For those of you in the Charlotte, NC area, I’ll be in your stomping ground on Saturday, August 30 at 1p at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in (or near) the SouthPark Mall.  Come by and visit with me if you have some time. I’d love to see you.

In news that I’m still trying to get my mind around, Up Pops the Devil has been chosen the November African-American Book Club Pick for Books-A-Million. This is great news as it means Up Pops the Devil will be featured prominently in all Books-A-Million stores from September 1 through November 31.

If you follow this link, you’ll see that Victoria Christopher Murray’s Too Little, Too Late and  ReShonda Tate Billingley’s The Pastor’s Wife have been recent picks.  LIterary great Richard Wright had two picks.

This is the first time one of my books has been chosen for as a book club pick for a chain bookstore so I’m very excited about it.  Be sure to drop by your local Books-A-Million and look for it.

In fact, you can be my eyes and ears.  If you send me a photo of you in a Books-A-Million store next to the book display for Up Pops the Devil as the African-American Book Club Pick, I’ll post the photo on my blog and enter you in a contest to win a $15 Books-A-Million gift card.  Three GRAND PRIZE winners will be selected from the entries.  The contest will continue through September 31 and the winners will be announced on October 15.

You may submit your entry (or entries) via e-mail to me at the address HERE or you may submit via snail mail to Angela Benson, PO Box 868643, Tuscaloosa, AL 35486-0077.

Each entry should include your name (first name or nickname is sufficient) or the name of your group, a photo of you standing near the book display with a book in hand, and the location of the Books-A-Million store where the photo is taken.  All photos become the property of Angela Benson and will be posted on my blog at angelabenson.com.

I’ll probably run the contest again in November so if you don’t win this time, you’ll have another chance in November.

NOTE: This is the second version of this post.  My computer ate the first one and I’m sure it was much better than this one.  Trust me.

Now get to clicking those cameras.  I can’t wait to see your smiling faces on this blog!

It’s time for our final drum roll in the Another Book Giveaway contest.  Ready? 

Drum roll, please.

The winners are:

1)  Angie Poole

2) Ty

3) Rosiland

Congratulations to the winners!  Each will receive an autographed copy of Up Pops the Devil.  Winners, please email your mailing address to me using the address HERE.

New Contests

Now that one contest ends, another THREE begin.  Yes, you read it right, THREE.

Win a Bag of Books

A “Win a Bag of Books” Contest is being run by two different sites as two separate contests, with three winners being selected from each site.  The sites are located at FreshFiction.com (runs through the month of August) and Pageturner.net (runs through August 15).  You’re welcome to enter both contests.

Review Postings and Sightings

The new Review Postings and Sightings Contest will run through August 31.  All you have to do to enter is Comment on this message with the URL of a review, discussion or even a mention of Up Pops the Devil. 

You can also write a review of the book on Amazon.com and post a Comment here that you’ve done so.  If you have some news about Up Pops the Devil that isn’t found online, you can include it as your Comment here and that will serve as your entry.  

FIVE lucky winners each will receive their choice of a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate OR any item(s)  (total value of $15 or less) from my Online Store.

Contest for Book Clubs Only!

If you’re a member of a Book Club, don’t forget the Book Club Contest.  Scroll down until you see Contest #2.

If you haven’t already done so, you can join the For Book Clubs Only mailing list HERE.  Scroll down until you see Mailing List for Book Clubs.

Happy Reading!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Three lucky Book Clubs have been selected winners in my FOR BOOK CLUBS ONLY Book Club Contest.  The winning Book Clubs will each receive THREE copies of Up Pops the Devil. 

The winning Book Clubs are:

1) Page Turners Book Club, Cleveland, OH

2) Reading Divas of Birmingham Book Club, Birmingham, AL

3) The Good Book Club, Highlands Ranch, CO

The winning Book Clubs have until August 5, 2008 to get their mailing addresses to me at the address HERE.

All Book Clubs are welcome to join the Book Club mailing list, For Book Clubs Only from Author Angela Benson, on the Contacts page HERE.  Just scroll down to the section for Mailing List for Book Clubs.

Congrats again to the winning Book Clubs!

For all other site visitors, I’m extending the Another Book Giveaway until Friday so that more of you will have an opportunity to participate.  I’m also increasing the number of books awarded from two to three.

Good luck and thanks for celebrating my new release with me!

We had two contests running this week:  the Another Book Giveaway contest and the Writing Rituals contest.  That means we have FIVE winners!

Let’s start with the winners of the Another Book Giveaway contest:  Mara Mittelman and
Jennifer C.  These two commenters will receive autographed copies of Up Pops the Devil.

Now for the BIG contest this week.  The winners of the Writing Rituals contest are:

• Melissa Juvinall, who wins an autographed copy of Strongholds by Vanessa Davis Griggs
• Josie, who wins an autographed copy of Rhythms of Grace by Marilynn Griffith
• Veronica Johnson, who wins an autographed copy of Back to Life: A Trophy Wives Club Novel by Kristin Billerbeck

I give a giant thanks to Vanessa, Marilynn and Kristin for participating and providing free books.  They were wonderful guests who provided some great insight into their writing process.  We’ll have more guests like them so keep checking the blog.

Don’t forget that the Another Book Giveaway  contest starts anew today. Next Friday, August 1, I will give away two more autographed copies of Up Pops the Devil to folks who comment on blog posts between now and then. 

It’s raining books!

Enjoy!

Drum roll, please! The winners of the Another Book Giveaway contest for the the week ending Friday, July 18, are Rhonda McKnight and Jeanette Wallington. Congratulations, Ladies! Please send me mailing addresses so that I can get your books out.

Rhonda and Jeannette, I can’t believe you two won. I almost did a re-drawing (smile). Just so you know this doesn’t let either of you off the hook for buying a book when I see you in Atlanta (Rhonda) or Indiana (Jeannette). You’ll just have to buy one for a friend. I’ll make sure to bring you a special addition to go along with it. You’ll have to wait until we meet to find out what it is.

Don’t forget that the contest starts anew today. Next Friday I will give away two more books to folks to comment on blog posts between now and then.

I also gave an unplanned prize today. I got my 200th friend over at shelfari.com so I gave a free book to that lucky friend.

NOTE: For those of you wondering how I picked the winners, I used a the random number generator at http://random.org/integers/. All you do is enter the number of entrants (A) and how many winners you want to pick (B). The program then spits out (B) random numbers. I had 33 entries this week from which to pick two winners. The random number generator spit out 30 and 7 so I picked the 30th comment and the 7th comment as winners.

It’s raining books! Enjoy!

Okay, gang, the visitor stats for this site tell one story but the number of comments on posts and pages tell another. So to get you all back in posting mode, I’m going to start another little contest. Every Friday until the release of Up Pops the Devil, I’m giving away two autographed advanced reading copies (ARCs) of Up Pops the Devil .

To enter the contest all you have to do is make a comment on a post, any post on this site, during the week leading up to the drawing. In other words, to be considered for next Friday’s drawing you have to comment between today and the time I announce the winner next Friday. The contest starts anew next Friday.

If you make multiple posts, you’ll have multiple chances to win for that week. And you’re encouraged to participate each week. If you win more than one time, you get to choose an item from my Online Store as your prize instead of another book. UPDATE: When choosing from the Online Store , you must select an item under $25. The Amazon Kindle at $359 is not a choice. I love all of you, but that’s a bit much.

You can comment on any of the blog postings on the site, regardless of how new or old they are. I have access to a list of the most recent comments so yours won’t be missed. You can also post a comment on a page. For example, you can ask a question in the Comments section of any of the pages linked from the For Writers page. Comment on what interests you. And if nothing interests you, write a comment about that and I’ll try to fix it!

Be sure to tell your friends about the contest. If your friend is a winner and mentions your name in his or her comment, then you’ll be a winner, too.

Let the commenting begin. I want to hear from you.

You all did a good job of guessing what Up Pops the Devil was about by just looking at the cover. You did so well that I had to pick THREE winners instead of two. Drum roll, please! The winners are: Areen, Vyta and Dera . Ladies, please send me your mailing addresses so I can get the books out.

For those of you who can’t remember their responses, I’ll list them here followed by the back cover copy from the book and let you be the judge.

Arean:
I think this book is about relationship problems-and the devil is the person who is causing these problems. She goes up unexpectedly, bold with no remorse for her/his interference.

Vyta:
I think the novel will be about a married man with a less than perfect past. He has been caught in infidelity in past relationships and in his current marriage but has been forgiven by his wife. Currently, a woman from his past has returned. He has always had a problem with resisting her. She walked out of his life and although he was devastated at the time, he’s is grateful because God blessed him with a wonderfully loving wife and mother to his children. This woman of his past tries to re-enter his life as a “Friend.” He allows (ignoring his conscience) her not only back into his life but into the lives of his family members. No one knows of their past together. But when he doesn’t agree to ALL of her demands, she changes and threatens to expose the truth.

Dera:
I think it is about a man who while he would do good, evil is always present, hindering his walk with God. But he refuses to fully give in; he realizes he is a work in progress and will see it to the end.

Back Cover Copy:
Two hard years in prison have changed Wilford “Preacher” Winters for the better. He did his time, now he’s going to “do the right thing.” But the women in his life have other ideas.

Tanya, the sleek and sexy mother of his two kids, is much too comfortable with her pearls-and-Porsche lifestyle, and she’ll do whatever it takes to keep it going–even use Preacher’s small sons as weapons…

His sister, Loretta, kept “the business” running smoothly while Preacher was inside, and she can’t believe he’d trade Easy Street bling for a nickel-and-dime dead-end job…

His one-time girlfriend Serena, now married to his main man Bernard, is hiding a secret–and if past sins come to light, they’ll ruin several lives and a very new, very precious friendship between Preacher and Bernard’s beautiful-inside-and-out sister, Natalie.

With his world about to explode all around him, Preacher’s going to need every ounce of his new-found faith to remain strong. Because it takes a lot to become a new man, sometimes even a miracle.

Here’s the lovely cover of my upcoming release from HarperCollins.  Instead of me telling you what the book is about, how about you telling me what you think it’s about given the cover.  I’ll send advanced reading copies to two of the participants.  I’ll give this about two weeks so the drawing will be held on July 8.

Drum roll, please!  Here is the list of 22 contest winners!  Congratulations to each of you!

I’ll be contacting each winner via e-mail over the weekend to determine which prize you win and where I should send it. 

Do forgive the delay in posting the winners. Life happened to me last week and I had to take care of some family business. Thanks for understanding.  – Angela

The winners are:

1. Ann Blake
2. Kay
3. Stephanie
4. Laura K
5. bebemiqui
6. barbara duncan
7. kristie
8. Lisa
9. Deborah
10. PatriciaW
11. Veronica Johnson
12. Sigrun
13. Christy H.
14. Joni
15. Lainie
16. Margie Rogers
17. hank
18. Amanda
19. L Nuchell
20. Sheila True
21. G. Tibbs (Gabrielle) 
22. Wanda Butler

The prizes are:

• $25 Amazon.com gift certificates (2)
• autographed copy of The Amen Sisters (10) 
• seat in my tele-seminar, Write that Book (10)

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. Don’t be discouraged if you entered and didn’t win. I’ll be announcing a new contest in the next few days so look out for it.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

To celebrate the official release of the trade paperback edition of The Amen Sisters, I’m giving away 10 free autographed copies.  Winners will be chosen from those who comment on this blog post.   No need to register in order to comment.

In case you already have a copy of The Amen Sisters, I’m going to sweeten the pot and also give away 10 free passes to my January writing tele-seminar, “Write that Book.”  Winners will be chosen from those who comment on this blog post.   No need to register in order to comment.

If writing is not your thing, you’ll also have a chance to win one of two $25 Amazon.com gift certificates.  Winners will be chosen from those who comment on this blog post.  No need to register in order to comment.

Winners will be announced on Monday, November 26.

Note that this is just the beginning of the contests.  I’ll also be hosting giveaways in December, January and February, so stay tuned.