Congratulations to FreshBrain user caitlin1591 who is the winner of the $1,000 “FreshBrain Video Book Trailer Scholarship” based on my book, Hugging the Rock. There were so many really talented teens who entered the contest and I want to thank all of them for the time and effort they put into their trailers. Many of them really went for the heartstrings, just like my book.
Thank you, Cailin!
Here are the winners for the recent contest for an autographed copy of Jim Averbeck’s book IN A BLUE ROOM.
In the random drawing from people who answered the questions asked in the contest post, the winner isalison23
In the random drawing from people who answered the questions asked in the contest post, the winner is writerjenn
And from all the questions people submitted for Jim to answer, Jim picked his favorite question as the one submitted by pambachorz
What was the question? To find out you’ll have to tune in next week when you can read all the questions that were submitted and Jim’s answers. Would the winners please contact me ASAP and tell me how they want their book signed? I will be seeing Jim tomorrow and I will get him to sign the books hen.
Thank you all for participating.
JIM AVERBECK TRAVELING LAUNCH PARTY!
If you’re near Los Altos, come meet Jim and help him celebrate his new book on Saturday at 1PM at Linden Tree Books in Los Altos, CA. 170 State Street, Los Altos, CA
Today is the last day to enter the contest to win a copy of IN A BLUE ROOM by Jim Averbeck.
It’s easy to win! All you have to do is post your best interview question for him right here in the comments. Jim will pick the best question and that person will win a free autographed copy.
Plus Jim will answer all the questions! Help me out here – let’s give Jim a fun interview.
More ways to win can be found here.
By now many of you have already heard about the wonderful picture book, In a Blue Room, by Jim Averbeck, illustrated by Tricia Tusa. (Harcourt, 2008)
It is being hailed as the “perfect bedtime book” in many a review. And rightly so. In a Blue Room is a lovely, lyrical story with visual surprises on every page and absolute sense of “rightness” at the end. If you are looking for a gift for a new baby, put this at the top of your list. I am not book reviewer so I won’t even try to do the book justice but you can read some of the great reviews here: ShelfElf , Well Read Child , 7-Imp , Paper Doll and Book Loons.
Now Jim and I go way back. Okay, maybe not SO way back but I do know him personally because he was the SCBWI Regional Advisor for my area for a few years and in charge of our wonderful conference held at Asilomar every February. When I first met Jim my thought was that he must already be a multi-published author/illustrator because up on the stage he just oozed the kind of confidence and humor that I felt sure had to come from many years of experience. But no, come to find out, although he was already an accomplished artist, he was just (at that time) beginning his journey toward becoming a published author.
Jim is the kind of person that you just want to get to know better. Trust me on this. He’s not blogging (yet) but I hope we can soon convince him to do so because his is the kind of attitude that should be shared across the kidlitosphere. I decided I wanted to do an interview with Jim to help spread the word about his wonderful book but also to help bloggers get to know Jim. Then I went and read the few interviews that are already out there and was hit with the proverbial writer’s block that comes as a result of reading the words of other talented writers.
So I figured the best thing I could do would be to pass the buck, errr, get some help, uhmmm, hold a contest. And because I am overachiever and believe in perpetuating my overachieverness, I am giving you not one, not two, but three, yes THREE chances to win an autographed copy of In a Blue Room.
Chance #1 – Be the best
Here’s the deal – when you are promoting a new book there are often a lot of opportunities for interviews but after a while there are only so many ways you can answer the question “Where did you get the idea for your book?” You begin to long for that great/unique/offbeat/ or just plain weird question that will give something different to say. Send in a question for Jim to answer and the very best interview question will win. Best is a relative term as judged by, well, Jim himself.
Chance #2 – Take the quiz
So far there are five posted interviews about Jim and his new book. Read the interviews (they might give you some good ideas on chance #1) and send in your answers to following five questions. One answer can be found (oddly enough) in each of the five interviews.
