A Quick Contest Update

We're one week into the Great ARC Giveaway, with just under 3 weeks left to enter.

Right now we're sitting at about 70 entries shy of adding another winner to the pot.

So how do you boost those entries numbers? If you've already entered, wonderful. If you haven't entered, what are you waiting for? And don't forget you can still earn extra entries, whether or not you've entered already.

The easiest way to gain extra entries is to leave comments, but here's a reminder just in case you need it:
+1 For every comment made during the contest period
+3 For posting the Holiday Bookmark Swap button on your blog or website(it's in the right sidebar)
+5 For posting about the Holiday Bookmark Swap
+1 For linking the contest
+2 For posting about the contest

Good luck to everyone!

The Great ARC Giveaway

Okay, so it's not the greatest title for a contest. But it sounded better than the Contest Monday/Comment Contest for November/December for three ARC books Giveaway. :)

As that suggests, I decided to combine my usual contest Monday posts with the comment contest for November and a little bit of December to create a bigger giveaway. I'm going to end it shortly after the first part of December so the winners can hopefully get their prizes in time for Christmas.

Rules:

So here's how you play. Everyone gets one free entry by filling out the form below. And there will be extra entries too, which I'll get to in a minute. And you're prizes? I have three ARCs to give away:
Blood & Flowers by Penny Blubaugh, Vesper: A Deviants Novel by Jeff Sampson, and Three Quarters Dead by Richard Peck

The winner will get to choose their prize from these three. If there are 200+ entries into the contest, then I will add a second winner. 300+ entries, and I will add a third winner. 500+ entries and I'll add another prize AND another winner. First place will choose first and then on down until all the prizes are claimed.

Contest will be open until Sunday, December 5th. Winners will be announced the next day. Open to US and Canadian residents only this time. Winners will be responsible for claiming their prizes within 72 hours, or it will be passed to someone else. Winners will be announced on the blog, and will not be emailed.

Extra Entries:

Here's the key part. The more extra entries you get, the more total entries we have, and the closer we get to having multiple winners. I'm busy trying to spread the word about my Holiday Bookmark Swap, so there will be lots of extra entries for that. And since this is taking the place of November's comment contest, there will be entries for that. So here's the breakdown.

+1 For every comment made during the contest period
+3 For posting the Holiday Bookmark Swap button on your blog or website(it's in the right sidebar)
+5 For posting about the Holiday Bookmark Swap
+1 For linking this contest
+2 For posting about this contest

So that's a total of 12 entries right off the bat, without earning additional entries from comments!

How To Enter:

To enter, fill out this form below. Add up your entries, and I will add the comment ones in manually at the end of the contest. Good luck to all!



About the Prizes:

Blood & Flowers by Penny Blubaugh (Summary from Goodreads): "Three years ago, Persia ran away from her drug-addict parents and found a home with the Outlaws, an underground theater troupe. With time, this motley band of mortals and fey, puppeteers and actors, becomes the loving family Persia never had, and soon Persia not only discovers a passion for theater but also falls in love with one of the other Outlaws. Life could not be more perfect.

Until an enemy makes an unfair accusation against the group and forces them to flee their world and hide in the neighboring realm of Faerie. But in Faerie, all is not flowers and rainbows. With bloodthirsty trolls, a hostile monarchy, and a dangerous code of magic, the fey world is far from the safe haven the Outlaws had hoped for....

Following up her critically acclaimed Serendipity Market, Penny Blubaugh has created a beautiful and mysterious world where anything can happen—especially what you least expect."


Vesper: A Deviants Novel by Jeff Sampson (Summary from Goodreads): "Emily Webb is a geek. And she’s happy that way. Content hiding under hoodies and curling up to watch old horror flicks, she’s never been the kind of girl who sneaks out for midnight parties. And she’s definitely not the kind of girl who starts fights or flirts with other girls’ boyfriends. Until one night Emily finds herself doing exactly that . . . the same night one of her classmates—also named Emily—is found mysteriously murdered.

