Untreed Reads has a special offer in honor of WORLD SPACE WEEK: OCTOBER 4TH - OCTOBER 10TH. You get 30% off all Science Fiction, including, of course, my novella, The Clean Slate Accord.

http://store.untreedreads.com/

Short Story Contest

There's a great short story contest going on right now hosted by the Ventura County Writers Club. It has a low entry fee and pretty decent monetary prizes. Check it out!

http://www.venturacountywriters.com/contests/short-story

Article Published in Local Magazine

My article, Sometimes the Gophers Win, has been published in the latest edition of the Ojai Bubble magazine! It's a good quality magazine with fabulous stories and articles, so I'm very happy to get published by them. Check them out and consider subscribing, because they are a relatively new magazine.
http://www.theojaibubble.com/about.html

My Cat is Blogging About Me!

Anyone who has a cat already knows how sneaky and untrustworthy they are, so this won't come as a surprise, but for those who don't have the pleasure of living with a cat, here's something that might amaze you. My hairless Sphynx cat, Monty, is blogging about me. Yes, he's a sassy little thing who has taken it upon himself to complain about life with a writer. Now I have to watch what I say and do! Check out his blog, Monty's Catablog, and let me know if you think I'm being treated unfairly.

http://montysphynx.wordpress.com/

The Clean Slate Accord Made it on the Untreed Reads July Bestseller List!

Pretty exciting! My sci-fi novella, The Clean Slate Accord, is listed on the July bestseller list at Untreed Reads. Because of this, they are offering a discount until August 15th. Isn't that nice? So, get your copy at the discount before it's too late!

http://www.untreedreads.com/?p=2758

E-book novella released at all online stores

My e-book science fiction novella, The Clean Slate Accord, is now available at all online retailers, including Scribd.com, Omnilit.com and of course, the publishers store at Untreed Reads. The price is economically priced at only $2.99! How great is that?

Novella Released

I'm so happy to announce that my e-book sci-fi novella, The Clean Slate Accord, has just been released to all the Apple Stores and will be released at all other e-book retailers very soon.

The Correct Meaning of Plethora

Here's something interesting that I confess I hadn't really thought about. The word plethora. Like most people, I equated it with meaning 'a lot of', but the more accurate definition is actually 'in excess' or 'overabundance'. Similar meanings, but plethora shouldn't be used to simply mean 'a lot'. I looked it up on the internet just to see how it should be used and found that it is used in medical terminology to mean an excess of blood or bodily fluids. Such as, there is a plethora of blood in the kidney, etc. I also found that a reddish skin tone can be referred to as plethoric. That, I'd never heard of. So, if you want to write that there is a lot of something, don't use plethora, just say 'a lot'.

Displays at Ventura Barnes & Noble

I went into the Ventura Barnes & Noble today and saw the posters and book display for the Local Authors Day tomorrow, June 11th. I hope a lot of people show up because there are a lot of great books and authors to be showcased (me included of course!). I think there are 10 authors, which means each author will only have a few minutes to talk about their book, but that's okay.

Book event at Ventura Barnes & Noble this Saturday

Where did the time go? It's almost time for the Barnes & Noble Local Authors Festival in Ventura, CA. This should be a really fun event with some amazing local authors showcasing their books. Of course I'll be there with A Woman's Way and hope there'll be a great turn-out. It promises to be a lovely sunny Southern California Saturday.

Sci-fi novella to be released this summer!

Local Authors Day at Barnes & Noble

Very exciting news! I was officially confirmed at one of eight local authors to appear at the Ventura, CA Barnes & Noble Local Authors Day on June 11th at 1pm. It'll be a great time with each author presenting their books and then a brief Q&A session followed by a book signing. Can't wait!

Rising Star on Redroom.com

Very excited to see that I'm featured as a 'rising star' on Redroom.com. I love this site. I only recently discovered how great it is and now I'm hooked. It's another social media site with tons of writers on it. Check it out!

