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July 12, 2021

11th Annual Blogiversary Contest — Prize: Me! Wait…er, What?

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

* UPDATE: This contest is now closed and winners have been notified. *

It’s that time of year again. Today, July 12th, is my eleven-year blogiversary. Yes, eleven years.

For the first ten years, I blogged consistently every Tuesday and Thursday, building up over 1000 posts of advice and information about the writing world. Last year, for my tenth blogiversary, I finally gave myself the gift of an irregular schedule.

Initially, my plan was to post about 2-4 times a month. However, things didn’t quite work out that way. *sigh*

As I mentioned last year, I was suffering from a fairly deep burnout, and the pandemic didn’t help that (nor did the news or the election cycle and its ongoing craziness, especially as I live in Arizona). Add in how I fell down the stairs—again—and re-inflamed the nerves in my feet (so I couldn’t walk—again), and things got worse before they got better.

It’s only been the last two months that I’ve been able to push myself on the physical front, with physical therapy and exercising (I’m now able to walk around the block in my neighborhood again—yay!). And it’s only been the last few weeks that my mental burnout has started lifting and I’ve been able to work on my Secret Project—er, Projects *grin*—once more.

With all that, blog posts here have been far more scarce than planned for my “irregular” schedule, so it didn’t feel right to celebrate my blogiversary as usual. After all, I’ve only had 13 posts in the past year, as opposed to my previous 100+ posts a year.

However, more important than any blogiversary acknowledgement is doing something to thank all of you. As I’ve said so many times before, you’re the reason I blog. Your support and understanding through the years have been more helpful than you can know, and I’m forever grateful to everyone I’ve “met” through my blog.

To thank you, I’m celebrating by holding my usual Blogiversary Contest, just on a shorter timeline. This time, I want to really focus on you—those of you who stayed with me—rather than others who happen to learn about the contest over the weeks it usually runs.

As a reminder of the format of my blogiversary celebration, 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 copies of any two of Treasured Claim, Pure Sacrifice, Ironclad Devotion, or Stone-Cold Heart from my Mythos Legacy series
  • $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 or my newest workshop, the romance-focused Between the Sheets: Create a Deeper Romance with the Romance Beat Sheet
  • Detailed critique of your opening pages up to 1200 words
  • Critique of your synopsis and/or query letter
  • Beta read up to 5K words (includes feedback on overall premise, characterization, and pacing, but not in-depth editing or grammar)
  • Analysis of your story’s structure and story/character arcs
  • 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.)
  • 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.

This contest will close at midnight Eastern time on Sunday, July 18th, 2021. The winner(s) will be chosen randomly and notified by email. Good luck!

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