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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Winners Announced and Notified!

Here are the winners for my 2013 Summer Splash Blog Hop. I have sent an email to all the winner. Thank you to EVERYONE who played. I wish you could all be winners - of course, as readers, you ARE a winner in my eyes!

1. $15 Amazon gift card
MARCIA

2. $10 Amazon gift card
JUANA



3. Signed paperback copy of "Not a Whisper"
BETTY

4. Signed paperback copy of "Home Again"

TARA
 

5-8. Handmade Vintage Look Thong-style Bookmark
PATTY
BECKI
DENISE
FLORENCE


9. E-book of "Not a Whisper"
SHADOW

10. E-book of "Home Again"
VALERIE


BONUS: E-book of "Barely a Spark" when published
JANICE



Monday, July 29, 2013

My Flash Facts - Deadline [#Write4Ten]

This time I went with FACTS...
  a snipped from my day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Funny that the word prompt for Monday from Write4Ten was the one thing I'm facing daily - a deadline. I know it's a self-imposed deadline, but it's still an important one. The last six months of this year currently are and will be a choatic hot mess! Preparation for a two month motorcycle trip, preparation for a seven day cruise and preparation for our move to Ecuador (and leaving our property for ten months before we revisit) - plus finish writing "Barely a Spark", get it edited and published on both Amazon and Smashwords, get it formatted and a cover made for a print version. Oh yeah, and get my first children's rhyming book finished and published as well. YIKES! Time to go to work, meeting my first deadline!

Write4Ten
Check out the Write 4 Ten word prompts on Monday and Thursday. Join in the fun and write for ten minutes, fact or fiction, your choice.

#Write4Ten Prompt - DEADLINE

The word prompt today is DEADLINE.

Go for it, fact or fiction, memories or tales - your choice. Write for ten minutes - minimum. Don't worry if you take longer, that means your creativity has been sparked...and that is a good thing.

When you're done, add your BLOG POST LINK to our new linky list below. That's it! [No blog? Feel free to post your writing in the comments.]

dead·line  (ddln)
n.
1. A time limit, as for payment of a debt or completion of an assignment.
2. A boundary line in a prison that prisoners can cross only at the risk of being shot.
tr.v. dead·lined, dead·lin·ing, dead·lines
To govern by setting a time limit: "He was never going to be deadlined by a day, or even a month" (New Yorker).



Sunday, July 28, 2013

One more day to enter!


Have you entered the Summer Splash giveaways yet? If not, you'd better hurry. The contest ends at midnight tomorrow.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY


Just a note for entering mine, if you have a Facebook account but don't want to allow access to your account, skip that and USE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS. That's all that's required, honest!

Winners will be announced later in the week...hope you're excited!

Friday, July 26, 2013

Five Friday Facts for July 26th

Yes, I missed last week. No idea why other than being busy writing on my next novel. Sorry - life happens.


  1. We took a big step towards our move to Ecuador this December - ordered 90% of the paperwork needed for our pensioner's Visa. Still have a couple more things to do like get passport photos and statements from Social Security. But we're moving forward!
     
  2. This has been a CHORE week, well, for hubby it has been. We've had two different tire blow-outs on our RV, the first well over a year ago. Hubby had repaired all the damage he could find but our electric fireplace still wasn't working. So yesterday he tackled that and finally found the loose connection! Yippee!!
     
  3. The weather has been very cool at night, down into the 50's. LOVING IT! We've slept with the windows open the last two nights. Right now it's 9:30 in the morning and still only 68 degrees. This is MY kind of weather...similar to what we will have in Cuenca, Ecuador.
     
  4. I just watched the last two episodes of Frasier. I enjoyed the series but didn't watch it on a regular basis so missed the end of the series. What fun to watch my favorite characters again as they all rode off into the Hollywood sunset.
     
  5. Movie this week was RED 2 and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. I missed Morgan  Freeman, who died in the first one, and there was less character building because we already knew them. But John Malkovich was even better in this one. Hoping there will be a RED 3.
Hope you all have a great week and be sure to enter my giveaway, FOUR days to enter!!

Summer Splash Blog Hop 2013

It's here!

