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

“...gonna use a nom de plume...”

If you don’t start singing the song from Disney’s Aladdin, then watch the video and maybe you will. :}

Okay back to the subject of Nom de Plums, or Pen Names. As I was perusing writing and publishing related blogs I came across this one from The Passive Voice, Pen Names – Everything You Need to Know, and it got me thinking about how I could use various pen names for all the different categories of stories I have on my hard drive and the names I could use.

I got a little carried away, but thankfully a post by Anne R. Allen, Part IIIof her How to Blog series reeled me in. She recommends, for the second or third time, that you should use your name as your blog title so your readers can find you.

I commented how I have name confusion, between Elorithryn and Cathryn. Okay I have name confusion on more than those two, but Anne commented that she’d seen Elorithryn, but hadn’t realized it was me. That gave me pause.

Isn’t the sun avatar clue enough? I suppose if you don’t know me, or the fact that it’s my tattoo, perhaps it is confusing. The thing is I consider the sun my Brand more than my name. Names change, that tattoo is quite permanent. Not to mention it is the source of my sunny disposition. *grin* It’s also a unique design, born of my own drawing and the tattoo artist’s flare for color.

But perhaps the sun isn’t enough. Perhaps this ought to be Cathryn Leigh’s Diary, not Elorithryn’s, though the web address might have to stay http://elorithryn.blogspot.com/, though maybe I could get CathrynLeighsDiary.blogspot.com. I don’t know what that will do to my net presence though. You see, if you Google Elorithryn, I pop up immediately (this blog, Protagonize, NaNo...). Google Cathryn Leigh and you don’t find me (the woman I was named after pops up though; she’s the only one who spells her name like I do). *sigh*

So, if anyone has any advice for me on this quandary, please share it. I’m beginning to wonder if I should have stayed Elorithryn when I started posting comments on writing blogs... But I want to be published as Cathryn Leigh.... *sob, sigh, breath and grin*

:} Cathryn Leigh

A Return to Routine

Well here it is Tuesday night time for another Blog entry. Not really sure what to write. I’m currently steeling back into a normal routine after having nearly two weeks of house guests. Boy that put a strain on my sanity. It was rough playing hostess for our 2nd annual Blow up Carroll County party, but the party goers seemed to make do.

No we don’t actually blow up Carroll County, but we do light off a bunch of ground based fireworks. Well the boys do. I just sit back with the kids and watch. My husband and his father made a trip into Pennsylvania to go to the firework warehouse. They got a really cool one called the Star Spangled Banner (I think). Anyway it was wicked worthy of being the finale (even though it wasn’t).

Amazingly enough I also managed to get in some edit time. My mother-in-law and I went off to Panara Bread to sip drinks and just not be around the kids and hubbies and, especially in her case, her mother. My husband’s Nana just moved in with his parents and so his mother has yet to fully adjust to having a third person living her house. I can totally understand where she is coming from.

Other than that it’s been fairly tame around here. I have a tap dance lesson tomorrow that I’m excited about. I never got a chance to practice, like I wanted to, but I’ve been running through parts of it mentally. We just don’t have a good floor for tapping. *pout*

And the kids, they are growing like weeds. Fiona (age 5.5) is now 47.25 inches (1.5 inches more than in March of this year. Brendan (age 3.5) is 42.75 inches (2.5 inches more than in March!). Yes, someday I will again be the shortest person in my family.

And so ends my rambling for the evening. *grin* Time to join in another teen role play and meet more people on Protagonize. *giggles*

:} Cathryn Leigh

Introducing Myself

Tonight I thought I was going to manage to slip in some editing on my current story in progress. No such luck. I got thoroughly distracted by creating this blog. So, now that the kids are sleeping and this dishes are done I might as well give you a little introductory post.

My name is Cathryn Leigh.

Well that’s the name I had printed on the tags you can sew into things you make. It really is my given name; first and middle. You see when I had those tags made, back when I was twelve, I was thinking. They came in bundles of 500 and I knew I wasn’t about to make 500 things in which to sew the tags before I got married. I also knew I’d take on my husband’s last name. So, Cathryn Leigh it was because, they would never change though my last name might, and has.

I have other names, which complicates things. Real life friends and family call me Cayla, it’s how my husband almost always introduces me. My coworkers and the parents of my kids’ friends call me Cathryn. And all those cool people I’ve met though the internet call me Elo, or some variation thereof; Elorithryn being my current and favorite.

But, whatever you call me, I’m still me.

I’m the girl who loves to create and will forever dwell in the land of her imagination. Writing is the hobby I spend the most amount of time on, though come October it falls by the wayside for Halloween costumes. In December it’s cooking gingerbread cookies and making cranberry sauce that eat away at my nights. But, whatever hobby I happen to be working on, you can be sure I’m creating something. That’s my passion.

But know this; I will be published one day. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even next year. But it will happen. And this blog is about me getting there... eventually, and all the detours and sidetracks that happen given that I am a writing, working, mother.

:} Cathryn Leigh