Thanks so much to all of you for your contest submissions. To say you guys are brilliant is putting it mildly and trying to choose a winner was pretty damn challenging. But after deliberating with my two, erm, impartial judges, I am pleased to announce that the winner of an autographed copy of Daddy Left Me Alone with God is...



"No heartbreak? So, it wasn't love..."

But...I feel like I'm completely losing my mind. I checked my blogspot comments, all of my email accounts, my blog here at  Open Salon, and even after two cups of coffee I still can't find the name of the person who wrote that! So if he/she will drop me an email or comment underneath, I will edit this post and give you the congratulations you are due as well as any applicable links to your blog, website, etc. Oh yeah, and I also need your address.

Anyway, because I had such a rough time deciding...and because I have a bunch of author copies...I've decided to name two other winners as well.

Now this man is a brilliant, published poet so he had an unfair advantage for sure which I had to take into consideration, but I absolutely loved the six words written by Dennis Mahagin. He even gave his a title:

Conductor's Blush

"...Two trains, coupling. She got off...."

Dennis has been my online writing pal for several years now and he read portions of this book in all of its incarnations and was kind enough to offer both encouragement and even a critique (ha ha - though I did keep the Uncle Sammy story in, Dennis, but I shortened it considerably because it ended up being germane to the story after all). So Dennis, shoot me your address and an autographed copy will be yours. And if I could figure out how to turn my guitar picks into something male oriented, you'd be getting that, too...oh wait...d'oh...I can just send you some undrilled picks. Cool?

My third winner made me laugh out loud and since this blog has pretty much been taken over by the tales of Julie Slick, Eric Slick, and Adrian Belew, well, this entry, written by Lee Huntingdon, simply had to be acknowledged, too.

"Love ABPT. Can't see. Heart breaks."

So there you have it...whew, next time I throw a contest it's going to be something that involves pulling a name out of a hat...and if "Anonymous to me right now", Dennis, and Lee will send me their contact info, the book will be on its way.

And I did get some last minute entries so if you are curious, I did add them to the master list below. Now. If only I'd kept track of who sent what when I cut and pasted that list, I wouldn't be in the position I am now of not knowing the name of the winner. Ha ha, okay, well, you already knew I was a dork, right?

Right!

Later,
xo