February 27, 09 @ 10:14 am
It’s coverpalooza this week! Here’s the final cover for my first young adult fantasy, the first book in my Demon Princess series — out October ’09.
DEMON PRINCESS: Reign or Shine
For Nikki Donovan, being a teenager can be hell. Literally.
As if trying to fit in at a new school and navigating the social scene
isn’t enough stress for her, sixteen-year-old Nikki Donovan just found
out that her long-lost father is, in fact, the demon king of the
Shadowlands — the world that separates and protects ours from the
Underworld. When she is brought there by the mysterious — and surprisingly
cute — messenger Michael, she learns that her father is dying, and that he
wants her to assume the throne. To complicate matters, a war is brewing
between the Shadowlands and the Underworld, her half-demon qualities are
manifesting, and her growing feelings for Michael are forbidden. Ruling
a kingdom, navigating a secret crush, and still making it home by
curfew — what’s a teenage demon princess to do?
February 26, 09 @ 4:30 pm
I’m shamelessly soliciting advice and comments on how to plan a series over at the League of Reluctant Adults today…
Also, check out Amanda Ashby’s blog party to celebrate her upcoming YA release THE ZOMBIE QUEEN OF NEWBURY HIGH. I’ve read it and it’s fab. I’m also guest blogging with her, um, tomorrow I think. And she’s coming here on March 5th to chat about her book.
February 25, 09 @ 4:02 pm
Speaking of Tall, Dark & Fangsome, it is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. The release date is exactly six months from today — August 25th! Woo hoo!
And I have my Romantic Times review for Stakes & Stilettos (which will be out at the end of March!). It got a four-star rating and this is what it says:
“High school reunions can be hell, but only Sarah Dearly could manage to get cursed at hers. Ãœber-talented Rowen is back and once again combining the weird and the wacky as only she can. There’s plenty of humor and a touch of danger; truly a biting good time!”
Dude. Ãœber-talented Rowen. I’ll take it. I’m putting that on my business cards (as suggested by my pal Jackie Kessler).
Today I’m working on the editorial revisions for Hot Spell, my Harlequin Blaze…should finish up by tomorrow, hopefully.
I’m also hoping American Idol is on tonight. It was totally pre-empted for Obama last night. Much as I love the new President and his speech-giving prowess, don’t get in the way of me and my Idol, man. That’s only a little better than getting between me and Lost or Supernatural. It’s so nice to have priorities.
And for anyone keeping track, after five weeks on Jenny Craig, I’ve lost a grand total of 6.8 lbs. Did somebody say…slow like snail? But it’s better than nothing. How I do wish I’d been able to stick to a diet back when my metabolism was still fresh and undamaged. But BYGONES!!! I’m over it. Plus, this diet? Rocks. I can have brownies and chocolate cheesecake! It’s all good.
February 23, 09 @ 5:36 pm
Same day I got the galleys for final proofing, I have my final cover art. I really love this one! Plus, anything that features both Thierry + Sarah is okay by me. 
It’s fairly perfect for the last book in the series, I think.
I iz happy.
Oh, and I should say this book will be out September ’09 (aka: six months from now!). I’d post the back cover copy but it has spoilers for Stakes & Stilettos (the two books are kind of one big story arc) so I’m going to wait until that’s out at the end of next month.
February 22, 09 @ 11:22 am
I know there’s something on TV tonight that sounded interesting, but I just can’t remember what it is or why I want to watch it…
Something about movies and awards or…hmmm….
And they have a new host this year. Huh. I just wish I could remember what it was. I’m sure it’ll come to me sooner or later…
February 20, 09 @ 5:17 pm
…or something like that.
I’m still waiting on approval to show off my cover art. It’s a-coming.
I’ve been struggling like a fish on a hook this week. Okay, enough lousy metaphors. I’m trying to get into the writing of REIGN CHECK and it’s been difficult. I wrote the first chapter already to go in the back of the first YA and that went fairly well, but now in chapter two…struggle, struggle. But the thing is, I always forget that I always struggle at the beginning of a new book. So I’m thinking, without remembering that I always struggle, what is wrong with me? I even made a promise to my Write-On group that I was going to be all fast-draft girl and do 20 pages a day. But that just petrified me even further. I cleaned my condo. I organized my bookshelf. I (almost) sorted through my tax info. That’s procrastination people! And that means one thing…something’s wrong.
