Fri 11 Jun 2010
#MyDeathday
Posted by Chris under Announcements/Agency Biz, Books We Love
[23] Comments
To help count down to the release of Shaun Hutchinson’s The Deathday Letter, today we’re running a little contest on here, Facebook, and Twitter.
The Deathday Letter takes place in a world much like our own: the one difference? In this world, you receive a letter the day before you kick the bucket letting you know your croakage is happening within 24 hours whether you like it or not. When teenage Oliver receives his deathday letter, he embarks on an epic and hilarious last day full of risks, best friends, and pudding. Yep. Pudding. As the clock ticks down and Oliver’s staring the reaper in his surprisingly pretty blue eyes, he realizes it’s his last chance to make his mark, however small, on the people around him.
Sounds awesome, right? It is! So here’s the question I pose to you: What would your teenage self have done with 24 hours left to live? Stood up to the bully? Finally tried foie gras? 24-hour laser tag session?
Leave your answer in a comment (please limit to one sentence or less) or tweet your answer using the #MyDeathday tag. Everyone who participates before 5 PM EST on Monday, June 14th will have their names entered to win a signed copy of The Deathday Letter.
Be sure to check out Shaun’s blog for other chances to win copies, news about the book, and a special surprise video coming soon of Shaun doing something crazy as his #MyDeathday moment. And if you want to buy the book, it hits stores June 15th!
June 11th, 2010 at 7:44 am
I would have marched right up to the guy I was crushing on and asked him to spend the day riding horses and eating Cinnabons with me. If he had said no, I would have punched him, just so I would know what it felt like to punch someone, and then I would have imagined a John Hughes-esque slow clap.
June 11th, 2010 at 9:16 am
I wasn’t a very exciting teenager; I probably would have just shut myself up in my room with my cat and a good book and gone out quietly.
June 11th, 2010 at 9:30 am
High school me would have played Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time from beginning to end and finally beat it. Yes, can we say nerd? But that’s something I would’ve wanted to do. Of course, I’d want my family nearby, but they’d have to talk to me while Link shot arrows and sword-fought.
June 11th, 2010 at 9:45 am
I would have taken my dad’s truck (probably blasting Eddie Vedder or Glenn Miller, depending on the mood) to The Country Store for a giant bag of mixed candies, picked up a few orders of fried cheese curds from The Honey Bear, a couple gallons of 1919 rootbeer from Spang’s and invited my friends over for an Esther Williams movie marathon. Part of me would have wanted to knock a few heads together over at the high school, but I wouldn’t have thought it was worth the time.
June 11th, 2010 at 9:51 am
I’m sorta boring too. I probably would have organized the biggest pick up soccer game, played until I couldn’t move and then I would have gone to DQ to eat an entire ice cream cake by myself.
(Sounds like a great book!)
June 11th, 2010 at 10:15 am
My longer answer, aside from the crushing the dreams of the bourgeois, would have included: playing Street Fighter 2, Turbo Edition; trying to (at least) make out with some girls (what do you want? I was a high school boy!); spending time with my family; and eating my way through several pizzas. With bacon.
June 11th, 2010 at 11:22 am
The teenage me chose not to do a lot of things out of two fears: of rejection and failure. If I were to have received the letter, I would sit down and put down on paper, the design of my dream house, complete with everything in the interior (”you can’t be an architect and an interior designer”), told my supposed best friend that friendship wasn’t a one way street with me being there just to bolster her sense of self, and then told all the people I liked/admired but had been too shy to say so, including the gorgeous boy. Then I’d probably lie down and put my favorite music on: Dvorak, Brahms, Debussy, Chicago, Bay City Rollers. (yes, Bay City Rollers, so sue me.)
June 11th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
I was obsessed even then. I would have been writing like mad on my current scifi wip just so I could go out saying I had written a book.
June 11th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
High school me would have followed Springsteen on tour (making sure my 24 hours caught 2 shows) while eating anything I wanted.
June 11th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Confronted the bad boy from the rival high school who was always trying to run my cousins and me out of “his” town when we were driving the loop (Yep, just dated myself there!)to ask him why he picked on us.
June 11th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
I would not have been so afraid to live and I would have done everything from jumping up on stage to pulling all the best pranks I dreamed up to telling the people I cared about just how much they meant to me.
June 12th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Well as I’m still a teen, I would:
Throw a pie in someone’s face. I’ve always wanted to do that haha
And stuff my face with my favorite foods
=)
June 13th, 2010 at 9:32 am
I would have probably whined, pouted and cried. As a teenager I was a bit of an emotional wreck. There was a boy who was a friend (and very very troubled) who I thought I was in love with. I probably would have told him, got my first kissed and continue to whine/pout/cry.
June 13th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
I would have blown my never ending diet by eating all 31 flavors of Baskin Robbins ice cream. Yes even the nasty rum rasin that my grandma liked. Then I would have watched Gone With the Wind with my cat. And at the exact moment when Scarlet says “After all tomorrow is another day,” well…
June 13th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
I would have called my boyfriends (the one I was banned from seeing) and told him to pick me up on his motorcycle, and we would have driven off into the sunset. Then I would feel bad about leaving my parents and ask to be taken home. My mother would be so relieved that I didn’t die without saying goodbye, that we would spend the rest of the day talking on her bed without fighting.
June 13th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Pretty boring, but I’d eat a lot of ice cream sundaes(preferably BR’s mandarin chocolate fudge), watch Roman Holiday, read Anne of Green Gables, go hiking with my dogs in the mountains or at the beach, and hang out with friends. Which is pretty much what I’d do today too, 30-plus years later, except I’d want to be with my family in addition to friends.
June 14th, 2010 at 2:10 am
I would have kissed the Jack–no, not the magic maker, giant-slayer, but the Jack who was the high school basketball star I found overwhelmingly gorgeous. (Every girl should get a jock once in her life!) On discovering that he wasn’t a particularly good kisser, I would have looked for Paul instead–short, pitted skin, brilliant, and gotten my first slow, deep, satisfying tongue kiss and ridden off into the sunset with him. My sun setting, not his. HE would have mourned me forever.
Me–a romantic? Hah!
Jane
June 14th, 2010 at 10:56 am
I would’ve dumped my then-boyfriend and kissed as many boys as I could get away with. It’s possible I *may* have been a bit boy-crazy back in the day.
June 14th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
I would have run to the school office and made an announcement that if anyone wanted to meet me at the beach, that’s where I’d be. From there, I would have procured lots of key lime pie, said screw the sunscreen, listened to music and laughed with my friends until the sun went down. I’d probably feel a little guilty about not inviting my parents, but they would have been crying too much anyway.
Can’t wait to read the book — congrats on the release!!
June 14th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
To be honest, I probably would have tried to get one last make-out session with my hottie, and then sat with my family for the rest of my remaining hours, and just feel loved.
June 14th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
I would hop on a jet plane and hit the nearest Paul McCartney concert with my family and request a special rendition of YESTERDAY.
*sniffle*
June 14th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
I think I would have kept it to myself – rather enjoying the secrecy. Then I would have holed up in my room with a big box of donuts and a good book. After a few hours, I would have tried to have made up with my ever annoying brother and tell the rest of my family I loved them. Later on, I would get a little chicken and tell my best friend about the next day’s feature event. Then she would tell my family and I would be surrounded with the drama I wanted to avoid.
June 19th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
I know it’s after the 14th, but I have an answer, so I want to put it down. I would have spent the morning writing letters to all of my loved ones, my afternoon with my horses, cats, and dogs, and my evening with my family.