This Week on "Nina Does a Blog Tour"

My first blog tour started last Monday, and it goes till next Wednesday, and so far so pretty darn good!

Our adventure so far starts New Years Eve, when Othersphere was born. (Even though more than one person told me they got it early! I've learned that happens often with books. No biggie.) Since I finished Othersphere, I've written the first book in a whole new series, and I was feeling a bit distant from the Otherkin trilogy. My head had gone to completely different places since Dez and her friends set foot in another world, where the moon has a heartbeat all its own...

But my emotional distance was also partially due to the fact that it was the last in my trilogy and that thought made me sad, so I chose to concentrate on other things.

The journey back to Othersphere started with me writing this post for Read It In Houston, about why I wrote the series in the first place. I started to get back in touch with my inner tiger.

I highly recommend it.

Then the holidays hit, and I kept writing blog posts for my upcoming blog tour while celebrating with family and friends, eating home-made tamales and seeing movies.

The actual day the book came out was a busy one - I had to take my cat Lucy to the vet (She's doing fine. Here she is enjoying the Los Angeles sunshine and keeping her highlights brown):

I also talked to my lovely editor on the phone, and (poor me) hung with fabulous friends for New Year's Eve.  I did a bit of book birthday social media blah blah blah, but book birthday's are weird things. People get the book on their e-readers (a couple of people were sweet enough to let me know they got theirs! I have such great friends) and it's now officially available in hard copies as well.

But it's not like the book leaps out of a cake and does a striptease. (Wish I could find a .gif of that!) Oh well.

It's magical and weird and awesome, but it's not as if your book parachutes down amidst fireworks or emerges from the primordial ooze to crawl at last upon the land. It's all oddly abstract for the author. For me the book was done six months ago. But that's how it has to work in publishing.

I was back at work on Jan 2, a bit shellshocked to return to the real world. I mailed off a bunch of books and swag to the winners of the YA Series Insiders launch giveaways (the main winner got over $1,000 worth of goodies from 11 different authors - crazy! Be sure to check out the YASI blog and keep checking for more giveaways. We've currently got one for the hot January releases going.)

Then - dun dun DUUUN! My first blog tour commenced. I'm giving away signed copies of all three Otherkin books, a gorgeous tiger necklace, fearless earrings to evoke that inner tiger, and more! Go here to see the whole deal, or read on.

First, a nice review at Ren's Rambles.

Second, an interview at Para Your Normal.

Third, a not as thrilled review (I'm being honest here, but don't get used to it!) at Hope, Love and Happy Endings.

Fourth, a super fun Dream Cast post at Taking it One Book at a Time.

Fifth, a review of the first book, OTHERKIN, at Bibliophilia, Please. (Because OTHERSPHERE is the last in the series, I thought it would be best to give the bloggers a choice as to which book to review.)

And tomorrow, a review of OTHERSPHERE by the lovely Jenna Does Books. No link to that actual review yet because it hasn't been posted, but here's a hint - she gave it five stars on Goodreads!

After that:

January 12th: CiCi Theories REVIEW ALL 3 BOOKS
January 13th: Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club TENS LIST
January 14th: Dream With In A Dream REVIEW ALL 3 BOOKS
January 15th: TTC Books And More SPOTLIGHT & EXCERPT

Phew!

In the meantime, I got a nice mention in USA Today, I Smell Sheep reviewed OTHERSPHERE, as did Book Hoarder Mom, and Maci and Zoe Read Books published a very fun interview I did with them.


My best friend sent me flowers to commemorate the book coming out.

And so many nice messages on FB and twitter! My head is still spinning!

It was a relief to go to Lissa Price's launch for ENDERS and think about someone else's books for a little while. And of course I snagged copies of STARTERS and ENDERS signed by Lissa.

Hmm. Could be the makings of another giveaway...

Thanks for tolerating all my yim-yamming about this past week. Figured I should do my due diligence by listing it all, and thanking all the bloggers and Book Nerd Blog Tours for reading the books and taking the time to post things.

All the attention is amazing, don't get me wrong. I engineered a fair amount of it, after all, by setting up the blog tour. But I'm an introvert at heart, so I'm kind of excited to be working on the outline for my next book this weekend. I'd rather tell stories than blabber on about ME.

ME is boring.

ME and YOU on an adventure, in a story? That's more like it.

In Which I Have a Lot of Fun Doing an Interview

I got a request to do an interview from a site with the most interesting name I've seen so far - I Smell Sheep.

These readers rock!  I had such a good time answering their questions. I just know they'd be a blast to hang out with, and I'll be checking out their interviews with other authors.

