Contest for VAMPIRE TAXONOMY and Friday Froofrah

"Wry, witty, fully illustrated and bloody essential guide."

Monsters & Critics

The charming online promoter at Penguin Books offered a prize for a contest: Vampire Taxonomy by Meredith Woener, which is being released today. Now, I know you were thinking, "Do vampires pay taxes and need a guide to the tax code?" The answer is a resounding "Yes!" Or maybe this is a book about something else.

Here's the publisher's description:

Vampires are all around-books, movies, TV, comics- infiltrating our culture like never before. But what happens if one should run into a real vamp on the street? Vampire Taxonomy is the best defense against a fatal encounter in the dark.

For the reader's protection, Meredith Woerner reveals the truth about:

•Sunlight sensitivity-Do vamps venture out in the day or stick solely to the evening hours? •Physiology-When ready to feed, do they change appearance or simply lure with the seductive flash of a fang? •Dress-Are they decked out in leather with aspirations of becoming the first vampire rock stars or do they cling to Gothic robes and ruffled collars?
•Diet-Are they waging a never-ending struggle against the temptation of human blood or do they view the world as their personal blood buffet?

My online pals Derek Tatum at Mondo Vampire and Patricia Altner at Patricia's Vampire Notes are also having contests for this book, so visit them for more chances to win. Eerek reviewed the book and says, "While this book is mainly meant as a bit of a lark, Woerner's knowledge of the subject shines through. It is also fairly up-to-date, and Woerner acknowledges that there is more to current vampire pop culture than Buffy, True Blood, and Twilight."

To enter the contest: Just leave a comment with a bit of advice about dealing with vampires or paranormal creatures. Like "Don't assume your werewolf guest wants to use the dog door to get in and out of the house." Or "Allow your vampire friend to wear her cape inside even on warm days."

The contest is limited to U.S. and Canada residents and runs through November 15. A winner will be selected at random.

Kimberly Swan has a promo, description and chapter link for Darker Angels by M.L. Hanover. (Darque Reviews)

Rebecca at Dirty Sexy Books has lots of really great stuff in her New & Noteworthy post: the cover and info on Bitter Night by Diana Pharaoh Francis, Eternal Hunger by Cynthia Eden, a list of top ten vampire books...and lots more.


"Supernatural"

Very interesting episode with amusing scenes of Dean and Sam Winchester magically thrown into the worlds of television shows. (I particularly liked them as the doctors, but they were great with their sunglasses in the cop procedural.) Although most of the show felt like, creator Eric Kripke was telling us a lot of what he feels about the series through the characters. "It's only television." "Cable, 300 channels and nothing's on." There was something, too, about a series going on too long.

Oh, and the commercial! I walked away and when I came back I realized it was a spoof and rewound it for the whole very funny ad. And Dean's awe and admiration when meeting "Dr. Sexy" in the hospital show, delightful.

You can read the episode's recap at BuddyTV

Maureen Ryan at the Chicago Tribune also has a nice write-up. "The opening credits were absolutely awesome. I can only imagine how much fun the writers, production team and actors had putting this sequence together. Every single aspect of it was golden, from the song to the typeface to the "We're just brothers goofing around and having a few laughs" scenes. That was just a heaping slab of hilarious right there. Honestly -- tandem bike!"

Beyond the episode recap, Maureen discusses the direction of the show and development of the characters.




GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

It's Friday and I always think we need something that's a little livelier on Fridays. Especially if it features guys in black pleather.



Yeah, I know I've had these vids on before. Did I mention that I do this blog for free?

Contest Winners for Five Hachette Books!

The contest is over for three sets of five books from the Hachette Book Group. It was terrifying, amusing, and often just plain strange hearing about everyone's secret fears.

The winners of the contest are:

S.M.D., who is afraid of zombies, as well he should be. Zombies are not our friends. Mummies, on the other hand, don't mind kicking back and will lend you a rag to clean a spill.

Shawna L., who is afraid of creepy people, big bugs, her daughter's driving, and her ex-husband. I'm afraid to find out what her definition of "creepy people is." I hope it's not "people who blog."

Katy Norman, who is afraid of losing her true love, heights, spiders, and...wait for it...TOAST. Oh, Katy, I want to get a degree in psychiatry just so I could talk to you about the toast-o-phobia!

