Romantic Letters Conference 2024

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For the past few years, I have participated in the Romantic Letters Conference, an adorable writer’s conference hosted by the League of Utah Writers Romance Chapter. Even though I’m definitely not a romance author, I have a handful of classes that can apply to any author at any phase of their writing experience. This year, I presented a class called “Getting Unstuck: A Scientific Approach to Overcoming Writer’s Block.” It’s a class I’ve given several times that I think is a needed message in the creative community.

This year’s conference ended up being unusual. Normally, the class lineup and keynote follow the expected schedule and everything works smoothly. This year, however, the keynote had a last-minute emergency and wasn’t able to come. Anyone who has ever attended a writing conference, know that the keynote is generally the highlight of the day. It’s a chance to better get to know someone who is further along in their writing career and gain inspiration and insight from their journey.

When the reality of this predicament dawned on the conference organizers, they made a last-minute scramble to fill in the gap. Imagine my surprise when I received a slightly panicked email asking if I could pull something together and step in. The reason they thought I was the best pick? I’d won this year’s Diamond Quill award for my book Stonebearer’s Redemption.

Cue imposter syndrome in all its shiny trappings. Even now, even with that level of win, it’s still hard to believe that people look up to me for it. It’s hard for me to believe I deserve any special attention for it. But, at the same time, nods like this are really nice and I appreciate the gesture. I did work really hard to make that book amazing.

So I said yes.

But … I didn’t want the limelight all to myself. I said I’d only do it if my dear friend Rachael Bush, who just happens to be this year’s League of Utah Writers President, would come and share the keynote with me. Because that’s what friends are for. I think I owe her a pack of Oreos…

Our last-minute joint keynote went fantastic and was thankfully short. Rachael was able to share about the league’s mission and goals and her experience with being part of it, and I was able to share my path to becoming a Diamond Quill Winner.

For this conference and getting that opportunity, it all came down to being in the right place at the right time. Had I not agreed to present at this conference, a different deserving author would’ve had their chance to be their last-minute keynote. And that’s okay.

But I’m happy to have been given the opportunity.

Romantic Letters Conference promo card for Jodi L. Milner

Squirrel! Podcast for the Distracted Writer

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There’s a new podcast for writers who tend to get distracted. Created by Candace J. Thomas and myself, Jodi L. Milner, the aim of Squirrel! is to support, educate, and entertain.

Candace and I are both highly distractable people. We’ve both got families with kids that need our attention. She’s got a day job I have clients I consult with to help them reach their writing goals. We both volunteer way too many hours of our time for our local writing organization. And – we’re both published indie authors trying to continue to bring new books into the world.

So, yeah – you can say we understand what it’s like to really want to work on writing projects and getting distracted by life constantly.

But, there’s one thing that we’re both passionate about, and that’s helping other writers succeed in their creative efforts. We love attending and teaching at conferences and conventions and delight when writers come up to our table wanting to know more about the craft.

So, making a podcast where we can collect all this awesome information that we’ve gathered over the years simply made sense.

If you’re a creative person who needs a bit of encouragement and support in the pursuit of your own creative projects, Squirrel! was made just for you.

Each episode has a specific focus. Popular topics include productivity, craft, mental health, and character development. We aim for each episode to be between 20-30 mins – the perfect length for your commute or while working around the house.

Find Squirrel! Podcast for the Distracted Writer in the following places:

2023 Reading Year in Review

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It’s been a few years since I’ve done a reading year in review so I figured now was a perfect time to start that tradition again.

According to Goodreads, I read twenty different books. Hardly a number to cheer about compared to some, but a number that I’m pretty proud of considering the year I had. Are there reads that didn’t get tallied in the list? Absolutely. I’ve never claimed to be perfect.

