'Nother great review

I like collecting reviews. Some day I'll put them all on show. No, wait, I've already done that. This one is from Fallen Angel Reviews and it's very nice indeed!

Vampires & Vixens

Announcing a week-long bash (24-31 Oct) hosted by Kendra Clark to celebrate Hallowe'en with a bang! Prizes and excerpts from me and Kendra and our buddies Amelia Elias, Karen Mandeville and Devin Leigh. Just click on the bee-ee-ay-yoo-diful picture below to join Kendra's loopy loop and get in on the action!

Serenity

Warning: contains spoilers

I love this movie. Love love love! Of course I'm biased, because I think Joss Whedon is a god. I'm addicted to Buffy and I actually went out and bought the Firefly DVDs. I know trivia. I've had the date marked on my calendar (yes, really) for months. I actually say 'Oh my Joss' in conversation. Been waiting for Serenity for so long!

And it was worth it. Totally worth it. Fantastic film! Great opening to set it up, because otherwise, without having watched the series, you might be in the dark. But in the first five minutes, without repeating anything from the series, you've got the basics of who everyone is and, more importantly, the plot has been set up: The war between the Alliance and the Independants, the Alliance's experiments on River, Simon's rescue of her. Who is after River. What she can do. Who Mal and his crew are up against. Okay, not the first five minutes, but in a timely fashion.

River kicks ass. It's strange because she's so tiny (I saw her at Collectormania on Saturday: tiny person!) and I think Summer Glau is trained as a dancer, but she looks damn good in a fight! An absolute dervish, making the fight into a dance, impeccable moves and timing. Fights are generally good in this film, incidentally, beautifully choreographed, and even occasionally funny where Jayne is involved.

Ah yes. Jayne. Possibly my favourite character. Belligerent, bullish, badly-educated, beautiful Jayne. Okay, maybe not beautiful, but it started with the right letter. I definitely wouldn't kick him out though. He gets some of the best lines of the movie (when Zoe tells the crew they probably won't live through the Reavers' attack, he looks stricken and says, "I might!").

I'm officially not talking to Joss for killing Wash, though. Yeah. Wash! I love Wash! So did Zoe. We never got to find out what it was they saw in each other, precisely (unless it's a Jessica/Roger Rabbit thing). They're the Xander/Anya of the crew; only Zoe has a little more loyalty.

Mal's one of the best characters. After he's brought a damaged River back on board the ship, albeit in handcuffs, the crew demands to know why, when he seemed perfectly happy for River and Simon to leave, but he just doesn't have an answer. But it's there in his face. They're his crew. As Zoe points out, during the war they'd never have left anyone behind. Mal tells her that's probably why they lost; but he still goes back for River.

He does what's right. His name says it all: Mal. Malcontent. Malajusted. Malaised. But down inside that bitter veteran, pirate of the outer rim, bank robber (fabulous scenes at the start of the film) he is good, even if he doesn't want to be. Which I suspect he doesn't.

Okay, enough eulogising. Go see the film. Really, it rocks. It's funny, it's smart, it's exciting, it's sad, it's scary (really scary in places!). It's all the things Buffy was. Plus, it has spaceships. Who doesn't love spaceships?

Joss, you can thank me later.

BIG news!

Still squeeing from this. I just got an offer for Almost Human from Ellora's Cave! Can we say SQUEEEEEE!!! Chance and Dark will be very happy there, I think. Also: it's a full-length MS, and EC is RWA recognised, which means I'll qualify for PAN membership!

Need chocolate now. Going into shock!

Book auction

Guys, I'm offering my two books as an auction lot on eBay to raise
money for displaced e-book author Inga Mahn
who has been left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. You can bid on the
books here. Various goodies (autographed cover flats, bookmarks, etc) will be
included in the lot. Please go and bid to raise some money for her!

IQ

I'm clever today. Why? How? Simple. 15 minutes with Ms Clairol's finest. I always thought I wasn't meant to be a brunette, but see, I can do it!

Don't you think I look smarter?

Release of Blue Moon aka Shameless Promotion

Blue Moon is released today! (well, actually last night, but it was really late and I was tired, and I only found out when I got fanmail -- yes, I get fanmail! -- okay, shutting up now). Here's the blurb:

You never know when you might run into -- or over -- Mr. Tall, Dark, & Psychotic.

When a crazed wolf hurls himself at her car, Magda’s more worried about the bodywork on her car than her own safety -- after all, she’s a werewolf herself -- until she realizes the wolf in question is a loup-garou, totally mindless in the face of the full moon, bent on destruction and death.

But when the moon goes down her loup-garou is a beautiful man with a gentle soul. Just the thing for Magda, who’s already been bruised and beaten by love, left with three children and a thirst for independence. Yet how can she trust a man who can’t trust himself?