Congratulations, winners! Winners, please send me an email with your mailing address so I can forward it on to Hachette. Also, I gotta say that Hachette really steps up in terms of online publicity for its authors.

Tomorrow, I'll have a new contest for The Vampire Taxonomy by Meredith Woener, so be sure to check in.

My coffee is ready, so more later.

Contest for "Blood Ties: Season Two" DVDS, only slightly used

Don't forget that tonight's the deadline for my contest for FIVE scary books from Hachette.

Is a contest better than a real post? I don't know, but this one is awfully good. I finished watching "Blood Ties: Season Two" DVD, courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment, so now I'm offering them in a contest.

I never really caught this series when it was running on Lifetime, mostly because I never watch anything on Lifetime because most of their shows seem to star third-tier actresses playing women who marry serial killers. (Note to women: if your fiance tells you never to go in the basement and is fascinated by the chain-saw sales in the Home Depot advert, move on!)

However, I really liked watching "Blood Ties" on DVD. Really good cast, intriguing world building, interesting and exciting plots. However...the ending! Whoa, you can really tell that the show's creators expected to go on to another season -- as they deserved to. It just ends at a critical point.

Here's some info about the series from BlogCritics: "Blood Ties follows Victoria 'Vicki' Nelson (Christina Cox), a Toronto PD detective who has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease (her night and peripheral vision is slowly failing). She chooses to quit the force rather than 'ride a desk.' Mike Celluci (Dylan Neal) is her ex-partner/former lover and completing the love triangle is Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid), who is a graphic novelist and 470-year-old vampire, not to mention the illegitimate son of Henry VIII."

The Contest: Leave a comment telling me how you imagine some of your favorite characters in a book, movie, or TV show years later. Did Angel and Cordelia get together and move to suburbia? What happened to Buffy after she saved the world that last time? What are Fox and Scully doing? Do you think Lestat has gone over to the production side of music?

Or tell me if you like the characters preserved in space and time, always young and always in the middle of a great adventure.

The contest runs through November 15, and the winner must be a U.S. or Canada resident. (Sorry, mailing elsewhere means longer time and more money at the post office.) A winner will be picked by random drawing.

More badges and nonsense tomorrow!

Vampires Are the New Vampires: You Need This Stinkin' Badge

I don't know if I'm more annoyed by the claims that the vampire trend has crested, or by all the schlock articles about who is the hottest vampire. To be honest, "annoyed" is my default setting.

Derek Tatum of Mondo Vampire mentioned that he had hosted a panel to address this issue: vampires are the new vampires. I couldn't have said it better.

I know that some of you haven't had a chance to grab the badges I've made, so I'm posting them here for you to use as you please.






The Gerry Butler pass is from one of my old contests, but I'll try to find a decent pic of him as Dracula in the fantastically cheezy "Dracula 2000." If you have any special requests for a badge, just tell me.

Read an interview with Kevin Williamson, who created the television series, "Vampire Diaries." ""I want the show to have an unpredictable quality to it, and I think that's going to come now and the audience will realize I will kill them — we will kill the main characters. This is a show that will go there." (MTV) Yeah, and I bet that keeps the actors in line during contract negotiations, too.

Fantasy Dreamer's Ramblings has a list of upcoming releases, with summaries and some very cool covers. FDR is also having a contest for Bitter Night by Diana Pharaoh Francis.

Authors looking for promo opportunities should visit Roxanne Rhoads at Fang-Tastic Books. She's looking for items for a big holiday contest.

Paranormal Romantics interviews Serena Shay, author of the shifter novel, The Challenge. "When I first started writing for possible publication, rather than just for fun, I read a call that was out for cat shifter stories. I had nothing like that written at the time, but this faraway voice whispered Jaguar to me repeatedly."


GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

Speaking of Gerry Butler as Dracula, here's a new tribute to "Dracula 2000."



Do you miss Spike? Yeah, thought so. Gotta love a character who plays poker for kittens. This very amusing video is by Tranquillity71.

Contest for MJD Swag, Derek's Vamp Anniversary, Crappy EW Vamp Surveys

I finally had time to sent off questions for Q&A's with some of your favorite authors. So I'll be having new interviews and book contests soon!

