Mega-Awesome, Totally Fabulous, I *Heart* Followers Contest (Part II)

Here I go again! I bet you thought I’d forgotten about my promise for awesome giveaways this month, didn’t you? (Sorry about taking last week off—couldn’t be helped.) As mentioned before, I have some awesome stuff to give away. So raise your hand if you would like to win some free stuff.

Wait. I can’t see your raised hand through the computer. Hm. What to do?

Got it!

Required:

First, become a follower (see the top portion of my sidebar to the right of your screen). Considering that this contest is a Follower appreciation event, I think it’s fair to require everyone who wants to enter to be one of those followers I’m appreciating, right? Right. Okay. (+1)

Optional:

Next, leave a comment on any of my many random and amazing (or not-so-amazing) posts. I don’t care which one. You don’t even have to read it, per-se. Just click on the comment section and say hi, and I’ll be happy. (+1)

Third, Facebook (+1), tweet (+1), or blog (+1) this contest so all your friends can enter too. It’s not required, but if you do it just to be nice, I’ll give you an extra entry for each thing. (If you tweet, include me @nicholegiles, and I’ll come follow you. Same with FB. We can be friends!)

Required:

After all that, fill out the following form. This is a requirement. Don’t worry, it’s easy. See, the thing is, if you don’t fill it out, your name won’t be on the spreadsheet from which the names will be randomly selected (using a random generator). That is a definite problem when it comes to you wanting to win. But I promise to never use the information for anything other than this contest. Deal? Great.



*Surprise BONUS*

For those followers who entered my LEVIATHAN contest two weeks ago, I’m keeping all entries except the winning one. (Sorry, Stephanie, it’s only fair. Your other entries will count though!) This means that if you enter this one, you have double the chance to win.

In celebration for the release of Eclipse, I’m giving away a Team Edward charm bracelet:

As well as a Team Jacob cell phone charm:

The contest starts right now, and will run until midnight on Saturday, December 4th, and then on Monday the 6th, I’ll post the winner and the next contest. (**US shipping only.)

Okay. Good luck! Ready? Set? Go!

Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'all!

Yeah, I used a cowgirl word. Deal with it. Hope your Turkey Day is Delicious.

Now you NaNo'ers get back to work! The month is almost over.

Breaks, Holidays and the Big Winner.

I had plans to blog this week. As I've mentioned before, I usually write my blogs on the weekend, and schedule them to post so theoretically it shouldn't be so hard to have new posts over Thanksgiving, right?

Well. My intentions were good. My weekend is over, and I am still slammed with things to do.


SO. After today, I'm going to give myself the week off from blogging. Maybe even from writing (if all goes well). Because the truth is, while I could make a miles-long list of all the things I'm thankful for this month (followers included!), the one thing I'm very most thankful for in this whole wide universe is my family. And I'm going to spend the week with them.

 BUT. I ran a contest that ended on Friday. And I have a feeling some of you would like to know who won that signed copy of Scott Westerfeld's LEVIATHAN, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you.

Well, okay. If you insist. Hold on while I tally the scores.

*pauses everything else to go to spread sheet, tally points, then enter numbers into the random generator on the sidebar*

Ahem. I'm back.

*Pauses for dramatic effect*

Drum roll please.

Stephanie Abney! 

Clapclapclapclapcheercheercheerdancedancedance *falls over exhausted* clapclapclapcheer.

Congratulations Stephanie! I'll be emailing you this week to get all your important mailing information.

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving everyone. And for those of you who are (like me) insane enough to leave your house on Black Friday, please be careful. Stay alive. Just. Do. Those shoppers are crazy.

**Stay tuned next week for another follower appreciation giveaway!

Things I'm Adding to My Bucket List

After Wednesday’s post, I decided to give you a heads-up of some of the stuff I’d like to do before I die. In no particular order, of course.

1. Parasail over the ocean. Any ocean will do.

2. Check out Niagra Falls, maybe take a boat tour.

3. Get a tattoo (yeah, I know. So sue me!)

4. Scuba dive to a sunken ship. (This requires me learning how to scuba dive.)

5. Visit a pirate island, the Eifel Tower, the Lovre.

6. Eat Swiss chocolate in Switzerland, Danish in Denmark, and pizza in Italy.

7. Run a feather under the nose of one of the royal guards in London to see if I can make him sneeze.

8. Tour the White house, the Smithsonian(s), all the cool DC memorials, see the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell.

9. Own a recreational boat. Like a ski boat or a sail boat. (I’d also have to learn how to drive said watercraft.)

10. Live in a house on a beach somewhere beautiful.

11. Send my children to college armed with the knowledge that I taught them to be independent. (Gulp.)

12. Learn how to make bread that actually rises.

13.???

