"WORDS ARE, IN MY NOT-SO-HUMBLE OPINION, OUR MOST INEXHAUSTIBLE SOURCE OF MAGIC. CAPABLE OF BOTH INFLICTING INJURY, AND REMEDYING IT." ~ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

100 Followers = My 1st Giveaway Contest!

Yesterday my blog hit 100 followers--and then some!! I did a happy dance... which Nelson (my darling husband) walked in on and laughed at for the rest of the night.  I'd like to give a shout out to Harley May, who jumped right into spot number 100!

And now--as a HUGE thank you to all of my followers, I'm holding my first ever blog contest!  The rules are simple and the prizes are pretty awesome... if I do say so myself!

Sara passed 100 Followers Contest

It's a points-based contest, with first and second prizes! Here are the rules:
  1. You must be a follower to enter.
  2. Each point you earn will give you one entry... get 15 points? you get 15 entries!
  3. All entries will be added to a spreadsheet and I will use random.org to select the two winners!
  4. You can live anywhere in the world to win!
  5. Entries close at 11:59PM ET on Tuesday, January 19th.
Here are the point values:
  • 2pts -- Leave a comment on this post and tell me the following TWO things:
          1) what your favorite babbling flow post has been so far,
          2) a topic you'd like to see me post about in the future
  • 1pt -- Tweet about this contest (up to 2 points per day)
         **Make sure to add @saramcclung to the tweet so I can keep track
         **Also, let me know if your twitter name is different than your username!
  • 5pts -- Blog about this contest
         **Make sure to let me know about the post so I count it!
  • 3pts -- Refer a follower to this blog, who mentions that you're the reason they're here
And here are the PRIZES!!

FIRST PLACE
3 Books!

SECOND PLACE
2 Books!
  • Lament AND Ballad (by Maggie Stiefvater)
    Dangerous faeries. Otherwordly music. Unrequited love. Deirdre Monaghan and her best friend James Morgan's lives change forever as they encounter the vicious and beautiful world of Faerie.
The contest is now open!!!
Enter away lovies!

♥ me

31 comments:

  1. This is great! Congrats on your 100 followers!!!! I was thinking last night that I should do a contest as soon as I reach 50 followers (I"m at 47 now) but I think I'll wait till 100. My favorite post so far was your Twilight post and I'd like to see you post something about who you go to for critiquing purposes (anyone and everyone) and how you do it. Do you let them read one chapter at a time, a couple, wait until the full draft is finished, etc.

    I don't twitter..maybe I should.

    I'm now on to post something on my own blog about this contest!

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  2. Woot! Great contest! All of those books look awesome!

    My favorite post that I've read was the one where you talked about cutting scenes where nothing happened. You're right, the advice was obvious, but the little tidbits you provided throughout - like keeping a deleted scenes file (doh! Wish I'd thought of that sooner!) or commenting on why scenes are important (and cutting them if I can't think of a reason) just made the whole post even more relevant.

    I'd love to read something on how you convey emotions in scenes without being cheesy. Something on your critique process, like PP asked for, would be great, too.

    I'll be tweeting about the contest (@HeatherTrese) and I'll post a blog about it this afternoon!

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  3. Fabulous contest and congrats! That's exciting! I'm new to your blog, relatively, but I did love your almost kiss scene. :) Snippets are so fun! I just tweeted about this as well. My username is NisaLS. I will be blogging about it too.

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  4. Oh, you just know I'm going to enter, Sara. I'm an absolute sucker for craft books! I'll be back once I've blogged and tweeted and stuff.

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  5. Congrats on the 100 followers. I'm not entering bc I already have all of those books, but very cool contest!

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  6. Let's see.
    I liked the last post on conflict.
    How about POV?

    You need to tweet about this so we can re-tweet ;)

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  7. Holy cow!!! Loving this contest. Although it just so happens I've already got the Self-Editing book *wink wink* but I will definitely enter!!! First, let me blog and tweet and glory in Sara's contest, and then I'll enter. And congrats on your 100th following! I reached mine yesterday, and was totally thrilled. I feel like I should send my 100th follower a prize--actually, she suggested it, but I totally agreed ;) How cool that Harely was your 100th follower. She rocks.

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  8. I loved your post, On Fear and Baring your Soul. I thought your words were so true. I also loved your post,Young Writers...Rock on! It's too hard to choose between them, so I choose both! :D
    I think if you did a post on how you found YA as your genre it would be interesting :D

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  9. Awesome contest Sara!

    I love ALL your posts (and you know how much I hate picking favorites) but I'm going to go with your post about the #amwritingparty, because that particular brainchild of yours affects my life daily. So glad you dreamed it up. :)

    And future blog posts--are you sure you want ME to suggest that (I mean, you have seen the kinds of things I put Frankie through, right?) No...I'll be nice. (Though I do want to see a picture of gray kitty one of these days). I would love you to post about staying true to POV, since you ALWAYS catch me when I mess up and step out of Sophie's POV.

