Goodreads Book Poll

Maybe it's not the same as the really prestigious prizes for books, but for once, there's an award set that you can have a hand in crafting.

Goodreads is sponsoring its 3rd Annual Goodreads Choice Awards.

They break books down into genre categories and you can vote in any and all where you feel like you can make an informed decision.

Exercise your right to vote. It'll be good practice for those of us who have an election coming up next Tuesday.

Contest Winners!

We've got three contest winners to announce! I love giving book away.

Going back a bit, we never announced the Laura Lippman contest winners.

@Keithr34 -- you've snagged a copy of "I'd Know You Anywhere."

RJ Hipling and @Lisa954 -- you've snagged copies of our mystery giveaway books. Won't you just be surprised when they show up in your mail.

All winners, please email me at bkwarner at gmail dot com with your names and postal addresses and we'll get the books out to you soon!

Thanks for playing!

Giveaway Wednesday!

That's right. We here at Word Nerd have two books to give away.

Here's the catch -- we're not telling what the titles are. But, you could claim one of these books to add to your summer reading list just by commenting on this question:

What are you reading this summer? What do you wish you had time to read? Not hard, right?

If you tweet the contest or re-tweet the contest (from @BKWordNerd) or link to it on your blog, put that in the comments too, and you'll get extra entries.

Winners will be selected on June 6! Happy reading!

Lessons Learned -- 5k Style

1. If it is raining, bring dry clothes.
2. Bring your own safety pins cos they will run out
3. Setting a goal against yourself is better than measuring against someone else
4. It is a rush of emotions as you cross a finish line
5. The morale support of complete strangers is amazing
6. Park near the finish line, not the starting point

As I ran, I kept thinking, this is amazing. And, there's a post in here somewhere.

My goals were A) run the whole time, and B) finish in forty minutes or less.

I had to walk three times and finished in 32 minutes and 14 seconds. I was a bit upset at the walking to be honest. So much so that I lead with that in every recounting of the race that I gave. Finally, my husband says, "Who cares if you had to walk. You ran it in 8 minutes less than you thought you would."

He's right. I was focused on the wrong piece. To date, that is my fast pace yet. I normally run somewhere between 12:30 and 11:30. Being with other like minded folks shaved some minutes off my mile.

New Lessons to Follow:

1. Align yourself with people who support your writing
2. Measure against yourself, not others

Belinda Kroll contest Winner!

We have our winner in the contest from last week with indie author Belinda Kroll.

4ndyman -- you win!

Email me at bkwarner at gmail dot com with your mailing address and I'll pass it along to Belinda to get your prize to you. Congrats!

Winner!

We haven't forgotten we need a winner for the contest from Lynn Viehl's blog post last week. What with the massive midwest ice storm, it just got postponed.

But... without any more adieu...

Phoenix-Karenee, you're the winner!

Email me at bkwarner at gmail dot com with your postal address and the prize will soon be on its way to you.

Thank you all for playing. We've got more contests coming up this spring, so keep your eyes open.

Spooky Little Lines by Lynn Viehl

Lynn Viehl is the Word Nerds' guest today and first off, we just have to say, she's a great sport. She posted on her blog about this freaky thing that happened to her while writing and not only did she then agree to come blog over here, she agreed to tell that story. And, when we suggested a giveaway of one book, she said, "How about all three Kyndred novels?"

So -- read her great post about when a character said something unexpected and then enter the great contest to win all three of her Kyndred novels.

Spooky Little Lines, by Lynn Viehl
Most days writing novels is like any regular job. Like millions of other workers, I go to my office, turn on the
computer and get to work. I follow a work schedule and plan when I write. I even use the same methods to write, which is basically to review the plan, visualize the scene from start to finish and then type – nothing really magical there. Most days I can usually knock out at least two scenes; sometimes I manage an entire chapter. It’s all very ordinary.

Until the days when it isn’t, and my job gets a little spooky.

Like last spring, when I was finishing up my latest release, Frostfire. One morning I started writing a chapter where my two protagonists ended up alone in a motel room. According to plan they needed to resolve some issues, make love, and then get some rest. Not an especially tough scene to write.

I should mention one of my writing quirks: I don’t plan any dialogue ahead of time. I compose it spontaneously as I’m writing, and for some reason this approach works for me.

