I Spy With My Little Eye, Something That Rhymes with Vaughnfest

I don't suppose that this sort of thing is limited to librarians, but certainly members of my profession would take an interest in the prizes. DK Publishing is riding the publicity machine via a contest. Whaddaya win?

GRAND PRIZE
One grand prize winner will receive 100 Eyewitness books* of their choosing!
(*based on availability)

RUNNERS-UP
Five Runners-Up will receive a set of the four new Eyewitness titles, plus a set of the eight re-launched backlist titles!

THIRD PLACE
25 Third Place winners will receive a set of the four new Eyewitness titles!

Eyewitness has its charms. Nobody in their right mind would ever use it as a reliable reference text, but for those kids who bat their long lashes at you and plead for something ANYTHING on one topic or another, they tend to do very well. Go wild, pretty kitties.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Contesty-westy time, chickens. Editorial Anonymous has been commenting on the power of the first line. She considers tension, voice, sense of humor, cadence, and rhythm. Then she says this:

So here's the deal: send me your first line (or your first two lines, if you must) and I will post a select few to comment on. Send them to my email with CONTEST in the subject line.

This contest opens now, and closes as soon as I've had enough. Maybe tomorrow.

As of my writing this right now, it's still open. There's no prize as such, but it's a fun idea. It may be over by now, though. Note it.

UPDATE: TOO LATE! The contest has closed. Ah well. Maybe I'll have one of my own soon.

Oh, There Once Was a Blog from Nantucket...

From author Mitali Perkins comes the following contest:

In honor of my birthday, I'm emulating Bilbo Baggins and giving away a bag of my favorite savory, nutty, spicy Hot Mix and a signed copy of Rickshaw Girl. To win, you must supply the best 9-syllable last line of advice in one of two limericks.

Smart people that you all are, I'm sure you'll come up with multiple answers to her samples. Me? Not so much. Rhyming is best done when you're playing a game of Balderdash at 2 a.m., have had a touch too much to drink, and you've started rhyming all your answers with a kind of way-hey gleeful abandon. Or is that just me?

Speaking of Bilbo Baggins though, check this out:


I got this from Saints and Spinners and I believe that what we may have here is the very first Hobbit home I've seen that I actually like. Especially if it was made for kids. I mean, when you compare it to this and this, there is no comparison.