Pay It Forward: Winter Bayne

Pay It Forward Fridays came from this post by Emily Guido. The idea is to feature a blogger or author on Fridays and give them a little shoutout. Anyone goes as long as they’re interested.

I’ve received an incredible amount of support from bloggers, authors and people I’ve met on line who didn’t know me and were just very kind, supportive souls. And, when I read that post by Emily Guido, I thought: time to give back.

I loved this quote from Emily’s mother:

“I cast a couple of pieces of bread on the water and the waves bring me back a ham sandwich.”

Karma is a beautiful thing.

Today I’m focusing on Winter Bayne.

Now usually, I have a picture for you, but Winter is…well she’s shy. So, instead I have this:

This lovely fellow is Kashmir, her cat, who’s standing in for Winter.

She says this of herself:

“I was a closet writer that shredded or burned her stories hours after finishing them, never allowing another set of eyes to chance a read. After spending a year in the hospital surviving NHL cancer, I met my Other Half, West. He replaced my lack of faith in myself with his own unrelenting encouragement. Now, we’re living our own happily ever after while adopting a little girl, Bella. I’ve set my compass towards my dreams and I’m going after them.

During the day I can be found with my Ragdoll cat in my lap and a book in my hands or spending time with my motley family. After the sun goes down and the stars come out, I release the characters in my imagination to cause chaos in fantasy worlds.

I’m somewhat of an antisocial hermit, but I can be coaxed from my writing nook with B horror movies, yarn, or Shiraz.

I’m living proof that it is indeed always the quiet ones that are the naughtiest.”

Winter is one of those people who’ll give you her last dollar but has trouble buying herself gifts. Want proof? I mentioned something about my book, she created a banner to celebrate and a header. Just like that.

She’s also an incredibly gifted writer. Check out the story of how she and West met. I couldn’t stop reading.

Winter Bayne’s work appears in two anthologies.

The first one, Secret Identities Anthology, has her story Heroes For Hire: Striker and is coming out in February 3 from Breathless Press.

 Blurb:

“Shade is an average woman until the government uses her as a human guinea pig, forever changing her life with new superhuman powers. Striker is an ex-military man who sees the benefit of genetically altered humans and turns his vision into a multi-million dollar security business, Heroes for Hire. On opposing sides of the legal use of the genetically altered, passions flare for Shade and Striker leaving one unanswered question – how good can sex get?

Rating: Two stubborn super heroes on opposing sides with light super power bondage.”

 

The other is The Knight Temptress Anthology from DKC Publishing and has Winter Bayne’s story Tiera. Tiera is none other than the paranormal/fantasy short story that won First Place at the 2014 Dragon Knight Chronicles Contest.

You can find Winter just about everywhere (especially in Nanowrimo) but also at her site Winter Bayne. Why not check out this highly talented author?

Karma

Posts I loved this week

A wonderful week of posts. Check out these beauties!

From The Written Word Remains…I read this lovely post on rereading favourite books. It’s one of my favourite activities and couldn’t help but agree with the author. Great post!

The beautiful photograph is only eclipsed by the incredible writing in this insightful post by Just Ponderin’.

A fantastic post by Kristen Lamb on getting an awesome plot and ready for Nanowrimo.

The Write Practice has this great post on how to create Character Sketches using Scrivener and I absolutely loved it. Awesome post!

November is coming and everyone’s already excited about Nanowrimo. Like Winter Bayne with her usual humour shining in the post.

This awesome post on First Drafts by Mishka Jenkins made me feel so much better because it not only let me know I’m not the only one who struggles with them but she also shared tips and steps on how to move forward.

If you’re stuck like me and need help getting going, check out this post on 11 Novelist-Tested ways to defeat Writer’s Block from Writers Helping Writers.

Super-cute, check out this picture of a baby turtle being carried by mom. A big thank you to Spanishwoods for making me smile with that lovely post.

If you’re considering starting a blog but want to do it with a group of writers, check out this post by Madeline Iva on just that subject from Romance University.

A huge congratulations to Sourcerer, a very talented blog who has just acquired a new contributor, the brilliant, saucy Infinitefreetime. Very, very exciting!

For those who love quotes, these are specially for writers from Jen’s Thoughts.

Finally, here’s a little bit of cuteness to end the post!

(credit:zwallpaper.biz)

I didn’t do it

Notice the amazing header? It’s not mine. Nope. That baby appears on this blog thanks to Winter Bayne.

I have no idea how she did it but she managed to transform my old header picture into that work of art. And she did this while attending camp NaNoWriMo.

I had to mention it because, I didn’t do it. She did and deserves the credit. Also because she did it just because. She’s one of those people who’ll help you–even when I wonder how she finds time to brush her teeth.

A big, big thank you, Winter Bayne. You’re awesome.

Oh. If you want to see one scorching header, check out her site.