Darkhouse on Goodreads
Red Fox on Goodreads
Dead Sky Morning on Goodreads
The Benson on Goodreads
Lying Season on Goodreads
On Demon Wings on Goodreads
Old Blood on Goodreads
Into the Hollow on Goodreads


Wednesday, May 25, 2011

WE HAVE A WINNER(s)

And it's the Vancouver Canucks!


Man, I thought I was going to die watching the game last night. The Canucks haven't been to the semi-finals, let alone the finals of the Stanley Cup, since 1994. In 1994, we beat the Maple Leafs in Round 5 in Double Overtime to advance to the finals.

Last night? We beat the San Jose Sharks in Round 5 in Double Overtime to advance to the finals.

Despite being despised by the rest of Canada (something about don't hate us (Vancouver) because we are beautiful? Or is that we aren't Canadian enough... can't figure that one out), and despite being made fun of for years by Oilers Fans and Leafs fans and whatnot, The Vancouver Canucks are going to the Stanley Cup finals. Are we Canada's team? Apparently not. But fuck 'em all, we love our team and we'll stick with them - no matter WHAT the outcome (mark my words). The rest of Canada can grumble about it and be bitter all they want. We've waited for this moment for 17 years and we are going to enjoy it. (Besides, isn't better to embrace the love and let go of the hate?)

So here's to Vancouver, here's to the Canucks, here's to Bieksa with his shots, shots, shots, shots, shots and to Kesler for being hot, and to Burrows for being a twitchy French Tom Cruise and to Luongo for being amazing and to the sisters for being ginger robots, and all the rest of them.

Of course, after the win, we had to run out the door and walk to Granville Street where all the action was:



It's going to be a FUN couple of weeks here.

OH and the Canucks weren't the only winners here! Arbyn won the tights giveaway! Congrats, email me your contact info (well, your address) and I'll get Tights Please to ship it out to you asap!


OH OH OH and until May 31st, I'm having a giveaway for my book, Darkhouse, over at GoodReads. So far over 400 people have entered, (I am very flattered), and I have five copies to give away, so if you want to get in on that (I suggest you visit here: http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/10947-darkhouse

Monday, May 16, 2011

Blog Giveaway - Tights Please!

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Want a chance to win THREE pairs of Red or Dead tights of your choice from Tights Please (valued at 35 Pounds)?

Simply leave a comment below telling me either A) Your most embarrassing moment with tights (ei, tucking your skirt into them ALA ME or getting a run in the wrong place) or B) what kind of tights you'd like to win.

To get an idea of what tights you could win, peruse the Tights Please website They have all kinds of tights and what's really hot right now are stockings... stockings in pastels are just perfect for spring (like the ones I'm wearing in the photo above), but of course you can't go wrong with black stockings either!


Tights please will ship to my readers in the UK, Canada and the USA. Contest will only run until Friday, so get in this tights contest while you can!

I'm in San Francisco at the moment do a combination of music and book type things, but I'll be blogging shortly. Lot's of good updates to share, especially in wake of DARKHOUSE PUBLISHING WEEK! Woo hoo! Still can't believe my novel has been published... unreal. If you missed out on that, please visit the novel's website here or check out the blog post below :)

Friday, May 13, 2011

MY BOOK IS PUBLISHED - also VLOG!


I wrote this post out once and stupid Blogger went all weird yesterday... like ALL day, and then in the end, erased it. Le Sigh. They say it'll come again - maybe - maybe not, but you know, this post WAS kind of timely and all.

Anyway, I'm keeping this short, this time around.

My first novel, Darkhouse, the first book in the Experiment in Terror Series, is out today. Friday the 13th of May, 2011.

I started writing the book in October 2009 as part of a 30-day challenge write something every day. 30 days turned into six weeks and Darkhouse was born (under a different title, at the time). You may recall me blogging about it.. a lot.

Since then I went on to write the next two books in the series and then decided, you know what, screw applying to publishers or agents. This is the NOW age, I don't want to lose control over my work, I don't want to wait till 2013 for the first one to come out. I need to do this now, strike while the iron's hot.

So I started my own publishing company, Metal Blonde Books (HORNS UP!)



Logo by Dale De Ruiter


Spent many months of 12-hour work days and whatnot, just figuring out how to fucking do all of this on my own. From the layout (grrrr), to cover design, to starting a business, to copy-editing, to rewriting, to printing, to distribution, to webdesign, to marketing, to PR... yeah. It's not easy at all. It's actually been ...astoundingly hard.

But that makes today all that more sweeter. Because, even if the risk I took doesn't pay off, even if people hate the book... fuck em! I did this ALL ON MY OWN and the fact that today, it sees the light of day... it means I HAVE ALREADY WON.

This is most I've ever accomplished...and I'll never forget that. To me, Darkhouse, is already a success.

Of course, by watching the video below, you might think the book's name is DARKHO! I had a good chuckle at that one. You'll probably also have a good chuckle at what a... as my BF and Bart Simpson say... Dorkus Molorkus I am.



