Monster Bash: Shoe Nerdcrafts!

One of the things I've learned in the past year-and-a-half-ish of being a published writer is that teachers and their feet are saints. I have oodles and oodles of cute, monster themed shoes, and after one classroom presentation in them, my feet are ready to stage a coup and make a run for it. Or maybe a hobble. So anyway, I've been eyeing this set of instructions for nerd shoes for a while now. Here was an opportunity to make some cute monster themed shoes with less than a three inch heel that I could wear to events! And when I decided to do Monster Bash, this seemed like a great opportunity to give it a try and tell you how it went.

It went...like THIS:

Why, HELLO, slightly blurry Grable-themed hotness!

That's right. I now have a pair of ballet flats printed with my book covers and website images (thanks to the awesome Manning Krull). And they are CUUUUTE.

The actual instructions are pretty simple, and I plan to try it again with some comic books at some point. I'm thinking I really need a pair of Tick themed shoes. And if decoupage isn't really your thing, you can follow that link to get ideas for shoes that require the use of stencils and the ability to draw a straight line, which I'm not particularly good at.

The actual shoe makery was easier than I expected it to be. I probably spent an hour and a half on them not counting drying time, but that also included time trying to get my stupid printer to cooperate, so I think an hour would be reasonable, especially if you're cutting pictures out of comic books. The actual assembly wasn't too tough; I think you could give this project to tweens quite easily. Just make sure you use fairly good quality printer paper if you're printing your own pics. I think thin, cheap paper might rip, but I didn't have any problem with that, and I used regular copy paper from Staples.

Porous papers seem to work well; I didn't try any slick magazine type paper, but I suspect it would be fine too. I did learn that you might as well take the number of pictures you think you'll need to cover the shoes and multiply that by three. I also wish I would have picked a pair of shoes with an unadorned heel. This pair had a raised seam on the back that made it really tough to get the paper to stay where it was supposed to be.

But STILL.

AAAAH SUGAR LIPS THAT GO ON MY FEET!

I'd like to have a different pair for every day of the week. And that's all I have to say about that.

Don't forget to leave a comment! One random commenter on a Monster Bash post will win signed copies of all three Grable books! Let me know what kind of shoes you'd like to make!

Monster Bash Party Smash - Halloween Playlist

I love Halloween parties. One time, I went to a party where this guy was dressed up as a Twister board and kept going up to all the girls and shouting, "Right hand on yellow! Right hand on yellow!" This has nothing to do with why I love Halloween parties, but I thought it was funny. Anyway. Parties. The one thing about Halloween parties that sometimes gets me down is the music. Yes, I love the Monster Mash. OF COURSE I DO. But do we really need to play it at every single Halloween event in the universe? We do not. Because there are tons and tons of monster themed songs to choose from, and chances are pretty good that you haven't heard of them. So this year, instead of going to Target to buy one of the same old same old Halloween mixes for your party or to play outside the house while the kids are trick-or-treating, try out something different.

The following playlist is full of Halloween music, most of it campy and ridiculous because that's how I roll. If you're looking for scary thrash metal, this is not for you. (If all the neon pink and green didn't clue you in already.) People with small children, please take the time to go through the playlist before sitting them down to listen! There are a few bad words and people hitting people with mops and bloody yuck and people shooting zombies in the head. Even the little kids. That's a lyric from a song, so you don't need to call the men in white coats.




Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Let me know what you think of the music! What songs do you like the best? Remember, one random commenter on any Monster Bash post will win a signed collection of all three Grable books. WOOT.

Monster Bash Interview Smash: Play Attention Games

Welcome to more Monster Bash, now with fewer calories! Actually, it has no calories, unless you've been licking the screen, and if you've been doing that, I think you have bigger problems than weight loss.

ANYWAY. Today, I'm super happy to bring you a new monster-related interview today. This one is with my old friend Matt McFarland, with whom I once played a tabletop RPG in a hot tub, and he killed me. I was NOT happy about that. Well, I was happy about the hot tub, but otherwise it was made of suck. Now he's an owner of Play Attention Games, a new company that makes awesome creature-related games.

