Thursday, April 29, 2010

BLOGMANIA CONTEST

Welcome to Blogmania.

This is the day you have a chance to win thousands of gifts. My blog is 48 of 122. You have arrived at the right time to explore lots of new blogs, all of which, are giving away a very special BLOGMANIA giveaway for one day only, April 30th.

We've done all the work for you. No hunting or surfing. Each blog will have a number and each new blog link will have a number. These numbers will allow you to keep track of which blogs you've visited and how many are left to visit. You might even want to take a moment to make a list of blog numbers 1-122 and check off the blogs as you go.

Some of the prizes being offered at this site are White Citrus products from Bath & Body Works, a DVD with hundreds of casino games, e-book of ADDICTION, notepads and numerous other items.

To win here at my blog all you have to do is become a follower and leave a comment. Those who are already followers need only leave a comment. On Sunday, you can return to my blog to see if you are a winner.

Here are other links to go to for more prizes:

Blog -1 - Host of Blogmania Between the Pages - http://betweenthelinesandmore.blogspot.com/

Blog -2 - Co-Host of Blogmania - The Black Sheep Dances - http://www.theblacksheepdances.blogspot.com

Blog-43 - Co-Host of Blogmania - Books, Books, Everywhere - http://bookywooks.blogspot.com/

Blog - 100 - Reading Teen - http://ReadingTeen.blogspot.com

Blog - 83 - The Cajun Book Lady - http://thecajunbooklady.blogspot.com

Blog - 70 - DK's Book Reviews - http://dkay401-bookreviews.blogspot.com/

Blog - 32 - Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers - http://insatiablereaders.blogspot.com

Blog - 9 - A Writer's Life - http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com

Blog - 108 - Queen of the Castle Reviews - http://queenofthecastlereviews.blogspot.com

Blog - 41 - The Lost Entwife - http://thelostentwife.net

Blog - 47 - Joyfully Retired - http://joyfullyretired.com/

Each one of these links will have more links to go to. Remember to come back to this blog on Sunday to see if you're a winner. Good luck and have fun.

Sandy
http://www.skaymarshall.com
http://www.eirelander-publishing.com/addiction.com




Sunday, April 25, 2010

Mid-America Romance Author's Retreat and Blogmania

Hi Everyone,

First, I'm going to tell you about blogmania again. You are missing an exciting time and a chance for thousands of prizes if you don't join in. Learn more at this site
http://betweenthelinesandmore.blogspot.com/2010/04/blogmania-early-bird-check-list.html or read the blog I posted on Monday.

Last week I missed posting on Sunday because I was at writer's retreat at Basswood Inn from Friday night to mid-Sunday morning. To give you an idea of what's involved with a writer's retreat read the list below.

We arrived around 5:00 p.m., unloaded our cars and helped others with theirs while the ones who arrived earliest helped set up the food. The first night we all contribute to the food pantry. lol There's enough food the first night to keep us going all weekend. lol

As we continue to munch and drink various beverages, we sit around long tables listening to readers and critiquing the work everyone has brought to be read. During this time we stop occasionally for a break and have a drawing. Everyone at the retreat has the their name in a pot where if their name is drawn they have a chance to win a prize. Some of those prizes were awesome, and I was envious of the winners.

Did I mention we munched and drank more. lol

We did more critiques and quit about 10 or 10:30 at night to break off into groups to visit. Many went to bed early in preparation for an early day on Saturday.

The next morning, we were up early trying to get to showers (mind you there was only three bathrooms for 37 people) to make it to breakfast at 8:00 a.m.. Our breakfast was wonderful thanks to our wonderful chef, Carla Cassidy, and author of a hundred books. You can visit Carla at http://www.carlacassidy.wordpress.com

At nine o'clock sharp we were sitting at our long tables for the first of many workshops on Saturday. I don't remember exactly what order the workshops were presented, but here is what was presented to us.

World Building is an important part of writing a story, and we learned a lot about doing it in our class World Building 102. This topic could be a blog all by itself, so I won't elaborate here. This class was given by Gretchen Jones and for some reason I do not have a website or blog for her.

We had another workshop on promotional items given by Marianne Stephens. In this class, we received lots of promo advice. All advice was good for those who are pre-published and published. This course told you how to get you and your brand out there before you become published. You can learn about Marianne Stephens at http://www.mariannestephens.net/

The next class was about humor, heat and hooks and tells you about the elements of a scene. Since Katy Madison will be doing a workshop at Romance Author's of America (RWA) conference this summer I will not go into detail here. You can visit Katy at http://www.katymadison.com

Break: Eat and drink and be merry. lol

We had a workshop titled, A Writer's Business Plan Template by Laura Phillips. She can be found at http://www.lauraphillips.net/ This course is very important for anyone, whether writer or business owner. There were things I should have been doing but hadn't even thought of them.

Carla Cassidy gave a class on writing romantic suspense. I'm always learning new things from Carla and she manages to come with great workshops. You can learn more about Carla at http://www.carlacassidy.com

Did I say we ate? lol Again. All the time. lol Yep, we took a break for food.

