THE CONTEST BEGINS AT: http://talesfromthenightstand.blogspot.com

http://talesfromthenightstand.blogspot.com

A contest has kicked off today that I think you will enjoy.

Here is the skinny: I am trying to get kids (and their parents) to read my books and many others. Summer is coming and if your kiddoes are anything like my boys it is a great excuse for them to say, "NO WAY I AM READING! I HAVE TO READ ALL SCHOOL YEAR!" That is until I put the Guinness World Book of Records or the like their hands and that led to the Redwall series, Sports Illustrated for Kids or Grossology or whatever it took to keep them reading!

In book two of the Gabriel Peters saga titled THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GABE, Gabe (main character and narrator of the series) begins to journal and doodling, all of which you see sprinkled throughout the book.

The idea of the contest is to take the theme of the chapter titled THE GROSS-RIE STORE (see blog below for the unedited chapter) and create your own concoction sure to gross the reader out in a poem. If your poem is chosen it will appear in a similar journal entry, "penned by Gabriel" and you will have a credit line on the copyright page.

Also, you will receive a signed and personalized book which you can choose from my website; www.justinmatott.com

See http://talesfromthenightstand.blogspot.com for all the contest rules. Follow our blogs and stay in the loop!

The reason I write!

Some days you open up your email and you find a gem. For me it is generally a note from a kid a teacher or a mom or dad that makes your realize you are doing something that counts. I just got one of those and wanted to share it.

I have never really told anyone that one of the major reasons I write is because one of my brothers is severely dyslexic and has always struggled with reading (something I always took for granted and has so enhanced my enjoyment of life). Incidentally, he is the brother I based Carl on (the older brother in the Go Ask Mom series)

When I sit down to write a book, I think to myself: Would a struggling reader enjoy this? Find it funny? Find it heartwarming? Find it interesting? Would my brother struggle word by word to enjoy it? Would there be a payoff for the time spent? Then my dad tells me my big brother reads my books, one word at a time, one sentence at a time, one paragraph at a time. And there is a payoff for him.

This is a letter from a boy's mom, who thoughtfully took the time to let me know what I do counts: I'm Ummm Kern's (a nickname I gave him at his school) mom from Grand Lake. We sure do love your books! He tore through Gabe 2 in ONE day! He fought the other kids off to buy it at the High Trails fundraiser auction.

He even put a note on the auction sheet - Back off!! I dunno if you got a copy, Mrs. S. said she was going to send you one, but D wrote about you for his CSAP essay about an influential person in his life. It was some funny stuff!

Thanks for being being such a great guy for my boy to look up to.

Who would have thought the goofy kid in this picture would grow up to influence another kid?

I got a follow up from this boy's mom with a note I just had to add:

... here is what D had to say in his CSAP essay about an inspirational person in his life. He wrote this two, maybe three weeks after you had come to Grand Lake Elementary; time which he spent holed up in his room devouring your books and working on three stories of his own.

"My biggest inspiration in my life is Justin Matott. He is one of the greatest writers ever. He is my biggest inspiration ever. He is also a great story teller. He makes you feel like you're actually in the story. He is very funny. His books make me pee my pants. JUSTIN ROCKS!"

Owly Owly, then there's three! Happy Mother's DAY!

This morning I was running out west, enjoying the view of the splendid Rocky Mountains, when I spied three coyotes hunched down in a pack in the tall grasses near me. It looked like a mom teacher her young. I didn't have my camera for my first big loop (five miles). I started to think about my own mom, God rest her soul, and celebrated the morning, running and thinking of all the wonderful life lessons she taught me and how much I wish she could have done so for my sons. She would have been an awesome grandmother!

In my writing I keep revisiting the subject of mothers. My first book was My Garden Visits, a testimony to moms and especially mine. Though I never grew within my mother's womb, I grew within her heart and she in mine. She was terrific! Now my series, starts with Go Ask Mom and moms are a main character focus in teaching their children. I think somehow it is a way to work things out with my own loss, by writing them down. All these years later I miss my mom so much! She never got to see my success as a writer and for gosh sakes she was an English professor. Yet, I know she knows.

Somehow because my characters get to enjoy their mom's love, it makes me feel my mom's love too. I just came to this conclusion after all these years of writing. Perhaps there is something you want to say to your mom. Don't hold back. I never did and my mom knew how much I loved her, which brings me so much comfort now.

This mom in the pictures sure gives a hoot about her kids! She is showing two of her little fledglings the world and will soon be launching them out of the nest. I saw her on my first loop, looped back and got my camera and got these shots. Then I looped back out to see if I could get the coyotes on film, but alas they were gone. DOGGONE IT! IT ADDED TWO EXTRA MILES TO MY PLAN. I AM TIRED!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL OF YOU AND FOR THOSE WHO AREN'T MOTHERS, TELL YOURS "THANK YOU" AND SHOWER HER WITH LOVE!

Owl be darned... she was right over my head all that time!

