Pimpage!

It’s that time of the month, folks. Time for me to bust out the pimp hand. Today I’m slapping some love onto both Stacia Kane and Kelly Meding. Way to release some books, ladies!

Stacia’s release is the latest in her Downside series. I haven’t had a chance to read these, yet, with the move and all. But I’m literally itching to get my hands on them. And because I’ve been handling a lot of Lysol wipes, but that’s another story. Here are all three books in the series, in all their beauty!

Yay for Stacia! Everyone says these rock, and I LOVE Stacia’s Megan Chase series. So I can’t wait to have time to read them!

Also out is Kelly Meding’s sequel, As Lie The Dead!

Let’s hear it for Kelly!

In other news, while I was moving everyone and their mother went to ComicCon. I’m not bitter at all that I didn’t get to go. Really. Truly. *dies a little inside* Next year, however, I am TOTALLY THERE. Oh yes. I am there. In the meantime, Mario Acevedo did a great job blogging about the madness, including a little love for TR from Orbit’s Lauren Panepinto.

As far as moving is concerned, I’m just about officially done. Not with unpacking, but in terms of my mental engagement. I’m about ready to start chucking boxes out of the window. Luckily, however, I’m nearly finished. I’m just waiting on some bookshelves and I can tackle my office. I hope they get here before I leave for Seattle . . .

Which is Thursday! I’m very excited to see all my Edinburgh friends, to hang out with my fellow Leaguers, and to see Seattle. I’ve never been!

But I’m also starting to miss my Shreveport friends, very much. So I’m wearing the Zombieland shirt that Wendell gave me, in honor of them. Miss you guys!

Published on July 27, 2010 in Pimpage!. 10 Comments

We Have a Wiener!

The Contest Can has spoken! Well, that’s actually a lie. The Contest Can WOULD have spoken, but I have no idea which box it’s packed in. So, instead, the internet randomizer has spoken, and I have a wiener for my Tracking the Tempest contest!

The wiener of all this good stuff:

Is Elie N! Yay for Elie! I’m very happy she won, as she’s been a huge supporter of Jane from the beginning. So, thanks for playing to ALL of you, and huge congrats to Elie.

That said, Elie, you won’t be getting your prize for a few weeks . . . it’s probably in the same box as the Contest Can. ;-) But I’ll send it as soon as I’ve unearthed it, I promise. Just email me your address to iheartselkies(at)gmail(dot)com.

And I’ll blog soon with some more moving updates, as well as my upcoming trip to Seattle. If you’re in that area, don’t forget Mark Henry and I will be doing a signing. There’s more info under  Upcoming Appearances, at the top of the page.

Published on July 26, 2010 in Appearances, Contests and Tracking the Tempest. 6 Comments

Pennsylvania or Bust!

So this has been a dramatic few days. I’m gonna go ahead and bullet point this week’s events:

  • Movers came and packed up my house. I am now living with a card table, one chair, my pilates ball, and a blow up mattress.
  • While I was running, someone broke into the Hippie Spaceship, smashing my rear passenger’s window.
  • I received my publication money for Tracking the Tempest. Of which, I still haven’t actually SAT DOWN AND LOOKED AT A COPY because I’ve been so flat out crazy busy.
  • I received, signed, and sent back my contracts for books #4, 5, & 6.
  • I received, edited, and sent back my final pass manuscript for book #3, Tempest’s Legacy.
  • Had about a million lunches/dinners/farewell gatherings. I HATE MOVING AND I HATE SAYING GOODBYE. So I don’t! I say, “See y’all later,” because I will. ;-)

There was some other shit, but that’s the big stuff. I’ve managed not to have a nervous breakdown, although when I waddled up to find my window broken I nearly succumbed. But the good thing about always living on my own and traveling around on my own so much is that it has made me pretty resilient. . . mostly because if I do curl up in a ball, there’s no one there to poke me with a stick until I get back up. ;-)

(For those of you who know how commitment phobic I am, that’s actually the only reason I think I might one day settle down . . . so there’s someone around to poke me with a stick if I collapse. It’s on the same imagery-continuum as Bridget Jones’s “Eaten by Alsatians.” And, yes, my friends get mad at me when I say things like this.)

