still behind on band info

The band made the top six, placing 5th this year in over all the state - so we say congrats to our band -- I can't find my daughter on the picture on the front page but I know she is in the group.

We had a great time and now that band season is over, we are moving on to other things (she's thinking if the doctor will let her to do winterguard) so we I'll just keep you posted on that aspect -

Check out how they all look - following the links on the front page to marching band to photos and you will see pictures of the upper state competition first and some other performance and practice pictures and then the bottom set is the state competition - the one picture with all the drum majors lined up I believe is the beginning of the state pictures. Best one of the group is when they are in their show shirts at upper state in the stands and standing at attention - you can see everyone's face for the most part (although we do have some very short band members but they are there) - Take a peek and let me know what you think of a great group of kids - see you all on the field, or in the pages - E :)

Newsletter for magazine for which I am an editor

It may not be much - but every little bit helps and we are still taking submissions - so please if you are interested in writing a story for the magazine, check out our submissions page and just write and submit.

Diary of a Novel

Diary of a Novel

Pretty cool site - maybe if I keep blogging my friends, the hits on my site will go up as well as the comments and their sites will get lots of hits -

Kimberli is pretty cool and a NaNo fanatic - she hasn't posted much this month but she has been working on her novel in a very dedicated manner - please visit her traveling blog to see some of her adventures - pictures of places she has been, fall colors, et cetera - pretty cool stuff - E :)

Yep I'm behind on the good news for the school

Since the previous posting, we had another competition on the 14th and took 2nd place, which was a miracle in and of itself since we didn't capture any of the outstanding awards, so the program and visual effect and music stood on their own to score the band high enough to take 2nd place.

This past weekend was upperstate in our class (we are a 3A school and 3A band) and we had to compete against 17 other bands. The top 6 bands from upper state and top 6 from lower state go to state to compete for the overall grand championship. Well check out the website - we placed 2nd in upper state and we only lost by a little over 1 point (we scored a 90.6 and the winning band scored a 91.75) - so needless to say that we are totally excited.

On the front page pictures, my daughter is in the middle back with her arm around her friend and she is whispering something to her (her head is turned so can't see her face) but on the next picture down, same spot, she has her face towards the camera - Her birthday is Thursday and she will be 14. On the pictures below the schedule information - the group with the red shirts all in the stands - my daughter is on the end of the second row right in front of the black girl and behind the really short girl. She is the red headed girl on the far right as you are looking at the picture, near the other band that got caught in our picture - lol -

Since the previous posting, my oldest has turned 21 and my youngest is now a preteen (well he actually had turned 12 a couple of weeks prior to that posting but since I am mentioning ages, I figured I should put him in too -

During the competition before they gave the awards, I had picked our band as third and the band that received third, I had them as second. I had fourth to a band that didn't even place and had between 5th and 6th to one of the two bands that actually took 5th, 6th (the one that took 6th, I didn't have placed either but the last band that performed, taking 4th place, I had as between 5th or 6th - I think I had the last band that performed as 6th and the third from the bottom as 5th. So only two of my guesses were correct but I'm glad since that put us as 2nd place instead of 3rd where I had us -

So congrats to the marching band that has worked super hard to come this far and hopefully next week we will be in the top 3 to receive a plaque or award or medal - whatever is given to the top 3 bands - more then - see you on the field - E :)

Some really good news for the marching band

The marching band (at present known as the Bear Brigrade, but that name is supposed to be changing) had two competitions this past weekend and so were on the road a good bit. I got to the second competition right as the last AA class band was performing; which is great, because the AAA and AAAA bands were to follow (we performed in AAAA at the second competition).

Upon arriving, we got to see the awards for the A and AA bands - cool looking costumes on one of the groups and it has inspired a short story for a contest -

After that, we watched all the AAA and AAAA bands perform, we were the last performing group before the exhibition band (school sponsoring the competition) and the awards. Our band placed 3rd out of 4 teams competing with the difference between first and third only being 0.95 points - we scored (I think) a 90.3 and the first place band was 91.25 - so not much room to make too much difference on the scores. We also took best drumline and best color guard (or front line as it is called sometimes)

So we had to wait around until the first competition's awards and had a person phone us to tell us the results - and (drumroll please) - we took best drumline, best colorguard, and best hornline and first place. We also took Silver Grand Champions in classes 1 - 4A bands - first time in our school's history of taking the Grand Champion at a competition -

Last week at our first competition, we also took best drumline and 3rd place with the difference between first and third only being 1.85 points - we scored an 88.9, second place scored an 89.3 and first place was a 90.75 - so as you can see these scores are very close and the bands are high quality in competitions

So congrats to our school for achieving a first - almost sweeping the categories of extra trophies and doing a great job performing twice in the same day - E :)

WOW - some very good news for me

I saw this listing for a call for several editors and so I joined the discussion group and put my two cents in for some story ideas for the upcoming new magazine that is going to run next year and I got one of the editor positions - how cool is that?

