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."

It's Here!

One of the most exciting parts of being an author is getting to see your book in print. I spent several months writing "The Christmas Stone" and several weeks working through the editing process with Cedar Fort (my publisher). At times, it felt like the book would never be a book, so its all the more satisfying to be holding one of these hot little puppies in my hand, fresh off the printing press. And without further ado, here it is:

   

I'm so pleased to note that come the holiday shopping season, the book will be available nationally at Borders, Barnes & Noble and regionally in Utah Costco and Walmart stores. I'm excited for you to read the book and I look forward to hearing from you.  Feel free to post your reviews on any of the product pages (Amazon.com, Borders.com, BarnesandNoble.com) or add me as a friend on Facebook.

On an unrelated note, it's been a very fun and interesting summer.  I've been able to travel to a lot of different places for work and to see friends around the country.  Here are two of the highlights.  My sister is going to animation school near Berkeley, California and she has several friends that work at Pixar. One was kind enough to arrange a tour, so this is us posing with the gang from Monster's Inc in the lobby.

 

The second highlight came just a few days ago as my cousin won a VIP contest to meet Lady Gaga in Las Vegas.  Since we were on our way to LA to see the live finale of So You Think You Can Dance, I got to go with him to the Lady Gaga meet and greet. Just so you know, this was not my typical show--I like her songs, but I'm really not a big fan of everything else she does. Still, it was cool meeting one of the big names in music today.