What happens in Bubonicon... ...stays in Bubonicon.  ¶ posted by Mario Acevedo @ 7:23 PM  6 comments

  It's time for Retribution
Mario here:  ¶ posted by Mario Acevedo @ 4:40 AM  4 comments

  Two more chances to win...

Marta Acosta, author of the award winning, bestselling Casa Dracula series posted an interview over at Vampire Wire. Add a comment, and be in the running for one of two copies of Retribution we're giving away.

Click here.  ¶ posted by Jeanne Stein @ 9:03 AM  2 comments

  Coming to a book store near you.... Cross posted from The League of Reluctant Adults--

August 25th is a banner day for Leaguers' with new books. Here's a sample. All are terrific books by authors worthy of your time. Check them out.

Also, Over at Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings, Donna is offering four chances to win copies of Retribution OR the Anna Strong series book of your choice. Hop on over and enter. Contest ends August 25th at 10PM CST.

Get your Pre-Order On!

  ¶ posted by Jeanne Stein @ 4:29 AM  4 comments

  Mario is AWOL Well, Mario dogged us again and is off somewhere in the Pacific Northwest holed up with Mark Henry. He says they’re working on a screenplay (god help us)—I say they’re probably lying on the couch drinking beer and playing…well, you fill in the blank.

Mario also informed me that he didn’t take any pictures at Armadillocon. Great. I realize he sleeps through most of the panels he sits in on (come to think of it, he sleeps through most of the panels he’s participating on, too) so I have very few Con pics to share.

However, we did meet one of our blog winners. Now, I didn’t think to ask her if I could use her name, so I won’t. But this is just to show you we really do give away all that swag we promise. And she can chime in here to verify!




Also, here’s a young reader, Brittany (I did ask her) and her mom with writer Joe McKinney who chatted with Mario and I at panels and at the signing. It was a pleasure to meet them both.




Okay, maybe a little media news is apropos this week. Follow this link to Newsweek’s Bloodsucker Beauty Contest. Piss poor selection. Where are Spike and Angel? I think I’d have to go with Brad Pitt. How about you?

In San Diego, there is a perpetual battle going on over the seal’s in La Jolla. Long story short, some think the beach should revert back to kids. Others think it should be a sanctuary for the seals. I think I’m for the seals on this one. For now at least, they are going to be allowed to stay. Here are some pics I took when I was in SD for ComicCon.



















And speaking of ComicCon—a confession. I talked with a woman who was interested in my books for her book club. Well, I have torn the house apart, and cannot find her contact info. On the slim chance that she may be reading this, contact me at Jeanne@jeannestein.com and I will fulfill my promise!

New fall show on the lineup: Eastwick. Tagline: Lipstick Jungle meets Desperate Housewives set in Stars Hollow. Oh, and they’re witches.



Hmmm...Loved the movie and the book. Don't know about this.

For fans of the tearjerker Time Traveler’s Wife: ABC is teaming with "Friends" creator Marta Kauffman and Warner Bros. Television to adapt "The Time Traveler's Wife" as a weekly series. Didn't see the movie, didn't read the book. Seemed too angsty for my taste.

Guess who won a HUGO for best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form??

Dr Horrible’s Singalong Blog, Joss Whedon

Yea, team.




Okay, now for some blatant self promotion. On the 25th, Retribution will be released. If you cannot come to a signing to purchase the book, now would be the time to preorder on line at Amazon or B&N or your local independent. All writers know the first week is the most important, so please consider it. Here is my signing schedule:



My website has all the details. Any bookstore on my schedule will be happy to have me sign a copy for you. Again, my website has all the contact info.

If you’re going to be at Dragon*Con, here’s my schedule.

9/4/2009 7:00 PM Centennial I

An Hour With Charlaine Harris

An interview with dark fantasy and mystery author Charlaine Harris Charlaine Harris, Jeanne C. Stein (mod)

9/5/2009 5:30 PM Mont / Van
Vampires vs. Zombies

Authors judge the pros and cons of the living dead. Elizabeth Donald, Philip Nutman, Jeanne C. Stein, J F Lewis, Mark Henry, Allan Gilbreath, Mari Mancusi, Mike Miller (mod)

9/6/2009 10:00 AM Mont / Van
Paranormal Romance or Urban Fantasy?

Comparing and contrasting two similar but distinct genres Rosemary Laurey, Susan Sizemore, Jeanne C. Stein, Jackie Kessler, Heather Osborn, Mari Mancusi, Julie Kenner, Liz Maverick, Carol Malcolm (mod)

9/6/2009 7:00 PM Mont / Van
Whatdunnit?

Mixing the supernatural and mystery genres. Jeanne C. Stein, Carole Nelson Douglas, Stacia Kane, Kat Richardson, Charlaine Harris, Mike Miller (mod)

9/6/2009 8:30 PM Mont / Van

Working the Graveyard Shift A look at the various jobs available to supernatural investigators and creatures of the night.


