Win Things

 Contests!  4 Responses »
Jun 142011
 
Thing 1:

Figment, a site for writers I posted about here, has a writing contest posted called Fable Contest with Paulo Coehlo. Paulo Coehlo, author of The Alchemist, will be judging a 1200 word writing contest hosted through Figment for a cash prize of $1000. The deadline is June 19th.

Your challenge is to write a fable (a short story with a moral) in less than 1200 words, set in a fictional country on the day before the final battle in a devastating war. Paulo Coelho will read the finalists and decide the winner. Which is kind of like having your poem read by Robert Frost or your play read by Arthur Miller. Which is, well, amazing. via

I haven’t decided yet if I am going to enter, but I’m thinking very, very hard about it. I guess I should probably write something then, no?

Let me know if you enter, blog friends!

Thing 2:

The lovely Steph Su is doing some big YA book give aways this month. Go sign up and try to win!

Thing 3:

I am SO BEHIND. You only have until June 15th for this one, but Claudie (THE Claudie) is giving away a copy of David Gaughran Transfection which I cannot wait to read. David is one of my favorite self-publishing short story writers and often pops round Tell Great Stories in the comments. The contest is easy and fun and the comments on the contest are well worth reading. So go and hurry and enter! (Also you can click on the cover for Transfection in my right sidebar and buy a copy if you can’t wait for the contest to end :-) )


Thing 4:

Wicked & Tricksy is hosting a blogfest and BIG contest on June 27-July 1st. Details here, but the gist:

During the week of May 16, SB, Margo, Claudie, and I told all of you why we write speculative fiction. Now, blog friends, its your turn: June 27th – July 1st.

1. Name 3 of your favorite spec-fic stories (books, movies, tv shows, anything goes!)
2. Then tell us why YOU love spec-fic – what plot line, character type, story trope, setting, time, place is your absolute favorite.
3. And finally, take a guess if you can: where do you see spec-fic stories going in the next two, five, ten years? What will be popular and how will the sub-genres have changed?

The four of us have been collecting items, things that we love about our genres, books that we think highlight the very best speculative fiction has to offer, inspirational gadgets and gizmos, and fandom ephemera. We’ve created four Secret Boxes of Mystery that you will be able to sign up to win during the blogfest week.

We even have a button for you. See? Button:

 

Wicked & Tricksy
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.wickedtricksy.com/?p=668" title="Wicked & Tricksy" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.wickedtricksy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/buttonsomethingwicked.png" alt="Wicked & Tricksy" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Enter to win “The Breakout Novelist” by Donald Maass!

 Contests!, Tools and Resources  12 Responses »
Mar 012011
 

Last week I bought this:

And so far I feel like this:

And because I feel the same way about all of you, my writer friends, I’ve decided to give away a copy of this:

You know its true love when I can’t stop giving things to you guys. :-) That’s right, up for grabs for ONE WEEK ONLY, I’m giving away a copy of Donald Maass’s new book:  The Breakout Novelist. The release date says March 11th. It’s like getting a book from the future. And one lucky winner is going to get it for free.

There’s a catch. There’s always a catch, right? No you don’t have to friend me (unless you want to), or Twitter, Facebook, or Blog the giveaway (unless you want to.) You don’t have to sign away your first born, sell me your soul, or join my Superpower Army of Bloggers (unless you want to.) Nope, none of that.

Instead, you’re going to have to answer a question. One question. Oh, also, the fate of the universe is resting on your answer.

Ready? Here are the rules-

  1. Open to US and Canada residents only
  2. You must be at least 17 to enter.
  3. Contest begins March 1st and ends March 7th. I will announce the winner on March 8th.
  4. Fill out the form below by providing your name, email, and mailing address. Normally I don’t mind if you use an alias, but since the book hasn’t officially been released yet I’m going to send it through Amazon as a gift and it’ll ship directly from Amazon to you when it is released. So no aliases please.
  5. In the event of an alien invasion, or other likewise disasters out of my control, the rules are subject to changes at any time.
  6. As soon as the contest is over I will delete all entries. I will never share or sell your personal information. Unless you are the winner I won’t even be looking at your personal information.
  7. Have fun and good luck!

