Debra Webb and her agent, Donna Bagdasarian, hanging out in the bar:

Here’s a shot of three of our gorgeous MSWers at the Literacy signing (Karin — seated, Deb and Jen):

GONE FISHIN’

ONE WEEK ONLY–WE’LL BE BACK TO NORMAL BLOGS ON MONDAY, AUGUST 2ND

HOWEVER, WE WILL BE POSTING MINI “VACATION” BLOGS FROM RWA, SO DROP BY EACH DAY TO SEE WHAT’S UP

Since almost everyone from MSW is in Orlando for the RWA conference, we’re taking a week-long vacation for the blog. There will be mini updates from the road–random things we think you’ll enjoy.

Meanwhile, we hope you have an absolutely WONDERFUL week, and next Monday, the blog will return to normal scheduling with RWA news, a mini-workshop from Rocki and more contests!

Love to you all,

The MSW Crew

(Art credit: Michael Godard)

Here are a few winners from this week (and one from last week, I think, that I missed posting somehow!)…

Leslie Kelly’s winner of COLD SIGHT: CrystalGB.  She should email Leslie at leslieakelly@gmail.com. Congratulations, CrystalGB!

The winner of Jen’s $15.00 Starbucks gift card is ANNE! Congratulations Anne! Please email Jen at Jenapodaca@aol.com with your mailing address.

The winner of the dreamcatcher from Lori is Silver! Congratulations, Silver! — contact Lori - info@loriarmstrong.com

The winner of the Starbucks gift card and the signed copy of Laura Griffin’s UNSPEAKABLE is commenter #18 “Ladytink”. Please contact laura@lauragriffin.com to claim your prize!

Toni’s $50 Visa Gift Card winners… [EDITED TO ADD that the pre-paid Visa debit card site is a stupidhead and was a pain to try to use, so I can either change your card to a TARGET or AMAZON e-card, which you will get as soon as I see your email address, OR, IF YOU WANT A VISA DEBIT CARD, send me your snail mail address and I will get a gift card mailed out to you tomorrow. Sorry to be confusing. When I first checked the Visa site for this contest, I thought it would be easy. argh.]

Heather N (commenter #44), who was referred by Sierra Mienster (commenter #43)

and just for kicks and giggles, I dipped back into the random-bag-o-numbers for a third bonus winner and literally grabbed two numbers, so two more winners:

Terri Molina (comment #24)

Becky LeJeune (comment #18)

So four winners, whew! Y’all email me at toni@tonimcgeecausey.com and tell me the EMAIL ADDRESS where you want your online visa gift card sent, and I will order those this evening. Or, well, as soon as you get your names to me, if it’s later than today. (My superpowers sadly do not extend to ESP.)

Congratulations!

Let’s talk tube.

Someone sent me a blog yesterday that was sprinkled with TV references, and I came to the realization that I don’t watch nearly enough television.

I know, I know. Americans watch too much TV. We’re melting our brains. Our children are turning into couch potatoes before our eyes, etc. But the thing is, there are households out there where TV just isn’t a big deal. My house happens to be one of them. And while there are definitely some good things about that, I can’t help feeling (occasionally) that I’m missing out.

So I set out to do something simple (or so I thought). Find a list of the top TV shows out there and pick one to start watching. I discovered this is tough to do. TV has become so varied and fragmented, and there is simply so much out there. It isn’t like 25 years ago when Thursday nights rolled around and half the people in America were glued to THE COSBY SHOW.

After scouring the Internet (okay, I only spent thirty minutes, but still), I realized a definitive list of “top” TV shows is hard to come by, probably because there are so many definitions of “top” and everyone wants a list that suits their own agenda. But here are some shows that I came across again and again:

TRUE BLOOD

NCIS

BIG BANG THEORY

CRIMINAL MINDS

30 ROCK

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

BONES

HELL’S KITCHEN

AMERICA’S GOT TALENT

Is your favorite show on this list? Currently, the only show I watch on a regular basis is TOP CHEF, which always makes me hungry. I’m looking for a new show to fall in love with. Tell me about your favorite and why you like it so much.

Just for fun, I also poked around and found a list of top TV shows of all time. I’m a little skeptical because the list I found included CHEERS, MOONLIGHTING, and THE WEST WING (yep, agree with those) but also FELICITY (!?!). So who knows where these lists come from.

Anyway, tell me your favorite TV show, past and present, and be eligible to win a $15 GIFT CARD TO STARBUCKS, along with a signed copy of my new release UNSPEAKABLE.