I am looking forward to posting my call for submission for my particular storyline and hope to see you all submitting your stories - not only to me but to the other editors too - the more the merrier.

Be on the lookout for the calls - come visit the site and see whats happening - E :)

A Literary Agency's blog

BookEnds, LLC — A Literary Agency

I've actually met Jacky from this company and have had contact with several authors that they represent - lots of interesting posts regarding the publishing world as well as the agent world (all have been editors for publishing companies and now are agents - so know both sides of it) -

I have posted all blog links under the links section on my blog - thanks - E :)

Another friend's blog

People I'd Like To Be - Again - please see the links to access the blog - E :)

Chai's Blog

I have posted the links to my friends' blogs under the Links section - so please visit some interesting blog sites I have accumulated and would like to share with you - E :)

CAN IT BE SEPTEMBER ALREADY?

Here it is labor day and I'm slaving away at work (there is plenty there) and trying to concentrate on only work to build up my lines but it isn't happening. Again, thinking of a ton of different things I could be doing, but I must persevere with the work, need to build up the funds to hopefully move from this wretched house - the one full of snakes, mice, and other critters that tend to not show face but make up for it in all the noises they make.

I have started a new story and goal is to do 35,000 words by the end of the month and yet I have no direction on the story, had a prompt from the Writer's Digest site that a friend was a good idea and so I went with it. I have an opening scene, some backstory a little bit and nothing else - pizzazz and flat - good combination. Hopefully something will come.

I don't have a home for it yet but maybe that will come along and inspire me to really write the thing - I think doing it this way makes me think differently on the story; having a home first, makes me want to write the story and all kinds of ideas flow; not having the home first, just makes it more like work - oh well - Maybe tonight I'll look for a contest to put it with so i can write, edit, revise, et cetera on a timely schedule -

Well back to work - ya'll have productive days - see you soon - E :)

FALLING BEHIND, QUICKLY

It seems that school was just out yesterday and here we are already back in August and school going full force. Daughter is in the marching band again this year; her picture was in the local paper last week - she is playing the tuba which she hates. Son is taking up the sax for band and wants to do marching band next year - so I'll have both of them in at the same time next summer (oy!!!) -- Oldest son is taking a break from classes this semester but still plugging on with his arts and creativity.

Work is going well, trudging along as long as the computers don't explode any more (I've been with this company now a month and a few days and since beginning I've had four computers and an extra power supply (making 5 total) die/crash/burn up on me - apparently it was a wiring problem in my house with the hot and neutral wires being interchanged) and I keep getting good lines and reports - not that I've had any bad ones so far because there are no foreign doctors.

Writing wise, I've fallen way behind in that as I have had no desire, no interest, nothing to drive forth any stories whatsoever. I did enter another one of the 24-hour contests in July but then again, it was very short and I probably could have expanded on the story some and made it better so I'm not holding my breath on winning anything on that. The next one is September 23, and I'll probably enter that one too (anyone want to join me, the website is - http://writersweekly.com/misc/contest.php) -- hope to see you all then -

happy writing, keep on doing the things you do - E :)

SLACKER CITY - NOT POSTED IN A WHILE

Sorry ya'll - I've been through heck and back or so it seems, not been inspired to write much, haven't even posted on other people's blogs until tonight - so figured I should update mine as well.