For those of you unfamiliar with tabletop RPGs, you really need to try them out. Think of it like an exercise in storytelling. You and a group of friends act out your characters, while the gamemaster/dungeonmaster/minor deity in charge gives you situations to deal with. RPGs have really grown since the days of old school D&D and its focus on gathering gold and killing gazebos. At least 3/4 of what I know about writing dialogue came from roleplaying. And it must work, because a lot of bookish peeps are into gaming. I once wrote for White Wolf games along with Dawn Metcalf, Ari Marmell, and Jim DiBartolo. I'm sure there are more, but those are the people I can think of off the top of my head.

ANYWAY AGAIN. Matt and I have been friends for ages. Long enough, in fact, to have once created a Batman parody in which he was Mattman, our friend Mikal was Robinson--his last name, and I was Poison Carrie. This is one of the only things I will ever have in common with Uma Thurman. He also came to one of my murder mystery parties in a kilt. I'm going to talk more about those later on in Monster Bash, so stay tuned for that!

But for now, here's and introduction to Play Attention Games, and their first game, curse the darkness...

POISON CARRIE: Tell us a little about Curse the Darkness!

MATTMAN: *curse the darkness* (lowercase deliberate) is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game about hard choices. The basics of the setting are: ideology (including religion, politics and national identity) are outlawed and punishable by death, enforced by a mysterious dictator and monsters from the shadows. The players set up the details about the scenario, including the goal, but before they can reach that goal each one needs to make the essential choice: give up and admit that the world is what it is and can't really be changed, or refuse to quit fighting and try to exert some control. In essence: Light a candle...or curse the darkness?

POISON CARRIE: What's your favorite monster-related RPG that ISN'T curse the darkness and why?

MATTMAN: Ooh, wow. I think probably the World of Darkness in general. That's actually a collection of a lot of RPGs using the same setting, but eh. The World of Darkness has some great themes to it - humanity, hubris, secret conspiracies, morality vs. practicality. Plus it's fun to pretend to be a werewolf for a while. 

POISON CARRIE: What would you like to say to people who haven't played a tabletop RPG before?

MATTMAN: Try it! It's awesome! There are games where you can play monsters, mermaids, adventurers, pirates, professional wrestlers, and even cats. Really, contact me on Facebook or through my company (playattentiongames.com) and I'll help you find one for you and your friends.  

POISON CARRIE: If you could pick three people--alive, dead, imaginary, whatever--to be in your zombocalypse survival team, who would you choose?

MATTMAN: Wow, that's a wide net. OK. Definitely my brother; he's a badass cop and he's a good shot. How about Geena Davis? Not only is she an awesome actress, she's an Olympic archery competitor. And my daughter, Teagan. If I'm in a zombie apocalypse and I'm still alive, so is she. 

POISON CARRIE: You really enjoyed killing my characters when we gamed, didn't you? ADMIT IT!

MATTMAN: I always enjoy killing characters. If it's happening in my game, there's some drama to the moment and it's a cool story (unless we're playing Paranoia, in which case it's...just a game of paranoia).

POISON CARRIE: Where do we go to learn more about curse the darkness. GIVE US THE LINKS. WE WANTS THEM.

MATTMAN: Hot diggety!

Our company website: http://playattentiongames.com
You can buy the game here: http://www.facebook.com/l/EAQFjLNLvAQHAfkjiMjYHXbRpb7GsoPY3PMKTDqd4BjL7aQ/rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=4433
Our new game, A Tragedy in Five Acts: tragedyin5acts.com

*****

So there you go! I hope you'll take the time to check out curse the darkness, and like Matt said, if you're intrigued by the idea of gaming but ctd isn't for you, contact him or me and we'll recommend something that's more your speed. There are LOTS of options out there, and it really is a great way for creative types to learn something new.

And as always, don't forget that Monster Bash is celebrating all things monstery....including the release of BAD HAIR DAY and BAD YETI on November 14th! Leave a comment on any Monster Bash post (or all of them) to be entered into a random drawing for all three Grable books with my name on them. And I'll even write my name myself! And then I'll write your name, which means you'll be in a book, and that's pretty awesome. I still get a kick out of seeing my name in books.

Yeah, I'll shut up now.

