Wreader Fun

I'm hosting Love Inspired author, Cheryl Wyatt over at Prairie Chicks Write Romance today. Cheryl is talking about the importance of that little thing called a comma and how it can change the meaning of a sentence. If you don't believe me, look at this one she uses as an example: Without the comma:  Good call girls . With the comma: Good call, girls. Can you think of a sentence where the meaning changes by adding or deleting the comma? Put it in a comment at Prairie Chicks today before midnight. Cheryl will pick the one that makes her laugh the most as the winner of a copy of her current release, Steadfast Soldier .

A Soldier’s Reunion (Wings of Refuge Book 4) by Cheryl Wyatt Love Inspired #496, Jun 09 This is an excellent book by an author who knows all the ins and outs of military life. Cheryl Wyatt easily weaves the jobs of pararescue jumpers with civilian life and gives us a glimpse of the hardships these brave men face when it seems they must choose between love and career. The book starts with a heart-stopping rescue attempt by the civilian heroine after a major bridge collapse and delves into the world of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which many believe only soldiers suffer. The author, a former RN, shows otherwise. This book is rife with romantic tension. Mandy Manchester’s world centers around her chosen career in the medical field after being dumped by the man she’d hinged all her dreams on 10 yrs earlier. She puts her skills to good use when the bridge she’s driving on collapses and she watches in terror as numerous cars slide off the broken bridge and plunge into the dark river. Her c...

Ready-Made Family (Wings of Refuge Book 3) by Cheryl Wyatt Love Inspired #490, Apr 09 This was another great book about the pararescue jumpers of Refuge, Illinois. I’m enjoying the series by Cheryl Wyatt who integrates racial differences in her stories as easily as personalities and careers. In this book, she not only introduced the bigotry that can occur between whites and Asians due to the Vietnam war, but also racism between so-called average and handicapped people, in this case, Mosaic Down’s Syndrome. Pararescue jumper Ben Dillinger is in a parking lot minding his own business when a little girl begs him to help rescue her mother from their crashed vehicle. As the mother recuperates in the hospital, Ben learns she is ‘between jobs and homes’ and finds himself falling for her. He wants to help her get a job so she and her daughter will stay in Refuge and he can get to know them better. As he sees it, his biggest problem is his inability to admit he has a brother with special needs ...

November was a very busy month for me with many ups and downs. I submitted a partial of Under a Harvest Moon - a contemporary inspirational to Barbour Publishing (after numerous revisions) I entered 2 contemporary inspirational entries in the Linda Howard Award of Excellence Contest: - Under a Harvest Moon - When You Least Expect It I entered a 500 word scene entitled The Last Bottle in Cheryl Wyatt’s Nov Prompt contest. Cheryl emailed back that I didn’t win but she liked my entry. To see/enter her Dec Prompt Contest, go here: http://scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com/ Steeple Hill sent me a rejection on An Outlaw for the Lady . However, it was not a form rejection and it detailed where I needed improvement. The editor also asked to see something else from me in the future, so this was a good rejection letter. After receiving a perfect score from one judge in the first round of judging in the Gateway to the Best Contest, Charley’s Saint came in 4th overall out of 25 entries. The final jud...

(In a deep echo voice) And now, for the on-going story of ‘My Hand’s Gonna Explode!’... Harlequin Romance author, Donna Alward came up with a ringer – Holy Hematoma ! (I wish I’d thought of that) Good going, Donna. Yesterday morning, the swelling had gone done considerably but my hand now had a distinct blue tinge. I forgot to put ice on it (tsk, tsk, tsk) and after posting a couple emails, took a 2 hr drive to the beautiful state of North Dakota. I picked up my mail, sent off my partial of An Outlaw for the Lady to Steeple Hill in New York, and visited the local library. I love the Divide County library. They have a section of books where you bring some in and take some home. All free. Take what you want to read. I brought about 18 in and picked out 15 to take home including a nearly new copy of The Rustler by Linda Lael Miller which I believe is the current book she’s promoting. Yippee! Anyway, did you get that part about sending out the partial to Steeple Hill? Yeah? Okay... By ...

