Hey, I Have Another Signed Fuzzy Nation ARC to Give Away

Posted on April 8, 2011    Posted by      973 Comments

This time, I am thinking of a particular moment of time between RIGHT THIS SECOND and 11:59pm Eastern time tonight (that being April 8, 2011), and have told my wife WHO DOES NOT LIE what time it is. If you are the person who posts a comment in this thread at, or closest to, that moment (as recorded by the timestamp on the comment), then you will win. How absurdly easy, right? Right.

If you win, I will sign it! And personalize it! To you! Unless you want me to personalize to someone else. In which case I will personalize it! To them!

Rules!

1. One entry per person. Duplicate entries will disqualify you.

2. In the event two or more people post at the same correct minute, whoever posts first wins. Because I said so.

3. In the case that someone doesn’t post at that exact moment, the first person to post after that exact minute will win. Again, because I said so.

4. If you post after 11:59pm Eastern time, you may not be paying attention to the details of this particular contest.

Update: 5. When you post your entry is the minute you choose — if you try to guess the time I’m thinking of in your comment, it won’t do you any good.

Got it? Go!

Category: Uncategorized    

973 Comments on “Hey, I Have Another Signed Fuzzy Nation ARC to Give Away”

  11. Well, since I don’t usually win anything, and am going to be busy until the time the contest closes.

    Postage.

  17. What the hey. I don’t expect to be on the internet later, so this time is as good as any.

  26. Hey, pick me!

    Looking forward to being able to buy this if I don’t win.I have been a big Piper fan for decades.

    Chuck

  34. Hey, the combination of #1 and #2 causes people to be disqualified at random, though no fault of their own. At least on the last challenge, a clever person could search the above posts to be sure of not duplicating a number someone else had already guessed.

  38. Love all of your books, and looking forward to this. I read the original when you first spoke about this project. I can’t wait to see what you have done.

  41. See, I figured 7:58 pm, but I guess I’ll just have to go with whatever time it is right now.

  46. This isn’t going to work because I won’t be able to post any later than…. right now!

  49. rightttttttttt NOW!

    And, for the record, when I read LF, the fuzzies I imagined looked more like the old 60’s Little Fuzzy cover rendition than the bug-eyed version that seems to have become the canonical cover-fuzzy.

  50. 8:40pm? (saw that my 6:15 guess had been posted while I was posting. Hope this overrides my duplicate as my one entry, if not, ’tis cool.)

  54. I figure that I won two Skafish CDs a few months ago so maybe I’m on a roll…

  59. Once again, people, when you post is your contest entry — if you try to guess a time in your comment, it won’t help you win. I mean, do it if you want to. It just won’t do you any good.

  68. I’ll forget if I try and post later. I’ll just have to hope that Mrs. Scalzi forgets the original time, and instead chooses this one, right… now!

  76. I’m reading Little Fuzzy right now and enjoying it, thanks to your recommendation, so I’m looking forward to reading Fuzzy Nation. A signed ARC would make it even better!

  79. “When you post is when your entry is the minute you choose — if you try to guess the time I’m thinking of in your comment, it won’t do you any good.” That is confusing, sir but 4:01 EST will do

  84. Well, why NOT?

    Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed
    A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
    Then one day he was shootin at some food,
    And up through the ground came a bubblin crude.

    Seriously, how bad a shot do you have to be ?

  94. Come on. I’m reading Android’s Dream right now. That’s got to add to the Karma points, Right?

  105. I never win these things but being an optomist, I just. keep. trying. C’mon karma!

  112. Since you John Scalzi have now posted twice, does that mean you are now disqualified? This of course is my guess!

  120. I would love an arc but I have trouble working out what time it is EST. I’m either early or late!

  123. If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
    And when I am for myself, what am ‘I’?
    And if not now, when?

  127. What have I got to lose? I ‘ll post now………………………………………………………………………………………………………………emmm……………………………………….

  130. OK. Why not? If I get it, I’ll review it. Otherwise, well, I’ll buy it. And probably review it. Sheesh. The universe can be so random.

  133. All I have stuck in my mind is Ye Old “Papa Smurf, Papa Smurf, are we there yet?” trope.

    You’re not feeling blue by any measure, are you? ;)

  135. Darn it. I wasn’t the first to post at my minute.

    However, double posting won’t now help, hinder, or banish me to Aristophanes’ cloud cuckoo land.

    I might even triple post later on tonight. If I feel like it!

