As Wide as The Sky Release and Book Launch

I am REALLY excited about the release of my first national market women's fiction novel, As Wide as the Sky, which will be released on July 31st from Kensington Books. This will also be the first novel I have done under a pen name--Jessica Pack. The reason for the pen name is to differentiate this novel from my other novels, as this one has different content. While I hope many current fans of Josi S. Kilpack novels will also enjoy As Wide As the Sky, I'm hoping to build a new audience too :-) In light of getting the word out about Jessica Pack and As Wide as the Sky, I'm running a contest for five autographed copies. Multiple entries via this link: a Rafflecopter giveaway.

Also:

• Purchase and Pre-order links as well as the first chapter for As Wide as the Sky are available on my website here: As Wide As the Sky
• You can follow Jessica Pack's social media networks on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
• If you are in the Salt Lake area I would LOVE for you to attend the in person launch party:

Book Launch Information

The King's English Book Shop

Tuesday, August 7th, 7:00 PM

1511 South 1500 East

Salt Lake City

There will be a presentation starting at 7:00 as well as refreshments, a prize drawing, and a book signing. Photos will be posted on the Facebook event page during and after the event. (you can join the event via the rafflecopter give away above--might as well, right? :-)  )

Right now the two names I'm writing under are overlapping in regard to how I'm putting the word out, but I'll be separating over time. If you're interested in works like As Wide as the Sky, you'll want to make sure you're following Jessica Pack.

Thank you so much--Happy reading!

12 Days of Clean Romance

Know what makes great Christmas presents? BOOKS!! What's even better, free books! Kathy, from I Am a Reader is hosting an amazing giveaway this Christmas--12 Days of Clean Romance--from a list of some pretty amazing authors.

Read below to see the list of participating Authors:

Jennifer Peel – December 4th
Taylor Hart – December 5th
Rachael Anderson – December 6th
Josi S. Kilpack – December 7th
Janette Rallison – December 8th
Jennifer Griffith – December 9th
Taylor Dean – December 11th
Sheralyn Pratt – December 12th
Heather B. Moore – December 13th
Annette K. Larsen – December 14th
Lucy McConnell – December 15th
Cami Checketts – December 16th

There's a $100 Kick-Off Giveaway happening right now! I hope you'll enter to win and learn about a new author or two, Kathy guarantees every book to be "Clean, fun, and 100% worth reading." Follow THIS LINK to get details on how to answer.

Technical stuff:

****Promo Ends 12/17/17 Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

"Wedding Cake" Giveaway!

Wedding Cake, book 12 in the Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery Series, and

Sadie's Little Black Recipe Book are online and on shelves! It has been such an amazing journey, going from one stand-alone story to a 12 book series and a cookbook and turned my writing into a career. It has also been the introduction to so many people and places and yummy recipes—I can not express what a powerful experience this series has been in my life. To celebrate the completion, Shadow Mountain and I are hosting a giveaway—winners get their choice of any one copy of my books, including an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of A Heart Revealed, a regency romance coming out in April. You can enter in the following ways:

1.  Go to my Facebook post about the contest (Author Josi S. Kilpack) and follow the instructions. (no need to come back to the blog, the Facebook portion of the contest is self contained) 
2. Leave a review for any book I have written on goodreads, deseretbook.com, Amazon.com, and/or Barnesandnoble.com. You can leave as many reviews on as many sites as you like, then come back here and leave a comment that includes the total number of reviews you left. You will get an entry for every review (this does not count for past reviews, only those done between January 4 and January 10)
3. Post a status update on Facebook or Twitter regarding this contest and include the link to this blog post. Comment below to tell me where you posted; one entry per social network.

Thank you for the years of support and enthusiasm! Winners will be posted here and on Facebook on Monday, January 12. 

Tres Leches Cupcakes Contest!

A new book and a new contest!

