the league of reluctant adults

First of all, I want to say how much I enjoyed all the guest bloggers during Zombie Week. Such entertaining, great stuff. If I'm honest, I've never really thought much about zombies. I don't watch many horror films because I'm a big pansy, and I've not read a lot of zombie fiction, until reading Mark's books. That said, all of the blogs posted during Zombie Week have inspired my increased interest in this subject. On an entirely different note, I am going to use this blog post to talk about how excited I am to be an urban fantasy writer. Not least because it seems to be a good time to be one. I go to my local Barnes & Noble about once a week, to wander around and fondle the books. Two weeks ago, when I went, there was a large table set up near the cash registers that was labelled "Dark Fantasy," and which had about 20 selections, including quite a few Urban Fantasy writers. This table was in addition to the usual sci-fi/fantasy section at t...

IT'S RED-HEADED STEPCHILD RELEASE DAY! Let's all take to the streets and dance naked! No? Oh, all right. I guess I'll settle for all just buying a copy or five on your lunch breaks. If the store doesn't have copies, I suggest you chain yourself to the front table and refuse to leave until they get some. Or, you know, you could go to another store. I'm just sayin'. Also, don't forget, I'm taking part in a totally awesome podcast today with Jocelyn Drake and Mark Henry. We'll be dishing about the writing life with fab editor Diana Gill. You can even call in and heckle. Here's a link for details . I'm off to do the running man in the middle of my nearest bookery. Carry on.

The hubby and I are avid hikers. (Example: Sunday if you'd been stalking us--and thanks a ton for not going there--you'd have found us trekking across federally managed lands in Indiana despite the fact that it was, by turns, snowing and raining.) This is factoid number one that you need to know. Here's the second: I gotta drink a lot of water, because the medication I take to prevent migraines can be tough on the kidneys if I don't. Which means, yeah, many trips to the ladies room. Which can get kinda scarce in the middle of freaking nowhere. This is why I feel we should offer outdoor facilities a great deal more respect than we currently do. For instance, what's the deal with bathroom vandals? Really? You had to rip the seat off? Why couldn't you just write on the wall like the rest of the world's frustrated poets? If you had, then girls like me wouldn't have been left to prance their way down the trail in hopes of finding a McDonald's p...

Copied over from mah blog, because I'm trying to get a wide sampling of opinions: I need monsters! More specifically, your opinions on monsters. Because I am starting an entirely new proposal and I need an entirely new crop of things that lurk under your bed/outside your window/sitting on your nightstand watching you sleep like Edward Cullen. I am interested in the opinion of readers far and wide. What monsters would you like to see more of in speculative fiction? (Angels count. Personally, I find the concept behind angels indescribably creepy. So do humans with monster abilities such as damphir and sorcerers.) What monsters are tired (and yes, we all know the market is full of vampires, but they still sell, so I’m putting a moratorium on this answer.) Optional bonus internet cookie* answer: What monster would you like to see me, specifically, tackle? I await your monstrous answers… And I do! *Disclaimer: The cookie is a lie.

Whee! I'm back on the League! After my month-long banishment, it's good to be back. **offers Jaye chocolates and whiskey and flowers** Yes, Jaye is the god of all that is Blogger, and she got me back on. All hail! So. I had the most frakked up dream last night. Think of a slasher horror flick in the spirit of Scream ...but as imagined by Paul Judd. Seriously. I was in this goofball horror film (except, you know, it was real) and we (the other intended victims and I) were fleeing from Psycho Dude With Sharp Implement. We were in a mall, and as we're dashing through the shoppers, we stumble into a bookstore (natch). And there I see copies of Hell's Belles, stacked in huge piles and shrink-wrapped as these long packages. Like 20 copies, one on top of the other, all wrapped together in plastic shipping stuff. Here's the whoa part: on the top of the pile, the cover clearly said: Coming June 25, the TV movie, starring Jennifer Grey! I woke up and was like, "Whaaaaa?...

Drumroll please.... To refresh your memory, the assignment was: If you could spend one unbridled night with any fictional character in the world, who would it be? Why? What would you do? Turns out, we’re going to have TWO winners. Mario and I reviewed all the entries and here are our choices. Winner #1. Jennifer Rinehart! I hate vampires. No, not just because they drink blood and defile the innocent, no, I mean I really, really hate them. I know what your'e thinking; what a kook, she might as well say she hates leprechauns or dragons. But I mean it in the most personal way. Vampires are ruining my life. So if I had a choice of who I would want to spend the evening with it would be with Abraham Van Helsing. Maybe he could help me rid Powell's Books of the blood sucking ghouls hanging out around the cookbook section (don't ask me why they're there, they just are). Sure, they look cute and non-threatening, but I'm not willing to risk eternal damnation to get a copy of ...