All in all and despite the car drama, I’m very well and very much looking forward to getting to my new apartment. That said, I’ll basically have enough time to unpack and maybe have a meal before I’m off to Seattle to do some book stuff (including a book signing with Mark Henry that y’all should come to) and attend my friends’ wedding.

But then I’ll go back to PA, and my new life! I’ll be really busy with orientation at my new college, as well as prepping my new courses. I’m going to have to do a lot of Computer Things for them, which makes me a bit nervous. But I think it’ll actually be straightforward once I sit down to figure it out. That said, I know there will be Much Swearing and probably a few Threatening Fist Shakes. Definitely some Moments of Panic.

So that’s me for the next few weeks: move, Seattle, prep for teaching. I’ll also be fitting in some Jane time. I’ve put Eye of the Tempest on hold, for a bit, mostly because I had abso-fucking-lutely NO idea what the middle bit was going to contain. I have the beginning  fifty pages (which I think is the strongest opener I’ve ever written. Although that doesn’t say much, as my openings have always sucked and gotten cut, entirely). I also know what a couple of scenes in the middle will be, and I know my AWESOME ending. But, yeah, that was it.

Luckily, I sent forth a plea to my AMAZING Ideas Factory, Christie Ko, who is beautiful and wonderful and BRILLIANT. She gave me some great ideas that have been percolating away in the dreaded brain pan . . . and I think everything is coming together. So I’ll work on my outline on the road, and then git to writin’ again soon.

In the meantime, there’s still people sending me adorable pics of Jane in the Wild. Here’s Angie’s pic of both books being guarded over by Tofu, the Vegetarian Zombie:

Is it a zombie meerkat, or am I seeing things?

As if to combat the last post’s iPad pics, Kristy sent in Kindle pics of Jane. She looks stunning even in black and white, if I do say so myself:

I think the most dramatic story about purchasing Tracking (besides the broken-car-cord-thingie) comes from Suzanne, who actually left the dentist’s office, after having something painful done to her teeth, and walked across the parking lot to the bookstore to buy Tracking. That’s real commitment, people! Here she is, nursing her sore tooth as she holds Jane, and with it a less-sore picture of Suzanne with TR. Glad you’re feeling better, Suzanne, and I hope the book didn’t make it hurt any worse!

Finally, we have pictures from Raelena and Katia, of Jane lounging about like the strumpet she is. But she’s our strumpet, and we like her that way!

Thanks to everyone who has sent in pics, sent in kind words about the book, and sent me message about my move. I appreciate it so much . . . you guys make everything worth it!

See y’all in Pennsylvania! ROAD TRIP! ;-)

Published on July 18, 2010 in Appearances, Contests, Eye of the Tempest, My Travels, Nicole Peeler, Tempest Rising and Tracking the Tempest. 6 Comments

RomConRiffic!

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of going to RomCon, in Denver. It was fabulous! I met loads of fans and had such a great time. When I first arrived, I immediately hooked up with the effervescent Heather Osborn, of Tor. I adore Heather, and we always have a great time together. Here’s us posing in a Romance cover . . . that inexplicably (to me, at least) involves a baby. I am the baby:

Besides Heather, loads of great peeps were at RomCon. On the shuttle bus from the airport, I ran into an editor from Grand Central’s Forever line (a sister imprint of Orbit’s), named Amy Pierpont. The first thing Amy said to me was, “Are you an author? You have romance writer hair,” which cracked me up. When I told her I wrote for Orbit, she was kind enough to invite me to dinner that night with other writers from Hachette (our parent company). The dinner was awesome. We went to this super swank place called 1515 that was rocking the nouvelle cuisine. Which is apparently French for “stick a fake syringe in that shiz.” For example, there was an appetizer of melon, prusciotto and cheese that arrived with a small syringe of balsamic vinegar stuck into it. But when I ordered my dessert–a root beer float–I was more than a little shocked to see this bad boy come at me:

That said, it was delicious. And I had a lovely time chatting with Amy and the other writers from Forever.

Mario Acevedo, my fellow Leaguer and a native of Denver, met me at the restaurant during dessert then took me on a tour. Of course, it was a Denver Tour, Mario Style, which means it involved stories of murder and mayhem, the most memorable of which was the murder of a midget crackwhore named Lil Bit, whose body was discovered shoved in a box behind some bar. Mario claims her death was investigated by a detective named Snowhite, something so entirely ridiculous it has to be the truth.

