As many of you know, I am currently working with author Gary R. Motte to promote the book that he wrote (and I illustrated and published) called "The Little Red Fergie." This is a children's book about a red Ferguson tractor that goes through various owners and situations and perseveres through the good and the bad. Basically, this little tractor goes through life. 

The promotion we are running (now through Saturday of this week) is that 10% of every sale we make for the Little Red Fergie will be donated to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. We were also able to donate 10 signed copies of the book, and 50 related bookmarks and stickers.

We chose Primary Children's Hospital because the author of this book and his family have received care through Primary Children's for years and years, starting when Gary was very young due to a heart condition. Primary Children's Hospital has also played many roles for my own friends and family throughout my life so far, and we both wanted to give back. We thought it would be especially appropriate to run this promotion during Heart Health Awareness Month.

Thanks to this promotion we're running, we had the awesome opportunity of visiting Primary Children's Hospital late last week for a tour of the hospital. This was... truly an incredible experience. Most often, when someone visits a hospital, it's because they or someone they care for is sick or injured, and because of that, their focus is planted on the person receiving hospital care. To be able to visit the hospital outside of these circumstances and really learn some of the things the hospital has to offer its patients was a phenomenal and unique experience. In today's blog post, I want to highlight some of the incredible things I learned (that I did not know, but absolutely loved) about Primary Children's Hospital. 

​#1. Primary Children's Hospital offers multiple services outside of the regular scope of care to its patients, including...

• A school zone where kids can go to learn and grow during their stay at the hospital as a part of the Family Support Services Department. This is so important! There are a handful of professionals who work in the School Zone to provide educational support to these kiddos who have to be out of school, sometimes for long periods of time. I also learned that they connect with schools around the state to provide support and help facilitate an easier transition back to a regular school environment. As someone who has taught in the classroom and now supports teachers and students with their reading, I cannot stress how valuable this kind of support can be. I also learned that they give books to kids for free while they're staying at the hospital. 
•  Sophie's Place - a music therapy space that opens up to kid centers where kids can go to learn music, record things, and heal in a whole different way. I learned that the professionals in this area provide support like music classes, holding little concerts for patients, inviting celebrities to come and visit, and even allowing families space and opportunity to record messages for their loved ones staying at the hospital... 
• Seacrest Studios, which broadcasts various activities and things to the rooms throughout the hospital so kids can engage and be connected even from the confines of their hospital rooms.
• Ronald McDonald Foundation Family Rooms, which provides a space for families to stay and even eat while their children are at the hospital.
• Kids Clubhouse, which is a space where siblings of patients can receive care from child life specialists while their siblings stay at the hospital.
• Financial assistance to families.
• ... and a host of other support services.

#2. When we met with the director of cardiology, I also learned that Primary Children's Hospital has around 500 heart care providers dedicated to their patients across disciplines, and that they have a multi-disciplinary team that sits together to analyze data to ensure their practices and procedures are as effective as possible. I learned that the hospital is nationally ranked, currently sitting at number 12 on the list, and that technological advancements have allowed the professionals here to increase procedure effectiveness while reducing stay time, risk, and invasiveness of their surgeries. 

#3. Much of the services that the hospital offers, like the School Zone, Sophie's Place, and financial assistance (just to name a few) are made possible because of philanthropic donations. All these amazing things they are able to do and supports they are able to provide patients and families are due to donations from regular people, just like me. I did not know that before I visited!

Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed, grateful, and humbled to have been able to take a tour of the hospital and learn more about the services and supports they have available for their patients and families. 

Thank you for reading this blog post! I know I usually share writing-related content on this blog, and this post is not directly related to writing. But I was able to learn all of this because of my connection to writing and this promotion we're running. 

If you would like to help us make a difference for these kiddos, you can still purchase your copy of The Little Red Fergie for the rest of this week. This promotion will close on February 28th, 2026. If you would also like to look into donating directly to the hospital, I would recommend visiting this link: https://intermountainhealthcare.org/locations/primary-childrens-salt-lake-city/give 

​Reach out if you have any questions, and have a wonderful rest of your February! Happy Heart Health Awareness Month!

This morning, my three year old son was playing in my office, and he called out, “Mom, this is a scary book!”

