The 2011 BSC Review Book Tournament is over, and An Artificial Night is the winner, stomping The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by a mere 5%! Yes, it was 55/45 when the polls closed, and Mark Hodder's tale of gaslight London and the monsters therein came very close to victory. But in the end, there could be only one, and your tireless devotion to clicking little boxes meant that Toby walked away with the gold!

Also, you know. Some heads. Heads are awesome.

Thank you all for clicking, and for putting up with my random fascination with online contests. It was a lot of fun, and I deeply appreciate it. We now return you to your regularly scheduled nonsense.

This is it, you guys. The final round of the BSC Tournament. The time to nut up or shut up.

The time to vote for An Artificial Night, lest it fall before The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack.

We are mighty. We are legion. We have vanquished some amazing books this year, as Toby clawed her way ever closer to victory, and we must STAND UP AND BE HEARD!

So, y'know. Vote, and stuff. Please? Pretty please? I'll be your best friend. Well, okay, I probably won't be, but I'll be really, really happy.

Vote Toby! Vote victory!

And stuff.

We have reached the last round of the BSC Review Book Tournament. It has been a hard battle; Toby has faced both strangers and friends on the road to the finals, and now only Springheel Jack stands between her and victory.

Springheel Jack is technically a monster. Toby knows what to do with those.

So go forth! A vote for Toby is a vote for a world where the monsters don't eat us in our beds!

Seriously, though, if you could take a moment to vote, I would appreciate it. Toby and I are both counting on you, and right now, we're losing.

To victory!

Hey-ho! Let's go!

So Toby has managed to rise to the semi-finals, battling strangers and friends alike in her fight for survival. Now An Artificial Night is up against N.K. Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms for the right to proceed to the finals and maybe...just maybe...walk away alive.

You know what you have to do.

The tournament semi-finals are here, and are open now for voting.

Shop smart; shop S-Mart. Vote fae; vote Toby Daye.

And now, my horrible horrible cold and I are going back to bed.

Toby has managed to navigate the wilds of the Kingdom of Prestor John, smacking down The Habitation of the Blessed in round three of the BSC Book Tournament and proceeding to the quarterfinals, where it's An Artificial Night against Elizabeth Bear's Chill. Bear and I have been enthusiastically attacking each other on Twitter in anticipation of this match (I have predatory dinosaurs, she has balrogs and the forces of logic), and now it's finally here!

You have what you have to do.

Go ye forth, get thee funky, and vote like your life depended on it! Which, given the number of monsters we have merrily marching around here, it just might. Toby has smacked the crap out of three challengers in three different bouts. This is your chance to help her smack the crap out of challenger number four, and proceed to the semifinals, where she can begin to merrily swing her sock full of butter* at challengers from different brackets.

(*Sock full of butter: makes a great bludgeoning weapon, and when you're done, you have a sock full of nicely softened butter, ready to be turned into cookies. Everybody wins! Except maybe the people you hit with the sock full of butter.)

The second round of this year's BSC Book Tournament has closed, and Toby is still standing, since An Artificial Night managed to crush the competition handily. That's good!

Now I am up against Cat Valente's Habitation of the Blessed. That's not so good. Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth to follow. But still, I entreat that you should vote, regardless of your choice in this round, and hope only that Toby will prevail. Why? Because it amuses the living crap out of me, naturally, and I am a simple blonde.

I'll add the voting link as soon as it goes live. Vote your heart. Vote your champion. Vote for MAXIMUM CARNAGE.

Girl fight tonight!

ETA: As promised, here is the actual voting link for the contest. Now get your smackdown on!

Thanks to everyone who participated in my recent massive drawing for free copies of my books! After feeding everyone's names into an Excel file (to sort them) and then into a random number generator, the winners are...

Rosemary and Rue winner #1: amber_fool
Rosemary and Rue winner #2: bahnree

An Artificial Night winner #1: Dayle Dermatis
An Artificial Night winner #2: myre_angel

Late Eclipses winner #1: gwyd
Late Eclipses winner #2: lilysea

And now, the fine print! Each of you has twenty-four hours to contact me, via my website contact link, with your mailing information. If you're outside North America, we can work out postage payment at that time. If I do not hear from you within twenty-four hours, I will draw another winner for your prize. I kept the file just in case this happens.

Thanks again to everyone who tossed their name into the hat; watch this space for more giveaways and drawings.

It's that time again! The time when I, and my good friend Random, generate the winners for the latest Toby Daye giveaway. Everybody dance! Anyway, after feeding the range into the random number generator, our winners are...

sasquatch1313, who wins a copy of An Artificial Night!
lyssabard, who also wins a copy of An Artificial Night!
janetmiles, who wins a copy of Rosemary and Rue!

