Ann Aguirre

Cyclone Nargis Contest

Dear Ann,

Thank you for your donation to Save the Children’s response to the Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. With the support of friends like you, brighter futures await children and families in need who are benefiting from your support.

Transaction ID: 31003151
Date: May 7, 2008
Name: Ann Aguirre

Now I’m going to sponsor a contest to get you to do the same. Over at Smart Bitches, Sarah has bridged the subject of where to donate your dollars in order to help a people who are really struggling, both with natural disasters and poor leadership. The juntas in charge are actively preventing people from acquiring visas, people who just want to help.

I strongly recommend making sure the charity you donate to has people already in the country. I don’t want our money going to the military who may not use it for relief, but there are a number of organizations already working in Myanmar, so we can make a difference. If you don’t want to go to Smart Bitches, you can find the info here.

Here’s the deal. You pick a charity and donate some money. I don’t care how much. Send me an email with a transaction number, showing that you gave to disaster relief (even just a buck), and I’ll enter you in a drawing for free books. (Note: the prizes have changed. I started at $150, but Alessia Brio is adding $50 to the pot. Lauren Dane is now kicking in $50 as well.) Now we’re looking at three winners total. We wanted to spread the love around.

The new prizes:
$150 gift card to any bookstore
$50 gift card to any bookstore
$50 gift card to any bookstore

If you tell me how much you donated in that email, I’ll give you another entry. I’d love to track how much we raise. I’ll include my own donation in the tally. Next, post a comment as a secondary tracking system for me, so I don’t lose any entries. I’ll be updating the tally in the sidebar as we go along.

The winner can pick the store where he or she spends his loot. I’ll do Amazon, B&N, Powells, wherever you want. I know contests are usually free, but even small donations will help people who are starving and homeless. A little might make a huge difference in someone else’s life.

I’m going to run this a week, so it will wrap up at midnight on May 14, and I’ll announce the winner on May 15th.

Saving the world is the new black.

Houston, I have a draft.

Let the loafing begin!

Seriously, this was a fucking hard book, emotionally wrenching. Now that I’ve written the final lines, I feel like getting drunk or taking a Xanax or something. Because damn, this project took a lot out of me.

Happy stories and good news, stat!

Pam K (19)
Sula (37)
Melissa (52)
Robyn L (13)
Jackie (28)

Congrats, ladies! Email me with your addresses and I’ll get the book sent out to you right away. Be sure to send me a link when you’ve written your reviews. Enjoy the sexy!

Okay, so last night, I had the weirdest dream ever in a long history of weird dreams.

I dreamed I was on this multi-author book tour, and we had our own fancy painted bus (just like the Partridge Family). When the trip first started, we were all:

Hello world, here’s a song that we’re singin’
Come on, get happy
A whole lotta lovin’ is what we’ll be bringin’
We’ll make you happy

We had a dream we’d go travelin’ together
And spread a little lovin’ if we’ll keep movin’ on
Somethin’ always happens whenever we’re together
We get a happy feelin’ when we’re singin’ a song

Travelin’ along, there’s a song that we’re singin’
Come on, get happy
A whole lotta lovin’ is what we’ll be bringin’
We’ll make you happy

We’ll make you happy
We’ll make you happy

For a while, everything went just swell. This part of the dream was sort of a movie-montage of all of us running from bookstore to bookstore, signing all the books and singing as we did it. OMGZ. I’m in hell! See, I really, really hate musicals, and here I found myself trapped in one. The horror! I also didn’t get a good look at the people I was traveling with. Oh, and there was cake.

So then we were crossing Arizona or Nevada or some equally desolate desert when our bus driver had a heart attack. Yes, while he was driving the bus. We tried to get him out of the seat and steer to safety, but he was flailing and dying, and he was a big guy. By the time we sorted the situation, the bus went seriously off road and plunged into a shallow ravine. We were all very sad Partridges.

