Best. Day. Ever.

So in working part-time at an awesome TV studio and loving it, I had what will go down as one of the best days of my life.

Guess who I got to meet?



















Um, is that sheer, rabid joy on my face or what? I mean... Ohmigod.

Kermie and Piggy were in the studio to promote their new Disney Channel special and were hysterical. I had to bite my hand to keep from laughing into the microphones. All of us in the studio, even the TV Guide interviewer, freaked out over these guys, I mean, come on, they're superstars. Genius.

I have such an appreciation for Steve and Eric, (the voice of Kermit and Piggy, respectively). They are master puppetteers, vocal talents and improvisational virtuosos. Jane and Melissa, the puppet wranglers, were delightful and also damn good at their job. Everyone was so much fun. Everything you'd hope working with Muppets would be. It was like I tasted Utopia. And no, seeing Kermit and Piggy in puppet form in no way diminished the magic. They lived.

One of my favorite moments was when the voice of Kermit walked in and he introduced himself as Steve and I go, in my best star-struck, "You mean Steve Whitmire?" And he just grinned and said "You know my name? That never happens." To which I reply that the Muppet Christmas Carol (the first movie he did Kermit's voice for) is my favorite movie of all time. (I realize that this statement may incur heated debate with others who would lift up perhaps The Muppet Movie as the best, but I'm sorry, while The Muppet Movie is indeed genius, I adore Charles Dickens. Put Dickens with Muppets and it's an inch away from Heaven itself. It's a brilliant adaptation.)

So wow, what a great year, first I get to tell Ronan Harris he's an inspiration... Then I meet the Muppets... Next is Alan Rickman. Then how about a New York book contract? Then I might spontaneously combust.

My Souvenirs:

Of course I asked for autographs.

Best. Day. Ever.

Yep. I Still Want To Believe...

So I was itching.

I had to test myself.

This weekend I went to see X-Files: I Want To Believe

And the fact remains that yes,




















I'm still in love with Mulder.

The Interwebs return, More parties and readings with cool people...

So after a ridiculous charade with both Verizon and Optimum, and lots of service people clomping around our apartment, I finally have internet again.

But life has been going on, online or no.

Last night I tagged along to the Dallas BBQ (it's okay, they have sides for us vegetarians, and the largest glasses of cocktail in the world) for a lively evening with the lovely and extremely talented Ann Aguirre. Ann has the best cover art and titles ever.

Fa-bu-lous.

Great photos of our little shindig can now be found all over the glorious interwebs at:

SmartBitches (plus the always hysterical SB Sarah narrative)

RomanceNovel.tv - Had a great time meeting the tour-de-force Maria and Marisa!

Ramblings on Romance - I'm so glad to have a new blog to check out regularly! Thanks ladies!


And tonight I just got back from an incredible reading of selections from the Shirley Jackson canon. It was a benefit for the Shirley Jackson Awards for "outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic."

Remember "The Lottery" ?! Like, one of the most fabulously creepy short stories ever that leaves an indellible, scalded imprint on your brain? I forgot how GOOD her work is, and so influential!





It was an awesome evening with a ton of awesome people, authors, readers, industry professionals, not to mention meeting Peter Straub. ! and Jack Ketchum.




I love what we do. And I love the really cool people who do it.

I got to tell my Hero he's an inspiration...

So last night a dynamic and stylish quartet (Marianne, Jacob, Marcos and I) set off towards "Salvation." It was the one year anniversary of the club night.

And who did they bring in to guest DJ but Ronan Harris, of my most favorite band:
VNV Nation (Victory Not Vengeance).


VNV Nation creates gorgeous, sweeping, intoxicating music with epic, poetic lyrics.













(photo by Dirk Eusterbrook for the FuturePerfect album)


Even though I was totally stage-struck, I had to walk up to Mr. Harris and tell him that he's an inspiration. Because he is, and I don't ever miss an opportunity to tell someone that their art moves me.

The beautiful song "Beloved" has been a key inspiration in the Victorian fantasy novel my agent and I are trying to sell. As soon as I get a contract, I hope to obtain permission to quote a paragraph of the lyrics on the front page to give full credit and props to beauty.

