Walking Vietnam's Coast - Virtual Challenge

After spending 434 days on the walking the Amazon challenge, I decided to take the short route for the Coast of Vietnam challenge.

For those of you who are newer to the blog, I enroll in virtual challenges where I can earn racing medals. There are two companies I really like, but one of them requires many of their challenges to be done in one session and sorry, I'm not doing a marathon.

The other company has long challenges that you can set your own timeline to complete. For example, the Amazon River challenge had two options--a short route and a long route. I opted to take the long route which is why it took me 434 days. It was more than 1600 kilometers long (Just short of 1000 miles.) As this challenge went on and on for more than a year, I wished I'd chosen the shorter route. :-)

That's why I chose the shorter route for the Vietnam challenge. I didn't want to spend another year walking the coastline.

This one seemed to fly by after the Amazon: 56 days to walk 160 km.

I like earning the medals. I signed up for my first virtual race in 2021 after I had surgery. I wasn't allowed to exercise, lift weights, go to the gym or anything for six weeks afterward and I was worried it would be hard to get back in the swing. I thought earning a medal might encourage me.

It did and I keep using the medals as encouragement.

(BTW, I received NO compensation of any kind for this post, and I've always paid for my own races/medals.)

Little Rewards and a Payoff

I've been thinking more about rewards for writing and achieving milestones in the manuscript. Medals don't work--and really, I'd need a whole lot of individual one because if they were the same, it wouldn't be interesting--but I decided maybe something else would.

Knitting needles and accessories!

I don't really need any more needles which means I can't really justify buying them. That's what makes this idea work. If I was going to buy them for myself anyway, then it wouldn't be a compelling reward.

I have a set of interchangeable needles where the cords make me insane. A friend told me that there's another brand with cords almost exactly like my very favorite ones--they're just a little expensive. Perfect as a reward! Now I have to earn them.

I decided that when I'm around the halfway point, I deserve a bigger reward. I have this great knitting needle case for one brand of needles. I'd like to buy that same style of case (in different material) for a different brand of needles. Again. I don't really need this, but I'd sure like it.

The reward for finishing the book? A set of short tip needles from my favorite needle company. They're expensive, but short tip is perfect for knitting sleeves and socks and other small items.

If this idea works, I'll have to figure out what to do for the next book because knitting needle needs are not limitless. It only feels that way.

It's All About That Bling

The one thing that doing all these races has taught me is that I'm highly motivated by medals. When I don't feel like walking for half an hour, I remind myself that it nets me another medal. That gets me moving.

It also started me thinking. If it works for working out, would it work for writing? Like a medal for every 10,000 words.

No one had created anything like this that I could find doing some online searching. I checked into having medals made specially for word count, but the cost had me rethinking that idea.

And really? Medals for writing 10K, 20K, 30K, etc might be cool for one book, but twenty books from now? Probably not.

I tried searching for other ideas for rewards. Most of them weren't of interest to me. Spa day. Lunch out. Read a book. Watch TV for an hour. None of these ideas is going to goad me along like a medal would.

Was there something I could buy as a treat for reaching word count or chapter goals?

I thought about that for a little while, too, but it would have to be something I wouldn't buy myself normally and that makes it hard. One thing I have in my wish list is a tiara. That's something I probably wouldn't actually buy.

I know, you're thinking tiara? Really? Well, yes. One of the reasons why I trained and trained to do a 5K race before the pandemic was that one of the items you were given along the route was a tiara. It turned out to be plastic, which was a brutal disappointment, but I guess I should have expected that. (I also got a MEDAL!)

Amazon sells tiaras that are not plastic for brides, prom, etc. But then I thought what am I going to actually do with a real tiara? The plastic one sits atop a jewelry case in my bedroom, collecting dust and it means something because I seriously earned that thing.

So I crossed tiara off the reward list.

This leaves me with no rewards. Someone needs to make medals for writers.

Wicked Obsession Finals!

I found out last week that Wicked Obsession is a finalist for Best Romantic Suspense in the Carolyn Readers' Choice Awards!

This is literally the best news I've had since the virus hit the United States. I'm thrilled to be able to share something happy and exciting for a change.

It's part of the Kindle Unlimited program and you can check it out here.

Here's the blurb from the book:

Blue-Blooded Woman

As an ambassador's daughter, Langley Canfield has lived all over the world, but she's never fit in—not abroad and not at home. She thought she found a man who loved her for who she is, but when it becomes obvious that she's the only one with deep feelings, Langley breaks up with him and heads across the country for a friend's wedding.

