CONTEST IS CLOSED!
The WINNER is Zita, who posted at 8:20 a.m. on August 27. CONGRATULATIONS! Zita, there are two ways you can get me your contact info. One: Friend me on Twitter, I'll friend you back, then you can DM me your address and e-mail. Or you could post your e-mail address in the comments section like this: name [at] address. Let me know if you want me to delete that comment after I get your info. Please note that you need to contact me before midnight on Thursday, or the book will be awarded to another contestant.
Thanks so much to everyone who read this post and commented. I loved reading all of your answers! I wish I could have given an ARC to all of you. Just an FYI, I ran everything through a randomizer program to find the winner.
Plus, just for fun, I added something extra for you to check out below: the book trailer for Afterlife. Enjoy!
ORIGINAL POST:
Fiction is full of bad guys. They’re creepy, they steal your seat on the bus, they follow you down dark alleys, they lurk outside your window at night. In real life, people aren’t pure good or pure evil. Sometimes even a good guy can drive you nuts. Like that nightly mock battle over the TV remote with your spouse. Or that sister/brother/cousin who makes all your family reunions a nightmare because they can’t forget that one incident you truly regret.
We all have regrets, right?
What if—and here comes that infamous writer’s premise—what if you could chose your family members and, at the same time, eliminate a few? If you were making out the list, and checking it twice, would you erase a few names, then pencil in a few others instead?
That “what if” is one of the premises in my novel, Afterlife: The Resurrection Chronicles. Each person gets the option to resurrect in a custom-designed clone when they die. They get a brand new start, compliments of the resurrection monopoly, Fresh Start. As long as you haven’t committed a capital crime, you get the opportunity to start all over. You can keep the memories you want, erase the ones you don’t.
So here’s my question for you: Are there any people in your life that you would like taken off your list? You don’t have to say who they are, you only have to say yes or no. You can keep all the gory details tucked neatly away. Unless you’d like to share.
And I’ll be giving away an advance reader’s copy to one of the people who make a comment. To enter to win, please post a comment below. You can earn points by:
+1 Posting in the comments section
+1 Linking to this post on Twitter
+1 Linking to this post on Facebook
+1 Linking to the Supernatural Underground blog on your own blog/website
+ 3 Posting a comment on my other blog here.
Just post the total number of points that you’ve earned in your comment. Winner to be announced in this post Monday, August 30. Contest ends Sunday, August 29, at midnight! Please note that if I don’t hear from the winner within 3 days after the contest closes, I will select another winner.
54 comments:
oh, snap! Anther chance to win your book! . Believe it or not I don't think there is anyone I would erase. I've made pretty decent decisions about the people in my life and the bad ones were my fault not theirs. Now if I could eliminate people from others lives....
5 points for me!!!!
My first time to be here on the blog...I try to live with no regrets but unfortunately there are a few people that if were not in my life would have made those bumps a little easier.
I've contemplated this question a lot, more than a lot actually. The thing is, I like who I am now, and all those people I would gladly live without - helped formulate who I am.
You can remove nuisance personalities from your life - abusers, jesters, even the guy who stood you up for the prom. One problem...life is chock full of these people. Eliminate any one and you'll find there is someone else ready to take their place.
So in the end, I wouldn't change a thing. At least I know what's coming my way. Better the one you know, than the one you don't. (Hugs)Indigo
You know how you have no choice about family? I have a family member that, if it weren't for them being family, I probably wouldn't even know them. Yeah, like that.
I've earned 7 points!
That´s a quite difficult question.
You know when people are angry they often say things they regret later.
I think if I "erased" people from my memory or from my life I would regret it after some time. Don´t it always seem to go that you don´t know what you have got until it´s gone?
Oh, that sounds like a plan.
I would totally erase some people!!
+1 Posting in the comments section
+1 Linking to the Supernatural Underground blog on your own blog/website
= 2
Well first off the premise of the book sounds awesome! There is at least one person I would like to zap out of my memory but *sigh* it would change so much in life if he had never been around. And the goos things that came out of it are worth the hell. *shrug* That's a hard question! LOL!
ksg_amg(at)yahoo.com
I tweeted: http://twitter.com/KrisLovesBooks/status/22280971809
(went comment on other blog)
+5 points total
Surprisingly I don't. The people that I "dislike" I try not to put any energy into hating. I just dismiss them from my mind. Like a load of people from high school and another particular someone who has cause my family emotional pain. I just don't care enough to hate them anymore, hating takes a lot of energy!
+1 Supernatural Underground button on my blog: http://jessica-agreatread.blogspot.com
+3 posted on your other blog
5 points total!
I would say "yes oh yes take my sister out of my life!" sounds awful to people who dont know, but to me it sounds like heaven. I would want a couple do overs with other things as well. Cant wait to read this book!
