The winners are....

mixed sun and cloud - humid and often quite hot! temps 25

Beautiful day. Kirk and Walter, along with our friend Cotton, had a luncheon party at their home to celebrate the fourth Agatha win. Friends and neighbours all there. Felt wonderful.

Spent the morning writing...then the luncheon....and then home. To do the final draw for the advance copies of A TRICK OF THE LIGHT.

I have to thank Michael and Marjorie for their huge help in reading the submissions, and helping to get it down to finalists. This was, without a doubt, the most difficult contest I've even judged. Not because there were so many entries - more than 180 on the blog, and many, many more who sent emails - but because of the quality.

The contest was to win an advance copy of the book - and to do so I explained that ARCs are special editions printed in very limited numbers by the publisher, to send to pivotal people in the industry. To get a buzz going about a book. They're handed out like diamonds and are collectors items. The point is - we really, really would love to get the word out about A TRICK OF THE LIGHT.

And so, I'm asking for your help. To come up with ways you would promote the book.

And you sent in many hilarious (who knew so many of you are so willing to get naked?), many brilliant, many creative, many deeply moving messages. I can't begin to tell you how I've agonized over this - to the point where last night I finally turned to Michael and said, 'I can't give out just two. It has to be four.' And so we schemed and tried to figure out how we could do that.

To be honest, I'd give you ALL arcs if I could!

But we finally figured how to double the ARCs - so I'll be announcing 4 winners today. Before I do, though, of the many, many that caught my eye, only one was a poem. And while the author of the poem didn't win, it was so wonderful, it gets an honourary mention! Here is Jock's poem:

A Trick of the Light, A Trick of the Light
Buy it today, don’t wait until night
Don’t be left out, nor be left behind
Be one of the clever, intelligent kind.
Go to your bookstore, find it online
There’s no way on earth I am giving up mine!
It’s Louise Penny’s latest, an obvious smash
Adventurous times with Inspector Gamache
Like all of her others, I know it’s a hit
(“And how do I know?” you ask in a snit)
Cuz I wrote a poem in a contest she had
Won an advanced reader copy and “Wow” was I glad.

thank you, Jock!!! What delight you have given me. As have so many, many of you!

finally, Michael and I (with marjorie's great help) winnowed it down to 15. And then, we let the Universe decide, in a random draw. This is what the Universe decided....

the winners of the Advance Readers Copy of A TRICK OF THE LIGHT are:

Dani (who incidently was the very first one to post a comment)
Sandy - who is a Gamache by marriage
Toni - who lives in Michigan and is a librarian
Edith - who drives a Prius and lives in boston, and apparently has quite a big mouth, which is very good thing!

Congratulations to all the winners - and a huge thank you to all of you for entering, and giving us so much pleasure, reading your ideas. But mostly, experiencing your enthusiasm. I makes me feel wonderful. And very confident as we go forward into a rocky publishing environment.

If Dani, Sandy, toni and Edith could please write to me at: contact@louisepenny.com with your addresses - and who to sign the arc to, that would be wonderful.

And to those of you who didn't win - thank you. and please, if you wouldn't mind spreading the word anyway, I'd really appreciate it. And I HOPE to have another contest - perhaps just a random draw - in the next month or so. I think you ALL deserve ARCs!!