The Prize!

Unfortunately, today and yesterday we did not get to work, at The Old Timer's Rusty Dawg food truck, because we are getting so much rain. We haven't been able to work, because of the rain, because when it rains hardly anybody gets out in the rain to go to a food truck or anywhere else for that matter. So to help keep costs down and not waste our time—we don't work when it is raining.

But please know that I am not complaining about all of this much needed rain that we've been blessed with, because by staying home the past two days I got to and get to write, write, write.

I love writing, even though I do miss having so much fun with Tony, at the Rusty Dawg and our great customers. And hopefully tomorrow it won't be raining all day, so we can get back to working at the Rusty Dawg. Here's a great picture of the Rusty Dawg that Tony took last week, when the sun was shining and we were taking a break from cooking up some delicious hot dogs and Frito-pies.

This past week has flown by and it was a whole lot of fun. Besides having fun with Chet O'Keefe, Stephen & Eva, Hans & Marita—I had a total blast going over to Carol's ranch for a super fun visit with her, Debbie and Vicki.

Debbie and Vicki are two of the nicest women and of course, Carol is too. Anyway, over the years Tony and I have become good friends with Carol's dear friends, Vicki and Debbie, from Dallas. In fact, Tony and I love them so much I've made them two of the main characters in my upcoming, soon to be published novella The Cowgirl Sisterhood: Part III, Ghost Riders In The Sand.

Anyway, last Saturday afternoon I went over to visit with Carol, Debbie and Vicki and to talk to them about the quirky characters that I've turned them into for my book. And while we were talking and laughing about their characters, Vicki mentioned that she thought it would be fun for me to do a contest, like one of her favorite authors had recently done.

Vicki told us that this author announced on her blog that anyone wanting to have their name, in her mystery book, should write her and tell her why their name (possibly made into a character) deserved to be in her upcoming book. 

Well that got all of us excited and after two minutes of listing the pros and cons of having this contest I decided that I should do a contest too, because it would be so much fun. But we figured out that I would have to limit the requests to just one paragraph, because otherwise I would be bombarded with reading for hours and not be able to write.

So I am now inviting all of you that would like to see your name in print, in my third novella to please enter this contest by writing no more than 1 paragraph telling me why your name deserves to be in my book. 

To enter the "I Want To Be In Your Book" contest please post it as a comment on my blog, because that way it will be confidential—I can read it and no one else will ever see it. 

The Rules:

1. You may not be eligible if your name has been in my previous books.

2. The contest starts today and it will end one week from today—Saturday, September 15th @ midnight.

3. And at the end of your paragraph please include your full name and the best way that I may contact you in the event you win. (e-mail, phone, snail mail, etc.) 

4. Please note that all contestants will be considered, but please know that I do not have the time to personally respond to each contestant individually and to send out rejection letters. So if you are picked the winner, I will notify you and only you and then I will announce it on my blog and post the paragraph that you have written to me for all to read.

5. But before I can announce the contest winner, I will need a consent form giving me full permission to use your name anyway I want to, in my book and it must be signed and dated. (Who knows? You just might become another quirky character in my third novella.)

6. The prize for this contest will be a signed, first edition copy of my third novella. 

7. The last rule is to have fun with this.

And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

P.S. Great news! Our dear friend Fay, in Toronto, is coming to see us on the 17th and we cannot wait to see her!

The Black Hole!

The past two weeks have been troublesome to say the least and I am blaming all of this trouble on M.I.R. (Mercury In Retrograde). It seemed what could go wrong went way wrong. So I am currently in the process of permanently erasing these past two weeks from my mind. And the good news is I think it is finally beginning to work, because my mantra is "Never Feed Negativity."

And I am doing my best to do that, even though Tony now believes I am totally insane, because he has caught me on numerous occasions talking to myself, mumbling things like, "Never Feed Negativity," "Nothing Lasts Forever," "Things Will Get Better Because They Can't Get Any Worse— knock-on-wood," "Mercury In Retrograde Is Not My Friend," etc.

Now back on the positive side of things, many good things did happen during this "Two-Weeks-To Forget" black hole, located somewhere inside my brain. But some of them accidentally have fallen into my newly created black hole, so I will only mention the ones that I can still remember.

But before I do that, here is the best news of all—M.I.R. Time officially ended yesterday, August 18th! Even though it will still linger for about one more week. And my sources have told me or should I say, "Have promised me that September will be a splendid month for everyone!" And if you do not believe me here is a short article from Newsday about Mercury Retrograde.

Because of the black hole, I want to tell you that I remember that Tony had a wonderful birthday, because of our dear friends. The Friday before his birthday Lisa, Eileen, Suzanne, Chris, Kris & Jim showed up at the Old Timer's Rusty Dawg food truck and gave Tone a really fun surprise birthday party and that really made his day and mine, too.

Also, our dear friend Gaby, in Germany, sent Tony the sweetest birthday card from her and her sweet daughter, Xenia, who was over there, from Texas, visiting her. And the card meant the world to Tony, because we love Gaby and Xenia.

Then two days ago our dear friend Liz showed up at the food truck. "I woke up this morning craving hot dogs and I just had to come here to get one of yours. I love this food truck! It is too cool. And I also have a box in my car, with four restaurant dinner plates to give to you, because Jim & I know how much you love restaurant dinnerware, too...."

We had a great time visiting with Liz and catching up on her news. She loved the delicious hot dog that Tony had cooked and we prepared for her. And I am in love with the four, matching dinner plates.

Then Friday late afternoon our good friends Rick & Tracy came to visit us. They came up, from Port Aransas, because Tracy was going to attend her annual, summer-camp reunion weekend with girlfriends, while Rick spent the weekend with us. 

But because it was M.I.R. Time, things didn't go exactly as planned. Here's a short version of the story:

Our friends arrived around 4:00. I had just spent over 40 minutes on the phone, mainly on hold, trying to work out logistics with this shipping company. And after spending all of this time on the phone, the company told me that they "could not" try to deliver one extra day and that my package was being returned to me. And it frustrated me to no end, but I put on an upside down frown, because Tracy & Rick had just arrived.

We had a super fun visit with them and about thirty minutes later, Tracy adios-ed us and took off for the camp's reunion party, near Kerrville.

After Tracy took off, I decided I needed a few groceries, so I adios-ed Tony and Rick, and took off for the big H-E-B, on Main Street.

One hour later, when I got back home—Tracy's car was parked in our driveway. Bottom    Line: Tracy got there only to quickly discover that the reunion is next weekend on the 24th - 26th. Tracy was so disappointed, because she had gotten off work early, etc. so she could attend the reunion.

But the good news is after we had all laughed about it and cheered up Tracy, Tony and I had a blast having them as house guests or better said, "Airstream guests." And because of the mixed up dates, Tracy and I are also blaming all of this on M.I.R.

So (hopefully) life is good (knock-on-wood), because Mercury has left the scene. And that is about it for now.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!