Demon Derby jacket copy...and a cover reveal!

I'm so excited. (And I just can't hide it.)

Sorry. I've just given MYSELF an earworm, and I wanted to share the love. We're going all monster disco up in here.

Kind of like this only not as awesome, because nothing is as awesome as this.

Anyway. I'm extra excited today, because I've gotten the okay to share the jacket copy for DEMON DERBY...and we'll be revealing the cover in just a few weeks! First, la copy. I know I've been talking about this one for a while, and usually the excitement makes me so incoherent that in all likelihood you have no idea what the bleeping thing is about. Here. This will clear it all up.

Casey kicked cancer’s ass. Now a demon wants to kick hers. . . .

Casey hates being known as the girl who survived cancer. She wants people to treat her like her old self, fearless and strong. And after a creepy encounter with a crazy guy in an alley, Casey is all about reclaiming her power.

So when she has a chance to try out for the Apocalypsies roller derby team, she jumps on it. Being a derby girl would prove that she doesn’t need anybody’s pity. It doesn’t hurt that Michael, the team manager, is almost unnaturally hot. Which makes sense when Casey finds out that he’s not even human.

Michael’s got a secret: he trains demon hunters. That crazy guy in the alley? Demon. And the fact that Casey went head to head with evil and lived makes her a threat to demonkind. Casey thought she’d already fought and won the battle of her lifetime. But it’s only beginning. . . .

From Carrie Harris, author of Bad Taste in Boys and Bad Hair Day, comes a knockout new read for anyone facing their own demons—inside and out.

ZOMGSOEXCITEDTOTALLYINCOHERENTINALLCAPSAAAAAAAAAA!

Er...yeah. Anyway, as you might imagine, I was pretty neurotic about the cover for this book. It's such a special book to me (and yeah, all my book-kids are special, and you're not supposed to have a favorite, but SUE ME IT'S MY FAVORITE). I try not to get the covers all built up in my head, but of course I do it anyway, and I quite literally had heart palpitations when I opened the file for the first time.

Guys, it's PERFECT. It's the most awesome cover in the history of the universe, and there are demony shadows on it, and fire, and roller skates, and AWESOME. Did I mention it's awesome?

Anyway, I'm so excited about this that I wanted to plaster it all over the internet so I can go to blogs and SQUEAL with ALL THE PEOPLE. Would you like to sign up so I can squeal at you? (Hrgh. That sounded wrong. But you know what I mean, right?) Go here to sign up to participate!

Can-can girls, Voltron, and...a New Job?

You know it's an important announcement when it's announced by a bunch of celebrities dancing the can-can in drag. And also me.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

That's right! More excitement at the Casa de Harris! I'm the new Marketing Manager over at Evil Hat Productions, and I'm pre-casting the movie about our lives (hint: I didn't pick those dancers for no reason), and if this video is right, I am secretly a man. This last part is news to me too.

But seriously. Evil Hat is all about games and stories and GAMES WITH STORIES IN THEM and BOOKS THAT COME WITH GAMES and I have to tell you that there's a game coming out with Sally Slick in it, and I took one look at it and squealed because I am writing about a character that will be in a real game with game tokens and stuff, and is it just me or is that freaking cool!?!?! WHO WANTS TO COME OVER AND PLAY IT?

At some point, I'll have to tell you all about how I got this job, but the short version is that it happened because I am on twitter and because I am pushy. But when I talk to the people at Evil Hat, I don't call it "pushy." I call it "really excited about the possibilities of spreading the word about your awesome products and also very pushy."

In short, I'm super excited. If the gushing here hasn't communicated it fully, you can go to the Evil Hat site and read the announcement there in which I decide we're Voltron. THE PINK LION IS MINE, DAMN IT! MINE!!!!!!!!

WriteOnCon is live!

So you know that feeling where you are acquainted with some really cool people, all of whom are friends, and they're always doing cool things, and you would like to do those cool things too, but you are decidedly not cool and entirely certain that if you showed up to do those things, they would immediately spot you as the poser you are...or worse, take out a restraining order?

If you followed that entire sentence, you deserve a cookie.

