Oh, the vanity of it all

Every so often, my older sister Dawn sends me a joke that actually cracks me up. Enjoy!

A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost. She lowers her altitude and spots a man fishing from a boat below.

She shouts to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consults his portable GPS and replies, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

She rolls her eyes and says, "You must be a Republican!"

"I am," replies the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answers the balloonist, "everything you tell me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you're not much help to me."

The man smiles and responds, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replies the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it's my fault."

Calling All Inspirational Chick Litters

RWA's Chick Lit chapter is desperately in need of Entrants and First-
round judges for the inspirational category of the Stiletto Contest.

The contest details are here:
http://www.chicklitwriters.com/contest.htm

The deadline to enter is June 15. Judges will receive their entries
around June 20. They'd like to receive the entries back by August 10
and plan to announce the finalists around August 15.

Here's some details about the inspy category, specifically:

Inspirational Chick Lit
Editor: Krista Stroever (Steeple Hill Café)
Agent: Mary Sue Seymour (The Seymour Agency)

Sometimes you gotta have faith. Whether your Chick declares
that "With This Ring, I'm Confused" or battles faith and weight
issues in her personal version of "The Whitney Chronicles," she
belongs here.

Judges can contact Amanda Brice at hsapp@myway.com to sign up.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

I came across a blog today of a sweet lady I met in RWCcritique. Linda Winfree and I exchanged crits for probably a year before I moved on to a smaller critique group and to Romance Divas. What I appreciate most about Linda is probably her teaching me to become a better crit partner. Of course, she's an English teacher so you can imagine how much she reminded me about grammar. :-) Yay, Linda!

Linda has sold six manuscripts that either are out or will be coming out over the next three years. If you enjoy sultry southern romantic suspense, then check out Linda's blog for information about her books.

http://lindawinfree.blogspot.com/

~*~
Something new is in the air tonight. Hmm. Those aren't exactly the right words to that Phil Collins song. But my future holds someone new. I just signed a contract with Tamela Hancock Murray of Hartline Literary Agency. Woo hoo! I love Tamela's plan of action for my GH finaling manuscript, and I value her understanding of my need to keep my writing and family life in balance.

Tamela and Hartline have a lot of experience with the CBA market, which is where I really want my medieval to go. If you are interested in selling your stories to a CBA publisher, then check out Hartline's website.

http://www.hartlineliterary.com/

~*~

One of my dear crit partners sent me two historical CBA inspys from an author I haven't read in years. The time period setting is a little earlier than my medieval...okay, a lot earlier. Try 500-ish years.

Catholic dogma wasn't as ingrained in society during that time as it eventually became during my timeperiod (1100s) so how the author deals with faith and God is interesting. Since I'm not Catholic, I didn't want the spiritual focus in my medival to be on religion because true Christianity is not a religion. It's a relationship with God.

Last night on my way home from the post office, I passed the new Tuckahoe Library. Amazing building. Three little fuzzy feathered ducklings were on the front lawn eating grass (or maybe bugs?) with their parents. As I gazed longingly on the closed building, I got to wondering when was the last time I read a fiction book. Hmm. Oh, I know. Christmas!!! My oldest son Matthew got James Patterson's two Max Ride books from his Aunt Dawn. Great stories. We can't wait for the summer when book 3 comes out.

In three days, I had both books read. Matthew was amazed. But reading that quickly isn't difficult when the books are enjoyable. Wish I felt compelled to write young adult fiction.

~*~
I need to buy a new set of luggage because I'm going to the RWA National Conference in Dallas this summer. Fortunately, Kohl's has suitcases on sale and I have a $10 gift voucher. Not to mention, I got a $25 debit card in the mail yesterday from Shoppers Hotline for scanning the UPC codes on the things I buy.

https://www.shoppershotline.com/

Anyway, the suitcase I'm going to buy is blue. I hope it's not too much of a girlish blue because Matthew will need to use it for beach camp.

Verse for the day: "Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Proverbs 16:24