holiday happyness

 Happy holidays everyone! Don't eat too much... ah. Too late. Never mind. Hope it tasted good.

It's a sunny, balmy Boxing Day here, and the cricket's about to come on. This is a yearly ritual observed with much solemnity. The family must congregate around the television amongst piles of discarded wrapping paper, observe Tony Grieg (a tall and balding Englishman with a much-parodied South African accent) poke his car keys into the MCG pitch, cheer when Australia wins the coin toss (as we invariably do) and say 'ooh!' when the first ball is bowled.

The fact that we are playing Pakistan this year imbues the occasion with uncertainty and dread -- for it could be a rocking series, but it could also be a whitewash. Aussies want their team to win (of course!) but they want the opposition to go down fighting. Unless it's the mother country, England. In which case they can roll over and die all they want :)

So without further ado...

Day the Sixth (and last!)

Today we have not one, but TWO books to give away. Yay! Conquering the world, one giveaway at a time. Or something.

Today's winner of SHADOWFAE is... ... cherrymischievous !!

And the winner of the fabulous SHADOWGLASS ARC (book not released until March, you lucky thingy!) is... ... Leontine !!!

Congrats to all winners.

And thanks so much to everyone for playing! Welcome to everyone who's joined my newsletter or followed me on LJ or Twitter. I'll try not to be too boring.

And, stick around early next year for some more giveaways, of my books as well as some other fab authors {twiddles fingers mysteriously...}

shady day five

 
Day Five

 

...and the Day Five winner is... ... @whatinabox !!

Congrats! You won a free SHADOWFAE, complete with succubi, hawt fairies and a nasty vampire or two.

Tomorrow I'm giving away the last copy, and the Speshul Christmas Holiday Prize, a SHADOWGLASS ARC!! So leave your comments, tweet, blog etc.. You can check out the original contest post here to see how to enter.

{Psst! It's actually already Christmas here. Balmy...

But because there's three hundred million of you and only twenty million of us, what say we pretend?
 

Only one more sleep...

 

shady day four

 
Day Four

And the day four winner is ... ... iokijo !! 

Congrats! I'll get your book out to you soon.

Only two days to go, two more free books. Still time for you to enter, retweet, blog, social network it up. Original contest post here for details.

And don't forget that on Christmas Day, I'm giving away a SHADOWGLASS ARC.

Meanwhile, in the interests of equal opportunity:

shady day three

 
Day Three

And without further messing about, the day three winner is... ... elnice !!

Congrats! I'll get your book out to you soon.

Winners are random, in case anyone's wondering :) those random numbers have no mercy. And rest assured, I'm collecting all your comments and tweets and blogs, wherever they may be...

But there's still time. Still three shady days of Christmas left. Still more books to give away. Original contest post here.

P.S. Posting a little early today because we're travelling. Normal service will resume as soon as possible. In the meantime, let's go to the beach:

shady day two

 
Day Two

A sultry 31 degrees C in Newcastle this morning. It's shaping up for a scorchin' hawt Christmas Day. And the day two winner is... ... ... mamma_d !!

Congrats! Your SHADOWFAE is on its way. Don't feed it after midnight. I warned you.

Only four shady days left. Only four more signed copies of SHADOWFAE, and one fabulous SHADOWGLASS ARC. 

These books are cluttering up my desk. They have to go. The need is urgent. The danger is real. Get these books out of my house!! ... or out of my agent's office, as the case may be.

You still have time to enter, or do more entries if you haven't won yet. Tweet me, blog me, the usual. Contest details here.

on the first shade of christmas...

 

Day One

 

And the Day One winner is... dum dum dum... jacabur2008 !!!

Congrats, Jackie! You've won yourself a signed copy of SHADOWFAE. That was easy, eh?

Only five more shady days to go. Only five more free copies of SHADOWFAE. But there's still time. Here's the link to the contest post, but you know the drill: blog, retweet, show me some social networkin' lurve, and you'll go in the draw.

And you know what? About this SHADOWGLASS ARC...

People like shiny new ARCs. Yes, indeedy they do.

And bless me if it didn't seem fair to exclude the people who've already won SHADOWFAE from the chance to win the ARC.

So here's what I'll do. Even if you've already won, you can stay in the draw for the ARC on Christmas Day. Yes! That's the sort of kind, compassionate soul I am.

So keep blogging and tweeting and telling everyone -- the more you harp on, the more entries you get.

Right. I'm off to actually do some writing {gasp! shock! horror!} for a change. Won't be surprised if I don't remember how...

six shady days of christmas

...and we all know that Christmas means summer, right? Not snowdrifts or holly or yule logs, whatever they are. I'm talking the beach, barbecues, prawn cocktails, sunburn and the cricket on TV the next morning.

Time to give away some hawt books for free. Just because that's the kind of generous soul I am. So welcome one and all to:

Each day up until Christmas (starting today, that's Sunday for all you weekend blogreaders), I'm giving away a signed copy of SHADOWFAE to one lucky person who drops by.

And (yes! but wait, there's more) on the last day, the winner will also receive my very first SHADOWGLASS ARC! Be the first person in the WORLD to read my smokin' hot March 2010 release... well, except for my agent. And my editor. And my cat (he loved it, of course). And possibly a pile of reviewers... But you can be the first REAL person to read it. You know what I mean.

Look at them. They're gorgeous. You know you want them. Even just to look at the pretty covers.

And you know the drill. One of more of the following, folks:

1) Tweet the contest (or RT my tweet) and leave a comment here to let me know
2) Mention the contest on your blog -- take the palm tree pic if you like -- and leave the link in a comment here
3) Read my free short story, Hellcursed, on my website. Like it? Blog or tweet about it, and leave a note here.
4) Friend me on LJ (right here!)
5) Follow me on Twitter (I'm @ericahayes)
6) Subscribe to my (mercifully infrequent) newsletter here
7) Any other cool social networking thingy you can come up with and tell me about.

The more you do, the more entries you get. Each day I'll pick a random winner, and remove their name from the draw. The rest will stay in, ie. your entries don't expire. So don't be afraid to repeat yourself :) and the sooner you get the word out, the more chances your Internetz Friendz will get to win :)

Contest open worldwide (yeah, that includes the US. Especially the US. Wouldn't want to neglect all y'all).

Non-LJ-ers: please leave your name in your comment, and a Blogger address, email or Twitter where I can ping you if you win.