Oisin winners
I am awash with Sticky Toffee Pudding. It rises to the brain worse than champagne.* Tilda and Peter and I went out for dinner tonight at our best local foodie pub, the Questing Beast, and I am now staring at a (nearly) blank computer screen and trying to figure out what to do with it. Uh. Put words on it. Uh. . . . **
Blog. Yes. Blog post.
I think Oisin has had altogether too good a time reading the Harass Oisin thread. This wasn’t really the idea. I wanted him to tremble and be abashed. I should have known better. However he does claim that he will not only write a blog post, but that some of the—er—more straightforward suggestions, as opposed to the threats of whackings and noise, have given him scope for several.*** Tilda has just been saying that she’d like to see the computer-organ set up, and I have said to her as I have said to other people that I don’t think that there’s any way to photograph the present manifestation. Oisin’s music studio is not large to begin with, it contains a pretty complete standard computer desk-and-associated-accoutrements and a medium-sized baby grand piano as well as the organ and all its computer bits, plus the makeshift keyboard shelves and bench and . . . and Oisin makes me look tidy, organised and Spartan.† I’m not sure I could scramble far enough away from the fugacious organ console to get it all in a photo, and even if I could there’d be nowhere to stand.†† So we’ll wait till the new keyboards arrive and he’s figured out how he’s going to build them all in and . . . †††
Meanwhile, the moment you have all been waiting for. The contest winners. Because this thread has afforded me almost as much pleasure as it has Oisin (if perhaps for different reasons) I decided to give away three posters. Then I decided to have one further supernumerary random drawing, but from the pool of my private selection of the posts that made me laugh the longest. This last, fourth winner gets to choose their prize: you may certainly have a poster, but if you’d rather have a book, either PEGASUS or anything from my backlist that I happen to have a spare copy of, you may go for that instead. Thus the reward of virtue. Or of a teeming imagination and an irresponsible attitude toward the rest of your life.
And so I give you the first three winners:
Jennifer
cmarschner
s2slinde
And the Immoderate Hilarity prize goes to:
nycteris
Jennifer, cmarschner and s2slinde need to send me street addresses and what if any name you’d like me to write on the poster other than mine. Use the email address on the web site‡. And if any of you are among those that don’t want the poster and merely want a guest blog from Oisin, please email me that and I’ll do another drawing for the poster.‡‡ Nycteris, I need your street address and whether you want a poster or a book (and any inscribed name, etc).
Congratulations, live long and prosper, blah blah blah. And thanks to all of you for the gallant way you rose to this somewhat unusual challenge. . . .‡‡‡
* * *
* I’m used to the effects of champagne. Ahem.
** My mind keeps reverting to the Sticky Toffee Pudding.
*** I will believe this when I see it/them. Mind you, I would be very happy to see it/them.^ Guest posts are one of my favourite things. Right up there with Sticky Toffee Pudding. And Green & Black’s, of course.
^ Although if he tries to answer any of those questions about what the hellgoddess’ singing voice is like or what it’s like to (try to) teach her music, he is going to be in more trouble than he has ever imagined.
† About the only thing there isn’t in Oisin’s music room is yarn.^ Hmmmmmm.
^ Yo, Nycteris! Be careful!
††Although the height the piles of sheet music would provide might yield an interesting perspective.
††† And then I’ll volunteer to help shift some of the sheet music, and . . . ^
^ And then he’ll say, You want to do WHAT? You think you want to do WHAT??? And then I’ll blanch and remind myself that not everybody, by the simple effect of running a blog for a few years, is accustomed to the idea of pinning photographic evidence of their lives on line.
‡ http://www.robinmckinley.com/contact.php You know the one. That one with the banner IMMEDIATELY ABOVE it that says PEGASUS II COMING IN 2012! And which people nonetheless manage to sail right over to write me frantic emails about whether there’s a sequel to PEGASUS. Sometimes they add that they’re extra-frantic since I say I never write sequels. So, they’ve paid enough attention—somewhere, some time—to be aware that I specialise in one-offs . . . but they can’t read a line of italicised print adjacent to the email address they’re looking for. Singleness of purpose is a wonderful thing. Not necessarily in a good way.
‡‡ And if you ask nicely you can have a splinter when Oisin breaks up the interim organ bench.
‡‡‡ Fantasy writers. You never know what they might get up to. Of course fantasy readers. . . .
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