Winners Announced!

We have winners! Lots! Twelve, in fact. I promised to introduce you to my wonderful WrAHM friends who stepped up to provide awesome prizes so let's begin with...

A.G. Howard

A.G. Howard, the debut author of the upcoming Splintered has provided some awesome swag. Splintered is a dark Alice in Wonderland spin-off slated for release in January 2013. A.G. is talented, so creative, and ultra beautiful. Seriously, that woman can take a good pic, can't she? Oh, and she's nice. Yeah, she's the whole package. Watch this one, guys. She's gonna go far.

And the winners of Splintered swag (see the picture to the left) are:

Splintered bookplate - Jenna Cooper

Alice in Wonderland gift tag - Hildred Billings

Splintered button - Brookea_2006

Splintered bookmarks - Amber Tuscan-Clites

Stacy Stanberg Jensen & G

YA writer Carrie Bastyr is the bomb. Even though I think she and I are in a huge battle over Adam Levine (yum). If you like giveaways, you need to be following Carrie's blog. She's a mega giveaway girl. And on top of that she's giving a copy of All These Lives by Sarah Wylie to...Susanne Drazic.  Thank you, Carrie!

YA writer Melissa Brady King is the next talented mama I'm introducing. Wow, can that girl write some good historical romance. I am really not a historical reader, but I had the privilege of CP'ing her fabulous book The Bootlegger's Daughter and now I'm converted. She's very talented. And very generous. She is giving away a copy of The Duff by Kody Keplinger to...Kathy Phillips. Congrats, Kathy!

Bookalicio.us Middle Grade reviewer Robyn Lucas is my favorite cheerleader. I love this woman's enthusiasm. Her creative energy is infectious. In my next life I'm totally gonna figure out how to be that for people. Robyn is such a great critique partner which is why Daisy Carter is so lucky to be the winner of a pitch or query critique from Robyn. Celebration time, Daisy!

Agented MG writer Kathrine Ernst has my heart. She is such a kindred spirit. I had the amazing opportunity to beta read the book that earned her an agent and I'm telling you, she's TALENTED. And funny. And so smart. There are so many aspects of Katie's writing approach and outlook on life that make me stand up and say YES! She possesses sarcastic humor yet a very positive persona. Love her. Hildred Billings Coleen Patrick is the lucky winner of a query critique from Katherine. Ultra lucky, I'm telling you. (Hildred gave up her prize since she doesn't have a critique to query).

The final two prizes come from little old me. First, the winner of  Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is Jennifer Eaton.

And the grand prize winner of a $25 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble is....Jennifer Pitts.

Congratulations to all of the winners and thank you to all who donated prizes. And thank you to all who read and follow and support me. It's been a crazy, happy, fun year and I'm glad to have shared it with you all!

W is for Winner

See how I did that? I had a contest last week and today I announce the winner. Because I'm smart like that.

Congratulations to... a Rafflecopter giveaway
Charlene Wilson you are the winner of a preorder of Crewel. Email your address to laurabwriter@gmail.com and I'll get it ordered for you.

Heather Marie you are the winner of a $15 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Email me your email and I'll get you set up.

Congrats again and thanks to all who entered!

R is for Rafflecopter

Remember earlier this month when I said to stay tuned for a contest? Well, here it is.

Win a pre-order of this book!

Rafflecopter is my personal favorite way to run a blog contest. It makes it easy to collect entries, require actions to be performed by each entrant, and then randomly picks a winner. You can even assign point values to each action. And it's all FREE.

Since I just finished an Advanced Reader Copy of Gennifer Albin's debut novel Crewel, and it was EXCELLENT, I decided that I would give her book as the prize. She had a ton of agents fighting over her and enough houses wanted her book that it went to auction. Yeah, this book is HOT. What's it about, you ask. Here's the blurb from Good Reads:

Incapable. Awkward. Artless.

That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail.

Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.

Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight.

Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.

Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.