Wish I could add a counter on my blog site but not sure how - would love to see how many are reading anything online - lol - only kidding - not a big following of anyone on my blog site but there are plenty out there that do have big followings

So let's see - writing wise - I checked out the SC Fiction Project on the 30th of June since the statement was that all winners would be notified and posted by the first of July - and none of the three from the local writing group I belong to who entered a story in the project won - kind of disappointing but someone from the upstate did get picked - so that was enlightening - the majority of the winners seemed to be from Charleston or Columbia, even though it is a statewide project for all writers - makes you wonder where the published writers live in this state - lol - the beach, the capital or the inspirational areas - not upstate (not true because I do know several published authors from the upstate area)

Working on a mini mystery - flash fiction contest thing - so may get that fixed up and submitted by the end of the month. I've been challenged to do 35,000 words by the end of the month and I should utilize my down time (work computer power supply died after a week of use, so awaiting a new power supply - hopefully tomorrow it will be here) to write on this story I started last weekend - maybe get it up to to 30,000 or something by the end of the month - not sure what I'll do with it - just have to see -

So, keep writing, keep doing what you do best - back next month - E :)

Not a winner, not even a grab bag winner

Well the 24-hour contest winners were posted last week and I must say, I'm a bit disappointed that the winning story didn't even seem to follow the topic at all. The other two stories didn't seem that well written or really on the topic either. It was a fun contest though and I plan on entering the next 24-hour contest in July. For a $5 entry fee, it was worth it, just to do a complete story in 24 hours, write, edit and submit is a serious rush.

For anyone interested in reading the winning stories go to: http://www.writersweekly.com/contest/spring06winners.html

Anyone interested in entering the contest the following link will lead you there. You can sign up right until the day before or even the day of the contest (only take 500 entries though) - check it out and if interested have fun and write away - http://writersweekly.com/misc/contest.php

Good luck, have fun and happy writing - E :)

Why is this month dragging by?

Well, here it is the 22nd of May and the kids are on half days at school until tomorrow, I've lost my job and am bored. I think this month is the longest for me so far this year. I have submitted to several contests and and just waiting to hear. Hopefully, by this weekend, the 24-hour contest will announce the winners.

There doesn't seem to be much going on right now. Everything seems slow. As soon as baseball/softball season is over, I can get back to my writing and other meetings, which I've missed this month.

Well, maybe next week or so I'll have more news to report but for now, just sitting here bored and wanted something to do - E :)

OKAY, IT'S THE BEGINNING OF THE MONTH - LOL

Since I'm involved in some online classes, I decided I should post my second story (sort of a thought of how I want to do my 50 states stories) for everyone to read - This picks up where Train of Clues left off. Any suggestions or comments are muchly appreciated on this - E :)


SUMMER ASSIGNMENTS:

Now, don't get the wrong idea about Matt, me, Len and Jo, and us doing schoolwork over the summer. This was a fun assignment and I learned a lot. Mr. Brady isn't like other teachers; his assignments are pretty cool.


Mr. Brady gave us a task over the summer and it wasn't easy to find what he was asking for. I actually had to use brain cells I didn't know I had. Go figure! Today's trip, which was Matt's birthday, wasn't really classwork but it was a start to exploring the states. The train trip was actually a scavenger hunt, finding items and clues that led us to Mount Rushmore. It was an awesome experience and I'm sure it will be the talk of the town for the rest of the summer.


For the actual work, we don't get to board a train or a plane nor do we get to travel by car or bus. Nope, this time, we have to use our imaginations and come up with a report for each state that we have to find from all the clues in the packets Mr. Brady sends us.


It was pretty strange walking into the house and finding an envelope addressed to me. Mom made sure I didn't miss it, but I've got to tell you, I don't get mail so this was a bit weird for me. I picked up the envelope and read the label:

• Mr. Guy Landrum
  123 West Brook Street
  Creighton, SD 57790
  

Yes siree, it was definitely my name on this package and all I could make out from the return address was that it was from the school. I hadn't failed any classes and wasn't supposed to be in summer school. I hadn't enrolled to be in any school activities for the summer. I wasn't in the marching band. Usually anything from the school addressed directly to a student was bad news. I was tired and really didn't want to open it but Mom insisted.

"That envelope has been driving me crazy all day, while you have been on your fun trip. Go on, open it. Let's see what kind of trouble you are in now," she said

She didn't leave me any choice; I had to tear into the official school material to find out what was inside.

I pulled the folded papers from the envelope and read what I thought would be bad news. It was actually not as bad as I had imagined. The first page was a letter from Mr. Brady.

"Well, come on now, tell me what it says," Mother prodded.

