Too Many Books

Sometimes, the overshare gets me virtual raised eyebrows and general disdain, but not this week. This week, ol' Honest Amb came away with chocolate covered Twizzlers. See, there are these really cool author/sister gals,  Lisa and Laura . Some people think they are attached in a siamese way, and just call them LiLa. It's easier than tying out two names, I guess. Anywin, they had a fantastically appealing contest over at their (hilarious) blog this week --    Best, most shocking, most hilarious, most entertaining truth wins the [chocolate covered] Twizzlers. Beyond excited to see what you guys come up with. *drumroll* Well, who else did you guys think would win?! (If you say Simon Larter , I'll punch you in the face.) In the realm of shocking, hilarious, entertaining truth-telling... I will never let you down. Here's my first-place comment. Please enjoy reading it while I go toot my own horn some more. Amber Tidd Murphy said... ...

BABY! Oh, wait. You guys already knew that, didn't you? You want to know whether or not I'm having a boy or a girl... especially if you entered my gender-guessy contest with the as-yet-unrevealed mystery prize. So, without further ado... I would like to take this moment to announce that we are having a GIRL! I'm reallllly excitedspice. I decided not to post the ultrasound pics of the special parts, because my daughter will emulate neither Lindsay Lohan nor Britney Spears. No. crotchshots. Also, hubs bought me pink flowers yesterday! Okay, on to the winner. These people guessed girl: Lilly Jen Vicki Rocho Frankie Diane Mallis Christine Danek B.E. Sanderson Natalie Murphy ND Linda Henderson Rose Cooper tucsoncordovas carissa These guessed boy: Jenna Wallace MJenks pinkflipflops jayme @ kentucky blonde a little pink in the cornfields Simon Larter Ashley Stone Guesses it's a Griffin: Travener   Random.org chose number 9 (out of all 20 guessers) so I just...

Epic August Contest Roni (my favorite fiction groupie) and Julie Cross (another awesome blogger) are giving away a multitude of prizes, tag team style. This week alone, you can win: Hannah Moskowitz's Break Lisa Desrocher's Personal Demons (ARC) A query or first five pages critique from Fine Print Lit's intern, Gemma Cooper A query or first five pages critique from Janet Reid's assistant, Meredith Barnes A query or first five pages critique from agent Suzie Townsend A query or first five pages critique from editor Brendan Deneen Enter here. Enter now (or by Sunday, August 8) so that you'll have a chance to win! Store Your Liquor Also, Ashley over at As a Matter of Opinion... is giving away a really cute winerack. Wanna see it? Cute, right? (And, if you're Simon Larter , don't worry... I'll bet you could substitute vodka bottles instead of wine. A vodka rack. What a novel idea!) So, click here to enter. Or, don't, and I'll...

Well, I hope you've enjoyed the fourth and have extended your Independence Celebration, as I have, with a paid day off work! Hubs and I stayed in yesterday: I read, he cooked. We ate skewered shrimp and grilled pineapple, made s'mores, and watched our neighbors fireworks show. (I swear, they must have spent a small fortune.) It was a grand ol' time. I didn't change out of my pajamas all day, nor did I complete any tasks that one might call productive. That's why laundry, dishes, and some semblance of house cleaning are on the docket today. But, first: an update on Baby Murphy. I went for the ultrasound Friday, and it.was.fantastic to see my little peanut's face. Crazy/ Amazing. The ultrasound tech got a pretty decent view of the private parts from the rear angle, and said the following, "Well, I don't really see anything sticking out... so I would say I was leaning toward girl, if I could just see a little more detail. " I said, "So, what...

oh, hell. it has been a monday. i can't even be bothered to use capital letters. No, that's annoying. I shall use capital letters afterall. I MIGHT EVEN USE THEM IN AN ENTIRE SENTENCE. (Insert PRIMAL SCREAM FULL OF EXPLETIVES here.) No, today wasn't that bad. Work is was just a stressfest. I had to cross out the "is" because I'm home now, so it's past tense. I shouldn't even be thinking about it anymore. So, I won't. Next topic: let's be honest. Since I'm at the end of my rapidly fraying Monday-rope, I will just tell you a few random Tidd-Murphy-bits about my day: 1. I almost rear-ended someone on my way home from work because I was thinking about my WIP. (Yay! I'm turning into a bonafide writer -- all distractedspice and dreamy acting and aloof. Abnormal.) (Opps. Are my writer-friends offended, or do you agree that we are all that way to some extent?) 2. I got really excited tonight when I stopped off at Target an...

Oh, this is so exciting! I have been looking forward to this alldayspice. I'm pleased as punch to announe that the winner of my bithday/ 100 followers giveaway is none other than... Tina Lynn Sandoval! To whom it may concern, I assigned numbers to each entrant. Tina Lynn had numbers 38-42 for her five entries. Then, I used random.org to select the winner. Out of a whopping 79 entries total, number 42 was selected. Now, she thought she only deserved 4 entries because instead of just saying I was pretty she said: #amberishot. I gave her five anyway. It's my blog, so I reserved the right to do that. Kthanx. The thought of vlogging my karaoke dedication to my sweetest niblet has me feeling a bit weepyspice. I can't wait to go out and get my sing-song on. Let me just say, though, that it may be a few weeks before I can deliver on this promise. I am recovering from some nasty sickness in which I cough up my lung on the regular. You'll all just have to be patient. So, T...