For you writers out there, here are 3 writing challenges/contests going on now in order of deadlines: http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/ Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent: Showing VS Telling mini Contest. 25-75 words. Entry to be posted as a comment. Deadline Wed, Oct 22nd. Prize: "Winner can choose an evaluation of ten pages of their work, or a $20 Amazon gift card." http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/write-stuff/writers-challenge-4?page=8#comment-112343 Writer's Challenge - click Current Challenge for more info. Max 1000 words. Entry to be posted anytime between the morning of Oct 30 until midnight Oct 31st. Prize: Peer recognition http://scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com/2008/10/october-2008-prompt.html Love Inspired author, Cheryl Wyatt's monthly Prompt Contest. 500 word scene. Deadline Oct 31st. Prize: Free Steeple Hill book So there you go - 3 small contests you can enter to sharpen your writing skills. The first 2 will give you confidence of putting your wor...

Bet you’ve been wondering where I”ve been, eh? Well, I left my home and family last Tues, Sept 16th, and travelled down to Minneapolis, MN to attend the 2008 American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) conference. And what a conference! One of the smartest things I did was divide the driving into 2 days which left about 6 hrs of driving each day. My travel odometer read 1250 km (800 mls) by the time I hit the Sheraton Hotel in Minneapolis South - the location of this year’s conference. Wed night found me sitting in the Sheraton lobby, trying to keep my right palm dry in case someone I recognized came along. My feelings bounced from anxiety and fear to disbelief that I had actually arrived. (Hello, Kristine and Christina) My first attempt at writing this blog entry mentioned names of people who became friends over the course of the conference. But after the first dozen names, I quit. There were just too many. Instead, I’m going to tell you where I originally found these people and then y...

A Soldier's Family (Wings of Refuge) by Cheryl Wyatt Love Inspired #438 - Mar 08 I like this book just as much as the first one in the series - A Soldier's Promise. It's also going to my Top 10 list. Yeah, I know, this will make it 12, but what else can I do? This was a totally satisfying book. I can't wait for Book 3 Cheryl Wyatt brings the characters to life with all the human frailties, emotions and temptations you would find in everyday life. I laughed and cried with them as if they we my friends. The heroine, Celia Munoz, is still struggling to carry on with life for herself and her teenage son even after five years of widowhood. Her husband died violently and the last thing she wants is to fall into a relationship with another man who works a dangerous job. Manny Pena recognized Celia's...attributes...the first time he saw her. That fateful encounter happened while he was drunk. It wasn't until after she gave him a fat lip he realized he'd treated her ...

A Soldier’s Promise (Wings of Refuge) by Cheryl Wyatt Love Inspired #430 – Jan 08 I held off reading this book for months. Why? Because it’s Cheryl Wyatt’s debut novel and although I only know Cheryl over the internet so far, I do enter her monthly prompt contest and try to publicize it as well. But I’d never actually read anything of hers – blog posts excluded. I’d heard and read so much about A Soldier’s Promise that I wanted to love it to. And I did. So much that it’s #11 on my Top 10 list for 2008. Okay, I'll worry a bout my math at the end of the year. You know how readers always say a book was so good they couldn’t put it down? Well, not only was it like that, but I also wanted to prolong it b/c I didn’t want it to end. So I took longer to finish it than I usually do. And I still loved it when I was done. A totally satisfying book. This book is about a young cancer orphan who wants to meet a real Special Forces soldier almost as much as he wants a family of his own. Pararesc...

I skipped church today. I hadn't wanted to esp'ly since it was a special service with 4 members of our small church being baptized - and I report everything for the 'newsfromthepews' blog - but I told my dh that I'd made a commitment here and then the pastor picked the 31st for the service. He mainly picked today b/c he wanted it done before cold weather set in since we do it outside. So, dh took the boys along with the camcorder, my digital camera and my voice recorder so at least I'll still be able to do the church blog when this weekend's over. But do you know what? My boys finally decided to take the plunge - yes, they got baptized without me being there. Mind, it's all on video tape. I know it's not the same, but...actually, I was 7 mos pregnant with my youngest when I got baptized so I guess I was there with him when he first took the plunge. or I guess, he was actually with me. LOL And then it ended up cold and raining most of the day. Temp a...

