Do You Think Man is Making New Diseases? and Blogmania

Hi Everyone,

Today, I have two topics to discuss. First, I want to tell you about Blogmania, which is coming September 15th & 16th, Wednesday and Thursday. On those days, my blog will turn into a eclectic buffet. What better way to get Christmas presents for your loved ones and friends? All you have to do is browse around the blogs participating at Blogmania to find the goodies you need without leaving your home.

On top of not having to go shopping, the things you win will be free. Just to give you a taste of what I have to offer here's a list: 1. A Christmas basket; 2. A fall basket think Halloween/Thanksgiving, which may divided between two baskets if there's too much for one; 3. A hot beverage basket with cup, and there's more. Actually, I need to start putting the baskets together because I can't remember everything I have. lol

Now onto the question I'm asking, Do You Think Man is Making New Diseases? I will be dying to hear your comments.

I think diseases have been here all along, but I do believe with the use of antibiotics that the strains of our present diseases are becoming stronger. This is a very simplistic answer to this question, and I'm sure people who are more knowledgeable will give far better answers.

Until next Sunday, have another great week.

Sandy

http://www.eirelander-publishing.com

http://www.skaymarshall.com

Winners of Blogmania at My Blog

Happy Sunday,

I'm announcing the winners of the blogmania contest held on Friday.

1st prize - Kristen

2nd prize - Sonya

3rd prize - Beverly

Everyone will win a copy of my e-book, Addiction. First prize winner will win all the things I mentioned in the original prize, but I will also be sending some smaller surprise gifts for Sonya and Beverly.

I want to add I'm very sorry some of my long-time followers didn't win, but you will have another chance soon. It's very unusual when one of my Canadian friends don't win. Smile. To my International friends you also have a chance then, too. See you September 15th.

Today, I'm posting information about my book, Addiction.

Blurb for Addiction

Two men are after the same woman but for very different reasons.

Dark-haired beauty, Jolene Dubois has a serious problem, and it's not just battling alcoholism. Late at night, she receives whispered calls. "Jolene, I want you. I'm coming for you." Shivers climb up her spine and ice flowed in her veins. What does he want? Who is it? She must figure it out before she trusts the wrong person.

Jake Farrell, the handsome rogue is an operator with women, but is he hiding something dark and sinister under his cheery facade. The detective, Andy Martin, who investigated her father's murder, continues to ask her out. Les Voodré, an alcoholic she met at AA follows her everywhere, and Ron Keisler, her AA sponsor is always there when she needs him. Could her caller be one of these men?

To further complicate her life, she fights a host of addictions, alcoholism, smoking, gambling and sex. Jolene is determined to beat the alcohol and to stay out of the clutches of the fiend who phones her.

Excerpt:

