Merry Yule to all!

Today we celebrate Yule, which is also called Solstice. Tonight is the longest night of the year, and it is traditional that the sun be greeted at dawn, and then at dusk a Yule log is burned to keep the spirit of fire and light (in other words, the sun) alive so that it may be reborn with the next dawn, and then grow anew and lengthen our days from there. Ancient peoples saw this as honoring the god (represented by the sun) being born of the goddess (represented by the earth). I had a lovely time today lighting my candle in the morning, and then treating the wild birds and squirrels with cranberries, peanut butter sandwiches(a huge hit with the squirrels), fruit muffins, and various other goodies I left in the lovely old redbud in my back yard. This evening I will burn my Yule log and watch for the sun's return.

Here's wishing you all a merry Yule and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

PC

Fun in London!

Kristin and I spent a lovely (but wet and cold) week in London meeting with our wonderful UK publishing team at Little, Brown (Atom). MARKED, BETRAYED, and CHOSEN will be released there Jan., Feb., and March, so we went over for some early promo. Except for the food poisoning I got from our hotel restaurant the night before we left (don't even ask...it was so awful), we had a wonderful time.

Check out some of the Brit kids at a bookstore outside London - Kristin and I read chapter 1 of MARKED to them and answered lots of questions. We heart them!


Naturally, Kristin and I had to do some dorkish tourist stuff. (Actually, we heart some dorkish tourist stuff!)

Here's our lovely Beefeater guide at the Tower of London. This guy was mega-cool.


Of course we saw the changing of the guard (in the rain). Oh, check out Kristin getting way too close to this large odd bird that was in the park outside Buckingham Palace.



Us being morons:


Oooh, we saw Le Cage Aux Falles (the play the Birdcage was based on) in this theater. It was fabulous. I may have had too much champagne. Good thing Kristin was there to help me stumble back to the hotel.


Speaking of our hotel - we stayed across the street from Trafalgar Square. Here's a wretched picture of me at the Square.


All in all we had a great time! Stay tuned for a full report from my trip to Italy later this month! And a Happy Holiday and Merry Yule to all of you!

XXXOOO
PC

A salute to Will Rogers H.S. in Tulsa!

The amazing English teachers (Hey there Mrs. Mears, Mr. Pillstrom & Mrs. Smith!) at the beautiful Will Roger High School here in Tulsa have adopted MARKED in their freshmen accelerated reading program - thanks in large part to their brave principal, Mr. Burr. They've integrated the novel as a basis of a unit they teach on prejudice and intolerance. Kristin and I spoke to their classes last Monday and had a blast! So she and I salute the teachers and the kids there, AND we discovered there are tunnels under the school!!! Hummm...possibilities...

Free Book Friday!

Jessica Brody, author of THE FIDELITY FILES and founder of Free Book Friday, has made us the featured author(s) of the week on FreeBookFriday.com.

Head on over to listen to her exclusive podcast interview with us, and to sign up for the chance to win one of two SIGNED copies of UNTAMED!!

Our Author Interview

HUNTED Cover!

Hey Guys! Check out the new cover for HUNTED (March '09). Inside this lovely hardcover you will find an exclusive poster of Zoey. Very cool!

UNTAMED RELEASE!!!!

IT'S FINALLY HERE! YEA! THE LAUNCH OF UNTAMED! Wow, we're so excited! Okay, if you're in the Tulsa region please join us tonight for the lovely launch of UNTAMED, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the 41st Street Barnes and Noble. We'll have giveaways and lots of fun - not to mention delicious treats from Merritts Bakery (and those of you who live around here know how yummy Merritts is!!!).

Hope to see you tonight! Yea for Zoey!

PC & Kristin

Fun with the new website!

So I'm been having a blast with the new website and dorkishly playing with it instead of writing like I should be. Y'all have to check it out, www.houseofnightseries.com. So much fun!

Oh, and some of you have told me that you're having trouble getting the computer program to accept your birthdays - that it keeps kicking you out even though you're over 13. If you go to my facebook or myspace and post a message saying that you'd like to be manually entered in, giving your name, email address, and your full birthday (month, day, year), my wonderful St. Martin's internet team will make sure you're entered!

THREE MORE DAYS UNTIL UNTAMED IS OUT!!

PC

It's arrived!

Don't forget... UNTAMED is set to release on September 23rd!!!

A quick note about religion

Lately I've been getting a lot of questions from readers about my religious affiliation, so I thought I'd save myself some time and post a blog entry on the subject. Here's the deal - I (and Kristin feels this way, too) prefer to keep my personal religious beliefs private. I do not adhere to the ideology that says I must foist my beliefs on others, and/or insist others believe the same way I do. I feel strongly that religion is an individual choice and no one religion or denomination has the Only Correct Answer.

Yes, many of my books are strongly Pagan with a heavy influence of Wicca and the Divine Feminine. Yes, I do respect and appreciate the many belief systems that fall under the Pagan umbrella. I research heavily for all of my books - researching and creating a unique world religion for my fiction novels is something I enjoy very much.

