Contest!!

Okay so here it begins. First here's a picture of the fun chibi's that I'll be giving away:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/parisbva...

And here are the details:

Most points win (if there are some with the same amount of points it will be a drawing).

How do you get points? Note you can do this for each book. Name must be associated even if it's a fake one. Anonymous is too easy to fake, sorry.

Review on Amazon: 5 pts
Review on ARE: 5 pts
Review on BN: 5 pts
Review on GR: 5 pts
(another review site i missed?): 5 pts
Like on amazon: 1 pt
Rating alone on any of the above sites: 1 pt.

Reviews do not need to be long, just hey I liked this or didn't like this, or whatever. Once you've gotten all your ratings done, please post in reply with what you've done so I can tally points.

I'm trying to think up some secondary prizes.

Runtime: this contest starts today Dec 21, 2012 and Runs until New Years eve.

Any questions?

Reminder!

Today is the chat on Goodreads. So stop by if you have some time. The blog hop starts Xmas day. I do have a set of chibi dolls I'd like to give away, but not sure how to do that yet. I know some of you who went to GRL got to see them as I gave away two sets. And you can see pictures of them on my FB page.

Did you guys want another snippet from Sam? Talk to me folks.

Chat coming up!

So on December 8th, I think it is, I'll be doing a GR chat hosted by Dreamspinner. Not sure what time yet, so I'll keep you updated.

I've never done one of those chats before, so I hope someone shows up! :)

Obsessed much?

So I don't really consider myself a huge modern music fan. I hate listening to the radio. The whole play the same 40 songs over and over drives me nuts, and then all the talking... 

In my car there is always a CD going. At home I usually have my earbuds in and my ipod playing. Right now I've been obsessed with Adam Lambert. Got an acoustic cd from his website, that I was expecting to be only okay, since acoustic sets usually suck even for artists I love, but I have fallen madly in love with it.

I have not yet seen him perform live. I sort of avoid that if I really like an artist, because most can't translate the polish of a full set of recorded tracks, to live. It's very different to perform live, I used to sing so I know this.

About eight years ago I was pretty obsessed with Matchbox 20. I still like them, but would not pay to go to a show again. The first show I went to was shortly after their first album Yourself or Someone like you. Rob Thomas was awful. I couldn't figure out how such a terrible singer could record such a great album, but sing so badly on stage. Later it was said that he was heavily on drugs, which probably equated to the bad performance. After shelling out $50 for a ticket, I didn't want a repeat. So I waited, skipped many shows only deciding to try again a little over a year ago when Rob had done a little solo thing. This show was cheaper cause it was at a casino, but $35 is a lot per ticket, and my mom wanted to go really badly so I bought her one too. The show wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. His voice was better, the acoustics sucked and some of the songs did not translate well to an acoustic set. My mom wanted a Tshirt, but they were $35 and I said no.

Now I look back on that an the numerous other fan girl moments I've had with many artists who have turned me off with there personality and begin to wonder why I get obsessed anyway.

Before Adam was a man called Darren Hayes, former lead singer of Savage Garden, and one of the most asinine men I've ever had the displeasure to met several times. I even flew all the way to Dublin to see him once. But he's not good with people, he's very self absorbed, and now no one much cares what he does. So it makes me wonder if the music made him that way, or did he start that way? I sort of think that you have to have it inside of you to begin with.

Last night I watched a long interview with Adam who was talking about a subject that I have been hearing about a lot lately, Outsider syndrome or Impostor syndrome. It means that even though you're part of something that makes you "famous" like being a recording artist or actor or published author, you feel like you're not really one of them, that somehow you cheated to get there.

Now this is something that most of us fairly new writers can relate to, I think. At least I do. I've been writing since I was 5, and am in my thirties, only published for a little over a year, so it's still fairly new to me. It doesn't feel real sometimes. And I worry that I disappoint people even though I'm doing the best I can. It's hard being in the spotlight and having people expect things from you. And while my spotlight is no where near Adam Lambert's it's pretty hard to find the confidence to continue sometimes.

