Saturday, August 07, 2004

The 4400 Marathon/Big Secret Surprise Contest

As part of my continuing effort to get people to watch the good shows on television (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Dead Zone, Roswell, etc.), I bring you The 4400. It's an awesome new show on USA. The premise is actually pretty simple. One day, 4400 people who have been "abducted" or disappeared, as they call it, over the past 60 years suddenly reappear by a lake in Washington state. Their mode of transport? A big ball of light. Weird enough, right? Only here's the other thing -- none of them have aged a day and they don't have any memories of their missing years. The series follows the investigations of two partners in the Homeland Security Division assigned to this case. The guy, Tom, has a son who's been in a coma since the night Tom's nephew disappeared. Of course, Tom's nephew is now among the returned, but he doesn't remember what happened to cause Tom's son to fall into a coma. The woman partner, whose name I cannot remember right now, forms an attachment with a little girl, Maia, who disappeared in 1946 and is now back. She's still eight but her parents and all the people she knew are dead.

The other strange thing is that the returnees seem to have special gifts, ones that they didn't have before they left. And as our intrepid investigators...well, investigate, they find that there seems to be something larger going on with each incident involving the 4400.

The reason I bring this up is that tomorrow on USA at 3:00 p.m. central time, they will be running a marathon of The 4400, all 6 episodes, including the series finale, in a row. Rumor has it that they may be considering making it a full-fledged series, if it does well enough. So, try it out, see if you like it!

If nothing else, it's interesting to see the repercussions of people returning after basically being considered dead. Spouses have remarried, children have grown up, younger siblings have now caught up in age. And, you know me, so, of course, there is a love story going on that looks rife with conflict. But I won't say anymore, lest I spoil any of the episodes that will air tomorrow!

Big Secret Surprise Contest
All right, so here's the deal : ) When you get a book published, the author gets what's called an ARC - Advanced Reading Copy, I believe. It's the entire book in its edited form, usually in ebook form or as a printed copy. But it doesn't look like a book just yet. It's bound with the cover but it doesn't have the finished look yet. These are sort of considered collector's items in a way because there are so few of them. They're usually given to reviewers and other authors for blurbs. I have one ARC left for The Silver Spoon, and I got permission from my publisher to give it away as a prize for a contest! Basically what this means is that if you win, you'll get a copy of the book before it's even published or available for sale.

So, if you're interested, send me an email (sklemstein@msn.com) with your name and snail mail address by Saturday, August 14. Your information will only be used to send you the ARC. A winner will be randomly chosen from all the entries I receive. I'll announce the winner in this blog on Sunday, August 15, the same day that Chapter Three will be posted. So, someone won't have to wait until September 1 to find out what happens in Chapter Four and beyond!

Send your entries to sklemstein@msn.com and watch for your name on Sunday, August 15!

Talk to you Monday!

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