The winner of the Alanna Giveaway is: katayoun!
The winner of the Lament Giveaway is: Paradox!
Email me with your addresses to receive your prizes…. (um, after the Xmas rush).
I had a very computer-free weekend. Sailor Boy and I decorated the house for the holidays on Saturday, and then we did a little last-minute Christmas shopping in a mall packed solid with screaming people and attended his office’s holiday party (also loud, but in a much more relaxing way). On Sunday, my best friend and her husband came over and we made Christmas cookies all day long. We made four different types (we were going for five, but one of them was so good we decided to do another batch instead).
What cookies were these? The Pioneer Woman’s Spicy Molasses Cookies. Guys. Yum. You must make these, right now. They take about 3 minutes to mix up. Seriously, it takes longer to heat up the over than it does to make these cookies. It takes longer to go to the store and scour the spice shelves for ground cloves than I does to make these cookies. I made the second batch while my best friend was taking cooled cookies off the rack. it was that simple.
We also did dried cherry shortbread, dark chocolate-ginger crinkles, and traditional painted cookie cut out sugar cookies. All good, but these molasses cookies, warm and soft and right out of the oven? So. Good.
My family is showing up today, so I’m in a flurry of last-minute preparations. Lots of laundry loads, scrub the tub, a bit of shopping, stuff like that. It’s currently 17 degrees outside, so I’m going to wrap up like that little kid from A Christmas Story and take Rio out for a walk.
In very exciting news, I got my first-ever reader-reaction on Rampant. Everyone else who has read it has been either a) a friend or work colleague, or b) someone who works for my publisher. E. Kristin Anderson is a bookseller at BookPeople in Austin, Tx, and after a valiant quest that included a rather threatening drawing of a killer unicorn, got her hands on an ARC. She writes:
And UNICORNS! The latest book by Diana Peterfreund is the talk of the town. Or at least my part of town, which includes me and everyone I know, which is basically me, my friends, and my cohorts at the bookstore. Seriously, Rampant is THE SHIT. You can’t miss this book – I haven’t read something so awesome in ages. It’s so far my favorite for 2009 (and, yeah, I’ve read a good deal of 2009 stuff already, though, admittedly, very little summer list). My coworkers and I have been salivating over the book since I first heard about it from Miss Justine Larbalestier this fall. Word spread quickly that someone had written a book about man-eating unicorns that could only be killed by virgin descendents of Alexander the Great. With this kind of book, you’re either in or you’re out. And Anyone out is clearly uncool. So I got first dibs on Rampant, devoured it into the wee hours of the night until I was trying to read with one eye open and eventually passed out with the book cracked open over my face.
And it was amazing.
(And then she goes on a huge rant about the cover, which she doesn’t like. At. All.)
Very cool!
Today’s giveaway is another mystery box o’ books! (Probably mostly romance novels…)
Leave a comment here to enter.
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:38 am
Oh oh oh, count me in! I would LOVE a box-o-books!
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December 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 am
Now I’m hungry for cookies
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December 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 am
Oh…congratulations on the amazing review. I kind of agree with her on the cover. Well, i don’t dislike it as much as she does, but it’s nothing great either. The girl on the cover is really overpowering.
Anyway, please enter me. I would LOVE to win.
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December 22nd, 2008 at 9:21 am
BTW it is 5 degrees with the wind chill in the DC metro
I sent 3 stay puff marshmallow children off to school after explaining to Map Boy that it was too FREAKING COLD to wear shorts today.
Count me in for the books and try and stay warm!!!
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December 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 am
What a great earlier review. Can’t wait to read it.
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December 22nd, 2008 at 10:07 am
tra la la!!!
super happy here and also defintely after the xmas rush and ALSO after the new year. thanks!!
the cookies sound very good, though i must say that the “dark chocolate-ginger crinkles” also sound so very temting!
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December 22nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
Wow what a fantastic review, Congratulations! I’m even more excited to read it now. I’m also craving cookies.
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December 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
I can’t believe you are still cleaning your living room and watching HIMYM.
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December 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 am
I saw those cookies! I haven’t made them YET. I love PW’s recipes… though I tend to cut some salt and butter. >.>
Also, great review. I can’t wait to get my OWN copy when it eventually comes out.
