the PanthEon challenge?

I got a really nice note from the people putting together the Appalachian Education Initiative's "Art&Soul" book (coming out next week, it features 50 outstanding creative artists from the State of West Virginia...including Kathy Mattea, Chris Sarandon, Paul Dooley, Jennifer Garner, Lawrence Kasdan, Homer Hickam and yours truly...) telling me that my spread came out wonderfully. Now, I am excited (I always thought my inclusion was a clerical error, and was expecting for the past year to get a note saying "We're sorry, we meant some other William F. DeVault...we apologize for the confusion, here's a box of crayons as our way of saying 'sorry'.")

Anyway...was reading up on marketing manuevers the other day at Books A Million (my new hangout since a local restaurant/bar decided that my writing poetry was a threat to public morals) and I keep hitting two ideas: a contest and a "money-back" deal.

The contest presents me with a quandry, the prizes are easy to work out: Books, money and/or personal appearance. The tough part is what the contest could be...I sat down and started coming up with ideas...most were either lame, abstract or illegal in Wisconsin.

So I tried focusing in on the "money back" deal on the books. E.J. suggested I base the deal on the old "Pepsi challenge" with a twist...let people know that, if they buy one of my books and take it home, and read it to their lover, we guarantee they'll get laid, or their money back. Not sure I can work that...of course, how many people would lie about NOT getting laid just to get ten bucks back? Intriguing.

Of course, I have a file cabinet full of testimonials from people who swear that reading "PanthEon" got them laid, or made it better...so who am I to argue? Maybe I need to stop writing and start reading...of course, it is more complicated than that...promises have been made. Dammit.

I'm not worried. I am in the space I am supposed to be right now, preparing for the next adventure...which will come, as I have said before and even named a book ..."from an unexpected quarter".

Laughing...now there's a prize for you...the winner of a contest gets to marry me. Nah, the last time I made a deal like that, I ended up married.