So remember yesterday when I was talking numbers and said "before Friday"? Well, I wasn't wrong, but I didn't expect to reach those targets so soon. 

That's US on the left, Canada on the right. As of 11am this morning. 

Should I be more optimistic and go for a big number this time?

Let's say 400 and 200 before Friday! Why not!

 This has been incredible! The global interest for Freakhouse has been wonderful to see. Already over 1000 people have added it to their to-read shelves, and well-over 1000 people turned out for the giveaways so far.

So, the numbers so far...

These are the giveaways that have actually ended:
"Rest of World": 617
Australia/New Zealand: 158
UK/Ireland: 353

And this time I can say "yay, Ireland!". Despite the majority of entries being from the UK, one book is flying overhead to Ireland as we speak. County of Mayo to be specific. Land of my husband's people, so that was a neat surprise. 

No books flying to my family's regions. Not even my old haunt in Sussex :( 

This is why the giveaways are random. Clearly I'd have favourites!

So on we go for the last leg of this promotion. The US's numbers are steadily rising. I imagine that we'll break 300 from them before Friday. And the my humble home country is working its way up to 150. We'll see what happens on Friday when Freakhouse gets closer to the front page!

Thank you everyone for your continued support. And remember, if you're still looking for a free book, pop over to your local library and make a request for order. Galen is already available in print and e-book, and Freakhouse is on pre-order until its release on August 26th

Since we are lurking closer and closer to the midway point of the Great Freakhouse Giveaway (probably should have given it a fancy name like that from the start!), I thought I'd share where we're at so far.

To recap, I was hoping that the Galen giveaway would beat the overall numbers from my previous giveaway. It was close to a tie, but did not surpass. I was looking for a number greater than 967 and we ended up with 951. Not bad, but I'm figuring out this number game a little better this time around. By breaking down the giveaways into regions, each one spanning over two weeks, I think it's helped for exposure and for those who consider the odds before entering. Clearly one chance out of a hundred is better than one chance out of one thousand. 

So, the numbers so far...

These are the two giveaways that have actually ended, so these two are the final numbers:
"Rest of World": 617
Australia/New Zealand: 158

Which means that our completed total so far is 775. Not bad considering that we still have three major regions to go. And, let's face it, the USA pretty much out-numbers all other regional Goodreads members. 

There are still two full days left for the UK and Ireland to enter, and as of 10:45pm tonight, there are over 200 entries. Which means that the moment that giveaway closes, I've already beat my giveaway entry high score, and that's not even taking into account the week that Canada and the US still have for their own giveaways! And, yes, with less than a week into the giveaway game, my US numbers already beat the UK... See? This is why I had to split it up. Someone else needed a chance!

Still sad that I went to the trouble of digging New Zealand out from the "Other" category - and that's not me ranking it higher than Australia, Goodreads literally has four top countries listed at the top when you make a giveaway! - and still they could not rise above the masses of Australian entries. Next time, New Zealand! Next time!

So if you are from the UK, Ireland, Canada, or the USA, get in now for your chance at a free book. Why not? Those are like the two best things ever, "books" and "free", though if we go by Muppet rankings we'd also have to account for Ice Cream, Children, and Laughter...

...did you really think that I could go a whole post without a tangent? Really? 

The original title of this post was going to be flat out "Why I hate e-books", but that was when I was in the height of formatting Galen so my temper was very short on the subject. Thankfully Freakhouse has not been as aggravating so I'm coming down off of my tyrannical high-horse - just by a little bit though.

So I'm going to tell this story backwards - at least in terms of how I lived it out:

Formatting Freakhouse was actually pretty straight-forward. File conversions through Kindle are pretty easy, and as long as I go back through in the webpage viewer and re-create page breaks, everything pretty much looks the way that I want it to. So Freakhouse only took two file submissions for me to be happy. Kobo is a little more finicky in that you really don't have any idea how it looks until you see it in the actual device you want to use, so basically as long is it seems logically laid out, I'm happy enough given that I won't know about EVERY device until someone using something I don't have sees it. 

So this is the good story. Freakhouse isn't a visually complex text, and purposely so. 

Galen, on the other hand, is very purposely formatted. There are three sections which are best identified visually based on the font and structure you're reading. I'm very proud of how the three formats come together in the pattern that they do. I worked very hard on that unique feel that I believe Galen has. 

When a file gets converted to be an e-book, the ideal is that all you need are the words to tell the story, and thus the words can be re-manipulated (visually) to fit different reader needs. So whether you're reading from different devices or even just need to adjust your word size/style to fit how you read on your own device, the words will still be the same regardless of how you manipulate. Do you see how I might have a problem with this?

Galen was not written with e-book in mind. Nor can I see myself writing purely for an e-book format. I'm old school. I like to hold a book. I like to feel a book. And, yes, there's nothing like dusty old book pages - those restricted sections behind glass in fancy libraries, yeah, those are fun just to look at, and even though you can actually hold those books with special gloves, I wouldn't have the heart to touch them because they seem sacred and I am not worthy to be in their presence... I think you can already tell another reason why I'm less sympathetic with non-paper books, and I'm still only halfway through my point.

