(This post was supposed to go up yesterday, when we were fifteen days from the official release of Late Eclipses. I was ill, and so it didn't get posted, and you are thus getting a double-dip today. Either I'm sorry or you're welcome, depending on your point of view.)

15. Formal courtship is still alive and well in Faerie, and involves a great deal of poetry, flowers, and elaborate ritual. It is customary for the person being courted to thank the person doing the courting for each step after the first, to remind them that they have an obligation to finish what they've started. If you see a couple of moon-struck young fae thanking each other a lot, they're engaged in a formal courtship.

14. Most purebloods speak and utilize the ritual language of flowers when courting; every bouquet is a poem in and of itself. Never buy a Daoine Sidhe flowers from Safeway, you'll just confuse them.

13. The majority of fae marriages do not result in children, and are dissolved without issue by the participants. In these cases, it's not even really considered a "divorce," so much as a parting of the ways, and there is almost always no resentment between them. In some cases, people will even dissolve a marriage, and then turn around and marry the siblings of their former spouses, just because they're bored, but enjoy the overall dynamic of their extended family.

12. Same-sex marriage is relatively common, and even well-regarded, especially by families who do not have titles of their own; long-term fostering leading to formal adoption will usually provide these couples with an heir, and provide the foster's original family with a closer tie to the nobility.

11. Setting quests for a suitor is acceptable, if currently somewhat out of fashion for anyone lower in rank than the heir of a Duke.

10. Because sexual relations with a mortal are not considered infidelity, many married couples will take human lovers from time to time, just to break up the tedium.

9. Marriage to a human is not considered legal or binding under fae law. Consequentially, all changelings are considered bastards.

8. Purebloods have access to incredibly rich, complicated foods in the Summerlands. Their wines are beyond mortal comprehension, their cakes a doorway into divinity. This does not prevent them really, really liking Hershey's chocolate. Many otherwise expensive courtships are heavily centered around Mr. Goodbar. No one knows why.

7. Arranged marriage still occurs among some races of fae. This is a hold-over from when Faerie was very young, and they needed to make sure people were as distantly related as possible. (Fae genetics are weird and not the topic here, and all members of any given race are descended from the same First, but they still wanted to avoid marrying their sisters when possible.) The underground races are especially fond of arranged marriage.

6. But not the Gremlins. Gremlins marry for love, or because you have a really big...forge. There's nothing a Gremlin girl likes better than a man with a really big forge.

5. There are different rules for courtship between a man and a woman, two men, two women, a man and two women, or a woman and two men. Beyond that, they sort of make it up as they go along.

4. Yes, group marriage occurs. It's especially common among Centaurs, Satyrs, Cetacea, and Gremlins. As a rule, we don't ask. Especially not about the Gremlins.

3. It is considered exceedingly rude to break off a courtship in the middle for anything short of "My liege has arranged a marriage for me" or "We're going to war." Once the courting period has been finished and you're just dating, it becomes a lot more acceptable.

2. Watching really traditional purebloods try to court their human lovers is funnier than anything currently on weeknight TV.

1. The fae believe in true love. Even when it hurts them. And because they're going to live forever, they're usually willing to wait until the time is right to buckle down and pursue it. This can make them infuriating to humans and changelings, because they're so damn slow...but when they marry for love, it tends to be forever.

It's that time again! It's February 15th, and that means I need to write a big long post explaining what all I'm currently working on, just in case you'd started to think that I knew the meaning of the words "free time." This is the February 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving. And yes, the date is there for a reason. Largely so you can find the right post, if you insanely want to reference them.

To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Late Eclipses and Deadline). The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out!Collapse )

We're fourteen days from the release of Late Eclipses, my fourth published urban fantasy! And so I give you fourteen things about urban fantasy that I think you ought to know. You're welcome.

14. Urban fantasy has its roots in fairy tales and folk stories. Remember that when "Little Red Riding Hood" or "The Boy Who Had No Fear" were first being told, they were about contemporary people, in contemporary settings. Despite its relatively recent resurgence in popularity, urban fantasy is a very old genre.

13. You can usually tell the difference between urban fantasy and paranormal romance based on the covers (but not always). If the woman has a head and all her clothes, it's probably urban fantasy. If she's naked or headless, it's probably paranormal romance. If it's a fully-clothed man, it's definitely urban fantasy. If it's a shirtless man, it's definitely paranormal romance. Both genres like brooding gazes and leather trousers.

12. Not all urban fantasy is set in cities; you get urban fantasy set in small towns, rural areas, and even the suburbs. "Urban fantasy" is just a convenient label.

11. Much modern urban fantasy draws aspects from westerns, film noir, horror movies, fairy tales, and yes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's a good genre for magpies and people who enjoy writing snarky dialogue.

10. One of the big advantages of urban fantasy is the way it lends itself to writing series. If you want to do twelve books about the adventures of your Ikeamancer, you're a lot more likely to succeed in urban fantasy than in any other genre.

9. One of the big disadvantages of urban fantasy is the way it lends itself to writing series. Stories set in these worlds tend to splinter, and because the readers are there, it's harder to resist the urge to just roll with it. (I am a natural serial thinker, so this is perfect for me. Other people, it ends in tears.)

8. No, not all urban fantasy involves sex you don't want your mother reading.

7. The label "urban fantasy" is just an umbrella for something that can include comedy, horror, romance, adventure, mystery, wackiness, and good old-fashioned caper stories. It provides a frame. Individual authors will provide the details.

6. A lot of the issues people have with urban fantasy covers are there to give a visual clue as to the contents of the book. Tattoos, leather pants, and impractical shoes have become hallmarks of the genre, and they're likely to be on the cover whether or not they appear between it.

5. I created Verity Price partially to justify having a heroine wearing impractical shoes. I'm probably not the only one.

4. Good urban fantasy is enthralling because it's so immediate. The present-day world is there; all you need to do is buy into the changes.

3. Bad urban fantasy is bad because it's so immediate. The present-day world is there, and changes that aren't supported by the text are going to be jarring in the extreme.

2. Most urban fantasy writers are writing what they do because they love it. That's why it's such a rich, varied genre right now, with so many things to offer. Urban fantasy really does have something for everyone.

1. I love it, and read it, too.

Current stats:

Words: 114,399
Pages: 421
Chapters: five of thirty-five
Started: February 15th, 2011
Finished: ???

It's been exactly three months since I locked down my submission draft of One Salt Sea and sent it off to The Editor: long enough that the text now looks faintly alien, like maybe I wrote it, or maybe it was written by someone who was really, really good at faking my style. This is the perfect position to be in when starting revisions, which is good, because revision time is upon us at last.

The first five chapters have now been revised to fix issues pointed out by my editorial review, correct timeline glitches, and fix things that became visible only after three months of having nothing to do with the book. I'll probably do three to five more chapters tomorrow night, and then ship the .ms off to the Machete Squad, so they can make sure I'm not breaking anything. Thus will the pattern go, until the book is done and mailed back to The Editor for final review and printing.

It's a book. When the hell did that happen?