Out of the Wild ARC Contest Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered the Wild T-Shirt Design Contest! All of your designs were amazing! As we used to say in Northboro, Massachusetts (Julie's and my hometown), you guys are wicked cool! And now... drumroll please...

The winner for best T-shirt design is... Enna Isilee!!! Congratulations Enna Isilee, and thanks for the fabulous design!

Here's the front of the winning design:


And the back:


And here it is on a T-shirt:



I'm so excited about this. I already uploaded the images to Cafe Press, setup T-shirts of a couple different styles and colors to be sold at the base price (no mark-up), and just like that, we've got T-shirts! Available right now! Crazy. The wonders of the internets never cease to amaze me.

Click here -- www.cafepress.com/sarahbethdurst -- to check 'em out.

Note to my family and friends: Don't be surprised if this is what you get for your next birthday! I already ordered one for myself, and will be stalking my mailman until it arrives...

Enna Isilee, please email me and let me know (A) your mailing address and (B) which style shirt you'd like in what size, and I will send you a shirt plus an ARC of Out of the Wild. Hope you like them both.

Okay, may I have another drumroll please? As promised, we have a second winner.

The winner of the random drawing is... Kelly013!!! Congratulations, Kelly! (And thanks for your entry, which was also awesome.) Please email me your mailing address, and I'll send you an ARC of Out of the Wild as well.

Thanks again, everyone! I had a lot of fun with this.

I-Con and NJ Library Conference

Contest Update

The Wild T-Shirt Design Contest (with the prize of an ARC of Out of the Wild) is still going on! Final deadline is 11:59pm on Tuesday, April 15, so keep those designs coming!

I-Con Trip Report

Last weekend, I was a program participant at I-Con, a science fiction and fantasy convention held on the Stony Brook University campus. I was on three really fun panels, including two with John Peel (author of the fun Diadem series) and one with Peter S. Beagle (author of the brilliant Last Unicorn).

At the end of our panel, Peter Beagle picked up a copy of Into the Wild. He looked through it and then he said something really nice about it. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear exactly what he said due to the fact that my brain was shrieking, "Peter Beagle! Looking at my book! Last Unicorn! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!"

I also did a joint signing with the very cool and very nice Aaron Rosenberg. And I chatted with the guy who played Kawalsky on Stargate SG-1 (Jay Acovone). (Whenever I see TV or movie stars, I'm always surprised that they're human-sized. I know it's illogical, but I always expect movie stars to be about ten feet tall and TV stars to be about 17 inches tall. Anyway, I love SG-1, so I thought meeting him was cool. He was nice too.)

I also briefly met Charlaine Harris (author of the fabulous Sookie Stackhouse books). I actually didn't realize who she was before I began talking to her. She introduced herself midway through the conversation, so I didn't have that key moment to compose myself. If I'd had that moment, I would have said, "It's so nice to meet you. I really enjoy your books." As it was, I did a little bunny hop and squealed, "Ooh! Yay! I love your books! Yay!" I am such a dork.

New Jersey Statewide Children's and YA Author Conference Trip Report

Last Friday, I was a guest author at the New Jersey Statewide Children's and YA Author Conference (a.k.a. "Author Day"). Five authors spoke to librarians from around New Jersey at a one-day conference held at Woodbridge Library.

I loved, loved, loved this day!

Seriously, I think this was one of my favorite book events that I've done so far. There's a good reason for this... Librarians are awesome. Think about it: a room full of people who all love kids' books? Awesome! Also, the organizers, Sharon Rawlins and Susan Fichtelberg, were fabulous. Susan was the one who invited me (yay!), and Sharon gave me an introduction that made me sound much cooler than I am (yay!).

And the other authors (Michael Reisman, Marie Lamba, Kevin C. Pyle, and Tonya Bolden) were all great. I loved their presentations, and I loved talking to them. Very awesome people. I think that's one of the best things about this whole writer thing: meeting awesome people... which is a kind of funny perk for a job that's supposed to involve sitting at a keyboard by yourself most of time.

Out of the Wild ARC Contest

It's here! It's time for the Out of the Wild ARC contest!!!

Yes, I'm bouncing up and down as I type this. You see, for months now, I've been mulling over the idea of doing a contest to give away an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) or two of my next book. I've visited lots of other writers' blogs -- purely for work purposes, of course, not procrastination (hah!) -- and seen their contests and been green with contest-envy. But now... it's time! I'm also excited because of what I'm going to ask you guys to do to win. Hee-hee! Oh, the power! It corrupts!

Seriously, though, I got the idea for this contest from Miss Erin, so you can praise/blame her. After she reviewed Out of the Wild, she mentioned that she wanted the T-shirt that various characters wear in the novel. The shirt in Out of the Wild has silver glitter letters that read, "Northboro: Fairy-Tale Capital of the World". Rapunzel (Julie's mom) hates it, though Gillian doesn't understand why.

"It doesn't give away any secrets," Gillian said.

"Just please don't wear it again."

"I wish you'd trust me," Gillian complained.

I wish you'd understand, Julie thought. Something as awful as fairy tales didn't belong on a T-shirt.

But I disagree with Julie. I think there should be T-shirts!!! So... welcome to the first ever Wild T-Shirt Design Contest!

The Challenge

Create a T-shirt design for Into the Wild or for Out of the Wild (or both)! It can be words, a picture, or words and a picture. It can say "Northboro: Fairy-Tale Capital of the World". Or not. It can mention the book titles. Or not. It can include your favorite phrase or sentence from Into the Wild. Or not. It can refer to your favorite character. Or not. It can be simple or ornate. It can be funny or serious. Whatever you think would make a great T-shirt!

For some examples/ideas, take a peek at the Tamora Pierce T-shirts available here on Cafe Press or the T-shirts in the sidebar of Bookshelves of Doom.

The Prize

As I am a firm believer that success in anything requires equal parts skill and luck, two winners will be selected, one for skill and one for luck. The "skill" winner will be the person whose T-shirt design is my favorite. The "luck" winner will be chosen at random from all the entries, so the more you enter, the better your chances!

Each of the two winners will receive an advanced reader copy (ARC) of Out of the Wild!

The best design(s) will be made available as T-shirts on Cafe Press! And if I use your design for a T-shirt, I'll buy you one of those T-shirts.

The Rules

You can enter as many times as you like. To enter, please create an image (that could be printed on a T-shirt) and either (A) post it somewhere online and put a link to it in the comments to this blog entry, or (B) email it to me and leave a comment here telling me that you did.

The image should be either a PNG or high-quality JPG file, and it should be 2,000 by 2,000 pixels in size (in other words, 10 x 10 inches at 200 dpi). If you want the printed image to be a shape other than square, make the background transparent.

You can use any words, phrases, or names from Into the Wild that you want. If you choose to use graphics, please do not use any copyrighted images. (This means that you can't use the cover art for Into the Wild or Out of the Wild -- sorry!).

The best design(s) will be uploaded to Cafe Press and made available for purchase on a T-shirt at the base price (no mark-up). No mark-up means that Cafe Press makes money on this, but I don't. (If you're not okay with having your design sold, please let me know when you enter.)

If you do not wish to make a T-shirt design but still want to be entered to win the "luck" drawing, please simply post a comment and say you'd like to enter.

You've got until the night of Tuesday April 15th to submit your designs. The winners will be announced on Thursday April 17th.

Good luck!!! And have fun!!!