Test Round Two (again chronicled by Tina)

Whew, Round Two was a whirl of a wind. My minimalist approach to writing clues gave this round a difficulty rating of ten. Heather came on board with little to work with, but as Jon is wont to use the ever-clever cheat sheet technique (if you go strictly by the wibij rules, it is not cheating), he had a tool at his disposal. Remembering the rumors I had spread, he pulled up The Tenners site, a group of debut novelists that have bonded together to prove there is power in numbers, especially if you have written publishing-worthy books.

So, the first stop saw Jon visiting in a heartbeat. Too easy, I thought. It turns out that the luck was all Jon's  The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin was on Jon’s to-read list and Josh Berk’s site was no big leap. (Go watch the fun video.) Heather on the other hand, had hit on hard times, thrown to the lions by me and left in the dust of Jon’s reading tastes, lagging behind as I published the flawed second clue.

Can I go back a second here and tell you of my day? The day had dawned bright and beautiful here in Minnesota and my husband and I had returned from a cross country Valentine’s ski date. When it gets to be February the sun is so strong here in the Northland and only intensified by the brilliant white snow. It addled my brain. Also my husband is insanely athletic. He had me skiing my heart out about 20 feet behind him for two hours. I was a sweaty shaking mess by the time I had sat down to lead the game. AND I hadn’t left comments around yet. So after racing through Hyland Ski Area, I crisscrossed the blogosphere just 20 key strokes ahead of my buddies, leaving capitalized words in my wake. The day had a nice symmetry, if my game many mistakes. And clue two was one of many casualties, in translation from draft to post, the second clue lost its italics, and I was too rushed to notice. The words ESCAPING THE TIGER, no longer stood out, which was the googlable title of Laura Manivong’s new book. Was this to be the death knell to Heather’s run for the illusive glitter?

Miracle of miracles, they both got it and we were off to 3. But, clues be foiled again, somehow Jon skipped ahead and found 4 through a secret loophole. What the heck? But Heather was quick on her fingers and found Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich lovely blog about fabric crafts. But this clue was a tricky one, and had a second clue embedded in the first, intended to point my peeps to agent-friend’s The Rejectionist where Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich was featured about her new book, 8th Grade Super Zero. After the quick detour, Heather found the post, commented on it and moved on. The gifted Jonathon was behind and ahead at the same time!! How was it possible? (Check this loophole.)

The two visited Margie Gelbwasser’s post discussing the  cover for her new book Inconvenient. The race neck and neck. The final clue posing no problem until… WA! Wait, where is your clue and comment, Tina? The blog of Lindsay Eland had comment moderation and in her silly hurry, Tina (me) didn’t see the fine print stating comment waiting moderation. The comment right there in front of her, but not in front of everybody yet. So close and yet so far away. Note to my game master self, check more closely next time and make sure site has unmoderated commenting. Well, as Jon was refreshing the page, trusting that his fearless leader’s comment would soon appear, his computer crashed and Heather rushed through the finish line.

Our glitter broadcaster had left the coliseum, meanwhile Heather the intrepid sneaked in and stole the gold, typing with finesse and agility the words I had spread around, SO YOU SAY IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!

There you have it, Practice Run # 2, over and done with and no injuries to speak of.