Category: contests

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contests q&a

congrats to the winners of the Italian Souvenir Contest! Plus, ask me questions, get answers!

I brought back five lovely Murano glass rings from Italy, and now I’ve chosen, at random, five lucky winners: Congratulations to Evelyn B., Susan R., Jessica R., Laura H., and Jennzah C.! I’ll be mailing their rings out sometime this week, so that they will be gorgeous and sparkly this summer.

You guys had some wonderful ideas about things to add to the blog: In particular, you seem to be interested in more writing advice, more updates on what I’m reading and watching, etc. I do not know that I’m going to take all the advice — many people requested video blogs, and I sort of feel that the whole point of being a full-time writer is not having to worry about bad hair days. But I am definitely going to use some of it going-forward.

For instance, several of you wanted more opportunities for Q&As, so, we’re going to have one this week! Every day for the next seven days, I’m going to answer four of the questions sent to me at evernightclaudia at gmail dot com, with the subject header “July Q&A Session.” I’m probably going to choose the questions at random, though if you’ve asked a question I’ve already replied to, obviously that’s going to get tossed. (So get creative with those questions.) I won’t only pick questions sent to me on any one specific day this week, so feel free to ask early or late. So ask away!

You also appear to love contests, and I’ve lined up some ARCs to give away later this month — no, not AFTERLIFE ARCs, though they ought to start showing up in the fall. So hopefully next week I can share a little of that joy with you guys. 🙂

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contests

slow news days, plus reminder about Italian Souvenir Contest

I have been shamefully lax in updating this blog over the past week, but wow, no matter how hard I tried to keep up with things while I was traveling last month, I still came home significantly behind. I’m writing a short story and doing essay edits while taking care of non-writing business … little things like, oh, renewing my lease so I actually have a place to live next year, which I kind of had to do in a hurry. Ironically, when I’m busiest with the things you guys are most interested in (the writing), I have the least news. Because my days look something like this:

9-11 a.m. — Write 500 words, squint at them.
11-11:30 a.m. — Take out 100 of those words. Change one adjective in one sentence five times.
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Add another three hundred words. Wonder if this is even the right scene to have in this story. Give into despair.
1 -2 p.m. — Lunch, HGTV
2 -5 p.m. — Take out half of remaining words, write 300 more, decide to rename a character.
5 -6:30 p.m. — Peruse baby-names book in effort to find new name.
6:30 p.m. onwards — Write like mad to make up for lost time. Also, dinner. Maybe yoga.

It’s the way the work gets done, but it’s not exactly a Tilt-A-Whirl of excitement for the observer. I shall work on having more colorful exploits as soon as this short story is done.

Just in case some of you guys didn’t see it before: It’s time to enter the Italian Souvenir Contest! You have a few days yet, so let me know what you’d like to see on this blog, and you could win a Murano glass ring I bought in Rome!

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contests

Italian Souvenir Contest!

I’m back in the United States! Still a bit jetlagged, but I’ve unpacked all the bags, done all the laundry and even gone through my voicemail. (Helpful tip: If you’re leaving the country for a month, it might be a good idea to say so on your voicemail message. Whoops.) Tomorrow I hope to post the rest of my Rome photos and share them with you guys.

We’ll have some other ARC giveaways and author interviews this month, but the first contest is for souvenirs I brought back from Rome — specifically, Murano glass rings!

That is not a picture of one of the actual rings — my photos of them aren’t turning out for some reason — but this is what they look like. I have five rings, all in different colors (let me pick for you), all of them adjustable so they’ll fit anyone. I bought them in a little shop one block away from the Pantheon, where I thought the jewelry was incredibly cool. (Possibly I also purchased a couple things for myself. Ahem.)

Anyway, here are the rules for the Italian Souvenir Contest:

1) Send an email to evernightclaudia at gmail dot com with the subject line “Italian Souvenir Contest.”
2) Tell me what kind of content you’d most like to see on the blog in the future — giveaways, photos, interviews, writing tips, knock knock jokes, whatever! There’s no wrong answers; I’ll pick the winners at random.
3) Also tell me the name and the address for sending the ring, if you are one of the five lucky winners. (And, yes, I’ll ship anywhere!)
4) Do all this before Tuesday, July 13 — this contest will run two weeks instead of one so that people celebrating the Fourth (or Canada Day, or watching the World Cup, wherever you might be) will have plenty of chances to enter.

That’s it! I hope you guys enjoy the contest, and it’s good to be back home.