Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Author Hour - Children's Fiction (Episode 10)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzyglsQZKQ

Join Matthew Peterson on another episode of The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction devoted to children's fiction. Meet Kate DiCamillo (Newbery award-winning author of Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, and The Magician's Elephant), Bruce Coville (author of nearly 100 books, including My Teacher is an Alien and The Unicorn Chronicles. Over 12 million sold), Peter Morwood and Diane Duane (NY Times bestselling authors of over 50 books, including the Young Wizards series and Star Trek), and Tony Abbott (Golden Kite award recipient with over 10 million books sold. Author of over 80 books, including The Secrets of Droon). Come listen to what these world-renown authors have to say about fantasy and science fiction for middle-grade children and young adults.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Author Hour - Young Adult Fiction (Episode 9)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTZONSGHwlA

Join Matthew Peterson on an episode of The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction devoted to young adult fiction. Meet James A. Owen (Here There be Dragons, Starchild comics), Frank Beddor (NYT bestselling Looking Glass Wars novels, producer of There's Something About Mary), John Flanagan (Ranger's Apprentice series) and James Dashner (The 13th Reality series, The Maze Runner, Borders Original Voices pick) as they talk about the art of writing books for teenage and pre-teenage audiences.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

The Author Hour - Urban Fantasy (Episode 8)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgq4Z69EPdc

Join Matthew Peterson on a supernatural/urban fantasy-themed episode of The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction with Sherrilyn Kenyon (#1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dark-Hunter series with over 20 million books in print), Patricia Briggs (#1 New York Times bestselling author of the Mercy Thompson series), Kelley Armstrong (New York Times bestselling author of the Women of the Otherworld series and the Darkest Powers series), and Charles de Lint (musician and award-winning author of the Newford series). These popular urban fantasy authors will discuss their writing of supernatural creatures like witches, vampires, and werewolves.

Also, last week I had a "Best of" episode with the bonus questions that never aired on previous episodes. I also had a special guest, Esther Friesner.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Author Hour - Vampires (Episode 6)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMK-8xuBHEo

Join Matthew Peterson on a vampire-themed episode of The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction as he interviews P. C. Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast (#1 bestselling authors of the House of Night series. P.C. has won the Prism, Holt Medallion, Daphne du Maurier, and Laurel Wreath awards), Charlaine Harris (international bestselling author of the Aurora Teagarden, Lily Bard, Harper Connelly, and Sookie Stackhouse series, which is now a popular TV series on HBO called True Blood), Laurell K. Hamilton (#1 New York Times bestselling author of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series and the Meredith Gentry series, with over 7 million books in print), and L. J. Smith (#1 New York Times bestselling author of Night World, Dark Visions, and The Vampire Diaries, which is now a hit TV series on The CW).

Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Author Hour - Fantasy & Science Fiction Classics (Episode 5)


Anne Rice, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kevin J. Anderson, Brian Herbert, and Orson Scott Card join Matthew Peterson on a memorable episode of The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction. Meet the world-famous authors whove given us classics like Interview with the Vampire, A Wizard of Earthsea, Enders Game, and books set in the Dune, Star Wars, Batman, and Superman universes. Meet Anne Rice (one of the most-read authors in the world with around 100 million books sold), Ursula K. Le Guin (winner of the National Book Award, Nebula, Hugo, Locus, Newbery Silver Medal, etc.), Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert (NY Times best-selling co-authors of over ten Dune novels), and Orson Scott Card (the only author to ever win both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards two years in a row). And dont forget to visit http://TheAuthorHour.com to catch bonus questions that didnt make it onto the live show.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

The Author Hour - Quests and Adventure (Episode 4)


