Pride and Prejudice...and Zombies?

Where in the world have I been?

I just learned about a new book coming out with Chronicle Books in the spring called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

Dude, check out this cover, ROFL:

Can I tell you how frothy-dog crazy excited I am to get my hands on this book? Here's the blurb on Chronicle's site:



Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen's classic novel to new legions of fans.



The release day is April 15--tax day is going to be a heck of a lot more fun this year!

Sorry I've been MIA

Things have been...well, not so great lately. LOL. Busy as crazytalk, and some life issues that have sucked. But we all go through highs and lows, right?

I'll try to come back on in a few days and post again. I'm reading a book called Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka, and I'm loving it so far! It's set in Japan in 1861, when they opened their borders to foreigners again. I'll let you know what I think when I'm done.

Be back soon! :D

Enter to win an Amazon gift certificate!

Check out my blog post on the Fictionistas HERE, where I reviewed the fantastic YA novel Ophelia by Lisa Klein...

...and while you're there, share who's your favorite Shakespearean character and why, to enter to win a $10 Amazon gift certificate!!

The contest ends tomorrow night (1/15/09) at 11:59 PM, so hurry over! :D

baaaad mornings!

I can tell Mercury's in retrograde (and no, I'm not a hippie or mystic or anything)...things have been WONKY this morning:

The brand-new dryer I got just a couple of weeks ago didn't fully dry the load of clothes I'd put in last night, which included jeans that I wanted to wear today. Maybe I put too many clothes in--anyway, I'll play around with that to see if that was the problem (I HOPE). I tried to take everything out but my jeans and dry them for another 10 minutes. No dice--still cold and damp. So I ran upstairs to find pants and shoes to wear...

...Which ended up making me late to dropping my son off at his bus stop. We watched the bus roll on by. Crap! So I ran him up to school...

...And hopped on the highway, which was INSANELY crowded and going waaaaay slow. Of course, that means I was late to work...

...Which meant I didn't get some stuff printed off for my 9:00 meeting (and even though I tried to print it, the printer I sent it to didn't work, so I had to send to another printer). And one of the elevators at work is messed up and we can't use it, so I had to wait on and use the other one. Well, by now I was thirsty before the meeting, so...

...I tried to grab a mocha out of the coffee machine before the meeting, but someone had left THEIR cup in there, so mine just stacked on top of theirs at an angle. Well, the coffee machine poured the drink out anyway, so the coffee just ran out of the machine and down the front. NICE. I had to dump both cups and start over again, which meant I was a little late to my meeting.

So, there ya go. Electronics are messed up, things are crazy at work, etc. C'est la vie, right? :D

But on the plus side, I've been getting some great writing in lately on my third book, which is due to my editor by March 1. And, I have a few new story ideas that I hope to develop and run by my agent in the near future. YAY!

Am I the only one having a wonky morning? Anyone else have strange or crappy things happen to them?

Blogging goals for this year

I have a few blogging goals this year, so I figured I'd set them out...after all, I'm fanatic about my lists, LOL.

1--make a greater effort to comment on other blogs (especially for people who comment on mine). Tied in with this is making an effort to add links to blogs that link with mine. That's how ya keep the love going, right?

2--make sure I post at least once a week, but preferably twice a week or more.

3--I made a personal goal to read one book a week, so I may start regular posts where I write about what I read and what I thought. This may help with goal #2, right? I'm going to try to read/comment about bigger books, but also some that people may not know about.

4--make sure my blog doesn't just become a "buy my book!" blog, especially since this year is when my first YA debuts. LOL. I hate blogs that are only about self-promo.

5--make sure I provide various valuable content on my blog. I'll continue posting topics about writing and publishing. I'll also be posting lists/links to research books that I think may be helpful to others, because I love "paying it forward" and sharing knowledge with others.

If you have any ideas on good blogging goals, please let me know!! Thanks!

I'm so excited...and I just can't hide it! haha

I made an executive decision. I'm going to go to Japan!!!

My plan is to go this summer with the manpanion. We're going to stay for 10 days so I can do lots of research...of course, we'll also have a freaking BLAST. But my hope/goal is also to write books set in Japan, and this is the best way to get the true experience, right? :D

Anyway, I had to share.

SQUEEEEEEE!!