COME AWAY WITH ME Bucket List Contest

Author Karma Brown's first novel, Come Away With Me, will be published August 25th, 2015 by Mira Books. I'll be reviewing this book on August 27th but wanted to share with you all the incredible contest the author has going on right now!

Here is all the information you need, from Mira Books' website bookclubbish.com:

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A note from Karma Brown, author of COME AWAY WITH ME…


The summer after I turned 17 I boarded a plane for Thunder Bay, and Outward Bound – a wilderness survival school that makes regular camping look like a 5-star hotel stay. Armed with a small backpack into which I stuffed one extra set of clothes and a sleeping bag, we headed into the wilderness for 30 days of canoeing and backpacking. We spent 14 hours each day on the water, reading lake maps and growing our paddling muscles. We bushwhacked trails. Rock climbed. White-water kayaked. We dug latrines, cooked over the fire, ate too many sardines and peanuts (I still can’t eat either). It was like nothing I’d ever done; it’s like nothing I’ve done since.

But it was what we did on our last day at camp that truly changed my life: I wrote myself a letter. In the letter I listed achievements I was proud of, along with what I hoped to accomplish over the 365 days. Then I sealed it, and promptly forgot about it.

A year later it arrived in my mailbox, and I saw how many items on my “hope to achieve” list I’d actually accomplished — without doing anything more than writing them down. That moment changed how I thought about my future: goals don’t happen without planning. Write it down, make it real. So I started my “bucket” list, and have been adding to it and crossing things off ever since.

In COME AWAY WITH ME, Tegan and Gabe have a list of experiences they keep in the “Jar of Spontaneity” – which was inspired by a real life jar my husband and I have. All three of their experiences in the book – Elephants painting in Thailand, Cooking Class in Italy, Learn to surf in Hawaii – came from my actual list, which has now grown to about 120 items. And on August 25th, when my novel hits shelves, I’ll finally get to put a checkmark beside item #34 (Write, and publish, a novel) …


Now it’s your turn. Post your top ten bucket list experiences on your blog for a chance to win one of them! (Up to $5,000 value).

 

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So here is my Top 10 Bucket List (in no particular order):

 

 

1. Take a trip to Italy with my husband (maybe even visit where his maternal family comes from!).

 

2. Take my son on his first plane ride.

 

3. Take a road trip to the Grand Canyon, stopping at interesting/strange sites along the way.

 

4. Open my own indie or second-hand bookstore.

 

5. Read through my entire collection of books (I'm not sure if this is possible but I can try :)!).

 

6. Travel to the best bookstores around the world.

 

7. Go to BEA America.

 

8. Go to the Historical Novel Society Conference.

 

9. Learn how to sew.

 

10. Travel to London and take tours of all the historic landmarks.

 

 

 

Clearly my list has a lot to do with traveling! What about you guys?  What's on your bucket list? Good luck to everyone who enters the contest....I know I have my fingers crossed!