Jeanne C. Stein, Carole Nelson Douglas, J F Lewis, Caitlin Kittredge, Stacia Kane, Kat Richardson, Jackie Kessler, Mike Miller (mod)

9/7/2009 11:30 AM Mont / Van

The Future of Dark Fantasy Where does the genre go from here? Jean Marie Ward, Alethea Kontis, Jeanne C. Stein, Heather Osborn, Linda Robertson

DragonCon has signing schedules, too, but I don't have that yet. I'm staying at the Hyatt Regency so if you're in town, call.

See you next week--  ¶ posted by Jeanne Stein @ 8:55 AM  19 comments

  Austin--Is hell humid?


Austin Airport Sunday 4:30 PM

The one true thing about all conferences is that just about every writer I know is happy when it’s time to go home.

This is true even at a writer-friendly, writer-oriented con like ArmadilloCon.

The programming was interesting and unique. The presenter’s diverse. I had my pal Mario there with me. Still, I can’t wait to go home.

Now—here’s the good stuff. We arrived on Thursday, a day before the official start of the Con to spend the day with Mario’s sister, Sylvia. She was a great hostess. She opened her home to me, a stranger, and even when I told her Mario lied and we WEREN’T lovers, hastily made the appropriate arrangements and I had my own room. She didn’t even mind when I said I wanted her to dish the dirt on her brother.

Well, she didn’t have any dirt (evidently Mario was a PERFECT child—I wonder what that fairytale cost him) but she did have something even better—something Mario obviously forgot—She had Mario kid pictures!!!!

So, here for your titillation is Mario before he became the world famous writer.



So just what is our guy doing?



Ah-- there's a sprinkler under that cute little butt!




Playtime! Sylvia and her talented bro.
















I couldn't do much with this one-- but if you look closely, we see some washboard abs on young stud Mario.



We actually had time to do some of the touristy stuff Austin is famous for—we saw the bats!!!!




















For those of you who don’t know (and I was one of them) Austin’s Congress Bridge is home to 1.5 million bats. Yes, I said bats. The real pointy-eared, winged kind. Every evening when they’re in summer residence, they fly out around sunset to go hunting. From under this huge bridge in the middle of town. They come out in a swirl that climbs into the sky and forms a cloud that goes on for miles. We watched those little critters for an hour. The pictures don’t do the experience justice because I was using a digital camera with very limited zoom function. But this gives you an idea. I found a video on YouTube that gives an even better look at how 1.5 million bats look when they fly out on food run. Sometimes they swirl right over your head and in those instances, keeping your mouth shut seems a particularly good idea.

























Barbcue. Now, no Texas visit is complete without a trip to the local barbecue hotspot. Iron Works barbecue. A historic restaurant in a historic part of town. So, you ask, where are the pictures of Mario with barbecue sauce dripping off his chin? There were two reasons I didn’t take pictures. The first was it was so damned hot and humid, we didn’t stay outside long enough to take pictures. The second reason was greasy, drippy barbecue sauce and cameras don’t mix. But it WAS damned good food washed down with—wait for it—Lone Star Beer, of course.




The Texas State Cemetary. Howard, Sylvia’s neighbor arranged a VIP tour for us. Now I could use a hackneyed old saw, like people are dying to get in, but the truth is, you need to make a reservation and be approved before you can make this particular bone yard your final resting place. This one is reserved for celebrities, politicians, big bucks people. Or you can be the founder of Austin. It is beautiful.

























So—this was the pre-conference fun—in the next day or so, I’ll continue with the conference. Thank you, Sylvia, for your hospitality. And for letting me sneak those pictures of Mario. I'm sure he'll thank you too.

  ¶ posted by Jeanne Stein @ 10:10 AM  12 comments

  Thursday--er--Wednesday I know I’m a day ahead of schedule, but as I mentioned last week, Mario and I are off to Austin tomorrow morning. Now last night at critique, Mario said he was going to get some of those miniature bottles of liquor to take on the plane so we didn’t have to spend drink money. It seemed logical at the time until I realized our flight is at 9 AM.

I think I’m scared.

Anyway, we'll be at ArmadilloCon this weekend--staying at the Doubletree on Friday and Saturday. Give us a call if you're in the area. And stop by to say hello if you're attending.

Okay—a few more postcards. Now I’m not really showing you these in the order in which they were taken. Just thought I’d share a little more of the beauty we take for granted in this country.

Outside of Arches Nat’l Park. This is an actual homestead. We should never, ever complain about our quality of life. A family of SIX lived in this one room cabin.







They did have a beautiful view, though. That is assuming they were not too busy trying to survive to enjoy it.




Arches itself—and the park signs that explain what you’re looking at and how an arch is formed.



