And the winner is…

 Blogfest, Contests!  7 Responses »
Feb 142011
 

First, a HUGE thank you to those who participated in the Smitten! Blogfest. I knew it would probably have a light turn out because it was real stories verse our usually fictional stories. But I’m really happy with the entries. The Blogfest is still going on through today so if you’d like to jump in you’re totally welcome to! I’ve read all the entries so far and they are pretty cool. It takes a lot of moxie to post about your real life and I applaud you all.

Next, the contest.

The winner of Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel Harlequin Valentine is……….

Dawn Embers!

 

Congratulations Dawn. I’ll wrap up the book and ship it off this week. I hope you like it, Harlequin Valentine is one of my favorite of his one shot graphic novels. The story is creepy and awesome and kind of sweet.

And last, but certainly not least, all the cards have been shipped to their owners. I LOVED doing this and I think I want to do something similar again in the future and definitely again next Valentine’s Day. Because I didn’t have a lot of submissions (6) I was able to get pretty detailed with the cards and even customize the message to the recipients. That being said, they were pretty time consuming and I don’t think I could do this level of detailed work for a bigger group. I’ll have to figure out something different. I think it would be cool to send Halloween cards. We’ll see.

So for those of you who wanted one, thank you very much! And you should get them in the mail Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday depending on where you live and when I sent it out. Some of them took longer to finish than I’d anticipated. But I’m pretty proud of them so I hope you enjoy them too.

I’ll post pictures of all the cards next week after I know everyone had received theirs.

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First Paragraph Challenge with Nathan Bransford

 Contests!, Fantastic Authors, Things Worth Sharing, Writing  5 Responses »
Jan 262011
 

The very cool Nathan Bransford is hosting a contest on his blog RIGHT NOW that everyone with a work in progress should rush over and enter right away. Granted, you’re going up against yours truly and like 700 other entrants, but if you’ve got the chops you’re going to do just fine.

THE CONTEST:

The 4th Sort-of-Annual Stupendously Ultimate First Paragraph Challenge

PRIZES: (via Nathan’s blog, please see his blog for full prizes and full rules)

1) The opportunity to have a partial manuscript considered by my utterly fantastic agent, Catherine Drayton of InkWell, whose clients include bestselling authors such as Markus Zusak (THE BOOK THIEF), John Flanagan (THE RANGER’S APPRENTICE series) and Becca Fitzpatrick (HUSH HUSH), among others.

2) A signed advance copy of my novel, JACOB WONDERBAR AND THE COSMIC SPACE KAPOW, which is coming out in May:


RULES (via. See for full list of rules):

Post the first paragraph of any work-in-progress in the comments section of the contest post HERE. Do not email. The deadline for entry is Thursday 4pm Pacific time, at which point entries will be closed. Finalists will be announced…. sometime after that. When the finalists are announced you will exercise your democratic rights to vote for a stupendously ultimate winner.

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Even if you don’t enter (and if you do) your second mission (which I’m assigning you) is to go over and read at least 100 entries. Pick them at random so you get a good sampling across the 700+ entries submitted.

Read. Evaluate for yourself. Keep a short list of dynamite first paragraphs and see if your taste is the same as Nathan’s. Learn from those who are putting themselves out there. Decide what really doesn’t work at why. Figure out why some speak to you louder than others.

Report back what you learned. Don’t repost anyone’s stuff but tell me what you discovered about what you like, what you don’t like, and what works. We’ll compare notes after the finalists are announced. I have already picked 15 I think are pretty fantastic. Now we wait and see.

Good luck to everyone entering! I am in the first 100 posted, if you are interested. I suspect the finalists are going to learn what terror tastes like as soon as they see their names listed. I almost feel bad for them. At least when you query agents it’s just you and the agent judging your writing worth. This contest is going to invite hundreds of other writers into the room to weigh and measure you. I’m pretty sure terrifying doesn’t even cover it.

Smitten! a Blogfest & Contest – February 1-14th

 Contests!, My Life in Action, Theme Week  9 Responses »
Jan 252011
 

I was newly 21 when I moved to Boston and I was ready to have my life’s story thrust upon me. I’d been in town for two weeks, job hunting was slow, but I’d already spent a lifetime riding the subway and exploring. I had started to shed my “tourist” skin.

My roommates were out that second weekend and I was left to adventure alone. I took the subway into the city, got off at State Street, and headed to Faneuil Hall. There were dozens of shops, all charming and unique, but mostly catering to tourists. At the far end, away from most of the traffic, I discovered a magic shop. It was tucked away, just out of sight of most of the tourists.