What else? (I've already climbed a lighthouse and a volcano, met Elvis, and sang on Broadway, so no need to suggest those things.)

**UPDATE:

I just found this exchange on Facebook between my 12 year old daughter, Happy, and one of her friends. (And FYI, I did not instigate this--pretty sure she doesn't read my blog, at least not regularly.) I think I'm going to let them make my bucket list, because this one is awesome. (Also, I'm not going to edit at all--so you can see it exactly as they wrote it.)

Things we need to do before we die: 1. Fly to Hawaii 2.Go sky diving 3.Go outside singing Teenage dream at 5:00 a.m. 4. jump in a HUGE pool of jello 5. Smell a gangsta 6. meet eminem 7. THROW OUR HANDS UP IN THE AIR SOMETIMES AND SING AAAAYYYY OOHHH TASTE THE RAINBOW in the middle of a crowded store 8. Have a sleepover. ON THE MOON! 9.Eat Nolans cheese and 10. Live like its the end of the world, but DON'T get pushed off a roof. Even if the people say that the foam pit at the bottom will save you and it wont hurt at all.. yea.. I learned that the hard way.... 

 

More things we need to do before we die.... (Let's try to get to 100!)
11. Go swimming in the ocean(:
12. Eat pie with our face... and only our face.
13. Go on a road trip. :D
14. Try out for American Idol. (HAHAH! Because we are such grrrrreat singers!)
15. Jump in snow at 12 AM on New Years in our underwear(:
16. Duct tape each other to the sidewalk. ;)
17. Go sledding off a roof.
18. Sleep on the tramp.
19. Meet Taylor Lautner. ♥
20. Kiss a llama.

 

 21. make a HUUUGEEE pizza 22. paint our faces black 23. throw pumpkins off of a building 24. read a book(JK) 25. pretend like we are spies 26. decorate a christmas tree 27. Run around the streets pushing a rolley computer chair 28. jump on the tramp in the rain 29. Climb up Mount Everest 30. Ride on a camel in Africa.

 

 31. Go to Dr. Suess' grave. 32. Go on a bike ride to Las Vegas. 33. Live like a hobo for a week. 34. Eat every box of cereal in your pantry. 35. Get trapped in a grocery store. 36. Dress up as Lady Gaga and go to a tire store and ask for glitter. 37. Shoot a squirrel. 38. Lay in the middle of the road and look at the stars. 38. Go to MEXICO! 39. Meet the cast of Jersey Shore. 40. Kiss a pig.

 

41. Eat a hippo 42. be in a Oscar Mier Wiener comercial 43. Lick a goat 44. Learn how to do the jerk 45. Go rock climbing.... In the winter. 46. Sing out HEARTS OUT! 47. Say I love you to 50 million random people 48. Go shopping. In Paris. 49. walk into the hot chocolate place called "Worlds greatest Hot chocolate" and congradulate all of the workers. 1 by 1. 50. Go scubadiving in the middle of Cuba.

~This is why I write for kids.~

**End of update**

**Don’t forget, you have until Midnight tonight (Mountain Time) to enter the contest to win a signed copy of LEVIATHAN.

Bucket List People

We all know what a bucket list is, right? (No I never saw the movie, but I need to rent it one of these days.) Basically, it’s a list of stuff we want to do before we die.

Everyone I know has one of these lists, even if it’s not actually mapped out and considered on a day-to-day basis. Come on, admit it. There is STUFF you want to DO! And I mean, really do for real, not just say you did, or pretend, or look up on Wikipedia and try to live vicariously through a virtual snapshot tour.

I’ve decided that a lot of us believe we’re going to A) live forever, and therefore have all the time in the world to accomplish these big things or B) die way too soon, and therefore need to rush to do everything all at once, hurry, hurry, hurry, nownownow! Because if we don’t, we’ll never experience anything.

Type A people will likely never finish, or even actually start writing that novel / take that acting class / learn to paint / start a business /learn to Zumba / insert wicked awesome fun thing here.

Type B people don’t have the time to waste thinking about trivial things that require serious attention, like education and bridge building. They will also be unlikely to do any of the options listed above.

Well, okay. I suppose there are a few people who might fall into C) don’t care to experience new things, prefer to not have any kind of change, ever, and for whom a stagnant life is ideal.

But really? I don’t know a single one of those people. They probably exist. Somewhere in the wild jungles of a foreign country that hasn’t been discovered or listed on Google Earth.

