Great New Books!

Pulling your hair out over trying to help your youngster learn the basics elements of doing a research project or paper? I have just the book for you! Or maybe you're an elementary school teacher with a class full of blank stares as you try to explain what to do. Then check out this new book by my friend Toni Buzzeo!

R IS FOR RESEARCH
by Toni Buzzeo
Publisher: Upstart Books


My wonderful friend Barbara O'Connor has a book birthday today! She's an extraordinarily gifted writer of middle-grade Southern family novels that have been on dozens of state award lists and wins all kinds of awards. Go to your nearest bookstore and grab a copy and curl up with a great read! Then check out all her other books on her website. You won't want to miss a single one. Promise.


GREETINGS FROM NOWHERE
by Barbara O'Connor
Published by: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Ancient Egypt and Me

VERY GROOVY ANNOUNCEMENT!!! I have the lead story in the March issue of Cricket Magazine. "The Mummy Tent" debuts with fantastic artwork and inspired the cover art, too. It's GORGEOUS!

Looky, looky . . . Here's the front cover!

An exotic golden back cover!



And here is the first page with my byline!



I feel like a kid when I get something published because it's so flippin' THRILLING!

I still remember those long ago days before I was published sending out dozens of short stories and dreaming about the day I *might* have a story in the most prestigious children's magazine, Cricket. Now I've had three with a fourth story scheduled for July.

Wednesday Wanderings

As I get to know the Live Journal community better I've enjoyed the writers out there who have *tagged* days of the week for certain topics to write about. Teaser Tuesday, Thankful Thursday, Five Things on a Friday, etc.

So I'm dubbing today as Wednesday Wanderings:

Wandering #1:
School To World Event on Saturday went great! 2,500 middle school kids came through the convention center in groups, or with their teachers and parents all wanting to look at my books and talk about writing careers and what to do while they're in high school. It was super fun to talk to them! Such a range of thoughtful and excited students. (Of course there were other areas to explore such as technological careers, but writing is way more fun!)

Sold a couple dozen books, and RAN OUT of ALL my handouts and business cards and candy by late morning! I had no idea there would be such a huge turnout or interest. Next year I will bring twice as many!

Since the event I've been contacted by a librarian wanting to buy 25 copies for a class set of Enchanted Runner, recently back in print. And another teacher who is arranging a school visit for May 1. Cool!

It was SO great to visit with Carolee Dean and Lois Ruby, too. I rarely get to talk with other writers so that was a real treat for me. They've both got some great books so check out these two wonderful writer women.

Wandering #2:
We don't get much in the way of conferences and publishers in our neck of the woods and our local SCBWI schmoozes are mostly populated by beginners so author extraordinaire Kersten Hamilton, has started arranging a luncheon for any published writer located in New Mexico or coming through to meet so that we can talk "shop". We'll have a chance to discuss school visits, editor/agent problems, the publishing business, etc with other writers who know the pitfalls and problems and angst of selling a book and having it published. Our first one was last month and it was a great start. Lois told me on Saturday that the discussion we had last month about her current WIP was most helpful and she is going back to rewrite the story with an older character and make the story YA instead of Middle-Grade. Good luck Lois!

Next meeting/luncheon is Tuesday, March 25th at the Jewish Community Center in Albuquerque. Straight up NOON, pardner.

Tomorrow - School to World!

I'll be at the Albuquerque Convention Center Saturday, February 23rd from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. for the annual School to World Fair. I'll be in the Arts/Entertainment/Communications Cluster where students, families, teachers and librarians can learn about the various careers in these areas.

I'll have books for sale, Career Information about writing, Information about my school visits, Postcard magnets and lots of other goodies - along with authors Carolee Dean and Elsie Kreischer.

I'd love to see you! Please come say hello and visit with us!

A cute fan letter

I got this letter last week and am posting it exactly as I received it. I found it amusing that the salutation is not the usual "Dear Author" or "Dear Kimberley", but just "Hey".

hey, i am emailing you to inform you that i have jus finished reading your book entitled THE LAST SNAKE RUNNER. This book was a little bit interesting. it did kind of draw my attention, but at some times i did get distracted while reading it, as does any book. i really dislike reading, but this book inspired me to read more. i would like to take but 5 minutes of your time to ask you a couple of questions relating to this book. first off, i am wondering how you got so much information about Acoma. another question i have is, how long did it take you to get this information? i know that i am just another person in this world, but if you could jus take a few minutes to reply, please do. i really enjoyed the part where Kendall outran the horses. Please reply.

