Meljean Brook

Via Newsarama, will Anna Paquin star in the Sookie Stackhouse series on HBO?

I wonder if a card-throwing New Orleans thief with red eyes … oh, and fangs … will show up?

What? What? Why can’t I dream, and get my Rogue/Gambit ’shipping in this way? *sob*

To the gentleman in the green 1990 Honda Civic, with the license plate: RAD RU

No. And if you define “rad”, then I’m glad I’m not. I must say, that plate is a disgrace to TMNT fans everywhere, who once found great joy in the use of “rad”.

To the teenybopper in the shiny new SUV, with: DDY GRL

Puke.

To the guy in the late model Mercedes sedan, with: ONE8T

That does not give me confidence in your driving skills, your navigational abilities, nor your decision making abilities. Are you always turning around in the middle of the street? Are you always changing your mind? I think you’re trying to say that you’re different from everyone else, a 180 from the norm … just, no.

To the lady with the brightly painted car, who had Dr. Seuss, Clifford, and a bunch of other children’s book images on there, with the message “Books Save Lives” written on the back bumper, and I really wish I hadn’t lost my cell phone so that I could have taken a picture of it and posted it here, I may have to make my own license plate: I HRT U

I was frustrated by the limitations of Photoshop when I was making some new ad banners for DEMON MOON (can’t animate stuff as I’d like — I had WAY too many layers going on) and I was thinking ahead to trailers and stuff like that … so I downloaded a trial version of Flash software, then ran through the quick tutorial, and started putting in covers and pictures and laying out a trailer.

Oh my garsh, this is way too addicting and fun. It’s a good thing that I have a month or two to play around with it and learn all of the techniques to making it all pretty before I have to produce something, and I can’t let myself spend too much time on it (gotta write) but, yikes, if a bunch of crazy animated covers and naked people start showing up around my blog, forgive me. I cannot help myself.

In other news, as we were driving past the construction that closed down Scholls Ferry Road over the weekend and looking at all of the heavy equipment, Bobby and I decided that when the Constructicons transformed into Devastator, that would be one mothereffing big-ass robot.

And I’ve also lost my cell phone. Again.

Sigh.

I can’t believe you put this song in the background of your commercials. (For those of you at work or whom the video doesn’t function, it’s Violent Femmes’ Blister in the Sun.)

Although “Where’s the Beef?” and “Big hands I know you’re the one” do — oddly enough — go together.

I recently re-read this book (Johanna Lindsey’s MAN OF MY DREAMS) …and I kind of liked it. *g* Usually my only Lindsey re-reads are WARRIOR’S WOMAN (love that one), PRISONER OF MY DESIRE, and TENDER REBEL.

The hero wasn’t quite the asshole jerk that the cover suggests — oh, he was an asshole, alpha, jerk, Duke, whatever … but he also ejaculated (thisclose to) prematurely. And was like, “Oh, God,” when he did it, which totally cracked me up. But what really surprised me was that he was only twenty-nine (for some reason I thought he was in his late thirties, but it’s been at least a decade since I’ve read this), and was at times oddly insecure. It was so sweet. I also liked that the heroine talked to herself, because it made me feel less lonely for a brief, short time *single tear*.

But, anyway, there was a lot to roll my eyes at (fiery hair and temper, stomping of feet, lots of yelling and posturing, the pregnancy) but it was a lot of fun, too.

MISSY: (muffled through the closet door) Oh my god, I LOVE this cover!! I stared at it for hours, because she was so beautiful and I kept hoping to see some naked pop out from behind her head!

MELJEAN: *sobs with shame*

I made potato dumplings. From scratch. And beef stew (but, um, not quite as from scratch, because I had a seasoning mix). And they were good! (this is the amazing part, and why I’m proud of myself)

I also just got in my Demon Moon bookmarks, and I like them verrrry much. I also realized that I probably need to get a PO Box soon, so that I can have people send stuff to me without giving out my home address.

