Book Giveaway: The Gold Standard

I'm authorized to give away 1 copy. Rules for entry in the drawing are below. Please read them carefully.

The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team
By Mike Krzyzewski, Jamie K. Spatola
(c) 2009
Pub. Business Plus
256p

Says Coach K: "In all forms of leadership, whether you are a coach, a CEO, or a parent, there are four words that, when said, can bring out the best in your team, your employees, and your family...I BELIEVE IN YOU.

These four words can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try."

In his previous bestselling books, Coach K has guided readers to success the way he has guided his teams at Duke University - - with the power of his inspirational words and phenomenal leadership skills.

But that was with college kids.....Now, Coach K has stepped up to take on an entirely new challenge - by volunteering to coach the US Olympic Basketball team. Comprised of some of the biggest NBA stars, Coach K had to work with huge egos and personalrivalries in order to create an American team that could win against the best competition in the world and restore Team USA to the gold standard of basketball.

This is more than a celebratory book - it's Coach K's first-hand account of how he dealt with such stars as Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and all the rest to buy into his "total team" play. Half a book on basketball, half a book on management techniques, THE GOLD STANDARD captures Coach K's personal style and approach to getting different (and sometimes difficult) people to work hard and succeed in reaching a common goal.


About the Author
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI has been the basketball coach of the Duke Blue Devils for twenty-seven years, winning three NCAA championships and twelve national Coach of the Year awards. He is revered and respected by sports fans and business leaders everywhere. Coach K lives with his family in Durham, North Carolina.

JAMIE K. SPATOLA is a graduate of Duke University, where she majored in English. She is also one of Coach K's daughters.

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST April 25, 2009. I will select the winners with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. Hachette is unable to deliver to PO Boxes.

Read more...

Sunday Serenity #122

These were actually taken Friday after Mom and I put the last tile on the board at the end of our four hour Scrabble game. But can you think of a more serene way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

I love word games.

But the significance of these pictures goes much beyond the love of word games and words. It is a measure of how far my Mom has come since her post surgery stroke last November.

We didn't play be the typical Scrabble rules either. This was more of an exercise for Mom. We allowed her unlimited use of the dictionary to look for words as exposure to those word lists is nothing but good for her. We also allow her use of proper nouns as they were hit hardest by her aphasia. We also allowed her unlimited time to look for words. And we didn't keep score.

The implications of this as to Mom's ultimate recovery go beyond serenity into the realm of joy.

Read more...

Jump for Joy

The Crimes of Paris goes to Cheryl

Angry Conversations with God goes to R.L.Scovens

The Power to Change Today goes to MJ

The Turnaround goes to Jake, Angela C & MJ Pam. (MJ won elsewhere so passed.)

This is the winner's circle for this week's book giveaway drawings. I will be updating this post with the winners of all three drawings as soon as I have completed all three.

I am posting this now because I can see I'm not going to finish compiling the lists before our dinner hour here and it may be very late this evening before I can return to the task and into the wee hours before I have the names of the winners. I did not want to keep everybody who might be anxiously watching for the notice wondering what's up. I'm so sorry for the delay.

I wish to thank every one who participated and especially those who helped spread the word on their blogs, forums and twitter.

I also wish to apologize to all those who entered the drawing for The Crime of Paris and had to scroll and scroll and scroll past that silly 17.5K word spam comment. Yes, I copy/pasted it into an application to count the words! I thought I had deleted that on the day it was posted but apparently had missed a step in the process.

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Friday Forays In Fiction: Script Frenzy Week 2

Early this week I reached a count of 25 script pages. And then stalled out. I had run out of the easy stuff to adapt from my short story--the dialog and the straightforward action. That accounts for about one third of the word count of the short story and probably less than that of the relevant content of the story. At least another third of the story was related as interior monologue and memories of one of the characters. Adapting these parts to script is going to be harder and take more thought. Keeping that most essential aspect of play writing in mind: only what can be seen and heard can be scripted. In a few cases I might be able to take a line or two of Faye's interior monologue and incorporate it into regular dialog. In a few other places I can use the voice-over technique. And there is also the backflash. But I'm sure it is a tricky balance to use those techniques without making the story and/or the characters seem clunky and forced and just plain not credible.

