Happy Canada Day!

July 1st is Canada Day and it's a stat holiday. I'll be at home, in all likelyhood, cooking, eating, reading, writing and watching movies.

Unfortunately, Canada Day is a day that my cocker spaniel, Symon, always suffers a mini-breakdown - he's terrified of the fireworks that usually start at dusk - the city puts on a beautiful fireworks display on the water, but my townhouse backs onto a park, so the occasional pop of cherry bombs can be can be heard sporadically until the wee hours, sending poor Syms into a tizzy.

Much like the 4th of July for Americans, July 1st is a day of smells & sounds: BBQ smoke curling through the neighborhood with the promise of burgers, steaks or hotdogs; lawnmowers humming, teenagers laughing, tots squealing, the splashing of pool water, and the low hum of suped-up cars cruising down the street.

Of course, Symon is oblivious to all these goings on, except for one - the pop, pop, pop of firecrackers.

Thank God it's just one day every summer (until Labour Day!).

Bear Sighting!

I'm serious - a bear was spotted on our property at work yesterday!

What a weird week!

Tornado!

There was a tornado in Midland, ON. (about 1/2 hour north of Barrie) yesterday.

Geeze - what next?

Earthquake!

There was just a widespread earthquake from Toronto to Muskoka!

We All Had A Great Time!

What a great time we all had on my "Sister's Weekend". Fantastic food, beautiful weather and the best company!

Gone Fishn'

Today is the first day of my annual "Sister's Weekend".

I was up at the crack of dawn, packing my bag (and my dog, Symon's), getting ready to head 45 minutes north to join my sisters, Marianne and Claudia, for a relaxing weekend. We'll be eating, sleeping, swimming, sunning, video watching (I'm bringing Sex and The City, and Avatar), magazine reading (I've got Vanity Fair and Writer's Digest). I can't wait to leave the city behind!

P.S. - There's no real fishing involved!

Let me know what you have planned for the weekend.

Whatever you're up to, have a great weekend!

Paranormal Summer Fest 2010!

All Things Urban Fantasy: Paranormal Summer Fest: Look Who’s Coming!

Every single day during the month of June, All Things Urban Fantasy & Tynga’s Reviews will be hosting different authors, titles and giveaways during the 1st ever Paranormal Summer Fest!

* 46 authors confirmed so far for Paranormal Summer Fest. Plus several more who they're still wooing.
* There will be giveaways for almost every book listed below (they are still working on getting a few titles, hopefully we’ll have giveaways for every title).
* They have received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from most publisher contacts (one even asked the dangerous question “how many copies do you want of each title?”)
* Keep an eye out for a few deluxe giveaways for entire series!

Look Who's Coming:

R.J. Anderson (Wayfarer)
Ilona Andrews (Magic Bleeds)
Sharon Ashwood (Unchained)
Cyn Balog (Sleepless)
Dakota Banks (Sacrifice)
Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Covenant)
Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments & The Infernal Devices)
Marcia Colette (Stripped)
Tera Lynn Childs (Please Forgive My Fins)
Andrea Cremer (Nightshade)
MaryJanice Davidson (Undead and Unfinished)
Melisse De La Cruz (Key to the Repository)
Shannon Delany (13 to Life: A Werewolf's Tale)
Jocelynn Drake (Pray for Dawn & Wait for Dusk)
Abra Ebner (The Knight Angels)
P.N Elrod (Dark and Stormy Knights anthology)
Jennifer Estep (Web of Lies)
Becca Fitzpatrick (Crescendo)
Jeaniene Frost (Eternal Kiss of Darkness)
Yasmine Galenorn (Night Myst)
Seressia Glass (Shadow Chase)
Judith Graves (Under My Skin)
Jess Haines (Hunted By The Others)
Tate Hallaway (Almost to Die For)
Alyxandra Harvey (Blood Feud)
Allyson James (Stormwalker)
Christine Johnson (Claire de Lune)
Stacey Kade (The Ghost and the Goth)
Stacia Kane (Unholy Ghosts & Unholy Magic & City of Ghosts)
Karen Kincy (Other)
Kelly Meding (As Lie the Dead)
Chloe Neill (Twice Bitten)
Lee Nichols (Deception)
Alyson Noel (Dark Flame)
Robin D. Owens (Heart Series)
Nicole Peeler (Tracking the Tempest)
Adrian Phoenix (Black Dust Mambo)
Aprilynne Pike (Spells)
Linda Robertson (Fatal Circle)
Michelle Rowen (Demon Princess: Reign Check & Demon In Me)
Jeri Smith-Ready (Shade & Bring On the Night)
Lili St-Crow (Jealousy)
Maggie Stiefvater (Linger)
Carrie Vaughn (Kitty Goes to War)
Rachel Vincent (My Soul to Keep)
Alayna Williams (Dark Oracle)

