Contest Countdown: Less Than a Week to Go!

It’s been a whirlwind of a week (so much of a whirlwind in fact, that I couldn’t even remember the word whirlwind, I must admit. Was it worldwind? Whirlwin? Whorlywind?)

I think the contest has fried my brain.

What contest? you ask. If you’ve been following my blog at all over the last few months, I’d venture a guess that you won’t be asking--freshbloodfreshbloodfreshbloodfreshblood--but if you’re just stopping by for the first time, I’d direct you here to find out a little more.

I’ve been doing my best to put out a last-minute push, doing a mini blog tour and sending out emails and just generally making a pest of myself *I say this last while ducking my head and smiling sheepishly.*

I did want to take a minute to say thank you to everyone who has jumped in during this final push to help me out with the contest promotion, most notably (Sia McKye and Helen Ginger and Spencer Seidel), but a lot of other great folks as well. And you can be sure there’ll be a HUGE thank you post after the contest, no matter the outcome.

So anyway, I feel like I’ve lost touch with the real world, particularly in the last few weeks--as a friend said, contests like these are a huge time-suck (in a good way though)--and I’m really looking forward to getting back to some form of normalcy. After so many months of focusing on this contest, I don't think I'll know what to do with myself afterwards (though there’s this funny little voice in my head shrieking: Synopsis! You will finish that synopsis! I wonder what that’s all about. Hmmm…)

In the meantime, our newest four-legged addition is getting so big. I thought I’d share a new picture of her.



She’s gotten so pretty. The dog we thought was solid black now has the most beautiful silvery markings on her face. It looks like a ring around her nose and mouth. And just today I noticed a few silver furs starting to show up on her back paws. She’s just been a bright light in my life these past few weeks.

Anyway, I’m going to try my damnedest to update my blog at least once more before the contest is over. Voting closes on the 14th of July and the winner should be announced on the 15th or thereabouts. It’s hard to believe that next week we’ll know who the winner is. I’m still digesting the fact that I made it to the Final Two.

And I also know that I’m okay with whatever the outcome is next week. While I’d love to win--it would be the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition--I’ve taken away some wonderful things from this experience: great feedback, more confidence, a better understanding of self-promotion, and most importantly, a whole bunch of wonderful new friends.

Of course with less than one week left I’d be remiss if I didn’t throw out my little plug one more time… So if you haven’t yet voted in the contest, I would be grateful for your support, or if you would even be so kind as to give a shout-out for the contest in your tweets or on your blogs or other social networking sites, I would really appreciate that!

Voting only takes a few seconds. It’s as easy as sending a blank email to freshblood@chizinepub.com with Fresh Blood Vote - Heart of the City in the subject line.

Voting ends on July 14th at midnight EST and they’ll accept one vote per unique email address so multiple votes are welcomed as long as they’re coming from separate email accounts.

You can read more about the contest as well as excerpts from both the remaining competitors and comments from the judges here.

Thanks again everyone. However it turns out, I can’t wait to let you know the result!

I also wanted to take a minute to share an award. The awesome Versatile Blogger Award below came to me from two wonderful bloggers: VR Barkowsi at VR Barkowski: a Writer's Blog, and abitosunshine at abitosunshine Love and Writing. There are four rules that go along with this great award. They are as follows:

❦ Thank THE GIVERS and link back to their blogs.
❦ Share SEVEN things about myself.
❦ Pass along to SEVEN bloggers. (Okay, I'll admit, that's not the original rule, but I like the symmetry of all the sevens!)
❦ COMMENT on their blogs to tell them of the award.



Versatile blogger award

❦SEVEN (pretty random) THINGS ABOUT ME:

- I hate peanut butter. I will not eat it. If someone uses a knife in the peanut butter jar and then uses it in the jelly jar, I will know.

- Though I've always loved words, my best subject in school was, by far, math.

- When I was three years old, I stepped in a wasps’ nest that was hidden beneath fallen leaves. To this day I am phobic about wasps and bees.

- After a challenge from a writing group member, I have written something every single day (including holidays) since April of 2004. The only exceptions have been maybe four or five days when I was too sick to even lift my head off the pillow.

- Men’s neckties are one of my favorite fashion accessories, and I have some pretty crazy ones: dinosaurs, UFOs, alien Christmas lights.

- In college I took a weaving class as my art credit because, frankly, I suck at art. Strangely, it was probably the hardest and most time-consuming class I ever took, but to this day, my family makes fun of the fact that I took “basket-weaving” for college credit.

- I am more comfortable with animals than with people.


❦PASSING THE AWARD ALONG TO SEVEN VERSATILE BLOGGERS.

Tiffanie Minnis at Writers Movement
Zoe C. Courtman at No Letters on My Keyboard
Creepy Query Girl at Creepy Query Girl
James Baron at 4 Books in 1 Year - A Writer's Challenge
Hart Johnson at Confessions of a Watery Tart
JC Phelps at JC Phelps
Sandy Shinn at Sandy Shinn