Muse of the Month: Dmitry Sholokhov

Recently I watched some of the new season of Project Runway, and it made me miss the older seasons! As I gear up for the release of The Unlove Spell, my wacky comedy about a witch who accidentally places a spell on herself so she can't fall in love, I thought it would be a nice time to feature magical Dmitry Sholokhov, one of my favorite designers from the show. I'll work on sharing a new muse for every month from now on, too!

Follow Dmitry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dmitrysholokhov/
Follow Dmitry on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DmitrySholokhov

Halloween Season Favorites: Scream Queens, Sleepy Hollow and More

October is my favorite month of the year, hands down.

Between the cooling temperatures (I'm a polar bear at heart) and the Halloween decorations, it's a beautiful, dreamy, colorful time. This autumn, I'm looking forward to two book releases as well, so there's even more to celebrate! On November 28th, Engaged to an Alien Pop Star, the sequel to Dating an Alien Pop Star, drops through Crimson Tree Publishing. On December 12, 2016, The Unlove Spell drops through Bellatrix Press. The former is about sexy aliens, and the latter is about a witch, a Russian fae prince, an ice mermaid, and a bunch of misadventure. Cool, huh?

In celebration of these releases and my favorite month, Bellatrix Press asked me to share a few of my favorite books, TV shows, and movies for the Halloween season. And yes. Halloween is a whole season for me, don't you dare argue!

1. Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Gorgeous costumes, Johnny Depp at his peak, silly moments, Halloween deliciousness, and Christopher Walken. What more could you want from a Halloween movie? It's a must every year for me.

2.Scream Queens (2015-)
This show has it all! Halloween themes, amazing fashion, the funniest moments on television, and over the top horror that somehow isn't too scary, even though I'm a massive chicken. I love it so much.

3. Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone (book)
Is there any book ever that better encapsulates the joy and excitement of Halloween and magic? I've read this one three times, and love it more on every re-read.

4. Young Frankenstein (1974)
This silly, campy movie has been a part of my life since I can remember. Last year my friend invited me to a screening of it in a gorgeous historic theater, complete with balcony boxes and lush curtains... it was the coolest way to relive the movie, truly. Gene Wilder is brilliant in this, absolutely brilliant.

5. Fright Night (2011)
David Tennant as a sexy vampire hunter... in guyliner. Do I need to say more? Actually, I do. This movie feels nostalgic in a way that I can't quite put my finger on, and I love it for it. The music, the filming style, the clothes, all of it feels like a time capsule of pop culture in the year it came out. When you hear Pumped Up Kicks playing in the background of an early scene, you're transported to 2011. Colin Farrel is genuinely charming and terrifying in turn as a vampire. I'd say, in fact, that it's possibly his best role, and certainly my favorite! And after the very sad passing of Anton this year, the movie holds even more nostalgic power. An excellent horror comedy that you can watch again and again.

What are your favorite Halloween season movies, TV shows, or books? :)

Body Positivity in Fiction

When I set out to write The Unlove Spell, I was beginning a journey that was new to me. I’ve always written about magic, and complicated, dark haired (usually foreign) men, and I love to write with a humorous tone that wheels between screwball and dark, but a romance? That was a new experience altogether.

The Unlove Spell is the story of Marling, a young witch who accidentally placed a spell on herself to prevent her heart from ever belonging to anyone but Viktor Arson, the hot Russian writer she shared a passionate, but brief, fling with. Marling’s spent the five years since their fling alone, occupying her personal time with the internet and hot chocolate. Viktor, who is actually a fae prince, has gone on to become a world-famous writer. He can also still make a killer good cup of coffee and wear the hell out of some leather pants. Marling finds herself caught up in a screwball plot by one of her former magic teachers and winds up in Russia, hunting Viktor down and trying to determine if she really loves him, or if her feelings are just a product of the unlove spell.

Facing a story that is primarily romantic left me nervous about falling into the deep treads of BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. Let’s be honest… there’s nothing new that could ever happen in romance. Two beings fall in love with each other, face some kind of adversity, overcome it and live happily ever after. Or one of them freezes to death on a raft that could have likely supported the weight of two people. Ahem.

One of my biggest goals with Marling was to portray a girl we all know and can believe in, instead of the 'effortlessly cool' girls I see in a lot of romantic fiction. She’s a little flighty, she doesn’t know exactly what she wants to do with her life, she sometimes lies to her peers about having a stomach bug to avoid going to an awkward party. She likes to look at pictures of cute animals on the internet. She can't go all Black Widow and kick someone in the face with her high heeled boots. But my real starting point for Marling was this:

There were three things that Marling was not particularly pleased about in regards to herself. One, her nose was crooked. Two, her voice was a bit deeper than she’d like it to be. Third, even after two consecutive years of French tutoring as a child, Marling could only remember about a dozen French words. Of course, there were also three things that she was terribly proud of. One, she’d never dyed her chesnut-brown hair (well, maybe once she’d dyed it with a spray can of sparkly pink stuff but it had mostly washed out after five weeks). Two, she had always maintained a comfortable size 12 (petite). Third, she had over six thousand followers on tumblr.

Marling is never called plus-sized. Marling doesn’t endure pages of self-torture about diets, eating, losing weight, looking ‘fat’ or worrying about how thin other people are. In fact, the only time Marling’s size is called into question is when Viktor’s mother- a major antagonist in the story- calls her fat. The scene is painful for Marling, as it would be for anyone. Yes, Marling is a size 12. No, she’s not as small as some girls. Yes, she’s probably been called fat in her life. But she doesn’t obsess over her weight or expect others will either.

Marling Ellis is an average sized, brunette American girl, and she likes nice clothes and meets a great guy, no calorie-counting or salad obsessions or “aww, the fat girl gets a guy too, aren’t you shocked!?” plotline needed.

If I can make only one revolutionary wave in the world of modern romance stories, I’d be proud for this to be it.