Are You Smarter Than A Comercial...

...Super Contest...

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Okay everyone, I've been wanting to do this contest for MONTH's and I finally have it put together.
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1. The winner will get to choose one book. Choices: Story Engineering by Larry Brooks... OR The Upside of Down by Rebecca Talley.
2. The winner will also get one beaded bookmark made by me, Joyce P. Smith (Choice of color).
3. AND lastly: The winner will also recieve 1 mondo size Hershey's Milk chocolate bar! (Your choice: with or without Almonds).
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When you send in your answers just say which book you would prefer and what your choice of color is and with or without Almonds. Then if your name is picked out of the hat I will already know which things you want.

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To enter for your chance to win these terrific prizes all you have to do is:

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1. be a follower of my blog. If you are not already, yet just sign up now.
2. Then tell me the answers to these 15 comercials (What are they advertizing?).
You have 12 days to send in your answers (May 25th through June 5th) by posting them on my blog comments.
Those who answer the most questions correctly will be entered into my raffle.
The winner will be announced on June 6th.
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Commercial Jingles:
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1. “I can’t believe it’s not...”

2. “You deserve a break today”

3. “Snap, Crackle and Pop” 

4. “Be all that you can be.”

5. “See the USA in a ...”

6. “It’s M’m, M’m good”

7. “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”

8. “… is the shampoo that glorifies your hair, … shampoo …”

9. “… a little dab’ll do ya, … a little debonair”

10. “Where’s the beef?”

11. “Oh I wish I was an ... ... ..., that is what I would truly like to beee, for if I were an … … …  everyone would be in love with me.”

12.  “Please don’t squeeze the ...”

13. “Double your pleasure, double your fun”

14. “Never had it, never will.”

15. “What’s in your wallet?”

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Good Luck and have fun!  ~ Joyce

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Blink of an Eye by Gregg Luke - Book Review

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One of the books I read in my break from editing my own suspense novel Just Another Player, is Gregg Luke’s Blink of an Eye.

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I find Gregg Luke a captivating author. I have two other books written by him and can’t wait for the next one he has ready for publication. Gregg has the ability to keep you hanging onto your seat and turning pages.

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In Blink of an Eye, Gregg spins a tale of how drastically lives can change in just the amount of time it takes to blink an eye.

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Joseph Ramirez certainly finds this to be true. Joseph thinks his childhood was a good and happy one, even though he can’t remember most of life as a child; but then a lot of us have that problem.

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At one moment Joseph is edging forward to make a left hand turn, in five o’clock traffic. The next instant he feels himself being crushed and bones being broken, along with vise-like extreme pressure in his skull.

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Joseph awakes in the hospital only to learn that he’s been in a coma for three weeks. He discovers that he can remember scripture and silly things that he didn’t realize he even knew, but he still can't remember his childhood. The nurse is dumbfounded that he’s even alive after having his head crushed in a near fatal accident. His little Nissan is no match for an accident involving a cement truck. But the nurse is more astonished by his clarity of thought and speech.

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Then the nightmares begin. What kind of family life did Joseph have growing up? He simply can’t remember, but every night in the hospital he's tortured by nightmares that point to a childhood of terrifying proportions which, if true, couldn’t have been fun for a boy so young.

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Gregg Luke kept me on the edge of my chair. I read through the twists and turns in Joseph’s life and the tension of trying to solve his childhood mysteries. The secrets that have been hidden in Joseph’s mind for twenty years, he must solve - and we as readers are kept guessing at.

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Next, Joseph’s innocence in the cause of the accident is challenged by a ruthless attorney for the company owning the truck that rammed into him. Along comes Michelle Haas to Joseph’s rescue. She is an attorney for the school system where he teaches Science. Michelle ends up being a God-send. She’s at his side during some of the worst days of his life. Wait - someone is feeding false information to the prosecutors. Who could be trying to sabotage his life and career and why? What’s causing the horrid nightmares? Are they real repressed memories or the figment of Joseph’s imagination? Can his psychiatrist help him figure it all out?

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I leave you with these questions to figure out for yourself when you read Blink of an Eye by Gregg Luke… Happy reading! 

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~Joyce

Wow, What a Weekend...

          This past weekend my husband went to Roosevelt Lake Campground with the Boy Scouts. Don wanted me to go with him since he is an assistant Scout Master and I love camping he felt I should go with him and share his camping experience. So I broke down and went...

