So, what do you all think of this cover? Nice, right? It's the first anthology of Nocturne Bites stories that'll be out in tradesize in April and mass market in October. My "Racing The Moon" is in it, along with Bites from Vivi, Lori D, Bonnie Vanak, and two others who don't come immediately to mind right now.

M

Vamp Vixens contest

The Vampire Vixens are featuring a holiday contest now through December 12th. It involves a little sleuthing through the various Vixens' web sites, but the prizes are great!
M

This and That

Busy trying to finish THE BONE CONJURER this week.  It's all written, but needs a final read-through, and a polish to really make it rock.  So I'm playing rock music all day to keep the mood.  Korn, Disturbed, Metallica.  I just need it edgy, moody and rough--good fight scene stuff.

Anyone check out Guns N' Roses new CD?  I played the snippets of songs at iTunes and wasn't interested in any of them.  Bummer.  They used to be such a good band.

New favorite song?  Straight To Number One by Touch and Go.  They played it last week on Dancing With The Stars for Lance and Lacey's mambo (I think it was mambo).  The routine rocked, and so does the song.

I got a new kitty!  Approximately 6-7 mths old.  Solid black with a smudge of white at his breast and a spot of white on belly.  Gold eyes, kinda eerie, but very panther-like.  He's a rescue kitty, and he was overjoyed to be taken home.  He's a hugger and a kisser.  I was going to post a pic but am having a heck of a time with my computer seeing the card reader for my camera.  Will work on that later.  I'm not sure of the little guy's name yet.  So far we've got: Smudge, Johnny (as in Cash), Max, and the hubby likes Monkey Butt.  I think I'm swaying toward Max.  We'll see.

Got an approval for the third book in my Wicked Games series today, so that means I can hand in the book.  Yeah, it's already written.  It doesn't pay to wait around for proposal approval when it can be a while for that.  If I had waited that would mean I'd have a month to write this story because it's due end of December.   Oh, and the title and hero's name changed.  I was going with Henri Saint-Pierre for the aristocratic, 900-yr old vampire hero.  But now he's Edward Saint-Pierre.  Go figure.  And much as I wanted BITE ME for a title, that's now become HER VAMPIRE HUSBAND.  Not quite the impact as the first choice, but more romantic and tells the reader basically what's going on with the story.

So it's back to the Rogue Angel for this week, then next week I draft out THE OTHER CROWD, another RA book.

Have a great Thanksgiving!  Eat jellied cranberries and think of me.  ;-)

M

Favorite Things — Finale! [And winner!]

A bunch of people mentioned their iPods as favorite things, and I have to admit I'd go nuts without mine. I usually keep it in my car, play if over the stereo. I love that I can organize playlists and skip a song if I don't want to listen to it. I actually have an iPod Mini in my Mini Cooper. Hee. It's the old black & white version, and no pictures, but I'm cool with it.

Best action movie of the year with the most appealing cast members has to be WANTED. The DVD comes out December 2nd. I'm so there. Any kind of kick-butt adventure chick movie usually works for me, and Angelina does sexy/tough so nicely. Admit it, male or female, you think she's sexy. The whole curving the bullet thing worked for me too. Hey, I know how to suspend my disbelief. :-)

Favorite book? Hands down, A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle. I think what made it great was the online chats Oprah made available to go with the book. Each week she and Eckhart discussed a chapter for a couple hours. Really opened up the meaning for me. I know I'll never be completely ego-less, but I learned a lot from this book, and incorporate its principles into my life daily.

I could list many more things, but that was some highlights.

Now, for the winner of the Favorite Things contest. Drawn randomly from all the great comments this week: CATHY

One of Cathy's favorite things was Bath & BodyWork's Sleep Warm Milk & Honey lotion. With cinnamon and cloves in it, it sounds absolutely divine! I have to go find this stuff. [Cathy, please email me your snail mail address!]

I hope you all had fun with the posts this week. I like the idea of dreaming about lavish things more than actually possessing them. Though some treats (like the iPod) are so cool. For today's comments tell me one wild and lavish thing you'd like to see in your Xmas stocking if money were no object.  (Dean Winchester not allowed; hey, we can't all share him!)
M

Favorite Things Part IV

Need I say more?

Oh. I do? Okay, then how about this?



Yeah, I thought so.

Another fav thing? Bleeding Cowboys. It's a font, and it freakin' rocks! I am a font freak, I admit it. Have been sending my manuscripts in lately with the titles using this font. One of these days, I'll get it on a cover. Fingers crossed. Hey, in January the Nocturne covers actually get different fonts for the titles (not mine; sigh...) But that's cool!



Have you discovered LUSH? They make bath and body products that are organic and natural. You know the store you go into and they slice off a bar of soap from a huge slab? Or mix up their moisturizers and face creams fresh, so fresh, you have to store them in the fridge? I love this place! Feel good about using their products because they are natural. And they smell great. The Mall of America is opening a LUSH store, and I will now have a reason to go there. (I hate that mall.) I love their shampoo bars (yes, in a bar; no plastic bottle to poison you!), and they have great stuff for men too.

Tell me about your favorite thing! Tomorrow I'll feature one winner's FT.
M

ps - Emma Holly and I were interviewed about TWILIGHT in the Star Tribune today.

Favorite Things — The Third

Aquaglobes!
Ohmygosh. Seriously. How do people survive without this wonder of glass and curvalicious beauty? They water your plants for you so you don't have to! I am the worst when it comes to plants. I've been known to say "If it can't take care of itself, it doesn't belong in this house." (Kids and hubby included, some of the times.) I mean who can remember to water plants? And to know how much? I either drown them or starve them. Most plants don't survive more than a month in my house. Until now. I have six aquaglobes and six happy, healthy plants. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I can hear the pothos hanging in the corner of the bedroom, sipping. Seriously. I can. I'm so not being weird.

I discovered a new favorite person this year: Odd Thomas. Oh yeah, a character in some of Dean Koontz's stories. I'd heard so much about the Odd stories that finally I bought Odd Thomas and read it. Wow! What a neat character. He's just...everyman. So humble and simple, and yet Koontz knows this guy inside, outside, upsidedown—I wonder if he doesn't know him better than himself. Odd's adventures are fascinating and I hope he makes it to the silver screen some day. When I read, I tend to cast the characters with actors or familiar faces. I imagine Jared Padalecki as Odd. He just has the look and the sweet humble attitude down pat.   [weird link pic; I just grabbed from Koontz's site]

Okay, so I'm addicted. I have never liked cashews. But then, I've never really given them much of a chance. This year, I took that big step—I tried cashews. And I was not overly excited. 

Until. 

I discovered Planters Chocolate-Covered Cashews. Joy! They come in cans now. I think there's like six servings in a can. Really? Cause I can polish one off in two sittings. No sweat. Super num. Hey, nuts are good for you, right? And chocolate, it's got like milk and other good stuff in there too. Hee.

Don't forget to post what your favorite thing is in the comments! One winner will be featured on Friday.
M

Favorite Things — Day Two

You have a pet? I have one cat who isn't considered a long hair, but I think he's sort of medium hair. (Moment of silence for Sebastian, our dearly departed; short hair.) So Deb Dixon blogged at Riding this summer about the Furminator. I was so impressed I went out that afternoon and bought one. Love it! It's not cheap, close to $40. But man, does it take out the fur. It get that 'under fur', or whatever you call it, and leaves the top stuff where it should be. My cat loves it. I comb nearly a whole kitten off him every time I do it (once a month). Lots less fluffs of hair rolling around the house now and I think the cat actually has less hairballs, too. A must for every pet owner.

Moo.com
Yep, it's a website. And they are out of London. They sell business cards and mini cards and postcards. They rock! If anyone has received a book from me recently you've probably got one of my mini business cards. Aren't they nice? I love the matte texture. It's not cheap (again; I must be on a not-cheap kick today) about $20 for 100 pieces. But! The cool thing is you can upload 100 different pictures for those cards if you like.  If you upload 5, you end up with 20 copies of each in your 100. You do the math. I give gift certificates to moo.com to friends for birthdays because I love this place so much.


My new favorite TV show? MY OWN WORST ENEMY. I was so thrilled to see Christian Slater on the small screen. It was sort of like 'hey, there he is! The guy I've followed on the silver screen who never really made it big, but always caught my eye.' Something so sexy about the guy. He plays a character with a microchip in his head that can be switched so he's either Henry, the family man, or Edward, the deadly spy. Only the chip is malfunctioning and he switches randomly. The premise is clever. I love that the spy Edward has more fun with Henry's wife than the family man does.
Now here's the horrible news: they cancelled the show after only five episodes! What is the deal with that? WTF!!!   Every time I start liking a new show, it gets cancelled. Case in point: I started watching Fringe. I thought, hmm, I could like this. So I stopped watching it. It's still on the air.
Here's two more awesome shows that never made it to the end of their first season before being cancelled that I think everyone would like. THE LONE GUNMAN. If you were a fan of the X-Files, you would love this quirky, sometimes silly, show that features the three guys who put conspiracy to a new level of paranoia. The sidekick, Jimmy, (don't know the actor's name) and the sexy spy (Zulika Robinson; spelled wrong; I may be a chick, but even I know that woman had the sexiest walk I've ever seen) made the show.

Also, KEEN EDDIE! Another case, I think, of a show being too smart for the viewers so it wasn't allowed to stick around. Mark Valley at his charming finest as a displaced NY detective trying to function working for Scotland Yard. Sienna Miller plays his reluctant roommate, and the twosome had great chemistry. His partner, Inspector Pippin, was a sex-crazed geek that always had me laughing.
If you find either one of these one-season shows this holiday in the clearance bin (or wherever) buy it! You won't regret it.

Stop back tomorrow for more FTs! And don't forget to comment about your favorite thing for this year. One winner will be featured on Friday and I'll send a few of my Favorite Things their way.
M

Favorite Things!

Whoo! It's Favorite Things time again. I do this every year, around this time. Usually Oprah is doing her FT about this time, too. I love that show. It's fun to sit on the couch and watch as hundreds of women go screaming crazy silly over free stuff. So I do it here, blatantly exposing my material desires and weaknesses. It's all for fun (no packages arriving in your mail; sorry). So let's get started! It's my Favorite Things Week!

First item is simple (and one of Oprah's too). It's the Post-It Highlighter pen. I really don't know how readers and writers got by without this sweet little plastic piece of technology until now, but I'm just glad it's in stores. It's a highlighter, with post-it flags in the body of the pen. So as you're reading (or editing your manuscript) you can highlight important passages, and then mark the page with a flag. Genius! I have the green, orange, pink and yellow ones. I love these things! The only thing that would make me happier is if they came out with a red pen version. I need red when I'm marking up galleys and edits.

Okay, so you've got a multi-purpose highlighter for your office, now you need a new calendar for the wall. I've been in love with the Green Spirit Arts website all year. Stop by there once a week to check out the new art. Faery houses and ice castles. This is the stuff of dreams. Sally J. Smith is the artist, and she's got a calendar loaded (two pics a month) with amazing pictures. If you need a little whimsical inspiration for next year, get it!

On the bookshelf next to my desk I keep my movie journal. Yes, it is a journal that lists all the movies I have ever seen. I know, dorky. But I do like to keep elaborate and long lists, so it works for me. Started it about five years ago. Took a day and went through the IMDB and wrote down all the movies I'd seen since I could remember. (There were not a lot of movie choices per year in the seventies; man, how that has changed.) Anyway, I start a new page for each year now. Usually I use about two or three pages per year. Every time I see a movie, I write the title down. If it's a video/DVD, I write (v) for no other reason than that 'video' comes to mind more easily than 'DVD' to me. Anyway, this is James Christiansen's journal. He's another wonderful, whimsical artist. The pages are lined and every so often there's a little sketch of one of his creations. Great stuff. You really can't go wrong with any of his other books, either. A Journey of the Imagination, being one that I can marvel over for hours.

All right! That's good for a start. I'll do FTs all week! Let me know what your favorite thing is. I'll pick one of them to feature on Friday, and I'll send that winner a few of my favorite things from this list!

For vampire lovers, Lori Devoti is dedicating 30 days to vampires.

ROGUE ANGEL: SWORDSMAN'S LEGACY

Should be in stores now! This is what you need to know about this book:

1) This is probably one of my top 3 favorite stories I've ever written. I had a major blast writing this because I included a lot of elements that fascinate me. See next points...

2) I am a huge fan of Dumas' The Three Musketeers. If you get me started talking about the author's musketeers—due warning—I will not shut up. I collect the book. The only criteria required for copies is that they must be older than I am, and have illustrations. My favorite version is an 1898 version with 250 illustrations by Maurice Leloir (I'm sure it's mentioned in RA:SL.) Auguste Maquet was one of Dumas' writing partners, and he did indeed retire very rich. Hmm...

3) Beyond the fictional story, I'm fascinated with the real soldiers Dumas based his musketeers on. Charles de Batz Castlemore is the man he used for his famous story. When Castlemore signed on to the musketeers in the seventeenth century, he used his mother's maiden name, D'Artagnan. His older brother Peter was actually a little more famous than he. When D'Artagnan (the real man) died, listed in the tally of his worldy goods were two swords. I've taken liberty that perhaps one was a gift from King Louis, and that is the 'legacy' in the title. Even though he's English, Michael York will always be my favorite silver-screen D'Artagnan.

4) Naturally the story is set in Paris. Love it! I've also a scene underground in the catacombs, which I had the macabre pleasure to visit while in Paris a few years ago. Paris Underground so rocks.

5) I've woven history, modern-day Paris, and my own blend of historical and contemporary fiction into the story. 90% of the historical stuff is fact. 90% of the contemporary stuff is fact; yeah, even the cloning.

6) Cloning! I'm fascinated with it, and believe that humans are already being cloned (though, whether or not the process is successful is another matter). I don't believe there are currently cloned humans walking this earth. I had the great pleasure to ask questions of a geneticist for this story and he confirmed that we only have to stretch our imaginations a very tiny bit to actually make the 'cloning of historical figures' in this story reality. And yes, you can collect viable DNA from historical artifacts. Can you create a baby with that DNA? I'm guessing it isn't out of the realm of possibility.

7) Parkour. The art of using the landscape/cityscape as an obstacle course. David Belle is one of the founders of parkour, and I've already raved about his acting in District B13 (You really need to see this movie if you like fast-paced, tightly-plotted action movies).


8) Famous sites in Paris, including the parvis before Notre Dame. I had my heroine stay in a hotel kitty-corner to the cathedral, which is the hotel a visiting friend of ours stayed in when she dropped in on us for a few days. The Rue de la Huchette is the street we stayed on; uber-touristy, and yes, we did eat gyros. Also, the Tuileries and the Seine. I didn't visit the library (wish I had). [You know, we walked through the Tuileries (the royal gardens) and later my friends were like 'Wasn't that ferris wheel cool?' I totally missed that. The huge freakin' ferris wheel, I did not see. Go figure.]

9) Can you survive being stabbed in the kidney without bleeding out? Yes. If you leave the knife in place and get to the hospital right away. But, dude, the kidney is a loss.

10) Okay, so I'm no expert or fan of weapons. Though I do like a chick who can swing a sword. Anytime I needed a gun I looked to my hubby for a place to start research. The Boy also chimed in with his favorite weapons, but you gotta be careful with a former gamer; sometimes those weapons aren't even real. :-)

One fun, adventurous story is what I promise with RA:SL. I hope you'll check it out. Let me know what you think of it.
M

Catch me at signings this weekend in Minneapolis suburbs, along with Cindy Gerard, Helen Brenna, and Lois Greiman.

Friday: The Book Corner (Woodbury) - 6-8 pm

Saturday: A Novel Place (Osseo) - 3-5 pm

Sunday: Barnes & Noble (Brooklyn Center) - 1-3 pm

Today, find me blogging at:

RIDING WITH THE TOP DOWN

myLifetimeTV

M

I'm blogging over at LOVE IS AN EXPLODING CIGAR today about what to do while standing in line waiting to vote.

Undone

Yesterday, Harlequin's new historical electronic novella line, UNDONE debuted.  I downloaded a copy of Libertine Lord, Pickpocket Miss to my Kindle.  :-)  Great, fun read! I admit I thought the line was going to be a little more Spice-like, but this story didn't tread too close to that line.  Perhaps this story is one of the tamer of the four selections available.  (I tried to upload the cover; Blogger is being icky today.)

That's right, there are four selections available this month.  I wonder if there's going to be four new every month?  Very ambitious, if so.  

Right now, eHarlequin has a wacky sort of sale going on. If you stop by daily between 12 and 3 in the afternoon they feature different eNovellas for 89 cents. You might even catch RACING THE MOON for that low price. But you already have it, right? :-)

I would love to write an Undone.  It would probably be paranormal, maybe not.  I've known about the line for two months, and no story has popped into my brain yet.  When my editor called me about doing Bites, I knew immediately the story, and told her about it, and she liked it, and it was a done deal.  I think it has to go the same way with Undone.  The story just has to come to me to work.  So I'll wait for that.

Meanwhile, I'm working on an unsold story this month.  Sort of clearing my brain of stuff that needs to be done, and taking a little creative vacation, so to speak.  I think I have the time to waste to do that.  Maybe.  I actually have to come up with a Bites idea by December 1st (proposal is due then), and I have nothing.  Nada.  Zero.  But it will come.  I hope!  Then I've got to finish my second Rogue Angel, and plot out a third.  So a little mind vacation seemed right.

This story is historical and contemporary.  I'm writing each part in its own file.  Then, when drafted out, I'm going to sort of squish the two time periods together.  Somehow.  I've never done something like this before, the squishing that is, so we'll see what comes of it.

Saw Rocknrolla yesterday.  My sorta review for it is here.

M