It's that time of year again when you can enter to win Grand Prizes like a Kindle Fire, a $100 Amazon gift card or a $50 Amazon gift card. Here is the link to the MAIN ENTRY SITE for those prizes.

There are almost FIFTY authors running their own giveaways, you can find their pages HERE.

ME? Well, I've been teasing you about my prizes:
1. $15 Amazon gift card
2. $10 Amazon gift card
3. Signed paperback copy of "Not a Whisper"  [US residents only]
4. Signed paperback copy of "Home Again"  [US residents only]
5-8. Handmade Vintage Look Thong-style Bookmarks  [US residents only]
9. E-book of "Not a Whisper" (your choice of format)
10. E-book of "Home Again" (your choice of format).


Follow the instructions below to enter. And don't forget to BOOKMARK this page, some of the entries can be done daily!

2013 Summer Splash Blog Hop

Thursday, July 25, 2013

#Write4Ten Prompt: EARLY

The word prompt today is EARLY.

Go for it, fact or fiction, memories or tales - your choice. Write for ten minutes - minimum. Don't worry if you take longer, that means your creativity has been sparked...and that is a good thing.

When you're done, add your BLOG POST LINK to our new linky list below. That's it! [No blog? Feel free to post your writing in the comments.]

ear·ly  (ûrl)
adj. ear·li·er, ear·li·est
1. Of or occurring near the beginning of a given series, period of time, or course of events: in the early morning; scored two runs in the early innings.
2.
a. Of or belonging to a previous or remote period of time: the early inhabitants of the British Isles.
b. Of or belonging to an initial stage of development: an early form of life; an early computer.
3. Occurring, developing, or appearing before the expected or usual time: an early spring; an early retirement.
4. Maturing or developing relatively soon: an early variety of tomato.
5. Occurring in the near future: Observers predicted an early end to the negotiations.
adv. ear·lier, ear·liest
1.
a. Near the beginning of a given series, period of time, or course of events: departed early in the day; scored important victories early in the campaign.
b. At or near the beginning of the morning: She never used to get up so early.
2. At or during a remote or initial period: decided very early to go into medicine.
3. Before the expected or usual time: arrived at the meeting a few minutes early.
4. Soon in relation to others of its kind: a rose that was cultivated to bloom early.



Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Refurbished Kindles and Kindle Fires on sale!


Amazon is offering some nice buys on refurbished Kindles and Kindle Fires (both sizes) with a one year warranty. Plus, you can still pick up a Kindle Touch with twice to storage space of the Kindle Paperwhite.

See your choices and check the prices HERE. {Good article to help your make your choice: 3G and WiFi and Kindles}

Monday, July 22, 2013

#Write4Ten Prompt - LATE

The word prompt today is LATE (and yes, this post IS late - sorry).

Go for it, fact or fiction, memories or tales - your choice. Write for ten minutes - minimum. Don't worry if you take longer, that means your creativity has been sparked...and that is a good thing.

When you're done, add your BLOG POST LINK to our new linky list below. That's it! [No blog? Feel free to post your writing in the comments.]

late  (lt)
adj. lat·er, lat·est
1. Coming, occurring, or remaining after the correct, usual, or expected time; delayed: The bus is late. See Synonyms at tardy.
2.
a. Beginning after or continuing past the usual or expected hour: a late breakfast; a late meeting.
b. Occurring at an advanced hour, especially well into the evening or night: a late movie on television; the late flight to Denver.
3. Of or toward the end or more advanced part, as of a period or stage: the late 19th century; a later symptom of the disease.
4.
a. Having begun or occurred just previous to the present time; recent: a late development.
b. Contemporary; up-to-date: the latest fashion.
5.
a. Having recently occupied a position or place: the company's late president gave the address.
b. Dead, especially if only recently deceased: in memory of the late explorer.


Sunday, July 21, 2013

Want my autograph?

Guess what? Now you can get your Kindle ebook copy of my books signed by ME. It's easy as ONE, TWO, THREE.
  1. Sign up for a free account at Authorgraph.com
  2. Follow the Kindle setup instructions on your account page
  3. Go to my author page and enter your request!
Your authorgraph will be sent to your Kindle as well as remain available on the AuthorGraph site in your collection.

