My father . . .

I am writing to you from Texas, where I quickly and suddenly drove to be here. My father is very ill. Please keep him and our family in your thoughts as we hope for a recovery. He's in ICU now and heavily sedated.

I already feel your well-wishes, strange as that sounds.

Photos: No Words - Dupont State Park (and a few from my cove)

 

(My brother went home today *sad face* so now time to get back to work. I'll have some photos/video of our Great Smoky Mountains Train ride soon! - Loved it - I have become a true "Train Person" now :-D )

Great Smoky Mountains Railroad

Hello y'all! My brother and I are out having fun -- doing, seeing, antiquing/collectibling, rock-ogling, exploring, hiking, etc., so I haven't had time to write up a post or pull together any Linky Love.

Tomorrow we'll be going on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad . . . what fun! Ole GMR will stay behind at the little log house, waving "so long see y'all later" as he relaxes back with a big ole sigh from all the noise and laughing and jittery twitchyness that is my brother and me - haw! Now you all go have some fun and have a wonderful weekend. I'm hurrying off to see what Tommy is up to ... :-D

Photos-Video: No Words (and a link to interview)

Take Me Home Mountain Mama – Kathryn Magendie Interview by author Kimberly Brock, whose own novel will be released in 2012 by Bellebooks!


My brother and I didn't know "this thang was on" - until later in the video (pardon the "finger display" and I think there is a cuss word in there - oh oh lawd! :-D)

Links: Daniel Wallace Guest Author at R&T, Firefly Dance, RAP, etc

Morning y'all. Today I have general poodley-doo and links for you. I'm in the homestretch for the final Graces Saga, and after that, well, who knows what comes next. I have some thoughts, but they are wavery and hidden behind mists and are so unformed, I do not know what I'll discover.

First. The Firefly Dance anthology that I have a novella "Petey" in, along with works by Sarah Addison Allen, Augusta Trobaugh, and Phyllis Schieber, is now out in print and ebook forms. I believe that Bellebooks will be having some sort of Kindle promo, but I do not know when or how or what it will be. However, I want to pass that along. As always, I hope you will ask for books in bookstores, especially your local independent bookstore, and the library. Yes, I linked to Amazon, but I cannot deny that people buy books for kindle!

In Rose & Thorn news: if you haven't stopped by our Rose & Thorn Journal, please do before the summer issue flies away.

Our fall issue goes live October 15th, and we have a Special Guest Author: Daniel Wallace, author of BIG FISH (which was made into a movie in 2003) is our Guest Author for our fall issue. We will, from time to time, have special guest authors/poets.

We are proud of all of our gifted and talented writers and poets - Angie Ledbetter and I want to extend to you the invitation to submit to Rose & Thorn. Go in, read all of or a sampling of our stories and poetry in summer issue and in the archived issues - then submit!

Angie and I, our Managing Editor Cynthia Toups, and the wonderful staff of R&T, are known for publishing established and emerging voices. We love it when we "discover" a new voice, someone who hasn't been published before - it's exciting!

I found this on Fuel Your Writing, where people are sending in their writing spaces. I haven't yet, but I just might!



On Jane Friedman's blog: Writing on the Ether by former CNN journalist Porter Anderson. "Writing on the Ether will round up some of the best and timeliest articles related to writing and publishing that you don’t want to miss."

There was a "Random Acts of Publicity" on Facebook, where people could go in and talk about an author's book. Linda Leschak, who has been a contributor to Rose & Thorn and quite the wonderful writer herself, surprised me by talking up SWEETIE on RAP, along with a fun interview with me. Thank you, Linda! I hope y'all will stop by her blog, if not to read the blushingly wonderful things she said about Sweetie, then, most important, to come to know an interesting strong woman.

I didn't think I was going to try this, but I did try the Kindlegraph. I put the Sweetie novel only because I was curious, and because I want to stop being afraid of new things *laugh* - so, Sweetie is now on Kindlegraph, and I've "signed" a few Sweeties. Very weird and surreal thing this new world of books and publishing and interaction between readers and authors is! Still not sure what I think about it, but it is there and I will see what comes of it.

That's enough for now. Hope you all enjoy the links. Now go do the day! Have a great weekend, and I'll see you next week. And don't forget to spend some time relaxing and finding a state of gratitude! Namaste.

Photos/Video: no words; America the Beautiful, my cove, Lake J walk, Wolf-tales