Mystery Readers/reviewers needed

Below is the information from today's posting under "Masterclass" - This is a relatively new blog and the postings have been really great so far. I would like to encourage all you mystery fans out there to post reviews on the site. Reviewers are wonderful to us authors.

you can see all the postings by going to www.criminalbrief.com - hope to see you all in the postings - E :)


Below, Doug Allyn makes a casual reference to his fifth Edgar nomination. He neglects to mention that he has actually been nominated seven times, more than any other mystery writer in any category, and once walked home with the little porcelain bust of Poe. He arrived on the mystery scene with a bang in 1986, winning the Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story, which despite its name, is an Edgar equivalent. He has also won the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine’s Readers Choice Award more times than any other writer.

THE NOT-SO-SHORT STORY
by Doug Allyn
What a fun site this is going to be. In the premier essay, Ed Hoch posed the question, ‘why do I write short stories?’ and while I agree 100% with Ed’s answers, (the precision of the plot, the intensity of the experience), my own reply would be quite different.
As Samuel L. Jackson says in “Pulp Fiction,” (just after he shoots the kid on the couch) “allow me to retort.”
Here’s a dirty little secret short story writers guard like aces in a game of Texas hold ’em. As an art form, short stories offer more creative freedom than the novel.
Whoa, aren’t there limits? Poe himself said “The short story must involve a single incident which is resolved at a single point in time.” Or words to that effect.
Horse hockey. Here’s the truth: The short story must be…short. If you can’t make your point in fifteen thousand words, you’re either writing a novel or you belong in politics. Aside from the lone limit of length, shorts offer all the splendid possibilities of the novel, plus a few perks.
For example: Jeffery Deaver sometimes employs literary slight of hand in his excellent short fiction. He’ll describe a character with complete accuracy, relying on the reader’s own preconceptions to provide the mystery. His stories supply a double kick when we realize Jeff hasn’t misled us, we’ve tricked ourselves. It’s a gutsy gambit, and while Jeff plays it to perfection, the technique won’t work at novel length, where further descriptions would necessarily destroy the illusion.
Shira Rozan’s exquisite, Edgar-nominated tale, ‘Building,’ illustrates another bonus of the short form; the hero needn’t be likeable. Her brutish narrator tells his tale in savage interior monologues. As a short, the story works brilliantly, but a novel set inside this guy’s head would read like a bad month at Buchenwald.
What about time? Unlike the novel, a short can actually play out in real time, in a single, intense moment, a la Poe. Nor are greater lengths a problem. My personal fave, and a big influence on my own work, is John O’Hara. Best known for epic, socially conscious, (i.e soapy) novels, O’Hara also wrote short stories that trashed every time limit profs tried to drum into my skull in Creative Writing 101.
Some O’Hara tales resolve in minutes, others can take decades to play out, but the payoff is always worth the wait.
In short fiction, style is like a smorgasbord, and in my own work, I’ve pretty much tasted everything on the table. The late, great, Cathleen Jordan (longtime editor of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine) once remarked that there was no such thing as a Doug Allyn story. When you open the envelope, you never know what you’re going to get. Which ain’t necessarily a good thing.
After my fifth Edgar nomination, (and fifth loss) my agent griped that the weirdoes who populate my tales couldn’t win. (My hero that year was an alcoholic undertaker) “Try somebody more mainstream, a cop or a private eye, even a lawyer.”
Perhaps he was right. Or not. When I did win, my hero was a medieval minstrel obsessed with a blind bear. Not exactly mainstream novel material.
I truly believe the most egregious limitations of the short form are those we impose on ourselves. Writers are human. We want people to like our stuff, (with the exception of Joyce Carol Oates, who doesn’t give a damn, and rightly so), but our eagerness to please sometimes tugs us toward safer, oft-traveled pathways.
There’s nothing wrong with using a classic form when it suits the story, but when we restrict ourselves to the familiar, in an attempt to ‘give the readers what they want,’ we risk becoming the equivalent of Golden Oldies radio.
Time and again, our readers have proved their ears are wide open. This year’s Ellery Queen Readers Award winner, was a first time writer with an off-the-wall tale of a college professor driven to outlawry in the Everglades.
Why write short fiction? Because when we trust the readers, our creative options are unlimited. Write it right, and they will come.

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Posted in Mystery Masterclass on June 2nd, 2007RSS 2.0 Trackback.
2 comments
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:18 pm, Tom Walsh Says:
Doug Allyn: “What a fun site this is going to be.”
Doug, it’s already fun, but it would be a lot more fun with greater reader participation!
The bloggers, published writers all, are doing their part with great enthusiasm and success. But where is the input from folks who are merely readers?Comments encouraging the bloggers are fine, they’re just not enough. So far, we have only four Instant Reviews, three by published writers and the other by an elderly gent with no authorial ambitions. Why haven’t more, non-writer fans of short form crime fiction been willing to contribute a review?
Wouldn’t it be great if mystery fans were like sports fans who can’t wait to share their strongly held views (positive and negative) about yesterday’s game? The goal of this site is to promote the short mystery story. What better way than to review a story just read? Well, all right, bloggers’ stories should be off limits (for reasons of civility). That still leaves a heck of a lot of stories to discuss. Fans, start typing!
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:49 pm, Elysabeth Eldering Says:
I agree - where are the readers? It seems the same few of us are commenting (not that it is a bad thing) but still we need to promote this blog and need to get more readers in here to do reviews - I would but since I have so many reviews going on right now, it is hard to get more going (unless I can post a review that I’ve posted on other websites here?) - I know that the more we get ourselves out there, the more readers we will attract. Like I’m part of this blog -I’ve just adopted it as one of my own - lol.
I will post on my blog - looking for readers to do book and short mystery story reviews - and I’ll get others to post too - I’ve got several places to post - hopefully that will bring in the readers - E

More good news

It seems no matter what you do some days to try to work and keep your mind on your task at hand, there are many distractions in our lives.

