I is For Interview with Dmitry Sholokhov!!

Hi, Everyone!!!

It's the third week and I'm doing a twisted version of the A to Z Challenge--vowel style!!--and I have an AMAZING chance to share something soooo cool with you.

A great friend and favorite author of mine, Kendra Saunders, got a chance to meet her muse a while ago and when she asked if she could interview him on a podcast, he said yes!!

The most amazing, wonderfully talented Dmitry Sholokhov!! Aka a Project Runway winner and super awesome designer (obviously. i mean he won, right??)

Here are all the details:

Novelist and interviewer Kendra L. Saunders hijacks Matt Connarton's show once again, this time for an interview with extra special guest Dmitry Sholokhov. Dmitry, winner of Season 10 of Project Runway, talks about his gorgeous Lord & Taylor collection, styling tips for his fans, the best advice he’s received, koala bears, Indiana Jones and whether or not he really does wear that sparkly sequin gown around his house.

The arts are an exciting but crazy business and supporting your favorite artist can be as simple as sharing information about him/her on your blog or through social media, posting their information or sending them an encouraging tweet. Make sure to listen in to this insightful interview with a genuinely talented, gentlemanly and funny artist!

Kendra L. Saunders is the author of urban fantasy Inanimate Objects, short story collection Overlapping Visions and the upcoming dark comedy Death and Mr. Right (Spence City, 10/13), and writes regularly for NerdCaliber. She's one cat allergy away from a stereotypical writer. Find her at www.kendralsaunders.com or on twitter @kendrybird where she loves to answer writing questions, talk about music and fashion and share insider tips about the publishing industry.

Now listen to the interview!!

Inanimate Objects, by Kendra Saunders--A Review

Kendra is the author of Inanimate Objects, a magic realism novel, and has been published in Premier Bride Magazine, Snakeskin Magazine and Steampunk Magazine. She hosts the quirky literary podcast 13 1/2 Minutes and is a convention reporter and regular guest blogger at Pure Textuality. She won Honorable Mention in the Writer's Digest Book Awards and is marketing coordinator for YA publishing company Spencer Hill Press.


Oh yay! You have no idea how excited I am to be reviewing Kendra's book, Inanimate Objects. Yes, you already know that she and I are friends, so I'm sure you're thinking that my review will then be very biased. And you would be right. I'm usually a LOT harder on my friends than I am on people I don't know. Why? Probably because I feel I can be a lot more honest with my friends than with strangers. Also, I tend to believe our friends SHOULD be more critical (nice, helpful critical) because they should always want to help us improve.

So let's take a look at it!

Summary from Goodreads:

Inanimate Objects is a dark and glittering novel of artists and magicians, muses and immortals. At the heart of the story is Leonidas Bondi, a charismatic young artist who falls under the watchful gaze of Matilda August. Matilda has been a patron to the stars for hundreds of years, but this fickle muse is more than a little taken with her new protégé, blurring her own lines of work and obsession. Providing opposition is Matilda’s son, Elisha, a moody figure who holds revenge above all else after he suffers a terrible wrong.

There aren't many books I've read lately that have made me go, "Wow. That character really reminds me of someone I know" or "Boy I REALLY wish I knew someone like that." This book does all that and more.

There are several POV characters, but my two favorites are Elisha August and Leonidas Bondi. And just looking at those names, you can probably get a glimpse of the flavor of the novel. It's very dark and romantic, speckled here and there with gold sparklies and very matter-of-fact magic.

I love how Leo is not your typical male MC. He's flashy and dark at the same time. He loves his makeup and fancy clothes, parties and champagne, but at the same time, his art and poetry will rip your heart out with their sorrow.

And Elisha. Ah, poor Elisha. You just want to give the guy a hug the whole time. Something horrible has happened in his past and he spends the novel plotting his revenge, but you know deep down that even if he succeeds, he's never going to be happy again. And I wanted him to be happy so badly!!!

