I’m Sweet! So I hear….

 

Thanks so much to the lovely Laura Eno of A Shift in Dimensions, for presenting The Other Side of Deanna with the Cherry on Top Award! 

According to the logo, this award is “for beautiful blogs with that little bit extra”. And so it is with humble appreciation that I accept Laura’s gushy words of love *cue long-eye-lashed blushing blink* Thank you Laura!

Being her natural stubborn, (but lovingly so), self, Laura does not follow rules, so we are making them up as we go along. In this vein, I proclaim the rule of acceptance for the Cherry on Top Award, (for myself only), is to recognize a particular blogger who has put the cherry on top for me many, many times.

You all may have heard of Charlie Callahan, a.k.a., Professor B Worm.  It was with puddling eyes that I read his 3-part goodbye post(s) today. I wish I could remember who introduced me to Charlie’s blog; I think it was Paige, over at Paradise Valley 2, Hell’s Mountain…and over the edge, but I can’t be certain, (in any case, you’ll want to visit Paige’s blog – the woman is a hoot)!

Charlie had already been blogging for four years when I discovered his heart-wrenching, honest-to-the-bone post, Alcoholic. I read this post three times in a row because, well, I was stunned. Here was a man not afraid to speak his mind, to rip his heart from his chest and spread it across the screen for the entire world to see. Never had I read anything so deeply honest, so soul-baring. When I finally stopped crying I snooped around and read some of his previous posts. I was delightfully surprised to find that Charlie could make the tears roll in more ways than one. Not only has he written some of the most poignant articles I’ve ever read, but he’s also written some of the most but-gusting belly laugh articles I’ve ever read. The man is unquestionably talented, that’s all there is to it.

Although Charlie is saying goodbye to the blogging world, (due to health issues), he will still be updating his book and movie review pages. I suspect that, when he feels well enough, he may post a blog now and then too, (I hope so anyway). In the meantime, do yourself a favor: sit back with a hot cuppa and get good and comfy while you browse his site. Just be sure not to have your mouth full when reading, else your screen will be ruined. Oh, and have tissue nearby.

Charlie, it is with great appreciation for your insightful inspiration that I pass the Cherry on Top Award to you. I don’t expect you to do any more with this award than hang it on your bedroom wall and gaze at it longingly. I wish you the utmost of laughter, good times, plain ole’ joy life has to offer. Thank you so much for all you’ve meant to my life – that’d be A Lot!   

Why must we feel the pain to count our blessings?

I know this may come as a shock to some, but…okay, here’s my confession: I am excessively sentimental. So when I read Jon Strother’s #fridayflash story for this week, Pen Pals, I bawled my eyes out. There was a dedication at the end: “In memory of Tia L. Brink….”. Not having heard of Tia before, I figured she was a personal acquaintance, someone that maybe he’d corresponded with for some time, and I left a comment saying now that he’d made me cry I was off to find a #fridayflash to make me laugh.

But what I found was one story after another dedicated to Tia’s memory that kept me in tears for hours. I thought “Who was this woman that she had such a great impact on so many short fiction writers?” Upon investigation I discovered Tia was a well known editor, stage and screenplay writer, and an astounding word weaver.

How had I missed her all this time? I am so sorry I did. A friend of Tia’s posted one of her short pieces as this week’s #fridayflash, titled simply Randomness, which blew me away. You must read this masterpiece. Oh, to have such “randomness” flitting through my mind! I felt even sorrier that I hadn’t discovered her work before, that I never got the chance to say thank you.

After my tears finally dried up I began to think about all the whining I’d been doing, (most of it public), for the past couple of weeks. I’m sure you all know about the flooding situation in our home, and how I, well, whined so much. On top of that, I have an urgent health situation going on, so I’ve been worried about that too. I’ve stayed off Twitter since all this started, kept to myself, and worried alone, (much to the appreciation of my readers I’m sure). My thoughts consisted of no more than “poor lil’ ole’ me”.

Then I found out another of our #fridayflash contributor’s grandmother passed away, just a few days before I read about Tia. And I was ashamed. Despite this health problem I’m facing and the worry of what to do about our house problems, I have a healthy family, a roof over my head, food to eat, a good job – the list goes on and on. I am blessed.

Isn’t it interesting how it takes seeing, hearing about, feeling, the devastation happening in a virtual stranger’s life to make us appreciate all we have in our own lives?

Counting our blessings is something we all need to do every day of our lives, not just when we realize how blessed we truly are. More importantly, we need to show our loved ones how grateful we are to have them in our lives. They weren’t given to us in order for us to have someone to complain to. They were loaned to us to have someone to love, to show how much we appreciate the gift of having them in our lives.

