Tag: contests and giveaways

Faerie Winter ARC winner

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Thank you to everyone who entered the Faerie Winter ARC contest. I loved reading all your answers, and seeing which characters lingered on for you after you read. Fascinating seeing the common threads, too!

After thinking a bit, I’m going to have to go with artemisgrey‘s argument for Kaylen-not-Caleb, because I found I kept going back to it, and because what she said very much rang true for me:

Kaylen is who Caleb was BEFORE the war, and Caleb is who Kaylen became AFTER the war. I crave to understand the Fae, and their culture, and the connection that Kaylen shared with Tara, and why he thought she would be safer in our world than in his. We’re shown glimpses of Kaylen, of a strong, confident Fae who was obviously concerned about the coming war, but didn’t think it would result in such utter destruction. How did he come to know Tara? Why did he share friendship (more?) with her when others of his kind apparently didn’t converse with humans? Did he fight in the war? Did he look for Tara before settling down and becoming Caleb? In BoF Caleb is a character in flux, a Fae living in our world, trying to mend the destruction he helped wrought. He seems almost to fight with himself and yet, he comes across as very humane, if not quite human. What I want to know is what he was like before. I want to know about Kaylen, the inhuman Fae who seemed to love a human girl … Besides all of that, Kaylen is sexy, dang it… and I’d like to know more about him before he went and turned himself into Caleb.

Kaylen and Karinna were both different people before the War (arguably everyone was, but I’m most acutely aware of it for them), and this is something that fascinates me, too.

So artemisgray, email me a snail mail address at janni(at)simner(dot)com, and I’ll put an ARC in the mail!

I also wanted to give an honorable mention to jamiam for making a compelling argument for otherwise much-hated Ian:

But in the end, he [Ian] was the only real bad guy in the book, the only person beyond saving or repairing or talking sense into. And I don’t believe in bad guys, not really? This is totally naive of me, I know, but… I don’t believe people are simply born bullies, or are beyond saving. I want to know how he got to be the way he is, and I want to know if he’s capable of changing. I want to see him come back and say: “I was wrong, and I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

And now I’ll bite my tongue in order to keep from commenting on which of the characters you mentioned do and don’t actually show up. 🙂

Thanks again for joining in, and I hope those of you in the U.S. have a lovely Thanksgiving!

Faerie Winter ARC contest

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The contest is now closed! I’ll make a decision in the next few days. You haven’t made it easy for me, so thank you for that–and for entering! It’s been a lot of fun reading all your entries.

I have an extra ARC of Faerie Winter this time around (guaranteed to include all the sentences you asked for, and a few others besides). I’d give everyone who’s been hanging out with me here a copy if I could, but since I can’t (because my publisher wisely sends most of their ARCs to people who unlike me haven’t read the book yet) … I thought we could have some fun instead.

So–a contest!

In Faerie Winter, several minor characters from Bones of Faerie get to spend more time on stage, and one in particular turns from a very minor character into a very major one.

Tell me (in a comment to this post, though you can also share it elsewhere if you’d like) which minor Bones of Faerie character you would nominate for an expanded role in its sequel, and why–what you think they’d bring to the story, or why you’d like to see them there, or any other reason you can think of. Make your case for why this character needs more time on stage. Convince me.

I’ll choose the most convincing (not necessarily accurate, just convincing!) entry to receive an ARC of Faerie Winter.

Deadline: Sunday, November 21, midnight mountain standard time. CLOSED

Who is and isn’t a minor character is left open to reader interpretation, but if you try to make a case for Matthew, Allie, Tara, Ian, Caleb, or Karin, I’m likely to be a little bit skeptical. 🙂 The character can be named or unnamed, have a speaking part or not, appear as a passing mention or in real scenes with real lines.

Here’s a flap-copy summary of Faerie Winter. (Contains spoilers for Bones of Faerie. As does this entire contest.)

Anyone who’s already read Faerie Winter isn’t eligible. And if you’re going to be someplace I’ll be reading from the book, you’re on the honor system to enter before then. FB and jacketflap users, please post entries over on the livejournal entry.

And that’s it. Have fun!

Faerie Winter micro-giveaway

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ARCs of Faerie Winter landed in my mailbox today, resulting in much grinning, stroking of cover art, and carrying about of the almost-book. (You all know that if you let an ARC out of your sight within the first 48 hours the book will cease to exist anywhere but in your own head, right?)

