Hula hoop wars/book covers/website/smoking trains/

Hiya y'all,


My poor little bloggy got left alone, in the dark cold world for a whole month. Wowzers. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. I think we should trim time's wings so it doesn't fly so fast.

For those of you who have followed my blog while I was gone, I will try follow you back as soon as I can. Drop me a line so I know if I've followed you or not. It's kind of hard to keep track. Thanks heaps for your nice comments. You are so nice! And for those of you who have bought my firstest book, left nice reviews, and told other people about my writings, thank you, thank you and thank you!!!!! I really appreciate the support. I'll pay it forward to other aspiring authors in whatever way I can. It's nice to know that there awesome people out there willing to give new authors a chance. You guys are the stuff legends are really made of. No pun intended. :)


Oh, and also, whilst I'm in the thanking mode. Thank you to all who came to learn some hoop dancing tricks. I'm seriously going to have to start a hoop dance class sometime soon. It was loads of fun! I was excited to post the pictures from our hoop dancing on here. But In my blondness, when I thought I was putting my pics onto the computer, I was in fact, only loading on stupid pictures, things---like grass, my knee, and other random pictures that mean nothing.I didn't catch that small detail, and in my haste, I supposed that my computer was behaving nicely. In my happy, ignorant bliss I formatted my memory card (which means I deleted everything on my camera) blissfully unawares of this sad truth. But, I soon learned that all the pictures I had taken of my sister's high-school dance/date, were now non existent. Not only that, important pictures of a train that had caught on fire by my house, had vanished. Not to mention the videos. Thus, there was much gnashing of teeth and sadness. A whole months worth of pictures gone, along with mementos of important passages in a girls life.

Let that be a lesson to....me. Never trust computers. They are really helpful for the most part. But when you're not looking---they are stinkers.

On a happy note--perhaps a whole score of music would be more fitting. The book cover for my next book is complete. As you can see above. Yep. I'm proud. Especially since I was able to design it myself. (Yep I'm bragging)I love art and design. This upcoming book has a fantasy map, (Designed by me) and lots of fun fantasy character pictures. Sometimes doing all the artwork is a big headache, but it's still a nice feeling to create something out of nothing. Just so ya all know I'm writing under the pen name, "Ivory Autumn." Why a pen name you ask? Well, it's like this. I have always wanted a pen name ever since I can remember. I'm not really sure why. It just is so cool, having a secrete identity, like super man. Silly? Yes. But it makes me smile every time I think about it. I was just wondering, do any of my readers have pen names? If so, come and share all the juicy details about how you acquired it. However if you want to remain hidden in the shadows, I understand. Your pen name must have been picked for stealth purposes. Mine not so much. Just more of a fancy of mine.

If everything works out, my book should be out pretty soon. I'm soooooooooooooo excited. *Cartwheels, root-beer floats, and fireworks are in order! It's taken me a little over three years to get this book-baby born. Yeah, I know. I've been working on writing the other three in the series along with it. But it's still a long time. A very long time.
Another cool thing! My really awesome flash website is so AWESOME! It's something I've wanted for a uber long time. I'm so happy with it! I feel pretty dang lucky.
I'll post the link to it soon--probably on my next post. I don't want you guys to see it until I get the first chapter of my book up.


This past month has been pretty interesting. Just the other day, as me and my sister Bessie were about to go to bed, I spied a huge fire outside out our window. It looked like our neighbor's house was on fire. Being the curious Skeemages that we are, we got in the van and drove to the burning building. We found that it wasn’t the house itself that was on fire, but a large building only a few feet away from the house. The fire had grown so big that it was climbing up the trunk of the tree next to it. The tree was overhanging the house, so we were really worried. The weird thing was, tons of cars were parked round the house like a party was going on. But when my sister rang the doorbell, no one answered. I didn’t have my cell phone with me, so we couldn’t call 911. Not knowing what else to do, Bessie burst through their door, and ran into their house looking for people. She couldn’t find anybody so she used their phone to call 911. (Kudos for Bessie)

After that, we kind of figured there wasn’t much else we could do, so we went back home. Then, as an after thought, my mom called our neighbors house. Weird thing was, they answered. My mom told them that we had called 911, and that their shed was on fire. They told her that they knew it was on fire, and that it was old junky shed and wasn’t any big deal. It made Bess and I feel super sheepish. Our neighbors had been in their house the whole time, and they didn’t know my sister had come in, used their phone and then left. Weird. Period. I think I’d be a little more concerned if a fire that humongous was burning next to my house.

AS for other adventures. My younger sister, Laurie, and her friend roped me into their evil plan to ask certain boys to a dance (Preference) by sabotaging the boys' cars so they couldn’t get to school on time. So we (or Laurie and her friend) decided to execute this plan in the dead of night, when sane people don’t venture out into the freakish cold darkness. Our first order of business was to pick up some junk hay our neighbor so kindly offered, which Laurie and her friend wanted to place in the back of the boys cars. This hay (more accurately piles of mold and poky weeds) was located in outer darkness, in the center of a muddy, dead-car lot.
Because it was so muddy, we had to park the truck a goodly ways off from the pile of mold-hay. As soon as we got out and inspected the pile of mold, coyotes started howling. Very creepy. (Can you tell I don’t like being in the dark?) Then to make it all the more comical/horrible, all three of us girls had to work together to carry the hay. We literally had to become one with the bales of mold, because they were so corroded that the twine holding them together was barely hanging on for dear life. Not to mention they were moist, and very heavy. We had to stop every few minutes and cough, sneeze, and gasp for air. By the time we got the first bale to the truck we were covered in cheetgrass. Not to mention all three of us had to kick, pull, and karate the back of the truck so it would open. It took us about 20 mins to get the thing open. By then, I was ready to call it quits. The boys wouldn’t think a bale of moldy hay blocking their car very much of an obstacle anyway. But my sister and her friend are very determined. bale
So we went and got three more bales of hey, and carefully stacked them into the back of the truck. That was only the beginning.

We sticky-noted the inside of the boys' cars, peanut buttered all the door handles, filled the inside of the cars with balloons, and then we wound string around the seats and everywhere else. It looked pretty cool---like spider man had visited the place, and had a balloon, peanut butter, sticky-note party. Oh and we also placed the pile of mold-hay behind the cars, in such a way that it would make it difficult for the boys to drive to school. I shan’t mention the freezing peanut butter covered fingers, or the fact that because we were covered in cheetgrass, the balloons we came in contact with exploded very loudly, causing a neighbor lady to peer at us from her porch. Nor the fact that my sister's friend and her truck are so noisy that I don’t know how we got away without being discovered. All in all it was a very memorable experience.

*Laughs*

I'm kind of sleepy. So I think I'll go take a nap. Yesterday, I just went on a trip with my fam in the desert. I would love to tell you all the details. But I'll save that for another time. Suffice it to say that I have a new addition to my Stephanese Proverbs. He or she who grabs cactus that looks like it has no prickles on it will still get prickled
Talk to you soon.
Steph