Inside there was a boy working behind the counter. He was talking to a customer and performing some sort of card trick. I wandered the edges of the store, marveling at everything, feeling a little wild and silly. When the customer left, he approached me with his deck of cards.

He was an average boy with a gorgeous smile. We talked a little as he performed tricks for me. When we’d spent a ridiculous amount of time talking about magic tricks and being new to the city, he asked if I’d like to have dinner with him. He grinned and shuffled the cards and he totally knew I couldn’t say no to a boy in a top hat in a magic shop.

I don’t remember his name and I don’t remember what we did on the date. I remember the subway ride home though. It was crowded even as late as it was, and so we stood together towards the back. I still hadn’t quite developed my subway legs yet and there was this particularly lurchy spot where I lost my balance and started to fall. He swept in and grabbed me around the waist and kept me from falling into a group of strangers. He grinned and I blushed and he teased me. He held on the rest of the ride. Just in case.

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We all tell stories and we all read stories, but we rarely tell our stories and certainly not stories so intimate and personal as our own love stories. But we all have them. They don’t all have happy endings or happy beginnings. Sometimes they are only the mad, wild, crazy rush of a secret crush and the yearnings and daydreams they inspire. Sometimes it is a near miss, a missed kiss, a moment of regret, a passing of strangers that almost could have been more. Sometimes our brush is heartbreaking. Sometimes, but only sometimes, is it the real deal.

Starting February 1st I’m hosting a blogfest and contest to run until February 14th. I want you to tell a story about love lost, love found, love almost was, love never could have been, but I want it to be your story. I want you to share a tiny piece of your heart with the world. The length is up to you, the style of storytelling is up to you. Tell it in pictures if you like. Tell it in art. Tell it in prose or poetry or essay or a piece of 15 word micro-fiction. Whatever you like.

And when you’ve shared your story and shared with me your link, enter the contest to win Neil Gaiman’s beautiful graphic novel Harlequin Valentine. As always, I’ll be drawing the winner at random. You don’t have to share your story to enter, but I hope you will !

More info to come on February 1st, but start planning your love story now!

Here is a smaller version of the Smitten! banner if you’d like to share it on your blog. You can also find it on the right sidebar here and a smaller horizontal version beneath the blog header. Sharing is awesome. I mean, that’s what I hear. I was an only child, so as my husband would say, I don’t really have first-hand experience with that one, but I hear good things! So please share!

And if you are wondering how I can support non-valentine celebrations on one post and then celebrate the art of being Smitten! in another – well – I think there is enough heart to go around for everyone and as stompy as I might get about commercialized romance, I sure do love the real thing.

Congratulations on finishing NaNoWriMo, you lucky dog

 Adventures in writing, Contests!  1 Response »
Dec 012010
 

Merry December 1st everyone!

December means back to life as usual and I will no longer be posting every day. The practice of which, can I just say, is absolutely madness? Writing blogs every day is like having a second job that doesn’t pay anything but is at least populated by the best sort of people. I’m returning to Monday-Friday posting schedule starting December 6th. As a gift to myself, I am taking Thursday and Friday off to recharge and To Read Many Books.

Links! Giveaways! Contests! Excitement! Adventure!