Jake pulled into Parma Woods Conservation area off FF Highway across the road from the Missouri river. “I’m glad the weather cleared for our target practice.”
“Yeah, it’s a nice sunny afternoon.” Jolene jumped out of his dark blue SUV. Twenty minutes in the vicinity of Jake had put her through pure torture. She wished she could’ve thought of a way out of the demonstration with a reasonable excuse but none came to her during the day. How did she get herself into these situations? Because the man drew her to him like bees drawn to nectar with his laughing eyes, his daring manner, and that body.
Glad she kept some extra clothes in the office, she’d changed into a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved green t-shirt before meeting Jake. Leaning inside, she pulled her Smith and Wesson out of her purse, and pushed the lock on the door before she closed it.
“Let’s go inside and pay for our hour.” Jake headed for the office.
Well, so much for courtesy. He just walked off and left her. She surveyed the row of covered booths briefly, and hurried after him.
Coming out the door as she reached it, he asked, “What took you so long? I thought you’d run off.”
“I was looking around.” Damn, she would like to slap that impudent grin off his face. “There’s no way I’d miss showing you up.”
“Hmm, we’ll see, won’t we?” Jake arched a black brow with a lopsided smile.
She shrugged. “Yes, we will.” If he kept his distance and didn’t upset her hormones, she’d hit the target.
“I’ve set up a target for you.” He pointed. “I’m going to try you at different distances, and we’ll see if you can really shoot.”
Jolene squinted a bit and saw a human shape of white on black. “I’m not used to this type of target. Where am I supposed to aim?”
“Aim at the heart for the kill.” He placed his hand at her waist, steered her closer to the object and stopped about thirty yards away. “Is this close enough for you?”
“Fine.” Just get away from me, she screamed mentally and shook off his arm.
Jake stepped back.
Jolene raised her gun, clasped in both hands and sighted, then pulled the trigger. Smiling, she set her sights on the heart again and fired until she emptied the clip, released it then put another in.
“Wait a minute, let me go check to see if you hit it.” He jogged toward the target.
Scowling, she resisted the urge to see if she could make him dance. With the gun to her side, she yelled, “Well, how did I do?”
As she watched him shake his head, dismay clawed at her. Could she have missed? Fool! She’d been so sure she could repeat the ten in ten bulls-eyes. Jake would think she was just a big bragger.
“Come and see for yourself,” Jake yelled.
You would think he would just tell me if I missed or not. Jolene walked briskly from the covered shooting range and strode up to him. “Well, did I hit the target?” She’d never live it down if she missed.
Jake glanced at her. “Hey, where’s the confidence you had earlier today?” Taking her arm, he pulled her forward and pointed at the silhouette’s heart area. “This guy’s dead. There are ten shots right here.” He directed his gaze to where the testicles would be on a man. “I only see one miss.”
She looked down at the crotch and laughed. “Oh, I didn’t miss. I meant to hit there.”
“Remind me not to piss you off.”
She heard a discharge, then a whishing sound as a projectile whizzed between them. It sliced through the target removing any evidence of the head. Shocked, she crouched down, staring all around, and then Jake shoved her to the ground and dropped on top of her.
Someone had shot at them. Was it Rutherford’s friends? Trembling, she laid still until slowly realizing her face was in the dirt, and she couldn’t breathe. Panting, she turned her head gulping in air. All quiet. She wiggled. How long did they have to lay here? It had to be safe by now.
In the distance, she heard a motor roar to life, and tires spin on gravel as the vehicle took off. Could it be the person who shot at them making a getaway?
“Don’t you think they’re gone?” She humped her bottom up. Not a good idea, she realized when she felt something hard in the front of his pants. She flattened her body to the ground. “Did you have to jump on top of me?” She struggled against the hand Jake pressed on her head.
“Shh,” he whispered in her ear. “I want to hear if anyone moves, so I’ll know where the shot came from.”
Spitting out dirt, she just wanted to make a run for it. Bushes rustled on the bluff and a deer leaped from them.
Jake waited a moment then removed his palm from her lips.
She listened for more gunshots. Would someone pepper them with bullets? Her heart pumped frantically, and she wanted to run, not lie there like a willing target caught right in a potential killer’s crosshairs. When nothing happened she squirmed under him. “Get off of me.”
He hugged her body a minute longer before he slid to lie at her side. His hand stayed firmly on her back and held her in place.
After a few seconds, she asked, “Don’t you think it’s okay to get up now?”
“He was on the bluff across the road.” He stared at the high steep bank across the road. “I don’t see anyone there, but let’s go in a zigzag to the nearest cover. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yeah.” Anything would be better than waiting for something to happen.
Adrenaline pumping, with the gun in her left hand she put her right one in front of her chest ready to push up. Would someone shoot them before they had a chance to run? Her stomach knotted into a thousand little nerves. At the same time Jake grabbed her around the waist and jerked her up. Her feet hit the ground running with Jake’s arm guiding her.
As they neared the Conservation office building, Jake pushed her next to the wall and peered around the corner. “I think it was a warning, or otherwise we would both be dead.”
“Warning of what?”
“I wish I knew.”
Jolene struggled loose of his grasp and peeked around the bend, too. “What are we waiting for? I don’t see anything.”
“We’re staying here until I determine no one’s still there. He could’ve moved to a new place and be waiting for us to come out of hiding to pop us off.” He crouched down. “Just in case, I’m going to make a run for my SUV and bring it around for you.”
“No way, I’m going with you. Besides, you don’t know if that shot was for me or for you.” She bent over and took off. A hand grabbed her around the waist, and Jake forced her to his side away from the road and half-carried her to the SUV.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Trying to get yourself killed?” He pushed her down next to his vehicle, unlocked the door with the clicker and opened it. “Get in and stay down.”
Jolene did as she was told. Crouched on the floor, nerves screaming, she waited for Jake to open his door. What in the heck was taking him so long? He should be on the other side by now. She raised her head to see if she could see him.
Not detecting him, she started to exit the vehicle just as the driver’s door opened.
Jake climbed in. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
She slid back onto her seat and closed the door. “I was coming to look for you.” She stared at his taut jaw as he started the engine. “I was worried because you took so long.”
“When I tell you to do something, do it.” He clenched his fingers around the steering wheel, backing up and driving down the long driveway.
“Well, aren’t you the bossy one.” She’d worried about the stupid man for nothing. “What were you doing?”
“I let the guys inside know about the shots because they might need to call the police.” He turned east on FF highway. “I gave them our names and phone numbers in case they needed to contact us.” He glanced at her. “It could’ve been hunters who strayed off their grounds, but even if it were the next person might not be so lucky.”
Does he expect me to fall for his story about hunters? The tautness of his forearms told her he didn’t buy what he was selling either.

Here are the reviews for ADDICTION

http://bkwalkerbooks.weebly.com/1/post/2009/12/-read-review-of-addiction-by-sandra-k-marshall.html

http://ddreviews.blogspot.com/2010/01/addiction-by-sandra-k-marshall.html

Video - http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=e684nldayz0

Buy links:

http://www.eirelander-publishing.com/addiction.htm
Amazon Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002TSANDU
All Romance eBooks - http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-addiction-365002-152-html
1Romance Ebooks - http://1romanceebooks.com/romantic-fiction/addiction/prod_697.html
Barnes and Noble EBooks

Have a great day. See you next Sunday.

Sandy
http://www.skaymarshall.com

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

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