It is finally here! The official contest for winning a free signed copy of Magic & Madness! And it's super easy to win: just leave a comment here about your favorite book (or most interesting book read) and why I should read it. Something short, sweet, and to the point will do. Contest will run through Halloween and November 1st I'll pick the winner! How easy is that? Need more visual aids? Here:
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
draygnfaerie left a comment:
You should read Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis because it is just disturbing, hilarious, and a brutally honest jab at all that is wrong with America.
Short. Sweet. To the point.
Now this contest is running on LiveJournal, Facebook, and Twitter. If you don't have a LiveJournal ID and leave an anonymous comment, make sure to have your Facebook or Twitter ID so I can Direct Message you if you won! Or email addresses work as well. Just make sure I can contact you!
Attention Facebook Users: This post will RSS/mirror onto Facebook as a Note. DO NOT COMMENT THERE. Those comment entries will not count. All viable entires will be taken from the LiveJournal/original post. Follow link at the bottom of the note to get to original post and comment away!
LiveJournal ID: draygnfaerie
Facebook ID: http://www.facebook.com/ladytrebuchet
Twitter ID: http://twitter.com/amylgregg
- Mood:
cold - Music:Adele - Chasing Pavements
I know a lot of you have been asking "When can we buy it!?" Well, I have that answer. In a few weeks. I guess it takes a while for the whole publishing thing to get rolling, especially when you're working with big "box stores" like Barnes & Noble and Borders. But, according to the publisher, Amazon will be stocking it a lot sooner than B&N or Borders. So, if you absotively, posilutely have to get my book NOW, I suggest to pre-order it from Amazon. The more requests/orders for the book that Amazon gets the sooner (and more) they will order from the publisher. And it will prolly be at your door sooner than B&N and such. So, there's one option. Otherwise, you can wait for a few weeks and then get it from your local B&N and Borders. You can still pre-order it from B&N and the like, but it will be back ordered for 2-3 weeks... or longer. I'm just super hoping we get them in before Halloween!! That's when I have my big kick-off signing at the Eden Prairie B&N. And our CRM has been just about besides herself with excitement for this signing---because I'm the only author she actually likes. Hehehehe. But yeah, cutting it a little close. But I think we should be okay... otherwise... maybe B&N can buy some of my copies in the meantime...? *le shrug*
SO be on the lookout for a contest to win a free signed copy of my book coming soon to a LiveJournal/Facebook/Twitter near you!
- Location:waiting for the hamster to get back on his wheel
- Mood:
content - Music:Emperor's New Groove DVD
Not much really going on right now. Trying to find time to work on my stupid house. I have one coat of paint in bathroom and one wall in the living room... partially completed rooms with little to no furniture... and an anxious cat who won't leave my bedroom. Well, Kiera is getting better at that. She has ventured to where her food bowl is supposed to be because I was walking by w/ the bowl full of said food, so now she eats there, and she did sit in front of the sliding glass door for a little bit until I moved and that chair made a noise and she ran back to the bedroom. So... some progress.
Still debating the title of the book with North Star Press... *le grrr*. They want it to have some stupid reference to Grand Avenue... but the only thing we can come up with is Grand Chosen or Grand's Chosen (a typo from my graphic designer!), or the original Magic & Madness. Grand Chosen is... okay. But it doesn't have that punch like Magic & Madness. I mean... other books with punchy names: Blood Bound, Iron Kissed (Patricia Briggs), Dead Witch Walking (Kim Harrison), Shards of Crimson, Taste of Crimson (Crimson City series) just to name a few. Kinda vague, yet really interesting and grabs your attention right away. Grand Chosen? Eh. But Magic & Madness? Wait, there's magic.. and madness!? Sign me up! Bah. Whatever.
Anyone have any ideas for fun contests to give away some free, signed copies of my book? I'm gonna have to buy a few of my own book to off-set publishing costs, so I'll have a few lying around. I'm thinking of doing some sort of Facebook/Twitter contest thing... like whoever sends me a link to something so funny I choke on air laughing gets a free signed book (thought of that one in the car ride home). I think I might do that. And I think I might also do a thing where the first 15 or so people to message me with a certain word gets the ID number for my B&N member card (or a bogus one I set up just for this reason, don't want weirdos getting a hold of my actual info) to get an extra 10% off my book in store. Some things to think about.