Then there’s category D) We believe life is precious, but understand that there is no rush to become who we are because the journey is as important as the end result. However, when an opportunity arises, we take it, understanding that it’s a chance to DO one of those things, and learn from it. We are the project undertakers, the rule makers, the bucket list fulfillers who will take life as it comes, one day at a time, and work toward a happy ending. Every day, we look to the sky and wonder what more we can do, in any given moment, to better enrich our lives, as well as those of the people around us.

What category of person do you want to be and how can you become that?

Sprinting to the Finish

In case you’re wondering about my NaNo project, I’m just about to hit 40,000 words, and the month is only halfway over. This is both a good and bad thing. Good, because it appears that I will definitely make it to that 50,000 word mark. Bad because even then, in order to get to the end, I’m afraid I’ll have to keep going at this pace until at least the end of the month.

That’s a lot of work. If you’re wondering how this has happened (the word count thing), two words:

Sprint writing.

Yeah. Sometimes in the form of a race, during which a whole bunch of authors take a designated time slot and write until our fingers practically catch fire. Other times it’s in the Twittersphere (see sidebar link to become a follower and join in) using the #1k1hr hashtag and involving anyone who wants to join in an attempt to write, well, 1,000 words in an hour.

However I do it, sprint writing works for me because it forces me to dive into the story, whether I want to or not. This creates situations in which my characters make discoveries and lead me on a journey I might otherwise have missed. And so far, I’m pretty happy with my story.

How are you doing with the project you’re working on? What works best for you and what keeps you going?

**PS. It’s not too late to join in the fun and get more entries to my I Heart Follower contest. Don’t forget to enter!

Mega-Awesome, Totally Fabulous, I *Heart* Followers Contest (Part 1)

I’m about to post a contest or two. Or three. Can’t decide. But I have some awesome stuff to give away. So raise your hand if you would like to win some free stuff. (Signed by the authors—or in the case of MOCKING JAY, stamped, but still very cool.)

Wait. I can’t see your raised hand through the computer. Hm. What to do?

Got it! (To see this week's prize, keep reading.)

Required:

First, become a follower (see the top portion of my sidebar to the right of your screen). Considering that this contest is a Follower appreciation event, I think it’s fair to require everyone who wants to enter to be one of those followers I’m appreciating, right? Right. Okay.

Optional:

Next, leave a comment on any of my many random and amazing (or not-so-amazing) posts. I don’t care which one. You don’t even have to read it, per-se. Just click on the comment section and say hi, and I’ll be happy. (+1)

Third, Facebook (+1), tweet (+1), or blog (+1) this contest so all your friends can enter too. It’s not required, but if you do it just to be nice, I’ll give you an extra entry for each thing. (This is on the honor system, but if you tweet, include me @nicholegiles, and I’ll come follow you. Same with FB. We can be friends!)

Required:

After all that, fill out this form. This is a requirement. Don’t worry, it’s easy.

See, the thing is, if you don’t fill it out, your name won’t be on the spreadsheet from which the names will be randomly selected (using a random generator). That is a definite problem when it comes to you wanting to win. But I promise to never use the information for anything other than this contest. Deal? Great.

I’m going to start the fun by giving away an autographed copy of LEVIATHAN by Scott Westerfeld. The contest starts right now, and will run until midnight on Friday, November 19th, and then on Monday the 22nd, I’ll post the winner and the next contest. (**US shipping only.)

Okay. Good luck! Ready? Set? Go!

So You Happen Upon A...

Last week we talked about the zombie apocalypse, and there were some creative and fun responses. So this week, I’m wondering something else.

So. Let’s say you’re walking in the forest, minding your own beeswax, and you happen upon a…[insert type of magical creature here]. What kind of creature is it and what happens next?

This time I’m not giving you an answer, so you have to come up with your own.

Who Doesn't?

I promise to not make a habit of chronicling everything I do when I’m not blogging, but dudes, I had the most awesome weekend (with the exception of a sick little boy and a trip to the ER—that was not awesome.)

Thursday was the beginning of the first ever Authors Incognito writers retreat. (In case you don’t already know, Authors Incognito is the totally fab writers group of which I am a member.) Along with my good friend Danyelle Ferguson, I was kind-of-sort-of in charge. We planned this retreat in conjunction with NaNoWriMo, and held it at a cabin in the mountains of Park city, UT, hoping that we’d all get tons of writing done. Which we did. (Collectively 130,000 + words in two and a half days! My portion of that was 9,000.)

Plus, it was good inspiration to spend a couple days in the company of so many other writers. Lots and lots of fun. And FYI, my NaNo project is off to a really good start.