The thing is, Emily doesn’t know why she’s doing any of this. By day, she’s the same old boring Emily, but by night, she turns into a thrill seeker. With every nightfall, Emily gets wilder until it’s no longer just her personality that changes. Her body can do things it never could before: Emily is now strong, fast, and utterly fearless. And soon Emily realizes that she’s not just coming out of her shell . . . there’s something much bigger going on. Is she bewitched by the soul of the other, murdered Emily? Or is Emily Webb becoming something else entirely—something not human?

As Emily hunts for answers, she finds out that she’s not the only one this is happening to—some of her classmates are changing as well. Who is turning these teens into monsters—and how many people will they kill to get what they want?"


Three Quarters Dead by Richard Peck (summary from Goodreads): "Kerry is chosen by the coolest clique in school and so she thinks life has finally begun. But then it seems all over when her three friends are killed in a shocking car accident. Or are they? Only weeks after the accident, Kerry receives a text from one of the girls: We're all 3 here at my aunt's in the city. Take the 3:50 train. B there.

Exhilarating, terrifying suspense is crossed with a thought-provoking examination of peer pressure in Richard Peck's return to his contemporary teen- and ghost-story roots. This is a master author's gift to the Gossip Girl/Twilight generation: his own smart, stylish, and fun take on the paranormal."

Winner of Gemini Night: Take 2

Since this prize has not been claimed yet, it's time to choose another winner for a new copy of Star Crossed: Gemini Night. This time the random number generator picked number 26, which means:

misskallie2000
...you are a winner! Congrats! Please send me your mailing address to me at shadyglade(AT)mail(DOT)com within the next 72 hours to claim your prize.

And for those of you who didn't win, better luck next time. Look for more chances to win coming soon!

Winner of Gemini Night

Thank you to everyone who entered my Star Crossed Gemini Night contest! The contest is now offically closed, which means it's time to pick a winner. The random number generator picked number 19, which means:

LaurensCrammedBookshelf
...you are a winner! Congrats! Please send me your mailing address to me at shadyglade(AT)mail(DOT)com within the next 72 hours to claim your prize.

And for those of you who didn't win, better luck next time. Look for more chances to win coming soon!

Want Extra Contest Entries?

Want extra entries for my contest for Suzanne Weyn's Empty or Star Crossed: Gemini Night?

Well, here's a way to get up to 2 extra entries. All you have to do is nominate an eligible graphic novel for this year's Cybils awards. You can nominate up to two titles, one for each category (Middle Grade and Teen). Nominations must be both eligible and unique (meaning you are the first one to nominate it) in order to get these extra entries.

Just leave a comment on this post letting me know which title(s) you nominated and where you'd like to apply your extra entries (Empty or Gemini Night).

If you've already nominated a graphic novel, you can still get extra entries. Just let me know in the comments which one you nominated.

Good luck!

(Psst: If you want to nominate a title but don't know what to choose, you'll find a list of good ideas here.)

Contest Monday: Win a Copy of Gemini Night

Hmm, it's been awhile since I did one of these. Well, thanks to a very generous offer, I have a brand new copy of Star Crossed: Gemini Night by Bonnie Hearn Hill to give away today!

About the Book: "STAR CROSSED: GEMINI NIGHT finds Logan McRae home from Writers Camp with a new mentor, a new boyfriend, a possible internship with the brand-new and highly anticipated CRUSH magazine, and an even stronger belief in the authority of astrology. As usual, trouble catches up with Logan fast. With the help of her two best friends, Paige and Chili, Logan hopes to get a handle on everything before disaster strikes. Weighed down by a troubled heart and nasty rumors at school, it won’t be easy, but Logan’s has the stars on her side.

Not only is Hill’s plot fast-paced and intriguing, but there are also interesting facts about astrology, excerpts from Logan’s “Fearless Astrology” handbook, and personality traits of each Sun sign. In addition, Logan writes a column that she hopes to be included in CRUSH, and the reader can enjoy her “CRUSHES” series, which includes information on how to catch the attention of each guy’s Sun sign."

