Congratulations to FreshBrain user caitlin1591 who is the winner of the $1,000 "FreshBrain Video Book Trailer Scholarship" based on my book, Hugging the Rock. There were so many really talented teens who entered the contest and I want to thank all of them for the time and effort they put into their trailers. Many of them really went for the heartstrings, just like my book.

Thank you, Cailin!

Okay, I know if I try to embed things over here LJ will go all wonky, so you’ll have to click through each one.

These are in NO PARTICULAR ORDER but here are the top 10 videos for Hugging the Rock book trailer scholarship contest. The rest of the judges and I are working hard on narrowing down a winner but feel free to chime in with your opinions.

1.   MRose

2.   Erin McCarter

3.   KevinMFox

4.   Cat814

5.   Caitlin1591

6.   AnnaPhilomena

7.   amdedinboro

8.   robowasabi

9.   elwen

10. tennisdancer51

Time is running out for teens 13-18 to enter the $1000 book trailer contest! Please help spread the word to teens and teachers and librarians. The deadline for submissions is December 15th.

Create a video book trailer for the novel "Hugging the Rock" by Susan Taylor Brown.

Put together a cast and act it out, create an animation, or use photos with text set to music – it’s up to you. Be creative. Have fun. Make people want to read the book.

More details can be found at the Freshbrain.org website: http://tinyurl.com/rocktrailer

SUMMARY OF RULES
- U.S resident only between 13 and 18 years of age (as of the close of the contest)
- 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length and in a standard video format (.wmv, .mov, .avi, .mp4)
- Your own creation, NO copyrighted material
- Include a brief description of the process you followed
- Deadline for entries is 12/15/09

JUDGING
Judging will be based on the following criteria. Please see the official rules for more details.
- Creativity (50%)
- Consistency with the book (25%)
- Fit and finish (25%)

AWARDS
- The winner will receive a $1000 scholarship!

I am so excited to finally be able to announce my secret project I’ve been working on with the wonderful folks at FreshBrain – The Technology Exploration Platform for Teens. We’re offering a contest for kids 13-18 to create a book trailer for my book, Hugging the Rock and the prize is a $1000 scholarship! How cool is that?

FreshBrain is an educational non-profit so the use of the website for teens, teachers, homeschoolers, is completely free! So teachers, if you haven’t already checked it out, I highly recommend it. Here’s a bit about FreshBrain from their website:

FreshBrain provides teens with the opportunity to explore, engage, and create through activities and projects. FreshBrain takes advantage of the latest technologies, such as web conferencing and social networking, to provide a very progressive environment where teens can complete activities and work together on projects. This experience is enhanced with Advisors, available to support and mentor teens who are working on projects, with the intention of increasing the likelihood of success. In addition, FreshBrain provides teens with tools and training in the latest technologies to complete these projects.

On with the contest! I hope you’ll consider helping to spread the word about this opportunity for teens.

Please feel free to copy and paste from this post or if you want to link directly to the FreshBrain sign-up page, you can use this tiny url: http://tinyurl.com/rocktrailer

Create a video book trailer for the novel "Hugging the Rock" by Susan Taylor Brown.

Put together a cast and act it out, create an animation, or use photos with text set to music – it’s up to you. Be creative. Have fun. Make people want to read the book.

More details can be found at the Freshbrain.org website: http://tinyurl.com/rocktrailer

SUMMARY OF RULES
- U.S resident only between 13 and 18 years of age (as of the close of the contest)
- 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length and in a standard video format (.wmv, .mov, .avi, .mp4)
- Your own creation, NO copyrighted material
- Include a brief description of the process you followed
- Deadline for entries is 12/15/09

JUDGING
Judging will be based on the following criteria. Please see the official rules for more details.
- Creativity (50%)
- Consistency with the book (25%)
- Fit and finish (25%)

AWARDS
- The winner will receive a $1000 scholarship!

Only a few days left to enter the easy, peasy contest to win a copy of SAY THE WORD by Jeannine Garsee, aka onegrapeshy . The deadline is midnight this coming Saturday. All the details here.

