Yes, We Have Some Winners

Drum roll please. It’s time to announce the winners of both the Summer and Fall contests that we ran on my site and via my newsletters.

We had loads of entries for the summer contest where I asked you all to tell me about your all-time favorite beach reads. I had a great time reading each and every one of these entries. I could certainly relate to readers like Debby Mundy who lamented that there’s no way to pick just one! Pat Conroy’s Beach Music and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby were both singled out by readers who said they loved those books enough to re-read them every few summers. Nods were also given to Dorothea Benton Frank’s Plantation, Mae Nunn’s Mom in the Middle, and anything by Elizabeth Berg, Maeve Binchy, and Anne Rivers Siddons as hands-down faves. I was flattered by those who told me one of my books was their favorite! I even got a couple of recommendations including Tour de Force by Elizabeth White and Murder by Mushroom by Virginia Smith which both sound so interesting I just might have to check them out—as soon as I get a break from writing Summer Rental, that is!

But after I read all the entries, two of them just stuck with me. So there are two winners for the Summer contest. The first is Keisha DeShazo Robinson who told a really heartwarming story about how she read my book Little Bitty Lies on her honeymoon, basking in the breezy sunshine on the bright blue water of Paradise Island and how thinking about my books takes her back to that idyll. If I can take someone back to their honeymoon in their mind, I must be doing something right! Our other winner is Antoinette D’Ammora who told a great story about how she first learned to love reading during the summer of ’52. With the help of the Nancy Drew mystery The Spiral Staircase and a shady spot on the lawn in front of the Minneola, NY public library, Toni was able to escape the chaos of her large and loud Italian family and enter a new world all her own.

For the fall contest I invited readers to send in photos of themselves reading The Fixer Upper. I wondered where in the world you might have taken my books—or they might have taken you! Well, since I only received two entries, you are both big winners this time! Patty Deveau sent in these snaps from the 52-foot veranda of her National Register home “Strachan Carriage House” in the village on St. Simons Island, GA. Tammy Sampler also sent in this great shot of herself thoroughly enjoying The Fixer Upper on her porch in Decatur, GA.

So, Keisha, Toni, Patty, and Tammy, I will be sending each of you a signed copy of The Fixer Upper along with a stack of Fixer Upper go-cups.

Be sure to tell your friends to sign up for my newsletter too. We’ll have a new one coming out for the holidays and it will be chock-full with a recipe, another contest, and the latest news from my front porch. You won’t want to miss it.

Happy reading!