Okay, I was taking a quick break from the computer (read as bathroom break) and the phone rang - when I got back I saw it was a local number (not a bill collector). We had stopped by a new insurance place in our little town a couple of weeks ago - they were giving lots of goodies away including lunch - free bbq plates and let us bring some home for the boys (son and bear) and all. Well they had a registration for a drawing and I didn't think anything about it until Hailie came down and said I should have answered the phone because it was for me and I needed to listen to the message. So I did my *98 and listened and I won a gift certificate (which I won't know exactly how much or for what merchant until tomorrow morning). -- soo woohooo more good news - E :)

Echelon's New Fast Fiction contest is out

Come on all you short story writers - Echelon has posted it's new Fast Fiction contest and we love contests. You may get published within a week of the notification time or you could write something just as awesome as the winner and receive a contract to be published - which is what happened with my Butterfly Halves story. -

So here are the details -

Fast and Foreign Fiction Writing Contest

As writers we have a wonderful array of locations to set our fiction in. This month Echelon Press challenges you to step outside your comfortable neighborhood and take us to someplace foreign. We want you to send us your stories of the unique and exotic, the bold and adventurous, the mystical and romantic. Take us far away. We want to read your stories that take place anywhere outside of the United States. For some this may mean where you live, but not where live!

Every author at every level should be committed to keeping their name in front of readers. Are you looking for your first publishing credit? Are you between books? Looking for a way to revive characters from books that have been out for a while? Want to introduce new characters for upcoming books? Looking for a way to build your readership? Have we got a promotional opportunity for you!

Echelon Press would like to publish your "Fast and Foreign" June story. The fast part means you have until June 11, 2007 to submit your story of 3000-6000 words. The winner will be notified by June 12, 2007 and have 5 days to edit/revise the story. Echelon Press will publish your story in its e-book division on June 18, 2007. Simple!

Send your submissions as a Word (doc) attachment to contest@echelonpress.com. Your cover letter should be in the body of an e-mail. Cover letters that do not adhere to professional standards will disqualify the submission from further consideration.

Our only real request is that the setting, anyplace outside of the United States be the catalyst for your story! You pick the genre. Stories must adhere to the following guidelines.

Standard Manuscript format:
File saved in Word format (.doc) or (.rtf)
8 ½ x 11 page
Times New Roman 12pt font/black
1-inch margin on all sides/ 1.5 line spacing
Align text left, do not justify (aligning text both left and right)
Header containing title, author name, and page number
Capital letters at the beginning of sentences and proper nouns
Indent new paragraphs 0.3. Do not add blank line between paragraphs.
Show scene breaks with * * * * centered in the appropriate line.

All cover letters must include:
Name (and pseudonym if applicable)
Mailing address
Phone number
E-mail address (required)
Web address (required)

*Winners under 18 years of age must show parent's permission prior to contract.
Previous Winners:
June 2007 -- Coming Soon!
May 2007 -- No Contest
April 2007 -- No Contest
March 2007 -- Janelle Dakota -- Hear the Wind Blow (Fanciful)
February 2007 -- Yvonne Walus -- Small Price to Pay (Frisky)
January 2007 -- Elysabeth Eldering -- The Tulip Kiss (Frigid)
December 2006 -- Dan Strohschien -- The Naughty List (Festive)
November 2006 -- Jamie Summers -- A True Friend (Fatal)
October 2006 -- C.A. Verstraete -- The Witch Tree (Freaky)

On the front page of Fictionwise

When I opened Fictionwise's home page today (like just 5 seconds ago), Butterfly Halves is right there on top of the other listings of newly published stories. Thank you fictionwise for putting me there so that I will be seen.

so check out www.fictionwise.com and see my story right on the front page (this may change tonight or tomorrow - so hurry before they decide to put something else in the #1 place - lol-)

It's pretty cool to be the first thing people see on the website - E :)

Second Time Around (Butterfly Halves is officially published - lol)

I've posted this blog on my Book space area - an ning networking group - I'm not sure how I signed up with ning - but I believe it started with Maverick Marketers (another of Karen's sites - but I'm glad I did - book place is for authors, editors, readers, publishers - anyone who likes books - so if you would like to sign up - make sure you add me to your friends' list - the weblink is above in the title but here it is again - http://morganmandelbooks.ning.com/profile/elysabeth42 --- I also belong to a crime space on ning and a publishers site (besides Karen) and maybe one other group - so check out the ning networking things and see where you belong - http://www.ning.com/ - there are many out there and everyone should belong somewhere - lol

I don't know about most of you but when you get your first publishing contract, it is very exciting - can't sit still, must shout it from the rooftops and do the happy dance. How about when you get the second one? or the third? or the 100th? Are you still excited when you get acceptance and receive the contract, even if the contract is basically the same as the first?


I know I am. I received my first contract in January from the Fast and Frigid contest for Echelon Press. That was very exciting. Well, I've entered two more monthly contests since then (forgot to or was too busy to enter the April contest) and didn't win either of them but my March entry (one of my friends did win that so she was published in March), a young adult fantasy story received a contract. Butterfly Halves is officially published now and all I can do is the happy dance, and the announcements and everything. Of course when I got the request to contract the story, I was doing all those things too. So the last two months have been promoting Butterfly Halves and The Tulip Kiss, but in different manners.


