So Anton had a release yesterday, book three in his urban fantasy series. When I first heard about his book coming out, I was like, DAMMIT, he’s doing psychometry! Why couldn’t I be first with this? And I was quite annoyed that I had near two-year wait before my book came out, because it meant he got the jump on me. But then I came to realize there’s plenty of room for all because look how many dang vampires there are running around book world. We’re fine with two psychometrists. Maybe I’ll even write some cross-world fan fic about Corine making out with Simon, but I won’t show anyone because that would be dirty and wrong.

To prove my good will, I’m pimping his hero, Simon Canderous (being partly named after the best KotOR character, he had to be awesome. And he is!) Without futher ado, here are his sexy books.

Don’t you want them? Yes, you do! But first, enjoy this quickie interview with Anton himself.

1) If you had only bacon, bread and peanut butter in the house, what would you make for dinner?

My love of bacon is well evidenced by my fantasy writer physique. For my recipe, I would roll the bread to form a ball around a core of peanut butter. I would then wrap a slice of bacon around it and fry the whole thing. The fat of the bacon would help crisp up the bread and it would be delicious. In theory, anyway. I might also just eat bacon out of a weaved bowl of bacon that I make.

2) If Simon Canderous were a pair of shoes, what would they be, and why?

Doc Marten’s, the mid height ones. Dependable, utilitarian, and great for kicking ass. Also, resistant to lycanthrope fur and brains wipe off them without discoloring the leather.

3) Do you ever dream about zombies? Why or why not?

As a long time fan of the Resident Evil games (hence using the last name Wesker in my series), I’ve been plagued by them. Lately I’ve been having more of them, but that’s due to sitting down with my friends for some co-op in Left 4 Dead, which mixes up slow and fast zombies, which adds a whole new level of terror. For the record, I am a bigger fan of slow zombies. They seem comical at first, all slow and shambling, but they never tire and eventually they WILL get you. Zombies represent the slow march of the inevitability towards death. Fun right? Remind me why I play these games. Whee!

4) How did you get to be so awesome? Was it a gradual development or did you come into your awesomeness all at once?

I’m like one of the X-Men when it comes to my mutant awesome powers. Like many of the students at Xavier’s, my powers awakened once I hit puberty, and after a quick but awkward phase, I blossomed into the awesomeness that is Anton. Anyone who knew me from my childhood and disputes this, is full of lies! Lies, I tell you! Please note that it is no coincidence that you too are awesome. There may be a correlation that involves the fact that both our names start with ‘An”…. [Interviewer's note: I think he's onto something here.]

5) What do you want readers to glean from your books, if anything?

There are hidden messages in the book that I desperately want people to tune into. Unfortunately, they are subliminal messages, instructing readers to run out to the stores with an insatiable desire to buy all three books, a set a week, over and over.

Actually, the real message is to have fun. I want people to be entertained. If there is a message, though, it probably is that it’s much harder to be good than evil. I find writing about characters who struggle to do good fascinating. Plus, it’s delicious fun torturing those goodie-two-shoes.

So now you know Anton a little better. Actually, probably not, since my interview questions are dumb, but I never claimed to be Barbara Walters. Hopefully you laughed a little, and even if you didn’t, you’ll never get those two minutes back. I’m so sorry.

Moving on! I know you’re really about the loot, so I’ll be giving away TWO FULL SETS of the Simon Canderous books. That’s two lucky winners who can glom Anton in one long, sweaty orgy of weekend reading. (You did process the last part of that sentence, right? I am in no shape or form promising Anton’s services in any capacity.)

To enter, you post a comment answering this question:

If someone with the gift of psychometry read your most cherished belonging through psychometry (that’s getting information by touching an object), what would they learn about you? And game on!

Contest ends Friday. Void where prohibited. Open to people who live in any country Book Depository ships to. Yes, I like you and think you’re pretty. Do not taunt happy fun ball.

ETA: WINNERS! Jackie U & Theresa! Email ann.aguirre at gmail.com with your full names & addresses to collect your prizes.

To drive off the chill for some of y’all I’m going to run a contest. Here are the books that are up for grabs.

Don’t they all look amazing? The Bradford Bunch has a ton of releases in January! So I’m celebrating these books right here. RULES: I’m not pulling a single winner, either. I’m doing random winners over the next week. There will be “hot” times to comment, but you must comment often because you never know when you might get lucky. This contest runs until I have announced nine winners, at least one a day. No spamming, no random links. Your comment must contain content and pertain to the books or something a prior commenter has already said.