Anyway, that's kind of how I've always felt about the people at WriteOnCon. They are uber cool, and I've always loved the whole idea of hosting an online convention to give back to other writers. After all, we were all newbies once, right? It takes some big brass clangers to leap out into publishing knowing the odds, and that's the kind of thing I think deserves some serious respect. Also, the phrase "big brass clangers" has always made me laugh.

Let me tell you, when Elana Johnson of WOC fame emailed me to discuss this idea for a midwinter WOC PitchFest, I had a hysterical fit. GUYS, THAT MEANS I AM COOL BY ASSOCIATION. I HAVE NEVER BEFORE BEEN COOL. THIS IS THE KIND OF SITUATION THAT DESERVES A COMMEMORATIVE T-SHIRT. I DO NOT HAVE A COMMEMORATIVE T-SHIRT, SO INSTEAD I AM WEARING ONE THAT SAYS "NERD." IRONIC, RIGHT? WHY AM I STILL SHOUTING?

The point of this whole rambling thing is that the WriteOnCon PitchFest opens today! It starts with a pitch workshop--the perfect time to refine your book description and wow the commemorative t-shirts off everyone who reads it. Then, during the PitchFest itself, your work will be read by agents...and published authors...and bloggers...and readers. All of these people will vote and advocate for the pitches they want to see published. That pitch could be yours.

Obviously, if you aren't an aspiring writer but ARE an agent, published author, book blogger, or reader of things that are not this blog, this is an opportunity for you to become involved in the process! Cast your vote, make a stand, shout your love of that book about the wombat-vampire-pirate love triangle! Then when it hits the shelves, you can say, "Yeah, that's kind of my fault."

What are you waiting for? Checketh outeth WriteOnConeth NOW. ETH.

As for me, I'm going to be running around like this all day:




Sorry. It's seasickness distilled on video, but it's FUNNY seasickness!

Life Gets in the Way

I've heard this phrase before. Lots of times. And yeah, I get it. Today's the third snow day for our district in the past couple of weeks, and that on top of the fact that February already has lots of vacation days in it, plus that thing where the car window got stuck open the night it decided to rain...and then freeze...and then rain a little, plus projects new and old that are plenty exciting but a little O_o when considered en masse? It could easily get in the way of writing dreams (or insert other dream here but not THAT kind of dream because this blog is PG-13, thanks).

Waiting for circumstances to be perfect to chase the dream never works. So you just have to inject the dream into your life. This explains why my kids play zombie tag, and why a lot of their stories from school have to do with killing vampires, and why I woke up this morning to THIS:

It's INSPIRATIONAL. How can you not write when faced with brilliance on this level? What are you using to inspire yourself lately?

Psychobilly Sally

I'm not usually the kind of person who spends days on Pinterest trying to assemble the perfect collage of pictures to inspire my latest book. Although I have to say in complete honesty that this is because I haven't allowed myself to join Pinterest. I know it'll suck me in. It's the same reason I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook anymore. The games call my name, and I could lose an entire afternoon's worth of writing time just on those alone.

But as I get close to the dreaded middle of the project, where the honeymoon inevitably dies and you start to think it's all CRAP CRAP CRAPPITY CRAP, and just opening the file on the computer takes a major act of will, I start to look for a few inspirational bits. For Sally Slick, I've been listening to some psychobilly music. Again, in the interest of honesty, I listen to it anyway, but it seems to fit. I think of psychobilly as swing music for lunatics. It's full of monsters and zombies and girls with cherry red lips who always manage to get into trouble, and it cracks me up in all the best ways.

One caveat I have to make when recommending psychobilly is that it's tough to find songs without at least one swear word in them for some reason, and some bands feature a big old helping of sex and drug lyrics along with their rock and roll. But then you run into a band that's full of pure monster camp that you can dance to, and it's just the kind of thing that's perfect to inspire a book full of robot mafia and mad scientists and plucky girls who design racing tractors.

One of my personal favorites is Mad Marge and the Stonecutters. I'll be listening to it today while I write a fight scene.



What are you listening to lately?