Nine Author NYC Book Signing!

Now here's the event you've been waiting for! Nine authors (including me!!) will be at Books of Wonder in New York City on Saturday, July 25th, from 2pm to 4pm. Stop by and buy a book or nine and say hello!

Participating Authors:

Lauren Barnholdt, author of Two-Way Street, The Secret Identity of Devon Delaney, Four Truths and Lie, and others
Sarah Cross, author of Dull Boy
Erin Dionne, author of Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies
Heather Duffy-Stone, author of This is What I Want to Tell you
Mandy Hubbard, author of Prada and Prejudice
Julie Linker, author of Crowned, Disenchanted Princess
Sarah MacLean, author of The Season
Mari Mancusi, author of Boys that Bite, Girls that Growl, Stake That!, Gamer Girl and others
Michelle Zink, author of Prophecy of the Sisters

New Video: Ally Carter!

As most of you guys know, in addition to writing I'm also a TV producer. And one of the most fun parts of my job is interviewing other YA authors. Like the fabulous Ally Carter who writes the Gallagher Girls series. (About a spy school for girls - so awesome!) She and I share the same agent actually and so when I met up with her at the Book Expo of America last month I had to interview her about her amazing series.

Here's the finished product - take a look!





:)
MARI

Beiß, Jane, beiß!

Beiß, Jane, beiß! - the German version of BAD BLOOD will be out MONDAY!! Yay for Germany!!! Hope all you German readers will pick it up and let me know what you think! I'm excited!

In the US - it's not out until January. Booooo. But I swear it'll be worth the wait!!!

:)
MARI

Bad Blood Available for Pre-Order

It doesn't come out til January, but you can reserve your copy of BAD BLOOD now on Amazon. It's really happening!!! Yay!

MARI

More Fan Art!

This is from Keira!! As you might recognize, it's a scene from Gamer Girl where Maddy's grandma is flipping out about her unicorn figurines -- aka her "babies!"



.::Thats MY Baby::. by ~Keira-the-Wolf on deviantART


MARI

Blood Coven Author Quotes!

I think I've told you guys before how much I adore Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series. (You all are reading it, right? If not - get going - it ROCKS!!) It's so different than the other vampire series out there and is completely addictive!!

Anyway, for the re-release of the Blood Coven books, my editor wanted me to get what's called an "author blurb" - which is basically a compliment about your book by a bestselling author. Of course I immediately thought of Rachel. And guess what? She was nice enough to write one! So now here's the quote that's going to appear on the book covers:

"If you haven't sunk your teeth into Marianne Mancusi's fabulous books, why haven't you? Delightful, surprising, and engaging -- you'll get bitten, and love it."

-- Rachel Caine

Pretty awesome, huh? And if that's not enough, I also got a wonderful blurb from New York Times Bestseller Ellen Hopkins who does those AMAZING poetry books like Crank and Identical and the soon-to-be-release Tricks. (Everyone loves these books - just the other day I read Miley Cyrus gushing about Identical!)

"Boys That Bite is a vampire book so worth reading, with dark humor, distinctive voice, and a protagonist clever enough to get herself out of trouble. Thank you, Mari Mancusi, for a great ride."

-- Ellen Hopkins

Isn't that awesome! I mean, not to be all "look at me" but when big-time authors praise your book, it makes you feel like you're doing something right!! :)

Long live the Blood Coven!!

MARI

Lauren Conrad

And here it is - the interview I did with Lauren Conrad of the Hills, talking about her new teen book - LA Candy! No matter what you think of the show, I will tell you, Lauren herself was such a sweetheart to interview!!





Mari

Japanese Blood Coven Covers

Since we've been talking about different covers - here are the Japanese covers of BOYS THAT BITE, STAKE THAT and GIRLS THAT GROWL. As you can see - also very different than the American ones. But I really like the manga treatment! The books also have tons of interior manga artwork which, if I ever get a new camera, I will take photos of and post! :)













Japan hasn't decided yet whether they will buy and publish BAD BLOOD. I hope they do though - just because I love the artwork so much!

:)
MARI

Bad Blood in German - ALMOST HERE!

