the league of reluctant adults

So I recently sent a press release off to the RT Book Reviews magazine people... The League of Reluctant Adults, a sinister cabal of paranormal romance and urban fantasy authors who occasionally blog, make filthy jokes and prowl the halls of conventions with switchblades (or naked wit, which is just as sharp and safe in carry-on luggage), are converging on the Romantic Times Booklover's Convention in Columbus bearing gifts! This year, the League is offering RT attendees the chance to travel the world of wit and repartee with the limited edition Passport to Snark! Get your passport and snark-hunting badge ribbon from Club RT on either Thursday at 11:00 AM or Friday at 11:00 AM and stalk your prey! Errr... authors. Collect your visa stamp, sticker of snark, or just some dirty joke from each attending Leaguer to complete your world tour of crass humor before RT is over for another year. It’s like Pokemon with pointed language: gotta get ’em all. Fully-stamped passports win their bear...

People ask where authors come up with their ideas. Here’s an example of the strange and tenuous connections that can result in a story. Yesterday, I went to SOKY Book Fest in Bowling Green, KY. While I was there I met several romance authors who will be attending the Romance Writers of America national conference in Nashville this summer. During the conference, several of the writers were talking about past job experiences, which for me, included a former colleague who made my life kind of difficult. We also talked about our inspirations, which includes my mother. We got back from Bowling Green, got the kids settled down. I noticed that the fridge was looking like a bad science project, so I’m going to need to clean it out soon. So all of these elements mixed together while I was sleeping and became the following dream: My former co-worker was loading his stuff into a van because he was going to have to drive down to Nashville with my mom (who was glaring at him like she could make...

And the winner, picked at random, of the ALL CAPS SHADES OF GRAY ARC contest is... WickedLilPixie said... Loved Cat Woman, I mean who else could look so damn good in that cat suit! And Ertha Kitts voice, wow! Congratulations!!! Please email me at J A X aht J A C K I E K E S S L E R daht calm with your postal address, and I'll send you BLACK AND WHITE and the ARC of SHADES OF GRAY.

As mentioned in my previous hasty post, tonight my husband and I went out to see an author extravaganza. My pals Mark Henry , Jeanne Stein , and Jaye Wells had a Q&A and signing at University Bookstore tonight. Author Cory Doctorow was also part of the event, and though I'd never met him before, he proved to be as entertaining as the rest of them. I must admit...wow. This was a super intellectual author talk! Those guys were discussing some pretty deep topics. I think I'm spoiled by my readers going easy on me with questions about movies and what inspires me to write Dimitri. These guys tonight talked about the future of ebooks vs. paper books and how this economy has helped build urban fantasy. There was also some debate on the iPad's usefulness which made me kind of sad for the store's Apple department that was like ten feet behind us. Anyway, it was good times, and afterward, some of us went out for drinks over at Chapel--everyone's favorite mortuary-turned...

Gosh, look at this small box of SHADES OF GRAY advance reading copies. I don't need them, because hell, I know what's in the book. Guess that means I should do a contest or something... Who's your favorite superhero (or supervillain) -- and why? I'll pick a winner at random on Wednesday, April 7, 2010 . And I'll even throw in a copy of BLACK AND WHITE. Have at it!

Cross-posted from my blog because stuff this good can't be contained in just one place. First up, thanks so much for all the people getting Succubus Shadows and giving reviews/feedback! I'm so glad people are enjoying it, and it's great from a publishing side to have the opening week clustered with sales. So, thanks again for everyone's support. Speaking of support, I rode down to Portland last night to go to Mark Henry and Jaye Wells 's signing at Powell's Books in Beaverton. It was a very strategic operation, involving me getting Jaye at the airport (she's from Dallas), then us meeting Mark at his place, and then Mark driving us all down to Portland (which is about 3 hours from Seattle). The schedule was pretty tight to make it on time, but as you can see, we had good omens leading us: Jaye and Mark were every bit as entertaining as you might imagine, though Mark struggled a bit to find a semi-safe excerpt to read (some teen readers of my books were ther...

It's April 1, people. Which means it's THREE MONTHS until my sequel, Tracking the Tempest , releases. Can you believe it? I can't, to be honest. But I'm gonna rock it. So in true rockstar (read, geek) fashion, over at my site I've vlogged some fun news, as well as a READING of an excerpt from Tracking! So get yourself a teaser taster here , first. YAY! I'll be vlogging more excerpts the first of every month until you can hold Jane once again . . . And there'll be contests in future. Hot, hot contest. ;-) Today I thought new Jane was enough of a treat. She's so cute I could just squeeze her!