    And I tweeted about this, so I think that means I have 3 points. Thanks!

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  10. Yay for contests and yay for 100 followers! Congratulations!

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  11. Just found your blog at about the perfect time! Congratulations on hitting 100 followers! **happy dance in your honor**

    I look forward to reading more!

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  12. what a great idea! I thought about holding a contest at 50 (I've never done one either), but didn't. So now I have to wait to hit 100 also.

    You have great posts! how fun!

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  13. I'm a new follower so I can't really commit to any favorites just yet.

    I'd love to see you write about gnomes...just sayin...

    Also those are some awesome book! I have all but "the Dark Divine" in the grand prize category :)

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  14. Woohoo! Congrats on the well deserved 100 followers!

    I love reading all of your posts, but 2 of my faves are the Kissing scene & the one you posted on Fear.

    I'll get back to you once I've done the other stuff :)

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  15. Congrats! Well over 100 now. :)
    My fav post was your kissing scene. It was great writing AND I loved the wedding photo you included. Future posts, hmm. I'd say more teasers from your WIP.

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  16. Yay for 100 followers! I have a lot of favorite posts here, but I really like the one where you taught us the word ploce. I love learning new words:) And I'd love to see a post about your outlining process since you're doing that now.

    **Blogger will not let me login with my google account. Not sure why.

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  17. Congrats on hitting 100 followers!! Happy dances are the best, especially when you have such a good reason. :)

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  18. Congrats on 100 followers!

    I really liked your post on knowing your characters. That was a great one.

    I guess I'd like to see a post on what inspired you to write your ms. I always love to see the random things that come together to create a story in the writer's mind!

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  19. You know you can count me in, girl! But just one favorite post? You're killing me! I can't do it, so here's my top three:

    * Quotation Comment #4 (loved that Mark Twain quote)
    * Ploce as word of the day
    * Giving Feedback

    I'd like more posts like your Ploce one. :)

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  20. Okay, I tweeted it and blogged it. Sign me on up, baby!

    Plus, my fave post of yours? Your entry to Shannon's 100 followers contest. I like your flash fiction, what can I say?

    Topic to blog about? Snippets from your wippet might be nice, but I think I'd like to see you post about the parallels between dancing and writing, since both are forms of art.

    Cheers!

    Simon

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  21. I loved your kissing scene post! In the future, I'd like to see you post about being published, of course. ;) (Someday!) Also, more excerpts are always exciting.

    I tweeted about your contest and also put it in my weekly roundup blog post, here: http://thisisnotnotmydayjob.blogspot.com/2010/01/thursday-round-up.html

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  22. Okay, I've done a blog post about the contest and I will be tweeting it, too:)

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  23. Congratulations on hitting 100 followers - wow! I am a new follower, so I don't have a favorite post yet but I will eventually. Great contest and good luck to the entrants!

    Also, I heard about your blog and contest from Melissa at Chasing the Dream - please give her the three points for referring me :)

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  24. Hi, Sara-
    I'm a BRAND NEW blogger-so new, in fact, that up until I started my own on New Year's Day, I wasn't even really sure what blogs were. I'm still blogger boggled, but learning a little a day at a time and will use this as a tool to help me write daily. It's awesome that you have so many followers. I think my blog is just floating around in space-I had two comments, one from my daughter and another from a friend. In my mind, they don't count....Anyway, you've got a lot to read here, so I have catching up to do and look forward to learning from your blog.
    Good luck with your work and publications.

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  25. That's awesome! congrats and what a great contest! Renni's book is unmatched in useful advice and information. I was able to be mentored under her team and am forever, FOREVER in their debt.

    Congratulations and good luck, everyone!

    Cheers-
    G

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  26. I'm back again - I've blogged & tweeted now :) Here's the blog link:

    http://jemifraser.blogspot.com/

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  27. +2 comment
    1) this is my favorite babbling flow post!
    2) a topic in the future? maybe novelties, curiosities, ..
    +1 Tweet (http://twitter.com/sRy_/status/7791111718)
    +5 Blog (http://elultimoprimerbeso.blogspot.com/2010/01/babbling-flow-of-fledgling-scribbler_15.html)

    200 are coming soon :)
    ( my nick in Twitter is the same: @sRy_ )

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  28. Congrats!!!!

    +2 My favorite post so far was your Twilight post and I would love you to post about... I don't know.

    +1 twweted: http://twitter.com/rem_pdg/status/7794577736
    (Mi nick in twitter is @rem_pdg)

    thanks for the contest!!!

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  29. I liked your post on Conflict and Characterization and would love to see more on that. Or on writing strong scenes.

    I've posted a link to your blog/contest here.

    And thanks for the contest.

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  30. Sara, I 1. loved your Charlie vs Charles post, especially the graphic! and 2. I think you are on a great track, so I cannot recommend a topic, you are coming up with such good ones on your own anyway!

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  31. Sara, this is my first visit to your blog. I came via Hillary's blog. She said lovely things about you. Congratulations on your 100 followers!

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