As it happened, Mom was summoned for jury duty shortly thereafter. Ever the savvy marketer, she tucked the book in her bag and headed off for a long morning of thumb-twiddling with a hundred other potential jurors in a cramped waiting area. She had only been holding my ARC a short time when – just as Mom expected – a bored fellow citizen asked what she was reading.
"Well, actually..." Mom began, and launched into her Making Waves sales pitch.
I laughed 'til I snorted when she told me that, and requested photographic proof. Not only did she provide it, she and my father began a quest to show their ARC of Making Waves an all around good time. Check it out:
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| Mom reads Making Waves in front of the juror entrance. |
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| Then she takes Making Waves out to dinner with her girlfriends. |
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| Not to be outdone, Dad takes Making Waves for a cuppa joe at Starbucks. |
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| I appreciate marketing savvy behind the public laughter with the book cover prominently displayed. |
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| Next up, Making Waves goes golfing. Fore! |
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| Wow, Dad can't even put the book down long enough to take the shot! |
Impressive, no?
Well here's the cool part. My amazing agent, Michelle Wolfson, managed to get her hands on another ARC of Making Waves. We'll give it away to the reader who pledges to show the ARC the very best time. Where will you take it? What will you do for fun? Can my ARC be arrested in your state of residence?
Tell us in the comments where you plan to take the ARC. No fair making stuff up – we're going to expect photographic evidence later, so if a trip to Uranus is in your plans, you might want to consider the logistics.
(And please don't delve too deeply into that Uranus thing. Eeew.)
Leave a comment describing your plan for showing the Making Waves ARC a memorably good time. We'll pick a winner from all the comments left by noon PST on Sunday, July 10. The winner will be announced Monday, and the ARC shipped out right after that. Any questions? Fire away!
And get ready to show me a damn good time.
Um, my book. Show my book a good time. That's what I meant.
39 comments :
I love how your parents supported you like this. It works well and it provides for a great blog post.
I could take "Making Waves" around Brussels, Belgium, where I'm currently living and it could go with me on my summer vacation to Bucarest, Romania. I know lots of English speakers in both countries. :)
I never thought about reading and golfing! That could change everything!
I'm currently living in London, UK and I'd love to take "Making Waves" to Buckingham Palace. Maybe we can get one of those guards to finally crack a smile? Or on my vacation to South of France? I have a feeling it might fit right in on a topless beach.
Hey, I can get your ARC a primo spot onstage at The Barns at Wolf Trap. It'll be a STAR! ;)
I could show your ARC the inside of every dive bar within a 10 mile radius of my house. I bet Making Waves would be a hit with the biker set!
>.>
I can take you book on a literary tour of our library system (where many of their siblings will briefly be shelved before going home with the first people who try to pick them up, the hussies), a few museums, a boat ride on the Mississippi River, a casino, a gun range, John Deere Commons, and some yoga classes.
Good mercy, I lead a boring life . . .
I've already pre-ordered your book so I don't need the ARC, but I'll see if I can show my copy a good time around Sweden.
10 miles? Is that all the further you can stumble, Simon?
I have no idea where I would take Making Waves. My life is boring and I don't often travel. I am going to Seattle at the end of the month, but considering how close that is to her birthplace, I'm not sure Making Waves would get very excited for that.
Why not share the love? Or Making Waves. Send the ARC on a trip around the world, then everyone who wants to participate can show it a great time :).
Now I'm off to figure out what I would wanna share with it...
This is a fun idea. I leave for Florida on July 16th. And I've never met a stranger. I'd be glad to take a snapshot of Making Waves with waiters, fellow beach bums, the guy at the movie theater, the fishermen on the pier, etc. And I live in Tennessee. Making Waves could take a trip to Grand Ole' Nashville. :)
If I could the arc in time, I'd take it flying on a jet plane, followed by a leisurely ferry ride to Vancouver Island. From there, it would enjoy a few days of intense Lacrosse, followed by some ocean-side relaxation at Long Beach. Then it would be on to the ferry again, for another weekend of Lacrosse, and from there, an adventurous tour of camping in Washington State before heading home for a tube float down the pristine Slocan River. Hurry. I leave Thursday.
If I could get...get the arc in time. Sheesh!