This contest is to win copies of my books--any book in the series, including Tres Leches Cupcakes—pronounced trays lay-chays—which will be released the first week of September 2012. The contest starts with 3 copies up for grabs, but I will add more book-prizes for every 50 entries into the contest, keeping the odds good regardless of how many people participate. The more entries, the more prizes!

Multiple entries are encouraged!

Here's how to enter:

• Join my newsletter list at www.josiskilpack.com (If you are already on the newsletter list, you already have one entry.)
• Blog about the contest and book release. (email sadiescontest@gmail.com with the link which will be posted on my website--copy and paste information available at www.josiskilpack.com)
• Comment on a blog about the contest and the book release. (blogs will be posted at www.josiskilpack.com)
• Facebook about the contest and release. (email sadiescontest@gmail.com—one FB entry per person)
• Tweet about the contest and release. (email sadiescontest@gmail.com—one Twitter entry per person)
• Attend a live event on or before September 15th. (events listed at www.josiskilpack.com)

I would love, love, love to give you a book, so please spread the word and play along!

Happy Reading!

Book Bomb!

I have been blessed to meet many wonderful people through my writing career. Rob Wells is one of those people. He founded the Whitney Awards, has written amazing books, championed so many people in their own careers, and he's made incredible sacrifices for his education and family. Beyond that, I've had an exclusive seat to a few backstage battles he's taken on where he stood up and made unpopular statements without apology because they were the right thing to do. I'm grateful to have been able to see just how dedicated he is to important things and it's been a blessing to me in my current position within The Whitney Award organization because I've had to do hard things and he set the stage for it.

He's currently facing a personal battle involving Severe Panic Disorder that has changed his life and recently led to him losing his job. It might be easy to say "He's a national author, he got an advance, he's fine," but it doesn't work that way. In this Appendix Podcast he explains how the money works--very eye opening.

All that goes back to the fact that, in his own way, Rob has changed the world, and some of the people who think he's amazing are out to change HIS world a little bit.

There are several bloggers hosting contests for this Book Bomb, where we'll buy his books, up his online ranking, increase his sales, and just show him that we not only wish him well, but we'll do our part to prove it. And instead of doing my own blog contest about it, I would like to refer you to my friend Luisa Perkin's blog. She not only explains the campaign wonderfully, but she's hosting a contest to help encourage it. I couldn't do better than that, so I'm going to support her efforts instead (And I'm hoping to win a copy of her cookbook Comfortably Yum). Please head over to Novembrance and read up on how she's contributing to this cause.

AND, if you haven't read Variant (Rob's book) it is AWESOME and Publisher's Weekly agrees with me. Click HERE to learn why.

I'll be following Luisa's example and buying copies for my kid's school libraries as well as some Christmas gifts. Would love for you to join in!

Help me Name Book 8!

I have encountered serious writer's block in regard to naming Book 8. The story is coming together (sort of) but the title has eluded me. Shadow Mountain came up with a solution--ask readers to help. I thought that was a brilliant idea, so consider this your official invitation to go through your recipes and see if you have just the right dish. Here are the things to keep in mind:

• The recipe must be a dessert
• The book is set in New Mexico, specifically Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
• The recipe should reflect the Southwest
• The submission must include the recipe so we can try it out.

If your submitted recipe is chosen you'll get a copy of the book when it comes out in Fall 2012, you will also become a character in the book, and you get a 12 cup Cuisinart Food Processor!

For full details and to submit your Southwestern dessert recipe, go HERE  Do NOT submit to me--Shadow Mountain is heading this one up and all submissions must go through them.

Thanks so much for the great support!

Entries due by November 27!

Josi

iPad Contest, Wanna enter?

I am so excited for the release of Pumpkin Roll! This book will be published by, Shadow Mountain, my publishers national imprint and have better availability nationwide. In addition, Deseret Book has recently added their own ebook line, DB Bookshelf, which is available a free app for iPhone, iPad, and iPad Touch. To celebrate these exciting events for us, Shadow Mountain and I are sponsoring a contest for a new iPad2 as part of the national launch for Pumpkin Roll. There are multiple ways to enter between now and November 1, 2011. Winners will be announced and notified November 3^th 2011.