See  how easy? Give it a try!

Saturday, July 20, 2013

I know, please don't nag...

I've been hard at work on my mystery novel, "Barely a Spark", and I'm in chapter 18 right now. I think I'm about half way through, maybe a little less. But that means it's hard to find time to blog. So here I am, late at night, dropping you a quick note so you don't think I've forgotten my readers.

SUMMER SPLASH BLOG HOP
Couple of things of  note that I need to mention. The Summer Splash Blog Hop is coming up July 26th to July 29th. Are you ready? Hope so! Keep watching for prize updates!

END OF THE ROAD
31 authors, 33 stories, multiple genres. “End of the Road” is a collection of short stories written by some very well-known writers as well as some relative new-comers (like me). I hope you will enjoy each and every tale about 'the end of the road'. Grab it now at Smashwords, it's FREE! [soon to be on Amazon as well]

TH-TH-TH-THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

#Write4ten Prompt: ALIEN

The word prompt today is ALIEN.

Go for it, fact or fiction, memories or tales - your choice. Write for ten minutes - minimum. Don't worry if you take longer, that means your creativity has been sparked...and that is a good thing.

When you're done, add your BLOG POST LINK to our new linky list below. That's it! [No blog? Feel free to post your writing in the comments.]

a·li·en  (l-n, lyn)
adj.
1. Owing political allegiance to another country or government; foreign: alien residents.
2. Belonging to, characteristic of, or constituting another and very different place, society, or person; strange. See Synonyms at foreign.
3. Dissimilar, inconsistent, or opposed, as in nature: emotions alien to her temperament.
n.
1. An unnaturalized foreign resident of a country. Also called noncitizen.
2. A person from another and very different family, people, or place.
3. A person who is not included in a group; an outsider.
4. A creature from outer space: a story about an invasion of aliens.
5. Ecology An organism, especially a plant or animal, that occurs in or is naturalized in a region to which it is not native.



Monday, July 15, 2013

#Write4Ten Prompt: CONFUSED

The word prompt today is CONFUSED.

Go for it, fact or fiction, memories or tales - your choice. Write for ten minutes - minimum. Don't worry if you take longer, that means your creativity has been sparked...and that is a good thing.

When you're done, add your BLOG POST LINK to our new linky list below. That's it! [No blog? Feel free to post your writing in the comments.]

con·fused  (kn-fyzd)
adj.
1. Being unable to think with clarity or act with understanding and intelligence.
2.
a. Lacking logical order or sense: a confused set of instructions.
b. Chaotic; jumbled: a confused mass of papers on the floor.



Friday, July 12, 2013

Five Friday Facts for July 12th

This has been a busy, fun, boring, exciting week. How's that for an intro...LOL! Here are five random facts about this week.

  1. I've been BUSY writing my next book in the Klondike Mystery series. Starting Chapter 10 now and writing madly. It's amazing how many plot changes & twists happen when you let your characters tell their own story.
     
  2. Hubby has started working on our Route 66 plans. Two motorcycles, two people, 1 trailer on Route 66 - should be a blast. We aren't going to hurry, we want to take time to savor the journey. We're allowing a month to go from here to just outside Chicago where we'll start, then on to Santa Monica via as much of Route 66 as we can locate. We'll camp when possible (and weather permits - and we feel like it). Oh, and I'll turn age 66 during the ride! WOOT!
     
  3. We had breakfast with some good riding friends from Texas on their way through to an event in West Virginia. Up at 7am to meet them in neighboring Cookeville for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Good food, great friends = wonderful day.
     
  4. Went to the movies to see "White House Down". It was that at "Despicable Me 2" and I figured that would last longer at the theaters. All I can say is WoW...adrenaline overload. Love, love, LOVED it!!
     
  5. I was doing SO GOOD on my diet until Wednesday night. Pouring rain, nothing thawed out and my WONDERFUL hubby went into town to pick up pizza. Hey, I ordered it....[snicker]. It was SO good!!! Then there was the movies on Thursday...I just can't do a movie without popcorn. Also gave in and had my first Diet Coke in almost two months.