Oh, speaking of book... even though the title is still TBA, the CRM at my BN has set up a book launch/signing party for my book on Halloween. So... if you're in the Mpls area then, drop by the EP B&N! If not, wherever you are, stop by your local B&N (or Borders if you so choose) and pick up my book! More info to come as it falls together.
Well... I guess that's all for now. Sitting on my floor with my PC is really FUBAR'ing my back. Stupid no desk or furniture... *le grumble* And I wanna read some Mental Floss before bed.
Ciao.
- Location:wouldn't you like to know?
- Mood:
annoyed - Music:Carbon Leaf - The Boxer
Using only song names from one artist, cleverly answer these questions. You can not use the artist I have used.Try not to repeat a song title. It is a lot harder than you think! repost as "My life according to (artist name)".
Artist: Evanescence
1. Describe yourself;
"Thoughtless", Anywhere But Home
2. How do you feel;
"Haunted", Fallen
3. Describe where you currently live;
"Fields of Innocence", Origins
4. If you could go anywhere, where would you go;
"Farther Away", Anywhere But Home
5. You favorite form of transportation;
"Night Tide", Origins
6. You and your best friend are;
"Imaginary", Fallen
7. What would you like to be doing;
"Everybody's Fool", Fallen
8. If your life was a T.V. show, what would it be called;
"Sweet Sacrifice". The Open Door
9. What is life to you;
"Weight of the World", The Open Door
10. Your relationship;
"Zero", Origins
11. Your fear;
"Surrender", Origins
12. Thought for the day;
"Bring Me To Life", Fallen
13. How would you like to die;
"I Must Be Dreaming", Origins
14. My souls present condition;
"Lose Control", The Open Door
15. My motto;
"Call Me When You're Sober", The Open Door
- Mood:
hungry - Music:Regina Spektor - Braille
meowvatar over at Facebook. So I'm writing it here. ( Questions that must be answered! )
- Mood:
creative
- Sleeping.
- Working on Magic & Destiny.
- Reading World War Z.
- Searching more dillegently for my digi camera picture transfer USB cord.
- Dishes.
- Knitting.
- Organizing something to start packing.
- Packing up more books.
- Getting new water for my fish (since I am slowly suffocating them w/bad water).
- Writing on a short story of some kind.
- Lurking around Farm Town on Facebook.
- Brushing Kiera.
- Playing Plants vs. Zombies.
- Cleaning off the folding table in the living room.
- Write out the awesome plot ideas I had for Magic & Mercy.
- Did I already mention sleep?
Yeah. Just kinda doing a whole lot of nothing right now. I really wanted to upload a picture of me being an uber dork for a new Facebook profile pic... but I can't find my USB tranfer cord thing. Grrrrr. I know where it should be... but I can't find it. My living room is a mess! Argh! The OCD in me is shutting down parts of my brain as we speak. I just can't function like this! Grrrrrrrr. Oh well. It's not like the picture's really going anywhere... hopefully I don't accidentally delete it before I find the cord. Okay... I'm off to go find something better to do now.
- Location:trying to count those damn sheep
- Mood:
listless
- Lilly P. DOB Late January 2009 (I want to say 25-27 sometime...)
- Emma M. DOB 2-13-09
- Lucy M. DOB 5-19-09
- Baby T. ETA 6-3-09 (Wes & Christina's little one)
- Baby 2.0 ETA October 2009
Oh, since today is a fun day, I think I should put a little shout-out to my friend
psychologizer (Kim) who got herself engaged to her man last week! Congratulations, hon!!Well... off to see if I'm needed at any of my jobs today... bit of a scheduling mix-up... ugh. Check y'all laters.
- Mood:
bouncy
Here's a few pics from tonight's game. You can see more of them in my Concerts/Shows photo album on my Facebook page.
( WILD v. SHARKS pics )
- Location:trying to count those damn sheep
- Mood:
geeky
FACEBOOK INSTRUCTIONS: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.
Ok, so here I go.
