Sunday, May 18, 2008

Two Books on Amazon.com - Yahoo!

Met with Dave on the 8th for crits on his 'Drift' and my 'Lita'. He has a new ending for me. I gave him my 'The End' on 'Lita'. I'm still not sure killing her will fly with my readers, but I'll see what his reaction is. I guess we'll continue with the crits by email over the summer. Had dinner with them, then off to Denny's for my small crit group.

JOan, Lois and Cindi were all there and along with the crits, it was a great visit. Got feedback on 'Just An Old Radio'. So-so. It obviously needs work.

On the 10th, our book club met and discussed the books of Shirley Wolford. It was a lively discussion and when all was said and done, 8 out of 12 said they'd read another one of her books. I'm going to try to get her to our meeting on 5/31 when we'll be discussing the books of Clive Cussler.

My next writing event was the LHCWG on 5/17. They gave me feedback on 'Always the Good Kid'. Overall, it was good feedback. Good upgrades as to positioning and grammar. It sure was a sparse meeting. We all missed our snowbirds. Then it was off to Denny's - Margaret, Cindi, Vivien and Vern. Good conversation and sharing. Then Vern very nicely picked up the tab. I'm getting spoiled.

As for 'Hannah', getting good feedback as to the story and how easy it is to read as an eBook. I did a web search and found at least a half dozen sites with my novel. But, it was really exciting to see the covers of both 'After the War, Before the Peace' and 'Hannah' available on Amazon.com. Yahoo! Then, I got a message from the Virtual Tales folks saying that they'd contacted the Today Herald and that they were going to run a piece. Let's see how that works out!

Oh, and while I was searching the net, I came across a blog by one of the professors at MCC. I was surprise and pleased to see she named me as a speaker at the recent Writer's Forum. She commented on what I'd said about people talking in my head and she agreed. It's nice to know there are kindred spirits out there. Oh, and Vern mentioned that my bugging him about writing is making him want to get back to it. I hope so. He tells a good story in whatever genre he chooses to write.

Oh, I had lunch with a fellow writer from my FlashXer group. Mike is an interesting person and a good writer. We met at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant, good food, and talked for almost two hours.

Now, onto non-writing happenings. For Mother's Day, I heard from both kids and got nice cards from Hailey and Nick. I had a quiet day, but did go to Denny's for lunch/supper. Had my favorite - chicken fried stead.

On the 10th, Dave, Nancy and I trekked on over to Laughlin. We stopped at the Route 66 Winery. Had a great time and I guess the vintner truly is a demolitions expert. What a combo - wine and bombs! We stopped at my dad's grave to leave him his beer and quarter for his birthday. Beautiful day, beautiful view. Then off to some Mexican food at Casa Serrano. Finally, we made it to the Aquarius Hotel & Casino to see Trace Adkins. He was WONDERFUL! We had bad seats, but he moved around a bit so it was tolerable. We stopped at the AVI Casino for a late night snack on the way home. Dave and I got into it about 'cops', but it was all in fun. He called the other day to apologize. I told him I wasn't upset. Then, to tease him, I said I didn't hold it against him because his opinion was wrong. We laughed, so I guess all is okay. He surprised me by telling me that he was flying to Texas and that if anything happened to him, he wanted me to take possession of his writing. I was truly flattered.

Went to Phoenix on the 15th to see my niece Melissa get a $1000 scholarship from the Telephone Pioneers. My sister and her husband went to the luncheon, too. We are so proud of her!

My step-son Rick called today and we talked for almost an hour. He had a birthday yesterday. His son Tyson is a teenager, need I say more. But to add to his problems, Rick has a looser ex-wife who has reappeared in Tyson's life and feeding him untruths. I told Rick that I believe Tyson knows the truth deep inside and time will turn him around. Tyson and Rick have always had a wonderful father/son relationship and it's deep embedded. Their love will win out.

It's after eleven and I need my beauty sleep. So, until next time, have a lot of fun and for you writers, get to writing!

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