As I mentioned in my journal a few days ago, National PowWow 14 is now just a memory.  Held only every 3 years, NPW will not come around again until 2011.  This year we all met for 4 days at the Vermillion County Fairgrounds in Danville, Illinois and had a great time!  If you’d taken a stroll through the camping area you would have seen vehicles from all over the United States.  Off in another area of the camp were the gorgeous tipis all clustered together as they would have been in the 1800s.  In 2011 we’ll probably be at another site (undecided at this time), and if it is anywhere near where you live, stop by and enjoy the dance, the food, and the great traders!

I thought you’d all like to see a photo of the head little girl dancer, Paiden.  Paiden’s mom, my daughter Jenna, is adjusting her otter hat. The hat is a traditional piece of clothing passed down from her Comanche great grandmother, and the right to wear it is only given through family lines.  Among the Comanche, the otter hat is worn by both men and women.  The gorgeous and typical Comanche beadwork (using red, white and a particular blue known as Comanche blue) on Paiden’s buckskin dress and the rosette on the hat is some of her mother’s exquisite work.  Paiden also proudly wore her grandfather’s Vietnam/Air Force service ribbons on the back of the dress, midway between her shoulders.  This is another typical Comanche way that the women displayed their pride and support for the veterans/warriors in their families.  The silver brooches on the sides and tail of the otter hat and her belt are some of her grandfather’s exquisite silverwork pieces, custom made for Paiden. 

Do any of you writers, published or unpublished, enter contests?  If so, why?  What is it that you’re looking for?  An editor?  An agent? Validation of your craft?  A Sally Field “they like me, they really like me” feeling?  Or is it just something to do on a rainy day when you’ve got an extra $20 or $30 in your bank account? 

Being between contracts, I think that I’ve picked up the habit of doing contests again for a few selective reasons.  I have a fabulous agent so I’m not looking for a new one, but I’m hoping that maybe one of my entries will tweak an editor judge’s interest.  I definitely don’t have any extra money and certainly have other things to do on a rainy day.  But yes, I have the need to validate my writing.  And lo and behold, more than occasionally I get  a lot out of the judges’ comments — constructive critiques, great plot suggestions, astute comments about characterization, and all of the good, strong opinions about my writing that I won’t get from family members or best friends who love me and don’t want to bruise my feelings.  Do I get upset with some of the contest judges’ remarks?  Duh!!  Sure, I do.  I’m human, I’m a writer, I’ve got the usual writer’s thin skin and easily bruised ego and insecurities.  Granted it’s easy for me to tell my sister critique partners (the fabulous Critters) to suck it up, that rejection is part and parcel of the entire writing/publishing process, but deep down there is a tender spot in my soul that suffers, just like theirs do, over every criticism or negative word.

Being published and not having a current book on the market, my selection of available contests is rather limited but there are a few that are well worth the effort.  What is great is that I can try out new projects, prepare better proposals, and see if I’m heading down the right track with a story by entering.  And yes…it also helps to keep my name out in the world.  Editors who are associate members of RWA read the Romance Writer’s Report (RWA’s monthly magazine) and soon begin recognizing a person’s name and potential if the author’s name continually shows up in the contest winners feature of the RWR.  I don’t just pick any contest to enter.  I’m not interested in the ones that judge only a few pages, just a love scene, or a great beginning sentence.  I want a contest to challenge  me, to allow me to submit at least 30 pages of manuscript and sometimes a synopsis, and one that has a long-standing and prestigious reputation with editors who are the final judges who might be interested in my work.

The other thing that I’ve found that helps me out a great deal with my own writing is judging entries in my own chapter’s contest and often volunteering to judge other chapters’ contests.  It is also a thrill, one which I’m sure feels the same to an editor or agent, when I discover an entry that absolutely blows my socks off.

So, when I find an extra $20 or $30 in my checkbook, discover a contest that has all of the elements that I like/need, and when I’ve got a project that I’d like to toss out into the pool to see how it swims…I’ll fill out the entry form, either write a check or use PayPal, format my entry as the contest requests, send it in and anxiously wait to find out how it fares. 

