JDP NEWS Update

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks for me! Last Tuesday through Thursday (July 15-17), I attended my first writers retreat in (surprisingly hot!) Pinetop, Arizona, and had the most wonderful and inspiring time! There were excellent workshops on how to improve our writing, delicious food (especially the “snacks” brought by all), and I even started work on a new Medieval Vignette, though I haven’t been able to get back to it since I returned home. I hope to do so and finish and post it soon, though! If you’d like to read some of my reflections about the retreat, you can do so on my latest post at ANWA Founder & Friends.

I’ve been a busy little blogger since I’ve been back. In addition to my post on the ANWA site, I have also written a book review for my Summer Book Trek 2008 reading challenge (scroll to entry below), and for those of you interested in medieval research, I posted an interview with G.G. Vandagriff, author of The Arthurian Omen, dealing with Welsh research, on my medieval research with joyce blog.

As for drawings, first let me remind you about my ongoing website drawing at www.joyce-dipastena.com. You’ll find all the instructions you need on my Comments page, even though, sadly, you can’t actually leave me a comment there. But you can email it to me, with the answer to my drawing question, and if you do so before July 31, you’ll be in the running to receive a $15 gift certificate to Amazon!

Now, saving the best for last, here’s a REALLY BIG DRAWING for all of you to check out! As it’s being sponsored by AuthorIsland.com, I’ll let AuthorIsland speak for itself:

AuthorIsland.com is turning TWO this month and to celebrate, forty three AuthorIsland.com authors and one of our publisher members got together to offer up one heck of a prize!

They're giving away TWO - are you ready for this? - TWO AMAZON KINDLES!!!

But you're going to have to work for it, each of the forty four sponsors has a question for you to answer - the answers can be found somewhere on each of the author's websites. Once you have all the answers, email them to AuthorIsland at yahoo.com, numbered, along with your name and address, with AuthorIsland Kindle Contest in the subject line. TWO winners will be drawn on August 1st from all the correct entries to receive their very own - AMAZON KINDLE!!!

Head over to AuthorIsland.com's Contests page and get started! Good luck!

Yes, I’m one of the 44 sponsors, and no, you don’t have to be an AuthorIsland.com member to enter. You do, however, have to go on the AuthorIsland question/answer treasure hunt and send in your entry by July 31st, so don’t delay!

That’s it for this update. I’m off to see the new Batman movie tomorrow. And I should have more exciting news for you next week…the revealing of my new cover art for Loyalty’s Web!

See you then!