One of the tasks we were given at the workshop was to come up with two “fortune cookie” writing prompts but with a few twists. Once everyone had come up with them, we all drew two from the “hat”. If we got our own, we put it/them back and drew again.

Then the fun began. You picked which one you wanted to write on and began to write furiously (no crossing out or erasing or going back) for about 10 minutes then slowed down to a somewhat normal pace where some minor editing could be done. Over the lunch break we were to expand on our earlier writings.

The fortune I got was Your Bad Habits Will Soon Be Exposed! We were allowed to vary them a bit, so I went with something from the past coming back to haunt my protagonist.

I think I’m sitting at about two and a half pages written in long-hand and on every line. Now to get it typed into the computer and saved.

I’m thinking if this goes according to plan it could be an entry for next year’s Scene of the Crime contest. We’ll see.

Since I was unable to attend my local writers’ group April and May meetings due to attending Brian Henry workshops, I made the extra effort to write something to contribute in my absence. Not ready to share them online – yet – because I might use them for entries in the Writers’ Union of Canada postcard contest (flash fiction up to a maximum of 250 words) next year.

I’ve got one entered in this year’s contest, too, that was originally written for one of our monthly prompts.

The prompt for April was It Was the Day She Dreaded – The Day of the Appointment. This one garnered quite the response, especially from the male members of our group when it was read aloud. Oh to have been there in person or a fly on the wall.

The May prompt was He had missed the perfect opportunity to say nothing.

Our prompt for June is War and Peace. Yowzers! I’m sure I’ll come up with something before the 27th but, if not, I’ll be there for the meeting so maybe I’ll be a rebel and not contribute!

The trip to Sudbury was a blast! Great time spent with family and I got in some quality shopping, including a suede jacket from Danier Leather. Woo Hoo!!!

The writing workshop was entertaining but mostly informative without being overloaded/overwhelmed. The same workshop is being offered in Kingston in October – much closer to home – so I might go again. I mean, you can’t absorb everything in one go around.

Now I just have to apply everything I learned this past Sunday to my revisions/rewrites of Sarah’s Gift.

Cross your fingers for me.

It’s finally official. Our deeds arrived yesterday. We are Scottish landowners. We bought two small plots of land in the Laird’s Wood in Lochaber.  And now that we are landowners, we will be henceforth known as Laird Donald and Lady Melanie…

Sure by Tummel and Loch Rannoch and Lochaber I will go…

I can’t say I’ve ever had this happen before but it has now. I’ve had my feet propositioned!

I’d bought a new outfit to wear to a birthday party on the weekend. I was wearing chunky turquoise jewellery – necklace, bracelet, ring. Later in the supermarket, I came across a bottle of nail varnish that would be the perfect match for my accessories. So, I painted my toenails to match. Little did I know what was to happen later in the afternoon.

So, only having worn the sandals for a short time to get used to them and with having to climb steps, I decided going barefoot was the way to go. After all, I didn’t want to “fall off my shoes”.

One of the guests, looked down at my toe nails and that’s when the fun began! He started by saying that they looked absolutely delicious! I think he said, he could eat them up, too, but that he didn’t have a fetish. And in the next breath, he said he was salivating! The more he tried to get his foot out of his mouth, the deeper it went in and the other one joined it soon afterwards.

I looked at one of the other guests – my bikerhen friend – and we got into the laughing. We laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. Even he who propositioned my feet had a good laugh.

When the party started to break up, I put my shoes back on and went in search of “he who propositoned my bare feet”. If he thought they looked good out of the shoes, what did he think in them?

Here is a picture of the shoes… what do you think?

I’ve come to the conclusion is very much like the road to hell… paved with good intentions. But, I’ve gone further than many people along that road. I’ve had a number of non-fiction articles published, and two complete novel manuscripts. And I have sent out queries, pitched to editors, unfortunately, all with the same results.

However, since joining RWA and the Ottawa Romance Writers Association (chapter of RWA), my writing has improved ten-fold, if not more. Workshops, support and mentoring have gone a long way to aid my quest in becoming a published author in novel-length fiction.

I thought listening to my Ontario morning on CBC radio by live streaming via the Internet would be the easy thing to do. For a while it worked wonders… then the problems started happening there, too. But not the radio changing channels on its own… this time it was a bug with Windows Media Player.

A simple fix… uninstall and reinstall the newest version and all is well. I’m happily listening to the radio on the Internet every morning until I have to leave for work.