Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

What a wonderful day I’m having.  Just about a month ago I submitted my novel PARADISE PARK into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards competition.  Ten thousand people entered, and the field was narrowed to just two thousand.  In the middle of the night last night (or was it a bleary-eyed early morning?) I received an email notification that my novel made it into the next level.  That’s right!  PARADISE PARK is now one of the five-hundred novels left out of ten thousand!

Now comes the American Idol part.  That’s why I need your help.  Publisher’s Weekly is going to review and rate the 500 novels.  You READERS are going to review and rate the excerpts, too.  You get to help choose the novels that Penguin Books will move into the semi-finals (100 out of the 500 novels), and then into the finals (3 out of 100).  Then your choices will decide the final winner!

I would love to have you review my novel.  Of course, I’d like you to give me a rating of 5 at the Amazon site to keep my numbers high!

You can see the instructions that my daughter Gabrielle has provided here at www.Lmadhildebrandt.com.  She has also included a link to my excerpt at Amazon.  If you join the mailing list, I can keep you informed of our progress.

Thanks in advance!

Mad

FAT TUESDAY

Mardi Gras does not really belong to New Orleans. Well, okay, maybe it does – but it also belongs to Mobile, Alabama. The first one was held in Mobile in 1703 (before New Orleans!). Unlike the Big Easy’s celebration, the one over here is dedicated to the “family.” Sorry guys, there aren’t any bared breasts. But there IS candy, and beads, and lots and lots of moonpies! For two and half weeks, folks flock downtown and line the streets. You have to check the map, ‘cause there are several different routes, and more than one parade can be rolling at the same time.

Talk about a rollicking good time! The first parade I went to I was unarmed. I mean, I was totally unprepared. Of course I expected the beads. I even figured that candy might come my way. But isn’t that for the kids? Maybe so, back home in Denver. Not so, here. It seemed that every man, woman, and child around me had at least one plastic grocery bag – with another two or three tucked away in a pocket.

As the parade drew closer people started yelling and waving. Some had big signs – the kind people wave on the Today Show. The roar grew, and Dixieland jazz joined in. Wow! What a wild excitement permeated the crowd. I pressed against the barrier as everyone’s enthusiasm grew. Suddenly the bags emerged and hands went up. The float approached and masked men flung gobs of beads, and handfuls of candy. Suddenly a moonpie flew past me, snagged out of the air just by my ear. But it didn’t stop there! Was that a Pringle’s can? And then a pack of ramen soup landed at my feet. The revelers were throwing food. Amazing! Then the stuffed toys came out. Giant ones and small.

Epiphany. The louder you roar, wave, or catch attention with your own costume, crazy hat, or sign – then the more stuff you’ll get. It’s all about the eyes. If you can catch a reveler’s attention, and he gives you that look – the one that connects his eyes to yours – then watch out . . . grab your grocery sack and get ready to catch!

Happy Day!

Mad

Hi friends,

I like hotdogs. I’m not ashamed to say it. Every now and again I get a total craving that just HAS to be fed. I suppose I could open a bag of dogs from the grocery store, but where’s the fun in that? On days like today, I head into Mobile and get a taste of Chicago. That’s right. Chicago. There’s a little place in town called Al’s Hot Dogs. It’s run by a guy named . . . you got it . . . Al. He hails from the Windy City, and from the looks (and taste) of it, I think he must have had one of those hotdog stands downtown. You know the type I’m talking about. If you’ve ever been to any downtown, in any relatively big (to giant) city, then you’ve at least seen them. I’m talking about the guy with the cart at some street corner.

Going into Al’s is kind of like bringing a hotdog cart inside and turning it into a sit-down café. Yum! He even serves the dogs in a paper tray and piles whatever your particular choices on top.

I think I’m gonna go get a hotdog.

Mad

Remember Gilligan’s Island?

Tacked on at the end of the theme was “the Professor and MaryAnn…”  They were both so insignificant (apparently) that the original version didn’t even include them at then end of that song!  I couldn’t have disagreed more.  These two were far from insignificant and quickly became my favorite characters.  You see, I’m a bit of a MaryAnn . . . As a child I was the dark haired girl in the background.  Just like Maryann.  My sister Sandi was tall, beautiful, voluptuous, and strawberry-blond.  She was our Ginger.  My oldest brother JR wasn’t fat, but he was our natural leader, our Skipper.  And Mike had a big funny bone, so he was a natural fit for Gilligan.

When my father acquired a broken boat from Lakeside Amusement Park he dug a hole in our backyard and sunk the ‘ship’ into the ground.  We played a lot of Gilligan, the four of us and that old boat.  Nobody cared about the Howell’s in our backyard.  We didn’t need them.  They were old.  But somebody had to play the professor now and again.  After all, he got to solve an awful lot of problems.  He and the Skipper were the most important people on that island.  Without them the rest of the folks would have died of starvation or exposure.  As the youngest of our own cast, I would flip characters.  Professor — Maryann — Professor — Maryann.  It was kind of schizo.  I might have looked like Maryann on the outside, but inside . . . well, I was all professor.

I guess those backyard shipwrecks had a big impact on me.  Today I’m still the professor and Maryann.  I went to school, got educated off the deep end, and actually became a professor.  And I still look like Maryann.

Maybe Maryann was a writer.

Mad

I’m glad to post a few of my upcoming workshops, classes and appearances for 2009.  I also have calendar space available for new bookings.  Email me if your organization is interested in any of my offerings.

Pemberton, NJ

Burlington County College

January – May 2009

HIS 101-61    Western Civilization I

HIS 104-17   American History II

Orono, ME

University of Maine

January 15, 2009

The Mat Game: the History of American Championship Wrestling

Mobile, AL

Mobile Writer’s Guild

March 5, 2009 (tentative date)

Put History Into Your Fiction

Workshops Available for Booking:

Put History Into Your Fiction
Research Techniques for Writers
Journaling for Writers
Journaling: Writing Life Stories for your Children
Where We Came From: Researching the History Around Your Roots