TGIF

I'm so excited...I not only found a top that looked like Sherrilyn Kenyon's Simi, I found the exact same top. It's from the TRIPP line, which I love anyway, and they had it in stock down at Trash and Vaudeville. Yay! It's sooo adorable. I can't wait to wear it in NJ. I tried to buy Docs too, but they didn't have any 14 hole black ones in my size, so I'll have to wait on those. I think my other black boots will work with the outfit, so no big deal. Bought a bunch of pink hair accessories to go with the outfit as well. I don't have anything as cool as Simi's skirt, so I think I'll go with my black pleated one.

I'm so happy it's the weekend! Got some fun stuff planned, too. Though, of course, I also need to work on my anthology, which actually, it coming out great and I'm really enjoying. It's such a silly story--but in a good way, I think.

Four more days til Girls that Growl is out!! I'm really psyched about that! And I should have some news about a fourth Blood Coven book really, really soon. So stay tuned!! (And buy lots of copies of Girls that Growl so that the publisher will be amazed and awed by the book's success and buy 50 more sequels. LOL.)

Okay that's all for now. Time to jumpstart the weekend!! :)
MARIANNE

Random stuff

NOTE: I am experimenting by cross-posting on Livejournal from now on. If you'd rather read me there, I'm starrgirl7.

Is it Friday YET? I feel like this week has lasted an eternity. Which was good, in a way, because I had to finish up my Gamer Girl edits, due tomorrow. I actually passed them in today though—yes, one day early, go me! LOL. Hopefully my editor will like what I did to the book.

Now it’s time to go back to Karma Kitty, my anthology story in “These Boots Were Made for Stomping”. Oh and I should be getting edits for my March book NEWS BLUES any day now. Yes, no rest for the wicked!

Are any of you going to the New Jersey RWA conference? Liz and I will now be giving two promotion workshops—one during the PAN session and one for everyone to attend. We’ll be addressing author branding and different nontraditional mediums to get exposure for you and your books. I’ll also be signing GIRLS THAT GROWL which – woot! – is out on Tuesday. I haven’t figured out my “outfits” yet, but stay tuned!! Will definitely be heading down to Trash and Vaudeville on St. Mark’s very soon. I’m thinking an outfit like Sherrilyn Kenyon’s “Simi” wore to Dragoncon.

It is too cute for words, no? (So is the guy playing Ash, but for very different reasons. heh heh. Cute roleplaying guys, FTW.)

Speaking of, one thing I want to get, actually, while I’m there is a pair of Docs. Yes, Doc Martens are back in fashion this year. Which is so funny ‘cause I had been thinking of getting a pair anyway before I knew that. I LOVED wearing them in high school – don’t think I wore anything else, actually. I think I want a pair of 14 hole black ones, though I could be tempted into Cherry Reds. They are going to look so cute with skirts and baby doll dresses. It’ll be like high school all over again!

Marianne

Livejournal, Butter and Editing - Oh My!

I've been chatting/commenting on some LiveJournal blogs recently which really has re-interested me in livejournal versus blogger blogging. I like the friends thing and how it's more of a cross conversation than just posting entries with no back and forth like I feel I do here. I also like the changing avatar ability when you comment. At the same time, I like being able to control the look of my page, which seems more of a blogger thing. I don't know...anyone have any thoughts?

Last night I had a work dinner at Butter, one of the real scene'y restaurants in NYC, where Paris Hilton often hangs out. (Sadly, no sign of her last night.) The food was delicious! I started with a warm, goat cheese salad, then duck confit, with rasberry beignets for dessert--mmm. Washed it all down with a couple delectable Butter Martinis.

I'm sooo close to being done with all my Gamer Girl edits. I'm just re-reading it through now, making sure all the changes are in and make sense. I hope my editor likes what I've done with it. Next up will be finishing my anthology and doing edits on News Blues. Never ends, I tell you!

Today in the studio we had Carolyn Kepcher, Donald Trump's former right hand woman on The Apprentice. She was really nice and down to earth. I never really watched the show so I had no idea what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised.

That's about it for now! :)
Marianne

Rebels of Romance Invade RT

It's official!!

From Carol Stacy's letter in today's Romantic Times magazine e-newsletter...

And speaking of our convention, Liz Maverick and Marianne Mancusi, Dorchester 's dynamic duo for the Shomi line, dropped by the office to discuss plans for the upcoming event. The author buddies made quite a splash with a video presentation they created recapping their experience at Book Expo America held in New York and offered to create one for the RT Convention, which we are very excited about. They will create a video of each day's events and workshops and it will be posted on our site at the end of the day. This will be great for anyone who can't attend the convention so that you can get a glimpse of all the fun.

Oh yeah, baby! Can't wait!!
Mar

ParaNormal Romance Interview

The fabulous Dee of ParaNormal Romance did a big SHOMI feature with interviews from Liz, me, and Eve. Check it out!

Now THESE were costumes...

During the costume controversy, people were accusing Liz and I of dressing like our Shomi characters, at the RWA conference, when really we were just dressing in generic manga-esque style.

However, at the Romantic Times Convention Dorchester Bookseller Party, Liz and I DID dress as our Shomi characters--Roxanne (Liz) and Skye (me)--wigs and all. I hadn't been able to find a single photo of us in the outfits until now.

Stolen from the delightful Rosemary from Rosemary's Books in Australia. That's our editor, Chris Keeslar of Dorchester, between us.

It’s been a good week so far. On Tuesday night, Liz and I met up with Carol Stacy and Jo Carol of Romantic Times for dinner/drinks and discussed our new partnership. You heard it here first! The Rebels of Romance are now the official video bloggers of this year’s Romantic Times Convention in Pittsburgh. We’ll be bringing you daily reports of the convention and interviewing your favorite authors. Should be a lot of fun! I’ve so got to start getting my costumes in order. ;-)

After that, we headed over to the Golden Apple awards, being held by the NYC RWA chapter. We met up with Bookseller of the Year, Stacey Agdern and took her out for drinks to celebrate her award. Stacey works for Posner at Grand Central Station and is simply fabulous. If you’re ever in NYC, you have to stop by and say hi.

Yesterday on Better TV, we interviewed Tammy Trenta, a former reality star from the fifth season of The Apprentice. She’s a handbag maker now and brought in some of her designs. They were so cool. I totally wanted one. (Too bad I’m so broke!) Anyway, they’re from the Theresa Kathryn line and hold everything—including a laptop—which is so nice cause I hate lugging around a purse AND a laptop. I think this one's my favorite, though it's hard to get a good sense of how nice it was from a photo. It was really soft leather, though, with a gorgeous lining.

Did anyone watch Gossip Girl last night? I thought it was great. Gotta love a trashy teen soap! And by the maker of The OC nonetheless. They followed the storyline of the first book pretty closely…I wonder how soon they’ll run out of material and will have to come up with their own plots? Also there were some definite additions – including a relationship history between Jenny’s dad and Serena’s mom. Hmmm. That’s a very OC plotline, actually. All in all, I liked it. It was beautiful to look at and I enjoyed finally seeing a NYC backdrop instead of yet another Southern CA. After all, we have snobby spoiled teens here, too!





Lastly: 12 Days ‘til Girls that Growl is released! Luckily, I’ve been getting great response from my Street Team readers who were sent early release copies. It’s always a relief to know that the book lived up to expectations. You never want the “Oh, it’s not as good as the first two” kind of thing!

Marianne

National Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Arrr...

My matey Molly just had to celebrate!

hehe - please don't call the SPCA on me.
Marianne

Happy Monday everyone!

Had a great weekend. Liz was here and we met up with the fabulous producers of RomanceNovel.tv and shot segments with them all weekend. It was a blast! Usually I'm behind the scenes and so to be on camera for once was a lot of fun. I can't wait to see how the segments turn out. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll be up until November or so.

On Saturday, we met up with fellow author Alisa Kwitney for drinks at my favorite bar, the Shalel Lounge and then dinner at a Thai place called Rain on 82nd/Columbus. Was very fun. And on Sunday night, Liz and I went to the movies and saw Death at a Funeral, a British flick. Was funny, but not as good as we thought it'd be, honestly.

I was going to post links of all these places, but my PASTE feature seems not to be working...Weird. Oh well, Google if you're curious! :)

Marianne

Yay Friday!

Yay it's Friday!

Today we interviewed the Better Homes and Gardens new contributing editor, home designer Stephen Saint Onge for our show. He turned out to be the NICEST guy. So personable and cool. I thought I wouldn't at all be interested, as I live in a small studio and don't exactly have a disposable income to redecorate with, but I was inspired all the same.

Liz is visiting this weekend and is on her way to my apartment as we speak. The Rebels united again, lol. Actually, we're also making an appearance at the NJ RWA conference in a couple weeks. Doing a workshop on Author Branding -- our specialty!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Mar

Editors and Writers

My agent sent me this. Tooooo funny!!

Boys that Bite in Japan

I got home from work and found a letter from Berkley saying that they've sold Japanese rights to my book "Boys that Bite"! Totally made my week!

Japan is my favorite country and I'm even planning a visit there next year. Now I have a real excuse to go!

I hope they do a manga cover. Seriously, I can't think of anything cooler than seeing Sunny and Magnus drawn by a Japanese artist.

Happy dance!! (Then back to work on those darn edits...)
Mar

Tuesday Update

I can't believe in only 3 weeks Girls that Growl will be released. It seems weird to me, especially since I just had a release last month with Moongazer. But I'm trying to stay on top of it all. I sent out pre-release copies to my street team this week and have been fielding reviewer requests. Hopefully the fact that it's a vampire book coming out in October will help with store placement, too.

In the meantime, edits on Gamer Girl are going swimmingly. It's a lot of work and I truly have no life at the moment, but we must all suffer for our art, right? :) And in the end, it's always worth it.