So here I was typing merrily along on my zombie novel when I was suddenly faced with a very important decision. There’s a dog in my book and he jumps into a horde of zombies… do the zombies go for him? I think this is an issue many zombie writers face: to infect or not to infect the animals of the world. I honestly had no problem infecting my lovely little dog (even though there is the age old adage that no dogs shall be killed in books else face the wrath of fans forevermore I wondered if it counted if said dog can come back from the dead… though I guess I Am Legend kind of answered that question). But then I started to think about it some more. If dogs could become infected, what about all the other animals? And while zombie cows would be totally awesome, I think zombie mosquitoes would totally suck (query: since roaches are impossible to kill anyways, aren’t they basically already zombies?). Naturally, because I’ll take any excuse not to write, this got me thinking. What would ...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that all zombie authors like zombies. Except of course when you’re me and you accidentally write a zombie book, not really expecting it to get published and then suddenly find yourself being asked a whole heap of zombie related questions that you have absolutely no answers for. See where I’m going with this? The thing is that there are many, many reasons why I’m not a zombie fan. Not least because two weeks ago I had a blog party to celebrate the release of ZOMBIE QUEEN OF NEWBURY HIGH and I though it might be in keeping with the theme to invite some zombies along. As it turns out this was a bad idea. Did they clean up after themselves? No, they did not. Did they hold back from eating all of my guests? Er, that would be no. Did they even bother to get me a lovely hostess gift for not complaining about all the stray body parts that kept turning up around my house? Again with a big fat no. But apart from making bad house guests, the main reason I do...

S.G. Browne, the author of Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament (Broadway), sat down recently with several of the stars of Breathers for a little Q&A: Jerry: How about a little T&A instead, dude? (snickers) Andy: Don’t mind Jerry. He has a permanent, post-mortem erection. Jerry: (popping an Altoid) Terminal boner. Popular with the ladies. S.G.: (ignoring Jerry) So what’s it like to be a zombie? Andy: Not that much different than working for corporate America. Except you don’t earn a paycheck. And you have to worry about getting infested with maggots… Tom: And fraternity pledges dismember you. (massages his empty right arm socket) S.G.: When did you first realize you were no longer among the living? Jerry: At my funeral. Totally freaked out my parents. I’ve got the video if you want to watch. Tom: When I woke up in the mortuary and the mortician was packing my external body cavities with autopsy gel. Jerry: Dude. S.G.: What do you miss most about b...

Hey all, Market Square Coffee in downtown Paducah will be hosting a signing for me at 11 a.m. May 9. We'll have a signing, door prizes, free stuff and, well, coffee. More information to come.

I am all over the internet today! And not in the embarrassing "inappropriate photos on Facebook" way. Check out these fun interviews with people patient enough to talk to me. Cat and Muse Amberkatze's Book Blog

Stacey Jay here.... When Mark Henry asked me to think up something for the League blog that was both Funny and Zombie...well...I was a bit daunted. That's no small task. Mark is, as we all know, the king of Funny Zombie. As a mere handmaiden in the court of his awesome, fashion-forward, undeadness, I felt unprepared. Minutes after accepting the blog-op, I freaked out, had an adult beverage (because even YA writers can do that...as long as we're of age in our given country and it's five o'clock somewhere), then did what any self-respecting, sleep-deprived mom would do: I turned to my children. (Because they're funny. The four year old, anyway. The one causing me sleep deprivation is only four months old and not up to Hilarity just yet. But he's working on it.) So here are a list of Funny Zombie things my Four Year old thought should be in my next book: 1. Zombie Karaoke Beacause Singing + Zombie = Funny (If we could time travel, we could go to this and that would...

So today starts zombie week here at the League. And, of course, my brain decided to turn that little fact into a nightmare of epic proportions last night. Now, you might be thinking, "Wait, don't you write about vampires and demons?" Yes, I do, quite happily in fact. But there's the rub, I don't find bloodsuckers scary and the demons I write are heavily cloaked in sarcasm and humor so my innate Catholic fear of all things demonic is mollified. But zombies? Crikey. Take my dream, for example. I was alone, driving at night through a strange town. Up ahead, I see emergency vehicles scattered across the road. I hear a radio report of strange goings on. I check my gas gauge and, finding I have half a tank, get the hell out of dodge. But then I get lost, missing my exit. And then things get really weird. My perspective shifts from one character to another each being chased by family members or friends who were infected. Each alone and terrified and literally running f...