Terry Brooks, Tracy Hickman, Margaret Weis, R. A. Salvatore, and Brandon Sanderson join Matthew Peterson on a quest and adventure-themed episode of The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction. Meet the masters of traditional fantasy: Terry Brooks (NY Times best-selling author of The Sword of Shannara and Magic Kingdom of Landover), Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis (NY Times best-selling authors of the Dragonlance series), R. A. Salvatore (NY Times best-selling author of The DemonWars Saga and Forgotten Realms), and Brandon Sanderson (NY Times best-selling author of the Mistborn and Alcatraz series and continuing the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series). Combined, these authors have sold well over 100 million books: enough for each household in the United States to own a copy! Dont forget to visit http://TheAuthorHour.com to catch bonus questions that didnt make it onto the live show.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

The Author Hour - Faeries (Episode 3)


Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black, Melissa Marr, Maggie Stiefvater and Aprilynne Pike join Matthew Peterson on a Faerie-themed episode of The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction. Come listen to these five New York Times best-selling authors as they discuss the enchanted worlds they've created. Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black give insights on the final Spiderwick Chronicles novel, The Wyrm King, as well as the popular Spiderwick movie. Melissa Marr takes us deep into her dark series: Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange and Fragile Eternity. Maggie Stiefvater shows us the beauty and dangers of Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception and Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie, while her unique werewolf love story, Shiver, gives us the chills. Aprilynne Pike delves into her debut novel, Wings, which hit #1 on the NY Times bestseller list and was optioned by Walt Disney with Miley Cyrus tagged for the lead role. And don't forget to visit http://TheAuthorHour.com to catch bonus questions that didn't make it onto the live show.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Author Hour - Strong Female Characters (Episode 2)


Diana Gabaldon, Meg Cabot, Shannon Hale and Kristin Cashore join Matthew Peterson on a strong female-driven episode of The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction. International best-selling authors Diana Gabaldon (Outlander series, Rita Award for Best Novel from the Romance Writers of America) and Meg Cabot (Princess Diaries, Airhead, Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls) have each sold over 15 million books. New York Times best-selling author Shannon Hale (Princess Academy, Bayern series) received the Newbery Honor and Josette Frank Award, plus her book hit the American Library Association's Top Ten Books for Young Adults list. Kristin Cashore's novel Graceling is a Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal and Amazon Best Book of the Year, plus it received the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and the SIBA Book Award. Come listen to these wonderful authors on The Author Hour. And don't forget to visit http://TheAuthorHour.com to catch bonus questions that didn't make it onto the live show.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Author Hour - Satire, Puns and Humor (Episode 1)



Terry Pratchett, Eoin Colfer, Jody Lynn Nye and Piers Anthony join Matthew Peterson on a fun-filled episode of The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction. Meet some of the funniest authors of our time, including Terry Pratchett (international bestselling author of the Discworld series with over 65 million books sold), Eoin Colfer (NY Times bestselling author of the Artemis Fowl series as well as the highly anticipated conclusion to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy entitled And Another Thing), Jody Lynn Nye (continuing Robert Asprin's Myth-Adventures series and co-author of several novels with Anne McCaffrey), and Piers Anthony (NY Times bestselling author of the Xanth series). Millions of fans have enjoyed the satire, puns, and laugh-out-loud humor from their books. Now come and hear what these authors have to say on The Author Hour. And dont forget to visit http://TheAuthorHour.com to catch bonus questions that didnt make it onto the live show.

Interviews with top Fantasy / Science Fiction Authors



My new radio show launched on October 15th, 2009 and includes the top fiction authors of our day, including Terry Pratchett, Meg Cabot, Terry Brooks, Diana Gabaldon, Anne Rice, Ursula K. Le Guin, Orson Scott Card, Eoin Colfer, Charlaine Harris, Kate DiCamillo, and dozens more! Catch the free online show at http://TheAuthorHour.com (every episode is archived and transcribed for your convenience). Tell your friends, family, and even your dog about it!

