Meanie Monday

Nice Monday, this one is!

Wow, what a crazy, busy weekend.  My interview of Heather.  Heather's interview of me.  Valentine's Day.  My puppy is now a local celebrity, her picture is featured on our vet's website (scroll down to the picture slideshow and look for Bell (it's Belle, but we're not going to correct them))!

Lots to say, and according to my stat counter, I have an average of five minutes and seven seconds to tell you.  I shamelessly thought about putting a music player with "Hey Jude", so you'd be too mesmerized to leave my page for 7:05, but I have no idea how to get music on here and since Blogger has been a bitch the past few weeks, I'm not going to take my chances.  Great, I just wasted fifteen seconds.  Unless you're a super slow read and I wasted twenty-five seconds of your time.  Although, if you are a slow reader...should you really be here?  I mean, this blog is about reading and writing.  We, as writers, are born with the natural ability to read quickly, right?  I just saw Fire out of the corner of my eye.  It took me five days to read.  So, never mind.  Crap a whole minute gone!

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Contest Winners:

Mariah Irvin

Robert Guthrie

Kelly Polark

Winners have been emailed and will provide me with a synopsis, premise, or tidbit by which I will create a cover design.  This is all about inspiration, baby!  I love to stare at my covers and think, that is so perfect and then I feel the need to write.  Sometimes, I create a cover early on and realize that it totally doesn't work, but that's okay too because the cover inspired me to think and move passed the "block" or the wrong.

My designs, pending permission from the winners, will be posted Sunday, February 21.  Don't worry, if you didn't win, I have more contests up my sleeve.  The next one isn't based on a certain number of followers, but instead on loyalty/participation :)

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Award time!

Melissa gave me the Honest Scrap award and with no rules or stipulations attached!  She called me a 'Very cool dude'.  Awesome!  So, I have no idea what to do with it, except choose a recipient based off integrity, brilliance, and fervor for honesty (isn't that the same as integrity?  Ah, well...).

The recipient:

Anita Laydon Miller.  Anita has a streamlined and to-the-point blog.  I enjoy stopping by there a few times a week to check out her opinion.  She writes a book recommendation column for a newspaper in Colorado.  I think.  I ought to get the facts straight, but honestly, she'll correct me if I am wrong.  And I love that!  Another reason I choose Anita, is because she is great at choosing books.  She doesn't follow a specific pattern, as far as I can tell, she just has an 'eye'.  She suggested Lone Survivor, a retelling from a Navy SEAL's perspective as he, Marcus Luttrell, watches his best friend's deaths and crawls miles to seek aid and shelter.  I could go on about how much this book means to me, but really I cannot do it justice and I'm rather emotional about it.  Here's the link to Anita's column.  These words of hers sold me:

"I highly recommend this book. It is tough on liberals and the press, so be forewarned if you live in those skins...but even so, I think it's a book Americans should read."  

I vouch, for whatever it's worth, that Anita's word has a lot of value and I intend to pick up anything she recommends.

One more thing, she started Post a Photo of Your Work Area Day, on February first.  She not all seriousness.  So, Anita, I know awards, receiving/giving, aren't your thing, do whatever you want with it.  Just know I appreciate you and your words.

Here, you can have this too: