Kristie Cook's Blog, page 45

Do you have Promise? Do you want Purpose?

Of course, you DO have promise - we all do! And we all have purpose, too, but sometimes it takes a while to figure out what it is.

But, of course, I'm talking about the books. I'm also talking about Teaser Tuesday, which I haven't done in ages. Tuesday's almost over and you're probably reading this on Wednesday, but...well, whatever. Here's the point:

 Are you ready for Purpose? How about a little peak? Excerpts are now posted over at the Purpose website . If you're tired of waiting to know what happens to Alexis next...well, these bits won't exactly tell you, but they'll whet your appetite for the real thing. A little tease for you. :)

Only 29 days to go! Woot!

I did it! The splits! See, here I am:



Haha! Yeah, right. This is about as close as I get to the splits:



So, actually, I split the blog. You may not notice any difference here, although there are some past posts missing. But there's a big change over here . While you're checking out my new writer digs, learn about the seemingly never-ending road of revisions and how Purpose still looked like this last week:



And please don't forget to follow that other blog, especially if you're a writer. All my writing, publishing and industry related posts will be over there, leaving this one for my books, author news and other official author stuff. We'll still have fun here, but more readerly fun than writerly fun.

Besides the split, which wasn't as bad as I expected, I also accomplished this over the weekend. Plus the beginnings of a website for my publisher. And put together the first issue of my newsletter, which will be going out shortly.

But probably the greatest accomplishment of all? Four generations of a family dinner and NO FIGHTING. We even played a game. I have three teen boys, 16 and 18 months apart. They define "competitive." So I cringe a little when a game is brought out for them. But we all played and had a great time and a fun dinner. Makes me look forward even more to Thanksgiving.

What did you get done this weekend? And did you have time to just hang out, too? Any good stories to share? Promise, I won't tell. :)

Thank you to everyone who played along, participated and spread the word for the Mr. Beautiful's Halloween Hop & Birthday Bash! It was a lot of fun and I particularly loved seeing all the renditions of Tristan. :) I wasn't a judge, which is a good thing because I wouldn't have been able to choose. They were all great! The judges complained about how hard it was, too, but have come to a decision.

So without further ado, the winner of the Halloween Hop:






Congratulations, Jessica at Confessions of a Bookaholic!!!!!
Check out the list here and let me know which book you'd like to accompany your gift cards. Send me an email with your choice and your address.

And the 1st winner of the Birthday Bash, randomly chosen by random.org:
Email starts with DawnEmbers!!!!
Yay, Dawn! Go pick out your choice of books here (scroll down for the list) and shoot me an email with your choice and address.

The 2nd winner of the Birthday Bash, randomly chosen by random.org:
Email address starts with cheyelizabeth!!!
Yay, Chey!!! Please email me your shipping address and I'll get your prizes sent out to you.

Thanks, again, everyone for playing!

It's your last chance to enter the Mr. Beautiful's Halloween Hop & Birthday Bash contest and giveaway! Right now, we have 9 entries for the "big one." And they all ROCK!!

We need 16 more entries to give away a Kindle. Is it possible? Maybe if we all work together! But if not, we will be awarding a nice prize pack that includes:

$15 Barnes & Noble Gift Card$25 Applebee's Gift CardA book of the winner's choice from the following list:Promise by yours truly (Signed)Purpose by yours truly (ARC) (Signed)Sand in My Eyes by Christine Lemmon (Signed) Fallout by Ellen Hopkins Firelight by Sophie Jordan The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey Falling Under by Gwen Hayes (ARC) The Haunted (#2 in The Hollow trilogy) by Jessica Verday Where She Went (sequel to If I Stay) by Gayle Forman (ARC)Beyonders: A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull (ARC) After the Kiss by Terra Elan McVoy Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon Dreaming in English (sequel to Veil of Roses) by Laura Fitzgerald (ARC) Learning to Breathe by Karen White The Wrong Mother by Sophie Hannah   If you haven't entered yet, why not? You still have time...though the clock is ticking.
And now for some great Promise in the Wild photos: Cheyanne ( Cheyanne with an a ) in Texas on her Sony Reader Dawn ( It's in the Book ) in Wyoming Caitlin at Scarrlet Reader
Thank you, everyone! LOVE. THEM!

No, this is not about me spilling my guts about a nasty break up. No one (that I know of anyway) is breaking up around here. I'm talking about my blog. Yes, this one, right here. It's time to split it up.

I'm not blind to the fact that there's been a lot of self-promotion lately. I wrote the stuff, after all. There's just been a lot of exciting news regarding my books, Promise and Purpose. Since this is my official author's website, it's kind of the place to be putting this kind of news. And, with Purpose's release coming very soon, there's going to be more.

But I still want to share, celebrate and commiserate with all my writer friends, do blog fests, writer interviews and other stuff not specific to me and my books or topics not particularly interesting to readers and fans (ok, so maybe there are only 20 of you, including family and besties, but maybe some day...). I mean, many of you don't really want to read about the mundane life of writing, editing, revising, researching, procrastinating and, more often than any of that, the wonderful qualities of coffee and chocolate.