For you German readers - BAD BLOOD (otherwise known as Beiß, Jane, beiß!) will be out in July!! (July 12th I think to be exact.) YAY! I hope you guys like it!!





As you can see, the covers in Germany are a lot different than those in America! I think the bats are too cute!!

Please remember don't post any spoilers in English. We want the American audience to be surprised when Bad Blood comes out here (in January.)

hugs!
MARI

Lauren Conrad and me

Today I got to go interview Lauren Conrad of The Hills. Well, formerly of The Hills, I guess, seeing as this was her last season.





She's just written a teen book called LA Candy which is a fictionalized account of life on a reality TV series. It's the first of three books.





Now I know some authors are annoyed that a famous reality star like Lauren can get a big book deal when they're still struggling to get noticed, but here's my take. If her book can get people who might not normally read to pick up a book, then they might discover they like reading. And then they'll pick up more books - by other authors! So everyone wins!! So this is a good thing, I promise. And honestly, if you write a good book - a really good book - you don't have to be famous to get noticed. I mean, who heard of Stephanie Meyer before Twilight? JK Rowling before Harry Potter?

Plus Lauren was super sweet and nice. Totally down to Earth and not pretentious at all. I really liked chatting with her. She definitely goes in the "celebs who don't suck" category. :)

Mari

Boys that Bite read in German!

Ever wonder what Boys that Bite sounds like in German? Now you can hear for yourself! A reader reads the first chapter of the book!!

Night School - Blood Coven #5 - GERMANY

For you German readers, I have great news! I just sold Book #5 of The Blood Coven Vampire series to my German publisher for a summer 2010 release!! So not only do you get Book #4 first, but you will also definitely get more books! Yay!

As for America, we're working with them to push #5 as we speak. But they have until January to decide. Basically they may wait to see how the re-releases of the first three do as well as Bad Blood. The more popular they are, the more chance we'll have of them wanting to do Book #5. So be sure to keep up the good work spreading the word about the series to friends!!

Book #5's title is NIGHT SCHOOL and it deals with Sunny and Rayne hiding out in an exclusive European vampire boarding school. Can't tell you why - but when you read Book #4 you'll understand!! :) Yes, it ends with a cliffhanger!

:)
MARI

Guest Blogger and Book Giveaway! Serena Robar

Hi guys! Today we have a good author friend of mine, Serena Robar, guest blogging about games, guys and her new book - "Giving up the V" - out now from Simon Pulse! You may know Serena from her fabulously funny vampire series "Braced2Bite."

In addition to blogging - Serena's doing a HUGE book giveaway! COMMENT HERE on my blog to win a copy of GIVING UP THE V. And then head over to her site for a chance to win MY book - GAMER GIRL.

~~

So you think you’ve got game?


Hello! My name is Serena Robar and Mari has graciously let me take over her blog today so I can pimp the release of my new book Giving Up the V and talk about one of our favorite subjects. Games. More specifically, what it’s like to be married to a man who makes games for a living. If you think about it, an author and a game designer living under the same roof is a pretty unique combination. I think half our party invitations are for that reason alone. Friends with normal jobs trot us out like show dogs, introducing us as the couple “we were telling you about”. Personally, my stories how I can’t seem to shower when I’m under deadline and wear pajamas half the day aren’t nearly as entertaining as you’d think so thank goodness I have Jason. He is the entertainment part of our dynamic duo. Odds are he created a fun game just for the party we are going to so everyone-gamer and non-gamer alike-have a great time.

Every other week a new box of games arrive at the front door. Most are probably in German (all the best board games are from Germany) and we play them right away. Two years of high school German twenty years later and he can still explain how the game is played (you can usually find the translated rules online, but apparently that’s cheating if you don’t try to figure them out on your own first).

Our kids are gamers as well. They don’t watch television. At all. No, we aren’t those strict, television-is-bad kind of parents. They would rather play games and watch games cut scenes via YouTube than watch television. Our daughter is all about World of Warcraft (gee, who else on this blog is a WoW fan? Hmmm, Mari?) and we all have characters on the same server. When it comes to Rock Bank and Guitar Hero, we are The Robarios. And we tour nightly. At this moment, my husband and son are playing Plants VS. Zombies and my daughter is rereading Mari’s book, Gamer Girl.

