First, I must apologize for being so late posting the winners. I didn’t realize my ability to multi-task would be seriously impacted this year and between my online workshop, my workshop in San Diego, and my BFF’s wedding, I fell behind on blog duties.
Round 1 Launch Celebration Winners
Thank you for spreading the word about The Dragon and the Pearl on Facebook, blogs and Twitter! The winners were randomly chosen by random.org.
THE LADY’S SCANDALOUS NIGHT: digital download goes to:
Desere
The international version of RED CLIFF goes to:
PRationality
The hardcover copy of FURY OF THE PHOENIX goes to:
hafelina
AND the newsletter winner for an autographed copy of THE DRAGON AND THE PEARL is:
Michelle Wilson
Congratulations and thank you everyone! I have moved the deadline for Round 2 of the Launch Celebration to Oct. 15 as I haven’t had any time to promote the celebration. So for an opportunity for the GRAND PRIZES (Two book set of Stephanie Dray’s LILY OF THE NILE and SONG OF THE NILE or a wooden customized dragon chop or an annotated copy of THE DRAGON AND THE PEARL) , spread the word about THE DRAGON AND THE PEARL which is in bookstores for the month of October.
First, the twin “butterfly” swords showcased at RWA 2010 as part of my costume:
And the winner is: Stephanie Hyacinth
Second, the color poster of schumy330′s original Butterfly Swords artwork:
And the winner is: Anne Wijaya
Third, the one-of-a-kind annotated version of Butterfly Swords:
And the winner is: Desere of South Africa
Thank you everyone for joining. I meant it when I said that this experience has been beyond my wildest expectations. I will continue to give you updates via the newsletter. Next month’s edition will have the first sneak preview of the sequel, THE DRAGON AND THE PEARL, so don’t miss out!
BUTTERFLY SWORDS will continue to sell on bookshelves for the next two weeks only so grab a copy quickly. And if you liked Butterfly Swords, take a look at THE TAMING OF MEI LIN, a linked short story from Harlequin Historical Undone full of sword fights and romance.
Congratulations and thank you everyone for your support!!
To the winners: Winners can contact me here. I also have your e-mails and I will be in touch by the end of the weekend. If any of the winners would rather have a nice print copy of Butterfly Swords for your reading pleasure, let me know and I’ll happily exchange. If any of the winners opt out, the items will be donated to the next Brenda Novak online auction for diabetes research or a similar charity.
Blog Tour: Blogging at The Burton Review about my Tang Dynasty muses. I’m the guest author this week at Unusual Historicals and you can comment up until next Sunday to be entered to win a copy of Butterfly Swords. Also blogging about Mashups and Crossovers with pics of my inspirational Fast Draft collages.
Review Round-Up: A C+ Review for Butterfly Swords from Vagabond. One shining spot is the reviewer is interested in Adrian and Miya’s story. Also a pair of reviews from Poisoned Rationality. One for The Taming of Mei Lin and one for Butterfly Swords. The Romance Reviews is launching their new book portal site and featuring a giveaway for Butterfly Swords on the site.
***
We’re reaching the mid-point of October, so I can definitely say the Butterfly Swords Launch is underway. Fly little book, fly…
This is the last week to enter for the Grand Prize giveaways. I’m quite excited about the prizes as they’re very special to me:
The “butterfly swords”
from my costume
Color poster of
Wendy Wang’s artwork
Butterfly Swords
with author commentary
I realized, however, that there are some people who are entered multiple times and fans of Butterfly Swords. There are others signed up who may not have read it yet. So if any winner wants to opt for just a nice clean copy of Butterfly Swords to read, instead of the geeky annotated version, I’ll happily make the switch. I figured I’d then put any traded prizes up in next year’s Brenda Novak auction or some other worthy cause.
There is also another pretty cool Butterfly Swords contest going on, hosted by Bria Quinlan, YA author and one of my trusted readers. The pictures so far gave me a good laugh. I hope there will be a couple more entries. It’s always good to smile.
I’m tempted to enter a picture of my Asian books collection because…I got some game there. Though, of course, I’d be ineligible to win.
