What's Over YOUR Writing Spot? (What, AGAIN?)

Well, yes. But there's a perfectly good reason for me bringing up the latest thing over my writing desk.

It's a birthday letter to yours truly from the Juniorest Hall. And no, it's not my birthday. It's another perfectly good reason.

This Juniorest Hall is NOT the English major. And yet, he's very big on writing letters. I suspect it's because letters are so very, very...what's the word? Oh, yeah. Cheap.

Anyway, this particular letter holds a place of honor over the writing desk. And not just because of the eloquent lines pointing out the attributes that make me a super mom (though that's swell). What makes this letter so extra special is that Juniorest Hall mentions writing. To wit:

"I appreciate everything you do for yourself from your writing, to your blogs, to watching football like a crazy person (Um, I think I missed that the first time) and even Cathy-on-a-Stick. As much as I detest that stupid piece of paper glued onto a popsicle stick, I also enjoy it because I know it makes you happy and that makes me happy."

Sometimes, like on a day when a rejection lands in the inbox, or finding the right words or a brilliant idea seems like an impossible task, I look up and read those few lines of the letter.
I need to remind myself that writing makes me happy. And that I'm lucky enough to have the love and support of the Wild Bunch. Right down to the Juniorest Hall.

(P.S. I bet you thought I forgot all about the reason I brought up the letter (I sorta did). Cathy-on-a-Stick has finally returned. You can see what she's been up to if you zip over here. Won't Juniorest Hall be thrilled?)

Finding Something Friday: Errant Parent and Me!

You would think that if a certain writer had an entire week without any Juniors underfoot, that said writer would be astoundingly prolific and get ever so much work done. I mean, it makes perfect sense, right?

Only in The Real World here, that's not exactly how the writing week shook out. Which explains why it is Friday NIGHT and I'm just now telling you about my essay that debuted in errant parent this week!

So, the essay's called "On Being Ugly" and I hope you like it. Assuming you have time to zip over and read it. But if you don't get to it for a couple days, I promise. I'll understand completely.

Tuesday Tip Revisited or Oooooh, Those Hackers Hack Me Off

So, another friend had her email hacked and ended up asking all her contacts for help getting home from London.

But those shenanigans didn't particularly hack me off. I've seen the "Stuck in London" ploy before. I was not, however, sure that my friend had. So I skipped over to Facebook to send her a little note and lo! There she was on Facebook!

How delightfully convenient. "Hey," I chatted, "I'll bet you've been getting tons of emails about your 'unexpected' London trip." I added a smiley face, even.

"Am really stuck," she chatted back. (No frowny face or anything.)

"Really?" I asked. 'Cause I'd just seen her the day before. That's some nervy hacker, I thought, chatting away on Facebook, trying to catch any friends who might be socially networking.

Granted, I was annoyed, but still not majorly hacked off. I mean, it takes A LOT to hack me off. And then I saw my friend that evening.

Naturally, we spoke of the email and London and the Facebook chatting, too. What's the (wide web) world coming to? Apparently, what it's coming to is hackers getting into email accounts and social networks and CHANGING PASSWORDS.

That's right. My friend couldn't get back into her own email since the hacker had changed her password. And what can be done to prevent this hijacking? Turns out, absolutely nothing.

That's what really hacked me off.

P.S. You might want to make sure that your Facebook and email are not tied into each other. It won't keep your email safe, but at least your friends won't be chatting with despicable hackers.

Finding Something Friday: An Award! For Me? Aw, Shucks

Look what I found today!

My friend, Madeline, over at the The Shellshank Redemption (which is one of my very favoritest blog names. Ever.) passed the Circle of Friends Award along to me. And now, not only am I feeling pretty sweet from that bloggy hug, but I'm also passing the bloggy love on to five of my friends and their lovely blogs.

So please give a warm "Hallo" if you have the chance to visit this circle of friends:

Becky Povich over at her blog of the same name

Anita over at Laughing Through the Tears

Ruth over at RJ Writes

Jessica over at Newly Wed Life

Gail over at Write From the Soul

If you have the time, friends, pass along this award to your friends, passing along a little link love. But don't worry if you forget. You'll always be an award-winning friend in my book. Um, make that blog.

