Tomorrow’s Guest Blogger
Kerrie Flanagan, director of Northern Colorado Writers, will be here with tips on getting the most out of a writers’ conference. The NCW Conference is scheduled for March 30-31 at the Hilton in Fort Collins, Colorado.
NCW Writing Contests
First, there’s the Top of the Mountain Book Award associated with the Northern Colorado Writers Conference. There are both fiction and nonfiction categories, and you do not have to attend the conference to enter. Guidelines are on the NCW website. Submissions close on February 15, 2012.
Short Fiction:
NOW OPEN: Short Fiction 2012
DEADLINE: January 31, 2012
We are proud to announce that the 2012 Short Fiction contest will be judged by award-winning author Antonya Nelson!
What I’m Reading
I’m finally getting around to the four John Ceepak novels I bought at a mystery convention about 4 1/2 years ago, which shows you how far behind I am in my reading. I sat next to the author, Chris Grabenstein, at dinner one evening and fell in love with his sense of humor. I’m now reading Tilt-A-Whirl, the first book in the series. Chris has written several more Ceepak mysteries since, so I have some serious catching up to do.
Thoughts on Keeping My Nose to the Grindstone When Katie Cat is in the Room
It’s really hard now that Katie has discovered there’s an interesting cursor thingie that moves across my computer monitor when I’m typing….or the even more interesting cursor thingie that flies around the screen when I’m hopping from Twitter to Facebook to other places.
Katie Cat gets on my desk, parks her butt right in front of the monitor, and watches the cursor. When she gets tired of that, she tries to use my shoulder as a launching pad to the table behind me where all my plants are now in protective custody. And when that fails, after leaving a few claw wounds in my shoulder, she paces back and forth, meowing loudly, demanding I follow her downstairs to play her new favorite game, Shoestring.
It’s really hard to stick with a task to the end when she’s in her “Do what I want right now” mood…which seems to be most of the time these days.
As I was writing this post, she was on my desk, watching the cursor again. I was typing blind, and had to lean around her to proofread my work.
It’s funny, though…most of the time.
Enjoy the books. Enjoy Katie, especially Katie. Animals, don’t you think, are a bit like children. They grow…older. You never know how long you’ll have them around!
Ann Best, Author of In the Mirror & Other Memoirs
Yes, Elspeth, thank goodness for touch typing. Otherwise I’d have to evict the kitty and have her howling and throwing herself against the closed door (which is what she does when I take a shower).
Hi Ann, good to see you here. I’m so far behind in visiting my blogger friends I’m afraid some have given up on me.
Alex, it’s true. I’m just a pet who has access to the cat food (and the magic shoestring).
Dean — I thought you might recognize the name of tomorrow’s guest. She’s very famous in these parts.
Margot, I have lots more mysteries on my shelves that I should have read long ago. When I went to Bouchercon in 2009, I had to ship my books home from Indy because I bought so many and collected even more at the big free book signing.
Another great potpourri of information, Pat – and good luck writing around Katie! (perhaps this is why we learned touch typing back in the day)
How cute… Thank you for all the information Patricia. I have made a note of it. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
Katie runs the house now – just face facts, Patricia.
Contests will have to wait, at least for me. Looking forward to the guest blog tomorrow…I think I’ve heard of her somewhere….hmmmm….
Sounds like there’ll be delay in replacement, should your computer crump. Katie Cat would be most displeased to lose her knew toy!
Have a geat day, Pat!
Pat – So glad to hear you’re reading Grabenstein! That’s terrific stuff, and I really hope you’ll enjoy it. I can only imagine how distracting Katie is, but I am so happy that she’s doing well :-).