Marianne Mancusi

Blood Coven Vampires Volume One

2011-09-29T09:41:00.000-06:00

For those of you who may still be thinking of starting the Blood Coven Vampires series or those of you who have read the series from the library and always wanted your own copy, this is a deal for you!

This Volume One edition contains the first two books in the Blood Coven series - Boys that Bite and Stake That. That's right - two books for the price of one! ($9.99.)

This also makes a great gift for the vampire fan in your life. :) I'll even autograph copies if you want to order by mail. Just email me (mari@marimancusi.com) for details!

I'm really excited about being able to offer up such a bargain to readers!!

xo
MARI

Zombiewood Confidential

2011-05-25T06:51:00.000-06:00

Looking for a fast, funny (and at 99 cents - cheap!) zombie read? Zombiewood Confidential - my novella originally published as part of “My Zombie Valentine” is up as an e-book on the Kindle and Nook. I mention this because I see bloggers so often recommend the anthology (in the most well-meaning way possible!), but because of the publisher situation, when you buy that actual book, the authors do NOT GET PAID. In fact, they owe me over $1,000 in royalties for that book and I will never see them. So if you’re looking for a fun, campy zombie read, I hope you will consider skipping the anthology and try the e-book instead. Maybe someday I will recoop the money stolen from me.

Anyway, not to sound bitter. I’m excited, actually, at the opportunity to share the story with readers for a super cheap price! It’s just sad to see a recommendation out there that will profit the publisher and not the authors who worked so hard in creating these stories. :(

In any case, here’s a little about Zombiewood Confidential:

Take one low budget zombie film set, a young makeup artist and the Hollywood hearthrob she’s been in love with since she was a teen. Add a couple hundred zombie extras—who’ve become a little too realistic for their own good—and you’ve got Zombiewood Confidential, a campy, zombie novella with action, humor, romance, and, of course, plenty of braaaaaains.

99 cents - Kindle - Nook

Dallas/Ft Worth area Blood Coven Fans

2010-08-12T08:06:00.002-06:00

For those of you in the Dallas/Fort Worth area I will be doing a visit to the Haslet Public Library Saturday, September 18th at 2pm! Come meet me!

Mari

New Blog!

2010-03-01T07:33:00.000-07:00

I've finally gotten fed up with Blogger's limited capabilites and have switched to Tumblr, which is a lot easier to use, especially on the go. From now on I'll be blogging here. http://mariannem.tumblr.com/ Please re-direct your bookmarks/google readers. Thanks!

Preppy Pink and White

2010-02-26T17:15:00.001-07:00

prep 003, originally uploaded by starrgirl77.

Going to an 80s preppy/pink and white themed party tonight. Madonna would be proud of my interpretation.

Snowpocalypse 3!!!

2010-02-26T05:18:00.001-07:00

Molly snow, originally uploaded by starrgirl77.

German Book 5 has a title and release date!

2010-02-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

Found out the German title for Book 5 today!

Beiß mich, wenn du dich traust

- which, translated, I'm told means:

"Bite me, if you dare!"

So cute! The book will be released in Germany in August. The editor said she loved it - I hope you guys will, too! We're now negotiating Books 6 & 7 in German.

For the rest of you, we're still hanging out, fingers crossed, waiting for my US editor to read Book 5 and hopefully commit to publishing it. Keep spreading the word about the series to your friends - the better it does, the more likely it will continue!

xo
MARI

Weekend in DC!

2010-02-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend I finally fufilled my long ago made promise to visit my friend Diana Peterfreund down in DC. It's really easy to get to DC from NYC - just jump on a BoltBus, which is one of those nice bus lines that have internet access on board. It's cheap, too. Like $20 each way! Now I'm not sure why I didn't go sooner!

We had a really fun weekend. Got to go out to her friend's restaurant Friday night where I ordered a duck special (yes, I'm obsessed with duck now) and sampled yummy cheeses and desserts and wine. (Had to go off the pre-wedding diet for the weekend, but it was well worth it!) The next day we headed out to the woods to go hiking with her adorable dog Rio. I always say Molly is the best dog in the world - well, now it's confirmed that Rio is a close second! (No offense to other great dogs out there...but Rio is super awesome and not just cause she cuddled in bed with me my second night there!)

After hiking - man DC still has a ton of snow! - we headed to the Spy Museum, on the advice of fellow YA author Ally Carter. Ally did not steer us wrong - it was super cool. After that we had a leisurely dinner and then headed to the movies. The movie we chose - "Dear John" a chick flick we figured neither Jacob or Sailor Boy would be interested in - was NOT super cool. In fact, it had a major plot flaw, which we discussed til exhaustion on the way home. The good news? We figured out a way to make it work, if the filmmakers are interested in doing a revision at this late date. :) Ah, writers.

Then on Sunday we made cinnamon muffins (and when I say "we" I mean Diana made them while I watched her and drank lots of coffee) and talked writing. Actually we talked a lot of writing all weekend, which was fun because I feel like I never get to really talk writing with other writers unless I'm at a conference. So that was fun in and of itself.

And then I jumped on the bus and headed home! All in all a very fun weekend had by all! Of course it wasn't til I got back that I realized neither of us remembered to take a single picture. Oh well. Guess I'll have to go back sometime!

MARIANNE

Sheraton Hacienda Del Mar (Los Cabos, Mexico) - Poolside

2010-02-18T15:16:00.001-07:00

Sheraton Hacienda Del Mar (Los Cabos, Mexico) - Poolside, originally uploaded by BryanCassidy.

Where we are going on our honeymoon. I wish I was already there!

Valentine's Day Cooking

2010-02-16T14:59:00.000-07:00

Jacob and I have a tradition of cooking a brand new meal on Valentine's Day - something we haven't tried before. This year we decided to create a Crispy Duck with Orange Ginger Glaze from the Weber Grill cookbook my brother gave me for Christmas this year.

It was pretty simple, though we had never cooked duck before Basically we created an orange/ginger flavored maranade and maranaded duck breasts for about an hour. Then we took them and brought them out to the grill. It was FREZZING out, but Jacob braved the elements for this noble cause.

Inside, I prepared the slices of oranges and cooked the sides. Red potatoes and...because we're real classy...peas.

To go along with our peas, we opened a bottle of champagne, given to us by Jacob's dad. (So you know it had to be good!) I need to register for champagne glasses though. Ours are literally from the dollar store!!

Okay, I'm no food stylist, but here's my attempt of making it look like the cookbook! Disregard the paper towel napkins...or consider them shabby chic! In any case, doesn't the duck grill up beautifully?

And here's the whole meal all put together.

The verdict? The duck was delicious, but the skin was too thick. I don't know if that's how duck is supposed to be or this was a trait of the particular kind we purchased but I ended up taking off the skin and feeding it to Molly. She, um, liked it.

So there you have it! Another delicious Valentine's Day meal from the Beach/Mancusi kitchen! Oh and just to add - the next day we cut up the leftover duck (sans skin) and mixed it into marinara sauce with more peas (they give a sauce more oomph in my opinion!) and served it over wheat pasta. A very healthy, yummmy leftovers meal. (Sadly I didn't food style this very well - splattered tomato sauce on the plate!)

And yes, in case you were wondering, Jacob did give me roses. :)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Oreo Truffles

2010-02-09T15:11:00.001-07:00

We made this recipe for a Better TV shoot. It was sooo delicious! And so easy, too!

The name is Bond - James Bond

2010-02-06T12:00:00.002-07:00

And I got to meet and interview him on Friday! Pierce Brosnan is starring in the new Percy Jackson and the Olympians movie that comes out, I think, next week. I also got to interview the younger members of the cast- the teens who play Percy and Anabeth and Gordon. Was a lot of fun to meet them. And the movie is excellent! Go see it when it comes out - it's a great family film for both kids and adults. Though probably not for young kids - there's quite a bit of action, some could be scary.

Anyway, here's a pic of Pierce Brosnan and I. As close as I'll ever get to being a Bond Girl. ;-)

And here is how they had the hallway decked out (the press junkett was held in the Empire State Building where, according to the movie, you can find the door to Mount Olympus.) And sure enough - here's the door!

Sadly, I wasn't allowed to go through! :)
Marianne

Vermont to Orlando to Jersey

2010-02-05T13:21:00.003-07:00

Things have been busy at the Beach/Mancusi household lately. I'm just now getting time to update the old blog. :)

Two weeks ago, I went up to Killington, Vermont to shoot ski stories with my photographer for Better TV. But all work and no play makes Marianne a dull girl so Jacob and my dad and Sherri came up on Saturday to go skiing/snowboarding with me. It was a beautiful day - in the 30s with clear skies. Couldn't ask for better!

Now that my iPhone is a 3GS, my dad decided to use it to take video of me snowboarding! Kind of neat to see it from another perspective!

Once we got back from Killington, this is what it looked like outside. BLEH. Nothing worse than NYC in the dreary winter rain.

So we packed up our bags again and headed down to Orlando, Florida for the weekend to visit my matron of honor Ali (She so loves being called a matron, lol) and her husband Bobby and, of course their kids, who are so cute!

On Saturday we went to Disney World! I wanted a nice pic in front of the Magic Kingdom castle. But, of course, Ali had other ideas! Check out this awesome photo bomb!

I did finally get my photo though. :)

We stayed in the brand new Disney Bay Tower at the Contemporary - a new set of hotel rooms built right next to the old Contemporary hotel. They're super nice - we had a studio with a kitchen and it was very conveinent to store drinks in the fridge. And best off - our balcony looked over the Magic Kingdom.

We could even walk to the park from there, so it was super conveinent. Might just be my favorite new Disney hotel!

And, of course, since I'm getting married in just under 2 months (ack!) I had to get some bridal mouse ears with my name on them!

After hanging in the park all day, where I was having too much fun to take photos, we returned to the hotel to watch the fireworks! (Which I can assure you looked much better in real life than on my iPhone pictures!)

All in all it was an amazing weekend and I didn't want to come home! But now, after all the excitment, I'm looking forward to a lazy weekend at home. And, of course, Superbowl Sunday!

:)
Marianne

Gamer Girl Fan Art

2010-02-04T14:39:00.001-07:00

I hadn't featured any GAMER GIRL fan art for a while, so I thought I'd post some today. You guys are so creative! Maddy would be so impressed! :)

MARI

gamer girl sir leo by ~kittycatmg6 on deviant ART

GAMER GIRL m y v e r s i o n by *XCloseXToXNothingX on deviant ART

Allora by ~4ever-artist on deviant ART

Gamer Girl: Allora by ~WinxClub-Riven on deviant ART

Gamer Girl- Maddy by ~AnimeArchAngel24 on deviant ART

Allora 8D by ~Akatsukifanatic on deviant ART

I got to go dog sledding today!

2010-01-22T18:11:00.002-07:00

Check this off the list of things to do before I die - I got to go dog sledding up in Vermont today, at the Mountain Top Inn. (It was part of a ski vacation segment I did for Better TV.) And it was so much fun! And the dogs were great. So strong. One of them had actually done the famous Iditarod race in Alaska five times - and won three!

Anyway, if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it. Such a thrill. Faced paced and fun!

Marianne

Bad Blood Release Day: A Field Guide

2010-01-04T10:37:00.001-07:00

Okay I know you are all as excited as I am about BAD BLOOD's impending release. But before you run out tomorrow to your local bookstore, here are some things to keep in mind:

1) It is most likely to be stocked at all major bookstores - Barnes and Noble, Borders, Books a Million etc. That said, that does NOT mean they will just have it sitting out on the shelf on release day. Sad but true. Sometimes bookstores have boxes and boxes of new releases show up at the same time and it takes them a while to stock them. Especially when their store may already be kind of torn apart from the Christmas crowd.

2) Before you go, do one of two things: go to the bookstore's website and see if they have a "FIND IN STORE option." Here are the options for Barnes and Noble and Borders. Both have a "Find in store by typing in your zip code option."