1. I can roll my tongue.
2. I am 1/2 German, 1/4 Scot-Irish, and 1/4 Danish-Dutch
3. I can do the Vulcan "Live long and prosper" thing with both hands
4. I have a scarf that is over 20 feet long (unofficial length)
5. I am afraid of down escalators.
6. I have slept for over 15 hours straight in one shot (lost a Tuesday because of that)
7. I have been awake for almost 36 hours straight once.
8. I talk to myself a lot, even when other people are around.
9. I had tonsillitis 6 times when I was a child, but never had my tonsils taken out.
10. I didn't (couldn't) go to church until I was 4 years old... because I couldn't shut up.
11. I like zombies.
12. Pickles make me nauseous.
13. The smell of cooked cauliflower makes me gag.
14. I will have a published book out by August 2009 (if not sooner)
15. I have never smoked pot...
16. But I would like to just once.
17. My right eye is green/brown/blue and my left eye is blue.
18. My lamp just exploded to my right.
19. I have eaten goat.
20. I am scared of clowns.
21. I've had 12 teeth pulled from my mouth because I had "double decker vampire teeth" going on in grade school.
22. When I was little, I chased my sister and cousin around my grandparents' farm with severed chicken feet!
23. I have number dyslexia... whatever the "official" term for that is.
24. I have acrophobia, and have gotten stuck on a bunk bed in my friend's dorm room for 5 hours.
25. I want to travel to the British Isles.
Now go forth and make thine own lists!
- Location:wouldn't you like to know?
- Mood: creative
A while ago I talked to
akoumi about places/festivals around the Cities I could have a little booth, and she mentioned a pagan fest in a park in Minneapolis. I looked into it, and woooo. Woo. Wow. I'm not sure that'd be the best place for me. These are hardcore Pagans. The Harmony Tribe of Minnesota has yearly festivals, and I checked into it... and wow. Just look at the site and you'd understand. I'm not sure I'd be the type of vendor (?) they'd be looking for to be a part of their little festival. And the Ren Fest here in MN wants period vendors, and I'm not really selling any Ye Olde Book Prints. Yeah. So, I'm kind of at a loss of coming up with a lot of places to sell my book outside a B&N and Borders, my blogs/sites, or throwing them at my friends. I guess, according to North Star, the bookstores have been hit by the recession and proftis have been down. They have been, from what we say in numbers at B&N over the holidays... but it wasn't like the store was a ghost town. The customers are a lot more picky about getting more for their dollar now. Well, I guess you can't say much about Borders.... since they're in bad financial straights right now already. So I don't know. Anyone have any ideas? And the book festivals I've looked at around MN and WI aren't really about selling, they're more about education. Argh. Maybe I could look into the Bloomington Book Fest, the one I went to last April... I saw an email about that not too long ago... brb...Well, I found the Writer's Festival, but it's in March. And Seal (my contact NSP) said that they could get my book in first draft form by April to send out to reviewers (which is another issue I'm having problems with), and that it could be out in actual print by August. I'm not sure that they could push the print date of my book up that far. I could just shoot Seal an email and see what her response is. If not.... eh. And with the whole reviewer thing, NSP will send the book to the big papers (Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, etc.), and I'm going to attack the Chaska Herald and the other local small papers around me, but then... what? I'm really really tempted to ask another huge favor of Patti O'Shea if she'd be awesome enough to read it and give a review? I mean, that could be totally kick ass... to have a New York Times nationall bestseller to review my book. Great promotional blurb and then some. But... I don't know if I'd be able to do that. But... hey, the worse thing she could say is "No" and then I'd be where I am now. And I know there's Armchair Reviews I could talk to, because awesomely they have someone (or someones) to look at paranormal romances---finally.
So yeah. Ugh. And I have to finalize my cover, which I need to talk to Kelcey about sometime. And I have to see if NSP will let me change the title of the book... now that it's Relic Chosen instead of Coven Wars. And apparently they (NSP) will be doing editing... but I'm having
jilrani look at it... so could I give them her version and use that one? And I want to redo some of the sexxy scenes a bit.... ugh. Ugh. Ugh. I can send all of that to Seal in an email and she can deal with it. It's almost 330pm and I'm still in my pjs. Yay for days off and sleeping in. But now I have to get ready for the day because I need to eat and get to Target before I head off to DBT. Blah. Blah.
