Winners and Nominees...

Yay, I'm happy to report that
Invasion of the IQ Snatchers has been nominated for a Saskatchewan Book Award for Children's Literature.

If I can work this right, I'll get a free lunch, a free dinner, and, $1500.00! Uh, that last part would mean actually winning the prize, tho. There are some lovely other books nominated.

Speaking of prizes, the free Villainology contest was won by Sandra Kasturi! Yay, a free book. Other winners too numerous to mention came from the UK, the US, and someplace called Canada. I just mailed everything today. I betcha they can't wait until their mysterious prizes arrive!

Cheers!


Art

Final Day of Villainous Contest

It's the final day of the win a free Villainology book contest (see my Oct. 9th post for details)! At 9PM Mountain Time I'll be doing the draw. There have already been thousands and thousands of entrants (remember authors like to exaggerate). It'll be kind of like bingo, though. I have prepared a special rolling glass ball and will be stocking it with eyeballs. Each eyeball will have one of your names etched on it. I know, it sounds icky, but I had to do something with all those extra eyeballs. Oh, there's a similar contest on Facebook in my Villainology group, so feel free to enter both.
Hey who's this?

And this?

Neat, eh? They're both from the villain lineup at the start of the book. That Derek Mah (the illustrator), he's so brilliant.

Cheers, salutations, and all that jazz,

Art

Obsessing Authors

It's day 2 of the win a free Villainology book contest (see previous post for details)! And, also, it's the day after Villainology was officially unleashed upon North America. Now something that authors do obsessively (well at least this author) is wonder such things as...how is my book doing? Are people picking it up right now? Did anyone order it? Instead of reading the entrails of pigs we watch Amazon rankings obsessively. So much so that our eyes pop out:

Okay, we don't look that bad (the above pic is actually one of those odd things that happened while I was making the trailer for Villainology (see previous post). It's a transition between Billy the Kid and The Wicked Witch. I thought it was so gross I'd share it with you). Anyway, Villainology is currently #5,853,389 in Books on Amazon. Now what does that mean? Do I have to find 5.8 million buyers before it reaches the top? And it says there's only 1 copy left. Did that mean they had 2 copies and sold 1? Was the book starting at #10000000? See, it's very confusing. Yet on B&N the book is at # 218,505? Is that better? On Amazon.ca the book isn't listed as being released yet. What? Get with the times! Ah, where are those pig entrails?

Don't worry, I am doing some writing today. It's just kinda fun obsessing...

Art

It's V Day! And a contest!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Villains and Villainesses, I come not to praise Caesar, but...wait wrong speech!

It's V day! That's right Villainology: Fabulous Lives of the Big, the Bad, and the Wicked is now officially on store shelves or in little mail rooms of online booksellers waiting to be shipped in fancy little packages. Imagine, thousands and thousands of books crying out for a home. They make great door jambs!

Look, the powers that be, whoever they are, put together a Villainology trailer to celebrate:



Oh, and to further celebrate I'm going to give away one signed copy of Villainology to someone who reads this blog. The trick is, since this blog appears on LJ, Blogspot, Myspace and some rather disreputable places I have to find a fair way to do this...so, whoever goes to the Villainology section of my website, arthurslade.com, and tells me what the "word of the day" is, then e-mails me (click on the old telephone on the top right of my web page) will have a chance at winning. I’ll do the draw three days from now (Oct. 12th). Remember to include your e-mail address in the body of the e-mail. Five other entrants will receive a fabulous mystery prize.

Onward! Upward! Away!

Art

Review/Whew/Thanksgiving

Well, I just read one of the nicest reviews of my career. It's for Villainology and it's here in Canadian Materials magazine. It has the best "quotable" line ever! Here it is! "Villainology is the ultimate literary gateway drug." I soooo want to get a t-shirt with that on it.

Oh, and I have to say, whew! And woo hoo! I just finished ten days straight of working on Worse Than Starkers and sent the latest draft to my editors. I've rewritten this book countless times now and felt like I've been looking so close and carefully at it that I was getting to the point of actually unravelling the DNA of my characters (and the plotline). So, whew! I won't have to look at it for awhile. Of course, now is that odd time where I wonder: do they like it? Did it work?

To take my mind off of such questions I plan on eating as much turkey as possible on Thanksgiving Monday (Canadian Thanksgiving, that is). I find food takes my mind off most everything.

Cheers,


Art