Okay, I just glanced over at my neocounter and discovered I have had visitors from 70 countries!!!!!!

I have been writing since I was a child, but I never thought I would have the ability to reach readers in 70 countires! WOW!

So of course I have to have a contest! And here it is:  I want you to leave a comment and tell me where in the world you are. A city and state or a city and country/province. Then whoever is farthest mile wise from my home will be declared the winner. I will let this contest run for one week (July 12th), so have fun! And even if you are overseas, please log in. I will send a book to you whereever you are!

Thanks to all of you for making a humble writer's day!

PS I know some of you do not want to disclose your location on the web, so if that is the case, you may still enter. Just email me at melissamarkham (at) takethemat (dot) com with your city and state. Be sure to put 70 countries in the RE line to help me keep you straight in my email box. I promise I will not share the information of where you are located if you so desire. And I will delete the email promptly from my computer's (and mine) memory banks upon completion of the contest!

Here are the books you can choose from!

Rush Limbaugh: See, I told you so...by Rush Limbaugh 0-671-87120-x

A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam by I. A. Ibrahim 9960-34-011-2

100 years of Hoops (Sports Illustrated) 0-8487-1017-7

Apples of Gold  by Jo Petty

Foxgloveby Mary Anne Kelly 0-312-08195-2

Challenging the Breast Cancer Legacy by Renee Royak-Schaler 0-06-016625-8

Time with God 0-8499-3410-9

Two Years Before the Mast and Twenty Four Years After:  by R. H. Dana, Jr.

The First Part of the Delightful History of the Most Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of the Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes

Elizabethan Drama (Edward the Second, The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark, The Tragedy of King Lear, The Tragedy of MacBeth, and The Tempest) by  Marlowe and Shakespeare

From a Listening Heart by Jack L. Moore 0-385-08422-6

The Cloister Way by Kathleen Norris 1-57322-028-0

Virginia's History by Raymond C. Dingledine, Jr.

The Beginning of Christianity by Clarence Tucker Craig

Guideposts for Growing Up by Barbara K. Polland O-87392-108-9

Sing Praises to Jehovah (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society)

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark  by Alvin Schwartz 0-06-440170-7