One More Fuzzy Nation Giveaway

Posted on May 7, 2011    Posted by      410 Comments

Just a couple of days before the release of Fuzzy Nation, and what better time to give away a signed, personalized copy of the hardcover first edition? No better time, I say! None!

Here’s how to win it:

I am thinking of a place on the planet. What place am I thinking of?

Hints:

* It is not within 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of my home in Bradford, Ohio.

* No one lives in it or on it.

* It’s on a continental land mass, but not a water feature (i.e., not a river, lake, etc).

* It is something most people could visit, if they made the effort.

There you go. Have fun guessing.

And now, the rules!

1. Contest runs between when I post the entry and noon eastern time on Sunday, May 8, 2011.

2. One entry per person, one guess per entry. Multiple entries/guesses will disqualify you.

3. The first person to guess the place wins. It has to be the specific place, not (for example) the country or state/province/city/other governmental division it is in/near. Just saying “India!” won’t help you, even if the place I’m thinking of is in India.

4. In the event no one guesses the place to my satisfaction, I will take the total number of entries by noon eastern time on May 8 and ask my daughter to pick a number between one and that number. The comment that has the same number as the number she picks will win.

Good luck!

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410 Comments on “One More Fuzzy Nation Giveaway”

  7. I would have to say that the initials are DV. Do we post it here or send you the e-mail direct? Oh, hell, it’s Death Valley! Boo-Yah?

  9. Chokpori, the ‘Iron Mountain’, one of the four holy mountains in Tibet.

    There’s a medical school on it, but I’m guessing nobody actually lives there. :)

  10. The geographical center of the world’s population, which is deep in the Hindu Kush so I doubt anyone’s there.

  15. The geographic south pole, which, given the climate, being exceedingly fuzzy would be an excellent adaptive response, though I hope you’d like the taste of penguin.

  25. The island of Pirallahi, Azerbaijan. At the very least, it’s really fun to say. ;)

  33. Oh Darn, just saw that Mr Briggs got there first with that particular guess….

  36. Both Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Nation begin with scenes near cliffs.

    You are thinking of the Grand Canyon.

  39. Oh crud, #7 beat me to my guess. You know what? I don’t WANT this book. I WANT to wait until May 10th. Yes. Yes I do.

    I’m taking my sunstones and going home…

  40. The 2000-year-old ancient fort in the sheep grazing fields near my cousin’s home in Penicuik, Scotland. (Presuming “no one lives there” means people. Should this include sheep, please feel free to disqualify me and send me a signed copy of Highlander 2 instead.)

  50. Mt Rainier, I don’t think anyone “lives” on it, just visits.
    Heck, you can’t even see it half the time.

  59. Kerguelen Island (in the Indian Ocean).

    Most of us could visit there, but it would be expensive and inconvenient.

  79. I think I may have misinterpreted rule #3. The Taj Mahal sits on the banks of the Yamuna River, but it is not a river or water feature, so I’m just sort of hoping I did rightly. I suspect that Chris used the same logic when he guessed the Golden Gate Bridge. Of course, if I guess wrong, it doesn’t matter anyway.

  92. If I can post this as a replacement (instead of as a double entry), then I’d change that to Iqualuit, Nunavut.

  97. Hadrian’s Wall!

    (Not my first three guesses, but as other people already guessed those… I’ll be excited if they win!)

  100. Darn, #42, you got me. So, I’ll try this:

    Gunnbjørn Fjeld Mountain in Greenland (tallest mountain), in the province of Ittoqqortoormiit.

    Oh well.

  101. So first I was going to pick Uluru/Ayers Rock, but lots of people beat me to it.

    Then I was going to guess an In-and-Out location in Southern California, but there are far too many of them.

    Therefore, my guess is: the Lascaux cave in southwestern France.

    Sublime, ridiculous, sublime.

  106. Piper Pass, Nunavut, Canada (in the very northern part of the Great White North). Seemed an appropriate place :-)

  110. The formerly lived n compound in which Osama bin Laden used to live Abbottabad, Pakistan.

  116. I was going to pick Yosemite National Park, but I know for a fact people live there.

    The big trees in Sequoia National Park.

  118. Probably way off the mark, but what the hell – nobody else will have guessed it. Is it Sable Island?

  119. Everyone beat me to my original guesses, stupid sleeping!
    Olduvai Gorge (I don’t think I saw that one above)

  126. The Very Large Array radio telescope site near Socorro, New Mexico.

    That is my guess because I finally got to visit it last weekend. I’ve wanted to see it for 30+ years, ever since I saw one of the dishes being built in my home town. If you are into science, it is a must-see site.

    And yes, they have a little display case about the movie CONTACT.

    Good luck on your guesses everyone!

  128. The South Pole? (I don’t know if it has a real name. And maybe scientists live there. But that’s my guess.)

  132. My first guesses were already taken,
    so I’m going with Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark.

  138. Darn, Mike @123….I wanted to guess that. (Although most Utahns just call it Delicate Arch, no “the” appended to the front.) And I thought about Sunset Crater but somebody upthread has Meteor Crater and I think they’re both part of the same national monument….so, alas.

