Big Giveaway and Interview with Charlene Keel and J. Gabriel Gates

Alexis: Today we have Young Adult Paranormal Romance authors, J. Gabriel Gates and Charlene Keel, visiting us and they will be giving away all three of the books in THE TRACKS series!  Answer their question in the rafflecopter for a chance to win! Surely you have ideas on who could play the characters in this story. They will be picking two winners!

Alexis: Why did you choose this sub-genre of romance?

Char: The YA market is pretty hot right now, and I love anything paranormal. While I’ve worked a lot in genres like romance and erotica I hadn’t done any writing for kids since I had my first short story published in Teen Magazine a couple of decades ago. It was refreshing to write love scenes that were sweet, funny and compelling without having the characters get all sizzling and sweaty.

J:  There was a touch of romance in the books I wrote before The Tracks series, but the truth is I probably would never have written something so romance-centric if it hadn't been for the fact that romance is a must in paranormal YA fiction, and HCI Books and Char insisted that romance had to be a major component in the trilogy. There's a lot going on—supernatural evil, teen angst, magic and martial arts action—but now I can’t imagine the story coming to life the way it does without the pounding heartbeats between Aimee and Raphael, Nass and Dalton and Aimee and Orias.

Alexis: Can you tell us your story of getting “the call”?

Char: We actually made the call. TV producer Herman Rush, for whom I’ve worked on various projects, let me know that he was meeting with Peter Vegso, the head of HCI Books. I asked Herman for an introduction, once he’d completed his business with Peter. Herman set it up for me and after I pitched the project (over the phone!), Peter said, “I love it! I want it!”

J: When I got the call I was living in Canada and doing construction work. I’d already written four novels and hadn't succeeded in getting them published. I had walked away from my TV acting career in Los Angeles to try my luck in Toronto. Getting the publishing deal for The Tracks series was the break I needed. Since then, I've had two of my other novels published—Blood Zero Sky and The Sleepwalkers.

Alexis: Where did you get the idea for this story?

Char: It was J’s idea originally—that’s why his name is first on the cover. Believe it or not, we met on Craig’s List. I was still living in L. A. and pitching projects to people half my age. I was about to put an ad on Craig’s List for a young, hot guy to take with me to pitch meetings (to make that necessary youth connection) when I saw Jake’s ad, looking for advice on how to get his books published.

I got in touch and we met and hit it off. He told me about The Tracks, his concept for a TV series, which was great. It combined all the teen angst of school and parental pressures, getting crushes and falling in love, and it had teen gangs fighting each other with martial arts. I suggested adding a supernatural element, and our proposal came together. But then Jake moved to Canada and I moved to Florida so we never got to pitch it, until Herman introduced me to Peter.

J: The idea came to me in L.A. when I was taking Wing Chun Kung Fu lessons. I got home from class one day and some of my friends were watching Degrassi. I sat down to watch it with them. After a few minutes I said, “You know what would make this way better? A kung fu showdown.” They laughed, but that was the beginning of The Tracks.

Alexis: What made you chose your title? 

Char: Titles are tough. We knew that The Tracks was good for a series but it wasn’t a good book title. We wracked our brains and finally came up with Dark Territory. It’s a railroad term and fits our story perfectly, as much of it takes place on or near abandoned train tracks.

J: The initial title for book 1 was going to be Wheel of Illusion. I liked it, but Char and our publisher were less than thrilled. After a few weeks of head scratching, Char came up with Dark Territory and I was immediately like, “Yes!”

Alexis: What was your first writer’s conference?

Char: The Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention in San Diego in 1992, for which I was the convention coordinator. I also produced the first Mr. Romance Cover Model Pageant for Kathryn Falk. Shortly after, I got an offer to be an editor at Playgirl. Working at Romantic Times was a blast—probably the most fun I’ve ever had in publishing.

J: I've pretty much done my whole career in reverse. I sold five novels, then got an agent. I just attended a workshop back in June, in Orlando, at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference, and it was a blast.  I wish I'd found the money and time to invest in attending conferences sooner, and I do plan going to more in the future. For a writer at any stage of his or her career, the networking opportunities are invaluable.

