Kimberly Pauley

Wanna cheer me up?

So, I’m in that no-man’s land of waiting to hear back from my agent (after which time I’ll be back to plugging away at The Book That Would Not Die) plus the readers I sent it out to (who are hopefully liking it and not thinking “Egad, what do I say about this pile of drivel that won’t drive her off a cliff?). And I’ve got a nasty infection for which my doctor has put me on two different medications (WARNING: Do Not Drive Heavy Machinery or attempt to think coherently while taking these medications), my kidney area feels like someone drop-kicked me, and I’m slllllleeeeeppppppppy.

So, you know, general suckage.

And I had been planning on treating myself to Sims 3 (yes, I admit it…Hi, my name is Kimberly and I like to play computer games) when I finished the book. Then I was looking at my bank account and thinking “Ummmm….maybe not.” Though it *is* on sale for less than $30, so it’s not like it would be *that* bad.

So I’m looking for an excuse to cheer myself up. And that’s when I thought of YOU, Dear Readers.

I thought, “Hey, self, why don’t we have a contest!” After all, I finally broke the 900 mark on Twitter for followers. I’ve been wanting to get to a 1000 since, like, forever. And I’d always said I’d give away one of the Sucks to Be Me vases when I hit 1000.

But I’ve decided to sweeten that pot.

I will give one lucky follower a STBM vase. And another lucky follower will get their choice of A) A signed Still Sucks to Be Me or B) The chance to name a character in my next book.

AND I’ll treat myself to The Sims 3. You know, as a celebratory thing.

So…don’t you want to cheer me up? Follow me on Twitter! Help me get to a 1000 followers! If you already are a follower, please Tweet the giveaway! I wonder…can we do it in one day? As of right now, I need 88 more followers to hit 1000.

Hmmmm….if we do it today…maybe I’ll even give one more additional prize…

Posted in Giveaways, Just for Fun | 14 Comments »

Post-High School non-advice

So, Diana over at Stop, Drop & Read asked me to write up a post about life after high school in honor of her blogoversy (she’s heading on to college herself).

I honestly couldn’t think of much that was helpful to say.

So I blathered on a bit.

You can check it out. And did I mention there’s a contest?

Posted in Just for Fun | 1 Comment »

Introducing the “Real” Cameron

Visiting Brookfield Zoo with Cam

So, I’d like all of you to meet my nephew, Cameron, who let me borrow his name for Still Sucks to Be Me (for a very important character, no less). Cam is my husband’s sister’s middle child. I was a middle child myself. He’s got an older brother named Christian and a younger sister named Kylie. (For the record, my older sister is Lisa and my younger sister is Pam).

The character of Cameron in the book is, of course, older than Cameron my nephew. And his hair color is a little different and, well, Cameron (the original) isn’t a vampire so far as I know. They are both super cute though! Just ask all the girls in my neighborhood who suddenly started hanging out by my house when Cameron came to visit!

The Max LOVES all of his cousins, but is especially fond of Cameron. He still talks about playing with him when he sees pictures. Of course, that would partly be because he LOVES playing in water. This picture was when we were all in downtown Chicago at the famous fountain in Millennium Park.

The Max, Nana, & Cameron

I was thinking it would be cool to interview Cam to see what he thinks of having a character in a book named after him and I was wondering if you guys had any questions for him too?

Here’s the questions I’ve got so far:

• Is it weird to see your name in a book? Especially knowing the character was named after you?
• Can you tell my readers a little about the “REAL” Cameron?
• What are your favorite hobbies?
• What’s your favorite book?
• Who’s your favorite band?

Post more! If I think of some more, I’ll add them too, and then I’ll send them off to the “real” Cameron.

Posted in Just for Fun, Personal, pictures | 4 Comments »

Hiya, Forest High School!

Me, Today w/ Funky Hair

So, today I had a Skype Video Chat with Forest High School (which is, incidentally, the rival high school of Vanguard HS, where I attended 9th and 10th grade). It was a lot of fun, though it’s a much different dynamic than if you are in a room with the students since you can’t really see them and gauge their reactions to your babbling.

Not that I ever actually intend to babble. But it happens. And could someone please poke me with a cattle prod every time I say “um”?

At any rate, I hope they had a good time. I did (even though my hair really didn’t behave…I swear it has a mind of it’s own and it always goes kind of funky if there’s a camera involved)!

They asked some good questions about writing and getting published and so I wanted to kind of reiterate what I said.

On how to get published…here’s something I’d written up before with advice for aspiring writers and how to get published.

On writing process…here’s something I’d written up before about my writing process. (Basically, I outline). And I try to do some “butt in chair” time every day. My goal is always a 1000 words. Sometimes I don’t hit that (er, like yesterday), but other days I knock it out of the park.

