Contest for BAD TO THE BONE and WICKED GAME

A couple of questions:

1) My website person is leaving freelancing to work full-time. Any of you have any suggestions about a good web person/service? I think I'm pretty incapable of doing my own website, but I'd love to be able to update content on my own. You can email any suggestions to me, or leave a comment, which will be considered an entry to the contest below.

2) I've been wondering what readers want from Vampire Wire. So tell me and you'll be entered in my contest for a copy of Jeri Smith Ready's Bad to the Bone and Wicked Game. (I will be having a Q&A and another contest with Jeri when she has a little free time.)

Do you want to see more book covers and summaries? Do you want more inane blather? Would you like my opinions on stuff, or do you prefer trailers of upcoming movies? Do you like author interviews? Are you all about the contests? Do you like the Gratuitous Videos of the Day?

Do you want to see more extensive original scientific research, i.e., the Ultimate Hawtest Vampire Poll, or are you one of those science-hating lunatics who thinks that dinosaurs and man co-existed and that Gerard Butler as Dracula was nawt hawt?


Do you only come for the haiku?

Vampire Wire blathers
I only read poetry
About the undead.

What else am I missing?

Oh, maybe you think I should focus on important things like creating badges for you.


The contest runs through next Sunday night, August 16, and a winner will be chosen at random. Entries limited to U.S. and Canada.


Vampire Wire has been getting recognition. Lady Lazarus nominated Vampire Wire for the world-renowned Zombie Chicken Award. Vampire Wire is both honored and humbled and says, please pass the bbq sauce.

Kimberly Swan at Darque Reviews nominated me for Book Blogger Appreciation Week. She said, "Marta Acosta (author and blogger) from Vampire Wire was one of the first bloggers to link to my reviews, and she never ceases to amaze me with all that she accomplishes." This is pretty swell, especially since I wouldn't have half my content if Kimberly wasn't such a voracious reader and reviewer. She makes keeping up with paranormal and UF easy. Thanks, Kimberly!

Coolest Vampire Art Gallery said, "Marta Acosta, author of Castle Dracula novels blogs about vampire news, urban fantasies, paranormal romance books, movies and tv series. She also reviews vampire books of other authors, runs contests for Casa Dracula and write her personal musings on vampires and the paranormal. Aside from written updates, Marta includes hand-picked videos of personal interest and that are attuned with her blog."

Close, but no cookie. They're the Casa Dracula novels and I never review books. I do hand-pick the Gratuitous Videos of the Day, but I'm ON STRIKE because no one will vote for me in the poll at Bitten By Books. Yeah, so Google a photo of someone hawt and hold up your laptop and jiggle it and sing "Sex Bomb" out loud and see if it's the same as a GVD. I think not!


I'll be off tomorrow for a few days of R&R, so have a good weekend!

Eric Northman Does the Hokey-Pokey & Killer Pinatas

Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) leads "True Blood" vampires in the Hokey-Pokey. "You put you left foot in and you shake it all about!"

Maybe tomorrow I'll blog about all the frickin vampire "polls" that just list the usual suspects like (yawn) Tom Cruise as Lestat, when he didn't score highly in a rigorous and scientifically conducted poll, like my Ultimate Hawt Vampire Poll, which was administered by the acclaimed Vampire Wire Research Laboratories, Lld., in Geneva, Switzerland.

Bitten By Books is having a poll on the funniest vampire writer. Go vote for me or you'll never see another hawt vampire Gratuitious Video of the Day again!

Enter Love Vampires contest for a set of my Casa Dracula novels and five copies of Happy Hour at Casa Dracula. You can read their review of my latest, The Bride of Casa Dracula, too. "It combines the language and the Jane Austen-ish romantic comedy of manners style of Happy Hour At Casa Dracula with the faster romance mystery pacing of Midnight Brunch and effortlessly comes out on top. The comedy is laugh-out-loud funny in places as Milagro continues her personal journey to be “serious and sincere” which is at such odds with her silly nature. FIVE STARS"

As I've mentioned, Love Vampires just did a major, uh, revamp. One of the great new features is a newsletter. I just got my first one and it's terrific: well-designed and informative. Definitely sign up if you want to receive the latest vampire/paranormal fiction news.

