And the Verdict is...

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For those of you who hang on my every word and whim...

No. I didn't make it into the Anthology.

Poop.

BUT! I DID get my very first Rejection E-mail! Sweeeeet!

And! It said some pretty interesting things about my story. Such as the fact that the editor thought that my story was "enjoyable" and had "very strong characters".  So that was good!

From what I understand they had a huge number of submissions for this anthology, and the competition was fierce. I'm very happy knowing that I write strong characters and enjoyable stories.

Now.

To make them Longer. Stronger. and Less able to Resist...

(That sounded way less dirty in my head...)



PS!  Everyone should go to White Cat Publications and check out their website. It's got loads of stuff! I was trying to get into the Airships & Automatons book... There is something for everyone there!

Daisy Chains

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Thank you Marcy for the award! Sounds like a fun one too. All I have to do is list 7 interesting, weird facts about myself...and off we go!

1. I was invited to try out for the Olympic track team.
2. I (stupidly) turned down the opportunity to cook for Dave Matthew's Band thinking I wasn't 'ready' yet.
3. I love quilting, but don't do well with math.
4. I once spilled a cambro of cold coffee on Itzhak Perlman. 
5. I'm not a big fan of baked things like cake, but I love sour candy.
6. I could eat my weight in Bing Cherries. Seriously. I cannot stop.
7. I have an essay buried in a time capsule at the Blaine House in Augusta, Maine. I can't remember when it's going to be dug up.
Now I need to tag three people!AdamCallieRu
Three blogs I really enjoy, so I hope you do too!






  

My Favorite Things

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Alex J. Cavanaugh is hosting a blogfest today! And it's an interesting one. Favorite Genre of Movie, Book, and Music. Then a Guilty Pleasure of any of the 3....Hmmm.

Favorite Genre of Movie. That's pretty simple. Sci-Fi. I'm pretty sure it's because these movies have it all. Thrill, plot, romance, explosions, comedy...everything. Yes. They can be terrible. But Serenity? Amazing.  Aliens. Star Wars (of course). I would even argue that the way TV is going now, it's becoming better then movies. The Walking Dead! C'MON! Firefly. Nuff said.

Favorite Genre of Book. That's harder. It would be such an easy thing to say fantasy/sci-fi. But honestly, I don't know. I read a hell of a lot of murder mysteries. I have a ton of historical fiction on my shelves. But yes. The books I buy are epic fantasy. Rothfuss. Rawn. Orson Scott Card. I love getting lost in the world. Getting immersed in the different culture.

Music. Simple. Jazz. Hands down. Something about the chaos of the music. It's visceral. Earthy. Hot. Painful. Everything you need music to be. Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ella Fitz, Billie Holiday. Music today wouldn't be what it is now without these amazing musicians.

Guilty pleasure...hmmm. Probably in Movies, Period Dramas. I love sitting down and watching movies set in Victorian times! The Drama! The Beheadings! The Clothing! The Angry Church-Guys! Seriously...they were all so ...Angry...Awesome.

That's it for me! Check out Alex's Linky List for more participating in this Wicked Fun Blogfest!

Goin's On's

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This week I am over at Unicorn Bell posting about how we write culture into our stories.

Which sounds way more snobby then it really will be.

Mainly I'll be discussing the background noise that goes into the writing of a book. The 'stuff' the reader doesn't notice, but will if it's wrong.

I'll also be discussing the interesting phenomenon that happens along with this when readers bring their Own culture to your story. When they assume they know what the 'rules' are. But don't. I read a very quick snippet of an article on this in Writers Digest (I think) about how readers will Assume your world is male dominated, unless otherwise specified. How your readers will assume a pregnant woman has a husband, unless otherwise specified. How your readers will assume all sorts of things. It was rather interesting. And frustrating. And explained the old way of doing 'info dumps' at the beginning of fantasy and sci-fi books. Problem is. We don't do that now. So how do we get the rules of our worlds across without boring the pants off our readers?

Head over to Unicorn Bell! :) This is what we'll be exploring this week! Politics! Art! Religion! Weapons! All sorts of fun stuff.

Meanwhile...

WRiTE CLUB is still going on! Don't forget to head over there and vote! Vote! Vote!

Kitty's Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn (audio)

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I finished listening to this yesterday. I actually had only a little bit left to go and just hadn't turned it on to listen to in a while. And that was my biggest problem with the book, which was totally my problem and nothing to do with the book itself: I spread out the listening over too long a period of time. So I know that I enjoyed the book but I don't remember a lot of what happened at the beginning and I didn't really get into the rhythm of the story. It's probably one I'll need to read/listen to again to make sure I caught everything. Hence my very vague post here about it!

Candymakers - Wendy Mass

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Candymakers - Mass, Wendy 
Summary: When four twelve-year-olds, including Logan, who has grown up never leaving his parents' Life Is Sweet candy factory, compete in the Confectionary Association's annual contest, they unexpectedly become friends and uncover secrets about themselves during the process.      

Daniela's Review This book is very fun to read because it is about candy and mostly everyone likes candy. This book is about a bunch of kids that enter a competition and only five can win.  The contestants  have to try to make up a new kind of candy. Interested readers need to understand the story when they read it. They need to now a lot of the vocabulary in it, and a lot of other things. I love it. 
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Deep and Dark and Dangerous - Mary Downing Hahn

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Deep and Dark and Dangerous - Hahn, Mary Downing

Summary: When thirteen-year-old Ali spends the summer with her aunt and cousin at the family's vacation home, she stumbles upon a secret that her mother and aunt have been hiding for over thirty years.



Lilibeth's Review 
This book is an amazing mystery story you will never forget! It is about a teenager named Ali who finds herself a new "friend" and together they go through great adventures that may lead to be very dangerous! An interested reader needs to know it is a great book filled with suspense. I loved it.

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