Oh, and they wanted to see The Max, but he was out at a park with his babysitter. So here’s a gratuitous picture of my little guy:

The Max!

Tags: forest high school, ocala
Posted in Author Appearances, Just for Fun | 2 Comments »

18 Days to Go…launch party ideas?

So, it just really hit me that there’s WAY less than a month to go before Still Sucks to Be Me is released! Ack! And I haven’t set up the big launch contest yet!

So I’m working on what the prizes will be now…I’m thinking part of the grand prize would be an author visit/presentation (unlimited attendees) and/or author visit/pizza party type of thing for you and up to 20 of your friends. Thoughts on that? Do you like the idea? I’d probably have to restrict it to be just in the US or Canada though…

Anything else you’d like to see? What do you think people should have to do to enter?

I will entertain all suggestions, no matter how wacky! So let me know! What would you like to win? What would you like to have to do???

UPDATE: If you happen on this post, the Launch Contest is now up and running until June 11th, 2010!

Tags: launch contest, still sucks to be me
Posted in Just for Fun | 14 Comments »

Stickers! Who wants ‘em?

Okay, so remember when I had to make those stickers? And it was a terrible pain? Well, we’re about to go to China (Monday! Woot!) and I’ve still got some of the stickers left.

Don’t you think they’ll be lonely sitting here with nothing to do…not to mention serving no purpose whatsoever?

I do. So I want to give them away (and yeah, I’ll stick some bookmarks and tattoos and stuff in there too). If you want ‘em, use the Contact Form to email me! Include your name and address (if you’re under 13, I’ll need parental approval to send the stuff). I’ll pick someone by Saturday afternoon, so be sure to send off before that!

(after some tweets on Twitter — I’ll mail out another set to an international address)

Posted in Just for Fun, Past Giveaways | 9 Comments »

Author Appreciation Week

So, apparently this is Author Appreciation Week. I’m always torn on these kinds of things because A) I appreciate & love so many authors that I find it impossible to single out just a couple and B) I appreciate them ALL THE TIME. But maybe that’s just me.

I’ve been “appreciated” myself a couple of times (thank you SO MUCH Sara @ Novel Novice and Ari at Teens Actually Read?) and that totally gave me the warm fuzzies, so I was thinking, okay, maybe I *should* break down and show some love.

I do this in the full knowledge that there is NO WAY in the world I could list everyone I appreciate. I apologize in advance to all of you that I left off.

For their wonderful words of encouragement to a newbie writer (who wouldn’t quite gather up the courage to really sit down and write for a few years after these events) at various Florida Suncoast Writer’s Conferences, I am especially appreciative of Laurie Halse Anderson, David Lubar, Harry Harrison, Jeff Vandermeer and Richard Jennings.

And I will be forever in the debt of the writers that shaped me growing up (sadly, so many are gone now): Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Louisa May Alcott, P.L. Travers, T. H. White, Joe Haldeman, Frederic Brown, Stephen King, C. J. Cherryh, Morgan Llewellyn, and Jane Austen.

And much thanks to authors I personally “know” (often, only through email) who have been encouraging and helpful over the years and done everything from virtual hand holding to critiquing to…well, whatever. These include Myra McEntire, Kristin Tubb, Terry Miller Shannon (who introduced me to my editor), Saundra Mitchell, Sarah Mlynowski, Dan Ehrenhaft, Tiffany Trent, Brent Hartinger and everyone on the MidSouth SCBWI listserve.

Oh man, I already know I’m missing dozens…no, hundreds…no, probably thousands of authors that I appreciate. Really, okay…you know what? I appreciate ALL of YOU. Everyone who takes the time to write and share the stuff in your head that’s just gotta come out. I love you guys.

Posted in Just for Fun, Personal | 2 Comments »

Winners of the Still Sucks to Be Me FANS Only ARC Giveaway!!

Okay, so remember how I said I’d reserve at least 3 copies to give away to fans? Well, my lovely publisher sent me another box of ARCs, so I’m DOUBLING that — I’m giving 6 copies away to people who entered the FANS Only SSTBM Giveaway! Woot! Without further ado…here are the winners…(more entries did help people out in the random picker spreadsheet)

• Taylor
• Alina
• Victoria
• Alessandra
• Autumn
• Jade

Congrats! All you guys gotta do now is email me at kim @ kimberlypauley.com OR use the Contact form and tell me a) full name / address (if you’re under 13, I’ll need a parent’s email so they confirm it’s okay for you to accept the book), b) whether you’d like the ARC signed or not and, if so, do you want it signed to you or just signed with my name.

You guys rock! I can’t wait to hear what you think of the book!!

I got all kinds of cool fan art and poetry. My favorite might have to be this (but it was all really, really cool):

Tags: still sucks to be me
Posted in Just for Fun, Past Giveaways | 23 Comments »

Still Sucks to Be Me Fan ARC Contest! (Ends March 15th!!)

