New Book Deal!! :)

I've been keeping this news under wraps while it was finalized, but my agent said I can finally announce it today.

I have a new book deal and a new publisher!

Here's the official info, as posted in Publisher's Lunch.

~~
FICTION: YOUNG ADULT
Mari Mancusi's YA novel THE CAMELOT CODE, in which Merlin sends a sophomore girl back in time to meet the teen once-and-future-pre-King Arthur and have him spend a week in the 21st century only to have him Google himself, discover his fate and refuse to return, to Sarah Shumway at Dutton Children's, in a very nice two-book deal, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (World English). knelson@nelsonagency.com
Translation rights: wlee@fieldingagency.com
~~

Cool, huh? For those of you who read Sk8er Boy, the girl who stars in this book is Sophie Sawyer, a minor character from Sk8er Boy and the present day stuff takes place at the same high school, Sacred Mary's. So Dawn and Sean may make cameos as well and of course those mean girl Ashleys!

Of course the book won't be out 'til Fall 2008 - a LONG TIME from now! But in the meantime, there's always STAKE THAT! **grin**

:)
MARI

Interview on TeensReadToo

BTW I was recently interviewed by the folks over at TeensReedToo.

Check it out if you have a sec! :)

MARI

Stake That! Booksigning

So the OFFICIAL release date for Stake That! is December 5th. I'm betting you may start seeing copies on the shelves any day now, though. Since I got my author copies at the beginning of the month to me it feels like it's been out forever.

On Sunday December 10th I'm doing a booksigning at the Barnes and Noble in Bellingham, Massachusetts. First and only December signing of Stake That!

Hope to see some of you there. :) Here are the details:

When: Dec 10th 2-4pm
Where: Barnes and Noble, 270 Hartford Ave, Bellingham, MA

MARI

Three things you need to know

Three things you need to know:

1) If you're a Buffy fan and have never read Jennifer Cruise's essay on "Dating Death" I highly recommend it.

2) My Veronica Mars obsession is out of control. I'll need a 12 step program for when I run out of episodes. What is it about that show that makes it so, so good?

3) Stake That! comes out ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!! (You knew I had to throw that in there, right?)

:)
MARI

Weekend Fun

***COUNTDOWN***

*** 8 Days til Official Release Date of STAKE THAT!***

(Just in case you were wondering...)

P.S. You can go order it on Amazon now... ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Now back to your regularly scheduled blog)

This weekend I was dogsitting so I did a lot of hiking in parks. Very fun. :) Here are the dogs (mine is the black fluffy one (Molly), I was dog sitting the gray one (Adora), and the other two (Harley and Dee) belong to my friend Mary.)

They romped around like crazy...

Sniffed everything...

And basically wore themselves out...

I wore MY self out by finally finishing my Girls that Growl manuscript. I passed it into my editor today! Now I just have to sit with my fingers crossed, hoping she likes it!!!! :)

Hope you all had a good weekend, too!

MARI

Cute Guy Friday

Awhhh...Buffy and Spike!!!! (Good song, too!)
:)
MARI

I'm thankful for...

This year I'm thankful for...

* My wonderful family and friends who are always supportive

* My sweet little dog Molly who lies by my feet when I write and never pesters me when I'm in the zone.

* My awesome new agent and my almost official awesome new book deal that I can't wait to talk about -- stay tuned on Monday for the big annoucement.

* The fact that my fifth book - STAKE THAT! - is coming out next week and that you're all going to run right out and buy it. (hahah -right? right?)

* All my readers who send me such wonderful emails and comments and make writing books more fun and worthwhile.

* The fact that I met my crazy deadline once again and completed Girls that Growl and that I actually like how it came out.

* Veronica Mars

* The fact that season 3 of the OC is FINALLY on DVD!!

* ski/snowboard season being is almost here!!

That's about it for now. What about you guys?
MARI

Glass Houses

I'm reading this new vampire book (I think it came out in October) called Glass Houses by Rachel Caine. It's the first in a series called the Morganville Vampires. It's more horror than a romance or comedy and so far it's really, really good!

So if you're looking for something to read while you're waiting the last two weeks for STAKE THAT! to come out - I highly recommend you check this one out.

Here's what it look like. I originally grabbed it from the store because it had a cool cover and well, it's about vampires. :) It's published by JAM which is the same publisher as my Boys that Bite series.





Anyway, go forth and read.

MARI

Stake That! Street Team

Okay, I'm looking for a few good Boys that Bite fans to join my Street Team. Here's the 411.

What is the STREET TEAM?
The Street Team is a group of readers who totally get my books and want to spread the news.

What do I have to do?
That's easy. You sign up and I send you a free, autographed copy of STAKE THAT before anyone can actually buy it. You read it and then go and spread the word. Tell everyone what you thought about the book. You can post reviews, link to our site via your webpage/blog/My Space...whatever. Just get the word out there. Tell your friends, your IM buddies, your cousin twice removed. Tell everybody and earn cool prizes and stuff.

I'm in, where do I sign up?
Just drop me a line with your name, age, address, websites (such as a blog, My Spaces, ect) and tell us a little about why you dig vampire books. It's that easy. Then I send you an email with details about Street Team and an invitation to join our Super Secret Yahoo Group, where all the top secret stuff is talked about. Viola. See ya there.

MARI

Quick Update

Lots of great things going on in Marianne's world. Not many I can talk about yet - but look for a big annoucement soon. Gah. I got to say, I hate waiting for things. I'm so an instant gratification girl.

