What’s the deal about the chickens?

As those who’ve been keeping up with me lately know, we hosted a promotional contest for THE LOVESICK CURE.  Entrants had an opportunity to win a free copy of the book and a flock of chickens. 

The flock of chickens as a prize was a real attention getter.  Fortunately, the winners didn’t have birds arriving at their apartment, house, igloo or mobile home.  Though the auspices of Heifer, International we were able to donate 5 flocks of chickens to needy farm families.  This is one of my favorite charities.  And I especially like the chickens and ducks program because birds don’t require grazing land or feed crops. The recipients, most often widowed or abandoned women in the Third World, are able to keep chickens who eat mainly bugs and weeds.  This provides food for her family’s table (one egg provides the daily nutritional requirements of a toddler) as well as a cash crop of baby chicks to take to market. 

But for your contest, why chickens? you ask.  Well, there are some chickens in the story, including a very territorial rooster named Arthur.  But the chickens were only bit players in the farm scenes.  No actual speaking parts, you might say.  However, the gorgeous cover design that the brilliant art department at Mira Books came up with featured a half dozen baby chicks.  Four on the front and one each on the title pages. 

Now, I happen to be a great fan of chickens.  In my semi-rural upbringing there were always chickens in the neighborhood.  Granted, some were the bright plumed fighting rooster variety, but mostly chickens were fluffy, squawking pets scratching around everywhere. 

And as luck would have it, my husband, Bill and I had been doing a lot of talking about chickens.  Our family eats a lot of eggs.  And we prefer “free range” because they simply taste more like the kind we grew up with.  As part of the push to eat local and cut down on expensive transportation costs of foods, San Antonio has had a number of community meetings on “Urban Homesteading”.  Representatives from Agricultural Extension as well as local group leaders have been made available to talk about community gardening, balcony gardens, beekeeping and backyard poultry.  Amazingly, our local laws allow residents to keep up to five chickens in a city yard! 

So we are talking, thinking imagining.  It’s a big project to take on.

I’ll keep you posted…especially if the rooster crows too early in the morning. 

AND THE WINNERS ARE....

I’ve just contacted the winners of my promotional contest for THE LOVESICK CURE.  I hope you were one of them.  If not, I know how you feel.  

At my grocery store, if you bring your own bags they put your name in a hat for a $100 worth of groceries.  They do this drawing every month.  I go to the grocery store at least a couple of times a week.  Sometimes every day!  I’ve been bringing my own bags for at least two years and I have never, ever won.  Not even once.   

Still, I do get my shopping done.  And I don’t have a million plastic bags anymore that I have to recycle.  Also, I comfort myself that at least I DON’T NEED the $100 worth of groceries.  I’m sure there are plenty of families in this town that do. 

So, if you didn’t win the book, you can always buy it.  Or maybe borrow it from a friend or the library.  Or you can read the free excerpt here on my website, imagine what the rest of it is about, and make up your own story.  I don’t actually recommend the latter, but I’m okay with it. 

The contest winners were chosen randomly.  Each entrant was numbered as they signed up.  Then Leila selected the winning numbers from a bowl in our kitchen.  There was no way we could play favorites.  I had never seen the list of entrants.  And Leila doesn’t recognize numbers well enough to pick out any specific one. 

The results surprised me.  Two winners from North Texas, one from Irving, one from Arlington.  These Dallas suburbs are right next to each other.  And the winner from Arlington is actually somebody I know.   Sure I have a lot of readers in this state, but when I ask for random, I expect really, really random.  Fortunately, the other winners' locations were places I’ve never visited in California, New Mexico and Illinois.

Everybody sounded very pleased to win.  And lots of nice things were said about Heifer, International.  Which is even better. 

I know how lucky I am to get to do this.  I guess I say this all the time, but it bears repeating.  Making up stories is a dream job for me.  And I am aware how many struggling writers there are out there, many with twice my talent, who can’t get a break.  The only thing that keeps my publisher interested and these books coming out, is that my readers (you guys) keep buying them.  So thank you for your support. 

Also, another thing that I tell myself when I don’t win at the grocery store, “I’m saving my luck for something really big.” 

May something really big come your way this week.