The Horror! the Horror!--a new blog for scary film

And it's called, appropriately enough, Scary Film.  They also cover scary books and TV, which is where I come in. I'll be writing for Scary Film occasionally. Come check it out.

Noir Bling from Red Hot Kitten

It's no secret that I am all about the Etsy. This year I discovered a shop called Red Hot Kitten run by artisan/jewelry maker Michelle Tichota, whose motto is, "Takin' over the world, one bad-ass Bettie at a time."
I love her store. She creates great jewelry out of images of pulp novels (noir, sci fi, fantasy) and sells it for a very nice price.
I am particularly fond of the stretch bracelet I bought myself made out of old mystery novel covers for $8. (See picture.) Seriously, if you have a love for pop culture, whether atomic-era design or bad-ass noir, you need to check this woman's shop out here.

Coming Soon...the Frontier Trilogy of YA Science Fiction

some people get books for Christmas, I get book covers.
Thanks to Joy Sillesen of Indie Author Services, I now have covers for my upcoming YA science fiction trilogy, tentatively titled Frontier. Set in a future where a Chinese corporation (The Double Fortune Trading Company) has colonized the known universe, the books follow the adventures of a young colonist who takes on the corporation on behalf of the colonists. I'd love to reach the readers of the Hunger Games books, of course, but I had the original idea almost a decade ago when I was developing television series for my then-boss at Warner Bros.
The books are: Frontier, Beixing, and Zhanghai. Frontier sets up the conflict and takes place on the planet of the same name, which was named by the colonists. Beixing is the planet that houses the corporation's political power
for the galaxy, as well as the most prestigious university in the sextor. Zhanghai is a planet-sized trading post of sorts, a place that sits at the crossroads of intergalactic travel and attracts human and alien traders.
The first book is nearly complete and I hope to finish the sequels and have both out by the end of the year. I'm writing them under my "Kat Parrish" pseudonym to keep them separate from the mysteries I write under my own name. 

An unsolicited testimonial for the Kindle paperwhite

A few years ago my best friend gave me a Kindle and it changed my reading habits forever. I was just starting to cope with some vision problems that made it harder for me to read print books. For someone who reads as much as I do--for business as well as pleasure--the idea of not being able to read was horrifying. The Kindle, with its ability to bump up the font (and I don't need it huge, just bigger than the average font in a book), made all the difference in the world.

I got a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas. I'm already in love with it. It's so bright and easy to read. It's so intuitive to use. It's just the ereader of my dreams.

An infographic for the unierse!

Source: Number Sleuth

Merry Christmas

My brother took this picture of a red and white cardinal a couple of years ago. I didn't even know that cardinals came in red and white. One of the things I miss about living on the east coast is cardinals. We don't have them in Los Angeles.  And we don't have snow. (We have 70+ temps today.) I like the weather, but I do miss the cardinals.

The View From My Window

I have a Japanese Magnolia tree outsie my office window. In spring, it is full of the gorgeous purple blossons, but they don't last very long. It was so warm here last week that the tree was fooled into putting forth one perfect bloom.