First up, the results of the lolcat contest will come sometime tomorrow, so stay tuned! Second, I wanted to thank everyone for all of the wedding well wishes. We really appreciate it! As some have guessed, the wedding was indeed in Napa, California. Good eye, you guys. It was really beautiful down there, even if it was chilly (though not nearly as cold as Seattle right now or most of the U.S.). The photography was done by Richard Wood, whom I heartily recommend if you ever need pics down in wine country.

I also wanted to add that I'll be autographing another batch of mail order books at University Bookstore on Monday. So, if you have orders pending with them, the books'll ship that day or Tuesday and should make it out in plenty of time for the holidays (at least domestically). I'll try to stop by the store again before Christmas, but if you want any autographed copies for gifts, placing an order by Monday is probably the safest call. As always, info on ordering is right here. Some people have asked what happens with the boxed VA sets. For those, I sign all three books, and then the store shrink wraps them all nicely together again.

Also on the topic of gifts, Synde has made some more Vampire Academy jewelry and, per people's requests, has branched into some chotki-style bracelets that are pretty sweet. The link to her store is here, though last I saw, stuff was moving pretty fast! Check it out.

Okay, last order of business: new book covers. Things have been pretty business in Europe. First, we have the German cover of Storm Born:





Next up, the German cover of Blood Promise.





And (can't remember if I've shown this one already) the German cover of Succubus Heat:





This last pair is kind of a surprise. Until now, all of the English speaking countries who publish VA have kept the American covers. Well, part way through the series, the UK appears to have (ironically) rebelled:








I wouldn't be surprised if the earlier books in the series are re-released to match, but I have no real evidence to support that theory. I'll definitely keep you posted. Also for the UK: you guys will be synced up with the US and Australia when Spirit Bound comes out, meaning it will hit your shelves the same day it hits ours. No need for importing!

So, here's what we've got today: all sorts of international news. I'm way behind in updating the international section of my website, but since its last overhaul, I've had some sales in other countries.

In Georgina's world, succubus books have recently sold Vietnamese and Thai publishing rights. I didn't see those coming. Also since my last website update, Vampire Academy has sold rights in: Hungary, Israel, Vietnam, Japan, Denmark, and Indonesia. The international link above has info on all the other translations that have sold in the past.

I've mentioned this before, but once foreign rights are sold, the books kind of drop off the radar for me. I'm not always told when they'll come out, so I have no info about their publishing schedules. Some companies do fast translations; others don't. I also don't really have a lot of control over which countries buy publishing rights. My agency and publisher pitch the respective series to international publishers, and then it just depends on who makes an offer.

Anyway, here are covers of recent ones that have hit the shelves (or are about to) around the world. Thanks to Arancha for hunting down many of these.


Bulgarian Vampire Academy:





Swedish Shadow Kiss





Turkish Frostbite





Larger shot of the Russian Frostbite that I posted before:





German Succubus Dreams:





Hungarian Vampire Academy, similar to the German VA, plus it has its own website:




Good times. I don't control these covers any more than I control the US ones, but I love seeing how each culture interprets the story. It's always a fun surprise.

Happy Devil's Night! We're almost to Halloween, Samhain, Dia de los Muertos, or whatever dead-honoring holiday you like to celebrate. I can't blog long because I'm getting ready for some festivities, but we've got something cool here.

lolcatz found this delight out on the web today:





Yup, it's the French cover of Succubus Dreams, and I have to admit, that's a pretty nice shot of Tawny. Those who know the book might agree with me that it's hard to believe she's so inept when she looks like that!

Lastly, I want to thank everyone who voted for me at Bitten By Books' Favorite Paranormal Author poll earlier this week. I think I was in fourth when I mentioned it here, and then four hours later, I was in first. You guys rock the house. I'm kind of stunned. Thank you so much! If you still want to cast a vote over there, the poll is still going on through tomorrow.

