Have you entered the giveaway yet for Susie Finkbeiner’s Paint Chips and a piece of jewelry of your choice from her Etsy shop? If not, hurry! One more day!

This one will be quick, but that’s okay. I have galleys of Whispers from the Shadows arriving today, so no time to lose! =)

Resin oozing from a stump

Ooze was one of those words like “wow” that really surprised me in how old it was–as in, as old as English. I thought it was a new word . . . perhaps I thought so because of its use in Ghost Busters and Nickelodeon slime stuff. 😉

But nope. Ooze dates, both as a verb and a noun, from the 1300s, and had its modern spelling as early as the 1500s. And the meaning hasn’t changed either. From its origins, it carried the same denotation of juicy, gooy, miry stuff.

Interestingly, its root is the same as the one from which we get virus, which we’ll take a look at next week. 😉

Now, today is the official launch of the Ring of Secrets promo tour! So to kick things off, I’m over at Go Teen Writers sharing the story of the book’s road to publication. Leave a comment there for a chance to win a signed copy of the book AND a chance to name a character in Circle of Spies, book 3 in the Culper Ring Series!

Plus it marks the launch of my Box of Secrets giveaway! For the next month-ish, during the blog tour, you can enter to win these 10 fun prizes, including a complete set of signed books-by-me. (If you already have some of these, think of it as a nice gift for a family member or friend, LOL.) Plus some awesome custom-made items.

And as you’ll see on Rafflecopter, one of the ways to enter is to play my Create Your Own Spy Name game!

Let the intrigue begin. =)