6 Sentence Sunday

#SixSentenceSunday blog post (from something I love):
And in that moment as I took in my mother’s red-rimmed eyes and lopsided hairdo through the smoky haze, I realized the horrible ugly truth. Those magic moments, those milestones that we so eagerly waited for, prayed for, woke up and greeted with open arms thinking how profoundly different our lives would be from that moment on didn’t mean Jack damn squat.

It wasn’t in the stupid birthdays, or the boyfriends, the engagements, the weddings, or even the birth of a child that we would find those profound changes we looked so forward to. It was in…the other things. The ugly, dark shocking things that we held to us and hid, always fearful others would find out. The Pandora’s box of horrible misguided choices made and deeds done in the name of what was good and what was right.

Leaving Town

I’m afraid that, due to a death in the family, I’ve got to leave town which means I’ve also got to cancel the last of the 14 Days of Love To those I owe prizes to, they’ve either gone out, I’m waiting to hear back on book/video choices etc or I’ll be in touch this weekend when I get back.

Monday Morning Winners

First off, the winner from Friday’s post/away is CHELSEA B. Congratulations! You’ve won a copy of Lilli Feisty’s DARE TO SURRENDER as well as the Robert Alvarado pin-up calendar and your choice from my backlist! Email me with your address so I can get your book out and your calendar ordered!

And now for the weekend winners. I want to take a moment to thank everyone who stopped by! Your stories were funny, and sweet and inspiring and I giggled and said, “aww,” more than a few times. Just FYI winners weren’t chosen based on story content but each and every one brought to mind a story from my own family, so thanks for taking the time to share!

Our Grand Prize Winner for the 5 page critique from Holly Root is: JULIE BUTCHER.

The winner of a 5 page critique from me is MARJORIE LIGHT (don’t you just LOVE kids? LOL)

And the winners of the query letter critiques are: GAIL Z, LIZLAFF, and SMOZER.

If each of you would email me in the next 24 hours to claim your prize.(Up at the top of my site is a list of drop-down menus. If you go to DIRTY SKINNY, you’ll see one labeled contact–it’ll open a pop-up window for you to email me. If for some reason, it doesn’t work for you, leave me a comment and I’ll get in touch!)

Day 6 of Love…for the writers!

It’s officially Saturday which means today’s “Love” post is for the writers. My agent, Holly Root, is giving up a 5 page critique to one lucky writer!

Here are the deets again: You will have until … Sunday night at 9 PM CST at which time I’ll close the comments (cuz that’s about the time I go to bed!) to share those family stories. They don’t have to be long or elaborate and grammar isn’t an issue–this is, after all, a blog! They can be as simple as, “My parents brought me home on Halloween and that’s why they call me their little pumpkin.” By the way, that story is partly true LOL

This way you can enter but you don’t have to worry about fine-tuning a pitch and I don’t get comments like, “Please enter me!” The winner will be announced Monday morning sometime between 10-12 CST (I have a dayjob).

And after a conversation with some fellow writers, I’m going to give away some critiques from as well–another 5 page crit to one lucky person and 3 query letter crits to three other peeps. As with all the other 14 Days of Love contests, you MUST leave a valid email address–that way if you forget to stop back by, I can drop you a line. If you fail to leave a valid email address and fail to collect your prize (email me) in 24 hours (by noon Tuesday), an alternate winner will be chosen.

Day 5 of Love…Lilli Feisty & One of my Fave Artists!

OUR DAY THREE WINNER IS JODER!  CONGRATULATIONS YOU’VE WON A COPY OF ‘LUCK OF THE DRAW‘ BY KAREN ERICKSON  (AS WELL AS YOUR CHOICE FROM MY BACKLIST)! EMAIL ME IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE! (Up at the top of my site is a list of drop-down menus.  If you go to DIRTY SKINNY, you’ll see one labeled contact–it’ll open a pop-up window for you to email me.  If for some reason, it doesn’t work for you, leave me a comment and I’ll get in touch!)

Just FYI…PHOTOS MIGHT NOT BE SAFE FOR WORK!

There are few things I love in this life as much as I love books–music and art being two of them…oh, and the kids–I guess.  While I can carry a tune without a bucket, I couldn’t draw or paint if my life depended upon it.

If you check out Feisty’s avatar here at NAS, you’ll see it’s a pinup model.  Well as it so happens, I LOVE pinup!  I blame my grandfather…he had this ashtray with a little pinup girl on it.

Anyway, you can imagine my excitement when I discovered the fabulous Robert Alvarado on DeviantArt (click to browse his gallery).  And every once in a while,  he includes one of my other favorite artforms in his work–INK!

I’m not sure it gets much better than that. 

So what about you?  Artistic or just an admirer and what’s your medium of choice?  Today’s prize includes your choice from my backlist, Lilli’s new book DARE TO SURRENDER (you can check out 5 cool facts about her latest release here or read an excerpt courtesy of the GCP website. I’m about half done with DTS and I promise you will NOT be disappointed!  Also, I’m throwing in a copy of Robert Alvarado’s 2010 calendar (gotta support the arts!)