Behind the Scenes: Kobo’s Going Going Gone Contest #3: The Reading.

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A confidential peek behind the curtain at my secret Cinderella Going Going Gone contest deal with Kobo. Start with Part 1: The e-mail & Part 2: The Call.

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Okay! My mission was clear.

Read Gone Girl.

I’d heard of it, but never run out and read Gillian Flynn. Now that Kobo was commissioning me to write Gone Girl-inspired stories, though, you bet I immediately downloaded a copy (yup, from Kobo) and started devouring it.

Gillian Flynn’s writing blew me away.

So witty and funny, but underneath, saying very caustic, actually frightening things about intimacy and marriage. That romantic love might be the worst thing that ever happened to you. That you might be better off alone than trapped in a marriage with someone who only wants to make you suffer, and everyone else suffer, until the end of time, amen.

My favourite line was about how the real Amy wanted to punch her parents’ fictional Amy character in her stupid, spotless vagina. But I was constantly highlighting lines and honest to God laughing out loud (people always say lol, but I think most of them aren’t really splitting the atmosphere with their guffaws). Gone Girl was a tour de force: character, plot, humour, and…deviance.

Well played, Gillian.

Okay. I’d done my homework.  One of my book clubs had even picked Gone Girl as their next read. I’d cleared my mental writing desk, finishing my two Hope Sze short story submissions for Jewish Noir and Montreal Noir and revising my second mystery romp, The Goa Yoga School of Slayers.

Now what?

___

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Your Choose Your Own Adventure path is clear today: September 16th, Kobo releases the second Gone Fishing short story, Trouble and Strife. Download it, solve the riddle, and you’re 2/3 of the way to winning the prizes of $5000 and a Kobo H2O Aura so you can read underwater!

Merci bien to anyone from Sleuthsayers who stops by. My spies inform me that people around the world checked out the Cinderella sleuth post, including armchair detectives from South Africa, France and Germany. W00t!

Special thanks to Anne, my new friend who told me that she’s enjoying this “behind the scene” series, thus encouraging me to continue. Not only did she personally deliver wood for us this winter (“Good-looking wood,” said my father-in-law), but she’s coming to the Books & Bodies event on Saturday (her birthday), and she’s making cupcakes or muffins. My son Max nearly split himself with joy, and I wasn’t far behind.

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Behind the Scenes: Kobo’s Going Going Gone Contest #2. The Call.

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This is part of an ongoing series of how I, Melissa ‘Yi,’ a member of the great unwashed authors, became the centrepiece of Kobo’s international Going Going Gone Contest celebrating Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Start at Part 1. The E-mail.

June 25th, 2014, 10:40 p.m.

After the speeches and hugs for my departing doctor, somehow, it was past bedtime before I got home and texted Mark.

I wouldn’t text the average person at bedtime, but Mark barely sleeps. That’s only way he can cram in the job he loves, his family, his writing, and commuting to and from Toronto with a skeleton named Barnaby Bones.

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Right away the little “…” dots started working on my phone, so he was up and answering. I warned him that I use Google Chat to call long distance. My friends are always either refusing to pick up because they think I’m a telemarketer, or they’re like, “Are you in California?”

Then I dialed him. “Sorry to call so late.”

“No problem. I’m driving to Sudbury, and I still have two or three hours to go.”

“You’re driving to Sudbury?” I’ve never been to Sudbury, even though it’s the main trauma centre in northern Ontario. In my mind, it’s hideously remote, although I’ve worked further north, including Cochrane (north of Timmins) and Dryden (near the Manitoba border), as well as various towns in Nunavut, Quebec.

“I’ve got some events for Spooky Sudbury and Tomes of Terror.”


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Hard core, thy name is Mark Leslie Lefebvre. But I already knew that. So now he had to tell me about the Secret Deal.

Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl hit the New York Times bestseller list in 2012, wowing everyone with its clues and plot twists. The movie premieres October 3rd, 2014. If I wrote two or three stories as a thriller-mystery, readers could solve the puzzles and win a prize.

“We wanted a woman, because Gillian’s a woman. Someone who wrote thrillers. A good writer that we could take to the next level. And someone who can write fast. There aren’t very many of them. But I said, ‘I think I know someone.’”

Um, I think I know a dozen of someones who fit the bill. But I just coughed and said, “Great!”

