Hot Foil Design Give-Away, My Interpretation of The Hunger Games and What is a Trade-Up?

My Dear Trash has come across another fabulous entrepreneur and brilliant minded woman who wants to participate in a hot little give-away. Hot Foil Designs creates custom paper products including stationary and napkins (click here to see her blog and more cool stuff she designs).

Hot Foil Designs is giving away a package of personalized notecards to a lucky My Dear Trash follower. Want to win? Become a follower of My Dear Trash and leave a comment under any blog entry. The more comments you leave, the more you're entered in the give-away. We will post the winner April 15th, 2010. Good luck.

I woke up this morning with a query letter working through my mind. A dream I had (horrible as it was, really I was so scared) was turning into an idea for a novel. When I woke up I was already summing it up in an exciting one-paragraph hook.

A bright boy with incredible potentional is selected to attend a top-notch academy prep program. He’s proud parents sign the waiver and wave good-bye as their son, Chandler is bussed off for a week of learning. When the week is over, Chandler’s mom makes the long drive to pick him up. She arrives in a desolate part of Arizona, rural and run down. The academy looks nothing like the brochure pictured and she’s anxious to retrieve her son. Once inside, she discovers an open arena where the children are forced to participate in fierce competitions. She watches through a one-sided glass window as her son plays a brutal ball game with monster-like aliens. When the game is over, a hurt and bloody Chandler passes through the hallway and his mother frantically calls out his name. Both are desperate to leave, but the nasty academy president informs them the waiver actually assigned Chandler to a six month stay, dead or alive. The only way Chandler is leaving with his mother is if they can outsmart the academy and the law.

Alright, I know it’s a bit weak, but I just finished The Hunger Games and I’m completely spooked by the whole idea of children fighting to the death.

Plus, all weekend my kids watched Aliens in the Attic, hense the monster-like aliens.

Combine them plots and it’s a pitiful idea for a novel. Even still, I was scared to death and went to check on Chandler. Thank heavens he didn't have a bruise on him.

My super publicist and great friend, Doug Johnston of Little Red Ride Promotions has started a trade-up. What's a trade-up? Click here to read about Kyle McDonald who started with a red paper clip and eventually traded up to a house. So Doug has started with a paper clip and My Dear Trash contributed the first trade-up, a Charlie McCarthy silver-plated antique spoon.

Doug is an editor is the Morgan County News and will be featuring his trade-up here. I can't wait to see what happens next.