And today I figured it out. Even though I have a synopsis for this book, I don’t have a scene by scene bullet point list. I need my scene by scene bullet point list!!! My synopsis is more of a vague overview of the action, not the action itself! I forgot that I am a plotter, not a pantser!!!
So, hooray. At least I know what’s wrong. I can fix this. This book is going to be hella fun to write as soon as I can get into it. Yes, I said hella.
The muse also landed today and gave me a new idea for another Harlequin Blaze. Not sure I have enough time at the moment to pursue this nugget of yum, but we’ll see. As always, the new idea is super shiny and distracting. Begone new idea!! BEGONE! (come back later)
Today I took a brain break and went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic. I’d just read the book last week for the first time…and I have to say…the book was much, much, MUCH better. I’m normally fairly satisfied with book to film interpretations (ie: Twilight and the Harry Potter movies) but IMHO this movie completely missed the point and the heart of the book.
***SPOILERS AHOY***
–the movie made the debt collector the bad guy! In the book he is simply an inconvenience, but ultimately, a helpful and non-evil person. The whole point of the book (I think) is that Rebecca is her own worst enemy. We don’t need to give that job to a two dimensional jerk
–the entire subplot of the investment company conning its clients out of their windfalls…that Rebecca writes the exposé on which both 1) gives her shallow life a purpose, and 2) ultimately leads to better earning. This was completely left out of the movie! How does she get her debt under control in the movie? She sells all of her stuff — earning enough to pay off her bills! I’m sorry, but that sale looked like about $2 million worth of product. So is she $2 million in debt? Nope. Just didn’t make sense to me. It felt unorganic to the character.
–Suze married Tarquin. Isn’t he supposed to be her cousin, or am I forgetting something? Couldn’t they have simply changed his unusual name (since he was completely different in the movie than the book) to take away the gross factor this caused?
–Luke’s “girlfriend” issue, which I thought was one of the funniest things in the book (when Becky found out she’d been shopping for another woman), and it’s simply brushed off.
–Also, Rebecca’s article that put her and Luke at odds on the morning talk show was one of the best, most tense, parts of the whole book!! GONE!!!!
Anyhow, I could go into more detail on why the movie didn’t work for me. Doesn’t matter. What did I like?
–Isla Fisher was perfect in the part, and would have been just as perfect had they decided to keep it in London, where it was supposed to be!!
–Hugh Dancy as Luke was fine with me, even though they’d changed his character a lot (editor for Successful Savings??) and forcibly shoved his character into way too many scenes in order to change this into a comedy romance. He’s no Hugh Jackman, but he’s not hard on the eyes.
–Also, LOVED the black and white coat Becky gave away to the homeless woman at the end. I want one. I do have some room on my Visa….but if my favorite part of a movie is a designer coat, that’s probably not a good thing.
February 14, 09 @ 11:32 pm
February 10, 09 @ 2:02 pm
Less than two months to go before STAKES & STILETTOS is released! I can’t wait! I feel like I wrote this book more than a year ago. Hey, I did! The deadline on it was actually January 1, 2008, believe it or not. So much has happened since then. I’ve written three (or four?) books since then, but I have to say S&S is probably my favorite of the Immortality Bites series. And I’m not just saying that because it’s my next release. Really. I’m hoping reviews will be good on it — but at the end of the day (don’t you just love that expression?) I’m very pleased with this book, as well as the last vamp book, TALL, DARK & FANGSOME, and gave it my all. Hopefully readers and fans of the previous books will be pleased.
I’ve received a couple of reviews on the book so far — one was super early so I held off on sharing it until now.
