Things That Make Me Snarf...and Why That's Important

I don't talk politics here, because let's face it--there are smarter people than I out there who can make political analogies without zombie references. But I have to say one thing in light of recent events:

Sometimes, it's more important than ever to laugh. Sometimes, in the face of darkness, it's all you can do as you stand against it. Laugh defiantly. Laugh tearfully. Laugh delightedly. Evil doesn't like it when you laugh. This week more than ever, I've been seeking out things to make me laugh, and every time I do, I remind myself that there are things worth fighting for. And you can bet I'm fighting back. And laughing while I do it, just because the evil bastards hate that.

NEINER NEINER NEINER.

I can't watch this video without laughing until I cry. It's not safe for work or children, and it's ridiculous and inappropriate and just plain silly. If it doesn't make you laugh, seek out something that does, and please remember this holiday season that there are things worth laughing about...and fighting for. And thank you, as always, for taking the time to laugh with me.

Happy Birthday!!!

Let's be honest. Publishing is WEIRD. There's so much about this business that makes me all WTFBBQHUH?!?! There's also so much to love, so please don't think I'm going all woe is me on you, because I'm not, but as a writer, it's good to have people you can trust who you can send your WTFBBQHUH moments to and have them tell you honestly if they think you're being completely insane or if they agree that this is another of those moments where publishing is weird.

That made sense in my head. Honestly, it did.

Anyway, the whole point of this ramble is that it's important to have a support group, and I have a terrific one, and one of those people is having a birthday today! I've been blog friends with Elana Johnson practically since I started this blog back in 2009, or at least that's how it seems to me, and for a very long time (as in ever since) I've been secretly awed by her. She does so many things so well--she's a bleeping good writer, and she gives great critique, and she gives a heckload to the online writing community, and I think that is la awesome. And now I count her among my very best friends in that weird never-met-you-in-person kind of way.

She loves bacon as much as I do, people. It's FATE.

So I wanted to shout a huge happy birthday from the rafters to Elana! A little birdie also told me that there's a celebratory giveaway of all her books. You should enter it.

Also, BACON.

Bad Hair Winner and Ninja Snarfage

I'm sorry. I know I was supposed to post a winner yesterday for the Bad Hair Day contest (which had some EPIC bad hair in it), but bacon cheese fries were calling my name, so I went out for lunch with Slayer instead. But that's okay, because I'm posting it TODAY! YAY! HIP HIP HOORAY! INSERT SOMETHING ELSE THAT RHYMES HERE.

Ahem. So. The big winner, as chosen by Rafflecopter, is...

Mandy Silberstein! Mandy, you get your choice of a six month mentorship with me or a $100 gift card to the book retailer of your choice. Email me, and I'll give you all the deets!

Over the next few days, I'll be putting together a video of all the awesomeness so you can see it. And trust me. It's AWESOME.

Didn't win? Don't be sad. You can have this.



Turn the invisible page. You know you want to.

Come See Me, and Something That Makes Me Snarf!

Douglas Adams is a genius. This is my favorite radio bit of his:




You can also come see me this week! At Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor on Wednesday at 7! I'm collecting books for our local schools! I use too many exclamation points! Don't forget your headband!

Things That Make Me Snarf - Peanut's Bad Hair Day

Let's face it. Bad hair is funny. And bad hair plus Jeff Dunham is freaking hilarious. Although please note that this is NSFW hilarious and NSFK hilarious, because there are naughty words in it. And if your kids are anything like my kids (or your coworkers are anything like my kids), they'll point out every single fricking bad word that pops up and loudly proclaim that they didn't say it.

Anyway. Funny.




Also, I wanted to remind you all that there's an opportunity to win a gift card or 6 month mentorship with moi! All you have to do is publicly humiliate yourself like Peanut.

ALSO also, I'm working on a new book. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

It's TWINS! (And by that, I mean two books)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

You guessed it. Those annoying high-pitched squealing sounds are being inflicted upon you because I have not one, but TWO books out today! First is BAD HAIR DAY, which is a full length Grable adventure in which Kate takes on some very hairy beasts that may or may not be werebearwolfbots. You don't have to read the first book to understand this one, although it does help. And then there's BAD YETI, which is an e-novella and a great introduction to the series if you've been on the wall about them. And it has airborne yeti in it, which I find pretty hilarious.

If you're anywhere near SE Michigan, stop by and celebrate the release with me at Nicola's Books on November 28th! All the deets are here.

I've had quite a few people ask me if I was going to do another Night of the Giving Dead auction, and I've decided to forgo it this year. First of all, there's a huge KidLit Cares auction going on right now (Round 2 is hosted by my awesome friend Joanne Levy), and you should totally bid on things there. And frankly, I just ran out of time. But I still wanted to do something fun to celebrate, and I figured it would be nice if that fun had some kind of prize attached to it.

So here it is. Post a bad hair picture anywhere on the internet WITH A LINK TO THIS POST. Your picture must have a link to qualify. If you win the drawing, and it turns out that your picture doesn't have a link, I'll have to draw another winner, and I'll make a sad face, and you wouldn't want that, would you?!?! Your pic can be old or new. If you don't have one, go crazy with the scrunchies and TAKE ONE. You can enter as many times as you want (once per day), but each entry needs to be unique. So change up the picture or the text or SOMETHING. Post on your blog, put it on twitter, make a bad hair tumblr--whatever! Find some way to change it up. And don't forget to register each entry in the Rafflecopter below.

I'm going to take these pics and make an epic bad hair day video and link to each of your websites! More traffic to book blogs = win! If you don't want to be in the video, you can note that in the Rafflecopter.

AAAAND like I said, I hope this will just be a fun thing to do that will give a little marketing help to the book blog community that has done so many awesome things for me. But I also wanted to do a little more to thank you. So one random winner will get their choice of a six month writing mentorship with me starting in January OR a $100 gift card to Amazon/B&N/BAM/a book retailer that allows for purchasing of online gift cards. This is a great opportunity to get some help revising your NaNo novel, or an extra boost with the Christmas shopping! And it's easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy to participate in!

I'll take entries through November 30th, and the winner will be announced on December 3rd. I feel like I haven't quite communicated my excitement, so let me say this again--I WANT TO MENTOR YOU! I WANT TO BUY YOU BOOKS! BECAUSE I HAVE TWO OF THEM OUT TODAY, AND I'M SUPER LUCKY, AND I WANT TO SHARE THAT! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I also want to share this. It's a WARNING NOT TO DO THIS TO YOUR HEAD.

Er...yeah. I went through an awkward phase. Or like ten of them. Simultaneously.

Anyway. Rafflecopter. Also, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monster Bash Winner!

So! Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment on all the Monster Bash posts. I probably had more fun writing them than any of you did reading them, if we're going to be perfectly honest here. Anyway, I'll be back with all the release day awesomeness tomorrow. (BAD HAIR DAY and BAD YETI release tomorrow! HOW DID IT GET SO CLOSE SO FAST?!?!?) But in the meantime, I've got one last outstanding bit of Monster Bash business.

The winner of the signed books.

Now I will confess that this year I had to CHEAT and draw two winners via Random.org, because the first one turned out to be ME, because I'd commented on a post and of course out of all the entries, it had to pick the one person who couldn't possibly win. But then it came back with a big old 64, and I was pretty thrilled to see that it's my new friend Kimberly, who made it a point to comment on every single Monster Bash post. Diligence pays, peeps. :)

So congrats goes out to Kimberly, and now I'm going to dash so I can plan ALL THE THINGS.

MWAHAHAHAHA HA. Hee. Heh.