I remember reading something by Beverly Cleary who used to win tons of contests. She said she would ask how many entries there were in a contest and was often very surprised to find out how few people had actually entered. Proving that you can’t win if you don’t enter.

I wonder if someone who posts on Verla’s board or other gathering places would mind helping to spread the word? Thanks!

Don’t forget to enter my contest to win a copy of Jeannine Garsee’s new book, SAY THE WORD. You have one week left and the contest is easy, peasy! Honest.

All you have to do is help me get the best, funniest, most intelligent, heartwarming or heartwrenching interview from Jeannine yet. Like I said, easy peasy. Just send in a question for Jeannine to answer and she’ll pick her favorite. That person will win a copy of SAY THE WORD.

There’s also a second chance to win by helping me promote the contest on your blog. Just write up about it and send me the link and I’ll draw one winner from everyone who helps out.

All the details here.

You can send your entries to me either by PM or email to susantaylorbrown AT gmail DOT com 

Easy peasy, right?

Edited to add a change in the rules!

Don’t ya just love a contest when the prize is the brand spanking new book by one of our own?

We all know her as

onegrapeshy  that sweet-talking nurse who takes care of folks just one grape shy of a full bunch of somethings. She is also known as Jeannine Garsee, the fantabulously talented author of the YA novel Before, After, and Somebody in between and now, FINALLY, she has a new book coming out SOON!. March 17th to be exact.

Here’s just a little bit about the book:
 

Dredging up the past can knock the present right off balance.

The world expects perfection from seventeen-year-old Shawna Gallagher, and for the most part, that’s what they get. She dates the right boys, gets good grades, and follows her father’s every rule. But when her estranged lesbian mother dies, it’s more than perfect Shawna can take. Suddenly, anger from being abandoned ten years ago is resurfacing along with Shawna’s embarrassment over her mother’s other family. As she confronts family secrets and questions from the past, Shawna realizes there’s a difference between doing the perfect thing and doing the right thing.

Shawna’s honest and relatable voice will draw readers in and hold them until the last page in this coming-of-age story. Jeannine Garsee has delivered a compulsively readable second novel, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Laurie Halse Anderson.
 

                                               ****************************************
And just to tease you a teeny, tiny, bit. Here’s the very first line from the book:

"When the phone slashes a machete through my brain at six fifteen a.m. it can mean only one of two things: Dad somehow found out I was sucking face with Devon Connolly last night. Or somebody’s dead."
                                               ****************************************
You know SO want to read this book as soon as possible!

So here’s the thing. The interview/contest with Jim Averbeck was such a hit that I decided to do it again.

I want to interview Jeannine but I need your help to make it a good one. When you are promoting a new book there are often a lot of opportunities for interviews but after a while there are only so many ways you can answer the question "Where did you get the idea for your book?" You begin to long for that great/unique/offbeat/ or just plain weird question that will give something different to say. Send in a question for Jeannine to answer and the very best interview question will win. Best is a relative term as judged by, well, Jeannine herself.

Let’s see how creative we can get about the writer, the book new book, her creative process, whatever! I’ll let Jeannine pick her favorite question and the person who submitted that question will win a copy of the SAY THE WORD.

Oh, what the heck. I love supporting my writer friends so I’m going to throw it
a second chance for you to win a free book.

Yep, that’s right. A second chance to win a copy of SAY THE WORD. All you have to do is post about the contest on your blog or your Facebook page, making sure you mention the name of the book and author and then send me the link.

Edited to add a change in the rules! (It would be nice if you post the cover too but I know photos are hard for some people so you can just post about the contest and link back here for a second entry.)  I’ll draw one random name from everyone who helps spread the word. Make sure to send me the link or post a comment about it to my blog because I don’t always catch everything out there.

There you have it. Two chances to win. Send in your best interview question and help promote the contest.

Here are the rules. Relax, there aren’t that many of them.

1. You can enter twice. Once with an interview question and once by spreading the word.
2. In the case of identical questions the one will be used by the person who submitted the question first.
3. All entries must be received by, hmmm, midnight, Saturday, February 21st.

You can send your entries to me either by PM me or susantaylorbrown AT gmail DOT com 

Put BLOG CONTEST in the subject line, please. Good luck!

