Hi all! Jane from Dear Author here. I’m privileged to be able to give a presentation at this month’s Tools of Change conference along with Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches Trashy Books and Editor Angela James from Carina Press. Our presentation is what readers want and it is based on conversations we’ve had with ebook readers for over four years on our blogs, in email and on message boards. But folks like hard numbers along with anecdotes so we’ve put together a survey and would love for you to fill it out. If you do fill it out, you’ll be entered to win $250.00 toward books or an ebook reader of your choice.

Survey Link Here

It’s an opportunity for your voice to be heard.

THANK YOU!

I know, I was supposed to announce the contest winners last week. Sorry! Thanks to those who provided gentle reminders.

So, without further ado and thanks to the genius of random.org, I have a main prize winner and two smaller winners.

For the consolation prizes, which is a box of goodies (sorry, no HQN bag):

Christy H, who said:

And the winner of the HQN bag and assorted goodies:

Amy Katherine, who said:

What I love about digital publishing? There’s only so many books I can store in one flat (I’ve around 400 lbs of books in my flat right now–I left many boxes at my parents’ when I first moved out of the family home). Not an issue with digital books!
Congrats, winners, and thanks to everyone who entered and shared their thoughts about digital publishing. Thanks to a recent trip to Toronto, I have another Harlequin bag to give away but I’ll be giving that one away on the Carina Press blog, so watch there for information!

Winners, you can contact me at angelajameseditor AT gmail.com to collect your prizes.

Four years ago, I joined a new, not-yet-heard of publishing company called Samhain as its very first editor. I later became executive editor and enjoyed watching as it grew, as readers and authors discovered the company and in turn helped it grow. Over the course of those four years, Samhain has released just over 1000 titles. I edited nearly 250 of those. Almost one-fourth of the books in the backlist are titles I had some hand in shaping, and though I’ve moved on to Carina Press, I’m still proud of the company, the authors and the books.

Today marks the day the last book I edited for Samhain releases, Night is Darkest by Jayne Rylon. In order to celebrate my last four years with Samhain and its authors, and celebrate my new adventure at Carina Press, I’m offering a contest!

One winner will receive a prize package consisting of a number of fun things including print books, Think Fresh, Think Digital mints from our rogue digital session at RWA this past summer, a black notebook portfolio with Samhain logo on front (I gave these to Samhain staff and editors last year for Christmas. I still use mine!), a Samhain mug and some other Samhain goodies. And, not only that, but the prize winner will get one of these most awesome Harlequin vintage bags. Seriously? The bags rock because they’re fun and HUGE. So the grand prize winner will get all of that plus whatever else I dig out of my giveaway bin (and there’s a ton of stuff in there).

I’ll also send a small package to 3 other winners that contains mints, the portfoloio and some random odds and ends that don’t suck.

To enter, all you need to do is a leave a comment on this post telling me what you love about digital publishing. The contest is open internationally, to readers and authors alike, and I’ll draw a prize winner on Monday December 7th.

Though we ended up closing the contest to help name our new cooking and craft blog early, because we ended up brainstorming a title all three of us liked, we still had 17 people who’d sent in suggestions. Thanks to all of you, it was fun to see what you’d come up with!

I let random.org do the choosing and I’m happy to say that Erin W. (yes, that’s you, Erin) from the wild hills of West Virginia is the winner of a $50 gift card to an online retailer of her choice.

Congratulations, Erin. I was pleased as punch when you were picked because I knew you could use a boost! Email me and let me know where you’d like your gift card to.

In the meantime, our new blog is under construction and hopefully we’ll be announcing it soon so you can join us in our cooking and crafting goodness.

*contest is closed, we have a name! Winner will be announced this week!*

Have you ever had the urge to do something a little different than what you’re doing now? Or to share your love of something? That’s what Jane Litte of Dear Author, Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and I are doing. We’re teaming up for a non-publishing related blog for all things crafting and cooking in our world. It will be a little something for everyone, with pattern reviews, completed projects, recipes, tips, guest bloggers (because there’s a whole lot of things in crafting and cooking we’re not very good at) and more (there will be wine recommendations!)

But we need your help to name our new site, so we’re offering up a $50 gift card for your suggestions. Come up with a clever, funny, practical, cute or serious name for our new endeavor and you may win a $50 gift card from the online retailer of your choice.

Rules

1. Email all suggestions to angelajameseditor AT gmail.com with subject line BLOG CONTEST. Please do not post them in the comments here, it will not count as an entry.

2. You may give as many suggestions as you like, but please try to include them in one email, if you think of some later and want to email again, that’s okay, just try to avoid 15 separate emails

3. Contest is open internationally.

4. Contest closes on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. is closed, we have a name!

5. This is the most important: we’ll need to purchase the domain to match the blog name, so make sure there’s a domain available for the name you’re suggesting. You can check domain availability here. We won’t/can’t use a name that doesn’t have domain availability.

$50 gc will be awarded to the person whose blog name we use. If we don’t use any of the suggestions, or end up using a combination of suggestions–or more than one person suggests it–we’ll hold a random drawing.

Seussian Ode to Pralines

I like pralines in the dark, I like pralines in a park.
I will eat them on a boat, or even while crossing a moat.

I can keep them in my purse, their sugary goodness makes me curse.
I will savor them with a book, my “oh yes” face will be quite a look.

