* FRIDAY'S FEATURES *

Happy Friday! Another week has flown by and I'm happy to say I actually accomplished quite a few items on my List of Things to Do. I also created a schedule for myself that makes more sense than any of the other ones I've attempted to follow. Instead of writing down that I would perform a particular task on a certain day, and/or at a certain time, (which, of course NEVER worked) I did it this way:

Donate ______ hours for e-mailing.
Donate ______ hours for marketing.
Donate ______ hours for actual writing
Donate ______ minutes to Facebook
ETC.          ETC.           ETC.

** I can't believe I typed "Donate" four times, or the fact that I just now - 10:15pm Sunday night - realized it!! I meant to type: DEVOTE. **

I copy the sheet every morning, write the date on it, and get to work. So far, so good!
This helps me manage my time so much better. It hasn't been a perfect system because things do interfere, but it's a great beginning.

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I'm excited to announce another site I found online to promote my memoir. It's Writing-World which I just mentioned in my April 26th post. It has a LOT of information, so take your time browsing! There's a link very close to the top of the main page that says BOOKS BY OUR READERS. <<<< You can get there by clicking this link. Different price packages are available for promoting a book, and believe me, they're very reasonable.

 

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Are you the type of person who can read more than one book at a time? I really can't, and it's too bad because I'm "sort of" reading four or five books right now. Don't ask how it's going!  J AND, I just happened upon a table of books yesterday when I was at Dollar Tree (my very favorite dollar store.) Well, my goodness, a person can't pass up a table of hardcover books that are only One Dollar, can she? I've purchased books there many times. Some I take to Goodwill, (especially if I don't care for them) and others I'll take to writerly events where there's a table for free books. I bought a few just to donate to a government facility that requested books. Sheesh... I'm getting off course here....Anyway, I dug through the few books that were there, kept control of myself, and bought only one. I've only read 20 pages so far but that's pretty good because the print is so tiny, I get blurry-eyed after about 3 pages! The title is:

 

The Writing Circle

by Corinne Demas

 

It's about a woman who ......guess what??...joins a writers critique group! I'll let y'all know what I thought of it when I'm finished.

 

Buying it also reminded me of a book I bought in a Borders' bargain bin way before they closed:

 Blind Submission

 by Debra Ginsberg.

It's about books and a literary agency, etc. In one of the reviews on Amazon, it says "This is the book-world version of The Devil Wears Prada." I really enjoyed it! If anyone would like to read it and pass it along, I'll be happy to send it....anywhere in the US. (Sorry other countries!) The offer is the same for The Writing Circle when I'm finished reading it, too. 
 

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Oh, guess what? I actually submitted a story for an anthology, which is something I haven't done since 2012! It was for the Special Call Out from Publishing Syndicate that I mentioned on April 26th. It will be awesome if my story is accepted!

 

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Oh my gosh! The famous Blue Angels are in town this weekend! I am always thrilled and terrified at the same time when I see them in person, which has only been once or twice...Talk about having "nerves of steel." 

 

 

 

The Ronald and I might try to find a parking lot somewhere near to watch them. (We don't like crowds, and the admission is $12.00 per person! Yikes!)  

 

 

 

* I'M BACK AND HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE *

Well, I finally got my blog straightened out. The right column that was seen correctly by my readers, had totally disappeared (to me) from the right side of my blog, and was on the left side, at the bottom, after all the posts. Weird, huh? After searching online for some answers, I deleted a couple of links that were inside posts, and changed the images from Medium to Small on Melissa's guest post. Don't know which one did the trick, but something happened and, voila, it's fixed! Thank goodness. Things like that drive me....well....Bonkers!

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My speaking event at the Cahokia Library on Monday, the 21st was a great success. The Friends of the Library invited me to talk about my writing. I also spoke about my ties to Cahokia and how I love it and still drive around and reminisce. There was a Q&A session, and book sales, and signings. All in all a wonderful evening! A few friends drove quite a distance to attend, one in particular. Thank you all very much! I hope to do many more of these types of presentations in libraries near and far!

 

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Spring has really sprung here in the St. Louis area, and I am VERY thankful for that! Today was a perfectly glorious day. High temp around 70 - 75, and very low humidity. Aww... if only we could have about six months of that! This morning I took a couple of pictures from my office/bedroom window of the beautiful tree in bloom in the yard across from us. This one is the best, and of course Vern is enjoying the scenery, too! (You can click on the photo to see it much bigger.)

 

 

 

I have all kinds of notes here and there about things I wanted to remember to blog about....Well, they have once again gotten buried in the mountains of papers on top of my desk/kitchen table. (No, I still haven't begun painting my fabulous desk yet. That's another project on my To Do List!)

 

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One other thing I wanted to share is about Call Outs for Submissions and/or Contests. I've come across a ton of them lately, due to various newsletters I've subscribed to. Here are just a few:

 

1) Publishing Syndicate -- Not Your Mother's Book ...On Working for a Living. They need your true stories NOW. Go to their website to learn more, right now!!

 

2) Have you ever checked out Writing-world.com? This site has a plethora of writerly information that covers just about anything you want to know. Copyrights, contests, how-to, grammar, etc. etc.....and it includes most genres.

 

3) Also Winning Writers shares contests and other resources for writers.

 

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That's it for today. Wishing everyone a fabulous rest of the weekend!!

 

 

"On Saturday afternoons when all the things are done in the house and there's no real work to be done, I play Bach and Chopin and turn it up real loudly and get a good bottle of chardonnay and sit out on my deck and look out at the garden." -- Maya Angelou