Thank You! (Yes, You.)

Before 2009 ends, I wanted to stop in here and thank every single one of you who has shown kindness toward me or The Dust of 100 Dogs this year. I hate to get sappy, but seriously--without support from readers, librarians, teachers, bloggers, reviewers and AWESOME BOOKSELLERS, a book can fall into obscurity really quickly. I'm happy to say this didn't happen to D100D and it's because of YOU. Thank you! Thank you! This just in: The Dust of 100 Dogs was the bestselling book of 2009 at Aaron's Books, my local-est independent bookstore. ROCK ON Sam, Todd & Aaron! Some of you may know that I spent quite a bit of my life as a semi-hermit who interacted more often with rare fowl than human beings, so this whole promotional angle of my job can sometimes scare the heck out of me. Fact is, you guys made it easy. I threw weird contests, and you entered. I threw more weird contests, and you entered again. Thank you for this. Stay tuned for more contests in 2010. I'll be back in the new year to show off the cover art for PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ which comes out in October 2010. Until then, feel warm and fuzzy for me, will you? I just can't thank you enough. Happy New Year! PS--in case you didn't hear this, you can now download a FREE copy of Lisa McMann's WAKE. ENDS TONIGHT!! Go HERE.

Vocab Homework

In my next book, PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ, the main character, Vera Dietz, *loves* Vocab class. She would have certainly loved the new words and definitions entrants created this week for my contest to win the ARC of By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters. Here's a taste:

dawnmetcalf: Denimites: the little strings that hang from cut-off jeans. Denimite-knots: tangles in little strings that hang from cut-off jeans. russosa: Assimutilate, verb: To get a piercing just to fit in with your friends. Assimutilation: noun austenfanblogs: Blargots (interjection) what you say when something is at the tip of your tongue but you just can't remember what it is. Bianca1946: Simploject: a person who puts off any kind of project until the last minute, thus the project will be simple and not too great. bookwoman72: rainesiac: someone who forgets how to drive when it's raining out Senfaye: Sobling (noun) (a person who sobs A LOT) example: Stop acting like such a sobling! sunxxmoon: feigntent (v.) to pretend to be happy about something just because everyone else is. sunxxmoon: psychocellular (adj.) To know when and where your phone is when it rings.

After much arguing and two small fist fights, my board of contest directors has come up with a tie for the winner. Lucky for them, I do have an extra [slightly used] ARC. WINNERS: sunxxmoon & bookwoman72 I've contacted you both on Twitter! Thank you ALL for entering. ($arah- Smile your heart out :D-- thanks double for taking the time to enter here on the blog!)

Another ARC giveaway!

I just read BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS I'LL BE DEAD by Julie Anne Peters. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book at the ALAN workshop last month--and luckier still to get an accidental two in my mambo-box-o-books. I am so happy to be able to share it, because I thought it was utterly awesome. What you have to do to WIN this ARC is: Invent a new word and define it in a tweet. (140 characters or less) [Lame] EXAMPLE: Harangous (adj) when someone appears bigger because they are yelling at you. Find me on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/AS_King If you don't do Twitter, feel free to leave a 140 character or less entry in the comment area with an email address, please. CLOSING FOR ENTRIES: Wednesday Dec. 9th 11:59pm EST. Random linkage: Check out this killer interview over at bibliobuffet.com with The Disrespectful Interviewer, Lauren Baratz-Logsted.