Contests & Giveaways in the Writing World - Week of November 25th

Grrrr...Monday again! The great news is that it's a short work week! And an even better news - there are lots of contests & giveaways to make your week great!

First of, check out the absolutely gorgeous double cover reveal of The Legend of Me and The Winter People by Rebekah Purdy and enter for a chance to win an eARC of the books! You won't be sorry!

Win a $100 Amazon GC or PayPal Cash at the Siding With Plato Book Blast by Michelle Manning on Susan Heim On Writing blog.

Mystery and danger, and of course romance, await you in The Russian Temptation by Nikki Navarre. Enter for a chance to win a copy on GoodReads.

Check out an excerpt from The Transformation of Anna and Echoes, the first two books in the Cornerstone Deep series by Charlene A. Wilson and enter for a chance to win a copy of, as well as some swag, at the Mythical Books blog.

Enter for a chance to win a $10 B&N or Amazon GC during the Bewitching Book Tours: Entangled Flaunt Tour Spotlight on Take a Chance series by Diane Alberts. 

Love Writing Contests? Check out this list of contests at the Writer magazine.

Want more contests? How about entering the 83rd Annual Writing Competition from Writer's Digest? Early Bird entry deadline is May 5th. Prizes include a chance to win $3,000 cash, get a one-on-one attention with four editors or agents and much more. And the winner will be announced on the cover of Writer's Digest!

*As always, please contact me for the inclusion of your contests/giveaways into the Monday Contests and Giveaways in the Writing World posts.

Have fun and good luck! 

Also, don't forget to become a follower of this blog to make sure you catch giveaways coming soon!

Quote of the Day

In life, God doesn't give you the people you want. Instead, he gives you the people you need - to teach you, to hurt you, to love you, and to make you exactly the way you're meant to be.

~ unknown

Man Candy Richard Armitage

I have nothing to say today, so enjoy some man candy: Richard Armitage, aka Lucas North of MI-5, aka Thorin Oakenshield of the Hobbit, aka Guy of Gisborne of Robin Hood.

Cover Reveal - DEPENDENT by Brenda Corey Dunne

Today I'm so happy to be part of the cover reveal for a friend and agent-mate Brenda Corey Dunne! I couldn't be happier for Brenda. So, without further delay, here's the beautiful cover of Dependent.

About Dependent:

 

When 45-year-old Ellen Michaels loses her husband to a tragic military accident, she is left in a world of gray. For 25 years her life has been dictated by the ubiquitous They—the military establishment that has included her like chattel with John’s worldly goods—his Dependents, Furniture, and Effects. They—who have stolen her hopes, her dreams and her innocence, and now in mere months will take away the roof over her head. Ellen is left with nothing to hold on to but memories and guilt and an awful secret that has held her in its grip since she was 19. John’s untimely death takes away her anchor, and now, without the military, there is no one to tell her where to go, what to do— no one to dictate who she is. Dependent deals with issues ever-present in today’s service families—early marriage, frequent long absences, the culture of rank, and post traumatic stress, as well as harassment and abuse of power by higher-ranking officials. It presents a raw and realistic view of life for the lives of the invisible support behind the uniform.

 

Release date estimated July 29, 2014.

 

About the author:

 

Brenda Corey Dunne grew up in rural New Brunswick, Canada. She originally trained as a physiotherapist and worked several years as a Physiotherapy Officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force before meeting the love of her life and taking her release.

She completed her first full length manuscript in 2008 as a bucket-list item and since then she has self-published a work of YA historical fiction (TREASURE IN THE FLAME), and has several other manuscripts in various stages of completion. DEPENDENT, an adult contemporary fiction, will be published by Jolly Fish Press in summer 2014. Brenda is represented by Jennifer Mishler and Frances Black of Literary Counsel.

When not working as a physiotherapist or writing, Brenda can be found juggling taxi-mom duties, working in the garden or strolling through the horse paddock with a coffee in hand. She currently resides on a small hobby farm in Eastern Ontario (Canada) with her husband and their three children, two horses, a dog, a cat, several chickens and the occasional sheep.

 

Links of Note:

 

Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18755012-dependent?from_search=true

 

Amazon pre-order of Dependent here: http://www.amazon.com/Dependent-Novel-Brenda-Corey-Dunne/dp/1939967368/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384175499&sr=1-1&keywords=dependent+brenda

 

Brenda's blog: brendacoreydunne.blogspot.ca

 

Brenda's Twitter handle: @overdunne : https://twitter.com/overdunne

 

Follow Brenda on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brendacoreydunneauthor

 

Quote of the Day

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

  ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Friday Art & History Feature - Caterina Sforza in paintings

I'm utterly fascinated by Caterina Sforza, an amazing woman of the Italian Renaissance, a strong-willed, supremely intelligent noble lady, a valiant warrior in her own right, who lived in the same time period as the Borgias.

A post about Caterina Sforza's life will be coming to the Art & History Feature soon, but today enjoy the paintings of Italian Renaissance inspired by Caterina's face.

One of the most prolific artists to use Caterina as the subject in his many works was Sandro Botticelli. Here are some of those paintings.

A fragment of Purification of a Leper by Botticelli, a fresco in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican. Caterina is seeing here six months pregnant with her third child, daughter Bianca.

A fragment from Botticelli's La Primavera (1498) The Grace on the right is said to be Caterina Sforza.

A close-up of Caterina Sforza's face as one of the Graces in La Primavera by Botticelli

Caterina Sforza depicted here as St. Catherine of Alexandria by Botticelli

 

 

Caterina Sforza (1481-1483) by Lorenzo di Credi

I'm planning a post about Caterina within the next month.

Giveaways and Contests in the Writing World - Week of November 4th

Grrrr...Monday again! I'm running a bit crazy lately, but here are a few awesome giveaways to get you through the week!
 

Love Historical Fiction? Read the interview with Deborah Swift and enter for  a chance to win her novel, A Divided Inheritance on Unabridged Chick. The giveaway ends on November 8th!

For more Historical Fiction enter for a chance to win an ecopy of The Charter by Gillian E. Hamer on English Historical Authors.


Check out the excerpt from and enter the giveaway to win a copy of I Am Just Junco Omnibus by J.A. Huss, an epic science fiction fantasy from Pinkindle. You can also win a $50 Amazon Card!

Write Poetry? Enter to win the $500 Julie Suk Prize for Best Poetry Book published in 2013. Submission are accepted through December 31st. For submission guidelines click here.


Holiday season is just around the corner. Enter the Mistletoe Christmas Romance Contest for traditionally and independently published authors. Prizes include $200 Cash, as well as $250+ of promotion in the month of December from StoryFinds and BWB.

*As always, please contact me for the inclusion of your contests/giveaways into the Monday Contests and Giveaways in the Writing World posts.

Have fun and good luck! 

Also, don't forget to become a follower of this blog to make sure you catch giveaways coming soon!