Hallelujah!

Deseret Book has copies of Santa Maybe! I have seen them. With my own eyes.

Disclaimer: The Deseret Book on Fort Union in Midvale has some. As much as I wanted to, I didn't jump in the car and set off to check every store in Utah, so I can't vouch for the others...yet.

Better get over there and pick one up before my mom buys them all. ;)

Got a key lime pie on the way home to celebrate. Now, I'm off to do my penance on the treadmill. I hope my leopard Halloween costume will still fit-- don't want to scare the children!

Happy Friday, and a Merry Halloween to all! May your trick or treat buckets be filled with a delicious variety of name brand chocolate with nary a circus peanut to be found.

The package is in the open.

Santa Maybe is now in stock to order from www.barnesandnoble.com! Amazon should be getting their copies anyday. Ditto Deseret Book. Haven't heard about Seagull yet. And of course, there's always the www.cedarfort.com website.

By the way, I'll be doing a book signing with Heather Justesen, Ronda Hinrichsen, and Linda Chadwick soon! We'll be at the Sandy Barnes and Noble on Saturday, November 7th from 2-4 PM. Should be lots of fun! Linda and I met at a signing at the Seagull Book in Logan, and I'm looking forward to meeting Heather and Ronda. We'd love for you to stop by if you happen to be in the neighborhood. I'm particularly excited for this signing because it's the first one I won't have to drive for days to get to. It's literally five blocks from my house-- yay!

To weep or not to weep...

I was in Seagull Book last night looking for Santa Maybe and saw Spare Change on the bargain table.

For $3.99. Horrors.

It's even in the catalogue this month, next to Shannon Guymon's Soul Searching, which is a great book and also $3.99 right now. So at least it was in good company-- I suppose that's something.

I knew this day would come, but I still couldn't decide whether to wail uncontrollably while frantically hugging a stack of my sharply discounted novels or be happy that more people would be able to afford to read it.

I decided to take the middle ground. I blinked back my tears, patted the copy on the top of the pile sympathetically, and promptly headed to Krispy Kreme. Fortunately, the HOT DOUGHNUTS NOW light was on, so at least the night ended well.

Second chance!

Since I never heard back from one of our winners, I drew another name for the other copy of Santa Maybe.

Congratulations, kimiko! If you'll email me with your address, (aubreymace@yahoo.com) I'll send you a copy soon!

Also, I'm reading a book right now that is SO GOOD that I have to mention it-- The Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I'm about halfway through and I'm having trouble putting it down to do those everyday things like eating, sleeping... going to work. But at the same time, I don't want to read it too quickly because I know that it will be one of those books that I'm truly sad when it's finished. So I'm torn between wanting to find out what happens and trying to drag it out a bit longer. It's beautifully written, and I have absolutely no idea how it will end. I think that's the ultimate definition of a great book. :)

Who's up for an adventure?

For anyone who lives in the Salt Lake area, here's another chance to score yourself a copy of Santa Maybe! But it takes a little effort on your part-- sort of like a treasure hunt. :)

I'll be releasing a copy of Santa Maybe through Bookcrossing, which is a lot of fun if you've never tried it before. Basically, you go to their website, www.bookcrossing.com, and register books before leaving them in places for strangers to find. They call it "releasing books into the wild", a description whose mental picture never fails to make me giggle. Ideally, people will read them and make journal entries at Bookcrossing before continuing the whole cycle again. It's the great circle of life... only with books! I've left copies of each of my own books (and also some others that I liked but knew I would never read again) with varying degrees of success, But it always makes me so giddy, knowing that my books are off on their own adventures. So if you feel like going on a book hunt, go check out the website and find out where I'll be placing the copy tomorrow!

Also, a quick note-- I still haven't heard from candibaby with an address. If I haven't gotten a response by Monday, October 19th, I'll draw another name for the second copy of Santa Maybe.

And the award(s) go to...

Sorry-- not trying to drive you all crazy with suspense! Just having a busy morning; typical Friday.

I'm always in awe of people who do giveaways on their blog and have a website randomly generate their winners. Unfortunately, I'm just not on that technological level, so my winners were chosen the old-fashioned way-- drawn out of a hat by someone who had to walk uphill in the snow both ways just to perform the service. :)

So, without further adieu, the winners are candibaby and Kelly O!

Congratulations to you both! If you'll email me at aubrey.mace@imail.org with your address, I'll get your signed copies of Santa Maybe in the mail soon.

Thanks everyone for all your good news-- it cheered me up! I wish I had enough copies to send one to everybody who entered. (Sarah, I'm dying to know what you wanted your inscription to be!) And welcome to everyone who came over from Melanie's blog! I hope you'll visit again, even though I'm nowhere near as witty and prolific as she is. :)

If you're looking for something good to read this weekend, go pick up Catching Fire. I didn't think I could like it as much as Hunger Games, but surprisingly, I think it was even better. And if you haven't read Hunger Games yet, you're missing out! Get thee to a bookstore immediately!

Happy Friday, and Happy Reading!

Ahem. I stand corrected.

Wow. I didn't know I even had fifteen friends, much less fifteen friends who read this blog! I think that I might have to show my gratitude by giving away TWO copies of Santa Maybe instead!

There's still plenty of time to enter if you haven't yet, and you definitely should because now you have an even better chance of winning. Yay! Just leave a comment telling me something good that happened to you today and I'll throw your name into the pot for the drawing on Thursday night.

Thanks everybody-- you made my day. :)

It's here. We have it now.

Finally got my copies of Santa Maybe on Tuesday, and I had every intention of updating my blog that very night, but life's been a little nonstop crazy for the past few days. It's funny, but I've been thinking the book was coming any day now for so long that when it finally did, it was just the teeniest bit, well, dare I say... anticlimactic.

Maybe I'm just having a hard time trying to get hyped about Christmas in October. Anyway, I was thinking that I needed to do something to crank up the excitement level, and what fosters more good will and hoopla in general than a giveaway, right?

So, I'm giving away one brand new crisp copy, straight out of the box. All you have to do to be entered to win is leave a comment on this post about one good thing that happened to you today. Having had a somewhat miserable day myself, I felt I needed to be reminded that there are still nice things happening in the world. Yes, it's all about me tonight. :)

I will be drawing the name of the winner next Thursday at exactly 8:05 PM and the lucky person will be announced at this very location some time on Friday. (At which point I promise to be a good deal cheerier.) Don't miss this chance to get your free copy. If you are one of the five or so intelligent people who read this blog, you know that small numbers = odds definitely in your favor. It's easier than shooting fish in a barrel!