Barnes and Noble

Borders

Then you can select "Pick up in store". They'll pull the book for you and keep it behind the register so no one can buy it before you get there. (And it saves you the trouble for hunting for it.)

3) You can always call the store. I know, I hate calling, too. But I hate it worse when the store doesn't have my book.

4) If you show up to the store and it's not on the shelf - ASK. Do not walk out without asking. Again, I know it sucks to have to talk to the clerk - I feel that way too. But you want the book, right? Tell them! They more than likely have it out back and just have to find it. Also- just think. You're forcing them to find the books and book them on the shelves - which means other people will then be able to find them too!

5) If you ask and they still can't find it, ORDER it at the store. It's simple. You give them your email address and they order you one. About 2 days later, you'll get an email saying come pick up your book. You don't even have to pay until it's in stock so there's no harm in doing it if you eventually find it somewhere else in the meantime. If you don't pick it up, they'll just put it on the shelf for someone else to buy.

6) If you can't find a store, buy it online. Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnes and Noble.com, Powells.com, Chapters (for Canadians) A lot of times the books online are cheaper so you make up the shipping costs. I always encourage people to support local Indy stores. IndyBound.com is one I really like.

7) If you prefer to read it online or in an e-book format, FictionWise is one retailer that will have it to download. Barnes and Noble has a version for the Nook. Amazon doesn't seem to have a Kindle version yet, but hopefully they will at some point, as I know the other three books are available via Kindle.

8) Please DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT ILLEGALLY! I beg of you. I haven't seen any downloadable copies yet, but I'm sure at some point soon they'll pop up. But here's why I am asking you not to do it. And yes, I could give you the lecture about it really being stealing, blah blah blah, but in this case I have a WAY more important reason. The publisher has NOT committed to a book #5 in the series and is waiting to see how sales of Bad Blood do before they decide. Therefore, if everyone pirates it and doesn't buy a copy then they'll think no one's interested in reading the next book and won't buy it. And then the next book will not be released in any form in the US. Which would suck cause I'm almost finished writing it and it's coming out really good!! :) Sooo if you're a fan, please buy the book, don't pirate it, and I promise to keep the series going for a long time!

9) Once you read it - email me and let me know what you think. But also if you can, post a review. I'd love to see reviews on Good Reads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc. This helps other people make the decision on whether they want to try the book. Blogging and Facebook and Twitter are other good ways to spread the word. Again, not to sound like a broken record, but the fate of Book #5 is in the balance! :)

10) ENJOY!!!

And that's all. I can't wait to hear what you think!!! :)

Mari

New Year's Eve Fun

2010-01-03T05:21:00.003-07:00

As New Year's Eve weekend rolls to a close, I thought I'd post some photos of our NYE party Thursday night. We had it at our house in Jersey City and Jacob and I made homemade meatballs for the group. The vegetarians brought tofu brautwurst which we grilled for them. So good food and good fun had by all.

Leanna and Marcos. What a cute couple!

Liz sips her bubblegum martini with cotton candy pop rocks. Our sort of signature drink... :)

The Beach/Mancusi (soon to be just Beach!) family.

Getting ready for the big moment.

Happy New Year!

Party foul - Liz sits on a hat.

Marcos attempts to save it.

While Molly wishes someone had sat on hers so she wouldn't have had to wear it...

She was happier when Chris cooked her up some liver.

Then there was the requisite post-midnight karaoke!

Molly was so done with us by that point.

All and all, a great night had by all!! Hope your New Year was just as fun!

:) Marianne

My Zombie Valentine Anthology - Out Today!

2009-12-29T05:21:00.002-07:00

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

2009-12-27T18:04:00.002-07:00

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

2009-12-25T06:08:00.002-07:00

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

2009-12-23T09:05:00.005-07:00

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!!

2009-12-13T13:56:00.001-07:00

Christmas 2009, originally uploaded by starrgirl77.

Service Dog video

2009-12-10T07:48:00.003-07:00

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

2009-12-08T15:01:00.002-07:00

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!

2009-12-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-12-02T09:09:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-11-29T06:51:00.002-07:00

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

Cowboy stadium

2009-11-28T07:15:00.003-07:00

Last weekend Jacob and I headed down to Dallas for a little pre-Thanksgiving football. We stayed the weekend, hanging out with various friends, then on Sunday headed to the brand new Cowboys stadium to watch the 'boys.

The stadium is HUGE. And a lot nicer than the old one. Parking was simple and there was actually a nice little picnic table right near where we parked. If we'd planned to tailgate, it would have been the perfect place to do it.

It was a beautiful day, probably 60 degrees, so I was a little disapointed they had the roof closed. (It's one of those that can partially open or close, depending on the weather. I guess Dallas people aren't as hardcore as New Englanders! Gillette stdium is open even when it's zero degrees and snowing!!

However, there was a nice outdoor area to hang out in before or after the game. In fact, after the game, there was a DJ and people dancing out there!

We got there kind of early and waited for the seats to fill up. The place was huge - but all the seats were taken by the time they begun playing.

The coolest thing was the mammoth screen - 60 yards long!! It was the biggest screen TV I'd ever seen! No need for binoculars, even in the cheap seats!

You could even get close-ups for the cheerleaders, which I bet a lot of guys appreciated...

Though it wasn't the most exciting game ever (there was only 1 touchtown the entire game and it happened in the last two minuts!) the Cowboys did manage to win. And it was cool to see the new stadium! I'm glad we got a chance to go and can't wait to go back again!

Marianne

Goth Engagement Party

2009-11-16T08:19:00.003-07:00

It all started when I showed Leanna a picture of a black wedding cake and said "Imagine having a goth wedding!" Of course that seemed a bit much, so Leanna suggested a compromise. A goth engagement party! She and Morgan outdid themselves creating just such an event, which happened on, appropriately enough, Friday the 13th!!

Everyond donned their black best...

And there were goth decorations:

And, of course, there was a black cake with Living Dead Dolls for the bride and groom!

Of course, Morgan and Nick couldn't not have a professional photo shoot while we were there!

We even had Goth Boy in Training.

And lots of chances for goofy photos:

I personally think these two will be next...

The night ended with an impromptu glow-stick infused rave.

All in all, a wonderful night with wonderful friends!! It couldn't have been more amazing!! Thank you guys!!!

MARIANNE

My first floor display!

2009-11-12T12:28:00.003-07:00

Check this out! Berkley was nice enough to send me one of the floor displays for the Blood Coven re-releases. This is what they've sent to all the Borders stores across the country. It's soooo pretty! My first ever floor display. I feel like this is some kind of writing milestone I should celebrate!!!

And yes, Jacob is nice enough to let me display it in the living room! :)

In case you're wondering, I put both versions of the books in there cause I thought it looked nice. Obviously in the real stores they'd only have the new covers.

Anyway, just wanted to share!

MARI

RSVP For: 11/11 Release Party, Chat and Contest with Author Marianne Mancusi

2009-11-08T17:56:00.001-07:00

RSVP For: 11/11 Release Party, Chat and Contest with Author Marianne Mancusi

Posted using ShareThis

Moo!!!

2009-11-05T15:15:00.003-07:00

As a features producer, I get a lot of variety in my job. From fashion to fitness, celebs to...cows???

Yup, on Tuesday I headed out to Connecticut to do a story about a family dairy farm, part of the Cabot cheese co-op that has been milking cows and producing milk since 1720! In fact, the family still has the deed awarded to them from King George!

We watched them being milked:

And then visited them in their pens. Some were camera shy, while others were very friendly!

This cow below was called Dallas, after the Dallas cowboys!

So then, as we were shooting, we learned a cow was about to calf! We hurried over to watch it happen. So fascinating to watch a birth! I didn't want to post any TOO graphic pics, but I had to post this one of the calf coming out of the birth canal. Cause it was amazing too see!

After the calf was born, his mother started licking him clean.

After we watched the amazing birth, we visited all the other calfs in their nursery.

They were sooo cute!

My photographer Mike and I drove home, snacking on Cabot cheese. It was a lot of fun - but I couldn't wait to wash the manure smell off of me!

And that was my day on the farm!!

Marianne

Get thee to a Borders!! :)

2009-11-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

Starting this week, the wonderful Borders Bookstores will be carrying the BRAND NEW Blood Coven Vampires "revamped" novels in their new teen INK section of the stores! Go forth and buy and support the bookstore that supports the Blood Coven!! :)

I thank you all in advance for your continued support!! Remember, the more books we sell, the more chance I have of my publisher publishing Book #5 - NIGHT SCHOOL - in the US. :) Also - the books make great x-mas gifts for that vamp lover (teen or adult) in your life!!

Long live the Blood Coven!!
xoxo
Marianne

Happy Halloween!!

2009-10-31T22:19:00.002-06:00

You may be surpised to hear this, but Halloween is not my favorite holiday. As someone who dresses up at various events all year long, it sort of seems like amateur hour. Nothing against it, mind you, it's just I like to save my truly unique, creative costumes for bigger events like DragonCon or ComicCon, where people take costuming seriously.

In any case, I pulled this costume off, last minute, with things I already owned. (I have a bit suitcase full of costume items at my apartment.) In case you can't tell, I'm supposed to be a Catholic School Girl cat. ^_^ Figured it was kind of mangaesque.

Sadly, in this photo, you can't see my tail. But check out my Skelanimals skirt! I LOVE the skelanimals!! The hat is something I bought handmade from last year's New York Comic Con. Label says "Boshi-Basiik". It's sooo cute, huh? The shirt belongs to Jacob, as do the rosary beads, from his days in Catholic school.

What did you guys dress up as?

Happy Halloween!!

Weekend Update!

2009-10-19T08:05:00.006-06:00

This weekend, YA writer bud Serena Robar and her cool videogame designer husband Jason were visiting from Seattle and so a bunch of us headed out to Madame X to show her how we New Yorkers had a good time! It was great to see her!

And Jason had a whole harem at his beck and call!

We even celebrated some hopefully soon-to-be good news with foreshadowing champagne! Actually Serena already had some good news for us - her awesome vampire books, also published by Berkley like mine, are being re-released, too!

On Sunday, Jacob and I headed into town to go shopping for a jacket for him to wear to the wedding. Something a little better than your average boring tux. We found him a nice slim fitting matte black jacket at DKNY. Exactly what we were looking for.

We also watched the Leo DiCaprio/Claire Danes Romeo and Julliet - in a Shakespeare mood after seeing Hamlet on Thursday. It's done by the makers of Moulin Rouge and I love the futuristic setting. I'd love to do a post-apocalyptic R&J someday!

Meanwhile, Molly spent the weekend as she does best:

And that's about all. Hopefully going to go see Zombieland tonight! I heard it's really good!!

MAR

New Blood Coven Website

2009-10-17T05:21:00.002-06:00

If you have a second, check this out! In preparation for the November Blood Coven re-releases and the release of BAD BLOOD in January, I had a new Blood Coven website designed. It's got excerpts and widgets and downloadable wallpaper and AIM icons, etc. etc. AND you can even apply to join the Blood Coven. :)

http://www.bloodcovenvampires.com
:)
MARIANNE

Jude Law - Hamlet

2009-10-16T14:31:00.002-06:00

So as many of you probably know Jude Law is probably one of my favorite actors of all time. But mostly this is, I must admit, cause he's so darn good looking! But now I can say, without a doubt, he's also an AMAZING actor.

Last night, Jacob and I went to see him play Hamlet in a limited 12 week Broadway production of the Shakespeare play. He was amazing. So talented. You would have thought he was a regular on the Shakespearian circuit. I was very impressed. He was passionate, funny, and his movements were almost poetic. Oh - and he's also a great fencer, too. Some critics say he was too passionate and too literal in his movements, but they can all bite me.

Another note - Hamlet is definitely the original Emo boy, that's for sure. Truthfully, the play would make a great YA book, if not for the downer of an ending.

In any case, two thumbs, way up! Go see it if you're in NYC within the next few months!