So I leave the question to all you published authors - is the second time around just as exciting and good as the first one or not? - E :)

I made a new friend yesterday

How cool is that? Well I went to Curves to do my thing; got there and there was one other person there - so we were like one machine difference in our points - and we were chatting as we moved around the circuit (we have 8 machines in our facility - some have all 14 machines and some have anywhere between the 8 and 14 - 8 around with rest stops (30 seconds on each and every station including the rest stops between the machines) - our circuit is once around for the full benefit of the workout - we have to go around the circuit three times. So anyway, I think we were both winding down our third time and we were chatting and I leaned over and said - My name's Elysabeth and she goes, I'm Elizabeth too. So after we left curves we had planned to meet this morning about 10 or so - me bringing Hailie with me so she could get her workout done - and workout with my new friend -

I was up until 4ish this morning working with Jane on designing our mini fliers for the Printer's Row book festival in Chicago in a couple of weeks. So I was working it and reworking it and converting to a PDF file (did you know you could convert files online for free to PDF - www.pdfonline.com - really cool thing) - the site we used to print up 1000 brochures (index card size is what we ended up going with - which is 4.25 x 5.5 size - www.printplace.com) - would only take PDF files, JPG files and a couple of other things - so we are getting double sided mini fliers with all of Jane's info on one side and all my info on the other side. We worked it and reworked it and finally I told Jane I needed to go to bed. so shortly after 4 a.m. - we said our final goodnights and headed to bed.

This morning I had set the alarm for about 9ish to get up but had gotten up to go to the bathroom before the alarm went off and just as I was going to crawl back in bed and try to catch a few more ZZZZs this morning the phone rang. Now I was thinking it was one of the kids' friends calling to see if they could come over to play, so wasn't a happy camper. I checked the caller ID and it said Mark R****** - so I didn't know who it was. I decided to answer and it was my new friend from Curves, Beth. (I had given her a business card when we left out of Curves yesterday). She informed me that we couldn't go to curves at 10ish like we had planned because their vehicle was in the shop and she wouldn't have a ride until later in the day - so no problem - we agreed to meet about 1 to do our curves thing. Well then we were chatting on the phone and it got to be 11ish and 11:15 and so on - we finally hung up the phone after 2 hours and I sat down at my computer to check emails and at least put a dent in my work - I had just opened a couple of emails and lo and behold my mind said 1 o'clock wasn't going to work due to the fact that our curves closes from 1-3 for lunch. So I called her back to let her know and we had two options - go at that time or wait until they opened up after lunch - so Hailie says she doesn't want to go later - she wanted to go now so she could get something for her leg (she scratched it up and got run over by a runaway 3-wheeler vehicle) - so Beth said that was fine - we found out that we live like 1/2 mile from each other and she's on my way into town - so I told her I could swing by there and get her -

After we did our Curves thing, we went to Fred's (spent too much there and now have to go back); went over to Family Dollar and she went to CVS (which is right next to Family Dollar) and then I realized while we were in Family Dollar I needed to go back to Fred's to get printer ink refill kit for my printer so back to Fred's. Then we needed to take Beth home and I needed to scoot over to the next town to get to the DMV (stupid me - got my registration and decal and misplaced the decal) - so I showed Beth where we lived and then dropped her off.

We chatted in the car like we had known each other a while. She's been in Honea Path 10 years and I've been here 9 years - coincidence? fate? karma? - something is working that got us together - so I've made a new friend (you have to realize I haven't had too many friends in this town especially working at home, I'm such a social isolate but not totally my fault - it's different living out in the country than it is in town or closer to town or in an area that actually has more than a handful of "neighbors" to get in with socially) -- Beth is an artist and who knows I may have to engage her services to do my cover art for my stories (if Karen approves it) - we shall see though - okay now I need to work and get some lines to make up for not being here all morning and haf the afternoon - see you all in the postings - E :)

BLOG MILESTONE

I'd been so busy the last couple of days I'd forgotten to check to see how many hits I've had on my blog - well when I just checked it from the last posting I put up - I have hit over 1000 hits (although there is no telling how many are my own from the counter I have there because it adds in when I post a new entry as well as when I just view my blog - and considering I've made over 60 something postings, maybe it is closer to 900 hits I've had altogether - but it is a still great to see my counter ticked off at 1004 hits - lol - so for all intents and purposes, I have just had over 1000 hits on my blog.

Thank you my readers and fans - keep on blogging and keep on checking back for updates - see you all in the postings - E :)

Depressing sales for The Tulip Kiss on fictionwise

Karen has been posting fictionwise sales per week on the authors' forum on yahoo. I like this a lot. It helps us see if we had any sales and helps us project what our possible royalties will look like when we receive them. - so she is keeping us informed (since there is still a glitch on Echelon Press's webstore page and I believe now she is sending every ebook directly to fictionwise and not even publishing on the Echelon website - but she is still publishing printed books - so anyway - I like this being informed of what sales look like on fictionwise, although it can be depressing when you look at it a week at a time - such is the case for these past three weeks so far

I knew I wasn't selling much but golly gee - do I not have any fans out there? - The first week of May (April 30 through May 6) my sales totaled all of 2 (Jane from down under purchased a copy and had some delightful things to say to me via email about my story and that she can't wait to purchase more of my writings (she also gave me a good rating on the fictionwise site)- so thank you Jane from down under) and Jane from Washington state purchased another copy just to put a rating on the story - which I think her for also) - so my whole two copies for the month of May so far.

(Overall, Echelon authors sold 99 stories this first week with one author selling 23 copies of her story - and of course Janelle sold 11 copies that week - way to go Yvonne and Janelle)

Fictionwise only updates their site once a week, every Monday. Any books to be uploaded are uploaded on Mondays. I'm anxiously awaiting my Butterfly Halves to be uploaded since Karen said it had already been submitted to them (she thought it should have been uploaded yesterday but as of this evening sometime, it had not so alas, hopefully for memorial day - will be a good thing)

Okay, week #2 (May 7 - May 13) - Zero books sold on fictionwise - what's up with that - I have no sales whatsoever, how tres, tres tres sad for me - where are my friends and fans? Yvonne sold only 8 copies (for her first place sales this week) and Janelle sold 3 copies (placing her in second place). Where are the fans and readers? (overall, all Echelon stories that sold this week was very low - only 35 copies of stories sold - these are just authors from Echelon who sold stories).

