One thing I learned from hosting giveaways here is that people need words of encouragement. All the time. We get beaten down at times, don’t we? We hear negative thoughts, pissy comments, and other not helpful statements from folks that can make us feel like we’re just spinning our wheels for nothing. I try and let negative comments and rejections roll off my back, but hey, there are times when I swear I’m quitting this freelance thing and going back to corporate land. (I know, it’s just as bad there.)

To that end, however, I have a book to give away that I think you’ll really like. It’s Dr. Ian Smith’s Happy: Simple Steps to Get the Most Out of Life. You’ve seen Ian on Celebrity Fit Camp. He’s got no nonsense advice on getting in shape, which leads me to believe that his advice on happiness will be the same. No BS, helpful, and inspiring.

Here’s a description of the book from Amazon:

Happiness isn’t the too-brief rush that comes from getting something you’ve wanted—it’s the lasting great feeling that comes from becoming someone you want to be…..

And someone others want to be with, too. No matter where you start, Happy can help you improve your life and permanently alter your happiness set point.

Dr. Ian has inspired millions to lose weight. In counseling dieters, Smith learned that while achieving hard-fought and worthy goals can help make a person happy, even these real accomplishments aren’t what make happiness stick.

In Happy, Ian Smith presents a program that motivates readers to understand the behaviors and mind-sets that work and last, including:

–How to be optimistic

–Why optimism and realism are not opposites

–How to get outside yourself

–The importance of family and community

–Why involvement leads to contentment

–Shedding the treadmill mentality of getting and spending

–Tapping the power of simple pleasures

–Mastering modern life to live in the moment

–What we can learn from the Danish people

–How to be, not just to do

Happy is a life-changing book from one of America’s most trusted voices.

I like the first one in this list alone: How to be optimistic. It’s the first step in everything.

Want to win? Leave a comment on this post by Tuesday, November 30th. I’ll choose a winner at random and announce the lucky guy or gal the next day.

Other books on happiness you might like:

• Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out
• How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People–Their Secrets, Their Stories
• What Happy People Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Life for the Better

Additional Writing Resources:

• Make Money From Home – Real Jobs You Can Do by Telecommuting
• Reuse Your Articles by Creating New Content
• How to Write Your Own Ebook in 7 Days
• Freelance Writing Jobs

I’ve got the best possible gift for any Mad Men fan: Sterling’s Gold: Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man. Details on the giveaway are below, but first, here is my review.

I was thrilled to get Sterling’s Gold: Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man because like many TV viewers, I’m a big fan of Mad Men. I wasn’t sure what “story” Roger Sterling was really going to tell. On the show, we hear him making notes into a recorder about his life, but it’s really Sterling’s great one-liners that endear him to us. He’s got the best lines, and always delivered at just the right time.

Well imagine getting those lines back-to-back? It would make you feel as if Sterling was in the room, smoking away and making you giggle, take pause, and shake your head at the incorrigible-ness he projects. We love Roger because he says the things we didn’t think to say, at a time when we would never dream of saying it out loud.

One thing I appreciated about this book is that in delivering Sterling’s story this way (rather than a straight autobiography) was that it gives you Sterling’s essence much more completely than a longer, more traditional book. Kudos to the writers!

This book is filled with great one liners like “The day you sign a client is the day you start losing him,” “Being with a client is like being in a marriage. Sometimes you get into it for the wrong reasons, and eventually they hit you in the face,” and “When God closes a door, he opens a dress.” The book is divided into sections on business, marriage, life, his coworkers, and more. It has pictures from the show at the start of each section, which make it that much more of a fabulous gift for Mad Men fans. The book is short and will take you no more than fifteen minutes to read. And guess what? You will enjoy every single minute.

Thanks to Grove Press for the review copy.

Want to win Sterling’s Gold? Leave a comment on this post by Monday, November 29th. (We’ve got a longer contest this time since the Thanksgiving holiday will be coming up.) I’ll choose the winner on November 30th and announce the lucky guy or gal the next day. Good luck!

Additional Writing Resources:

• Make Money From Home – Real Jobs You Can Do by Telecommuting
• How to Write Your Own Ebook in 7 Days
• Freelance Writing Jobs

Book provided by publisher.

I was really intrigued by the book Literary Feasts: Inspired Eating from Classic Fiction. It’s about the great literature and great food. So if you love to eat and read, this one is for you.

Here’s a description of the book from Amazon:

Our busy twenty-first-century lifestyle doesn’t allow much time for us to enjoy the pleasures of a good meal. Literary Feasts aims to change that by restoring readers’ desires to eat, drink, and be merry.

While Leopold Bloom fortified himself for his rambles through Dublin with a hearty breakfast of grilled kidneys with pepper, thinly sliced bread and butter, and a large pot of tea, James Bond started his days off with a half pint of chilled OJ, three scrambled eggs, two cups of black coffee, and a pack of Chesterfields. The lucky revelers invited to Jay Gatsby’s mansion feasted on baked hams, pastry pigs, and turkeys bewitched to dark gold, all washed down with champagne served in glasses the size of finger bowls. And of course P. G. Wodehouse made sure that Bertie Wooster always dined in style. The eating scenes gathered here — drawn from the works of Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Chekhov, Christina Rossetti, Louisa May Alcott, Shakespeare, and many other great writers — will inspire even the most jaded of palates. Literary Feasts includes a bounty of practical ideas, too, on how readers can dress up, prepare the food themselves, and make truly memorable occasions. Literary Feasts is perfect for book lovers who live to eat.

To enter, leave a comment on this post by Thursday, May 20th. I’ll choose a winner at random and announce the lucky guy or gal the next day.

Good luck!

