Joyce DiPastena's Blog, page 27

Summary Sunday

I just got back from an AWESOME writers conference, hosted by the American Night Writers Association (ANWA) in Mesa, Arizona. I learned many informative and inspirational things over the past two days, but here's one thought I'd like to share with you from our keynote speaker, James A. Owen:

"Never, ever sacrifice what you want the most, for what you want the most at that moment."

Just think about it. :-)

Because of conference activities, I only got five days of writing in this week, and hence have only five new sentences to share with you. Four of the five are spoken by my heroine's cousin, Richard; one (well, two together) are thoughts by my heroine, Marguerite. All of these are from The Lady and the Minstrel.


Monday: (Richard:) “And you have Heywood to thank for finding yourself bound to a man shameless enough to bring his mistress to his own betrothal, for no other man is so conceited in his own power and cunning as to think he can rule Heywood’s manors and stamp out the danger from spreading to his own.”
Tuesday: (Richard:) “Lady Beatrice lost her position as one of Queen Isabella’s ladies-in-waiting and found herself and her husband both banished to their own estates, merely because Lady Beatrice gave a sniff one day that the earl interpreted as disdain of Lady Lovell.”
Wednesday: (Richard:) “Most of the barons have come to hate the king, and I can hardly blame them after what he did to William de Briouze and his family.”
Thursday: (Marguerite:) Minstrels did not fight wars. Unless he is more than a minstrel.
Friday: (Richard:) “Apparently I had rattled on about my ‘pestering little cousin’ to her whenever she asked me about my family.”

Random Acts of Kindness Blog Hop

Welcome to the Random Acts of Kindness Blog Hop, sponsored by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer and Read for Your Future!

Here at JDP NEWS, my random act of kindness gift to you is an Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift certificate for $17.21 so you can choose your own book! For international entries, I will give away a book of your choosing on the Book Depository equal to $17.21 USD or less. All you have to do is enter via the Rafflecopter form below, then hop along on the linky-list below to find some more great giveaways!

Because I'm going to be at a writers conference on Feb 22 and won't be home to choose a winner, I will be leaving this giveaway open through Feb 23. The winner will be announced on February 24. This giveaway is open to international entries.

OFFICIAL RULES: NO PURCHASE NECESSSARY. Entrants must be 18 years or older. Winners will be selected on February 22 and have 48 hours to respond to an email notifying them of their win. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Questions? Contact me at jdipastena@yahoo.com.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Summary Sunday

Here are some new sentences from The Lady and the Minstrel. I'm off to a writers conference later this week. I don't know how much time I'll have to write between all those writing classes, but let's keep our fingers crossed that I can squeeze at least five new sentences in! ;-)
Monday: If the intrigues of the royal court had affected his minstrel’s life, it had done so in so tangential a way that Robert could not have cited an instance.
Tuesday: And yet the same instincts that warned Robert about the earl also convinced him that the kisses in her chamber had not been a lie.
Wednesday: Her voice had gone small, as though nervous of what he might think of her admission, but she rushed on before he could speak.
Thursday: Her lips drooped so sadly at what she clearly interpreted as a rejection that Robert held out his hand for the flute before he could stop himself.
Friday: She should dread what awaited her return to castle—her father, the earl—but instead, as she trotted her mare beneath the spiked iron teeth of the raised portcullis, her heart still sang with the final melody that Robert had piped for her before they parted.
Saturday: “She said you had probably gone to the village, even though she says you’re forbidden to do so—I don’t remember your mother having such a fearsome frown when I was a boy—so I rode into Lyndeard and searched high and low for you, but no one there had seen you.”

For the Love of Swoon Blog Hop

Welcome to the For the Love of Swoon Blog Hop, hosted by The Book Hookup and I Am a Reader, Not a Writer! What better way could there be to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a book with a deliciously swoony hero?

Here at JDP NEWS I'm giving away a copy of my sweet medieval romance, Illuminations of the Heart,  featuring my own swoony hero, Triston. Here's the book description:


"Clothilde." He spoke the name on a breath like a prayer. Then he lowered his head and kissed her.
Her heart is lost in that first embrace, her world is shaken to its foundations. There is just one problem; her name is not Clothilde. It is Siriol de Calendri. Trained in the art of illumination in the far-off city of Venice, Siri is directed by her late brother's will to the county of Poitou in France, where she enters the guardianship of her brother's friend Sir Triston de Brielle. Once in Poitou, Siri hopes to find employment in an illuminator's shop - until Triston unexpectedly snatches her heart away with a kiss.
Triston is a man of quiet honor and courage, but the guild he carries for the death of his late wife, Clothilde, has left him numb and hesitant to love again. Worse yet, Siri bears an uncanny resemblance to his lost love. Or does she? Her merry laughter and twinkling eyes are very different from his late wife's shy smiles and quiet ways. Yet when he gazes into Siri's face, all he sees is Clothilde.
Then Triston's past returns to threaten them both. Will his tragic life with Clothilde be repeated with Siri? Trapped between the rivalry of the king's sons on the one hand and a neighbor out for vengeance on the other, Triston realizes it would be safer to send Siri away. But how can he bear to lose her again?
Siri is determined not to be cast off and not to live in another woman's shadow. She has illuminated many a priceless book with pen and paint. But can her own vibrant spirit illuminate the darkness in Triston's soul and make his heart beat for her alone?
If this sounds like a book you'd like to win, all you have to do is enter via the Rafflecopter form below. The winner may have her choice of a print or Kindle version. (Sorry, my publisher has yet to make it available for Nook.)

