The Contest is now Closed

It had to come to an end eventually, but man did I have a blast with this character contest. My 2009 school tour is officially over and the Create-a-Character Contest is past the deadline. There will be no more schools until next year (which is like only three weeks away!) I'm starting to sift through all of the entries and it's a little overwhelming. I plan to have the winning entry picked by this upcoming Monday (December 7th). Here's a recap of my Exercising Your Imagination Tour:

• Visited 45 schools throughout Utah.
• Gave 48 school presentations
• Entertained and was entertained by over 15,000 kids from Kindergarten to 6th Grade
• Received just a shade under 1700 entries to my Create-a-Character Contest
• Broke 1 windshield
• Earned 1 traffic ticket (in St. George)
• Signed I don't know how many books, a statue, countless posters, a chair, a shoe, several random slips of paper, and an arm.

I'll be posting some pics of all the entries in a couple of days and maybe even some video (if I can figure out how to do it.) I can't wait to start another tour really soon!

Oh, and to top it all off, last night while I was signing at the Barnes and Noble in Orem, Heidi, my editor from Cedar Fort, showed up bearing gifts. She brought me one of the first copies of Hashbrown Winters and the Mashimoto Madness hot off the press. I almost cried!

I can't believe I now have 2 published books. It's so crazy. Oh, and I'll be receiving a box of copies in the next little while so stay tuned for a contest. I'm feeling like giving away a couple. :)