Belated Annual Chrismukkah Contest...

Happy New Year, readers! Or I should say Bonne Annee, mes amis, as I've just come back from Paris where I consumed huge quantities of cheese and wine and did some book research. But mostly, I just consumed huge quantities of cheese and wine.

Because I was elbow deep in finishing a draft of my third grown-up book and then disappearing off to Paris, I wasn't able to post details of my Annual Chrismukkah Contest. But better very late than never.

Regular readers will know that I expect a high degree of participation in my contests and this year is no exception. My new adult book, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is out on February 3rd (available to pre-order NOW from Amazon and Waterstones) so I thought to myself why not kill two birds with one stone. Give something back to my readers, like the nice author I am, and combine it with a little publicity for my new book? Sounds like a plan!

So, in the comments leave me a question, WITH YOUR NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS AND AGE, and I will post and answer the best questions on this blog to coincide with the release of the book. The best questions will receive a signed copy of You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, or a signed copy of one of my teen books if you're under 16. I'm not going to limit the number of prizes, but everyone who gets a question answered will receive a little something something from me.

* Try to make your questions original (if they're about You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, even better!) and not just 'Why won't you write a sequel to DOAC/Guitar Girl/Unsticky etc. Ask me anything, as long as it's not age or earnings-related!

* I won't publish your comments so rest assured your email addresses will not be posted on the interpipe for all to see.

* Bear in mind, that You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is an adult book with full-on dirty bits so in good conscience, I can't send out copies to under-16-year-olds, though I guess that's really between you and your parents! But still...

* Closing date for entries is February 3rd.

So there, you have it. If I've left out any important details, drop me a comment and I'll amend this post accordingly.

And because it is, or well, it was Christmas, a little gift for you all, or well, for those of you on Spotify. This is my Songs IPodded in 2010, though not a comprehensive list as I mostly listened to Northern Soul and old punk girl groups but they were book playlists and I'll post them in due course. Here's the link.

Live on

Sarra x

PS: Also, every day until publication, I am tweeting an excerpt from You Don't Have to Say You Love Me on my Twitter, so follow me there, if you don't already. Use the hashtag #ydhtsylm to find the ones you've missed.

One day to go!

Hey!

Just wanted to remind you that the Chrismukkah poem competition ends up at midnight tomorrow (GMT.) So you have a little more than twenty four hours to get your entry in.

Since I had my little hissy-fit on here I've had tons of entries and I'm loving reading them. Remember it has to be some form of POEM about someone or something in one of my BOOKS left as a COMMENT here and the five best entries will win an advance copy of NOBODY'S GIRL, plus a bookmark and a poster.

I will post the winning entries on this here blog. You also don't need to keep reposting your comments - I haven't accepted any of them but have them archived as email notifications because I'm sure you don't all want your email addresses published on the interpipes.

I think that's everything. Remember, I love quirky and I love things that make me laugh or, at least, make me chuckle wryly.

Live on

Sarra x

Snap to it!

C'mon people!

I expected a much better response to my amazing end-of-year competition to win an advance copy of Nobody's Girl plus poster and bookmark. I've had four entries so far (two of them from the same person) and it's really not worth my while going to my publishers to plead for prizes if no-one's that interested in entering.

I'm extending the closing date to 11th January in the hope of attracting a few more takers. Writing a five line limerick, or heck, a haiku only has 17 syllables shouldn't be that taxing. It's not like there's much on telly!

So anyway, you know what to do. I don't like using my stern voice this early in a new year.

Live on

Sarra x

Yes! Finally it's the Annual Chrismukkah/Festivus/Holidays competition.

Happy Holidays, dear sweet readers

I hope whatever your religious affiliations (even if it's to the Great God of eating so many mince pies that you hurl) you have a wondrous time over the break and that 2010 will be your best year ever. (By the way I'm calling the new decade The Terrible Teens, please join me!)

Anyways, onto more important stuff. I have a great competition lined up for you. There will be five (count 'em, five!) winners who will all receive a copy of my new teen novel, Nobody's Girl (which is out in February 2010, plus a Nobody's Girl poster and bookmark. I think that's pretty darn cool.

Obviously I want to make you work for it:

it's simple. I want you to write a poem about one of my books. It can be about the characters, the story, a dress, a kiss, anything. And the poem can take any form: limerick, haiku, sonnet, rhyming couplet, ode, er, that's about all the different types of poem I can think of off the top of my head. And yes, they can rhyme, but they can also not rhyme. It's up to you.

Leave the poem AND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS in a comment. I will award points for originality, so I don't want fifty different versions of The Ballad Of Edie And Dylan, though if it was really off the wall and/or funny enough to make me snort hot tea out of my nostrils, then a poem about Edie And Dylan would be AOK.

