Stress... How do you handle it?

I think that's a legitimate question. Stress. We all have it at some point in our lives. Some of us have it more often than others. The clincher for me is how to handle stress. I don't do this well. Ask my wife. She'll tell you I'm intolerable when I'm stressed.

Some of my stress symptoms:

Prone to angry outbursts and since I've never been really good at speaking clearly, stress causes me to stutter something awful especially when I'm angry.

Exhaustion.

Excessive wandering. I don't even know where I'm wandering to. I just end up moving in and out of each of the rooms searching for something and than growing more and more irritated when I don't find it.

Cold feet. No, this isn't nervousness. I get cold (temperature) feet. Maybe this doesn't have anything to do with stress, but when I am stressed, cold feet really bug me. There aren't enough socks in the world!

And of course, night terrors. They're particularly bad when I'm stressed. Its hazardous to my health. I'm not that agile anymore and when my dream suddenly calls for gymnastic moves to avoid Anderson Cooper sneaking in through a doggy door, someone's bound to get hurt. Don't be worrying about Heidi. She can handle herself. It's me you've got to be concerned about. Heidi likes to throw punches.

Right now I'm stressed about a lot of things. Work (I work in retail and we've just entered the holiday season. Ouch.) My writing. My release party. My book sales. Whether or not my lego action figures are selling well on Ebay. There's no end to it.

My problem is I just don't know how to handle it. I've heard eating over-the-top milkshakes are a good start, but Heidi denies this. What can be done about this stress?

Oh, and we're one week away from my release party. Yep, you can expect more night terror stories in the immediate future.  But, on a side note, I may have a couple of ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) of my new book due out in the spring. How's that for enticement? I plan on giving them away at the release party!!!

Also, I just need 2 more followers and I'll give away a signed copy of Hashbrown Winters and the Phantom of Pordunce. 2 more! That's it. And just think, 2 more followers may reduce my stress level just a bit.

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. :)

Final Week

The tour has ended and in a way I'm sad. Sure, it was intense and exhausting. I got lost more than the Exodus. I caused more damage to my vehicle in gas, cracked windshield, and dented fenders than I'll ever make back in royalties. But I just had a ton of fun. The kids rocked! They laughed at all the right moments, they got excited and they came out to the book signings in hordes. This last week was no different. I started off at Beehive Elementary where my son attends and I'll admit, this was the most nerve-wracking of all the schools. I knew kids there and a couple of the awesome ladies in my neighborhood made it out to support me. I was glad that I only had one school on Monday because my work was so far behind that I needed to play catch up.

Tuesday I hit Daybreak, Jordan Ridge, Jordan Hills, South Jordan and Oquirrh Elementary schools. This was one of my longest days of the tour and I was really worried that I'd collapse and just have a terrible time, but it was by far one of my favorite days. The schools were awesome, everyone was excited and of course the kids just cracked me up! I huge thank you to Kristi, Pam, Annette, Mrs. Stevens and Keri for being there and ready for me. I owe you guys a ton for having it all prepared. It really helps the kids catch the vision of my presentation. I was even running late a couple of times, but somehow I made it and I really feel it all worked out perfectly. I know I'm not saying enough, but honestly, this day rocked! Memorable character created: Gassy Cassy

Wednesday - This was my last day and it was cold and rainy, but I only had three schools and then a signing at the Barnes and Noble. Started off at Foothills, then over to Riverton where I met the awesome Mrs. Fay who's married by the way to a professional bull rider! How cool is that? Than lastly to Bluffdale Elementary. I was dumbfounded. I had never been out that way before to Riverton or Bluffdale. It is an awesome area. Hmmm? Future place of residence? Maybe. Thank you to Carolyn, Reagan and Mr. Westwood for making my trip perfect. By the end of the tour I had grown stronger. Literally. Those easels are stinking heavy! On the first day I could barely drag one up to the office, but by the end I was carrying all three with one hand while pushing my car up a hill with the other to save on gas. No lie. Barnes and Noble rocked! I seriously am so grateful for the support of the all the kids and the teachers. It's hard sitting at a book signing especially when you're all by yourself and sitting at the front so you're the first person everyone sees when they come in the store. I got very good at directing people to the cafe and to Dan Brown's newest novel. We sold a ton of books and I scored a piece of pumpkin cheesecake for free! How's that for awesomeness? Memorable character created: Dumbo Black

I ended the week by hanging out (well kind of) with Brandon Mull at the Downtown Deseret Book Conference Saturday. I signed a lot of books, tried my best to schmooze the creator of Fablehaven. This was actually my tag line. "Hey, you should buy my book. It's half the size, half the price and half as good as Fablehaven!" Yeah, I have no shame.

