Giveaway Winners & The Winning Story

Announcing the winners of my 4-year Blog-Anniversary Extravaganza!

Thanks to everyone who participated; it was a lot of fun. It'll be fun exciting to see what the next four years hold.

First, one bit of fun news:

With the release of my cookbook, Chocolate Never Faileth, in October, a companion DVD will also be for sale. Picture me doing a 1-hour chocolate cooking show! How cool is that going to be?

I'm in the process of talking with the director, deciding on which recipes to demo, and all that fun stuff. I've never done something quite like this before, but I think it'll be a ball.

(Biggest challenge: constantly telling myself to . . . talk . . . slowly . . .)

And now: The Winners!

NOTE: All winners must e-mail me their mailing addresses so prizes can actually GET to them. If I don't hear from you w/in a week, your prize will be forfeited.

3 COMMENTING and spreading the word winners:

THE CANADIAN CHOCOLATE PACK from Kim goes to Sarah M. Eden for her blog post telling readers about the contest.

All the Stars in Heaven, by Michele Paige Holmes: In a true twist of Karmic fate, Random.org picked Kim (who donated the chocolate prize) to win a prize of her own!

Alma the Younger, by H. B. Moore goes to Norah S for her comment.

3 TRIVIA Game Winners:

(Tip: Next time, enter this part of the contest. Your chances of winning were REALLY good, and I made the questions easy to figure out. Just sayin')

Spiral-bound Notebook & Pen (with the quotes, "Unlock your mind; read," and, "Don't bug me; I'm writing." This prize goes to Elizabeth Morgan.

The Mouse Pad (Quote from Groucho Marx: Outside a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too hard to read.) goes to a friend I haven't seen in years (and one of the original members of my critique group TEN years ago!), Sherri.

T-shirt with the quote: "A house without books is like a room without windows" goes to Melanie J.

And lastly, the story winner.

Yes, that's the winner, singular, because only ONE person sent in a story. (See what I mean about entering in more than one area? You could have won a prize if you'd just sent in a story!)

The winner is TJ Bronley, a great supporter of local writers and a really fun guy (read this post on his blog for a great laugh, including the comment trail. Oh, and this one, too.) I'm also partial to his sweet wife, so I'm glad he entered and won some goodies for her.

Since I had planned on three winners for stories, but we have only one, I figured it was only fair to give TJ TWO prizes. (I even had another sponsor offer yet another awesome prize, but knew we wouldn't have the entries to justify it. Come on, people! Maybe next time?)

TJ said anything he won would likely be a gift for his wife, and that's fantastic, since here's what he gets:

• A copy of Stephanie Humphrey's debut romance, Finding Rose, published by Walnut Springs.
• A custom piece of jewelry from Bangles, Beads, N' Bobbles.

The story rules were to keep it to 250 words and either begin or end with the following sentence: In hindsight, it wasn't such a good idea.

Behold, TJ's winning story:

Better Left Unsaid

I saw her from far away. She was easy to spot across the room. Casually walking toward her, I interacted with as many people as I could. Delaying the impending discomfort was a procrastinator's lifeline. Her brother stopped me about ten feet from her by grabbing my arm.

“Dude, are you gonna talk to her?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” There was almost a warning glance in his eye. “Everyone will be watching you.”

Of course it wasn’t. “Yes, it’s gotta happen,” I replied.

“Whatever. Just don’t come crying to me.”

I pulled my arm away and continued my saunter.

“Hey, Tim,” she said as I approached.

“Hey, Casey.” It was now or never. “You have toilet paper sticking out your pants.”

She looked down, a horrified look on her face.

“Everyone’s noticed. I finally saw you.”

“I went to the bathroom a half hour ago! People have been staring at my butt that long.”

“I guess so,” I replied.

SLAP!

She stormed off while I placed my hand on my throbbing cheek.

In hindsight, it wasn’t such a good idea.