Market of the Month: Patchwork Path Books

I like to mix up the markets here at the Hall of Fame, so this month, I decided to go with nonfiction. But fiction will work quite well, too. (It's a dilly-dally market.) Which brings us to Patchwork Path Books.

Choice Publishing Group is looking for stories right this very minute on living the American Dream. But you can write a non-fiction essay, too. They'll be reading stories and essays till...let's see, December 31st! So, you have plenty of time to come up with something between 250 and 2000 words for Patchwork Path: Star Spangled Banner. And if the editors choose you, you'll receive payment of $50.00.

That's a nice bit for a story. Or even an essay. (But don't dilly-dally too long!)

The Quick and The Thread Winner!

Sew, we're all gathered back here to find out who won Amanda Lee's embroidery mystery, The Quick and the Thread.

The suspense has my stomach tangled in knots. In fact, I'm on needles and pins! But I'll try to pull myself together.

MADELINE! You've won! And believe me, The Quick and the Thread will keep you in stitches.

(Really, if you want to blame someone, blame Gayle Trent. She shouldn't have written such a clever book that worked so well with me tying in all those sewing terms.)

Finding Something Friday: Writer Beware

I expect if you've been writing, you've been taken advantage of, writing-wise, somehow, some way. Which is really annoying, because writing's hard enough as it is.

That's why a group of brilliant writers banded together to bring the world Writer Beware. You've probably heard of this site, and know you can go there to get valuable information about scams and scoops, and help with your "problems or pitfalls" in publishing.

But did you know Writer Beware had a blog, brought to you by the same three authors? Not only do they bring you up-to-the-minute publishing news, but they also have links to tons of great blogs-agents, editors and info. It's a quick way to find some of the best writing resources available on the 'net.

Which is really swell, because I've got enough to do, producing scathingly brilliant writing.

(P.S. There's still time to comment for The Quick and the Thread. I'll leave the giveaway open till Monday so weekend visitors can have a chance to win this fun read. But it'd be really, really swell if you commented on that post.)

What Not To Do Wednesday on Following Different Threads

I'm so excited! Or should I say sew excited?

Amanda Lee is here today, with her latest release, The Quick and the Thread, a cozy, little embroidery mystery.

That's right. I said "latest." Because Amanda has written other cozy little mysteries, though the name on the book covers might be a tad different. Perfect, I thought! I'll ask her about different threads of writing. (I'll get to the giving-away-the-book part in a minute, so just hold that thread, okay?)

Amanda, I know your other books are in the cozy mystery genre, so why use a pen name this time around?

The publisher requested a pen name.

Did you have concerns about marketing a new brand/name? What did you learn not to do?

Don't set up a separate website. You'll want your marketing efforts to feed off each other and funnel into one central site.

(Okay, now I'm hungry. Amanda's other mysteries involve lots of cakes. I'm kinda craving funnel cake-and want to read Dead Pan.)

I suggest not creating a separate identity for your pen name. While I've dressed as a character for a reading before, I would feel ridiculous trying to maintain an assumed persona. For instance, the series written as Amanda Lee is set in Oregon. If I tried to pass Amanda Lee off as an Oregon native, someone would have to talk to me for mere seconds to realize I'm from the South!

Don't choose a name that has already been used. Prior to settling on the name Amanda Lee, I should have performed an extensive Amazon and Internet search for the name. There is a suspense writer who once used the name, and I had trouble persuading Amazon that I-not she-wrote The Quick and the Thread.

Do you write more than one mystery at a time? And if so, how hard is it to keep those voices in your head straight? Or keep all those writing threads from getting tangled up?

It's really hard sometimes, especially when I'm doing edits on one book while finishing another. I find myself writing "Brea Ridge" (the location for the Daphne Martin cake decorating series) rather than "Tallulah Falls" or "Marcy" rather than "Daphne." I've been known to keep a cheat sheet by my side to help me remember which details go with which series.

So, Amanda, what's your best advice for a writer who wants to follow different threads?

Keep a cheat sheet. Seriously. That way, you won't wind up giving secondary characters in both series the same last names, for example. Or first names. For some reason, the name "Todd" wound up in both my series!

