10 Days of Halloween Wrap-up!

Sadly, we have come to the end of our 10 days of Halloween. I hope you all enjoyed reading the interviews and guest posts.

If you haven't already, don't forget to enter these amazing giveaways on my blog and Book Infinity's!

10 Days of Halloween Multiple Choice Giveaway - INTERNATIONAL! - Ends TODAY.

Tyger Tyger ARC Giveaway - US ONLY - Ends TODAY.

Romeo & Juliet & Vampires Prize Pack - US ONLY - Ends 11/1, TOMORROW.

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side Giveaway - US ONLY - Ends 11/2/10

The Strangers Outside Ebook Giveaway - INTERNATIONAL - Ends 11/5/10

Over at Book Infinity's blog:

Infinite Days Giveaway - INTERNATIONAL - Ends TODAY!

Rot and Ruin Giveaway - US ONLY - Ends 11/2/10

Thanks so much for participating! I had a lot of fun interviewing these authors and hosting giveaways. I hope we'll be able to do this again next year. If you want to read the interviews and guest post I have them listed here.

Author Interview with Adam Selzer!

Today for the last day of the 10 days of Halloween, we welcome Adam Selzer (author of I Kissed a Zombie and I liked It).

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself
I live in Chicago, where I write books by day and work as a historian / ghost tour guide by night. I've never seen a ghost, but I've seen some weird stuff and uncovered some fantastic stories that never made the history books before. I have not given up my childhood dream of buying a van and painting it to look like The Mystery Machine.

2. What is your book, I Kissed A Zombie and I Liked It about?
It's my attempt to do the most realistic paranormal romance possible. There's nothing really paranormal in it - zombies were created scientifically to work as slave labor in a box box discount chain store stockrooms, and the vampires (whose powers come from protein mutation, not a deal with the devil or whatever) came out of hiding to stand up for undead rights. Now there are zombies and vampires in the world, and people just sort of live with it. But vampire teenagers tend to be jerks who mope around, acting all emo. Instead of PSAs telling girls not to use drugs, there are now PSAs telling girls not to become vampires just because their boyfriend is one. The only girl who doesn't like vampires is Alley, who falls for a guy who she thinks is a goth, but turns out to be a zombie (one who just hadn't decomposed enough it to be obvious). Falling for a dead guy forces her to take a hard look at herself and her values.

3. If you were stranded on a desert island, what are three things that you would bring?
Something shiny that would make the natives think I'm a god, a copy of Tristram Shandy (which would take me years to understand, so it'd be long-term entertainment) and, if at all possible, a raft.

4. Are you currently working on any books? If so, what is it?
Yes! For a long time I've wanted to take all the songs from a famous musical and build a new story around them. My next book is a follow-up to ZOMBIE, and is about a girl who is told by her "fairy godmofo" that if she doesn't get a vampire to kiss her at homecoming, she'll die (unlike all the girls who only THINK they'll just die if they don't get kissed at the dance). It's called EXTRAORDINARY, and it could be staged as a musical using songs from THE MUSIC MAN. Look for a book trailer soon! It'll be followed by a non-zombie book called TANGLED UP IN BLUE (or possibly DEBBIE DOES DETENTION) about a girl who gets over a crush by embarking on a "holy quest" with a couple of misfits who've invented their own religion. I also have a couple of cool Chicago history books coming out (and strangely enough, Rahm Emmanuel came into the coffee shop while I was typing that).

6. How would you survive a zombie attack? Or would you?
Rush to the nearest 7-11 and order up the biggest slushee I can get, so I can get a serious case of brain freeze. Zombies don't want frozen brains.

Thanks Adam for your time!

Author Interview with Brenna Yovanoff!

In honor of the 10 days of Halloween (ending tomorrow) we have young adult author Brenna Yovanoff (author of The Replacement) here! Welcome!

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I really like dresses, and I have lots and lots of wild yellow hair. I'm like a very small lion. Wearing a dress.

2. Can you tell us about your book, The Replacement?
The Replacement is a dark, contemporary changeling story that is not-quite-horror. It's creepy, but with a heart of gold.

3. What inspired you to write this book?
I don't know that any one thing inspired me. It was an idea I'd been tossing around for a long time and one day, I just felt like the time had come to write it.

4. Can you relate to any of the characters in your book? How?
I think I relate most to Roswell. I've always been the kind of person who just goes along and kind of expects the world to be pretty weird. I have a hard time thinking of anything I've learned that I've found particularly shocking, and that's totally how Roswell operates.

