Hello, friends! It seems to be time for my monthly blog update.

First of all, I have a new post up today at EMU’s Debuts called “Wisdom from the 2013 EMLA Retreat.” The title pretty much says it all: It’s filled with great bits of advice that I picked up from other writers at the recent retreat for clients of Erin Murphy Literary Agency in Montana.

Also, on my Facebook page yesterday, I shared a few tips that have been helping me speed up my drafting. I’m planning to expand this into a blog post soon (I swear!), but if you want to check them out now, you can find them in the comments here.

In ALL FOUR STARS news, I’ve seen a preliminary sketch of the cover, and it’s amazing. I cannot wait until I have the final art to share with you! I’ve also been working on writing acknowledgements and even taking a stab at jacket copy (the summary of the book that goes on the inside flap or back cover), which has been only slightly nerve-wracking.

I’ll leave you now with a few pictures from the EMLA retreat, which was definitely one of the more fun and informative weekends of my writing career.

Here I am with my Colorado-dwelling buddies Jeannie Mobley and Cindy Strandvold on Ugly Sweater Night. None of us won an ugliest sweater prize (mine was deemed “too cute” by one of the judges–bah!), but Cindy was a finalist for ugliest ensemble!

I finally got to meet a bunch of my fellow bloggers from EMU’s Debuts in person! From the top left, we have Christine Hayes, Kevan Atteberry, Pat Zietlow Miller, Laurie Ann Thompson, and Joshua McCune, then in the front row are Carol Brendler and me.

Some of us took a hike to a local waterfall near Big Sky. I am sporting my new EMLA T-shirt, which I won for having been to the most countries. That round-the-world honeymoon just keeps paying off. 🙂

Hope your July is going well!