WINTERGIRLS contest excitement & bookseller love

WINTERGIRLS comes out in 10 days!!!!

::pauses to breathe into paper bag::

To celebrate, we’ve decided to have a contest. A simple contest. A fast contest.

The prize is a laptop skin with the WINTERGIRLS cover image on it. Don’t know what a laptop skin is? We’re ordering them from Skinit – their website explains everything. If you win, you’ll tell us what kind of laptop or phone you want the skin for. We’ll take care of the ordering and have the skin shipped to you.

Contest Rules: All you have to do is send an email to laurie AT writerlady DOT com. Put “WINTERGIRLS Contest” in the subject line. Only one entry per person, please!

Contest starts at noon (EST) today, 3/9/09, and runs until noon (EST) one week from today. At the close of the contest, we’ll put all of the entries in a bowl and pull out four winners. Winners will be notified using the email account they entered with, so please use a valid account.

Feel free to pass on news of this contest and post it to your own blog.

Last week Joe Hill declared that March is Love-Your-Small-Bookstore Month and I seconded the motion. To show my love to my local independent bookstore I went there Saturday night and bought a book for BH.

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A couple of people wrote to me over the weekend bemoaning the fact that they don’t have a local indie bookstore. Never fear, good friends!! You can locate the closest store to you using Indiebound’s store locator.

Still can’t find one that is close-by? You probably didn’t know this, but most locals will ship your book to you, just as easily as A****n will. When you support small businesses this way, your dollar helps the community much more.

So… today’s marching orders:

1. Enter WINTERGIRLS contest.
2. Buy a book (or 5 or 20) from an independent bookstore.

Any questions?

WINTERGIRLS comes out in 10 days!!!!

::reaches for paper bag again::

Revolution & Joe Hill

Joe Hill is the spectacularly-talented author of Heart-shaped Box. This is not the kind of book I normally read or recommend, because it’s considered “horror” and I am a weenie. But Toddly liked it so much, I had to give it a whirl. To my shock (not my horror) I loved it. Trying new things can be a little scary, but that’s the only way to grow.

Anyway, Joe and me have more in common than you might think. We are both rabid supporters of independent bookstores. We proudly shout our indie support from the tops of the barricades.

Joe has declared March to be “Love-Your-Small-Bookstore Month”. I second that motion.

Will you please join us?

Visit the closest indie bookstore to you this weekend. (Don’t know where it is? Indiebound will find it for you.) BUY A BOOK THERE. Buy a cookbook, or a book that gives spring cleaning tips. Buy a book for a child. Don’t know a child? Buy a book that explains how to make one. Buy something off the IndieNext list, ask the booksellers what their new favorite is. (Booksellers are wicked smart, you know.) Buy a book to help you understand the economic crisis, or cats, or the history of cod. (Yes, I’ve read that one, too. Fascinating.)

Indiebound makes many convincing arguments why we should be buying local. “Spend $100 at a local and $68 of that stays in your community. Spend the same $100 at a national chain, and your community only sees $43. Local businesses create higher-paying jobs for our neighbors… Buying local means less packaging, less transportation, and a smaller carbon footprint….More independents means more choice, more diversity, and a truly unique community.”

Here at the Forest, we’ve had our eyes opened to the importance of shopping local. Because of that, we’re in the process of changing all the bookselling links on my website. Here’s a sneak preview, from the WINTERGIRLS section of the site, still under construction. What do you think?

A Saturday morning in March is the perfect time to join the revolution. Give a shout-out to your favorite independent bookstore in the Comments section!

13 days til WINTERGIRLS comes out…