So I got back from having the worst manicure in the world with New York Times Bestseller Carrie Ryan to discover that word on the street is out about my new anthology, KISS ME DEADLY: 13 Tales of Paranormal Romance.

It’s the follow-up to last year’s THE ETERNAL KISS, which was an (awesome) book of (awesome) vampire stories. Except for our book is not (necessarily) about vampires, but about all kinds of paranormal shenanigans.

My story is about killer unicorns. I know, shocking, right? It’s also my first historical ever ever — or at least, since i tried my hand at a regency romance when I was 15 and mainlining Johanna Lindsay.

FWIW, “Errant” is NOTHING like Johanna Lindsay.

(ETA)
The full list of authors in the antho are:

Becca Fitzpatrick
Caitlin Kittredge
Karen Mahoney
Justine Musk
Daniel Marks
Diana Peterfreund
Sarah Rees Brennan
Michelle Rowen
Carrie Ryan
Maggie Stiefvater
Rachel Vincent
Daniel Waters
Michelle Zink

And I’m sure they’re stories are totally awesome too. Actually, I’ve read the story of New York Times Bestseller Carrie Ryan, and it is totally awesome.

Though really, I think they must have designed this cover especially for me. New York Times Bestseller Carrie is sitting across from me right now, and when she saw the cover she’s like “oh wow, they illustrated your story.”

Then we looked closer and realized it was supposed to be a ghost of a fairy wing, and not a veil, like it looks. Still, I am sticking with my story. Read Kiss Me Deadly, with a cover that illustrates “Errant,” which is an 18th century French feminist killer unicorn story about a nun and a bride and a forest full of monsters.

Thanks to Kiersten White, a fellow HarperTeen author who as a debut novelist is understandably keeping close track of these things, I discovered that the fall 2010 list has finally made it to pre-order status at Amazon. Kiersten’s book, Paranormalcy, is out September 21, a week before Ascendant. (September 28). I have to say it’s always fun to see the listings go up. It’s usually the first time I see things like proposed page count, suggested retail price, and ISBN. Yes, authors sometimes find these things out from Amazon, too. I have a friend who first saw her cover when it went up on Amazon.

In case you were curious, the ISBN numbers of Ascendant are:

• ISBN-10: 006-14-90024
• ISBN-13: 978-006-14-90026

Those numbers will really come in handy if you wish to order Ascendant from book retailers other than Amazon.

Speaking of covers, I saw an early version of Ascendant’s recently. V. exciting stuff. One thing I really like about the cover concepts behind this series is how hard Harper works to nail down Astrid’s emotional state in the pictures they choose of her. I know from talking to my editor that they look a lot before they get the right picture that portrays what she’s going through in each novel. As those who have read Rampant know, Astrid’s duty rest very uneasily on her shoulders, for more reasons than one, and it’s this conflict that forms the core of Ascendant. This is the book where environmentalism comes to the fore, folks.

Also, zombies.

(Speaking of the confluence of zombies and unicorns, did you all see this ridiculous pack of lies Sarah Cross posted on Justine’s blog the other day? My hair is NOT that long.)

In other news — and perhaps it’s the knowledge that my antipodean friends are enjoying their summer right now while I’m snowbound in DC — I’m finding that I’ve had the most insane cravings for New Zealand food recently. I’ve been drooling over photos of pavlova, which I could make here, you know, if I knew anything about whipping egg whites. I’ve been making a ton of lamb dishes. And I’ve been craving two things that I can’t actually get here, and those two things are:

• glucose energy candy
• hokey pokey ice cream

I know, I hear you now. “Glucose energy? I’ve got news for you, Diana, all candy has glucose energy.” Yes, but only in New Zealand do they actually have a candy that CALLS itself that, that advertises its benefits as glucose energy, that features commercials in which a harried kindergarten teacher doles out little dollops of glucose energy to her oddly lethargic charges so they can go out and act like madmen on the swingsets again.

