More bragging and some other stuff

A Witch in Time Saves Nine received an honorable mention in the New England Book Festival! I was surprised and delighted! An author friend here in Tucson, Melinda Haynes, has a website dedicated to this subject and swears by it. She recently got an award for her YA book, The Haunting of Josh Weston, and has become a minor celebrity because of it! She recommends finding low cost, smaller contests where the entire goal isn't for the contest holders to make money. There are many online to choose from! We all need to be seen and appreciated, especially authors who spend most of their time like troglodytes caught up in front of a computer screen. On to 'the other stuff'...

During this season of campaigning I have turned to my writing more and more. I'm finding that I can write three books in one year, a fact that utterly boggles my mind. I've realized that writing keeps me sane, calms me down, and allows me to explore certain topics I find troubling within the safe sphere of a novel. It also forces me to learn about topics I know nothing about, and travel to places I've never been-virtually, that is. My writing style places me in a dilemma from time to time, as one of more of my characters lead me down blind alleys and into bad situations that seem inescapable. But somehow a solution nearly always presents itself. As I know I've said before in this blog, sometimes I feel like I'm reading a book instead of writing one!

What I'm trying to say is, thank you to the muse, and thank you to those who have read my books and those who read my blog, and those of you who are my friends and family and give me your support. I am always amazed by the generosity of other authors who will review or help out when things get tough--and believe me, they do get tough from time to time. Writing is it's own reward, but it is nice to know there are people out there who enjoy the books! As an author, trying to make your way through the quagmire that is marketing is an endless slog! And it doesn't end.

On that note I hope you all have a happy and prosperous 2017, and that everything you wish for falls into place! And I send out hope for all those who live in harm's way or have been displaced, hurt or otherwise impacted by war. May we all have peace!