winner winner chicken dinner

We have a book giveaway winner! I was genuinely nervous to see who would win my book giveaway (and I meant it when I said I wish everyone could win) but ASEA is a very cool individual and I know she will relish whichever books she picks. Thank you to everyone for taking part. You are legit champions.

It's my (blog's) birthday! So here, have some books:

It's this little blog's sixth birthday! To celebrate, I want to thank you all for reading along. And what better way to honour readers than with a book giveaway? (EEEK BOOKS!!) I've selected a handful of my favourite books, with an eye to including something for everyone, and the winner of this giveaway will get to choose two of these books to be delivered straight to their door. Yippee!

I've chosen a mix of non-fiction and fiction, with books ranging from middle-grade to adult. Three of the books are by Australian authors. One is autobiographical. Four deal in some way with World War II or its fallout. One is a short story collection. All of them are books that have impacted my life, my thinking, or my love of words in some way. I hope that, if you win, the books you choose will do the same for you.

Check them out here, mull over which two you'd pick if you win, order the other six for yourself or get them in from your library, because they're great.

The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner
Going Solo by Roald Dahl
Pennies for Hitler by Jackie French
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
Wonder by RJ Palacio

Here's how to enter:

Birthdays and prizes, oh my!

My birthday has been (in truly lovely fashion) and gone (too quickly) which means that I am now officially about, oh, eleven years older than I actually feel. It also means that it's time to announce the prizewinners of my little writing giveaway!

First, a few random notes:

1. I love that so many of you shared writing links. I look forward to checking those out over the next little while. And of course, sharing the links gave you an extra entry into the contest.
2. Some of you wanted to enter but realised that the Australian Writer's Marketplace might not be applicable to you (either you already had a copy or felt it wouldn't be useful to you in your home country). Rather than cutting you out of the competition altogether, I marked your entries with an asterisk and determined that if I drew an asterisked winner, I'd split the prize -- journal and pens for the first winner, and the Writer's Marketplace for a second winner to be drawn afterwards.
3. I explained all of this in a video which I recorded as I drew out the prize winners. It was all very exciting, but I have discovered something about myself today: videos of me are terrifying. Not only is there the whole ridiculous question of how to talk like an actual human being while talking to a screen, but there is also the gamut of horrendous realisations that video-making creates: "I kind of have a lisp? What? Surely not!" Also: "I knew my face was assymetrical, but really! This resembles a Picasso!" Needless to say, I am not posting the video I made. I am, however, taking my courage in both hands and sharing a tiny clip I filmed after the prize drawing. Asea requested a picture of the hat I used for the prize drawing, so I filmed that. It's pointless me even trying to express my insecurity about sharing a video (I believe I wailed at my mum, "But the internet is MEAN!"). Vloggers, are you only courageous because you are all beautiful funny people with cool accents? You have my respect.

Enough about that. Onto the winners...

The first name to be pulled from the hat is Joy, who sure enough has an asterisk next to her name. Congratulations, Joy! The sweet journal by Paper Boat Press, along with the Pilot Fineliner pens, are yours!

Since Joy already has a copy of the Australian Writer's Marketplace, I drew a second winner: Laura, of Life Is Beautiful! Congratulations, Laura! Email me your address (daniellecentral at gmail dot com) and I'll ship your awesome writing resource book off to you.

Peace out, babies. I promise the next giveaway will be for everyone, not just writers.

A writerly giveaway:

It's my birthday week! To celebrate, I want to give you a present. Well, one of you, anyway. Writers need excellent and lovely tools, and this little giveaway bundle is made up of three things I think are particularly handy:

• a brand new edition of the current Australian Writer's Marketplace. This hefty volume, worth $49.95 from the Queensland Writers Centre, contains pages and pages of listings of Australian and New Zealand writing markets, publishing houses, writer's organisations, and writing competitions. There's also a bunch of info on writing and selling your work. John Marsden says, "First, buy a pen. Second, a dictionary... then, The Australian Writer’s Marketplace. That’s the hard work done. Now, just write your book!" So there you go.
• a beautiful little blank journal from Brisbane artisan, Paper Boat Press. To me, there's nothing quite like the allure of the blank page, and pretty pretty notebooks like this one basically cry out to be filled with both brilliant and banal thoughts in scrappy wild handwriting (keep it on your bedside table for those moments of midnight inspiration).
• two Pilot Fineliner pens in black. These are my current favourite writing tools -- so smooth and fine, and they actually make my hideous handwriting look a little neater (or at least more arty).

To be in the running for this prize pack, simply leave a comment on this post. Obviously, this giveaway is biased in favour of writerly types (sorry!) but you're welcome to enter even if you just like a writerly type. Tying a bow around a fat writing book is the perfect way to earn brownie points with your favourite wordsmith person. Or maybe winning this prize will turn you into a writerly type. So have at it. Oh and here's a bonus: if you leave a cool writerly link, resource, or quote, I'll throw your name in the hat twice.

Leave your name and a contact email address before 2.02am August 11th (birth minute!) AEST and I'll draw a winner after next Saturday. Joy!

* * * * *

Conversations:

Laura Elizabeth -- you should know you have launched me on a Nerd renaissance now. I am blaming you.

Sarah -- thank you so much for your lovely congratulations! How's your world of study going?

Andrea -- yay! I'm glad I was your first tagger :). Thanks for the excellent phone call tonight, too! x

Staish -- eee! I'm excited you'll be joining us.

Hannah Joy -- I hope you found some yummy nerds to munch on. Seriously, their colour is part of the delight!

Carla -- it's a Nerds Rope. Find one and eat it immediately!! Plz start practicing gymnastics so you can fit in Meaghan's luggage. Thx.

Amanda -- :D

Hey hey it's a Christmas giveaway...

Last night, before going to bed, I wished earnestly that I could send gifts to every single one of the cool people I know, near and far because mail is just the best, and mail with presents is even more fun. Before I fell asleep, I came up with the next best thing: a giveaway! Of course, this is a gift for just one person, but it could be any one of you (ooh, mystery and suspense!).

Because Christmas is coming -- and faster and faster -- this giveaway is all about that joyful celebration of Jesus' birth. The parcel will include a copy of Wendy Brigg's Heartfelt Christmas (beautiful angels and lovehearts and Christmassy joy to stitch), a Bronwyn Hayes stitchery panel ready for you to embroider (and full of visions of sugarplums!), a pack of my favourite brand of needles (Piecemakers), and a handmade button-embellished heart to hang in your home. Sorry kids, but the threads are not included (I just thought they were pretty and wanted them in the pictures, okay?).

Here are the giveaway rules:

1) leave a comment with your name and what you love most about Christmas.
2) feel free to enter whether you're a regular reader or just passing through.
3) I will ship anywhere in the world, so even if you're from Antarctica...
4) entries close midnight next Sunday 14th November, AEST.

I'm so excited I'm so excited I'm so excited!

* * * * *

Conversations:

Mothercare -- :D

Samantha R -- I'll drink to that! :)

Mitanika -- you've pretty much hit the nail on the head as to why I dream of working in a bookstore.

Kirstyb -- glad you enjoyed!

HCH -- yay! So nice to hear from you :). I'm sure you've had a lot of similar revelations when it comes to being a Christian and an artist?