Who doesn’t love free books? Stop Pretending+1 giveaway
giveaway: preface
One month ago today, I posted the hardest thing I’ve yet written: Six hands for lifting: on my mom, mental illness, fear & hope. In the wake of posting about my experiences with my mom’s mental illness, I was stunned by the outpouring of support and like stories. In addition to the peace of having confronted my grief head-on, I was then greeted with thousands of other blessings in the form of your words.
The message in this is simple. I’m not alone. You’re not alone. The more we share our experiences, our hope, and our love, the brighter the world will be for those who continue to suffer the many hardships correlated with mental illness.
“Six hands for lifting” was prompted by the beautiful, heartfelt book Stop Pretending. It’s my wish this book will eventually land on each of your bookshelves, so that you may share it with others who will be touched by its accessible truths . . . and perhaps be compelled to find their way to healing, and help, in other forms.
giveaway: details
On July 15, 2011, I’ll give away two paperback books apiece to three winners. The first book of each set will be a copy of Sonya Sones’s Stop Pretending. The second book will be of each winner’s choice, with the caveats that each must be both available on Amazon and cost $20 or less. (I’d love to hook you up with autographed, out-of-print first editions of your favorite book, but I’d also love to help my son with college someday!)
If you live in the United States and would like a shot at winning one of these two-book sets, do at least one of the following prior to 12:00 AM Pacific Time July 15, 2011:
1. Comment on this entry indicating your interest.
2. Email deborah.bryan.writes@gmail.com with the subject: “Free books FTW!”
3. Tweet about this giveaway, mentioning @deb_bryan, and send me an email with the subject: “I tweeted it!”
4. Share this link on your blog and send me an email with the subject: “I blogged it!”
5. Share this link on Facebook and send me an email with the subject: “I shared it on Facebook!”
If you’d like more than one shot at winning, do more than one of the following! You’ll be entered once for each of the above actions you take.
Winners will be announced by first name on or shortly after July 15, 2011.
* 100% no-nefarious-usage-of-your-private-info guarantee! Your email address–and any other contact info you provide–will be used strictly for purposes of this giveaway. Once winners are announced, I’ll email each winner to coordinate shipment. Afterward, all private info will be deleted and/or otherwise destroyed. As with my first book giveaway, this will not by accomplished by devouring. 
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I’d love to win a copy of this book, Deborah!
Yeah! Thanks for entering
I’m interested.
Duly noted!
I would definitely love to have a new book on my bookshelf. I haven’t had anything new to read for a long time
P.S.: Yeah, I just emailed you using the wrong email address (It has my real name, not my author name). I blame MSN!
Thank you for entering! Under both names
That’s a really generous thing you’re doing, hon. I know there are many people who can’t get out of the house and/or are strapped for cash, yet could probably benefit greatly from that reading material. I know for me personally many years ago the book by Dr. Susan Forward called “Men Who Hate Women and the Women That Love Them” had a great impact on me when I read it, and probably saved my life. I have no doubt that my then drunken husband would’ve eventually killed me had I stayed. It had gotten that bad. She opened my eyes to who he was by introducing me to a term I’d never heard before called ‘Misogyny’. That was followed up later with a little book by Melody Beattie called “Codependent No More”. Both were a slap in the face, and forced me to accept stark reality that I’d tried so hard to ignore.
Knowledge is powerful, and the books that hold them a great gift to those who are in need. I hope they find a wonderful home where they can be useful.
Reading this comment yesterday, and again right now, I’m so grateful that you shared this. During my childhood, books were a bridge to hope I wasn’t otherwise sure how to find. It’s wonderful to now see extended the power that books still hold–not only in my life, but in the lives of readers everywhere.
I wish I could go back in time eight years and present Stop Pretending to myself and my siblings then. (That’s not to say reading it now hasn’t been life-changing, for what it is and what it set in motion! It just would have been like a pair of hands lifting then, which we all needed.) Alas, that cannot be, but I’m hopeful the book will find its way into the hands of those who need it–and the resources/hope it extends–to face the very painful realities of facing the impacts of mental illness right now.
Knowledge is powerful, and the books that hold them a great gift to those who are in need.
So well said. That’s, by the way, my way of saying both thank you for sharing your experience, which may turn out to be someone else’s knowledge (you’re crackin’ on your autobio, right?) and “I am weeping as I write this, so grateful am I that you left.” I know we’re only blogging buddies, but I love your heart to pieces, and can’t wait to see the good you’ve left to do with your words and otherwise.
Ahhh…thank you, Deb. My cup runneth over and you are the pitcher.
♥
I’m in! What a great contest, so nice of you.
Yeah! Thanks for entering! Sonya’s comment about fearing the book would go out of print has been rolling around my brain since I read it. Whatever small part I can do to ensure this book remains accessible to as many people as possible? I’m in.
I had a really hard time reading and focusing, back when my siblings and I were trying to find resources. In addition to being written in fluid verse, this one really does, like its cover quote says, have “a purity and passion that speak to the heart.” I’ve never seen so apt a review quote as that.
Oh, I just re-read your Six Hands post and loved it all over again. Just beautiful!