Week #3 - (May 14 - May 20) - Although I still sold 0 copies of The Tulip Kiss (my fans must all be sleeping - I mean a story that you can download for only $1 and I've been pushing it with my email signatures, and other things - bookmarks floating around places and mentions just about everywhere I go - so where are my wonderful reading fans?), Echelon authors did sell 80 stories overall (not as many as the first week but more authors sold stories than previously). Yvonne has taken a dip in sales and is now 4th with only 6 copies sold. Janelle took a small dip also, she sold 3 copies and now sits at 7th place on the chart. The top two sellers both sold 10 copies each and they are both brand new uploads - so awesome job ladies.

All I'm asking is if you have purchased a copy of my story, either from Echelon when it first came out, or from fictionwise since the end of January, please review or rate the story. I believe that reviews do help sell stories, especially ebooks, since people can't hold the story in their hands and flip through to read passages throughout to decided if they want to buy the story. If you have purchased a story, I really do thank you from the bottom of my heart and would love to know what you think of it. Either review it publically on Echelon, rate it on fictionwise or drop me an email or note here to let me know what you think of it.

Thanks again to all the wonderful readers of short stories out there - see you all in the postings - E :)

Birthdays and end of school and busy days

Today was my sister-in-law's birthday - she is 39 (and now she can say she is 39 and holding forever - lol) - I wish her many more.

Saturday is Janelle Dakota's birthday - she will be 43. We only get better with age.

Monday is bear's birthday (oh yeah, bear is my description of my sort of husband since we don't really live together - separated but living in the same house on different floors and the reason I call him a bear is because he is manic depressive and when he's depressed he just kind of growls like a bear - no it's not because he's cuddly like a teddy bear - lol) - he will be 54.

Tuesday is the last day of school for the kids (we started the first week of August but this coming school year, the governor has passed something - not sure what to call it really - saying that all schools in South Carolina cannot start before the third Monday of August - trying to get them all on similar schedules with breaks and such - we think) - they have half days Friday, Monday and Tuesday and Tuesday really isn't even a half day because all they need to do is go pick up report cards and say their goodbyes. This is a monumental time for Hailie as she will be leaving middle school for good and heading to high school in the fall (no, I'm not ready for her to be in high school - the expense, the activities, the constant running here and there and everywhere to take to those activities, and whatever else comes with starting high school in this day and time). She has become friends with quite a few teachers over the past four years and so I'm sure she'll be sad (although she already informs me that she's ready to go to high school and she's excited) - guess we'll find out Tuesday when we go get report cards.

Bear's sister's birthday is either the 27th or 29th (I have a hard time remembering which) - she will be 44. She is the youngest of his sisters with a 5-year gap between her and the youngest child in the family. Bear is the oldest. There are six kids in his family overall with him being the oldest, four sisters and then a brother as the youngest - lol - you'd think being around women all his life pretty much he'd know what to do when it comes to communicating and all - but alas - nope - he doesn't - no communication or very little and no pizzazz like when we first met - he fizzled out - that is why the marriage went downhill basically.

When we get into June - there are a string more birthdays to deal with - but I'll post those later - I'm getting tired and since it is now 2:35 a.m. and I haven't been sleeping well as it is - I think I should turn in and try to get some sleep before starting work - see you all in the postings - E :)

Top rankings for stories on fictionwise.com

I've been asked that since this was good news on the Echelon Authors forum on yahoo - to post the info here.

Fictionwise is a pretty neat place for our short stories and other ebooks. They update their website every Monday and so by chance I was looking through the short stories (I did all, then by individual categories) and then browsed through all the fiction posted there and these were the results I came up with -

For just browsing the short stoies there are 5175 items posted in all the short stories, The Tulip Kiss was 469 (I think that's the right spot or maybe it was 439 - it seems I remember it being in the top 500 - which equates to the top 10%) out of those.

Breaking it down to mainstream (the category that The Tulip Kiss falls in) - there are 154 items listed and The Tulip Kiss was 3rd - that's pretty impressive if I do say so myself.

For the overall fiction category - of 2744 items under the mainstream category, The Tulip Kiss is 56th - again - right up there a good bit.

When I checked Echelon Press's books - I ranked 12th out of 151 items -

Tells me that The Tulip Kiss is selling some but not a lot. I'd like to see sales pick up but not sure how to really market that one story - I've tried several things and am gearing up a display for the Printer's Row in Chicago June 9-10 (Karen will allow us authors to pay a small fee and will set up a display for us to get our stuff advertised). I'm doing up some bookmarks, some tulips with some information (going to be really cute because the tulips will be in little flower pots) and a few other things since by this time my young adult fantasy story, Butterfly Halves, should be out.

I checked out Janelle's rankings and the following is true for her:

For overall fantasy stories - of 1845 items, Hear the Wind Blow ranks 6th - way to go Janelle - keep up the good work

For short stories - overall - no category - of the 5175 items, she is 31st (again this is pretty awesome).

For short stories - fantasy category - 2nd of 506 items (now her story just went up on fictionwise on April 30th, so basically in two weeks she has maintained some high spots on fictionwise)

On Echelon Press's listings of the 151 items, she is ranked #2 - I think she deserves a round of applause for doing such a great job - onl being on fictionwise for 2 weeks and already ranking in top 10 of her category and on our publisher's listing as well.

