The Bookie Awards Are Coming!

I can’t wait for voting to open up at Authors After Dark!!!! Not only is Gini Koch up for a couple, and Double Cross by Carolyn Crane but, Where The Rain Is Made by Keta Diablo is nominated, too!

:}Amber Scott

10 Things You Didn’t Know…Carolyn Crane

As I wait with bated breath to discover when book three of Carolyn Crane’s phenomenal new series will release, to tide us over here are: Ten things you didn’t know about Carolyn Crane!

CC: 1. I have a boiler engineer’s license.

It’s actually expired now, but I carry it around anyway out of pride. LOL. My husband and I used to own a condo in this ancient building, and the city law said one resident had to have a license to operate this giant old steam boiler or the owners would have to pay all this money to a company. So my neighbor girl and I studied really hard and took the test – she was an oboist and I was a writer and neither of us were mechanically inclined, but we got an enormous amount of humor mileage out of terms like “draining the tri-cock.” And we both passed the test. And we could do minor maintenance things to the boiler.

2. I secretly believe I invented the phrase ‘eye candy’.

It’s not documented, but I believe I invented it when I was in college. in the 1980’s. I remember the circumstance exactly—there was this girl who I thought was the coolest and most fashionable girl ever, and I wanted her to be my friend. We were talking and I wanted to say something super clever about a piece of jewelry we were admiring, and I called it eye candy. And then we started using the term around. Incidentally, I also happen to know the girl who thinks she invented the phrase “bad hair day.” I actually believe her claim. She is super clever.

3. I am frequently wracked by guilt.

I think everybody has their go-to bad emotion. Grief, shame, rage, guilt. I’m totally in the guilt/shame camp. I can be wracked by guilt for days for wronging a person. It really affects me poorly when people are mad at me over the Internet. I can easily let myself get haunted by things I’ve done. When Mind Games was coming out, I was petrified that there would be this whole subset of people who’d lost loved ones to aneurysms, or like, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and think I was making fun of them with my fake diseases, and making light of disease. This had occurred to me only after I wrote it, and it sort of haunted me. Okay, now I probably sound crazy!

4. I was mean older sister, and naturally, I am wracked by guilt over that.

I am the oldest of two sisters and I was really mean to my youngest sister growing up. Why? I don’t know! We are on great terms now, but I have this feeling like it must have been horrible for her to have an older sister like me. We were just always fighting.

5. I worked on a Kibbutz in Israel.

I dropped out of college and went there with my friend Rachel and we stayed for several months. It was in the Western Galilee, just a few miles from Lebanon. A kibbutz is sort of like a self-sufficient commune/village full of intergenerational families living, working and caring for each other. We worked on their avocado farms, and the tomato greenhouse, and sometimes the kitchens and in exchange, you got a little place to sleep with the other volunteer farmhands and meals, a few bucks and a carton of cigarettes every week. LOL. It was really wonderful, and I met kids from all over the world who were doing the same thing. I’m not Jewish, but this whole kibbutz experience, and traveling after, gave me such a unique perspective on Israel and different ways of living.

6. I used to be very serious about classical guitar for all the wrong reasons.

Beginning around tweenhood, I took classical guitar lessons, I practiced like crazy and got really serious and really good for my age and won a bunch of contests and stuff. I didn’t feel any specific passion for the instrument, and I had very little talent. It was ALL because I had a crush on my cute guitar teacher and was desperate to impress him, and gain his adoration. Because, though I had no musical talent, but I do have a talent for applying myself to things in really extreme ways. This has served me greatly as a writer.

7. The stereopticon pact.

I have a group of old friends here in Minneapolis and we made this pact years ago that in all our published works, we would use the word stereopticon. A stereopticon is a kind of 1800s viewmaster; you look through it at slides and they look startlingly 3-D. I actually used the word stereopticon in Mind Games (one of Diesel’s possessions in the abandoned gas station) but not everyone was integrating stereopticons into their published works, or, like, they would stick it into the acknowledgements. So, I felt I wasn’t bound to use it in Double Cross or subsequent works.

8. Super healthy eater.

My husband and I are kind of health foodies. You wouldn’t know it for my obsession with chocolate and cheese and crackers and Mexican food, but 95% of the time, I eat really clean. (I personally think it’s unhealthy to be too strict about anything, even healthy eating.) But, often, we have mammoth salads for dinner. Other times, just pomegranates. Or just watermelon. My husband, also a writer (he’s an essayist) makes really delicious smoothies for us every day that have stuff like chia, noni, maca, dandelion greens, blueberries, lemons, raw eggs. We make special raw food for our cats, too, that involves frozen rabbit and bison meat and pureed veggies. We have the healthiest cats on the planet and they have super soft fur.

