Sweet Success and Savoring It

I'm well into my week of promotion for the June 8th release of Fatal Descent, the third book in my RM Outdoor Adventures series starring whitewater river ranger/rafting guide Mandy Tanner. So, I think it's time to sit back a little and savor the sweet success. And, speaking of Sweet Success, I am appearing today in the column of that name on the Pikes Peak Writers blog, Writing From the Peak.

As for what I'm doing to savor that success, I'm taking the day off from writing to pick up trash. Yes, you read that right, I'm picking up trash. My husband and I are volunteering at the Breckenridge Ski Resort to pick up trash off the mountain in the morning, in exchange for a free barbeque lunch after we finish. See our motivation?! ;-) Then, in the afternoon, we'll be enjoying the activities at the Peak 8 Fun Park for Local Appreciation Day. That includes unlimited riding on the Alpine SuperSlide, GoldRunner Coaster, Bungee Trampoline and rounds of SuperPutt!!

After all that fun, we'll move on to the Village at Breckenridge to spend a free night (which I won in an Ullr Fest fashion show in January). We'll enjoy the use of their workout/pool/spa facility and wander into town for dinner and breakfast, pretending to be tourists. By lunchtime tomorrow, I'll be back home, back at work, coming down from my fantasy day of savoring being a tourist in my home town.

Bopping Around the Internet

As my regular blog readers know by now, I've got a new release due out on November 8th, the trade paperback and ebook edition of To Hell in a Handbasket with a phenomenal purple cover (see above). To celebrate and promote the release, I'm visiting various sites on the Internet, leaving articles or answering interview questions. Today, I'm on the Mysteries and Margaritas blog, with an article about "Researching How Colorado Sheriff Offices Work."

Last Friday, October 26th, the "Writing From the Peak" blog of Pikes Peak Writers spotlighted To Hell in a Handbasket in it's Sweet Success feature, where accomplishments of members are trumpeted.

And tomorrow is day two of my appearance on Agatha Award-winning author Leslie Budewitz's blog, Law and Fiction, where I'm talking about serving on a jury for three days. The article about my first day of jury service appeared on her blog on October 23rd. The third article, about my last day of service, will appear on Tuesday, November 6th.

More on-line appearances are coming up, and I'll try to keep you posted about them here. I hope those of you who haven't read To Hell in a Handbasket will get your hands on a copy and read it soon. I'd love to know what you think of it after you read it, too!

Lastly, for you whitewater enthusiasts, here's a great article on the OARS blog by George Wendt, an early river runner, about his exploits.

Sweet Success

I am a member of the Pikes Peak Writers multi-genre writing group that is located in Colorado Springs. Membership is FREE, and the organization hosts a number of events in the local area, including monthly "Write Brain" seminars, member meet-and-greet nights at the downtown Poor Richard's Bookstore, and the annual Pikes Peak Writers Conference in the spring. If you live in the area, are a writer and aren't already a member, I hope you'll join and become active in PPW.

Pikes Peak Writes also produces a blog, Writing From the Peak, where bloggers post articles on the craft and business of writing, and periodically post a "Sweet Success" article of members' writing successes. I am featured in today's article, along with fantasy writer, Carol Berg. I hope you'll check it out and leave a comment!

An Interview on Writing From the Peak

Today on my virtual book tour, I am interviewed by Fleur Bradley at Writing From the Peak, the blog for the Pikes Peak Writers (PPW), a writers organization to which I belong. Among other interesting topics, we discuss my Deadly Currents mystery, the first in my RM Outdoor Adventures series starring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner that is set in Salida, Colorado. I hope you'll read the post and leave a comment or question for me here as a result of reading it. You can't comment there, which is why I'm suggesting you comment here. Every comment will be an entry into my virtual book tour contest for a free copy of Deadly Currents.

You can find the schedule of my complete virtual book tour HERE. I hope you'll read each day's post, and leave a comment on each one. And I hope you'll spread the word about my book and my VBT to your mystery-reading friends. Good luck in the contest!

Pikes Peak Writers' American Icon Event

Last Friday evening I attended Pikes Peak Writers' American Icon event and worked at the registration desk. At this annual super-fun evening event, contestants have two minutes to read from their work of fiction or non-fiction. A panel of three celebrity judges then gives on-the-spot feedback to the contestant. At the end of the night, the audience votes for an Audience Favorite and the judges panel awards prizes in various categories.

A cash bar and a dessert buffet and lots of literary friends set a festive mood for this celebration of writing talent in the Pikes Peak region. You can see a photo of that scrumptious dessert buffet below.



The next four photos are of contestants and attendees socializing before the reading competition got underway.






The next photo is of my registration partner, DeAnna Knippling, and me at the check-in desk.



The next photo shows all of the contestants after the readings were completed, destressed and having fun after their nail-biting moments on stage. The one after that shows the winners of various categories. Prizes included a free night at the Marriott hotel, which hosted the event, for the Audience Favorite winner Michael Shepherd. They also included partial manuscript reads & critiques by agents and editors, local bookstore gift certificates, and a query letter and pitch critique by yours truly.




The last photo shows the hard-working event organizers, Barb Nickless and Maria Faulconer, flanking the judges panel. The judges were:

Ange Tysdal, Agent at AKA Literary
Carolyn Sobczak, Editor at Fulcrum Publishing
Teri Cartwright, Writer and Producer



Last but not least, M.B. Parlow was the timekeeper and cowbell ringer, keeping everyone on schedule, and author Jodi Anderson was the emcee for the evening, keeping everyone in stitches. We had a stellar cast of writers who read from their works, and I'm sure the judges had a hard time picking the winners. What a fun event! I can't wait for next year's American Icon.

