Have HOPE!

This posting is not only for writers but for everyone around the world.

Times are hard. No job security as we once knew it. Health issues abound. Natural disasters continue to flow like a never-ending parade.

Yet...

there needs to be hope that things will look better,

things will begin to improve...

because without hope, what do we have?

I fell in love with this remake of Everything is Gonna Be Okay. I hope it brings you that inner calm it gave me. It made me realize once again that others in the world have problems far worse than my own. Have Hope!

It's VBT PARTY TIME

Holy Toledo! November is going to be rockin' and rollin' over at the VBT group. For those who don't know what VBT is it's the Virtual Blog Tour gang and do they EVER have a fantastic party lined up for November. It's their SUPER-DUPER Anniversary tour.

Every day there will be a prize offered and you just might be a winner. All you have to do is leave a comment for the guest. Prizes will be offered from November 1 - 23.

But WAIT...

there's more.

"OH! Wait a minute! That's not all! We are still having our Mystery Site Giveaway and the SUPER-DUPER PRIZE is a $25 (US) GIFT CARD to either Amazon, Target, or an American Express Gift Card."

For more info go to the VBT blog and check it out.

The Muse Conference was another SUCCESS!

Now that I am bald, smoked my pack of smokes, drank the full canister of coffee, and returned to a normal life...yeah right...I can give you the scoop of the behind the scenes.

First off I'm bald because I answered over 2000 emails in my email box alone, forget about the conference posts. Writers asking me if they were registered, how to get to the chats, what's the username and password for the handouts, and so forth. Next year I am making up a FAQs so I can actually attend the conference and relax. GRIN

For those that have no idea what the Muse conference offered go to this link and check out all the workshops, chats, publishers, and pitch sessions we had:

The 2009 Workshops

Yes, I know, tons offered. Hopefully you'll join us next year. Link will go up for all in November so stay tuned for that and bookmark the website.

For those who wrote me and said and I directly quote from one particular writer but they all had the same sentiment, "I am not registering because I know I'll get what I paid for." Um...totally wrong and sorry you missed it. Maybe your writing pals who did join can give you the details what you missed. You're forgetting that these are REAL publishers, REAL agents, REAL editors who are attending. The only difference is that it's online and no travel expenses, no hotel expenses, no food expenses. And FREE doesn't mean crap, trust me, not in the Muse Online Writers Conference.

Pitches were great. Now if I can get writers to read guidelines maybe those who sent me picture book pitches for romance and dark fiction publishers might have a chance to pitch next year to the RIGHT publisher.

We had the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Larsen Pomada Agency, and the MacGregor Agency taking pitches. Rachelle Gardner was there, too, with an amazing one hour informative chat.

Tons of publishers were on hand all week or offering pitches and chats to help writers:

4RV Publishing
Black Velvet Seductions
Breathless Press
Crescent Moon
Damnation Books
Eternal Press
Freyer's Bower
Lyrical Press
Morrigan Books
Paladin Timesless Books
Red Rose Publishing
Samhain
Wild Child Publishing
White Rose Publishing
The Wild Rose Press
And Twilight Times

And they are all REAL publishers who gave all of the attendees a great time with tons of informative answers to questions.

For the long list of presenters click on the link I gave you above.

There was one surprise waiting for me at the end at the conference farewell party, a Thank You video. This one had me in tears filled with emotions but also laughing at their video. You gotta see it:

THANK YOU TO LEA

I've already started preparing for next year so make sure to hop on November to the conference website and register early. Tell your writing buddies, your groups, deadline August 1st - NO EXCEPTIONS next year.

Once again, a BIG thank you to my wonderful head moderator, Michele Graf, and her lovely and enthusiastic staff, the presenters, and to every attendee this year.

See ya next year.