Kobo did this last year with Joanna “JF” Penn. Her three “Descent” short stories tied into Dan Brown’s Inferno, with a prize of $5000.

I couldn’t help thinking, what a draw. People could get paid FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS to read my stories. Hello.

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Writing often feels like shouting into the wilderness. No one hears you and no one cares. Editors reject you. Friends have flat out told me that they don’t read (no time, don’t care, would rather watch TV). Remaining readers pass over your work. I’m lucky enough to have built up a teeny fan base, but loyal readers are as rare and as precious as gold-plated rubies.

But everyone loves money.

Sign me up!

___

Psst. Would you like to scoop up that briefcase of $5000? Plus a Kobo H2O Aura, the world’s first waterproof e-reader? Without having to murder anyone? Then enter Kobo’s Going Going Gone Contest, download three Melissa Yi stories for free, solve the riddles and win! Contest closes October tenth, 2014. Story #2 launches Sept. 16th.

Download the first story for free and solve the riddle! http://www.kobo.com/gone

Download the first story for free and solve the riddle! http://www.kobo.com/gone

P.S. My last shift before I’m taking the week off for my Books & Bodies launch. Wish me luck on both.

Saturday, Sept 20th: Student Body debuts at 10:30 a.m. at R&L's Book Nook & 2 p.m. at the Cornwall Public Library

Saturday, Sept 20th: Student Body debuts at 10:30 a.m. at R&L’s Book Nook & 2 p.m. at the Cornwall Public Library

Behind the Scenes: Kobo’s Going Going Gone Contest #1. The E-Mail.

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So. How did I, a relatively unknown writer living in rural Canada, end up at the centre of Kobo’s new $5000 Going Going Gone contest?

I will tell you. Cindie Geddes, for one, wants to know. Read on.

June 25th, 2014

I happened to check my phone while eating steamed asparagus at Alexandria’s fanciest restaurant, the Georgian House.

That was unusual for me. First of all, I’m old school. When I’m at a party, I try to focus on the people I’m partying with. This was the going-away shindig for my own family doctor, the intelligent and kind Dr. Chris Millman.

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Secondly, I use my phone in the emergency room, so I have to wash my hands every time I touch it, for fear of eating MRSA. But I ended up networking and entering a few new contacts, so I’d already touched my phone. Why not have a quick boo at my messages?

This time, an e-mail made me hyperventilate.

Hi Melissa:

Hope you’re doing well.  I wanted to reach out to see if you might be interested in participating in a short fiction project…

The email went on to describe Kobo’s desire to solicit a writer to create a series of mystery/thriller stories that Kobo readers could read for free to extract clues as part of a contest Kobo would be running that tied in with the release of the movie based on Gillian Flynn’s GONE GIRL.

It was signed by Mark Lefebvre.

Holy macaroni salad.

Mark is the Kobo Director of Author Relations and Self-Publishing.

I’m a huge fan of his. Not only is he this corporate muckety-muck who uses his powers for good instead of greed-mongering, he’s also a writer, an editor (in fact, my editor, since he’d chosen one of my stories for one of his anthologies, Tesseracts 16), and celebrated a recent birthday by running through 10 kilometres of mud.

After I won Kobo’s professional cover contest and did a book launch in March, Mark drove from Toronto to my neck of the woods and back—about a 12 hour round trip, even without the blizzard that complicated matters—to star as Elvis. Long story, but my novel, Terminally Ill, features an Elvis tribute artist/escape artist who gets resuscitated by my main woman, Dr. Hope Sze.

Mark is always rushing off to ten million conferences around the world, not to mention billable hours at Kobo, plus editing and writing on his own time, so we basically never talk. But here he was, delivering an opportunity gift-wrapped on a plate.

My heart thudded.

I left the restaurant table and re-read the message.

There was only one answer, of course. Mark was asking, “Do you want to level up in your writing career while we promote you and pay you?”

I wrote back,

Absolutely yes. Thank you, Mark. I’ll read Gone Girl ASAP.

Melissa

If Mark called you and offered you a big, juicy opportunity, would you take it? Note: this is my 3 y.o. daughter, not Mark. She is not 6'3" and a Kobo Director/fairy godfather. Yet.