That morning I began writing with my characters ready to resolve their issues, and my protagonist Lilah talked about her mother. Mom was rich, powerful and admired, but she refused to love Lilah or anyone (even herself.) Lilah was determined not to end up like her mother, so she wasn’t afraid of loving Walker, my other protagonist. Even though Walker was angry, bitter and (at times) a little scary, he was the man she loved, and she wasn’t going to run away from him.

A life devoid of love is simply not worth living – Lilah knew this, I knew this; it was all good.

Once Lilah finished talking, Walker was to agree with her, declare his love (which he’d been fighting tooth and nail for ten chapters) and we would move on to the more interesting things they had to do in this motel room. Only when Walker opened his mouth he didn’t declare his love. He asked Lilah if she thought he was like her mother.

I frowned. I needed to get Mom out of the conversation (and the room) so it was time for Lilah to say no, because I know you love me, and kiss me you fool or something like that and then clothes would start coming off and they’d have a lovely romp. Only the line that appeared on the page was this:

“No,” she said simply. “But you do.”

It takes a lot to stop me when I’m writing, but that did. With a four-word line of dialogue, my character completely blew me away. She wasn’t talking about Mom because of herself, and how she felt, as I had wanted. She’d mentioned her mother because of Walker and how he felt -- which she recognized because of Mom.

Worse, she was absolutely right.

Why did that make me walk out of my office and wander around the house shaking and muttering? Well, for one thing, Walker’s name isn’t Walker. I won’t spoil the surprise and tell you who he really is, but I created his character many years ago. Frostfire is actually the third book I’ve written with his character in the story. I created him, built his personality, complicated back story and every other aspect of his entire life. I’ve always known everything about him . . . until Lilah told me that I didn’t.

I never knew that Walker believed he was incapable of love. It wasn’t in the plan, the character outline, either of the other two books he appeared in, or any corner of my skull. So how did my character know that? Let me rephrase: how did an imaginary construct made up of words on paper know that?

Eventually I settled down, accepted that spooky little line which I could not explain, and got back to work. I did mark the occasion by having Walker echo my own reaction in the story (and it was logical because he didn’t realize this about himself, either.) No doubt a shrink would say Walker’s problem was one I always knew on a subconscious level, and that it emerged via the spontaneity of my dialogue writing, and I’d probably agree.

Most days.

Lynn Viehl is a veteran multi-genre New York Times bestselling author who has published forty-seven novels in five genres over the past eleven years.  Her weblog, Paperback Writer, has been providing resources for writers and insight into the professional writing life since 2004.  She is not easily spooked. 

And now! The Contest. Here's what you can win and let me say, if I didn't run this blog, I would be entering like voters in Chicago...

Gift Basket of all three Kyndred novels -- signed -- plus some extra goodies

What's the spookiest moment you've ever had a reader/writer? What tale made you go turn on all the lights at home while reading? When did a character behave on the page so perfectly unexpectedly that you were stunned the moment came out of your jumbled up brain? Can't think of one? Throw your name in the hat anyway. All entries by Feb. 1 at 5 p.m. EST will be accepted even if you've won something from Word Nerd in the past.

Winner!

From last week's contest for Sean Beaudoin's book, "Going Nowhere Faster" the Nerds are proud to announce our winner.

Dana -- who said, "I don't think I was in one particular clique either, but on the fringe of several" has won the book.

Dana, if you email me (bkwarner at gmail dot com) with your shipping address, I'll get the book on its way to you.

Tune in next week for another great contest.

Author Answers with Sean Beaudoin

Welcome back to the re-invigorated Author Answers feature of Word Nerd. We're putting together a great line-up and kicking things back off is Sean Beaudoin to talk about his new YA-pulp-noir novel, You Killed Wesley Payne. And, stay tuned to the end of this post for a great giveaway from Sean

WN: How did you come up with the idea for "You Killed Wesley Payne" and what was it like to take it from idea to finished book?

BEAUDOIN: I’ve pretty much been writing Wesley Payne in my head since I was fourteen. I didn’t realize it until two years ago, when I sat down and the first chapter just sort of appeared on the page. Stewarding a novel from that first exciting idea, to the point that it’s ready to be on anyone’s bedside table, is pretty much like the 9-volume Adventures in Early Dentistry series. In other words, excruciating.