How to enter:

*Leave a comment on a participating blog

*Become a participating blog and post about the contest

*Post contest or book release announcement on Social Networks

*Pre-order or purchase a copy of Pumpkin Roll

*Enter drawing at a Live Event

*Answer a question from Chapter One of Pumpkin Roll available at  www.josiskilpack.com

Click HERE for detailed entry information.

Book Winner--Diana!

Thanks to everyone who entered the first round of the Book Bloggers Cookbook contest. We had 15 entries, each of whom are still eligible for the Kindle portion of the contest, and of those "Diana" was the winner of the cookbook and a signed copy of Lemon Tart. Diana, please contact me at kilpack@gmail.com and I'll get your address information so we can get the books to you.

Don't forget that the second phase of this contest for a brand new Kindle e-reader is still open until July 22nd. To enter, leave a comment on the original post, HERE, before July 22nd. You can get additional entries by posting about the contest on Facebook, Twitter, and your own blog. Go to that original post for more information.

Thanks for participating, y'all. Also, don't forget the Countdown to Summer. The drawing takes place in just a few more days, don't miss your chance to win!

Wanna Kindle? Wanna Cookbook?

 A few months ago, I was contacted by Christy Dorrity about a project she was working on—a Book Blogger cookbook with recipes from authors. She wanted to know if I would like to participate with my book, Lemon Tart and it's featured recipe. Yes I did! That project is now a Kindle e-book and available on Amazon.com for the amazing price of 2.99. I bought my copy last week and am very, very impressed with both the recipes and the overall format and design of this book. The books pared with recipes are awesome and include, The Maze Runner, The Hourglass Door, Wings, and Princess at the Midnight Ball. This was my first Kindle cook book, but what a great one to start with!

I also have the opportunity to blog about the book, Christy, and give you the chance to enter a couple promotional contests. The first contest will be for a copy of the ebook and a copy of my book featured there, Lemon Tart--only those who comment on this post will be entered. In addition to that contest, by commenting here you will also be entered into a larger contest to win your own Kindle and some books from Book Bloggers. To enter both contests, just leave a comment in the comment thread of this post. The winner of my contest will be chosen on Monday, June 20^th. The winner of the overall contest will be drawn on July 22nd. You can get more entries through spreading the word via Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blog--just come back here and tell us where you talked it up, your entries will be counted.

 

AND, if that isn’t enough, I got to interview Christy for this blog, which was a lot of fun. So, without further ado, here’s a little more about the project straight from the top:

What inspired this idea?
When I started a blog, the two things I wanted to write about were food and books.  I saw a contest on Debbie’s blog over at Cranberry Fries <http://cranberryfries.blogspot.com/>  that challenged readers to make a cake based on the Hunger Games series.  I love the idea of putting food and reading together to create an experience.

Right now this is a Kindle book, do you anticipate other formats in the future?
Hmmm. It’s hard to say. I would love to  publish it in hard copy at some point.  In fact, I did approach a few publishers about the cookbook. Although there was interest, I really feel that the book is better suited to ebook. There are links to bloggers’ and authors’ websites in the cookbook that would be clumsy in a hard bound copy.

How did you choose which authors you asked to participate?
When I started my blog I didn’t have the cookbook in mind so I read whatever I was interested in. From the books I reviewed in the past year, I chose the twenty books that I thought would appeal to a wide, mainstream audience.  Each book in the Book Blogger’s Cookbook is one that I highly recommend.

On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your personal level of skill in the kitchen?
Ha! Right now I am a busy mom and writer, and gourmet often consists of macaroni and cheese from a box.  But I love to try new recipes, especially desserts.  I would rate myself an 8.  My husband and I plan to attend cooking school in the distant future.  Perhaps then I will be a 10.