One thing I know for sure is that it would be completely out of character for Faye to say aloud much, if any, of the thoughts I originally put into her interior monologues. And yet there is so much of the essentials of story incorporated in them--background, motivation.

Thinking about my story this way is giving me insights into the story and into the characters. And it is also making me second-guess myself in regards to a long ago finished story Because when I find a way that seems to work at translating what is on the page of the short story into what might work on a screen I start to wonder if I shouldn't just change the short story version to reflect what works for the script. I have to keep reminding myself that I am adapting an existing story into a different format not rewriting it.

Note: I'm adapting the first of my FOS story world stories, Of Cats and Claws and Curiosities. I'm thinking of moving on to the second short story featuring Faye, her twin sister Julia and sister-in-law Wilma, Making Rag Doll Babies and Million Dollar Maybes. That story is more than twice as long and I should be able to garner another fifty sript pages just by focusing on the sections with dialogue and straight forward action sequences. And maybe by then I'll have also garnered more insight into this process so as to have a better idea how to approach the issues now flummoxing me.

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Book Giveaway: The Poet

I'm authorized to give away 3 copies. Rules for entry in the drawing are below. Please read them carefully.

The Poet
By Michael Connelly, Michael Connelly
Pub. Grand Central Publishing

Critical Praise

"Infernally ingenious...an irresistibly readable thriller." -New York Times

"An intriguing new protagonist....Connelly doesn't just talk about poets, he writes like one, with a spare, elegiac tone that is the perfect voice for the haunting tale he has to tell."
-People

"Chilling....Connelly puts his foot on the gas and doesn't let up." -Los Angeles Times

The first two paragraphs from the excerpt:

1

Death is my beat. I make my living from it. I forge my professional reputation on it. I treat it with the passion and precision of an undertaker—somber and sympathetic about it when I'm with the bereaved, a skilled craftsman with it when I'm alone. I've always thought the secret of dealing with death was to keep it at arm's length. That's the rule. Don't let it breathe in your face.

But my rule didn't protect me. When the two detectives came for me and told me about Sean, a cold numbness quickly enveloped me. It was like I was on the other side of the aquarium window. I moved as if underwater—back and forth, back and forth—and looked out at the rest of the world through the glass. From the backseat of their car I could see my eyes in the rearview mirror, flashing each time we passed beneath a streetlight. I recognized the thousand-yard stare I had seen in the eyes of fresh widows I had interviewed over the years. (click here to read more)

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST April 18, 2009. I will select the winners with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. Hachette is unable to deliver to PO Boxes.

Read more...

Book Giveaway: The Big Love

I'm authorized to give away 3 copies. Rules for entry in the drawing are below. Please read them carefully.

The Big Love: A Novel
By Sarah Dunn
(c) 2005; TRADE PAPERBACK release 2009
Pub. Back Bay Books
256p

Alison Hopkins isn't just looking for Mr. Right . . . or even Mr. Big. She's holding out for the Big Love.

When 32-year-old Alison's first real boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her - he steps out to buy mustard for a dinner party and never returns - it's time for Alison to reassess her lifelong search for romantic fulfillment. Does true love even exist? Is every romantic involvement with a coworker inevitably doomed? Does sex without commitment always lead to disaster? Is a girl's evangelical Christian upbringing an impediment to her finding true happiness?

Funnier than any "chick-lit," as poised and accomplished as any literary debut this year, The Big Love is a big-hearted, hilariously entertaining novel that readers all across America are falling for.

• Reading Guide 1

• Chapter Excerpt

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST April 18, 2009. I will select the winners with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. Hachette is unable to deliver to PO Boxes.

