Shawntelle Madison’s Top 10 Things She’d Hoard/Collect & Giveaway of Coveted (ends 11/04/12)
I’m pleased to welcome author Shawntelle Madison to the blog today. Shawntelle’s debut paranormal romance novel, Coveted, featuring a hoarding heroine, is released April 24th by Ballantine Books. Please give her a warm welcome.
The heroine in my book, Coveted, collects holiday ornaments. She fills up boxes of her treasures and stacks them along the walls of her home. I don’t have the same interests as Nat—I do have plenty of Christmas decorations, but I sure have ten other things I’d love to collect in my home.
1. Gold - Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but have you seen a bar of gold? Held that heavy bar of happiness in your hand? I think I’d stack up the gold along the walls and tell the kids to pretend it’s a brand new type of wallpaper. I could even melt a few bars to make silverware for the house. Or should I say goldware…
2. Books - Books, glorious books! There’s just something about getting lost in an author’s book or connecting with an interesting character. Yes, they could have been number one, but books cannot be made into silverware and they can’t be made into rings – not in a good way anyway.
The nice thing about e-readers like the Kindle is now I can have as many books as I want! I can store hundreds of books on one little device and even easy switch them between devices. (Depending on the book anyway.)
3. Gasoline - Have you seen the price of gas lately? The number hasn’t gone down. At all.
4. Chocolate - Chocolate actually lasts a lot longer than people would imagine. I see nothing wrong with a year’s supply in hand just in case the world goes crazy, zombies go on a rampage, and I have to hide away in my basement. With all the chocolate.
5. Money - Hiding money under your bed is so cliché. I say go techie and just hide it in Paypal or some other online money account. Why risk a fire or some other calamity in your home? And there’s nothing like gazing at your computer screen and imagining how you’ll spend that measly 13.50 you’ve saved up so far.
6. Shoes - There’s just something about a drop down gorgeous pair of shoes. Especially when it goes with the perfect outfit. I think it shouldn’t matter that thirty or more other pairs of shoes have the same effect. Do you?
7. Electronics - I love gadgets. I love smartphones, laptops, tablets – anything geek related. I have so many cords and various other accessories in boxes. Half of them are practically useless since I don’t have the original gadget that used the cord. I’m thinking this means I collect power cords instead of the gadgets themselves.
8. Antique Furniture - I have a thing for furniture I can’t afford to buy. In Coveted, my heroine Nat works at a flea called The Bends. Her goblin boss Bill keeps things so interesting for her. And not in a good way. For the purposes of research, and to indulge my appetite for all things antique, I checked out all sorts of antique furniture. Gilded mirrors, exotic vases, crazy expensive chess sets made from ivory, and candlestick holders that are heavy enough to club people over the head. Don’t get me started on how much I love ornate fireplaces!
I think I’d stack the furniture next to the gold bars. Somehow I’d make them go together.
9. Video Games - Spare time is a premium in my household, but if I had more time, I’d spend it reading books or playing games. And not just games for the X-Box or Wii. I like those, but I love to play games on the iPhone or iPad. There are so many! I can add as many games as I want—as long as I have the space – but most of the simple games I play barely take up a few megabytes. So I sort of have a lot of games on my phone. (And I’m open to adding a few more.)
10. Medication - I think if I was resourceful enough as a parent, and I forget most of the time, I’d stock up on every kind of band-aid, cough medicine, rash ointment, or anything else deemed useful for rowdy kiddos. It seems like every time someone gets the flu or gets hurt, I’m driving to the pharmacy to buy something. So I’m thinking I just need setup space in the basement for those oh-so special occasions.
That’s my list! So, what would you collect from my list? Anything I didn’t talk about?
Shawntelle Madison is a web developer who loves to weave words as well as code. She’d never admit it, but if asked she’d say she covets and collects source code. After losing her first summer job detassling corn, Shawntelle performed various jobs – from fast-food clerk to grunt programmer to university webmaster.
Writing eccentric characters is her most favorite job of them all. On any particular day when she’s not surgically attached to her computer, she can be found watching cheesy horror movies or the latest action-packed anime. She lives in Missouri with her husband and children.
To find out more about Shawntelle and her books, visit her website, shawntellemadison.com. You can also connect with her on Twitter (@shawntelle) and Facebook.
GIVEAWAY
Courtesy of Shawntelle, I have one copy of Coveted to give away to one lucky winner! This giveaway is international and ends 11th April 2012
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
46 Comments
What I'm hoarding? Well, books ofcourse. The problem with working in a bookshop is that you tend to buy a lot of books.. Aside from that I keep buying magazines that have interesting articles in them but I never have time to read them. I have a huge pile by now, and it keeps getting bigger. And the last thing I'm hoarding are bookmarks! Even though I only use one or two at a time I have a lot of them and keep buying more.
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I hoard nail polishes. They're so colorful and pretty to look at — like art or jewelry that I can actually see — both in bottles and on my nails. (commenting as Justine)
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I hoard books, video games, cinema tickets, necklaces, and dvd box sets. Its an expensive habit
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Books of course
I've got way too many and I can't bear to part with them. The other is earrings , I've got far too many of those too.
Irene Jackson on raffle copter
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Great post, Shawntelle! I'd definitely like to hoard money and gold. I'm a total book hoarder as well and since new tech is sooooo addictive, we have our fair share of useless power cords stashed away in boxes and drawers.