What fun! 

Dori Chaconas, 

dorichaconas 

, is having a poetry writing contest about cheese. You only have one week to enter so head on over now for all the details.The winner will get a signed copy of one of Dori’s wonderful books, Cork and Fuzz!

Today is the last day to enter the contest to win a copy of IN A BLUE ROOM by Jim Averbeck.

It’s easy to win! All you have to do is post your best interview question for him right here in the comments. Jim will pick the best question and that person will win a free autographed copy.

Plus Jim will answer all the questions! Help me out here – let’s give Jim a fun interview.

More ways to win can be found here.

You only have a few days left to win an AUTOGRAPHED copy of Jim Averbeck’s stunning picture book, IN A BLUE ROOM.

Entering is easy! Just leave an interview question for Jim right here in the comments section. If you don’t have a LJ account, you can still enter, just make sure I know how to contact you in case you do win.

Here’s the deal – when you are promoting a new book there are often a lot of opportunities for interviews but after a while there are only so many ways you can answer the question “Where did you get the idea for your book?” You begin to long for that great/unique/offbeat/ or just plain weird question that will give something different to say. Send in a question for Jim to answer and the very best interview question will win. Best is a relative term as judged by, well, Jim himself!

I am actually giving away 3 copies of this book so there are 3 ways to enter. Read about the other two ways to enter here.

So put your thinking cap on and let’s give Jim some creative questions.

All entries must be received by June 1st.
Good luck! 

By now many of you have already heard about the wonderful picture book, In a Blue Room, by Jim Averbeck, illustrated by Tricia Tusa. (Harcourt, 2008)

It is being hailed as the “perfect bedtime book” in many a review. And rightly so. In a Blue Room is a lovely, lyrical story with visual surprises on every page and absolute sense of “rightness” at the end. If you are looking for a gift for a new baby, put this at the top of your list. I am not book reviewer so I won’t even try to do the book justice but you can read some of the great reviews here: ShelfElf , Well Read Child , 7-Imp , Paper Doll and Book Loons.

Now Jim and I go way back. Okay, maybe not SO way back but I do know him personally because he was the SCBWI Regional Advisor for my area for a few years and in charge of our wonderful conference held at Asilomar every February. When I first met Jim my thought was that he must already be a multi-published author/illustrator because up on the stage he just oozed the kind of confidence and humor that I felt sure had to come from many years of experience. But no, come to find out, although he was already an accomplished artist, he was just (at that time) beginning his journey toward becoming a published author.

Jim is the kind of person that you just want to get to know better. Trust me on this. He’s not blogging (yet) but I hope we can soon convince him to do so because his is the kind of attitude that should be shared across the kidlitosphere. I decided I wanted to do an interview with Jim to help spread the word about his wonderful book but also to help bloggers get to know Jim. Then I went and read the few interviews that are already out there and was hit with the proverbial writer’s block that comes as a result of reading the words of other talented writers.

So I figured the best thing I could do would be to pass the buck, errr, get some help, uhmmm, hold a contest. And because I am overachiever and believe in perpetuating my overachieverness, I am giving you not one, not two, but three, yes THREE chances to win an autographed copy of In a Blue Room.

Chance #1 – Be the best
Here’s the deal – when you are promoting a new book there are often a lot of opportunities for interviews but after a while there are only so many ways you can answer the question “Where did you get the idea for your book?” You begin to long for that great/unique/offbeat/ or just plain weird question that will give something different to say. Send in a question for Jim to answer and the very best interview question will win. Best is a relative term as judged by, well, Jim himself.

Chance #2 – Take the quiz
So far there are five posted interviews about Jim and his new book. Read the interviews (they might give you some good ideas on chance #1) and send in your answers to following five questions. One answer can be found (oddly enough) in each of the five interviews. 

The interviews: 
Seven Impossible Things , The Well Read Child , Charlotte’s Library , Lynn Hazen , Tales From Mount Rushmore

The questions:
#1- The main character’s name in the book is Alice. Where did the name come from?
#2 – Where was Jim when he observed the total solar eclipse in March of 2006?
#3 – What is Jim’s favorite dessert?
#4 – What are the names of the two teachers Jim credits getting him interested in reading and art?
#5 – Where is Jim’s blue room studio located?