Blue-Collar Guy

Special Forces Sergeant Ryder Pienkowski knew that he'd never be able to hold on to Langley Canfield, that she was completely out of his league, but it still stuns him when she ends things between them. He's trying to get her out of his head when her father arrives and tells Ryder there's a death threat directed at her. Without hesitation, Ryder hops on a plane and flies out to protect Langley. She might not want him anymore, but he's not letting anyone hurt her.

And if you read and liked the story, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Darkest Night

In the Darkest Night is a finalist for Best Paranormal in the National Readers Choice Awards!!! Woot!

I was so excited when I got the call, I kind of shrieked into the phone. And then I babbled. I hope the poor coordinator recovered from the experience quickly. Normally, I'm much more low-key when I hear one of my books finaled, but not this time.

Some authors talk about the book of their heart, singular, but I have the books of my heart. Plural. Maybe I fall in love too easily, but of my eight full-length novels, I'd call three of them the books of my heart. In the Darkest Night is one of them.

The story is Kel's (the hero) and it's about how he changes and reaches a point where he can accept help. You see, he has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and instead of getting help, he's stonewalled everyone, including his twin brother who has always been his best friend. Kel was held captive and tortured (before the book opens) and he's trying to lock that away, pretend it never happened, but he can't suppress the memories or his guilt.

His heroine is Farran. She has her own issues, and in the months she's been on the run, has developed new ones. She grows over the course of the book, too, of course, but it's Kel's story and he's got the bigger changes to make.

I loved these two. They're both emotionally wounded, and in each other, they find a kindred spirit, someone who can accept them as they are, baggage and all. This book wasn't easy to write, not when the characters had such big issues, but I knew from the minute I met Kel that his story had to be told.

Of course, there aren't only issues. There's magic, action, adventure, and two people falling in love with each other even though neither one of them want that. I love adventure and romance, so those have to be there. :-)

It means a lot to me that this book is a National Readers Choice Finalist. Thank you!

Hughie Award Nominee!

In the Darkest Night is a Hughie Award nominee for Best Unique Paranormal! Also in my category are Christine Feehan and Emma Holly, both writers I read and love, so I am in very awesome company!

There are a lot of awards out there, but being mentioned for a Hughie Award is really cool because it comes from readers. When I say it's an honor just to be nominated, I mean it. Truly, it is an honor to be nominated especially when I look at the other two authors in my category. Talk about a whoa moment. :-) So thank you to the ReBeLs!

I've been lucky to be able to write more than one book of my heart. In the Darkest Night is the third that falls into this category for me. Kel, the hero, was broken and he's withdrawn from the world and that includes his family. I knew as soon as he showed up while I was writing his brother's story that Kel would have a book. He fascinated me, and while I knew pretty early on that he'd been tortured, I didn't know why or what, exactly, had happened. I wanted to find out.

I saw comments online from a couple of readers who said matching Kel up with Farran was predictable, but I guess I'm slow because I didn't know who his heroine was. I think I still have the email I sent to one of my writing buddies telling her that I'd just learned it was Kel and Farran and expressing my shock.

In every book, one character changes more than the other and I call it their book. This one belonged to Kel. Yes, Farran changed and grew, too, but Kel did the heavy duty changing. He needed to.

There were actually a lot of surprises for me with Darkest Night. First surprise was who his heroine was. The other big shock was what--specifically--about his time held captive caused him the biggest problem. I think I learned this big secret a couple of scenes before I had to write the part where he reveals it to Farran. The rest of the surprises were smaller, things like Kel being afraid of the dark or being branded, but they interested me nearly as much as the big ones.

Anyway, I loved this h/h and writing their story was an intense experience for me. Receiving this nomination means a lot. Thanks!

Aspen Gold Award

I promised to take a picture of my Aspen Gold Award when it arrived. I haven't had time to hang it yet, so I had to try to frame it while I had it propped up on the counter. I used to be a good photographer. Really. :-) Sorry about the skew in the shot, but this was the best of the half dozen that I took.

I'm pretty excited to hang it up on the wall. The best I ever did for award hardware while I was in school was my National Honor Society pin, so getting plaques and trophies is an enormous thrill for me.

Phone Calls and Edge of Dawn

Edge of Dawn won the Aspen Gold Award for Best Paranormal!

I found out yesterday even though I got the call on Saturday because I didn't bother to play messages right away. In my defense, I've been getting a lot of telemarketing calls lately and those robo-callers ramble as soon as the phone is answered. Even if it's answered by voice mail.