One of my deadlines this month was to enter LI author Cheryl Wyatt's Aug Prompt contest. I've entered every month this year and didn't want to skip. Esp'ly since I'd already started it. So I worked on it until I'd honed it down to 310 words. But it was still 10 words over. With the deadline a day away, I set it aside. I opened OUTLAW but shortly hit a wall. Usually, I write the POV from the H & h only, but this time I started considering a 3rd. In the wip, the h is kidnapped but leaves clues for her Pa to follow. So, when I hit the wall, I decided to switch to her Pa's POV. It worked. I added 4 scenes to add anticipation where the reader would now know that her freedom was possible but just out of reach. By the time my 3rd POV caught up to my 'wall', the story flowed once more. Interruptions in my day included: - an hr phone call from my dd in BC whom hasn't called in ages - a neighbor and his wife dropping by to pick up our oats from the bin...

Yippee!!! Love Inspired author, Cheryl Wyatt, runs a contest on her blog every month. When I first saw Cheryl’s July word list and prompt lines, I knew the theme was a crime scene. But, I don’t write suspense. As usual, I copied the prompt list to a word doc and filed it way. And, as usual, every few days, I’d open the doc and look at the list. Slowly, the words merged into a crime story. But...I write tender romances filled with faith and forgiveness. I don’t write horrendous, frightening, gory stories. Cheryl’s prompt contest, though, is a challenge. I thrive on challenge. For 2 weeks I thought about Cheryl’s list. Slowly, during the last week of July, I started writing the most horrendous, frightening, gory story my imaginative mind could dream up. For 5 days I worked on it, tweaking it, until I’d wrung every word I could out of the 500 word limit. Finally I submitted it, assured that no one else but Cheryl would see it, because with her contests, you email your entry for her eyes o...

Here’s what I’ve been busy doing in July: Contests entered: Indiana Golden Opportunity: Marry Me, Ma’am? – Contemporary Series An Outlaw for the Lady – Historical FTHRW Golden Gateway: Charley’s Saint – Long Contemporary An Outlaw for the Lady – Historical Cheryl Wyatt Prompt Contest for July : Patriotic Passion – using 10 crime scene words. If you’d like to check out the words for Cheryl’s August prompt contest, click here: http://scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com eharlequin Writer’s Challenge: Kid in a Gravel Pit – Tied 1st We’ve started another challenge with the theme – 25th Wedding Anniversary – how did they meet? The date to post your 1000 word entry is Aug 7-8th. For more infor, click here http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/write-stuff/writers-challenge-4?page=3 If you’re not a member of the eharl community, it’s a simple matter to register and then you’re on your way. This is an effective way to find out if you are a writer or just a wannabe. Remember, if you can’t put y...

Other than working on my wip, I’ve been writing book reviews for here and my eharl blog (4 books behind at the moment). I’ve also been checking out some other writer blogs and having fun: June 10th - I entered a 100 word writing contest using a photo prompt on Literary Agent Rachelle Gardner's blog. The 121 entries (mine included) were added as comments to her blog here: http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/ June 9th – Donna MacMeans was blogging at http://www.writersatplay.com/wordpress/ For my ‘ creative description’ of a superpower (if I had one), I won a copy of Donna’s book, The Education of Mrs. Brimley. June 4th – Cheryl Wyatt emailed about my entry to her May Prompt Contest. She said, ‘ I LOVED this entry. While it didn't win this time...I hope you will finish their story. I truly felt the emotion in the opening with the boy and loved the attraction between your heroine and Gallagher’ (the hero). So, I didn’t win, but it was encouraging enough to try another one. Go her...