9. I have wrestled roomfuls of sweaty men.

My husband is a longtime martial artist, has been a martial arts teacher on and off for years. Anyway, we had this idea it would be fun to take a class together. He felt that wrestling and submissions was a giant hole in his mixed martial arts bag, and what the hell, I’m a sporty girl. So, we joined this school, the “warriors cove.” Most of the time for classes, I was the only girl, and I would spend all this time wrestling guys, first for position, i.e. who can be on top or side mount, and as time went on, trying to put submissions, like an “arm bar” on them. It was amazing exercise, but I got injured a ton. Most people there got injured all the time, but you just keep going. I enjoyed it, but eventually had to quit. I think it’s good for a writer to do these sorts of things.  That was a few years ago, and now I’m working on a paranormal romance project that involves UFC fighters, so it’s really convenient to have done that.

10. Scared to drive on highways.

Lest you think I’m this brave swashbuckling writer type by #9, I am petrified to drive on highways. Like an old lady! I never liked driving on highways, but for years we had this car you couldn’t take on the highway, so it didn’t matter that I was scrared to do it. Now we have a car you can take on highways, and I feel like a scared old lady. I hate driving on highways, but I hate hating it, too, so I just make myself. But sometimes I will find myself looking for routes to avoid it.

CC: MY MY can I ever go on about myself! Apparently I am totally fascinated by myself. Amber, thanks so much for having me here! This was fun.

AS: My pleasure, Carolyn. Now hurry up and get me book three!!!

So, reader. My favorite is a toss up between eye candy and the boiler jokes. What’s yours?

:}Amber Scott

P.P.I.F.: Meme Tagged Fulfillment

My beloved and favorite author to stalk, Gini Koch, tagged me with the Meme Challenge this past week. A meme is basically a mini-interview, started by someone who picks a set number of people to answer a group of questions, those people copy the questions to their blog and pass them on to the set number (in this case 3) of unsuspecting victims, who pass it along, and so-forth.

Since we all know how much I love wacky fun, let’s do this, bitches!

1. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Why?
I already have a superpower. I can’t tell you what it is, though. It’s super duper top secret, but if I lurv you, you will feel the effects of it in your life. Okay! I confess. It is the power of the geek. So, long as I follow that inner geek, the one that gushes over some of my wackier ideas, things work out for the best.

2. Who is your style icon?
My younger sister. If Heather says I look like a Cat in the Hat Lorax in a pair of pants then I do. I don’t cry. I don’t flip her the finger. I simply nod, smile and go grab more jeans to try on. The great thing is, when I do look good, she totally lets me know it and nothing feels better.

3. What is your favorite quote?
My favorite? Only one? Come on, please? Okay, fine. One.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Only I like to insert different things for world. And change. “Be the laughter you want to feel in your belly.”
4. What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?
I did almost cause a car accident while crossing the street and a driver couldn’t stop leering. That was funny. But, my favorite, all time compliment had to be when my career coach and my editor both told me they could not put Love Lust down. Wow. That is the best feeling ever.

5. What playlist/CD is in your CD Player/iPod right now?
I try to listen to Gini Koch’s Playlist page often since she has uber cool taste in music and I thereby feel closer to Kitty and Martini who are only weeks away from being back in my hands for their next adventure, Alien Tango (pre-order NOW!). I also am creating a playlist for Drowning Lust, my coming Nanowrimo project and look for sultry, sexy stuff like Massive Attack and Justin Timberlake.

6. Are you a night owl or a morning person?
I can be both. I love nights but find being bright and cheery in the morning is easy with a cup of coffee and cartoons on for the kids.

7. Do you prefer dogs or cats?
I speak cat. I love dogs, too. But, a kitty on my lap is the best ever. I love how snotty and particular they are. You must earn a cat’s love.

8. What is the meaning behind your blog name?
Originally the project meant my place to disclose my process of going Indie with Play Fling. Now, it means my career building brick by brick. Also, it references Project Pay It Forward, wherein I try to help make three debut authors (Gini Koch, Erin Kellison, Carolyn Crane) into bestsellers. Cuz I love ’em. And I stalk.

Choosing who to hit next was hard, since this one’s limited to 3. So, I went for other authors:
Ann Charles
Deena Remiel
Erin Quinn

So…anyone have a few awesome listening suggestions for my new playlist? Think succubus and erotica.

:}Amber Scott

P.P.I.F.: Great Taste Made Easy

I know it isn’t modest to say it, but damn, I have great taste. Especially when it comes to what authors I stalk. Here is some of their latest news:

Touched By An Alien author Gini Koch just gave her Alien Collective some amazing swag prizes from her recent Coppercon trip where she was on a panel, talking about the much anticipated second in the series, Alien Tango (pre-order NOW!). I am still pinching myself that I won one of her bundles of goodies.

Mind Games author Carolyn Crane’s second in the Disillusionist series, Double Cross (out 9/28), is not only getting huge buzz web wide but her book video has been released and it rocks. To check it out, click here. Splendid author that she is, she also has agreed to interview here!!!!!! What should I ask her? AND, she’s giving away 5 copies at her blog, The Thrillionth Page, today!

Shadow Bound and Shadow Fall author, Erin Kellison will also be interviewing here. Same questions as Carolyn? Different? Well, while you decide, I hope you’ll be able to score Shadow Fall FREE on Amazon Kindle while the promotion lasts. Click here for yours!

See? Great taste or what?

:}Amber Scott