Don't you love the way I post every day? How about every week? Every month? Well, all right, so it's been more like once a year. My bad.

Actually I have an excuse. I've been having issues with Blogger. It has spent many moons trying to convince me I don't have a blog, have never had a blog, and need to set up a new account. Excuse me? I already have two blog accounts and can't even keep up with one. Why would I want to set up another one? Sorry folks, Masochism is not my middle name...or my first one, either.

That said, I want to say how pleased I was at the LDSStorymakers writing conference this past weekend to earn first place in the first chapter/historical novel contest with my biographical I, NEPHI... based on the life of early Jackson Hole homesteader, Nephi Moulton.

Yeah, I know. Y'all saw me running around with a goofy grin on my face, so you probably have an inkling what it meant. I really think, though, that if an old lady like me can learn to write well enough to win first place with a novel written in first person from a young male pov, any one of you can do the same.

It wasn't just that I won...but last year, after I finished the book, I sent a query and five pages to Nathan Bransford, literary agent with Curtis Brown, Ltd. Nathan promptly asked for the first 30. (Hey, when that guy says he tries to keep on top of things, he isn't kidding. He read my five and replied within two hours!) He didn't feel he was a good fit and so, ultimately, turned my book down but I felt it was an honor that he even requested additional pages.

Was I surprised that he turned it down? No. My book is too secular for the LDS market and too LDS-oriented for the national market. Nephi was, after all, the youngest son of a polygamist's first wife. He left Utah and left the LDS church (returning to the religion of his youth only as an old man) but he still carried his polygamous background with him. The book centers on his efforts to resolve the issues that shaped his life. So, while Nathan didn't feel he, personally, was a good fit for my book, I felt that the fact he even wanted to read more than the first five pages was almost as exciting as winning the first chapter contest at Storymakers.

Anyhow, they both show me the efficacy of Winston Churchill's famous words, Never give up. Never, never give up.

Someone commented on my last post but it didn't come through correctly. If the person who posted it wishes, please feel free to try again.

That said, I want to say I'm really stoked about something and want to share with you.

In his "Daily Kick in the Pants" email yesterday, New York Times best selling fantasy author, Dave Farland, included some rules for writers that another gentleman had written. Mr. Farland invited his world-wide audience to add to the list.

I didn't have any rules to add but I did have several with which I disagreed. I chose one, wrote an essay explaining my differences in opinion and sent it off. Today Mr. Farland included my entire essay in his daily email. I cannot begin to express how pleased I am. Knowing that he has, for years, been a judge of writing contests, I feel like I was just awarded the Pulitzer prize.

I'm posting my essay below with Mr. Farland's introduction at the beginning.

This next one is from Karen Mittan. It’s long, but it’s worth reading every word, because it’s an excellent analogy. She says,

“I really like Mr. Miller’s analogy in his number eight rule for writing: Don’t be a draught horse. Work with pleasure only. It’s evocative. But I totally disagree with his syllogism.

To begin with, he seems to assume that draught – or draft – horses are all work and no play or pleasure. Having grown up with draft horses, I’d beg to differ. True, their work is generally tedious and repetitious. Our horses pulled farm machinery and sleighs in weather that no animal could enjoy…hot in summer and minus forty-five F. in winter. They did it daily and faithfully. But to assume there was no fun involved indicates, to me, that Mr. Miller maaaybe didn’t know his draft horses very well.

I’ve known horses that were clowns. (We had one who repeatedly performed a routine he discovered we’d laugh at.) I’ve known horses that weren’t above getting their own back at each other or at their owners. (We had one horse who was smart enough to figure out that chewing on my long hair would freak me. If it happened today, I’d have a word with the horse. But I was ten at the time and he got the reaction he was looking for. Knowing animals as I do now, I think that old boy had a lot of fun at my expense that day. He probably chuckled about it for hours.) I’ve also known horses that were the epitome of faithfulness, trustworthiness and loyalty while in the harness but full of play with each other once they were turned out to pasture.

