Save me from Slappy Hooper!

This is the notebook I scribble in right now:

It has one page of notes I took on a trip to New York when I was pretending to be all writerly in the city and observing the natives. Then I lost it for it year. Then there's about twenty pages of notes and to do do lists for that stupid family night fundraiser I corralled.

This is the notebook I bought from Staples the other day to give away:

Cute, right? Oops. I forgot to take pictures of the purple pens. Whatever. Anyway, guess who won this notebook? Erin from If You Give a Mom a Moment!

This is the notebook I bought at Target yesterday because I wasn't kidding about having a problem. Then a whole bunch of you enablers showed up in my comment box yesterday and shared your deep and abiding love of notebooks too and I couldn't resist giving out another one. And guess who won that? Nancy!!!!

So what am I giving away today? Well, if your name is Slappy Hooper, you're going to be super excited. I'm giving away the chance to name a character in my current manuscript. And it might get published, too. Maybe even probably? I don't know. I think so! Anyway, I thought someone might like seeing their name as a character in a book, kind of like how Janette Rallison put James Dashner in My Fair Godmother (LOVED it). When I mentioned that's what I was giving away next, my husband said, "I'm going to enter that one and name the character Slappy Hooper!" which is his eBay i.d.

Uh, so please, a lot of you enter and decrease the odds that my smart, sassy Ashley ends up making out holding hands with Slappy Hooper. You have until midnight and you just need to drop a comment down below.

But wait....that's not all! I've had themes (sort of) for each give away this week but I have something else to give away that doesn't fit anywhere really, so I'm giving it away today. I love shower gels and smelly lotions and by far my favorite is Philosophy stuff. Soooo good. Especially Cinnamon Bun. Heaven! They even put the recipe on the bottle. But today I'm going to give away a shower gel scent from Philosophy called Raspberry Sorbet. Check it out:

Tomorrow I'm giving away my reason for writing, so stay tuned for that.

Speaking of, I think I do stuff besides give away things on my blog all day.

Where was I?

Uh....

Yeah, writing. Yesterday I told you about why I deep down for REALS blog now. It's about the love and neurotic need I have to be validated. And also talk to grown ups. But I did start out looking to connect with other writers and I've found some wonderful blogs in that vein. Early on someone pointed me toward LDS Publisher and reading that is one of the smartest things I ever started doing as a writer. That eventually lead me to Six Writers and a Frog and Writing on the Wall, two blogs that look at different aspects of writing. But then those are kind of the business, not fun, blogs I go to. When I want to hang out with like-minded writers who make me laugh smile and think, I go here:

Annette Lyon at The Lyon's Tale. You know her, you love her. She talks about writing all the time, like in her Writer's Journey which I find fascinating. But she talks about lots of other things that I love, like grammar and linguistics and Finland. Well, I don't know if I love Finalnd, but I love hearing about it. I'd love it if I went there, I bet. Want to take me, Annette? Anyway, she's so articulate that no matter how long her posts are, I NEVER get bored reading them and I have the attention span of gnat when it comes to blog posts sometimes. That's not to say hers are long. I just mean that she's one of the few people who can truly hold my attention for any length of time. Her personality and voice just shine through and she is in person exactly like I thought she'd be from her blog. And she has helped me soooo much, even though I ask some seriously stupid questions. She always, always helps me.

Lexicon Luvr: One of the nicest people EVER. Ever. I love reading her blog because it shines with such sincerity and she's soooo passionate about writing. You can tell she just loves it with every fiber of her being.

Becca Loves Books: I'm really new to this blog but man, she speaks my language. She's so down to earth and committed to her craft, but not all like super serious. She finds the fun in writing and I really like that.

There are a couple of other writer's blogs I like dropping in on a regular basis but the focus of their blogs isn't really about writing which is the only reason they aren't showing up in this list. Don't be sad!

Oh, AND. . . I forgot to anounce the winner yesterday for the recipes. It was Jessica G. Yay!

And don't forget to actually look at my new blogl ook if you haven't seen it yet.

Okay, enter away!