There are three cozy wine bars in my city, and I would love to take a break from my required reading on education policy (snore!) and take Making Waves out for a few glasses of pinot noir!
I feel kind of like a contestant on The Dating Game!
I would like to take your ARC on a tour of Richwood and Union, towns in Boone County, Kentucky. Why? Because these are all real places:
We'll start of with a bang at Big Bone Lick State Park (the home of American Paleontology, honest), which is located on Beaver Road, and around the Corner from both the Beaver Lick Church of God and the Big Bone Baptist Church.
We will drive down Frogtown Road on our way to Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, although the mayor, Junior, a laborador retriever, passed a way not too long ago. Not sure if they've yet sworn in the horse to replace him. But we can stop at the General Store to ask. Rabbit Hash is also a weekend destination for lots of bikers, so we can totally pimp you there.
Unfortunately, the street sign for the town of Sugar Tit keeps getting stolen, but we can maybe find a copy of an old map to prove we've been there.
Gosh, I only just realized it, but I guess we could get metaphorical with "Richwood" and "Union", too, if we wanted...
Uh, I could take it to my next OB/GYN appointment. Not impressive? It's for my glucose tolerance test in the seventh month of pregnancy...so it may get to see me hurl...still not impressive? Eh, I'll buy a copy!
Good job, parents!
Two months ago, I was challenged with the quest of showing a good time to a cardboard cut-out of a local radio stations' morning show hosts.
The resulting video is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q66PIP5Jj4w
(Living with Crash and Mars)
I can show your ARC a good time in Canada :-)
Making Waves needs to meet some people! I think we would start with coffee and a trip to meet my writing group - we love new members!
Then it would be off to make waves at the pool to meet all of the tanners that need something great to read while they bake.
Next, I think we would have a little party! No one needs to escape into a good book like mothers of young children and I know plenty of those. What better way to introduce Making Waves than to take it out for a drink with the girls?!
Your parents are awesome!!!
I would take your ARC to Reno NV with me for my quarterly hair styling trip.
We'd begin our journey picking up my sister in a tiny town that no one has ever heard of (but there are people that can read there so it's a start!) We'd then venture through a few more tiny towns stopping along the way for coffee, food and restrooms, the ARC always in toe.
After we've finally made it to Reno it would spend a few lovely hours in A Salon 7 (which was voted best salon in northern NV from 2006-2010 so it's always packed). After that it'll spend it's time gallivanting around town shopping, eating at fine establishments such as iHop and staying out too late at hotels like the Peppermill or the Silver Legacy...
There are lots of good ideas in these comments. Personally, I would take the ARC to the top of Pike's Peak.
I'll take MAKING WAVES to Jackson Hole, Grand Teton, and maybe even Yellowstone. I think it will feel right at home in Grand Teton and well, you know how those cowboys like to have a goodtime.
Let's see...I need to go to the grocery store and since I need to watch my pennies, that would require a trip to Safeway (weekly coupon flyer as my bookmark), Winco and Fred Meyer's. Also, we've got a trip to the ENT, my gym, and the library.
Oh, and I've got a baby shower to attend. Perhaps instead of the traditional games, I could suggest we just take turns reading out loud a few pages????
Seriously, cannot wait to read it! :)
I would take it to bed with me.
That's where I take all my favorite books.
Your parents are soooo cute!
I want to hang out with your parents!
If I get to hang out with the ARC, I'd take it to the midnight premiere of the last Harry Potter movie (although it'd have to sit in my lap), followed by a rollicking good game of Cornhole, some wave-making in Calfkiller River, a walking tour of the local historic district, and a down home southern barbecue at the Whitaker Barn.
OH SNAP-- a friend of mine used my computer last night and didn't sign out of her Google account. The Cornhole post is mine!
I thought someone stole my idea for a minute there. Yikes!
I love these pictures. Your parents are awesome. My favorite is the one where Making Waves is sticking out of your dad's back pocket. So casual, yet impossible to ignore!
Making Waves might not find much adventure in this small Central MA town. I could take it in the car while I shuttle my kids to summer camps. MW could visit our little lakeside beach and watch us catch bullfrog tadpoles (from a safe, dry distance). I could prop Making Waves on the scratched-up kitchen table while I homeschool my kids in multiplication and phonics.