And then, too, if one wants to compare what writers do to what an animal does, isn’t the ‘draught’ horse the perfect comparison? Draft one, draft two—draft twenty? Much of the work of writing is as tedious as the day-to-day work of a draft horse. Constructing scenes can be joyful. I frequently have a lot of fun with them. But ohmygoodness! those sequels are the pits. Making prose flow, bridging the gap between scenes, is very difficult and excessively tiring. At least it is for me.

In my experience, constructing a story that has thought, continuity and flow is not particularly pleasurable. It’s tedium ad nauseum. Like the draft horse’s routine work, in order to finish a story, an author must do the same thing over and over and over: apply the seat to the chair, the fingers to the keyboard and the brain to the project at hand.

It’s repetitious, too. While the draft horse may pull the plow in a new field tomorrow, he’s still pulling the plow in the same general pattern his owner determined for him today. So, too, the writer may be working on a new story but it has to have the same basic elements, the same general plot structure, the same carefully constructed language. And he’s not working for himself, either. His reader is his owner. Like the draft horse, if he doesn’t work hard to please the ‘owner’, he may not have too much food on his table next winter.

I think there’s a reason why draft horses were/are frequently called ‘plugs’. According to Webster’s finest, the word has a double meaning when applied to draft animals: ‘a worn out animal’ and ‘to work hard and steadily’. I think both definitions frequently fit writers just as well. We do become worn out with the seemingly endless drafting and rewriting of our prose/poetry projects. However, we also must work hard and steadily if we're to accomplish the task at hand.

So I identify with the ‘draught’ horses. I think we have a lot in common. Do I work hard and steadily? I try to. Do I always enjoy what I’m doing? Frequently not. It is, after all, work. Do I gain pleasure as I write? Sometimes. When the prose is flowing easily, when the humor bubbles up, when an acute phrase pops into into my head, then my work is a pleasure. Most of the time, however, I just plug away, knowing that, if I’m careful and consistent, the pleasure will come at the end of the day when I’m turned out to grass and I can read what I’ve written and call it good.”

It's been a long, loooong time since I blogged. Last year I was too busy. This past summer I was too busy. This fall I've been too busy. Besides, if you don't have anything to say, why try to say anything?

Well, anyhow....

Steve and Jenn started their own business in January. They're doing pothole repair using infrared technology. It works very well and they've exceeded their projected income by nearly 300% for this year.

Larry was married to Cassie Stone on March 6. They moved to Spokane, Washington, later in the spring. Larry's working for a car rental agency and Cass takes care of Spence and Amanda's little girl. Spence works for AT&T and Amanda teaches message therapy at DeVry University.

Richie graduated magna cum laude in psychology from the University of Utah in May. After a trip to Europe with his wife and six weeks of intensive training in Phoenix, he moved to New Orleans where he is now teaching special ed and Lori is studying art at the university there.

Sue and Kevin moved to an apartment of their own in June. Kevin is our son, Steve's , foreman.

Mike and Tracy moved to New Orleans this fall. Mike is in construction and Tracy is auditor for a parking lot facility.

Chris' wife and daughter were terribly injured by a drunk driver a year ago. Pam is back to work and Keri is in school although she had to undergo corrective surgery this fall. Chris, who quit his job to take care of his wife and daughter, has found work again...a blessing all around.

We found a doctor who would remove Lili's tonsils this fall and she's healthier, now, than she's been in years. She will be going into Job Corps in January where she plans to get duo certifications in welding and as a CNA.

We took in a foster daughter this past October - Genie - a girl who has been Lili's best friend for years. She, also, is going to Job Corps - which is why she came to us. Her family had moved to Arizona but she wanted to go to Job Corps with Lili and needed a Utah residence. We've enjoyed having her here and Lili's ecstatic to have a 'little sister' finally.

Jenn, Amanda and Sue are all expecting babies in the spring. Our quiver is being filled with arrows.

Rick is still employed at a printing facility and I finished the book I was writing about the homesteading of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Don't plan to market it at this time. I'm hard at work on another book which I will market once I'm finished.

I think non-writers often have a naive view of what it takes to be a good writer. Telling a cohesive story is only a small part of the writing process. Steve made the comment to me that I just needed to relax and let myself go because my writing flowed so beautifully. Yeah, right. He hasn't a clue how difficult it is to make it flow. It's definitely not something that just happens.

