AND THE WINNER IN THE WHY I WANT TO BE A CHARACTER IN MARSHALL’S NEXT BOOK CONTEST IS...

Gary Miller.

Since most of the entrants were readers I’ve met or emailed, I decided to recuse myself from the judging. I handed over the job to Chris and Beth, two of my favorite bloggers, who are also my web gurus.

They voted separately, and they each picked Gary. His entry:

It's for the sex, because nothing says chick magnet more than "Hello beautiful. Bet you didn't know I won a contest so that my name was used for a character in a Marshall Karp novel."

I’m not exactly sure how I’ll weave Gary into my next book, so I thought I’d borrow a few lines from other authors to show you how it might work.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. It was also Monday and Gary Miller had a shitload of laundry to do.

Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing. The sign over his door said Gary Miller, Attorney At Law.

Call me Ishmael… or Gary… whatever.

Congratulations, Gary. And for those of you who didn’t win this time, thank you for entering, and remember, there are no losers. In fact, it could well turn out that the real loser here is Gary Miller.

Marshall posted on February 18, 2009 7:36 AM