Congrats to the 2011 Whitney Finalists!

The Whitney Award Finalists have been announced! Check out the list of finalists.

If you are an LDS author and would like to be part of the voting academy to choose the winner contact: whitneyawards (at) gmail (dot) com

Best of State 2011--Alma the Younger

I've neglected to post this for awhile; no excuses any more. To catch you up, my 2010 novel Alma the Younger won the Best of State Award in Literary Arts for fiction.


I was very surprised and excited. 2 years ago Abinadi won 2009 Best of State, so I was pleased that 2 very religious books could earn such great recognition. You'll also understand my extra excitement of Alma the Younger winning since there was some angst during the editing process that you can read here.

June 4th was the big night. After spending time at a "Brown" family reunion, I hurried home to get ready. I had set a hair styling appointment since I am very much hair-styling-challenged. Overall, the night was much less eventful than 2009--referenced here. No parking ticket, no hail storm, no crying children. Two years of growing up made a difference to my youngest.

Here is a picture of us just before I left. Notice the all-smiles. Her one question was, "Mom, are you getting a medal or a meadow?"


This year, my parents came, my father-in-law, as well as 3 of my sisters-in-law. We took up a whole table, and it was funny to see the sign as "Heather Moore." (I SWEAR I slouch in every picture!)



I looked around for Lu Ann Staheli, who is in my critique group, and who was accepting the Non-fiction award for her book The Psychic Madman. But didn't see her until we were doing "the walk". It was a huge honor to receive the fiction award on the night she received the non-fiction award. Lu Ann has been a huge mentor in my life and is one of my dearest friends.


The food was really great, but mostly the company was great. Each category has an overall category winner as well. In the Arts & Entertainment a 12 year old violinist won. She got up to perform an amazing medley. I laughed when Lu Ann texted me saying, "okay okay, I guess she can win the category."

For you basketball fans, Jimmer Fredette won a Best of State that night, with David Archuletta presenting. Kind of cool!

Some random pictures: My beautiful sisters-in-law:




My #1 fan, my husband:


My parents, who compete for that #1 spot (with my father-in-law coming in at a near-tie):



And really, what other time can you pose by a half-naked golden man (at least in Utah)?


Finally, and best of all, I could show my kids my new meadow, I mean "medal." Some were more interested than others.

The Bitter & The Sweet

Early this morning I spent time reading about a good friend of mine's new battle with breast cancer. She was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer. Fortunately it hasn't spread to the rest of her body. She is journaling each day on a private blog and it's heart-wrenching to read it. How did she find out? A dentist wouldn't treat her because of a sore in her mouth and told her to see a doctor for an antibiotic. One thing led to another and she is now fighting the beast.

Her advice? If you are 40 or older and have no history of cancer in your family, get a mammogram each year. If you are under 40, with history, start earlier.

So, next Monday (after the craziness of the Storymakers Conference & Mother's Day), I'm scheduling a mammogram.

In other, much better news, I found out this morning that ALMA THE YOUNGER won 2011 Best of State in Literary Arts for Fiction. A couple of years ago, ABINADI won. My husband said to me, "Are we going to get another parking ticket?" Hope not! (for the torrid details of my last Best of State adventure, read here)

2010 Whitney Finalist!

I'm excited to announce that Alma the Younger is a 2010 Whitney Finalist!

To read the complete list of finalists, go to the Whitney Award website. Also, Annette Lyon wrote up an excellent post of the evolution of the Whitneys on her blog, The Lyon's Tale.

Amazingly enough, three others in my critique group are finalists as well, all in different categories! Sarah Eden for Courting Miss Lancaster; Annette Lyon for Band of Sisters, Jeff Savage for A Time to Die and The Fourth Nephite. Also, former critique group member, James Dashner, is a finalist with The Scorch Trials. Congrats my awesome critique group.

If you read my Publishing Journey post about my experience with a copy editor, you'll know why this Whitney honor means a little extra to me. I'll venture a guess that Alma the Younger did NOT kill my series as the copyeditor predicted. Not to mention that the next in the series, Ammon, will be out this June.

In other news: The Daughters of Jared was officially accepted by my publisher--release date will be 2012. I'll keep you posted!

Whitneys & Upcoming Marketing Ideas

Those of you who are following the Whitney Award Nominees will know that ALMA was nominated as a finalist in the Historical Fiction category. I'm very honored! I'm glad that I forgot about the pending announcement and slept in that morning (my kids were out of school on Friday). I checked my phone for emails and saw something about the finalists being announced, so I had to, of course, go on my computer to discover who had made the cut. The small screen on my phone wouldn't suffice. Since Historical was the second to last category, I very slowly scrolled down, reading over the other categories to see if any of my predictions had come true. I was probably 75% on my predictions.