Rain for the Book Fair

My small town of Ojai had it's first book fair, called WordFest, today as the kick off to a week long writer's conference. And, there was rain. Luckily, though, the rain was early in the morning and cleared away for most of the day until around 2 this afternoon. The books, with local author's books, were under canopies, so no books were water logged! It was a great event and they even closed down the street for the fair (told you it was a small town). I sold a few books and had a few nice conversations with visitors, so the day was very enjoyable. Now I'm home, warm and dry, as raindrops fall on the roof. Tomorrow is supposed to have very heavy rain, so glad we had the event today!

Book reading at the Ojai Art Center. I'm the blonde on the left.

Book reading tomorrow night

I'm looking forward to my first book reading at a local author event tomorrow evening in Ojai, CA at the Art Center. There are five local authors, including me, who will read from their books as a preview event to the larger bookfair and writer's conference that starts March 19th. What fun to be involved with this wonderful event!

Women Freemasons

It's interesting to think that so many people, in fact most people, think that only men can truly be Freemasons. But that isn't true. There are various orders of Freemasonry that permit women, some are women-only, while others are 'mixed', enjoying the benefits of both genders. Co-Freemasonry as it is generally referred, is the best example of equality that I've seen in a long time. Men and women standing together in a lodge, gender and status-neutral. While Freemasonry may not be for everyone, it's wonderful to see that any woman interested in this pursuit is free to practice the craft.

Sci-fi Novelette

I like to write in several genres and have a science fiction/futurist novelette coming out in e-book format in April. The publisher is designing the cover art now, which is an interesting process. They asked for input from me, such as what I'd like to see on the cover, and then will go from there, sending me what they come up with later on. It's nice to be involved like that. I'll announce the story when it's available and maybe I can get some comments :)

Book Trailer Now on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIwT-yyhowA

A Woman's Way is Available

I found out today that my novel, A Woman's Way, is officially available for purchase. So far I believe it is listed on Barnes and Noble's website and Borders website in Australia, with Amazon to follow soon. Exciting!

Book sales and discounts

It's interesting to learn more about the publishing business as I go along. Apparently the larger retailers like Barnes and Noble can get nice discounts on the books they stock, which means they can give the buyers a good discount as well. I like this. It lets the reader buy a book, especially if it's mine, at a decent price, which ultimately should mean more sales. Who wouldn't like more people buying and reading their book? And with this slow economy, it allows people who might not be able to shell out the money for the full price to buy it. It's good all the way around.

Pre-ordering is available from Borders.com in Australia

If you live in Australia, you can order your copy of  A Woman's Way prior to the release date by following this link:

http://www.borders.com.au/book/womans-way-a-novel/24039389/

Approachable Hemingway

I just saw this quote from Ernest Hemingway. I feel the same way.

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and
what I feel in the best and simplest way."

~ Ernest Hemingway

Novel Published

My novel, historical fiction, A Woman's Way, will be published and released in March 2011. This is a fictionalized story of Maria Deraismes, a 19th century French feminist and accomplished speaker and writer. She fought for equality and equal citizenship for women. She had support from the Freemasons in Paris who also rallied for equal rights.

The Road to Publishing-Part 1

Every writer, whether they admit it or not, has the goal of seeing their words published. After spending so much time writing, editing, revising, we query. We query agents, we query small publishers. Then come the rejections, or the requests. Requests are like little presents. A request for a partial manuscript, sample chapters, or the full manuscript makes your heart beat a little quicker. Now, I'm certainly not saying this 'road' to the request is easy or simple, it isn't. It's a bumpy road filled with potholes and speed bumps that pop up to knock you off the road. However, I don't give up and I do whatever I can to stay on the road. I swerve, I stop, I backup (swerving=editing, stopping=pausing and thinking, backing up=reworking and revising). I refuse to hit the guardrail!