"Blabbering Blatherskites"

Have you ever had one of those days where things just don't go your way? You know the kind of day, it starts early. First you wake up 2 minutes before your alarm goes off. Some people may like doing that, but nothing gets my blood boiling harder than realizing I was cheated out of 2 solid minutes of sleep. Next, you step on a stray action figure lying on the floor. It's not the squishy kind that the kids love to take in the bath because it makes bubbles, no, no, it's made of some kind of titanium alloy and it's armed and the weapon is pointed skyward. You hop in the shower half-expecting there to be no hot water (and if you live at my house it seriously is a gamble) but you're in luck, plenty of hot water, but that doggone bar of soap must be made of flubber because you can't hang onto it and when you reach down to pick it up you manage to crack your head against the soap tray. THE SOAP TRAY! That thing only sticks out 2 inches from the wall, but you manage to inflict a massive goose egg at the center of your skull! You stumble back into your bedroom and notice there's no clean underwear in your dresser, so you take off downstairs clinging to a towel only to discover that the drapes were left wide open and there must be some sort of neighborhood event going on outside because everyone is out conversing in the street and their facing your window so that the sun won't be in their eyes. I could go on... but you can already see where this day is heading. Yep, you guessed it, an all out shopping experience at the local (I'm not going to say it... I just can't bring myself to do it.)

Whew, I feel tons better after expressing that little anecdote. Now on to other things. Oh and kudos to the first person who comments and tells me what popular after school television show the quote in my title is from. It's a good one.

My website has had some improvements. One of them, I'm very excited about. It is my new Create-a-character contest that's kicking off immediately! This is a way cool deal that I think lots of kids are going to have a blast with. The rules are simple, but if you want a great visual aid to show the youngsters in your life, head on over to my website http://www.hashbrownwinters.com/

and click on the create-a-character contest link (it's the one with Whiz Peterson's head peaking over the top) All you have to do is create your own character complete with description, history and, of course, clever nickname and submit it to either myself at one of my many book signings or mail it to Cedar Fort. There will then be some very extensive judging that takes place to determine who has created the most amazing new character and then they win. Now this is the cool part. The winner gets to see their character show up in a future Hashbrown Adventure (probably the third, maybe the second) and they'll get their name in the acknowledgements! Not bad eh? I'll probably throw in some signed copies of the books and who knows maybe a marble or two. So start submitting! Tell all of your friends and their kids. This is a great opportunity to get them excited about reading and writing and using their imagination.

Next, there's a great review of The Adventures of Hashbrown Winters on Kathi Oram Peterson's blog. She's the author of an awesome book called the Forgotten Warrior that you can find at all the bookstores. Go and check out the review and read her interview with me. CLICK HERE.

Lastly, there's just one day left for the contest that I blogged about last. Read about it HERE or just scroll down an inch or two. I plan on blogging about all of the wonderful children's books suggestions made in a few days, but for now I'm holding out at least until Friday night at midnight. I know, I know, one week is just not enough time for people to feel comfortable with commenting and following my blog, but I'm sorry, I need to speed things up a bit. We need just a few more comments and 4 more followers. That's all, but unfortunately, I'm going to have to stick to my guns. So if you want to win the contest you're going to have to spread the word. So for all of my friends out there that casually stop by and read a page of my blog and continue to be non-committal with showing their support, this message is for you. I know who you are and thanks to Google Earth, I can see many of your front doors. Big Brother is watching and "e's no happy."