Monday, August 24, 2009

My TV Interview with PBS

Arizona Illustrated interview with Matthew Peterson
I just got back from doing a TV interview with PBS (KUAT) Arizona Illustrated. Watch it at
http://tv.azpm.org/kuat/segments/2009/8/24/kuat-matthew-peterson-author/

Thursday, August 13, 2009

One Month After the Fire

I’m entitling this picture, "One Month After the Fire." Sad thing is that this is only three weeks growth for my beard. I know what you’re thinking. My poor wife! Well, she had a cold sore, so our marriage is still intact. I hate shaving. I’m the type of guy who gets his 5 o’clock shadow before lunch.



Here's me shaving off that beard like a real man! I don’t suggest using a sharp knife like this to shave off a beard. My boys call that knife "the machete." They’re afraid to even touch it, and for good reason. After trying and trying to shave off my beard, my wife finally buzzed it off with an electric razor for cutting hair. Good riddance!

FiestaCon Photos

FiestaCon Photos
With my house catching on fire, I forgot to post anything about the FiestaCon that I was attending that same weekend. Here are some photos I took with some of the authors.

Matt Peterson and Eric Flint
Matt Peterson and Eric Flint

Diana Gabaldon, Aprilynne Pike and Matthew Peterson
Diana Gabaldon, Aprilynne Pike, Matt Peterson

Janni Lee Simner and Matthew Peterson
Janni Lee Simner and Matthew Peterson

As a side note.... I'm not sure if there's much more that could happen to this boy of ours! But he just got glasses. Our friends say he looks "distinguished." He's had surgery on both eyes in the past, but we always thought his vision was fine. I guess not. Now I joke that when he puts his glasses on, half of his family disappears. When he used to have two sets of twin brothers, now he only has one set. His whole life has been turned upside down!

Jared got glasses

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Life Goes On

It’s been nearly three weeks since our house caught fire and we’ve finally moved into a rental home! Fortunately, it’s only 1.4 miles from our old home, which means our kids will still go to the same school as before. Yeah! It’s about 1,200 square feet smaller than the house we own, but it’ll be fine for six months... if we can get the reeking pet smell to go away. I’m going to try to convert the dining room into my office. Once summer is over the kids won’t be at home, so that’ll help. It has a big backyard and a swimming pool, so that’ll keep the kids out of my hair when I’m trying to work.

Last week, Alicia got stuck really bad by a rusty nail in our house and had to go to the urgent care for a tetanus shot. Then the next day I got summoned to jury duty. When it rains, it pours!

I’ve spent the last few days backing up our family videos. Our HD video camera melted, but most of the tapes were tucked away in my office and survived. I’m finding that many of the tapes will play with just a little stuttering, while a few are causing me some grief. I had to buy a new camcorder (close to the same model) just to see if the tapes would still play. I had some of our older (8mm tapes) backed up onto DVDs, but one of the DVDs (the most important one, of course, of our wedding and first few months of marriage) refuses to work. I’ve tried 4 DVD drives and only one of them will even recognize my DVD-Rs, so I’ve been busy backing them up. I’ve got hundreds of them, so this might take a while. Well, that’s it for now.

Monday, July 06, 2009

My House Caught on Fire (no kidding)

I have quite a few things to post, but I'll just post one thing for now. Why don't I post the most recent item first? Um... let's see... Oh, yeah! My house nearly burnt down yesterday and we lost almost everything. Everyone is safe and by some miracle I was able to salvage my computer (though, I've been told it'll probably die because of the acid in the smoke).