  • Monday, December 6th I’m going to post a 2010 NaNoWriMo Exit Surveythat I’d love everyone to leave their impressions on. I’m going to take all this awesome wisdom and hoard it away until next year when I’ll pull it out in October and let all of our  2011 NaNoWriMo friends benefit from the ideas and mistakes we stumbled through this year. For example, I’m pretty sure my first advice to future self is, “Do not decide to do NaNoWriMo on October 31st at 10:45pm.” That should save me a couple of days staring at my ceiling not writing. So start mulling it over now and tell me on Monday – what would you like to tell your future NaNo-self?
  • The lovely Jessica Faust of BookEnds LLC is running a really cool 12 Days of Bookmas contest and giveaway. Each day is a new scavenger hunt with clues to the answer of a riddle found across the blogosphere on her clinets’ blogs, websites, twitter accounts, etc. More info here and today is Day One. Today’s prize includes 3 romance novels. Good luck, hunters!
  • One of my very favorite bloggers Vic Caswell is teaming up with Lindsey at Dangerous with a Pen for a Truth is Stranger than Fiction flashfic contest and blogfest. The deadline is December 15th, the topic is a 1000 word flashfic based on a strange but true story made into a work of fiction. I’ll be entering once I finally decide what to write about. You should too if you’re not completely exhausted from NaNoWriMo.
  • Speaking of truth being stranger than fiction, a little old couple in France just came forward with a trunk full of 271 Picasso works of art that have never been seen or catalogued and no one knew existed. They have been authenticated and then immediately the couple was sued by Picasso’s son to get control of the pieces. Well of course he did, they are worth oh-my-god-millions of dollars. The little couple is naturally freaked out by this and claim the pieces were a gift from the master. I might believe Picasso’s son that the couple somehow stole the 271 pieces except that the couple kept the works of art in a trunk in their garage, which seems like a terrible place to put artwork you one day planned to cash in on.  
  • Author Maggie Stiefvater recently did a TED talk at NASA, which as you might guess, is kind of weird and yet she’s so engaging and I think she did a terrific job. The talk is called How Bad Kids Become Famous People.

 This December I am going to post a series of “Top 5” book gift lists to help those who want to give books as gifts find books for a specific type of person. I’ll have a book list for:

  • Kick-Ass Gift Ideas for Writers (Not necessarily books)
  • Books for Boys Who Think They Hate Books
  • YA Supernatural Books Anyone Will Love
  • Books for Reluctant Readers
  • YA Books for Adults Who Think YA is for Kids
  • YA Books with Epic Kisses
  • Graphic Novels to Change Your Mind about the Literary Value of Graphic Novels
  • Gifts that Don’t Exist Yet Which I’d Like for Christmas Anyway Please

And more, I am sure. If you have a list you’d like to see or have a picky reader you’d like help finding the perfect book for, post it in the comments and we’ll help you out!

No matter how the rest of 2010 was, I plan to see the final month of the year out with a bang. Who’s with me?

And the winners of the Trick-or-Treat Contest are…

 Contests!, Zombies!  5 Responses »
Oct 312010
 

I am so thrilled to announce the two winners of my Trick-or-Treat book giveaway contest! I had a lot of great entries and I am even more excited about the people who have found my blog and stuck around. I really love you guys!!!! Thank you so much!

I won’t hold you in suspense any longer though. The two winners are…

Elena

and

Jamie M.

CONGRATULATIONS!

I’ll be getting both boxes in the mail sometime this week. I will also be dropping you both emails tomorrow with details about when I’m shipping them out. I hope you enjoy the boxes!

Happy Halloween to the rest of you! It has been a fun month and aside from my one glitch, I really enjoyed posting all the time. I have one post I did not manage to make before the end of the holiday so I will be doing that later next month.

Speaking of next month, at midnight tonight the world kicks off NaNoWriMo – that is National Novel Writing Month and it is a pretty big month for the writing blogosphere. I still intend to post regularly, but I may drop to 3 times a week (mon-wed-fri) instead of 5 days a week. We’ll see. I hadn’t planned to join NaNo this year, but at the last minute I decided what I could really use is a jump start to the creativity center of my brain which has shriveled up a little from editing. I’m going to write a separate story in the same universe as the novel I’m writing and I’m hoping that’ll get me revved up come December to jump back into the main novel.

Who else is doing NaNo this year? Please let me know! My name over there is: tellgreatstories and you’re absolutely welcome to buddy me. I’ll be doing a lot more cheerleading for everyone else than writing, I think, and that’s ok with me. I want to help everyone succeed!

Being that it is the last day of October and Halloween is finally upon us, I have only a couple more things to point you to for the horror lover in us all. First, a t-shirt to tickle the nerd in all of us:

YES. ZOMBIE SCHRODINGER’S CAT FOR THE WIN. You can purchase your very own over at SplitReason for $18.95. I’m wringing my hands over it but I think I’m going to get one.

Unshelved is a comic I love and wholly support, and they posted a preview of the first 3 issues of a new comic called Rotten. Zombies in the Wild West which reminds me of Deadlands the roleplaying game and that’s cool enough for me. I have read the first 2 previews and it looks pretty good. I love me some comics so I’ll be checking them out. It was very nice of the creators to give us a preview. You never see comics being that cool. (Also the post with the preview PDF links have other reviews of zombie books if you’re interested.)

