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Photobomb Contest Winners!

3rd Place Cemetery

Jayne L. will be receiving a signed copy of The Broken Eye in trade paperback, or the new slipcover for The Black Prism (depending on which she chooses.)

2nd Place

Watch out Red

Tabitha T. also included this limerick:
As Red brought her granny a book,
She was watched by a wolf in a nook,
What was that he did spy?
It was “The Broken Eye”!
He gave chase and soon stole it…the CROOK!

Red considered the loss with disdain,
“Twas for Granny!”, she loudly proclaimed,
And then with a sigh,
She resolved to not cry,
For at least, she nor granny were maimed.

Wait, that’s not how Red’s story goes,
The young girl must rise o’er her foes,
She arose in the wood,
Ran as fast as she could,
And nabbed her book from under his nose.

She’ll be receiving signed trade paperback copies of The Black Prism, The Blinding Knife, and The Broken Eye — or the new slipcover for The Black Prism!

1st Place

Horse

Kordian Z. will be receiving signed hardcopies of The Black Prism (along with the NEW cover as well as the old cover), The Blinding Knife, and The Broken Eye! He’ll also get the first six chapters of The Blood Mirror.

And here are a few more of the entries we received — we wish we could have picked them all! Because the quality of the submissions were so high, and it was so hard to choose, we will be sending signed bookplates to everyone who submitted an entry.

Pheasants BatmanReichstag_052 Audiobook Throne

 

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Limerick Contest Winners

We had many excellent entries! Thanks so much for the joy your entries have brought us. (And thanks, much less, for the pain in having to narrow it down to these few winners.)

The top five winners will each receive a brand new dust jacket for the hardcover edition of The Black Prism or a signed trade paperback of The Broken Eye, their choice.

The Top Five Winners:

There once was a man named Gavin,
Surprised by a son he was havin’.
And though his boy Kip
Had thick head and foul lip,
He eventually was glad he had him.
– Janelle

Do YOU yearn to skillfully smack hard?
Then hey kids, sign up for the Blackguard!
The training’s sheer bliss
For all masochists
You’re bound to get face, limbs or back scarred.
– Lisa H.

There once was a man named Hanishu
Whose last words were “which man are you?”
He fought his brother last,
could have kicked his ass
When he should have kicked his uncle’s too.
– Katelyn B.

A man from Cenaria City
A wetboy, focused and gritty
Used kakari for good
Lived all that he could
His friends died instead, what a pity
— Amber S.

I’d have to go with Miss Sovari
Elene is too timid and scarry
Kirena’s too old;
On Vi I am sold
All I need now’s a White Ka’kari
– Chad Z.

And two Honorable Mention:

For a good book Quentin did look,
A tale with a riveting hook.
So out popped Sam Sykes,
As Naheed did say, “Yikes!”
To which Sam replied, “Buy my book.”
– Thomas G.

(Included because you can’t win twice!)
To pretend you’re Gavin, not Dazen,
Is extraordinarily brazen.
To fool the whole world,
Including your girl,
Is nothing short of amazin’.
– Lisa H.

 

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Halloween Photobomb Contest

We’re happy to announce our BIENNIAL Halloween Photobomb  Contest! (No, we didn’t forget last year, we just like to keep things fresh. Fresh like pickled ginger.)

Grand Prize:
Signed Hardcopies of The Black Prism (with NEW cover! & old cover so you don’t miss out on smolderingly handsome Gavin), The Blinding Knife, and The Broken Eye — and the first 6 chapters of The Blood Mirror!

Grand Prize

 

Second Place:
Signed Trade Paperback Copies of The Black Prism, The Blinding Knife, and The Broken Eye, or the new slipcover for The Black Prism.

TPB Collage

Third Place:
A signed copy of The Broken Eye in Trade Paperback, or the new slipcover for The Black Prism.

Broken Eye TPB

RULES:

  1. Take a picture of any one of Brent’s books (must be identifiable, and for the sake of this contest, no e-readers) in any exciting, interesting, exotic, or funny locale or with an exciting, interesting, exotic, or funny celebrity or person in an amazing costume*. The picture does not have to be an actual photobomb…. but, uh, that would be nice, since it is in the title of the contest and all.
  2. To enter, email your photo with subject line “Halloween 2015 Contest” to elisa@brentweeks.com by Friday, November 6th at 5PM Pacific Standard Time.
  3. You can enter as many submissions as you like — but you can only win one prize.

