Get Your Name in My Next Next Book
Happy Monday! After this week it is Thanksgiving vacation! Woooo! So looking forward to a week off. And eating. And shopping. And eating some more.
Did anyone see Stephenie Meyer on Oprah on Friday? It was a quick interview, but it was pretty good. I know Stephenie has had a lot of practice by now, but she speaks really well. But…for those of you who caught it, did she remind you of Lauren Graham? Check out Stephenie. Then Lauren (scroll to bottom). No wonder I like the author of Twilight. She looks like Lorelai Gilmore’s sister!
Congratulations to the winners of I’m SO Sure: Carrie Turansky and Colene. Ladies, just send me your mailing addys to jen at jennybjones dot com. Before I tell you about this week’s contest, I must dish about a book you are going to want to read.
I’m pretty sure I first heard about the book’s fabulousness from author and expert blogger Natalie Lloyd. Not only does she have awesome things to say in her blog, but she often has great book recommendations. When Natalie talks books, I listen. And I finally picked up The Magician’s Elephant. Oh, my gosh. I loooooved it. It’s a quick read. It has pictures (always a selling point for me). And it is the most beautifully crafted tale ever. It’s fairy tale like. It’s magical. It’s hope-filled.
It’s about this boy whose parents are dead. And he lives with an old man who is not so kind and quite crazy. His mother died giving birth to his sister, and the old man told him his sister died as well. Yet the boy cannot leave it alone. He believes, he hopes, that his sister is alive. So he takes a great risk and goes to see a fortune teller. This fortune teller tells Peter to find his sister, he must follow the elephant. The elephant? What kind of craziness is that? Peter is thoroughly discouraged at the woman’s cheap answer. . . until an elephant makes a rather startling appearance. And it doesn’t just affect Peter’s life. It affects the lives of a handful of people–lives that have been tied together with invisible string.
There are all kinds of random threads and characters in this book. And initially when you find a stray plot piece, you think “that’s random and pointless.” But then…then you realize there is no character, no word, no detail wasted in this story. Everything is related in the most brilliant, sigh-inspiring way. This book was like a cozy bedtime story. Would be great read aloud. Would be great read in increments. It’s considered juvenile lit, but I would recommend it for any age. Here is a favorite line:
Looking out over the city, Peter decided that it was a terrible and complicated thing to hope, and that it might be easier, instead, to despair.
And isn’t that the truth. Hoping is complicated, difficult business. The book is filled with themes of faith in the unseen, miracles, and about not wasting a single day. I loved it, loved it, loved it. Now I must go find Kate DiCamillo’s Edward Tulane.
I’ll be giving away a copy a little closer to Christmas, so stay tuned. It’s a perfect gift type of book.
In the meantime, let’s give away another copy of I’m So Sure. To spice up the haul, I’m adding a $25.00 Barnes and Noble gift card AND a mention in my acknowledgments if I use your answer. So book, gift card, and name droppage! Woo! Here is the question for the week: If you could name a fake football team, what would it be called?
Let me give you a little background. In the book I’m writing (go NaNoWriMo! I’m not last!), I have a HDLI (hot dude love interest) who is a former professional football player. (Or some manly sport. I’m thinking football. Let’s go with that for now.) Anyway, I don’t want to put him on a real team. I need him to be from an imaginary team. And I need some help in coming up with this name. It’s a lot harder than you might think.
So in order to get in the running for a copy of I’m So Sure And that 25 dollar gift card to Barnes and Noble AND a shout out in this future release, I need you to leave a suggestion for the team name. Or two. Or three. I will enter your name TWICE for every legit suggestion (manly sounding teams) and once for ones that make me laugh (like one I found on a fantasy football site–Roast Beef Curtains). One will actually be of use to me and one will make me laugh. Because sports–not a fun topic for me. And CHALLENGE yourself not to cheat too much and look up all those fantasy football sites and steal their names. Names like:
Moats n’ Hoes (what? what the heck does that even mean? Don’t you hate it when something strikes you as funny, but you have no idea what exactly you’re laughing at?)
Tylenol Cold and Coughlin
Farve Dollar Footlong (love that one)
Flacco Seagulls
WD-Forte
I Dream of Mangini
Kibbles and Vick
I’m Brinnging Hasselbeck
My My Myyyy Bironas
Henne Nut Cheerios
Good stuff. None of it useful to me. I need something legit sounding like the Broncos, the Bears, the Cowboys. And those teams won’t return my calls about letting me buy those names off of them. I mean, aren’t they tired of them? Time for new ones! But until they call. . .I must come up with my own. Can’t wait to see your suggestions! You have until Friday at midnight to leave your comments. Winner announced next Monday.
Have a great week. I am on Thanksgiving vakay countdown. Buh-ring it.
