Welcome to Our BookSworn Masked Ball — Plus Grand Giveaway!
Posted on 18. Mar, 2013 by Helen Lowe in Giveaways
“‘Masques’ abroad by torchlight! Music! Sports!”*
.Welcome to the BookSworn’s Masked Ball!
Plus A Grand Giveaway:
15 Signed BookSworn Novels, 1 from Each BookSworn Author Featured
How better, we thought, to welcome you to our world, than with a celebration — but not just a masque that we hope you’ll have fun with, but a grand giveaway as well. And yes — it’s fully international!
To enter for the giveaway, you must first attend the masque—where behind each masked fellow guest you encounter, will be a character from a novel by a BookSworn author.
The “masks” we shall present to you over the next week will all take the form of an excerpt, each one drawn from one of the novels listed below, that features a character who is “central” to the book’s action, but not necessarily a “point of view” character.
How To Enter:
To win you must discover the name of the character behind each mask, and the novel in which he/she/it appears and email the result to:
swornadmin AT booksworn DOT com
[Note: We welcome your comments---but to be valid, entries must be emailed, not posted as comments. Any entries posted as comments will be removed by an administrator.]
- If more than one entrant identifies all the characters and novels correctly, then the giveaway winner will be drawn from the correct entries via Random.Org
- If no one entrant identifies all the characters and novels correctly, then the winner will be the entrant with the highest rate of correct entries; once again, where more than one entrant qualifies, the winner will be selected via Random.org
- In the event of multiple correct entries, your name/entry will be included in the draw again if you boost the signal:
- + 1 additional entry for mentioning via Facebook or Twitter
- + 2 additional entries for mentioning on your personal blog or forum site
[Please include links to your mentions in your entry email.]
- The masked ball will begin today, with “masks” being posted until Friday; the close-off for entries for the giveaway will be 12 midnight (US Eastern Standard Time) on Monday 25 March
- The winner will be notified via email and the result posted here on Wednesday 27 March
- If the winner does not respond to the notifying email by Friday 29 March (2013), the giveaway will be redrawn
- The contest and giveaway is fully international.
Note: The BookSworn may initiate a newsletter in future to directly notify supporters of special events and exclusive offers. If you do not wish your email to be added to a newsletter list, please specify this on your entry email.
And Now…
Meet Your First 3 Masqueraders:
Mask 1:
“He drew his rapier and held it up to the light. The rising sun gilded the elegant curves of the hilt and shimmered along the blade. Forty inches of finest Solingen steel, exquisite and deadly.
Mandritta, reversa, fendente, tonda… His fencing master’s voice echoed in his memory as he adopted the terzia guardia stance, blade dipping towards the grass.
He moved through the familiar drills, emptying his mind, becoming the blade. Stepping back and forth along the garden path, the tip of his rapier wove a pattern of glittering arcs above the rows of dew-spangled cabbages, sending butterflies spiralling up like scraps of torn paper.”
Mask 2:
“The Gorovna was not complete and had been readied with only five muskets. They were removed from their locker by the master and four of them were passed out to the crewmen known to be good with the weapon. The fifth was handed to him.
He immediately pulled one of the walrus tusk cartridges filled with gunpowder from the bandolier across his chest and began loading the weapon. He finished well before the others and began scanning the ground below. It took him a moment to find it among the mottled patches of stone and snow—a skiff, nestled in a copse of scrub pine. Once he had found the ship, he found the men. Twenty paces away four of them kneeled at the edge of a tall cliff that ended hundreds of feet below in a forest of spruce. They appeared to be inspecting the ground, though for what reason he couldn’t guess.”
Mask 3:
“A gust caught at her long brown hair, pulling it into her pretty oval face. When the sun was bright it brought out golden highlights in her curls. In the approaching storm she resembled a graveyard angel. One graceful hand captured the flying tresses and trapped them behind her ear. Her coat flapped open, and he saw she was wearing a new green dress.”
List Of The Books In Which Our Masked Characters Appear (in alphabetical order by author):
The Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley Beaulieu
Songs Of The Earth by Elspeth Cooper
Among Thieves by Doug Hulick
Exile by Betsy Dornbusch
Miserere by Teresa Frohock
No Return by Zachary Jernigan
King Of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht
The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe
The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle
Blood’s Pride by Evie Manieri
Scourge Of The Betrayer by Jeff Salyards
The Tainted City by Courtney Schafer
Tymon’s Flight by Mary Victoria
The Emperor’s Knife by Mazarkis Williams
.
*Quote adapted from Tourneur, The Revenger’s Tragedy
Paul Weimer (@princejvstin)
Mar 18th, 2013
Hello Hello!
I don’t think I have my mask anymore, or else I could take a picture with one…
JRVogt
Mar 18th, 2013
Quite the exciting gathering here! Looking forward to contest results and the excellent content this collaboration will produce.
Courtney Schafer
Mar 18th, 2013
Paul and Josh, thanks so much for stopping by! (And darn, Paul, would’ve been awesome if you had a masked photo.
Kristin Centorcelli
Mar 18th, 2013
So exciting!! Love this!
Elspeth Cooper
Mar 18th, 2013
I think I’ve worked out who two of them are!
Wait, I’m not allowed to enter? Rats! *kicks can*
Thistle
Mar 18th, 2013
What fun… especially as I have read many of these books. (Hurries out to get the rest…)
Mogsy
Mar 18th, 2013
Awesome site, Booksworn folks! And this is probably one of the coolest ideas for a giveaway contest I’ve ever seen.
Charles Gramlich
Mar 18th, 2013
I stopped by from a comment left on Goodreads. Looks like exciting stuff being planned.
Adrianne
Mar 19th, 2013
What a fascinating collection of books. I’ve read several, several more are in my tbr pile, and the rest look like fun!
Fran
Mar 19th, 2013
Great idea for a competition! Worked out two of them, especially the first one
If I could work out how to do it I would post a pic of my Venetian mask.
Betsy Dornbusch
Mar 20th, 2013
Welcome all!
psutto
Mar 20th, 2013
Great competition idea folks, am liking the site too
Helen Lowe
Mar 20th, 2013
So glad everyone is enjoying the Masked Ball! Keep dancing — & welcome to our world!
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Richard Auffrey
Mar 21st, 2013
The “List of The Books” only has 15 options, excluding Kameron Hurley. Is that intentional?
kameron hurley
Mar 21st, 2013
Richard – Yes. I owe my agent a new book at the end of April. I have even given up twitter until then. But I’ll be here in force after that deadline.
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Max Pfeffer
Mar 22nd, 2013
This is awesome! What a great contest. I emailed a couple of days ago after only read Wednesday’s masks, not fully realizing that there were masks from Monday and Tuesday as well. Can I still email all of my answers? Should I email them as one email or separate for each day?
swornadmin
Mar 22nd, 2013
Max – yes, you have until midnight US ET on Monday Mar 25 to send any & all answers. Probably easiest to send them in one email, but you can send however works best for you! So long as they get to us by midnight ET on Mar 25, they’ll be counted. And thanks so much for participating!
Max Pfeffer
Mar 22nd, 2013
Fantastic!
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