Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a WINNER! Well. Three actually :-)

First of all... I just have to say that you guys are ALL awesome :-)  My 100 Followers contest had 30 individual entrants who wracked up a combined total of 132 points!!  You guys rock!!!

I originally planned to use random.org to select the winner, but that site only makes a random numbered list... And Nelson was already asleep when I was tallying everything and I didn't want to choose the number myself. (Okay, I know it wouldn't really matter because I'm sure you guys trust me, but still!) So, instead I used the Interactive Fruit Machine to pick the two winners! (So thanks to Lisa & Laura, because I learned about the IFM from them!)

Sooooooooo... Now for the important part!!

In FIRST PLACE, winning not one... not two... but THREE books, we have NISA!! Of Wordplay, Swordplay: The Magic of Writing

Congrats, Nisa! As soon as I have your mailing address, I'll send you these awesome babies:

• The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile (by Noah Lukeman)
  I LOVE this book--it's full of fabulous information, trust me... And it's VERY easy to read!
• Self-Editing For Fiction Writers:, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print (by Renni Brown & Dave King)
  This book has been absolutely instrumental to my editing process. The advice between its pages is brilliant!
• The Dark Divine (by Bree Despain)
  A prodigal son... A dangerous love... A deadly secret...

Coming in second is KELLY!! Of Kelly's Compositions!!

Congrats, Kelly! As soon as I have your mailing address, I'll send you these awesome babies:

• 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.

Okay, and I have to give a shout out to Heather, from See. Heather. Write... Because, I swear, it felt like every time I signed on to twitter I had a new @saramcclung reply from her about my contest! With the proportion of her points to everyone else's I could NOT believe she wasn't chosen!  So, Heather... You win the previously unannounced 3rd place!  If you send me your mailing address, you've got a $10 Borders gift card coming your way :-)

Thanks so much to everyone who participated!  Next contest happens when my b-friend list hits 200.

♥ me

Last Chance

Turn up the volume for a fun song while you read... and sing along with my new, improved lyrics!

Last dance, last chance for entering my contest
Yes, it's your last chance, for winning tonight
I need you blogging, beside tweeting, and to comment
To hold me, to follow me
'Cause when I blog I'm so, so funny

So let's enter it's the last chance
Let's go the last chance
Let's dance this last dance today

Last dance, last chance for entering my contest
Yes, it's your last chance, for winning tonight
I need you blogging, beside tweeting, and to comment
To hold me, to follow me
'Cause when I blog I'm so, so funny

So let's enter it's the last chance
Let's go the last chance
Let's dance this last dance today

Oh, I need your comments
To guide me, on what to blog about
To let me, get to know you
'Cause when I blog I want to know my followers

So, come on baby, enter now!
Come on baby, you know you wanna
Come on baby, enter my contest!


************
Alright, so by now you get it... Today's the LAST day of my contest!! I'm letting random.org pick the winner TONIGHT! So if you haven't entered yet, this is your last chance! 

Oh, and if you've blogged about the contest, MAKE SURE you left the link in the comments section... Either on this post or the original.

Reminders:

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!

• The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile (by Noah Lukeman)
  I LOVE this book--it's full of fabulous information, trust me... And it's VERY easy to read!
• Self-Editing For Fiction Writers:, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print (by Renni Brown & Dave King)
  This book has been absolutely instrumental to my editing process. The advice between its pages is brilliant!
• The Dark Divine (by Bree Despain)
  A prodigal son... A dangerous love... A deadly secret...

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.

**Playlist removed by author

♥ me

... As a Clam!

George Sand says: “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.”

Sara says: "Man, do I feel loved by my fabulous blog friends!"

Ralph Waldo Emmerson says: “Nothing can bring you happiness but yourself.”

Sara says: "Uh, yeah... and blog friends!"

Herman Cain says: “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

Sara says: "I got nothin' to add to this one. It's so true... Oh, and on top of it I love my blog friends ♥"

In case you couldn't tell from the quotes, and from the award that's been circulating...uh, and the image above... I've been awared the Happy Award! From some really, really fabulous people... So first and foremost, I want to give a huge thank you to Heather, Julie, Frankie, Southern Princess, Diana, and VR Barkowski!!

First, here are 10 things that make me happy!

1. This prank call video

Tom Mabe: Eavesdropping


2. When motivation throws itself into my fingers and I have to write.

3. Winter boots. Can not get enough!! Seriously. My friends tease me, but I almost need an entire closet to hold all that I own. The only thing I don't like about warm weather? Not being able to wear BOOTS.

4. My kitties, Piper and Lilah... For pictures of the cutest things on Earth, click here and scroll down to #2!

5. Warm weather... and the beach. (Which is wonderful because I'm going to MIAMI for a week at the end of the month/beginning of February! Oh yeah, check out the 10 day forecast baby!)