Please use my website contact form to provide your mailing information, and, if you're planning to give the book as a gift rather than treasuring it forever, the name of the person you want me to inscribe it to. Remember, if you try to contact me through any other* mechanism, I may not see it in time, and if I don't hear from you by Monday, I'll pick again.

(*This is not entirely true. If you dispatch a talking pink pegasus to carry me back to Ponyland, I will totally hand-deliver your book before we fly over the rainbow into the glorious embrace of Paradise Valley.)

Winners!

I feel like giving things away (I know you all love it when I do that). Specifically, I feel like giving away copies of the Toby Daye books. Want to win a book? Then come play my game. What game are we playing today?

Six word biography.

It's simple: leave a comment on this entry with a six word biography of yourself. They can be serious, silly, or anything in-between. Here are some examples for me:

"I've always been a cornfield girl."
"Halloweentown princess seeks candy corn, companionship."
"I did it all for dreaming."

Indicate which of the three books you're interested in. On Saturday, I'll use the random number generator to select three winners, one for each book. You can only win once, but you can ask for all three books, if that's what rings your chimes.

Game on!

To celebrate the release of The Living Dead 2 (featuring my/Mira's new story, "Everglades"), John Joseph Adams has arranged a full-on zombie week over at Tor.com, beginning with a massive prize pack associated with a zombie caption contest. That's right; caption a picture, potentially win an incredible amount of crap.

The prize package includes, among other things...

* Both anthologies
* A signed copy of Feed (US or UK edition to be determined)
* A copy of Red Roses and Dead Things
* A DVD of Shaun of the Dead
* A copy of The Zombie Combat Manual

...and lots and lots of other signed books, short stories, and other goodies. Seriously, it's like doing five minutes of work for the potential of a whole lot of pay-out. Give it a go! All you have to lose is your braaaaaaaain.

First up, sageautumn to the white courtesy telephone; sageautumn, please pick up the white courtesy telephone. You are the third and final winner of an ARC of An Artificial Night! To claim your prize, please email me via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours. If I don't hear from you by this time tomorrow, I'll draw another winner.

Secondly, the winners of a free copy of Rosemary and Rue are...

markush
jeffreycwells
dragonsflame71
the_liz666
evaleastaristev

All of you, please follow the directions above. Again, yadda yadda, twenty-four hours OR THE ICE WEASELS COME.

(Administrative foo: No, people cannot win more than once, even if the random number generator wants them to. No, you cannot contact me through any other means. I'm not allowed to unleash the ice weasels without Kate's permission, you can't message me through LJ. If you do, I won't see it, and you'll miss the window.)

cupcakery to the white courtesy telephone; cupcakery, please pick up the white courtesy telephone. You have won an ARC of An Artificial Night. To claim your prize, please email me via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours. If I don't hear from you by this time tomorrow, I'll draw another winner.

(Administrative foo: No, people cannot win more than once, even if the random number generator wants them to. No, you cannot contact me through any other means. I can't subjugate this puny planet to my iron will, you can't message me through LJ. If you do, I won't see it, and you'll miss the window.)

The final winner, and the winners of the free Rosemary and Rue, will be announced later tonight, after they're selected. So you can still enter either of those giveaways. We have time for one more effort-required giveaway before I leave for Australia; if you have suggestions, please post 'em here, and I'll pick what I like best.

Whee!

kerimaya to the white courtesy telephone; kerimaya, please pick up the white courtesy telephone. You have won an ARC of An Artificial Night. To claim your prize, please email me via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours. If I don't hear from you by this time tomorrow, I'll draw another winner.

(Administrative foo: No, people cannot win more than once, even if the random number generator wants them to. No, you cannot contact me through any other means. I can't visit Ireland by flying rainbow dragon, you can't message me through LJ. If you do, I won't see it, and you'll miss the window.)

More to come tomorrow!

The first person to answer all questions correctly will win a signed ARC of An Artificial Night! I will notify you via LJ, but you must send me your address via my website by noon PST tomorrow to receive your prize.

You can use both my websites in researching your answers.

( Let the games begin!Collapse )

After much debate (and some random number generation), your contestants are...



Voting is open through July 15th. Vote! Mix drinks for your friends (or bake them pies), and get them to vote! Winner gets an ARC of An Artificial Night.

Game on!

hanabishirecca, you are the winner of an ARC of An Artificial Night! Please contact me with your mailing address via my website before Wednesday evening in order to receive your prize.

