MaryJanice Davidson's Blog, page 15

I'm Free

The geniuses at St. Martins Press, the ones publishing the ME MYSELF AND WHY trilogy, are trying to pawn me off their hands for free. And who can blame them? I swear and talk with food in my mouth, and get the salt mixed up with the sugar.
What happened is, I wrote a pre-quel story, a short story that takes place before the events of ME MYSELF AND WHY. And it's available on download for free. A push of a button, and there! It's invading your Kindle. Or brain. Or laptop. It's...

I Try to be Everywhere at Once

I leave on my second book tour of the year (the first in July for UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED; the second for ME MYSELF AND WHY) in just over two weeks. Which goes to show I'm living a terrific life I probably don't deserve. But that's not why I'm blogging.
I'm blogging because readers ask me to visit their cities almost every day. This is awesome, and humbling. Also logistically impossible. While my publisher is deciding which cities to foist me on, readers chime in with their requests....

I Flee the Potato Chip Factory

So, vacation last week. Like all vacations, it was too fast and yet I was glad to come home. Perhaps a bit more glad this time, as I had to endure a tour of the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory in addition to 24 hours of essentially non-stop vomiting. No, the two are not related.
Actually, it was clear that the CCPC employees work hard for their chips. And the only reason I know that is because it rained last Thursday. A lot.
When you're lurking on Cape Cod and it rains, and you and your...

I Flee the Midwest, to New England's Horror

Tony and the kids and I are vamoosing for a week on Cape Cod, where our in-laws will be forced to pretend it's good to see us. And we'll pretend we've missed them. And then we'll all troop to the beach and pretend we're not courting various melanoma.
I'll be signing stock while we're there, pestering the staff at the Borders and Barnes & Noble in Hyannis to let me deface their copies of my books. (I enjoy scribbling in books I'll never see again.) That way I can pretend that it's work...

I Write an Open Letter to Germans (and others)

This blog is to all my non-American fans...the fans for whom English is a second (or third) language, unless we're talking about Great Britain (and flats!) or Australia (and barbies!) or...right, you probably get it. By the way, I've never used the word barbie (or Barbie) as a noun. Or a verb, come to think of it.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you, and how much I love hearing from you. Not that I don't love hearing from Americans. I love Americans. I'M an American...

I Have a Random UNDEAD AND UNDERMINED MOMENT

From the upcoming UNDEAD AND UNDERMINED (and no, I'm not tellin' whose head it is). Or where they are. Or what happens next. Or what happened before. Suck it, asshats!
* * *

Yep, it was totally disgusting, but I was way too exhilerated to care. So I booted the head in the chin, thinking that if it was bowling night I'd just toss the nasty thing right down the gutter. And the queen of the vampires picks up the split! "Didn't see that coming," I chortled, "Didja?"
"Betsy!" Jessica hurried...

The New York Review Of Books Outs me as UnApologetic

With the uproar over UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED, I've been wondering what to blog this week. Something soothing, sure. "There, there. You're getting sleepy...sleeeeepy...soon it will be July 2011..." Something polite: "I'm sorry you set your house on fire to get away from my book, would you like a free bookmark?" Something snarky: "But you realize that my book didn't move under its own power. You could have burned U&U and spared your house, asshat."
Finally, I just figured I'd break-down...

I Help Betsy Shake Things Up

UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED is making a splash. It's number 15 on the New York Times best seller list, and has made lists for USA Today, Barnes & Noble, and BGI so far. This was a great relief because, like all writers, I'm obsessed with sales numbers. (It's true...all writers are. I'm just one of the few who will admit it. Future contracts, marketing budgets, advances, etc. are ALL based on how the last book did.)
But that isn't why UNFINISHED is...well...unfinished. I've written nine UNDEAD ...

I Drive Drivers

Book tour rocks. I'm not gonna pull the delicate-flower-author thing and bitch about what a trial it is to be flown to beautiful cities, stay in nice hotels, and tell people how terrific my books are, for free. Because if I did, I'd smack the shit out of myself.
Which brings me to the subject of drivers. My publisher arranges for a driver to pick me up and tote me around in each city of the tour. This is awesome, and awkward. (Remember: base houseing. Trailer parks. This was my...

No, Really: The Country Can't Avoid Me

I'll be on TV twice tomorrow (Wednesday); I'll be on at 9:00 a.m. on MSNBC Live, and in the afternoon on Twin Cities Live, probably 3:00 CST.
I'm not quite sure what MSNBC has in store for me, but Twin Cities Live has threatened me with a roundtable discussion of the new Twilight movie (which also opens tomorrow) and the popularity of same. They've asked me on because of my "unique perspective". I have no idea how to take that. MSNBC also wants to chat about the...