Iko Ate The Winner

You guys made me feel like a celebrity Monday. Every time I got on the computer I saw a Google Alert for Chain of Souls or my name. Your blog posts and tweets were terrific. But I have to give kudos to Mike Keyton for the most original intro.

Mike is one of my all time favorite writers and he outdid himself when he used two characters from his current WIP to showcase Chain of Souls. If you're not following Mike, you should. He is quirky, way smarter than I am, and his blog posts are always entertaining.

As promised, I let Tank pick the winner of my mini contest for those who tweeted, FB'd and blogged about Chain of Souls. Unfortunately, things didn't work out the way I planned. Tank was a little too polite to simply take a cookie off the platter, and it forced us to call in reinforcements.

Sorry for posting two videos but I had to stop filming so we could bring in Iko. As you will see, Iko is a dog of opportunity and he had no compunction taking a cookie.

But again, we came across an unexpected problem. By the time we got the cookie out of his mouth, he had swallowed the half with the winning number on it. I had to go back and figure out who hadn't been eaten to find out who the winner was.

I should've kept filming, so you could see us trying to get the cookie out of his mouth, but we were in our jammies, and nobody wants to see that.




By process of elimination (and you can take that in more than one way), the eaten entry was... Renee Miller.

Congrats Renee! I'll email you later today.

***
Several people have approached me about doing another blog tour. I don't think I'll do one this time. What with two series now underway and two other books I want to sub to traditional outlets, I have my hands full.

I will probably appear on a blog or two in the coming months, but those are stops that have already been promised.

***
Did the video come out okay? I wanted to zoom in on the cookies so you could see the numbers that were taped on them, but my little camera doesn't have that function. Once I start rolling, it stays at one focal length.

Comments

Renee Miller saidā€¦
Really? I won? I never win anything! I love your dog. I've been eager to read this since seeing the cover. Have I mentioned how much I love this cover? I want to frame it. Really.
Kerri Cuev saidā€¦
I think Tank perfers oreo cookies instead. LOl. Tank is very cute and congrats Renee.
Angelina Rain saidā€¦
Congrats to you for feeling like a celebrity. And congrats to the winner.

The dogs look so cute! Thanks for sharing the videos.
Maria Zannini saidā€¦
Renee: Apparently, Iko loves you too. :) Let me get Greg on the road and I'll email you then.

Kerri: I'm sure he would. LOL. I should've known Tank wouldn't take a cookie from the platter even though it was at dog-level. He won't take anything unless it's offered to him.

Angelina: They're good boys, but maybe not the best for taking direction on camera.
Anonymous saidā€¦
LOL, love it.

Congrats to Renee!
Marguerite Butler saidā€¦
Such a brilliantly funny idea. If you ever need a dog to gobble things which don't belong to him, just let me know and you can borrow my dad's dog Toby. He's never met a biscuit he didn't like. He usually manages to steal his brother Tucker's biscuit in addition to eating his own.
Angela Brown saidā€¦
Congratus to Renee :-)

And the videos came out just fine. I was tickled though, that things didn't quite go as hoped. BUT, I love the idea. Hope you do it again because this was fun.
Maria Zannini saidā€¦
@Krista
@Raelyn

Leave it to my dogs to do the unexpected.

Marguerite: Honest to Dog, I never anticipated Tank would walk away. I have a feeling he thought it was a trick.

Angela: Next time, I'll let Iko choose. Or maybe...Maybe I'll do an Easter Cookie hunt and hide the numbered cookies and let the dogs hunt for them. The first one they uncover will be the winner.
Jackie saidā€¦
Maria your pups are priceless, if nothing else we as well as you and Greg had a great time "anticipating" the choosing of the dog cookie! LOL

Congrats on having lots of well deserved support on Monday and sorry to hear you will not be "touring" but do understand your trying to destress and not overdo, good for you it is about time.

Looking forward to heading your way in a few weeks, spoke to Ronda today and she and I both are great fans of the boys and all their many stories and antics.

Congratulations to Renee!
Cathy in AK saidā€¦
Congrats, Renee! What a fun way to pick a winner, and I'm sure Iko was thrilled to "help" : )
Barbara Ann Wright saidā€¦
Your dog did very well. Mine would have jumped onto the tray and eaten them all. Everyone's a winner!
Maria Zannini saidā€¦
Jackie: I am really looking forward to meeting you and Ronda in person. (Watch out for mountain lions though. We just got word of sightings.)

Cathy: When it comes to food, Iko is always a big help.

Barbara: I expected Tank to be cautious. He doesn't take things unless it's offered, but I was shocked when he walked away.
LD Masterson saidā€¦
May I borrow Iko when I do next month's Caption Contest? So much more fun than just pulling a name from a hat.
Maria Zannini saidā€¦
Linda: For a cookie, Iko would sell his own mother. Oh, wait. That's me.
Dee Procrastinates saidā€¦
LOL,who knew dogs could be polite? None of ours ever were.

Congrats, Renee. I'm disappointed I didn't win, but even more disappointed to miss seeing you in your jammies trying to pry the cookie out of Iko's mouth.

Next time... :)
Anonymous saidā€¦
Oh bless that is so funny. I bet your poor dog was upset at having the cookie taken off him when you told him to take one. LOL! So cute! Congrats to the winner and to you for all the publicity for Chain of Souls
Mike Keyton saidā€¦
What gentlemanly dogs. Positively diffident. Hmm? Can you actually be positively diffident?

Anyway, many congrats Renee. Rotties obviously have a taste for Canadians.

And Maria, many thanks for the name check
Maria Zannini saidā€¦
Dee: It's because they're so large, we've had to teach them food manners. Otherwise they would take advantage of me.

Madeleine: Believe it or not, they're used to giving up whatever's in their mouths. One of the first things we teach our dogs when they're puppies is to let us take things out of their mouths. This is just in case they ever pick up something bad for them.

Mike: Rotties are very laid-back--unless you're an intruder.

Thanks again for the lovely intro. You're so clever. I never could've pulled that off.
Tracy Jo saidā€¦
What a fantastic idea having the dogs pick the winner! The video was great. Congratulations on this week...what a wonderful community we have here! I am off to add your book to my wish list. :-)
Nadja Notariani saidā€¦
So glad to hear you enjoyed such great success, Maria! And congratulations, again, on releasing your book.

I downloaded both 'Devil To Pay' and 'Chain Of Souls' to my kindle...once NaNo is over, maybe I'll be able to dig in and devour. lol

Also - some fellow authors and I are trying to get together a '12 Days of Christmas Reading Gift List'. I thought you may be interested in featuring your newest there.

The idea (so far) is to gather at least 12 authors and have each submit a little blurb, photo, and links which will be added to the 'Reading Gift List'. We have 8 bloggers so far who would be willing to post the list in a post and in their side bars for the month of December. We're still in the formulatory (?is this a real word..ha. I like it) stages, and are waiting for a few more authors' inputs. (Maybe yours! :)

Talk to you soon, Maria. Have a great Sunday!
Maria Zannini saidā€¦
Tracy Jo: Thanks! I wish it had gone off more smoothly, but next time I'll let Iko choose.

Nadja: I'll email you later today. Thanks for asking. Hope you enjoy the books!