Running With Quills: Did you know..?

Friday, March 14, 2008

Did you know..?

...that a lot of super-cool stuff is happening on the net today?
Well, given that I'm a little sick, behind on my current WIP, and really sleepy, my blog today is going to inform you of other fun stuff kickin' around out there.
I hope you enter, win, and have some fun!

Right now, today, there are two contests that are super-easy to enter, with super-cool prizes.
There's also an industry blog that you just have to check out for the good of us all.

First up....

HOT AND BOTHERED
Today is the 2nd day of a two day blog party at
http://lauries-laudanum.blogspot.com/ to kick off the release of a fabulous book, by an equally fabulous woman.
Dianne Castell is one of my dearest friends, and she's the most generous person I know. Because we all love her, the romance community has pulled together to help her launch her newest release in a very fun way.
Drop by Laurie's Laudanum and give everyone the details about your inner southern belle! There are a bunch of great prizes to be had - all for the price of a comment, of course!
(MORE DETAILS and PRIZE LISTING below!)

SAINT PATRICK'S DAY CONTEST
Also happening now until midnight on Saturday, March 15th, a giant Saint Patrick's Day contest!
I'm part of a group of Ohio authors that has a joint myspace page at www.myspace.com/romanceauthors
We're having an incredible contest to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
How do you enter? It's easy!
Reply to any blog posted at www.myspace.com/romancauthors between now and midnight on Saturday, March 15th. We'll gather the names of everyone who posted and draw one random winner to get ALL the goodies!
If your name is drawn, you'll be contacted by an author from the site. You'll give her your snail-mail address, she'll share it with the rest of us, and each contributing author will mail you her donation to the gigantic prize package! Simple!
(MORE DETAILS and PRIZE LISTING below!)

And of great importance!
Today is the one year anniversary of Barbara Vey's "Beyond Her Book" blog at Publisher's Weekly online. To celebrate, Barbara is planning an online party to include lots of giveaways. Today (FRIDAY) she wants to try and hit record numbers for visitors. In a few weeks she's going to New York to meet with Publisher's Weekly again, and she wants to show how the industry shares with one another.
Pretty please, if you can, drop by and visit!
www.publishersweekly.com/blog/880000288.html

So what are the prizes for all these online visits I mentioned?

HOT AND BOTHERED
First, let me say that I read HOT & BOTHERED, and man-o-man, is it AWESOME!
When you go to Laurie's blog, you'll see 3 blogs posted - be sure to check out all 3! They all have to do with Dianne and prizes.
For a chance to win, all you have to do is post a comment at http://lauries-laudanum.blogspot.com/ - during Dianne's blog party on Friday, March 14th. One entry per person and Laurie will draw names for the contest on Friday evening. Prizes will be mailed (US/Canada addresses only, please) to winners directly from the author offering the prize.
Dianne will also be offering several prizes and she announced her contest requirements on her post.
Okay, here we go, in no particular order!
Lori Foster is giving away a hardcover copy of JUDE'S LAW, copies of SERVANT (written as L.L. Foster) and SIMON SAYS, and a t-shirt from her Cafepress store - winner's choice!HelenKay Dimon is offering a copy of her latest release RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW and she will also be chatting about our blog party on her blog!
Erin McCarthy is giving one lucky winner a copy of SUCKER BET, the latest in her Vegas Vampire series!
Sylvia Day will be mentioning our party on her blog and is offering a copy of her latest release, DON'T TEMPT ME.
LuAnn McLane will be giving one winner a TRUCK MY TRUCK goodie package including an autographed copy of TRICK MY TRUCK BUT DON'T MESS WITH MY HEART!
Toni Blake is offering a copy of SWEPT AWAY for one winner!
Donna Kauffman will be chatting up our party on her blog several times and is offering two different prizes - BAD BOYS IN KILTS and THE GREAT SCOTT as one prize and THE BLACK SHEEP AND THE PRINCESS and THE BLACK SHEEP AND THE HIDDEN BEAUTY as a second prize - woohoo!
J.C.Wilder will be chatting all over the web about our party, including http://www.eroticromancewriters.com - she is also offering one lucky reader a prize of IN THE GLOAMING!
Roberta Brown is offering one very lucky reader a $50. gift card to Barnes & Noble - wow! Her alter ego Kate Angell is offering another reader the prize of her Boys of Summer trilogy which includes SQUEEZE PLAY, CURVEBALL, and the April release, STRIKE ZONE. Pretty amazing, huh?
Alison Kent will be offering a copy of HOT AND BOTHERED on her blog and is offering a copy of BEYOND A SHADOW to one lucky winner at Laurie's blog - http://lauries-laudanum.blogspot.com/
Kay Stockham Kay will be chatting about our party on her blog and is offering two winners each a copy of her latest release, ANOTHER MAN'S BABY!
Janice Maynard is putting up a copy of THE PERFECT TEN to one lucky winner!
Karen Kelley will make one reader happy with a copy of COSMIC SEX and an alien bookmark!Sasha White will thrill a lucky winner with a copy of SEXY DEVIL! Sasha will be chatting about our party on her blog as well.
Lucy Monroe is going to make mention on her blog and is offering two prizes, a copy of SATISFACTION GUARANTEED and a copy of DEAL WITH THIS - both prizes will include chocolate, pens and bookmarks - sweet!