Now the dream gets sort of jumbly. We were all running about like mad and going, “Oh noes, we’re all going to die”. At this point, I identified some of my companions in this nightmare book tour:

Jeri Smith-Ready
Mark Henry
Jackie Kessler
Anton Strout
Meredith Duran
Carrie Lofty
Dakota Cassidy
Gennita Low
Lauren Dane

Those are the ones I’m sure about. There were other people milling around, but I can’t remember their faces for sure. Now some of those people I know well, some I met in passing at RT, some I saw at RT and didn’t talk to. Some I’ve never met at all.

The funniest part about this dream? We were all falling into a terrible panic. We had no food, no water. Death seemed imminent and inescapable.

And then, a leader rose up among us: someone strong and indomitable, cool under crisis, and armed with the most impressive of survival skills. I was in awe of this person’s commanding presence. In catching and filleting scorpions for our dinner, this person put Bear Grylls to shame. Based on those listed, can you guess our fearless leader’s name?

You want it, don’t you? You don’t even need me to tell you how hot this antho is. Just look at that cover. It calls to you, doesn’t it?

At this point, you know me well enough to figure there’s going to be a contest. The question is, what am I going to do? Well, let me lay it out for you.

I’m giving away

five

copies of this sexy book. If you win, you promise you’ll review it somewhere.

To enter, there are two steps. First, you need to say you want the book in comment, but don’t just say “I want it!” or “Throw my name in the hat.” Tell me why you want it. If you’re a fan girl of one of the authors, say so. If you think it looks like prime wanking material, tell me that (but not in great detail — I’m not looking to host your onanistic fantasies). Next, you need to tell one other person about the contest. Obviously, this is on the honor system. Finally, I’m running this on a one comment / one entry system, so if you want the book bad you can greatly increase your chances of winning by hanging out here and conversing. To that end, I feel I must point out: comments must be at least five words, no spamming, no random links. In other words, I want you to post, but your remarks must have content and relate back to something in the comments thread somehow.

On Monday, May 5th, I’ll announce the winner. The contest will run for a week, and on Cinco de Mayo, I’ll use a random number generator to pick five lucky souls who will receive a free copy of What Happens in Vegas. Are you ready for this?

Game on!

Chat here tonight, 7pm central. I’ll be announcing the winner of the Monthly Favorites contest and conducting an hour-long Q&A with y’all.

Why do I still love John Cusack, almost twenty years after he stole my heart in Say Anything? Read this. I defy you not to swoon. Brains, principles, passion. O.M.G. War, Inc — I am so there.

In comments, Christine wrote: “You’re so awesome, Ann! Always doing something fun for your readers and friends!”

Well, she’s right. At least about doing stuff, if not the awesome part. I’ll let y’all judge my awesomeness individually. See, after I finished my “for pay” words on HELL FIRE (Corine 2), I started working on the free short story I’ll be posting on my Free Reads page in June. RENEGADE is written in March’s POV, third-person / past-tense for people who care about such things.

You may not know about this about me, but I’m also a heartless tease. Just ask Azteclady. What do I mean by that? Well, I’m going to post the first paragraph of RENEGADE today. I’ll tantalize all you March-junkies out there just because I can. To read the rest, you have to check my website, come June. *maniacal laughter*

Enjoy!

Renegade

Nicu Tertius, late summer

The air was thick with clotting blood, the ground a morass of churned mud. Blueflies droned in the distance, laying eggs in the corpses of men he’d called comrade. This plan had been doomed from the beginning, and if March owned anything like a conscience, he’d have told the soft little Nicuan nobleman where he could stuff his credits because clearly he already had his head wedged up there.

In case you didn’t know, I have a contest running here. You will need to register for the message board in order to enter, but it’s painless. I would ask that you make your username something that looks remotely real. I’m constantly deleting nonsense spam registrations from bots that want to use the board to advertise Xanax, porn, online casinos, and other junk. So if you pick coiadfouhgadfgh as your username and say you’re from Estonia and you’re interested in farming, I’m probably going to think you’re a bot.

The Monthly Favorites contest runs every month from the 23rd to the 30th. We talk about our favorite reads, and at the end, I announce the winner, who can then choose from any book named over the course of the discussion. I think it’s pretty fun, and it lets me give away a free book, which is also fun. If you’re not part of it, you really should be.

