HELP THE ELF: I Found Santa’s Missing Nice List!

Hi everyone! As you may remember, a few weeks ago PETE the Elf had a touch too much Eggnog at the Holiday Christmas Party and as he stumbled home, he lost Santa's NICE LIST.

The North Wind scattered the papers to all four corners of the world, and The Bookshelf Muse put out a call to help find them in order to SAVE CHRISTMAS.

Ever since I read about it, I've been on the lookout. And then today, EUREKA!

Yes that's right...I found part of Santa's missing NICE LIST. There it was, fluttering in the wind, half caught under the corner of my welcome mat. And shock of all shocks, I recognized the name, and I bet you will too.

Here it is below:

NAME: Candace Ganger

LOCATION: Lost in Candyland

NICE LEVEL: 98.6%

NAUGHTY LEVEL: 100%

OBSERVATIONS: Candace is jaded, but she's the good kind of jaded, where she doesn't take spit from anybody, cracks the best jokes, and has no problem sharing a virtual beer with a friend who needs one.

RECOMMENDATION:

a) Coal                   b) Gift - an ebook copy of Open Minds, by Susan Quinn

~ ~ * ~ ~

Because poor Pete is dashing all over the place trying to hunt down the rest of Santa's missing Nice List, I decided to handle this one. Candace, I'm so proud to call you my friend! Enjoy the gift I sent to your inbox and have a wonderful Christmas! Booyah.

Photo credit: assorted gold baubles (christmasstockimages.com) / CC BY 3.0

Oh How I Miss You Blogfest!

It's here! The brainchild of Andrew Leon, like any blogfest, it's not going far without the power (and the linky list account) of Alex J. Cavanaugh, Ninja Captain of the good ship Blogosphere. The third co-host, Matthew MacNish, was brought in for his good looks and great taste. Wait. That sounded wrong.

Anyway ...

The bloggers we really miss…

and the ones we would really miss!

Do you have a couple blogger buddies who aren’t posting as often? Those who’ve pulled back and seem absent from the blogging world? Do you have blogger buddies you are grateful they are still around and would miss if they vanished? Now is your chance to show your appreciation and spotlight them!

List one to three bloggers you really miss and one to three bloggers you would miss if they stopped blogging. Then go leave a comment on those blogs.

Our blogger friends are special – time to let them know! 

The bloggers I miss:

Candace Ganger, AKA Candyland Gang, AKA Bethany, AKA The Jaded Wonder. Candace is one of my dearest friends, which is awesome, considering we've never met. She does still blog occasionally, but when I first started out, she was blogging every day, and every single post was a gut-splitting wealth of inspiration, tears, laughter and awkward hugs. I miss your posts almost as much as I miss you, Beth.

Kaye Em Evans. I still keep up with Kaye on Facebook, so it's all good, but I do miss her blog posts. She was another of the first blogs I ever started reading, and her posts were always fun and insightful.

The World in Miniature. This one is kind of cheating, because Bryan actually still blogs, and his cartoons are hilarious, but I really miss the flash fiction feature he used to do, and while I know his career has taken off in the last couple years, and he probably has very little time for blogging, I would love to see more flash fiction on his blog again. I guess I better write some.

The bloggers I would miss:

Katie Mills AKA Creepy Query Girl. Katie is one of my favorite bloggers. I feel like we've been through the trenches together. We both started out around the same time, and became friends quickly, but then we've both been through our share of rejections. Katie is a fighter though, and a talented writer, so as long as she doesn't give up, I know I never will.

Adam Heine. Adam is the Mastermind of Nerd-dom. I know of no better chart-maker, and sometimes it seems like Adam and I may have been separated at birth. I mean how could someone I've never met, who lives on the opposite side of the world, love exactly all the same things I love, and with the same passion? It doesn't seem possible.

Susan Quinn. Susan is the smartest lady I know. Literally. She's a rocket scientist, and she's the most successful self-publishing entrepreneur I know. Her posts on publishing, and craft, are particularly well thought out, researched, and presented. I don't know what I'd do without Susan.

Don't forget to visit everyone involved:

A Friend in Need

It's like 4 AM. I'm sitting here at work, because I came in to cover for the overnight guy, and I keep nodding off, but I can't stop thinking about my friend, Candace.

