and the winners are

Last week, I held a giveaway with 3 prizes. I had 11 people comment on my blog and 2 people comment over on LiveJournal, where it cross-posted. Because of the cross-posting, I used time stamps to determine order of entry. For clarity:

  1. Maripat
  2. Bonnie
  3. Doc_lemming (LJ)
  4. David Bridger
  5. Anghara (LJ)
  6. Nicki
  7. Catherine Stine
  8. Widdershins
  9. Laura Eno
  10. Kathleen Hammond
  11. Margaret
  12. Connie Cockrell
  13. Maija Haavisto

And the winners are:

Widdershins, you receive a $25 gift certificate to the book retailer of your choice (as long as I can buy it and send it on-line).

David, you’ve won your choice of anything I have up for sale at Smashwords. (If there’s nothing now, you can wait and claim your prize later.)

Nicki, you win half a dozen plot bunnies.

Congrats to all the winners, and thank you all for helping me celebrate my blog’s birthday. Also, thank you so very much for all of the kind words about my dad and any thoughts about your own that you shared.

Memories

Our days, our memories, are what we make of them. Seven years ago today, my dad died. I still read things or see things that I want to share with him, then remember that I can’t. He died before my first short story was published, so he never got to see my name in print. When I first told him as an adult that I was working on a novel — for NaNoWriMo — he was impressed because he said he didn’t have the patience to write something that long. (I don’t have patience either; I have perseverance.) I think he would be proud of what I’ve gotten done so far, and what I’m working on, all the books and stories I have yet to write and release into the wild.

I don’t remember if I was thinking of him two years ago when I launched this blog, but exactly two years to the day, I wrote my first post on this blog, on series characterization. One person commented on that post. I get a few more commenters now.

And to reward those of you who find my thoughts worth reading and commenting on, I’m having a giveaway. The rules are simple: comment on this post to enter. The order you comment in determines your entry number — 1, 2, 3, whatever. (I won’t count my responses, or multiple comments by the same person. One entry per person.) I’ll use random.org to choose a winner. Drawing will be held next Thursday, September 20, at noon Eastern Time.

The winner gets a $25 gift certificate for Amazon or Barnes & Noble, their choice. (Or, you know, Kobo, or whatever, as long as I can purchase it on-line.)

origami bunnies

Origami plot bunnies!

Second-place winner gets a free copy of something I’ve written, their choice. (A coupon code for download at Smashwords in the winner’s preferred format will be provided.)

And third-place winner gets half a dozen colorful origami plot bunnies. Aren’t they adorable? They come in two different styles and a range of colors, and each one has a random plot element hidden inside.

Thank you all for visiting my blog, for making yourselves at home in my little corner of the Web. Good luck!

(By the way, this morning, I discovered that September 13 also marks the anniversary of John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever. Of course, he’s been doing this much longer and has a much, much larger audience. Maybe when I’ve been blogging for fourteen years, I’ll have half the audience he does now. One can hope!)

Q & A and blog contest

"Hadley Rille 5k"Hadley Rille Books is celebrating 5 years of publishing, and one of the things they’re doing is having a giveaway contest for a Kindle 3G. Clearly, I have a soft spot in my heart for this publisher, since Eric had the good taste to select stories I had written for two of his anthologies (Barren Worlds and Ruins Metropolis). The truth is, though, that they’ve published a lot of good writers, and they’re working on publishing more.

I’ve been looking at Lawrence Schoen’s Buffalito Destiny for a while, and his collection Sweet Potato Pie and Other Surrealities looks good, too. And there’s Push of the Sky by Camille Alexa, and Destination: Future, edited by Z.S. Adani and Eric Reynolds. Or The Best of Abyss & Apex. And I’m keeping my eyes out for Cate Gardner’s book, Theatre of Curious Acts, which isn’t even available for pre-order yet. Lots to choose from!

Which brings us to both the contest and the question for the week. Go look over the catalog of their books, browse, see what grabs you, maybe order something, then come back here and answer the following question: What one book from Hadley Rille would you most like to win?

One winner, to be announced December 6, will receive the book they want (trade paperback). Winner will be decided in a nice, low-tech, random fashion (either rolling of an appropriate polyhedral die or the traditional number drawn from a hat — with your number corresponding to your comment number in the thread for this post). Yes, I will ship anywhere.

This contest is actually staying open for a while — until December 3. (I’m planning to order a couple books for myself as a prize for completing NaNo this year, and it’s easier to order everything at once.)

Any questions, let me know. And please — support a great publisher. Oh, and leave your entry below.