The After Party and Goal Update

My pal Dee submitted "The Afterlife of the Party" for the "name the Virtual Street Team" contest, which I'm modifying to "The After Party". Free book for Dee! But I think Dee has signed copies of all my books--would you like spanish Kiss of Life, Dee? I think I have a few of those. Hit me on my email!

For those of you wanting to be members of The After Party, there's only one requirement, and it isn't a pulse (pulses are totally optional). All you have to do is tweet, blog, or post somewhere on the Internet that the Generation Dead series is being released in electronic editions on March 22. Drop me a line or a comment letting me know where you've posted, and you could win all sorts of free zombie-ness.

Each one of the new editions will have a brand new short story. Here are the top secret titles, only available to members of The After Party (if you aren't in the After Party, avert your eyes!):

"How's Life" will appear in Generation Dead

"Doll Parts" will appear in Kiss of Life

"Purpose Statement" will appear in Passing Strange

These stories also represent the completion of one of my fifteen goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year (remember: goals, not resolutions), which was to write three Generation Dead short stories (one of my other goals is to write three non Generation Dead stories). At the time I'd set the goal, I had no idea we'd be including them with the electronic editions; I'd just had such a good time with "Many Happy Returns", the GenDead story I wrote for the Kiss Me Deadly anthology that I wanted to write some more. That was my only purpose at the time I set the goal--to have fun. That I get the chance to share that fun with readers on their nooks and kindles and iPads makes it even more fun.

So far, that is the only of the fifteen that is completed. Does that mean panic has begun, with two months of the year (including my arch nemesis February) expired? A resounding "no!" as I've made signifigant process on ten of the remaining fourteen. I've read fourteen books towards my "Read a hundred books" goal, most recently a biography of the cartoonist Charles Addams and If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien. Another goal is to "lose 10% of my year-end 2010 body weight by the time we open the pool"; I'm happy to report I'm 7% lighter with a few months to go. As far as writing goals, I think I'm going to finish the draft of a new YA novel by the end of March, which would allow me to scratch another item off my list.
Sweeeeet.