FIRELANDS Apocalypse Reader/Blogger Challenge!

FIRELANDS, my dystopian thriller, was born on June 4. To celebrate, I want to thank my fellow bloggers and awesome readers for helping it to achieve a 10 on the Debut Novel Apgar Scale.

To do this, I have created the FIRELANDS Apocalypse Reader/Blogger Challenge. To put it simply, this consists of twin contests—one for bloggers, and one for readers–open between now and July 19.

FOR THE READERS

PRIZES

*drumroll please*

FIRELANDS Apocalypse Survival Kit!

Your very own FIRELANDS Apocalypse Survival Kit! My first choice would be to include a .45 with ammo, but due to firearms restrictions, I’ll have to let you see to that yourselves. However, I’ve given careful thought to the other things you’ll need to survive the apocalypse in style and comfort . . .

The Swedish Fireknife by Light My Fire

Fireknife—Firelands. Get it? This Swedish Fire Knife has a Mora blade with a fire starter in the handle and instructions on how to create blaze-producing sparks without the need of matches. Invaluable when you need to blow something up, or when you just need to gut and clean a squirrel, split your kindling, and light your campfire to cook it for dinner.

image by Light My Fire

And speaking of dinner . . .

Tactical Bacon

Yes, it’s bacon in a can. Good for up to ten years post-apocalypse. Helps keep you strong for fighting off those Josephites. Check out this commercial by “Shotgun” Max Beavins.

Bacon is not only useful for dinner, but as social media has proven, it’s a great way to make friends. In fact, if you go onto Facebook right now and simply type “bacon” as your status update, you’ll get more responses than if you posted five pictures of your children. The only thing that can compete with bacon as social grease is Grumpy Cat.

Which brings me to the next item in the FIRELANDS Apocalypse Survival Kit . . .

Stuffed Grumpy Cat

A stuffed Grumpy Cat, handmade by me since there are no official models yet. Grumpy Cat will be your perfect post-apocalypse companion. She has a proven track record of winning friends and influencing people, and she will be the only creature who is actually delighted about your dire situation.

Barter Goods

Once your Grumpy Cat helps you make a few friends, you’ll need to be prepared to barter. So your FIRELANDS Apocalypse Survival Kit comes with the age-old tried and true barter goods, cigarettes and chocolate.

You might notice those are candy cigarettes, which are desirable barter items to both smokers and non-smokers. And they never go bad.

Signed Author Copy

A first edition autographed copy of FIRELANDS for your post-apocalyptic reading needs.

Eddie Bauer Rippac Packable Daypack
“Before” Picture

Go Bag

Obviously, you’ll need something to carry all of these post-apocalyptic necessities, so I’m including this Eddie Bauer Rippac Packable Daypack. A full-sized ripstop backpack that folds in on itself like a second term presidency, except it’s much tidier and way more useful.

Eddie Bauer Rippac
“After” Picture

Quick! How Do I Enter the FIRELANDS Apocalypse Reader Challenge?

There are four ways for READERS to enter the FIRELANDS Apocalypse Challenge:

1)    Quote – Good for one entry in random drawing.

• Leave a quote from FIRELANDS on this or any other linked blog, OR
• Post a quote on Facebook and make sure I see it, OR
• Send a quote to @PiperBayard on Twitter.

2)    Picture – Good for one entry in random drawing.

• Post a picture of yourself with a copy of FIRELANDS in paper or on your electronic device on a linked blog, on Facebook, or on Twitter and tag me or link to me to make sure I see it.

3)    Mailing List – Good for one entry in random drawing.

• Sign up on the Bayard & Holmes mailing list at Bayard & Holmes Newsletter. You will receive our infrequent newsletters and notices of our book releases. We will protect your email from foreign operatives, phone solicitors, and grasping DHS agents, but we cannot give you any guarantees about what the NSA will do with it.

4)    Review – Each review is good for one entry in random drawing.

• Leave a review of FIRELANDS at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and/or iPad, and link to it in the comments here or in any other linked blog. EACH REVIEW IS CONSIDERED AN ENTRY so you could enter up to four times.

This means your name can be entered for the drawing up to seven times–once each for a quote, a picture, and signing up on the mailing list, and up to four more times for reviews. No purchase is necessary to enter.

FOR THE BLOGGERS

PRIZES

A Hearty Pimping!

Your prize will be a Hearty Pimping! Since we bloggers tend to be exhibitionists, I will expose you these three ways:

• A featured post on the Social In Worldwide, Inc. Network. Social In is a Twitter-driven network of forty sites nationwide with a collective following of approximately two million people. Your feature will appear on all forty sites and will be tweeted out to those two million people with links to your site, your book, your Twitter handle, and your Facebook page.
• A feature post at the Bayard & Holmes site with links to all of your vitals.
• A featured spot in the sidebar at our Bayard & Holmes web site during the month of August.

Quick! How Do I Enter the FIRELANDS Apocalypse Blogger Challenge?

Bloggers enter the FIRELANDS Apocalypse Challenge by blogging about anything apocalyptic . . .

• Favorite/worst apocalyptic movie, song, TV show, cult, food, plague, disaster, etc.
• How you will make moonshine, cookies, party favors, etc. in the apocalypse
• Post-Apocalyptic pet care
• The religion you would create to control the world during the apocalypse
• Absolutely anything having anything at all to do with the Apocalypse.

Mention FIRELANDS, and link back to this post so I see it. That simple. You’re entered in the random drawing for the opportunity to expose yourself.

BLOGGERS CAN BE READERS!

Entering one contest does not exclude you from entering the other, but only one prize per winner.

Drawings will be held on July 19, 2013, and winners will be announced in The End is Near post on that day. Each winner will have two weeks to claim his/her prize. Any prize unclaimed after two weeks will be forfeit, and a new winner will be selected.

Again, I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. There is a fear when releasing a book that it will be like a party where no one shows up. Thank you for showing up at my party. You each hold a special place in my heart.

LET THE FIRELANDS APOCALYPSE READER/BLOGGER CHALLENGE BEGIN!

Eighty years in the future, America has devolved into a totalitarian theocracy. The ruling Josephites clone the only seeds that grow in the post-apocalyptic climate, allowing their Prophet to control who eats, who starves, and who dies in the ritual fires that atone society.

Subsisting on the fringes, Archer risks violation and death each day as she scours the forest for game to feed her people. When a Josephite refugee seeks sanctuary in her home, Archer is driven to chance a desperate gamble. A gamble that will bring down the Prophet and deliver seeds and freedom, or end in a fiery death for herself and for everyone she loves.

Seeds are life . . . Seeds are power . . . Seeds are the only hope of a despairing people. What will Archer do for the seeds of freedom, and what will she justify in their name?

FIRELANDS

Available from Amazon in Paperback and on Kindle

Also in e-book at Barnes & Noble and Kobo,

and at iTunes for iPad and mobile devices.