amagicbeyond

(Well, okay, I may have one or two copies left. Which I may be saving for a rainy day.)

The Learning to Dance 1000+ Downloads Giveaway… RELOADED

Let’s try this again.

If you follow me on Tumblr, you already know that some unexpected complications have come up with selecting the winners for the original LtD Giveaway. I won’t get into details, but a truly unfortunate data loss on Tumblr’s part has prevented me from fairly choosing winners for the contest. To everyone who tirelessly entered the original giveaway (there were well over 2300 entries in the end!), I sincerely apologize, and I hope I can make it up to you. In order to give everyone a second chance (and perhaps a first, for those of you who missed it last time!), I’ve decided to reopen the giveaway - on a very different platform.

It’s been quite a year. I still can’t believe that last June, I was plotting how best to kill off poor Pedro, and today I get to ecstatically announce that since its Christmas release, the Learning to Dance ebook has been downloaded more than one thousand times.

Things there are less than a thousand of:

days in a year
planets in the solar system
species of cats
songs that Glee has recorded

That number, when combined with the incalculable views LtD has seen online on Tumblr and Fanfiction.net, equals a whole lot more people than I ever imagined would read this little story of mine. The fact that new readers are still discovering it, new fanart is being drawn, and new tears are being shed even now continues to boggle my mind. You are all amazing.

(Incidentally, if you haven’t yet, I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of the free LtD ebook - available in PDF, mobi, and ePub formats, it’s the most up-to-date, polished, and best version of the story available - with bonus gorgeous full-colour illustrations by official artist Kendyll Romine!)

To celebrate, and as a lead-in to some even cooler announcements to come, I’m announcing the Learning to Dance 1000+ Downloads Tumblr Give away!

The Prizes:

Third Prize - A set of three adorable LtD buttons featuring fan-favourite quotes: “Wherever you’re going, Starship Ranger, I’m going with you,” “It’s always been you and me, right?” and of course, “Sometimes dreams come true.” These buttons are not currently available anywhere else!

Second Prize - An 8×10 art print of your choice from amazing artist Ree‘s LtD Society6 store and a set of three LtD quote buttons!

Grand Prize - The lucky grand prize winner will receive a truly rare gift – there are only three of these in existence in the world. Yes, I’m talking about your very own paperback copy of Learning to Dance! The Learning to Dance paperback is a real, bound book featuring a uniquely designed full-colour cover and black-and-white interior including all of Kendyll Romine’s original illustrations. As a work of fanfiction, it has never been, and will never be, available to purchase - this is literally the only chance you will ever get to own one. I will, of course, personalize an inscription for the winner inside the book’s cover. Oh yes, and I’ll throw in a set of LtD quote buttons too!

Have I caught your interest?

Rules:

To enter, reblog this post up to three times a day. Likes count as well, but reblogging will maximize your chances of winning! (Please do not spam your followers, one can only do so much scrolling past multiple posts before one’s fingers get tired.)
You don’t have to be following me to win, but I won’t argue with you if you do. :)
For those of you who do not have Tumblr but would still like to enter: you will get a bonus entry if you share the top post on this page on Facebook (and if you want to “like” my author page while you’re there, I wouldn’t protest that either!).
Winners will be selected from the reblogs and shares using a random number generator. Winners will be notified via private message, so make sure your ask box is open! If I don’t hear back from the winners within 48 hours of notifications going out, a new winner will be chosen.
The contest will be open until 12 noon EST on Sunday, June 24th 2012.
International entries are welcome, I will ship worldwide!

Happy reblogging, good luck, and thank you for everything.

EDIT: This event is now CLOSED - thank you to all who’ve entered! Winners will be notified within the next 24 hours. Good luck!

LtD Ebook Update!

At latest count (which I hadn’t done in a while, and was very pleasantly surprised to see had gone up substantially), the LtD ebook in all its forms has been downloaded at least 893 times!

A big thank you to all 893 (or more) of you who’ve downloaded the book, and especially to those new readers who somehow, some way, keep coming! I love you all muchly.

(If you haven’t yet, and want to, you can download Learning to Dance - the most complete, edited, and illustrated version - for Kindle, ePub readers, and PDF here!)

“Up, you and me-” she burst, and then looked down at the floor. “It’s always been you and me, right?”

Yes, it’s here!

Go here to download your very own, free copy of this special illustrated edition ebook of Learning to Dance.

Learning to Dance is a sci-fi romance of adventurous proportions, telling the unofficial story of Taz and Up from Team Starkid’s musical production Starship.

This first-ever PDF ebook edition is newly polished and edited, beautifully illustrated by Kendyll Romine, and available completely free! Here’s what you can expect:

a fully formatted 6 by 9 inch book, complete with cover, title pages, and text.
gorgeous full-colour illustrations by Kendyll Romine (also responsible for the cover art above), throughout the story.
a polished and revised story that includes a few new tidbits but is still the same one you know and love!

Thank you to Kendyll (also known in Tumblrland as Ree) for all of the hard work and flawless talent she has put in to this project in such a short time. This girl is incredible – I owe her so much.

