10/28/09
Found out I won an Honorable Mention in the Fall '09 24-Hour Short Story contest. Woo hoo!!!
Oct 16, 17, 18
October 2009
9/20/09
9/1/09
It's out! It's out! The Zombie Cookbook is now released! You can order through Amazon and other online outlets, or ask your favorite store to order it for you! Check
out my poem "A Zombie Named Clete" and my short story "Secret Ingredient". A nice sampling of zombie-licious delights!
8/24/09
Found out I won one of five doorprizes valued at $49.95 for the Summer '09 24-Hour Contest I submitted to
last month. Moving my way up the chain! List of winners. Have already signed up for the fall contest. :)
8/22/09
Submitted to Hint Fiction anthology. They are looking for 25-word stories. They'll be in touch by mid-October.
7/19/09
Participated in a Summer '09 24-Hour Short Story Contest. Got the prompt yesterday and submitted my story today before the deadline. Fun stuff. My second time entering, now a month
to wait for results!
6/23/09
Received contract for my two entries in the upcoming "The Zombie Cookbook" to release in September.
6/17/09
Submitted short story for upcoming "The Zombie Cookbook" anthology and it was accepted within hours!
5/15/09
Submitted zombie poem for upcoming anthology with Damnation Books and it was accepted right away. The poem
is really cute. Hope to write a story to go with it.
5/27/09
Found out I won 1 of 30 grab bag door prizes for the Spring '09 24-Hour Short Story Contest I entered last month. Woo hoo! I'll be entering the summer contest - this
one was a lot of fun!
4/26/09
Submitted entry for 24-Hour Short Story Contest. Hopefully it'll win something! The concept is that a prompt is posted on a certain day at a certain time and you have
24 hours to submit a story using the prompt and based on the guidelines. Lots of fun. :)
3/30/09
Mysterical-E magazine (a quarterly) printed my honorable mention story, Discovered Identity. I won the award in the summer of '08. Neat to see the story 'in print'.
2/28/09
My flash story "Perfect Reception" was published in the winter edition of The Fiction Flyer. (pdf file, pg 14)
11/15/08
Attending the 7th Annual Crime Bake conference. I'll be pitching at least one of my novels to a handful
of agents. Quite exciting - and nervewracking! But it's a great weekend and I'll be writing like the wind the next few days
from all the inspiration I get by being around other mystery authors.
11/8/08
I'm over 17,000 words on this year's Nano novel. Turns out it is a young adult novel called "The Friendlies
of the Forest". When I sat down on November 1st to start writing, I had no idea what my novel was going to be about. I certainly
didn't have any idea it would be for a young audience either!
I love how the writing process works!
10/27/08
Received word that 2 of my flash horror pieces will be published in The Bloodied Quill in December.
Gotta love it!
9/13/08
Submitted a flash story to The Fiction Flyer. Got the acceptance notice the same day!
July & August '08
Have been focused on networking through MySpace. Lots of activity on the non-fiction side of my life.
Learned I took Honorable Mention in a mystery story contest that I entered in November. The story
will be published in a future issue of the magazine, which comes out quarterly. I'll make sure to update my pubbed credits
page with the story link when it comes out! Yay me! Oh, I had a hand in helping the 3rd place winner polish his
story. Maybe I helped too much? :)
6/21/08
Lost my entire blog from tripod today, so I've converted over to blogspot. It's so much easier to use and update. Just really pissed that I lost the reviews and interviews
that I had on the original blog. (grrrrrr)
6/20/08
Hosted Kim Richards as a stop on her VBT today. Have quite an interview with her, and she has shared a lot of great links. Her new novel
Death Masks is a chilling read.
6/19/08
Was asked by Sandy Lender about why I use a pseudonym and how I came up with the name. See my reply on her blog.
4/3/08
I created a MySpace page. So many folks have one, and it certainly can't hurt to get my name out there some more. I've
actually got quite a few friends already! I plan to use it for networking, and for meeting other writers - particularly
those in New England. I love meeting other creative types, and finding those in my 'neck of the woods' is something
that has always interested me. So, hopefully it'll be a cool place to be. We'll see!