For a writer, there is so much more than syntax and spelling to writing a cohesive story. There's extensive research that goes into the current Work In Progress. Even if it's sci-fi or fantasy, it still must be believable and believability takes meticulous research.

One must also be able to determine what will enhance the story and what needs to be trimmed like fat off a pork roast. Leave a lot of sludge on and you have a story that clogs the brain just as pork fat clogs the arteries. Sooner or later the reader becomes so overloaded with superfluous stuff he/she gives up in despair. That's as bad for a writer's future income as pork fat is to his health.

Knowing what and how much to trim is an art that must be developed, however. And rigorously applied. I'm afraid, after the holidays, I'll need to trim about 20,000 words off my current WIP. I think I'd rather be hung, drawn and quartered but it must be done. This book is too vacuous in its present form.

Then, too, there's always that horrendous bane of writers, called writer's block, which must be dealt with on a regular basis. One can see ones story unfold in ones mind but putting it down on paper is a whole 'nother ball game. I find the transitions to be incredibly difficult. Creating the scenes is easy. It's travelling smoothly from one scene to the next that taxes my mental processes to the hilt.

So when writer's block hits, I pace the floor, wearing my carpet to the threadbare stage. Upon occasion I even give about ten minutes of serious thought to finding a job in an office somewhere. But, since Corporate America and I aren't a very compatible duo, it isn't long before I'm forced to take a sanity pill (chocolate covered, of course) and get back to work.

Writing, regardless of the struggle entailed, is definitely the better choice for me.

normal fall at the mittan house

What is it they say about ‘famous last words’?
And in my last blog I said something about it being quiet around my house, didn't I?
I wish!
Oh well.
I wouldn't change what's been happening but it sure ain’t quiet in our neighborhood anymore! And I’m not working for corporate America anymore. And our house isn’t kid-less anymore.

I think we’ve done an about face.

I quit my job the day Susie and Kevin asked if they might live in our basement for a few weeks until they got back on their feet. Kevin’s job was ending but the winter job he’s done previously was to plow snow for the state of Idaho. And who knows when Idaho is going to need him?

Sue was sick again – bronchitis, this time – so Lili and I went up and had her all packed and ready to be loaded by the time Kevin brought his camper home from the job site in Wyoming. We put in storage what was staying there, loaded Kevin’s truck, my truck and Sue’s car...and hit the road.

Now they and their three kids, ages 9, 5 and 3, are living in my unfinished basement. We threw up a quick wall at the bottom of the stairs and are busy getting ready to insulate and sheetrock the resulting room. If they stay long enough I just might get my basement totally finished some day. Wouldn't that be a switch?

Meanwhile, the two older kids are in school and I’m doing the ‘grandma-is-my-babysitter’ thing. Sue is working as a photographer for Sears, and Direct TV wants Kevin so I’ll be in charge of kids this winter.

Oh well. I’m grateful for the money I earned in the six weeks I worked but there are other things that are more important in life than money. I can always go back to work later on.

As for other news, tonight is the night for hauntings and witches and ghouls. You know the drill. Oooooooooo and all that.

There have been a few interestingly-dressed little creatures show up at my house but other than that, it’s pretty quiet around here. Larry and his younger cousin, Michael, are playing video games in Larry’s room but Lili is at a party and Sue and Kevin and kids are up in the Avenues trick-or-treating with Richie and his wife. Then the kids get to have a sleepover with their uncle and aunt while Sue and Kev get a night to themselves. It’ll be good for everyone concerned.

And Rick, being at work, gets to miss it all.
Poor Grandpa.

So here I am in a very quiet house. Hmmm.
I think I’ll go find a good book.

Happy Halloween y'all.

too tired to write a lot but here's some news...