  144. I read the post so my guess of 06:37 on Wednesday April 6, 2011 is merely filler.

  146. Because the only thing I’ve ever won in my life was a 50 lb bag of cat food my cats would not eat, I won’t set my hopes too high.

  153. Love your books andwould especially like to win a personalized one! Hope the contest is a giant success!

  165. Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells, From the bells, bells, bells. -Edgar Allan Poe

  171. OK.

    But about the previous contest: did anyone do a search and discover how many numbers were unguessed at all, and what the most popular guesses were?

  177. Gotta take a chance on this one. I may be wrong, but I may be right. And no, I don’t know why my brain is picking on 70s pop for this comment.

  193. Hmmm – so to improve my chances of winning, I have to convince everybody else not to post a comment after me for as long as possible.

    Consider this – Knowing the authour, the time will be significant, not random.
    Knowing the topic, there always was a happy hour….
    So, everybody should post at exactly 4pm Mountain Time to try and get it right.

    And nobody should post anything between now and then. Got it?

  199. Loved Piper’s Fuzzy books and would love this incarnation. Hope the time is NOW!

  209. I got nothing better to do with this second than to post some silly comment on your blog. also, hai I can haz copee of buk naow?

  234. It would help me figure out the spellings of names and places as I listen to the audiobook. So I would like to enter this drawing… NOW.

  246. Argh! Silly cat is fighting against me typing comment due to his being disturbed from favored resting position across my forearms and hands. Must win battle for control of own body…*sigh* It is pathetic that he is winning the fight.

  248. Why do cats make a point of throwing up, turning or walking, throwing up some more, etc.? It means several messes to clean up, not just one.

  277. Should people who guess times be disqualified for not paying attention?

    Okay, that’s draconian and not strictly in keeping with the rules, but I’m trying to emulate Congress by my density regarding the actual requirements for moving forward.

    No ARC shutdowns!

  290. Watch the flood of comments overload the site’s backend at exactly the winning moment.

  300. I think it might be later, but if I wait to comment, I’ll forget.

    Unless this is the correct answer, in which case, I knew it all along.

  313. Would the fact that today is my 38th birthday at all resonate backwards in time to the point where you selected the time stamp, ensuring I win and have the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER?

    Of course, my wife also got me a signed copy of Judge Sn Goes Golfing, so can’t complain if I don’t get Fuzzy.

  329. I guess the question is, has posting slowed down to less than one per second? And, will it, since that has the minimum odds of being knocked out because someone posted slightly earlier than me?

    Heck, I’ll forget if I don’t post now. So I’ll take my chances with now.

  331. This post will earn me the same return I get from MegaMillions and PowerBall tickets.

  347. If I don’t win, that means that (A) time travel will never exist, (B) I won’t be able to afford it, or (C) I will be able to afford it but the cost of the trip will not outweigh the cost of obtaining a signed copy of Fuzzy Nation in the future. I’m thinking (A).

  349. This is the time, this is the place, as we look to the future…
    Well, it’s at least the place.

  353. Hey, with this rule I might just win. It’s a one in a million chance but it might just work.

  374. When you go onstage to accept your Oscar for best screenplay, Old Man’s War, Taylor Swift is going to charge up, grab the podium from you, and rant about how Justin Beiber wuz robbed, robbed of glory by your win.

  378. Me!! Me!!!
    Otherwise there had better be copies at Minicon even though the release date is 2 weeks later! Gotta get it signed!!!! :-)

  399. Any point in saying anything other than NOW? See you in Lexington perhaps? Is anyone actually reading these anyway?

  415. Being outside of the USA won’t disqualify me, will it? This is my entry, if it be a valid one, in any case.

  417. It’s beer ‘o clock and the perfect time to enter. Also, if I don’t enter now I won’t remember to later.

  422. Wow; over 400 entries already….and now mine. Wonder how many we’ll have by midnight.

  439. I’m going to go ahead and post this now, because although I believe that if I were John Scalzi I would want to reward those that have the pateince to wait until closer to the deadline I am quite convinced that I will forget to do so later, and hey, doesn’t cost nothin, right?

  443. I think that you’re just trying to set a Whatever record for most comments and yet have none of be because of controversy. In fact, you’re going to have the most comments and have no person comment twice nor will you have to use the mallet of loving correction on them. Interesting.

  445. the worst part about commenting on your blog? all your other commentators sound way too literate and smart and give me an inferiority complex. I’m just not clever enough, damn it! Maybe I don’t even deserve the damn ARC.. Maybe it’s not a complex… maybe I really am inferior… Wow — a breakthrough! An epiphany! Right here… on your page! Doesn’t that deserve a little something…???