5. Are you currently working on any books?
Right now, I'm working on a love story about demons. There are monsters and kisses and true love—it gets messy.

6. How would you survive a zombie attack? Or would you?
I am so glad you asked! I would totally survive a zombie attack because I am small and quick and have a long history of climbing things I'm not supposed to climb. I would wear my steel-toed construction boots and cut off all my hair so it wouldn't get caught on things. Also, my transformation would remind me that this is my new life. My weapons of choice would be my awesome all-purpose kitchen knife, and a crow bar, and a .22 rifle. I realize these aren't the most powerful weapons, but like I said, I'm very small. Also, I was raised in the middle of nowhere. In a tent. I know how to rough it.

Thanks for your time Brenna! I appreciate it.

Giveaway: Ebook of The Strangers Outside

Thanks to author Vanessa Morgan, you have the opportunity to win her ebook of The Strangers Outside! Enter below.
Summary: Two sisters, Jennifer and Louise, return to their remote holiday cabin after a day at the seaside. But little do they know they’re being surrounded. Soon after their arrival, the girls will come face to face with THE STRANGERS OUTSIDE. When the assailants make their intentions known, things take a shockingly terrible turn and an intense battle for survival will begin.

This is a short story, only 24 pages long. But trust me, it's great!


Official Rules
1. Open Internationally!
2. You can get extra entries by doing various things.
3. This contest ends November 5th.
4. When the contest ends ONE winner will be chosen by random.org
5. The winner will be contacted via e-mail, and will be sent the ebook
6. This is NOT a comment contest. Enter the form below.


Thanks for entering! Good luck!

Author Interview with Vanessa Morgan!

Today for the 10 days of Halloween we have author Vanessa Morgan here for an interview! Welcome!

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m a lucky 35-year-old girl who turned her passion for the horror genre into a fulltime activity. Drowned Sorrow and The Strangers Outside are my first books; new novels as well as movies are in development. Apart from writing, I’m also passionate about animals, good food, tea, movies, city trips and my cat.

2. When did you first start writing?
I began writing fiction about ten years ago. Before that I was mainly into journalism.

3. What inspired you to write your book The Strangers Outside?
A little over a year ago, my little sister Jennifer asked me to use her as a main character in my next book. I already had a vague idea for a story with a foreboding atmosphere and dark figures showing up at different places. I thought she was perfect for the story and so the Jennifer in The Strangers Outside not just resembles my sister, she IS my sister. Even the dialogue is based on things she actually told me. To blur the line between reality and fiction even more, I used a real house and setting in Belgium.

4. What are your thoughts about it being turned into a movie?
It’s exciting because it’s a whole new experience for me, especially because I had the chance to visit the movie set. If you’re interested in knowing more about the film, I’ve posted photos of the filming locations on my blog at http://vanessa-morgan.blogspot.com/2010/08/strangers-outside-filming-locations.html and another set of photos of the film shoot at http://vanessa-morgan.blogspot.com/2010/09/behind-scenes-of-strangers-outside.html. Also, it’s funny to see how the story changes along the road. If you’ve read the book and think you’ve figured everything out, then you’re in for a big surprise with the film.

5. If you could have any super/paranormal power, what would it be?
I’d like to have all of them: being invisible, reading people’s minds, talking with the dead… But I can only choose one, right? Then it’ll be talking with animals. I have a very special relationship with the animals in my life and I know that there’s so much more to them then what I currently know. Oh, and I’d like to be able to cure people and animals miraculously. Who wouldn’t?

6. How would you survive a zombie attack, or would you?
In zombie movies, the courageous people who fight back almost always get eaten, so I’ll probably barricade myself into my apartment with my cat. And if my cat were to turn into a zombie, we’d live happily ever after.

Thanks for your time! Check back tomorrow for a giveaway of The Strangers Outside!

Giveaway! Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Thanks to author Beth Fantaskey, I am giving away a copy of Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side plus some pins featuring cover art of Jessica's Guide and her other book Jekel Loves Hyde. It's a great giveaway! You should enter it!

Official Rules:

1. Open to US only.
2. You can get extra entries by doing various things.
3. This contest ends November 2nd.
4. When the contest ends ONE winner will be chosen by random.org
5. The winner will be contacted via e-mail, and will be given 48 hours to respond. Otherwise, a new winner will be drawn .
6. This is NOT a comment contest. Enter the form below.