What is YOUR favorite personal recipe and why?
One of my favorite recipes I recently paired with Elana Johnson’s book Possession <http://www.dearestdreams.com/2011/06/possession-by-elana-johnson.html> .  I call it Jagged Ham < http://www.dearestdreams.com/2011/06/tasty-tuesday-jagged-ham.html>  and it’s the perfect recipe-easy to make, and everyone loves it.  My other stand-by recipe is a cookie recipe that one of my college roommates shared with me.  My son recently made a batch that cooked up 12 dozen!

Do you have any ideas for a follow up project?
You bet. The 2011 Book Blogger’s Cookbook is the first in a volume of books that will be published every summer.  

For more information about the featured books and how to order the book for just $2.99, go to The Book Blogger website for all the details!

Thank you, Chrissy, for the chance to participate. I wish you guys the very best.

 

Review Contest Winners!

Wow, you guys, thank you SO much for the amazing reviews! A total of 59 reviews or mentions went out as part of this contest, and I just can't thank you enough. Word of mouth is the most trusted form of advertising, especially in a day and age where advertising is everywhere. Thank you for sharing those words in a variety of mediums.

So, this post has two parts--part 1 is where I list who won the contest! I put each persons name into random.org according to how many points they had. So, Stephanie S. had 18 entries, Alice had 10, etc. I then ran the list one time to mix it all up, and then ran it four more times. I did made the executive decision to not let anyone win more than once, which was lucky for three of the winners since Jordan McCollum had a very, very lucky day :-)

Part 2 is where I will answer some of the questions posed in the comments. If you already know everything about me (Heather B) or are just tired of hearing from me you don't have to read that part.

Thanks to EVERYONE who played, honestly, I could never do what you guys can do and I appreciate your help very much.

And here we go...

Part 1--Winners.

*If you are a winner, please e-mail me at kilpack@gmail.com with your mailing address. If you won books, I also need to know who you want them signed to!

Chocolate Cook Book:     Jordan McCollum

Key Lime Pie and Sunkist Fruit Chews:       Stephanie Skidmore

Key Lime Pie:      Karlene Browning

Lincoln Wheat Ear Pennies:       Alice

Congrats, Ladies, I hope you all enjoy the prizes very much, especially Alice :-)



Part 2:

Martha--When it comes to books like Gone With the Wind, shelving it and watching the movie is perfectly acceptable. Same with any Star Wars or Jurassic Park book, or anything by the Bronte Sisters. That's why we have those movies, to save us the agony of the words :-)  (Okay, that's not true for everyone--Jane Eyre is probably someone's favorite book but, honestly, I can't do it and as long as I don't read the book I'll never know if the movie was worse :-) Oh, and I LOVE my Prius and am tickled you thought of me when you saw those super-smart old people pull up :-)


Mable--As of right now there are 8 books planned for the series. Blackberry Crumble (Portland) will be book 5, to be followed by Pumpkin Roll (Boston), Banana Split (Hawaii), and then Wedding Cake (Garrison...probably) to finish it up. After the books are done (they are scheduled to finish up in Fall 2012) we'll be putting together Sadie's Little Black Recipe Book with all the recipes from all the books.

Wendy--No one else's opinion matters :-) So glad you're enjoying the books, thanks for spreading the word!

Don--I did enter you for having done your blog contest (shhhh, don't tell anyone)

Heather B--I did give you all those points--well earned! The most awesome part of me is the awesome people I can count as friends. Thanks.

Pam--I'm so glad you like Sadie, who's your friend who said she was obnoxious, I'll egg their house! Kidding, of course, I know Sadie isn't everyone's favorite character but I'm always glad to hear
when someone likes her enough to see what she's gotten herself into this time. As to To Have or To Hold, that's one of my favorite stories. I had challenged myself to use a rather timeless plot structure from Regency romances (marriage of convenience) and make it modern. I was a bit surprised when it morphed into Andrew's story the way it did, even more surprised to have written a conversion story (which I had sworn I would never do) but I loved the end result and am so glad you did too. Keep up the writing and submitting and analyzation of this market--it's worth it, I swear.

