June 2010
Newsletter

Matthew Peterson
Author of the Parallel Worlds Series
Host of The Author Hour radio show

Matthew Peterson
Matthew Peterson


Website Links

Home Page
www.ParaWorlds.com

My Radio Show Page
www.TheAuthorHour.com
Interviews with the top fiction authors of our day (I'm the host)

Forum
www.ParaWorlds.net

MySpace
www.MySpace.com/pworlds


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Howdy! Hope your Fathers Day was enjoyable. I got the world record of receiving ties. No kidding. Five boys = five ties. Alicia also made me a nice breakfast and dinner. It always seems like life is hectic for me. I long for the days when I could come home from work and relax. Oh, wait a moment... I’m not sure if I’ve ever had that!


Highlights from the Publishing World
   

Books

Well, last month I mentioned that book sales had gone up slightly in the U.S. Now reports claim that book sales from independent bookstores have gone down recently. Also, Stephenie Meyer's new book (The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner) didn't sell as well as expected in independent bookstores, due partly to the lack of marketing. When Christopher Paolini's final Eragon book comes out, I'm sure that will boost the YA market a little.

I interviewed a few authors from my hometown for my radio show (www.TheAuthorHour.com) a while ago and I decided to actually read (or rather listen to) their books, so I've started with the New York Times bestselling Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. I'm really enjoying the series. They're meant for a younger audience than I had expected, especially the first one, but they're still good for adults and teens. My boys simply devoured them. They also enjoyed the Leven Thumps series by Obert Skye, so I'll start that series next. Listen to the interviews I did with these two authors here.



We're Getting Ready to Move Back into Our Home!
   

Kitchen
Our New Kitchen

House
Front of our house

Counters
Granite slab for our counters

A lot of people have asked for photos of our new house, so here are a few that I grabbed from some video I took. I’m sure I’ll have some more next month. Some of the major upgrades we did include the wood flooring for the main level, granite counters, suspended chairs for the larger island, and maple cabinets. You can see all that in the pictures. Other upgrades include a larger shower and walk-in closet, larger pantry, an extra door in the upstairs bathroom, an extra big window in the kitchen, and a self-closing kitchen door instead of the sliding doors that were there before. No more yelling at the boys to SHUT THE DOOR! I guess some good has come out of our house fire. We basically have a new house.

We now have an orange front door with off-green trim, which really stands out from the rest of the houses. Alicia has been painting the inside of the house all week. I'll miss our old paintings, especially the life-sized Pooh Bear mural I did for Jared's room. When Jared looked at his new room, the first thing he asked is, "Where's Pooh Bear?" Alicia plans on putting a picture of the Pooh Bear mural on his wall.

We plan on moving into the house on Wednesday. Cross your fingers! None of the low-electrical stuff is finished like the TV coax, phone, and network cables, so that might delay us some. All of our big stuff is already in the house, except for Alicia’s baby grand piano (I refer to it as her "AHHH! My house was just destroyed in a fire! ... Oh, wait, here's my excuse to get a baby grand piano!"). We’re still waiting on the new washer and dryer and a few other things.

The granite counters are amazing but the kitchen picture doesn’t do them justice so I’m including a photo of the granite slab. It’s called Vitoria Regia and is found in Iceland – yeah, where the big volcano erupted a while ago. It almost looks like marble.



Hope Kids Activities
   

Matt Climbing
Jared jumping

One silver lining of having an at-risk child like Jared is that we belong to an organization in Arizona called Hope Kids. Through this organization we’re able to do lots of fun things like go to movies and plays, ride horses, go rock climbing (see the photo), and lots of other things that we normally wouldn't be able to do.

This week we went to Jumpstreet, a place filled with trampolines, slides, a maze, a foam pit, and dodge ball courts. A huge inflatable crocodile covered some slides (see the photo), and I scared Jared to death by putting his head in its mouth. Alicia says I’m a mean Daddy sometimes, but later when I asked Jared what his favorite part of the day was, he said it was seeing the crocodile.

The cardiologist told us last month that Jared will probably only need two more heart surgeries: one before he enters kindergarten and one after he graduates from high school.

 

 


Trent gets Baptized
   

Trent Baptized

Trent turned eight years old in May and I had the privilege of baptizing him and confirming him a member of our church. He was super excited but a little nervous. I can’t believe how old my kids are getting. It seems like just yesterday he was born.

Trent is my deep thinker. He’s always been pretty good at comprehending things. When he was 2-years old he memorized the books of the bible (here's a cute video of it) and when he was 2 and 3-years old he memorized 13 long paragraphs called The Articles of Faith.

When he was around three years old we watched a video of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. My wife was crying, and Trent turned to her and said, "No worries. He will rise again in three days." What a mature little boy. He's a sweetheart.

 

 



Last remarks...
   

Well, I’m getting some angry looks from Alicia right now, so I better finish this newsletter and get it sent so I can help her with the packing. I might have limited access to the Internet this week, so I wanted to get this sent off before we move into the our home. It’s been almost a year since our house fire. We’re not out of the water yet. Now we have to buy a ton of things to fill up the house. Alicia and I haven’t even purchased a bed yet for ourselves, so we have a lot of work ahead of us. Happy 4th of July -- coming up soon. Talk to you next time....

 

Matthew Peterson - 20403 N. Lake Pleasant Road, Ste. 117-125, Peoria, AZ 85382