Tag Archives: Decked with Holly

Hungarians and my Visibility Vest for Losers!!!

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Hey everyone!

I have some seriously awesome news!

Decked with Holly is going into a second printing in Hungary!

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And yeah, I did this when I found out the good news.

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That isn’t all! My Hungarian publisher just showed me the cover art for Invisible because *drumroll please* they will be releasing it in October!

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VISIBILITY VEST FOR LOSERS!!!!

That is really the translation for the title. And you know what? I LOVE IT! I love absolutely everything about it!

And I give most of the credit to my Hungarian fans for making this happen. (Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think I could possibly love my Hungarian publisher more than I already do. I’m so grateful for all the hard work they have put into this!) At the end of the day, my Hungarian readers proved to the publisher that they really wanted to read Jane’s story. They told their friends about my books who told their friends about my books…

They are the reason Awkward and Decked with Holly are both in second printings!

Which is incredibly exciting because it makes it even more likely that Notable will be translated next!

I know. I know. I’m getting ahead of myself. But can’t you picture Chelsea maneuvering her way onto bookshelves in Hungary like this….?

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And then she could shake off the haters like this….

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No? Too geeky? Fair enough. Maybe Chelsea is just imitating Mackenzie…

My point is that your purchases can make a world of difference! Oh, and did I mention that most of my books are on sale right now? Because they are $2.99 on Amazon right now…

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You might want to bunny-hop over there and buy them now…

Last but certainly not least: I did an interview with Bitch Magazine recently! I sat in front of a fancy microphone and discussed writing and everything. You can catch my interview (Oh yeah, and listen to P.C. and Kristin Cast and Malinda Lo, which is just…they are so awesome! *mind explodes*) right here!

Awkwardly yours,

Marni

THE COOLEST PLACE ON EARTH!!! (aka the RWA convention!)

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Hey everyone!

Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin. I am having the best time of my life at the Romance Writers of America conference. I mean, I was a little worried that I had built it up too much in my head. Seven years is a long time to fantasize about what it might be like, and I was bracing myself for disappointment.

It has exceeded all of my expectations.

Yesterday, I enjoyed a talk by Simone Elkeles (author of Perfect Chemistry) before I headed off for the Literacy signing.

Now that was insane.

(Picture is from the signing last year. I was too busy geeking out to take any photos)

It was essentially an enormous convention hall full of my all time favorite authors.

And I was free to romp among them!

I geeked out.

Hardcore.

It was quite possibly one of the best moments of my life. I started wandering the rows of authors, grinning like a loon, as I stalked located my all-time favorites.

It was actually quite challenging because I kept getting distracted by all the amazing authors around me.

For all you romance fans: I was able to chat with…

Victoria Dahl (known for her kickass Regency and Contemporary books. Also for her hilariously awesome tweets).

Tessa Dare (known for her hilarious historical romances. I mean, the sheep bombing! Inspired.)

Julia Quinn (Her romance novels are what hooked me on the genre. Absolutely amazing!)

Julie James (one of her characters is known as the Twitter Terrorist. Need I say more?)

Jennifer Estep (a wonderful writer in my KTeen family!)

 

…and Susan Andersen (Awesome author. Nicest person you will ever meet!)

All of them were absolutely wonderful.

AND THERE WERE SO MANY AWESOME PEOPLE!

I’ve got to say that I still think meeting Tessa Dare was the highlight of my RWA trip so far. I was waiting in line at her booth and she glanced at me and yelled, “Marni Bates!”

Then she ran around her booth so that she could give me a big hug.

I’m not even kidding.

If anyone starts talking smack to me about wasting time on Twitter, I’m going to point out that it allowed me to become friends with Tessa Dare.

She’s totally going to win the RITA for A Night to Surrender. I know she doesn’t think she’s going to get it, but she is wrong. Her novel completely deserves to win.

I’d also like to mention that all of my Twitter friends have been awesome in real life. I met my fellow KTeen author, Brigid Kemmerer, last night and I can’t wait to spend more time with her at our signing at Vroman’s on Saturday!

I know it only just started, but I never want to leave.

Seriously.

If spending the rest of my life in the Marriot with super-agents Laurie McLean and Pam Van Hylckama-Vlieg was an option, I would totally sign up for it. I can’t express how amazing it feels to be in such a supportive atmosphere.