Remember! This is at Laurie's blog - NOT HERE - so go to http://lauries-laudanum.blogspot.com/ to enter!

AND FOR THE SAINT PATRICK'S DAY CONTEST...

BOOKS, all signed by the authors!

Lori Foster:Print copies Servant: The Awakening, Simon Says, and a hardcover of Jude's Law
Dianne Castell:Print copy of Hot & Bothered
Becky Barker:Print copy of Cade's Challenge
Marcia James:CD of At Her Command
Erin McCarthy:Print copy of My Immortal
Kay Stockham:Print copy of Another Man's Baby
Patricia Sargeant:Print copy of You Belong to Me
Donna MacMeans:Print copy of The Education of Mrs. Brimley
Jacki Bentley:CD of The Horseman's Heritage
Jamie Denton:Print copies of Remain Silent and My Guilty Pleasure
Carol Ann Erhardt:Print copy of Hit and Run

Other Gifts:
Lori Foster - Hard to Handle JOURNAL
Jacki Bentley - Beautiful Horse PAPERWEIGHT
Jules Bennet - $5 Wild Rose Press GIFT CERTIFICATE
Dianne Castell - Hot & Bothered TOTE BAG
Marcia James - Cute St. Patty's Day BEAR

Don't miss this great opportunity! Check in daily at the blog , and post away!
The more you post, the better your odds of winning!

So tell me - do you like entering contests on the net?
Do you like to be informed of these type contests?
Do entering contests inspire you to visit a blog more often, or once made aware of a blog via a contest, do you sometimes come back to visit again?
What prizes in a contest would you really, really love? Okay, other than books. LOL

Thanks all!

18 Comments:

DFender said...: Hiya Lori!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! My favorite holiday of all time. The HHP and I were married on March 14th so we could celebrate the holiday during our honeymoon! LOL

Okay, on to your questions:

I do enjoy entering certain contests via the net.

I always like to be informed. To know is always better than the alternative.

I'm a creature of habit for the most part. If I visit a blog or a MySpace site, I do so regularly. Contests really don't intice me to do it more often.

Prizes? Honestly? Money! LOL. Hence the popularity of the Lottery. Realistically though, books are IT for me. I could also go for pajamas, jewelry or socks...ha!

Have a great day 'n weekend!

Deb; 6:59 AM
Marcia James said...: Hi, Lori! Thanks for mentioning our MySpace contest! And I'm going over right now to join in Dianne's launch party. ;-) Thanks for letting us know about it!
-- Marcia James ;-)
www.MarciaJames.net; 11:24 AM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: Great question, Lori. I'll be interested to hear the answers.

Hope you feel better soon!

--Jayne; 3:07 PM
Lori Foster said...: Deb, I wish we could give away money. LOL. That'd probably be a big draw!
I wonder if a $ certificate for a book store counts the same.
;-)

Marcia, hey there! Yeah, I just posted stuff I had on hand because I feel too icky to do much else. I'm doing my best to write a certain # of pages each day, but it's grueling with vertigo!

Thank you, Jayne!

Lori; 3:13 PM
patricia sargeant said...: Wow, Lori! You're a fountain of information on Internet contests. :) Regarding contest prizes, a book store gift certificate definitely counts. I also like tee shirts.; 4:24 PM
Laurie D. said...: So sorry you're still feeling punk, Lori - I hope you're on the mend and back to your old self soon. {{{hugs}}}

Thanks for the heads up on my blog contest - the chatter has been absolutely amazing! This is LAST CALL - I'll be drawing names at 9:15 (Eastern); 5:53 PM
Lisa F. said...: Of course I love winning books, that's just like money in my pocket! I like tshirts too, even though if they are too racy I won't wear them in public.

