Augusta Jane for her wonderful entry:

The way I see things, well is a little differant.
Heroic! Oh yes, fighting off Germans is very heroic!
Extrordianarily gifted, with the sixth since I mean
Obviously prepared to decurse
Don’t be a bother and be thankful for the jam sandwiches father!
Oh my goodness, Bollingsworth is evil!
Shhhh Henry! Your feet sound like a dozen hipopotimi!
I never want to sleep in a small boat again!
American mothers are to keep an eye on when it comes to bringing home arftifacts.

And we also have a runner-up! Miss Kiki Kyra Kiyura! for her rhyming entry…

The little well-known saviour of London, who could it be?
Have you heard of this hero? I’ll give clues and we’ll see!
Everything counts on their cleverness and skill
Or else the whole operation would have gone downhill.
(Do you have the gist? If not, another rhyming hint comes.)
Or you’ve seen how bravely SHE faced all that came, and how
She knew that it wasn’t even close to a simple game.
If you’ve guessed the identity of this young, smart girl….
Absolutely correct is THEODOSIA. Give that name a whirl!

Well done, girls! All the entries were fabulous! So hard to choose!

Augusta and Kyra, after getting your parents permission, email your address to robin (at) theodosiathrockmorton.com so she can send you your prizes!

Yes, I am practicing my French in an attempt to ward off any talk of governesses. I don’t know why everyone puts so much value on speaking French. It’s not like Latin and Greek are chopped liver, you know.

Anyway…

As promised, I have returned. With a contest no less! Although I must warn you, it’s beastly difficult to come up with contests than can be run on a blog. But I have a few up my sleeve. So, without further ado, this week’s contest:

Create an acrostic poem, using my name! Like this…

T

H

E

O

D

O

S

I

A

And for each letter, come up with a word or phrase that describes, me, my adventures, my adversaries, anything at all, really. The more original and obscure, the better!

We’ll run the contest for one week, and the winner will receive a small, four inch high statue of the Egyptian goddess, Bastet, in her cat form. (Very much like the one I was de-cursing in the opening of The Serpents of Chaos.)

One entry per person, so take your time and make it the best it can be. The contest will close Monday, June 16 at 6:00 PST. I will announce the winner on the following Tuesday (June 17) so none of you will have to stay up past your bedtime. I do realize that some parents pay attention to that sort of thing.

Hi everyone! RL here. I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long but my computer went up in a little, plastic smelling puff of smoke and I’ve been without a computer for two weeks. Argh! But I’m back now with a bright, shiny new computer and ta-da! The cover art for Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris! Isn’t it gorgeous??

And in celebration of summer, I’ll be back next Monday with a new contest

Theodosia Throckmorton: The Perilous Account of a Young Girl, a Cursed Cat, a Heart with Evile Intent, Several Nefarious Gentleman With German Accents, and a Few Dozen Jam-Soiled Frocks

by Leximel!

Congratulations, Leximel! That was an awesome title and very in keeping with the whole Victorian English Literature thing. I’ll contact you for your address and get it in the mail this week!

There were a ton of great entries, guys! And don’t worry. We’ll have another contest in two weeks…

Okay girls. You’ve asked for it, you’ve got it. We’re going to have a new contest with the prize being a copy of the German edition of Theodosia The Curse of the Black Cat.

To enter the contest, you have to come up with an alternative name for Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, sort of like the German publisher did. What else do you think would have made an intriguing title, knowing what you know about the book?

The Rules:

Only three title suggestions per person, so be sure and think about them. Also, once you’ve posted your title ideas, you can’t change your mind, that’s your entry.

The contest will run for one week. That can be confusing, I know, since the blog time is in Theodosia time. So for clarity’s sake: Today is Wed. May 7. I’ll close the contest next Wed. May 14 at 6:00 pm PST.

I’m not sure if any of you speak German or not, but I found a box of these lovely German editions on my doorstep Friday night. In German, the book is called, The Curse of the Black Cat. I totally love the earring Isis is wearing. I want one for my cat. Except I think she’d probably shred me to ribbons if I tried to put one on her.

Kaitlyn mentioned she was having a birthday party (Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn!) and wanted some ideas for an Egyptian Themed Party. Here are my ideas. If any of you have any ideas feel free to mention them in the comments!

I’d start with the invitations. Find sheets of paper that look like papyrus or at least that fibrous, rice paper sort of stuff, then decorate the invitations using Egyptian symbols and hieroglyphs. (I believe they make rubber stamp kits for those.) Then roll the invitations up like scrolls before handing them out. Maybe even tie them up with a piece of straw or strip of fake leather.

Consider having the birthday cake in the shape of a sarcophagus. Or if that’s too grisly, a pyramid.

You could play a game where you pin the name of an Egyptian god or goddess on the back of everyone’s frock. Then they have to guess who they are by asking the other party goers questions that can be answered yes or no. The first one who guesses who they are wins.

Or how about Wrap the Mummy? Divide everyone up into teams and they have to wrap one of their team members up like a mummy using either rolls of toilet paper or white crepe paper. First one to completely wrap their mummy wins.

Maybe also have an amulet making activity. There are some great instructions for this in Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos.

Maybe even have an archaeological “dig” by burying party favors and prizes in a sand pit and having the guests have to “dig” them out or discover them.

Or how about a treasure hunt with teams of guests having to follow clues to find the Egyptian treasure?