And now I need to find New York Times Bestselling author Stephanie Laurens so that I can give her an ARC of Decked with Holly. Because she asked to read it.

Geeking out so freaking hard!

More later!

~Marni

A Pirate’s Life for Me!

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Hey everyone!

So I arrived safely in Los Angeles…without my suitcase.

Which wasn’t actually the crisis I feared because LAX drove it out to Ventura later that same night.

That said, I definitely had a momentary freakout when I pictured strolling into the RWA conference with absolutely nothing clean to wear.

On the plus side: I knew I still had fifteen ARCs of Decked with Holly with me.

On the negative side: um, I kinda wanted my clothes too.

But it all worked out!

(Marni releases a huge sigh of relief)

And today I went adventuring!

Marni and Emily are the classiest pair at the Pirate Festival!

See, my visit to Ventura lined up perfectly with the Pirate Festival! So I put on my most pirate-y outfit and headed out with me matey!

That’s when I got into a wee bit o’ trouble…

Kidnapped by the pirates!

I may have inadvertently mentioned that the spin-off sequel to Awkward takes place on the high seas…and that’s when they ordered me to hand it over.

I would post more about my adventures here but…my computer doesn’t want to let me do that.

So here’s the deal: you can check out my pirate adventure by following me on Twitter.

Which totally sounds like I’m just using my pirate adventure to get a bajillion followers on Twitter…I promise, that’s not the case.

Then again…can you really trust the word of a pirate?

More later, mateys!

Love,

Marni

California Scheming (aka Marni’s Airport Adventures!)

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Hey everyone!

I am heading to Los Angeles today!

Which means all of you get a very funny airport story.

So I had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 5:15 today. Okay, so it was supposed to be 5:00 but my alarm clock was a little, erm, easy for me to dismiss.

Maybe I just need a crocodile to come with my alarm clock like in Peter Pan. That might be effective!

Anyhow after scurrying around my room like a crazed person (or a slightly neurotic person who absolutely has to get to an airport at least an hour before her flight) I managed to shove my enormous suitcase into the car and drive off into the sunrise.

My trusty suitcase. It’s been with me since high school.

Well…my mom did the driving because I failed the exam last week. But that’s another story…

I looked kinda like this. Except, you know, not so blonde and significantly more freaked out. Then again, it was Friday the 13th! 

Where was I?

Right.

The airport.

My mom dropped me off with a big hug and a grin as she told me (and I quote): “Give Tessa Dare a kiss from me.”

Um…right. Because that’s a great way to put one of my favorite authors at ease when I meet her at the Romance Writer’s Conference.

Not that I’m geeking out about attending or anything. Who me? Nah.

I’m totally playing it cool.

But my mom’s mission of making me laugh (at 6am no less) was a success and I hurried over to the check my bag with a big ol’ grin on my face. That’s when I discover my checked bag was roughly 7 lbs overweight. Probably because I stuffed almost all of my Decked with Holly advanced reader copies inside of it.

Coming to stores soon! AIYEEEE!!! So excited!

And unless I wanted to pay an extra $100, I had some major rearranging to do.

Let’s just say that airport security was significantly less excited to see twenty copies of Decked with Holly than I was when they arrived.

Still, I refused to let a little problem like an overweight bag get me down. I greeted TSA very nicely (Word to the wise: never piss off people that can give you a full body search) and made my way to the gate.

Where I sat all by myself.

Because there was nobody there.

I’m talking ghost-town levels of nobodiness. You know, when you see tumbleweed roll across an empty road and you think, wow, that place is dead quiet.

Yeah, that’s the Medford Airport at 6am.

But being of the nervous/neurotic temperament, I started freaking out when it looked like the flight was supposed to be boarding within the next fifteen minutes, and I was still completely alone.

Okay, so I took a few dozen photos with my ARCs of Decked with Holly first. 

Which is when my lovely new TSA friends pointed out that I had booked a 7PM flight.

Translation: I woke up at 5:15 for nothing!!!!!

Oh, and instead of picking a convenient time for my best friends’ parents to pick me up from the airport, I had scheduled the worst time possible!

*Headdesk*

So I had to walk back to the baggage counter, site of my earlier display of book related idiocy, and explain that, yes, I understood that I royally effed up.

