Win My Fair Godmother
I like to have contests that match the book I’m giving away, but I’m drawing a bit of a blank on this one. Hmmm. Tell me a story about when you defeated an ogre? Nah. Best tips for getting rid of those pesky dragons that keep chomping on villagers? I probably wouldn’t get a lot of entries on that one . . .
How about this: leave a comment on where you would ask your fairy godmother to send you, and why. Answers can include real life places or fantasy ones. (Personally, I’d like to visit Battlestar Gallactica . . . but yeah, we won’t go into my crush on Apollo.)
After the week is up I’ll pick one winner and send them a copy. And just so that you really want the book, here is the teaser:
After her boyfriend dumps her for her older sister, sophomore Savannah Delano wishes she could find a true prince to take her to the prom. Enter Chrissy (Chrysanthemum) Everstar: Savannah’s gum-chewing, cell phone–carrying, high heel-wearing Fair Godmother. Showing why she’s only Fair—because she’s not a very good fairy student—Chrissy mistakenly sends Savannah back in time to the Middle Ages, first as Cinderella, then as Snow White. Finally she sends Tristan, a boy in Savannah’s class, back instead to turn him into her prom-worthy prince. When Savannah returns to the Middle Ages to save Tristan, they must team up to defeat a troll, a dragon, and the mysterious and undeniably sexy Black Knight.
Oh, and the YA Fresh blog will also be giving a book away on Friday so if you’d like to double your chances you can visit:
www.yafresh.blogspot.com.
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This is such a difficult question. There are so many places in time and fantasy that I would kill to experience, but it would only work if I could BE the princess/actress/fairy/witch etc. I would love to go to (a somewhat romanticized)ancient Egypt and wear golden snakes on my head and explore the supersitions. Even more than Egypt though, my #1 place would be somewhere in the late 1700’s–a combined fantasy world of The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Slipper and The Rose. I secretly fantasize about the big, piled hair, and the poofy, busomy, corsetted dresses. And who could argue with the tight, silk breeches on the men? Sigh.
Right now I would like to go any place warm. I do not like the cold and it is cold in Nebraska. I liked the heat when I lived in the Philippines. And even better would be to go to San Diego.
I would like to go to another planet – a nice, comfy habitable one close by – several dozen light years is all.
What’s it like? What are the plants and animals like? Are there “people?” I’d love to find out!
I would love to go to the land of Bayern, depicted in the Shannon Hale novel, The Goose Girl. The story weaves this magical tale about truth, love, and friendship. It would be totally awesome to have my fairy godmother send me to that mythical land. Hanging out with Ani, Geric, Finn, Enna & Razo would be one of the primary reasons for going. When the story was done I was so happy with how it ended, but sad because I couldn’t continue to get to know these awesome people I had met. Of course, I would have to barter with my fairy godmother, telling her how much I suffer (homework, taking out the trash … you know, the usual things that make one’s life so stressful) and she would complain about the fact that since it wasn’t a land that actually existed (“on the earth, minor detail,” I add) it would be even harder to send me there. It would take about 15 minutes of arguing, then me forfeiting my iPod privileges to her for 2 weeks, and 5 batches of homemade brownies before she would finally consent. I’d ask for her to clothe me in a typical Bayern outfit and she would tell me “not to push it.” And so I would probably have to stick to my usual concert t-shirt and jeans.
I would like to go to Sherwood Forest. To meet Robin Hood, of course. And fight the sheriff of Nottingham. And learn archery. It sounds like fun.
Scotland. That’s my standard answer for this question because I’m still trying to figure out how to get there. My daughter is insisting we go there as a graduation trip in two years. I suppose I better start saving my pennies.
Hogwarts. But only if I could be a witch and actually attend the school. Going there and not being able to do magic would be extremely depressing.
If not there, England. England sounds pretty awesome.
Fairy Godmother, please transport me from work to my perfectly designed, organized and clean home where only well-behaved, loving people live. What? You said it could an imaginary place!