Okay! It’s finally time to post the Still Sucks to Be Me Fan ARC Contest! I’ve reserved at least three advance copies of Still Sucks to Be Me not for reviewers or official-type people but purely for fans of the first book. Because I love you guys. Because you make writing worthwhile. Because you ROCK.

I’ve been trying to come up with a good contest. Some authors have fans do all kinds of crazy things (there was a cool one recently where the author had people post and do what the craziest thing they would do to get the book would be). So I decided to kind of take all those ideas and give you extra chances to win

Here’s what you gotta do…pick as many items as you want from the following list to do. Each one you do gets you an entrie(s) to win. If you do all of ‘em? You get lots of entries to win! Of course, you still have a chance to win if you do only one of them. If you’ve already done any of the items below, just note it when you comment and I’ll still give you the entry point towards that item!

1. Follow me on Twitter. Comment back with your Twitter ID so I can confirm. (1 point)
2. Fan me on Facebook. (1 point)
3. Friend me on MySpace. (1 point)
4. Sign up for my fan newsletter (1 point)
5. Create any kind of fan art based on the books! (3 points) A drawing, a computer collage, a song, a poem, absolutely anything! You can e-mail it to me at kim@kimberlypauley.com and let me know it is part of your contest entry. Shoot, if you want to create more than once piece of art? I’ll give you points for each! And if you do something incredible, I will award extra points!
6. Create a video book review (or some kind of video fan art/performance) and upload it to YouTube with the tags: “Sucks to Be Me, Book, Kimberly Pauley” (3 points)
7. Tell a teacher or librarian how excited you are for the book! (1 point) If they e-mail me to confirm (make sure they tell me your name) OR ask me for a FREE Reading Group Guide, you’ll get an extra point! (1 point)
8. Do anything you can think of to get the word out about the books and tell me what you did (1 to 3 points, depending on the difficulty level)

To enter, do the item(s) and then comment back on this post and/or e-mail me as appropriate with what you did. I’ll tally up all the points at the end of March and the winners will have the book in the first part of April! (Unless you guys would like me to cut the contest shorter…until March 15th? Then you’d have the book by the end of March, but you wouldn’t have as much time to get entries in…so your choice…comment and let me know!) UPDATE: The consensus seems to be March 15th! So I’ll end the contest then!

The contest is open to anyone, anywhere. Entrants under the age of 13 must have a parent or guardian confirm they can accept the prize if they win.

Hope you like the contest and have fun with it! Good luck!

Entry Tracking!

It was getting a little confusing, so I thought I would post here with who/what entries I have noted down. If you don’t see your name/entries on this list or you think you’ve got more than I’ve noted, LET ME KNOW by commenting below! My e-mail was getting really crazy, so I’m worried I might have missed some.

• Ben Woodard – 2
• Taylor – 22
• Alina – 35
• LexieR – 5
• Victoria – 31
• Schuyler – 3
• Alessandra – 4
• Annika – 8
• Kassidy – 4
• Jasmine – 2
• Sonya – 1
• Jessica – 1
• Catie S. – 4
• Sharli – 1
• Savannah – 2
• Jade – 4
• Bethany – 4
• Adriana – 2
• Alannah – 4
• Heather – 3
• Autumn – 8
• Nan – 7

Tags: still sucks to be me arc fan contest
Posted in Just for Fun, Past Giveaways | 56 Comments »

Adventures in Stickers

Okay, so I’m going to be one of the featured authors tomorrow at the Anderson’s Bookshop Children’s Lit Breakfast. Which is a huge affair, as I understand it. And I was thinking this afternoon how I only have book swag for my first book, since I hadn’t ordered any bookmarks or anything for my second one yet. And how, darn it, I probably ought to have something.

So I got the bright idea of making buttons. I went out to the Hobby Lobby to try and locate a button maker, since I’d seen one there before. But they, apparently, don’t carry them anymore and I didn’t have time to run out to another store (having little Max kinda crimps the footloose and fancy free days of my past). So I got the next best thing I could think of: a sticker maker.

I will not bore you (or traumatize you) with everything that has gone wrong with the making of these stickers. Let’s just say that I started trying to make them, eh, 4 or 5 hours ago. Right now, I’ve got a tiny little stack of completed ones.

I have had an Epic Craft Fail tonight.

Here’s what the sticker image looks like:

Simple, right?

Here’s a photo of the in-progress mess:

The Mess

And here’s my small stack of completed stickers. Of which I need something like 50. At least.

The Stickers

Seriously.

All I can say is, if anyone so much as impinges the craftiness of my stickers tomorrow? I may have to go medieval on them.

Posted in Just for Fun, pictures | 3 Comments »