I put our love of games in all my books as well. In Giving Up the V, the Crew of friends meet up every weekend for Halo and Guitar Hero. I didn’t grow up in a gaming household so where did I pick it up? Easy, I fell in love with a Gamer Boy and the rest, as they say, is history. Or Round Eleven as our eleven year anniversary is next month. Oh yeah, and because I love random chance games, I am running a huge contest on my site where I am giving away a book a day, every day in June and today you can win Mari’s Gamer Girl. Do head on over and sign up. Don’t forget to comment here as well for you chance to win a copy of Giving Up the V.

More Fan Art!!

Gamer Girl fan art!! Maddy and Allora! Sooo cool. ^_^

Guest Blogging Today!

I'm blogging today over at the fabulous Lucienne Diver's blog. (She's the author of the new book VAMPED which you guys should so check out!!) I'm also giving away an autographed copy of BOYS THAT BITE to a commenter!!

So go forth, read and comment and WIN!


MARI

Melissa Marr

You guys like Melissa Marr, right? She's an amazing author of dark, fairy YA books. Love! Anyway, I got to interview her about her new book, Fragile Eternity, for my show on Better. Here's the final clip!





The book's awesome by the way. Actually the whole series is. You should check it out!

hugs!
MARI

Blood Coven Spread the Word Contest!

Okay guys - here's the deal. Barnes and Noble has graciously stocked all the Blood Coven books (Boys that Bite, Stake That, Girls that Growl) in their stores on special vampire themed walls. Which is amazingly awesome cause now brand new people can try out the series and hopefully end up loving it as much as you guys do! :)

I want to make the most of this opportunity, of course. And that's where you come in. I need you guys to be my street team - to spread the word about the Blood Coven Books. And I'm giving away free stuff to those who do!

What does spreading the word mean? Actually just how it sounds - get friends to read the books, write about them in your blog or myspace page, post reviews on review websites, post the book covers on your myspace, tell your local bookstore and library you like the series. Make flyers. Draw pics and upload them to DeviantArt. Make a video and put it on YouTube. The possibilities are endless. You could even throw a Blood Coven party! (Let me know if you decide to do this and I'll send you some party favors!)

Then come back here and report what you did. I'll be giving out prizes to those who do the most and also those who came up with the most creative ways to promote the series. Including a $50 gift certificate to Hot Topic. Yeah! :) I also have glitter makeup to giveaway, autographed books, and even a copy of Stake That or Girls that Growl in Japanese!! (Complete with manga pics of the characters)

AND AS A MAJOR BONUS: Everyone who participates gets an EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK OF BAD BLOOD!!!! The first time anyone will read any of it! (Besides my editor!)

So are you ready to get started? This will be fun!! And remember - every little effort counts!!! After all, if it weren't for your continued support we never would have gotten that fourth book, right? :) And I know you all want a fifth...

hugs!
MARI

More Artwork

You guys rock! Thanks for sending me so many awesome pics! Here are some more for you to check out!! This time from the Blood Coven books! :)

Teen Read Night

Last night I went to the monthly Teen Read Night at the Jefferson Market NYPL in the Village. (Great library, btw. It's like a freaking castle.) These nights, hosted by the amazing David Leviathan of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist fame (as well as Executive Editor (or some similiar such title) at Scholastic). David was the BEST moderator. He was funny and interesting and, most importantly, kept it all on track and on time.

The authors reading were also great. All funny, contemporary stories, which was refreshing, seeing the current overload of dark paranormal. (Author Melissa Walker, who was also there, said these nights are often full of contemp authors and suggested perhaps the dark fantasy authors live somewhere else? An interesting theory, to say the least...) Not that there's anything wrong with dark paranormal, mind you. There's just a lot of it.

My favorite read of the night was for my Dutton sister author, Sarah Cross, and her book DULL BOY(just released today!) I've been hearing a lot of buzz on this book, but had no idea how awesome would actually be. So funny! I totally need to pick up a copy this afternoon.

Also there were Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus - authors of "The Nanny Diaries" who evidently are writing YA now. Their first book, The Real Real, is about a reality show. Or behind the scenes of one, I guess. The authors were fun and down to earth, esp considering their high profile status. And the excerpt was funny.