In light of that, I vow to make a greater effort to do just that, to show my family and friends how much I cherish the gift of having them in my life. Not just immediate family, not just the friends I’m blessed to have met physically, but also all of you, my loyal readers, my partners in this otherwise lonely world of being a writer.

Thank you all – writers and readers alike – for making such a profound difference in my life. You read my work, even when it’s not my best, leave kind comments, helpful critique, and are consistently encouraging of my work. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.

I’m sure I speak for many when I say: “Special thanks to Jon Strother, of Mad Utopia, for creating this wonderful community called #fridayflash, for without you I wouldn’t even know these friends.”

Don’t wait to say thank you – show your friends how much you appreciate them. For yesterday is gone, and tomorrow will never be here. Live now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coming soon: Tune in on Sunday, September 5, for an interview with one of the best short fiction writers on the www: John Wiswell of The Bathroom Monologues.

I hope you’ll stop in on International Literacy Day, Wednesday, September 8, for a special surprise!  

Visit The Life of a Working Writer Mommy to read a fun conversation I had with my son six years ago, (I found it in an old journal this morning).

Click here to subscribe to The Other Side of Deanna.

Love, Love, Love

Good gracious sakes alive –August is here already!

Way back in June the lovely Valerie Valdes of As The Moon Climbs was kind enough to bestow the One Lovely Blog Award AND the Versatile Blogger Award upon The Other Side of Deanna. Since I had just gone into caving mode, I offered up a mere lick-and-a-promise, (to all you non-southerners, that means a “thank you and I’ll do it proper later”).

 

Meanwhile, while I was away a couple of weeks ago, one of our most talented #fridayflash writers, Linda Simoni-Wastila of LEFTBRAINWRITE, passed along the Fabulous Flash Award to me. Again, I gave a lick-and-a-promise, this time because I was waiting for my computer to magically escape the shop, with a brand new hard drive, (yep, I destroyed the original).

First of all ladies, I hope you’ll forgive me for having taken a ridiculous amount of time to post proper acceptance. I feel terribly guilty that I’ve been loved, loved, loved, yet I haven’t taken the time to spread that love around. It’s about time, says I!

The combined rules of the One Lovely Blog Award and the Versatile Blog Award are:

• Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
• Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason.
• Share 7 things about yourself.
• Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

Thank you so much Valerie!

Just before Valerie granted these awards to me, Gracie Motley of Crone’s Cauldron Publications gave the One Lovely Blog Award to me. Thank you again Gracie! [See acceptance of this award for the 15 bloggers I’ve recently discovered and think are fantastic.]

7 things about me, you ask? Well, you all know so much already I can’t imagine I can tell you anything new, but here goes:

1. I am very klutzy.
2. I have some sort of accident every year on the 4^th of July; two of these involved destroying lawn mowers – *see #1. (You’d think I’d have learned by now not to get out of bed on the 4^th).
3. My favorite thing in the world to do, (aside from writing and reading), is junking. I am the biggest pack-rat ever lived.
4. I worked as a graphic artist for two whole weeks – shortest job I’ve ever had.
5. I received the Best Thespian Award for my portrayal of Mrs. Boyle in Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap during my senior year of high school.
6. I worked as a model in my early 20’s.
7. I was stalked during the four months I lived in Miami, FL, also in my early 20’s.

And now, for my favorite part of accepting the Versatile Blogger Award: I am pleased to pass it along to Anne Tyler Lord of Don’t Fence Me In. Anne is not only a great friend, she writes some fantastic, (and very funny), stories. But I feel Anne serves us writers best as one of the strongest community builders on the web. We know all too well how lonely this creative life can be. Anne uses her incredible talent as a counselor-therapist-friend to bring us together and ease the often painful existence of being writers. I know I speak for all of us when I say thank you Anne for all you do!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks so much to Linda Simoni-Wastila of LEFTBRAINWRITE for the Fabulous Flash Award! I feel especially honored that Linda believes my flash stories are fabulous, because hers are well beyond fabulous. If you haven’t yet discovered Linda’s stories, you’re missing out. Be sure to visit her site – you’ll be left breathless, and, more often than not, thinking harder than you anticipated.   

The difficult part of accepting the Fabulous Flash Award is to pass it along to only four other flash fiction writers. There are so very many fabulous authors in our #fridayflash community, it’s hard to choose only four. But here goes:

Pamila Payne of Bella Vista: Pamila just recently joined the #fridayflash community, and I am so glad she did. Her stories offer just the right amount of humor to cushion the blow of some astounding horror. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve discovered my mouth hanging open and my breathing ceased when reaching the last word of her stories.