Alexis: Thank you both for chatting with us on Happily Ever After Thoughts. If readers want to learn more about this awesome duo, check out their sites:

Char – www.charlenekeel.com

J. - http://jgabrielgates.com

The Tracks Series buy link: Amazon

Author Bios:

Charlene Keel has written over a dozen novels and how-to books. Among her TV credits are Days of Our Lives and Fantasy Island, and her novels include The Lodestone (historical romance), Seventh Dawn of Destiny (action-adventure romance), Dark Territory, Ghost Crown, Shadow Train (YA paranormal romance) and Rituals, which was adapted for TV as the first made-for-syndication soap opera. Keel has also done screen adaptations of books by Patricia Hagan, Rebecca Brandewyne and Peggy Webb and she ghostwrites for celebrities and corporate moguls.

J. Gabriel Gates is a native of Marshall, Michigan. The son of an English teacher, his passion for the written word began at a young age. During college, another passion—for performing—led him to get his B.A. degree in theater from Florida State University. During his years in Los Angeles, he appeared in a dozen national TV commercials and penned several screenplays while laying the groundwork for his career as a novelist. His novels include Dark Territory, Ghost Crown, Shadow Train (The Tracks Trilogy), The Sleepwalkers and Blood Zero Sky.

Excerpt from Ghost Crown:

As she looked up into his eyes all she could think about was how his lips would taste. Abruptly, she turned away from Orias and went to the other side of the room. His presence was overwhelming her, driving every other thought away.

            “Please stay,” he said.

            Only half an hour had passed. If she left now her dad would never let her hear the end of it. “Okay,” she agreed. “But no more of this polite conversation bull crap. I’ll stay—if you answer some questions for me. About your father.”

            “Whatever you want to know.”

            “For one thing, what kind of person—” she began, and then started over. “He didn’t just abduct me, you know.”

            A flash of pain shot through Orias’s eyes, so sharp it surprised her. “What did he do to you?” he asked grimly.

            “For starters, he took me to this really weird place. Then he shot a boy right in front of me. Killed him and made me dance in his blood. What kind of person does that?”

            “Someone who is insane, clearly.”

            “Insane?” she repeated, incredulous. “How does that explain the rest, Orias? How was he able to sprout big black wings—and fly right up into the sky like some kind of demented angel?”

            The contempt Orias felt for his father was obvious. “I can’t believe he let you see that,” he said.

“Well, he did—so what was he? And what does that make you?”

            Disgust showed in his face at her final question—a loathing so strong it was undeniable—and she wondered if he might actually hate Oberon as much as she did.

“You wouldn’t believe me,” he said at last.

            “Try me,” she said. “After what I’ve seen, you’d be surprised at what I’d believe. So tell me, or I’m out of here.”

             “My father was an Irin, Aimee. A Watcher. A fallen angel.” He waited a moment, she thought, for it to sink in.

“Is that what you are?”

            His sigh was so full of despair it almost brought her to tears. “No,” he said. “I am Nephilim. My mother was human. She made the mistake of loving him and it killed her.”

            Nephilim. Aimee had heard the term when her mom took a Bible study course at Middleburg United Church. For a long time, it was all her mom talked about. She’d had pictures and ceramic figurines of angels all over the house. Most of them were beautiful, but the fallen angels were frightening and the Nephilim were horrendous.

            “Do you have wings too, like your father?”

            “I won’t know for a couple of years—not until my twenty-first birthday. Some Nephilim do get them, but only the most powerful.”

            “So you have powers?” she asked.

            “I think that’s why my father didn’t want me around,” he said. “I have the power of an angel and the heart of a human. That could make me very dangerous, indeed.” He looked at her darkly and her heart did a somersault.

“So you’re part human. Does that mean—you have a soul?” she asked.

            “Half a soul, anyway.”

“That’s really sad,” she said. “But . . . with all your power and money, you’d settle for life in plain old boring Middleburg?”

            “From what I’ve heard, it’s not so boring. And you’re here.”

            “You’ve really got to stop talking like that,” she told him. “I’m taken.”

            “So you’ve said.” He reached out and brushed her hair away from her face, and again she wondered what his lips would feel like on hers. “You’re very special, Aimee.” He took her hand and drew her closer to him. “It’s time you realize that. This world can’t hold you.” His voice was low, almost a whisper. “You can slip through . . . be anywhere you want. Tell me, where would you be at this moment, if you could be anywhere in the world you wanted to be?”