Curious as to what he was talking about, I joined him in the office to find him holding a copy of my YA fantasy novel, Emerald Shadow. When I followed up with, “That book is scary?” he replied, “Yeah. It’s scary. It has monsters and zombies in it and it’s so cool.”
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​Now, I was surprised by this statement. Emerald Shadow is the sequel to the first book I ever released (Azure Light) and was the fourth book I ever published. Because it is one of my older works, I don’t talk about it often, especially around my kiddo. But everything he was saying (except for the zombies, though he wasn’t far off with that statement either) was true about this particular book. 

It is a bit scary at times. It does have monsters in it, and in a way, it kind of has zombies in it too. 

So I asked him, “How do you know that?” 

He sat up straight and held the book high into the air and said, “Because it’s dark.”

Also true. I don’t know if he actually knows anything about that story - he’s only now starting to be able to read simple words - but even that statement is true. The story takes place in a world that is almost all dark, and completely devoid of sunlight.


And that got me thinking. Do I portray all that in my cover? No, I don’t think so, though I try to convey some of it. 

So how did he know all this?

My best guess is that he’s been paying attention when I have book signing events. Paying attention to what I say to readers when they ask what my books are about. 

And if that’s the case, then maybe I am marketing my books (at least in person) better than I thought. 

So I set a goal, because I’m all about that. For the next few videos or posts I make about my books, I’m going to try to word it in a way that mirrors what I do at my book signings (as best I can without the flowing conversation with a reader) and simplify things so that even my three year old who can barely read will be able to grasp the themes. 

Have you had any revelations like this lately? Any interactions with family, friends or even strangers that made you pause snd think differently about something you do? I’d love to know!

As many of you know, I am currently chipping away at my developmental rewrite for the final installment in the Bound Trilogy, Fated. I was recently talking with another writer about our processes for editing our books, and I thought it would be cool to share with you some of the things I do to get the most out of my developmental rewrite with limited time.

This process has been developed over the course of writing and editing my last several books, and I find this is what works best (most effectively) for me. 

Here are three things I do that make all the difference during this part of my process:

1. Write myself notes.
This first thing actually starts way back when I'm writing my first draft. I find that the best way I'm able to keep my momentum going is by NOT stopping when I get stuck on a scene or a detail. Instead, I write myself a quick note with as much detail I need to remember what I WANT the scene to do, then I move on. 

Before I send my draft to a developmental editor, I try to address most of these notes. But as many of you writers out there know, it doesn't always come on the first, second, or even third pass. This refinement happens over several passes through your book. For any notes that still remain (or any areas that I still feel need work), I make myself a list in a separate document of all the notes I have that still need to be addressed. 

This list is something that I keep handy as I work through my developmental re-write, alongside my developmental editor's notes. I find that having all of my feedback together as I work through it allows me to take a deeper look at the scenes that need work, as well as find areas that are a commonly noticed problem. 

2. Have a developmental editor take a careful read through my story.
This one may seem obvious to you, as in, yes, it's important to have someone else's eyes on your story before it comes out. However, a lot of people still ask me what a developmental editor is for, and I've had some people offer to developmentally edit my books without really knowing fully what that means. 

A developmental editor is someone who should read through your full story and edit it. They are NOT there to point out wording issues, punctuation issues, or anything related to grammar or formatting. The job of a developmental editor is to look at the story itself to see what needs to be improved. They look at the overall plot, character development and motivation, world building, and so on. Their job is to help you develop and smooth out your story, and they should be paying close attention to these things. 

3. Send my book to beta readers. 
Now, this part may work differently for many of you. For me, I find that I work most effectively if I can gather all my feedback together and address it at the same time, while I work on completely rewriting (yes, totally retyping everything) the whole story. Because of this, I like to send my book out to beta readers at the same time that my book is with my developmental editor. 

Beta readers are regular people (as in, not typically highly trained editors focused on their craft) who look at the story as a regular reader would. But the beautiful thing about this opportunity is that they then get to tell me what they liked, didn't like, what felt slow or confusing, etc. so I can address those things. 

When I send my work out to beta readers, I remind them that I am not looking for grammatical feedback, just what they think of the story. I also send out a list of questions that I would like them to answer when they are finished reading. I have posted that list before, but I'll share it again on this blog very soon.



When I work through my developmental rewrite with all of these various notes from various sources, I find that I'm able to make much better changes and more easily catch points of confusion. I also often have people ask my why I do a full retyping of the story. I find that this is much more effective for me, even though it certainly takes a lot more time. The reason I retype the story is it allows me to re-immerse myself into the scenes and get really into the story while I'm addressing the notes, so I can add or change things throughout the entire story as I go. 

What are some things you do to improve your process?