Without further ado, here are the highlights –

Top three fantasy reads of 2023

  1. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
  2. Piranesi by Suzanna Clarke
  3. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Top three non-fiction reads of 2023

  1. Managing Expectations by Minnie Driver
  2. Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton
  3. Smart but Scattered by Dawson and Guare

Good reads that deserve a mention

  1. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
  2. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Drumroll please for my favorite read of the year

Of all the books I read this year, it comes as no surprise that my favorite book on the list was one of my fantasy picks. Uprooted by Naomi Novik felt at first like it might be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and I was prepared to enjoy it but not necessarily love it. However, as the storytelling layered in on itself and the magic was revealed, I was truly impressed at how everything came together to a beautiful well-rounded ending.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Have you read Uprooted? If so, what did you think? Let me know in the comments 🙂

Psst! I started a podcast! Check out Squirrel! Podcast for Distracted on your favorite podcast app (and also on YouTube).

Winning the League of Utah Writer’s Diamond Quill Award

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The annual awards banquet of the League of Utah Writers was held on a warm night in August. I’d attended this event every year for nearly a decade, applauding the winners of the various awards and enjoying the company of my favorite fellow writers. While I’d entered more categories this year than I had in the past, I was very aware of the talent level I was competing against.

As the night progressed and the various categories were announced, I was happy to get a third-place win in the YA first chapter category all while trying to ignore the other categories where my work was completely ignored.

The end of the evening is reserved for the announcement of the big winners, including the Quills contest for published books. Back in 2019, I’d entered Stonebearer’s Betrayal and won a Recommended Read. In 2021, Stonebearer’s Apprentice won a Silver.

While I really liked how Stonebearer’s Redemption had turned out, I knew that as a third book in a series, it would be hard for a judge to understand any of the references to the other books. I crossed my fingers for a mention, as even a recommended read would have made me very happy.

As the Quill Awards for all the different categories were announced, and my category came and went, I tried not to be disappointed. Part of being a professional writer is understanding that some people might not like my work. Lurking at the edge of possibility was winning the last and largest award, the Diamond Quill.

This award was always announced after all the others, meaning that everyone who entered whose name hadn’t been called was now on the edge of their seats for this one last chance at recognition.

They called the winner, and it wasn’t me. I was prepared to be okay with it. Annoyed, but okay.

Except – this year they had a tie.

I’d already mentally packed my bags and was eager to leave when a very familiar book cover flashed on the screen and my name was called. Shocked isn’t quite the word for what went through my system. I was floored. Speechless. Stunned. Hubby dearest captured a picture moments after that says it all.

It took a few days to even believe that it had happened. In some ways, I’m still in denial about the whole thing. Perhaps that’s why it took so long to write this post.

To all of you who stood by me through thick and thin, thank you. Writing Stonebearer’s Redemption was possibly one of the hardest projects I’d ever embarked on and required every ounce of skill and inspiration that I could find. It was one of those books that fought back and challenged me to do better, be better. I couldn’t have done it without the support of my family, my writing community, and of course my amazing editor who called me on all the ideas and concepts that weren’t working.

Thank you to the League of Utah Writers for this honor.

Find the entire Shadow Barrier Trilogy, including Stonebearer’s Redemption, in this amazing ebook box set!

Get your copy today!

Stonebearer’s Redemption is here!

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After a year of extra waiting, the third and final book in the Shadow Barrier Trilogy is finally here! Stonebearer’s Redemption picks up Katira’s story a few months after the events of Stonebearer’s Apprentice where Wrothe found a way to attack the stronghold of Amul Dun directly, the first enemy to do so in the castle’s long history.

What’s this one about?

We start the story with Katira being content with her new life living at Amul Dun as she learns more about the power she holds. This peace is disrupted when she discovers that Namragan is under attack by shadow hounds. Both she and Papan feel compelled to return and ensure the safety of the place they once called home.

In doing so, Katira encounters a new problem that has everything to do with who she is and her destiny. If she can solve it, it will right a wrong committed hundreds of years before she was ever born.

Stonebearer’s Redemption is a fact-paced story full of drama, danger, and all the feels you’ve come to expect from me.

Why the delay in publishing?

Books that end a series present their own unique challenges, and this one is no different. It was a massive learning experience for me to gather up all the different story threads and combine them together to create a fulfilling conclusion that lived up to expectations.

