I wish I knew sea monkey CPR!

http://glittercandy.deviantart.com/art/Mary-Sue-Tutorial-48101443

I found this guy eating the wisteria- very creepy when he stares at me with those big, orange eyes.

Just finished cleaning off my desk and bookshelves and found this:

1 million phones = 1 megaphone
2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds
10 cards = 1 decacards
1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche
453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake
1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin
10 rations = 1 decoration
100 rations = 1 C-ration
10 millipedes = 1 centipede
3 1/3 tridents = 1 decadent
2 monograms = 1 diagram
8 nickels = 2 paradigms
2 wharves = 1 paradox

(stolen from Tropical Weather Underground)

Because I’ll use any excuse to eat cupcakes.  And this is truly a noble cause.

It’s Book Release Day for Lisa Mantchev’s second book in her Theatre Illuminata series: Perchance to Dream!  We’re helping her celebrate with all things fairy-ish and cupcake-ish.

  Grabbed the book!

Then on to Frosting to load up on cupcake goodness!  It’s hard to tell here, but these are 8 inch X-treme cupcakes!

We picked Strawberry Not-So-Shortcake, Boston Cream Pie, Key Lime Pie, Chocolate-Covered Strawberry, Prozac, and Wedding Cake.  Only, the cupcake lady lied to me and said the Wedding Cake was topped with buttercream frosting. 

It was whipped frosting instead.   :(

   The fairies are not amused.

Ten days of auction awesomeness is drawing to an end!  Victoria Schwab, Amanda Morgan, and Myra McEntire are ROCK STARS!!!  These three Nashville ladies at DTWTFN have worked relentlessly over the past two weeks to raise money for flood relief with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.  I’m in awe of how much you ladies have accomplished in such a short time!

My auction is one of the ones up for today:

a 25 page YA or MG critique,

a jumbo Nashville mug,

organic granola munchies from zenmama granola,

and a basket of brand-spanking-new YA releases:                               

White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1) by Holly Black,

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready,

Mistwood by Leah Cypess, and

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting.                                              

Exciting, yes?  Go bid here!

A tornado carving a mile wide path across the state of MS. An oil rig explosion killing 11 men and leaking hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf.  The heart of Nashville underwater in a record-setting flood. The disasters are coming too fast even for the media to keep up with.

Had so much fun at the signing at Octavia Books yesterday.  The eleven year old got some writing tips from Carrie Ryan, and I got to meet fellow Elevensie, Tessa Gratton (tessagratton), who has the cutest hair!  Here’s me, perpetrating as a glamorous, best-selling author with Maggie Stiefvater (m_stiefvater), Jackson Pearce (watchmebe), and Carrie Ryan! 

"Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole."
— Eudora Welty (One Writer's Beginnings)

69 comments! 71, if I count the one on yesterday’s entry, and the one on my Facebook page. And of course I’ll count them. ;) I think the library deserves all the help they can get, so I’ll still give the entire $150 that I pledged. Thanks so much for playing along!

And now for the winners of the two new releases:

4iqread wins Carrie Ryan’s THE DEAD TOSSED WAVES!

tinytipsforlibraryfun.blogspot.com wins Lindsey Leavitt’s PRINCESS FOR HIRE!

Congratulations, winners!!!  Please shoot me an email with your contact info (robin at robinbridges dot com) and I will get them shipped out.

to help with the Library-Loving Blog Challenge! Tomorrow morning is my deadline, and I am up to 60-something comments. If I reach 75 comments by 8 o’clock tomorrow morning, I’ll go ahead and contribute the entire $150 that I pledged to the Gulfport library.  Double or … something.

Thanks to everyone participating in THE 2010 LIBRARY-LOVING BLOG CHALLENGE! I haven’t reached my goal yet, so I’m extending the deadline until Monday morning at 8 o’clock (my time). I’ll be working all weekend, so that gives you more time to comment! Come on, make me cough up more money for the library!

Drawings for the two books, Carrie Ryan’s THE DEAD TOSSED WAVES and Lindsey Leavitt’s PRINCESS FOR HIRE, will take place Monday morning. Be sure to include your name in your comment if you want to enter the drawings!

Please join me in the Library-Loving Blog Challenge! Jennifer Hubbard is an amazing writer. When I read about Jenn’s plan to raise money for libraries, I knew I wanted to take part. I’ve already blogged about my love for the Gulfport library. It’s been five years since the storm and the main library is still operating out of a trailer while the powers that be try to decide what to do with the skeleton of the old building. If I were a multi-millionaire I’d build them a beautiful new building in a heartbeat. (And I’d also rebuild Marine Life, but that’s another story.)

This is something I can do for them right now, with y’all’s help. For every commenter on this post between now and Saturday night at 9pm CDT, March 27, I will donate one dollar to my local library, the Harrison County Library System, up to $150, which I’ve asked to be ear-marked for teen fiction.

How easy could it be? You comment, I cough up the money, the library gets a gift! If you don’t know what to say in your comment, “I love libraries” will do.

Note that my pledge is “per commenter”—so if a single person leaves 50 comments, that still only counts once! But you can do more by spreading the word ... please link to this post, tweet about it, and send your friends here so they can comment and raise more money.

If you’re moved to make a flat-fee donation to your library, or to start your own challenge, that’s awesome too! Keep me posted in the comments below!

For a complete list of participating bloggers (and to visit other sites where you can help libraries just by leaving a comment!) visit Jennifer Hubbard’s blog at http://writerjenn.livejournal.com/ .

As a special thank-you for helping me to help the Gulfport- Harrison County library, I’m giving away two new releases:

Carrie Ryan’s THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES and Lindsey Leavitt’s PRINCESS FOR HIRE

On Saturday night I’ll put the names of every commenter in the sorting hat and randomly pick two winners.

Ready? Set? Let the comments commence!

I dreamed someone was teaching me how to count in Irish, and I was catching on so well.  I woke up even remembering the numbers for one through three, and six. 

Yeah.  It definitely wasn’t Irish.  I looked it up. 

http://www.irish-sayings.com/cats/irishwords/numbers/

Have no clue what language “eish, dreish, threish” is.