Party Announcement

First off - the winner of the $5 Amazon Gift card was ... TomWildRose! Against all odds (it was three to one that Kiri would win - which is proof that bribes don't always work, isn't it *wink*), she came out on top of the randomized list I made, and if she'll send me an email with an account attached to an Amazon account, I'll send her the money as soon as I can.

Now, on to the scheduled programming.

June 24th will mark my fifth anniversary as an blogger. Twelve days later, on August 4th, I will have been a published author for three years. Two such momentous occasions require a celebration, and a good one at that.

So I've decided to throw one.

There's the button. Link it to this page. You guys know the drill.

(Someday I shall learn how to make those text boxes with the code, but today is not that day.)

And now that you have the link, and therefore the official date, I'm done with this and can go write My Kingdom for a Quest. I have a very interesting scene involving Shira and Robin to write.

Kendra ...

Uh, Sie ist weg. Lost in her stories again (which I suppose I should consider a good thing since it means that she'll get to my book sooner). Anyways, this is Maryanne, Kendra's all-time favorite character, and since she's not at liberty to tell people what series I'm from, she's given me the job of party coordinator, provided that I keep my speech to mostly English.

This party, which is still unnamed (I suggest Funf und Drei, but Kendra, though impressed, did turn it down), will be themed mostly on Kendra's published and unpublished works, each day featuring a different book or series - here's the schedule:

July 24 - The Rowa
July 25 - The Rizkaland Legends
July 26 - The Trilogy of One
July 27 - Part of the Family, or, The BigWig Plays (Same series, different name)
July 28 - The New Division
July 29 - The Mikada Chronicles (This includes Silivock and, distantly, Cayra. Technically, The Rowan stories should go here, too, but they were important enough in Kendra's writing journey that they deserve their own day)
July 30 - The Trilogy of Secrets
July 31 - Half-Hidden
August 1 - Worth of a King
August 2 - HaV Academy
August 3 - The Ankulen
August 4 - The Bookania Quests

You may notice that there are several of her works missing, but she only had twelve days to post on, so we had to make cuts. 

On each day, Kendra will have (or at least try to have) an introduction to each book via the main characters, the story of its inspiration and writing journey up to the present, at least one first chapter, a Fairy Tale Commentary on a fairy tale that she considers associated with with the story, a chapter from the Author Commentary for Sew, and a recipe of sorts connected to the bok. Fun, right? And, if the book is a co-write, she will acquire an interview with the coauthor.

As with all of Kendra's parties, she will be holding all sorts of giveaways, including copies of her books, $5 Amazon Gift Cards, and a real dragon egg, isn't that right, Kendra?

Kendra?

Uh, hello folks, sorry about running off to write that book, but Maryanne was begging me to let her have her say. No, I am not going to give away a real dragon egg. I mean, it'd be nice - who wouldn't want a pet dragon that you can use instead of a car - but it's a bit impractical and the mailing fees are just too high. So no dragons.

I'll come up with something else amazing. Don't worry.

Anyways, the fact that there are giveaways is all fine and good, but useless if you don't know how to enter them. And there are several ways.

For instance, one of the gift cards will come from interviewing my characters on the days associated with their book. If you're willing to have one, or more, of my characters over to your blog, send me an email with the number of days you're willing to have my characters over, and which books you would be most interested in having over (have at least two more options here than you have days, so I have leeway ... unless you'd like to interview me all eleven days). Please send me these emails as soon as possible so I -

Ahem!

I mean Maryanne can start organizing them. And spread the word about these interviews so I have as many as possible. I'd like to have at least one interview per book. And while I understand that my published books will naturally be more popular, I do know that many of my unpublished works have a small following.

The winner for this card will be chosen at random.

Also, another two gift cards will go to fan art. There are two categories (One for each card): Graphic art and hand drawn. You can illustrate a scene from one of my published books, or you can do a mock cover art for one of my unpublished. Perhaps you'd like to illustrate a quote that you really liked, or you can draw inspiration from one of the many snippets I've posted. Have fun. You can post your art on your blog, or if you're not so bold, or don't have a blog, just email me (include your age and the name you would like to go by) and I'll post it on my blog on the appropriate day. Either way, it will end up on my pinterest board accredited to you, and on my fan art page (link can be found on my fan page.) Even if you don't draw, please let your artist friends know about this opportunity.

For a full, physical, autographed set of my published books, you can write fan fiction for either of my published works. As with the art, you can either post it on your blog, or you can email it to me and I'll post it on the appropriate day.

And if you're not bold enough to write fanfiction, a second writing contest is to take one of my titles on my WIP page and put your own story to it. Post this on your blog, and you'll be entered in a contest for a $10 gift card.

The winners for these contests will be judged by skill. (Which is why I ask for ages when you send me entries)

One last giveaway will be reviews. Anyone who has written reviews for at least five of my books (and my short stories count separately), and emails me with a list of links (and these can be both old reviews you did two years ago, or brand spankin' new ones) will entered to win another $5 gift card.

There will be more giveaways over the course of the party, of course, and now I'm going to hand to keyboard back over to Maryanne.

Merci, Kendra. Basically, come to Kendra's party or I'll send Ysga my pet dragon to come get you and bring you here.

Maryanne! That's not how you invite people to parties!

I thought they'd like to have a dragon ride.

Just behave. Anyways, as she implied, please come, and bring a friend or ten.It's going to be fun, and the more, the merrier!