Tag Archive for 'Carolyn Crane'

Things I Like: Flowers for Lackey!

This week saw me FREAKING OUT on both Facebook and Twitter over finding out about the release of two things that make me VERY excited. The first is the release of Brandon Flower’s new solo album. I absolutely adore the Killers, and have been looking forward to their lead singer’s solo release. And I am not disappointed! Here’s the video for “Only the Young”:

And here’s what has to be one of my all time favorite videos, for “Crossfire”:

It’s like an urban fantasy novel, in a lot of ways, and I love what it suggests about female empowerment and the contemporary shift in gender roles. Plus there’s the invocation of the tiny 20′s stache, which is the only kind of stache worth attention.

In the kind of excitement that makes me worry I might need a diaper, Mercedes Lackey–the woman who put the fan in my fantasy–is releasing a set of novellas that are all UF and include a Diane Tregarde story. It’s called Trio of Sorcery:

For those of you new to UF, I’d argue that Diane Tregarde is the grandmother of a majority of the heroines running amok on  shelves today. As I’m apparently tapped directly into the zeitgeist, I actually randomly started rereading Diane’s books last week. I reread Burning Water and Jinx HIgh in quick succession. Diving back into those books was like going home, and I see so many ways that Lackey influenced me at a very young age (I was probably around 12 or 13 when I read them). Anyway, if you consider yourself a UF fan and haven’t read Diane Tregarde, you’re missing out. I plan on rereading Children of the Night next.

If you do pick ‘em up, or pick them back up, let me know what you think. :-)

On another note, I’d like to invite you to my debut as a zombie. I kill a character, who looks my friend and Alpha Team Reader James Clawson, named “Peeler.” It’s all very meta. And, yes, Three Quarter Comics are the team who made my zombie profile picture:

On a final note, I finally finished Carolyn Crane’s Double Cross. Now, I wasn’t dragging my heels finishing it because I didn’t enjoy it… I love this series, and Double Cross is as sensual, intelligent, and original as its predecessor, Mind Games. However, as a TRAINED LITERARY ACADEMIC, I could tell by that title that I was in for a rough ride at the end. And boy, were my highly trained reading skillz correct on that one. I finished the book last night, and I’m still traumatized.

In a good way.

This is another series that, if you haven’t read, you need to get on that. They’re amazing, and totally different from anything you’ve read–but in a good way. How often can that be said, anymore?

Still Off Visiting!

Where have I been, you ask? Well, I’ve been off visiting!

The lovely Jaye Wells and I are still going strong over at Border’s Babel Clash. We’ve talked about all sorts of interesting things involving heroines, humor, and urban fantasy. In my last post, I talked about why I added hedonism to the list, or why I chose to write a female character who’s so unapologetically self-indulgent.

In other news, I want to send out HUGE congrats to one of my fave UF authors, Carolyn Crane, whose sequel Double Cross just received a starred review from Romantic Times. I absolutely adored Mind Games and I can’t wait to read Double Cross. Carolyn’s created a world that’s truly unique in UF, and I find her books thrilling to read.

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Check out Carolyn’s books if you haven’t already. The first one was great, and the second looks like it’ll be even better.

All rightie, folks, with that I’m off to write more Jane. I’m at over 25.000 words on Eye of the Tempest and it’s going great.

I’m leaving you with this video about Newport, in Wales, that Dr. Ruth showed me and that I find endlessly entertaining. Ohhhhh how I love a Welsh accent.

See y’all back at the Emporium, soon. ;-)

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… ;-)

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!

RT in Review

I have one thing to say about Romantic Times: I loved it.

The fans were awesome, I had SO MUCH FUN with the League and the other authors, and the con, itself, couldn’t have been more well organized. I also adored Columbus and the actual location of the convention. There’s nothing worse, to me, than being trapped in the middle of nowhere in a hotel, but the Hyatt Columbus is in a great area, close to bars, restaurants, and even a farmer’s market where you could buy fresh produce and deliciously evil ice cream.

I arrived a day late, unfortunately, to find that things were already in full swing. And by full swing I mean most of the League already looked decidedly hung over. The rest of the con was a bit of a blur, but a blur of hilarity; loads of fantastic friends, both old and new; and, admittedly, a lot of food and booze. Here’s a wee RT in Pictures (some of which I’ve stolen from other people’s websites–with permission–as I’m rubbish at taking photos):

The Hyatt Columbus did some really smart customer outreach by having a Twitter Fairy: Basically, people were hashtagging #RT10 on Twitter, and if anyone said anything about needing hangers, for example, hangers would magically appear in their room, that night. Pretty soon people caught on, and I asked for dancing girls and champagne. I got the champagne, which was lovely. And the hotel, in general, was wonderful: clean, great service, and an absolutely marvelous location. The nearby North Market was my heaven.

I’m sure y’all have seen other pics of Diana Rowland’s Creepy Doll, but here are two from my own phone. In the first, Kat Richardson reacts with appropriate horror. In the second, Dakota’s maternal instincts extend even to Creepy Doll, whom Dakota teaches to play drums. Creepy Doll only tried to stab Dakota twice with the drum sticks. I love the look on Jeanne Stein’s face almost as much as I love Jeanne, herself. Classic! And you can just see Carolyn Crane peeping out behind Jeanne. She’s adorable! Carolyn, Jeanne Stein and I will be rocking Rom Com this summer, so look out for us, if you’re there.

