Contests and Submissions

Another afternoon has been spent researching publishers accepting work and contests. This research is almost a full-time job in itself. I remember when one only had the Writer's Market Guide in hand and that was your guide to the publishing world.

For those interested I have entered a flash fiction story titled "Ancestor Fish" with authorstand.com.  If you sign up, you can read my story and vote on it. This is a new venture for my writing, and I must confess, that "Ancestor Fish" is one of my older stories and I have done nothing with it in more than a decade.  I felt it fair to give it a little fresh air, while at the same time not "risking" my more valuable stories.

Also, this website is free to enter stories and there is a cash prize, so those of you with stories might want to consider it.

I am trying hard in my research to find contests with out fees and paying publishers.  Right now it appears most contests want money and most publishers aren't paying.  At least submitting through the internet means I don't have to pay for stamps and envelopes any more.

P.S. Thank you commenter of my last blog!  I really appreciate some else struggling with blogging too.

Worst Blogger ever and great writing website

I think I'm coming close to being the worst blogger ever. Besides only remembering to blog every three months or so, I don't think I'm blogging about anything terribly interesting, especially since I don't have a fan base yet.

Thus, I'm considering how to reinvent this blog.

Meanwhile, anyone who does stumble on to this page might want to check out www.duotrope.com. This is a free website with great listings of places that are currently accepting submissions in all genres, including fiction, children's, nonfiction, and poetry.  I've started submitting a few manuscripts to the publishers they have listed.  I will let you know what happens.

Blogging and Wedding

My best intentions for being faithful to a blog have not pained out. I'm certainly not one who will be every able to make money writing blogs. I'm just not that attached to blogging, though I love writing.

I survived all the wedding plan.  I'm relieved all the grand event is over, yet I would love to plan a wedding again without all the pressure.

One advice to anyone planning a wedding, do not ask bitter, single friends to do anything at all! That was my husband's and my biggest mistake.  Our saboteur took off with the bridal and bridesmaid's bouquets and we didn't have the flower for our formal shots. We ended up making due with the flowers off the pews.  The person was only supposed to take the tossing bouquet.

This same person also tried to end our wedding early by passing out the bubbles more than 30 minutes before she was supposed to. All of a sudden I found people blowing bubbles at me. I was aghast. They weren't suppose to be doing that until we were actually leaving.

To stop people from leaving and thinking things were over (after all we had the place for the party for 45 for minutes and had paid for an additional hour afterward for clean up), I grabbed my brother on to the dance floor to dance. As I past the Man of Honor, I told him he was next. That halted everyone. 

Other little hiccups happened, such as the groom stepped on the hum of my dress and popped the bustle button off. Of course that is why you pack the sewing kit.

Looking back, I really wish I had been a guest at my own wedding. That photos turned out great and everyone looked happy.

Again, my big advice, don't have single bitter friends (especially those who have any reason to be jealous) to do anything.

I do hope to write more sooner than later.

writing life on hold-wedding and day job have taken over

Sigh . . .my writing life is on hold. That's not the way I want it to be.  Now that my day job has started up again, my days are eaten away.  The evenings are dominated by the wedding.

I did originally suggest to my fiance that we elope and get married in this great old castle in Scotland.  I'm wishing we did that.  Every day we have one to five glitches with the wedding.  Today my seamstress canceled my dress fitting for the third time in four weeks and the replacement batch of bubbles came half-evaporated like the last batch.

Of course, at least this isn't as bad as two weeks ago.  The day was my first one back to full day working and on that day my matron of honor resigned her post via a note in the mail, an ex-boyfriend e-mailed, and my wedding band was screwed up three ways by the jeweler.  Since then utter chaos has surrounded the wedding.  I'm not sure if I will replace my matron. I'm thinking I just may go with my two bridesmaids and be done with it.  It's not like my matron helped me with a single thing.  She resigned because she didn't know she had to come to a rehearsal.  Ugh.  She's married and been a matron before.  You would think she would know this.

I won't even get into the catering and baker issues. That is an epic in itself.

My fiance said the other night that wedding planning is made so hard because it tests the relationship. I guess, but some of what is going on is beyond what I think should be happening.

Wish me luck for the next coming weeks of planning please.

Writing and Wedding

My life has become consumed by the wedding.  I'm still deciding on wedding colors. Since a shortage of formal gloves exists where I live, I have ordered three pairs on-line. When they arrive, I will pick the color I like for my bridesmaids and order more.

My crinoline arrived yesterday.  Now I can properly try on my wedding gown, then take it to a seamstress for the final alterations.

The venue is secure.

My mind now races with thoughts of securing a baker, a florist, and a caterer.  I feel like I should be singing "Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub . . ."

The writing life has slowed a bit. I did work on my church article today. Yesterday I wrote in my journal and edited a friend's piece.  Deep inside I hunger to get back to the Conrads and science fiction writing.

I am glad to notice someone is reading my blog. That is better than my poor friend Echo Ryan.  Nobody has touched her blog in several weeks.

Wedding plans!

I'm feeling the urge to write about more than my novels.  After all, my life is more than my books and writing. One things currently on my mind is my wedding. I'm in the process of planning it.

The wonderful part is the church and priest are all settled.  My fiancee and I have picked out a venue. We are going to solidify it this week.  We have narrowed down the wedding invitations to four designs.

I have purchased a dress (for a stellar price that was too good to pass up), but it isn't my dream dress. My dream dress does not seem to exist. I was looking for something with a high back, lace up, long sleeves that are tight fighting and flare out.  I wanted a bodice top with beads and "jewels" that flared out around the hips.  I came close. I just couldn't find any gowns with high backs and long sleeves.