Barbara--Is everything okay? Being out of commission is a big deal, I hope you're okay. Key Lime Pie should be on shelf at all LDS bookstores, as well as most online stores. I hope you can track down a copy.

Brittany--I certainly don't mind having you write them down. In the future, I do have the recipes on a PDF you can download from my website www.josiskilpack.com--I think I need to post something about it in my sidebar, I feel horribly guilty when I hear people have risked hand cramps to transcribe but I'm definitely flattered to hear it!

Kim--thank you for being my token Canadian! It's important to be diverse and you feel that for me :-) And Sadie things you're pretty amazing too.

I NEED REVIEWS! a blog contest

It's that time again, the time of year when Josi begs and pleads for happy words about her books to infiltrate the literary worlds and woo fair readers into hypnotic credit-card-swiping moods of grand effusement and joy.

What? Effusement isn't a word says my spell check. Then a pox; a pox on such dictionaries that don't recognize such feedudulement of vocabularic variousness! (incidentally, vocabularic does seem to be a word.)

Alas, I do not simply beg for help without the understanding of reciprocation and therefore the current contest is thus:

• Contest runs from 8/31/10-9/7/10
• Points are only awarded for nice things said during the dates noted above
• For each point you earn, you get entered in to what will be a random drawing done on www.random.org. Hence, if you have 509 points, your name is entered 509 times and you can egg my house if you don't win. 

*Points are earned in the following ways:

• Mention me or any of my books in a positive way in your facebook status
• Mention me or any of my books in a positive way in your twitter update
• Retweet someone else's positive mention in their twitter update
• Blog about me or any of my books in a positive way (you can copy and paste this blog contest post if you would like)
• Leave an online review on any of the following sites for any of my books (you can use the same review on multiple sites)

www.amazon.com
www.deseretbook.com
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.seagullbookandtape.com
www.goodreads.com
www.shelfari.com

Once you have earned your points, come back here and leave a comment on this blog with how many points you earned and a brief description of how you earned them. (remember where liars go if you are tempted to exaggerate). You will be subsequently entered into the contest once for each point earned.

Prizes are as follows:

Grand Prize: An autographed copy of Annette Lyon's Chocolate Cookbook (will be sent when the book is released in October 2010)
Second Prize: An autographed copy of any one of my books AND a bag of Sunkist Fruit Chews because they are so yummy and don't melt like Pretzel M & M's which I don't dare send in the mail.
Third Prize: An autographed copy of any one of my books.
Fourth Place: THIS because I think the world is a better place when everyone who wants a collection of wheat ear pennies has that opportunity.

Keep in mind I can send prizes to someone else in case there is someone you really need to kiss up to right now :-) Christmas is coming, whose naughty list are you on?

PS--you get double points for any reviews left for Key Lime Pie :-)

Join me for the PEG Write-a-Thon!

Next Thursday, April 8, 2010, I will be participating in the Precision Editing Group Write-a-Thon. They're inviting writers to show how many words they can write in 4 hours! The person who writes the most words will receive their choice of a $50 Amazon.com gift card OR a 50 page content edit by one of the Precision Editing Group Editors. Another winner will be chosen at random from among all those who participate for a $30 gift card from Amazon.

Here's how it will work:

1-The Write-a-thon will officially begin at 6:00 Eastern Daylight Time.

2-The blog titled "Write-a-Thon Starts Now!" will post at 6:00 EDT--you need to enter your starting time and starting word count in the comment section of the blog.

3-Write for four hours--set a timer if you need to!

4-When finished, come back to the PEG blog and put your end time, end word count, and total words written in those 4 hours as another comment on the blog.

5-All "end time" posts must be posted by 12:15, Pacific Daylight Time (we're giving you 15 minutes to tally your numbers). To calculate how much time YOU will have, based on where you live, go HERE

6-Please be honest. You are your own time/word keeper and we are trusting that none of our dearly beloved readers would sell their integrity for $50 or 50 pages :-) You must have posted a start comment AND an end comment to be eligible to win.

