Winner for "The Tenth Plague" Giveaway

Last week, we announced a giveaway for a copy of the new edition of Adam Blumer's The Tenth Plague. The comment period closed at noon today, and I put the names in a hat (well, it wasn't a hat; it was actually a box) and pulled out Mark's. Congratulations, and you're in for some suspenseful reading!

Thanks to all who participated.

A Light Shining: 2 Reviews (and a Giveaway)

I’ve tweeted and posted the links on Facebook, but I wanted to make special note here of two of the reviews that have come in for A Light Shining.

Laura Boggess at The Wellspring said this:

“In turns suspenseful and heartwarming, A Light Shining has all the qualities of those classic tales that stay with you for the long journey. These characters become friends and fellow sojourners…making their way into a reader’s heart and encouraging a deeper faith—one that has hands and feet. We all need such role models as Michael and Sarah Kent-Hughes.

“I don’t want to give away the plot, but I was hooked in the first few pages. Glynn Young’s masterfully developed characters and gift of story make this book hard to put down.

“If you are partial to a good yarn, A Light Shining does not disappoint. And if you haven’t read Dancing Priest? You might want to start there. Nothing like a good book to ward off the chill of the cold season coming on.

“Go ahead. Find a cozy. Read all day.

“You are going to want to.”

And Diana Trautwein at Just Wondering said this:

"’A Light Shining’ is a very different book from ‘The Dancing Priest.’ Yes, the same characters are here and some fascinating new ones, too. Yes, there is, once again, cross-continental travel in this saga, as well as glimpses into Michael's everyday life as an Anglican priest. But from the very first sentence, you know that we are most definitely not in Kansas anymore. There is something ominous afoot, a threat that hangs heavy over every page.

“Initially, I found this almost off-putting. I love these characters and did not want anything terrible to happen to them! So as the story began, I was cautious. However, I was very quickly drawn into the unfolding of this drama, once again a willing and happy prisoner of the strong plotting and wonderful characters. I will not go into that plot in this review because I actually think that sense of dread is important to the reading of this particular story. Rather than romance, this story is filled with mystery and intrigue, hooking you early and well.”

Thanks to both Laura and Diana for their wonderful (and encouraging) words.

Giveaway

Finally, we still have a giveaway going on at Emily Weirenga’s place. It will be by random drawing, and the winner gets his or her choice of either Dancing Priest or A Light Shining. Just leave a comment. The winner will be announced tomorrow.

Thanks to Emily for hosting the giveaway.

Making the O List

Some books make the A List, and some books make the O List.

In February, T.S. Poetry Press, known for poetry and memoirs, published its first novel, The Whipping Club by Deborah Henry. It is the story of a child placed for adoption, and years later, his birth parents learn that he wasn’t adopted as they had been told, but is in an orphanage – an institution that is more about child abuse than child care.

This week, O Magazine—O as in Oprah—published its list of the 29 hottest reads for the summer – and The Whipping Club is on the list.

It made the O List. O my goodness.

To continue reading – and get information on a 14-karat-gold giveaway, please see my post today at TweetSpeak Poetry.

"The Land of Darkness" Giveaway Winner

Yes, we have a winner in the giveaway of an autographed copy of C.S. Lakin's The Land of Darkness, the third of her novels in the Gates of Heaven series. (I thought there were to be five in the series, but it turns out there will be seven, which is all the better, in my opinion. I love these books.)

I used a very scientifically random process to select the winner.

First, you had to leave a comment on the giveaway post, citing your favorite favorite tale. (The favorites named were fairly diverse but certain words like Narnia and Lord of the Rings kept creeping in.)

The deadline was 6 p.m. Central time last night.

After the deadline passed, I numbered the comments in the order they were posted, wrote the numbers on slips of paper,  placed the slips in a hat, messed them all around with my hand, and then, with eyes closed, pulled one out. How more scientific can you get, right? Well, it was random, and fair.