Everyone understand how we play? I’ll start us off with a question, but feel free to let the conversation evolve. However, if you’re coming in later, and you can’t think of anything to say on your first comment, you can always answer this for your comment. (Do not answer it repeatedly; that will not win you anything.)

Which of these books are you most excited to read and why?

So that’s it. There are some lovely, lovely books up for grabs, and nine winners to be found. Go for it, people!

ETA:
First winner! Cathy M claims a copy of STOLEN SEDUCTION!
Second winner! Raelena wins a copy of CRUX!
Third winner! Joder snags a copy of THE STRANGER’S SECRETS!
Fourth winner! Booklover1335 runs off with SWITCH!
Fifth winner! Amy Kathryn snares a copy of COMING UNDONE!
Sixth Winner! Michelle K bags ETERNAL HUNTER!
Seventh winner! Jane steals a SCOUNDREL’S KISS!
Eighth winner! Miranda makes off with KING OF THE UNBLESSED!
Final winner! Bella walks off with WICKED ENCHANTMENT!

And that’s all, folks. Email me your name & address at ann.aguirre at gmail dot com.

I have eclectic tastes in music. One minute I’m listening to the Black Eyed Peas, and the next it’s Amy Macdonald. Right now I have an Amy Macdonald song stuck in my head. It’s called RUN. I think it’s quite haunting. But it doesn’t help that we played this CD on a loop on the way back from Acapulco.

I’m different from my husband in that I’m still discovering new artists. Andres stopped caring about new music about the time Ace of Bass disbanded. He also thinks the Bangles are awesome. Shh, don’t tell him I’m mocking his musical stagnation.

I’m looking at my Itunes right now and here are my ten most played songs:

I Gotta Feelin - Black Eyed Peas
30th Century Man - Scott Walker
Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Peas
I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
All My Little Words - The Magnetic Fields
Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
You Ain’t Seen Nothin Yet - Bachman Turner Overdrive
Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing - Chris Isaak
Waking Up in Vegas - Katy Perry
Run - Amy Macdonald

Now it’s time for you to confess your top five most-played. You know you want to. Random commenter wins Skin Game or Doubleblind, whichever (s)he wants more.

So zombies seem to be big. I can understand them as mindless antagonists or even souped-up villains with working faculties. I’m not sure I can get on board with the idea of them as romantic leads. I mean, wouldn’t stuff fall off at inconvenient times? And you’d almost have to do something about the decomposition. It just doesn’t sound hot to me.

Dorchester has an romance antho coming out about zombies My friend Angie Fox has a story in it. How do you guys feel about zombies as heroes or romantic leads?

On Friday, I wrapped up revisions on SHADY LADY, which means that this weekend, I was really and truly off work. No thoughts about what I should be doing. I should be relaxing! That’s all. It’s been a long while since I took more than a couple of days off. I’ll be off for a couple of weeks, minimum. I may take off until mid November. It just depends on how long before I get bored and itchy to get back to work. My next project will be SKIN PRIVILEGE, my third romantic suspense novel, but for now I’m happy to relax.

Friday, we had lunch with my sister in law and her two daughters at Macaroni’s. It was late by the time we got home, and I wrote a Dear Reader letter for Berkley. (Hey, I had already worked earlier that day, wrapping up SHADY LADY revisions, so it’s not like that was a day off!) Saturday, I went out to breakfast with my family, we checked to see if Andres could pay his credit card bill but that bank has done away with Saturday hours at that location. I re-read The Last Will of Moira Leahy by Therese Walsh. Then I collected my son and we went on some errands. First, we went to La Cuspide (my favorite mall) to see if the “no Saturday hours” thing was all over. It was, so I couldn’t pay Andres’s card for him. Before leaving the mall, we went to Office Depot, where I got some packing supplies. I am donating a couple of signed books to Patrick Rothfuss’s charity auction. (I need to mail those today!)

After that, we went grocery shopping, where I made up for the fact that I’ve been so busy working that I let our cupboards get a bit bare. To further thank my family for being awesome, I made a Southern home-cooked meal for them: smoked ham, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese and salad. It was delicious, if I do say so myself. Then I indulged in the mother (pardon the pun) of How I Met Your Mother marathons.

Sunday, I devoted to sleeping, watching TV with Andres, and then I played some KotOR. Oh, Carth, how I’ve missed you…

But that’s not even the best part. I’m still off work. Apart from an article I need to write for the RWR, which isn’t due until November 5, I am set. Which means instead of writing this post, I need to be napping. Or playing video games.

If you could be doing anything right now, what would be it?

So sorry this post is so late today, guys.

