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WE HAVE WINNERS!
GRAND PRIZE goes to Jen G., whose favorite British thing is Dr. Who!
Jen, you win a $20 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice); one Diamond Jubilee commemorative mug; one largeish Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar; one signed paperback ARC of About Last Night by Ruthie Knox.
SECOND PRIZE goes to bn100, whose favorite British thing is Buckingham Palace!
Bn100, you win one Diamond Jubilee commemorative tea towel; one largeish Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar; one signed paperback ARC of About Last Night by Ruthie Knox.
THIRD PRIZE goes to Spav, whose favorite British thing is the Harry Potter series!
Spav, you win one signed paperback ARC of About Last Night by Ruthie Knox.
Thanks for playing, everyone! I’ll contact the winners by e-mail.
———
So, Internet. Confession time. I am a geek.
Wait, what? You’re not surprised? What if I tell you that one of my most prized possessions is a mug from Queen Victoria’s 1897 Diamond Jubilee?
It’s true! I keep it on the highest of high shelves in the living room, just waiting for the day when Kidlet will locate it and destroy it. (I give him three months, four days. Feel free to make your own bets.)
So, yes. I am that kind of geek. The Anglophile Victorianist kind. The kind who’s read The Novels of Gaskell and also The Novels of Trollope and quite a few of The Novels of Dickens, including Bleak House — in serial parts, no less – for which I deserve a special prize.
I also own two pieces of Queen Victoria artwork, one of them satirical, but I will spare you, because I am supposed to have a point today. And that point is… DIAMOND JUBILEE CELEBRATION HOP!
Now, the whole purpose of a blog hop is to get stuff, and I’m going to tell you about the great stuff you can get in a sec. First, I will bore you with the knowledge that this blog hop is in honor of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, which celebrates the fact that she’s coming up on 60 years on the throne. (And I hope we can all agree that’s a good thing, because I, for one, have no desire to see Charles with a crown balanced over those enormous ears of his.)
Ahem. So. This Diamond Jubilee Celebration Hop also commemorates the release of my next novel, About Last Night, on June 11, because About Last Night has a scorching hot English banker hero named Neville.
Yes.
I did that.
And I will promise you here and now, Nev. Is. Hot. He will change your mind about men named Neville forever. He will drive every sad little stereotype about English twerps from the recesses of your brain for good and all. Nev is going to rock your world, is what I’m saying.
But since we must wait another little while for the arrival of Nev on the stage of romance to destroy our collective loins in an atomic conflagration, let’s talk about the free stuff you can win if you fill out a few forms. Yay, blog hop!
First, you should know that Romance at Random is giving away some awesome books.
· To 1 winner, 1 copy of Born To Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann
· To 1 winner, 1 copy of The Proposal by Mary Balogh
· To 1 winner, 1 copy of Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian
· To 3 winners, 1 copy of Witchful Thinking by HP Mallory
· To 10 winners, 1 copy of a preview copy from NetGalley of About Last Night by Ruthie Knox
· To 10 winners, 1 copy of a preview copy from NetGalley of Deep Autumn Heat by Elisabeth Barrett
When I add all that up on my fingers, I come up with 26 winners. That’s lots! All you have to do to be entered for those prizes is fill out this Rafflecopter widget thingy.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
But wait, there’s more! Lots of other sites are participating, and many of them have prizes! Here’s a list of all the participating sites:
I’m giving away prizes of my own. Anglophile prizes! Diamond Jubilee-themed Anglophile prizes! Check them out:
A commemorative mug!
A commemorative tea towel!
Non-commemorative chocolate!
Excited yet? You should be!
Here are the details…
GRAND PRIZE — $20 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice); one Diamond Jubilee commemorative mug; one largeish Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar; one signed paperback ARC of About Last Night by Ruthie Knox
SECOND PRIZE — One Diamond Jubilee commemorative tea towel; one largeish Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar; one signed paperback ARC of About Last Night by Ruthie Knox
THIRD PRIZE — One signed paperback ARC of About Last Night by Ruthie Knox
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment answering this question:
What is your favorite British person, place, or thing?
I’ll go first: mine is Wispamint bars, which were the best chocolate-mint bars in the history of chocolate-mint bars.
But since they don’t actually exist anymore, I’ll submit that second place is a close tie between the phrase “dirty weekend” and Colin Firth.
I’ll settle for a dirty weekend with Colin Firth.
My favorite British person place or thing….my wonderful friend Bonnie. She lives in Wootton Bassett. She and I have been chatting since 1999. We keep in constant touch. And I got to meet her when I went there.
One of my favorite things there was the London Eye. Bonnie & I rode it while I was there. Ah, Big Ben, the bridge, westminster, so much. I loved it all.
Aw, that’s sweet! I have a Kiwi friend like that. Nothing makes you want to go visit a place like a pen pal, eh?
My favorite British thing is Doctor Who. So many hours of entertainment
Oh, British television. How I love thee!
Favorite British person: Right now, Stephen Moffatt (the very brilliant mind behind Doctor Who and Sherlock)
Favorite British place: I have a soft spot for Cambridge ^_^
Favorite British thing: BBC and all the wonderful shows they have (Doctor Who, Sherlock, etc)
Very thorough! Cambridge is lovely, isn’t it?
My favorite British thing? Ahem. Well…BBC’s Merlin.
Don’t judge me. It rocks.
And who on this Earth can resist Bradley James and Colin Morgan’s kicking cheekbones?
Did you see my mug? I’m in no position to judge.
I would have to say my favorite thing is British TV some of the shows are the best TV I ever see. I would also have to say I love some of the slang.