On the second day of the con, we were really busy. I met Meljean Brook, who was really sweet and interesting. I also hung out with Nalini Singh, which was super fun as I’m a HUGE fan of both of her series. At the Con, itself, I did speed dating, charades, and tons of other events that meant I got a lot of time to chat with readers and fans. We also did a huge signing, which was very fun except for a wee mix up with my name:

That Friday night I was a bit of a bore and went to bed really early. But that was partly because we had big plans for the next day.

On Saturday, Nalini was nice enough to do a signing with me, Carolyn Crane, and Jeanne C. Stein at the Broadway Book Mall. Heather Osborn came along, and she took us out for a gorgeous lunch. The signing itself was very fun, and we signed lots of stock. Heather took this fab picture of us all in action:

The ladies in action! on Twitpic

After the signing, Mario had made huge plans for us involving a restaurant called d Bar–which specializes in desserts–and the absent-but-attending-in-spirit Juliet Blackwell, who was represented by a parfait. Basically, Mario’s intentions were to get us to act out eating Juliet’s parfait, because he’s subtle and not pervy at all. Ever. Right Mario?

Here’s the action sequence, involving Carolyn Crane, Juliet’s Parfait, and moi. We go from diving into Juliet’s parfait, to a little post-parfait snuggle, to an empty parfait glass wearing a witch hat (which is obviously a metaphor for something very suggestive, and stuff).

Needless to say, there was much shenigans. After dinner, Jeanne took Nalini and Heather back to the hotel, while Carolyn and me went out with Mario. We went for a walk in this gorgeous park, then I found my ultimate dive bar, called the Satire Lounge. Yes, Satire. Amazing!

It was absolutely hilarious, with PBR on tap for only $1.75. My inner hipster came out to play. I also had the honor of sitting next to the craziest sumbitch in the bar, who was filthy and bearded and doing some serious chair dancing to Michael Jackson.

Carolyn and I stayed at the Sheraton in Downtown Denver, and it was a very, very nice hotel. Seriously swank. on Sunday morning, Mario was so sweet as to pick us up to take us to brunch, then give us a ride to the airport:

Full service Mario! Both Jeanne and Mario were unbelievably hospitable to us, and I know we all had a great time hanging out with them and attending RomCon. I loved meeting all my old and new fans, and talking with the Romance community, in general, about what they read and why.

So thanks for inviting us, RomCon! And I look forward to attending next year, hopefully. Not least because I absolutely loved Denver and would love to see some more of it.

Up next is my move to PA and my trip to Seattle. Never a dull moment… ;-)

Published on July 14, 2010 in Appearances and Conventions. 16 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Jane and You are Friends!

Hello my friends! Everything is pretty hectic here at Casa Peeler . . . mostly because Casa Peeler is being uprooted to Greensburg, PA. I hate the actual act of moving, obviously, but I’m very excited for my new job and my new apartment. It’s HUGE:

I have been trawling furniture stores looking for dining sets, and of course I’m obsessed with two from Needless Markup. I could sell a kidney and maybe buy the chairs! Who needs two kidneys?

Before I sell any of my organs for hoity-toity furniture, however, I will be in Denver, for RomConvention 2010. I’m super excited to bond with my fellow leaguers Mario Acevedo, Jeanne Stein, and Carolyn Crane. I’m also ridiculously excited to meet Nalini Singh, because I’m a huge nerdy fan of hers.

For those of you attending RomCon, here’s my schedule:

Friday

2:00 PM 2:50 PM Q&A Author Chat – UF/RE Authors Steamboat

3:00 PM 3:50 PM Memory Lane Convention Center E

Saturday

9:00 AM 9:50 AM Speed Date an Author Steamboat

10:00 AM 10:50 AM Monsters & More Semi-Charades Breckenridge

12:00 PM 2:00 PM Book Fair

3:30 PM 4:20 PM Betwixt and Between–Paranormal Authors Tea Breckenridge

Sunday

9:00 AM 9:50 AM Author Avenue Convention Center

Denver signing with Nalini Singh, Carolyn Crane, Jeanne Stein and me. Details are here, and there’s a Facebook invite, here.