Today was my son’s birthday, so I spent most of the day either getting ready for the big day or celebrating with my family. First, I went to Sam’s Club to pick up the cupcakes we had ordered, along with napkins and juice boxes. Traffic was also heavy today.

Then I went to my son’s school. The parking lot is down the mountain from the school, so I hiked up after parking, with 48 cupcakes and 27 juice boxes. Oh, and napkins. After that, I went up 3 flights of stairs and helped the teacher get the kids settled.

I was hoping to make a quick escape, but the girl dawdled on her way, so i was swarmed by children asking for treats. That’s always fun.

After that, we had a party at my in-laws. They have a new cook and I’m kind of jealous. The food was delicious. I came home late-ish and I could’ve posted then, but I fell asleep because it was an eventful day. The cat just woke me up, which is why I’m here now, typing away.

Tomorrow, Doubleblind releases! Do you all have a copy? What did y’all do today?

I feel like I hardly have time to type this. Right now, I’m writing a YA novel called Razorland. This is significant because I’m doing something I’ve never done before, called Fast Drafting. I mean, people already think I’m fast, but this pace is grueling (5K a day for 14 days and I have a book.)

I also a book to promote (the third Jax novel, Doubleblind, comes out Sept 29). But wait, there’s more! The final Jax proposal is due this month. I chose tomorrow as a random date, but the truth is, I’m not exactly sure when. Anne just told me September. I may ask for clarification. And there’s more. I have prizes to take to the post office, and I just put up another contest on my blog. (Go try to win a copy of Jess Granger’s BEYOND THE RAIN!) I also have an anthology coming out Sept 21, and another book releasing Nov 3.

Are y’all excited? I know I am.

But there’s also grocery shopping, meals to cook, and children to nurture. Whew. Just typing that stuff makes me tired. I’d like to write a longer post, but frankly, I have too much stuff to do already.

What’s keeping you guys busy?

At the last several conferences / conventions I’ve attended, I’ve heard that I look young. Like, OMG, how have you written so many books already, young. At first I dismissed said comments as kindness and flattery, but the same remarks have come from such a diverse population, fans, authors, readers, random woman on a plane, random woman in a bookstore, that I am starting to think it’s true. I have no objective ability to measure how I look, young or old or somewhere in between. Frankly, I’m not worried about it anymore. I’ve been with the same man for… God, going on fourteen years? So it’s not like I’m polishing my womanly bits and hoping I still got it.

Recently I turned 39. I thought I would be upset, the closer I got to 40, but it’s not bugging me at all. I’ve never been happier or more fulfilled in my life. My kids are great, my husband is great, and my career is rocking. So I certainly wouldn’t change a thing, nor wish away a single year that brought me to where I am today.

That said, Helen Kay Dimon said on Twitter today: “I’m thinking you need to share your secrets because I never would have said 39.”

Well, okay. I’d laugh at the idea of sharing beauty tips because that’s not my forte, but people seem interested, and I’m all about giving folks what they want. Well, mostly. Most of you already know my worst job ever — I was a clown– but we’re not talking about that today. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts!

Anyhow. Growing up, I had a bad complexion, spots all over the place. I wore heavy makeup to cover it and that just made it worse. It was a never-ending cycle. Get spots, put on makeup, cover spots, make spots worse. In my 20s, I had some babies and I was just too tired to bother covering up all the spots. As it turned out, makeup was causing a lot of my trouble. It seals your pores and makes it impossible for skin to breathe and heal. I’m not talking about a fix in a week, mind you. It took months for my skin to recover from all the damage. From that point, I stopped wearing makeup except on special occasions. I do wear it at cons but not as much as I wore as a teen and I’m careful about the kind I buy, now. I don’t use it to cover up all my faults, but accentuate the good aspects of my face.

As for skin care regime, I got some advice when I was a kid from my Aunt Wilma. It was worth taking because even though she was in her 60s, she had the most gorgeous complexion and hardly any wrinkles at all. She told me this: “Never use store bought soap on your face. Use only handmade soaps. Never use paper products on your face. Only wash with your fingertips or high quality cotton.” She belonged to a religious sect known as the Friends; they’re also known as Quakers, I think. She was a sweet woman, and she was always very good to me, despite my heathen ways. So presented with her lovely face as evidence that her techniques worked, I have followed her guidelines.