Todd, huh? There's probably a cozy, little "name" mystery there!

Thanks to Amanda Lee for her brilliant What Not To Do advice. And now I have a little What To Do advice for you. You might want to check out the book trailer for The Quick and the Thread on her website. This visual marketing tool will be a must-do when your book comes out, and Amanda's trailer is short, sassy, and sew fun.

Bet you're dying to get your hands on The Quick and the Thread, too! So I'd advise you (I know. I'm just full of advice today!) to leave a comment and keep your fingers crossed that you're the random winner. And please leave an email (in secret password terms) so I can get in touch with you.

But in case you don't win, zip over here to Amanda's website (Yes, I know the name is not Amanda Lee. Haven't we just spent the last few minutes discussing that pen name, y'all?). You'll find out where The Quick and the Thread is available. Or you can check out her blog for other stops along the book tour route to find another chance to win this cozy mystery.

And because I like to give authors the last say-sew (Sorry, Amanda. I couldn't help myself.), here she is on What Not To Do when it comes to embroidery:

Don't worry about missed stitches. Normally, no one will ever know you made a mistake. Except you. And if the piece turns out well, it won't matter.

Even if it's not the prettiest thing in the world, people will be happy you thought enough of them to make them something. Case in point, a friend's daughter had gone away to college and was away from home on her birthday for the first time. I made her a cross-stitch cupcake and placed it in a card with other embellishments. The end result was the tackiest card I'd ever seen, but I sent it anyway. I saw her in church a week or two later and asked, "Did you get your tacky birthday card?" She laughed and said, "I love it! I never get mail. It was so cute." (No it wasn't. It was tacky. But it made her smile.)

Take a chance on something new. You might be surprised at how easy it is. I got a ribbon embroidery kit. I'd never done ribbon embroidery, and I was expecting it to be really hard. It wasn't, and I really enjoyed it.

(You know, that's good writing advice, too. Take a chance on something new. You might just find a cozy, little mystery in you!)

Tuesday Tip: Clearing Contacts

I don't really understand "the internets" all that well. But occasionally, I'm forced to figure out some internet-related glitch. So what I usually do is a. turn off my computer or b. scream at "the internets."

Neither of these approaches worked very well when the Beneficent Mr. Hall had his Facebook account hacked into. Suddenly, very interesting, not to mention titillating messages were sent to his flock of friends. Which numbers about 10. Seriously.

Still. It was unnerving. Especially in light of the fact that the Beneficent Mr. Hall's email account had been hacked-twice. Unfortunately, there were quite a few more contacts in that account, including business contacts. Um, oopsies!

So, what to do? For the Facebook account, he went all Terminator on it (I mean, who can blame him? The internet demons seem to have targeted him). He tried to terminate his email account, too, but couldn't figure out how. So he cleared out all the contacts.

Which brings us to our Tuesday Tip. You never know when the internet demons might attack. You can have all kinds of internet protection in place, but you could still get hit. So, you might want to be careful about holding on to tons of contacts.

I go through my contacts and get rid of dated ones, but recently, I had a TON of editor/submission contacts hanging about in my email. Imagine if the editor at a Christian anthology received a very interesting, not to mention titillating message from yours truly.

She'd probably go all Terminator on me. So clean out those business contacts, just to be on the safe side. Oh, and change up your passwords once in awhile, to keep the demons on their toes.

And go ahead and scream at the computer. That always makes me feel better.

(P.S. If one of you, my personal and very bestest friend contacts, should get a very interesting, not to mention titillating message from me, please know that's it's not from me. Probably.)

Finding Something Friday: Got Any (Writing) Eggs?

I've come across more than a few good (writing) eggs this week, so I'm just going to throw them out there (carefully).


Calls for Submissions:


Writer's Market is looking for article pitches for the 2012 edition. You don't have to be that famous writer, where everybody knows your name. You just have to have a great idea about writing. And get that idea to the editor by 8/31.


Robert Brewer is also looking for ideas for his Poet's Market 2012. Got a brilliant idea on how to market your poetry? Bet he'd like to see it (by 9/7).

Cup of Comfort for Christian Women's deadline is right around the ...um, next week! If you have a comforting story of faith, write it and send by 8/15!


