Petticoats & Pistols ~ I'm Wanted

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Come and see my picture among the Wanted Posters with the other Founding Fillies on Pistols and Petticoats. Click the title of this blog post for a link.

Check out my Slide Show!

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November Carnival of Christian Writers

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An article I wrote is included in the November Carnival of Christian Writers. Check it out.

You Might Be a Contest Junkie If......

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Cheryl Wyatt posted today on Seekersville. It's so funny the post alone is something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Exclusive Barbour Contract

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I've known about this for a while but now Barbour has sent out a press release about it and it's popping up different places.
I've signed an exclusive contract with Barbour to write nine books for them through 2011.
With other contracts I've already signed with them that makes 18 books.
I'm writing as fast as I can. I promise.
!!!!!!!!!!!!Praise the Lord and Thank You Barbour!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stepping Stones Magazine for Writers

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Rita Gerlach interviewed me for her Stepping Stones Magazine for Writers today. Click on the title of this blog to see it.
It was a fun interview and we talked about Calico Canyon, the sequel to Petticoat Ranch.

A Declaration of ... Dependence

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I'm the Blogger of the Day on the Seekerville blog. Click the title above

"A Declaration of...Dependence"

And go to Seekerville a blog dedicated to writer's contests. Today I talk not about being an entrant, but about being a mean old JUDGE!

Guest Blogging on Pistols and Petticoats Today

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Come on over to Pistols and Petticoats and leave a comment to be in the drawing for a free autographed copy of Petticoat Ranch.

http://www.petticoatsandpistols.com/ .

My Day Giving Romance Advice...be afraid!

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Myra Johnson
Use the link in this blog title to read my advice on romance on Myra Johnson's blog 'Writer at Random'....if you DARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheryl Wyatt ~ Contests a Bitter Friend?

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Cheryl Wyatt posts on The Seekers Blog today about the hard lessons she learned from contests. We all have to learn them somewhere!

Missy Tippens ~ First Post Jitters

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Missy Tippens is on The Seekers Blog today.
I also just found out that her book, due for release in February, titled Her Unlikely Family, is up on Amazon now.

Write or Die ~ Camy Tang

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Camy Tang writes about how entering contests helped her to find an editor and get PUBLISHED on the Seekerville blog today.

CAUTION: HORMONE FREE ZONE

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Julie Lessman is one of my Seeker buddys. I actually got to have a three hours breakfast with her when her life brought her to Omaha a week ago. She's posting today on The Seekers Blog. Her first book, A Passion Most Pure is coming January First. Buy it on Amazon now.

Life in the Midst of Writing

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Michelle Gregory interviewed me today about Petticoat Ranch for her blog 'Life in the Midst of Writing.' This title above is a link to her site and that interview.



Michelle Gregory

Author Janet Dean Learning from Contests

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Janet Dean, a fellow Seeker talks about her road to publication and how it led down the rocky road of entering contests.
Click this blog's title.

I met my agent Les Stobbe for the first time

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This picture was taken at the ACFW Conference in Dallas in September
L - R back row. Sue Duffy, my agent Les Stobbe, Beverly Varnado and me, Mary Connealy
Terri Gillespie in front. She sent me this pictures. Thanks Terri.

Also check out what's going on in Seekerville.
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/

Contest Road ~ Part #2

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Well, I won The Noble Theme contest and also placed third. I got a lot of requests at the conference to send in my book. I also got a really simple request from Cathy Marie Hake an author I didn’t know. She asked me to send her my first three chapters. She just wanted to see how I wrote.
I also had an agent looking at my work before this conference. He hadn’t offered to represent me, but he had expressed interest. When I emailed him to tell him I’d won the contest and tell him I received about fifteen requests from agents and editors for maybe five different books, he offered me a contract, so I got an agent, which is almost as hard as getting a book sold.
Cathy Marie Hake also kept in touch. She said she thought I was ‘ready’. No editor had yet seen that light, but Cathy’s encouragement kept me hoping. Plus, by this time, I had about twelve books and I’d had so many rejections I had a hide like a rhino, so submitting work didn’t even faze me.
Okay, well maybe I crawled under my computer desk and sucked my thumb for a day or two every time I got one but other than that I was fine.
Just before the next year’s conference, Cathy Marie Hake told me she wanted to pitch my name to write a book as part of a three book series set in historical Alaska. I worked on a proposal and talked on the phone with Cathy a lot before the 2005 conference.
Every year at the conference the acquiring editor for Heartsong Presents gives a contract to an unpublished author. I was so hopeful! I knew there was a chance it could be me. The Heartsong editor said someone else’s name and there’s only one, so okay, I’ve been rejected before. I kind of expect it.
And then she said, “And this year we’re giving two contracts to first time authors. We’re offering a contract to Mary Connealy.” I get chills saying that! It was a wonderful, thrilling shocking moment. I had to go up and get the contract, in front of 350 other writers, all clapping. A great, great moment in my life.
And it happened as a direct result of contests…and ten years of hard work of course.