Read more...

Book Giveaway: Live Your Joy

I'm authorized to give away 1 copy. Rules for entry in the drawing are below. Please read them carefully.

Live Your Joy
By Bonnie St. John
(c) 2009
Pub. FaithWords
224p

Joy is something that comes from the inside out. It feels like a flowing grace, a feeling of goodness all around, a sense of well-being through good and bad. It is love, gratitude, faith and empowerment all wrapped together. Joy deepens our experiences. It opens us to seeing a more beautiful sunset, appreciating rather than fault finding, to believing in oneself.

Here are some of the things Bonnie St. John has learned about finding joy...

• Discover the power of your own dreams and personal vision.
  
• Each day make the choice of joy over bitterness.
  
• Strengthen you self-confidence...shape yourself, don't let others shape you
  
• Clarify what matters most to you
  
• Allow spontaneous, surprising gifts of joy to redirect your schedule.
  
• Partner with God...the entire power of the universe is on our side.
  
• Become more helping, more healing and more accepting .

None of this is easy and Bonnie admits that she's not able to live her joy every minute of every day. But she does so now more often than she used to. And, more often than she used to, she feels love from others, feels compassion in painful situations, and lives more fully and joyfully.

Live Your Joy Book on Facebook

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST April 18, 2009. I will select the winners with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. Hachette is unable to deliver to PO Boxes.

Read more...

Book Giveaway: You Want Me to Do What?

I'm authorized to give away 1 copy. Rules for entry in the drawing are below. Please read them carefully.


You Want Me to Do What?: Get Off Your Blessed Assurance and Do Something!
By Michael Youssef PhD
(c) 2009
Pub. FaithWords
240p

When individuals feel God telling them to do something that is out of their comfort zone, what is the instinctive reaction? To run for the hills? To pretend they didn't hear? To argue? Dr. Michael Youssef explains that God challenges every Christian to fulfill the call He has placed on their lives. Dr. Youssef walks readers through the story of Joshua and leads them to discover how to take on what seems to be impossible, learn from failure, complete the victory, claim their inheritance, and share their story. By the end of this journey they will be inspired to put the lessons of this book into practice and claim the promises that accompany God's calling.

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST April 18, 2009. I will select the winners with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. Hachette is unable to deliver to PO Boxes.

Read more...

Sunday Serenity #121

Print for sale at AllPosters.com

Lazzzzzy day. Too lazy to talk about it.

Read more...

Congrats

Congrats to the winners of the four book giveaways I posted last week.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

The winners:

The Unlikely Disciple goes to Vanessa

(bermudaonion had won elsewhere so passed)

Never Give Up! goes to Nicole

Work in Progress goes to Kristi

Girls in Trucks goes to Debbie, The Giveaway Diva, & MJ

Reminder: This week's four giveaways are still active until next Saturday NOON PST.

Watch for more next week!

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Friday Forays In Fiction: Script Frenzy Week 1

After three days, I've got four script pages. But that isn't the true measure of my accomplishment.

This is my first exposure to the craft of script writing so I'm fairly gobstopped by the awareness of what I know now that I didn't know a week ago before I started studying the formatting techniques via Scriptfrenzy's Writer's Resources pages and elsewhere.

And there is all those new vocab playground toys bouncing around in my brain: slugline, parentheticals, wryly, duel dialog, montage.

After getting my brain all tangled with the formatting minutia of margins, tabs, spacing etc. I almost folded. I know my work habits well enough to know that if I'm fussing with minutia like that, my harpy editor is kicked in to full gear, sending my muse into sulks. I mean even with what now seems like the laid back formalities of fiction narrative, I cannot be focused on spelling, quotation marks, paragraph breaks or anything else that smacks of rules without loosing touch with the magical story-dream from which my stories arise.

