I won and I'm off!

I'm one of the lucky winners from Bernita Harris' Release Party and Contest over at Bitten by Books. I've won a $20 amazon gift card and a silver lariat necklace. Thank you Bernita!

In other news, I'm off to Ireland on Saturday so I may not be around much because I'll be packing, or trying to. CFS and packing aren't a good mix. Plus the washing machine chose to break down last Friday and it's not likely to be fixed before we go. It needs an "unusual part". I'd like to tell Hotpoint where to put their unusual part but I shan't in case I get them annoyed enough to make me wait even longer!

We won't have internet access on holiday. Oh noes! So I shall be away from you for two whole weeks. I'll try not to cry but it will be a close thing.

Sorry for the lack of pictures but Blogger is being naughty. If it carries on then I'm off to my blog at Wordpress. I'll let you know if I go so you can come too! (Edited to add: I've found how to go back to the old editor. It works after a fashion.)

Thank you maybe genius!

As one competition starts another ends and maybe genius has picked my name out of a hat to win in her competition.

Many, many thanks. Just what I needed to cheer me up.

The competition result is here.

I won!

Oh my God! I was one of the ten winners in Nicola Morgan's chocolate competition! I'm in shock!

My story:

Lucy eased off the purple wrapper, savouring the moment. The silver foil was harsh against her fingers as she pulled it back to reveal the dark chocolate within. Snap! She broke off a single square and placed it in her mouth. Bitter flavours melted into sweet. She held it on her tongue, allowing the heavenly liquid to seep backwards and slip down her throat. Her eyes closed.

"Ahem!"

Her eyes flew open. Her heart raced as she saw the shopkeeper pointing to the sign: "Shoplifters will be prosecuted."

"Forty pence, please, and next time pay for it first."

The winner is...

This was very hard to judge because of all the brilliant ideas you came up with.

Honourable mentions to everyone who offered me any suggestions:

Writtenwyrdd
Scott from Oregon
Pjd
McKoala
Sylvia
Scarlet Blue
Jessi
JaneyV
Bevie

Special mentions to Sylvia for A view of the stars from the hedgerow and to Jessi for
A little bit of writing
A little bit of cats
A little bit of reading
And a whole lot of laughs!
and her jokes about hedgehog rhymes and to Pjd for his blatant flattery.

There were so many good ideas in there, some of them featuring hedgehogs and some of them not. To everyone who said that the tagline is fine as it is, thank you. To everyone who offered kind and flattering comments, thank you.

First place goes to Scarlet Blue for A Writer's PotPourri because that started the train of thought that led me to the new tagline. Scarlet, can you email me your address so I can post the chocolate to you?

Thanks, everyone, for your brilliant, funny and above all kind ideas! I'm sorry you can't all get the chocolate!