The book isn't released until October 16, 2012 so I have to pre-order it for the winner. I know, it's a long wait, but IT'S WORTH IT. That's how excited I am about this book. So enter lots. Now. (If you really want a taste of this novel now, go to Gen's author facebook page and read hit the "Welcome" icon where you can get a sneak peak at the prologue of Crewel.)

UPDATE: To sweeten the deal I have changed one of the prizes to a $15 GC to Barnes and Noble. I wouldn't want the people who've already read Crewel to be left out.

I will announce the winners next Thursday, April 26, 2012.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday News

Late post today. Why? Oh, I don't know. I guess I was busy getting ready to submit my materials to Carlie Webber because

I WAS A WINNER OF MISS SNARK'S MARCH CONTEST!!!

Whew! There was some pretty stiff competition. And from the comments Ms. Webber left on other entries, I thought there was no way I'd be a winner. I'm so excited because the prize is a 30 page critique. That's such a valuable prize. That means no matter what happens, I'll get something out of it. You know?

And this was a boost for me because I've been wallowing. At the end of last week I received the dreaded R. Yep, that's right. An R on my R&R. I was devastated. Heart broken. Embarrassed. Ashamed. The list goes on. My crit partner told me she read somewhere that an R&R is called "the slow no".  Slow and painful as they crush that knife into your vulnerable chest.

The upside is that I have a better manuscript. I also had two other agents who knew I was revising. One has asked for the revision and has it now (fingers crossed!) and the other asked for a synopsis to view the changes. I hope the synopsis is strong enough. It's hard to really make your writing show through a synopsis, but I suppose she already knows my writing - she's trying to make sure she likes how I changed the story.

Well, that's my Wednesday post for you. Not very informative for all of you, but it's been good for me to share. It's good for me to say to myself, and to all of you, that I believe I am a Winner.

What's your Wednesday news?

Face Myself Friday: Another win!

I suppose Face Myself Friday may be a recurring series because here it is again.

First, as always, housekeeping: I had an overwhelming amount of requests for blog critiques early in the series. Truthfully, I think most of them came from Matt McNish followers who followed on over when I critiqued his awesome blog (Love you all!). Speaking of whom, come back tomorrow to see some more Matt. Oh, now I'm off topic. Let me try again:

Next week, in order to kick out a bunch of those critiques, I will be featuring a critique everyday. That's right: FIVE DAYS of BLOG CRITIQUING AWESOMENESS! So get your blog critique thinking caps on a be ready for Monday. You won't want to miss some of the awesome blogs on the chopping block  line up.

Next little bit of housekeeping: You may have noticed (or not) that my blog is a little wider than it was previously. I added 80 pixels of width because every time I tried to make a picture extra large, it wandered over into my sidebar. After Wednesday's blog critique when Joe suggested to Gillian to make her pictures fill as much of the space as possible, I realized I needed to take that advice as well. I added the 80 pixels, and now the extra large pics fill the space without going over.

This is how winning makes me feel. (Even second place.)

And now, I have another win to share! I had completely forgotten that I entered Rachel McClellan's awesome Oktoberfest blog contest. Mostly I entered because I loved the idea of sharing my favorite scene from the novel that I am currently querying. After I sent Rachel my entry, I put the whole thing out of my mind because, duh, NaNo was upon me. In November, I completely abandoned blog visiting. I didn't even stop by Rachel's blog and leave comments on the other entries! Such a no no....

Anyway, Rachel emailed me this week to tell me I tied for second in a three way tie!!  Thank you so much, Rachel for the AMAZING OPPORTUNITY. The best part? Cedar Forts Acquisitions Editor, Angie Workman has requested a full manuscript from me!

I have dedicated myself to pursuing publication through an agent so an acquisitions editor requesting my book comes as a total surprise. How exciting to try another road. (And scary. I've been staring at the submissions form for over an hour now. I'm such a pussy...) Anyhoo, wish me luck!

Has your writing/querying taken an unexpected turn? Tell us about it in the comments.Le

200 Followers!

Oh me, oh my, I reached 200! I'm really truly honored and ecstatic to have you all. You truly make this fun, fun, fun! (That's a lot of exclamation points. But I mean each one of them.)