All the giveaways for the event will end on July 4th and the winners will be announced on July 6th. Make sure you visit All Things Urban Fantasy & Tynga’s Reviews every day in June to find out more about these great titles and authors, and to enter the daily giveaways!

Happy Memorial Day!

I'd like to wish all my American friends a safe & fun Memorial Day! I'm so proud to be your neighbor!

First Five Pages of WIND on Glass Cases!

I'm thrilled and honored to have the first five pages of my YA Paranormal Romance novel, WIND, published on GLASS CASES, Sarah LaPolla's dynamic blog!

Please take a look and tell me what you think!

Glass Cases

Thank you so much Sarah!

''Dear Lucky Agent'' Contest: Fantasy and Sci-Fi Hosted by Guide to Literary Agents

''Dear Lucky Agent'' Contest: Fantasy and Sci-Fi

Guide to Literary Agents is hosting the fifth "Dear Lucky Agent" Contest on the GLA blog. This is a recurring online contest with agent judges and super-cool prizes. Here's the deal: With every contest, the details are essentially the same, but the niche itself changes—meaning each contest is focused around a specific category or two. So if you're writing a book-length novel that's fantasy or sci-fi, this fifth contest is for you!

HOW TO SUBMIT
E-mail entries to fifthagentcontest@gmail.com. Please paste everything. No attachments.

WHAT TO SUBMIT
The first 150-200 words of your unpublished, book-length work of fantasy or science fiction (adult fiction and/or YA fiction; no MG please). You must include a contact e-mail address with your entry and use your real name. Also, submit the title of the work and a logline (one-sentence description of the work) with your entry.

Please note: To be eligible to submit, you have to do one of two things: 1) Mention and link to this contest twice through your social media—blogs, Twitter, Facebook; or 2) just mention this contest once and also add Guide to Literary Agents Blog (www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog) to your blogroll. Please provide link(s) so the judges can verify eligibility!

CONTEST DETAILS
1. This contest will be live for approximately fourteen days—from May 12 through the end of Wednesday, May 26, EST. Winners notified by e-mail within 7 days of end of contest. Winners announced on the blog thereafter.
2. To enter, submit the first 150-200 words of your book. Shorter or longer entries will not be considered. Keep it within word count range please.
3. This contest is solely for completed book-length works of fantasy and science fiction (both YA and adult novels are accepted; no MG).
4. You can submit as many times as you wish. You can submit even if you submitted to other contests in the past, but please note that past winners cannot win again.
5. The contest is open to everyone of all ages, save those employees, officers and directors of GLA's publisher, F+W Media.
6. By e-mailing your entry, you are submitting an entry for consideration in this contest and thereby agreeing to the terms written here as well as any terms possibly added by Chuck in the "Comments" section of the GLA blog post. (If you have questions or concerns, write me to Chuck at literaryagent@fwmedia.com.

PRIZES!!!
Top 3 winners all get: 1) A critique of the first 10 pages of your work, by your agent judge. 2) A free one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com.

THE (AWESOME) JUDGE!
Roseanne Wells is a literary agent at the Marianne Strong Literary Agency.

Rachele Alpine of Frecklehead Hosts a Cool Contest

YA Author, Rachele Alpine, is hosting a cool contest over at her blog, Freckle Head.

Rachele's YA novel, CANARY, is currently on submission. Her agent is Lina Sion at Global Literary Management.

Rachele is offering to critique 10 queries and draw two winners for a 30 page manuscript critique. Besides being an author, she's a high school English teacher and MFA student so she has lots of lit experience, not to mention, she's living YA everyday!