After leaving the retreat, I joined my Fab Five friends (for lack of a better group name) at a benefit auction, where we listened to (and rocked out with) Nathan Osmond.

Unfortunately, just as the live auction was about to start, I was needed at home and had to leave in a hurry. (Sadly, the need at home involved a trip to the Instacare, and then on to the ER, where we were stuck until after 1:00 am for an appendicitis scare. Don’t worry, though, all is well now.)

Anyway, leaving the auction meant I missed the funnest part, wherein that same Fab Five (or, actually, four of the five) got caught up in the excitement of bidding and ended up buying a vacation package (for five) to Mazatlan, Mexico.

I received the good news via text and Facebook. Made the hospital experience not nearly so frustrating. (And yes, I was surprised. But not shocked. Cuz. Yeah. Nothing shocks me when it comes to them.)

Why am I telling you all this? Because I realized something this weekend. There will always be things to do, people who need your attention, and responsibilities to handle. But sometimes, in order to deal with those things, you have to take some time to really live and just be happy. When we are happy, we are our best selves.

And who doesn’t love being happy?
 

A Curse on Shakespeare

I recently watched Romeo and Juliet on TV. I’d forgotten how much I love the story, even though it has a tragic outcome. It’s still romantic.

The language, the way the love between the characters develops, despite the odds. How Romeo and Juliet fight to be together, then choose to die rather than be apart. Morbid, yes, but still, strikes a chord in me.

And you know what? While Juliet is weak, Romeo’s a hothead. Just sayin. The best part though, is that even knowing what happens, every time—EVERY TIME—I twist my fingers together and whisper to Juliet, “Wake up! Wake up, hurry, before he drinks the poison.”

She never does.

Dang Shakespeare and his tragedy. Never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Also, I recently had the opportunity to read an advance copy of MATCHED by Ally Condie. Everyone does NOT die in that book. It’s not even violent, at all. But it’s definitely romantic. (No, I will not tell you how it ends. You’ll have to read it for yourself.) It comes out November 30th, and I recommend it. *Book LOVE*

I’m a sucker for a good love story. So tell me, what’s your favorite?

The Zombie Apocalypse

On Halloween, my son threw out an interesting hypothetical, and I had to pass it on.

If you survived the zombie apocalypse and had to spend the rest of your life hiding out, where would you hide, what would you do, and who would you take with you? (Assuming they also survived the initial attack or whatever.)

My answer: I would take my family (whoever was left) and my bestest friends and hijack a cruise ship, which we would sail to a deserted island in the Caribbean (or near Tahiti—either way) and we’d live on fresh seafood, pineapples, coconuts and bananas and live a long and happy life. We’d live in houses like the Swiss Family Robinson and wear grass skirts and no shoes, except on special occasions when all the ladies would borrow evening gowns from Ginger and Mrs. Howell. We’d even have radios made of coconuts, thanks to the professor, and Mary Ann would make coconut cream pies every day.

Then I would write the story of the zombies on a book made of tree bark and pass it down to the remaining generations of survivors.

Yeah, that’s definitely what I’d do. Sounds like a great life to me.


Okay, your turn. Go!

Holy Fangirl, Batman!

I have this thing for meeting authors. It may actually be classified as an addiction. I don’t know. You decide. Anyway, my friend Elana and I crashed the Provo Library Teen Book Festival (in UT) last Saturday with the sole intention of meeting mega-author Scott Westerfeld.

I had him sign these:

 

And this:

And this:

I was quite proud of both myself and Elana for having conversed in a dignified manner, rather than going all gushy fangirl as he was signing our books. We also took a few minutes to chat with some other local authors, like Ally Condie and Lisa Mangum.

But, you say, this isn’t a problem. It was a local book festival, right? And, hello? Rockstar Mega author! Well, yes. This is true. But I attend signings a few times a month too. For instance, a couple weeks ago, I went to this book launch.

Before that, it was this one.

And in September, a lucky stroke of timing allowed me to be at the National Book Festival in Washington D.C., where I met…

Holy fangirl, Batman!

Suzanne Collins!!!

And yes, I did my best to be dignified there too. But you know. Couldn’t help but *squee* just a little bit.

She was not able to sign that day, but did have a stamp. I had her stamp this book. (Two copies--one is mine, the other??)

As you can see, I MIGHT possibly have some fab prizes to give away. And because the holidays are coming up, and because I’m so grateful to all my readers, I'm going to be doing some really awesomesauce giveaways in the near future. If you are a fangirl/boy reader who loves swag and autographed copies of bestselling books, stay tuned and keep following. You won’t be sorry.

Who is your favorite author and to what lengths would you go to meet him or her?