Considering all that – I was bound to make a few mistakes.

I truly believed the book to be brilliant and complete back in August 2021 when I turned it into my editor for the first time. It was then that she very kindly pointed out a story problem so large that she may or may not have had the urge to throw the book across the room.

It seems that in my misguided attempt to elicit sympathy for our favorite villain, Wrothe, I made some choices that didn’t make sense in light of just how nasty a character she was in the first two books. Turns out that you can’t give a bad guy a happy ending, no matter how compelling you think it might be.

But, as I said before, writing this series has been a learning experience. I had a chance to make things right and by golly, I was going to take it. The last thing I would ever want is for a reader to be invested in Katira’s story enough to read the whole series, only to be disappointed in the end.

Up to this point, I’d been working on this book several hours a day for months on end. I needed a break. So – I wrote a cute little novelette that had been itching the back of my brain since I’d finished book #1 all about the events surrounding when Katira came into Jarand and Mirelle’s lives as a baby.

Only a writer would distract themselves from one big book problem by writing another book. So, yeah … Ta Dah!

Of Stone and Spark can be found as part of The Complete Shadow Barrier Trilogy Box Set.

Once “Of Stone and Spark” was done, I dove back into editing and pulled out those less-than-great ideas like the weeds they were. In the process, I found all sorts of new exciting ideas waiting for me. Stonebearer’s Redemption is a million percent better for the effort and I’m glad I took the time to essentially rewrite the entire thing.

What’s next?

As this is my first completed series, I’m taking a few weeks to truly celebrate this moment. This is the largest and longest-running project I’ve ever finished and it deserves time to shine. It won’t be long until I’m itching with a new idea, or character, or world that demands to be written.

As my gift to you, Stonebearer’s Betrayal, the first book in the Shadow Barrier Trilogy, is discounted to $0.99 for the entire month of December 2022. If you haven’t started, here’s your chance!

Grab my copy today!

Happy reading!

Shepherd: A New Way to Find Great Books

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Oh my goodness. I did a thing and it’s worth mentioning because it’s kinda cool. The lovely people at Shepherd asked me to create a list of books that meet a theme to help readers the world over find more books that they will truly love.

And you know what I had to go with … Drum roll please …

“The best fantasy books featuring drama and danger”

These are books I both enjoyed reading which also share similarities to my own books.

You can check out my list here:

https://shepherd.com/best-books/fantasy-featuring-drama-and-danger

Or click here!

TV Review: Loki, Season 1

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When it comes to Marvel, the audience falls into three distinct groups, those who obsess over all things Marvel and can cite all sorts of interesting facts. Those who watch the movies when opportunity arises and enjoy them for their entertainment value. And, well, everyone else. I fall solidly into the second group. If an opportunity comes up to watch a Marvel movie, I do it and usually enjoy it. I know I’m not watching them in order and am probably not getting all the references, but that aside, they are still pretty entertaining on their own.

Loki, a Disney/Marvel Studios creation, gives a new story and new challenges to everyone’s favorite character, Loki. So, yeah, when the opportunity came up to watch it with one of my kiddos, I was looking forward to being entertained.

Photo credit: Disney/Marvel Studios

The Story

In this timeline, Loki escapes the Battle of New York at the end of Avengers: End game using the Tesseract. This creates a breech in time and the Time Variance Authority (TVA) capture him and take him to be processed for his crimes against time. He’s given the choice, be erased from the timeline to fix the error he caused, or help fix the timeline against something much worse.

And, what could be worse than Loki’s from other timelines running amok? Loki discovers that the criminal he’s been charged to track down and eliminate is none other than an alternate version of himself, or variant, from another timeline. Loki uses his intuition paired with the TVA’s massive store of information to discover a pattern and plan where he believes this variant Loki will strike next.

When Loki finds the variant, he’s surprised to learn it’s a woman and is intrigued by her story and how it all ties in with the TVA. There’s far more to this organization than meets the eye. Loki betrays the agent he’s been assigned to in order to follow her as she jumps into another timeline.