And I had a phone call from my dad, too, on Saturday and I figured the message was from him. My parents have a really bad habit of leaving messages even thought I've told them time and again not to. I always see them before I do a play back. It doesn't stop them and I've learned to just ignore it until I have time to delete it out.

If you've guessed that I hate the phone with the fire of a thousand suns, you'd be exactly right. :-) I'd rather do email or IM or anything else rather than use a phone. Part of it is that I always end up sounding like an idiot and don't know how to gracefully end a phone conversation. Part of it is for a year while I was in high school, I had a job that kept me on the phone. I was probably the only 16-year-old girl who cringed when a call came in and it was for me.

Yesterday afternoon, I finally decided to clear messages. Imagine my surprise when I had two messages, not just one. This was one time, though, where I was elated that the indicator was blinking!

The best part? I'm going to get a plaque! Hardware--woot!!!

Music and Brainstorms

Before I start, I wanted to share that Edge of Dawn is a finalist for Best Paranormal in the Aspen Gold Awards!

Now, on with the topic!

I get all my story information through my characters and they tend to talk to me on an as-needed basis, which means if I'm putting together a proposal for a trilogy, I'll know the first hero and heroine, I'll have some on the second h/h, but that the third set will pretty much be enigmas to me. And since my stories come from characters, any blurb I write about their book is a guess. I tend to keep it kind of vague, just going with the iota of information I have and leave it there.

I also like theme songs for my books. Sometimes I go hunting the songs and sometimes I'll be listening to my iPod or the radio and have something jump out at me. This is what happened to me yesterday. I was shuffling Seether at work and Fake It came on.

At first, I wasn't really paying attention, but then the lyrics started to register and I sat up straighter. It dawned on me that this might be the theme song for h/h number 3. And suddenly the hero about whom I knew next to nothing started giving me information. He went from a cardboard, placeholder character to a man with his own issues and quirks. I played and replayed this song for a lot of the morning.

It's always so awesome when the right song makes itself known because then every time it plays, more of the character comes through to me. That's what's been happening here. I was lucky on this series--not only did all three books pick their own songs, I also have a song for the series as a whole.

I'm still not sure how the pieces I received yesterday about the hero and heroine fit into the story, but by the time I get to there, I'll know. In the meantime, I'll be listening to Seether a lot.

National Readers Choice Finalist!

Edge of Dawn is a finalist for Best Paranormal in the National Readers Choice Awards!! Woot! I found out last Friday, but to prove how bad I am at promotion, I totally forgot to mention it. ::blush:: I am super excited about the final, though, despite my memory lapse.

* * *

Now on to your regularly scheduled blog post about world building, short stories, etc. :-)

It's funny how things go sometimes. When I was asked to write a story for The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2 (Blood Feud), the deadline was right on top of my deadline for Edge of Dawn. Time would definitely be an issue and so I thought I'd just use standard vampire lore for the world building and leave it at that.

But that's not how it worked out.

While I was writing on EOD, my brain buckled down, and the next thing I knew, I had a fully-formed world with a history and rules and all the rest of it. I knew there'd been a war between the vampires and demons that had ended centuries ago, but that prejudice and hatred remained between them. I knew the vampires had seven clan lords, but that one had been killed during the demon wars. And I knew I wanted to do more stories set in this world because it had become fascinating to me.

Blood Feud kind of had a star-crossed lovers thing going on. Seere, the hero, was a demon prince and Isobel, the heroine, was a vampire enforcer. They're reunited when a demon starts killing vampires and they're assigned by their peoples to find the murderer before he reignites the war between the two groups.

With Demon Kissed I mention vampires, but they're not a factor in the story. This, as you might have guessed from the title, is focused on the demon part of the world.

It was an interesting writing experience because I had to write it so that it completely stood alone and the reader had no need to have read Blood Feud, but at the same time, if someone had read the first short story, I wanted them to know it was the same world. So there's one reference to Seere and Isobel in the story. Their names are never used and it's just a one sentence mention, but it's there.

I have a few more ideas for this world. The first of those will involve the vampires without any demons. The other ideas encompass both peoples and get into more vampire hierarchy/world building than I've revealed so far. That's the one thing that's so interesting to me. To create a truly awesome and believable world, a writer has to have a huge amount of detail behind it, but at the same time, the reader shouldn't be bored by it or be subjected to an info dump as they're schooled on the world. That means I have all these excited details, but because 1. the reader doesn't need to know it and/or 2. the characters in the story have no interest in it, they remain unsaid in the stories.

