Friday, February 24, 2006

Liz on Geraldo

Geraldo did a segment on the growing popularity of erotic romance last night and my friend and fellow author Liz Maverick was interviewed! You can watch the streaming video here:

I wish I could write erotica. It's so (pardon the pun) "hot" right now! But I just don't have it in me. :) More power to those who can though. Looks like there's a lot of potential in this growing subgenre.

Happy Friday everyone!!
Marianne

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Website Update

Did I mention I *finally* updated my website? It really needed it, that's for sure. I hadn't updated it since before the fire. I'm so glad it's finally done. If you get a free sec, take a peek and let me know what you think. There's also an excerpt up on my April "Boys that Bite" book. I'll post one of "What, No Roses?" soon.

I'm madly working on the ending of "Stake That!" It's due March 15th and I'm in the home stretch. It's been such a fun book to write. Rayne, the heroine, is certainly a character.

Next up on the writing agenda - A Hoboken Hipster in Sherwood Forest!

Marianne

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Starry

As most of you who read this regularly know I'm a huge gamer girl. I play World of Warcraft, which is the MMORPG. That stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game. The only way I can describe it is if Dungeons and Dragons were an animated videogame that you could play with people all over the world.

ANYWAY - I'm in a guild called Meiyo Seraph and one of my guildmates, Setsuna, drew a sketch of my character, Starry. It came out so good I just had to post it. :)



I just love people who can draw manga style. I'm glad it's becoming so popular in the US, but at the same time it feels a little like someone's discovered your secret playground. Lately, a lot of underground things I've loved for years are becoming very mainstream. Not sure why. Maybe it's due to the decentralization of media. Today, everyone has a voice and sharing what you love and bonding with others who love it is so easy. And that's certainly not a bad thing.

Anyway - happy Saturday!
Mar

Friday, February 17, 2006

Weekend and Alternate Realities

Soooo happy it's Friday. Not sure what's on tap for the weekend - definitely gaming tonight and then going out with the gang tomorrow night as per usual. Sunday I've got an RWA meeting and then my dad and stepmom are taking me to dinner for my birthday. My birthday actually isn't til March 2nd but I'm doing a month long celebration. :P Next weekend I'm having a big Boston bash and then the following weekend I'm off to Orlando for a joint celebration with my friend Bobby who is only 4 days younger than me. Sure to be a fantastic weekend, complete with concert going (Sisters of Mercy for you goths out there), Disney World, and warm sunshine!! Can't wait! I love birthdays. It's even worth getting older, just for the parties.

BTW did all you writers see this? Dorchester is putting out a new line of speculative fiction romances. Heroines are young - 18-25ish and kick ass and the subject matter is all alternate realities and dystopian societies and such. Kind of chick-lit/sci-fi if you will. AND as a bonus they're going to have anime/manga covers!!! How cool is that?!?! Totally a Marianne type of book and I'm sooo submitting a proposal. I applaud Dorchester as a company for taking chances and doing different types of books like this. It's great for writers like me who love to color outside the lines. Just cross fingers that my idea matches up with their vision...

In other good news - I've heard a rumor that the new CW network may bring back Firefly in some way shape or form. CHEER!!!!

Anyway - Happy Presidents Day weekend to everyone who has Monday off. For all of you who have to work, take comfort in the fact that I'll be slaving away with you. In TV news we don't get days off during sweeps. :(

Marianne

Monday, February 13, 2006

Buried in Snow!

Hey all,

So are those of you in the Northeast all dug out from the weekend's blizzard? I was so not interested in leaving my house on Sunday. Saturday night though I went to the movies with some friends and saw Firewall. While Harrison Ford is always a good actor the script was your standard cookie cutter thriller. Absolutely nothing original. Nothing geeky techy cool either which could have somewhat redeemed it for me. It wasn't boring or anything, just typical. Afterwards we went for a drink at some swanky bar under the Ritz called Jer-Ne. (Pronounced Journey.) They had a very interesting interpretation to Boston Creme Pie.

Other than that the weekend was mostly filled with doing my revisions for "What, No Roses?" I've finished though and will send them back to my editor tomorrow. The funny thing is that the book has to do with Valentine's Day (and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre) and I'll have actually finished it on the holiday itself. Pretty amusing. Hopefully my editor will like all my revisions cause now I've got to buckle down and finish "Stake That" by the end of the month. After that I get to start on the sequel to A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur's Court which will be fun, I think. For those of you who don't know it's called "A Hoboken Hipster in Sherwood Forest."

Tonight I'm doing a Valentines booksigning at a Barnes and Noble in Bellingham, Massachusetts along with a bunch of other local romance authors, including the fabulous Niki Burnham who also writes YA. She's got a new book, "Scary Beautiful" that I have to pick up.

That's about all for now - though I should mention in 2 days I'll have been blogging for a whole year! Crazy. Esp when I think about how much my life has changed in that time. If only I knew then what I'd be in for...

Marianne

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

What, No Roses? (The Cover!)

Ooh, ooh! Finally got the jpg version of my July Love Spell book cover. Check it out! :)






I think they did a good job on this. It's so fun looking and I love that the heroine has a tommy gun! I told them to make her look like Renee Zellweger's character in Chicago and I think the artist totally nailed it. Also I'm psyched about having silver embossed letters.

This book is a time travel to the 1920s. You can read the blurb here.

Anyway would love to know what you think!! (And if you'd like to pre-order the book (insert shameless begging here ) it's now up on Amazon!)

Marianne

Thursday, February 02, 2006

What, No Edits? (Okay, maybe 4 pages worth...)

Hey all,

I know, I know, blog slacker as usual. But I've got a lot going on. None of it probably interesting to write about. I will say that I've teamed up with Braced2Bite YA author Serena Robar to do a fab teen promotion for our upcoming vamp books. More to come on that very soon! It's so much fun to have a promotion partner - much better than going at it alone. I'll tell you more when we get closer to launch.

I got my edits for "What, No Roses?" today. Now I've got 2 weeks basically to do them. Along with finishing Stake That! which is due March 1st. Ugh. At least my revision letter is only about 4 pages long, as opposed to the urban legend 15 pagers that my editor is known for. Or maybe it's not an urban legend, don't know. I'm just relieved that mine isn't. Four pages is long enough, thank you very much. Actually my editor said the book was very good and that he was pleased with it. Phew. You never know when you get switched to a new editor if your styles are going to jive, so of course I was a bit nervous when passing it in. Actually, now that the book is done, I'm really happy with it. :)

Ooh ? I also got a copy of the "What, No Roses?" cover flat. I've got to scan it in so you can see it. I think it's adorable - eye catching and fun and fits the book perfectly. And it has --get this --silver embossed lettering! I know, I know, I'm such a geek, but I've never had a book with embossed lettering before. I feel so...important! Heh.

Speaking of Dorch writers who are "important" (which, uh, in reality is NOT me...) the fabulous Marjorie Liu has a new book out this month and it's skyrocketing up the charts. The girl is only like 27 years old and she's already a bestseller. I'm telling you - she's going to be the next Christine Feehan. And bonus - she's totally nice!! We bonded at the RT conference last year, when both of us were totally newbie Dorch authors, a bit overwhelmed by it all. And, even better, she's a total sci-fi geek. You've got to love that. Anyway - her book is Shadow Touch. A sequel to Tiger Eye. (Which I need another copy of, since mine burned in my house fire.) Go buy it. You won't be sorry. :)

kk that's all I got for today.
xoxo
Mar