The Comment Contest

My photo contest is over, and unfortunately I didn't get as many entries as I would have liked. I don't know what it is with me and photo contests. This is the second one I've held, and both times the entries have been disappointing. I did receive a handful of very cool photos and those people will be getting the books they requested. The rest of you, I'm stepping up my prize the next time. A NEW CAR!!! Yeah, right. Hopefully it will be something to make you pull out your camera. I'm not giving up.

If you've been following the I Want You Back posts, you will notice that Tatiana has mentioned a contest. Well, here it is, and it's really simple to enter. You don't need to take a picture, so you have no excuse. All you have to do is leave a comment about the story or the artwork in the I Want You Back comment section on my website. For those of you who don't subscribe to my website and therefore have not read the novella, I have good news. We will be posting the link for the full novella here on the blog some time next week. It will also be posted on my website.

So what's the wonderful prize for leaving a comment you ask? Why the lovely mug featured in the photo above. A photo, by the way, that somebody TOOK THE TIME to take. No, I'm not bitter. Hey, I know you drink coffee... or tea... or tequila. Why not drink it out of one of my very cool I Want You Back mugs? I'm giving 5 mugs away in a random drawing around the middle of February. Five chances to win. I will post the end date when we post the link for the novella here. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment here:Click here: E. Van Lowe. The more comments, the more entries. Easy peasy, right? I'd love to hear from you. And don't you want one of my beautiful mugs designed by my good friend Tatiana? Of course you do? So comment already!

And finally, I had the most flattering thing happen to me last week. A fan did a Never Slow Dance With A Zombie video for her English class and posted it on her MySpace page. It's quite well done, and really creepy. Click here: Never Slow Dance With A Zombie Video by †Grace And Her Porcelain† - MySpace Video

My little book is like almost a movie already, huh? I am so lucky to have such talented fans. Thank you Grace and all your actors for making my day. Okay, now it's time for the rest of you to make my day... or not :-) Love ya anyway. But I'll love you more if you leave a comment ;)

My Next Big Book Giveaway!

I'm still making room in my office for new books sooooo it's time for my next Big Book Giveaway, but this time I am not going to make it so easy as just claiming a book. This time you're going to have to work for it. I'm giving away 6 new books including, Dead Girl Walking, by Linda Joy Singleton.

To qualify to win a book you have to claim one word in the title Never Slow Dance With A Zombie, and one book from the list below. Six words--six books. The first twelve people to claim an unclaimed word and book will qualify. So only two people can claim a word and a book. The contest starts NOW. Check the comment section of this post. If no one has chosen the word you'd like or the book you want, or if only one other person has chosen the word or book, it's yours to claim. Claim it! Remember, you must claim a word AND a book to qualify. I hope this is clear. Twelve entries in all.

Now comes the fun part. See the photos of Tatiana and myself holding up the words "photo contest." You must creatively write or draw your chosen word on an 8 x11 sheet of paper or something larger. Then have a friend take a photo of YOU holding your creatively drawn word, and send your photo to me at info@evanlowe.com. Tatiana and I will choose our 6 favorites and post them in a collage spelling out Never Slow Dance With A Zombie on my blog and website. All photos must be received by midnight January 30th PST. The winners will be posted some time in early February.

If your photo has been chosen, send your contact info to me at info@evanlowe.com and the book is yours. Good luck, have fun, and be creative.

Here's the list of books:

Cathy's Book--Stewart/Weisman/Brigg
Furies of Calderon--Jim Butcher
Desert Crossing--Elise Broach
My Perfect Life--Dyan Sheldon
Dead Girl Walking--Linda Joy Singleton
Never Slow Dance With A Zombie--E. Van Lowe

I Want You Back art - Guest Post by Tatiana EL-Khouri

I hope you are enjoying the e-novella "I Want You Back" as much as I have been enjoying creating the artwork. On my last guest post, I talked about the planted "easter egg" clues in the paintings.

Have you been able to figure them out?

Here is a clue for those who haven't read all the available chapters yet or begun the series, Chapters 5 & 6 were hinted at with the cover art for the series.

********* Spoiler Alert *********

I will break down the cover art and reveal the clues.

Book Title- The title of the book series directly relates to the note that Madame Leveau tells Emy to create. "For the next part of the spell I had to create two notes out of things that were important to both Devin and me. The note would read: “I Want You Back!”

This was the creative part of the spell, for I had to choose letters from things of importance and paste them onto a piece of paper from my notebook. I cut out a W from a Seventy-Sixers/Warriors basketball game ticket.

That game was our first date.

I chose an A from the heart shaped candy I’d purchased to share with Devin on Valentine’s Day. He didn’t get me anything, but that was okay. I got the candy for us both."

Frame- The frame that encompasses the hands, represents the strange mirror that Emy must use to complete the spell. If you notice, there are symbols in both the frame on the cover and the inside of the mirror in the Chapter 5 illustration above.

Here are some of the symbols and how they connect to the story:

• Infinity- The spell is binding, "till Death do us part."
• Male & Female- It reperesents Emy and Devin.
• Earth, Sky, Moon, Sun- It represents the power in the elements. Emy must dig the earth to bury the spell items since the mirror is lunar charged.
• Question Mark- This represents uncertainty in Emy.

Holding Hands- The holding hands in the cover represent Emy's desire to be with Devin.

Did you guess those? Well I'm happy to say there is still one more clue in the cover that will be revealed in the next installment being delivered Monday! Can you guess what it is?

Tatiana

New Years Book Giveaway Update

Most of the winning books are in the mail. I still haven't heard from Bookmac. Bookmac if I don't hear from you today, the book will go back into the queue. Also, I have not yet heard from Wilkwise so *Ruby* you're the winner of My Horizontal Life. If you will send your mailing info to info@evanlowe.com I will get your book out to you. You have 24 hours to contact me.