As far as the writing goes, it's amazing. It's very Neil Gaiman-esque. The settings are beautiful, the people practically pop to life right off the page, and the concept is brilliant. There need to be more stories like this one.

Inanimate Objects absolutely deserves 5 stars. It is by far one of my favorite novels. 

If you haven't had a chance to buy a copy yet, I leave you with these links for your purchasing convenience. Do it. It is such a good deal and you will NOT be sorry.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Enjoy!

The Wonderful and Marvelous Kendra Saunders!

Okay, so last week was amazing! I love discussions and real, honest arguments. You know the kind. The ones that don't end with people calling someone else an idiot. Like the ones you find on every internet news source. :o

But for today, it's time I started talking about the great things of BEA again. And one of the greatest things about it is meeting people you know online.

You guys may recall me talking about Kendra Saunders on numerous occasions in the past. She is the marketing guru at Spencer Hill Press and an EXTREMELY talented writer.

There she is!! Isn't she so pretty??

I have to admit that meeting Kendra in person was one of THE MOST anticipated moments of my trip. This is Kendra Saunders we're talking about here. The author of one of my all-time favorite books (review coming on Friday)! The girl I'd talked to on the phone a dozen times before! She's hilarious! And super sweet!

And honestly? I was dying to show her my clothes for BEA. She has the best taste I've ever seen, so I knew if she liked what I was wearing, I looked darn good. :D

I saw her at the Spencer Hill Press booth on Tuesday and she was just as sweet in person as she is on the phone. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hang out with her as much as I'd hoped because she had a friend who lived in NYC who she had to visit. But what I did see of her was amazing. She is so funny and I am soo lucky to have her as my friend. 

If you do not follow Kendra on Facebook or Twitter, you must! And check out her book, Inanimate Objects. 

I'm Back! And I Have Stories of BEA to Share!!

Goooooood morning, everyone!!

You may have noticed that I was pretty much MIA last week. Well, that's because I was in NYC! It was so awesome I can't even begin to properly describe it. Let me give you a hint:

1. Free books
2. Book bloggers
3. Free books
4. Famous authors
5. Good friends
6. Free books

This is just a tiny sample of all the books I got. I couldn't carry everything home with me, so three boxes were shipped and are on their way to me now!

Do you see those titles?? Keeper of the Lost Cities (review being posted today on Goodreads), by Shannon Messenger! The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater! The Spindlers, by Lauren Oliver! Black City, by Elizabeth Richards! ALL the pretties! It's still very overwhelming. 

You may also notice I have two of some of those books up there. That's because I plan on doing a giveaway in the next coming weeks.

So let me share a tale of BEA. I have many, but this is the one I'll be sharing today.

As you may recall, I told you all a few weeks ago that I was going to be signing copies of Elemental at BEA. Well, my publisher called a few days before to tell me that they'd be bringing two whole cases (i.e. seventy books) for the event. I started to panic.

I mean, seventy books is a lot. Sure, a lot of people go to BEA, but there are dozens of signings going on at the same time and who was I to be chosen over some of the huge names that were also going to be there?

I started hoping and praying that I'd get through half of my books and not be there twiddling my thumbs for too long.

When the first day of BEA came, I really started to sweat. All my nightmares were being played out before me. HUGE lines were forming for really huge names while slightly lesser known authors were sitting at their booths pleading with their eyes for people to come and take their books. I did tend to go to these folks. I felt for them! I knew I would be one of them the very next day!

I couldn't sleep Tuesday night. At all. My stomach had twisted into this horrible, nauseous knot and I just KNEW I was going to humiliate myself and disappoint my publishing company.

Luckily, I had an author breakfast to go to on Wednesday morning to take up some of the time before my signing at 10:00. Because my signing was going on at pretty much the same time as one of my all time favorite authors', Becca Fitzpatrick (who would be signing copies of Finale--according to the BEA website), I'd begged my husband and fellow SHP author Dan Cohen to stand in line for me.

