Michelle Zink's Blog, page 32

Mystery Monday – Disappearances in Nome, Alaska

Those of you who saw the movie the Fourth Kind might be familiar with the mystery surrounding a series of unsolved disappearances in Nome, Alaska from the 1960s to 2004.

During that time, 24 people (most of them Native villagers)  mysteriously died or vanished, never to be heard from again. Now, 24 people may not sound like a lot, but in relation to the small population of Nome, it's actually an inordinately large percentage.

It's reported that the FBI has declined comment on the matter but does not deny that there have been 2000+ visits to Nome over the past 60 years. If it's true, that means Nome has the most FBI visits than any other city in the US in relation to population density.

In 2006, the FBI concluded that "excessive alcohol consumption and a harsh winter climate" were to blame for the disappearances, though none of the missing people have ever been found.

The movie the Foutrth Kind, while fictitious, propses alien abudction as a possible theory for the disappearances.

I think it's a very intriguing mystery.

How about you?

 

Thursday Night Write – Open Mic

Since I'm under a super tight deadline for my next book and heading out with my posse to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn, I thought it would be a good week to do Open Mic.

We haven't done it in FOREVER!

So how about it NaNoers and all you other writers? Post an excerpt of your original writing — no more than 300 words — for comment. Don't forget to comment at least one other entry if you post something of your own.

Hope you guys are meeting your word count and having fun!

Holiday Bookplate Giveaway

I'm a big believer in making one's own traditions. For a long time, I struggled to put together Thanksgiving dinner by 2pm because that's how my grandmother and mother did it. I cooked desperately on Christmas Eve while finishing up last minute presents for my children because in our family, the big dinner was on Christmas Eve followed by a big brunch and leftovers Christmas Day.

I finally realized that those traditions didn't work for me and that it was okay to create my own. Now, we have Thanksgiving around 7pm (or whenever it's done), Chinese take out Christmas Eve, and a moderate breakfast Christmas day followed by a semi-big dinner that night.

It works for us! I'm SO much less stressed, and my kids (always rebels… wonder where they get THAT from!) love that we do something quirky like Chinese on Christmas Eve while everyone else is doing the traditional thing.

This year, we're taking our unconventionality one step further by donating our time (as a family) to a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving Day and having our celebration Friday or Saturday. We're all really looking forward to it!

Two tears ago I started a professional tradition by giving away signed, personalized bookplates during the holidays. It started out as a way for me to say thank you to my readers and ended up being a big hit not only for them, but for people who wanted to make an extra-special gift of one of the Prophecy books.

And I never like to mess with a good thing!

So starting today the tradition continues. Here's how it works;

If you're in the US or Canada, send your requested number of bookplates (up to three) to prophecypress@aol.com with the name of the person you'd like them each made out to and your mailing address. If there's something special you'd like me to know about the recipient (they love to read or love fantasy, for instance), let me know and I"ll try to personalize a message for them. Please put "Bookplate Giveaway" in the Subject line so my poor assistant doesn't have to hunt through her Inbox for them. Once I receive your request, I'll send you the limited edition bookplates, custom designed to match the interior of the Prophecy books, in time for the holidays.

Easy, right?!

Follow the same instructions if your outside the US or Canada with one exception; you must send a self-addressed stamped envelope to me at P.O. Box 136 Burlingham, NY 12722.

I hate to make my international readers pay for postage. You guys mean so much to me and I really try to do as much as I can for you, but international postage for all my giveaways has become a big drain. I have to be selective about which giveaways I can open up to International readers. In this case, it seems most fair to offer the bookplates but ask International readers to cover their own postage.

I'll honor bookplate requests from now through December 7th. A separate bookplate giveaway will begin after the new year for A TEMPTATION OF ANGELS preorders, and if you didn't see the custom bookplates on Facebook a few weeks back, let me just tell you they are GORGEOUS! So definitely stay tuned for that one.

I'll be sending the holiday bookplates out in batches as I receive them. The earlier you get them to me, the sooner I can get them in the mail to you!

 

 

Song of the Week – Mr. Know It All

This week's song, Mr. Know It All, was nominated by Krystal! I admit that I used to love a lot of Kelly's songs, but I haven't listened to her in awhile. I enjoyed this one. Hope you do too!

On another note, tomorrow I'll be kicking off my annual holiday bookplate giveaway, so be sure to check back if you'd like to give a copy of one of the Prophecy books as a gift this holiday season. I'm happy to send you up to three bookplates personalized any way you'd like. It makes a thoughtful gift for the reader on your list!

A Temptation of Angels ARC Request Update

Just wanted to give you guys a quick update about the TEMPTATION ARCs.

Here's the process so far;

Penguin initially sent out about 22 bound galleys as a sneak preview to a few select bloggers. Then they chose some others to send and sent me the rest. At that point I had nine copies and was told I could maybe get more if I needed them.

So I did a shout out (as many of you know!) asking for some basic blog info so Rebekah and I could determine how to divvy up the nine ARCs I had and any others I might be able to get my hands on.

Then I got 64 requests in two days.

Yes, 64. And that wasn't including the bloggers who'd already received ARCs and/or knew they were getting them.

So I talked to Penguin (because you know how hard it is for me to say no to ANYBODY) and we decided that they would send out the rest of the ARCs with my feedback. Rebekah and I sent our list of bloggers (based on the information you provided) to Penguin to add to theirs. For the record, we didn't oinly include seasoned bloggers on our list. We included a few new passionate, committed bloggers as well, because I believe everybody has to start somewhere and sometimes, we all need a helping hand to get our foot in the door.

As of now, everythings's in Penguin's hands. They have my list and their own and will send ARCs out accordingly. I don't know how many they have left, but I still have my original nine and will be giving them away sometimes SOON.

Hope this helps! SUPER excited for your guys to read TEMPTATION!

Friday Poll – TV, Zombies, Dancing and Vampires

As most of you know, I don't watch TV. When I say that, I mean I don't watch it, yanno, at its regularly scheduled time. And really, I don't watch it much AT ALL.

But the kids and I do watch exactly one episode of SOMETHING every school night after I've finished my word count and they've finished their homework. Sometimes it's a documentary like Ancient Aliens. Sometimes it's Dr. Who, the X Files, or Stargate.

Even though it only ends up being 45 minutes or so four nights a week, I look forward to the downtime. My only complaint is that one episode a night doesn't get us very far on anything! But that's okay, I'm REALLY trying to keep us at that level because I think keeping TV to the very bare minimum has been a big part in raising super creative kids.

Our newest favorite is The Walking Dead, though now that we've finished season one we have to wait for season two to come on Netflix. It's got a lot of production value for a TV show. Plus, I keep thinking how awesome it would be to be one of the actors and act like a ZOMBIE.

What about you? Which TV show would YOU like to guest spot on?

Weigh in with the Friday Poll!

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Thursday Night Write – Revising Tip

I know a lot of you are doing NaNoWriMo right now. Revising is probably the furthest thing from your mind!

But I just came off a hardcore revision and tried something new that really helped me. Thought I'd share it.

Basically, I broke this book into thirds. Then I focused on making the first third as airtight as possible before moving onto the next third and so on. It was a challenge to avoid thinking ahead to the rest of it, but I found that isolating a smaller portion of the book at one time helped me to focus on that piece more intently. Everything just seemed more… manageable. When all three pieces were done, I felt like I remembered more of the detail about each piece and was therefore able to see the whole with more clarity.

It made a huge difference to me and also reminded me how much a change of strategy can help. Sometimes the things you've been doing one way for so long just need to be tweaked, yanno?

What about you guys? Do you have any revisions strategies that help you get through a major rewrite? If so, please share!

And happy writing!

Seven Nation Army by White Stripes

Thought I'd share one of the Zink family's many theme songs with you this week.

Enjoy! And keep the song recommendations coming to prophecypress@aol.com with "Song of the Week" in the Subject line.

Hope you're all having a great week!

 

Mystery Monday – Was Shakespeare a Fraud?

Lest Friday we saw Roland Emmerich's new film, ANONYMOUS. The movie provides a fictionalized version of the questions surrounding Shakespeare and whether or not he was in fact the author of the 30+ plays and sonnets said to have been penned by him.

It's an interesting question. While the movie puts forth the hypothesis that the plays were actually penned by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, there has long been controversy surrounding the name William Shakespeare, mostly because the "real" William Shakespeare was said to be an uneducated son of a glover. Since many of Shakespeare's themes involved extensive knowledge of politics, law, and philosophy — almost exclusively the province of the wealthy at the time in question — many scholars and lay people believe that Shakespeare could not have penned the plays and sonnets.

In reality, de Vere is only one of many candidates put forward as possible authors of Shakespeare's works. Others include the Elizabethan philosopher Francis Bacon and even two women.

Whatever the truth, it's an interesting mystery, non? And one certainly worthy of a Mystery Monday.

What do you think? Was William Shakespeare a pseudonym? And if so, who is the most likely candidate as the author of Shakespeare's legendary work?

Holiday Extravaganza!

Halloween was the kickoff to what is always a crazy two months of back-to-back holidays. Now we're getting ready for Thanksgiving, and after that, we'll barely have time to catch our breath before Hannukah/Christmas followed by New Year's.

Despite it's business, I love this time of year, though I think it has more to do with the cozy atmosphere than anything else.

What about you; What's YOUR favorite holiday?

Weigh in with the Friday Poll!

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