So I told him that his song inspired a book. While I simply know it to be true, I guess that's a pretty good compliment. He was so gracious. He said that it was about the best compliment ever and that he was speechless. Full of earnest smiles and wonderful energy, isn't it just thrilling when one of your heroes turns out to be the nice, gracious, approachable and kind human being that you hoped they would be? In addition to being so talented? Wow. Definately one of life's highlights.

Moving, Radio Silence and Wonderful People...

Hello. I'm Leanna. And I'm a little frazzled. Moving into a new apartment in NYC is like preparing for world travel. Only there are no sightseeing pleasantries, only the hassle part of making arrangements and lots of heavy lifting. Particularly when it's a five floor walk up.

But we're in. We're living out of boxes and messy closets. Persebunny the fluffy white Bunny is adjusting slowly but surely and we're creatively hiding electrical cords from her unstoppable and hazardously curious teeth.

*danger danger*

We unpacked the microwave, installed the AC and put some curtains up. That's about it.

Oh, and did I mention there's no email access yet? Hence the radio silence. I feel like those who remain connected to the goings on of the 'interwebs' are light years ahead of me. I've been told I need to do Twitter. Okay, okay. *sigh* I need to keep up. But when you don't have a computer at your day job, keeping up is really, really hard. (Hence this internet cafe moment).

BUT a respite in all the madness: The incomparable Barbara Vey of Publisher's Weekly, who Drive-By-Videoed me at the Lori Foster Event and who is a constant delight. In town for ThrillerFest, she made some time for us (I love this photo, thanks Marianne's Blog!):












-Marianne Mancusi, Liz Maverick and Me-






And The Babs kindly blogged about us, which makes me feel super cool. You can hear about her NYC adventures (and about inadvertently talking her way into the Obama rally, really, I think she has superpowers) HERE. You can see the Rebels of Romance turn the tables on Babs and do a video of HER at Marianne's blog HERE.

Also met the lovely Sheila Clover English of Circle of Seven Productions, who is a genius at what she does- marketing and book-trailers extraordinaire- and happens to be really nice, fun and happens to live in the same tiny town that my college roommate was from, small world. Then the awesome Douglass Clegg showed up. COOL!

And now I must be off to Barnes & Noble and pick up some copies of DARK NEST that I ordered in for friends. I felt a little silly ordering my own book, but hey.

I may find myself back lurking at ThrillerFest again this weekend, I'm going to have to attend the whole conference next year since it seems so cool.

'Tis my Birthday

'Tis my day of birth.

I was born just a few hours into Cancer:












from Gemini (ooh, pretty);














so as I like to say with a grin, I was born to hate myself.

Nah, I've got the best of both crazy. :) Cuspy, crazy-good.

My friends and I had a rockin' good gothy time this weekend. (translation: my friends humored me a lot) For two delightful narratives, visit Marianne Mancusi's Blog and The Rebels of Romance a la Liz Maverick blog to see some great photos. As I've been saying lately, if you want to know what I'm doing, check out my friends' blogs, they're often a lot better about keeping track of what I'm doing than I am.

Get Your Ghost #2... Spectral Spectacles

I've been behind in my "Get Your Ghost" postings that I had promised myself I'd be dilligent about. A book release will do that to you...

So anyway,

Ever wonder what it would be like to have Ghostbusting eyewear? Spectral Spectacles?
Well the folks over at Ghoststudy.com did, and they're working on some projects...

http://ghoststudy.com/new10/important_notice.html

I quote directly:

"SEE GHOSTS WITH SPECIAL EYE GLASSES
We are working on a type of eye glasses that will allow the wearer to see certain types of supernatural beings. If the individual is wearing these eye glasses in a haunted location, that person will see ghosts! Particularly the shadow ghosts that you normally can only see out of the corner of your eye. The principle is relatively simple and with the proper funding, they can be tested in several haunted locations throughout the USA." -- GhostStudy.com

However I might refrain from wearing them as a fashion statement.

I dunno about you guys, but hey, sign me up.

Think I could dig out my old plastic View Master with the little circular paper disks with slides and modify those into ghost glasses too? See many ghosts in Technicolor settings via the press of a lever! Or maybe I could retrofit my plastic 3-D glasses from the re-release of Nightmare Before Christmas, the possibilities are endless...

What do you think? I know people who can see ghosts without any sort of augmentation...