Blood Coven Vampires Volume One

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

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

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!

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

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!!!

Molly snow, originally uploaded by starrgirl77.

German Book 5 has a title and release date!

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!

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

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

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

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