Oh, April – you great googly-moogly you.
The weather here in Colorado is always a bit bipolar, but this month was a doozy. Warm, then cold, then rainy, then snowy, and then all of it all at once, and it ruined some of my vacation travel plans, so for that I say BOO to you Colorado weather! April is also my birthday month, which is fine, aging bothers me not at all. But it’s also the month I lost my Dad and my Mom, both have been gone for years now, but added all together – April makes for a weird month that takes it’s toll on me emotionally.

On Writing:
After finishing up my three story rush at the end of March, I decided to take this month off for some R&R. But I did hear back from a few competitions, bum-bum-bum…

I didn’t win the James Patterson contest! Which was truly okay. I wasn’t expecting to, so there was no disappointment. I did have fun writing something new and the challenge of preparing all of it, so yay for learning experiences.

But what about my WotF-Vol 33. Q1 story submission that I turned in at the end of December, you ask? I heard back about that one this month also!!
Totally didn’t win – well I got another Honorable Mention. To say I was heartbroken is an understatement. I tried to go over all the good things everyone posts on the forums and even what Dave himself has said about HM’s, in order to try and feel good about it, but it didn’t work at the time. I had to get some distance from the initial disappointment, and gain some perspective on it. With that done, I’m grateful this story wasn’t my winning story, and overall the experience is a learning one, pushing me to improve my writing, all good things. And really, two stories submitted and two HM’s is not a bad track record. Now, to just see what that Rejection email looks like for Q2’s submission, Lol 😉

The story I submitted to WotF-Vol 33. Q2 did get through to the contest coordinator, she emailed me a confirmation, and from what I hear on the forums (which I still can’t get on, no matter how much I bug some of the powers that be, ugggh!! ::blows raspberry:: ) is the contest coordinator prints out email submissions and sends them along to the contest judge on paper. SOOO, I probably won’t get that story’s rejection for quite awhile.
And yes, I am absolutely expecting a rejection on that one. I focused much more on another story (for the Baen competition) and this story was done just to get one done and entered into WotF. As I see it, that’s a win in-and-of itself.

On Reading:
It seems it was a slow month for both my writing and my reading as I only got one book in this month. I promise I had several second books all lined up, but just couldn’t finish any of them. So without spending this time discussing what I didn’t read, let’s discuss the one I did.

Only Book:
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Book three in the HP series, (again I’m revisiting the series by listening to the audio books). All I can really say is Ms. Rowling’s writing either evolved as she went and she just naturally got stronger, or some seriously amazing editors got involved and helped her strengthen. Whatever the secret, this book and the series overall, just keeps getting better and better. I can’t wait for book four, it was always by favorite in the series before things got real dark in book five.

On Life:
One of my very best friends came to visit me this month for my birthday. She lives in another state and comes out to Colorado about every two years, and we usually get into some form of trouble rambling around this beautiful part of the country. This year was no different, we spent some time just hanging out together, eating amazing food for my birthday week, and then went exploring some of the most beautiful parts of Colorado I have ever seen. Check out my birthday week & travels here.