See you Wednesday unless another snot plague takes over my body.
JEN
P.S. No, you can’t suggest Snot Plague as a team name.
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THE FIGHTING CHIHUAHUA’s!
The Roaring Kittens. The Frolicking Heifers. The Charging Warriors. The Abominable Snowmen. The Terrifying Knights. The Predetors. The Flying Tacos.
The Fighting Midgets. The jolly green giants. The conquering Hooligans.
The Romans. The Speedy Turtles. The Mowing Experts. The Warriors.
^the mowing experts got me hahaha.
thanks so much for the book!! youre a life saver!
hope youre feeling better
My pick from above would be The Mowing Experts. But my suggestions are: The Marauders, The Knights, The Comets, The Raptors, The Volturi (the uniforms must sparkle).
Ridiculous Redemption. The Mighty Mice, and The Hot Rollers!
the rhinestone rhinos. complete with bedazzled uniforms.
The GrillMasters; The Purple Pillagers; The Touchdown Tornadoes; The Plundering Pirates; The Outlaws; The Football Bandits; The Forceful Foragers (I like alliteration)
While I do not need a copy of I’m so sure, the other prizes sound great! Thank you Jenny for being so gracious and offering us readers such great things.
Name dropping!! Whooo Hooo, we could be famous LOL.
My football team would be…..
The Tailgate Titans!!
The Teddy Bears!
The school district I grew up in is called Canon-MacMillen and their high school team is “the big macs” (jr high is the little macs). True story.
The football team where I attended college is The Golden Tornado’s. The mascot looked like a Twinkie so we called them the Golden Twinkie’s. Another true story.
I’m not doing so well with coming up with a name on my own. My mind is being clouded by fast food and really bad snack cakes.
The Totem Wranglers,The Big Dippers, The Kodiaks (lil trivia: a Kodiak Bear is 1,400lbs & 11 ft tall compared to a Grizzly at 800lbs & 9ft tall)Denali Drillers. hmmm I sense a theme. lol
Um, sports are not my thing either! How about Mighty Mice! They’re rival could be the Krafty Kittens.
I have a few…
* The Nightly Ninja’s
* The Bench Warmers
* Your Worst Nightmares
* The tighty Whiteys
* The Battling Beavers
* The Concrete Mixers
* The Butt Wooping Meerkats
I also wanted to tell everyone to go watch the video “Butterfly Man” on youtube!!! Its halarious and i cant stop watching it!!!
Hmm, that is hard. How about the Pythons, the Dachshunds, or the Cougars? Or NyQuil. Cough syrup that tastes like poison is pretty scary.
My Fantasy Football team’s name is Pigskin Posse. It’s really unfortunate that the team coach keeps forgetting to switch her players in and out due to bye weeks and injuries. That would be why the Pigskin Posse isn’t the winning team in the office league.
I like the Screaming Eagles, but that might be an actual team…that’s the soccer team my 7 year-old played on Saturday. His team? The Tiger Sharks. My 5 year-old played the LadyBugs.
I like some of the other suggestions, but the
Hummin’ Bees has a nice ring (think Africanized bees???)
or the Rowdy Ninjas. (oxymoron right?)
Cutie Patooties (but then they’d probably get wedgies in the locker room, so you shouldn’t choose that one.)
Greedy Harem???
Ok, now I’m just tired…
Good luck!
I would pick: The Eagles (unless that already exists), The Grizzly Bears (however you spell it), and The Evergreens,
The Tokyo Samurai
The London Foghorns
The Little Rock Boulders
The Los Angeles Quakes
The Transylvania Bloodsuckers
The Oklahoma F-5’s
The Tulsa Roughnecks
Twisted Typhoons
Mighty Phantoms
Grape Juicers
Flower Pickers
Super Stewards
Furry Koalas
Oh ya, it is hard to think of serious names, lol.
For serious names i like either the Pouncing Penguins (Spelling?) or BACTERIA!! Sorry i lied, those names are not so serious!
I *LOVE* contests like these!!
My suggestions are:
The Whoopin’ Coffs
The Mighty Valors
The Tommy Squawks
The York Mint Fatties
The Burly Biceps
The Colonials
The Buzzards
The Bearded Dragons
The Armored Pitts
The Quakers
The Mayflowers (hey, I’ve got T-giving on the brain)
The Merchants
The Kingsleys
The Thundering Tsunamis
The Terrifying Typhoons
The Barking Spiders
The Komodo Dragons
The Stingrays
The Stinging Scorpions
The Pitt Bulls
The Contenders
The Cayenne Peppers
The Mighty Mules
The Fighting Fossils
The Burly Bohemians
The Godfathers
The Capones
i want this prize package! but then again, who doesn’t?
sooo…
I once was on a team that were the Cycling Cyclones. We played soccer, and actually won. TeHe..:)
I’ve always wanted to see a polar bear as a mascot, so how about the parading polarbears? no? um.. prancing pola- nevermind. The… Pouncing Polarbears!