Monster Bash: Paper Nerdcrafts

Welcome to the last Monster Bash post for this week, which is about nerdcrafts. I love nerdcrafts. You can use them as activities for libraries or classrooms, birthday party fun, or if you're like me, you can just do them at home BECAUSE YOU WANT TO, DAMNIT. So as a part of Monster Bash, I'm going to try out a variety of nerdcrafts and recommend some that you might enjoy. Today, we're going to talk about papercrafts, because who doesn't like cutting and gluing things? (Except for the parts where you stab yourself and glue your fingers together, which I did in the making of this post, because I SACRIFICE FOR YOU.)

Anyway. One of the best things about papercrafts is that they're really inexpensive (as in FREE other than printing costs and possibly stitches), but they're still uber fun. So I went trolling the interwebs for monster-related papercrafts and found a lot of awesome.

• My Little Cthulhu plus paper equals fun?!
• Draculaura. In paper. My life is complete.
• No paper doll collection is complete without True Blood. (Please be forewarned. VISIBLE UNDERWEAR ALERT.)
• Monsters with moving parts! In paper! Woo!
• Little Monster paper dolls. Probably the only one here appropriate for little kids.

I decided to test out the My Little Cthulhu craft. In total, it took me about 45 minutes to print, cut out, and assemble. I started out using a glue stick, which worked really well on the larger parts, but the smaller pieces--like the legs--needed some school glue to make them stick. So it seems like a good idea to have a variety of glues on hand if your papercraft requires sticky stuff. The assembly was fairly complicated; with the exception of the Little Monster dolls, I probably would recommend these projects for teens.

So. How did my nerdcraft turn out? This is Carrie.

 Not even my Zombie Dance Crew shirt can fill the void in my heart.

 And here's Carrie with a Cthulhu papercraft!

My life is complete now. Cthulhu fhtagn!

I also have to give a shout out to the Etsy shop Artist in La-La Land, who does some HECKA GORGEOUS monster-themed papercrafts. Now that I have some idea of how tough it can be to make these things look like a five-year-old didn't make them, I have mad respect for this. You should totally check out her awesome shop!

Aaaaand, one last reminder that this whole Monster Bash thingy is all in celebration of my upcoming monsterrific releases! Leave a comment on any Monster Bash post and get entered to win a signed collection of all three books!

Monster Bash Interview Smash: Dahlia Deranged

For our first Monster Bash feature, I'm supermegauber stoked to introduce you to Dahlia Deranged, who makes some of the awesomest creature-themed accessories in the universe. I WANT TO OWN THEM ALL, MY PRECIOUS. Seriously, you guys have to help me choose, because I can't do it. Like, if I was a dragon, I would horde everything in this woman's Etsy store. That doesn't sound creepy, does it?

*twitch twitch*

Edward Scissorhands necklaces make it all better. That's why I NEED one.

Anyway. Dahlia was kind enough not to think I'm a total creeper AND to answer some questions about all things monstery. You need to learn all about her and visit her store and buy me things. Or buy yourself things, but don't tell me about that because I'll be really jealous.

Oh yeah. I was supposed to be introducing the interview, wasn't I?

LA CARRIE: I start planning for Halloween in November, and something tells me you're a fan of the holiday too. Tell us about one of your best costume moments.

DAHLIA DERANGED: Well let's see, since I was a wee little ghoul, I've almost always dressed as a vampire for Halloween. There have been a couple times, around the ages of five or six, I steered off the vampiric path and decided to be a Jack-o-Lantern and then a Zombie the year after that. My best costume moment was about two years ago, my friend and I decided to be vampires, again. My friend is a fantastic make-up artist and transformed me into a "Lost Girl." A little spin-off of the "Lost Boys." I think I'd have to say that was my best costume moment. I looked so real that, it might sound a little odd, but I was craving some blood!

 

File under Things That Are Bloody and Awesome.

LA CARRIE: I love the Lost Boys. "Marco, what's going on?" MUST WATCH THIS MOVIE AGAIN. Anyway. I think monsters + jewelry = PURE GENIUS. Tell us a little about your first piece and how you got started.

