Wednesday, July 3rd

That's the day In Pieces should go live on Amazon. It's getting a final read-through this weekend. I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting this one, and the wait is almost over! It ended up quite long by the way, 91K words, which I think will make many of my readers happy. I look forward to hearing from you once you've read it!

And the winner is...

Just after noon today, all the entries for the random drawing for a $20 Amazon gift card went into the knit cap:

And I drew the following name:

Congratulations to Kat T. of North Carolina!!

Kat, be watching your email, the gift card will be sent to you within the hour.

And thank you to all who played along, this was so much fun for me! :)

The answer to the contest is in the last blog post, by the way.

Answer to the trivia contest!

For those of you following the contest on this blog over the last few days, here's the answer to my trivia question:

The hat was a replica of one worn by the character Jayne Cobb (played by Adam Baldwin, pictured below) in a wonderful though short-lived TV show airing in 2002 called Firefly. The show was by the brilliant Joss Whedon, and starred oh-so-sexy Nathan Fillion. While it ran less than a full season, it has a rabid cult following to this day. If you've never seen it, do yourself a favor and check it out on Netflix!

Maybe forty percent of you actually got the right answer, the quickest being Ann from San Diego, who won the first of two gift cards on Sunday.

Other popular answers were Sheldon from Big Bang Theory and Griffin from Men in Black 3 -- excellent guesses! And of course there were a fair number of readers that just emailed me and said, "OMG I have no clue!" And that also got them entered in the drawing! :)

Thank you to all who entered the contest! It was a delight getting to hear from some of my readers. I'm going to go and draw the name of the gift card winner out of the knit hat now. He/she will be contacted by email and I'll publish their first name here this afternoon!

Keep Those Contest Entries Coming!

The first of two $20 Amazon gift cards that I'm giving away was won in a matter of minutes Sunday by the lovely and talented Ann of San Diego, California. All hail Ann and her mad geek skills!! :)

I will post the answer to my Nerd-Off trivia question here on Wednesday, by the way, so you can keep guessing until then!

And don't forget: you can enter the random drawing for the second $20 Amazon gift card from now through noon PST Wednesday 6/26/13 (see contest details in the last post). You don't even have to know the right answer to win! Just email me at alexalandwrites@gmail.com with a random guess to the trivia question in Sunday's blog post and you're entered in the drawing. Easy peasy! The winner will be announced Wednesday afternoon.

It's been a blast getting to hear from so many readers that have never contacted me before! I love knowing there are actually people out there, and I'm not just talking to myself on this blog! :)

Thanks for playing, guys!

CONTEST, CONTEST, CONTEST!!

Here it is, kids, as promised in yesterday's blog post: the first ever Alexa Land Nerd-Off!!!

What is that? Why, it's a trivia contest. Two winners will each receive a $20 (USD) Amazon gift card, sent directly to whatever email address you use to contact me. Don't worry, I'm not going to share or publish your email address, pinky promise.

First, all the fine print:

The contest runs for 72 hours, beginning at 12 noon PST Sunday, June 23rd, 2013 and concluding Wednesday, June 26th, 2013 at 12 noon PST. Only emails received during that time period are eligible for the prize.

Winners must be 18 or older and will be selected as follows:

1. The first person to email me with the correct answer to the trivia question below gets one of the $20 Amazon gift cards.

2. The second winner will be chosen at random from all the emails I receive, and this winner doesn't need to know the answer to the trivia question! That's right, even if you don't know the answer, email me anyway! Take a completely random, wild guess. Or just say hi. Tell me a joke. Or just complain incessantly about something, that's usually what my kid does. Though if you go with that option, be aware that I will probably send you to time out. ;)

Ok, enough with all the rules and regulations! 

Without further ado, I give you THE NERD-OFF!

Take a look at the photo below. It's a replica of a knit hat worn by a character in a science fiction movie or television show. I can neither confirm nor deny that I actually own this hat. That would be too dorky to admit, after all.

In order to win the first $20 Amazon gift card, email me with:

1. the name of the character that wore this hat
2. the name of the movie or television show in which he or she appeared
3. your name and location.

First person to email me with the right answer wins one of the gift cards.

Even if you don't know the answer, email me anyway with a wild guess and your name and location and you will be entered into a random drawing for the second $20 Amazon gift card! 

Send your answers to: alexalandwrites@gmail.com

Again, you must be 18 or older to play. Sorry, kids. Winners will be contacted via email. Your first name only will be published on my blog if you win -- I absolutely swear to respect your privacy. Your full name and email address will not be published.

Remember, you need to email me before noon on Wednesday, June 26th, 2013 to win. Have fun and good luck!!

First Ever Alexa Land Nerd-Off! :)

So, as many of you have noticed (and some commented on), I tend to slip a few nerdy sci fi references into pretty much all of my books. Well, sadly, my current work-in-progress, In Pieces, is a bit light on nerdtastic details. It got me thinking, how can I nerd up this book a little?

Well, good news: I can't. Christopher, my main character from In Pieces, is far less of a geek than I am.

But what I can do instead is host a CONTEST right here on my blog with a science fiction theme -- because I suspect I'm not the only nerd out there. ;)

So here's what's gonna happen: tomorrow, Sunday, June 23rd at 12 noon Pacific Standard Time, I'm going to post a science fiction trivia question here on my blog. It will relate to either sci fi movies or television.

There will be 2 winners. Each will receive a $20 Amazon gift card, emailed to whatever address you use to contact me. Winner #1 will be that awesome individual that emails me first with the right answer to my trivia question.

But even if you're not a huge geek (and my condolences if this is the case ;) ) and don't know the answer, you can still win!! The second winner will be chosen at random from all the emails I receive in the designated 3-day time period, right answer or not!! That's right: you don't have to know the answer to win! Just play along!!

Got it? Good. Come back tomorrow and let's have some fun. :D

So just now...

...I finished writing the very last scene for In Pieces. It's done!!!

Well, the writing part anyway. It'll take a couple weeks to get it nicely polished and edited, but it will be in your hands before you know it. I'm shooting for publishing it on Amazon before the 4th of July.

It's been a long process. Fortunately, some of my readers kept encouraging me along the way, and I'm so grateful for that. The occasional friendly email really helped me stay positive and motivated.

I think I did Christopher's story justice. I hope you agree. And I so look forward to getting this book to you!