Jun 10
23
A competition for UK readers
What Alice Forgot was released in the UK this month and to celebrate I’m running a competition.
Hooray! I feel nervous about it, which is why I’m using too many overexcited exclamation marks. I’m worried no one will enter. Please enter!
I myself rarely bother to enter competitions, although when I do, I always have a strong feeling that I’m going to win.
This feeling only proved to be correct on one occasion. It was during my ‘corporate years’ in the late eighties. I was wearing pale pink lipstick, orange hoop earrings and a jacket with enormous shoulder pads to attend an ‘Institute of Chartered Accountants’ cocktail party in Sydney. I was meant to be networking and handing out my business card but I was always too shy to network. Instead I stood in the corner drinking champagne and trying to discreetly adjust my shoulder pads. (They were stuck on with Velcro and they were always sliding off at weird angles.) The only thing I did with my business card was put it into a big glass bowl for the chance to win two airline tickets. When they were doing the draw the thought crossed my mind: ‘I’m going to win’. And I did! I remember that my hands flew to my mouth when they called out my name. They really did. I think it’s the only time in my life that my hands have flown to my mouth.
The tickets were to anywhere in Australia. Two weeks later, while I was still deciding where to go on holidays, that particular airline collapsed.
It’s remarkable the power I have over the universe. Here is another example: The first time I ever bought shares, the stock market crashed within three days. I heard about it on the radio on my way to work. As far as I knew they’d never even mentioned the stock market on the radio until that moment. The 1987 stock market crash: completely my fault. I’m sorry if you lost money because of me.
OK, so this is the way my competition will work! Any reader from the UK who leaves a comment on this Blog before 1 August will go into the draw to win a signed copy of my first novel, Three Wishes.
Your comment should be friendly, but apart from that, it doesn’t matter what you say, you will be in with a chance.
If you’re a reader from the UK and you’ve stumbled on this blog, please enter. You may be the only UK reader to comment in which case you will have an excellent chance of winning. Your hands could be flying to your mouth!
You will notice that I haven’t done a competition for Australian readers. I guess this is because you are like family and I take you for granted. I promise to do another competition for you later in the year. You could always put on a British accent in your comment and try to fool me, but then you’d also have to go to the trouble of setting up a fake address in the UK for me to send the book. Actually, if you went to that much effort you would probably deserve to win.
Alice xx
I’ve just finished What Alice Forgot and I liked it a lot. The story between Alice and Nick may be a little bit cliché, even if it actually made me cry a little at some point, but the story with Elisabeth was really moving. I liked your style too. Oh and that was my first Australian novel ever, it was a little confusing sometimes (“why on earth wouldn’t it be cold to wake up at night in January ?”) !
