Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Photo Contest Winner


The winner of this week's photo contest was chosen by artist and web designer extraordinaire, Tatiana http://www.TheArtofTatiana.com/. The photo she chose was submitted by A.B Moyer. It was that gruesome photo I displayed last week. Click here: E's blog: Photo Contest & Other News Congratulations A.B. Your NSDWAZ swag bag will be in the mail by the end of the week.


There's still time to get in on the fun. The photo contest doesen't end until the 4th of July. That's almost an entire week. Come on, zombie lovers. All you need is a camera, some grease paint, and a little imagination. If you'd like to know more about the contest Click here: E. Van Lowe and then click on the photo at the center of the page that says contests.


That's all for now, kiddies. Sleep tight, don't let the zombies bite.


Thursday, June 25, 2009

RIP Michael Jackson


Michael Jackson was a part of my life.


I am older than most of you, so I remember Michael Jackson when he was a gifted child. I danced to the Jackson Five, partied to Off The Wall and Thrilled to his Thriller album. I watched that Thriller video every time my local video show (I didn't have MTV at the time) played it, and marvelled at it. It was like watching a movie.


I have an homage to MJ in Never Slow Dance With A Zombie. This is not a shameless plug for my book. The Thriller scene (with the song playing) in my book is an homage to a great musician who had a profound effect on my life.


What a sad day. Farah Fawcett and now Michael. It makes you aware of how fragile our time here can be.


Thank you, Michael Jackson, for a boat load of happy memories. Your time on this earth was thrilling.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Photo Contest & Other News


Check out the photo of Undead Alicia and her darling Michael, who she attacked and is turning into a zombie. This awesome (or should I say gruesome) photo was sent in last week for the photo contest, but I didn't get enough entries, so I am rolling last week's entries into this week.

Where are all my zombies? I know it's summer, but I thought I'd get more entries. Especially considering the Never Slow Dance With A Zombie Swag Bag I'm offering. In case you forgot, it includes: an autographed ARC of NSDWAZ, a $20 Starbucks gift card (gotta have coffee to keep from falling asleep during the zombie invasion), some neat Zombie Love note cards, and other goodies. This Swag Bag is worth the effort, people, and it could be a lot of fun. Look at how much fun Alicia is having eating Michael's innards... Okay, maybe she's having a little too much fun. But that's the idea. Letting out your inner zombie can be a fun experience. The contest ends Saturday July 4th. I hope to hear from more of you.

ZOMBIE NEWS

I have been booked for my first ever reading/signing. It's on August 22nd (which means, I guess, that the book will be in stores by then. Yay!) and takes place at a very cool independent book store in LA called Book Soup. I believe it's at 7PM. The info will be posted on my website as we get closer to the big day. I hope to see some of you there. I will be hounding you about it as we get closer. Meanwhile, I am waiting for other dates. If you can't make this one, hopefully I will be reading and signing in your town.

That's all for now.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

NSDWAZ Outtake #1


This is the first outtake I chose to share with you. It's a little side story that has nothing to do with the main story (sorry zombie lovers), but tells us a little something about Margot. It's the very humorous (I think) story of her first kiss.

I still remember my first kiss. When I was ten years-old I'd gotten lassoed into a game of spin the bottle by a girl--I realized many years later--who liked me. Being a typical ten year-old boy, not yet into girls, I hated that first kiss. But I used it as impetus for Margot's first kiss in Never Slow Dance With A Zombie. My editor thought the long aside slowed the story down too much. Now I get to share it with you. Check it out:


Technically I had my first kiss six years ago. Everyone thinks I did. Everyone means Sybil. We were at her 10th birthday party. Us kids were left alone in the room and someone—I think it was her cousin, Thomas who was 13 with an oversized head and Milk Dud breath—suggested we play Seven Minutes In Heaven.

For those of you raised on a different planet, Seven Minutes In Heaven is a kissing game. A boy and girl are selected to go into the closet and spend seven minutes kissing—in heaven, get it?

