Electric Christmas Sensation Machine!
Are you exploding with...
Electric Christmas Sensation Machine!
Are you exploding with Christmasy goodness yet? You're about to. :)
(What? I like smiling. Smiling's my favorite.)
Well, Axel and I deliberated firmly over the parlance of the pickle, and the winners are…Mary Rajotte and Marian Allen!
Mary's pickle poem wasn't hard to pick:
That's quite the pickle your packin'
it's got my lips smackin'!
I'm neither picky nor fickle 'n
it looks quite ripe for the ticklin'!
And, as I noted to my dear friend RJ (who was right up there in my top pickle picks), it's hard to compete with Ms. Marian Allen, as well:
I don't know what you mean about "filthy pickle remarks". A lady like me would never make filthy remarks about pickles. I love pickles. The bigger the better. I especially like them salty. In the summer, I like to watch them grow and grow. Then I cut them off and put them in jars in the refrigerator. Sometimes I share them with my friends. I like the smooth ones better than the ones with bumps all over them. I'm always sad when their time is over and they shrivel up.
Now, who could write anything filthy about that?
Indeed, MA. Indeed. And since you are our US winner, you shall be rewarded, by receiving the Pickle Pack itself! BEHOLD!
Our international winner, Mary, will receive the ebooks of This Brilliant Darkness by yours truly, Living Dead at Zigfreidt & Roy by Axel Howerton (who shall be slapped for making me second-guess the spelling of "Zigfreidt" a dozen times each post).
This contest was a very big dill to Axel and me, and I'm sure I speak for him when I say thank you for gherkin so hard, all sours of the night in the salt mines to produce such winning lines. I know it can be cucumbersome with such a non-kosher topic as the Christmas Pickle—it can really hurt your brine trying to think them up. There were times I considered canning it altogether, but it was really such a Ball. Only a sourpuss wouldn't have considered each one of you the pick of the peck of the pickled peppers!
Mary & Marian, please email me to claim your prizes! RedTashBooks (at) gmail (dot) com.
Some of you may recall that Ms. Allen is the one who created a cocktail recipe for the Flying Birdbath. In that spirit, and at the request of book bloggers who desired a button to help promote my book launch, I created the following gif:
It seems putting wings on things is just going to be my thang. Next year? Flying Pickle gif. I promise. You can hold me to that.
In related news, Michelle Muto's giveaway of the PAPERBACK of This Brilliant Darkness is going on through next Wednesday, so fly over there and enter. All you have to do is leave a comment and then tweet about it. Couldn't be easier. This is Michelle's first ever giveaway, so please do go visit & make it a success.
Last week I did a weekend giveaway of Clara Claus, and this week Alexandra Lanc returns the favor by doing a giveaway of This Brilliant Darkness. If you recall, Miss Lanc gave away a Christmas ornament to match her book cover. TBD isn't really a Christmas-y kind of book, but our darling Christine Grace is a total coffee junkie, ain't she?
So…I put together this for the winner:
It may not look like much, but it's a one of a kind This Brilliant Darkness mug! Alexandra's giveaway is short and sweet, running now through the 19th, with winners announced on the 19th, or possibly the 20th.
At the bottom of that photo, you'll see something that looks suspiciously like a bookmark. It is just that. I had some of those printed up at Lanc's request, as well, so everything I'm sending out in the mail is going to have a couple of those beauties included. If you'd like a bookmark, just email me your address and ask for one, and I'll getcha some, okay? If you'd like several, I'm happy to accommodate that, too. (I'm looking at you, Amy Marshall.)
Last but not least, The Red Tash Girl Power Roller Derby Prize Pack giveaway is still a-rolling strong. All you gotta do is think up a roller derby name and leave it in the comments wherever you see the post. Here, here, or here will work for me.
Before I send you off on the rounds to visit the Creepers, the Debutantes, and the Holiday Hoppers for more prizes & merriment, here's one last link for you (for now).
A few weeks ago, Ruth Barrett posted a RFP for contributions to her blog, but I didn't respond because I was honestly kinda blitzed out with all the Christmas machinery in my head. However, Ruth emailed me personally and I LIKE HER, and when I like someone, I will put in the extra effort for them. I started to write Ruth a post based on one of her three writing prompts, and it grew to three pages long.
That's almost as long as the last post I sent her, during October, which was a reprint of one of my epic newspaper stories (so enormous that it dominated the front page of two local newspapers for two days—and in typical "me" style, included multimedia. Yes, it was a two page newspaper story with multimedia. EVPs and ghost videos, if you must know, hosted on their websites. And yes, I still got writing gigs after that. Someone just get me my own television network, and be done with it.) Ruth very politely declined the piece, which was no biggie. It just wasn't for her. I ran it, myself, eventually.
My point is, I really wanted to send her something right this time, so I actually sat here and edited and trimmed and edited and trimmed until I had a story that met her expectations (and please don't misunderstand, I don't mean that in a bad way. When it comes to writing, guidelines are a good thing).
She seems to like it. I hope you will, too. But, oh, it is personal. I share something that I haven't written about publicly, at all. I know I post a lot of flash and whizbang and chuckles here, but if you want to know the squishy insides of little ole me, go read about my most amazing Christmas gift, ever.
Okay. So, that's prize, link, shout-out, and mention overload for one day, isn't it? Get to clicking. Creepfest, Debutantes, Holiday Hop
(If you click on the electric photo at the top of the page you will be taken to the blog of the light of my life.)
TONIGHT, watch for a special guest post here on this blog, and TOMORROW, THE RETURN OF MY CUSTOMIZED, PERSONALIZED, ALL-FREE, SUPER GOOFY PRIZES! Because life is too short to be anything less than amazing, my friends. Let's do this thing.