4/1/08
More exciting news! I'm now on the staff of TWC - The Writer's Chatroom. I'll be moderating a monthly author chat, finding authors to bring to the chatroom, researching, writing
newsletter articles, updating blogs, and who knows what else. I love what they do in supporting writers, and the authors
they bring in are incredible - generous with their time and willing to share themselves with the audience. I've been
wanting to be involved with them (other than as a participant) for a while now, and here I am - on the team! Woo hoo!
Feel free to subscribe to their email list so you'll be notified of upcoming author chats - you may find
a new author to read AND meet! The 'Celebrity Sunday' chats are held every Sunday from 7-9PM EST.
The site has a plethora of information - so if you're a writer, check it out, you won't be sorry!
3/31/08
Wow. This is cool. I received a copy of "Kytos - The Dark Beyond: The Rathing Chronicles" from John von Kesmark (the author) today. I assisted him with editing the manuscript last year and the
book is now in print. Not only did he autograph it for me but I'm actually listed in the Acknowledgements! I hadn't
known that ahead of time. He gives me a nice plug. "Thanks are due to Lisa Haselton in the USA for her initial
critique, advice, and editorial role and for putting me right on the correct use of 'English-American' phrases..." This
is another first that I'm celebrating. :)
3/16/08
I hosted my first-ever Virtual Book Tour (VBT) stop yesterday on my author blog Reviews and Interviews. A VBT is where an author "stops by" and answers questions, but instead of being in person in a book store,
they are online on a blog. Being 'virtual' allows authors to reach an audience worldwide from the comfort of their
home office. It's a cool concept and I didn't have a full understanding of it until this experience.
I hosted debut author Jordan Dane. We had an interview and then she fielded questions all day
from visitors. There was trouble with the blog for a part of the day, but once that was fixed, the questions and answers
free flowed. (another learning experience) I'm looking forward to hosting more authors this year. Already
have 2 lined up for April!
3/1/08
Just found out I took 2nd place in a flash (500 words or less) fiction contest. Yippee!
1/16/08
I received an Honorable Mention 4th place for the 2007 Muse Contest. My story isn't published on the site, but I'm not able to shop it around. When it's published,
you can be sure I'll post it on the published credits page! I'm told I'd be surprised at how close to third I was, so
the story is a winner.
The theme was "winter", and the story had to have a surprise ending. It's great to see my name
listed among the winners. On to the next milestone!
12/15/07
My writing experience now includes ad copy for books...my writing outlets continue to grow. Yay.
11/25/07
I crossed the NANOWRIMO finish line at 10:45 tonight! It was a hard race. I wasn't able to stay
up with the daily 1,667 words due to paying writing and editing jobs taking priority. (Silly me, huh?) But I had
a huge sprint this weekend with over 10,000 words on Friday and over 11,000 words on Saturday. I needed a measly 3,500
to finish, so tonight I've done a little over 4,000. My novel is not at all done. The story seems to be just starting!
I'm continuing with it. But as of today I'm considered a "winner" in nanowrimo land. I'm SO EXCITED!!!
11/1/07
It's November 1st. Start of NANOWRIMO! I have *no* idea what my story is yet, but I'll be starting
it in, oh, 10 minutes or so. I met other local participants on the 29th, and that was cool. We writers are
an isolated lot, but now I have names to go with screen IDs. Nanowrimo is a great experience. If nothing
else, it teaches you how to turn off negative voice in your head that says you can't do anything!
10/15/07
Just wrapped up my week-long attendance at the Muse Online Writing Conference. If you've ever been
to a writing conference, you know how exhausting it can be - all the mingling and meeting and learning and walking and talking
and socializing and pitching and writing, and, yeah, it's a great experience, but exhausting.
Well, attending a conference online is even MORE exhausting, I think, but also a lot more beneficial.
It brings in an audience from around the globe. The friendships made are probably more real and longer-lasting than
those "in-person" conferences. The camaraderie can't be beat. And the contacts are priceless.
I'm now in the recuperative stage. All my work went on hold last week so now I'm playing catch
up while still processing all that I gleaned from the conference. I attended over 31 sessions in all. I have gobs
of handouts, publishing contacts, resource links, and a lot of new writing friends. I've already blocked off the week
for next year's conference. :)
9/14/07
My flash fiction writing partner and I placed 1st and 2nd in the September Fiction Flyer contest.
We helped each other with our stories. She took first and I took second. What a team!
