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So last night I put up my post with pictures and was all caught up for 8 whole minutes before two-time contest winner Dwayne from  the UK sent in his submissions, taken all over London in the cold and snow including the tower of London, a giant ice polar bear, and the gates to London China own:

Then this morning I almost choked on my coffee and sprayed it all over the room. The first time was when I opened an e-mail from Kim Kincaid in Utah:

Okay Peter, you can disqualify me because I didn’t follow the rules, per se. I mean, it’s a photo, sort of. I couldn’t come up with any great ideas to compete with all the exotic and clever places people were photographing so I went with a pseudo-photo of Arlen reading his own story with some commentary. I just had to try for one of those Desert Spear ARC’s.

This was followed a moment later by the two submissions from Matt Ward in Australia, who admits to having too much free time on his hands:

Posted on December 17, 2009 at 4:00 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans
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Last night when I went to bed, I was thinking that I was going to have a really hard time deciding who should win the Desert Spear Holiday ARC. That was before I saw today’s entries:

Katherine (Left) and Natalie (right) may appear to be cheating in this pic, holding up shelf copies of The Warded and Painted Man from the Australian Dymocks store where they both work. But they were among the first readers to friend me on facebook, long before the book even published in the US, and they’ve been in my news stream ever since. It’s weird how that makes me feel like I actually know them, despite their being on the other side of the planet. Hi Katherine! Hi Natalie!

Joe from MIT risked life and limb to get this shot of the book in front of MIT’s Great Dome, which is known for having things like cars and telephone booths placed on top by students turned briefly into Dr. Horrible by the stress of math finals so complicated they would short out the brain of a normal person.

He also contributed this fabulous gem:

The next day, we took a walk up the street to Harvard and felt John Harvard could use a good book to read.  He looked rather bored with the book he was holding at the time.

Last we have Brandon, who took some pictures on what looks like the top of the world, but actually, he’s from New Zealand, so I think that’s technically the bottom of the world. He’s literally upside down in these pix. It’s a wonder he doesn’t just fly up into the sky.

But seriously folks, these pix are awesome. As Brandon put it:

Here’s some shots from little old New Zealand. It was a glorious morning and I have the day off so I went for a walk I’ve been meaning to do for a while, the Trig Track near the top of the Rimutaka’s (a small mountain range north of where I live in Lower Hutt). I had the track to myself and shared the summit with the trig and the view. I bought along my copy of the Painted Man for some reading and relaxation time, and attached are a few shots (timer and tripod assisted).

Looking forward to the next book, and thanks for holding such interesting giveaways 😉

I thought this contest was hard to judge before. Now I’m totally screwed.

And it’s only Wednesday. Who knows what is yet to come?

Posted on December 17, 2009 at 12:37 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans
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I will post another DSAC update in a few hours, but in the meantime I wanted to share a piece of fan art sent in by 16 year old Andrew H. in the UK. This piece was done in acrylic paint for his school art class, and took over 10 hours. Amazing work. It’s a million times better than anything I ever did with acrylic, especially in high school. Too bad he didn’t submit it in time for the Fan Art Competition:

Posted on December 16, 2009 at 6:23 pm by PeatB
Filed under Fan Art, Fans
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Man, it’s really going to be hard to pick a winner for this competition. There have been so many great entries, with more every day. Take Karen from Rhode Island. Here’s what she had to say about her pix:

Today I hiked a 5-mile trail laden with a heavy backpack which included the Warded Man book, camera, and tripod. I hiked alone through the cold, snow, slush, and encountered several deer hunters. Luckily I was wearing my bright orange vest so I wouldn’t be shot! The destination of my hike was the Tri-State Marker. It is granite marker placed in the middle of the woods dated 1883 where the three states of RI, MA, and CT meet. I have attached a couple of pictures with different angles since I couldn’t get the pictures to show the three states at once. There is also a picture of me drawing some wards around the base of the marker.

Do I get bonus points for listening to The Warded Man on my MP3 player while I was on my excursion? I think I am the only person to have read and listened to your book while standing in three states simultaneously.

Also incredibly awesome is Lizette in California. Here’s what she had to say:

I went to my kids Islamic school…..what better backdrop than all the Muslim mommies waiting for their kids. 🙂 Some were so excited to enter the contest they insisted on taking pictures with the book alone,  (see the entry with the pregnant mom on the chair!) In any case, it was a wonderful opportunity to share your book and the whole genre in general with a new group. I kept getting asked, what are you doing? Let me see the book! Does it have sorcerers? Where can I get it? Why do you want to take our pictures? This is Qur’an class, what are you doing!?!? HA! It was fun!

Iris from Germany paints a nice holiday image, reading her book by the tree and on the stepladder to her decorated bookshelves:

Eve, also from Germany, wants to be the first female Messenger. Here she is in the freezing cold woods with her grimoire, which needed to be rescued from a dog demon:

Lisa from the UK went with a similar tactic, trying to let the cuteness of her dog sway the judges. She gets a demerit, though, for first sending in a pic of the pooch reading The Name of the Wind:

Posted on December 15, 2009 at 10:53 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans
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In addition to his Desert Spear ARC Contest (DSAC) entry yesterday, Dave-Brendon e-mailed me a link this morning to an awesome video ad he made for The Desert Spear. Check it out:

Posted on December 15, 2009 at 6:20 pm by PeatB
Filed under Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans
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