"Okay, it's really nothing bad. I'm not in trouble or anything. Mr. Brady wants us to do some work over the summer to get a jump on the upcoming school year when we have to take his social studies class."

"Okay, so what does it say?"

Dear Guy, Matt, Jolene, and Leonard:

You are about to embark on the adventure of the school year. You will be traveling, in your imaginations, throughout the United States, using the clues I have provided. Each packet will lead you to the state and two landmarks. Some will also include a specific destination or town. You will work as a team over the summer and in the upcoming school year. The winning team each week will be awarded a prize.

You will have to write an essay on your findings and present them to the class when school starts. You will do this for the next ten weeks and once school starts, we will continue the adventure in a different format. Your social studies grade for the year will be based primarily on your work for the fifty states. I hope you enjoy this little game.

Happy Hunting,

Mr. Brady
Social Studies Teacher
Creighton Middle School

I tucked the papers back into the envelope and headed for bed, leaving Mom standing in the hall wanting to know more. I would worry about calling Matt in the morning. This meant more time with Jolene, what a summer this was going to be. Believe it or not, I was excited when I turned in for the night.

After lunch with Grandma the next day, I called Matt but could barely get a word in edgewise.

"Yeah, dude," he said. "How about we meet at the town library about nine o'clock in the morning and the four of us just jump in there and start this project. Who knows, maybe we can knock it out and free up the rest of the week."

"What do you have against sleeping in some?" I asked him.

"Man, I got other things to do in the evenings. I can't waste my whole day waiting for you to get out of bed. So, nine o'clock at the library. See you there. Okay?"

"Yeah, sure, nine o'clock." I grumbled, hanging up the phone.

I was the last to arrive because I had overslept. As I was locking my bike up in the rack, I got the feeling I was being overtaken. I looked up and there stood Jo, Len, Matt and Mary Beth, who always tags along wherever Matt goes. I'm sure Matt's mother had something to do with this though. "Yeah, I'm late. That's nothing new. You all know me by now and you know I'm rarely on time."

"Well, listen, the library closes for lunch at one, so we need to get started and accomplish as much as we can before then," Jo stated in her bossy voice.

"Okay, let's go." I shot back at her.

Mary Beth went over to the mystery section and found a book to read while we were on the computer, sitting far enough away to not be in our way but close enough to hear our discussions. After the librarian logged us on to one of the available computers, we sat down and read the information Mr. Brady had sent us. Here's what it said:

As this is the first state, I will give you all the clues and information you need. Your job is to figure out the state and the two landmarks. In addition, you will also need to find a particular destination from the clues given. The clues are as follows:

State clues:
1) The second oldest city in the nation is located in this state.
2) Five other states share a border with this state.
3) This state is named after a British King.
4) The Girl Scouts were founded in this state in nineteen hundred and twelve.

Wacky facts:
1) Paradise Gardens, an eccentric "art house", built by Howard Finster, defies description, convention and gravity.
2) Oliver Hardy, half of the famous Laurel and Hardy vaudeville act, was born in this state.

Landmarks:
1) Billed as the biggest swamp in North America, this natural wonder can be navigated by canoe or boat tour, or you can get directions for driving at the visitors' center in Folkston.
2) Take a train or ride a skylift to see the largest high-relief sculpture in the world, the Confederate Memorial Carving depicting Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Entertainment and shopping options abound at the 3,200-acre park.

Destination clues:
1) The first gold rush was actually in this town, occurring around eighteen hundred and twenty eight.
2) The original name of this town was Licklog.
3) One of the United States first gold mints was in this town.
4) This town has evidence of inhabitation prior to the Cherokee, believed to have been somewhere around 1000 b.c.
5) This town is holding its third annual literary festival in February, on the weekend closest to President's weekend.

Jo took the initiative, even though Len was more of a computer geek than the rest of us. She typed in some keywords and the search was on. Jo must have used ten or fifteen different combinations to figure out the state, but we finally came up with it.

"Come on, Jo," Len prodded. "I can move faster than this."

"Yeah, but I'm used to doing this. I've done a lot of research."

"So? I'm the computer expert," Len stated.

"Go ahead if you think you can find anything faster. I'm pretty quick and know what I'm doing."

Len pushed Jo out of the seat and starting putting in what he could. He didn't have any luck finding any answers. Jo just umphed him and moved him out of the way so she could continue her Internet search. She Googled Girl Scouts and found out they were started by Juliette Low. The movement had been started based on the guidelines of the Boy Scouts but Juliette Gordon Low started it in America in one of the most famous cities in the state.