Also, I expect that YouTube video now.

The voting will commence...soon.

It's time for another ARC giveaway here in my weird little corner of the world. This time, it's going to be a two-fer. Specifically, we're having both a contest and a random drawing. If you comment at all, you'll be entered in the random drawing for an ARC of An Artificial Night. If you comment and participate in the contest, you'll be entered both in the random drawing, and in the judged portion of the giveaway. Ready? Awesome.

Suggested by talkstowolves, our contest for today is:

"Design signature cocktails or desserts for major characters/places in the Tobyverse."

What does the Luidaeg drink on a Friday night? What's Toby's favorite way to get wasted? How many virgin cocktails can Quentin down before he reaches legal age? Whip up something intoxicating and put it in the comments for the world to see.

The random drawing will be held Monday, July 12th. Voting on the cocktail/dessert competition* will begin the same day, and continue through July 15th. As no actual drinking is involved, you don't have to be twenty-one to enter, and there are lots of websites happy to help you out.

(*If we receive fewer than five entries, I won't do open judging, and the prize will be awarded based on how much I want to drink your cocktail or eat your pie.)

Game on!

Suggested by the lovely valdary:

All Toby books (and in-universe short stories) have titles taken from the works of Shakespeare. There's a lot of Shakespeare out there! So...

To enter for an ARC of An Artificial Night, suggest a quote or quotes that would make a good title for a Toby story. Extra credit if they're quotes not everyone would know (for example, going with An Artificial Night from Romeo and Juliet, rather than something more familiar). Please include the surrounding text in your entry, as well as identifying the scene/sonnet/poem the quote comes from. Entries must be between three and five words.

Example:

Late Eclipses.

"These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend
No good to us: though the wisdom of nature can
Reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself
Scourged by the sequent effects: love cools,
Friendship falls off, brothers divide: in
Cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in
Palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son
And father..." —King Lear.

I'll select the winner through random drawing on Tuesday, June 29th. By entering, you grant permission for me to use your title if I think it's awesome, since Shakespeare is public domain and also, well, I might have issues round about book eleven, when everything has been suggested already.

Game on!

First order of business for today: the winner of our random ARC drawing! Statistically speaking, all numbers are equally likely when you're talking about random selection, but it's always a little bit surprising when the result is between one and ten. So today was definitely surprising, as the random number generator chose "four." So today's winner is apocalypticbob! Bob, please send me your mailing information via my website contact link. You have twenty-four hours. After that, I'll choose another winner if I haven't heard from you!

Second order of business for today: It is now nineteen days to the official "anywhere you go, you will be able to buy a copy of Feed for your very own, and isn't that terrifying?" release of Mira Grant's first novel. In addition to being hugely important in Stephen King's epic Dark Tower saga (say thankee), nineteen is a pretty awesome number in and of itself. It's the eighth prime number, following seventeen and preceding twenty-three. It actually forms a twin prime with seventeen (I like twin primes). It's the seventh seventh Mersenne prime exponent, and the aliquot sum of two odd discrete semiprimes, sixty-five and seventy-seven. All these things are awesome.

Nineteen days. By the time we finish this countdown, Amy will be here to keep me from flipping out on people, the final touches will be put on party planning, and I will hopefully have been able to pick up my Mira wig from the hair shop (I am so the Hannah Montana of horror). The cupcakes will be ordered. My reading will be chosen (yes, there will be a reading this time). Prizes for the raffle will be arranged. And I will hopefully still be breathing. Nineteen days.

When will you rise?

And now the time has come. The time to give away an ARC of Feed via that time-honored tradition, the random draw. So...

1) Comment here.
2) Tell me your favorite thing about zombies, if you like.
3) Or you can tell me you're excited about the book. Whatever.
4) That's all.

I will draw a winner Monday morning (April 12th); entries will be accepted until then. This contest is open to all countries, because postage is spendy, but zombies are love. One entry per person, please.

Game on!

After consulting with a wide array of judges who didn't have a horse in this race, the winners have been chosen. They are...

* antigoneschase for "If I went any further..." and "I keep breaking my dates." antigoneschase wins a set of my CDs!
* ravenclawed for drunken changelings. ravenclawed wins a signed copy of Rosemary and Rue!
* snowishness for "Angels come to fall." snowishness wins a signed ARC of Feed!
* talkstowolves for her many wicked girls icons. talkstowolves wins a signed copy of A Local Habitation!

Would all winners please email me via my website contact link to provide a mailing address? If I do not receive your address by Friday, April 9th, you will forfeit your prize.

