ORACLE Olympics Official Opening Ceremony: Get a Signed Copy of ORACLE!
*EDIT: Please scroll down for the amendments to the Opening Ceremony.
It’s here, it’s finally here! Oracle officially releases TODAY! 
I have to physically restrain myself from squee-ing every 5 minutes!
Here’s where you can purchase Oracle:
Purchase Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble
But hey, why not try your hand at winning a signed copy first? 
Read on to find out more!
The Oracle Olympics
As you can see from the banner above (some of you have had the dubious pleasure of hearing me twitter on about it for the past 2 months!), I’m celebrating my debut release with a massive blog tour I call the Oracle Olympics. No, not just to capitalise on the current Games, but also because Oracle is set in the run-up to the London Games!
Apart from the usual guest posts and interviews (most of which will have an Olympic theme, of course!), some of my tour stops will be featuring fun quizzes, puzzle competitions, and giveaways, with chances to win swag, e-books, signed books, and lots more!
You can keep up with the tour with the full schedule here.
The Medals Tally
The Medals Tally is a giveaway I’m running with a variable grand prize, depending on how high y’all could help me push Oracle up the Amazon rankings by the end of the month!
For a top #100,000 finish, the grand prize will be a $50 (or£35) Amazon gift card!
For a top #10,000 finish, the grand prize will be an Amazon Kindle Touch!
For a top #1,000 finish, the grand prize will be an Amazon Kindle Fire!
And just because all these over-achieving athletes are making me feel ambitious:
For a top #100 finish, the grand prize will be an 32GB iPad3!
All you have to do to be in the running is to purchase Oracle, and e-mail me your purchase receipt. And you’re in the draw! It’s that simple!
If you buy additional copies as gifts, send me the receipts and you get extra entries!
The Medals Tally will run till August 31st, at which point I will announce the prize (depending on the latest Amazon sales ranking) and winner!
The 100W Sprint
And let’s not forget the blue riband event, the 100W sprint! In a nutshell, participants must write a 100-word story based on a prompt. There will be weekly winners throughout August, with each weekly winner entering the 100W final for the gold medal!
The gold medal? A $30 (or £20) Amazon gift voucher, with all other finalists receiving a book of their choice from the Book Depository!
The official rules and first week’s prompt go live tomorrow, so start limbering up your literary muscles!
The OOOO (Oracle Olympics Official Opening)
But first, we’re starting off with a massive Opening Ceremony! Here’s your chance to win a signed copy of Oracle right off the bat!
All you have to do is visit the Parade of Nations below, an array of bloggers from around the world helping me spread the word of my release. Each blog will have a secret letter. Collect them all to decipher the secret message. Then come back here and enter your answer in the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win! The contest will remain open till midnight EST on Friday 3rd August. I will announce the winner then!
Here is the first letter of the secret message:
Here’s where you can get the rest of the secret message — in order, too! Oh, and do take the time to leave a comment or to follow these blogs. They’re all awesome! 
The Parade of Nations
*EDIT: It has come to my attention that I goofed with a couple of links, so the links in red are now fixed and working. As for non-posters, I have included the secret letter next to the link in red. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Len Lambert
Cherie Reich
Clarissa Draper
Michelle Davidson Argyle @ The Innocent Flower
Talli Roland
Rick Gualtieri @The Poptart Manisfesto
M. Pax @ Wistful Nebulae
Rachel Morgan
John Ling
Talei Loto @ Musings of an Aspiring Scribe U
Rek @ A Chronicle of Dreams
J.L. Campbell @ The Readers’ Suite
Savannah Chase
James Garcia, Jr. @ Dance on Fire
Angela Brown
Frederick Lee Brooke
J.C. Piech @ Things Which Burst Out of My Brain
Lisa L. Regan
You’re back, I see. Got the secret message? Good! Enter it in the Rafflecopter below, and good luck: go for gold!
P.S.: Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for the start of the 100W heats! Get your writing caps on!
Butt-kicking bookworm. Displaced Malaysian. Writes crime & thrillers. Debut novel ORACLE released by J. Taylor Publishing on 30th July 2012.
[...] J.C. Martin releases her debut novel, crime thriller Oracle, today! To celebrate, she’s holding a month-long Oracle Olympics Blog Tour, with tons of games and prizes, including a possible grand prize of an iPad3 (for more details, visit J.C.’s blog)! [...]
JC,
Congratulations on the great book launch. Looks like you’ve done a lot of hard prep work here.
