Contract!!! Two of Them!!!! Yahoo!!!!!!

What a crazy, crazy good, but still crazy couple of weeks I've had. I guess I'll start by bringing my writing news up to date.

First, I did submit 'Hannah' to a new publisher. Then, out of the blue, June Diehl, the editor who was working on my 'After the War,...' trilogy at Virtual Tales, emailed me to say that ePress-online Inc. wants it along with the trilogy and yesterday I received both contracts!! I'm so jazzed. Thank You, June, Thank You!

I've completed the latest editing on 'Mama Played for the King' and have already gotten some critiques back. It's now over 50,000 words which is what most publishers want for a minimum word count. I'm waiting for a few more readers to comment, then I'll send it off to publishers come September.

'Abby' is now on Kindle. Yeah!!! I've already received some good feedback. I think most of my readers will like it as it is written in a format similar to 'After the War, ...' with its heavy focus on well-defined characters and rich detail rather than the punchy, fast paced 'Hannah'.

I attended KABAM, a book fair in Kingman, AZ today. Didn't see many books as it was mostly attended by writers or future writers. But, lots of good networking and good exchange of editing, publishing, marketing techniques. I was asked to speak about our Lake Havasu Writers Group. Buck Dopp, our club president, along with members Cindie Miller and Veronica Medina spoke, too. The writer groups from Kingman, AZ Bullhead City, AZ and Henderson, NV were represented. Quite a variety of genres were represented, from children's picture books to erotica. Lots of interesting conversation.

My Tuesday novel group had a lively debate the other night about the wisdom of putting too much background info into the first couple of pages of your novel. I tend to do this so my reader will be more likely to relate to the characters if they know how they came to act like they do and how they came to be where they are. Good arguments on both sides as to giving too much info up front or to piece it out as the novel progresses. As usual, I don't think any minds were changed, but it is something to think about.

Today was the memorial for a dear friend, Pennycandy Jansen, who succumbed to cancer a few weeks ago. She was a member of our local writer's group and was working on a memoir of her father's life. At only 61 years old, she was taken far too soon. I'll miss her, but I'm very grateful that she came into my life and we were able to share a lot of good times and argue about a lot of movies over the past few years. Penny, I hope that somehow you were able to see how well Robert Pattison carried the role of Jacob in 'Water for Elephants'. You were right. He is a good actor. I just know Penny's soul is at peace and she's gone on to something wonderful that is waiting for all of us.

I guess I'll close tonight with some thoughts from Ross Perot. "Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown." This is where I was just a few weeks ago when Virtual Tales Publishing folded and I couldn't get 'Abby ...' on Kindle. Thank goodness I didn't stop, but worked on some of my other things and now I'm back to where I was and things are looking good.