How to Enter:
To enter, leave your information in the form below

The contest will be open for two weeks, and will end at midnight PDT on October 25th, 2010

The winner will be announced on the blog and will be responsible for providing their email address within 72 hours or a new winner will be chosen

Open to US mailing addresses only.

Good luck!

Contest Monday: Valentine's Day Edition

*This Contest Is Now Closed*

I know that lately my Mondays have been devoted to posting a contest roundup, but not today. Don't worry the roundup will be back tomorrow, but since I haven't had a Contest Monday post in awhile, I figured it was time for change.

The prize up for grabs: Two (2) winners will get a book of their choice from the list below. To celebrate Valentine's Day, all of the prizes feature romance in some way. There's a book here for every age from children's to middle grade to young adult to adult. Depending on how many entries I get I will add more winners and more books.

Books Currently Up For Grabs:
Never Bite a Boy on the First Dateby Tamara Summers (New PB)
Just Ellaby Margaret Peterson Haddix (Gently used PB)
The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowensteinby Libby Schmais (New HC)
The Vampire Is Just Not That Into Youby Vlad Mezrich (Gently used PB)
Jinxed (Harlequin Ginger Blossom Mangas)by Day Leclair (ARC)
A Prince Needs A Princess (Harlequin Ginger Blossom Mangas)by Barbara McMahon (ARC)
Kiss the Frogby Melissa Lagonegro (New PB)
The Jane Austen Book Clubby Karen Joy Fowler (Gently used PB)
All the Tea in China (Rollicking Regency Series #1)by Jane Orcutt (New PB)

Rules: The contest will end at 11:59 PST on Feb 14th, 2010. Open to US and Canada residents (sorry international friends!). The winner will be chosen by a random number generator. Rules about claiming prizes can be found here. Questions? Post a comment or email and ask.

As always, there is a chance for extra entries. I'm trying out the new Google Docs thing, so enter using the form at the end of this post, and we'll see how this goes.

Winner of Yesterday's Magic Part 2

Hmmmm.... it seems when I was going through my prizes today that I noticed that my copy of Yesterday's Magic by Pamela Service still hasn't been claimed yet! And you know what that means. It's time to pick a new winner. So if your name is:

Raspberry (New winner)
OR
Beth (BBRB)(Original winner)

You need to claim your prize! The first person out of these two to send me an email within the next week will get the book. After that we'll try one more time. Then the book is free game. So get ready, get set, GO!

Winner of Contest Monday: Yesterday's Magic

As promised, there is a winner to announce for Novembers only Contest Monday post. So without further ado, the winner of a brand new copy of Yesterday's Magic by Pamela Service is:

Beth (BBRB)

Congratulations! You have one week to send me an email with your mailing address. For those of you who didn't win this time, don't despair. There will be lots of chances to win great amounts of goodies starting tomorrow.

Winners, Winners, Winners

Hey everyone! I'm pretty much over the cold now and I'm back in business. I was cleaning out my bookshelves yesterday and realized I had a lot of prizes to still give away. So it's time to announce some winners!

First of all, I have to unclaimed prizes. The first is a copy of Gone from Contest Monday waaaaaaaay back in September! I totally thought this had been claimed already, but I guess not. So someone's going to get a second chance at it. As usual, I will list the old winner and a new winner, and the first to email me out of the two gets the book. So here we go. The winners of Gone are

Faye (old winner)

or Dani. (new winner)

Good luck to the both of you!

And here's another unclaimed prize, with the same drill. This one is from September's Comment Contest who won A Practical Guide to Vampires. But again, it hasn't been claimed yet. So here's the two winners. First to email me gets it!

A Bookshelf Monstrosity (old winner) or elnice (new winner)

*EDIT* Both of these winners have already emailed, so Shooting Stars Mag is the new (third) winner!