For everyone who has purchased any story from fictionwise or Echelon Press, please make sure after you read to rate the stories or go to the Echelon site and post a review - with ebooks, I think reviews and covers really do help sales a lot. We appreciate everyone who has already purchased our stories and for those of you haven't, what are you waiting for - they are good, quality short stories (or we wouldn't be published) - so I encourage you all to download a quick read and check back and drop us a note when you have purchased a story and let us know what you think of them - For a $1 - you can't go wrong - see you all in the postings - E :)

Publisher's blurb for Butterfly Halves

I've been asked to post the new blurb for the upcoming story, Butterfly Halves. Here it is -

Determined to possess a beautiful butterfly necklace, two sisters find themselveschallenged by time and space when they break the necklace in half in a fit of siblingrivalry. Fate sends each of them into an unknown place, separated and alone. But somethingstronger is at hand; will they discover the power of the butterfly and be reunited, or has fate other plans?


One person has said to take out the necklace part and leave that as a mystery; one person says it will be better with the girls' names and ages - what do all of you think?


The necklace is vital to the story but I'm game - I'll make the suggestions to the publisher and see what she says - Thanks for reading and commenting - see you all in the posts - E :)

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 :)

Matchmaker, matchmaker - not intentionally

My brother and his family moved to the area from North Carolina last weekend. I invited them out to dinner and to take the kids skating. So when I get out of the shower before leaving, Hailie asks if her friend can go with us. I said no problem. Before leaving for the post office, Benjamin's friend shows up to spend the night. Now, I have my two and their friends and my three nephew/nieces, plus my brother and his wife - yay for me - the more the merrier.

So after skating, I get home and add my nephew to my yahoo and we are chatting because of some of the things I had heard in the car. Anyway - turns out he and Casey hit it off. So my 16 year old nephew and Hailie's 13 almost 14 year old friend are talking online for now.

Today was the band's fish fry so the kids and I worked pretty much all day - I get home and chat online a short bit and then go take a nap. When I get up and get back online, my nephew calls me and says "guess what, mom and dad are going to let me date Casey" after telling me last night online that his parents said he was too young to date. So now a supposed bowling date is being scheduled for next Friday. Hailie is now beside herself because she set up her friend and her cousin in a round about sort of way - lol - this was not an intentional set up but I guess it was bound to happen with the younguns today.

Picture of nephew, nieces, and my kids and their friends -

Best I can do for son and his friend - and that's my backside in the blue color - waiting for my brother and his family - okay - so enough for now - see you all in the postings - E :)

Book Festival, meeting publisher and wonderful breakfast story

Okay - I posted that the SC Book Festival was this weekend and that I had met my publisher, Karen Syed. Most delightful woman to talk to. She told me now that I'm published with her, I can submit other short stories to be published - so that's pretty cool - If I have a short story I want published, I can submit - now I'm stoked about getting my stuff out there.

Saturday afternoon, I attended one of the workshops that was available to those preregistered to the festival. It was Dick Cote's Promotion 101 - how to promote yourself and your books. It was an excellent workshop. One of the items he mentioned doing was to have a website, so that is next on my agenda as far as promoting myself. I've found a website I can order mini CDs (another idea) for like $20 bucks for 100 of them. I hope this week to get website up and running, although I'm not sure how long it will take me. Supposedly this free site I'm using is supposed to be very easy and anyone can do it in half an hour or less. I just need to have an idea of what I want to put on the website, and what to call it - scary things but I'm sure once I figure those things out, the setup should be very easy. (I'm using Blue Voda for my website design - so as soon as that is done, I will let you all know. Probably link my blog to my website and vice versa.)

Now being in Columbia for two days, I have a local restaurant that I like to go to and eat breakfast. The restaurant is called Lizard's Thicket and it is home cooked meals, country cooking type food. When I go for breakfast, I always order the creamed chipped beef on toast with a glass of chocolate milk. Yesterday I was feeling the need for some fruit, so I added a banana on the side. I was enjoying my breakfast when this group of three people sat down at the table next to me. Two women and a man. He was very animated and I couldn't help but eavesdrop on the conversation. He was talking about the business or company he works for renting the Atlanta Aquarium for their awards banquet or something fancy - black tie affair.

He tells these two women that they (he and his wife and all the other people at the dinner) had to stand up and wait around. So they finally get to the buffet, and he looks down; there is beef and chicken and vegetables on the buffet - and other sides and stuff, but no fish. (By this time I'm snickering to myself due to the fact that they are in the aquarium and there is no fish on the buffet). He says he is in the mood for fish, so he proceeds to start pointing at the displays behind the servers and tells them he would like that and that and that for dinner. The women are cracking up by now and I was too but not out loud. Then the waitress comes to take their order. He wants an egg and cheese and somethng and mushroom omlette and the waitress shakes her head no at the mushrooms. He starts in on about no mushrooms. I just looked over and made a comment to one of the ladies about him being fussy and she said that was normal for him. I said I could tell by the way he was talking about wanting fish and there was no fish on the buffet. So they invited me over to their table to hear the rest of the fish story. I refused because I really needed to head to the convention center to get to my duties at the book festival.

They kept urging me over and finally the second lady just got up and started moving my food and stuff to their table. So here I am sitting among strangers eating my breakfast. I had my name badge on for the book festival (but that comes in a bit later).

So he proceeds to finish the story of the dinner at the aquarium. After they ate, he and his wife went looking at the displays and they found one case that is supposed to be a rare shrimp like from Africa with only 5 or 6 in existence (my daughter confirmed this as they just went to the Atlanta Aquarium about two or so weeks ago). He was looking in the case and didn't see anything, but then he saw the little eyes looking at him and someone hollered shrimp, and he and his wife were pressed up against the glass. He was very animated telling this and the three of us (me and the two other women) were just giggling away. So his wife wants to go look at the beluga whale display. After they disengage from the crowd, they went to the whale tank. He said one was up at the top (probably getting air or something), one was doing flips or spinning around or showing off and the third was swimming towards the glass. His wife was reading the placard and told him, "You better stand back because they eat penguins and if they eat you, they wouldn't need to be fed for a week."