When I opened the front door, I saw a wall of thick smoke from the ceiling to the floor. I held my breath and ran in because I knew it was our new electric skillet that must have caused the smoke (I had just bought on eBay one of those "waterless" skillets that you can put on low for up to 18 hours, like a crock-pot. Mine must have been defective. All I can say is that the guy I bought it from is going to get an interesting review from me!). I didn't hear or see any fire. I guess I was dumb. I thought maybe I could just unplug it, but after a few steps (or crawls), I realized that the entire two-story house was completely filled with smoke (plus I couldn't see anything and the smoke went up my nose. Mental note: plug your nose next time you run into a house on fire), so I backtracked it out of there. I now understand how people can die just a few feet away from their doorway. It was nothing like in the movies, except for the aftereffects when we saw the damage. By some strange luck, the fire ate up all the oxygen and put itself out. Then like in Backdraft (the movie), it got superheated (so hot it melted our fire alarms into goo and popped the nails out of the drywall). Needless to say, the whole house and almost everything inside was ruined by the smoke, water hoses, and the firemen. One person roughly estimated the damages to be between $250,000 and $300,000, but we won't find out for a while what the real figure is. It'll probably take six months to rebuild.

Fortunately, 7 fire trucks showed up within minutes. When they opened the back door, the fire ignited again, but they were able to put it out pretty quickly. Half of our kitchen is gone, but the flames didn't get past the linoleum. We were VERY lucky the actual fire didn't spread. Our neighbors said they could smell the smoke for an hour before we showed up!

My wife had turned the skillet on low three hours earlier. Sad thing is that the skillet was an anniversary gift that she had accidently discovered, so I allowed her to use it early. I guess now she's getting a new kitchen instead for our anniversary (errr... Christmas, by the time it's all fixed).



What's ironic is that a couple years ago when all those bad things were happing to us in a short period of time (i.e. I lost my job of 6 years, Alicia went to the hospital for a month while I started a new business working 20 hours a day and taking care of our 4 small kids, Jared was born with all those issues and had heart, eye, testicle, gastro surgery, Jacob took poison, Alicia split her pelvis and was crippled for a month, I lost a couple years worth of money because of a fluke incident with my new business, etc.), I told people that the only thing left was for our house to burn down. Looks like it just took a little time to happen. We're all fine, though. Just tired and frustrated. We hired a public adjuster to help "fight" the insurance company for us. Already, the insurance company is giving us grief. Can you believe when we called them up (about 3 PM on Sunday), they said someone would call us back by the end of the next business day?! Didn't even ask us if we had a place for our family of seven to stay for the night! They even ended the call with, "Have a happy day!" Yeah... as we watch the smoke billowing from our house.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Cammy, the ex-Communist Russian Tortoise

We got a new member of the family last month: a Russian Tortoise (at least, we’re pretty sure she’s a Russian). I jokingly named her Commie (after the old communist Russia), but my wife quickly put an end to that and renamed her Cammy (my wife keeps me in line). From the photo, you can see that she’s simply gorgeous.

One of my nieces found her while cleaning out a foreclosed/abandoned home. Cammy lives in our backyard now with our other tortoises. Samson, our 50-pound African tortoise, was very interested in her (perhaps too interested) but she ran away from him in terror. I’d be scared too if someone 25 times my weight started trailing after me. I’m sure they’ll get along... eventually. Samson is the friendliest tortoise you’ll ever meet: He eats out of our hand, comes when we call him (sometimes), and is always following us around. He even opened our glass sliding door once (it was slightly ajar – just enough for him to get his arm in) so he could come into the house!

Tortoise Facts: Many tortoises can go days/weeks without water. They get it from the moisture in their food, which consists mainly of weeds, hay, and grass. We happen to have 30-by-30 square feet of dichondra (clover grass) in our backyard, which happens to be their favorite thing to eat. Our African Spurred (Sulcata) tortoise also loves fruit and vegetables. He begs for them at our back door, but a zookeeper told me recently that he shouldn't have fruits more than 3 times a week.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Winner of the Indie Excellence Book Awards!

I was just informed that Paraworld Zero is a winner of the Indie Excellence Book Awards in the DVD-Fiction category (includes the audiobook and E-Book).

http://www.indieexcellence.com/indie-results-2009.php#32

That brings the total awards/honors Paraworld Zero has received to 13!

