STOP TEXTING AT THE MOVIES!

Hel-lo. If you bring a flashlight into a dark room--no matter how small the flashlight--it is noticeable. If you start texting on your cell phone, it's like a little flashlight in a dark room; it's DISTRACTING. If you are so addicted to texting you can't put your cell phone away during a 1.5 - 2 hour movie, DO NOT come to the movie theatre. Wait until the movie comes out on DVD and watch it at home. And don't even think that you'll just leave the theatre if you have to text or take a call.

Thank you, Assistance League of Salem

Since November, we have been performing our play "Paul Bunyan" regularly in the schools, thanks to the Assistance League of Salem and their program Operation Art Adventures. They contracted with us May 2011 to do about 30 performances in the Salem area elementary schools and we'll be finishing up those performances next week on the 29th.

One AL member asked me today if I'll be going into withdrawals next week. I said that I'd be

Reading and Writing and More Reading Excitement

I got a Kindle Touch in November for my birthday...And that's my excuse for any blogging not getting done.

I love reading. Here's a sample of what I've been reading, not necessarily in this order:
*How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks - All for Free, by Jason Matthews
*How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months, by John Locke
*Smashwords Style Guide, by Mark Coker
(You can tell what that's all about, right?)

The Mist of Stuart Mountain

(a Halloween story just for the fun of it. Took me 1.5 hours to write, and it hasn't been edited; they'll be lots of mistakes but enjoy anyway).

The dog howled, not barked, howled. Then stopped. The noise was preferable to the sudden silence.

Inside the vacation cabin, Thomas held an open book on his lap. It made him look like he was reading. Sue stopped in mid-knit.

“The dog?” she finally questioned her husband.

“I better check on him,” Thomas said, closing the book and putting it on the new end table made to look rustic. “Probably got his foot stuck somewhere.”

Sue rose when her husband did. “Wait. The dog would still be howling if it was only his foot.”

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month is just less than six days away! The suspense is building, like it does when someone says, "On your mark. Get set..." AND GO!

NaNoWriMo is in November and during that time, writing enthusiasts try to write a novel with a minimum of 50,000 words from scratch. The website allows you to track your progress and become friends with other writers. If you're a young writer (17 and under), you get to choose your target word count through the Young Writers Program. It's a chaotic, intense,

Book Away!

My MG Fantasy novel, White Fire, is completed for Round 1 of editing. Phew! 

It's being critiqued by my writer's group, an editor friend, and family members who have an eye for good storytelling. Then comes Round 2 of editing. I already know I left off a couple of chapters...not the whole chapters, just I forgot to put "Chapter 4" and "Chapter 5."

My poor editor friend got my pre-edited version without me realizing it. But...okay...is this good or bad? She liked it before she knew that it was not my edited version. So either she is being a little too gentle or maybe she really liked the story. I'm going with "liked the story" because I sent her the story on Thursday, she finished it