6. My family, duh

7. Everyone who's donated to the cause for Haiti. And everyone who does so now.

8. No words necessary.




9. The package I received from Shannon!! (It actually made me squee. The first and only time I will ever do so.)

10. Crossing the last thing off on my to-do list... Which has happened only about four times in my entire life!

And now, I pass this award on to 10 blogs that make ME happy!

1-3 go to my fabulous crit partners... you already know they make my world go round!
 Alexandra, at The publication follies of Miss Alexandra Shostak
 Carol, at Carol's Prints
 Shannon, at Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe

4. Angie Kate, at Always Write because I crack up every time I read the last sentence of her "About the Author" section.

5. Anissa, at Anissa off the Record because she's really funny!

6. Dennie, at Fledgling Author because she's just starting to blog and I'm enjoying reading about her process along the way!

7. Hilary Wagner because she's awesome in general. Plus she's super friendly and always informative!!

8. Natalie Brahm because she writes kickass kiss scenes gone awry, and she's sweet to boot!

9. Heather, at See Heather Write because she's really cool AND posting summaries of what she learns at the writing workshop she's attending all this week! (And I know you gave it to me, and have already received it, but you were already on my list of 10 and I really wanted to give it to you!)

10. Tere Kirkland, at The Lesser Key because she shares these wickedly informative things with her followers!


And, if you know me at all by now, you know the blogs I link to are always great--so make sure to check all these out. You'll miss out if you don't!

♥ me

Query Workshop (and I Hate Geek Squad)

Just thought I'd pass this along... If you need help with a query, Writer's Digest is offering an online query workshop on January 28th.

It's on Thursday, January 28, at 1 p.m. Eastern (12 pm Central, 11 am Mountain, 10 am Pacific) and it runs for 90 minutes. The cost is $79.00 and the presenter is Jane Friedman, publisher/editorial director of Writer's Digest.

I took this workshop back in November, and I have to tell you... It was amazing. If we weren't already blog friends back then, here's the link to the summary I posted.

The best part about the workshop (aside from Jane's absolutely stellar knowledge about the process) is that:
All registrants are invited to submit a 1-page query letter in advance of the event. All submitted queries are guaranteed a critique.

If you're interested, sign up here.


*****
In other, completely unrelated news, I'm contemplating a part-time job so that I can buy one of these babies:

Any suggested job places? I'm thinking about Borders maybe.

Because, perhaps you guessed it but the dumb-dumbs at Geek Squad have effed up, yet again with my Dell laptop. They've now had it since December 23rd. And I never want to have to deal with them again.

Oh, what's that I read/see? There are major complaints about Geek Squad all over?



Oh, and in addition to a MacBook Pro... I'm also considering purchasing and wearing this EVERY DAY.

♥ me

Fiction Chili

So here's what happens. You write a novel and you Love it. Capital L Love it. You revise it and work it and cherish it more than your neighbor cherishes their red-headed stepchild*. Then, you're in Borders, or on Goodreads, or out on the blogosphere and you hear about another book that's published (or about to be). And it sounds Just. Like. Yours. 

Panic ensues.

Well yesterday I made chili for the first time ever... from scratch. (I'm going somewhere with this, I promise.) I got a bunch of ingredients, browned some ground beef, and threw everything together in a crockpot and let it sit on low for 8 hours. Man did my house smell good. I was pumped because Nelson loves chili and I love when I impress him with my (every once in a while) culinary finesse.

Then I remembered that while Liz, my sister, was here visiting for 6 weeks she made chili too. And it was friggin' incredible. Really, I mean just D-E-licious. Nelson loved it. The huge batch she made was gone in less than two days, mostly thanks to him.  And BAM! the self-doubt came barreling in**. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I was nervous that my chili wouldn't measure up...  or that he would think I copied her recipe.

But a few seconds later I laughed at myself. Because really, when have two chili recipes ever tasted the exact same? Sure, many bowls taste similar to one another--but mostly that's a GOOD thing for people who enjoy that particular type of chili. And within the realm of chili, there are So. Many. Different. Ingredients.

Stories are just like that. Even if there are hundreds of books being written/published with the same sort of premise as yours, it's what you add to it—your blend of ingredients—that will make it unique.

In the picture above, there are fifteen different ingredients that make your particular novel stand out from all the others like it. And there could be hundreds more! (I just ran out of ingredients to label...)

So take a deep breath... Believe in yourself and in your batch of chili.

And in case you need another nudge on this, check out the stellar guest post on agent Rachelle Gardner's blog about the trap you fall into when comparing yourself to other writers.


*I can make red-head jokes. My husband has beautiful red hair and I asked his permission.
** Okay, I realize that this self-doubt is nowhere NEAR the level that writers go through, but it's all for the sake of the comparison!

♥ me