giveaways Archives - Kendare Blake

Posts Tagged ‘giveaways’

Help Share the MORTAL GODS Cover and be entered to win an ARC! (Details below.)

Well, the Mortal Gods cover is here, and I asked Twitter if some bloggers would be kind enough to help me share it, and wowza, there are many kind bloggers out there. If you are also a kind blogger, email me at kendareblake@yahoo.com to feature the cover on your blog and you will also be entered to win an ARC. I was going to give away 3, but based on the generous response I'm going to up that number. To…I don't know yet, I can't remember how many I requested.

If you are not a blogger, and would like to enter also, no problem! I'll post the cover to Facebook, and here on the blog, and on the Antigoddess Facebook page, and if you share it on your wall, I'll enter you! Or if you post it anywhere on any social media, let me know, and I'll enter you!

Here's the official stuff:

Bloggers: after you email me, I'll respond with an image of the cover, and some guidelines that aren't guidelines, basically that you can share the cover in whatever way you want within the next month, and you will be entered. If you'd like me to do something special for the reveal, like a mini interview or I don't know…a dance or something, well, I will not do a dance. I don't want to blind people right before they're supposed to see a cover. But I'm glad to do short interviews or commentary or whatnot.

Let's say that April 1st is the cutoff day, so I have a date to draw winners. Also because it is Tybalt's birthday. Also, Tyrion Cattister's birthday, because we don't know his exact day, but it's around the same time, and I draw the line at TWO cat parties.

In case this isn't obvious, (and it should be obvious) YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST. Thank you. I really hope you like the cover, but more importantly, I hope you like what's, you know, under it. Behind it. Between it?

ANTIGODDESS is here! And so is the Antigoddess Release Thank You Contest Type Thing.

During a week like this, you might think my house was filled with shouting and flailing, sort of like this:

But in reality, all my flailing looks more like this:

Mmm. All the delicious flailing.

But, that aside, it's here! Antigoddess is here! And I want to thank you, for giving it a try. So here's a contest type giveaway thing for folks who buy the book.

I'm calling it a contest instead of a giveaway because I don't know how winners will be decided. Some will be by random draw, others may be voted on by select judges. This is a ramshackle contest, people, because that's how I run my life. I don't even know for sure, what all the prizes will be. But here are a few I do know for sure.

– Reserved ARCs of ARISTEIA (Antigoddess 2). Three of them. Way way advance, way way reserved. For three different entrants. As soon as I get em, you'll have em.

– Signed bookplates and feather bookmarks. I don't know how many of these. Until I run out of stamps, I guess.

-Some kind of tasty food type prize, which will be determined based on the winner's personal preferences.

-Miscellaneous swag

-My undying gratitude

-I will put your pet (complete pet, with personality traits, appearance and name) into a book, or you can determine the name/appearance of a human character. *

1 Grand Prize

One ARISTEIA ARC, signed feather bookmark and doodled bookplate for your
copy of ANTIGODDESS, tasty food prize, undying gratitude, and the pet/character
design choice. Also, perhaps some weird knicknack. You don't know what I'm
putting in here, is what I'm saying.

*I cannot guarantee that any future book with this pet or character will actually be published (though it won't be for lack of trying!), and you will have to give express written permission to use the name/likeness and/or your pet's name and likeness.

How to enter:

You have to buy Antigoddess to enter. I'm not asking for receipts, because I believe in the honor system and your word is your bond.

Just comment here and tell me you bought it, or got it for your birthday, or someone bought it for you. (If my publisher, Tor, bought it for you, I'm so sorry, that totally doesn't count. Unless they bought it for your birthday.)

You can also tweet me @KendareBlake. Comment at the Antigoddess Facebook page, or my own page if we're friends, why not?