  452. Time zones, how do you deal with having so many? I get confused just with BST and GMT, I presume 11.59 is EDT rather than EST. EDT is -4 GMT and BST is at +1 GMT which makes you 5 hours? behind me?

  459. What a fun contest …. Good wy to pasd the time as i wait for armagedon in DC. Now two good reasons for midnight.

  466. Please let it be me because I may not be getting paid to work for a while and I need something to help me clear my head

  469. Cleveland.

    Aethelred the Unready.

    156.

    I’m pretty sure there is going to be another competition, so I want to have these answers ready to go.

  489. I love how everyone thought you had to post the time, which I almost did as well.

  500. Worth a shot!

    And what do you do if more than one person has the winning time? I’ve seen at least three people with the same time stamp on their post.

  501. A persistent stream of comments on a blog post continues; another drop falls in the Chinese Water Torture that is the ARC giveaway contest.

  513. how about now? there doesn’t seem to be any posts in the last 5 minutes or so either…

  520. So this post is just going to have hundreds of comments containing nothing meaningful?

    …okay, that actually sounds pretty normal for the internet.

  553. Hi,
    Name is “Mario”, from Austria… not that it matters ;-)

    Actually i don’t give a poo-poo if i win a book here or not, I just like to use this opportunity to tell you something…:

    I’ve read Sci-Fi Books for a better part of my 35 year young/old life,
    but never was my “reading experience” more feck**g awesome as when i dive into the pages of your Books!
    “Old Man’s War”, “The Ghost Brigades”, “The Last Colony”, “Zoes Tale, “Agent to the Stars” & “The Androids Dream”
    are the best (insert divine being’s name of your choice & some colorful words)
    damn Sci-Fi books that one could ask for and that i’ve ever read.

    Mr. Scalzi,
    From the bottom of my heart i thank you for the books you’ve wrote and hope more “good stuff” will follow!

  560. I’m going to be a grammar troll, but just for amusement.

    Leaving out the commas around the clause “who does not lie” makes it sound like you have another wife who does. Compare:

    and have told my wife WHO DOES NOT LIE what time it is.

    and have told my wife, WHO DOES NOT LIE, what time it is.

    See what I mean?

    NOT that I think you do have another wife, who lies, or anything like that – obviously from the context that wasn’t what you meant, so there wasn’t really a problem. I just wanted to have something to say in my comment…

  570. “Like he said…NOW!”
    (quote from Charles Napier as Adam, “The Way to Eden”)

  575. Is it now? Huh? Is it? Is it? Huh? (that’s me channelling my 10 year old)

    Regards,

    Tim

  591. Ok, it’s my turn, did I win, Did I, Did I….
    PS. I’m reading Hate Mail, and I’d chose Heinlein over Rand in a nanosecond… Let’s see: a house full of Rocket ships, swords, buried treasure, story hour and of course RAH’s views on “corporeal enjoyment” OR graduating from a Skinner Box to a concrete room and character building…

  594. I’m starting to think that at these conventions, after a few rounds of Coke Zero or equivalent, Charles Stross, Mary Robinette Kowal and John Scalzi sit around coming up with different ways to get adults to jump through electronic hoops.

    Haiku for a chance at literary death – check
    Pick a number/time and win a book – check/check

    Contests coming soon:
    1) Tell an embarrassing story about yourself and be depicted as a minor character on a book cover.
    2) Describe a brush with the law and be depicted as a defendant in Judge Sn’s court.
    3) Get an alien species named after the most obnoxious boss.

    Starting to feel like a participant in an unregistered psychology experiment.

    That said, hell yes I want the book.

  615. Here I was hoping to post at 6:54, only to remember I’m in Chicago, so it will be 7:54… Still, could be 7:54, right?

  616. No, NOW is the time you silly previous 600 odd comment making people.

  619. I think it’s later, but I won’t be around later. So, this is me.

    I claim this time.

  645. My time will be whatever it is, but I believe the winning time will be 10:32pm. Because I never win anything. Prove me wrong!

  646. So, since I’m posting, thought I’d mention that Tor sent me an email announcement of your new fantasy trilogy on April 7th. If I hadn’t seen it here on the 1st, and just glanced at the email instead of checking out the Web site, I might be expecting to be able to buy this before long….

  666. I once helped a friend who ran a used bookstore inventory a library of a writer/professor type we bought from the estate. Among the volumes that passed through my hands was an ARC of “!984”. How cool is that?
    I thought it was pretty neat.
    But then I’m old.
    –ml

  674. Well, right now would be the perfect time (central time zone, please), because if it were I would give the book to my Fuzzy-crazed son. I have already pre-ordered a copy for myself, you see.