The Misadventures in Candyland is my all time favorite blog. Hands down. It's the funniest, bravest, most honest thing I've ever read. I dearly miss reading her posts every day, like I used to get to do. Candace has been going through some rough times, lately, with a very difficult pregnancy, and .... well, it's not really my place to put her business up on my blog, but you should go read her post.

Like now.

I already sent her something to try to help, but I would really like it if some of you could lend a hand as well. If everyone who normally leaves a comment here could send Candace and her family even just one dollar, for her wonderful children, Lillihammer, and the Sullinator, it would probably be enough to carry them through to the next paycheck.

I can promise you this is not a scam, and is 100% genuine. Candace gives a lot of her time and effort to a lot of good causes, and because of tough times, this time the cause is her kids. So please, if you can afford to do anything to help, please do.

And if you can't, Candace's blog is still an incredibly entertaining, but also informative place to visit.

You can read about:

How Fartypants are a necessity for getting the Party Starty, or

Why landing an agent is not a Unicorn Toot, or

Just a little bit of Christmas Random, or

Pretty much any post Candace has ever written. She will make you laugh. Promise.

Candylandgang, out.

I Heart Candy Like a Cuban Hearts Miami

What does it mean to be a friend? Can you love someone you've never met?

These are questions I sometimes ask myself as I ponder this fleeting thing called life. When I want to know the answers I think about my good friend Candace Ganger.

We were having a discussion the other day over on my buddy Bryan's blog about strong female characters who do not give up their femininity. I made a comment that the two attributes that I consider strongest are courage and honesty, and that these are by no means masculine traits.

Candace is the most honest person I know. Her courage to share the truth about her life, and the joy and suffering that comes with it, knows no bounds. She often posts the raw deep truth about what she thinks and feels on her blog and I am honestly often shocked by how brave this woman is. I've always considered myself a very open, honest and righteous dude, but these traits don't shine nearly as bright for me as they do for Candace.

Before I go on, and it's not my place to go into why I'm writing about my friend today, please go visit her blog, the Misadventures in Candyland, become a follower, and read her posts. Go ahead, check the archive, you will NOT be disappointed.

...

You back? Did you read this one? What about this one? And this, this and this?

See what I mean? I've never known a person who can be so funny and so brutally honest at the same time. I can't quite put a finger on what makes Candace so great, it's difficult for me to put into words, but I think the best way that I can say it is that she is so motherfunkin human. So kind, so real, so damn funny, and so everloving beautiful (yes Erik, she is also very pretty but that's not what I meant).

Candace, we love you. We need you in our lives. We can't get enough. Here's a video just for you (only Candace is going to have any idea what this has to do with anything, and that's just fine):

If Candace inspires you too, or even if you've never heard of her but you think that courage, honesty, and an incredibly deep wealth of philanthropic giving is an example worth emulating, then you should really visit these other blogs. All of these people are good friends of mine, but this isn't about us, it's about how much Candace has touched each of our lives, and how much we hope and pray that she finds all the success, happiness, literary representation, and New Medicine she deserves:

Jessica Bell

Jen Daiker

Lenny Lee

Sharon Mayhew

WE GOT YOU!

I Heart Joy Part Too

Today I just want to focus on one of the coolest contests ever!

There isn't a whole lot to say. This is a great contest, run by one of the coolest people ever, and it's for a good cause. There are t-shirts, tickets to rockin' shows, and there's cash. There's actually lots of cash to be won.

So come on. Head over to Candace's blog. Read about the cause. And donate. Or buy a shirt. But do something. Today it only takes a buck for you to change the frickin' world!

Look What I Got Last Night!

I don't have much for you guys today but I do have this announcement about the packages I received last night! See all the books that arrived?

Catching Fire, Mockingjay, and Nightshade City are the books I ordered from Amazon with the gift card I got when I got my buddy Cleve to sign up for Gamefly. Get a friend to sign up for an awesome video games by mail service and get free books? Hell yes.

I'm a little ticked that Nightshade City's title didn't show up properly in this photo because it's a beautiful cover and Hilary Wagner is the best ever. It's very exciting because this is the first time ever that I have actually held a real life book in my hand that was written by someone I know, sort of. Hilary is the nicest person you could ever meet. Be sure to visit her blog here and become a follower. You can also read the post where she shared her query with me and The QQQE readers, here.