Fan letters are VERY FUN! I feel like a *real* author.

It's Friday and your LAST CHANCE TO WIN A BOOK!

Go here to AUTHOR2AUTHOR blogspot to enter the drawing for the YA novel Lost It by Kristen Tracy. Sounds like a verrrry interesting and funny book. A provocative cover, to say the least!

FIVE THINGS ON A FRIDAY:

1. It's a three day weekend and I get to sleep in on Monday. I'm so relieved, and I need sleep. BAD.

2. I've gained 5 pounds the last two days. At least.

3. The massage and girl talk yesterday was heavenly. And I got to play and read books to three adorable little girls, 18 months, 2 years, and 3.5. I always wished I'd had 3 girls to go with my 3 sons. I guess I'll have to hope for adorable daughters-in-law.

4. Watch Pride and Prejudice on Sunday night on Masterpiece Theater. Yes, it's the one with the devastatingly mysterious Colin Firth.

5. I'm going to go finish off my box of chocolate Turtle candy now. And have another piece of my fudge marble birthday cake. Here's to a SECOND 5 pounds!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I love having my birthday on Valentine's Day!!! :-)

As a kid, I always knew how to decorate my birthday parties.

I always received a heart-shaped box of chocolates from my grandpa until I turned 12 and he died later that year.

My darling husband picked up the tradition when we got married and he surprises me with it somewhere - like under my pillow. Today it was hidden under my computer keyboard when I got home from class this morning. Gosh, is my computer habit that obvious? Hubby knows what I like - Turtles! Gooey, chocolate, carmel-ly, nutty Turtles. I get the whole box. I usually eat nothing else all day until the birthday dinner.

When our three boys were younger hubby gave them instructions NOT to eat any of my birthday chocolates. But I get each of them their own box and everybody is happy. ;-)

Today darling husband got up at 5:30 a.m. to bake my heart-shaped Valentine Birthday Cake. Heart-shaped cake pans. My mom found them somewhere when I had my first birthday and passed the cake pans to my husband when we got married.

At 1:00 I'm getting a massage. And girl-talk. Aah, heaven.

Today I'm extremely grateful for my LIFE, my FAMILY AND FRIENDS and God's incredible blessings!

Go tell the people who matter most to you that you love them. Go eat chocolate, go read a great book - or go write one.

Author@Author Book Giveaway!

This is a great Journal to read about several recently published, soon to be published or aspiring writers. Very fun and intriguing women with good posts about the writing and publishing world. They're also running a book give-away contest every day this week. Some great YA books to snatch so run over and post a comment to enter the drawing. It's as simple as that. Hope you win! And I hope I win, too! ;-0

Author2Author book Giveaway Link HERE!!!

Envelopes

REJECTIONS always arrive in brown manila envelopes – unless you purchase the pretty white 9x12 envelopes which is only slightly better than manila because it’s still a REJECTION after all.

We hates seeing big manila envelopes in the mailbox. (I'm channeling Golum for some weird reason.)

GREAT things come in #10 size envelopes. I got two of them this week.

#1. A lovely fan letter from Abby, Age 10, who reads Cricket magazine and wanted to let the editors know that she liked my story “Rattlesnake Rain” from the August issue. Cricket made me a copy and forwarded it my way. Thank you!

#2. A second envelope from Cricket WITH A CHECK!!!

My story, "The Mummy Tent", about ancient Egypt will appear in the March issue and "Crawfish Boil on Alligator Swamp" will be in July - YAY!

That means two more #10s with MONEY coming my way. I’m so mercenary. But I like the cash validation. Who's with me?

You Get to Vote Today!

No, not American Idol or Survivor or Super Tuesday which is tomorrow, silly blog people, but THE FIRST PAGES CONTEST AT NATHAN BRANSFORD'S snazzy and very informative agent blog. And he's not anonymous which I do appreciate and admire, unlike Evil Editor or The Rejector. Don't get me wrong, Evil and Rejector are great to read, but sometimes the anonymous aspect just - BUGS.