If Mark called you and offered you a big, juicy opportunity, would you take it?
Note: this is my 3 y.o. daughter, not Mark. She is not 6’3″ and a Kobo Director/fairy godfather. Yet.

___

Want to win $5000 and a Kobo Aura H2O, the world’s first waterproof e-reader? Of course you do. So pop over here:http://www.kobo.com/gone

Download the first story for free and solve the riddle! http://www.kobo.com/gone

Download the first story for free and solve the riddle! http://www.kobo.com/gone

Meet My Character Blog Hop: Hope Sze Meets the Society of Reluctant Detectives

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Thank you, Shirley McCann, for inviting me on a Blog Hop. Shirley just released Anonymously Yours, a mystery about a Missouri waitress who tries to return a wallet and discovers a body. Shirley’s giving away a $50 Amazon gift card if you review her book!

I’ve been preoccupied with my own Going Going Gone contest: Kobo’s awarding $5000 and a Kobo Aura H2O if you download my three, free Hope Sze Gone Fishing stories and solve three riddles, as I blogged about here. My next posts will be a behind the scenes sneak peak at how I got the deal.

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In the meantime, this is Hope. She deviates from the usual blog hop formula. Of course. My deviant detective doctor decided to visit a fictional self-help meeting.

The Society of Reluctant Detectives Meeting, November 9th, 2011

Moderator: Could you introduce yourself?

Hope: I’m a resident doctor at one of Montreal’s community hospitals. I’d rather just be a doctor, but I’m kind of getting a rep as a detective after solving three murders.

Woman: I know you! You’re Dr. Hope Sze, the detective doctor. You were the Montreal Journal’s 2011 Thanksgiving Woman of the Year.

Hope: Um. Yeah.

Man: We’re supposed to be anonymous, Chloe.

Hope: That’s all right.

Woman: You poor thing. You look exhausted. Three murders, eh? I heard about the one with the escape artist who dressed up like Elvis Presley, chained and nailed himself in a coffin and almost drowned, just because he wanted to act like Harry Houdini. You saved his life. [Terminally Ill]

Hope: Yes, ma’am.

Woman: And then he hired you to figure out who had sabotaged his act, but you got mixed up in another case…

Hope: I’d rather not talk about it. We’re still wrapping up that inquiry, with more details forthcoming. [Student Body, launching September 20th, 2014 at Books & Bodies]

Moderator: What brought you to the Society, then, Hope?

Hope: I kept telling people I didn’t want to be a detective. The first time, I just happened to find…someone deceased.

Woman: Dr. Radshaw! Face down the men’s change room. On your first day at St. Joseph’s hospital. [Code Blues]

Hope (wincing): Right. I have to admit, I was the one who took the lead on that case, even though the police told me to step aside. I thought it was a one-time deal, but then a grieving mother told me her daughter had been killed in a hit and run eight years ago, and I just had to help her. [Notorious D.O.C.]

Man: Yes. Dr. Laura Lee. A tragic case.

Hope: Right. Plus, you already mentioned Elvis the Escape King, who insisted on hiring me to figure out who tried to kill him. But even when I was just trying to take my dad fishing for his birthday, I ended up on another investigation [Gone Fishing/Going Going Gone $5000 Contest].

Moderator: I know what you’re saying. We’ve all gone through it. Reluctant Detective Syndrome, or RDS.

Hope: Really?

Moderator: Naturally. Even professionals suffer from this, although in their case it’s more a question of burnout. For amateur detectives, it can be socially isolating to solve criminal cases. At first, we receive attention and accolades…

Man: I was the Montreal Journal’s Man of the Year in 1973 after I caught the Smoked Meat Mangler.

Hope: Oh. Wow.

Man: Not the Thanksgiving Man of the Year. The Man of the Year.

Hope: Congratulations.

Man: For all of 1973.

Hope (slightly sarcastic): No way.

Moderator: After the first few cases, however, friends begin to make excuses, frightened that every time you go out to dinner, the woman sitting next to you may choke on poisoned pasta.

Woman: That was just the one time, but they started calling me the Mystery Magnet.

Man: It’s not about you, Chloe.

Woman: It’s always about me.

Hope: So what’s the cure?

Moderator: Excuse me?

Hope: Well, I’m a doctor. You’re describing the symptoms of Reluctant Detective Syndrome, and believe me, I understand. But what’s the treatment for RDS? Is there a cure?

