Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Making Waves, by Tawna Fenske

Okay. I'm back from my vacation, and back to work. I promise to give you all several posts about What I Did, and How Much I Love Seattle, but first I want to do something for a friend.

Do you all know Tawna Fenske? Before I talk about her book, I just want to tell you a bit about her. Tawna was the first published author who read and critiqued a part of my novel. Okay, she wasn't technically published yet, at the time, but she already had a deal in place. I won a critique from her and her CP Cynthia Reese, in a contest on Candace's blog.

Anyway, point is, Tawna and I don't write anywhere near the same genre, style, or anything, but her critique contained some of the best writing advice I'd ever seen, and even more importantly it was incredibly encouraging, and funny as hell. I wasn't too familiar with her before that experience, but I've read her blog every day since.

You should do the same.

You won't regret it, I promise.

Tawna is absolutely hilarious, but she's also honest and very open about this process we call getting published. Mostly her blog will make you laugh, out loud, literally, but there is also a lot to be learned there as well. Please go visit Don't pet me, I'm writing, now, and become a follower.

Now, the reason I'm hyping Tawna today is that her debut Romantic Comedy, Making Waves, was just released. I haven't read it yet, but I intend to, even though I don't read romances, because I know it will be side-splittingly funny. But what's even cooler than that is I'm going to give one of you a copy.

I don't often do contests here, because I'm really lazy, and not organized enough to do them well, but I think this calls for one. I'll buy a copy of this book and ship it to one of you lucky readers. All you have to do is leave a comment. You can tweet, blog or Facebook it if you want, but I'm not giving points for that because I'm too lazy to check that you actually did it. Instead I'll give you points like this: +1 for your comment (only rewarded once), +1 if you become a follower of my blog today, +1 if you become a follower of Tawna's blog today, +2 if you're an old follower of my blog, +2 if you're an old follower of Tawna's blog, and +5 if you already followed both (no, those will not stack). Don't lie, even though I won't be checking.

Tell me how much you earned in your comment, and then I'll just pick who I want to give the book to, and ignore all the points.

Just kidding.

You all know how these things work.

If you don't win, here is where you can find Making Waves for yourself:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Powell's
Indiebound

And here is where you can find Tawna, in addition to her blog:

Tawna's Website
On Twitter
Facebook

So that's it. Except if you say something funny, and relevant, in your comment, you might get an extra point. Or not. Good luck!

NOTE: I better limit this to U.S. readers only, I'm not sure what customs would make of a story like this.

29 comments:

Creepy Query Girl said...

Well, since this is right up my ally and you're not checking points. Count me down for +30:) Thanks for introducing us to Tawna! Off to go join her blog (though I may have already) and I'm definitely checking out 'Making Waves'

Laura Pauling said...

I'm in. Looks good.

I understand about the contest. It must takes hours for bloggers to total up all those points!

Jessica Bell said...

Welcome back! Would love to win a copy. About time I start reading something a little more light-hearted I think :) Okay, my points tally up to 4 :o)

Steve MC said...

Here's me plunking down my 3 raffle tickets and saying it's good to see you back!

Sarah Tokeley said...

I'm already following you and Tawna so I guess that makes 5. I'm in England though, so it's okay if you don't want to count me. Postage isn't cheap :)

Making Waves is already on my To Buy list. I second your recommendation about following Tawna, she hides a lot of useful stuff amongst the funny.

Stina said...

Man, I need more sleep. I read it that I would get points for having a shower. But since it's only 5:41 am my time, I wouldn't even get points for that because I don't shower until after I finish blogging and have gone for a run. ;)

*craws back into bed*

Slamdunk said...

Welcome back Matthew and looking forward to hear about your exploits.

Gotta go take a look Tawna's blog.

Summer Frey said...

Welcome back! I've been following Tawna for a long, long time, and I got my own copy of Making Waves 2 weeks ago! Very fun read.

Heather M. Gardner said...

Awesome.