For all information on the book and the series visit www.experimentinterror.com

You can read Chapter Three there for free (or just click here)

You can buy the books on Createspace, Amazon and the E-versions at Smashwords.

Thanks a bunch!

ALSO come back on Monday, I'm doing a giveaway for some really cool tights from TightsPlease! :)

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Darkhouse - The Book Trailer

HEY LOOK I AM BACK! Blogging, yep. You thought that EPIC blog post below about my crazy roadtrip and Lars and Slayer and giraffes and Blackjack and whatever was enough, but you're wrong.

Cuz, here we go... the trailer for my first book, Darkhouse. And just so you don't get confused, apparently all books now have book trailers. Some of them are just like excerpts from a book reading, others are narration. Mine's a movie type deal - fitting, I thought, because in the book, the protagonist Perry Palomino records some pretty fucked up shit on her camera (spooky stuff in a lighthouse) and ends up blogging about it, complete with YouTube videos that go viral. Within days, she's an internet star and attracts the attention of producer, Dex Foray, who wants to work with her on a ghost hunting web series... the rest is history.

Will this do the same? Who knows...



Major thanks to Mollie Caselli for flying up to Vancouver to help me with this. Aside from a few half-assed ideas and storyboards(heh), this was pretty much her whole thing. From the shooting, to helping me direct, to the editing, to the sound mixing, to producing, etc...

Also thanks to Talar Kalaidjian and Andrew Barber for being brave actors - they fought through seasickness (and lost - their lunch... well one of them did) and the waviest seas I'd ever seen in English Bay.

Also big thanks to Bill Gould, for very generously granting me permission to use his music from the upcoming The Talking Book album (out May 24 on www.koolarrow.com) - it really helped set the scene :)

By the way, the book is published in print and e-book format this Friday, the 13th. Visit www.experimentinterror.com for more information. And look for my dorky, first-ever, VLOG this Friday!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

April - in a very large nutshell

Last month was April. It was a whirlwind. I mean, I went on a 3,000 Mile road trip with my crappy hunk of crap car. I saw Queens of the Stone Age, Deftones AND The Big Four. I stayed in Portland, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Palm Springs. I got to party with Lars Ulrich. And somewhere along the way, we shot the trailer for the second book in my book series. But for the most part, I just sat back in the non-airconditioned car and listened to tunes. For a very quick recap of what April was for me... well, here we go:


I left Vancouver on April 9th, crossed the border and flew out of Seattle to San Francisco (as per usual, it seems)

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Saw Queens of the Stone Age in Oakland, CA. Wrote my review (here)

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Flew back to Seattle. Met up with Le BF. Saw the Deftones in Seattle. Wrote about it here. Met band again (this time my BF got to meet them - yay!)

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Drove through shit Oregon weather for 8 hours (major accidents on I-5)

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To get to Ashland, Oregon

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Next day we hit Lake Shasta

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And then Sacramento, where we both got hit with the flu

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Essentials for sore throats and road trips

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In Fresno, heading for Tulare, California...

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Now road tripping to Las Vegas

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This pose, with this bear, by this tree, is now tradition

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Stop at MAD GREEK





Vegas!

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Had a whirlwind tour of Vegas with fellow blogger A Crazy Princess (she and her Prince Charming helped us win $150 at Blackjack - first time I ever played and on $20)

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Then drove like hell to Palm Springs

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to meet with my filmmaker friend in time to shoot the trailer for the second book.

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A few precious days relaxing in Palm Springs, my parent's new condo all to ourselves. Ahh bliss









Then the zoo...it was really hot out

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And The Big Four! Ultra VIP for the win! Jerry Cantrell again! Lombardo again! Slayer from sidestage! And one impressed BF. Oh and I wrote about it here

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Next day, had to leave back to Sacramento

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A night at the haunted Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon





Home just in time to watch the Canucks beat the Blackhawks in Game 7 of the playoffs (lucky shirt helped)



AND THAT WAS MY FREAKING APRIL.

Now May, well MAY IS ANOTHER STORY. And I'm not even halfway through it. A lot has to do with, Oh, I don't know MY BOOK BEING PUBLISHED. Here's the front and back cover, in case you missed my Facebook and Tweets about it:

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Oh and speaking of Facebook, please like it. People who like Experiment in Terror do 50% better in life than people who don't. Or something to that affect. Plus people who like it on Facebook get exclusive access to autographed copies... just sayin' ;P



SO here's the thing. My book will published this Friday, May 13th. I can't believe I'm actually (god willing) going to make this deadline.

I'll be posting the Trailer for DARKHOUSE here as soon as it's ready. Also, I'll be blogging here again before Friday to tell you where you can read a sample chapter of the book for free, where the E-book and print books are available and all that stuff.

And I should probably do a video blog (VLOG! My first one) too.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is... come back. I miss you all!