In celebration I'd like to give away an e-book, but first, if you are following me and I am not following you back, leave me a comment and I'll get over there. But also, please look at your profile and make sure you are linked up to your own blog. Most of the time that little detail is what prevents me from returning a follow.

And now, the book I am giving away is Kristen Lamb's Are You There Blog? It's Me, Author. I have to say upfront that while I don't back up everything Lamb has to say, she makes a lot of excellent points and at least she gets authors thinking like marketers. It's an essential read if you are a serious author blogger.

Okay, drumroll, the winner is....

Alex J.!  

Alex, I will be emailing you with your prize.  Thanks for following, all of you!! Let's celebrate with a whole bunch of exclamation points!!!!!

I won!

I'm here out of the blue because I wanted to tell y'all about my recent win. Last week, Gail Shepherd posted this and I was the first to guess correctly!

So this week I received this shiny new copy of newly released Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Thanks so much, Gail! Can't wait to read!

I'm a Winner!

My undergrad degree was in musical theater and I have to tell you, no offense to you acting folk, the writing community is much more eager to share in your wins than the theater community was. At least for me. Of course, an author getting a book deal doesn't mean anything for her fellow authors but an actor getting a part means one less part for her fellow actor. Essentially you're always competing. Makes it harder to bond without undertones of jealousy.

So when I entered the world of writers I had no idea it was going to be so warm and welcoming. But, wow, it truly is.

And proof of that, on the heels of my last week's win, I am again a winner this week! Not once, not twice, but three times!

• First, the lovely author of four published books, Kathi Oram Peterson drew my name for her weekly book giveaway. Soon I will receive a copy of Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen's book Trapped.  Yay, me! It looks like just my type of story, too. Stop by her blog and check her out.
• Next, the awesome Gail Shepherd of the blog Paradoxy gave me TWO blog awards: The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award and The Versatile Blogger (which I've won before from Michelle Fayard.) 
• AND I won the Versatile blogger award from Elizabeth Stillborn of elizabethannewrites.com. As a recipient of these awards I must:

1. Thank and link to the person who gave me the awards. Thank you so much, Gail!!
2. Share 7 random facts about you. I did that here.
3. Pass the award to 5 blogger friends. (Though Elizabeth says I need to pass to 15 blogger friends.) I will do that next Wednesday, so return and see who I pass them on to.
4. Contact and congratulate the nominated blogs.

Hmm, so many great blogs out there. Especially new ones I'm discovering through the campaign. Wonder who I'll choose...

Meanwhile, since I've previously shared my random facts, I'd like to hear from you. If you've stopped by, please leave a random fact about you in the comments. I can't wait to read!

I'm back!

...Because I'm a winner!!! I entered my finished middle grade manuscript, S.P.Y. Mission: Princess Protection into Gabriela Lessa's Get Your Foot in the Door one sentence pitch and I was an honorable mention!

Thank you so much, Gabriela. I'm really excited and honored!

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

You get a bonus post from me because we are celebrating! I have noticed my followers creeping toward 100 and have been checking periodically - okay, obsessively - to see the magic 100th follower.

And guess what.

I missed it. The last time I checked I was at 99 and then this time, I was at 101!

So in honor of this special event that is literally only made possible because of you AWESOME PEOPLE, I have randomly selected a follower to receive a prize.

First, the prize:  A pdf version of legendary author marketing expert Kristen Lamb's book "We Are Not Alone.: The Writer's Guide to Social Marketing." Kristen says it all better than I do, which I shouldn't tell you, otherwise why will you return? Seriously, if you don't follow her, you should.

Now for the winner.  Drum roll please...

Sharon Bayliss of The Blue Word 

I will email you, Sharon, with your prize. I hope you learn lots. But still come back and visit me :)

Thank you so much, everyone, for following! I have truly enjoyed the journey to this point and can't wait for the next 100.