Saturday, May 02, 2009

A Mormon Author's Perspective of the Twilight Series Getting Removed from Deseret Book

Originally posted HERE

I couldn't resist. Here's an interesting article about how the Twilight books were taken off the shelves of the Deseret Bookstores because of customer complaints.
http://www.sltrib.com/themix/ci_12193772

Since I'm an active LDS (i.e. Mormon) author, I thought I'd give my two cents about the whole issue. First off, I have shopped at Deseret Book (a large chain of bookstores, which are affiliated with the LDS church. They also publish some books.) and I will tell you that in general the prices are pretty high and the selection is limited to Mormon-oriented or appropriate books, pictures, etc. Since it’s a Christian bookstore, they offer books about Jesus Christ, uplifting stories and paintings, some crafts, church movies, scriptures, family and parenting materials, missionary stuff, and a small selection of fiction (mostly fantasy/sci-fi) for children and young adults, which happens to consist mainly of books from their imprint (Shadow Mountain) and other LDS authors (Stephenie Meyer, Orson Scott Card, etc.).

They serve a niche market, and their customers expect certain things from them... namely, spiritually driven material or at least suitable material for families (G or PG rated). Unfortunately, Twilight apparently doesn't fit the bill. They're still selling Twilight by special order, so they're not turning their backs completely. This is not censorship. It's business. When enough CUSTOMERS complain, businesses listen. Obviously, enough mothers complained.

Now I will say that I have read the Twilight books, and I did enjoy many parts of them. I don’t want you to think that I’m knocking the author, since I do respect Stephenie Meyer (she went to the same college as me, belongs to the same church as me, is close to my age, and even lives a few miles from me). For adults, I think the Twilight series is fine, but some material might not be too great for children. Objectionable material for Mormons (which is probably not the same for other churches) include the following:
1. Bella is a poor role model because she's shallow, self-absorbed (in most respects), is absolutely infatuated (she falls in “love” with Edward without first becoming friends or even getting to know him, but she sure notices his perfect body over and over and over and over and... you get the point. This infatuation negatively affects her life as she avoids her other friends, doesn’t want to continue with her schooling, and yearns to become a vampire and give up her life/family and possibly become a murderer to maintain her obsession for Edward), has a bad attitude toward marriage, and begs several times in book 3 for premarital sex (repeatedly says "please!" when she’s begging for it).
2. On many occasions, Edward sneaks into Bella’s bedroom (sometimes without her even knowing it) and stares at her while she sleeps. What Mormon parent would approve of a boy sneaking into their daughter’s bedroom at night to watch them sleep?
3. Dating just one person exclusively and going on non-group dates while in high school is frowned upon in the LDS church. So also is a boy and a girl being alone in a bedroom. Make-out sessions, which Bella and Edward do (or at least attempt to do) in her bedroom and other places, are also inappropriate in the LDS church. Edward is infatuated with kissing her neck. Not too many active LDS moms would like that for their teenage daughter.
4. The couple sex scenes in book 4 were not too graphic, but they are probably not the best reading material for 13-year olds, since the writing can elicit inappropriate thoughts as the main characters skinny dip and as Edward shreds Bella’s lingerie from her naked and bruised body.
5. Gruesome birth scene (ribs snapping, blood, screaming, tearing of flesh, etc.)
6. Minor swearing by the main characters. This is a bigger issue for Mormons than for most people.
7. Creepy that a 100+ year old man is obsessed with a teenager girl.
8. Drinking blood, killing, minor violence (I actually would have liked to see more... ha ha... but that's just me. A final battle would have been nice.).
9. Sexual tension between teenagers (see #1-4 above).

