Running With Quills: ELIZABETH G. ASKS FOR A DRUMROLL: AND THE WINNER IS . . .

Welcome to Running With Quills, your online newsletter designed to keep you up to date with what your favorite authors (that would be us) are doing throughout the year. Here you will find the release dates of our new books and get information about our backlists. We'll preview our cover art here long before the books hit the stores and we'll keep you informed about works-in-progress and special projects. You'll also receive advance notice of signings and appearances. From time to time we'll give you a peek at our worlds, tell you what we're reading, and introduce you to some new authors.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

ELIZABETH G. ASKS FOR A DRUMROLL: AND THE WINNER IS . . .

Okay, I'll admit right up front that I'm not one for entering contests, whether it be to win a trip for four to Disney World (and I LOVE Disney World), an entire makeover for my kitchen (and, believe me, my kitchen could use a makeover, but that's another story for another time) or even one of the numerous awards out there given for writing romance novels. (I keep getting published; that's reward enough for me.)

Heck, I don't even buy lottery tickets. Here's why: I know someone who buys $10 worth of weekly lottery tickets, playing the same numbers each and every time. This has been going on for 20 years. So I did the math. $10 per week = $520 per year. $520 per year X 20 years = $10,400. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that her return would have been much greater if she'd invested that money in the stock market, or even in a savings account or CD. As it is, she's simply out over ten thousand she couldn't afford to lose.

So I asked "Bunny" --- not her real name --- why she kept buying lottery tickets when the odds of winning are astronomical. I was astonished by her answer: She told me she was afraid NOT to because what if this was the week her numbers were drawn.

Now, I'm no math wizard (I confess I did get an A in college algebra, but my degree is in English Lit), but even I know her odds of winning are the same week after week.

And we've all heard of lottery winners who find themselves dead broke only a few years after winning millions. There's even a book out titled THE WINNER'S CURSE, not to mention the legion of books that supposedly teach you the magic formula for winning the lottery. (Then there's that whole SECRET phenomenon, but I won't even go there.)

On the other hand, anyone who clicks that "contest" icon at the top of this page, and fills out a brief form, has a pretty darned good chance of winning a book from each of the Quills. Even I would enter that contest . . . if I were allowed to.

So, CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS for the past few months:

November: Kim from Calmar, Iowa.

December: Cheryl from Honolulu, Hawaii.

January: Pat from Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania.

February: Joan from Templeton, California.

March: Carol from Gig Harbor, Washington.

April: Well, it could be you, if you click on the "contest" icon and follow the simple directions.

By the way, my friend Tina once won a van --- as in vehicle! In fact, she's won everything from shopping trips to mountain bikes to vacations. So, Inquiring Minds want to know (because they're kind of snoopy): Have any of you won anything exciting that you can share with the rest of us?

Happy Contesting!
Elizabeth Guest

P.S. Speaking of winning books: I'm doing a chat Wednesday, April 18th, at 9:00 p.m. ET at www.writerspace.com/chat (followed by our very own Stella Cameron at 10:00 p.m.) and I'll be giving away four copies of NIGHT LIFE to four different readers in the chatroom during my hour.

24 Comments:

DFender said...: EG,
I enter the Quills contest every month... and no, I don't buy lottery tickets. I'm afraid that I've never won anything exciting... or much for that matter. As a matter of fact, I can't remember winning anything in the last 20 years... and I don't think it's the fault of my memory either...lol

The HHP buys A, as in ONE, lottery ticket every Wednesday. That's it. He's optimistic...lolol.

As far as the lottery goes, who hasn't had the "If we won..." conversation? Even if you don't buy tickets? lolol. Sick, we're sick.

Can't wait for your chat! I'll be lurking ;-)

Deb; 3:19 AM
Stella said...: Hey Deb and All:

Sue, You really ought to fess up that you're a math whizz and a thorn in the sides of all who reverse numbers, can't manage a check book and always have to count money several times--getting a different result each time.

At age 16 I won a box of candy for winning a hula hoop race on roller scates.

That's it.

The whole enchilada.

I can't even win a basket at a conference if I buy a hoard of tickets.

Ooh, sniff, sniff, I'm so sad. I want to win stuff.

Maybe some of you will win stuff tonight. Sue is up first at 9EST, then me at 10EST. Sue's giving away four books (Knight Life--yummy, yummy) and I'm giving a Target mug every fifteen minutes and a special prize of luscious chocolate toward the end of the session. To win the chocolates you have to enter an answer, to a question about Target. All those who are correct will go into the basket (admit it, you've always wanted to be in a basket) and a name will be drawn.

Hope to see some of you tonight.

Cheers, Stella; 4:21 AM
Lori Foster said...: When I was a little girl - I think first grade - I won a contest in the newspaper. It was called the Cappy Dick contest. Cappy Dick was a comic like thingy, if I remember right.

Anyway, they had a picture in the newspaper, and you were supposed to cut it out, color it, and mail it back in. I've always been artsy, even way back then, so rather than just fill in the picture, I pasted it in the middle of a bigger piece of paper and extended everything to fill the page.

