Come up With a Contest Mini-Contest!
I need to get an assistant one of these days. I should be working on the finishing touches of my Red Sonja script, or my speech for ConFusion next week, or heck, even The Daylight War.
But I just got this awesome box of Brayan’s Gold samples from Subterranean Press and they are so damn gorgeous I want to give some away. Dani is busy with the baby, so it’s me or nothing. What’s an author to do? Deny his readers the chance to win such a prize plum? Bah. I just need to do something quick.
I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a contest idea. This blog has such an amazing history of cool and creative contests that I am hesitant to suggest anything that might be lame by comparison, and I’m not ready just yet to retread the classics like Fan Art, Take a Picture with a Book, and Haiku Review just yet.
I was lamenting my struggle on my twitter feed (see also Tweephole, on the top right of this page), when I got a great suggestion:
@darkmobius @PVBrett first one can go to person who comes up with best contest. 🙂
Done and done.
So. Come up with the idea for my next contest in the comments section of this blog, and I will send you a signed copy of Brayan’s Gold.
A few parameters:
- Keep the bar for entry low. The last contest was somewhat labor-intensive, and while that yielded incredibly awesome results, I want this next one to be something as inclusive as possible. Brayan’s Gold is a limited edition book, rare and somewhat pricey, so there should be an even playing field to win a copy. You may be a skilled pottery glazer and think and warded pottery contest would be awesome (and now that I think of it, it would) but I’d like this contest to be something most anyone could participate in with minimal investment of time or money.
- The contest should encourage creative fun entries I can post on the blog.
- I reserve the right to use other suggestions for future contests without sending out a book every time.
READYSETGO!
you could ask people to come up with their view of the underlining themes of the book. for instance mankinds struggles with morality over the greater good as seen by jardir. the person who comes up with the most inciteful theme wins. Every1 who reads a fantasy book comes up with their own theorys of the meanings of certian parts therefore it accesable for everyone.
I just wrote another limerick [sorry!] and thought of a new idea for a contest; Write a mini-story taking place somewhere else in the world, nothing t’do with the POVs….only to discover Simon beat me to it, haha!
On the other hand, I think the News Paper article/headline is an even better idea!
An alternative [or possibly even an intertwined] idea: An interview with one of the characters, any of them. It doesn’t take as much written skill so not a problem with folk who are EFL/ESL and I can see it being pretty fun to read!
I know it’s already been said like twice about creating a new coreling, and I’ll understand if it’s chosen to give it to the guy that first mentioned it, but mines a wee bit more intricate.
Firstly, it shouldn’t be just any coreling, it should be an Alagai Ka prince. All of the “drone” corelings are based off of natural elements and constructs (such as flame and rock alagai respectively) and therefore have no real need of a creative touch. However, the princes have no barriers for creativity. They could be centered around anything and therefore lead to a better slew of ideas.
Secondly, because the mind demon brothers were, as you said in TDS, the weakest of Alagai ting’s princes, it would go to reason that there were different kinds of princes, and since Sharak Ka should offer an opportunity for the appearance of many new corelings, most of whom, should be non-drone corelings (based on Arlen’s impression on the size of the core), and this would give you the opportunity to extract as many ideas as you like for The Great War, if not the books in between.
Instead, you could offer a contest on the description of Alagai Ting herself. She’s an obvious necessity for Arlen to fight during the story’s progression, especially since the core is open to anyone with enough “shining energy” to dissipate as well as because shes the mother of all demons.
intricate isn’t really the word, but you get my meaning.
How about a contest about you? Perhaps your favorite author (other than yourself)? Or the book you read that most influenced you?
I just had a brilliant idea and apoligise if someone has had it already. how about a online scavanger hunt you can leave clues on this website ur twitter page be facebook and so on and set up a universal time and the first person to sind the last clue wins the book. It means all can join in and its an event to unite all ur fans in friendly competition. you could use plots for the books as clues so that those who compete can use the warded man and the desert spear as guides during the competition.
Draw Demon Cycle pokemon version characters. Or write a small fanfic of a world vastly different to the current one yet still in the same situation.
I just thought instead of a online scavenger hunt you could also do a scvanger hunt for words or phrazes within the book by giving us loads of clues then getting us to send the answers to you the first 1 to get all the phrazes or words to you wins.
How bout a board game? It can be relatively simple or complex. It could be something like demons & ladders or slightly more complex like a monopoly based game except instead of properties you buy/fund wards…
Board games rock!
Here’s my idea:
Tell people to write a short story set in the world of Demons. It may include characters from the books, but doesn’t have to. Have them choose what time it is in, perhaps in the Age of Science, or even during the Great War. Anything is possible.
Only one guideline: You come up with 20 words, of which everybody has to use at least 15. And of course you could set a maximum length/number of words for the story.
It would give people a lot of freedom and I think it would inspire a lot of creativity. You could judge on how well they integrate the words you give them into their story and how rich their own fantasy is.
Better writers can set the story in a different time then the books and use alot of their imagination, people who aren’t too good at writing can simply use the elements already present in your books and rely more on the words you provide.