WN: At the core of Wesley Payne is the high school clique idea. What fascinates you about that social structure and which group were you in when you were a high school student?
BEAUDOIN: I think I was a lot like Dalton in the sense that I wasn’t really part of any clique, but knew the secret passwords to a number of them. I’m not sure if that’s because none of them really wanted me, or I was too busy affecting cool to allow myself to be aligned with any one attitude or fashion. While the clique routine is usually most pronounced during high school, most of us don’t realize it’s actually something that continues throughout life. In fact, if you go to your grandfather’s retirement home right now, you’ll notice the residents are broken up into groups around the pool or craft center, eyeballing one another warily over the Elmer’s and lemonade.

WN: How did you come up with all the slang in this book?
BEAUDOIN: One of my great regrets is studying film in college instead of linguistics. I love playing with words. Coming up with the slang was fun and easy. The hard part was toning it down and not overusing it. Actually, I had to throw away pages and pages of the stuff. Mostly because it was too funny and marketable. The publisher’s lawyers were worried we’d get sued if no one was buying any other books.

WN: Putting "you" in the title seems gutsy... how do you hope readers react to being the accused killer of Wesley Payne?
BEAUDOIN: Both my hope and secret intention was that they’d react exactly like this: “How dare that guy put YOU in his title! I’ve never even met Wesley Payne, let alone offing him! Just for that, I am going to immediately run down to my local independent bookseller and buy eleven copies! And then steal a twelfth one!”

WN: If you had to live the life of one of the characters in the book, who would you most want to be and why?
BEAUDOIN: Kurt Tarot. I’ve always wanted to be the lead singer in a band. Also, I’ve always wanted to have sharpened teeth and wear ankle-length leather.

WN: What have you been reading lately that's really captured your attention?
BEAUDOIN: I just finished M.T. Anderson’s The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing. It’s fantastic. Also, I’m halfway through Keith Richard’s memoir Life. A little Keef goes a long way, the purring engine within the ’71 Torino that was the Rolling Stones. Lydia Davis’ short story collection is wonderful. And anyone with a taste for symbolic absurdity and lyrical surrealism should read Jarret Midddleton’s An Dantomine Eerly.

WN: What's next for you as a writer?
BEAUDOIN: A well-deserved twelve hour break. And then we start ramping up for my next book, Wise Young Truck, which is currently in production. Although after the focus groups and marketing people get done with it, it may be called something else entirely. Like Cool Vampire Dragon Phat-Magic. Or Love Teen Rich Break-Up Shopping. Keep an eye out for it (them).

Giveaway: (This is part you've all been waiting for, right?)
You can win a signed copy of Sean Beaudoin's first book, Going Nowhere Faster. What do you have to do to claim this prize as yours? Leave a comment about what high school clique you were in or a piece of slang you remember from your high school days before Friday, 1/14 at 5 p.m. EST. Everyone is eligible to enter, even if you've won something from Word Nerd before

We have Winners!

Thanks to all who entered the contest for Sean Munger's books.

Word Nerd is pleased to announce the winners.

The grand prize trilogy set of all three Giamotti books goes to.... Gothika!

The e-book version of the first Giamotti book goes to S Penney!

Please email your contact info to Word Nerd at bkwarner at gmail dot com and you'll get your prize!

Varied Voices -- Sean Munger

Say hello today to Sean Munger and stick around after his blog to find out about how you can snag some copies of his Giamotti books.

Why I Will Never Have A Life Without Giamotti

By Sean Munger

One of the great—and terrible—things about writing is that what you write never really goes away. Just this month (June 2010) the new ebook version of my science fiction novel Life Without Giamotti has been released, marking another milestone on what I can hardly believe has been a twenty year odyssey with these stories and their eponymous main character.

Life Without Giamotti was first published in paperback form by Buffalo Fetus Productions in 2006, but the story and the character of Giamotti have been around for much longer than that. In high school I had the curious idea for a character, a sort of darkly intelligent and devious biker who becomes sentient, realizes he is a fictional character and sets about trying to bring himself out of his novel and into reality. From the beginning the character of Steven Giamotti seemed different than any other character I’d created. He is not just devious; he has a total lack of human emotions and the capacity for empathy, making him capable of true evil. He isn’t just arrogant and ambitious, he’s megalomaniacal. And I quickly learned over the various early drafts throughout the 1990s that he had his sights set a lot higher than I appreciated at first. Becoming a real person in the real world was only a first step. Ultimately he wanted to become God: omniscient, immortal, and all-powerful.

