Countdown to TRUE BLOOD

Okay, it's just one more week, and one more Sunday, and True Blood, the HBO series based on friend and fellow Femme Fatale Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse mysteries premieres! I don't know about you, but I fell hard about five pages into Dead Until Dark, when it was revealed that the vampire's name was not Antoine, not Basile, not Langford, but...Bill. I've written elsewhere about why I admire Sookie as a hero, and I'm hoping if you don't know the books already, you'll go out and get 'em. And if you don't have HBO...well, you've still got a week.

The chance to watch a story I've been following eagerly for years transformed into a visual medium by a director like Alan Ball? I can't wait!

Barbara Parker blogs for the Femmes Fatales!

New York Times bestselling novelist Barbara Parker is guest blogging for the Femmes Fatales today. Check out her hysterical take on "Faking it"--or not--here.

WOLFSBANE AND MISTLETOE earns four stars from RTBR!

Wicked good news on the soon-to-be-published Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (ed. by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner), from the October 2008 issue of Romantic Times BOOKreviews: four stars out of a possible five! A sample of the praise:

"Christmas, Santa and werewolves lead to some highly hair-raising tales in this holiday anthology. The expertise of 15 wolfishly inspired authors is dished up into a combination of stories that run the gamut from funny to downright creepy. There's a little something for every taste -- literally!"

WaM will be out October 7 and features stories by Keri Arthur, Patricia Briggs, Karen Chance, Alan Gordon, Simon Green, JA Konrath, Nancy Pickard, Kat Richardson, Dana Stabenow, Rob Thurman, and Carrie Vaughn, as well as by fellow Femmes Fatales Charlaine, Toni, and Donna Andrews. And there is, ahem, coughing modestly, one by my own self.

(FYI, four stars translates to: "Compelling - Page-turner")

There are no friends in laser tag

Last Friday I was invited to a birthday party at a laser tag joint. Never having participated before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Now older and wiser, I can clear up some misconceptions that other laser-tag virgins may have:

A. Laser tag is not played in zero-g. This was both reassuring (for those of us prone to motion sickness) and a slight disappointment (to those of us who think zero-g would be fun even with (or especially with) motion sickness).

B. The movies don’t reflect the real rules: when you are tagged and your blaster is out of commission, it is NOT permissible to use the butt of your blaster to take out other opponents. Not the other “adults,” and especially not the kids. Live and learn. (<Shee niou> high-tech Alliance crap!)

C. You should wear black. Even when you are doing your best to keep your Gothier side down for the sake of a birthday party with kids, this is a good idea. The play room is dark, save for black lights. My jeans and shirt made me glow like a radioactive Kermit. My sneakers, which I wore for the sake of stability, were brighter than a thousand suns. I made an excellent target.

D. There are no friends in laser tag. There may be alliances. Be careful. For example, one of the younger attendees approached me as soon as play started.

“Dana, there are a lot of people here,” she said, looking up at me, very serious. “I’m gonna need some help.”

“Okay,” I said. “What’s the plan?”

“You hit’em high,” she said grimly, “and I’ll hit ‘em low.”

Which worked fine, until we got separated, and I was on my own. Then I met up with my “friend” Toni, the one who’d invited me to the party (it was for her daughter, Maggie). We hung together for a while, but I seemed to be getting tagged a lot. Later on, I found out that she’d been blasting me when my back was turned. In fact, according to my score sheet, she tagged me more than anyone else.

See what I mean? Trust no one.

Before the party, I asked my husband about playing laser tag. He outlined some of the basics: tagging and being tagged, lots of people running around in the dark, obstacles, walls. Then he asked, cautiously, “Is this a good game for a middle-aged woman who is at once hyper-competitive and largely lacking in coordination—with bad knees?”

Well…no, probably not. And hell, yes!

(Thanks to the Clan Kelner, who really know how to party. I had a great time!)

Archaeology and Shakespeare

It looks like archaeologists have located The Theater in East London. In addition to the Globe and the Rose, it was a theater used by Shakespeare's company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men.

The work is being done by archaeologists from the Museum of London. If you have the chance to visit the MoL, I highly recommend you do so. Not only is it an amazing repository of archaeology and urban history (like Romans? The Tudors? You'll love this place), it's located in the old City of London, near the Roman walls.

If you're interested in an archaeological and social historical analysis of Shakespeare, his theaters, and the plays, check out The Archaeology of Shakespeare: The Material Legacy of Shakespeare's Theatre by Jean Wilson.

Don't say I don't hook you up.

A vampire scandal in Bohemia

Last Thursday’s Prague Daily Monitor had an article about an excavation of a 4,000 year-old grave in Mikulovice that contained evidence leading researchers to suggest that whoever buried the man believed he was a vampire. 

The large stones on the man’s head and chest may have been to keep him from returning from the grave to harm people and property. 

This is an early Bronze Age site.  Although we may never know conclusively whether the buried man was believed to be a vampire, I love the idea of prehistoric vampires.

Thanks to Steve Kelner for the head’s up on this.