Guest Author and Giveaway 4

This Contest is Official Closed.

Day four and you know what that means, it's the LAST DAY!!! so YOU better get those entries in...NOW!!! Our fourth author is Carmen Rodrigues, author of NOT Anything. Carmen lives by the words, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Give her your junk, and she'll be sure to turn it into art, just like her book. Here she is with a take on the best gifts man can give.

As a little girl on Christmas Eve, my sisters and I would wedge ourselves into adjacent twin beds to endure the mountain of hours that stood between bedtime and the arrival of our favorite white-haired geriatric, Santa Claus. I was the youngest of the brood, which meant that I got the unlucky spot--the seam between the beds. In between talking, laughing, and hushing (because we thought we heard adult footsteps prowling toward our door), we would sleep, rolling around in bed, a mass of tangled legs and matted hair. There, nestled safely between them, I dreamt of reindeer crashing through a snowy night to land safely on the roof of my yellow house. I never wondered how Santa would find his way into our home (we didn’t have a chimney for him to slide down) or how he knew exactly what to give me (I had never written him a note). I just trusted that when I awoke on Christmas morning, that empty space underneath our tree would overflow with gifts tailor-made for me.

I had faith—that kind of unquestioning faith that is necessary for a young girl to believe in the impossible notion that some magical man with mystical reindeer (one with a glow-in-the-dark red nose, no less) could and would fly across the planet to deliver gifts to all the deserving children. The older, skeptical me writing this piece would, given all of my adult-wisdom, joke that in order to pull off a task that monumental, Santa must have attached to his super-slick sled a U-haul filled with Red Bull, but, like I said, that’s just the jaded, adult me. The childhood me of the early 1980s, didn’t ponder the logistics of Santa’s feat; I merely accepted that Santa, like the holy trinity, could do anything.

Now I am grown up and well aware that Santa Claus does not exist. Still, I have faith in the power of Christmas. I have faith that this holiday and all the other holidays of this season serve a rich purpose in our lives: They bring us together to appreciate the joy that we give to one another, to understand that this world that we exist in is bigger than the sphere of our daily lives. So, on these special days, I encourage you to tell those around you how you feel. I suggest the following: I love you. I really enjoy your friendship. I’m happy that I know you. What would my world be without you? Trust me, these precious words of affirmation are the most valuable gifts we can give one another. And the best part? You don’t need a magical man in a red suit with mystical reindeer to deliver them. I bid you happy holidays.

XO,

Carmen Rodrigues
Author, NOT ANYTHING

So now, what's in stock for you? Carmen Rodriguiez has for one lucky winner, a copy of Not Anything! All you have to do is leave a comment... oh, and tell your friends.

Don't forget to also enter for a copy of Poison Ivy by Amy.
Don't forget to also enter for a copy of A Season of Eden by JM.
Don't forget to also enter for a copy of Sucks To Be Me by Kimberly Pauley

Extra Entries?
post about the contest and include the link in your comment--one extra entry
tell me where/who you heard about this contest from in your comment--one extra entry for you and the person