Intense writing

Back from Florida - had gone for a long weekend to do a little pre-Christmas visit with Mom. It rained 2 of the days, but on the third it was sunny and warm and so we went to the beach. I didn't end up swimming because there were tons of jellyfish. Ew. But we went back to the pool and I swam in that instead.

Special shout-out to the awesome community relations manager at Barnes and Noble in Stuart, Florida. I love that even in chain stores there are still booksellers out there that really just love books and the business. I signed some copies of What, No Roses? and Stake That! if you are in the area and want to grab a copy.

I'm reading the best book. It's called Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It's one of those early 90s cyberpunk type books and a lot of it is very outdated (because the futuristic stuff he's talking about actually exists now!) but it's an amazing book. The first time in a LONG time I've been sucked into a book so deeply that I've decided to forgo sleep. :)

Speaking of cyberpunk, I'm almost to the 50k point of Moongazer. Yay! So I'm still right on schedule. My goal is to have it completed by January 15th, then go back and give it a final polish and pass it in on January 31st. That'll mean I wrote the whole book and polished it in two months. Not bad. In fact, I was pretty darn proud of this until I read in Marjorie Liu's blog today that she wrote 10,000 words in one day. Sigh. Though, in my defense, she writes full time.

This is an interesting experiment, actually, writing a book in a short period of time as opposed to stretching it out and doing my usual 1-2,000 words a day over four or so months. I feel much more invested and involved in this book's world and characters because I spend so much time with them. I'm not writing a few words, then going about my day. I'm living my life with them. They're my best friends. I actually turned down a party last weekend because I wanted to go hang out with my characters on Saturday night. Dawn, Skye and I have an intense, powerful relationship and I really love and care about them as if they were real people. (Yes, yes, we writers can sound crazy!)

In any case, I'm hoping this will translate somehow into the book itself and offer a more powerful story. At the same time, I'm looking forward to getting my life back come February. Never again will I sign up for this kind of deadline. I've learned my lesson. Balance in all things. Work, writing, friends, family.

Marianne

Titles and where they come from...

Diana has been talking about titles for her blog so I thougt I would continue the theme here. I'm very into titles and I usually can't start a book unless I am certain what it will be called. I've gotten to keep most of my titles, which is cool.

Here are my books, their titles and how their names came about:


A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur's Court - obviously a play on the Mark Twain Title. The problem is some reviewers tried to say I plagerized Twain's book. Funny thing is I've never even read it. I just borrowed from the title. But as far as I've been told, Twain's book isn't a reliving of the King Arthur story as a romance told by a snarky 29 year old fashion editor so I think I'm safe. But if you parody titles of classic books, be warned you will be called on it.

Sk8er Boy - This is very close to the title of an Avril Lavigne song called "Sk8er Boi" making it very hard to GOOGLE. Also, it's frequently mispelled SK8TER BOY by people who evidently to realize there's already an implied "T" at the end of the letter eight.

Boys that Bite - Someone from some gramatical society pointed out on their blog that this had them gnashing their teeth because it should be "Boys who Bite." The original idea for this book was "Wow, That Sucks!" But I figured it might be hard to say and parents wouldn't let their younger teens by a book with "suck" in the title.

What, No Roses? - My editor came up with this idea of 20th century time travels and asked me to do one. They were going to originally do a whole series of these books and promote them a lot. Then the editor went to another company and they just dropped the whole idea. But I was stuck with a joke question title. The alternate title from my new editor was "Time to Roar" which I think is awesome for a time travel to the roaring 20s book. Oh well. Can't win them all.

Stake That! - Could have been called "Stake This" just as easily... My agent had suggested Love Bites, but that's also the title of a Lynsey Sands vampire book.

A Hoboken Hipster in Sherwood Forest (feb 07)- used to show that it's a sequel to Connecticut Fashionista. I wanted to call it a Hoboken Hippie but my coworkers didn't think hippies were cool enough and vetoed it. I still wrote Chrissie, the heroine, as a total hippie though.

