Dragon*Con 2010

Some pics from Dragon*Con 2010 - what a blast it was!!

Enjoy!!

Spartan Warriors from 300 - hot hot HOT!
Where can I get me one of those???

This Sirius Black was definitely one of the best costumes I saw!

Dr. Who

Kingdom Hearts villains

Netherworld float in the D*Con parade

Not sure what these characters are from, but they were awesome!

Straight from Nowhere, Kansas - Courage the Cowardly Dog!
I miss that cartoon!

A Little Light Magic is a Fresh Fiction Pick of the Day!

Those of you who subscribe to Fresh Fiction's "Fresh Pick of the Day" newsletter saw A Little Light Magic come into your inbox this morning. The Fresh Pick is chosen completely by reader vote, so this is quite an honor!

Here's a snip from Fresh Fiction's review of ALLM :-)

"A moving story that will bring tears to your eyes and make you laugh out loud. Joy Nash is an absolutely brilliant genius. I laughed out loud, cried crocodile tears and had butterflies in my stomach while reading this beautiful story. I recommend it to everyone." For more, click here!


Okay, so no one has ever called me an "absolutely brilliant genius" before, and I have to confess I think that's just a wee bit exaggerated, but hey, it feels good!

Thanks to all of you who voted for my book at Fresh Fiction!

Joy

My Summer Reading List

So I've just finished up the edits for my February 2011 book The Unforgiven! It's the first book in my new urban fantasy series about the modern descendants of a tribe of fallen Biblical angels known as The Watchers.

With hardly a breath to spare, I'm now deep into Watchers book 2, The Unholy, which is set for a summer 2011 release. In the coming weeks, I'll begin talking about the series here on the blog and on my website, www.joynash.com.

But for the next couple of weeks - a break where I get to be a READER!!!! So what do writers read when they're not writing? Here's my summer reading list...

Of course, the latest releases from my friends at The Chatelaines! :-) That means Emily Bryan's Stroke of Genius, Allyson James' (aka Jennifer Ashley)'s Stormwalker, Cindy Holby's Breath of Heaven, and Gerri Russell's Seducing the Knight.

And then, to feed my Regency England addiction, Sally MacKenzie's The Naked Viscount and Mary Balogh's A Secret Affair.

And one oldie on the list - I've been wanting to read M.M. Kaye's The Far Pavilions for a while now. I have a growing fascination with India, a country which I know very little about. At nearly 1000 pages, it's been a little hard to grab this classic for a quick read in between everything else in my busy (insane) schedule! But with some down time from the job coming up, I've decided this is the summer to tackle it.

Oh, yeah, and that's my son's old Charmander on top of the stack. :-)

What's on everyone else's summer reading list??

Joy

one star classics??

All authors, myself included, have stressed over a less-than-flattering review. But hey, it seems not even the authors on the Great Books reading list are immune to one-star amazon reviews.

My husband forwarded me an alternatively amusing and horrifying article about mean Amazon reviews, posted on salon.com earlier this month. Here's a sample of what some Amazon reviewers have to say about...

The Grapes of Wrath: "trite, contrived"

To Kill a Mockingbird: "more degrading than a harlequin romance" (say WHAT???)

Jane Eyre (one of my all-time faves): "the entire book is written in pointless metaphors"

Charlotte's Web: "I felt no feelings toward any of the characters."
(this reviewer obviously has no qualms eating bacon)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: "This book is 3 words over and over again: MY LIFE IS BAD." (apparently, this reviewer isn't so good at math)

Where the Wild Things Are: "[the kid] talks back to his mother. Save your money."

1984: "DO NOT READ ANY GEORGE ORWELL. Your [sic] just wasting your time. "

Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl: "very very very very very very very very very very very boring. If you have to read this book, shoot yourself first."
(This book had me in tears as a teenager. Can you even imagine being as heartless as this reviewer?)

and, last but definitely not least...even the Almighty is not immune...

The BIBLE: "harder to get into than Lord of the Rings"
(I'm picturing God and JRR Tolkien sharing a chuckle over this one)

For full texts of the reviews above, see the original article at salon.com


See ya!

Joy

OMG, I'm a RITA finalist!

I nearly fell over when the call came in yesterday!

Which is not a good thing, since I was driving. I almost didn't answer the phone - cell phone while driving isn't banned (yet) in my town, but I don't normally mix chatting and driving anyway. Too many crazies on the road these days.

But I was coming up on a red light, so I answered anyway. When fellow author Jeannie Adams identified herself as a Romance Writers of America board member, I thought, "Why the heck is she calling me?"

And then she told me the news: A Little Light Magic is a finalist in RWA's RITA Award in the Single Title Contemporary category!!

Too cool! I'm still floating.



But I can't afford to stay on the ceiling for long, not with a BOOK DEADLINE looming next week. Yes, I'm almost finished with the first book in my upcoming paranormal WATCHERS series.

Stay tuned - once the manuscript is emailed off to my editor, I'll pop in to tell you more about the heroes of this series - a clan of half-demon/half-human warriors, modern descendants of the cursed Biblical angels known as the Watchers.

Love ya!

Joy

Shelling out the cash for Valentine's Day...

Okay, I know it's not too romantic to talk money on Valentine's Day, but I think these statistics are fun! How does your Valentine's Day spending match up?

• Total Valentine's Day spending this year? $ 14.1 billion. (Recession? What recession?)

• Average Valentine's day spending per person - $103

• 55% of spenders will by Valentine Day cards - 1 billion of these are sent worldwide - and 80% of them are sent by women!

• The average Valentine spender will shell out $4.29 for cards for a child to exchange with classmates and teachers

• 15.5% of Valentine spenders will buy jewelry for their loved one.

• Surprise! More candy is bought for Halloween, Easter, and Christmas than for Valentine's Day. But none of the big three can boast sales of 36 million pretty heart-shaped boxes!

• Florists love Valentine's Day - 40 percent of a retail florist's yearly business come with Valentine's Day. Which is why, I imagine, florists never go on vacation in February. 35% of Valentine's Day spenders will splurge on bouquets for their honeys. Roses are the most popular flower (no surprise there!). Carnations are second.

Sources: National Retail Federation; Greeting Card Association


Happy Valentine's Day!

Joy

A cool way to try out new authors

Check out these cool book samplers on freado.com ! I love the way you can turn the pages on the screen just like on a real book.

These two samplers were put together by my friend and fellow author Rowena Cherry - click on the links below, and once there, click "read free sample." Then you can turn the pages to read excerpt from books by over a dozen futuristic, fantasy and paranormal authors, including CL Wilson, and me!

Fantasy Futuristic Paranormal Sampler #1


Fantasy Futuristic Paranormal Romance Sampler #2


Once you read and enjoy - please hit "share" to pass it on!


Joy