    But after much searching, I see nobody has mentioned Waitomo’s glow worm caves in New Zealand. So I will make that my guess. :)

    …

    Also I cracked a grin at Susan’s guess of an In’N’Out in California. :)

  140. Mt. Whitney, highest point in the contiguous U.S. and not all that far from Bakersfield.

  145. The Delhi Pillar (a.k.a the Iron Pillar of Delhi, a.k.a the Ashoka Pillar) in Delhi, India.

  148. Yeah, no actual idea so what the heck … Disneyland, Anaheim, California

  163. You folks are way too clever! Took all of my guesses early on. But people do live in those national parks – rangers, care-takers, etc. So, I’m still thinking.

  168. The recently erupted Tungurahua volcano, Ecuador!

    Sorry if this is a repost, but I tried to post half an hour ago and I think I failed :)

  173. I bet you are thinking about your trip to Germany, specifically you think of the Hofbräuhaus in Munich.
    If not – good guesses, all of the others! Still, it might be everything!

  178. I’m going to go for Pir-e Sabz (Chak Chak). Little Fuzzy came from the planet Zarathrustra. Which is the Avestan version of the Greek name Zoroaster. Pir-e Sabz is the holiest shrine of Zoroastrianism.

    That’s bound to be an irrefutable chain of logic rather than a haphazard series of suppositions….

  186. Eyjafjallajökull — the volcano in Iceland that erupted last year.

  196. Yellowstone national park,

    Grand canyon would have been my first guess but that’s been taken.

  202. Scara Brae, neolithic stone village, Main Island, Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland

  203. Brimstone Head, Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada. It’s one of the four corners of the world, according to the Flat Earth Society. ^_^

  207. This is the first time I have ever googled Bradford, OH. You do live in a small community.

    My first thought was Devil’s Tower, but I see that #13 has beat me to it. I’ll go with Craters of the Moon National Monument in my ol’ homestate of Idaho, instead. Both have sufficiently sci-fi-y natures.

    Thank you for the links to the public domain works earlier.

  208. Hmm. I thought Uluru/Ayers Rock at first, only to find over a half dozen people already picked that. My next few guesses have also been picked. So I’ll go with Angkor Wat.

  216. Ben Reifel Visitor Center in the Badlands National Park, Interior, South Dakota.

  223. I skimmed, so I don’t know if this has been said before: Devil’s Tower.

  224. Nothing to lose from guessing, so I’ll take a stab at the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

  241. Sadams’ former bunker is far away…
    No one living there…anymore.
    Looks to be an arid location.
    And I suppose you could visit it with some effort!

  248. And now I see that three others beat me to to Petra, so I guess I will have to be content with getting a copy signed on May 17th in Seattle where John has promised us something special.

  254. Only in eighth grade,
    knowledge of the world is small,
    Petrified Forest?

    (National Park in Arizona.)

    Cool contest.

  255. It is not within 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of my home in Bradford, Ohio.

    Well heck, that rules out the site of the Big Butter Jesus.

    I guess I’ll go with Glastonbury Tor

  256. Only 11 yrs old. Just wanted to brag about that.
    I say its the soonest place due
    north and more than 1000 miles away
    from Bradford Ohio that is not on a body
    of water and that nobody lives on.
    ???????

  261. I’m going to guess the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

  269. Reading this, I had three guesses ready. Then I read the comments and all three went in the first six comments. Yikes.

    CERN

  271. Hang Song Doong (Mountain River Cave in english) in Vietnam. Believed to be the largest cave system on the planet.

  275. About seventy-‘leven people guessed my first choice, so what the heck: Vasquez Rocks near Santa Clarita, California. Because it’s within an hour’s drive of my fiancee’s apartment, and it’s where Kirk fought the Gorn!

  277. The empty lot, a 1,001 miles away from your home in Bradford, Ohio; where no one lives, because it wouldn’t be worth the effort.

  281. Salar de Uyuni or the Bolivian Salt Flats. Not sure if anyone else said that, but I’ve thought it was a cool place to go after seeing the WherethehellisMatt video.

  283. Cadillac Ranch, in Amarillo Texas – or whatever number this happens to be – I’m not choosy!

  288. Palisades Sill, Cimarron Canyon State Park, New Mexico…

    Lots of good guesses here :)

  303. Well apparently I don’t know enough places because everything I can think of is already said. So I’ll hope that the post-number tiebreaker kicks in and say the vacant lot on 2200 W in Taylorsville UT.

  304. This feels like the riddle “What kind of room has no windows or doors?”

    I’m going with The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ, where John will be appearing on May 28th at 5pm.

    I wouldn’t put it passed John to promote the book and the book tour simultaneously.

  305. All of my initial guesses were either within 1000 miles of Bradford, had people living there (albeit in very small numbers) or were guessed previously by others (Chaco Canyon, Machu Picchu, etc.). Of what is left, I’ll try Pike’s Peak in Colorado.