Thanks to everyone who participated; we'll definitely do this again at some point in the future.

My mother survived her first day at a comic book convention! Well, mostly: she had to leave early because her back was bothering her (although I suspect the real culprit was my little sister's legs, since my little sister doesn't walk, and none of them believed me about the sheer scope of even a small comic con). She bought a chicken hat and wore it with pride. And people wonder why she admits that I'm her daughter.

I lined up for the Esplanade early enough to get really awesome seats for the sneak preview of next week's Fringe (although this did require sitting through an episode of V, and dude, what the hell?). Sunil came and joined me after he finished shopping, and since I had nothing better to do, I stayed and watched Kevin Smith's Q&A with him. Gotta love any man whose response to "How are you?" is "I'm so glad you asked! I had the best fucking sex of my life last night!" followed by a lengthy explanation of how a fleshlight works. Ah, Kevin Smith, if you weren't real, we'd have to invent you.

Now I'm up, packed, and going back for another day.

We're almost done with the current round of the Fourth Annual BSC Review Tournament. So far, Rosemary and Rue has managed to defeat Heart's Blood, The Warded Man, and Turn Coat, but Toby's having a contested battle against catvalente's Palimpsest. Please consider casting your vote to keep Toby in the tournament. It's fun!

One thing I didn't say before, and will say now (because it hadn't come up before): Please play nicely, whether you vote for me or for Cat, and don't say things that will make the other author feel bad. "It took me a while to get into this" or "It just wasn't my thing" are cool. "This author sucks" or "If I wanted to read _______, I would just go read _______" are not cool. Thankfully, no one who's voted for me has said anything like that, but some of the people playing tourney are starting to get personal, and that makes this a hell of a lot less fun. Someone's always sad when there has to be a winner and a loser, but there's being a loser, and then there's being a loser who's been told they suck at the same time.

Girl fight tonight!

The GIRL FIGHT TONIGHT is down to the final two! In this corner, weighing in at 130 pounds, half-human, half-fae, all pretty much pissed off by this entire situation, it's October "Toby" Daye! In the other corner, weighing in at none of your damn business, the best witch in the Ramtops and possibly the world, Granny Esme Weatherwax!

...well, then.

I consider Toby getting the stuffing kicked out of her by Granny Weatherwax to actually be a win, since dude, "wasn't expected to place" girl coming in second, not too shabby. Still, pros and cons:

Toby will win because she's tenacious, surprisingly difficult to kill, and tends to approach all situations as life-or-death, even when they're not. Maybe she's a little over-enthusiastic that way, but still, it's sometimes an asset. Toby will lose because she's fighting Granny fucking Weatherwax.

Granny will win because she's Granny fucking Weatherwax, a witch so good that she rarely needs to use any witchcraft at all. Granny will lose because she mostly goes up against people who want to get into her head, and Toby doesn't want to get into her head; Toby just wants to go the fuck home. Also, Granny doesn't care as much, and might well throw the fight, hence winning by controlling the outcome.

Right now, Granny's in the lead. But we shall see.

Meanwhile, over in the Fourth Annual BSC Review Tournament, Rosemary and Rue has managed to defeat Juliet Marillier's Heart's Blood, with Toby holding on by the skin of her teeth...and is now up against catvalente's Palimpsest in what may well be the girl fight of the century (or at least, the girl fight of the week). I admit, I was hoping we'd be the last two, duking it out atop a mountaintop, hair flying in the wind, being all creepily photogenic. But as this is not to be, I merely urge you to swing by and place your vote. Whichever way it goes, one of us is making that mountain. Dammit.

Girl fight goes on! Soon, only one will leave the tourney grounds alive!

Bit #1: Toby has actually made it to the final four in the GIRL FIGHT TONIGHT, and she and Professor McGonagall are running literally neck-in-neck. Consider that a moment. Toby is a viable contender for defeating Professor McGonagall. The world has gone insane, and your vote could help her get to the finals, where she can have the pleasure of having her ass handed to her by Granny Weatherwax. Which is a victory unto itself, really.

Bit #2: Alcestis [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] is a retelling of the classical Greek myth of Alcestis in the Underworld, and is just breathtakingly gorgeous. I am glad to own this in hardcover, because despite it taking up additional space, it is now sturdy enough to survive the many, many re-reads that it will be receiving as the years slip by. It's a beautiful book. Pair it with Malinda Lo's Ash and you have the perfect late Valentine (or early).

