Five for Friday

Last Friday in March! Now that is madness. (okay, a weak pun that vaguely alludes to basketball. Best I can do today)

1. Getting very excited for HOUSTON TEEN BOOK CON, which is coming up on 4/11! Here's the link: http://www.teenbookcon.org  I am absolutely thrilled that FINDING PARIS will be available for sale there early and exclusively! So yes, if you are in Houston and want to read two weeks before everyone else, come to Houston Teen Book Con! I am also insanely, fan-girl ecstatic that I am on the Truth About Love panel with Alexis Bass, Susan Colasanti, David Levithan (!!), Jen Mathieu and me!

2. Getting equally excited for TLA the following week, which for the uninitiated, stands for Texas Library Association. I am very honored to announce that I will be signing FINDING PARIS in the author area on Wednesday 4/15 from 11-12, courtesy of Balzer and Bray/Harper Collins, but my other publisher, Soho Press, is generously providing some stacks of  SWEET DEAD LIFE series to sign as well! Now that makes me so happy. My full schedule will be up in appearances soon, and also includes TT4L and the Texas Author Tea.

3. It is finally spring here in Texas. At least more or less. Of course the pine pollen has coated the world in a dusting of yellow, but even that seems to be fading. *sneezes*

4. Very excited for the debut of Meredith Moore's I AM HER REVENGE on 4/7! Click on the title and get a copy and we can read together! She'll be debut launching at Blue Willow Books on 4/4!  (and fyi, Meredith and I will be signing together on 5/2 at Murder by the Book. More on that soon.)

5. And in my iZombie report, I can say that episode 2 has kept me coming back for episode 3. Rose McIver continues to nail it as Olivia. The writing is clever, although definitely hits every trope beloved to my have CW shows. Still giving it 2 brains up!

Five Reasons You Should Be Watching iZombie

If you haven't watched the pilot for iZombie that aired this week, then you need to. The CW network has given me a new show to love and so I dedicate today's Friday Five to five reasons why you should, too!

1. Because it's quirky and created by Rob Thomas and the writers are in a word, awesome. It's funny and poignant and clever and if Veronica Mars married Buffy The Vampire Slayer and gave birth to a suddenly zombie-ized med student named Olivia who wants more out of life than to be the walking dead, then this is what you'd have. And who doesn't want that?

2. Because Liv solves murder mysteries with her fellow morgue examiner (Okay, I do have to say that this makes two shows I follow where the main character finds the best way to hide what he/she really is, is to be an ME and solve mysteries. (I'm looking at you, FOREVER) and a newbie cop and hopefully a host of other Scoobies as the eps build. She helps the helpless. (okay, that was an ANGEL reference). She uses her sudden zombie power of absorbing the memories (and to some extent the personalities) of the cadavers when she munches on their brains for the greater good. (Tastefully. With hot sauce. And chopsticks.)

3. Because it's interspersed with cartoon frames while Liv gives a clever, snarky, and sometimes heartfelt voice over that WORKS.

4. Because Rose McIver rocks it as Olivia! Totally and completely. Platinum hair and zombie pallor and all of it.

5. Because it was totally time to move beyond the Walking Dead and get a girl zombie/hero/med student who can't tell her former boyfriend/almost fiancé that she can't marry him because she is basically dead now and when she gets angry, she can go into super, bad ass chick zombie mode and then watch out bad guys.