And out of the hat came the slip numbered 3 -- Karen Kyle Ericson, a photographer who blogs under her own name. Congratulations, Karen! You are about to enter the Land of Darkness. Well, no, I didn't mean it that way. How about, you are about to enter the Gates of Heaven? Uh, no, that doesn't quite work either.

How about: you are about to receive one greatly enjoyable book to read, and you will likely go look for the others in the series already published -- The Wolf of Tebron and The Map Across Time.

Thanks to C.S. Lakin for providing the autographed copy.

"The Land of Darkness" -- A Giveaway

I can still remember being a young child and having my mother read Grimm’s Fairy Tales to me from a thin but oversized volume with a green cover. I still have the book, and am embarrassed to see that I also used it as a coloring book. But except for the Lord of the Rings novels (read first on college) and the Chronicles of Narnia (read first when my oldest was six), Grimm’s Fairy Tales were my only exposure to the genre of fantasy.

For some months now, I’ve been reading C.S. Lakin’s “Gates of Heaven” series – The Wolf of Tebron, The Map Across Time and The Land of Darkness. Officially they fall into the fantasy genre, but Lakin calls them fairy tales. I’m inclined to agree with her.

Fantasy is not the kind of fiction I usually read, but it is one, thanks to Lakin and Ian Thomas Curtis's The Canticles of Andurun: Dragonsong, that I’ve come to appreciate and enjoy. The sheer creativity of inventing an entire new world of characters, culture, geography and history is impressive, particularly when it’s done well. Lakin does it well. What I find particularly engaging in her novels is how she weaves the story of faith into the narrative in such a way as to make this new world familiar. And I’ve become a fan.

To introduce others to the “Gates of Heaven” novels, we’re doing a giveaway of an autographed copy of The Land of Darkness. The three novels are not consecutive; they can be read independently or in any order. They share geography, culture and history, but they are actually stand-alone novels as well.

To participate in the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment here with the title of your favorite fairy tale. That’s it. I like the “pull a number from a hat” approach and what I do is number the comments, place individual numbered slips of paper in a hat, and pull one out – about as random as you can get. But I think it will be fun to see what fairy tales people might cite.

To be eligible for the giveaway, leave your comment here by Friday, Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. Central time. I’ll pull the number from a hat and announce the winner here.

Even if you don’t win, I think you’ll find the entire series of the “Gates of Heaven” rewarding reading. I’m looking forward to the final two novels when they’re published in 2012.

Related:

My review of The Wolf of Tebron.

My review of The Map Across Time.

My review of The Land of Darkness.

A Poem Dedicated Just to You

For more than a year, I’ve been a contributing editor at The High Calling, which means I write a monthly post on a subject related to work and faith and an occasional additional post. I also participate in the book club discussions hosted by Laura Boggess, and there’s a cool one starting Monday on Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki (you can find a video interview with him on the book here.)

I work with the people who are The High Calling for five reasons.

First, I like the people. I like them a lot. We come from different backgrounds and experiences but we share a common bond in faith. I love working with them. I like being edited by Bradley Moore, Ann Kroeker, Sam Van Eman and Marcus Goodyear, because they’re good – really good – editors. I like how fast Claire Burge and Kelly Sauer can find the ideal photo illustration for my stories. I like the sense of humor of our managing editor, L.L. Barkat. And that’s just the staff – then there’s the whole world of connected High Calling bloggers.

Second, I like what The High Calling is up to. The “high calling” of its name is about the work we all do – whether that’s in the office or the home, in a ballpark or a truck route, in the church or the school, everywhere and anywhere we do work. The idea is that it’s work we’re called to do, and therefore we do it to the very best of our abilities, so that others might see the source of our dedication, creativity and labor.

Third, it’s affected people’s lives, and in good and wonderful ways. I looked through the comments left on every post in the month of March, and was amazed to see example after example of what was happening in people’s lives. You don’t necessarily expect that from an online site.

Fourth, I start each day by reading an emailed Daily Reflection from Mark Roberts, the Senior Director and Theologian-in-Residence at Laity Lodge. We're currently in the gospel of St. Luke, and he just finished a series of posts on the Lord's Prayer.