All entries with the correct answers will go into a hat and one winner will be drawn.

Chance #3 – Get lucky.
Post about this contest in your blog, on myspace, etc and then comment back here with where the link is. Everyone who posts a link about the contest will be entered in a drawing for an autographed copy of Jim’s book.

The rules:
All entries must be received by June 1st. That’s pretty much it. Send all entries to: susantaylorbrown AT gmail DOT com 

Put BLOG CONTEST in the subject line, please. Good luck!

I’m back. Sort of. Wading into the cold blog waters one toe at a time.

We have moved. We have unpacked a lot of boxes. (The books, mostly.) We are far, far from settled. 

Thank you to crew at ARS Technica who came over and made the move an ARS meet. Also a big thanks to my buddies Mac and Tom from work.  More on everything I hope later today but for now, we have a book box contest winner!

jodyfeldman

Jody guessed 236 and the final book box count was 232. 

Jody, send me a mailing address and I’ll send you a copy of either Hugging the Rock or Oliver’s Must-do List. 

And a thanks to

kellyrfineman

 for the LJ nudge to post. Sorry it still took me a week to get here.

I am trying to resurface from packing (yes still) and doing all the things needed to organize this move, and the repairs and stuff to the house we want done before we move in, etc, etc, etc.

And I thought, ( channeling my very best

cynthialord 

and 

lisayee

 )that what we really need around here is another contest. Okay, maybe it is just a pathetic attempt to make sure y’all don’t forget about me while I am too busy moving to post. So here’s the deal – we are moving 6,000 books, more or less. Probably more. The estimate was based on how many bookshelves we had and taking an average per shelf. 

The contest question is this: how many boxes will it take to move 6,000 books? I am numbering each box and keeping a notebook of what is in each one. I can give you a couple of clues. One, I’m not using any boxes bigger than the cartons a case of printer paper comes in. In fact, that’s what the majority of the books are packed in. And two, there are already over 100 boxes. 

So pick a number and leave it in the comment section. Read the comments to make sure your number hasn’t already been chosen since each number can only be used by one person (think football pool). I try to post a list each day. And what will the winner receive for this amazing feat of luck? 

A book, of course. Your choice of one of my books.

Just a reminder that Girls Life magazine online is giving away free books. 10 books a day for every day in September and Hugging the Rock is the book giveaway for Monday, September 25th.

If you have a tween or teen girl in your life, send her to Girls Life for more info. When you first go to the Girl’s Life website there’s a column on the right side of the page that says GIVEAWAY OF THE DAY! It’s right under the “subscribe” button. If you want to know what books are being given away what day, download the download the Babetastic Books Calendar.

Read the Girls Life review.

(And if you’re not a tween or teen girl and you still want a copy of Hugging the Rock I’m sure you can find a copy for yourself by going here or here or even here.)

And if you’ve already read the book, please consider asking your local library to order a copy, mention it to your school librarian and/or post a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or even the Tricycle Press website. Every book needs champions!  

Girls Life magazine online is giving away books every day in September and I am excited that Hugging the Rock is the giveaway for September 25th. Every week they are posting reviews of the books for the week and then every day girls can enter. They are giving away 10 copies per day of a single book. There’s a calendar that you can download (pdf) that shows all the books they are giving away.

Plus, everyone who enters is automatically entered in a drawing to receive a copy of all 30 books!

Tell any young girls you know to check it out. There are some great books on the list.

I decided at the nearly the very last minute to enter the SmartWriters contest and I’m glad that I did. I entered one of my favorite historical picture books, Mama’s Wedding Dress, and it received an honorable mention. (judged by Fran Rusackas) and Roxyanne said it made her weep. (I think I am destined to make people cry with my work)

I also entered a few poems from my current verse novel Mad Tastes Like Broccoli and it won 2nd place (judged by Sonya Sones). Oh my goodness! I am thrilled beyond belief as I have been dancing around Mad Tastes Like Broccoli for months and this is a very much needed kick in the behind to move forward on it. And to have Sonya Sones whom I admire tremendously read my work (and I’m told she made some comments – yeah!) well, I am just tickled. 

