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Showing posts from March, 2012

Don't Hate Us Because We're Sleek and Beautiful

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Leagurer Mark Henry (aka Daniel Marks ) popped into town this week. I told him the Denver Diner had changed their recipe for Huevos Rancheros and he had to try them. But the real reason Mark visited was to show off the new Gulfstream executive jet that replaces his older Cessna Citation. Writers spread this rumor that we're a bunch of poor mouths, and that publishing pays squat. It's a big, fat lie. For example, Kat Richardson lives on a boat. She'll tell you it's a nice boat of modest size. I've seen her boat. Modest size if you mean this: We frequently jet together for Five-Star getaways. Jeanne Stein , Jaye Wells , and Jackie Kessler spent the weekend in Las Vegas renting the top floor of the Bellagio, doing body-shots of Macallan 64 off the hotel's cabana boys. Dakota Cassidy loves her shiny and bought this Cadillac because it matched her nail polish. Nicole Peeler and Carolyn Crane leased the Space Shuttle for joyrides. Richelle Mead had a stroller c

It's an Urban Fantasy Springtime!

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Happy Spring, Leaguers! Now is the time when werewolves's thoughts turn to mating rituals and vampires enjoy a little sleeping in thanks to Daylight's Savings Time. I think most UFers would profess a preference for autumn with its associations with Halloween and Samhain, but I think Spring is also an equally ripe time to explore in urban fantasy. From the Leprechauns of St. Patrick's Day to the fertility rituals involving eggs and creepy rabbits breaking into our houses, the season is full of festivals and symbols easily incorporated into any UF. After all, it's also the season when many Christians celebrate the moment when their favorite guy returns from the dead. What other Urban Fantasy twists can you think of for Spring?

GUEST POST: J.A. Kazimer!

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Hi folks! Nicole here. I had the pleasure of blurbing J.A. Kazimer's new book CURSES! A F***ed Up Fairy Tale, and thoroughly enjoyed it. She's very League, so I thought I'd bring her here to do a guest blog. She was gracious enough to agree. Enjoy her fruity fruitfulness! Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Off to Murder a Princess I Go! : Telling Stories through the Eyes of a Villain By j.a. kazimer In CURSES! A F***ed Up Fairy Tale, I didn’t set out to murder Cinderella (or any other princess for that matter). Things just sort of happened. I swear it. One minute I’m writing a sweet little fairy tale and the next I’m running Cinderella over with a bus. I tried to swerve. I really did. But before I knew what happened, the poor princess was squished under five tons of bus parts. From there, things just got weird as the narrator, a villain called RJ, took control of the tale. So why write a fairy tale through the eyes of a villain? In many ways I didn’t have a choice. In other, far more f

Tales from the Trenches

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I'm sort of in the middle of promo-release day-blog-tour-o-rama fun, so I'm actually out of things to really talk about. (Which happens when you're guest posting everywhere. Sooner or later you run out of vaguely professional things to say and before you know it you're blogging about what color underwear your characters have on and if they like to butter their corn or any other crazy little detail. And before people ask...yes, Abby wears Hello Kitty undies. Talivar and Ion? Not so much.) Anyway, things are humming along as per usual, but I did want to make mention that Sad Sausage Dogs is now officially up and running. My first comic, Fox & Willow should be going live in the next month or so. As an aside, I get a lot of questions on how I hooked up with my artist. ( Aimo ). In a vaguely appropriate twist given some of the literary news this week, I can honestly say it was fanfic. Now, I'm not going to get on my soapbox about fanfic in general in this po

Lesson learned?

When I was in fourth grade, I got to participate in our local Young Authors Conference. As the name suggests, it was a coming-together of young authors from various schools in southwestern Michigan. Honestly, though, I don't remember much about what happened at the conference. In fact, as I type this, I'm now questioning if it was actually third grade. Well, that's not important. What I do remember is the "book" I wrote and a conversation I had with my teacher. The book, entitled TWO BY TWO, was around ten pages long, written and illustrated by me, with about five sentences per page. It was made of 8.5 x 11 paper folded in half and wrapped in a catchy cover made of wallpaper. Here's the plot. It was about a cardinal and another bird that I referred to as a mackinaw, when I actually meant macaw. Except, what I actually drew was more like a cockatiel. (It's worth noting I have this book somewhere in storage, and if I was a diligent blogger, I'd find it a

LOSS Blog Tour: The Saturday Giveaway

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Who doesn't like a little blatant self-promotion? Especially when there's a giveaway involved? Yes, that's right - LOSS will hit the shelves on March 20, 2012! ( Some places seem to be already shipping.) What's that? You have no idea what I'm talking about? Well, gentle reader, let me enlighten you...with back-cover copy. FIGHT BACK Fifteen-year-old Billy Ballard is the kid that everyone picks on. Things change drastically when Billy learns that years ago, he'd been tricked by Pestilence, the White Rider of the Apocalypse. Now it's Billy's turn to wield Pestilence's Bow and spread sickness through the world. He uses his new power to lashes out at his tormentors...and accidentally causes an outbreak of disease. Horrified by his actions, he wants nothing more than to be rid of the Bow. For that to happen, Billy must track down the previous White Rider, who is hiding in a place where even Death cannot go. By the time Billy finds the man who had tri

All kinds of goodies

1. I have just learned that there is a DJ in my market named Dick Havoc. On the same station there is another DJ named Ruby Cheeks. (This is KDKB in Phoenix.) I give this to you without comment. 2. I'm having a little shindig in celebration of the release of TRICKED in April because I've always wanted to have a shindig. It's at a pub rather than a bookstore; in fact, it's at Rula Bula, the Irish pub mentioned in my books—yes, it's for real! If you'd like to go, I'm giving away two tickets on my blog . 3. Atticus O'Sullivan is being featured in Suvudu's Cage Match. So is Evy Stone (Kelly Meding) and Chess Putnam (Stacia Kane)! They could all use your love and mouse clicks in advancing through the tournament. It's fun to geek out on the Cage Match if you haven't ever done it before. Good times! 4. Del Rey released an e-book only omnibus of the first three books in The Iron Druid Chronicles, in case you or your friends/family/ferrets have not

Devil’s Luck: 7 reasons

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This has been a release week for me, or a mini one anyway: I wrote and self-pubbed a Disilusionists world spin off, Devil’s Luck. Yippee!  Why, why, why would I do such a thing? The top 7 reasons: 1. I originally created the hero of the book, Simon, to be a villain and an enemy for my heroine, Justine, but he got so interesting to me, I had to give him his own book, just to explore his perspective. I love this badass hero! 2. Simon is into gambling, and I’m kind of fascinated with gambling, and the pull of it. I don't do much of it myself, but I like to think about it, and I’ve always seen it as being about more than just easy money. 3.  Duelling possible futures!  4. Fawna's crazy coat. I had to explore why she had all those doo-dads pinned and stapled and sewn to it. Plus, she is a fun and mysterious girl. 5. Simon's crazy coat. Simon is kind of like my badass Ken doll. I love to dress him in outrageous stuff.   6. Self-pub experiment. Even though I have been invol