The Rules:

1) You must be a follower of Freckle Head.

2) If you'd like the chance to have Rachele look at your query letter or manuscript, post your hook in the comment section of her blog by midnight Wednesday (April 21).

3) You can have an extra chance at being drawn each time you tweet, blog or Facebook this contest (just post which you did in the comment section)

Rachele will draw ten winners randomly for query critiques and two winners for the 30 page manuscript critique.

Cool!

Another "must read" is Matthew Rush's dynamic blog, The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment. Today Matthew interviews Rachele and has posted the actual query letter that landed her an agent! Congrats Rachele & thanks Matthew! Matthew always has an interesting blog & he's cute too!

Patience

Waiting - I've never been very good at it. Today I'm waiting to hear about possibly getting a new home and I have to admit, I have a fluttering, nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

When I was a kid (about 100 years ago!), I was very impatient. But, as I've become older and more mature (okay, maybe not more mature), I've tried to work on my relationship with patience - tried to communicate with it, understand it, meet it half way, even romance it. I think it's paid off, because we've called a truce, patience and I. We're much better friends than we used to be.

Are you patient? What are you waiting for?

The First Novels Club INSIDE OUT Giveaway & Guest Post from YA Author Maria V. Snyder

The First Novels Club is hosting another guest post by Maria V. Snyder, the New York Times Best Selling author. Maria already has two popular fantasy series, The Study Series and The Glass Series. Her latest release is INSIDE OUT. It’s categorized as a Young Adult (YA) dystopian science fiction.

If you’d like to read the first three chapters of INSIDE OUT, or do a personality quiz based on the book, or see a video trailer for the book go to:

http://www.whatsinsideout.com/

To see maps of the world of Inside Out, go to: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/maps.php

To read some of Maria's SF short stories go to: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/shortstories.php

Now onto the contest. The First Novels Club is celebrating the release of Inside Out by giving away one copy that Maria is going to sign and personalize to one lucky winner!

Contest ends April 12th, 2010 at 11:59PM

To enter, check out The First Novels Club blog site at:

http://www.firstnovelsclub.com/

LiLa's Totally Epic 500 Follower Contest

From Lisa and Laura Write:

About a year and a half ago we were celebrating our very first blog follower. We even promised poor Sarah an ARC of THE NORTH SHORE (aka the manuscript that was rejected by almost every breathing agent in the business).

Now that we've hit over 500 followers we figured it was high time to offer our fabulous readers something slightly more exciting than an ARC of a manuscript that will never, ever see the light of day.

CONTEST RULES:

* To enter the contest you must be a follower of our blog (duh) and comment on this post. That earns you one entry.
* You can earn one extra entry by Blogging/Tweeting/Facebooking about the contest.
* Fill out this form (also attached at the end of this post) to place a bet on Lisa or Laura (or both if you want to hedge your bets and you've earned an extra entry).
* We are going to hold a live sister writer arm wrestling competition that we will post next Wednesday April 14th at 8 AM.
* All of the followers who have placed bets on the winning sister (if you bet on Lisa and Laura wins, you are out of luck my friends, so choose your Roecker sister wisely) will be entered into a lottery for these amazing prize packages:

The Reader Package:

* STUPID CUPID (signed copy!! hoorah!) by Rhonda Stapleton
* HOW TO TEACH FILTHY RICH GIRLS by Zoey Dean
* THE HOLLOW by Jessica Verday
* JERK CALIFORNIA by Jonathen Friesen
* UGLIES and PRETTIES by Scott Westerfeld
* Lots and lots of chocolate
* A fabulously warm blanket to curl up in while you're reading and chowing down on delicious chocolate.

The LIAR SOCIETY Package:

* Two Starbucks Gift Cards (So you can buy Kate's favorite drink: a full-fat Frappacino with extra whipped cream.
* A fabulous pearl necklace (Um, just don't ask us if it's real okay? If it makes you feel any better, Kate's pearls are fake too.)
* A DIY Pineapple Pizza Kit (Kate's favorite dinner! All you'll need to do is add cheese. Trust us, it's better this way.)
* A bike bell (Kate's sole methods of transportation are her trusty 10-speed and the school bus.)
* A 10 page critique of your manuscript or WIP.

