Screw CyberMonday, Let's Have a Giveaway!

Last week we Americans chose to celebrate a slew of colorfully named days: Gray Thursday (the holiday formerly known as Thanksgiving), Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Burn Baby, Burn Those Credit Cards Sunday!

As enticing as all those vibrant and cheery holiday shopping days are, there's really nothing quite like Giveaway Mondays. No, this will not be a regular feature. I'm just following our cultural oddity and grabbing CyberMonday and repurposing it for a dear friend in the 'sphere.

Some of you may already know Terra from sittingonanoak where she invites us into her world for a peek every now and again. What you may not know is Terra, under her pen name Campbell Lawson, has begun her own publishing company, written three children's books, and hooked up with Amazon to release her books to the whole wide world in January.

You, dear reader, are among the lucky ones. You have an opportunity to win one of her books (or order one or all of them) before the holidays without having to fight the Amazonians. Why are you so fortunate? Because you dropped by the deck! How cool is that? 'Course you do need to work for the free book but not for the links to order the books from Campbell Lawson. I'm giving those links away to every single body who visits. Free links for all! At Deckside Thoughts, I like to stay on the cutting edge of social media trends. Mark my words, offering free links is just the beginning of what we can expect from social media.

Here's the down-low on the books.

First up is Rock 'n' Friend, a story told by a little girl who wants a pet because her older sister has one. Sound familiar second borns? Flip the book over and BOOM! There's a story from the perspective of a misfit rock that's suddenly taken out of its lonely environs to live with . . .

. . . wait for it . . .

. . . the little girl!

Growing up we all want to be somebody who's appreciated, recognized for what we do, and loved for who we are. Somebody is a look at this simple truth.

How many times have you asked your kid to clean his or her room, been largely and vaguely ignored, and finally found him or her cleaning up because s/he can't find that precious something? Never? Sorry. Whereditgo? will lift your spirits because for just a minute you'll believe some day a light bulb will go on over your kid's head just as it does for the girl in this little book. Sadly for you, your kid(s) will probably be far more focused on all the groovy stuff in the illustrations.

If I may, I'd like to take a minute to continue to go on and on about these books tout the illustrator. David Schiedt, Buster York in these books for reasons beyond my knowledge, has brought these books alive with his colorful, imaginative, and whimsical illustrations. You done good David Buster Dude.

For you collectors, just three words: Signed First Edition. 'Nuff said?

Here's the scoop on how to win one of these books.

You've got to do one or two simple things.

First and required: please leave a comment letting me know which of these three books you'd like to win. Please be sure there's a way I can reach you, either by linking your email address to your comment or by including it. (Feel free to tweet about it. It won't get you an extra entry but it will give you a warm feeling to know you're helping an entrepreneur get noticed.)

Second and tons of fun for me: take a look at this picture loaned to me by my friend J.D. from Riding with my Son. I'm throwing down the gauntlet to those of you who aren't chicken with some spunk who want to earn an extra entry into this giveaway.

Put on your thinking cap and caption this sucker.

Please be sure to leave a second and separate comment with your inappropriate caption to help give a little more juice to this already stunning photo of a woman cyclocrosser who's heading for a face plant.

One last thing, if you'd rather not wait until the giveaway is over to own any one of these books, please feel free to head on over to Campbell Lawson's Shop to order whatever you want now. I'm sure if you ask nicely, she'll even autograph your books.

Comments must be in by Thursday, December 1. A winner will be chosen by the Random Orgasmatron on Friday the 2nd.