Riding the whirlwind
Today just might go down as the highlight of my writing career to-date. It could be the start of something big. Today, I was one of the lucky 125 entrants selected to submit to the Knight Agency’s Author Speed Date contest. You should have heard the excited whoop I...
Writer’s roller coaster
An e-mail arrived in my inbox today with the subject line: “Your Submission: …” Since I was at work at the time, I had an argument with myself. “You can’t open that! You’re supposed to be working,” the me with the Midwestern work ethic said. (It’s the same me...
Great news
It’s been more than 24 hours and I’m still not over the excitement of learning I’m a finalist in the First Coast Romance Writers Beacon Contest for unpublished writers. (You can see the proof here, in the list of finalists.) This is especially exciting because it’s my first-ever contest...
On a roll?
After last night’s good news on my contest final, I got more excellent news this afternoon. One of my writer friends had asked to read “Beauty and the Ballplayer.” She’s read a couple of my other manuscripts (“Blind Date Bride” and “Operation Snag Mike Brad”). She’s always busy, though,...
Giddy with excitement
What do you do when you get great news at 11 p.m., when everyone who cares is sound asleep? I have to share it with someone … I already tried texting the Boyfriend, with no response. I shared it in my Facebook status and got one “like.” But I’m...
Handy tool
In preparing “Beauty and the Ballplayer” to send to the friends who’ve volunteered to read it, I found something handy to share. It’s a free service that converts Word documents into pdf files. Nice, eh? And so much easier than the way I thought I’d have to do it...
Putting it out there
I know my writer friends are busy — some of them getting ready for the same contest I plan to enter. As such, they’re probably too busy to read anything of mine. (And they could well be my competition!) With that thought in mind, I posted on Facebook that...
Meeting momentum
It always amazes me how attending my RWA chapter meeting recharges my creative battery. Sure, it means a long day for me. I usually don’t get to bed until at least 2 a.m., and I’m up before 8 on meeting day. We meet from 10:30-ish to 2 p.m. and...
Disaster!
OK, it’s not a disaster on the same plane as the Gulf oil spill … but it is a major annoyance. I’ve been editing “Beauty and the Ballplayer.” When I swapped my alternate beginning, I noticed the word count dipped below 50K. I thought that was weird, because I...
Broken record?
Again, I say, just because I haven’t been blogging doesn’t mean I’ve been slacking. No, I’ve been busy. I had to trim a five-page synopsis to a single page for the Harlequin American Editor Pitch contest. (Amazing what becomes important and what you suddenly realize can be left out...