Guest Blog #1

Yesterday I did a guestblog on Sybil's The Good, the Bad, the Unread about the importance of books for me and for Cissy, the heroine of CASTLE OF THE WOLF. Enjoy!

5000

No, this post has nothing to do with a film which shall remain unnamed and in which grown men run around bald as eggs, but doused in baby oil and wearing what looks suspiciously like nappies. Oh yes, and apparently they've got great fun in killing each other off.

No, this post has absolutely NOTHING to do with said film. Instead it refers to bookmarks. 5000 bookmarks, that's what the postman brought me yesterday. I was utterly thrilled, but also slightly intimidated by size and weight of the package. The bookmarks turned out fine, even though the picture on the front has turned out a bit darker than planned. And the poor girl's skin got a slight greenish tinge, imo.

But still -- very cool! And very good and fast service, too!

New Podcast Episode!!!!!

I've finally managed to put together a new episode of Sandy's Podchatter, and to make up for lost time, I'm reading Chapter 9 and 10 of "Betrayal" (it's like "Buy 1 Get 1 Free!" *g*), in which we meet Miss Simmerly again (whose musicale was so rudely interrupted when Ash dashed away) and the hero is presented with a new mystery, while another mystery is solved for us readers.

I hope you're going to enjoy the episode!

~*~

In addition, some more reviews went online this week: at Dear Author and at Rosario's Reading Journal. At both blogs, CASTLE OF THE WOLF got a B. Yay! They wrote such lovely things as:

The characterizations are deft. . . . There is a certain fairy tale quality to the story, even above and beyond the obvious theme of beauty and the beast. Perhaps it is the setting, deep in the black forest. Perhaps it is the hint of otherworldly elements embedded in the castle walls. Perhaps it is just the story itself of a poor and plain young woman taming the angry beast of a hurt young man.

on Dear Author and,

I had a lovely time reading COTW, and not just because of the yummy setting. Cissy is great. She's such a sensible, determined woman, ready to go after what (and who) she wants.

and,

As it should be in a good gothic, the setting is almost another character in the story. Schwab really makes the Black Forest come alive with her vivid, colourful descriptions, and I loved that it isn't a gratuitous "exotic" setting, but really plays a role in the story. And the atmosphere! That was excellently done.

Added to this wonderful atmosphere is a very intriguing touch of the paranormal.

on Rosario's Reading Journal. Is it any wonder then, that I walked around this week feeling totally giddy with joy? In addition, I found the May issue of the LoveLetter in my mailbox yesterday. And there's my ad, the lovely interview, and the even lovlier review:

Von Beginn an sehr präsent ist . . . eine ansteckende Heiterkeit, die einen ausgleichenden Gegenpol zur Verschlossenheit des gequälten Helden bildet. Entstanden ist ein wonniger und zugleich ergreifender Historical mit märchenhaften Anklängen in einem zauberhaften Ambiente.

Seufz. Ist das schööön!

Interview

Today my interview at Dear Author (as part of their International Author Series) went online.

Enjoy! :)

My Blogging Day at Unusual Historicals

It's my blogging day at Unusual Historicals, and I wrote a post about the Villa under the Linden Trees, i.e. the setting for "Betrayal". Enjoy!

New Book, New Look!

So I've got the new author pics done -- but I couldn't simply put them on the old website, could I? Oh no! Renovations were definitely in order! Therefore I spent the past few days ... er ... nights overhauling my website and tried to give it a neater look. The results can be seen here. I've also added a few more CASTLE OF THE WOLF pages: the first reviews are up as is the reading guide for readers' groups and the first few pages of the Secrets of CASTLE OF THE WOLF.

I hope you'll enjoy the new pages and the new look!

The New Semester! And the New Me!

As you might have guessed, I spent the days after Thursday with -- yes -- corrections. And more corrections. And even more corrections. By Sunday evening, I was about to cry. But, fortunately, I also managed to finish those dratted corrections. Well ... at least those I had wanted to finish for Monday. When the new semester started. And my new course. Which had so not yet prepared. Still haven't. Produced a sort of improvised session instead: introduction to the most basic of poetry basics (hey, it's a class about Tennyson, after all!) (and funnily enough, people were indeed eagerly writing down the mysteries of iamb, trochee, anapest and dactyl) and introduction to the Victorian age. (One of my students was rather upset when I described Queen Victoria's behaviour in the Hastings Affair, i.e. the queen being more or less responsible for defaming poor Lady Flora Hastings, who was her one of her ladies-in-waiting and would have deserved the queen's protection at least. But hey, at least I didn't call Victoria a "vicious, little bitch"!) (Or did I? *scratching my head*) (I'm sure I didn't. Would I use the word "bitch" in the classroom? Me??? Never, of course!)