My pal Mark Henry has also done a video blog at BBB today, so if you're going over there, leave a comment to his post because he's on a quest to break 1228. If you're not sure what to comment, I would recommend quizzing him on just how hawt he thinks Dimitri is. The videos represent Mark's usual, uh, adult sense of humor, so I can't endorse viewing them if you're at work, in your teens, or easily offended. That shouldn't stop you from commenting, though. And remember, if you haven't voted in the favorite author poll, it's over on the right side of the screen. Here's the link to vote for me (or whoever you want) and comment for him.

I'll do some kind of giveaway here in his honor if he manages to hit his goal today. Have a great night!

Today's going to be a visual day. I recently learned, thanks to deathly_phoenix, that I have a universe! For real. There's a website out there called Richelle's Universe that I didn't know existed. The fact that it's actually called that is so awesome that it wouldn't even need anything else on it...but guess what? They had a fan art contest, and there are some awesome pictures of up there of characters from the Georgina and Vampire Academy series--one I think Adrian fans will really like. Check it out the link above to see it all! Thanks so much, web folks and artists, for all your work.

And speaking of more art, I've got some covers that I can't remember if I posted or not. I guess a repeat won't hurt. Anyway, here's the Russian cover of Vampire Academy. It's got one of the more accurate depictions of Rose I've seen:





That comes courtesy of Eleonora, who also sent me the Russian cover of Frostbite. This one's harder to see, but she tells me there'll be a clearer one available once the book is published. Thanks for passing it on!





And finally, to really kick our media up a notch, I'm happy to present the final edited video of Jessie's report on my Australian tour. Some of you may remember that Penguin Australia held a contest with Dolly magazine for someone to be my reporter for the day. Jessie was the winner, and here's the final result. I always think I make funny faces on video, but Jessie did a great job, as did cameraman Andre. Good times.

First up, just a reminder: there's still a poll going on where you can vote for my next tour steps. I apologize for saying this over and over, but PLEASE don't list what you voted for in the comments or which cities you wish were on the list. I appreciate the feedback, really, but it does make the blog comments impossible to read. So thank you so much if you can hold off on that. And to answer a question that's been coming up, I'm afraid I don't know how long the poll will run or when the results will be available. Thanks again.

In the meantime, here's something you can fill up the blog comments about--just watch the spoilers, please!





Holy crap! Where'd that come from? Enjoy! And since comments only go so far, I'd recommend any Facebook users go over to the discussion sections on my fan page to analyze to your heart's content. Spirit Bound comes out May 18, and no, there is no way it can come out sooner. :)

I'm afraid there's little to report with my neighbors. Their house still remains quiet, and the letters are still taped up. Yesterday, while I was gardening, a car drove through the neighborhood like they were lost and eventually pulled into the KGB driveway. A young woman got out, peered around, and then drove off. May have been unrelated.

Oh, and Mr. HOA president put notes on everyone else's door stating that for true enforcement, we need to report times and dates of infractions. I kind of wished I'd been able to chat with him when he stopped by, but I won't answer the door in my robe.

Meanwhile, here's the latest in my world. Just got the cover for the French edition of Succubus Nights. There's always a little confusion over this, but Succubus Nights is what the UK publishers changed Succubus on Top to. So, this is Georgina #2. A lot of people wonder why covers and titles are different in other countries, but there are lots of cultural differences and customs which don't always match American ones and need to be adjusted.

Here ya go. I am tres pleased with Jean-Sebastien Rossbach's art once again:





Lastly, Vampire Academy is continuing its world tour and selling rights in Slovenia, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Woot!

So, I'm not sure if you guys realize this, but a lot of the foreign covers I show you are ones I personally hunted down. Once I sell the rights to a foreign publisher, I often lose my connection to the book. Any format my book can be produced in (English book, French book, ebook, movie) is a right I own, but when I give it away, it's gone.

Naturally, I still have a huge role to play and opinions to give with my American publishers--largely because they've bought books that aren't written yet, and we all have to be involved in the process. But the foreign publishers get the books when they're finished, and often, that's the last contact I have with them. I don't know their release dates, and if they don't need help in translation, I may never hear from the editors.

