Saturday Six for July 14th

1. Today I have my monthly S.C.I.F.I. (South Central Indiana Fiction Interface) meeting. Even with this heat, I managed to get all the stories critiqued. I'll be happy to sit in the air-conditioned library for a few hours even if my story gets torn to shreds!

2. A big thank you to L.G. Keltner for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award and Tell Me About Yourself Award. Consider this Saturday Six post as getting to know me!

3. I finished my revisions for Fearless. Funny how I missed some of those spelling errors, and I really need to pay attention to my use of the passive voice while writing fight scenes. Onward to proofreading and formatting!

4. Still no air-conditioning. Blah.

5. My son held up a clear plastic lid in front of his face the other day. He said, "Look, Mommy! An invisible box!"

6. I'm finally catching up on True Blood. It's funny how ten years ago, my TV schedule would have included a few hours of shows for most nights a week. Now, for the summer, I have nothing I watch except True Blood. It feels weird, but I have better things to do with my free time these days like write!

Have a great weekend!

7x7 Link Award

A huge thank you to L.G. Keltner for not only honoring me with the 7x7 Link Award,

but the Versatile Blogger and Kreativ Blogger awards too.
A big thank you to C.M. Brown as well for passing on the 7x7 Link Award.

I've recently done the other two awards, but the 7x7 one is new.

For this award, I need to choose the post that best fits each category.

This will be a challenge.

Most beautiful piece - Auntie Tara's Short Story Prompt for January

Most helpful piece - Wicked Wednesday - the fast-paced novel

Most popular piece - First Campaign Challenge

Most controversial piece - Wicked Wednesday - taboo? (I don't have anything really controversial, but this is the closest!)

Most surprisingly successful piece -  Wicked Wednesday - paranormal romance cliches

Most underrated piece - Wicked Wednesday - sexual tension

Most pride worthy piece - A to Z Challenge - A is for Abby

I'm suppose to give this away to seven people.

The first seven who comment and want may have it!

June anthologies, awards, and stuff

A big thank you to the awesome Chris Fries for the Stylish blogger Award and the Versatile Blogger Award. The Versatile one has been going around a lot lately. I'll not bore you with more random facts about myself. I've never gotten the Stylish blogger award before, though. For this one, I have to share the last time I dressed up.

I hate dressing up. I'm a jeans and t-shirt woman. I own only one black skirt I use for interviews, weddings, and funerals. The last time I donned the skirt was for our friends' wedding nearly 3 years ago. I was pregnant, but we hadn't told anyone yet. I hadn't gained any weight at that point, so the skirt still fit. I don't wear heels either. Flats for me. First off, I'm tall. It feels weird if I'm taller than my husband who's only two inches taller than me. Second, I'm a klutz. I sometimes can't keep my balance if I'm bare footed, never mind putting me in heels! That's a broken ankle waiting to happen.

Yup, I have no dressy style or grace. I happily pass off this award to five of you that do:

1. Trish

2. Amy

3. Theresa

4. Clare

5. Joshua (a shout-out to a fellow geek who loves t-shirts more than I do!)

I need to get started on writing a short story for June. I'm going the fantasy route this month. Here are a few anthologies seeking submissions that interested me:

AIRSHIPS & AUTOMATONS - 1-time print/eBook (White Cat Publications); steampunk (fic). Pay: 5¢/word +copy. Words: 4k-6k. RT: varies. Reprints: yes (1¢/word +copy). E-subs: ONLY. Charles P. Zaglanis, Editor. Deadline: when filled.

ONCE UPON AN APOCALYPSE - 1-time print/eAntho (Chaosium); h (fic). Pay: 3¢/word. Words: 2k-4k. RT: 2-3 months. Reprints: no. E-subs: ONLY. Rachel Kenley & Scott T. Goudsward, Editors. Deadline: July 31st.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE WOMB: From Their Cradle to Your Grave - 1-time POD/eAntho (Cruentus Libri Press); h (fic). Pay: shared royalty. Words: 2½k-7½k. RT: receipt=<1 week; final=<1 week after DL. Reprints: yes. E-subs: ONLY. Kevin G. Bufton, Editor. Deadline: August 31st. (You could totally write one for this, Lily!)

