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

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.

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

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