Author Appreciation Week:Melissa Marr

Banner provided by the lovely ladies at Novel Novice

Photo by John Marr, obtained at Melissa Marr's MySpace Page

For today's Author's Appreciation post I wanted to shine a light on Melissa Marr, author of the Wicked Lovely Series of books: Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, Fragile Eternity and Radiant Shadows which will be released April 20, 2010!

While I of course adore Melissa's writing (that's pretty much a given), what I want to particularly highlight in today's Author Appreciation post is that Melissa Marr is one of the driving forces behind the Smart Chicks Kick It tour. This series of events will bring her, her authors-in-crime Alyson Noel and Kelley Armstrong, and sixteen additional authors to twelve cities across the USA, including back to Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, IL, an event I will DEFINITELY be attending!

Animated gif most respectfully borrowed from
fellow author and tour participant, Rachel Caine's website
where another, equally cool banner for this tour can be found here.

I love the whole girl power vibe behind the event, I love that it's a group of women getting together to support each other and I love the seriously kick ass group of women who joined up. And I love Rachel Caine's button for the event! Seriously, I squeed when I saw that thing.

I also appreciate that, like yesterday's #AAW Authors, Kami and Margi, Melissa has a strong twitter presence (@melissa_marr),which allows her followers to see in real time that she's equally comfortable engaging in witty e-repartee with authors and fans alike.

I had this post all scheduled to go when Melissa tweeted the following this afternoon:

This is exactly the sort of thing I love about author's who are on twitter. Not that every author has to give books away (that would be wicked expensive and just a pain in the behind) but that she had some to spare and thought of her followers. SO NICE!!!! And yes, for full disclosure, I was one of the lucky winners. WOOT for me! But keep your eyes peeled over at Bewitched Bookworms, because you know how I love to spread the wealth. *wink*

If you haven't picked up the Wicked Lovely Series yet, do so IMMEDIATELY! You won't be disappointed!