7-The winner will be posted on Friday, April 9th here on the PEG blog.

They'll also be adding up everyone's words to see how many words can be written in a night.

Feel free to spread the word to other writers (Facebook, Twitter, personal blogs), wherever they may live--send them to the PEG blog, www.writingonthewallblog.com to read up (though it's the same info I've put here.)

I'm betting I can write 4,000 words :-) I could sure use it in my current WIP!  I'll be writing from 8:00-midnight for my 4 hours--the kids will be fed, I'll have my Coke Zero at my side, and a pile of notes to keep me on track!

Thanks for the Reviews!

I had 34 reviews posted at various places last week! Thank you, thank you; it really does make a difference for online sales when people can read other people's thoughts. You guys are awesome...sniff, sniff.

So, without further ado, here are the winners:

1--Smilinmera
2-Taffy

And I know I said I was doing two winners, but Cheri Chesney posted 13! When she didn't toggle as a winner I was shocked, first off, but since she posted almost half of the reviews, I decided to make her Miss Perfect, now I'm going to sing

The Little Miss Perfect Pageant, 
where all your dreams come true. 
The Little Miss Perfect Pageant
where the special one is you.

And Cheri didn't even have to put in fake teeth and get a spray tan for that! But she doesn't get a crown either, so I guess it all evens out in the wash.


So, for those of you who won, please e-mail me you address to kilpack@gmail.com and let me know which of my book titles you would like and who you want it signed to. Thank you EVERYONE for the great support. I swear I'll do a blog post about something NOT writing related in the next week or so. 

I Need Your Reviews Contest!

I'm looking to increase my online reviews for my Sadie Books--Lemon Tart, English Trifle, and, especially, Devil's Food Cake. Reader reviews are one of the best motivating factors in book sales and something I can't do myself--well, I could, but that's kind of classless, isn't it?

Here's the rules:

1--Post a 'permanent' online review people will find when searching for a book title through a website. For instance: Goodreads, Librarything.com, Shelfari, Amazon, Deseret Book, Seagull online, Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc. (Not individual blogs or facebook please--I love the mentions, but I'm looking for reviews that are static and will remain linked to the books in a specific database)

2--The review must be for Lemon Tart, English Trifle, or Devil's Food Cake.

3--One entry per review (copying and pasting the same review in numerous places totally works)

4--Any reviews you've done for these books in the month of February count.

5--Deadline is Midnight February 28th

6--Leave a comment telling me where you posted reviews--you'll get an entry for each review at each location.

The Prize is a copy of any one of my books--your choice, signed and shipped to whoever you want. I'll be giving away two books and will randomly draw two name via www.random.org on March 1st.

Here are links to some of the sites I'd love reviews on, but feel free to choose others as well.

Lemon Tart:                                  
Deseret Book                               
Amazon
Seagull Book
Barnes & Noble
Borders
Goodreads
Librarything
Shelfari

English Trifle:
Deseret Book
Amazon
Seagull Book
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads
Librarything
Shelfari

Devil's Food Cake
Deseret Book
Amazon
Seagull Book
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads
Librarything
Shelfari

In gathering these links I found out that Lemon Tart and English Trifle both have Kindle editions--so cool!

Thanks for your help! I appreciate it so very much.

Review Winners

Thank you SO much to everyone who mentioned Devil's Food Cake in their blogs. I had the chance to lurk through most of them and just so appreciate everyone helping me to spread the word. I did the list of entries through www.random.org and sorted it twice, choosing the #1 position from each roll to choose the two free book winners.

Kristi from http://kunz-4.blogspot.com/http://kunz-4.blogspot.com/

*If you don't know Kristi, you should stop by her blog. She's a powerhouse and a woman worthy of the inspiration she shares. While I wish I could give a book to everyone, I'm really happy to give it to someone I admire so much.


&

Melbell from http://www.steinerstory.blogspot.com/

*I wasn't familiar with her blog until now, but she seems like a ton of fun--if I ever get called to YW I'm going to have her give me a crash course in how to make it a good time. I don't remember ever seeing her on my blog before now, either, so it's fun to give a book to a new friend.


