The Winning Entry

Phew! London buses - radio silence and then three posts all at once. It's because there's a lot going on in the land of Glass Houses and, I'm delighted to say, none so exciting as my competition to win five Urbane Publications books of your choice. A very fine prize indeed. And some - all - very fine entries.

As some of you will know, there was a little bit of work to do to validate your entry into the draw and  you were asked to respond to one of the following questions either via this blog, Facebook or email. 

either (1) a question about Glass Houses you feel would spark discussion in a book group 

Or (2) a question you'd put to a specific Glass Houses character if they were sitting in front of you 

Or (3) the name of at least one of the Urbane titles you'd like to win and a sentence explaining why. 

I've collected up all the answers and tittered and gosh'ed and nodded (at the brilliance) my way through them and thanked my lucky stars I wasn't required to choose a 'winning' question. Instead, all the entries were put into a hat and stashed in the corner of the room until head adjudicator, the husband, came home to pick out the winner. 

Oh, you don't think I'm going to tell you yet?

Thank you to those who worried their answers might be 'spoilers' and emailed them to me. I appreciate the sensitivity and for the same reason, I'm not going to print the whole list of questions here. However, the entries were SO good - seriously, there wasn't a duff questions amongst them - that I have compiled a list of all questions entered. I will squeeze as many of them as possible into the book group flier which was at the heart of this competition. If you would like to see the list in all its glory, and/or think it might be useful for your book group, please send me your email address by private message and I'll send you the list by return. 

Meanwhile, a taster. 

The one which made me laugh the most:
Oi, you, Tori's step-dad, what made you such an arse...?

The one where I'd be particularly keen to hear the responses: Has the novel chaged your perception of the way we, as a society, view and deal with those of us who make split-second decisions with potentially devastating consequences? 

The one where I thought, Yep, fair play, I wouldn't have thought to ask that: Oh! Actually, spoiler alert, but well done, Julia!

And the one which really made me think: What are Gerald's positive traits and can he change after what happens at the end of the book?

Other questions were just as fabtastic, but because I hate, with a passion, when I find out too much about a story before I read it, I am being particuarly cautious.

Oh, you want to know the winner?

One more thing. Because book groups are a writer's friend, buying lots of books and meeting to drink wine/coffee/eat cake discuss them exhuberantly, and because the cost of the wine/coffee/cake books can mount up, Urbane Publications have a very, very generous deal for book groups: 

Order five or more copies of the same book for delivery to a single address and receive a 50% discount on the order AND free p&p. I think that is pretty generous. Contact Urbane Publications if your book group would be interested. 

Where were we? OK, thanks to everyone who entered the competition, the winning entry out of the hat belongs to...
...
...Tamsin Sargeant. Well done Tamsin, I'll be sending you a DM about how to claim your prize.

Next date for your diary: Saturday 17th September between 2 and 5.30pm, Blackwell's Book Shop, Leeds. Book signing, Q&A, chat, cake...would love to see you there!