Okay, last night I totally wrote today’s blog and set it to go live this morning. And then. . . WordPress ate it. Have I ever mentioned my strong feelings about WordPress? I once had a coach who would say, “Miss Jones (he seriously called me that when I was a student), you have to be smarter than what you’re working with.” But I KNOW I saved that stupid blog! UGH. This coach used to also ask me who peed in my Cheerios, but whatever. And WordPress is not into spacing between paragraphs today, so forgive my starry paragraph breaks.
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SO without further ado, I would like to announce our winner for the Drama Queens series by Tracey Bateman. The ultra cool winner is…BETHANY!!! YAY!!! I was so excited to draw her name because Bethany has worked long and hard to be a free-book winner. She has won THREE books. So you keep your neck-full of medals, Michael Phelps. Bethany’s got the real haul. (So Bethany, email me your home addy please!)
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Yesterday I discovered one of my students can lick her own elbow. (Seriously, try it. Right now.)
Another can pull his leg behind his back and rest his foot on his shoulder. I think if I did that, I would split in two. It was not a good day to be without a camera. But I will soon have photographic proof of these Cirque de Soleil feats.
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I also have a student named Windy March Day. (And Windy, if you’re reading this you may think I’m all cool because I didn’t react to your nifty name like I’m SURE everyone else does, but it’s a total act. I’m DYING to ask about this name! Do you even know how much will power it takes for me not to grill you about your name??!! I deserve a trophy here or something! Professionalism does NOT come easy for some of us!)
OH! And I also have a student whose great aunt is Paula Deen. She freakin’ EATS Thanksgiving with Paula DEEN!!! Oh, to touch the batter-fried, greasy, fat-laden chicken leg prepared by the hands of Paula Deen.
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I got some GREAT news today. I went to my orthodontist (you know, the guy with the ice cream maker that tragically churns out gross brown sludge), and where I was to get my braces off like the day I got back from the American Christian Fiction Writers conference…now I get them off the week before! These lucky things just don’t happen to me! It’s amazing. Dr. Smith said if everything goes well and nothing bad happens, then they’re coming off. I was like, “Dude, if half my teeth suddenly go horizontal, these babies are STILL coming off.” So say a little prayer that none of my teeth will move…unless they’re supposed to. Stupid teeth. It has been a weird three months of braces.
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This morning I pulled out of my driveway and stopped at the end of my road…and an electricity pole was on fire! I just sat there like, “Uh…uh…uh…uh…WHAT DO I DO???” I decided not to go with my first impulse which was to climb the pole and throw my Dasani on the flames. I called 9-1-1 instead. Can I just tell you the dispatcher was NOT impressed with my fire reporting? She sounded so bored. She clearly needs to try and touch her tongue to her elbow. Anyway when I pulled onto the main road I saw a firetruck and two firemen just watching the pole burn. So I guess I wasn’t the first to call it in–that kind of disappointed me. Had I left for work sooner, maybe I could’ve placed the winning call and been a super hero. Or at least got on the road soon enough to hit McDonalds before work.
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Okay, so stay tuned for my next giveaway which will be soon. And it will be fab. And you will be jealous if you don’t get it. I’m not gonna tell you what it is, but it rhymes with Priss Romlin.
Oh! And below this post is a bonus book intro. Check out the sample chapter of Robin Parrish’s Merciless. I hear it’s a nail biter. I have not gotten to read it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
Have a great rest of the week-
JEN
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Merciless
(Bethany House - July 1, 2008)
by
Robin Parrish
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Robin Parrish had two great ambitions in his life: to have a family, and to be a published novelist. In March of 2005, he proposed to his future wife the same week he signed his first book contract.
More than ten years he spent writing for various websites, including About.com, CMCentral.com, and Infuze Magazine, which is a unique intersection between art and faith which he also conceived of and created.
One of his more “high concept” ideas for Infuze was to return to his love for storytelling and create a serialized tale that would play out every two weeks, telling a complete, compelling story over the course of nine months. That serialized story eventually came to the attention of several publishers, who saw it as a potential debut novel for Robin Parrish.
In 2005, Bethany House Publishers brought Robin full circle by contracting him for the rights to not only that first book, Relentless — but two sequels including Fearless and Merciless. A trilogy that unfolded in the consecutive summers of 2006, 2007, and this year, 2008. One massive tale — of which that first, original story would form only the foundational first volume of the three — spread across three books.