Yeah, I’ve often thought while reading Cinderella–the heck with Prince Charming, I’d just want the fairy godmother to do my chores.
Although I suppose if Prince Charming was really handsome . . .
Oh man who can just pick one? My first thought was Ireland or Scotland…I am a sucker for blue eyes and accents. Then I thought maybe to Austenland where I could pretend to be Jane Austen and still have running water. Or maybe Pretties, I would steal Zane and all would be well.
If it has to be a real place, I’d have to choose between Donegal, Ireland (where some of my ancestors lived, and where some relatives still live), and Bruges, Belgium, which I’ve been to twice but would love to visit again, because it is such a beautiful little town, and I didn’t get to see everything there, even though I’ve been twice.
Then, again, I have two daughters living in the Washington, DC area, and one of them just moved there after marrying a few days ago, and I’d love to be able to visit them every so often, but maybe I can only go once via fairy godmother.
If it could be an imaginary place, I’d pick Rivendell or Lothlorien, from Lord of the Rings, and I’d like to be an elf, please (because I have a mad crush on Gandalf–not Ian McKellen, but the REAL Gandalf).
Oh, hmm…. *ponders*
I think I’d like to go to Boston (when the weather is good, of course) because my sister lives there. I just got to see her over Christmas break, but only for a few days, and now she’s back at school, and I’m back at school, and that means four months of random blog reading and facebook poking. It’s all so much more fun in person. 🙂
I’d want to go back to December 1968, before my father died, when my mom and dad had their little, happy family.
I’ve often fatasized about going back in time. I’d love to go back to my wedding day, and for each of my children’s births.
Fun contest idea.
Dearest F.G.M.,
For just one day, I’d love to return to my high school in my fifteen-year-old body–glasses, acne and all–but with the wisdom I currently possess. I’d like to eat lunch with the cute guy who I didn’t know would become my husband and revisit a day’s worth of daunting, overly melodramatic situations. I would like to return to Now with the fifteen-year-old body, minus the acne, and a lotta good notes for my YAs.
Your biggest fan,
Nancy
I’d ask to go to….
Wait….
Uh…
Shoot. Some of the places I’d ask about I know I’ll make it to eventually. Seems like I should pick somewhere I’d like to visit but not make it to on my own.
Oh, I got it! Prince Edward Island.
Cool.
I’d love to go to Doctor Who-land (when it was David Tennant & Billie Piper) . . . I want to go see my friend in England but that one’s actually possible on my own 😉
No tmany people actualy watched The Tenth Kingdom when it came on as a mini-series on ABC but, let me tell you it was amazing. I would want to go to that world where all the fairy tales are true. (Cinderella is two-hundred years old and she was Queen in what they called ‘The Golden Age’)Plus the fairy tales are much more realistic. But also they dont give you the expectations that everything ends happily-ever-after. One of the characters in it says laughingly ‘We either live happily ever after or die of horrible curses.’ I personally would love to take my chances there.
I totally want to go to BSG! Or more specifically, Kobol, but without any cylons around. Oh, and with people. Yeah.
Not that I love BSG or anything…ahem…
I would also pick 19th century England (early part), where I would be rich. Because I honestly do not fantasize about being in poverty.
I would ask my Fairy God Mother to send me into the Taylor Swift song ‘Love Story’ so i could live happily ever after with a prince, AND have an amazing soundtrack to live in.
Mary Jane, I was just thinking the same thing! Weird.
But, then I decided that I want to go Gilligan’s Island. And have a good laugh. And some coconut milk with a little umbrella. And sleep in a hammock. And help them all get off the Island once and for all.
I would go back to the Middle Ages before Savannah arrives so that I could familiarize myself with the Black Knight and his motives so as to aid Savannah and Tristan in their quest.
I would like to go to a place where I’m thin and beautiful and can sing and I make enough money to have a nice home.