After we ate some of us walked around the pond or out to the fishing dock to walk off some of that food. lol During our breaks, we often walked as well as visited and ate.

Break time is over and we're ready to hit it again. Back to having our precious work read and critiqued. This is serious work because this is when we learn what works and doesn't work in our work in progress (wip). We get the tough questions and we have to answer them in order to continue with our wips. Thanks, Kari, for one of those tough questions.

After a late night, we wake in the morning for another breakfast before starting to work on critiques. I had to leave earlier than the noon checkout time, but I had a great time. Much thanks go to the organizers of this wonderful retreat.

Thanks goes to Sunny Cole for collecting all of the wonderful prizes. You may learn about Sunny at her blog, http://www.authorlyncash.blogspot.com/


I also want to thank Katie who clarified some things for me. Did I tell you that this retreat is paid for by our local RWA chapter MARA. Everyone brings food for Friday night, and we give a small amount of money to our blessed organizer for food, which she buys the ingredients and fixes the food for all of us.

It's a terrific retreat and worth joining MARA just for it. You may visit MARA's website at http://www.mararwa.com to learn more about this writer's group.

Thanks,
Sandy
http://www.eirelander-publishing.com/addiction.htm
http://www.skaymarshall.com

Monday, April 19, 2010

Blogmania Contest

Blogmania Early Bird Check List:
We want all of our visiting guests in our first Blogmania Event scheduled for April 30th to Get On Their Marks-Get Set…
It’s not time to go yet, but if you want to have the most fun and scoop up as much loot as possible, here are a few Early Bird Reminders to help you do just that.
1. 1. Be at any of the blogs participating in the Blogmania Event as early as possible on April 30th. The easiest way to find a Blogmania Blog is to look for the Blogmania Badge.
2. 2. This is an international event, so understand that there will be some differences in time zones. My advice is to start early and stay late to catch all the blogs.
3. 3. Each blog will have their own giveaway requirements. Read them carefully, follow through, and then move on as quickly as possible. If you run across a blog that you really like and want to spend some time exploring, copy their URL and then visit them after Blogmania is over.
4. 4. We will have a 100+ blogs for you to visit. Each one will post their number like this. ( This is blog 47 of 100) This is to help you keep track of which blogs you’ve visited, and which ones you still need to reach. I’d suggest that you prepare a blog sheet which is numbered from 1 – 120, then mark off each numbered blog as you visit them.
5. 5. All blog links provided will also have a number like (Blog 89 of 100). Look for the blogs that you haven’t yet visited and follow those links until you’ve checked off all the blogs on your sheet.
6. 6. We have all types of blogs participating in Blogmania, which means that the range of items in their giveaways are diverse. I have previewed many and they are awesome.
7. 7. Why not contact a friend and partner up. Compare notes, share loot, or organize your own friendly neighborhood Blogmania Competition.
This is our first Blogmania Event, but it isn’t our last. Blogmania is a bi-yearly Giveaway Extravaganza. In fact, our next Blogmania Event will start September 15th, and do we have some cool stuff planned for you! So keep in touch with our Blogmania Blogs, because they will be giving sneak previews, secret codes, and who knows what else in the weeks and months ahead.


Sandy
http://www.eirelander-publishing.com/addiction.htm

Sunday, April 11, 2010

ONE DAY BLOGMANIA


On April 30th, Blogmania is sponsoring a one day blog contest. The more blogs you visit the more chances you have to win multiple prizes. Do you like going to garage sale? If you do you'll love this because the prizes here will be new and not used, and it's free.

All you have to do at my blog is become a follower and leave a comment to be entered for the prize. At the end of the day, I'll have a drawing and have my dh pull the winner out of the hat. There will be a list of other blogs to go to and from each blog more links.

Here's a list of some of the prizes I have in my offering: casino games download, a whole selection of White Citrus from Bath and Body Works, notepads, a PDF formatted of my latest e-book, Addiction and anything else I can come up with between now and then. Wink! Yep, I'm still looking for goodies, so I can make your prize extra special.
You literally will have the chance to win hundreds of prizes. We’ve done all the work for you, no hunting or surfing for just the right blogs. All the blog links you’ll find on our participating blogs are loaded with giveaways and just waiting for you to drop by. Remember! The special Blogmania prizes are only available for one day, April 30th so mark your calendar.

Until next Sunday have a good week.

Sandy
http://www.skaymarshall.com
http://www.eirelander-publishing.com/addiction.htm

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Edits

Hi Everyone,

For those who may have popped in here on Sunday expecting a new blog, I can only say I'm sorry. I hope all of you had a great Easter.

We had a major leak in our master bathroom over the weekend. It soaked the carpet in there, and we had to pull it up and are trying to get it dry so the repairs can be done. Fortunately, we were at home at the time, or it would have caused more damage.

I'm not sure if I'll have a blog this coming Sunday either, since I received the edits for my next book on Monday. I'll wait to see how they go before I make that decision.

Best always,
Sandy
http://www.eirelander-publishing.com/addiction.htm