Hehehe. Happy Monday!
At Dragoncon, Jeaniene Frost and we gave away tote bags with a vampire on one side and a dushegub on the other. They turned out much cuter than expected. We printed 250 and they were gone – whooosh. For anyone looking into their own merch, we used 4imprint, and had a great experience. They are usually reliable and hit a nice balance between a good product and a reasonable price.
Anyway, both Jeaniene and I meant to keep a bag for ourselves, and I was sure I did. Then we got home, unpacked, and no bag. Bummer.
Luckily I still have access to the merch store, so I made my own personal merchandise.
I posted this on Instagram and so many people like it and wanted one that I decided to give one away.
This is your chance to win your own personal tote bag. It is 18 x18 inches, so large enough to hold many skeins. The word yarn can be replaced by a word of your choice, as in “Finish this project or no more fabric!” or “Finish this novel or no more books!”
To enter, comment on this post with your favorite Innkeeper quote or moment. Please comment on the blog only. Entries on Facebook/Instagram/Threads will not count, because it’s too hard to keep track. If you are seeing this on a social network or in your email inbox, click here to enter.
If you don’t read Innkeeper, put the favorite quote from our series of your choice. The giveaway is open to US and International readers. Winner will be chosen on Monday 23, 2024.
Please be aware that the bag will be printed to order, so it will take a couple of weeks to make its way to you. Just in time for Halloween if you are in US.
“Here kitty kitty…” or “ripper cushions” Love your stories!
I love your merch and your blog and your stories and your humor and world-building and openness and down-to-earth yet epic natures.
You’re my all-time favorites! And you write my all-time favorite stories.
Thanks!
Favorite Innkeeper moment or quote? I have many, several from each story.
But I do especially love Helen’s “ripper cushions” line, and also George’s quick answer for how much a quintillionth of a second was (and his openness about looking it up).
Thank you for the chance to win the awesome tote bag!
And thanks for the info about the custom-tote website!
Here Kitty, kitty.
I don’t need the tote, but this conversation between Dina and Adira really stuck with me – especially now, with all the hatred and violence spewing out:“Mercy is defined as kindness or forgiveness given to someone who is within your power to punish. To show mercy means to give up retribution, sometimes at the cost of justice.” Sometimes an act of kindness can change a life.
And, for something on a lighter note, I laugh every time I think of this scene from Magic “Clams”:
Then I crouched slightly, bounced back up, put one hand on my hip, and held the other arm to the side, bent at the elbow, with my fingers together. “What is this?” Barrett asked. “I believe it’s a little teapot,” Claudia said, completely deadpan. “Short and stout. See, there is its handle and there is its spout.”
George in Sweep of the Heart
“Take my hand and bring your sword. The universe is waiting.”
I love the bag wording as is
And I love, love, love your books
“It was a formal challenge,” Maud said.
“I’m getting ripper cushions,” Helen told him.
Innkeeper Chronicles, Sweep of the Blade.
I love Maud and Helen… and Arland 😉
“I know you can growl, Sean. I’ve heard you do it.” Dina, Sweep with Me.
Nuan Cee “When I look back I should see the line of my ancestors, long and unbroken. It is they who give us strength” That may not be a perfect quote but I do have it up on my family picture wall at home.
Dina “Did you have a cat?” to Sebastion North.
I love many different moments and lines from your stories but the following quote by Doolittle has always stuck with me. I’ve actually had it saved on my tablet for years.
“Humans tend to segregate the world: enemies on one side, friends on the other. Friends are people we know. Enemies are the Other. You can do just about anything to the Other. It doesn’t matter if this Other is actually guilty of any crimes, because it’s a matter of emotion, not logic. You see, angry people aren’t interested in justice. They just want an excuse to vent their rage.” Doolittle sighed. “And once you become their Other, you’re no longer a person. You’re just an idea, an abstraction of everything that’s wrong with their world. Give them the slightest excuse, and they will tear you down. And the easiest way for them to target you as this Other is to find something that’s different about you. Color of your skin. The way you speak. The place you’re from.”
Favorite moment or quote? That’s hard. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!”, of course from Kate. From the innkeeper series? It’s little, but I love how the local police officer protects the inn and innkeepers.
I still love the idea of “ripper cushions”! Oh, and I always giggle when we learn who the Costco woman is. 😉
Orro and Sean’s conversation about “A Christmas Story” cracks me up every single time.
