Countdown to This Side of the Grave - Tour, News & Tidbits

Hi all! I thought I’d do a little information post for a few things. =)

First off, tour information.

Jeaniene Frost will be touring with Pamela Palmer, who is the author of the very awesome Feral Warrior series, to celebrate their releases of This Side of the Grave and Hunger Untamed which both release on February 22nd.

Here is their schedule:

Saturday, February 19th,  2011 

Group signing with Nora Roberts, Grace Burrowes, Mary Burton, Stephanie Dray, Jeaniene Frost, Pamela Palmer, Mary Burkhart Reed, and Vaughn Ripley. Special early release date of THIS SIDE OF THE GRAVE and HUNGER UNTAMED for this event only. More details here.

Turn the Page Bookstore  12:00pm to 2:00 pm

18 North Main Street

Boonsboro, Maryland  21713

*Did you know Nora Robert’s husband owns this bookstore? Pretty cool.

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Signing with Jeaniene Frost and Pamela Palmer

Books-A-Million  7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

757 Brookwood Village

Birmingham, AL  35209

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

Signing with Jeaniene Frost and Pamela Palmer. More details here.

Garden District Book Shop  5:30- pm to 7:00 pm

2727 Prytania Street  

New Orleans, LA  70130

On the 19^th at Turn the Page Bookstore they will also be doing a virtual signing! So, if you can’t make it there you can order the author’s books through Turn the Page, the author will sign them and then they will be shipped to you. I see this really hurting my checkbook…. You can go here for more info.

Also on the 19^th there will be a live video chat from 10:30-11:15 am EST Watch Nora Roberts, Grace Burrowes, Mary Burton, Stephanie Dray, Jeaniene Frost, Pamela Palmer, Mary Burkhart Reed, and Vaughn Ripley live via Avon Books' Live Streaming event as they chat about their newest books prior to the signing.

You can see the chat here.

News:

Soooo…..guess what I’m getting……you will not believe how I was jumping up and down in my chair over this! Okay, so I maybe shouldn’t say this until I actually have them in-hand but I can’t wait!

Thanks to the lovely Erika Tsang and Jessie Edwards over at Avon/HarperCollins I am getting a few ‘Team Bones’ slap bracelets to add to the Countdown giveaways! *insert a whole lot of squeeing* When I get them in-hand and see how many I have to giveaway I will officially add them to the main Countdown page. =D

Tidbits:

This is just a little bit of info that I found and wanted to share about the series, and I couldn’t squeeze into any other posts. =)

• Jeaniene says that she is a finicky author; the character that she is writing about at that time is her favorite. Though in interviews she has mentioned Cat & Bones more often then naught. ;)
• Did you know that Doc from At Graves End is the Doc Holiday, whose tuberculosis was cured when he was turned into a vampire?
• Jeaniene on Cat- “…she’s a glorious mess of good intentions, recklessness, bravery, loyalty, insecurity, and stubbornness. She’s also her own worst critic, which, since I write in first person through her point of view, makes it harder to showcase her strengths, since Cat only wants to focus on her flaws. If I could write a scene where I met Cat, I’d tell her to give herself a break, because although she makes mistakes (and boy, does she) she truly tries to do the best thing for everyone else before herself. I admire that about her.” Juiciliciousss Reviews

“…I admire so many things about Cat – although she can frustrate me to no end at times – but what I most admire about her is her ability to admit when she’s wrong. She makes a lot of mistakes, but instead of trying to justify herself, to others or internally, she owns up to them. And she does to try to learn from them, though she still struggles with that. Because of refusing deny when she’s been wrong, Cat is pitiless in detailing her own faults. This has made her somewhat less of a sympathetic character to readers, but that’s what you get when you write in first person narrative. I think readers might be surprised to see a story told by another narrative with Cat in it, because Cat would come across a lot less flawed. We’re all our own worst critics, aren’t we?” Bitten by Books

• Jeaniene on character names- Catherine (Cat) came from Sidney Sheldon’s The Other Side of Midnight, which Jeaniene loved.  She just knew that Bones was going to be her hero’s name, and then she had to come up with a good reason why he would have chosen it. Spade’s name came from the card game, though his reasons for the name differ in the novels. Jeaniene just liked the name Denise, Justina is homage to all of the “J” names in her family and Ian was another name she just liked. -ATUF
• Jeaniene on Bones – “(Bones) comes through very clear to me as a character, and he has a truly wicked sense of humor. I will say he’s easier to write when I’m doing it from Cat’s point of view, however. I wrote a short story from Bones’ point of view recently, and that required me to explore aspects of his personality that aren’t my favorite. Bones gets a more forgiving look being written through Cat’s eyes, because she isn’t privy to all his inner demons, and of course, he is.”  -Bitten by Books
• Jeaniene has described some of Bones’ appearance and personality inspired by a stir-fry of different, gorgeous, men and her own imagination: Billy Idol (Bones’ English accent & hair in HttG), some of Bones’ attitude comes from Bruce Campbell’s character as Ash in Evil Dead 2 & Army of Darkness, A little bit of his personality is like Jack Sparrows (If I didn’t already love Bones this would of done it!) and Bill from Kill Bill, Viggo Mortensen’s chiseled cheekbones, and a blend of James Franco, Orlando Bloom, and Chris Pine, Jude Law, Ethan Hawke, Christian Bale, Bruce Campbell in appearance. – Bitten by Books

“He probably gets some of his wise-ass sense of humor from me, as well as his fear of flying.” – Paranormal Haven

• If Jeaniene could meet any of her characters it would be Bones – “He's a centuries-old vampire who puts a whole new spin on the life after undeath stereotype. I'd want to pick his brain for hours just to get some of the stories out of him that I know he has. Also, if I could find out what it was actually like to be bitten by a vampire – while living to tell about it – well, that would just make me a better writer, wouldn’t it? Heh.
  Oddly enough, Bones would also be the character I'd be most afraid to meet. Bones is absolutely lethal, and if he knew it was my fault that he and the people he cared about had gone through some of the hell my sick mind thought up to keep readers flipping pages…he'd kill me. Without a doubt. So I'd just as soon skip that." Juiciliciousss Reviews
• Justina’s journey – “I knew Justina’s character would change dramatically from how she first appeared in Halfway to the Grave. I also knew from way back that ***spoiler warning to those who haven’t read Destined for an Early Grave*** she would be forcibly turned into a vampire. What’s fun for me as an author is to show that first impressions on characters aren’t always going to be correct. People have multiple layers, and with the Night Huntress series written in Cat’s point of view, some of those layers aren’t revealed until later when Cat learns them for herself.” -GoodReads

Have a great weekend everyone; be sure to check back tomorrow when Kristin from Nocturnal Bites joins us for an Ultimate Fan Night Huntress Trivia Contest and giveaway she will be hosting!

10 days to go!!!

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