Sorry to draw out the suspense! I've been busy all day. I took a commentor's advice and used an online random number generator to select the winners.
20 - Danielle, who said "Eeeep!"
367 - Megan G., who said, "I was so excited to hear there would be another book in this series!"
Hooray for Danielle and Megan! Please email me at squeetus (at) gmail (dot) com. I'll need your mailing address and who you want the book signed to. Also if you're under 18, I'll need an email from your parent giving me your address. Let it be known that Shannon Hale does not solicit private information from minors! So let it be done.
Thanks for all your enthusiasm for this book. These giveaways are fun for me, but also kind of stressful because I feel so bad for everyone who expressed hope and passion about winning. I'm sorry about that. I wish I had 450 ARCs to give to everyone. The night after I posted the FB ARC giveaway, I had a long and vivid dream about how early readers of the book hated it and blogged about how horrible the book was (in great detail). I read these blogs and I called my publisher, begging them please not to publish it after all. I'm not a professional dream analyst, but I think there might be some buried anxiety there...
As a bit of salve for those hopeful who didn't win, here are some sneak peeks, in the form of lines I cut from forest born. [Edit: each paragraph is from a different part. They don't read as one continuous story. I think I confused some people!]
How young and sweet Enna and Isi had seemed, their faces simplified by the head wraps. Men especially had taken interest in their attention and questions. For other girls, Rin might have feared the greedy look in those men’s eyes, but last night she’d found herself fearing for the men.
"Don’t you all look at me like that,” said Isi, “or I’ll have to poke someone in the eyeball."
Rin curled up on the floor, her back hard against a straw pallet, and let herself cry the fear and anger and frustration out of her body. She cried as if all that poison inside her could well up and leave as tears. Then in that withered, numb state of all-cried-out, she sat up and decided.
“Rin?” Isi peeked into the antechamber. She was in her dressing gown, carrying a shielded candle. The light washed her pale face, yellow hair and white clothes in the same shade of gold. She looked like an image stamped on a coin, and her beauty at that moment made Rin hold her breath.
In the past, that would have been inviting, a chance to be still a moment, to listen and hum with the life of growing things, to feel her own thoughts go clear and bright like sunlight through poured water.
sad that i didn't win... oh well!
congrats Danielle and Megan... i rememer danielles post! im so excited for the book guess im waiting 6 months!
Posted by: Mindy | March 29, 2009 at 09:11 PM
Sad not win, but yay for the winners - they will have a wonderful read! No worries about anyone disliking it :) And thanks for the bits of balm. Then again, they just whet my appetite... can't wait till fall!
Posted by: Christy S. | March 29, 2009 at 09:15 PM
congrats to the lucky winners!
Posted by: Lindsay P | March 29, 2009 at 09:26 PM
*sigh*
But I'm happy today, anyway, so it's alright. ^_^ I wish everyone could be as happy as me!! XD
Posted by: Katie-wa | March 29, 2009 at 09:42 PM
Oh my! Congratulations, Danielle and Megan! So happy for you guys! And so happy FB is coming out this year!! :D
Posted by: bookbutterfly | March 29, 2009 at 09:51 PM
Ahem... My name is Danielle.
So I get the book, right?
Congrats, guys! And now I couldn't be more excited, Shannon.
Posted by: Dr. Sallie N. Cheinsteen | March 29, 2009 at 10:07 PM
Thanks, Shannon, for the gift of a taste of Forest Born. I'll read it again slowly as if it's a soothing cough drop melting away to a thin sliver that suddenly disappears (can you tell I've suffered through a cold recently?).
Posted by: Susanne | March 29, 2009 at 10:29 PM
* mouth drops open *
I won? Oh my gooseness, I am literally jumping up and down hyperventilating with excitement! This is one of the happiest moments of my life. Thank you SO MUCH!
* hurries off to send that e-mail! *
Posted by: Danielle | March 29, 2009 at 10:40 PM
Lucky Girls!!!
I'm never really lucky with draws or gambling. Oh well I guess this isn't a new feeling for me.
When's the next book Shannon? I'll line up for the next ARC.
:)
Posted by: xuchele | March 29, 2009 at 10:59 PM
Wow, that little sneak peek was so wonderful! I felt like I was there the whole time... your discription is so fluid and mesmorizing!
