Entering a Contest Here

            This week, after Valentine’s Day, I saw an organization that supports wildlife’s request for online entries into a contest where you write a six-word story expressing your love of nature. They’ll have several winners, and the prize is just getting your story out there. I wrote two and decided to wait till the next day to send my entries in, even though the deadline wasn’t till a couple of days after that.

Well, when I clicked on the site the next day to send my entries, I got word that they weren’t accepting any more. Apparently a lot of people decided to enter, so many that they had enough to evaluate and choose already.

So, no entry on my part. But I can still let others, like you, read them. Hope you enjoy them. I assume those of you reading this know my love of dogs, but I love most animals, including wildlife.

So, here they are:

Wildlife, wow. Beauty abounds in nature.

Phenomenal world forever? Cue the wildlife!

Hope you liked them.

They didn’t take a long time to write, so I’m continuing review of the final edited version of my first book in my K-9 Crime Solvers series, K-9 Evidence. I’m also working on my third Harlequin Romantic novel in the series.

Back to them--and watching the wildlife in my backyard, mostly squirrels and crows.

Looming Danger

 We had a reminder that it is winter earlier in the week when we got rain and the temperature dropped.  It was short lived and now the sun is back.  Though three storms are predicted to pass through next week.  I'm going to soak up the sun in the meantime.

The rewrite of what I'm at least for now called LOOMING DANGER is going along slowly. Poor Casey has so many problems in this retreat.  There's a princess on the run, a woman who claims she's come to get over a breakup, but she seems confused about her ex's name, some old friends  who have become estranged and only one of them seems to want them to makeup, a woman who has brought her unhappy niece to give her a special weekend, and then there's Doris who is outspoken and very unhappy about how she was treated by the leader of the travel writers seminar which is also going on at Vista Del Mar,  To make it even tougher almost all of them are novices when it comes to yarn.  Casey wants them to have a finished project, and have their problems  worked out by the end of the weekend.  And that doesn't even count the murder she has to solve or her own issues.

There are a lot of characters and I think I'm going to take a readers advice and put a list of them at the beginning.   

And now to grab a little sun while its still here.

Still Writing Slowly

           Still working more on my third Harlequin Romantic Suspense K-9 Crime Solvers novel, not going fast but making some progress. And my head’s still swirling a bit with the mystery idea I had, but not too far along with it yet.   

            So, not much to say now. I’m still trying to convince my mind, and sore hand, to write more and faster, but so far they’re not paying much attention.

            Oh, but yes, like Betty, I take time out from my writing to do crossword puzzles. They can be puzzling, yes, but I enjoy intriguing my vocabulary that way.

The Rewrite Continues

 The weather has been so nice that I absolutely forgot what month it was.  But today the weather has begun to change. It's subtle just some clouds instead of the sunshine and blue sky, and the temperature has begun inching down from the upper eighties to just eight.  Next week there might be rain.

I'm grateful to have had some day to take my coffee outside and let the sun bathe over me.  I really feel for all the people having cold, bleak winter weather.  

Rewriting the next Yarn Retreat book is going okay.  Since I got to know the characters through writing the first draft, I can add touches to them now.  I need to make a list of the characters with basic details so I don't change their names or eye color later in the manuscript.  I like to go through magazines and cast my characters, so that I have an actual visual  in mind.  People Magazine works great.

It always takes a while to get from my kitchen table to my computer.  I have found that doing a crossword puzzle or another kind of puzzle works like exercise for my mind and  makes it easier to work on a manuscript.  I had a book of crosswords that were easy, but then I got one that has easy, medium and hard.  I worked my way through all the easy ones and am not into medium.  It's a whole new experience. I went from whizzing through the puzzles to having to look things up.  Like I would know off hand what water is near the leaning tower of Pisa.  It's the Arno River.  My phone definitely comes in handy for stuff like that.  It's harder when the answer is an expression or reaction to something.  I could always look in the back for the answer, but I like to figure it out myself.

I think the reason that crosswords are helpful in writing is that they are all about meanings of words and relationships of words.  It has made me think about the English language and how tricky it is.  There are words that are spelled the same, but have different pronunciations.  Words and phrases that don't make sense if you just look at the words.  Anyway, it is a far better way to spend my time than scrolling through my phone.  And my mind feels oiled and ready for action when I get to my computer.