HOLIDAY READATHON CHALLENGE & PRIZE PACK!

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS CLOSED, BUT THESE HIGHLY IMAGINATIVE ENTRIES ARE WELL WORTH READING! ENJOY, AND THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED HERE, ON FACEBOOK, AND ON TWITTER!

It’s that time of year again, the Holiday Readathon hosted by Whorublog, from Dec. 7-9th and featuring lots of cool prizes!

WHAT IF…

…you could be Lizzie Bennet’s BFF? Explore the spring flowers of Avonlea with Anne Shirley? Or invite Jo March and her family to Christmas dinner?

But that would mean that your favorite characters are real. (And who said they aren’t? You did read the Velveteen Rabbit, didn’t you?)

Imagine how cool it would be to merge your world with theirs and have some serious friend time together…

So, tell me:

Which of your favorite characters would you love to have as a friend, and how would you spend your time together?

Answer in the form of a comment below, or on Twitter or Facebook, for a chance to win!

THE PRIZE PACK:

Two winners will receive this prize pack: a signed two-book set of my Austen Addict novels, CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT and RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, PLUS a signed copy of JANE AUSTEN MADE ME DO IT, which includes my short story INTOLERABLE STUPIDITY, in which fictional characters are not only real, they will see you in court! :)

OFFICIAL DATES ARE DEC. 7-9, BUT FEEL FREE TO ENTER EARLY.
Open to US, Canada, and UK. Ends Sunday, Dec. 9 at midnight PST.

FOR MORE CHANCES TO WIN :

Tweet this post @austen_addict.

Share this post on Facebook and let me know.

Reblog this post.

AND DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE HOLIDAY READATHON FOR A CHANCE AT MORE PRIZES:

EVERYONE who signs up for the Holiday Readathon on Mr. Linky at Whorublog,  no matter how much or how little they read, will be automatically entered to choose two signed books from BOOKS OF WONDER or a $40 gift certificate from THE BOOK DEPOSITORY, if out of the US.

Twitter Party!!!

#Readathon. Sunday night, Dec. 9th, from 9-10 PM EST.

Comments

[Laurie Viera Rigler]

Thank YOU, Liza, for generous spirit in hosting and making this all happen! I was honored to participate. And yes, aren't these answers amazing?

[LizaWiemer]

Laurie, thank you so much for your awesome giveaway and for all your help in promoting our fabulous Holiday #Readathon. The answers you received this year were fabulous. Loved reading them and thank you for participating in the Twitter Party too. Looking forward to next year. Whoever was your prize is very fortunate! :D

[Laurie Viera Rigler]

Comments are closed, and winners have been drawn....drumroll... Congratulations to Margery (BFF Anne Eliot) and SJSchmit (bestie Jo March)!!! I am so grateful for everyone's participation and thoughtful, imaginative answers. Wishing you all a magical, joyful holiday season with your favorite characters and a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

[Carla Washburn]

Stephen Maturin from the Aubrey/Maturin seafaring novels, by Patrick O'Brian, was always a most real character for me who I loved to imagine having as a friend. Stephen was a physician and a naturalist. When I was reading those books, I had many imaginary conversations with him. I wanted to be able to tell him about medical advances in the future. I know that might screw up the space/time continuum but he was such a fascinating character and so intelligent that I thought it would be okay. After all, he was also a spy.

[Courtney]

Many people may say the same but I have always felt a kinship with Elizabeth Bennett. Both of us seem to go deep inside to do our thinking. We internalize and yet still in many ways yearn for the externalizing socializing and dare I say it love. However pride and a need to be respected make us hold many at length. It may take a bit to get our confidence but once gotten our loyalty is bound.

[Despina]

I would love to be friends with Captain Wentworth. He is my favorite literary hero across the board. I would love to have tea (or a beer) with him and discuss his Napoleonic adventures. And then his lovely wife, dear Anne, would pop into the library to tell us that we must join her for a walk. And the three of us would take a turn about the gardens. Then we'd all go out for pizza and a movie. PS. I love reading all the answers. Everyone is so creative and fun.

[Betsy Kaplan]

My fictional character would be from NAMESAKE. I'd want to be friends with the MC's mother Ashima Ganguli. I'd hang out with while she cooks her awesome Indian food and learn how to make her favorite dishes!
Thanks, Laurie

[Bess Gilmartin]

It'd have to be Menolly from DragonSong by Anne McCaffrey. I'm hoping she'll let me borrow her blue harper boots!

