Thankful for Happy Winners!!

I'm kicking off the Thanksgiving holiday weekend by announcing the winner of a digital copy of  SEAL of My Dreams and the three winners from my Authors on a Pedestal post. Without further ado...

By total random happenstance (by which I mean I put your names in a bowl and had a dayjob coworker draw the winner) the winner of a digital copy of SEAL of My Dreams is - Landra! Congratulations! Please send your e-mail information to kierstenATkierstenkrumDOTcom and I will get you a copy of that fantastic anthology tout suite.

The three winners from Authors on a Pedestal post (again, names picked from a bowl. We're pretty bare bones here at Two Left Shoes) are Commenter #2 Joanna Shupe, Commenter #7 Robin Covington, and Commenter #3 Nicole Doran!!!

Congratulations to all winners! Please send me your snail mail details and I will get your prizes out to you. First one of you to reply gets a signed, hardcover copy of Sherilyn Kenyon's Born of Shadows !

The Thanksgiving holiday gives us the time and space to reflect on those things and people for whom we are most thankful and the opportunity to give them voice. I am thankful for each one of you who visits my quirky little blog. I am delighted by your comments and so very grateful that you take time out of you busy, busy lives to say hello and share your thoughts on whatever random thing has sprouted from my deliciously off-kilter mind. May you have a glorious Thanksgiving Day surrounded by those you love and filled with way too much fantastic food.

Blessings and endless joy to you all.

SEAL of My Dreams

Image courtesy of www.sealofmydreams.com.

On Veteran's Day last year, I wrote about my Dad-Dad's story of when he arrived home from World War II, and a Peanuts cartoon, and Flanders Fields. Two months later, I revealed how the word "embellish" takes on new and amazing meaning in the hands of a master spinner like my Dad-Dad. The man's a piece of work, I'll tell you.

For Veteran's Day 2011, I'm shilling - and I couldn't be happier to be doing it

I am, on a regular basis, extremely proud to be a member of the romance writing community, no more so than today when I can tell you about SEAL of My Dreams, an amazing anthology put together by some of the leading romance writers of our day, as you can see by the names listed on the cover to the right.

Oh, that cover! When Bin Laden was killed, this photo (posted in full below) was featured with a New York Times article on Navy SEALs. If a picture is worth a thousand words, well, this one was worth a thousand sighs as women all over took one look and went "Wow". It's been featured regularly on ManCandyMondays ever since, basically whenever I can find the slightest excuse to work it into the theme of the week.

SEALs are the elite warriors of the Navy, men whose training and abilities are the stuff of legend - only this is real life. They are living, breathing, walking heroes though they'd be the very last ones to label themselves so.

 
They are men worthy of our admiration, our gratitude, and, in the case of SEAL of My Dreams, our imagination.
 
It doesn't take much for writers to be inspired and this photo was enough to spur a cadre of them to contribute stories to SEAL of My Dreams, (a title I regularly misrepresent as SEALed for Your Pleasure [Freudian much?]). Look at those names! Christie Ridgway, Cindy Gerard, Tara Janzen, HelenKay Dimon, Roxanne St Claire - only a few of the bestselling romance writers names who contributed original stories to this book.

But what elevates SEAL of My Dreams and its authors to amazo levels is the fact that proceeds from its sale will be donated towards veterans medical research. Our brave men and women who stand on the front lines and the back lines and all the lines in between in defense of our nation and its people are coming home with physical and psychological injuries that few of us will ever be able to completely understand. They need our help, now more than ever.

As a small contribution to the cause, I'll be giving away a Kindle or Nook digital copy of Seal of My Dreams to a commenter here at Two Left Shoes as well as buying one in print for myself.

Leave a comment and tell me about a veteran in your life, or perhaps a military themed book that you enjoy (I'm extremely partial to Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooter series), or what story you're most looking forward to reading in Seal of My Dreams. Contest is open until 5 PM Monday, November 14, 2011. I'll post the winner on Tuesday. UPDATED 11/15/11: Extended through to Friday, November 18th at 7PM.

Last year on Veteran's Day, I linked to this column by Aaron Sorkin, creator and showrunner of my beloved The West Wing and the great Sports Night. Read it now, or again as I did, to get a tiny glimpse of what our soldiers are going through, the pain and suffering our military men and women continue to endure long after they've come home.

Finally, a few links that will give you some first-person, behind-the-scenes accounts of how Seal of My Dreams came to be: 

An interview with Christie Ridgway, who first tweeted the seminal photo that started it all and spearheaded the anthology.

An interview with Cindy Gerard.

An interview with Roxanne St. Claire where she talks about her nephew, an Army Ranger (Rangers lead the way!).

And the Navy SEALs themselves, or at least a post on their official blog that features SEAL of My Dreams.

Our safety, our freedom, continues to come at a high price, one that will never be paid in full.

Veterans, I salute you.

Hoo Rah.