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!

This, That and Stuff!

Where does the time go!!! So much has happen since my last drivel (thanks, Michelle, for this great word) posting. A lot of my time was spent on 'writing' things. Went to lunch with Shirley Wolford. She now has an associate who is willing to help her keep at her writing. This person will clean up her typing and do some editing. I really hopes it works for her. I can't imagine not being able to write. I gave her some tapes of 'Atlas Shrugged'. She had mentioned that since she can't read, tapes would be great. When I bought hers, I bought the book on CDs for me. I listened to it on my way to and from Pleasanton. All I can say is WOW! Good writing and it is so scary to see Rand's plot actually happening in the U.S. these days.

Then, had another meeting with Dave. He wrote the end to his 'Drift' and it wasn't bad, but I had some suggestions as to how to bring it full circle to his start. He gave me some good thoughts to consider on 'Lita'. I have written 'The End' on 'Lita'. It is very sad and I'm not really happy with it, but it's a first draft, so I'll reread it after I get Dave's feedback. After our meeting, he, Nancy and I went to Mario's to dinner! One word! Yummmmmmmmy!

Oh, and my Republican Women's club made me the 'Person of the Month' and did an article on me. As usual, the picture was horrible, but the article was good (teehee-I know the writer of the article intimately). Anyway, it was nice of them to chose me.

While I was in Calif., the kids were in school during the day, so I had some time to write. I managed to sub to all three of my on-line groups. To Desk Drawer, I sent 3 subs. For the prompt about disobeying rules/laws, I subbed 'Always the Good Kid' Good feedback and I especially appreciated that my use of the male POV worked. To the prompt about 'leaping and stomping', I subbed 'Opinion'. Again, good feedback and I was surprised not to get any anti-Bush/War/Military feedback. It was all feedback on the writing, not the opinion. Guess that's why I like DD so much. For the prompt on haiku/limerick, I submitted three haikus. Again, good feedback.

For the Flashers-Dozen prompt 'fathers/daughters', I sent 'And Yet Again'. It was a story of a girl killing her sister, then being banished by her father. I used mixed up spellings of the names in the story of Cain and Abel. Got some good feedback, along with some suggestions for improvement. No one saw the Cain and Abel attempt. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

For the FlashXer prompt 'Officer', I sent the 'And Yet Again'. Again, more good feedback, and again, no one picked up on the Cain and Abel story. Then for the prompt 'Good Time Charlie', I sent off 'Gender Mix' which was a story of a brother's revenge on the murder of his sister. Nice feedback. I'm very lucky to be in those groups.

Then, I had my LHCWG meeting on Saturday. I turned in 'Always the Good Kid'. My 'Posed for Eternity' was critted. Overall, it was good feedback. Not too much was said during the verbal discussion, but the written feedback was very good.

I'm having a hard time deciding on the subject for my next book. I've got some short story writing to keep me busy, but I always feel a little at odds when I don't have a book to move forward every day.

'Hannah' is now available as an eBook. I'm trying to get the copies to send to the five folks who said they'd read it, then comment on it. I think Virtual Tales could make the site more user friendly, but they have been so good to me, so I hesitate to complain.

Oh, my friend JOan, had a book signing at Hastings for her story in 'Letters to My Mother'. It was on 4/30 and I had to miss it. Damn! Damn! Damn! She was so good to me during my signings and now I had to let her down. Damn!

As to my non-writing life, I drove to Pleasanton, CA on 4/23 and came home 4/30. My grandson, Nick, made his First Holy Communion. He wore a suit and looked so handsome. We had a big family dinner at a restaurant called 'Papa Eddie's' with about 15 folks attending. Most of them came back to the house after dinner and visited. It was family and it was nice.

Sunday, we drove to the top of Mt. Diablo. It was beautiful, but I could have done without the horde of pincer bugs and the rattlesnake by the stairs.

Kim and I went to see '21'. Good movie. Kevin Spacey is so underrated. He has a wonderful range from good to bad and can even sing!

Sunday was Pioneer Social Sunday. A group of us went to the restaurant in Topock Gorge for lunch, then over to the Route 66 Winery in Needles, Ca. The vintner is a young man with a great personality. I think he put us on a little with his story telling, but who knows. My friends said I should make him the star of my next novel. Hummmm, how could I put a demolition expert/vintner in the desert during the late 19th century. I'll have to think on that.

And with that, I'm outta here for today. More to come, soon, or so I intend. But, you know the old adage for intentions and how they pave the way to ....