Beautiful Creatures Unlock the Curse Contest: How to Play

***** We’ve added the contest details & rules. Scroll down to find out how to play. *****

The Beautiful Creatures Unlock the Curse Contest will begin this Sunday, February 21st – on the first night of our tour – at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, WA.

The winner will be awarded the magical object that brought Ethan and Lena together in BEAUTIFUL CREATURES – Genevieve’s Locket.  The locket was made by us, and we are only awarding it to one winner.  Of course, there will be some awesome runner-up prizes. 

Our friend, Gabriel Paul, has designed another amazing interactive contest for the second leg of the BC tour. This competition will be a little different than the Scavenger Hunt. Instead of riddles, there will be six challenges, or sets of tasks, to be accomplished. So you don’t need to be good at solving puzzles for this one. The rules will be posted on the Beautiful Creatures fansite, Castergirls.com before our first event.

Go to www.CasterGirls.com and become a member to participate in the contest, and get an idea of how the game will be played. In the meantime, here are a few pointers.

We have six amazing authors participating in this contest, and you should get familiar with their books if you haven’t already: WICKED LOVELY by Melissa Marr, TITHE by Holly Black, CITY OF BONES by Cassandra Clare, SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater, THE DEMON’S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan, and RAMPANT by Diana Peterfreund.

You should also get familiar with these authors’ sites, their blogs, and follow them on Twitter.

What if I don’t have access to all the books? Can I still compete?

Yes! Which leads to the next tip.  You’ll be building teams to help you.  So start asking your friends, family members, Facebook friends, tweeps, and blog buddies to get ready.

You’ll have a week after our tour ends to finish the challenges, so be prepared to play until the minute the contest ends on March 5th at midnight, EST.

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HOW THE GAME WORKS:

There will be six clues. Each clue will relate to information from one of the six amazing YA urban fantasy novels listed: WICKED LOVELY by Melissa Marr, TITHE by Holly Black, CITY OF BONES by Cassandra Clare, SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater, THE DEMON’S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan, and RAMPANT by Diana Peterfreund.

Each clue will give you the username and password for the site where the challenge will be posted.

How do you find the site?

Each Challenge URL will combine Beautiful Creatures with the Title of the novel in the challenge.

When you reach the site, the username and password will unlock the challenge.

Complete each challenge, and keep track of your progress. At the end of the game, you will submit an e-mail to gabrielpaul3@gmail.com with a list of all the tasks you accomplished & your bonus points (see below).

You must complete each challenge to be eligible for the prize. But that’s not all…

EARN BONUS POINTS:

You can earn bonus points by completing any, or all, of the following:

+ 10 points – Post a link to the contest on your Facebook page or blog.

+ 10 points – Putting a link to the contest on someone else’s Facebook page, blog, or fansite.

+ 5 points – For each person you get to join the Caster Girls fansite, Kami’s Facebook page, or Margie’s Facebook page.

+ 1 point – For every person you get to join your Beautiful Creatures: Unlock the Curse Contest Team. (We’ll tell you more about this in the first challenge.)

+ 1 point for each tweet or retweet of relevant contest information on Twitter (you must use the hashtag #unlockthecurse to earn points). Please DO NOT retweet the same comment more than once. It won’t count & it’s annoying.

* You have to keep track of your bonus points, and list the URLs, friends added to pages, etc., in your final e-mail to Gabriel Paul.

Extra Credit:

Helpfulness counts. We will award 5 points to you every time you help someone else’s team. You must list who you helped, and how you helped them when you turn in your task list at the end of the game.

RULES:

• You must complete all the challenges to be eligible.
• You must keep a list of your completed tasks & points earned, and submit it to gabrielpaul3@gmail.com at the end of the contest. If you can’t reasonably verify each task, we may not be able to award you the points.
• While we want you to discuss the contest online, on blogs, Facebook & Twitter, please NO SPAMMING. Examples: RT a comment on Twitter only once. DO NOT retweet the same comment a dozen times. You won’t get points. If a site, blog, or Facebook page already contains a link to the contest, DO NOT add another one.
• While helpfulness counts, and you may publicly give hints, do not post any answers publicly or you will be disqualified. Feel free to hint, encourage, or share answers privately.

* While there is only one locket, we have runner-up prizes & teamwork may earn you privileges in upcoming contests and promotions, even if you don’t win the grand prize this time around.

A NOTE ON BUILDING YOUR TEAMS

The person who starts the team is the only one who is eligible to win the prize.

Building the team is part of the challenge; it is one of the tasks you do to gain points.  It is also a way of getting help and support along the way.  Find people to be on your team who like to play, who like books, who like you but have probably not read Beautiful Creatures, or would not have entered the contest except to help you.  Share the experience of 7 amazing books and 8 awesome authors.  Your helper’s only job is to help you get points for being part of your team or for helping you with other tasks.

YOU SHOULD NOT BE TEAMED UP WITH OTHER CONTESTANTS WHO WANT TO WIN THE LOCKET, OR A RUNNER UP PRIZE. Only one prize will be awarded to the individual who wins.  Only one prize will be awarded per runner up, regardless of how many helpers are on his/her team.  If you want to be considered a competitor, you must assemble your own team of helpers.  You are responsible for keeping track of points for you and your helpers, and submitting your task list at the game’s conclusion.

Remember, the more people you get playing, the better for everyone.  Everyone who joins a team on the ning site will get an advantage in upcoming contests, for BEAUTIFUL CREATURES and other books as well.

Contest ends March 5^th, at midnight EST. You have until then to submit your task list.