I hope the day has greeted you kindly. I apologize for the lack of updates recently but with summer here my schedule has become crazy. Articles have to be written, kids need to be entertained and vacations need to be taken. I have been working hard at doing all these things.

Recently the kids had a great time at the Space Derby hosted by Pack 90, our boy scout troop. It was fun seeing all of the rockets fly as far as they could.

Flagrant fiction, my blog about creative writing and writers, was updated this morning with new information about contests currently underway. These contests are great for new and aspiring authors as well as authors who have been around the block a time or two. Check out the listings here at Flagrant Fiction Blog.

I’ve been working more articles for Examiner.com where I am the Celebrity Charity Examiner. New articles will be added this week. I was lucky to be contacted by a PR rep who let me in on an upcoming event, read more about the Noble Awards here.

A book for charity is also in the making that will be available in the US at major book sellers on Sept 1, 2009. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Selena Diana Jenkins International Human Rights Project. Read more about Room 23 here.

I would like to thank you all for the comments that you leave here on my blog/website. The comments keep me going and wanting to give you more. However, I’ve received a lot of spam on here. From now on any comments left that do not have a legitimate name will be deleted. No website coding will be allowed nor will titles like “How I lost 30lbs in 30 days” be posted on this website. I don’t mind linking back to your site but the spam and scams need to stop. Thank you.

I hope your summer is going well and that the sun is shining brightly in your life.
Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

Many tragedies have taken place this past week with celebrities. First was the death of Ed McMahon at the age of 86. I remember watching Star Search when I was a kid. It was one of the first talent show competitions that I remember watching avidly waiting to see if my pick got enough stars to win. Now we have shows like America’s Got Talent, American Idol and Who Wants to Be a Rock Star? Star Search was a combination of all of these and Ed McMahon was irreplaceable. I am sad that he is no longer with us but he had a long run and I hope he thought it was a good life.

Next on the list of celebrity tragedies was the death of Farrah Fawcett. Farrah is a legend and another star whom I grew up seeing on TV and in Movies. Everyone wore their hair like Farrah, in fact, I believe I even had the feathered hair do at one point. She was beautiful. So beautiful that she posed for Playboy at the age of 48 and 50. Her death at age 62 came after a long battle with cancer. If you are interested in more info about her life and about charities she supported you can read more about her inRemembering Farrah Fawcett.

Sadness over Farrah’s death was compounded by the death of yet another star on the same day. King of Pop, Michael Jackson, died on Thursday the 25th of June from cardiac arrest. The news was shocking and unexpected. He had just finished setting the dates for a 50 concert tour in Europe. I think my sadness over this event comes from growing up when Michael Jackson was at the top of the charts. I had a friend, Shannon, who was a fan of him and she introduced me to his music although I had heard some before. She even dressed as him for Halloween. I will never forget that she looked just like him with the perfect makeup and mannerisms. The big album at that time was Black or White and it spoke to us. Man in the Mirror was a song that reflected our own inner struggles with our identities.

I plan to write a celebrity charity profile for both Ed McMahon and Michael Jackson in the next few days. First, I need to get all the research together.

Let us hope that there are no more tragedies this week either in our homes or in the celebrity world.

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

If you are in the St. Louis, Missouri area on July 11th you should check out the free concert that is being sponsored by Major League Baseball and Pepsi-Cola. The concert headliner will be Sheryl Crow and the concert will benefit Stand Up to Cancer. The event will be an environmentally friendly one with recycling bins on hand and a special Major League Baseball Green Team who will be collecting recyclables during the show.

To find out more about where the concert is and other cool stuff happening during the event like MLB’s donation to Stand Up to Cancer read this article about Sheryl Crow headlining Stand Up to Cancer Benefit.

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend so far. I was pleased to get a newsletter from the writer forum that I frequent, Accentuate Writers Forum, about the anthology that has been in the works. After tons of paperwork and formal legalities which Michelle L. Devon worked hard to get through, the first ever Accentuate Writers Anthology is going to print! Elements of the Soul is available for pre-order by clicking this link. It is a beautifully bound book with a glossy cover available at the fantastic price of $13 which includes shipping, taxes and a custom designed bookmark based on the cover design.

This is very exciting for everyone involved in the book and the books to come after. The writers featured in the book are all authors who won in the short story contests and poetry contests run on the Accentuate Writers Forum.

The first writers to appear in the very first Accentuate Writers Anthology are:

Elements of the Soul

It should be noted too that 10% of the proceeds from the net profit of each book will be donated to literacy programs. You can read more about how money will be donated and when on the pre-order page for Elements of the Soul.

