Fan Art I've Found

I like to check Deviant Art sometimes to see what people have drawn based on my books. Here are some I've found recently. If YOU have a drawing, you can always send it directly to me!! :) I love to get them!



Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi by ~BlueFireFoxChibi on deviantART

Gamer girl cover by ~Darkness-Rakiri on deviantART

More Romantic Times Convention

A couple more pics from the Romantic Times Convention in Orlando.

What romance book covers looked like in the eighties. Ew!! Mustache!!




ME - as RAYNIE THE VAMPIRE SLAYER!! w00t!!! (With and without mask...)








Staking author Leanna Hieber as she attempts to do her edits.





Texting fairies

Back from Romantic Times Convention

I'm back from the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention where I spent a week hanging out with readers and writers - giving workshops and going to costume parties. So much fun! Plus it was in Orlando so the weather was amazing! Got to go swimming and on my last day I went to Disney World! w00t!

I'm waiting for my friend Liz to post pics so I'll have more to show you. Here's a couple I found from other people's sites. The first is me and Liz dressed as gothic lolita fairies. (Everyone thought I was a french maid though!)





And here's me - much more conservatively dressed! - at the booksigning.




I moderated the Young Adult Writing Panel and had some terrific panelists. Melissa Marr, Rachel Vincent, Stacey Kade, Jennifer Lynne Barnes, Lucienne Diver, and Caitlin Kittredge. I love when I am on panels where I learn something myself!

There was also a great urban fantasy panel I participated in, moderated by Richelle Mead of Vampire Academy fame. She is so pretty - I love her red hair! It was a fun panel as well.

Speaking of hair, Caitlin Kittredge had amazing pink streaks in hers. Which was completely awesome. She's working on a Steampunk book for teens - can't wait for that!

Melissa Marr told me when she grew up she wanted to dress just like me. Which was funny since a few hours before I said to my friend, "When I grow up I want to write just like Melissa Marr." I think she has a better chance of my wardrobe than I do of equaling her literary prowess, but oh well. She was so nice and interesting and smart. I would have loved to take her class back when she was teaching. I'm reading her third fairy book - Fragile Eternity - now. If you haven't started reading this series, you really should!

More to come soon...including video!!! :) For now, I'm exhausted and glad to be home! Still - I can't wait for next year!

MARIANNE

TWITTER!!!

Are you on Twitter yet? For up to the minute stuffz on me - you can follow:

mariannemancusi

What I'm reading...

I'm currently reading the third book in Rachel Caine's awesome MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES series. This is not your typical vampire romance cause in Morganville, Texas, vampires are the bad guys, not the romantic heroes. Well, some of them anyway. It's not one of those series where everything is as black and white as it first appears.

I read the first book in the series when it first came out and liked it. But then recently I picked up #2 and #3 and wow! It just gets better and better!! The story's becoming more complex and the characters more intriguing. I'm hooked!

There's like six or seven books in the series so far - I need to get reading!!

MARI

Cosplay

Since we're talking about cosplaying, I thought I might show you pics of some other costumes I've done over the last few years. I love dressing up and going to parties or cons. Sometimes my friends and I even host our own theme parties!!

Dressed as Rayne for a New England Romance Writers of America convention:



At the Book Expo of America, wher my friend Liz and I signed our SHOMI novels (mine was called Moongazer) for our publisher. They even made a poster of us, which I wish I had gotten to keep!

In this outfit, I'm especially fond of the legwarmers and my hair in little buns. I recently chopped my hair so I can't do that anymore!



This outfit, worn to the national Romance Writers of America conference, got a lot of both negative and positive attention from attendees. Some older romance writers were REALLY MAD that Liz and I cosplayed at the booksale. Evidently they didn't feel it was a look becoming to an author and that we were bringing down the credibility of the whole romance genre!! Some people wrote that they'd never buy our books again! This is just another example of how there's a chasm between romance writers that target older readers and those who target younger ones - like me! :)

In any case, I don't think this outfit is really very risque...Kind of typical Japanese school girl...



Gothic Lolita is my favorite cosplay look. I did this one at Comic Con in San Diego, a year and a half ago.



And here's the same dres without the jacket/sleeves.



Day two, same Comic Con event.



Here's a modified version of the Book Expo outfit - with this amazing skirt I ordered from Japan. I wish you could see it close-up. It even had strings of beads.



Not really a costume, but I'm thinking to use this picture for my author photo on the new re-packaged Blood Coven Books.



Again, not really a costume, but me in a corset, dancing at a goth club called Necromantic. (Don't you love the name?)



Last year I hosted a "Future Party" where everyone had to dress as if they were from the future. Here's me and my boyfriend Jacob.



I had fiber optic glow things for my hair, too!



Not really a costume - I wear my skeleanimals hoodie almost everywhere.



At a vampire ball...



One of my favorite outfits of all time - I'm dressed as my character KARMA KITTY in an anthology story I wrote about a manga artist who turns into her character when she dons a pair of magic gold boots in KARMA KITTY GOES TO COMIC CON. (You can find the story in the anthology "These Boots Were Made for Stomping."



Dragoncon! Me and Jacob ready to hit the parties!





And last, but not least, this is the Gothic Lolita dress I got in Japan. Worn to Dragoncon.



So there you have it! Cosplay fun! ^_^ Which outfit is your fave?

xoxo
MARI

Just ordered this Gothic Lolita dress...

For the convention I'm going to. I <3 to Cosplay! =^_^=





Do you like? Will post pics of me in it once it arrives from Japan...

MARI

Orlando Booksigning - April 25th!

Anyone from Orlando, Florida or nearby? You can meet me at a big multi-author booksigning I'm doing in Orlando on April 25th from 11am - 2pm. I'll be signing GAMER GIRL and the Blood Coven novels. And if you already own copies, you can bring them in to the signing so you don't have to buy them twice.

Here's the address:

Wyndham Orlando Resort
8001 International Drive
Orlando, Florida 32819
800 989 8816 x 12

Hope to see some of you there!!!
xoxo
MARI

GAMER GIRL mentioned in AP article!

Gamer Girl got a nice mention today in an Associated Press article on Scholastic Book Fairs. Pretty cool!!! Hopefully lots of newspapers will run the story.

You can read the whole article here. But here's the blurb for my part:

They purchased Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" novels, the latest "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and Linda Gerber's "Death by Latte," a mystery set in part at a Seattle coffee shop. Ashley Zhang, another seventh grader, bought Mari Mancusi's "Gamer Girl," featuring a lonely high-schooler who becomes a star when playing online games.

"I borrowed it from a friend and thought it was fascinating. I like that it's about a girl who really wants to fit into the world," Zhang says.

Yay for Ashley Zhang!!! Ashley, if you're reading this - email me or leave me a comment and I'll send you something special! I'm so honored that you mentioned GAMER GIRL to the reporter and want to thank you! :)


MARI

Any errors in the Blood Coven series?

Hi all,

As you know, we're re-releasing Boys that Bite, Stake That, and Girls that Growl. I have a limited time to make any changes to the books - correct any typos or change any pop culture references that may now be out of date.

For example, in Stake That, there's a page near the end that says "Magnus" and should read "Maverick"!

So...if you come across any typos or errors or out-of-date references, let me know ASAP and I'll submit them to the publisher.

:)
MARI