Good Times at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference

My previous blog post listed my required activities at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference, but in between those, I managed to sit in on a few sessions, such as Kelley Armstrong's pacing talk and Donald Maass's micro-tension talk, and socialize with writing buddies. Here's a few photos of the fun times.

The first photo shows me hosting a table at the Saturday banquet. Table mates included Barb Nickless, PPW VP of Programming, and Charlie Rush, one of the founders of PPW. The next photo shows me with three of my critique group writing buddies, M.B. Partlow, Barb Nickless and Robert Spiller. The third photo shows Ellen Phillips helping us play a joke on Robert--related to his obsession with black plastic bags. Don't ask! ;-)






































The fourth photo is of the Sunday Morning Writing and Marketing Short Fiction panel, including Carol Hightshoe, Barb Nickless, R.T. Lawton, and myself. And the last photo is of Donald Maass, Todd Fahnestock, and Jodi Anderson "sashaying" across the stage at the Sunday brunch. Again, if you weren't there, don't ask! ;-)

The Pikes Peak Writers Conference

This weekend I will be busy at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in my hometown of Colorado Springs, CO. I'm looking forward to hobnobbing with other writers, agents, and editors there and soaking up the energy I need to keep those creative writing juices flowing. PPWC is my favorite writing conference, and this will be the 13th one that I've attended. Here's times and places where you'll be guaranteed to find me, though I'll be hanging out in the dining room, hallways, and bar ;-) during the event. Please come up to me and say hi if you're attending!

Friday, April 23, 4:30 - 5:45 pm, Read & Critique 1-2-3 with an author (me), agent and editor

Saturday, April 24, 2:00 - 2:30 pm, Conference Booksigning
(I'll be signing copies of A Real Basket Case, To Hell in a Handbasket, and The Epsilon Eridani Alternative.)

Saturday, April 24, 5:00 - 6:00 pm, Mystery Writers of America Panel with moderator Mario Acevedo, me, Laura Hayden, R.T. Lawton, and Becky Martinez, followed by:

Saturday, April 24, 6:30 - 7:30 pm, MWA Mixer
(Come find out about the organization while having a drink and a snack. I'm the Chapter Membership Chair, and I love to encourage new members.)

Sunday, April 25, 8:00 - 9:00 am, Writing and Marketing Short Fiction Panel with Carol Hightshoe, R.T. Lawton, and Barb Nickless
(We'll have prizes for those in the audience who ask questions, so PLEASE COME!)

Sunday, April 25, 9:10 - 10:10 am, "They Said 'Send It!' Now What?" Workshop
(I'll talk about how to make that follow-up submittal to that agent or editor shine and will answer questions about the query process.)

Whew! A busy weekend. I hope to fit in attending a few workshop sessions myself, along with doing lots of networking and taking photos to post here on my blog after the event.

Saturday's Mountain of Authors Program

This past Saturday, I attended the Pikes Peak Library District's (PPLD) fourth annual Mountain of Authors program. What a great day! I arrived at 11 am to consign my books to the Friends of the Library sale then set up my display table for the Author Showcase Spotlight. Local authors, fiction and non-fiction, traditionally and self-published, ringed the large community meeting room.

After setting up, I took some photos of the library's planning committee, with whom I worked on planning the event, and some of the authors. The first photo shows me with Kevin Hudgins, a PPLD librarian who went to high school with my daughter. The second shows the lovely Becca and Krista, two more of the librarians on the planning committee, and the third shows the scrumptious lunch PPLD provided to the authors and the rest of the committee staff serving the food.













































The next photo shows me with romantic mystery author Rod Summit, who appeared on the 2:30 pm Genre Fiction panel, and multi-genre author Karin Huxman, who most recently published two wonderful children's picture books and moderated the same panel. The next two photos are of local science fiction and fantasy authors: Carol Hightshoe, who also edits two ezines of fantasy fiction, The Lorelei Signal and Sorcerous Signals, and Laura Reeve, who writes the Major Ariane Kedros novels and graciously blurbed my SF novella, The Epsilon Eridani Alternative.










































The seventh photo shows me with fellow mystery author Nancy Atherton, who writes the Aunt Dimity mystery series. Next I'm color-coordinated with fellow author Kirk Farber, showing off his debut novel, Postcards from a Dead Girl, and who is also a client of my literary agent, Sandra Bond. Kirk and Sandra both appeared on the 12:30 pm panel, Getting Your Book Published, along with Fulcrum Publishing editor Faith Marcoveccio. Last is a photo of Margaret Coel giving her keynote speech from 4-5 pm. Margaret thrilled me by mentioning in her talk that she had read the manuscript of my March, 2011 release, Deadly Currents, and enjoyed it. Thanks, Margaret!











































Quite a few people attended this free local event to learn a little about publishing, meet local authors and buy a few of our books, and learn about local writing groups, Pikes Peak Writers and Pikes Peak Romance Writers. The day was capped off with a combination book signing and reception featuring sparkling cider, butterfly-topped cupcakes, and my favorite, chocolate-covered strawberries. PPLD really outdid themselves on this event. I wonder what they'll have in store for the local writing community for their fifth Mountain of Authors event next year?!