We Have A Winner!!

Aaaaannnnnd we have a winnner! Woo-hoo!

But first, in a blatantly obvious attempt to ramp up the suspense just a bit, let me start by thanking everyone who entered. There were some awesome photos of people reading and posing with their copies of Leveling the Playing Field, and some even awesomer shots of various pets reading . . . well, someone's copy of the book. (I'm almost positive that Roxy-the-Dachshund, being a bit spoiled, has her very own Amazon Prime account, so I'd imagine she ordered her own copy. And also a new Macbook Pro, because she's very tired of trying to surf the web on that antiquated Dell of hers.)

"I bought this book, but I . . . I just realized . . . I don't have any
thumbs! Mom! Come open this book for me!"

There were also a number of people who garnered additional entries by sharing my original contest announcement, thereby spreading the word even more. That was greatly appreciated, of course; my ace marketing department informs me that spreading the word is key. (My ace marketing department also informs me that I've been loading the dishwasher incorrectly.)

All in all, it was a well-received contest with lots of entries and quite a bit of buzz—and most of all, a lot of people had a lot fun. Fun is always good.

We chose the winner by throwing all of the names up into the air and then trying to decide which person was most likely to invite us out to visit them when we're vacationing in our travel trailer.

No, that's not what we did! My ace marketing department wrote each name down on a Post-it (multiple Post-its for those who had multiple entries) and then shuffled them around while making chanting noises. We then wrote numbers on the back of each Post-it, and I wrote a very sophisticated program to generate a random number between 1 and the total number of entries. 

Well, not really. I just said, "Hey, Siri! Generate a random number between 1 and X." So Siri, being Siri, said, "Hmmm… Let me check on that," and displayed a list of Wikipedia articles about the history of mathematics, a Quora discussion on the nature of randomness, and 37 movie titles, including Random Encounters (2013), Random Acts of Violence (2012), and The Random Factor (1995). (And also an article about malware making its way onto the Google Play store. Not sure how that got in there.)

Brian Wilcox and his prized possession. Also,
he has a book.

When Siri did eventually spit out a random number (OK, so technically it was a pseudo-random number), it turned out to be Post-it #6! So, there you go! Our lucky winner is #6!! We certainly hope that #6 enjoys his or her $50 gift certificate to either Amaz . . . 

Wait . . . I'm being told that we can't give the prize to a number. It has to go to an actual person represented by that number. Sheesh. Man, I didn't realize this was going to be so complicated!! OK, so it turns out that Post-it #6 belonged to Brian Wilcox, of Huntington Beach, CA. We'll get in touch with Brian (or his representative, whose name, we're almost positive, is Alison) and mail him/them a $50 gift certificate for either Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble, his choice.

Stay tuned—I'm sure there will be more contests in the near future! In the meantime, keep in mind that the holiday season is approaching, so you'll want to have on hand as many copies of Leveling the Playing Field as possible. Because what could possibly make a more thoughtful and heartwarming gift than a book?! I'm almost positive that you can get a discount when you buy them by the case.