Freewrite: Proud to Be a Dork

Today, I just wanted to say that I'm totally proud to be a geek. It's a part of my that I often try to suppress, because people would think I have no life at all if they knew how many shows and moves I'm familiar with, and I'm often annoyed by people who go on and on about their comic book heroes.

But then I come across something like this, and I think, "You know what? Who cares!"

LDS Smile

If these are the kinds of morals that my "geeky" heroes promote, then I'm not ashamed at all to be totally enthralled by them!

Much better than being in the majority, who find THIS quality entertainment:

Just saying.

Freewrite: What I Live For

Once again, I just have to say that I love my job.

True, sometimes it's still hard for me to get up and get going every weekday, but I never dread arriving at work. I never groan about having to be there. I rarely watch the clock during the day. My work days continue to be pleasant and positive. I love my coworkers and I love that my work revolves around the gospel and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

One of the things I love most about this internship is that I get to assemble lesson helps. Some of them are submitted by freelancers, and I just have to format them for the blog, but the FHE lesson helps I get to write from scratch.

In the beginning, everyone told me to just recycle old topics and maybe tweak them as I saw fit. But then the Disney FHE series happened and I got hooked on writing them myself.

It's not like these lesson helps get tons of hits or go viral online or anything. In fact, they tend to get the least amount of hits of anything we post, and only a handful of likes on Facebook. Writing them is a pretty much thankless job.

But today I got to work, checked up on our Facebook page, and found this comment under my FHE about forgiveness:

This, you guys. This is what makes working at LDS Living so worthwhile. This is how I find fulfillment in my day-to-day actions.

Sure, it's virtually anonymous. Sure, only 1,394 of our 190,000+ e-mail subscribers actually read that lesson help. Sure, it's only got 34 likes on the Weekly FHE Facebook page.

But it meant something to at least one father. It helped create at least one successful family home evening. It brought the Spirit into at least one home. It might have helped at least one person let go of a grudge and find forgiveness in their heart.

If I even just get one comment like this on a given day, I can go to bed that day feeling like I've done something good in the world.

Doodle in the Margins: Cherry Jubilee

I'm not sure how my mind works, but somehow I don't feel like uploading photos and recapping my week, yet I found it a simple thing to draw this mug full of cherries that's on my desk.

Enjoy! I know I am!

Cherries... :)

Drafts: Snow Glider Synopsis

I'm SO SORRY it's been a whole week since I blogged anything! My sister is finishing up an online class so she's been using my laptop all night every night for the past two weeks. But now she's out of town so I'm finally back online! Hooray!

But I'm gonna keep it short and simple today. I've been working on writing synopses for Deseret Book publications, and it's made me want to come up with a synopsis for my own story, Snow Glider.

Tell me what you think of this:

 Anastas has until his 22nd birthday to prove that he can be a good leader, or his village will stay under the thumb of his cold-hearted cousin. When a girl named Nara arrives on the back of her giant snow dog, Anastas sees an opportunity where his people only see a threat. Nara is from the ice-covered enemy nation to the south, where Anastas has been hoping to establish trade to help the village grow. But can he trust her? As their shaky alliance moves his plans slowly forward and his birthday draws near, Anastas finds it harder and harder to distinguish friend from enemy. Forces seem to be combined against him--his cousin’s allies grow violent, dark creatures prowl the village limits, and the more he learns about Nara’s shady past, the less sure he is that her intentions are innocent.

Okay, now that you've read it, answer me this (and be completely honest. I need good feedback to improve):

1) Is this a story you would want to read? Why or why not? 

2) From this synopsis alone, what genre do you think it's supposed to be, and what audience is it aimed towards?

3) If you were to pick up a story like this, what would you hope to find?

Let me know in the comments! Thanks a million!

Deadline: New Stowaway & LDS Living Magazines!

Happy Frursday, everyone! That's what we're calling it at work, since it's technically Thursday but it's the last work day of the week so it feels like a Friday.

Anyways, I'm sorry I've been MIA lately. My mom and sister are in town, so I've been with them almost nonstop. I'll post later about all our adventures, but for now I just want to let you all know that two of the magazines I've worked on are now up and running!

First of all, the Summer 2014 issue of Stowaway! Check it out at the link below!

http://issuu.com/byu.zines/docs/summer2014

And our July/August issue of LDS Living magazine is hitting the press today, so look for it in the mail or in your local Deseret Book!

Here's where you can buy it online. 

Or, if you prefer web content and emails over printed magazines, here's where you can subscribe to our newsletter.

Aren't they both so beautiful?? It was an amazing experience working on them, and I'm excited to keep working on issues for LDS Living. Now that July/August is finally finished, on to September/October! It's gonna be awesome, so stay tuned!