I won first prize, which meant a little hand puppet (very cute) and a complete set of Worldbook encyclopedias & Childcraft volumes.

Back then, without the internet, it was a heck of a prize.

Mom and dad "traded" me the first prize (so it could be shared without issue with my two sisters and brother) for anything I wanted.

I got a pet pig, and named her "Monnie" after my grandmother.

All true. LOL

Since then, I don't think I've won anything, and I don't enter the writing contests either.
The RITA is great, but I had enough rejection on my way to publication. I don't want to pay for it. LOL

Happy reading all!

Lori; 5:18 AM
Margaret said...: I confess to buying a lottery ticket on occasion. Not fanatically or every day. I do have the hobby of sweepstaking. I enjoy it and I'm out nothing more than the cost of paper, evenlopes, stamps & time. I don't smoke, rarely drink and don't go out kicking up my heels a lot. I don't support anyone but myself.

I've won a number of small things like t-shirts, CDs, etc. My biggest win was a 20" Panasonic tv last year. It's in my bedroom for my viewing pleasure. Whenever I think to turn a tv on.

Have fun tonite ladies.; 5:18 AM
Anonymous said...: We won a trip to Bermuda a few years ago. When the lady called to tell us we won, she said: "Don't hang up! I'm not trying to sell you anything - you won!!!" LOL!!!

My hubby won a week off from being on duty while in port (Navy days) along with a hotel room in Hong Kong. We were meeting there and I already had a room so he "sold" his and we used the $$ for some fun extra stuff.

Winning big - nope. Winning happy - yep.

nell - who is ready to kick this system. Incorrect password my @ss!!!!; 5:23 AM
Elizabeth Guest said...: dfender/Deb~lolololol We've definitely had the "what if..." conversation in this household.

I don't have the time right now, but someday when I retire, I'd love to enter contests. I think because they're something akin to treasure hunts or a quest. They just sound like fun to me. :-)

See you at tonight's chat!
~EG; 8:03 AM
Elizabeth Guest said...: Stelly~A hula hoop race on roller skates? You have led an interesting life! lololololol

Of course, I've never even won a box of chocolates. (I also wasn't very good on roller skates, which may explain a lot.)

See you tonight in cyberspace! (Well, in the chatroom at Writerspace.)

~EG; 8:10 AM
Elizabeth Guest said...: Lori, I love your story about winning the Cappy Dick contest. (As you say, whatever or whoever Cappy Dick was.:-) And you ended up with a pig named Monnie. lololololol

I agree on the whole RITA thingie, too. Why pay for the "privilege" of being rejected?

Have a great Wednesday!
~EG; 8:16 AM
Elizabeth Guest said...: margaret~Wow! You won a TV! I think that's great!

In fact, entering contests or sweepstakes sounds like fun to me! As I intimated in the blog, I kind of live vicariously through the wins, big and small, of my friend Tina. :-)

Hope you have a year ahead with more wins!
~EG; 8:21 AM
Elizabeth Guest said...: nell~You won a trip to Bermuda! That is fantastic! (Maybe I need to rethink when I start my contesting/sweepstaking avocation.:-)

Are you having trouble with your password here at blogcity? (I use Roboform which has helped me a lot with the annoyances of passwords, etc.)

Have a great mid-week day!
~EG; 8:29 AM
karende said...: I do enter some lotteries, but only if I support whatever the $$ is going to. I once won a football pool, but it was a square someone gave me as a tip when I was a cocktail waitress [we're talking Dark Ages, here]. I won a mountain bike in a grocery store drawing, but it was promptly stolen. We do buy scratch cards sporadically, but we also don't go to movies or to restaurants, so it's a cheap trade-off. Local fund raisers are different from the state-funded lotteries, though - the town where I lived in Alaska had lotteries for fur coats, airplanes, cars - DH was one digit off from winning a Corvette one year.

Once about 20 years ago, a co-worker and I got into a conversation about what we'd do if we won the PCH pot. The building administrator heard us - we planned to do different things, but agreed that we'd be gone from the job like a shot - and he was LIVID that we cared SO LITTLE for the students [this was a high school] that we'd just LEAVE them! He was seriously angry over the whole thing. Cabin fever, I suppose.

I also had some friends who won a week-long trip to Italy. It was kind of a drag, because they loved the trip, but had to report the value of it to the IRS and pay taxes on it.

karibear; 9:04 AM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: Lori and EG: I'm with you guys when it comes to writing contests! I never enter them. Got enough rejections along the way. Like you guys, I sure don't see any point paying for more!; 10:18 AM
Margaret said...: EG, I don't enter contests. I don't ever seem to find one that requires my particular talents (or would that be non-talents?) Just sweepstakes where all they want is my name, address and a bit of other info. Each is different.

I'm glad to hear someone else say they use RoboForm. It's great. And very handy for the multitude of on-line sweepstakes.

And I looove my tv but what I really want to win is a car or $$$$. Your friend sounds like a real winner at these things.

And I did enter the contest here.

