been neglecting my blog page. It's hard to blog when you are never near a computer long enough to get your thoughts flowing. I know it's a poor excuse, but my husband was in the hospital for six days and that really took a hunk of time out of each day. He is home, and doing fairly well.

My wish for the New Year for each of you, including myself, is a wonderful year full of great adventures, and lots of success in whatever you do. Good health the entire year for you and your entire family.

Important People – Part II

In my area many years ago, it was popular in the church to attend musical firesides with well-known artist. Most the youth and young single adults spent Sunday evenings traveling from one stake to another listening to the beautiful music, testimonies, and life experiences of these famous LDS singers. With my young teenagers, I attended many of these gatherings.

Through this and other experiences, I have met many important people. Some of them I met because I was in charge of finding people to speak at stake firesides. I worry about leaving some of them out because I haven’t always kept a great journal. Sometimes my life has been so busy I hardly had time to live it, and although I love writing, I didn’t always write about the things I was doing.

One of the most memorable firesides for the youth in our stake was the time they were able to perform with Michael Webb at his studio, in a play, Marvelous Light. We live on the west side of town and don’t always have all the updated equipment necessary to put on such a performance. Our lighting was bad and we had no microphones for such a production. Still this was going to be a fun experience. After all, Michael Webb was going to come and sing with them.

This was on April 18, 1993. Some of the young people had speaking parts, and some sang solos, or duets, or participated in a choir. For weeks, they attended all of the rehearsals. The stake president didn’t want me to take them out of the area to perform. It didn’t matter that some of their parents were driving them and I had permission slips signed by all of their parents. I thought I might lose my membership over this experience, but I fought tooth and nail for this once in a lifetime opportunity for them. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the performance was spectacular.

On October 20, 1996, Chris Heimberdinger, the author of the Tennis Shoes Adventure series as well as many other books for youth and adults spoke at a stake fireside. Besides being an impressive fireside speaker, he is also a remarkable teacher. I took a novel writing class from him in September 1998, and appreciate the fantastic help given to me in that class.

I was certainly surprised that a man as important as Michael Ballam, would consider coming to our stake. We were not disappointed as he told stories about his family, the gospel and shared his beautiful voice with us.

My stake was especially blessed the evening that we were fortunate enough to have Lloyd D. Newell of The Spoken Word speak to us on February 16, 1997. His life experiences and stories about the choir were great.

The artist, Chad Hawkins, came to our stake on March 16, 1997, to speak about his talent and show us some of his beautiful temple pictures with the hidden images. He began his series of temple artwork in 1989, at the age of seventeen, to support his eventual two-year mission in Frankfurt, Germany, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When he returned from his mission in 1993, he continued with his artwork. Since hearing him speak he has gone on to publish a book, The First 100 Temples. He has also done work for the governor, the legislature, and the University of Utah. I cherish the artwork in my home done by Chad Hawkins.

The list of people I’ve met goes on and on, but I know I’ll leave many of them out. Here is a short list – John Bytheway, Roger Hoffman, Janice Kapp Perry, Steven Kapp Perry, Joyce Quinn (actress in Legacy), Barbara Smith (former R.S. pres), Michael Stewart, Brenton Yorgason, and Margaret Young.