I wanted to think of a fun and creative contest to hold in order to give away a copy of Shades of Green. I really did. The problem was, I totally blanked on fabulous giveaway ideas. Like, completely. I still wanted to give away a copy of the book though, it’s my first physical book, how could I not want to sign and show it off?

In the end I’ve decided on something very simple. If you reply to this (whether you’re reading it at livejournal or on my blog at rhondaparrish.com) with your favorite thing that is a shade of green I’ll enter your name into a draw to win a copy of the book. Easy peasy, right?

So speak up, what do you like that is green? Frogs? Leaves? Key lime pie?

I’ll draw a name on February first, which is the day Shades of Green is officially released

I’ve got a couple fulls out to agents right now, for both Swamp Story and Shadows, and I’m kinda going insane I think. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high because if things don’t work out it will be quite devastating, but at the same time, it’s very hard not to. Please keep your fingers, metaphorically crossed for me. I am not going to go into any more details just yet, I don’t want to jinx myself LOL

I do have some news I can go into details about though. My funny little flash piece, Swapped, is included in the current issue of Mississippi Crow Magazine. Rumor has it you can get a copy of the .pdf for free, if you check it out I’d love to hear what you think

And please, send good thoughts my way re: agents and staying sane.

I had a good day yesterday, no, actually, it was a great day. Days like that don’t come along very often.

First, my short story Axe was chosen to appear in the first ever print edition of Demon Minds. Yay! I was very excited about having it accepted for the online version a few weeks ago, but I’m one of those writers who love, love, loves to see their work in actual print. Axe is the most disturbing story I’ve ever written, though, so it’s exciting and nerve-wracking to know it is going to print.

Also in the category of nerve-wracking is that I heard back from one of the agents I’d queried about Blood and Stone (which I’ve renamed Swamp Story). She requested a partial. *squee* I’m so excited, but nervous too. Keep your fingers crossed for me…

But wait, there’s more!

The day before yesterday I got an email from Carolyn Clink inviting me to read some of my poetry at an open mic event during World Fantasy. I don’t intend to read, but I hope to attend and listen, and I did do a little fan-girl squeal and bounce in my seat at reading the email. It was sent to me and a few other people, but we were all mentioned by name in the body of the email. Yes, I really did think ‘Oh my god, Carolyn Clink wrote me an email, she totally knows I’m alive!’. Yup. For those of you not familiar with Carolyn, she’s a very talented poet and she is married to Robert J. Sawyer. Yup. So full of awesome.

But, more about yesterday…

I’d entered a contest a few days ago and I got the email yesterday that I’d won! I would include a link here to the book I won, but um…I don’t have the link yet. Once I do, I’ll share it

Last, but certainly not least, my copies of Lost Innocence arrived yesterday. They look amazing! I can’t wait for people to see them, they are so gorgeous. Now I just need to figure out how to get them to the post office (I don’t drive and 40 books are heavy). I suspect they will be being mailed out in waves.

So yes, I had a fantastic day yesterday. Have you ever had a day like that? I’d love to hear about it.

I’ve just finished another round of revisions for Blood and Stone and I love it Yay! Is it perfect? No, but I think it’s really good and I also think (hope) its as good as it’s going to get without an agent or editor looking it over and giving me notes. I have sent it to my beta readers again and I’m hoping to hear back from them in the next week or so. Assuming they don’t find any giant plot holes I’m calling this one finished.

In fact, I’ve already begun work on the sequel, Shadows and Lies.

One of my favorite short stories, that I’ve written anyway, has been accepted at Pantechnicon for their December issue. I’ll be sure and post a link when it goes live. I’m incredibly flattered to have my story reprinted at Pantechnicon as there is no disputing the quality of the fiction they publish.

Yay!

Also yay is that so far I have continued to resist the urge to revise Blood and Stone. So far. That’s related because Sister Margaret is one of the short stories I’m considering including.