Fun entries, because come on, I need cheer while on the road:

I love fun entries. I love creativity. And readers are crazy creative. So. If you do fan art, if you have funny comments, if you tell me who your favorite character is and why, if you write a poem, if there's some weird thing you've always wanted to do with a book and it isn't illegal…

Or you can send me a selfie or a funny photo of yourself and/or the book, like this one that Ash took:**

Hey, take it easy. Antigoddess can't breathe.

If you have already contacted me about your preorder, you are already entered in this contest. Automatically. But if you want to take a weird selfie of you and the book, maybe having a romantic dinner, or propped up in front of a garden gnome, I won't stop you.

Enter by tweet @KendareBlake, email kendareblake@yahoo.com, comment here, comment anywhere, pretty much just contact me. I try to make it as easy as possible. If I could make it easier, I would, because this contest is a thank you, to YOU, excellent, most loved reader.

**by sending me photos, you are consenting to the possibility that I may plaster them all over the blog, or retweet them, or just treasure them forever, like the creeper I am.

Wow, this is a long fricken post. But now I get serious. I don't often get serious, but here goes. THANK YOU. Thank you for giving Antigoddess a shot, for allowing it into your world of reading, I hope you love it, I hope you escape for awhile into a place of dying gods, I hope it passes the time for you in waiting rooms and while avoiding work and/or homework. Thank you so much.

UPDATED: I forgot to mention this contest is open until I get back from the road trip on October 15th! Sorry! Should have said that.

A new catson! And ANTIGODDESS ARC giveaway with swag! (Ends Friday, July 12th.)

So this is a long and rambling giveaway post. I should probably break it out into more than one, but being the infrequent blogger I am, this is how it goes. First off, we had a minor freak out last week when we thought Tybalt was losing weight. There were several possible explanations for this (having his fangs removed, a recent food change, stress) however, I immediately assumed he was dying the horrible death of the dead. After much obsessing, and a knee-jerk vet appointment he never made it to, we determined the likely culprit was all of the above, plus being lonely after losing his cat brother, Mojo Jojo this winter. The solution? A new catson. Everyone, meet Tyrion Cattister:

Originally, we were told he was a girl, so his name was Cersei Cattister. But then we brought him home and I noticed, well…nuts. I said, "better change his name to Tyrion." And Dylan said, "Those aren't nuts; she's a girl." And I said, "Listen, I think I know cat testicles when I see them." And then neither one of us knew what to do with that statement. Tyrion and Tybalt (we didn't do the "T-Y" matching thing on purpose) are getting along famously, after some fangless hissing. And I become skeptical that Tybalt was ever losing weight in the first place, because that kitten makes him look enormous, and his fat ass is putting my legs to sleep as I type this.

The one thing you can be sure of with a name like Tyrion Cattister, I'll never put him in a book. Which leads me to hint at another contest I'm running at the time of ANTIGODDESS' release. I'm running out of pets to put in books, is what I'm saying. I'm going to need to mine yours. It will be the "can I put your pet in my books?" contest.

But for now, let's segue into THIS contest: an ANTIGODDESS ARC with signed feather bookmark!

There are 2 ARCs up for grabs. I had three, but someone had a reading-related tragedy, and I was moved to help. So these are the last 2 I've got.

NOT SO FAST THOUGH!

First, you have to listen to my history lesson to find out how to comment. Why? Because, I'm a jerk, that's why.

In Antigoddess, there is a lot of allusion to the Trojan War. It's one of my favorite subjects, and the three goddesses at the heart of the story factor in pretty large in The Goddess War. Just in case you're unfamiliar with how the Trojan War started, here's a quick refresher:

One day, the gods were hanging around on Olympus, doing whatever the frick they do when they're not wreaking havoc or boning each other, and the goddess Discord (who nobody liked to hang out with because…well, discord is unpleasant) tossed a golden apple at them with a tag marked "To the Fairest."

For whatever reason (fruit shortage?) all the goddesses went Belieber crazy over the apple, until it came down to a final three: Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite. But how do you determine the fairest goddess of all?