Oh, and a handsome prince would be great too.
I don’t want much, but sending my Fairy Godmother up against the Judicial System might be asking too much. All I want are signed papers from my little boy’s birth mother giving us the right to adopt, or signed papers from the court saying she doesn’t have a choice. I wish I had some fluffy request for her, but I have everything else I need in the world.
No wonder I don’t have a fairy godmother, they hear my wish and run screaming the other way!
I would like to be transported directly to a cruise ship that’s sailing the Mediterranean and stopping at all the exotic ports. Also, on this particular cruise ship, I could eat as much as I wanted without worrying about the weight thing… and every night, Josh Groban would be singing to us at our own private concert.
I would ask to be sent to the Philippines with my husband. That way, I’d have some experience to go with all of his stories about the country. 😀 Plus, hello! Tropical island sounds great about now.
I think, if I could go anywhere, I’d like to visit Inkheart. The film came out recently but it didn’t show the world except for five seconds at the end – and even then, it was nothing how I imagined it.
In the second book, Inkspell, the world is somewhat like Camelot (at least, in my mind it is) and I imagine it full of reds, oranges and yellows and wondeful scents and creatures which catch the eye. I love the idea of little glass men who dip your quill into ink and make you paper, Kings who fear the White Women, Princes who are always laughing, The Black Prince and his bear – travelling the land with thieves and the strolling players. I go all sqirmy at the thought. I love the idea that if you know how to handle the fire, you can speak to the fire elves and become invisble to sneak into the castles. I want to meet the Inkweaver, the Bluejay and especially Dustfinger. I want to see Farid travelling just like his teacher and see Meggie with her husband who invents a “flying machine”.
It’s very much a fairy-tale world full of nymphs and fairies and songs which the children sing down at the market. It’s a simple place and yet it’s as exciting as ours.
Of course, if this wasn’t possible, I’d like to travel back to Camelot and meet Merlin, Arthur and Morgana. I’d like to see the magic, the dragons and the battles.
I’m all about the thrills, you see.
Hi Janette,
I received an ARC of this book and just finished reading it and must say that it is without a doubt the most enjoyable book I have read in quite some time. I only wish we had books like this when I was a teen as I would have read oh so much more. Thank you for such a great read and I will most certainly be checking out your other books.
huggs,
Terra
Well, since this particular Fair Godmother seems to flub things up a bit, I might be a little bit nervous to ask a fairy godmother to transport me anywhere. After all, Savannah only asks to find a true prince to take her to the prom, and look at all the mess she gets into.
If I asked for something small, like just getting my house cleaned, she might send a bunch of birds and mice and cockroaches in to clean the place up. If I asked for my kids to behave, she might send a witch in with some magic apples and put them to sleep for 1,000 years. If I asked for my husband and I to have a romantic date, she would probably turn us into dogs and send us to eat spaghetti in an ally.
But, if I explicitly trusted my fairy godmother to grant my wish without any unpleasant side effects, I would ask to be sent into the future (not very far, I hope) where I can hold my first published novel in my hands for just a moment. That is the place I most want to be–where I know all my hard work is going to pay off, and that I really do have what it takes to become a published author.
I don’t have to win since I’d rather buy your book and have you sign it when you’re in town, but I stil want to say where my godmother could send me!
I want her to send me to New York to meet my new publisher who’s offered me an insanely ridiculously huge advance (that is guaranteed to earn out in two weeks and then sell like hotcakes thereafter).
And I know . . . I know . . . I have no new york publisher or advance, but isn’t that what the godmother is for? 🙂 If this can’t happen, she can send me to battlestar galactica with you.
Fariy Godmother! Please Please send me into a Batman Movie! He is the coolest superhero, with the most chilling-ist villains. AND I would love to get saved by Christian Bale.
