The Terribleminds Pumpkin Carving Contest

I WANT YOU TO CARVE A PUMPKIN.

Whoa, sorry, a little early for the aggro ragebadger capslock thing.

I want you to carve a pumpkin.

And I want you to somehow incorporate one of my books (physical copy of said book, or if you feel like rigging your Kindle all up in there, hey, so be it).

Here’s how this works:

You will carve a pumpkin, for It Is The Season Of Pumpkin. This will be a jack-o-lantern of some stripe: one assumes you’ll carve a face into/onto it, though if you’d prefer to carve a tableau from one of my books, hey, more power to you if you got those mad gourd-carver skillz.

That’s right. I said skills, but with a ‘z.’

I’m a writer, I can make brave decisions like that.

ANYWAY.

You will carve this pumpkin and it can be carved however you see fit, and you will then place one of my books in and around the pumpkin (next to it, into it, on top of it, underneath it, but visible somehow) and then you will get out a camera of your choosing and snap a picture.

Then, you’ll send me the photographic evidence to: terribleminds [at] gmail [dot] com.

You can be in the photo if you’d like.

You have roughly one month to enter.

This contest concludes at 11:59 PM EST on October 31st.

As they say on Survivor, Wanna know what you’re playing for?

Well, I’ve got two prize packs. The Big Stack Of Books prize is for the picture that I like the most. The Miriam Black Is Back prize is for the picture you all like the most (and we’ll take the first week of November to vote for your favorite photo).

The Big Stack of Books prize is:

A big ol’ stack of autographed books from Yours Truly.

That means nine total books:

Under the Empyrean Sky (hardcover)

Blackbirds (mmpb)

Mockingbird (mmpb)

The Blue Blazes (mmpb)

Double Dead (trade paper)

Unclean Spirits (trade paper)

Dinocalypse Now (trade paper)

Beyond Dinocalypse (trade paper)

Bait Dog (self-pub hardcover)

The Miriam Black Is Back prize is three books:

You’ll get digital copies of the first two Miriam Black books (Blackbirds, Mockingbird).

And you will receive a very early digital e-copy of The Cormorant.

The rules for this whole affair are as follows:

You will take a picture of your carved pumpkin with one of my books present in the photo.

You will send me that photo in the allotted time frame (before 11:59PM EST, Oct 31st).

I will be posting all photos to Flickr for display (though I will not own the photos in any way).

The first week of November will be used for voting and winners will be announced just after.

You will enter only once. Multiple entries will disqualify you.

If you are in the United States, I’ll front the shipping.

This is open to international participants, but if you win? You have to front the shipping. (I apologize, but man, shipping a big-ass box of books internationally can be onerous.)

You can be in the photo if you want.

The jack-o-lantern does not need to be carved in any specific manner — long as it counts as a jack-o-lantern, we’re good. Though, obviously, bonus points for creativity, horror, hilarity, or tying the pumpkin in some way to one of my books or characters.

(Results of the last photo contest for The Blue Blazes here.)

NOW GET CARVIN’, YOU FIERCE-FACED PUMPKIN-WRANGLERS.