Other authors included Nick Burd, The Vast Fields of Ordinary - a gay coming of age story. Susane Colasanti, Waiting for You. (I liked that Susane told us (when someone asked how did she know how to speak YA) "My internal age is 16." I'm going to have to use that from now.) Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty and Kieran Scott, Geek Magnet.

There wasn't one bad book in the bunch!! I recommend you guys check them out if you're looking for something fun to read.

MARIANNE

Blood Coven at Barnes and Noble

Just found out that Barnes and Noble bookstores across the country have restocked the entire Blood Coven series. (With the old covers.) You can get Boys that Bite, Stake That, and Girls that Growl from pretty much all B&N stores right now! This is a great opportunity to pick up a copy if you haven't already before they change the covers this fall. :)

And please, tell your friends! Want sales to be good so I can write that fifth book!!!

hugs!
MARI

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

New Book Video for BOYS THAT BITE

Hi guys,

Well, I've been experimenting with the video editing software I bought and created this book video for the re-release of BOYS THAT BITE!! Check it out and let me know what you think. :)

I will eventually be doing a individual video for each book in the series.





hugs!
MARI

Molly!

I thought you guys might like to see a photo of my baby - Molly! :)





Isn't she cute!! She's almost thirteen years old now - quite the senior citizen! But she's still frisky, at least when her arthritis isn't acting up. She loves to cuddle, too and is really soft.

I've had her since she was only a year old. The people who had her before me neglected her and treated her badly - and she almost died of heartworm disease! So it was so lucky I was able to find her and give her a good home! Now she's SOOO spoiled - I bet she doesn't even remember the old days of being tied to a tree and abused. Hope not, anyway!!

Tell me about your pets!!
MARI

Done! w00t!

Sorry I've been a slacker on the blog front for the last few days! I've been hard at work on doing my revisions for BAD BLOOD, which, I'm happy to say, I passed into my editor yesterday! w00t! Now she will send the final version on to the copyeditor, where they make sure all my grammar and facts are straight! Once they do a round of editing, I get the manuscript sent back so I can approve (or not approve) all their changes.

I have a love/hate relationsuip with copyeditors. Some are amazing and will save your life pointing out continuity errors like "Aren't her eyes brown, not blue?" Other times they'll change the most ridiculous things. Like, for the instant messages in GAMER GIRL, the copy editor wanted to change everyhing into perfectly correct punctuation and spelling. Like, she was so not into !!!!!111!!!11 as an acceptable exclamation. She didn't understand what <3 was or any of the other abreviations/slang I used and so she tried to change them all into proper English. As if. That's where the power of STET comes in. If an author writes STET next to a change, that means DON'T MESS WITH THE ORIGINAL, MISS COPYEDITOR! :)

Soo we'll see how the Bad Blood copyeditor does. There's actually no IM'ing in this book so she should have an easy time of it. (The twins are in Vegas for almost the entire story, and thus not near a computer.)

In any case - BOOK FINISHED AND TURNED IN!!! One step closer to it being released.

Now I'm going back to the book I was working on before BAD BLOOD got sold. It's called The Camelot Code and is an Arthurian adventure.

MARI

Japan Week Continued

Are you enjoying these glimpses of Japan? Today I wanted to show you video of a cemetary I found in Tokyo. It's a LOT different than an American cemetary, as you will see. Very gothy, too. It'd definitely make for a good place for a vampire coven, don't you think? Who knows, maybe one of these tombs has a secret door, leading down into the blackness....



Japanese Cemetary from Marianne Mancusi on Vimeo.

More Japan fun!

What the heck, let's make this a Japanese theme week, why don't we? Here's a video of when Liz and I went to the Harajuku section of Tokyo. You may have heard of Harajuku - it's where all the anime/manga loving cosplayers dress up and hang out. There are two main sections of the neighborhood worth checking out - first a shopping area with amazing stores (mostly catering to teens - especially the gothic lolita crowd!) and second a big square by the train station where all the cosplayers hang out to have their pictures taken.

Here's a little slideshow video showing both - first the stores and then the cosplayers. Check it out! Which is your favorite costume?



Harajuku from Marianne Mancusi on Vimeo.


MARI