Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Christmas Giveaway

Jan 2, 2009 Update: Did I say I was going to announce the winner on Dec 25? Well, Christmas day saw me snowed under revisions. But finally I found some time to visit my dear friend the random number generator, and here is the winner: Jenny Schwartzberg. Congratulations Jenny!

Yay, free stuff!

I recently chucked over a $25 Christmas bonus to my web designer, Frauke Spanuth of Croco Designs (whose latest showpiece is the Dear Author overhaul). And Frauke, as fabulous a woman as she is a graphic designer/code master, offered me a $25 X-mas voucher to giveaway.

What can you do with a $25 design voucher? Well, you can get yourself a set of banner/badge ads designed for All About Romance, for instance, which she has done for me recently. I think my bookmark design was for about that much too. Throw in a bit more cash, and you can get yourself a web template, which I got at the beginning of 2008 for $75, if memory serves. (Of course prices are subject to change without prior notice, etc.) And if you don't have a webpage, she does great myspace layouts too--I'm going to have her do mine next year.

(I host my newsletter through Frauke's other company, Janus Portal, and let me tell you, a more economical deal on e-newsletter hosting I couldn't find.)

Sooo, what do you have to do for a chance to win this fun little prize? Well, since I've recently said that I should do more for my publisher, I'm going to do just that. Tell me about your favorite Bantam author(s) in the comment. (And since this is already my blog, you can leave me out.) :-)

I'm going to start.

First up Shana Abe, one of the most lyrical writers working today.







Mary Balogh, who's going to have 4 books out back-to-back early next year.







Sarah Addison Allen, whose debut Garden Spells I enjoyed very much.





Linnea Sinclair, a fellow Nelson Literary Agency client, is published with Bantam Spectra.








Jill Sorenson will have her Bantam debut released January 27, 2009.












Sharon Page will have her Bantam historical debut released February 24, 2009.













And my agent keeps telling me that if I want to do a big martial art epic, then I need to read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander--and of course, Gabaldon is a Bantam Dell author too.




Wow. Pretty darn good covers one and all.

Now it's your turn. Tell me which BantamDell authors rock your world. And if you have testimonials of Frauke's fabulous work, feel free to gush also. :-)

Updated to add: The winner will be picked on December 25, of course. :-)

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mary Balogh is one of my all time fave's. I have just about all her books.
Jacquie D'Alessandro, Jane Feather,
Diana Gabaldon, Amanda Quick, Kat Martin

Pauline said...

Hands down, Linnea Sinclair.

Jenny Schwartzberg said...

I love Linnea Sinclair. There are a lot of other great Bantam authors but she is very, very special.

Anonymous said...

I love Linnea Sinclair's mesh of science fiction and romance. Great characters, great stories.

Dee Lloyd said...

Linnea Sinclair. I buy all her books the minute they are available.

Unknown said...

Linnea Sinclair - I have all of her books in both eformat and paperbacks. Go Linnea.
Mary

Robin said...

Linnea Sinclair is my favorite author ever. However I love Mary Balogh as well and I've been reading her longer.

Robin Greene

Anonymous said...

Most definitely Linnea Sinclair. I love, love, love her books!

Kathy

Anonymous said...

LOL. Well, at the risk of brazen bum-kissing, you're my favorite Bantam author, Sherry. But Shana Abe is also a huge favorite. And I have enjoyed Balogh and Sinclair too. Have yet to read Sarah Addison Allen.

Sharon Page said...

Hi Sherry,
So cool to see my book up on the page. What a great idea for you and Frauke to do. Frauke is my designer--she does my webpage, my Romantic Times ads, and my promotional items. Her work is just fantastic. She created the perfect branding for me, everything she's done has been breathtaking.

(P.S. I'm not in the running for the prize, of course.)

Anonymous said...

Linnea Sinclair! Her characters and their stories leap right off the page. Once I start one of her books, I can't put it down!

Evangeline Holland said...

I'm going old school: Jane Feather, pre-Eve Duncan Iris Johansen, Betina Krahn, Katherine O'Neal and Lucia Grahame.

Anonymous said...

Linnea Sinclair gets my vote! Eagerly awaiting her next book.

Anonymous said...

Well I can't disagree. Linnea Sinclair for me. Consistent and different.

Anonymous said...

Linnea Sinclair. She writes seamlessly great SF and great Romance. Oh, BTW, I'm mainly an SF reader!

Anonymous said...

Linnea Sinclair. I don't pre-order many books, but I do hers...

Anonymous said...

Linnea Sinclair gets my vote. She does an AWESOME job melding SF with romance!

Mo Boylan

Anonymous said...

I'm joining the Linnea Sinclair fan club. All her books have made it to my keeper shelf. :)

Lexi said...

OMG, Gabaldon's Outlander was what pushed me toward writing with the intention of someday getting published. I LOVED that book. I read it and thought, "I want people to love my characters at least half as much as I love her characters!"

I'm thinking I should read something by Linnea Sinclair.

Beth said...

If you haven't read Diana Gabaldon's amazing Outlander series, then, yes, definitely you should!

HeatherB said...

OMG, that is easy. Diana Gabaldon is my all time fave, my Reading Rock star! She also has a gorgeous audio library of her work done by an amazing woman. I have sold a ton of her books over the years by reccomendation and when I worked at a bookstore.

Lara Adrian ROCKS the vampire world.

Judy Blume and Lois Duncan were my childhood icons.

Heather @ blazeofbeauty.com