Thursday, October 18, 2012

Giving away a free signed book!

In what I'm fairly certain is a massive conspiracy, my gentleman friend's car died around the same time my computer decided to make the trip to laptop heaven.

Luckily, I have a perfectly functional car. And he has a very nice computer.

I also happen to have six straight days scheduled for supergluing my butt to my home office chair and working like mad on the end stages of my manuscript. I don't particularly need my car, and my gentleman friend doesn't need his computer while he's off at his day job.

I think there's an O. Henry story in there somewhere, but I'm too tired to think about it after staying up half the night fretting about broken cars, busted computers, battery-dead adult toys, and impending book deadlines.

In lieu of a real blog post, how about we just have a contest? Leave a comment sharing either your most creative pumpkin-carving idea, or your favorite Halloween costume.

I'll pick a winner sometime Sunday evening, and he or she can choose between a signed copy of Believe it or Not or a signed copy of Making Waves.

Alternately, you could just give me your car or your computer. Or a jumbo pack of AA batteries. Whatever.

15 comments :

Noelle Pierce said...

So sorry to hear about your computer! Everything was backed up, I hope. That's my nightmare. :(

I've never been great at pumpkin carving, so I'll go with the costume one. My favorite was the year I met my husband (at the Halloween party, actually). I went as the Goddess Artemis, and was wrapped--toga-style--in a white sheet, with silver ribbons and belts holding it in place. Thanks to an obsession with the sun/moon/stars motif through undergrad, I had a ton of moon jewelry to help create the effect. A little glitter in strategic places, and voila. Simple, frat-party ready, and (best of all) CHEAP!

:)

Patty Blount said...

The best costume idea I ever had was back in the late '90's. I am a fan of the show The X-Files and back in the 90's, wore my hair in that blunt cut bob that Agent Dana Scully made popular.

I found an image of the FBI ID badge from the show's credits, printed it out, stuck it inside a plastic case, and went to work as usual. After work, I swapped out my own ID for Agent Scully's and BOOM.

Done.

Granted, I don't have red hair and blue eyes, but it was close enough for *coughs* government work. :)

C.L. said...

Sorry about the technical difficulties. Gremlins like to attack in packs, it seems.

A friend of mine created the best Halloween costume ever (IMHO) and one I think you'll appreciate.

She was a "One-Night Stand." She wore a lampshade on her head and built a "table" out of cardboard which encircled her waist. The table had champagne glasses (plastic), condoms, handcuffs, Cosmo magazines and a lipstick tube glued to it.

Perhaps not the sexiest of costumes, but she didn't lack for male attention all night. :)

middle child said...

I'll take "Making Waves." Free=good. Book=better.
My favorite costume was a brides outfit my mom made. She died when I was 17. Little did she know I would get married 3 times. I was too young to take it as an omen.

Christi Corbett said...

Our family (me, the hubby, and our seven-year-old twins) just got a Great Pyrenees/Black Lab puppy, and plan on hollowing out a pumpkin and putting him inside for a cute photo.

We're just hoping he still fits :)

Christi Corbett

Handy Man, Crafty Woman said...

My favorite costume is one I wore when I was around 12 or 13. There was a "phase" where every kid dressed up as a hobo for Halloween, and of course I had to do it, to. Cut up some clothes, wore fingerless gloves, smudged black makeup (dirt) on my face. lol!

Karen said...

This one wasn't my costume, but a sorority sister of mine in the 70s dressed in a large cardboard box, painted like a brick. Her boyfriend came as himself. When asked what he was he calmly stated, "I'm the brick layer." I always thought it was extremely clever (and true!).

Judy, Judy, Judy said...

I made myself a peacock costume once. That was a fun Halloween.

RamblingWords said...

Gosh, I am so lame with pumpkin carving and costumes. I tried to carve a pumpkin for my son once and totally mutilated it SO I called it "Jack O' The Ax Killer's Revenge." That satisfied my son and I never tried to carve a pumpkin again.

My son is now 34 and carves great Jack O'Lanterns for his children. I bet they have at least 10 every year.

I hope that the car and computer problems are resolved soon.

Cheers,

Ardee-ann

Michelle Wolfson said...

Impressive costumes. I was just leaving a note to say I laughed at your comment about your thinking there's an O. Henry story in there. :)

Lori Robinett said...

UG. My computer died a couple of years ago. I cried. And hit things. And threw things. Then my DH surprised me with a new one! :o)

My pumpkin idea is actually one I'm going to attempt this weekend - I'm a scrapbooker/paper crafter, so I'm going to make a pumpkin carriage, with wheels out of paper, the cut out parts will be the door and the windows, and there will be rhinestones galore decorating it. Thinking I may have to borrow a couple of my kiddo's horses to help stage it!

Raley Blue said...

I actually won the motherlode of signed books with the kitty pee book, so I don't think it would be fair of me to enter this contest. I do also have Making Waves on my e-reader. ;)

But the best pumkin I've ever seen was my 14 year kid's from last year. He had just started Chinese class in school and carved Happy Halloween in Mandarin Chinese characters out of 3 INCH thick pumkin hull! I'll be putting a pic of it up on my Facebook profile next week. It was impressive, if I do say so.

Chin up. Don't cut your hair to make a watch fob or anything crazy. I only say this because I know how disoriented one can get in a six day writing jag. Stay hydrated and buy some emergency toy batteries, lol. ;) Better yet, give that job to your gentleman friend. Sharing both the fun and responsibility... you know like grownups, tee hee (it is Halloween after all, you know a.k.a. National Pretend Day?)... and for God's sake, make sure he knows you don't need any hair combs! Stick to batteries and chocolate!

Rosie Chappell said...

My favorite Hallowe'en costume is the one I wore when I was eight. My older sister had the bright idea to dress me as an Egyptian mummy. She shredded an old white sheet, wrapped the strips around my body and head, then secured the ends of each strip with a straight pin. Things went rapidly down hill from there. First, the pins slid out. Then the wind unravelled the cotton strips and sent them flying across a field. By the time I got to the end of my block, all I had on was my underwear. Anyhow, a great costume before it blew away!

Larissa said...

Here's a Halloween costume I think you'll appreciate. My dad is a neonatologist and sometimes performs circumcisions. One Halloween, he wore a penis costume, put a cape on it and drew a "C" on his chest: Circ Man.

Yep. That's my dad.

mary i said...

My Pumpkins become Pie. My Costume is going to be a Book. (Yours of course) as for the batteries they are All Mine and hidden in my safe place Put me in Thank You from Alabama :)