All this week, the League will play host to flesh eating hoardes of undead and the people who love them. There'll be guest blogs aplenty, contests, and sundry zombie madness. So swing by everyday for ghoulish gags and fiendish fun, also evil. There'll be evil. Lots. Cheers!

For a different take on the Paranormal Bender Tour... I'm traveloguing !

And I'm wicked good with technology and just realized that I have the power of the black and white in my iPhoto.  So I've posted the same pics in black and white and I think there's a much clearer winner.  What do you think?

And since Cherie mentioned it, pop on over to The Biting Edge to catch Mario's action...well, at least what passes as Mario's action. I would love to have been a fly in that car during this trip! PS He probably won't mention it, but Jailbait Zombie made #5 on the Denver Post Bestseller list! Way to go, my friend.

(Someone asked. Down below. Just now, I totally saw it, yeah.) Yes, the Paranormal Bender Tour was a rockin' success; and now me, Mario Acevedo, Mark Henry, and Caitlin Kittredge are all safely back in our comfy little routines.* We all survived nicely, no one killed anybody, and the week-long pimping endeavor was blessedly free of drama -- while being chock-full of friendly readers, bookstore operators, and California fruit checkpoint ladies. At the risk of appearing opportunistic, I will now point you to my post on the subject -- not because I'm trawling for traffic, but because I'm too lazy to type all that crap out again. But you should still click it. Totally. There are pictures. INCRIMINATING pictures. * Read: Drinking too much at home, instead of drinking too much in exotic locations.

Hey Seattle-area Leaguers ... tomorrow evening at 7:00 p.m. you'll find me and fellow Reluctant Adult Caitlin Kittredge at the Historic University Theater in the U-district. "What for?" you might ask. Well, I'll tell you: We're going to be reading our brains out, which will be highly convenient for our fellow funtime guests -- zombie improvisational comedy troup the Blood Squad. Ten dollar cover for an hour of scary stories and hella-wacky improv. (Tickets are available at the door.) Come on down, have a drink, have a laugh or two, and keep an eye open for the hungry undead. We'll leave a light on for you.

Which author photo should I use? Help?   Thanks!

...the second rudest thing you can ask a woman? "How old are you?" # (I know I promised this post over a week ago, but that silly Real Life thing kept me sorta busy. Better late than never, right?) # Everyone remember Nicole Peeler's post, This Time I'm REALLY Talking About Sex? No? Then click on the link, read it, absorb it (and don't forget the comment section). It was a fun and informative conversation that spawned a brief sidebar. Some of those comments got me thinking (and I do tend to ramble, so apologies right off). Since, by definition, the majority of protagonists in YA are teenagers, I'm going to limit my post to adult fiction (no, not that adult fiction!) in the realms of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. silveradept: I'm still wondering whether the generally-older age of characters in UF lends itself toward the attitude that sex is okay. Kat Richardson: I'm not sure about the older characters though. I have noticed more character...

Congratulations to Jackie Ballway, who was the first person to answer all 10 vampire trivia contest questions correctly. She gets a free signed copy of NICE GIRLS DON'T HAVE FANGS, a signed cover flat and promotional bookmarks. For those who are curious, the correct answers are: 1) Who sired who among Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Angel, Drusilla, Spike and Darla? (Provide a complete family tree, V sired X, who sired Y, who sired Z.) Darla sired Angel, who sired Drusilla, who sired Spike. 2) What were the names of the actors who played Lucy’s three suitors in the ill-fated 1992 version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula- also known as the movie that introduced the world to Keanu Reeves’ dread British accent. Cary Elwes, Richard E. Grant, Billy Campbell 3) Who was the master vampire of fictional Santa Carla, California? What was his profession. Max. Video Store Owner. 4) Who was the first vampire to appear on Buffy? Darla 5) What is the profession of Hannibal King from the Blade comics? Private...

