Surprises, Taxes, and Monday Fortune Cookie, 4/15/13

THERE WILL BE MANY SURPRISES; UNEXPECTED GAINS ARE LIKELY

SNARKY RESPONSE:  On Tax Day, just surviving may be the biggest surprise. After meeting with my tax accountant the only unexpected gain is going to be on the scales. Comfort food is so high-cal.

THERE WILL BE MANY SURPRISES; UNEXPECTED GAINS ARE LIKELY

Actually, Tax Day was several weeks ago for me and, thankfully, not a disaster.

Preparing my taxes gave me a chance to take a walk down memory lane and so I'm going to inflict a few highlights on you. Brace yourself.

The Virginia Romance Writers 2012 Conference - I actually submitted the winning name for the conference - For The Love Of Writing. It was a wonderful conference and resulted in my finding a home for COLLECTOR'S ITEM at the Wild Rose Press!


A SALE! - I mentioned before that I found a home for COLLECTOR'S ITEM at The Wild Rose Press. My first enovella, THE FESTIVAL OF THE FLOWERS: THE COURTESAN & THE SCHOLAR, is currently in their catalogue.

Tea & Strumpets Panel - My second ever speaking engagement at a lovely little venue in Hampton. Just loved the name! What fun with the authors who helped to form the Words, Women, Wisdom (W3) blog group.

Discovering The Porches Writing Retreat - I was invited to join a lovely group of women (I call 'em The Porches Divas) on a writing retreat. I got the spicy scenes in COLLECTOR'S ITEM written there!

W3 was formed - I joined a creative bunch of ladies to form a group blog. We're an amazingly diverse group of writers covering a wide range of genres. The blog is still evolving, and I feel the best is yet to come! My monthly contribution is Myth Perceptions where I explore myths and fantasy on the third Wednesday of the month. Hey! That's this week! Dew Drop In!

I'd worked harder to develop more of an online presence with facebook and blogs. Twitter, sadly, is just not my venue of choice, though I do tweet occasionally!

Mainly, I'd say that my dedication to my career as a writer continued to expand in 2012 and I've been continuing the trend in 2013 with COLLECTOR'S ITEM's release.

However, the best part has been the folks I've met here on Golinowski's Gambol, facebook, W3, and all points in between. I hope that we all have positive returns and happy surprises on this Tax Day!