Matt not wanting to be outdone put his two cents worth in. "You guys, listen. I say we just find the destination. We already know the state. We can find the landmarks later. Don't you all think so?"

"Well, actually no." Jo answered. "I think we need to find the landmarks before we get to the destination. It would be pretty easy to get to the town with these clues but why not just find everything in order - the state, the landmarks and then the town?"

"I have other things to do today, so I'd like to be out of here before lunch if we can," Matt informed us.

"Well personally, I don't care what we do. I think we just need to get this done so I can go home and sleep some more." I added.

"Like you didn't sleep enough as it is. You were the last one here, Guy. Surely a few hours of your time isn't going to kill you." Len shot me a strange look.

Jo kept on searching, trying to ignore us. The computer timer had to be reset while we were looking up the landmarks. The librarian kindly re-signed us on and went back to shelving the new stock of books.

"Okay guys, I think I have come up with one of the landmarks," Jo said.

"Yeah, which one?" I asked.

"Well, part of the clue is that this is a swamp and I'm coming up with only swamp that is mentioned online. I put in the state name plus swamps and came up with this." Jo showed us the link she found.

"Then, I'd say we found one landmark. I always thought that was a made up place," I said.

"Well, now we know it's not a made up place," Matt chimed in.

"Yeah, you know how someone always tries to pull the wool over your eyes and tells you they have some land in this swamp to sell you. I thought it was either a made up swamp or in another state for some reason."

"Okay, one landmark down. Let's move on to the next one so we can find the town and get out of here." Matt said.

Jo typed in some more trying to find the second landmark.

"Jo, look up theme parks in the state and see if that doesn't lead us to the landmark," Len told her.

Jo typed in state theme parks and there it was, the listing of all the theme parks in the state. We moved on to finding the town. The easiest place to find, a town in the state considered to be the first "gold rush" center and housing one of the nation's first mints.

So where did we end up?

Clues leading to the state should lead you to Georgia. The landmarks are a little more difficult unless you are familiar with them but they are The Okefenokee Swamp and Stone Mountain. Our destination town ended up being Dahlonega.

Story update/Good news

Just posting an update - My April Fool's day themed story won second place on the contest - posted on www.armchairinterviews.com - here is the winning story for all you fans of mine (few that I have - lol)

