Giveaway of THE STRAIN by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan

I've got a contest today for The Strain, a new vampire novel from acclaimed director Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, author of Prince of Thieves and The Standoff. This is the first in a trilogy of terror!

You can read the publisher's description: "A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold."

No doubt, Dr. Eph finds the carnage that happens now that airlines are charging customers for bathroom visits and aisle seats. But I digress.

Del Toro is the director of "Pan's Labyrinth," "Cronos," "Hellboy I," "Hellboy II," "A Very Special Hellboy Christmas," and "Blade II." Okay, I may have made one of those up. But I'm reminded of what Bobcat Goldthwait said when he was asked why anyone made "Police Academy V": "We felt there were unanswered questions in 'Police Academy IV.'" Yes, I should talk since I'm writing a series. But I digress.

HOW TO WIN THE BOOK: I've been thinking all philosophically lately about website design lately, sort of the way I think about Chaos Theory or if pink and orange can ever be successfully combined, or if I'll ever teach my dog how to say "arugula." To enter the contest, simply leave a comment telling us your favorite website or blog for book info. It can be an author's site, a review site, a bookseller, a blogger, whatever. The contest runs through Wednesday night, June 17.

I prefer sites that are frequently updated and don't have annoying design. Less is more, except when it's not.

Speaking of blogs, I just noticed that author Rae Lori has a new one called Paranormal Romantics with fellow scribes Anna Nicholas, H. Hali Steele, Rebecca Royce, and Sandra Sookoo. Sandra's blogging today about the appeal of villians: "My topic today is about the villains. The low-down dirty, I-can’t-believe-they-said-that, the people we love to hate bad guys/girls that can make or break a story. Yeah, them."


GRATUITOUS VIDEO OF THE DAY:

An exception to the "less is more" credo is man-rain. More man-rain is better than less man-rain. Here's some "Lord of the Rings" man-rain from PizzaSliceProduction.



Sometimes the man-rain has a distinct Euro-smoothie vibe, such as this from Tamumaco5.



DonnaKat's GVD shows just how thrilling man-rain can is, especially when it comes with leather accessories.