Next I can't believe I forgot this, but I haven't yet announced the winner of the Cybils contest. *smacks forehead* See what being sick will do to your mind? Thank you to everyone who entered by nominating a Cybils title. And especially those who contributed a GN title. I'm having fun reading those suggestions. And now the winner of the prize pack (Must Love Black, Switch, and Kamira) is

Kate (neverendingshelf)

Congrats! Don't forget to email me with your address so I can send you your prize.

And last but not least, I have the winners of the We Love Authors contest to announce. Due to the number of entries I received I decided to split the four book prize pack between three people. First prize gets to pick two books, second and third place get to pick one book. So our winners are

First place: natalierenae (pick two books)
Second place: A. Nicole (pick one book)
Third place: Alexa (lovinfitch) (pick one book)

Winners, email me and let me know which of the four books (Eyes Like Stars, Swan Maiden, The Real Real, and Aurelia) you want. First one to email gets first pick, second one to email gets second pick and last one to email gets what's left.

And although these aren't winners, I do have two contest announcements to make. The first is that there will only be one Contest Monday post for November, which will take place next Monday. This is because I'm still recovering from postage costs from the blogoversary as well as the fact that I want to have lots of contests for December. But mums the word on that. You'll have to wait until December to find out!

The second announcement is that by request I am extending the deadline for the Scavenger Hunt Contest for one week. So you've still got a few days left to get your answers in for this prize pack.

That's it for now. Contest roundup and November comment contest posted later today!

October Contest Monday Update

You may have noticed there was no Contest Monday posted today. Well, there's a reason for that. Due to budget constraints, I am discontinuing Contest Monday for this month. I love giving books away (and I'm sure you love it too) but I just can't afford it this month. Postage costs after last month are really high. I mailed off the first batch of prizes from the Blogoversary today and it was over $30 dollars just in postage.

That's not to say that there won't be any contests this month, because there are. In fact, you can already enter the October Comment Contest, the Cybils Contest, and the We Love Authors Contest. Plus I'll be posting another one tomorrow (hopefully). But since I want to focus on these specific contests there will be no Contest Monday this month.

For those of you who would like to help out with the costs of running the blog (mostly postage for prizes), there are a few ways you can. First of all I've added a donate button in the right sidebar if you feel so inclined.

Also, if you've ever making a purchase on Amazon.com, consider using the links you find on this blog or using the search boxes in the sidebars to make your purchases. Any time you buy something within 20 minutes of coming from here, I get a (very) small percentage of your purchase, which helps a lot.

And lastly, I'm going to point out something new I've discovered recently. It's called Swagbucks. Basically, it's a search engine that randomly awards you points (called swagbucks) when you use it to serach for things. You then trade in these points for prizes. If you use the banner below to sign up under me, then ever time you get a point, I also get a point. It's a win-win situation, since I am using my swagbucks to get prizes to giveaway on the blog (gift cards anyone?). Hence the shameless promotion. Haha. Here's the banner if you'd like to check it out:


Anyway, that's it for now. If you'd like to donate somehow you can, but all of you help out just by continuing to read the blog and spread the word. So Contest Monday will be gone this month, although I will continue contest roundups in its place. And don't feel too sad, because I have lots of Halloween-inspired reviews coming in its place as well. And look for yet another contest coming up in a day or two too.

September Contest Winners

So I know I had mentioned that this would be posted on October 5th, but I'm posting it a little early so that prizes can start being mailed on the 5th instead. So here's all the winners from the blogoversary contests. We're going to start at the top and work our way down.

And if you don't see your name here, don't get discouraged! I have a stack of books to give away this month. So keep your eye out for new contests coming soon. And remember you can already enter October's Comment Contest, and The Cybils Contest.

First off, the winner of September's comment contest, for a prize of a brand new ARC of How to Say Goodbye in Robot. There were a record 195 entries this month. The number generator picked lucky comment number 2 as the winner which is Liz(liztapioka14).