As an adjunct to that, I’m going to institute a new tradition. On the evening of the 30th (that’s Wednesday), I’m going to start a monthly chat at 7pm, where I’ll announce the contest winner, and then do an hour-long Q&A with readers. This will happen every month on the 30th at 7pm. (That’s Mexico City time, which I believe is central. If you’re in another time zone, plan accordingly if you’d like to come chat with me.) I’ll still post the winner the following morning on the message board for people who are unable to attend.

Without further ado, this is where you can find me. 7 pm, April 30th will be the first chat. I may just give out extra prizes for the inaugural event, you never know. (That means I probably will.) So you don’t want to miss this.

First, thanks for the outpouring of support that came in the form of comments and emails after my crappy United experience. Things did get better, and I had a lovely time at RT. My first day was hurried because I had to locate boxes before my first event, and I would have preferred to do that the day before, but the RT staff came through down at the wire (thanks, Kevin!)

So let’s talk high points. I’m not giving a minute by minute account, just listing some things that struck me as awesome.

Jeri and Gennita as roommates.

Even though the Hilton was a bit lacking in basic amenities (she said in a massive understatement), they made my stay a pleasure. When our room proved too small for a cot, we pushed the beds together and made an Ann-wich. They’re both so much fun I can’t even articulate it. I miss them both already!

Hanging out with the Bradford Bunch.

I loved meeting Lauren, Vivi, Megan, and Anya. Sometimes people aren’t what you expect in person, but that wasn’t the case here. I don’t know what I’d have done without them. I’m sure, in fact, that I would have been miserable because I’m the type to sit in my room with a book if other people aren’t actively inviting me places. I suck at networking and I never assume anyone wants to hang around with me unless they actively say so.

Meeting readers.

I participated in a couple of reader events, which were fantastic. That was the whole reason I came to RT and I wasn’t disappointed. It was cool to have people recognize me, sometimes even in the elevator. She said, “Hey, you’re the Grimspace lady! I read your book and LOVED it.” There’s nothing like it for feeling like a ‘real’ author.

Selling out at the book fair.

God, I was sooo excited. I had worried myself sick before leaving for RT that I wouldn’t sell any copies, and to my astonished delight, Grimspace moved really well. I got to meet readers I’ve communicated with via email, and they brought friends by my table to recommend the book. (Thanks, Shannon!) I will also never forget the wonderful lady who bought my last copy (K.E., I’m talking to you). I hope the Chandler dance was worth it! It was also a crazy thrill to sign books for Keri Arthur and Shiloh Walker.

Being interviewed by Smart Bitch Sarah.

I can only imagine what that interview will look like, but Morgan seemed to think we did all right. It was wicked cool talking about my book in person with Sarah. She said I have mad skills and she really liked Grimspace. She also totally got Jax. Her insights impressed me; it’s just fabulous when a reader totally tunes into what I was trying to do, and the way I envision her character and motivations.

I also had fun dancing at the Faery Ball. My ass-shaking drew the attention of the venerable Fred, who danced with me to Come on, Eileen. Jeri said cover models are like cats; they only come to those who don’t seem interested in petting them.

I’m not much for the spectacle aspects of RT; all the costumes and pageantry are lost on me. It looked like the participants had lots of fun with it, though, and some of the dresses were astonishingly lavish.

I sneaked away from the convention twice. The first time, I bought myself a new PDA, and the next, I hied myself to Barnes and Noble, hoping against hope that I might have a chance to see the special display. I told myself it was unlikely, but I cabbed over to Squirrel Hill anyway. I squeed quietly when I found it in the SF&F section; I couldn’t believe it was still up! I took some pictures, then I signed their stock. It was one of the best moments of my life. I’d seen my book in stores before, but never like that, set apart from the others. I can’t really describe how it made me feel, except that I came pretty close to crying over it.

I met so many cool people that I couldn’t possibly name them all. Rather than possibly upset somebody by leaving them out, I’ll just say it was fantastic to put so many faces to names and be social for a week. If I met you, it was a pleasure. Thanks for being kind enough to converse with me.

In conclusion, RT was worth attending, and I enjoyed it immensely. How did it shake out for everyone else?