Bit #3: Castle has been picked up for a third season, guaranteeing me another night of brilliant television as time goes by. I really feel like I'm in something of a golden age, television-wise. I have my caper show (Leverage), my wacky science fiction (Eureka, Warehouse 13), my serious science fiction (Fringe), my comedy (Big Bang Theory), my mystery (Castle), and my good-n-gory (NCIS, Bones). Really, the networks don't need to do anything new with the upcoming season. I'm good.

Bit #4: Toby is still a contender in the Fourth Annual BSC Review Tournament, but her current round—in which she's going up against Juliet Marillier's Heart's Blood—remains very nearly too close to call. We're moving toward the end of the tournament, and it would be bad-ass to progress at least one more round, so please, if you have the chance, bop over and drop a vote.

Bit #5: I am apparently writing at least one short story (and maybe more than one, knowing me and my scary over-achieving ways) set before A Local Habitation, focusing on and narrated by January O'Leary. You can meet her girlfriend! Who is awesome, and puts up with an immense amount of crap from her scary technophile significant other.

Bit #6: Wondercon is this weekend! I am super-excited, and plan to spend the entire weekend wandering the floor, seeing awesome stuff, and learning new and exciting things about the X-Men. Because there is always something new and exciting to learn about the X-Men. (Hopefully not "Jean Grey is coming back," but things can't be wonderful forever.) I have also purchased my tickets for San Diego, which becomes a little more real every day. GEEK PROM IS GO!

Bit #7: Starfish loves you.

Okay, yes, I admit it: I have a lot of deadlines right now, I have a lot of editing that's nibbling at me like a flock of wild ducks, and playing literary cage match is currently my guilty "sometimes it's okay to be crazy-silly" pleasure. Thanks to everyone who's been tolerating my crazy; double thanks to everyone who's been helping me with it. And now, today's cage match updates:

Over in the Fourth Annual BSC Review Tournament, Toby has managed to make it to round three. So far, she's defeated both Butcher's Turn Coat and Brett's The Warded Man...but now she's going up against Juliet Marillier's Heart's Blood, and the race remains too close to call. Rally! Help Toby progress! Especially since catvalente's Palimpsest is still swinging (currently against The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick), and there's a wacky bonus comic strip in it for you if we wind up facing off in the final round. Pretty please?

Meanwhile, over in the GIRL FIGHT TONIGHT, Toby has made it to the Elite Eight, and needs only to smack down Hunter from Neverwhere to make a clean sweep of her bracket! Woo! From here, the winner goes up against the winners of other brackets, which means she'd have the opportunity to get beat down by a Discworld girl. You know you want to see that.

Go forth, vote, and keep Toby kicking ass!

Actually, it's currently "Sunday morning, sort of off-gray sky filled with occasional clouds and colder than it ought to be this time of yeah, ha ha, little California girl, ha ha." But I like the original phrase just a little bit better.

Yesterday was my "goof off" day for March, and today, I buckle back down to work, with several short stories and a bunch of novel revisions on the docket (Deadline and The Brightest Fell, for the curious). I won't be turning off my Internet, because I keep too much information there, but I won't be my normal rapid-response self, either. Tomorrow, I'll finally select the winners of the icon contest (assisted by a panel of impartial judges without entries of their own) and figure out how we're handling judging for the SURPRISINGLY POPULAR "Mira Grant is..." contest. Other than by staring in awe.

If you haven't voted in the Fourth Annual BSC Review Tournament, please consider stopping by. This brutal tourney pits a year's-worth of book releases against one another in bloody single combat, and only one can emerge victorious. Toby rallied for a little bit, but the tide has turned. Her latest match is against Juliet Marillier's Heart's Blood, and she's getting the smackdown. Rally! Help Toby progress! Especially since catvalente's Palimpsest is still swinging (currently against The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick), and there's a wacky bonus comic strip in it for you if we wind up facing off in the final round.

Pretty please?

The world is full of things, and the things are full of stuff, and the stuff is all time-sensitive for me, so I'm going to get back to work now. I'll check in later. Please don't set anything on fire.

It's apparently wild cage match season here in literary-land, because the cage matches are everywhere, and Toby is making a decent showing for herself. Over in the Fourth Annual BSC Review Tournament, she's managed to make it to round three, defeating both Butcher's Turn Coat and Brett's The Warded Man.

This brutal tourey pits a year's-worth of book releases against one another in bloody single combat, and only one can emerge victorious. And Toby's in trouble. Her latest match is against Juliet Marillier's Heart's Blood, and she's getting the smackdown. Rally! Help Toby progress! Especially since catvalente's Palimpsest is still swinging (currently against The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick), and there's a wacky bonus comic strip in it for you if we wind up facing off in the final round.