MARIANNE

Update

2009-10-14T08:35:00.002-06:00

Life continues to be busy, busy, busy! But at least I'm never bored. Two weekends ago I went to the NINC (Novelists Inc) conference in Saint Louis. It's a published author conference and the workshops were great. I gave one, too, on getting media coverage for your book. Mostly I hung around with Diana Peterfreund and Julie Leto. I discovered Julie and I are pretty much twins, separated from birth - at least when it comes to Disney and Arthurian legend!!

Then this past weekend Jacob and I spent twenty-four hours in Lardeo, Texas - literally! We flew out at 6am and arrived at 11am and then left at 11am the next day to fly back home. What a whirlwind! We did it to go to Jacob's family reunion. The reunion was a very nice event - and I got to meet a ton of Jacob's huge family. No, I don't remember everyone's name!!! :) But they announced our engagement to everyone which was very sweet.

This week we're trying to lay as low as possible, though we are going to go to see Jude Law in Hamlet tomorrow night. That should be awesome. Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare play and I think you all know my feelings for Jude. :) We don't have the best seats ever, but it should still be good.

This weekend my author friend Serena Robar is coming to town from Seattle so we're going to throw her a little night out on Saturday. Will be great to see her! And Jacob and I swore we'd go registry shopping and look for his wedding attire as well.

The registry shopping has been a bit more difficult than I anticipated because we've already been living together and are both in our thirties so we already have a lot of the kitchen stuff you normally get at a wedding. However, I do want to at least pick out a china pattern as I think once we're all settled someday in a house we'll want to have formal dinners and it would be good to have some nice stuff to set the table with instead of our current mismatched dollar store and Target plates. :) That and I want one of those single serve coffee makers. Those are awesome.

Speaking of wedding - I think I found the perfect dress! It's so beautiful - very princessy. I decided I just could NOT go casual - even though maybe it's more venue appropriate. I think later on I'd just be disapointed if I did. After all, this is my one and only chance to be a princess!

Anyway, that's all the update I have for now! I'll try to update more regularly in the future!

Marianne

Lady Jane's Salon

2009-10-07T04:46:00.002-06:00

Did a reading Monday night at the fabulous Lady Jane's Salon. For those of you who don't know, it's a monthly reading night for romance authors held at Madame X in Greenwich Village. Founded by Galley Cat's Ron Hogan, Leanna Renee Hieber, Hope Tarr and Maya Rodale it's gaining quite a following! The place was packed with people who came to socialize with other readers/authors, drink cocktails, and hear me read a selection from Boys that Bite.

I wrote a little wrap-up of the event here if you want to check it out!

Marianne

Wedding Planning

2009-09-27T07:30:00.002-06:00

A funny thing happens when you get engaged. Suddenly you're thrown into planning the biggest party of your life, i.e. your wedding. Which is awesome, but kind of daunting at the same time. Especially since we're having the wedding in Kingsland, Texas, where Jacob's parents have their gorgeous lake house. When I saw the house for the first time two summers ago, I knew then and there if we ended up getting married, I wanted that to be the spot.

The good thing is Jacob's mother has been amazingly great about helping us with all the details that have to do with holding a wedding there. (Tent, tables, chairs, linens, place settings, dance floor, food, cocktails - there's so much!) I'm very lucky to be getting such a fab person as my future mother-in-law and I'm immensely grateful for her help.

So a few of the details we've decided so far. We're going to hopefully have the ceremony itself down by the lake outside, then the reception in a tent near the house. (Closer to bathrooms and electricity and such.) The dress will be garden party casual - since it'll likely be high seventies, low eighties. I'm all about having guests be comfortable. For dinner we're going to have a combo, hopefully, of tex-mex food and bbq. What else WOULD you have for a Texas wedding? :)

I found a DJ that I like - hopefully we can book them. It's a husband/wife team from Austin that seems indy and cool and not cheesy. (I have a great fear of a cheesy DJ!)

What I have NOT done is gone to look for a dress yet. Mainly cause it's daunting and also expensive! New York has to charge a real surcharge on gowns to pay the rent on their expensive salons. Maybe I'll rent a car and drive to shops in Jersey instead. I don't know. I have been looking at photos though and kind of know the styles I want. Of course, some of what I like wouldn't work in an outdoor wedding and agan I want to be comfortable rather than overdressed. So I'm thinking something classic, but simple. Like these:

Anyway, we'll see what they look like me in real life. :)

That's about all I've got so far. But stay tuned. I'm sure you'll hear a lot in the coming months. After all, April really isn't that far away!

Marianne

I want to believe

2009-09-19T12:05:00.003-06:00

Part of my job is going and interviewing celebrities. And I've done so many of them now that usually it's not that big of a deal. But there are some exceptions - when the celebrities are those I personally admire. And there aren't many I admire more than David Duchovny. So when the invitation came in my email to interview him about the upcoming season 3 of Californication, I squee'ed very loudly!

I was also a bit nervous. You see, when meeting a celeb, it invariably changes your opinion of them forever. I usually put them in one of two camps - the nice and the jerks. For example, John Stamos was kind of a jerk. Lauren Conrad - awesomely nice. Recently I got to meet Diablo Cody and she was totally cool.

In any case, I was really worried. What if one of my favorite actors turned out to be a jerk? What if he sneered at X-Files and the cult following the show has attained. I would be very sad.

But luckily, this turned out not to be the case. He was totally great - really nice and a good interview, too. I asked him about X-Files after all the Californication questions and he said that he would like to do X-Files movies every couple years until he was basically in his grave and that Gillian and Chris Carter were with him. The problem is the studios see "X-Files" and they think summer blockbuster. They don't want them to just do the smaller, darker films like the last X-Files movie was. The kind that are basically just two hour long episodes of the former show and don't have the big smoking man conspiracy type stuff in them. So we'll see.

In any case, it was a great interview and a great way to end a very wonderful week!

Marianne

Champagne and Caviar, Oh My!

2009-09-18T08:50:00.004-06:00

My friend Liz Maverick threw a congratulatory engagement party for Jacob and I last night, complete with champagne and caviar. And not just ANY champagne, mind you, but a beautiful bottle of Cristal.

I was almost afraid to drink it, it was so pretty!

Luckily, though, Jacob didn't have the same reservations.

It was quite a spread! Liz researched all the perfect champagne friendly foods! Almonds, strawberries, dark chocolate, creme, salmon, cheese...

A wonderful night - thank you Liz, for being such a great hostess! We'll always remember - you were first! :)

Marianne

!!!

2009-09-17T15:16:00.001-06:00

PS I said yes! :)

Weekend with Mom

2009-09-14T11:10:00.006-06:00

This weekend Mom came down for a visit. Poor thing - her flight got delayed 6 hours and she was stuck in the Manchester, NH airport the entire time. Yuck! But once she got here, we had fun, so hopefully it was worth it!

On Saturday, we took her to our favorite pancake place in Jersey City. She had to agree they were the best pancakes ever. Then we headed into the city, fighting the rain, to visit Times Square (and the M&M store) and check out the Fashion Week tents.

At night, we went to Rosa Mexicano to have a delicious dinner. I had the carne asada tacos. Mmm!

We played Scrabble at night, which was fun. I'm not very good, but a lucky break in which I was able to use all my letters helped me rally. (Word was "Currents" in case you were wondering!)

The next day Mom and I and Molly headed up to Storm King Mountain to do some hiking. (Jacob was watching the first Cowboys game of the season at home.) It was warm and sunny and we took lots of good pictures. Take a look!

I'm tired today, but it was a fun weekend!

Marianne

Blood Coven Vampire reboots are ALMOST HERE!

2009-09-10T14:54:00.002-06:00

So as many of you know, Berkley has "re-booted" my Blood Coven Vampire series and the release date for the first three re-packaged books is fast approaching. They say we'll start seeing them in stores in the next couple weeks, with the roll-out continuing through November. In addition to the beautiful new covers, they have new back cover copy and I've gone through and updated all the pop culture references and made a few other minor changes. For example Girls that Growl will now end with the cliffhanger ending it was originally supposed to have. I had taken it out originally because we weren't sure if the fourth book would ever be released.

Speaking of the fourth book...Bad Blood is out in January! Not too much longer!! In this book, we go back to Sunny's point of view. And it takes place in the city of sin - Las Vegas. After writing the book, I had a huge urge to go back and visit. Hope to do that in the next year or so. Unfortunately, for those of you who like to collect book editions, there will only be a "new cover" version of Bad Blood - so it won't match your other books if you have the square older editions. It's not a choice I get to make, so I apologize!

Anyway, for those of you who have not yet read the series, here are the new versions and their new back cover copy. You can go to my website for excerpts. Except for Bad Blood - gotta be my MySpace friend to get that excerpt. :)

Two sisters—as different as the sun and the rain. For one, getting into the Blood Coven is to die for. But for the other, getting out could be lethal…

When Sunny McDonald gets dragged to Club Fang by her twin sister Rayne, she doesn’t expect to find anything besides a bunch of Goth kids playing at being vampires. But when some guy mistakes Sunny for her dark-side-loving sister and bites her on the neck, she finds out that his fangs are real—and deadly.

Now, Sunny has less than a week to figure out how to reverse the bite, or else she’s going to end up as the perpetually undead. And not only will she be a vampire, she’ll also be bonded to Magnus—the bloodsucker who bit her—forever. And forever is a really long time…

Two sisters—as different as the sun and the rain. For one, getting into the Blood Cover is to die for, but it seems destiny has something else in mind…

Rayne McDonald had it all figured out. Get turned into a vampire, become the mate of the Blood Coven leader, and live the high-life for all eternity. Too bad the head vamp took a bite out of her twin sister by mistake. Now, not only is Rayne still not a vampire, but she learns she’s a slayer instead—destined to destroy vamps gone bad.

After being recruited by a secret organization, Rayne is given her first mission: infiltrate a seedy bar downtown and expose its vampire owner, Maverick, for purposely spreading a nasty blood virus. Luckily the Blood Coven sends some help—in the form of sexy vampire Jareth. Will vampire and slayer be able to settle their differences and work together to bring down the evil Maverick? Or will they find their own hearts on the line?

Rayne McDonald thought getting into the Blood Coven was the hard part. But now there’s a new breed of trouble in town…and the former slayer and her vampire boyfriend may be the only ones who can stop it.

Now that she’s an official vampire and full-fledged member of The Blood Coven, Rayne assumes her vampire slaying days are over. Sure, she doesn’t have any vampire powers, thanks to a mutated blood virus, but she and Jareth can go out in the sun, which is a pretty good trade-off.

But just when Rayne’s starting to enjoy her afterlife, she’s contacted by Slayer Inc once again. It seems that a member of her high school’s football team has disappeared—and the powers-that-be think the cheerleaders had something to do with it. Now Rayne has to infiltrate the squad before the cheerleaders have a chance to sink their teeth into someone else…

Sunny McDonald is in the ultimate forbidden relationship. Her boyfriend Magnus is a vampire, and the leader of the Blood Coven. Their differences have never been an issue, until now…

When the Blood Coven decides that Magnus needs a mate to be his co-ruler, Sunny’s humanity puts her out of the running. The Coven’s chosen candidate is Jane Johnson, a magna cum laude graduate of Oxford University who just happens to look like a vampiric celebutante.

Sunny is suspicious of a Rhodes Scholar who can’t answer the most basic poly-sci questions, but Magnus brushes it off as petty jealousy. Still, when the Blood Coven goes to Las Vegas for a vampire convention—where Magnus and Jane’s bonding ceremony will be the main event—Sunny and her sister Rayne secretly tag along. And Sunny’s not going home before she learns the truth about Jane. Because not everything stays in Vegas—especially bad blood…

DragonCon Wrap-up

2009-09-06T13:02:00.005-06:00

On my way home from Dragon*Con. Am tired, as would be expected, but it was worth it. Still, we crammed a lot into three days. I spoke on five panels, played Sherrilyn Kenyon's "Simi" in the parade, and changed in and out of a lot of costumes.