I would ask my Fairy Godmother to send me Brer Rabbit’s Briar Patch! The one from Song of the South! Or maybe I’d just settle for Splash Mountain. You can’t ride Splash Mountain and tell me you wouldn’t want to live in Splash Mountain. Come on now. You’d have to fight the occasional fox or bear, like THAT would be hard. And then at the end of every day, you sit back, eat some watermelon, sing “zip a dee doo dah” and go over a waterfall in a curiously well-carved piece of lumber.
That would be the life.
I would want to go to Hogwarts or when I was younger to enjoy the good times longer.
I would like my FG to “wand” me to a nice little cliffside cottage in Greece. Particularly near that hotel in the movie Mamma Mia! The move sucked, but the location FABULOUS!!!
Janette, are you planning on having a local release party for this book?
Anywhere? I’d like to go to the Land of Oz!
And not that technicolor MGM version either — I’m talking about the REAL Land of Oz that L. Frank Baum described in his books – a land where there is no money, no sickness, and people give emeralds like beads at Mardi Gras! (Sure, granted there might be a wicked witch or Nome King lurking somewhere, but I wouldn’t want my visit to be dull…)
I would ask my fair godmother to send me back to my warm bed
I’d ask her to send me to Atlantis – for a week. But if she couldn’t manage to send me back in time BEFORE it sank, then she’ll have to turn me into a dolphin too. I can’t hold my breath that long.
Why do I want to go there? Well who wouldn’t? It’s the ultimate mystery. A beautiful city lost at the pinnacle of its civilization – it’s the stuff of legends. Archaeologists’ best guess is that it was located near the island of Santorini in Greece. And with Santorini’s crystalline water, vast expanse of sandy beaches, friendly people, blissful temperatures, and succulent food,it sounds like paradise – even if I had to go as a porpoise.
I know I’m too late for the contest, but I really want to go to Italy for some reason. Don’t know why. But I’d ask my fairy godmother to give me the gift of speaking Italian and send me on my way!
And the winner is:
Okay, I was going to choose what I thought was the best answer–but the truth was, there were way too many great answers. Really. I want to go to most of the places you all came up with.
So using a very scientific method of choosing a number from one to thrity seven, I have chosen Don as the lucky winner.
Send me your address, Don and I’ll send your book to you!
Well would ask my Fairy Godmother to send me to either Australia or New Zealand. I have wanted to go to either of these places for a long time. I want to see the temple in Australia, and then the opera house.
In New Zealand, I would like to see where they filmed LOTR.
I just think that my fairy godmother is a few years late, (or she forgot) but she will come I just now it… 🙂
Laurel
I would go to modern day England. That way I would already speak the language and guys would all have amazing accents. I would want to be put in a situation where I was well off and smart as to not end up like Snow White. I would want to attend Oxford and wear all the European styles. It would also allow me to be in driving distance (that is a relative term) of other European countries and amazing history, architecutre, and culture. With all of this I would have the best of every world, including my own, but would get to go and taste a little of how people used to live.
But actually I wanted to comment on your book, the “Win my Fair Godmother” was just a bonus. I love all your books and just want to say thank you for making them all so clean and wholesome. I keep having to put down books because they get so bad but I know I will never have to worry about yours. And they are still amazingly entertaining! Thanks
I know I’m too late too. I am just discovering you. I’m the mom of 4 girls 11 – 16 and it’s good to find an author for book addicts like me.
I would want to go to a place where I had all the time in the world to read. And then I could read some more. I wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning or fixing dinner, it’s all about books!
I live that life on some days . . . yeah, it’s been awhile since I cooked dinner . . .
I would have my fairy godmother take me to a mystical and magical place.Hmmm,maybe a place called Fairytale Land. Or Elyon from The Land Of Elyon books By: Patrick Carman.
-Senfaye 🙂
I know exactly where I would want to be sent! Atlantis… long before any watery demise. I’ve always loved the idea of lost civilizations that were somehow disconnected from the rest of the world; special, perhaps in technology that is later lost to the world.