Sometimes You Rock

and sometimes you roll. 2011 brought a bit of both for me. There were moments - big, giant boulder moments. Signed with AKA. Boulder. WISHLESS hit the shelves. Boulder. Moved out of the house I lived in for 17 years. Boulder. But there were a lot of moments in 365 days. I rolled through so many of them - waiting, wondering, hoping, wishing. praying.

Here we are on the precipice of 2012, a brand new year all spit-shined and ready to unfurl. And I'm still rolling, still waiting, wondering, hoping, wishing and praying. I have plans - giant boulder-sized plans.

You have them, too. I know you do. So here's to rocking the socks off of the next 365. Happiness and health to all.

And the Winners are...

Yes - we have our Mid-Winter's Eve Giveaway winners! Congrats to our friends Kelley Johnsen and Judy Cox. They have each been sent a copy of Wishless. Hope they will enjoy the read. The rest of you lovelies, keep the faith! There is another contest happening as we speak and others just around the bend. My goal is that each of you gets a chance to win. Ya never can tell, right?

Thanks to all who entered. I appreciate your taking the time to be here and lend support. Relax and stay put! Here at The Hook we serve the best virtual brownies you ever wish you could taste ;) Grab one (or two). Nobody is counting...

Best of 2011 Giveaway Hop

Howdy gangbusters! Can you believe 2011 is nearly over? It was a super-cool year for me, what with the release of WISHLESS this past August. And now, thanks to Kathy over at I'm A Reader Not a Writer,
 http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com/2011/11/best-of-2011-giveaway-hop-december-27th.html
you have a chance to win yourself a signed paperback copy. The early reviews have been kind and I'm more than excited for the opportunity to entertain new readers! So take a second to enter the Rafflecopter below (read more) and good luck! Don't forget to keep hopping over to the other awesome giveaways happening right now :)

Merry Moons To You

If you want the moon, may you have it. If you want the sun, may you have that, too. If love is all you need, may it fill your heart until it bursts.

May the joy of the season be yours for the asking. I wish the very merriest of Christmases to you and yours.

Peace!

(Click "read more" to view my Christmas card to all of you lovely people.)

Mid-Winter's Eve Hop and Giveaway is HERE!

Yup, right here. Hey - giving is a good thing, right? And so is making new friends. In the spirit of the season and to thank you guys for taking time out of your day to visit, I'm giving away not one but TWO WISHLESS eBooks! I know. It's madness, yet I'm just loving the mayhem ;) If you "read more" below Rafflecopter will tell you how you can enter to win. It's not hard, I promise! And as a bonus - for liking the FB page you will automatically be entered to win a $15.00 B & N gift card AND a signed paperback. See? I told ya - it's magical mid-winter mayhem.
Thanks to Kathy at I'm a Reader Not a Writer http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com/
for putting together another super-fun hop. Welcome one and all!

Let the Hopping Begin!

Check out this awesome group of participants! Have fun - hop on over!

http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=113568

Not in old Kansas Anymore

Watched  a bit of The Wizard of Oz tonight. Have only seen it nearly a hundred times - give or take another hundred times for kicks. Got me to thinking..
Just what is it about "home" that makes it so special? Is it the floors, the walls, the furniture, the wallpaper, the paint? Is it the familiarity? The memories?
We're real busy settling into our new digs - new being the operative word. Brought along some of our old stuff. Only some. Most of it was too ______ (big, small, run down, etc.) I held onto what I could. Deep inside I wondered if dragging that bedroom lamp along might make the new house feel a little more like the former.
It doesn't.
Truth is, when you relocate you start anew. New floors, walls, furniture, wallpaper and paint. It's unfamiliar. The memories have yet to come. I suppose time will be happy to oblige. Time - that dastardly double-edged sword. When you need it to hurry by - it stubbornly lags. When you cling to each passing hour like fresh plastic wrap, it dons wings and travels at the speed of sound.
The days will come and go. New doors will open and let us in and out as we go about our lives coming and going from somewhere over the rainbow. Not Oz. There aren't any munchkins here (or should I say "little people") or Wicked Witches of the West  (although I have been a might fussy lately.) Its the new Kansas.
We'll be alright. I know. Home is where the heart is. The family is in tact. And we've got our version of Toto, here, too. Still, The ole Wiz himself said it best:
“Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.”

I couldn't agree more.