Moving right along we have three winners from the Blogoversary Birthday contest. We were just one comment short of four prizes, can you believe it? Anyway, the winner of the hardback copy of Shadowed Summer is Lori(Pure Imagination). The winner of the ARC of Prism is Paradox. And last but not least, the winner of the ARC of Recipe for Disaster is Misty. Congratulations to all of you!

The Gift Card Contest got a lot of entries, more than any other contest last month. According to the results, the top three books that people are looking forward to reading are Catching Fire, Fire, and Catching Fire. Sounds like a good list! And the winner of the $10 gift card is mytwogirls.

Thank you to everyone who took the survey for the blogoversary. I'm having fun going through your selections. But I also need to especially thank haleymathiot, who is the winner of the ARC of I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure.

Both of the next contests were a lot of fun to plan, and I enjoyed reading your responses too. Apparently finding answers to the First Lines Contest was a little easier that it's follow up. But someone still gets the prize pack which includes an ARC copy of Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard, a signed copy of Dream Spinner by Bonnie Dobkin, and a paperback copy of Poison Ink by Christopher Golden. And that person is Erica (the Book Cellar).

Although it was harder, the Book Covers Contest still got quite a few entries. I also appeared to be more addicting than the simple matching required by the First Lines Contest. The person who wins the prize pack of a new ARC of Pretty Dead by Francesca Lia Block, a signed copy of White Is for Magic by Laurie Faria Stolarz, and a new hardback copy of Attack of the Green Goo by D.J. Milky for this contest is Bittahsweet Harmony. For everyone else, keep your eye on the blog in the next few days, because I will be posting the answers to both of these contests soon.

Our next blogoversary contest was the Contest Monday entry for a brand new hardcopy of the novel Gone. The person who is now a proud owner of this book is Faye. Got a lot of response for this one, making it one of the most popular Contest Mondays ever (right behind Catching Fire and Shiver).

Now I have a signed ARC copy of Lisa Ann Sandell's new book A Map Of The Known World. This was of course our first author interview contest. So if you missed that interview (and those of the ones below) you can click through to read those posts. And congratulations to Celi.a, who is the winner!

Now to give away a signed paperback copy of Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle. The winner of the book is bookbutterflyangel. I also have two runners up who are now proud owners of a wooden fan advertising Marissa's historical blog. Those winners are throuthehaze and queen of entropy. And by the way, thank you to everyone who suggested the titles for her next book. She was really grateful for the ideas!

I was so happy to see that most of you loved the advice contained in Zoe's article. And a lot of you agreed the UK covers were better too. :) Here's a lucky winner who will be getting the UK paperbacks of The Swan Kingdom and Daughter of the Flames. That winner is The_Book_Queen!

Who wants a signed copy of Beyond Cool by Bev Katz Rosenbaum? How about Bunny B as our winner! I got some really interesting answers for this contest, so you might want to click over and read some of the answers in the comments. I've also got some bookmarks to give away, which you'll see crop up down at the bottom of the post.

A brand new signed copy of The King's Rose (which, by the way has been nominated for a Cybil this year) by Alisa Libby is on the way to a winner by the name of A. Nicole. Hope you enjoy it!

Almost done here. This list is sure starting to get long... Winner of the Give Up The Ghost Swag Pack generously donated by author Megan Crewe is Lilibeth Ramos!

One last prize to give away. This is for the brand new ARC of The Amanda Project: Book 1: invisible I. I know, I know, I'm ending this one Contest Monday giveaway a little earlier, but I want to make sure that I can send it off on time. So the winner of this one is Jenny N.

And that's it. Phew! I'm a little tired out from all that typing. Congrats to all our winners! If you won something, send me an email with your mailing address to claim your prize! Remember you only have one week before a new winner will be picked. So claim them early!

You may have also noticed there was one missing. If you entered for a Chasing Brooklyn Bookmark, then send me your mailing address as well. First 7 emails I get will get one as well as some other cool book swag.