Happy December 13th! The Kindle contest is still underway. Here's how it works: you nominate a friend/family member/coworker/etc. who you think needs a Kindle (tell us why they need/deserve one!) I'll be collecting entries until December 21st and then a winner will be chosen and the person nominated and the one who nominated them will both receive a Kindle! You only have to nominate a person once but you can nominate different people on different days if you want to. All you have to do to enter is comment on one of the Advent Calendar posts between now and then. But there are also daily giveaways of cool stuff too! Daily winners will be selected from that day's comments.

Yesterday's winner of a signed copy of The Winter of Candy Canes is Na S. Congratulations! To enter today's giveaway, just comment below. Some of you may know that my lucky number is 13. So, today's goodie is 13 fun facts about me and my work. To see what the giveaway for today is, you'll have to read to the bottom.

1. I originally chose 13 as my lucky number because I thought it would be a fun and obnoxious thing for me to be able to say back when I was a kid. Since then it has actually been a very lucky number for me.

2. Westerns are my favorite genre. One of my best friends and I love to take old-time photos whenever we're someplace we can have them done. We always say that we'll do something new next time but inevitably we always end up as outlaws. And she usually has a sawed-off shotgun in her hand. I'm working on a series of western novels that I consider to be my masterpiece. I'm hoping to bring them to market in the next couple of years. Fingers crossed!

3. My favorite book of all time is The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey. You can read an excerpt here and download a free Kindle copy here. This was the book that inspired me to become a writer.

4. Other favorite books when I was growing up include the books of James Herriot including All Creatures Great and Small, Snow Dog and Haunt Fox both by Jim Kjelgaard, The Call of the Wild by Jack London, and The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman. I've read Snow Dog more than three hundred times.

5. My favorite movie of all time is Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

6. My favorite movie to have on while I'm writing is the extended edition cut of The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.

7. My favorite song of all time is Holding Out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler.

8. I have visited 11 countries on 4 continents, but I was in a writing class with a woman who is a motivational speaker and she's visited all 7 continents. Yes, she did a motivational training video shot in Antarctica. She's one of my heroes because of that.

9. The book I wrote that made me laugh hysterically the entire time is The Fall of Candy Corn. It made my dad laugh a lot too.

10. I never lack for book ideas. I'm inspired by anything and everything. I keep a running file of all my ideas. So far I'm up to about 650. Yes. Big number.

11. My favorite Christmas song of all is Little Drummer Boy by White Heart.

12. My favorite thing about Christmas is when I can give someone a present I know they're going to love.

13. My favorite Christmas movies are: Scrooge (Albert Finney version), Twice Upon a Christmas, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, and Die Hard. Yup. It's a Christmas movie.

And today in honor of my lucky number I'm giving a $13 gift certificate to one of my favorite online retailers: Amazon. So comment below to enter for your chance to win the gift certificate.