I used to meet with a few people at a bi-annual conference and we would swap slang phrases. They would say if “I told you a hotel was ‘ropey’ would you think that was good or bad?” and I would have no idea. Then they would try to explain what ropey meant and if my memory serves it was a bad thing. It was quite a few years ago. Then I would try to stump them.
Ropey, huh? I have to say if someone described a hotel as that I would think of completely different things…
Ropey — I haven’t heard that! I like it, though.
We went to London on our honeymoon, and I still have the Chuck & Di coffee (oh, excuse me… tea) mugs from their wedding. We were married the following year, which means we celebrate 30 years in August! Yes, I still like him….
The second time we went to London, we discovered Wimpy Burgers. I don’t know why, but I remember they were much better than McDonald’s over there.
But, since we’re not there (and with 2 boys in college, there’s no hope unless I snag a winning lottery ticket), I’ll stick with Downton Abbey and Dr. Who.
I loved your Ride With Me Ruthie… can’t wait for the Nev.
Wow, that was 30 years ago? Time flies…
And thanks — glad you enjoyed it!
My favorite British thing is the afternoon my best friend and I spent in Betty’s Tea shop in York almost one decade ago. Sapphire tea and clotted cream and giggles a-plenty….and a few ribald comments.
Oh, that sounds *wonderful*. Nothing like tea, clotted cream, and giggles.
My favorite British person is Brian May of the band Queen who I was lucky enough to meet when I was 19 and in the throes of a major crush. I must also mention that I am a major Monty Python geek and will recite lines from their movies out loud much to the confusion of people around me.
Re Brian May — that’s so cool! And I love Monty Python, too. And pretty much everything John Cleese has ever done.
I think Princess Diana really increased America’s interest in royalty and now the Duchess of Cambridge is on everyone’s radar.
You’re right — we can’t resist those beautiful royals!
My favorite british thing is Loch Ness or Stonehenge. Now my hubby insists Irn Bru is the bestest.
Leave it to husbands, yeesh.
Love your post! Cadbury chocolate is high on my list of British favs, but my all-time is Jane Austen.
Thanks for participating in the hop and for the giveaway opportunity. Loved Ride With Me and look forward to reading Nev’s story.
Thanks! I agree, Jane is the bomb. So glad you enjoyed Ride with Me!
My favorite British person is Queen Elizabeth 1. My favorite British music group is the Beatles. Definitely add Cadbury chocolates and High Tea to the food list.
Fun blog hop. Thanks for hosting.
You’re my kind of woman! I love the Beatles. Thanks for joining in!
Cool! I’m way into a Diamond Jubilee Hop! Your commemorative cup is beautiful, Ruthie. My guys are 8 and 10 and they haven’t broken anything of major sentimental value so I’m betting on at least 12 years.
(btw, have you read L. Kinsale’s Shadow and the Star in which Miss Etoile spends her very last two shillings on a Golden Jubilee Memorial Mug?)
My favorite thing from Britain are the Doc Martens I got in Picadilly circa 1985. My favorite place is a Lake District youth hostel (can’t remember the name or the village) but I got the best dinner of my life there, cooked to order by a cig-smoking curmudgeon named Tom. My favorite British person is George Emerson from A Room With a View (novel and movie version), but since he’s fictional I’ll cheat and mention my favorite real person is (was) Joe Strummer.
Ooh, no, I’ll have to check out Shadow and the Star!
Your favorites sound well-considered and well worthwhile. Thanks for entering!
Oh! You are in for a treat with Shadow & Star!! Tons of great Jubilee stuff and a tortured hero who grovels by dropping f-bomb BEAUTIFULLY!! I am inordinately fond of him and the brave, Jubilee-loving Miss Etoile. (btw, you can keep my name out of the prize-draw–am quite happy with my current freebie and really just wanted to comment.) Thanks!
I love England. I’ve been twice. I love London especially. Favorite British thing…for me has to be the history. : )
My favorite British thing is Buckingham Palace.
That is so cool that you have the mug. My bet is that the Kidlet will break it in 7 month 6 days 9 hours and 32 seconds. If it was at my house the pieces would still be getting pick up along with all of the other broken items
My favorite British things…hot tea, Eddie Izzard, the accent, the phrase, “Bloody Hell”, Dr. Who, Ricky Gervais, and the 2012 Summer Olympics. My sister in law is playing there in her final Olympic games as goal tender for the New Zealand women’s soccer team the Ferns. So we will be watching a lot this summer. Go Jenny!
Mel
Place: Loved driving thru the British countryside, especially the county of Devon
Food: Devon Cream Teas (Yum!)
Doctor Who, Sherlock and Jane Austen. And I have a British friend who’s pretty adorable. Thanks! I’d love to enter if this is open internationally.
My favorite British thing? Ricky Gervais. The only thing funnier-er than Ricky Gervais is watching Ricky Gervais on The Graham Norton Show. Comedic nirvana!
I really like the British flag.
Thanks a lot for the giveaway!
A lot of my favorite British record stores are no more, sadly. My favorite British things include Ewan McGregor (because Scotland counts), the band Teenage Fanclub (ditto), Maltesers, and Shindig! magazine. Oh, and & Clarke’s bakery-cafe in Notting Hill…
My favorite British thing is a T.V show called Q.I (Quite Interesting). With Stephen Fry , Alan Davis,David Mitchell and others. What a FUN show. Go to You Tube,it’s a must see. Enjoy.
Deb P
r.d1@myfairpoint.net
British TV! Spaced and The ‘IT’ Crowd are my current faves.
My favourite British thing … how about the Harry Potter series? Does that count?
Also love The Who. One of my favourite bands!