Linger was sent to me by none other than the lovely Candace Ganger (Beth), because she hearts me (Tim) and wanted to get some crap out of her way before she moved (after). That's what the pink post-it says. "Thanks for taking some crap off my hands, Tim". Candace and I have nick names for each other because we are both slightly mentally ill. Or at least I am. I don't know her well enough to know for sure. Now I have to run out and buy Shiver because my daughter Kylie really wants to jump right into that series.

I had wanted to read Nightshade City right away but my younger daughter Madison has now claimed that one. That's okay. Catching Fire will get me through the weekend.

What are you all reading now? Don't you love having free books show up at your door?

I Got U

BLOGFEST?!?

As most of you know if you've read this blog for very long I don't do blogfests. I don't do blog hops, contests, or awards either. This is not because I hate humanity. I promise. In fact I love you guys. You brought me back from the underwear soiled edge of despair at which I almost gave up writing.

Okay, that might be a little dramatic, but seriously, you guys rock!

The real reason I don't do these follower deluge inducing exercises is because I'm just not organized enough. Case in point: I was supposed to take part in Sheri Larsen's awesome I Got U blogfest ... wait for it ... yesterday. Yeah. I'm on top of it like that. Not to make excuses but I generally write my blog posts the morning of. Unless I have a guest. That would just be rude.

The idea is to give one of your fellow bloggers some love. I'm sort of like a hot ghetto mess of love for ALL my fellow bloggers so it's tough to pick just one, but I do try to build the community up whenever I can so this is a great topic for me. I have selected Candace Ganger to highlight today because ... well for many reasons, but mostly because we're kindred spirits and she rocks.

I could go on for quite some time about what is wonderful about Candace, but I'll try to keep this simple. On the surface the thing that endears me to Candace most is her sense of humor and her honesty. Candace is a lot like myself in that she is rude, crass, and jaded - er, wait ... I meant witty, hilarious, and ultimately ghetto fabulous. Candace has a unique, sort of twisted sense of humor that makes me laugh and cry while peeing my pants just a teeny bit nearly every single day. Hubs is kind of funny too.

Candace also has a wisdom and an outlook on the world that only comes from having lived a tough life full of pain. It wouldn't be my place to talk about this at all if she weren't so open and honest about the real her quite regularly on her blog. This is another thing we have in common, though Candace is better at expressing it.

If it were just these things about Candace she would already be pretty fresh (like a rapper fresh, not like produce) but there is more. We all know of her love of all things Matt Brady and New Medicine, but Candace is also one of the most giving bloggers I know. Not only was she the first to interview the little angel that is Lenny Lee, but she also held one of the most epic and selfless/giving contests I have ever had the privilege to bear witness to.

It's over but you should still go check out her Joy to the World contest just to get an idea of what a beautiful heart this lady has. Yes I did win a prize in the contest (it was a tandem critique from authors Tawna Fenske and Cynthia Reese, and it's been the best thing that happened to my book, ever), but that's not what makes it awesome. What makes it awesome is the cause. The cause and how much work, love, blood, sweat, and letting go of fear that Candace put into making it a success. She had t-shirts, custom graphics, music downloads, and so much more, all in an effort to improve the lives of our fellow human beings in Ghana, a country where a bucket for clean drinking water is a luxury of the wealthy.

Sweet, hilarious, kind and giving? AND organized enough to pull off something as epic as Joy to the World? Candace gets my vote for blogger of the universe any day.

That's all I have for now. I know I'm late to the party (sorry Sheri) but please take a moment to visit these other bloggers who participated in the I Got U blogfest:

Beth Fred

PK Hrezo

Tessa Conte

Summer Ross

WritersBlockNZ

The Alliterative Allomorph

Literary Jam & Toast

Leigh Moore

Lenny's World

Random Thoughts

Book Dreaming

Burnt Amber

My Dear Trash

Creepy Query Girl

Those links are to their front pages, so if they posted today you'll have to check the archives from yesterday for their post for the blogfest, but you can blame me and my seat of the pants blogging habits for screwing that up for everybody.

Announcement: If you look at my sub-sub title you will see that I have no guest set up for tomorrow's post. I have no idea what I'm going to write about. What I need from you people is help finding some more guests. Anyone who has ever submitted a query to an agent that earned them at least a partial request can take part. You just have to have a copy of that query you can share with me. Do any of you have one? Know someone who does? Know someone who might have one but you don't know for sure and want me to ask them?

Let me know. Thanks a million.