Kickin It with the Kick-Ass Chicks

First of all, tomorrow I'm going to have an AMAZING contest with lots of great prizes, do be sure to drop by.

I've mentioned frequently that I love the original covers of Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series, so today I went a-Googling and learned that Lisa Desimini illustrated these books. If you visit Lisa's website, you can enjoy her other book covers with their distinctive folk art style, saturated colors, themes of sky and dreams. She has many of her wonderful prints for sale, the perfect gift for a good friend.

My Casa Dracula series has been named the Book Pick at Paranormal Romance! Reviewer (and frequent Vampire Wire visitor) Dot wrote:

"The heroine of the series is Milagro De Los Santos, a graduate of Fancy University (F.U.) who wants to be a writer in the worst way, which is the way most things go for Milagro...There is romance and lots of action as Milagro tries to figure out what is going on. This is one funny, plucky, intelligent heroine who manages to stumble into one problem after another... Your cheeks will hurt from all the smiling."

Paranormal Romance has a very clever feature called "Ask an Author." And you should not under any circumstances miss the werewolf cupcake photos on the cover art page. Total genius. They make vampire bite cupcakes look like something a kid does in her Easy-Bake Oven.

Jackie B very rightfully noted that I was ignoring the kickass chicks. So, here are the promised chick badges. I'm not finished and if you have any suggestions, please tell me!








GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

And the vids are for some of our favorite kick-ass chicks! I wish there were more great tributes to the girls on YouTube, but I think you'll like these.

As Promised: New Badges

I know I said it was going to be the chicks, but first I have to post some of the other vampy/werewolf dudes because I promised those first. I am running out of job descriptions. And, you know, I just don't get the Bill Compton thing. HBO needs to hire a better makeup artist, for one, and his hair...it's a little coiffed.

Enjoy!



GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

You know how I told you that "Supernatural" reruns are now on TNT? Yeah, well they run at 7:00 in the MORNING here. Cuz what we want to do is watch it before we have our coffee. Whatever. I'm recording it. Here's a cheerful new vid with our favorite demon-fighting brothers.





Oh, this is fun. How did I miss this before?

Decade of Vamp Movies in Review & Badges to Come

I'm going to come back later today with more badges of some favorite characters -- with a particular shoutout to the ass-kicking chicks, psychic chicks, etc -- but for now I suggest you head on over to Professor Derek Tatum's Mondo Vampire for his overview of the decade's vamp films.

I was very pleased to see that he paid some attention to the brilliant (or brilliantly bad) "Dracula 2000." It is my fervent dream to be able to watch more than ten minutes of this movie starring Gerard Butler, his chest, his overcoat, and his rock-star hair.

Oh, god, I'll be singing this song all frickin day! I'll putting it on replay until I learn all the words. I'm pretty sure they say, "Middle night, ha ha ha ha ha, when I'm coming on a power train and you're high of dirty blood, tease me in the hot boys' club," or something like that. I don't actually know any German, but it's like a gift, this translation thing.



This is a very groovy little video with a great voiceover by Bela Lugosi and one of my favorite vamp tunes (although I prefer the non-acoustic version of this song).

BBC's "Demons" and Spike Don't Sparkle Like That

If you're in the mood to read about werewolves, check out The Hollow Fang. This is author Mario Acevedo's newsletter and I wax poetic about weres and shifters in a guest column.

Mandi gives Molly Harper's Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men a rave at Smexy Books. "Jane has been a vampire for some time now, but that doesn’t mean she is totally adjusted to it. She continues to work at her bookstore, but her very small part-time pay checks are barely covering her synthetic blood bills."

Speaking of rave reviews, I just got a very nice one for my first novel, Happy Hour at Casa Dracula, from author Erin O'Riordan, who included it on her "Best Books I've Read in 2009" list: "Thoroughly enjoyable. In this witty novel, Acosta creates a wonderful heroine in Milagro de los Santos. Mil, as she is known to friends, wants what every girl wants: to be taken seriously as a writer, live in rat-free apartment, and maybe find a fabulous guy she can get serious with...Wonderfully written, funny and romantic, this one is a real winner." Thanks, Erin!


I am, as I've mentioned, wild about Philip Glenister, who played the bad-ass cop, Gene Hunt, on the BBC's time-travel series, "Life on Mars," and the sequel, "Ashes to Ashes." My favorite line? "Don't move -- you're surrounded by armed bastards!" So I was excited that he's in a new series, "Demons," playing Rupert Galvin, a warrior fighting supernatural creatures of evil. Yes, I noticed that Rupert Galvin sounds a lot like Rupert Giles.

I watched the season premier over the weekend. There's good stuff and meh-stuff. The good stuff: Philip Glenister. Philip Glenister with a bad attitude and a Mercedes limo. The meh-stuff: he's inexplicably doing an American accent.

For those who cannot appreciate the weather-beaten, grubby charms of Glenister, there are younger eye-candy cast members, including Christian Cooke as Luke Rutherford, Zoe Trapper as Mina Harker, and Holliday Granger as Ruby. The costumes and special effects for the demons is a little too cute, too "The Goonies" for my taste, but this show is geared for younger viewers.

Luke is the grandson of Abraham Van Helsing and he's recruited to fight demons. Or as Rupert puts it, "to smite them with extreme prejudice." There are intriguing underground scenes and Van Helsing's extensive subterranean library, which reminded me a bit of "Warehouse 13," only better. (I kinda hate "Warehouse 13.") There's a nod to steampunk, too.

I wasn't completely enthralled, but I wasn't completely annoyed, so I shall keep watching to see how the series develops.

Read a review at SF Universe: "Like the slayers of Buffy and the hunters of Supernatural – battling the forces of darkness isn’t a career choice – it’s a destiny that is thrust upon you, and when destiny calls you have no choice but to answer."

Read a review of at Blogcritics: "In fact, it is very hard to discuss or watch Demons without thinking of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There are, it seems, only three main differences from the setup of that series to this one – the chosen one here is a guy not a girl, Demons takes place in England, and this one has the overlay of the Dracula tale. "

Here's a tribute to Glenister's character in "Demons."




GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

Thanks so much to Ladytink, who shared the link to this Spike (James Marsters) from "Buffy" video! It's one of the best I've seen.







This is a great vamp song, "I am the Vampire" by People in Planes, that was in the playlist that Chris gave me.

The Complete Vampire Wire Badge Collection

I thought I'd put all the badges in one place so you can copy the one(s) you like and add them to your own pages/sites. If you have any special requests for your favorite character, please tell me and I'll see what I can do!

It all started with Naked David Boreanaz.



And then it just continued. I've got a few new ones here, too.

























GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

I'll post these later. I have to take my dogs to the park now.

Happy New Year & "Supernatural" Badges

I thought we should start the year right...so I made "Supernatural" badges for you. You can copy and post them on your blogs and sites.

You can thank me by buying my books so I don't have to get a real job. My books have been selected Love Vampire's Editor's Pick, BookSense Pick, Fresh Fiction's Fresh Pick, and Romantic Times said that my talent is "staggering" (stop laughing), so they should be good enough for you to read under your desk at work. Charlaine Harris used the words "absolutely entertaining" when reviewing Happy Hour at Casa Dracula. No, she didn't say, "How absolutely entertaining to think I'd bother reading that Casa Dracula claptrap. You must be out of your tiny little mind." Charlaine's not snarky like you. It was like all sincere and stuff.

If you've missed "Supernatural" and desperately need to catch up on this fab series, you're in luck. TNT has picked up the syndication. On Monday, they'll start running the show from the beginning and it will be on every night. I know...so fabulous.



GRATUITOUS NEW YEAR'S DAY VIDEOS

When I think of starting a new year, starting filled with hope and the Snoopy Dance, I think of one thing: yes, videos set to Britney Spears' "Womanizer."