Magic, Mensa and Mayhem took the grand prize for best fantasy in the Next Generation INDIE Awards of 2010.

To celebrate, the publisher is having a sale. Print copies are $9.99 and e-book is $1.99 (multiple formats). Check it out at http://www.swimmingkangaroo.com/mensa.html

Featuring the long-awaited story of how Vern and Grace meet. Sister Grace has been sent to the Mundane for treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. When she suspects that a spell is hidden in the lyrics of a new hit song, she hires Vern to investigate. The spell summons a demon from an ancient nightmare, and Vern's out of his element. Can Grace overcome her fears and bring her voice to the battle?

Order at the website.

Karina is playing with a new way to get folks A Dragon's Eye View. She's thinking about making it an e-book with Myebook.com and then mailing the URL to registered folks. Here's how it turns out. What do you think?

Jennifer Walker was the copy editor for Magic, Mensa and Mayhem. She not only did a terrific job of catching the silly errors that I missed even after many revisions and critiques. In addition, she noticed a few bad habits that I'm now watching. She's made me a better writer.

How did you get to be a copy editor?

After editing my own work and that of my coworkers, friends and family for several years, doing a lot of studying to remind myself of grammar rules and working with my mentor, who has been an editor at several different levels for several years, someone passed along an ad from Swimming Kangaroo Books saying they were hiring copy editors. I applied and took their test, and was informed a short time later that I was one of the top two scorers on the test. I was offered the job, and I have been working there ever since.

What's the difference between copy editing and content editing?

The content editor examines the manuscript for errors or areas of development related to plot, dialogue, characterization, continuity and style. This is a more high-level approach than what the copy editor does.

The copy editor is one of the last people to look at the manuscript before it goes to print (there are still proofers who come after). The copy editor is primarily responsible for correcting any mechanical errors, such as grammar, punctuation, spacing and spelling. The copy editor is also another set of eyes to catch continuity errors or point of view shifts previous editors did not catch--after all, we're all human and things slip by us!

What do you enjoy about it?

My name is Jennifer, and I'm a grammar nerd. I like gaining a better understanding of grammar through my work, and it improves my own writing as well. I am in the process of editing my first book for the third time after several months' break from it, and I'm finding a lot of things I did not before. By contrast, its sequel, which I wrote this year during National Novel Writing Month, is much cleaner.

What are your editing pet peeves?

Authors who argue with me! Just kidding... I would have to say my pet peeves are sentences that are so long I can't follow them and a point of view that shifts back and forth so fast I feel like I'm reading a tennis match. Tell us about editing Magic, Mensa and Mayhem—any funny stories you want to share?

I have to say, MM&M, as I resorted to calling it because I could never remember what the Ms were or what order they were in, was the most enjoyable manuscript I've ever edited. It had remarkably few errors, was well written and hilarious. My husband kept demanding to know what had me laughing out loud, so I would have to read him passages. I swear...I didn't say that to kiss up. It was actually that good, and I'm picky!

Vern wants you to feed his ego, so tell us what you thought of him and the book in general.

I think Vern and Grace are wonderful, rich characters. I love the relationship they have--respect and affection in their purest forms. Fun interactions between characters are what draw me into books, and that's one of the things I loved about MM&M. By the time you finish, you feel like you know these "people" and want to live next door to them. Well, not all of them--just Vern and Grace.

This past week, Karina convinced me to show up at some live chats to help her promote our book, Magic, Mensa and Mayhem.

I suppose between a live chat and a recorded interview, I prefer a live chat. They can't edit things to make me look vicious or stupid or whatever suits the station's personal dragon fantasy. (No, no--not bitter about my past experiences at all. Why do you ask?)

Of course, you get some interesting questions..interesting to humans. Like, "how do you reproduce?" "Why don't you wear pants?" "Do you have fire hazard insurance."

*headdesk* I need to write a book.

In the meantime, if you'd like to see the answers to these and many other interesting questions, check out the chat transcripts on Karina's website. Scroll down to the news article for the links.