DAHLIA DERANGED: My first official piece was the Skull and Crossbones Rhinestone Ring. It sits on a baroque setting on a bed of Swarovski rhinestones with an adjustable backing. However, I have always made bracelets, keychains and odd little crafts since I was about six or seven. As I got older, I was very much inspired by my favorite designer Betsey Johnson to make wearable and affordable statement pieces. I've always had a crazy imagination and wanted to bring my twisted imagination to life and I believe that Betsey Johnson proved that it is possible. Having a passion for jewelry and an undying love for all things horror, gothic and macabre, it was only natural for me start creating these pieces but with a dark twist. I've also always admired the idea that you can take a boring outfit and make it into something fabulous by adding a few embellishments....twisted embellishments that is. Everything was just pointing me in this direction and it was only natural for me to make pieces and accessorize peoples' dark sides.

Skull plus rhinestones = THIS SHOULD BE ON MY HAND

LA CARRIE: Sparkly vampires--thumbs up or down and why?

DAHLIA DERANGED: No, no. Thumbs way down. In fact, if I may borrow your thumbs we can do four thumbs down. Sparkly vampires are just not okay. Bram Stoker and I are not having it. There is a difference between Glam Vampires- sexy, put-together, red lipstick etc- and "sparkly" vampires. Real vampires do not sparkle in the sun.

This sparkles in the sun, and it is AWESOME.

LA CARRIE: If you could choose three people--alive, dead, imaginary, whatever--to be on your zombocalypse survival team, who would you pick?

DAHLIA DERANGED: I'd have to pick my main ghouls Pinhead, Bela Lugosi and Beetlejuice. I think I'd have one hell of a team with these three guys. The zombies are gonna have a bad time.

It's a flask. Shaped like a coffin. With Poe on it. I think it would make the zombocalypse bearable.

LA CARRIE: Speed round! Tell us your favorite...

 - MONSTER BOOK: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein  
 - MONSTER MOVIE: Little Monsters (Maurice counts as a Monster!)
 - CREATURE: Frankenstein. It's got to be Frankenstein. I hold him so dear to my heart.
- PIECE YOU'VE DESIGNED: (Yeah, I know. It's like asking you to pick a favorite child. I'm MEAN.) I have to say, The Monstrosity Necklace. It's a necklace and a pet in one, you just can't go wrong.

WANT.

LA CARRIE: Where can people find you? I'm talking internet links, not your address. I'm not into enabling stalkers. 

DAHLIA DERANGED: Ha! Well they can definitely find me on www.dahliaderanged.com. This links directly to my Etsy shop that I check hourly. Also Dahlia Deranged Design's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/DahliDeranged) is a great place to keep up to date with new pieces and exclusive offers and it wouldn't hurt to check out my Instagram @dahliaderanged. There you can find projects that I like to do in my spare time and sneak peeks on new pieces! And last but not least, some of my pieces can be found on toofastonline.com and sourpussclothing.com. 

Because Day of the Dead and hair fascinators go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

LA CARRIE: Now I have to get back to agonizing. Do I want Poe or the Bride of Frankenstein or the TEETH? If I wore them all at once, that would be overkill, right?

DAHLIA DERANGED: You want all three and I'll tell you why. I think everyone is entitled to wear whatever they like. If you want to wear the Bride of Frankenstein necklace and a Poe necklace, I don't see the harm in that. They all reflect an undying love for all things horror and you can never, ever have enough of horror.

LA CARRIE: So so so true. Thank you so much for visiting us! And readers, if you're looking for an inspiration piece for Halloween or a gift for the monsterphile in your life, you should absofrickinglutely check out Dahlia's shop!

Also, don't forget--we're ramping up to the release of BAD HAIR DAY and BAD YETI in early November! One random commenter on a Monster Bash post will win a full set of signed Grable books! Comment below and tell me which Dahlia piece you like the best so I can drool over it with you.

Monster Bash!

So I have these two books coming out next month, and they're practically overflowing with monsters. We've got werewolves and zombies and yeti and unicorns and ligers and dragons--it pretty much puts Dorothy's lions, tigers, and bears into perspective, doesn't it? Anyway, in celebration of the monsters AND my favorite holiday ever, I'm declaring October to be Monster Bash month! I'm going to be featuring some monster themed artists, freebies, and crafts that you will not want to miss. Because they are awesome.

And to make the pot sweeter, I'm going to give out a free signed collection of Grable books to one random commenter on any Monster Bash post. You'll get BAD TASTE IN BOYS, BAD HAIR DAY, and an e-copy in the format of your choice of BAD YETI. This contest starts with this post, so comment below and let me know your favorite monster! I'm going to have to go with zombies, because I find lurching corpses to be really hilarious.