Then I called my mom who had a good laugh at my expense.

Gee, thanks, Mom! Don’t think I’ll forget that the next time you ask me to be a freaking bobbin in the 4th of July parade!

But a little computer magic later…and I’m waiting to board my new flight.

One that should get me to LA exactly when my friends’ parents expected to get me.

So…nobody needs to know this ever happened, right?

Well, except for all of you!

I’ll be sure to update my blog lots to capture all the RWA madness that is about to happen.

Good times ahead, folks…

Oh, wait. New announcement. My flight is delayed and the likelihood that I’ll be making my connection looks pretty grim.

Sigh…

Love,

Marni

Here’s Some Ridiculousness for You!

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Hey everyone,

I debated whether I wanted to share my 4th of July photos with all of you.

Part of me was like, “Um…Marni? You’re going to the Romance Writers of America conference soon! You want to be taken seriously. Maybe you should, you know…not share everything.”

And then I realized that everyone who reads this blog already knows how geeky I am! So my parade pictures aren’t exactly going to come as some big shock.

I mean, if I wanted to hide my high geek quotient…I probably shouldn’t have shared my celebrity stalker journals “idea notebooks” here.

A sneak peek at Decked with Holly! That’s Dominic Wyatt on a cruise ship. That’s right: he’s on a boat.

Plus, I totally posted about the time I forced the UPS guy to take a photo with me. To be fair, he was handing me the copyedits for Awkward…

And he was never to be seen again.

Probably because I don’t tend to stalk mail-carriers.

Then there was the time I spent 12 straight hours in the Lewis & Clark computer lab creating these:

I still look back at that night fondly. That whole month, actually. Roughly 94% of the Lewis & Clark people I shared them with, loved it. The other 6% placed bets as to when a cease and desist/ restraining order would be issued.

But I like geeking out with all of you. So here it is:

Yep. I was the “Dancing Spool of Thread” in the Sew Creative parade entry. You can’t tell from the picture but I was wrapped in blue yarn to emphasize, you know, my spool-iness.

I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that it is not easy to dance with a huge cardboard circle around your waist. And that when I absent-mindedly imagined running into old high school classmates, it was not bedecked as a spool of thread.

But I earned so many daughter points.

So it was worth it.

Anyhow, I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!

Sincerely,

Marni

Hotties of Literature!!!!!

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Hey everyone!

Okay, so a bunch of authors have agreed to blog about one of our favorite topics today: hot guys!

Gah! It's just so much cuteness!

Gah! It’s just so much cuteness!

Where was I? Oh, right. Hot guys.

So I spend a lot of my time thinking about what makes a guy attractive. It’s one of the things I love most about my job. And while I know some people may scoff and start muttering to themselves something along the lines of this girl needs to get a life, just hear me out.

I think what we read does affect the way we live. Which isn’t to say that after reading Harry Potter you should try to play quidditich.

Still laughing!

But I do think that books (and movies) send strong messages to their readership about how men and women should behave. So when I write my novels I definitely spend a lot of time trying to find the line between confidence (hot) and arrogance (erm, no).

It’s surprisingly hard!

I think most people agree that Edward Cullen overdoes it with Bella by being on the creepy side of protective. But wanting to make sure that your friends, you know, live to see the ending?

Super attractive!

So when I first started writing I had this small epiphany. I like my guys the way I like my girls: witty, snarky, flawed, and willing to fight for what they believe in.

And yeah, that means I like my guys to have some personal damage. That’s what makes them feel real to me. It’s also what makes me fall in love with them. If Logan Beckett wasn’t so touchy about needing a tutor, I wouldn’t have been able to finish writing Awkward. I would’ve stared at the screen and yelled “Stop being so freaking perfect all the time!”

Because perfection is boring.

But you’re here for the pictures of hot guys, right? So let’s begin!

Zach Gilford.

Um, swoon! I think it’s the grin. It’s part confident and part sweet and full on adorable! Small confession: Zach Gilford is the reason I watched Friday Night Lights. Larger confession: I didn’t exactly watch Friday Night Lights. I skipped the football stuff so I could get to the good parts. You know, like every scene with Zach Gilford sans football uniform.

Although I soon learned that watching only the high school drama parts of Friday Night Lights earns a girl absolutely no cool points with the members of her college football team.

Sigh.

