Author: claudia

You might not have seen it, because I posted late last night, but the second STARGAZER contest has begun, and you can check it out here!

To sum up, it’s easy: Friend me on Facebook — and maybe be one of three people who gets the advance copy of STARGAZER!

And taraljc has made it even simpler to do so, by providing the link you can use.

A couple of people asked what bloggers could do to get advance copies (whenever I finally receive mine!), and the answer is that once I get them in, I’ll announce it on the LJ, MySpace, Facebook, etc. Several people have e-mailed me already, and I will try to find them all, but your best shot is to get in touch with me as soon as I finally get in review copies. The three ARCs I am giving away in this contest are literally the only ones I’ve got at this point.

Also, I failed to say when the second contest would end: I’ll pick the winners from those who have friended me on FB on Tuesday, February 24. Then the third contest will get going!

Having a slightly less hectic day after a wild-and-woolly week, and it turns out that the plumbing problem at my house (boo!) means I get have to spend part or maybe all of the day at home tomorrow so they can work (yay!) — so tomorrow morning at least should be much better. 🙂

I sincerely apologize for the long delays, guys. As I’ve said before, I still have a day job, and this week, a couple of people were out on vacation — and then illness took out someone else — so those of us who remained have been extraordinarily busy. But! I can at last announce the big winners of STARGAZER contest #1!

Although people were eligible if they entered via MySpace, e-mail or LJ, it just so happened that random chance favored LJ this go-around. The lucky four people receiving copies of the first volume of L.J. Smith’s VAMPIRE DIARIES and autographed paperbacks of EVERNIGHT are:

* punkguitarist18

* rebekahg22

* alexandra86

* musicalmolls

Congrats to everyone! Please e-mail me at evernightclaudia at gmail dot com with the correct address where I can send your books.

Now, the announcement of STARGAZER contest #2!

This one is easy: Friend me on Facebook — and maybe be one of three people who gets the advance copy of STARGAZER!

I can’t figure out how to link a Facebook profile exactly — it’s probably much easier than it seems — but I’m Claudia Gray in New York, NY, and my profile pic is the same as my icon on this post. If you aren’t on Facebook, you can join just for this! If you are one of the hardy souls who has already friended me (despite my earlier inactivity on that site), it’s okay: You’re considered automatically entered.

If you want to enter more than once, you can start or join an Evernight-related community. (How do you let me know about it? Suggest to me that I join! I will be following my FB page closely this week.) “Bianca’s Astronomy Club,” “I Bet I Can Find 10,000 People Who Love Lucas Ross,” whatever — if you join one, you get an extra entry in the contest. Join/found them all, and you get tons of entries in the contest. I’m interested to see what you’ll come up with!

About the ARCs: I haven’t been able to send them out to bloggers yet. Basically, I still only have these three. I fully expect to get my copies within a couple of days (but that’s been the case for months now, so, who knows), and so I hope, hope, hope to get them to those great bloggers out there who want them. But I still only have three, so this is how I’m sending them out into the world. (To give you an idea, after I do this, I won’t have a copy.)

If you just have zero interest in joining Facebook, that’s fine. More contests are coming, with more fun prizes, starting next week. (And if there are online networking sites I should know more about besides MySpace and Facebook, let me know in comments! We might get a friending frenzy over there for one of the other contests.)

Ready, set, go! And congrats to the winners so far. 🙂

They’ll be up tonight, along with the new contest (and THIS is the one for the ARCs). Stay tuned!

I’m so sorry, guys — the day job was horrendously busy today and I did not get a chance to pick the winners of the first STARGAZER contest, much less post the second contest. Tomorrow has to be better (right? Right?), so I’ll do it then.

But hey, one more evening to send your entries in!

A friend of a friend got the best gift ever for Valentine’s Day: a book of zombie haiku. A few samples:

You are so lucky
that I cannot remember
how to use doorknobs.

Nothing hurts me now.
Normally the screwdriver
wouldn’t have gone there.