Closing date is 5th January 2010. And open to all nationalities, creeds and genders.

Now, get to it! Of course, you can always pre-order Nobody's Girl on Amazon (especially as it's only coming out in the UK and available on import in OZ and NZ so far.) And you can follow me on Twitter, should you so desire.

Live on

Sarra x

Strictly filler post...

Just wanted you to know that a) I'm still alive and b) I will be posting news of my usual Chrismukkah competition very soon. You will collectively pee your pants when you find out what the prizes are. (Or at least I hope you will, but I'm talking about metaphorical pee, if you will.)

The reason for the delay is boring and technical. I use this comment aggregator thingy but now it's been bought by someone else and I need to find out how to uninstall it before I run the comp so I don't lose your comments.

You still awake at the back?

So, keep checking back here for details of the competition, OK?

Live on

Sarra x

The Great Big, It's Fricking Chrismukkah Quiz...

DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL JANUARY 12TH - COME ON LADIES, IT TOOK ME TWO DAYS TO WRITE THAT QUIZ! AT LEAST HAVE A BASH AT IT...


Sweetlings,

I promised a surprise and here it is! It's a quiz. A very special quiz with a very special prize. Fifty questions all about my books and one lucky winner will get signed set of the newly re-jacketed Diary Of A Crush books. (That's them at the top of the page and that is the Arc de Triomphe on French Kiss - it was meant to be the Eiffel Tower, but let's not go there or else I will start to cry tears of impotent rage!) If more than one person gets all (or the same number) of questions right and I like what you do with the tie-breaker, I'll be sending out more than one signed set of the Diary Of A Crush books.

* Just put your answers in a comment WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS! I screen my blog comments so your email addy will be safe with me and there's no way anyone can cheat and look up the answers.

* The closing date for the competition is January 10th so you have time to re-read all the books and/or go out and buy the ones you've missed.

* I know Fashionistas is not readily available in the States, apart from on amazon.com but it would have been too hard to do fifty questions and not include Fashionistas. I do apologise, but read my last post to see that there are compensations to being an American Sarra Manning reader.

On with the quiz...

THE GREAT BIG, IT'S FRICKING CHRISMUKKAH QUIZ!

EASY PEASY

1. In Guitar Girl, what is the name of Molly's band?
2. What city is Diary Of A Crush set in?
3. How old is Isabel in Let's Get Lost?
4. Name the four main characters in Pretty Things.
5. Who's Edie's crush object?
6. Which part of London is the Fashionista flat?
7. What's Hadley Fashionista's surname?
8. What's the name of Isabel's little brother?
9. Name all three books in the Diary Of A Crush trilogy.
10. What is Walker's nickname?


FAIR TO MIDDLING

1. The second time they meet, Smith and Isabel swap which items of high tech gadgetry?
2. Who are David and Bette Careless?
3. Which Shakespeare play is performed in Pretty Things?
4. And name our quartet's drama tutor/director.
5. What is the first thing that Dylan ever says to Edie?
6. Where is Hadley's dad?
7. At the end of Guitar Girl, what does Molly get given by her heroine, Ruby X?
8. Laura and Irina compete to become the face of which perfume?
9. What's Edie and Poppy's band called?
10. What does Isabel's dad do for a living?


ARE YOU SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE READER?

1. What is Carter's first name?
2. Why does Dean walk Molly home after they've been out for a Christmas drink?
3. Name the pub that Walker and Daisy hole up in and where they end up spending the night?
4. What is the dish that Isabel orders in the Chinese restaurant in Camden?
5. Who's the female host of Make Me A Model?
6. When Hadley was the subject of a tabloid kiss 'n' tell, what new surname did the newspapers give her?
7. Which fizzy drink rarely leaves Brie's side?
8. What's the name of the hotel that Edie and pals stay in when they go to Paris?
9. What song becomes The Hormones' only number one record?
10. Where does Alfie hold his fashion show?


COME AND HAVE A GO IF YOU THINK YOU'RE HARD ENOUGH

1. Who illustrated the covers of Let's Let Lost, Pretty Things and the four Fashionista titles?
2. Isabel is named after Isabel Archer, the heroine of a Henry James' novel called _________ __ _ ____?
3. In which town in Mississippi did Dylan abandon Edie on their road trip?
4. Which fancy designer store was Irina caught shoplifting from?
5. Which cassette was stuck in the tape player in Walker's Mum's car?
6. Name the three other members of Isabel's Trio Of Evil.
7. In Let's Get Lost, what is the name of Molly's new band?
8. Whas was the theme tune of Hadley's TV show called?
9. Why did Candy Careless go to Shanghai?
10. What's Dylan's surname?



