Choose Your Own Adventure Dragon Blog Hop

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon ChooseYour Own Adventure blog hop. The adventure starts on Kerri's blog, so go back here if you want to start from the beginning.

Dragon Blog Hop (Choose Your Own Adventure)

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon ChooseYour Own Adventure blog hop. The adventure starts on Kerri's blog, so go back here if you want to start from the beginning.

You shout for the dragon to come back!

You are suddenly overcome by terrible guilt. Geez, it’s not every day a gay dragon asks for help, is it? Still a bit winded after all the unexpected running, you roll over and gasp “Wait! I’ll help you” as loudly as you can manage.

Meet the Agents Speed Dating

A Date With Destiny?

Just had to write a quick post to tell you my good news. I went to this amazing event in San Francisco on Saturday, organized by the Women's National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter (WNBA-SF). They hosted a 'speed-dating' of Agents and Acquisition Editors, plus a keynote lunch with best-selling author Meg Waite Clayton (who was great).

Dragon Blog Hop and Sunshine Award

I am excited to announce that we have decided on a date for our Dragon Blog Hop - Thursday 29 March 2012. My lovely friend Kerri is organising it again and chose the theme of dragons to match the Chinese Year of the Dragon, and Crystal came up with this stunning badge. (Click here to see our previous blog hop, all about a Sea Monster.)

Help! I've been tagged!

Okay, so I was actually tagged a while ago and have only just got around to answering the questions. I kept putting it off because felt a bit like homework. But then I got to include some cheesy music vids and a pic of Clint Eastwood, so I have decided it was fun after all :) Please go and visit Rossandra White and say Hi.

Here are her 11 questions that she posed:

1) What book have you always wanted to read, but still haven’t gotten around to it?

Hmmm, let me see ... I've never read War and Peace, and only parts of The Karma Sutra.

2) What classic book do you feel is overrated? Why?

Jane Eyre - I was forced to dissect it at school and I hate it!

Dragons, Interview and Music

Just a very quick blog today. Work is really busy and my sister (the Buddhist nun sister, have I mentioned her?) is flying over from England for a week's visit. So I don't have a lot a time. I am also participating in a Dragon Blog Hop - more details soon, but should be fun. It won't be your usual dragon story, of that you can be certain!

As part of Rachael Harrie's 4th Writer's Platform-Building Campaign, I have been interviewed by Christ Kelworth of The Kelworth Files. Please pop over and pay him a visit, and if you feel like leaving a comment that would be wonderful.

First Challenge, Fourth Campaign - The Gas Chamber

The Gas Chamber

Photo credit

Shadows crept across the wall of the boarding school dormitory. There was utter silence.  It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Which was unusual with eight boisterous, hormonal teenagers forced into one room, with too much energy to sleep at a ridiculously early hour. We were playing Colditz, a WWII prisoner of war series on the telly. Six of us ‘prisoners’ would hide at various points in the dormitory, while the two remaining ‘guards’ would take a flashlight and try and find us. Now, of course, there were very few places you could hide in a sparse dormitory, so most of us were under the beds trying to stifle our excited giggles.

Origins - Why I Started Writing

I am writing this as part of the ORIGINS blogfest.

On February 13th, DL Hammond of Cruising Altitude 2.0, Katie Mills of Creepy Query Girl, Alex J. Cavanaugh and Matthew MacNish of Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment, are co-hosting  the ORIGINS blogfest.  The idea is that we post our origin story to tell you where our writing dreams began.  OK - here goes, but now you'll know why I call myself  'Crazy California Claire'. 

Fourth Writer's Platform-Building Campaign



Rachael Harrie from Rach Writes has launched her Fourth Writer's Platform Building Campaign. This is a fantastic blogging opportunity for all writers and I enthusiastically encourage anyone to sign up.  Whether you have just started a blog (like me last time) or are a seasoned blogger, whether you write for fun or have a stream of best-selling titles to your name, it is a great opportunity to connect with other writers/bloggers, make friends and raise your profile at the same time.

All the details are over on Rachael's blog but the important dates are:

• The Fourth Campaign will be a mini-Campaign, and will run from Monday 6 February until Saturday 17 March.
• The List of Campaigners will close on Wednesday 15 February.
• The First Campaigner Challenge will begin on Monday 20 February end on Saturday 25 February.
• The Second Challenge will begin on Monday 5 March and end on Saturday 10 March.

My only advice (based on my experience from last time) is don't get over-excited and put your name onto too many of the Campaigner Groups. I drove myself crazy trying to get round to everyone's blogs on all the groups that I stupidly signed up for in a fit of writerly madness.

Otherwise, it's a blast! I learnt such a lot and met so many great bloggers. Drop me a note and let me know if you are going to join up and what your favourite bit was if you were on the last Campaign. I think what I liked best was the first flash fiction Challenge.

Awards, Factoids and Music!

I was very kindly given this Award by TB McKenzie at Magickless. Please pop over to his blog and say hello. The rules of this particular Award are to list 10 things about myself and then pass it on to 6 other bloggers. As usual, I am going about it arse-about-face and have decided to start with the bloggers I want to pass this on to.