My New Blog Look and...A CONTEST!!!

So, here it is folks. My new blog look! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Lori (the designer) is a genius! She completely captured the feel of what I wanted and was so amazingly patient with my meticulous requests and wants. I love the idea that I have a blog that feels so ME. Take a look at her site and check out some of the other AMAZING designs she's created!

Now for the...CONTEST! This is my first!!! So, in lieu of what's been going on re: The Wall Street Journal article, which you can read here, I've decided it's the perfect topic for the contest. As someone who writes "edgy" and  "gritty" YA, this article was particularly...frustrating to me. Don't get me wrong, I also love to read some of the fluffier YA stuff, but edgy and dark is more in my comfort zone. To enter the contest, all you have to do is be a follower or become a new follower and leave a brief comment telling me how YA literature has impacted your life. Why do you read it and/or why do you write it? If you don't read or write YA (*spank, spank*, you should, give it a try!) then perhaps you can tell me about someone you know who has been impacted in someway. That's it. Easy, no?

Oh, there has to be a prize, right? Ha. Okay. So this is where the contest might seem a little...different. I know this is a blog dedicated to YA, but the prizes I'm giving away are not YA related. You see, I have this little connection to this guy named Kramer. I'm thinking that for some of you, that name automatically conjures some images and for others, a big question mark has popped up over your head. For those of you who DON'T know, once upon a time there was this insanely famous show called Seinfeld about 4 quirky neighbors living in New York City. And one of the most loved characters on the show was a guy named Kramer. But what some of you may or may not know is that the character Kramer is actually based on a REAL guy named Kenny Kramer. Well, I kind of know him and since I'm kinda broke at the moment, he has awesomely donated some prizes for me to give away! (*waves ferociously* thanks, dad!)

For those of you who are not fans of the show Seinfeld (yes, I do know there are some of you out there :D) and therefore say to yourselves that this is not a prize for you, I say enter anyway cause EVERYONE knows SOMEONE who is a fan of the show and/or of Kramer. If anything, this is a great prize to give as a gift for Christmas or Hanukah, Mother's Day or Father's Day, Three Kings Day, Chinese New Year, Congratulations on your Engagement/Marriage/Divorce, a birthday, or just to say thank you to someone for whatever. :-)

First prize:

*A choice of a gift certificate for four to Kramer's Reality Tour in NYC plus four admission tickets to the Stand Up NY comedy club OR the Kramer's Reality Tour on DVD, signed
*A Real Kramer T-shirt (XL), signed
*The Seinfeld Universe book, signed

Second prize:

*Kramer's Reality Tour DVD, signed
*The Seinfeld Universe book, signed
*Yada, Yada, Yada bumper sticker

Third prize:

*ASSMAN license plate, signed
*3 bumper stickers: Kramer for Mayor (signed), Yada, Yada, Yada, Vandelay Industries


Since the prizes didn't cost me anything (thanks again, daddy-O ;-)), I can afford to front the costs for shipping and have decided to open this contest to both U.S. and non-U.S. residents!

Contest ends Sunday, June, 12 at midnight. I will use random.org for the drawing and announce the winner on Tuesday. By leaving your comment about what I discussed above you are automatically entered. You can get extra entries by doing the following:

+2 if you're already a follower
+1 if you tweet about the contest
+1 if you blog about it
+1 if you add it as a sidebar on your blog

Please be sure to leave either your email, and/or a link to your blog so I can contact you in the event you are a winner and forget to check back (I know I enter contests and then totally forget about them. Who knows if I've ever won any of them and never got to claim my prize?)

Good luck and thanks for stopping by! Hope you come to visit again :-)