If you ladies could e-mail me at kilpack@gmail.com with your addresses, I'll get those books mailed out as soon as I can.

Thank you, again, to everyone for playing and for the great support Devil's Food Cake has already received.  It's #6 on Deseret Book's overall fiction list--which is awesome with it being so new. Remember, also, that your library might just buy the book for you :-)

Thanks again, you guys are awesome.

Wanna Win a Book? Devil's Food Cake Blog Contest

I'm giving away two copies of Devil's Food Cake to a random blogger who advertises the book on their website. You are welcome to link to the book cover on my website or here on my blog. It doesn't have to be a review--unless you have already read it--and it doesn't have to be long.


Here's the rules:

1--Between now and February 8th post an announcement about the release of Devil's Food Cake, book three in the Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery Series.

2--Be sure it includes a link to my website, where they can read the first chapter, AND a link to Deseret Books website in case they want to buy the book ( www.josiskilpack.com   and   http://deseretbook.com/item/5033744/Devil_s_Food_Cake  )

3--Come back here and leave a comment telling me where it's posted.

4--Cross your fingers!

EXTRA ENTRY: If you HAVE read Devil's Food Cake, leave a review on Deseretbook.com, goodreads, library thing, shelfari, or Amazon.com--get an entry for EVERY review posted (just copy and paste the same one if you want) Let me know where you posted them. If you don't want a copy of Devil's Food Cake (since you might already have one), you can choose any of my other titles.

On February 8th I will draw two random names from the list using www.random.org  and will announce the lucky winners. Thanks for playing, you guys, and for spreading the word. MUCH appreciated.

Booktour Contest Winners!

As part of the booktour, Julie and I ran two contests--one for those that made online comments to blogs or facebook updates or twitter posts, and the other contest for those people we met during the tour. We got over 100 entries in both contests and drew out our winners:

Online contest for a $15 gift card to Amazon.com goes to:

Lisa Banks Bennett

In-store contest for a $40 gift card to her choice of location goes to:

Susan Farnsworth

I'll be contacting both these ladies individually to let them know but wanted to thank everyone for the great support we received on the tour. It was awesome to meet so many of you in person, and a huge benefit to have the online comments continually cheering us on. Thanks so much and I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving weekend.

Blog 2 Print 4 U~contest

One of the reasons I started my blog 3 1/2 years ago was because I wanted a record of my thoughts and stuff--ya know, in addition to inspiring the world :-)  I started out very 'instructional' but as with many things in my life it's become far more casual as time has gone on; become more like the real me, I suppose. At some point I heard that you could turn your blog into a book--very cool! I looked into it and every program seemed very complicated; most of them required downloading a program which just didn't make sense to me since I would be using it for one blog book a year or so. My hard drive space is precious, people.

So I kept looking and finally found a program that's completely online--you just upload your blog to it, set the date perimeters and BAM, it's all there. There is no charge until you publish the book. It has each post titled and dated just like the blog, it includes all the pictures and you can choose to keep comments or not. I did find that the comments for my older posts didn't come through, but after being disappointed in that for about five seconds I realized that keeping comments was going to triple the size of my book. I then decided to not include any comments at all, since it was the posts I wanted most to preserve.

Without comments my book ended up being 295 pages long--9 of those pages is a very user friendly title of contents which allows me to find specific post easily. I have a dedication page and got to choose a template for the front and back cover, to which I uploaded my own photos. The best part about it was that it was so, so, so easy. I uploaded it and then spent a total of about 2 hours going through it, but this two hours was over a 2 month time period. When I was ready to publish it I hit the 'publish' button and a week later I had my finished book. the binding is good, the pages of a good weight, the photos well rendered. I really couldn't be happier.

