Thank you, readers

Hey y'all,

So, it's a busy week because:

A. I have a five year old and an 8 month old to take care of.

B. I have lots of writerly work to do.

C. The little odds and ends of life are becoming more middle and center--in other words, everything in my house is breaking. Really. Everything. Vacuum, microwave, car battery, new baby computer, the floor. (Yes, the floor. And we're trying to sell the house and there's a weird ripple in the floor and I'm pretty sure we're sinking into evil, Arkansan quicksand and will never escape. Okay. Sniff! Not going to write about that anymore, it's making me freak out a bit.)

But despite the madness, I had to make time to shout out to my readers. I've been getting two or three emails per day from people who have enjoyed "You are So Undead to Me" and are looking forward to the next book. I can't even express how much every single email means to me. It's still unreal that people are reading my book, let alone reading it and liking it enough to write me an email.

So really, just...thank you. Thank you for reading, and I'm so happy to have done my job and written a book that entertained you.

Big sloppy zombie kisses all around,

Stacey Jay

p.s. And remember, this is the last week to enter for the July drawing! Find out more about the Summer Reads and Tees contest here: http://staceyjay.com/news.php

A poem about dog poo

*Please note. If you are offended by dog poop, people who don't like dog poop, diapers, or the four letter word, s*#t, used in a creative manner, do not read this blog post!



Dear neighbors who live in my hood,
I'm not sure why you think it's good
to let you preshush furry babies poo
in my yard and not wrap the doo.

Take it away, I don't like your gift.
I don't need puppy pee and shit.
I have a 8 month old baby boy
who's own loaded diapers fill me with joy.

Hm...Maybe they'd fill you with joy too!
Leave your address and the next time he poos,
I'll bring that steamy diaper by your place,
and fling it on your lawn, honk my horn and say,
"Take that you tacky people who won't clean up after your animal and leave dog CRAP on someone else's property. You suck!!"

-Stacey Jay c. 2009

Ugh! Lazy dog owners! I want to unleash zombies on them.

Later ya'll, happy Friday!

Stacey Jay

Shout to Zombie Artists-Living Dead Girlz

They're a dance troupe pulling the inspiration for their choreography from campy zombie films. How cool are they? Very cool and worth a shout out on the old blog. Here are a few shots of the troupe from their latest performance, "Zombie Beach Party", which seems to be a mix of "Grease", The Annette Funicello movies from the 50's, and pure zombie goodness.

HISTORY
(From their site http://livingdeadgirlz.com)

In 2004, San Francisco based horror director Shannon Lark recruited Amber Steele to choreograph and act in one of her short films, a tongue-in-cheek music video called "Whatever Happened to The Zombie Killers." In it, a roller derby styled group of zombie hunters laid siege to a nightclub populated by the living dead. The DANCING living dead.

Steele turned to Lark and said, "You know what would be AWESOME? To have my own dance troupe of hot zombie dancers."

Within a year, Steele had gathered Lark, Jessica Katzman (a featured zombie dancer in WHTTZK), and women she had go-go danced with in San Francisco such as Samar Soriano, Whitney Moses, Julie Rowlette, and Shamika Baker. Over the next couple of years they played nightclubs and horror conventions across the country with zombie makeup and a giant glitter heart... the LIVING DEAD GIRLZ were born... (or un-born -- the "Z" is for "Zombie.")

And in related news I COVET this poster for an old Living Dead Girlz show done by artist Pete Ellison, hetyitspete.com :

I want to write and ask Pete if he would consider doing some art for me for the second Megan Berry shirt, but there isn't any contact info on his site! Sadness, I tell you. (Some of you already have the cartoon-tastic first shirt and if you don't have it yet, you can be buying it at my cafepress store: http://www.cafepress.com/StaceyJay

Take care all and have a great week,

Stacey Jay

Debutante Blog Tour: Megan Frazer

About Secrets of Truth & Beauty

Secrets of Truth & Beauty -- When Dara Cohen was little, she was crowned Little Miss Maine. That was then. Now Dara's seventeen and she's not so little anymore. That's just one of her many problems. Another is that her control-freak mom won't get off her case about anything. Yet the one that hurts the most is the family secret: Dara has an older sister her parents tried to erase from their lives.

About Megan Frazer

Megan Frazer studied English literature and creative writing at Columbia University. She lives with her husband and baby in Maine, where she is a high school librarian. She loves cheese and cooking, and both of these make their way into Secrets of Truth & Beauty. She was not, however, ever in a beauty pageant.

The Four Questions:

1. If you had to kill off one of your characters which one would it be? Why him/her?

Dara's life would be a whole lot easier without mean girl Maddie, but I don't know if I could go so far as to kill her. . .

2. Would you consider having this character come back from the dead? Why or why not?

Oh no. She's kind of cranky, and I feel like being brought back to life would really piss her off. Plus she would go off on some kind of trip about how she was so special to be chosen to come back to life.

3. What's the strangest thing eaten in the course of your book? (If it's brains you get ten bonus points!)

At first I thought you meant in the course of writing the book, and then I wondered if anyone actually ate brains while writing their book, and, if so, if they would admit it. Anyway, food is very big in this book, and the most unique dish is probably the aubergine and polenta terrine.