A really cool one would be the Delta Ducks.
does that sound too much like a duct tape brand?
Wompin’ Wasps
Thunder Sharks
Crimson Rockets
Silent Storms
Couragous Kings
Banzai Dragons
Super Dinos
Pimp Monkies
Trompin’ Tornadoes
Racing Rhinos
Super Awesome Team Thats Amazing (S.A.T.T.A)
Snapping Vipers
Well… That was tough, but fun! I help my friends pick team names for their fantasy football leugue, and We have team names in algebra. Hey! That reminds me, Think about this: The Denominating Denomenators. Think about it. We won the division cup with it…
Oh my… I’m no good at this kind of thing. Still, I’ll give it a try.
Do you want city names attached? I have no idea.
The Nashville Nightingales
The Talons
The Campbell’s Soupers
The Handsome Harpooners
The Miners
The Coalers
The Sentinels
The Phantoms
The Burros
The Roughnecks
The Pioneers
The Rustlers
The Brigadeers
The Meteors
The Battle Axes
The Hatchets
The Flaming Hearts
The Silver Streaks (can you imagine the uniforms?) ;o)
The Bedford Beet Diggers
The Armadillos
The Porcupines
The Sardines
The Bantam Hens
The Wildebeests
The Whirlygigs
The Zig Zags
The Manacles
The Rabid Bats
The Spitting Llamas
The Sewer Rats
The Pot-Bellied Pigs
The Mockingbirds
The Spark Plugs
The Shrinking Violets
And… that’s all I got. Hopefully there’s something good in there!
how about the medium rares! ( i just got done eating steak) complete them with a t-bone steak on their helmets.
*The milking monsters ( maybe they live in a dairy area?)
*The Infinities (let’s hope it’s infinite wins and not loses)
maybe I’ll have more later
(laughs)The Pink Piggily Wigglies or the Yellow Rubber Duckies
(manly)Bulldozers
Here’s my favourite school team’s name…
the roman candles (a catholic school)
I like ‘the greyhounds’ too
how about the medium rares? ( i just ate some steak) they could have a t-bone steak on their helmets….(cheesy? i know…)
When my husband made me play fantasy football (which I won by the way!) my team was called The Pink Princesses. That probably wouldn’t work for your book though-it’s not very manly:)
The Go-Go Guys (or girls) The Head Honchos! The Big Cheese’s. The Big Kahunas.
Hey just wanted to say that the book Edward Tullan is amazing! Most og her books for older aduience (aka the tiger rising and the tale of despereaux) are really sad but her “younger” kids books are just great! For the football teams…well
)
-Stiletto Stealers (girls team probably…but I dont know what kind of book your writing so hey..
-Fighting Hipos
-The Corn Huskers
-The Traffrods
-Unyeilding Lions
-The Vehements
-The obsequious Bears
How about…
FUNNY:
The Tight Ends (haha…made myself laugh!)
The Ligers (from napoleon dynamite, its a Lion & Tiger put together. lol)
The Lagoon Creatures
SERIOUS (?):
The Screamers
The (name of city) Ace
The Ferocious Fires
The Fierce Fires
The Alpacas
The llamas
The Hailstones
The Fierce Ferrets =)
I just finished reading I’m so Sure. AMAZING. But WHY is So Over My Head not coming out until May 2010? All I want to do is read the next one!
Jenny B. Jones is my FAVORITE author. The Katie Parker series…awesome! Maybe I’ll read that again so I won’t think about Bella and Luke and Budge and the next book.
If I named a football team, it would probably be named Super Tsunamis…or something like that.
LOVE LOVE LOVE the suggestions guys. And I’m keeping a running list. Even of the ones that can’t be a manly football team. Because they would make great band names for future books. You’re all so stinkin’ clever.
The (insert town name) Honkers. Named for the famed duck, of hunting sport!
how about The Egg Beaters? The flying saucepans? The iron lamp posts?
Okay, The Nads…so when someone is cheering for the the will say “Go Nads!!!” I’ll let you research that if you don’t know what they are….That’s my funny one.
Waterdogs….which is a salamander. If you do a google search, there is the dwarf waterdog, the alabama waterdog and the gulf coast waterdog…which may help with location??
Last one…The Fleas. I’ll send more if I think of any.
FYI Eagles already an NFL team.
Fort Worth Stars
Florida Sting
Boston Hub
Manhattan Empire
Southland Orange
Pittsburgh Irons
San Antonio Missions
Seattle Emeralds
Buffalo Bison
The Hermits, The Recluses(spiders or hiders), The Longnecks.(Beer or weirdos). The Rhinos or sharks.
