My husband finally figured out my new cell phone so I could send my photos from the League of Utah Writer's Spring conference over to my computer. Here I am at the autograph table, signing copies of When Hearts Conjoin, along with my friend, critique group member, and fellow author, Annette Lyon, who was signing copies of her new book Tower of Strength. You'll also recognize New Yorks Times best-selling author Dave Wolverton (David Farland) and Jessica Day George, both of whom were also speakers at the conference. Annette and I were on a panel and served as judges for the writing contest. The event was held at Cedar Fort Publishers in Springville.
Anderson – Wintergirls
Armstrong - The Summoning
Avi – Wolf Rider
Baillet - The Calder Game
Balliet - The Wright 3
Banks – The Indian in the Cupboard series
Barklem - The Secret Staircase
Barry & Pearson – Peters and the Starcatchers series
Baxter – Sunstorm
Bellow – Michael Jordan
Benz – Grey Griffins series
Bettes – Where the Heart Is
Bierce - Civil War Stories
Blume - Superfudge
Bosch – The Name of This Book is Secret
Brashares – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series
Brown – Angels & Demons
Buckley – Chickens in the Headlights
Buckley – Sisters Grimm series
Burnford - The Incredible Journey
Byng - Molly Moon series
Cabot – Aithead
Cabot – The Princess Diaries series
Carter – I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You series
Cashore - Graceling
Cast – Betrayed
Cast – Marked
Chima – The Warrior series
Choldenko - Al Capone Does My Shirts
Clements – Frindle
Clements – The School Story
Clements – Things Not Seen
Clements - Room One
Colfer – Airman
Colfer – Artemis Fowl series
Colfer – Benny &
Colfer – The Supernaturalist
Collins - Gregor series
Condie –
Covey – 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens
Creech – Bloomability
Creech – Heartbeat
Creech – Ruby Holler
Creech – Walk Two Moons
Crichton – Airframe
Crichton –
Crutcher – Iron Man
Curtis – Bud, Not Buddy
Dahl – George’s Marvelous Medicine
Daley - Star Wars: Han Solo trilogy
Dashner – The 13th Reality series
David & Draper - We Beat the Street
De la Cruz – Bluebloods
De la Cruz – Masquerade
De Mari - The Last Dragon
Delaney - The Last Apprentice series
Dessen – Just Listen
Dessen - Keeping the Moon
Dessen – Lock and Key
Dessen – The Truth About Forever
Di Camillo – The Tale of Despereaux
Dickens – David Copperfield
D'lacey - The Fire Within series
Elliott - Under a War Torn Sky
Evans – The Christmas Box
Fairstein – Entombed
Farmer -
Ferris – Once Upon a Marigold
Fitzgerald – The Great Brain series
Fletcher - Stoneheart trilogy
Forman – Adventurer’s Wanted: Slathbog’s Gold
Frank – Diary of a Young Girl
Friend – Perfect
Funke – Inkheart series
Gardner - Stone Fox
Gibson – Old Yeller
Gies - Anne Frank Remembered
Giff - Pictures of Hollis Woods
Goldman – The Princess Bride
Haddam - Cheating at Solitaire
Haddix -
Haddix – Running Out of Time
Haddix – The Missing: Found
Haddix – Turnabout
Hale – Austenland
Hale – Book of a Thousand Days
Hale – Enna Burning
Hales – Goose Girl
Hales – The
Hansen – Macady
Heimerdinger – Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites series
Heinlein – The Final Frontier
Hiaasen - Scat
Hiaisen – Hoot
Hickam – October Sky
Hinton – Rumble Fish
Hinton – The Outsiders
Holt – Part of Me
Holt – When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
Hopkins – Glass
Horowitz - Groosham Grange
Horowitz – Alex Rider series
Horowitz – The Gatekeepers series
Hunter - Warriors series
Ibbotson – The Great Ghost Rescue
Johnson - 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Jones – King James: The Real Story
Kadohata - Kira – Kira
Kehret - The Blizzard Disaster
Kinney - Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
Klein - Con Ed
Koonz – Velocity
Korman - Kidnapped
Korman - Schooled
Kostick - Epic
Landy - Skulldugery Pleasant series
Lasky - Guardians of Ga’hoole series
Levine – Dave at Night
Levine – Ella Enchanted
Levine – Princess series
Lewis – The Chronicles of Narnia series
Logue – Dancing with an Alien
Lord – A Night to Remember
Lubar - Hidden Talents
Lupica – Heat
Lupica – The Big Field
Mac Hale - Pendragon series
Mangum - The Secret Journal of Brett Colton
Martin - Missing Since Monday
Mazer - The Missing Girl
McCormick – Cut
Meyers – Twilight saga
Mikaelsen – Tree Girl
Montague – Fireweed
Moody - Best Friends
Mull – The Candy Shop War
Mulle – Fablehaven series
Myers - The Mouse Rap
Naylor –
Nichols - A Walk Out of the World
Nimmo – Charlie Bone series
Nimoy – I Am Spock
Nix – Keys to the Kingdom series
O’Dell –
Osborn – The Magic Treehouse series
Palahniuk - Haunted
Paolini – Eragon series
Patterson – Maximum Ride series
Paulsen – Soldier Heart
Paulsen – The Car
Paulson – Hatchet
Pelzer – A Child Called It series
Peretti – Monster
Perez - Dead is the New Black
Peterson - Jip
Petterson – Max series
Pfeffer - Life as We Knew It series
Pratchet – Going Postal
Pratchet – Thud
Qualey - Hometown
Raskin – The Westing Game
Rawls – Summer of the Monkeys
Rawls – Where the Red Fern Grows
Reeder - Foster’s War
Rees – Pirates
Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
Rodgers - Freaky Friday
Rottman – Stetson
Rowling – Harry Potter series
Sachar – Holes
Sachar – Tales from the Wayside Schools series
Sachar – The Boy Who Lost His Face
Sage – Magyk series
Sanderson – Mistborn series
Savage – Far World series
Schreiber - Vampire Kisses
Selznik - The Invention of Hugo Caret
Sewell – Black Beauty
Shan – Cirque du Freak series
Shan – The Dementor series
Shreve – Light on Snow
Shrieber – Teenage Mermaid
Shusterman - Everlost
Shusterman - The Schwa Was Here
Skye – Leven Thumps series
Slaughter – Indelible
Smith – Elephant Run
Smith – Everest series
Smith – I.Q.