Thanks for entering! Good luck!

Guest Post: Beth Fantaskey

Today, for the 5th day of the 10 days of Halloween we welcome young adult author Beth Fantaskey! She wrote the book Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side. I am honored to have her on my blog. Here is her guest post:

Happy Halloween, everybody! I love handing out treats, so I’ve prepared this little “snack” for fans of Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side who are waiting for the sequel, Jessica Rules the Dark Side, to come out fall 2011. This “bonus chapter” – written from Mindy Stankowicz’s point of view – takes place between Jess and Lucius’s summer wedding (read the story at bethfantaskey.com) and the beginning of full sequel, which starts in December of that same year.
Have a fun, safe holiday – hopefully filled with vampires, ghosts and other good stuff!
Beth

October 31, 2010 – Lebanon County, Pennsylvania
“Mindy Sue, get the door now! If we get egg on our windows, you’ll be scraping it off tomorrow!”

“I’m going already,” I hollered up to my mom, who had dumped the whole “trick or treat” thing off on me while she took a nice shower. I mean, I understood that she’d worked late and deserved a bath, but I had stuff to do, too. I was already bombing Foundations of Renaissance Culture at Lebanon Valley Community College, and I had a quiz the next day on Botticelli, who might have been a painter or some kind of pasta, for all I knew.

The doorbell rang again.

“Mindy Sue...”

“I got it! I swear!” I slammed my textbook about Italian art shut and got up off the couch, grabbing the bowl of miniature Three Musketeers and Snickers – which I’d eaten half of already – while I schlepped to the door.

How had I ever liked this holiday?

It sucked.

It had sucked ever since my best friend, Jess Packwood – now Princess Antanasia Dragomir Vladescu – had gone to the Woodrow Wilson High School fall carnival with Jake Zinn, leaving me a million miles behind, socially. Jess got kissed that night, and totally made Lucius Vladescu jealous, too, while I’d sat home – like I was still doing, a whole year later.

What’s Halloween like in a Romanian castle?

Vampires HAD to celebrate.

Is Jess dancing at some big party with her hot prince?

I hauled open the door a little harder than I meant to, and a bunch of kids in costumes screamed, “Trick or treat!” so loud I almost dropped the candy all over the porch.
“Jeez, have some manners already,” I told them, ‘cause they pounced on the bowl the second I held it low enough for their little hands to reach inside. It was like a riot for that chocolate, and I started worrying they wouldn’t leave any for me. “One each, okay?”

Then I felt kinda bad when the world’s cutest werewolf looked up at me, his paw full of candy, and said, “Thanks, lady. Snickers is my favorite.”
I mean, I didn’t like being called “lady,” but who can resist a six-year-old in a furry wig?
“Yeah, I like ‘em, too,” I said. “You’re welcome.”

When they hopped off the porch, I saw there was hardly anything left to give out, so I turned off the light, even though it wasn’t even eight o’clock. And I turned off the lights inside, too, so it would look like nobody was home downstairs, at least, ‘cause I did not want to be scraping egg off windows the next day.

Then I sat down on the couch in the dark, put the bowl on my lap, and unwrapped the last Snickers, popping it in my mouth. I chewed real slow, trying to make it last, and even though I didn’t want to, I wondered, What do surf bum vampires who live on beaches do on Halloween? How do THEY celebrate...?

All of a sudden, the doorbell rang again, and I kinda froze up, ‘cause it should of been pretty clear that the Stankowicz house was closed for business. For a second, I didn’t even chew. I guess I figured if I didn’t move, the kids would go away and I could eat the last Musketeers, too.
But nope, the bell rang again – twice in a row, fast.

“Probably a VAMPIRE,” I mumbled. “They NEVER give up.” And I almost choked on a peanut when I suddenly thought, What if it’s a BEATNIK bloodsucker? ‘Cause it could be. Not that I want that...

Not even waiting for mom to yell at me, I popped off the couch, calling, “Coming!”
And when I hauled open the door, there was a vampire on my doorstep, and I wasn’t sure if I felt relieved or maybe a teeny bit... disappointed that it was just a kid in a costume. I should’ve felt totally treated, but it also kinda felt like I’d been hit by a big, raw egg.

I dropped the last of the candy into the mini-Dracula’s plastic pumpkin and watched him skip off into the night.

Would I ever stop feeling that way?

Thanks for the post! I appreciate it! Check back later for a great giveaway of Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side!