Because I'm going to be at a writers conference on Feb 22 and won't be home to choose a winner, I will be leaving this giveaway open through Feb 23. The winner will be announced on February 24. USA entries only this time, please.
OFFICIAL RULES: NO PURCHASE NECESSSARY. Entrants must be 18 years or older. Winners will be selected on February 24 and have 48 hours to respond to an email notifying them of their win. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Questions? Contact me at jdipastena@yahoo.com.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
All entered? Then hop along to the links below for some more great giveaways. Being as how it's Valentine's Day (more or less), I would recommend eating a piece of chocolate with each giveaway you enter!

Summary Sunday

Slow but steady wins the race. That's what I keep telling myself with my latest WIP. Here are some new sentences from The Lady and the Minstrel.


Monday: The convictions that had driven him for twenty-five years wavered in a rush of uncertainty.
Tuesday: If his mother had poured music into his soul, his father had branded his bold  heresy upon it.
Wednesday: He had been braced then for her to shrink . . . or to have subdued her doubts with his kisses
Thursday: He had lost himself for a few moments reliving happier times, but he had known such a question as this must come.
Friday: "That is where my mother herself dropped it on the day that she learned my father had fallen afoul of our baron.”
Saturday: In all the years Robert had remembered her with warmth and gratitude, it had never crossed his mind that she may have paid a price for the service she had rendered him that day.

Summary Sunday

I wrote my way through a cold this week, so a few of my writing sessions were a bit hazy. I hope these new sentences make sense. Hazy or not, I enjoyed writing them!


Monday: Let him go now, when she had only just found him?
Tuesday: She shot up from the stool and ran to her husband's side as William spewed a mouthful of ale across the table and burst into a coughing fit.
Wednesday: “What folderol you’ve learned to recite, Rob.”
Thursday: “Ye always made yer own choices, Rob, and remember what it cost ye.”
Friday: But in truth, the folly had already been done.
Saturday: Only one thought had rushed into his mind then, thrumming out everything else: This. This is my chance.

Blog Hop Winners!

Congratulations to the following blog hop winners:
Desiree D., winner of the No Strings Attached Giveaway Hop
and 
Joy F., winner of the Back to the Future Giveaway Hop
Desiree and Joy have each won a copy of my sweet medieval romance, Dangerous Favor .

Summary Sunday

This week involved a lot of revision that included slicing and dicing of already existing sentences and paragraphs, but here are a few brand new sentences that I added to the mix from The Lady and the Minstrel.


Monday: The fellow met Strode’s eyes briefly in the light of the torch held by one of his companions, his face as unreadable as it had been in the hall, save for that one ill-judged grin he had cast at the Lady Marguerite.
Tuesday: He would have to cool her temper before she would grant him the heat of her passion.
Wednesday: Illusion was everything between lovers, as it was at times between subject and king.
Thursday: She did not care that she had only been a child, that it was unreasonable to expect him to see in a seventeen-year-old woman the ten-year-old girl who had helped him all those years ago.
Friday: She had heard them sung merry, melancholy, sardonic, and bitter, but never in such fluid tones as his, or to a melody so plaintive that it hung shivering in the air, a poignant reminiscence, for moments after his voice had ceased.
Saturday: “But one kiss—just one!—I would cherish to the end of my days.”

Back to the Future Giveaway Hop Across Time

Welcome to the Back to the Future Giveaway Hop, sponsored by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer and Book Haven Extraordinaire. All the books being given away in this blog hop are either set in the past or the future, none in the present. Mine, of course, is set in the past...the medieval past, to be precise. I am giving away a copy of my sweet medieval romance, Dangerous Favor , winner's choice of Kindle, Nook, or print copy.



This blog hop ends at 11:59 PM on January 28. The winner will be announced on January 29. Unless you are able to download a Kindle or Nook e-version, USA entries only this time, please.

OFFICIAL RULES: NO PURCHASE NECESSSARY. Entrants must be 18 years or older. Winners will be selected on January 29, 2013 and have 48 hours to respond to an email notifying them of their win. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.


a Rafflecopter giveaway



All entered? Then hop along for some more great Back to the Future prizes!

Summary Sunday

As with most things in life, some writing days were better than others this week. I missed Tuesday entirely because I was gone all day and went to a lecture on Catherine the Great that night (loved it!), but I got all the other days in, in spite of a rapidly developing head cold. Here's a sampling of what I accomplished.
Monday: “I am not a slackwit, lady, whatever your father came to think of me after that mischief-making churchman turned his mind against me.”
Tuesday:
Wednesday: She had racked her brains for hours for some way to smuggle word to Northumberland, but every possibility seemed bolted fast against her.
Thursday: Richard had been her father’s page and his lively, cheerful mischief had proved a happier distraction from the dismayingly ill-tempered man who called himself her father than had the pretty, soft-faced mother who coddled her one moment, and the next left her with strange servants to run eagerly off to attend Valette’s every whim.
Friday: He must have seen the defiance in her eyes, for his own gleamed a challenge in return.
Saturday: Almost immediately his face sobered again and his eyes darted away; his quick fingers did not drop not so much a beat on the strings as he sang on as though nothing had passed between them.