Olivia Tejeda of Away With Words: Olivia not only writes timeless slice-of-life stories, but she also does an incredible job of connecting us lonely writers. Be sure to check out The Silent Writers Collective community while you’re visiting her site, Away With Words.

Eric J Krause of Eric J Krause’s Writing Spot: What I like best about Eric’s work is that you never know what you’re going to get. One week you’ll be cracking up laughing, the next you’ll be bawling. Eric is one of the most multitalented writers among us.

Danielle LaPaglia of Danielle La Paglia: The first of Danielle’s works I read, Missing, left me with chills. For hours after I read that story I was looking over my shoulder and jumping at the slightest sound. Danielle’s work is definitely fabulous.

Thank you again Valerie, and thank you Linda, for feeling I’m worthy of these wonderful awards. I accept them with much gratitude and honor.

Appreciation, Caving, and Celebration

I recently declared not to work on any writing projects aside from my novel for at least the next six weeks or so. Therefore, I won’t be posting a #Fridayflash this week. As Jon predicted, (in the comments on that post), here it is Thursday, and I’m experiencing withdrawals. If I hadn’t already expected this to happen, I would swear he made it happen subliminally. I keep having to slap my hand away from my flash folder and telling myself “You promised! You don’t have time to polish a flash piece – your novel’s hero needs to speak!”

But I digress….. The purpose of this post is to thank Valerie Valdes of As The Moon Climbs for honoring The Other Side of Deanna with the One Lovely Blog Award AND the Versatile Blogger Award. 

Thank you Valerie! I will post a proper blog, (to include the rules of acceptance), when I climb out of my cave – I just wanted to make sure Valerie knows I do appreciate her generosity very much. Thank you again Valerie!

 

Meanwhile, I hope you’re working on your story for my upcoming birthday celebration, The Other Side of Deanna’s first writing contest. Links to stories may be posted from July 10 – July 24, (contest rules also listed here). A big thank you to Anne Tyler Lord, of Don’t Fence Me In, for mentioning the contest on the #Writers_Life post for today, Coffee Klatch – June 24: Contests & More. Be sure to check out the #Writers_Life group on Anne’s site, and on Twitter. Not only does Anne post thoughtful content, but, more importantly, #Writers_Life is a fast-growing community of incredibly supportive, like-minded writers.  

And now, back to the cave….

P.S. Dontcha just love the formatting!

Announcing…

UPDATE JULY 10, 2010: Just a quick note to those entering the contest – This isn’t a requirement, only a suggestion. You may want to include a link on your story post to let your readers know the story is a conetst entry and point them to this post. Then you’ll want to update it on August 1, when I post the voting poll with contest entry links. Hopefully this will bring your readers over to vote for your story.

When you get to a certain age in life, it becomes more important to give, rather than receive. This past year I’ve been blessed to have gained many friendships via several on line groups, especially the #fridayflash, #SilentWriters, and #Writers_Life communities. Therefore, my birthday gift to myself this year is to give back to those friends, and all new ones I hope to make in the process.

To celebrate my birthday, (which is on August 16th), The Other Side of Deanna is hosting its first writing contest:

Contest:

Write a story of 1,000 words or less, using the theme “birthday”. The story can be either fiction or creative nonfiction. Post the story on your blog or website; then post the title and link to your story in the comments on this post sometime between 12:00 AM, July 10th – 11:59 PM, July 24th (est).

Don’t have a blog or website? You can still enter – just send your story, along with contact information, to me via email at deanna_ms@hotmail.com. Be sure to post the story directly into the body of the email – attachments will not be opened. Those stories will be published on a separate post here, on The Other Side of Deanna, with a link to that post in the comments on this post. Your contact information WILL NOT be published unless you request it to be; however, your name, pen name, or other form of identification you choose, (such as “Hillbilly Bob”), must be accredited to your story, so be sure to note that in the email.

The winner will be decided via your vote, which will begin on August 1st, in order to give everyone time to read the stories, (see “voting” below).

Story content

I reserve the right to remove links to any story I don’t approve of. If you would like to know how I rate my own stories, feel free to use my ratings system.

*Note: if you have not commented on this site to date, your comment with the link to your story will be held in queue until I approve it. I will get to these as quickly as possible. If your comment doesn’t appear right away, please check back later. I will make every effort to check the queue at least twice a day.  

Who may enter?

Anyone! My hope is to expose your work to a variety of venues and communities, and bring you new readers.