Someone suggested I go in the closet with Sybil’s next door neighbor, Percy. Okay, it wasn’t someone it was Sybil. Percy was this really cute 11 year-old who smelled like cookies and dirt. I’d been crushing on him for some time, and Sybil set it up so that I would be alone with him for seven whole minutes. Seven minutes may not seem like a long time, but to a girl obsessing over her first kiss it can be an eternity.
Percy and I entered the closet and shut the door behind ourselves. I could hear muffled giggles on the other side. I didn’t care. I was about to spend seven… make that six and a half minutes in heaven with a really cute boy.
I could no longer see Percy. But I could hear him breathing.
“Percy?”
“Huh?” His breathing was shallow, his voice quaking, which meant one of two things: either he didn’t want to be in the closet with me, or this was his first kiss as well.
“Um. Hi,” I said trying to sound cheery, which wasn’t all that easy considering I might be locked in the closet with a boy who was dying to get out.
“Um… Margot?”
Uh-oh. This is not sounding good. Were his next words going to be: “being locked in here with you is making me nauseous?” Stop it! Think positive I told myself.
“Yes?” I said sweetly. My heart was in my mouth.
More silence, and then… “I, um… like you.”
Huge sigh of relief. Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. He does want to be in the closet with me, which means Percy is as lip lock challenged as I am. This might be a turn off for some girls, who might want their first time to be with someone more experienced, but I felt it gave me an advantage. He couldn’t say I was a lousy kisser. The only thing he had to compare me to was his Labrador Retriever. And I was certain I could kiss better than a dog.
“They’re awfully quiet in there,” I heard someone say on the other side.
“And I know why,” someone else said, followed by a wave of giggles.
All right, he wants to be here and I want to be here. Now all we need to do is get the tonsil hockey started. I didn’t care that my seven minutes had been reduced to four and a half. I was about to experience my first kiss.
“Percy?”
“Huh?”
“Wanna do something?” I prompted.
“Uh-huh.”
My hint was a bit too subtle for Percy. I needed to be more direct. “This is my first kiss, too,” I said to ease the tension.
“It is? Wow.”
Suddenly I was irritated. “What do you mean ‘wow.’ It’s your first kiss, isn’t it?”
“Heck no! I kiss girls all the time.”
Liar! I thought. “Is your dog a girl?” I asked.
“No. Why?”
“No reason.” Okay, so what if he is a lying jerk. He’s cute, and I’m going to spend Two Minutes In Heaven with him. “Well, Mr. Professional Kisser,” I said with a bit more sarcasm than intended. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
More silence.
“Percy?’
“Huh?”
“Well!”
“Oh. You wanna kiss?”
All right, he was clearly an idiot. But I’d gone into that closet to experience my first kiss, there was no way I was coming out empty handed.
Just then from the other side of the door: “Ten, nine, eight…”
“What’s that?” I asked, nervousness creeping into my voice.
“The countdown.”
“Kiss me!” I said in frantic a loud whisper.
I felt Percy getting closer, closer. I closed my eyes, puckered up.
Smack. Percy planted a wet one in the center of my forehead.
My forehead!
“…three, two, one.” The closet door yanked open. Percy and I exited amidst loud cheers. Percy swooned and fanned himself while wearing a devilish grin. This prompted more, raucous cheers.
Sybil smiled at me and squealed “I knew it! I knew it!”
I winked at her. What else could I do? They were treating me as if I was the world’s greatest kisser. If I revealed that Percy was a fraud who was too scared to give me a real kiss I’d lose my star status.
“You go Hot Lips,” Thomas drawled. It was a nick name that lasted all summer.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Duh!

Is it just me?

I have a friend--a college educated young woman who has been out of work for a while, and can't find anything but temp work. It's hard times out there. I know. Several days ago she called me. She was pretty excited. "E, I think my troubles may be over."

She proceeded to tell me that she had gotten an email from a Nigerian ambassador who needed help getting money out of his country... You know the rest.