I don’t have enough advance copies to send one to everyone (though I may have enough to send one to someone–more on that later), but what I can do is offer each of you … your own sentence. 🙂

I did this when ARCs arrived for Thief Eyes, and it was a lot of fun, so I thought I’d try it again. Here’s how it works:

Post a comment with a page number from 3-240 and a line number from 1-26, and I’ll respond with one sentence–your own personal sentence–from Faerie Winter that begins on or ends on or otherwise crosses that line.

(If the page doesn’t have that line, I’ll roll over to the next page. I’ve excluded the last chapter and a half for major spoilers, but of course there could be minor spoilers earlier, too.)

Go!

Ends Monday, October 25 (midnight, mountain standard time). Now closed. Thanks so much for joining in!

Sagafic entries

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I had a blast reading the sagafic contest entries, and was impressed by them again and again. It was fun to see all the different places the prompts led, and I really did feel like I was unwrapping a gift each time one was posted. Thank you for sharing your words with me.

I’ll post the winners soon (though you’re not making choosing easy at all), but first I’m linking to all the entries below, so that everyone else can have as much fun reading them as I did.

If you follow a link and enjoy what you read, comment and let the writer know!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

akwilliams: In the end, my love was not enough to hold him.

brigidsblest: When was I not most wretched of women?/Woe I have worn like a woven wool wrap./Nine griefs I have known, pain everlasting:/As many as nights Odin hung from the tree.

brownkitty: “I already must grieve for my brother. Is it not enough for you that I set a bowl of porridge before his killer? You now want me to make of this a grand adventure? A saga?”

chloeeepatd: Ljótur made it his personal mission to teach Elísabet how to love Iceland, and all the beauty it held.

Elayne: Most people only see beauty when they watch the Northern Lights slowly glimmer in the dark sky. Most people see just a green slash, some bluish hues, and maybe, on a very lucky night, some reds woven into the mix … But only the rare and gifted see stories in the sky.

jazzfish: I had just reached my depiction of Hoskald’s well-deserved murder by Niall’s children when the first shell was loosed.

jenna_thorn: “Tomorrow I shall dye the wool. Not all of it, but some. Madder, I think, and the last of the woad. And iron, as always … Tomorrow you shall join the others to give council, to take council, to fight again.”

keylimetruffle: Thirteen minutes left and they would call for me again, call for me to drop the gun from my hands and to give myself to the authority as if I had the authority to do so in the first place.

kutay: I rubbed softly over the image of the stag’s head. It branded me as dangerous Prey.

rabid_ravener: Raptor sleek and stalking/Slip from enshrouding clouds …”

Sagafic/sagacraft contest’s last weekend

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Thank you to everyone who’s entered the sagafic/sagacraft contest so far — I’m loving reading your entries and smile whenever one is posted — they feel like small presents that I get to unwrap. It’s so much fun seeing where the prompts lead you all — mostly to places I didn’t even think of, which is, of course, the point.

There’s one more weekend left for the contest — deadline is midnight Sunday in whatever time zone you’re in. Both fics to 1000 words or so and arts/crafts entries are welcome. I’ll choose two to win copies of Thief Eyes. (My copies arrived this week, so I should be able to get them out to the winners before release day.)

Here are the prompts again — all of them are saga-related (though your entries need not be), and all appear somewhere in Thief Eyes’ text.

– “Three shells in return for my poem.”
– “I have spun twelve ells of wool. You have killed a man. A fine morning’s work for us both.”
– “I already must grieve for my brother. Is it not enough for you that I set a bowl of porridge before his killer?”
– “My father gone, my brother gone, only this price upon my head remains.”
– “Take me abroad with you, for it is not Iceland that I love.”
– “Though I loved him best, I treated him worst.”

Enter the contest (and ask any questions) here!

ARCs, plus a micro-giveaway

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Look what arrived in the mail today! The ARC for Thief Eyes, which is now only a little more than three months from publication:

Thief Eyes ARC

So, I thought about doing a giveaway on my blog, but since I essentially only one copy to give away (seeing as I need the other to wave in the face of anyone who makes the mistake of standing still for too long promote the book), that would mean only one person would get to read it.

So then I had a better idea–instead of giving one of you an advance copy of the whole book, I could give each of you a teeny tiny piece of the book.

Specifically, everyone who asks can have their very own … sentence. 🙂

Here’s how it works: post a comment with a page number from 1-230, and a line number from 1-26, and I’ll respond with one sentence that begins on or ends on or otherwise crosses that line.

(If the page doesn’t have that line, I’ll roll over to the next page. I’ve excluded the last 26 pages for extreme spoilers, but of course there could be minor spoilers in the lines before then, too.)