Jen’s Reviews says “Michelle Rowen’s books never fail to thrill. Her fourth (and still-fresh) installment of the Immortality Bites series, Stakes and Stilettos, is delightfully charming and keeps the wonderful mixture of tongue-in-cheek (is that tongue-in fang?) humor and well-fleshed-out plot that made her earlier books so entertaining. The story keeps you guessing, always twisting in unexpected ways.” More here
Coffee Time Romance (review won’t be on their site until closer to release date so I’m quoting the whole thing) says: “After centuries of living and multiple near-death experiences, Thierry de Bennicoeur is finally finding life worth living. His cold and emotionless exterior is slowing thawing with the help of a certain beautiful young fledgling.
Sarah Dearly, vampires extraordinaire? Not hardly, but she is trying really, really hard to feel normal despite her newfound existence.
Life as a vampire may not be what Sarah envisioned for her future, but with Thierry by her side, she feels confident that normality is possible. However this confidence is sorely shaken. Time and time again she is certain that the worst is behind her only to be blindsided at every turn. She may have finally found herself in a situation that even a master vampire cannot help her out of.
How many times do we find ourselves suffering the effects of foot-in-mouth-disease? Hopefully not as severely as poor Sarah, but she handles it all with the goofy sarcastic wit that we have come to love. Her life is bi-polar in the extreme and makes for a rollercoaster ride of excitement for the reader. You will be swept up in her emotional tilt-a-whirl from page one, and be begging for the next ride to begin.”
I’m really hoping I’ll get the go ahead to share the cover art for TALL, DARK & FANGSOME this week. Hands down, it’s my favorite cover yet.
February 05, 09 @ 1:09 pm
All finished going through my Demon Princess page proofs. My eyes hurt. I think I just might fill that prescription for reading glasses even though it pains me so to admit that my body is slowly but steadily falling apart. As long as I get really cool frames, I suppose I can justify it to myself.
As I read it, I made notes which then became what I refer to as my “Demon Princess Bible.” Nineteen pages (so far) of character descriptions, locations, things, and other stuff that’s referenced in the first book that I may need again. Also, there are some plot points mentioned and other story triggers that I can pick up again in the second book and beyond. This is going to be very valuable.
With my first series, I never knew it was going to be more than one book in the beginning until the next two were contracted. And so on. It made it more difficult to do long-term story planning than I would have liked, even though it all came together in the end (I think). However, there are no promises in this business, that’s for sure! I think taking the time up front to plan things out is super important if only to maintain my own sanity. Right now, I’m only contracted for two Demon Princess books, but if they do well enough to constitute more, then I’m ready with story arcs and character angst galore. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but I have an idea. And the world I’ve built for Nikki, the main character, is big enough to play in.
However, getting started is always so difficult! Why is that? I guess at this point, I’m not surrounded by story. I’m wading in and the water is cold. I want things to go perfectly even though I know they won’t. It’s impossible for a book to turn out as perfectly as one imagines it. And. That’s. Okay.
And as usual for when I’m about to start a new book, I’m now surrounded by other shiny ideas. But the difference between a million cute ideas and a finished book is FOCUS. And I haz it. Sort of.
So today I’m going to do some brainstorming. I’m going to play with first lines. And then hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be making some pages.
Also, after writing a full manuscript and a proposal in third person, it’s going to be fun to get back to first again. I may be acting like a sixteen year old for a couple of months. Well, more than normal, that is.
February 02, 09 @ 2:41 pm
I mentioned this in a post last week then hastily deleted it because I got the feeling it was supposed to be a secret. But secret no longer…yours truly is now a part of The League of Reluctant Adults — a group blog of 18 very strange, very awesome, and very talented urban fantasy and paranormal authors.
Also…there’s a forum! And I have a Michelle Rowen forum room thingie!
And in this forum room thingie I learned that Countdown has been nominated for a 2008 PEARL award for Best Futuristic! And that totally makes my day. So, y’know, join up if you wanna. No pressure. But it’ll be fun and stuff.
Other than learning about cool nominations and being part of blog relaunches, I’ve been catching up on my reader email.
Yesterday I spent a great deal of time casting all the characters in the second Demon Princess book I’m ON THE VERGE OF STARTING with Hollywood actor types. Because that’s how I roll. A little bird tells me the page proofs for book one are jetting my way as we speak. I kinda want to read those over before I dip my toe into new book waters. Or maybe I’m just procrastinating. In any case, I will be starting this book in earnest…sometime this week.
