Well, I'm home from San Diego; more (much more) on that to come later, once I finish waking up and catching up on my email. First up, here's some link-spam to clean up what's come into my inbox in the interim. Forgive me that it's not as sorted as normal. I'm still not technically awake.

First up, check out this awesome Publishers Weekly review of The Living Dead 2, that upcoming anthology of zombie awesomeness from Night Shade Press. Does it mention my/Mira's new short story, "Everglades," set during the Rising? Why, yes. Yes, it does.

Second up, here's a shiny new review of A Local Habitation, posted by Tracy, who says "I said it in my review of Rosemary and Rue, the first book in the October Daye series; I tend to not be fond of fae mythos in general because it makes my brain hurt. I also said that I really liked Rosemary and Rue despite it...and despite myself. Well, with A Local Habitation, I may have to stop saying it altogether. I don't know what it is about Seanan McGuire, but she makes me like (if not totally understand) fae mythos. That's pretty darn impressive." Yay!

Our one Feed review for the day comes courtesy of Miss Geeky in the UK. It's well-written and thoughtful, but doesn't really have any good pull quotes for this sort of entry. So go check it out, shall you?

Now for the reviews I'm really getting excited about: two more reviews of An Artificial Night have hit the wide, wide world. Pardon me while I hyperventilate, 'kay?

The first is from Rebecca at Dirty Sexy Books, who says, "For me, An Artificial Night brought this series back up to the five-star rating that I gave to book one, Rosemary and Rue. Seanan McGuire's writing feels so dense and weighty to me, like a flour-less chocolate cake, but what astounds me is that her stories are such easy-to-read page-turners as well." Also, "I assumed this would be a rather simple three part play: Toby finds the kids; Toby fights the bad guy; Toby brings them home; The End. I was wrong. It was an emotional ride of ups and downs, and Toby is such a gritty, stubborn little fighter. I love her resolve. Toby's personal story progressed, and I have to say, I like where it's going." Glee!

Also up today is TJ's review at Dreams and Speculation. TJ says "Another strong installment in the Toby Daye series. The story isn't as gleaming with manic energy as the first or second, but still a fast and compelling read." Rock on!

And that's our administrative stuff for the right now. More later.

Behold! For now I wear the human pants! I have finished processing the editorial notes on Late Eclipses, gone through the book end-to-end to make sure everything still makes sense, and finished processing the corrections in Vixy's gloriously detailed machete file. Then I packed it a lunch and sent it off to play with the Machete Squad, who will doubtless hack it to hell before it gets to go back to The Editor for the final time.

The current book stats:

Pages, 369.
Words, 107,372.
Chapters, thirty-seven.
Cans of DDP, oh, wow, I cannot tell you.

I'm finally happy with this book. It's in a very awkward position, because book four is sort of where you get to say "here's when shit gets real," and make people stop treating you like you're writing a trilogy (which I never was). It's a transition book, and it follows An Artificial Night, which is still my favorite in the series. But it's also better than I ever dreamt it would be, and I'm so thrilled to have watched it grow into something wonderful.

In conclusion...

...DINO DANCE PARTY!