Popping out of the Deadline Cave for five minutes to let you know that Zachary (from Shade) is up against Dimitri from the fabulous Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead in this week's Team Smackdown at Library Mosaic book blog.
I hate to ask for more votes for my dear lad so soon after you've launched him to the top of the Chapters Indigo Book Boyfriend poll (have I told you lately that I love you?), but Zach's advocate Saleana has worked really hard on her post and delivered yet another awesome defense of our favorite Scot!
So please show your support this week by voting for Zachary, up to once per day, now through Friday (or possibly Saturday--last time they closed the polls Friday night and then reopened them a day later, so...I dunno).
As an incentive, for each round in the Team Smackdown Zachary wins, I'll post an excerpt from "Shattered," his short story coming out this summer.
Hmm, how big an excerpt? How about...one word for each vote he gets? In Round 1 against Logan, Zachary received 181 votes. As a point of comparison, the holiday Shine excerpt I posted on Christmas Eve was 168 words.
At the top of the blog here is the latest in ZOGAN avis (made by Team Kilt member @jderucki) for those who like to show their support for Logan and Zachary equally. More ZOGAN avis can be found on my post about Round 1.
Wow! Yesterday's Burns Night was a whirlwind of Scottish goodness. I felt a bit hungover this morning, though I drank nothing but tea and diet Pepsi all day. Staying up until 2am pretending to be an 18-year-old boy will do that do you.
(I'm referring, of course, to the extremely lively #FakeScotsmen Twitter chat between SHADE's Zachary Moore and BETWEEN's Aiden MacRae. There'll be a transcript on the SHADEboys tumblr eventually, but it'll involve several hours' work to get it in readable order, and I have a deadline next week...and the week after that. So!)
Several giveaways are still going on. Check out the Burns Night Giveaway Hop at For What It's Worth (Karen's goes until Saturday, and scroll to the bottom of her post to check links for the other linked giveaways.).
(EDITED on FEBRUARY 1 TO ADD: One of the Giveaway Hop giveaways, at Page Turners Blog, is still open, through the end of today. Plus you can still enter by voting in the Book Boyfriends poll, through tomorrow night. For more on that, read a few paragraphs down in this post.)
The winner of my own giveaway of the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy on DVD or BluRay (winner's choice) is....ame1184! ame, please send your name and address to me at jeri AT jerismithready DOT com (and remind me what it is you won) within the next week. If I've heard no response by then, I'll draw another name.
Thanks for all your comments on my All Things Scottish post! Looks like I've got my blogging work cut out for me this year with all this curiosity. :) I'll really enjoy sharing more about the Scottish things I love most.
SHINE ARC GIVEAWAY
Remember, winners of the Giveaway Hop contests will each be entered into the SHINE ARC giveaway, as will the entrants in my Aura in Scotland contest (I'll get to that in a sec).
And don't forget this (excerpted from Tuesday's post):
Chapters Indigo, the major chain bookstore in Canada, is having a poll on their Facebook page asking "Who would you choose as your book boyfriend?" Right now Zachary is in 5th place and hoping to climb higher, with your help!
If you vote for Zachary, you get a chance to win an ARC of SHINE.
If you also vote for Logan, you get another chance to win an ARC of SHINE.
If you also also vote for Shane from the WVMP series (my own choice, preferring guys who are over 21), you get a third chance to win an ARC of SHINE.
Since I wrote that, Zachary has climbed to second place and Logan is in third! This is pretty awesome, since Chapters Indigo's Facebook page, which is running the poll, has almost a quarter million followers. SHADE readers are the absolute BEST.
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AURA IN SCOTLAND contest and SHINE teaser!
I adored reading everyone's imagined version of Aura's arrival in Scotland. I was also tickled to notice that virtually everyone wrote an Aura-Zachary reunion. Some made me laugh, others choked me up a little. Most were a wee bit naughty. :-D
However, in SHINE, when Aura arrives in Scotland...Zachary's already with her. That shouldn't be a spoiler, because after all they do plan to meet up in Ireland. Very little else goes according to plan, but that, at least, happens. And then eventually this:
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As we flew in, the late sunrise glowed pink against the distant snow-speckled mountains and rugged highlands. I could tell already that this was a wilder place than Ireland, than any place I'd ever been, and I had a feeling that in twenty-four hours, I would know Zachary far better than I did now.
