Dear Writer, 
Here is a call for submissions from my local RWA chapter. After visiting the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, I can say I certainly feel the call to do something. I've inserted a video at the bottom of the post where you can see the beautiful white tiger who cried for his dinner everyday. I loved him. Don't worry- he's very well-fed. This white tiger is like me; he's ready to eat when it's dinnertime. There is a goal for every animal to live in the habitat area where there is more room. This tiger is one animal who doesn't have the room he deserves. This non-profit organization can only provide habitats for a limited number. They also have maintenance costs provided by donations.
~Brinda 

Wild at Heart 

Editor: Delilah Devlin
Publisher: Diamond State Romance Authors
Deadline: April 1, 2012

Wild at Heart is open to all authors.

Editor Delilah Devlin is looking for stories for a special project to benefit the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. 

Recently, six Diamond State Romance Author chapter members spent a weekend falling in love with the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge and its exotic inhabitants. The refuge is home to large cats and a variety of exotic animals that would otherwise have to be put down because they aren’t suitable for placement in zoos or to be returned to the wild. The need for financial support was apparent. Our chapter decided to pool its resources and find a way to help. 

What we propose is to produce a volume of short stories, all centred around animals in need of refuge. All proceeds from the sales of the book will go directly to the Turpentine Creek Refuge. We will edit the submissions, seek professional cover art and formatting, and assist the refuge by uploading the anthology to online bookstores like Amazon’s Kindle store and Barnes & Noble’s Nook store.  Additionally, we will help upload the book to CreateSpace so that printed volumes can be available for sale in brick-and-mortar bookstores throughout Arkansas and inside the refuge’s shop. 

This is a national call for submissions of short stories to be donated for the cause. Only the best stories will be accepted. All genres of fiction (contemporary and paranormal, sweet adult romance and Young Adult) will be considered. Please keep in mind that stories must be PG-rated as the book will be two-sided—one side geared toward adult readers and the other toward teenaged readers.

Examples of the kinds of stories we seek:          

• A maimed Iraqi war veteran learns to accept his disability by working with equally damaged animals
• A teenaged girl helps a were-cougar hide his true nature while both hunt for an escaped cat
• A teenaged couple encounters a tiger escaped from its private owner’s cage and work together to find help to capture and care for it
• A pushy animal psychic must gain the trust of the refuge’s veterinarian to help a depressed bear
• A troubled teenager discovers a tiger living in a national forest, then seeks a way to prevent locals staging a hunt from killing it

How to submit: Prepare your 1,500 to 4,000 words story in a double-spaced, Arial, 12 point, black font Word document with pages numbered (.doc, NOT.docx) OR rich text format. Indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch and double space (regular double spacing, do not add extra lines between paragraphs or do any other irregular spacing). US grammar (double quotation marks around dialogue, etc.) is required. 

In your document at the top left of the page, include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), mailing address, and 50 word or less bio in the third person to dsrawildatheart@gmail.com. If you are using a pseudonym, please provide your real name and pseudonym and make it clear which one you’d like to be credited as. Authors may submit up to 2 stories. 

About the editor: Ms. Devlin has published over one hundred stories in multiple genres and lengths. Her published print titles include Into the Darkness, Seduced by Darkness, Darkness Captured,Down in Texas, Texas Men and Ravished by a Viking. Her short stories are featured in Zane’s Purple Panties, and Cleis Press’s Lesbian Cowboys, Girl Crush, Fairy Tale Lust, Lesbian Lust,Passion, Carnal Machines, and Dream Lovers. She is published by Avon, Kensington, Harlequin, Atria/Strebor, Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, and Berkley. In Fall 2011, she debuted her first anthology with Cleis Press, Girls Who Bite. 

Direct any questions you have regarding your story or the submission process to Delilah at dsrawildatheart@gmail.com.

I'm out visiting other blogs today. I'm at the Diamond State Romance Author blog with a post called Evernote Is My New Best Friend. Evernote is a software application that is great for writers. Click HERE to visit.

Gloria Richard is also hosting my blog thoughts in the Social Media Savvy with Sanity series.  Click HERE to visit.

There's one last thing I need to share before you follow me to the DSRA site or Gloria's blog. I've borrowed a link from The East Coaster's blog this week because I thought it was so great. Here's a list of writing workshops and conferences by state. Click HERE to see the list. 

I attended the Ozark Creative Writers Conference along with the Diamond State Romance Authors (DSRA) ladies. This was my first time to attend the conference and to visit Eureka Springs. Although the conference itself was held at the Inn of the Ozarks Convention Center, we decided to stay somewhere adventurous. We stayed one night at the Crescent Hotel and two nights at the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. I'll be posting later about those two adventures.

For now, I'd like to say that I had a wonderful time at the conference, mealtimes, and other activities. I've belonged to the DSRA organization for a couple of years, but I know everyone so much better now. It was great. Here are some things I learned:

• Six women writers can brainstorm entire novels within minutes. Easy. 
• Everyone should have a firepit to sit around at night for conversation purposes. 
• You should never assume that the scrumptious candy bar on the nightstand was left by the hotel staff.
• Famous authors like David Morrell can still be down-to-earth.
  
• Lions, tigers, and bears can have funny personalities and be finicky eaters. They can even fake a limp for sympathy.
• You should NEVER declaw a cat. I don't have a cat, but the specifics of this has left me outraged.
• I want an agent as funny and personable as Gordon Warnock.  If you write what he is looking for, FIND HIM.
• There is someone out in the world who thinks digital books are called e-mail books.