1. The Roseville event was awesome, and the store now has autographed copies of all five of my currently published books. A Local Habitation is naturally in the shortest supply, so if you'd been planning to swing by the store and pick up a set, you should probably do so soon, before everything goes away. Thanks to Alex, for having me, and to Sunil, for bringing me wonderful goodies from England and giving me hugs.

2. In case you missed the announcement, An Artificial Night is in the BSC Review Book Tournament Finals, and Toby could use your vote. Also, once she has conclusively CRUSHED HER OPPONENT, I can stop posting about this, thus freeing up your valuable display space for other topics, like the ever-popular "complaining about my cats."

3. I really enjoyed the newest Disney Channel Original Movie, Lemonade Mouth. I did not enjoy them presenting the first hour of the movie sans commercials without warning me first, as it meant I had not brought a soda, or a blanket, or the paperwork I needed to finish during the movie, before sitting down on the couch. I am told the book is better than the movie. I must now read the book.

4. Served at yesterday's brunch: potato cake. It's cake, made of potatoes, bacon fat, and bacon. HOW CAN THIS BE? The spirit of sweetmusic_27 hovered over my shoulder and watched me eat it, and I now need the recipe, because I must cook it for her. It is a moral imperative.

5. I visited the Sacramento Shirt Shop, and plans for Wicked Girls shirts are now proceeding apace. I should be posting about it soon. Girl-cut shirts are available up to 2x, and we'll be able to do standard-cut shirts up to 5x, as needed, for no additional cost. Baby shirts are a different setup, and so would be a different order. Details will be forthcoming; I don't have them just yet.

6. I am solidly on target to hit 100,000 words on Blackout by Saturday. This is both incredibly exciting and incredibly stressful, since it means I'm coming closer and closer to the point where I have to stop setting things up in favor of knocking everything down. Considering what I have left to do in this volume, I'm starting to worry that the first draft may need more trimming than I thought. Since I am a perennial trimmer (better a late trim than a panicked plumping), this is okay, it's just surprising.

7. Zombies are love.

8. The Cartoon Network schedule for the rest of 2011 has been released, and Tower Prep is not represented. Here's hoping this is either a glitch, or they're about to announce moving Tower Prep to SyFy, where it could find an enormous audience and live forever.

9. I will probably celebrate hitting 100,000 words on Blackout by cleaning as much of my room as is physically possible and then writing the rest of "Rat-Catcher" in one feverish sprint. Don't judge me, this is how writers party hard.

10. Doctor Who comes back on Saturday. Saturday can't come fast enough.

Today marks the launch of the Orbit Short Fiction Program, through which they will be bringing you delicious nuggets of juicy fiction goodness from Orbit authors. Including, naturally, one miss Mira Grant.

In fact, they have a new Mira Grant story available right now.

"Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box" is a heartwarming story about high school friends who still see each other every week to play a game that they love very much. Namely, the Apocalypse Game, wherein they end the world with gleeful abandon. But sadly, someone may be taking the game a little more seriously than was originally intended...

"Apocalypse Scenario," and all other stories in the Orbit Short Fiction Program, are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Diesel Ebooks, and Booksonboard.com. Follow the link to either the landing page for the program or the story itself to get the links.

Enjoy the end of the world.

Because nothing says "Seanan is trying to relax" like me undertaking a new project, I am going to be making a limited batch of "Wicked Girls" T-shirts. How limited? "The number of orders I receive, plus maybe a few extras, but I don't make any promises"-limited.

The design, thanks to the ever-lovely Tara:



This is a mock-up; the actual shirts will use that design, but will vary a little. I'm printing them through a small local shop, and they're being wonderfully flexible about everything. There are three types of shirts I can do.

The standard girl-cut T (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in black, dark chocolate, dark gray, indigo, midnight navy, plum, or scarlet, and is available in small through 2XL.

A girl-cut T with a shallow V-neck (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in dark gray, indigo, plum, or black, and is available in small through 2XL.

The larger girl-cut T (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in black, charcoal, dark chocolate brown, dark green, or purple, and is available in small through 4XL.

The unisex T (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in black, charcoal, dark chocolate brown, dark green, dark heather gray, navy, or purple, and is available in small through 6XL.

There may be an additional charge for sizes 4XL through 6XL, but it wouldn't be more than a few dollars.

HOW THIS IS GOING TO WORK.

1. If you want to buy a shirt, comment here with:

a) what you want (size, style, color)
b) how many you want
c) your email address

2. For each shirt you're requesting, stuff $20 in a cookie jar somewhere. Why? Because I will not be asking you to pay for your shirt or shirts until we have a sufficiently large number of requests to print. (This is also why we're not doing baby shirts. If twelve people want to ask for them, then we can talk.)

2b. The $20 is inclusive of postage within North America; outside, please indicate that you are willing to pay additional postage.

3. I will add your information to a spreadsheet, and contact you when we have enough requests.

Orders are now closed. I am still contacting people to add them to the spreadsheet. Thanks to everyone who ordered!