Naughty or Nice? Read all about the Writing Wenches here...

Naughty AND Nice, those Wenches. 

On December 1, a group of women (and one man they affectionately call “the barkeep”) who call themselves the Writing Wenches pulled off a pretty major accomplishment. They released an anthology collection of twenty-one holiday themed short romance stories, in a single volume, called Unwrapping Love.  It became available for sale on Cyber Monday of this year!

The book is huge. It's got 738 pages. I was one of several proofreaders and take it from me, there is some serious talent in this group of 21 authors. I am extremely proud to be a part of this anthology.

The book couldn't have been completed without the help and guidance of PageCurl Publishing and Promotions. Unwrapping Love was published under their imprint, and they provided editing, formatting, marketing, and cover design services. 

The following Writing Wenches are hosting a blog hop. Each of them is hosting a giveaway, and telling you a bit about her part in Unwrapping Love! You can stop by each website to learn more about the anthology and enter each individual giveaway, which will be posting over the next several days. 

Kay Blake contributed Winter's Gift. 

Kay Blake

 

Kay's cover!! so cute!

 

Christine Cacciatore...that's me!! wrote Noah Cane's Candy.

 

 

here's my cover...can't wait!

 

Patricia D. Eddy wrote On The Eve of Love.

Patricia Eddy

Here's another Christmas short from Patricia, available now on Amazon

C. S. Kendall is the author of Second Chance Girl. She would love it if you would visit her at her website.

CS Kendall

here's her cover!

Tami Lund is the author of The Perfect Christmas.

You can find her here . 

Misti Murphy contributed Christmas Candy, and you can find her here.

Misti Murphy

Quenby Olson wrote First Position, and you can visit her here.

Keisha K. Page contributed Rhythm of Love, and you can visit her here.

Here's Keisha!

Grace Ravel wrote Shut Up and Kiss Me, and you can visit her here.

Grace Ravel

Grace's cover

Jennifer Ray wrote Declan's Special.  Visit her here! 

Jennifer Ray

Here's Jennifer's Christmasy cover!

Jennifer Senhaji is the author of Angels in Disguise. Visit her here!

Jennifer's cover for Sweet Dreams

A.E. Snow contributed Miles and Mae, and you can visit her here.

AE Snow

cover for Miles and Mae!

Sheri Williams wrote Numb. 

Sheri Williams

Numb (in Neon!)

She is sharing the blog hop from the Writing Wenches main website at www.writingwenches.com.

S. K. Wills wrote Hanley's Secret, and you can find her website here. 

Allison Winfield is the author of Stay With Me. You can find her at here.

Allison Winfield

aw. Cute cover.

 

Other stories in Unwrapping Love were contributed by: 

Melody Barber

Sonja Frojendal

Melina Gillies

Michael Simko

Beth Stanley

K.R. Wilburn

***As part of my blog today, leave a comment in the comments section about what your very, very favorite holiday movie is.  I'll pick one at random and the winner will receive a $10 gift card from Amazon.com, where you can purchase Unwrapping Love, or any of the other books various Wenches have for sale!  Including mine I wrote with my sister...Baylyn, Bewitched and Cat, Charmed!

Good luck!

 

 

Do you like to win contests?

Attention all Poets!

In Print is holding several writing contests this year!!  From now until February 28^th, we are taking poetry submissions.

Sharpen those pencils, grab your ballpoint pens and a clean tablet of paper and find a quiet place to write.

Are there prizes, you ask?  Of course there are!  Good question!  The prizes are as follows:  $75 for first place, $50 for second place, and $25 for third place.   In cold, hard cash.  Not only that, you will get recognition at the In Print meetings, on our website, and in our newsletters. 

Winners of the poetry contest will be announced at our April 13^th meeting, where local poet Christine Swanberg will be our special guest.

If you are a member of the wonderful writing group In Print, there is a $20 per fee piece, which includes judges’ feedback on your musings.

If you are not a member of In Print, the fee is still $20 per piece, but no judges’ feedback…unless, of course, you decide that In Print is a splendid writing group to join.  You would be write.  Er, right.  When you join you not only get judges’ feedback but all the valuable benefits In Print offers. 

We are holding two other writing contests this year.  One is the non-fiction writing contest.  Submissions for that are accepted May 1 through June 30 with winners announced on August 10, and the fiction contest accepts submissions from September 1 through October 31, with winners announced at the December 14^th meeting.

In Print has a panel of 5 qualified judges to read and critique submissions, and of course declare first, second, and third place.

For more complete instructions on how to enter check out the In Print website and to submit poetry, just use the In Print submission form by either clicking on this link.