Wispy snow fell as we took a cab through the city toward the northern end where the Moores lived, in the Maryhill section. On the way, I gaped out the window at the buildings' dark, brooding beauty, and sighed at the grand Victorian architecture. "You told me Glasgow was beautiful, but I figured you were biased."
"I am biased. It's not for everyone." He swept a light hand over the back of my shoulders, leaving the words I hope it's for you unspoken.
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And that, dear friends, is probably the last Shine teaser I'll share before the book comes out May 1. Any more and my publisher might rap my knuckles.
Okay, it's midnight, so time to draw the 3 winners of the SHADE paperbacks from the Aura in Scotland post...also, these folks each get two chances at that SHINE ARC...
The winners are:
Poochylover (Nicole)
Emberchyld
Tine Vs. the World
Winners, please email your name and mailing address to jeri AT jerismithready DOT com. Congrats!
The SHINE ARC drawing will take place Friday, February 3. Good luck, everyone, and thanks for making TeamKilt Burns Night a great event! See you on St. Patrick's Day!
PS: I am totally offline from now until I finish and turn in Lust for Life next week. To update Buffy--if the Apocalypse comes, text me.
I admit, I'm indecisive. I can stand in front of the refrigerator for 15 minutes trying to figure out what to eat, then go to the pantry for another 10 minutes, then back to the fridge, and finally walk away still hungry.
So to ask me to choose one Favorite Thing about Scotland? How cruel! Who would do that?
Oh yeah, that was me.
So instead of choosing one thing about Scotland to prattle on and on about and give away, I've decided (yes, decided! I'm a decider!) to tell you about 26 things (and...still just give away one thing).
That was last night, and just before I went to bed at 3:30am, sort of finishing this post, minus the pics and videos, I tweeted this:
Not sure why I thought talking abt 26 things would be easier than talking about 1 thing. But it cleverly disguises my lack of deep thoughts.
So this brings me to my discomfort about discussing Scotland. Because though I don't think I have any Scottish blood (it's hard to tell with Smith--that could be anything, but most likely English, and on my mother's side I'm Irish and German), I do love Scotland something fierce. Fiercely fierce.
I first went during a short break while I was studying for a semester in London. (And when I say, "short break," I mean two of my friends and I skipped classes for three days to make a five-day weekend.) The experience can only be described as magical, and I was determined to get back one day, which I finally did last year. It felt like coming home. It's not the place of my blood (though Ireland was incredible, too), but maybe it's the place of my soul.
And yet...
I don't want to be one of those Yanks who's all, "AFKJFDDFKFHSDKFHDGKDLHHHAAAAHHH, SCOTLAND!!!" It's got a million lovely qualities, but in the end it's a place with regular people living their regular lives, just like here. Folks in Scotland put their trousers on one leg at a time, just like we do (unless it's a kilt day). The last thing I want to do is fetishize an entire nation and its citizens.
I wrote a book with a Scottish hero, but Zachary'll probably be the only one. I don't write about Scots, I write about teens, whoever they may be or wherever they may come from. I write about personalities, not nationalities.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I feel I can move on and present...What I Adore about Scotland, A to Zed!
A is for the Accent. How do you not love it, what with all that...tongue? A few don't love it. My husband, thank goodness, doesn't find it an attractive accent for girls. I think he prefers French (he's an old-skool guy that way).
B is for Billy Boyd. You can have your fancy-prancey Legolas and your questionably-hygienic Aragorn. Give me a man who can sing and drink and dance...and has a fair fortune on the side (never hurts, right?). I'm talking about Peregrin Took, aka, Pippin. He may not be the strongest or the smartest or the bravest. In fact, he's kind of a screwup. But he knows how to have a good time.
