My Zombie Valentine Anthology - Out Today!

Funny, I haven't had a new book out in over a year and now I have two out within a week of one another. So while you still have to wait one more week for BAD BLOOD, my story in the MY ZOMBIE VALENTINE anthology is out now!

While I believe the other stories have zombies as the hero, in my story, "Zombiewood Confidential", the zombies are the bad guys. It takes place on a George Romero'esque z-movie film set on an island. Strange things start happening to the cast and crew. I won't give any more away, but if you like horror with a sense of humor, I hope you'll try this anthology!

The other cool thing is I'm in this book with Katie Macalister, who is an awesome romance comedy writer. I've always wanted to be in a book with her. Of course this particular story of hers is a reprint from another book, but still! I'll take what I can get!

Here's the blurb for the book itself. And links on where to pick it up!

FOUR WOMEN ARE ABOUT TO DIG UP THE TRUTH

Tired of boyfriends who drain you dry? Sick of guys who stay out all night howling at the moon? You can do better. Some men want you not only for your body, but your brains. Especially your brains.

It’s true! There are men out there who care—early-rising, down-to-earth, indefatigable men who’ll follow you for miles. They’ll take the time to surprise you, over and over. One sniff of that perfume, and you’ll have to use a shotgun to fight them off. And then, once you get together, all they want is to share a nice meal. And another. And another.

Romeo and Juliet, eat your hearts out.

Paperback:

Borders
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


e-book:

KINDLE
e-book (Adobe Secure format)

Barnes and Noble e-book

Obviously you can get it in stores too. Barnes and Noble, Borders and Target should all be carrying it. Other places too, I'm sure.

Hope you like!
MARIANNE

Christmas Weekend

It's been a nice relaxing Christmas this year. Jacob and I decided to skip the rush of airports and other travel and stay home this year, just the two of us. Well, three if you count Molly, which we do!

Speaking of Molly, Jacob gave me the coolest present - a canine breed DNA kit. Basically we swab her mouth and send the sample away and they tell us what mix she is. It's something I've ALWAYS been curious of and I can't wait to see what turns up in her DNA!

Molly got presents too - including some treats and a sweater.







Christmas night we headed to Rosa Mexicano, our favorite upscale Mexican restaurant in the city. We ate wayyy too much. But it was so good. I had a roasted duck with blackberry sauce and butternut squash. And of course lots of made-at-your-table guacamole!

Saturday was raining SO HARD. We went to go try to see the Tim Burton exhibit at the MOMA. They were even screening Edward Scisorhands. But unfortunately I think everyone else in NYC and tourists too had the same idea. It was way too packed to enter and we found out too late we should have bought advanced time tickets. Oh well, we'll try again on a weeknight.

Sunday was sunny and about 50 degrees so we decided to go ice skating. The last time we tried to go, the rink was closed for a private event. But this time we ran into no trouble!











After skating we came back and made a new recipe. We've vowed to try some new meals and had made homemade meatballs from the Rocco cookbook last week. (Which were SO delicious!) This time we decided to try something harder from this cookbook:







The recipe has three parts - the steak seasoning, the homemade salsa, and the seared avocado. Here's what it's supposed to look like:





And here's our final result. Not bad if I do say so myself! And it tasted DELICIOUS! A definite kitchen success. Now we're inspired to try more!





And now Jacob is settling down to watch the Cowboys hopefully cinch a playoff spot. Molly is sleeping by my feet. Not a bad way to finish off a Christmas vacation at home!

:)
MAR

Christmas Eve

Poor Molly! I think she prefers when we go to work and let her sleep all day. Instead, we both had Christmas Eve off this year and she was forced to undergo much torture. First a shave and a bath...

Bleh!


She hid under the desk afterwards. At least it was a warm and sunny spot!


But she couldn't hide for long! Time for a silly hat!





And a photo session!!







Bah Humbug!

Twas the Night before the night before Christmas

And I thought I'd share some winter pics with you, since I've been remiss in blogging!

