One hundred twenty-five and counting.: seanan

One hundred twenty-five and counting.

One hundred twenty-five days. That's all that remains between me, in this moment, as I'm typing this, and me, standing in a book store, holding a copy of Rosemary and Rue in my hands. Which will probably be shaking. I'm intending to creep quietly into a large chain store where nobody knows me, pay retail for the first copy I can find, and then go sit in a bathroom and cry for a good long while. And then I will dry my face and go back to the business of dealing with a release, IE, "being perky and accessible," "signing books and being charming," and "not reading my Amazon reviews." (For serious. I have been forbidden to read my Amazon reviews, and I support this commandment. I'm going to be crazy enough that week without the extra feedback.)

One hundred twenty-five days. I received my page proofs in the mail on Saturday, and have been dilligently crawling through them with a red pen, hunting and killing any errors that I find. If it makes it through the proofs, it's my fault. So I have to hunt and kill like a velociraptor trying to feed her young, aware that any mistakes made in the prehistoric jungle could lead to being eaten by a larger predator. Okay, so maybe it's not that bad. I mean, we're not at "burst into tears during the Hellboy II credits because I just figured out a continuity error" levels of high-strung yet, and we may not get there ever. But it's definitely very brain-and-stress-intensive, as well as being a fascinating exercise in reviewing my own text.

One hundred twenty-five days. My cover flats came in yesterday's mail. Actual, printed covers with my actual, printed cover image and my actual, printed back-cover text. My name and the title of the book are both embossed. After I finished crying, I started to laugh hysterically, because—without my having any actual input or control over the graphic design—I have wound up with a first novel whose title is presented in large, embossed, eye-catching, pumpkin-fucker orange lettering. Did you need proof that I control the universe? Because I actually got proof that I control the universe. And the proof is awesome.

One hundred twenty-five days. My to-do lists are starting to look like an elaborate piece of conditional theoretical math, because, of course, they fall down every time I need to wait for somebody to get back to me. "If X has not happened, Y; if X has happened, Z" is becoming a distressingly common entry. (And if you're wondering why I'm doing lists that far out, you haven't checked my schedule recently.) I'm trying to make things as unconditional as I possibly can, simply for the sake of my own sanity. And Kate's sanity. And Vixy's sanity. And The Agent's sanity. And the sanity of anybody else who has to deal with me between now and the end of September.

One hundred twenty-five days. That's when you get to meet Toby properly and in print for the very first time.

I'm so excited I could scream.

...go 2 levels up... Expand

hoppytoad79

April 29 2009, 16:58:23 UTC 8 years ago

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I love the random commentary on the countdown. It's now my homepage.

There are three covers? Will we get a chance to see all of them before the book is published, or will we be forced to actually get up and go to the bookstore to look for ourselves? Making an effort is just too much effort, know what I mean? ;)

seanan_mcguire

April 30 2009, 02:17:12 UTC 8 years ago

There are three covers, one for each book. :) You can view all three here:

http://seananmcguire.com/toby.php

April 30 2009, 03:44:49 UTC 8 years ago

Oh, okay. I thought it was three different covers just for the first book. The figure with red glowing eyes on the second book is creepy and most cool.

What resources did you use to learn more about the sidhe? I have a story idea knocking around in my head involving them.

April 30 2009, 04:48:14 UTC 8 years ago

Well, first, I used the UC Berkeley folklore department, where I studied folklore and mythology.

Beyond that, it depends on what kind of Sidhe you're looking for. Remember that there are at minimum five races of fae with "Sidhe" in the name, and that's just the common ones (for the morbidly curious, that's the Daoine Sidhe, Bean Sidhe, Lehuannan Sidhe, Cu Sidhe, and Cait Sidhe). "Sidhe" isn't a good synonym for "generic fae," despite a lot of modern usage.

If you're looking for specific types of Sidhe, there are some decent resources. If you're looking for fae in general, there are more.

April 30 2009, 09:02:59 UTC 8 years ago

I know enough to know I don't know nearly enough, and that there are different types/races of sidhe but I couldn't remember much beyond that. The major sidhe character in my story is daoine sidhe and the other races will come up from time to time. What I'd really like right now is a Gaelic Mythology for Dummies-type resource.

April 30 2009, 12:25:01 UTC 8 years ago

Go go Katharine Briggs. She's mostly English mythology, with side-jaunts into Ireland and Scotland, but her work was truly fabulous.

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