Hey, folks—the summer convention season is kicking off, and that means it's time to return to our fannish roots and celebrate with geeky bling. I mean, of course, BADGE RIBBONS. Because nothing says "love" like pieces of fabric that you can stick to yourself. (Some people say that badge ribbons are totally over. I say that these are people who never played Halloweentown fairy princess when they were kids. We shall love our accessories until we die.)

So what do you think I should put on ribbons for this year? Suggest anything you like, from the silly to the sublime, and we'll see where things wind up going. Suggest a ribbon that I actually make, and I'll send you one, even if you're not attending the convention (first person to suggest the ribbon only, please). Keep in mind that we're trying to drum up interest and attract attention, but should still make a vague amount of sense while we're doing it.

Game on!

Marcon was very long, and very tiring, and totally cut me off from all Internet access, resulting in a whole lot of links building up while I was wandering through the wilds of Ohio. So here's our first review roundup for the month of June! Fun for the whole family.

I want to take a moment, before moving on to the meat of the post, to note that I do not link to every review. No, really, I don't! I don't link to reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. I don't link to reviews, either positive or negative, that contain major spoilers. I don't link to reviews where the reviewer seems to be being intentionally mean, rather than just being negative, because I don't want to cause them to get spammed by people trying to defend my honor. And I don't always link to reviews that are very short, or happen to come in at the same time as eighteen other reviews of the same thing. I love reviews, I want you all to write them (or not, as the fancy strikes you). If I don't link to yours in specific, I promise, it's not personal. Anyway...

First up, I was interviewed by the Innsmouth Free Press, which was totally awesome, since I spent the entire process picturing my interviewer as a Deep One. Anything that allows me to picture people as Deep Ones is a-okay by me. There are some fun questions in this one, and I, of course, am reasonably fond of my answers. Give it a peek.

Paul Allen has posted a fantastic review of Feed at the Barnes and Noble book club, and says "A cool fusion of campy post-apocalyptic zombie horror (George Romero is referred to as “one of the accidental saviors of the human race”) and highly intelligent political thriller a la Richard Condon’s The Manchurian Candidate, Feed—the first installment of Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy—is a surprisingly well-constructed and deeply themed novel." Also "Plain and simple, zombie fiction fans should definitely seek out and read this ingenious (and deeply thought-provoking) novel. I'd even recommend this novel to mainstream fiction readers looking for something new—if they don't mind a little rotting flesh in their literary escapism, that is..."

Awesome!

Strange Ink has posted a very sweet Feed review that opens with the admission "I almost didn't buy Feed." Since one of my best friends almost didn't read Feed due to zombie issues, I find this admission very sweet, and the faith that it represents very touching. She goes on to say, "Feed is not just another book about zombies. Feed is about politics and terrorism and truth. Feed is about fear, and how that is just as much of a weapon as a bomb, or a syringe full of virus. It is the kind of book that I want to buy extra copies of so I can stuff it into the hands of all my friends. (Seriously, I raved about it for a good five minutes at the party for my Goddaughter's baptism this weekend.)" Feed is all these things, and this is the kind of review statement I sort of want to write in Sharpie on my bedroom ceiling.

Eric at Flames Rising has posted a review of Feed, and says, "Here we have the ultimate pursuit of truth slipstreamed through both science fiction and horror. Here we have a book that broaches a subject that seems to be more in line with what most critics would call 'literary fiction.' But Feed has it in spades, not only is it a book that I believe will be something of a jumping on point for the zombie fiction of the twenty first century, it completely lapses itself back and forth from the pursuit of truth to the pursuit of survival against government conspiracies, to survival against hordes of the undead. I can not tell you dear readers just how much I have enjoyed this book, and at a whopping 590 pages in paperback format which was released by Orbit books, it is a fantastically fast read." Also: "Georgia Mason is possibly one of the strongest female characters I have read in a very long time." Um. Squee.

Our last review for today comes from Bookalicious, where a lovely Feed review has been posted. The review says, "The characters were written fantastically, the different viruses how they reacted, the different ways people reanimated. The fanatic religious element, betrayals, the mystery and the story line had me hooked. I am dying to get my hands on the next book. I need to know what happens next, and in a good way not in a 'ARGH open ending way.'" Rockin'!

That's a good place to stop for right now. Lots more review links to come, and then, possibly? A nice long nap.

Words: 4,741.
Total words: 42,577.
Reason for stopping: I have reached the end of chapter eleven. I need air.
Music: the entire collection, on random.
Lilly and Alice: sniffing my picnic basket and on the cat tree, respectively.

This may seem like a less impressive word count than last night's 37k, but since that was "revised and official text to date," and this is "one night's hard work," I'm going to call it a win. Also, I feel like I've been ridden madly over the moors for most of a night, and I didn't even get a nice bucket of oatmeal cookies for my troubles. Tired author is tired, and about to retire to the bath.

The Brightest Fell is turning into a real book, with a real point and purpose behind it, and with real ideas about where the narrative is supposed to go. I'm going to spend a chunk of this weekend redoing my outline, since half of it has gone out the damn window, but the book is so much unutterably better for it that I'm not actually complaining. Just, you know. Whining a little. It's so nice to be back in Toby's world, hanging out with all these crazy-train fairy tale rejects and dealing with their even crazier, even trainier, problems. Lots of crazy in this one.

Next up, I attempt to get enough finished text that I can pretend to be at least a novella. Also, I take a nice long nap.