Voting

YOU decide who wins. A poll with links to all stories will be posted at 12:00 AM (est) on August 1st. Voting will run through 11:59 PM, est, on August 15th, with the winner being announced on or around August 16th. I won’t be judging stories myself, and I am not allowed to vote. In the case of a tie, Quillen will draw from a hat. I’ll make sure the slips of paper are big enough that he can’t eat them, (and yes, he’ll eat anything).

Quillen

What’s the point? Oh, a prize? Yes, a prize!

Although the main purpose of this contest is to bring more attention to your work, the winner should receive a bit more than that. Therefore, the winner, (story that obtains most votes), will receive an Amazon gift certificate for $19.69. Why the odd amount? It’s the year I was born, and, being a writer myself, I can’t afford the number of years old I am.

But that’s not all! The winner will also be highlighted in an upcoming post on The Other Side of Deanna, (date to be determined), in the form of an interview. Of course this part of the prize is optional; if you prefer not to be interviewed, you may simply pass on this opportunity.

*Only one gift certificate will be awarded. However, in the case of a tie, the writer(s) Quillen doesn’t draw from a hat will also be highlighted on The Other Side of Deanna.

If you have any questions about the contest, you may either leave a comment on this post, or email me at deanna_ms@hotmail.com. I hope you’ll spread the word – via Twitter, Facebook, your own site, however you wish. If you would like to post a blog about the contest, please post a link directly to this post.

I look forward to reading your stories!

Note: Be sure to subscribe to comments here so you don’t miss out on a story! You can subscribe to all posts on The Other Side of Deanna here.

*Special thanks to Anne Tyler Lord, of Don’t Fence Me In, for her assistance.

 _______________________________________________________________________________

*This contest is sponsored by Deanna Schrayer alone. No gifts or monies have been received by any entity. However, if you’re reading this and feel the need to pay me, please don’t hesitate to email me (address listed in post above).

One Lovely Blog

A Big Thank You to Gracie Motley, of Crone’s Cauldron Publications , for presenting the

to The Other Side of Deanna. I am honored that you felt my work worthy of this award.

As acceptance of this award, the following criteria should be met:

• Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link. Check

• Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Check

• Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award. In process

Let me tell you, choosing only fifteen blogs is challenging. Thanks to the incredible community of #fridayflash, and to my readers at The Life of a Working Writer Mommy, I’ve recently discovered many great folks who blog for a variety of reasons. Via these links you will find not only brilliantly written fiction, but also heartfelt, and often heart wrenching, nonfiction. I hope you’ll stop by and visit these wonderful folks:  

1. Jannie Funster at Jannie Funster   I discovered Jannie via one of the most fun people on the www, Paige Vonliber at Paradise Valley 2…Hell’s Mountain and over the edge, and am so glad I did. Jannie is a fun gal herself, who loves to sing.

2. GP Ching at So, Write   Genevieve writes compelling and often heart wrenching stories.

3. Aisliynne O’Conner at Story-book     Aislynn is a kind, compassionate soul who puts a lot of that compassion in her stories.

4. Jen Brubacher at scribe ergo sum    Jen’s stories are some of the most thought-provoking I’ve ever read.

5. TJ McIntyre at Southern Fried Shorts       TJ writes from the heart, seemingly with little effort.

6. Ronda Laveen at Ronda’s Wonderland   Ronda is a wonderful, loving person who works as a healer and writes from the depths of her soul.

7. Jolene Llewellyn at Graceful Agony    Jolene lives with chronic pain, but doesn’t even think of letting that stop her from spreading the genuine compassion she feels for her readers.

8. Cathy Olliffe at Life on the Muskoka River    Cathy writes plain fun stories, with a hard-to-come-by talent for dialogue.

9. Josie Moray at Conversations from the Sea Josie is a kindhearted soul who brings much comfort to her readers.

10.  Charlie Callahan a.k.a., Professor B. Worm    Charlie’s site is the most recent I’ve discovered, so while I haven’t had time to read much of his work, that I have read has touched me deeply.

11.  Tomara Armstrong at This, That…The Other Thing   Tomara’s stories will leave you with chills.

12.  Clifford Fryman at Clifford Fryman    The creator of #storystarters, Clifford is an incredibly talented writer with a penchant for thrilling fiction

13.  Alan Davidson at Conversations From Land’s Edge    Alan is an incredibly talented storyteller, especially of slice-of-life.

14.  Cecilia Dominic of Random Oenophile    I’ve actually known Cecilia for several months, mainly for her knowledge of fine wines, but have just recently discovered she writes hilarious stories.

15.  Pamila Payne at Bella Vista    Pamila tells us gritty stories with an incredibly talented jagged edge.

Thank you again Gracie for bestowing this award to The Other Side of Deanna, and thanks to all my readers, especially to those of you who’ve led me to the talented writers of these sites.