The Proposal


Ribbit. Ribbit.
Stella looked around but couldn't locate the sound. Henry suppressed a chuckle.
Henry had made reservations at the fanciest restaurant in town. Stella sat there all dressed up, about to burst at the seams from what promised to be the best birthday ever. Not her usual joke-filled day. The evening was supposed to be romantic but the frogs were ruining that. Why couldn't Stella have a normal, romantic birthday with the love of her life?
Henry was the most straight-laced person she had known in her life, although a bit gullible and on the receiving end of a prank. Stella was thankful for this because having a birthday on April Fools' Day meant Stella had received every practical joke ever thought of as a gift; none from Henry over the years as his gifts were the most sincere. This year, though, Stella was hoping for a simple, romantic dinner. This was a special birthday for her - her twenty-fifth. Henry had gone through lots of planning to mark a quarter of a century for Stella.
After five years of being together as a couple, Stella just knew this nice, quiet evening would be special.
Ribbit. Ribbit. The frogs kept going, like the Energizer Bunny.
"Aren't you going to order something?" Henry asked.
"I've not much of an appetite. These frogs are driving me crazy. You do hear them, don't you?"
Henry shook his head. Stella looked at him as if he had just slapped her. "Henry, surely you hear them croaking every few minutes during the music. It's like the restaurant has piped in the frogs just for me. Let's go somewhere else."
"No, it's okay. Maybe you are the only one hearing them because it's your birthday."
"Not a chance. I'm going to ask the maitre'd to turn off the music. Surely, there are other people here who hear those silly frogs too."
Stella motioned for the maitre'd. "Please sir, tell me you hear the frogs over the music."
"No, Mademoiselle. I only hear the wonderful music that plays every night," he replied in his French accent, which matched the ambience of the restaurant.
"Will you please just turn off the music then? I'm hearing frogs and I don't like them. It's ruining my night."
"If we turn off the music for you, then all the other patrons will not enjoy the atmosphere and romance we provide."
"Fine. Just give me some frog legs for an appetizer." Maybe that'll shut them up.
Henry held Stella's hand, trying to calm her down. "Stella, hon. Let's calm down about the frogs. Try not to think of them. Remember we're here celebrating your birthday, not the jokes you usually get. Besides, I've something to ask you."
"I'll try to put those frogs out of my mind but they're aggravating. And you know how much I dislike them. But for you, I will try."
Ribbit. Ribbit.
Henry pulled a small box from his pocket. "Stella, we've been together a while now. I want to ask you something important."
Stella gulped.
"Stel, hon. I really love you and think we are meant to be together. Oh, wait. I'm supposed to be down on one knee when I ask you." Henry came around to Stella and kneeled, taking her hand. "Will you marry me?"
Stella nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes, yes. I've waited so long for this." Stella opened the engagement ring box only to find a piece of paper rolled up in the slot where the ring should have been. She unrolled it and read what Henry had neatly printed on the front, "NOT". What is this? He asks me to marry him and then says NOT. "Um, Henry, is this some kind of joke?"
"Did you read the back of it?"
Stella turned the paper over and read "April Fools'" and looked very confused. "So does this mean that the proposal was a joke or that just not having the ring is the joke?" Stella was about in tears, feeling rejected. She continued seething silently, turned to Henry and said, "I can't believe you have been involved in any practical jokes today, since you've not participated before."
"Actually, the empty box was the joke. Your mother helped me plan that part. I really do want you to marry me. Here's the ring for real."
Stella gazed at the ring. It was beautiful. Oh, how she wanted to trust Henry right now, but after his little joke, Stella found it hard to believe him. The ring could be fake, too. "So, they say that the less real a ring is the more beautiful it is. True? I'm not sure I should accept this ring now, knowing my mother's in on the jokes tonight. You know she's the queen of jokes around our house. Every year, she bests herself . No one can beat her jokes."
Ribbit. Ribbit.
"The only joke this time was the note in the box. The ring is real and I don't know anything about other jokes. The note joke was to get you a little flabbergasted."
"Just a little? Those damned frogs are still driving me nuts. And then the ring. Yep, flabbergasted is about right."
After dinner, Stella and Henry stared into each other's eyes. The waiters and waitresses started the restaurant's version of "Happy Birthday" from the kitchen. Stella thought the singing was too far away to be geared toward her. She sighed in relief until the cake with the many candles ended up in front of her. Stella's cheeks burned from being the center of attention. As the song ended, she blew out the candles. Several times. The candles wouldn't go out. She must have blown ten times before everyone said "Happy April Fools' Birthday" to her. She laughed and pulled all the candles from the cake, dunking them in her water to put them out.
"So, whose idea was this, yours or my mother's?" Stella glared at Henry.
Ribbit. Ribbit.
"Honestly, Stel, hon. I had nothing to do with the candles. I did, however, inform the maitre'd when I made our reservations that it was your birthday and that I wanted you to have a special cake since you have the worst day for a birthday. Maybe it was the chef's idea to do this."
"Not likely. They don't know me and this smells rotten. Smells of my mom, like when she put some dye in my shampoo. That was a nightmare. Picture day. And I had to go to school with purple hair." Stella shook her long, curly, auburn hair.
Henry smiled. "True. I haven't been a joker but your mother made this so much fun and knowing I was proposing to you, she had to get you somehow. It's been great so far not being the butt of everyone else's practical jokes."
"So, is this it? Everything that is meant to be played on me? I mean, this seems to be the most jokes I've had on me at once. Three by the same person. So anything else I should know about?"
Henry shrugged.
"Well, since the cake and ring are done, I say let's get out of here before anything else happens that would totally embarrass me."
"Okay. Hope you aren't too upset about the jokes we played on you."
"No, I'm not upset. It's expected, especially knowing my mother is involved. These were mild compared to some of the things she's done in the past, like the year we went to dinner and she had the cook add some gummy worms to my hamburger. That was gross and disgusting, having the whole restaurant staring at me and laughing."
The maitre'd whispered to Stella as they reached the door, "By the way, we piped the frogs in just for you. Your mother called and said you loved frogs sooo much. Hope you enjoyed your April Fools' birthday gift from the restaurant."
Stella laughed. Now she knew it was a joke set up just for her. "So how did you keep the other patrons from complaining?"
"We let them know when they were seated to just ignore the frogs during the music since it was a special treat for a special customer."
Stella nodded. Another joke by her mother, knowing how much she detested frogs which was in part due to high school biology class and Johnny Jones. After the group had dissected the frog, Johnny decided to put the frog down Stella's shirt. Yep, another birthday joke. Stella shuddered.
Henry guided Stella out the door, steering her toward the car. Stella stepped back seeing a flash of white coming toward her. "Is that Martina Navratilova? No way. Can't be. Martina here?"
Henry nodded and continued advancing toward the car.
"Evening, Stella." Martina greeted her. "I've been told in order to marry Henry, you have to beat me in a game of tennis."
"What? I don't know how to play tennis. No way can I beat you." Stella turned toward Henry, begging with her eyes to end the madness. Henry wasn't there.
Stella ran to the car, jumping in as fast as she could. "Come on, Henry. Let's get out of here. This day just keeps getting weirder."
Henry cranked the car and drove Stella home. Stella embarked on a new joke with Henry's help.