You can read the interview here, and enter the giveaway for a copy of my book by entering a comment. Instructions at the bottom of the post.

Sheepish thanks, Katie Dalton and Sharon S!

In Which I Answer Questions and Sign Books at the Big Orange Book Fest

What a crazy week this has been! First up, a post in which I discuss being on a panel at the Big Orange Book Fest.

How lucky am I? To get invited to be on a panel, and to go to a place where there are many books. And there was even more to discover, I found.

1. On Saturday I was a member of a panel of Debut Authors/California Voices at the Big Orange Book Fest in lovely Orange, California. I hadn't been to Orange before. It's incredibly charming, with a cute main drag featuring shops and restaurants with outdoor seating, and of course the Orange County Fruit Exchange.

In Which I am Interviewed About E-Book Success

As Otherkin heads into its third week in the top ten of the Children's List at the Sony Reader Store (can you believe it? AAAAHHH!), it's the perfect time to post this interview with me by Karleen Tauszik at KidsEBookBestsellers.com.

I'm no expert in e-publishing, but like everyone I have thoughts on it - and I'm continuing to learn more! So thanks to Karleen for asking me to babble about the subject on her blog.

Also big thanks to all the folks at the Reader Store for putting me on the list! You guys rock!

In Which I am Interviewed and Talk of My Time at Playboy

This interview with me is appearing in a number of newspapers and online sites today, thanks to interviewer David Kentner and GateHouse News Service.

It's weird to see my own words about my own crazy life in print. It's like I'm me and someone else at the same time. But I talk about my work at Playboy (those were some interesting years!) and how I'm not the model on the cover of my book and how my writing got better once I stopped using it to run away.

Oooh, here it is in another paper! Woo hoo!

Interviews, Reviews, and More!

Yesterday was amazing. Because of my book launch, I got so much love on Twitter and Facebook I almost felt beat up by it. But in a good way. (Does that make any sense? Do feelings have to make any sense?). A few dear friends took me out for flaming margaritas at El Compadre to celebrate.

I'm so lucky!

When I checked Amazon a little while ago, Otherkin was #73 in Love and Romance! Woo hoo! Thank you all!

In case you're not sick of me yet, below are some links to interviews, reviews, and an article I wrote, all sent to me by the kind folks who put them on their sites.

RT Book Reviews has a review, an excerpt from Otherkin, and a short piece I wrote about otherkin in the "real" world.

I did an interview with La'Tia at The BoOki3 blog. She asked a lot of great questions!

Over in Australia, Ellen at Reading is My Drug also did a terrific interview with me, then wrote a review.

Sana at Arty Musings gave me a very nice review.

Kala at Toonari Post gave me delusions of grandeur with her review.

August is going to be full of more posts by me for some very cool blogs. August 9, I'll be featured in All Things UF's Deadly Destinations event. Be sure to check out the other authors' contributions, a new one each day, to learn more about the worlds they created.

Seven Questions: Cheri Waterhouse

Cheri Waterhouse is an actor, a writer, and a film producer. Her hilarious, insightful independent film Young, Single, and Angry is out on pay-per-view and On Demand, and is available on ITunes and Amazon. A recent emigree to Las Vegas, she blogs at What Happens in Vegas Goes in My Blog and has a column called Cheri’s Sin City with MyVegasScene. You can find her on Twitter here and on Facebook (She’s that one with the big smile on her face…yeah, that’s her).

1. Congrats on making Young, Single, and Angry and getting it onto Video on Demand and Amazon and ITunes! Please tell aspiring filmmakers how you managed to turn your screenplay into a finished film.

Wheewww, it was a long process, Nina. I had never written a screenplay before and started to take screenwriting classes with Pilar Alessandra at On The Page after I wrote the first draft (where I learned that everything I was doing was, well, backward and much harder). I was lucky enough to have amazing actors as friends and did many readings of the script. I found this very helpful, because you can actually hear things that are clunky, pieces that are missing and parts that just don't work.

I tried to sell the script for about one year (without any luck) then decided that if I was going to be successful at anything, I had to make it happen myself. I asked my close friend, Cathleen Alexander, who had produced an independent feature and my older brother Richard Waterhouse, who is an acting teacher and a very good theatre director, to help me bring it to fruition.

We begged and borrowed funds, used friends’ houses as locations, used the actors' wardrobes as costumes and really relied on all (I mean all) our friends to help out. We shot for approximately seven months (on nights and weekends). Everyone had day jobs and other paying acting gigs, so we had to accommodate everyone’s schedule.

