Halloween Giveaway 2013

My kids' pumpkin from 2011.

As promised, here's this year's Halloween Giveaway!

There are several goodies this time, with multiple winners to come. However, over the next two weeks I'll be adding to the big goodie box. By the time Halloween gets here there's no telling how much stuff will be in there.  :D

PRIZES:

 

* Halloween Goodie Box *

* 2 - $5.00 Amazon Gift Card *

* 3 - Liz Baker Bookmark Collection *

* Autographed copy of Time for Death (Liz Baker, bk 1) *
* Winner's choice of 1 Liz Baker book, e-Copy *

* 3 - Death Howls Twice Key Chain(s) *

* 1 - Halloween Nail Polish Collection *

To enter for your chance at one of these awesome goodies, use the Rafflecopter below and enter, enter, enter away. Some of the items on the list can even be done daily for more entries. Be sure to share with your friends while you're at it.

One of the entries below asks you to leave a blog comment answering a question. Here's your question:

 

What was your favorite Halloween costume from your childhood?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Halloween Giveaway 2012

It's that time of the year, again. Time for my annual Halloween Giveaway and my favorite time of the year! This year it's going to be a little different than in previous years, so be sure to read the following closely.

This year the giveaway will run from October 15th through October 31st. Each person will be able to collect multiple entries simply by completing a small list of "tasks". However, the main aspect of the giveaway will be the number of new fans we can bring over to the Facebook page. The more fans brought over, the more goodies at the end of the giveaway.

Starting on day 1, each day we can bring over at least 10 new fans to the Facebook page one more item will be added to the giveaway box. I'm starting the giveaway with the first three books of the Liz Baker series, in paperback form, autographed. On day 2 (after 10 more new fans) I'll add an Ambrosiacs coffee mug. On day 3, I'll add an Amazon gift certificate. Day 4, a bottle of nail polish. Day 5, candies. And on and on until Halloween!

And if we get 10 new fans for every single day of the giveaway, I'll add one more bonus goodie...bringing the grand total a whopping 20 items in the box!

The amount of goodies in the giveaway box on Halloween will be completely up to how many people participate in bringing new and potential Ambrosiacs over to the Facebook page. There could be 3 books or 20 items at the end. Let's see what you guys and gals can do! I hope I'm giving away 20 items instead of just 3.  ;) I'll keep a list of current goodies below.

Winner will be announced on November 2, 2012.

To enter, start completing tasks through the Rafflecopter below!

Good luck!

Current Items in Giveaway Box:
3 Liz Baker books
$10 Amazon gift card




a Rafflecopter giveaway

And the winners are...

Congratulations to Brandy, Lori, and Crystal!  They are the winners of the June blog tour giveaway.  Three Liz Baker books and two e-books were given away, and I hope you ladies enjoy the books.

Next up for me...  VACATION!  Woohoo!  I'll be leaving Sunday for a week of fun in the sun with my hubby and the girls.  Oh, and Rex the Chihuahua and Spike the Boston Terrier.  ;)

We'll be spending a week camping, swimming, grilling, sightseeing, relaxing, and possibly some mini golfing.  Can you guess that I'm looing forward to it?  LOL!  I haven't been out of town since February, for the Book 'Em conference.  It was fun, don't get me wrong, but it was work nonetheless.

Next up will be my middle daughter's 12th birthday party, touring a local historical site that will be in the next Liz Baker book, then school starting back, and then....

The Undead Conference and Anne Rice's Wolf Gift Ball in New Orleans in October.  Yay!

All in all, it's going to be a busy four or five months, and that's before the holidays come around again.  LOL.  It'll be crazy, but a lot of fun.

Pumpkin Carving Lessons & My Two Week Wait

Happy Tuesday!  How was your Monday?  Anything exciting?

As I promised yesterday, here are the pictures from my kiddos carving their Halloween pumpkin on Sunday.  They did a great job, and all I did was lay out the design for them and set them to it.  I had a lot of fun watching them scoop it out, especially the 4 year old.  I made them wait until I could grab the camera, and  actually got the "Ewwww" picture that I wanted from her.  LOL.