Smith –
Smith – On the Run
Smith – Peak
Smith – Sasquatch
Smith – Tantalize
Smith – Zach’s Lie series
Snickett – The Series of Unfortunate Events
Somper - Vampirates series
Soto – Taking Sides
Sparks - The Wedding
Speare – The Sign of the Beaver
Spinelli – Milkweed
Staheli – When Hearts Conjoin
Stansfield – Christmas Melody; The Three Gifts of Christmas
Stansfield – A Promise of Forever
Stansfield – Barington Family series
Stansfield – Gables Face East series
Stansfield – The Eternal Bond
Stansfield – The Miracle
Stansfield – The Silver Linings
Stansfield – The Sound of Rain series
Stansfield –Stansfield – Towers of Brierly
Stansfield – Where the Heart Leads series
Stansfield –First Love and Forever series
Staub – Lily Dale series
Stine – Goosbumps series
Stine – The Evil Moon
Stine – The New Boy
Stine – The Overnight
Strasser - Help! I’m Trapped in
Tarkington – Penrod
Timlonson - Extreme Sports
Tolkien – The Hobbit
Traditional - The Arabian Nights
Trueman - Inside Out
Turner - Hard Hit
Updale - Montmorency series
Van Draanen - Runaway
Van Draasen – Flipped
Van Draasen – Sammy Keyes series
Various – The 39 Clues series
Wallace - Trapped in
Warner - The Box Car Children series
Waterson – Calvin & Hobbes series
Weeks - Jumping the Scratch
Wells - Chance Encounters
Wells – The War of the Worlds
Westerfeld - Uglies series
Weyland – Ashley & Jen
Weyland – Charley
Weyland – Emily
Weyland – Megan
White - Surviving
Wilhite - Bright Blue Miracle
Wilkinson - Dragon Keeper
Wright – Christmas Jars
Wright – The Eyes of the World
Wright – The Mine with the Iron Door
Wright – The Printer of Udells
Wright – The Re-Creation of Brian Kent
Wright – The Shepherd of the Hills
Wright – The Wednesday Letters
Yancey - The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp
Yorgason – Charlie’s Monument
Yorgason – One Tattered Angel
Zevin - Elsewhere
Okay, this is crazy to admit because I've been an English teacher for 30 years, but there are times that I still get confused on rules. When that happens in my writing, I breathe a sigh of relief because I know that the self-proclaimed word nerd herself, Annette Lyon, will tell me what I did wrong and how to fix it. Heck, half the time she can tell me exactly why what I've done is in error because she's already studied the problem or looked up its history in the OED she got a few years ago.Herald Extra: Spanish Fork Press
People all over the world watched the story unfold in 2006 as the Herrin twins, Kendra and Maliyah, underwent a twenty-five hour surgery to separate their shared lower bodies. And just two years later, in the fall of 2008, a local author was given the opportunity to team with Erin Herrin, the mother of the twins, to help co-write a book to share their story with the world.
Lu Ann Brobst Staheli is an accomplished educator and writer. She currently teaches English at Payson Junior High in addition to being a writer. Staheli is also a part of the Write Wise program founded by Richard Paul Evans and Robert G. Allen. Staheli has been able to teach and edit other authors work with this program. Evans was so impressed with Staheli and her work that he knew she would be perfect to help Herrin write a book about her experiences."I have worked with Lu Ann in our Write Wise program," said Evans. "I knew I could count on her and knew that she would be a natural fit in helping Erin share her story."
Staheli and Herrin began working on the project in August of 2008. They started out by sending each other information via the internet and talked over the phone. Staheli began putting together the information into a story form.
"When I was going through all these experiences there was no information about other families who had been through this and their experiences," said Herrin. "I really wanted to have information from other parents. The book was written so others will have that information and also because as time goes on our memories fade and I wanted something to document all of our experiences."
Staheli wrote the book from the notes Herrin wrote down during her experiences and the book is written as if Herrin had written it herself.
"It has been wonderful to work on this project," said Staheli. "The world has known about these little girls for the past seven and a half years and now they can know the whole story and that miracles do happen."
The story shares more than just the twin's experience, it starts at the beginning with the Herrin's dating and ends with an update on what the family is currently doing.
"The book is definitely an emotional book," said Herrin. "From the beginning Lu Ann was right on and worded everything the way I wanted it. The story flows so well. She has been wonderful to work with and has made the story exactly what I wanted."
The book, "When Hearts Conjoin," was released just a few weeks ago and is only available at the website www.utahtwins.com. All the proceeds from the books will go into a trust fund for the twins medical expenses. The book tells the families story and shares never before seen photos. It also has a forward by Evans, a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author. The twins will also be featured on a TLC special in June and then on the Oprah show to let others know about their story and book.
And now that Staheli has had her first successful experience co-writing a book, she already has three more co-written books in the works. She is currently working with Alan Osmond to share his story about life lessons, David Osmond to share his story about overcoming life's battles and with Jim Karol to share his story about a man with super mind and how he uses that mind to entertain and teach others.