If you'd like to win some swag from MaryJanice Davidson, NYT bestselling author of the Queen Betsy books, enter my new contest. The winner gets a gift pack, including a t-shirt, a book, and some tattoos.

To enter the contest, leave a comment with a title suggestion that includes "Undead and..." For example, "Undead and Unrecognizable," or "Undead and Undercooked," or "Undead and Underwhelmed." The contest runs through November 8, Sunday evening, and a winner will be chosen by random draw. Winners limited to the U.S. and Canada.

I'm waiting for the end of the trend that says that vampires are over. This trend comes up every few years and we're told that zombies are the new It Monster, or we should be wild about the Loch Ness Monster. This theory is routinely brought out like a monkey in a suit by people looking for a story, not fans of paranormal and fantasy.

Derek Tatum pens a thoughtful essay about the 20th anniversary of his love for vampire fiction at Mondo Vampire. "By the end of the 1980's, you could find more and more books that dealt with what it was like to be a vampire; being an outsider, I have always tended to sympathize with the monsters. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and vampire novels were the only books that I was aware of at the time that dealt with the monster's perspective."

Now, the flipside to true fandom is creepy trendiness, and when you think of creepy trendiness, you naturally think of the Backstreet Boys. (Boys? Still? How old are these guys, anyway?) Writer and editor P.J. Gach was kind enough (or cruel enough) to share this video with me. Teen boy bands and vampires...a match made in hell fer sure. She says, " Watch out the for the surprise ending."




Doug Knipe, SciFi Guy, interviews Susan Blexrod about her new book, Real Men Have Fangs. (Hmm, should this be "real men have fangs and don't do dance routines"? Just a thought.) Susan says, "My first priority is to write the book I want to read. I get so caught up in my characters that they’re like family, and when you have muses like Gerard Butler, Jon Hamm, and Alexander Skarsgard, who wouldn’t want to get swept away?"

Love Vampires has an advance review of Once Bitten by Clare Willis. "Set in a San Francisco advertising agency, the story follows the adventures of Angie McCaffrey, an executive assistant whose boss (Lucy) goes missing at the time that the pitch for 'Macabre Factor' vampire cosmetics is due. Filling in for Lucy leads Angie into the strange underground world of wannabe vampires and nightclubs where blood flows in secret ceremonies conducted in hidden back rooms."

Vampires in San Francisco? Maybe I should talk to Clare Willis!

After a much deserved break, I'm selfishly glad to see that Kimberly Swan is back in action at Darque Reviews. Read her review of Devon Monk's Magic in the Shadows. "Allie Beckstrom continues her struggle to hang on to her memories, while learning to cope with her new found skills. Danger stalks Allie’s every move, and there’s always the chance that she’ll take on more than she can handle."

Entertainment Weekly is having another of its stupid surveys about who is the best good vampire, and they've limited it to three TV characters: Bill Compton of "True Blood" as played by Stephen Moyers, Stefan of "Vampire Diaries" as played by Paul Westley, and Angel of "Buffy" as played by David Boreanaz. Angel? Yes. The others? You gotta be kidding.

I'd list Angel, Spike, Henry Fitzroy, Mick St. John, and others from Vampire Wire's Ultimate Hawt Vampire Poll.

AUTHORS BE WARNED: So I was clearing up my email and there are some very old ones in the pile, and I found a message from a publisher's publicist telling me about a new vampire book's release. I wrote back and apologized for the delay, but offered to have a contest here. This is usually a pretty good deal for an author because I put up the summary, cover, links to the author's site, etc. The publicist wrote back and said they were over their publicity push for now.

Hello? Since when do you turn down a chance to promote a book? She could have said, "How about a Q&A with my author?" and I would have said, "Sure." I'm sure the author doesn't know that the publisher's publicist has this "maybe later" attitude. Once a book is out, you keep promoting. If this was my publicist, I'd be furious.


GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

Now, completely boy-band free! Even though I'm not watching "True Blood," I know it has a lot of fans. This is for you from Sabaceanbabe.



As for the Entertainment Weekly survey, except for Angel (Naked David Boreanaz), those guys are not worthy of the Jonesian Effect (TM), that extra sexitude brought on by fan tributes set to songs by Sir Tom Jones. Behold the wonder that is Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin) and "Sex Bomb."