The Grand Prize Roecker Extravaganza Package:

* Glee Soundtrack Volume 1 and Volume 2
* A variety pack of every Twizzler known to man, aside from the rainbow kind because those don't count.
* A bottle of Prosecco (sparkling juice if you're an underage/on-the-wagon winner).
* A t-shirt that will officially christen you as The Fourth Roecker Sister (or Sibling if one of our three male followers wins).
* Business Cards or Stationary Designed especially for you by the ultra-talented third Roecker sister, Stacey owner of PoochiePrints.

Not bad, right? Well, at least it's better than giving away a copy of a book that will never exist. So, please enter and tell all of your friends. And get really excited for the big vlog/contest winners announcement next Wednesday. We're taking this VERY seriously.

Check out Lisa & Laura's dynamic blog at:

(lisa-laura.blogspot.com)

I'm Not 50 - I'm 49.95, Plus Tax!

I'm not too sure how I feel about turning 50 this weekend. I was never one of those people who had a hard time with 20, 30 or 40 years of age. You know, the kind of person who says, "I was totally depressed when I left my 20's." I never had this problem; I was always very comfortable in my own skin, at all ages. This birthday, however, is different. I wouldn't say I'm depressed; that's not it. It just feels weird - in 20 years I'll be 70 - how weird is that?

One of the great things about where I'm at now is my writing career (such as it is - LOL!). Seriously, I think realizing your own mortality frees you a little; frees you to ensure you do what you love - NOW. In a sense, I've never felt more comfortable in my almost-half-a-century skin.

I'm 50 (almost) and writing YA - sounds strange, but my wonderful son, Matthew, is 20 and his lovely girlfriend, Trisha, is 29, and my brilliant daughter, Anne Marie, is 16, so I'm surrounded by YA, in a sense. I hear what they like and don't like in books, movies, etc. The four of us discuss everything YA ad nauseum (we have dissected The Twilight Saga to death!), so I still feel very young.

One of my favorite authors summed it up beautifully . . .

I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you. ~ Agatha Christie

Thank you Agatha, I couldn't have said it any better myself! Besides, I'm not turning 50, I'm turning 49.95, plus tax!

Contests - How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways . . .

Today I entered the Query Tracker Agent Judged Contest and I must say, I really had a blast!

The contest opened at 12:00 p.m. and I was ready at my computer, at work (technically, I was on lunch, in case my boss is reading this!), refreshing, refreshing; waiting for the registration form to appear. Like an apparition, it did appear and, with trembling hands, I filled it out and pasted my log line and first paragraph into the form, then I pushed the button and, like a magic, the form disappeared into the IT netherworld.

I must take this opportunity to apologize to one of my co-workers, Jen. At one minute to 12:00, Jen approached my desk and proceeded to ask me for something (I really don't remember what she asked for). I replied, "Jen, could you come back in five minutes, please?" She glanced at my screen, smiled knowingly and said, "Oh, sure, no problem." What a good sport she is!

Anyway, it was fun while it lasted and I am looking forward to doing it again.

Thanks Elana and the Query Tracker team!

Michael Scott - Beloved Irish Writer

With St. Patrick's Day fast approaching, I thought I'd write about wonderful Irish writer, Michael Scott.

Michael Scott has been writing for over 25 years (his first book was published in 1983), and is one of Ireland's most successful and prolific authors, with over 100 titles to his credit, spanning a variety of genres, including Fantasy, Science Fiction, Folklore.

Michael is considered an authority on folklore of Celtic lands. His collections, entitled, Irish Folk & Fairy Tales, Irish Myths & Legends, and Irish Ghosts & Hauntings, are considered the definitive work on the subject. The Irish Times recently proclaimed Michael, "The King of Fantasy in these Isles."

His horror novels, Banshee, Image, Reflection, Imp and Hallows are considered classics of the genre. Michael's fantasy trilogies, Silverhand and Silverlight were published in the U.S. to excellent reviews.

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, is a series of six YA Fantasy novels that chronicle the adventures of 15 year old twins, Sophie and Josh Newman, who stumble into a world of magic that criss-crosses the globe. Many of the characters are from history and mythology, indeed, Nicholas Flamel, a French alchemist, was a real person born in 1313. The film rights to the series have been sold, and the first book, The Alchemist, is in production, set to be released in 2011.

