Thank You!

I can't even begin to tell you how my heart has grown over the last week.

I am surrounded by awesome and that includes every single person reading this. So many kind and generous people shared the news of my release in the last week. So many people commented on blog posts and shared stories that touched my heart ... even as my heart shattered for them as well.

Dementia is a nasty disease.
It's difficult to write about.
It's difficult to discuss.
We don't want reminders.
We don't want to talk about it.
Mostly, we just want it to go away.

But this online writing/reading community amazes me with its generosity and kindness.

I am so incredibly awed to share this little orange flag over at Amazon from Saturday morning

#1 New Release!!!

Further down the page from the same time

Holy Cow!!!
(Yes, I know it's a small category and I know the numbers will drop! 😄)

I'm overwhelmed and so grateful to everyone who has helped me spread the word about this book!

Mason Canyon organized an incredible blog tour and helped me send my little book out into the world with a bang. Thanks to these great people for hosting Dancing With Dementia:

Denise, Elizabeth, Yolanda Renee, Cathrine, Joylene, Marcy, Tara, Alex, Diane, Diane again, Lu Ann, Deniz, Shannon, Lisa, Mason, Sue, Pat, Juneta, Ellen and Romance Reader

Thanks to all of my great Twitter friends and FB buddies who have liked, shared, and RTed my posts and celebrated right alongside me. Thank you as well to the people who have taken the time to leave reviews. Love you all!

I hope this book will help people who are dancing the early steps with this disease. I hope sharing the story of our journey will make the journeys of others easier.

Most of all, I hope the researchers continue to do their thing and that the need for a book like this in the future will be absolutely nil. Nothing would make me happier than to have a cure or prevention for dementia.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Sending hugs and good karma out into the universe for each and every one of you!!! 💗💗💗

Amazon.com           Amazon.ca.          Apple Books.           Barnes & Noble          Kobo.      

Goodreads               BookBub. 

Luck & Gratitude

I'm one of the lucky ones.

I grew up knowing a lot of things:

• my parents loved me
• my sister was also my best friend
• my job was to do my best
• the world was a safe & fascinating place
• I didn't have to have the same interests as everyone else
• being quiet was okay
• losing wasn't a big deal ... neither was winning
• money was earned
• laughter was vital
• doing right was the only option

See? Lucky.

I still believe in all those things. I still know them deep down in my bones.

Feeling gratitude for all these things (and so many more) is important. Acknowledging that gratitude equally so.

The lovely Sheri Larsen is hosting a gratitude hop this week. There are so many people in this writing community I'm grateful to:

• my amazing crit buddies
• blog readers and blog writers (many of whom have become friends)
• readers and writers
• the awesome folks over at Agent Query Connect
• agents and editors and publishers (oh my!)

And I'm grateful for a couple of 'things' as well:

• creativity
• passion
• hope
• joy

Of course I'm grateful to Sheri too! Thanks for helping us focus on what's truly important!

What about you? What are you grateful for?

Turkey!

It's our Thanksgiving weekend up here. Yay for turkey and stuffing and all the goodies that go along with it!

Being thankful's important. Here's a few of the things I'm thankful for today:

• family
• kids
• laughter
• imagination
• love
• sunshine
• fall leaves
• raspberries
• magic
• books
• chai tea
• music
• best crit buddies in the bloggy-verse
• hope
• Rolo ice cream
• you!

Happy weekend, Thanksgiving or otherwise, to everyone!!! Enjoy :)

Easing In

First off, thanks to you all for your best wishes and kind thoughts. Without saying too much about the situation, a very little guy in our close circle has been diagnosed with a serious medical condition. His folks are the best, but we're all helping out and will continue to do so. Family and friends come first. Always. So, thanks again. We appreciate every kind word and thought sent our way - they do indeed make us stronger.

So, obviously, writing has been pushed to the background for the last little bit, but it's pushing its way forward again. It always does! :)

It's only been a couple of weeks, but it's amazing how much momentum and rhythm I've lost. I tend to be the kind of writer who works in spurts anyway, but this has been a long stretch. I'm right at the climax scene in one story, and in the middle of that dreaded rewrite in the other. I think I'm just going to reread the last chapter or so of the one I'm near the end of and ease back into it that way. Or maybe I'll work on the query letter to immerse myself back in the story. Hmmm.

What hints do you have? How do you ease yourself back into the routine and rhythm when you've not been able to write for one reason or another?

Hmmm ... Cookies!

"C is for Cookie & that's good enough for me!"

Don't you just love Cookie Monster? :)

 

Thank you!!! I didn't feel like a complete loner or loser over at From the Write Angle the other day. As promised here are those virutal chocolate chip cookies!!

