Shooting Zombies (It's Not What You Think)

Three words describe the millionth reason why I love my job(s):

Zombie photo shoot.

If you know me at all, you'll understand just how exciting this was. I've had the idea for the second book in my head for nearly a year, and couldn't wait to actually make it happen. Whenever there's anything involving zombies that I can sink my creative hands into, I'm all over it!

As many of you know, the cover for The Day Zombies Ruined My Perfectly Boring Life was done with a friend's fifteen-year-old daughter who used to babysit my kids. Somehow I talked her into taking the tags off her brand new prom dress and stepping into the woods behind my house. We paid to have her hair done, then went crazy and messed it up to make her look like she had been living in the wild a few days. She was a total trooper.

Today I used one of my very first babysitters turned good friend who was a total champ. I feel kind of guilty as each of the zombie models I've used are gorgeous girls, and would've been better used for covers of some romantic love story. But we all know my novels involve paranormal love stories, so that may never happen.

The first step was to make my friend look like the undead using Halloween makeup, homespun honey, oatmeal, fake blood, and toilet paper (yep, you read that last ingredient correctly, and yes we used clean toilet paper). I was fortunate enough to have an extremely talented professional makeup artist transform me into a terrifying zombie last year, and picked up a couple of tricks. The best part about doing these photo shoots is that the makeup doesn't have to be perfect since it's a far away shot, and I can later add techniques to give the picture a cartoonish effect. But honestly, I think I did a pretty decent job on her wound for an amateur (seriously, this was way too much fun).

The second step was to wait for just the right outdoor conditions. Since it's mentioned in the second story that there are many fields left unharvested, I wanted to catch the corn right before it was ready to go this fall (which will be way later than usual with all the crazy weather we had this summer). And as a photographer, I knew I had to wait until the sun was just at the right place in the sky so my subject wouldn't get washed out. Turns out 10:00 a.m. this morning was nearly the perfect time. And we had blue skies—another bonus!

The last step was to find the right pose. I didn't want her just standing there as that's basically what I had the model do for my first book. But the trickiest part is for neither of us to laugh, and take the fact seriously that we're two adults standing in the middle of a corn field, one of us dressed like a crazy person and the other dressed like a zombie (hey, I didn't want to get any fake blood on me). My friend was worried she didn't do a serious enough face, so I had her yelling, and it turned out amazing. The final result? You'll just have to wait for the final cover reveal to find out!

I'm Back (and as Crazy as Ever)!

*Cue AC/DC's Back in Black*

It's been an insane couple of weeks. We spent a week at our lake home celebrating the 4th of July and our 15th wedding anniversary, plus I've been getting ready to host my class reunion this week as well as working on my next book with my editor (Mind Benders—title in progress), writing the first draft of the sequel to The Day Zombies Ruined My Perfectly Boring Life, and getting slammed with ideas for the NEXT book in line. Plus I'm getting ready to design a new book cover.

This is quite literally how I feel at the moment:

Do self-employed people in general put too much pressure on themselves to finish multiple things at once? Or is that an author thing? Maybe it's just an ADD thing. Regardless, it appears to be a "me" thing. Times like these I get frustrated, especially when I can't find time to read as much as I'd like, or watch my favorite TV series.

Hope all my US friends enjoyed the holiday. I love the hell out of this country and the 4th is my favorite holiday. I even have a tattoo of red, white and blue stars on my foot to prove it (plus to commemorate our anniversary).

Obviously I'm not here to say anything profund, but really just apologizing for the blogging silence. If I'm not committed anytime soon, I'll try to post sooner next time.

Celebrate The Small Things Blog Hop

Happy Friday, everyone! WARNING: my post this week for VikLit's "celebrate the small things" blog hop is filled with so much awesomeness, your screen may explode.

1. My editor wasn't so fond of the ending for Cheating Death and I've gotten a lot of crap for some of my harsh endings, so I rewrote it into something tear-inducing. I was a total mess when I wrote it, but I think everyone will love it. Or at least I hope.

2. I made the book trailer for Cheating Death. And I'm so proud of my creation. It was a lot of work, but it definitely projects the feeling I was aiming for.

3. I organized and hopefully successfully launched the blog hop tour for Cheating Death. Thank you to all of those who are participating! Find more info on the blog hop here.

4. I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of being a published author, and I will have released four books in that time. Seriously, can I just maybe take a nap now?

5. I was hired by a fellow author to create her book cover. Together we chose the most stunning image and I can't wait to share it at some point! I swear to you I'm a high every time I work on it.

6. I lost another five pounds this week, which means I am up to ten pounds in just two weeks. Plus I'm that much closer to being able to eat pizza and drink beer again. On a limited basis, of course...there's no way I'm going to screw up my weight and have to do this all over again.

7. I was given the okay to start exercising again, and that means I'm back to watching Supernatural episodes! I can't believe I didn't get into this show sooner. The paranormal stories are just awesome. And I'm so in love with Dean, Sam and their crazy-hot dad. Jeffrey Dean Morgan's smile can melt my soul into a mere puddle.

8. I got my first pair of Uggs. I was tired of my feet getting cold in cheap boots from all this snow and my daughter was tired of me borrowing her Uggs all the time, so I used birthday money from my in-laws and bought my own. They are heavenly.

8. I finished John Green's Looking for Alaska. That man can write. But why does he feel the need to reduce his readers to a blubbering mess each time? Review to come on next week's video blog.

9. My husband and I painted the outdated den that's filled with a million nooks and crannies. We also put new flooring in it, therefore finishing one of the last rooms in the house that needs remodeling. We were so relieved and exhausted that we celebrated with a small glass of alcohol. And boy, did it taste delicious.

So that's about it for my awesome week. If you're a blogger and want to take the time to celebrate the small things in your life, be sure to sign up below!