After all, these rapture people don't believe animals will go to heaven, and seriously, what kind of Heaven is that??? They can have it.

Besides, with all the righteous non-sinners off the planet, it'll be mine to rule. What? I have goals, you know.

Anyway, so even the CDC is in on the zombie apocalypse, or, as we say in our house, zombiepocalypse. Are you prepared?

Zombiepocalypse ahoy!!!!!

Now, I must go prepare for Saturday's Rapture party. Barbecue! Drinks! Cake! (This had best not screw up my 2012 Mayan apocalypse plans…)

Okay, so. I needed three male names to kill off in my third Lords of Deliverance book. I ended up snagging four — three that were picked through Random.org and one I picked myself because this person just needed a bloody end.

Here we go:

Winner of the tote bag and voodoo love kit:

Amber, comment #3 (Chad)

Winners of swag and bookmarks:

Lola, commnet #107 (Ian)
Cid, comment #250 (Rhys)

Extra winner of swag and bookmarks because wow…what a slime:

Erika, comment #70 (Shylon)

Winners, please email me via the contact link above, or email me at larissaione AT gmail DOT com

Thank you to everyone who played! Wow…quite the response! Seems like there are a LOT of Kevins, Christians, Michaels, and Rob/Bobs who have done some damage. I have to say, I've knocked off a Michael in a book or two because of *ahem* personal reasons.

Okay, so, if you didn't win here, there's another contest going on at Twimom's blog…she's got a month long celebration, so there are lots of chances to win stuff from lots of authors!

I'm also thrilled to announce that Ecstasy Unveiled won a CAPA award over at the Romance Studio! Yay for Lore! He was up against some pretty stiff competition, so I'm extra excited!

Have a great day, everyone!

I probably shouldn't admit this…but…*lowers voice to a whisper* I don't even like weddings. My secret is out.

Okay, so now that you know all of this, it should come as no surprise that I really don't like Valentine's Day. Color me red and put antlers on my cat, I'm a Valentine's Day Grinch.

So. No Valentine's Day contest for me. Nope, I'm going to have an ANTI-Valentine's Day giveaway. You can enter to win the stuff pictured here — a Demonica tote bag, various swag, and a mini Love Voodoo Kit that comes complete with a teenly little voodoo doll, pins, and a 32-page booklet.*

***Disclaimer: Larissa Ione can not be held responsible for any breakups, marriages, or zombies that may incur as a result of use of voodoo love doll.

How to enter? Here's the fun part. See, I need some names for my current book. These will be people who will get killed in horrible ways.

I want YOU to choose the names. Got an ex who won't pay child support? How about a jackass co-worker? Maybe an ex boyfriend who cheated? Now is your chance to have fun with them!

The name can also be totally made up. Do you like — or hate– the name Tim? Use that. Can't stand a certain fiction character named Edward? Choose that.

Simply comment with a male name, and for legal reasons — FIRST NAME ONLY, PLEASE. I'll announce the winner on the 14th, so be sure to check back. I'll need three human names from any country, culture, etc., so there will be three winners. One person will win the tote bag, and two others will receive one piece of swag and some bookmarks.

Let the naming of soon-to-be-dead-characters begin!

Anyway, for me, last year was marked by business success and personal complications, the latter of which I'm still feeling the fallout for. The month I spent on the west coast put me behind in my deadlines, and that got worse when, at the end of the that month, I broke my right arm. Six weeks later, I learned I broke the left arm too. So I'm now scrambling to catch up.

I get to go into the New Year already behind. Awesome.

BUT…I've already got a good start on what will be a very…interesting year. I bought new Skechers Shape-Ups to jumpstart getting back into shape after I hand in the novella due next week. Yay!

And I also get to start concentrating on the conferences I'll be attending. This year, I'll be at RWA in New York, and I'll be at Authors After Dark in Philadelphia (where I'm Master of Ceremonies! Squee!) I hope you can attend at least one of those — and remember, even if you don't go to the conference, there are public signings you can attend for free!

