Showing posts with label MWiDP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MWiDP. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A Dog, a Pageant and a Play?


Oh, my word, this week has felt crazy!
  • I finished reading this months novel
  • I had a short story published
  • I spent the day at the Zoo with my daughter’s kindergarten class
  • I’ve participated in an afternoon of dance rehearsal
  • We’ve adopted a puppy

And that’s on top of taking care of the kids, the husband, the house, going to work and all that. Yeah, I’m feeling a bit exhausted. Somehow, I will survive. I have before. It’s just one of those deep breath nights. Now, let me expand on the first two topics. *grins*


Review:  The Best Revenge by Anne R. Allen

I purchased this book on my Kindle as part of the Camilla Randall Mystery Box Set. Having just gotten used to figuring out how to judge where I was in a book, reading a book in a set threw me off. Somewhere around 25% of the way through I had to put the book down because I wasn’t certain I could handle it if Camilla’s life got any lower. Once I started it again, I quickly finished The Best Revenge (at 33% through the set).

What a relief.

Anne's writing pulled me in so deep that every time I came out of the book I’d be shaking from the emotional ride. Poor Camilla, debutant of the high society, thrust from her innocent world into one of sex and drama. Is she a darling in need of protection as playwright Plantagenet Smith believes? Or is she a spit fire young woman who can take on the world as reporter Jonathan Kahn believes? Oh and did I mention there’s the mystery of who killed the rocks star and some other sneaky mysteries lurking in the background ? Like I said, Camilla is put through a lot, but I’ll let you read to find out how she gets through it all.


I’m PUBLISHED! SQUEEEEEEEEE
Okay, so this is the last topic for the night. (I need some sleep before I have to wake up and tend to the potty needs of puppy and son.) That’s right, I’m an officially published author! After submitting a short story to Mark Williams, a few months ago, he took it and ran... Okay not quite. He did surprise me with an e-mail that included this link. And there is was, “The Harvest Pageant” by Cathryn Leigh a MWiDP single! (Can I also squee because they are the same people who published that box set above? *giggles*) It’s up on Amazon UK too.

Saffina Desforges wrote the intro (which is also posted on the Amazon page) I like the last paragraph best:
“Traditional fairy tales can sometimes be dark and brooding, and overly-stretched, while modern day fairy tales are often written in a modern style that ill-fits the setting. In The Harvest Pageant Cathryn Leigh achieves a delightful balance, with exotic settings and names, classic fairy tale themes, and a sound moral base, all told in a single short story that’s just right for bed-time reading.”

Wow, I would have never have thought about that story as kids bedtime story. After all, it’s the same setting as my Phoenix Trilogy, which isn’t a children’s book at all. Maybe I can write kids tales. I don’t know, but I’ll be trying my hand at more short stories. Now that my name is out there, I feel the need to write and polish more!

*GINORMOUS HUGGLES* Saffina and Mark – You made my day! (and potentially my week, maybe month, not likely year though, that’ll come when I finally get a novel out *giggles*)

:} Cathryn Leigh

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Squealing Until the Cows Come Home

What IS that Noise?
This week has certainly very squeal-tastic for me. Gosh I’m not sure what order to put them all in. I think it all started with Anne’s blog last Sunday, snowballed over to Mark’s announcement (which I read twice once on MWi and once on Sapphicscribe), and tumbled into a snowman with Saffina’s Musings and The Stone Church News.


·         Two Sunday’s ago I entered a contest on Anne R.Allen’s Blog to win a sighed copy of “Walter’s Purple Heart” or a signed copy of “Pay it Forward” both by Catherine Ryan Hyde. This weekend I discovered that I’d won “Walter’s Purple Heart”. OMG SQUEE! This squeal lasted the longest as I not only did so in my responding e-mail to Catherine, but also in instant messaging to Charley, on Charlie’s post to my facebook wall, in an e-mail to Charley (I hope her eardrums are okay) and finally on Anne’s Blog where she announced the winner.

·         Both Mark’s Blog and Saffina’s Author Blog announced what’s going on with MWiDP. I was so excited I wrote a poem for a comment, because, OMG their publishing venture looks super sweet. So sweet that I’m tempted to ditch the whole query process and just go Indie with them. But that’s not the only thing that made be squeal. I’m also squealing because I can’t wait until “St. Malroy’s Forever!” is published by MWiDP . Which my favorite peeps Miriam and Charley are helping to write!

·         A couple weeks ago Saffina stated she was “Banningthe Bull” on her personal blog. I took a deep breath and offered to give her an excerpt from what, I hope, will be my premier novel. In her most recent blog post she mentioned me as being “adorably excitable”, along with the fact that I’ll be first of her Illuminating Indies series, January 28th, 2012! SQUEEEEE I’m chewing my nails right now as I await my hubby’s review of what it going to be posted.

·         On the smaller scale, I wrote an episode for my church’s newsletter, but hadn’t hear a word as to wither or not it would be included. Lo and behold I received my copy of The Stone Church News,January/February 2012 issue and found it; one whole glorious page (no. 14) dedicated to my story! *giggles* On Sunday, one of the parishioner said he liked it and asked if I was a writer. I very proudly stated – Yes, though I’m not published yet, but I’m working on it. I also got two thumbs up from our priest as passed by my Sunday School class, though that could have been about anything!


So there you have it. I’m squealing yet again just writing and posting this list. It’s been an exciting week! Gosh if you could just see the jitters in my hands. Yup, I’m totally feeling adorably excitable now, even if my hubby might not like the phrase so much. (But you know what, sometimes it fits him too. *wink*)


:} Cathryn Leigh

P.S. You may also have noticed I've tweeked my look and started to add pages. Exciting huh! :}