The two of them learn truths that don’t align with what they’ve been told and feel compelled to answer one critical question: Who is behind the TVA and why? What are they hiding?

Loki and variant Loki, Sylvie

My Review

I’m all for an adventure flick, especially if it’s got a fantastic actor at the helm, such as Tom Hiddleston. This one delivers on plenty of action, amazing sets, and a complicated story line that only a time travel trope can create. Hiddleston has this amazing knack of projecting vulnerability one minute and something entirely different the next, which is why he’s so incredible to watch.

While there’s a lot of awesome going on with the show, I find that it tends to lag far more often than what I’d expect from a superhero spinoff. I understand why, it’s tough to set up these elaborate time loop story lines without including some serious exposition here and there. But, even when we’ve got the idea, there seems to be an abundance of dramatic pausing for sheer drama’s sake.

I also super appreciate the addition of Owen Wilson to the cast, in the role of Mobius, as he provides a perfect counterpoint to Hiddleston. He’s a different flavor of sincere without all the broody intensity. It totally works.

Hiddleston and Wilson

Recommendations

As this is a Marvel/Disney production, it’s pretty clean. There’s the necessary superhero intensity and drama, but as for everything else, there’s minimal offensive language, excessive violence, or innuendo. I was very comfortable watching it with my teen. Because of it’s complexity, I would recommend it for 12 and up just so it can be enjoyed without being too confusing.

I rate Loki 4/5 for being excellent (but slow at times).

Thank you for joining me as I shared my review of Amazon’s Cinderella today on the blog. If you enjoyed reading this review and would like to see more, please consider connecting with me by either following the blog here on WordPress, liking my Facebook page, joining my Facebook group, or subscribing to my newsletter. As an added bonus, newsletter subscribers receive free books, stories, and special offers every week.

Book Review: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

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I was craving a good steampunk read not too long ago and this one came recommended by an entire hoard of fellow authors. I’d read Westerfeld’s other books and enjoyed them, so this was an excellent choice.

The Story

This is a story of two very different children on very different sides of an alternate history of the first world war. Prince Aleksander is the would-be heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne. Deryn Sharp is a commoner pretending to be a boy so that she can be part of the British Air Service. They both have identities that must remain hidden for their own protection.

As the war grows in intensity, they both find themselves caught in difficult circumstances. Alek has become a target due to his ties to the Empire and has fled the country in a Clanker war machine. Deryn’s fantastical Darwinist airship has been shot down on a frozen glacier. It’s only by trusting each other and working past their differences that either of them will be able to survive.

My Review

When it comes to worldbuilding, Westerfeld always delivers. Working in alternate history is a challenge as there needs to be some reverence for the source material while creating a different reality populated with fantastical ideas and larger than life machines. I loved the idea that this wasn’t just a war of country vs country, but also those who relied on mechanical devices vs those who turned to the natural world for their solutions.

I also did appreciate the effort taken in the details of these two different worlds and how it shaped the main characters springing from each of them. Alek, who’s grown up with Clanker machines, tends to be practical and mechanically minded. Deryn, on the other hand, is accustomed to Darwinist creations and is a bit of a dreamer. She also has a knack for understanding the animals around her.

Is the book perfect, no – but what book is? Alek comes across as strangely childish and is also treated like a little kid off and on throughout the story. No one trusts his judgement, and he is second guessed more often than not. Deryn, in contrast, is the lowest rank and least experienced person on the ship. She is the youngest and the smallest, and yet she commands an unusual respect among those of the crew. I can see what Westerfeld was trying to do by making them foils of each other, all while making them distinct and interesting, but this seems like a bit of a stretch. The book also drags at times and ends in a place that isn’t as satisfying as it should be. Yes, I know there’s a sequel, but there needed to be a better resolution to a few more of the outstanding conflicts to make it feel finished.