4. Random sharing time, what do you want my zombie-blog-author readers to know about your book?

Well zombies will surely like that there are goats in the book, because, when you think about it, goats and zombies share a pressing desire to eat things that regular people find quite disgusting. Plus a bleating goat sounds kind of like a moaning zombie.

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog, Megan, and I am SO so sorry I didn't post this on the 10th. I was in New York and confused, but that's not excuse. (Ya'll go buy this excellent sounding book now, ya hear?)

• Author Web site: http://www.meganfrazer.com

• Bookstore link:
  http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Truth-Beauty-Megan-Frazer/dp/1423117115/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229723531&sr=8-1

See you in a couple of days,

Stacey Jay

Back from New York-Telling Stories

The hubs and I just returned from a frantic scamper around New York City. I met with the Fabulous Agent, one of my Amazing Editors, and signed a crap load of stock at the bookstores on Broadway. In the meantime we managed to get lost, get found, and get the hubs an eyebrow wax at a salon called "Pretty Little Angels". (This last part was enough to make me giggle for weeks. It was his first time getting anything waxed, but he was very brave and the brows look as awesome as I thought they'd look. Note to men everywhere: It's not metro to take care of your brows. They are the framework of the face!...or so the professionals tell me.)

Anyway, in between all that, we also made a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and saw SO many things. Here are a few snapshots (not mine, I was too trip impaired to remember my camera. Blergh. But these are a few I found with google fu).







(I love this sculpture. It's been one of my favorites since I first visited the museum when I was fourteen. I believe that's Cupid, asleep after running around causing love trouble.)



(The hubs loved the Egyptian wing--as I thought he would. What's not to love about mummies? Real. Live...er....dead. Mummies? So cool and troubling and mind-melting. Some of these were almost 4000 years old. Puts things in perspective a bit...)

We saw all those things and more, but there was still so much left to explore. I wish I lived in New York City just for the museums. (They can take the traffic and the noise and the crazy people talking to themselves in a way that makes you feel obligated to answer and the weird smell of old pee that lingers on the streets, however. I haven't missed any of that since moving away.)

Visiting the Met again was amazing with regard to the writing life because it made me realize why I'd always loved the place. There are just so many stories to be told there. Hundreds, thousands, millions of stories. A story in every piece of pottery and every painting and every tiny little artifact pulled from the dirt. There could easily be twenty stories in a tiny glass case. I think I always felt that, even as a younger person, and I knew I wanted to tell those stories.

I still do. I can't wait to get started on the next one. It was definitely a work-affirming trip.

Happy Sunday,

Stacey Jay

Debutante Blog Tour: Cyn Balog

About Fairy Tale

Morgan Sparks and Cam Browne are a match made in heaven. They've been best friends since birth, they tell each other everything, and oh yeah- they're totally hot for each other. But a week before their joint Sweet Sixteen bash, everything changes. Cam's awkward cousin Pip comes to stay, and Morgan is stunned when her formerly perfect boyfriend seems to be drifting away. When Morgan demands answers, she's shocked to discover the source of Cam's distance isn't another girl- it's another world. Pip claims that Cam is a fairy. No, seriously. A fairy. And now his people want Cam to return to their world and take his rightful place as Fairy King.

Determined to keep Cam with her, Morgan plots to fool the fairies. But as Cam continues to change, she has to decide once and for all if he really is her destiny, and if their "perfect" love can weather an uncertain future.

About Cyn Balog

Cyn Balog is a normal, everyday Jersey Girl who always believed magical things can happen to us when we least expect them. She's also the Race & Event Manager for several national fitness magazines. She lives outside Allentown, Pennsylvania with her husband and young daughter. Both are 100% human, or so she thinks. FAIRY TALE is her first novel.

The Four Questions:

1. If you had to kill off one of your characters which one would it be? Why him/her?

Well, probably Dawn, because she's one of those fairy immortals and it would be just so shocking for her. Right now she thinks she's so high-and-mighty, so this might knock her down a peg.

2. Would you consider having this character come back from the dead? Why or why not?

Oh, now, that would be fun. A Zombie Fairy. There is a story in that, somewhere. I think once the Fairy trend dies out, and the Zombie trend dies out, Zombie Fairies will be next in line.

3. What's the strangest thing eaten in the course of your book? (If it's brains you get ten bonus points!)

I've wanted to stab out my brains with a pencil while writing it, does that count? Morgan does eat a fortune cookie of questionable origin, though.

4. Random sharing time, what do you want my zombie-blog-author readers to know about your book?

Now that I've thought about it, I really think the sequel to Fairy Tale will contain at least one Zombie Fairy. Thanks for the tip, Stacey!

Stacey says: You 're welcome :)

Additional Details

Author Web site: http://www.cynbalog.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Lust-Cyn-Balog/dp/0385737068/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225896455&sr=8-1

And let's all send Cyn some good labor or new baby vibes. This girl was ready to go last time I heard from her. Hope her baby launch and her book launch are both perfect. Much love to Cyn Balog!

Stacey Jay