I'm ALMOST done writing Girls that Growl. Should be passing it into my editor on Monday. It may be a little longer than I planned it to be, which is odd because normally I write short. But I'm happy with how it's coming out and really, that's all that matters!

I've been so busy lately writing that I haven't had much of a life so I have little to talk about. In fact, I've even had to cut down on videogaming. So sad! Oh well, the end is in sight. And it's worth it. Soo worth it.

:)
MARI

More cool stuff

Bookburger - a really awesome YA book blog had Hannah, a teen reader, do a 10 second book review of Stake That! You can read the entire review (it's short - remember "10 second review") here. But here's a quick quote:

"Mari Mancusi knows what she's doing--she was able to write just like a teenager, online slang included, and make the impossible seem real. "

and...

"It includes all the things that make a book amazing: gorgeous vampires with accents, dangerous missions, and quite a bit of kissing. =]"

Sorry to keep posting reviews. I'm just excited when I hear what people think of the upcoming book and of course I want to share them with you. Especially when people like it. hehe. Cause, you know, sitting writing a book can be a very lonely experience. You wonder sometimes if it's really any good, if people will think it's funny, if the whole being an author thing was just a big fluke and you're really supposed to be digging ditches for a living, etc. Seriously, we authors are all crazy sometimes. :)

In the meantime I'm still finishing up Girls that Growl. And here's some top secret info. This will likely NOT be the last book in the series. Yay! I know what I want the title of the next one to be, but I can't tell yet. Grr... All these secrets, I know, I know. Sorry.

Anyway - gotta go write. I'll ttyl. :)
MARI

Another cool review

Got a fantastic review of STAKE THAT! from the VampireGenre.com. (Which by the way is a way cool website for vampire book reviews!)

They say it's "charming, witty, and snarky as hell." :)

Check it out if you have a moment.

MARI

Crack the Code! & Other Stuff

Hey if you are good with numbers and figuring out puzzles and codes and such, you might want to go check out my fellow author friend Ally Carter's blog. If you crack the code and figure out what the name of her next book is called (She's the author of the super fab "I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You") you can win all these really cool prizes.

Check it out here. And if you figure it out I want to know! (Though Ally might have to kill you if you tell. hehe)

Just downloaded the new My Chemical Romance from iTunes. Very happy right now.

In just 13 days I'll be passing the Girls that Growl manuscript into my editor. Been working like crazy to get it done on time. But I'm really excited with how it's coming out. Wait til you see all poor Rayne goes through this time around.

Speaking of Rayne, Rumor has it I'm getting a copy of the final finished version of Stake That! this week in the mail. Can't wait to see it in the flesh. It's a bit like having a baby. Well, at least I think so, having never had a baby myself. :P

Lastly, I just heard that they FINALLY released Season 3 of THE OC on DVD. I've been waiting a million years for them to do that. Gotta run out and buy that ASAP! Figures they put it out now, when I've finally addicted myself to a new show (Veronica Mars)

:)
MARI

Has anyone read Peeps?

Ooh I'm reading a very interesting book by Scott Westerfeld. It's called Peeps and it's about NYC vampires. But they're not the typical romantic type vampires some authors (ahem!) choose to write about. In this book, vampirism is a disease - a parasite living in the infected that basically makes them go crazy. And there are rats. Lots and lots of rats.




Some of it is wayyy disturbing, but for some odd reason I haven't been able to put it down...

Mari

Stake That Review!

Hey guys! Happy Friday!

So I'm psyched cause I just got a kick-butt 5 Star review of STAKE THAT! from TeensReedToo.com.

STAKE THAT!
by Mari Mancusi
Category: Paranormal
Age Recommendation: Grades 9+
Release Date: 12/5/06
Publisher: Berkley
Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"
Rating: 5 Stars

STAKE THAT! is Mari Mancusi's sequel to BOYS THAT BITE. Mancusi is back with fun characters, plot twists and turns, and humor any teen (or adult) will appreciate.The story of twins Sunshine and Rayne continues with the focus on Rayne's adventures. Mostly written in "blogging" style complete with comments at the end of the posts, Rayne brings readers up-to-date on the girls' vampire dilemmas.

In this second book, Rayne is faced with her new role as a vampire slayer. She's learning everything, from which vampires are which to the art of carving her own wooden stake. To complicate matters she must work with Jareth, a vampire
who makes Rayne's head spin.

Add to the adventures a love interest for the girls' mother, a dangerous, unknown vampire virus, and continued confusion about their absent father, and Mancusi once again grabs teen readers and has them begging for more.

Fans of BOYS THAT BITE will not be disappointed with the direction the story is headed, only with the fact that they’ll have to wait for the story "to be continued"...

Yay! I love that review. And yes, there is another TO BE CONTINUED cliffhanger! Gotta get everyone psyched up for GIRLS THAT GROWL, after all!

Everyone have a great weekend. I'm off to go see (shiver!) Saw 3 tonight!!
Mari

Yay cover art!

Yesterday my editor sent me the best Halloween gift ever! The cover art for GIRLS THAT GROWL. And let me tell you, it rocks!! I love it soo soo much! They did exactly what I hoped they'd do and made it even better than I imagined.

I can sooo not wait to show you!

But sadly, I can't. Not until they put all the other stuff on - like the title, my name, and the tagline. Only then can I post it. So you're all going to have to wait. Nyah, nyah, nyah!

But I promise you, it's a cover worth waiting for. Perhaps my favorite of all covers this far! And that's saying something.

:)
MARI