Recommendations

This is the perfect book for 5th grade and those who don’t mind the writing to sound young. There’s plenty of danger, action, and tomfoolery to keep things moving and no squishy lovey bits to distract. Alek and Deryn become friends, and I imagine there will be more in that relationship later, but for now the story is about as romantic as a potato.

There are an assortment of interesting alternate swears, I think bum rag is a new favorite of mine, so the book reads squeaky clean in that regard. As for the violence, it is situation appropriate and the mention of blood is minimal.

I rate Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld 4/5, a solid good read that needed more resolution.

Thank you for joining me as I shared my review of Amazon’s Cinderella today on the blog. If you enjoyed reading this review and would like to see more, please consider connecting with me by either following the blog here on WordPress, liking my Facebook page, joining my Facebook group, or subscribing to my newsletter. As an added bonus, newsletter subscribers receive free books, stories, and special offers every week.

Movie Review: Amazon’s Cinderella

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If there’s one fairy tale that’s been done to death, it’s Cinderella. So, when Amazon announced their new pop musical version of the story, I wasn’t super excited. Through the grapevine I’d heard rumor that it wasn’t all that good, but I was intrigued.

Armed with a bowl of popcorn and my favorite snarky movie buddie, hubby dearest, we tackled the beast.

The Story

The basic Cinderella story is actually a bit of an insult. It assigns a woman’s worth to the wealth and prestige of the man she manages to marry. Cinderella herself is stuck in a miserable situation as an orphaned daughter stuck living with a step mother. This puts her last in line for any sort of beneficial marriage arrangement as her step mother’s other two daughters would have the first pick of suitors. Her rags to riches story is wish fulfillment for anyone who has felt stuck in their situation.

Amazon’s 2021 Cinderella twists that narrative and finally gives Cinderella dreams and goals of her own that don’t revolve around managing her father’s household or bagging a man. The Ella in this film wants to start her own business as a dress maker in a culture where women aren’t allowed to do much of anything.

The prince received a motivational makeover as well. In this version, he has no interest in finding a woman to marry and would rather live a life of his choosing with his friends. This changes when he meets Ella while in disguise and admires her drive. He invites her to the ball stating that it would be a great place to find people to buy her dresses, which is the only reason she ends up wanting to go – not because of the possibility of meeting the prince.

In previous versions of Cinderella, there’s been a trend of seeing who could make the stepmother and one of the stepsisters the most cruel, while the other stepsister is sympathetic to Ella. In this version, that cruelty is toned down to a mild frustration. The stepmother does put her daughters first and tends to ignore Cinderella. There are only a few instances where she could be called mean, and they’re pretty tame. After everything, she ends up being the character most sympathetic to Ella’s situation.

We also see far more interesting character development between the king and queen, who in previous versions of Cinderella only had one conflict – that of who their only son was going to marry to secure the future of their kingdom. In this version, they’ve added a younger sister, who has far greater political aspirations than the prince, and also put the relationship between king and queen itself in rocky territory.

With all these different focuses in the story, it dilutes the Ella story and adds in a whole lot more to consider. While this made it more interesting, it made it harder to just sit back and enjoy.

Have no fear, there is a charming happy ending that’s a twist on the original.

Meet the step family

My Review

To describe this film best, take Disney’s original animated Cinderella, the Greatest Showman, and Hamilton – and throw them in a blender. Amazon’s Cinderella is a celebration of pop music stuck in Edwardian England. More than the music, there are all sorts of weird anachronisms that pop up, like zippers on clothing and one shot that included an angle grinder. For me, that was super distracting.

That said, the music and dancing were the best part of the film hands down. Visual candy.

As for everything else, I liked how they updated Ella’s character so that she wanted something other than bettering her domestic situation. However, all the other additions for all the other characters, while cute, complicated the story enough where it took away from the experience.

