Eat, Drink, and Be Scary: How Our Main Characters Would Celebrate Halloween

Candy binges, voodoo priestesses, pet costume contests and zombie weddings—our main characters have big plans this Halloween! Have fun plans of your own? Tell us how you—or your favorite fictional character—are celebrating this year in the comments below. Continue reading “Eat, Drink, and Be Scary: How Our Main Characters Would Celebrate Halloween”

It’s National Made-Up Holiday Day!

Seems like we just finished celebrating National Coffee Day, and we don’t know about you, but we haven’t even taken down our decorations for National Custodial Worker Day. And now it’s Leif Erikson Day, Curious Events Day AND Moldy Cheese Day—all on the same day! This abundance of  special occasions have us in a celebratory mood, so we’ve taken the liberty of adding a few more events we’d like to recognize. 
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True Confession: I’m Jealous of My Protagonist

I have a confession to make. I’m a little jealous of my Plantation Shudders protagonist, Maggie Crozat. For one thing, she’s a few inches taller than me, and doesn’t need to lose twenty pounds to get off cholesterol medication like I do. She can eat boatloads of her mother’s incredible Cajun cooking and never  gain an ounce, the lucky so-and-so. Plus, she’s thirty-two, and I’m, … Continue reading True Confession: I’m Jealous of My Protagonist

What’s in a name? More than you might think.

Ask someone: “What’s your name?” and you’ll usually get a straightforward answer—crazy spellings aside. But a lot of times, especially with pen names, there’s a whole backstory behind those “Hello my name is…” stickers. This week, we talk about pseudonyms, mistaken identities, parental foresight (or lack thereof), and more.
Continue reading “What’s in a name? More than you might think.”

Notes From the Panic Room: Debut. Author. Battles. Clock.

I’ve always secretly shared in that special thrill when a new author officially starts her countdown-to-publication clock. She may not know me, or think anyone’s noticed other than a few Facebook “Likes,” but I’m rooting for her and her first book baby all the way. Yep, I watch those ticking clocks on blogs and websites and Twitter more closely than Jack Bauer and Chloe O’Brian. … Continue reading Notes From the Panic Room: Debut. Author. Battles. Clock.

Marla Cooper

Spam-o-Rama: Our non-readers speak!

CotC Word balloonsSo, a funny thing happens when you start a blog. Well, several funny things happen, but one of them is spam comments. After we’d been doing this a few weeks, I noticed that WordPress had been sequestering them in their own special spam folder, so I decided to take a look to make sure none of our readers’ comments had been put there by mistake. Continue reading “Spam-o-Rama: Our non-readers speak!”