Finished! I sent the cover and guts files to the printer for approval at noon! You can now order your copy from VampiresVampires.com for just $7.97.

I’m eager to hear what you think! Thanks for your support.

<– Click the cover for a full-size version to read the back cover text.

One of my favorite tools for getting things done is setting unrealistic goals.

For example, I recently decided to write a teen vampire novel. I gave myself two weeks to finish.

It’s now about 2½ months later and it’s still not finished BUT I am 7 chapters away from a pretty solid rough draft with most all the details in place. One more pass and I’ll have a publishable book, though I should probably read through several more times to polish it up even more.

The key to successfully setting unrealistic goals is not getting all bent out of shape when you fail to achieve them. Simply reassess where you stand, give yourself credit for how far you’ve come, and start over with new unrealistic goals.

I don’t care what the experts say – you have to admit this beats setting entirely realistic goals, like writing a book in eight to twelve months, and thus never even beginning because that’s just too far away.

Tomorrow I will finish those seven chapters. After that, I give myself a week for the publishable draft, and then another day or two for final polishing.

Last week was declared National Search and Rescue Week by the US Senate. We kicked it off Sunday night with an exciting rescue just outside Timpanogos Cave National Monument up American Fork Canyon.

Three men in their 20’s went hiking up the extremely steep, rocky, precarious AF canyon, then decided to hike back down. They downclimbed a 200′ cliff that was a big mistake for two reasons: they could have fallen to their deaths, and once they reached the bottom, they couldn’t get down the next 200′.

So they called 911. Good call. It’s easier to walk people out than carry them.

We got paged out around 7:30 p.m. I was assigned team leader for the top team, and I picked three other members of the Singletrack Special Team – Bryan, Jake and David. This was partially because Jake is a ranger and read in the manual this week that certified motorcycle riders from another agency can use the NPS motorcycles in an emergency.

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I just came across this essay I wrote many years ago while digging up examples to use in the English class I’m teaching at UVU. It’s from a book I never finished called “I Have Wasted My Life.” It’s about choices and your identity. I liked it and decided to post it here:

Everyone knows the importance of choosing your favorite flavor of ice cream. You’ll be tested, and you don’t want to get it wrong and look like a fool.

At five, my favorite flavor was ice cream sandwiches. The chocolate outside made the experience rich and sweet, and the thin slice of vanilla inside kept my mouth wet and cool.

One would never satisfy, but one was all I got. Once gone, the chocolate and creamy ice cream left me thirsty, hungry for another, the hunger remaining until the taste had left my mouth.

Sometimes my favorite flavor was the cones dipped in the chocolate that hardened instantly around the generous swirls of soft serve vanilla and crunched between my baby teeth. At the ice cream stand near home or across the street from the San Francisco Zoo, these came with a colorful, tiny glass animal figurine.

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I went for a walk up the street late tonight as I often do for some fresh air and to mull things over. The trees are in bloom, filling the night air with their deliciously sweet scents. I could almost taste the fruit that won’t appear until July or August. A light breeze rustled their new leaves with a sound that I had forgotten over the winter. Mule deer strolled down the road a block ahead of me.

After staring out over the valley for a while, at the black hole cut in the center of all the lights by the lake, the red radio antenna lights flashing atop Lake Mountain, and the aircraft fading in and out of the low clouds, I turned around and headed toward home.

A few rain drops sprinkled on my forehead accompanied by a gust of cool breeze and the dusty smell that often precedes a downpour.

So I did the only sensible thing.

I walked more slowly.

Forgot to mention: my new book Courage, Love and the Meaning of Christmas is now available in a non-holiday edition: Courage, Love and the Meaning of Life.

I wrote the original version of this book (Gone but not Forgotten) in three weeks and it piled up a lot of enthusiastic fans. The most frequent feedback I got was that people started reading too late at night, then stayed up till 3 a.m. to finish because they didn’t want to put it down. I spent 10 years (off and on, of course) revising it and this version is way better. Translation: you want to order one. Everybody’s doing it! Just once won’t hurt.

You can order from Amazon.com, and if you’ve already read it, do me a big favor and leave a review there. Thanks!

I walked outside this morning and enjoyed the refreshing sensations of the first day of autumn.

The sky was filled with high, dark clouds spreading an even, muted, shadowless light; a stiff breeze tousled my hair; and a few rain drops darkened the ground.

With a few pleasantly warm days behind us, this cold front reminded me of the reprieve from summer’s heat that usually arrives sometime in September. Its cool slap in the face has a way of waking you up from the stupor of sizzling August afternoons and making you feel ALIVE again.

It reminded me of a cool summer I spent in a wood-framed tent, running the climbing program at a scout camp near West Yellowstone.

Every morning we walked quickly through the brisk air alongside a clear stream to an outdoor shower, breakfast, and flag ceremony. Snow-white weasels with black-tipped tails sometimes trotted along the trail before us.

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I just read about a Harvard Business School study which identified traits of high achievers. Even above the expected intelligence, education and attitude came Speed of Implementation.

I find facts like this exciting because how fun is it to make a decision and then carry it out immediately? How thrilling is it to make things happen? And if all goes according to plan, how wonderful is it to succeed? Even if some efforts fail, it’s still fun to try – more fun than sitting around wondering what to do, or whether to do something, or wishing you could do something other than whatever you ARE doing.

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Day before yesterday I decided I should drive to California and climb Mount Whitney. Immediately.

Whitney is 14,500′ tall and the highest point in the US outside of Alaska. A significant portion of book three of my Christmas fiction trilogy happens there and as I reached that point in writing the book, I realized that I needed to know the mountain first hand to continue writing.

So this trip is really just a research project.

We leave Sunday afternoon, if all goes according to plan. Back Wednesday or Thursday. I’ll let ya know how it goes….

Ya gotta love your friends. I mean really, really love them! Don’t you? I sure do.

I notice, however, that there’s a fairly wide gap between those I consider my close friends and the many other people I know and spend time with. It’s not just that we have a lot in common. It’s not just that they’re smart and good and open and happy and fun. My close friends know something about the art of being true friends.

They know that being a friend means doing something about it, being there for each other when needed without a second thought. Somehow there’s no contradiction in the fact that we may lose touch for years and our friendship doesn’t deteriorate. They see the good in everything and dwell on that, and that makes life ever so much more beautiful than it already was.

I just glanced at my profile on a social networking site and read through the comments left by various friends there. It made my day and now I’m going to share their comments here. To all you guys and all my other well-loved friends out there (you know who you are!), I want to thank you for being who you are and doing what you do. Thank you ever so much for making my life a quality experience. I value you above nearly all else.

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