CONTEST: Post-Birthday Blowout!

Hi there!  Welcome back to another week here at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.  For those of you that participated in the readathon on Saturday, CONGRATULATIONS!  I wish I could have joined you, but know I was cheering you on in spirit!  I myself opted not to participate (although it sounded really great) due to other matters....*cough*my birthday*cough*.  Yep, that's right!  Celebrating one more year to the ever changing calendar, we had a riot.  Shopping, movies, presents, cake...all the fun with the trimmings too!  Including my car filled with balloons...yeah, it was cute at first, but when you end up chasing the loose ones around a store parking lot, you begin to plot out payback methods.  Anywho...

The movie we saw was "Saw VI" (that sounds a little repetitive).  I must admit, although it was good as a whole, when comparing it the the series, not quite so much (they change patterns....if you see it, you'll know what I mean...).  The trip however did pan out an unexpected goodie....two New Moon cups! (*~happy dance~*) One group photo like the promo posters and one Edward.  As this theater isn't even the one that will be showing the movie locally, it was a double surprice, but hey...works for me!  All in all it was a pretty great weekend.  But I digress, you didn't come here to hear purely about my adventures....you were drawn for another reason altogether weren't you?  (It's okay, that's the whole point of today's post!)

Today's post is an exciting one indeed.  No, no, no...we are not reviewing the latest and greatest book title to hit the shelves and giving you a chance to win it.  What WE are doing is having a really FANTASTIC Post-Birthday Blowout Giveaway where you can win FIVE really great Young Adult titles plus a fun add-on courtesy of author Nancy Holder! (YAY!  Thank you, Nancy!) Oh, did I fail to mention that they are all SIGNED as well...because they are!  (Oops, silly me....) Oh and one more thing...thanks to her generosity, this CONTEST IS OPEN INTERNATIONALLY.  So whether you are from here, there, or anywhere...feel free to enter! 

Author Nancy Holder was kind enough to not only offer the opportunity to host this great giveaway but to provide us with a look behind her book...."Possessions".  Let's see what she had to say....take it away!

 

Possessions...


What is a possession? Is it an earthbound spirit forced by passion and rage to relive a traumatic experience? Is it madness? These are the questions Lindsay Cavanaugh must answer in Possessions, as she moves into a super posh boarding school high in the mountains of northern California…isolated, no cell phone reception…after a nervous breakdown.

When I was in high school with my friends, and one of us did something weird, we would all scream, “Are you POSSESSED?” And just the other day when my daughter did something completely out of character, I asked her the same question. And I kind of really meant it. “What came over you? That just didn’t seem like you.”

Maybe it wasn’t.

Or…maybe there’s more to us than we realize.

I had a fascinating discussion with a woman at a Possessions book signing. As a Harvard graduate student, she had researched the Salem witchcraft trials, focusing on accused witches who were bilingual—i.e., who could speak more than one language. They were accused of conversing with the Devil in a strange tongue—proof positive of their guilt! She traveled to Salem and read original witchcraft trials court transcripts inside the actual meeting hall where the trials were held.

Just listening to her gave me goose bumps. I actually felt a little anxious, as if I might have to watch myself or something bad would happen to me. Not that I’d get tried for witchcraft, but that…something…some variety of bad luck…might be lurking around the corner, in the shadows and so, just in case, I’d better be…what? What should I be? Something other than I was?

Have you ever had a sense that you were aware of something that no one else could see?

When I was taking botany in college, part of my homework was to go into a campus lab; study clippings of local plants placed in bottles in rows on tables, and memorize their names. The names were written in black letters on pieces of adhesive tape across the glass. As in #1 WHITE SAGE.

I didn’t go in enough, and so didn’t memorize them, and I knew I was in trouble. So the night before the test, I lay down on my bed and said over and over to myself, “I’m getting an A on this test. I’m going to get an A.”

The next morning, I went into the same lab armed with my test paper of numbered blanks. The bottles were in their places. And as I walked up the first bottle, I saw that the professor had simply covered the original piece of adhesive tape that bore the plant’s name with another piece of adhesive tape. I could easily read the black letters through it: #1 WHITE SAGE.

I felt very guilty, but you know that I copied down all the names. After we turned in our test papers, I said to another student, “Wow, wasn’t that so weird that you could read right through the tape?”

But he hadn’t noticed; or hadn’t been able to. And neither had any of the other people in the class I checked with.

So…was I simply more observant? Did I sharpen my wits with my mantra?

Or did I get some sort of other help?