We love the writing style and passion of Evie Wyld. She’s written a lovely book called After the Fire, a Still Small Voice: A Novel, and if you haven’t read it yet, you’re in luck! We’re giving it away here at Working Writers!

Here’s a description from Amazon:

Set in the haunting landscape of eastern Australia, this is a stunningly accomplished debut novel about the inescapable past: the ineffable ties of family, the wars fought by fathers and sons, and what goes unsaid.

After the departure of the woman he loves, Frank drives out to a shack by the ocean that he had last visited as a teenager. There, among the sugarcane and sand dunes, he struggles to rebuild his life.

Forty years earlier, Leon is growing up in Sydney, turning out treacle tarts at his parents’ bakery and flirting with one of the local girls. But when he’s drafted to serve in Vietnam, he finds himself suddenly confronting the same experiences that haunt his war-veteran father.

As these two stories weave around each other–each narrated in a voice as tender as it is fierce–we learn what binds Frank and Leon together, and what may end up keeping them apart.

To win, leave a comment by Monday, May 3rd. I’ll choose a winner at random and announce the lucky guy or gal the next day.

What a great gift for Mom for Mother’s Day. I’ve got a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom: 101 Stories of Gratitude, Love and Good Times to give away to one lucky reader.

To enter, leave a comment on this post by Thursday, April 15th. I”ll choose a winner at random and announce the lucky guy or gal the next day.

Image: Amazon

I’ve got a fabulous book to give away to one lucky reader, and that is Jennifer Weiner’s Best Friends Forever. Here’s a description of the book from Amazon.

Chick lit doyenne Weiner offers airtight proof that the genre thrives with this clever, sad and sweet turn on Thelma and Louise–style rage. Juggling the politics of broken families, heartbreaking betrayal and shaky self-esteem, two girlhood pals—ugly duckling Addie and wounded beauty Valerie—reconnect after their high school reunion, where Valerie exacts a long-in-coming revenge on smug former beau Dan Swansea. But the payback gets more complicated when police chief Jordan Novick, nursing a broken heart and a crush-at-first-sight with Addie, is called in to investigate Dan’s disappearance. Along the way, Val and Addie stage what may be the funniest not-quite-heist ever pulled off as they evade the heat over the missing Dan. The big payoff, of course, is that Addie and Valerie mend the mean-girls misunderstanding that drove them apart as teens and discover the shared pain and loss that bound them as kids and, once again, as adults. This beach read will win readers over with its wit and wisdom.

I also found a quick interview with author Jennifer Weiner about the writing of her book:

To enter, leave a comment on this post by Sunday, March 14th. I’ll choose a winner at random and announce the lucky guy or gal the next day.

I know there are a lot of NASCAR fans out there, and I’ve got a special gift you are sure to love. It’s Chicken Soup for the Soul NASCAR, which has 101 stories of family, fortitude, and fast cars. Here’s a description from Amazon:

Get behind the driver’s seat with these personal tales and anecdotes from inside the race track. Famous drivers and their families, pit crews, and fans share their stories of perseverance, triumph, comebacks, and life on and off the track.

Includes stories by the following NASCAR drivers:

• Aric Almirola
• Buddy Baker
• Kurt Busch
• Kerry Earnhardt
• Jimmie Johnson
• Bobby Labonte
• Joey Logano
• Casey Mears
• Ryan Newman
• Mike Skinner
• Scott Speed
• Tony Stewart
• Martin Truex Jr.
• Brian Vickers
• Darrell Waltrip
• Michael Waltrip
• NASCAR CEO Brian France
• Former NBA player and now NASCAR broadcaster: Brad Dougherty
• Lt. Governor of South Carolina Andre Bauer

With many more to come, including more of the biggest names in the NASCAR world.

To enter, leave a comment on this post by Thursday, March 11th. I’ll choose a winner at random and announce the lucky guy or gal the next day.

I have another great Chicken Soup for the Soul book to giveaway. This time it’s about love, and isn’t that the most perfect subject this time of year? This “true love” edition has “101 heartwarming and humorous stories about dating, romance, love, and marriage.” Heartwarming stories are something we all could use a little bit more of.

Here’s a description from Amazon:

Everyone loves a good love story. And we all love stories about how the love started and blossomed. This fun new book about dating, romance, love, and marriage, will make you laugh and make you cry, and is guaranteed to inspire you to renew that search for your soul mate or open your heart a little more to the one you already have. Read about how couples met, when “they knew”, good and bad dates, proposals, maintaining the relationship, second chances, and all the other ups and downs of love, romance and marriage.

To enter, leave a comment on this post by Monday, March 1st. I’ll choose a winner at random and announce the lucky guy or gal the next day. Good luck!

Who doesn’t love the Chicken Soup for the Soul books? Seriously, they provide a smile on those days when you really need it. I’ve got the Chicken Soup for the Soul Teacher Tales to giveaway. The book has 101 inspirational stories from great teachers and appreciative students. Here’s a description from Amazon:

This is a great gift for new and experienced teachers, providing them a morale boost and the knowledge they are appreciated. The teaching industry has embraced this book, and more than half the stories are from “celebrity” teachers, including all of the 2009 State Teachers of the Year and the 2009 National Teacher of the Year. There is a lot of buzz about this book in the teaching industry and those teachers who don’t receive it as a gift are sure to buy it for themselves, to read these 101 true stories by great teachers and appreciative students, with lots of laughs, poignant moments, and some tears too.

To enter, leave a comment on this post by Thursday, February 25th. I’ll choose a winner at random and announce the lucky guy or girl the next day. Good luck!

Anyone out there a Barbara Kingsolver fan? If so, I’ve got a copy of her latest, The Lacuna, to give away to one lucky reader.

To win, please leave a comment on this post by Wednesday, February 17th. I’ll choose one winner at random and announce the lucky guy or gal the next day.