1 point here and I will post on your blog as well for 3
total 4 points
ismellsheep.blogspot.com
I so wish I could erase a former roommate that stole thousands of dollars from me and ruined my credit. Hmmm, and a former boss that treated people like crap for no reason. Does Fresh Start have a website, maybe a discount for new customers?!
shared on fb- http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=1625972197&v=wall&story_fbid=139778286063559&ref=mf
and tweeted- http://twitter.com/bcardoo79/status/22286458850
+3
I wouldn't want to erase any one completely because they made me become the person i am today with how they treated me. SO in the end i got what i wanted - to be independent and strong
I think I'd eliminate someone from my present life, since if not for them I'd still have my job and not be unemployed. I might want to erase someone from my past, but other events transpired from the actions of that person, so I think I'd need to leave well enough alone there.
Sharon,
Awesome answer! Thanks for posting. =)
Bjolley,
I appreciate your honesty and I completely understand. =)
Indigo,
I agree with what you've posted. An easy life isn't always the best life. Thanks for opening up! =)
I have LOTS of family and friends that I would like to have never known. No, I wouldn't know what to do without my crazy family. lol
I earned 6 points
+1 for comment
+1 for facebook
+1 for posting to my blog
+3 commenting on your blog
http://romancebookjunkies.blogspot.com
Zita,
It's tough isn't it? I feel your pain. =)
Lea U,
Great quote! And yes, I think ultimately we would regret making that decision.
Sullivan McPig,
*grin* Love your answer!
Kris,
Thanks so much for posting and I'm glad you like the book's premise!
Jessica,
I'm so glad to hear someone say that high school was rough. For me it went all the way back to junior high. Gag. =)
Katie Dalton,
I think many people would answer like that. And the thing to remember in the book is, you still have those people in your present day life. It's in your next resurrected life that you don't have to include them in your family.
Bethany C.,
Wouldn't that be awesome if Fresh Start did have a website? *grin*
Jennjennmom,
I love your perspective and maturity. I happen to agree with that. Big confession here: both of my parents were alcoholics and not ideal parents. But I love them anyway. Even though I had a rough time as a teenager.
Barbara E.,
I'm sorry about the job loss. I can really feel your pain, since that has happened to me twice. If we do find a real way to erase people, I'll let you know!
Danielle,
Sometimes I wonder whether the words "family" and "crazy" aren't synonyms. *grin* Thanks for posting!
I don't think I'd erase anyone out of my life. Even the ones I had hard times with. That just seems mean to me and thinking "oh I wish so and so wasn't in my life" isn't me. So no, I wouldn't erase anyone from my life. If I did, I wouldn't be me anymore.
In a way I think we make people we are close to, but not related as family. Genes don't always play a crucial role to making them family, IMO.
However,
Yes, I do have some awful members of my "family" that I sometimes feel that I would rather not know b/c of how horrible they have been to my immediate family. Wouldn't want them erased. I've unfortunately learned a lot from them and more of the things I might have been stressed out just roll off my back now. :) If you could erase the evil part of someone I'd be all for that with one person in particular. Not for what they did to me, but to someone I was very close to... but only that part to them. Because if they were totally erased some great people would have never been born. *sigh*
+1 Posting in the comments section
+1 Linking to this post on Twitter
https://twitter.com/BooksThings/status/22303772907
+1 Linking to the Supernatural Underground blog on your own blog/website
http://melissawatercolor.blogspot.com/ (rt. side at bottom)
+ 3 Posting a comment on my other blog here.
Yep. Need a new kennel. ;)
Wow!!! That is a tough question. There are definitely some memories I'd like to get rid of, but I'm not sure about family members. If they just become people I don't know, and don't die or anything, there might be 1 I would remove from the list. (+1)
tweeted (+1) - http://twitter.com/Heatwave316/status/22322341738
facebook (+1) - http://www.facebook.com/#!/hcreely
+3 - posted on blog - http://merrie-destefano.blogspot.com/2010/08/good-bad-and-ugly-or-what-i-learned-on.html#comment-form
total = 6
heatwave96(at)hotmail.com
Merrie, I like that. I like it a lot. :) Sign me up!
http://ismellsheep.blogspot.com
Sad to say there are people I would erase. Thanks for the giveaway!
Tweeted it:http://twitter.com/ferretvamp14/status/22320700210
Total=2
This looks like a great read Merrie.
Don't we all have someone, somewhere we would like to see gone. I have an ex like that.
So yes, I have someone to bump off.
I would love this read. thanx so much.
terilhack(@)gmail.com
http://snarkymamma.blogspot.com/2010/08/giveaway-of-afterlife.html
=+3
I would keep everyone in my life. I wouldn't be who I am today if everyone wasn't in it.
+1 here
+3 your blog
+1 facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=1365769490
+5 total
Great post!!!!--I think I've been pretty lucky (so far)(knock on wood) that there isn't anyone I'd erase---maybe some financial aid people from when I went to college...