For those of you who are interested in finding out more about the Divine Feminine, etc., I can recommend the following sources: WICCA DEMYSTIFIED by Bryan Lankford, DANCE OF THE DISSIDENT DAUGHTER by Sue Monk Kidd, FIRE IN THE HEAD by Tom Cowan. An excellent online source of information is the lovely Covenant of the Goddess website, found at www.cog.org, as well as Oklahoma's own www.okpagan.com and www.oklapha.org.

Happy reading and brightest blessings to you!
PC

Canada, eh?

Well, last week Kristin and I were in lovely Toronto! We'd never been to Canada before, so we were excited to go (and may I just say downtown Toronto is beautiful - and the Four Seasons there a little slice of heaven!). Naturally, our plane broke on the way up, TWICE (American Airlines is totally on my nerves!), and we had to cancel our first event. Happily, some of the fans made it to our signing the next day. Oh, and our plane didn't smack into the ground. (insert semi-hysterical scream)

Thanks to our wonderful Canadian publicist, Lisa, for making sure we were where we were supposed to be. And a big HI to all of our new fans "up there!" We're looking forward to a much more relaxed return trip in March!

British House of Night!

Check out the UK version of MARKED, BETRAYED, and CHOSEN! The lovely Orbit, a division of Little, Brown, will release the three books back to back starting in January. Kristin and I will be meeting with our fabulous Orbit team when we visit London in November. How exciting!

IMMORTAL GIVEAWAY!

Hi Guys! I know, I know - apparently there is some kind of glitch with the release of IMMORTAL. The anthology should be available for purchase in Borders bookstores right now, but I hear readers are having trouble getting it. Don't worry - Benbella Books has assured me that they are working feverishly on fixing the problem.

But...I HAVE COPIES OF THE BOOK! Hee hees! So, while you're waiting I thought it would be fun to give away a couple of those copies. Here's the deal: post in and tell me about your favorite vampire movie, and why it's your favorite. Friday I'll randomly choose two people and they'll each get a copy of IMMORTAL, signed by Kristin and me!

Good luck!

Breaking Dawn Comments

Just a quick post about BREAKING DAWN so in one place I can answer questions I have already been asked several times.

1) No, I haven't read BREAKING DAWN yet. Yes, I have read the other three TWILIGHT series books, but I'm in the middle of writing my 2009 Goddess Summoning Book (GODDESS OF CAMELOT), and my outside reading time is at a premium right now. I will read it, though, as soon as I get enough of my own book written.

2) Yes, there is a lot I like about the TWILIGHT series. There are also things I do not like about it, but I can say that about many books I read - even some of my favorite books.

3) No, I'm not going to expound on what I don't like about the series, even after I read BREAKING DAWN. I'm not a book reviewer or a book critic. I'm an author. And I have always thought it sets up bad Karma for one author to bash another's work.

4) Which brings me to my major point - I hope, no matter how rabid your feelings are about how Ms. Meyer concluded her series, that you remember there is a difference between debating the merits of a book, its plot, characterization, world building, conclusion, etc., and attacking the book's author. Or, more simply put: nasty things you do and say tend to come around and bite you in your own butt.

Now, back to GODDESS OF CAMELOT...

XXXOOO
PC

Check out the new www.pccast.net!

I have a fabulous new webgoddess and she has worked her magic with my www.pccast.net site. She's still adding and changing, but check it out! Here's the splash page! What do you think?? (You'll have to go to the site to see how cool it really is.)

more author pics!

Well, it seems Berkley needs a new author photo of me for the new cover/new format reissue of the Goddess Summoning Books. So I sent them these two to choose from. I know which one they're using - which one do you guys think they should use?? I'll put the names of all those who guess correctly in an e-hat and pull one lucky winner out who will get a signed copy of lovely trade paperback version of GODDESS OF THE SEA (which will be released in October). What's your best guess?


P.S. Yes, my website, www.pccast.net, is under construction. Please be patient - the new look will definitely be worth the wait!!

Ooooh! Check it out!

Lovely Berkley, long time publisher of my Goddess Summoning Books, has decided to reissue all of my back list in trade paperback with amazing new covers! I'm very excited because I know many of you have had trouble finding these books, and now they will be much more widely available. GODDESS OF THE SEA is the first of them, release date October 2nd. I think this is a great intro to my Goddess Summoning Books, especially for the readers of my HOUSE OF NIGHT series, because the heroine, Christine Canady, is the youngest of all of my heroines.

GODDESS OF THE SEA is a cool retelling of the Undine mermaid myth, which is the myth on which Hans Christian Anderson based his LITTLE MERMAID. For those of you familiar with my writing you'll know that 1) MY story will be retold with a strong matriarchal slant. In other words it'll have some serious Girl Power, and 2) my story will have a happy ending. Promise.

Oh, and the hero is a delicious merman!

Look for GODDESS OF SPRING in November - GODDESS OF LIGHT in December - and GODDESS OF THE ROSE in January. Enjoy!

