In honor of One Moment’s release (this week!), I’m hosting a giveaway.
Thanks to my generous and oh-so-lovely editor, the prize pack will include:
One Moment by Kristina McBride (that’s me, so I’ll sign it, of course)
The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride (I’ll sign this one, too)
Hourglass by Myra McEntire
Timepiece (just released!) by Myra McEntire
Shift by Em Bailey
Notes from Ghost Town (ARC) by Kate Ellison (See the gorgeous cover in the pic below)
An Ashes/Shadows tote bag (awesome for toting books!)
My favorite candy (M&Ms!)
One Moment bookmarks (in case you want to help spread the word)
Here’s a pretty picture of the entire prize pack, just so you can see all the books, hanging together in their awesomeness:
THE SCOOP: One Moment explores the theme that it only takes one moment to change everything in a person’s world. To enter, list one of your own life-changing moments in the comments below or on my Facebook author page. The contest ends at 11:59 (EST) tonight. I will reply to the winner’s comment to request mailing info.
ONE OF MY OWN LIFE-CHANING MOMENTS: Now, this contest is only fair if I share one of my own life-changing moments, right? Sometimes change is good, bringing joy and happiness. Other times the change is so tragic it leaves you feeling crushed to nothing. Either way, you never look at life the same way again. I’ve experienced many moments that have given me a new perspective on life – two years ago, I nearly lost my father; six years ago, I gave birth to my first child; nine years ago, I married my best friend. Those moments drew clear lines in the path of my life – distinct befores and afters.
One such moment that I am still terribly shaken from occurred nearly twenty years ago. It’s one of those moments that has never let me go, and when I started writing One Moment, I drew from the emotion, still so raw after nearly two decades, that flooded me during that time.
It was summer – the middle of a beautiful June night – and I was sleeping soundly until the loud beep from the front entrance of my apartment complex alerted me that someone was at my door. After several minutes of the insistent beeping, I called the police. It was after two in the morning and I was unnerved, certain that nothing good could be waiting for me on the other side of that door. Once I had the police on the line, they told me to answer the door, that just outside was an officer waiting to speak with me. Foggy from sleep, I stepped outside and they asked a few questions. I quickly deduced that both of my parents, who were out of town, were okay, but relief didn’t come because just as quickly, I understood that the officer was there to ask about the teenaged son of a very close family friend. Seventeen-year-old Bobby had been in an accident and they were looking for his father, who, like my parents, was out of town. Being the only family (ish) contact in town, I gave them what information I had, frantically asking where Bobby was – I wanted to get to him as quickly as possible. The look the officer gave me answered the one question I had been too afraid to even formulate in my mind, let alone ask. There was nowhere for me to go. We had lost Bobby. Forever.
This moment settled deep within me, changing everything in my world in a single instant. I had just seen Bobby a few hours before – he was watering the plants at his father’s house, totally alive and well, excited even, as he was on his way to Florida with one of his friends. What if I’d asked him to have dinner with me – something I’d debated as we stood talking – instead of just saying goodbye and driving away? What if I’d spent one minute longer standing in the driveway, asking for more details about his recent trip white water rafting in West Virginia? What if one single moment could have altered the rest of his evening, putting him in the intersection a little sooner or later? Would he have even been in an accident? If so, could he possibly have survived?
We’ve all had moments like this, moments where we wonder if something we have done, or failed to do, may have drastically altered the course of our own, or someone else’s, lives. One Moment was a way for me to explore those emotions, a way for me to bring to life some of the feelings and questions I dealt with after Bobby’s death.
Now, that is one horribly sad, life-changing moment that I experienced. Quite a bit about One Moment is sad, as well. But the novel is ultimately about healing and hope. So I’m going to share one more moment, one that brought healing and hope to my own life:
Jumping into this author game is tricky and extremely difficult. I struggled through three complete novels before I landed my agent, then revised painstakingly for almost a year. The entire time, there was no guarantee. Just because I was revising didn’t mean my agent would ever think my book worked well enough to submit to a publishing house. But finally, she did. Which was super exciting! But it still didn’t guarantee that any editors would make an offer to actually publish the book. So I forgot about the submission (as well as I could) and went about my daily life.
One summer day, about a week after the book went on submission, exhausted to the point of wilting after spending hours at the pool with two toddlers, I was bracing myself between the wall and bathtub in my kids’ bathroom, trying to lather up their extremely slippery, sun-screened bodies, when the phone rang. I muttered something under my breath about how THE LAST THING I wanted to do in that moment was answer a phone. One child screamed about me pulling her hair, the other shouted about getting shampoo in his eyes, and I promptly forgot about the call. Until later, when I happened to walk past the answering machine and noticed that the little red light was blinking. Rolling my eyes (because that little red light took me right back to the stress of the bathtub and my two slippery squirmers), I hit the little play button and leaned against the wall to listen to the message. Crazy surprise! It was my agent! I had my first offer!
This moment is one that I will never forget – for all the right reasons. It changed everything! I finally knew what I’d always wondered. I can write a book. I can land myself a kick-ass literary agent. I can deal with revisions and see the book through to the end. And, best yet, my writing is good enough for publication! My book will sit on the shelves of bookstores and libraries, be clutched by readers’ hands, tucked under readers’ arms, and slipped between other books on readers’ shelves!
I had done it! Dared to dream, and taken the risk of failing by following through. And it had worked!
So there you have it – one negative and one positive life-changing moment from my own life.
Your turn! (Don’t worry, you don’t have to go into major detail, just share a moment that changed your life forever.)
*Contest open to residents of US and Canada.
*Contest officially closed. The lucky winner? Alicia Marie! Read her moving story in the comments section below.
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