[simonetta ballali]

I'd love to meet and spend time with the Fox fomicidio the Little Prince,to learn and understand the beauty to be tamed and surrender to love and friendship .

[Laurie Viera Rigler]

"green card for the Shire": LOL, Caroline! And Deb, great to see you again, too! I am so moved and so delighted by everyone's answers. So much imagination and passion, which tells me that we all know the big secret of our most favorite fictional characters: they are not fictional at all... :)))

[Laurie Viera Rigler]

I am loving all these answers! Thanks, everyone! I have another character my inner teen would love to be friends with: John from THE JOURNEYS OF JOHN AND JULIA. He's so smart and sweet and so refreshingly honest. And totally cute!

[Heather M]

When I was a child, I wanted to play with Anne Shirley because she as always so much better at imagining that I was. Now, I'd want to spend the day after a big party talking with Elizabeth Bennet. She'd have some funny and astute observations about all the antics from the night before.

[Ems]

I just started reading Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict!

I would love to hang out with Eowyn from The Two Towers. I feel like she'd have so many stories to tell, and so much to teach me.

[Stephanie]

I would love traipse around Egypt with Amelia Peabody. I'd help her wash the donkeys, and of course we would take a break for cucumber sandwiches when it got too hot to work. I would just cross my fingers that it wasn't a day with gun-wielding criminals or unexpected corpses.

[SJSchmitt]

I could definately see myself being besties with Jo March. In between all-night writing sessions, we would set the world on it's ear with our progressive ideas about everything! Oh, yeah, I can see it now!

[Kai Charles]

I would love to would love to take a walk in the garden with Jane and Lizzie and possibly dry flowers together :)

[Stacey]

I would go horseback riding with Jane Bennett!

[Margery]

I would love to be friends with Anne Eliot. She reads books and can talk about them thoughtfully and intelligently. She is content to sit quietly and talk with one person while the rest of the room is abuzz in a larger conversational circle. But then she will probably sail with Frederick and might not be on land much!

[Anda Alexandra]

I believe that if I would be living in their time I would be a combination of Elizabeth Bennett and Anne Elliot depending on the moods that I would have :D So I would definetely love to go out and have a mash-up word fight with Mr. Darcy and beat him at his own game :)

I would also love to have a tea- talk with Jane Austen herself. I think she was a remarcable woman for her times!

P.S. Thank you for this chance Laurie :) Cheers!

[Linda Calderone]

I would love to befriend Anne Elliot and Lizzie Bennet. I think they both would be great friends in different ways!!

[Bree]

I'd love to act out Jo's stories with the March sisters.

[Caroline Christian]

Oh, imagine hanging out with Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth.

My friends would tell you I should have a green card for
for The Shire (JRR Tolkien) and Prydain (Lloyd Alexander)

Tea with Mma Ramotswa would be a treat.

Oh dear - I could go on for quite a list.
O have more in common with Catherine Moreland than I thought

[Ashley @ Wholly Books]

Jo March and Lizzie are two people I would definitely love to be friends. Also, I would love to be friends with Meghan Chase from The Iron Fey series. She is one of my absolute favorite characters! I would love exploring the NeverNever with her!

[Deb]

Wow...another year gone by? Nice to see you again! My character I would hang with is Anne of Green Gables and I am thinking we need to go river canoeing in the mountains and pretend we are explorers! Awesome challenge!

[Laurie Viera Rigler]

Thanks, Kirsten and Natalie, I love your answers! An Anne & Diana tea party would be so lovely, as would drinking bush tea with Precious while solving crimes. :) And thank you, Liza, for hosting the Holiday Readathon!

[LizaWiemer]

Laurie, thank you for another great mini-challenge and outstanding giveaway! Your winner will be so lucky! I <3 your books! Happy reading! You're the best! Liza

[Kirsten]

I would love to spend a day working in Botswana at the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency with Precious Ramotswe!

[Natalie]

My inner child still wants to be invited to an Anne & Diana tea party (well, not the one where she got drunk...)#anneofgreengables

[Laurie Viera Rigler]

Sorry if anyone tried to leave a comment today, Dec. 6, and couldn't: The problem is fixed (and thanks for your entries on FB and Twitter, too)! So I will take this opportunity to say that aside from Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, with whom I'd love to just sit in a cafe and people watch and make up stories about everyone in it, I also adore Kiki from Zadie Smith's amazing novel On Beauty. I felt like she WAS a friend, and I was so sad to say goodbye at the end of the novel! I'd love to dish with her and people watch just about anywhere.