Purchase a copy today to read some amazing stories and to support the literary arts!

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

Today, several things have come to my attention. The first happened at the gas station this morning. I held the door open for a gentleman who was right behind me. He was older and it was polite. He thanked me and said “thanks, you’ve done your good deed for the day.”

This got me thinking. Was that going to be my only good deed for the day? I really had hoped that it wouldn’t. I then remembered that I had a pledge packet I needed to open when I went home.

After getting some work done I decided to pop into the writer’s forum that I frequent… Accentuate Writers Forum is a great place where I have learned amazing things from those striving to become published authors and those who are already published.

A fellow writer by the name of Opher Ganel had posted a link promoting an event. Clicking through I found that Opher and his son were going to be participating in the Seagull Century 100 mile bike ride as part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. The bike ride will take place October 10, 2009 and Team Ganel’s goal before the ride is to raise $4,000. I made a donation to help out Team Ganel in meeting their goals.

My donation was a small $10 but I am hoping that you, my fellow readers, will be willing to match that donation and get Team Ganel to their goal way before the date of the bike ride.

Visit Team Ganel to make and match the donation I made today.

It’s not even 1pm here and I feel like I have done a few good things today. What kind of good things will you be doing today?

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

I must apologize for my lack of blog posts this week. With the end of school nearing, everything in my world seems to grow a little frantic. Field Day events at the school take place, baseball comes to a close and new hobbies and interests arise in the minds of my sons.

Field Day was a blast. My son, Patrick, had a great time filling up water buckets by squeezing out sponges, running through an obstacle course and playing musical hula hoops.

Last night, Andrew, received awards for his participation in T-Ball for Pocono Mountain West Little League. He earned a trophy and a certificate. He was very proud to play a game afterward and he was pitched to by the coach. He hit each time which means no more T for him at baseball.

As you can tell, I’m very proud of my boys.

I am currently working on two short stories that I am looking forward to entering into a few contests and I have been busy sending out submissions to various print magazines. Wish me luck!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

My computer connection is finally back up and running! It took some driving and shopping but finally we figured out the problem and were able to fix it.

I still need to work on my short story for the anthology contest for Accentuate Services since it is due in tomorrow! I will be working on it shortly, I promise!

Exciting things have been happening this week even with the computer troubles that have abounded. First, Examiner.com has been great to work with and I’m learning more every day about the great things celebrities are doing for charities all over the world. Because of Examiner, I was offered the opportunity to work with another team of writers at looktothestars.org so keep an eye out on their website to see when I get listed as a contributor.

Annie Duke hosted “Sucking Out on the Rivers” charity poker tournament on Wednesday in Vegas and raised $20,000 for Refugee’s International, which is an amazing charity that helps displaced peoples around the world. Many kudo’s go out to everyone involved in raising money for a worthy charity.

I hope you all have a wonderful night!
Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

There is some trouble in computer land for me. My laptop does not want to keep me connected to the internet. I thought I had it fixed but once I went home, it didn’t work. So I’m on my old man’s old box of a computer typing this post out to you quickly. Hopefully, tomorrow will be much better in computer land. Wish me well please!

Congrats to all the winners of the writersweekly.com 24 hour short story contest!
Many wonderful writers made the top of the list and some dear friends from the Accentuate Writers Forum recieved some very cool door prizes!

Hoping tomorrow is a better day.
Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

The sun is not shining today and the clouds seem to have taken over the skyline. It is good to have a break in the sunshine since it gives us a chance to appreciate it more when it comes out again.

Lots of things are going on currently in my world. The office where I work is moving its location so we are in the process of packing, storing and causing general chaos. My son went on a field trip today to the Crayola Factory and I wish I could have gone.

I am currently working on a story for the contest at Accentuate Services, I am kicking myself to get it finished before the deadline.
I am waiting on the results from writersweekly.com for the contest I entered there.

Recently, I’ve been having a lot of fun writing about celebrities and charity for Examiner.com. A new piece was published last night about Twitter + Celebrity= Large charitable contributions, check it out to see if your favorite celebrities are twittering for charity.

Hope you have a wonderful day.
Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

As many of you know, Associated Content is one of my clients. I get paid per article with them and also a bonus for page views. My averages are steadily climbing but I have yet to hit the goal I set for myself for the month of May. The goal is to hit 100,000 page views yet I am 104 page views shy.

If you care to give me a little help please check out one or more of the articles found on my source page:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/201719/linda_stcyr.html

Thanks!
Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr