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
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!
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!
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."
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!!! :)
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!
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.
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!
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!