"Hello, Mother. We're home."
"Great. How was dinner?"
"You probably know dinner was a bust with all the jokes. I can't even believe you got Henry to partake in them. You had me pretty upset tonight."
"Jokes aside, did you have a nice dinner?"
"I didn't even get to eat dinner. What with those stupid frogs croaking during the time we were in the restaurant and the empty engagement ring box. I guess it's not meant to be for me to have a nice, quiet birthday as long as you're around."
"Stel, hon. You know I love you very much. I'm only trying to bring joy to you, a few smiles along the way."
"Fine. Just so you know, I turned Henry's proposal down. I couldn't accept due to the fact that I wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't."
Stella's mom stood there, unable to speak.
"What's the matter, Mom? Cat got your tongue?"
"No, no. That's not right. You aren't saying no to Henry because of me, are you?"
"Not at all. I just didn't think I should marry Henry since I'm not in love with him. I've been seeing the new garbage man lately and feel I should at least give him a chance. So, Henry is out of here for now. Bye-bye. Gone."
"Stella, you've got to be kidding. No way are you throwing away five years as well as a good man. Come on, dear. Let's talk about this and make sure you aren't throwing away something you've wanted for a long time."
"Mom, it's over. There isn't anything to talk about." Stella turned away from Henry who was still standing in the doorway. "Oh, by the way, April Fools'. I got you good. You should've seen your face."



hope you enjoy - E :)

Not quite the end of the month - but what the heck - might as well post something

I was just sitting here reading some other friends' blogs and decided to update you all on where I am with my writing and other things in my life.

Let's see - this month I've only worked on one contest entry and sort of working on a nonfiction entry. I have submitted my April Fools story to www.armchairinterviews.com for the upcoming contest. I thought my story was pretty good with the revisions and all but apparently the writing group (http://bellsouthpwp.net/g/c/gcscww/) wasn't too fond of the story. I write short, fun things that tend to be simple. The group didn't like the repetition in the story but being an April Fools day theme, how can you not have repetition -- but enough said - the story has been revised, ending changed and submitted for the contest. The winners will be informed around April 15th - a chance to win 4 books (first place) or 1 book (first runner up and second runner up) and be published on their website until the next contest --- I have fun and that's what counts

My nonfiction piece is for Creative Nonfiction - the magazine - http://www.creativenonfiction.org/thejournal/whatisnew.htm - it has to do with the medical field and that is my field of expertise being a medical transcriptionist.

The middle of the month had me flying to Jersey for a new job, training in the office and then having my computer transported back home to start working. The job is basically similar to what I was doing before but it uses a different platform and getting used to the New York accents is the tough part. That was a plane trip from hell really - and I won't do that again - I'll drive it or fly big airplanes if I have to go up that way again. I was on an express jet which was probably no bigger than a volkswagen bug and a half on the inside - tight seating and only 50 people on the plane. - not for me ever again.

As soon as my nonfiction is finished and submitted, I'll be starting on my children's stories/series - so be on the lookout for that - and my revisions on my mini-mystery - So for now, it looks as if things are looking up for me and that I'm moving right along - see you all next month - E :)

what's that saying - March comes in like a lion, April showers, May flowers?

