winning!

A of all, thank you and a hug to Kris for this award:

I do love tea, and all cups involved! To whom will I pass it on, you ask? Scroll down to find out! {or, you know, read the rest of the post first.}

Speaking of winning, remember when we had that contest-y blogfest thing? And remember how I said there would be winners? I was not, in fact, lying! Incredible.

So, without further ado, even though there were several honorable mentions {like Jeigh's first, uh, query experience, Lee's play about veggies in a fridge {Mr. Cabbage was type-cast! Bahaha!}, Jillian's dino/shake picture and Tristyn's "Chubby Dinos in Love", Jess's impressive pop-up book, Tara's potentially disastrous but so, so clever Sign in Please... heck, I could give them all honorable mentions, really}, I hereby award first prize {i.e. first pick of prizes) to... Gracie! Because, oh my gosh, that story about the recycling bin was brilliant. Heck, they all were. Go read, if you haven't already. The last line of the story about Bear and Girl made me L to the O L.

So, Gracie, please email me at julie {dot} maughon {at} gmail {dot} com with your mailing address and prize choice {a copy of Daughter, discount-book-store goody bag, or first chapter critique}, and we'll get this thing started!

Drawing winners!
In second place, as per the random generator {also known as my husband announcing a number after I "drumroll"}, is Kathy McKendry! Yay!!!
And in third, Rhianne!

Congrats, ladies! If you could email me as well, 'twould be fantastic. I'll email you back as your turn to pick comes along. Huzzah!*

*I went to an 18th century fair last weekend. It was awesome. Unfortunately {or perhaps quite fortunately?}, I'm having trouble ceasing with the lingo. Hhhhhuzzah.

And now, as a special treat, I'd like to pass this One Lovely Blogger Award on to all Thirteen Lovely Bloggers who entered the 'fest. In case you forgot yourselves:

C. Lee McKenzie
Gracie
J
Jeigh Meredith
Jenna Cooper
Jess McKendry
Jillian
Kathy McKendry
Redbootpearl
Rhianne
Ruth Josse
tara tyler
Tristyn E.

Love{ly} to you all! {And seriously, every entry was amazing.}

*turns off internet* *goes back to NaNo* *eats ice cream*

{45,546 to go!}

real quick, prizes!

... and by "tomorrow," of course, I meant "in the middle of the night on Friday." I know it's easy to confuse the two.

Hokay! Here we go.

Note: NOW RUNNING THROUGH OCTOBER 28th!
MORE INFO ON THE EXTENSION HERE.

In no particular order, the prizes for this fun and delightful contest/blogfest, in which you should all participate are:

1. A copy of Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor {you KNOW you want it.}

2. A $10 grab bag of wonderment from The Book Gallery in Chattanooga. This place is AMAZING. I spent 90 minutes there a week or so ago, and would not have left if my phone hadn't beeped to remind me of the time. They don't have everything, but what they do have is super cheap, especially this month {crazy, 30-day book sale, what?} The winner of this prize will have to email me ASAP with some info on his or her favorite types of books, so I'll know what to look for as I fill up that bag. It is going to be nuts.

3. A first chapter critique. By me! Because I'm interested to see what you guys are writing, and I want to give back! {and I need the practice.}

Alrighty. How about another clarification? The random drawing, and how the first-second-third placings will go:

First place! Will go to my favorite entry. This winner will have first pick of the three prizes.

Second and third place! Will go to the first two names I draw from the hat, so to speak. Second place gets second pick, and third place, well, third place gets whatever awesome prize the other two crazy winners didn't choose, for whatever reason.

The entries!
Post about your early work = one entry.
Spread the news on Twitter = one entry.
Spread the news on Facebook = one entry {make sure you tell me if you're spreading the news!}
Include a picture of a dinosaur or wolf = one entry.
So that's four entries possible. What's not to love? {Oh, and uh, I'm keeping it fair. No one gets to win all the prizes. Haha.}

And there you have it, friends! PLEASE do that whole "spreading the news" thing, especially since I forgot to submit this to the Campaigner Notice Board for this week. Oops.

Happy reminiscing!

oh, the early work: a contest/blogfest!

Back in February, I put myself out there and started making blog friends. I wanted to throw a party, but felt kind of dumb doing so.

In April, I had my first blogaversary, or however you spell that made-up word. I didn't say anything, because, well, who would notice? I wasn't very prolific, which embarrassed me. A bunch of blogs I read had garnered huge followings before the end of six months. I kept my mouth shut, when I should have danced in the streets. Go me!

In May, I finished my first draft of my first novel, which I did announce, but never really celebrated here. I wanted to, though! It was the best feeling in the world.

In August, I joined the Campaign, which was a huge step, also deserving of a party that had yet to come {insert obligatory "please vote for my flash fiction piece, if you feel inclined and have not done so already! #141, yeah yeah!"}.

And then, this week, I finally made it to 100 followers, and I realized,

Yep. The time has come.

Time for presents.

source, yo.

The truth is, as I've blabbed about a million times before, this blogging journey has truly blessed me. If you would like to hear me gush further, read this post about skunks and crit partners.

So, hey. Let's not just have presents, let's have a contest!

During Christine Tyler's Sparkfest, an idea struck me. I would be really, intensely interested to hear about the "early work" of my fellow writers, and I'd love to share my own.

I'll just tell you know.

My first story ever was about two sad dinosaurs who fell in love and weren't sad anymore.

hey.

         

aw, and now they're happy! yay!

It was awesome. I was six.

In middle school, I filled up a notebook--in stylish burgundy ink--with a story about a girl whose best friends were the wolves behind her house. Sound familiar? It was TERRIBLE. And terribly amusing. Not surprisingly, I giggled through the whole first half of this book.

you can't fight the wolf shirt.
{but it wouldn't hurt to think twice before wearing it to church.}

Are you as excited as I am to hear what crazy/hilarious/embarrassing/possibly disturbing things your fellow bloggers thought up as children? I should hope so, or no one's going to have fun with this. Ha.

A few requirements, to get us started. Please follow me, if you haven't done so already. I want to make sure you'll see the announcement if you win! Let me know in the comments if you tweet/FB/blog about this contest, and I'll give you an extra entry {for each platform} for the random drawing. I don't have a nifty jpeg for this contest/blogfest, so if you include an image of a wolf or a dinosaur, or both, I'll give you another extra entry.

There will be three winners.

Update: more info on the prizes (a copy of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone, for example) can be found in this post.

Enter your link on the list below-- after you've written your post {please pretty please}-- between now and October 14th 28th. Winners will be announced the next day! {Or maybe the day after that, depending on the level of sanity around here.} The line at the bottom says to comment after you've left a link, but feel free to do so beforehand. I'm not that picky.

Thanks, everyone! See you in the funny pages.

Oh, P.S, this is open internationally. Postage, schmostage.

{Thanks to everyone who participated!}