Joyce's Little Blog

Monday, December 12, 2016

MVI 2506

I went to see my granddaughter, Natalie, as the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nut Cracker this weekend. I hope you will enjoy her dance.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Hometown Reads is a great site and I just put my book, The Hat Pin Murders, on the site. It's a place where local authors can put up a picture of their book and themselves and tell all about it. Spokane, WA is the town I live nearest, because I'm in Cheney which is just outside Spokane. I think most large cities in the U.S. have a Hometown Reads site so if you are an author, check it out. I'm not very good at marketing my books so this is just one more easy way to get the word out that I have written 3 books and they are for sale!! More good news. I have acquired another great-grandson, he was born on July 2nd. His name is Uriah Toryan Caudel. Yes children's names are quite a bit different than they were when I was named Joyce and my siblings Jane and Jerry. I named my children, Robert, Mark and Laura. Well he is handsome and healthy and that is what is so important to me. The rest of my news is that I will have another great-granddaughter in January. My family just grows and grows. Am I blessed or what? So if you have an extra minute while your on the computer, check out Hometown Reads, Spokane, WA or look for a city near you.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

I guess I have Spring Fever.

Today is the last day of May and I can't imaging where the months have gone. I was just getting started and tomorrow is June for goodness sake. I've been telling myself when it warms up I'm going to get busy. Getting busy means getting organized. Some of you know I used to make porcelain dolls. When I moved from my house into my apartment I donated my kilns and molds to Regis High School for their Art Department. I still have large plastic totes with painted and fired doll parts, eyes, wigs, socks and shoes. I have doll stands and enough material to create a wardrobe for a doll queen or two. So what to do with it all? If I can make myself get busy and go through all those totes I might be able to thin things down to something manageable. Then there is my writing, another for goodness sake. Lately there is more writing going on in my head than on this computer. Yes, I have started another cozy mystery, but I'm kinda stuck and it's not moving forward right now. Yes, I want to get those two kids stories finished too. Like I said I'm kinda stuck. Next week I will be able to see my granddaughter, Natalie, dance in the ballet: Peter Pan. She has the part of Wendy. I'm pretty excited about it. It's always a fun and exciting time, spending a few days with family in Oregon. I thought I had Spring Fever but with June and summer coming up so fast I guess it's too late for that.

Monday, March 28, 2016

snow dog days

We had 2 inches of snow this morning! About 4:30 a.m. my dog Jake woke me, he wanted to go outside. He was panting like he was having a panic attack. That usually means he wants to go potty. So I ignored him for about a half hour until I couldn't stand it any more. So up I got and put the leash on him and let him out, sure enough he had to go. I padded out in the snow with my poop bag and took care of his business. By this time he was laying in the snow looking around like it was a beautiful spring day. I decided to leave him there and went inside and made myself a cup a coffee. Of course all this time it is still snowing. I finally made him come inside when he started barking at some quail that were running for the bird seed a neighbor puts out every day. The sun came out this afternoon and there is no evidence it ever snowed!! I've been reading some childrens books for a project I'm working on. Seems I signed up to talk about childrens books at one of my writing groups. Well I think I bite off a little more that I can chew, maybe. So I've been reading this Chapter book for early readers. I laughed until my sides hurt. I didn't realize what fun it is to read kids books. You might want to try it some time. I got this book at the public library,CLEMENTINE by Sara Pennypacker. I've been thinking about writing books for children and have some stories that I think might do well. Any way I'll be talking about writing children's books at the next SASP meeting, that's Spokane Authors and Self Publishers, on Thursday, April 7th at 2 p.m. I'll let you know how it goes on my next Blog post.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Book Signings for Dummies Yes, I did a book signing today. I always wonder why it is that people come into a book store and when they see an author sitting at a table with books piled up in front of them, they turn their head away and make a bee-line in the other direction. Why come to a book store unless your looking for books, unless your looking for videos, CD's or toys. Those are all things book stores sell besides books. Oh well, I enjoyed my signing today at Hastings on the South Hill in Spokane. They give me a free drink, my drink of choice is always a Mocha Frappe, and they made it a tall one which lasted me the whole 2 hours that I was there. I did sell 2 books! That might not seem like much to you but I worked hard to sell them. I gave away a lot of bookmarks, handing them out to almost everyone that walked in the door. With my big smile and giving them my 30 second pitch. The highlight of my time there was when a high school girl asked me how I got to be a writer and how hard was it to get published. I was happy to encourage her and she encouraged me too. Book signings may be for dummies but I'll keep doing them just for the pleasure of meeting at least one person that appreciates reading a good book and might want to read one of mine. Cheers to you all!!

Sunday, March 13, 2016