Sometimes we are too busy being busy to see what is right over our heads or under our noses. Not ten yards from my concrete leaf (see earlier blog) there is a trio of trees where a mother owl has nested. She has three little ones and she is sitting right over them watching! In the photo above she isn't so evident (it's called camoflauge for a reason), but below with a little help from a telephoto, she become SO clear. What else am I missing on my runs with "Batman" my Italian greyhound, by watching my feet?

"Enjoy each day, like it was your last."

Maybe it's the changing of another season that makes one contemplative. Or a reunion of old friends marking the march of time. Or an anniversary that seems absurd to be yours. Where did the time go? How does time keep moving? As I was planting in my garden, looking forward to the vegetables promised for the warmer months I was suddenly stunned by how fast it all goes. I remember my mom telling me two things that seemed to flow off me like water off a duck (oh blissful youth). She would say "Enjoy each day, like it was your last." and "Never wish away a day, you only get it once." As I thought about these things, I reached into my side pocket and plucked out my small writer's notebook and with hands dirty from digging rows for carrots I wrote this "Ode To Spring".

Spring, awesome with it's promise, STAY... STAY... STAY...


SEASONS COME… SEASONS GO…

Trees cling to leaves so tightly, as summer goes away
The clouds are tossing angrily, now the sky is growing gray

The mornings snap of early cold. Winter’s distant rumbles heard
Autumn holds her place for now ‘Twill go south oh flock of bird

The leaves are drifting one by one, and soon will fill this space
For now they cling so tightly, in this annual season’s race.

Trees that cover my front porch, so red and orange and bronze
The deep dark green receding, that was once adjoining lawns

Soon the piles of leaves will grow. To run and jump right in
children’s voices, oh songs of joy. Bundled up, each with a small grin!

The porch displays of pumpkins bright, with scarecrows set on bales
And jack-o-lantern’s grimace - witches ride on broom’s straw tails

The crunch of leaves below heard on my country street
so soon I will surrender, to put shoes on my bare feet.

Oh summer, I will miss you, but the beauty of autumn’s come
Soon winter with her pallid coat - my fingers and toes so numb

Sledding days and snowmen and icicles hung on eaves
soon we’ll hang festive lights, the door and windows wreathed

A candle in each window will glow on the snow at night
and in the day the cold blanket will make our world so bright

Then soon the winter cold will go, comes the melt from warming sun
Spring will fill the world around, and with that outdoor fun

The ice on lakes will thin. The leaves begin to show.
We’ll lose thick warm sweaters, back to barefoot days we’ll go!

Summer will wink one morning. The afternoons grow so hot
the pool, the hose and water sport, cold popsicles, I’d once forgot

Riding bikes and skateboards. Just hanging out all day
shorts, flip flops and swim suits, so many games to play.

Summertime means no homework! Late nights for hide n seek
The months fly by so quickly, then again autumn will peek…

New school clothes and a lunchbox, with the school bus on the street
And when I look back down, I gasp; there are shoes upon my feet.

Check out this awesome book blog!

If you have noticed that my blog is starting to look a bit more professional and easy to access it is all due to Terra (super person) who hosts an awesome book review site right here on blogspot.com Her site is http://talesfromthenightstand.blogspot.com

She will be hosting a contest on her blog, linked here to mine in which we will be trying to inspire your writing and there will be prizes!!! Stay tuned and get out your rhyming dictionaries (hint hint)

THANK YOU TERRA for making me a better BLOGGER and a more terrific TWITer!

Signing books with my fellow author and buddy Alec Greven

Alec and I signed our new books recently at a book fair. What an impressive young man! 10 years old, has three books published, already working on another and has been on ALL of the national television shows.

SO, kiddoes, don't EVER let anyone tell you you can't!!!

The sequel is a good summer read, so the spring is for the first book...

First came Go Ask Mom - Stories from the upper bunk, then The World According to Gabe - Stories from the lower bunk.

I have finished the third book in the series, titled: The Gabriel World Book of Records - Stories from the tree house and am presently working on fourth.

This is a planned six book series. Happy Reading!

What kind of an impression do you "leaf"?

On the running path where I run I have seen this leaf's impressions many times. I think about the millions of leaves that have fallen from the trees surrounding the gentle blue water in the brook, blowing off the trees in autumn, then becoming a part of the soil to feed future leaves. Then there was this leaf, a solitary impression on miles and miles of running path. This leaf so many years ago fell and left its mark. I want to do the same, do you?

Offer to my readers

I am very excited to have the new book out and have had great response by the pre-readers!

The World According to Gabe is OUT and if you liked the adventures in Go Ask Mom, I think you will LOVE them in this book.

If you would like to get an autographed copy, please go to my website (www.justinmatott.com) and order it now ($21).

If you are a book club and want to get the kiddoes started on Go Ask Mom, please indicate so
and I will make your book club an offer you can't refuse: For instance: a book club orders 10 copies of The World According to Gabe, you will receive 10 copies of Go Ask Mom at 50% off or something creative like that (you tell me what works best for your club). Also, the first book club (in the Denver metro area) to order in this fashion can contact me to come and meet the book club to discuss the books and I will share a sneak peak of the third book in the series: The Gabriel World Book of Records, which is finished and shipped off to the editor!

I will be posting more excerpts from the book here on my blog, so stay tuned!