At least this weekend Liz is coming for a visit. That should be fun. And in a couple weeks I've got the NJ RWA conference. Gotta figure out what I'm wearing for that--now that everyone will be expecting costumes, lol.

I'm still reading Stephen King's Dark Tower...only like 250 pages out of 800 something to go. Also picked up the just released Berkley Jam YA Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker to read on the subway as King's book is just too massive to lug around town. And I'm rewatching Seasons 1 & 2 of Veronica Mars so I can go buy Season 3 on DVD. Ah, what a great show.

Mar

B&N, RT, and Weekend Stuff

I was at B&N today, editing Gamer Girl and warding off the crazies. What is it about a B&N cafe that makes people think it's okay to sit at YOUR table? The tables are tiny. My laptop covers nearly the whole thing--and CLEARLY I'm WORKING. Fine, if you have to sit down, sit, but read or something. Don't sit down to socialize. Pick another table for that. Seriously -- has anyone heard of respect in this town?

Even with the fight with the crazy woman (which I'd love to go into, but it'll just make me mad again) I got a lot of work done. The book is shaping up nicely.

After working, I checked out the magazine section and was paging through Romantic Times. (I so need to renew my subscription.) I came across the FAN FORUM section where "Flavia" writes her monthly column. Low and behold it was all about Liz and my costumes at RWA. LOL! That story really has legs, huh? (No pun intended!!) Anyway, the article was completely complementary and supportive and made me smile. I knew there was a reason I loved RT so much!!

Other than that, the weekend has been quiet. I was supposed to go out clubbing with my friend Jamie last night for her birthday, but she got really sick. Boo! Hopefully we'll manage a rain date. In a way, it was probably for the best as it's nice to edit my book after a full night's sleep. I did get to do a lot of rollerblading in Central Park, which was fun. I'm trying for muscular legs in case Liz makes me don thigh highs again for NJ RWA!! hehe.

Speaking of, this pic of Liz and me dressed at RWA just popped up on author Hank Phillippi Ryan's website. :)

In addition to being an author, Hank's also a reporter. She and I go way back -- I even interned for her back in the day, before becoming her producer much later. She teases me that I used to come into my internship in pigtails, Hello Kitty barretts, and black nail polish. hehe. The more things change...

By the way, Hank's next NEXT book (as in Harlequin NEXT) is out in stores in October. It's called Face Time. It's the sequel to PRIME TIME, her first book, and continues the adventures of Charlie McNally, the intrepid investigative reporter. You should pre-order it, cause it's good. Her 2nd top pick from RT!! The woman is on a roll. Not that I am the least bit surprised.

Okay time for some Tasti DeLite and then some WoW. Make my weekend complete. :)

MARIANNE

Yay Friday!

My readers are so artistic. Last night Elisabeth sent me a 3D art piece she did on Skye in Moongazer. It's super cool - check it out!

I'm happy for the weekend, but I have to work tomorrow so it's not as great as it could be. Plus I have to continue with the revisions on Gamer Girl.

We've had some good studio guests in to Better TV this week. Today we had The Supernanny from the ABC show who was really sweet and smart and also Daisy Fuentes, who was fun and passionate. Daisy is really tall in real life! Of course all the guys in the building hung around the studio asking if they could help. Where are they when we have non-hot, non-celebrity guests?? Hmm?

Juli, our reporter, got to go down to Fashion Week and mingle with the celebs. So jealous of that! She said it was quite crazy, but fun.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Marianne

Work work work

Wow life has been busy lately. Work is crazy, trying to launch the new show on Monday. I’m so behind on everything! Blogging may be brief for a while. I did have a nice Labor Day weekend. Went to my friend’s wedding at Acqua, this yummy Italian restaurant in the South Street Seaport District. About as far away in Manhattan as you can go from my apartment, but well worth it. Was a lot of fun and the couple, Jenny and Stefano, seemed very happy together.

Today I met an author (we had her in as a studio guest on Better TV) named Dina Koutas Poch who wrote a really funny book called I HEART MY INLAWS. It’s nonfiction, with a lot of great tongue-in-cheek and real advice for getting along with your bf/husband’s family. Great reading for anyone in a relationship...we've ALL been there. Dina was really nice and we chatted about books for a while, though I was so busy I didn’t get to spend as much time chatting as I’d have liked to.

Tomorrow Blair from One Life to Live is coming in to our studios. (Er, I mean Kassie DePavia.) I used to love watching her and Todd’s adventures when I was in college! I so need a TV at work again. (Most TV producers have TVs at their desks, but here at the new job I haven’t gotten one hooked up yet.) Then I can waste my afternoon watching soaps research upcoming studio guests.

Okay, gotta go. Hope everyone is well.
Marianne

Shomi Girls on Smart Bitches

Some of you might remember a small little discussion on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog back in July about Liz and my choice in dress at RWA Nationals. A few authors had opinions, it seemed.

We're back on the blog today, this time in our own words. Check it out.