    Tomorrow, back at it, including exercise. Especially after reading this article by Harley Pasternak: Even Physically Active Women Sit Too Much By Harley Pasternak
Hope you had a good week! We move our RV from our property in north central TN to Camping World in Chattanooga where we will hopefully FINALLY get out body work done, fixing the damage done by the tire blowout that happened on our way to Maryland from Tennessee in early spring.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

My Flash Fiction - Brandish [#Write4Ten]

Once again I tackle a new Write 4 Ten prompt....how about you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brandish [Write4Ten]

"No, no, no. Not like that, like this!" Sir Geoffrey stood behind his young charge and once again showed him the correct stance.

"I'm trying but my body doesn't want to obey." Reginald pushed his tutor to the side. "I don't want to do this anymore. I don't like swords." He glared at the castle behind them. "I don't care what my father says." He spun to face his tutor, "Father doesn't understand me."

"Now, now. Let's do one more session and the we'll be done for the day. Come, get in position. Every gentleman must know how to handle himself in a duel." Sir Geoffrey positioned Reginald and took him through the moves.

No one noticed Reginald's youngest sister brandishing her wooden sword and mimicking every move with perfect precision.

Write4Ten




#Write4ten Prompt - BRANDISH

The word prompt today is BRANDISH.

Go for it, fact or fiction, memories or tales - your choice. Write for ten minutes - minimum. Don't worry if you take longer, that means your creativity has been sparked...and that is a good thing.

When you're done, add your BLOG POST LINK to our new linky list below. That's it! [No blog? Feel free to post your writing in the comments.]

bran·dish  (brndsh)
tr.v. bran·dished, bran·dish·ing, bran·dish·es
1. To wave or flourish (a weapon, for example) menacingly.
2. To display ostentatiously. See Synonyms at flourish.
n.
A menacing or defiant wave or flourish.



Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Indelibles Indie Life for July

This is the first month in the new monthly support group sponsored by The Indelibles, called Indie Life. We get to post anything we want in support of other independent authors.

Writing: What Works For Me
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I started to get interested in fiction writing fifteen years ago, I bought every book I could find. I joined Writer’s Digest Book of the Month Club. I bought magazines. I joined forums and other online groups. The result? I spent more time reading and researching than I did writing.

When I decided to try my hand at fiction writing again in January 2012, I started down that same route. Joining online groups, buying Kindle versions of books about writing, chatting with other authors and ordering online magazines. It wasn’t long before I realized that I was falling into that same bottomless pit.

Then I ran into a group of writers who posted weekly flash fiction from several sites on their blogs. Could it be that easy? Just write and put it in my blog? Surely not. Even if I did manage to write something, could I possibly let someone else read it? I didn’t know anything about writing, did I?
I took baby steps, it was easy since almost no one read my writing blog yet. I wrote something I called “The Surprise”. I had a lot of followers of my personal blog and they were kind enough to read it and leave some positive comments.

Taking a deep breath, I tried it again. Umm, no comments. No surprise since I didn’t really like the story much myself. Then I found Lillie McFerrin’s “Five Sentence Fiction”. Each week we were given a word and a photo and had to write five sentences, no more.

Eureka – visuals! This is where I found what worked for me. Give me a photo and I can write forever. I continued to do flash fiction, often finding my own photo to represent the word, phrase or situation. Words flowed so much more easily.

When I decided to expand into writing a full novel, I wasn’t sure I could do it. I’d done so well with flash fiction, cutting my words to the bone, Slicing and dicing, no fat left. Could I manage to expand my words to 50,000 for Camp NaNoWriMo?

Once again, I fell back on what worked for me – visuals. I found photos for the location of the book, then I went searching for photos that showed me what I wanted my characters to look like. I started a board on Pinterest and pinned them all up there.

Next hurdle, where to write? Since I had a deadline, 50k words in 31 days, I knew I had to write almost every day for hours. Working from home was difficult, too many distractions so I packed up my new ultra-portable and headed to the local McDonalds. It worked!

The key here is to find what works for YOU, what helps you be creative, what helps you be productive. It might be a corner of your dining room, a chair on the deck, a local cafe or in your office, if you have one. A favorite pen or pencil, I have a few, a special notebook or your computer. A word prompt, a photograph – take it and use it.

Now go write….