Wreader Fun

- Today is a very special day for me. A couple months ago, Gina Welborn emailed and asked if I'd like to be part of a new inspirational blog. After praying and thinking about it, I realized I wanted to be part of this new venture. It took a lot of planning, but today, Inkwell Inspirations goes online. The blog features 15 unpublished inspirational writers, but it's not your typical writing blog. Actually, it's not a writing blog at all. It's a blog where we get to express ourselves as Christian writers through our everyday lives. The blog will feature theme weeks and cover everything from recipes and travel to non-fiction books and poetry. Hopefully we'll have something that will interest you. Oh yeah, and we'll give away lots of prizes. Daily prizes for anyone leaving a comment. As well as huge writer and reader grand prizes. So come on and check us out at http://www.inkwellinspirations.blogspot.com/ -

I've been trying to complete Silent Keeper as well as work on some contest entries. If you follow my blog, you'll have noticed I haven't entered any contests since the spring. That's about to change. But today, I'm supposed to be writing tomorrow's Prairie Chick post except I haven't a clear idea what to write. Actually...maybe I'll write about entering contests. What could I write? Let's see: I could write about the reasons for entering a contest, which for me is two-fold; the feedback and the exposure to editors. Take this contest entry I'm working on: When You Least Expect It ( When ) is an inspirational. It was a finalist in that category in this year's Linda Howard Award of Excellence contest and although it wasn’t requested by final judge (an editor), I did receive excellent feedback from the first round judges. So, I’m revising it and will try again. I’d like to enter it in the Southern Heat contest which has 2 final judges—an editor ...

This blog is a sequel to another blogpost where I explained about water leaking into the living room. The insurance adjuster took one look at the small hole in the wall Nelson had made to find the leak and told us to get a crew to rip the damaged area out. In this pic, you see the crew in the midst of tearing out all the moldy wallboard insulation on the living room side. You can see the wet floor in this photo. In the bathroom they ripped up the vinyl flooring as well as pulled all the old tiles off the walls. Once all the ruined stuff was ripped out, they put an industrial sized dehumidifier in the living room to suck up all the mosture. Then they put a blower in the bathroom at floor level. It was kind of weird, actually because while sitting on the throne, the blower would blow all this cool air between the toilet and the seat right at your butt. Different. Both of these machines stayed on 24/7 until Friday at which time the rip out guy came back. He used a moisture meter to test a...

My face is normal again - well, as normal as can be, heh. I went to the dentist on Monday and he pulled the tooth that had caused the abscess. And yay, praise God, I'm pain-free. Such a relief! I'm blogging about Alternate History today over at the Prairie Chicks . Alternate History is a fascinating subgenre of Speculative(Science) Fiction and Historical Fiction. It asks the question, "What if something changed history?" Alternate History has intrigued me from the first moment I read about it in a Jeff Gerke interview ( Marcher Lord Press ). Take a look at this story idea: Genre: Alternate History Year: 1898 Background: Because of the Great Wars, women outnumbered men 2 to 1. With the discovery of the new land of Canada, Europe sent boatloads of citizens, 2 women for every male in an attempt to renew the male population. But in the new land, the women rebelled. Tired of war, outnumbering the men, they formed the new government. After years of peace, men in the wes...

Since I blogged last Sat, I've had one of the worst weeks of my life. I thought I had a sinus infection and by Wed I was really feeling the effects. Friends were saying it was due to the black mold in the living room (my previous blog). And I was really worried. Wed my face started swelling. The doctor was in on Thurs so I went to see him but by that time I could barely see out of my right eye. The right side of my face was bloated, hard and shiny. And the pain. It was comparable to childbirth! Doc took one look at my face and said, 'Tooth abscess". He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and said to make a dental appt for Mon/Tues. I started the antibiotics as soon as I received them but they didn't seem to take any effect until yesterday. Today, there's a distinct difference however my face is still hard and swollen in places. The tylenol seems to wear off a couple hours before I can take the next ones but I'm hanging in there. My dental appt is for Monday ...

This past Sat I had to pack up and move my writing cave. I didn't want to because I'd stashed a lot of books, papers, desk supplies, etc in the armoire but when I sat down to write and the carpet beneath my feet was wet, I knew it wasn't good. So, I packed up my cave and set the stuff on the other side of the living room. There'd been a smell like a dirty ashtray for weeks but I couldn't pin it down. Once we moved the love seat away from the wall I was amazed at how wet the carpet was back there. We moved my now empty writing armoire out into the sunroom since there wasn't anywhere in the house for it. Then Nelson started looking for the leak. In the first one, you can't see the floor much because there's a piece of wallboard paper on the floor. He started searching before I had a chance to grab my camera. This photo is the back of the wallboard closest to where the leaking pipe was located. Everytime we showered, a small portion of water would spray out...

I'm blogging at Prairie Chicks Write Romance today. We're discussing Hooks again, this time on the first page and debunking the myth that a heroine must be proactive to hook the reader. I've got lots of excerpts from published books to show you what I mean so meander over if you have time.

It's been 10 days since all my kids went adventuring. Since then the youngest has returned from Circle Square Ranch and is enjoying being the only child. On Sat, Jessie flew across the Atlantic Ocean enroute a Street Invaders Missions Trip in Scotland. I received an email from her yesterday. They had a 12 hr layover in London and went to see Buckingham Palace. They're in Inverness this week, then travel to Edinburgh for the next week. Somewhere in that schedule, they're going to go swimming in loch ness. Yesterday, I received a text message from Nick as well. Also on a Street Invaders Mission Trip, we thought he was touring Saskatchewan but when we went to church on Sunday, we found out he'd been sent to Brooks, Alberta. His text simply said he was in Brooks. Gone for 1.5 wks now, this is the longest and farthest he's been from home by himself. Please pray for the safety and well-being of all the kids and leaders on these mission trips. Thank you. So, how far have y...

It was August 1st yesterday. In theory, the summer is half over. In my mind, the weather has cheated me. The only good thing I can say about our weather this summer is that the lack of heat is allowing for a longer bloom time on the canola plants. More blooms equal more seed pods which equal more seeds which equal more money for the farmers. And us since we rent out our land and only receive rent money when the crop is sold, we want the canola to grow well. View from our church looking North. I love it when the farmers grow the blue flax beside the yellow canola. Surely a feast for the eyes of any planes over the prairies at this time of year. I picked up the little guy from the ranch yesterday so he's back home with us. The older guy is touring the province as part of the Street Invaders mission team. He'll be gone another 2 weeks. Jessie is flying across the Atlantic Ocean enroute Scotland as I write this. She's with another Street Invaders mission team. It doesn't ma...