Thank you all for participating. My next big book giveaway is coming soon. Be aware, it's a photo contest. Yum! Stay tuned.

The Illustration above is from chapter 6 of my free ebook, I Want you Back! All I can say is, the plot thickens. Thanks, Tatiana, for such an awesomely dark painting. If you'd like to have all 10 chapters of I Want You Back! delivered to you in your email box, go here Click here: E. Van Lowe

Why I Hate Vampires

Okay, now that I've got your attention I have to admit, I don't really hate vampires. I just have a bone to pick with them.

When I was a kid I loved vampire movies. Bela Lagosi's black and white Dracula, Peter Cushing's Dracula, with so much outrageously red Technicolor blood, it should have been laughable. But it wasn't. It was really, really scary. And who can forget the original Salem's Lot. The movie was as good as the book. I had to sleep with the lights on for a week after I saw it.

When my mother would let my older brother and I watch horror movies, I always shut my eyes at the scary parts. "What's happening now?" I'd say. "What's happening now?" My brother was so cool. I'd say things like: "Is it okay to open my eyes now?" and he'd say "Yes." But never to trick me into seeing something ghastly, only when it was safe. As a child I must have sat through every horror film that came on TV. But I can't honestly say I saw any them all.

And that's my point. Vampires used to be gruesome, ghastly creatures that scared the bejesus out of you. They had an equally scary human servant, who from what I remember, ate spiders or rats. Yech!

Fast forward to Bill Compton and Edward Cullen. And if you don't know who they are, you are not into vampires. What they are is gorgeous. These are beautiful vampires. I mean, come on, even I think they're beautiful and, trust me, I like girls. When I was a kid you can bet if a vampire tried to bite me I'd run like hell. But today, I'd have to think about it.

What guy doesn't want to be thought of as attractive by beautiful women? Hey, and even if they don't think you're attractive right off, you just glam them, and bam, sexy lady is all yours. Vampires are the new rock stars. And you don't even have to sing or play an instrument.

So now for my confession. I don't hate vampires. In fact, I am jealous of vampires. I want to be a vampire. Not the ghastly gruesome vampires of my youth, but the handsome, sexy vampire of today. If I ever meet Edward Cullen, I am going to invite him to dinner--Me! The only way I'd pass on dinner with Edward Cullen, is if someone introduced me to Eric. And ladies, I'm warning you, if I get made by Eric--look out!

And The Winners Are...

The winners of my New Years Book Giveaway are listed below. If you are a winner please send an email with your name and mailing address to info@evanlowe.com. I will start sending books out this week. Everyone should have their books in their hot little hands by the end of next week. Please read the books. That's all I ask.

I had so much fun doing this I am going to have another book giveaway around the 15th. And after that I think I will try doing it once a month. I'm not always going to give away my overstocked books. I'm going to have some fun with this. Stay tuned.

In the future I'd like to make winning a little harder. I'd like to do the next one as a photo contest. I tried a photo contest earlier in the year and I didn't get a lot of entries. But I love the idea. If anyone has any ideas on a cool, fun (not too challenging) way to do a photo contest let me know. I'd love to hear from you.

Here are the winners:

Zombie Queen of Newbury High-- Nikki
The Reformed Vampire Support Group-- Titania86
Dead Witch Walking-- Beleth
Never Slow Dance With A Zombie-- Bianca
A Fistful of Charms-- Rem
Dates From Hell-- Jamie
A Cursor's Fury-- Spav
How Not To Spend Your Senior Year-- Vision
Death Masks-- Tlieso
Boulevard-- Dreamer
I Like You-- Bookmac

I am going to wait a few more days before I award My Horizontal Life. Wilkwise, if you were a subscriber when you claimed the book, please write in the comments under what name you subscribe. I can't find you on either of my subscriber lists. If I do not hear back from you by Wednesday January 6th, 2010, the book will go to the next subscriber who claimed it.

And if you're wondering about the painting at the top of the page, it was done by my collaborator on I Want You Back!, Tatiana. When I asked her to do some illustrations for the novella, I had no idea she would do a full painting for each chapter. The elderly woman rising like a specter off the canvas is the mysterious Madame Leveau, who helps our protagonist, Emy Garnett, cast a spell on the boy she loves. You can actually see Tatiana's brush strokes in the background, looking like a scalloped wall. Neat, huh?

I Want You Back! is my FREE ebook available to website subscribers. If you'd like to read it, go here and subscribe. Click here: E. Van Lowe Two new, exciting chapters are going out tomorrow.

By the way, the big winner in all this is me. If you enjoy the idea of contests and free ebooks, leave a comment letting me know.

Happy New Year!

Today's the day. I'm giving away 11 books. Just be the first to claim a book in the comments section below, and it's yours. One book per customer. Don't waste your time claiming claimed books. If you don't see a book claimed--claim it. If you need more information on how this works Click here: E's blog: New Years Free Book Giveaway

The 11 free books are:

Zombie Queen of Newbury High--Amanda Ashby

Boulevard--Stephen Jay Schwartz

The Reformed Vampire Support Group--Catherine Jinks

A Fistful of Charms--Kim Harrison

Dead With Walking--Kim Harrison

I LIke You--Amy Sedaris

My Horizontal Life--Chelsea Handler

A Cursor's Fury--Jim Butcher

Death Masks--Jim Butcher

Dates From Hell--Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Kelley Armstrong, Lori Handeland

How Not To Spend Your Senior Year--Cameron Dokey

Bonus Book

Never Slow Dance With A Zombie--E. Van Lowe

Happy New Year!!!