Following is a transcript of our conversation as best I can remember it
:

E: (after a long pause) You're kidding me, right?
Friend: No! I just got the email this morning. What do you think?
E: (another long pause as I try to decide if I'm having an outer body experience, or am the victim of a phone prank) Betty, it's a scam.
Friend: What do you mean?
E: You haven't gotten one of these emails before? Comedians joke about them, Dateline did a story on them. It's a long running scam. You've never heard of this?!
Friend: (clearly deflated) Oh. (then) But maybe this one is real.
E: Um. Sure. But I doubt it. Sorry.

Okay look, I know my friend is out of work and needs a job and money, but come on! Am I the only one who finds one of these emails in my spam folder like EVERY DAY! Talk to me people. I need to know it's not just me.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Zombie Photo Contest



I am having a new contest on my website that starts today. If you like taking (or posing) for photos, and you like zombies (and who doesn't) this contest is for you. Check it out:

Friendship and love are in the air. And so are zombies! Let's celebrate by posting photos of you and your favorite zombie to the website... And if you are your favorite zombie, how about a photo of you and your non zombie best friend or boyfriend, or mother and daughter. Let's show off our Zombie Love this summer. I will post as many photos as I can on the website. I hope we get a lot. The winners will be chosen by a guest panel (to be announced). Winners will be chosen weekly. The contest will run for three weeks, so there will be 3 winners--one each week. Winners will receive a Never Slow Dance With A Zombie Swag-Bag. The bags will include a free autographed ARC of Never Slow Dance With A Zombie, a $20 Starbucks gift card (gotta have coffee to keep from falling asleep during the zombie invasion), some neat Zombie Love note cards, and other goodies.

Cool, huh? The contest is open to all subscribers, so if you haven't subscribed yet, why not drop by, sign up and download some photos. Click here: E. Van Lowe

And if you just want to be a voyeur that's cool, too. This should be big zombie fun.

Also, I will be posting a Never Slow Dance With A Zombie outtake on Thursday. Want to see what didn't make it into the book? Check back on Thursday. All for now.

Sleep tight, don't let the zombies bite.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Zombiemania!


Is it me, or is zombiemania sweeping the nation? A recent article in a major newspaper (either the New York Times or the LA Times, I don't remember) claimed that zombies are replacing vampires. In other words, zombies are the next big thing. Bye bye, Twilight (Yeah, right!) hello, zombies.

The zombie comic book, Deadworld:Click here: Deadworld: Comics and Graphic Novels of the zombie classic! from creator Gary Reed, is about to become a major motion picture. Max Brooks' World War Z shows up on movie screens later this year. There's the game Zombies you can play on Facebook, and even the retelling of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice has been zombified with best selling Pride And Prejudice and Zombies.

When I set out to write Never Slow Dance With A Zombie, almost three years ago, I had no idea zombies were in the zeitgeist. It's amazing how so many people can be thinking the same thing at the same time.

Three weeks ago Lauren, at Shooting Stars Magazine, asked me to review a song called Zombies Everywhere :Click here: Shooting Stars Mag: (Party) "Zombies Everywhere"- Authors Talk! When I saw the post with my review I discovered two other fun, zombie novels I knew nothing about: Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, written by S. G. Browne http://www.undeadanonymous.com/ , and The Zombie Queen of Newbury High, by Amanda Ashby http://amandaashby.com/. I am planning to get in touch with Amanda Ashby soon, to see if she'd like to do a reading event together when she's in the US.

Wow! So many zombies. It's a bit daunting. I am either in the right place at the right time... a place I rarely am, or my book is coming out amidst a glut of zombie projects. I'm going with right place at the right time. It's better to be optimistic. And I am in such a good space right now, I am not going to bring myself down with negative zombie thoughts. Is there such a thing as positive zombie thoughts? If you have a zombie novel coming out in September, yes, there is. That's all for now. If you like zombies check some of these out, and if you know of other zombie projects or books that are coming out or have just come out, I'd love to hear about them. It won't bring me down. It will just reinforce my belief that I am at the crest of a zombie tidal wave that will be crashing to the shores September 1st.

