What was the lie?

Hello fellow crusaders and bloggers! *Waves*

It's been awhile...five days!  Yes I have not blogged for five days.  I've been a busy bee so I hope you all forgive me :)

No big post at the moment but just to say thank you to all of you who came and left a comment on the First Crusaders Challenge! A little bit of good news - I have now followed all of the crusaders.  I mean, all of those who can be followed! Whew.  At last.  It's fun meeting all of you and I'm looking forward to getting to know you all and reading more of your blogs! ☺

Now, the lie?  Oh my God! Almost all of you guessed it right! Ha ha ha!  Yes, I love donuts to bits. My favourite is Bavarian flavour but I can't find any over here where I am.  So sad.  The rest of the things I said were all true.  Hmmm, yes, including the G-strings.  Hate them.  I don't know why they were invented.  They don't support or cover anything, do they? They are just strings! ☹

I hope you are all having a good weekend!  Now have to cook dinner ♨

First Crusader Challenge!

Here is the First Crusader Challenge!!! Thanks to Rachael Harrie for coming up with a cool idea!  


Today, I will be telling you:


one secret
one lie
one interesting quirk
one annoying habit
one of my best character traits, and
one of my favourite things in the whole world. 


*********************


Here goes:


I love to sit by the sea, listening to the sea waves, in the summer of course, and read a book.  I'd love to stay there for hours, just relaxing.  With no interruptions.


I don't wear G-strings.  It hurts.  It actually feels like a metal blade slicing my bum.


I hate donuts.  Especially Bavarian flavour.  Totally.


My other half loves to playfully bloviates.  I find it really funny.  I think when he gets funny, it brings out the funny side of me, too!


My husband studies birds. I'd like to ask him what fuliguline is.  Problem is I don't like going out in the cold just to watch birds.  But I do like them. Yes, I do!


When house cleaning gets to me and it gets really annoying, I rabbit a lot, then husband disappears.


**********************


I may have revealed something about me that isn’t strictly true, can you guess what it is?


Don't forget to visit the others and see what secrets they've revealed!  Click here to go to the list.

Here are the Winners!

Hello there! Thank you for your patience with me.  I am now feeling a lot lot better although I must say that the cough has not gone completely yet.  I'd like to imagine this cough to be a tiny insect that I could swat.  If only.  But never mind, the most important thing I am here for today is to announce the Winners to the 200 Followers I heart You ❤ Celebration! 

I asked the kindness of my other half to draw the names for me :)

Drawing the first winner from those who earned 5 points!

Here's the bowl with all the entries

And now here are the Winners!!!!

Drumroll please!!!

Glynis wins Welcome to my World by Miranda Dickinson

Cheryl Anne Ham wins Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

Lola Sharp wins Head Over Heels by Jill Mansell

Margo Kelly wins Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

LindyLou Mac wins Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin (a gift from the lovely Theresa Milstein, thank you Theresa!)

Congratulations!!!

Please e-mail me the address that you'd like the book to be sent to.  My e-mail address is:  conversationswithlen (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Thank you so much to everyone *Big Group HUG*  I will be dropping by your blogs to say hello! :)

xoxo

Happy Choco-Wednesday!

Hello everybody! I'd like to thank you all who joined the 200 Followers I heart ❤ You Celebration! I'm so very pleased to meet all of you :) I've visited most of the blogs and will check the rest in the next few days. I hope you bear with me if I'm too slow checking blogs and leaving comments this week. I've been under the weather and have been experiencing sleepless nights due to very bad cough and colds.  I'm grumpy as well *sigh*...my poor husband has to put up with me *sad face*...but no worries, I'm hoping to get better in the next couple of days.