Pralines, pralines day and night, getting the last one causes a fight.
I will eat them here and there, I will enjoy them everywhere.

I would share pralines on twitter, I can think of nothing fitter.
Try it, try it and you may like Guas’s praline recipe I say!

Damgoodsweets gives me hope and a praline recipe so I can cope.
I like pralines, Don I Am, am so happy I can make them now, I can. I can!

It’s not too late for you to join in the dessert fun. Head to Twitter, hashtag #damgoodtweet and enter your humorous dessert tweet for your chance to win an iPod shuffle and a signed copy of DamGoodSweets (but if you win the signed copy, I think you should send it to me, k?)

Contest ends today at 5pm Eastern so go go go!

If you’re at BEA, go visit Don Linn at the Taunton Booth #4159 and tell him I said hello, and check out their other cookbook offerings. I hear they’re offering sweet treats at their booth!

Or something equally silly? I’ve promised to choreograph, video and upload a ridiculous victory dance if I get first place in the DABWAHA brackets. I’m in first now but am about to be knocked out with these next rounds.

Before 6pm I need you to vote for Hunger Games!

After 6pm I need you to vote for Dark Desires After Dusk. And watch this blog for more voting needed.

You know you want to see me dance

www.dabwaha.com

I’m going to beg for votes. But in this case, it’s okay because voting isn’t necessarily about having read the books. So I don’t feel bad. Much. I’ll move on from that though

If you’re not following the Dear Author/Smart Bitches DABWAHA book “tournament” you must go follow the voting. And while you’re there, if you get there before midnight tonight, please vote for Mexican Heat by Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon, and Rough, Raw and Ready by Lorelei James. Both are Samhain books (ebook only for Mexican Heat, the print version is available from MLR Press) that I edited! We want them to move forward!

Not only that, but if Mexican Heat loses, I lose my first place standings in the bracket picks and, well, we don’t want me to lose bragging rights, do we? Of COURSE not.

So go vote, please. And if you haven’t read the books, you should check them out because they are mightily awesome. I’m not shy about that!

Sorry I’ve been silent for a few days. There’s some stuff going on here, but I’ll get to that later in the post. First, let’s close the contest. Thanks to everyone who suggested songs for my workout playlist. There were a lot of songs I never would have thought of and am going to add to my list!

I chose the winners using random.org. Of course, the first two #s it chose were me. Duh!

The winner of the Australia Bronzed Boys calendar is…Mad! Congratulations, Mad, please email me or use the contact form here on the website and let me know your mailing address.

The winner of the Australia Bronzed Girls calendar is…Albert. Same goes, Albert. Please contact me using the form here on the site and give me your mailing address so I can get your calendar in the mail.

On the good news front, Sony sent me a 700 to try out (because they rock like that) and I got it Friday. I’m going to use it for a few days over this weekend and will try to post my thoughts on it next week.

Other good news: My dad was in the area for a business meeting and decided to extend his trip and come visit us. He got here yesterday afternoon and will be here just for the weekend. Since they live in North Dakota, we usually only get to see them once a year because it’s expensive, and time intensive, to fly in and out of there. So we’re all glad to see him, but Brianna is especially thrilled. She loves it when she gets to see family and she’s seen a lot of them lately!

On the bad news front: Ugh, I don’t even like to type this but we’ve joined the ranks of Americans affected by the economy and the “reduction in workforce” as of yesterday morning. Josh was laid off yesterday morning when he went into work. It was a complete shock to us and not expected at all. Obviously we’re still processing this, since we only just found out. But I just keep telling myself it could be worse and that we’re certainly not a unique situation.

And to end on a positive note, we visited the beach yesterday, even though it was windy and cold. But we walked the beach, collected seashells and I took some pictures. It was a good day. Mostly

We got back from Las Vegas late last night. 13.5 hours from hotel to my driveway. We were…exhausted. Unfortunately, there’s no rest for the wicked. My FIL is due to pull up at any minute. He’s on his way north and so he’s going to spend the night here…oh, and he’s dropping my daughter off. Wheee! It’s been ten days since I’ve seen her. I’m ready for her to be home. But that did mean I needed to de-fur and declutter my house/spare bedroom today. Send. Maid.

I have a lot of pictures to share. I know many of you don’t follow my Twitter updates, so you weren’t able to share in any of my Vegas adventures, but I had a great time!

In the meantime, now that I’m home, my goal for myself was to start working out again. I’m ready to load the Nano so I can get started. Um. Soon. Heh. Right before I left, I realized I still had two 2009 Aussie calendars to give away. One is Australia Bronzed Boys and one is Australia Bronzed girls. I think I’d better give those away before the year is over, don’t you think?

In the comments, tell me what song(s) you either use for working out yourself or think would make good workout music. Help me load my Nano with everything from dance, to rap, rock, country and 80s music. Then tell me if you want to be entered for the Bronzed Boys, Bronzed Girls or both. Sorry, I can only ship within the U.S. because Las Vegas took all my money If you’re out of the U.S. and want to enter, I’ll give you a Samhain download instead.

Contest will close…Friday. You’ll need to come back and check to see if you’re a winner. If you don’t contact me with your mailing details by next Tuesday, I’ll draw a new winner. Fair enough?