The story of how Giamotti sets out to do exactly that finally jelled in Life Without Giamotti, but there are so many facets to his journey that the leftovers from the sixteen years of labor on the first book quickly became the two sequels, All Giamotti’s Children (published in 2008) and Giamotti in Winter (published in 2009). Now, after three novels, twenty years, and Giamotti’s adventures across time and space ranging from the American Revolution to the swanky nightclubs of Manhattan in the 1950s, it feels like the whole thing is starting over again with the publication of the ebooks. The first ebook is already out, available from Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/life-without-giamotti/11179131) and the others will be released in digital format soon.

Buffalo Fetus Productions, working through the web-based printer Lulu, has proven to be a terrific option for the publication of the Giamotti books. The publishing business has changed radically in the last ten years, with traditional brick-and-mortar publishing houses struggling to adapt to a new environment largely defined by technology and with multiple new ways to access books. Life Without Giamotti is a very unusual book with a non-linear narrative, complex characters that drift in and out of the plot at unpredictable times, and deals with a lot of mind-bending metaphysical concepts that go pretty far beyond traditional science fiction tropes—not the kind of stuff traditional publishers are likely to take a chance on. The rise of technology-based book presses like Lulu have suddenly made it possible for tiny publishers to capture niche markets, and that makes all the difference with non-traditional books like the Giamotti trilogy. I never set out to be on the New York Times’ bestseller list, but I’m amazed that the story of Life Without Giamotti has found its way from my laptop in suburban Oregon to bookshelves across the Americas, in Norway, in Germany and all places in between. The books have been read at both poles of the Earth: I once got an email from someone reading Life Without Giamotti at a research outpost in Greenland, and a copy of All Giamotti’s Children can be found in the library at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. All in all, that’s pretty satisfying.

I proclaimed myself “done” with Giamotti when I finished All Giamotti’s Children in 2009. A year later I wonder who I was kidding. Even as I move on to other projects—my new book, The Valley of Forever, which is not part of the Giamotti saga, will be released sometime later this year—I know that Giamotti, being omniscient and all-powerful as he is, will never leave me. I wrote him to be immortal, and for better or for worse, he probably is. With the ebook versions giving him another lease on life, I’m sure he’ll be around for quite some time to come.

So -- now it's your turn. Sean talked about how he hasn't been able to let go of the character of Giamotti. What character from your reading has stuck with you over the years?

Post a comment and you could win! We've got two prizes this week -- first, the whole Giamotti trilogy in print for the grand prize winner and second, a e-book copy of Life Without Giamotti for the runner-up. The contest is open to everyone, even if you've won something here from Word Nerd before. Contest ends on Tuesday, June 29.

Winner the Second --CJ West/End of Marking Time Contest!

There is another winner to announce this week on Word Nerd!

Thanks for all the comments about brain-bending readings in anticipation of CJ West's new book, "The End of Marking Time."

And, as promised, one lucky commenter has won a copy of CJ's new book. The magic hat -- or in this case, drinking glass of winning -- produced the following winner:

christinebonner2 who commented about how much she likes Lee Child's Reacher books because it's unclear whodunit until the very end.

Christine -- e-mail me your shipping address at bkwarner at gmail dot com and I'll pass it along so you can get your copy of End of Marking Time.

Don't forget, if you didn't win, check out CJ's virtual launch party tomorrow, June 10, where CJ's got a great contest of his own announced.

Winner the First -- The Name Game

Congratulations!

Word Nerd has a winner in her Name Game contest from last week!

Drumroll please!

Johnny Dangerous (aka, John Desjarlais) you are the winner.

E-mail Word Nerd at bkwarner (at) gmail dot com with your mailing address and the copy of The Eternal Ones will soon be on its way to you!

To all who entered -- THANK YOU! All your suggestions were fantastic! Now Word Nerd just has to choose which one(s) she likes the best. Good thing pegasus polo ponies come in teams because all those choice were especially good.

Welcome back, CJ West

Give it up for author CJ West who's been a writing maniac lately and has another new book out.

CJ's got a virtual launch party on June 10th, click here for details.

In the meantime, the man himself explains a little bit about what's different with his new book, The End of Marking Time. Oh, and want to read it for yourself? Stay tuned at the end of the CJ's guest blog to see how you can win a copy of your very own.