Patricia Altner has a contest for Georgia Evan's new release, Blood Right. "To celebrate the publication of Bloody Right (book three in her WWII vampire trilogy) Georgia Evans aka Rosemary Laurey is opening herself up to questions by PVN's readers. Read her bio. Ask about the writing life, her books, her thoughts on vampires or the paranormal, anything as long as it's polite." (Patricia's Vampire Notes)

Read a review of HBO's new season of "True Blood." "One of the many excellent things about True Blood this season is the way it finds new uses for old characters. Last season, for instance, Andy was just another good/bad ol’ boy police officer, but now he’s like the official Bon Temps Voice of Reason." (Entertainment Weekly)

Here's a new promo for the CW's "The Vampire Diaries." That guy in the lead reminds me a little of Nicholas Brendon, who played Xander on "Buffy." I've got a feeling this is no "Buffy," though, alack and alas.



Which reminds me, Nick Brendon is in a hilariously bad horror movie called -- wait for it -- "Pinata: Survival Island." Yes, and I'm wondering just how stoned the writers were, eating nachos and watching reality TV, when they thought of it. "Dude! It's like scary and with a killer pinata!" "Dude, that's genius! We could totally get financing for it."



How genius was "Pinata: Survival Island"? Here are some Amazon reviews.

"Why would you handcuff two people together for the purpose of finding underpants? It's very confusing. " Jill Dunsmore

"What I found really odd was this pinata was made of clay and about 4 feet tall. That said, every frat kid in the film recognized it as a pinata! It looked NOTHING like what pinatas look like to me. The worst part, and there are many, was when the kids hide behind a tree for several hours while the pinata is on the other side of the tree." A Customer

"I would rather watch the grass grow." J. Wellborn


GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin) fans may enjoy this video, which I can't embed. Just follow the link. Love the song by my local boys, Green Day.

Okay, this is worth it just for the eyebrow lift, a skill that I have never been able to learn. The song by Moloko No rocks it.

Contest for CASA DRACULA; SHIVER; and Eric Northman GVDs

Love Vampires is having a contest for my Casa Dracula books! Enter to win one set of the entire Casa Dracula series and five copies of Happy Hour at Casa Dracula. Amanda says, "All the Casa Dracula books blend entertaining social comedy with witty romance and vampires – making them perfect reading for any hip vampire fan this summer. Enter the giveaway now and you could win a copy in time for your late summer vacation…"

Read an interview with Maggie Stiefvater, the author of Shiver, and enter a contest for a signed copy of her book. "My werewolves are wolves when they are wolves and humans when they are humans, and the horror comes from losing yourself rather than from monstrous rampages. Also, my werewolves are subject to the seasons rather than to the moon; they become wolves as the temperature drops, hence the title." (Yankee Romance Reviewers)

Need more free books? Doug Knipe, SciFi Guy, has compiled a great list of contests for books as part of his weekend report.

Roxanne Rhoads reviews Jenna Black's The Devil Inside. "I started reading this book last weekend and was immediately sucked right in. I couldn't believe how it made me just keep turning pages, I had to know what was going to happen next." (Fang-tastic Books)

Read Chapter One of Jenna Black's The Devil Inside. "Topeka, Kansas. Demon capital of the world. Not! Demons, the illegal ones at least, tend to like the biggest cities. More anonymity. More prey. But every once in a while, one would pop up in the most unlikely place. Like Topeka."

Read a review of Drawing Blood by Mary Lou George. "Successful children's book illustrator Holly Seaton is no stranger to the paranormal. With her artist's hand, she creates magical beings of myth and fantasy. Little does she know some of these creatures actually exist and she just met one in the supermarket." (Long and Short Reviews)


GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

I don't watch "True Blood," but that doesn't mean that Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) fans should be ignored.