Hello all! I attended writing group tonight for the first time in, um, well, a while. This is a group I had actually quit going to for a while, because it was getting stale. Same writing prompts, same people came every time, so you knew what they were going to say or write. There was no freshness, no variety.

Tonight was a nice change. I have started going mostly for a friend who is unable to attend for health reasons. So I go, give the group the update on her, and then collect the writing prompts to give to her later. Tonight there were two newer people in the group that I'm not terribly familiar with. Their writing was refreshing and surprising. The mediator also gathered new prompts, and the combination lifted my writing to something that may be usable at a later point, waiting on the back burner while I get my other WIP taken care of. Getting to know people in writing group was fun again.

So that was the happy part. Here's the confused part: This month my article "Two Ways to Tell the Story" came out in Idaho Magazine. I wrote it to break that barrier into nonfiction, and also to give some exposure to an artist friend of mine, Jeff Lohr (you can see his collection of art at cedarcreekartistry.com).

So the article was supposed to help him. It's always nice to hear feedback of one's work, but I had no idea what would happen. Jeff is showing the article to his friends in the art community, and they are praising MY writing. I was supposed to be helping him, not the other way around! :P

Not to say I'm complaining, don't get me wrong. I'm not. I love that people are enjoying the article. I guess I expected that for a magazine article, the author was only a fly on the wall, meant to be ignored in favor of the article's topic. Which I hope is still happening. However, the feedback he has received and forwarded to me has been a very humbling experience.

So I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging or anything. I just want to relate how happy I am about the feedback, and grateful for the opportunity. To receive positive feedback from people that Jeff clearly holds in high regard has been remarkable.

Squee!

Today marks the one year anniversary of the death of my in-laws, Don and Carol Martin. My husband took today off work, and we have spent the day doing as little thinking as possible! I was able to get some writing done on my WIP, which was spent fleshing out some plot issues, rather than picking up where I left off. I'm hoping that with adding details, the story will give me some kind of clue where it wants to go next.

Part of the afternoon was spent taking things over to a yard sale, with proceeds benefitting a local cancer patient. The other part of the afternoon will be spent taking flowers to the cemetery for the in-laws.

In other writing news, I finally received my contributor copies of Idaho Magazine, which contains my article "Two Ways to Tell a Story." I was so excited to see it, and the editors did a great job arranging the story and pictures. I haven't received too much feedback on the article yet, but the most important feedback came from the subject of the article, Jeff Lohr. He is an old college friend who went from being a police officer to becoming an artist, and I did a feature on his work and our travels from being Criminal Justice students in college to creative types now. He said he really enjoyed the article, and appreciates the exposure this will give his artwork. Of course, you can see it at www.cedarcreekartistry.com, as well!

I hope you all have a terrific weekend!

Last year, I posted about the death of my in-laws, Don and Carol Martin. Since then, we have been working, albeit very slowly, on cleaning out their apartment and getting things in order. The apartment is empty now, with the exception of the garage, which still has a lot of stuff that my husband and his brother need to go through. Frankly, the whole apartment cleaning job could have been done last year, but because it's such an emotional and painful process, we haven't been in any hurry.

So with a couple of 'minor' details left, the apartment is done, for all intents and purposes. But even when we weren't actively working on it, life has been on hold. Other projects awaiting our attention have been put on hold while we try to take steps forward. Writing I could have been doing, housecleaning that could have been done, all have been on the back burner while we struggled with this task.

Next month will be the year anniversary of our lives being turned upside down. My husband and I haven't talked much about it, but I think we both look at that date as a time to get moving on, start looking forward, be done with all of it. There are times when I wonder if we will ever be able to look forward ever again. We hope. We laugh. We get through it all, day by day. There are more easy days than hard ones now. My son still has moments where my potatoes aren't as good as Grandma's, and the memory of her cooking gets him so upset it takes the better part of an hour to calm him.

Life has been moving on, in little bursts here and there. I managed to publish a magazine article, and my son has participated in some bowling tournaments. My husband is doing well in his job, and the youngest is growing and becoming the kind of joyful challenge that only a three year old can accomplish.

I hope I can get back to what I imagined my life would be once I quit my job. I thought I'd write more, clean more, etc. Right now, for me, anyway, life is filled with lots of procrastination and dealing with relatives who still ask for a trinket or some rememberence that belonged to Don and Carol. Estate lawyers and whatever loose ends we thought we had taken care of, but suddenly rears its ugly head.

Some days, it takes a lot of effort to remember Carol's voice, who encouraged my writing. Those days when I want to give up, despite the fact that missing her and Don has absolutely nothing to do with my writing. And yet it has everything to do with my writing.

May will be here soon. The flowers Carol planted are blooming, and remind us every day that no matter hard life gets, there is still beauty. They never let a little pesky snow get in the way of becoming what they were meant to be.

Last month I posted about writing an article for a magazine, and my concerns (okay, fear) that it was so new, something I've never done before, blah blah blah.

I'm a wimp. Sue me.