You have one day left to enter the first STARGAZER contest! A new contest (and prize) will be announced tomorrow, along with our first winners —

I have been coming up with more prize ideas for future contests and have found at least one thing that I truly love but had never thought of before. (You have to wait for me to unveil that one.)

In the meantime, though, I am still accepting entries for the first STARGAZER contest! If you want a chance at an autographed paperback and a copy of the first volume of L.J. Smith’s VAMPIRE DIARIES, send those entries in!

I work just above a Godiva store — I know, the temptation, it burns — and the line outside has been growing all day. Most of the would-be shoppers have the look of slightly sheepish men who tried very hard to think of other Valentine’s Day gifts, couldn’t, and are bunting with the expensive chocolates. To my chocoholic mind, this is smart thinking on their part.

Check out the fun review of EVERNIGHT by Surrounded by Words!

First of all, this entry was meant to go up yesterday. But the pulled muscles from the snowy hike meant I was sort of laid-up on Monday, trying to learn how to move again; Tuesday was all about catching up from Monday. But at last, here we are, with two big announcements:

EVERNIGHT is now out in paperback! If you read it at the library and want your own copy, or have been urging a friend to read it, then this is the moment to make your move.

Second, it’s time to begin the first STARGAZER contest!

The rules, as suggested by some of you:

Tell me about how any vampire from another vampire series might end up at Evernight Academy.

Do you think Edward Cullen might have dropped by in the 1950s? Or maybe Claudia from INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE attended the elementary-school version? “Older” vampires aren’t ruled out, either: I’d love to know what subjects Barnabas Collins or Bill from “True Blood” might teach if they came on-staff.

Let your imaginations run wild! Answers can be one line or an essay. (If you get inspired for fanfic, I think that’s awesome, but I don’t think I can accept fic as your entry.) Enter by commenting on this entry or at the CG MySpace, or by e-mailing me via my website.

The prize: To celebrate the release of the paperback, I’m giving away autographed copies of EVERNIGHT in softcover (or, if you prefer, the Spanish or Catalan version of MEDIANOCHE), as well as a copy of the first volume of L.J. Smith’s THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. (Is everybody else as psyched for that series as I am?) You get double the vampire romance! I will choose four winners at random.

Eligible to enter: Everyone. I’ll ship anywhere. Residents of Nepal, research scientists on Antactica, this is the time to make your move.

Deadline: I’ll pick the winners in the morning (New York time) of Feb. 17.

(If for some reason this doesn’t catch your fancy, hang tight — we’ll be having a contest a week until STARGAZER debuts.)

Spread the word! I look forward to seeing the responses.

Finally, don’t miss the fun review from Readergirl!

I am very, very hyped to see Evernight and Stargazer in this list of After-Twilight Reads in the New York Post. Yay!

Hiked today — five miles through about eight inches of powdery snow, which for some reason is about the same as hiking a HILLION JILLION miles, or so my legs are currently informing me. When I can move again, and thus reach the camera, the hike pics will return.

I just got the first draft of the jacket copy for HOURGLASS — i.e., the third book in the Evernight series. How can this publishing process simultaneously be happening so fast and yet seem to last forever?

Though there’s room for a couple of small edits, I love it. And I find myself surprisingly thrilled that Balthazar has made the jacket text for the first time.

I’m thinking hard about your contest suggestions!

OK, starting next week, I’ll be revving up six weeks of contests to prepare for the launch of STARGAZER. (Yes, it’s really that close!) So I want to hear from you guys: What kinds of contests would you want to participate in? What kind of prizes do you want to win? (Requests for diamonds and the like will be giggled at, before I then look again at my accounts and have to go lie down for a while.) I’d love to hear from you.

Also, as I gear up to do more blogging generally this year, tell me: What would you guys like to hear more about?

It’s quiet right now for me. I am hard at work on AFTERLIFE (the fourth book in the EVERNIGHT series) and still holding down the day job, so it doesn’t leave tons of time for much else. (Though of course there is always time to watch Bones. You find the time.)