All hail Sabrina Weiss! MTV Crush I love you!

Somewhere over the rainbow . . .

lies this article that should be linked to the title. In it, the nicest, sweetest bluebird--I mean reporter, has written such a lovely insightful article about my books that I can't stand for anyone to miss it. I mean, she got the kick-ass female protagonists, she got the developing world in Night World, she got everything right. It's really the best and cleverest thing that's been written about my books, so please take a look . . . the link is also on the front page of this site. I am deeply indebted to her and I'll try to write even better books than in the past, for your sake out there, for mine, and in hopes that someday Sabrina may call me again. With all the hype that the show is getting, here is one person who was also interested in the author! of the original books.

By the way, I got another email from someone who thought that my books came on "the heels of Twilight." One more person I need to educate. Ay, me.

Hey, Kevin Williamson Likes My Books . . . Really!

I guess I'm about as happy as an Old Soul like me can get . . . before the premiere, that is. I feel as if I need a high-back divan to lounge on (no pun!) and say, "Oh, place that bouquet between the roses and the mixed chrysanthemums." You see I had a birthday last week and the Vampire Diaries premiere is this Thursday (8 Eastern and Pacific, 7 p.m Central) and I'm awash in petals and balloons. I hereby thank everyone--from publisher to agent to family to friends for their kindness, and I promise not to forget it.

Hey, and Kevin Williamson made a video clip, saying he really liked my books and he wanted to bring the epic love story in the Vampire Diaries to life. And he was sitting by a pile of Vampire Diaries books. I feel very honored to have him say that.

And I won't jink the TV show by saying anything about the reviews of the pilot--no jinx, no jinx--but I feel very happy with almost all of them.

Break a fang, vampires!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack . . .

Oh, God, what a week. I've had a dentist's appointment, learned wonderful things about the upcoming Vampire Diaries TV show, and tried to figure out how you pronounce some of those insane names I used in the Night World books, so that the audio versions can proceed. Well, not so insane names, just slightly confusing ones: the worst was Sekhmet. Sounds easy, right SEK met. Trouble? Well, it used to be (and still is somewhere) spelled Sekhet, Sacmet, and half a dozen other iterations. The best name of all for her is She Who Reduceth To Silence or The Force Against Which No Other Force Can Prevail.

That isn't what I wanted to say, actually. I want to toast David Albert, who showed me how to use Blogger . . . again . . . and say thank you from my heart for all the email. I love getting email, love reading it, and would love to answer each message if I only could. As it is, after just finishing Shadow Souls--the new, kinder, gentler Vampire Diaries book I am starting on finishing Strange Fate and the last Vampire Diaries trilogy. Piece of cake, huh?

That, and that the TV people (sounds like the title of a horror film) have been really, really nice to me lately, sharing news and Vampire Diaries (TV) clippings and I now stand behind the show. I'm hoping that everyone will give it a chance--the first episode being the hardest to get past if you're not a Twilight fan. Or maybe if you are. Anyway, I'm asking that people be patient with it and see if it does turn out to be adorable.

Trying to catch up...

Whew, it's been a long time. But I'm hoping that by now this blog is connected to myspace and shows up there. That way at least there's a chance of someone seeing it.

So much has been going on--but I know the one thing on my reader's minds, and that's the TV pilot. (For anyone who doesn't know, the CW picked up the pilot, so that's one more thing to thank my angel-mother for). I couldn't bring myself to go to the showing in L.A., but my staunch agent, Elizabeth, went to the showing in New York. She said she really loved it, and that she especially liked the bits with Stefan and Damon. I'm glad of that, because that's the chemistry that needs to work to make it a real love triangle. She also said that she felt the chemistry between Stefan and Elena, which is, of course, just as important. Now I only have to fret about the chemistry between Damon and Elena . . . (I will worry about anything not explicitly gone over--it's my nature). Elizabeth also said that besides Elena's hair being changed the girl herself is rather vulnerable and accessible--two words I would never use to describe the Elena of Vampire Diaries 1. But I look at it this way: in The Awakening Elena is a bitch halfway through the book. She's meant to be, and the book is largely about how she changes as a result of meeting Stefan. But how do you get that--and all the other action--into a two hour pilot? And not end up having the audience hate Elena for being stuck up? So perhaps we will see a Cassie-like Elena (ha ha--or Sarah, from Strange Fate-like . . . Sarah and Cassie share many characteristics.)