Though most people don't bat an eye about the above list, many active Mormons do. Twilight in itself isn't R-rated material. In fact, it's probably more PG than PG-13, and that's why Deseret Book IS STILL SELLING IT... but in a limited way. They have the right to choose which books go onto their shelves and which don't, especially since they have a niche audience and only room for a handful of fantasy books. Since the most offensive material shows up in book 4 (i.e. sex scenes between “teenagers,” albeit married ones, and a gruesome birth), that might be a reason they've finally chosen to take the books off the shelves. Honestly, it probably happened because of some outspoken mothers, but it was enough to tip the camel.

My personal opinion of the Twilight books is that they're suitable for adults and older teens. Actually, I'm not sure if I would like my teens (when I get teens) reading the fourth book, but I tend to be ultra-conservative when it comes to sexual material. I like to keep my kids away from material that may trigger feelings and desires that are contrary to the church's teachings (i.e. Bella doesn’t see anything wrong with pre-marital sex). There are so many triggers for immoral behavior and addictions to porn in this world, so why add fuel to the fire?

As for the stories themselves, I thought the first three books were only slightly above average (Sorry! I’m a guy and can only handle reading about another guy’s muscles and perfect features for so long before wanting to throw up.). Each book was better than the previous one. Bella’s immaturity, self-absorption, and infatuation got on my nerves at times, especially when Edward dumps her in book two and she becomes so overwhelmed with emotion that she faints onto the cold forest floor and remains in a dazed and catatonic stupor all night long while search parties are looking for her (reality check, please!). Jacob’s rude personality transformation from book one to book two and so on was so grating, I found myself longing to get back into Bella’s point of view, especially in book 4. Jacob really became a jerk, but he started out so nice. The bad guys, on the other hand, were all very well done. I’d say the parts with the bad guys (which were few and far between) were the main reason I kept reading.

Similar to a piano, Stephenie Meyer has mastered several important keys like characterization, introducing unique ideas that appeal to teenage girls, and creating interesting bad guys, but she needs to learn to play some of the other keys like ending a book with a stronger climax, building more suspense, bringing in the bad guys more often (more than just at the very end of each book), and using less cliched and predictable story elements. There was so much characterization/drama that the story itself almost felt like an afterthought at times. Again, Stephenie got better at this as the books progressed.

Overall, I would have liked more action and less talk about Edward's chiseled body (thankfully, the fourth book toned down the Edward-infatuation a lot). Breaking Dawn actually kept my interest more than the others, but the ending could have been more exciting with a little fighting. It was still satisfactory, but I wanted to see some blood after all the build-up. It was almost anti-climactic. She could have kept the same ending... after a little bit of fighting.

Don’t get me wrong. The books did have some good points to them, and I can see why so many people like them. They had some great bad guys and romantic tension. They also brought some unique aspects to the old and tired vampire/werewolf cliche. I did find them very predictable though. Also, the endings fell flat. Too much time was spent on the romance, and not enough on the story. I’m not sad that I read them, but romance/vampires just isn’t my favorite genre. Actually, these were the first “romance” books I’ve ever read, so perhaps romance novels all suffer from these same things. I wouldn’t know.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Finalist!

Paraworld Zero became a Foreword Magazine Book of the Year finalist in the audiobook category. I'll find out in a month or two if it won.


http://forewordmagazine.com/botya/search2k8.aspx?srchtype=category&srchval=5




Check out my latest newsletter at
http://www.paraworlds.com/newsletter/2009-03.php

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Finished Writing Book 2 in the Parallel Worlds Series!

This week (Thursday 2/26/09 to be exact) I finally finished writing the first draft of the second book in the Parallel Worlds series. It will probably be called The School of Magical Learning... or simply Magical Learning.

It ended up being 96,000 words. My goal was to make it 80,000 words, but 1 of the chapters from my outline ended up becoming 5 chapters! Paraworld Zero (book 1) was 100,000 words long, so this isn't too bad, but when you compare the word count (roughly 400 printed pages) to typical young adult novels, it's a little too long. I feel very confident with what I've written so far, so I don't plan on cutting out chapters.