So I totally dropped the ball on my interview with Pruitt.  It's what I get for trying to get something done while in NYC, living off of cocktails and sax(ophone).   Because I've been a naughty girl, I will let you all laugh at me by posting a rather ridiculous photo taken of me while I was in NYC. I am really short, only 5'2".  But I am not ACTUALLY a dwarf, as this picture suggests.  My friend, who took the picture, says that her favorite part is my feet.  Which are ridiculously small, anyway, and which she managed somehow to foreshorten, along with the rest of me.  So thanks, Kristin.  And thanks to Greg, for being born really, really tall.   So go ahead, have a good chuckle at my expense and sorry for dropping that ball.   If you are all nice about it I might just go ahead and post the one where I'm dressed as an oompah loompah.  And yes, I did bring sexy back.  Thank you.

I am the repository for all useless trivia. And I wish to share my burden with you. As the calendar counts down to the big release date, March 30, I will be hosting a VAMPIRE TRIVIA CONTEST on the Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs blog. I will post ten trivia questions based on vampire books, comics and movies at 7 p.m. (CST) Friday, March 20. Email your answers to jane.jameson@hotmail.com The first person to send me all 10 correct answers will win a free signed copy of NICE GIRLS DON'T HAVE FANGS, a signed cover flat, and promotional bookmarks. I will ship internationally. Any questions?

I'm thinking anyone who visits a site called The League of Reluctant Adults has to have considered the possibility at one time or another. Could people travel through time? Where would they go? Who would they try to meet? If this was possible, what impact would that have on the past? The future? And, perhaps most important, the variety of Blizzard flavors at Dairy Queen? I'm not sure I'd take the leap. Grace isn't one of my virtues, and sure as the Time Guide told me to stay on the path, I'd fall off and smash a beetle. Bam. End of the world as we know it. However, I would like to visit a few places, just to see if my theories hold. Like, I'm pretty sure many sites that seem simple and romantic now (like eighteenth century England) smelled strongly of perspiration and poo. I'd also be quite interested to see if anybody had the majority of their teeth beyond the age of twenty back then. And if I could meet anybody from history--well, I don't k...

Nicole: Hi Jeffrey!  Great to have you here at the League.  Tell us a little about the film? Jeffrey: Sure.  It’s entitled The Last Lullaby .  It’s co-written by the creator of The Road to Perdition and stars Tom Sizemore (who many people know from Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down ) and Sasha Alexander (who many people recognize from NCIS , Dawson’s Creek , and most recently the films Yes Man and He’s Just Not That Into You . The film is about this unusual bond that is formed between a hitman and a librarian.  And if I had to put it into a category, I’d call it a crime drama. Nicole: That’s a very UF-ey phenomenon, the “normal” (often nerdy) female protag and a rather murderous, usually supernatural male.  What was it about the original story that inspired you? Jeffrey: I think more than anything the fact that it fit in with exactly what I was looking to do.  I’ve always wanted to make a hybrid-type film.  One that had both some commercial potential but that would also allow ...

So yes, last night I finished the third Downside book, and I'm mourning over on my own blog, so you can pop over and check out my insecure whining and self-pity there if you like. But something really cool happened Saturday night, and even cooler last night, and I'm still quite pleased about it. While writing part of the Climactic Battle scene Saturday night, I suddenly realized that I'd earlier skirted just up to the edge of something with my Bad Guy. I'd hinted at it but hadn't come out with it. Because I didn't know. I'd played "Show, don't tell" with MYSELF. And once I realized the thing about him, I not only had a HUGELY more exciting climax, and a HUGELY creepier book (once I go back and hint more strongly), but a title for the book: DEVOURER OF GHOSTS. Which is so awesome. I don't know how this happens. Last night as I wrote the second half of the Huge Climactic Battle, I had my heroine doing something which she would normally do; a ...

Mario and gang. I keep expecting pictures or a blog entry or SOMETHING!! Where are they? Did you guys catch Castle? Any comments. Overall, I liked it. A few clinkers, like the detective handling evidence with her bare hands, but Nathan was great. Loved James Patterson and Steven Cannell as his poker playing friends. Rumor has it that Sue Grafton and Stephen King may make cameo appearances in later episodes. Now for some good news/bad news. As my writer friends can attest—nothing is better than a story that is going well. I find myself in that happy situation now. I’m working on the sixth book, Chosen, and I can’t type fast enough. It’s scary. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’ve devoted much less time to accumulating blog stuff. So this issue will be abbreviated—we’re going to visit Michele Bardsley and J. F. Lewis in their lairs. And I’m going to remind you of the contest at the end, but that’s pretty much going to be it for this week. There is one other thing. I’m running...

