[Contest has ended] Prize bundle, Video Week: RM (Dec.15-24)

Hi! Thanks for dropping by to enter to win the nice prize bundle for Video Week: Random Magic (Dec. 15-24, 2012).

UPDATE: Dec. 31, 2012 - Contest has wrapped, winner has been selected and notified. Thanks to everyone for playing, it was a fun tour!

WHAT'S THE DEAL?

Each vlogger will share their personal answer to a specific question, somewhere in their vlog(s). Just watch the tour vlogs, comment on the vlog, then collect each vlogger's pick. 

The question: If you could give or keep a gift of ONE thing from the world of Random Magic, what would it be?

HOW TO PLAY

1. WATCH ANY TOUR VIDEO
Watch any video from this tour. Listen for each vlogger's answer on which gift they'd give or keep, from the world or Random Magic - they'll tell you about it somewhere in their video.

2. LEAVE A COMMENT
Leave a comment below his/her video.

3. ENTER TO WIN
Then just click over from their video page to enter the answer into the Rafflecopter. The Rafflecopter is shown below. It's totally okay to paraphrase the answer in your own words.

The Video Week: Random Magic prize bundle offer is international, and offer is good through December 31, 2012, midnight EST. Good luck to all!

SURE, LET'S GO

Dec. 15 - TheeBookMonster 
Review | Mystery feature

Dec. 17 - BooksWithDylan 
Review | Mystery feature

Dec. 18 - AliciaReads
Review | Mystery feature

Dec. 20 - BibliophileSisters (Mallory)
Review | Mystery feature (N/A)

Dec. 21 - BooksForeverAfter
Review | Mystery feature (N/A)

Dec. 22 - OhYeahTavia
Review | Mystery feature (N/A)

Dec. 23 - GDCLA
Review | Mystery feature 

Dec. 24 - ReaderOfTheAwesome
Review | Mystery feature 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What do I get if I win?: Everything! There won't be multiple prize packs, one winner takes all. If you'd like to know what the prize bundle is before you enter, feel free to browse below to see what you'd be receiving.

How do I do this?: Just visit the vloggers on this tour and keep a lookout for their Random Magic answers, which they'll share with you. Comment on their vlog, then come here to enter his or her answer about which gift they'd bring away from the world of Random Magic. Collect a few different answers and you might be the one who'll be receiving this nice prize bundle for book lovers.

How do I use Rafflecopter? What info do I need? Is it a hassle?: Nope, Rafflecopter is really easy to use. It's easy to enter all of your info into the Rafflecopter, you'll just need your name or nickname and an email address where you can be contacted, if you win. 

Someone has helpfully uploaded a quick walk-through about entering using Rafflecopter, and you're welcome to check that out below. To protect the individuals who are playing the game fair and square, we will verify each entry before the final draw is made. Invalid entries will be deleted. 

The contest is open to *all, international, and the offer is good through December 31, 2012, midnight, EST. Good luck to all! 

*Ineligible: Bloggers found to have 'no indies' review policy in effect at their blogs.

Prize bundle for Video Week: Random Magic

First edition copy of Random Magic, by Sasha Soren

About: When absent-minded Professor Random misplaces the main character from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, young Henry Witherspoon must book-jump to fetch Alice before chaos theory kicks in and the world vanishes.

Along the way he meets Winnie Flapjack, a wit-cracking doodle witch with nothing to her name but a magic feather and a plan.

Such as it is.

Henry and Winnie brave the Dark Queen, whatwolves, pirates, Strüths, and fluttersmoths, Priscilla and Charybdis, obnoxiously cheerful vampires, Baron Samedi, a nine-dimensional cat, and one perpetually inebriated Muse, to rescue Alice and save the world by tea time.

Shown above: Book trailer for Random Magic

Shown above: Best Bits! (Summer tour). This video features a more in-depth look at the book, and includes dramatic readings, comedy skits, an online game, and other delightful things.


Shown above: Best Bits! (Autumn tour). This video also features a more in-depth look at the book, and includes comedy skits, original music, and other cool things.

Collectible plushie - Patchwork cat 

About: Gone, the imperious cat with, literally, nine lives, is an amusing character who winds his way through the story of Random Magic, vanishing and reappearing in the oddest places. 

Here we have a cute plushie that could very well be Gone having a little stretch and a peek into our world, for all we know. This little plushie is a collectible item - he's also ridiculously cute. 

Details: Beanie Baby, official name Kaleidoscope the Cat, retired March 2001, 6.5 inches (16.51 centimeters) tall.

Shown above: Film trailer for Alice Through the Looking Glass

DVD -  Alice Through the Looking Glass

About: Of course, Random Magic begins when absent-minded Professor Random misplaces the main character from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). 

There've been many movie versions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and a few of the sequel to that original adventure, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871). 

This film version featuring actor Kate Beckinsale is one of the trippiest, most vivid and artistic versions of that story you'll ever see - and visually, it's a perfect match for the colorful and outlandish world of Random Magic.

Note: DVD only available for Region 1 (NTSC), although it should be playable on a region-free DVD player. Check your region

Plushie - Alice, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

About: Cute little plushie version of Alice, the main character from Lewis Carroll's classic upside-down tale, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Details: Alice thought she'd found just the place she was looking for, when she fell into Wonderland, but ended up wanting something a little less...mad. This enchanting Alice plush stands approximately seven inches  (17.78 centimeters) tall, and features the blond heroine in a signature blue and white dress. - Manufacturer description

Writer Ray Bradbury passes away, aged 91

Writer Ray Bradbury has died, aged 91. Shown above we have an hour-long lecture you can view by this grandmaster of fantasy fiction. About Bradbury: Bio |  More clips: Browse 

Video summary (via YouTube): Writer Ray Bradbury regales his audience with stories about his life and love of writing in "Telling the Truth," the keynote address of The Sixth Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea, sponsored by Point Loma Nazarene University. Lecture footage provided by University of California Television. Also mentioned in this clip: Dancer Gene Kelly, special effects creator Ray Harryhausen, and artist Joe Mugnaini.

Shown above: Icarus, illustration by Joe Mugnaini, materials and date not specified, but likely to be 1962. More info

Shown above: Gene Kelly appears with fellow dancer Cyd Charisse, in Singin' in the Rain (1952).

Shown above: Interview with special effects creator Ray Harryhausen. Video interview uploaded in 2011, provided by the Tate. 

Shown above: Additional video clip featuring brief interview with Ray Bradbury. Uploaded 2007, source not specified. Sound for clip is a little loud, compared the others above; you might have to turn volume down somewhat.

Transcript (excerpt): Bradbury discusses the origin of one of his short stories.:

All of my stories that are worth anything are based on some sort of personal metaphor. And when I was eight years old, a little girl went into Lake Michigan, [a girl] that I was playing with, and she never came out. 

What a mystery it was, to hear about this thing called drowning, and death. And she stayed with me, for 12, 13, 14 years, the memory of her disappearing into the lake.

And when I was 22, I sat at the typewriter one day and remembered the lake, and wrote the story of this girl, and building a sand castle with her, and very late in time, coming back, and there's the sand castle, waiting on the shore. She's been there. And left the metaphor of her death for me.

And when I finished the short story, I burst into tears. I realized that, after 10 years of writing, I'd written something beautiful. I'd turned a corner, into my interior self. I wasn't writing exterior stuff, I wasn't writing for the right, or the left, or the in-between; I was writing for me. And I discovered that that's the way to go.