Now, I'm headed back to Costcos. The work of a starving author is never done.

Oh, and congrats to Marcia and Lola Jae! You both win because I can't count either and I had a completely different number. Shoot me an e-mail and I'll hook you up with your prize!!!

And the winner is...

So, we came up short on the contest requirements, but since everyone made a great effort and stooped to new lows by following my blog, I'm going to award a winner anyways. For those wondering where we came up short we missed the comments by 3 since Andrea (though her comments were wonderful and added so much to the post) commented twice. :)

The winner of the copy of Fablehaven 4 (signed by B. Mull himself) is.... Joanna! Congratulations! E-mail me at frank.cole14 at yahoo dot com so I can get your contact information to send you your prize.

Wow, I feel really good about this. Whenever I do a contest, I get anxiety thinking that no one will respond, but I'm feeling more confident now and with that confidence comes more generosity, so stay tuned in the upcoming days as I will definitely give you more opportunities to win some stuff.

Now on to the really fun stuff. Man, there were a lot of new (to me) children's books talked about in the comments. I'm definitely going to check these out. Here's the complete list of books:

The Top of the Pizzas by Bill Blass

Harold's Purple Crown

Amber Brown

Island of the Blue Dolphins (very good sales pitch on this one, Andrea... I think you've sold me.)

Widow's Broom by Chris Van Allsburg

The Sweetest Fig

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (definitely a classic because two different people commented on this one and I've read it myself)

The Chick and the Duckling by Mirra Ginsburg

Llama, Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney

Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner (I love that little cat!)

Olivia by Ian Falconer

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor

Charlie and Lola by Lauren Child (How did I know Amy would break the rules of this contest? Because I've known Amy for many a year and that's what she does. :) Oh and this was a 2 vote getter as well.

Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin

Nancy Drew? (Come on Melissa, picture books!)

On Top of Spaghetti

The Little Mouse

The Red Ripe Strawberry

The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood

The Monster at the End of the Book (I like the sound of this one)

Frog and Toad are Friends

Tikki Tikki Tembo

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (Another rule breaker.)

Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad day

Junie B. Jones (Junie definitely rocks)

Rolie Polie Olie (wasn't this a television show on Disney?)

The Giving Tree by Sheil Silverstein (I think I own all of his books too)

Miss Nelson Books (these scared the *poo* out of my kids so naturally I love them!)

The Fledgling

Choose Your Own Adventure Books (seriously, these rocked! I think I might take a stab at writing one in the future.)

Phew, what a list!

Okay, my favorites... you may already know. I was horrified as a child by the book the Tailypo by Joanna and Paul Galdone. It seriously scared me to death. So bad that I slept on my parents floor for weeks after hearing it. Awful... just awful. Do I own a copy now? Of course! Have my kids been terrorized by the tailypo? You betcha! What a great book! I also love Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judy and Ron Barrett. I so wish that book was true!

Kids books rock don't they? Thanks again to everyone who participated.

"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."

Busy, busy

Wow, life has definitely become crazy as of late. So many things to do and so little time to play Yahtzee on my I-touch. Seriously, what a complete waste of time that is, but for those that care, I scored 530 points in a single game the other day. Yeah, that pretty much rocks!

So, let us start with some news shall we? The official/unofficial release date of The Adventures of Hashbrown Winters and the Mashimoto Madness is set for January. Now that could definitely change, but for the moment you can scribble that on your dry erase calendars. Crazy huh? January! That's like ... (one... tahoo... um... carry the four... pi... oooh pie, yum!) Well, not that many months away. I'm not good with counting and I don't want to take my socks off to double my ability at the moment. I still feel Hashbrown is taking his baby steps and already another whipper-snapper is on the way.

I did get some somewhat disturbing news though in conjunction with the upcoming release. I'm going to have to do some serious cutting and editing. How serious? Let's put it this way, Hashbrown will be born in January but missing some major functionality in some of his body parts. Oh well, that's part of the industry I suppose.

We're less than a month away from the official school tour and I'm getting the jitters. I've been trying out some jokes on my kids and they have not done as well as I would hope. Basically, the jokes are lost on them, but when I make reference to poo or pee, I'm suddenly a huge hit. Hmmm, I wonder if teachers will like poo and pee references? Probably not... So back to the drawing board.

I've also been doing some author signings at Costcos and those rocked! We actually sold out at the Costco the other night and they had a pretty hefty stack of books. Of course, I've convinced customers that half of all proceeds go to the STF Foundation (Save the Frank).

