Buy "Knickknack" between now and 2/25/11 from http://www.authorsden.com/gregprzywara and you could win a $25 Woodman's gift card. All you have to do is show me your copy of the book or other proof of purchase (proof of purchase can also be emailed to me at dabears198545@hotmail.com) and I will take down your name. On Feb 28th, one lucky co-worker chosen at random will receive their gift card. To ensure absolutely no bias, a video of the drawing will be posted to my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/CrooningCashier1979
This contest is limited to Woodman's employees and their families.
Here is an excerpt from one of the most chilling scenes in the book, especially chilling if you've spent any time on parcel/carts.
While Kelly groped around inside the cluttered glove compartment in search of the key, Denise became conscious of a small motor starting up a few feet to her right. She turned and realized that the discordant rumbling was coming from the discarded cart caddy which was now slowly rolling towards her!
“For God’s sake hurry up with that key!” she pleaded with her daughter as she leaped onto the trunk to avoid being crushed by the approaching caddy.
“I found it!” Kelly called out to her after what seemed like a millennium.
“Open the left passenger side window and hand it to me,” she instructed as she unsuccessfully tried to keep the terror racing through her nerves from spreading to Kelly. “What’s going on out there?” asked Kelly fearfully.
“Never mind, it’ll all be over as soon as you give me the key and I can get the book out of the trunk,” her mother replied with rapidly diminishing confidence as the caddy rolled back and forth across the alley. Kelly rolled down the window and handed Denise the key. She slowly climbed down from the trunk, vigilantly monitoring the caddy’s movements as she inserted the key in the lock and gave the handle a prayerful tug. She grabbed the book and sprinted around to the left side of the car. She was less than two feet from the driver’s side door when the caddy reversed course and came at her so abruptly, she dropped the book as she leaped onto a dumpster.
Fortunately, Kelly was able to open the door, scoop up the priceless volume, and toss it onto the seat next to her a split second before the caddy would have ground it into unsalvageable pulp. The ear was still marking the page that had spared Darryl from the horrors at the Antique Nook, but as soon as Kelly removed it, the caddy slammed into the left side of the car, shattering the driver’s side window. As she tried to shield her face from the torrent of shards rushing at her, she dropped the ear on the floor of the vehicle. As she bent down to retrieve it, the caddy rammed the front bumper with such force that if Kelly hadn’t been securely buckled in, her head would have suffered a fatal collision with the dashboard. As it was, she was almost too dazed to wrap her quivering fingers around the ear and toss it onto the open pages of the book, which began flipping immediately.
“Are you all right in there?” her mother cried out from atop the dumpster. “I’m a little shaken up, but I don’t think I busted anything,” replied Kelly, even though the pain that had begun to flare up in her collarbone right after the second collision was an indisputable indication that she’d be suffering from whiplash for the next week. She picked up the book and eyed the spell that the ear had illuminated, but before she could determine the correct pronunciation, a green ball of fire shot out from the light at the top of the caddy, igniting the tall brush surrounding the dumpster. Denise screamed and leaped over the chain-link fence behind the dumpster. Kelly couldn’t figure out whether it was the pain, the Knickknack, or both that was causing the words in front of her to become blurrier and blurrier until they were nothing but an indecipherable gray cloud as her mother crouched behind an oak tree on the other side of the fence, pleading with her to hurry up and find the spell to stop the caddy from launching another fireball.