Just be warned…contests can be addictive.  And, like any addiction, that isn’t good for you at all.  They can suck $$$ out of your account, take up too much time from your writing, and sometimes encourage you to only write good contest entries and not the whole book.  But, contests can also be encouraging, exciting, give you walls loaded with certificates, and accolades.  Just remember to carefully examine your reasons and needs to enter a contest and keep the goal of writing a great book, garnering a sale and building a career in your sights.  Oh yeah, and as a reminder from my blog from yesterday…back it up!  :>)

You’d think by now that I would have developed the habit of backing up everything I write.  Not just doing it sporadically but being faithful to the habit and doing it every time I write.  Apparently not.  Apparently I don’t have the desperation (or intelligence) to protect every word that has flown off the end of my finger tips when I’m working on a book.  Well, as you can imagine…paybacks are the proverbial hell.  A couple of weeks ago I inadvertently hit the wrong key and guess what…yup…I completely lost the file on a new project that I’d been working on.  After hours of trying to find a hard copy, praying that I’d sent it to my critique group (the infamous and fabulous Critters) and scouring through the piles of papers on my desk and rummaging through disks that might have had an original version…I gave up.  Gone.  The whole darned thing had vanished into the misty ether of the wicked locale known as Cyber World.  Yeah…I know, I know…always back it up. 

I was really excited about this story idea and had the synopsis done and the 1st chapter completed…not just completed, but fully edited, loving it, and ready to leave it behind and move on to chapter 2.  Now the hands-wringing angst begins.  Will I ever be able to recapture the turn of the words, the atmosphere and the characterizations that I’d established?  Yeah…I know, I know.  I’ve gotta try.  And after I try, and after I get it written, what do I do?  BACK IT UP!!! 

Last week I ran away from the day-to-day humdrum of my 9 to 5 job and spent 5 fabulous days visiting with old friends, partying, dancing and powwowing at the 14th National PowWow in Danville, Illinois.  I was very surprised, what with the cost of gas, to find so many dancers, traders and spectators at the dance.  The weather was grand — with the exception of Saturday when the rains came, forcing us to finish off the event inside.  It was great spending times with friends from Oklahoma, Texas, New York, Montana, South Carolina, Florida, Canada, and all points in between.  The traders had some marvellous items — some of the most gorgeous silver and turquoise jewelry, fabulous beadwork, featherwork, dance clothes, and on and on and on.  I made 1 purchase (yup…controlled my urge to buy more turquoise) and came home with a new t-shirt.  The food traders had everything from some of the best frybread ever to buffalo burgers and delicious Winnebago wild rice soup. 

My sister Faith’s granddaughter was the head little girl dancer and there were a few nights that we stayed up almost all night long finishing up a couple of her new outfits.  One loooooooong trying night was spent tying the tin jingle cones to her new Comanche buckskin dress. 

I was also able to spend some time talking with a couple of well-known anthros who have written a couple of my favorite books on the American Indian culture.  I came away from these conversations with some great new ideas for my books — so I guess I brought more home from NPW 14th than just a t-shirt.

Speaking of t-shirts…I was amazed to see so many people wearing the purple 2008 Natchez PowWow t-shirt that I designed.  It’s great to see your artwork walking by.  :>)

I’m glad I was able to go to NPW this year as I won’t be heading off to San Francisco the end of this month for the RWA national conference.  This is the 2nd year in a row that I’ve had to miss it.  It’s hard to hear everyone’s excitement about going and know you won’t be on the plane, in the hotel (and bar), at the workshops and parties with them.  Have a grand time, ladies…maybe next year.

Here we are — the last day of June. If the rest of the summer goes this quickly, I’ll blink and it will be over.

I’m feeling a little depressed as I’ll have to miss going to San Francisco for RWA’s national conference in July. I’m also excited because instead of RWA nationals, I’ll be at the National PowWow for 4 days of dancing, singing and being with family and friends. The high gas prices may keep attendance down, but it will still be a grand time. My neice is head little girl dancer and for the past months we’ve all been busy making her new dance clothes including a fabulous Comanche-style beaded buckskin dress, and putting together items for her giveaway. National powwow only takes place once every 3 years so for the next 2 years it won’t conflict with the RWA national conference.

After 2 major computer glitches where my manuscript for Delicious disappeared (yeah, I know — back up, back up, back up) I’m rewriting from an old hard copy that I had. As Yogi Berra said — deja vu all over again. The only good point to this has been the fact that I’ve been able to rework the plot — hopefully for the better. I’m still liking the characters and the “message” of the story so this time I’m doing back ups and keeping current hard copies. You’d think after all these years of writing that I’d be better trained.

