Paksworld

And the winner is…#1, Jet.   I realize that random number generators of any type can indeed come up with the first or last number, but this is the first time in the ARC contests that it’s happened.  Congratulations to the winner!

So….I need a snail-mail address for the winner.    Email me from the contact form on the website with a subject line of ARC winner so if it happens to fall into a junk mail basket, I can find it easily.

In case no one’s checking the comments in the contest thread…I’ve now read everything and made what I hope is an accurate list of unique contributors.

But, given that I’ve been sick and foggy-headed, I’d like someone else to count that too.  I get thirty unique contributors…is that what y’all think?    Once I have a check on the number, I can run the random number app and have a winner.

BTW…great entries.  I was so smart not to think I could pick a winner on merit because there were too many really good ones!

Should have done this at once…this is the topic under which to post your poetic genius as a comment.    We already have one entry,  under the Good News header, but please repost as a comment here, for the benefit of your lazy hostess, so she can find them all in one place.

…is I should be getting an ARC later this week, so the contest is just about ready.

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The random-number generator has kindly done its thing on the list it was given (pruned of duplicate entries, non-entry comments, and my bright ideas), and Richard (no initial, no last name) has won the ARC.

Richard, email me via the link on my website, www.elizabethmoon.com, with a mailing address and I’ll ship it off.

Non-winners,  your enthusiasm, inventiveness, and humor win my undying gratitude for the pleasure you’ve given me, in what turned out to be a tougher several weeks than I expected.   There will be Snippet later today or tomorrow.

Thanks again, everyone.

Unable to decide which of the suggestions was best (sorry, all) I’ve fallen back on my own inadequate store of ideas and plucked out the one on top, which bears an unfortunate resemblance in some ways to last year’s.

Pick a character.   For the purpose of this game, characters will look the same and be the same size and have the same basic personality.  Now translate that character to 2011, and put her or him in a particular location (where?) and occupation (what?) with a hobby (what?)   Pretend, for the purpose of the contest, that these books have never been written, so (for instance) Paks-in-2011 can’t have as a hobby playing Paks-in-the-books at conventions.   The juxtaposition of character, place, occupation, and hobby can be “appropriate” or “humorous.”  It’s up to you.   I think we’d all enjoy seeing how you connect the character’s personality to the new occupation and hobby–so you don’t have to limit yourself to just listing the variables.  Play.  Show off your imagination.

Because next week is going to be super busy for me, you will have until midnight Saturday, October 1 (a date easy to remember) to make your entry.  As before, all entries will be given a number and the winner drawn through a random number thingie-whopper.

Yes, there will be a contest for an ARC of Echoes of Betrayal.   I haven’t decided just what it will be, but it will be.   I enjoyed last year’s “invite a character to dinner” contest and hope you did, too.   I won’t have a contest topic until after the next trip, so this is just a heads-up.

Husband is recovering well enough that I’m definitely heading for DragonCon week after next…by train, which means leaving on Monday the 29th.    (This is because the Sunset Limited–the train I’ll take from San Antonio to New Orleans, runs each direction on alternate days.  However, this gives me a chance to have a quiet morning in Atlanta before Registration opens Thursday afternoon.)

I will be meeting Editor there for a working breakfast, and also Former Editors (both Baen and Del Rey)  on a panel, so it should be productive.  I hope to meet some of you there, though I know some of you were unable to come.   Next year I’ll miss  DragonCon as I definitely plan to attend WorldCon in Chicago and it’s on the same weekend.    (Well, yeah, I could charter a jet and take one day off Chicon to fly to Atlanta and back…if I won the lottery…but practically speaking….no.)  The advantage of Chicon 7 is that I don’t have to change trains (large smile here.)

At any rate…suggestions for contests are welcome, though I won’t promise to use any.   (Isn’t that just like a writer!?)

Larry Lennhoff,  ( #42 on the contest comment list)

Contact me (via email on website) with mailing address w/in  a week (there’s a backup winner number already.)

Thanks to Webmistress Ruta, who used a random number generator and got me an answer this morning.

The “take a character home for dinner” contest for an ARC closes at midnight my time tomorrow night….that’s…um…Central Daylight (dammit) Time for those in the US and I think (if I did the conversion right) it’s 0500 UTC.

I’ve really enjoyed the entries so far–many characters have been chosen (some are very popular) and the various dinners sound scrumptious.

You are the host.  You invite a character to dinner.   Which character from the Deed or Oath, and what do you cook for him/her, and why?    Try to fit the answer in just one or two sentences–this isn’t a demand for vast culinary expertise.   Something like “I would invite  A, and cook B (as simple as “bread” or as elaborate as you please), because (something about A that makes liking B plausible.)  Needless to say, you don’t have to be able to cook the meal in real life.  It’s a fantasy world.  All valid entries (includes character name, menu, reason) will be assigned a number, and the number entered in the drawing for the ARC.   I will co-opt my webmistress to pluck one from a hat.

Post entries to this topic as comments.   Entries must be in by midnight November 2 (the night of our concert, so I may be able to do the drawing within a day or so.)   When I do post the winner’s name, winner must contact me with a mailing address within a week, so we can avoid the holiday jam-up at the post office, which starts earlier every year.

I’m hoping you all have fun seeing who wants to invite whom for dinner, and what kinds of interesting menus are involved.    (I know what to cook for some of my characters, but not all of them.  If you’re actually dying to do menus for more than one, just for fun…sure, you can, but only the first one you send will be in the drawing.