And that voice...was at the center of what might be the most powerful moment in the entire trilogy, in Return of the King when the maniacal Steward of Gondor sent his soldiers (including his son Boromir) on a suicide mission:
I cry every time that piece comes up on the soundtrack. EVERY time! (Also, the part when Gandalf dies--another perfect bit of music by Howard Shore.)
C is for the word that shall never be said on this side of the Atlantic, but which is said approximately 50 times a day by most Scotsmen between the ages of 13 and 50.
D is for drinking. My personal favorite: Crabbie's Ginger Beer, which cannot be found in the United States and is as good an excuse as any for packing up and moving to Scotland.
E is for Edinburgh. Despite my preference for Glasgow, Edinburgh's really a beautiful city, and I'm looking forward to going back this year with my husband for a software conference if the schedule works out. *fingers crossed*
F is for Frightened Rabbit. How many more times do I have to tell you that they are the greatest band in the world? They kick ass in the studio, live, and on Twitter, where they actually answer fan tweets. (Last August, I asked: "Is it wrong that I'm thinking of you when I'm with another band?" (It was true, so true.) and they said, "Ha. No, it's not wrong. Just don't tell the other band.") If you want to win my favorite CD ever, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, go see Living Fictitiously's All Things Scottish post--they're giving away a copy today.
G is for Glesga itself. Sigh...I started feeling sad to leave Glasgow approximately 24 hours after I arrived. I thought perhaps I was sentimental about it because it was Zachary's hometown, but Shane from the WVMP series is my favorite of all my dudes, and I'm somehow not dying to pick up and move to Youngstown, Ohio.
I'll blog much more about Glasgow as we get closer to the release of Shine and Zachary's short story, "Shattered." Oh yes, eventually you won't get me to shut up about Glasgow.
H is for Haggis. Vegetarian, that is. Don't laugh, it's delicious, and sheep-free!
I is for the Isle of Mull, where I spent a lovely day when I was 20, with the cutest Texan I've ever met.
J is for the Jags, the nickname for Partick Thistle Football Club. Technically, they're Zachary's favorite team, not mine, but I agree that fans of the two Scottish Premier League teams, Celtic and Rangers, aka the Old Firm, have a violent, sectarian rivalry that makes the Yankees-Red Sox games look like Woodstock. Plus, one of those two teams wins the whole shebang every year. How is that fun? It's bad enough we have a rematch of the 2007 Super Bowl coming up. (Not that I'm a bitter, heartbroken Ravens fan or anything.)
K is for, well, come on...
L is for Limmy, aka Brian Limond, an extremely inappropriate Scottish comedian. While we're on the subject, if I could truly choose only one favorite Scottish thing, it would be the comedy. Shows like Burnistoun, or guys like Frankie Boyle, Billy Connolly, and Craig Ferguson (who's also a fabulous novelist)--they represent Scotland to me more than any romancey kilted Highlander. But their material is not only unsuitable for a young-adult audience, it's unsuitable for about 80% of adults in North America.
*checks Limmy's Twitter feed*
Hmm, make that 90%.
M is for Fraser McFarlane, our Glasgow tour guide and Team Kilt Burns Night participant!
N is for neeps, aka turnips. As in neeps 'n' tatties, which is basically turnips and mashed potatoes. Yum!
O is for Òran Mór, the church-turned-pub (how's that for a path to heaven?) less than a block from our B&B in Glasgow. It makes a significant appearance in Shine.
R is for Robert Burns. It's his day! And though I'm not an immense fan of poetry, I do love music, and many of his songs are Scottish classics, like this one:
S is for sweets like Tunnock's Tea Cakes. They're chocolate with marshmallow inside, which made me skeptical, as I'm not a fan of marshmallow treats like Peeps. But the marshmallow in a Tunnock's Tea Cake is like spun sugar, and melts in your mouth. More, please!
T is for The Twilight Sad, a fantastic shoe gaze-y band from Glasgow. I've talked here on the blog (and in SHADE and SHIFT) about bands like the Raveonettes and A Place to Bury Strangers. I love me some distortion and fuzzy guitars, like a mad thing. Give me a wall of noise, and I can take the volume to 11.