Anyway, the international publishers usually send copies of the books once they're out. Sometimes not. More often than not, I'm faster at finding them online because I'm just self-centered enough to go hunting them. Finding my books in countries with Amazon (UK, France, Germany) is easy. Other countries? Not so easy. And one of the biggest trials for me has been finding the Russian edition of Succubus Blues.

A huge part of this isn't just because it's translated into a foreign language. Russian uses a different alphabet. So, I can't just Google 'Richelle Mead Russian Succubus Blues.' That's not going to turn up anything on a Cyrillic book website. Even using a website that converts into Cyrillic letters isn't useful because there's always a little fuzziness in transliteration, and 'Richelle' and 'succubus' are hardly standardized words--not to mention the likelihood that the book got a different title that doesn't even use 'succubus.' So, for almost a year, I've been doing every search I can think of in Cyrillic, scouring Russian book websites.

Well, last night, I was hit with inspiration. I figured 'vampire' was a pretty common word and probably had a standardized Russian/Cyrillic form. I thought it might help with the search. I put it into a Russian book website and generated a huge list of vampire books. Now, the authors and titles were still in Cyrillic, which made it hard to identify anything. Finally, I saw a cover that I thought looked like a succubus. It was just a hunch, but I ran parts of its description through a Russian web translator, and some of it seemed like a likely candidate. Finally, I did a web search on the author's Cyrillic name and got lots of hits on other Russian book websites. And guess what? One translated it into English: Richelle Mead. So, here we are, the Russian Succubus Blues:





Who'd have guessed? That certainly doesn't look like my name! And the title translates as Fallen Angel (though Google's translating service actually claims it's Sabrina the Teenage Witch--no joke). Sorry for the long-winded tale here, but finding this has been an epic adventure (as everyone on Twitter found out last night), and I feel like I just won a ginormous scavenger hunt. Best of all, if I can get a copy, I now have something to bring to the ex-KGB neighbors...

Following yesterday's highly artistic German covers of Succubus on Top and Shadow Kiss, readers have sent in more foreign editions that have a very different style.

First, I have the Swedish covers of Vampire Academy and Frostbite, sent to me by an unnamed Spanish reader who runs a VA blog. I'd seen these a long time ago and totally forgotten about them. Thanks for reminding me!







Then, sent by Beatriz, is a cover I hadn't yet seen. It's the Portuguese edition of Shadow Kiss, and it's odd that the first two VAs haven't surfaced yet since I sold rights to all three. Equally odd is that I hadn't thought the Portuguese contracts had even been processed yet! Regardless, here it is. Thanks, Beatriz.





For those curious about my books' worldly adventures, here's what I can recall off the top of my head. The succubus series currently has books out in German, French, and Spanish, as well as an English edition in the UK. It's also sold Russian rights.

The Vampire Academy series has books out (or is on the verge of it) in German, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), and Swedish. UK and Australian English copies are out as well. It's also sold Italian, Russian, Polish, Korean, Chinese, Turkish, and Czech rights.

Storm Born has a UK presence and has sold German rights. I swear there's another, but I can't recall. All of these translations go out of my hands once they're sold, so if the book's not out yet, I have no publication date to give you. Some can take quite awhile. And if you can't find one of the foreign books that's already out, I can't help much there either unless it's on a big site like Amazon.de or Amazon.fr.

I'm given to understand that the Russian VA is about to come out, so if anyone sees that cover or any of the others, certainly feel free to pass them on!

Actually, it's a good to be me too. While vanity surfing on Amazon.de, I noticed that I had two new covers up over there. Considering how long it takes translations and foreign editions to come out, finding two at once is quite a treat.

First, Succubus on Top:





And then, Shadow Kiss:





New cover days--domestic or international--are my favorite days. :)

Okay, you guys. I can't leave the country this weekend without giving you something.

After so much patience and anticipation, I present the Blood Promise cover, as well as the redesign for the rest of the series.





There's nothing more I can really say. The awesomeness speaks for itself. :)

lolcatz called me out tonight and asked if I was now blogging on a weekly basis. Since he's not feeling well, I decided to humor him and put something up:





This is the French cover of Succubus Blues, which I believe comes out over in France either at the end of this month or next month. The artwork is by wonderful artist Jean-Sebastien Rossbach. I'd posted this on Facebook but just realized that I hadn't put it up here yet. Pretty sweet.