In somewhat less serious cage fight news, there's a GIRL FIGHT TONIGHT, and Toby is currently facing off against Neil Gaiman's Door. Now, Door is a badass, it's true, but she needs a Hunter to rescue her (be it Hunter or Richard). Toby'll just shoot her kneecaps out.

Go forth, vote, and keep Toby kicking ass!

To celebrate the announcement of the fourth and fifth books in the Toby Daye series, we're having a little contest! Namely...

1. If you have purchased either Toby book since the official release of A Local Habitation (March 2nd, 2010), post or email me* a picture of your receipt. Make sure I can tell which book it was for.

2. I will put your name in a spreadsheet.

3. On April 1st, I will choose five names at random from the spreadsheet. Those five people will win the book they didn't send me the receipt for.

What does this mean? Well, it means you could win a signed copy of either book. Or, if you've been looking at the series and wondering whether you're ready to jump in, you can pick up a copy of Rosemary and Rue and potentially get a copy of A Local Habitation right about when you're really starting to yearn for more Toby. Or you can direct your friends over here as a chance to get a foothold in a new series. Whatever makes you happy.

Also, to clarify a few points: In this instance, the contest is hard-copy book purchases only, since that's what I have to send as prizes, and is US/Canada only. I do lots of "no purchase required" contests, so we'll just roll with this one being a little specialized, okay?

Game on!

(*This is a paid Livejournal. You can email to my-journal-name at livejournal-dot-com. That allows attachments.)

It's time for today's TOTALLY SILLY CONTEST!

So I'm doing the web content for MiraGrant.com. Those of you familiar with my main website may have noticed that I have multiple bios, some of them deeply, deeply silly in nature, posted on the site. Since Mira doesn't have quite the history I do, and I haven't had the chance to solicit bios for her from my friends, I need something to guarantee the depth of content to which my readers have become accustomed (OCD cat is OCD). So!

You know Chuck Norris?

That.

I'm looking for UTTERLY INSANE statements about Mira Grant. Things like "Mira Grant isn't afraid of the thing under your bed. Mira Grant is the thing under your bed." Or "Mira Grant goes down to the quarry any time she damn well wants to."

Leave your suggestions as comments on this post. I will collect the best (and weirdest) for posting on Mira's website, because I have no hobbies that don't involve utter insanity. There will be prizes! I don't know what those prizes will be, but they, too, will probably be a little odd. (Sadly, I can't promise a copy of Feed until I've done some local accounting, but there will be something.)

Come on. You know you want to.

I feel like having a contest. A contest wherein people who feel creative get to make things. And snowishness just posted a huge, amazing batch of icons based on my song lyrics, which made me think. So...

Here is my first ever ICON CONTEST. You enter by making ICONS (100x100 images intended for use on sites such as this one). By entering an icon in the contest, you grant other people the right of use, with credit. You can enter icons which you have previously posted, either here or on your own journal. All icons must be based on something I have created, from Toby to song lyrics to Feed to the Velveteen or Sparrow Hill stories.

Post your entries here, as comments on this post. Please make all entries their own thread, so that I can find them for voting purposes. You can enter multiple times. Please indicate what prize you are entering to win. Prizes available:

1) Signed copy of Rosemary and Rue.
2) Signed copy of A Local Habitation.
3) Signed ARC of Feed.
4) Set of my CDs.

Please make your entries by including your entry in the BODY of the comment. Be sure to specify which prize you want. Lack of specification means I decide you're just showing off, and do not want to win.

There will be between one and four winners, depending on the number of entries received (I'll make this determination later). Entries will be taken for one week, starting now. If you are taking one of the contest entries for personal use, please comment to let the creator know. Don't post icons that other people made.

Game on!

Drumroll please...

And the winners are:

sheistheweather for "The Winterrose..."!
keristor for "Still Not King"!

Please email me your mailing information through my website contact link, and I'll get things in the mail for you.

And now, chosen by random number draw, our entries for voting:



Voting will close Wednesday, when I will announce who has won an ARC of A Local Habitation. Please pick your favorite, and thank you all so much for playing.

Tonight's winner, for amusing our panel of extremely giggly judges, is kittikins! She's won an ARC of A Local Habitation for awesomeness in fake casting.

The LOLtest is still open through Sunday. Thanks, all!

I'm bored, and this is dangerous. So...