The panels at Dragon*Con were great- better, I think, than most of the romance industry conventions I've spoken at. The audiences were large and engaged and asked really good, on-topic questions. And I got to learn some stuff myself - from my highly esteemed co-panelists. Cherie Priest cracked me up the most on Vampires vs. Zombies. (She took the side of vampires. I was zombies. Definitely a worthy opponent.)

I also got to panel with (among others) Heather Brewer, Richelle Mead, Stacia Kane, Susan Sizemore, Carol Nelson Douglas, Caitlin Kittredge, Jackie Kessler and Mark Henry. The Urban Fantasy people are so much fun. Definitely my kind of writer peeps.

Here I am at the "Blood and Fur" panel with Richelle Mead and Heather Brewer. YA Vamp authors unite! :)

The panels were all really well attended, which I love!

So anyway - moving on to costumes. Day one I did a steampunk inspired outfit. Dress is from Hot Topic, waist cincher handmade and bought off Etsy. I did the wristbands myself from leather and stuff I found at Michael's. Steampunk goggles are from Gothic Rennisance. The clockwork butterfly necklace is also from a vendor off Etsy. It was super cool. Oh and the Victorian lace-up boots were actually from Payless!

Leanna was a beautiful Victorian lady in honor of her new book, "The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker", which was just released.

Costume #2 was me as "Simi" the demon from Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series. Sherrilyn asked Jacob and I to be in the parade as the official Simi and Acheron (her Dark Hunter hero) We got to ride in a Shelby Mustang in front of thousands of people. It was quite an experience!

Jacob dressed as Michael Jackon on day #1. The geeks at the con were slightly confused, but the people of Atlanta loved him!

That night, we met up with Liz, Cheri and Chris for a Time Traveller's ball.

Check out Liz's hair and top hat!

There were a lot of fabulous costumes at the Time Traveller's Ball. Some pretty, some disturbing.

One of my favorite panels at the Con was with Malcolm McDowell of Clockwork Orange fame. Actually just before the panel we found ourselves sitting one couch over from him! He was just hanging out. I wanted to go up and say hi but I felt too nervous and also didn't want to be intrusive. His panel was great though - learned a lot about the behind the scenes of one of my favorite Kubrick films.

Later - when I find someone with a good pic, I will upload the piece de resistance - my Zombie Bo Peep costume. It is a work of art, let me tell you. Very disturbing art! I got a lot of attention from it, which was fun!

:)
Marianne

What I've learned from HGTV

2009-09-03T08:34:00.004-06:00

So lately I've been watching a ton of HGTV which has numerous house buying shows. The top ones areProperty Virgins, My First Home, and House Hunters. Each has a slightly different format, but the basic idea is a househunter or couple or family tour a variety of houses in their price range and decide to buy one.

It's way more fascinating than it sounds actually and gives me great insight on what I need to look for when it's time for Jacob and I to buy a house someday.

First - people don't really know what they want. They ask for an older neighborhood with big-trees and character - "not cookie-cutter" is a common request. But then they tsk over the tiny bathrooms and closets and low ceilings and small rooms without updated appliances. Older houses with "character" are not new houses with new stuff, end of story.

To me, I'm happy as a clam if the house looks like everyone else's on the block. It's what's on the inside that matters. Big, walk-in closets, master bath suites with separate shower and soaker tub. Big, open floorplans with lots of windows and light. That's what I want - not character. I can create my own character with my own decor.

Second - people judge the home by its current trappings. If it's a model home, they ooh and ah over the furniture and decorations - and always end up prefering it to others. If they hate the current furniture or wallpaper - they won't buy the house - even though those things are so easily changed. People are emotional buyers. They fall in love with a house and it's current "look" rather than consider all pros and cons and looking at the "bones" of the house.

Third - people really want to be close to work. And they'll pick a crappier, smaller, more expensive home in order to be so. For most cities, the older homes circle the inner perimeter and are smaller and more expensive. The nice, big, cheap subdivision houses are always further out. So definitely something to consider.

Fourth - people really expect to walk into a house and buy it - with no money down! They want the seller to pay all closing costs, they don't want to use their savings for a down-payment. Now a lot of these shows were filmed before the crash - but let me tell you, it's giving me a great realization as to why we had the crash. Semi-employed people falling in love with houses they can't really afford and putting no money down or going into an interest-only mortgage. If you can't even come up with $5,000 for closing costs maybe you should just rent for a while and save some money!

Fifth - I personally don't want a fixer-upper. Some people love that kind of project. Not me.

Sixth - You alway have to make some kind of sacrifice. And you need to go into the process knowing what you're willing to give up. Location? Space? Yard? Condition? Only truly wealthy people can get it all.

Seventh - Sandra, the realtor on Property Virgins, is awesome. She's like a realtor and a therapist all in one. I totally want her as my realtor if we ever buy a house!

Marianne

My Dragon-Con Schedule

2009-08-30T16:23:00.000-06:00

For any of you who might be attending this year's Dragon-Con convention in Atlanta, GA, here's my workshop schedule. Hope to see some of you there!! :)

Title: A Writer's Guide to Goth & Punk
Time: Fri 01:00 pm Location: Montreal / Vancouver - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Explores ways that writers can create believable and accurate goth and punk characters.

Title: Blood and Fur
Time: Fri 10:00 pm Location: A707 - Marriott (Length: 1)
Description: Books about vampires and werewolves are enjoying a flight in popularity. Learn about new blood and the hair-raising resurgence in this growing genre.

Title: Time-Travel and Paranormal: What is it and How Do I Write It?
Time: Sat 11:30 am Location: Manila / Singapore / Hong Kong - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: The Pros of Time-Travel and Paranormal fiction discuss and answer questions about this fast-growing genre.

Title: Vampires vs. Zombies
Time: Sat 05:30 pm Location: Montreal / Vancouver - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Authors judge the pros and cons of the living dead.

Title: Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy
Time: Sun 10:00 am Location: Montreal / Vancouver - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Comparing and contrasting two similar but distinct genres.

Keeping Austin Weird

2009-08-18T11:45:00.002-06:00

Just got back from a fabulous vacation in Austin, Texas. It was hot - but a lot of fun.

First, on Thursday night, we flew into Austin and headed down to Kingsland, Texas, where Jacob's parents have their lake house. I love that place so much - home away from home, definitely! I did a lot of swimming in their beautiful salt water pool.

Afterwards, their dog joined me for some sunbathing.

In the late afternoon, Jacob, me, his mom and sister headed out on the boat and zoomed around Lake LBJ.

Once in the middle of the lake, we took a little dip.

We drove the boat through Horseshoe Bay, where we saw some ridiculous waterfront mansions.

Back at the dock, even the dogs got a swim!

And Jacob's dad took a wine break.

The next day we headed back to Austin where we would crash with Jacob's sister Valerie. We tooled around town in his mom's Saab convertible - which was awesome. I soooo want a convertible of my own now!! I loved having the top down! We checked out some vintage shops for costume supplies and wandered down Sixth Street.

Sixth Street is a crazy mishmash of bars and live music venues and crazy shops. Very Austin. Very weird. The town's motto is "Keep Austin Weird!" It's definitely not one of those cookie-cutter strip mall towns of middle America.

At night we met up with Jacob's friends Josh and Christina and we, along with Valerie and her BF Jim, went to famed Austin taco bar, Gueros. It's rumored that it's one of director Robert Rodriguez's faves. I had yummy fajitas.

We headed down to the bridge to see if we could see the bats fly. Every evening in the summer, thousands and thousands of bats fly from their roosts all at the same time. Sadly we were a few minutes too late! As you can see from the pic, though, it's quite the tourist attraction.

On Sunday, we headed to church - Christina and Josh's son Derek was getting baptized and Jacob was godfather. Derek looked so cute in his 100+ year old christening gown!

Sunday night we joined some of Valerie and Jim's friends down in San Marcos for a Japanese steak dinner. Yum! I think I must have gained 10 pounds on this trip!

All in all it was a really fun trip! I'm sad to be back!! And let me tell you, though it was in the low 100s in Austin - it feels even hotter here in NYC today! Ugh.

Marianne

Reporting from inside the Evil Empire

2009-08-12T10:48:00.007-06:00

Yes, you read that subject right. Today I, diehard Red Sox fan, infiltrated the inner sanctum of the new Yankee stadium. All I can say is - wow.

Don't get me wrong - I love Fenway. It's got history. It's got a green monster. It's got a guy in a green monster suit. And it's...charming. In a 1920s baseball nostalgia kind of way.

But Yankee stadium was definitely a site to see. For one thing - it's HUGE. For another - no obstructed seats.

And for a third - it's got every food item under the sun - which was why I was there.

We were shooting a segment for BETTER about the various food choices at a baseball stadium. It's not just hot dogs and popcorn anymore. Imagine having fresh sushi, garden vegetables, fruit -- even a martini at your seat. OKAY, the martini was part of the LEGENDS club - which only a precious few people get to enter. ($2,500 a seat!)

Here is our intrepid guest host, Food Dude Kevin Roberts, enjoying wine and a martini. Yes, it not only looks like an accident waiting to happen, we did manage to break both those glasses before the shoot ended. Luckily the Yankees were super nice about it!

I must say, The Legends Club was something out of a dream. They had stations of every type of food under the sun. Amazing meats - from prime to even wagu beef. And a dessert bar that not only has delicious gourmet treats - but also penny candy. Yes, all you can eat! We interviewed the Senior Vice President and he told us that even with all the gourmet stuff, often people get most excited about the penny candy.

There was also all-you-can-eat cotton candy. Blue, of course. And really expensive scotches. And everything can be delivered right to your seats, which are, of course, the best in the house.

It was a really fun segment to shoot and they invited us to stay for the game, but unfortunately I had to go to work. And actually I don't really want to see the Yankees beat yet another team after that tragic sweep over the Red Sox last week. :(

That said - it was a fun segment to shoot! And I would love to - just once in my life - live it up in the Legends Club for real!! They got it goin' on. That's for sure.

Marianne

PS No, dad, don't worry - I'll never turn into a Yankees fan--I swear!!

Jennie Garth

2009-08-06T14:34:00.003-06:00

When I was a teen I used to LOVE 90210. (I was a Dylan girl, not Brandon, FYI.) And I especially loved Jennie Garth, who played Kelly Taylor on the show. I wanted to be her SO BADLY. Not to mention have her haircut.

I thought she was the most beautiful actress ever.

In any case, I finally, today, got to interview her. Which isn't the same as, say, going to high school and being BFFs with Kelly Taylor, but hey - it's close enough!

Like many stars, she was a bit shorter than she appears on television. Unlike many stars, she was a normal weight, which I found refreshing. (It's always kind of disturbing to interview these tiny 5'0 70 pound waifs.) Not that she's fat AT ALL - she's normal sized and still very beautiful. And her dress was awesome - I should have asked her where she got it. It's very "Mad Men", don't you think?

She was there to promote a TJ Maxx Back-to-School Children's charity event. Basically if you buy a reusable shopping bag at TJ Maxx the company will donate a schol item to a child in need through the Save the Children program. A worthy charity, especially for a mom of three like Jennie.

Anyway, just thought I'd share! It's not everyday you get to meet your favorite teen actress - even if it is 20 years later!! :)

Marianne

Weekend in Boston!

2009-08-03T09:22:00.004-06:00

Spent the weekend in Boston with my good friend and fellow former Channel 7 coworker Mary. She lives over in the Navy Yard area in Charlestown now in a really interesting converted condo building.

It used to be a place where they built ships. Hence the narrow width and high ceilings. (Some say it looks more like a converted jail, but the apartments are a lot nicer than cells.)

The lobby and grounds are home to all these bizarre modern art exhibits...For example, a duckie and a light bulb...

The complex also has a pool and she and I, along with her friend Laura who was also visiting, spent Saturday afternoon lying by it and swimming. Was nice to relax. I've been so busy lately! Plus, in NYC you don't get much outdoor time -- especially this year with all the rain we've had!!

