Holiday Contest!!

Okay, so here's the deal.

I'd like to give the gift of reading (as in one of my books!) to a classroom.  Reading aloud to children is one of the best presents a teacher can give to his/her students.  And in these days of high stakes testing, sometimes the practice of sitting down and enjoying a book with children falls by the wayside.

This.Must.Not.Happen.

Please win us!  We love for our story to be read by children!

So, if you'd like to win a copy of the latest Good Knight adventure, A GOOD KNIGHT'S REST, for your child's classroom, just enter below.  I am planning to go to the post office by December 16th to mail packages to my family and I can easily add one more to the stack.  I'll send it Priority, so hopefully the class can share the fun before the holiday break.

All you have to to do enter is to leave your email and tell me what your favorite holiday book is.

I'll start:  Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol.

Speaking of caroling....are those the elves from Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer getting ready to sing??

And I think there are some Santas battling in the corner!

Contest will run until Friday, December 2.  I will place all names in the Sugar Bowl of Despair and draw one lucky winner out.

hrh

In the Story Castle Today...

Well, let's see.

There are lots of tired people in the Storycastle.  As in very tired.  I can remember being a kid and whenever my folks had "yard work day" I would fall into bed SO TIRED (but everyone around here is even TIREDER than that!)  That's what a weekend of Irish Dance Championships will do to you.

And there are also Christmas boxes down from the attic.

"But StoryQueen," you say. "'Tis not even the Giving of Thanks.  How can one possibly be setting up for the Season of Yule?"

It's like this.  Every moment between now and December 23 is completely packed for the residents of chez Story and if I don't get it set up between now and 6:00 p.m. tomorrow night, it won't happen until the 23rd.

And that is just not acceptable.

I like a full holiday season, my friends.  I think my favorite part of the whole thing is sitting by the tree in the dark of the morning before everyone gets up. Every day in December.  No presents.  No craziness.  Just me and Tree.  I could do it for weeks on end.  Which is precisely why I have to set up NOW.

And I have a lot of work to do if I am going to find a way to suspend the Millennium Falcon from the ceiling so it can protect Tree.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

hrh

Something Very Cool

Eric Carle had this lovely book come out this year:

This is a wonderful, inspiring book and the NEA is using it for their Blue Horse Auction, to support the arts.  "Art Inspires Learning, Learning Inspires Art," is the theme.

The gist of the auction is that several artists were asked to paint some kind of horse inspired picture to be auctioned off during October and November.  There are paintings by Mo Willems, Mary Grandpre,  David Williams, Tomie DePaola and of course, Eric Carle, just to name a few.

Here is the link to the auction:  www.bluehorseauction.com.

But wait!  There's more!  Look at this little beauty:

That's right!  My artist, Jennifer Plecas, was asked donate a painting, and she chose to immortalize the horse from the Good Knight books!  Look, he finally gets to be the star! The auction for this painting went up yesterday.

I want it.  Badly.

I am just so honored and thrilled to be somehow connected to this wonderful auction.  Creativity lives in each of us!

hrh

Progress

Hmm..

Progress.

Not too much, really.

But I keep reminding myself that it is better than nothing--and way more than there would be if I hadn't decided to NaNoFiMo.

I am writing a book right now that I truly have NO IDEA how I am going to get it to the place I think it needs to go. Not that I really even know where it will end up.  I just kind of have an idea of where it might ought to go.  I feel like some inept person pointing to a map and saying, "Hey, I think I'll go to that dot there.  Looks like a good dot."

But the story is interesting to me, so I will continue to follow it.

At a snail's pace.

However, I kind of want to write something Christmas-y, and I am not certain if such a scene will fit in my WIP.  Some of my favorite tales are Christmas tales (A Christmas Carol, The Velveteen Rabbit, etc).  I just want to write something that will get me in the spirit.

Maybe I'll just throw caution to the wind and start something new.  (Not something long, just something a little newish...)

Something small.

Like a tiny, little Christmas story.

"Most stories about Christmas are big and shiny
with large presents and tall, glittering trees.

But not this story.

This is a very tiny Christmas tale..."

Hmm...wonder what I'll do with that.


hrh

The 22nd Day

On the 22nd day (I had been running every day for 21 days straight.  Every.Single.Day), something happened.

I know they say that you need to do something 21 times for a habit to kick in.

I've never really believed stuff like that.


But on the 22nd day, I sprinted.

My knees didn't ache, nor did my ankles.  And when I got to the park near my house, I just felt like running as fast as I could, so I did.

I supposed I posted this so I could tell you how it relates to writing, but I don't think you need me to make the obvious connection for you.

The more you do something, the better you get.

In that vein, here are somethings I want to get better at, hence I should do more of :

1.  Petting my dog's tummy in just the right way.

2.  Sleeping and dreaming GOOD dreams.

3.  Prioritizing.

4.  Baking apricot pecan bread.

5.  Writing beautifully crafted scenes.

6.  Cracking myself up with my words.

7.  Loving every moment in this life and appreciating it for the lesson it is trying to teach me.

Wishing you a weekend filled with wonderful moments.

hrh

Oh, and Sarah the Bookduck interviewed me yesterday.  Here is the link.  Watch out for Popeye.