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December 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
I love baking but for me it’s always been a family thing. Perhaps I shall try baking with friends in the future. Anyway, congrats on the review…I am anticipating that book as much as SSG4.
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December 22nd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I LOVE the Pioneer Woman! Have you tried the cracked hot potatoes (or whatever she calls them)? Delicious. I can’t wait for her recipe book to come out.
And congrats on the great review!
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December 22nd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
We baked cookies last night too. My daughter had her friend over for a sleepover, so they decorated all the sugar cookies. My son decided to just be a taste tester lol.
Please count me in on the drawing. I love romance books.
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December 22nd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I have been lazy and have yet to make cookies this year. Congrats on the great review.
Would love to win those books!
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December 22nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Okay, I just read the recipe, those cookies look SO GOOD. I am seriously considering making them today, but I don’t own any crisco…
Also, a box full of books would be greatly appreciated right now due to the fact that I am currently in a book shortage, therefore ma,ing me resort to re-reading the books I own.
Okay…. COMMENT
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December 22nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I’d like to be included, a box of books sweet!
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December 22nd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I’d love a box of books! Thanks!
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December 22nd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Yum. Cookies! I am so going to make those once I am finished posting this. I was going to make cookies anyway, but these ones look a lot easier. And really yummy too
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December 22nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
My family decorated this weekend too! Our pets got in the way, however. For example, while decorating our tree my cats climbed up and knocked it over. So…our tree is very bare this year due to the needles being on our carpet instead of the tree.
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December 22nd, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I’m making sugar cookies right now!!
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December 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
If there are YA books in the box, I want it.
Oh, I used the e-mail form on the site to send in my address for Lament. Is that what I was supposed to do? Or is there an e-mail address I should be using?
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December 22nd, 2008 at 8:51 pm
MM..cookies! i haven’t made any this year, and i’m very sad.
I’m so glad that she liked the book. She didn’t like the cover? I think it’s cool.
Box of books, huh? Can’t pass that up!
-Lauren
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December 23rd, 2008 at 6:52 am
We’re doing painted sugar cookies on Christmas Eve after we decorate the tree. I’ve been waiting over three years for this book—and the review makes it sound like it was definitely worth the wait.
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December 23rd, 2008 at 2:54 pm
ooh… awesome review!!!!
of course it just makes me wish i had a copy of said book for myself…
i wish i could break the time-space continunum so i could go forward in time and buy the book…
ah the possibilities…
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December 23rd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
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December 24th, 2008 at 5:02 am
[...] going to try and make cookies. I’ve never done that before, but I got this great recipe via Diana Peterfreund by way of Pioneer Woman and though I did NOT pay $12 for ground cardamom, I suspect they will be [...]
December 24th, 2008 at 8:25 am
I’d like to be included if the drawing is still going. Thanks!
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December 24th, 2008 at 10:08 am
I love BookPeople!
I also wish I wasn’t intimidated by the store crowds so that I could buy cookie ingredients.
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December 24th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Oh, and I skipped the molasses cookies because a friend made them and said they were disgusting. Her husband said they smelled — and tasted — like potpourri! LOL
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December 24th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Just stopping by to say Happy Holidays.
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December 24th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I love PW’s cobbler- so easy and so good.
Count me in for a chance at the books as well!
Happy holidays.
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December 24th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Funny, a box of books is exactly what I’ve been asking my parents to get me for the holidays ;o) By the way, that review just made me even more excited for Rampant to come out so thanks!
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December 24th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Good review, I can’t wait to read it!
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December 25th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I haven’t got any response about the book I won. I sent in my address through the form (couldn’t find an e-mail address anywhere) and then sent another message asking for a confirmation. Did you receive it? I replied the day the announcement was posted. Am I forfeiting my prize somehow? There was a post a few months ago that said it didn’t work. But I don’t know what else to do…
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December 28th, 2008 at 7:11 am
I actually like the girl on the cover of Rampant. =)
Anyway, I can’t wait to read your new book! Will we get copies here in the Philippines at the same time as everyone else?
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