Oh, and though I literally had to buy this dude lunch to do this and we're not talking extra value menu, but James Dashner (famous author of the 13th Reality series and the upcoming-sure-to-be-NY Times Bestseller novel, The Maze Runner) had some nice things to say about Hashbrown. Check it out HERE.

Okay, let's do a little contest. Now the last one went well, but I want more. So, this is how this one will go down. Pretty simple, I'm trying to boost the appeal of my blog. Meaning, I want to be able to look at it and think, wow, people like me! I know, it's egotistical, it's childish, it's so... the way this contest is going to go, so I don't care. :) We'll do another drawing, but I'm going to limit the prizes to just one. If you don't like this book, I apologize, but you can always give it to someone else as a gift. The prize is Fablehaven 4 by Brandon Mull and, the best part, it's signed! Yeah, I know, Frank is so generous, kind and handsome. Thank you. I'm blushing.

That's it.

Wait a second, I didn't tell you what you had to do to partake in this generous, kind, handsome offering.

K... Here's the point breakdown:

1 entry for commenting on this post about this question: What is your all-time favorite children's picture book and why? It can be a short or long comment or one that just tells me how lame my contests are, whatever floats your boat. Think of it as a way to express yourself about the wonderful world of children's picture book literature and in the process give me some great ideas for ones I'll read with my kids.

and...

2 entries for following this blog (those that are currently following, automatically get entered. How cool is that?)

Now, here's the catch... I want to see at least 15 comments (from at least 15 different people) on the post and 25 followers of the blog (there are already 14) for anyone to be able to qualify for the drawing. So, that means you may have to tell your friends and family to go on and comment on my blog, because I'm afraid there may not be 15 people that read this thing. I know I might have to do this drawing over the next couple of months, but that's okay, I'm patient (so not true.) We'll go for a week and see where we're standing after that.

In the words of the Joker from the Dark Knight:

"And here... we... go!"

Contest Winner

All right, the first of hopefully many contests has ended and I must admit I'm very happy with all of the great reviews and facebook and blog posts. A lot of people told me that they didn't think it would matter, but believe me it does. I'm in the early stages of being published and to be honest my books aren't really flying off the bookshelves. Don't worry, that's to be expected. I'm hoping when I start my school tour in September I'll be able to see some increases in sales.

Now for the winner... It was a completely random drawing and I had my wife witness it. She has to be the most honest person I've ever met except when it comes to board games so I trust her. Congratulations to Angie Nowling! You're the winner and you can pick whatever prize you'd like. Just let me know in the comments and I'll find a way (no matter how difficult) to get it to you :). Thank you for blogging and spreading the word. For everyone else, I'll have another contest here really soon. I'm going to see what I can scrounge up. I happen to know quite a few really cool authors and I'm hoping they'd be willing to contribute something. Signed copies of their books, editorial advice, or black and white photographs of them painting their toenails. You know, whatever floats your boat.

I know this is a pretty short post for my standards, but I will blog again in the next day or two. I need to get cracking on Hashbrown the 3rd. For those that have Tuesday night free (August 11th) from 7-9 p.m. remember I'll be at the Barnes and Noble in Orem with a bunch of other famous authors. They'll have lines of kids and people and I'll have to find a way to distract them enough to come over to my table. It would be so much more easier if I had some cool friends to stop by and be my support. Hint, Hint.

See you Tuesday!

Come on Guys, just one week left in the contest!

I know it's still early and the contest ends in another week, but don't be shy! I want some comments. So far we've got a decent amount of reviews on Barnes and Noble and Amazon, but I need more.

Okay, a couple of signings. I'll be signing at Authorpaloosa at the Orem Barnes and Noble on Tuesday August 11th from 7-9 p.m. There are going to be a ton of authors there and it's a great time to come out and buy some books. The address is 330 E. University Parkway in Orem.

I'll also be signing at BYU education week at the BYU bookstore Tuesday, August 18th from 2:30-4:30. Same deal. Lots of fun, but I want to see somebody I know, so free up your schedule and come chat. I'll keep you updated when I find out more.

For my friends that live a little closer than Orem, I promise I'll be doing some events in the area throughout August and I still have my tour starting around September 14th that will go for three weeks in the Utah area.

Lastly, I just signed the contract with Cedar Fort for book #2 The Adventures of Hashbrown Winters and the Mashimoto Madness. Hopefully, they'll get it on the schedule and we might see it some time this winter. I can't wait to see how that unfolds.

I love all the comments everyone has sent via e-mail, facebook, on my blog and just in passing. Sometimes it's easy to get down on about writing and wonder if it's worth all the stress. Whenever I hear that someone has liked the book or passed it along to their kid brother or sister I get all excited. That's the reason I do it! So thank you and hopefully I'll give you plenty of reasons to continue reading!