Looking for my mom was the first thing that came to her mind, followed by, anywhere, as long as it’s with Raphael. But what came out of her mouth was, “I don’t know. I’d have to think about it.”

“Think about it, then,” he said softly. He reached out to caress her cheek.

Stop letting him do this, she told herself; stop letting him touch you. She should step away from him but she couldn’t. She didn’t want to.

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So, whose story is this, anyway?

Okay, so Kayce got caught again with nothing to blog about and she cast about for something…anything that might be fun to talk about—maybe something writing-related this time?  Now there’s a new concept for a writer.  DUH!  Then she got distracted with the Awkward Family Photos site and wasted a bunch of time looking at…well, awkward photos.  If you’ve never cruised that site, you should some time…it will make your family look normal.  Didn’t do it for mine…but it might for yours.  LOL

That got me to thinking about writing and about stories and about how many stories there are out there.  How many stories are there, anyway?  Is there a limit?  When will we run out?  Is there only one way to tell a story?  And if there is only one right story for any situation, who’s the right person to tell the story?  These are all things that writers wonder about, things that keep us awake at night, things that make our lunch sit like a rock on our stomachs when we hit that proverbial wall.  So…what is the right answer?

That got me to thinking about my very first attempt at writing seriously (i.e., not a school assignment).  I’d picked up a library book…and don’t ask me which one…I’ve long since forgotten.  But the subject of the book was something along the lines of learning how to write and it had a very interesting experiment in it that I thought you all might be interested in.

So after an hour or so of head shaking and chuckling over the unfortunate pictures other families are still trying to live down, I decided to borrow a couple of those photos and try a new twist.  I call this the “What’s Really Happening Here?” game.  So I ran a few of my favorite awkward photos by my grandsons to see what they thought might really be happening in the picture.  What I got were some pretty good captions for these pics—captions that showed me there could be many different perspectives on the same picture.  As you read these captions, think about what kinds of things run through your head…what would your caption be?

·         What baby?  I didn’t see no baby.     

·         No one saw nuthin and I didn't do it.
·         You mean that's not a potted plant?
·         For Christmas I want…to be an only child.
·         The stork left it; now he won’t take it back.
·         I think it’s a Jack in the Box.
·         I think it’s Santa's fault.
·         Santa looked a lot like daddy.
·         Now I’m the favorite.

 

 

·         101…102 uses for duct tape.

·         I can’t hold the baby AND take the picture.
·         Single parenthood requires creativity.
·         How to avoid pictures of falling babies.
·         Honey, I had to; he kept blurring the picture.
·         Don't worry, there's no sound on this camera.
·         Honey, get the baling wire.

 

Can you see how any one of those would work?  How one picture can have many different meanings?  Did you come up with some new ones?  Of course you did…I know your twisted little minds!

So, after capturing those little gems, I decided to take the experiment another step further and see if a picture could provide not only multiple captions or situations, but different unrelated stories…entire stories. 

Remember that little exercise I mentioned above that was my first attempt at writing?  Well, the assignment was to watch five minutes of a television show with the sound turned off.  Then you write the scene, complete with whatever dialogue, action, and description you imagined was happening in that segment of the show.  It was my first attempt at writing a love scene which, by the way, will never see the light of day.  But it was a great way for me to learn how to develop a scene and I figure if it works with a TV show, it should work with a picture too.  Why not?

So…queue the next awkward photo and let’s see what kind of story lines we get.

Option one:  This woman is a serial murderer.  She kills brides and keeps the wedding dresses hidden in a secret compartment in the false wall of her walk-in closet.  But now she’s found the man she wants.  He’s a smokin’ hot game show host and with the money he makes doing television, she’s sure she’s finally found the man who can keep her in the style to which she’s become accustomed.  After all, it’s not every household that can afford a console TV and blue carpet.  What?  You don’t think you’d buy that book?  Really?  Well, I guess every book isn’t for everyone.  Maybe there’s another story (and another book) in this picture that works for you. 

Option Two:  Perhaps this woman has a dreaded disease but these two love each other madly so the wedding has to take place long distance because her house is enclosed in a bubble.  If she goes outside, she dies.  No?  Yeah, you’re right…can’t put any sex in that story…well, not the hands-on kind anyway.  : - )  And that's a whole different story.

