Win a copy of KNIFE!

[rj_anderson]

KNIFE (Front Cover)
Originally uploaded by rj-anderson

I got four brand-shiny-new first edition copies of Knife in the mail yesterday, and one of them could be yours!

All you have to do to be eligible is leave a comment to this post with your answer to one of the following questions:

Imagine that you are one of the Oakenfolk, a colony of small winged faeries living in a massive hollow oak tree deep in the English countryside. But you have no magic, and must survive using your wits and your skills alone. What practical ability do you have to contribute, and how will you use it to help your fellow Oakenfolk?

OR:

All the faeries in the Oak are named after plants, whether flowers or herbs or trees. What plant name would you choose if you were a faery, and why?

This contest is open to all English-speaking readers*, regardless of country. All eligible entries will be numbered and the winner randomly selected from among them on January 8, 2009.

But even if you don't win, do not despair! I will also be selecting two runners-up to receive an official Knife bookmark, as supplied by my publisher and currently available only to readers in the UK -- a prize which is not nearly as long as the actual book, but I assure you, every bit as shiny.

Let the hunt begin!
--
* I am sorry to say, however, that my fellow debut2009 authors are not eligible. I love you all dearly, but that is what ARCSwap is for!


ETA: Non-LiveJournal users are welcome to enter using the Anonymous feature, but if you do so, PLEASE sign your comment with a name or alias (and/or an e-mail address) that I can use to identify you if you win!

Comments

[steff-bakker.livejournal.com]

Very fun contest!

All the faeries in the Oak are named after plants, whether flowers or herbs or trees. What plant name would you choose if you were a faery, and why?

I would be called Dahlia. Mainly because there are so many varieties of Dahlias. Some spiky and some wispy ... something to represent each of my many moods :) Dahlias are also prone to warm, dry weather which suits me just fine. I hate being cold and wet! But most of all Dahlias can't get enough sunlight which shows you that no matter what mood I am in my underlying personality holds a sunny disposition. ;)

[tezmilleroz.livejournal.com]

All the faeries in the Oak are named after plants, whether flowers or herbs or trees. What plant name would you choose if you were a faery, and why?

Bloodroot. For purely egotistical reasons: It's the title of the second-ever completed novel-written-by-me ;-)

Have a lovely day! :-)

[vdansk]

Hmm...to the second question, Bittersweet. Partially for it's inclusion in an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem (Loving you less then life, a little less/ Then bittersweet upon a broken wall...), partially because I have a fondness for weeds, and largely because i think it would be a name to overcome, with obvious negative connotations and subtle positive ones.

For the first...hmm again. Memory. I would be the one who remembered the small details...where a particular plant grew, what animal despised another, why this particular bird's nest is abandoned, how to milk aphids, when the first frost was likely to fall.

What an evocative contest! Thank you!

[freneticreader.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Second question:

I think I'd like to be called Lily. Boring, but it was my (now dead) cat's name. She was my first pet and I'd had her since I was really little. So, yeah. Lily it is.

[anywherebeyond.livejournal.com]

Queen Anne's Lace. 'Cause I think it would be funny for Thorn to have to call somebody ELSE Queen. Ahahahah. Sorry. I know I am ineligible. I just wanted to play.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I think it would be funny for Thorn to have to call somebody ELSE Queen.

I think you mean Amaryllis, not Thorn? But still, heh. :D

And of course my fellow Feast of Awesome members can play if they want to! I would just hate to disappoint any Deb who expected prizes...

[yolandasfetsos.livejournal.com]

All the faeries in the Oak are named after plants, whether flowers or herbs or trees. What plant name would you choose if you were a faery, and why?

Cool contest!

I would go for Rose because although at first sight they appear to be soft and harmless, it covers the thorns beneath. I'm not saying that I'm dangerous, but that most people are usually surprised when they get to know me better. :D

[fandoria.livejournal.com]

Imagine that you are one of the Oakenfolk, a colony of small winged faeries living in a massive hollow oak tree deep in the English countryside. But you have no magic, and must survive using your wits and your skills alone. What practical ability do you have to contribute, and how will you use it to help your fellow Oakenfolk?

I'd do the cooking. :) I love to cook.

[piecesofalice.livejournal.com]

As a member of a household who have already read this amazing, astonishing, clever, witty, brilliant book, I shall refrain from entering and simply tell you that you are wonderful. :)

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

*blushes madly*

You are enormously kind. Thank you!

[bittervillager.livejournal.com]

"Imagine that you are one of the Oakenfolk, a colony of small winged faeries living in a massive hollow oak tree deep in the English countryside. But you have no magic, and must survive using your wits and your skills alone. What practical ability do you have to contribute, and how will you use it to help your fellow Oakenfolk?"

I would definitely be a seamstress as I would think scholarship would not considered part of a practical skill set. As for the application of said skill, I would think that clothing (and possibly soft armouring) my fellow Oakenfolk would be most likely.

[robinellen.livejournal.com]

Ooo, a contest :) I'd be named Aspen, because they're my favorite tree and I love how their golden leaves dance in the wind.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

The second question is sort of a moot point for me, seeing as I can't avoid being all planty. (Even my maiden name is an obscure herb in an obscure East European language.) Which brings me to the first question...

The skill I can bring to the colony would be Knitting in Spanish. But lo! you say. 'Tis an English colony! But--if we were in serious trouble, cut off from the world except for the Raging Hordes of the Enemy Host Around Us, wouldn't it be great to be able to send out signals for help in code? Not only could I knit messages into slippers, but they would be *Spanish* messages, see...

[sarahsan]

Sorry to be a pain, but just for clarification: is Jan. 8 the deadline, then? Or some time prior to this? Or are we working with a sort of metaphysical or allegorical concept of "deadline" which is, in fact, only a mostly-dead-line?

