Butterfly Halves blurb

Ya'll let me know what you think of this: Follow the adventures of two sisters who find themselves separated by time and place when they break a butterfly necklace. Learn the power of the butterfly that eventually reunites them. I sort of wrote it but had help rewriting it and editing (not my strong suit on my own stuff) - I think it is very befitting of the story.

Can't wait to say my story is published but more later. See you all in the postings - E :)

Cover, fictionwise bestselling list, and some general news

It's been a couple of weeks since I updated my blog, so figured I'd share with you a few things.


Last night, my friend Janelle (see book cover Hear the Wind Blow) posted about her bestselling figures, so I figured I needed to post mine as well. On fictionwise, in the mainstream short stories, The Tulip Kiss is ranked #3 out of 153 short stories. Fictionwise updates the rankings and ratings and all every Monday. So this is in large part due to the fact that two copies (Janelle purchased a copy and another Jane from down under did as well) sold in one week. Out of all the short stories, 5167 of them, The Tulip Kiss ranked 439th. Top 500 isn't bad. Janelle's story ranked 40th out of those 5167, because she had 14 copies sell in one week (her story was just posted to fictionwise on Monday, April 30) - way to go Janelle.


General news - I have to go back for another sleep study the end of this month - not fun - but they are going to put me on CPAP this time and see if I sleep better, although I'm not so sure I will even with a breather to help me breath better. I'll still be hooked up to trodes on my head, chest, legs, and a belt around my waist and chest to monitor my breathing, my eye movements, my heart rate and my leg movements. The problem with studies like this is that the person being tested doesn't sleep well as it is and then to throw all the other stuff in makes one more likely not to sleep. I can't sleep in other people's beds and can't sleep hooked up to monitors, so maybe the CPAP will help, maybe not - guess we'll find out in the next few weeks.



And now - my cover for Butterfly Halves is here. I can't wait to see the book published. So here you go -


It's so pretty - and I think it will have sell appeal - drop me a line and let me know what you think of this cover.

See you all in the postings - E :)

Got Sleep?

Well, last night I had a sleep study and I didn't sleep much at all. Of course the technician who had wired me up and all couldn't divulge in the specifics of what the test showed, but this is what I told him when he came to get me up at something like 10 'til 6 this morning.

(I should explain I was forced to go "lights out" at by 11:30 p.m. - nowhere near my normal bedtime of 2 a.m. and then was awakened once to adjust some wires (would have probably been the time to put the CPAP on me but they didn't do that last night and then tried to sleep and had my room entered again by one of the other technicians to readjust my nose wire.)

When I was being de-wired, I told the tech, it took me about 2 hours to fall alseep (after being told that for the CPAP to be placed, if in the first 2 hours after lights out you have 80 episodes) and that I probably slept about 3-4 hours total. He proceeded to tell me he couldn't go over the specifics but that I'd have to discuss the findings of the study with the doctor on my followup visit. Of course, getting wired up wasn't fun and the de-wiring was just gross - lumps of conductor glob in my hair and on my face and all - yuck.

After I finally got dressed, called the kids to make sure they were up and then went to help Judy install her new print center (one of those all in one things) and then came home and was going to hop in the shower and take a nap. I had to check my emails and post a few things here before I could do that. Finally, I'm to a point I can stop and take a shower and a nap - only being home an hour - so see ya'll in the postings - E :)

"The Best Writers Conference of 2007"

Yep, I'm a bit biased but this is going to be the best one that I'll attend this year. Maybe it is because I know the folks who are coordinating and pulling everything together, maybe it's because I'm more involved in the group this year, but definitely check it out. It's at the beach, and who doesn't like the beach - see ya'll in the postings - E :)

Self-Promotion workshop today

I should have posted this earlier but it was posted on the Echelon Authors page and I mentioned it at writing group Thursday evening but didn't even think about it until this morning when I was checking my Yahoo groups to see where new messages have been added.

I'm funny about posting message from email so I usually do all my replies directly in the forum groups but this morning apparently there was a glip in my posting - my first post went to the owner of the group when it was a direct reply to someone else's post.