And no, I'm not blogging on a weekly basis...I'll pick up the pace here soon, honest!

Thanks for yesterday's feedback on Lili's cover, guys. Covers are a mysterious industry, so it's nice to hear what people think. And speaking of covers, take a look at what my German publishers have come out with:





That's the German cover for Frostbite. The title there translates as "blue blood." I'm not sure if they just retitled it altogether or if that's an expression for the phenomenon of frostbite, just like "the bends" is an expression for that one thing divers get. (German speakers, feel free to weigh in. And divers too).

This book comes out in June over in Germany and its affiliates. The first VA book--whose German title is even more unpronounceable--will be out over there next week. If you missed that cool cover, it's here.

In the ongoing quest to make VA available to everyone, there is now a large print version of Vampire Academy up on Amazon. I'm not entirely sure when it's available. It says it's on pre-order but that it was released a couple of days ago. If it's something you're interested in, keep checking back.

Finally, Amazon also has this program where it generates key words and phrases found in a book. Here's what it found for Vampire Academy:





If anyone had told me years ago that I'd be writing books that generated those as key words, I would have said they were crazy. But I guess this is how I roll now. Achtung!

Hey, remember when I said the German title of Vampire Academy would translate as Blood Sisters? Well, its cover translates as AWESOME:





I was back in my hotel after an utterly amazing day and thought, "Man, today would be beyond awesome if the German cover of VA was on Amazon.de." And, lo! There it is. Very exciting. I love it, but by now, you've figured out that I love all my covers. The bat totally rocks it.

And today truly was awesome. I have tons of pics and lots of write-up, but I've got to be to the airport crazy early. So, I'm off to bed now and will give you the scoop on New York City once I'm safely back home in Seattle.

Good stuff today from the Big Apple. I adjusted surprisingly well to the time change and headed off early this morning to the Garden State...aka New Jersey. My Penguin publicist Casey and I visited a slew of bookstores in NJ, where I autographed lots and lots of books. So, if you have a B&N or Borders near you in northern New Jersey, who knows? I may have been there. It was super fun, and once back in Manhattan, I went and visited Kensington Books, home of Georgina and Eugenie. There, my editor John presented me with this treat:





The cover to Thorn Queen, sequel to Storm Born! As you can see, Eugenie is not messing around in this book. Guns, leather, and castles don't lie. Best of all, check it out! I think this artwork just bumped Lissa off of Shadow Kiss as the most accurate picture of one of my characters. It may not be clear in this small image, but her hair is the perfect shade of light red. Thanks, Kensington!

After that, I bummed around some stores for a bit and made my way over to Tor Books, home of editor Heather Osborn, who is An Official Pal of Team Seattle. Heather showed me around the inner labyrinth of Tor and introduced me to the legendary Tom Doherty--who let me see the view from his office, complete with Central Park, Chrysler Building, and Empire State Building! Heather took me out for Indian food afterward where I learned a fun fact: cauliflower is pretty good when deep fried.

Now I'm back in the hotel, chillaxing. Tomorrow takes me to Philadelphia and the aptly named Philcon. More reports to come!

It's my favorite time again. New cover time! This is for Succubus Heat, fourth in the succubus series, available June 2009:





I'm in love with this, but then, I'm a fan of all my covers. It's sexy like all the Georgina ones, but I feel like she looks kind of tough (though not as tough as Matrix Georgina over on the UK cover) too--which is good since she's kind of pissed off about some stuff in this book. That arm cuff is so cool that I suddenly want to write it into the story, two weeks before deadline.

When once asked at a signing which of her books was her favorite, Kim Harrison held up the newest and said, "This one. The newest one is always my favorite." I think I feel that way with covers. Many thanks to Chad Michael Ward and the Kensington art department.

