Indie Girl March Hop & What's Up for Spring?!

The Model Position tour is over. If you missed any posts the tour schedule is here. Thanks so much to the lovely Kel over at Literary Nook, and my publishers over at Inkspell, who both helped tour my novella. You did an admirable job. I've made some great new online friends and have a fledgling, but growing flock of new readers. Thanks, readers!!! 
In the next week or two I'll post a couple of my fave top 10 lists, and feature some authors.
In the meantime, there's tons of new activity pushing into the light like the purple crocuses below.

Indie Girl March Hop is going strong until the end of March! The brainchild of Escaping One Book at a Time's Tiffany M., it's a festival of interviews, giveaways and posts of great indie authors. Pop over to Indie Girl March Hop and enter the giveaway to win FREE COPIES of my futuristic thriller, Ruby's Fire and Model Position, my romance novella.
To see the entire schedule click here.

I'm over at A Little R & R today, and Ren's running a great giveaway, so hey, more freebies to be had!!!   Here's the link.

April brings flowers and also the A to Z challenge. This April I am posting about fabulous fantasy creatures with my Untethered Realms buddies. My days are H and R, but every day will being a cool new critter with a cool new picture! So think about following our Untethered Realms blog to catch lots of these posts.

It feels good to actually have a moment to write a new blog post! I've missed all of you. So, what are you up to this spring? 

B is for Bottom Line in the A to Z Challenge

Let me start by saying that I've settled on a theme for the A to Z challenge. I'm writing posts on The Creative Life-anything about writing and art, and how to live as fruitfully as possible as a creative being, not always simple in the world of commerce, competition and fast paced-moves.

Now for B! The first thing that popped up for me (repeatedly) when I thought of B is the phrase Bottom Line. The dictionary defines it as 1. The essential or salient point, 2. A line at the bottom of a financial statement that shows the net profit or loss. 3. The most important consideration.

In considering a truly creative life, here is my bottom line:
Live by my intuition... if it feels right, go for it, no matter my anxiety. If it feels wrong, don't do it, even if the choice seems glittery and golden.
I have followed my intuition in editing a manuscript and sensing when it's done, in choosing an agent, in choosing a gallery, in using or not using manuscript critique suggestions, in choosing friends, even in buying a car or a piece of real estate. If an artist or writer cannot trust his or her intuition, he's working without a rudder.

The medieval cups are symbolic of intuition

To help me in this path, I often meditate before I face an onerous decision, or if I find myself unsure and waffling. This always helps. I might find that my gut is saying wait, you're not ready to make that decision, or it might tell me get on that phone now and stop procrastinating!

In your creative life, what's your bottom line?

A to Z Challenge! On AWARDS

Today is the start of the A to Z Challenge! It's my first time, so I hope I can pace myself. I'm #1157 in the lineup-yow! I'll talk about something fun today-AWARDS! You know you love them. So you want to concentrate on your writing, and honing your story so it sings and has razor-edge tension. And you're not supposed to concentrate on perks like getting reviews and readers and peer recognition. But an award doesn't hurt, does it? I'll never forget in my junior year of high school, getting the creative writing award and standing up on that stage, my knobby knees knocking; and later, getting my first NYPL Best Book for Teens award for Refugees, which carried me through difficult writing times and revision h*ll.
So, yeah, concentrate on crafting three-dimensional characters and a strong story, but don't forget to award yourself a pat on the back, or throw a party to celebrate that first finished draft.

Speaking of awards, I'm going to do some award-giving right now!
I'm feeling extra generous today, so... drum roll please.... the TWO winners of my free 25-page YA sci-fi manuscript evaluation are Margo Rowder and Debbie Davies!
Can't wait to read your pieces! (Send 'em as doc or docx attachments)

Freaky Hybrid Award

Now for my 2nd round of awards! The Freaky Hybrid Awards go to... (Told you I was feeling generous) Three creative thinkers from my last Fireseed Tour stop at Wistful Nebulae where we played Hybrid Mashups:
1. Allan Douglas for his genetically engineered trees that when planted in a pattern grow into a building that would be self-repairing!
2. SUZE for her new kind of "YEAR OF" mashup, with the year of the Bioengineering, Year of Self-Reproducing Automata, and Year of Neural Implant Connectivity
3. Misha Gericke for a chocolate and veggie hybrid that allows one to get the vitamins while indulging a chocolate fix!
What's been your most meaningful award so far? Most prized achievement? Gift to yourself for reaching a challenging goal? Favorite award you've given out to another person? A to Zers and everyone else, let's hear yours!