  685. I’ve been meaning to steal the copies of the Fuzzy novels from my father to refresh myself before this comes out (and because they are fabulous). I’d love me an ARC.

  690. Hi! how are ya! Hope I’m at the right time for this here competition!

    Anyways, have a nice night.

  699. You’re not just trying to boost comment counts, are you? No, no, of course not….

  703. Bing! This is *my* minute! (Unless someone else posted first in it, I guess.)

  727. It’s right now, isn’t it! I knew it.

    When you inscribe your name, make it out to “Presciently yours,” etc.

  731. I am disqualified for this second post, but by the rules I could not win anyway, cause Sarah N posted in the same minute as me and got in first. Good luck Sarah.

  734. NOW.

    (And I have to say all these “nows” makes me think of the ending of “The Stars My Destination.”)

  746. Even if I don’t win, thank you, this is pleasingly whimsical! Or whimsically pleasing. Or something.

  752. Hi John – I’m sure that I missed it, but what the heck – I might as well try. Thanks.

  754. I want this so badly that I actually waited until after the contest was over, found out what the time was, and then went back in time to tell myself what time to post at.

    I just hope I corrected for universal drift and didn’t wind up in an alternate universe where JS chose a different time.

    I also hope I get back to the universe I left from.

    Wish me luck, folks!

  761. The time has come, the Walrus said
    To talk of many things
    Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax
    Of cabbages and kings
    And why the sea is boiling hot
    And whether pigs have wings.

  765. Maybe I should write a really long program in Cobol to post this message every minute until I win.

  769. Hey, whatdayaknow. The spam filter stopped me from posting that Cobol comment again. Or, as I should have said COBOL.

  783. “I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.”
    -Groucho Marx

  785. Are we there yet?

    How about now?

    Now?

    Well, wake me when we get there, okay?

  795. I’m only posting this now because I’m about to leave work anyway, and I’ll forget before we get any further into the evening.

  805. First write-only comments section I’ve seen in I don’t know how long…

  809. I’ll see your arc and raise you one flood. Wait, what? oh, arc not ark. Sheesh…

    Epic Fail for the WIN!

  811. I’m amazed at the number of people who don’t read the rules properly before replying. Such as myself. ::shame::

  822. I thought of this time much earlier and had to wait.

    Now that I’m here, I think it’s much earlier but I can’t go back.

    Damn you lack of time machine!

  826. Hmm, interesting idea for a contest. Your entry is the time you post. Eliminate people double posting. Clever.

  835. Wyld Stallyns Rulez!!!

    Ok, I had to post something…

    Good luck everyone…

    and Party On, dudes

  836. This is my contest entry.

    I will point out that in the last ARC contest, I hypothesized that the number of the winning entry would be its comment number, not the number named by the commenter. I turned out to be incorrect (which in no way diminishes the validity of my theory), but my theory was pretty close the actuality of this, second contest.

    And just in case you have pulled a switcheroo this time (which you haven’t, given that you were quite explicit in your instructions), I’m making an attempt to stake a claim for 10:24 PM EDT.

  840. Darn it, I thought I posted at 10:21, but nothing has come up so I must have messed up. I could be seriously unhappy if 10:21 was the winning time, but I have decided to be all Zen about it and go with 10;25 instead. Or whatever time Whatever is set to.

  847. Time to throw my hat into the ring, and hope the time you’re thinking of is

    RIGHT NOW!

    :)

  850. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Nam liber tempor cum soluta nobis eleifend option congue nihil imperdiet doming id quod mazim placerat facer possim assum. Typi non habent claritatem insitam; est usus legentis in iis qui facit eorum claritatem. Investigationes demonstraverunt lectores legere me lius quod ii legunt saepius. Claritas est etiam processus dynamicus, qui sequitur mutationem consuetudium lectorum. Mirum est notare quam littera gothica, quam nunc putamus parum claram, anteposuerit litterarum formas humanitatis per seacula quarta decima et quinta decima. Eodem modo typi, qui nunc nobis videntur parum clari, fiant sollemnes in futurum.

    Amen.

  859. We are the music makers,
    And we are the dreamers of dreams,
    Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
    And sitting by desolate streams;—
    World-losers and world-forsakers,
    On whom the pale moon gleams:
    Yet we are the movers and shakers
    Of the world for ever, it seems.

    — Arthur O’Shaughnessy