The breakfast ended a little early at 9:22, so I decided to go to her line and chat with my husband and Dan until they were done getting my book or 10:00 rolled around (whichever came first). I checked out the front of the line first because that's where they should have been (due to the fact they had yellow exhibitor badges and could get in before everyone else).

They weren't at the front of the line.

So I started walking towards the end of the line. And it was a long, long line.

I still didn't see them.

At this point, I was getting a little upset. We'd discussed this! They knew they had to get there early in order to get a copy and I was NOT about to wait until this fall to read a book I'd been dying for for years now and could get at BEA.

While checking out the line, I ran into another SHP author, Kimberly Miller. She claimed she saw the two slackers at the SHP booth.

o.o I thought they'd lost their minds.

It was 9:40. I still had 20 minutes before my signing so I figured I had plenty of time to go there before anyone showed up for my signing and demand they get in the Becca Fitzpatrick line before it was too late.

I turned the corner to the SHP booth and saw something that looked similar to this:

That couldn't be for me! I thought to myself. There's NO WAY that is for me.

But it was (I know, still very shocked over here). And then I was humiliated for an entirely different reason.

I'd showed up twenty minutes too early. How unfashionable of me!

Well, it turned out Becca Fitzpatrick was NOT signing Finale (despite what they'd advertised), so that was the reason my husband and Dan were not in the line. I immediately forgave them and apologized for thinking they'd lost their darn minds.

But now I had a new problem.

I had twenty minutes before my signing and people were there, waiting. I couldn't just walk off and mill around until 10:00 like my original plan. And I couldn't just stand there making them wait when there were other books to be gotten.

So I started a little early.

There's me!! And for some reason, people actually wanted to get their picture taken with me. The lady to the right of me (left in this picture) had just posed with me.

There's another view of the line! This was before we had to move it because it was getting in the way of another signing that was just about to start. You can see the guy in the next booth looking over.

There's me and Kendra Saunders (the marketing guru at SHP)!!! Kate Kaynak and SHP editor Vikki Ciaffone are in the background.

There's me, Dan Cohen, and Kendra Saunders right after my signing! And like most pictures involving me, I was just in the middle of saying something when they snapped the pic.

The whole experience was awesome!! All seventy books were gone! The thirty some odd copies they'd brought to just hand out were also gone!! The display copy had to be taken off the shelf and given away (story for that one on Wednesday)!! And STILL people were coming!

It was soooooo amazing. I am so happy! I did NOT disappoint my publishing company! And I am soooo ready to do this again.

Keep checking back for more BEA stories! They are all VERY good. And at the end, I'll be doing a giveaway!

Happy Monday, everyone!!

I is for Inanimate Objects

A little note for everyone stopping by for the A to Z challenge:

First off, hi! Welcome! Look around, have fun. My posts will be short this month, but they'll be following a theme: Books and Authors. I'll be showcasing some of my favorites within those categories. But I'll also be having some special posts regarding the release of my debut novel, Elemental, from time to time. 


Today's the last day to get tattoo related pictures to me! Winner will be posted tomorrow!

Readers, I am in the middle of reading this book right now and it is SOOOO GOOD!!! Oh my goodness. The writing reminds me of Neil Gaiman. Seriously. That is how good this is.

Here's the blurb:

Inanimate Objects is a dark and glittering novel of artists and magicians, muses and immortals. At the heart of the story is Leonidas Bondi, a charismatic young artist who falls under the watchful gaze of Matilda August. Matilda has been a patron to the stars for hundreds of years, but this fickle muse is more than a little taken with her new protégé, blurring her own lines of work and obsession. 

Providing opposition is Matilda’s son, Elisha, a moody figure who holds revenge above all else after he suffers a terrible wrong.

Check it out on Goodreads and Amazon.

The ELEMENTAL Book Trailer is Here!!

My amazing and wonderful trailer (all thanks to Kendra Saunders, Kate Kaynak, Glenridge, Luna Gracie, Ricky "Locke" Prime, and so many others!) will be popping up all over the internet this week! But you can find it here, too!

Enjoy! And share!




Please spread this video around! Pretty please! With cherries. :)