Option Three:  This was a failed prototype for a TV show that was the forerunner to internet dating.  But the prototype was thrown out because no one could believe anyone would consider dating someone they’d never met.  It’s a hit, right?  No?  Alright…back to the drawing board. 

Option Four:  The groom was a stinking cheapskate and wouldn’t spring for the cost of plane fare to actually be there for the wedding, so he convinced his co-dependent fiancée to do it remote.  Yah, I thought so…that one worked for you, didn’t it?  Don’t lie now!  Okay, then I’m gonna pull out the big guns.  This next one was my 14 year old grandson’s interpretation of what was going on in this picture.  You ready for it?  Huh?   Wait for it…it’s pretty good.  Here it is…

Option Five:  Switch channels for a new husband.  Yep, I knew it…that one did it for all the women reading this article.  : - )  Easy peasy.  He gets lazy, he cheats, he lies, he leaves the toilet seat up…a couple of batteries, a good remote, and life’s good again.  Yeah, baby!

 

Okay, are you getting the point here?  Are you getting that there is no limit to the number of stories out there?  That there are many different ways to tell the same story, even if you think it’s already been told before.  There can be many very different stories coming from different perspectives but all originating from the same picture or core concept.  All it takes is stepping outside the box and looking at the same old picture from a new perspective or through the eyes of someone new.

So…let’s try this one more time…because I just love this next picture and I have to give this one a shot.

Option One:  The FBI is hiring operatives younger these days; easier to train and they work cheap.  But, clearly, some are better than others.  (Notice, it’s the girl that’s still standing.)

Option Two:  Never piss off a woman with pretty new red shoes and a weapon in her hand.  It will NOT end well for you!

Option Three:  She has told him and told him to watch where he’s walking, but he just didn’t see that concrete step.  Well, you can’t protect a man from himself.  Sometimes all you can do is just let him make his own mistakes and then put on a smile and go on.

Option Four:  It was a very late night for the midget in the background.  Wait…is that a banana by his head?  Oh, what we could do with that!  No wonder she clobbered him with the lunchbox.

 

So, what have we learned?  Stories come in all shapes and sizes, from many different sources, or all from one source.  There is no limit, there is no right perspective, there is no right person to tell the story.  Change the perspective, change the storyteller, and you change the story itself.  So if you ever find yourself stuck for a solution or in need of a new story, just step to the side and put on a different hat.  Look at the story through the eyes of a different person or a different character.  I guarantee you a colonoscopy scene looks a whole lot different from the perspective of the person in the gown that opens in the back than it does to the person at the other end of the scope!  Which story do you tell?  Which solution do you choose?  It doesn’t matter.  Because not every story is for everyone, but there is someone for every story.

So go write your story, go tell it however you want, through whatever lens works for you.  I guarantee you that somewhere there is a pretty blonde with cute new red shoes and a fun new weapon that really loves that last picture.   So what if the guy with the banana doesn’t like it?  He’ll have his own story one day…as long as he doesn’t keep pissing off the girl in the red shoes. 

So…your turn to tell the story.  Here’s your challenge…here’s your sign…er, I mean picture.  Now, notice that the little girl has a knife in her hand, a grenade strapped to her waist, what looks like ammunition magazines tucked in her belt, and a bunny clutched in her other hand as she cries. 

What’s the story here?  You got one?  I do…I’m wondering where her big brother is.  : - )

 

That’s my story, crazy and cockeyed, and I’m stickin’ to it.  Hang on tight now ‘cuz we’re gonna go real, real fast!

Love ya,

Kayce

 

 

 

 

 

 

My thanks to the Awkward Family Photos site for sharing these pics with us.  Go check them out!
http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

 

Living in the Alaskan wilderness in the 1920’s doesn’t need more challenges than the terrain itself, but Jack and Mabel chose to rough it after the loss of the one child they had wished for.

Not only do they endure the short growing season, minimal resources, and “learning as you go,” but their torture of a childless marriage has grown into a world of silence and little communication.  

Whether it’s their great imaginations or an overabundance of unreleased grief, a magical happening occurs when they build a snow-girl.  The snow-girl appears randomly and gives them tid-bits of help in tough situations.  Naturally, the blustery and frigid winters are the best time for a visit. 