After the film was finished, we hired the amazing Peter Belsito and Sydney Levine from Film Finders to help us find a sales agent to get the film distributed. We attended AFM (American Film Market) and the Berlin Film Market. At Berlin, we were lucky enough to catch the eye of Imagination Worldwide, who took us under their wing and found us international and domestic distribution. Film Finders and Imagination have been so good to us. They believed in our film, and really worked hard to make this all work.

We also worked our asses off. This was truly a labor of love and we literally downed hundreds of cases of wine to keep from feeling those pesky “labor pains.” This has been a five year process, and we are excited to move on to the next project.

(Photo: Cheri Waterhouse [right] and her fellow producer, Cathleen Alexander)

2. What advice would you give aspiring screenwriters and independent film producers?

Writers, just write. You can fix it later. Sometimes you’ll write a load of crap, then you’ll pull a gem out of your bum. Just write.

Also write down all your ideas. I put mine on an Excel sheet. You may not want to write about them now, but later, they may really strike you as your next exciting project.

Producers, know your vision. I made so many mistakes. I mean soooo many.

Click with your director, DP [director of photography], editor, get to know them. Know in your heart that they are on the same page with you or else the film won’t work.

If they don’t understand (“get”) the script or have their own vision that is different from you, it will cause a big conflict in the process…. It’s a “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario.

I was really fortunate in some instances. And in others…not so much.

Then when you know they’re right for the project, take a deep breath and surrender a little bit. Micromanaging is not good, for anybody.

P.S. this is from watching other people’s low budgets in process: be nice to your crew. You’re paying them practically nothing. Feed them well, respect them and be kind. They are there for you. But they won’t be if you abuse them. I loved my crew. They were the best.

(Here's the trailer for the movie)


3. What would you say are the best and worst things about trying to lead a creative life?

The best thing about leading a creative life is that it’s fun. I look forward to it. I surprise myself, crack myself up and I am constantly amazed how dark I get sometimes. It’s really like therapy. I’m grateful that I get to reach the highest highs and the lowest lows and then I turn off my computer and it was all in my imagination. Exploration is exhilarating. Figuring out that missing piece of the puzzle is also a big high for me.

The worst: finances. Being independently wealthy would really help my situation. Oh well. Finding day jobs, juggling paying work and writing. I feel guilty if I don’t spend equal time on either (that darn Midwestern work ethic. Phooey).

My dream is to be able to finance my own films, so I wouldn’t have to answer to anyone. Or find a lovely benefactor who believed in me to finance me so I wouldn’t have to answer to anyone. If you’re interested, talk to Nina and she’ll give you my info. Hee, Hee.

4. How do you jolt yourself out of it when you're stuck, creatively? Or maybe you never get stuck! In which case, please allow me to poke you viciously.

This is going to sound a little twisted, but it really works for me. I expect it to be bad. I lower the bar so far that I assume anything that goes on the page will be crap. No expectations, no blocks.

Or if I get to a part where I can’t figure out “how” it will happen, I skip it and keep writing. Figure it out later. It will come to you eventually. I usually write “Then he/she magically gets to this place” or I write something that is boring or lame so I can just keep on plowing through. You will figure out something brilliant later on down the line.

5. What books, movies or other media inspire you?

I love movies (even the ones I don’t care for took an amazing amount of work, so I appreciate them). Hedwig and the Angry Inch was SOOO exciting to me, Sweet Hereafter, Old School (cracked me up), Princess Bride. Starting to like zombie movies (being nudged to the dark side by a friend). Plays by John Guare, books by Anne LaMott.

Music: Love Rufus Wainwright and Bonnie Raitt (and Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age).

Most of my television watching is fueled by my twisted sense of humor or my libido(sorry, over share): True Blood, Hung, Burn Notice, Nurse Jackie, Weeds, Rome, Deadwood, Dexter, The Mentalist, What Not To Wear, The Daily Show…You can decide what shows belong in which category.


6. What creative project are you working on now?

I’m writing a web series with my brother called “FU Public Relations.” I also have a script about a transvestite called “RocknRoll Hootchiecoo. ‘ I write show and restaurant reviews for MyVegasScene.com. I have a blog What Happens In Vegas Goes In My Blog. I’m discussing peri-menopause right now, which I’m sure is so exciting for all your readers. Then my first drama, that I am scared to talk about (I’m expecting it to be bad. See, it works).



7. Obligatory silly question: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Ok, I would really need two (sorry to be so demanding…but I will anyway).

1. Reading people’s minds (Now that’s power).

2. Transporting from one place to the next instantly (Pub tour in Europe, no problem. Photographic Safari in Namibia…sure! Lunch with Anthony Bourdain in Thailand. Poof, I’m there.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Cheri! Readers, please check out Young, Single, and Angry on Video on Demand or on ITunes and Amazon.