Desert Prince ARC Contest Winners
Sorry for posting this a couple days late. I know I promised to announce contest winners on Monday. No one has complained (thank you), but I also know how nerve wracking it can be to send out a piece of art into the void and have to pace around waiting for a reaction. I’m feeling that right now, as Advance Read Copies (ARCs) of The Desert Prince begin to pop up in the wild.
There was also a tsunami entries just as the contest deadline approached, so to be fair, I should have foreseen that and given myself a bit more time to post and judge all the entries before my (completely made up by me) deadline to announce winners.
Over the coming days I will keep posting entries to the various socials, but in the meantime, I encourage all of you to take a moment right now to click this link to peruse a handy facebook album containing all of the wonderful Desert Prince ARC Contest entries.
Judging fan art contests always kills me. I have six ARCs to give away, and 21 entries, all of which are GLORIOUS, and so varied in form that it’s impossible to judge them against any baseline metric. I was mostly just expecting short goofy TikToks, but ya’ll came through with some really stellar and creative entries. I am not exaggerating to say I want to give everyone a prize.
And so once again I’ve given puppy eyes to my publishers in hopes of securing more copies. You’d think they would be wise to the trick by now, but nope! The soft-hearts offered up more ARCs instantly. I’m afraid I still can’t promise an ARC for every entrant, and since some are coming directly from the publishers they won’t all be signed, but I can guarantee more than half of you will receive ARCs, and everyone (who remembered to provide an address) will receive bookplates or other prizes!
That said, I would like to call out a few entries of particular delight, so we can collectively “ooh” and “ahhh” over their splendor. I will do the same for others in the coming days.
First is Anka from Poland, whose whole family joined in the costuming, music, set design, shooting and editing of this beautiful short film re-enacting Ashia celebrating Prince Kaji’s first born day on the road to Docktown from The Core:
Next we have Maxime and Fiéline from France, who joined forces to revisit their Arlen & Renna cosplay to re-enact the precious and loving moment in The Desert Spear when Arlen wards Renna’s eyes to let her see in wardsight for the first time. Photos by Aly Paper, make-up by Manticore SFX:
Danielle from Wisconsin sent one of my absolute favorite entries. In her own words:
Hi! My entry is a few of my favorite scenes. Ever since reading the first book, I wanted to crochet a stuffed One-Arm. I chose to make it cute rather than realistic because the contrast of a cuddly rock demon appealed to me, inspired by the many kawaii Baphomet, Disney and comic book villains, etc. that I’ve seen.
Arlen’s first and second nights alone continue to be my favorite re-reads because they really set a foundation for his character throughout the rest of the books. I was especially struck by his decision to hold the hare through the night rather than opt for safety and give the demons anything more than they’d already taken from him.
So that’s my first choice of dramatic scene, but how could I crochet a One-Arm doll without making a detachable arm for maximum reenactment value?
I have included many more details and pictures on my crochet Facebook page. The link to that post is https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=165725718890794&id=100063600995324
Thank you for putting on this contest, I had a great time creating these characters and scenes!
Another absolutely gorgeous entry is this shadow box book nook, recreating in silhouette the Serbian cover of The Core, by Darko Rajkovic:
Sophia John put in two amazing entries, but my favorite of the two is this Renna Bales makeup tutorial to prepare you with both ample protection and that perfect smoky eye to enthrall your half-demon lover:
Thank you again, with all of my heart, to everyone who entered. These contests always bring me such incredible joy, and especially now, after so much time spent away from my readers, this really meant so much to me.
Check your mailboxes in the coming days.
<3
Peter
We will always have Bath ? need another grim gathering in the UK when things clear up – Cardiff this time! 🙂