After the pool, we changed and headed down to Tavern on the Water, a bar/restaurant that is as its name implies, on the water. It sits on a dock in Boston Harbor, about a hundred yards from Mary's apartment. People pull up on their boats to dine there.

You could see Boston's skyline. Which is not as large as NYC's but still very pretty.

Mary's friends showed up and one of them, who owns a boat, took us on a midnight cruise around Boston Harbor. It was a beautiful night to be out on a boat. We found a dock just off a small island and hung out there, playing music and dancing. Was so much fun!

The next day, we headed to Saugus to take the dogs for a hike. There, we met up with my mom and we walked around Breakheart Park. The dogs got to go swimming and Molly had a blast. I took a little video of her and her "water crazies" - even at thirteen and a half she still goes nuts after getting wet. It's so funny. (About 20 seconds into the video she starts going crazy.)

Molly Water Crazies from Marianne Mancusi on Vimeo.

Needless to say, she slept well on the way home!

In all, a perfect girls weekend was had by all! (Jacob was in New Orleans for a bachelor party.) I can't wait to go back! Summer in Boston is so much fun. It's just too bad it's so cold in the winter!

Marianne

I'm signing books on Saturday in NYC!

2009-07-20T10:21:00.001-06:00

Now here's the event you've been waiting for! Nine authors will be at Books of Wonder in New York City on Saturday, July 25th, from 2pm to 4pm. Stop by and buy a book or nine and say hello!

Participating Authors:

Lauren Barnholdt, author of Two-Way Street, The Secret Identity of Devon Delaney, Four Truths and Lie, and others
Sarah Cross, author of Dull Boy
Erin Dionne, author of Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies
Heather Duffy-Stone, author of This is What I Want to Tell you
Mandy Hubbard, author of Prada and Prejudice
Julie Linker, author of Crowned, Disenchanted Princess
Sarah MacLean, author of The Season
Mari Mancusi, author of Boys that Bite, Girls that Growl, Stake That!, Gamer Girl and others
Michelle Zink, author of Prophecy of the Sisters

Boys that Bite - Reader Trailer!

2009-07-17T06:07:00.001-06:00

A Boys that Bite trailer, created by one of my readers for her senior class project. So cute!!!

Bad Blood out Monday! (If you live in Germany...)

2009-07-08T14:36:00.004-06:00

It's kind of surreal/weird cause I just realized I have a book release next week except it's in Germany and not here. The fourth vampire book, Bad Blood, will be released on Monday in Germany, six months before it's released in the US.

Obviously for a US writer this is usually the other way around, with the translations releasing later than the originals, but my publisher in Germany has been extremely enthuiastic about the series and is not only putting out Book #4 first, but they've already bought Book #5 (working title: Night School) and will probably want a Book #6, too. So awesome.

Normally during a book release I'd be doing all sorts of promotion, but I don't know the first thing about promoting to Germany - I don't even speak the language! So I guess I just have to leave it up to the publisher and fans to spread the word. My German readers are extremely enthusiastic and I love getting emails from them - even if they have varied success at writing in English. (I wonder sometimes if they put the letters through translator programs.) I just have to make sure none of them post spoilers on MySpace for the US audience to read.

In any case, the release of book #4 has been a long time coming and I'm excited it's finally here! Even if it is in a language I can't read.

Marianne

4th of July fun!

2009-07-06T07:37:00.003-06:00

The Fourth of July party we hosted on Saturday was a ton of fun -- ending with an amazing 360 fireworks extravaganza on the roof of our apartment building. We saw Jersey City fireworks, New York City fireworks, and about ten different other distant fireworks displays from towns unknown. It was pretty surreal, witnessing all of these celebrations all going off at the same time as far as the eye could see.

Liz brought her amazing camera and captured the highlights.

The perfect 4th of July patriotic setting: just behind Lady Liberty.

It was a beautiful day to sit outside on the balcony.

Burgers nad hot dogs were cooked on the grill, much to Molly's delight.

She was less interested in the corn on the cob.

There were a lot of boats down there.

Amazing what she'll put up with for burger scraps!

For a brief respite from the sun, we played Wii. No one could agree on a game.

The sun began to set...Anticipation builds.

Awh!

We headed up to the roof...

...just in time for the fireworks to begin!!

After the fireworks, it was time for some Sing Star karaoke!

All in all, a good Fourth of July celebration had by all!

Marianne

Pre-Holiday week

2009-07-01T12:39:00.005-06:00

It's midway through a short week - we get out at 2pm tomorrow and then have Friday off for Fourth of July. Looking forward to a long weekend and fireworks! We're fortunate to see fireworks quite often from our balcony, but I'm sure the 4th of July ones will be extra special. It will definitely feel patriotic to be looking out at the Statue of Liberty as we celebrate our nation's birth.

Last weekend Jacob had to work a great deal as a server was busted. However we did get to go to Morgan and Nick's for a little Dance, Dance Revolution on a 75 inch screen. And on Friday we hung out with Jamie and Jeremy, which was fun as well.

I turned in my "My Zombie Valentine" anthology story revisions and they were accepted so that's one thing off my plate. Now back, once again, to The Camelot Code. I know you're probably sick of reading about this book and are likley wondering if its existance is merely an urban legend. But I promise you someday it will hit bookstore shelves and when it does you will understand why it took so long to write!

In the meantime, I got an amazing cover quote from the delightful, mega-talented Rachel Caine who writes the New York Times Morganville Vampire Series. They'll be putting this on the covers of the re-released Blood Coven books:

"If you haven't sunk your teeth into Marianne Mancusi's fabulous books, why haven't you? Delightful, surprising, and engaging -- you'll get bitten, and love it."

-- Rachel Caine

Nice, huh? She's awesome and I adore both her and her books. If you like vampires and haven't picked them up, start with Glass House. And bonus, it takes place in Texas, too!

Speaking of Texas, check out this Austin house. Totally my dream house! Of course, at three million dollars, I'll need to keep dreaming! Still, it's so beautiful. I especially like the waterfall and the wine cellar. Though perhaps not so kid friendly, seeing as there's a bi-level pool on the side of a cliff...

For 3 million you could probably get a 2 bedroom place in NYC...

In any case, it gives me motivation to continue my quest for that bestseller! :)

Happy almost Fourth of July everyone!
Marianne

Weekend Wrap-Up

2009-06-22T14:05:00.003-06:00

This weekend Jacob's parents came for a visit, staying with us in Jersey City. Even though we didn't have perfect weather, we made the most of their time here.

On Friday night we tried out a trendy restaurant in the Meatpacking District called STK. Yes, don't let the no-vowels fool you - it is a steakhouse. I had a hard time finding a photo of it that I can paste here. This is the best I can do. For better photos - it's a very cool looking restaurant, click on the link above.

Obviously at STK I had steak. I also had their amazing mashed potatoes that must have had more butter and cream than potato but were absolutely delectable. And their mac and cheese side was to die for. Mmmm. Such an amazing meal!

On Saturday we had brunch at Jane in the Village and then at night we ate at Nobu. I'd only been there one other time (when Jacob took me for my birthday) and back then I didn't know that the thing to order was Black Cod with Miso. I tried it this time and oh wow it is the best thing I think I ever tasted. So delicious!!! And no, the picture cannot do it justice! But trust me - it's sweet and delicious and melts in your mouth!

I found the recipe online and so need to try to cook it!!

On Sunday, Jacob's parents had to fly back so we tried to go on a run. But the rain cut it a bit short. I did manage to run a little more than an hour though. I'm trying to up my mileage each week. At night we went to the movies and saw The Hangover. Which was raunchy and funny, but not as good as everyone has made it out to be, in my opinion. Oh well.

Hopefully this week will be mellow - I'm really tired at the moment!!

Happy Father's Day to my dad and all the other dads out there!

:)
MARIANNE

Lauren Conrad and me

2009-06-19T09:59:00.001-06:00

Today I got to go interview Lauren Conrad of The Hills. Well, formerly of The Hills, I guess, seeing as this was her last season.

She's just written a teen book called LA Candy which is a fictionalized account of life on a reality TV series. It's the first of three books.

Now I know some authors are annoyed that a famous reality star like Lauren can get a big book deal when they're still struggling to get noticed, but here's my take. If her book can get people who might not normally read to pick up a book, then they might discover they like reading. And then they'll pick up more books - by other authors! So everyone wins!! So this is a good thing, I promise. And honestly, if you write a good book - a really good book - you don't have to be famous to get noticed. I mean, who heard of Stephanie Meyer before Twilight? JK Rowling before Harry Potter?

Plus Lauren was super sweet and nice. Totally down to Earth and not pretentious at all. I really liked chatting with her. She definitely goes in the "celebs who don't suck" category. :)

Mari

Real Housewives of NJ

2009-06-19T08:00:00.001-06:00

For those of you addicted to the Real Housewives of New Jersey - here's a segment I recently produced with them for Better TV. Enjoy!!

Boys that Bite in German

2009-06-18T08:31:00.003-06:00

Ever wonder what Boys that Bite sounds like, read aloud in German? (Come on, you know you have!!) Well, here it is, as uploaded by one of my lovely German readers. :)

My Zombie Valentine

2009-06-16T09:41:00.005-06:00

In January I'm going to be part of a fun anthology with Katie MacAlister, Angie Fox, and Lisa Cach called "My Zombie Valentine." As you can probably guess from the title it'll be four romantic comedies having to do with zombies!

I just got the cover today and thought I'd share.

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.

My story is actually a little different, I think, than the others, in which I believe the zombies might be the heroes. Mine is a campy homage to the zombie horror genre - taking place on the set of a low-budget zombie film. (Probably not surprising to those who know my love of cheesy horror movies!) The zombies in my story are definitely the bad guys!

It was definitely a fun story to write!! Can't wait to see what people think! :)

Marianne

My hair makeover

2009-06-16T07:27:00.001-06:00

A lot of you have been asking about my extreme hair makeover. :) Well, here it is, as it aired this week on Better TV.

Yes, I got a TON cut off!!!!

Marianne

Monday

2009-06-15T08:17:00.002-06:00

Oh what a surprise - it's a rainy Monday. Sigh. I'm so sick of the rain - I feel like we moved to Seattle and someone forgot to tell me. Grr.

This weekend we were supposed to go hiking on Saturday - the weather report said sunny and 70s - but instead it poured and we had to head home halfway there. :( We did get to stop at Friendly's at least where Britany and I devoured ice cream sundaes while the boys ate fried type foods. Still, kind of a waste of a rental car. :(

Speaking of, we're seriously considering getting a car. We totally need one, now that we live in Jersey. And it's much more feasible than in NYC where parking is non-existent. Now we just need to decide if we want to invest in a new one or try to find something second hand. Maybe one of those certified used cars? We'll see what we can find that we can afford. Unfortunately we have to spend an extra $125 a month just on parking so that cuts into our budget a bit. Still, it will be SOOO NICE to have a car and not feel so trapped all the time. We can head up to New England for the weekend on a whim or just swing by the grocery store to grab bread. It's funny - for those of you who live in the suburbs a car probably seems so standard. But for us - even the biggest clunker would be the ultimate luxury.

On Sunday (the sunnier day we SHOULD have gone hiking) we went jogging through Hoboken. Did 7 miles which is the longest I've gone so far! Woot! Maybe I will be able to someday do this half-marathon I keep talking about!!

Oh and on Friday Jacob, Chris and I saw MOON, a cool indy sci-fi film. Liked it a lot. It was directed by Duncan Jones, aka David Bowie's son. But I would have enjoyed it regardless. ;)

That's all for now!!
Marianne

Rain, rain go away

2009-06-11T12:15:00.002-06:00

Hey all -

Thought I'd give up a quick update of my week, though nothing too exciting going on. Sunday Jacob and I headed out to Long Island to see Nine Inch Nails in concert. We had great seats - like 8th row - but it was freezing cold out. Here's me, huddling to get warm.

