In Which I Gush....

...just a bit more about my Cover Art Love.

Winner!

And we have a winner for the Countdown: April contest - alanajoli! Congrats!

For those interested (and whose Google-fu failed them), here are the correct answers.


1) "Home, sweet home."
2) Don't ever get him wet. Keep him away from bright light. And the most important thing, the one thing you must never forget: no matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs . . . never, never feed him after midnight.
3) P3
4) "Moon Child"
5) Sonny Bono
6) Killing his wife's rapist
7) Bogus
8) Vampires
9) Bill Nighy
10) An American Werewolf in London

Countdown: April Questions!

ETA: I'm extending the deadline for turning in answers. You've got until tomorrow, noon-ish, EDT. :)

Naturally, Blogger would choose this morning to act weird on me. Arg!

Anywho, moving on to the fun stuff...

Feel free to ask questions or make comments on the blog, but remember! All answers must be sent to [ mail (at) kellymeding.com ] in order to be entered into the drawing. I'll reply to all entries (at some point during the day) to let you know if you answered correctly or not, and if you're in the drawing.

Good luck!

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1. In "School Hard," a season 2 episode of "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," what is Spike's first spoken line (this is also his first appearance on the series)?

2. According to the film Gremlins, what are the three basic rules for raising a Mogwai?

3. What is the name of Piper's night club on the television show "Charmed"?

4. In The NeverEnding Story, what is the name Bastian gives to the Childlike Empress? (the answer here is based more on the book itself, since it's dang hard to hear what he's shouting into the storm at the end)

5. Which former 70's icon has a small role in the 1986 film Troll?

6. On the short-lived 1998 television drama "Brimstone," the main character, Ezekial Stone, dies and is sent to Hell for what crime?

7. In the climax of the 1987 cult classic The Monster Squad, what is the single word Frankenstein says to Dracula right before he tosses him onto an iron spike?

8. In the UPN series "Special Unit 2," set in a modern Chicago crawling with creepies, what is the only mythical creature said to not actually exist?

9. Which Underworld vampire actor has also appeared in recent films potraying Davy Jones, a German general, and a zombie?

10. What film helped create the Academy Awards category for Best Makeup, and garnered a first-ever win (in this new category) for makeup artist Rick Baker?

Contest Details

Alrighty, seeing as tomorrow marks six months until Street Date, it will also be host to my first Countdown Contest. I'll be hosting six of these, all on or around the 27th of each month (although August will either be early or late, because I believe my vacation begins on the 23rd).

Hopefully each contest will be fun for you guys, and each will come with a prize. As a BONUS for playing along, each single contest winner (winner for April, May, June, etc...) will automatically be entered into a drawing to be held in October, to win a signed copy of THREE DAYS TO DEAD.

So, on with the details.

Countdown: April will be a 10-question quiz/scavenger hunt. It's not multiple choice. You'll have to find the answers. The topic is somewhat narrowed down to SF/F/Horror films and television shows. Some are obscure, some are popular. Most of the questions relate to the critters in the Dreg City/Evy Stone books in some way.

I decided to change it from a "first person to correctly answer all wins" format, because it's limiting for folks who work and aren't on US time. So, all folks who send me ten correct answers will be entered into a drawing to win the Swag. I will post the questions to my blog tomorrow morning (Monday, April 27th) around 8 am EDT (barring disaster). Please don't answer them in the comments. All answers must be emailed to me [ mail (at) kellymeding.com ]. I will keep the contest open until 8pm EDT, so you'll have a window of twelve hours to play. Again, everyone who submits all ten correct answers will be entered into the drawing to win.

I'll announce the winner on Tuesday.

Easy, no?

Oh, yes. I mentioned Swag. You wanna know what you win.



The swag: a $10 B&N gift card, Professor Dalrymple's Fairy Catching System, and two fun sticky note pads from a company called KnockKnock. One says NOTE TO SELF (and has options such as Urgent, Relay, File Away, and Put in Novel) and the other says BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.