Fifth, I like what The High Calling has done for me, my writing, and my understanding of faith. It’s broken me out of what had been a relatively contained world of this blog, and pushed me to do better and be a better writer.

Recently, a financial supporter of The High Calling offered to match gifts, up to a total of $5,000, made to support the site’s work. For me, that was a no-brainer. So I’m doing my own version of a “public television telethon” and asking friends and visitors to consider a donation.

The High Calling has some suggested categories, but you can choose to give a gift large, small or in between. If you do make a gift of any size, let me know that you did (not the amount) by email or in the comment box, and I will write a poem dedicated to you.

And what’s more, check out L.L. Barkat’s giveaway over at Seedlings in Stone. You have a chance to win a cool book from L.L. AND have a poem dedicated to you by me.

The matching gift effort runs through May 31. So make a donation and have a poem dedicated to you.

Top Photograph: Laity Lodge by The High Calling. Swiped off The High Calling web site. Hey! That's a sixth reason I like The High Calling -- Laity Lodge!

"Dragonsong:" We have a winner in our giveaway

For the giveaway of Dragonsong by Ian Thomas Curtis, I put the name of each person who left a comment on a slip of paper, and put them all in a box, shook it up and pulled one out.

And my magic fingers selected the name of Bill Grandi, aka Cycleguy. Congratulations, Bill, and a copy from Amazon will soon be on its way to you. And thanks to all who left read the interviews and left a comment.

Interview with Ian Thomas Curtis: Dragonsong (Part 2) – and a Giveaway

We’re continuing with our interview of Ian Thomas Curtis, author of The Canticles of Andurun: Dragonsong. Today he talks about the characters, the role of faith in the story, his favorite authors and his own faith.

The story of Dragonsong is an epic-like story. But it is also the personal story of Justias, who's not only called to be a dragon slayer but has very familiar conflicts with his father, William. Their relationship is marked by both tension and love. These "stories within the story" are found throughout the book, and seem designed to knit the main story together.

I love side plots. That is the simplest explanation. I feel that writing a good novel (especially a novel of this type) should be like making a rug: you use many different strands to weave it into one coherent whole. The challenge and the joy is to bring many seemingly unrelated plot points into a position where they begin to fall together and reveal a larger whole. The over-arching story is Justias’ great quest to slay the Dragons and liberate his people; but I hope the reader pauses to enjoy the many rabbit trails I’ve left along the way. Sometimes being diverted is fun, and it gives the story room to grow, in my opinion.

The novel is strongly undergirded by faith, and yet it's not overwhelmed by it. And elements of the Bible and religion have a definite influence -- the required branding by the dragons, the clerics and zealots who serve the dragons, and the faithful like Reverend Cerson who believe in "the One." Speak a bit about how your own faith influenced the story.

Justias in many ways reflects my own faith, or lack of it, for most of my life. The Dragons and their Clerics represent, to some extent, the organized religious institution. Reverend Cerson represents the believer’s simple and faith-based relationship with God. Yet I must add that I wasn’t intending Dragonsong to be an allegory in any strict sense. I did use biblical references, quotes, morals, etc. because I wanted to teach God’s sovereignty and man’s accountability toward Him. In Justias’ case he wanted vengeance no matter what; it would be a hard lesson for him to see that his own way is not the best way because we can’t see further than the moment we’re in. The dragons could be likened to Satan and his demons who crave the worship that only belongs to God, and direct man’s attention away from knowing and building a relationship with Him, to building religious systems that replace Him. When I realized the vital nature of what Christianity meant, that it was nothing short of approaching God through Jesus Christ and coming to know Him and be known by Him, it was an epiphany. I wanted to show a character going through something of the same ordeal as I did and being conformed from doing my own thing to thinking God’s thoughts after Him. Dragonsong is my attempt.

What authors do you like to read?