I recently took a job. . .the first full-time job I've had in years and the first corporate job ever. ...And it's really kicking me.
This old girl is 60 - that's the big six-oh, guys - and I'm supposed to be learning not one, not two, but at least four dos computer programs. I always knew there was a reason I stuck with windows! I think my brain is turning to jelly.
HOWEVER --- I am persevering and I am conquering.
It's been 28 years ago this fall since the last time I took a class where I had exams. And I can't say I'm jumping for joy with the grades I've gotten so far (91.5 on the first exam and 91.0 on the second) but it could be a lot worse. Some of the hotshot computer geeks in the class got far lower scores than I did so I guess I can't complain too much. Still, it's shredding my pride because the last time I went to school (with four little kids to take care of and a business to run in another state) I pulled a 4.0 gpa. So I AM complaining just a little bit.
But it's coming. It's starting to make sense. I'm starting to see a pattern. And I got assigned a different mentor, today(at my request), and so that's going much better. Overall, I am rather pleased.
My job is with the Marriott Vacation Club call center. I'll be answering questions, booking vacations and posting points and flyer miles. I figured it was something an old lady ought to be able to handle. Didn't know what I was getting myself into, actually, but I think I can handle it. I want to. We need the income right now and it's time for me to go to work full time. Besides, it's the first time in 38 years that I didn't have kids I was responsible for. D'yu know how nice that is????? :)
Lili's been pulling overtime at the video store lately. They've changed hands and there's a lot to be done. And guess who is the only one on the staff who isn't afraid to climb a ladder and take down signs or change light bulbs?
I guess she comes by it naturally. I've spent every spare minute I've had for the past six weeks up on a ladder scraping, sanding and painting my house. I should be finished within about a week - I hope. If the weather will just hold. I'm really trying to get it finished this fall. I'm lucky we've had such good weather most of the time.
In the meantime, Chris, in New York, has been doing something he's wanted to do for years. I'm including his Utube video of his experience. Check it out.
Ok, most of you know that I have always wanted to do this...

Now I have, and here is the video to prove it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARbPunmI3tQ
He also has joined a group of motorcyclists called Patriot Guard who, when requested to do so, ride as a group to escort fallen servicemen from the airplane bringing their bodies home to the grave site where they form a ring around the gravesite to keep hecklers away.
How sad it is that some people in our country are so insensitive as to create a fuss in the presence of mourning family!
I'm proud of my son for joining the Patriot Riders. I'm proud of his patriotism and his respect for those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom.
Well, folks, I've been on the go for nearly 18 hours. I think I'm gonna pack it is.
My thanks to those of you who have responded to my blog. It's nice to have you drop in.
Oh, and by the way, it appears that what was wrong with my daughter in Idaho was dehydration. Too much soda pop and too little water. She seems to be doing much better now. Thank y'all for your concern and best wishes for her.

the twists and turns of life

Life sure is full of twists and turns.I was busy pressure washing my house the other day, doing the final prep work before hauling out the paint cans and my brushes, when I decided I was done for the day. The rest could wait. I was soaking wet, covered with various-sized moles of the paint that was peeling off my siding in huge chunks, and freezing cold due to a brisk Utah wind. Good time to call a halt and go warm up in a steaming hot shower, right?On the way through the kitchen I noticed my older daughter had called from Idaho. So I grabbed the phone and returned her call while I hunted for something warm and dry to wear.She answered in tears.She was at her doctor's office, grounded from driving because she's been having blackout spells followed by intense headaches. Would I come be her chauffeur and moral support while she got this problem sorted out? I left home about forty-five minutes later. And I'm still in Idaho - not having the faintest idea when I'll be free to go back home.In the meantime she's seen a neurologist and had an MRI. We're waiting for the results from that before the next test - a spinal tap.It appears that this might be one of two things. Either she's building up an excess of cerebral/spinal fluid and it's affecting her optic nerves (these 'blackouts' only affect her vision, not her hearing or ability to talk, walk, etc.) or there is the possibility of MS.The MRI should indicate if MS might be present. If it shows spots on her brain, the fluid collected from the spinal tap will be sent to a lab for further testing and confirmation of MS.The spinal tap, by itself, will indicate if her cerebral/spinal fluid is not being drained and absorbed as it's supposed to be.And in the meantime I'm her wheels.I'll probably go home once she's recovered from the spinal tap. Her friends and church members can help her get to where she needs to go after that. But I had to be here while the testing was being done. She needs me and I need to know what's happening to my daughter.So the house will wait. It may get painted this fall and, then again, it may not. Oh well.My garden will wait. I called Steve and told him to go raid my corn patch because I know full well Rick, Larry and Lili won't get around to canning or freezing it and they can't eat it all. (Oh, yes, Lili came back home a couple weeks ago.)And my life, while spiraling in unexpected circles, seems pretty much on hold, too.Seems pretty normal to me.

