Cover Art!

OOh!! I am so excited!!!!

One of the best parts is that she is wearing one of the actual outfits Garnet favors. Cool Yule!

Here's the back cover copy: I’m on the top of the world. The Vatican witch hunters think I’m dead, the FBI has closed my file, I might get to buy the occult bookstore I manage, I’m co-founding a brand-new coven—and the vampire I love has just proposed. How lucky can a girl get? Wait, wai—

Oh, crap. I’ve jinxed myself. My fiancé, Sebastian, is missing and I’m worried sick. Has he been kidnapped? Or could he have run off with that leggy blonde from the coven? Now I’ll have to seek the help of my future stepson—the same brat who once turned me over to the Catholics, all for a pimped-out Jag. Plus, the Goddess Lilith, who camps out in my body, has been making embarrassing appearances. Now all I need is some crazy killer on my tail. Hold on, hold—

Double crap.

Also, if you're itching to read the first chapter you can find it at my website: Romancing the Dead Excerpt

Love Scene Contest (Romance)

***permission to forward***

WHERE DOES THE HEART OF A BOOK LIE? IN THE FIRST CHAPTER? OR BETWEEN THE SHEETS?

Announcing the Greater Detroit RWA annual Between the Sheets contest. Enter your best love scene, up to 10 pages - anything from sweet to erotic.

Final judges:
Leah Hultenschmidt, Dorchester
Diana Ventimiglia, Harlequin/Silhouette
Elaine English, Elaine P. English Literary Agency

1st Place: $100
2nd Place: $50
3rd Place: $25

Open to all unpublished RWA members, $20 entry fee, multiple submissions allowed. Deadline: February 14, 2008. Entry includes one page unjudged setup. For more information, entry form, and guidelines, go to www.gdrwa.org or email eheiter@hotmail.com

On-line Agent Class (Romance/Mystery)

**PERMISSION TO FORWARD**

Southern Magic is pleased to host an on-line workshop, Everything You Wanted to Know About An Agent But Was Afraid to Ask, with literary agent Caren Johnson.

Description: This is a soup to nuts guide on what an agent does, how to work effectively with yours, and danger signs in any agent/author relationship that you should watch out for. Come join us to ask questions,learn about the benefits and drawbacks of having an agent and when you really need to have one.

When: December 3 through 14, 2007

Cost: $10 for Southern Magic Members, $15 for All Others

Class Advisor: Caren Johnson began her literary career at the Peter Rubie Agency. She stayed for three years, working her way up from intern to agent. She went on to work with Nadia Cornier at Firebrand Literary for a year before starting her own agency in early 2007. She works closely with each of her authors, not only acting as an agent, but offering career guidance and publicity consultation. Her goal is to make sure each of her authors gets published and has a long-lasting, lucrative career.

Caren is full up at the moment with wonderful romance and mystery authors(though any who have written brilliant novels in these genres are more than welcome to submit to her as she is always on the lookout for great contemporary romance, exciting romantic suspense and fun mysteries). She is currently looking for women's fiction in the vein of Monica McInerney, Jodi Picoult, Alice Hoffman, Sue Monk Kidd, and Laura Moriarty, fiction in thevein of Lisa Lutz, Christopher Moore, Michel Faber, Kate Atkinson, Louisa Luna, Audrey Niffenegger, and Jeffrey Eugenides, and YA in the vein of Scott Westerfeld, Stephanie Meyer, Markus Zusack, Gabrielle Zevin, Libba Bray, and Kevin Brooks. In nonfiction she is currently looking for more narrative nonfiction in a variety of subjects, pop culture, women's interest (though no self-help), humor and quirky gift books.

Please check out her publisher's marketplace page at http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/carenjohnson

Registration deadline is December 2 via PayPal/credit card.

The class is conducted through a YAHOO group format and you will receive an invitation to join at the time you pay. For more information, please check out our website at www.southernmagic.org and click on the WORKSHOP icon.

ROMANCING THE DEAD Pre-Order

I just noticed that you can now pre-order Romancing the Dead on Amazon.com!!!! That means that I'm going to have to take some time this weekend to put up an excerpt on my website.

Oh, and I notice that Amazon.com is having one of those bargain price things for Tall, Dark & Dead again.

Astro Alert: Mercury Direct

Breaking astrological news from Astrology.com:

Mercury turned retrograde on October 11 in the determined water sign Scorpio, encouraging you to revisit and explore your ideas and conversations. By October 23, Mercury re-entered Libra and fairness became the top priority. Now, the messenger planet turns direct in Libra on November 1, signaling that it is time to put everything you learned during the past three weeks into a cohesive plan of action. If you have done your homework, you will find yourself moving forward with confidence –- which is just what using a Mercury retrograde period is all about!

Certainly, confidence should be influencing your love agenda now. If you have been hesitant to make that first move, now is the time to abandon inhibition and let that crush know that you want to take things to the next level.

"Mummy Dearest" in the Star Tribune

Here's a photo of Mason (and my alternate personality) that appeared in today's Star Tribune. There's on block on Sargent Street in Saint Paul that goes all out for Halloween -- every single house is done up and entire families (including their dogs) are dressed up. We stumbled across it on a tip from our dear friend Sean M. Murphy. I'd like to give credit to the staff photographer who took the photo (Jeffery Thompson), but the Star Tribune has the crappiest on-line search engine I've ever used.

Here's the link: http://www.startribune.com/10242/story/1521542-a1521301-t3.html

New LINK! Here's a slide show that has lots of Mason pictures and some audio of me mentioning that his costume is "rotting.": http://www.startribune.com/slideshows/rich_media/1521515.html.