After the Bible I enjoy a lot of non-fiction authors. I like Dave Hunt, A.W. Tozer, Roger Oakland, Charles Spurgeon, Erwin Lutzer, and many more. I love expositional material, commentaries, or devotional work. As for fiction? I don’t read a lot of fiction, actually. I just read Paradise Lost by John Milton, a trio of plays by Shakespeare, the Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, and I’ll be turning to Poe soon. I enjoy the Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, the Sword of Shannara (Terry Brooks), the Screwtape Letters (Lewis, of course), and Lloyd Alexander’s series of fantasy. I love a good fantasy story where the heroes and villains are sharply defined; good is good and evil is evil. I don’t mean boring cliché and lack of creativity, but I have no interest in reading when the hero is as vile or duplicitous as the villain.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Random or particular? Randomly, I like watching Scooby Doo cartoons and have a mild fascination with monkeys. In particular, I have been writing in one form or another since I was eight (give or take). I liked writing horror stories at first, and then turned to writing fantasy, but had the most awful problem—even into my twenties—of finishing a novel-sized fantasy story. No; I have never suffered writer’s block. I just had other ideas for other stories that would intrude, and I would set down what I was writing, begin something else, and never go back. I lacked self-control and temperance: something God has given me to complete The Canticles of Andurun.

I began dating Gillian (my wife) in my late twenties, and finished writing Dragonsong not long afterward. We married after about 21 months, and had our twin girls, Mabel and Lorna, almost two years after. Our third (Gabriel Benjamin if a boy and Kendra Elizabeth if a girl) will arrive early July, 2011.

I haven’t always been a very good Christian. I was very self-centered for most of my teens and twenties, which led to numerous poor choices on my part: A carnal relationship with my first girlfriend that lost me my best friend, followed by a marriage to an unbeliever that nearly cost me my entire family. The marriage ended after less than three years and I came to the realization that all of my choices in life had one ultimate end: gratification of self. I was so in love with myself that God was nowhere on the horizon.

Jesus finally managed to get my attention after my divorce and I began a slow and uncertain walk that was strengthened through new Christian friends and a new fellowship with my parents that I did not possess earlier. I still stumble often, but I know now that when I fall I can be cleansed and restored to fellowship with my Lord; I know that my spirit is willing, even if the flesh is weak. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior, and therefore I have a foundation on which to build my marriage, fatherhood and writing. I love being a father and a husband, and I am inclined to believe that God gifted me with creative ability to glorify Him through fictional stories.

I am a fundamental Christian: I believe the Bible is the inerrant, infallible word of God for faith and practice, and that justification is by faith alone in Christ alone, totally divorced of works or merit. I believe that the Bible teaches only one way to salvation and God: faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I like to teach through my blog, and I’m glad to God how much I learn as I do so! No, I have never been to college and I do not have any credentials after my name; I am a doctor of nothing. Yet Christ was pleased to call the common men to Him. Had He wanted the men with the credentials, He could certainly have had them. And I am certainly common in this regard.

I have a deep love for fantasy writing, and without doubt the Bible was my primary source of inspiration for crafting my tale; though I confess that elements of other novels and such have colored some of Andurun. Solomon said there was nothing new under the sun, so I just want to take an old idea and give it a unique spin. I hope I have achieved that. It is my hope and desire to sow a little biblical truth and wisdom throughout The Canticles of Andurun for the believer, and to provide something to think on for the unbeliever; I also just wanted to give the reader a good story to plunge into!

Related: Ian talks about the book on YouTube.

Giveaway

It won’t be a surprise that I like this book – and I like it a lot. So much, in fact, that I’m giving away a copy, shipped directly from Amazon. Just leave a comment in the comment box, and your name will be entered in a random drawing. The giveaway will close on Sunday, April 3 at midnight, and I’ll announce the winning name on Monday, April 4.

An Interview with Ian Thomas Curtis: Dragonsong (Part 1) – and a Giveaway

I’ve mentioned several times that one genre of fiction that I’ve really read is fantasy, Sure, I’ve read J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and C.S. Lewis and his Chronicles of Narnia. And years ago, I read the Dune novels by Frank Herbert, and science fiction works by Robert Heinlein, Arthur Clarke, Robert Silverberg and many others. But fantasy didn’t hold much appeal, that is, until I read C.S. Lakin’s The Wolf of Tebron and The Map Across Time, and then The Canticles of Andurun: Dragonsong by Ian Thomas Curtis.