          This campground is probably one of the worst places to take little kids (IMHO). If they went running off of the main road they ran smack dab into Cholla Cacti! This isn't a fun experience - I know because as a child I encountered it more than once! Oooouuuucccch!

          But regardless of the Cholla (Jumping Cactus) the kids all seemed to have a good time even though I think I was the only one there that didn't get grabbed by it. I walked around with my eyes to the ground to make sure I didn't step on a stray piece laying in the path.

          There were a couple things that happened on this outing that happened that I really enjoyed. Well, in all fairness probably more than a couple but I'm only going to mention two of them here.

          First I spent much of my time going around taking pictures. I'm in the process of making children's picture e-books about Albert.

          Albert is a stuffed bear that I always take camping with me and one time I stuck him in a tree and took pictures of him then went back to camp and told my grandchildren that I saw a bear in a tree so I took a picture of it. They all wanted to see even though they were kinda scared of a bear crashing into camp. I showed them the picture of Albert and we all got a good laugh out of it... THEN came the idea to make picture books of Albert camping.  :O)

          I had fun going around staging them in poses in the desert. I have the pictures for a book called: Albert & his friend Snuffy Go Fishing plus the original one Albert Goes Camping. So this trip was taking pictures for a picture book of: Albert and Lil Aud Learning About The Arizona Desert.

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          The second thing that happened on this camp out that impressed me is that the Scouts had a ceremony to retire old worn out US flags. They gather old flags from the community and then take them to camp and teach the boys how to properly and respectfully dispose of the old flags. The bonfire was set and the program given then the boys and anyone else that wanted to participate got to take a flag or part of a torn flag and with poles carefully lay them into the fire. It was a goosebumps experience and at the end they still had flags so I got to participate also. WOW!!!

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Sorry its take so long to post again... but thanks for stopping by and reading... Joyce

Book Review of DEADLINE by Clair M. Poulson

Deadline
By Clair M. Poulson

It was my plan that when I finished the first edit of my book Just Another Player that I would take a break from writing and read a book or two before I started on the big next edit of my book. My quandary was whether to read a book in a similar genre as I’m writing in or should I read something totally different. I chose to read something of a comparable genre.

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The first book I chose to read was Deadline by Clair M. Poulson. I love reading his books and I believe I have all of them. I chose Deadline even though I have the CD’s of it already. Why, you might ask? Because I wanted to use it for a workbook; I wanted to mark it all up with a pencil and you can’t do that with a CD. I read and marked all through it and was glad of my choice. I found that I had forgotten part of the plot from the CD’s and was rewarded all over again by my read.

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Clair M. Poulson is one of those authors that when you read one of his books you want them all.
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Deadline is about a newspaper reporter named Dallas Dixon; the action and intrigue begins in the beginning when Dallas is fired from a prestigious Newspaper by his formerly admiring boss, for no apparent reason. He decides to leave town and start anew in another part of Texas - where the El Paso Chronicle can’t influence any new job he may try for.

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Things go from bad to worse when halfway to San Antonio, Dallas is shocked when he hears a news bullitin on the radio about his boss’s murder – and Dallas himself is then named as suspect giving his physical description and that of his truck.

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He then becomes embroiled in a drug smuggling ring when he tries to be a Good-Samaritan to a trucker along the road to San Antonio. Using his military training he’s able to escape one escapade after another.

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Heather, a colleague at the paper, is his confidante and becomes embroiled in helping prove Dallas’s innocence. Heather’s own life is then put in jeopardy as she unwittingly stumbles on some truths about Andy Norton, Dallas’s murdered boss.
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Then comes the cat and mouse run for their lives, when the thugs begin trying to kill both Heather and Dallas. They decide that they will be safer together or at least not have to worry about each other, so they join forces. They are rescued and helped by an unlikely person who takes them into hiding…
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If I tell you more I may give the story away… but suffice it to say that Deadline is an action packed, keep you on the edge of your seat suspense that is full of twists and turns in the story that make it a must read!
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I loved this book and highly recommend it... Joyce

Our Freedom's...

The flag and our freedom has always had a tender spot in my heart. For over twenty years of being the wife of an Air Force man has brought with it a high awareness of the constitution - although I admit I can't recite it :O)

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This week brought me another alertness and opportunity to serve our freedom's. Saturday I received in the mail a summons to jury service. I think, "oh my gosh - it says I have to appear for jury duty on April 2nd... don't they know my grand-daughter will be here to visit?" I mean I don't get to see her all that often and I had plans to go over and visit with them. She's here from Washington state. Anyway I determine that maybe being out of town would be a good excuse, so I decide I'll call Monday morning and see if I can get out of it.

