New photo contest! And upcoming event.

They've been all over the place in the blogosphere -- authors having photo contests. Their book, their readers' creativity. I've been wanting to have one, so let's give it a go. For some awesome examples of what I'm talking about, Pat Rothfuss posted entries and winners over on his blog. Scroll down through his May and June blog posts for some incredibly creative entries.

And there will be uber cool prizes. I'm not sure how many yet, it depends on how many entries I get and how utterly fabulous they are. An easy entry is if you're going on vacation or to a convention during the next month, take a copy of my book along. Take a pic of one of my books at the Eiffel Tower, for example; or ask a famous person at a convention (politely) to "please hold this book for a second while I take your picture." For prizes, I'll go through my office closet where I keep copies of my books, ARCs of my books, perhaps some swag from my CafePress store, or if you have a favorite scene from MLTF or A&M, I could send you a handwritten, personalized and signed copy of that scene for your very own. ; ) I'll make you a deal: you think of cool photos to take, and I'll think of cool prizes to give. For a deadline, let's give it a month. The contest will end on Friday, September 5 at midnight my time (eastern US), and I'll announce the winner the following week. This will give me a little time to analyze the coolness and pick the winners. And yes, there will be more than one winner. Have fun with it!

There aren't many rules: Your photo must include one or both of my books (heck, just pick your favorite), you can enter as many times as you like -- and I would say to keep your photos tasteful, but since good taste is relative, just keep it clean. ; ) Send your photo entries to lisashearin@gmail.com, attach a JPG of the photo, and your name (for photo credit). That's it for now. If I think of something I forgot but needed to mention, I'll post it in a future blog. But those are the basic rules, and I think they'll work. Like Raine, I like to keep it simple.

Now on to the upcoming event: My author friend, James Maxey will be signing and discussing Dragonforge, the sequel to the acclaimed Bitterwood this Thursday.

James Maxey
Thursday, August 7 at 7:00 p.m.
Barnes & Noble
The Streets at Southpoint
Durham, NC

I'll be there to support James; so if you're in the area, please come by and you can talk to both of us. As an extra bribe, there'll be cake. ; )

I'll be doing a signing next month with James Maxey and Mark Van Name at the Cary, NC, Barnes & Noble (see my EVENTS page for details).

Coming up this week: Music I listen to while writing, how I plot a book, analysis of my query letter for MLTF, and book writing is hard work. Who knew? ; )

Lisa