The Giveaway Winners Announced! ...and other stories

The contest to win a copy of Annie O'Connor's book, Going to See the King, has come to a close! The entrants, numbered in order of entry:

1. Donna
2. Rachelynn
3. Mary
4. Sarah
5. George
6. Lindsey
7. Maria
8. MissPhotographerB
9. Mr. Pond
10. Rachel
11. Farmer's City Wife
12. jennaseverythingblog

The winners, courtesy of Random.org:

Maria!

 Sarah!

Farmer's City Wife!

Winners, email me at librarylily at gmail dot com with your shipping address... well, Sarah, I can probably hand-deliver yours. :) Annie is passing me the copies today, and I plan to have them in the mail by Monday.

If you didn't win and you need a gift for a young child, the book is available on Amazon. I recommend it. :)

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Writer's link of the week: Veronica Roth on Not Writing, or Why Your Brain is an Ice-Cream Maker. Sure enough, sometimes we really do need a day off.

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My friend Agnes sent me an email this morning requesting prayer for a 31-year-old coworker undergoing experimental treatment for a very fast-moving cancer. I don't know Krista, but because I also don't know who will be motivated to pray or help underwrite the high costs of her treatment... here's a link to her web page.

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Lastly but not leastly, here's your funny of the week. This site contains a lot of bad language, either created by the autocorrect or by the people who saw too late what their autocorrect did, but it's also possibly the funniest site I've ever seen. I haven't yet been on it without laughing myself to tears.

Happy weekend, everybody!

Win a Free Book

The dirt was dry and dreary as I drudged daily across the desert. I didn’t really mind, though; I was going to see the King.”

From now until Friday the 10th at noon, enter for your chance to win Going to See the King, a children's story written and illustrated by my talented friend Annie O'Connor! In celebration of the book's release on Amazon, Annie has given me three copies to give to three happy winners. Yes, that's right:

• 3 copies (your odds are very good)
• 3 winners
• All you have to do: Leave me a comment saying you want one!

(Ahem: If you're the parent of one of my age-five-or-under nieces, nephews or godchildren, your child is already getting this for Christmas. You're of course welcome to enter, if you want a copy for another reason—say, to pass on to someone else...)

I fell head over heels in love with this story. From the perspective of one of the Magi's camels, Annie takes us through the desert, to Herod's palace, and finally—spoiler alert—to Bethlehem. All the camel wants is to see the king he's heard so much about. It's well-told, alliterative and fun, with beautifully-colored illustrations. It's also absolutely sweet.

Want a copy? Leave me a comment saying so. Please enter only once per person. The contest ends Friday at noon. It's fair and democratic: winners will be chosen by random number generator. I'll reveal the winners Friday afternoon sometime.

No limits on where I'll ship, although the further you are from Bellingham, WA, the longer it will take to arrive. I plan to ship the copies Monday so you have them by Christmas if possible.

Enter away!

And the Winner Is...

There were nine comments on the giveaway post, and as multiple entries were allowed, all of them were eligible except for #3, which was me.*

According to the Random Number Generator, then:

Comment #6 belongs to newmaldon! Congratulations!

Send me an email with your address, David, and I'll have the CD sent to you. You'll have to let me know how you like it.

To all of you, thanks so much for participating! This was A Light Inside's first giveaway, but I don't plan on it being the last. I loved hearing from you of your favorite music, and spent a fun half hour rummaging around YouTube and other corners of the internet turning up the artists I didn't already know. I must say, you all rock. :)

If you didn't win and still want to get a copy of Gurrumul's CD, it is available for sale on Amazon and elsewhere!

Happy weekend, everybody.

* In case anyone wonders: to keep from confusing myself in the counting, I went ahead and used 9 for the top number, figuring I could reconfigure it if it landed on 3. Which, in fact, it did the first time. Haha.

Music Giveaway!

Remember this guy?

Thanks to his very kind publicist, I have the chance to offer a free copy of his upcoming album to one happy winner!

The album is beautiful, mellow and sweet like the above song (which is one of the tracks); it's the sort of thing you can listen to with your eyes closed, put into your child's lullaby mix, or turn on during a dinner party. He sings mostly in Yolngu Matha, his native language, with a little English thrown in, and backs himself with guitar. And I just love his voice.

Want a copy of the CD? To enter the contest, leave me a comment on this post including:

• your name or some kind of handle by which I can address you if you win (i.e., anything but "Anonymous"), and
• the name of a band or musician you like to listen to. Because I'm curious. :)

You can enter multiple times; just make sure you've got the above information in each post, so I don't accidentally think you're spamming and disqualify you.

You have until Friday morning! Sometime that afternoon, I will go find a Random Number Generator and get it to pick a number between 1 and the number of comments. The winner will then have a few days to email me their address, so be prepared to check back in case you win. (Blogger doesn't give me your contact information.)

Ready... set... go!