Although I appreciate a good Photoshop job as well as anyone, heavily Photoshopped pictures will not be eligible for prizes. Obviously, touching up a real photo is fine. Even PhotoShopping in laser beams is fine–though that’s not the point of this contest, and we’ll do a Photoshop anything goes contest later. Photoshopping in Chris Pratt holding my book when he isn’t actually holding my book is not fine. (Because you would totally win if you actually could get a pic of him holding my book.)

*Don’t Photobomb inappropriately or illegally, yo.

International submissions are encouraged!

Posted on in Contests, Midcyru, Seven Satrapies

Limerick Contest

Once there was a boy who wrote books
He would do whatever it took
To please all his fans
Except guys named Dan
To give them an excellent look!

Our last limerick contest was a few years ago and we’ve decided to run another!

This time, the top five winners will each receive their choice of a brand new dust jacket for the hardcover edition of The Black Prism or a signed trade paperback of The Broken Eye.

Guidelines:
The last word in lines 1, 2, and 5 must rhyme and contain 8-9 syllables each.
The last word in lines 3 and 4 must rhyme and contain 5-6 syllables each.
All submissions must be sent to elisa@brentweeks.com by Monday, October 12 at 5pm Pacific Standard Time.
The subject line of your email should read “Limerick Contest”.
The BEST limericks have some kind of turn in the last line. (Not like Brent’s above.)
It must be about an event, character, or object in either the Night Angel Trilogy or The Lightbringer Series.

Famous limericks:
1. There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

3. There was an Old Man of Peru
Who watched his wife making a stew.
But once, by mistake,
In a stove she did bake
That unfortunate Man of Peru.
– Edward Lear

4. There was a young lady of Niger
who smiled as she rode on a tiger;
They returned from the ride
with the lady inside,
and the smile on the face of the tiger.
— Edward Lear

5. A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill can hold more than his beli-can.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week
But I’m damned if I see how the heli-can.
– Dixon Lanier Merritt

Posted on in Contests

David Gemmell Legend Award: Shortlist

david-gemmell-award

The Broken Eye has made it to the shortlist of the David Gemmell Legend Award! A huge thanks to all who voted–and I mean that. All of you, not just all of you who voted for me. (Ok, a small place in my heart is significantly warmer toward the latter.)

The DGLA is a new award, and it’s a different kind of award. Every kind of award comes with certain limitations, but those limitations can either be ameliorated or exaggerated. In certain Hugo categories, there have been people who win the award 12 or more times, or categories where it seems groups simply trade the award back and forth. That kind of result shows the weaknesses not of the field of SFF, but of an award’s rubric for selecting its ‘best of’.

The Gemmell Awards have their own weakness–and no one has ever denied this. It’s an award decided by several consecutive popular votes. If Brandon Sanderson campaigned hard, he could likely win this award every year not featuring a Martin book. Brandon has chosen to not campaign–which I think is both honorable and wise.

With a new award especially, if too few writers win it, the award itself is weakened. As Mark Lawrence points out in his post, this year’s short list includes Sanderson, Lawrence, and me–each of whom has won before. Joe Abercrombie hasn’t won the Legend Award but has been on the short list four times now. On one hand, this isn’t surprising, nor is it a weakness:  OF COURSE writers who have moved readers previously will continue to do work that inspires readers to make a few clicks on a webpage.

But the goal of the David Gemmell Awards is “to recognise and promote writers and artists in the fantasy field. … Gemmell supported and encouraged new authors and artists as well as being part of the pantheon of great fantasy writers worldwide.” Certainly, the Gemmells honor the kinds of works that readers have long loved but that awards committees have either looked down on or decided didn’t need honoring because they thought selling a lot of books was reward enough.

But if readers only vote every year for their favorite author–rather than their favorite book–and they never even read the others, then the Gemmell Awards will have failed. The long list and short list should be a place to discover books that other fantasy fans are passionate about. The winner should represent the best of those as decided by fans. “Should.” But how close what the award is trying to achieve and what it will actually achieve is up to you.

All that to say, I absolutely believe you should vote for what you believe to be the best book on the ballot, regardless of whether its author has won before. BUT, if you think two books are equally good and one of them hasn’t won the award yet, I would urge you vote for that one.

That is, unless you’re stuck between my book and Abercrombie’s. I think ultimately, it’s in the interests not just of SFF fandom, but also in the best interests of Joe “Little Axe” Abercrombie himself to remain the Losingest Gemmell Nominee of All Time.

Click HERE to vote.  Voting ends Friday, July 17th at midnight.

Posted on in Contests

David Gemmell Legend Award

david-gemmell-award

The Broken Eye has just been nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award! Voting on the long list closes at midnight on Friday, 15 May. Other nominees include Half a King by Joe Abercrombie, City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett, Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson, Fools Assassin by Robin Hobb, Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan and many more.