Free Tips that Won't be Free Next week:


How to Build a Rabid Following on Twitter, courtesy of blogging guru, Jonathan Morrow. Watch and learn!

Is This the Secret to Building a Popular Blog?, also courtesy of Mr. Morrow. Now, I can't help it if you click too late. He'll be pulling these great instructional videos any day now for his paid webinar.


A Bonus Freebie:


If you read Hope Clark's Funds for Writers free newsletter, you know she is a font of markets, contests, grants and more. But have you checked out her Tweetbooks yet? When I renewed my paid subscription for Total FFW, I got this fabulous deal of 8 Tweetbooks with the price of my renewal. BUT, if you just want to see what the Tweetbook fuss is about, she offers a free download. I think it's Poetry Markets right now. So you've got nothing to lose-and 20 markets to gain!


Want to Win a Book?


Blogger buddy Karen over at The Absinthe Road is giving away TWO copies of her poetry collection, Three Thousand Doors. Comment anytime during August.

Blogger buddy LuAnn is giving away a copy of Margaret Norton's memoir, When Ties Break. Comment by 8/11 if you'd like a chance to win this powerful memoir.

Blogger buddy Donna is sponsoring a fun contest where you can win a book, or a critique and um, bubble gum. That's right, bubble gum. You've got till 8/15 till the bubble pops on that one.


Oh, and I'll be giving away a really sweet book myself next week on What Not To Do Wednesday. So I know you'll be busy, what with winning books, writing pitches and essays, and downloading tips. BUT I expect to see you all back here, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to win a wonderful (writing) egg next week!

(Photo from stock.xchng)

What Not To Do Wednesday On Money (It's a Gas)

Oh, yeah. Pink Floyd singing Money. It's a gas, all right. As long as the money's rolling in. But sometimes, we have to put the brakes on a job when there's no money in sight.

I've had a few situations recently that had me thinking about money, grasshopper...

In the first instance, what I thought was a paying market turned out to be a non-paying market. So, I had to do some considering. But here's what not to do: don't be afraid to speak up if a market changes their pay procedure during the submission process.

The other situation involved a job discussion that was going back and forth in the most delightful way- till the money I wanted didn't coincide with what the client wanted to pay.

So here's the thing, grasshopper. Know thyself, where money is concerned. If you want to get paid for your work, set your fee. There's no need for long explanations. Ideally, you've done your research and know what's a fair price for the work you do, whether it's editing or essays or writing on the wall.

Sometimes, you'll make money. And sometimes, a client will drop off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again. Unlike Pink Floyd. They just keep on going-and making money. (Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.)

What's Over YOUR Writing Spot? Part Deux

First of the month has me scrambling to get my goals in order, and I've already told you about the spiffy calendar I keep over my writing spot. But I kinda left you hanging about a few of the other writing snips and tips I keep over the old desk.

So here's one of the comic strips staring me in the face (if I raise my eyes a few inches and squint):
Hahahahaha! Stephan Pastis is genius, isn't he? Such insight! So pithy! And really, when it comes to writing humor, you can't go wrong with a pig. (I think I'll coin that phrase and add it on an index card over my desk.)

Accidental Cowgirl Goes to...

Howdy, pard'ners! It's been so dad-burned hot around here, I can't hardly think straight.

That's cowgirl talk for "I completely forgot to draw a winner for Mary Lynn Archibald's wonderful memoir yesterday!" But now I have my wits about me, so Accidental Cowgirl goes to...

Jenny! So, Jenny (who dropped in to celebrate my BON award!), I hope you'll drop in again with your email so I can get your address and send the book.

Now, I don't want the rest of y'all to feel too down-in-the-dumps. I have another splendiferous book (Okay, I can't stand it-it's a cozy little needle-and-thread mystery) coming up on a blog tour in August. I know you'll love it, so I hope you'll drop in again and try to win.

Meanwhile, HEY! Isn't it August already? Time flies when you're having fun. Or your brain cells are getting cooked. Either way, we're giving away a book in ten days or so. Now git along little doggies. (That's cowgirl talk for "I've got a looong, cool drink with my name on it-and I suggest you find one for yourself.")