My agent (on right) and publicist. We had a lovely dinner on the Upper West Side and then headed over to Rockerfeller Center to take photos for the agency Christmas card. That's the famous Rockerfeller tree and 30 Rock in the background.



Barb and Alesia came up from Florida to visit me! (Okay, it was to visit editors and such, but I got a visit too!) We were joined by lovely Sarah of the SMTB blog for dinner at Kennedy's, my favorite Irish pub on the UWS. They sat us right by the fire, which was extremely cozy. The girls thought, since I made the reservation, I must really have some pull. But I think we were just lucky!





Did a shoot at the Plaza, which was decked out for Christmas. I'd never been inside before. It was pretty, but a little too ornate for my tastes.





Jacob and I tried to go ice skating in Central Park, but it was closed for a private event. :(





And we got snow! (And note our pretty blue balcony lights, too!)





Molly took a peek at the snow...



And decided it was cozier in her bed!





And that is a December wrap-up for you! More Christmas pics to come soon!

:)
MARIANNE

Christmas is coming!!

Christmas 2009, originally uploaded by starrgirl77.

Service Dog video

Taken from Diana Peterfreund's blog. A must watch for any dog lover! Dare you to watch it without shedding a tear!

Give the Gift of the Blood Coven

I decided to make it easier for people who are interested in giving the gift of Blood Coven books this year. I've set up an online store on Amazon where you can purchase the books directly from me. They'll cost the same amount as buying them from Amazon normally, but I will mail your copies to you directly--personally autographed to the recipient of your choice and including fun extras like bookmarks and a Blood Coven Vampire in Training membership card.

I figure this is more official/easier than dealing with PayPal or having you mail in the books (which you can still do if you prefer!)

When Bad Blood is released, I will add that to my list of books as well!

To access the Amazon store, you can go here.

Perez Hilton and GLEE!

Yesterday was a busy day for me. I had two different celebrity shoots to cover. First up was celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. He was irreverent as ever, but a lot of fun to chat with!! He has a new book out - True Bloggywood Stories.

After Perez, it was off to Bryant Park where Marshalls/TJ Max was doing a Carol-oke event with the cast members of Glee. I've never seen Glee, but let's just say the boys Puck and Finn have a lot of excited female fans!!




Also there, as you can see from the photo, was Nicki Blonsky, who starred in Hairspray with Zac Efron. And 2nd season American Idol contestant Kimberly Locke.

I was not the only one there taking pictures!




Corey forgets the lyrics...




Real men rock pink guitars and reindeer antlers!! (Sad this came out so blurry!)




After the presentations I interviewed everyone for my segment.




And took some photos! :)




All and all it was a fun event. And the fact that it was like 60 degress made it even better!

Mari

The Blood Coven was recently featured as part of a Better TV segment, along with amazing fellow vamp authors Melissa De La Cruz and Rachel Caine. Check it out!

Thanksgiving Weekend!

Sadly today is the last day of Thanksgiving weekend. But we made the most of it, I think. Enjoying some time at home, just the two of us. We've been on the go so much, it's nice to once in a while relax! Neither of us are that good at doing this - I always feel guilty doing nothing! :)

On Thanksgiving, we cooked our own turkey with all the trimmings.

We "lit" the DVD Yule Log. :) Someday I really want a house with a real fireplace! But this will do for now!





Jacob's the turkey master. He makes it look effortless! But I make a mean mashed potatoes!





And Molly is our official taster.





The next day we went out to go find our Christmas tree!





And because we're without a car, we had to drag it back nearly a mile! Just like the olden days except down the streets of Jersey City instead of through the woods!







It may look like Jacob's carrying it by himself, but I will let you know, I helped a lot!!





We unwrapped it and let it settle for about a day...





And then added decorations and LED Christmas lights!!





Here it is with the lights off. The LED lights photograph kind of strangely though...





And now we're all set for Christmas!!! :)

Marianne