First off, if you all have not already been over there, get over to Romance Vagabonds tout de suite and check out the FanLit reunion par-tay the gypsies are hosting all week. They’re doing a FanLit sequel, featuring “Hellion Heiress” Lady Alexis Coulter, fan favorite Jonathan Crane, and Pugsley the pooch. Will SLJ make an appearance? He’d mother-f***in’ better! But what of the zombies?

**Tessa gets brainwave and takes break to email ErvinA**

It’s been a while since I’ve given anything away around here, and I feel generous. Do you feel lucky? Seriously, I’m so proud of our FanLit alums who’ve been e-pubbed recently. Jacqueline and Ericka (Pamsko) are now Cobblestone authors; Sara Dennis has her first book coming out from Cerridwen this month, No Accounting for Chase. So the lucky winner of this here contest will get $10 gift certificates to both Cobblestone and Cerridwen to purchase these and/or other fine e-books.

Now … what kind of contest, you ask? Good question. Um… lessee. Leave a comment, and tell me about the biggest prize you’ve ever won. (No fair saying your hubby or your kids or something sentimental like that – I want cash value.) The winner will be drawn at random from all commenters. The deadline will be Wednesday night, 9PM PST. Doesn’t that sound official?

Good luck!


12 comments to “Contest!”

  1. Alice Audrey
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    · August 20th, 2007 at 8:02 am · Link

    I don’t know about valuable, but the most memorable was winning a CD off one of those radio call-in things. I don’t remember the CD, and know it wasn’t worth that much. What was memorable is that I called on a lark. I didn’t own a CD player at the time.

    ps Any word from Avon?



  2. Jacqueline Barbour
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    · August 20th, 2007 at 8:06 am · Link

    The biggest prize I ever won would definitely have to be the Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities that paid for my grad school education. Pity the money wound up wasted on me, since I was *supposed* to wind up as a Classics professor, not as an instructional designer in a software company who writes porn (okay, erotica, LOL) on the side :).



  3. terrio
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    · August 20th, 2007 at 8:07 am · Link

    I don’t think I’ve ever won anything all that big but I can think of the coolest thing I’ve won. It was from the Romance Vagabonds and it was my own rendition, so to speak, of myself as a gypsy. It was sketched by their resident artist, McCall Chase (Azalea Illustrations) and it’s wonderful. I don’t look anything like it but I’m happy to pretend. *g*

    Oh yeah, it’s my avatar. Isn’t that cool!



  4. Darcy Burke
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    · August 20th, 2007 at 10:06 am · Link

    Hmmm. Not sure. I did win something off the radio once (CDs and a pint glass if memory serves) for correctly answering a question about Beverly Hills 90210 (one of my favoritist shows ever). One year at Christmas, my boss (that was the only Christmas I worked at that crappy job) gave everyone scratch off lottery tickets. Most people won nothing, a couple won a buck or $5. I won $50. Nyah, nyah, nyah! I also won a book and cover flat on Squawk Radio last year. Kathy Caskie (her book, natch) picked the winners, so it wasn’t random. She liked my first date story (I think it was first date). Anywho, that’s all that comes to mind.

    Must check out Romance Vagabonds to see what’s going on with Lacey’s Jonathan Crane!



  5. Maggie Robinson
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    · August 20th, 2007 at 5:32 pm · Link

    First prize I ever won:In the eighth grade,I won a wool blanket at a church fair. Wasn’t I thrilled? Not. Four years later I won 1st place in the A & S Young Artists Contest for an etching (yes, honestly)I did in art class. The prize was a crappy plastic pin, and the principal stole the etching for his office.



  6. doglady
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    · August 20th, 2007 at 7:13 pm · Link

    Hmmm. Money-wise, it would have to be my Fulbright that enabled me to study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg as it launched my opera career. Right now, however, my pride and joy is my first place certificate from the Royal Ascot!! Ladies, it is one of the classiest, prettiest certificates you will ever see!! Oh and my prize on FanLit – the painting of Stephanie Laurens’ cover AND the best prize of all? All of the fabulous, talented, wonderul people I met through FanLit! That is a prize that will last a lifetime!



  7. India Carolina
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    · August 20th, 2007 at 8:34 pm · Link

    Sheesh, Doglady! The Fulbright? I was gonna say the cake I won with my Dad at the elementary school cake walk.

    I once got a very big tip.

    In graduate school I waited on my professor at 2 am as he and his buddies closed down the local country club. I had a final in his class the next morning and he seemed kind of mad that I wasn’t studying.

    Next day, the dept chair called me in and awarded me a teaching fellowship, so Dr. Hollaway would calm down.



  8. India Carolina
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    · August 20th, 2007 at 8:35 pm · Link

    Dang Jackie, the Mellon Fellowship?



  9. Tessa Dare
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    · August 20th, 2007 at 10:04 pm · Link

    Wow! Don’t I feel outclassed and undereducated. You all are amazing, with your fellowships!

    But cakes and CDs and wool blankets and lottery tickets are all cool, too.

    FanLit was definitely the best thing I ever won. But when I was a little kid, I won $500 for a recipe my mom and I sent into Better Homes and Gardens. That was kinda cool.



  10. KimW
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    · August 21st, 2007 at 4:10 am · Link

    I won an all expense paid trip to Hollywood for me and my husband. It’s some place that I probably never would have gone and I’m glad I did. I got to walk down Hollywood Boulevard and saw all the stars, the Chinese Theatre and toured some Hollywood homes. The funny, well not so funny at the time, was the week before we were scheduled to leave, I lost my job. It did halt my shopping, but we still had a good time.



  11. doglady
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    · August 21st, 2007 at 7:22 am · Link

    Hey, I happen to think that cakes won with dads and recipe contests won with moms are the best kinds of wins. No matter what else you win, you did it with your parents and those are the kinds of memories you cannot put a price on ever.



  12. Sara Dennis
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    · August 21st, 2007 at 8:27 am · Link

    Tessa, thank you so much for mentioning my book. And for the contest! How cool is that?

    I’m not entering the contest myself but I definitely think winning the Fox prize last fall counts as my biggest and most exciting win to date.