I'm feeling generous, blog.

One of the nice things about working in a bookshop is that we often get author signings. Since I live in Galway and not Dublin, we don’t tend to get the big-name authors very often, but we get a few of our own Irish ones every now and then.

Spot the author!

This month, however, we had Cassandra Clare signing in our shop! It was such a big deal. Of course, Dublin 1-upped us by having a Q&A session at their signing, but whatever. We still got to have Cassandra in our store, and that was more than we’ve had in a long time.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to her, though she did give me a big wave as she passed the office, but I lurked around her queue long enough to get that excited buzz that comes with author signings.

Cassandra Clare

I have to say, she was absolutely lovely to her fans. Each of them came up to her, arms laden down with books, and she signed them merrily and talked to them, really talked to them, for a good five minutes each. She came across so friendly and it was so nice to see. One girl was so happy to meet her that she burst into tears, because Cassandra’s books meant so much to her.

I’ll admit, I’ve not read all of her books. I read Clockwork Angel and found it enjoyable, and I’d started City of Bones only to have to put it aside for NaNoWriMo preparations, but I was enjoying it in so far as I had read. I got to thinking about when I got my books signed by Neil Gaiman and how proud of them I was, and how gutted I was when I missed Audrey Niffenegger’s signing in stupid Dublin, Dublin that gets freakin everything, the selfish little– and I thought of all the people who probably would have loved to get their books signed by Cassandra Clare. I thought of YOU, blog reader.

Most of the people who came to get their books signed already owned the series, so we had a lot of extra books for Ms Clare to sign. I went ahead and purchased one of each.

In honour of National Novel Writing Month, and how much love I have for it, and the generosity it has inspired in me, I am going to do a big ol’ give-away!

~*~MUSICAL INTERLUDE~*~

Why yes, Chili Peppers, I do believe I will give it away now.

THE NOVEMBEROSITY MORTAL INSTRUMENTS GIVEAWAY!

This is how it’s going to work. There are four books, and rather than give them all to one person, I’m going to split them up so that four people get to enjoy having a signed Cassandra Clare book. There is one for every week in November, so it will tie in quite nicely with being a NaNo treat from me to you!

I won’t make you jump through hoops to enter, there will be no trick questions or tests of How Big A Fan you are.

To enter:

• Subscribe to my blog and comment below to say you’ve done so.
• Already subscribed?  Nice one, thank you!  It totally counts.  I don’t mind if you subscribe with WordPress, by email, Google Reader, smoke signal, whatever.

As well as that, I am going to allow extra points for entries if you do any of the following things:

• Follow me on twitter +1
• Already follow me?  Just let me know, and it counts!  When you reply here, let me know what your twitter @handle is so I can check.
• Retweet about this competition +1
• This only counts for one RT, so don’t go retweeting this every day.
• Follow my tumblr +1
• already following it?  Still counts!  Just let me know what your tumblr is.
• Blog about this giveaway +1
• If you’d like to mention this giveaway on your blog, I’ll happily give you another point.  We can be blog buddies!

So, if I’ve done my maths right, that means you can have a possible 5 chances at winning this book.  I have a short list of rules:

Rules:

1. If you are a lucky winner of one of these books, you cannot enter any further giveaways for the rest of the books.
• Let’s be fair, people.  I want to be able to spread the love as far and wide as I can with these, so there can only be one winner for each book.  It would be really unfair if someone won two or more of them.
2. Please do not make extra twitter/tumblr/blog etc. accounts to forge your way in.  It’s not in the spirit of the giveaway.
3. Do not put these books on e-bay or any bidding site for further gain.  I’m giving these away with the hopes that they will reach fans of Cassandra Clare.  If I see them up on e-bay, I will totally internet-kick your ass.
4. Rules are subject to further changes as the giveaway continues.

Now that the grr-faced part is over, on to the fun stuff!  This giveaway is international, so anyone can enter.  Like my last giveaway, I’ll also throw in a full set of Harry Potter bookmarks, and if I have some extra swag lying about, you’ll get that too!

The first book I am giving away is the first in the series, City of Bones

From Goodreads:

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder — much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing — not even a smear of blood — to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare’s ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

The giveaway begins NOW! It will close on Sunday, 6th November @ 7 PM GMT and will be put in the post to the lucky winner on Monday, when the giveaway will begin all over again.

You remember what you have to do? Okay, GO!

- Serena