Ten Reasons Summer Rocks and a Prize

By Nichole Giles

Anyone who knows or has ever heard a speech by the up and coming big-time author, James Dashner, has an inkling of his propensity for making lists. The man has a top ten for everything. And they’re always funny. Or, at least I find them amusing.

But recently he posted a list on his blog about all the reasons he hates hot weather, which in my book translates to summer. Now, while the Dash-man does make some good points, I am here to counter his dislike of my favorite season of the year.

Why, you ask?

Because I feel like it. And also, because summer rocks! ;-P (That’s me sticking my tongue out at James.)

So, I am hereby posting a top ten list of why summer is the BESTEST, most awesome season of the whole entire year. And then I’m giving away a really awesome prize. Again, because I feel like it, and summer—and warm weather—rocks.

10. Awesome, warm weather is perfect for water recreation. Boating, wave running, and skiing in local lakes, oceans, and rivers (skiing in the summer is called water skiing, which is why we don’t ski on dirt when there’s no snow).

9. No snow!!! You can actually walk around outside in the grass, barefooted and without a coat, and not get hypothermia.

8. A whole season (or at least part of one if you live in Utah) of healthy, natural vitamin D (aka sunshine).

7. Swimsuit and sandal weather—for soaking up those vitamins. (And if you hate looking at your feet, get a pedicure!)

6. Three words: Pools are Open. (And jumping in a pool is not nearly as scary as flying down a mountain on waxed wood with nothing to keep you from crashing into a tree but two skinny sticks.)

5. I can drive my convertible with the top down and not get snowed on, and also not have to leave my car at a local gas station because it's stuck in the parking lot (aka a sheet of thick ice).

4. Fireworks that make silly shapes in the sky, parades where clowns chuck candy at your kids so they ruin their braces eating it, carnivals with rides that cost way too much and make you throw up, and patriotic celebrations--because we live in America!

3. Cotton candy to give you a sugar high, caramel apples that also ruin braces--but are so worth it, snow cones--any flavor, and ice cream.

2. Barbeques and fresh veggies, baseball--especially the little kid kind, and blooming flowers.

1. My birthday is in July--and everyone looks forward to that.

This leads me to the big announcement. Next week is the big day (and no, I’m not telling you how old I am). When you’re a kid, people ask what you want for your birthday, but since I’m not a kid anymore, I’ve decided to give a gift away to one of my fabulous followers.

Check this out:

Pretty, huh?

Quicksilver / Roxy brand stainless steel charm bracelet. Retail value: $18.00.

Come on, you know you want it! To win this fabulous bracelet, all you have to do is one of these things:

1. Become a follower of this blog you’re reading or my other blog. (Or both.) Then, leave a comment on this post telling me you’ve become a fan. In your comment, tell me at least one thing you love about summer—or something special that reminds you of summer. If you’re already a follower, you’re one step ahead—but still leave me a comment and tell me why summer rocks.

2. Run on over to James Dashner’s blog and say hi to him. Tell him I sent you, and then come back here and let me know you paid him a visit. (You don’t have to follow him, but please still follow me. And whatever you say to him, be nice. He is my friend, after all.)

3. Go have a good laugh at the LDS Humor blog, and sign up to be a follower there, then come back here and tell me you signed up, and share a funny joke of your own. (Because everyone needs a good laugh, right? Oh, and then watch for your joke—and your name—to show up on the humor blog later this month.)

4. Listen to my playlist (on the sidebar) and tell me which summer song is your favorite. If your favorite isn’t on there, tell me what awesome summer songs I don’t have but should add. (As long as they’re appropriate, I will.)

Sometime on or around July 13th (that’s a Monday) I’ll have my trusty computer generator choose a random name from the list, and announce it here and on my other blog. The winner will then have to send me a private email with their snail mail information so I can send them the gorgeous prize. (Guys, I know this isn’t so much a prize you want, but it makes a great gift for an important female in your life. And if you follow me anyway, you’ll be automatically entered in the next awesome giveaway, which is coming up soon and is not jewelry.)

Now, get away from your computer and go get some sunshine!

I Won the Superior Scribbler Award

My friend Jordan has given me a blog award for helping her with a recent query letter. In that case, I should give one right back to her, since she also helped with mine. But I think that's against the rules, so I'm going to have to pass the joy on to other people who have helped me during my writing journey.