And today I finally picked up the new author pics I had done last week. Here's one of them:

The Do-It-Yourself Book

You need:

• one coverflap (preferably of your own, not yet published book)
• one paperback (of the 350-to-400-page variety)
• a bit of Scotch tape

And, now all you need to do is:

• fold coverflap to make it look like a book (an empty book, that is, pages are still missing)
• take four stripes of Scotch tape and form four rings
• put those rings on all four corners of the back of the coverflap
• now press paperback into coverflap

Et voilà: the book is finished. :) (I needed one of those for today's photo session)

Duh

I'm about to go and have some new author pics done -- and so far about everything that could go wrong DID go wrong. Make up. Hair. Thank heavens, the contact lenses are behaving so far *knocking on wood*

My hair curls and curves in directions it is not supposed to either curl or curve. And there are three red spots on my chin. And my skin looks terrible.

Waaaah!

Perhaps I should wear a paperbag over my head. I could draw a face on the paperbag! Wouldn't that be lovely?!

Anyways, I'd better run: knowing my luck, there's going to be a traffic jam ...

Promo Stuff instead of Easter Eggs

I hope you've all had a nice Easter weekend and got the chance to eat many lovely chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies (for dietary purposes I didn't this year :-/ ) (wellllll ... there might have been a Lindt egg or two ...). Here's a funny thing about me and chocolate Easter bunnies: I always eat the ears first. :) (But obviously not this year.)

Anyway, I spent the weekend a) correcting those student papers (and at least one of my students was stupid enough to plagiarize) and b) designing an ad for the LoveLetter, two bookmarks and a website banner. I also did some further research on bookmark printing and can now choose between

1. 1900 small bookmarks, double-sided 4c-print, for 199 Euros
2. 5000 large bookmarks, double-sided 4c-print, glossy surface, for 263 Euros

The second option is obviously the better deal, but what the heck am I going to do with 5000 bookmarks?

I'm also panicking a bit because I have ordered neither bookmarks nor flyers yet and now firmly believe the book's going to sink like a lead duckie. (Which probably makes me a liar: I said in the interview for the LL that this time around I didn't have time to be nervous. Ha!)

The Muse is still strangely absent. (Which is another reason for general nervousness: what if she never ever returns? What if I've now written all the books I was capable of writing?)

Ooookay. I'd better do the litter trays.

(To make matters worse, I haven't yet had the opportunity to watch the latest episode of Blood Ties.)

Any volunteers for the litter trays???

(Hey, a girl can still hope, right?)

Need more hours per day

This this one of those times again when I ought to do 101 different things at the same time -- and things simply don't work out the way they're supposed to. *sigh* I still haven't ordered flyers or bookmarks for Castle, I still have that huge pile of corrections, I still have to design an ad plus the aforementioned flyers and bookmarks for Castle, I still have to install Photoshop on my 'puter, I still have to prepare my seminar (which starts like, in two weeks's time -- aaaaaargh! *head desk*), I still have to edit that $(%)?"§&( book for uni, I still have to write one article as well as three papers (the third paper is Mark B's fault 'cause he talked me going to that comic conference) (okay, okay, that one's going to be a fun paper) (the other two are, too, actually), I still have to put together the website pages with the background info about Castle, I still have to do my taxes ...

Well, you get the point.

So would anybody please give me more hours per day? Please??? (Or, if I can't have any more hours, could somebody do the litter trays?)

Sandy's Delicious Friday

11:30 a.m. -- early Easter brunch party at a friend's in Mainz. Ate way too much (including a slice of an absolutely yummy strawberry cream cake) (busted my Weight Watchers points bank for about the next two weeks).

4:00 p.m. -- rolled off couch in order to drive home.

6:30 p.m. -- dinner at other friend's (not in Mainz). Ate way too much chocolate mousse (busted my Weight Watchers point bank for the next two years).

12:30 a.m. -- rolled off chair in order to drive home, firmly resolved to eat only fruit on Saturday... (now that's a good joke if I've ever heard one!) (but a girl can still hope, right?)

Book Launch!!!

I'm very pleased to announce that I'll be doing a book launch for and reading from Castle of the Wolf on 3 May, 6 p.m. at the University of Mainz. Further details will be forthcoming on my website!

I'm hooked ... er ... bitten

Ever since I read Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE (actually, I think it was THE VAMPIRE LESTAT which did it *g*), I've had a great fondness for vampires. Sexy, hot vampires, that is, not some sort of half rotten corpse. Needless to say that I adored BUFFY (more than one sexy, hot vampire *squeal*).

A few weeks ago a new TV series was launched on Lifetime: BLOOD TIES, based on Tanya Huff's Blood books. And with such a title, it can come as no surprise that there is a vampire in the series. A sexy, hot vampire (hey, otherwise I wouldn't be blogging about it, right?): Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, illegitimate son of Henry VIII, dead for 400-umpteen years, lives in Toronto, writes graphic novels (in the books he's a romance writer; stupid TV people changed it -- can somebody please go and bang a big, fat romance novel on their heads?), and have I mentioned he's hot and sexy?

Anyways, saw the preview (see below) and now I'm keeping fingers crossed that said series will come to Britain and be released on DVD there soon!