And I was blown away. You can read my reviews of the two Lakin novels here and here, and my review of Dragonsong here. And I ask myself, where does such imagination and creativity come from, to create such complex worlds and stories?

I caught up with Ian Thomas Curtis, and posed a few questions about that.

When did you become interested in fantasy - reading and writing?

I was a little boy when I became interested in fantasy. I was a child when "Star Wars" and similar movies were popular, and my older brothers enjoyed movies and books of that sort. I began writing fantasy by the time I was 10 years old and reading it even earlier. It’s in the blood, I guess.

How did the idea of Dragonsong originate? You write in the introduction that there was some influence from you playing Dungeons and Dragons years ago.

I began playing Dungeons and Dragons when I was about eight. My older brothers were involved and they brought me in, and then when I was older I brought my friends into it, and I played until I was about twenty seven or so. First I was a player, and later a Dungeon Master, which meant I was the one who told the stories and created worlds for people to explore on the fly, so to speak. Dragonsong began in a very primeval form way back then. I would invent something (a character, monster, locale, and so forth) that I liked, and I retained it through future games or stories. Bit by bit, portions of Andurun began to take shape. I was still involved with Dungeons and Dragons when I began writing Dragonsong, but I set the story down about two chapters in for quite some while, and didn’t return to it until I had ceased playing and was writing from an altogether different motivation.

The world of Kallendaros is incredibly detailed, full of specific geographies, different kinds of beings, and then the personalities of the dragons themselves. The variety and richness of the detail is amazing. Can you talk a bit about how you constructed all of this?

I love creating things. I immensely enjoy bringing the reader “into” the story so that they can easily get a grasp of the setting. I like nature, and have a great time stopping to smell the roses when characters in the story are traveling, or whatever they happen to be doing. Creating personalities for the characters is every bit as rewarding, and some of the characters in Dragonsong, which were meant to be minor characters, took on a life of their own after a time. I really wanted to give the reader a sense of reality in the story; landscapes that felt organic and people that could be genuine, no matter how fanciful their appearance or race. Some of the characters you meet in Dragonsong I created while playing Dungeons and Dragons, and I enjoyed their personality so much that I imported it.

The names of the characters speak to much about who they are: Justias Eventine, Julias Darkmane, Gildaryss the Tyrant Wyrm. How did you name them?

Justias came about after a little brainstorming about what sort of name embodied a boy who would grow into his namesake. Justias is similar to “justice” and Eventine has a regal bearing; I felt it fit the role the main character was going to be growing into. When I created the villains for Dragonsong I wanted to actually grant them more spotlight than I had given to the “bad guys” in previous stories. I needed names that really embodied something of their character. Julias needed a daunting enough name to invoke dread, but a dignified enough name to portray his civilized façade. Gildaryss—and all the Dragons—were given alien names that didn’t necessarily sound right. I wanted something that rolled on the tongue; it was coincidental that her name sounds sort of serpentine when you pronounce it. Her title I gave her because she is the leader of the Dragons; she is the mastermind behind everything. I wanted the reader to understand that Gildaryss was worse than even the other Dragons. In essence she lords over both races.

Dragonsong is full of non-human characters -- the shapeshifters, the ogres, the goblins and a lot more. You use these characters to both depict them in their own right but also to advance the story. Where, for example, does a character like a zul (sea monster) come from? I had to ask about the zul, because it plays a critical role in Justias' development as a dragon slayer, and it's a rather terrifying scene in the story.

