February 5, 2012 – I received my Jo Beverley award at the Ottawa Romance Writers’ Association Valentines Brunch. 
January 17, 2012 I received my beautiful book cover done by Aidana WillowRaven. Her website is http://willowraven.weebly.com/ and her blog
http://willowraven-illustration.blogspot.com/ 
January 10, 2012 I was assigned my lead editor. I’ll be working with Carla Ralston. According to my publisher, she's about the best editor there is.
January 4, 2012 – The call for awards from the Ottawa Romance Writers’ Association went out today. Because I was offered and accepted a contract in 2011, I’m eligible to receive the Jo Beverley First Book Award
November 9, 2011 – The notarized copy of my contract signed by my published arrived today. It was a great birthday gift. She did her thing and mailed it on my birthday!
October 25, 2011 – After much deliberation, questions and answers back and forth, I decided to accept the contract! I’ve sent two copies of the signed, witnessed and notarized contract off to the publisher and am now waiting for one copy to be returned with her section duly completed.
October 22, 2011 – The weather finally stayed dry enough that I could take my contract offer to the cemetery where I could share it with my
parents who never saw the happy day arrive. 
I’m glad no one else was about since to anyone who didn’t know the backstory, the idea of a champagne
celebration with a huge bundle of paper at a graveside would seem most bizarre maybe even blasphemous. To me it seemed perfectly natural.
October 12, 2011 – After sending off a copy of my full manuscript, the contract arrived in my inbox.
October 11, 2011 – later that day – About 7:45 that night, I had a response from Vivian from 4RV Publishing. After seeing the normal response times on their website, it was totally unexpected but I loved what it said. When I picked up the e-mail on my Blackberry, I was glad my rocking chair had arms on it, otherwise I would have fallen off when I read the message that filled the screen. “We’re offering you a contract.”
October 11, 2011 – I had to work part of the day but when I got home, I made sure my submission was as perfect as I could make it and I e-mailed it off not expecting to hear back for a while.
October 4, 2001 – I was online and ready for my 8:00 pm appointment. My pitch went extremely well and I was asked to submit! After a number of unsuccessful ones these past couple of years, this was a welcome change.
September 25, 2011 – I signed up for the Muse It Up online conference and requested appointments to pitch to an editor and an agent. The agent’s spots were filled but I did snag an appointment with Vivian Zabel from 4RV Publishing.
September 13, 2011 – Tried my hand again this year with my new and improved version of the ‘first chapter’ of my manuscript to the Mills & Boon New Voices Contest. I figured I had a better chance this year since I’d totally rewritten the entire first part.
August 27, 2011 – Along with twelve other intrepid writers, I took part in the Thousand Islands Writers Festival first annual storefront contest.
August 25, 2011 – I entered the first 25 pages of my recently revised manuscript in the SpacecoasT Authors of Romance Launching a Star contest.
June 4, 2011 – I joined the interactive writer-author group loveahappyending.com.
April 18, 2011 – I entered my short story, Always a Home Girl in the Writers’ Union Writing for Children contest. I didn’t hold out much hope for it since the subject of Home Children is still pretty much taboo but I thought with the number of descendants of Home Children out there, I might just get a judge who had something in common with my story and me.
February 7, 2011 – I sent three 250 word postcard entries off to the Writers’ contest. It Was The Day She Dreaded – The Day Of The Appointment, The Package, To Hatch or Not to Hatch – Life as a Chicken. This last one I decided to enter at the last minute since some of the previous years’ winners were rather quirky stories. It didn’t make any difference. I never even got to the short list.
November 28, 2010 – Fellow Writers’ Ink member, Dorothy Bush and I approached the Thousand Islands Writers Festival about holding a storefront contest in conjunction with their annual festival.
October 30, 2010 – I took advantage of Penguin UK being open to submissions until the end of the month and sent off a letter and synopis. I’ve still not heard anything from them so it’s a safe bet they weren’t interested.
October 20, 2010 – I gave my William Quarrier presentation to the Grenville Historical Society at their Annual General Meeting.