- Location:reading this over your shoulder
- Mood:
confused - Music:Kiera squeaking
And now I'm having issues putting in my skull earrings. Stupid tiny black skulls you have to screw on tiny metal post things. Curse you! Okay... got that all settled. Tomorrow is Halloween... my second favorite holiday, and I'm not really going to dress up for work. But I will wear my fun blinky-glowy-ghost necklace... if I can get up to Target and get a new battery for it. Dammit. *le sigh* It requires one of those itty bitty flat, watch-like batteries. Maybe my dad has some.... *le ponder* But I will dress up in my new Old Navy clothes that came earlier this week. Yay for eggplant sweater! It looks awesome and it's super soft. Woo! And I'll also be doing one more fun thing for tomorrow, but that'll just have to be a surprise. If you're at the EP B&N tomorrow, you'll see it.
Earlier this week, I wanna say Monday, although it could be Tuesday... it was Tuesday, I had Monday off. Anyhoo... I sliced a chunk out of my thumb with a scissors while breaking down a shopping bag box. It only took 8 Band-Aids and about 7 hours for it to freaking stop bleeding. My coworker Nick thinks I probably caught the edge of a vein or something, because that sucker kept bleeding through Band-Aids like a mofo. Hehe. Oh well. I did have fun grossing Nick out when I started sucking my thumb and having Jessi open the first Band-Aid for me when I first sliced myself. Apparently he can handle blood, just not when people are sucking their own wounds. Hehe. Well, it was either that, or have a red cascade flowing down my hand and onto everything. But now it's fine, I have a small little divot in my thumb, right above the knuckle crease, so that hurts when I bend or catch it on something.
Loaded the last half (third?) of my Baltimore/D.C. pics onto Facebook. And two new ones of Kiera, and my uber fish Titus; they're in the Kiera folder, if you can traverse over there. There's really not much else to say right now. I'm going to rearrange my room this weekend, maybe my living room if I feel that spirit move me, so if you're bored, you can help me do that. Free pizza and all that jazz if you help out. Um... yeah. What else...? Oh, for something totally different and not really mentioned here before, but my nonexistent love life will continue to be that since the guy I kinda had a thing for, well, the whole situation with that has become way too complicated. So now I just get to hear my damn neighbors have the sex that is being denied me.
Other than that... things aren't going too bad. Well, I'm going to go hunt for batteries for ghost necklace.
Have a spooky Halloween tomorrow! ^v^ (that's supposed to be a bat... or something)
- Location:stuck in the hamster's wheel
- Mood:
uncomfortable - Music:Pink - Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)
So I posted the first half of my pictures from Baltimore on Facebook. If you have Facebook, head on over there and check it out. And if you don't have Facebook, you can still access my page there without having to be a "member". So yeah. They are fun to look at. I have more from the Washington, D.C. portion of my trip coming soon, once I get through my last roll of film *seriously thinking about upgrading to a digi camera soon...*
ATTENTION lokein: You must click here. And here. And last but not least, here.
Had a follow-up appointment with my womanly doctor, since we switched my birth control meds. Things have been going well with that, so one less thing for me to worry about. However, the topic came up about my mom's breast cancer and when would be a good time to start, well not really worrying about it, but when to start being proactive about it. I guess the current info for breast cancer says that if you have/had someone in your family with it, you should start getting checked out about when you hit the age 5 years before they got diagnosed. Well, my mom was diagnosed when she was 52/53, so according to that theory, I would have to start getting mammograms and all that when I'm 40... which is the normal time a woman starts that anyway. So... I get to do some research into when someone like me should think about getting a mammogram or an MRI for it. I'm thinking early 30's for me, personally; which is only a few years down the road for me. Ack. I've been checking out the Susan G. Komen website to see any info for that. My OB/GYN also mentioned I should talk to them and see if they have any info, or would like me to talk to them for any research they might be doing. Ugh. I guess for the last few years (9 to be exact) I've been kind of ignoring this and not really wanting to do anything about it. If I don't do anything, or ignore it, then I won't have to worry about it, right? Well, I can't ignore it for any longer. I think in the next few weeks or so, I'm going to see what I can do to get the right info for me.