So here’s a story. I was hiking the Tongariro Track, which is a three-day hike on the North Island through a (mostly) volcanic wasteland that is famous primarily for being the Mordor set in Lord of the Rings. (It’s actually gorgeous and often sunny in real life). And I was tired, because, not being a New Zealander (like, you know, Edmund Hillary), I don’t think of anything less than a ten day trek into the wilderness as (and I’m quoting here) “a bit of a wander.” So I was sitting, trying to catch my breath, and a very nice Kiwi woman dropped by and, concerned for my lack of stamina, offered me a few pieces of her glucose energy candies. (They are fruit-flavored hard candies.) Sailor Boy and I made much merriment out of the way she called it glucose energy, and chocked it up to the whole “separated by a common language” thing, like how they also sell “Sultana Bran” cereal and put “capsicums” on their pizzas. But, it turned out that glucose energy is a real brand, and they have TV commercials which are so incredibly awesome I remember them six years later.

And the other thing I remember and long for and will probably be the very first thing I buy if I ever return to Aotearoa, is hokey pokey ice cream. Hokey pokey ice cream is the best ice cream flavor in the entire world, and, in New Zealand, it’s also the second most popular flavor. Like if you walk into a gas station and they’ve got three bins of ice cream it’s probably going to be vanilla, chocolate, and hokey pokey.

See this girl? Want to know why she’s so happy? Because she just bought two liters of hokey pokey ice cream for like $3 NZ and it’s got 15% more hokey pokey pieces in it. Tip Top is not expensive and yet, it’s still really, really good. Ice cream in New Zealand (actually, all dairy in New Zealand) is delicious.

NO ONE IN THE US MAKES HOKEY POKEY ICE CREAM! This is a travesty. Hokey pokey — they say it’s like toffee, but it’s not, really. It’s like… butter pecan ice cream without the pecan, and little pieces of semi-hard caramel studded all throughout. Someone please import this stuff.

Oh, and meat pies.

ZvU was recently featured on Entertainment Weekly’s Shelf Life. Though the article calls the collection a book of “essays,” do not be fooled. I think it meant that the essays were the connecting bits written by Holly and Justine, on the specific merits of the beasties of their choice. The actual contributions of all the writers are fictional.

Well, not my story, of course. As always, I am your faithful documentarian of all the human stories caught up in the fight against the growing unicorn menace.Yes, this is what I do for you. No need to thank me. Or, you know, if you do have the need to thank me, you can do so by buying a copy of Rampant. Or ZvU. Or Both.

I’d tell you to preorder it on Amazon, but then you might end up in the same boat as me, whereby you have preordered and paid for something on Amazon which they will now not deliver because they are in a little snit with the publisher and yet have not offered to refund your money. So I don’t recommend that. And I think it’s probably a tad too early to put in an order for ZvU at your local indie. Though you can order Rampant from your local indie here. I have a friend who was in the MIDDLE of reading a Macmillan book she’d bought and paid for on her Kindle and it vanished. That seems really wrong to me. And yet Amazon is painting itself as the wronged party! (Oh yes, they say they capitulated, but Macmillan print and ebooks have not been re-listed yet.)

Zombies Vs. Unicorns is being published by Simon & Schuster. I don’t know what their plan is regarding the pricing of kindle versions. Rampant is published by Harper Collins and yesterday, Rupert Murdoch, the big boss, announced he was having a sit-down with Amazon to renegotiate. We’ll see how that shakes out. I know I’m not buying a kindle, though. I like to own the books I buy, not rent them at Amazon’s pleasure. I’ve got a library down the street for that.

On this glorious Sunday?

1. Taking Rio and Temp Dog #6 for a walk. Temp Dog #6 is a bit of a surprise. Apparently, she was placed on a transport to DC, but the people who were supposed to get her couldn’t. So we’ve got her for a bit. And if she doesn’t stop baring her teeth at Rio, it’s going to be a much shorter bit than she thinks. She’s otherwise a very sweet adolescent puppy, super affectionate with people and will play with other dogs outside. But she needs to learn that Rio is the canine boss of this house, not a Temp Dog.
2. Making pantry chili.
3. Making bread.
4. Writing about a historical unicorn hunter and being inspired by this:
   

   (Thank you, Saundra Mitchell!)

5. Still floating from some awesome news (and a sneak peek at the cover of Ascendant.)

Speaking of Ascendant, I read from it at an appearance in New York City earlier this week. (Another thing I need to cover on the blog). Here’s a little review of my reading, from Cassandra Yorgey.

I have to put together a post from my New York trip, but I’m so sore. You see, yesterday, whe I was walking Rio, I tripped and fell on the ice. I hurt my wrist and, um, my backside, which are probably the two worst places for a writer to damage herself. So I’m posting this from my prone position in bed, typing with one hand. Which means you aren’t going to get lengthy posts from me today. Not if I want to get my wordcount in.

