Good News Friday

It's Friday and Pay Day...Whoo Hoo!! Anyway, today I wanted to share some Big News. My wonderful friends Siv over at Been There, Done That and Michael Di Gesu at In Time are going to be revealing the cover for Siv's book, Secrets of the Ash Tree this coming Monday. Michael did the illustration for the cover and it's going to be gorgeous. Stop by and visit them.

I also will be having an upcoming visit from the brilliant Jeremy Hawkins from Being Retro. He'll be sharing his newest art books with us. I can't wait!

It's also Blog Blitz time. So if you get a chance, please head over to Courtney Barr at The Southern Princess. She's got brilliant wit and we want to encourage her to keep blogging.

So, this is the weekend and I am planning on doing a bunch of writing and hopefully watching some horror films, The Conjuring in particular. It looks terrific. Speaking of horror, I have a new rule to help you survive. "Don't call 911. You'll always be put on hold."

So what is going on this weekend? Any news to share? Talk to me.

Field Trip Friday

It's Friday...Whoo Hoo!! And it is the last day of the month, can you believe it? Where has the summer gone? Anyway, today is a field trip. I am over at my publisher, Amber Quill Press' blog. Come on and check it out here as I talk about the importance of humor breaking up the tension in novels and in life. There's a fun little excerpt from Maxie Briscoe: Werewolf as well.

Since today is the last day of the month, that means that next Wednesday will be Captain Ninja Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group. Come on and join our merry band of writers as we talk about insecurities and triumphs.

In morenews of the awesome variety, Jessica Bell over at The Alliterative Allomorph has some wonderful breaking news about her brilliant novel, String Bridge. Head on over and give her some love. The wonderful Siv Maria from Been There, Done That is participating in a blog fest from Wayman Publishing to support author Melynda Fleury with her fight against diabetes. Please help, however you can.

I'll leave you with a picture of Wolf Lake, right near my house. It literally starts at the end of my street and straddles the Illinois/Indiana border. I cross the street and I am in Indiana, that's how close I live and yet, I'm still in Chicago. Or so says my taxes. LOL Happy weekend!

My Unforgettable Place

My incredible friend, Siv over at Been There, Done That is celebrating the release of  her short story, Secrets of the Ash Tree with the Unforgettable Blogfest. Secrets will be released September 4 in the fantasy anthology Open Doors. Yay Siv!

Now, what makes this blogfest so brilliant, aside from celebrating Siv's story, is that we each get to share the person or place that is absolutely unforgettable to us. How awesome is that? To check the other incredible participants, click here

I'm going to share with you a place that I hiked to with my best friend in the entire world, Brenda. It was 1995 and I had just gotten vacation time from my first job after college. Brenda had invited me to go camping with her and I was nervous as heck. Hell, I watch horror films. Give me a hood rat with a gun or blade any day rather than some backwoods scary redneck with plans to skin me and eat me. Then there was always the distinct possibility that a Jason Voorhees type would likely come at me with an axe or machete.

I digress.

She took me to Porcupine Mountain State Park in Michigan. I had never gone hiking in my life. I'm South Side Steel Town girl and to me hiking was what one did when having to walk about 10 blocks to catch the bus.  The last time I had actually been in woods that weren't a city forest preserve was age 10 in Scouts. My troop and I had gone to Butternut Springs, a huge Girl Scout camp in Indiana. Cabin, bus, indoor plumbing... not exactly roughing it.

So Brenda and I set out on this immense trail with backpacks and tent. Now, I am voluptuous chica to say the least, even more so back then. But I had been slowly starting to lose weight, so I was eager to push myself. We started off high above the park at Lake of the Clouds, then we hiked down through some rough trails. I was a sweaty, rotten mess, but I was still feeling all right. Then fatigue started to hit and just when I was hitting pain, we came upon this scene on the trail. This is the Presque Isle River, which runs through Michigan's Upper Peninsula and empties out into Lake Superior.

Beautiful, isn't it? I couldn't believe that I, Melissa Bradley, had hiked miles into a forest and was able to see this amazing scene. It was like being in my own nature film. Scary bear encounter aside, this is one memory that will stay with me always. I was so happy to be able to share it with Brenda.This woman has always been my rock and my instigator. If I'm going to get into trouble not of my own making, she's behind it. No wonder she's on my team when the zombie horde comes.