The interviews:
Seven Impossible Things , The Well Read Child , Charlotte’s Library , Lynn Hazen , Tales From Mount Rushmore
The questions:
#1- The main character’s name in the book is Alice. Where did the name come from?
#2 – Where was Jim when he observed the total solar eclipse in March of 2006?
#3 – What is Jim’s favorite dessert?
#4 – What are the names of the two teachers Jim credits getting him interested in reading and art?
#5 – Where is Jim’s blue room studio located?
All entries with the correct answers will go into a hat and one winner will be drawn.
Chance #3 – Get lucky.
Post about this contest in your blog, on myspace, etc and then comment back here with where the link is. Everyone who posts a link about the contest will be entered in a drawing for an autographed copy of Jim’s book.
The rules:
All entries must be received by June 1st. That’s pretty much it. Send all entries to: susantaylorbrown AT gmail DOT com
Put BLOG CONTEST in the subject line, please. Good luck!
Just a reminder that Girls Life magazine online is giving away free books. 10 books a day for every day in September and Hugging the Rock is the book giveaway for Monday, September 25th.
If you have a tween or teen girl in your life, send her to Girls Life for more info. When you first go to the Girl’s Life website there’s a column on the right side of the page that says GIVEAWAY OF THE DAY! It’s right under the “subscribe” button. If you want to know what books are being given away what day, download the download the Babetastic Books Calendar.
(And if you’re not a tween or teen girl and you still want a copy of Hugging the Rock I’m sure you can find a copy for yourself by going here or here or even here.)
And if you’ve already read the book, please consider asking your local library to order a copy, mention it to your school librarian and/or post a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or even the Tricycle Press website. Every book needs champions!
Girls Life magazine online is giving away books every day in September and I am excited that Hugging the Rock is the giveaway for September 25th. Every week they are posting reviews of the books for the week and then every day girls can enter. They are giving away 10 copies per day of a single book. There’s a calendar that you can download (pdf) that shows all the books they are giving away.
Plus, everyone who enters is automatically entered in a drawing to receive a copy of all 30 books!
Tell any young girls you know to check it out. There are some great books on the list.
I decided at the nearly the very last minute to enter the SmartWriters contest and I’m glad that I did. I entered one of my favorite historical picture books, Mama’s Wedding Dress, and it received an honorable mention. (judged by Fran Rusackas) and Roxyanne said it made her weep. (I think I am destined to make people cry with my work)
I also entered a few poems from my current verse novel Mad Tastes Like Broccoli and it won 2nd place (judged by Sonya Sones). Oh my goodness! I am thrilled beyond belief as I have been dancing around Mad Tastes Like Broccoli for months and this is a very much needed kick in the behind to move forward on it. And to have Sonya Sones whom I admire tremendously read my work (and I’m told she made some comments – yeah!) well, I am just tickled.
Congratulations to the rest of the winners and especially to Laura Purdie Salas who WON the poetry category with her collection of poems on the 50 States. Laura and I are in a critique group together and I couldn’t be more happy for her.
This sure helps make up for the ouch in the Kirkus review for Hugging the Rock though they did give me a nice last line quote, “a poignant tale of father-daughter love and friendship.”
Well heck. I was all set to launch my contest idea. Then I went over to myspace to catch up on things there and saw that John Green was having a contest to give away a book too. And of course the lovely 
Lisayee had done her own photo caption contest earlier. But I caught John’s bulletin when he first posted it and thought wow, what a good idea, since all I did was ask you guys for suggestions for a contest but he is holding a CONTEST for the best contest idea. But like I said, it was early and no one had responded to him yet. So I came back over here to post the details about the contest idea I came up with for ME, which was a design the cover contest, and now I see over on myspace that someone made that suggestion to John so it will look like I am copying him. Grumble. Other than those that think I am copying the aforementioned Lisa Yee.
So I don’t know whether to go ahead or not (and I already contacted one potential judge though I have no response yet) and it’s hot (84 degrees in the house and rising) and I’m still getting over the cold and I’m just a wee bit grumpy at the moment.
Let’s connect!