That's why I decided to make this project all about learning the format like a new language and not about creating a new story from scratch. So I chose to adapt one or more of my own stories to the screenplay format. I had thought to take three of my stories and adapt one each to screenplay, TV script and stage play. Ha. I discovered soon enough that learning even one new format is way more than enough to expect of myself right now.

So I chose to begin with the first of my FOS story world stories, Of Cats and Claws and Curiosities. It's about 6500 words and stands alone as a short story but is intended as the first chapter of a longer work. The first 1ooo words has translated into four script pages. But I don't think that reflects the average of the end result as the bulk of this story is told in dialog exchanges and the balance between dialogue and other narrative elements shifts to favor dialog sometime in the next 500 words. Dialogue eats up the pages in script format with the margins set so there are 6 or so words per line and double spacing between speakers.

I realized that if I was going to have to set my own margins it would probably take me a week of fussing before I had a single page of script. So I downloaded two aids reccomended at Scriptfrenzy. One was a template for the Open Office word processor--which is my desk top publishing capable wordprocessor. The other was a scriptwritting program open source and freeware by Celtix. I experiented with each of them but found myself settling in with Celtix. Not least because of the extra how-to on their wiki.

Below are four screen shots of my script project in the Celtix ap. I'm going to go ahead and publish this post now as I'm needed elsewhere right now but I will probably return and update with explainations of these shots later.

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Book Giveaway:The Turnaround

I'm authorized to give away 3 copies. Rules for entry in the drawing are below. Please read them carefully.

The Turnaround
By George Pelecanos
(c) 2008 (Tradeback Release April 2009)
Pub. Back Bay Books
320p

On a hot summer afternoon in 1972, three teenagers drove into an unfamiliar neighborhood and six lives were altered forever.
Thirty five years later, one survivor of that day reaches out to another, opening a door that could lead to salvation. But another survivor is now out of prison, looking for reparation in any form he can find it.
THE TURNAROUND takes us on a journey from the rock-and-soul streets of the '70s to the changing neighborhoods of D.C. today, from the diners and auto garages of the city to the inside of Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, where wounded men and women have returned to the world in a time of war. A novel of fathers and sons, wives and husbands, loss, victory and violent redemption, THE TURNAROUND is another compelling, highly charged novel from George Pelecanos, "the best crime novelist in America." -Oregonian

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST April 11, 2009. I will select the winners with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. Hachette is unable to deliver to PO Boxes.

Read more...

Book Giveaway: The Power to Change Today

I'm authorized to give away 1 copy. Rules for entry in the drawing are below. Please read them carefully.

The Power to Change Today: Simple Secrets to the Satisfied Life
By Gregory Dickow
(c) 2009
Pub. FaithWords
288p

How many people go through their days feeling dissatisfied or even feeling their lives have no purpose or meaning? Perhaps money, time or love seem in short supply. Or one doesn't have the body they'd like or the perfect job or the perfect mate. What kind of faith can give the strength and encouragement to break free from emotional and spiritual discontentment?

In this debut work Pastor Dickow, founder of the popular Life Changers International Church brings a compelling vision for conquering negativity and achieving breakthroughs toward successful living. Through attaining a deep connection with God one can learn the keys to mastering destructive emotions and eradicating personal stress. Pastor Dickow offers readers 16 spirit-centered and practical secrets to create an invincible spirit and a satisfied life.

Direct and heartfelt in its narrative, THE POWER TO CHANGE TODAY is more than a typical self-help book. It not only includes a full discussion of spiritual and common sense wisdom, but also reveals the story of Pastor Dickow's personal journey through a painful childhood, a crisis of faith and a miracle conversion.

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST April 11, 2009. I will select the winners with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. Hachette is unable to deliver to PO Boxes.

Read more...

Weekly Geeks 2009-12 Link Luv

I just discovered this past weekend that Weekley Geeks, the meme begun by Dewey (of 24 Hour Read-a-thon fame) had been carried in Dewey's honor after her passing last November.

WG now has its own blog hub.

