CONTEST! Wickedly Wonderful Prerelease Party & Giveaway

HOLY UPCOMING RELEASE DATE, BATMAN!

Did you realize that Wickedly Wonderful is coming out in less that three weeks? (Did you realize that December 2nd is less than three weeks away? Yikes!)

Obviously, that calls for a celebration. And, you know, a mad flurry of begging people to spread the word, preorder the book, and generally make me look good to my publisher Berkley, so they'll want to give me a contract for Book 3 in the series. But mostly, it calls for a HUGE giveaway!

So here it is.

So many great prizes!

As usual, it is *just* possible that I may have gotten a little carried away. Snort. There is a great big tote bag with the Wickedly Wonderful cover on one side and the Wickedly Dangerous cover on the other. A Wickedly Wonderful mug, notebook, and mousepad, and a swag pack with the winner's choice of temporary tattoo packs (dragons or mermaids), plus bookmarks, postcards, and magnets. There is also a signed copy of Wickedly Dangerous, since I don't have my author copies of Wickedly Wonderful yet. If the person who wins the book already has the first one, he or she has the choice to wait for the 2nd one to show up on my doorstep.

Six great prizes, lots of chances to win. It's pretty simple (thank you, Rafflecopter!). You get one point for doing the basics--tweeting about the contest, liking me on Facebook, or following me on Twitter. A couple more points if you follow the blog here on the left or sign up to have the blog delivered to your inbox. Leaving a comment is worth three points and so is signing up to get my newsletter. You can post a NEW review for another 5, but it has to be one you haven't posted previously (although you can copy and paste an earlier review into another place, like Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, your own blog, Facebook, etc. You can even Tweet a short review of the book). Of course, you don't have to buy anything, but if you do buy a copy of Wickedly Dangerous or preorder a copy of Wickedly Wonderful, that's a big ten points. BUT, it has to be a new purchase, not one you made earlier. Hey, you can always get one for a friend for the holidays, right? Or buy one of my other books, that counts too. Even the ebook version of Circle, Coven & Grove which is still only $2.99. [But hey, if you convince a friend to buy a copy, that can count too...]

Here are some handy links, in case you need them:
WICKEDLY WONDERFUL
AMAZON
BARNES AND NOBLE
BOOKS A MILLION
INDIEBOUND

WICKEDLY DANGEROUS
AMAZON
BARNES AND NOBLE
BERKLEY (where you can get links to all the other places)

You can also use the Amazon and B&N links to leave reviews, or use this link to GOODREADS (where, frankly, I could use some nicer reviews to offset a few not very nice ones).

Mostly, you should just have fun! So tell me, have you read Wickedly Dangerous? Are you excited about Wickedly Wonderful coming out in THREE WEEKS?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The "Holy Crap" Celebration Giveaway

I know, I know--I said I was done with giveaways for now. Mailed out the prizes for the last winners, breathed a sigh of relief, and put all the remaining swag away. Whew. (And promptly came down with a cold, but I don't think the two things are related.)

Then today, I was wandering around the Interwebs (I have a cold, did I mention?) and happened to check on the Amazon page for The Witch's Broom HERE. The book has been out for a couple of weeks, so I wasn't expecting anything spectacular. I definitely wasn't expecting THIS:

Yes, that says that The Witches Broom is #1 (#1!) in both Wicca and Witchcraft. But while that is great--really great--it isn't the thing that blew me away. Look at the number above that. #2,345 on Amazon overall. That, my friends, is phenomenal. Phenomenal for any book by any author, but for a little PAGAN nonfiction book? HOLY CRAP.

To give you some kind of perspective, my most recent book, Everyday Witchcraft Book of Rituals (which I think is a lovely book) is at #419,998 overall. The Goddess is in the Details my most popular book, which has gone back to reprint 5 times is at #216,747  in the Kindle store.

So cracking the top 2,500 overall is HUGE. And yes, if you have been here for more than a week or two, you know what that means.

CELEBRATION GIVEAWAY!!!!!

(I know...I said I wasn't doing another one. But I'm out of champagne and I have to celebrate somehow.)

This one is easy. You can share the news anywhere, or Tweet about it, of course. But what I'd really like you to do is tell me here about something you celebrated recently, and how you celebrated. It doesn't have to be anything huge...just something that made your day, like this (and all of your amazing support) made mine.

One lucky winner (anywhere, in any country--yes, you heard me!) will win all of this groovy stuff

The swag package includes one of the last remaining super cool broom refrigerator magnets, postcards and cards for both The Witch's Broom and Wickedly Dangerous (the first Baba Yaga novel), plus matching magnets for both books, AND a sheet of Witch's Broom stickers that didn't get included in the original giveaways because, um, I forgot I bought them.

