Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

  • Mood:
  • Music:

Still life, with naked cats.

My beloved Amy, savior of tired blondes, fiddler to the very gods themselves, arrived last night on a plane from Alabama, where she'd been visiting her sister and staying with my Halloween Family (the Crowells). Amy is key to my survival during Release Week Madness, being a very focused and centered individual whose primary purpose in life sometimes seems to be keeping the various members of her extended campana from self-destructing in a variety of exciting ways. I love Amy very much.

In preparation for her visit, I placed an order with my favorite cupcakery, Cups and Cakes, which is located conveniently close to my office. Specifically, I ordered an assorted dozen cupcakes, to please please please include the Mudslide (slightly bitter dark chocolate cake with Bailey's and Kahlua buttercream icing). After a long day spent dreaming of cupcakes and fiddlers, I left the office and went to make the pickup, only to learn to my delight that my personal favorite flavor, the Peanut Butter and Jelly, had also been included in the assortment. (Sweet grape cake with peanut butter buttercream. Basically, these cupcakes are felony-level delicious.) Victory!

As Amy's flight was not for several hours, I also grabbed a couple of spare Mudslide cupcakes with which to bribe Jude, who was on-duty at Borderlands Books, where I intended to kill some time. Borderlands is an excellent place to sit and work, at least if you're me, and find the smells and sounds of a well-maintained bookstore endlessly soothing.

The cupcakes and I reached the bookstore without incident, and I promptly plied Jude with her delicious cupcake-y treats, thus convincing her to allow me to sit and work. (It didn't take much convincing, or really, any convincing; Borderlands is very pro-authors actually finishing books, providing we're not breaking anything while we do it.) Alas, it turned out that Ripley and Ash, the store's hairless cats, were less well-inclined toward my literary aspirations. The afternoon went something like this...

"Mow."
"No, Ripley, you can't have my lap. I'm working."
"Wow."
"Okay, you can have half my lap. But I'm still working."
"Yow."
"Just let me shut down my laptop, and I'll pet you."
"Now."
"...stop speaking English, it's creepy."

Ash, meanwhile, rode the Kitty Crazytrain around the store until it became time to groom herself, at which point she perched on my arm and licked her naked arms with blithe abandon. I think, perhaps, that I spend too much time at Borderlands, as the cats have now started to regard me as furniture.

In the "spending too much time at Borderlands" category, local folks please remember that I'll be at the store on March 9th for the A Local Habitation release party. We'll have live music from SJ Tucker, Betsy Tinney, Amy McNally, and potentially more; a raffle with some awesome, awesome prizes; a reading from A Local Habitation; and the Great Pumpkin only knows what else. It's gonna be an awesome time, and I'd love to see lots and lots of you there.

Borderlands Books. Because sometimes, we like our cats with a side-order of Nair.
Tags: amy, appearances, cats, food, good things, in the wild, silliness, support local bookstores
  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

  • 33 comments
...the cats have now started to regard me as furniture.

I thought that was the state of all sane cats. (My mother has an insane cat that is more afraid of me than of not having heated furniture or not eating.)
Usually, Ripley demands the love, and Ash sort of eyes me suspiciously. It's only in recent visits that I've been getting mobbed by both of them (sometimes at the same time).
Though I have been to the store several times and met the cats, I never knew their names. Funny.
Ripley is the larger, calico one with more hair (due to her chemotherapy), Ash is the smaller bi-color one who runs around like she's possessed by demon wasps.
Reading this entry - reading all your entries really - brings me much joy and many smiles. You make me think, and you make me laugh, in a nice balance. Thank you. :-) Just wanted to tell you that.
Awwww, thanks!
Do you think the Great Pumpkin will show up?
Wherever we are gathered in His honor (or around baked goods), He is there.

xjenavivex

7 years ago

seanan_mcguire

7 years ago

If I might be allowed a moment of whatever the opposite of schadenfreude is called, I'd like to congratulate you on BASFA recommending Rosemary and Rue as a Best Novel Hugo nominee and giving you far more recommendations than they gave anyone else for the Campbell. Also, as of this moment, A Local Habitation is up to #919 for all books on Amazon, and #63 in fantasy. Happy release day!

I recently tried a new cupcake store in town, Just Baked. Not as good as Cupcake Station, my current fave, but good. Your PB&J reminded me of one of their flavors, which is banana cake topped with peanut butter frosting topped with chocolate icing. They call it the Fat Elvis. (Would that anyone here had something like the Mudslide.)
...oh my stars and garters.

Thank you for letting me know. I continue to want the tiara.
I am of the belief that felines classify each item in our world as one of three things: food, toy, or furniture (which is not to say you can't undergo a State Change from, for example, Furniture to Toy).
No, there's also 'evil thing makeitdie' -- examples being most dogs, snow, the vacuum cleaner, and so on.

hasufin

7 years ago

seanan_mcguire

7 years ago

ooooo, PB&J cupcake...
It tastes EXACTLY LIKE a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's actually sort of creepy.
*sigh*

You talking about Borderlands really makes me miss the bookstore I used to haunt in Cupertino - A Clean Well Lighted Place. I wonder if it is still in business.

I used to go in and sit on the floor in the F&SF section and read books. They allowed it because they knew that when I had the money I would be in to purchase said book and I was always very careful to not break the spine or mar the pages.

Now I have to save my change so I can get A Local Habitation, figure out a way to get you to autograph it, and put it with the rest of my collection of autographed books - including Rosemary and Rue.

ladyqkat

7 years ago

seanan_mcguire

7 years ago

That PB&J cupcake sounds amazing along with the Mudslide, even though I'm weird and not that fond of chocolate. I think the icing is what makes it mouthwatering.
It's really pretty awe-inspiring.

Deleted comment

I am coming back at Halloween. Because one year away from the cornfield was too much to be borne.

Yay, Marcon! Will you play with me?

Deleted comment

We had Vir with a side order of Nair for a few moments, when he decided to brush against starmalachite's legs at just the wrong time. Fortunately, she got him into the shower -- much to his dismay -- before he got a bald spot (or, worse, tried licking the stuff off).
Whoops!
I live in a town with exactly one used bookstore with an extremely unfriendly proprietor. We had a Hastings that closed two years ago, even then they were more music than book oriented. The closest bookstores --Borelands and B&N-- are over thirty miles away, too far to ride my bicycle. Of course we have Wally World and Target and Kroger but their book selection is at best, sad. Our local library is decent but alas half of what it used to be before hurricane Ike. I really miss having a nice large bookstore nearby where there are shelves and shelves of books to browse through and a nice quite atmosphere to sit in big comfy chairs and relax. I've tried that at a few local coffee shops but the telecommuters screaming into their webcams make those places far less than relaxing these days.
Wow.

Amazon really is your friend.
I am hoping to make it to San Francisco someday. Land of the pink lemonade and root beer float cupcakes.

I am pondering how one makes sweet grape cake. Grape juice? Jam? Or perhaps a decent wine?
I don't know! But it's delicious.