But here’s something fun. Sophistikatied did some awesome, movie poster-style fanart for RAMPANT:

Isn’t that AWESOME? I love the depiction of Astrid in this one. She looks so powerful and ready for action. The karkadann is the right size, too, though, as Katie points out, not particularly karkadann-esque. Though it does look like a really dangerous, scary killer unicorn. But this really captures the action and the danger that forms the core of this book. She could have chosen a romantic scene or a more generic picture of the heroine. But I love this attack scene. It’s so illustrative.

I’ve got four covers coming my way in the next few months, and I can only hope that they are just as great and exciting.

Teen Author Reading Night in NYC

When: 6-7:30 PM, January 6, 2010
Where: Jefferson Market Branch of New York Public Library, 425 6th Ave, at 10th St., New York City
Who:
Alexandra Bullen, Wish
Gitty Daneshvari, School of Fear
Dream Jordan, Hot Girl
Robin Palmer, Little Miss Red
Diana Peterfreund, Rampant

And if y’all are very good, I might read a bit from Ascendant.

Off to decide what to wear (something warm) and which excerpts to read. Later!

Apparently, Astrid, the heroine of RAMPANT, has been sneaking off and doing interviews behind my back. Go read what she has to say to Jackie Morse Kessler’s Death on Post Mortem today.

The following post has spoilers for RAMPANT. If you haven’t read RAMPANT, consider yourself warned.

Yesterday, I discovered a review of Rampant online. Which pretty much makes it a day ending in -y, but this one had me on the verge of hysterics. I love reviews that make me look at my own work in a new way, and this one made me look at it in a way that was simultaneously off the wall and yet, made a lot of sense.

Here’s the whole review. (Bonus: the reader loved the book.)

Here’s the part that had me and Sailor Boy laughing our butts off:

And oh yes, the tall mysterious stranger who regularly saves Astrid’s life, spouts meaningful broody comments about her destiny and is possibly flirting with her? The if-this-was-Buffy-he-would-be-Angel character? It’s a unicorn.

Now, my pal Sarah Rees Brennan has long advocated for an Astrid-hearts-Bucephalus love story, and I have long advocated that she should seek professional counseling on this matter, but I never put together the reason that she feels this is so right and true — and now I do. It’s because, in the story, Bucephalus’s role is the one usually filled by the wiser/more cynical/world-weary/advisor dude who totally has the hots (or vice versa, or mutual) for our naive heroine. Think Han Solo and the virginal, white-clad Leia. Think the Goblin King Jared and all the advantage he tries to take of the nubile Jennifer Connolly (man, that movie is disturbing. The more I think about it, the more disturbing it gets.) Aragorn and Eowyn. Buffy and Angel. Angel’s a few hundred years old and he spends the entirety of the first season ridiculing, reluctantly saving/assisting, advising, and blowing off Buffy (my favorite line of the series might be when Xander, by far a more noble character, is basically like, WTF, really?), and, also, he wants to get in her pants.

You see, boy heroes in fantasy get elderly wizard-types who are conveniently killed by the enemy. Girl heroes get sardonic older-but-sexy types who want to sleep with them.

So that’s interesting.

Ways that Bucephalus is like Angel:

• Knows more about heroine’s powers than she does
• Knows more about heroine’s enemies than she does
• Has been secretly watching over heroine
• Is older and more experienced than the heroine (bonus points for WAY older)
• Possesses more than a little cynicism and world-weariness
• Is not entirely trustworthy to heroine, not least because
• Is someone that the heroine should, by rights, be killing.

Ways in which Bucephalus is nothing like Angel:

• Does not want to have sex with the heroine.
• Is not seeking redemption in any way.

And the redemption, to be honest, is pretty Angel-specific (or, hell, let’s say vampire specific, as another dozen examples pop into my head). Lord knows David Bowie’s not looking for any of that nonsense, and Han Solo is pretty much dragged kicking and screaming into the whole rebellion thing. So, aside from the sex, we’ve got ourselves a character type. A type that does not actually map to “large venomous bovid species” so much as “hot dude in tight pants.”

Sarah, everything makes so much more SENSE now!

And yet… no. There will be no hot hot hot Astrid/Bucephalus action in Ascendant.

Dmitri and Rose. Bill and Sookie. Eric and Sookie. Poor Sookie!