Now here we all just break out laughing. So fish story over, they start asking me about my name badge and volunteering for the book festival and all. Somehow the conversation came back to my story being published and they were so fun and questioning. They bought my breakfast for me because I was a published author - how cool is that? - I had printed off about 8 copies of the story for some friends who had no internet access or no way to order through the internet and had sold them at the same price as online ($1, although I ended up losing money on that deal, but it was exposure for me) and had sold 6 locally, had two copies in the car - one that I had already signed for another friend to put in the mail and the other one not signed or anything. So I went out to the car and got the last copy and signed it and gave it to them. I got exposure and got a breakfast out of the deal.

So overall, the weekend was well worth it, even though I am having problems getting out of bed and walking around due to having stood most of Saturday and yesterday. My low back and left hip and knee are giving me fits. I can barely put my weight on the left leg to get up from a sitting position to stand but once I'm up, I'm okay - it's just the initial getting up and getting off the bed in the mornings. I do hope this shall pass and that within a week or so I'll be back to semi-normal - lol.

Okay - that is it for me today - see you all in the postings - E :)

SC Book Festival and weekend

So this weekend is the SC Book Festival and this is my third year as a volunteer. I had a blast yesterday although I'm paying for it today. I'm very out of shape and have so many parts of my body falling apart. My left hip, knee and foot are really giving me a fit.

I've seen so many people I know from the area this weekend that it's been a blast. I got to meet my publisher and she is definitely not what I pictured her to be but hey - I'm sure I'm not what people expect me to be either.

Be looking for the fast fiction posting tomorrow sometime since Karen will be traveling - it will be tomorrow evening - but I'll be looking for it - (see Karen Syed's blog - per link on side) in order to find out what the contest theme is for this month -

Anyway - figured I'd post something since it's been a while - see you all in the postings - E :)

Nothing new to report

It's been a couple of weeks now since my son's trip to the emergency room for the metal washer thing on his finger and I've had no real news to report.

I did enter the Fast and Frisky contest but did not win; at least I did get a calendar story written. February's isn't as easy to write but I need to write it anyway. What is the calendar story, you ask? - Hum - okay a friend sent me a calendar for Christmas - The Haunted Realm - she purchased a calendar for herself and suggested we write a story a month based on the calendar pictures/descriptions - so all my places are supposedly haunted or have creepy stories to them (who doesn't love a good ghost story or a mystery?). January's worked right into the fast and frisky contest for Echelon Press (she is doing a Fast Fiction contest every month - with the theme being Fast and F..... - whatever it is for the month - like October was Fast and Freaky; November was Fast and Fatal; December was Fast and Festive; January Fast and Frigid - you get the idea) --- anyway as long as Karen keeps posting the contests, I'll enter them. Hey, if it means I win and get a story published, even if in ebook format, then I'm game. The next posting should be February 26, which seems like a long time to me but it is only the middle of February now and the 26th isn't too far away. I guess I can wait another 12 days to find out what the next Fast Fiction contest will be.

I've been judging some stories for the derringers (via the Short Mystery Fiction Society forum on yahoo) and that's been interesting - so far 6 of 7 stories have been judged by me and all of them are written in first person and have been okay; the last one did kind of pizzazz me but the stories seem so lackluster considering they are all supposed to be mysteries and haven't really been too mysterious. Maybe they will get better as I go through this process. I've never had to judge stories for awards before, but being an editor for the Magazine of Unbelievable Stories has helped in this aspect. I guess being an editor and having to pick stories for the magazine is kind of like judging and it is very subjective. What I may like, the next person may absolutely hate. I am trying to be fair and partial to all the entries, not judge too harshly and give anyone zeros across the board, not that I've had any stories like that, but you never know. I'm trying to judge fairly and it is hard with the complete difference in stories and writing styles from each person.

So I guess that is it for me on the no new anything to report - lol - long-winded for nothing new here - see you all in the postings - E :)

An interesting thing happened on the way to fixing dinner tonight

Funny thing, I had just popped dinner in the microwave and had asked son to put his father's clothes in the dryer for him. No problem. Benjamin starts putting the clothing in the dryer and guess what he found? No, no critters in the washer. His father left a metal washer (I'm talking steel) in with his clothing. No big deal, right? Well this was a metal ring (see picture) that had been engraved with husband's nickname (he did the engraving at work - the piece of metal for lack of better word for it is - metal washer - was from his job also) --

So Benjamin finds this metal washer and proceeds to go upstairs to watch TV before dinner. He comes back downstairs within five minutes of getting upstairs with none other than this metal thing stuck on his middle finger. His knuckle was already swollen so the ring was not sliding off at all. I was concerned because his finger was dusky colored, not a good thing to someone who has been a medical transcriptionist as long as I have and the fact that I couldn't get the thing off without hurting my baby concerned me more.

So, first thing - get some dish detergent and soap up the hand and finger to hopefully slide the ring off. Nope didn't work. Okay now the finger is really turning colors, almost bluish in color. So call EMS. Yep, they show up in my driveway with no lights or sirens since it wasn't a real emergency just scary. They put some lube all around the ring and try to slip it off. Nope, knuckle is too big to get it off. Benjamin was in pain. Humm, think. Don't we have a ring cutter in here somewhere? Yep, found it but the ring cutter is too small to grasp the metal ring. Okay we've exhausted our methods. Only other solution, take him to emergency room so they can remove it. Ride in the ambulance or you take him in private vehicle. I'll take him since I had to pick up daughter from church since no one else at home.

