Here's what I've been up to:

Bryce Canyon National Park,

featuring hoodoos;

 Desolation Trail to the lookout over Salt Lake Valley,

featuring three of the coolest people you'll ever meet;

and the Subway canyon in Zion National Park,

featuring twelve more of the aforementioned coolest people you'll ever meet.

Also, I received an Honorable Mention from the Q2 Writers of the Future contest to go along with my Semi-finalist entry from Q4 of last year (Semi-finalist is in the top 1%-ish; Honorable Mention is in the top 10%-ish), and submitted another story for the Q3 contest.

Submitted a modified version of my Master's Thesis to the Utah Arts Contest in the Short Story Collection category.

Received feedback from my alpha readers on my current novel, and have now begun ROUND 2 of revisions on said novel.

So, all in all, it's been a fun time.  There are many more to come.

weekend hiatus (part 1).

It's been a few days since I've blogged.  That's because I've been doing some ridiculously awesome things, like this:

(thats me catching a tree that nearly fell on me while hiking in Zion National Park this weekend, and then heaving it off the trail.  true story.)

And also, this:

(thats me nearing the top of Angel's Landing and looking over one of its many heart-squashing cliffs.)


And hiking things like this:

(Angel's Landing is that giant cliff in the background . . .)


And through things like this:

(The Narrows)


. . . check out the next post for more . . .

weekend hiatus (part 2).

So, as I was saying . . .

And I did some cool things like this:

It was fabulous.  I may not have gotten a lot of writing done, but it was good, ah, research . . . and worth every minute.  If you'd like to see (my first attempt ever at) a slideshow of more pictures, go here, or check out my wife's blogpost on it here.

Otherwise, happy trails . . .