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.

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. Continue Reading »

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. Continue Reading »

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. Continue Reading »

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. Continue Reading »

” In the last several years, while meeting and spending time with people who have become inordinately successful, I have observed several common traits among them. Two of those traits stand out.

“One is they have a calling, which they have discovered and are implementing.

“The other is they have made mountains of mistakes in the process of becoming “successful.” The gleaming mountain of success is actually a pile of trash – a pile of the mistakes we have made.

“The difference between the successful and the troubled is not error-free living; it is that by discovering and implementing a life calling, the successful stand on their pile of trash while the troubled sit under theirs.”

- Dave Ramsey

When things aren’t going as you’d like and that bothers you, you can bet on one thing – that it’s your own fault.

What I mean is that the fact that anything disturbs you – even when you feel TOTALLY justified in your indignation – means that you have an issue about it. A trigger. A button that can be pushed.

The real kicker is that when you have a button like that, your irrational sensitivity to it creates exactly the kind of circumstances in your life that so irritate and frustrate and discourage (or whatever) you. What a royal pain, n’est-ce pas? And all that trouble so that eventually, by some amazing miracle or through deep humility or utter desperation or whatever it takes, maybe you can learn your lesson once and for all and get it right at last and find the happiness and satisfaction you expected all along.

What I’m really saying here is that it’s my own fault. The fact that I see this now tells me that I’m learning and everything can change now.

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