5 for Friday - July 13

The Authors After Dark convention is getting so close, I can practically taste it! (For those of you who are curious, it tastes suspiciously like a Pat O'Brien's Hurricane.) But I am trying not to obsess.  This week has gone by pretty fast, thanks in part to an unplanned visit to New Orleans to visit my mom and take in a family crab-boil.  While I was there, she pulled up the blog on her computer, read a couple of posts and said, "You can be a little funny." (*pause*) "Who knew?" Thanks, Mom.

5. Kresley Cole has announced the next book in her Immortals After Dark series! Macrieve will be Uilleam's story.  (That's one of the Lykae twins who we last saw escaping the prison-island in Dreams of a Dark Warrior.)

I'm always down with the Lykae and I will read anything from Kresley Cole.  But I was kind of hoping for a Lanthe and Thronos book to be next.  Some people have said they thought it would be Kristoff and Furie, but I'm expecting them toward the end... maybe right before a big finale featuring Nix.  I won't bitch too much, though. I was dreadfully unexcited by the idea of a Carrow book with a hero I had never heard of, and Demon from the Dark ended up being my favorite book in the series so far. Macrieve will be out May 14th.

This seems like a good time to trot out my picture with Paul Marron, no?

I can wait to see what dude will end up on the Macrieve cover. Maybe I'll get to snuggle with him too.

4. I really enjoyed The Hunger Games --the book and the movie. Mockingjay is a whole 'nother story.  I will spare you the rant about how much I hated the ending of the series and jump to the part where Lionsgate has announced they are splitting the movie into two parts.

Yack.  It's not worth two movies.  It's the same length as the other two books and it was the most unappealing of the three.  Boo.

3. Onto more pleasant news, there is a new trailer out for the next season of Sons of Anarchy.

Jen is in her happy place.

2. Speaking of my happy place, Channing Tatum says there is gonna be a sequel to Magic Mike.  As I said on Twitter, I hope the filmmakers learn from their mistakes in the first movie: less "plot," more stripping.  Someone told me this may be a prequel.  I'm ok with that.  I'd love an excuse for Joe Manganiello and Matt Bomer to get some more screen time.

But if we go with a new crop, let me recommend my casting: Jared Padalecki, Jason Momoa, Charlie Hunnam, and Zac Efron as the new "kid."  Oh yeah, and Channing Tatum. You can't have a Magic Mike movie without Mike.

Now I have myself all aflutter. Any thoughts on your fantasy casting?

1. And in one more piece of movie news, Michael Fassbender has announced plans to co-produce and star in the adaptation of Assassin's Creed.

For those unfamiliar with the game, it follows Desmond Miles, as "an unwilling participant in an experiment wherein he's forced to live out the memories of his assassin ancestors."* I wonder if he'll be naked.


Have a great weekend.

XOXO,
Jen

*I totally stole that Assassin's Creed description from MTV.com.