The Zul, along with his encounter with the Racksha, both serve to teach Justias lessons about Dragon slaying. They are indeed also present to flesh out aspects of the characters involved in the struggle, and the Zul especially gave Justias the opportunity to prove he was capable of doing what he longed to do. The Zul, and the rest of the monsters in Dragonsong, are also there to remind the reader that Andurun is very much entrenched in the realm of fantasy. I rather like a world where the water’s depths or a forest’s shadows harbor hidden threats of an utterly inhuman type. Mind you, I don’t like it so much I would want to live in such a place, but it’s just this element of the fantastic that made me want to write to begin with.

One of the many interesting things about Dragonsong is how it has both a sense of past and future. There seems to be a sense of what we would know as the Middle Ages, and yet there is also a sense of something we might think of as a post-apocalyptic time, when a world that was known has been almost destroyed. Do I have that right?

Actually, yes. I really wanted to enter Andurun with a deep sense of the history it possessed; I wanted an organic world that felt as if it had existed for a long time before the characters (and the reader) joined in the story line. The former kingdom of Kallendaros was the height of Human power and prestige, so when it collapsed there was a lot of regression as the race was scattered across the land. The people are fractured and demoralized, waiting for some reason to hope but not genuinely believing hope is ever going to manifest. I wanted to make the history of the land a part of the story so you would subtly know at every turn that people had been there before the characters embarked on their quest.

Tomorrow: Part 2 of the interview

Giveaway

It won’t be a surprise that I like this book – and I like it a lot. So much, in fact, that I’m giving away a copy, shipped directly from Amazon. Just leave a comment in the comment box, and your name will be entered in a random drawing. The giveaway will close on Sunday, April 3 at midnight, and I’ll announce the winning name on Monday, April 4.

"Radical" Giveaway Winner

So I numbered the comments on individual slips of paper, put them in a hat, mixed them around a bit, and then looked away as I pulled one slip out.

And the winner of the giveaway for David Plartt's Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, is Susan Etole. Congratulations, Susan. Radical will be shortly on its way to you.

A "Radical" Giveaway

A few weeks back, I was asked to review Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt. The review is going to be published in January (print, I’ve discovered, takes a little longer than online). And yes, I gave it a good review. It’s an important book and needs to be widely discussed.

While not intended to be this, Radical is a kind of companion book to Mere Churchianty: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality by Michael Spencer, which I’ve been blogging on every Sunday for the past three months or so; my last post is scheduled for this weekend. The two books share some (not all) common themes, but Radical focuses on a challenge – to consider how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences.

Through some odd circumstances, I’ve ended up with two copies of the book. One I’m keeping for my own library and to reread. The other (the copy I didn’t read) I’m offering as a giveaway. If you’re interested in reading the book, just drop your name or a short comment today (deadline: 11:59 p.m. tonight). A winner will be selected at random (I number each comment and then pull a number out of a hat). Please make sure that I can figure out a way to contact you for an address.

I can vouch for the fact that the book is, well, Radical.

Winners for “Snow Day” Giveaway

Last week, I announced a giveaway – actually, two giveaways – of the novel Snow Day by Billy Coffey. The deadline was last night at 11:59 p.m. The clock ticked down to the deadline (does a clock tick down or up?). And then it was time.

I did the random selection the scientifically random way to do it. I number the comments, wrote numbers of slips of paper, put the slips in a hat, and without looking, drew one. The winner of the random drawing turned out to be Barbara Brinkman, who has now been sent an email with the news.

The selection for the second giveaway was totally subjective. I asked who would you give this book to (if not yourself), and there were great responses. The one I decided upon was Sean’s, who wrote this:

“Honestly, I would read the book myself and give it to my mother and step-father to read for Christmas. I think it could help them open up and talk about the rough times they've had over the past decade (ok, that's short...but i can't be short :-) if you want, read on to see why I would use the book in this way).

“I grew up in a small factory town in Indiana, and over the past 10 years I've watched >90% of the factory jobs disappear. In the lead-up to the death of the factory part of the town, I heard (I am ~800 miles away in college) several stories of people racking up debt in anticipation for bankruptcy, taking extended unpaid vacations, and yes, even wishing for snow days - all in an attempt to, in my opinion, fill the existing cracks of brokenness in an hopes of propping themselves up for the heavy events to come. Even though nearly everyone in my family was personally affected by the loss of a factory job and I heard and saw the devastation myself, I would love to read Snow Day, as it seems like it would give me a new, fresh insight into the events that took place in my small Indiana town, and maybe even give me new ways to help my family open up about their brokenness.”