On to book stuff—Bitten by Books is conducting another one of those polls. This time it’s what August releases you’re looking forward to. Retribution is one of them. You can vote for three, so come on, mine should make it in there somewhere.





Not a movie (or book) I’d normally be interested in (no gratuitous sex or violence in the movie, I suspect, and I don't cook) but from the LA Times:

Ellen Bloom of Los Angeles never owned a Julia Child cookbook and always thought the famed chef's recipes would be just too difficult for an amateur like her to master.

But after seeing the movie "Julie & Julia" at the Grove last week, she rushed to the nearest Barnes & Noble bookstore to pick up the first volume of Child's classic "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." She noticed other people from the screening had the same idea.

I’m curious, have any of you seen the movie? Are you tempted to try cooking a la Child’s? If you have tried a recipe or two, how did it work out for you?

From Whedonverse:

"Dr. Horrible Sequel" Web Series - Joss Whedon has a story !

Joss Whedon’s musical miniseries "Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" broke new ground with filmmaking for online audiences and earned the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator and his cast a lot of new fans, but with any success story like "Dr. Horrible," the question now becomes : what’s next ?

MTV News recently caught up with Whedon and posed that very same question, and if we’re understanding the fan-favorite creator correctly, it sounds like there could not only be more "Dr. Horrible" on the way, but they already have a story in mind for the sequel.

"We’re in there plugging. The writers are trying to put something together," Whedon told MTV News. "We haven’t even decided on a venue. We have a story and we’re working that. We’re just starting with that."

While he couldn’t share any details about the aforementioned story for the "Dr. Horrible" sequel, how it will relate to the first miniseries or who will be returning (though we’re keeping fingers crossed for Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris to reprise their roles), Whedon indicated that the lack of information was more due to the early stage of development than anything else.

"Doesn’t matter if it’s big or small, [we’re just] just figuring out the story," he explained. "We’re really excited about what it is. More, I cannot say."

With both Fillion and Harris juggling lead roles in television series ("Castle" and "How I Met Your Mother," respectively), the duo will likely have to make room in busy schedules for a "Dr. Horrible" sequel — but it’s a good bet they’ll find some time. There’s also the lingering question about what form the next installment of "Dr. Horrible" will take, as Whedon has said in the past that he’s not sure whether the multi-episode miniseries format is best for online audiences, or if a one-shot movie is the way to go.

I of course will keep you updated.

I loved this. From TMZ and The Times:

Obscure Teen Author Says She'll Sue Meyer for Plagiarism In Breaking Dawn

California attorney J. Craig Williams says he will file a copyright infringement suit on behalf of his client Jordan Scott against Hachette Book Group and Stephenie Meyer, alleging that her bestselling BREAKING DAWN copies from Scott's 2006 book THE NOCTURNE.

Williams sent HBG a "cease and desist" letter on July 13 that just happened to land on TMZ.com. In the letter, which says it is responding to correspondence from HBG general counsel Carol Fein Ross from last December, he asks the publisher to "compensate my client for her damages." Yet Williams "said Scott does not plan to seek monetary damages," to the AP.

By all indications NOCTURNE was barely published. An ISBN search shows no presence for the book aside from an ebook download made available earlier this month. (The copyright page says it is a Griffon Book from the UK's Blackthorne Publications; there is virtually no information on the company on the internet either.)

The Times: The Times also noted that "representatives from Hachette called the accusation 'meritless,' according to Reuters, adding that Ms. Meyers didn't know about The Nocturne and that the Twilight Saga was her work entirely. Ms. Scott plans to file a copyright infringement lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court in the coming weeks, Mr. Williams said, though she does not plan to seek monetary damages."

Hmmm.. I see similarities between my books and the Twilight series, too—vampires, werewolves, sex (er—no, drop that). Where’s my lawyer’s number?

While I was reading the Times article, I saw this:

On Tuesday, Summit Entertainment, which produces the “Twilight” movies based on Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling teen-vampire-romance novels, announced that it had cast Bryce Dallas Howard to replace Rachelle Lefevre in the role of the bloodsucker Victoria. Ms. Lefevre, the studio said, would be unable to appear in “Eclipse,” the third film in the series, due to — you guessed it — scheduling conflicts.

The news was surprising to many resolute “Twilight” fans, including, apparently, Ms. Lefevre.

In a statement reported by The Associated Press, Ms. Lefevre said that she was “stunned” and “hurt deeply” by the casting change, and unaware that she was to be replaced by Ms. Howard.

Again I say Hmmmm.. wonder who wanted Lefevre out?

And now, to put everything in perspective:




Okay, off to pack. I’m bringing my camera on board the plane tomorrow to catch Mario imbibing. Let’s hope he doesn’t get us thown off the plane.

PS My friend Kris Bochum is sending me a lot of ComicCon pics so when I get them, I’ll sprinkle a few here and there.  ¶ posted by Jeanne Stein @ 8:45 AM  5 comments