Liz Jasper’s UNDERDEAD wins the 2008 EPPIE Award for best mystery!!

Warning—BSC alert. I’ve temporarily moved from BSP (blatant self-promotion) to BSC (blatant self congratulation). I couldn't be more thrilled. This has been a great week. Last Monday, I received a five angel review from Fallen Angel Reviews. The next day, I signed the contract for the sequel to UNDERDEAD, which means UNDERDEAD IN DENIAL will probably release sometime this summer or next fall. On Friday, I got my new bookmarks in the mail (I’ll send you oneu if you email me: liz at lizjasper.com). And then I went on a road trip to Legoland and the Wild Animal Park, which has nothing to do with books, or writing, or Underdead, but couldn't have been more fun. It's worth heading down to San Diego just for the Mexican food. I looove refried beans, dripping with cheese, some chicken enchiladas to swirl in them, add a little fresh salsa on top. Sooo good. Hold on, where was I?

Right. About in the headspace where I was when I got home from the trip, fat and tired and feeling lazy in that “what a great trip” fatigue. I was in charge of making dinner for everyone (for the record, stew, which I always make before a trip so all I have to do is reheat), but did a quick e-mail check, because the last thing I wanted was to have the disappointment of not winning added to the disappointment of having my guests leave. And one of my author friends sent me an e-mail with “Congratulations!” in the subject box.

And that was how I learned I'd won the EPPIE Award for best mystery. Then I went to my publisher's chat room and found a whole email string congratulating me. And just now, I went to the PFSW chatroom and again my writer friends were congratulating me without me having to announce I’d won the award.

Now, writing is a solitary endeavor, and often a lonely one. There are a lot of down times, a lot of rejections, a lot of times when you're sure the best thing you could do is give up. I heard a quote recently in a bad movie, “even the most successful people have failures,” or something like that, and I found it very encouraging. Just because one gets a rejection or criticism or has tyranny of the blank page for weeks on end, it doesn't mean you are a failure or should give up. What it means is, you should make sure you always have some understanding friends around to give you a hug or a kick or whatever it is you particularly need to keep going. And chocolate. That is key.

So, while BSP might be a reality in an author’s life, BSC doesn’t have to be, not for long, if you’ve got some good buddies, the sort who are there to support rain or shine.

How many of you are saying to yourselves, "My GAWD, would someone PLEASE cue the music! She’s getting maudlin!” Or turning to the person next to you and whispering, “Whatever happened to reading a quick list of names and getting the heck off stage?!?” or “I remember when just saying, ‘thank you’ was enough!”

All right, all right. Back to BSP. UNDERDEAD is available as an EPPIE award winning ebook from www.cerridwenpress.com. It is also available in paperback from the usual places (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Target (hey, they sell books!) and ask for it at your local indy bookstore. If you want to try ebooks but are too cheap to buy a reading device (I am, I still read ’em on my computer) you can win one, loaded with ebooks, in the Spring Fling Contest—there’s still time to participate! (For details, visit my website at www.lizjasper.com). And if you’ve always wondered if men wore make up in olden times (they did) or what ancient Egyptians or Victorian misses or cave people did to make themselves more attractive (prepare to be horrified), read my article in Lady Jaided Magazine, http://www.ladyjaided.com

Here's the back cover blurb:

Science teacher Jo Gartner thinks teaching geology to hormonal pre-teens is deadly…until she is bitten by an inept vampire and becomes Underdead—all the problems of being a vampire, none of the perks.

When she finds a body on her classroom floor with teeth marks in his neck, she must figure out whodunit before her Underdead secret gets out. But she’s running out of time. The detective in charge of the case is dogging her every move, her vampire traits are evolving in new and embarrassing ways, and someone wants Jo dead…the traditional way!


Thank you.

--Liz