We've got a winner, folks

So, it was christy's birthday on Wednesday and erica has to pay for it. haha, kidding. (erica is older than christy, so she pays for it each day. sigh)

(great, now I'm laughing about talking about myself in 3rd person. it's been a tough week back at school, folks.)

Wait, what were we talking about? Ah, yes, winners. I gots me one. The person who gets to choose between uber-exciting $10 gift certificates from either Dairy Queen or Amazon (as chosen by the monkeys who know how to pick a number out of a hat over at random.org) is....

#2!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO #2!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wait a minute. This #2 follows our blog? I had no idea! (#can'tstoplaughingatmyownpoopiejoke)



okay, maybe not this one, er, #2

It's this one. And yes, we love her even more than the, um, other one. or two (way more).



Yay Carol!! We'll email you the deets!

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erica's a terrible friend and how you can benefit

Crappity crap crap. I, erica, forgot christy's birthday. It's today. Here, have some cake:

So, um, yeah, I owe her big time. Which of course means you all get something, too.

Respond to this post by saying "Happy birthday Christy! (and please forgive erica)"* and you're eligible for your choice of a $10 Amazon gift card or a $10 Dairy Queen gift card (hey, at least somebody could get ice cream cake out of this deal). Since I'm guessing Christy has plans tonight (really, she didn't tell me. probably waiting to see if I actually forgot, which, um, yeah, I did), we'll leave this open for 48 hours and announce the randomly chosen winner on Friday.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Christy!!

*you don't really have to say that last part. but feel free if you'd like to help a girl out. :)

announcing_sawyer

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I'm not lost! This is Christy. I'm home. I'm well. I'm beyond blessed!

  Besides lots of feedings and cleaning up after Christmas (we had too many toys BEFORE opening up all of the new toys...Goodwill, here we come!), I've been querying and critiquing. Next week, I'm looking forward to getting back into writing. I have a WIP to continue and a companion novel to the one I'm querying I'm excited to plot out!

I realized recently that although we share lots of advice on querying--most of which says to ONLY include what happens in the first 50 pages of your novel in the query--, I haven't actually taken that advice. My queries have included the main characters, the inciting incident, a few key events and then I jump to the climax and the stakes. Since the climax occurs around page 170 of my novel, that's hardly following the advice we've been given and have handed out.

I was also using the climax as my hook. Whoops. Plus, shouldn't the hook be in the first para? Well, I still don't think I have one of those (I have the first para, of course, just not the hook), but last night I scanned the first 50 pages of my novel and wrote a query that truly encompassed them. I don't know how good it is, but at least I'm doing what I'm told. (Something I constantly tell my kids and students to do. ("Follow directions!")  Teachers are the worst listeners, I tell you!

Have a happy and blessed week. I'll be back again soon, I'm sure.

Merry Christmas to all of our friends

Sorry, I'm a little late this morning. We had a wonderful candlelight service at church last night followed by a prime rib dinner at my sister-in-law's house. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve (although my husband had to work - boo). Then an early morning to get the new TV put together after my husband got home. Now the kids are playing their new Wii game (Harry Potter Lego Years 5-7) on the new TV, my hubby's in bed (he didn't get home until 6:15 am because some dumb guy decided it would be fun to drive past Wal-Mart security at 4:30 on Christmas morning and had to be detained by said hubby), the turkey is roasting (yes, I know, turkey's for Thanksgiving, but for some reason this year we flip-flopped and had ham in November and turkey in December), and I'm drinking Snickerdoodle coffee and wishing you and yours a merry, merry.

I have no idea where christy is. Probably entertaining that baby that keeps taking up all her time. ;)  Let's hope you're not stuck with me and my random thoughts for the next 8 weeks!

Joy to the World, the Lord is Come! It is a belief that christy and I share and we hope you find faith in your heart on this Christmas day and every day beyond. Merry Christmas, friends.

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. - Dr. Seuss