Camila Cabello and Billy Porter star in CINDERELLA Photo: Kerry Brown � 2021 Amazon Content Services LLC

Recommendations

While this won’t be my favorite Cinderella iteration (Ever After still wins) it’s still a solid, entertaining show. It’s family friendly, minus a single potty joke. I swear James Corden can’t help it. I imagine viewers of all ages would enjoy it, as there’s enough eye candy to make up for any slower talking portions. That, and the all star cast, including Camilla Cabello, Idina Menzel, and Minnie Driver, knocked their performances out of the park.

I give Amazon’s Cinderella 3/5 – a solid watch, entertaining, but with a few flaws that draw away from the experience.

Thank you for joining me as I shared my review of Amazon’s Cinderella today on the blog. If you enjoyed reading this review and would like to see more, please consider connecting with me by either following the blog here on WordPress, liking my Facebook page, joining my Facebook group, or subscribing to my newsletter. As an added bonus, newsletter subscribers receive free books, stories, and special offers every week.

FanX Salt Lake 2021

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After a year of tumult and avoiding crowds, or to be honest, avoiding people in general, being back at FanX was a welcome step back to normalcy. That said, it was really weird to interact with so many friends and strangers in person after so long of not feeling safe to do so. I was pleased that the majority of attendees chose to respect the mask rule as I know it helped keep us all safer.

This year was a number of firsts for me, which made my FanX experience that much more exciting. I wasn’t until recently that I was able to join the panelist group, thanks to a dear friend who advocated for me. Before that, I’d always bought a ticket and spent my time attending panels in the audience, walking the vendor floor, and finding friends who were actually working the con. Throw in an occasional cosplay, and that was the extent of my experience.

The Booth

In previous years, I’ve never committed to selling my books at any particular booth, mainly because I didn’t really have that many books to sell. Way back in 2019, which feels like forever ago, I got to sign books with my favorite indie bookstore, The Printed Garden. And while it doesn’t hold a candle to the work of running a booth, it was the perfect way to stick my toe in the water.

This year I buddied up with two fabulous authors, Candace J Thomas and C. M. Adler, as well as one amazing artist, Julie Gallegos to make up the Local Fantasy Author Booth #1236. All I can say is, what a learning experience. I got a much greater appreciation for booth design, inventory management, and patron interaction than I ever expected.

Moderating my first panel

It’s one thing to be invited to talk about different topics, it’s quite another to guide the conversation. This year I participated in three fascinating panels, Spirited Away, Flash Gordon, and The Witcher.

2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the Japan release of Spirited Away, so I thought it would be a great year to celebrate. As the panel was my idea, they let me moderate which is something I’ve done a bunch in other smaller venues, but nothing as big as FanX. My fellow panelists were terrific and the discussion ranged from thematic elements of the show to how Miyazaki ties his creations to folklore and culture, to my favorite question – which character each of the panelists felt represented them the best.

The other panels were also great fun. For Flash Gordon the moderator brought some slides that compared the Sam J Jones movie to the original Buster Keaton series. We then talked about our favorite scenes – definitely the tree spider scene – and also brought up all sorts of interesting trivia, like how the role of Flash was originally offered to Kurt Russell.

As for the Witcher panel, I got to let my inner geek shine as only myself and one other panelist had read the novels and many of the questions had a lot to do with how the different medias compared with each other.

Selling out of my book!

As authors, nothing makes us happier than connecting with people who love the subjects and genres we write about. Selling my fantasy series at FanX was a dream come true. I’ve never been in a situation where people would walk by and see the books we offered and say, “I want that” and then buy it. Talk about feeling validated.

Again, this whole event was a learning experience. Part of that learning was all about how many of a title I should ideally bring. Had I brought more, I could have easily sold more. I don’t feel bad. As a first time, I consider the whole experience a raging success.

My one regret

Most years I spend far more time roaming around and seeing the other tables and booths. That said, most years I have my amazing hubby to keep me company as we look at all the cool cosplays and things for sale. While he came this year to visit, I was too overwhelmed at all the newness of working the booth to spend much time with him. When I did take a minute to wander around, it wasn’t the same.

Next year for sure I will make the time to roam the conference and see all the amazing stuff with hubby dearest and perhaps pick up a few more sparkly goodies along the way.