But I wonder how much our reactions as an audience are mapped out for us by these stock character roles. I remember watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (really hate that I have to specify lately) and waiting and waiting and waiting for the episode where Iroh dies. You know, because he’s the elderly wizard-like advisor who is coaxing Zuko back toward the side of good. And then, when he doesn’t (ironically, the actor voicing him did), being really shocked. Not really knowing what to make of it. You see, I’d had him written off as Merlin/Gandalf/Obi-Wan/Dumbledore. And he wasn’t.

So maybe Sarah’s theories about Bucephalus as tortured romantic hero weren’t — as I always accused her — a product of her unique and uncanny ability to latch on the most unlikely romantic pairing in any work of literature to great comic effect, but rather a reflection of our indoctrination into this trope of fantasy fiction — the sardonic older protector who takes the pretty young thing under his wing (or hoof, as the case may be) and is hella sexy to boot.

Poe and Amy. Yowza. And that’s not even fantasy.

And there’s a lot to be said here on the topic of why a (primarily female readership) is interested in this paradigm. Even if the women are strong, the men must be stronger? Does the girl have a special power? The men’s power has got to be bigger and better? He has to know more about it than she does? Is that true? I remember the guidelines for the old Silhouette Bombshell line of action-adventure romances. They were looking for strong heroines and heroes who were their match.

I wrote a book aimed at that market, about a very strong woman who owns a security company and hires an agent who doesn’t like to play by the rules. They fall in love. In the revision letter, I was told to cut her backstory (she started the company to avenge the kidnapping and death of her younger sister), make HIM the owner of the company, and have him hire her, who was to be reassigned a generic military background. Oh, and could I set it in South America instead of Europe? And dump the plot?

Suffice to say, I did not do those revisions. I’m not sure what kind of book they were looking for, but it clearly wasn’t the one I wrote. I offered to write them a different book. And what stuck with me most out of all the things they asked me to change was the way they wanted the power dynamic of the characters to switch. They didn’t want HER owning the company and hiring HIM (even though he was incredibly knowledgeable about both the business and the case they were on. (And therefore mapped pretty well to the paradigm.) He was as smart as she was, as good an agent as she was, as well trained in martial arts and use of weaponry as she was… (actually, he was an explosives expert).

It was many years later that I began writing Rampant, and from the beginning, I knew I had a very different romantic plan for Astrid. She’s strong, physically, and she’s very brave, and she has special powers, but the man for her is not the one who teaches her how to use a sword, or knows more about her magic than she does. Because I believe that strength can be complementary as well as corresponding. Giovanni strength is his normalcy. He’s a rock in her very unstable world. Which I suppose makes him the mirror of Bucephalus.

Seriously, this is all making sense to me now. I just thought that Irish dame was spouting nonsense.

So I got up on the rightest side of the bed this morning. To start with, it’s a gorgeous day outside. Bright and clear, not too cold. And I was in a good mood already because I did some serious work yesterday, and I’m still buzzing from that.

And then I found out that Teenreads.com is recommending RAMPANT on it’s 2009 holiday gift buying guide, What To Give, What To Get.

And then Phoebe Eating shared her thoughts on Rampant:

“It was the premise (in four words: “girls hunt killer unicorns”) that initially drew me in, but the fantastic, battle-strewn plotting and frantic pace that kept me there. For the first time in ages, I stayed up late–too late!–to read, consuming the entire book in two big night-time chunks.”

Also:

“Peterfreund puts a remarkable deal of care into crafting her urban-fantasy world, particularly the mythology behind the unicorns. We’re given a small handful of bloodthirsty species, and she even manages to make two unicorns into believable characters. Though one unicorn, Bonegrinder, is tame, she certainly isn’t a saccharine-Lisa-Frank-kind-of unicorn, but instead a gritty, feisty, and fiercely loyal killer.”

It’s possible Bonegrinder and Phil are going to have to have a cage match for “most popular character in Rampant.

And then, to my surprise, some reviews popped up of Secret Society Girl. Like Helgagrace’s:

“…an action-packed series opener that had me eagerly ordering the second book through ILL.”

