Wreader Fun

With all the hoopla over Brenda Novak's visit with the Prairie Chicks I haven't had much time to blog. But, here's what happened in April: - Our basement and land flooded around Easter. Check out my previous blogs for the story in photos. - I took a jaunt down to North Dakota for mail and to recce my Prairie Junction site in spring, and I headed up to Davidson to meet with my writing group. - Due to being on self-imposed internet restrictions while I worked on the taxes, I only commented on a couple blogs. I was very surprised when I learned I'd won a free book on each of them! - Instead of reading 10-12 books a month, I think I read 2 in April. (gasp) And, I still haven't reveiwed the 3 or so I read in March. Yikes! Writing-wise: - I came 5th in the Inspirational category of the Linda Howard Award of Excellence contest. Yes, I cried because although I was still a finalist, there were only 5 finalists and that put me last. I found out Sat while checking my email at ...

It's Thursday, so I'm blogging over at Prairie Chicks Write Romance today. Last Thurs, I showed how Google Earth can help you research locations you can’t physically check out yourself. Today, I wanted to show you how I researched the location for my Prairie Junction series . I went on a recce (reconnaissance mission) down to North Dakota, visited with the locals and took a few pics. I even walked into the Divide Country Sheriff's office and spent some time chatting with him. Yes, I have proof. :) So, come on over and tell us your adventures. Again, thats: http://prairiechickswriteromance.blogspot.com/ How do you chose your locations? Do you pick somewhere familiar and close? Do you throw a dart at a map? Do you think an author should have enough creative license to chose a known location then add a bunch of fictional elements?

This past Tues, I went down to North Dakota on a variety of errands which included picking up my mail, mailing my partial, doing a recce to Prairie Junction and visiting the library. Why did I drive 1.5 hrs to use a US post office? When I need to order supplies that will fill a large box or two, such as Sunday school supplies from the Christian Dollar Store in Zanesville, Ohio, I'll pick a calendar date for about a month in the future and start my list: Shipping: I'll do all the on-line ordering that I've saved over the past few months and send them to my Noonan, ND post office box. This saves shipping costs. Yes, I pay taxes when I take them across the border, but that's okay with me because the taxes aren't nearly as much as the S&H charges would have been. Mailing SASE: I had a partial manuscript of An Outlaw for the Lady to send out to the editors of Steeple Hill in New York. I needed a SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope). The reason it has to be SASE ...

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...

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...

January 19-25 was designated ‘Book In a Week’ (BIAW) for the Saskatchewan Romance Writer’s (SRW). I signed up for this event because I was itchin’ to work on a project for Steeple Hill’s new Love Inspired Historical (LIH) line. The last few months, I’d been making notes and plotting for this project but just needed somewhere to start. The BIAW gave me that venue. So how did I do? Look: Title: An Outlaw for the Lady Total Word Count: 23,396 Percentage completed: 31.2% Total pages completed: 109 dbl spaced I need a total word count of 75,000 words for LIH, so this is a very respectable start. The only problem now is that I want to continue writing this novel but I need to work on the final drafts of my Prairie Junction series. Oh no, what do I do? What do I do?