Cthulhu Origami

I think this is a whole lot of awesome. Thanks to Shawn for sending it along to me. Check out the instructions at http://spinflipper.com/blog/

Nerds No More!

The July 27, 2007 issue of Entertainment Weekly had an article about Comic Con in which, although they mentioned Klingons and Renaissance costumers, they referred to us as a "blog-savvy army of early adaptors..."

What I like about that phrase is that it evokes pocket-protectors and horn rim glasses, while actually making us sound kind of cool and hip.

Ms. Silly Pants

There I was, minding my own business at my favorite hang-out Amore Coffee when this guy came up to me. He was probably not much older than me, say in his fifties, and he had a touch of what I like to call "the fabulous accent." Anyway, he said, "I just want to compliment you on your cut-offs."

I looked down at my paint-stained, obviously homemade cut-off shorts and thought, "Is this guy being a jerk?"

Apparently sensing my concern, he went on. "No, really," he said. "They're genuine, you know? Not like those fake ones all the kids are wearing. If you're going to wear jeans old jeans they should be really old. Otheerwise why not just wear brand-new?! I mean, just look at yours! They have paint splotches and uneven cuffs. I have an old pair of jeans like that and they're precious."

I'm still not sure if he was putting me on or what. But I feel like I got a taste of what my life would be like if I lived in Southern California, ie people thinking I was making some kind of fashion statement with my slovenly, lazy ways.

More Writing Woes

Romancing the Dead continues to kick my butt. I've written about my latest struggles over at the Wyrdsmith's blog.

I'm sorry to keep putting all the good stuff over there, but all my energy is being sucked out by this book. I will report that Mason and I saw two new license plates at the Mall of America... Alberta and another consul plate. This time I realized I had to take note of the alphabetical prefex and it was "TG" -- which, according to wikipedia, is the designation for Canada. When I told Shawn about this, she said that it might have been the same car as the one we saw at Minnesota Historical Society, since someone there is married to the Canadian consul. So mystery solved?

Still no West Virginia

Seven days to Mason's birthday.

Writers' High/Writers' Block Survey

A friend of mine, Rosanne Bane, is writing a non-fiction book about writers' block/writers' high and she's looking for writers (at any level in their career) to fill out an on-line survey. If you have the time/inclination, please check out: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2bxhgsIhnjrOxgQ_2bRPD7x2Q_3d_3d

The Book That Ate My Brain

Just a quick re-direction pointer. I wrote a whole long complaining song, as Pooh would say, about my experiences with revision on Romancing the Dead (or, as I call it in my own head, Dead on Arousal) on the wyrdsmiths' blog. Check it out, if you're interested.

Sale! Sale! Sale!

Once again, Amazon.com is running a "Bargain Price" on Tall, Dark & Dead, so if you're like me and you think that it's outrageous that anyone charges $14.00 for a book, now's your time to order. TDD is available for only $5.49. The Barnes & Nobel sale was over very quickly, so dare I say it? Act now!

I should warn y'all, though... I ordered a bunch of books when B&N had their sale and they were clearly books that were marked to be returned by the bookstores. They all had a black marker line on the bottom of each book, so they no longer would qualify as "new." However, given THEIR price (B&N was giving the books away at 4.00 a piece, which is way cheaper than my publisher sells them to me), I was okay with that. I've never ordered these bargain price books from Amazon.com, but given that they don't have any brick and mortar stores that would be returning books, I suspect they won't be marked up.

Also, any authors, editors, booksellers, other industry professionals or people with an insider track on the business out there reading this blog? Because I'm wondering why Tall, Dark & Dead is getting such discounts from the booksellers. Is this a good thing? I mean, I suspect it is, given that they are trying to sell them and not, say, returning them to the publisher. But... this is the third time the book has been deeply, deeply discounted (first at Amazon.com, then B&N, and now Amazon is doing it again.)

Thanks to my previous history, I'm terribly gun-shy about things like this, so if anyone has information that would assuage my freakage, I could really use it.

