The newest Winner

It's Monday, which means the first day of school for us. It was so strange how easy we slipped back into the routine. My twins have their first day of Kindergarten today and they're excited, but not freaked out about it.

Things seem really normal. How strange...

Anyway, I feel a little sad that we had to draw a new winner, but it's already Monday and we still haven't heard from the other winner.

So... using random.org I have a new winner....

Angela

Angela- send your mailing address to laurabinghambooks at gmail.com

And, to keep this contest from going on forever, Angela, you have until this Thursday to send me your address. If we haven't heard from you by Thursday night, we'll announce another winner Friday.

So, here's what's new on the writing home front. Hmm. Now that school has started I am thrilled to have more time to write. That's a big one.

I'm working with Costco to get my books in the Boise and Nampa stores. I'll be doing some signings there sometime.

School visits. It's been a slow start, but we're working on it. My friend is helping me contact schools and it looks like we'll be getting more places once school is more underway. If you happen to want an author visit at your school, go to my website and make a request. Or, if you know me, just give me a call.

Someone stopped me yesterday and said she didn't know I wrote a book. I shrugged. She said she found my website and blog and it looked like I was finally coming out of my shell. I laughed. She thought I was shy. I had no idea.

Anyway, I'm really not shy. Or, I guess I spend most of my time at social events chasing after my kids. The fact is, I don't really have time for most social events. I guess I'm going to have to work on that.

Alright, signing out for now. If you want to look at another author interview, check out Anne Bradshaw's blog. Thanks Anne.

Taking a Deep Breath

Aaahh. Feels good.

The Kiwanis presentation went well. It was my first time ever visiting a Kiwanis club. Nice people. For some reason I was expecting a bunch of men in funny hats or something. Maybe I'm thinking of the Flinstones cartoon.

Really, I had no idea what to expect or what they expected out of me. Considering all things, I think it went pretty smoothly. Lunch first. A good opportunity to drop something like salad dressing or salsa all over myself, but miraculously, I didn't.

Then things got rolling with announcements and all that meeting stuff. When it was time for me to present, there was a little less than 20 minutes left.

I did my best to go through the presentation without speed talking and hoped that the whole thing worked out okay. And, because I tried hurrying so I wouldn't get gonged or something, there was time for questions. That's when the fun started. There were so many questions. I think we could have kept going for another half hour- but we ended right on time- thanks to the president standing and clapping. Universal symbol of this party's overrrr.

It was fun talking to different people afterwards about books and writing. I might even get a chance to work with the Jordan School district in Utah if I'm lucky.

It would be great to get other opportunities like this. Once the ice broke, it really was fun. And now that I know what to expect, I don't think I would be as nervous the next time.

Okay... in other news... everyone go check out Six LDS Writers and a Frog. They asked me to be a guest on their blog, and it's already posted. Thanks guys!

So, tomorrow I'm signing books at B. Dalton in Nampa at the Karcher Mall from 11-3 PM. I'm thinking power bars or something. Yeah, I'm a wimp and get hungry during lunch time. Hey, if anyone wants to visit me and smuggle in some food, I'm all for it.

Calling for Winners...

We have posted the winners for the 25 comments giveaway. So far we have only heard from Taylor.

We need to hear from numberonedashnerfan by Monday, August 31. If we don't have a mailing address by then, we will be drawing a new winner.

E-mail address is laurabinghambooks at gmail.com

In the meantime, if you haven't read Alvor yet, you're seriously missing out. If you're still waiting to win a free copy, you need to go to Dave's blog.

There are going to be a couple more giveaways from other bloggers. I'll keep you posted as they come up.

Here's to second chances.

A Day in the Life

I heard someone critique another writer's work last week, and she said, "It sounds too much like a day in the life story."

Well, here goes my version of the dreaded 'a day in the life' story.

On Saturday our washing machine starts acting strange. Monday the engine literally burned up- the house smelled terrible. My husband found another washing machine just like ours, only bigger, on Craigs List for $50. Turns out the heating element in their dryer died so the family decided to replace both the washer and dryer. Good for us. For a half day we had a running washer and dryer.

Then the heating element died in our dryer yesterday. Not kidding.

Today is the lull day in our week, kind of. Things don't start getting crazy until the afternoon.

Tomorrow we start the day out with a Flapjack Feed for United Way. My cloggers are dancing for them- which means so are my kids and I. Should be fun. Oh, and we get to meet our kids' school teachers during clogging lessons that night too. Piece of cake.

