Foreign Covers & Midnight Snack!

 It took a few years for my Russian editions to be available here in the US, but Midnight Brunch, Casa Dracula Book 2, just appeared on Amazon. Okay, it's being called Midnight Snack and my name is listed as Marta Akosta, so who knows if readers will find it since Amazon's search engine is dreadful.

I actually have had people write to me and ask me where they can find the Russian editions. I also have people ask me about Spanish editions and then tell me I should have them.  I didn't have anything to do with foreign editions of my books since my publisher held the rights, but the rights have just been returned to me, so I hope my agent can sell to a few more foreign publishers. Yeah!

I think this Russian cover is fun and funny (and I like it much better than my US cover).  It gets across the whole "vampire, cocktails, mayhem" idea of my books. Yesterday in comments I mentioned that I preferred the UK covers (example below, left) of MaryJanice Davidson's books, and I thought it would be fun to check up on new covers for foreign editions.



Fans of Tanya Huff's Blood Ties series have put together all her foreign covers at BloodTiesCentral.com.



Kerrelyn Sparks has a cool edgier cover for the French edition of one of her Love at Stake books, but it carries on the sensuality and color scheme of her US covers.



Colleen Gleason, who has fantastic covers on her US editions of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles, also got a gorgeous French cover, and Charlaine Harris got a very different white/red cover that I rather like.



Tate Hallaway has eye-catching, fun illustrations for both the US (left) and UK (right) version of Tall, Dark and Dead.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

The GVD theme is videos set to songs by Florence and the Machine. Hanitra made this True Blood tribute to "You've Got the Love."



HideThenSeek put together this The Vampire Diaries tribute to "Cosmic Love."



Mishamaid acknowledged Sam and Dean Winchester's difficult, yet loving relationship in Supernatural with "Kiss with a Fist."




I always wonder if four videos takes too long to load or if you guys want more videos. Or less. Or a different kind. I found several others and didn't post them because I don't know what works for you. Have a great weekend!

 

Russian Happy Hour at Casa Dracula & Werewolf Paranormal Romance Covers

I was surprised to see that one new hard cover copy of the Russian edition of Happy Hour at Casa Dracula is available at Amazon for only $9.40. I only got a few copies of this edition and I've given some away to readers who couldn't find it. I also sent a copy to the illustrator of Haunted Honeymoon, who is Russian. She said the translation is good and she loved it, so snap this up fast if you have a Russian friend.

Amanda has a fun Q&A with Gail Carriger, author of the Parasol Protectorate series, at Love Vampires. It's nice to see another writer who was also influenced by P.G. Wodehouse and Jane Austen. I was starting to feel lonely being the only one around. (Well, not for Jane, because everyone says that Jane inspired her.)

Romantic Times just put a very nice starred "2010 Fiction Nominee" icon next to their review of Haunted Honeymoon, which the reviewer called "a phenomenal vampire series." They also rated the sensuality level as HOT!

Also, I'm going to recoup a little from the blog tour and the loss of my entire email and will figure out 1) if I owe people contest prizes (write to me if you won something and haven't received it!) and 2) upcoming guests and contests. If you'd like to be a guest here or do a guest blog contact me.  You don't have to be an author to have an opinion you'd like to share.

SciFi Guy is sharing the new cover of Werewolf in Manhattan by Vicki Lewis Thompson. He's got the book description and  links to an excerpt and contests. I agree with him (for once) that this is a very amusing cover: the book looks fun, and the color scheme is appropriately wintery. The wolf is in the background, but still noticeable. The angled, slightly askew title font reminds me of one of my favorite title fonts ever, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanne Renee Hieber.

The cover and comic paranormal romance theme reminded me of another werewolf cover I just saw: Molly Harper's The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf, which will be released in March 2011.  Hmm. Another cartoon illustration, but the style is quite different.

Publisher's Description:

Generations of werewolves have been secretly residing in a secluded valley a stone's throw from Grundy, Alaska. So when a snooping Outsider comes to Grundy to investigate rumors of lycanthropic shenanigans in the area, the valley's pack alpha, Maggie Graham, resolves to chase him away, even if doing so takes a quick bite on the butt. What a pity that researcher Nick Thatcher turns out to be so drool-worthy, and that his kisses make Maggie want to sit up and beg. Maggie just can't seem to convince Nick to leave . . . and even worse, she can't convince herself to stay away from him. Cross-species dating is problem enough for a harried alpha female, but on top of that, a rival group of werewolves is trying to move into the valley. With interpack war threatening, Maggie can't afford to be distracted. Combining romance and a career can be tough for anyone; for a werewolf in love with a human, it may be disastrous.

The cartoon illustration for werewolf books seems to be popular. Another upcoming release is The Werewolf Upstairs by Ashlyn Chase, which will be released in February 2011.

Publisher's Description:

Desperate for change, public defender Roz Wells decides moving into a new apartment is just what she needs to shake things up. But she'll get more than she bargained for when she starts dating the drop dead gorgeous boy next door, who just happens to be a shape-shifter...and quite possibly a criminal. Security salesman Konrad Wolfensen has made a living staging break-ins to spook people into buying his security system, but when he's accused of a much more serious crime, he'll have to enlist the help of his sexy new neighbor/girlfriend to keep his cute, slightly wild rear end out of jail.

Here are a few more cartoon-illustrated covers for werewolf paranormal romances.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

The theme is....werewolves.  Lawliette made this Alcide of True Blood video to a great werewolf song, TV on the Radio's "Wolf Like Me."





Queenkwackshipper made this tribute to George and Nina, the werewolves in BBC's Being Human to Florence and the Machine's "Howl."



Lookingforastar put together a Tyler Lockwood/The Vampire Diaries video.



Okay, I guess I have to post this, but only because I made a promise to myself to always share the "Who Let the Dogs Out" love whenever I could.

YA Book Covers with Faces & General Kvetching

For a while, there was a trend in paranormal/urban fantasy of showing models who were either headless or turned away so their faces didn't show. The theory was that readers wanted to project their own identity onto the model...a theory I don't buy at all. Young Adult fiction has always taken a different route with their covers and right now, there are a lot of YA books out that feature a model's face as the focus. Here are a few.

Also, is it too much to ask authors to post book covers and descriptions on their websites? YA authors have lots of fancy doo-dads, but generally forget some of the essentials. Stop listening to everything your designer tells you because your business is words, not images. 

These cover graphics are from the fantastic website Fantastic Fiction, which always has the useful info that authors forget.

Entice by Carrie Jones (cover at top)

Publisher's Description:

Zara and Nick are soul mates, meant to be together forever. But that's not quite how things have worked out.

For starters, well, Nick is dead. Supposedly, he's been taken to a mythic place for warriors known as Valhalla, so Zara and her friends might be able to get him back. But it's taking time, and meanwhile a group of evil pixies is devastating Bedford, with more teens going missing every day. An all-out war seems imminent, and the good guys need all the warriors they can find. But how to get to Valhalla?

And even if Zara and her friends discover the way, there's that other small problem: Zara's been pixie kissed. When she finds Nick, will he even want to go with her? Especially since she hasn't just turned. She's Astley's queen.

Carrie Jones's Website

Awakened, House of Night Book 8, by P.C. and Kristin Cast (December 2011)


Publisher's Description:

At the start of Awakened, the pulse-pounding eighth installment of the bestselling House of Night series, Zoey has returned, mostly whole, from the Otherworld to her rightful place as High Priestess at the House of Night. Her friends are just glad to have her back, but after losing her human consort, Heath, will Zoey - or her relationship with her super-hot Warrior, Stark - ever be the same? Stevie Rae is drawn even closer to Rephaim, the Raven Mocker with whom she shares a mysterious and powerful Imprint, but he is a dangerous secret that isolates her from her school, her red fledglings, and even her best friends. When the dark threat of Neferet - who is coming closer and closer to achieving her twisted goal of immortality - and Kalona returns, what will it take to keep the House of Night from being lost forever, and what will one desperate girl do to keep her heart from being irreparably broken?

P.C. Cast's Website

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Publisher's Description:

Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything - including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?

Andrea Cremer's Website

The Last Sacrifice, Vampire Academy Book 6, by Richelle Mead (December 2011)

No Publisher's Description

Richelle Mead's Website


Firelight by Sophie Jordan (September 2010)

Publisher's Description:

Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki - a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form.

Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will's dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away - if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She'll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy.

Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide.

Sophie Jordan's Website

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

Just when I start to get jaded by finding good videos for this blog, I discover something like CrazyVixen1's multifandom "Love and Lust."  It's awesome. For those of you horrified at the sight of naked boobage, it only lasts a second at the beginning of the vid, so you have time to recover and enjoy the rest of the video.



EricTheSheriff did a great job putting together this Halloween video for True Blood, set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller."



JulieannFan made this Halloween vid using clips from Dracula 2000, the best worst vampire movie with Gerard Butler evah!

My Worst Reviews Evah! - A Writer Shares

First of all, yeah, Giants! I'm not a baseball fan, but I am a San Francisco fan so it was great that they finally won the World Championship.

Second, yeah, me! Haunted Honeymoon, the fourth in my Casa Dracula series, has been named a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Nominee for best paranormal fiction of 2010.  The Bride of Casa Dracula was also a Reviewers Choice Nominee.

But being a writer isn't all fab reviews. Every now and then the online blog review community discusses  negative book reviews. I was surprised to learn that many readers think that negative reviews should never ever be written. They were raised by mothers who convinced them that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.  But I think negative reviews can be thoughtful and well-written. They can also help readers make a choice, like a recent review I saw that mentioned how a "new" book (in expensive hard cover) was mostly filler lifted from previous books.

There are also those devotees of snarky reviews.  Real snark has wit and skill. Real snark is perceptive and sees the flaws that an untrained eye doesn't notice. It should not be confused with mere bitchiness or meanness.

Then there are the people who just hate something the way I hate lima beans. Now, when I was 18, a very bright friend said to me, "People who think you're funny think you're hilarious, and people who don't think you're funny don't think you're funny at all." This has remained true of me and readers who expect my books to be paranormal romance -- with all the romance conventions including a "hero" and "heroine" -- especially dislike my books. (I keep telling people that I write comedy-of-manners not romance novels and that there is no hero, but no one listens.) I thought it would be fun to share a few of these negative reviews.

Here's how one reader at Amazon felt about Happy Hour at Casa Dracula.

The Latina heroin just got on my nerves, the hero was the most submissive vampire I had the disgrace to experience and the story is just stupid and absolutely not funny. This is the first and the last book I will buy from Marta Acosta , I absolutely dislike her style.

Let's get past her dislike for the Latina "heroin," but I'm impressed with the fact that she takes books so seriously that her self-esteem is dependent upon characters adhering to stereotypes. I'm going to start saying that I'm disgraced by things, too. I am disgraced by salads whose leaves aren't torn into bite size pieces!

Another reader claimed that I "switched heroes" in my third book and said:

I seem to recall feeling nauseated the day after. And it just got worse. Only one of my 4 pregnancies didn't affect me like that. Go figure.

I appreciate the energy that this reader took in going to several discussion boards and sharing her (nauseated) feelings about my books. Any writer can make a reader feel ambivalent or bored. I can make a reader feel physically ill for days!

Over at another book site, a culturally knowledgeable reader said:

Yeah, a bit off. To me she talked like every Puerto Rican girl I've ever known though. 

She's right! Several beautiful, educated, bright, hip, sexy, and funny Puerto Rican chicks who've read my books tell me how much they identify with Milagro.

This is one of my favorite reviews of Happy Hour at Casa Dracula.

This book is so wildly inappropriate. I do not recommend anybody reads it. There was language, crudeness, and the most shocking/disgusting things. I'm sad to say that I read the whole thing hoping it would get better...my mistake. 

I can't tell you how often I've read or watched something appalling the whole the way through because I keep hoping it will get better!  I am going to include "wildly inappropriate" as a blurb in any upcoming ads.

A "romance connoisseur" warned people not to buy Happy Hour at Casa Dracula:

I was asleep after the first chapter and it only went downhill from there. The writing was atrocious, the characters were bland, the plot was flat, and the romance was lacking.

She thought my book was so bad that it was worse when she was sleeping -- like a bad dream that won't end! I really feel that I've achieved something special here, even though I'm not sure what it is.

Now go out and vote!

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

Supernatural seems to be getting back on track, so here are some GVDs for my favorite fictional brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester. Andrealschitzd did this awesome video one to "Becoming Insane" by Infected Mushroom.



Batgirlshaz made this tribute to the new, altered Sam Winchester. "I Don't Care" by Apocalypitca.



Allure75 made this video for a set of more complicated brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore of The Vampire Diaries. "Sick" by Sneaker Pimps.

New Zombies...Just the Same as the Old Zombies

Congrats to my pal, Caridad Pineiro, on the release of her new paranormal suspense Sins series, Stronger Than Sin.  Caridad is running contests to celebrate the book release and one of the prizes is a Sony Pocket Reader, so check out her website for details and to read an excerpt from the book.

Here's the publisher's description:

Dr. Liliana Carrera nearly lost her life to Wardwell scientists. She won't let them harm other innocent victims, like her new patient, Jesse Bradford. The former pro athlete had the best hands in the NFL . . . until an injury forced him to undergo Wardwell's experimental gene therapy. Now Jesse's gorgeous body is superhuman-but his strength comes at a price.

With Wardwell threatening his family, Jesse can't tell Liliana all he knows. Yet he can't resist her compassion . . . or her healing, erotic touch. As their passion flares, Jesse's body becomes dangerous and volatile. For evil men are plotting to change the face of humanity-and will destroy whoever stands in their way.

Jessica at Spinecracker has an enthusiastic review for Blood Song by Cat Adams and says:

Blood Song is one of the most original character-based pieces of fiction I've read since maybe Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking. There's a story to be fair, but it's all about Celia and the secrets she discovers about herself and the ones around her.

Abigail at All Things Urban Fantasy is running her 2010 Urban Fantasy Cover Awards, so hop over there and nominate my new book, Haunted Honeymoon (Casa Dracula book 4), with it's wonderful cover illustration by Elena Dudina!

The Zombie Report

Seeing as it was Halloween weekend, you couldn't channel surf without hitting a zombie show. I decided to watch a few just to see how zombies had progressed recently and figure out if the "zombies are the new vampires" hype had any substance.  I watched the entire five-episode miniseries Dead Set on IFC and also about 30 minutes of Zombieland.

You know how fashionistas will occasionally declare that brown is the new black, which lasts about five minutes and then everyone is back to black because brown is...brown? Yeah, the same for zombies. I'd hoped that Dead Set would be better than the trailers. It's about a group of people in the Big Brother house in England battling rampaging zombies.  There was so much that could have been done with this premise, even if one didn't want to go the humor and/or social commentary route. Instead it was a really boring compilation of zombie chase and flesh-eating scenes. There was no character development, no real plot to speak of, and no drama. Vampire Wire says, "I've seen Shaun of the Dead and this is no Shaun of the Dead."

Zombieland was far superior. Of course, it had Woody Harrelson, one of the terrific and underrated actors of our time. Jesse Eisenberg co-stars as a dweeb who gets the hot chick, one of those roles male actors can get for which there is no female equivalent. (Eisenberg also stars in the current flick Social Network, about the founding of Facebook.) Anyway, Zombieland also has ravenous zombie hordes, but at least the main characters have some sort of personalities. And what's not to love about a man who goes to hide from zombies at Bill Murray's Hollywood mansion...and a cameo by Bill Murray? I wouldn't mind watching the whole thing.

My zombie movie suggestions:

• If you want wit, fun, action, and a bitchin soundtrack, watch Shaun of the Dead, with Simon Pegg as a slacker who becomes a hero.
• If you want to be terrified and repulsed by relentless zombies, watch George Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead.
• If you want something modern, apocalyptic, and tension-buildingly ominous, try 28 Days Later. Also, it doesn't hurt that Cillian Murphy stars as Jim.  I don't know of another vampire movie that includes actors as talented as Brendan Gleason and Christopher Eccleston.

I think vampires can rest safely in their coffins since there's no chance that zombies will ever replace them on top of the paranormal creature pyramid.

Have you seen any good movies that you'd like to share? What about Dawn of the Dead or DeadGirl? I haven't seen those, but I hear they're better than the usual lurch-eat-brains-lurch movie.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

The theme is zombie movies and actors who have appeared in zombie movies. FractureLight made this tribute to 28 Days Later. "I'm Not Over" by Carolina Liar.



Oh, I love Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. CinemaGhost made this Shaun of the Dead video set to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now."



ClaraDarko2 made this tribute to Zombieland with Extreme's "Do You Want to Play?"