If you are an author, this workshop seems to be a great idea - (although the forum says it is an erotic group of sorts, this particular workshop is geared towards all authors and publishers - it isn't just pertaining to erotic material being published) - so if you are looking for some new ideas to promote yourself and your books - join the forum and the discussion and see what you can get out of it (again the link is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/literature-league/)

See you all in the postings - E :)

Write Here ... Right Now

This link is the new forum called Write Here...Right Now - it is pretty cool - and apparently I have already referred some people there so thought I'd send it out to the rest of the world (those who read my blog) - come on over and see what it's all about - E :)


(link is in the title - but if it doesn't work - here it is again http://cher2.proboards43.com/index.cgi)

Interesting things happened last night

Our writing group can get pretty rowdy in that we have a good time. You can't miss Kevin's laugh - he doesn't mean to be loud but he's very loud when he laughs. He's a jovial person to say the least. So we were sitting there critiquing a story and having a good time and the author who was at the bookstore doing a book signing comes in to join us for the last 45 minutes of the session. She was very nice and even did a couple of critiques on a few of the readings - which was pretty cool in itself - seems her book signing was kind of fizzled out by this time.

Susan hasn't read in a while but she's busy coordinating the writer's conference to be held in October at Myrtle Beach and being on the board of directors for the group of which we are one chapter. I miss her blogs about jazzercise and the Queen of Pain and alien instructors as well as her reading in group.

Aimee (don't you just love the spelling of her name - French) - started something different and now we are going to be exposed to something new with her writing. She usually does articles or essay type things, but last night, hum, she brought a screenplay to group (okay the first five pages). Said she had wanted to do a screenplay, so bought a book about writing one and then started doing one - she's hoping it will be a movie. Someone said that screenplays had to be under 155 pages (120 more like it for a 2 hour movie) - so now she has to cram all these thoughts into a 120 pages - talk about tight writing. The few persons who knew a little bit about screenplays said that she would basically need to have a minute's worth of "air time" per page (that means every scene, every action, every conversation that can be captured in 1 minute has to be on the page) - needless to say there will be more than fits the "usual minute per page" because she is experimenting and this is something new for us too. So my question is this - how does one critique screenplays, especially not having been exposed to screenplays before? You can't really critique the writing because you aren't familiar with the specifics of what is required for screenplay writing, so what do you critique? I guess I need to do some research now on critiquing screenplays - hummmm - not like I don't have a ton of stuff to do already.

The last young lady who read last night - well I must say she really has a good reading voice - her story is about an autistic girl who lives in a group home and runs away, hops a train and ends up in Texas with her uncle. And the author was really impressed with her story as well, made some very nice comments. As we were leaving, she (the young lady who read and I'm sorry I've forgotten her name) asked me to give her some zingers that kids nowadays toss out - remember when we were kids and we would get snidy or something would ensue and you'd quip out - "Yo'r mama" or things like that - so that's what she's looking for. So if you have any phrases that kids toss around today - drop me a line (I'm going to ask my younguns but they probably don't know any zingers, we'll see).

And I got to attend the socialization time after group again - what a month - I've had two good meetings, been able to attend social time and have had a fairly productive month work wise so far (about to make the rest pretty productive too since I was assigned over 260 minutes' worth of dictation yesterday) -- hope to see you all in the postings - E :)

(I found out her name - Marjorie - and she is very sweet - so ya'll come up with some PC little quips or zingers that the kids yell at each other please - E :) )

ebook site

Just in case anyone has problems accessing stories on the Echelon Press site, which you never know, my stories are currently available on FictionWise as well. http://www.fictionwise.com/ - you can purchase the stories through them as well.