Yeah, yeah...I know I said I wouldn’t do any writing or anything while the kids were around but they’re hiding in their room supposedly cleaning it. So I figured I’d sneak in some of what Harlequin Romance author Donna Alward calls ‘housekeeping’ of my own. Things like replying to emails, updating blog posts – you know – office work. This is how I usually spend Monday morning anyway but with the kids home due to the Victoria Day holiday, I was going to do my ‘housekeeping’ tomorrow. So, they disappeared in their room and here I am. When I fired up my laptop, I was pleasantly surprised to receive email from a couple authors. Now you might not think that’s anything special, but for an unpubbed writer like me to receive a personal email from a published author is a big thing. Especially when it’s someone who really liked something I wrote. What am I talking about? Leaving comments on blog posts! I am starting to have a list of writer/agent/editor blogs that I check every morning. These bl...

My youngest son had the misfortune to catch the chicken pox so he's been at home all week. We weren't sure what it was at first because we only saw a couple red spots on his face. He has a milk allergy and we've been testing his limits this week so an allergic reaction was one possibility. The other possibility was a reaction to the tick bite he received the day previous. He'd been sitting in class and yanked the sucker off his neck. He said he'd got it all, but the spot seemed tender when I touched it. By Sat night, he had a bunch of small blisters on his scalp and under his arms. We were concerned enough to call the HealthLine nbr we keep on the fridge. An RN told us to keep an eye on it and call back if anything changed. More blistered spots were showing up on Sunday (Mother's Day) so I stayed home with him because it was our teen daughter's turn to lead worship music at church and her dad accompanies her on his guitar. So I stayed home with the little gu...

I am so excited! Every month, Love Inspired author Cheryl Wyatt aka Squirrel, sponsors a prompt contest on her blog at http://scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com/ and for the past 3 months, I sent in my entry. And waited. And I won for March! So, what's a Prompt contest? Well, Cheryl wants to encourage other writers so she helps us get our stories started. That's why sometimes I refer to it as a 'story starter' contest. Although story might be a misnomer because it only has to be a scene in a story and not a short story per se. At the beginning of each month, Cheryl will post an entry on her blog listing 10 words that must be used in your story. She'll also list 3 'prompt' lines. You have to pick 1 of these lines to start your story. For this month, Cheryl has posted the following words and prompts: April Prompt Words 1. sill 2. seal 3. SEAL 4. Navy 5. train 6. base 7. bass 8. basket 9. story 10. storey April Scene Starter Sentences: “That’s the worst excuse for a p...

No - I didn't win the Big Finish 2 or Genesis contest, but I did win a new book and some chocolate! Love Inspired author Margaret Daley emailed that I'd won the draw for Cheryl Wyatt's new book A Soldier's Family. We posted about this in my last blog post even! Margaret interviews authors every week and then has a draw. You can catch her blog at http://www.margaretdaley.blogspot.com/ Thank you Margaret and Cheryl! Then I almost fell off my chair when I got an email from Harlequin Romance author Donna Alward saying I'd won her Feb contest for chocolate! Wow! Donna's blog at www.donnaalward.blogspot.com/ is another one I regularly read because of all the good info she has. I also talked about/with her on my last blog post. Thank you Donna! So, in a couple weeks I'm gonna be sitting back, feet up, reading a good book and eating chocolate! Now that's a writer's life! ...If only I can win something for my writing now... no Cheryl - that's not a hint!...

On Feb 19th, I sent an entry in to The Big Finish 2 contest over on the eharlequin wesbsite. It was a story prompt contest which means they start the short story and you finish it. My portion was to be between 2500 and 3000 words. Mine came out to about 2880 so I'm okay with that. Love Inspired author Cheryl Wyatt also has story starter contests. Hers are every month. If you go to her blog: Squirrel's Treehouse at http://scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com/ go to her Blog Archive on the bottom right and click on: February Prompt Contest. She gives you 10 words that you have to incorporate into your scene as well as 1 scene starter sentence. I entered her January one but didn't win. I guess I'd better get busy on Feb's since we have such a short month this time around, eh? I've also sent in 2 contest entries this past week. One was for Charley's Saint , a contemporary inspirational romance and the other for An Outlaw for the Lady which is a historical romance. Both...