Now that I'm done with The Ruling of Valedrun, (I'm submitting it for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award), I'm returning my focus to Soma. The follow up for Monsoon Reign. In preparation I spent the past week rereading Monsoon Reign to reacquaint myself with the characters. I did notice a few typos and some punctuation that could have been done better. Also I've been told, and I could see it in re-reading, that some of the passage of time is unclear within the story. So I've made some minor changes, realigned the chapters and put in some dates to help show how much time has passed from one point to the next.

I've uploaded it to smashwords and createspace already. Those should be available in the next couple of days. As for the Amazon kindle version, I've forwarded that to my publisher and they should be putting the updated file up soon. I'll post a reminder when it's all ready.

I hope you will bear with me on this personal post today. I just want to wish a Happy Birthday to my younger sister and post a memoriam to my older sister who passed away one year ago today. I miss you Thresa.

THRESA SUE PALMER Oct. 17, 1970 - Jan. 21, 2013 In loving memory of our beloved Thresa; 

Daughter, Sister, Wife, Mother, Grandmother 

One year has passed since that sad day God called you home - it was His will; You will live always in our hearts until that sweet day when we are together again. Loved and Missed by your Family 

"I am the good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me; My sheep hear my voice and they follow me; I give them eternal life and they shall never perish." John 10

So I've been meaning to put a post up all week just so it can be known that I am, in fact, still alive. I finished my final, final revision of The Ruling of Valedrun and it's off being proofread. It's been an exhausting few weeks of constant revising. Mix that in with a new workout routine at the gym and hubby gone with the Army for a few weeks and now I'm a zombie.

I decided since it's my birthday today I'd make one of my favorite dishes for dinner. Penne alla Vodka. Of course I was out of Vodka, so I ran to the nearest ABC to get some. They carded me, which was pleasant, but apparently everyone who's carded me in the past year plus has failed to notice my drivers license expired in 2012! How have I missed that? Yikes! So a quick visit to Michigan Secretary of State website and I'm a legal driver once again.

Nothing much else new and exciting to report so I'm going to enjoy a celebratory glass of Witches Brew and share a fun little list my sister shared with me titled 44 Things every short girl can relate to. Being under 5 foot I can say I've experienced pretty much everything on that list except for #44.

Being asked to guest judge the #5minute fiction contest has to have been the funnest thing I've participated online with so far. The contestants were all very talented and I'm so impressed with their ability to come up with compelling stories in such a small amount of time. Each story deserved to win on individual merits but alas only one could take home the prize. Congratulations to Gemma Brocato on this week's win! And thank-you to everyone who participated, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Read the winning entry here. And check out the others as well, they were all good.

#5 minute fiction is live now. Check it out!

Less than 10 minutes until #5 minute fiction! Get your creative juices flowing and join in the fun. 

Tomorrow I have the honor of choosing my five favorite submissions for a flash fiction contest. The blog owner is writer Wendy Strain. She'll post a prompt tomorrow evening at 7:30 pm. CST and the contestants will have five minutes to write their story in the comments section. Once the top five are selected the audience votes for a winner. The winner gets a free copy of Monsoon Reign. I can't wait to have a chance to read all the submissions but I have a feeling picking my favorites will be difficult based on the ones I've read from prior contests.

If you'd like to try it out she does this weekly. Here's the link and I'll update a reminder tomorrow on the blog when the contest goes live.