Ten rules for a successful garage sale

As weekends go, it was a pretty fun one, to be sure.  After an excruciatingly LONG four day work week, Joe and I slept in Saturday morning, getting up at a leisurely 8:30 a.m.  (I think.  I had the wrong glasses on.)  Into the living room we went to map out our garage saleing for the morning.  Aside from a few promising prospects, there weren’t as many as normal; although there was one with 8 homes on one street, though, and we were sure to score something there.

We didn’t score anything there and in fact, there was one house where the clothes and various dirty household items were strewn about on rickety tables with no prices.  Ew.

People, if you’re going to hold a garage sale, there are ten rules.

1)      You’re trying to get rid of it, right?  Price it that way.  Otherwise you will be packing it all back up again.  If it means that much to you, don’t sell it.

2)      Group like items together attractively.  Make sure they’re clean and if electric, make sure they work.

3)      Put a price on your items.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  People attending your garage sale tend to walk away from something if it doesn’t have a price. 

4)      Signs.  There can never, ever be enough signs to gently guide me, the garage-saler, to the exact location of your garage sale.  After all, if you’ve gone through all the trouble to have a garage sale, let people know where it is.

5)      And if you advertise a garage sale, then hold a garage sale.  We have searched high and low for a particular sale because of what was promised in the ad, only to find a closed garage door.  It wasn’t pretty.

6)      When said sale is advertised, please don’t just say “too much to mention.”  Give us poor coffee-swilling; diehard garage sale fans some idea of what you are selling.  My idea of miscellaneous is household/clothing/glassware.  Yours might be quilt blocks, pictures of cats, old baskets, and embroidered, raffia'd toilet tissue (For Decorative Use Only).  Neither one of us would be happy, right?  Right.

7)      Having a cooler of water/soda or a lemonade stand on a hot, hot day is a stellar idea.  Just don’t charge more for the drinks than you do for items on the table.  And if you are charging more, they have better have liquor in them.

8)      Have a “free” box and put something in it.

9)      If you have colorful children’s items, line them up and down the driveway.  It catches our jaded garage-saler’s eye and makes us more apt to stop and browse.

10)  It never hurts to have friendly people manning your garage sale.  Throw on the radio.  Turn on a fan for circulation in a hot garage.  It does make a favorable difference in your garage sale ambience. 

Yesterday on our Saturday “hunt” we found:  a cool Schlitz sign, a unique square plate, a bag of pretty  headbands, and a ceramic heart decoration. 



the headband on the left is for when I go hunting.  Not.

Jos. Schlitz.  Too cool for school.

new fruit plate.  new heart thingie.

We also, despite our complete zig- zagging around Rockford, found that we came across the same husband/wife couple at three consecutive garage sales in three different neighborhoods.  When we saw them the last time, I mentioned that we weren’t going to map out garage sales next week; we’d just follow them around.  The wife responded by slyly grabbing up all of the cool dog toys that I didn’t see.  The husband retorted that we’d have to be willing to go to breakfast first and pay the bill in exchange for their knowledge and expertise. 

We laughed.  As the husband passed my husband on the way to the truck, he told Joe that he and his wife were going to do a little tweaking to their current garage sale schedule so that he could, and I quote, “see if he could shake us.”

I'm sure he was just kidding.  He probably just didn’t want us to get all the embroidered toilet tissue.

Game on.  See you next Saturday.

we LOVE contests!

You’re a good writer.  You know it.  Anyone who’s read your work knows it.  Have you been thinking of entering a contest to prove to the world that you can write a winning short story?

Here’s a wonderful opportunity for you.  The In Print writer’s group is holding their 1^st annual writing contest.  Your short story has to be 1000 words or less; poetry needs to be 30 lines or less, and the only other requirement is that your story or poetry must be something about writing…an author, a group, or perhaps how you beat writer’s block. 

Will there be prizes?  You betcha…there will be one $100 winner for each category.  The deadline is June 10^th, and the winners will be announced at the August 11^th In Print meeting. 

It’s $10 for members and $15 for non members.  Checks should be made payable to In Print and sent to PO Box 2146, Loves Park, IL 61132.  Make sure each submission you send in contains your entry fee, a cover letter with your name and contact information, and your story or poetry.

Do you have lots of stories you’d like to submit?  That’s fine; just be sure to include a separate $10 or $15 fee and a cover page with each story.

We have three distinguished judges who will be judging in three categories:  fiction, non fiction, and poetry. 

You know you’re a good writer.  Time to let everyone else know!

Questions?  Call Kristin Oakley, President of In Print, at 815-275-9226.