Cast your movie version of Rosemary and Rue! Tell me who you'd pick to play the major roles, and why. The cast list I find the most utterly delightful will win a signed ARC of A Local Habitation.

To get you started, here are some main characters to consider:

* October "Toby" Daye
* Sylvester and Simon Torquill
* Devin
* Dare
* Tybalt
* Connor O'Dell
* Danny
* Luna Torquill
* Rayseline Torquill

Game on!

ETA: ...and a winner has been chosen. Feel free to keep on casting, though, this is hysterical!

It's time for another ARC giveaway! Because you were starting to think I didn't love you anymore. I really enjoyed this contest the first time it came around, and so I give you...

The LOLtest. Yes, if you hate LOLcats, you probably want to shoot me right about now, but that's okay, because I love the freaky little guys, and I'm not asking people to invade your blog with countless graphics of the things. So what do you have to do to enter? Simple. You have to make a LOL___ and post it here. What do I mean by LOL___?

LOLcats. LOLold fairy tale illustrations. LOLmy cover art. LOLhome photography—if you want to take a tip from A Softer World and take your own pictures, be my guest. (Toby is brunette, fairly pale, and tends to wear sensible clothing. You want to slap a leather jacket on your girlfriend/best friend/self and take pictures solely for captioning purposes, I'm down with that.) For examples of the inimitable LOLcat in its natural habitat, see I Can Has Cheezburger, along with countless other sites in the same vein...and then knock yourself out.

Post your contest submissions on this entry. I'll take entries until Sunday, February 21, and then opening the floor for voting. I'll definitely be giving away one ARC through this contest; depending on the number and variety of entries received, I may well increase that to two, as well as putting together a few runner-up prizes (who wants a CD?). This contest is open to everyone, including my mother, my agent, God, and people who have already won ARCs. Bring out your LOLcats, and rock the world.

Game on!

(To be clear, all LOL___ must be Toby-related to be considered actual entries. Although all LOL___ are cute and make me smile.)

Our lovely original winner, antigoneschase, has decided that since she won an ARC of Rosemary and Rue, she'd like to spread the love around, and asked me to draw again. So I did, and our new winner is...

...shawntutt!

Sorry for the delay; work got crazy. Anyway, the third and final winner of our ARC Valentine's giveaway has been selected. Congratulations to...

...antigoneschase! Please email me your shipping information via the contact link on my website (www.seananmcguire.com), and I'll get your ARC in the mail by early next week!

Thanks to everyone who participated, and watch this space for more giveaways and excitement as release date approaches.

Congratulations to...

...ttamsen! Please email me your shipping information via the contact link on my website (www.seananmcguire.com), and I'll get your ARC in the mail by early next week!

One more winner will be drawn! To enter, comment on this post with your favorite character in Toby's world. I'll be choosing the last winner at noon Pacific Friday.

Rock on!

Congratulations to...

...bookblather! Please email me your shipping information via the contact link on my website (www.seananmcguire.com), and I'll get your ARC in the mail by early next week!

Two more winners will be drawn! To enter, comment on this post with your favorite character in Toby's world. I'll be choosing winners at noon Pacific on Thursday and Friday.

Rock on!

To celebrate Valentine's Day (and the excuse that it provides—I might as well be celebrating Champion Crab Races Day on the 18th), I've decided to do something truly awesome: a three stage ARC giveaway. Yes! Three ARCs of A Local Habitation will be awarded to three lucky entries over the course of the next week!

Here's how it works:

1. Comment on this entry telling me who your favorite character in Toby's world is, and why. Be as detailed as you want. (Yes, technically, this does make the contest open only to those who've read Rosemary and Rue. As this is a sequel, I don't feel bad about that.)
2. ...that's all, actually. Your part in things is now done.

I will select winners via random number draw tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. All winners will be selected at noon PST. All winners must contact me via my website "contact" link before eight PM PST on Sunday, or another winner will be selected, and I will shake my head in sorrow.

Game on!

There was a contest on Twitter earlier this week, wherein those of us who had nothing better to do with our time tried to compose complete, if very short, stories involving serial killers in order to win a book about a serial killer. I don't think I won, but wow did I have a lovely time, and as exercises in brevity go, this one was awesome. I give you...serial killer party!

"Corn mazes are full of shadows and, at Halloween, full of screams. She moves amongst artificial monsters, natural and sharp."

"Some like the personal touch: razors, throats, the copper taste of blood. Others think larger. Don't drink the water."

"They always blame the men with the axes, not the little girls who inexplicably survive. Beware the ones in the red hoods."

"Every time Jean Grey dies, I kill a redhead and set the body on fire. They just killed Emma Frost. Time for the freezer."

