Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend,enjoying the sun and barbecue! Have fun and be safe! The weather has turned a one eighty around here. Only last week it was cold and rainy. This weekend its in the 80's, sun gleaming, a beautiful start to summer.

I have to apologize that I haven't written for a while. Just tiny snippets here and there. I've been quite busy. Thank the Good Lord all seems to have been remedied, but I'll be honest I lost sleep last week. I believe I wrote about Aunt Dolly having a stroke a couple of weeks ago. She's been rehab since then. She is doing amazing! Then my middle daughter had knee surgery. She is doing well, also. Going from one hospital to another. It's a good thing I work in a hospital. Kinda know my way around, but last week, Sunday to be exact, I got a text from my friend from work.

My friend is young enough to be my daughter, an engaging young lady...beautiful, intelligent, compassionate...and patient. She taught me how to text, use facebook, kept me in touch with all the celebrity news.... During my years of working, I have found it best to keep my coworkers more as acquaintances than friends. But not this girl. She has this way about her that broke down that wall. She has been one of my big supporters of my writing. She loves to read and contributes to my list of recommendations on Novel Works. She is the one that told me to read Hunger Games, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, etc... She does walks for charities. Is going back to get her Master's. Love doggies! Just an amazing young woman. Last week she got sick with an infection, really sick...it was a long week. Now, though, we can breath easier. She's on the mend. Scary how everything can change in a blink of an eye.

So, I have visited most of the Boston hospitals over the last month. (Kinda proud of myself. I've had to find them on my own. Okay...okay so I have a GPS. That has never stopped me from getting lost.) My writing has taken the backburner for the last couple of weeks. Honestly, I have to gear back up. Need to catch up with my sleep.

But I have been able to keep Novel Works running smoothly. It has been easy these last two weeks spotlighting authors like Mia Marlowe and Anne Stuart! This coming week is my Summer List Recommendations. Can't believe its Memorial Day all ready!

For the first time I won something. Free advertising on Coffee Time Romance for a month. I'm so excited. If you know me you know little things make me happy!

Over the last two weeks I heard back about the revision I had sent in to a publisher. They turned it down. Loved the characters, story, etc... Little things they said, like I missed an ed at the end of a word. I should have made too long a sentence, should have been broked up. (Isn't that what an editor is for?) Ah, but had been expecting it. Talked with another author at the conference. She said this publisher did the same thing to her (asked for a revision and didn't take it after) but she said she used the revision and sent it a bigger publisher who took her book! So I'm trying the same thing. Have to use my new found confidence (before I lose it).

One of the things I did was change my query and pitch. I took the advise of one of the speakers at the conference. I am a great writer! I can't ask please look at my work. I have to grab their attention! So we'll see if it works.

I did send in my manuscript to Crescent Moon as requested. Keeping my fingers crossed with this new genre, New Adult, but the more I see of Crescent Moon the more I hope its a go. I love the books they're putting out.  And I have to get my act together and finish off Seductive Secrets. Don't like much on the rough draft. Just have to make myself do it. It's in my head....

Last but not least...my mother read Patriot Secrets on the kindle I gave her. She loved it. On top of it, she thinks it should be a best seller (I wish), but just to hear her say that means a great deal. She's my hardest critic.

Have a great weekend. Don't forget to remember our military, past and present! Be safe!
jerri