Terez said:
So, I have an extra copy of The Way of Kings, first edition of course (some might see this as a bad thing, but too bad cause there is no second edition hardback yet so far as I know - if there is, I'll try to haggle a trade if you want). Presumably there are a lot of BrandonFans who would love to have a personalized copy of the book. I bet many of them are even MalazanFans, too. I'm going to JordanCon in two weeks, and judging based on previous experience, I can probably get Brandon to do something pretty crazy to your book, like maybe draw a picture for you (his drawings are amusingly bad), or give obscure hints on plot details, or deface your book with bad spelling and schizophrenic conversations with himself, or maybe I could even get him to insult you. He's a nice guy like that. And I bet some of you are more creative than me when it comes to deviant personalization requests. Creativity is, after all, what I am looking for here.
All that being said, I didn't ask his permission or anything. This is not an official contest - it's just me and a copy of TWOK. I'll take it and your specifications for personalization (so long as they are within reason of course) to JordanCon, where Brandon must sign books for The Man for one hour (mwahahaha), and then I will ship said personalized copy of TWOK anywhere in the world—free of charge, of course.
I want a good Quick Ben vs Vin. I don't care who wins in your story. I'm voting for QB but a crafty VinWin would be just as appreciated as a crafty BenWin - unlike Perrin, Vin actually has a believable chance to beat QB, and I would love to see that written well because I love convincing Underdog Wins scenarios. There are no real rules other than that it must be in English, and it must be QB vs Vin, and one of them must win - I'd suggest it being 500 words or more, but if you can knock my socks off in 100 words then by all means be my guest. If you want to write 20,000 words, be my guest (though it better be good because length alone won't cause you to win and if you don't interest me in the first 500 words or so...well, I'll be bored, and I would hate for you to go through all that effort just to bore me).
You can post it here or at the suvudu page for Quick Ben vs Vin (when it goes up), you can link it here or at the suvudu page, or you can email it to me at terez27@gmail.com (so long as you understand I'm going to post it if you win). You can enter it anonymously if you like, for whatever reason (though of course if you win you'll have to own up to who you are in email when you send me your mailing address unless you are willing to go through some convolutions to hide your location from me, which I assure you is not necessary). You can do a collaborative if you like but I only have one book. You can PayPal me (same email) for additional books or substitutions (so long as Brandon is the author), but no more than three altogether because I'll probably have to not only stand in line three times but also pull rank to get even that many signed. You can enter and defer the prize to a friend. Deadline will be Sunday April 10 2011 at 12 noon EST or 5pm GMT (24 hours before the match closes) though I'd suggest thinking about how you want your book personalized before then since JordanCon is April 15-17.
One reason I'm doing this is because Brandon probably won't write his own version, partly because Steven Erikson isn't likely to participate, and partly because he doesn't know QB well enough to write him and has no desire to piss off Malazan fans by doing it badly (not that this is a foregone conclusion by any means, but it's understandable that Brandon would be a little wary about it). I'm just guessing there, but I think it's a good guess. So it's only appropriate for the fans to take charge. For those of you who don't know me...I'm not trying to promote my blog here or anything. I only post about WoT usually, and only intermittently at that. I'm just promoting good cagefiction. I mean, I JUST WANT A NICE, ENTERTAINING QUICK BEN VS VIN. That's all. It may be that the official write-up will be great - we shall see! - but I'm preempting the possibility that it won't be by posting this contest before it goes up.
I'm hoping that the Vin vs Quick Ben match will be both competitive and friendly. Let's do this in the spirit of celebrating the diverse entertaining reads that are Mistborn and Malazan, and in the spirit of reaching out across fandom lines to get to know each other in a good way. Sometimes it's hard...but for some reason, I'm thinking this is going to be a truly exciting match.
Update: Peter Ahlstrom (Brandon's assistant) notes in the comments that TWOK was in its third printing by release date, probably due to an underestimation of how much WoT would boost Brandon's sales. However, the point was that the first printings have a good number of typos. No corrected hardback editions have been released yet, though the paperback edition has hopefully been corrected.)
By the way...thanks to all the Malazan and Mistborn fans who beat the odds to make this happen!
This post has been edited by Terez: 06 April 2011 - 04:11 PM