Win pounds of chocolate...

It's the moment you have all been waiting for... it's time to announce the Ultimate Chocolate Contest of 2009.

Because it's a contest, not a giveaway, it requires you to do a little work. Yes, you must work for your chocolate!

*cue mad scientist laughter*

So what hoops will you have to jump through, what secret potion will you have to come up with, what monstrosity will you have to create?!?

*wrings hands together*

There are Five things to remember before you can officially enter the contest...

1. You must be a human. Please no aliens, I can't ship to other worlds. Countries yes, worlds, I don't think they accept US Postal mail. Any human can enter... only one will win.
2. You must like chocolate, or else know someone who likes chocolate, because this is a WHOLE BUNCH of chocolate. And if I send it to you and you don't even like it... where is the fun in that?!
3. You must send me your address. Unfortunately, I am not physic and you will have to give a stranger your address. So if you aren't okay with sending me your address then you might not want to play. My rap sheet is clean... :) So when you win, you will have to step out of your comfort zone and send it over. I can send it to work addresses as well, just include the c/o.
4. Your entry must be original and each human may only enter once. Please do not use the four pseudonyms you have created for your net presence. Just the one... please? 
5. You must have a blast while completing your contest entry. Or else! I am not sure what else... but I can think of something. *evil eyes*

So now that you have the rules down, time to get the wheels turning... here is what you must:

First: Blog, tweet, send out smoke signals, call on your pigeons... get the word out about the contest. If you tweet about it, be sure to include @EisleyJacobs so that I can see the word. If you blog about it, tell me in your comment include your blog address. If you send out smoke signals, your coordinates will do. If you get out the birds, warm me first so I can put on a hat. Please?

Second: You need to write a true or fictional short story, note, prose, words in a legible order, something readable and answer this question:

What have you learned in 2009 that will make you better in 2010?

Include how you learned it and why it's important. It doesn't have to be about writing. It can be about life, love, the pursuit of happiness, giving, caring, blogging, laughing...

Be creative but please don't make it novel length ;) A few hundred words or less will suffice.  For this contest, the comments will be moderated. So as I read them, I will post them.

Your entries must be received by Wednesday, December 16, 2009 and I will read through all of them and choose a winner by Thursday and announce the winner on my blog. If they are all too good, I will pick a random number and that one will win.

Also as an added bonus for the twitter people... my 500th follower will get themselves some chocolate, as does the 600th... the 700th... the 800th... the 900th... and if we make it to 1000... I will give away another $40 brick of chocolate ;) No following and re-following either, I can see that ;)

And if we make it to 100 blog followers... well I will *faint*... after I awake. Chocolate... I will give away Chocolate.

I think my next giveaway will be coffee... cuzz I *heart* coffee too...

Well what are you waiting for? Hop to it! And may the best words win! :)

The Chocolate Prize

Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark from California World Market Triple Berry Dark Chocolate from California Swiss Army Energy Bar Chocolate with Guarana From Switzerland Carffarel Puro Cioccolato Latte from Italy Milk Chocolate Euros.. Yah from Germany Milk Chocolate Pencils (cuzz who has those?!) from Spain Tabasco Branch Spicy Chocolate from Louisana Milka Marzipan - Creme from Germany Raspberries in Dark Chocolate from Good Ole Colorado Tolberone from Switzerland Cadbury Dairy Milk with Caramel from South Africa Turkish Delight covered in Chocolate

Tomorrow is the Monday...

May you never look at Monday the same again!

Tomorrow, I am going to give you the chance to win ‘pounds o chocolate’... Yummy chocolate from around the globe. Approximately $40 in chocolate to be exact.

The question is, what will you have to do to enter? That is my problem at the moment. I have some wonderful ideas... well, one's *I* think are wonderful, but will I get enough participants?

My dream when I was a younger, crazier adolescent was to change the world.

CHANGE THE WORLD... *echo echo echo*

Pretty lofty dream for a kid, eh?

I couldn’t help it, I wanted a better world. Not just for me but for my friends, family, and the homeless individual downtown who slept in a box.

You know, if you look up when you walk down the street, the mall, visit the library… you can learn a lot about life and people.

One reason this blog is called Eisley's Ellipses is wrapped around this whole concept of looking up when you walk. Using your FEET if you will... being HANDS.

Did you know the word Eisley means “strong”... and Ellipses are the things we "take out" of life... so Eisley Ellipses are the “The hard things we take out of life”. In my world, even the tough stuff needs to be learned from.

I digress, I do that a lot.

So, why would a twelve year old girl want to change the world?

It is who I was raised to be. You can Thank my single parent mom for that, I do :)

I have always tried to never take but to give. I see a need, I try to feel a need. There is so much more to life than keeping up with the Jones’… not that I don’t try at times to do that too. But if we can't help those around us...

What does this have to do with my chocolate contest?

Probably nothing. I actually thought I would run the contest and ask for anyone who entered to, ‘Pay it Forward’ and then come and tell us how it went, what you did and how it made you feel.

But I didn’t want people to not enter because they didn’t have the monetary provisions to accomplish this task. So, instead I will do something EVERYONE can join in, regardless of their status. Tomorrow.

Today, if you like the idea of paying it forward this Christmas Season to make a difference in someone’s life... here are a few ideas to spring off of.

