Back from the Mountain to Choose Book Winners

I am back from the Create in Me retreat that I go to every year, where we have fun creating together and we talk about the intersections of Faith, Spirituality (the Christian/Lutherany variety), Creativity, and Art.  I'll put together a post soon.

So, I'm feeling a bit scattered today.  I'm always feeling a bit like I left a leg or an eye or some essential Kristin-ness behind when I return from retreat (or just generally, whenever I return from travel), but this year, it's worse.  I drove up with tales of horrifying tornado weather and death coming from the radio, and this morning, I turn on Morning Edition to hear:  "Osama bin Laden is dead."  I forgot that he was human, just like the rest of us.  I feel discombobulated.

In fact, had not other people been posting their book give-away results, I might have forgotten completely.  So, without further ado, here are the winners, and I'll be getting in touch with each of them by e-mail:

Frontier Literature by Shefali Choksi goes to Jessica Goodfellow

Whistling Past the Graveyard by me goes to Valerie.

Are you sad that you're not getting my book?  It's not too late!  We are in the last two weeks of the pre-order period for my forthcoming book over at Finishing Line Press.  Go here to buy a copy.  The press decides how many copies to print by how many copies are sold during this time, so if you were ever going to buy a book, buying now helps me more than buying later.

And if you were really hoping for my first book, I'll be happy to sell you a copy for a low, low price.

In this time period where storms blow through and kill staggering amounts of people, or when terrorists get a taste of their own treatment, it's more essential than ever to return to what matters.  For some of us, it's poetry.  For others of us, it's fabric and fiber arts.  Maybe it's cooking.  Maybe it's gathering our loved ones close on a regular basis.

I will spend some time today and tomorrow getting re-centered, collecting all my vital parts back here with me.  It's time to get back to poetry writing!  But maybe for one or two more days, I'll nestle into poetry reading as I wait for myself to catch up with myself.