MM&M is on Amazon, and we have 3 reviews already! I must say, I'm especially fond of Grace Bridge's assessment:

Vern the dragon detective is a magnetic character despite his demonstrative cynicism. He made me laugh just about every time he opened his mouth.

(preen preen) Anyway, here's where you can get it: Print: Follow this link. (I do not know why Amazon won't make a widget for it.)


Kindle:

Live outside the US? Contact the publisher directly to get the best rates on overseas shipping! dindy(at)swimmingkangaroo.com

Karina has written up some of our more harrowing cases, so I was surprised by her choice for the first novel.

"Why would you want to write up that one?" I demanded. Actually, but the tone of voice, I really meant to imply "Not that one. No. never!" but I'm working on being a kindger, gentler dragon. Often, that just comes out as passive-aggressive, but I’m working on it.

However, Karina got the implication; she just chose to ignore it. "Come on, Vern. It's funny."

"It's embarrassing. One fiasco after another--"

"I snorted coffee out my nose, it was so funny when you told it. "

"Because it's embarrassing."

Then Grace had to step in on her side. "But it is funny, and you know it."

"Oh, so you think she should publish it? You, know, you weren't exactly on your best behavior, Sister Magic-Grudge-Match." I don't normally resort to calling Grace names, but I was in a mood and I could already see where this argument was heading.

She had the (pardon the pun) good graces to blush at the memory of her duel with the Greek Muse Euterpe, but she also fought back a grin. Even nuns are human. "It was funny."

We argued more, but well...

Magic, Mensa and Mayhem came out in Amazon this weekend:

Print: http//tinyurl.com/mmmamazon Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/mmmkindle

Karina is taking over my blog to promote Magic, Mensa and Mayhem. I'm off to breather fire on the parish parking lot to get rid of the rest of the ice. --Vern

Thanks, everyone for the kudos you've sent about the book trailer. Some folks have asked about how I came up with it the art, etc., so I thought I'd share that story today.

I actually came up with the idea nearly two years ago, while we were moving from Fredericksburg, VA, to Minot, ND. We had a couple of CDs from the Air Force's Jazz band and played them on the trip. "That's a-Plenty" matched the crazy, funny, everything-piling-on-everything scramble I tried to capture in Magic, Mensa and Mayhem. Whenever it was my turn to pick the music, I'd put that CD in and often played the song over several times as I got the timing down. (Did I mention how patient my kids can be when Mommy's "working"?) Once I had it figured out, I had my daughter write it down. Nonetheless, for four days and 2000 miles, I was going over that script in my head. Good thing, too, because when it came time to write it, I could no longer find the Amber's notes!

The pictures I've been playing with over two years as well. Coyote is a mix of a male model and a coyote head. He doesn't look like that in the book, but I thought it was fun. That was when Paint Shop still worked on my computer.

For Brunhilde, I knew I wanted a bodybuilder, and I'd found Michelle Falsetta's website, http://www.michellefalsetta.com/, when I was researching. Michelle is one of those female body builders who is beautiful as well as buff, so I e-mailed her and asked if I could get permission to use her likeness. She kindly agreed and directed me to her photographer, Lane Benson, LBPhotographics, www.lanebenson.com, who gave me permission to use the photo in the video.

Most of the other photos I found on copyright-free websites. My good friend and webmaster, Ann Lewis, doctored up the photos of the protesters and the soda and added the dragon to the Florida photo. My daughter, Amber, did the picture of the pixie in Vern's teeth, which is an actual scene from the book. I was tickled to find the newspaper headline function in Movie Maker.

Roe Mesquita, the cover artist, went all out, and sadly, much of the back cover is hidden behind the blurbs, so I put the art itself in the video instead of the cover as I'd intended.

In all, I think this video took about 30 hours to make--much of that dinking around with Movie Maker to get the timing right. This song just lent itself to transitions. It's certainly the most complex book trailer I've ever done, and I'm tickled pink at how it turned out.

Glad you're enjoying it, too.

Magic, Mensa and Mayhem has a new ordering page! You can now find it at http://www.swimmingkangaroo.com/mensa.html or go to www.swimmingkangaroo.comand click on the awesome cover. (The old link still works.)