Lisi Harrison's Blog, page 22

Hiatus, or dare I say Bye Bye-atus

This is it my friends. After 29 books in 8 years, your loyal and trusted author bestie is taking a massive vacation. I'm heading to New York and Fire Island, baby.

The sad news is this will be my last blah-g until (sit down) July 20th. BUT I will return all shiny and new and so will my website. Webmaster JJ has a To Do list the size of my leg and will be busting butt to have it all ready by the time we reconvene. What to expect, you ask?

Funny, I was jut about to tell you.

1) A section called For U From U Of U.

For U will be cool icons and other nifty giftys you can download.

From U will be artwork that you have sent me that I will post.

Of U will be ah-dorable pics I snap of you while I'm on book tour.

2) I will have an FAQ section that will feature all of your questions (and my answers of course). And I will always update as more roll in.

3) More pics in the photo gallery.

4) Updates on all the books.

And more surprises. So please take care of yourselves and each other while I'm gone. And set your calendar alerts for July 20th. Because I'll be more refreshed than a webpage and ready to go.

SHOUT OUT to all of you for making it through another year of school! How do you do it??

TTYJuly20

Lisi

A Zone of your Own

I am really sorry I didn't post last week. The first draft of Monster High 4 was due and I was working like a maniac to get it done.

The hardest thing about writing (for me) is transitioning from writer-mind to real-mind. Sounds psycho, I know. But writing (for me) is like wearing blinders. The world around me falls away. Sights, sounds, smells, and TIME, mostly time, cease to exist. The voices in my head take over and I begin chewing gum like a beast. It's kind of hypnotic, actually.

Being forced to leave this state and enter the real world feels like being woken from a deep sleep and getting thrown on a stage in front of thousands of people. It's jarring and awkward. My personality dial is still set on 'dreamy' and reality is shouting, "look alive, sister." I come off like a confused, bumbling, spaz.

When I finally adjust it's hard getting back in the zone. That feels like trying to sleep after drinking espresso. Once again, the brain and body aren't working together. It's maddening. If there's at deadline at stake I must to do whatever I can to stay focused. Last week that meant dropping the blah-g. Still, I'm sorry I left you hanging, relieved I made my deadline, and grateful for your understanding. Thank you.

If you're creative, chances are you understand what I'm talking about. Musicians, dancers, singers, artists…you all have zones. But have you visited them lately? With summer coming and exams looming, it's doubtful.

So how's 'bout you slip on in for a while and recreate your favorite scene from The Ghoul Next Door. That's right, it's contest time!!!. LISI SCARRISON'S MONSTER HIGH ART ATTACK CONTEST time to be exact.

HERE ARE THE GORY DETAILS:

1. Draw, photograph, score, choreograph, paint, sculpt, or make a sand castle. Whatever. Just get in a zone of your own and create a scene from Monster High: The Ghoul Next Door!

2. "Like" Monster High on Facebook if you haven't already.

3. Share your art on the Monster High Facebook wall, noting that it's your entry into the LISI SCARRISON'S ART ATTACK Contest.

Start entering NOW (Wednesday, June 8, 2011) through Wednesday, June 22, 2011. You must be a U.S. resident and 13+ (with parental permission if you are under 18) to win. I will then select 12 winners!

Each of them will get:

- 1 new copy of the Monster High: Ghoul Next Door, signed by me.

- 1 new Monster High doll, exact doll TBD!

- Your art featured here, on my blah-g!

Also: All winning art and honorable mentions will be featured in a photo album on Monster High's Facebook page!

So shut out the world and wake up your muse. The zone is waiting.

SHOUT OUT to Caitlin. Thank you for the vanilla candle you sent. I ah-dore it!

TTYW

Lisi

Formspring into action!

Heyyy guys and ghouls,

I am so ready to answer your Monster High questions its scary.

If you want a behind-the-screams look into the Monster High book series, check out the Formspring Q&A session I'm hosting right here on my Blah-g!

To participate, just type your question into the little Formspring widget below any time between now and June 15th. I'll answer your freaky-fab questions here AND on Formspring towards the end of June!

http://www.formspring.me/LisiHarrison

Can't wait to see what you ghouls have in store for me.

SHOUT OUT TO AMY N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

TTYW,

Lisi

P.S. Some people are having trouble getting the widget. I am working on it. Check back tomorrow.

Top Of The Feud Chain is out!!!! FIND OUT HOW THE ALPHAS SERIES ENDS!!!!!(and now back to Monster High)…

The Monster High Facebook  www.facebook.com/MonsterHigh was raging full force last week! Friday the 13th is a huge rallying day for Monster High fans so we celebrated by releasing a voltage monster building Facebook App called Monsterfy Yourself Here's my creation. I call her Lisi Scarrison.

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Jellies? Don't be! You can create one too by going to the site.

What's really cool about the monster creations is that you get to give your monster a special trait. At first glance this trait could be seen as an imperfection, but it should be something you're super proud of because it makes you YOU. Fitting in is SO out.

I gave my monster an afro because my hair has been a little frizzy lately and I'd rather have a killer fro than a head of frizz.

Always late? Then type in "Immune to my alarm clock." Talk too much in class or at work? You can write "I'm a chatterbox!" Does your brutal honesty get you in trouble sometimes? You could share "I have no filter." Do you love accessories? Then try, "My unique style is all my own."

On top of this really fangtastic application, on Friday the 13th (last Friday) Monster High shared the missing Chapter 13 from the first book exclusively on Facebook! I know many of you thought that chapter didn't exist. Think again, ghouls!

because here it is….

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SLOW AND TELL

CLEO: Ghoules, why weren't u at the RIP meeting? A new RAD was confirmed.

GHOULIA: Missed it. Mrs. Gorgon is sending transcRIPts. CLEO: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

While Frankie Stein was busy pushing the RADs to go radical, Ghoulia Yelps was staging a much quieter rebellion of her own. She flicked a strand of long blue hair away from her white cat-eye glasses as she texted another plea to her parents, begging for permission to go to NekroCon, the first-ever zom- bie fan convention. According to the event website, only twenty tickets remained. How was that even possible when the con was almost a year away? Still, the countdown clock was urging fans to act fast before tickets sold out. But what were the actual zom- bies supposed to do?

Like all the other RADs, Ghoulia lived a lie. At Merston High, she had to be Julia Phelps. But this teenage daughter of the living

undead didn't mind the double-life thing. After all, two lives are better than none.

Ghoulia's main problem with fitting into the normie mold? She was more tortoise than hare. It took her a couple of hours to walk home from school—and she lived only a few blocks away. When she talked, her words came out soooooo sloooooowly that it sooooounded like groooooooaning.

Even though she lived life in the slow lane, Ghoules was, ironi- cally, the smartest cookie in the Tagalongs box. Moving slowly gave her ample opportunity to collect data, analyze it, and for- mulate the most efficient way to do things. Ghoulia was first in her class at Merston High, and her parents fully expected her to be valedictorian at graduation.

She only asked for two things in return: Dead Fast graphic novels (okay, comic books) and a ticket to NekroCon — of which there were now only eleven left. She tried to type faster.

GHOULIA: Dad, the comics are not trashy exploitation. How could they be when the zombie is the hero?

DAD YELPS: You can't move fast enough to dodge the crowd. You will get trampled.

GHOULIA: Would you keep your only offspring from this opportunity to experience the world and explore her passions?

GHOULIA: To learn and— DAD YELPS: Thinking about it . . .

Seven tickets left. Ugh! Think faster!

Desperate for a distraction, Ghoulia spent the next nine min- utes taking off her platform wedges—a new speed record!—and then sat down in her ergonomic desk chair to hack into the latest

installment of Bek and Better Than Ever. Maybe reading about normie drama would distract her. She squinted through her white plastic frames at Haylee's ongoing magnum opus as it scrolled across three computer screens.

Bekka and Brett are the perfect couple, but even couples who are sickly ridikly kee-yoot together need to keep an eye on the competition after three blissful years. To this end, Bek has devel- oped a strategic plan to keep Brett in her sights.

Step 1: Identify PTs. Warning signs include shiny hair, sym- metrical facial features, and manicured nails. Keep an eye out for RED-ALERT PTs—physical threats who don't own the fact that they are PTs.

Today there were two new students to assess:

Frankie—tons of makeup (she must have terrible skin). Atro- cious pantsuit (clearly, this girl has watched too many reruns of That '70s Show). But she does have great hair. Assessment: not a PT, but monitor.

Melody Carver—long black hair, perfect nose and teeth. Com- pletely uncomfortable with her own looks, as apparent from her ill-fitting hoodies in unassuming colors. Observed: Melody was talking to Jackson—nerd alert—and actually got upstaged com- pletely when CLEO SWOOPED IN and STOLE HIS SOUL through her glossy lips! (See past installments 1–678 for more details on Cleo's crush-stealing, boyfriend-napping, Angelina Jolie home- wrecking ways.) Assessment: RED-ALERT PT.