This week's assignment was a revival of one of Dewey's early WG assignments: to announce on your blog your willingness to link to another reviewers review of a review you have posted and if possible make it easy for visitors to find your archived reviews so they can peruse them for reviews you may have in common with them.

I so paraphrased that. Go here for the assignment verbatim.

Last August I created a post I called a Book Review Portal in which I began to collect the links to my book reviews on Joystory. I only included a few of the most recent reviews at that time. I kept meaning to return and update with newer reviews as they were posted...as promised. And kept meaning to finish wading through my archives to ferret out all reviews from the past four years...as promised. But, well, life butted in.

Well, this assignment gave me the push to get that pesky task done. I've spent hours this week going through my archives and adding the book review links to the book review portal. I hope to get a button or link to the Book Review Portal in my sidebar eventually along with the portals to my poetry and fiction which both need updating as well. As does my sidebar though I have finally started dabbling at getting it groomed and gussied up. After three years of neglect it had as many broken links as an abandoned tennement has broken windows.

Anyway visit Book Review Portal see if I've reviewed anything you have reviewed. If so visit my review and leave the link to your review in comments and I'll update my review with your link and visit your review if I can. (Though as long as I'm still helping out here at my Mom's, time for blog visiting is limited.)

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Book Giveaway: Angry Conversations with God

I'm authorized to give away 1 copy. Rules for entry in the drawing are below. Please read them carefully.

Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir
By Susan E. Isaacs
(c) 2009
Pub. FaithWords
256p

Disillusioned, disenfranchised, and disinterested in anything churchy, Susan Isaacs knew of only one thing to do when she hit spiritual rock bottom at age 40. . . . She took God to couples counseling.
In this cuttingly poignant memoir, Susan Isaacs chronicles her rocky relationship with the Almighty--from early childhood to midlife crisis--and all the churches where she and God tried to make a home: Pentecostals, Slackers for Jesus, and the über-intellectuals who turned everything, including the weekly church announcements, into a three-point sermon. Casting herself as the neglected spouse, Susan faces her inner nag and the ridiculous expectations she put on God--some her own, and some from her "crazy in-laws" at church. Originally staged as a solo show in New York and Los Angeles, ANGRY CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD is a cheeky, heartfelt memoir that, even at its most scandalous, is still an affirmation of faith.

Book Website

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST April 11, 2009. I will select the winners with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. Hachette is unable to deliver to PO Boxes.

Read more...

Book Giveaway: The Crimes of Paris

I'm authorized to give away 1 copy. Rules for entry in the drawing are below. Please read them carefully.

The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection
(c) 2009
Pub. Little Brown
384p

Turn-of-the-century Paris was the beating heart of a rapidly changing world. Painters, scientists, revolutionaries, poets--all were there. But so, too, were the shadows: Paris was a violent, criminal place, its sinister alleyways the haunts of Apache gangsters and its cafes the gathering places of murderous anarchists. In 1911, it fell victim to perhaps the greatest theft of all time--the taking of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Immediately, Alphonse Bertillon, a detective world-renowned for pioneering crime-scene investigation techniques, was called upon to solve the crime. And quickly the Paris police had a suspect: a young Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso....

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST April 11, 2009. I will select the winners with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. Hachette is unable to deliver to PO Boxes.

Read more...

Top of My Wish List

Oh, do I need this! This would make life so much easier for me as a writer and researcher with documents and data bases; as a blogger with multiple web sites in production with all their associated graphics.; as a family member who has taken on the task of digitizing five generations of family photos; as a collector of podcasts, ebooks, audio books and music. I just recently spent significant chunks of two weekend days backing up to thumb drives. It is past time to do it again but the audio and image thumbs are full and I'm balking at facing the complex choices involved. I visited Clickfree's site and watched the two videos and what I like most about these drives beyond the ease of backing up, is that you can access and use the files from the drive. This is definitely going near the top of my wish list!!