While I was writing Possessions, I watched a lot of horror movies and listened to hours of scary soundtrack music. I would literally force myself into a state of fear, and then I would write. Now I have to sleep with the hall light on. And I’m actually happy about it because I can stay in the “zone” more easily while I write. I also listened to a tape of a Frenchwoman who was supposed to be possessed. It was terrifying, but the entire time I was listening to it, I kept thinking, “She’s not possessed. She just thinks she is. She’s actually crazy.”

And that’s the dilemma my main character Lindsay faces in Possessions. Is she really the only one who can see through the actions of the queen of mean Mandy Winters and her clique? Is she just seeing things? Or is she crazy?

Or is Mandy?

How do we know what’s real? How do we perceive the world around us? One day, I had a horrible fight with my boyfriend. It seemed like the end of us. And I got in my car and drove to Disneyland, to try to pull myself together, I guess. I’ve been to Disneyland probably a hundred times—annual pass, friends who want to go—and I was sitting on the Mark Twain steamboat, reeling over our blowup. We were coming around the bend of the Rivers of America, and I just stared out at New Orleans Square and Frontierland in bewilderment, because I felt as if I had never seen it before in my life. The entire episode lasted for only a couple of seconds, and I’ve since learned that extreme stress can cause “de-realization,” but the experience was so freaky that I decided I should probably break up with the guy, if our relationship was literally driving me crazy….

Some people believe we are actually many “we’s”, or rather “I’s,” with different parts of our brain working together under the control of our dominant “I.” So maybe stress shifted the balance of “the committee” in my head.

But what about when something seems familiar, but we’ve never been there before? Or we are certain that someone’s watching us…or that if we turn our head just quickly enough, we’ll see something that isn’t really there…or shouldn’t be there.

What if we really have lived past lives, or can become haunted…or possessed…by those who’ve passed?

Or are we all possessed already, and most of us just don’t notice?

Is Lindsay highly observant, or just seeing things? Are there vengeful spirits intent on payback at Marlwood Academy…or are the mean girls just really, really scary?

I hope you’ll read Possessed, and that it keeps you up nights…or maybe just makes you walk a little more slowly around a dark corner….and that, for a time, it possesses you.

 
Thank you so much Ms. Holder for providing that glimpse inside your work!  Readers, are you intrigued yet?  I know I was...and what better time of year to get your hands on some fun and spooky-creepy books!  Let's take a look at the contest breakdown and how YOU can enter...

The Goodies...

Possessions

Pretty Little Devils

Wicked:  Witch & Curse

Wicked:  Legacy & Spellbound

Wicked:  Resurrection

Tin of 'Wicked:  Evil Apple Mints from Disneyland

How to enter:

(This section of some contests can get a bit sticky, but I'll try to keep it simple and straight forward....oh and PLEASE try to keep the majority of your entries in one comment...depending on how many times you wish to enter, it may not be possible, but try....just makes it easier to track)

Your main method of entry?  Comment of course!  You score 1 entry for commenting on this post and answering this 'comment creator'.  Be sure to include your email address (it can be "coded" like soandso(at)nowhere(dot)com....) so I can contact you if you are the winner!  (No comment/answer/email, no entry)

COMMENT CREATOR

What is your favorite thing about this time of year?

How do you celebrate?

Extra entries (and who doesn't love those!):

+1 for being a follower of my blog

(not required, but hey...it's an easy-peasy extra entry!)

+1 for being a follower on Twitter...please include your Twitter name!

(again not required but another means of entry)

+2 for tweeting about the contest

(Maximum 1 per day...and don't forget to provide the link)

+3 for blogging about contest and/or putting it on your blog sidebar

(either way works for me...but please provide the link!)

The Rules...

THIS CONTEST IS OPEN INTERNATIONALLY!

(Animation above borrowed from Silent Happy Dance. No copyright infringement intended.)

No P.O. Boxes please.
All entries must be received by midnight CST on Saturday, October 31st, 2009.

The winner will be drawn no later than Monday, November 1st, 2009 and contacted via email.  Going to attempt first try with random.org...if not successful the old draw a name from a hat method will substitute.

On that note, please include your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you win!  To avoid spammers, feel free to "code" it as shown in the example above.

Once contact with the winner has been made, you have 48 hours to respond back.  If a response is not received within this time frame, another name will be drawn. 

Mailing information will be forwarded to the author (Nancy Holder) for shipment ONLY and then discarded.

(WHEW!  Enough with the rules, back to the fun!)

I'm currently reading "Possessions" myself, so a review will be coming soon.

In conclusion, have fun with this and don't forget to enter!

Until next time....happy reading!