Left: Scooping with a scooper.  Right: Ewww!

I think it turned out really good for a 12, 9, & 4 yr old cutting it all out. 

So today's Tuesday, and another "off" day for me.  I only have a few more days to enjoy the non-working days.  I always give myself two weeks between books, but it turns out being more of a hassle.  I do it in order to refresh myself; to clear my mind of the previous story in order to focus solely on the new one.  Two weeks is a good amount time (for me) no matter if the books are about two different groups of characters, or even the same characters but in a different setting and new problems.

However, I feel lost during those two weeks.  I have no characters to spend my time with.  No vampires to admire, or lust after.  No dangerously sexy men to thrust upon my heroines one last time.  No smokin' hot fantasy sexual encounters to direct and unfold...  Well, that may not be entirely true.  ;-)

But these two weeks make me feel like someone who is suddenly unemployed and don't know what to do with their time. 

So why do I commit myself to two weeks off, you may ask.  Don't go thinking that I've never tried jumping from one book straight into another one--I have!  It didn't work out well.  I couldn't get my new character to act the way they were suppose to.  They kept reverting back to the one(s) in the previous story.  No matter how much I tried.  The storylines would run together and things just wouldn't work out the way they were suppose to.

This is why I admire the authors who can work on multiple novels at once.  I have to focus solely on one project at a time.  I have to get it finished from beginning to end before I can take my two weeks off and jump into the next one.

Why not one week?  What about three? 

One week has been tried and it's not long enough.  Three weeks are too long and I start to lose that urgency I feel in starting the next one.  I've tried both.

So, even though the two week wait drives me crazy and leaves me feeling so anxious about jumping on the next one, it's the best way for me to transition from one story to the next.  I know this, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.  LOL.

Okay, now that I've shared a little insight into my writing insanity, I'll leave you with...

Have a fabulous Tuesday!  :-)

Want to win Halloween goodies?

Good rainy Monday morning to you all.  It's a wet one here, and doesn't look like it'll be drying out anytime soon.  Yucky.

The kids are out of school today; a student holiday.  It's actually the first day they've had out since school started.  I don't mind the occasional day off; it gives me another day to sleep late.  It's those times when they're home for weeks at a time that thin my hair out a bit.  LOL!

Most of you loyal blog readers will remember my author friend, Robin Renee Ray.  She's such a wonderful lady, and friend.  All through October she's taking names from her previous contest winners and one lucky person will win a big bunch of Halloween goodies... including an autographed mini-poster of A Twilight Abduction from lil ole me!

Yesterday she chose friend #900 on her MySpace page.  Today she is taking a name from comments on any of my sites!  However, to keep it easy, I'm making it for comments on my Facebook page, here on the blog, on my Twitter, my website, and lastly, on my MySpace page.  If you comment on any one of these, at some point throughout today, you could be entered into her Halloween Giveaway.

At the end of today, I'll compile all of the comments, and we'll choose one name to be entered into Robin's contest.  How easy is that?  It only takes you a moment to leave me a comment and you could be the lucky winner because of it.  :-)

Okay, I'm off to dig up some breakfast and then get back to putting those red ink book edits into the book's computer file.  I'll be done today!  Woohoo!

Have a great week!

The day after Halloween.

Last night the girls had a great time. We took them trick-or-treating in their Halloween best and they raked in the candy. Today, well today has been all about seeing just how much of that Halloween candy they can devour in a 24 hour time frame. LOL! I finally had to cut them off after dinner this evening.

Today is November 1st. I've taken care of today's NaNoWriMo word count, went shopping for painting supplies (for my bedroom) and I'm on the 4th and 5th loads of laundry today. Oh, and we took the kids out for lunch today. It has been a long day.