The trick, I think, is picking only five people out of a whole lot who help me every day.

These are the rules:

Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Though choosing five bloggers has been extremely difficult, I've chosen people who've helped me recently, and who I know will respond to this award with a post of their own.

Many thanks to: Cindy Beck, Rachelle Christensen, Tristi Pinkston, Ali Cross, Elana Johnson, and Connie Hall. (I know, I'm a bit of a cheater to give it to six people instead of five. I told you it was a tough choice!)

Thanks for all your help, you guys! I wouldn't survive this whole writing thing without you.

Peace and Love--until next time.

Book Review: "Agent In Old Lace" by Tristi Pinkston

By Nichole Giles

About the book:

Shannon Tanner has it all, a perfect family, perfect job, perfect boyfriend—or so she thinks. What Shannon doesn’t know is that her boyfriend, Mark, is stealing money from her father and making money doing it. When Shannon learns Mark’s secret, he turns on her, and Shannon’s life abruptly goes from perfect to perilous.

In an effort to protect Shannon, the FBI assigns their only female agent to go undercover as her personal bodyguard. But when the agent gets injured the day before the assignment, they turn to the next best thing: their top agent, Rick Holden—in a dress.

Life seems safe again for Shannon with Rick by her side and Mark apparently gone for good. Then Shannon gets word that her best friend has been kidnapped, and it becomes clear that Mark isn’t going to stop any time soon. Shannon realizes the only way to save herself and her friend—and stop Mark once and for all—is by sending Rick, her only source of protection, away. Can Rick save Shannon before it’s too late?

My Take:

I have to be honest. This is not my first experience with a Tristi Pinkston book. And while her only other published novels are historical fiction, the switch from historical to humorous romantic suspense seemed like a natural transition to me. That might sound crazy, unless you know Tristi personally. She just has that many facets—humor being a prominent, shiny one for her.

From the first line of the book, Tristi had me hooked. “Shannon Tanner felt as though she’d stepped into a Fortune 500 magazine…” And the story takes off from there, launching right into the main conflict—Shannon’s seemingly perfect boyfriend gone a little postal and throwing all sense of religion out the window by trying to murder Shannon and keep millions of dollars stolen from her father. In steps the hunky FBI agent, Rick Holden—and well, you’re going to have to read to know the rest. I’ll give you a hint, though…the plan involves pantyhose, a wig, and lipstick—but not for Shannon.

Tristi delivers romantic suspense with a humorous twist in this not-so-classic thriller. It was a delightful read, one that kept me up—on the edge of my seat, or, okay, bed—until three a.m. so I could get to the conclusion.

More honesty: I was one of the lucky people who got to read this book before it went to print. (Look for my name in the acknowledgements!) I loved it the first time I read it (yep, that was the three a.m. time) and the second time—bound and covered—as well. This is one of those books you can read over and over again and enjoy even more each time.

“Agent in Old Lace” rates a five out of five on Nichole’s Diamond Scale.

To purchase your copy of “Agent in Old Lace” by Tristi Pinkston, check out your local Deseret Book, or click here.

To learn more about the author, click here.

INSIDER TIP: Tristi will be launching another book this October. “Secret Sisters” is the first in a series, and a definite MUST HAVE. Don’t miss Tristi’s next book—it’s absolutely hilarious!

By Popular Demand

After my friend Christine posted this on her blog, I've shown it to several people. And I have to admit, it's compelling. So, by popular demand from a few of my important readers, here is the trailer for New Moon, which will be in theaters in November.




And Like Christine, I can't resist adding a picture of the wolf pack. Go ahead, drool a little bit. I did.

Quote of the day

“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” ~ Og Mandino

My Day on the Blogck

Thursday is my day to blog at the LDSWriter's Blogck. Come on over and read Coming Out of the Clouds.

Whatever It Takes to Stop the Rain

Bear with me...

Where I live, it has not stopped raining--literally--since school got out at the end of May, and according to the weather man, there's no end in sight. At this point, I'm willing to try anything to get some sunshine. Even if it's in a music video.

Family Fun Matters

By Nichole Giles

In case you’re wondering why I haven’t posted in over a week, I’ll put your worries to rest. (Yeah, I said worries. I just know you’ve been biting your nails about what terrible fate has befallen me—your most beloved author—and can I just say, eeew. Nail biting is a disgusting habit; you really ought to quit doing it.) I’ve been out of town visiting some family in Texas.