Robin Parrish is a journalist who’s written about pop culture for more than a decade. Currently he serves as Senior Editor at XZOOSIA.com, a community portal that fuses social networking with magazine-style features about entertainment and culture. He and his wife, Karen and son live in North Carolina.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The world as we know it has ENDED.
DEATH and CHAOS creep across the globe and only the POWERLESS can RISE UP to stop it.
But can anything stop the onslaught of the DARKWORLD
From the earth’s depths crawls a figure with skin like granite, flames for eyes, and the face of Grant Borrows.
Oblivion has arrived.
Every clock around the world has stopped. Time has frozen.
The Secretum have fulfilled the prophecy, unleashing on earth the most powerful being to walk the earth in thousands of years. His name is Oblivion and his touch is death.
He can’t be slowed.
He can’t be stopped.
And he can’t be killed.
But as long as any live who trust in hope and love and freedom, the fight is not over.
They have only one chance before he brings forth the Darkworld.
Oblivion is: Merciless
“Robin Parrish is the kind of writer who understands how to entertain from the word go. His stories are sure to shape fiction for years to come.”
~TED DEKKER, author of ADAM
If you would like to read the first chapter of Merciless, go HERE
Robin Parrish had two great ambitions in his life: to have a family, and to be a published novelist. In March of 2005, he proposed to his future wife the same week he signed his first book contract.
The world as we know it has ENDED.
OH. BOY. SO EXCITED HERE!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
I was in the car when I read I won… told my parents…they were excited too
Hillarious school-ppl stories!
Awesome news about the braces!
Sorry about wordpress
Gotta run! On a trip for vacation..left this afternoon..what a great start!!
Lol, congratulations Bethany. You must be rigging these contests!…Or as Jenny says, you’re Michael Phelps incarnate. (And I’m the guy who lost by 1/100 of a second, of course;))
Jenny, your obsession with Chris Tomlin (purely as a musician, of course) is so cute. It’s making me excited for the CD!
Ooh and congrats on the braces news!
Of course I didn’t win. I did win “that’s not exactly amore) though!!! Another contest somewhere else in the world.
Bethany, why can’t my parents be excited that I won a book? I told my mom I won a contest and she’s just like “…OK?” Lovely.
You have cool students! My cousin can pull both his legs behind his head, but I know NO ONE who can lick their elbow!!! I GET MY BRACES OFF IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS!!!
HA!
It would be cool to have someone with the name Windy March Day in my class. Good thing I changed my name to Number 16 Bus Stop. Most people call me Hecter, though.
No. 16 Bus Stop , you make me laugh out loud. And congrats on winning book 3 in the Drama Queens series. I read it, and it’s pretty cute. I hope you send random comments to that blog too. : )
Congrats, Bethany! It was totally rigged–like Chinese 12 year old gymnast rigged.
Sarah, I’m offended by your suggestion that I’m obsessed with Christopher Tomlin. Ever since the restraining order, I have just been an interested fan. Not obsessed. At least that’s what I tell my probation officer…
I tried to leave a comment yesterday but I think your blog ate it. In the comment, I said I knew a guy who could sniff a necklace up his nose and then pull it out of his mouth (this is probably why your blog rejected my comment …). He took the charm off the necklace before he did it (amateur) but it was always a big hit on roadtrips. It’s all who you know, right? I was always lost between laughing and gagging and flailing my arms about in disgust. Recently, I found out he went on to become a pediatrician. I wonder if he does that trick for his patients?
This blog also made me think of the Strong Bad email where he writes the children’s book … have you seen it? SO hilarious. There’s a part where he says, “Some people are very tall and merciless. Quincey is destroying San Antonio.” Let me find the link …http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCLUkevdUBc
(I promise no more you tube links … I’m only a little addicted)
Don’t you love how Chris dedicated the CD to me! “Hello Love”. That’s what he always says when he calls me!
Congrats on getting your braces off early Jen, I bet that you are SO excited! But, you would have looked awesome at the conference with or without them, so don’t worry!
Hey, can we still vote for your book at that one website?? I was catching up on your blog and I couldn’t get it to work. You need to re-post it!!