Yesterday, I missed  my husband's  our nephew's birthday party. They went to play Lazer Tag, and then later there was ice cream cake. (I'm sad about missing out on the ice cream cake.) I stayed home not only because I wanted to watch basketball, but also because I am continuing to a) hack up a lung and b) breathe out of only one nostril at a time. This morning, I feel a little better. I think it's due to my miracle concoction: the hot toddy. Combine: a good amount of whiskey, a big spoonful of honey, a squirt of lemon juice, and water... then microwave that until it is steaming. It soothes the throat and warms the insides, and has the added bonus of  numbing intoxication , which makes one forget they are sick, and after consumption, causes you to feel compelled to mix up another four of them . In fairness, I didn't invent this drink. I'm just glad someone did. In other news, today is the very last day to enter my giveaway! I shall be announcing ...

Well, I never. You people put yesterday on my toptendaysinlife list. I can't tell you how much all your birthday wishes (and compliments!) meant to me. Special thanks to my Sweet Niblet , Fiction Groupie , Sierra Godfrey , Mehlane , and Diana for making #itsambersbirthday a trendy trending topic on Twitter. However, no one could have outdone my main blog squeeze over at Vita Brevis , who dedicated an entire post to me  yesterday. No, seriously. The post was about me. I inspired it. Go there now and read it.  I'll just give you a snippet, to entice you to click on my linkage: And, while Amber is definitely a very attractive young lady and she's also quite talented and funny, these are not the traits that originally attracted me to her blog and such. Well, it didn't hurt; I'll be honest there. However, the thing that made me sit up and take notice? Her love of college basketball, specifically the lowly and woebegone Indiana Hoosiers.   For reals, I read...

The blogger as a child. p.s. it's my birthday. And people at Starbucks like me. (I did get this for free, but it was not for the benefit of my blog.)  (Obvi, it was a gift .) There's a cupcake in that box! There's a hazelnut latte in that cup! In other news, I'm having a 100 Followers/ It's my birthday giveaway. You should enter. I'm giving away the following goodies: 1. A $25.00 VISA giftcard. 2. An original poem, which will be hadwritten and autographed on pretty paper. It might be about love, about being a writer, or maybe the winner will be able to choose the topic. We shall see. This giveaway is a bit seatofthepantsspice. 3. A frame from my wedding day. In fact, this very frame: 4. A mystery. The fourth goodie will be a surprise until you open the package! 5. The whopper: I will dedicate a karaoke song to you, personally, and put it on my blog, vlogger style. If you want to enter this smashing contest: leave a comment. 1 entry if you follow and comme...

On Tuesday, I told you about how I had such an exciting weekend that you may have thought it was all for Thursday blog fodder. (It wasn't.) But the events of my Saturday, though spontaneous and without pretense, do contain some definite TMI material. After drinking at a dive bar, I headed over to a gal pal's house. After continuing to drink at my gal pal's house, it at some point became a good idea to talk about boobs. Perhaps the subject came up because the majority of the guests were guys. My gal pal's fiance was celebrating his birthday, afterall. So, boys party = boy topics. I guess. Anyway, my gal pal and I are both pretty well endowed. T to the I to the double D, remember? We decided a contest was in order, to determine whose are bigger. So, my friend and I went up to a spare bedroom with her sister and a kitchen scale. We got topless and stood with our backs against the wall while her sister conducted the weigh-in, one teat at a time. Due to ...

I almost forgot to post about this writerly contest over at Shooting Stars . Follow the link to find out how to enter. There are some great prizes, including some first-five-page critiques. That's certainly the prize I'm hoping to win. There's only a small window of time left to enter, so scoot on over there. So, I've been hard at work on my manuscript and even considered posting my prologue here for feedback, but I thought it might be a bit premature/ irresponsible (you know, paranoia about getting it ripped off.) I wish I was ready for beta readers. I have the prologue, and the first three chapters, which are solid. Complete. Chapter four is half finished, but one character appears at the beginning of the chapter with no real introduction. He's mentioned in the prolgoue, but I need to clarify how he and Laurel meet, or at least set the stage for their friendship prior to chapter four. (Note to self: don't forget to do that.) A later chapte...

I'm stealing   Tina Lynn's Make Me Laugh Monday series so that someone can throw me a bone today. (Tina, you can yell at me later. I know that I just totally jocked you, and I understand that there is the possibility of a cyber throw-down between you and me because of it. This is a risk I'm willing to take.) Come on -- leave me your best jokes in the comments. I really need to hear something funny. It's been one of those Mondays.