I was talking to my mom in the car last night about authors, and honestly, I think your work deserves to be more famous, and several movies made from them besides!
Posted by: Beka B. | March 30, 2009 at 04:16 AM
Oh, so close. I was 22.
Danielle, we will talk. :)
Posted by: Q | March 30, 2009 at 05:41 AM
Grr. Well, there's still the auction to look forward too.
Posted by: Enna Isilee | March 30, 2009 at 06:20 AM
So the part I'm curious about is why that got cut . . .
Posted by: Nikki | March 30, 2009 at 07:41 AM
Hey Danielle, Megan, can I be your new best friend? lol
Congrats guys!
Now im gonna go make some popcorn for my loooooooong wait till september...
Posted by: Amanda Lane | March 30, 2009 at 07:43 AM
Congrats to the winners. :)
Posted by: Miss Erin | March 30, 2009 at 08:52 AM
Thank you, thank you! This seriously made my day.
Posted by: Megan G | March 30, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Shannon, you're killing me!!! I've decided that previews are not my friend. I can't wait until September!!! Congrats to the winners and don't worry Shannon, we'll love Forest Born, we always love your books!
Posted by: Christy | March 30, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Sorry, I can't read the sneak peaks. I'm still working on the previous books!
Posted by: L.T. Elliot | March 30, 2009 at 11:41 AM
*Sigh* Oh, well. I'm not that lucky anyway. Can't wait until September- the very day it comes out, I'll be the first one at the door!
Posted by: Emma H. | March 30, 2009 at 12:13 PM
Thank you so much for the sneak peeks! Now I'm trying to figure out the plot.
Congrats to the lucky ducks, or, umm, geese, who won.
Posted by: Avery and the delicious Posie Nubbins | March 30, 2009 at 12:32 PM
what?! I didn't win?!
ha ha well I guess it doesn't really help that I entered the contest two minutes ago.... :D
Posted by: Cicilee | March 30, 2009 at 01:54 PM
Shannon, do you suppose you could, I dont know, "convince*" them to make the book come earlier? I liked that one line about the eyeball. It's funny.
*i.e blackmail, bribery, etc., whatever you're comfortable with.
Just kidding
Posted by: Sunstone | March 30, 2009 at 02:38 PM
LUCKY winners! I want to read it so badly!
Posted by: Maya | March 30, 2009 at 04:00 PM
Yeeesh, Shannon, if this is the stuff you CUT OUT of the book, I can't wait to get my hands on what you left in.
It must be fabulous.
Posted by: Laura Z M | March 30, 2009 at 05:01 PM
Congrats to the wonners! I can't wait to read Forest Born.
Posted by: Ali | March 30, 2009 at 05:10 PM
Sorry, typo. I mean winners.
Posted by: Ali | March 30, 2009 at 05:11 PM
Congrats to the winners! I can't wait to read Forest Born! :)
Posted by: Danyelle | March 30, 2009 at 05:29 PM
congrats, danielle and megan! im happy for you:)
shannon- amazing excerpts-that-arent-going-to-be-used-in-the-book. thank you so, so much for putting something up for the maybe-400 runner ups.
i cant wait to read forest born!!
oh well, ive never been really close with online number generators. yay september! whered i leave my time machine...?
Posted by: Aurora Faerie | March 30, 2009 at 06:20 PM
Congarts Danielle and Meagn !!!
Why wont you use this in your book? It is AMAZINGLLY GOOD writing!
Posted by: Anya O.O | March 30, 2009 at 08:50 PM
You have no idea how much I wish I'd gotten one. My friend would have been so excited... Ah well. Maybe I'll get her one when it comes out.
I think I'm going to cry, I'm so excited!
Posted by: Margaret | March 30, 2009 at 10:32 PM
Thanks for the snippets. Can't wait to read the whole thing!
Posted by: jenelcc | March 31, 2009 at 08:27 AM
DANIELLE WON!!!!!!!!!!!
That is just way too amazingly awesome! :)
Posted by: Maribeth | March 31, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Sneak peaks make the wait worse!!!
Posted by: Somnite | March 31, 2009 at 03:44 PM
Good for them :)
I was too late to be in it :(
I must find a way to survive until it comes out...when is that? You have no idea how loud I screamed when I found out there would be another Bayern book though...
LOUD. <3
Posted by: Chelsea | April 06, 2009 at 11:24 AM