To all of you who are going to San Francisco — I envy you all the fun that you’ll have while networking, meeting editors, agents, partying with friends and fellow writers and doing all the sightseeing. My pals in my critique group, The Critters, are going and rooming with other chapter sisters and friends — I know that will be a wild bunch (I’ve trained them well). Good luck to Kay — I’ll have my fingers crossed that they call your name during the Golden Heart Awards!

Until next time…

Sometimes, whether we like it or not, life just has a way of getting away from us. Once again this has been the case with me and I have to confess…I’m getting darned sick and tired of it. My latest excursion into the medical arena lasted a horribly painful 5 months and ended in May with surgery to repair 4 fractured vertebra. It was excruciating sitting at a computer, either my desktop or laptop, and trying to write. I was going berserk trying to keep up with all of the characters, dialogue, scenes and plot ideas that were cramming my Vicodin numbed brain. Now that healing is well underway and the wonderfully warm Indiana weather has returned (somewhere between the tornadoes and floods), I’m enjoying my evenings on the balcony by the lake and the hours I’m spending working on a couple of projects.

A couple of editors have shown interest in “Delicious” and it has placed very well in a couple of contests I’ve recently entered. The selkie book, “The Changeling Heart,” and the deer woman story, “Deadly Embrace,” have also just finaled in another competition. I was told by the contest coordinator that they received the two highest scores in the contest. My agent is diligently working toward a sale or two.

This is just a short note to let you know that I’m back at the keyboard and hopefully I’ll be able to report some good news in the near future. Enjoy the warm summer days and evenings… We’ll chat soon.

With very little time left before I head home to Canada for Christmas, I’d like to wish you all a wonderul holiday season and a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!!  Enjoy all of your family gatherings, give thanks for all that you have, and strive to achieve your fondest wishes.

 Happy Holidays to all!!!

According to my grinch of a weatherman on TV this morning, tonight Indiana is expecting its first snowfall, ice and sleet of the season.  Bah humbug.  No…triple bah humbug! Yeah, yeah, I know…it would be the perfect time to snuggle into a cozy corner with the laptop and knock out the latest of your books.  Yada, yada, yada.  But how can I concentrate on writing when I can literally hear every horrid snowflake hit the ground with a thud?  I’ve made the statement before and I’ll say it again – snow should gently fall in big fluffy flakes on Christmas Eve, lie in artistic drifts on the ground sparkling in the sunshine all Christmas Day, and then totally disappear in the early a.m. of December 26th and never appear until again next year on Christmas Eve.  Now, that’s a present to put on my Christmas Wish List!!!  Instead I’m putting plastic mats on the floors in the new van to keep the carpet dry, looking for extendable snow scrapers and brushes at the auto store, checking the level and temperature rating of my antifreeze and making sure that the battery is okay.  At least it’s not as bad as some areas in Canada where people actually run an extension cord and plug their car in for the night to keep the motor warm.  Yeah…bah humbug.

The ironic thing is that after all of this grumbling, whining and downright loathing of snow, in a couple of weeks I’m heading to Canada, the Great White North, for the holidays.  They’ve already had their 1^st snowfall this past week.  Okay, I just added snow boots, scarf, gloves, wool hat, and parka” on my packing list.  Hmm…I guess I’d better get a bigger suitcase. 

This coming Saturday my RWA chapter is having our annual holiday and end-of-the-year party.  It’s hard to believe that the year has slipped by and we’re facing 2008 just ahead of us.  Hopefully the publishing market will soften up and solid romances with solid plots and solid characters will be back in solid numbers.  Some of the latest trends are fine for those who like them, but there are many, many readers who are still avidly looking for the more traditional romance reads.  I’m sorry if I’ve offended anyone with that statement, but it’s just my opinion – you know, it’s the one I’m entitled to. 

I hope that you’re all enjoying your holiday shopping trips to the mall, the shoving crowds, harried sales clerks and jammed parking lots.  I spent about two hours or so on the Internet, completed all my shopping, and everything I chose will be delivered to my door in time for Christmas.  So, now I can kick back, maybe spend some cozy time with my laptop and at least get a good start on a new book.  Oh yeah, and there’s that batch of cream cheese brownies I promised to make for my RWA chapter’s holiday party.