Anyway, The Twilight Sad's got all that, plus the gorgeous accent and poetic lyrics.
And now after mentioning their wall of noise, here's an acoustic performance of a song off their new release, No One Can Ever Know, which comes out February 6.
The singer, James Graham, just might be the dead ringer for Zachary I've been looking for. Or Zach in five or six years. Then again, with all he goes through in Shine, he might age a bit faster than most lads.
U is for uisge beatha (pronounced ISH-keh BA-ha, roughly), which is Scottish Gaelic for whisky (Scotch whisky is spelled without the E). I used to love me some single malt Scotch, but then I tried Irish whiskey (Paddy's FTW) and was lured away. So now I'm pickier about my Scotch. Which is not a bad thing.
W is for William Wallace. Braveheart. Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting. He's a mentor to a writer friend of mine, and she told me a hilarious story of him going to a Chicago Fire soccer game and shouting the typical Scottish epithets at the players and officials, teaching the soccer moms and their kids some brand-new words.
X is for X-Men: First Class, which I haven't actually seen, but I have seen its star, James McAvoy in other brilliant films like The Last King of Scotland. I have never been so scared as I was at the end of that movie. My blood pressure was through the roof!
Oh, I just happened to have this pic of him:
Y is for Ya [expletive deleted] mad wee [expletive deleted], [expletive deleted]!
Glaswegian insults. Pure gold.
Z is, of course, for Zachary. By this point, he really is my favorite Scottish thing, but the reasons have more to do with his humanity than his nationality. I love his courageous, honest, stubborn, patient, pure heart that is absolutely nothing like mine. The people around me would be much happier if I could be more like him.
So out of all these things, which should I give away? Since I can't decide, I'll draw a random number between 1 and 26, and then whichever letter that number corresponds to, I'll give away something to do with that.
OK? OK.
*draws number*
.........
The number is....
2!
Which corresponds to B--Billy Boyd! Yay! So the prize for my giveaway will be the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy on your choice of DVD or Blu Ray. These are the director's cut versions, so you'll get a good heaping dose of Billy and all those lesser lads.
To enter, tell me which of the 26 (okay, 25, since I left out Q) favorite Scottish things above you'd like to learn more about. I'll see what I can do.
Deadline: 24 hours from now: 1:01pm Thursday, January 26. I'll draw a name at random and contact the winner, who will have until Sunday to get back to me with their address or I'll draw another name. International entries welcome.
And like every All Things Scottish giveaway, the winner will be entered in the grand prize drawing for a signed, personalized ARC of SHINE.
(Follow that last link to For What It's Worth's Burns Day Giveaway Hop, where you can win tons of stuff and have a fantastic holiday.)
Team Kilt Burns Night--let's get this party started!
It's now officially Burns Day in Scotland, so why not start the festivities now?
I'm not far enough along in my deadline to justify that very expensive bottle of Glenlivet, and it's best not to drink and blog/tweet, anyway, so I'll be downing Pepsi and wishing it was Irn Bru, the national soft drink of Scotland (ten times the sugar and caffeine, or maybe I'm making that up).
So, as I mentioned before, Burns Day is a significant cultural holiday in Scotland, celebrating its favorite (no, wait, since we're talking about Scotland, I'll spell it favourite--yes, AutoCorrect, I DO mean "favourite," leave me alone!) son, poet Robert Burns. I'll speak more on Burns in my All Things Scottish post, which'll go up tomorrow.
But for now! I realize there's a TON of stuff going on for this party, so I'll keep this as short as possible.
Many of the details on the different activities are on last week's post, so check there first if you're confused, or feel free to ask a question in the comments.
The Schedule (and this being the day to do things the Scottish way, things will START ON TIME, however hard I have to kick my Irish-American arse to do it):
--10pm EST: Fake Scotsmen chat with Zachary Moore and Aiden MacRae (#FakeScotsmen)
I will give away 3 signed, personalized copies of the SHADE paperback to randomly drawn participants in each of these chats. Giveaway is international!