But with everything going on with the books and the author side of life, I just don't have room to post here, without over-posting. I have a Marketing Monday post ready to go, but the last couple of Mondays have been devoted to breaking news. I have a series of interviews I want to do and a blog fest I want to host.

Soooo...I'm doing the split. (Not splits. Ouch. No.) Splitting up the blog. After Mr. Beautiful's Halloween Hop and Birthday Bash winners are announced next week, I'll be getting to work. All the behind-the-scenes, writerly stuff will be moved over to A Mused Writer , leaving this as my true Official Author's Website (putting it in caps makes it official, right?).

If you're a writer or have an interest in what a writer's life looks like on the other side, please go follow A Mused Writer (it's kind of boring and ugly right now, but I'll be working on that). I hope you'll still follow this one, too. There will be lots about my books and other communications with readers and fans, yes, but I also plan to discuss, spotlight and review others' books, too. Think of this one as my professional-dress site and the other one as my work-in-pajamas blog.

Before I go... I can't let a post go by without mentioning the giveaways . W e're getting closer to being able to give away a Kindle!!! This is not a random drawing that's all scientific and your chance of winning is based on some geeky algorithm. No, this is about creativity. But it doesn't have to be a lot of work. It can be simple. Check it out and join in the fun. And if you like the geeky-random.org-number-generator type of giveaways, there's one of those, too.

We have a Promise in the Wild photo all the way from Madrid, Spain!



Thank you, Andrea B. for showing us your copy of Promise, via Smashwords ! I hope you've entered the giveaway , because you get all kinds of extra entries for that. :-)


And now a word from our sponsor...(sorry, lovelies, but I thought you might want to know - and if you get it, take a picture and send it to me, especially if you're entering the giveaways )...

The Promise ebook's price has dropped. Now only $4.99! Through November only. Use coupon code AG94Dat Smashwords for Nook, Kindle and other eReader formats.

Or for the Kindle at Amazon:

Promise is finally available on The Book Depository!! Woohoo!! So all you peeps in Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia and South America who have been asking - you can now get Promise delivered straight to you with free shipping! Check it out here.

I'm so excited that my book can now be (easily) delivered worldwide that I've been bouncing in my chair since discovering it this morning. And more good news?!? I've been given the go-ahead to open the giveaways and contests internationally!!! Go enter here.

I've been trying to work on a Marketing Monday post, but too much going on to focus. I'll try to get it finished up and posted later, though.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
From Buster & Tess...


Now go read my real-life, scary ghost story at Confessions of a Bookaholic . She said it was one of the scariest ones they posted all month and there were some pretty creepy stories. So check it out and tell me what you think. While you're there, enter to win a Purpose ARC.

I totally missed Five for Friday. WAY too much going on yesterday. And I've actually missed quite a few FFFs, so I'll make it up with Six for Saturday.

Six things you should know for this weekend:
You can now pre-order signed copies of Purpose!!! Do it right here with our fancy new shopping cart.You have extra time to enter my contest and giveaway to win a Purpose ARC, other books, a gift card or a Kindle. We've extended the deadline for the contest and giveaway. Details here .You can read my scary ghost story for #HauntedHalloween and win a signed copy of Promise on Jessica's blog over at Confessions of a Bookaholic on Halloween (Sunday).NaNoWriMo starts Monday, so if you haven't decided whether to do it or not...you probably ought to this weekend. We writers are known for procrastinating, but this is getting a little ridiculous, don't you think? (Do you think I've made a definitive decision? I keep thinking I have, but...)Be sure to (re)stock your candy bowl before Sunday. Because it is Halloween, ya know? Please tell me this is not the only house that goes through all the candy before the day even arrives. All. Five. Bags. Be sure your pets are inside and safe Halloween night - there are some sick people out there! And speaking of pets...I can't even pull together a costume for myself these days and look at these beastly get-ups.


Have a Happy Halloween!!

We're extending the deadline for Mr. Beautiful's Halloween Hop and Birthday Bash! The new deadline, as seen above, is Friday, 11/5 at midnight. They'll judge the Halloween Hop entries over that weekend and I'll announce winners on Monday, 11/8.

For a Purpose ARC, swag and other free books (see the full list of choices here), simply click here and fill out the form or scroll down below for the embedded form. Earn entries by tweeting, blogging and Facebooking about it (just be sure to tell me about it by completing the form!). You can share this page's link or the original page. Get even more EXTRA ENTRIES by taking a picture of your copy of Promise and posting it on your blog or FB page...or email to me at kristie (at) kristiecook (dot) com.

For the Halloween Hop, sign up by entering your blog address or Facebook page below. Then post your entry between now and midnight on 11/5. What can you do? Anything, as long as it incorporates the photo to the left (right-click it to save and use the image). Some ideas:
Use a photo-editing program to add some kind of fun saying.Make a mock book cover using his photo.Save the photo, enlarge it, print it out and take a picture of you and Mr. Beautiful.Create a video with Mr. Beautiful.Draw the rest of him.Check out the original contest page for a little background on Mr. Beautiful (pictured here). You can also learn about him in some of my blog fest entries, there was an interview with him in the May archives...or meet him by reading the first two chapters of Promise here. To enter the contest for a gift card or Kindle, enter your blog address or Facebook page (wherever you'll be posting your entry):


For entries for the book giveaway, complete this form:

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