Okay, so first off, I did not place. No crying or boohooing allowed, although you may allow a tiny tear in the private recesses of your heart if you need to.

Out of 675 entries, Nathan and his hilarious cohort Holly whittled it down to 6. They read them all and made their decision in a mere 5 days. Good golly, Miss Molly! They must have NO life, ha, ha!

Enjoy reading these fabulous first pages (actually 500 words was the cap which is really more like two pages and maybe next time Nathan will decide to limit the word count to 250 so he doesn't go blind.)

You get to VOTE FOR YOUR CHOICE. Winner takes all.

I'm off to revise my first pages. Again.

I got brave

For the first time ever I entered an online agent critique with the first page of one of my WIPs called The Death of Pharaoh Tutankhamun - for lack of anything more brilliant. But hey, maybe it is brilliant. At least everyone will know right off the bat what the story is about.

Nathan Bransford, an agent with Curtis Brown based in San Francisco (and I'm a sucker for him because he lives in my hometown) represents some great stuff, at least I discovered him through an author, Brad Geagly who writes adult novels about ancient Egypt. I read Geagley's two novels and found out who his agent was by reading the acknowledgments page - a must do if you are an aspiring author.

So Nathan is running a first pages contest with the prize being a query critique, a manuscript critique or a ten minute phone conversation with him. Winner's choice. He is very generous and received well over 600 entries! That is a WHOPPING number!

You can read all the entries on his blog where we had to post them for all the world to see. See them here.

Go here for one of his readers - and another aspiring writer - who has volunteered to do brief critiques for those entrants who want a bit of feedback. He calls himself Chro.

I'm #370 on Nathan's original post if you want to read it. Just look for my name and picture, that's probably easiest. We had 48 hours to post and the time is already up. The semi-fnalists will be chosen and then blog readers will vote on the winner. There was some great stuff posted. I am impressed.

Enchanted Runner is Back In Print!

Enchanted Runner was my second published novel, but my first book about the Snake Clan and the magical power of their runners at Acoma, the city built two thousand years ago on top of a 400 foot cliff in the gorgeous New Mexico desert. Runners and rattlesnakes and wild horses fill the pages of this gripping novel and due to a publisher buy-out and a total editorial upheaval at Avon the year it was originally published, the book went sadly out of print. But it is now back in a beautiful paperback with the original cover art and the Southwest Book Award Gold Sticker! (I have a sticker, how cool is that?)This book in its short life-time was also on the Land of Enchantment List, the Battle of the Books list, and The Pennsylvania Reader's Choice list.

You can get copies through me by posting on my blog or my web site and at Amazon.com, too.

This book is in demand by teachers and librarians all the time so I'm thrilled it's alive again. Class sets are available from me at half price, too, so all the teachers/librarians out there please spread the word.

Enjoy an exciting read that boys will especially love, but watch out for Trina, that feisty cousin of Kendall's with her stories about the runner's feet getting cut off and blood stained rocks on the old rock trails . . .

So I had a ton of stuff to do yesterday and . . .

I didn't get to blog about the big ALA Children's Literature Awards yesterday, but in between the errands and appts and having company for dinner (made my famous chicken enchiladas and peach/blackberry cobbler) . . .

I DID get a quick chance to find the awards and realize that I have only read ONE on the list - The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.

I'm not familiar with ANY of the other Newbery and Caldecott and Prinz books. Unfortunately. (Because I did not get to cheer or wring my hands in anticipation for any of them).

Fortunately - I now have a whole new list of books to read!

Go straight to the full award list page here: www.ala.org

BUT here's a quick list of the top three awards - and I do know that there are readers of my blog who probably aren't aware yet (cough, cough). Not that I'm going to mention any NAMES.

Hey, enjoy some great books!

John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature.
“Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village,” written by Laura Amy Schlitz, is the 2008 Newbery Medal winner. The book is published by Candlewick.