The e-book is less forgiving with style-specific reading. The Kindle so far seems to be handling it alright, but I'm sure there's a reader out there that loses all of the font variety. That brings me to Kobo. I'm sorry Kobo readers, but the version of Galen you get is not the version of Galen that I love. And THAT is why I have little love for the e-book. Sometimes a book is so much more than just what the words on the page say. Anyone who writes poetry should be able to appreciate this. Where the words go, how they are placed, how big or small the font is, how light or dark, how traditional or innovative the style, it all says something. Now I'm not going to pretend that every piece of fiction I write is a visual work of art. But I do like to believe that I write with intention. 

I have never been a big fan of reading e-books, and now as I try to to format for them, my appreciation has decreased. What meaning might I be losing just because I don't see it the way that it was intended to be seen? I want to experience these books, not just read them.

The first two rounds of Freakhouse giveaways have come to an end. 5 copies will be spread out from Portugal to Russia, and another 5 copies are flying all around Australia. I'm kind of sad about that last one. I know that New Zealand is smaller and thus probably didn't compare in the number of entries for the giveaway, but I was hoping at least one book would fly that way. I really wish that I had the power to spy on the entry details, not to look at the people, just to see where the entries are coming from. For all I know, there may have only been 2 entries from New Zealand. I just thought that the odds would improve if I narrowed it down unlike the worldwide giveaway that I did for Galen. 

In any case, I hope that the winners will enjoy their new books. I have confirmation that Galen reached most of their destinations. Unfortunately, there was one book that will not be received by the winner. It involved many back and forths with UPS, but even after all of the arrangements, it still ended up being returned. 

Now I have had my own issues with UPS myself, so I get that it isn't always a smooth process. They come out to deliver it 3 times and after that it's "return to sender". But like pretty much all couriers, if you call them, they can hold it. As long as you keep in contact with them, they're pretty good about making sure they can accommodate you. I guess that's why this return has me feeling a bit defeated. After sending it to the other side of the world, having it held at customs and then again at UPS, it just seems like the whole thing could have been avoided. If I had access to another nearby winner, I totally would have to redirected it and given it to someone else. Unfortunately I don't know anyone there, and I can't have them hold it for me to restart a giveaway. So it's a lost book. 

I am very grateful to the customer service team at CreateSpace and Goodreads for all of their help in this matter. 

As for my new set of winners for Freakhouse, everything is set to ship out to you! All but one book will be delivered by UPS (I don't have much say with that, I'm afraid, at least if you want to receive your copy before September 20th). If you're entering a giveaway, please be aware that a courier service can't deliver to a PO Box, so unfortunately, you will probably be the last to receive your book going the traditional standard shipping route. 

Also, holy hell, Australia! How is it that I can send a book to Russia for half the cost of sending it to you! Don't answer that, I already know that there's an added benefit to being attached to a continent that has rail access - options make everything cheaper. It's really only slightly more expensive than shipping within North America - not an island and yet has useless rail systems so you're either looking at 2 months delivery by truck or one week delivery for $30. I love my readers but not enough of you buy my books for me to afford spending $30 on each of you - especially with how many books I'm giving away this time! 

If you're in the UK or Ireland, you still have another week to enter for your Freakhouse giveaway (Come on, Ireland! Get in there!), and Canada and US just opened up this week so there's 2 weeks to go for you. Yes, Canada and the US are separate because most of Goodreads is US, so it's the only way my fellow Canadians can stand a chance!

I don't imagine that I'll be able to do another giveaway of this scale any time soon, so I really wanted to make this one count. 

In the meantime, I'm eagerly waiting to hear what people think of their new books! 

Galen is currently available online at Amazon (pick the country of your choice!), Kindle and Kobo.
Expect the same from Freakhouse starting August 26th.
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Freakhouse winners, I'm trying my best to see that your free books come in as advanced copies (before August 26th), but I'll be honest, some of them will be cutting it pretty close. And PO Box, yours won't be "advanced" anything, sorry.

This is a summer of free books! There is still a week left to enter into the Freakhouse giveaway if you live in Australia or New Zealand. And starting this week (Friday, actually - yes, like right now!), if you live in the UK or Ireland, your giveaway begins! 

Just a reminder, unlike how things went down for my Galen giveaway, I've broken things down regionally, giving you better odds to win. Each giveaway consists of 5 books, so based on where you are located, you might not actually have much competition. Last I looked at the AU/NZ giveaway, there's only about 50 people requesting so far - much better odds than the 900+ entries for Galen. So if you haven't entered yet, get on it!

And if you are from Canada or the US, never fear, your turn is coming (separately!). Stay tuned to find out when your giveaway begins!