Mostly, I think I would keep Making Waves next to my computer monitor as I work through some major slash-and-reassemble revisions in my novel. It would serve as a reminder that persistence pays off if fed a steady diet of dreams.
Oh, but if I win a trip to the Greek Isles or Rome, I'll take MW there too, of course.
Here in the Devil's Armpit anything can be arrested. Only with ghost like street savvy can I avoid capture as well, but with fingers firmly pressed on the pulsing coratids of Brown Cloud City---if it can be done, I can do it.
At 140 degrees under surplus army canvas, everything gets sticky in Sheriff Joe's Tent City--AZ's crown jewel of touring paperback candid snapshot possibilities. (And considering ARC's content and the residents there, Making Waves would likely get EXTRA sticky) But alas the tale would ultimately be left untold as I steer clear of TC as vampire to sunlight. I'm ashamed to report...on that I simply cannot deliver.
But there are immigration protests, DUI checkpoints, dozens of state and federal penitentiaries, (razor wire still looks cool from the outside) half-man half-machine bike cops near ASU---ballhuggered terminators relentlessly scouring the alleys for public order's biggest prize of all: a sophomore unloading spent PBRs behind a dumpster.
That's the real Arizona.
It's not in the brochures or directories, but it's there every single day like a giant sweaty cockroach flattened inside the crumbling drywall of your soul.
And I can bring it to you.
Its the Devil's Armpit--and I am the coarse black hair that forever grows there.
If the arc arived in time.......it could drive down to Virginia Beach to meet up with my sister and family and then fly to Florida to catch the Disney Dream ship for a cruise to Nassau Bahama and the Disney Castaway Cay with a day trip to Atlantis. Then back to land and 4 days at Disney Orlando before jetting back to beautiful Long Island where it would take up residence on the keeper bookshelf.
I could take your arc to church on Sunday. I'm sure it would get a lot of attention during the sermon. Especially if I did the laughing thing with the book open.
Well crap, I was SO going to offer my husband's services (as a gun-toting, badge-wearing cop)... but we only live over the hills from you, and all these other folks are like FAR freaking away!
Can you just come to my library for a reading instead?
Julie
Want to go see my favorite goats? Those goats will eat anything! Who knows, if ya "arc" just right…..
Tawna, I can take your arc to California's wine country for a week of wine-tasting and cutesy shops in Healdsburg and Sonoma and Napa, as well as to Federicos Wine and Tapas Bar in the East Bay for the best food in the Golden State http://www.federicoscafe.com/.
Then, when we get back to the Midwest, we'll go up to the lake and spend some time boat shopping, and then go for a boat ride and have some more wine with the neighbors.
That arc will have a heckuva good time with me, and I promise I'll introduce it to lots of great readers!
I would take the arc to the Johannesburg Zoo, the Union Building gardens and Grootvlei Power Station (Photo would have to be from outside the station due to the national key points act, but luckily cooling towers are photogenic from far away).
I just realized all of that sounds rather, well, educational. So this would only work if your arc has a liking for school trips.
Is there any better time than MAKING WAVES in my pool with me?
I think not.
I will put your ARC on the shelf with my bestsellers so your book will know how to behave when it hits the bestseller lists.
Then I will invite your darling agent over for a toast.
These are great, you guys! This is going to make the decision awfully hard!
I said "hard."
Tawna
*can't compete with Janet but will try*
I'll take your book on a romantic walk in the park. We'll eat ice lollys and splash our feet in the water. I'll yell, "Guess what, passers-by? We're MAKING WAVES." I'll then tell them I'm not crazy, and show them the ARC.
After the park, we'll hold hands and skip through the city to my favourite coffee shop, where I will buy it coffee or tea or perhaps even a bit of cake, and tell it how much more beautiful it is than the books in the bookshelf there. I'll wave it around at the baristas, who will be jealous.
To finish the evening, we'll snuggle up in bed together. Red wine. Soft lighting. Barry White. Mmmm.
I think I'm a little late, but I had to try because geez, the only book I want to take on vacation is MAKING WAVES!
I'll bring the ARC on a week-long cruise to and vacation in Bermuda. We'll soak in the sunshine, take walks on the beach, go snorkeling (well, MAKING WAVES will have to wait on the boat), and rumor has it that it might even witness me getting engaged!
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