All day:
***indicates an activity in which participants will be entered to win an ARC of SHINE. See last week's post for details. This giveaway also is international.
--***All Things Scottish giveaway hop, hosted by For What It's Worth. Go to the bottom of the post to see what Favorite Scottish Things people are giving away, or to link to your own giveaway. My own All Things Scottish giveaway is the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy (your choice of DVD or BluRay), in honor of Glaswegian cutie Billy Boyd (who plays Pippin).
--***Get Your Scot On festival of random fun, hosted by Fictitious Delicious. Go to the bottom of the post to link to your own celebrations of Scottish culture. Anything goes!
--Zachary will post songs, poems, and pics of Foods More Revolting than Haggis on the SHADEboys tumblr.
--Cyndi Tefft will post a new Scotland-related blog every two hours!
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--***And finally...right here, right now, the Aura in Scotland contest! Write a one- or two-paragraph description of Aura's first reaction to Scotland.
Rules: There are no rules. It can be funny or poignant, dialogue or inner musings, rambling or to the point. It can be a general impression, her first taste of haggis, or how she learned the hard way to look to the right instead of left before crossing the street. Anything!
Deadline: 11:59pm, Thursday, January 26. I'm giving you an extra day, because that's the generous, lazy person I am.
Put your Aura in Scotland bits in the comments to this post. Unlimited entries. Each Aura in Scotland entry gets you two chances to win a SHINE ARC, and 3 commenters will each win a signed, personalized copy of the SHADE paperback.
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BUT WAIT! I have one more giveaway, just for Facebook users, who are often left out in the cold when we have all these Twitter parties and Blogger festivals.
Chapters Indigo, the major chain bookstore in Canada, is having a poll on their Facebook page asking "Who would you choose as your book boyfriend?" Right now Zachary is in 5th place and hoping to climb higher, with your help!
If you vote for Zachary, you get a chance to win an ARC of SHINE.
If you also vote for Logan, you get another chance to win an ARC of SHINE.
If you also also vote for Shane from the WVMP series (my own choice, preferring guys who are over 21), you get a third chance to win an ARC of SHINE.
Since the voting is not anonymous, there's no need to tell me you voted. You enter simply by voting. Awesome, huh?
Now go have fun!
(EDITED TO ADD: Nothing yet, but I'm sure I've forgotten a detail or two, or people will add activities to make this shindig even more awesome, and this is where that information will go.)
Aha! I thought of something to add, or at least remind you of. I'm also giving away a bunch of exclusive TeamKilt SHADE bookplates, featuring all the various covers of the books. Which makes them, like, collectible or something. And you can ONLY get a TeamKilt bookplate at an official TeamKilt event--the next one of which will be St. Patrick's Day.
GO TEAM KILT!
(You thought I was going to put a picture of a guy in a kilt here, didn't you? But I'm a CAPRICIOUS LASS!)
ALSO, she and the Real Scotsman himself will have a Glasgow vs. Edinburgh smackdown on her blog that day. Which is the superior city? (I have strong opinions on this, but they're based mostly on sentiment--I want facts to back it up!)
ALSO ALSO, my author co-host Cyndi Tefft will be blogging every 2 hours on a Scottish topic all day Wednesday. Amazing!
ALSO SQUARED, I asked for and received a box of SHADE paperbacks (with the original classic covers, soon to be rare/extinct) for giveaway. They're cramming my shelves and my husband is giving me side-eye about it. I will give away TEN signed, personalized copies of the SHADE paperback on Wednesday during the various TeamKilt Burns Day/Night activities. More details on when and how to enter will be posted here that morning.
TeamKilt Burns Night festivities & SHINE ARC giveaway!
(For the latest updates on TeamKilt's Burns Night activities, see my January 24 post.)
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, TeamKilt is ready to party in 2012! Our first holiday celebration will be next Wednesday, January 25, for Burns Night. (The second one will be March 17 for St. Patrick's day--yes, Logan gets equal time with TeamKilt.)