Sometimes I wonder how anyone ever lasts in this business.

Podcast!

My alter-ego and I did a podcast with Shawn Ferrell that is available at http://adventuresinscifipublishing.com/ today. Go check it out, it's free!

I Should Be...

...working on revisions, but instead I stumbled across the Ghost Reseach Society's Ghost Photographs.

A lot of the pictures are pretty spooky, but this one in particular scares me.

New License Plates (still no WV)

Mason and I continue to play the license plate game, even though we have not YET seen West Virginia. Today, we saw to brand new ones (yes, there are still more to see). First, just outside our usual coffee shop, we saw the Creek Nation (Okalahoma Native American) and then at the Minnesota Historical Society on our way to see the Capitol Wind Ensemble at Rice Park, we saw a diplomatic plate. Alas, I did not realize that I needed to write down the first letters so that I could identify what country the consul was from so that's a mystery.

And, the other day I saw what probably this one... a temporary tourist plate from France. Mason's magic is strong indeed.

New Review: Many Bloody Returns

Monsters and Critics reviewed Many Bloody Returns and GUESS WHAT?! They mentioned me by name!! Whoot!

Here's what they say:

This compilation of brand new vampire themed tales, penned by some of the top names in the genre including Tanya Huff, Tate Hallaway and Kelly Armstrong is much like visiting old friends. The majority of stories feature characters and settings from previous novels while putting a different spin on birthdays in general.

Editor and author Charlaine Harris starts things off with “Dracula Night” that finds Sookie Stackhouse from the Southern Vampire series attending Dracula’s birthday party. Hosted by vampire sheriff and entrepreneur Eric Northman, this proves to be a party to remember when the guest of honor shows up and considers Sookie part of the entertainment. Eric may suffer from a serious case of hero worship but Sookie does not intend to become dinner and will do whatever it takes to stay off the menu.

Return to P.N. Elrod’s gritty noir series as vampire PI Jack Fleming agrees to aid a young woman in revealing an unscrupulous charlatan before he can fleece her sister in “Grave-Robbed.” Christopher Golden conjours up a delightfully different coming of age tale with “The Mournful Cry of Owls” that finds a young woman growing strangely restless as her sixteenth birthday draws near. When her mother reveals the secret of her birth, everything changes and perhaps, not for the best.

Fans of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files will enjoy further adventures of Harry the wizard and his apprentice Molly as they go up against a revengeful vampire of the Black Court in the suspenseful “It’s My Birthday, Too”. Eve Roser is having a bad birthday, not only is she in a car accident but worse, now that she’s turned eighteen she is expected to sign a loyalty pledge that will forever bind her to a psycho vampire in the further adventures of Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampire series entitled “The First Day of the Rest of Your Life”. From Jeanne C. Stein comes “The Witch and the Wicked”, a fresh tale of an unlikely blending between witch and vampire as the result of murder by incineration and a desire for youth and beauty goes terribly awry.

Each of the authors lend their unique perspectives ranging from humorous to melancholy, fiendish to hopeful making for a thoroughly enjoyable take on vampires and birthdays. Editors Toni L.P. Kelner and Charlaine Harris have done a fine job of cooking up a toothsome collection of birthday treats you will not want to miss.

New Review - Dead Sexy

A new review of Dead Sexy from Paranormal Romance Writers.

Here's the salient bits:

"This story also involves Parrish, Garnet's ex-boyfriend and Gabriel, a hot FBI agent. Dead Sexy is the 2nd in a series but can be read alone. I found myself liking the characters so much that I plan on reading Tall, Dark & Dead also. Tate Hallaway did a wonderful job with interweaving this story and the previous one together. I found the story fascinating and it kept my interest through til the end. I hope Ms. Hallaway will continue to write more Garnet Lacey Books."

