Four years on WordPress! Happy Anniversary to MEEEEE!!!!

                                                 

 

 

How do you like my lovely laurel wreath?  Does it make my head look big? Thanks WordPress for acknowledging my stick-to-itness (it’s a word if I want it to be).  Four years of blogging, albeit  a bit sporadically, and still typing away.    Yes, yes, also Bubble Witching away, working away, and doing lots of other life related stuff away, but blogging too!  After four years perhaps it’s time for a facelift (easy now people – I meant of the blog page) and some layout changes.   I think it’s time to add a published books page because, well, I FINALLY have one!  And maybe a static first page….and new curtains…and some throw pillows….and a coffee table…..sorry – went a little Pinterest there for a second.  So off to tend to some long overdue fixer uppers on here and looking forward to another 4 years of blah, blah, blogging.

P.S. Update on my last post.  The open letter was published in a local paper in the “Letters to the editor” section!  Yay!  I’m famous!  (in a 20 square foot radius, but still…..)

BookPushalooza

YA Author VB Tremper

Welcome  to the FIRST EVER BookPushalooza!

July 26^th ONLY

9  Books, only .99.

With  each purchase you get the chance to WIN while
Helping Authors reach new heights
in Amazon’s ranks.

It’s  so easy a CAVEMAN could do it!

Follow  the Instructions on the Rafflecopter Widget and for each book you purchase (or  Borrow through Amazon Prime for Free) you get an entry in to WIN —

(1)Grand  Prize- $100 Amazon Gift Card

(2)Runners  up of $25 Amazon Gift Cards

That’s  not all! Purchase all NINE (9) books and get an additional 5 entries!

Don’t  delay, this offer is good for JULY 26^th ONLY!

Overview of Dark Isle

When evil begets evil, a choice is forced on Quinn, the one person who can see  the danger. Does she save the ones she loves, or does she save the world from  Chaos?

As the realms of Fae…

View original post 843 more words

Lovely Blog Award

One Lovely Blog Award

Thank you, thank you , thank you to Roberta Gordon, author of  “Gemini Witching: Elements 101“.   It is flattering beyond words when a fellow writer finds one’s work worthy of awarding recognition.   One of the great joys of blogging is the vast network of amazing creatives who inspire, encourage, and share the journey that is our craft.  I feel lucky to have found Roberta on this same path.  One click on Roberta’s name above and you will be magically transported to her realm for a visit with this debut author.

The rules of this round of recognitions are as follows:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them.   Check.
2. Share 7 things about yourself                                                    Check.
3. Nominate 15 (or so) other bloggers you admire.                        Check.

Here are a few things about me:

1. I have more notebooks than any one person should ever own.
2. No matter where I move (and I move a lot), I end up with AWESOME neighbors.  It’s some sort of phenomenon for which I am very grateful.
3. I cannot be part of a writing critique group because I will never stop editing my own first chapters.
4. I am usually barefoot or in flip flops.
5. I like the smell of mesquite.
6. I throw a great party.
7. When I’m outlining a story I only write with a black pen or a REALLY sharp pencil.  That’s right, I’m talking take an eye out sharp.

Part three of the blog award asks that I nominate some fellow bloggers that I admire.  It’s hard to pare it down to a handful as there are so many incredible bloggers and I am finding more each day.  To be honest, many days it is a struggle not to get lost in reading all of the other blogs instead of working on my own projects.   My read list is growing faster than Santa’s naughty vs. nice checklist.

Some of these bloggers are fellow writers, photographers, business bloggers, and cartoonists. A few are those brave souls who “diary blog”,  putting their innermost thoughts and dreams out there into the blogosphere.   All are great people who share some part of themselves with the rest of us.

And now for (a sampling of) the blogs that I admire:

I pay tribute to the following as each maintaining One Lovely Blog   

 Vanessa Grassi

Brian Gaynor Photography

The Blonde Coyote

Maze a Day

Lea and Jay**  I’ve road tested some of their recipes – OMG.  You…must…go….there….and….cook!!!!!!

The Laughing House Wife

40 is the new 30

MoonWynd Studio

BA Expat

Kerry Stanley

Kathy’s Thoughts

Moths to a flame

The 4am Writer

PhotoBotos

 

 

 

 

i is for interrupt

I’m interrupting my regular A to Z Challenge post with some exciting news.  Well – it’s exciting for me and anyone eating at our place.  For the rest of you it’s really just an interesting FYI and possibly a reason to turn down a dinner invitation.   I won a contest on another blog I follow!  YEAH!!!!!

The Family Dinner Project is a great blog with a mission to bring people together over the dining table.  It’s not a revolutionary concept – just one that needs some revisiting in today’s hectic world.

Below is a copy of today’s post from their site:

Embarrassing Dinner Habit Contest: We Have a Winner!

Posted on: April 10th, 2012 by Allissa

In response to our “Most Embarrassing Dinner Habit” contest, we received some wonderfully funny and honest submissions. They ranged from watching movies while eating, to serving-up fast food, to finding wads of meat beneath your children’s plates.

Thank you so much for sharing your stories! We thoroughly enjoyed reading them, and could definitely sympathize with many of these habits. In fact, we’ve even examined similar habits in our recent blog posts. For example, in her post about picky eaters, Dr. Anne Fishel gives advice on how to encourage kids to try new foods. And this Family Blog post by a reader named Kim contains several interesting meal-planning ideas.

But now for the contest winner! (Drum roll, please!) After careful deliberation, we decided that an entry about “gross-out” dinner conversation took the contest cake. As Laura describes, during dinner, each member of her family shares the grossest story from their day.

Embarrassing? Sure. But it’s a great example of how using unique conversation starters can get kids talking. Congratulations to Laura, who will be receiving a $100 supermarket gift card!

We’ll be announcing our next contest next week, so definitely be on the look out. In the meantime, please enjoy Laura’s winning entry:

“I would like to preface this entry by noting that our embarrassing dinner habit started out with really good intentions.  To encourage family communication a few years back, we started having our children tell us something interesting about their day at dinner time. 

We used a round table format and each of us (hubby and I included) would mention something that happened or something we saw/read/etc.  Somehow, this has morphed into telling the grossest story you can.  Topics range from school friends who can get milk through their nose on command (okay—truth moment—so can my oldest daughter) to someone’s gory injury to anything my husband has seen at work (he works in the wastewater industry – enough said). 

The kids love it, and occasionally someone from the “under 12” friend pool is allowed to participate…but we don’t really talk about family dinner with any friends we want to keep.”

http://thefamilydinnerproject.org/project-team/#