If this is the first time you’ve ventured beneath, let me introduce myself. I’m Lynne Hansen, and I write dark fiction for teens. Horror is my passion, but I’m also a bit of a history geek, so my books tend to mix the two. I’ve written two historical horror novels, a contemporary horror novel with my friend Sally Bosco, a dystopian SAT vocabulary novel, as well as three dark time travel historicals for SparkNotes.
Click on the book covers to the right to learn more about my books, or use the navigation above to tunnel through my site and learn more about me, my books, my gigs, and my school visits.
Hope you enjoy your visit. I love to hear from folks, so don’t hesitate to sign my guestbook or leave a comment or two.
Keep creepin’…
Lynne Hansen
Zombie Rain by Mike Maihack - Check out http://cowshell.com/buffalog/category/comics/
Okay, so I had a REALLY rough weekend, and yesterday morning the Fates seemed determined to make it worse, because when I got out of my car for the four block trek to my day job in downtown Tampa, the skies opened and totally dumped on me. Thanks to my umbrella, it doused my spirits worse than my clothes, but it was still a pretty miserable walk, avoiding puddles while jostling all my stuff, including coffee which I spilled all over me repeatedly.
I was all about poor, poor pitiful me, and then I thought, You know, if we were in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, I’d be pretty thankful for this rain, especially if I was holed up in one of those skyscrapers. Water can be tough to come by once the power goes out if you don’t have a direct conduit to a natural water source. Ultimately, this rain is a good thing.
I am not joking. These thoughts actually drizzled through my brain. You know you’re WAY too into the book you’re writing when even a nasty Florida rainstorm has zombie implications. lol
Just a quick note to tell everyone to stop by my hubby Jeff Strand’s PRESSURE book launch party at Barnes & Noble Carrollwood in Tampa, Florida tonight, Saturday May 30th, starting at 7:00 at 11802 N. Dale Mabry Highway. Tampa, Florida 33618. Buy anything in the store and give the cashier Bookfair ID 560714 and at least 10% of your proceeds will go to Tampa Theatre, an amazing grand movie palace built in 1926. And you’ll even get a coupon for a free small popcorn at Tampa Theatre. You can use the bookfair ID 560714 at any B&N across the country, so even if you can’t make it to the book launch party, you can still help the theatre. (Unfortunately the coupons are only available at the B&N Carrollwood during the book launch party.)
If you’re unfamiliar with Jeff and his work, here’s a little video about how PRESSURE is making the world a better place:
A few weeks back I got to be an extra in a Herschell Gordon Lewis film, Grim Fairy Tale. I was a flannel-clad engineer in a TV studio who got to scream REALLY loud when the Big Bad Wolf came in to kill us all. Too much fun.
Of course my favorite part was my second scene, where I got to play a vacant-eyed dismembered corpse sprawled on the floor of the TV studio. I had to stare at the ceiling while the actors walked over me. The biggest distraction was the boom mike that kept moving in and out of my vision. I channeled my inner zombie, though, and kept as still as I possibly could. At one point the casting director said, “I think Lynne’s really dead!” lol
Afterwards, Mr. Lewis took both my hands in his said and said, “Keeping your body still is one thing, but keeping your eyeballs from moving, that’s tough. Not many people can do that. Thank you for doing that for my movie.” Too cool.
I’m not in the article, there’s a super one in Fangoria about the shoot, including some fun-yet-disturbing pics:
My hubby Jeff Strand is attending the RT Booklovers Convention, so I’m hunkering down in a condo nearby with the intent of writing my butt off for a few days. Before I got to work on the novel, I had to finish up the handouts for my “New Media and Social Networks for Writers” and “Writing Young Adult Fiction” workshops I’m giving at the Colorado Romance Writers conference next week.
While compiling and updating resources, I came across this incredibly comprehensive book review comparing one of my favorite apocalyptic novels, Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer,
with Razor Girl by Marianne Mancusi.
Click here to read the review.