Throughout the story Jack and Mabel untie the strings of a big knot of insecurity and learn how to live with the land and each other.  Magic or reality??

Eowyn Ivey pulls a Russian short story back to life as she bases her novel on a well-known fable.  A nugget of comfort can lead to an unforgettable and heartfelt love.

Guest author Tina Gerow with Giveaway!

My journey to have my first book made into audio book

            I have the rights back to several of my backlist books, and I had heard lots of buzz about authors having their books made into an audio book.  I used to listen to TONS of audio books – especially back in the days when my commute to work was an hour each way.  So this possibility really excited me.  My first book, Into a Dangerous Mind was an award winner and as a full length paranormal romantic suspense I thought it would be the perfect choice to start with.

But like most authors, I’m not independently wealthy and I know it takes a lot of money to make and process an audio book.  After all, there’s not only finding and paying voice talent – or even if I did it myself or got my hubby to read it for me (since he’s done a lot of that type of stuff for work), I don’t have access to high end recording equipment or even know how to use it.  Even beyond that, I would have no idea how to ‘clean it up’ or edit it as needed and then get it into the proper formats to upload it to the different audio book sites!  And that brings up another concern – how would I go about applying to even GET those sites to accept my book in the first place?  I knew the process for even getting ebooks and print books up on different sites was confusing and meandering, so I was sure the audio book path was no less rocky.

            The entire thing sounded like it was out of my reach – another thing I would add to my “as soon as I get uber rich” list.  But then I started to hear about ACX from other authors who were wading into the process.

            I even asked my agent about them and she said that she’d heard quality could be hit or miss but that ACX seemed to be the ‘only game in town’ right now for getting audio books made at a reasonable price for authors-either a 50%/50% royalty split with the producer or each producer sets a production fee you can pay depending on how long and complex your book is.  So I checked into it!

            It was actually really easy.  I went out to ACX.com, read all of their “How To” Section and looked over the site.  Then I went ahead and set up an account.  It’s hooked into Amazon so I just entered my ISBN and it pulled up the book including my blurb, my Amazon sales ranking and my general review rating (in this case 4 out of 5 stars), and then asked me if I was the holder of the Audio rights.  Once I confirmed I was, I was asked for some tax info for reporting and payment purposes, what genre, language, if it’s fiction or non fiction, what vocal style you want - masculine or feminine, and the accent you’re looking for – you know, British, General American, Southern American etc.  I chose General American masculine.

Once I gave the word count for my book, it automatically calculated how many hours the finished audio book would be, which was daunting to see :-)  Into a Dangerous Mind is 73,795 words long, so that comes out to 7.9 hours of finished audio.

            You can choose your options like if you are okay with it being Audible/Amazon exclusive – which gives you better percentage rate from the distributors, or  if you want the freedom to upload the book anywhere you’d like.  After a little more research, I found that other authors who had done this before me seemed to be perfectly happy with the exclusive deal and the general feeling was that most of the sales came from Audible and Amazon anyway.

The ACX site has an extensive database of “Audible approved” voice talent and you can listen to their samples.  I spent several hours doing this and finding some that had the right “voice” for my story.  If I couldn’t imagine them reading my story out loud without laughing, falling asleep or rolling my eyes, I skipped to the next one.  Now the nice thing is that they are also sorted into categories, so you can search for women’s voices or men’s, modern, suspense, fantasy, science fiction, non fiction, British, general American etc.  There are tons of categories, and after a while I got the hang of which suited my book best.

Once you find someone you like, you can send them an “offer.”  Mine always included the 50/50 split and chose due dates for both the first 15 minutes and the finished product.

Since I don’t really have any hard dates that I need the book to be done by, I chose a date that was two months out for the first 15 minutes and four months out for the finished product.  I started slow and only put out one offer at a time although I had a list ready of backups in case those didn’t work out so I’d be ready to send another offer right back out.

On a bright note, they were pretty quick about answering back – usually a day or two.  On the downside – I kept getting back the responses that it sounded like an interesting/or fun/or worthy etc project, but that right now they were no longer accepting any new projects under the 50/50 split, even though their profile clearly stated they were.  But they would be happy to do the book for their standard production fee – usually around $500 per hour of finished audio.  YIKES!!

