Truthfully, I'm not exactly sure why my book was picked amongst all the others out there. Yeah, I think it's a good book with a good story, but am I really that good of a writer? Perhaps, perhaps not. I'm pretty confident there are quite a few good authors in the MWSA, and I feel privileged to have been selected. So, I'll see Saturday night what level of award Project: Dragonslayers will win. Even if it is honorable mention, I still feel proud that my very first novel made it that far. It gives me inspiration to keep writing, and to keep improving my stories. And I was pleased to find that the second book in the series: Mind Games, got selected for the summer reading list--another cool kudo. I was even more proud because that was my very first completely Indie produced book. I only had the help of my copy editor, Joyce, and two artists: Becky and Erika who did custom drawings for me, and one big armed guy who helped be my cover model. Other than that, I did it all on my own. With Mind Games, I'm extremely proud and hope that will get an award next year.
I recently joined a new group on Facebook, and after introducing myself politely, and stating that I was new to writing that particular genre, I had someone slam me and call me a hack since I was hoping to publish my first book in that genre in a couple of months. This person thought I had no clue as to what I was doing. I POLITELY explained that I was not a hack, have 3 books published, and take my writing seriously and have no intention of smearing the Indie author name. I am a professional. Yes, my hackles we up and I was in combat mode- how DARE someone call me a hack without even getting to know me first. Well, after a hearty, yet still polite rebuke, this person backed off, stating that perhaps they were a bit rash in their judgement. Thank you. But perhaps it might not be good to shoot first and ask questions later. All that person did was make themselves look stupid to their peers. I don't wish that on anyone, we're all in this business to create stories and get them out to readers- competition or not, we should play nice.
Farm life has been nothing but MUD. The board fenced paddocks for the horses are either totally bare mud, or the new ones we're trying to grow some nice grass for next year. With that, we needed to find a place to stick 3 horses- and they can't go out together. Well, I had this bright idea of stringing temporary hot wire fences. OK, good idea, except the horses quickly figured out the wire wasn't hot. We went into town and all 3 were in there separate paddocks munching happily away on grass. We got home to find the mare loose, running over to her loverboy gelding, springing him out of the wire, and then they ran over the hill and broke the stallion out. Chaos and mayhem!! Oh Crap!! We got the car in the yard and started running after horses. Thank God we had the whole perimeter around the farm house and barn fenced, so they didn't get far. But they all knew they were in trouble and ran around refusing to get caught. A loose stallion is a very bad thing! Not to mention, the mare was coming into season, and we didn't really want to have a pregnancy at this time of year. After 20 minutes of running and frantically trying to get the horses into some of the bare paddocks, we finally managed to get them. Whew! Not fun! The very next day, we went out and bought fence chargers. Oh, that was a treat seeing them test the fence for the first time. Yeah, they pretty much respect Mr. Zappy now! Unfortunately the puppy, Wellie, decided to go under the wire on the stallions fence- which is plugged into 120v outlet. Poor little guy got one heck of a shock and ran off yelping- right through the other side of the fence and into the house where I found him hiding under the dinner table. Lesson learned for him. The other dog got her lesson a day later. Now I just wish the cats would respect my need for sleep. Do they make anti-meow collars for them?
Until next time my creatively obsessed friends,
Kathy
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