And, I was proven wrong! They accepted it! My article will be in the May issue of Idaho Magazine! I was so intimidated by the whole thing, and the editor was easy to talk to and work with. He did throw me a curve ball, however. I pitched my idea to write about a friend of mine. In the pitch, I mentioned we were both criminal justice majors in college, and he was now an artist.

The editor turned the pitch on its ear. He picked up on me being a writer, and asked, "How did you guys go from being in law enforcement to being creative? THAT'S the story I want."

My response? "Uh, okay." The article was a blast to write, and the editor said he really liked it.

One more barrier down!

Since I wrote that piece of flash fiction last year, it helped me realize just how small the box was that I had placed myself in. I used to always say, "I can't do flash, it's too short." Another favorite was "I don't want to freelance, I'd rather stick with fiction."

So I'm going to tackle a magazine article. I don't know if I can get it published. But the fact that I even want to tackle it, have a few destinations for my idea, and have the information to write the article, all in itself is kinda cool.

I will admit to using a safety net here. The article will be about a friend of mine. I've known him for almost 20 years, so the subject matter isn't that tough to research. Just getting the article accepted and published will be the tough part.

Now I need to learn how to write a query/pitch letter.

Have a great day, everyone!

I blew it. Totally blew it. I'm so sorry to everyone. That just shows you what kind of flake I can be over the holidays. Back in December I announced a drawing for a free copy of A Shaker of Margaritas: Cougars on the Prowl. Then I got caught up in the holidays, and life in general, and suddenly it's February.

Oops.

So, since I was a numbskull and totally forgot, if anyone is still interested, I am still willing to give out free copies. Just send me a direct message with your address, and I will be happy to send you a copy of the book. I will send out a copy to everyone who sent me a message, unless you tell me otherwise. I will also contact you, just in case you decided to ignore my post, because I flaked on the drawing!

So congratulations to everyone! I must go, however. There are two boys in the house, trying to tear it down with their shenanigans.

Have a great day, everyone!

Hello all! (sound of crickets chirping) Um, okay then! Ahem. Hope everyone is doing well this fine December day (or night depending on when you are reading this).

And if you are here because of my bogus Monty Python post on Facebook: my apologies for the bait and switch. But I'll make it up to you: I want to give away a signed free copy of the anthology A Shaker of Margaritas: Cougars on the Prowl. This anthology has 22 fantastic stories, and makes a great present, or even just a sit down and relax kind of book!

So leave me a comment and I will pick your name at random (meaning my kids will draw names out of a Tupperware container). It will be signed by three authors from the book; Susan Thomas, Sonia Todd, and myself (because we all live in the same town, and getting their signatures is easy!)

I am willing to ship the book anywhere, yup, anywhere. So leave me those comments, and you'll be hearing from me soon!

Have a great night, everyone!

I wrote the greatest thing I have ever written, and will ever write:

"I am submitting my letter of resignation. My last day will be December 19."


I think I can get a movie deal, don't you?

Today in the local paper, there is an article featuring myself, as well as Sonia Todd and Susan Thomas, two other authors included in the anthology A Shaker of Margaritas: Cougars on the Prowl, published by Mozark Press. We have a book signing this Saturday in Moscow, Idaho.

I'm so excited!

I also spent this morning with another writer. The kind of person I've known forever, and knew she wrote, but when she actually came out as a writer, and was working on a fiction novel?! I had a writer-gasm. Especially when she said, "But since I'm new at this, I don't really know where to find anything about writing or how you know so much." I had to giggle at this, and then gave her the whirlwind tour of what my writing experience has been like the last four years. Having to do a lot of research myself just on what writing resources are out there, and what's available to a writer in our small community. Sharing names of local writers I'm familiar with and what they write, and why they are so cool to be around.

Getting to share what little I know about our local writing community made me feel excellent. She also made me feel excellent, because she said, "No one has ever really understood me before! They look at me like I'm a two-headed monster!" I told her the writers I hang with all have that, and she'd blend right in, and they might ask her where her third head was.

My favorite part of the morning conversation was when I started talking to her about beta-readers. She asked what that meant. I told her that was a term used for people she asked to read her work and give her feedback, but weren't really editors per se. She said, "Oh, I just always called them victims!"

It was a great day getting to know this new side to my friend.

But I can't help it. I'm excited. Ecstatic, even. My second short story came out in A Shaker of Margaritas: Cougars on the Prowl, released by Mozark Press. My story is called "Speed Dating," and is about what happens when the unexpected happens for two friends at a speed dating event.

Okay, so I need to work on my tags. Whatever. The point is, this book has 22 wonderful stories, with three of them being from myself and two authors who live in the same town. We are hosting a book signing at Hastings in Moscow, Idaho starting at 11:00 AM on December 3rd.

I've done book signings before (three to be exact, all for my first story publication), and I'm just as excited for this one as if it were the first time. I still 'squeee' like a teenager who just got asked to the prom. We are going to fake and fabricate our fifteen minutes of fame like nobody's business!