The complete list is HERE. Voting just requires three clicks!

Broken Eye Animated Cover

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Goodreads Semi-Finals & Giveaway

Good news! The Broken Eye has made it to the semi-final round of the Goodreads Choice Award (pick for Best Fantasy). Thanks to all who voted! If you’d like to help get me to the next round, go HERE to vote.

To celebrate The Broken Eye being nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award, my publisher is giving away 5 copies. Anyone in the US, Canada, UK and Ireland is eligible. Go HERE to enter. The giveaway closes December 1, 2014.

Goodreads2014semifinals

Posted on in Contests

2014 Halloween Costume Contest Winners

We received many excellent entries. Though we didn’t have space to include every submission in this post, many thanks to all who participated! There was much gnashing of teeth, several fist fights, and one trip to the ER as we calmly and rationally debated the merits of each costume.

First, we had the smart-alecks. Of course we did:



Fourth Place (Nick C.):

RedWightandColorPrince_3
The Color Prince and a Red Wight


Third place (Ollie O.):

Dorian Ursuul Cosplay (2)_FourthPlace
Dorian Ursuul



Second place (Nicola R.):

ThirdEye_2
The Third Eye


Grand Prize Winner (Dominika P.):

Logan_1
Logan in the Dungeon, with the key


Honorable Mentions:
I’ll be sending each of you a Lightbringer bookplate! (Click to enlarge — for some reason with the larger files you’ll need to click and then click again.)

So what do you think? Did we get it right or did we mess up? Let us know over in poll –> and we’ll send a special prize to the fan favorite. (We’ll close that poll for voting purposes next Monday.)

Posted on in Contests, Seven Satrapies

Goodreads Choice Awards 2014

GoodreadsCollage



Some years you say to yourself, “Sweet! George hasn’t published a book, and Neil hasn’t published a book! Maybe I’ve got a…” and then you see the paranormal fantasy and the fantasy genres have been collapsed into one, and now you’re listed not only among Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Mark Lawrence, but also Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, and… you just stop reading at that point, because why bother?

On the other hand, I have to say being listed among all these great writers is hugely thrilling and quite an honor. It’s pretty awesome to be mentioned in the same breath with these fantasy greats. So if you want to get a list of great fantasy books to read, click over HERE. And if St. Jude — patron saint of lost causes — is your guy, maybe you can even throw out a vote for me. 😉

Posted on in Contests

Halloween Costume Contest!

Just a reminder, we’ve got a Halloween Costume Contest going!

Grand Prize:

A complete signed set of The Lightbringer Series, in Hardcover, and the first THREE chapters of The Blood Mirror! (Nobody else has this. Not even my editor. But you can’t share it with anyone!)

Webposts 2014 - 1
Click to enlarge for a sneak peek!

Second Place:

A signed hardcover of The Broken Eye, and signed copies of The Blinding Knife and The Black Prism in trade paperback.

Webposts 2014 - 2

Third Place:

A signed copy of The Broken Eye.

Webposts 2014 - 3

Fourth Place:

Three signed, personalized bookplates.

Webposts 2014 - 4

 

Rules:

1. Entries may be submitted NOW until Monday, November 3rd at 5pm Pacific Standard Time.

2. Entry must include a picture of you in a costume inspired by the Night Angel Trilogy or The Lightbringer Series (go HERE to check out the Night Angel character sketches), along with a one or two sentence description.

3. International entries are allowed and encouraged!

4. As long as the costume is materially yours, some Photoshop is fine (no presenting characters from movies or video games by putting a gloss of Photoshop on it and saying it’s your costume).

5. Two entries allowed per person, but you can only win once.

6. The subject line of the email should read: 2014 Costume Contest

7. Address the email to CAPSLOCK @ brentweeks.com (no spaces; and as in previous years, Brent will be selecting the winners).

8. The costume must be family-friendly (as usual, we’d like to display the best entries on the website and we can’t do that if it’s not appropriate for younger fans).

9. Other:

Video submissions are allowed, but Brent is judging the costume, not the video. Brent will judge costumes individually if you have two people in a photo, but only one person will receive a prize. You must be 18 or older to win (younger participants are welcome, but by law I can’t give you a prize). No purchase is necessary. Odds of winning are based on the number of entries. We will notify winners via email; you must respond within 7 days, or another winner will be chosen. The grand prize is worth approximately $100. Second place is worth approximately $60. Third place is worth approximately $30. Fourth place is worth about $15.

Winners will be announced on Monday, November 10, 2014.

Posted on in Contests