Okay. So which of you crazy people is willing to pay $51 for an ARC of SHIVER? Because someone is selling one on eBay, and that's where the current bid is. (I have guiltlessly stolen their photograph of the ARC for this post. Because they aren't supposed to be selling it in the first place. So phhhhbbbbbbtttt)

And I can only assume it's an insane blog reader. Fess up. I mean, I'm flattered that someone can't wait 90 days for my brilliant prose, but . . . that's insane.

I mean, there's so much more that you can do with $51. For instance. You could give $1 to each of your LJ pals to post SHIVER's cover with this blurb:

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

and a link to the pre-order page. Oh yeah, and tell them to post your name so you get credit. And then comment on this post so I know they did it.

Because the $51 ARC has inspired me to do a contest thingy. Here's the deal. It's running from May 8-15th. The idea is to convince as many of your LJ or blogger or wordpress friends to post about SHIVER (you don't have to pay them, although it might help). Winner is whoever manages to get as many of their friends to post and comment back here by 8 p.m. EST on the 15th.

And the reward? Okay. Here it is. First of all, you have to get at least 5 friends to blog about it to be eligible. Winner gets:

- a signed ARC of SHIVER
- 4 signed copies of LAMENT
- and for each of the friends that you got to comment, a critique of the first 5 pages of any of their manuscripts

And if any single person manages to get over 50 friends to comment, I'll make it 3 ARCs of SHIVER and 8 copies of LAMENT.

Don't make me regret my spontaneity. And don't pay $51 for an ARC.

Just in case there are any on my f-list who don't already have a copy of LAMENT, I figured I'd mention that there are two places giving away three copies total at the moment:

The Shady Glade (comment by Tuesday to enter) and the rather fantastic review site YA Reads (send an email as directed on the post and comment in forum to win).

g'luck!

Oh and a shout-out to the great teens at Fredericksburg Academy and the teachers. You guys were great today! (thanks Susanne!)

Okay. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, because it's creepy, packed with supernatural goodness, and involves staying up late. In honor of Halloween, we're having a Halloween short fiction contest over at the Merry Sisters of Fate (merry_fates ). It's a great opportunity to stretch your fictional muscles, show off your literary prowess, and maybe snag the grand prize.

The prompt is simply "Halloween" (be creative, dammit), and we'd prefer the word limit to between 600-2000, and the deadline is midnight on October 31st. Link back to the entry in Merry Sisters of Fate and we Sisters will commiserate over a pot of bubbling brains and other Halloween goodies to decide which one pleases us most. There is only one prize, but oh, what a prize, m'dears:

- a copy of the upcoming An Infinite Thread, the first Merry Sisters of Fate anthology, which features the best of the Sisters so far as well as three anthology-exclusive short stories, all packed with the supernatural, blood, and angst, as the Sisters' stories tend to be.

- a signed copy of Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception, and a CD with three of my songs that were inspired by Lament.

- a Merry Sisters of Fate t-shirt (or a homicidal faeries T, your pick).

Oh, I am dazzled by the beauty of our prize. You guys up for it? What's to lose?

EDITED TO ADD: When I say the prompt is Halloween, I mean interpret it loosely, peeps: name your main character Halloween. Have each paragraph start with a letter in Halloween so it all adds up to the complete word. Have the character remember a catalyzing event that happened on a Halloween years ago. It doesn't have to be fantasy. 

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And some random linkage: me over at The 5 Randoms talking about my favorite movie villains, including Humperdinck and his horrible hair and the guy from Snatch who has the pigs

and kessie reviewing LAMENT and saying


and Strawberry Pop Tart Blow Torches. Because it's Thursday. And why not?

Oooh, ooh, I almost forgot. I have officially gotten to the last page in my little quick sketch book. It's a cute little 6 x 6" sketchbook with handmade paper in it and all of my quick 2 minute value sketches for the past few months in it. They're not beautiful, but they're intensely useful to me -- sort of my shorthand to get the values right on a painting.

Anyway, I promised a long time ago that when it was done, I would randomly draw the name of a subscriber to my art blog (greywarenart.blogspot.com) and give it to one of them. Well, it's all full. And I'm going to draw a random subscriber (you can subscribe to my blog up at the right corner of that one I think) on Wednesday, December 19th, at 8:00 p.m. EST. So if you're not signed up yet and you want it, sign up. I'll mail it out on the 20th so there's actually a chance that the lucky duck might get it for Christmas.

Good luck!