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I am confused by your question. All I can say is that I plan to draw the name of the winner on January 8th, from among all the entries that have been submitted up to that date... if that wasn't what I said, it's certainly what I meant. :)

Ability

[(Anonymous)]

The ability to find truffles, and thus befriend a pig that is being used to find truffles. Where you can take this in the plot is quite obvious, so I won't insult you by explaining the details.

Regards,
Shawn Abigail

Re: Ability

[(Anonymous)]

And as for the other question, "Purslane" if the fairy has a major character flaw (i.e. taking over other peoples lives). I have purslane in my backyard, and once a week I try to pull it all out, but it just keeps spreading.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I shall answer both, because I believe in overkill.

Imagine that you are one of the Oakenfolk, a colony of small winged faeries living in a massive hollow oak tree deep in the English countryside. But you have no magic, and must survive using your wits and your skills alone. What practical ability do you have to contribute, and how will you use it to help your fellow Oakenfolk?

I might well go into exile, being a solitary sort, but if I chose to stay, I'm a cultural studies, history, anthropology, sociology, and political science scholar. I could study any people we came across, human or faery, and help decide how best to deal with them and whether or not they posed a threat. Also, as a scholar of specifically history, I could help the others learn from the mistakes and imitate the triumphs of the past.

All the faeries in the Oak are named after plants, whether flowers or herbs or trees. What plant name would you choose if you were a faery, and why?

I would take the name "Kelp" because kelp forests thrive in the cold, fertile waters just off the coast of California. They're strong and supple like rubbery rope and cling tenaciously to rocks just as my health problems have required me to be equally tenacious to cling to a life of my choosing. They also make the basis for a whole ecosystem of otters, sea lions, seals, fish, sharks, rays, lobsters, crabs, and thousands of other species in the same way that I hope to help build my own community. I might take the name "Cedar" instead, because some taxonomies don't consider kelp to be true plants, and Cedars and Attackfish both are native to Mediterranean climates, and I miss the pine forests of the California coastal mountains.

question two

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

I shall wish forever to be known as "Gingko Biloba." And the first person who called me a "living fossil" would get it.

[seaheidi.livejournal.com]

Do I qualify as a hybrid Deb/Tenner?

A...Denner. A Teb?

*giggles* My witches are named after flowers so i'd go with a flower. How about an angel's breath? And I would use my power to breathe on angels.

Okay, I'm lame.
Just wanted to say hi and congrats. =D

[thelittletwin.livejournal.com]

Answering your second question:

I would be Pansy. First off, it was my great grandmother's name. Also, it's a small flower, just like I'm small, but it can stand up to the most severe weather. I've seen some that have survived all winter long to come back again in spring. My small frame sometimes makes people think that they can walk all over me, but I'm feisty, just like a Pansy.

[bookaholicgirl.livejournal.com]

Squee! Contest! Squee!

My facetious answer to the first question is that I can type in both English and Ukrainian without looking at the keyboard, but since I can't think of any way that it could be useful to the faeries, I'll have to go with the second question. I would be called Dandelion, because I admire both their cheerfulness and their tenacity (or, if you prefer, stubbornness).

[sleepingfingers.livejournal.com]

All the faeries in the Oak are named after plants, whether flowers or herbs or trees. What plant name would you choose if you were a faery, and why?

The flamboyant tree (Delonix Regia) because that's my favourite plant. :>

[elissacruz.livejournal.com]

I choose to answer the second question, only because I can't, for the life of me, figure out a reasonably intelligent answer to the first question.

I would be Larkspur. It is a tall, graceful beauty that carries a remarkable hardiness underneath all the colorful splendor. In short, everything I am not in real life.

Thanks for the contest! What fun!

[camillofan.livejournal.com]

Imagine that you are one of the Oakenfolk, a colony of small winged faeries living in a massive hollow oak tree deep in the English countryside. But you have no magic, and must survive using your wits and your skills alone. What practical ability do you have to contribute, and how will you use it to help your fellow Oakenfolk?

I can lead group singing, so I shall be the morale officer.

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

The first question: the skills that would be helpful are mostly my domestic skills, and I actually don't enjoy domestic (except cooking). So let's go with ...

The second question: my botanical faery name. I pick Yaupon (otherwise known as Florida holly). It was used to make the "black drink", part of a religious ritual among the natives of the SE United States. Its active ingredient? Caffeine. Says Wikipedia:

"Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and others believed it purified the drinker and purged him of anger and falsehoods."

Now that's a useful name/trait to have, right there. We can just do without the purging afterward (which isn't an effect of the drink).

[writingdawn.livejournal.com]

I have always loved lilies-of-the-valley, with the little white bells in the shadowy part of the yard. Nobody else was allowed to use it if we kids were choosing flowers as names to play at being faeries or some such thing.

I know Lily isn't an especially original name anymore, but it's been my flower-name since I was six and I wouldn't feel right picking anything else.

Hoping I won't have to wait till the US release, I'm looking forward to reading the book so much!

[alawston.livejournal.com]

For the plant name, I'd have to choose Cuckoo Pint, because it's, um, a bit rude, yet the name is a piece of Hampshire dialect for a plant more commonly referred to as Lords and Ladies, so it reflects my roots, is quite rude and yet at the same time a bit classy.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

My first thought was that I'd be Eglantine, simply because the word has always carried enchantment for me, and it's in the poetry and songs of the Elizabethan era, which I used to love in a somewhat la-la fashion.

But second thoughts proved stronger, and I'd be Lavender. It's got such connotations of out-of-date, mumsy fustiness, but Lavender so isn't! It's got a quiet strength, which calms and soothes, is fragrant without being too sweet, helps heal and is even delicious in teas and baked goods.