I've been running this weekly competition on my Facebook fan page all year, and it'll run into 2012. Most weeks all year I've been giving away three of my trilogies and quartets, signed, except for breaks where I've given away two iPad 2s.
Total number of my books won so far:
362.
To enter this week’s comp, go here,
http://www.facebook.com/ianirvine.author, Like my page then enter from the Promos tab.
Lately I've been giving away 3 copies of the Aussie trade paperback edition of my brand new book,
Vengeance, each week.
WEEK 34 QUESTION – You’ve just become an evil overlord. What do you do first? The cleverest, funniest, most moving or wittiest entries win. No knowledge of my books needed.
THERE ARE THREE FIRST PRIZES – each a copy of my latest book,
Vengeance, signed.
There were 77 entries this week.
Winners
1st, Jason Stevens, 2nd, Sue Knight, 3rd, Patrick Chaffin.
Honourable Mentions (get 3 HMs and you also win).
Victoria Proctor, Nick Fisher, Esther Walls, Jon O’Mara Yuen Harrison, Danny Charles Daines.
Here's the winning entry, with Jason's permission. Thanks, Jason.
Well, I suppose that would largely depend on HOW I became an evil overlord, the last option of which would be the most dramatic.
If I had supplanted a prior overlord, my first act would be to examine whatever security the previous ruler had in place and test the loyalty of his or her remaining minions. Once I'd identified weaknesses, then I would set to work resolving those and putting additional measures in place (after all, if I caused their downfall, someone could do the same to me if I didn't change the security at all).
If, however, there had been no previous evil ruler, then the METHOD by which I became the overlord would matter. If it was through political maneuvering and the simple assassination of a benevolent ruler, then I would need to act quickly. Thankfully in that situation I would have been planning my coup in advance so I would know exactly what I would need in order to ensure the populace would have little chance of resisting me. I'd create a number of magical wards for my main fortress and also for myself any time I might be exposed, then set to work creating an army of vicious and cruel hybrid creatures immune to all known types of magic with a cunning intellect and a hard-coded 'religion' that kept them loyal. (Being an evil overlord, I would essentially have to create the means for my own demise, albeit unwittingly).
The other scenario in which I could become an evil overlord would be one in which there is either no political maneuvering to do, or I lacked the requisite connections to do so. In that scenario, I would have hunted down a legendary magical artifact and in activating it created a worldwide cataclysm that eliminated a very large portion of the world's inhabitants and made very few regions hospitable for life, thereby leaving survival as the primary focus in their lives as opposed to resistance. My first act in this scenario would be more open, as I would have a considerable amount of time to solidify my control of the world as people would be focused on rebuilding and surviving. My first step in this last scenario, would be to send my minions that I had selected to survive with me in chamber of activation out to the most populous cities of the world with instructions to advise of their new ruler, each having the authorization to make an example of any residents that resist. This example making would be a very public torture, consisting of physical, mental, and magical elements. The magical element of the torture would be twofold: one to heal the physical wounds inflicted so as to avoid the death of the subject, and the second would be a form of torture that manipulated the innate magical essence of the subject, definitely causing pain and very likely mutations of multiple kinds as well. Sufficiently cowed by this first act and looking to survive, I would then have plenty of time to establish a base and lay down the foundation for an unbreakable empire.
The complete list of winners for 2011 can be found here:
http://www.ian-irvine.com/winners.html
For more about me and my books:
http://www.ian-irvine.com/
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http://www.facebook.com/ianirvine.author
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http://twitter.com/#!/ianirvineauthor
My blog about the novels I write, and the writing life:
http://ian-irvine.blogspot.com/