"Tapeworm eggs easily survive the blender. My friends love my protein shakes, and they all die thin and oh-so-pretty."

"Horror movie extras often go missing. Everyone thinks they're lazy or drunk. No one notices the blood on the caterer's hands."

"Who stalked who was open to debate. One had a razor; the other a roll of duct tape. It was either love or killing time."

"Murder is like Chinese food. An hour later you're hungry again. Waitresses in Chinese restaurants often walk home alone."

I am sometimes way, way too easily amused, I swear.

Remember, folks, I'm going to be doing a random drawing on Saturday to win an advance reader's copy (ARC) of A Local Habitation. You could get your hands on the second Toby book months before release day! And all you have to do is...

...click this link and leave a comment.

Seriously, that's all. Just don't leave your comment on this post, since no comments made on this post will be fed into the random number generator. Leave your comment on this post over here. Not this post. This other post.

Good luck!

Well, it's November. Rosemary and Rue has been available for two months, and has been performing pretty well, thus making me feel slightly less like I need to spend all my time flailing. And I have the ARCs for A Local Habitation, which means it's time for...

An ARC giveaway!

To enter to win a copy of A Local Habitation, please comment on this entry. That's all; just comment. I'll be selecting a winner via random drawing on Saturday, so as to give people plenty of time to chime in with their burning desire to have the second Toby book in their hot little hands. (Please remember that I really really really need you to buy the book even if you receive an ARC.) I'll sign it and everything.

Well, then: GAME ON!

It's time for another ARC giveaway! Because you were starting to think I didn't love you anymore. Now, you may remember that I hinted at this giveaway being a little more "graphic" in nature. I give you...

The LOLtest. Yes, if you hate LOLcats, you probably want to shoot me right about now, but that's okay, because I love the freaky little guys, and I'm not asking people to invade your blog with countless graphics of the things. So what do you have to do to enter? Simple. You have to make a LOL___ and post it here. What do I mean by LOL___?

LOLcats. LOLold fairy tale illustrations. LOLmy cover art. LOLhome photography—if you want to take a tip from A Softer World and take your own pictures, be my guest. (Toby is brunette, fairly pale, and tends to wear sensible clothing. You want to slap a leather jacket on your girlfriend/best friend/self and take pictures solely for captioning purposes, I'm down with that.) For examples of the inimitable LOLcat in its natural habitat, see I Can Has Cheezburger, along with countless other sites in the same vein...and then knock yourself out.

Post your contest submissions on this entry. Because this is a project that could require a bit more effort, I'm going to be taking entries until Friday, June 12th, and then opening the floor for voting. I'll definitely be giving away one ARC through this contest; depending on the number and variety of entries received, I may well increase that to two, as well as putting together a few runner-up prizes (who wants a CD?). This contest is open to everyone, including my mother, my agent, God, and people who have already won ARCs. Bring out your LOLcats, and rock the world.

Game on!

EDIT: To be clear, all LOL___ must be Toby-related to be considered actual entries. Although all LOL___ are cute and make me smile.

I have Rosemary and Rue galleys. You want Rosemary and Rue galleys. We're like the peanut butter cup of pre-release reading material. So how can you get what you want?

Simple: comment here.

No, really. The first giveaway is going to be a RANDOM DRAW. Comment on this post going "oooh, me, me," and I'll put you into a spreadsheet. At the end of the week (so Friday, May 8th), I will roll the random number generator, and we'll have a winner. (Although, as a footnote, the winner will have seventy-two hours to claim their prize. So if I post going "Yay, Kermit, you win!" and Kermit doesn't say "Yay, send it here!" within three days, I'll be rolling the random number generator again. That's how we roll.) Please only comment once. There will be other giveaways, some of which will be much more participatory and require actual effort to enter, but this week, I'm lazy.

Game on!

Hey, folks -- the Bay Area convention season is kicking off, and that means it's time to return to our fannish roots and celebrate with geeky bling. I mean, of course, BADGE RIBBONS. Because nothing says 'love' like pieces of fabric that you can stick to yourself. (Some people say that ribbons are over. I say that these are people who never played Halloweentown fairy princess when they were kids. We shall love our accessories until we die.)

So what do you think I should put on ribbons for this year? Suggest anything you like, from the silly to the sublime, and we'll see where things wind up going. Suggest a ribbon that I actually make, and I'll send you one, even if you're not attending the convention. Keep in mind that we're trying to drum up interest and attract attention, but should still make a vague amount of sense while we're doing it.

Game on!