This picture made me smile — an inverted rainbow. (I don’t live in San Francisco, but because my books are set there I read the Chronicle every day. It’s my home page. I’ve also got quite a few city-centric blogs on my reading list, and I visit those at least once a week. (This is also something I’ve been doing lately with Seattle — I’ve listed a bunch of blogs, and I have the paper up there bookmarked, and I read the local section a couple of times a week.) Because I’ve visited, but the way that locals talk about their city and the way that visitors see it are completely different — which is also why I have a couple of people that I send questions to, little stuff like: Do you call San Francisco State “Ess Eff State” or something else? (Of course, all of my SFs get changed to San Francisco in the copy-edit stage, but I think that’s okay … some things are probably more important to have readability than someone going, “WTF is “SF”?” even if it’s more authentic)) (counts parenthesis…okay, I think I’m good.)

Last night I had my first DEMON NIGHT dream, which is great — it means my head is completely into the story. I’m always thinking about it when I’m awake (and often I run through a bunch of scenarios in daydreams … some really terrible ones, too. One of the fun things that I do during the writing process is make my characters go through the worst possible thing — which is, usually, death or something horrible to the partner. If I make myself bawl, it’s a good day. Anyway, it’s a great way to get myself emotional about the characters, even if it does make me feel like something out of The Three Sillies.)

Another thing I’ve been doing during my downtime is listening to movie commentary — if one of my weak areas is pacing and tightening everything up, it occurred to me while listening to Joss Whedon’s commentary on the deleted scenes for SERENITY that the industry most dependent on constant forward movement and great pacing is the movie industry. So I’ve grabbed a couple of movies the last few nights and listened to the director’s commentary as I go along: why do some scenes make it and not others, how some scenes evolve as the movie is shot/edited, things like that. So far I’ve done this with SERENITY, TOMB RAIDER 2, RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE, and 28 DAYS LATER (I’ve been in a zombie mood). And I don’t really feel guilty about it, because it would have been wasted time anyway (I have a little hand-held DVD player that I’ve been using while my daughter winds down at night … and when she won’t let me work, but she’ll let me sit on the sofa.) Up tonight is either NEVER BEEN KISSED or EVER AFTER, because they both are kind of romance-y, but I haven’t decided which one yet.

I think that if I go to any conferences next year (I’ve decided not to this year — I’ll be on deadline, and this time I think the $$$ would probably be better spent on DEMON MOON promo. If DEMON MOON came out after RWA National, I’d probably re-think that, because then I could talk to booksellers and readers in person … but since it comes out before, I’d miss that pre-release window) I’ll be looking for a screenwriting-type of panel to attend, and I’ll be looking for any screenwriting books over the next couple of days. I’ll report back if I find any gems.

Just…..

*whack*

*whack*

(Vague, but satisfying to get it out — for me at least. Let’s just leave it at: I’m an idiot.)

…in other news, I had this for dessert tonight:

Thanks, Arti

Usually when I say that, it’s a bad thing. But in this case, I’ve just been working on the page proofs for DEMON MOON, and having a great time. I must have read through it five more times this week, and I still love the characters and the story. It’s long, it’s long, it’s long, but I haven’t yet found myself skimming through any sections. I think that’s good. They went out by FedEx this afternoon (after it took 10 days for my last overnight express to get to my publisher, the Post Office is dead to me.)

Now it’s back to DEMON NIGHT, and trying to use Jaci Burton’s idea of fast-drafting through the remainder of the first draft. I’ve never tried that before (I usually edit as I go along) but I’m going to attempt it … and if I find myself freaking out, I still have lots of time to do it as I usually would, because the deadline isn’t until the end of May. And in the background, I’ll be making up ARCs for DEMON MOON to send to booksellers (which means getting binding/quotes from various copy/printer shops) formatting the e-ARCs to send to reviewers, and getting ready to promote the hell out of it.

In other news, I’ve been tagged to mention 10 weird things about myself. I can’t think of 10 things, so I might add to this as I go along.

1-5, you can find here.

6. If I’m wearing pants or jeans I cannot tolerate the hem of my pant being caught in any way by my shoes. The tongue of my tennis shoes? The heel? *all-over-body shudder* If I notice it, I will do ANYTHING to get the pant to fall straight again. Which is why I usually wear flip-flops or boots, or my handy little Doc Martens that are way comfortable and sit flush against my feet.

7. Okay, I’m out of weird things.

Not tagging anyone, because I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been tagged. And because I’m morally opposed to tagging. (Ooh! that can be #7!)

7. I’m morally opposed to tagging.

Gah! I can’t wait to read this. Joss has an interview with CBR here — including a few preview pages of the Buffy comic.

It still doesn’t make up for Wonder Woman *sob* … but it does help.