And don't forget, the winner of Countdown: April is automatically entered into a drawing to win a signed copy of TDTD in October!

Questions? Comments?

Writing and Planning

So what have I been up to since Monday? Writing and planning, mostly.

The writing has been the fun part. I've been working on a short story that I'm currently calling "Bird-Watching." It's a mixed-POV story set about two years prior to the events in Three Days to Dead, and introduces us to a minor character from the book. Well, minor as in overall page-time, but not in terms of plot importance. Writing for Original Recipe Evy is a kick, because her perspective on the world (and the creepy things in it) is so black-and-white. And it's giving me a few little details I can plug into As Lie the Dead. So keep your fingers crossed.

The planning has been...at times stressful, and at times kind of fun. On Tuesday morning, the man we rent our house from calls and says he's getting out of rentals and will be selling all of his properties. Including our house. *headdesk* He did say he wanted to offer it to us first, before it went on the market. Not that me or my roommate are even in the market to buy a house. So we have roughly three months to find a new place and move.

I'd like to stay in this town, but I also wouldn't mind moving a bit closer to Salisbury (where we both work). Fortunately, there are plenty of places for rent around here, and all at competitive rates. I had just hoped to be here at least two years before moving again. My dad hasn't completely recovered from last summer.

Countdown Contest Update

I wanted to update quickly, before the big blob of red on the radar strolls through and potentially knocks out the power (candles are lit!). My first contest kicks off a week from today: Monday, April 27th.

Blog readers who've been around a while know I love random trivia, especially from movies and television. So my first contest is going to be a quiz/scavenger hunt. Later in the week, I'll let you know exactly when I'll be posting the quiz to my blog (obviously it'll be at some point on 4/27), as well as more details, such as the number of questions, plus the prizes. Yes, plural prizes. The first person to email me all correct answers is the winner.

I've also been working on a little book-related extra, and I hope it ends up being as fun for y'all as it is for me. More on that later, too.

I'm just a big tease today, aren't I? *g*

Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Minor Spoilers.



This book proved that if you really love an author, you must trust them to do right by their characters. After reading a handful of reviews on the previous book in the series, Iron Kissed, some folks seemed dismayed by the very end.



I loved that Bone Crossed rewound just a bit and started with that same final scene, adding some texture and internal dialogue, and giving a very different twist. Made me love Adam all the more.



One of the things I really enjoy about these books is how details from one will come back to play again two books later. It makes the world feel fluid and connected, and it shows the consequences of choices made.



One of my favorite relationships in this one was Marsilia and Stefan. Marsilia is one of those characters I just can't hate, because she's so darned conniving. And yet everything she did was for one particular reason.



I'm eager to dive into the Alpha & Omega series now, but have a couple of vampire debuts to read first. I need a little balance in my literary diet, no?


View all my reviews.

Dust Bowl Dreamin'

So what does a Dust Bowl town, an old barn, a tornado, and actor Luis Guzman have in common? They were all in my dream last night.

I often remember my dreams. Sometimes I'll take the time to write them down when I wake up, because something really sparked in my imagination. But last night's was one of those rarer dreams--the kind of dream in which I remember consciously thinking and making choices. Sort of like what folks call lucid dreaming.

I remember it taking place in a ramshackled barn that served as...something. Not a restaurant, but maybe a blacksmith shop? Dunno, but a guy who looked just like Luis Guzman (and I have no idea why he was in my dream) ran the place. I was a stranger in town, looking for work. Stuff happened. A tornado was coming, so a bunch of us hid in the basement.

The really vivid, surreal part of the dream was the bit of conversation in the basement. He asked why I was there. I remember thinking "I can't tell him the truth, not all of it. He won't understand. Be vague." So I lied to Guzman.

When I woke up, I had to really think about this dream. I came to the conclusion that I didn't recall ever having such a conscious internal dialogue during a dream. I definitely recall a dream in which I realized I was dreaming, and therefore decided I wanted to fly (and flew). But not internal decision making and dialogue.

It was pretty weird.