My NaNo count is pretty good for day 1 and for it being a Saturday. Tomorrow's count will be bad though. I have to go visit the inlaws and then go make a bank deposit via the ATM 20 minutes away. Luckily I will have all the laundry done, but the kids will be busy in a competition to see who can interrupt my writing the most. I can't write anything sensible when they interrupt me one right after the other, over and over again.

So anyway, today's word count was good, but that's only to make up for how bad tomorrow's will be (if any).

Okay, I'm off for tonight, but I'll leave you with the picture of my three girls last night. We had a zombie bride, a vampire witch, and Tinkerbell (though mommy forgot to put her wings on).

It's almost Halloween!

I've been enjoying these last few days as I know they will be the last peaceful ones for a while. Halloween starts the busiest time of year for me. One holiday or birthday right after the next. Christmas shopping that needs to be finished (though I'm almost half-way finished. YAY!).

Even with all of the challenges lying in wait for me, I do like Halloween. Well, let me rephrase that and say that I love the sights, sounds, costumes, and overall "feel" of Halloween. However, I do not enjoy taking the girls trick-or-treating. I don't like being out in large crowds, in the dark, with three little girls.

The girls get so overexcited that they run at 200% and I'm being pulled along behind them, wishing I was warm at home.

Some years Halloween still has warm weather. You'll be sweating and wishing it was cooler. Then other years it's so cold that you have to put clothes under the costumes and coats over them. It appears that this year is going to be a cold year (I woke up to 28 degrees this morning). Did I mention that I don't like cold weather?

I do enjoy dressing the girls up in their costumes, painting faces, and pretending that they scare me. Some years I dress up and some years I don't bother. This is a "don't bother" year. Here's last year's costume though.



I thought about dressing up this year, but I'm not interested in being cold or having to cover up a nice costume with a jacket. Maybe next year.

Luckily, once Halloween is over I can lose myself in the world of NaNoWriMo. I'm so ready to get the new book underway and occupy my free time with it. My new main character, Lizabeth, is waiting not-so-patiently for me to show her some attention. LOL!

So, if you don't hear from me, just know that I'm probably barricaded in my bedroom with nothing but a bottle of water and the laptop. LOL

Have a great day and I hope you're warmer than I am. :-)

.

Burrrr it's cold!

This morning I woke up to 43 degrees outside here in north Georgia. Talk about a shock to the system! For the last two weeks we've awakened to temps in the mid-60's and highs in the low 80's. It has been very comfortable. But today it's just cold.

The girls and I went out in jeans and jackets when I took them to school. Then I had to run the heat in the van. It's crazy how fast the weather can change around here. Next week we may have highs in the 90's again. LOL!

Halloween is getting closer. My girls are so excited as they just love trick-or-treating and dressing up in costumes. I love to see their excitement, and last year even I dressed up in a costume. This year, I probably won't be doning my own costume, but we've already started on the girls'. My 3yr old wants to be Tinkerbell, so I found a nice costume on eBay and we're awaiting its arrval. The 11yr old wants to be a vampire (hmm, wonder where she got that, lol). And the 8yr old has absolutely no idea what she wants to be. I'm sure she'll come up with something at the last minute.

Well, that's it for today. I'm cold and distracted this morning, so I'm going to go lie down and watch some tv with the 3yr old. :-)

It's Thursday, already?

Wow, this week has really flown by for me. I can't believe that tomorrow is my errand day. I got a lot of work done and it makes me happy to have had such a productive week.

The sun finally came out today. After nearly a week of grim, gloomy, cloudy days the sun is shining bright for me! That could also have a lot to do with my happy feelings today. :-)

On a work-related note, A Twilight Abduction has received its ISBN# today. That's one step closer to the Halloween release date! I can't believe it's so close. This book has been in the works since A Birth at Dawn was released in April, and that seems like sooooo long ago.

I'm about to start working on my next book. It doen't have a title yet, and who knows when it will be released.... I'm guessing around late 2009. As usual, I'll update here whenever there's more information.

Ok, I guess that's it for today. Have a great day!

.

...