Go to the Changeling site, where you can read an excerpt and buy the book, or go to my website, where you can enter a contest to win a free download of Blue Moon, plus a silver wolf charm and other Blue Moon goodies.

Ad break over. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Contest again!

Well, it's that time again! Blue Moon is being released very shortly
(I'll let you have the exact date as soon as I'm sure of it!) and to
celebrate I'm holding another contest. Just go to my website,
read the excerpt of Blue Moon, and answer the
two questions on the Contest page. Email your answers to me at
catmarsters@gmail.com, and I'll draw the winner from the correct
answers on Wednesday, 28th September.

The winner will receive a free download of Blue Moon, a silver wolf
charm, an autographed cover flat, and other Blue Moon goodies. So get
on over to the site and get reading!

Cat

Spuffy voting

Yes, I'm shamelessly canvassing for votes. I've never won a fanfic award before (although this particlar fic has been nominated, on another site), but it would be nice. Haven't written fanfic in aaages. No time! Anyway. If'n you feel like voting for me, click on the 'vote for me @ Spuffy awards' button on the left (the one with the lovely fetching manip of Buffy & Spike), scroll down to Best Fantasy Long Fiction, and vote for Etaknosnhoj and Smashed, Wrecked, Gone. I promise you, the story features Spike as a highwayman. With the thigh boots and everything.

Procrastination Station

The bats made me do it.

New cover

Here's the new cover! Slightly pixellated where I squished it down, but you'd never have known if I hadn't told you, right?


And you can read the details about it here. Possible release date of 30th September: I like to do these things at full speed!

Silver star from JERR!

Hey, that rhymes. Good news is well-needed now, and this actually had me mouthing like a fish. A happy fish. My second review -- and it's even shinier than the first!

Reviewer: Dani Jacquel
Rating: Silver Star Award
Heat level: H
Masika's day starts off bad after encountering a
vampire slayer, but begins to get better when she meets
Mr. Yummy Butt in a local bar. He's a blonde-haired
vampire and their connection seems instantaneous. Of course,
just because her day starts getting better doesn't
mean it will end well.

I believe Sundown Inc.: She Who Dares is Ms. Marster's
first book, and as such, I must say she'll have trouble making sure her
following books can hold up in comparison. Sundown Inc.: She Who Dares was
an excellent story. I was surprised by how well Masika was characterized, as
well as how the little details given about her history didn't
interfere with the story, just helped round it out. Masika came off
as a badass woman with a no-holds-barred attitude, but there were moments that
revealed her soft inner core. I really loved the fact that she didn't
spend a moment of the story in denial about her emotions or feelings, even
with all that attitude.

The sex, too, didn't lack in any way. It was hot,
intense, and I easily fell into the characters' passion for each other.
Dare was the epitome of a hot, dangerous man, but that didn't stop him from genuinely
feeling something for Masika. The part of the story that revealed Dare's
secrets was well timed and beautiful.

I can't say how much I loved Sundown Inc.: She Who Dares.
There are only a handful of short stories that have
had characters that I connected to so quickly that I felt immediately
teary-eyed with emotion over their pain and successes. Of course, that doesn't
dismiss the absolutely fabulous humor this book had. It may have ended on a
more serious note, but the beginning was charming and hilarious. For all
these reasons, I found Sundown Inc.: She Who Dares deserving of the Silver
Star Award. I'll definitely be looking forward to Ms. Marster's next
book.
Dani Jacquel
Just Erotic Romance Reviews

Pretty groovy, huh?  I only go alerted to this when the other Changeling Authors
started congratulating me. Just call me a dizzy blonde.

I also got the cover for my next Changeling book today.  It's very, very pretty,
and when I have a moment I'll upload it here and show you.

Willow updated

We found her, and she was still alive, but in a really bad way. About half past one we decided to call the vet, who tolkd us to go to the Saffron Walden surgery (about ten miles from us, not our usual surgery which is about 200yds away. Saturday they only have emergency appts). He said to bring her in at 3.

We set off about half two in absolutely torrential rain, Mum driving, me carrying Willow. Poor baby was crying and shaking, she went all stiff as if she was in really bad pain, and then she just got quieter and stiller until I realised she wasn't breathing. We turned around, six miles from home, and by the time we got back she was cold.

I'm sorry we couldn't get her there before she started hurting so badly. but I'm glad we were with her, and I'm glad we all got to say goodbye. And I'm glad she's not in pain any more. But I'm not glad she's dead, because I loved her, I still love her and I always will. When the rain eases up we'll bury her next to Meu. I think she'll have a white rose when they're in season.

These are pictures I took of Willow on Thursday. When i'm feeling better I'll try to find some pictures of her when she was younger, and not looking so sad. But here she is:


And here with her brother, Tinker, who came from the same litter. He's on the right, and Willow is in the red collar.


Time to go and give Tinker and Candy some big hugs, I think. Having only two cats is going to take a lot of getting used to.