I wash my face with my fingertips. If I’m breaking out around that time of the month, I use a homemade oatmeal soap. Other times, I use almond milk soap for cleaning and moisturizing. I don’t put on makeup on a daily basis, and if I’m going to be out in the sun, I use a high quality SPF lotion. I’ve also never done much tanning because as a teen I saw a special about skin cancer. Talk about horrifying. So that sun aversion probably contributes to my appearance as well. Living in Mexico, I do get more sun than I did in the Midwest, so I suspect that color helps some as well. I’m no longer pasty white, but more of a gentle bisque. I tend to think if you’re too white it ages you, but if you go the other way and drop on a crazypants bronze, it makes you look weathered. Moderation is good.

About once a week, I use Nivea AntiWrinkle Night Cream, Q10 or something. I don’t use it every night because it’s strong and it can be easy to damage the skin the other way, by doing too much to it in hopes of hanging onto one’s youth. I find that once a week keeps my face nice and hydrated, YMMV. I don’t peel or Botox or anything like that. I do want to age gracefully and not wind up with a face that can’t show what I’m feeling.

The funny part about all this is that when I was in my 20s (with a toddler and a baby), people thought I was ten to fifteen years older than I was. So I feel like now I’m getting a second chance! I really think exhaustion and small children can age you prematurely, not to be a smart-ass. The older your kids get, the better you’ll look, most likely, because they’re no longer draining the life out of you. If you’re not getting enough rest, it will show in your face somewhere. I’ve found cold, used green tea bags to be a great help in making my eyes looking better after a shitty night.

Other minor things: haircuts can definitely add or remove years. I still wear my hair like I did when I was 11. Long, with bangs. I’m not looking forward to the day when I have to give up my favorite style in order to adopt a matron cut. In fact, I may do what my Aunt Wilma did, which was simply never cut it. She took to wearing a bun in her later years or some other pretty, complicated up-do styles. I’m not a Quaker, but I think a coronet of braids is freaking gorgeous on an older woman. Regardless, I don’t foresee giving up my funky stripes anytime soon either.

I don’t know if anybody will find this helpful or interesting, but here you go, asked and answered. Do y’all have beauty tips to share?

Hey all. It’s Ann Aguirre’s birthday today. And guess what, it’s my birthday tomorrow. So for all those birthday virgos out there, I am giving you this beautiful birthday present…

Eric Northman…

Enjoy…

I know I have, again and again and again…

If it was your birthday today, what would you wish for?

As I type this, I have a hot bowl of Texas chili waiting for me along with a cold side salad. I’m in a hotel room in Houston, having just come back from ArmadilloCon in Austin. Before I go eat my late dinner, I’m going to share some key truths I learned in Texas this weekend:

First, Sharon Shinn is made of awesome. If you know me even a little bit, I’m sure you’ve heard my “when I was in college, I bought Sharon’s books instead of food.” Seriously, I totally did. So when I sold, I timorously asked her to read my book for a possible blurb. (OMG the chutzpah!) and she did. Since then we’ve progressed from careful email correspondents to (dare I say it? Friends.) Yes, I dare. Sharon Shinn is my friend. *beams* We totally hung out this weekend, and I had actually finally lost that OMG-THIS-IS-MY-IDOL, please don’t let me be an idiot feeling. Thank goodness, because I also got to see what a fun, natural, lovely, charming, genuine friend she is, and I just heart her to death. She went out of her way to make me feel welcome. We hung out, we had dinner, we had a panel together. We had breakfast together this morning (Sunday, for when y’all will actually be reading this). But that’s enough of the Shinn-a-thon. Oh, wait, go buy all her books. Now I’m done.

I also met Taylor Anderson, who is a mega-cool guy with a great voice / accent. I was on two panels with him and we hung out in the bar, too. Awesome guy. I had seen his books cozied up to mine on the shelves, and I was like, hm, who is this? And now I know!

I chatted briefly with Mario Acevedo, who I had also met at RT. I’m not sure he remembered, though, cos he said it was nice to meet me this time as he was walking away. That’s okay; I will make an impression sooner or later.

Lots of cool people were there. I met and chatted with Patrice Sarath, who writes fantasy for Ace. Julie Kenner is cool and funny as hell. Rosemary Clement-Moore is a saint who drove me to Walgreens for reasons best not blogged about. I will say this much, however. At the checkout counter, I was buying certain items and the male cashier took note. He said, rather craftily, “We have chocolate M&Ms on sale,” which I found both hilarious and embarrassing.

Met some wonderful fans, including Donna and her son. Others had dinner with me. My panels all went pretty well, and I just generally had a very good time. Even the bus back to Houston was nice, despite the toddler behind me who kept pulling out my hair and saying “Shiny”. She also pulled my sunglasses off my face. Cute kid.

So now I’m about to fly to San Diego for a meeting with the amazing Laura Bradford. Secret exciting business will be discussed. What did you guys do this weekend?