Happy 1st book birthday, Winter Queen!

Winter Queen is the start of my new trilogy. I wrote it just after Witch Song back in 2007, I believe. Since that time, I've spent countless hours perfecting it. The world building still blows me away (and I wrote it!). 

I was going to hold a huge contest, but honestly, I'm completely burned out at this point. Big thanks to everyone who's supported me by spreading the word, and those who helped make the book pretty (you know who you are, also, you're in the acknowledgments). 

I sincerely hope ya'll go buy the book. And leave a review. Or two. ;)

Winter Queen's official release is next week!

So many have already posted cover reveals, reviews, etc. THANK YOU! You have no idea how much this means to me. Also, pretty much every review I have read has been overwhelmingly positive. *squee*

If any of the rest of you would like to get in on the action, I could use all the help I can get (especially since I don't have time to do promotions right now). I could use help with the following:

• You could be my publicist! I know, I know. It's a lot to ask, but I could really use the help. 
• Organizing a blog tour with cover reveals, contests (which I will provide ebooks/swag for), reviews, etc.
• Spreading the word by blogging, facebooking, and tweeting about release day. 
• As I said before, many reviews have already gone up and they've all been so complimentary, but I'd like to see at least twenty reviews up on Amazon and sixty on Goodreads. One liners totally count! 
• Telling one person about the book in real life. 
• Pinning the book on Pinterest. 
• Creating a video about the book. I love vlogging. Totally going to start doing it sometime soon. 

And there will be prizes! Anyone who agrees to be my publicist can have my firstborn! 

What? 

You don't want him??? Is this about the toilet plunger incident? I promise, it was only that one time. 

Ahem. I will be giving away swag and ebooks, so everyone get excited for next week. Until then, I'm off to Wyoming to chase cows!

Youtube video of me talking about flashbacks

Just remember, there are no rules in fiction, only guidelines. You can break any rule you want as long as you do it well. Also, I'm a very silly person. This will be apparent if you watch the video (bet you wish you could go to one of my live classes now, don't ya?). 

LOTR and the Dwarves in the barrel question

So the question is: can you really put a dwarve in a barrel and float them down the river? 

I see numerous problems with this. First, the seal on the barrel has already been broken, so I'm not sure how watertight they would be without resealing them with some kind of sealant. Sure they can float down the river empty, but putting a person in there would weigh them down much more. 

Second: Why didn't the Dwarves push the lids open? I can't imagine the lid would be that hard to remove by simply kicking out with both feet. 

Thoughts? Any coopers (barrel makers) out there with more knowledge than me?

*update: I found this interesting article .