I don’t usually read reviews, and when I do, I can’t remember the last time a review made me want to read a book, but this one definitely made me want to read Razor Girl. Any book that features, “a 400 mile road trip through the zombie-infested US Southeast” is aces in my book.
And I really like the way the reviewer pointed out that the plausibility of the post-apocalyptic worlds each author portrays isn’t really the point. To me, when you dip into any kind of dark fantasy or alternate world, it’s all about creating that willing suspension of disbelief, getting readers to connect emotionally with the characters, while still keeping the story moving forward. Razor Girl sounds like it has the potential to do it well, so I’m really looking forward to reading it. As luck would have it, Marianne Mancusi is actually a guest at the RT Booklovers Convention, so I hope to pick it up at the big booksigning Saturday.
So has anyone else read Razor Girl or Life As We Knew It? Share what you thought of them in the comments, but no spoilers, ‘kay?
Well, I’ve spruced up my website with the help of an artist named Dennis Hansbury who created the awesome new zombie arm that now dons the top of my website (and will soon don my business cards, banners, postcards, bookmarks and more!) I use the blue-cast version, but off to the left you’ll see the original greenish-yellow version. Very cadaver-like.
Also make sure you check out Dennis’s bio on Flickr here. I mean, how can you not love a guy whose bio says he “has zombie survival plans for his apartment complex and IKEA Orlando”? (Of course all good zombie survivalists know that mega-stores are death traps during the zombie apocalypse. They’re tough to defend because everyone wants in–zombies and survivors alike.)
I absolutely love my new zombie arm, and feel very lucky to have found Dennis and his fun zombie art.
I was really pleased with the article the St. Petersburg Times did on me and my hubby Jeff Strand today, “Carrollwood Couple Keep Readers On The Edge Of Fear.” I do have to loudly disclaim the lowballing of the number of songs on my ipod, though. I have 15,290, currently, not 13,000. Of course, there’s always that gap between the interview and publication…could I really have added 2,000 songs in the last couple of week? Well, knowing me…lol
But that’s not what I intended to blog about. Reading the article made me think of some of my favorite school visit moments. Here they are, in no particular order:
- Alex at Hillsborough High School who insisted that the best way to get rid of the zombie arm from The Return was to chop it into little bits and feed it to the pigeons. (Of course we all know what happens next–yes, zombie pigeons.)
- At Wilson Middle, my co-author for AltDeath.com Sally Bosco was doing her portion of our joint presentation while a boy in the back kept trying to get my attention. He looked like he might explode if I didn’t come over, so I did. When I bent down to see what was wrong, he whispered urgently, “Are you going to autograph postcards in SILVER? My friend saw you before and he snuck the postcard you signed for him into church to show me, and it was signed in SILVER, so are you going to sign postcards TODAY, in SILVER?” I assured him that I would, but that he’d have to wait until AFTER the worshop.
- This favorite momemnt doesn’t have a particular school attached to it because it happens at just about every school visit I do. I always have at least one student who lingers afterwards to ask if he or she can have their postcard autographed for their mother or father, who is also writing a novel. What kind, sweet kids, and what super parents to share their dreams with their kids.
- When I spend the day at a school, I’m usually headquartered in the library. (It can take me up to a half hour to set up because I have so many visual aids, so I do better when I don’t have to pack up and move every 45 minutes.) At one school, the media specialist asked me if I might do my last session of the day in a classroom instead. The substitute teacher for a remedial reading class was having a bit of a difficult time of it. “Just bring them on into the library,” I said. The media specialist went pale. “Oh, no, I can’t…they don’t let them out of their classroom.” Hearing that, I just had to go visit them. When I entered the classroom, they were literally climbing the walls. One boy had pushed a rocking chair against the wall and was trying to reach something on the wall. Another was on his desk, trying to hang something from the ceiling with a chain of paper clips. The substitute looked like she might heave. Sure, the kids were high-energy, but once they figured out that I was going to listen to them and talk WITH them instead of AT them, a change came over the room. They were some of the most attentive, interesting and insightful kids I’d ever worked with, asking tough, practical questions about writing, and life. After that, I made certain that whenever I booked a school visit that I reassured the teachers that they didn’t have to just send me “the good kids.” Classrooms aren’t cages.