Three Newbery Honor Books were named:
“Elijah of Buxton,” by Christopher Paul Curtis, published by Scholastic;
“The Wednesday Wars,” by Gary D. Schmidt, published by Clarion and
“Feathers,” by Jacqueline Woodson, published by Putnam.

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children.
“The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” illustrated by Brian Selznick, is the 2008 Caldecott Medal winner. The book is published by Scholastic.

Four Caldecott Honor Books were named:
“Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad,” illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine, and published by Scholastic;
“First the Egg,” illustrated and written by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, and published by Roaring Brook/Neal Porter;
“The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain,” illustrated and written by Peter Sís, and published by Farrar/Frances Foster; and “Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity,” illustrated and written by Mo Willems, and published by Hyperion.

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults.
“The White Darkness,” by Geraldine McCaughrean, is the 2008 Printz Award winner. The book is published by HarperTempest, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Four Printz Honor Books were named:
“Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet,” by Elizabeth Knox, published by Frances Foster Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux;
“One Whole and Perfect Day,” by Judith Clarke, published by Front Street.
“Repossessed,” by A. M. Jenkins, published by HarperTeen.
“Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath,” by Stephanie Hemphill, published by Alfred A. Knopf

Newbery Predictions anyone?

Many of you are probably in body and person AT the ALA midwinter conference - but I won't let my jealousy give me vapors. (I have my smelling salts handy).

What is the best book YOU read this year? Who/What are you rooting for??? I love to talk about this every year, but seems like it's been pretty quiet and no one is talking much.

I have heard lots of chatter about Sherman Alexie's THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN which I haven't gotten to yet. I didn't even make his talk/booksigning in Albuquerque a couple of months ago. Right in my own backyard. I had another commitment that evening, but I've heard he's hilarious and the book superb, but I've gotten the impression it's a book more for YA's so maybe he's really in the Prinz category.

Here are the books I finished the year 2007 off with (read between Thanksgiving and New Year's.):

CHILDREN'S/YA:

THE AURORA COUNTY ALL-STARS by Deborah Wiles - This is definitely a Newbery contender. Loved it!

A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT by Linda Urban - Another definite Newbery in the running. I adored it and, amazingly, I think I liked it even better than Wiles book even though I've been one of her fans since Ruby Lavender. Maybe it's because I grew up with an organ playing mother and I play myself, but I DID get to play the piano too and ended up a piano major in college.

CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY by Ally Carter

HOW TO RUIN A SUMMER VACATION by Simone Elkeles

TOP TEN USES FOR AN UNWORN PROM DRESS by Tina Ferraro

HOW TO TAKE THE EX OUT OF BOYFRIEND by Janette Rallison

ADULT BOOKS:

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS MARSH
THE OASIS ROAD
THE HORUS ROAD
All by Pauline Gedge - a trilogy of ancient Egypt, my research passion of the last three years or so

NEFERTITI: A NOVEL by Michelle Moran - another, um, Egypt book in case you couldn't tell, but Gedge's books are much better. Nefertiti was just annoying in this book and the characters were pretty one-dimensional.

WE ONLY HAVE TWO MORE DAYS BEFORE ANNOUNCEMENTS.

GIVE ME YOUR LOVES AND HATES AND HOPEFUL WINNERS!

Happy, Um, Everything!

Hi guys and girls . . . Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Christmas, Happy New Year!
I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since I posted. No, make that 7. I am SOOOO bad. But I have to say that I have missed y'all.

I've had three bouts of illness, out of town school visits, an Author Fest, a trip to California to visit my darling sister and her family for a week (it's been 8 years since my whole family saw her whole family at the same time - needless to say we had a fabulous Christmas together and a blast except my mom fell in the kitchen and sprained several body parts and had a horrendous toothache the whole time and went back to Phoenix for a root canal), then I came home 10 days ago to stomach flu and eye surgery and the news that my 19 year old son wants to marry his girlfriend.

I'm numb.
And my eye hurts. Like there's stuff in it - eyelashes and sand. It really bugs.
And I haven't written or revised anything in two months even though I have three projects waiting for my attention.