Moongazer - (aug 07) - The original title of this was "Mariah's Web" which I love and fits the book, but my editor thought it sounded to Matrix'y and computer'y. I came up with the alternate title and I'm happy with it now. It used to be Moon Gazer, but the other two Shomi titles are one word titles - WIRED and DRIVEN. So I decided to keep with the trend.

Girls that Growl (oct 07) - I swear my editor bought this book on title alone. She told me she was having a bad day and she just read the title of this proposal and started giggling and couldn't stop. She said she then went around Berkley telling everyone the title. Since the book's about werewolf cheerleaders, I think it fits. :) What I've never told her is that the title was actually suggested by a (non-writer) friend and not one I came up with myself. :P

The Camelot Code (fall 08) - I don't know if I'll get to keep this title or not -- too early to tell. It was originally sold to Dorchester's Smooch line as "Camelot.com" but since that URL has been taken I decided it wouldn't be a good title. I wonder if people are going to think it sounds like the Da Vinci code. The two books certainly have nothing to do with one another.

There you have it! My titles and their histories!!

:)
MARIANNE

So...I made a quiz to celebrate the launch of STAKE THAT!

And then I decided to take it myself!

So which Boys that Bite twin are you more like? Sunny or Rayne?

:)Mar

Are you Sunny or Rayne?

You are Rayne!You're a creature of the night and sometimes a bit of a bad girl. You like your guys dark and moody. Poets rather than jocks. You don't care at all what people think of you and will dress how you want and act how you feel. Your life's dream is to become a vampire. Here's hoping you someday get your wish.Check out Rayne's adventures in: STAKE THAT! by MARI MANCUSI Take this quiz! Quizilla Join Make A Quiz More Quizzes Grab Code

No Life

I have no life.

Seriously. All my friends are dashing from holiday party to holiday party. They're seeing concerts, they're trimming trees. They're skiing. They're shopping. They're having FUN! Without a care in the world!

Not me.

I'm writing a book this holiday season. A book that's due January 15th. That means every morning before work and every night after work I sit down at my computer and type. I'm writing approximately 3-4,000 words a day--way above my average 1,000 word daily goal.

It's like I have this really posessive boyfriend. Everytime someone asks me to do something, I have to check with him. Can I go out for a drink Tuesday night? Well, only if I spent a few extra hours on Monday to get my word count done in advance. Can I go walk my dog on Sunday? Well, only if I take the commuter rail out to the suburbs instead of driving so I can have 2 hours on the train with my laptop. I decided to visit my mom in Florida next weekend just because I figured being stuck on in an airport and plane for 6 hours over a weekend would give me time for the book. Last night I had such a bad hand cramp I had to stop. But later I felt guilty and decided to try to work through the pain.

I normally consider myself a disciplined person, but this is getting ridiculous.

Okay - I know some of you are like, "Oh cry me a river! At least you get to write books." And I'm so with you. I love writing and I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to do so. And I love this book. So I don't really mean to come off complaining. I'm just saying it's been a little sad around the holiday season this year so far to have to say no to friends and family and be alone all the time. But we all make sacrifices at times and unfortunately this year this has to be mine.

But next year, I'm so taking December off.

:)
Marianne

Now Touring: Come Moonrise

Since I've been writing my book Moongazer, I've been seeing moon references everywhere. A psychic drew a moon card for me, I went to a writer's meeting over the weekend where they talked about moon dancing, and now here's a brand new story by Lucy Monroe called "Come Moonrise" in the anthology UNLEASHED.

Maybe I should start paying attention to all these signs!

Anyway, if you're done drooling over the cover, here's the blurb.

Ty MacAnlup has seen the tragedy that a mating between a werewolf and a human can bring and he wants no part of it, no matter how much his body and heart ache for a taste of Frankie's softness. Frankie has loved Ty for years and while she doesn't know he's a werewolf, or even that such things exist...she does know that to her, he's always been more than a mere man. Ty's hidden beast wreaks havoc with his determination to stay away from Frankie when they are trapped together in a small cabin in the snow bound wilderness.

Sound cool? You can find an excerpt here.

:)
Marianne

Rumors of my book deal have NOT been greatly exaggerated...

