Good day, everyone! I hope everyone’s week has been just as amazing as mine was. I did write last week, and I did do a blog post today, so today seems to have been a success, right? Right. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday I was camping up at Bryce Canyon, and I didn’t do much writing. But, boy, did I have a blast. And this week we’re – my Mom, Dad, sister and I – are preparing to go to Martin’s Cove so I probably won’t do much writing this week. However, after this week, I’m free for a while.

LUX is currently at fifteen-thousand words, and I’m loving it (“Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum . . . I’m lovin’ it!”). Anyway, I’ll definitely have the second draft done by the end of the summer. And, after the revision rounds, I’m pretty sure I know what I’m going to write next. Some of you probably won’t like it. Some of you probably will. Then again, there’ll be some of you who won’t really give a crap.

In other news, I’ve discovered the amazingly fun “art” of hiking. And since I virtually have to walk out my back door to be in the canyon, I’ll be doing a lot of hiking in the next few weeks. Fun. Fun. Fun. =D

I am currently reading The Work and the Glory: A Pillar of Light by Gerald N. Lund. This book is also . . . The Book of the Week! I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while now, and just barely got around to it. I love it!

“Pillar of Light, volume one of the bestselling historical fiction series The Work and the Glory, begins in the 1820s as Benjamin Steed moves his family to Palmyra Township in upstate New York. There they meet a young man named Joseph Smith and are caught up in the controversy that swirls around him. Did he really see the Father and the Son in a pillar of light? Is he a prophet and seer or a monumental fraud? The answers to these questions – intensely personal, potentially divisive – will dramatically affect the lives of the Steeds forever.

“Author Gerald N. Lund blends historical reality with high-powered fiction and introduces us to characters we have come to love: Benjamin and Mary Ann Steed, happily married, yet at odds over religion; Joshua, their volatile and rebellious son; Nathan, their spiritually sensitive second son; and Lydia McBride, who captures the hearts of both Steed brothers.

“This unforgettable story describes a family’s heartache and happiness that came in the wake of Joseph Smith’s experience with the pillar of light.”

I hope you all have an eventful, writing-filled week!

Until next Monday,

~Jared