In other news, Tracking the Tempest has been out for over a week now. I think she’s doing pretty well, and it also seems like a lot more people have picked up Tempest Rising because they’ve heard of or seen Tracking. Which Nikki likey. And I trace this success to my readers. I know you guys talk about the books, lend them to friends, review them, et cetera.

So I heart you guys! And I love when you send me your photos of Jane.

Here’s Aimee’s Corgi, Wilson, with Jane. That’s an adorable dog! I love how his paws frame the books perfectly. He’s like a fluffy book stand!

In a dramatic turn of events, Amber Y. suffered a broken alternator something or other (not much of a car person!) on the way to buy Tracking. Here’s Jane with the evidence:

Becky sent a picture of her cat with Jane, and Heather C. sent one of Jane with her pup, Harley:

Dawn sent pics of Tracking from North Dakota. Here are two with the capital building, or, as Dawn called it, “The Penis on the Prairie” framed in the background. I’m still giggling.

Qwill took a picture of Tracking with two of her own sows:

Jessica S. and Zita sent in pics of their books, as did Jessica W. Hers was autographed!

Melissa already has Jane housed in her very crowded bookcase (very nice!) and Lauren B. made it look like Jane is swimming on her sheets.

Finally, here’s Jane on an iPad. She’s so fancy!

Very cool! Thanks, you guys, for all the pictures and all the support. I really appreciate you taking the time to let me know you enjoyed the books.

Viva la Jane! ;-)

Published on July 8, 2010 in Conventions, Pimpage! and Tracking the Tempest. 5 Comments

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACKING THE TEMPEST!

I am more than happy to announce the official launch of Jane True Book 2: Tracking the Tempest! YAY!

I still can’t believe I have one book out on shelves; the idea of having two just makes me giggle. And I couldn’t have done any of this without all the amazing fans who’ve made writing Jane so satisfying.

So I’m holding a contest. This time, it’s all organized around Things Jane Likes. Here’s a picture of the prize pack:

As I said, it contains Things Jane Likes, which can be broken down (in no particular order) into: Swimming, home, food, sex, and reading.

Swimming: You get a postcard of the Old Sow, direct from Eastport.

Home: A pirate-themed T-shirt in Large from Eastport.

Food: A cookbook from my favorite celebrity chef, Ina Garten

Sex: Saucy post-it notes, From Him and From Her

Reading: A 25$ gift card to Barnes and Noble

There’s also a little map of Boston, so you can follow Jane’s adventures in Tracking the Tempest.

All very fun, and all very Jane.

You can enter the contest in the following ways:

(x1 entry) Comment on this post to be entered automatically

(x5 entries each for each copy) Show me proof you’ve bought Tempest OR Tracking (email to iheartselkiesATgmailDOTcom a photo or screenshot of a receipt or a picture of the book at home–let me know whether or not I can post it on the blog if it’s a picture of the book at home)

(x3 entries each) Provide in comments links to reviews of Tracking the Tempest OR Tempest Rising you’ve done on your blog, Amazon, Goodreads, etc.

(x2 entries each) Follow me on Twitter or Facebook (if you already follow me, just let me know)

(x1 entry each medium) for pimping this post (Facebook, Twitter, blog post, etc)

I will choose a winner at random on Monday, July 26th at 12:00 AM Eastern time. Contest is international, cuz I love my non-American fans just as much.

To my established fans (all 13 of you :-) : thank you SO MUCH for your support and kind words. You guys make this writing gig worth it!

And to people new to my site: Thanks for coming by and I hope you like it here. Jane’s got lots of adventures to come, and I hope you’ll come along for the ride!

HAPPY RELEASE DAY JANE AND COMPANY! *pops the bubbly*

Published on July 1, 2010 in Contests and Tracking the Tempest. 76 Comments

The Day Before The Day!

Today’s June 30th, which is the day before the OFFICIAL LAUNCH of Tracking the Tempest!

I know there’s been loads of congrats and interviews posted and stuff like that, which I totally appreciate and adore, but my technical, Orbit-declared release date is July 1st, so that’s what I’m going with, people!

And no, it’s not so I get basically a three day release party. It’s really not! I promise. ;-) Okay, I wouldn’t believe me, either.

