Contest acomin'! Ninety-seventh post and counting!

You're probably not aware of this but my 100th post is coming up shortly. I've left hints about it here and there because I heard you were suppose to send me presents when I reached it. That thinking has since been corrected.

Now I've been told I'm suppose to give you presents when I post the 100th one. Bummer - for me, that is, not for you.

I've asked myself over and over. What can I give you for a 100th post contest? A taxidermied animal? My sick dog? My wonderful husband? One by one I've ruled those out - or they were ruled out for me.

Then I thought of something only I could offer - Shuffle, my book manuscript, posted on my blog chapter by chapter every couple of days. That's 22 chapters, as I recall, so it will take awhile.

Shuffle was written by me and my daughter, Code Woman. At first all we wanted to do was write a book for ourselves. So many times after we'd finished reading a book, we'd say to each other, "We could have written a better book than that one!" We just didn't count on falling in love with our characters and wanting to see them between the covers of a real book.

So we entered Shuffle in a respected contest AND WON FIRST PLACE. We also earned a little bit of money! With that encouragement we contacted two or three agents but had no takers. Now, with the economy like it is, agents and publishers aren't interested in buying anything from unknown writers! Consequently, you get to read Shuffle for free starting my 100th post!

Shuffle is a story about a strong woman named Tana Rose, who's known to just about everybody as T.R. She presides over the classiest underground poker room in Central Texas until a local, legendary cowboy hijacks her pickup and starts her on a five-day downward spiral that involves the three things in Texas hotter than the weather - hot men, hot checks, and hot poker.

That's the tease. Pretend it's on the back cover.

We hope you read our book and leave comments. Nice comments. It's hard to put our baby out there for just anyone to read and accept or reject. We've never had an editor so we know it's not perfect and needs help. That's what editors do. But we hope you enjoy Shuffle and accept it for what it is - a fun read from two Texas gals who want to entertain you. And it's free!

Oh, and if you leave comments on the 100th post, there'll be presents for one of you. Picture of said presents tomorrow.