Saying Goodbye & Saying Hello...

Happy Tuesday Everybody,

Did you all have a nice Easter? We did. Holy Saturday we got to see one of my sisters and her family. That was a lot of fun. We also went over to a friends' house to visit. On Easter we went to Mass, and my father-in-law came over in the afternoon. So not bad.

I did find out a piece of sad news. Mother Angelica (the nun who started EWTN--Eternal Word Television Network--a Catholic TV station) passed on Easter Sunday. Mother Angelica was humble, straight forward, and humorous. She will be missed. Rest in peace, Mother Angelica!

Now, for a piece of fun news...

Author Katie McGarry has a brand-new release out today! I've received Walk The Edge and I'm interested to see what Razor's story is like. This is the 2nd in her Thunder Road series, the first one was Nowhere But Here.

It's been a lot of fun for me to watch Katie's career grow and

flourish. I met Katie before Pushing The Limits was published. She had entered the first few pages of the novel in my chapter's annual contest (the Northwest Houston RWA's Lone Star Contest. You can find out more by clicking here--the 2016 Lone Star Contest isn't open to entries, yet).

I was the YA Category Chair at the time. I had the pleasure of calling her to let her know she was the first place finalist for the category (she ended up winning first place in the contest). She informed me she had just signed a contract with her agent and told me how exciting that was--how her agent called her and how much she liked this agent. Later, she landed the contract for the novel to be published.

I have followed her career, and read everything she's published ever since.

In September of 2014, I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Katie face-to-face. She's humble, sweet, and very personable. I'm honored to count her friend, and to be a fan of her work.

Congratulations, Katie, and best wishes on future releases and your career!

What is everybody reading these days?

Have A Thrillingly Terrific Tuesday!

Back To Business

Happy Monday All,

Thanks for all the well wishes for my offspring. Offspring is on antibiotic and doing much better. Anniversary was fun and Mother's Day was lovely.

I feel like I'm still coming down off of last week's Great Jewelry Giveaway high. That was so much fun and I can't believe it's over! (Wah!) Oh well, there's other fun things coming up (although, unless Kathy at Beadmore Designs tells me differently, we won't be giving away anymore jewelry). By the way, just because the Great Jewelry Giveaway is over does not mean you can't go to Beadmore Designs and order something from Kathy. Please tell her you heard about her from Write By Bethany.

Now onto business. Today, I've got some special things to tell you about:

I got a friend who sells lovely Catholic (and there's some other not strictly Catholic things on there, too) gifts. Her name is Nance, and the website is called Visions In White. I've ordered several things from her. One was a Rosary for a nephew of mine in the Marines--really cool thing about this Rosary was that there was a medal on there that either said Marines on it or had a symbol of the USA Marines. This nephew of mine is serving in a dangerous place, and he took that Rosary with him. A niece and nephew of mine recently got their First Communions, so once again I ordered from this friend. (I was late ordering so the gifts aren't here, yet, but I expect they'll be lovely). Nance is awesome and I recommend emailing her to contact her. But I do recommend going to her website and checking out what she has. If you find something you like, you can email and see if she has them in stock.

Many of you who look in my blog margin will see that I have plugged this author numerous times--Melissa Ohnoutka. She wrote a Romantic Suspense entitled Faithful Deceptions which is just utterly magnificent. Seriously, this is just an awesome book. I thought I had read and handled suspenseful novels (I read Paranormals for crying out loud!) But I was unprepared for the fact that Melissa reaches in starting on page one, grabs hold of you and refuses to let go until the end. This is incredible work and she's one really cool person to boot. You check her out at her blog. Tell her I said hi. Oh yeah, she's available on Amazon (paperback copy), Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook. Ooo, and I just found out it's available in paperback through Barnes & Noble.

Recently I was looking for book 4 of this series I own--I own book 4, just put it somewhere and now I can't remember where I put it. But anyway, searching for this book reminded me how much I love the series and well, if you enjoy fantasy meets breezy type writing, then get your cursors clicking at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders --whichever bookstore you like best--and order your copy of Shanna Swendson's books--the series starts with Enchanted, Inc. Book 2 is entitled Once Upon Stilettos Book 3 is Damsel Under Stress and Book 4 is Don't Hex With Texas. They are totally awesome. I just love them. I've read them twice and I've fallen in love with Katie and Owen. It's fun, it's charming and I love it, love it, love it and well...you'd just have to read the books to see why!

So, what's everyone up to this week?

Have A Magically Marvelous Monday!