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June 23, 2015

5th Annual Blogiversary Contest — Prize: Me! Wait…er, What?

Gift box with text "Want to win 'me'? Wait... What?"

It’s that time of year again. My five-year blogiversary is coming up on July 12th.  And I’m once again amazed by the fact that I’ve been writing this blog for five years. How can something feel like yesterday and forever at the same time?

Mostly, I’m amazed I found that much to blog about, not just in the number of posts (over 500!) but the length of my posts. (I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve come up with a blog topic and said, “Oh, this one will be short,” and ended up between 1500 and 2000 words. *sigh*) Between my posts and my replies to comments, I’ve easily written over a quarter-million words on my blog in the past year.

And I’m not the only one. During the past year, my readers have left several thousand comments on my blog. That’s an amazing amount of conversation and shared stories and tips, and it’s all thanks to you. You’re the reason I blog.

To thank you, I’m celebrating by holding a contest. For those who weren’t around last year, let me back up…

A blogiversary contest—that’s pretty normal, right? But there’s a reason I call myself insane. There’s a reason I write paranormal. There’s a reason my motto is “Why be normal?”

I don’t want to do normal.

So for this contest celebrating this blog and all the readers that make it awesome, the prize is…me.

Well, not “me” literally, but my time and/or money. You get to pick what that means. (Disclaimer: Subject to reasonability, privacy concerns, and legality. I haven’t landed in jail yet, and I don’t intend to start now. *smile*)

I want this contest to be for all my readers, whether you’re a writer or not, whether you’re published or not, whether you’re a newbie or not. If you win, you decide how I can be most helpful to you.

Some ideas:

  • Signed copy of Treasured Claim and Pure Sacrifice (the latter will probably arrive before the official publication date *smile*)
  • $25 Amazon gift certificate
  • Free registration to any of my online workshops, including my Lost Your Pants? An Impatient Writer’s Guide to Plotting a Story workshop (will be offered this fall)
  • Critique of your first chapter up to 5K words (Note: I write honest and detail-oriented critiques, and I’m a member of the grammar police. You’ve been warned.)
  • Critique of your synopsis and/or query letter
  • Beta read up to 25,000 words (includes feedback on overall premise, characterization, and pacing, but not in-depth editing or grammar)
  • Analysis of story structure and story/character arcs for overall development and “book doctor” feedback
  • Mentoring/walk-through help on one project (blog/website, developing a premise, business plan, social media platform, etc.)
  • Email brainstorming (story ideas: digging out from plot hole, branding ideas: coming up with tagline, etc.)
  • Copies of (and help with) all of my MS Word polishing macros
  • I’ll write a guest post for your blog
  • You’ll get to write a guest post for this blog (subject to my guest post policies)
  • Three books from my general blog contest collection (books I’ve picked up from conferences)
  • Pick my brain about anything (grammar questions, copies of the writing advice documents I’ve collected, a list of the writing advice bookmarks I’ve saved, etc.)
  • Or anything else you can think of…within reason. *smile*

To enter, leave a comment. It’s just that easy. (Yep, that means those of you reading this via RSS or newsletter should visit my site so you can wave hello in a comment.) And yes, even if you’ve won in previous years, you’re welcome to enter again!

Maybe tell me what you’d like to win, or make up a funny choice to amuse us all. Introduce yourself if you’ve never commented before. Or tell me how stupid you think this contest idea is. Whatever. It will all count.

Also, I’ll pick an additional winner for every 50 commenters (not including my comments). So if 1-50 different people comment on this post, I’ll pick one winner. If 51-100 different people comment, I’ll pick two winners. And so forth.

This contest will close at midnight Eastern time on Sunday, July 12th, 2015. The winner(s) will be chosen randomly and announced on my official blogiversary post on Tuesday, July 14th. Good luck!

Do you want to win something? If so, tell me about it!

P.S. Don’t panic if you don’t see your comment show up. There are multiple pages of comments (see the “Next Comments” link), and that also means we’ll have multiple winners! Yay!

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