Celebrate your Freedom to Read by entering The Almost Moon Jingle Contest!

Today begins the month of October,and the start of my very first blog contest. To catch up everyone up to speed,I'll just recap some of the details that I mentioned in last week's October book preview(please forgive me if I sound like Repeat-o Girl). The grand prize will be a copy of Alice Sebold's new novel,The Almost Moon, for the person who can write the best line to complete this original jingle of mine:

"Alice Sebold made her Lovely Bones,
with readers both near and far.
Now,with The Almost Moon approaching...."



My inspiration for this contest comes from The Prize Winner of Defiance,Ohio by Terry Ryan(which was adapted into a lovely yet underrated film starring Julianne Moore). Ryan,who has recently passed away,wrote a touching and interesting portrait of her mother who managed to keep a family of ten afloat in troubled times by her creative writing skills that enabled her to win dozens of contests.

That whole world of jingle writing women who found a way to make their brain power work for them while still keeping the home fires burning was one of the best aspects of the book and it got me to wondering if some of that old school ad campaign style would still fly in this ultra modern day and age.

Okay,enough backstory-on with the details! First off,this jingle is NOT part of any official advertising for the book. Your winning entries will only appear on this blog. This is strictly for fun,kids.

Next,this contest starts today and ends on October 30,2007. Please send your entries to livingreadgirl@yahoo.com and title your e-mail as "Almost Moon Jingle Contest". Sorry,but I can't accept mailed in entries at this time-this is an online only gig.

Please do not send your mailing address with your entry;I will contact the winner via e-mail a couple of days before the end of the contest and ask for an address then.

Runners-up will have their entry posted on October 31,with the Grand Prize winner announcement,and will have a clip of their favorite TV commercial added with their line. You can let me know what your favorite TV ad is,when you send in your entry but please keep in mind that a)I need to be able to either embed or link to it(YouTube is preferable) and b) that the content be of a PG-13 nature. Yes, I find some of those "adult" European commercials to be amusing(much more than Paris Hilton pretending to like hamburgers while doing a bad Tawny Kitaen impersonation) but let's keep things work safe,okay,guys?



I'm proud to be starting this contest at the beginning of Banned Books Week,which runs until October 6 and is one of the most important times of the year. Readers of all ages should cherish the freedom of choice that we have,thanks to democracy. Alice Sebold's moving first novel,The Lovely Bones,was recently challenged at a middle school library in Westport,Conn(and later won the right to stay on the shelves),an honor that it shares with many other great books of our time.

Since a picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words,here are some videos that can best express my feelings on this subject:

THE TOP TEN BANNED BOOKS OF 2006/07



DO YOU EVER READ THE BOOKS YOU BURN?



AND NOW,A FEW WORDS FROM RIF SPOKESWOMAN RORY GILMORE