N0W YOU'RE JUST SHOWING OFF!

1. Laura's friends have a video footage of her singing which song at Karaoke?
2. Which famous New York club (now closed) did The Hormones play their showcase gig at?
3. What word did Charlie (in Pretty Things) have on his t-shirt?
4. Who designed the size eight dress that Laura nicked from Irina?
5. What's the name of Isabel's guidance counsellor?
6. When Candy goes round to Alfie's house, what does his Mum make for dinner? (A extra point if you include pudding too?)
7. We all know Molly (and Jane) guest stars in Let's Get Lost but someone else from Guitar Girl also gets a mention, who is it?
8. Name all of Irina's siblings.
9. What were the three Diary Of A Books called when they were originally given away with J-17 magazine?
10. Sarra has written one other novel not mentioned in this quiz or anywhere on her blog. What is it called? (And no, it's not Unsticky!)


TIE BREAKER QUESTION

If you could be any character in any one of Sarra's books, who would you be and why?

Nominate me!

Hello chickadees

I'm back from the Lake District, where I spent a lot of time being harassed by swans, geese, ducks and moorhens, which was very traumatising for a city girl like me. And I ate too much thunder and lightning ice cream, which is vanilla with chocolate and cinder toffee. Absolutely delicious!

I've been told by the Powers That Be to ask you to nominate me to be Queen Of Teen. It's a contest to find the favourite writer of girls aged between 10 and 18. Click here to nominate me (and your nomination automatically enters you into a competition to come to the 'coronation' and ride in a limousine and some such.) If I make the shortlist of ten writers announced on July 10th, I'll then nag you and nag you and nag you to vote for me. Sounds like a plan!




Regular commenter, Koko, has asked me if I've read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and what I think of it. But actually, I rarely read other teen fiction. I tend to be rather sponge-like and soak up stuff I've read so don't want to be unconsciously influenced by other teen writers when I'm working on a book. But also, I just prefer to do my own thing, and plough my own lonely teen furrow, without worrying what other YA writers are doing. In fact, as I write my grown-up book, I've stopped reading novels altogether. If they're good, I get all insecure and if they're distinctly not good, I start wondering what the point is of it all! It's memoirs and biographies for the forseaable future.

But if you like, I could make a list of my favourite teen books, either books I loved as a teen or books that I've read that I think you'd enjoy. Leave me a comment.

And don't forget to nominate me. I'm off to tackle the laundry mountain and clean my oven because being a writer is non-stop glamour!

Live on

Sarra x

NOW CLOSED!!!!!!!!!!Win an advance copy of Fashionistas, book one!

EDITED TO ADD: THAT COMMENTING HAS BEEN TURNED OFF AS THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED! THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED - WINNERS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY EMAIL.

Do you want me to bang on about how busy I am? Or repeat for the gazillionth time that there are no plans to ever write any more Diary Of A Crush books (for reasons explained in the tags to your left?) Or shall I just get on with the competition details? Yes, I thought so!

On Wednesday, I went to my publisher's offices and signed a box of advance copies of Laura, Fashionistas, Book One in my terrible, scrawly hand-writing. The book isn't on sale in the UK until July 17th but we want to give away 20 of the little blighters right now. Unfortunately, nothing in this life is for free so I'm going to make you work for a copy.

Leave me a comment telling me why you're a Fashionista. Be funny, be creative and don't forget to leave your email address and the 20 best answers get a book. It doesn't matter what country you live in either. One proviso, my publishers would like you to send them a review of the book once you've read it, saying what you thought of it. Hopefully, you'll like it and won't think that it sucks like a huge sucking thing. The closing date for this competition is Monday, June 25th so you have a little time to come up with a fantastic answer that will knock my Gap socks off.

I know that generally I'm crap at replying to comments but I do value all my readers and everyone who comments here and so this competition is a great way to say thank you. As the publication date creeps closer, I will be posting some sneak previews of the book but here's a reminder of what it's about and what the cover looks like - though now it's a bit pinkier and sparklier.




Beating 12,000 other girls to become the newest model on Fierce's books is Laura's dream come true. But she knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. She's gorgeous – everyone thinks so.

But once the thrill of winning has faded, Laura is alone in London, in a shoebox bedroom with three fame-hungry flatmates. Being beautiful doesn't seem enough now… not when her booker thinks she's way too fat, and her devoted boyfriend isn't the rock she thought he was.

Laura's got to make some difficult decisions. And time is running out…


Good luck!


Sarra x

Edited to add: Girls, please! As requested, leave your email address with your Why I'm A Fashionsta comments, otherwise there is no way to contact you if you've won.