Congratulations to the rest of the winners and especially to Laura Purdie Salas who WON the poetry category with her collection of poems on the 50 States. Laura and I are in a critique group together and I couldn’t be more happy for her.

This sure helps make up for the ouch in the Kirkus review for Hugging the Rock though they did give me a nice last line quote, “a poignant tale of father-daughter love and friendship.”

Just a quick note to let you know that today is the last day to enter the Hugging the Rock cover contest. See all the details here and enter before midnight tonight. One category for kids and another for adults.

If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to get your entry in for the Hugging the Rock cover contest. Entries are due by midnight tomorrow, Monday. If you forgot (gasp!) here are the contest details. 

I thought this would be an easy and fun contest but now I know that next time it needs to be even easier. I think laurenbarnholdt gets the prize for best contest to create buzz about her book. Brilliant, Lauren, simply brilliant.

If you did enter the cover contest you should have received an email or a blog post that lets you know I received your entry. If you did not get a followup from me, please let me know as I fear some huge files might not have made it through email.

More update on bees and trees and the broken finger saga later.

Special info for kids who want to enter has been added!

Following in the footsteps of lisayee and her photo caption contest and the Contest for the contest currently being run by John Green I hereby announce the great, the wonderful HUGGING THE ROCK BOOK COVER CONTEST.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to come up with your own version of the same cover that the fabulously talented Michael Morgenstern designed for my book Hugging the Rock.  Your own model (a stuffed bear, your pet monkey, your kid), your own rock, (a bowling ball, a pair of shoes, an actual rock), your own, well you get the idea. If you need inspiration, you can always read the excerpt of the book. You do not have to be an artist to win this. Truly. You do, however, have to be able to take a picture of your submission and email it to me in order to enter.

Let see, we need things like rules and deadlines and judges and some kind of prize, don’t we? 

PRIZE – At first I was going to use this to give away a couple of the remaining ARCs I have but I changed my mind. 

Well, sorta. 

Here’s what I’m going to do. Lisa Yee had over 60 entries in her caption contest. Take that number, divide it by 3 and multiply it by how hot it is wherever you are and I don’t know about you but I get the number 21. Okay. I picked 21 because it’s my favorite number. If there are less than 21 entries, the winner  will receive one of the last few remaining ARCs of Hugging the Rock. But if there are more than 21 entries I will award the winner one of the first, not yet in stores, actual hardback REAL BOOK copies of HUGGING THE ROCK. You know what that means, don’t you? You have to help spread the word of the contest. (Please)

Rules? Enter as many times as you like. Promise not to yell at me if you don’t win. And have fun.

ADDITIONAL INFO – CHILDREN ARE WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED TO ENTER. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR AGE ON YOUR ENTRY AND WE’LL PUT ALL THE KIDS IN A CATEGORY OF THEIR OWN.

Deadline will be Monday July 31st.

Email photos of your submission to contest AT susantaylorbrown DOT com (replacing the AT and DOT with @ and .) by midnight on the 31st.

Judges? Of course. What kind of a contest would it be without a judge or two or three? I might even tell you who they are . . . tomorrow!

NOTE: For those of you who were hoping for some sort of writing contest, all I can say is STAY TUNED!

Don’t forget that you can also subscribe to my newsletter for another chance to win a copy of the ARC. There will be two more newsletter winners drawn, one for July and one for August. Sign up now for your chance to win!

Well heck. I was all set to launch my contest idea. Then I went over to myspace to catch up on things there and saw that John Green was having a contest to give away a book too. And of course the lovely Lisayee had done her own photo caption contest earlier. But I caught John’s bulletin when he first posted it and thought wow, what a good idea, since all I did was ask you guys for suggestions for a contest but he is holding a CONTEST for the best contest idea. But like I said, it was early and no one had responded to him yet. So I came back over here to post the details about the contest idea I came up with for ME, which was a design the cover contest, and now I see over on myspace that someone made that suggestion to John so it will look like I am copying him. Grumble. Other than those that think I am copying the aforementioned Lisa Yee.