When my latest book deal with Dutton was publicized in Publisher's Lunch last week, my agent Kristin Nelson mentioned it on her blog. Then some anonymous poster went on and implied that Kristin had exaggerated the sale to garner film interest. Kristin posted the next day saying she was annoyed that someone would imply that she was a liar when it came to her deals. And it sparked a whole slew of posts both defending her and attacking the commenter's right to call her a liar.

And so it goes...

Anyway, to set the record straight, I wanted to post saying that the deal, of course, is not exaggerated. One, Kristin would never do such a thing. Two, I, as a self respecting author, would never let her! Besides, is it so hard to believe that for my 9th and 10th books I got a very nice deal? Eesh, it's not like saying I got a million dollars!! Not that I'm not thrilled with the deal, mind you, but I just don't see why people would assume it was exaggerated...

In other news...

I've hit page 100 on Moongazer. Woot! This book is practically writing itself. I wrote 8,500 words in 2 days. I just didn't want to leave my keyboard. Walk away from my characters. I think I might have a slight crush on my hero. Okay, I adore him. He just feels so real to me. And since I'm writing in first person I can kind of pretend, while I'm writing, that he's mine. (Ah, if only it were true!) I hope readers love him as much as I do. :)

Also...

I saw Stake That! in the Framingham Barnes and Noble today. The information desk guy said they'd already sold some copies. Cheer! Thanks to everyone who's gone out to buy one or plans to. I want this book to be successful cause I love this series so much and the only way to write more is to have people buy them. :) So help me feed my vampire obsession, please, please?

And finally...

I love Logan Echols from Veronica Mars. So much. He is totally my new boyfriend. Totally. And I don't care if that makes me sound like I'm 14.

<3
MARIANNE

Ritas, My Weekend, and Stake That in stores now

I'm not going to blog about how the YA category for the RITAs was cancelled AGAIN because I'm likely to swear a lot and say things about people who didn't enter that would be forwarded around the net and get me nasty comments. Plus, I'm trying not to be an angry, negative person and instead concentrate on all the good things in life. Flowers, bunny rabbits, rainbows...

ARGH!!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY COULDN'T GET 25 PEOPLE (23 not counting me) TO ENTER THE YA CATEGORY OF THE RITAS!!!

Um, anyway...

On Friday I went over my friend Mary's house and we drank wine and ate sushi gave each other tarot card readings which, in our tipsy states, seemed extremely accurate.

On Saturday I gave a speech to the Rhode Island Romance Writers about becoming a trendsetter. They're a great group of women and it was a lot of fun. Then I had lunch with Reality Chick author Lauren Barnholdt and we chatted about writing, scandalous agents, deadlines, and of course Britney and Paris's new friendship and why neither of them can seem to wear underwear.

On Sunday I went to Concord, Mass. where I used to live, for a group dog walk. Gotta enjoy the good weather while we can. Then we ate out at the Colonial Inn, which is a very nice historic place.

I also managed to write 5,000 words of my book Moongazer. It's amazing how much faster writing goes when you're not writing comedy. It's doubly hard to write a story AND insert jokes. Now I just insert sex and violence when things start to drag. Yay!

And last but definitely not least - STAKE THAT is now out in stores!!! What a great Christmas present that would make for someone on your list. :)

MARIANNE

Arghh

Wow - this is so depressing to read. To big bookstores, we authors are simply widgets.

If you want a copy of Stake That, but you can't find it in your local bookstore next week, please, please, please ask them to order it for you!! Don't let them get away with not stocking books you want!!

Desperate Author Public Service Anoucement Ends.

Mar

New Book Deal!! :)

Okay this is official now and will go into today's Publisher's Lunch so I can finally announce it!!

~~
FICTION: YOUNG ADULT
Mari Mancusi's YA novel THE CAMELOT CODE, in which Merlin sends a sophomore girl back in time to meet the teen once-and-future-pre-King Arthur and have him spend a week in the 21st century only to have him Google himself, discover his fate and refuse to return, to Sarah Shumway at Dutton Children's, in a very nice two-book deal, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson
Literary Agency (World English). knelson@nelsonagency.com
Translation rights: wlee@fieldingagency.com
~~

So exciting! And these will be my first books in hardcover! I'm very happy. And I couldn't have done it without my fab, superagent Kristin Nelson. She's amazing. I'm so lucky to have had her take me on.