Benjamin and I head to church to pick up Hailie and her friend and her friend's nephew. Hailie is a bit shocked to see me as she hadn't called me yet. So I go in to get her and have to tell her the situation. Benjamin is in the car and slightly embarrassed knowing that Hailie's friend and the friend's nephew will be getting in the car too. Then had to talk to one of the ladies from the church who adores Hailie. Gave her my business card with web address for my story (yeah, sales me at work too - got to sell my story - lol). Okay take friend and her nephew home and then head to the hospital.

Get to the emergency room and sit for a couple of minutes before they put in the vital signs room - take his temp and blood pressure. Instead of sending us back to the "emergency" part of the emergency room, they send us back to what they call "fast track" which is supposed to be nonemergency emergency room type visits and gets you in and out fairly quickly. A nurse, an aide or secretary and either a doctor or physician's assistant are usually back there. Tonight we had a PA. So we go in the waiting room for like less than two minutes. They call us back (the nurse did) and we coming down the short hall and the PA asks what the problem is and they both look at his finger like, hummmm we don't have anything to remove that from his hand. We may need to send him to intermediate care.

Now the fun begins - he doesn't belong in emergency, fast track has no tools or devices to remove a metal washer from a 12-year-old child's finger. So what do we do? Well first the PA lubes the heck out of the ring and finger hoping to get it over the knuckle. Nope, didn't work. So then she wants some dental floss. I knew what she was going to do if she had found it. No dental floss was found but she did find some kite string. She tries wrapping his knuckle with the kite string hoping to compress it enough to work the metal ring off his finger. That didn't work. No ring cutter (yep if things aren't tied down, they tend to walk away from that acute care part of the emergency department). Okay, think, who can we call with some tools that might work on getting this thing off his finger? Humm, I know (PA or nurse) - how about some bolt cutters. Call security see if we can get some bolt cutters. Good idea. Now, I've seen bolt cutters on TV but never in person and those things are very wicked looking in person. Like big pliers kind of but supposed to be able to cut through dead bolt locks and padlocks - ha!!! - well guess what - made some indents in the metal washer but wouldn't go through it. Okay this isn't working. Two security guys try to figure out what they can use. PA says, I've called engineering to see what kind of tools they have that might work on this. So security leaves for a few minutes comes back with a mini sawzall ring cutter type thing (electric and pretty wild looking). He puts the finger protector on Benamin's finger and shaky hands and all starts sawing through that metal where the bolt cutters had marked. He was nervouse as all get out here. So, he saws down. Then takes the bolt cutters and has to work another spot. Starts sawing down that way. He was very afraid at this point knowing that he wouldn't be able to go all the way down.

Engineering shows up with this huge sawzall type thing - nope first thing went through my mind - that will never be used on this metal piece to get it off - not on my life -no way. So one of the engineering guys (we had two security guys, two engineering guys, the PA, the nurse, the aide/secretary who wasn't that curious really, the cashier who didn't stick around much, Hailie and myself in this little section of the acute care area where Benjamin was on the little bed there) pulls out these two pocket tools. One being like a multipurpose type thing clamps, grips, you name it - I think it had it on there, and another tool that was mostly like pliers or something to get a good grip on the metal ring.

Lead security and lead engineer guy do this tandem thing where the engineer guy is holding the bottom part of the ring (the uncut part) while the security guy is using the other tool to work the cut part out - the wedge that he had sawed down as far as he could. Whew, piece one out of there but ring still on finger and not coming off.

Okay security guy picks up bolt cutters and makes another indent where PA had previously tried to cut through the ring with the bolt cutters. Again, in tandem, engineering guy and security guy work second piece out. Whew, second piece out but the ring is still firmly on Benjamin's finger.

Now we know eventually this thing has to come off. Third wedge cut with bolt cutters and then again the two men holding and wiggling the third piece out. Get the third piece out and finally the larger piece of the metal ring comes off son's finger - with a swollen, reddened knuckle and all but his finger is free.

Now here are the four pieces of the ring. Sorry the picture isn't that good. We have poor lighting in this house and every try created shadows on the picture. This was the best I could get.

You can't see all the pieces all that great but there are three small pieces and one large - this is sitting on a small notebook - one of those pocket sized pads - so the ring is not that big but big enough to slip over a 12-year-old's finger and create all kinds of problems -

Now you know the funny thing that happened on the way to fixing dinner tonight (this was Sunday, February 4th, between 7 and 7:30 pm when it occurred and we got home from emergency room and trip to Wal-Mart to get some medicine and an ice pack after 11 p.m. - almost 11:30 p.m. - (it is now 1:06 a.m. Monday, February 5th, when this blog post is being posted - lol -

I know it really isn't funny but these are definitely the things where stories come from. They say truth is stranger than fiction and I believe that - lol - see you all in the postings - E :)

Free workshop on writing

Wow - it's free and it's from a team of authors who have published 45 books between them - check it out and hopefully you will pick up some pointers on writing a novel - have fun - E :)

http://www.crusiemayer.com/workshop/

Adding cover art

Now that I think I have this figured out - I will share my picture with you - it is available for the low price of $1 and I think this is pretty awesome

The Tulip Kiss is now available

Check out the web store page on Echelon Press (www.echelonpress.com) for my short story from the Fast and Frigid contest that I won - the cover art is absolutely gorgeous and as soon as I figue out how to post a picture within the blog posting, I'll put the cover picture on here as well - It is so awesome to see my story actually published -

not much time to post stuff today - but will update soon - see you all in the postings - E :)

Good news

Okay so the second week was kind of slow and I didn't post anything but nothing happened really. It was a nonexciting week. But here we are in the middle of the third week and now I have some good news to share with you all.