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( Yes, I know - this doesn't sound like alertness or opportunity to serve does it? Be patient...)

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Monday I call as planned. She said, "if you cancel now then the next time you're summoned you will have to go no matter what or you could take a chance of being held in contempt. But we do have an opening tomorrow if you would like to take it - then you won't have to go on the 2nd." I decided that would be a good deal...

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So off I go on Tuesday (yesterday) morning. I got up at 5:30 and got ready to go to Florence, AZ to the courthouse. All the way there I was worried that if I got selected for jury service there was a possibility that I would be tied up with jury service through the whole week that said grand-daughter was here! Now that would not be appreciated!!! I got there and was ushered into a roomful of others waiting to see if they will be selected. We watched a video, were given a pep talk, and ushered upstairs on the elevator ten at a time. We went into the courtroom and filed in and sat on the benches. There must have been close to 100 -125 of us waiting to see if we would be selected in the one court room. I was not selected... they chose 24 to start with and after lunch they were going to whittle them down to 13 to be on the jury.

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But as I watched the video downstairs and watched the proceedings I realized a couple of things: One that our country has a great constitution and many great freedoms and that we quite often take them for granted. Another is that it is a privilege to be able to sit on a jury and help keep the laws of this great nation. But lastly and maybe the funny thing is - I wouldn't have even qualified for this case anyway because: I have an Uncle who served in the FBI for many years then became a lawyer. I have a nephew who now is in the FBI. I have a nephew who is on the Boarder Patrol & a son-in-law also. I have a cousin who is a Judge in Phoenix. I have a friend in Hermiston who is a Judge. I have a friend and neighbor who is a police officer here. And lastly and probably most importantly is that my husband was head of Security for 25 years and was, just before he retired, instrumental in working with the Border Patrol and FBI in capturing drug runners - he was even driven off the road by some on his way home from work one time.

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Lots of family and friends of mine are and were directly involved in protecting the laws of this great Country - the United States of America. So they probably wouldn't have selected me on this jury this time anyway if I had been one of the first names called up to be interviewed...

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I love our Country, our flag, our constitution! Enough soap box...

~ Joyce

Writing at it's Best...

This week-end I've went to the 20th annual ANWA Writers Conference. There were about 150-200 LDS women and 8 men there learning and growing in our writing experiences.

WOW!!! Is about all I can say. It was a fantastic conference and we were kept busy from Thursday evening to Saturday evening.

Our Class Presenters were:
Larry Brooks - of Story Engineering & author of 5 thrillers.
Deirdra Eden Coppel - Award winning artist & Author, Illustrator, and Graphic Designer.
Joyce DiPastena - Author and two-time Whitney Award finalist.
Jane Dystel - President of Dystel & Goderich. She's been an agent since 1986.
Dave Eaton - business owner with 30 years experience. A local Marketing Consultant.
Sara Francis-Fujimura - Freelance Writer, Creative Writings Teacher, Author.
Donna Hatch - Author with many writing awards including Golden Quill & Golden Rose.
Sandra Lee Hendrickson - Music Educator, Songwriter and Author.
Lisa Mangum - Assistant Editor at Deseret Book/Shadow Mountain, Author.
Linda Mulleneaux - Managing Editor at Walnut Springs Press, 20 years experience.
Anita Mumm - Literary Assistant at Nelson Literary Agency. Has a love of languages & writing.
Joshua J. Perkey - Senior Editor of Ensign & Liahona Magazines. Writes Fantasy novels.
Matt Peterson - Freelance copywrite, blogging, social media market, website, by-lined articles.
Wendy Peterson - Teacher, language, literature, poetry.
Linda F. Radke - President of Five Star Publications w/25 years experience & many awards.
Janette Rallison - Award-winning author of 18 novels of over 1,0000,000 copies.
Peggy Shumway - Family History Consultant... written several sagas about ancestors.
Conrad Storad - Multi-award-winning author of more than 40 nonfiction science & nature books for young readers.
Brent Whiting - Newspaper crime reporter, teaches College English.
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Okay, so now can you see why I say, "Wow, I had a great learning experience!" I'm all pumped up and ready to get my novel finished. I have lots of good ideas and I'm ready to put them into practice.
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Thanks for reading my blog!
~Joyce P. Smith
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Arizona my Arizona...

Happy 100th Birthday Arizona!

I hope you've enjoyed the many faces of my Arizona...

~Joyce S.