I literally laughed out loud when Dina and the Costco lady killed the stalker. Costco lady’s line ” Don’t mess with Texas” is The Most Texas thing to say. I love it!
This is not from Innkeeper (though I have read every published IA title ever), nor is it a direct quote (just a close paraphrase), but it is something I have used in real life on multiple occasions and therefor must qualify as my favorite…
“You can go ahead and do this, but I promise that five years from now, when your life is thoroughly ruined, you’ll look back on this moment and wish you had taken two minutes and thought about what you were doing, because this is the point where it all went very wrong.”
Drunk passenger throwing a fit on an airplane? Use the line. Cop getting overly aggressive on a protester? Use the line? Teenager wanting to do OnlyFans and expecting no one will find out? Line.
It actually works.
And I would like a bag identical to Ilona’s because I could use the reminder to finish my current wip before all the shiny patterns and pretty yarns lure me to the dark side.
My favorite was when Unessa asked are you strong, are you rich, do others serve you? A woman with priorities. I laughed!
I love so much but one scene I come back to is in the first of the Edge books when William discovers Jack is like him yet still has a home -looking at Jack’s room while poor Jack tries to work out what is surprising because it’s just a regular room, and then William going out to Declan and saying “You’ve got me for the fight…for the boy.” It gets me everytime.
Hello and Moin from Bremen, Germany. I read: tote bags und in german it is: Death bags. Maybe i giggle a bit….
I love all your books. Some of them are not translated in german, so i had to read it in english, so i learned a lot.
I love the space chickens and Orro, Maud and Hellen and her story quite a lot !
Maud/Nuan cee:
The galaxy had very few universal laws, but the Law of Bronwyn had provel true again and again, so often that is was simply accepted.
“Once a species is introduced to interstellar spaceflight, it will advance technologically but not socially.
Illemina to Maud about Helen:
“Children leave. It is the greatest tragedy of motherhood that if you have done everything right, if you have raised them in confidence and independence, they will pick up and leave you. It is as it’s ment to be.”
“If you try to hold and restrain her, you’ll be committing an irreperable sin.
We shouldn’t hobble our young. We do not cut their teeth. One day it will be just you, Maud.”
Maud and Arland:
“Did a cat get your tongue?”
“No. Lions didn’t injure my mouth.”
Maud and Mutual Cooperation Pact with Clan Nuan.
“If we leave any gap, any hint at an alternative interpretation, they will drive a space cruiser through it.”
Sweep of the Blade – obviously my favorite – as all quotes where from it.
I love also the artwork of Isabeau Backhaus
One of my favorite quotes is from Catalina: “I can’t even. I may never be able to even again.”
I use it often in my life these days.
Favorite quote- “Commander Karat says ‘Do this”, and Knight Derit does it, because that’s what knights do.” That particular conversation between Lord Arland and Knight Ruin kills me.
Ripper Cushions. Obviously little Helen is the cutest. Maybe when the sisters get back and Helena is cooking on the stool and the Inn has vines behind her to make sure she doesn’t fall and Maud is yelling for Diana to give her the phone so she can take a picture.
Arland’s coffee scene
What do you bring to vampire faculty appreciation day?
Maud messing with Dina about small knives instead of chalk
One Fell Sweep
“I want all the attentions” Cyanide in Sweep of the Heart.
“I’m ready for my ripper cushions”
Oh I love Helen!
It’s such a hard choice, there are so many good ones! I tried to find one I liked that wouldn’t be a common choice, then decided I really needed to do a reread just so I can pick one. Time being short though, means I will still reread, but I will also post my favourite Hidden Legacy quote instead, which makes me laugh every time I read it:
“She wore a white dress that really wanted to be a sleeve.” ~Burn for Me
“It may not be the Blue Jewel, but it is the kitchen of a chef who takes pride in his work. You can come with me and triumph against impossible odds, or you can reject the challenge of the gods and stay here. Would you rather be a hero in charge of your own destiny or a martyr wallowing in self-pity? What will it be?”
sweep in peace he met a girl with stardust on her robe and when he looked in to her eyes he saw the universe looking back.
RIPPERCUSHIONS!!!
Sean’s dismissal snark to yet another female werewolf and how Dina caught her so she not all that let alone a mighty warrior.
