Author: Wil

I am totally thrilled that 419 of you entered the autographed book lottery, and I'll be honest: it's weird to me to think of choosing "winners" who get to buy something from me, but that's just my damn liberal guilt, I guess. (And, I think I said this before, but in case I didn't: the Bursar at my son's university thanks you for your purchase.)

So here's how I did this: I removed the duplicate comments, divided the remaining comments into 20 groups of 20, then rolled d20 three times. The first time gave me a group, the second time was to choose if I would start counting from the top or bottom (1-10, go top to bottom, 11-20 go bottom to top) and the final roll gave me the number I'd count to.

I could have used a bunch of different dice, but I decided that the d20 was perfect for this method, because it has a 5% chance of rolling any number (unlike a combination of d6 or something, that has a different Gaussian distribution that peaks around 13, muh-hay, guh-hey flaven) and it's also the only gaming die I have that's the size of a billiard ball, which felt appropriately massive for this occasion.

So, without any further ado, here are the nine people who were chosen by my giant d20. If your name is on this list, and you haven't gotten an e-mail from me, you should e-mail me RIGHT AWAY so I can get your book in the mail today:

1. Xuff

2. Dwayne Reinhardt

3. Terry Callan

4. Jeswils

5. Tamelam

6. Isisgate1

7. Jonathan Disher

8. Kwbeck

9. Bsv567

If you weren't chosen, do not despair! The response to this was so overwhelming and awesome, I was inspired to go ahead and release a chapbook of short fiction that I've been afraid to publish for almost a year. It will go up on Lulu a little later today, after I've taken care of signing and shipping these copies of Happiest Days.

Yesterday, I said:

I found nine hardback copies of The Happiest Days of Our Lives that I must have put there when they first arrived at my house a couple of years ago. They look as perfect as they did the day they were taken out of the box.

So I have this idea to sell them, that goes like this:

I will number these books 1-9, and sign them to whomever the buyer wants, with a dedication of my choosing. I will ship the book USPS Priority mail no later than Monday, which should ensure that it arrives before Christmas, in case that's important to you.

I'll do this for $50 a book, which will include shipping and handling.

I only have 9 of these, but I'm not sure anyone is interested in this, so before I go and set up the ordering and payment information, I need to know if anyone reading this is actually interested.

This would be a first come, first served sort of thing, sold to the first 9 people who leave comments at some time tomorrow (I'll figure that out and update this post later, if it's going to happen). I can ship internationally, but the buyer would have to cover the cost of shipping, because it's damn expensive.

I wasn't sure that anyone would be interested, and I'm delighted to discover that I was wrong about that. Initially, I thought I'd make it first come, first served, but I thought that might be a bummer for anyone who can't be at their computer at, say, noon today or whatever. So I thought that it would be more fair to everyone if it was a lottery.

So here's what I'm going to do: For the next 24 hours (maybe a tiny bit longer, if I sleep late tomorrow), you can leave a comment on this post, if you're interested in buying one of these ultra-limited signed copies of The Happiest Days Of Our Lives. 

Tomorrow, I'll roll dice (you know, like we gaming geeks do) to pick nine people who, uh, get a Golden Ticket, I guess.

I'll contact those people by e-mail, to let them know that they can buy one of these books. When those people respond, I'll get details and give payment instructions.

A couple important notes:

I'm only set up to take payment from PayPal, so if you hate PayPal (and I'm right there with you), don't bother with this.

Please ensure that you have an e-mail address attached to your identity here, so I can find you if you're one of the 9. Do not leave your e-mail address in your comment, because spammerbots will grab it and make your life miserable.

I will ship internationally, but the buyer will be responsible for shipping (express shipping to countries outside of the US can be very expensive, so find out how much that's going to cost ahead of time, so you don't get any unpleasant surprises.)

Please, please, please, don't use multiple accounts to enter this more than once. I can't stop you, but that would be really unfair to other people.

These books will be numbered "2010 Holiday Super Funtimes 1-9".

Yay!

Updated: Wow, 419 entries! That's awesome. I'll roll dice and notify the nine by Monday. (It's a very busy weekend here in Wheatonland).

I've been cleaning out my office, organizing comic books and games, and slowly crawling through a decade's accumulation of geek stuff.

It. Has. Been. AWESOME.

Last night, I went into the depths of the hallway closet, and behind a bunch of CDs and DVDs, I found nine hardback copies of The Happiest Days of Our Lives that I must have put there when they first arrived at my house a couple of years ago. They look as perfect as they did the day they were taken out of the box.

So I have this idea to sell them, that goes like this:

I will number these books 1-9, and sign them to whomever the buyer wants, with a dedication of my choosing. I will ship the book USPS Priority mail no later than Monday, which should ensure that it arrives before Christmas, in case that's important to you.

I'll do this for $50 a book, which will include shipping and handling.

I only have 9 of these, but I'm not sure anyone is interested in this, so before I go and set up the ordering and payment information, I need to know if anyone reading this is actually interested.

This would be a first come, first served sort of thing, sold to the first 9 people who leave comments at some time tomorrow (I'll figure that out and update this post later, if it's going to happen). I can ship internationally, but the buyer would have to cover the cost of shipping, because it's damn expensive.

So, what do you think? Interested? Let me know, or ask your questions in the comments below.

UPDATED: Okay, it looks like there are at least 9 potential buyers, so here's what I'll do: I'll put up a post later, where you can leave a comment to be entered into a lottery. I'll leave that open for 24 hours, and then roll dice to see who gets them. Maybe I'll roll them live on Ustream, if that's not to totally lame and ridiculous. I think that's fair, and gives everyone an equal chance to get in, even those who are /away from their computers.