First of all, my deepest apologies for taking so long to get these contest results posted, but the computer crashed and I lost all sorts of emails and passwords and whatnot until RL could get it backed up.

So now it is backed up and running properly again, so I can announce the Word Search Contest Winners!

We have TWO winners! Kaitlyn AND Kyra! Both came up with twenty six words!

If you would email me with your snail mail address (with your parent’s permission, of course!) we will get those copies of THEODOSIA AND THE STAFF OF OSIRIS  out to you! And good work, girls. That one was hard!

Kaitlyn! With her story about her brother who picked up the cigarette butt. Actually, I just saw one of Will’s brothers do this very same thing with a cigar stub, just the other day. It was disgusting!

Kaitlyn, please email me and I will see that you get your very own copy of Mary Hershey’s 10 LUCKY THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO ME SINCE I ALMOST GOT HIT BY LIGHTNING.

Congratulations! Thanks to everyone who participated.

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.

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.

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!)

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.)

Wedjat eyes were a hugely popular symbol of protection and good luck in Egypt. Wedjat eyes can actually represent one of two things, and often incorporate both. One, it is symbolic of the lunar eye of Horus, which was destroyed by the god Seth, then restored to healthy by Thoth. That aspect grants healing and restorative powers. But, it also represents the fierce Eye of Ra–the Egyptian name for the Sun. (That was an actual goddess’s name–wouldn’t that be horrible? To have your name be Eye of Ra? I can just hear it now, “Eye of Ra, where is your hat? Quit dawdling, Eye of Ra!”)

Anyway, being associated with the Eye of the Sun gives the symbol very strong protective properties as well.

I thought it might be fun to have another contest, since we haven’t had one in a while. How about if you invent your own amulet – What shape or color would it be? What materials would it be made out of? And most importantly, what would it protect against?

For example, I would love an amulet that protected me against my grandmother’s overly-critical eye. I think it should be made of something sweet, to counteract her bitter nature. Honey, perhaps? No, no. Too sticky. Maybe a small lump of sugar? Or a sweet of some sort? A lemon drop? No, still a little too much sour in it. Whatever it’s made out of, it should be shaped like a little sun, to remind her to have a sunny disposition. Or shaped like a heart, to remind her of love and kindness. Something she’s seriously lacking.

How about you? What sort of amulet are you most in need of?

The winner of the contest will receive their very own wedjat eye amulet! We’ll run the contest from today thru June 16. That’s ten days, which should give everyone plenty of time to enter. And remember the contest rules: Post your entry in the comments section of this post, and first names only so the Serpents of Chaos have no way of finding you!

Have fun, and good luck!

Let’s have another contest, shall we? This time, instead of an ARC, you’ll have a chance to win an ancient Egyptian pen, just like the one pictured! To enter, simply submit a comment with that tells us your favorite Egyptian god or goddess! Get your comment in by Friday, March 16, then I’ll do a random drawing.

It’s awfully quiet in here. Honestly! Don’t you all know just how lonely it can be, rattling around in a museum all by oneself?

Well, in an effort to try and get you all to speak up, I’ve decided to have a contest. Won’t that be lovely? And all you have to do to enter is to leave a comment. How easy is that? Ah. You’re probably wondering what you might win. I thought an Advanced Reader’s Copy of Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos would be nice, don’t you?

So just leave a comment anytime between now and Saturday, February 24, and you’ll be entered in the contest. I’ll do a random drawing from the names then announce the winner on Monday, February 26. Then the winner can contact me privately with their mailing information and I’ll get an ARC in the mail to you right away. (Please do not post your personal information in the blog comment! The Serpents of Chaos are everywhere, you know…we wouldn’t want them to find you!)

And if you don’t win this time, don’t worry. In order to celebrate the countdown to the book’s publication, I’ll be having lots of contests between now and April 9! So even if you don’t win this week, you can always try again the next. And there’ll be all sorts of different prizes, so it will be worth entering more than once.