One of Scotland's biggest cultural holidays, Burns Day/Night celebrates the poet Robert Burns, but more broadly, all things Scottish.
The grand prize will be an ARC of SHINE. There are only 2 left. This SHINE ARC post explains why there are so few and why you might want one.
The first thing you need to know about TeamKilt parties is: everyone is invited! Not just fans of Zachary, or fans of the Shade series. EV. REE. WUN.
The second thing you need to know is, "What the heck is going on?"
The answer: TONS.
Our planned activities for Wednesday, January 25:
1. "Ask a Real Scotsman" Twitter Q&A with Glasgow native and brilliant photographer Fraser McFarlane.
--Note the plural "men" in this hashtag, and yes, Zach's a man now, having turned eighteen this past winter solstice. You can read all about that in Shine--very soon if you win an ARC!
--Also note: Cyndi and I, being Americans, would prefer that the questions for Zach and Aiden be kept as personal as possible--in other words, about the characters themselves. Quizzing Aiden and Zachary on Scottish history or asking "how do you say X in Gaelic?" will make us selectively blind!
3. All Things Scottish blogger giveaway hop
Bloggers, here's your chance to celebrate Scotland, give something nice to your readers, and get a chance (or several) to win a SHINE ARC!
On Wednesday, January 25, write a blog post about your favorite thing about or from Scotland and hold a giveaway for that item.
Your favorite thing about Scotland could be:
a movie
a book
music
food
a painting/photograph of a site or landscape
Be creative! If your favorite thing about Scotland is, say, James McEvoy, feel free to give away a DVD of any of his movies, not just ones with a Scottish theme.
^^^Billy Boyd is one of my favorite things about Scotland, but he's not quite my #1 favorite--wait until Wednesday to find out what that is.
Each blogger sets her or his own rules for the giveaway (i.e., international eligibility, time limits, what people have to do to enter). All I ask is that you draw a winner and send their name to me by Thursday, February 2. I'll put each of YOUR winners into my grand prize drawing.
Here's where it gets fun. Each blogger who hosts a giveaway also gets an entry into the grand prize drawing (for an ARC of SHINE).
AND, for every 50 entries your giveaway receives, you (the blogger) get an extra entry. So spread the word far and wide!
Host: For What It's Worth review blog. Our lovely co-host Karen will put up the post for the giveaway hop on Tuesday night. Just use Mr. Linky on her post to be included in the hop. That way everyone can go there to find all the giveaways, easy peasey.
Plus, no need to contact me until you've drawn a winner. I shall remain blissfully unaware as I work hard on my next book (lalalala, yay technology!).
4. Aura in Scotland contest: I considered having people write poems to Zach like they did for Logan for the BRIDGE party, but KiltandKeeley.com just did something similar last week for Aura (and it was awesome--go check it out).
So here's what I'd like you to do: write a one-paragraph reaction to Scotland from Aura's POV. No rules on length or content. It can be about Scotland in general, or it can be something specific--her first taste of black pudding, or her first visit to Zachary's house. It can be funny or sad or poignant or...whatever you want!
Since it involves a little creativity and thought, each Aura in Scotland contest entry gets two chances in the SHINE ARC giveaway. Unlimited number of entries. I will host this contest on my own blog so that people can put their entries in the comments like we did for Logan's BRIDGEparty.
At the end of the day, I'll post my own one-paragraph excerpt from SHINE, on Aura's first reaction to Scotland.
And don't worry--someday you'll have a chance to write poems about Zachary. Oh yes, that day will come.
5. Get Your Scot On contest: share your own photos of Scotland, or your attempts to make (and eat) haggis, or doing Scottish dancing, or whatever!
Hosted at: Fictitious Delicious, who will post the hub for the GYSO contest on Tuesday night. Just use Mr. Linky on their post to be included in the contest.
Being a bit defensive about the dish, Zach will post pics throughout the day on the SHADEboys tumblr of Foods More Revolting Than Haggis. (Oh look, he's started already.)
Possibly there'll be a Toast to the Lassies and a smart-ass response from Aura.