There is SO MUCH going on to celebrate my release I don’t know where to start, so I’ll start with the biggies:

Kat Richardson, one of my favorite people and writers, made me cry talking about Jane. Kat’s a writer I always use as an example of why I love writing UF. Our books are SO different, yet we can appreciate each other’s writing and we publish under the same genre. I love that! You can see a blurb for TR from Kat on Tracking, and if you haven’t read her books, do so immediately. Her series is awesome–one of the smartest, most well-developed UF series out there.

Today, I’m also over at Bitten By Books, chatting with folks and giving a way a new Kindle. Come by to chat and see how to enter, here!

Carolyn Crane, one of the sweetest Leaguers out there, is giving away a copy of Tracking. I’ll be with Carolyn at both RomCon and our Denver signing. She’s a GREAT addition to the UF community: generous, fabulous, and hilarious!

I’ve also got an interview and a giveaway for Tempest Rising up at Literary Escapism.

Tomorrow, on the official launch, I’ll also be revealing the prizes for two big contest I’ll be doing: one at the League of Reluctant Adults, and one here on my site. So come back tomorrow, y’all!

Right now I’ve gotta go do some stuff to get ready for my signing with Jaye Wells here in Shreveport. If you’re in the area, come on down! We’ll be chatting, snarking, and maybe kicking the crap out of each other. Check my appearances page for more details. ;-)

Published on June 30, 2010 in Appearances, Coming Soon!, Contests, Nicole Peeler, Pimpage!, Tempest Rising and Tracking the Tempest. 9 Comments

Contests and Reviews and Launches, Oh My!

Hellooooo my friends! I’m writing this from a Pittsburgh airport hotel. I’m supposed to be in Chicago as of yesterday, but my flight was cancelled due to weather. Here’s hoping I make it back to IL today, so I can fly back to Shreveport tomorrow.

My stay in Greensburg has been awesome. The residency was fantastic, and I really, really like my new colleagues as well as the students in the MFA. I think this program will be really challenging and beneficial for me, both as an author and as a teacher. It’s going to be a sharp learning curve that first semester, but then I think it’ll be a great job.

As for finding an apartment, in the end and despite all my protestations about wanting to live in Pittsburgh, I went with an apartment near the school. I drove the commute a few times, and it’s one of those routes that could take 30 minutes OR it could take two and a half hours. Plus I couldn’t find an apartment I really liked that wasn’t ridiculously expensive. But I found something in Greensburg that is absolutely gorgeous and HUGE (I’m going to have to buy some more furniture). It’s an old building, right down town, with tons of character and gorgeous original features. I’ll be living in the Penthouse, which is French for “pray the ancient elevator doesn’t break down.”

But now I’m going home and my thoughts are firmly on launching Tracking the Tempest. Sightings have been thick and fast: Borders definitely has it on shelves, and I think that Amazon has shipped. So those of you who pre-ordered should be getting it right on time.

My big launch party is over at Bitten by Books, where I’m doing a contest to win a Kindle. RSVP here for the event to earn extra chances to win, and stay tuned to BbB for more info on the actual event. They’ve also posted their review, here.

I’ve also got an interview mit contest up at Tynga’s Reviews.

Melissa, from My World in Books and Pages, reviews Tracking, here, and I’ll have an interview and contest up at her site on July 1st, so stay tuned!

Finally, here’s a review of Tracking that absolutely made my day. It’s spoiler free, and she really gets what I’m doing. Thanks, lady! :-)

Don’t forget about the upcoming signings talked about on my appearances page, and I’ll have some very fun contests to announce on my site and over at the League when I get home. So see ya round, and go forth to buy Tracking over the weekend! YAY!

Published on June 28, 2010 in Appearances, Coming Soon!, Contests, My Travels, Nicole Peeler, Pimpage!, Reviews, Signings and Tracking the Tempest. 8 Comments

Self-Pimpage Rots Your Brain!

So I’ll pimp some other people FIRST!

It’s that time of year again . . . the second book in Jackie Kessler’s and Caitlin Kittredge’s series Icarus Project, Shades of Gray, is out now! Buy it while it’s hot!

How exciting!

Also exciting is how much signing I’m going to be doing. First of all, there’s another Shreveport Smackdown, between Jaye Wells and me, scheduled for July First!