Usually if I visit a blog and I am entertained by it I'll bookmark it and visit it several times a week.

Hope you get to feeling better real soon.; 6:26 PM
karibear said...: When I go to blogs, it’s because something about them [or whoever made them] interests me. Usually, it’s because I’ve seen something about them in other blogs - I don’t count the major ones like CNN does, no way do I want to get into a political hoo-ha! I don’t hit them to ‘win’ a prize, though once in awhile it’s a nice bonus. It doesn’t do me a whole lot of good to win books, anyway 8-(, but on the other hand, winning anything is nice 8-). One of my favorites isn’t even a blog, it’s a forum, sort of like the old newsgroups, only moderated, so people who get unruly get a time-out, or if they get nasty enough, I suppose they are banned.

I will visit some of the ones you mentioned, but not the myspace things because they are just too heavy on graphics to download on my slow dialup. And right now, it’s a matter of time - I finally sold my place and have to be out by the end of the month, which means a lot more packing and a lot less time to play.

Hope you feel better soon and have a nice weekend.; 7:30 PM
Lori Foster said...: Hey Lisa,

What do you consider too racy? I'm just curious. I have a lot of T-shirts I offer up as prizes, taken off my cafepress store. And speaking of Cafepress, I'm really excited to say that the whole store is going to have a new look soon! It'll be much more easily navigated. I can't wait. It should be done by early April.

Lori; 5:28 AM
Lori Foster said...: Karibear, thanks for the feedback.
I didn't mean that prizes would keep you coming back - just wondered if they might entice you to discover a new blog or forum.

I like forums too, but only book related ones. I really enjoy the RT boards. Everyone there is very vocal, but almost always polite and understanding of differing opinions. Occasionally it goes off on a tangent, but it's rare.

Hugs to all!

Lori; 5:31 AM
Bookstoredeb said...: Hi Lori. I'm late as usual. Hope you are feeling much better today.

Prizes of any kind are always great, especially signed books, t-shirts (I love wearing them to promo the author and books). Gift cards are wonderful and as long as they are to a national chain can be redeemed online. I know in our area, there isn't much to choose from.

I visit blogs of several authors. Mainly because I enjoy their writing and always enjoy hearing tidbits about their life, books, etc.

I love Dianne's book. I am reading it now and enjoying every minute of it! I highly recommend it to everyone!

Have a great St Patrick's Day!
Deb; 6:56 AM
Elizabeth Guest said...: Hope you feel better soon, Lori! Thanks for sharing all the info about books and sites and prizes.

Have a good weekend all!
~EG; 1:03 PM
Lori Foster said...: Hi Deb!
I'd love to send you another T-shirt! Just 'cuz. ;-)
I'll email you privately.
Isn't Dianne's book awesome!? I loved every word. She has such a way of mixing humor with family scenarios. You feel like you know the people, and they're fun people to be with. LOL

Hugs!

Lori; 5:59 AM
Lori Foster said...: Thanks Elizabeth! Today is the first day of feeling totally human again. That's Zpak at work! LOL
Gotta love antibiotics.

Hugs to all!
Happy Sunday!

Lori; 6:00 AM
Lisa F. said...: Hi Lori,

Too racy would be pix of book covers with the people almost naked, or in very suggestive poses. That just wouldn't look good to wear when I'm volunteering at the school! And unfortunately, if I'm out of the house, I'm at work or at one of the kid's schools.

One day I wore one of yours, the pink one that the front has "You've Been A Bad Boy, Go To My Room". I had to run into the bank and the um, gentleman?, in front of me smirked and told me he liked my shirt and he'd been a bad boy. What do you say? I decided then to only wear that one at home or at the lake when only our friends were around!; 4:59 PM
Lori Foster said...: LOL. Sorry about that Lisa! Yeah, I can see where the shirts would only fit in certain circles.
;-)

Lori; 7:35 AM
Stella said...: Lori: Tut--tut. This is the shoddy little blog you turn out when you're sick? Shame on you. Funny lady--you are always so entertaining.

Cheers, Stella; 2:26 PM
Michele L. said...: Wow! All the authors are so generous to donate their time and the awesome prizes to this contest! A big congratulations to the authors on all their new releases! WOOHOO!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I ate my share of Corned Beef and Cabbage! Now is there a can of air freshner nearby?

Michele L.; 1:41 PM

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Friday, March 14, 2008

Did you know..?

18 Comments: