Custom of the Week: Houses of Westeros (and the winner of #PonyFest12!)

October 14, 2012 — Rebecca Enzor

I know you are all super excited to find out the winner of #PonyFest12, but first you have to see these amazing customs! I know we’ve featured Lady Lannister before (and that customizer did the six major houses of Westeros), but today we have the whole nine major houses in one! I’m even wearing my Winter is Coming T-shirt today, so this is extremely appropriate.

Houses of Westeros, by Assassin Kitty.

The photo will take you to the DeviantArt page so you can see close-ups of all the ponies. I want House Stark and House Targaryen right now!

And now for the winner of PonyFest12!

In a last-minute upset….

Marce, by Diana

It’s Marce, by Diana!

Coming in at a VERY CLOSE second place was Cacee, by Tamara, and in third place we had Zerynthia, by Marcy!

To everyone who played, I want to give a huge THANK YOU! I can’t express how much this contest brightened my days as I clicked through to look at the ponies time and time again. You are all very talented writers, and very talented pony designers. I can’t wait to have your books on my bookshelf!

And if you didn’t win, or didn’t know about the contest in time to enter: No worries! I run it every year in September/October (around my birthday, because who doesn’t want all that happiness on their blog for their birthday?!) And if you’re really itching for your own custom pony let me know – I’ll get you in contact with a customizer who can make it for you :)

Posted in Contests, Custom Pony. Tags: , , , , . 14 Comments »

Welcome to #PonyFest12!

October 5, 2012 — Rebecca Enzor

Hello Aledans! I celebrated the Warrior’s Ceremony yesterday by hiking a mountain, confronting a whale shark, and drinking my way into my 30th year of life (ie. the Warrior’s Ceremony is on my birthday). And what’s a better way to recover from too much alcohol and turning thirty? Ponies, of course! It’s time to celebrate PonyFest12!

Before we get started with voting, please click on all the pictures below – some entries have more than one pony on the blog!

Miko, by Gloria

Violet, by Jill

Kiya, by Katie
Justine, by Carrie Anne

The Wild, by Sarah

Desert, by Juliana
Marce, by Diana
Zerynthia, by Marcy
Cacee, by Tamara
Cassie, by Megh
Cetus, by Angela

Well, there you have it folks! Eleven beautiful entries for PonyFest12 – and now it’s your job to vote on your favorite! Remember, the winner will receive a custom pony of their design, as well as a stack of books and swag by pony collecting authors! Choose wisely.

Posted in Contests, Custom Pony. Tags: , , , . 19 Comments »

Custom of the Week: Lothlorien (and announcing #PonyFest12!)

September 16, 2012 — Rebecca Enzor

Hello Aledans! The day is finally here – the announcement of #PonyFest12! If you remember #PonyFest11 we had a great time designing ponies based on our novels and voting on our favorite, and this year is going to be even BIGGER! First, to tempt you to join, a beautiful custom by our very own Kalavista:

Lothlorien, by Kalavista

Kal has graciously agreed to customize this year’s winning pony as well. And based on her beautiful work, I think you’ll be happy with the results (click through to go to her DA page and see all her beautiful customs).

And now for #PonyFest12!

The Rules:

-either draw your own pony or use a template or the pony creator to make a pony based on your novel. Choose colors for the body, mane/tail, and eyes, as well as a symbol. Ponies can be earthers, unicorns or pegasi (no alicorns/unipegs please).

-all ponies must come from a full-length, original work (no fanfics). Unpublished novels are OK. Feel free to plug your published novel in the post if you are that lucky!

-it can be a pony based on a character, setting, or theme from your novel. You can make more than one pony, but they must be voted on as a whole, from the same book, and only ONE of those ponies will be customized.

-write up a short description of your pony(s), and a one sentence tag-line for the book.

-post the pony(s) on your blog by Sunday September 30th and reply here with the link to that post (please don’t link to your home page, the contest runs for a long time and you don’t want to make people scroll).

-from October 5th through 13th visit the other blogs and vote for your favorite pony!

-winner will be announced on October 14th!

The Prize: The winner (based on popular vote) will have their pony made into a real custom pony by Kalavista, plus receive a copy of her book, The Secret of Shadow! And this year the prize is even bigger, because the winner will also receive a copy of Spookygirl, by Jill Baguchinsky, and Angelfire, by Courtney A Moulton (also pony friends of mine).

EDIT: Beth Revis has donated a signed copy of her book A Million Suns to the prize pack!

Restrictions: The custom pony will not have clothes or accessories (no sculpty/clay will be used), so make a representation of the character, rather than a carbon-copy right down to their underwear. No Twice-As-Fancy symbols (symbols that cover the entire body), alicorns/unipegs, or sitting poses. Open to US/Canada residents only (you can still play, but only US/C residents can win the prize, sorry!).

Good luck everyone – I can’t wait to see all your beautiful designs!

Posted in Contests, Custom Pony, Grab Bag. Tags: , , , , , . 45 Comments »

Getting to Know You: Valentines!

February 14, 2012 — Rebecca Enzor

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today I’m stealing a question from Nathan Bransford: Who is your favorite fictional couple?

My favorite fictional couple (other than Kindra and Gar, of course) is Auriane and Marcus from The Light Bearer by Donna Gillespie (which also happens to be my favorite book. Ever. Go read it! In fact, stick around and win a copy.)

Here, let me tell you more about this awesome book with the blurb:

On the day of her birth, Auriane received a mysterious amulet from a priestess – and a double-edged prophecy of doom and glory. The daughter of a Germanic tribal chieftain, Auriane witnessed unspeakable horrors committed against her people by ruthless invaders. And when tragedy tore her family apart, she took the oath of a warrior, and vowed revenge. Tales of her brilliant swath of conquest carried as far as Rome, to the renowned statesman Marcus Julianus – who felt his destiny intertwined with Auriane’s, and wore about his neck an identical amulet

Twin destinies intertwined by fate and mystery collide in this remarkable debut novel of ancient Roman and Germanic tribal conflict and resolution from a gifted new writer. Epic in scope, The Light Bearer is an unforgettable reading experience in the tradition of I, Claudius.

And yes, I wrote The Nameless Warrior before reading this book (now you know why it’s my favorite!). The descriptions in this book are amazing. The characters are deep, the obstacles are on a scale that you can only write about when Ancient Rome is involved, and the moment Auriane and Marcus finally meet is so sweet and delicious. They definitely win best couple for me :)

If you’d like a chance to win this book and read this great love story for yourself just leave a comment with your favorite storybook couple. I’ll draw a random winner and announce them on Sunday’s Custom of the Week post!

Posted in Contests, Grab Bag. Tags: , , , , , , , . 19 Comments »

Custom of the Week: Little Pip

October 16, 2011 — Rebecca Enzor

I know you are all itching to know the results of the Custom Pony Contest, but first we have the Custom of the Week! From the Fallout series, today’s custom comes from a Fallout/MLP crossover game. I have to say, as the previous owner of the X-Ponies (X-men/MLP) I have a soft spot in my heart for crossover games <3

Little Pip, by arcanescroll

I love all the little accessories – the jacket, the bracelet, the little ear piece and the gun :) Adorable!

 
If you have a pony that you would like featured as a Custom of the Week, please email me: rebeccaenzor@gmail.com
 
~~~~~
 
And now, for the winner of the Custom Pony Contest!
 
With 35.48% of the vote the winner is…
 
Tomohiro, by Amanda

Congratulations Amanda! Please email me at rebeccaenzor@gmail.com with your address and I’ll get together with Kalavista to work out the details of making the custom pony :D

 
The runner up with 22.58% is Phoenix Feather, by Angela! And tied in third place with 11.29% each are Ponies in Space by Beth and The Innocence Saga by Lissa! Congrats to everyone who entered, and I promise to do this again – it was too much fun not to!
 
Posted in Contests, Custom Pony. Tags: , , , , , , , . 9 Comments »

PonyFest11!

October 4, 2011 — Rebecca Enzor

Welcome to PonyFest11 everyone!

Daughter of Aleda

Today voting begins for the Custom Pony Contest! The pony above represents the Faye Priestesses of Aleda. The symbol on her flank is wisteria, which is the symbol for the Mother Goddess and grows all over the cliff where the Faye live. Maybe next year I’ll do a Warrior of Eoin pony. Or a Kaye/Kindra hybrid (the symbol for the twins is a pegasus, actually).

And now on to the entries! Click on the ponies below to go to their website (there may be more than one pony at the website!) and then vote for your favorite before October 15th. The winner gets a copy of Kalavista’s book “The Secret of Shadow” as well as a custom of their winning pony!

EDIT: I made a huge mistake and got my days mixed up, which left out two entries! IF YOU VOTED ON OCT 4TH PLEASE VOTE AGAIN. I had to wipe the poll and start over!

Mariana, by Chelsy

Phoenix Feather, by Angela

Ponies in Space, by Beth

Innocence Saga, by Lissa

Jacob, Kira, Farrah, by Juliana

Tomohiro, by Amanda

Tawny Lester, by Aaron

Posted in Contests, Custom Pony. Tags: , , , , . 27 Comments »

Custom of the Week: Neytiri

September 18, 2011 — Rebecca Enzor

Today’s custom is super special because not only was the blue kitty version of Avatar (as opposed to the blue diamond version we did a few weeks back) a biologist’s dream movie (plot? Who cares about plot – it was PRETTY) but today’s customizer is also an author! And she’s helping me put on a contest for your very own custom pony! But first, take a look at this beauty she made.

Neytiri, by Kalavista

The eyes are so cool looking on this one, as well as the stripes. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a custom pony based on YOUR character?

Oh, it would? Then allow me (and Kalavista) to announce the Custom Pony Contest!

The Rules:

-either draw your own pony or use a template or the pony creator to make a pony based on your novel. Choose colors for the body and mane/tail, and a symbol. Ponies can be earthers, unicorns or pegasi (no alicorns/unipegs please).

-all ponies must come from a full-length, original work (no fanfics). Unpublished novels are OK. Feel free to plug your published novel in the post if you are that lucky!

-it can be a pony based on a character, setting, or theme from your novel. (CLARIFICATION: You can make more than one pony, but they must be voted on as a whole, from the same book, and only ONE of those ponies will be customized).

-write up a short description of your pony(s), and a one sentence tag-line for the book.

-post the pony(s) on your blog by Tuesday October 4th (otherwise known as my birthday ;P) and reply here with the link to that post.

-from October 5th through 15th visit the other blogs and vote for your favorite pony!

-winner will be announced on October 16th!

The Prize: The winner (based on popular vote) will have their pony made into a real custom pony by Kalavista, plus receive a copy of her book, The Secret of Shadow!

Restrictions: The custom pony will not have clothes or accessories (no sculpty/clay will be used), so make a representation of the character, rather than a carbon-copy right down to their underwear. No Twice-As-Fancy symbols (symbols that cover the entire body) or sitting poses. Open to US/Canada residents only (you can still play, but only US/C residents can win the prize, sorry!).

Posted in Contests, Custom Pony. Tags: , , , , , . 48 Comments »

Asiagoans: Contest Love

June 30, 2011 — Rebecca Enzor

It’s Becka Day over on the Asiagoans blog! But since the post is so short, I’m just going to re-post it here :)

I found a pretty awesome contest today, and I wanted to pass it along to you guys. It’s called “Auntie B’s Book Club Contest” and it’s an opportunity to have four teens read your pitch and first 250 words (one page) and decide if they would pick your book up off the shelf. There are three prizes (all editing related, of course) and you have until July 17th to get your page and pitch polished!

Visit Brenda Drake’s blog for all the juicy details!

Posted in Asiagoans, Contests. 2 Comments »

And the winner is….

January 24, 2011 — Rebecca Enzor

Jill!

Congrats to Jill on finding Pone and winning the galley of Small Persons with Wings! I think you will really like it :)

For anyone who is curious about Pone, but didn’t find the post about her, it is here: Writing Meme, Day 4

Posted in Contests, Grab Bag. 4 Comments »

Small Persons with Wings

January 20, 2011 — Rebecca Enzor

Happy Book Birthday to Ellen Booraem’s SMALL PERSONS WITH WINGS!

I won a galley of SPWW from ktliterary’s blog Ask Daphne, and while I don’t normally write book reviews (make that: never write book reviews), I thought I should for this one, since I got to read it first (nah nah!).

I loved this book!

From the mention of a My Little Pony and the word “FWAP!” in the first chapter, through all the twists and turns of a fairytale that is not about fairies, to the grandeur of the last page, SPWW was an endearing, entertaining story about reality, and how much in life is what we want to imagine it to be.

Thirteen-year-old Mellie Turpin once declared to her kindergarten class that she had a fairy living in her bedroom. But before she could bring him in for show-and-tell, he disappeared. Years later, she is still trying to live it down, taunted mercilessly by classmates who call her “Fairy Fat.”

Her imagination got her into this. She’s determined to keep it turned off.

When her parents inherit an inn and the family moves to a new town, Mellie sees a chance to finally leave all that fairy nonsense behind. Little does she know that the inn is overrun with…you guessed it.  Oh brother.

There’s no such thing as fairies, she keeps telling herself. And if there were, they wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Right?

The best thing about this novel is the flipped-on-its-head notion that reality is not real at all, but only what we want to see in life. Mellie struggles to “imagine what’s real” after spending half of her childhood trying to learn how to turn her imagination off. She likes to recite facts (especially about art and artists) and make lists, because those things are real, and it is absolutely heartbreaking to listen to her talk about losing her childlike imagination.

“I had to…stop making up stories to put myself to sleep.” (pg 24, galley version)

This book hit a deep chord in me, and certainly will in any other imaginative person (small or not!).

~~~~~

For a chance to win my galley copy of this book (because I’m buying my own copy today!), I’m sending you on a treasure hunt! The Parvi Pennati (Small Persons with Wings) have hidden my galley somewhere in this blog, and you have to find it. Since I won the contest for the galley by talking about my own Small Pony with Wings all you have to do is find the post where I talked about her and reply there with your name and email address (I’ll give you a hint, I talked about my imaginary pony friend during the Writing Meme I did last April). On Sunday I’ll announce the winner!

EDIT: Second hint: start at the beginning of April 2010 (there is an archives drop down menu in the sidebar) and work your way back. The post you are looking for is early in the month!

Posted in Contests, Grab Bag. 1 Comment »
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