“I’m getting ripper cushions.” Helen from Sweep of the Blade
I loved the Costco scene in Innkeeper Book 1
“She wiped her face with her left forarm and kicked the stalker’s corpse with her sneakered foot. “Don’t mess with Texas.””
Love your books (and knitting)
“You’re beautiful, you’re brilliant, and if they knew how dangerous you were, you would get buried in proposals.”
~ a certain swoonworthy antistasi prime
Sean meeting Beast in beastmode and scrambling up a tree is something that sends me into giggles every single time I read it!
“I told you I wasn’t poisonous.”
Sean’s response to Dina’s message from Wilmos’s shop.
When Arland lays out his intentions to Maud: “But know that there will never be another one like you for me and one like me for you.”
‘There will be ripper cushions’!
“You are no chef! That poultry is a lie!”
Orro in Sweep with Me to the fraud chef, Garry Keys
lol. Never meet your hero.
Orro’s speech when Dina accuses him of cooking Draziri has to be one of my all time favorites. The drama is just magical.
“ “In all my years, since I was a lowly apprentice barely tall enough to slide a pot onto a stove, I have broken the kitchen code only once. Once I have let a dish I hadn’t tasted leave my kitchen. I have never broken it before or since. The code is my life, my religion, and my conscience. Without it,” he ripped the air with his claws, “I am but a lowly savage.” There was no stopping it. I brought it on myself, I had to stand there and take it. “Rise early to be at your station early,” Orro intoned. “Keep your knives sharp. Never touch other chef’s knives. Keep yourself, your station, and your food clean. Never let a dish out of your kitchen without tasting it. Know your ingredients. Respect the creatures on your prep table; honor their lives. Know your diners. Cook to the tastes of those who dine, not your own. Never serve a dish that harms your diners’ health or soul. Never settle for second best. Never stop learning. These are the cornerstones of everything I am. They are the firmament of my universe.” He paused over me. I nodded. “Am I some vagrant you found on the street cooking rats in a rusted pot?” Oh for the love of… “Do you honestly think I would sink so low as to harm your soul by serving you a sentient being? Do you think so little of me?” “I apologize.” He slapped his clawed hand over his eyes in a pose that would’ve made any Shakespearean actor proud. “Go. Just… go.””
Easily the scene where Beast chases Sean up a tree. It’s so awesome when a character expects to be dominate in a situation is compeltely thrown off guard.
Pretty much goes for eveyrone who ever underestimates Dina.
Second favorite scene would be Officer M.’s wife coming to the Inn. Loved when her and Dina realized they knew each other. Also loved how shocked she is.
Remembered this one after posting earlier.
First scholar Thek: Do you have a rebuttal?
Unessa: I didn’t know I was supposed to bring one.
My favorite quote has to be “here kitty, kitty”.
“Would you rather be a hero in charge of your own destiny or a martyr wallowing in self-pity? What will it be?”
I actually wrote this out and have it taped up on the wall. Very good for motivation! From Sweep in Peace!
My favorite inkeeper quote is from Clean sweep. Maybe not the most funny or witty. But for me it had the most impact.
Most people discounted intuition as a nonexistent superstition. I knew better. Whenever I’d get too bratty with my powers, Dad used to remind me that every human had magic. The difference between them and me was awareness and practice. Most people simply didn’t realize they could do things that bent their reality. It was kind of like growing up in a land with no deep rivers or lakes. If you never tried, how would you know if you could swim? But even without practice, the magic found a way to make itself known. Intuition was such a manifestation.
It makes me feel that I have magic with my intuition. 😊 we should all feel a little magical.
You disturbed me. You took away my inner peace…
“Like a primitive savage, who sets out to tame the wilderness armed with nothing but a knife and his indomitable will, I will persevere. I will wrestle victory from the greedy jaws of defeat. I shall rise like a bird of prey upon the current of the wind, my talons raised for the kill, and I shall strike true.”
Oh wow. I hope the inn filmed that.
-Sweep in Peace
Anything with Orro and Sweep in Peace is my favorite.
I have loved and requoted (is that a real word??) this line ever since I first read it. It is powerful stuff:
“When a man takes up arms, he does so for many reasons. Sometimes to punish, sometimes to intimidate or frighten. But when a woman picks up a weapon, she means to kill.”
― Ilona Andrews, Clean Sweep