HELP THE ELF: I Found Santa’s Missing Nice List!

Hi everyone! As you may remember, a few weeks ago PETE the Elf had a touch too much Eggnog at the Holiday Christmas Party and as he stumbled home, he lost Santa's NICE LIST.

The North Wind scattered the papers to all four corners of the world, and The Bookshelf Muse put out a call to help find them in order to SAVE CHRISTMAS.

Ever since I read about it, I've been on the lookout. And then today, EUREKA!

Yes that's right...I found part of Santa's missing NICE LIST. There it was, fluttering in the wind, half caught under the corner of my welcome mat. And shock of all shocks, I recognized the name, and I bet you will too.

Here it is below:

NAME: Robyn Campbell

LOCATION: Robyn Campbell (Putting Pen to Paper)

NICE LEVEL: 99%

NAUGHTY LEVEL: 1%

OBSERVATIONS: Robyn is not only supportive and kind to all, but she has a knack for lifting people's spirits and making them smile. Or laugh. Or dance a happy dance. She's been through one crisis or tragedy after another this past year, yet she still comes through for her family and friends, offering hope and kind words. Sometimes she loses her temper, though, and lets an "Oh, fiddlesticks!" slip out. We still love ya, Robyn! Mwah! Sugar pops and gumdrops!

RECOMMENDATION:     a) Coal                   b) Gift

~ ~ * ~ ~

Because poor Pete is dashing all over the place trying to hunt down the rest of Santa's missing Nice List, I decided to take care of this one myself. Robyn, I'm truly blessed to know you! Enjoy the gift I sent to your inbox. Wishing you and your family a bodaciously wonderful Christmas!

How about you, Readers? Is there someone you'd like to say Happy Holidays to or tell them how much they mean to you? Join us! There's plenty of time left before Christmas, and sometimes a kind word can lift someone up in a way they really need.

It's as easy as sending a free ecard or email note, posting on a Facebook wall, or sending out a tweet. So go ahead and spread some kindness and cheer!


 Photo credit:

assorted gold baubles (christmasstockimages.com) / CC BY 3.0

Test Run of My Story on Real Kids

I've been struggling to keep up with everything lately and have been scarce here. Thanks to blogger buddies like Bish Denham, I'm still plugging along. Bish invited me to guest post on her blog, and today is the day! 

Testing the work in progress of Curse of the Double Digits on a second grade class in 2008 made for wonderful memories in my writing journey. Please hop over to Bish's blog, Random Thoughts, to read about it.

Drawn by Bobbie Watkins, age 8
Cypress Elementary School

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. 

                                                                                   ~Pablo Picasso

The children didn't have the benefit of seeing any illustrations when I read my manuscript to them. The teacher, Mrs. Kyle, had them draw their own!

My 'Reveal' By Diane Capri is Today!

Today I'm being featured on Diane Capri's blog, Licensed to Thrill. I'm stoked! She's a #1 Amazon best selling mystery and suspense author. Her weekly blog series, Diane Capri Reveals, has featured big name authors in her genre, such as Lee Child, Steve Barry, and James Rollins. 

I'm not in the same league as those awesome best selling authors, but I'm fortunate to be included in this current series where Diane is featuring new authors and new voices. So how cool is that? Please go to  Diane Capri Reveals to check it out.

Diane Capri

“Full of thrills and tension – but smart and human too.”
Lee Child, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author 

of Jack Reacher Thrillers

Diane Capri's books include: The Hunt For Reacher series, Jenny Lane series, and Judge Willa Carson series. 

Winners of CURSE OF THE DOUBLE DIGITS Announced

Who's feeling lucky today?

Photo by Roni Loren via WANA Commons 

Congratulations to the winners of the giveaway of my new children's book, Curse of the Double Digits!

Thank you to all those who entered the giveaway and helped celebrate the release of my chapter book.

Random drawings were held for anyone who left comments on the blog posts by Robyn Campbell, Maria Toth, C. Lee McKenzie, and yours truly.

I'm old school. 

At the Tuesday writers critique meeting, Cindy Green 

gave each member a plastic pumpkin filled with goodies. 

So I stashed the goodies and used the pumpkin for the drawings. 

Now I know why bloggers use those high-tech raffles!

Oh, well. The old fashioned way still works, so woo hoo!

First, we'll start with the winners from Robyn Campbell's 10-10-12 post on Putting Pen to Pencil:

Sharon Mayhew - Signed paperback
Susan Kaye Quinn - eBook

Next, the winners from Maria Toth's 10-10-12 post on A Writer's Life of Scraps & Scribbles:

Yvette Carol - Signed paperback
Melissa Bowersock - eBook

And now, the winners from C. Lee McKenzie's 10-29-12 post on The Write Game:

J.L. Campbell - eBook
Medeia Sarif - eBook
Rilla Jaggia - Signed paperback

(There are three winners because J.L. Campbell lives outside the U.S. and Medeia Sarif requested an eBook, so I drew a third name for the paperback.)