I submitted a short story to the fast and frigid contest as posted on Karen Syed's blog (see side) and was chosen as the winner. So the fast part of the contest was that we had about two weeks to write the story and submit it and then if we win, we have 5 days to edit and revise and then the story will be published the following week. Well, I won. My story, The Tulip Kiss, will be available in ebook format for (based on other winners from previous fast and ... contests) probably a dollar. Now that's not much but it is worth it to just read a story on your computer - may take less than half an hour to read the story. So if you like a sort of ghostly romance story, check it out on the website - www.echelonpress.com

Editing will start soon on my YA/middle grade novel and I'm pretty sure I have a place for it so it may get published before the year is out. So this will be an exciting year for me - to really be published, making money off it - what a great thing that is -

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

Interesting first week of January

Only five days into the new year and already the week has been interesting to say the least.

Monday was a holiday, no big deal - we all expect that from the 1st of January to celebrate the new year. Did you know that the first immigrants were admitted to Ellis Island on January 1, 1892. Wonder if that was planned or what since the Pilgrims supposedly landed her in 1642 (250 years prior to the first "immigrants"). Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for history and all but weren't the Pilgrims basically immigrants too? I mean they immigrated from merry ol' England to escape the king's rules, (According to dictionary.com one defition of immigrant is a person who leaves one country to settle permanently in another. - yep sounds just like the Pilgrims - leaving England to settle in the Americas.) - So why the special attention to the immigrants of Ellis Island? Obviously the lawmakers had established some departments within the justice system and had made the Department of Immigration available, creating paperwork and headaches for people who now sought the new lands to make their homes. Before the revolutionary war and the civil war, people came to this land without hesitation - the Mexicans, the Pilgrims - and then they want to make things "legal". Who gave the first travelers permission to enter this country and to stay here? No one.

So looks to me that the Immigration Department is a conundrum (a department created within our justice to admit people to a country that they freely entered and making all these rules for newcomers (rules that the original founding fathers wanted to escape)) - oh well so much for life being good in the United States.


Tuesday, January 2, should have been a normal every day work day for most all of the nation, but no, Bush decides that it this year it is a national day of mourning for Ford. I am sure somewhere down the line that another holiday will be added to the calendar by way of the government. Which I think it is rather funny when I think about this. The governing officials have the highest paychecks in the country and the benefit of making holidays whenever it pleases them. They are only in session from January to October and still need more days off. What's wrong with this picture? Her the middle working class folks have to work 40 hours a week to struggle to make ends meet and when we need a break, we have to literally fight tooth and nail to get a day off or week's vacation or even a holiday. Go figure. The backbone of America has to work the hardest and longest to reap any benefits at all. With the "Day of Mourning" came closed post offices (yes, government) and banks (not all were closed since there is a law on the books somewhere saying that a banking institution cannot be closed for more than three days in a row - wonder who put that there? It isn't like we don't have access to our monies even if the banks are closed for more than three days in a row - we have the use of ATMs and checks and bank cards - so our funds are available in different forms. But then again, the governering officials we feel we need another holiday just because they want it. - So goes our life.

Last night I attended our band booster club meeting and talk about interesting things going on there. Longest meeting we have had since I started attending the meetings back in August (the first year that Hailie was involved in colorguard, I didn't come to the meetings because of the conflict with the writing group and I was pretty steady going to those meetings). The writing group still meets the same night as the band booster club but since this upcoming year I will have two in the marching band, I figured I should be more involved with the school activities than my writing. So I have resolved this year to attend at least the third Tuesday meeting of the writer's group every month as much as is possible (because once school starts in the fall, may not work out that way, just have to see with my husband's crazy schedule and the band practice schedule, et cetera).

Upon returning home, I got fussed at by supervisor for picking a job that was a good dictator and lots of lines (I did take him right before attending the meeting), so now I can't take his jobs any more unless they are right at the top of the list (we are supposed to do first in first out (fifo) but lots of people pick and chose the dictators they want to do - but with low work, we have to be careful. So regardless - I'm being watched as are the other transcriptionists on this account, so I will be trying extra hard to keep my nose clean - lol -

Also, I started my fast and frigid story (for Echelon press as outlined on http://karensyed.blogspot.com/) yesterday, finally think I have a story to submit and I worked on my civil war story (for the South Carolina Fiction Project). I may be able to pull off two submissions at the same time - will keep you posted on that. - anyway - see you all in the postings - E :)

Finally, a new year is here

Okay, out with the old and in with the new. That is what my grandmother used to say. We can toss the bad away and let the new beginnings come in. Last year was a very bad year for me but it also was a good year in other ways. I lost two different jobs in a three month period (bad), was out of a job for three months after losing the second job (very bad, no funds to speak of and not able to do much as far as socializing), but then I got a great job offer (very good for me and my family), took on an editor's position with The Magazine of Unbelievable Stories (good because I was wanting to get into book editing) and now Andrei is expanding to publish 6 novels in the 2008 calendar year (so yay!!!! I will be editing books this year), and I finished a story that was longer than a short story. This was done during November and part of December for NaNoWriMo - I'm hoping once it gets edited and revised and read/reviewed by target audience to enter it in the Random House/Delacorte first young adult or middle grade novel contest (would be sweet to get published, but if that doesn't work out may go through Publish America to publish - just have to see)

For submission guidelines for the magazine and/or novels - please check out our website - http://quill-pen.net/Submission.html (yes there are some erotic looking pictures so if offended easily, please do not visit the site - otherwise, we are looking for everything that is "outside the box")

I think this year is off to a great start and I am looking forward to working with new authors in the upcoming year. I also look forward to a productive and challenging year. (working on some personal writings for some contests - maybe one of them will pay off - - let's see how that goes) - see you all in the postings - E :)