Tristi Pinkston's Newest

Welcome to the Hang ‘em High Hoedown, counting down the days until the release of Tristi Pinkston’s new novel Hang ‘em High, the third installment in The Secret Sisters Mysteries.

When Ida Mae Babbitt receives an invitation to visit her son Keith’s dude ranch in Montana, she’s excited to mend their broken relationship, but not so excited about spending time with cows.  Arlette and Tansy go along with her, ready to take a vacation that does not involve dead bodies or mysteries of any sort—one must have a break from time to time.  But it seems a no-good scoundrel has moseyed into Dodge City and is bent on causing all sorts of trouble for the ranch.  Unable to keep her curiosity in check—

especially when it seems her own son is the most likely culprit—Ida Mae decides to investigate.  Can she lasso the varmint and get him to the sheriff in time?

You are invited to the launch party:



When:  Saturday, August 13th, 12 – 4 pm

Where: Pioneer Book, 858 S. State, Orem

Prizes, games, Dutch oven cobbler (first come, first served)

Tristi will be joined by authors Nichole Giles, Heather Justesen,

Cindy Hogan, and J. Lloyd Morgan





To count down to this book launch, Tristi is holding a contest, and you can win a ton of great prizes!



On my blog, you can win:



One of my Sun Tunnels and Secrets books given away by my publisher.




To enter

1.       Be a follower of my blog.

2.      Go to Tristi’s blog at http://www.tristipinkston.blogspot.com and become a follower of her blog.

3.      Leave Tristi a comment and tell her you’ve been to my blog, and tell her one reason why you’d like to win my book.



All entries must be received by midnight, August 12th, MST.



Be sure to check Tristi’s blog every day for information about the next prize – you’re in for a rootin’-tootin’ good time as we count down the days!

June in Paradise

I know you all get sick of me telling you about how lovely living in Paradise/Avon is, but with all the rain this year we had an especially beautiful batch of flowers growing behind our house. I thought I'd share a few shots.

Learning New Things

This is the summer of new things. Most summers are pretty blissful. My husband and I often get up in the mornings, share a nice breakfast, go on a hike or a bike ride, then come home have lunch, do some jobs, attend some activities, go to art festivals--you get the idea. This summer is being dominated by my husband's knee surgery. He's out of commission for the rest of the summer. This means I'm the one getting the newspaper in the morning, checking the chickens eggs, feeding the cats and chickens, watering, mowing, weeding, weed eating, carrying garbage to the bottom of the hill, doing the laundry, icing my husband's leg, keeping him fed and comfortable. I know lots of you probably do all these things--but he's always shared in the work.

Lots of farm kids learn to move sprinkler pipes when they are twelve years old. It's a great skill, builds muscles and teaches responsibility. But I didn't grow up on a farm or even remotely close. I grew up in the middle of Orem, Utah. I played in irrigation ditches and turned on the sprinklers on our lawn and ran through the rainbirds in the park across the street and got in trouble when we dammed the ditches and made our field into a lake large enough to canoe in. So moving pipe is something I didn't do. So at age 53 it's a new experience.  I have a good friend and neighbor who has come to the rescue, and another woman saw us working and helped, so I've learned a new skill. Tonight though my friends couldn't help so my husband helped on crutches. We've been spoiled. Now back to work.

Contest Winners!

This took me a while to post. I've been busy with Summerfest--a really fun art festival in Logan. Now that it's over I decided to finish this. The winner of Sun Tunnels and Secrets is Christopher who read and signed a review on Janet Jensen's blog. The winner of either False Pretenses or A Question of Trust is Delma Smith of Ogden. The winner of the Frog is Heather Moore.  I used the website Random.org to choose the winners fairly. I hope some of you will pick up Just Shy of Paradise or one of my other books. I've had a surprising number of people tell me Just Shy is their favorite. I'm surprised because it's quite different than the other. Thanks everyone who entered and I hope you'll check back now and again.

Contest to win Novels!!