Two more signings this month! This Saturday at the Crestwood Barnes & Noble right down the street and then next Saturday in New Jersey at the NJRW Conference. Here’s the road show. Shortly after that, Butterfly Swords will be flitting out of bookstores and only available for order online.
You can still join the celebration and enter the drawings by blogging, tweeting, and getting the word out. I’ll draw the names October 15 and post on October 16 before I head out to the MORWA meeting and my signing.
Blog Tour: I’m at my Internet home away from home, Romance Divas, with an interview and book giveaway.
Review Round-Up:BookLovers Inc reviewed Butterfly Swords as well as Mrs. Giggles. A very nice lovely review for the Taming of Mei Lin at The Happily Ever After. A DNF review on Culinary Carnival for Butterfly Swords. I do believe in acknowledging all reviewers for their effort and support!
Book Chat: Dear Author is hosting a book chat for Butterfly Swords next week either Friday or Saturday. I’ll be attending–quite nervous about it! Kobo books is also having a Butterfly Swords promotion in the month of October. Click here for details and poll for times.
Also don’t forget the next Launch Celebration Drawing is at 8pm CST on October 1! And of course the BIG drawing is on October 15. Blog, Facebook, or tweet to be entered. (more details here) Come back this Friday for a special book launch video.
***
October 1st is the official Butterfly Swords release date as well as the kick off to the book tour. Okay, so the “road show” is a couple of trips to two conferences and two local booksignings. But it feels huge to me! I feel so authorly.
So here’s the official Butterfly Swords road show:
Warrior Women Month: Come back Tuesday for an interview with Luci Romberg: stuntwoman, freerunner and American Ninja Warrior.
Blog Tour: My Book Addiction has an interview up where I talk about my thoughts regarding negative reviews. Also blogging at Novel Thoughts on Monday about the Not-So-Happy endings in Asian romance.
***
The Taming of Mei Lin has been out for two weeks and has received some nice reader and reviewer responses. It makes me very happy to be giving away the first celebration giveaway this Wednesday, September 15. Three individual names will be drawn to win one of three lovely prizes.
Blog, tweet, and/or sign-up for the newsletter to join the celebration! Enter more times for more chances to win and your name stays in all the way until the Grand Prize drawings. Details here.
First name drawn wins:
A GORGEOUS hardcover copy of Cindy Pon’s debut novel, Silver Phoenix. I was so excited about her release earlier this year. I went from store to store searching for it and I LOVE the original cover so much that I bought an extra copy so someone can enjoy it as well.
Her heroine is named Ai Ling while mine is Ai Li. Complete coincidence, but they’re both young women coming into their own and embarking on a grand adventure. Read Silver Phoenix first so you’ll be ready for the sequel, Fury of the Phoenix in April 2011! Cindy also has a wonderful blog filled with Chinese brush painting and lots of good food.
Second name drawn wins:
An autographed advance copy of Stephanie Draven’s debut from Harlequin Nocturne, Poisoned Kisses. I’ve read Draven’s shorter works for Nocturne Bites: Midnight Bound and Wild, Tethered, Bound. I was blown away by her fresh take on Greek mythology in a contemporary paranormal story. First of all, she tackles the best creatures from Greek myth: the monsters! And they’re not villains, they’re her protagonists.
I’m sure her debut will have the mesmerizing prose and creative storytelling I’ve come to expect from her stories. Plus the blurb just sings with tension and conflict. Check out Stephanie’s website and see.
Third name drawn wins:
A free download from eHarlequin for The Taming of Mei Lin. Now the cool thing about this is it’s a download code. If you already have a copy of Mei Lin, you can give this to a friend as a gift.
Get the word out to enter! Winners will be drawn Wednesday night at 8pm Central Time.
I’m kicking off Warrior Women month with a quick tutorial on butterfly swords. Also tomorrow, I have an interview with Mandy Sayah, Wing Chun instructor.
Blog Tour:
Blogging about how I came to write historical romance at The Minding Spot. The blog is doing their own giveaway of a copy of the Taming of Mei Lin.
***
The Taming of Mei Lin and Butterfly Swords both feature sword fights involving butterfly swords. I’ve received many curious inquiries about both the weapons and the fighting style, so I thought I’d showcase them today.