• Buy a $5 gift card to Starbucks and write a small message in the envelope saying Merry Christmas and to have a cup of coffee on you.
• Buy the person behind you in the Starbucks line their coffee.
• Pay the toll for the person behind you on the bridge.
• Buy an extra hot chocolate and hand it to the guy on the corner.
• Get a card stick a $5 gift card to McDonald's in it and write a message to the person who finds it. Address the card: "To the person who finds this.”
• Ask your local church if they are aware of a family in need and buy them a turkey.
• Buy a pack of warm socks and tie each pair up with a bow and put them in your car and when you see a homeless man on the street. Give him a pair.
• You know someone who is struggling this Christmas season because they have no job (or spouse doesn’t have a job) send them an anonymous money order in the mail or drop a box on their door step.
• Know a single parent? Offer to watch her kids for a night so she can have a break.
• You know that same single parent? Buy her kids a Christmas present this year and leave it on the doorstep and run!
• Allow an extra person to cut in line during that long commute.
• Smile and say Good Morning to every person you see this morning.
• Next time you see someone using W.I.C. checks, purchase what they are trying to use their WIC on.
• If you are a believer: Ask your checkout person if there is anything you can pray for them about this Christmas season.
• If you aren't a believer: Ask you checkout person how their day is going. Tell them they look lovely, even if you have to lie ;)
• Buy a Christmas Ornament that means something special to you and wrap it up with a note as to why is means so much to you, then give it to a stranger.
• And the list could go on... and on...

I challenge you to make a difference in ONE life this week. If you do, let me know so I can smile and feel all warm and cozy.

No, this isn’t the contest… this is just my way of trying to change the world, one life at a time.

Chocolate, tomorrow. :)

My Entries...

Read the previous post to catch all the details and see how you too can enter to win a Sony Reader!

Or, if you are too lazy to scroll below or you just want the cliffs notes:

Contest on Rachelle Gardner Blog, She is giving a way a Sony Reader. You must post only 255 characters of your novel on WordsMoveMe.com (up to 3 entries per person) and if your entries move Rachelle, you will get a Reader and a critique on the novel you moved her with. Just remember if you enter, put GardnerBlog (oneword) in the tags.

Here are my entries:

Entry #1: Unseen - Chronicle of Ishmael:

His heart rate leveled and the alarm tones ceased, but only briefly. His heart rate rapidly decreased, setting off the alarms again. The medical staff began to rush frantically around William. His heart beat one last time, sending a flat line across the monitor.

Entry #2: Unseen - Chronicle of Stephen:

He stroked her hair as she admired herself in the mirror, purple lipstick blaring back. "You are just as beautiful as the day He created you," he told her.

She giggled. "I think I look like Cyndi Lauper in this lipstick."

Entry #3: Unseen - Chronicle of Zahalon:

His age fell off him like shackles as he sprinted to embrace his wife. No longer was he an elderly man, but a young one, matching the woman's age. He swung her around and rejoiced loudly to anyone who would listen.

I think you can *HEART* my entries if you go find them... they are located here. But they certainly aren't the best ones there. With such few characters, you can't really communicated the depth of the passage, but it was worth a try. Why not!

All three entries are from one novel based on true events. Each Chronicle is a different story.

Ahhhh confidence.... where art thou? If you don't get here quick, I might pull the post. I sooo hate putting myself out there. Well, really I just hate rejection... but... ahhh... you know.

Want a Sony Pocket Reader?

I do!

Rachelle Gardner partnered with Sony and WordsMoveMe.com to offer a Sony Pocket Reader to one of her lucky readers/entries!

Details are at her blog at http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/12/words-move-me-sony-reader-giveaway.html

The winner just has to MOVE HER with their entry. The one that she chooses will receive the Sony Pocket Reader and the promise that she will read the book from the entry.

Oooooh the possibilities are endless! The idea that she would read my novel makes me giddy. Lord, knows there are plenty of passages that move me in Mandorian Prophesies. Or even the pieces of Unseen that are written.

So with excitement, I opened the sight then copy and pasted... drat only 255 chars... copy and pasted again... shoot still too long... copy and pasted... Ah ha! It fits... then I froze.

Then closed the site.

Really, Eisley? Really? Why can't you push submit?

Well, that's simple. Remember that Christmas list with confidence on it? Yup, soooo not Christmas yet, which means Santa hasn't come to stuff any confidence into my stocking. ;)

Silly Eisley...silly, silly, silly!

So, I open the sight again. Copy and paste another entry. Didn't fit. Again and again... 255 chars are just not enough to communicate what I think I need out of the exact text.

That little "X" in the top right corner mocks me again.

And wins.

Now what, Eisley? You going to sit there forever with a gem under your belt?

Why yes... yes, I am. Okay, well not really. But Rachelle doesn't read Fantasy... so it feels like a lost cause. But I would really LOVE to have that reader...

So my new idea... post out of a published novel that really has moved me. Then maybe she will have the chance to read a good published author, and I still get my Reader :)

Good idea, no?

;)

EDITED TO ADD A SCREAM!!!! Ahem, okay... well I did it. I didn't submit Mandorian Prophesies because I knew its not one she would like to read (being that it's fantasy) but I did submit three quotes from my Unseen WIP. So we will see!!!