Monday, December 31, 2018

You, a Friend, a Stranger: Part 2





I realized I haven't blogged in a while and although I absolutely do not miss churning out content on a timetable, I do miss giving stuff away :) I decided New Year's Eve seemed like the perfect time to do another round of my You, a Friend, a Stranger giveaway!

I don't have much money coming in right now so I've had to scale back the prize, but I hope it's still enough for you to want to enter. Honestly, most of the Rafflecopter activities are things I enjoy doing for free, so why not click a few boxes and enter to win yourself (and a friend, and a stranger) some awesome prizes!

I mean, come on. Where else can you enter to win money by taking a nap?

This giveaway is international. Prizes are as follows:

  • Winner gets $20 transferred to a PayPal account or paid out via a bookstore, grocery store, department store, or gas station gift card. It's about you and what you need <3
  • Winner's friend gets $10, paid out via an email gift card. Sorry, no cash. [Int'l winners will have a limited selection of gift cards to choose from.]
  • Winner gets $10 in credit to contribute to any GoFundMe or YouCaring campaign during the month of February. I am registered and I will give the money in your name. If winner strongly prefers to donate to a charity instead of an individual person, that's fine too :)
  • Because I'm an author and I have lots of free books to give away, I'll throw in a copy of any of my Young Adult Paula Stokes books for both winner and their friend. [U.S. winner receives signed books shipped by me. INT winner receives books ordered from TBD or Wordery with signed bookplates mailed separately.]


I found this excellent flyer in Copenhagen. Take what you need.

I created this contest so you could technically do one activity every day in January, but feel free to crush them all out in a weekend marathon of kindness, empathy, and self-care if you want. And if you only want to do a couple, that works too :)

NOTE: If you have limited mobility, lack of transportation, or are otherwise unable to complete a task as described due to circumstances beyond your control, please feel free to modify that task to something similar that you can complete in your current situation. Example: If you currently can't leave your house, you can thank a stranger over the phone or online or post a message of acceptance and inclusivity on your social media. The idea is to encourage you to take care of yourself and others, and maybe do something fun or inspiring you wouldn't normally do along the way. I don't want anyone to feel excluded :)

I took this picture while I was lying on the ground in Costa Rica.
Sometimes a different perspective helps us see things in a new way.
(Other times it just makes for a really awesome photograph).

Can you cheat? I mean, yeah, most of the Rafflecopter options are "on your honor" activities. But this specific contest was created to help people feel better about themselves and the world. If you cheat and win, you might not regret it now, but at some point later you might feel a little down on yourself. I don't want to do that to you, so how about you don't do that to yourself either? Have fun with this. If you have a really meaningful experience doing any of these activities, be sure to leave a comment for 5 entry points and share your thoughts.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

This contest ends January 31. Winner will be notified via email by Feb 3 and has until Feb 7 to respond and claim the prizes. If you have questions about any of the entries, put them in the comments so I can answer them for everyone.

ETA: I updated most of the entries on 12/31 to make them worth 3 points so that people could tweet about the contest daily but more entry points would be given for people who complete the challenges. If there's an issue with how many points you received for something, let me know.

Always remember.

Happy New Year! Best of luck in 2019, and as always, thanks for everything that you do <3