The six books are: The Alchemist, The Magician, The Sorceress, The Necromancer, The Warlock and The Enchantress.

Check out this beloved Irish YA Fantasy series.

The Great White North

It’s called the GREAT White North for Many Reasons . . .

Canada has been nicknamed The Great White North for the substantial blanket of snow that covers the ground for half the year, but as an aspiring writer, I see its greatness in the talent of our past and present literary community:

Lucy Maud Montgomery
Born in 1874, Montgomery is best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. The charming series was an immediate, international success featuring the beloved character, Anne Shirley, who goes to live with an elderly rural couple who are expecting a boy orphan, but are mistakenly sent a girl, yet decided to keep her.

Maza de la Roche
Mazo de la Roche (1879 – 1961) was born in Newmarket, Ontario (very close to where I presently live). Her third novel, Jalna, was submitted to the American magazine Atlantic Monthly in 1927, winning a $10,000 award, a small fortune in the 20’s! Its publication brought de la Roche fame and fortune at the age of 48 (yes, there’s still hope for me at 49!). The series tells the story of one hundred years of the Whiteoak family covering from 1854 to 1954. The novels were not written in sequential order, however, and each can be read as an independent story. The Jalna series has sold more than eleven million copies in 193 English and 92 foreign editions.

Margaret Laurence
Margaret Laurence (1926-1987) is one of Canada’s most loved and respected writers. She is the author of sixteen books, including a travel memoir, five novels and two collections of short stories, a translation of Somali tales and poems, a collection of essays and an important study of Nigerian dramatists. Laurence was born in 1926 and lived in Lakefield, Ontario (the northern town where Prince Andrew went to college). In perhaps her best-know work, The Stone Angel, Laurence tells the story of a 90-year old woman struggling to come to grips with a life of intransigence and loss. "Pride was my wilderness, the demon that led me there was fear." Although Stone Angel has been banned from some schools, it is studied at the grade 12 university level in other schools.

The Diviners, published in 1974 was Laurence’s final novel. Although on the surface, The Diviners depicts very different roles for women than her earlier novels do, there is a recurring theme of the female perspective on contemporary life. Margaret Laurence wrote fifteen books and a memoir that was published posthumously. She as also well-known for her work as a peace activist and as one of the founders of the Writers’ Union of Canada. Her encouragement of fellow writers is legendary.

Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler (1931 – 2001) was a Canadian author, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and essayist. He was born in Montreal, Quebec. Richler wrote movingly of his working class neighbourhood and its people, chronicling the hardships and disabilities they faced as a Jewish minority:
“To a middle-class stranger, it is true, one street would have seemed as squalid as the next. On each corner a cigar store, a grocery, and a fruit man. Outside staircases everywhere. Winding ones, wooden ones, rusty and risky ones. Here a prized lot of grass splendidly barbered, there a spitefully weedy patch. An endless repetition of precious peeling balconies and waste lots making the occasional gap here and there.”
His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, and the Jacob Two-Two children's stories. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation.”

Margaret Atwood
Ms. Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in 1939 and began writing at the age of six. She graduated from Harvard’s Radcliffe College in 1962 and went on to write The Edible Woman, The Handmaiden’s Tale, Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. Atwood writes Dystopian Science Fiction, but prefers to label it “Speculative Fiction”, and "Adventure Romance" because it does not deal with “things that have not been invented yet” and goes beyond the realism she associates with the novel form.

Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje was born 1943 in Colombo, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and moved to England with his mother in 1954. After relocating to Canada in 1962, Ondaatje became a Canadian citizen. His style of fiction was introduced in Coming Through Slaughter and mastered in The English Patient. He creates a narrative by exploring many interconnected snapshots in minute detail.

Canada is known for many national treasures—Wayne Gretzky, Christopher Plummer, Ellen Page, Mike Myers, Niagara Falls, The Canadian Rocky Mountains, Hockey, Maple Syrup, Canadian Bacon, French Canadian Pea Soup, Butter Tarts, The Northern Lights, Canada Geese, Tim Horton’s (much-coveted coffee and donuts), Poutine (French Fries drizzled with melted cheese curds and gravy-my kids love it!), The Hudson Bay Company (which once owned 1/11th of the Earth's surface), Molson’s beer, great Health Care and Halloween costumes for kids that fit over snow suits—but, check out these great Canadian writers.

