Award-winning author
Unusual times, remarkable places

The "Standard of Ur" from ancient Mesopotamia

The "Standard of Ur" from ancient Mesopotamia

17 September 2010

Third annual birthday contest


To celebrate turning 54, I’m holding a birthday contest again this year.

To enter, comment on this post by 11 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, 25 September. Any comment will suffice, but if you need a topic idea, I suggest telling me how you'd like to celebrate your next landmark birthday. Be inventive! Don't just say that you'll celebrate your 50th with a colonoscopy and an AARP membership; think of something cool! (And then I hope you'll do it.)

One poster will be chosen at random from a hat by my husband. The winner will receive their choice of a trade paperback version of Like Mayflies in a Stream (an $11.95 value!) or a $10 gift certificate for Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble (winner's choice).

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Coming soon: interviews with authors Steve Malley and Jason McCammon

13 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I will be 52 this year. Lana's bday is the day before mine, october 13, and we will celebrate around midnight in some fashion as yet undetermined. Neither of us is a big present/celebratioin person so it will be low key.

Sarah Johnson said...

Happy birthday!
Having spent my 40th last year in Salzburg, Austria, I'm not sure I can top that, but I suppose I should try. Maybe I should go tropical next time and take a long trip to Hawaii and the South Pacific. Now I just have to save up for it.

Mark Kennet said...

I try to spend my birthdays in Lima, Peru. To start, nowhere else can I assemble so many people so easily to just get a party going. And the mechanics ate so wonderfully easy and inexpensive! Call the caterer (no more than, say, $5 per head for really great food), get a bunch of wine and pisco, and crank up the stereo or hire a band (not usually - my apartment isn't that big :-) ).

The next morning, I simply pay my part-time housekeeper to come and clean it up...

Shauna Roberts said...

CHARLES, personally, I like low-key birthdays the best. My least favorite birthday events were the two birthdays I spent evacuated for hurricanes.

SARAH, thanks for the birthday wishes. Salzburg sounds like a great place for a celebration.

MARK: ah, the benefits of living somewhere with low wages.

Terri-Lynne said...

I followed the link from your FB post today. Happy birthday!

My next big birthday will be 50 (in four years.) I'd like to say I'll be celebrating on a pirate ship with my mates, but more than likely, I'll get a surprise party given to me by the hubs and my kids.
(I'll wear a pirate costume though, certainly. =D)

See you at WFC!

Shauna Roberts said...

TERRI-LYNNE, with four years to go, you've got time to arrange a pirate ship birthday. Thanks for entering my contest.

Unknown said...

Oh, as usual, I'm late to the party. Please enter me into your Shiny Contest.

Sophy ZS Adani

Liane Spicer said...

Happy Birthday, Shauna!

I too `prefer low-keyed birthdays, but I'd like to visit Vancouver, British Columbia on the next one. It's a place I love in theory since I've never been there. If the reality lives up to the hype, I just might stay!

Ken Schneyer said...

Janice & I were going to spend our 50th on Machu Pichu, but we spent the money for it on Clarion. So We're saving up again; maybe we'll get there.

Carrie Vaughn has great advice for any writer: concentrate on what you can control (when you write, what you write, how often you submit) not on what you can't control (whether they buy it, whether anyone reads it, whether it gets an award...).

Shauna Roberts said...

SOPHY: entered!

LIANE, I hear Vancouver is gorgeous and has many good restaurants.

KEN, I'd love to see Machu Pichu sometime too.

EVERYONE, I'm about to have my husband draw the names for the winner.

Shauna Roberts said...

and the winner is . . . CHARLES GRAMLICH!

Charles, please let me know whether you want another copy of Like Mayflies in a Stream or a $10 B&N or Amazon.com gift certificate.

Lana Gramlich said...

Happy belated birthday, hon...Sorry I missed it!

writtenwyrdd said...

Happy belated birthday. I'm sorry I missed entering this contest!

As I'm turning 50 on my next birthday, I am thinking of throwing a party. The problem is I can't drink, my friends don't drink, and we are all rather boring, really. So I'm left thinking that a party may not be the best thing, so I might host a charity auction of some sort at the church. Sounds like an excuse for a pot luck that won't strictly be about my birthday.