Wreader Fun

This past year I crossed a big goal off my list when I submitted my Emma’s Outlaw manuscript to a literary agent as well as the editor of a publishing house. I accomplished this goal in mid-Nov and now it’s a waiting game. My immediate goal is use the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) NovelTrack to finish my current project by the end of January. Much like National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and Book-in-a-Month (BIAW), NovelTrack is an on-line community where writers keep of track with their word count totals and get encouragement from other writers. It makes me accountable. My goal for NovelTrack is to write 2,000 words of my Mountie story each day for a total of 60,000 words by the end of January. My writing goals/resolutions for the year 2011 are to: - Submit my Mountie story to Love Inspired Historical - Actively seek a literary agent - Apply the requested revisions to my  Marry Me Ma’am manuscript and re-submit to The Wild Rose Press - W...

The winner of Shirlee McCoy's Cold Case Murder is Lynne from over on my eHarlequin blog. Lynne correctly identified the 'yellow stuff' of my previous posts as being wild mustard . Did you know that wild mustard has anticancer properties? I think it's so neat that God has made all these 'throwaway' plants with secrets just waiting to be discovered. I'm blogging at Prairie Chicks today so pop over there if you have a chance. Since not everyone has the gumpton to write a 100,000 word tome, my blogpost explains the ways people who write shorter pieces can still get published. Like this one: If you write historical/vintage fiction, here's something to check out: The Wild Rose Press is looking for novellas and novels for an American Hero series for the Spring of 2010. Here’s the criteria: - 30,000-100,000 word Historical (No cowboys) - Vintage line – 1900-1992 - can be on Canadian or foreign soil but the H/hero must be American. - American line – 1492-1992...

It’s already June the 2nd! Do you realize in 3 wks the days are going to start getting shorter again? Yikes! Writing-wise: May has been a month of decisions. I wanted to register for the American Christian Fiction Writers conference to be held in Sept in Denver this year. Before I could do that, I needed to choose the workshops I wanted to attend. I also needed to pick the editors and agents I wanted to pitch my manuscript to but I need something new to show them. Alternately, I could pitch my old stuff to new editors but I’d rather pitch to those who’ve asked me to show them something else. So, I’m back to working on Translucent Trust , the suspense I started during Book in a Week this past January. And, to make sure I get it right, I’ve signed up at http://rosescoloredglasses.com/ for an online Plotting Bootcamp course. Yes, I’ll get to my homework as soon as I post this to my blog. I spent the last few days of May at a writing retreat where I worked on revisions to Marry Me, Ma’am ...

I'm trying to critique a chapter for one of my crit partners, but I'm having a hard time concentrating. Because I'm waiting. Seems every time I get a notice I've rec'd an email, I have to go check it out. Because I'm waiting. There's no guarantee I'll even get an answer today but it doesn't change anything. Because I'm waiting. What I'm waiting for: - the first round results of the Genesis contest are to be announced between May 1st-15th. (And it's the 12th today, eh) I have 2 entries in this contest. - the first round results of the Touched by Love contest are to be announced on May 16th. I have 2 entries in this contest as well. - the partial I subbed to TWRP has been passed from the Sweetheart line to Yellow Rose. She liked it, but will they? So, I'm waiting on 3 major career defining moments. Oh, the pressure... Are you waiting for something? Big or small? Is it self-induced or involuntary?

Okay, so you all know how much I like my iPod Touch . . . well, I’ve discovered a glitch and I'll try to explain it, but I'm not a techie so you'll have to bear with me. You see, my teen daughter and I have exactly the same iPods on the outside but of course, we have different applications and things loaded onto them. My daughter has almost 100 songs on hers, whereas I have some songs and podcasts and 35 eBooks. I guess the problem started when I began to load on the eBooks although I didn’t notice it at the time. I first uploaded ‘ More than Words’ by my friend Kelly Kirch. Once I figured out how to load that one, I uploaded some eBooks I had in my laptop’s memory that I been saving. I was on a role and decided I’d never be without a book to read again. So, I headed over to The Wild Rose Press and downloaded a bunch of free reads from their site. And that’s when I started noticing the problem. My iPod Touch seemed to be heavier. But of course, that's impossible, right...

Just over a year ago I attended my first on-line chat session during the eHarlequin open house. It was very hectic yet exciting. So many authors and readers but they were all talking at the same time. You had to read fast and type faster or your response would get swallowed up in the rest of the responses. A year ago I didn’t know how to IM and yet a couple months ago, the 4 other Prairie Chicks and myself conducted our first IM conference call. It really worked well. What I like about it is that MSN has set it up so that you can always see who is typing something. If someone is going to ask you a question, you wait for it then answer. Very civilized. Also, if you go away from the screen to work on a word document for example, as soon as you have a response, you’ll receive an amber flashing at the bottom of the screen. It’s a nice feature which means you’re not sitting and waiting especially if you have a slow typist at the other end. Facebook also has IM chat but it’s not as efficient...