I’ve got a question though: is it too late to edit your book blurb? That’s probably the worst place for a glaring syntax error, and one hit me in the face. I’m sure you didn’t mean to say that the police force is responsible for the brutal and bizarre trail of murder, but that’s what it sounds like since the police force is the subject of the sentence.
Just an observation. I wish you well on the release of your timely novel. All the best.
Hi David, thanks for stopping by! Good spot with the book blurb. I’ll pass it on the publishers and see what we can do! Thanks for pointing it out!
Impressive book launch JC. I wish you all the best. It’s really exciting.
Thanks, Madeleine. Hope you stick around for the fun!
Congratulations, JC!
Thank you!
Congratulations on your book release, JC!!!!
Thanks Theresa!
Congrats on the release – book sounds so great!
Thanks Jemi!
Congratulations! Your book looks and sounds wonderful.
Thank you Tonja!
Congratulations, JC!. Please, feel free to squee however many times you want today! You earned it.
Sia McKye OVER COFFEE
I remember when you first made the announcement about your book’s publication, and here you are! So happy for you, JC.
Awesome book launch! Congratulations! I love how you included so many people with your letter collecting treasure hunt!
Hope you enjoyed the little scavenger hunt, and thanks for stopping by!
Woo hoo! You have three blogs that didn’t get their post up, but I got your secret message.
Thank you, Jay! Actually, it’s just the one blog. I messed up the URL for the other 2!
Fixed now!
Congratulations! Your book sounds great. I’ve seen it all over the place today.
Thanks, Ciara!
New follower who loves the secret letter game and congrats on the book. The cover is gorgeous and it sounds so interesting!
Welcome Johanna, great to have you here! Thanks for stopping by, and hope you’ll stick around for more fun and games coming up!
Oh and btw, some on your list haven’t posted. But still, I did enjoy some of the new to me bloggers.
Sia McKye OVER COFFEE
Thanks for stopping by Sia! Sorry, it was my fault bumbling up the links! Have edited the post with changes so you should be able to access all areas now, so to speak!
Congrats!! Also, to second what Jay said, but message received.
Thanks Joshua! Yes, I’ve fixed the errors. Fault is mine! Glad you got it anyway!
Congrats and enjoy yourself.
Thanks, Rek!
Congratulations, J.C.!! What a great way to start a week!
I know! Whoop!
Congrats, JC! Well, I did do the whole tour, but one was a link to a blog that no longer exists (John Ling), and one (Talei Loto) didn’t post, and another linked back to your blog and a post on water from 2010. I’m not so good deciphering even though I did get all the other letters. My loss. But good luck on the book. I can’t wait to read it myself!
Thanks Nancy! Sorry about the missing letters. They’re mainly my fault for messing up the URL. I’ve edited the post now, so all secret letters should now be obtainable. You have till Friday to solve the message, so good luck!
Congratulations on your release. Wow, what a unique and clever book launch. I am very excited for you. I purchased my kindle edition of your book as soon as I read Clarrisa’s shout out on google plus today. I will try and hop around today and find all the clues (letters).
Thank you Melissa! I hope you enjoy the book when you get to reading it! Why not email me your purchase receipt to enter the Medals Tally prize draw?
I am so excited for you. I hope you have a lot of success.
Thank you, Clarissa! And thanks so much for helping out with the release!
This whole thing is beyond amazing. I’m so happy and proud to be a part of this. I was actually getting teary eyed as people commented at my post, sharing their joy and wishing you success. This is why I love using my blog as a platform. Introducing other authors makes me so happy and feel very good. Not sure if that will happen to me, but I’ll enjoy my pursuit and keep going because I love the writing and enjoy the moments like this, celebrating with debut authors and established authors getting their books out there.
Aww, Angela, that’s such a kind and lovely sentiment. That’s why I love the online writing community. Everyone is always so supportive of each other! Thank you for all you’ve done to help me, and needless to say, I’m ready to reciprocate in any way whenever you want!
Congrats! I’m so excited for you, and what a great launch idea!
Thanks, Nicole! Hope you’ll stick around to enjoy the fun and games to come!
Congrats on your release, J.C.!
And I should’ve looked to see what blog you had me down. It all worked out, I think.
Silly me for making assumptions. But no worries, all fixed now!
Finally. Congrats J. C. I am so Happy for you! ALL THE BEST!
I will pick up my copy sometime today.
Michael.