Basement Bargin Prices

Just in case you've somehow neglected to purchase a copy of Tall, Dark & Dead, Barnes & Noble is selling it for a low, LOW price of $3.98 (for non-members/members it's even cheaper.) Do you have a great-aunt Tillie who reads romance? At these prices you can afford a little familial love!

Also, although I'm hardly what you could call a regular blogger, I'm probably going to be even spottier of late. I just got my revision letter from Anne, my editor, and I've got some serious work to do. Remember all my whiney posts about how much it sucked to write this one? Well, brace yourselves for a whole lot more whiney posts about how hard it's going to be to unravel and rebuild this sucker.

I LIKED It, So Sue Me

Before I review GHOST RIDER, I feel compelled to mention that I was probably one of the only professional reviewers who gave Mathew Brodrick's remake of GODZILLA a thumbs up... in print. Yes, that's right. Sizes Matters? I totally thought so.

Having said that, it should come as no surprise that I thought Nicholas Cages' GHOST RIDER totally rocked. No, I am not kidding. I'm serious. No, really.

Come on, you know I really hate it when you point and laugh like that.

What was I smoking, you ask? No, man, I was totally sober. Here's the thing. Though I'm a true believer (as my man Stan would say), a Marvel Grrl to the core, I never read a single issue of GHOST RIDER. I always looked at the covers when I was hunting for the newest issue of X-MEN, and honestly thought RIDER was both too cheesy and had too much of a Hell's Angel's vibe to it.

I grew up in a working class town in the Midwest. Biker guys with flaming skull heads were my neighbors, you know?

But I LOVE comicbooks. Ever since the moment my cousin Laun unwrapped from the mylar the first issue of AMAZING STORIES with Spiderman on the cover, I was hooked. Though I read DC comics, they didn't captivate me the way Marvel stories did.

I think that being unfamilar with the original, but totally into comic book sensiblities helps explain my reaction. Flaming chains? Nifty! Motorcyle that becomes the death ride? OOOOooh, pretty! Nicholas Cage's head exploding into flames? Added bonus!

The other part comes down to Other Me's obsession with Christianity. (See my previous review of Hellblazer). This movie is surprisingly Christian, which may explain it's failure at the box office. I was totally enchanted by the moment when the Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze discovers that he can walk in both worlds. He may have sold his soul to the devil, but because he did it for love God give him face. Plus, I know people are annoyed by Cage, but in this film, I thought he was hillarious. When he's talking to himself about second chances and he notices his hand in glowing... made my day. The whole quirky bit about the Carpenters and monkey videos? What can I say? It worked for me.

Am I telling you to go Netflix this movie? No, probably not. But, Shawn and I kept turning to each other and high-fiving at every explosion (and when the Ranger rides again...? ahhhh! Shiney! I think if you were in the mood for comicbook cool Velvetta, this is totally the film for you.

Publisher's Weekly Review

It's been one of the biggest thorns in my side that I have never been reviewed by Publisher's Weekly -- not me as me, nor me as alternate me. In my more paranoid moments (which as an author, are often), I've begun to take this lack of notice as a personal slight, because I now know several local authors who have not only gotten reviewed, but have gotten the much-coveted starred review. I've also met a few people who work for Publisher's Weekly, and despite what they say, just KNOWING these people has got me exactly nada.

Thus it comes as no surprise to me that MANY BLOODY RETURNS has been reviewed by PW, but with absolutely no mention of _me._

SF/Fantasy/Horror
Many Bloody Returns Edited by
Charlaine Harris and
Toni L.P. Kelner. Ace, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-441-01522-1

This patchwork anthology of 13 new vampire stories proves that heavyweight contributors can give some substance to a relatively slight theme. Harris (the Sookie Stackhouse novels), Kelner (the Laura Fleming mysteries) and 11 other writers with serious vamp credentials craft stories around the concept of birthdays for bloodsuckers. Most of the tales only blow out candles in passing, as with P.N. Elrod's “Grave-Robbed,” which mixes pathos and comedy as vampire PI Jack Fleming busts a phony medium mid-séance, and Tanya Huff's “Blood Wrapped,” in which Henry Fitzroy's search for the ideal gift for a vampire's 40th mixes with his pursuit of a human kidnapper. Christopher Golden takes birthdays to heart in his poignant coming-of-age story, “The Mournful Cry of Owls,” while Kelley Armstrong proposes in “Twilight” that a vampire's real birthday is the date of transformation from mortal to immortal. Fans of the many series vampires on parade here will be undeterred by the variable quality of their adventures. (Sept.)

