Did you read that last week I released Kindred Spirits? I’ve created a video of all of the meme cards and quotes I’ve made and put it on YouTube. Here’s the link. Please share it with all of your friends, family, and significant others. Note that the cards have links on them. Not clickable, unfortunately, an  issue with jpeg files, but I encourage you to check out the links. Every link discusses something in the book. I hope you find the information both informative and fun. The book is up on all of my ebook and paperback sales sites, see the last paragraph below for links.

I started a giveaway on Amazon that ended yesterday, March 20th. I had 10 First Encounter ebooks to give away. Did you get one? I hope so. If not, I have a couple of free books up for grabs if you sign up for my newsletter. See below for more on how to do that.

This is Author Interview week and Lazette Gifford (http://lazette.net) will be my guest. Lazette writes SciFi and Fantasy among other things. Have you found a new to you author that you’re checking out? Lazette may be one! The post pops up on Wednesday.

Peach Blossoms

The tomato seedlings I talked about last week are still all doing well. I notice the plum tomatoes are growing faster than the cherries. Not a bad thing at all but just interesting to note. The mid-season daffodils are up as the miniatures are fading out. My pear trees are in full bloom as the nectarine and peach are dying out. The apple trees are just starting to blossom. I’m crossing my fingers that we do not get a hard frost or snow any more this year. If we do, I’ll lose all of the fruit. The parsley I transplanted to a different bed has died. I feel a little bad, it would have been nice to harvest it sooner than I could get from seed but it’s not a disaster. I have lots of seed I collected from last year’s second-year parsley and failing that, I can get plants at the nursery.

The Luck O’ The Authors giveaway is closed. We’re compiling all of the winners and should be contacting them along about Wednesday or Thursday. Hundreds of people participated, it’s a lot to sort out. Thank you so much for participating. If you missed out, don’t worry, we have a Spring giveaway coming up. I’ll keep you posted.

Did you pop over to Cover Wars on http://authorshout.com to vote for my cover? The contest ended Saturday. I did not win but many thanks to those who stopped by that website to vote.

I’m continuing to work on Mystery in the Woods. I know, I’ve been saying that every week but really, I am. I made a big break through this week writing over 10,000 words and getting down to my last four scene cards. What do I mean by that? I plot my story out by using scene cards. A 3X5 card that I write a sentence on with who will be in the scene, where the scene is, what the conflict is and what the twist to the story is. Anyway, I’m getting to the end of the story, and the last four cards don’t match what’s going on at this point at all. So I tossed them and wrote out six different cards which take me to the end and ties up the loose ends. Ha! Now I know who did it and what happens. I’m pretty pleased and should be able to have the draft done by this time next week. Yay!

I printed out Zoe Ohale and have it ready for me to begin my first pass through edits. I always do the first pass on paper. The difference between looking at the story on the computer screen and on paper is huge and I spot a lot of things I miss when I’m looking at it for the millionth time electronically. Zoe is a long book for me, longer than I’ve done before, over 70,000. I think you’ll like it!

Where will I be? Here’s the scoop.

April 11th at 3pm Arizona time I’ll be on the January Jones Sharing Success Stories web talk radio show. Have you heard me there? Don’t miss out.

April 16th I’ll be at the Tempe Public Library book festival where I’m on a panel talking about Science Fiction and World Building. I’m looking forward to meeting you there.

June 2nd and 3rd I’m at the Scottsdale MysteryCon, Death and Deception in the Desert. I’m giving a presentation there as well on writing a mystery.  Tickets for both days are only $35. I do hope you can make it to that one.  Here’s a flyer telling all about it.

July 23rd is the Payson Book Festival. I’ll be at my table all day, ready to talk to YOU! I hope you can make it as we will have over 70 authors attending as well as music, food, author presentations and workshops. It will be stupendous!

Want more details about these events? Click here for more information.

Click here to sign up for my newsletter. If you are a Brown Rain series fan, I’ve created a list just for you! If you join my regular newsletter, that’s all right too as I’ve put sign-up prizes on both. That’s right. If you sign up for my newsletter you get a free story from me. My next newsletter is being drafted so sign up today. The YouTube video I just made about Kindred Spirits will be in the newsletter. Just a note. I’m going to be sending out newsletters more frequently. Be prepared for fun and contests!

Kindred Spirits released on March 14th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Gumroads  or Chatebooks today! You can also see all of my books on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a review on the site where you bought it or on Goodreads. It’s a big help to me in the book rankings each vendor uses to promote the books on their sites. Thanks in advance.