Sheila's Guests and Reviews

Preview the Ash Wednesday page from Easter! Creation to Salvation in 100 words a day . Just go to http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview.php?fCID=4401106 and scroll to page 4, or type 4 in the top right corner.

Second Wind Publishing is running a contest based on Pat Bertram’s book, More Deaths than One. The three finalists are posted at http://secondwindpublishing.com/bertramcontest.html , and I’m one of them! Please follow the link to read the entries, and please vote. Thanks!

Most of the nings I’ve joined are for readers and/or writers, and on one of them I found myself volunteering to write some book reviews. I’d done a few reviews on gather before ( www.smd.gather.com ) but this time I was asked to post my reviews to Barnes and Noble and Amazon… Yeah, I know. It’s no big deal. But I’d never done it before. Should I use my real name or stay anonymous? How much or how little should I say? And how on earth do I rate something when I’m seriously ratings-averse? …and on Goodreads? I’d never even heard of Goodreads. So I went there, signed up, and in a spurt of unaccustomed energy ending up posting all my reviews at once, new and old. You can find them at http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2039269 , though it’s not a representative selection of books that I’ve read – just of ones I’ve reviewed. Maybe I should write a few more, just for completeness. It’s on my to-do list.

Once upon a time, I promised my sons I would never visit Myspace or Facebook. It’s a privacy thing—-I wouldn’t go messing with their stuff; I wouldn’t barge into their rooms without knocking; I wouldn’t search their files on the computer. And it’s trust—-I have three sons, and they care about each other: they let me know if anything’s wrong. But it’s also a generational thing—-Myspace and Facebook just looked so strange, I wouldn’t know what to do with them anyway. Then came Gather. To be more accurate, then came the first ever Gather First Chapters Competition, just as I finished writing my novel, so I joined ( www.smd.gather.com ) and entered. I wasn’t sure what all these groups and connections were about—“It’s just like Myspace,” said my sons—-but it was a fun place for me to write and make friends. There was something on the Gather front page about blogs back then. Yes, I’d heard of blogs. I wasn’t quite sure what one was, beyond a public private diary, but I’d heard of them. Still...

Easter is coming, and I'm hoping to sell some copies of my Easter drabbles. Easter! Creation to Salvation in 100 words a day will take you from Creation on Ash Wednesday, through the 40's of the Old Testament; to the Beatitudes, parables and miracles of the New Testament; and all the way to death and resurrection on Easter Sunday. A hundred-word Bible story, Bible verse, calendar quality picture, and hundred-word commentary for each day of Lent... available from www.lulu.com/sdeeth preview at http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview.php?fCID=4401106 or email me for special deals while stock lasts.

I started my computer fresh, had a word doc open with my pitch ready to play, signed into the conference chat room, and tried to stop my hands from shaking. The first person was called to pitch, and the next; my hands still shook. Then my turn: I clicked on the link and my computer froze. “Help,” I typed, my computer too old to support two chatrooms at once, and while they helped it froze again and crashed. Control-alt-delete, shutdown, restart, hands shaking even more, I finally made my pitch. But I’m thinking face-to-face might’ve been less scary after all. Thanks for your good wishes. They said I could send a writing "sample" so I'll let you know if anything comes of it.

I sold two more books today. That means I’ve sold all my first batch of Genesis People. Now I can use the money to order more. I won’t be making any profit, of course, but it’s fun to know somebody’s reading them. And who knows… maybe one day… Meanwhile I’m pitching Psalms and Parables to Pauline (children’s) tomorrow, and still dreaming of being professionally published. So, if you happen to be reading this, please wish me luck. Genesis People: three-minute stories and thirty-second prayers based on the first book of the Bible. Real world; real people; real God, from www.lulu.com/sdeeth .