The End of Marking Time has elements of first, second, and third person perspective and I wanted the packaging to shout that this book is unusual. The front cover hints at Michael’s release from prison and I think Sarah Carroll, my cover artist, did a great job putting together a classic cover that warns of danger.

When you turn the book over, it gives you a good stiff poke in the cranium. You won’t notice the little trick I’m playing on the men when they handle the book cover, but I’ll tell you in a moment how you can test it out with your friends. The first thing you’ll notice is that the text is landscape (sideways if you’re not a graphic artist.) When you turn the book 90 degrees to read the text, I’m telling you that you’re going to have to think about this book differently. The second indication that this book will make you think, is that Michael immediately introduces himself and begins talking to you as if you already know him. One of the mysteries of this book is you. Not who you are, but who Michael thinks you are.

Michael is locked in a room facing a large window set into a concrete block wall. The back cover subtly shows the window and the wall, which are the setting for the entire book. Michael believes that you are behind the window, listening to his story and that it is your job to decide whether he is worthy of another chance. That is why there are two big buttons on the back cover. One red. One green. If you press the green button, Michael gets to go free. He doesn’t know what will happen if you press the red button, but he knows it’s not good.

If you knew about the buttons before you picked up the book, you might realize that I’ve tricked many of you into pressing the green button when you turned the book over. This works surprisingly well for men. Try handing the book to your friends and asking them to check out the cover front and back and tell you what they think. Most of the men will have their thumb on the green button when they first turn it over. You have to pay attention, because they will turn the book as soon as they realize the text is landscape. I can’t make women press the button consistently because they are too darn unpredictable. But if I could figure out women, I’d be writing a different sort of book, wouldn’t I?

I’ve created a Facebook group called, I pressed the (RED) (GREEN) button for you to share your own results. Stop in, tell me what you think of the cover, and which button you pressed. Enjoy The End of Marking Time and please join me for the virtual launch party on June 10th.

So... you've hung on just for the contest, right? Right. Here's how to win:

In the comments, post your favorite brain-bending book and why you liked it. All commenters will be thrown into a hat (well, not literally, but you get the idea) and a winner will be chosen on June 9 in anticipation of the launch party. You can only enter once, but everyone is eligible to win.

What's in a name?

Word Nerd's madly writing again, going back and making something viable out of what she wrote during NaNoWriMo in November. It's going well, but she needs some names.

Rather than spending hours (hours? Yeah, maybe...) pouring over choices at behindthename.com, she's going to turn to you, her faithful readers for some help.

Here's what she needs:

• A police woman. First and last name... Sgt. ??? ???
• Her protagonist's middle name. Ainsley ??? Doran. It's used one whole time in a legal document. But, it looks funny without it.
• A black pegasus. She asked for help on this before and got the helpful suggestion of Charlie. Charlie was a unicorn, not a pegasus. This pegasus is a part of a polo string and needs a name sounding like a champion. Cuz he is.

So, what do you get for your help? An advance copy of Kirsten Miller's "The Eternal Ones." Straight from the publishers. Before it comes out in August.

Anyone who puts a name suggestion in the comments is entered! Winner will be chosen at the end of this week!

Summer Reading, part II

We've talked at Word Nerd already about some of the hot book picks for summer reading this summer, but if you need some more inspiration/motivation to hit the books (fun books, that is) during the next few months, maybe this will help.

Join the RBL Summer Mystery Reading Challenge 2007.

What do you have to do, you ask, to be part of this challenge. Easy -- read six mysteries by six authors you have never read before between June 1 and August 31. Why? Because challenge organizers say that the mystery genre has exploded in the last few years. Instead of just sticking with the gumshoes you know, it's time to go sleuthing for somebody else. Plus, if you complete the challenge, there could be prizes. For full challenge details, click here.

Word Nerd's already working on what six mysteries she's going to read. You can help out by voting in the poll over there ---> to help her decide what new P.I. series she should read one from.

If a mystery book challenge isn't your thing, check your local library for what summer reading program they are offering. For you Oshkosh folks, the Oshkosh Public Library has summer reading programs for adults, teens and kids. Again, they all have prizes (noting a theme here?).

So, grab the beach towels, picnic baskets and best-sellers and get reading!