OCTOBER 2011 WRITER'S DIGEST!

It's funny how things have a way of appearing when you need it the most. After a not so great day (it's only noon), I received a new copy of Writer's Digest in my mailbox. I was hoping that this would be the issue that my winning entry for one of its writing contests would appear. I wrote the opening sentence on a whim while paging through the magazine. I submitted it with a laugh and didn't think of it again. I discovered that I was selected as one of the winners by accident. Thanks for the email notification, Writer's Digest!

I randomly and vainly did a Google images search of my name and was met with a Writer's Digest link in the search results. Out of 1,400 submissions, my little sentence came in 7th... pretty respectable for an amateur like myself! Someday, I'll get more than a brief mention in this publication, but for now, this is exactly what I needed to brighten my day! :)









Now Playing: "Victory Dance" by My Morning Jacket

WINNING!

I've read the celebrity gossip/humor site dlisted.com for years. It's not your typical content. The guy who creates the blog, Michael K. is one of the funniest writers I have ever come across. He has such a fascinating and hilarious perspective on the world. This week, I decided to submit some writing entries into the CAPTION THIS contest on dlisted. I thought it would be a nice way to practice my writing and maybe get some new readers to my blog. After a few days of my captions going unnoticed, I am thrilled to announce that yours truly wrote the winning caption for Thursday's contest! There were over 200 submissions, so I am pretty proud of myself. This was actually the second writing contest that I found out I won this week (the other being one for Writer's Digest)! It gave me the motivation that I needed to really work hard on my manuscript. I'm not great at a lot of things but writing has always been something that I loved. It comes naturally to me. Nothing makes me happier than when I know other people are laughing or enjoying what I put together :)

Here is the photo we were asked to create a caption for:

And here is my winning caption along with the runners-up (my handle is SteelCityGirl):

Now Playing: "Hang Me Up to Dry" by Cold War Kids

Everything We Do, We Do It Big!

Congratulations to Hines Ward and Steeler Nation for securing the huge win on Dancing With the Stars! I'm not a big fan of the show but I definitely tuned in last night. Even though we didn't take home the Lombardi this year, it was nice to see Steeler Nation come together to bring the Mirror Ball to the 'Burgh! Hines is a fantastic dancer and his partner is phenomenal but it just goes to show the power of the black & gold! Pittsburgh really is the City of Champions and I'm once again so proud of my hometown!

Fact

There were 5.9 million brackets submitted to this year's ESPN pool. Only 2 people have the final four correctly predicted.