Echelon is still experiencing some hiccups on the webstore page (after logging in and no one seems to know what is going on with it) - so if you have an account on Echelon (the only reasons one would need to actually log in would be to make a purchase and to post a review), we are asking everyone who logs in to please make sure you click the log out button before leaving the website. This is your best bet; that way whoever comes to the website after you won't be logged in as you and have access to your account info. Just remember to log out to be on the safe side; not discouraging anyone from perusing the site or purchasing, just want everyone to be safe. E :)

free online workshops link correction

I received an email from a member on another group who said the links weren't working correctly so here is the main page link - hope it works - see you all there - E :)
http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/

Free online workshop - only passing on the information

Lea Schizas from Muse it Up and the Magazine of Unbelievable Stories posted this on our editor's forum and said I could post to other forums and on my blog - Christina and Cheryl are editors also for the MUS. I'm not sure if I will be a presenter or not - but we will see - hope to see you all there - E :)

Our workshops are slowly coming in and placed in the WORKSHOP webpage. Take a look at what we have so far and many more to come. CherylWright, and Christina Barber will be Presenters in this year'sconference once again.
http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/2007workshops.htm

Hop on over to our PRESENTERS webpages and take a look also at ourline up for 2007:
http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/presenters.htm

This is a FREE conference to take place October 8 - 14, 2007. Sevendays of FREE workshops, FREE handouts, FREE chats and all week longquestion and answer periods with our Presenters, plus prizes to be wonevery day and a FREE eBook of all the Presenters and their offerings. Deadline for registration is August 1st, 2007 but don't wait untilthen because you may forget and there will be no acceptions past thisdate.Register for FREE now at:
http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/registration.htm

Last year we had close to 1300 attend from all over the world and wehad a blast. Many attendees also had an opportunity to meet some ofthe publishers and get contracts. So hurry now while it's fresh onyour mind and register. Tell your writing friends and readers all about us.

Lea Schizas

Clarification on kids getting picked up by police

It seems from the comments on that posting that there is a misunderstanding or something going on -

My brother and his family moved from North Carolina about a month ago (maybe a little longer - 6 weeks maybe). They moved to a small town right outside of Clemson (which is nothing but a college town - so you have lots of teenagers running around that area and it can be crazy with college students out and about all the time). About four or so days after moving, my brother and my nephew were having an argument; my brother hollered at Brandon, "Well, if you hate it so much, why don't you go ahead and go back to North Carolina." So Brandon walked out of the house and proceeded to walk in a direction that he hoped would lead him back towards an area that would allow him to hitch a ride out of the town. After about 3 hours of him being gone (it had definitely gotten dark by this time), they called the police and had him searched for. He finally called from a grocery story only 6 miles from their house saying he was hungry and wanted to come home. It took him 4 hours to walk the 6 miles (he should have been able to walk it quicker than that because he is in JRROTC and involved in other things that keep you active). So he's a marked person already having encountered the police due to an argument with my brother and "running away" from home.

So the fact that it is spring break week, the kids were walking on a busy road where they didn't have any business being in the first place, and the fact that my nephew has had a first encounter with the police in Seneca, made the being "picked up by the police for walking" a comical situation.

My son said he has something to tell his friends at school because the highlight of his spring break was being picked up by the police for walking and riding in the back of the police car. He said he thought the plexiglass plates between the front and back were just things that happened on TV, but he confirmed that they were real and that the doors only opened from the outside - lol - he was totally fascinated by the ride in the police car.

So that is my clarification for ya'll and hope to see you on the postings - E :)

spring break stories and writing group stuff

This afternoon I picked up my son, who has been spending the week more or less with my brother and his family. I was late but no big deal - I got there. We met in the parking lot at Wal-Mart and then went to Ryan's for lunch. My nephew was talking about the "po-po" and God I hate my brother for allowing him to be so disrespectful to others (po-po = police) - and the story is that the kids were bored yesterday, so Sharon tells them to go out for a walk. They live in a small town about an hour from the small town I live in, so all the roads are considered highways, byways, et cetera - they are all interchangeable in South Carolina small towns. Apparently the kids (ages 16, 12, and 6) had walked up to one of the major roads in the town and had even crossed the street (story is nephew was going to find a way to his girlfriend's house to ask her out on a date - hahaha - they've only been in the town for about a month and yes same boy who was smitten with daughter's friend on first meeting - that lasted about 2 weeks - so goes life). They were sitting off the road about 10 feet resting when a cop drove by them once, going the opposite direction they were. The cop comes back up the road, turns around and pulls over and asks them if they have a phone number. My nephew wasn't thinking and blurted out the number. So my brother who is home on his lunch break gets the call wanting to know if they have kids (Sharon actually took the number) and then the cop wants to know if she knows where the kids are. Not being able to answer, she finds out that the cop had the kids - Paul goes to get them - and so the big joke is that they got pulled for walking - (My son says his highlight was getting to ride in the back of a police car - lol) -

Writing group was interesting tonight. Of the ten stories read, three of them were actually set in the same area and it was funny to hear all three of them mention places and names similar (street names, places) and what's cool is I knew most of the places they referrenced because they all talked about Charleston, which is where my oldest is and my husband's mother lives in that area too.