So, since I would trust Elizabeth with my life, and she's not one to mince words, I officially am putting my stamp of approval on the pilot. Fortunately nobody any longer is sending me sad stories about how this or that is wrong with it, and I hope we've got beyond that. My main interest in the show--if it flies--is that there will be more publicity for my books. I may even break the habit of a decade and watch it--at least I'll record it. What higher praise can I offer? You know when I'll be really happy? When I can tell fans something they don't already know about the show. May that day come eventually! So mote it be.

Next issue: people keep asking me about when Strange Fate will come out, and I'm so sorry to have the same answer for them: I don't know. It will be in 2010--I hope around winter. And the same answer for when Shadow Souls will come out. I just don't know. As soon as I do know, I will proclaim the answer from the housetops (e.g. put it in my blog or bulletin).

I hope I will have some time to do the fanart/fanfic contest, and to update my website and to do endless other things...maybe answer some more email (I did that today!) but please, please everyone remember that I am in the middle of writing Shadow Souls, which is not going to be as scary as Nightfall, I promise. This is one deadline I must make, and it's not so far away. So please understand if I don't answer your email in a timely fashion. I'm tap dancing on quicksand here.

Ooooh...I do know one thing you don't and that is that the cover for Strange Fate is absolutely gorgeous. I wish I could share it right now with everyone, but trust me, when you see it you'll see what I mean.

And, hey, Dark Visions is coming out any month now! I'll make sure to blog when it hits the bookstores.

I know, this is a pretty boring blog--all about work. When I get some time to play, I'll write about ii. Word of honor!

Nest issue: people are still

Busy-ness

Whew! Today. . . busy. At least everything so far is going well. David and Usok, if I didn't get a chance earlier to say it: I love you! Bit by bit my website is becoming more functioinal, which is to say much easier on me. The blog is a dream--so much so that I fell alseep with my cheek on the keyboard. Ha, ha. But actually true.

So, today, got the entire beginning of Strange Fate redone. I like it much better, for the age group that it's targeted. Now the big challenge is to do the scenes of Sarah and the Wild Powers in the past and not let Brionwy's story take up the entire book. It's going to be tough on myself. If I can keep Brionwy's story to 100 out of the remaining seven hundred then I can keep her. If I can't tell the rest of her story in just ove 30 pages... it would make a great free giveaway, though, as long as it didn't come bound in the book. I can hear spines cracking all over...the world, really. Then there's the quadruple ending--I have to leave room for that. But there's nothing like doing what you enjoy most and getting paid for it. I didn't know working could be this fulfilling.

The Midnight Hour

It's getting near midnight. This is always a crucial time for me. If I don't go to bed now, I may flip. If I flip I'll be nocturnal. I think that I was meant by nature to be nocturnal, because it's so easy to flip. Stay up an extra hour . . . and suddenly I'm a creature of the night.

Being nocturnal has its advantages. If you don't have any set appointments the next day then it means you can sleep through all the hoorah and wake up and then see what's gone on. Or you can ignore all the hoorah and go straight to writing and then when you're drained of all the writing that you can do for the night, take a look at the hoorah or call your friends. Then you haven't spoiled your writing time. (Of course, when I say "you' I mean "me" because I'm sure there are thousands of authors who can multi-task, go from email to story and back again. I can't, not unless I have a really burning idea or scene that simply has to be written down immediately. Hoorah jars me out of my writing.)

I am living with too much hoorah. I listed for my editor the number of publicity projects that I am or will be involved in and it filled two pages--three if you count the things I am doing or plan to do myself. So now I'm scolding myself: it's silly, because I'm a storyteller and while I have the precious gift I shouldn't waste it on anything else. I know what it's like to lose it.

This is such a nice little place to write in; I don't think of it as publicity. I have to remind myself that other people can see it. It's not my private diary. But I intend to keep it as if it were. That's the only way I really can write anything in it except announcements of upcoming contests or books or other publicity projects. So...I'll just open a small vein and see what flows out.

Happiness for one thing. After not having a website that worked for so long, it's bliss to do something that does work. I love you, David and Usok! You've given me wings to fly with. They're small right now, but eventually they'll grow. Or should I be spending all my time twittering? No, that's silly: I'll watch the other birds until I learn how to sing as well as fly.

What else? Shyness because I am innately a shy person and my mental censor suddenly leaps up and grabs me by the throat when I want to say that I have five new ideas for books this week, but I suppose I can't talk about them here until at least I have spoken to Elizabeth. Elizabeth is my agent. Having to say things like that remind me that this is not my real diary, no matter how much it feels like it.