September 13, 2010 – I gave my William Quarrier presentation to the Leeds and Grenville Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.
September 8, 2010 – I sent the first chapter of my novel Sarah–s Gift off to the Mills & Boon New Voices Contest.
June 9, 2010 – The results of the Writers’ Union of Canada Postcard Story Competition were announced. I didn’t win. I didn’t make the short list. I didn’t even make the long list! Oh well, at least I had the guts to enter.
May 2, 2010 – The winners of the ORWA First Impresions Contest were announced. I didn’t final but again got some excellent feedback.
April 23, 2010 – I heard from RWA. My PRO status has been approved! Woo! Hoo!
March 7, 2010 – I entered the first fifteen pages of Sarah’s Gift in the ORWA First Impressions Contest.
February 8, 2010 – I sent my entry, The Long and Anxious Night off to the Writers’ Union of Canada Postcard Story Competition. This contest presents a challenge in that you’re only allowed a maximum of 250 words! Luckily for me, the local writer’s group I belong to does this on a monthly basis. We have a list of “prompts” and we all write our pieces on that subject trying to get as close to the magic 250 words (without going over) as possible.
February 7, 2010 – At the Ottawa Romance Writers’ Valentines Brunch, I received The Genesis Award for having submitted a partial manuscript to an editor but had it rejected. I also received The Phoenix Award for having submitted a full manuscript to an editor with the same results. But in both instances, I’ve had the courage to submit. Maggie Jagger, published historical romance writer, presented me with the Genesis (below left) and Teresa Wilde presented the Phoenix (below right).
January 21, 2010 – I received the results from the Beacon Unpublished Contest. I didn’t final in this one either but again received excellent and encouraging feedback.
January 1, 2010 – I received the results from the Linda Hamilton Award of Excellence. While I didn't make the finals in my category, I did receive some excellent feedback from the judges.
December 3, 2009 – I submitted my short story, Shadows of the Past in the Writer’s Digest Show Us Your Shorts contest.
January 1, 2010 – I received the results from the Linda Hamilton Award of Excellence. While I didn’t make the finals in my category, I did receive some excellent feedback from the judges.
October 24, 2009 – I took 2nd place in the annual Readers’ Writing Short Story Contest with Shadows of the Past.
October 11, 2009 – I entered the first 25 pages (a slimmer/trimmer version of the contest entry mentioned below) of Sarah’s Gift in the Linda Howard Award of Excellence Contest.
October 1, 2009 – I entered the first 30 pages of Sarah’s Gift in the Beacon Unpublished Contest.
September 10, 2009 – I entered the Ottawa Romance Writers First Meet contest. Sadly, due to a lack of entries the contest was cancelled. However, the judges kindly critiqued and in some cases scored our work. I got lots of excellent feedback from them.
June 27, 2009 – When I read The Scotsman this morning, I expected it to be pretty much like any other Saturday morning. On the Scotland news page, a headline stood out beyond all the others. Prize-winning Scots novel... I knew it was the winner of the Dundee International Book Prize. I’d been waiting anxiously for the announcement and now it lay in front of me.
There, at the beginning of the second paragraph was the name of the winner. It was my friend, Chris Longmuir!
Chris and I first met via e-mail back in 2001 when she was working on an article on Home Children. From that initial contact our friendship blossomed and by May of the same year, I stayed with her in her cozy home.
When she came to Canada to visit a few years later, my home was on her itinerary.
My excitement knew no bounds that June morning. I couldn’t have been more so if it had been me who’d won. I let a whoop out of me loud enough to wake the dead followed closely by “Chris won the Dundee Book Prize!” at the top of my lungs.
During Chris’s short visit with me in 2006 we had a wonderful time, exchanged gifts and stories. The photo on the left was taken in my kitchen that September day.
April 18, 2009 – I did a presentation for the folks at the Kingston Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society on William Quarrier, founder of The Orphan Homes of Scotland. See Appearances for a synopsis of the presentation and my blog for a short video clip.
November 10, 2007 – I received an Honourable Mention in the annual Readers’ Writing Short Story contest with A Hallowe’en Tale.