You see (and this is a totally different post), if the point of view (POV) characters don't care about something, you can't make them for convenience sake. It's like when writers have the heroine describe the home she's lived in (in her POV!). Right. How many times have you walked into your home and thought to yourself about how the impressionist paintings added just the right note to the sunny decor. Please. It doesn't happen. It's more like when you go visit your parents and they still have the avocado carpeting down you don't even see it because it's been there too long.

Um, better stop here or I will end up going on about POV and staying true to characters and I've already written enough.

Sharing the Giddiness

I wasn't a good athlete when I was growing up. I was one of the last picked for every team in grade school and things never got any better. Now I think kids can letter for excellent grades or community service, but when I was in school only athletes got letter jackets and trophies.

Spending every quarter on the honor roll, being a member of the National Honor Society, or editor of the yearbook didn't get me anything to show off. Maybe this is why I get so excited now when I do win something that gives me a plaque or some other kind of award. It's a big deal for me because I had none of these things as a teenager. Sure, the NHS gave a cool pin, but hey, it's not the same. Really.

So I hope y'all will indulge me while I share a picture of the Midwest Fiction Writer of the Year Award. Yes, I did take time away from writing to position it at the right time of day to make sure the lettering showed up. Right now, the award is on top of my entertainment center and I can see it every time I look up for the laptop. I know, I'm a geek, but this is a big deal for me. :-)

Patti O'Shea News Day :-)

I have a number of things to talk about today. First up, IN TWILIGHT'S SHADOW is a finalist for Best Paranormal in the Beacon Awards! Yea! This is the eighth time it's been a finalist and that is so darn cool! I'm glad people have been enjoying this book.

Next, Edge of Dawn, which comes out on June 30th (Next Tuesday!!!) received a great review from Romance Junkies! To quote some of my favorite comments:

"[O'Shea] brings a whole new level to urban fantasy. The fast-paced, edgy feel had me glued to it almost non-stop. The build up and chemistry between Logan and Shona is so hot..."

Wow! That really made my day when I read this.

And my last bit of news. I posted a new blog entry on my Author page at Amazon. In it, I talk about where the idea for Edge of Dawn came from and little bit about the characters and the story. I have a bunch more blog posts to write for other places and I'll post links here when they're up so that anyone who's interested can find them.

Smoke On the Water

I received a call Tuesday night. In Twilight's Shadow is a finalist for Best Paranormal in the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence! Yea!

Today, I was watching the national news, something I do as the mood strikes rather than an regularity, and toward the end of the broadcast, I saw the most incredible clip. It's from an undersea volcano near Tonga. I would have been captured by the visual imagery anyway since it's quite a site to see, but I had an extra pull in to this because of it's location--it's in the South Pacific. Because of my Polynesian couple, I've developed an interest in anything going on in the Oceania area.

In case you missed it, here's a clip of the undersea volcano going off:


It's amazing how this works for me. When I was writing The Power of Two, I developed an interest in Vietnam because Cai was 1/4 Vietnamese. When I wrote Through a Crimson Veil it was Japan because Mika was half demon, half Japanese-American. With my Light Warrior series, I've become interested in Gaelic. Every book or series of books seems to bring something that I glom on to. Kind of cool, really, when you think about it. :-)

In the Doghouse

First, I found out today that In the Midnight Hour won the Barclay Gold Award for Best Paranormal! You can see a list of all the winners at the LCRW website.

Things are really busy right now--both at the Evil Day Job and at home with the writing. Right now, I'm working on edits for Edge of Dawn which will be out July 2009 and trying to write the Work In Progress (WIP). That is on the schedule for March 2010. Lots to do and not much time to do it in. So I hope y'all don't mind another entertaining video.

This is from JC Penney and it's about men who give the wrong gift. I think one of the reasons why I find it so amusing is that I worked with a woman whose husband was hopeless at gifts. When they were dating in high school, he bought her a WaterPik one year. After they were married, gifts have included moon boots, a men's sweater, and a slip about twice her size. He thought it was a night gown. We used to look forward to events like anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas so we'd have another story to laugh about. Unfortunately, their daughter grew up enough to help her father pick out presents and we lost our guess-what-he-got-her-now stories.

Anyway, the video is nearly 5 minutes long and some of it is funnier than other parts of it, but it's an interesting advertising concept.