Easy. You make a mortal teenage boy judge them like cows. I guess.

This unlucky chap was Prince Paris of Troy, who you are probably familiar with because of the famous story of Helen of Troy, or because of Orlando Bloom's butt cheeks in the film, Troy. Unfortunately for Paris, instead of allowing him to judge them fairly for their…er…fairness…each goddess offered a bribe.

Athena promised him he would become a great hero, and have great glory on the battlefield.

Hera promised him riches, and a vast kingdom.

Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world.

He chose the hot chick, and as a result, pissed off Hera and Athena, and they pretty much ruined his life and the lives of his whole family. Killed his dad, had Achilles murder his brother Hector, sister Cassandra taken as a slave and murdered later (though she was sort of screwed already…as outlined in Antigoddess). Troy fell, chaos reigned, Aphrodite made the apple into one super-sized and very heavy earring…

SO, HERE'S HOW TO ENTER! Put yourself in Paris' place. Who would you choose, if you were offered the bribes? Why? Would you choose Athena's offer? It would be way cool to be a hero, to have a great destiny and kickass adventures. What kind of hero would you be?

Would you choose Hera's riches and power? Maybe spend your days Kardashian-ing it up poolside?

Would you choose the most beautiful girl, or boy? Snag yourself a…a…man, I'm out of touch. Who passes for hot these days?

This giveaway is international, and you can enter for multiple entries: comment below, comment on the ANTIGODDESS Facebook entry, Tweet the contest mentioning @KendareBlake, or comment at the GoodReads mirror post. I'll draw two random winners next Friday, July 12th. Good luck, and I look forward to your answers 🙂

Interview and INSOMNIA giveaway with JR Johansson!!! Ends Friday.

Happy Monday, all. Today there's a first on the blog, an author interview and giveaway. I've got the lovely JR Johansson, with her debut, INSOMNIA! So…you know…read our interview, and then enter to win a signed copy in the comments!

It’s been four years since I slept, and I suspect it is killing me.

Instead of sleeping, Parker Chipp enters the dream of the last person he’s had eye contact with. He spends his nights crushed by other people’s fear and pain, by their disturbing secrets—and Parker can never have dreams of his own. The severe exhaustion is crippling him. If nothing changes, Parker could soon be facing psychosis and even death.

Then he meets Mia. Her dreams, calm and beautifully uncomplicated, allow him blissful rest that is utterly addictive. Parker starts going to bizarre lengths to catch Mia’s eye every day. Everyone at school thinks he’s gone over the edge, even his best friend. And when Mia is threatened by a true stalker, everyone thinks it’s Parker.

Suffering blackouts, Parker begins to wonder if he is turning into someone dangerous. What if the monster stalking Mia is him after all?

INTERVIEW!!

INSOMNIA features some great, creepy dream imagery. Or should I say nightmare imagery. Do you have nightmares? Could you tell us about any that are particularly disturbing?

I have had nightmares off and on my whole life. I had one recurring one as a kid where aliens were attacking and I was running through my dark house trying to find my family. Lights were flashing outside the blinds and I could hear the aliens coming. I finally found my brother, but he was dead already…it was pretty messed up. Yeah, I think my nightmares definitely fed into the book a bit.

When you were writing INSOMNIA, what came to you first? The premise? The characters? One scene, or one line of dialogue? The title? Can you describe one of those special moments when INSOMNIA was coming into being?

The premise came piece by piece, the first was the idea of watching people's dreams, then what that would be the physical ramifications to the body and more importantly, the brain. It all fell into place after that. I think one particularly special moment when everything came together was when I started working on a scene a bit later in the book and Parker reaches his psychological breaking point. Suddenly every page I read or note I took in my abnormal psychology class in college became intensely relevant and it all fed into this scene. It was powerful, creepy and terrifying. I loved every second of it.

Who is your favorite character, and why?