And maybe, for next year, the 10th anniversary of my mom's death, I should do the Susan G. Komen run/walk thing that they do. I've always been wanting to do it, but it never got off the ground. I think a year or so should give me enough time to get stuff together, like moneys and a team, and support, all that stuff. It'll be my goal for 2009.
- Location:getting sued in the game of Operation
- Mood:
complacent - Music:The Ting Tings - Be the One
Wh... wha... huh...Wha-WHAT!? /hyperventilating
Well, I called her Friday after work, and had a loverly little chat with her about my book. She hasn't read all of it (apparently this fall is the largest catalog of books they've put out as a company, so they're kinda busy) but she's read most of it, and of what she has read, she really really likes it and thinks I have a definite and great writing style. "So what would you be willing to do to get this published?" she asks me. Uh, anything! I want to say. "Would you be willing to do signings and appearances?" Yes, please. "How would you market it?" Well, I work at a bookstore, so I'm sure I can ask our regional buyer what I can do to market it in the store, I also live 5 seconds away from a coffee shop, so I could ask them if I could do something there; I have online access to multiple sites and ways of doing online marketing and selling. "Would you be interested in marketing it to the pagan community?" Uh... well, I never thought of that, but I wouldn't be against it. I guess since my book deals with magic and all that, she
Hoe. Lee. Fuh. King. She. It.
So we left it at that... so I'm like... pretty damn sure I'm getting my book published. And Seal was also excited at my answer to her question "What is your plan for this book? Are you looking to do any more?" And my answer was, Well, yeah, so far I'm thinking of doing a series on it... there's roughly 6 books in the series. I think she almost jumped through the phone! Hehehe. She was very happy to hear that, since she didn't want me to be a "flash in the pan" or a "one hit wonder" in the publishing world. Also, with my homework, I get to work on getting some blurbs for press releases and marketing. Basically, people saying they liked my book and what they liked about it. I've already tapped my coworker Lynn for a "blurb", and maybe I'll ask
psychologizer and my friend Erin, since they are the only ones who have read the whole thing (or almost the whole thing, I'm not sure how far along Erin is...). I'm also thinking... and this is an incredible loooooong shot... of maybe tapping into my "professional author network" on Myspace for some assistance... like, maybe asking Patti O'Shea for a huge professional favor, you know, MN author to MN author. She's a local MN author (and NSP has this affinity for all things MN based) and I'm thinking, "Hey, if I get a nationally published, award-winning author to maybe look at my book and say a sentence or two about it... that would look AWESOME on a cover!" However, that is a huge risk, since she could say "No, my agent/publisher/whatever won't let me do unagented/unrepresented reviews", or just say "No" out right and not give an explanation for it. But... I won't know unless I ask, right? Maybe I'll message her on Myspace, since she is one of my "friends" there. Hehe. Hey, can't hurt, right? Or at least I could ask her for some advice, I think she could do that without violating some weird contract thing. Either way, it'd be a kick to talk to a successful author and get some ideas on how to do things and all that. I might try that later this week. So yeah. Hot damn! I'm buzzing about that and trying to wrap my brain around different ways to market my book. Well, one big one is that I work at Barnes & Noble, and I can talk to our regional buyer about what needs to be done to get the book into the stores and also online. That's one big one out of the way. Then I can put shameless self-promotion all over my websites (LJ, Myspace, Facebook, etc) to get my friend base and online recognition. Maybe I'll also look into getting that website, amycanwrite.com, that we talked about a few months ago, that
meowvatar and jilrani all offered to help me with. Then I can have my own web page that's linked to B&N.com's page of my book, and have listings of any and all appearances I may do. Yeah. Hot damn. I'm excited! If anyone has any ideas on anything else I could do, please let me know! I'm still looking for more ideas. More ideas for Seal, the better!However, now that I'm almost a published author... and true to my over-analytical nature, I'm second-guessing what I've put in Magic & Madness, i.e.: the sexy scenes. I'm thinking... maybe I should tone them down a bit... maybe go back to what I had before? That would open up the market/audience a little more, and I'm sure my family would be more likely to buy a copy if there wasn't sexy party scenes in there (they'll have to get around the swears, I ain't taking those out!). Maybe I can talk to Seal about that when we're more certain I'm going to get published. It still has to get edited, which Andrea is working right now, so maybe I can squeeze a quick rewrite into the editing process. Won't be a bit deal, just take out a few paragraphs, rewrite a line or two, and it'll be basically the same damn story. Just not as graphic. And now, that I'm basically going to be writing at least six books in this series, I sat down tonight and wrote out a summary of what's going on in each of the sequels, to get some sort of ground work laid out for the plot of each one.