We had a young lady who attends the Fine Arts Center (part of the art program in some of the local high schools) and wants to be a writer - so not sure she'll come because she was a bit young and we probably all seemed like a bunch of fuddy-duddies to her. Only time will tell.

After group - I actually got to enjoy the social time at one of the local restaurants which I don't get to do very often because either I have to get home because I have the kids with me or husband had to go to work. This week being spring break and husband not working his normal shifts (that crazy work 2 days, off 2 days, work 3 days, off 2 days, work 2 days, off 3 days - 12-hour shifts) was the perfect time for me to enjoy the social hour afterwards. Although I was informed by Susan, who is in charge of the conference and is really doing a great job of getting things together, that no matter what, every person has to be there - lol - but that conference is during band season and from my calendar of events plotted through the end of the year that is State competition and the husband's weekend to work. So the dilemma is this - miss a band competition (if they make it to State, which they should - they have the last two years) and figure out what to do with my kids for the weekend and go to Myrtle Beach to attend a conference OR miss the conference, hope they go to state and watch my kids participate. And we are talking something six months down the road and a lot can happen during those six months. (I can hope the kids don't make it to state and then take them with me but then what to do with them while I volunteer and work the conference in order to get my registration for free would be yet another dilemma - decisions, decisions, decisions) - I guess I'll have to keep you all posted on this situation as things come up -

see you all in the postings - E :)

Spring break week

Peace and quiet for me in the household this week. Daughter went to Myrtle Beach with church group and won't be home until Thursday evening - so it would have been quiet with just her gone, but then last night son was bugging me while I was working and chatting with sister-in-law online and so I made arrangements to meet them in town (sort of a halfway point for both of us) to take him to her so he could spend the week with his cousins - and best of all, bear (sorry that's my husband, although we are legally (paper) married, we haven't been together in almost four years and he lives on the second floor, I make my living in the basement (first floor of this house) and so I don't really consider him my husband much - and he growls like a bear - not that he's cuddly like a teddy bear - he's more like a grizzly - so thereby, I refer to him as "bear") is working first shift this week, so no him over my head walking around or coming down to bug me for snacks or anything like that for this week at least. Most days when he is working his modified 2nd/3rd 12 hour shifts he sleeps during the day, while the kids are in school but with him working weird training hours of late, he's been sleeping at night more or less.

Started Curves today and it felt good - only did two of the three circuits (8 machines, 3 times around and stretches = 30 minutes which is the recommended time of exercise) - but still felt good - so hopefully it will work out for my health -

So yes, April is definitely coming in like a lamb.

After taking Benjamin to town and running to Wal-Mart (needed a few things or wanted a few things, but I did really good - came out only spending $87 when I thought I had spent over $100 - so felt good about that) and returning home, the craziest thing happened to me. I pulled in my driveway and came down the little hill to the curve (driveway goes all the way around the house and stretched across the area I needed to go was a snake - a big black with white rings (looked like to me) snake - had to be about 3 inches or bigger around - monster thing - wouldn't move so I ran over it - and I know it was as long as my car is wide because both tires went over him (so he was probably a bit longer - I drive a Ford Focus - not like it is a very wide car) - and then when I parked and was getting out of the car, the stupid thing slithered off towards the creek/woods on the other side of our property - not our property but right on the boundary - --- Did I tell ya'll I hate snakes - and this freaked me out - I almost didn't want to pull into my parking spot, but he wouldn't move and I had frozen foods in the car and I needed to go to the bathroom - so I just ran over him and then he crawled away - oy ---- hope he stays out of my house (I've already encountered two smaller snakes in the house since moving here - and I hate them ) - snakes and spiders - oh yes, April is coming in like a lamb - lol - see you all in the postings - E :)

Fast fiction contest on Echelon

Okay, so today is April Fool's day - and this is not a joke - Echelon Press has posted the next fast fiction contest and the theme - Fast and Foolish - Jane and I had a thought this would be the theme - so write on - it is very fast. You have to submit by April 12, with winner announced on April 14, and story published on April 19; the foolish catalyst has to be a lie or joke (in honor of April Fool's days jokes abounding today).