Speaking of getting warm, it's been cool and rainy in NYC all week. What is up with that? I mean, we're in mid-June now! My current "would rather be there" spots, Orlando and Austin are 80 and 104 degrees, respectively. Yes, you New Englanders are shuddering at the idea of 104. But, uh, it's a dry heat? Anyway, I'd rather deal with hot sun than rain any day of the week, just sayin.

Yesterday Jacob ran a 5k race as part of the citywide corporate challenge. I was registered but wimped out. Not cause I can't make 5k but because I didn't know anyone going from my work and didn't really want to enter that madhouse of thousands of runners without a friend. I swear Im going to do a race soon, though. And I did go home and run my own personal 5k. So I'm not a total loser.

Well, except that EA sent me a review copy of Sims 3 and I've been playing it nonstop since. I think it's so superior to former Sims games, even though I've liked them too. It's got a lot more goals and game like aspects so your sims are doing more than just peeing and sleeping. The only thing I don't like is they age rather quickly. I'm worried my original sims are going to die of old age before they can meet all the goals I have for them. I guess, not unlike real life.

In writing world, I passed in my anthology story for My Zombie Valentine, which will come out in January. Waiting for edits on that. And I'm still plugging away at The Camelot Code. Actually I'm more than plugging at this point. I feel like I'm flying a bit. It's coming much easier now that I have the main setup right at last. I really think it will end up being my best book yet - even though it's given me the most trouble. So yay! Expect it on store shelves in 2053. hah.

This weekend, if it stops raining, we're going to go hiking on Saturday and bring Molly. We can't do huge hikes with her cause she's getting old, but she enjoys herself so much we can't leave her behind. So we're going to pick a happy medium.

That's all for now! :) Hope everyone is well!

Marianne

Weekend of Horrors!

2009-06-07T10:21:00.003-06:00

So yesterday I took time out from my new SIMS 3 addiction and Jacob and I headed to the Javitts Center to go to Fangoria, Weekend of Horrors. It's basically a horror movie convention they have every year. It was very cool. I really need a new camera so I can take photos though. Cause there were a lot of very creative and very scary costumes.

For horror celebrities I saw a couple from Friday the 13th - "Mrs. Voorhees" aka Jason's Mom, actress Betsy Palmer. Kane Hodder, the best Jason ever, the Jason from Friday the 13th part 2 and even the little kid Jason from the end of part one. Crazy that he is still appearing at these things. (Of course he is all grown up.)

There were also guys from Last House on the Left (I guess they revived their appearances after the remake came out) and several behind the scenes types like Tobe Hooper (directed Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist) and Tom Savini. (Makeup/special effects for Friday the 13th and other fine horror films.) Tom is kind of a weird hero of mine so I got my photo taken with him with Jacob's iPhone. Problem is, he's also kind of a hero of Jacob's and he got nervous and the picture ended up blurred. Oh well.

Our mission was to find the cheesiest but best horror movie DVD there. For mine I chose The Funhouse, a Tobe Hooper film which kind of was like Texas Chainsaw Massacre at a carnival. And Jacob chose House of the Dead 2, a zombie flick based on the videogame. The fact they made a House of the Dead 2 after the first House of the Dead videogame movie Uwe Boll did astounds me. We have yet to watch that one. Will let you know.

Here are some photos of the event that I found on Flickr.

This guy had the best steampunk glasses ever. I think he was a Victorian Butcher.

Steampunk heart.

Yes, GWAR was there. I first saw them when I was like 16 years old at the Escape Club in Salisbury Beach. I was at a Battle of the Bands that my friends' band, Guido's Dead was performing at and they were the closing act. I remember they splurted fake blood onto the crowd and many of my friends' hair ended up stained pink for a week.

What I want to know is - are these the original members or is it like Menudo where they swap them out?

Anyway, I'm sure most of you don't care about horror, but we love it. So it was a fun time for us to check everything out!!

MARIANNE

Thanksgiving in May: The Photos!

2009-06-02T14:02:00.003-06:00

The location: Jersey City. Just behind Lady Liberty.

Jacob, turkey chef extraordinaire, surveys the bird.

While Trey and Marianne cook up some sides. Marianne worked so hard she didn't even have time to blow dry her hair!

With Texans at the feast, there's gotta be cornbread.

Real glasses, plastic silverware and plates. That's how we roll.

Molly waited patiently.

Sort of...

You lookin' at me?

Our kitchen definitely seems larger when we're home alone.

Turning the camera on the photographer herself.

Dude, you're cramping my style! Important begging work to do!!

All that cornbread makin' makes me thirsty!

Mmm...stuffing!

Is it done, yet?

The feast!

We're so ready to eat!

I have a feeling this was taken when we were playing YouTube videos on the TV...

"For the love of dog, I said TURKEY not ear rubs!! Though, those do feel good..."

Jacob challenges of the gods of stain with a white shirt.

The marina, as seen from balcony.

Seriously, guys...

Our balcony has the best sunsets.

Yum.

Hanging on the balcony.

I have no idea the story behind the pic...

Amazing shot of Morgan.

Someone managed to steal Liz's new camera for a moment!

Chil-axing.

Happy Thanksgiving in May!!

Thanksgiving in May!

2009-06-01T09:56:00.003-06:00

On Saturday, Jacob and I hosted a "Thanksgiving in May" party at our apartment in Jersey City. We cooked a complete turkey dinner for about 12 guests. It was a very fun afternoon/night and Liz took a bunch of pictures, which she should be uploading soon. We were lucky to have nice sunny weather so guests got to sit out on our balcony, too. Yes, there were some jokes about traveling to Jersey (Manhattan people are sooo lazy) but everyone seemed impressed by our new place. I have to say, I prefer to live here than Jersey - it's quieter and we have way more space and amenities for the money.

All in all, a very good party and ended with a big karaoke fest. We'll be eating leftover turkey for a while! Yay!

Pictures to come soon.

Marianne

I love this segment

2009-05-28T13:53:00.003-06:00

I do segments for BETTER almost every day, but sometims there's a segment that just stands out. I love this one - not because of my amazing producer skills - but because the topic is so heartfelt.

Peter Yarrow, of 60s folk legends Peter, Paul and Mary, is continuing his work in the peace movement by empowering school children through a program called "DON'T LAUGH AT ME."

Take a look!

Oh and yes, I got to hear Puff, the Magic Dragon sung live and in person. My life is complete!! :)

Marianne

2009-05-24T15:05:00.002-06:00

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

While yesterday we were out and about, running five miles, going to eat BBQ at the famous Dinosaur in Harlem, and then watching Terminator Salvation, today has been much more low-key. Which is fine - sometimes you need a down day to recover from the week.

On Weds I had dinner and drinks with my agent and we brainstormed some for The Camelot Code. I really think the story is starting to click for me. It's such a bigger tale than when I started the first version - in fact, likely the biggest story I've ever written. In this version there's a lot more fantasy elements and plot threads drawn from Arthurian legend. Which I like, being a big King Arthur junkie and all. At times it feels like The Neverending Story but I think when it is finally completed it will be the best thing I've ever written.

I was just thinking how this fall/winter is going to be a big release time for me.

October: BOYS THAT BITE re-release
November: STAKE THAT re-release
December: GIRLS THAT GROWL re-release
January: BAD BLOOD
MY BLOOD VALENTINE ANTHOLOGY
Spring: GAMER GIRL trade paperback release

And then what next? I'm not sure. But I have a ton of ideas! It's just a matter of picking one. I will say I'm having fun writing the fantasy elements of Camelot Code so a fantasy novel wouldn't be out of the question.

Let's see, what else? Last week at work I interviewed actress Julianne Moore. She was very nice and down-to-Earth. She was talking about her new children's picture book, Strawberry Freckleface. Wonder who that was based on? *smile*

This weekend is BEA - The Book Expo of America. I'm going to attend on Friday for my day job to see what I can find for books/story ideas for the next year. Should be fun. One of the media breakfasts I'm going to has both author Meg Cabot and actress Julie Andrews.

And then on Saturday Jacob and I are having people over for a THANKSGIVING IN MAY party. Which is basically just as it sounds. We'll be cooking a turkey with all the trimmings. Cause really, Thanksgiving is too good not to come twice a year. It'll also be kind of a housewarming party for the new apartment. Hopefully we'll have good weather so people can hang out on the balcony.

Then the following weekend we're going to the horror convention FANGORIA and then the following weekend after that Jacob's parents are coming for a visit. So lots of great summer stuff coming up.

OK I'm off! Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!
MARIANNE

Florida Fun!

2009-05-19T15:27:00.002-06:00

This past weekend Jacob and I headed down to Hobe Sound, Florida to spend some time with my mom on her birthday. She lives about a mile from the beach and it was great to relax and enjoy some warm, non-rainy weather for once.

We stayed at a great hotel called The Jupiter Beach Hotel which was right on the water. Two thumbs up. Except that their waffles tasted like vinegar. Or maybe orange juice. Bad after taste, whatever they were.

ANYWAY...

We swam in the ocean, ate out at my favorite chain steakhouse, Longhorns, danced to a 60s/70s cover band at a local bar, and I even signed books at a local Barnes and Noble. A very good time!!

Some photos:

The beautiful, greenish waters of the Atlantic, right outside our hotel.

And there was also a nice pool.

Doesn't Jacob look relaxed?

That was before he had to fix Mom's computer!

Me, reading a book at Mom's. Ravens of Avalon by Diana Paxon, in case you're wondering. Pre-Arthurian fantasy.

Mom and I outside the hotel.

Signing books at Barnes and Noble. They get more excited when you come down south to sign books. Most NYC booksellers could care less about authors. I guess they're a dime a dozen here.

My mom found it amusing that I wanted to go in Hot Topic. I have to admit, I did feel like a bit of a narc in there. But hey - it's research. And besides, I bought some awesome flip flops.

Of course no visit to the 'burbs can be complete without a visit to Dairy Queen! Oh Blizard - I love you so!

All in all, it was a great trip! Happy birthday, Mom!

Teen Read Night

2009-05-14T09:50:00.002-06:00

Last night I went to the monthly Teen Read Night at the Jefferson Market NYPL in the Village. (Great library, btw. It's like a freaking castle.) These nights, hosted by the amazing David Leviathan of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist fame (as well as Executive Editor (or some similiar such title) at Scholastic). David was the BEST moderator. He was funny and interesting and, most importantly, kept it all on track and on time.

The authors reading were also great. All funny, contemporary stories, which was refreshing, seeing the current overload of dark paranormal. (Author Melissa Walker, who was also there, said these nights are often full of contemp authors and suggested perhaps the dark fantasy authors live somewhere else? An interesting theory, to say the least...)

My favorite read of the night was for my Dutton sister author, Sarah Cross, and her book DULL BOY(just released today!) I've been hearing a lot of buzz on this book, but had no idea how awesome would actually be. So funny! I totally need to pick up a copy this afternoon.

Also there were Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus - authors of "The Nanny Diaries" who evidently are writing YA now. Their first book, The Real Real, is about a reality show. Or behind the scenes of one, I guess. The authors were fun and down to earth, esp considering their high profile status. And the excerpt was funny.

Other authors included Nick Burd, The Vast Fields of Ordinary - a gay coming of age story. Susane Colasanti, Waiting for You. (I liked that Susane told us (when someone asked how did she know how to speak YA) "My internal age is 16." I'm going to have to use that from now.) Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty and Kieran Scott, Geek Magnet. There wasn't one bad book in the bunch!!

After the reading, Leanna and I went and grabbed Thai food and caught up. All in all a very fun night! I'm definitely going to go again next month!

MARIANNE

Romantic Times Convention Recap Video

2009-05-13T08:12:00.003-06:00

Liz and I put together a little 10 minute documentary on the Romantic Times Convention that took place in Orlando, Florida last month. Take a look!

Romantic Times Convention Recap from Marianne Mancusi on Vimeo.

Molly's new haircut

2009-05-11T14:13:00.000-06:00

Everyone keeps asking for pics of MY new haircut. But to hold you over - here's Molly's!! :) And yes, I made her howl for the video!

It's her birthday on Monday - she'll be 13 years old! Quite the old lady. But everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) asks if she's a puppy when we go on walks.