Last, the ten winners who left comments on my blog posts:

Ebook:
Julie Glover 

Marcy Kennedy 

C.M. Brown

Bish Denham

Stephen Tremp

                                    

Signed Paperback:

Tammy Theriault

Hobo Annie

Christina Farley

Jennette Marie Powell

Louise Behiel

I need the addresses of those who won paperbacks. If you're an eBook winner, please contact me at Lynkelwoohoo at Yahoo.com and I'll give you the info for your free copy. 

Again, thank you to all who participated and made my book launch so much fun. I wish everyone could have won, but, alas, that's the luck of the draw.

Are you lucky when it comes to random drawings or playing Bingo, dice games, board games, or gambling? 

“Dieting is the only game where you win when you lose!”

~Karl Lagerfeld

Costume Mishaps - Parenting Plights & Delights

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a big favorite for kids. They get all hyper and drive their parents bananas. All the excitement of finding a costume and gathering a stash of free candy - woo hoo! 

I guess I never outgrew the crazy get-ups. 

Sometimes it's not all it's cracked up to be, like when something goes wrong with a costume. 

I have bad memories of Halloween when I was in kindergarten and dressed up as a witch. I wore one of those cheap masks with an elastic string to hold it on. Our class paraded single file down the school corridors and through other classrooms. Johnny, the kid behind me, kept pulling and twanging that elastic string so it hit the back of my head. Nonstop.

I cried and cried, but he wouldn't let up. If only I'd had a broom stick...

One Halloween when my son was seven or eight, he wore a California Raisin costume. They were a hit back in 1986 or '87. Here's a video of a big kid wearing one:

The costumes were popular because of this funny commercial: 

My son thought he had the best costume in the neighborhood, until he walked into a tree and was knocked flat on his back. It was hard to see out of those little eye holes, especially at night. 

A few years later the school banned masks for Halloween parties and parades because masks make it hard for kids to see where they're going!

I think my favorite costume mishap story is from my writer friend, Hobo Annie. She left this comment on my post on October 10th:

"Once a friend and I had to be witches in a play, so we put green food coloring in base makeup. Worked great for the show...but we had to go to school with green-stained faces for a week!"

This is Annie Howland nowadays.
 The green food coloring incident
happened back in high school.

Psst: Just in time for Halloween, she released a new Kindle book, 

Stirring Up Spiders,

a collection of dark tales for grown ups. 

You can find it here.   

Jerry Seinfeld reminisces about one of his childhood costumes: "Then, finally, the third year, begging the parents, I got the Superman Halloween costume... Remember the rubber band on the back of that mask? That was a quality item there, wasn't it? That was good for about 10 seconds before it snapped out of that cheap little staple they put it in there with."

Hmm, I wonder why that stupid rubber band on my witch mask held up so well. Figures. 

Do you have any costume-gone-wrong stories? Bad memories or disappointments from trick-or-treating, like poor Charlie Brown who always got a rock tossed into his bag instead of candy?

Do you have a parenting or grandparenting memory

or another story you'd like to share? 

If you're not a parent, memories from your own childhood count, too. 

Warning: I might feature your story in a future post. 

(Names can be changed to protect the guilty!)

I'd like to thank all those who have shared their stories. 

These posts wouldn't be the same without your input.

If you don't want to leave a comment but would rather contact me by email, 

you can reach me at: lynkelwoohoo at yahoo dot com.

Monster Jokes For Kids

I admit I deserve a time out in a creaky, rickety time out chair. I apologize for not commenting back to my followers. Just haven't been up to par this week, dealing with allergies and fatigue. And a toddler who runs faster than his Grammy's old bones can bend.  

Please know you're important to me, and I will be paying each of you a visit ASAP. 

Funny Bones is a bit rattled.

Bad Blogger's Time Out Chair? 

No, please! Not the dark and dreary, dreadful Time Out Chair! 

I ain't got the guts for that!

Please give me just one more chance to make it up to you.

It's your call, friends. I'll leave the punishment up to you.

Moving on, last Friday I promised you some monster laughs, so here you go.  Be sure to share some of these with your favorite trick-or-treaters.

Are you good at telling jokes, or are you like me and can't remember the punch lines anymore? 

"Cyclops Clyde" Told By Ma Cob

Ma Cob 

Halloween is creeping and crawling up on us. It's that time of year for fun, spooky stories. Back by popular demand, please welcome Ma Cob, who's here to tell the tale of Cyclops Clyde.

Do you remember him from last year? He's the creepster, freakster, cranky monster who haunts computers. Anyone's, anywhere, at any time. 

Break out the candy corn, turn off the lights, and sit a spell.

Cyclops Clyde

Cyclops Clyde is the first story in my eBook, Trio of Haunting Tales - Spooky Short Stories, for kids ages 8 and up. Details can be found in the right margin and on the Publication page of this blog. 

Night of the Howling Werewolf 

and 

Ghost Warrior 

are the other short stories in

Trio of Haunting Tales

Has your computer ever acted weird?

Do you think a monster like Cyclops Clyde haunted it?