Yep, sure enough it is March. So since the last posting - here is what has happened in the little corner of the world that is my world:

The weekend of February 17-19, the kids and I helped out at the Dahlonega Literary Festival, very low keyed but overall a good experience. We got to monitor the "Scholastic Book Fair" part of the whole thing, with my daughter dressing up like Clifford the Big Red Dog and enjoying herself. On Saturday evening, we headed over to the Holly Theater for a talk about "Haunted Holly" and it was very interesting to learn the local hauntings of the theater. Poor Amy giving her speech and telling us all about the ghosts there which she had researched for her book "Dahlonega Hauntings" - now I don't know about you all but I'm firm believer in ghosts and other beings and even though not everyone could see him, there was one on stage kind of mocking Amy while she was speaking. Of course, her reply to being told that several persons saw him was "Why can't I see them?" - so you never know when you may come across the next inspiration for a story.

The weekend of February 24-26, I headed down to Columbia, South Carolina, for the South Carolina Book Festival and enjoyed my stay for the weekend. It was totally exhausting Saturday all day but well worth the time and effort as a volunteer. You never know who you will run into at something like that - and yep, I ran into a self-published author, who was an ex-co-worker of mine about 10 years ago. So needless to say, I had contact with a friend.

My whole idea for these 2 weekends is to do some volunteer work with your local book festivals and get your foot in the door with editors, publishers, other authors and you just never know when your big break will come along.

About to submit an April Fool's Day story and once I know if it has placed or anything, I will post here.

Working on a nonfiction story/essay type thing and hopefully in a couple of months, will know about that (okay a few months, not a couple because I have a couple of months before it is ready for submission.)

Any readers want to post any stories or links - please feel free to do so - every bit helps others and you never know - the one thing you have may be the big break for someone else -

Hopefully March will be a good month for everyone and the winter weather will move on (fingers crossed and wishful thinking) - E :)

Is it for real, 1 month gone already?

2006 - has come in fairly quickly and already it's been a weird month. Here it is the end of the month and everything has moved so quickly.

A quick update - the two contests I entered didn't place but congrats to a friend of mine for placing 2nd runner up (again a shared second place) on the Christmas contest we both entered for the www.armchairinterviews.com site. The Dahlonega literary festival (http://www.literaryfestival.org) judges only picked the top 8 stories due to the rest not meeting their harsh scores (but that's okay) and the South Carolina Book Festival (www.scbookfestival.org) is coming up. I have volunteered to help at both book festivals and am looking forward to meeting more authors and publishers and other writing related persons.

I have entered a short story in the South Carolina Fiction Project (selectees will be notified the 1st of July), so fingers crossed on that. I am rewriting my mystery as a "contemporary young adult fiction" story to be submitted later this year for a Random House (Delacourt) contest. Also a call for submission for Creative Nonfiction, the magazine, in conjunction with Southern Methodist University's Sports in America edition, Anatomy of Baseball, has been done.

Armchair Interviews is running yet another contest (an April Fool's one this time) and I will probably submit for that one as well. There is another call for submission on Creative Nonfiction for medical essays and I will work on that.

Reviews - they are trickling in - reviewed Nicci French's book catch me when I fall and it is posted on Amazon.com (under armchairinterviews as the author) as well on the main site. Have just finished Paul Levine's The Deep Blue Alibi (due to be released today) and will post a review on the Armchair site shortly -

Guess this is as good as it gets right now - more postings later - hopefully good news further down the line - E :)

TIME FLIES WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN

Well time flies when you are having fun - so a bit of an update on what has been going on with me.

I have entered 2 more short story contests, finished my novella and am in the process of editing it for another contest (hopefully for publication) and have expanded my original Train story to do all 50 states as a series.

I've done an official review for The Secret Life of Mrs. Claus by Carly Alexander (can be found on www.armchairinterviews.com - under great reviews) and am about to do a few more reviews for the same site. Keep on the lookout for more reviews of stories as I get them (reviews are great because you get to do something you enjoy - read - and share that with others and I get to keep the books)

While editing my novella I will take a short break to write 2 more short stories for contests and hopefully will get published with one or the other of them (maybe both) as well as my second entry get published in the Dahlonega Literary Festival's anthology -- will keep you posted on how these go.

So since it is almost Christmas - hope you all enjoy the season and the holidays and have a blessed new year and come back and see what I'm up to next month - E :)