Category Archives: Recognition and Awards

Writing Wednesdays 8/24: In which I am featured at StoryFix!

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Photo courtesy Melissa Wilkinson | Photobucket.com

Good Wednesday Morning, Fellow Writers! I have an exciting announcement today!

After much nervousness and changing my mind and changing it back and finally just putting my big girl pants on and DOING IT, one of my pieces- Try to Say No- is featured on the Peer Review Page at Story Fix! Yay!

And I already have one comment in which someone does NOT hate it! Even more yay! (It’s pitiful how big my smile was when I saw that first comment.)

If you’ve been following this blog for awhile, you’ve seen the evolution of this piece. I have reworked it since it appeared at Short-Story.net and I feel it is the best it has ever been.  Something about the past tense wasn’t working for me. I changed a bit of the imagery, revised the tense, punched up some scenes and removed some “explanation”. Sometimes it’s better to just let the words stand for themselves and let the reader figure things out. It really is a process, you know?

It is… nerve wracking to have your work posted for public consumption, especially on a site where so many will see it. It is not unlike that nightmare we have where we arrive at school naked and everyone can see our private bits.  Even worse than someone having something bad to say is no one saying anything at all, especially if you are kind of proud of your private bits. A piece generating zero reaction is… well. I mean. A failure. So I am at least hoping for really good or really bad comments.

But seriously, really good comments would be great. I’m also hoping for some constructive criticism on how I could improve it or what doesn’t work.

I want to thank my friend Sarah over at He Loves Me Not, who gave me a swift kick in the pants and made me submit after she was so kind as to review it for me.  I submitted it yesterday and I expected it to be a few days but it is already up and available to read and review. If you have a few extra moments, please pop over and take a read and leave a comment about how terrible awesome it is.

Tiny Update

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The winners for the January Contest at Prompted to Write were announced this week. The Storm wasn’t one of them. Ah, well. I liked it, felt it was well written and was a great entry.

Onward and upward. I hope to get some writing done this weekend. Praying for inspiration and a clear mind. I think I’ll wake up and read some, in the morning before I start writing. I always have issues with writing when I haven’t been reading.

Off to fall asleep to the Criminal Minds marathon!  I should try writing some crime fanfiction someday.

Someday.

Getting My Words Out: January

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Today is the 31st, which marks the last day of the first month of Get Your Words Out, a totally insane writing challenge for 2010. My challenge goal is 300,000 words in 2010. I’m positive I can do that… last year I missed the cut-off so I decided to do it on my own and ended up well over 350K thanks to NaNoWriMo. This year is panning out to be great as well… I checked in with an amazing 31,325 words for January.

So, what comprises my word count? Whatever I write on purpose, for pleasure. I include updates to current WIPs, drabbles, writing exercises, book reviews, and blog posts that aren’t written for a specific purpose like some kind of commercial post (which I never do anyway). I also don’t include short ‘hi, bye’ posts. My word count isn’t suffering so I don’t feel the need to waste time sending that through a word counter.
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You like me! You really like me!

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Cue dramatic music…………and scene!

YAY, I got another award! I might just have to keep up this blogging thing. It’s awesome on the ego!

KM Weiland over at Wordplay has passed on the “Lova Ya” award to The Sweet Escape!

The “Love Ya” Award states: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to other bloggers who must choose to pass it on and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award!

I am flattered and pleased to accept this award and *air kisses* to KM for having such a worthy blog. I LOVE it over at WordPlay. If you’re not following her on twitter (@KMWeiland) you’re missing some of the best, most inspirational tweets, EVER. I often feel like I’m all alone, ’til I see one of her great quotes and then I am encouraged and inspired. Thanks KM!

So I need to pass this award on… and while I love all of the blogs I read, I have to choose a few that stand out, to me:

  • Jennette Fulda, Pasta Queen: You’ll laugh your ass off. She did. Also author of  Half Assed- A Weight Loss Memoir
  • Emily Sandford, Skinnyemmie : Becoming Skinnyemmie is about becoming happy and healthy. And having a really cute blog.
  • Allison Duckworth, How Much Is A Duck Worth? :Boy Meets Girl, Boy and Girl get married, Boy and Girl have the most adorably charming baby on earth. (Allison is also a talented photographer for pregnancy shots, baby photos, newborn pics, family portraits done in an innovative and gorgeous way. Check out her site at ElevenThirtySix Images)

Thanks, KM, and the lovelies who keep me truckin’ along everyday via the written word. BLOG ON!

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I got an award! \o/

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I’ve never had a blog long enough to get an award. ALRIGHT!

My pal over at One Nerve Left gave me an award yesterday.

I’m so proud! Thanks Lizz!

In exchange for this FABULOUS award, I am supposed to award five blogs, and name five addictions. Holy……okay.

1. My Blackberry. Like Lizz, I love and adore this lil thing. I love it so much I sleep with it. Before I even have a second eye open, I check the Blackberry. First email is always my bank balance. Second email is…….whatever else comes overnight– emails from friends, blog comments, what have you.  I have several email accounts and they all roll to my Berry. I have the BlackBerry Flip. FREAKING LOVE IT. Then I check Twitter, because I like to see what the Gremlins do at night when I go  to bed. I also have several Twitter accounts. I may need help….

2. The Internet. You know how when you have Internet, you can take it or leave it, but then it goes out and suddenly you have 83 things you could be looking up RIGHT NOW if you had Internet? That’s how I am. That’s how everyone is, I guess. I just can’t stand to not have internet access. I have it on my phone and if I can get wifi on my iTouch. Speaking of….

3. My iPod Touch. This thing… is so much better than my old iPod. You get all the bells and the whistles of an iPhone but with more music storage and APPS APPS APPS. There’s an app for EVERY LIVING THING, I swear. I haven’t loaded mine up with a bunch of games because I’m not much of a gamer, but I do have solitare and Tetris and I play those a lot. My fave application is the Kindle App from Amazon. Just………… LOVE IT. I mean I also have eReader and Stanza, but I usually just use the Kindle. I zoom right through books on that thing and it’s nice to be able to drag my whole reading list with me everywhere I go. When I get to work, I put the phone on vibrate and plug the IPod into my speakers and rock out.

4. WordPress plugins. Seriously. I’m trying not to add too much, and most of what I add is fuctional for me and invisible to readers but I’ve stayed up, like, way too late reading through plug in lists and recommendations and surfing blogs to see who has cool stuff so I can look it up and see if I need to get that, too!! I… I have a problem, and it’s Plug in addiction.

5. So many things I could list here, for #5… food, sleep, more sleep. I think I will say, though, BOOKS. I’ve been getting back into reading this year and it’s been a sheer joy. It’s an escape into a world that I feel like is created just for me and in that span of time that I get lost in that world, all my real life problems go away. They don’t exist, they don’t fester and back up and bug me– they’re gone. I love that, I crave that, I need that, I’m addicted to that.

So there’s my hot five list of addictions. And now who to nominate… Hmmm. I am new to the blog0sphere, but I’ll nom some  that I love to read:

Becky Writes

Write Meg

Blissville USA

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Butterfly Confidential

And that’s all I have to say about that.

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