One of the ideas is for a continuation of the Vampire Diaries, but I wonder if I will want to continue them after the TV show--if there is a TV show. I believe I wish there won't be. Oh, they've been ever so nice, quite obliging--once I asked--but it isn't my show. The one thing that saddens me is the idea of drugs--just as in the books it will be becoming clear that the girls are not even the wild and crazy gals that everyone thought in the first place.

I suppose everyone must be allowed to have their own versions of the characters and the story. And if I can say that to readers then I can say that to the small gods of the TV pilot. I haven't figured out whether I will watch it or not but if I do I will have to go to someone else's house that has a working TV.

I am very happy to be writing a Secret Circle story again. I have missed Cassie--and I've missed all the wonderful incantations and the powers she had in charging the directions and summoning the elements. In this story Nick dies saving Adam's life. But Cassie can't accept this and the entire coven puts together all their resources to allow her to descend to the Netherworld to save Nick's life. To anchor herself in this world she has to choose an object of power, but instead of choosing the Master Tools she chooses the chalcedony rose. Nick has already surrendered himself to death and doesn't want to return--until she hold out her hand imploringly and Nick sees the chalcedony rose. He thinks it's meant for him and returns to life--blinded by the explosion that caused his death. And thinking that now he will be together with Cassie. I am so excited because even I don't know what will happen. Naturally, Cassie has been spending a lot of time with him, out of both love and sympathy. But now she's caught Adam and Diana embracing--kissing. Cassie wants to run to Nick--I haven't written it, but I feel it. But should she? She's more mature than she was, as coven leader...but she wants to. Maybe she should give Adam more of a chance to explain. I know--as she doesn't--that it was Diana that went to Adam, meaning just to talk to him about his feelings, to comfort him while Cassie was away. Diana's had a very hard time of it, if you put yourself in her position.

I think I'll go write about it while I'm thinking about it. While the vein is still open, you might say. I expect I've flipped.

My First Real Home Blog

It's such a relief to get off of Amazon (if you really don't know why, go there and see my last blog). I always wanted a blog on my own site and now I have this beautiful, handy-dandy, easy to use babblespace on my own site.

What do I have to babble about?

Oh, too much really: I have publicity events and projects upcoming that will keep me in business for years. The question is, when do I write the books? ^^ But that's all right. It's much better to be too busy than to have nothing to do. First let me get the business out of the way.

Night World 3 is out now and debuted on the New York Times Bestsellers List. I'm really so flattered and honored that my books have been on the list for so long, and for so much of the time that I've been writing. And I've also been honored with wonderful editors, creative and thoughtful publicity people, and, of course, the best and brightest of fans. I thank you all.

Oh, and I'm on myspace now, so you can come and say hi to me there. I'm better at talking to my friends, because then I know you and often find quite fascinating things about people. KarLa helped me greatly with a couple of Wiccan rituals and wouldn't even take credit for it! I'm writing a Secret Circle story, but I don't think it will go up here. I'll explain why...

Several people have asked why the Vampire Diaries stories had been taken down. The reason is that my publisher is interested in putting them all together as stories from the Vampire Diaries. This is obviously great for me, as a lot of the work has been done already (even on stories as yet to be posted) and ultimately it's good for my readers as well. They can have a book instead of having to go online, and, as a bonus, a Secret Circle story that's far from trivial. In fact, it just might change the ending of Secret Circle--as far as the couples go. So for all you Nick fans out there, there's at least a 50-50 chance. . .

What else? Nightfall will be on Kindle soon--it may already be. I have a Kindle, but I haven't had time to use it, since all I do is write, take long walks to think of what to write next, and write again.

And (oh, dear, this is more business) one of Simon & Schuster's wonderful publicity people and I have been brainstorming a contest for Strange Fate. I think--I hope--that it would be held sooner rather than later. All fan-fiction writers, either sharpen your pencils or dust off your best stories, because it will be a fan-fiction contest, although we haven't decided on the method of judging yet. We do have the top prizes though, and first prize is a gorgeous and quite expensive ring (boys will get their choice of a substitute or $$, I think) that is right out of the book and the second prizes will be lovely unisex necklaces that could have been made expressly to symbolize Circle Daybreak. I'm thinking that we might have a similar contest for artists, with similarly wonderful prizes. Now, none of this has been finalized yet, but even if my publishers end up changing their mind, I will have a contest--because I already have the prizes.

Well, I'm babbled out and I never got past the business. I never even got to mention that my two publishers are supposed to be doing a cooperative Facebook page for me. But at least I've baptized my new blog, and when I get my breath back I'll do a more chatty post. At least the new blog is now christened.

My New Olde Blog

This is my new blog. I'm really happy to be able to blog on my own site and not have to go to Amazon.