My guest author cohost Cyndi Tefft will be blogging all day long about Scotland and giving away copies of Between and Aiden's Angels swag!
TeamKilt swag will be given away all week by KiltandKeeley.com.
I'll give away copious amounts of exclusive TeamKilt autographed personalized bookplates for SHADE, SHIFT, and SHINE. These will feature all covers, including new, old, paperback, hardcover, and UK versions. Collect all 9! NOTE: These bookplates will only ever ever ever be available during TeamKilt events.
And maybe more! The level of Jeri-driven festivities largely depends on where I'm at with my deadline for LUST FOR LIFE. If I'm where I want to be by Tuesday night, I'm so buying myself a bottle of Glenlivet 12. And then things'll get really interesting.
PLEASE NOTE: the official Twitter hashtag for the day's festivities will be #TKBurnsNight, not #BurnsNight. A few million other people might be using #BurnsNight on that date.
Any questions? I'm sure I forgot to explain something. Or other.
January 2 saw the release of Unraveling Isobel, which Kirkus describes as "blend of paranormal romance, murder mystery and quirky, coming-of-age narrative" and bestselling author Lisa McMann called "Thrilling and creepy, super sexy, and so very hilarious." Sounds like my kinda book!
Isobel’s life is falling apart. Her mom just married some guy she met on the internet only three months before, and is moving them to his sprawling, gothic mansion off the coast of nowhere. Goodbye, best friend. Goodbye, social life. Hello, icky new stepfather, crunchy granola town, and unbelievably good-looking, officially off-limits stepbrother.
But on her first night in her new home, Isobel starts to fear that it isn’t only her life that’s unraveling—her sanity might be giving way too. Because either Isobel is losing her mind, just like her artist father did before her, or she’s seeing ghosts. Either way, Isobel’s fast on her way to being the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.
About Eileen....
Eileen Cook is a multi-published author with her novels appearing in six different languages. She spent most of her teen years wishing she were someone else or somewhere else, which is great training for a writer.
You can read more about Eileen, her books, and the things that strike her as funny at www.eileencook.com. Eileen lives in Vancouver with her husband and two dogs and no longer wishes to be anyone or anywhere else.
Aww, I don't blame her--I love Vancouver!
And now, my interview with the lucky Eileen:
Which moment(s) during the writing/rewriting/editing of this book made you tear your hair out?
No matter what I do, without fail, around the three quarter point of the novel I fall into despair. Suddenly I realize that the ending I thought would work is terrible. I have no idea where I am going with the book and now that I think about it, maybe the whole book sucks. Why did I think I could write a book? Now I remind myself that I feel this way EVERY TIME and to keep moving forward. As they say, you can’t fix a blank page.
Which book/movie/TV show have you recently discovered that made you want to kick yourself for not reading/watching sooner?
I recently discovered Downton Abbey. I am in LOVE with this show. Considering the fact one of my other favorite shows is The Walking Dead, sort of illustrates how my interests are varied. Zombies and British nobility, makes sense to me.
If your house was on fire, what object (not including living creatures, human or non-human) would you grab on the way out?
When I sold my first book I wanted to use part of the money to buy something special, something that would remind me of reaching this huge goal. Paying off my Visa bill didn’t feel like it would be that kind of special. In the end, I made the decision to buy a painting. I figured supporting another artist would be a great way to spread the good art karma. If the house were on fire I’d rip that sucker off the wall and head for the door.
Is there anything most people are able to do (such as drive a car, swim, ride a bike) that you can't?
I am incapable of doing a cartwheel. I start off good, but then my legs do this sort of spastic jerky thing and I sort of slump over. It’s very unattractive.
Have you ever been starstruck when meeting another writer? If so, by who?
Every time I meet another writer I get a bit star struck. I’m such a book junkie I’m impressed with everyone who completes a book. I’ve been lucky enough to speak at a few conferences and had chances to meet some great people. I am quite sure if I ever met JK Rowling I would lose my mind.
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Congrats to Eileen on her new release. Hope it's a year full of great writing!