I had a hard time thinking about this one--I think I'm still in a weird mood after yesterday's post, because instead of thinking of people or memories I'd want to erase, I can't stop thinking about how you can't control other people's memories--who or what THEY erase...what happens when you erase something, and someone else still remembers it????---feels dangerous to me, I think I want to keep my memories!!!
Afterlife totally has me curious right now!!! I can't wait to read it!!!! Congrats on your release!!!!
+1 comment
+1 tweet: https://twitter.com/moviebunny/status/22344754348
+1 linked on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/moviebunny?v=wall&story_fbid=145986462098707
+1 blog link (sidebar): http://nymfaux.blogspot.com/
+3 posted a comment on your other (super cool) blog
=7
Oh wow... I have to say I might be tempted to scratch a few crazy family members off my list, but at the same time, their craziness is what I love most about them!! So I don't know!!
+1 comment
+1 link to SU on my blog
+3 posted on your blog
+5 total
I love the premise! It's like the middle-aged "if I could go back to when I was (pick your age) knowing what I know now..." fantasy.
Moi, I'd axe all my relatives but my sibling and mother. I'd pick my bestest friends as sisters and my ex-step grandmother as my real grandmother, and I think Howard Hughes as my granddad, lol.
Oh, and I follow your blog on google reader.
Thanks, everyone, for all the great comments! I love all of them.
Nymfaux, You hit it right on the head! Even if you wanted to stay in contact with someone, they might not want to stay in contact with you. And after each successive life, the relationship threads would get even more tangled.
Thanks everyone! Contest still going on until Sunday evening.
=)
I'm pretty good about cutting people off if they abuse my goodwill, so the people in my life are all people that I want to be there. So, I don't think there is anybody that I would erase. Anyway, we are all the sum total of our memories, good and bad. You can't really take any of that away without changing who you are.
+1comment
Honestly, no there's no one I would take out of my life. Sure, there are tons of people I hold grudges against (for various reasons) but each reason has helped me something.
+1 for commenting
+1 for linking to Twitter (http://bit.ly/a0zMYs)
+1 for linking to SU on Facebook (http://bit.ly/a2e26Z)
+3 for commenting on your other
blog (http://bit.ly/c7xXdV)
Total: 6 points
What an interesting post Merrie. Hmm...I don't know. The only person I think I might erase would be my husbands ex wife. LoL. But I probably wouldn't erase anyone given the chance because it would change my life in some way and I like it the way it is.
Please don't enter me in the giveaway as I already won this from you.
I finally got through my stack and read it a few weeks ago and I liked it a lot. It was very interesting and creative. I haven't read anything like it before and I recommended it to my bookclub. Congrads on it and your release next month!
@Merrie now I'm ESPECIALLY looking forward to Afterlife!!!! What a juicy storyline to work with!!!! :)
There's no one who irritates me enough to want them out of my life for good. Not even sleazy people or inconsiderate ones. It just takes to much energy to hate them.
Although if something did happen to my ex-husband, I wouldn't be shedding any tears. ;)
There are a few people I can think of that I could live without but at the same time I think that resistance make you stronger.
I hope it is ok that I enter the contest I'm from DK if not then I have contributed with a comment:-)
+1 for commenting
+3 for commenting on your other blog
Total: 4
So here’s my question for you: Are there any people in your life that you would like taken off your list?
yes, there are, though it's a very short list....
+1 comment
+3 Posted a comment on other blog
4 points total
k_sunshine1977 at yahoo dot com
Merrie,
I haven't been here before, but I had to come check out your book. As for family, do in-laws count ;)?
Actually my MIL is a wonderful woman. (FIL passed away before we married). One of my sisters-in-law is a little interested, but her son is best friends with mine, so I guess I wouldn't trade her in. :D
So I've Twittered, Facebooked, visited your blog, and posted on my blog. Can I do some skywriting next?
There might be a few nameless ex boyfriends I wouldn't mind seeing disappear!
Crystal,
I'm so glad you liked AFTERLIFE! And thanks for recommending it to your book club. Let me know if they decide to read it as a group. It might be fun to an author Q&A session on SKYPE after they finish the book.
=)
Jason,
Hi! It was so fun to see you here! Thanks for all of your posts. =)
I just want to thank ALL of you for being so awesome. I really mean it. I appreciate every one of your posts and your enthusiasm for AFTERLIFE. You really are a great group of readers here and I'm so blessed to be part of the Supernatural Underground, and to have the opportunity to chat with you all.
=)
Please note, the winner is now posted at the top of this blog post. Congratulations, Zita!
Thanks Merrie! I will def. let you know because that would be AWESOME and I know everyone would love that.
Congratulations again on the release coming up and congrats to Zita too!
congrats to the winner!!!!
Yay! Thanks, Merrie!
zita (at) dal (dot) ca
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