So, I consulted the random number generator and it chose a winner from the subscribers of my mailing list. It did, and I’m pleased to announce the Patricia W. will receive a free copy of Shades of Green just as soon as she emails me and sends me her mailing address. I have also dropped her an email to let her know.

Congrats Patricia!

Do you want to win a copy too? Like I said I’ll be running a contest closer to the release of Lost and Found to give away a copy of Shades of Green, but instead of having to like, think of something interesting to blog about, I’ve also decided to do another giveaway on GoodReads:

Also, if you use Goodreads and we aren’t friends there? We really need to rectify that Send me an invite, I would love to hook up with all my friends over there.

It occured to me that there have been some publication changes recently which I’ve never blogged about. I’m going to do that now, and offer up some of my thoughts about them at the same time.

One relatively big change around here is that my contract with Eternal Press recently expired and we parted company. The split was amicable and the end result is that all the rights to Sister Margaret have reverted back to me. I’m hoping, one day, to be able to put together an Aphanasian stories collection, and Sister Margaret will definitely have a place in it. In the meantime you can now read it, completely free, here. While it was originally published by Wild Child Publishing I felt that the first issue of Niteblade needed a bit more fantasy and reprinted it there. Of course once I included Sister Margaret I suddenly got a bunch of fantasy submissions, but whatcha gonna do?

I took it down while it was contracted to Eternal Press, but now I’m allowed to share it with you for free again

Also, you may remember that my zombie munchkin story “…Oh My!” was one of the runner-ups in the Dark Moon Books ZOMBIES! anthology contest. I was estatic. They’ve recently made some changes though that meant that anthology was canceled. The editor offered the story a spot in their upcoming magazine (The Dark Moon Digest), but I passed. Nothing against the editor or the magazine, which I will consider as a market for future work, I just didn’t think the magazine was where I wanted the story to go.

Originally I thought my hesitation was due to the fact I really wanted it to go in an anthology rather than a magazine, but I’ve since submitted it to a different magazine (*fingers crossed*). Truth is, something about it going into the Dark Moon Digest just didn’t feel right. I’ve ignored that feeling in the past when it came to my writing and I always regret it. This time I listened. It meant giving up a ‘sure thing’ and having to look for a new home for that story, but still, I’m glad I listened.

I’ve not always been very good at listening to that little voice inside me, but I’m getting better. You know why? Because I realised that I’ve never regretted it when I’ve listened, but I sure have when I’ve ignored it. How about you?

I went to the Whittaker website today to see how I’d done overall and blog about it (my goals were not result-based) and discovered it isn’t over.

Wow. Oops?

Somehow I thought the last round was the final one, but I was wrong. Now, I need to come up with a story and a poem to submit before tomorrow evening. That leaves not much time for blogging.

I have a poem I editted the crap out of for the last round’s entry but because of another brain fart about time zones I submitted it an hour after the deadline and it was disqualified. I can send that for my poetry entry…but I have no such easy save for fiction.

This will be interesting…

I’m supposed to write a blog today. It’s something I told myself I would do. I even, at one point, had a little list of possible topics. Unfortunately I’ve lost my list and my mind is totally drawing a blank. I’m going to blame it on the fact it’s the last day of school. Really. It’s fantastic for kids but it’s also an important day for we parent-types.

Today is my daughter’s last day in elementary school. Come September she will be in junior high.

Man, I remember being both excited and terrified to start junior high… it doesn’t actually feel like it was -that- long ago, but apparently it was long enough that now it’s my daughter’s turn.

Oh see? I just got a good blog idea, but one that deserves a post of it’s own so it will have to wait until Thursday… unless I take Thursday off (it’s a holiday in Canada).

I’ve noticed a large number of my LJ friends aren’t using LJ these days. I think it’s time I spread(ed?) my wings a little bit and made some new friends. What livejournal users do you follow you’d recommend I check out?

In writing-related news I’m slowly extricating myself from my self-doubt and other emotional baggage and will be putting pen to paper on this draft of Shadows again very soon. It’s about time, frankly.

/rambling

I had a blog post almost completely written, then I stopped to think and realised despite my best intentions I was coming across as petty and bitter. I don’t want to be *that* writer so I stopped. It’s made me think a bit about writer brand/personality, oddly enough. I’m not sure what mine is. I’ll never be as nice as Carrie Jones, as funny as Jim Hines, or have Neil Gaiman’s hair. I’m just me, I guess. Usually nice, often snarky, hopefully occasionally amusing…me.

Who are your favorite authors? Do their personalities have anything to do with how much you like them or is it all about words on the page?

I know I’ve been known to read books I really didn’t enjoy because I liked their author as a person, and one writer I saw at a convention was so dry and arrogant I swore I’d never read anything they’d written, so I’m definitely influenced by people’s personalities. Strongly, in fact. I’d be willing to bet I’m in the majority there.

The internet has been a blessing to writers who are charismatic and no doubt a curse to those who aren’t. My intention for this blog is to just be myself, but maybe on the days my entries start to sound like they were written by *that* writer I’ll just take a step away from the keyboard before I hit the publish button.

…mostly.