:)
Marianne

Promised News--Please stand by

I know, I know. I promised I could spill about my good news on Monday, but my agent has one more issue to resolve before I can make my final decision and have things official and announce'able. Argh. Talk about agonizing. This has been going on for over 2 weeks now. But it's all good stuff. :)

So as they say in the tv news biz: STAY TUNED!

Or better yet, go forth and pre-order Stake That! It's officially out on Tuesday. I'll be your best friend forever if you do. :)

MARIANNE

Dying to buy the OJ book?

Okay you sick little puppy - but it'll cost you more than 8 grand...

(no offense to sick puppies)

Mar

Post Turkey Day

Hope everyone had a yummy Thanksgiving. I went to my aunt's house in North Andover. It was great. Tons of food and people. My cousins and I have a tradition going all the way back to when we were kids of playing the Game of Life. We have this really old version - totally out of date - but it's so much fun. :) We were dying laughing through the whole thing. I have to see if there's a modern version out there -- where a doctor job doesn't pay you $50,000 year and houses cost $40,000 to buy.

I am especially thankful this year for my new agent and my new book deal which I can't talk about til Monday. But I promise to post details as soon as I'm able. It's so, so exciting!!

I'm just polishing the final chapters of Girls that Growl and passing it in on Monday. I wrote that book in record time, but I really like how it came out. Can't wait to see what my editor thinks. Then it's on to Moongazer, which I also have to write in record time. Gah! Do the deadlines ever end? I'm not complaining though. :) I actually like being busy.

For those of you in the New England area, I'll be speaking at the Rhode Island romance writer's group next Saturday. Topic is: "Boldly Go Where No Writer has Gone Before" - basically about starting trends rather than following them. More info is on their homepage. Hope you can make it!

MARIANNE

What Tarot Card are You?

Too lazy to write so I stole the "What Tarot Card are You" quiz off Barb's blog.

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Fan Fic - Yes or No?

So I know there's always this raging debate about fan fic. Is writing your own stories about characters you love a means to creative expression or stealing from the author?

I know of several teens who write Boys that Bite based fan-fic and have published it on the Internet. And while I feel this should bother me in some way, actually I feel just the opposite. I love that my book inspired kids to write their own stories and express themselves on the page. (Or screen, as it were.)

Here's one example of a budding young author's Boys that Bite inspired story.

What about you guys? Would you be flattered or dismayed if your characters starred in Internet fan fic?

Mari

Obsessive Behavior

I'm one of those people who is all or nothing. I can't just watch an episode of a television show or listen to a band. Once I discover something, I end up obsessing and overdosing on it til I'm totally sick of it and then move on to the next thing. I do it with food, too. I'll eat the same thing every night for like 2 weeks and then never want it again.

Here are a few of my current obsessions:

• Watching Veronica Mars
• Listening to KEANE
• Drinking sparkling water
• Eating grilled cheese sandwiches made on a George Foreman grill
• Drinking New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
• Reading Phillip K Dick novels
• Playing World of Warcraft videogame (though this is a long term obsession)
• Going to bookstores and checking out what imprint published what YA book
• Reading my agent's blog and all the comments people write
• Looking for NYC apartments on Craigslist to rent
• Looking up my friends' MySpace pages and reading what other people wrote about them
• Checking my email 50,000 times a day for a reason I cannot disclose at the moment
  

What about you? What are some of your obsessions?
Marianne

Oh how I loved Little House on the Prairie

Monday nights. Eight pm. Gathered in front of the television with my mom and dad. And this theme would start to play. It still gives me chills today.

My kindergarten teacher used to call me Mary Ingells cause I was blonde and, well, my name was Marianne. But Mary was so stuck up and boring. I was definitely a Laura all the way! :)

I'm so buying the DVDs one of these days and watching them all over again from start to finish.