Good things: it was sunny in the Bay Area during the Christmas week. So unusual. No rain or fog. It was great.
I also realized how much I've missed the ocean and walking on the Golden Gate and eating at Fenton's. And I realized how much I've missed all my relatives. We got together on Christmas Eve at my aunt's house for dinner and a Christmas program - my sister and I even sang the Christmas duet, "Star Bright", that we used to sing as teenagers and my youngest brother accompanied us on his guitar and we also got to see his adorable twin boys Kohner and Kyler. Soooo cute!!!! And huggable. Even though I may have picked up the stomach thing from them. Still, they're absolutely worth it. My aunts and uncles told funny stories about my dad (who was killed in an airplane crash when I was 14 just a few days before Christmas) and it was so great. I told them how much I appreciated hearing those stories, and it made me weepy, but what's Christmas and family for?

Now I'm trying to breeze through everyone's blogs, but I think it will take 40 hours to read everything from the last 2 months. Sorry, but I don't think that's gonna happen! But I think y'all will forgive me, right?

Hope your New Year has started well!

TTFN - and More Later!
Kimberley

Books and Trips

Here it is, my beloved childhood book, Two Are Better than One by Carol Ryrie Brink, and it was a delight and a pleasure to read once more after so many, many years. (We won't say how many, a little secret I'll keep to myself, ahem.)

Alas, the cover art here is a later paperback version and not nearly as fine and wonderful as the original hardback version, but I was able to find the original and purchase it for my collection. Gosh, I have a book collection. How fun! Of course, all my books are spilling over the bookcases and under the desk and under the bed and on top of things. One of these days I'll get more bookcases and organize my "library".

A library of his own is something my middle son dearly wants when he has his own house someday. He's talked about it for years and he will ONLY purchase hardback editions of all his favorite books since that is what a true library should have. So all the bookcases I purchase end up in his room. Well, when he moves out and takes all those books with him . . . I'll confiscate the suckers for my own!

I've been a busy bee the past two weeks and not blogging, shame on me. I did manage to finally finish the rewrite for Secret Rites of the Goddess and get it off to three agents who requested within hours. Heady stuff. I also sent off The Healing Spell manuscript to an editor who wanted to see it again. Fingers crossed. Gosh, I cross my fingers and toes so much I swear they're soon going to drop off my body.

Tomorrow, I take off for the north country of New Mexico. 200 miles in the car and then two days of school visits and the Farmington Public library. Should be fun! My bags are packed, I'm ready to go . . . sing it with me . . .

I also just finished reading DRAGON'S KEEP, a terrific novel by an author I haven't read before. Stunning writing, incredibly brilliant storytelling about an old Merlin legend and a princess who fulfills a 600 year old prophecy.

P. S. to Sarah sarah_create whom I big-time owe an email. If you have a child you're looking to purchase a book for that loves dragons and medieval stories and will be enjoyed for more than one reading and by the whole family I definitely recommend this one! Janet Lee Carey is the author, of course.


See you all next week!!!
Be good.

Screaming with Unexpected Delight!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to Laura Bowers, I love you!!! laurabowers

Your Tuesday's post was an answer to my prayers. You thought your procrastination on the computer was time-wasting, but you helped me SO much I still can't get over it.

Your link to Shelfari solved a 20 year old mystery because I found a book I've been looking for forever.

The book? TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE.

I read this when I was about 10 -11 years old - ADORED IT - and have been trying off and on to find it for so long. I've put out questions to other writers and in fact, I was about ready to post on my blogs to see if anybody recognized the book and could help me locate a copy.

I've searched every online new and used bookstore on the net without luck for so many years. I started wondering if I dreamed up the whole book! Was my memory just totally gone? Did I ever actually read this book? Why couldn't I find it? I also could not remember the author's name to save my soul.

Turns out I had the title slightly wrong. I kept Googling TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE which is a quote from the book. Adding that one word HEADS threw off every search engine and online bookstore.

But SHELFARI didn't! (Yay for them to do a slight variation). I went to Laura's link to Shelfari on a total whim yesterday, plugged in the title and the book came up!

It was real.
I wasn't dreaming!
It's the right book!
My jaw dropped right to my keyboard.
I started screaming.
My son ran in to see what was wrong?
I was laughing and crying with delight! I'm SOOOOOOO THRILLED!