Daydreaming

Before I get rolling, I have news. In the Midnight Hour won the Laurel Wreath Award for Best Paranormal! Yea! I read the email when I got up on Thanksgiving morning and it was a heck of a nice way to start the holiday.

I've always had stories in my head. I remember as a six-year-old child playing Barbies with my friends. They'd be done and ready to do something else and I'd still be playing out these elaborate scenarios with my dolls. If my parents brought me somewhere and I was bored, I'd find a corner, sit down, and start weaving stories in my head. I didn't write anything down, though, until 8th grade.

My favorite time of day, though, to run through stories was when I laid in bed. That space between climbing beneath the covers and falling asleep was prime storytelling time.

When I wrote Ravyn's Flight, I had the hero and heroine in my head every waking minute of every day. They were with me in the car, at the Evil Day Job (EDJ), in the shower, and especially before I fell asleep at night. I worked out scene after scene and had all kinds of information passed along that never made it in the book. Fun stuff.

Things have changed in the last six years, though. Now, I can't think about the story I'm writing before I go to sleep at night. Oh, I've tried and what happens is I get my mind all keyed up and can't sleep. This has been going on for the last three or four books.

I miss this time to just enjoy my characters and learn about them and what happens next. I wish I could just immerse myself in their world at bedtime and fall asleep as I daydream. Sleep is too important to me to do this, unfortunately.

But I can't fall asleep without telling myself a story, either. What I've been doing is running through stories I know I'll never write. This removes all the pressure I feel to fine tune the sentences I hear in my head. Yep, that's why I can't sleep--I'm trying to write while I lie in bed. But if I'm not ever going to write down the story, that compulsion is gone.

These night time stories are generally fragmented, too short to be a full-length book. Some are old, familiar characters that I've pulled out to daydream about from time to time for years. One of my recent favorites is Keir, the catman from In Twilight's Shadow, and how he found his mate. And currently I'm running through one that was inspired by a novella I read years and years ago. I also have TV/movie based stories, but they're not on the front burner at the moment.

I'd rather be daydreaming my Work In Progress (WIP). When I think of how much work I got done on my earlier books before I fell asleep, it inspires me to try again. But the outcome has been pretty inevitable--I compulsively try to make each sentence perfect in my head (and remember it) for when I do have my laptop up and my file open. It is not conducive to sleeping. Sigh.

Booksellers Best Award!

My weekend started out on a high note. I received an email Friday afternoon to let me know that In the Midnight Hour won the Booksellers Best Award in the Paranormal category!!!

Talk about an enormous thrill! I wish I could have been in San Francisco to accept in person because it's an hugely exciting moment to hear your name called. And this prompted me to update my website, although I still haven't hunted down the reviews for In Twilight's Shadow that I missed while I was on deadline.

I spent the rest of the weekend (aside from the really long nap I took on Saturday) struggling with the synopsis for my next book. I hit all I know about the story somewhere between pages 4 and 5 and floundered from there. :-) When I plot, I do chapter goals--coming up with the "big picture" is difficult for me.

I am proud of myself, though, for solving a huge plotting problem I had rear it's ugly head last week. It would have stolen any hint of suspense unless the heroine was Too Stupid To Live (TSTL) and I didn't want to do that. Somehow, though (and it might have happened during my nap), I worked out the issue and it opens both the hero and heroine up to risk. :-) Now if the rest of the plot would fall so nicely into place.

I also found a picture of my heroine for this book. I really like having images to work with and it's a major accomplishment to find just the right representation. Or it can be, depending on how long I've been scouring the Internet for the image I need. This one took a while to find so it was a relief to finally find her.

Booksellers Best Award

I found out on Saturday that In the Midnight Hour is a Booksellers Best Award finalist for Best Paranormal! The winners will be announced in San Francisco on July 31st during the RWA conference, but I won't be there. I still remember when I won this award in Atlanta for Through a Crimson Veil. My category was the first one awarded and I was stunned when my book was called. I think I sat there in a daze for a moment before I was able to stand up and get my pin and certificate. That was plenty cool. :-)

It rained pretty much all day on Saturday, but on Sunday I took a walk down to my garden and checked it out. My daffodils have buds on them and do my tulips that are supposed to look like peonies. This surprised me since all these plants are still pretty short.

Most of my flowers actually seem to be doing pretty well with the exception of the snowdrops. Those are supposed to come up while there's still snow on the ground and only two of the whole group have even broke the surface. Forget about flowers, and while it has been cold here this spring, there is not any snow left. I wish I had some pictures to post, but I didn't bring my camera down and the shots I took last week won't show any buds.

