Nicki Elson's Not-So-Deep Thoughts

We're kicking off the Omnilicious  Twitter Party, happening on Twitter tomorrow, May 31 a t 7 - 9ish EST,  a little early with a Scavenger Hunt at the participating authors' websites. The prizes will be ePacks of the authors' romance books, including a Young Adult ePack , New Adult ePack , Contemporary Adult ePack , and Paranormal Adult ePack and they'll be given away throughout the Twitter party. All you have to do is follow the links to the blogs listed below and collect the numbered letters that will spell the secret word. Don't forget to pick up the letter in this post before you go: As soon as you’ve worked out the word, enter both the word and your Twitter handle into the form below.  Good luck! Ready,  set... GO! Author Blogs: Kate Evangelista Justine Dell Cherie Colyer Carol Oates Debra Anastasia Patricia Leever Amber Belldene Sarah Glover Autumn Markus Lisa Sanchez Hannah Downing Jennifer Lane Jennif...

Today is the Get Healthy Bloghop hosted by Stephen Tremp , Alex J. Cavanaugh , L. Diane Wolfe & Michael Di Gesu . The Objective: Share with everyone something you have done that affected your health in a positive way.  I don't think anyone's going to be calling upon me to write a health manual anytime soon, but I do have a couple things to share for this blogfest - simple things I do to keep a stint on Survivor from being totally out of the question should I ever get the call from Mark Burnett.  Thing #1: Substitute:  I like to eat. Sometimes I like to eat a lot. I've found that simple substitutions of healthy foods for certain unhealthy ones - most of the time - allow me to keep on eating while still feeling good. I first gave up french fries when I was pregnant and wanted to make sure the weight I gained was good weight, and I'm still perfectly happy subbing with fruit, coleslaw, or a small salad on the side of my tasty burger. Instead of chips,...

This is my entry for the Random Acts of kindness blogfest sponsored by Wayman Publishing . It's all about celebrating the kindnesses in life that help to make it all bearable. Several months ago, author and blogger Jennifer Lane wrote a post in promotion of  Poughkeepsie ,  a novel by Debra Anastasia about a homeless man and the girl who smiles at him every day in the train station. In the post , Jennifer recalled something she learned while interning at a homeless shelter---her director explained that when we encounter homeless people on the street, whether we give them money or not, the " one thing we should do is show respect by looking them in the eye." The statement really struck me. Because as simple as it seems, I realized that at those times when I didn't give money, I avoided eye contact, mostly out of my own guilt and discomfort. Whatever the reason, the result was that I completely ignored  a human being who was just a few feet away from me. I ...

Sighted on the streets of Chicago, a pair of genuine 1980s Ray-Bans! Even better, they were on someone you might know - and if you don't, click on the picture to be taken to his fabulous blog. I'm sure he's got lots of interesting things to say, whereas I...don't. I think I yammered it all out of myself on Monday to the guy in the pic when we met for our annual birthday lunch. Ah, but next week I'll have much to say during these two great blogfests below. There's still time to join if you're not already signed up: Wait, one more thing! Sometimes the most frustrating thing about tragedies like what happened in Oklahoma is wishing there was something tangible we could do to help. The ladies at Literati Lit have put together a wonderful fundraiser, the proceeds of which will go 100% to the American Red Cross. Lots of writers have pitched in to offer up prizes for those who donate. 

Good morning! Today I'm over at the marvelous DL Hammons' Cruising Altitude 2.0 blog to tell you what I learned from WRiTE Club & offer up a short excerpt from Divine Temptation for critique. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. 

This is part of a group post about mothers (or grandmas/mother-figures/fictional mothers) and their support of and/or influence on our writing. If you'd like to do one of your own, write it up & link at the Omnific blog on Thursday, May 9 , or simply visit the blog that day to read more entries. In tribute to my amazing mum on this upcoming Mother's Day, I'm giving her the George Bailey treatment and reflecting upon how things might be very different in my writerly life if she wasn't exactly who she is: Without her indulging me and buying cat food & flea collars for Sugars, the stray cat who frequented our backyard and whom I considered a pet, I would never have been inspired to write Alley Cat, which won me a poetry award in the 5th grade and gave me my first inkling that I might be okay at this writing thing.   Without her doing all the work around the house so my siblings and I could focus on our studies, I might never have become comfortable spendi...

On an e-mail thread with some of my Omnific Publishing sisters, we got to talking about how great our mums are, and we cooked up the idea of doing a group post next Thursday in honor of Mother's Day---just a short post from each of us about how our mom, grandma, mother-figure, or a mother character, either from one of our own books or another, has supported or influenced our writing in any way. And you're all invited to join us! It's super casual (so caszh we didn't even make an icon, imagine that) so all you have to do is write up your mother post, post it, and then mosey over to the Omnific Publishing blog next Thursday, May 9, and enter your link into the Blog Bounce before hopping around for some heartwarming mother love.  We're unofficially calling it One Mother of a Blog Hop . Here are a couple Tweetables, if you are so inclined: What are you giving your mom this Mother's Day? How about a blog post especially for her?  http://ow.ly/kF4zJ ...

I guess this is more of a concern than an insecurity, but it seems like an appropriate topic for the Insecure Writers Support Group , founded by Alex. J. You-know-who-I'm-talkin'-about Cavanaugh . We writers talk a lot about the importance of editing and spend countless hours polishing our pieces and seeking knowledgeable feedback before editing and polishing some more. And that's just to get it ready to be considered for publication. Before it makes its way onto Amazon, most of our manuscripts will be subjected to further scrutiny by a professional editor. What I'm wondering is---is all this editing a colossal waste of time as far as readers are concerned?  I mean, sure, for our own satisfaction we want our work presented to the world in its most polished form, and there will certainly be other writers and critics with their eagle eyes upon it, but does the average reader even notice or care? I'm kind of thinking they don't. If they did, how would ...