When I saw ALMA listed, I breathed a sigh of relief, then looked for several other books that I thought were excellent. Some made it, some didn't. It seemed every minute was a new revelation--what about this book or that book? I don't envy the judges in some of those categories. As you know, I've read quite a bit of fiction by LDS authors this year. Out of all the final nominees, there are only 9 that I haven't read.

Below, I've highlighted the books that I've read:

BEST ROMANCE: Counting the Cost, by Liz Adair; Illuminations of the Heart, by Joyce DiPastena; All the Stars in Heaven, by Michele Paige Holmes; Santa Maybe, by Aubrey Mace; Previously Engaged, by Elodia Strain.

MYSTERY/SUSPENSE: Lockdown, by Traci Hunter Abramson; Methods of Madness, by Stephanie Black; Murder by the Book, by Betsy Brannon Green; Lemon Tart, by Josi Kilpack; Altered State, by Gregg Luke.

YOUTH FICTION: Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George; Fablehaven IV: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary, by Brandon Mull; My Fair Godmother, by Janette Rallison; Bright Blue Miracle, by Becca Wilhite; The Chosen One, by Carol Lynch Williams.

SPECULATIVE: Servant of a Dark God, by John Brown; The Maze Runner, by James Dashner; Wings, by Aprilynne Pike; Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson; I Am Not A Serial Killer, by Dan Wells.

HISTORICAL: Tribunal, by Sandra Grey; The Undaunted, by Gerald Lund; Alma, by H.B. Moore; The Last Waltz, by G.G. Vandagriff; In the Company of Angels, by David Farland (who is also Dave Wolverton).

GENERAL FICTION: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford; No Going Back, by Jonathon Langford; Gravity vs. The Girl, by Riley Noehren; The Route, by Gale Sears; Eyes Like Mine, by Julie Wright.

Winners of each category will be announced April 24th at the Whitney Award Gala. Also, the Whitney academy will vote in Best Novel and Best Novel by a New Author.

I already have my prediction, though that might change after I read the other nine books. I think these two books will be going neck and neck, although they are complete opposites, they are remarkable in their genres: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and The Chosen One.

Do you guys have any favorites going in?

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Marketing Ideas for WOMEN OF THE BOOK OF MORMON:

Vote on whether or not you think I should do a blog tour for this book. It's a more serious, religious type book (although still quite entertaining, especially the chapters on Isabel and the daughter of Jared) . . . so I'm wondering what my fellow bloggers think. If you'd be interested in reading non-fiction (90 page book with PICTURES) and doing a blog review, let me know in the comments. If I find enough interest, then I can start putting a plan together.

2009 Best of State--I made it!

Below is a photo-journal of the 2009 Best of State Gala, for which my Abinadi book won the Best of State Award for Historical Fiction.


My husband and I . . . all gussied up.

On the drive to Salt Lake, we drove through a major hail storm.

We finally arrive at the Grand Ballroom at the Salt Palace. We only had to drive around the block once to find the parking entrance. I borrowed the dress from G.G. Vandagriff! It worked out perfectly.

Posing by the Best of State statue. No one took this baby home (hmmm, where are his clothes?).


Inside the ballroom. Our table was wa-a-ay in the back.


I was just settling in to eat my salad when they announced my category, first! It was in the program as somewhere in the middle. Oh well. I hurried up to the stage and stood by Annette Haws.



We left a little early, just in time to catch a parking security guy writing us out a ticket. What? We'd parked in an "employee" stall.


Back at home, forgot to take a picture of the full-length. You can't see it, but my toenails match my skirt.

One of my children was not happy that I had left. There's a real tear on her right cheek.

Close-up of the up-do! Well, it was kind of a side-do and was falling out at this point. I think there were about 30 bobby pins in there.


My Best of State takes its proud place with the 2007 and 2008 Whitney Awards.

Shoes off, need some chocolate!

THANK YOU, MY DEAR READERS! If you weren't buying and reading my books, I would not have a publishing contract, I would not have won this award, I would not have a totally cool medal, and my feet would not be (pleasantly) sore.

. . . miscellaneous . . . .

The blurb in the program about Abinadi.

The back of the medal has my name and title of book on it:

The official award certificate--I guess I'll get a frame.