Winning

Ok, so this morning I woke up. (Great way to start the day and a blog post...wouldn’t you agree?)   I logged onto the computer immediately.  This blog has turned me into a much more disheveled version of Meg Ryan in You’ve got Mail.  I hold my breath as I check to see what the day holds for the blogisphere.  Immediately, I spotted today’s post from Coffee Cups and Camisoles (http://coffeecupsandcamisoles.blogspot.com/2013/10/last-weeks-winner.html) 

It had my name on it...well K.D. Simington, the name I use when I write and am trying to channel my inner P.D. James (or J.R. Dietrich). It announced me  as the winner of Laura Frantz’s new historical fiction Love’s Awakening.

I, in typical Katie fashion, went beserk! (just like the hippos in Sandra Boynton Book which I’ve read it to James probably 500 times today.)

I couldn’t believe that people do this.  Amazing bloggers like  Anne and Jaimie give stuff away to their readers!

I immediately decided that I MUST do this.  I had to pay it forward somehow.  Seriously, what a great way to thank you for coming here, for reading, sharing, hopefully laughing at/with me.

However, I ran into two problems...

Problem #1) What should I give away?  

You see we are living on one income this year for the first time ever and we have one more child than we had before.  Even someone as bad at math as I am can see that we have had to tighten our belts a size or five.  But I was determined that I would have a giveaway on this blog.  Here is my inner dialogue about my dilemma

First- “I’ll give away my prized USC jersey from the championship game they lost in 2006...Yes, I was there!  I cheered I cried and I no longer fit in that jersey.”  

Voice of reason, “No: too sentimental and too sweat stained.”

Second- “I’ll give away a Yankee candle.  After all, they are one of my favorite things about autumn and they smell delightful.” 

Voice of reason “No: too heavy to mail and too random.”

Third- “I’ll give away library books. I love the book I checked out last week, I should give that away.”  

Voice of reason, “Was that a serious idea?! Just in case it was... giving away library book is too illegal and too weird.”

So, I texted my husband about my big win and asked him what he thought.  We decided on a legal, non weird, light weight, un-sweat-stained $10 Starbucks gift card.  

Problem #2) How do I decide who wins?  

I figured I’d take a page (not literally) from Coffee Cups and Camisoles and ask you to answer 3 questions to throw your hat into the ring of this first ever blog giveaway.  

Question 1: Would you most like to read a memoir, a historical fiction book or a collection of essays and poems?

Question 2: If you were to read a historical fiction book would you chose a book set in: the 1800s on the underground railroad, World War II around Boston, the 1990s during the fall of the Soviet Union?

Question 3: What is the best thing you have ever won?

I will announce the winner next week.  Until then...