Imaginary Girls giveaway: winner!

There’s a winner of the Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma giveaway!

Here’s the video of the drawing (sorry for the slight jostling, I was holding the camera up with my left hand and “self-taping”):

And if you don’t want to bother to watch the video and see me blink a million times and stifle an immature giggle when the winning number is generated (it took serious willpower not to laugh-until-I-barfed)…the winner is…
**SPOILER ALERT***

**SPOILER ALERT***

*drum roll please*

**SPOILER ALERT**

*drum roll*

*drum roll*

The commenter named ishita!
whose comment was:
“OMG i really really want to read this book! and i dont have a sister i have a brother lol 🙂
thanks for this giveaway!
ps. the doggie is beyond adorable !”

*cymbal clash!*

Congratulations to ishita–and thank you to all of you for supporting Nova Ren Suma’s book, and for being such avid readers. I hope those of you who wanted a copy and didn’t win, still manage to find yourselves a copy soon.

Methodology:
I assigned each of you a number, in the order of comments, and used a random number generator to pick a number between 1 and 90, as there were 90 entries. The generated number was matched with the assigned number of the contest entrants.

Trivia:
The winning number was 69 *insert stifled immature giggle*

The wiener dogs reading Imaginary Girls are Scarlet the Wiener Dog and Ziggy the Wiener Dog. I rescued both of them at separate times many years ago and they are now 18 and 14 years old, respectively. And yes, Nova has met them!

Stay tuned…I’ll be giving away a signed copy of Patricia Engel’s award winning short story collection Vida next!

Imaginary Girls Giveaway!

My friend Nova Ren Suma wrote an incredible book, one that Publishers Weekly and the merciless Kirkus Book Reviews gave starred reviews. Most recently, it received a great review from the LA Times Book Review, lauding it a book “not just for kids.” (Makes sense. I loved it. And it’s been a long time since I was a teenager).

I wish this YA novel existed when I was in junior high. But better late than never.

I read Imaginary Girls on a stormy weekend and couldn’t put it down. As a writer, I admired the language and Nova’s expertise with setting–and as a reader, I loved Ruby and Chloe and the overall tension throughout the story. That I was reading the book throughout weekend-long Spring thunderstorms was even more fitting! Water is a prevalent theme throughout Imaginary Girls.

In addition to the aforementioned commendations, Imaginary Girls is creeeepy in this fantastic way. But NOT in a scary-creepy haunt your dreams way. (Believe me, I’m the kind of person who can’t watch any scary movies, not even “Scary Movie”). It’s creepy in this “OMG, I love this book and want to know what happens and why it happens and why do I have so many questions and why do I want to swim in a reservoir!” way. I hope you all read the book.

Opening lines:

Ruby said I’d never drown–not in deep ocean, not by shipwreck, not even by falling drunk into someone’s bottomless backyard pool. She said she’d seen me hold my breath underwater for minutes at a time, but to hear her tell it you’d think she meant days. Long enough to live down there if needed, to skim the seafloor collecting the shells and shiny soda caps, looking up every so often for the rescue lights, even if they took forever to come.

It sounded impossible, something no one would believe if anyone other than Ruby were the one to tell it. But Ruby was right: The body found that night wouldn’t be, couldn’t be mine.”

But now onto business…!

In honor of Nova’s book release, I’m hosting a giveaway of a signed hardcover copy of Imaginary Girls.

Here’s how to enter:
1) Leave a comment below. You can say anything you want–e.g., you can choose to tell me why you want a copy of the book, or tell me about a beloved sister (I don’t have one, and have always wanted a sister), or simply say you just rrrreally want a copy of the book. Do fill out your email address when you fill out the fields in the comment box (it won’t be published to the world, but I will need it in order to contact you in case you win)!
2) 1 entry per person
3) The giveaway is open worldwide.
4) If you win the contest, I will email you for your mailing address.
5) Winners will be chosen by a random number generator.
6) I will be announcing the contest winner on the blog. None of your personal information will be posted, aside from your first name and last initial (or the nickname you choose to list in your comment).
7) If you are below the age of 13, please ask your parents to fill out the comment field with their information.

The deadline to enter a comment is July 25, 2011 1:00pm EST. The winner (picked at random) will be announced July 25, 2011 at 9:00pm EST.

Update: The winner is announced!