Moderator (speechless): That’s the purpose of our group. We come together. We support one other.

Hope: Okay. Well, thank you very much.

Moderator: You’re leaving?

Hope: I’ve been here an hour, listening to the case of the Smoked Meat Mangler from 1973. I’ve got to go.

Woman: I bet I know where. Is it Tucker or Ryan tonight?

Hope (blushing): Excuse me?

Woman: Oh, don’t play coy, Hope. We all know about your love triangle. We’ve even taken bets on it.

Man: John Tucker is a sensible choice, given that he’s a fellow physician.

Woman: I hope you pick Ryan. I love dark-eyed men, especially if they’re Asian.

Hope: Ew. I mean, thank you. Good-bye!

Moderator: We meet every Monday, Hope. We’ll be waiting for you.

Download Hope’s next adventure on September 16th, Trouble & Strife, and enter to win $5000 and a Kobo H2O Aura!

Tune in September 16th to these talented writers’ blogs. I just asked them if they’d participate, so I have no idea if they can or not, but read their books anyway. 1) They write marvellously, and 2) They’re stand up people.

Michael La Ronn. Eaten. A broccoli terrorist with nothing to lose.

Rob Brunet. Stinking Rich. His debut mystery caper, called “deviously funny.”

Tim Reynolds. The Broken Shield. Action-packed adventure between light & dark.

Michael F. Stewart. Assured Destruction, called “Sybil meets Lisbeth Salander,”

Lisa de Nikolits. The Witchdoctor’s Bones. Sixteen strangers on a tour bus in South Africa=murder.

Krista D. Ball. Hey, I just saw that she’s getting married, so she won’t participate, but she’s hilarious. I’m now reading
Hustlers, Harlots, and Heroes.
I’m running off to CHEO, so I’ll fix this later. Thanks!

READ HOPE & WIN A KOBO AURA H2O & $5000: Kobo’s Going Going Gone Contest, featuring Hope Sze (Secret deal reveal)!!!!!!!!!!

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1. Do you like money?

2. Do you love to read? Like, all the time? At the beach, or in the bath, even?

3. Do you like my crime-fighting doctor, Hope Sze?

Well, now you can scoop up $5000 and read about Hope under the Atlantic Ocean, if you want to, through the generosity and creative engineering of Kobo!

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This is my Cinderella moment, so bear with me. I am so excited about this.

You could win five thousand dollars and a Kobo with Hope Sze, thanks to Kobo’s Going Going Gone contest!

Download three Hope Sze Gone Fishing mystery stories for free, solve one riddle per story, and you could win five thousand large and the world’s splashiest e-reader, the waterproof Kobo H2O!

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I love my readers, but I sometimes feel guilty taking your hard-earned money. Now Kobo is giving money to YOU!

Read it, solve it, and walk away five thousand dollars richer and one Kobo smarter.

Readers win.

Intelligence wins.

Okay, luck plays a role too. But come on. When was the last time someone paid you five grand and gifted you the latest Kobo for reading three stories?

Three stories that pay homage to Gillian Flynn’s hilarious, twisted, fierce novel, Gone Girl. Just in time for the TV show, Sharp Objects, and the Gone Girl movie.

In the intertwined Gone Fishing mystery stories (“Cain and Abel,” “Trouble and Strife,” and “Butcher’s Hook”), Hope escapes the hospital to take her dad fishing on the Madawaska River for his birthday, only to discover that her own family might represent the most dangerous wildlife of all.

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Yes! Please feel free to share the link http://www.kobo.com/gone, to brainstorm solutions, and of course to admire Kobo’s beautiful platform and their newest e-reader, the Aura H2O, which can go underwater.

Questions? Ask me here or at Books & Bodies on September 20th (https://www.facebook.com/events/339804726168479/), where the latest Hope Sze novella, Student Body, meets yoga and belly dancing.

And tune into my blog for some behind the scenes talk about how the secret deal unfolded.

So what would you do with five thousand dollars and the world’s most innovative Kobo?

Take Grandma out to dinner? Fly to Africa? Save the rainforest? Buy a new set of boobs? Pay off your debts? Buy more books? All of the above?

Your choice. Read Hope and win. #readanywhere