It doesn’t have to take much time to write such a story and because there are so many options the playing field is pretty even. Hope you like it!
Hey all. Just FYI, I am reading each of these as they come in, and will pick a winner soon. I am just swamped with work at the moment.
One of my favorites was having people record themselves reading their favorite scene, but I’m not sure I’m prepared for the technical logistics of making that happen on my end.
Thanks, and keep the ideas coming!
Sketches to design a nice “Warded Man” chess set would be neat.
The rights would be released to Peat as part of entry.
Something neat, like Krasian pawns, Warder rooks, Twilight Dancer knights… The list is endless in possibilities.
Random ideas that popped in my head:
1. demon cycle knock-knock jokes?
2. personal ad profiles — if some characters placed personal ads like those at the end of the Village Voice or signed up for match.com etc. what would their profiles say?
e.g. Arlen’s might say: Mysterious, brooding male, early 20s, into tats, horses, moonlight strolls, martial arts, weaponry and travel. Seeks unconventional, outdoorsy female, in touch with her demonic side.
3. ‘More Than a Woman’ from the Sat. Night Fever soundtrack played on my ipod and I thought it’d be a good Leesha song, or even ‘Staying Alive’ as a sort of theme song for the series. Then I started thinking of other songs like Queen’s ‘I Want It All’ for Jardir. So my suggestion is match songs with characters or scenes from the book.
I hope you find these amusing at least.
How about this for a contest?
Write a one page/paragraph bio on your favorite character. Likes, Dislikes, hobbies, secret passions and what they fantasize about at night (or during the day as it may be).
Use everything you have learned in the first two books and more importantly your own imagination. See.
Arlen harbors a secret desire to run naked through fields of wild flowers and can never find enough time to spend on his favorite hobby, paper mache. His favorite color is purple, especially when laced with yellow and when not killing demons relaxes at his holiday house on the coast (demons don’t like salt air) where he takes long walks and collects shells (He’s making a necklace to give to Leisha).
It will encourage people to get their creative juices flowing and might help Peat too!
Love your work Peat and am counting the days till I can pick up my copy of the next book! 🙂
OK One More,
Since Arlen’s favorite hobby is paper mache, how about the best paper mache representation of a demon from the books?
Okay, I will be honest when I say that this is not an original idea [I a-little-bit-stole-it from Neal Asher’s blog The Skinner]. I’m unsure whether Neal or I would get the prize, but I’d be happy to share should I win, hehe.
Bookmarks. It’s that simple.
Using the commissioned art of Lauren K. Cannon, our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to design a bookmark [or one per book, perhaps] for a Demon Cycle books presently in print.
The best thing is all the [really freakin’ amazing] art work is done; all we’d have t’do is sit down for half an hour with some sticky-back plastic, a loo-roll and a fairy liquid bottle and voilà ! Bookmark.
This contest has the added plus-side that once Mister Peat picks out the winner, he’s got more goodies to hand out at signings, should he run low on bookplates.
Really lookin’ forward to the decision on this one – I can see a few of them cropping up over the next few years, heh.
PS. If y’missed it, the sticky-backed plastic reference is for Blue Peter [http://fur.ly/4n8w]
anouther idea i have had is that I have had is a online flash game you could do 2 comps one to design a flash game I.E the battle of cutters hollow or the night war in the maze. then once the favote game has been decided you can have a 2 week gaming competition the person or persons with the highest score on the flash game would win thw copies of bayans gold. The plus side is that flash game can be placed on this blog and can be anouther addition to the already amazing blog.
Why not do a best “Name of Character” contest. That way you get a list of names which you can pick from for any future novel.
It has the added benefit of we might not win one of your books but in a future novel we may see a character name that we came up with appear! Big fan of your work. I’m looking forward to the next book.
Best regards from across the Atlantic
Eddie Clark, England
Create a messenger and tell a short story about one of his or her adventures
A day in the life of a demon
I meant a day in the life of a demon short story
take a picture of a tree that looks like a wood demon
Make up a joke. It has to be about something that is related to the warded man books. How stupid demons are, how some characters can’t keep their legs closed, dirty, clean, it doesn’t matter except that it’s funny.
Pick a character and write 2 or 3 things they might tweet if they had a twitter account. Entries must be below 100 letters each.
Trying to sum up a character’s personality and describe an event would be hard to do in so little words, but that’s the challenge
You should pick a fan drawing or a picture or something about the demon cycle and we all try and come up with the best caption for it.
While it is not really an entry for this competition [excluding too many folk] my next idea is something I have absolutely no chance of doing, but that would be fun all the same to see done:
The PVBrett Song&Dance; Write a a song, or create a dance that’d fit into the Cycle’s universe.
I guess it’s pretty speffic to those with Musical or Choreographical skills, but I figured it would still be fun to throw into the hat.
[…] Comments Elicius on Come up With a Contest Mini-Contest!Elicius on Limerick Contest Winners and a New FaceElicius on Limerick Contest Winners and a New […]