I figure either this will be tremendous fun, or the dorkiest thing ever. Only one way to find out.

Go!

ETA: Ends Midnight Friday, January 22 Sunday, January 24, Mountain Standard Time.

Faerie naming contest winner/roundup

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So there’s one winner for the faerie naming contest … mummo74, thank you for suggesting that Elin’s name might also be a faerie name! I’m using it in Faerie Winter — I have a character there whose original name I’d never liked, and when I came to your entry, I realized that Elin would fit her much better (at least as a short-form of her true name), and her character came into focus more clearly after that. (Even though she’s very different from the real-world Elín I know you borrowed her name from. :-))

Let me know whether you’d like a copy of the Bones of Faerie paperback now, or whether I should send you a copy of Thief Eyes when it comes out in late April. 🙂

The other faerie character who stayed on stage through the whole contest (a few others wound up slipping out of the story as I wrote) somehow managed not to quite fit any of the names the contest turned up (not even “Bob”), which shows you just how difficult she is, though she has since consented to a name of my own invention.

Thank you all for taking part in the contest. Forty-nine of you submitted 356 (!) faerie names to help me brainstorm names for this book, and I had so much fun reading your entries … seeing what sort of names different people think of as faerie names, seeing what the names did and didn’t have in common, and generally thinking about just what sorts of names the fey folk have, both in my stories and in other stories. Over and over again I found myself saying, hey, that’s a really cool name, even though it doesn’t quite fit my characters or their world. Often I really regretted the names that didn’t fit, because I liked them enough I wished I could use them.

Shout outs in particular to anywherebeyond‘s Ilainn (which came closest to fitting my difficult character, except that in the end it was too close to Elin), and jesshartley‘s Tzila (which also didn’t quite fit, but I love the idea of a character whose name means “shadow,” especially since this book is turning out to be about shadows, in part.)

And thanks so much again to everyone who entered: _twilight_, a_is_for_amy, aerhianna, aliseadae, anonymouses 1, 2, and 3, anywherebeyond, archangelbeth, awkward_stew, chloeeepatd, coraa, DennisM (on fb), dethscriptions, emmarose1, gigglievs, harvestar‘s friend Rachel, jemmafey, Jenn and Espe, jennifer_j_s, jesshartley, JudyD (on fb), justanotherrainbowboy2, kelly_swails, kimberlycreates, kythiaranos, lnhammer, longlegs21, lrcutter, magicwand242, marla67, mummo74, niki_dinkins, papersky, rclibrarian, rebflds, rymenhild, sewenchanted, Sherry, slayground, staceysorange, SteveH (on fb), supertailz, tezmillertm, theaprilnichole, thunderemerald, whitmosloski, wyld_dandelyon, and yukinakid.

You all seriously rock. I hope you had as much fun with the contest as I did!

The original entries are (mostly) here. For anyone who’s curious, here’s the full list in alphabetical order:

Adisa, Adrian, Adriel, Adryn, Ahnle, Aiden, Aina/Anya/Aine, Ainsley, Aislinn, Akina, Alan, Alandria, Alsun, Andrel, Angharad, Annon, Anwell, Anwyll, Aravita, Arhan, Arien/Aryant/Ariant, Arin/Arinna, Asenath, Ashelyn, Aunula, Aurelia, Austra, Aysel, Basilia, Beatrise, Berehin/Berehine, Bob, Boksanen, Breese, Bricius, Brogan, Brynd, Calix, Calum, Camellia, Caramon, Carrigan, Carrina, Carys, Caylia, Cedric, Chenoa, Chobii, Cian, Coal, Corynth, Cray, Cyli, Dalcene, Dansemel, Danu/Daniu/Dania/Dona, Danyell, Daoine, Darda, Darren, Datia, Delyth, Dema , Demelza, Dessed, Devedre, Deven, Deverell, Doran/Dorane, Drust, Dybis/Dybs, Dydia, Dylan, Edana, Edric, Einar, Eka, Eldritch, Elin, Ellora, Elpsie, Ember, Emelyn, Enair, Enarte, Endella, Enna, Enona, Enteela, Eolande, Erianna, Erin, Ersa, Esil/Esilla, Esje, Eslie, Evalina, Ewan, Fabel , Faelynne, Feithlinn, Fergiss, Fiella, Finola, Finovar, Freye/Freyje/Freyra, Frodhi, Fynna, Gardenia, Ghita, Gilby, Golenne, Grace-Ann , Greedom, Guylers, Halanen, Haldis, Hanko, Harun, Helena /Yelena, Helle/Helie, Henya , Hiukka, Honoria, Iain, Idelle, Ilainn, Ilana, Illet, Ilysene, Indirr, Iria, Ismet, Jalona, Jaquoth, Jarla, Jaylee, Jayr/Jaer/Jaryn, Jenesp, Jennlynn, Jenpe, Jespe, Jesslyn, Jezebel, Jinx, Jissa, Jocelyn, Johari, Jovana, Kaedrich, Kale, Kane, Kanta , Kassy, Kava, Keagan, Keely, Keena, Kei, Kelda, Kempie, Keo, Kerie, Kern, Kerrid, Kitok, Krylin, Kryon, Kylie, Laagert, Laakita, Lace, Laerna, Larssen, Leif, Leigh, Lenix, Lentera, Leppa, Lhirias, Liam, Liliana, Liyah, Lizbeth/Lizbith/Lizbyth, Lizmi, Lon, Londra, Londrea, Looli, Lorelai, Lorys, Lucia, Lunas, Lyla , Lysander, Maacah, Maerl/Maryl/Maeryl, Magga, Maglinna, Maithe, Maive/Maibe/Maeve, Maks, Mardinna, Marit, Marlon, Marrid, Mathys, Meara, Meeri, Meko, Melorne, Memmaru, Merryn, Michel, Min, Mirain, Mirrin, Mishael, Miya, Moana, Monil, Morcant, Murfae, Mustardseed, Nalann, Naled/Nahled/Nallid , Namid, Naomi, Narjus, Naveten, Nerea, Nevin, Nia, Niabi, Nianna, Nikol, Nimid, Ninna, Nirel, Nisraneth, Nissa, Niyol, Nouel, Odessa, Olai, Olya, Oona, Opal, Orinda, Orion, Owen, Paanean, Perthy, Pesonen, Phelan, Phinka, Prisem , Pye, Qiuay, Qualya , Quinn, Raahe, Raelin, Raelyn, Raina, Raine, Ravanon, Rayla, Raylen, Rhette, Rhian/Riane/Riannen, Rhondi, Rhoswen, Rhys, Rickoe, Rikaven, Rinet, Rionach, Riordan, Risty, Rollery, Roopus, Ryan, Saerno, Samara, Sari, Scout, Sedesel, Serena, Serika, Seyled/Seylid, Shaina, Shallyn, Shanesh, Shani, Shastia, Shya, Sigreed, Sinamie, Siriar, Solandat, Spike, Stilkskinella, Sulani, Sydlyn, Syrris, Tali, Talithia, Talo, Tammel, Tanaise, Tanvir, Taran/Toran, Tarrant, Taysil, Telanna, Teppo, Thima, Thirza, Timtomin, Tobid/Tobrinna, Tormod, Treeon , Trystan, Twiler, Tyrosen, Tyvan/Taiven, Udokamma/Udokama, Ulinne, Umeace, Ur, Vanadis, Vazen, Velia, Tzila, Leto, Vindi, Vinfee , Vivaendadenielle, Waysln, Welyn, Wenna, Widroos, Wisper , Wrynn, Wyfy, Wymbrole, Yisinna, Zalik, Zanoo, Zara, Zarren, Zeeklum, Zen, Zimmer, Zompho

What arrived in the mail this week

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[Bones of Faerie paperbacks]

Okay, it’s a little hard to tell in the hastily taken cell phone picture (I was impatient and unpacked them instead of taking time to grab the good camera), but that’s the paperback of Bones of Faerie, officially due out January 26.

You also can’t tell from the picture that there’s a very short excerpt from Thief Eyes in the back, but there is. 🙂

In addition to this meaning that I now have a pile of pretty new paperbacks in my closet, it also means that I’m going to end the faerie naming contest — I’ll give it until noon mountain standard time tomorrow, and then I’ll announce the winners. 🙂

It’s been awesome seeing all your entries, and seeing what sorts of names do and don’t feel “fey” to everyone, too. I’ll try to pull together a wrapup/list of all the names entered, too. You all totally rock.

Until noon MST tomorrow, you can still share any last-minute name entries here. (Comment there with entries, not here.)

Faerie naming contest update 3

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There’s still just a little time left to enter the faerie naming contest. I’ve mostly settled on my faerie names (two of them, both female, one from the contest), but am still open to other suggestions.

The Bones of Faerie paperback is officially due out January 26 — I’ll keep the contest open until whenever my author copies of the Bones of Faerie paperback arrive, which could be anytime this month but will likely be within a week or two of the pub date.

Go here to enter.