Whitney Gala Pics

Here are some pictures from the Whitney Awards gala.

The Trio of Terror--me with fellow suspense/thriller authors Gregg Luke and Traci Abramson. Be afraid! (Actually, Traci and Gregg are super nice. They save the scary stuff for their books).

From left to right: Marion Jensen, Rob Wells, and Erin Wells. If you had to pick people to be stranded with on a desert island, this would be a good group to choose. You would never be bored!

With Annette Lyon. Annette's novel Band of Sisters won a Whitney Award for Best General Fiction. I bought a copy of Annette's chocolate cookbook, Chocolate Never Faileth, at the Storymaker bookstore (I already own Band of Sisters). For Family Home Evening last week, I tried my first recipe from the book: Peppermint Patty Fudge Brownies. Ooooooh! SO tasty.

With the lovely ladies of the LDS Women's Book Review: Mindy, Sheila, and Shanda. Thank you for all you do to promote and support LDS writers!

With Julie Wright. Julie's novel Cross My Heart won a Whitney for Best Romance. Julie is a sweetheart, and she and her husband work like crazy every year to run the Storymaker bookstore.

With Jennie Hansen, one of the stars of LDS fiction. Jennie has published over twenty novels and has been a wonderful friend and mentor to me. Her next novel, If I Should Die, will be out next month.

With Dan Wells--and notice Howard Tayler peeking out from behind Dan. Love it! Dan's novel Mr. Monster tied with Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings for Best Novel of the Year.

With my wonderful sister, Bonnie, who accompanied me to the Whitneys.

With Brandon Sanderson. The Way of Kings won Best Speculative Fiction and tied for Best Novel of the Year. My daughter is a big Sanderson fan, and it's fun to get a picture with him and show it off to her--except that now she has her own picture with him, taken at a book signing. Therefore, I don't get as much mileage out of gleefully showing her my photos.

With authors Krista Jensen and Don Carey. Don's first novel, Bumpy Landings, was released last year, and Krista has had three novels accepted by Covenant Communications--wow! This is the first time I'd met Krista in person. I knew her through Twitter; she writes the most fun, entertaining tweets. And once I won TWO POUNDS of chocolate-covered gummy bears on her blog. How cool is that?

With the absolutely amazing Jeff (J. Scott) Savage. Jeff is one of my heroes.

Here I am with the marvelous John Ferguson. It was so fun to see John and his wife Danyelle again!

Thank you to Whitney president Josi Kilpack and her committee for all their incredible work!