A Golden Summer
After the last two months living in the lands of Mitfords and Kenya, I came to realize how much I adore the 1920s. I mean, not just a little, but like, an all out passion for the period from fashion to personalities to literature. Sadly, I still do not have a time machine or Tardis, no matter how hard one wishes, it just doesn't seem to work! But luckily there is a far cheaper way to time travel, and that's by reading. Books can transport us to anywhere and anywhen. Therefore I decided that this summer I wanted to live in the 1920s, and subsequently picked out all my reading material and realized that this was going to be really fun. Now I only have to get myself a gramophone, some cool clothes and lots of booze and I'll be set.
But, on top of my love of the 1920s, I have a love of mysteries. As it so happens, the 1920s were known in literature as the "Golden Age of Detection." This was when many of the "Queens of Crime" first published, from Agatha Christie to Dorothy L. Sayers, this time period brought about a thriving of the whodunnit. So it was never a lack of choices for my reading, more a who to cull with this embarrassment of riches... I have devised a nice little list containing some of the luminaries of the day, but I have gone beyond this into modern mystery writers too. Because there is a distinct trend for current writers to set their mysteries during this golden age. From Jacqueline Winspear to Carola Dunn, many modern writers are just as enraptured with the 20s as I am! Then to go even further, there are modern writers who have writers from the Golden Age as their crime solving protagonists, all set in the Golden Age! In other words, such fun! Therefore I say, let us start this "Golden Summer" off right with a giveaway!
The Prizes*:
1st Prize: A gorgeous hardcover facsimile edition of Agatha Christie's second novel, The Secret Adversary. This is one of those swoon worthy editions that are being released that are made to look exactly like the original books, but without the hefty price tag of buying a true first edition.
*For the first time in awhile I'm doing incentivized prizes. I've been looking at that side bar and seeing somewhere around 300 followers for awhile now... all of you I love and adore, as you'll see below, you get more entries... but I'd like to bump it up this summer. So the more people who join, the more prizes in the pot. I break 350, another prize gets added, if I break 400 another prize. You get the picture, for every 50 people who sign up to follow little old me, more mystery goodness goes into the swag bag. So let's get going, sign up those friends and family!
The Rules:
1. Open to EVERYONE (for clarification, this means international too), just because you haven't been following me all along doesn't mean you don't matter, you just get more entries and prizes if you prove you love me by following.
2. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn, either your blogger profile or a link to your website/blog or you could even include your email address with your comment(s) or email me.
3. Contest ends Monday, September 30th at 11:59PM CST
4. How to enter: Just comment in the space below!
5. And for those addicted to getting extra entries:
- +1 for answering the question: Who is your favorite crime solver? Poirot? Marple? Someone more modern like Castle? Yes, tv crime fighters count too!
- +2 for becoming a follower
- +10 if you are already a follower
- +10 for each time you advertise this contest - blog post, sidebar, twitter (please @eliza_lefebvre), etc. (but you only get credit for the first post, so tweet all you like, and I thank you for it, but you'll only get the +10 once). Also please leave a link! There's a handy code on the side for your sidebars!
- +25 if you comment on any of the posts during the Golden Summer, with something other than "I hope I win" or a variation thereof.
