Celebrate the Small Things-March 31, 2017

It's Friday!  Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain.  Tonja Drecker and I are her co-hosts.

I submitted a short story this week.  That makes three submissions since the start of the year.  One per month.  I'm pretty happy about that.

I also started writing a novel.  This novel idea has been kicking around inside my head for about two years, and I'm happy to be getting it written down.  I have no idea how it's going to turn out, but I love the thrill that comes with starting a new project.

The A to Z Challenge is starting tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has to offer this year.  It's always a fun experience!

What would you like to celebrate?

Celebrate the Small Things-March 24, 2017

It's Friday!  Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain!  Tonja Drecker and I are her co-hosts.

The boys had a movie night at the school last night.  They watched The BFG and had pizza, popcorn, and pop.  They had a great time.

My oldest is turning 8 early next month, and we got his birthday presents sorted out.  Now we just have to hope he doesn't find where they're hidden before the day comes. Fingers crossed.  He's great at finding things we don't want him to locate.

Zoe is now 4 months old.  It's crazy to see how much she's grown.

I had a good week writing-wise, so I'm happy about that. Spring break being over definitely had something to do with it.

What would you like to celebrate?

April A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal

It's hard to believe that the 2017 April A to Z Challenge is almost upon us!  Today is the day for the time-honored theme reveal.  Thanks to the always awesome Mina Lobo for coming up with this fun tradition.  Be sure to stop by the challenge blog to find links to other theme reveal posts.

This year I've been busy with having a baby in the house and story submissions, so the challenge kind of crept up on me. I'm nowhere near as prepared for things as I was last year. Still, I knew I wanted to do something fun.  I also knew I wanted to keep my posts short so people could enjoy them and move on to other blogs.

That's why I've decided to write drabbles.  Drabbles are stories of exactly 100 words.  Each little mini story will be inspired by a word starting with that day's letter.  I've done drabbles in the past, and I enjoyed it.  A couple of those drabbles even gave me ideas for longer stories.  What can I say?  Anything that gets the creative juices going is fine by me.

Are you participating in the 2017 April A to Z Challenge? What's your theme going to be?

Celebrate the Small Things-March 17, 2017

It's Friday!  Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain!  Tonja Drecker and I are her co-hosts.

The boys have been off school for spring break this week.  As much as I love spending time with them, it does make it difficult to get much done.  Oh well.  We've had a nice relaxing week, and I'm okay with that.

Of course, it didn't feel like we're anywhere near spring this week.  We got a fresh round of snow, which I didn't appreciate at all.  We built a couple of model rockets, and I'd love to have some good weather so we can launch them.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What would you like to celebrate?

Where Words Fail, Music Speaks Cover Reveal!

I'm excited to help reveal the cover for the Where Words Fail, Music Speaks Anthology, which is scheduled for release April 21, 2017.

Where Words Fail, Music Speaks is a collection of short stories and poetry by writers from all walks of life.

Each story is based on the titles of 90s Britpop songs, including Come Back To What You Know, Bittersweet Symphony, Animal Nitrate, Disco 2000, and more.

Our list of authors is: Kyra Lennon, Clare Dugmore, Annalisa Crawford, Wesley Copeland, Robb Turburville, D H Sidebottom, Audrina Lane, M.B. Feeney, Karen Frances, S.J Warner, Scout Dawson, Kimberly Morgan, Maddie Wade, Rebeccalou Heronpontin, Andrea Coventry

All proceeds from the sales of this anthology will go to Clusterbusters.

Add to your Goodreads to-be-read list: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34409894-where-words-fail-music-speaks

Celebrate the Small Things-March 10, 2017

It's Friday!  Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain!  Tonja Drecker and I are her co-hosts.

I can hardly believe we're more than a week into March already.  The time is flying by, and I'm celebrating the fact that spring is just around the corner here.

Today there's an annual event going on at my kids' school-Muffins for Moms.  I basically get an excuse to eat two muffins for breakfast today, one with each of my boys before school starts.  It's bad for my waistline, but good for my morale, so I'll take it.

As for writing, I got some pretty amazing news in the last week, but I'm not quite ready to share the details yet.  When I am, I'll let everyone know!

What would you like to celebrate?

Smashwords Sale!

Read an ebook week starts today and runs through March 11th.  For this week, thousands of ebooks will be available for free through Smashwords.  Go check it out!  Who doesn't love the opportunity to get free books?

All of my Smashwords books will be free for this week as well, so if you're interested in picking up any of my stories, you can find them here!

Thank you everyone, and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Celebrate the Small Things-March 3, 2017

It's Friday!  Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain!  Tonja Drecker and I are her co-hosts.

My writing continues to go well.  At least so far.  I'm not quite sure what the final version of this WIP will look like, but I'm happy with what I have so far.

My story Adam's Apple and the Infinite Regress is now available through iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords.  It hasn't shown up on Barnes & Noble yet, but it should be there soon.

We bought a used SUV this week.  We've been cramming our family of five into a regular car until now.  It's been nice having plenty of room to fit everyone.

What would you like to celebrate?

The Insecure Writer's Support Group: March 2017

It's the first Wednesday of the month, and that means it's time for another meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Our Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh created this group so writers would have a place to talk about their insecurities and support one another.  His minion helpers for this month are Tamara Narayan, Patsy Collins, M.J. Fifield, and Nicohle Christopherson.

Be sure to check out the IWSG website!

The question for this month is: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it?  Did it work out?

I frequently find myself going through my old writing and searching for inspiration. I unearthed my story "Felix Was Here" for the first IWSG anthology contest, and that move paid off.  I recently pulled out the story that I wrote for the 2013 April A to Z Challenge and edited it, reworked parts of it, and self-published it on Smashwords.

As for stories that I wrote more than a handful of years ago, I have yet to rework them in their entirety.  However, I have gotten plenty of use out of them. More than once, I've found myself mining those old stories for ideas to incorporate into new ones.  And the inspiration for the novel I'm hoping to start writing later this year came from a novel I wrote in high school.  That book was terrible, but I became intrigued by a side plot that I'd written into it.  Yes, the side plot was more interesting than the main plot.  This clearly illustrates that novel wasn't all that good.  Still, I'm glad I wrote it, and I'm glad I held on to it.  Those old stories are worth consideration.

Have you ever reworked an old story?