Dirty Little Lies Week Ends and An Open Letter to Scott Westerfeld

Today’s winner of this, the last of the Dirty Little Lies Giveaway, is SHARON. Please email me your address and I’ll get you your copy! I hope you guys had fun this week, and I hope anyone who hasn’t had a chance goes and picks up a copy of this fabulous book! By the way, those who live in the Tampa Bay Area, Julie Leto will be speaking at the Dale Mabry Barnes and Noble on Sept. 26th at 7:30 p.m.

Also, I know I said I’d do the other drawing today, but a bunch of stuff has come up (non-writing-related) and it’s thrown my whole schedule off. Monday at the latest! It’s just that I’ve spent the last month in Deadline World, and let all kinds of real-life requirements lapse. I need to catch up on those things. (And I still haven’t figured out how to fix the blog for the people who can’t see it. I don’t think I can possibly make it any narrower, which means this template has to go and I’ll start from scratch again next week. Curses.) Okay, moving on.
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Dear Scott Westerfeld,

As you know, I’m a great fan. And today, as you also know, your new book, The Last Days, is out. It had been my plan to rush out and buy a copy of the latest in this most riveting series on the day it came out, like any self-respecting Biggest Fan would, but alas, I did not.

It seems so incongruous, does it not? After all, I read its predecessor, Peeps, in one day during the Great Scott Westerfeld Lost Weekend of 2005. Then I recommended it to everyone I knew. Then I swore never to get a cat, because really, who wants that kind of parasite vector lying around the house? (My brother has two, and you’d better believe I watch his garlic intake very carefully.) I learned so much about creepy parasites while reading your book. (By the way, I really love the new paperback cover. Any book about a young man forced to track down all his exes because he accidentally and unknowingly turned them into vampires needs the kind of sexed up new cover you’ve got.)

I don’t think I’ve ever read a vampire book quite like yours, Scott. Susan Squires’ Companion series plays with the parasite paradigm as well, but doesn’t go quite as sciency with the idea. Still, I recommend it if you’re looking for a good — nay, great — historical romance. But I definitely think that even people who don’t like vampire books will like this.

Where was I? Oh, yes, The Last Days. So I’d planned to buy it, and see what happens when you’re a band trying to make it on the verge of the zombie apocalypse. Though I have a sneaking suspicion every character in this book is probably cooler than I ever hoped to be as a teen. I mean, they’re rock stars! I was even in Barnes & Noble yesterday, looking for it. (In passing, they had the Uglies dump, but no copies of Specials. Golly, you write a lot of books, Scott.) The only books they did not have of yours were Peeps (either in paperback or hardcover) and TLD. Now TLD made sense, because maybe there was a laydown date. But I was hoping for some Peeply love. Alas.

So then I started thinking about my current To Be Read (hereafter TBR) pile, which is threatening to take over the wall of my house like one of those monster kudzu vines. I have not made as big of a dent in it as I thought since finishing my own book. I may have to go on a reading binge before Thanksgiving. So many good books out there!

I know you’re a big time bestseller now, and I probably shouldn’t let it be known that I feel a certain amount of smugness for being an early adopter of Westerfeld. You taught me that term, by the way. So I’ll search again for your new book, Scott. I’m really very excited about it, so don’t take my failure to possess it at this early date (as I did Pretties and Specials) as any sign that my affection for your work is waning.

Hugs and parasite-free kisses,

Diana