I feel like this sometimes...

SWAT Writers Coffee Taste Test

Being my friend means being forced in front of the camera once in a while. Here's my SWAT writers group (Liz Maverick, Leanna Hieber, Isabo Kelly, Elizabeth Mahon, and Stacey Agden) taste testing coffees for Better TV.

(This is the YouTube version below, cause I can embed it) - high rez version (better quality) is available here.

Quirky Things Meme!

I got tagged by Elizabeth, Leanna, and Bev for this meme. Man! I’ve got to post this before anyone else victimizes me!!

The rules:

a) Link to the person who tagged you.

b) Post the rules on your blog.

c) Write six random things about yourself.

d) Tag six random epople at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.

e) Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on his/her blog.

f) Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Okay, here goes:

1) I love horror movies. The cheesier the better! Jacob and I are currently going through all the Friday the 13th movies in order. Part 9 is next. We even watch the documentaries on the “making of” after the films and rank them in order of goodness. (For the record: 4, 6, 2, 1, 7, 8, 3 so far…) The movie that holds the record for “most cheesy of all time” is Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman.

2) I have a glitter problem. I’m considering a 12 step program. I practically drown myself in it before I go out. And I’m constantly buying new pots even though I’ve been accused of already having every color in the rainbow. And I can’t always keep it to myself, meaning everyone around me – even my dog! – inevitably ends up with a sparkle or two by the end of the night.

3) I’m a big fan of videogames. I get obsessed with MMORPG games. I recently had to give up World of Warcraft – it was too much of a time suck after three years of playing. Now I try to limit my gaming to casual things like House of the Dead for the wii.

4) I like bad ice cream over the good kind. Can’t stand Hagen Daz or Ben and Jerry’s. I love Dairy Queen soft serve the best. I used to get McDonalds ice cream every day after work and the employee that served it to me called me “Princess.”

5_ I have a phone phobia and absolutely go into a panic if I have to call someone that’s not a good friend. If it wasn’t for email, I’d never be able to work as a television producer.

6) I used to live in Orlando and have been to Disney World probably 200 times. My friends and I would go every weekend. We’d do this thing called “Disney Dare” in which we dared each other to do stupid things in the parks and take photos as evidence. My favorite Disney ride, Horizons in Epcot, was closed a couple years ago. We once rode Tower of Terror like 10 times in a row. My favorite Disney character is Pluto and I like to collect Pluto memorabilia. My initials are on a brick outside the Magic Kingdom along with those of my ex-boyfriend’s family. The coolest hotel is The Yacht and Beach Club, cause of the awesome pool. But the Polynesian is closest to my heart and I’ve stayed there the most.

Okay I'm tagging Diana Peterfreund, Serena Robar, Ally Carter, Gena Showalter, Alyssa Day, and Cindy Holby.

Boys that Bite in Japanese

I am so excited about this, I just had to share. Yesterday, I got copies of the Japanese translation of Boys that Bite. Now that was cool, in and of itself, but when I opened up the book I realized it was illustrated! They had a manga artist drew scenes from my book!!!

I'm looking through, completely clueless as to what the Japanese characters mean,but recognizing scenes from the book in the drawings! It was surreal, to say the least, to see my characters come to life on the page.

I decided, while geeking out, to take pics of the pics and upload them. I'm no expert, but they look really beautiful to me!


The cover


Sunny and Jake Wilder


Rayne and Magnus


Sunny and Magnus kissing. Awhhh! I think this is my fave!

The rest of the drawings are here.

Weekend Wrap-up

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!

This week I’m blogging over at The Book Binge blog. I’ll be giving away copies of News Blues and These Boots Were Made for Stomping – so please go over and enter! Tomorrow they’ll be featuring a video q&a I did as well.

This weekend was great! On Friday after work I went to Ajune, an awesome spa on the Upper East Side, for an oxygen facial. It’s something Madonna swears by and I’ve always wanted to try. It felt really nice and afterwards my skin was plump and glowy. Highly recommend it!

Later that night, in our continuing marathon, Jacob and I watched Friday the 13th Part 8 – Jason Takes Manhattan. Sad to say, Jason does not, in actuality, take Manhattan. Nor is much of the movie shot there. Most of it is shot on a boat on the way to Manhattan. And most of the Manhattan shots were shot in Toronto. Also, the plot is ridiculous! Even more so then most of the other movies. I put this 2nd to last in my ranking. Three is still worse, though not by much!

The original poster for the movie is kind of cool. I guess they had to change it cause the NYC Tourism board wasn't pleased.



Saturday we went for a run. Ran from 72nd/Columbus all the way to the World Trade Center, by route of Riverside Park. Five mile run! W00t! Funny, Manhattan seems a lot smaller when you realize you can run it. I was pretty tired by the end though.

Saturday night we went to see my friend Sarah’s boyfriend’s band “Gothic Barbeque” play at the Baggot Inn. They were great! Highlight was when Sarah threw her bra on the stage and Jon, her boyfriend, had no idea whose it was, and didn’t know how to react!! Then we went to a really crowded party in the East Village. It was future themed (though no costumes) and had these really cool glowy wine glasses. I want them! They looked something (but not exactly) like this.



That’s all for now! Go over to Book Binge and read my blog there!

Marianne

My creative fans

I love my teen fans. Absolutely adore them. They're so creative and fun and enthusiastic. They beg me everyday for a 4th book in The Blood Coven series - I really hope someday I'll be able to deliver one. I'd love to conclude the series the way it was meant to be concluded and not leave everyone hanging!

Anyway, to get back on topic, here's a video one of my teen readers made about "Stake That!" It's pretty awesome. Check it out and go leave her good comments!! She deserves it for all the work she put into it!



:)
Marianne

Long dayz

Nothing too exciting going on today. I worked a double but still managed to get in some good editing. I'm sooo close to being done with Camelot Code! Once I'm satisfied with it, I'm going to give it to a professional editor to critique as well as my agent. After those two checks, I'll send it off to my editor. My agent really thinks this could be my breakout book so I want to make sure it's as perfect as possible.

The chicken marsala came out really good last night, I thought. We ate it while watching Friday the 13th Part VII. That's the one with the psychic girl. I don't think it's as bad as people like to say, though the ending is kind of silly. Next up, speaking of silly, is Jason Takes Manhattan. Yeah. I heard they shot most of that in Vancouver though so we'll see.

I was very tired tonight after my long day so I decided to just veg and watch something off Netflix. (Love the Netflix instant service!) I picked the first episode of HEROES. Everyone has told me I will love this show. Hard to tell yet. But then I wasn't convinced about Lost until a few episodes in, so I'm willing to give it further investigation.

Anyway, I'd write more, but I really don't have anything fascinating to say so I think I'll bid you goodnight! :)

Marianne

Don't Bogart Bacall!

So today I’m at a gym near the Time Warner Center, shooting a story with Gabrielle Reece’s trainer on pre-natal fitness and who should be there but Lauren Bacall herself. (And her dog, who was running all over the place.) How crazy to randomally walk by a living legend. She grumped at my photographer for being in her way. I wished I could have sat down and chatted with her. Oh the stories she must have! I did pet her dog, Sophie. She’s a pappillion and had a really fancy tail. I was going to take a photo, but then Lauren came back out of the dressing room and scooped the dog up and left. Oh well. Still was a cool sighting though.

In other celeb news, I interviewed Christine Baranski yesterday. She’s doing some promotions for the upcoming Mama Mia movie. (Which looks really good!) She was good on camera, but I think she must have been tired from being at the event all day. (I believe we were her last interview of the day.) I never know what to say with celebs to make small talk so I’m always a bit awkward. Maybe someday I’ll be able to get over that. It’s not that I’m starstruck or anything – just I get kind of tongue tied. And these are usually stars I don’t even care about. I can’t imagine sticking a microphone in the face of someone like Jude Law or David Bowie!!

Tonight I’m going to work on editing Camelot Code and go running and then Jacob’s coming over after school and we’re going to make chicken marsala. Should be yum! We have to do an inpromptu cooking night this week cause I’ve got night shoots tomorrow and Thursday. Actually Thursday’s shoot is going to be super fun though so I don’t mind. More on that soon!

Marianne

Razor Girl on The Good, The Bad and the Unread

Sybil was nice enough to post an excerpt of Razor Girl today on her blog.

Go forth, read, and post a comment! Help me look popular! ;-)

Marianne

Weekend Wrap up

Friday:
Dinner at Ruth’s Chris – Mmmmm. Yum. Then clubbing with Leanna and Jacob at Contempt, the once a month goth night at MI-5 in Tribeca. Highlight of the night? A guy dressed as a girl and using the “it’s my first night as a girl” shtick to pick up real women. At first they felt sorry for him and were trying to take him under their wing. Then he asked them to take off their clothes…Um, yeah.

Saturday:
Beautiful day out, Jacob and I played aerobie in Central Park. It’s like Frisbee, but a different kind of disc. At first we both really sucked (especially me who can’t catch worth anything) but we got better as we played. It was fun and nice to get outside and enjoy the weather. Afterwards we went back inside to work – Jacob on school work and me on Camelot Code. Then we met up with Liz to go down to Hill Country for some genuine barbeque. (Did you know real barbeque doesn’t have barbeque sauce? Jacob looked slightly appalled as Liz and I doused our meat anyway…) After that, home for another installment of Friday the 13th. We’re on Part six, so more than halfway there. Supposedly there’s an actual Friday the 13th in June – maybe we’ll watch the final episode on that day.

Sunday:
Slept in then went on long run – 4.6 miles! I’m really finding my groove now. I’ll be really proud when I can do six miles and go all the way around Central Park. Then we headed down to Brooklyn Heights to meet friends for Mexican food at Lobo.

Was a fun weekend overall. Now I’ve got the week from hell at work to pay for it. So many shoots lined up! And lots of them night shoots. Which isn’t bad, actually, considering I get a lot done writing wise if I have the morning off. Want to finish polishing The Camelot Code by next Thursday at the latest. I’m definitely on track to do that. The book is shaping up really nicely – I’m very proud of it!

That’s all for now! Hope you all had good weekends, too!
Marianne

Random non RT stuffz

I think you're all probably RT'ed out by now so on to regular things.

* I posted an excerpt of RAZOR GIRL on my website if anyone wants a sneak peak.

* I got the Japanese cover of Boys that Bite and it's soo beautiful! Totally manga style. I'll post it soon - it's in pdf form currently and I don't know how to upload it to flickr. Even cooler - the Japanese publisher is setting up magazine interviews for me in Tokyo when Liz and I visit! I'm so excited about that!

* Lost is back on the air!

* Jacob and I ran over four miles yesterday. Now that the weather has turned nice I'm starting to train. I want to be able to run a half marathon by August. It's a lot more fun and motivating to run with a partner so I feel now this is an achievable goal. Of course, Jacob's run full marathons, but that's a bit much for me!

* Here's a couple of segments that I've done recently for Better. Day in the life of a sommelier (Heather Branch at the newly opened Eighty Eight on the Upper West Side) and making your own tomato sauce (with the always fabulous Donatella Arpia). Today I shot a "how to make a margarita" segment that will air on Cinco de Mayo.





That's all for now! Happy weekend!

Marianne