Poaching Daisies Blog Tour!!!

Announcing my blog tour: A bunch of writers and reviewers have taken time to review or interview my newest book. Take a look on the scheduled day. Follow the rules and get a chance to win $50.00 to spend in my pottery etsy site. It's easy. It's fun. And hopefully you might discover a reason to read my latest book. Take some time to familiarize yourself to the participants writing and books.



March 24th Janet Kay Jensen Janet is a member of my Logan writing group and was valuable help in asking the right questions and offering suggestions as the story unfolded. She definitely helped the book turn out better.

March 25 Julie Coulter Bellon (popular writer and reviewer) She writes a blog called lds writer mom She is both a successful writer and a wonder mother. I know she has a large family and marvel that she has time to write at all. Thanks Julie for participating.

March 26 Liz Adair is a prolific writer. If you have read very much LDS fiction you'll have come across her books. I'm so pleased she would take time to read and review my latest. Her blog is Liz Sez. I love that she "sez" she has opinions about just about everything. So do I. Maybe that's why we write.

March 27th Braden Bell. I've never met Braden. I know him as a teacher, writer, online friend, storymaker and great supporter of writers. I've read his books and really enjoyed them.

March 28th Author Shirley Bahlmann. I met Shirley a decade ago. She's one of those cheerful and beautiful people that you love as soon as you meet. The first thing I said to her was, "You're tall!" Not exactly the most gracious thing to say. But there is a lot more to Shirley than height and good looks; she's talented as well.

March 29th Last but not least. Stephanie Worlton whom I've never met and don't know much about except that she is an author and knows a lot about camping. I love the title of her blog Kreating Krazy One Day at a Time. She was gracious enough to join my blog tour, so please acquaint yourself with her blog and my book at the same time. I could have used her book when I was camp director and later as Young Women's President, but she hadn't written it yet.

Wednesday Writer An Interview with Carole Thayne Warburton

I liked the interview, author Tanya Parker Mills, did with me so much that I decided to post it here. Also my book Poaching Daisies is being launched at the incredible Kindle price of S2.99 for just two weeks at Amazon.





Interview on Tanya Parker Mills blog.



Announcing my Blog Tour Begins on March 24th. Check back for Details. 

Church in the Mountains in Montana

I have to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with my religion. I'm on a constant roller coaster of highs and lows, but through it all there's a been a thread binding me to my upbringing. The thread is tradition and love. In 1961 Grandpa Anderson built a cabin in Silver Gate, Montana. Silver Gate is one mile from the northeast entrance of Yellowstone. Every summer since that first year I've spent some time there. When I was really little, Sundays at the cabin were spent having a church meeting with family. I loved these meetings. They were basically testimony meetings where we'd share things that were most important to us--family, love, tradition, the truthfulness of the gospel, how much we loved the cabin, the mountains, nature... When I got my own family we've done this less often. Instead we've followed proper protocol and drove either to Yellowstone to have church at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone at an LDS branch, or later to Gardiner, Montana, but more often to the Cooke Pass LDS branch. Nothing has ever come close to as spiritual as the time I remember Grandpa and Grandma Anderson talking about how they held church in their home in Glendive, Montana because they were the only Mormons in town. Grandpa was the branch president and his family was the branch. At the Silver Gate cabin Grandpa Anderson and Dad passed the sacrament to us. Things were different back then and the Church didn't make a fuss about getting permission to do what my grandma and dad had been ordained to have authority to do. I know I've never come close to feeling the kind of love I felt at those early cabin meetings. My heart overflowed with the spirit. I wanted more than anything to feel that kind of peace and joy every day of my life. Grandpa died when I was ten. We'd said goodbye to him a week or two before at the cabin and drove back to Utah. He died in Yellowstone Park. He was fishing on the Lamar River, caught his limit, and died of a heart attack. My Uncle was with him and couldn't revive him.

It broke our hearts. But  the cabin stands as a reminder of his life, his goodness, his love, his sacrifice for his family and for his religion. He was the best of men.

A couple of weeks ago my family was at the cabin. We shared a few days with our son, his wife, and our three grandchildren. We chose to attend church at a small branch about ten miles from the cabin.  It wasn't as wonderful as those early meetings with Grandma and Grandpa--nothing could be--but it was heartwarming and the tug on my heart, the goodness, the thread that weaves through my life binding me to my upbringing and to my family and to my religion was there.

Top Ten Reasons why Church at an LDS Branch at Cooke Pass, Montana is Better

10: Chance to see wildlife on the way--especially Bison. I've never seen a bison on the way to church in Utah.
9.  I got to go with my grandkids.
8. No church responsibilities.
7.  No classrooms, so priesthood was outside in the pines.
6.  Men wore cowboy boots.
5. My daughter-in-law wore skinny jeans (not even allowed on BYU Idaho campus.) I wore pants. Mick wore jeans--so we were all comfortable. No one cared how we were dressed. I have always doubted that God cares either. 
4. Church was held in a cool cabin with family photos on the wall.
3. Testimony meeting was sweet. People spoke from their hearts and focused more of Jesus and the Atonement than I normally hear.
2. Best Sunday drive after church ever to the top of the Beartooths!
1. Instead of a mind-numbing three hours, church was two hours and they covered everything beautifully without any time for political commentaries from people in Gospel Doctrine class. 

The LDS church in Cooke Pass, Montana

Grandkids over 10,000 feet high in the Beartooths

The Summit of the Beartooths

We stopped to see a waterfall after church.

This is where we turned off for church

The Amphitheater Mountain is the mountain I've looked at from the cabin window for over 50 years.

Youngest grandchild

What's in a Name?

I always liked my last name growing up. It was simple and in my mind sounded important and it wasn't all that common. We were told that all Thayne's in the United States were related--having all descended from two Scottish brothers John Johnson Thayne and Ebeneezer Thayne Jr. who joined the Mormon church. I liked that I came from a man with the same name as Ebeneezer Scrooge. I liked that there was a little town we drove through every year on our way to our family cabin in Silver Gate, Montana. I liked that the town was named after my ancestor. Growing up we loved to drive through Thayne and have our picture taken by the sign.

When I got married in 1979, I really didn't want to give my name up. In those days though few women kept their name and hyphenating hadn't come into vogue. So my name changed to Warburton--sounds fairly feudal as well. I kind of thought Carole Warburton sounded pretty uncommon, but when Covenant agreed to publish my first book it turned out they already had an author named Carol--noted the lack of "e"--Warburton. So they asked that I use a different last name. So I got to be Carole Thayne again. I started going by Carole Thayne Warburton whenever possible and that's the name I use on my books now.