Great News!! Tor Buys The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove

I am really thrilled to announce that The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove, my young adult gothic, has been bought by Tor Books.  I really love this story and I'm so glad it will be published in hard cover, as well as paperback.

Here's a description:

Jane Williams has suffered personal tragedy and learned to survive by hiding in the shadows of life.  She thinks she will never escape the misery of her foster home when she's offered a full-scholarship at an elite academy.  The school even offers Jane a place of her own to live, the old groundskeeper's cottage in a dense grove of birch trees.

The very pale and very elegant headmistress, Mrs. Monroe, is especially kind and suggests that Jane earn spending money by tutoring her son, gorgeous Lucky.  A popular group of girls take Jane into their circle, and the challenging classes are all she could have hoped for.

It seems too good to be true.  It is.
__________________________

I received a tremendous amount of support for this book from many of you.  Some read the free online manuscript and sent me comments, and others offered suggestions.  Many mentioned the book on their blogs, or Tweeted, or said something on Facebook.  A few terrific people passed along the book to their teenagers, whose opinions were especially appreciated.

A very special shout-out goes to Amanda at LoveVampires who read and loved the book, then created a cover design for it.  Amanda, you're all kinds of wonderful!  Those who reviewed the book helped -- from established and respected  reviewers like Patricia Altner to enthusiastic newbies, because the reviews were shared with my editor.

I also had a correspondent who helped me fix many typos in my free online read at Scribd (where it became the #1 Young Adult novel).  It was amazing to me that anyone would take the time to carefully read the manuscript and note the errors.  I didn't get around to fixing all of them, but thank you for your time and effort.

I feel very lucky to have help from all of you.  You kept me hopeful! 

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In other news, I watched a bit of Moonlight last night.  I had tried to watch the first episode of the now cancelled show when it premiered.  I could not get into it.  Anyway, last night's show seemed much better.  The cast was at their ease, especially doing their American accents, and seemed more confident, flirty, sexy, dangerous.  I'll definitely start watching it.

E! Online says:

So why is the CW airing Moonlight now? I'm told that the decision was made in part to keep [Alex] O'Loughlin's fan base chugging along, in the hopes they'll follow him to the new Five-O this fall. (The CW and CBS are all one family, you know.) Plus, maybe you've heard, people kinda like vampires these days? So the ratings shouldn't be too shabby either, and will keep the TV audience busy.

Please save us from this.  The SyFy Channel (stuupid renaming of the Sci-Fi Channel) is remaking BBC's terrific and ongoing serie Being Human, about a werewolf, vampire, and ghost who are roommates.  Why, why, why?  The show is already seen here in the US.  It's already in English.  It's already got an amazing cast.  It's already way better than anything the SyFy Channel is going to do.

As proof, they've hired the least menacing bad guy in the history of menacing bad guys, the "Let's got to Ikea and then we'll have a Frappuccino while you admire my Dockers" yuppieish actor Mark Pellegrino.  I have nothing personally against this actor, although I wish he'd either shave or grow a beard, make a frickin decision.  My theory is that he's a really great, responsible, and nice actor and everyone loves to work with him, so he gets cast as an unconvincing Lucifer in Supernatural and an unconvincing eternal menace Jacob in Lost.

I think that Pellegrino should play the earnest, but occasionally misguided hunky boyfriend in some show.  I could see him as that.  I could see him as a really great, devoted teacher or a father of triplets (hilarity ensues!).  You should watch the original, smart, scary, funny, sexy, thrilling BBC version of  Being Human.  Rent the DVDs because BBC America chops out huge sections to shove in commercials.  (Yes, I've written to them about it.)  You can find out more about it at the show's website.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

The original show and the one I like.



I'm kinda loving this song.



Annie, the ghost, is one of my favorite characters. I think she's lovely and heartbreaking.



Have a great weekend!

THE SANGUINAIRIAN Vamp Movie & Return of Darque Reviews

The very nice people who made and produced The Sanguinarian  have been in contact with me with news about their indie vamp film, which is now being seen at film festivals. 

Here's the summary:

The Sanguinarian is a drama/thriller centered around Christoph, a gaunt, pale young man with rakish blond hair and piercing blue eyes. He is a suicidal vampire, solitary in his steps through a post-industrial, sensual, and surreal world. He is wary, uneasy, and dangerously sharp. Drawn, again and again, to the vibrant, decadent lot who dance at an underground blood  bar. As Christoph stays one step ahead of his own damnation, the pseudo-Shakespearean language of the vampires plays out the unfolding tragedy. It is the heart-stopping and violent diplomacy of the damned, an unconventional tale of the seductions of evil.


Visit The Sanguinarian website.

The movie is written and produced by Analise Ravella, who knows all about blood since she was a paramedic in San Francisco for many years.  Now, my brother was a paramedic in San Francisco, so I know Analise has all kinds of stories.

Taliesin Meets the Vampires has a good review of the movie and says:

When I looked at the trailer for The Sanguinarian I thought I knew what it was… The music caught my attention, but not as much as the look and the look paled next to the dialogue. Yet all in all, as I watched the actual film, this was so much more than the sum of those parts.

I saw part of the movie and it is quirky.  Of course, I'm all about the quirky.  I liked the flamboyant dialogue and thought it was visually interesting, but I didn't watch the whole flick because the sound quality on the preview DVD wasn't great.  This may be entirely different when watching the movie in a theatre, tho. 

Here's a trailer:

If you'd like to keep up on the movie and find out where it will be shown, you can join their Facebook page.  I've referred the publicist to our favorite vamp film reviewer Catherine Karp, and perhaps she'll check it out and tell us more about it.

Speaking of Catherine, she's inteviewed by Nicole Hadaway about her new venture out as Cat Winters, her pen name for Blackbirds, a young adult novel.

I was searching for titles in WWI poetry and came across the phrase “dark-clothed children at play” and really liked the image.  During WWI, not only were people dressed in black because they were in mourning, but a German dye ban kept Americans in drab colors.  Add a white, beak-like flu mask to the equation, and I realized people resembled blackbirds.  My character says, “We all looked like bad luck.”

Casa Dracula News:  Even as I'm heading toward the release of Casa Dracula book 4, Haunted Honeymoon, my earlier books are still getting discovered!  I've got a very nice review by Natalie Reece in Gozamos for Midnight Brunch and The Bride of Casa Dracula.

All three books are great for a beach read or a bath tub read. Throw in your tote and go. I couldn’t put them down and the best part about them is they are good enough to read over and over.

 Strictly Antisocial reviewed my first book, Happy Hour at Casa Dracula:

I would recommend this book to lovers of vampire fiction, fans of great, witty humor and even for you chick lit lovers...YOU NEED TO CHECK THIS BOOK OUT! Are the caps making my point? If your tired of the angsty teens and extremely dark, menacing brooders in your common vampire reads this book will be a welcomed relief.

Thanks, AntiSocial!  I am actively trying to rescue the reputation of funny books written by women.  I am going to start an organization and make bumper stickers that say something like, "It's not a crime to like funny books written by women."  Or maybe "Honk if you like funny books written by woman."  Or "I wuv hugs and funny books written by women.  And men, too."  I'm still working on the motto and acronym and secret handshake.

Tor will be celebrating Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Month with a series of events on their blog.  Why didn't anyone tell me this was Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Month, because I'd totally want to go to the parties and stuff.   I'm looking forward to Ron Hogan's interview of Vampire Wire fave Leanna Renee Hieber about her Strangely Beautiful series.

GREAT NEWS!  I heard yesterday from one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Kimberly Swan.  She had taken a break from her wonderful Darque Reviews blog and website, and has returned  to occasionally blog about books.   Kimberly was one of the first paranormal/urban fantasy sites that I discovered.  She was a genre reviewer pioneer on the internet, and she always treated books seriously, whether the author was established and successful or just starting out.  Darque Reviews was a site I checked out daily to find out about new books.  Welcome back, Kimberly! 

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

I am still in the process of trying to figure out why videos are so slow on my laptop.  It makes selecting them impossible if I can't watch them.  Agh.

Okay, "Bad Moon Rising" is a great song, right?  Creedence Clearwater Revival members actually grew up very near me in a San Francisco Bay Area suburb that's as swampy as....well, it's not swampy at all.   It's an nice little town set on an earthquake fault. They do mention "earthquakes and lighting," and we rarely have lighting. We don't have hurricanes or any rivers. Still, the song remains all kinds of awesome.

TWILIGHT, Weres Fight, Emotions are Outasight

It is now official: those who aren't writing vampire stories, are writing about those who read or watch vampire stories.  Most stories I've seen are by guys saying how there are much better movies about vampires than the Twilight series.  But if you're looking for a sensitive and intelligent piece about why Twilight appeals to young women, Paul Byrnes has one in The Age, an Australian newspaper.

For too long, Hollywood has seen teen passion in terms of boys who want to lose their virginity. [Stephanie] Meyer corked that bottle and switched it: Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a vampire of virtue, refused to give himself to Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) for most of the first two movies. He went into exile rather than respond to her increasingly powerful desires. He loved her but would not risk hurting her, one of the foundation ideas of the romance novel.

Byrnes also comments on the change of directors.  Can you think of another situation when a director as insanely successful as Catherine Hardwicke was replaced for the second in a series?    The film studio has taken an emotion-driven story and tried to turn it into an actioner to draw male audiences. 

Catherine Hardwicke concentrated on the depth of emotion in part one, Chris Weitz made part two more of a saga, and David Slade makes the third bigger, louder and coarser...

Bella's emotions drove the earlier films because they were grave and real, anchoring the fantasy elements. The fantasy grows in the third film, at the expense of her character. Does any- one go to these films to see a fight between werewolves and vampires

All and all, this is a very nice and serious treatment of the films.

Jeaniene Frost has a new book coming out at the end of July.  Eternal Kiss of Darkness is the second in her Night Huntress World series.

Here's the publisher's description:

Chicago private investigator Kira Graceling should have just kept on walking. But her sense of duty refused to let her ignore the moans of pain coming from inside a warehouse just before dawn. Suddenly she finds herself in a world she's only imagined in her worst nightmares.

At the center is Mencheres, a breathtaking Master vampire who thought he'd seen it all. Then Kira appears - this fearless, beautiful....human who braved death to rescue him. Though her burns for her, keeping Kira in his world means risking her life. Yet sending her away is unthinkable.

But with danger closing in, Mencheres must choose either the woman he craves, or embracing the darkest magic to defeat an enemy bent on his eternal destruction.

You can learn more by visiting Jeaniene's website, and she's got a book trailer posted.

One of my fans (yes, I do have one) asked me why I don't have a trailer for Midnight Brunch.  The answer is, it takes me too dang long to make them and then they're these weird clumsy slide shows with wonky graphics...with fluffy kittens.   I wish someone would make a trailer for me.  I'm going to post my first one here anyway.



Okay, the fluffy kittens are in the video for The Bride of Casa Dracula. See for yourselves.



You can see how my time here as a blogger has influenced my videos and other creative work.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

How do I pick these?  Generally I go to YouTube and do a search combining terms like:  vampire, Dracula, Tom Jones, hawt, True Blood, Britney, Mick St. John, rock, Sookie, Buffy, Bon Jovi, etc.  I find great videos like this one, but I've already posted it so then I narrow my search to videos posted either this week or this month.  And you thought I just posted anything.  Ha.

That's how I found this.  It has some boobies in it, so don't act all shocked.  I'm more appalled by Anna Paquin's weird voice and accent.  I like Southern accents but her "Ah ahhhm hees" bugs.  Opinions from actual Southerners -- do you think her voice grates?

Sometimes I find videos with songs that make my brain hurt.



Other times I find videos like this gem set to the Beatles' spare and elegant "Blackbird."

Contest Weiner, UNHOLY MAGIC Release, & Vampires in Lurve

You can read a new interview with me over at Gozamos.  Natalie Reece finds out more than you want to know about why I have no desire to be a vampire:  "First, you’d be dead. Second, you’d be cold. Third, if people seem really boring now, imagine how boring they’ll seem after a few hundred years."

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest for Stacia Kane's Unholy Magic, which is being released today!  The weiner of the contest is:

Natalie of Mindful Musings

Natalie, please send me an email with your mailing address so I can send your prize.  Hope you enjoy Unholy Magic!

Congratulations, too, to Stacia Kane, on her release day and having her novel, Unholy Ghosts, selected as a fantasy read by the Times (London)!  You can learn more about Unholy Magic, book two of her Downside Ghosts series, and read excerpts at her website.   You can also read Stacia's guest blog here at Vampire Wire. 

I'm listing Natalie's book review site, Mindful Musings, as a Blog to Watch.  It's quite a pretty layout with tons of great content.  While Natalie reviews all genres, she's got a special fondness for paranormal/urban fantasy and YA.   Hmm, maybe Natalie would like to review a certain hilarious series featuring a wacky chica who gets involved with snobby vamps.  I'm going to add this to my blogroll and if you enjoy YA paranormal  & UF, you may want to bookmark it.

Natalie's favorite ghost story is A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb.  I'd never heard of this book before, but this book sounds fascinating and the title is wonderful for a ghost story.

The publisher's summary is sparse, so here's Francesca Goldsmith's review in  School Library Journal:

Helen died 130 years ago as a young woman. Unable to enter heaven because of a sense of guilt she carried at death, she has been silent and invisible but conscious and sociable across the generations. Her spirit has been sustained by its attachment to one living human host after another, including a poet and, most recently, a high-school English teacher. While she sits through his class one day, she becomes aware of James and he–unlike the mortals all around them–is aware of her as well. James, who also died years earlier, inhabits the body of a contemporary teen, Billy.

James and Helen fall in love, he shows her how to inhabit the body of a person whose spirit has died but who still lives and breathes, and the two begin to unfold the mysteries of their own pasts and those of their adolescent hosts. Jenny, whose body Helen now uses, is the only child of strict religious parents who controlled her beyond what her spirit could endure. Billy's spirit left his body after a string of tragedies resulting from drug abuse and domestic violence. James and Helen court in both modern and old-fashioned ways; here is a novel in which explicit sex is far from gratuitous or formulaic. Whitcomb writes with a grace that befits Helen's more modulated world while depicting contemporary society with sharp insight. In the subgenre of dead-narrator tales, this book shows the engaging possibilities of immortality–complete with a twist at the end that wholly satisfies.

Visit Laura Whitcomb's website.

The Midnight Moon Cafe chicks are having a contest for Vivi Ana's newly released The Vampire's Kiss and a pair of thigh-high fishnets.  Just leave a comment on who you think is the best vampire kisser.  The contest runs through July 8, Thursday, midnight. 

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

In honor of the Midnight Moon Cafe's contest for Vivi Ana's A Vampire's Kiss, here are kissing GVDs.  Enjoy!

WARNING: Supposedly there's some mature content in this, but YouTube is loading so slowly that I don't have the patience to watch it through. If you are easily offended, well, you probably shouldn't be reading my blog anyway.