Okay, okay ... I didn't make these. But I promise, my own look very much the same. :)

While I was Googling images, I found this...

Yup. Those are candles!

And this...

Yup. That's a ring!

And even this...

Yup. That's bacon. Really. There's even a recipe.

Really.

Yuck.

So, what cool things have you found Googling lately???

***

In slightly more frustrating news, my laptop cord has stopped working & I don't know if it's the cord or the laptop. I can't take it in until at least tomorrow night. Hopefully it's a simple fix & I'll be back soon. If not, I hope you'll understand. I'll try to keep up on my iPod, but I'm really not very good at that! I'll be reading your comments though & I'll catch up when I can. I'm powering down now to try to save the battery! At least I was able to do a full back up on the external drive!!

Wish me luck!

Treats!

Thanks so much again for all your kind words and thoughts in the last post. Everyone's moving forward, but it's obviously going to be a long road for his family.

Back to business...

Way back in February, Patricia Stotley was kind enough to award me the Prolific Blogger Award. Love the image! If you haven't met Patricia yet, you have to pop on over - she's a great lady!

Dawn Simon over at Plotting and Scheming awarded me the Kreativ Blogger Award. Dawn is lots of fun and you'll enjoy visiting with her and her ideas.

VR Barkowski and Laurel at Laurel's Leaves both awarded me the Sugar Doll award. You guys are so SWEET. Sorry. Couldn't resist. Plus, it's true.

Sorry it took me so long to thank you ladies! I definitely appreciate your kindness :)

I`m going to reserve the right to pass these along later - it`s report card season & I`m a little squirrelly at the moment.

So, going along with the direction of my thoughts when I hear "Sugar Doll", I`m going to ask you what your favourite sugar-filled treat is. And do your characters like the same treat?

I like chocolate and caramel together - even though I rarely buy a chocolate bar, I could eat a Caramilk at any point of any day. :)

My characters on the other hand live in Steampunk England and rarely think much about food. Their favourite treat is not having to cook and getting to buy hot food fresh from the market.

So, how about you? Any Caramilk fans out there?

Finished! Well... sort of

Woohoo! My NaNo novel is finished. Well, the novel isn't finished. In fact the first draft isn't even finished yet. But the NaNo challenge is :)

I hit 50,676 words a few moments ago. It feels good. But the story isn't yet complete. I probably have another 10k to go depending on how the ending unravels. I'm not quite sure what my characters have planned for me yet.

There was more violence, more sensual tension than I expected. I know I've dropped a few clues along the way - things I included for the mystery, then promptly forgot about. There are a few places where I've left hints for a needed scene, but the scene wasn't coming to me, so I just skipped it.

I know I have a bit of editing to do - well probably more than a bit - but I'm quite happy with the way the draft went. This is the first draft I've done with any intention or thought of publishing. I've always written, but the thought of publishing is as recent as my previous ms. The publishing thought popped into my mind one day, and hasn't let go. The previous ms was full of writing just for me. Lots of superfluous scenes, lots of descriptions of settings. Stuff that helped make the characters, scenes and plot real for me, but that a reader has no use for.

I've edited and revised that ms to half of its original size, and I'm still looking at one more round of revision.

I don't think this ms will require as much effort or polish. I've learned a lot from this past year. And it's all thanks to you! The online writing community is absolutely amazing. I've found writers to be extremely generous with their time and expertise. They are honest, warm and so talented. It's been a fun year of learning and growing for me. So, thank you!

How has your writing changed and grown through each ms? Do you find the learning curve is a continuous climb, or does it level off after a while?

Giving Thanks

It's Thanksgiving weekend up here in Canada. Naturally this reminds me of, well, giving thanks. Not too obvious, eh?

We just don't say it enough, do we? So, here I go!

I'm thankful for my family. Hubby, kids, mom, my late father, sis, nieces, nephews and all my wonderful in-laws. I'm one of the lucky ones. My family is tightly-knit. We may drive each other nutty once in a while, but the love and laughter do more than just get us through. They make it all worthwhile.

I'm thankful for my day job. I love teaching and love my kids. I love the fact that in a classroom full of kids from diverse backgrounds & socio-economic levels, my kids don't believe racism really exists. They don't understand it at all :)

I'm thankful for my (non-paying-so-far) evening job. I love to write. Creating characters, plots, settings and connections is a joy, even when it's really, really hard.

I'm thankful for my community and my country and my place in the world. We are indeed making it a better place one day, one moment, at a time.

I'm thankful to my on-line friends who gave me the incentive to take the next steps in writing, to push myself outside my comfort zone. To the online writers' communities who are so willing to give of their time and expertise and love of writing. You're an amazing group! So, if no one has told you lately, thank you for all you do. :)

So, what makes you give thanks?