- In one of my sessions at Burns Middle, I’d read the first chapter of my werewolf novel The Change, which ends with a cliffhanger, and asked if they wanted me to read on. Although all the kids were very vocal about wanting me to read on (which I did), one girl was VERY upset at the thought of not getting to read more. Her friend said, quite loudly and in a voice filled with shock and surprise, “But Crystal, you don’t like ANY book!” It just made my day. Now that’s why I write.
Green Day at the 2009 Grammy Awards courtesy of Green Day Authority www.GreenDayAuthority.com.
A few random observations about Green Day at the 2009 Grammy Awards:
1) <in my best Simpson’s Comic Book Guy voice> Worst hair ever. Really, what were they thinking? Get some toner on that blond, boys and you’ll get that brassy yellow right out. And it looked like Billie Joe’s hair sucked up all of Mike’s body, leaving Mike looking like he’d just gotten out of the shower, and Billie with this weird poof. I know they’re probably just letting it grow out until the new album comes out in May, but come on, it’s the Grammy Awards.
2) Browns and muted greens with black? Ugh. I really hope that’s not the color scheme for their May release, 21st Century Breakdown. (Yes, I’m whining, but they looked REALLY good in their AP Magazine photo shoot in January.)
3) I think a special place in hell is reserved for the guys who turn the music up over the acceptance speeches. Record of the Year is a big freakin’ deal. Don’t you think they could have let Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and T Bone Burnett say more than two words?
4) Of course Green Day looked like they’d much rather be any place but on stage. Guess when your first album in 5 years is due out in a little over 3 months, you have to make those perfunctory appearances, but you can tell it wasn’t their idea to present. I did, however, like Billie Joe’s parting, “See you next year at the Grammys!” I’m kind of hoping it was Billie Joe’s way of saying that 21st Century Breakdown is going to blow everyone away, and that they intend on being on the receiving end next year. Or maybe he really was just still reading lines off the teleprompter.
5) And one last thing. I totally agree with the speech about creating a new cabinet position to oversee the arts in the US. Very good idea, but was it just me, or did it sound like the head of the Academy was just REALLY trying to kiss up to the President? ”Can I brown nose Obama? Yes I can.” <sigh>
If you’re interested in supporting this new Secretary of the Arts cabinet position, you can read and sign the petition here:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/esnyc/petition.html
Currently over 230,000 people have signed.
6) Now for the VERY last final thing. For all the best Green Day news, visit www.GreenDayAuthority.com. Also, the Green Day Idiot Club has started posting small updates about the new album. Oh, and you can pre-order 21st Century Breakdown here: http://www.greendaymusic.com/
Well, I’m off at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Regional Conference in Miami this weekend. Drove down from Tampa with my friend and AltDeath.com co-author Sally Bosco. The trip was, well, horrendous. Tractor trailer overturned on I-75 and delayed us by about two hours, which meant we made it to the conference hotel with about 15 minutes to spare (instead of the 2 hours and 15 minutes to spare that we’d planned on having.)
The first panel featured authors who’d just recently published their first books including Marjetta Geerling, Debbie Reed Fischer, and Danette Haworth. It’s always inspiring to hear about folks’ first sales. My favorite phrase from the panel? ”I need to conclude my agent search.” (What the then-agentless Danette said when she received “the call” from an editor wanting her first book.) Every author who courts agents and editors at the same time needs to keep that phrase in their back pocket.
That evening we were off to Books & Books for the author’s reception. Amazing bookstore. Let’s just say I could have camped out there all night.
After the reception, Sally and I invited ourselves to dinner with a group of ebullient women. We charged through the streets of the Miracle Mile in search of food and ended up at an awesome Cuban restaurant called Las Vegas. The sangria was to die for, and the roast pork was hands-down the best I’d ever had. The best thing about the evening though was the conversation. It was so nice to chat with folks who were just as passionate about working with and writing for children. Definitely a delightful night.