New releases! Yea! UPDATE

Okay, here's the FINAL cover for IMMORTAL. BenBella Books says it will be available in Borders in August!

Here's the original text for this post:
Check out the draft of the cover for IMMORTAL, a fabulous YA vampire anthology I'm editing for BenBella Books (will be available exclusively through Borders). They're still tweaking it, but I think it's lovely! And, yes! That is a stand along story by the fabulous Kristin Cast in the lineup! Yea for Chicken Frances! IMMORTAL is officially supposed to be released in September, but they're trying to push it up to July.

Speaking of pushing up a release date...looks like St. Martin's has decided to release UNTAMED September 23rd instead of October 1st! So you'll have less time to wait!

RRT- Marked, winner of Paranormal Romance book of 2007

COVER FOR UNTAMED!

WOW! Check out the cover for UNTAMED (September 23rd release). What do you think?!

New author pictures!

Okay, here's the deal - you guys tell me which author picture you think St. Martin's should use on the back of UNTAMED, and those of you who get it right I'll put your emails in a cyber hat and from that I'll pull a name and give away a signed copy of the new book. So, what do you think?!

MAJOR NEWS

Wow! Check out the amazing surprise we got today!

In case you can't read that CHOSEN is #7 on the PW list and MARKED is #10, (check out the pic and the article!), here's the lowdown:

CHOSEN

By PC and Kristin Cast

St. Martin’s Griffin

March 4, 2008

0-312-36030-4

*PUBALERT*

Chosen

PW Bestseller List

#7

April 14, 2008

MARKED (0-312-36026-6, Pub: May 2007) is #10!

The New York Times

Paperback Children’s Best Sellers List

#3

April 27, 2008

Previously:

The New York Times

Paperback Children’s Best Sellers List

#2

March 23, 2008

#3

March 30, 2008

#3

April 6, 2008

#4

April 20, 2008

USA Today

#100

March 16

#113

March 23

JUST WOW! Kristin and I are hardly touching the ground! Thank you so much, guys, for your fabulous support for this series! We heart you!

Special Guest Appearance

Many thanks to PC Cast who made a special guest appearance in the latest Author Talk video.  She looks fantastic!

You can see all the Author Talk videos at AuthorTalk.tv

HOUSE OF NIGHT SITE!

The House of Night website is finally live! Yea for the fabulous Carly Wilkins and all of her team's hard work. Check it out! Be sure to visit the store and see all the cool House of Night stuff you can buy!

Interview With Author Talk

The video speaks for itself...

WOW! WOW! WOW!

KRISTIN AND I ARE SHOCKED AND THRILLED TO LET Y'ALL KNOW THAT CHOSEN IS #2 ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER LIST!!!!

And last weekend MARKED won the Oklahoma Book Award, which was a special honor for us to be acknowledged by our home state.

Wow! We are riding high! Thank you so much to all of you! You've made this happen!

Now, back to writing UNTAMED...

V-DAY'S 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

I am honored that Tulsa's Domestic Violence Intervention Service (DVIS)asked me to read the Spotlight Piece for their V-10 Day celebration/charity. I am a huge fan of Eve Ensler's VAGINA MONOLOGUES, and am excited to be even a small part of this incredible piece of work. So here's the info if you're anywhere near the Tulsa area. (If you're not, please check out the VDAY site at www.vday.org and support stopping violence against women.)

V-DAY TULSA 2008 IS PROUD TO PRESENT A production of Eve Ensler's
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
March 22, 2008 doors open at 10:00 am
March 28, 2008 doors open at 5:30 pm
All Souls Unitarian Church
2953 South Peoria
Tulsa, OK
Proceeds Benefit Tulsa DVIS Women's Shelter

MORE WONDERFUL NEWS!

Kristin and I were thrilled and honored when we were notified this weekend that MARKED is a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award in the YA/Children's division. It's wonderful to have our home state acknowledge us and appreciate our work. We're going to the lovely award dinner on March 8th in Oklahoma City where they will announce the winner. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION QUICK PICK!

The Young Adult division of the American Library Association (YALSA) has announced their final list of YA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers. MARKED and BETRAYED both made the final list! Kristin and I are absolutely thrilled! It's especially nice to be recognized by the ALA as someone who helps encourage kids to read. Thanks very much to the panel that chose us!

A fabulous surprise!

So last night I was browsing through the current issue of Romantic Times Magazine, mostly checking out the lovely reviews of my girlfriends' current releases (Nalini Singh and Jaci Burton are 4 1/2 star top picks, and the wonderful Gena Showalter received 4 big stars) and I come to the back of the magazine where they have the nominees for the 2007 Reviewers' Choice Awards. Okay, as I already blogged about, Kristin and I are nominated in the YA category (yea!), but I was checking out the other fabulous nominees and happened to read through the nominees for the Career Achievement Awards. And BAM! right there under the paranormal category is P.C. Cast! I had not a clue I was a nominee! What an amazing surprise! I'm still blown away by the honor. RT says of the award: "The Career Achievement nominees are authors who have continuously crafted superior books throughout their careers." Wow!