SWORDS FOR SALE: An Anthology of Fantastic Mercenary Fiction - 1-time POD/eAntho (Sorcerous Press); mercenary f (fic). Pay: $20. Words: <10k. RT: <1 month. Reprints: query. E-subs: ONLY. Robert Lewis, Editor. Deadline: June 15th.

Finally, Writer's Digest is having a fun contest here: Your Story contest on Writer's Digest. Write the first sentence for the picture below (25 words or less). It's free and simple. I already entered!

Thanks and awards

First off, a BIG thank you to Kathleen Doyle for surprising me

on Monday with a Random Act of Kindness.

You really made my day.

And that's hard to do on a Monday!

The Random Act of Kindness Blitz is a fabulous idea started by

Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse to commemorate the

release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus.

Come pop by my blog tomorrow for my contribution to the Blitz.

I received the Beautiful Blogger Award from the wonderful Sheri L. Swift.

Thank you for passing it on to me.

 Another thank you goes to the cool E.J. Wesley for passing on

the No Strings Attached - Real Trooper award.

Both awards ask you to share some random facts about yourself. (The Trooper Award also has some specific questions, but I will spare you an overly long post!)

Ten random facts about me:

1) I enjoy doing laundry. It's the clean scent and the warmth of clothes fresh out of the dryer.

2) I've been engaged twice, but not to my husband.

3) My husband and I had been together for ten years before we decided to get married in Las Vegas by Elvis.

4) When I get a chance, I love watching cheesy SyFy movies.

5) I have a fear of speaking in front of groups of people, but I force myself to do it whenever I have the opportunity.

6) I have a sonic screwdriver on my desk.

7) I have my own set of special game dice.

8) I set my son's toys up in fun little scenes, so that the next time he comes upon them, he'll wonder what they've been doing.

9) I took karate in high school, and I was two belts away from my black.

10) I cannot imagine life without writing.

I'm not going to nominate anyone, because I want to share these awesome awards with you all. Take one or both if you wish. You're such fabulous people. You deserve them.

Awards, giveaway reminder and news

The wonderful Tara Tyler has passed on this award to me:

I'm going to go with Tara's Halloween theme because it was so much fun reading hers!

Here are seven Halloween facts about me:

1. Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. I love the costumes, trick-or-treating, and all the horror movies on TV.

2. I dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein in grade seven. It was a fantastic costume, but it took a few days to make my hair lie flat again.

3. We didn't have much money when I was growing up. When I was seven, I dressed up as a witch with a big black sweatshirt and a construction paper hat, and my brother wore a garbage bag with the word BOO! in paper letters across it.

4. In grade eight, I dressed as an accident victim and was complimented on how realistic my injuries looked. My acting was horrendous, though!

5. We lived on a street full of townhouses. Most families were young families and had lots of kids. We'd go trick-or-treating to over 200 houses and fill two pillow cases with candy.

6. I dressed up as an alien when I was eight. I wore an inflatable head on top of my own. I looked more like an alien totem pole!

7. When I was 12, I was told I was too old to be trick-or-treating. I was devastated. Now I'm excited to have a child of my own and experience the excitement with him.

I also received this award from the fabulous Summer Ross:

Thank you, Summer and Tara, for the awards.

I pass on the I <3 Blogging award to:
Cherie Reich
Damyanti
Tania Walsh

I pass on the Seriously Cute Blogger award to:
Jessica G.
Janel
Sabrina Llave

I want to remind everyone that today is the last day to enter in my Journal Giveaway. New followers are welcome to enter too.

In other news, I finally have my new Nook Color. I love it! I've been playing too much Angry Birds. I need to read more. That's what I got it for. Yet those green pigs are taunting me. I must crush them!

I had a good birthday last week and a nice visit with my mother. It helps to have another adult around during the days to entertain the munchkin. My mom made me a huge Death By Chocolate cake. I'm still feeling it sit in my belly. I regret nothing.

I've been doing a lot of reading and critiquing lately. I have my monthly writers' group this coming Saturday. I submitted a medieval zombie story to be critiqued. It's a story that I've had short-listed three times and then rejected in the end because it's "too different."

I hope to have my current WIP ready to be sent out by the end of the month. I want to go into November and NaNoWriMo with no other projects. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for NaNoWriMo this year, but I want to try to outline first. I'm a pantser. I've never managed to follow an outline before, but since I have such limited time to write, I thought it might help me this year.