Ultimate Contest Give-Away : $50 Gift Card, Lady Gaga, Kenny Chesney, Richard Paul Evans, Brandon Mull, James Dashner, Jason Wright, Brandon Sanderson and Bernadette Peters Autographs

As part of the ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS STONE GIVEAWAY CONTEST you have the chance to win one of 10 unique prizes including personalized autographed books from some of today's biggest names in publishing, as well as autographed memorabilia from Lady Gaga, Kenny Chesney, and Bernadette Peters.

There are three ways to enter the drawing.  Complete all three and you will receive the maximum number of entries.

1--Visit The Christmas Stone page on Facebook and "like" the page.  Write a comment on the wall stating which prize (found below) you most want to win. 

2--Purchase The Christmas Stone (paperback, audio or ebook) and send the electronic receipt (screen shot or scanned receipt) along with your name and city to: ChristmasStoneContest@gmail.com.

3 -- Share the Christmas Stone contest link (http://lizcarlston.blogspot.com/2010/06/ultimate-contest-give-away-lady-gaga.html) and/or YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRL2okJu91w) as your Facebook status.  Be sure to tag the post (@The Christmas Stone) so you can complete the contest entry.

All entries are due by December 21, 2010, 11:59pm MST.


Now, here's what you've been waiting for--all the stuff you can win!  Please note, prizes will be awarded through a random drawing ( http://www.random.org/).  Winners will then be notified through Facebook or email.

PRIZES:

$50 Visa Gift card.  This can be used for anything you want to buy wherever credit/debit cards are accepted.

Autographed Lady Gaga THE FAME CD cover and CD.  I personally vouch for the authenticity of this autograph as I met her along with my cousin in Las Vegas on August 27, 2010 (click here for pic).

New York Times Bestselling author Richard Paul Evans has been kind enough to personalize and sign his newest book, Promise Me (already a NYT's Bestseller!) to the winner.  This will make a fabulous Christmas gift (along with The Christmas Stone)!

Jason Wright is a class-act guy and a great writer.  He is also a NYT Bestselling author with Christmas Jars and The Wednesday Letters.  For this contest, he will personalize and sign his newest book The Seventeen Second Miracle.

James Dashner is Random House's next BIG author.  He recently hit the NYT Bestseller series list with The Maze Runner series.  You can own a personalized autographed copy of book two The Scorch Trials by entering the contest.

Tony Award winning actress and singer Bernadette Peters has autographed this book, Stella is a Star! which includes a CD of her singing the Stella soundtrack.  This would make the perfect addition to your Broadway library.

Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series took the country by storm a year after the first book's release in 2006.  The series has grown in popularity ever since.  Brandon's next series Beyonders begins March 2011.  You may win a personalized autographed copy of the Advanced Readers Copy by entering the contest!

Brandon Sanderson is one of the biggest names in fantasy.  Here's your chance to win an autographed copy of his book The Way of Kings.

Country music crooner Kenny Chesney signed this EVERYWHERE WE GO CD cover for me back in 1999.  Here's your chance to win the autograph and accompanying CD.

And of course, you can also win a signed copy of "The Christmas Stone."

BEA 2010 New York City

This past week, I hopped a snow-delayed flight from Salt Lake to New York for BEA--North America's largest annual book show. I had a great time learning more about the publishing industry while meeting with authors, agents, librarians, booksellers and publishers.

You can't walk away from the show without an armload of books. Publishers, in an effort to promote their upcoming titles, print advance reading copies and pass them out to whoever is lucky enough to grab one. They also have author signings where you get to meet some of the heavy weights like Rick Riordan (his wife helped out at the ticket booth), Rosemary Wells (graciously got a signed book to me across author lines), Mary Higgins Clark (friendly face) and celebrity authors like Bernadette Peters (absolute sweat-heart) and Sarah, Duchess of York (a little miffed by the media attention given her royal influence-peddling scandal).

One of the books I picked up is by Dee Merian, a former flight attendant for TWA in the 1950's. During a break at the show, I was reading "The Best Years of Flying: A Memoir of Howard Hughes & TWA" on the lower level promenade. Sparked by my recent visit to the Spruce Goose in Oregon and his contributions as an innovative entrepreneur I am really into Howard Hughes these days.

Between chapters, I would look up and people watch. There was a girl running around in circles with a huge smile on her face, her mother watching from behind. The girl was enjoying herself so much she burst out laughing. When I went back to my book, I got the sense that Dee enjoyed that time of her life so much--her enthusiasm bleeds through the book's pages as she fully took advantage of the unique opportunity to fly during the hey day of commercial aviation. These moments helped me see clearly how a passion, sharing talents and experiences with each other are the real secrets to happiness.

Other highlights include:
--Thursday Author Breakfast with Jon Stewart, Condoleezza Rice, and John Grisham. I sat next to Karen Long, the book editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer--she was extremely kind and we shared a good conversation.
--Getting a signed copy of "The Best Years of Flying."
--Meeting so many enthusiastic authors, book fans, smart booksellers and kind librarians.
--Participating in many of the classes to become a stronger participant within the publishing industry.
--The insane SUV ride to JFK airport with a motion sickness causing, stop and go pedal driving chauffeur who demanded a bigger tip after we already paid him for the trip---I really wasn't a big fan, but grateful we made it to the airport on time.

On our lightening delayed flight home, as we were somewhere 35,000 feet above Wyoming, I looked out the window to see midnight stars above a wispy cloud line with a mirror reflection beneath the clouds--the effect created an awesome sensation of momentarily traveling through space. It was a great ending to a fun week.