Category: livejournal entry

First of all, I loved reading the answers you gave to the question for Contest #3, namely, “What’s the most romantic gift you can imagine receiving?” People named everything from jewelry of various kinds (go Lucas go!) to scrapbooks or keepsakes boxes of important moments in the relationship to special outings together to flowers, and lots of people named an engagement ring. The most unusual answer was “a dog” — for the surprisingly logical reason that a dog would then bring even more love into everyone’s life. Which is a nice way to look at it, don’t you think? A lot of people talked about gifts they really had been given, or had seen given to others, such as the surprise “renewing our vows” ceremony one husband cooked up for his very pregnant, very tired wife, who had no idea when she walked into the church that all her friends and family were there to see her husband declare his love for her all over again. The one common element: Everyone agrees that the most romantic gifts are the most personal – the ones that showed real thoughtfulness and intimacy.

Despite all the truly wonderful entries, only one person could win, so congratulations to Amy D! I’ve already talked with her via e-mail, and it sounds like the most beauteous bracelet in all the land is going to a good home.

If you didn’t win, fear not: It’s time for STARGAZER Contest #4!

I shied away from using brand names in the books where I could avoid them; I didn’t want to date the books too much. But I can tell you here that the special perfume Bianca wears, the one that smells like gardenias, is Marc Jacobs. And I am giving a bottle away to one lucky reader!

If you’re a guy who wants his own prize, or a girl who would prefer to scent the guy of her choice rather than herself, then you can choose instead to get The Dreamer, the men’s cologne I sort of associate with Lucas. Basically, this whole contest is about your chance to be Bianca- or Lucas-scented.

All you have to do is answer this question: “What’s the strangest dream you’ve ever had?”

After all, Bianca does keep having those odd dreams in the books — rather meaningful dreams — so it seemed like an appropriate question to discuss.

Enter by emailing me at evernightclaudia at gmail dot com, with the subject line “STARGAZER Contest #4.” Tell me your answer to the question and be sure to leave me a way to contact you. You have until Tuesday, March 10. And let me know if it’s okay to tell people about your dream in the blog: It absolutely does not affect your chances of winning if you’d rather I didn’t, but I thought if a few people were willing to share, it might make for some fun entries!

(BIG note: Do not tell me your sexy dreams, people! This is not a thing to tell random people on the internet! OK, I’m not entirely random, but there is a very good chance I could be eating and read about the freaky and, like, choke on something.)

FYI, due to various technical difficulties, the Contest #1 prizes went out after the Contest #2 prizes, but they are all on the way (or there) by now. And although I have not yet had the opportunity to send out ARCs for those of you who blog, I will be doing so within the next couple days, so there’s still time to get requests in!

As you might already know, we’ve had quite a lot of snow in New York, and more is supposed to be on the way — the sky has that gray, anticipatory look. I am perverse enough to like this, now that we’ve had a little break from the brutal cold that gripped the city all January. Something about snow brings out the cat in me: I could just sit and look out the window in a state of total zen reflectiveness for hours.

The day job doesn’t really allow for this, though. So the next best thing is listening to what I always think of as snowy day music — songs that may be great at any other time, but somehow perfectly the odd, tranquil-yet-melancholy mood those gray skies create.

My personal choice for the all-time greatest snowy day music artist is Bjork; there is no better snowstorm music than her album “Vespertine.” This morning I discovered, to my consternation, that I don’t have this loaded onto my iPod — what could I have been thinking? Or not thinking, as the case may be? — but other Bjork songs work well too. So do the Cocteau Twins. Right now I am listening to a new-to-me song, “You May Be Blue” by Vetiver, that is hitting the perfect note.

Do you guys have favorite snowy-day music? If so, tell me about it — I need more songs. I need a playlist, really. A Bjork-heavy playlist.

By the way, you’ve got one more day to send me your idea of the most romantic gift ever, and in so doing have a chance to win the prettiest bracelet ever —

First of all, any of you out there on Twitter — you can now find me as claudiagray. I will be synching this up with my website soon, but for the next week or so you might want to friend me direct.

Second, we’ve sold yet more foreign rights for EVERNIGHT, this time to Hungary. I’ve always wanted an excuse to go to Budapest — hmmm. Talking about the sale with friends, I wondered whether Romanian rights would ever sell. Do Romanians want to read about vampires? Or has the country that defeated the idea of a Dracula theme park just had enough of vampires for all time? Only time will tell. (Or Romanians could tell, if any happen to be reading.)

Finally, a couple things I forgot to mention about STARGAZER Contest #3 (this time for the jewelry!) — first, I’ll pick the winner next Tuesday, March 3, and second, while the address to send your entries is the same as the “Contact Claudia” section of my website, it would be better to just e-mail me straight. That way you can have the subject line “STARGAZER Contest #3,” I can find you more easily and you have a better chance of winning the most stunning bracelet in all the land. Good luck!

First of all, the big winners of the STARGAZER ARC are Marcy, Amiee, Ingrid and Audra! That’s right, there are four winners — I finally got my ARCs and advance copies in, so I upped the prize count. (If you have a review blog and want to request a copy, now is the time to strike; I’m going to go through my e-mail and try to find everybody who has asked, but I could very well miss some people, so if you want to be sure, e-mail me at evernightclaudia at gmail dot com and request again.) Now there are plenty of friends and groups on Facebook, which is excellent news.

Now comes Contest #3. I hope you guys like this one, because I do.

Lucas has both his virtues and his flaws as a boyfriend, but there’s one thing the guy definitely understands — it’s hard to go wrong with a gift of jewelry. So this week I want you to tell me: What would be the most romantic gift you can imagine receiving?

One lucky winner chosen at random will get this:

Isn’t it beautiful? Take a look at it from another angle.

So, you want one of the STARGAZER ARCs and have already entered the second contest, by friending me on Facebook and/or starting and joining groups dedicated to the book and the characters.

So now you can be a member of Evernight fans — or the Bianca Olivier Fan Club — or For the Love of Lucas Ross or even It’s Okay, Balthazar, I’ll Go to the Autumn Ball With You. You can even attend the STARGAZER release as an event. You guys are so great with this!

Still several days to enter, so join the STARGAZER fan club (if you are very confident you’ll enjoy it) or some more of the groups. (And if I didn’t name your group, don’t take it personally — gotta save something for the weekend, and I love them ALL.)

I had to stay home this morning for repairs but am now at the office. Even though I woke up at the same time as usual, having those extra few hours in yoga pants seems to have made the whole day more relaxed. Funny how that works.

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 —