West of Mars -- the Meet and Greet

Nope, not the Debut a Debut winners. Yet. That's next month.

But for you regulars, you'll remember when I got tagged for a meme and decided that since this blog is about my fictional friends, I'd let you answer for them.

I'm proud to say that everyone who entered won an award.

Musie/Ali won a couple of awards. The "Oh, so perfect, I should have thought of that" award for declaring that Trevor's middle name is Fuckin' (as in: Trevor Fuckin' Wolff, thankyouverymuch.)

She also won the "How'd you know what Trevor gave Mitchell and Kerri for their wedding?" with the response that his favorite book is the Kama Sutra.

Her prizes are my copy of The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana and Marian Keyes' Last Chance Saloon. Of course, Musie, if you don't want one or the other... tough.

No, seriously. I'll swap out; I've got enough here!

Next on to my favorite giraffe, CheesyGiraffe. She won the Best Invention of a Pet, for inventing Brick, the yellow Lab that Mitchell had when he was a kid. I'd never envisioned the Vosses with a dog before, but I think there's some merit in her vision.

She wins two books, also. Theresa Medeiros's After Midnight ('cause I know she likes that paranormal stuff) and Jim Fergus' The Wild Girl. But I promised her The Wild Girl almost a year ago, so it's not really a prize. Just a nice plug for a book I'm really digging.

Then we'll move on to my favorite Hoser, Lauren. She wins the award for Best Capture of Mitchell's Innocence, a trait that I think really defines him. She's the one who said that Mitchell's secret weapon to attract the opposite sex was his no longer green hair.

And since we're talking about Mitchell and his green hair (long live Green Hair Week, huh?), let's give an award to lswriter, herself. She decided that Mitchell's green hair was his worst injury. She's got a great point.

Prizes... let's see... Lauren wins C. David Heymann's Poor Little Rich Girl, and John Martel's The Alternate. I know she likes legal thrillers and Poor Little Rich Girl is a classic, and she likes classics.

LS gets a cool book: Farscape: Dark Side of the Sun, by Andrew Dymond. An homage to my favorite silver-haired character -- Chianna -- as well as one of my favorite TV shows of recent times. And since most everyone is getting two books, I'm throwing in one of my five copies of Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler (don't ask!).

The Ace herself (Ace of hearts, don'tcha know) wins a special award. The I Admire You For Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone award. She can hear Trevor opining: There is no such thing as a hot dog. There are hot chicks and then there are dogs.

Fortunately, Trevor doesn't find many of the dogs. To him, they're all hot chicks.

And for being such a good sport, I'm sending Dana my copy of Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain. I suspect the movie's better, but at least you can have the bragging rights to the book now.

Nimrodiel wins the best potential outtake award, setting me up with a scene that's typical Mitchell and total laughs. Mitchell buys Kerri an arm band while they're in Santa Fe ... among other things. *grin*

Two books for Nim, too. The first is McGonagall: A Selection. This is an important book because of how truly terrible it is. McGonagall was known as Scotland's worst poet. The second is Allegra Goodman's Kaaterskill Falls, just because.

Carol wins the Welcome to the Madness award. Our only newbie brave enough to wade into the fray, Carol, if you'll e-mail me, we can talk about which books you'd like. I'll even read one on the mountain in here! (I've offered Rebecca Drake's Debut, Don't be Afraid to about ten people now; no one's bitten yet. Why not? Rebecca rocks.)

And lastly, we have the big prizes. The first goes to Dana, again, for stepping outside her comfort zone. She's getting my much coveted copy of Clay's Quilt. I suspect you'll love it as much as I did.

The final prize isn't a book. I was going to, but I send Karen enough books as it is, and I spaced on her birthday a few months back. Since she had the foresight to step into my closet and dress Kerri in my bamboo shirt (okay, mine's more of a green than a true sapphire blue), I'll buy her one. This is my pick. What do you guys think?

There were a ton of good answers to this meme; I'm going to print them and hang them on the wall. It's a treat to see my fictional characters so alive to you guys, my groupies. Thanks to the small crowd of you who entered and now that you've seen how easy it is to win, the rest of you will join the fun next time, too, right?

Right?

In the meantime, it's time to turn to Debut a Debut. This is a larger contest, with a larger scope, so I'm not going to even suggest that there will be prizes for everyone who enters. Things are gaining momentum, though; come be part of it.

Two more things before I go and leave you to your debut novel hunting. First is that I've provided links to most of the books I'm sending you. You probably won't get that exact edition; the links are provided mostly to give you access to plot summaries and stuff. And if you buy something while you're peeking around, I'll get a commission which I promise to use on future contest prizes.

And secondly, the Tour Manager gets a special prize. Not just for wading into this estrogen field we're creating (I know we've got some male lurkers, which is just disturbing. Show yourselves! Just ... keep that trench coat belted, dudes; I'm a married woman), but for being my tour manager.

Besides, he's just darn cute.