The Dice Decide
It is the last day of February and, as foretold, today the Gods of Fate, with the help of my olde percentile dice, shall pick the first winner of a signed, lined and dated proof of Best Served Cold. Can you taste the tension?
To date there have been 218 hopeful entrants from across the globe, some of them funny, some of them sad, and many of them, frankly, lame. But, at least at this early stage of the contest – as with so many things in life – success isn’t about quality, it’s about luck. Therefore I will employ one of my many d6s to make a d3 for the hundreds column. Man, it’s just like being 13 again. Well, thinking about it, it’s not quite like that. My skin is better, my language is worse. I weigh about four stone more. I have children of my own. I live in London, not Lancaster. I write fantasy books rather than read them. I don’t play loads of computer games any more.
Alright, you got me, I was kidding about that last one.
In any case. The dice say the winner of the first proof of Best Served Cold is…
The 0 hundredth…
And…
40th entry. Which is from…
Drum roll please…
More drum roll…
Elke.
That’s all it says. Elke. Who apparently MUST read Best Served Cold before everyone else because…
“…it’ll deport my sorry ass out of the January depression, it’ll make the man I’ve fallen in love with notice that there are other men that mind boggle me (notably you) and finally you’ll sell a couple books more, because I already infected four of my friends with the genius output of your mind and I intend to infect more.”
Yes, Elke, yes, infect all your friends. You should be in receipt of an email from me requesting your address and desired message. The proof itself will soon follow. But don’t forget those 217 of you who were disappointed, there will be more winners, and they MAY ALREADY BE AMONG YOU. The dice will pick another in but a couple of weeks, then finally, on April Fool’s day, talent will win a rare victory over blind chance when I select the completion(s) of the sentence “I MUST read Best Served Cold before everyone else because…” that please me the most. Anyone who has been foolish enough not to enter, may find the details of how to do so here.
See me through your Eye-Holes
You need no longer only read my words upon a computer screen, but can now be privileged to watch me say words via the miracle of You-Tubular technology. A five part interview with the fearsomely knowledgable yet wonderfully polite Marcus Gipps of Blackwells, accompanied by music only slightly reminiscent of the feast scene from one […]
First Review
Be still my beating heart, for the first review of Best Served Cold has slipped onto Her Majesty’s internet, from Rob Grant at Sci-Fi London. But did he love or hate the book? He says, among other things: “This is deep, dark stuff but it’s a mark of that nice Mr. Abercrombie’s talent that he […]
Infrequent Posting
Posting may be somewhat reduced in both frequency and quality over the next few weeks due to life. And as though to prove the reduction in quality: Attempts to move crawl onward most stressfully in a kind of: found buyer for flat who was so keen they wanted to give me their number and text […]
What They are Saying Feb '09
Some ongoing responses to / and discussion of / the US cover to-do, including a positive response from the aptly named BRUTAL WOMEN who, I have a sneaking feeling, may appreciate the content of the book as well… With nearly fifty comments on my own post on the subject, it’s clear that, as far as […]
Best Served Cold Artwork – US
Well WHAT a to-do. No sooner did Pat post Orbit’s US cover for Best Served Cold on his redoubtable Fantasy Hotlist than the inter-tubes BOILED OVER with hyperbole, bloggers, commenters and forum members spouting outrage from every orifice. Which caused both the US and UK covers to be plastered all over the place. What a […]
Win more widely!
Following an avalanche of complaints from those resident outside the EU, as well as a still more intolerable wave of smugness from those resident inside, I have now consulted with my various publishers and am delighted to report that the competition to win proofs of Best Served Cold is now open to any resident of […]
