Draw Winners!

I decided to perform the draw the old-fashioned way:

With scraps of paper. Except I am horrible at performing draws, apparently. I cut up way too many scraps of paper, for one. (Evidence below).
                                      


Then I got my brother, of all people, to pick the winners. He for one was trying to annoy me, and for two apparently couldn't read my handwriting. Anyway, the winners have been picked.

Winners!

So, here are the winners:

Prize package #1: $25.00 Amazon gift card and a critique (by all the teens who will be answering questions) of anything you want whether it be blurb, first page, etc (max 5 pages)

...goes to.... Jenny!

Prize package #2: The chance to either have you either a) interviewed by me and have the interview posted here on the blog or b) guest post here on my blog... as well as a critique of anything you want (max 5 pages) by the teen team.

...goes to... Lali!


Prize package #3: A critique of anything you want (max 5 pages) by my teen team.

...goes to... Kristin Bailey!

Winners please e-mail me (kazuntai101atgmaildotcom) and tell me what you want critiqued (if anything) and then everything else I will figure out from there. As for the actual questions, I will (try to) post 3-4 questions per day with answers and then I have a special post up my sleeve for the end of it all. Keep checking back to see when your questions will be answered! (I'll be going pretty much in the order the questions were asked on the original post). Also thank you to everyone who tweeted or blogged about this. I'm glad we got so many questions!



Sorry if I kind of don't make sense today... I am quite tired and therefore kind of out of it.

Quick Note About Explore-A-Teen's Brain Contest

If you don't know what the Explore-A-Teen's-Brain Contest is yet, go HERE. I've gotten a bunch more questions for teens, and I'm hoping that I'll get a couple more soon... so I am NOT closing the contest or questions yet. I'm extending the deadline to Monday, August 22, 2011. I might extend it even more later, but it depends.

AUGH that was so boring. I hate info dump posts.

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEKEND!!!

WARNING: Contains Prizes And Chance To Explore Teenage Brains!

I am now going to take advantage of the only one of the many selling points us teenaged writer-bloggers have: that we are your audience! Well, if you are a writer of Young Adult books anyway. If not, then, well... it'll just be interesting for you to find out more about what other people think of reading!

So. I wanted to give you the opportunity to get inside a teen's head and find out what we look for in YA... basically anything you want to know about us (ahem, not ANYTHING but you know what I mean). So, who will this lucky teen be? ME, o' course. Although I will try to rope a few of my friends/siblings into answering questions as well in order to get a wider opinion. (Not that you couldn't just stereotype all teens with my answers because all teens are clones of each other  well that's a secret.)

Now in case you missed all that, I'll summarize: I want YOU to ask questions! Ask anything you want to know about teens, their reading habits, what we want to see in YA... whatever! (There are some examples of questions here!) I would like them to be good questions (not like "what's your favourite colour"), although they do not necessarily have to be reading or writing related. (Paper Hangover frequently does teen interviews and their questions are not always reading related, yet they are still useful!) Also, all you teens out there who read this note that... this time, you're not allowed to ask questions (well, you can, but they won't count for anything).

To ask a question, just think of a question, and then ask it either in the comments of THIS POST (the one you're reading) OR you can send me an e-mail at kazuntai101[at]gmail[dot]com. Put "Ask The Teens Question" in the subject line. After the deadline for questions, I (and my teen team) will answer them here on my blog... either in one post or multiple posts, depending on how many questions I get. Oh, and I will be accepting questions up until Friday, August 19th. New deadline! Monday, August 22.

BUT WAIT! There's more! Everybody who asks a question who will be entered into a draw to win one of THREE prizes!!

Prize package #1: $25.00 Amazon gift card and a critique (by all the teens who will be answering questions) of anything you want whether it be blurb, first page, etc (max 5 pages).

Prize package #2: The chance to either have you either a) interviewed by me and have the interview posted here on the blog or b) guest post here on my blog... as well as a critique of anything you want (max 5 pages) by the teen team.

Prize package #3: A critique of anything you want (max 5 pages) by my teen team.
*Note that all critiques are optional! (So if you want the gift card or interview but not the critiques, then that's OK!)

ONLY people who asks questions will be entered, and ONLY one entry per person UNLESS you share this on any of your socialnetworking sites and then post the links to where you shared below so I know you've shared... then I'll put in an extra entry for you. So that is max TWO entries... no extra entries for multiple questions (although you can ASK multiple questions, actually I'd love it if you did!) and no extra entries for sharing on multiple media sites (although that would be AWESOME if you did!!!!)

WAIT, TEENS AND NON-QUESTION ASKERS! You people will be entered into the draw as well if you share on your blog/twitter/tumblr/facebook/etc and post the link to where you shared in the comments below! (The same rules apply, though... no extra entries for multiple sites but DO IT ANYWAYS PLEASE!!)

(Jeepers there is way too much information in this post... did I miss anything yet?)

Another thing: if you want to ask a question, but you DON'T want to be entered in the draw then just let me know when you ask your question!!

So, even if you don't feel motivated by the chance to win one of the prizes above then it would still be completely awesome if you would spread the news around! Tell people to come here so they can find out everything they ever wanted about what teens think about books!! And please link back to this post, the one and only! (If you guys are awesome enough with this... maybe I'll hold another contest later... hmm...)

Thank you so much everyone!! If you have any questions at all, then first skim through the summary below and then if you are still confused, just ask!

---

I'm now going to summarize everything in list form in order for you not to be confused. But if you aren't confused, just skip this part!

ON QUESTIONING THE TEENS
-ask questions to real live teens about their interests, lives, reading habits, what they think of YA, whatever! Here are some examples.
-you CAN ask multiple questions! In fact, please do!
-ask questions by commenting on THIS VERY POST or e-mailing me with subject "Ask The Teens Question"! (kazuntai101[at]gmail[dot]com)
-all questions will be answered here on the blog after the question deadline
-ALL questions WILL BE ANSWERED. Guaranteed. (Note that it may take awhile though).
-question deadline is Monday, August 22. 
-teens are not allowed to ask questions (sorry!)

ON THE QUESTIONING DRAW
-everyone who asks a question will be entered in a draw to win 1 of 3 prizes (see what the prize packages are ABOVE!)
-Only people who ask questions OR share about this project (including a link to this post!) on any of their socialnetworking sites will be entered in the draw.
-Max two entries per person (one for questions, one for sharing).
-No extra entries for multiple sites or questions... but please do all of that anyway!!
-if you want to ask questions but NOT be entered in the draw, just let me know and you will not be entered!

Spread the word, please!

Ok... I think I didn't miss anything... PHEW!!