Ghoulia couldn't read any more. The normies had it back- ward. All facts pointed to Frankie being the PT. It was obvious to Ghoulia that the makeup and pantsuit were a cover for Frankie's own RAD self. Okay, that and the fact that while walking to school this morning Ghoulia had seen Mr. Stein driving Frankie to school. As for Cleo kissing Jackson, Ghoulia didn't doubt it. Bad Cleo, she thought. That mummy can't keep it under wraps!

Ghoulia checked the website again. Three tickets left! An instant message popped up from her mother. Finally!

ZeeBeeMOM1: Sorry. We just want to keep you safe.

Two tickets left!

Ghoulia groaned in agony and glanced despairingly at the signed and framed Dead Fast issue no. 1 poster on her wall. Was she forever doomed to buying collectibles on eBay? Not if she could move fast enough to . . .

The words sold out! flashed across her screen.

Slowly, she began lowering her head into her hands, hoping to catch her tears before they fell onto her keyboard. Seconds before her hands and glasses collided, she saw a new message pop up on her monitor: enter the "dead fast, dead first" writing contest and win an all-access convention pass.

Ghoulia scanned the rules—entry due one month prior to opening day . . . contest open only to amateurs, no professional writers . . . make yourself a character . . .

Ghoulia read the guidelines again and again. She already had the plot in her head, and Jackson could help illustrate her story. The hard part would be getting it down on paper before the deadline. But she had to make it happen. Getting her parents on board would be another story—one that she hoped would have a happy ending.

***

ENJOY THE ALPHAS!!!!!!

TTYW,

LISI

FRIDAY THE 13th BONUS BLAH-G!!!!

They say Friday the 13th is unlucky but I say THINK AGAIN theysayers!!!! Because today is your lucky day! The missing chapter 13 in Monster High is being revealed right here www.facebook.com/MonsterHigh RIGHT NOW.

And everyone's favorite brain dead diva wrote it…

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…with a little help from this brain dead diva. [image error] That's me zombie-searching for my keyboard.

There's tons more on the Monster High Facebook page to celebrate this (un) LUCKY day so take a look…if you dare.

TTYW,

Lisi

Top of the Rude Chain.

Last week's LA Times Festival of Books was great–if you don't mind extreme heat and free Ben & Jerry's ice cream–which I don't. I spoke on a panel called Smells Like Teen Spirit. Terrible title, awesome company. I was joined by three other teen authors–

1) Elizabeth Eulberg: author of Prom and Prejudice.

2) Joanna Philbin: author of The Daughters.

3) Abby McDonald: author of Anti-Prom.

We had a blast, talked about writing for teens, and signed books. It's nice to get out of my veal pen every once in a while and hang with cool chicks who do what I do. But the best part was meeting the fans and giving sweaty hugs.

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Sorry to those I hugged too hard. But I've been feeling fragile lately. A bit of empty nest syndrome if you will. All of my series' have grown up and moved out. First, The Clique and now Alphas.

Next Tuesday (May 17th) marks the official release date of Top Of The Feud Chain- the fourth and final novel in the Alphas series. Who will survive Alpha Academy? Who will Shira Brazille name top Alpha? Who will end up with her hot sons? Who will end up a hot mess?

All those answers and more can be found in THIS…

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And let me tell you, it has THE most unpredictable ending of any series on any planet in any universe. A gross exaggeration? You decide.

For those of you who love a little Alpha-grade gossip, log on to:

http://pickapoppy.com/page/get-a-voic...

Sign up to get a voice message from me and I'll let you in on a little secret.

SHOUT OUT: to the ah-dorable girl who came to the festival with her father. She comes every year to see me. I wrote down her name so I could give her the shout out she deserves. Then I put it in my purse for safe keeping. Sadly, a bottle of not-so-Smart Water spilled and turned her name into a Sharpie puddle. If you read this please post your name. I'm so sorry. I am top of the RUDE chain. Forgive me.

TTYW,

Lisi

GIRLS GONE WILD

The good news is this email is longer than a Tweet. The bad news is, not by much.

My computer broke last week and has been in the shop for ten days. I just got it back two seconds ago (Thank you Matt!). Because of my jammed hard drive I am way behind on work and way ahead on my tan so it's all kind of good.