Oddly, I think my answer would be different for the sequel, but for Insomnia I think my favorite character is Finn. He's the comic relief, but he's also so much more. He epitomizes my best guy friends from high school. He's funny, goofy and above all else an incredible friend. Finn is the guy who would risk anything to save a friend and is loyal to a fault. I loved writing every scene he's in.

If you could nightwalk, would you nightwalk anyone in particular? What would you do? What do you think you would see?

Oh gosh…one thing I know for sure is that I would NOT want this power. I guess if I had it, I'd probably watch my friend Kasie's dreams. She's kind of the female equivalent of Finn. Her dreams would probably be very entertaining. My guess is there would be at least one nightmare where her kids pelted her with miniature foam footballs. That could be fun to watch. 🙂

Random: What is the strangest food you've ever eaten?

Hmm…I'm not sure. I guess to Americans, my family's traditional pizza night might seen strange. We make homemade pizzas. One is your typical pepperoni and the other is a tunafish pizza. Just a big pizza with regular sauce and cheese…and also tunafish. My husband is from Finland and tuna and shrimp are regular pizza toppings over there. We tried it out once and it was really quite good. We've been having it ever since and everyone else thinks it's bizarre.

Scenario: You're at the front of the class, reading your book report on The Great Gatsby and BOOM! You're suddenly in your underwear. Surprise! It's a nightmare. What do you do, punk? What do you do?

Haha, I love how my nightmare question is calling me out. As an expert on nightmares, I'd do the smart thing and think really hard about everyone else being in their underwear until suddenly they all were. Then I'd continue giving my book report as planned and act like everything was perfectly normal. Either that or I'd scream and hide under the teacher's desk…both seem like very logical options. 😉

What are you working on now?

I've got a few projects on the burner. I am working on the sequel to Insomnia. I'm getting ready to do edits on a new contemporary urban thriller set in Philly that we just sold to Macmillan. And I'm brainstorming out kinks to three new ideas to decide which one will be my next project. So yeah…I'm keeping pretty busy, but it's all very fun and exciting!

Interview over! Intrigued? Enter to win a signed copy of INSOMNIA! Just comment below, and I'll draw a winner on Friday. Tweet the contest with @KendareBlake somewhere in there and that will count as another entry. Good luck!

ANTIGODDESS ARCs are here! So I’m giving some away!

So, this title is pretty self-explanatory. I have ARCs of ANTIGODDESS, and I'm giving some away. Three of them, this first round. I'll do a second round later, when I'm not so frazzled in between travel and can think of something fun (for myself) to do with it.

Here's a crappy photo to serve as physical proof of their existence:

Here's how to enter! First, qualifications. 1. Be a reader. Are you a reader? Excellent. Then you are kickass, and have an unalienable right to walk shoulders back and nose to ceiling.

Now, for the actual how: Leave a comment here. And/Or at the official ANTIGODDESS Facebook page. This gives you the ability to enter TWICE. And I would so much appreciate if you would like the page. Never done one of these here Facebook pages for the books before. Anna has one, but someone else set it up, and that is awesome.

Wait, wait, there's more how. In your comment, you have to tell me your favorite deity. Can be a Greek god, or their Roman counterpart, or Egyptian, or Hindu, or Norse, or whatever. It can be She-Ra. She totally counts. It can be Batman. Why not? But if you say The Wonder Twins, there will be debate.

Three ARCs are up for grabs. I hope you enjoy the read. I hope you enjoy it enough to recommend it to others, or ask your local library to stock it. If you happen to enjoy it enough to pre-order, remember I'm doing bookplates for everyone who emails me with their order info (not like credit card info or personal stuff, just where you ordered!) to kendareblake@yahoo.com. US only, because, postage. Which reminds me.

This giveaway is US only. Winners will be randomly drawn on Thursday, May 9th!!! And thank you so much, for wanting to give ANTIGODDESS a try.