...quite soon, actually. Like, in a month. Actually, like, in twenty-nine days. (That's twenty-nine days if you believe the date I got from my publisher, IE, "May 1st." Everyone else seems to think the book comes out on April 27th. I am choosing to continue believing May 1st, because at least that's two months after my last book release, not one month after my last book release, and implies that I might have had the opportunity to take a nap in the interim.)

I am terrified, elated, and a whole bunch of other things that are surprisingly difficult to describe. See, Feed was a thought experiment. It was my game of "What if...?" What if the zombie apocalypse happened...and we lived? What if society had to restructure itself around the idea that the dead will always walk? What if this wasn't going to go away? What if?

I walked around for years with a zombie world and no zombie story. I tinkered with the ecology when I got bored, working out dozens of things that will never make it into the novels (as I lack a naturalist protagonist), but which combined to make a deeper, more convincing reality when I finally started really having a party there. I periodically bitched to my more understanding friends about how I had this truly awesome world, all full of zombies and personal firearms and stuff, and no story to tell there.

Then my friend Micheal Ellis said "Well, why don't you write about a Presidential campaign?"

And it all happened from there.

I'm sure I've told this story here before, because I've told this story a lot. But I'm still so grateful, and so overjoyed, that there are no words. I love the Masons, and my weird journalistic world, and everything else about this series, and for all that I am girl, paralyzed by fear, I really am unbelievably excited that you're going to get to meet them all.

One month 'til the Rising. Wow. It's been a long time coming.

Title: Velveteen vs. The Eternal Halloween.
Summary: There was a time before Velveteen had retired from The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division; a time when she thought that a hero's life was definitely the life for her. And a time, once upon a dark and stormy night, when Halloween seemed set to last forever...

( It was Halloween morning, and for some reason she couldn't quite identify or name -- 'couldn't put her finger on,' as David kept saying, looking mournfully at his own massive claws -- Velveteen was uneasy. She walked through the back halls of the compound that housed The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division with strange shivers dancing along the back of her neck, and waited for some unseen other shoe to drop...Collapse )

I'm off for Wondercon, in sometimes-sunny San Francisco! I have no official programming this year, but will definitely be attending the following (unless I get bored, or find something else to do, or need lunch):

Friday at 4:30, Fringe screening.
Saturday at 12:00, Disney sneak peeks.
Saturday at 1:45, Resident Evil 4 panel.
Saturday at 2:30, the future of the X-Men.
Saturday at 4:00, Trailer Park.
Saturday at 4:30, Kick-Ass presentation.

I have no specific plans for Sunday, and may or may not attend, depending on my word counts. I'll have my mother and my younger sister (and my younger sister's girlfriend) in tow for much of the weekend; if you spot us, feel free to say hey, and get anything you might be carrying signed. There will be shiny new bookmarks on the freebie table. I'll post when we have a time for the cupcake run.

Whee!