Trick-or-Treat Book Contest, only 3 days left!

 Contests!  No Responses »
Oct 282010
 

Only three more days!

I’m kinda really excited about giving this one away. I’ve had a great response and to be perfectly honest I wish I had more stuff to give! You’ve all been really great and welcome to those of you who have friended me thanks to this contest! I really, really appreciate it!

If you haven’t already signed up, you’ve got until Saturday at midnight to complete the form found at this link-> CONTEST!

On Sunday, October 31st, I will draw 2 winners at random for the following Trick-or-Treat prize boxes:

Box #1:

  • Madapple by Christina Meldrum (hardback)
  • Prom Nights From Hell: Paranormal prom stories from five hot authors including – Meg Cabot, Stephanie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe, and Lauren Myracle.
  • Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by  Alvin Schwartz

Box #2

BOTH boxes will contain random pirate goodies, art supplies, Halloween toys, and more. One will even contain a Lego witch mini-figure, though I’m not sure which one that will be yet.

Good luck! Happy trick-or-treating!

October Blogfest: Trick-or-Treat Book Box Giveaway Revealed!

 Contests!  No Responses »
Oct 172010
 

Now that we are past the halfway point  of October (Noo! Where has it gone!) I wanted to reveal the books in my October Trick-or-Treat book giveaway.

If you haven’t already signed up, you can do so by going to the  link to the original post -> Here

I am giving away 2 boxes and each box has 3 books. They also have a bunch of little awesome and creepy Halloween treats including a pirate ship flag, markers, rubber rats, and more.

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Box #1:

Madapple by Christina Meldrum (hardback)

From Good Reads: A girl who has been brought up in near isolation is thrown into a twisted web of family secrets and religious fundamentalism when her mother dies and she goes to live with relatives she never knew she had.

Prom Nights From Hell: Paranormal prom stories from five hot authors including – Meg Cabot, Stephanie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe, and Lauren Myracle.

From Good Reads: Take bad prom nights to a whole new level—a paranormally bad level. Wardrobe malfunctions and two left feet don’t hold a candle to discovering your date is the Grim Reaper—and he isn’t here to tell you how hot you look.

From angels fighting demons to a creepy take on getting what you wish for, these five stories will entertain better than any DJ in a bad tux. No corsage or limo rental necessary. Just good, scary fun.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by  Alvin Schwartz

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Box #2

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (Paperback)

From Good Reads:

The Sisterhood always knows best.
The Guardians will protect and serve.
The Unconsecrated will never relent.
And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future-between the one she loves and the one who loves her.

And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong (Paperback)

From Good Reads: After years of frequent moves following her mother’s death, Chloe Saunders’s life is finally settling down. She is attending art school, pursuing her dreams of becoming a director, making friends, meeting boys. Her biggest concern is that she’s not developing as fast as her friends are. But when puberty does hit, it brings more than hormone surges. Chloe starts seeing ghosts–everywhere, demanding her attention. After she suffers a breakdown, her devoted aunt Lauren gets her into a highly recommended group home.

At first, Lyle House seems a pretty okay place, except for Chloe’s small problem of fearing she might be facing a lifetime of mental illness. But as she gradually gets to know the other kids at the home–charming Simon and his ominous, unsmiling brother Derek, obnoxious Tori, and Rae, who has a “thing” for fire–Chloe begins to realize that there is something that binds them all together, and it isn’t your usual “problem kid” behavior. And together they discover that Lyle House is not your usual group home either…

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

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I’m so excited about these books! I’m especially proud of finding these Alvin Schwartz books because nothing says Halloween like Alvin’s collected folklore and Stephen Gammell’s ridiculously creepy artwork. These books came out when *I* was in elementary school, and yet they are still quintessential creepy reading (and appropriate for a younger audience if you have kids. I purchased copies of these books when I was in 5th and 6th grade from our Weekly Reader. I still have my copies, though they are in sorry shape.)

Don’t forget to go sign up! Click on the link at the to of this post, at the top of the blog page, or on the left hand column at the very top under “Contests.” I’ll be drawing 2 names at random on October 30th and announcing the winners on October 31st. Good luck and Happy Halloween!

Art by Stephen Gammell-

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