I had heard this issue from quite a few other authors using ACX so I wasn’t surprised, but it was frustrating.  If they are no longer offering that option, why not update their profiles so they don’t keep getting asked the same thing over and over?  But then, I’m trying to apply logic again – and that always gets me into trouble…

So after five or six of these, I just went ahead and posted an “audition script” – which in my case was the beginning of the book.  But then I do have both men’s and women’s dialog up front along with some action and some romantic stuff as well, so it was a good cross section.  From reading the “How Does this Work” section on the site, this sounded like the best snippet for me to get an idea of how those auditioning would make my entire book sound.  I had heard from other authors that this audition approach could be hit or miss and some of them had waited several weeks to get any takers, but I figured I could always move on to posting the next book I wanted to get made into audio while I waited.  And it’s not like I don’t have current writing projects to keep me busy…lol!

Now as part of the audition profile I made sure to add book information, like awards that it had won along with any marketing perks I could bring to the project to help with our sales – in my case nearly five thousand Facebook friends and over five thousand twitter followers, along with the fact that I’m an active member of RWA and have a large network of fellow writers and friends to market to.

Basically, here is my “About This Title” Section on the audition I posted:

 “Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Small Press Contemporary Paranormal.  What happens when saucy, independent musician, Cassidy James, finds herself with newly discovered psychic powers and must rely on handsome, maverick FBI agent Zach Hatcher to keep from becoming a psychic serial killer's next victim? Cassidy must learn to control her powers to help stop the killer while learning that relationships between people with psychic powers are just as confusing, but much more steamy than normal ones. Zach fights to control his growing attraction for the killer’s intended victim, while overcoming the past, which has caused him to be leery of relationships with women who possess psychic gifts.

And then my “Comments from the Rights Holder”:

I'm also open to a general British accent as long as it's more cultured/proper and not a slang/cockney type accent which wouldn't fit the book or characters.

This book was a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award winner for best small press paranormal romance in 2006.  It has also won various Romance Writer's of America chapter contest awards.

This book is set mainly in Arizona with a few pieces in Washington DC.  It does have a few sex scenes but is sensual rather than erotic.  It's a fast paced paranormal romantic suspense.

I have 5000 Facebook fans I can/do market to for this pen name as well as 5100 followers on Twitter I also market to.  This will be the first audiobook available in any language for this book. 

Much to my surprise an audition popped into my ACX in box two days later.  It was from Keith L. O’Brien, in case you are interested in looking him up after reading this blog :-)  He was willing to take the 50/50 split and to meet the dates I had requested and his attached audition was the perfect voice and inflection that I was looking for to bring Into a Dangerous Mind to life.  From there I made an offer, which he quickly accepted (pretty much buttons on the site where you offer and then they accept and the site sends you messages to let you know!)  And then we were off and running.

I didn’t really hear anything from Keith past that until this past week when the site sent me a notification that the first 15 minutes had been uploaded.  So, excited to hear it, I went out to the site and listened.  It was great…except….it was really soft.  Even with the sound turned all the way up, it was difficult to hear and there were a few parts I couldn’t hear at all.  So I sent a message to Keith giving him that feedback and a few days later he answered back telling me that he would talk to his production manager and not to worry, that we would get that fixed.  So from here, I’m assuming he will get it fixed and re upload the first 15 minutes.  The process can’t go forward until I approve the first 15 minutes (pretty much a button on the site near where I clicked on the file to listen to what he had sent me), so it’s just a matter of waiting for that.  Once that is done, my due date for the entire project isn’t until November 17.

In the meantime, I had the book cover resized to fit the Audible requirements (listed on the site) and uploaded it to the book profile.  That will be shown along with the sales listing wherever it’s displayed for sale, which from the option I chose should be Audible, Amazon and their direct affiliates.

Even with the few frustrations of the process, it was pretty easy, and other than listening to a lot of voice talent and making a note of which I liked, it wasn’t really time consuming.  So for anyone who has their audio book rights and are looking for a way to put those rights into play, I would definitely recommend checking out ACX!  I obviously can’t speak to the rest of the process yet or to the sales, but I would be happy to come back when I do know and give everyone an update.  

Tina 

I will be giving away a paperback copy of The Demon and the Succubus by my alter ego Cassie Ryan, so leave a comment for a chance to win!