​Best of luck to all you readers out there!

Earlier this week we played a round of Name That Title with this image:

Well the guesses are in, and while the winner wishes not to be named, it doesn't mean that this book cannot be!​
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​Freakhouse is all brand-spanking new with a beautiful cover designed by the lovely Rebecca Frank! She made  a variety of cover art designs for me, and she took things in a direction that I didn't even know I wanted! Freakhouse could have had a very different look to  it, but there was just something unexpectedly stunning in the vibrant blues and whites of this little number that I just couldn't shake after seeing. Rebecca Frank nailed Dystopia in all of the designed she made for me, so if you're ever in the market, I highly recommend her services! I thought for sure that I'd be going back and forth for weeks, never being 100% happy (not because of her, just because I'd be that picky), but she seemed to know exactly what would be best. Trust me, I questioned her once and was sent a whole wack of alternatives; I replied back that night saying that she was right the first time. And because I'm Canadian, it had to be followed-up with a "sorry"!

Now, if you've been following along, you'll know that I know the Galen giveaway promotion was a little rough going. I'm not ashamed that I had to re-learn, and thankfully I anticipated just as much so I've got the benefit of being able to do one after the other! Freakhouse giveaways are on the horizon - in fact, one round will being tomorrow!

Clearly 4 books opened up worldwide doesn't exactly put the odds into your favour. So this time things will be different! 5 books will be sent out in a variety of rounds. USA will have its own giveaway. Canada will have its own giveaway. UK and Ireland will combine as one giveaway. Australia and New Zealand will combine as one giveaway. And then all the rest will have their own without these big fish in the way! Stay tuned for when the giveaway in your area opens up!

As promised, more fun things to come!

Didn't win a free book? That's okay! Enter this "Name That Title" for a chance to win a coupon to the store that opens Friday. You have until Friday, July 15th to submit your guess!

Like last time, all you have to do is "Name That Title"!

"But I just stumbled onto this blog post and I have no idea who you are or what you write!!" you exclaim?

Never fear! If you want to drastically improve your odds of guessing correctly, just click the link "All Works".

There are no trick questions. The answer will have to be a book that I have actually written. Although, if you want to test your psychic powers and just go with your gut, by all means, feel free. There's no contest entry fee or penalty for wrong guesses. I will, however, only take the first answer submitted by each email address.

Why do I need your email address? Because that's how I will send the coupon code to you, and only the coupon code. Please ensure that you include a valid email address so that you can receive your prize. No re-draws or rainchecks. 
​

The Galen giveaway has ended, and while no penguins will be receiving a free copy (yet!), Galen is truly off to see the world. While I did have the contest opened up globally, I'm still in awe of how global the results actually were. You see, when I last did a giveaway - however many years ago - Goodreads was very heavily American. And while there were still a large amount of American entries, there was representation from far more countries than I remember seeing previously. And then there's the winners. Had I run this same giveaway a few years ago, guaranteed that 3 out of the 4 books would have being on their way to the USA right now. Today, while one copy is headed south of the border, the other three are off on a pretty big adventure! Galen will soon be calling Portugal, Belgium, and the Ukraine home. 

​Travel safely my little ones, and bring happiness to your new families!

Remember, if you are interested in bringing Galen home to your family, the online stores will be open July 15th. Almost there!

​Stay tuned for more fun!

As the clock countsdown to the last 10 hours of the contest, I'm actually getting pretty antsy - in a good way, I promise!

Galen opened a door for me in writing, but even after that accomplishment I don't think I was brave enough to really push it out there. And while I've been very honest in saying that I don't feel that it is the best work I have ever done - I think spending so much time going back over it has made me appreciate how much devotion I originally put into it. Bringing Galen back reminded me why I was so in love with the story - and since it still gave me butterflies, laughs, and tears, I think it's safe to say that I am still in love with the story. I think my apprehension came from delving into darker themes afterward. Galen sweet. Yes, I think that's the best word for it. I don't think it's one that a reader would lose sleep over, and it isn't one that lingered with me as long as some of my other characters. I suppose that's because I don't think that these characters have much unfinished business. I haven't broken them. If anything, my broken characters pulled their pieces together. So it's sweet. It's heartwarming. It's a rainy day book when you just want a hug from the words on a page. It's silly. It's fun. And (I hope) it'll make you fall in love. Because that's what it's about in the end, isn't it? That's THE Michael Wolfgang vision. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just all fall in love?

If you haven't entered the giveaway yet, there is still time. If you're looking for the book after the contest, I will have it open in the online stores by July 15th. And if you aren't sure about it yet, please go request it at your local library after July 15th (give it time to show up on their purchasable list). 

And if you're simply waiting for the next contest, check the blog soon. I'm going to announce where in the world these four books are flying to (fingers still crossed for the penguins!), and then a new contest will present itself for more winning fun!

Best of luck entrants! I hope a lovely book finds you soon!