:)
Marianne

My deck view

2009-05-10T06:58:00.003-06:00

This video's for my dad, who wanted to see my Statue of Liberty deck view. (And anyone else who's curious.) They've been shooting fireworks over it every Saturday night. Maybe one weekend I'll have motivation enough to set up my videocamera to catch them!

Pardon the wind noise on the video - windy morning on the water!

Friday

2009-05-08T14:45:00.002-06:00

It's Friday! And I figure I haven't blogged in a while and should do a quick update before my family thinks I'm dead.

NEWS IN MY WORLD:

Got a grill! It's a Weber Q 200 which is perfect size for our balcony. I believe my dad has the same one. Works great and Jacob's already fired it up several times this week. We've had steak and chicken and hot dogs on it and all were delish. Of course most nights he's bbq'ing in the rain - hopefully the weather will clear up SOMEDAY and we'll be able to sit out on the balcony to eat. Hmm...maybe tonight.

Speaking of the balcony - saw some great fireworks over the Statue of Liberty from it last weekend. It's going to be the perfect Fourth of July party pad.

This week's surprise in the writing world - I saw a big jump in booksales for my vampire series and when I investigated, I discovered Barnes and Noble had done a huge nationwide buy for all three books in the series. Which is awesome, seeing as these are the old covers and it's not even re-release time! I chalk it up to vampires being so hot right now. In any case, I checked out three Barnes and Nobles in my area and in each one all three books were displayed prominently on walls that advertised "VAMPIRE BOOKS". Yay! It makes me so happy cause this is what I always wanted for the series - good distribution and placement - and could never seem to get. I admit in the past I always felt a little envious passing through the YA sections and seeing the vampire wall without any of my books on it. So it's so nice to be included at last! :) Fingers crossed they do well - I so want to write a fifth book in the series!

Celebs I interviewed this week: Peter Farrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary), Ivanka Trump, and two of the Real Housewives of NJ. Thumbs up on Peter and Real Housewives. Thumbs way, way down on Ivanka.

Molly got a cute summer haircut today. We used a mobile groomer - meaning they come to your dog and pick the dog up and do the whole thing right in the van. She looks adorable and like a puppy again!

That's all I can think of right now! Happy weekend everyone!

Marianne

Fan Art

2009-04-30T14:31:00.001-06:00

I like to check Deviant Art sometimes to see what people have drawn based on my books. Here are some I've found recently. If YOU have a drawing, you can always send it directly to me!! :) I love to get them!

Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi by ~BlueFireFoxChibi on deviant ART

Gamer girl cover by ~Darkness-Rakiri on deviant ART

More Romantic Times Convention

2009-04-29T14:03:00.001-06:00

A couple more pics from the Romantic Times Convention in Orlando.

What romance book covers looked like in the eighties. Ew!! Mustache!!

ME - as RAYNIE THE VAMPIRE SLAYER!! w00t!!! (With and without mask...)

Staking author Leanna Hieber as she attempts to do her edits.

Texting fairies

Back from the Romantic Times Convention

2009-04-29T14:02:00.000-06:00

I'm back from the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention where I spent a week hanging out with readers and writers - giving workshops and going to costume parties. So much fun! Plus it was in Orlando so the weather was amazing! Got to go swimming and on my last day I went to Disney World! w00t!

I'm waiting for my friend Liz to post pics so I'll have more to show you. Here's a couple I found from other people's sites. The first is me and Liz dressed as gothic lolita fairies. (Everyone thought I was a french maid though!)

And here's me - much more conservatively dressed! - at the booksigning.

I moderated the Young Adult Writing Panel and had some terrific panelists. Melissa Marr, Rachel Vincent, Stacey Kade, Jennifer Lynne Barnes, Lucienne Diver, and Caitlin Kittredge. I love when I am on panels where I learn something myself!

There was also a great urban fantasy panel I participated in, moderated by Richelle Mead of Vampire Academy fame. She is so pretty - I love her red hair! It was a fun panel as well.

Speaking of hair, Caitlin Kittredge had amazing pink streaks in hers. Which was completely awesome. She's working on a Steampunk book for teens - can't wait for that!

Melissa Marr told me when she grew up she wanted to dress just like me. Which was funny since a few hours before I said to my friend, "When I grow up I want to write just like Melissa Marr." I think she has a better chance of my wardrobe than I do of equaling her literary prowess, but oh well. She was so nice and interesting and smart. I would have loved to take her class back when she was teaching. I'm reading her third fairy book - Fragile Eternity - now. If you haven't started reading this series, you really should!

More to come soon...including video!!! :) For now, I'm exhausted and glad to be home! Still - I can't wait for next year!

MARIANNE

2009-04-19T04:54:00.003-06:00

Went hiking yesterday up by Cold Spring, NY. It was a 5.9 loop that followed the Three Lakes trail and part of the Appalachian Mountain Trail. It was a decent hike, but I think if I did it a second time, I'd do it backwards. The first part was very beautiful, with a nice large lake to sit by and let Molly swim in. The second part was more hilly and rocky and less scenic. You don't want your major climb to be at the end of your hike. But in all, it was very nice - beautiful weather, too! Couldn't ask for a better day. Molly got very muddy so we gave her a bath afterwards. She wasn't thrilled.

We got home and ordered pizza (Jacob gets his with no cheese!) and watched Return of the Living Dead Part 3, which was actually a decent horror movie. Much better than the first two, which tried to be funny and ended up just being silly/cheesy. It's okay if horror movies are unintentionally funny cause they're just so bad - but when they TRY to make them funny, they just fall flat. With the exception of Shaun of the Dead. That was truly funny. Oh and Evil Dead is pretty funny, too. In any case, we're going through all the zombie films because I'm currently writing a zombie story for a romantic comedy anthology called "My Zombie Valentine" which will be out in January. My story takes place on the set of a zombie film.

It's supposed to be yucky and overcast today - I guess we get only one day of good weather at a time. At least I'm going to Orlando on Tuesday for the Romantic Times Convention. Of course you know the second I get there, the weather in New York will get nice. That's always how it happens. But hey, then at least Jacob can benefit!

Marianne

Eileen Fulton

2009-04-16T13:42:00.000-06:00

Also wanted to post this Eileen Fulton of As the World Turns segment I did for Better TV, as I talked about it before. Got to love the old time soap clips!

Weekly wrap-up

2009-04-16T13:29:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the lack of blog updates. I think my twitter obsession is making blogging feel like a chore. I mean, why write a whole post when I can just update with a one-liner on Twitter? Which reminds me, I'm mariannemancusi on Twitter if you want to follow me. :)

For those of you following old skool style on the blog, here's my week in a nutshell.

Easter - good. Bought a honey baked ham and brought it to Chris's for dinner. For the record, I don't like ham. But I know everyone else does and so I made the ham sacrifice. I filled up on delicious potatoes and vegetables and two helpings of ice cream sundaes so don't feel bad for me! :)

Tuesday I shot a segment at Rosa Mexicano on Cinco de Mayo food and drinks. Yum! They made some Ceviche with tuna that was extremely delish! I love that place - Jacob and I last went there for Valentine's Day. Dying to go back already!

Tuesday night I met up with Leanna and we went to Vynl - this hipster diner on the west side that features classic musical memorabilia. The menus are made out of old record covers and the bathrooms are shrines to various musicians like Elvis or Boy George. (They even play a song by the featured musician in the stall!)

Tuesday was the only night I didn't go to the gym, by the way. Have turned into a regular gym rat with the fitness center right downstairs from my apartment. I ran five miles on Monday! Signed up for a 5k race in June through my company, too.

Jacob's been going to the gym with me too. Except for last night, after him and his friends had a contest as to who could eat a triple king Fatburger the fastest. That's 1.5 pounds of hamburger, people! Jacob got third place and was kind of ill the rest of the evening. I feel sick even thinking about it!

This weekend we're going to try to go hiking up in the Cold Spring area on Saturday since we FINALLY have some good weather on the way!! It's supposed to be 70 and sunny. Fingers crossed! Molly will definitely enjoy a romp in the woods.

Speaking of Molly, she's been a vast help at devouring the leftover honey baked ham. I guess I owe her one!

That's about all for now! I'll try to post again soon!

Marianne

Friday!

2009-04-10T12:33:00.004-06:00

And it's good. ;-)

Been a busy week, but what else is new, right? I've also been working out a storm these last few weeks. Doing five workouts a week down in my apartment's fitness center. Today I went and took a spin class at lunch at Equinox. Man, my thighs are jello now! Makes me realize I need to not cross-train a bit more.

Today I'm participating in a makeover segment for my show. Going to get my hair cut and colored. And guess what? I'm totally chopping it all off. I'm sick of long hair and need a change. Will post some pics when it's done.

Things have been going swimmingly for The Camelot Code 3.0 - my agent says it's my best work yet! It's a challenge, that's for sure, but I'm feeling good about it - learning a lot! It's funny - some books are so easy to write and some are just bears. This is a bear. A grizzly. But it may just end up being my best book. Yay!

Less than two weeks for the RT Convetion in Orlando. Can not WAIT. Not only do I love the RT convention, but I love my friends who live in Orlando even more.

That's about all for now - wish me luck on the haircut!! :)

HAPPY EASTER! May the Easter bunny bring you lots of peeps! (He already sent me some in the mail!! Thank you Easter Bunny!!!)

MARIANNE

Just ordered this Gothic Lolita dress...

2009-04-08T14:47:00.002-06:00

For the RT Convention. Most likely will wear it to the vampire party.

You like? Will post pics of me actually wearing it when I get to the con.

MARI

Dog Abuse

2009-04-07T13:01:00.001-06:00

This makes me LOL.

Disappointed Dogs in Star Wars Costumes - watch more funny videos

As the World Turns

2009-04-03T13:30:00.003-06:00

Today I got the special treat of interviewing Eileen Fulton who has played bad girl Lisa on the As the World Turns soap for nearly fifty years. Eileen lives in a gorgeous apartment on the Upper East Side and insisted we have tea and cookies before we began our shoot. (Which was absolutely fine with my cameraman and I!)

She told tales of what it was like in the old days of soaps where married couples had to sleep in twin beds and you couldn't say the word "pregnant" on the air. (She threatened to say it once - insisting her character wouldn't say "since I'm with Bob's child" when talking to her on-screen mother in real life. She got the suits all in a fuss - remember it was live TV back then! - and it could have gotten them taken off air.) She also talked about how fans, especially back in the early days, couldn't recognize that the actors weren't actually their characters in real life and how that led to her getting punched in the face by a woman in a Chanel suit who didn't like Lisa's bad girl antics.

Anyway, it was fascinating to hear her stories - many of which were similar to those I've heard in the past from my own step-grandmother, Kathryn Hays, who incidentally has also been on As the World Turns for more than thirty-five years.

It's sad to think that soaps are a dying institution (Guiding Light being the latest casualty) and the cheaper reality TV is fast taking their place. I guess why bother paying writers for storylines when you can just point a camera at someone and they'll conjure up real life, unscripted drama at the drop of a hat. Yet, there was a certain glamour to the soaps that is not easily replicated by reality stars and I hope someday things will turn around again and make them relevent to a new generation.

Marianne

Gamer Girl in Associated Press article!

2009-04-02T12:55:00.001-06:00

Gamer Girl got a nice mention in an AP article today on Scholastic Book Fairs. Pretty cool!

You can read the whole article here. But here's the blurb for my part:

They purchased Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" novels, the latest "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and Linda Gerber's "Death by Latte," a mystery set in part at a Seattle coffee shop. Ashley Zhang, another seventh grader, bought Mari Mancusi's "Gamer Girl," featuring a lonely high-schooler who becomes a star when playing online games.

"I borrowed it from a friend and thought it was fascinating. I like that it's about a girl who really wants to fit into the world," Zhang says.

:)
MARI

Zombie Shoes!!

2009-04-01T10:13:00.001-06:00

Megan sent me a link to these! LOVE! I wish they had my size...

