As a writer and as a women, there are few words more inspirational than these. Maya Angelou was one of our great treasures. Her words and her spirit will live on.

 The last rule is to pass the blog award along to three more bloggers. 
I'm nominating
Stephanie Joyce Cole (Compass North) 
Ally Shields 
Brinda Berry

I've been asked to be a preliminary judge for the rising star contest that's being sponsored by the Women's Fiction Writer's association. 

I'm honored they asked, but also taken by the awesomeness of the responsibility. I know only too well, as a writer, how difficult it can be to ask someone else to evaluate your story. It's a process we writers go through regularly, of course, whether it's submitting something new to an agent or editor,  or asking for a review, or entering a contest,  we are always asking others to judge the value of our work. You would like to think it gets easier with time, but the truth is that each work is a bit fragile when we first bring it forward. It's difficult to send it out into the world and it can be devastating if someone says something disparaging about it. I've been told we're supposed to develop a rhino hide when it comes to these things, but for writers, who's work depends so much on opening up  emotionally, this can be easier said than done.

The best critique I've received over the years includes what's good about the work, along with constructive ideas on how I can make it better. Constructive critique can be exciting and eye-opening, it can give me a kind of 'yes, exactly, I don't know why I hadn't thought of that' epiphany. I've been blessed to have editors who are exceedingly good at making me work hard to bring out the best in my work without trampling on it. 
I hope I can do the same in critiquing the fresh faced manuscripts that have been entrusted to me for this contest. 

I got the ARC for Confessions of the Sausage Queen yesterday. ARC stands for 'advanced reader copy'  and my last job as a writer in the process from signing a contract to having a book released is to go through this copy with a fine tooth comb, rooting out all of the typos, the double periods, the missing quote marks, and so forth. 
I love getting ARCs because it means the book is almost ready for publishing--Confessions is set to release the first week in July-- and that's an exciting thing, though, quite honestly, proof reading isn't my favorite activity. I'm not a detail person and always worry that I miss things in this 'dental draft'. (Stay with my blog long enough and you'll no doubt see a few mistakes in the text).  On the plus side, the book has been edited for content and then line edited again, so the mistakes are few and far between. I'll root out a few and hope I catch them all. 

I've long kept a journal of my writing trails and tribulations, hopes and triumphs. I thought I might share part of the journey with you. As with any newborn project, I'm not entirely sure what this blog will become.. I imagine myself sharing what I'm thinking, and feeling,  writing wise, a bit of news about publishing here and again,, maybe a few snippets of my current projects and some things I think about while writing them, a few writing prompts that inspire me. Like my work, it will be a  patchwork quilt, made of all the bits and pieces that roll around in my imagination. 
 I  hope you come to visit here now and again.