The way I had the series laid out before didn't quite make sense, and they weren't too connected, but I think the way that I've reworked it, the 6 books are more connected, and some characters from Magic & Madness make appearances in some of the following books, in major and/or supporting roles. The whole story and world that I've created makes a little more sense now, but it almost changes what should have happened in the first book! Ack! But I can fudge by that by introducing/explaining that stuff in the second book, Magic & Destiny that I'm working on right now. "Hey... that's a different title than what you said it was going to be back when you last talked about your books?" you might be asking... yes *groans* I changed the freaking titles again for the sequels. Arghs! The original ones I had before just didn't quite fit as well with the new story lines that I had developed. But I know that in the following years between now and when I get to those next books, I'll prolly change the titles again. Argh. And with how I've just reworked the uber plot outlines, I think the series would make more sense if I changed the whole series name. Yeah. I know. *le groan* And if you've read the whole first book, especially the last chapter, you'd definitely get the new series name I'm toying with, which is: Relic Chosen. Why can't I just get these stupid books to be happy with the titles I've given them?! Why must they keep on insisting on these new, and much more awesomer, titles? Oh well. Such is the plight of the author, no? These books do take on a life of their own, and they will tell you if something isn't right.
And I've also been toying around with the layout of the title itself. And I've been influenced by the other series I've been reading (J.D. Ward, Karin Tabke, etc.) to make the layout more like: Magic & Madness: Book One of the Coven Wars/Relic Chosen. Sounds and looks pretty good, so far, I think. And, since I've been talking about changing the sequels' titles, here's an updated title list of The Coven Wars/Relic Chosen series:
1. Magic & Madness
2. Magic & Destiny
3. Magic & Honor
4. Magic & Blood
5. Magic & Sacrifice
6. Magic & Mercy
7. Magic & Peace (TBA)
Yeah... yeah... I know you caught that last one I tried to sneak in there. Yes, I'm contemplating a possible 7th book. Depends on how things turn out in the last two books, the crises of the world may be coming to an end then, but we never know. That's always a possibility to have a 7th book, to kind of wrap things up... but I'm not really counting on it. I'm really not looking forward to it! I mean, I like the world of magic and characters I've created, but I think the time I get to #6, I'll be ready to move on to a new series, book, character, whathaveyou. I'm also tempted to do a "glossary" page, of some of the terms and stuff I've kinda made up for my books. I got the idea from J.D. Ward and her Black Dagger Brotherhood novels. She's made up some terms for the vampire world, so she put in a glossary page that is very helpful to flip back to every once in a while. And I know when Teresa attempted to read my book, she got confused at some of the terms I used, that would have been explained later on in the book (if she bothered to read the rest of it). But J.D. Ward also has the character explain the terms to each other, along with the glossary... so I'll work on that one. Maybe I'll have someone go through the first drafts and find all the weird words I put in there so I can make a glossary page. I tend to skip over those words since I'm so used to them and I've read that silly story so many times. And... yeah... I guess that's all the awesome news on the Amy-hopefully-getting-published-front. I'm going to stop rambling. w00t!
Oh, I also got a new fish today. His name is Titus. I'll hopefully have pictures of him soon... if he lives that long. I remember what happened the last time I was all excited about a new fish... he got decapitated by the water filter and his little head eaten by another fish! aCk! Poor Fitzgibbinz! Hehe. But Titus looks like he'll survive.
- Location:reinacting Finding Nemo in my living room!
- Mood:
pensive - Music:The Wreckers - One More Girl