And a sincere thank you to everyone who has asked about the possibility of an ebook, expressed their excitement over it, entered the contest, and supported me and my little story throughout this whole crazy experience. Without you none of this would have happened.

Thank you for everything – Merry Christmas – and enjoy!

Learning to Dance Ebook Update

Yes, it’s (almost) here! Christmas eve - and the LtD ebook!

I received the final illustrations from Ree today and there was dancing. Perhaps some flailing. I am so excited for you to see the final product, newly revised text and gorgeous illustrations all together for the first time.

If you’ve been keeping up with/entering the Twelve Days contest, or are hoping to get yourself a copy of the ebook tomorrow, here’s some important information for you to know:

The current and final Twelve Days challenge will close at 11am CET (5am EST and 2am PST, so get your entries in tonight!). This contest is only open for 12 hours because of the book release, and, well, it’s Christmas Eve for those of us who celebrate the holiday!
The results for the Day 11 and 12 challenges will be announced by 1pm CET (7am EST and 4am PST) at the latest.
The final draw for the four prizes will also take place by 1pm CET at the latest. I apologize for the awkward timing for those of you in the Americas, but that’s the trouble with a global contest! Please don’t feel obligated to stay up late/get up early for this - the results will be waiting for you when you wake up Christmas Eve!

The four prizes for the final draw (in which your name will be placed for each contest you entered!) are as follows, and will be drawn randomly in the following order:

song recording of your choice from Liz (a-few-of-these-verses)
fan video of your choice from Carlie (carliefromcatering)
art piece of your choice from Ree (calculus-was-tough)
$25 worth of Starkid merchandise from their Ann Arbor T-shirt Company store (from me!)

If you have already won a contest, please make sure you get me your mailing address and choice of either a ficlet or passage from LtD so that I can send you your prize in the new year! (Sometimes Tumblr messaging is not my friend, so it would be a good idea to double check if I haven’t confirmed with you that I’ve received your information.)

I may also be throwing in a bonus letter prize or two in there, so watch out!

Now, about that ebook…

This has been a great experience for me, learning all I can about ebooks and their production, copyright laws, formatting, and all that fun stuff. I now know more about OpenOffice than I ever did before, for one thing.

Tomorrow by 1pm CET a PDF version of Learning to Dance will become available to download via a link I will provide here on Tumblr as well as on Facebook and my author website. Here’s what you can expect:

a fully formatted 6 by 9 inch book, complete with cover, title pages, and text.
gorgeous full-colour illustrations by Ree throughout the story.
a polished and revised story that includes a few new tidbits but is still the one you know and have told me you love!

This PDF can be read on your computer, iPad, and most eReader devices (even though it is not in eReader format). I do recommend reading this version on your computer or other full-colour device for the best experience!

I intend to eventually (and I would love to say soon) have versions of this ebook made available for Kindle, Nook, and other specific eReader devices. This part is going to take a little longer, due to the variety of formats and treading carefully through potential copyright issues. The moment these formats become available you shall be the first to know, and I do hope that will be within the next couple of weeks!

The Learning to Dance ebook is a gift of love, to Starkid and to you. It will never be sold for profit, and it will always be 100% free, in whatever form it takes. You can download and enjoy it as many times and in as many formats as you like!

Thank you to Ree (calculus-was-tough.tumblr.com) for all of the hard work and flawless talent you have put in to this project in such a short time. You are incredible, and I owe you so much.

And a sincere thank you to everyone who has asked about the possibility of an ebook, expressed their excitement over it, entered the contest, and supported me and my little story throughout this whole crazy experience. Without you none of this would have happened.

Thank you for everything.

Twelve Days of Learning to Dance - Day 9 Challenge

In which the tables are turned.

Thanks to all who’ve entered the Day 7 and 8 contests! Please give Josh your patience as it will take time to view and judge all of your fabulous entries. In the meantime, here’s challenge number nine!

Today your job is to write a ficlet - under 500 words - based on one of the following prompts (one happy, one sad!): a) Starship Secret Santa or b) the return of Pedro OR Tripp.

Click here for complete rules and details on how to enter. Good luck!

Twelve Days of Learning to Dance - Day 5 Challenge

Please disregard the sacrificial blood.

Thanks to all who entered the Day 4 Challenge! Results for both this challenge and the one from Day 3 will be posted soon.

Your challenge today is to write Alejandro’s newsfeed fashion column for the Christmas season, all about this year’s must-have items. Get into character - have fun and be fabulous!

Click here for complete rules and details on how to enter. Good luck!

Dear lovely readers of Learning to Dance,

One more request for your help!

As I’m finishing up edits for the LtD ebook, I’d like to know -

Are there any parts of the story that you find confusing, unclear, less than my best?

(I am opening myself up for criticism here, the constructive kind, of course, in an effort to make the ebook the best it can be. Be honest, please, and I will take it as gracefully as possible, I promise.)

Please send me a message in my ask box if there is anything you would like to point out!

And thank you.

- Karri