Short stories are fun and can lead to publication (is how I got my second story submitted to publication - Karen was impressed enough to offer me a contract on the story) - Anyone interested, just check out www.echelonpress.com - scroll down to the bottom of the home page (second block of news) - and you will find all the guidelines needed for the story. Good luck to you all - see you in the postings - E :)

update on freaky occurrence

Karen has informed Jane that the tech guys couldn't find anything wrong and short of her redoing her web store page, they didn't know how to fix the problem.

Sorry, but I still don't think they are producing the same problem because they haven't a clue what they are doing. There is obviously something going on - so my advice to anyone who has an account on Echelon (and no I'm not saying don't ever use the site) that when you do log in to make a purchase or post a review to please make sure you click log off when you are finished with your transaction or posting so that the next person that comes to the site won't be logged in as you. We definitely want you all to still make purchases and post reviews just be safe - see you all in the postings - E :)

March Madness and Spring Cleaning

What's that saying - March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb? I believe that has been true for this month. March definitely came in like a lion and is leaving like a lamb. Not only does "March Madness" apply to basketball season but it also applies to my life at the moment. This month has been crazy in my household. What with all the doctors' appointments, lab stuff and field trips going on, it's no small miracle I've actually made it through the month.

I've been poked, prodded, and squashed with a pending sleep study and dietician's appointment still on the agenda. I don't like going for physicals but they are a necessity we can't go without, especially as we get older. This year's physical was not an enjoyable one at all. I've gained way too much weight in a year (all because I lead such a sedentary lifestyle), my blood pressure is elevated, I'm spilling protein in my urine, my cholesterol is good but my HDL (the good stuff) is too low, my LDL (the bad stuff) is high in the normal range, and my triglycerides were up slightly (nothing that a good diet and some exercise won't fix - so no need for pills for that right yet); and you guessed it - my fasting blood sugar is elevated.

So now that spring has sprung and the weather is getting warmer and my body is falling down, it's time to join curves and take my girl along with me so that we can both work on losing weight and getting in shape. (Yes this was a new year's resolution and it is still early in the year, so that really hasn't been a broken goal yet - It's taken a physical and string of blood tests to be the wake up call that I need to do this and the fact that the Curves lady was at the health fair last weekend and is still doing her canned good special (saves $149 registration fee, which I don't have) and then Hailie gets to come with me for $10 a month fee and mine is only $34. - so we are going to join Curves, although the first week, Hailie will be gone on Spring break, we will start doing these work outs together - so be on the lookout for some whining and trying to give up but with my friends' encouragement and all, I shall make it.

I can't wait for the contest to be posted on Echelon (yeah, I told Karen I was contest junkie - lol - I can't help it), but she has posted on her site that she is taking submissions for YA mysteries and fantasy (for both print and ebook publication) and she is taking all genres for ebook publication - so if any of you have finished novels and don't mind ebook publication, you might want to pop over to the website, www.echelonpress.com and check out the submissions page to see if you are interested in submitting your story and possibly getting published (of course the down side of her taking submissions is that she doesn't take unsolicited submissions - you have to know an author or have met an editor or Karen or an author at lecture or festival or some sort of event) - so if you know someone already there and have a story, you can name drop - lol - but be honest about it - if I don't know you, please don't use my name -

Okay - so we've come in like a lion, are leaving like a lamb and doing some spring cleaning - see you all in the postings - E :)

Reviews, Jane's story and freaky computer thing

Jane's story is officially up - see the cover -

Can't wait to see how she does.

