Inkspot News - April 16, 2011

Today, Saturday, April 16th, Beth Groundwater will be discussing and signing copies of her new release, Deadly Currents, from 1 to 3 PM at Beth Anne’s Book Corner, 1532 North Circle Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80909. Beth Anne's chocolate fountain will be flowing, so stop by for a yummy treat!

Tomorrow, Sunday, April 17th, Beth Groundwater will participate in Englewood Library's 12th annual "Meet the Faces Behind the Books" multi-author extravaganza from 1 to 3 PM. The library is located at 1000 Englewood Parkway, Englewood, CO 80110.

Thursday, April 21st, from 4:30 to 7 PM, Beth Groundwater will conduct a 1 hour signing of her book, Deadly Currents, followed by open-to-the-public book club discussion of Deadly Currents at The Book Haven bookstore, 128 F Street, Salida, CO 81201.

Midnight Ink acquisition editor Terri Bischoff has just started her own blog, Under Cover At Midnight, and she's running a free books contest for those who sign up as followers. Go check it out HERE and sign up!

Inkspot News - April 2, 2011

We've been asked to spread the word:

The Wolfe Pack/Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine's annual Black Orchid
Novella Contest is underway. The deadline is May 31, 2011. The winner
receives $1,000 and publication in AHMM. Details are at

http://www.nerowolf e.org/htm/ neroaward/ black_orchid_ award/BO_ award_proc. htm

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Also, the Al Blanchard Award Contest closes for entries April 30 (by midnight). Don't miss this opportunity to win:

--$100 cash prize
--publication in Level Best Books' ninth anthology of crime stories by New England writers, Dead Calm.
--free admission to the Crime Bake conference in November (you do not have to attend to win)
--a handsome plaque

Your submission should be:
--story by a New England author or with a New England setting
--no more than 5,000 words
--previously unpublished (in print or electronically, including on your website)
--may include the following genres: mystery, thriller, suspense, caper, horror (with no killing or torture of children or animals)

For details on how to submit, visit the Crime Bake website: www.crimebake.org

A Birthday Gift --- for YOU!

Sometime in the next few weeks, I will be celebrating my birthday. I won't tell you exactly when, because for identity theft protection purposes, I protect the date almost as well as I protect my social security number and full name. I will divulge that I am a Leo. And, don't ask how old I'm going to be either! ;-)

To celebrate, instead of collecting gifts, I am giving one away--in a contest that I'm running both here and on my personal blog. I will give away a personalized autographed copy of one of my books (your choice), plus a selection of books written by other mystery authors, to one lucky winner.

How do you enter the contest, you ask? I would like to encourage people to sign up as followers both here and on my personal blog. So, that's all you have to do to be entered! Sometime in the next 4 weeks, sign up as a Google/blogger follower on both blogs. If you're already a follower of both blogs, you're already entered into the contest.

At the end of 4 weeks, when I'm due to post here again, I will use a random number generator to pick the blogger profile of someone who follows both blogs. Then I'll contact you through the email associated with that profile to find out your mailing address and send you the books. That's all it takes. So, if you ever read Inkspot or my personal blog, now you've got a good reason to sign up as a regular follower!

To encourage comments, I'd like to know what your thoughts are on author contests. Do you enter them often? What kinds of prizes do you prefer? Do you prefer ongoing contests (such as the one that I keep running all the time for subscribers to my email newsletter) or contests that are one-time shots like this one? Do you prefer that the prize be divulged ahead of time, or would you rather have it be a mystery?