I can't wait for Coveted to hit the shelves!
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I hoard paper such as my schoolwork from when I was in school. Every once in a while I go through them and recycle them. I don't always throw it up and use them as scraps even lol. Lately I've been improving though.
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I hoard books, also school paper work and even bills(yes, for record keeping lol).
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Apart from books (which I think most people here would agree with), I actually hoard/collect notebooks. I have two draws full of various sized notebooks that I have never written in (and probably never will) but they are very pretty and I love them!
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+JMJ+
Like pretty much everyone else, I hoard books! A few years ago, I started collecting Middle Grade novels for the sake of my younger brothers, feeling optimistic that we could read them together. But the boys grew out of our read-aloud tradition faster than we got through the books, and I have a whole shelf of novels that make me a little sad when I think I'll have to read them alone, if I read them at all. =/
But in general, book hoarding has been a positive experience for me.
I also like collecting CDs! I may have an iPod, but the physical fact of a CD (with lyrics, album art, etc.) is still wonderful to me.
And I have a growing collection of holy cards and "sacred scraps" that I pick up at church.
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I have been known to hoard books, shoes and pens. I could supply Office Depot with the amount of pens I have in my stash. It's scary.
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I collect Christmas ornaments too, coffee mugs, playing cards, pens, bookmarks, cats and of course books lol.
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*looks around house* Books. I hoard books.
Oh, and dog hair. Plenty of that too!
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I collect books, and random little pretty things that are scattered on my shelves, like little boxes. I tried to collect lolly wrappers when I was younger once, because for some reason I thought in like 10yrs I'd break the world record (though I'm not sure if there even is one). Thanks!
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I hoard ALOT of things! Books, movies, craft supplies and sample size bottles of shampoos etc… but the thing that I hoard the most is Pens!!!
megnate at telus dot net
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I hoard books definately, got 2 bookshelfs overflowing with books, and have only read half of them so far
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Lots of things – books, magazines, smalls things which might be useful for handcrafting o.O
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I definitely hoard books and many DVDs *-*
Thanks for the giveaway!!
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I keep in a special box all the cards, notes, jokes and comments from my friends, as I also keep the little things they gave me
I love taking a look at them from time to time, they make me smile 
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It's good to know I'm not the only person with a large book collection…
A few of you mentioned pens! Oh, how I love a good pen! Especially if it's pretty & writes well.
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I tend to hoard books and old clothes I don't wear cause for some reason I can't just go through them and get rid of some lol
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I tend to hoard broken things that I intend to mend sometime. I never get round to it though
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Books. I have so many books my husband is complaining lol. Tore923@aol.com
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Books and yarn, but you can never have too much of either:)
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I hoard books and magazines I doesn't matter how many I already have I still get more.
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Books and movies. I have bookshelves and dvd stands all over the house full of both. They are my addiction.
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boooks,books and more books
and stuffed animals
and more books lol
tnx 4 the giveaway
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Uh Oh. I admit I am a hoarder of books,photos, paintings, shoes, ink pens!, and jigsaw puzzles and DVDs. I just wish I had a bigger house:)
I enjoyed the post and thanks for sharing!
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hoarder of books, shoes and bags! Guilty, yes!
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Books and old postcards
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I hoard padded envelopes. every time something gets delivered i keep the envelope. i have quite a lot!
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I hoard books and pens
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I hoard containers such as old ice-cream tubs. They always look as though they will always come in handy! Problem is I always have too many
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books and nail polish
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@JoC – Oh, my gosh! I keep those too! And I use them all the time to store leftovers. They are quite handy in my opinion.
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I hoard old copies of magazines
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Books, movies and TV Shows
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It has to be books for me too, well, you never know when you'll get the urge to re-read one although I really need to get on with my 'to-read' pile soon!lol
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i hoard clothes gone from size 8-10 to size 24 and hoarded all my favourites some are now probably vintage as about 16 years old
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Im not that bad about keeping things, have a polic of if its not used in 6 months it gets sold (has helped get the kids to tidy their stuff away!)
The one thing I cant sell or throw away is beads, im a crafter, they make me happy, im so bad that my husband now buys me storage for presents, last christmas was a 5 tier drawer unit with various sized inserts and lockable lids. I am ashamed to say I squealled like a little girl with her first bike
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candles, i forget how many i actually have lol
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Sounds a bit weird but I hoard paint! I'm always decorating and never throw the leftover paint away – always intending to touch up as scuffs appear, which I sometimes do. There a paint pots in the shed, the garage and the utility room – they take up too much room considering they're mostly empty!
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My wife tries to hoard everything, she hates to throw anything away. I on the other hand have a tendancy to do the opposite and have to have a good clearout every couple of months.
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I hoard absolutely everything. Im terrible for it. Ive got old clothes that don't fit. More toiletries than boots and only bills and paperwork!
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I hoard pens. I love pens and have a huge tin of them. All different colours , point sizes. I love my pens and don't let anyone else use them
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I tend to hoard books, I just can't bear to get rid of them!
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I hoard EVERYTHING! I just can't bear to throw anything away, you know, just in case I Might need it some day……which I probably won't. I still have the taxi card my now husband wrote his phone number on when we met 20 years ago, but I get that's just sentimental! :0)
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