I hope you are all having a fabulous Wednesday!  How was your Valentine's Day?  I know, I know, it's all too commercialised and all.  I don't believe in Valentine's Day per se but it was still nice when my husband gave me a beautiful card and a box of Thorntons chocolates.  I thought that was sweet and thoughtful, don't you think?  We also had a family evening out, husband, son and myself, on Sunday...yes, I ignored these darn flu-like symptoms so ended up having to take medication, including the most horrible tasting cough syrup that knocked me out completely that night.  Yuck.

The 200 Followers I heart ❤ You Celebration will close at 11.59 p.m. tonight, a minute before the clock hits the 17th of February, USA time.  I thought it would be best to use USA time as I'm based in the UK (7 hours faster/away).  I hope this gives those of you who'd like to join enough time.

Once again, thank you soooo much everybody. I've enjoyed this celebration with you.  Now, I'd like to share with you some chocolates, too!  ((((Hugs))))))

And oh, wait!  My friend, Theresa Milstein on Substitute Teacher's Saga has now announced the lucky Winners to her 400 Followers Fiesta!  Please go over and check if your name has been picked! 

x

200 Followers I heart ♥ You Ce-le-bra-tion!

Hello friends, thank you so much to all of those who joined and followed me, and good old blogger friends who've always been there to support me.  The contest will have to close by Wednesday, 16 February since I have now reached 200.  The winners will be announced on 18 February.  Hugs to you all!

*  *  *

Oooops, is it Valentine's Day today?  If you think this is a Valentine post, you are wrooooonnnggg!!! *snorts*  But since it's Valentine's Day, I thought I'd call this my 200 Followers I heart ♥ You Celebration!

The truth?  I am now getting very close to reaching 200 followers, woot-woot!!!  I am really very pleased to have gained so many friends in blogland.  You all rock!  And I hope you all know you do!

To show you my gratitude and lurve, I am giving away four awesome books.  The first three are all adorable, beautifully-written stories by the most amazing authors.  I love all of them, each has got a unique story to tell.  I would like to pass them on to you and let you experience them too.

The fourth one is a book on writing by a well-respected author and editor.

Drumroll please...

The Sunday Times Bestseller, Welcome to my World by Miranda Dickinson
This is one beautiful love story you wouldn't want to miss!

Another beautiful and funny love story, Head Over Heels by Jill Mansell
How would you handle it if the man who just moved in next door to you is the man you were so in love with years ago?

One of my Jodi Picoult favourites, Keeping Faith.

Find out if Faith is really talking to angels!

and

Becoming a Writer

by Dorothea Brande

To win any of these books, all you have to do is:


Follow me = 1 point
Already a Follower = 1 point


Post on your Facebook Wall = 1 point
Tweet = 1 point
Both = 2 points


Post on you blog - 2 points


After following and earning points, please leave me a comment with your name, e-mail address and link to your blog and points earned and the order of your book choices.  It is important that you send me your e-mail address and blog (URL) address as sometimes Blogger won't let me get to your blog by just clicking on the tiny icons on the 'Followers' list.

My husband will pick the names for me.  For those earning 5 points, your names will be included in the raffle pot for all four books.  If you earn 3 to 4 points, your names will be in the pot for the next three book prizes.  If you earn 2 points and below, your names will be in the raffle pot for the last two book prizes.

This is open internationally.  Please do not worry if you are based outside USA or the UK, your prize will be sent to you by post (mail).

Winners will be picked once I reach 200 Followers!  ♫♬♪happy dance♯♪♭ ☺

I wish I could give books to everybody ☹ I feel awful ☹ having to do a raffle but I hope whoever wins will enjoy these amazing books! ☺

A HUGE thank you to all of you!


*   *   *


There's an additional book from my good friend, Theresa Milstein:

An autographed copy of Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin

Yay! Thank you, Theresa!

Book Giveaways Coming Soon!

Wow! I can't believe I'm getting close to 200 Followers! *celebratory wacky dance that only I know how to do*

Woo-hoo!

What can I say? Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear blogging friends and fellow writers...I'm so delighted!