Winning and Spinning

Okay, folks. Rafflecopter has chosen a winner in our e-gift card giveaway. Congratulations to Erin B! Thanks so very much to all those that took the time to stop by and enter and don't forget...if you have LIKED the WISHLESS Facebook page you are still in the running to win a $15.00 B & N gift card AND a signed paperback. So if you haven't been there yet - hurry, go right now! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wishless/232063146839096
Stop wrapping those gifts and writing those greeting cards for a minute. Gosh - the holidays sure do keep us spinning, don't they? Winning makes it that much more bearable!

While we're talking contests - there will be more Hops and more goodies to come. Promise. Stick around for a while. I'll make cookies ;)

Bieber Secrets Revealed!

Okay, maybe not...but made ya look, didn't I? Hey, a girl's gotta do something to draw a crowd : ) Now that you're here and hopefully not too disappointed...check out this interview at Literary Rambles. Leave a comment, if you'd be so kind. Thanks to Natalie for hosting me!

http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2011/12/louise-caiola-interview-and-wishless.html

Gift Card Giveaway Hop

It's the season for giving and I, for one, am stoked about it! Welcome to all you blog hoppers! Hope you'll stick around long enough to enter the Rafflecopter below (click "read more") for your chance to win a $10.00 Amazon-e-giftcard. You could get two eBooks with that, if you like...or whatever your heart desires. (Wishless maybe??)  And speaking of which - if you drop by my FB page and like us, you could win a signed paperback AND a $15.00 B & N gift card. It's just my way of saying thanks for coming by and hope we meet again soon. And please check out the other great blogs participating in the fun. http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com/

Let Sleeping Dogs...

We are inches from the big move now. So close I can taste it. Today I found some old boxes of baby clothes from my now-grown cuddly gangstas.
Nope- I won't cry.
Even with the teeniest onesies that belonged to my boy-child, who now towers over me.
Nope - I won't do it.
Even with the handmade Valentine my daughter made me in Kindergarten. It says, "Mom, your the bast."
Nope- I really won't.
And the photos I unearthed of our first dog, Pookie.(Was that even in this lifetime?)
Really, really no crying.
And my high school year book. "Dear Louise, Well we made it. We won't ever 4get that night at the park with you-know-who and me with Greg (gross!)Have a great summer!" What night? What park? Was that in this lifetime?
I'm dry-eyed, I swear it.
And the photo albums with pics of all the places I've called home before we were here, in this house for 17 oh-so-quick years.
(Sigh) Oh why didn't I just let sleeping dogs lie? Let bygones be gone? Leave the past in the past?
Ugh - I really hate crying.
That's the thing about moving. You clean out, you toss out, you realize it's a short distance from one end of this life to the other.
Enjoy the puppyhood while you can, folks. Hold your memories dear.
Then let go. Move along.

Ten Lords A-Leaping (in sensible heels)

Since we're singing Christmas songs all this month here at The Hook, (check out the Holiday Hitz corner for a new melody every day or so) this morning I am humming "The Twelve Days of Christmas"...if for no other reason than I'm cleaning out my shoe closet. What's that you ask? Connection please, you twisted little Blogger? It's those Nine Ladies Dancing and boy are they dancing up a storm! Not only do I have more than enough shoes for all of those women to party down in, I have enough for those milking maids, the pipers and the drummers drumming.

Segue into the heart of the matter - what is it with us females and our feet? Why exactly do we need fourteen different pair of flip flops? And if I'm being more seasonally correct...why do we require that our closet shelves house more boots than we can wear in our lifetime? At the risk of being painfully sexist, I dare wonder: is this a G-I-R-L thing? My Significant Other has a shoe repertoire that consists of approximately three changes of sole scenery = new work boots, work boots, and gross work boots.
Hey, whatever works for ya. Far be it for me to judge. Oh, but wait! Seems I've forgotten about his dress shoes, the pair he wears for attending weddings and funerals. The same pair he's had since 1987. I stand corrected.

With only two feet, is it fetish-ish to indulge the desire to dress them up in as many looks as possible without having to take a second mortgage on the house? This isn't about expen$ive footgear. There isn't a Manolo or a Louboutin in my collection (she sighs.) That's the stuff of Carrie Bradshaw's walk-in, not mine.

I'm merely suspecting that from the first time I clomped around in my mother's sensible heels, it's very possible I got, well - hooked. So, this Christmas am I expecting Santa to bring me a new pair of something fuzzy or stacked, something peep-toed or sling-backed or Italian leather?
The odds are favorable.
Or I can take it in a whole other direction and ask Santa for five golden rings...
Either way. I'm easy to please :)
And a partridge in a pear tree.