I chose butterfly swords for my heroine because:
1) I had some experience with them
2) They could be hidden easily and carried around with her various outfits
3) The techniques are fast and exciting to describe
4) The swords were distinctive and feminine, in contrast to the swords used by the hero and the villain
In this video, Grandmaster William Cheung demonstrates the butterfly swords form. The narration is Sifu Eric Oram.
This demonstration shows several techniques for butterfly swords against a broadsword. The key techniques are redirecting and controlling the opponent’s blade with the butterfly swords, and counterattacking immediately after a block.
And finally, the swords featured in the grand prize giveaway aren’t technically butterfly swords as they don’t have the handguard. They’re steel and sharpened and STILL pretty cool.
Join the Launch Celebration by tweeting, blogging, and getting the word out and you’ll be eligible to win. Details here.
Originally I was trying to come up with a way where people who’ve followed the Butterfly Swords and Mei Lin Blog Tour could enter the Launch Celebration drawings. Following and tracking all commenters would have been heinous. And I fully didn’t expect people to really want to read THAT many blogs.
So I came up with the idea of a trivia game. You can answer the trivia questions through a handful of the blog appearances. Now, I considered maybe a Blog Tour drinking game might be in order. One shot for every time Jeannie mentions “wuxia”!
But that would have had people tipsy real quick and wouldn’t be responsible of me since people blog surf at work. So instead I present to you Butterfly Swords BINGO.
Send me the five answers through my Contact form to make BINGO and you’ll receive 5 entries in the giveaway. If anyone is crazy enough to give all the answers for BLACKOUT: Um, I might be a little scared…but you’ll receive 10 entries into the giveaway. Enter “BINGO” as your subject.
Remember, your name will remain in the bucket from when you enter until the very last Grand Prize drawing. Drawings will be held on September 15, October 1, and October 15 for a variety of prizes. Have fun!
Rules: The gameboard is just for you to keep track. Print it out or bookmark this page if you like. You only need to send me the answers, not the gameboard. If you’re going through the center, use “Free Space” as one answer. And I will accept more than just the first BINGO.
I’ve experienced a sudden productivity spike, which I attribute to a couple of things. First of all, the day job is picking up. This means I can’t lollygag all day. So with less time to write, I write more.
Second, I’m still riding the adrenaline high from the new contract for two novels and two shorts. See how smoothly I worked that in?
1) I hit “The End” on a 10K-ish short for Undone just this Saturday. I’m really happy how it turned out. And I wrote a whole story and not a single swordfight.
2) I started author amendments on Butterfly Swords and I’ve decided that my fight scenes rock. There. I said it.
3) My friend Bria Quinlan introduced me to Tweetdeck and now I’m starting to see Twitter in a whole new light. I also glance up every time that little cricket noise indiciates someone, somewhere has said something.
4) I’m completely addicted to placing bids on the Brenda Novak Online auction for diabetes. The Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood basket is still available, by the way. Hidden among the goodies is a 3 chapter critique from myself, Cynthia Justlin, and Amanda Brice — the Power of Three. We all critiqued for each other prior to entering the Golden Heart in ’09 and we all finaled. I myself have won a critique from Pulitzer Prize nominee, Harvey Stanbrough. I’m really, really nervous at the thought of sending him 15 pages. What to send? Hopping zombie paranormal? Tang Dynasty romance? Or the woman’s fiction I’m urging my Little Sis to co-write with me?
5) Oh — about the previous item. I’m exploiting Little Sis’ pregnancy hormones to get her to start the women’s fiction historical we’ve always been talking about for years. Mwahahahaha!
6) Promotion — I got my first newsletter out to the 14 people on my list. Hello happy 14! I really hope a couple more people will join. Do it now and you can receive the coolest souvenir charm ever. See Special Promotion
7) More promotional items — I came up with another idea for a giveaway. Official Tang Dyansty of Jeannie Lin maps! I always dreamed of having a book with a fantasy map at the front….but since there isn’t one, I thought it might be fun to make a nice one on parchment paper for giveaways and such. Here’s what I have so far on the draft. What do you think?
By the way, the icons on the map — I’m very proud of the technique I’ve devised to create those. I still have to hand write in the major sites from the stories — Changan, Luoyang, Longyou, Yumen Guan, the Bamboo Sea, and Qinghai.