I love writing, crafting the story, building a character. I get my inspiration from lots of places, though I've never written fan fiction, scenarios often play out in my head. No I don't imagine I'm ever with Adam. That would be silly. The man is gay and has a hot boyfriend, I'm perfectly only with that. :P

You'd think knowing all this would keep me from obsessing over anyone or anything, but it doesn't. Maybe it's some weird psychological thing I just haven't read about yet. I dunno. But I'm pretty obsessed. Was thinking about flying to SFO to see him perform for xmas. I won't mostly because I'm afraid of disappointment. I do have posters of him in my house, he's very pretty, and am have a character who oddly enough came out looking a lot like him (was not intentional but hey whatever works).

So what do you guys obsess about? Am I just weird? Sorry for the long winded post.

YA Info

So I post here about my YA stuff, but I can't post there about my adult stuff. Something to do with libraries and all that so I'm being careful.

I've created a fb fan page for the YA instead of doing a whole other profile in hopes that it will limit the naked men posted to it that I will have to delete.

I'm currently slogging through my second beta for Evolution, and thinking I really need to get started on part two. Winter just makes me so tired. I need to get back in the habit of getting up early to write.

Anyway, if you're on fb and would like to add yourself to the updates please like my new YA page:http://www.facebook.com/SamKadence

Reading

I'm a crazy reader. I go through five or six books a week and I reread a lot of stuff. That being said, it's hard to find really good reads! 

In the past few weeks I've been reading a lot of YA trying to figure out what has made the YA genre grow so much in the past few years. I really think it's cause it's really not YA anymore. There is more sex and violence in most of these teen books than there was in the adult stuff I was reading.

So anyway I read this big who-ha (is that word dating me?) about this big named author who has been ousted by her publishing company and now has ghost writers writing her series. Everyone is like "be true to the series" when the original author freely admits she signed a contract that said "work for hire" which means you own nothing.

Work for hire in the writers world really means you get paid once for something you write, but they can use it over and over again and do whatever they want with it. It was actually one of the first bits of advice I ever got from another author. Unless you're a technical writer you should never write "work for hire." 

Now keep in mind this is still really popular. When people write for anthologies, that is essentially what they are doing. The publisher pays for the piece once, but can reuse it, and any element of it whenever and wherever they want. So have caution.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the stuff the ghost writer has written for this author (not even ghost writer cause the real writer's name is on the book too), and thinking, so you were kind of not smart enough to look into your options 20 years ago and are begging for the Stephanie Meyer fame you could have had if only you'd been more informed. No sympathy. But I've never really been all that nice when it comes to people who feel they were cheated cause they didn't "know" any better.

So reading! Xmas is coming, and we all know how I feel about the holidays, but there is a positive side! Books, books, and more books!

No, no one buys me books anymore, not if they want to remain my friends anyway, but I do get gift cards and when the light is low, and there's snow outside, there is no better time to read. Snuggled up under a blanket, or with a cat on your lap (or both), and a good book, (or reader) in your hand.

I stopped into a BN this past weekend and they have those giant hardbound "classics" in for Xmas. I was eyeing the Alice in Wonderland one. But $20? I'm sure I can get that for my reader for cheaper, but I'm still tempted by the physical book. It's different to hold it in your hand, and yes I have a lot of real books.

If I could give anything to everyone for the holidays it would be books. It makes my heart hurt to find out that so many young kids can barely read. And I was there! I hated reading, it was so hard, until I was in the fifth grade and someone at the library pointed out this book about Annie Oakley. And after I'd struggled through rereading that one three times cause I liked the gun-toting chick, they gave me Bunnicula, which is where all my para love came from.

So what will I be getting my nieces for the holidays? (nevermind the giant Barbie playhouse on layaway) Oh yeah, the Bunnicula pack. And I always donate that set, as well as the Little Prince to some local reader programs.

Haven't read them yet? Why the heck not? LOL. Anyway, no matter what you do as the holidays coming at us like a million ton freight train, get reading!

You'll be surprised the places it can take you. :)

Xmas giveaways

Or solstice if you prefer. I'm looking for ideas. I had to reorder some shirts cause I ruined three trying to sign them. LOL Live and learn right?

So what should I do for a holiday giveaway? I'd like to get some reviews and rating over on Amazon, so I'm trying to figure out something to incorporate that.

A book reader maybe? Don't you all have one though?

A hoodie?

A set of the cute plushies of the boys I had made (gave away two sets at grl and have one left)?

I think probably a points system will be put in place. You get points to put your name in the bucket for prizes. Adding up multiple points of course provides better chances. Just trying to figure all that out.

So help me out. What would you want for xmas if you were the big bad winner of some crazy Lissa Kasey contest?