I already follow you and I already follow Tawna. Making Waves is on my TBR list but I didn't get it yet.
So if my math is correct that should be 4000 points give or take.

Thanks for the opportunity!
HMG

Old Kitty said...

Good luck Tawna and good luck you lucky people joining the giveaway! Yay! Take care
x

Michael G-G said...

Welcome back, Matt. Can't wait to read about your vacation.

I'm lazier than you. In fact I am so lazy I can't even bother to count my squadrons of points. Am guessing I beat HMG by 1.

Philosophy Today: Can a complete lazy bones be competitive?

Scott Stillwell said...

Ok, I admit it, I'm following the blog of a romance writer now. I get 4 points (comment = 1, "old" follower of you = + 2, new follower of Tawna = +1). I hope following her blog will give me some useful pointers because, when it comes to convincing people not to pet me, I could use all the help I can get.

Glad you had a good trip.

Jeff Beesler said...

I'm in for 10 points for being old follower of you and her's blog, for following both, and for commenting today on yours.

Now that I've settled that score, I've got another score to settle. Between those two topics of What you did on vacation and how much you love Seattle, it leads me to suspect that perhaps you were in the area and didn't inform me of this? I've been known to be wrong about these sorts of things before, and am hoping I'm wrong now, because if I'm not...one of my characters will suffer for this.

J/K. Next time you're up in the area, just let me know so I can try and get over to meet ya! :-D

mshatch said...

I already follow you and I'm now following Tawna so I think that's 4. Sounds like a fun book and after reading her post I'll freely admit I love a good romance.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

I'm following Tawna now. Number 801 on her follower's list.

TAWNA FENSKE said...

Wow, thanks for all the wonderfully kind words about the blog and everything else! Its supportive folks like all of you that make this author gig the best job on the planet!

Tawna

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Not entering to win, but congratulations to your friend!
And one of my critique partners writes in a completely different genre than me, but her input really helped my book.

Unknown said...

Umm, I'll go join that wonderfully funny blog but honestly, I'm too lazy to count up points. I think about +100 should do. ;)

Unknown said...

Umm, I'll go join that wonderfully funny blog but honestly, I'm too lazy to count up points. I think about +100 should do. ;)

Bryan Russell said...

I'm out of luck. None of my relevant comments are funny, and all of my funny comments are irrelevant.

Christina Lee said...

YAY--Hi Tawna--this sounds great!
+3 (comment and old follower)!!

erica and christy said...

Glad to hear you enjoyed your vacation! And thanks for the book (and blog) recommendation!
erica

Lydia Kang said...

Nice contest and you can put me down for three pennies, thank you. I'm always glad to meet a bloggy/writer friend of yours.

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Tawna is hilarious. So entertainment. I imagine her book is just a hoot!

LynNerdKelley said...

I don't know Tawna and planned to go to her site and follow her before you mentioned the contest, so that's very cool. I'd love to win her book. And I won't get points for signing up to follow her on twitter, but I'm going to do that, too. So I left a comment, am already a follower of you, and am going to follow Tawna, so that's only 4 points. Good try, though. Nice of you to do the contest. Hope you had a great vacation. Also, that's a really cute pic of you and your daughter.

Sarah said...

Thanks for introducing Tawna! I would have commented here yesterday, but I followed the link to her blog and just ... stayed there. So, I'm a new follower of hers (+1) and an old follower of yours (+2).

Bethany Elizabeth said...

I've loved Tawna's blog forever, she was one of the first people I started following when I made my blog a year ago. :) I've followed both of you for awhile now, and it's been great!
So that's six total, right? +5 for being an old follower of both and +1 for the comment? Nifty. :)

Bkloss said...

Thanks for introducing Tawna! I'm so in - I love romantic comedies.

(and how awesome for you to get such incredible writer-ly feedback! invaluable experience...)

Jenna said...

I believe I get 5 points, as I read both of you whenever you update in my Google reader. I can't say that I'm particularly clever this morning, but how about a joke? What's big and yellow and can't swim?

A bulldozer.