Progress and Upcoming Contest--Richard Castle Book

Okay, so I've just about got the 60 pages ready to send to my friend K for her to go on comma patrol. I'm kind of doling it out to her piecemeal, because, as I've mentioned, this puppy's got to be in the mail on May 1. It also has to be at least 200 pages, but I do not think that will be a problem--I've got great headway into the next section of the book and I've already written the ending.
One of the pluses of this technique is that with K looking at the earlier pages, I'm not tempted to go back and write and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. I'm all for putting out a polished product, but if you don't finally send the book out of the house...or at least, if I don't...you find it's like an overgrown college drop out--thirty-five, living in his parents' basement and smoking weed behind their backs.

Contest coming up!!!!
Okay, here's the 4-1-1 on my upcoming contest:

While Shakespeare's birthday isn't really "officially" known, it is commonly believed to be on April 23. Therefore, the week of April 18-April 25, all you have to do is leave a comment on my blog here, and I will put your name in a drawing for your own hardcover copy of "Heat Wave" by fictitious author Richard Castle.

Castle is an ABC series that is like a cross between "Murder She Wrote" and "Law and Order." Most importantly, it stars Nathan Fillion of "Firefly" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fame. He plays Richard Castle, a mystery writer who joins forces with the NYPD when a killer starts copying scenes from Castle's mystery novels.

The chemistry between Castle and the cop (and his inspirational 'muse') Kate Beckett reminds me of the early seasons of Dave and Maddie on "Moonlighting."

Deep, meaningful literature? No. A heck of a lot of fun? Sure.
And...well, there's Nathan Fillion. Nuff said. I recommend you Hulu the series or get a really cool friend to buy you the season on DVD [like my friend C did :)]

The meta-fiction aspect of this is really cool---Nathan Fillion the actor portrays a mystery writer, Richard Castle who bases a character on the NYPD detective Beckett....and now "Richard Castle" has released the book that was discussed in the series. I'm sure there's a Twilight Zone moment in here about what makes reality and how thin that line between virtual world and our world is, but that will need to be done by a far more talented writer than I....

So, once again, the week of April 18-24, leave a comment on my blog. I'll put your name in a hat and draw a name on April 24. I'll video it just to show that everything is kosher.

I will e-mail you via whatever address you leave, and then I will snail mail the book to you. You can send me a PO box if you're not comfortable sending your home address to someone you don't know. (As someone once said, "there's nothing wrong with being paranoid if everyone really is out to get you.)

BTW-- this clip art is from amazon.com---you can't really look inside the book, but you can go to Amazon and do so....

Oh, it would be nice if you left a nice comment for me. Doesn't need to be lengthy, you know, just "don't be hatin'"