On the market I found only two types of long sleeve dresses: those with high collars to the throat and those with high fronts, but no backs.  I searched hard. I looked at over 10,000 dresses on-line and tried on more than 40. This has been a real quest.

I am going to try to work with the dress I have. I'm going to see if I can at least get capped sleeves added (it does have spaghetti straps).  I also need to be able to bustle up the train. Right now all it has is the string for holding it around my finger.

Wish me luck.

Writing away

I finished the final edit and changes to Realizations this morning. I'm ready to do a dance of joy.  I can now move forward. My critique partner is already beginning to edit the third Conrad book Rejections.  He found it very dark and that took him by surprise.

I've also wrote out the two rough drafts of my next two columns for St. Alban's Tidings.  I'm always glad when I have those written and out of the way for a month or two in advance.

I figure I should share a little of my writing on here, instead of just writing about writing.  Here's a bit from chapter 1 of Realizations.

Chapter 1:  Dreams

    She heard only the sound of her heart pounding and her feet thumping.  The air burned her nose and throat.  Gloria ran as fast as she could. Ebony strands of hair wiped her back. Her dark brown eyes locked on the two figures standing among the wavering, ankle-high grass. Nothing else mattered to her. "No!" she screamed.  She watched the translucent purple-violet shield spring up around them. Stumbling, Gloria fell to her knees.  Tears flowed down her wind stung face.  A searing pain blocked all her thoughts . . .
    "Gloria?" Regal’s warm voice called out to her through the darkness of her closed eyes. He pressed a strong calloused hand against her bare shoulder. A connection was made.  He experienced her dream as if it was his own.
    "No," Gloria whimpered.
    "Gloria?" Regal spoke a little louder.  "It's only a nightmare. Wake up."  As he kept his hand upon her shoulder, Regal sent his yellow energy into his wife’s body. Her heart beat steadied as the warmth of his energy cuddled her.
    With sudden alertness, Gloria's eyes opened.  Instantly, she rolled over and gazed at Regal, her husband and keeper of the yellow energy.
    "It's okay," Regal soothed.  He rubbed a hand up and down Gloria’s left arm. 
    Gloria absorbed the calming energies he directed into her body.  Sucking in several deep breaths, she steadied her pulse.  Gloria then closed her eyes again. Dear Light, she silently prayed, please protect Thera.
    Regal’s eyes opened when Gloria’s did. He had prayed silently along with her. She had not guarded her thoughts from him.
     Regal then rose from the bed and lit the granum oil lamp.  When Gloria had first screamed, Regal's instinct had been to power pray for a floating light.  But then he had remembered their agreement not to use Conrad abilities that could be seen.  The simple fuel lamp would have to do.
    "She has to win," Gloria whispered.  She scooted up as Regal returned to the bed.  He handed her a glass of water.
    Regal sat down on the thin mattress. "And we will continue to pray to the Light that she does."  Gloria cuddled up against him.  He turned his gold speckled brown eyes toward the ceiling of their cottage.  Shutting his eyes Regal inhaled deeply.  He took comfort in the straw scent, as well as the faint smell of Gloria's vanilla-almond perfume on the side table.
    Regal couldn’t help but recall how soon they would depart Karna.  If he had his way, they would stay forever.  He loved the small farming community that had been their home for the last four cycles.  Gloria and he had lived in many such villages, but this one felt the most like home, almost like the planet Aleron.
    "I can't even imagine what I will do if she loses." Gloria brushed three fingers across Regal's thick beard.
    Regal sensed the apprehension radiating from her fingertips.  Lovingly he picked up her left hand and expertly drained the tense energy from her body.  When he finished, Regal lightly kissed Gloria's smooth forehead.  "Better?"
    "Yes."
    "Good."
    "You don't want to leave, do you?" Gloria asked, looking up at her husband and soul mate.
    "No," Regal solemnly replied.  "You know I want to stay here.  I want to raise our future children here."
    "We can't stay. They will get suspicious," Gloria pointed out.
    Regal sighed.  Often he longed to be anything but a Conrad:  to always look thirty-five, and never appear to age, was a curse.  He ruminated over how most of the remaining Conrads were engaged in teaching the humans of Karna the technology lost to them after the Conrad elders' flight to Aleron.  Yet, Regal accepted that it was their duty to prepare the humans in case Xavier won the Death Duel.  For if Xavier defeated Thera, he would return to Karna with an immense Carmine force and continue his human annihilation plans.
    "Besides, I miss Zeplan," Gloria stated, interrupting Regal's contemplations.
    Regal smiled. He too missed Zeplan, his brother-by-marriage.  Zeplan was the sole Conrad remaining aboard the Galactic Falcon, their ship, which continually maintained orbit around Karna.  It had befallen Zeplan to make certain none of Xavier's followers had decided to return to Karna before the thousand cycle Death Duel ended.  Only 328 cycles remained.
    "I know we must move on," Regal said, recalling the hundreds of communities they had made their home, only to move on after a few cycles.  "But I would find it easier if we had a family of our own."
    Gloria pulled free of Regal's embrace.  Her dark eyes assessed him.  "You know we can't."
    "Why not?" Regal questioned, despite knowing the same old argument was about to ensue.  He just wished she would change her mind.  "Rassar and Disa each have two children of their own. Since they are now married, Sherwin and Kinara are planning a family as well.   Why not us?"
    "You know why," Gloria accusingly stated.  Her teeth dug into her lower lip.  Her eyes narrowed.  "If he should win, he will come after me."
    "But Thera could win," Regal argued.



That's enough of a teaser for now.