Sean, if you will send me your contact information, I will get a copy of Snow Day on its way to you.

Thanks to all who participated.

A "Snow Day" Giveaway, or Two

Did I happen to mention that I like Billy Coffey’s novel Snow Day?

Yes, I reviewed it here (and on Amazon). I even wrote about the “stickiness” of Billy’s stories for a post about another book. And a couple of people have figured out that I liked Snow Day enough to add the badge for the book on the right side of the blog here, and no one asked me to do that.

More people should read this book. It’s fine and it’s true and it tells the stories of people in a small town in Virginia at the same time it’s telling all of our stories.

I like this book so much I’m giving away two copies.

To be eligible for a random drawing for one copy, simply leave a comment here (and, I hope, a way to contact you) or on my Facebook page post on the giveaway. I will pull a name out of a hat and send the winner a copy. That’s it. The comment can be as simple as “Hi" and a way to contact you.

To be eligible for both the random drawing and a drawing based upon a totally subjective judgment by me, add a short (one or two sentences) statement about whom you would like to give a copy of Snow Day to for Christmas. You don’t actually have to give that person a copy, but just briefly explain why you would. Example: “I’d like to give a copy of Snow Day to my dad because he grew up in a small town just like the one in the book.” I’ll pick a winner and send the copy.

All comments due by 11:59 p.m. central time, Tuesday, Nov. 23. I’ll post the winners' names on Wednesday the 24th.

And even if your name isn’t selected at random or chosen for the second copy, you should still read this book.

"God in the Yard" Giveaway

I was going to do a giveaway of God in the Yard: Spiritual Practice for the Rest of Us by L.L. Barkat, and then I saw that Kaye over at Mrs. Nespy's Frugal World was doing one. So I hopped on board the giveaway train and am offering a second copy to Kaye's first in the giveaway. Check out the post on it, and you'll find there are a number of ways to be in the random drawing (and multiple times, no less). Don't leave your comment here but instead over at Kay's place.

The giveaway runs until Aug. 24 at 11:59 p.m. (eastern time). The two winners will then be selected.

So drop a comment, tweet or any of the other ways to be selected for a copy of this great book.

The Envelopes, Please

We have two winners in our poetry and wine giveaways.

Winner #1 – name drawn at random – receives a copy of L.L. Barkat’s InsideOut: Poems. I asked my wife to pick a number up to and including 30 (she hadn’t seen any of the comments). And the winner is Graceful, aka Michelle DeRusha.

Winner #2 had to answer one of two questions in 100 words or less: “Why poetry matters today,” or “Why I love poetry.” Winner #2 receives a copy of InsideOut: Poems and a bottle of Sineann 2007 Merlot Hillside, which is being kindly donated by Nancy Rosback of Sineann Wines, also known as @poemsandprayers on Twitter and who writes from her blog Just Say the Word.

And this was tough. I’d like to choose them all – there are some great answers. And some were beautiful poems.

But I had to select one.

I narrowed it to four, then three, then two. And tore my hair out (poetically, of course).

And finally picked one that answered the question, “Why poetry matters today”:

“You read it aloud in the darkened room, your lamp the center of one pool of light. From another bulb’s halo, the poet sent the words out to you. Held in the vowels and caught on the consonants, somehow, is your own story written by a stranger. Truth unknown before now falls on you from the uneven ends of the lines. This moment of recognition is as ancient as the cave paintings we shine our flashlights on, deciphering our story from the shapes and tracings of another’s, the one with the courage to pick up the colors.”

Congratulations, Missy Kemp of Greenville, South Carolina.

Over the next few days, I will feature all of the answers to the questions at TweetSpeak Poetry.

Thank you all for participating. I was privileged to watch enthusiasm and great beauty unfold over the course of a week.