And, of course, there's that absolutely brilliant story by Tate Hallaway called "Fire and Ice and Linguine for Two." How could you miss that gem, PW? How?

The Blank, Mournful Stare of Horror Films

When did Hollywood horror film characters get reduced to the blank, mournful stare?

Last night, Shawn and I watched part of The Return with Buffy, er, Sarah Michelle Geller. We probably only got about half way into the film before I started to fall asleep. Okay, yes, I was tired, having stayed up until 2:00 am on Monday stargazing with a friend, but the silent, blank, mournful gazes that everyone was casting didn't help.

When did the baleful stare replace characterization in horror films?

I know that it's supposed to be MOODY, having everyone stare deeply into the eye of the camera, but you know what Mr. Asif Kapadia, Director Guy? It's dull! Dull, dull, dull, dull as Mason would say. When scary bits start popping up, all I could think was, "Well, thank god something is happening" not, "Oh, my god, I hope nothing terrible happens to this character I like."

The whole deep, broody stare is a trend I see a lot of in horror films. I'm not saying it can't be done effectively, but I find it better used AFTER a character has been established. You know when you find someone who has previously been engaging and normal and suddenly they're all broody and dark.... well, done right, that can be spooky.

/ Rant

Quick Link/OT

This isn't the sort of thing I usually post here, but I thought some readers might be as fascinated as I am by this...

http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html

The link will take you to an essay called "Viewing American Class Divisions Through Facebook and MySpace." I have to confess that I'm far too old for either MySpace or Facebook, but I found this discussion really interesting, particularly what the army has done in regards to MySpace (it's apparently banned, while Facebook is not. Rank and file soldiers were using MySpace, while officers used Facebook.)

The author talks a lot about how difficult class is to talk about in America, and I think s/he has a valid point, but I'm glad s/he tries anyway. That's why, even though they tend to over simplify the issues, I really appreciate when shows like Battlestar Galatica have their "very special episode" about labor/working class issues.

Book Promotion, A Poll

Mindy Klasky, a fellow SF/F/Romance writer, is running a poll on her LiveJournal about book promotion as part of an on-going discussion a number of SF/F authors are having about what makes people pick up a book. If you have an LJ account, please consider filling out her poll. The more people answer, a better sense we'll have of "the truth."

http://mindyklasky.livejournal.com/103432.html

Thanks.

New Proposals in the Works

I just thought I'd share... I'm currently working on two new book proposals for my editor at Berkley. They would be Garnet Lacey Book #4 (currently titled: DEAD IF I DO) and #5 (currently titled: HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD). Can you guess what might be happening in those books???

In other news, it's hot here. I know, I know, not hot like Texas or Egypt or Peru, but it's hot for Minnesota. I like days that don't exceed 75 F, what can I say? Mason and I had to go to Minnehaha Creek to splash around and cool down today.

Hope the rest of you are doing well and staying cool.

New Review of Dead Sexy

I came back from Indiana to a nice e-mail informing me of a new review of Dead Sexy at Kwips and Kritiques by Joyce. Here's a excerpt of some of the nicest bits:

What I love about Garnet is her perseverance and her unpredictable nature. She usually gives everything a try even if she knows it could backfire. If it wasn’t for her misfortune at times these novels wouldn’t be as addicting as they are. Garnets life is spiced up through her involvement with two utterly delectable vampire beaus, and her indecisive nature on which is the best fit is for her life. She isn’t the only person that would have to live with her choice, and the Goddess within will not let her forget it.