If you’ve never been to Texas, you might be wondering what there could possibly be to do there besides sing country music and say ya’ll a bunch of times. In fact, my neighbor asked me that very question (well, okay, minus the reference to music and language) when she heard we’d gone there. My first answer was, “My sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and new niece are there.” But my second answer was, “Oh my gosh, there’s so much to do we couldn’t possibly fit it all into one trip.”

This time, we chose to fly into San Antonio, where we stayed for a few days. First off, we met my sister and the kids and went straight to the Riverwalk—which is ripe with culture and ambiance and is just a downright cool place. We walked from one end to the other—detouring for a little while to visit the Alamo.

Also in the area, is Sea World—which as I discovered, is quite different from the California version, but equally as fun—and the world famous water park, Schliterbahn. My kids thought it was extremely cool that there are three separate sections to this park, which are each so large you have to get there by car or shuttle. And the slides and things are, in my daughter’s words, “coolio!” Just don’t lose someone in between like we did or you’ll end up searching fruitlessly for hours to find them.

There’s also a Six Flags in S.A., but we opted out of that one this time, and took a drive to Corpus Christi for a day and night at the beach. Granted, Gulf beaches aren’t the most gorgeous beaches, and the water is pretty murky, but it was the ocean, and to us, absolutely breathtaking. The sand was rough, and there were jellyfish everywhere, (perfect for “jellyfishing” as my nephew was apt to do) but the water was really warm, and the sight of the full moon over the sea that night was enough to steal a person’s focus for hours. Also in the area was a museum of a WWII battleship, the USS Lexington, complete with rows of real aircraft that was launched off the ship’s deck during the war. Very cool stuff.

Then it was another drive—this one a bit longer—through Austin into Temple, TX, to see my sister’s cute house, and her husband who wasn’t able to join us in our sightseeing earlier. It was so nice to spend some time there, and actually eat some home-cooked meals. We had an awesome time, and were so excited to be with family we don’t see nearly as often as we’d like.

The killer is, there is so much more we want to do and see while Jodi’s living in the Lone Star State. Six Flags in Fort Worth, the NASA museum near Houston, Galveston (which is crammed with beautiful architecture, nice beaches, and a cruise port) and bunches of other places we haven’t discovered yet.

So, in case you’re wondering, I was skipping out on work, blogs, writing, laundry, and everything else I could have been doing, in order to party with my family. It was a much needed, and yet exhausting, summer trip. And now I’m back. All is well, and I didn’t fall off the face of the earth, although thunderstorms and severe winds did their best to make our planes (four total) fall out of the sky. But we prevailed. Apparently, the powers that be upstairs have bigger things in mind for me.

Hi ho. Hi ho. It’s back to writing I go…

Book Review: "Wings" by Aprilynne Pike

By Nichole Giles

Jacket cover copy:

“Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head.

They looked almost like wings.”

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

Fifteen-year-old Laurel discovers she’s a faery when she goes through the faery equivalent of puberty and sprouts a flower out of her back. On top of that, she’s just moved into a new neighborhood, is attending public school for the first time, and evil trolls are out to get her family.

During the course of the story, Laurel is torn between a human love, and a faery one—adding a strong element of romance sure to make a girl’s heart go pitter-patter.

The first time I picked up “Wings,” I was intrigued. First by the title, then the beautiful cover, and then I read the back and discovered the story is about faeries. Well, that did it. I had to buy it because I adore both flowers and faeries, and the story sounded intriguing to me. This was—of course—before I met the author, Aprilynne Pike (who, by the way is super nice and every bit as pretty as the picture on the jacket cover of her book). Before I had the chance to begin reading, Aprilynne gave me a more in-depth overview of the storyline, and as soon as I got home, I had to start reading (even though it was way, way past my bedtime).

I have to be honest. I LOVED it. It’s one of those stories you read straight through from beginning to end in one sitting. And then you want to pick it up and read it again. Then, if you’re a book-loaner (which I am not) you loan your copy to all your friends so they can love it too.

Or if you’re like me, you tell them all to go buy their own copy because you’re too picky about how books are treated.

I digress. Anyway, it’s no wonder “Wings” hit #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List within two weeks of being released.

So, if you aren’t one of the people who bought this book the month it was released, run—don’t walk—to pick up your copy now. This is the hot new thing. Hurry, before you fall behind the times!