Thank you all for the everything you have done to get me to this "holy crap" moment. Don't for a moment think I don't appreciate how great you all are. And no, I'm not sniffling because I'm so happy. I told you--I have a cold. (Yep, that's it.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Big Huge Contest--Last Day Push and SURPRISE

As most of you know, I have been holding a Big, Huge, Mega Giveaway CONTEST POST for the upcoming THE WITCH'S BROOM book here for almost a week. We're in the end stretch now (1 day 12 hours as I write this, ending at Friday morning 12:00 AM EST), and I have to tell you that this contest has exceeded my wildest dreams. Seriously. I can't believe how much enthusiasm and participation we've had. I've been happy dancing so much I have scared the cats :-)

Here's where we're at right now:
3,037 entries (yes, that's right--OVER 3,000!) Of course, remember that people can earn up to 32, if they actually use all the options.
2,951 page views (holy crap!)
A few fabulous people put up reviews and/or pre-ordered the book (BIG thanks to you folks) and many people spread the word. The book is actually up to #39 in its category, and it isn't even out yet. You people ROCK.

So, now that we're in the end stretch, I've got one more push...

Look what I just got!

Yes, that's the first of the swag for my novel, Wickedly Dangerous. *bounce bounce bounce* That's a fridge magnet, a card, and a postcard. So here's what we're going to do.
IF we can get the contest entries up to 3,500 by the end of the contest, I'll send all the winners (that's right, all TWENTY of them) their very own threesome of Wickedly Dangerous swag too. You will literally be the first people it goes to. Excited yet?

So, what if you already entered? Don't forget that three of the options (tweet about it, share the news, and put up a review for an existing book) can be done every day. Which technically means you could do each of them today AND tomorrow, before midnight EST. And the "put up a review" and "pre-order the book" options are worth 10 entries each, so if a bunch of people do those, the numbers could go up fast. [Already ordered the book? Consider ordering one for a friend!]

Impossible, you say? There's no way we can get to 3,500 entries. Maybe so... On the other hand, I would never have in a million years guessed that we would get to 3,037. Let's see if we can pull off the impossible. Ready, set, GO!!!!

SWAG!!!! GIVEAWAYS #1! The Witch's Broom

Okay, it is just possible I got a smidge carried away. (Ahem.) Just a teeny tiny bit. I know--how unusual for me.

The thing is, my next Llewellyn book, The Witch's Broom, is coming out in just over 2 months. The release date is April 8th. *bounce bounce bounce* Yes, this is not exactly the first book I ever had come out. Heck--it's actually the 7th. (Blinks. How is that possible?) But I really loved the way it turned out, and the cover is THE BOMB.

Seriously. How could you not like that? Even Magic the Cat approves, for obvious reasons. (No, it isn't a picture of her...the idea came from an old postcard image my fabulous editor Elysia Gallo found online. But if it makes the cat happy, who am I to argue?) And there seems to be A LOT of excitement from my readers about it, although I don't know whether that is due to the topic, the cover, or some other reason. (I heard a rumor that some people actually like my writing, but that can't be it.)

I always try and get something fun to do a giveaway contest or two with, leading up to the release date. Eventually, I'll also give away a book or two, but I won't have my copies for a while yet; they haven't even gone off the printer yet, as far as I know. And because this cover is So Damned Cool, I ordered a few extra things to give away. I might have gone a little overboard. What do you think?

 I've got a ton of the business cards with a picture of the cover, and some matching postcards. They both say "Coming April 8th, 2014" at the bottom, and as you can see, the back of the postcard also has a picture of Magic the Cat. If you want one or both, email me at magicmysticminerva at yahoo and I'll be happy to send you one. If you happen to own a shop or a bookstore and want extras, just let me know. I have 100 of the business cards as magnets (between the mug and the notebooks)--if you want one of those, they will be given away first-come-first-served!

I'll also be sending a bunch of the cards, magnets, and postcards to Pantheacon with Elysia, held in San Jose in the middle of this month, so if you're there, look around for them.

Elysia will also have a few of the little broomstick refrigerator magnets you can see to the right. Here's a close up of them and the mug.

Aren't they COOL? I saw the origin on Etsy, where a woman named Willow Dancer makes all sorts of fun stuff at her shop, Willow Creek Herb Company on Etsy And she very kindly worked with me to come up with something special just for this book. Notice the little cat charm on the front of the broom. I will have a few of these to give away on the blog, and I'm sending a few of those with Elysia for Pantheacon, too. (I only got 25 of those, and a few are going to people like my editors, and my uber-researcher, Sierra.)

I only got two mugs, since they're pricier and harder to ship. Maybe I should start the giveaway with one of them? I also got two cool lined notebooks with the book cover on front. Maybe I should start with them?

Did I mention I might have gotten carried away?

Which is your favorite bit of swag? Tell me which things you like the best, and I will pick someone at random at the end of the day tomorrow (Thursday 6th) and send them whatever they picked out. (If you're outside of the USA, I will have to limit what I send to the small stuff...sorry.)

Please spread the word, both about the swag and the book itself. If you want to preorder the book, you can go here:
Amazon (Where the book is on a pre-release sale at $11.95!)
B&N (Also on sale!)
Llewellyn

So, do you think I got too carried away? And which is your favorite?