Friday I'm going to the Kiwanis club to do a presentation. I'm ready. No idea how it's going to be though. I've never been to the Kiwanis before.

Saturday. Well, everyone starts going different directions first thing in the morning- but I'll go to B. Dalton in the Karcher Mall in Nampa from 11-3.

And then Monday school starts.

My days of sleeping in are numbered.

Now it's your turn to tell me how boring my 'day in the life' story is. Or maybe how glad you are that you're not trying to figure out how to do wash for seven people without a dryer or a clothesline. Either one. Or, you know, if you have any words of wisdom about presenting to Kiwanis.

I should tell you- I'm okay with it all, looking forward to most of it and other than the dryer- I feel lucky to get to have what is in my life right now.

And The Winner Is . . .

Since this was my contest, Laura told me that I was to post the results. I tried to find a creative way to randomly choose who would win the much coveted book that would be signed both the lovely and talented Laura Bingham and her most adoring husband. So after printing the comments and cutting all of the paper and adding in those that are followers so they had two entries, I started narrowing it down. One by one entries were knocked out of the running until I finally came down to two and well that soft spot in my heart made it too hard to choose just one. So there are two winners!

The winners are:

numberonedashnerfan and Taylor

Please e-mail your address to laurabinghambooks@gmail.com and I will get your books in the mail.

Congratulations and I hope you enjoy your copies of Alvor!

Thanks to everyone that entered and please go out and get your copy of Alvor and tell everyone you know to get one too. By the way Dave still has a book that he will be giving away, so go to his blog and enter for another chance.

I'm Back

Yay for all of you! You made it to the 25 different people commenting. Very cool. Today's the last day to enter- if there are any of you out there who have been holding out.

And now, a quick scoop on what I've been up to for the last week.....


Yes, that's my actual arm. I was kind of taking a break from writing in general. No, I didn't hurt my wrist by writing. No, it's not carpal tunnel syndrome. Someone called it writer's block yesterday and I had a hard time arguing with that. It is a lot harder to write with the brace on.

So, I know you're all wondering what happened. Here's the story. I don't know. If any of you have read Twilight, I have a couple things in common with Bella. I like to read and I'm a total clutz- you know, tripping over things on a regular basis.

That's all we have in common, though. I'm not in love with a vampire and, thank goodness, I CAN dance. Which brings me to another person's comment to me the other day. She said that she thinks dancers have to have music on to be graceful. It might actually be true.

So, no, it's not broken- whew. And yes, it's getting better.

And now that it doesn't hurt as much as it used to, I think I'll be doing a whole bunch of writing.

In other news, I spent the weekend in Baker City, Oregon doing a lot of dancing and a bit of book signing. There's a fabulous little bookstore there called Betty's Books. Carolyn, the owner, is really nice. I met some new people and even spent an hour chatting with a small group about writing and books. Lots of fun.

They have the coolest picture in an art shop that looks like it came right out of my book. The picture is partly constructed out of wood so that it has dimension. It's a 3-D painting.

And, for a mere price of $2000, it could be mine. ha ha. I wish I had that much money to spend. Anyway, they did take a picture of me and a couple of teens with the picture and hopefully they will e-mail it to me. I'll post it if they do.

The picture looks like the Door of Vines in the cabin idea with a whole lot less vegetation and more cabin. If you've read the book- you'll get it. In the painting, the door is open and Aelflaed is picking flowers. Well, a more brunette version of Aelflaed. Okay, it's not a perfect replica, but it's the best I've seen.

Hmm, wrist is already hurting. So much for getting a lot of writing done.

Now I need to clean my house, unpack from the trip and see about fixing the washing machine. Who says being a writer isn't glamorous? Ha ha ha....

Do you want to win a book?

My husband decided to do his own book giveaway with his own rules. This is all his idea, but I told him I would post it.

So, here's how it goes. It's easy. He is looking for comments from 25 DIFFERENT people- that is his first requirement. If there aren't enough comments, he doesn't give a book away.

To enter to win a free copy of Alvor (which my husband decided would be signed by him and me) all you have to do is leave a comment.

If you follow this blog, you get two entries. The most anyone can get is two entries.

The biggest catch is that there has to be 25 different people comment by the 25th of August. We will do a random drawing and announce the winner August 25th.

Post your comment by the end of the day August 24.