Every morning I go through my blog reader and read all of my subscriptions. This morning HelenKay Dimon wrote about another blogger that does the Page 99 Test to basically determine whether they will like the whole book or not. HelenKay did the test using one of her books, so I thought I’d try it out with my completed ms of Animal Whisperer.

This is page 99:

“Well I can’t say that it’s nice to see you or your dog. I assume you have a bag?”

“What?”

“Um, Jess?” Mike pointed and laughed again. Damn him.

In this case crap was a correct statement. Chewie was doing his business on Marilyn’s front lawn. Heh. I tried not to smile, I really did. But, come on! The woman deserved it just for her holier than though attitude.

Well, that and the outfits she wore. Today she was in lemon drop yellow. Both the Capri pants and the sweater twinset in the same colour. That and her too bright pink lipstick made her fake spray-on tan look even more fake. I bit my lip so I didn’t burst out laughing myself.

“You find it amusing? I find it disgusting. And if I find out you’re one of the ones who hasn’t been picking up their pet’s doodoos, you will be fined.” Her face had flushed a nasty shade, which might have been red, if not for the tan in a can effect. Which gave it more of a blood orange hue.

“My dog’s, er, doodoo, as you called it, is very recognizably his. I’m sure you will have no problem pointing the finger at me if you find some. However, I always come prepared.” I pulled an empty plastic grocery bag out of my pocket. Doodoo. Seriously, what grown woman called dog shit doodoo?

So, I’m here, but not really. I went to RWA Nationals from July 14-19th (it was so amazingly fantastic and I promise to post about that, with photos).

From July 20-24th I had volunteered at our Summer Kids Camp, which was in the late afternoon/early evening this year and my kids were still in school until the 24th, so it was a completely insane week (and don’t worry I won’t post any more about that and there will be no photos of the 410 wieners I peeled–all individually wrapped–for one night’s hot dog dinner). Then I went straight into a weekend of worship team (singing) which I love, but had no voice left so was amazed I could croak much out.

After that I tried to completely decompress, but you know we had the highest heat here ever, breaking a hundred year old record. So that’s been fantastic! (Once again, no blogs or photos, but I can give you free advice that towels/pillowcases put into the freezer for use at bedtime are your friends when the heat is over 100 and you don’t have AC, because you’ve never really needed it before.)

Add to that my regular Mommy of 3 workload, writing work, querying and just other real life stuff and well, you can see why I haven’t been here. Hopefully.

I will return soon, to post about Nationals. I promise!

Well not really strangers, but I liked the title much better than “Kindness of some people I met online and even though I’ve only seen them once in real life, I love them and they have been good to me”.

You see, I belong to this community of writers called Romance Divas. I have posted about them before. My love of the Divas knows no bounds. It’s extraordinary, really. They are a very giving group of writers, in more ways than one.

Every year the Romance Divas reward a scholarship. The scholarship is to help defray the costs of going to the RWA National Conference, which can cost a lot of money. The lucky recipient is chosen by co-founders Jax Cassidy and Kristen Painter, and VP Eden Bradley. Funds for the scholarship are raised via donations where those who donate have the option to win various prizes (usually writing related, but not always.)

This year I am that lucky recipient. I’m really not sure why I am so blessed, but I am not going to waste a moment of it. While this announcement was only made official in the last few days, I have known for a while. They let the recipient know because they need time to book everything, especially the actual conference while the price is lower. The whole thing has already kicked my career up a notch, and I’m not even at conference yet. What it has done for me is force me to look at my career and see what I want. Instead of piddling around and letting fear of the unknown get the better of me, I’ve just made the decision to go for it.

Go hard or go home.

Because I was not doing anything before this scholarship. I was letting a crappy year squash my motivation. Personally I’ve suffered some major setbacks this year. I had let that settle over me like a weight. Let it give me all sorts of reasons to avoid doing anything. To avoid writing. You (the three of you that still read this) probably noticed I haven’t blogged much. I was just like a windless sailboat floating on the water. I had no motor and no oars, so I drifted.

But now. Now I’m motivated, baby! I was like , then I was like and now I’m like .

My book is finished. I have sent agent queries out. I’ve received rejections and I’ve happily received requests. I’m preparing myself to meet agents and editors next week. I’m preparing myself to do what I need to do, to move onwards and upwards.

I want to say thank you to Jax, Kristen and Eden. Thank you for believing in me, thank you for appreciating me, thank you for kicking my butt!

Thank you to Immi and Chichi for getting me through the last few weeks and letting me pick your brains “just one more time.”

Thank you to all the Divas that donated to this very worthy cause, in what is a very tough financial year for so many. I promise to make the most of this, to continue to work hard and to, some day, pay it forward. If I am ever in a position to do so, you can count on it!

Divas rock! (And if you don’t believe me, why don’t you head over and join them for the Not Going to Conference Conference, which starts next week on the Forum)

In the midst of a whole lot of stuff going on this past week I was going through my blog feeds and read this on the fabulous Jax Cassidy’s blog post:

“This award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

And she put me down as one of the bloggers. Which completely amazed me. Thank you very much, Jax! I you and appreciate you passing this award on to me.

So in the spirit of forming more friendships, here are my 8 choices for The Friendly Blogger Award:

Eileen Cook - who always brings a smile to my face with her interesting posts
Imogen Howson – she’s my CP and I adore her
Jenna Bayley Burke – she has a good mix between family and author stuff
Jaci Burton – she just kicks butt in a lot of ways (see Demon Hunter books for more kick butt action)
Shannon Stacey – I love reading about her family and her writing. Plus her recaps on American Idol meant I didn’t have to watch it myself.
Kristen Painter – she loves cats, is gorgeous and has style in everything she does.
Bria Quinlan - she’s headed on the coolest road trip ever. Diva style.
Jodi Henley - because she’s a Ninja and you can learn a lot from her.

I am the Vice-President of the ESPAN Chapter of RWA and am so proud to have had Deidre choose our chapter to call for a change within the RWA. You can find her fantastic blog post at ESPAN.

The bottom line is that RWA is supposed to serve the needs of all its members and while you can’t be everything to everyone, you can fit the needs of most. That “most” no longer includes solely traditionally published authors. Epubbed and small press authors are part of the mix too and, judging by the reaction on these issues, not a minority part.

Right now epublished (not to be confused with self-pubbed or vanity presses) and small press authors are too published for the Golden Heart, but not published enough for the Rita. They can earn PRO status and PAN status, but aren’t considered “career-focussed” authors because their publishers do not offer an advance or are not mass-produced. Yet, for the most part, their royalty percentage is quite large compared to that of their counterpart.

Some epubbed authors far surpass the $1k PAN requirements, some don’t. Just like some NYC print authors

Just like with traditional print authors, epubbed authors are good, bad and everywhere in between. So why not let them play on the same field? Why are they treated differently? Why are we creating division between our authors by declaring some are more published than others?