Thanks for the Scattering

Thanks Paulette for scattering some sunshine my way.

I could use it. I'm very tired of winter, the cold, the dormant blah landscape. *shiver*

Give me some sunshine. I'm ready to drink it in, close my eyes and lift my face to its radiating warmth. I'm ready to watch the buds on my fruit trees turn to flowering blooms.

Come on sun, scatter some UV rays my way. And green up my world while you're at it, or at least my neighborhood.

Contests! Contests! Come get your contests!

There have been a lot of blogging contests lately, which have been fun to enter. Here's another one (or two) you should check out.

Elana Johnson is having a contest this week. If you win, you get a query letter critiqued by one of five literary agents! Also, another five winners will receive her book From the Query to the Call as well as a query letter critique from her. And wait, there's more! She's giving away to five additional people a package of all her favorite writing tools. Worth entering, huh? Huh? That's right.

Another contest this week is Shelli at Market My Words. There will be lots of giveaways on this one -- daily and weekly. Plus Shelli has some amazing marketing advice from those who know.

Well, what are you waiting for. Go check them out!

You Can Do Anything You Decide to Do (even if you're a late bloomer)

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity . . . You can do anything you decide to do . . ." -- Amelia Earhart

I recently watched the film Amelia. I like films based on actual people and events. This one was a keeper, in my opinion. Amelia was an amazing woman. She was a gentle person with a great amount of courage and strength.

Her first experience with an airplane was when she was ten. She said that the plane was "a thing of rusty wire and wood and not all that interesting."

Her first ride in an airplane occurred when she was about 23 years old. She knew at that point she had to fly. She took her first flying lesson the following January. She owned her first plane within six months.



Although when she first started flying, she did a lot of crashing, she never gave up.

"...decide...whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying...." -- Amelia Earhart

There were also many people that said she wasn't a very good flyer, but that didn't seem to faze her. She wanted to fly.



". . . it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it." -- Amelia Earhart

She was influential in starting the trend of women wearing trousers. She started organizations for women who wanted to fly. She encouraged women to do whatever it was they wanted to do.

She wasn't exactly a late bloomer, like me, but she didn't know from the time that she was small that flying would be her passion. She was almost 40 when she left on her flight around the world.



I am truly a late bloomer. Always have been, always will be I imagine. But, guess what? I'm not alone. Grandma Moses began painting when she was in her 70's. Julia Child's cookbook wasn't published until she was 49. Laura Ingalls Wilder's first book wasn't published until she was 65. And my first novel was finally finished when I was in my 40's. (If you think I'm telling you my real age, you've got another thing coming.)

If all of these women can do it, so can I. Thanks, Amelia, for your tenacity and perseverance, for your passion and drive and for being the catalyst for teaching me that being a late bloomer is okay.

Devil's Food Cake

I know. I know. You are starting to wonder about me and my food obsession, but wait! This post isn't about the real cake, it's about Josi Kilpack's new book, Devil's Food Cake.



It is the third book in her culinary mysteries series about sweet Sadie Hoffmiller. She's always getting herself in and out of trouble. I've read the first and second in the series, Lemon Tart and English Trifle and enjoyed both stories.

I am looking forward to Devil's Food Cake's release. It was supposed to be released on March 3, 2010, but according to Josi's blog it's coming out early and should be in bookstores by February 10, 2010.

To read chapter one of Devil's Food Cake, click here. You can find out more about Josi and her other books there also.

To purchase a copy of her newest book, click here.