 As the reviews are coming in for "Just Shy of Paradise" I'd like to reward my readers by giving away two of my novels and one of my frogs. Look at the photo above to see what they look like. I'll be giving away a copy of 2010's Sun Tunnels and Secrets, and a copy of either False Pretenses or A Question of Trust--winners choice. Here's the rules. I'll post links to the reviews here. After reading a review post a comment on their review for one entry, Either Facebook or Twitter about it for another, and Follow my blog for a third. Make sure you let me know what you are doing so that you can have a good chance at winning. The link to my blog is www.carolethayne.blogspot.com

Julie Coulter Bellon's review


Janet Jensen's review 

Jolynne Lyon's review 
Susan Dayley's review

Ldstorymaker conference and other cool stuff.

Last week I attended one day of the Storymaker conference that was held in SLC. It's always good. I always tell people that it's for anyone who wants to improve their writing, not just LDS--though it's mostly geared to fiction. Ever since I joined the storymakers about 8 years ago, I've helped in some capacity with the conference. This year I got to help authors or potential authors pitch to a publisher. I knocked on the door and kept things moving for an hour with the fabulous Lisa Mangum of Desert Book. Lisa is one of those people that puts people at ease and believe me it can be scary to pitch your idea in less than ten minutes--I've done it and know the heart-pounding anxiety it produces, but Lisa couldn't be more genuine. So I'd stand out the door and try to get the potentials ready by pitching to me first and giving encouragement. I got to meet some awesome people. It was fun and who knows maybe next year I'll dare do it myself. Here's some pics from the conference.

This is me with some other authors Ronda Gibbs Hinrichsen and Joan Soward.

This is me next to my editor Linda Mullineaux. She's as nice as she is lovely. And another author who I just met in person but knew online for a while Joyce Dipastina.

These last four pictures are of the winners of my novels at the conference. I like that three of the four winners are men and that at least one is another published author. I like it because some mistakenly believe writing and reading are a feminine activity.

Last but not least. I recently became aware of an author who has some exciting things going on. Check out this article in the Deseret News.http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705370789/Local-author-debuts-new-interactive-kids-books.html 
Karl Beckstrand served an LDS mission to Chile and that's where my son served too. Like Karl, my son has continued to use his language. My son is teaching his own children Spanish. They are being raised bi-lingual. Beckstrand's books sound really fun to me. Here's his site if you want to know more about his fun interactive books. http://gozobooks.com/  He's also got a booksigning coming up. It's Wed. June 15, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Sunflower Market: 656 E. 200 South, SLC, UT, USA. Good luck Karl. 

"The Crazy daze of Motherhood" by Jane Still

A couple of years ago when Jane Still joined our LDStorymaker group I was intrigued by her name. I mean Jane is so refreshingly unpretentious. Even after all these years it's STILL a good solid name. I mean I imagine sometimes Jane Still has conversations with people like this. "What is your name?" "Jane . . . Still." "Jane what?" "Jane Still." "I know it's still Jane, I didn't expect it to change, but what's your last name Jane?" "No, it's Jane Still." "I get that your name is still Jane, but...what is your last name." "Still what?" ...

See what I mean? I value humor higher than I value any other trait, higher than honesty, loyalty, thoughtfulness...just about anything. If you can make me laugh, I can forgive you of almost anything. If Charlie Sheen was just the least bit funny, I could forgive him for being completely narcissistic, but he's not. Nothing funny about a completely self-absorbed middle-aged star flushing his life down the tubes. But I digress, back to Jane. Not only was she funny, she is STILL funny. I don't know her personally, but I'm pretty sure I'd like her...still. She looks at the funny side of life and mothering. My favorite part in this little gem is all about going to the doctor and dressing and undressing. If you've ever been the doctors you'll relate to this dilemma. One thing about Jane is that she is still obviously not afraid of laughing at herself or her kids, or her husband. Another part I love is that her husband's answer to all problems is to drink more water. Don't we all know someone like that? No matter what you tell them, they tell you advice that sounds the same. A one size fits all approach. No matter what problem you have, they might say, "Well the thing you need to do is eat more spinach." You could say, our plumbing is acting up again, and they would still tell you to eat more spinach. This is how Jane's husband is described in one of the anecdotes in the book. The book is a short 88 page delight complete with drawings to help you get the picture. I smiled and laughed all the way through it. You can read more about Jane Isfeld Still. Or visit her blogspot.