Still…while Zach has just the right amount of adorable, I think he’s too old to play Logan. The guy was pushing believability as a high school student even back with Friday Night Lights was on the air.

So let’s check out a different FNL hottie:

Matt Lauria.

If you’re wondering why I seem oddly fixated with the guys from this show, I’d like to point out that that they managed to get the largest collection of hot unknown actors to join the cast.

Like Grey Damon.

I’m a little afraid to post a picture of him here since YA rockstar Brigid Kemmerer has told me (repeatedly) that he belongs to her. She may have told me to stop ogling her protagonist without permission. Although, I think her exact words were: MINE, MARNI. MINE MINE MINE.

But…can’t look away! So. Much. Hotness.

*Fans self*

Damn. The good ones always go quickly. Which is why I’m staking my claim right now on…

Logan Lerman!

For the record: the name thing is a total coincidence. I did not have him in mind when I wrote Awkward. He’s ridiculously perfect for the role though. The sexy smirk? Check. The effortless hot factor?

Um, yeah. I think he has that too!

I didn’t stumble across Logan Lerman until I was writing Decked with Holly (my holiday sequel spin-off which will be released this September!) and that’s when I fell under his spell.

Here’s the embarrassing part.

I made a collage. To be fair, it’s not all devoted to Logan Lerman. I used it to plot out the novel and…it looks like I’m a stalker.

(Hey Logan. Um, just in case you’re reading this…I swear, I’m not a deranged fan. Really.)  

I took this picture a year ago and as you can see not a lot has changed.

Yeah…it’s still pretty embarrassing. But the collage totally helped! Decked with Holly is the funniest of my novels and since I’m still swooning over Nick Wyatt, I must have done something right. For those of you who read the teaser at the end of Awkward, I pictured Emma Roberts playing Holly and Molly Quinn as Jen.

Although I’m always interested in hearing who you would cast in those roles!

I don’t want to spoil anything for future readers so I’m going to attempt casting three of my favorite YA hotties:

1. Rob Wilkins from Meg Cabot’s 1-800-WHERE-R-U series.

(A young Ian Somerhalder!)

Why is he hot? Well, there’s the dark mussed hair, the piercing blue eyes, the confidence, oh, and the motorcycle! He’s a good guy who is willing to break into a government compound to bust out the girl he met in detention. Rob might not be good when it comes to actually discussing his feelings, but he’s always solid in a crisis.

2. Ash from Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series.

Okay, so this is kind of cheating because I know Julie so I’m 95% sure she would cast…

Ben Barnes! (I’m guessing she likes his hair longer, but I think it’s sexier this way.

So what makes Ash sexy? Correction: what makes Ash so sexy that he distracted me from the wildlife in Africa?

For starters, he’s a prince among faeries. He’s got a sly smile, a quick wit, and he’s a crazy good kisser.

Or so I’ve read.

He’s also noble and sweet, with a sensitive streak that I find utterly charming.

Which brings us to our final hottie!

3. Colin from Torn and Tangled by Erica O’Rourke.

Matthew Goode.

Not sure if Erica will agree with me about the casting (I’ll be sure to post her response) but here’s why I think Matthew Goode captures Colin’s off-the-charts sexiness.

He’s got that skeptical look, which makes you rethink decisions…but he’s also going to back you no matter what happens.

Colin has made some decisions in the past that are making his life very difficult in the present. And the fact that he’s hired to bodyguard a girl seeking vengeance for the death or her best friend isn’t going to help matters. But he does what he thinks is right and that’s why I’m completely in love with him.

Plus he’s ridiculously sexy.

(Side note: Jenn Rush (author of Altered and Bot Wars) believes that Colin is destined for disappointment. She thinks Luc will get the girl in the end…but she couldn’t be more wrong. I think. Poor Erica will have to listen to a lot of grumbling no matter what happens!)

Anyhow, that’s all the sexiness I can handle right now!

I hope you join the conversation by tweeting with the hashtag #HottiesofLit today! Or if you don’t feel comfortable with Twitter, maybe you can leave a picture of a hot guy here for me? I’ve got a novel to write and I can always use some hot male inspiration!

~Marni

P.S. Don’t forget to check out these blogs for more hotness!

Jenn Rush’s Blog

Brigid Kemmerer’s Blog

Julie Kagawa’s Blog