And Sarah at Everygirl Blog:

“Usually when I read YA or chick-lit (of which this could be considered both), I find that I dislike the characters. This is an exception. I love Amy and her spunky, bold personality. I love that she has real problems (best friend in love with her, roommate issues, making the grade on that final paper, boy troubles) in addition to her heavy Rose & Grave issues. And the guys in the book—swoon. Oh, boys. I love a good male character who I can fall in love with and, honestly, these books have more than one! Sure, it might not be as problematic as the Team Edward v. Team Jacob debate, but I bet some arguments could ensue about just who is best for Amy.”

And, last but CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, Alexa Barry makes my day complete by naming Astrid & Giovanni #6 on her top 10 favorite literary couples of 2009. She shares one of their more… um, close scenes… then says, “Seriously, after this, I don’t know how you’re still a Unicorn Hunter, Astrid!” LOL

Okay then! And now I’m off to squander my good mood making the dogs and house look presentable again. It’s very muddy outside.

There have been a spate of lovely new online mentions of RAMPANT recently. I thought I’d share some quotes:

First, from Caitlin at Addiction to Fiction:

“This book was most entertaining, and very original. I loved the idea of killer unicorns. Before I started the book, I was envisioning sprawling battles with swords and crossbows and majestic yet terrible beasts that are ravaging the unsuspecting population. And I was not disappointed in that regard. What I didn’t expect was how honest the book was going to be about teenage girls and sex. I had completely forgotten the old myth of unicorns being attracted to virgin females, but this book takes it and runs with it. And sex itself it talked about in such an honest and real way. It feels like teenage girls talking about sex. Not an adult having teenage girls talk about sex the way she wishes they would.”

From Lea at YA Book Queen:

“Unicorns totally kick butt. I never thought I could actually take ‘Killer Unicorns’ seriously, but Peterfreund makes it all believable. After the first chapter, I was hooked.”

“The fight scenes were awesome, and so well described. I felt like I was there, witnessing everything. Even the descriptions of the unicorns were awesome, because I could tell just how deadly they were (seriously!).”

Kate at Read This Book gives it a gold star and says:

“Wow! I could not put down this book and despite the fact that I was rather unwell when I read it. From the first chapter, you’d be enchanted by the world of killer unicorns. Rampant possesses a nice mixture of romance, action and adventure. Detailed gruesome battles, heart-pounding action, vivid desciptions of unicorns and fantastic dialogue. It’s no question that Diana Peterfreund is an amazingly talented writer.”

Liyana at LiyanaLand (on break from trying to guess the title of the sequel) named Rampant her book of the month for November and says:

“I loved the fighting sequences and the training scenes. As I’m writing this, I’m still in RampantLand, and goshdang it! The view there is amazing. The descriptions are breathtaking, the writing is superbly lucid and the characters are just fantastically detailed.”

And, last but not least, Angela at DarkFaerieTales has this to say:

“Overall, I think Rampant is an excellent read. These rabid and deadly unicorns will absolutely terrify you. This book has it all, from making out, to fight scenes, flesh eating mythical creatures, deadly kills, heartbreak, and downright gore. The pacing of the book is good and the premise is certainly engaging. I actually bit all of my nails off while reading this book. Many thanks, Ms. Peterfreund.”

And also:

“The love story between Astrid and Giovanni is actually pretty devastating. Astrid grapples with her physical and emotional reactions to Giovanni, and looks to him as a way out of the death and destruction. Giovanni is older and more experienced, and views his relationship with Astrid as more than physical gratification. Their relationship will certainly be fraught with difficulty and full of sacrifice for both parties.”

I save that quote for last because it really made my day. I absolutely love the response that Rampant has received from readers — I love Astrid, and Phil, and Cory, and Bonegrinder, I love the Cloisters and the battle sequences, and it means so much to me that readers love them too.

I also love Giovanni. I find the relationship between Astrid and Giovanni to be pretty devastating myself, and there are certain scenes with the two of them that make me cry every time I read them. I realize that he’s not a vampire or a fallen angel or any of those other enigmatic and enchanting boys YA heroines are wont to meet in their biology classes, He’s not a werewolf, a demon, a fairy, or a unicorn hunter. To me, this is not a downside. I like human boys very much. I married one. There’s a reason that Giovanni has been crafted the way he is.

I don’t believe love conquers all. Rather, I believe that love gives you a reason to attempt said conquering. And those who have read the secret society books and the five romances in that series know that sometimes, that’s not reason enough. I love that the Dark Faerie Tales review appreciated Astrid and Giovanni’s love story. I can’t wait for you all to read ASCENDANT and see where it takes them.