A few tips to get the most out of Blog 2 Print:

*Know what dates you want to use before you start the process if you're doing a date-specific book--such as 5/21/06-3/13/09. I couldn't figure out how to fix this once I put in the dates the first time. (that's not to say it can't be done, only that I lack the ability to be patient enough to figure it out)
*You can hand pick posts if you prefer.
*If you keep comments, understand they take up a lot of room due to the spacing in between each one.
*Pictures turn out great and do a good job of breaking up the pages of words, and words, and words. Upload any photos you want in the book itself before you upload your blog content.
*Realize it isn't cheap, but that said I wasn't horrified. My book cost $143 w/shipping and is 295 pages long and covered 3 years of posts. I've recently done some digital scrap booking and this price is comparable.
*Blog 2 Print works with Blogger, Typepad, or Wordpress.

AND--after I finished the book I was sent a quick survey. Upon completion I received coupon for 20 free pages but since I don't plan to publish my blog for awhile (I like big thick books) I thought I'd pass it on to someone else whose been looking for a blog-book solution. So, if you're interested, just leave a comment saying as much. In a few days I'll do a random drawing to find the winner. The coupon doesn't have an expiration date.

IN THE MEANTIME, Blog 2 Print has given me permission to share a 20% discount with all of you, BUT it expires on 11/9/09. You can totally do your book in that time, it's really simple, so if you're interested in that option the code is: fall4b2p  and you'll put it in at checkout. It must be used by 11/09/09 so time is of the essence!

Anyway, leave me a comment if you're interested in the free 20 pages (can't be used with the 20% off). Happy Blogging!

CONTEST!

I mentioned in my last post about the amazing people I have met during my writing journey--one of those people is the phenomenal Julie Wright who has enriched and blessed my life in ways too numerous to count. I am continually impressed with her optimism, compassion, work ethic, and just the plain ol' joy she finds in life. I have watched her work so hard for so many years and create amazing stories that blow my mind--one of which has JUST been released by Covenant Communications. AND, because she's awesome and because I love you guys, you get the chance to win a copy of her book, Eyes Like Mine.

I had the chance to do some editing on this book in the early stages of it's development, and it is AWESOME. I don't do many book giveaways on my blog, so that in and of itself ought to attest to how highly I think of this book. While it's categorized as YA (most you know how I feel about most YA) it's a GREAT book and worth the read no matter your age!

So, here's how you enter:

1) Become a follower of my blog and leave me a comment to tell me so. If you're already a follower, just put it in the comment trail and you're entered automatically.

2) Leave an online review for one of my books. Links to my books on DB's website can be found via my website www.josikilpack.com--just go to the book you want to leave a review for and click on the 'buy the book' icon. Once you've left the review, either e-mail me or leave a comment here on my blog so that you get entered into the contest.

You get an entry for becoming a follower as well as an additional entry for every review you leave (copy and paste the same review into multiple review websites--I don't mind!). Just be sure to tell me how you've entered.

AND, if you're interested in winning a copy of English Trifle, check out Julie's blog where she's running a similar contest. Double prizes, baby!

Contest will end on Sunday, July 12. I'll post the winner on Monday!

Cookbook Winner

Have I mentioned that I'm taking a Quick books class? And have I mentioned that school really isn't my thing? And have I mentioned that I still have half a dozen Whitney Award finalists to read? And have I mentioned that my husband is out of town this week? And have I mentioned I'm presenting at a writer's conference this weekend? And have I mentioned that I hate all holidays, even if the only thing I have to do is wear green and feel guilty that I'm not making corned beef?

Yeah, that's why this is a short post. BUT I am ever so grateful for everyone that entered and super excited to choose the winner . . . Becky Clayson!

Becky has been in my writing group for the last few years--remember her name cause you're going to see it on a book cover in the next couple years.

Becky, if you'll send me your address offline, I'll forward it to Covenant Communications.

And since I know the rest of you are just heartsick over not winning, you can buy it HERE.

Thanks again for playing.

Oh, and a BIG shout out thank you to everyone that's buying Lemon Tart. It's ranked #2 on Deseret Book's website! Wohooooooooo! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for the great support!