Nominations & Awards
- GIRLS DONT FLY: ABA’s Winter 2011-2012 Kids’ Indie Next List
- WOLVES, BOYS AND OTHER THINGS THAT MIGHT KILL ME: 2011 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Finalist
- Selected as a YALSA Hidden Gem for 2010
- Whitney Award, Nominee, General Young Adult
- The Association of Booksellers ABC 2010 New Voices Pick, Novels for Teens
- Author on Main Street, Utah Humanities Council
- Reader’s Choice Award “Best Novel 2010,” City Weekly
- Mountain and Plains Independent Booksellers featured author, June 2010
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- The Woodcarver
 THE WOODCARVER
Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand
Of precious wood. When it was finished,
All who saw it were astounded. They said it must be
The work of spirits.
The Prince of Lu said to the master carver:
"What is your secret?"
Khing replied: "I am only a workman:
I have no secret. There is only this:
When I began to think about the work you commanded
I guarded my spirit, did not expend it
On trifles, that were not to the point.
I fasted in order to set
My heart at rest.
After three days fasting,
I had forgotten gain and success.
After five days
I had forgotten praise or criticism.
After seven days
I had forgotten my body
With all its limbs.
"By this time all thought of your Highness
And of the court had faded away.
All that might distract me from the work
Had vanished.
I was collected in the single thought
Of the bell stand.
"Then I went to the forest
To see the trees in their own natural state.
When the right tree appeared before my eyes,
The bell stand also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt.
All I had to do was to put forth my hand
and begin.
"If I had not met this particular tree
There would have been
No bell stand at all.
"What happened?
My own collected thought
Encountered the hidden potential in the wood;
From this live encounter came the work
Which you ascribe to the spirits."
- Chuang Tzu
from The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton
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