Toooooot!

Yep, that's me, tooting my own horn today. (You can stop covering your ears now).

Some of you may know I like to write fiction. I don't have anything published yet, but that doesn't mean my name isn't available in print. Here's the story.

A friend once told me she thought a writer sits down, writes a perfect novel and has it published. Let me tell you: a lot of steps are left out there. One of them is revising and editing. That's where my tooting comes in.

I have several amazing critique partners. They read my manuscripts, tell me what works and what doesn't--even on a line-by-line basis. That can look like this:

 

or this...

 

or this...

I do the same thing for my critique partners too. And some of them have been published already.

Caitlin Sinead, author of HEARTSICK, wrote this in her acknowledgements:

find it on amazon

Vicki Leigh, author of CATCH ME WHEN I FALL, wrote this:

find it on amazon

Emma L. Adams, author of ADAMANT, wrote this:

find it on amazon

So I might not have any of my own novels published yet, but I am incredibly proud to have worked with Caitlin, Vicki, Emma and my other critique partners who will surely be published some day soon. My CPs are all amazing, and I feel priviliged to work with all of them.

Signs

While my son was at choir practice, I took advantage of the dry weather and wandered around town. I'm usually busy while he sings--run to the pharmacy, then the store and the bakery, etc--and don't have time to take in the sights. But this time, I specifically looked around. 

There's a new pizza place with a flashing neon sign: Pizza - Pasta - Salate. Doesn't sound special, does it? It does when the signs are normally wrought iron.

Pharmacy is Apotheke in German and can be recognized by the big, red A.

Sonnen Apotheke = Sun Pharmacy. See the sunflowers?

Bakeries tend to use a pretzel as their trademark.

The addition of wheat stalks on this one is great.

 

My town has two towers, and I love how the pretzel surrounds them in this sign.

I may be a vegetarian, but I can appreciate the butcher shop signs. For those of you who like to believe meat magically appears in styrofoam packaging, note how the butcher's tools are prominently featured in both.

Yes, this butcher shop has been there since 1859.

Looking for a restaurant?

"seit 1650" means "since 1650."

Even new shops that open up make signs like this, like this hairdresser, with its metal locks of hair.

So now that it is March, there are other signs. Snowdrops and crocuses. The honking of geese overhead as they head north again. A higher number of bicyclists. Yay for spring!

What signs have made an impression on you lately?
  
All pictures by me.