First Fifteen

Fifteen weeks, that is, of 2009. On New Year's Eve, I made a promise to read more this year, and in just these first few months I've probably surpassed last year's total. My personal goal was one book a week.

My count of finished novels is standing at 17 (and will probably hit 18 by tomorrow night). Yay! You can check out my GoodReads sidebar for all of the books. Some are brand new. Some are books I've meant to pick up and read for a while now and just didn't. Some are short story/novella collections.

Currently on my nightstand: Bone Crossed, by Patricia Briggs.

What's on your nightstand?

Weekend Round-Up

Well, it's been a hectic couple of days. On Thursday, my dad and I went to an auction in Lebanon, PA, and bought some fun stuff. We do some side selling on eBay and at flea markets, so we were stocking up a bit. I managed to pick up some awesome things from my childhood: the My Little Ponies Show Stable and Nursery playsets, with most of their furniture, and about ten ponies. I still need to wash them (dirt accumulation points toward being in someone's garage for a while), but they're both in good shape.

I couldn't even tell you where Friday went, but yesterday was spent cleaning and cooking in preparation for today's Easter dinner guests. Let me tell you, chicken pot pie is not as easy to make as my mom always made it seem. Plus, I stole a method from Semi-Homemade and concocted a yummy-looking lemon pudding cake (and I say "looking" because I haven't tried it yet).

Saw the movie "Quarantine" last night. The shaky camera was starting to make me seasick, but as far as horror films go, this one rates up there. Good set up, good build of tension. My only complaint was the final scene--given the "we aren't really sure what's going on" vibe from the rest of the film, it felt unnecessarily tacked on. That's about all I can say without spoiling it.

Gotta finish making crusts for the pot pie. I'll leave you with this thought to ponder: if the Easter Bunny was a paranormal creature, what species would he be?

Outlining and Famous Last Words

I'm blogging over at the Fangs, Fur & Fey community on their Topic of the Month. We're discussing whether or not we outline.

Come on over and play. :)

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And on a completely tangential note... Last night, I was at my day job (well, night job, I guess), and a customer rushed in at ten minutes 'til close, wanting to exchange something. My associate teased him, and he teased back. We all joked a little bit, and he (customer) starts getting flirty. He guesses my associates name on the nose (impressive!), but (God bless him) he guesses me...

"Hmm...eighteen or twenty?"

I started laughing. Since he was off by about ten years, it really made my night.

It really made my night (side-splitting laughter notwithstanding) when he left on these final words as he walked out the door: "Be good, and if you can't be good, be good at it, because if you're not good at it, you'll get it all over you."

I admit, I had to think about that one for a minute. When I finally got it, I think I turned six shades of red. Thankfully, he was already gone and the store was closed.

Something Fun in the Works

First, I have to say the response to the cover for TDTD has been overwhelmingly positive. Comments in various places have ranged from "I want her abs" (me too!), to "I want her hair" (ME TOO!), to "If I saw that in a bookstore, I'd stop and pick it up" (YAHOO!). So thank you to everyone who gave a shout-out! You are all awesomesauce!

Mostly, though, I want to tease y'all a little bit. With a bit over six months until Street Date, I'm in the planning stages of a six-part contest/giveaway to be hosted here on my blog. The first five parts will be smaller contests (with prizes), one a month, each leading up to the final, sixth Grand Prize contest in October. I'll have more details as I finalize things, but if anyone has ideas for for contests (I want to do a scavenger hunt one month) or prizes, feel free to comment.

Cover Art Awesomeness

Is it possible to fall in love with a fictional character? Because after seeing my (Amazing! Fabulous! Gorgeous! Inspired!) cover art for THREE DAYS TO DEAD, I'm in love. Evy is gorgeous (She's wearing her cross! Important plot point alert!). The background is atmospheric and gritty, and the shadowy man behind her? Buwahahaaaa!

Okay, enough raving (for now).

TADA!



Didja see the awesome Patricia Briggs quote?

I've got the back and spine, too, for added goodness (and official summary).



My name is on a book cover. OMG.

*thud*