Remember folks that if you purchase a book to please do a quick review on the Echelon site. That so much helps the sales of the stories. And, they can't hurt either. I'm hoping to use some prepublished reviews on my next story "Butterfly Halves" (because the reviews are so good and really make me believe that I have written a pretty good story).

Jane and I had a freaky computer experience last night while we were chatting and checking out echelon's site. We had both read Yvonne's story (February's winner) and were going to do a review for her. I was logged in on my account and when Jane opened the Echelon site and clicked on the webstore, it said "Welcome Elysabeth! ..." - and that was freaking us both out. So I logged off and told Jane to log off and to sign in as herself. Naturally, after being informed that she was in as her, I opened a browser and clicked on the web store link and my greeting was "Welcome Janelle! ..." - now we both were freaking out. Humm, what do we do. Jane scans her computer for viruses and goes to another (a desktop as opposed to the laptop). Same thing happens several more times. Finally, we decided to delete cookies and temp files and see if that rectified the problem. Seems it worked. After deleting all the junk, we were able to open the browser and Echelon's site and the webstore page with a greeting that said Welcome guest!... - and then when one was logged in, we were still geting the guest page until we logged ourselves in. We are unsure what caused that problem but it was very freaky. We decided it would be a good story to write - so who knows you may see a combined story about the computer mishap on the ides of March (considering this was taking place between 2 and 3:30 a.m. it was really the 16th of March, not the 15th. But who knows - will wait to see what Jane comes up with idea wise on the story - and go from there.

For now - hope to see you all in the postings - E :)

Story update and other things going on here

Karen finally emailed me and said that my story would be published in May - that seems so far away. I realize she is busy and all - so I guess I just need to be patient. I hope when she returns from being out of town that she will have time to work on the cover art - that I can't wait to see - I've an idea what I'd like to see but I'm going to leave it to her to design the cover art.

I've been judging some mid length short stories for the Derringer awards and have run across quite a few that seem to be not related to mystery at all. Makes me wonder if people are just submitting stories for the prestige of saying they were a Derringer Nominee.

I've edited one of the stories for the magazine and sent it back and now need to work on another and read two more submissions. Still awaiting B's submission due to the fact that she is working on a sort of ending story - solving Dylan's murder - The first issue of the magazine is available for purchase - see www.quill-pen.net for order forms - and so far presales have been pretty good.



For sneak peeks at the stories (well the first page of each) - check out the website. We've added a true crime section - which I don't know all the details of and we've brought aboard an editor for the anthology being planned. We are also taking submissions for novels and the editors are in the process of being asked if they would like to edit some after Andrei goes through his process. So be on the lookout for some novels coming from Qull-Pen Press in 2008.

Okay - not much else to report here - hope to see you all in the posts - E :)

Time change and body adjusting

Okay, so I was sitting at my computer on Saturday March 10 chatting with Jane and it got to be after 1 a.m. (really Sunday March 11) and then it got to be 1:40 a.m. and the next thing I know my computer clock said it was 3:06 a.m. - how cool is that - to actually be awake during a time change. Well, it was cool but then my body decided it didn't like that. So when I finally crawled in bed, and adjusted my clock there, it was 3:30 something - and I had set my alarm to get up about 9 or so this morning to start working. I drug myself out of bed closer to 10 than 9 and I was still very sleepy. So I worked this morning, and some this afternoon, then I decided to take a nap (about an hour and a half). Now, it is 2:29 a.m. and I'm not sleepy, but I'm sure I will pay for it tomorrow. I know I should be in bed right now but I can't go to sleep. Guess I should read or write or do something until I feel sleepy.

Instead, I've been killing time doing not much of anything. Watched a really good movie on Lifetime Real Women channel (LRW) called Mockingbird Don't Sing - apparently based on a true story of a girl who had been abused all her life and hadn't developed language skills but she did with the help of some people only to have it taken away from her by her mother and some strange woman who was her teacher for a brief period of time. It was very sad at the end. This story apparently made headline news back in the 1970s, when Walter Cronkite reported the case on the evening news. In the early 1970s I was in Germany, then in Kentucky, and by the mid 1970s, we had moved to West Point. I don't remember the story because I was between the ages of 8 (1970 - living in Germany at the time) and 16 (1978) when this occurred and I wasn't into being informed by news at that time in my life. I'm going to see about getting the video and watching it again because I'm sure with it being put on this channel there were parts they had to cut out for the commercials - It was very good.

