Check out the peepers

Mario here:

Both Jeanne and I are on deadline death march. I'm neck deep in revisions for my new Felix Gomez book. Got the cover. Whatta ya think? Here's the freaky part. Compare it to the original cover for Jeanne's first book.





















Once Jeanne and I catch our breath after deadline, we'll post an awesome contest, the most exciting ever. Get your thinking caps on and set them to KA-ZAM! But the subject remains a secret to keep you type A's from jumping the gun.

In the meantime, to satisfy your contest jones, check this contest from RudyG about this anthology on La Bloga.

"Needles & Bones is a collection of poems and short fiction by a double handful of brilliantly creative artists-with-words. It begins gently, with fairy tales, but its tendrils of surreality spread from the stories of our childhood, into our adult world, and on to places beyond our own. We visit heaven, and hell, and places we might never imagine, peopled by creatures who are only sometimes like us."

"RudyG contributed Memorabilia, the crazy story of Tomás Chaneco Martinez, a near-immortal Aztec shaman-sorcerer, who finds himself in contemporary, rural, northern New Mexico. He's gotta clean out decades' worth of knick-knacks that somehow found their way into his adobe. It seems that his nemeses, some ancient dragons, have taken possession of the things and are threatening to disturb more than his sleep. What starts out as a spring housecleaning turns into a series of fantastical encounters that Harry Potter would never have survived. Anyway, if you enjoy fantasy, dragons, azteca lore, No. New Mexico, and maybe a little humor, I expect you'll like this one."


Fellow critiquer Terry Wright has updated his website. One of his new features is to spotlight his favorite authors and our own Jeanne Stein is on stage.



The fabulous Lit Fest is over. Last Friday, Lighthouse Writers Workshop hosted the final party that made you feel smart and beautiful just being there. (Yes, even me.) Here is Executive Director Michael Henry emceeing the ceremony for the Beacon Award, given to the best faculty member, which this year was screenwriter Alexandre Philippe.





SIGNING ALERT! Jeanne and I, along with Warren Hammond, will be signing this Tuesday, June 23, noon-2pm, at the Barnes & Noble, Arapahoe Marketplace 8555 East Arapahoe Road, Greenwood Village, CO 80112.

And our favorite young adult vampire author, Richelle Mead, continues on her path for world domination. From Publishers Lunch:

Foreign rights to Richelle Mead's VAMPIRE ACADEMY, FROST BITE, and SHADOW KISS, to Agave Konyek in Hungary, by Blanka Daroczi at Andrew Nurnberg Associates; at IBIS in Bulgaria, by Kamelia Emilova at Andrew Nurnberg Associates, at auction; and to Mladinska Knjiga in Slovenia, by Jitka Nemeckova at Andrew Nurnberg Associates, on behalf of Lauren Abramo at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.
labramo@dystel.com