Sleep tight, don't let the zombies bite... There are so many of them ;)

Monday, June 8, 2009

News & Thanks

The weekend is over, and I survived the shoot. The early mornings, the long days, the lousy food and getting rained on for part of an exterior. But everyone is happy. And like I said, I survived! Yay!

Breaking News

I have some exciting news. Never Slow Dance With A Zombie has just been sold to Scholastic book clubs and fairs. My editor tells me they don't offer many YA books, and usually don't take as many copies as they ordered. She tells me this is a GREAT sale for Tor. I remember The Scholastic Book Club from when I was in school. Back then circulars were handed out in class and we'd choose the books we wanted to order based on cover art and short blurbs. I think you got points that led to prizes for certain books, but it's too long ago for me to remember. Does anyone know how it works today? Is it still like that?

Anyway, I am over the moon with the size of the Scholastic order. Thanks Tor sales staff for getting NSDWAZ off to such a good start.

More Thanks

I would also like to take a moment to thank some bloggers who have been incredibly helpful to me in getting the word out about NSDWAZ . Carrie, of Carrie's Bookshelf, Velvet, of VVB Reads, and Lauren of Shooting Stars Magazine. I really appreciate you ladies mentioning my book in your blogs. I am both honored and flattered. Thank you all. And If I left anyone out, I apologize. Also, I recently did an interview for The Book Resort. It was my first. I will add a link when the interview is posted so you can read it. I don't think I did too badly, but I will let you decide. If I did, please let me know.

And finally, I spoke with my publicist, Amber today. She is trying to book me for signings at the Northern California Regional Trade Show, the Southern California Regional Trade Show, and a book store in the San Fernando valley. Both shows take place in October. I will let you know if I am lucky enough to get booked or a signing.

I am grateful for those of you who have been following and advising me on this journey toward publication. It has been at times both daunting and exhilarating. My very first post lamented that publication was "ten whole months away." Now we're just three months from publication, and I am too excited... and nervous. But that's a story for another time. All for now.

Sleep tight, don't let the zombies bite.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Tired


I am tired.

I'm helping out with the rewrites of the scripts for a web series that begins shooting on Saturday. This week I've put my manuscript aside and have been working closely with the director to ensure he has a great script to work from. It's almost 10 at night. I've been at it almost all day, but my day is not over. I am sitting here waiting for the director to email or call me and tell me he has approved the changes I made.

We had an actor fall out (translation--he got a better gig), and today they cast another actor, who's actually a bigger name than the guy who fell out--go figure. And so tomorrow I will have to change all his lines to suit him. Ahh, Hollywood. I love it *through gritted teeth*

The rest of this week is pretty much shot as far as completing the first Hollyweird book goes. I suppose some of this stuff is research for Hollyweird, and that's good. And at the end of the day, I am writing. I am a professional writer. I am achieving my childhood dream. And somewhere in all this mess, it's fun.

Oh, yeah, I'm supposed to be on the set 6:30 Saturday morning. I like getting up early... like 6:30. For me, that's early. But to be on the set at 6:30, fueled by enough coffee so that I'm not a walking zombie, means getting up at like 5:00. FIVE AM!!! Do the three exclamation marks scream my point? Ugh! Like I said... chalk it up to research.

Sleep tight all. Me, I am waiting for changes. And I'm tired.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner


Last night I had dinner with my good friend Robin, whom I chose to select the names of the winners in the Zombie Love t-shirt contest. She picked the winners out of a hat. The names are now posted on my website. Why not drop by and click on the photo of Robin, with her hand in the hat, to see if you or a friend has won. http://evanlowe.com/ I had to click the refresh button a few times to get the page to show up properly. So if you're still getting the old home page that says Contests, try refreshing it.

Thanks to all of you who participated. I had a fun time with the contest, and now have lots of new subscriber friends to share my journey with. For those of you who didn't win, I have a really neat zombie photo contest starting in a few weeks, and the prizes are awesome. So stay tuned.


... don't let the zombies bite.