I have to run because I am off to LA for a meeting. I just wanted you to know I didn't get mauled on my camping trip. I did, however, manage to look like a total dork in my bear helmet. Something every girl should have in the wilds of Santa Barbara.  Dotch'a think? As for Amy's glow-stick halo and Steph's laptop case…I have no clue. What weirdos.

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TTYW,

Lisi

iTour

I am back from book tour and I have to say, it was ah-mazing! Several girls in Huntington Beach mentioned this blog and got their promised hugs. And I got to meet so many incredible fans in Miami and HB. Check out some of the costumes!!! How cute are these three??? Sorry about the cut off heads. I think I need a photographer to come with me. My iPhone clearly isn't doing these girls any favors.

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[image error]She translates my books into Spanish. Beuno!

[image error]This is Melody. And I have officially named her my #1 fan. She started hyper-ventilating when she met me. If you name a scene or a moment from a book she will tell you what page it's on. And when people asked me questions at my book signing she was able to answer them all. I ah-dore her!

[image error]Meet Isabella. I ah-dore her too. Not only did she bring every book I've ever written to the signing. But she brought me a pack of gum because I am an obsessive chewer and a pack of Skittles because I am practically inhaling them on the home page of my website. She also made me an awesome bracelet. She was so sweet and thoughtful.

The big pictures below were taken by Webmaster JJ. She showed up at Barnes and Noble Huntington Beach with her camera and a big proud smile. Thanks J!

Oh wait, one last one from my iPhone.

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Now the nice pics….

I am making that face because she has the most incredible finger nails. They were covered in beads and jewels and I just stepped off a flight from Miami (changed in the bathroom at Kohl's)and my nails were all dry and chipped.

[image error]How cute is mini-Clawdeen????

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She had a voltage Monster High notebook.

[image error]I signed her Monster High shirt. (How cute is she???) (Not me, her)

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Thanks so much to Jessica B. from Little Brown for setting up such a great tour. Thanks to the ah-mazing booksellers at Barnes and Noble and Books and Books for such great events. And thanks to all of you for coming out to hang. I can't wait for the next one!!!

I won't be blah-ging next week because I will be camping in Santa Barbara. No I didn't lose a bet. And yes, I will be in a cabin with a bathroom. And of course it still counts as camping. I'll try to post some pictures of that. I can assure you they won't be cute. But hey, that's how we roll, right?

TTYWApril 27th

Lisi

XXXXXXX

WISH YOU WERE HERE

No one likes a nag but I feel compelled to remind you of four things.

1) The Ghoul Next Door comes out on Tuesday.

2) Text MONSTER to README and you'll get two texts per week for an entire month from the freaky-fabulous Monster High characters.

3) I'm heading out on book tour next week. Mention the BLAH-G and I'll give you a super-sized hug.

Monday April 4

PLANTATION, FL

7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Reading and Signing
BARNES & NOBLE

591 South University Dr

Plantation, FL  33324

Contact: Susan Boyd

954-723-0489

Tuesday, April 5

BAL HARBOUR, FL

7:30 PM  to 9:00 PM

Reading and Signing
BOOKS & BOOKS

9700 Collins Ave

Bal Harbour, FL  33154

Contact: Debra Linn

305.864.4241

Wednesday, April 6

Huntington Beach, CA

7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Reading and Signing
BARNES & NOBLE

7881 Edinger Avenue

Huntington Beach, CA  92647

Contact: Jeanne Ferrara

(714) 897-8781

4) I will not be able to Blah-G next week but will do my best to dazzle you Wednesday April 13th.

I hope to squeeze you soon,

TTYW13th,

Lisi

MONSTER LOW

Truth? I'm in a crabby mood today. Yes, I did yoga. Yes, I had a complete breakfast. And yes, I have my health. But I am PMSing and that makes me tired and irritated. Shocker, I know. Also I am going to Florida to visit my dad tomorrow and I have tons to do. So if you wouldn't mind granting me a hall pass this week I am going to keep this short. I have a ton of writing to do this afternoon and I am about as focused as a photographer on the high seas. As you can glean, I am the last person you should be turning to today for a fun boost. But I am happy to refer you to something that might help.

Monster High 2: The Ghoul Next Door drops Tuesday, April 5th. Join in the celebration and text Monster to Readme on March 28th and get texts back from your favorite Monster High characters. They never get PMS.

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I will be flying back next Wednesday so I will blah-g on Thursday. By then I should be back to normal. If not, keep texting MONSTER.

TTYT, 3.31

Lisi