Random stuffz

2009-03-31T13:38:00.002-06:00

I can't believe I'll be leaving for the Romantic Times Convention in three weeks! I booked my flight to leave Tuesday at like 5:30 so I can get into Orlando around 8ish. Ali will be picking me up from the airport so we can hang out that night and then Weds AM she will drop me off at the hotel on the way to work. Four days of convention, a whopping six panels, and a ton of costume parties comes next. Should be fun! Liz and I will be rooming together, as per usual. Then Saturday night, after the Dorchester bookseller party, Ali will pick me up and we'll head up to Orlando proper to go goth dancing. On Sunday we're going to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom to try out their new roller coaster. My flight leaves Sunday night at 10:30.

I'm so glad the convention is in Orlando this year!!

In other news, still loving the new apartment. I think I've finally figured out a way to love NYC - by living just outside of it. I like coming into the city to go to work or to go out and then being able to return home to my quiet apartment on the sea. (Okay, it's technically on the Hudson River, I guess, but it feels like the sea...) In any case, it's really nice. Just want the weather to get warm so we can play tennis and bbq on our balcony!

I've been really good about working out, too, since we have the gym in our building. It's so much easier to just go downstairs to work out than to trudge to the gym. I've been running a lot on the treadmill - about five times a week. Will be in good summer shape!

In writing news, I'm working hard on The Camelot Code, my next Dutton book. Also signed on to write a story for Dorchester's "My Zombie Valentine" anthology, which will be released in January 2010. Yes, more zombies! Should be fun to write! I know I said I was done writing adult romance, but how can I resist a(nother) zombie story? :)

That's about all that's going on here!

Marianne

Boys that Bite book video

2009-03-28T12:02:00.001-06:00

Well, I've been experimenting with the video editing software I bought and created this book video for the re-release of BOYS THAT BITE!! Check it out and let me know what you think. :)

I will eventually be doing a individual video for each book in the series and a new Blood Coven website.

Not dead, just busy!

2009-03-25T14:42:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the radio silence - just got a lot on my plate these days. But all good things! For example, Blood Coven Book #4 - Bad Blood is finished, edited, and turned in! So now I'm back to working on The Book That Will Not End. And all new and improved version! (Hopefully.)

Jacob had friends in town this past weekend so there was clubbing. I'm old so I only went out one of the nights - to the goth club CONTEMPT. It was fun though. And we had brunch with said friends on Sunday at the Arte Cafe in my old stomping grounds of the UWS.

Last night I did a speaking event on Cyberbullying at the White Plains library with some other bully experts. (Gamer Girl features bullying, so I've been talking a lot about this issue.) Went well, though I didn't get home until midnight so I was a bit tired today, as you can imagine. I like waking up at 6:30am to write, don't get me wrong, but I also like to get more than six hours of sleep a night.

I've been a gym fiend now that we have a fitness center in my apartment. Sunday I ran five miles on the treadmill. On weekdays I try to run a fast 5k. Would like to get into shape for the summer!

Let's see, what else? Signed up to do a comedy zombie related story for a Dorchester anthology called MY ZOMBIE VALENTINE. That'll be out in January, I believe. I have a great idea for the plot and can't wait to write it! (In, like, my spare time!) Still, I can't pass up zombies, right?

That's about it for now. I'll try to be less of a blog slacker in the future!
MARIANNE

Bad Blood Back Cover Copy

2009-03-13T13:13:00.002-06:00

I should be getting my edits for BAD BLOOD by Monday from my editor at Berkley But in the meantime, she sent me the back cover copy for the book! Check it out! I'm so excited to have this book an actual reality - it seemed like for so long that it'd never actually exist. But now it's done, has a cover, and is less than a year away from hitting store shelves! Just goes to show - it pays never to give up!

BAD BLOOD

Sunny McDonald is in the ultimate forbidden relationship. Her boyfriend Magnus is a vampire, and the leader of the Blood Coven. Their differences have never been an issue, until now…

When the Blood Coven decides that Magnus needs a mate to be his co-ruler, Sunny’s humanity puts her out of the running. The Coven’s chosen candidate is Jane Johnson, a magna cum laude graduate of Oxford University who just happens to look like a vampiric celebutard.

Sunny is suspicious of a Rhodes Scholar who can’t answer the most basic poly-sci questions, but Magnus brushes it off as petty jealousy. Still, when the Blood Coven goes to Las Vegas for a vampire convention—where Magnus and Jane’s bonding ceremony will be the main event—Sunny and her sister Rayne secretly tag along. And Sunny’s not going home before she learns the truth about Jane. Because not everything stays in Vegas—especially bad blood…

New Blood Coven Vampire series covers!

2009-03-11T09:21:00.001-06:00

They're here! And I can finally show them to you! These are the new covers for my Blood Coven Vampire series!! The three originals AND the new cover for BAD BLOOD. They are a LOT different than the former covers.

Let me know what you think!!!! Which is your favorite???

A new drug to combat perkiness

2009-03-10T15:04:00.001-06:00

Found this on the Onion. A new "depressant" to combat perkiness... It's about time! LOL. Had to share.

Weekend with Floridians

2009-03-09T15:14:00.003-06:00

I'm tired today, but it's totally worth it. Had an incredible weekend with my friends Ali and Bobby who came in from Florida for "birthday weekend." You see Bobby's birthday is only four days (literally - same year and everything) from mine and so most years we try to get together - either me going to Florida or them coming to wherever I'm living at the moment. (San Diego, Boston, NY...)

This year, Ali decided to do it as a surprise - not telling Bobby until they were almost on their way to the airport! Pretty awesome birthday presents, huh? He was totally blindsided - but in a good way!

They arrived Thursday night and we picked them up at the Newark airport. (As we're Jersey people now!) Stayed up late talking and hanging out at home. Then the next day me, Ali and Bobby headed to a delicious pancake house near me for some breakfast. (Jacob had to wokr.)

After pancakes, we headed to the Liberty State Park to take the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty. Ali has ALWAYS wanted to see it and never got a chance so she was determind to check it out. Of course, when she'd bought the tickets online she hadn't realized you could actually see it from our apartment, lol. But we decided to go anyway. We got there at 11:50 - the ferry was supposed to leave at 12 noon - but it had left 10 minutes early for some reason and so we had to wait around. It wasn't too bad though cause we got to watch an interesting immigrant documentary. I wonder what my great grandfather would have thought, when he and my great-grandmother came over to Ellis Island - if he'd known that in a couple generations, he'd have me living in a high-rise just across the river. :) I kind of think he'd be pleased to know their sacrifice worked out pretty darn good for the kids.

Anyway, we finally got on the ferry and headed over. For time's sake, we decided to skip the Ellis Island part and just go to the statue. Unfortunately, once we got off the ferry, Ali realized she'd left the tickets on the boat. So we couldn't actually climb up the base of the statue. So we walked around it and hung out for an hour, waiting for the ferry to return. Oh well. I guess she's destined not to see it too closely.

Jacob was out of work by then so we met up with him at home and headed into the city. We checked out a museum for a few hours, then headed back to Jersey to change to go out to a goth club. Our favorite goth night - Necromantic - was moved to a club in the West Village. So we danced there until the wee hours of the morning and then headed home and slept.

The next morning we woke up and had a delicious brunch at the White Horse tavern in Jersey City. Highly recommend that place - it's even worth leaving Manhattan for! I had this french toast that was crusted with corn flakes - Mmmm! After that, we headed into the city to watch Watchmen. I have mixed feelings on the film but I can go into it another time.

After the movie, we headed to the East Village to do a little shopping on the way to Avenue A Sushi. There, we met up with Chris and the five of us had dinner. Avenue A Sushi is awesome - it's like a sushi disco. They have great rolls and a DJ who spins techno.

After a lengthy dinner we headed over to Club Love to dance the night away part two. (This time at a rave/techno club instead of goth.)

All in all it was a great weekend!! Though I'm ready to go to bed now and sleep for a week!! I miss Ali and Bobby so it's always wonderful to be able to hang out with them. I'll count the days til I can see them again! (Not too many, since RT is in Orlando!)

Marianne

Another Killington Story

2009-03-05T10:59:00.001-07:00

Here's another ski story I did when up in Vermont. What to do at a mountain resort if you don't want to downhill ski! (Or you hurt your back the first day, like some people I know...)

Ski Mountain: Behind the Scenes

2009-03-04T13:30:00.001-07:00

This is one of the segmetns we shot when I went up to Killington, Vermont. What happens on a mountain after all the skiers go home. Kind of interesting, I thought, and so I decided to share! :)

Marianne

Birthday Continued! :)

2009-03-03T14:09:00.003-07:00

Last night Jacob took me out to a surprise dinner. Well, I knew there would be a dinner, but I didn't know where. Turned out to be Nobu, a really amazing Japanese restaurant in TriBeCa. It's co-owned by Robert DeNiro and sooo good! Definitely a special treat!!

I didn't have my camera, but I was able to find photos for you on the web.

I had the tenderloin beef with teriyaki sauce. So delicious! Came with miso soup and rice. I also got an order of sweet potato tempura.

Jacob had the Chilean Sea Bass. Also delish.

All in all it was an amazing dinner. Jacob scores high points! (As usual!) I especially like that it was a surprise - that made it extra fun!! :)

Yay birthdays!!
Marianne

Dad Birthday Memories!

2009-03-02T14:21:00.003-07:00

Oh I thought this deserved a separate post from the rest of the birthday stuff. My dad gave me a great surprise present this morning - in the form of a blog entry about my birthday! I found it this morning when I woke up in my Google Reader. Awhh. Brought tears to my eyes. I remember all this stuff too! Great memories, Dad!!

Sometimes the best presents are homemade ones!!!

Marianne

Happy Birthday to Me!!

2009-03-02T13:56:00.002-07:00

I always like to make my birthday last as long as possible and this year is no exception. I'm going for a week long birthday celebration!!

On Saturday, a few friends and I headed to Medieval Times to begin the celebration. I was a bit tired, having worked unpacking boxes and fixing up the apartment all afternoon, but I rallied once I got inside and the show began. I love Medieval Times - it's so much fun. I know a lot of people might think it's cheesy, but I love all things Medieval so to me it's like Disney World! :)

The show was great, as always, and our knight (black and white) ended up winning the jousting tournament and becoming hero of the realm. So that was a nice added bonus. Thanks to everyone who came along with me - it was a fun night!

Then Sunday we spent the entire day getting a couch from Liz's apartment (where I'd been storing it since my sub-letter moved out of my UWS place) to Jersey City. Eight mile trip - and it took ALL DAY. It was a day of frustration, let me tell you! First the moving van we rented wasn't there at the time of rental and then, after we waited a half hour and finally said forget it, the lady said the company would charge us anyway if we left. Um, they're going to charge us for a van we rented that wasn't there? Finally, 40 minutes late, the guy showed up with the van. (And got no penalty for being late, I might add.) So we get the van, only to be told we have to get it back by 4pm (3 hrs and 20 mins later cause they were closing. Yes, the truck rental place is only open from 12-4. WHAT?!? So we had to rush to the UWS...only to find out they wouldn't let us through the Holland Tunnel cause it was "commercial" even though it was just a van and not a truck. So we got lost in Jersey trying to figure out how to get to the Lincoln Tunnel. I don't need to get into too much detail, but it was just one thing after another. It all worked out in the end though. Still, what's the deal with truck rental places? Everytime I rent one there seems to be a problem! I never want to move again, let me tell you!

Today there was a huge snowstorm and so we were allowed to leave work early. I'm sticking in the city though cause Jacob and I are going out tonight. He won't tell me where - it's a birthday surprise!! I like that. :) I guess we'll all find out tomorrow where he takes me!

And the rest of my birthday week is going to be awesome. I can't explain right, but much goodness later in the week is to come!

Oh and I am turning in BAD BLOOD to my editor today!! Woot! Hope she likes it!! :) It was a fun one to write - the vampire ones always are!!

Marianne