Anyway, I am going to head to bed and try to sleep. No more naps during the day in order to get to bed and try to sleep some. Good night and see you all in the postings - E :)

Contest, contract and fun news

Have I told you that Echelon Press is running monthly contests, themed for each month? Yes, I must have since I won the January contest, Fast and Frigid, with The Tulip Kiss. Have I also told you that Karen is a pretty cool publisher to work with (although there are some times I can be a pest and probably get on her nerves - lol). Well, this month's theme was fast and fanciful. Basically things to do with magic had to be involved in the story. I encouraged Jane and B. (shall not reveal her identity out of respect to her) to write and enter with me. We had fun writing - doing 30 minute word wars, and then sharing the pieces of each story with the other two. Every time Jane's and B's parts would show up - I would anxiously read and want more - I couldn't get enough of either of their story; Jane said the same thing about B's and mine and B would say that she really wanted more of Jane's story - and that she wanted to know what happened at the murder scene of mine.

We all have different styles of writing - Jane edits as she writes. She will work on one scene until she is satisfied it is what she wants before moving on to write the next section. This kind of scared me with a deadline looming as I was afraid she wouldn't have the story completed before it needed to be submitted. Well, she actually finished before I did. B did too. I was the last to submit my story but I needed B's help with the editing before submitting.

The fast part of the contest is that you have about week or so to write and submit the story. Then Karen choses a winner the very next day; she sends contract via email and then after the contract is signed and sent back, you have 5 days to edit the proof. She publishes the story the week following her decision.

We all submitted our stories Tuesday like we were supposed to. So Wednesday morning I was looking at the website and something bothered me about the "Book of the Month" box. It said February's book of the month and it just came out either the end of February or the first part of March - so I emailed Karen asking her if it shouldn't have been March's book of the month instead of February. She emailed me back thanking me for catching that; then she tells me she had made her selection of the stories and lo and behold, she picked Jane Roberts story - I am very excited now because this is my friend Jane with whom B and I wrote our stories and submitted. The next sentence in the email really blew my mind.

I did however truly enjoy your story, Butterfly Halves, and would like to publish it in our regular download line (Young Adult category). It is a pretty neat story.

Now if that isn't praise, I don't know what it is. I have to tell you, I really believe Karen is about promoting the authors and she does what she can to get the authors out there, even if it is a downloadable story. I didn't win the contest, but a contract on the story is just as good as winning.

I'm glad Jane won, wish B had been offered a contract as well but am excited also that I was offered one.

Official reviews of the story from a couple of people who have read it, including my daughter who is for all practical purposes a nonreader. I had printed out a copy Wednesday for her to read; when I picked her up from school, I just went on to the post office and put my contract in the mail. We live in a small town so the time between actually picking her up at the school and going to the post office, weighing the envelope, and putting in mail, checking the boxes, and arriving home, was probably about 20 minutes total. Since she doesn't really like to read, she reads slow. She may advance a page or two in that length of time. When we got home, she stayed in the car and finished the story. She came inside and gushed, "I loved it. It was so full of imagery. I was pulled into the story. I wanted to know what was going to happen. I could just see the wall and the light and felt like I was right there. Great story." Now if that isn't very high praise, I don't know what is.

From another reader, one of the ladies at the church my daughter attends, she had the same copy Hailie had read earlier and read it that night and sent me an email this morning with this praise - "I agree with Hailie. It was great!!!!!!! I read it as soon as I left church, sitting at BHP waiting on Anna. They were right to offer you a contract! Have a good week, and keep on writing!"

Again, two high praises and the story isn't out yet.

Congrats to Jane - and everyone be on the lookout for "Hear the Wind Blow" next Wednesday (Jane's story) and be on the lookout some time soon for "Butterfly Halves" - I can't wait to see the cover design on these two stories -

Now, I've shared my good news and Jane's - see you all in the postings - E :)