And for Carolyn. Okay, I dusted off my Twitter account and have been using it. Um, when does the fun part start?

The Oscars

What's a Monday after the Oscar Awards without hearing from some author who likes to work in a pair of sweats? My favorite part of the awards show is getting to see the dresses and casting my own best and worst dressed lists.

To start out with the actual awards, I was rooting for Johnny Depp simply because he's the hottest guy in Hollywood or France, for that matter. I was very disappointed when Daniel Day Lewis won. I didn't see any of the movies up for Best Picture--actually, I don't believe I've seen any of the movies that had nominees up for the big six awards. I did see one of the pictures up for Best Special Effects. That would be Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Anyway, after watching the show last night, I checked out a couple of films that looked like they might be interesting, but after reading the descriptions, I decided I didn't want to sit through them. My taste in film doesn't seem to coincide with the titles nominated for Best Picture.

Now on to my take on the clothes. I didn't get to watch the pre-game, oops, I mean pre-show coverage, so I missed a lot of the dresses unless the actress was on stage either as a presenter or as a winner. So with that caveat, here is my take on the clothes.

Best dressed: Katherine Heigl. I totally loved the red dress and the simplicity of it. The dress, in my mind, portrayed the glamor that Hollywood award shows should exemplify.

Worst dressed: Without question, it was Tilda Swinton who won for Best Supporting Actress. This was one of those "OMG, someone should have helped her pick out a decent dress" moments. When I saw that dress, I stared in appalled fascination. It was just awful and her hair and makeup didn't help anything.

The other dress I didn't care for was Marion Cotillard's mermaid gown. Access Hollywood picked it as one of the best, but I disagree. It wasn't hideous like Swinton's dress, but it sure wasn't glamorous to dress like a fish-woman. ;-)

One side note, what the heck was wrong with Renee Zellweger's eyes? I know the lights are bright, but she appeared to be the only person who had her eyes closed against the glare--or something. It was distracting.

And I'll close with a link to a picture of Johnny Depp. For no other reason except that he's hot!

Texas Gold and Ten Down

I found out yesterday that Eternal Nights is a finalist for Best Paranormal in the Texas Gold Awards. This is the first time for me in this one because to be eligible, the author needs to be from Texas or have the book set primarily in Texas, or a main character who's Texan. Wyatt is from Fort Worth. :-)

I'm still going through the galleys and I found a huge oops--and it was mine. :-( During copy edits I needed to clarify who someone was, and when I did it, I thought I was in the heroine's Point of View (POV) and wrote it that way. Yesterday I found out I was wrong.

The scary thing is that I read right past the paragraph as if everything was fine and it wasn't until I was halfway through the next page that I noticed something was off. I stopped and went back to reread. It still took me a minute to figure it out. Thank goodness I spotted it. I'm a POV purist, and when I break that, I want it to be for a specific reason, not by accident. It won't take much to fix it, but this was one close call. :-)

Otherwise, I'm not finding a lot that needs to be fixed. That's worrying me since I don't want to miss stuff.

Aspen Gold Finalist!

I received an email yesterday to tell me that Eternal Nights is an Aspen Gold Award finalist for Best Paranormal! Whoo hoo!!! I had to send out two more books for the final round and my dad's going to mail them for me today.

I tried to update my website last night, but I couldn't get on. That was hugely frustrating. But since I couldn't get email either or websites, I'm suspecting the problem was on my end. I'm going to try again if I have time this morning.

So I've been lamenting to anyone who stops moving long enough to be cornered that I have characters (Logan and Shona), but no story for them. I think I finally have a plot! Yea! I have a lot of details left to work out, including how the heck Logan gets himself into Shona's life to protect her, and who the bad guy (or woman) is, but at least I have the main idea. It actually came to me Sunday night while I was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep. Of course, I immediately got excited and had to get up and send an email to my friend and see what she thought. Um, even with the time difference between Minneapolis and Paris, I'm sure she was still asleep, but I couldn't wait. Besides, by writing it down, I wouldn't forget it myself. Nighttime ideas don't necessarily remain in the morning.

I'm a little frustrated by the way the information is trickling in, but I was so exhausted creatively that signs of recovery are welcome--even if I'd like the ideas to flow a little faster. My plan is not to rush anything and let the trickle continue.

Items on the To Do List accomplished: 0
Many other things that cropped up and had to be handled: Endless, but accomplished