from Chris, in New York

Chris just sent this to us. He's working for a company that builds grain silos. We'd been after him for photos and he finally got tired of being bugged.
This is so interesting to me. Corn, used as actual fuel to heat homes, is the hottest new item, it seems. The bottom photo shows a complete system from wet-corn storage, through the drier, to the dry corn storage.
Now, here's Chris' letter and photos. Remember that a left click of your mouse makes the photos large sized.

...so here it is. Some of these pics are extra big on purpose so you can see all the detail as well as possible.

This first pic is one of the biggest bins we build. It's 48 feet in diameter, and when we finished it, it was about 48 feet to the peak of the roof. In this pic, we have only 12 jacks set up around the silly thing. Each of these regular jacks is 10 feet 6 inches tall. We attach them to the bottom of that first ring, which is fairly light guage, and raise the whole building up 33 inches so we can attach the next ring, one sheet at a time. You can see the next set of sheets set up inside, where they are all stacked up and ready to set up as we go. We can only raise the thing up two rings at a time, then we have to reattach the jacks and start over again. As we attach each ring, we have 24 bolts in each seam between the sheets, and another 10 between each sheet and the one above, making 34 bolts per sheet. 16 sheets per ring, 13 rings... (34x16)x13=7072 structural bolts just in the wall of this thing, and we have to put bolts in the holes from the jack anchors every time we lower the anchors, plus the bolts that go into the roof, the door, and the ladder, so call it somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000 bolts in this thing, and I personally stuffed half or a little more of them. I don't even want to think about how many times I walked all the way around this stupid bin!!


Here you can see the stairwell we are building around the silly thing. Bins this big don't get ladders, like the smaller ones do, and I'll show the smaller bin later. This was at 9 rings. We had to add 4 jacks to the mix at this point, as the bin was getting HEAVY.


16 jacks, 2 of them taller so we didn't have to lower them around the doorway we built into the wall between the taller 2. The doorway makes the wall weaker and we didn't want to attach the jacks at the bottom of the opening as it pulls the wall out at the weak point, making attaching the bottom ring just about impossible. 3 rings to go...


Finished at last! 13 rings, each one 33 inches tall, makes the top of the wall 35 feet 9 inches tall, and the peak of the roof is another 13 to 15 feet beyond that, I'm not sure exactly how much. The bottom ring was just 1/32 of an inch less than 1/4 of an inch thick, so you can imagine that the whole thing was incredibly heavy by the time we finished. Each sheet on the final ring weighed around 240 pounds. We installed the door, which shores up the weakness in the wall where the opening was, making the whole thing rock solid again. These bins are set on a concrete base, which was 72 cubic yards for this particular beast. Check the next picture to see how the floor is installed, and for more info on how much corn goes in this thing.


These floors consist of panels that are anywhere from about 9 feet long at the shortest to around 27 feet 7 inches long at the longest. We snap them together on top of the supports you see, which are placed under the leading edge in staggered formation, on and between the lines painted on the floor as guides. When we finished this floor, it was all set to hold the 1500 TONS of corn the farmer plans to put in it this fall. Do the math... that's 3 MILLION pounds of corn!!!


Final picture for now. This is a complete system, including wet hopper for corn fresh from the field (center, smaller bin), grain dryer (on the left), and the storage bin. Follow the auger system we built from the bottom of the wet hopper to the top of the dryer, then from the bottom of the dryer to the top of the dry storage bin. This is a smaller dry storage bin at 30 feet in diameter, and only 12 rings tall. Notice the ladder system instead of the stairs like the bigger one got. From the time we start setting up to pour the concrete bases, to the time we hang the augers and finish everything up takes around 3 weeks. Our next project is another monster bin like all the above pics, but it's out in Massachusetts somewhere. We will leave in the morning to go out and set up for and pour the concrete base for it. We should be building on it next week.