Okay, this is a bit of a surprise to me. Many thanks to jerseydev2000 for discovering this, but it appears the Brits are trying to do a hard sell on getting me to move to the Orkneys:





Succubus Heat! Where did this come from? It's not out until June 2009. Apparently, Amazon UK (and Japan) are running not only pre-orders for SH but also the cover. This has never happened before. Not only is it weird for book 4 to be up before book 3 is even out on the shelves, but the fact that there's a cover already is also a surprise. AND, remember, this is the UK version...which almost never precedes the US one. I was told by my editor that the American Succubus Heat cover may be surfacing in a month, so again, this is quite a shock.

American readers: don't worry. SH will eventually show up on Amazon US, so no need to fret about pre-ordering from the UK. Unless, of course, you want Matrix Georgina On Fire. Which, I must say, is pretty awesome. Her ruby-red haircut--while in no way resembling her description in the book--is also pretty sweet. Very different from the Great Gatsby Georgina from yesterday. Oh Bantam and Cover Gods, I am a lucky girl.

And we all know what that means. I have a new book cover!

Check it out. This is the UK cover for Succubus Dreams, which will be released over there (or here, if you're reading this in the UK) on December 4. Or 4 December.





I really dig this! It has kind of a jazz era feel to it. I haven't examined the skyline in detail to see if it has the US version's resemblance to Toronto, but hell. It could have the London skyline, and I'd be cool with it. Thanks Bantam/Transworld! I'm now quite enamored with the UK right now and might possibly have to go fulfill my secret fantasy of moving to the Orkney Islands to write in a cottage and raise goats. I guess we'll have to see how the election here goes first, eh?

Oh, man. Much like Long Cat, long weekends are long. Norwescon was lots of fun, but man, was it exhausting. It's particularly hard on your insomnatic pal here because I don't sleep well in unfamiliar settings. Many thanks to those who came by to say hi to me and the gang! And a thousand apologies to Robbie that "backless dress Friday" didn't pan out. I still long for those rhinestones.

Today I had Easter dinner with lolcatz's family. I keep learning that more and more of them read this blog, which now increases the pressure on me to mention him at least once a week. I figure if I don't give them updates, they won't know he's alive. It's a humanitarian service, really. Anyway, dinner was good times, and the new batch of family I met was as nice as the last one--and there are still like a gazillion more siblings for me to meet. Also remarkable: depsite the fact that I was bleary-eyed and running on 5 hours of sleep, I managed to eke out a Scattergories victory. I feel I represented for exhausted writers everywhere. Playing that has now given me the itch to play one of my very favorite games, Taboo. Local friends, you're on notice.

Not too much else to add, and I'm pretty tired. So, I'll close with some comments about the Vampire Academy covers that I keep getting asked. You know what? Scratch that. Let's kick it FAQ Style:

Question: Who's on the cover of Frostbite?
Answer: The girl is Rose, albeit a bit less Turkish-looking than I imagine. She's still cute, and I'm a fan. This is one of my favorite covers. The guy...well, that is the mystery question. I'm not really sure who he is, to be honest. I don't design the covers, but aside from the red eyes, he's almost a dead ringer for how I picture Christian. Fans of the VA world know that Strigoi have red eyes, and there are Strigoi in the book...but well, that's all I'm going to say.

Question: Who's on the cover of Shadow Kiss?
Answer: Okay, that's easy. The girl is Lissa, and I think they did her perfectly with the blond hair and green eyes. (And did you notice her awesome blingy top?). The guy--as long predicted--is Dimitri. Someone noted that his hair seems shorter here than in the book's description, but I feel like the face and eyes are spot on. The tag line on the cover kind of explains why these two are there, and again...that's all I'm going to say.

Okay, off to rest up. Contests, signing updates, and scandalous Norwescon pics to come.

For those who have been asking for the Shadow Kiss cover, I give you a different surprise:





Am I the only other Seattle-ite who thinks she's standing on the West Seattle bridge? No, scratch that. Those are the piers. Maybe she's walking on water?

Ladies and gents, I give you the cover of Succubus Nights (aka the UK version of Succubus on Top). And yes, that's right...there appears to be an unconscious/dead man in Georgina's arms.

Which is, unquestionably, awesome.