  307. The Allen Telescope Array, Hat Creek Radio Observatory, University of California Observatory, Hat Creek, Shasta County, California, USA.

  315. Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. No one lives there PERMANENTLY, right?

  317. Ground Zero, NYC

    Because I can’t be sure that nobody’s still living in that compound in Abbottabad.

  318. What I have thought of has already been guessed, so I’ll say The Cavern Club in LIverpool, England, and hope that the power of random guessing scores a book.

  320. I vote for Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Park, British Columbia. No one is permitted to live there by law but you can camp in it is you have proper camping gear, a vehicle to get you there, and the belief that you do not taste appetizing to bears and wolves.

  329. The Temple of Apollo at Delphi, where the Oracle of Delphi was based?

    I’m thinking Scalzi is trying to come up with some interesting vacation destinations, in addition to promoting the book.

  330. I’ll pick the fjords of Norway, as I’m a big fan of both Monty Python and Douglas Adams… (and my first pick, the Vasquez Rocks, was taken upthread already)

  334. How about the rock formation where they filmed the ending of Star Trek V (where “God” lived). It’s somewhere near China Lake, California in the Desert. Been there once but seriously doubt I could ever find it again.

  335. The original KFC in Corbin, KY.

    If I’m right I expect hand delivery at your Columbus tour stop and complimentary smile to go with our photo.

  346. I’m putting this in for the number, as odds are someone has guessed it already.

    My guess is the Bone House, in Halstatt Austria, cause it’s way cool.

    Was going to guess Statue of Liberty (too close), Niagra Falls (water feature), or stonehenge (chosen a half dozen times already).

    Good luck all, congrats to the winner, and thank you, Mr. Scalzi, gracious host, for one last scramble. :)

    -pp

  350. Keet Seel Canyon, Arizona; roughly midway between the trading posts Shonto and Kayenta. Vacated for centuries, IIANM it contains cliff dwellings formerly called home by Pueblo Indians and a strangely inverted climate (odd to find birch and willow amid miles and miles of flat-out desert). Access can be intermittent but feasible if you’re willing to do some wading.

    The local water is quite alkaline; don’t drink if you can possibly avoid doing so, and plan to shed a layer or two of skin if the wading is at all lengthy (which it frequently is).

  352. 1. I’m sad that you specified “on the planet.” Although you didn’t say which planet…
    2. Reading this thread was a great way to brush up on my geography
    3. A lot of people seem to like Ayers Rock/Uluru, a place I had never heard of until today
    4. Wow, I guess there aren’t as many unique notable locations in the world as I thought…I guess the Tower of London

  354. I wanted to choose the Allen Telescope Array, a part of the SETI program which has recently lost funding, but comment 307 beat me to it. Therefore, I choose

    The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, also known as Mission Control, in Houston, Texas.

  355. I’m going to have to go with Fern Canyon, in the Humboldt Redwoods. Only because my first 87 guesses were spoken for, and it’s next on my list of Places to Go.

  357. Eyjafjallajökull, also known as that volcano in Iceland that erupted but no one can pronounce the name of!

    ~Sharon

  361. Reichenbach Falls. (It’s a rock formation that happens to have water running over it, NOT a water feature. Also, everything else I guessed was either mentioned above and/or within 1,000 miles of Bradford.)

  371. The old Volkswagon Beetle graveyard in my backyard in Osan, South Korea? Punch Buggy . . . rusty orange!!

  376. I’ll bet you’re thinking of a glacier.
    I wouldn’t consider a glacier a water feature.
    Fox Glacier, New Zealand?

  379. Cheyenne Mountain? I looked, but I’m not clear on whether people actually live there or not.

  380. Karel Čapek’s grave, Vyšehrad cemetery, Prague, Czech Republic.

  382. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the place, so I’m hoping a description will suffice:

    The precise location is the graveyard in which John Perry’s wife Katy is buried.

  390. Very interestig way to pick your nrxt vacation spot!

    Mauritania – Eye of Africa

  396. It’s Mount Everest, of course.*

    *In the event that my “of course” is incorrect, I would like the answer retroactively changed to Mount Everest. Thank you.

  398. Devon Island, Baffin Bay, Nunavat, Canada– the world’s largest uninhabited Island.

  400. It’s also home to a neat crater, and where we test Mars landers since it’s one of the most mars-like places on earth– definitely a cool place for a Scifi author to be thinking of!

  402. “on a continental land mass”. Never mind. I can think of nothing that hasn’t been guessed already.

  404. Long’s Peak, Colorado.

    Why there? Cause I can see it out my window right now.

  405. Pretty sure I’m wrong, but….the St. Louis Arch….

    Here’s hoping for the luck of Athena. =P

  407. Devil’s Tower? It’s around 1200 miles from you, no one lives on it, and no one seems to have guessed it yet . . .

  408. Whoops. Someone had guessed it. I must have put a typo in the search box. Never mind.

WHATEVER


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Athena Scalzi, contributor – AMS
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