I know they won’t disappoint.

This Day in Literary History . . .

On January 24, 1862, Edith Wharton was born to an old and wealthy New York family.  She grew up in an opulent world where pre-Civil War society tried to keep the nouveau riche at bay.  Wharton, expected to become a typical wife, mother, and hostess, instead showed intellectual talent and began to write at an early age.  At age 23, she married prominent socialite Edward Wharton, who had neither a profession nor fortune - they divorced in 1913.  Edith returned to writing, often dealing with themes of divorce, unhappy marriages, and free-spirits trapped by societal pressures - in other words, she wrote what she knew.

Wharton's 1905 novel, The House of Mirth, told the story of a New York socialite with a strong sense of individuality who cannot adapt to the roles to which were expected of her. The book became a bestseller.  Her novella, Ethan Frome, detailing a New England farmer trapped by the demands of the women in his life, is one of her best-known works.  Her 1920 novel, Age of Innocence, won the Pulitzer.

Edith remained in France during World War I, assisting refugees, and was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor in 1916.

In 1927, she published another bestseller, Twilight Sleep, then her autobiography, A Backward Glance, in 1934.  She died in France in 1937.

Patches - A Sweet Curmudgeon

Patches is the hyper-active feline featured in WIND.  He was given to me by a coworker about five years ago.  I adopted him thinking he would be a good replacement for Samantha, who had just passed away (the cat I inherited from my father).  You see, my son, Matthew, had grown very attached to Samantha, and was heart broken when she died.  As it turned out, Patches took to me in a big way and inched his way into my heart.  (Another cat, Sparkles, became Matthew's good friend).  Patches is a sweet curmudgeon.  He cries on the counter when he's hungry and his cry sounds like a baby bird begging for a worm.  This prompted one young visitor to the house to ask, "Do you have a bird in here somewhere?"  He's extremely bossy and chases the other cats every chance he gets, but like most bullies, he's a coward at heart - he runs for his life and hides in a kitchen cupboard when Lucky, the Dachshund, chases him (Lucky is referenced to in WIND and will make an appearance in SAND.)  Nonetheless, he's a dear and we all love him.

If you have an intuitive or instinctive feeling, follow it, and you will find that the Universe is magnetically moving you to receive what you asked for . . . 

From The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

The Sun Is Finally Out

Saturday morning, a steaming cup of coffee and the sun is finally out, after a week of snow, snow & more snow.  The teenagers are still sleeping, dreaming of movies, videos and pizza, no doubt!  The two dogs and several cats are sleeping in a generous slice of sun on the floor.  I am taking this gift of a quiet morning to write.  All is right with the world (for the moment!). 

Have a lovely day!

Snow, Snow & Yes, More Snow!

It's cold - the perfect excuse to stay in and write, or at least try, and drink large quantities of coffee.  The frigid temps are getting everyone down (even in Florida, I heard on CNN!)  I think I'll hibernate until Spring (would that I could!), then creep out of my lair, stretch, and wonder if Tim Horton's (Canadian chain of coffee/donut shops that I can only describe as Nirvana) is still open.  That's what bears do. 

Canadian bears, anyway.

My Favourite Books (Top 20)

1. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
2. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
3. Exodus by Leon Uris
4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
   
5. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
6. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
7. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
8. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
10. The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullaugh
11. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
12. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
14. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
15. Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
16. Dracula by Bram Stoker
17. The Shipping News by Annie E. Proulx
18. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
19. White Oleander by Janet Fitch
20. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

WIND by Cynthia Watson

I have finally completed my 75,000 word Young Adult novel - Wind.  Now I'm beginning the quest for a literary agent. I have queried a handful of agents - I've had several requests for partials and am hopeful something will be forthcoming soon! I'm dying to share my adventure with everyone!  It's exciting & romantic, with a sincere, yet funny heroine & a mysterious stranger from Italy who changes her life forever.

Stay tuned . . .