Smories contest is on!

I want S'more! That's a common phrase heard around campfires in the summer months. Now, kids can ask for more stories on www.smories.com website.

My story is filmed in a short video at the link below. It is titled "A Secret in My Ball of String" and will be online for the month of June. The story with the most views by the end of the month earns cash!

The little girl reading the story is priceless in her expression and British accent. Just adorable! She breathes life into the story.

http://www.smories.com/watch/the_secret_in_my_ball_of_string/

Smories.com

If you had a magic kite that could fly you anywhere, where would it take you? My story, The Secret in My Ball of String, takes the reader on a magical journey and will be posted online at Smories.com beginning June first!

This UK-based website is sponsoring a contest for writers to submit work each month, and selected stories will be read by a child on video and voted on by visitors to the site. (Rights for the stories remain with the authors except for their right to put it on their site.) Cash prizes for the top five popular stories.

Still trying to figure out what the catch is. . . but at least it will get some work out there!

Spring Cleaning

Cleaning up house, manuscripts and blog, giving everything a fresh start.

Contest update: The "Why I Write" essay made it through the contest with a nice rating and a spot in the Smashwords e-book, whenever that decides to be made available on-line. No sign of it yet.

But moving on with the MG novel... After the Bloom mystery novel contest, a couple agents have "waffled" on it and a few others said they didn't "connect". So, the winter months have been spent back on the sunny Greek island of Delos (mentally, anyway) with my main characters. Major re-write of the beginning so hopefully more agents and editors will "waffle" in my favor with the next round of submissions.

Looking forward to the spring SCBWI contest next month!

Contest updates

Contests are an excellent way to keep new writers on a rollercoaster ride of emotion -- Breath-holding excitement when they reach the highest peak before the gravity of reality sends you shooting back to earth in free-fall. At least I have writing friends to share the ride!

The deadline for "Why I Write" essays was delayed due to their system crashing over Christmas. Now due by the end of Jan. My essay hit the 100 reads mark today! Hoping it gets in the Smashwords anthology.

New Years Resolutions: Email/check out blogs LESS, Exercise MORE, and WRITE FASTER!

Essay Contest

Found a contest calling for essays on "Why I Write". Nice opportunity to get published in an anthology. Visit the site http://editorunleashed.com/forum to see all the essays! Mine is titled "What Would You Do? Makes me out to be a lunatic with characters pow-wowing inside my head, but that pretty much describes fiction writers -if they have to cart one of us off to the loony bin, they'll have to take all of us.

Getting closer!

My middle grade novel manuscript is moving up the publisher's list of finalists! Getting harder to breathe the closer to the big announcement on Christmas Day. Just trying to improve my other manuscripts in the meantime, while trying to keep a few toes on the ground. It is so exciting to be getting closer to publication!