You can discover more, here. The last Shreveport Smackdown was pretty wild, so I’d suggest you come see it for yourself!

In more signing news, on July 11th in Denver, CO, I’ll be doing a gig with the absolutely fabulous Carolyn Crane, Jeanne Stein, and Nalini Singh (who I totally plan to geek out on). Here we are at our last event:

Check out our gams! The signing is in Denver, Colorado, and you can find out more information, here.

So hope to see you at an upcoming event, or at RomCon, where I’ll be the weekend before the signing in CO. In the meantime, don’t forget you can keep up with my meanderings, here. Thanks!

Published on June 22, 2010 in Appearances and Pimpage!. 10 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Tracking Developments and Visiting Jane!

Hi all!

First of all, I wanted to let you know that Tracking the Tempest has already been spotted in the wild, in a Borders in North Carolina! So at least one person has read it out there. ;-)

In the meantime, for those waiting, I’ve done an interview with Tynga’s Reviews, replete with a giveaway for a copy of Tempest Rising. And don’t forget you can always email me at iheartselkies(at)gmail(dot)com for signed bookplates for either or both books.

I’m writing this from O’Hare, again. I’m flying out to Pittsburgh to look for a place to live as well as take part in my first MFA residency at Seton Hill. It feels as if we just left O’Hare as we just returned from Maine, and what an amazing trip! I went with my mom, Rella; my former English teacher, Mrs. Bunch; and a very good friend, Loren. I liked to think of it as an intergenerational girls gone wild trip. Here are the ladies, all lined up!

Our first port of call was Eastport, which you may remember from the books. It’s right on the Old Sow, and it’s absolutely gorgeous.

We stayed at a lovely little Bed and Breakfast, called Chadbourne House. The owners were lovely, the house was lovely, and the breakfasts were to die for:

It was super fun being in Eastport, not least because the Old Sow is a huge presence–at least in the town, itself.

Both of the above pictures were taken at a fantastic restaurant, right on the water in Eastport, that sports its own Old Sow pub. We at there the first night, and the first of many, many lobsters was consumed:

Although this lobster, in St. Andrew, nearly ate us . . .

While in Eastport, we wandered around, taking pictures. The town itself is very small, but gorgeous:

And I found the perfect representative of the sort of building that might house Iris’s shop:

And here’s a picture of the Sow! Unfortunately, you can’t see diddly. The Sow is only visible for moments, when the tide is just right. And even then, you’re probably only seeing her piglets. But underneath that apparently placid water, she’s raging away, waiting to tear up any passing boats.

As stated earlier, we were also wicked international on this trip. One day, we drove up to St. Andrew, a Canadian vacation spot. It was absolutely adorable:

After which we visited two of my favorite friends in the whole world: The Honorable Dr. Reverend Andrew O’Neill and his gorgeous wife, Jenny. They made us dinner and made us welcome, and I can’t tell you how much I love these two. They’re some of the most intelligent, generous, open-minded, and hilarious people I know.

They also have a baby who is such a nugget even I had to give a wee coo. Here he is practicing his bounce:

From St. Andrew, we brought him a stuffed toy of a beaver or, as I introduced it, “Baby’s First Beaver.”

We all had an inappropriate giggle, and then had a gorgeous dinner.

We were only in Eastport for two days, then we went to Bar Harbor, which I’ll blog separately.

But I would highly, highly recommend a trip to Eastport if you’re in Maine. The people are awesome–we may have gotten a little drunk with the locals one night–and the scenery is just to die for. I always have insane fantasies of summer homes. Pretty much every time I visit somewhere I’m like, “OMG I’m gonna buy a summer home here.” It’s usually completely inappropriate (if gorgeous) places like Istanbul or Barcelona. But I’m serious about the summer home in Maine thing. The temperature and the weather were just so beautiful after growing up in the torturous heat of the Midwestern summer, on top of everything else that made the place lovely.

So who knows, Maine might get another writer, one of these days. At least for the summers. ;-)

All rightie, I gotta go find something to gnaw on during my flight to Pittsburgh. Wish me luck finding a place to live! In a city again, finally! SO EXCITING!

Published on June 19, 2010 in Contests, My Travels and Tracking the Tempest. 11 Comments Tags: , , .