Meanwhile, Diana took that damned doll everywhere. Here she is out with us for food (fried cheese curds!). That’s me, Jaye Wells, Tor’s Heather Osborne, and Zombie Joe (who made us lovely cupcakes). Meanwhile, I stole this picture directly from Lucienne Diver’s blog. Lucienne is an agent and writer and absolute bombshell who I really enjoyed hanging out with. Check out the rest of her RT pics at her site!

Here’s another couple of pics from Lucienne’s site:

Me with John Scalzi and my gorgeous critique partner, Diana Rowland.

I was rocking out my vampire heart fake tattoos, and for the final big night I went for something super subtle and classy. It’s about time the girls earned their keep!

Probably the coolest thing at RT was the League and our Passports to Snark. Mario Acevedo and Mark Henry cooked up the plan, and it worked a treat. And by treat, I mean I have never seen such foulness spewed onto a page as was spewed onto those passports. And everything said about me (especially by Mario!) is a foul lie. A lie, I tell you! A lie.

Here’s my little set up for the GINORMOUS signing on Saturday. I was sitting on the very end of a slightly extended row. So I watched as the doors to the signing opened, and hundreds of people came running towards me . . . and then past me, and on to J. R. Ward’s ticketed line. I had a good giggle, at that, once I came out from underneath my chair.

Dinner with @jayewells and @NicolePeeler whoa!! on Twitpic

Another highlight of RT was the fact my wondrous editor, the Eye of Sauron herself, Devi Pillai, came to RT! She took Jaye Wells and me to  a lovely dinner, and here’s a picture Devi took of the two of us. I think I should get the tattoos for real. My mother would be thrilled.

My final night at RT (Saturday) meant only one thing: Suite party (hosted by the effervescent Michele Bardsley), featuring Erotic Readings by the League. Apparently it’s an old tradition, one that I was thrilled to enjoy. But before the readings, there were all sorts of shenanigans. Including the gifting of these Fetish Feet to Mark Henry, although the model in question is the absolutely fabulous Sophie Littlefield. I hung out quite a bit with her, Julie Goodson Lawe, and Rachael Herron. I am slightly obsessed with all three of them, as they are rockin’ ladies.

Here are some live action shots of Mark Henry and Stacia Kane reading their amazing, amazing smut. The word “glutinous” was used at some point, and not to describe Elmer’s Glue. I was transfixed and inspired. Look for “glutionous” in my next work . . . it will be hot. And sticky.

To round out my pictures, I’ll leave you with my favorite of the lot. The moment Stacia broke Mark. It was beautiful.

Enjoy! And I will definitely be seeing you at RT, next year, in LA. If I were any more excited, I could spit. Glutinously!

The Weiner! And More Excitement!

Y’all came up with some AWESOME responses to the last contest question: What would REALLY win out, brain or brawn? Most of you seem to have gone for brain. And while I hope this is true, I still have this vision of me being like, “I will think my way out of this nightmare!”–right up until someone pops me in the nose and I’m down for the count.

But I think one idea shone through that is absolutely relevant and true, and that’s the idea that we want our heroes/heroines to have brains, because otherwise their books would be pants. Por ejemplo, snark unmitigated by intelligence isn’t snark . . . it’s just being a bitch.

So yay! Fun responses that I really enjoyed reading, which means its with great pleasure that I reach my greasy little paw into . . . the CONTEST CAN!

And the weiner is . . . . . the very last commenter, SARAH! Way to pip the others at the post! Congrats!

Email me at iheartselkies(at)gmail(daht)com with your address and I’ll have Carolyn Crane’s Mind Games expedited to you.

And in very fun news, the fabulous Mario Acevedo is going to be guest blogging here, tomorrow. The post is hilarious, although everything he says about me are LIES! Terrible LIES!

Alongside of Mario’s blog I’ll be running a contest to win his newest book, Werewolf Smackdown. I couldn’t be more excited. Could you? ;-)

Some Pimpage and a Contest!

It’s that time of the month, again . . . the League is stirring and, panting like a Lamaze instructor, birthing BOOKS!

In a few days, Mario Acevedo will be guest posting here, and I’ll be running a contest to win his newest book: Werewolf Smackdown!

How great are these covers? Between now and my contest, though, feel free to buy the rest of Mario’s books. OR buy Werewolf Smackdown anyway because you know how good it’s going to be, and you know you’ll probably need another copy if you get too excited reading the first and spit coca-cola on it. Or whatever other fluids Mario’s fiction may make you spit. It’s okay…this is a judge free zone.

But in the MEANTIME, I have a contest for RIGHT NOW! I’m very excited when we get to launch a debut novel by a Leaguer. After all, the League was there for me when I debuted Tempest Rising and I don’t know where I’d be without their support. So it’s with great pleasure that I announce the launch of Carolyn Crane’s debut novel, MIND GAMES! Huzzah!

How good does that look? Her heroine is totally gonna cut a bitch. And what a big knife she has! To win a copy of Carolyn’s book, just ponder the following question and insert your thoughts into my comments box. *giggles*

As a nerd, I like to tell myself that brains (MIND GAMES!) will win over brawn (WEREWOLF SMACKDOWNS!), and yet I also know that I’m not going to manage to Machiavelli my way out of a situation if someone has their filthy paws wrapped around my throat. So what do you think is really more important for a hero/heroine? Brains or brawn?

Comment here, and I’ll choose a winner, randomly, from the CONTEST CAN! on Friday, at noon, Louisiana time. Which doesn’t mean 1:30, you assholes, it means central time.

Awesome! Have great weeks! And stay tuned for later in the week when Mario will be visiting. I’m gonna start laying down tarps now . . . it will inevitably get sticky.