This week, author Beth Fantaskey sent out wedding invitations. Surprising, since she is, in fact, already married. However, the invitations aren’t for her—they are for the two main characters in her debut novel, Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, published by Harcourt this past February. The invitations are just the first step in a new promotion featured on Fantaskey’s Web site.

In Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, American teen Jessica Packwood discovers that she is betrothed to vampire prince Lucius Vladescu. While the two make an eternal commitment to each other at the end of the book, there is no wedding. Fans of the novel, which has sold over 45,000 copies since publication, wouldn’t stand for that, and have made their feelings known on Fantaskey’s site. “Ever since the book came out, people have been emailing and asking for a sequel,” says the author. While she has not yet decided if she will write a sequel to Jessica’s Guide, Fantaskey says that she came up with the idea for the virtual wedding as a way to reward her fans for their patience.

Instead of planning the wedding herself, Fantaskey decided to put the planning squarely in the hand of her readers. On August 19, she sent invitations directly to about 300 fans on her email list. She also posted links on her Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages. By visiting her blog over the next several weeks, the wedding “guests” will have the opportunity to vote on the wedding dress, the location, the music, and because this is a wedding involving a vampire, whether the ceremony will end with a kiss, a bite, or both.


The invitation to the wedding of Jessica Packwood and Lucius Vladescu, from
Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side.

After the virtual event “takes place” on September 20, Fantaskey will begin writing and posting original chapters on her blog once a week describing the wedding, using the chosen elements. She estimates it will take around seven chapters to tell the story. “This would be like a bridge,” she says. “If I do a sequel, it would probably start with what their life would be like after the wedding.”

“We haven’t had an author do anything like this before,” says Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publicist Jennifer Groves. “It’s like The Today Show’s ‘Today Throws a Wedding,’ but with fictional characters.”

It is clear from the enthusiastic response at bethfantaskey.com that readers are excited too. “I have been so happy with the feedback,” Fantaskey says. “Within an hour of sending the invitations, my email was just going ‘boing,’ ‘boing.’ ”

And because no wedding would be complete without a bouquet toss, Fantaskey is holding a Catch the Bouquet contest to go along with the festivities. The lucky winner will receive an advance reader’s copy of Fantaskey’s upcoming novel, Jekel Loves Hyde, (spring 2010) as well as other Jessica’s Guide-related goodies. And while she says she has no plans at the moment for the next virtual event, Fantasky is always looking for new ways to thank readers. “After I did my first giveaway a few months ago, I got hooked on it,” she says. “It was so much fun!”