Of Mice and Merriment

I've recently stumbled upon some fabulous new blogs by YA authors and some other talented folk, which means that I'm spending a crazy amount of time reading blogs, which means that I'm probably not writing as much as I could be.

But wait!  Before you decide that I'm just sitting around eating ho-ho's and wasting time, you must know this important thing: I'm learning nifty new stuff!  That makes it TOTALLY worth it, right?

For instance, while reading Shannon Messenger's post on trapping mice with jars, I learned about the book Bird by Bird, which of course, I ran right out and bought.  I mean, any book that teaches people to vanquish their fears into jars has to be pretty good, right?  Although I have to say -- I can definitely get down with stuffing my mice into the jars, but I'm concerned about keeping them there.  More on this later, as Project Mouse-in-a-Jar progresses.

I also learned about an online conference for writers called WriteOnCon, registered, and am nervously happily awaiting August 10 & 11 to participate!  Nevermind that the 10th is Dos' birthday and the second day of my school's retreat!  I will somehow make this work!  And that upcoming deadline is pushing me to work harder on my WIP, which is always a good thing.

See?  I told you all this blog surfing was a good thing!

But wait!  There's more!

I've also discovered that there are about 1bajillion (what? That is totally a number) contests out there for writers and book giveaways and all sorts of craziness.  I mean, a person could spend hours browsing for and entering such contests.

For instance:
If you hurry, you can win a copy of It's Raining Cupcakes from Shannon's Messenger's blog.  Why are you still reading this?  I clearly said if you hurry!

All right, want more?

There's currently a short story contest going on over at A Torch in the Tempest.  Send her your story by July 4th, and win cold hard cash.  Well okay, no cash.  But giftcards!  Beautiful, sparkling gift cards!  You know you want to!

P.J. Hoover is giving away an ARC of Clockwork Angel, and all you have to do is follow some blogs and tweet about it.  Easy schmeasy.

Enter! Win!  Be merry!

How awesome is that?  Just a few keystrokes and clicks, and you could be an award-winning social networker!

I feel as if I'm sharing happiness all across the globe, which is definitely more important than nonstop writing...  I mean, everyone should do their part to spread the joy.

That's me, Joy Spreading, Mouse Trapping, Contest Entering writer.

Whew.  It's a busy life.  Okay, okay... back to my writing!