Margaret G.; 10:33 AM
Elizabeth Guest said...: karibear~I forgot all about the fact we do buy "lottery" tickets for good causes. Usually in support of a program at a high school or a band trying to earn money for a trip or the Boy Scouts.

You're right, too, about any bigger wins (probably over the standard $600 limit of winnings) will be reported to the IRS and taxes must be paid.

I like to think everyone here at RWQ are winners. We get to meet and chat and post and share. How cool is that!

Happy Wednesday!
~EG; 12:26 PM
Elizabeth Guest said...: Jayne~we've always been in agreement about the whole writing contest thingie.

I had enough rejection slips in the early days to wallpaper a bathroom! :-) (Does anyone remember "The Waltons?" I think there was an episode where John Boy had that many writing rejections, too.)

Happy Spring!
~EG; 12:30 PM
Elizabeth Guest said...: Margaret G~Obviously there is a lingo to contests/sweepstakes that I haven't learned. :-) I was thinking, too, of the ones that simply require my name, address, etc.

Back to my friend Tina: She has entered and won contests that required her to write in 25 words or less...or 50 words or less... or even poems about a product. She's really good at this whole contests/sweepstakes thingie.

May your next win be that car or $$$, Margaret G!

Happy April!
Elizabeth G.; 12:35 PM
Anonymous said...: I once won a $50 gift certificate to a clothing store. I think it covered one leg of a pair of pants - it was a little pricey. I also won $100 to Target. Now that one....

I read NIGHT LIFE and thoroughly enjoyed it! Now I'm going to be demanding: when's the next one coming out? I'm axiously waiting!

Carolyn; 1:07 PM
Ranurgis said...: I'm definitely not in the "lucky" compartment.

Oh, I've won a few books and I'm certainly not complaining about that. I also won a Cabbage Patch doll way back during the 80s craze. That was the only time I actually paid to win something--and I didn't even want one.

The highest-end items were an early iPod, which my brother promptly convinced me I didn't really need and gave me $CD400 instead and a digital camera which cost $US599 at the time it was current but is big with only 2 pixels and has been hiding in the basement for the last year and a half.

Now the really lucky ones in our family are this brother and my brother-in-law. They've won...

But that's another story altogether.

Oh, and I was lucky that I wasn't around on Monday when someone in the next block, the house is in plain sight from my kitchen window, was shot in the stomach. The place was crawling with policemen and dogs as they tried to find two of the three assailants. One was apprehended more or less at the scene. The rumor is that drugs are involved.

Considering this, I do feel somewhat safer on the second floor of the place I'm living in than I did at the back of the building on the ground floor. And I'm making sure that the downstairs door remains locked.

I'll certainly try to be there for the chats. And I'd love to win one of your books and Stella's if she's giving any away. But I won't be there under this name.

Oh, yes, I do buy tickets, if I have the money, for anything that the nephews and nieces are collecting for at school. No wins there.

And I just enter sweepstakes on the Internet. Oh, I forgot. I won a $175 gift card to Amazon.com by taking part in a contest where you had to read an author's books and then answer questions as well as write two little essays about the meaning of the two books. I usually do better on something that doesn't need sheer luck.

Yikes, less than two hours left until chat time.

(go off mumbling: chat tonight, chat tonight, chat...); 4:13 PM
Elizabeth Guest said...: Carolyn~an author loves to hear that a reader has enjoyed her book so much she can't wait for the next one.

At this point, I only know that Book 2 of my new series will be out next year. I'll post the specifics the minute I find out from my editor. :-)

Thanks for asking!
~EG; 5:22 PM
Elizabeth Guest said...: ranurgis~There are many forms of "good luck" and "winning" as you point out in your post.

You're absolutely right. I may not have "won" much in my life, but I have been very lucky in other ways, and for that I am grateful each and every day!

See you at the chat!
~EG; 5:38 PM
Brandy said...: What if we've forgotten if we already entered or not? I do that alot.
I won several ARC's last year and this year I won a $25 gift certificate from Amazon (which I've used to buy books). And 12 years ago my hubs and I won the door prize at a Christmas party, but that's it.
Have fun at Writerspace!; 6:52 PM
DFender said...: EG & Stella,

I'm an idiot... I had the writerspace page up... and fell asleep on the couch. Erm. If you're really generous you can blame tax season...lolol.

Sorry, girls... I'll try a lot harder next time. I'm bummed I missed it. I hope you had a wonderful chat :-)

Deb; 3:38 AM
Elizabeth Guest said...: brandy, NP. I'm pretty sure if you've forgotten and enter a second time, the webmaster simply deletes the second entry. :-)

We had a ball at Writerspace last night. It was the best chat ever!

Happy Thursday one and all!
~EG; 9:02 AM
Elizabeth Guest said...: dfender/Deb~the chat was great fun and the chatroom was packed, but we still missed you.

And, of course, we'll blame tax season. Tax Season has much to answer for... :-)

Happy Spring!
~EG; 9:05 AM

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Tuesday, April 17, 2007

ELIZABETH G. ASKS FOR A DRUMROLL: AND THE WINNER IS . . .

24 Comments: