Friday, September 29, 2006

Fun Friday (not)

Insomnia has to be the worst thing in the entire world. Because of some personal and professional stresses I'm going through (yes, yes, what else is new Mar?) I couldn't fall asleep until like 4am. And when I did finally fall asleep I had this horrid, horrid, horrid nightmare about bedbugs. So let's just say I'm not a happy camper today.

On the brighter side, I get to dogsit my ex husband's dog Adora this weekend, which is very exciting. She's such a cutie! Aaron doesn't know it, but I'm going to dress her up in clothing and take lots of photos and post them to the Internet. Mwahahahah!! See if I ever get asked to dogsit again! :)

Then next weekend he's going to take my dog cause I'm off to the Big Apple. Liz Maverick and I are doing the NYC thing for a couple days. (I'M the one supposed to be the tour guide so we'll see how lost we get.) While there, we're going to meet with our publicist at Dorchester to talk about all the fab things in store for the new SHOMI speculative fiction line we're doing books for. Cross your fingers she'll have some kick ass manga cover art to share. Then we're heading down to New Jersey for the RWA conference there.

Fun, fun. Though at the moment, I'm tired just thinking about it! I'd better get some sleep before then...

Marianne

Thursday, September 28, 2006

My new agent!

I've been waiting for this to be official and since I finally signed the contract this week, I guess it finally is!

I just signed with the fabulous Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literay Agency.

Kristin is awesome - tough as nails, but still really nice. She's done wonderful things for her clients and they all love her to death. I'm so excited to be working with her.

She's currently helping me perfect a really exciting new YA project that we hope to shop out soon. I can't wait!!!

Marianne

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Mrs. Giggles!!

Ooh, I'm so excited! My books were FINALLY reviewed by the infamous Mrs. Giggles. For those of you who don't know her -- for shame! She writes some of the most fabulous reviews of romance novels. And by fabulous I mean she usually completely trashes them. But in such an entertaining way. Never will you read a romance review like a Mrs. Giggles romance review. They're awesome. Especially the bad ones.

Anyway - I actually got a really good rating for A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur's Court. I agree with a lot of her criticisms too. If I had written that book today I would have definitely changed those things.

And she totally TRASHED "What, No Roses?" Basically saying Dora was as stupid as a Kaite MacAlister heroine. (Yay - I love Katie MacAlister!!!!) Honestly, I don't think she quite got into the spirit of the book - it was purposely slapstick and silly. Dora being a competent, smart heroine would have ruined all the fun. She's dumb, she's bumbling, but she's got heart. At least that's how I see her. :) But Mrs. Giggles does NOT tolerate fools in any romance book. In any case, I found her review very entertaining all in all. You've got to have a sense of humor about these things.

Oh and she liked The Rat!! Yay!

Anyway - if you want to read her reviews you can check them out here.

Marianne

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

You can post ANYTHING on YouTube

I have a confession to make. I am a YouTube addict. It could be dogs sleeping, kids having their stuffed animals dance, paint drying. If someone posted it to YouTube, I'll probably watch it and send the link to all my friends. Sigh.

So one day, when I was avoiding my revisions, I decided to upload two videos.

The first was a video message to my readers. I added it to my MySpace profile. I think it's an effective way to communicate to teens and plan to update it often - answering questions, annoucing contests, etc. etc.



The second was...well, (blush) a video of my dog howling...



Guess which I'm most proud of...
:)
MARIANNE

Monday, September 25, 2006

Celebrity Lookalikes

I stole this from Gena Showalter's blog, but it's pretty cool. It's a site that will analyze your photo and then tell you which celebrity you most resemble. Of course it didn't pick Jennifer Jason Leigh, who I've been compared to all my life, but it's still pretty fun. :)