I am having a 200-Followers Ce-le-bra-tion on Monday, so please come back to see my book giveaways that I am very sure you will all luuuurrrrvvvee!

At the moment, I have 170+ followers, I am hoping that by the end of the celebration, I will have 200.

Have a beautiful, enjoyable, amazing weekend everybody!  See you all on Monday!  Hugs!

xoxo

Awesome writing workshop!

First of all, I'd like to welcome my new followers and Crusaders!  I'm very pleased to meet all of you!  I'm getting close to 200!  So cool!  Yay!  I think book giveaways are on the cards! Woo-hoo!!!

So, what have you been doing these days?  Exciting week so far?  Tell me what you have been up to!

Me?  Let me tell you...

Last Saturday, I attended a writing workshop (Writing Children's Fiction) with a very enthusiastic tutor, Author Paeony Lewis.  Paeony has a joyous personality with an infectious laughter that obviously made us smile all throughout the four hours we were with her.  The writing exercises were very interesting indeed, especially the characterization part where we were asked to create a character not realising that in the process, we were also creating an idea for a story!

I left the classroom so elated that I wanted to zoom back home so I could carry on writing!  Paeony gave us so much inspiration and encouragement, without forgetting to state the truth - that it is hard to get published but absolutely not impossible.

Here are some points that I've learned from my charismatic tutor, Paeony:

1.  When writing, always remember that a story is a problem that needs to be solved.

2.  Aside from the main plot, you must always have a psychological plot that develops in each chapter of your story.

3.  Take rejections as part of apprenticeship.

4.  Even after getting published, you will still get rejected.

5.  You don't have to have an agent.

6.  You can contact publishers directly but you have to find out who these publishers are who accept submissions directly from writers.

7.  You can submit the same work to as many publishers as you want at the same time.

8.  Agents don't like receiving manuscripts that have already been submitted to publishers.

9.  Give the publisher or agent time to have a look at your work.  Six months is enough time - if you haven't heard from them, it is time to write and make a follow-up.

10.  Publishers are always looking for fresh ideas and new talent so don't ever give up!

There you go, dear friends!  I know some of them you already know as writers but just the same, I thought I'd share them with you as a good reminder.

Happy writing, everyone!

Do you use a Pen Name?

Consider that a serious question.  As a writer, should I use a pen name or not?

I am seriously asking myself this question and racking my brains out as to what pen name to use (or should I use one?) now that I've began to submit my writing to publishers.  I had a chat with a fellow writer and editor a few days ago and asked her, 'Would you use a pen name?'  Her answer was, 'No.  Because I want people to know it is me.'  Good point.

My husband tells me the same thing.  He keeps saying, 'Why would you want a fictitious name, someone who doesn't exist, to own your writing?  Wouldn't you want people to know it's you who wrote the book?'  Same point.  But I still can't make up my mind.

So I asked a dear friend, my writer Bff,  Sabini Row, who is now on her journey to publishing and her answer is:  'Yes, I am going to use a pen name.'  In all our recent conversations about this, it was only tonight that she gave me a very concrete answer that made me ponder.  She said it gives her the freedom to express her creativity, it doesn't have any boundaries, it means knocking down all the walls....and cited Mark Twain - it projects sense of comfort.  Incidentally, she has just opened her fresh Author Blog so I'd like to invite you all to check it out.  I promise you, you will love her like I do. http://sabinirow.blogspot.com.

Tonight, I am left with these thoughts and still haven't decided. Currently, I am using LP Lambert as my writer's name, although I am still not very sure about that.

This means, I need your help to tell me your honest opinion.  Would you use a pen name or not?  If yes, why?

Rachel launches the Second Writers' Platform-Building Crusade!

Do you remember me telling you about the Writers' Platform-Building Crusade?  Rachael Harrie launches it today, so don't forget to visit her blog and tell her if you'd like to join.  It's going to be fun!!!

Happy Friday everyone!