So, I was going to blog at length about this interesting contest...

I received an email this evening from Matt Staggs about a promotion that he's helped arrange for the soon-to-be-released Chaos by the Dutch writing duo of Escober (a book I was going to read a month ago before it got lost in the shuffle. I'll move it to the top and perhaps read it during breaks at work tomorrow). I was going to write a witty post about all the cool swagger involved, until I saw this:


Pictures of crazed author wearing a hat and talking about grenades and camo, mofo!


If that doesn't convince you to enter the contest (for those not clicking, you write a story about the craziest thing you've done to spread chaos in this (multi/uni)verse and you email it before June 30th to deepeight@live.com. The prizes include the book, a grenade, a compass, a survival guide, a camouflage shirt, and other cool swag.

Do so before that crazed author unleashes his evil simian alter ego to wreak havoc upon the world (that hat and smile combo truly ought to be a poster child for getting people to write about chaos, no?).

June Giveaway: Ekaterina Sedia, The Alchemy of Stone

Although I rarely give away books or other prizes on this blog, I was asked last month if I would consider being part of a co-promotional contest, where three signed, personalized Advance Review Copies of Ekaterina Sedia's (The Secret History of Moscow) upcoming July release, The Alchemy of Stone, would be given out. Robert of Fantasy Book Critic and I agreed to co-promote this, with him giving away two of the copies on his site (see the link above for that contest) and I would host a contest for the remaining one.

The rules for this contest are simple: Before 12:00 AM Central Daylights Time strikes and Tuesday, June 10, 2008 becomes Wednesday June 11, send an email to this blog's email address (found in my Profile) with the title of "June Contest." In it, include your full snail mail address.

This contest is open to people worldwide, and people are free to enter both my contest and Robert's, with the restriction that if you win a copy here, you won't win a copy there, I'd imagine ;)

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below. I'll be placing the emails received into a special folder and will do a few sorting things with it before choosing a winner. Of course, only one entry per mailing address. Hopefully, there'll be a few dozen emails in the coming 10 days about this contest and feel free to spread the word to others.

May Book Contest

Over the past year or so, I have received well over 100 review copies, in both galley and finished form formats, of all sorts of genre books. While I have tried my best to at least read part of the books I receive even if it might be months, if ever, before I review and/or mention them in passing here, on occasion I receive books that for a variety of reasons I feel I cannot review adequately, whether it be due to it being of a style that does not appeal to me personally or (more often) because I receive the concluding or middle volumes in a multi-volume series and I don't have the spare cash to buy what might be umpteen books just to be able to review one final volume.

So I decided that I would give some of these books away to people here. But I didn't want to have a blind draw, since that reduces interaction between myself and the people who visit here. I decided that I would take a few contests posted on a few blogs I visit regularly as a model and I would reward creativity more than the luck of the draw.

The first contest (there might be 2-4 of these in each of the coming months) is for two recent hardcover releases of books coming out in May. The first is the concluding volume to a trilogy by Margaret Weis, called Amber and Blood. This is a Dragonlance series book scheduled to be released on Tuesday, so if there are those reading this who are fans of her work, this might be an excellent chance for you to win (I project odds to be better than 3%, which are more in your favor than on most blind draw contests). The second book is the penultimate third volume in Katharine Kerr's The Silver Wyrm quadrilogy, called The Shadow Isle. It too is being released this Tuesday, May 6th.

How to win: Responding via email (click on my Profile for it) or in the Comments section here, answer the following question to the best of your ability (photo/pic links are acceptable, but not required):

"How could a squirrel or hamster best defeat a dragon in armed combat?"

Remember, the most creative/amusing answer wins both books! And please be sure to include your snail mail address in your response, which ought to be labeled "May Book Contest."

I'll choose winners on May 15, that being my next pay day, and will mail them the following Saturday. If you have any questions and/or snide remarks, feel free to make them here in the Comments section.

Edit: I forgot to specify that due to me paying for the shipping costs, it'll have to be US/Canada residents only. Sorry. And if you would, please leave an email contact for me, so I can notify the winner that I'll need his/her mailing address.

Update: Kaldric (who is a regular at wotmania) was chosen as the winner, as his answer was concise and it amused me greatly. Thanks for all who participated (and yes, there were more than two entrants, as some submitted their entries via email).

I'm thinking of having a giveaway here

When I decided to make this blog more visible a year ago, I mostly eschewed having promotional giveaways, instead preferring to arrange those for wotmania rather than here. However, after looking at a growing pile of review copies that I just cannot review adequately because they are the sequels (in one case, the fifth volume of a book) in multivolume series, I am considering doing a giveaway.

Now since I like creative responses, there certainly would be more than just a random draw element. I'm thinking a contest here. What that contest will be, I am not sure, although I have a vague inkling of what it might be. As for the books, well, I'll list those at another time, as any contest will have to wait until mid-May at the earliest, since I'm brokeass poor at the moment after paying my 2007 income taxes. But I can say that the books will represent a wide range of subgenres, from urban fantasy to epic fantasy to SF and a few points in-between. Hopefully the vague hope of nabbing a desired book for free will entice people to enter.

But before I do any of this, I have to see substantial interest. I don't want to offer a dozen books or more (many in hardcover, most of the rest in tradeback) and have only a half-dozen people enter. I need to gauge the interest for this. So if you're inclined to participate if/when I make an official post next month, please respond here. Thank you.

P.S. Due to shipping costs, this shall be US only. Sorry, but I cannot afford to spend $20+ to ship a single book outside the US.