VanillaJoy has a giveaway going on for this. Go check it out. It's over at midnight tomorrow!

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Sunday Serenity #120

Sunset over the Columbia River near Woodland WA.

My sister-friend Jamie took this picture from a car window while traveling on I5 just outside of Longview. She is as enamored with sunsets as am I. Nothing is as serenity inducing as watching color suffuse the sky. Especially when a body of water is mirroring it. Seeing this picture reminded me that it has been weeks since I've seen a sunset. There isn't a good view from my Mom's windows. Too many trees and hills nearby. But I'm loving this picture right now. Especially enlarged to fill the screen. With my tunnel vision it almost has the effect of viewing the real thing.

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YEAH YEAH YIPPEE YIPPEE YAH

This is the winner's circle for last week's three giveaways.

The Giveaway Diva wins MBA in a Book

Cheryl S. , cecilia, & Vanessa win B is for Beauty

donnas wins Put Your Dreams First


Congrats to all I'll be emailing you for your snail mail.

Thanks to all who participated.

And a special thanks to those who helped spread the word. Especially West of Mars Winabook.

Read more...

Friday Forays in Fiction: I'm In

After putting together the promo post for it last week, I talked myself into joining. I'm going to adapt several of my own already written stories so most of the story building work is already done. My primary goal is to learn the script formats for big screen, stage and TV so I'll probably adapt one story for each format and if I'm still not at 100 pages total bring in a forth story and apply a format by flip of a coin or flavor of my mood.

But altho it would be nice to have the win, I'm not going to stress on it or even have high expectations of crossing the finish line. I"m still helping out here at my Mom's in Longview WA and am still hoping to be returning home to Pheonix OR before the end of April which means the month will be broken up by the need to pack travel and unpack. And I don't acclimate to change well.

The only reason I was able to commit to this much is by taking the story building aspect out of the equation. When I read in the FAQ that adaptations of ones own work in other formats was allowed I realized that I could make this about learning the ropes of script format. Something that I've been meaning to do for years. Seeing all the how-to and other support available on the site and especially during the month I knew I wouldn't find a better opportunity or motivation to take the plunge.

So I spent the last few days combing through my files of stories and novels in progress trying to select four or five to settle my focus on. Meanwhile I managed to get another task I've been procrastinating on accomplished. I made hard copies of sceens from the last five years of fiction writing--the five NaNo and three Sweating for Sven stories and others and while I was at it all the poetry I've written in the last eight years. I was without since 2001 so have no hard copies for the work I've done since the. Much of the poetry, existed only on my blog as it was composed there. I'm taking advantage of the computer I've got available here at my Mom's. But I'm only printing the stuff that is in fairly good form and that's only 4% of the total output. Most of it is such a mess--a mixture of sceens in proper form with notes and babbling on about my intentions for the scene. I would like to get hard copy of much of that too but I'm not going to spend my Mom's ink and paper on it.

When I get back home I will finally get to introduce my new printer to my laptop. I got it for my birthday in November but chose to wait until I got back from my Mom's before I cleared a spot in our room to set it up. At that time I thought I would be back before Christmas. That was before Mom broke her hip and had the mild stroke following surgery just before Thanksgiving. I left home just after Christmas thinking I would be home for Valentine's Day. I'm still here. Still hoping I'll get to go home before Easter. When is Easter this year? If it's in the first half of April chances are slim I'll be able to leave.

Hmmm. Apparently its April 12 this year. That's right on the cusp of possibility. But it might take a miracle or two to make it happen as we need to be sure I can be spared before I start making plans, getting a ride coordinated and getting packed. I would probably need a week of preparing for the trip after I'm able to set the date for it. Soooo. I guess Easter is hoping for too much. Sigh. Guess I'll set my sights on end of April? *pout* I'm soooooooo homesick. So missing my husband and family down there. But I've been here so long this time that I'm going to be homesick for here the moment I'm unpacked there.

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