I tend to edit while I write, so that probably was a factor for the extra time it took for me to write it. Book 1 took 1 year, but that was with a full time job. Book 2 took me 5 months, but I had several weeks of interruptions with conventions, holidays, and school visits.

I'm very excited for the next step of creating my new author friendly website and doing my edits. I feel confident that I'll be able to sell this manuscript much quicker than the first one. My first book hit 2 bestseller lists and placed in 10 contests, but I feel that this new book is even better than the first.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Major Dental Work

I just posted my latest newsletter on my site. Read it at http://www.paraworlds.com/newsletter/2009-02.php

Here's a snippet:

Thud-Thud-Thud Crash! Look, Mommy, No Teeth!

Okay, so now that the pain was finally subsiding on his ankle, he just got some MAJOR dental work done this week. They pulled out his two front teeth, gave him six crowns, and filled three or four cavities. The kid's only two years old! That’s what happens when you don’t use your mouth to eat or drink for an extended period of time (he still gets some of his food from a tube at night). Fortunately, the government footed the bill because of his special needs. I can't imagine how much that would have been. He was at the office for 8 hours. They had to get a special anesthesiologist to put him under, and the surgery took like 3 hours.

What can I say? Brush those teeth . . . even if you’re not using them!

Jared Peterson with no front teeth

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Thud-Thud-Thud Crash!

The other day I heard some loud tumbling noises coming from the stairs. I suddenly realized that my 2-year old who just learned to climb the stairs had fallen from the top all the way to the bottom. He hurt his ankle really bad, but the doctors haven’t been able to determine anything, even after 3 x-rays. He won’t put any weight on it, though, so it’s at least sprained. He won’t even go near the stairs now. What’s sad is that he kept asking to walk with assistance, because he had forgotten that his foot was hurt. Poor kid. This will set him back now on his learning to walk. Bummer.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Coincidence or Devine Intervention?

The other day we finally broke down and got our air conditioning unit fixed. It's been down for a few months now. We live in Arizona, and our house would become an oven in the summer if we didn’t get it fixed. It ended up costing us $1,600, which is very bad for someone who isn’t getting a steady income and is living off of savings. Well, someone up there is definitely looking after us, since that very day a school contacted me out of the blue and asked me to come talk to their students. After my fee and selling books to the kids, I usually end up with $800 per local school visit. Well, that would cover half of my A/C bill. The next day, another local school contacted me and asked me to come visit their students. There’s the second half of our A/C bill! All I can say is that the Lord is watching over my family.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

More Crazy Dreams!

Okay, so in my last blog I mentioned that I had a dream that I was black. I said that next time I'll probably have a dream that I'm Japanese. I originally wrote Indian, but then erased that and put "Japanese." I must have planted the seed because last week I had a dream that I was an ancient Indian escaping from an invading tribe. Oh, boy! Make it stop! I wake up in the morning feeling like I've running a marathon all night.

Anyway, I also wanted to say that my January Newsletter is out.
http://www.paraworlds.com/newsletter/2009-01.php

I have another homework assignment for you all, and it should only take sixty seconds. Before Jan 14th, go to http://critters.org/predpoll/novelsf.shtml and click the "Paraworld Zero" button (the books are in alphabetical order), then scroll down to the bottom of the page, type in your name and email, click "Submit Data," then check your email and click on the link they send you for the confirmation of your vote. They'll delete your email after the contest is over. Have a wonderful 2009!

Friday, January 02, 2009

Don't Know if I'm Black or White!

My dreams lately have been so vivid. Most of them make me feel like I’ve been running a marathon when I wake up. Needless to say, my sleep hasn’t been very restful lately. They’ve been ranging from black and white to sci-fi to drama. But the latest dream was the most unique one of all. I dreamt I was a black man escaping from prison. It occurred to me that I’ve never had a dream where I was black. I wonder if black people ever have dreams of being white. Tomorrow, I’ll probably be Japanese. Who knows!

Happy New Years everyone!