Thank you. (>^^)> I still can’t believe how healing it was to write that, or to be reminded afterward of the truth of its core: There really are so many hands ready to lift, and to comfort. ♥
Me, me, pick me!
Unlike Shrek, I’ll be using a random name selector, so you should bring your entreaties to the pertinent processors of random.org. Not sure I could help you find those, though
I’m in, I’m in, I’m in. Can I admit I was waiting all week for this post??? Thanks, Deb!!
Can I admit your comment makes me happy? ‘Cause it does.
Thank you for entering!
Free books you say? Intriguing!
(>^^)>
Very cool, Deb, very cool
. Everyone loves free books, it’s true. BUT I currently am living abroad, at least until mid-August when I go back to school, so I don’t qualify 
.
Do you have a place where you’re receiving mail stateside in the interim? ‘Cause I could send books there, leaving you with one more thing to look forward to upon your return!
. . . assuming you both entered and won, that is.
This is so nice of you, Deb. I’m going to opt out on participating for a prize (I’ve been planning to buy this for my Nook), but I’ll gladly promote your giveaway on my blog:)!
What I really wish is that I had a gabillion dollars so I could buy everyone who wanted a copy their own! Each copy, though, has an impact that extends not only to the person who first reads it . . . but to those they engage with, down the road. So it’s a small act, but I hope one that will help directly or indirectly help bring someone hope and an introduction to resources that’ll have a real, positive impact on the road they take.
On the topic of ebooks, I’ve decided I’ve always got to have one on my phone. YA in Bloom threw me off reading Motherless Daughters (another excellent resource in book form, come to think of it!), so I had to return it only 40 pages in. I decided that’s my next book-on-phone.
I’ll gladly promote your giveaway on my blog:)!
! ♥
Awesome idea! And so generous.
By writing and posting one of the hardest things you have ever written you have helped many. You are amazing.
Thank you for everything in your comment. I kinda love you right now. ♥ I know from a couple of the comments and emails I received that my words did help, some, and that–even apart from the peace I feel in the wake of having gotten it off my chest, and reframed it in this way–is one of the greatest comforts I’ve yet felt in life. I can’t undo what was done, but . . . changing the shape, a little, of what is yet to be done? That is both possible and an affirmation that all that sorrow was an instigator, not an end.
Cool prizes?! Oh yes! I’m interested, Deborah!
Yeah! Thanks for entering, in multiple ways! I couldn’t respond yesterday on account of the reality tv-ness sprung upon my household, but there were many smiles correlated with those entries.
Include me please! I tacked this book on to my Amazon Wish List but this will make reading it happen sometime before my child is grown and I have money again!
Yay! Thanks for entering. I hope you’ll be reading it long before your child is grown! If you lived near enough, I’d loan you a copy regardless of contest outcome
Your piece was poignant and powerful and I’m inspired that this book gave you the needed push to speak out… I’m in and will read it by hook or by crook.
Thanks for the generous offer. Have a great week ahead!
Eliz
Thank you for your words about the entry. I am so grateful to this book for paving the way to speaking out, which has been such a blessing! Thank you, too, for entering. When I posted this, I of course worried, “What if two people enter a three-winner giveaway?” I’m glad to see that isn’t so.
I’m in. Late to the party – but not too late, which is what counts, right? And if I lose, I’ll still make sure I snag the book for myself. Promise.
That is music to my . . . eyes? Heart? I think I’ll go with “both” here, then post and chase down my rampaging toddler! (>^^)>
Deborah, do I have to say I am interested or can I say *cyber-stroking your hair in a non-creepy way* I am very excited for you because I can see how much that piece of writing has opened you up. And I really love to read. You know, being a teacher and all. So.. yeah. I’m in. And now I’m off to Tweet this and do the other stuff, too. Cuz I get really competitive about shizz like this.
First, I read this email and giggled. I’d like to say I chuckled, but no, it was straight-up giggling. I then interrupted Ba.D. to read him this comment, to which he actually chuckled. (Of course, even if he had giggled, I’m not sure I could count on the comment to remain unedited next time I go “powder my nose.” Ahem.) In short, (a) I love this comment, and (b) I love that you’re competitive, because that means good things for this giveaway, and the book.
On the “opening up” point, it seems so crazy to me how I found this book. I went to a different library than usual to check out three YA horror novels, only to walk out with two other YA horror novels and a “contemporary” one with a silly title that had caught my eye. After checking it out, I opened that book and went, “Ew, verse,” but read on anyway, only to find myself so hooked I bought all the author’s books . . . landing, finally, on her first book, the last words of which will be imprinted (beautifully) on my brain for the rest of my life. ♥ these little choices that lead to such huge, wonderful moments.
Oh, and did I mention? Your comment. I ♥ that, too.
I am definitely interested. Thank you. :0)
Yay! Thank you so much for entering!
Deborah! Thanks so much for having this contest! You are helping to breathe new life into my book, and are a true patron saint of my art!
xx,
Sonya
http://www.sonyasones.com
It is truly my pleasure, Sonya! As are, I must say, your comments on my blog
I am interested. I don’t know what I would want for the second book, but if I won, I’m sure I would come up with something!
First, thank you for entering–yay! Second, I’d be happy to throw out a few recommends, should such be necessary.
*cough*Montmaray*cough*
Okay, I’m game