:)
Marianne

Manga

So...I'm interesting in trying to read some graphic novels/Manga, but I have no idea where to begin. There are a dizzying array of choices at my local bookstore. I ordered the new Labyrinth one online (I was such a fan of the movie) but I'd like to try some others as well.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Marianne

Wikipedia

So Diana Peterfreund was talking about how she's clearly "made it" since she's now referenced in Wikipedia. Jealous of the so-called cyber fame, I decided to do a search for Mancusi. While no clever pop-culture references referring to me popped up (sigh), I did find an interesting entry for my step-grandmother, Kathryn Hays. As many of you know, she plays Kim on As the World Turns. The article mentions my step mom, hence the last name Mancusi was identified, but also adds some interesting information about my stepsister Kate.

It says the following:

Her granddaughter, Kathryn L. Wells, models for Abercrombie and Fitch from her Boston home.

Wait! What? She does? How was I never told of this? And also--I swear the last time I visited them they lived in New Hampshire! Not to mention the fact that Kate's actually in college in some midwestern state -- nowhere near Boston. And before that she went to boarding school in Missouri. And seriously, if she currently models for A&F I swear my family's keeping it a deep, dark secret. (I gotta get my hands on a catalog!)

Anyway - this is a silly example, but it proves a VERY important point. (And no, it's not spend more time with your family or you'll suddenly be learning stuff about them off of Wikipedia.)

The information on the Internet is often taken as FACT even though much of it's never been verified or vetted. Some random person wrote that article. And someone else will read it and assume it's true. And while yes, who cares if my stepsister is currently a model in Boston or not, other entries could cause much more catastrophic errors. What if journalists refer to Wikipedia for their research? Then they write articles based on false information which are then uploaded to the Internet. Then the false information appears to be vetted by a major news organization.

Also, entries can be CHANGED. While this is good in a way and assumes a checks and balances system, it also is quite scary in a Big Brother is watching you type of way. After all, in 1984, Winston's whole job was to find old news articles and change the facts in them to go along with what was currently being done by the goverment. (We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia.) Isn't that very scarily similar to what's capable of being done by Wikipedia?

Anyway, just food for thought. I'm off to email my stepmom to figure out if Kate is/was a model and if so, am I entitled to any discounts at Abercrombie and Fitch. ;-)

Mar

Friday!

I'm so happy it's Friday. Especially since I have a lot of fun stuff planned for the weekend.

Last night I attended a reading at the BU Bookstore in Kenmore Square with chick lit author Stephanie Lessing. She read from her book Miss Understanding. It was so funny -- I laughed out loud several times. So definitely pick it up. The main character works as an editor at a fashion magazine just like Stephanie used to do in real life. And you really get a good insider's peek at the craziness. :)

Afterwards, Jennifer O'Connell and Hank Phillippi Ryan and I went to the Evening Standard for drinks and food. Jen and I got the BEST DRINK EVER. I've tried a lot of drinks in my life, but we both agreed there was nothing better than this one. It's called a Strawberry Cobbler and has strawberry infused vodka, sweet mint, and fresh strawberries actually in the drink. It was so delicious! Sweet and yummy. Jen swears she's going to figure out how to make them. If she does we'll post the recipe I'm sure!

Tonight I'm going to see Saw 3 and get dinner after. Then Saturday I'm going to work on Girls that Growl during the day and go out with friends at night. Not sure where yet.

That's about it for now!
Marianne

Sweeping through

Today is the first day of November sweeps. For you regular people that means good tv shows will start playing all month long! Horray!

For us TV people, that means a whole lot of work. Producing those stories you see promoted all through those good tv shows.

"Can your couch kill you? Find out...tonight at 11!"

Yup. That's what I do for a living. :) But it beats digging ditches. (No offense meant to ditch diggers who love their jobs.)

Tonight though Harlequin NEXT author Hank Phillippi Ryan (PRIME TIME, June 07) and I (STAKE THAT!, Dec 06, lol!) will join the lovely Jennifer O'Connell (oh, damn now I have to go look up her next book to shamelessly promote it. This is what happens when you set a precedent....one sec....here we go....INSIDER DATING, May 07) to go see Stephanie Lessing read her book Miss Understanding at the BU Bookstore. Then we're going out for a drink or two. Fun, fun. :)

Marianne