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

Between Time and Place

Packing’s been the name of the game this week. Tomorrow I hop on a plane for Texas to attend a friend’s wedding, sans kids. Then on Sunday I hope another flight to Florida to meet up with the kids at in-laws for a week of fun in the sun!

But enough of what I’m doing. 

I’ve finally gotten around to reading The Time Baroness by Georgina Young-Ellis; A book graciously given to me by Mister International Mark for reading and reviewing. He chosen well, yet again (though I have to confess I liked A Thousand Glass Flowers better). But, the cool thing about the time baroness is that it proved to be valuable research for my Phoenixes.

How, you ask? Well it’s simple Cassandra ends up in a similar situation to Sarah. Only Cassandra’s a bit more, okay A LOT more prepared because it’s scheduled time travel and Cassandra has a return date. She’s been studying the time period – that of Jane Austin – she’s had a few pieces of clothing made – she’ll buy the rest when she gets there – and her turn has now come.

Choosing to go three years after Jane Austin passed away, Cassandra embarks on a one year journey into the life style Jane’s books embodied. She’s there to observe and take notes, to write a paper about her experiences. But, just being an observer is hard than she thought, as she’s drawn to the upper, and lower, class circles. Finding herself in her own Austin like tale, Cassandra must face increasingly difficult challenges as her year long stay comes to a close.

In a way Sarah’s jealous, since Cassandra has a way to return home to her family and friends, but I suspect that in some ways Cassandra might be jealous of Sarah – especially if you discount everything that goes on in book 3. Anyway back to how this is research. Well Georgina probably did a lot of research and her portrayal of Cassandra’s acceptance, how she both is and is not, was something for me to take note of.

Looking at those notes I’m thinking Sarah may be disguising herself as a man sooner than I thought. Now won’t that put Jason in a funny pickle. It certainly will put an interesting spin on book 1. I’m kind of looking forward to it.

Now it’s well past my bedtime, so I say 'Adios', and if you all like next Wednesday I’ll post up my, technically Sarah and Jason’s, responses to the 2012 March Beautiful People questions. Unless you want me to regale you with tales of the wedding and Florida.

*giggles and grin*

:} Leigh, Cathryn

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! :}

Am I Worthy?

Last week I mentioned something about having Guest Posts on my blog. Well apparently, the time was right as my two good friends Charley and Miriam immediately volunteered. Of course they won’t do it for free, but at least it’s only words they are asking me to write in return. So look for Charley and Miriam to appear here and in exchange I’ll appear on their blogs.

In addition, on Monday, Saffina Desforges had a facebook status looking for un-published author’s who wouldn’t mind showcasing their work on her blog. I volunteered. I must have been the first response because she e-mailed back saying if I got something to her by January 25th, I’d be the first. That’s a “Yikes!” and “Oh My Gooses” all at once. I wasn’t sure I had anything worthy, but thanks to Charley and Miriam , I have a good candidate, if my revising doesn’t then make it unworthy. *grin*

"We're not worthy" - Wayne's World

And since we are talking about guest blogging, I must mention Mark Williams. After I got my Kindle for Christmas, he kindly gave me two books, with my promise to do a review. He said if it was fairly lengthy and in depth he might consider posting it to his blog. I don’t know if I can write a review worthy of that but I’ll give it my best shot. The least I can do is post a condensed version to Amazon. I ought to be worthy enough to do that.

So am I worthy?

Yes, I am and you can be too. You just have to work hard, believe in yourself, and have a few cheerleaders to remind you that you got what it takes.

:} Cathryn Leigh