A Much Needed Update!

Friends! Families! Foes!

Erm...actually, forget the foes...

I promise that I'm still alive and that I have very good reasons to have taken such a long blog hiatus. These past few weeks have been so busy and hectic that I've barely had time to vacuum the carpet or clean out the fridge!

Erm...actually, I never really vacuum or clean out the fridge. Yeah, gross, I know...

Anyway, here is a brief bulleted list of the happenings in the Tung-Richmond household:

1.) On April 20th, Justin and I celebrated our 3-year anniversary! Go marriage! Go fantastic husbands! Go us!

2.) Earlier in April, Justin and I took his parents to the Outer Banks for a weekend of fun, sun, and lots of fried seafood. (Yum!) To make this perfect outing even more perfect, we rented a condo that was right on the beach! Ahh...I loved falling asleep and waking up to the sound of the waves. So awesome.

I actually took pictures of us while we were there, but alas, I cannot find Justin's camera. So this photo will have to suffice. Quite beautiful, no?


3.) In mid-April, I attended a writer's retreat up in Chapel High. Um, yeah, it was pure amazingness. The retreat was purposely kept small (only 25 attendees), and I had a fabulous time meeting a woman from my online critique group and chatting it up with other children's writers.

Honestly, I often feel like such an alien whenever I tell people that I write science fiction for kids. Their reactions usually go something like, "Uh, cool...um..." And then they smile and nod their heads. But I only got this reaction a couple times at my retreat! (Haha, I kid, I kid.)

Anyway, the retreat was great and I met a woman there who is kind of my twin.

The evidence:
A.) Her husband used to be in the military.
B.) She used to live in the same tiny town that I live in now.
C.) She has watched every episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" just like me!

Yes, we are indeed twins...bwahahaha!

4.) Writing has been going well. I had a short article published in Boys' Life in March (it's about a prototype spacesuit that looks like a superhero costume!), and I recently started writing for USAToday.com. Wahoo!

But darn, I didn't get accepted to write for the Olive Oil Times. I do love olive oil and I wouldn't have minded writing about it...

5.) Lastly, I have some incredible and exciting news that I'm just bursting to share! But I can't right now because I need to get the okay to share it. Ahhhh! I'm so excited! Okay, I will give you guys a hint: it pertains to my writing career. That's all I will say!

All right. That's the quick update. I apologize for the excessive use of exclamation points. I promise not to sound like such a maniac in future posts.