Hey Everybody! I have a special guest interview with the fab-a-lous Jaye Wells, author of RED-HEADED STEPCHILD, on my blog: singleundeadfemale.blogspot.com/2009/03/special-guest-interview-jaye-wells.html And Bitten By Books is hosting a contest, where you could win a free, signed copy of NICE GIRLS DON'T HAVE FANGS, a signed cover flat, bookmarks and that tastebud defying Southern delicacy, RC and a case of Moonpies! Enter before 3 p.m. March 14. bittenbybooks.com/?p=5010

I had a pretty long "awkward adolescent" phase. It should be over any day now. I wasn't exactly Carrie White in high school, but somehow, working for the student newspaper and playing the tuba in the marching band didn't result in wild popularity. People say that high school is the best time of your life. I say high school is what you spend the rest of your life in therapy for. So imagine the downright tingly feelings of vindication I felt when my high school newspaper called to ask if I would give an interview on the books. This is the moment all band geeks rehearse for all their lives, revenge on the people who didn't think they were funny in high school. I pictured myself starting the interview off with "Suck it, haters, now I'm PAID to be funny." But student reporter Jordan Price was just too nice and organized to be treated to that. So I was honest. I confessed to my "middle of the road" social status, praised the English teacher...

So I had this book come out on Tuesday and I suppose I should have been all over the place shouting about it (You can read the first chapter of ReVamped over in the forums , BTW), but instead I've been mostly knuckled down trying to get book three ready to ship off to my agent so that Shawna can whip out her mystic evaluator and say "It's perfect" or "Needs a few fixes" or "OMFG! Why the hell am I your agent? What is wrong with you? Why did you write this? I may be sick." And I suppose that I could be writing something clever about why I think that a vampire car would get more miles to the gallon if it was running on an oil executive's blood or why it's really funny to have a vampire break up a prostitute ring run by pint-sized vampiric pimps, but I'm not. Can you tell that I like to bury the lead? Instead, I wanted to take a moment to be amazed by the impact fans can have on the venues they love. I'm not sure how many of you read ...

Today is just a teaser, or perhaps I should call it a PREVIEW, of what I’m going to be doing next week.  For next week will be Hollywood Week here at the League, in honor of my film rights agent, Ian Polonsky, of McIntosh and Otis.  Who has promised me MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, all the GOLD-PLATED CAVIAR I can eat, and a HUMMER LIMO THAT DRIPS EXTRA GASOLINE ONTO THE PAVEMENT, because that’s HOW RICH I will be when Tempest Rising is turned into a mega-blockbuster starring Charlize Theron as Jane (she’ll hunch!) and Tom Cruise as Ryu (we’ll stick him in a pair of stacks!).  Tom Cruise, after all, can play ANY vampire.  It may APPEAR to be inappropriate casting, we may even FEEL it’s inappropriate casting while we watch it, but we are ALL just being glib.   In honor of Hollywood Week, I’m going to be doing two things.  First I will be telling you about a movie starring Tom Sizemore that was made by a Shreveport native and that was shot entirely in the Shreveport area.  Jeffrey Goodman is on...

My dad was the jokemeister. Every time I came to visit he'd meet me at the door with a one-liner. He's been gone eleven years now, but I like to think some of his humor lives on in my books. I miss trading jokes though. So I've got one for you. Why did the chicken cross the road? To show the possum it could be done. Too lame? Okay, how about this one? What do you call a werewolf with mange? Human. Or . . . Two cannibals were eating a clown. One said to the other, "Does this taste funny to you?" Didja groan? That was the point, silly! Now you've gotta outdo me! Hit me, baby, I'm ready for some giggles!

So everyone keeps talking about the five-minute sex scene, replete with blue wang, in Watchmen.  Keeping in mind that I have a refrigerator magnet that declares, “I Heart Porn,” (it is helping my Xena magnet hold up a wedding invite at the moment), this has done nothing to decrease my desire to see the film. In the meantime, a lot of people brought up the fact that UF tends to be sexy in their comments to my post about what IS urban fantasy.  My own editor, gods bless her, called my series, “Horny.”  She wasn’t referring to my Satyr, although Caleb does sport very large horns, indeed. I’ve also made mention of my lovely student and VOXer, Kayla Beck, who, when I told her I wrote UF, said, “Is that hor-mance, like Anita Blake?”  I nearly cried laughing.  It was the perfect appellation.  I told her to stick comic before horror and romance, and you had my book in a nutshell, sistah.   Not all UF, of course, has the sexysexy.  That said, I gotta admit I like my UF with sex.  I’m sorr...