And I ordered a copy of the book in its original hardcover edition with a dust jacket no less. I cannot wait to get it and read it again.

That is the power of books on a kid's life.
This kid.
Me.

P. S. The author of TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? None other than Carol Ryrie Brink - Newbery winner of Caddie Woodlawn. That just about freaked me out, too. The book wasn't by some obscure author at all like I'd been supposing for so long.

P. P. S. Laura, can I take you out to dinner sometime???

*Practice Thoughts*

A quote from the inimitable Madeleine L'Engle:
"I know writers who write only when inspiration comes. How would Isaac Stern play if he played the violin only when he felt like it? He would be lousy."

I've often wailed over all the *practice* novels I've written and why it took so many of them before I got published. Why do I have to practice more than other people? Why aren't I more talented? Why does this feel harder for me than other writers?

Whine, whine, whine. Oh, woe is me.

Maybe I just have more to learn.

Maybe I spent too much time in my early years of writing waiting for inspiration. Or the dishes to get done. Or a clean house so I could concentrate. Or the errand list was finished. Or waiting for the babies to take a nap. (Which mine rarely did, even as infants. They were born wide-awake and stayed that way!)
Or. Or. Or.

Maybe I really did not practice enough.

Great Books I read in October

Call me totally lazy for not blogging for 3 weeks, but I took an enforced *blacation*. "Blog Vacation" as created by the cute jmprince due to total craziness around here.

But I gotta mention some incredibly terrific books. I REALLY wish I could have posted pictures of the covers. I want to figure out an easier way of posting pictures without having to copy and save them into my personal files, then upload them. Anybody have a faster way? It makes blogging SO time-consuming. I don't know how y'all do it every day with pictures, too! Check out these author's websites and you'll see the books for yourself! FABULOSO COVERS for FABULOSO NOVELS!!! Delicious until the last word . . .

SUCH A PRETTY GIRL by Laura Weiss

WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte

BROTHERS, BOYFRIENDS, AND OTHER CRIMINAL MINDS by April Lurie

WICKED LOVELY by Melissa Marr

EMILY GOLDBERG LEARNS TO SALSA by Micol Ostow

CASTING THE GODS ADRIFT: A TALE OF ANCIENT EGYPT by Geraldine McCaughrean

DEVILISH by Maureen Johnson

CURES FOR HEARTBREAK by Margo Rabb

Adult Novel: THE THIRTEENTH TALE by Diane Setterfield

Slammed. And a klutz!

Slammed with stuff right now and the big revisions for four novels (same ones they just take a long time!). So I'm a little scarce lately. I hope things will calm down in a couple more weeks.

In the klutz news: I've been notorious since I was a kid for hurting myself. My family used to laugh at me and now my husband does. Sliding across the blacktop on my bare knees during Steal the Bacon or falling off the clothes hamper (60 stitches in my leg) or cutting myself with a knife in the kitchen or burning my finger on the stove.

In the last week:
1. Almost burned the house down when the oven caught fire. Yeah, I hadn't cleaned it in a while. See, I've been slammed with work lately. Anyhoo, I thought it would stop if I didn't give it any oxygen and when I checked a few moments later the whole oven was ablaze. Smoke pouring out, alarm going off. I almost called the fire department, but I managed to get close enough finally to douse it with baking soda. It took the rest of the afternoon to get all the smoke out of the house. Later that night I cleaned the darn thing. My cookies burned.

2. On Saturday we went to the BYU/UNM football game with a big group of friends. We rooted for BYU, our alma mater - of course! - and the game was SO exciting and we clapped and pounded the bleachers so hard I completely bruised up my left hand. It swelled and now it's all purple. Embarrassing. BYU won - whadda ya think? 31 - 24. And that was after the referees took away one of the touchdowns five minutes after the fact. Sheesh.

3. That same night I was finishing up some dishes and I was washing a very large glass lid that goes to the frying pan. It slipped and SHATTERED into a thousand pieces into the sink. Gravity defying glass. It flew UP! My hands were literally covered in about two dozen tiny shards. Blood dripping. I didn't move. Screamed for my husband and he and my son slowly and carefully picked out all the shards and pieces over the next 10 minutes while I stood there trying not to freak out.

See, I have weird accidents.