It’s the (Second) Most Wonderful (Wednesday) of the Year

It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also the most “catch up while you still can” time of the year for writers (and pretty much for everybody else, besides the beneficent Mr. Hall. Christmas just happens for the beneficent Mr. Hall. But that’s an entirely different yuletide tale.)

Now, I don’t know about you, but Cathy C. Hall is all about being organized. That way, the most wonderful time of the year doesn’t run me down like a hopped-up-on-sugarplums reindeer. And to get organized, I use my wonderful calendar/date book. Which brings me to the (second) most wonderful (Wednesday) of the year!

I’m getting a new calendar/date book! And not just any calendar/date book. The 2009 Bylines Calendar for Writers! It’s called the Twain edition because it’s full of all sorts of Twain trivia, including Twain’s desk on the cover.

Oh, I just love Mark Twain. Mr. Twain and I go waaaaay back. It just doesn’t get any more wonderful-er than that.

Oh, wait! It does get more wonderful after all. I’m in the calendar (along with 50 or so other wonderful writers)! We share our feel-good writing stories, the stories you want to read when you’re feeling not so wonderfully writerly. Plus, you get a submission tracker, handy writing websites, space for monthly goals, weekly goals, and yearly goals. You even get a special place for jotting down all those business expenses (like buying a writer’s desk calendar). So, check it out here and order a Bylines calendar for yourself. And catch up on the new year while you still can!

Tooting My Horn Tuesday Goes Southwestern

But first, we pause for this message:

“She’s the birthday girl! She’s the birthday girl! The birthday, birthday, birthday, birthday Girl!”

And now back to our regularly scheduled post:

Guess who won FIRST place in the Society of Southwestern Authors Children’s Short Story Writing Competition?

That’s meeeeee! It was so hugely exciting because for the first time ever I actually got a phone call telling me I’d won! I got a plaque! I got a big, fat check! And I got all that MONTHS ago and had to sit on it till now.

Whew! I seriously was about to bust to get that horn-tootin’ toot out there. Here’s the picture I sent to Mary Ann (the absolutely lovely Coordinator of the SSA who called from Arizona and now we’re BFF’s).

I’m holding the Michael Lacapa Award and I really couldn’t be prouder. Michael Lacapa, for whom the award is named, was a Native American story teller who worked in developing multi-cultural curricula with the Apache tribe, using story telling as a teaching tool among the school-aged children. You can find out more about him, as well as the Southwestern Society of Authors here. And who knows? Maybe next year, you’ll enter and win a plaque! A big, fat check! And get a phone call from the absolutely lovely Mary Ann! Then you can bask in the SSA glow, too.

And now back to birthday business. The glow coming off all the candles is about to burn the house down.