This year will also see my husband transferring duty stations. Since he's been in the Coast Guard and we've been married, his job has taken us to Texas, Oregon, California, Washington (twice), Michigan, Mississippi, Virginia, and now, Wisconsin. But for a number of reasons, my son and I aren't going on the next transfer. My husband will do it alone. We're hoping he gets stationed nearby, where he can come home on long weekends. If not, and he gets sent a long ways away, we'll suck it up and deal. We've had to live apart for a year before, and we can do it again. It's nothing other military wives don't deal with while their spouses are in Iraq or Afghanistan. At least mine won't be in danger.

This year will also see the launch of my new series, the Lords of Deliverance. I'm incredibly nervous about it — the way I was when the Demonica series launched. I'm always a wreck when any new book releases, but starting a brand new adventure with a brand new series has magnified the pre-release jitters on a regular book. Ack!

I'll have five releases this year: Eternity Embraced (enhanced ebook version of the story in The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2), Eternal Rider, Taken By Fire, Vampire Fight Club (in the Supernatural Anthology,) and Immortal Rider.

Crazily enough, I'll also finish the Lords of Deliverance series this year. At the time Immortal Rider releases next November, I'll have handed in book 4.

So this year I have to write two books. I also plan to write up a proposal for a book that will fuse the Demonica books and the Lords of Deliverance books, and a proposal for a Young Adult series my son wants me to write. So…two books and two proposals for the year. Not bad — I just need to get caught up so I'm not scrambling!

On a personal level, this year will be an adventure as well. My son will be starting high school this fall. OMG, when did he get so old??? Oh, right…when I did. Heh.

So there we have it — my coming year in a nutshell. It sounded pretty laid back until I wrote this blog post, and now I'm sweating again! *g*

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2011 brings you good health, good friends, and good reads!

I'm also going to be a little self-indulgent and share a pic I took the other day. It's a little fuzzy, but it's just too cute. My son was outside playing, and we had a six-foot snowdrift outside one of our upper story windows. The cat, who LOVES my son and who isn't used to people standing outside the window, had to check him out. They spent a good ten minutes staring at each other, with my cat trying to whack my son in the face.

So anyway, happy, snowy Christmas from Wisconsin!

Hi Everyone!

Over on Crissi's blog, she's celebrating Christmas with several days and several authors, and today is my day. I'm giving away winner's choice of a signed book or a tote. All you have to do is answer this question:

In the Christmas Carol "Winter Wonderland", where did the blue birds go and who came to stay?

But…and this is important…reply at CRISSI'S BLOG. If you reply here, your entry won't count.

And yes, it's open internationally.

So anyway, go forth and spread some Christmas cheer!

Hope those who celebrate had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a very nice one — stayed home and had a HUGE dinner for just the three of us. I'm STILL full.

Now I'm doing some online shopping — I'm so NOT going out of the house to deal with Christmas shoppers. *shudders* I've gotten some good deals so far, so pretty happy about that.

I do want to remind people that if you're shopping at Amazon, PLEASE do it by going through the link at the bottom left sidebar of my blog. If you click that link to go to Amazon, the ASPCA will get a portion of your sales, and they even get paid with click-thru's. It costs you nothing, but the ASPCA will benefit greatly. It's a fabulous way to donate to a charity without anything coming out of your own pocket!

Okay, so I'm off to shop. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Also, the Bookie Awards are now open for voting! I'm up in several categories against some really AWESOME authors, and it's an honor to be included!

Also, there's an interview and contest over at Once Upon A Chapter, so head on over and enter! You have to scroll down to get to the interview and contest.

Hope everyone's week got off to a great start! We're gearing up for Thanksgiving…still not sure if we're driving to the in-laws' place or not. For some reason, my husband's boat can't seem to decide on whether it'll be in or out on Friday, which makes it hard to plan. I'm getting kind of frustrated, to be honest. Grr. Oh, well, I knew what I was getting into when I married a military guy!

Have a happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it!

Hugs,

Larissa

***updated to add…we made it! And Barbara Vey of Publisher's Weekly blogged about our road trip. It was definitely an adventure! Here's the link!

Take care, have a great weekend, and read lots!

Hugs,

Larissa