Or maybe a word scramble game where you pass out sheets of paper to each guest with a number of Egyptian names and words scrambled? The first one that unscrambles them all gets a prize.

You could have the party goers help with the decorating by having big strips of white butcher paper taped up to the walls, and then have everyone decorate them with Egyptian hieroglyphics and symbols and drawings, like the ancient Egyptians used to decorate the walls of their pyramids and tombs.

For music you could play musical chairs to “Walk Like An Egyptian” by the Bangles.

Food might include dates, nuts, honey cakes, chicken or lamb kabobs…
And that’s all I can think of for now. Hope you have a lovely party!

Over in the “Contest Winner Announced” comment thread, Kyra and Paige have been talking about books they like. I thought that would be a good thing to talk about in it’s own post.

Paige and Kyra both liked the Harry Potter books and The Golden Compass. I, too, loved TGC. Talk about a grand adventure! With polar bears! Paige also mentioned the Warrior series, which I haven’t read or heard of.

Two of my very favorite books are The Secret Garden and The Little Princess, both by Frances Hodgson Burnett. If you haven’t read these books, do give them a try! I am especially fond of Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden. I think everyone is entirely too quick to think poorly of her!

Feel free to post your favorites in the comment section! I’ve just started a new book that Henry left behind when he went off to school: The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit. I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve finished it.

And the winner of our Demonic Cat contest is…

Chaton! And her evil cat Squeak.

Chaton, email me (with your parent’s permission, of course,) and I will send you your very own miniature Bastet statue! (Uncursed–of course.)

I just realized I never set a deadline for the last contest!

How about Friday, October 12 at midnight. That will be the time the contest officially ends and I can declare a winner!

Hullo! I’m back! So sorry for the long absence, but there were so many things to do, artifacts to uncurse, new books to write, scrapes to be got out of. Well, you know the drill. I’m very sorry for having abandoned you for the last two months. So sorry, in fact, that I thought I’d have a contest to start things back up.

And I think this contest will have to do with demonic cats.

The Egyptians had the right of it on cats. The goddess Bastet, was the personification of the gentle, warm, nurturing power of the sun, where as the goddess Sehkmet, with the head of a lioness embodied the sun’s fierce, destructive power.

Much as my cat does. Warm and loving one minute, mad, stalking huntress the next.

So do any of you have any demonic cat stories? Times when your normally sweet kitten seemed to go berserk?

For example, the time my brother Henry was giving our cat a lovely tummy rub. She lay relaxed on the floor, purring, and he was rubbing her soft, furry stomach. Then, with no warning whatsoever, she decided his hand—the same one that had been rubbing her tummy mere seconds ago—was a rabid rat that must be killed at all costs, and clamped his hand in her two front paws and shredded it with her two back paws. Tore Henry’s hand to ribbons! When she was all done, she padded over to him and rubber her head against his knees in a friendly manner, completely ignoring the red welts she’d made.

Honestly, Is that not demonic? You can read another example of demonic cat behavior here.

To enter the context, post your own demonic cat story in the comments below. Try to keep it to two or three short paragraphs. The winner will receive a small, fetching statue of Bastet herself!

(And remember – no last names! I’d hate it if the Serpents of Chaos were able to locate you!)

Hello again. Just thought I’d pop in with a couple of updates and announcements. First, Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos will be available in paperback beginning in May.

Secondly, in honor of the upcoming paperback, I’ve posted some reader discussion questions for you to use for either a book report or a class discussion. (Please don’t answer the questions here! We wouldn’t want to spoil the book for anyone who hasn’t finished it yet!)

Also, there is an official publication date for Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris: November 1, 2008. As the date draws closer, I’ll post some excerpts and have new contests!

Seth was the Egyptian god of Chaos. He was brother to Osiris, the wise and beloved god of the Underworld.

Seth had dominion (which means he ruled over) chaos and the barren desert. He was very powerful and much feared. He could be violent and destructve. For some parts of Egyptian history, he was viewed very similarly to the Devil. During other parts of history, he was seen more as someone who ruled over chaos, understanding that it had to be acknowledged before it could be defeated.

He was so terrible that often times Egyptian artists made sure to paint him smaller than he really was so that he looked harmless. They were afraid if they drew or painted him bigger, it might give him more power.

Seth has quite a varied history, having at one time killed his brother Osiris and chopped him up into little pieces, which Isis collected so she could put the god of the Underworld back together. (Myths can be so grisly sometimes, can’t they?) He also fought a ferocious battle with Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis.

But on his good days, Seth could use his ferocious power for good. He battled the serpent Apep to save Ra. And oftentimes Egyptian magicians invoked his magic in order to battle chaotic or dangerous forces, thinking one needed violence and destruction to fight violence and destruction. Rather like the old saying fight fire with fire.

But now you understand why having an entire secret organization devoted to Chaos would be a very, very bad thing!

Heavens! This was hard! There were so many lovely entries!

In the end, I had to let Isis pick. I wadded up each entry into a little paper ball and tossed them (gently!) at Isis. The one she batted at first was the winner.

And it was…

Leximel! For her brilliant amulet that would help one stay awake and fight off fatigue. As she explains, it would be wonderfully useful in secret missions and for late nights–both of which happen to me with an alarming amount of regularity!!

Thank you all so much for participating! We shall have to do it again soon, so there will be lots of chances to win!

(And thank you to Isis, too, for helping.)