You can also file this under Things I Find Really Hilarious.

Get a Sneak Peek of the BAD YETI Bonus Novella!

So if you've been stalking me around the interwebs, you may have noticed a strange phenomenon. PEOPLE SEEM TO THINK I WROTE A NOVELLA ABOUT YETI. And if you noticed that, and if you know me at all, I imagine that you thought something like, "A secret novella about yeti? I scoff. Carrie would never write something...like...WAIT A TICK. CARRIE WROTE A NOVELLA ABOUT YETI." And you would be right.

It started out as a fun project. I've made it no secret that I am unabashedly Team Jonah, and I thought I'd write a short story about him and an airborne yeti, only it kept getting longer and longer, and finally I was done, and I was all, "Uh...Agent Kate? I have this thing about Jonah Grable and an airborne yeti and a bunch of gamer geeks, and I don't know what to do with it." And after asking me if I've been taking my medication, she submitted it to my publisher, who also asked if I'd been taking my medication and then offered to publish it as a bonus ebook, which is now available for pre-order from your e-bookseller of choice!

YAY DELACORTE! YAY ME! YAY JONAH! YAY AIRBORNE YETI!

I even haz a cover! And a description of the book!

Set in the world of BAD TASTE IN BOYS and BAD HAIR DAY, this digital story is the perfect introduction into the funny high school world of  CARRIE HARRIS, where humor meets horror (and sometimes zombies, werewolves, yetis, and yes, even unicorns).

Jonah Grable hasn’t minded living in the shadow of his older, zombie fighting sister Kate, but this weekend he’s definitely raising his profile. A weekend of epic epicness—waving swords and flirting with girls in elf ears at his LARP club event—is totally up Jonah’s alley. But when his alter ego, Sir Talatien Maguirier, Nightdark Clanlord, comes face to face with a real, live Yeti, Jonah—or, rather, Tal—has to take matters into his own hands.  So he sets off with gamer goddess Lady Amethyst,  brown-eyed Europa, and Calamity, a braid-wearing barbarian in fur, into the great unknown on a search for yeti-related awesomeness. . . .

So, if you've been thinking about giving the Grable series a try and haven't quite gotten there yet, this is a prime opportunity to do so...or it will be when it releases on the same day as BAD HAIR DAY, which is November 13th! Because it's a novella, it's on the shorter side--about 80 pages or so--so you can try out the series without committing to reading a doorstop. As with all the Grable books, it does stand alone, so no worries if you haven't read any of the others yet. And timeline-wise, it occurs between BTIB and BHD, which I guess makes it number 1.5 in the series.

If you can't already tell based on the massive longwindedness plus the overuse of exclamation points and all caps, I'm pretty excited about this! And to celebrate, I'd like to give five of you the opportunity to participate in the BAD YETI exclusive sneak peek! You'll get a taste of YETI before anyone else, and you'll get to post it on your website or FB or tweet it sentence-by-sentence, except I really don't recommend that because it will piss people off. Anyway, the point is that YOU will get to expose the yeti! Or...uh...you know what I mean, right?

Entering is easy! All you have to do is write a sentence using the phrase "BAD YETI." For example, "Bad yeti, no biscuit!" Then put it online with a link to this post. Let me stress this--YOU MUST LINK TO THIS POST FOR YOUR ENTRY TO COUNT! It can go anywhere! Your FB, twitter, tumblr, blog, website, wherever. You can post multiple places, but each one must be a unique bad yeti sentence! It can be about the book, or why the yeti is bad, or what happens to bad yeti...be creative! I'll pick five winners in a completely subjective manner (i.e., the people who make me snort the most stuff out of my nose and/or wow me by plastering the ENTIRE UNIVERSE with "bad yeti" sentences). And then submit a link via the form below so I can read it and snarf things out my nose. You have until noon EST on October 1st to get your entries in. I'll announce winners on the 2nd.



Got questions? Pop them in the comments, and I'll answer pronto! I'm sure I'm forgetting some essential piece of information here. Otherwise, HAVE FUN AND GO CHASTISE SOME YETI!