The Flaming Flamingos
Yellowback Cougars
Howlin’ Hornets
The Patriots
The Charming Cowboys
Fightin’ Stallions (fairy tale-esque!)
Kansas City Knights **(fairy tale theme again!)
How about the Hawaiian Volcanoes
The Alaskan Glaciers
Louisville Lightning
The Raptors
The Tornadoes
Oh brother, this is not an easy assignment!
Carrie
OH! Pick me!! Here is my idea:
The Long Johns
lol
Good luck choosing just one!
Rattlesnakes
Vaders
Grim Reapers
Blazers
Minotaurs
Centaurs
Phoenixes
Gee. That was kinda hard.
Got two for ya
1. The Bobcats (goes good with any city that starts with a B)
2. The Pioneers
There may be colleges with those names, but I’m pretty sure there are no pro teams with them.
You could go prehistoric…
The Terrifying T-Rex’s
Brutal Brontosauruses (except they were nice)
Or…
The Jackalopes (it needs no adjective)
Are there vultures or falcons?
OH man, these are so funny! Hope I don’t take any ideas, but tried to be original! Here goes:
Silly:
The Shopping Cart Wranglers
The Fainting Goats (these are real, lol!)
The Flaming Pork n’ Beans
This Ain’t Yo Mama’s Football Team
The Pop Tarts
The Haterades
How to Beat Teams and Influence Referees
The Fanny Packs
The Fairy Herd
The Mole Patrol
The Spam Roasters
The Hash Browns
or the Brown Hashers
Takeit Outsiders
The Tuna Helpers
The Kilters
The Mall Rats
The Bad Samaritans
The Blight of Round World
The Lick Yo’Plates
Oxy Morons
This Ain’t a Richard Simmon’s Workout
Serious:
Hanlontown Hellcats
Mason City Minotaurs
the Fighting Alligators
the Raging Rivers
the Striking Cobras
Backstreet Buffaloes
This is Fur Seal!
Paula Abdul Posse
the Howling Coyotes
Jaguar Jugulars
Panama Pythons
Lousiana Lions
ok, so the serious aren’t so serious…but it was fun! I don’t think I can wrack my brain anymore…Thanks!
hahaha…I meant to say that the other people’s names were funny, the ones above mine!
what about the Phoenix Phighters?
or you could do something like: Barnebys Buccaneers? just find the first name (like of the city/town) and then find a catchy name that begins with the same letter as the town.
Hope my entry helps you Jenny. You are awesome.
Okay these are lame but i got some
-Rhode island Rhino’s
-New Jersey Nugget’s
-Tennessee Tornadoes
-The Mojave Mohawks
-Tallahassee TRexs
The Bullets
The Baracudas
The Bruisers
I am apparently on a B kick at the moment.
The Outlaws
The Cougars
The Pirates
The Razors or Razorbacks
Stallions
Pumas
Thunder
Wranglers
The Panama Platypuses
The Supreme Squirrels
Fighting Juice Boxes
The Juno jalapenos
The Tanks
The Velociraptors!
Rockin’ Raptors!
um i think i have a few:
the rabid rodents
the venemous vultures
um… i cant think of no more.
oh wait one more:
the devious dragons
The Hippie Hillbillies
Oh, maybe the…
- Drama Queens
or if that’s too silly
- Drama Kings
Their team could always be running around the ‘center field’ (center stage, ha ha)
maybe my brain has gone flat____________________________
Here’s few more:
silly:
The Skinned Pigs
Washington Warthogs
Porkrind Patrol
Austin Armadilloes
the Shoulderpad Parade
Trenton Typhoon
Helmethair Herd
River City Roadrunners
the Houston Hippoes
Chicago Cheetahs
New York Ninjas
Centerville Sluggers
Glenville Gladiators
Forest City Flamers
Freeville Firecrackers
Florida Fruitcakes
the Tasmanian Devils
Bayville Badgers
Salem Scorpions
the Dust Bowlers
Smithville Sharks
the Red Chiefs
the Boston Brawlers
the Carson City Crows
Silver City Diggers
whew, think I’m done….thanks!
hmm…. what about the Small Soldiers?? my cousin gave me the idea.. gotta love her creativity.
Or you could go with something like “The Fearless Fighters”.. or maybe the Crushing Combateers! (if ‘combateers’ is even a word.. which it probably isn’t.. but thats the fun of it)
Anyways.. have a greta night/Thanksgiving break!!
Sam <3
the roman catholic candle lights.
the single ladies. *comes will an all inclusive beyonce singing group of men*
The crusaders. it could be for any town big or small but with oh so many hidden meanings
Why is your book “So Over my head” not coming out until May 2010?????