The cover for the second book in the Katerina Trilogy was revealed yesterday on Page Turners Blog! Please drop by to read all about the dress Katerina is wearing and enter for a chance to win a mini poster!

http://www.pageturnersblog.com/2012/02/katerina-trilogy-vol-2-unfailing-light.html#axzz1nJ4jPY4j

The YAmazing Race with MGnificent Prizes is officially over!

Thank you to everyone who participated, whether you made it all the way to the end or not. We’ve enjoyed all of your comments about the race and we hope everyone had a lot of fun. The Apocalypsies definitely enjoyed it!

Grand prize winners will be posted tomorrow on the Apocalypsies blog!

Welcome to my stop on the YAmazing Race with MGnificent prizes, a crazy whirlwind blog hop featuring over 50 debut authors and prize packs featuring ARCs, gift certificates, swag, and more! If you haven’t yet been to the Apocalypsies website, please click here to start from the beginning and read the complete rules. 

Now on to my part of the race!

THE KATERINA TRILOGY, VOL. ONE: THE GATHERING STORM

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888

As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.

An evil presence is growing within Europe’s royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina’s strength as a necromancer attracts unwanted attention . . . including from two young men.

The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

Thanks for dropping in! Ready to move on? Head to your next stop in the

YAmazing Race, the website of Lauren Morrill, author of the upcoming MEANT TO BE!

Katerina is ready to make her debut on bookshelves! You are cordially invited to celebrate with us online…

Gather round the samovar and have a nice cup of tea…

Or try some caviar!

The Russian Red Cross was started by the Romanov family during the Crimean War in 1855. Empress Marie Feodorovna became president of the Russian Red Cross when her husband Alexander ascended the throne in 1881. In 1915, during the First World War, Tsar Nicholas gave his mother, then the Dowager Empress Marie, the Imperial Red Cross Faberge Egg for Easter.

(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Now, the Red Cross is very near and dear to my heart for several reasons. I take care of pediatric patients that need blood transfusions. I have two family members battling cancer and they need frequent blood transfusions. And of course, there was that one time the Gulf Coast got hit by a hurricane and the Red Cross was there to help us pick up the pieces.

So please help me help out the Red Cross-

1. Change your twitter icon to the cover of The Gathering Storm and use the hashtag #Katerinaparty to let me know!

2. Like the Katerina Trilogy on Facebook!

3. Find a copy of The Gathering Storm in the wild and post a picture!

For every icon change and every Facebook page like, I’m donating $1.00 to the Red Cross (up to $200 total). Be the first to post a photo of The Gathering Storm in the wild, and the Red Cross gets another $5.00 donation!

There will be several random giveaways throughout the day, so stay tuned! Giveaways will be announced on both Twitter and Facebook.

Tomorrow is a very big day for Katerina and for me! To celebrate the launch of THE GATHERING STORM, I’m teaming up with the American Red Cross. On Saturday, we’re holding a blood drive in Bay Saint Louis at Bay Books, where I’ll be giving away Smolny Institute t-shirts to the first 25 blood donors.

Tomorrow, on January 10, we’ll celebrate online! For every new “like” that the Katerina Trilogy page receives on Facebook, I’ll donate a dollar to the Red Cross, and for every Twitter user that changes his or her icon to the cover of THE GATHERING STORM, I’ll donate a dollar to the Red Cross! (Up to $200 total!)

There will be random giveaways of signed books and Katerina goodies on Facebook and Twitter, as well as a special prize for the first person to spot Katerina out in the wild on Tuesday!

Take a picture of THE GATHERING STORM on the shelf in your local bookstore (or library) and post it on Twitter or Facebook, and tell me about it in the comments here. First sighting wins a Class 2K12 swag pack and earns the Red Cross an extra five dollar donation!

It all starts tomorrow morning at 11 am CST! (Or 9pm in Saint Petersburg, Russia!)

A large part of THE GATHERING STORM takes place at Smolny, the elite girls’ school for Russian nobility created by Catherine the Great.  (some pictures courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

Architect Quarenghi’s drawing for Institute, 1806

Music class, circa early 1900’s

Dining hall, circa early 1900’s

Smolny Classroom

Now that the Creepy Cakes contest is over, I decided to share photos of the two alternate cakes I made during the WEEK OF A BILLION BIRTHDAYS.

Presenting…

The Zombie Cat in the Graveyard Cake

*note to self- Black cats do not show up very well on top of Oreo crumb-covered chocolate cakes. Also, do not let dog see stuffed zombie black cat, for it distresses him terribly and he wants to eat it.

The Dexter Cake

*note to self- Just because the recipe says the fake blood is edible, does not mean that it tastes good enough to drip all over a cake.

This is NOT the original recipe for a witch cake, which in 1692 during the Salem Witch trials, called for rye meal and urine. That witch cake was baked with the urine of the bewitched victims, then fed to a dog to rid the victims of evil. This is a wicked-witch-and-flying-monkey cake, because that scene in the Wizard of Oz creeped the hell out of me when I was little. (Okay, it STILL creeps me out.)

I haz no kitchen skillz, so this poor cake suffered through several attempts at making flying monkeys. Including the Black-Gel-Icing-Event, the Glittered-Stencil-Event, and the Let’s-Scrape-Everything-Off and-Start-Over-Incident. My daughter suffered through multiple trips to every craft store and grocery store within the county. But she also helped to create the inspirational Witch-and-Monkey Playlist:

“Monkey” George Michael

“Witchy Woman” the Eagles

“Season of the Witch” Donovan

“Code Monkey” Jonathan Coulton

“Pentagram” Cake

“Waking the Witch” Kate Bush

The Creepy Cake N Bake-a-Thon is ON! Vote for your favorite entry by commenting below. You can comment on EVERY Cake N Bake post, one entry per post, for a chance to win a $20 gift certificate from Barnes and Noble or an official Creepy Cake N Bake doll! Please include your email in order to be entered to win.
Trophies will be awarded on Halloween for the top creeptastic creations. Winners will be chosen by our special Celebrity Judge,  Adam Rex, author of such deliciously creepy creations such as FAT VAMPIRE, FRANKENSTEIN TAKES THE CAKE, FRANKENSTEIN MAKES A SANDWICH, and PSSST!
Check the list of contestants and their post dates so you don't miss any of the fun:

Mon Oct. 3 -Saundra Mitchell
Wed Oct 5 - Stacey Jay
Friday Oct 7 - Erin Dionne
Saturday Oct 8 - Sydney Salter
Mon Oct 10 - Brenna Yovanoff
Wed Oct 12 - Tara Hudson
Friday Oct 14 - Karen Healey

Saturday Oct 15 - Robin Bridges

Mon Oct 17 - Michelle Zink
Wed Oct 19 - Julia Karr
Friday Oct 21 - Victoria Schwab

Saturday Oct 22 - C.Lee McKenzie
Sunday Oct 23 - E. Kristin Anderson
Mon Oct 24 - Natalie Zaman
Wed Oct 26 - Stephanie Burgis

Friday Oct 28 - Dawn Metcalf

It's finally here! The Class of 2k12 is a group of twenty middle-grade and young adult debut novelists working in concert to promote our books and reading, and we're ready to begin.

In honor of our friends debuting this year, we're giving away a huge prize pack of all seventeen Class of 2k11 titles for a deserving class, school, or public library. If you'd like to nominate your favorite library, stop by our Facebook page and tell us about it. The winner will be announced November 12.

Be sure to visit our links to find out about 2k12 books, authors, and events:

our website

our blog

our Facebook page

our Twitter link

our newsletter (Click to sign up -- simply write
ADD ME in the comment line)

Me with Erin Morgenstern at Lemuria Books!

The Night Circus opens at nightfall …and closes at dawn.

The circus is here!

Nine of Cups!