Fifty days until the winter starts...and it's gonna be a long one.: seanan

Fifty days until the winter starts...and it's gonna be a long one.

Fifty days. That's how long we have before The Winter Long will be on bookstore shelves (US on-sale date is September 2nd). Book eight. We made it to book eight. I remember when I was just caught in a loop, rewriting books one through four over and over again, making grandiose plans for book five, but never quite managing to break free and do anything new. Now I'm getting ready to start on book ten, and the path is very clear ahead of me.

Fifty days and five years: that's the distance between Rosemary and Rue and The Winter Long. At an average of 350 pages a book (average; please don't comment to say "but this one was only 338..."), that's almost 3,000 pages of Toby, with more to come. Honestly, I'm amazed she's lived this long, given everything that I've put her through. She's too stubborn to die and too fun to kill, which is probably the only thing that's saved her.

Fifty days and you get to find out everything I haven't been saying since book one. This is the volume where a lot of chickens come home to roost: it's always been planned as the game-changer for act one of the series. I think I managed to accomplish that. Early review copies are out in the world, and thus far there have been no spoilers, for which I am very grateful. I really like it when people can discover what I've done for themselves.

Fifty days. I'll be somewhere in Europe when this book drops (probably in Edinburgh, with Amal, hiding under whatever piece of furniture I can wedge myself beneath), twitchy and waiting for the reviews to come in, yet terrified of reading them. I wish I could be here to do my normal release day funtimes. I'm glad I'll be far away. Somehow, both emotions are succeeding in existing at the same time.

Fifty days. That's so long.

Fifty days. That isn't long at all.

ironed_orchid

July 15 2014, 02:22:41 UTC 2 years ago

New comment

I am so looking forward to this one.

I've started my manager on the Toby books, she just finished Late Eclipses.

seanan_mcguire

July 15 2014, 17:26:15 UTC 2 years ago

Yay!

angelamaria

July 15 2014, 02:55:16 UTC 2 years ago

So looking forward to this! Can't wait, and really keen to meet all those chickens ;) Let me go and see if preorder is in the cards.

July 15 2014, 17:26:32 UTC 2 years ago

I hope so!

runiechica

July 15 2014, 06:01:27 UTC 2 years ago

I couldn't agree more with your last words....fifty days, that's so long (too long) and yet it isn't long at all. This countdown has made me excited and more anxious to read what happen next.

No words for how thankful I am that Rosemary and Rue caught my eye on the new release shelf of the library and I discovered one of my top 3 book characters of all time. Thank you for bringing her so far...looking forward to seeing how far she can come.

July 15 2014, 17:26:47 UTC 2 years ago

Thank you so much for reading.

Deleted comment

July 15 2014, 17:26:57 UTC 2 years ago

Woot!

evaleastaristev

July 15 2014, 06:49:25 UTC 2 years ago

50 days, and it magically appears on my Nook at midnight, for me to happily read in what I hope will not be one sitting.

Maybe I should request that day to work from home....just in case.

July 15 2014, 17:27:13 UTC 2 years ago

That is admittedly a great thing about ebooks.

_dante_sparda_

July 15 2014, 07:27:25 UTC 2 years ago

Oh, bother! I hope I manage to scrape up the money for the last two books in time! I got ahold of Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea two days ago and have already devoured them in my impatience!

*manages to contain joyful squealing anyway*

November 12 2014, 23:57:42 UTC 2 years ago

I hope you succeeded!

phoenix_singing

July 15 2014, 11:46:18 UTC 2 years ago

I preordered this the instant it came up on my Nook. SO EXCITED. :D :D :D

And I've finally got my husband reading Toby! Squeeeeeeeeee

November 12 2014, 23:57:51 UTC 2 years ago

Squee!

ellie101

July 15 2014, 15:57:03 UTC 2 years ago

I am so SOOOOO looking forward to this. :D I adored the last book and I'm even more excited for this one. 50 day countdown of AWESOME! (Well, 49 now?) Any who. I am soooo excited! And I bet you'll have a grand time in Europe. All the old gorgeous streets. Maybe you'll see an incarnation of Tybalt, plotting plots, watching plays... :)

November 12 2014, 23:58:04 UTC 2 years ago

Glee.

jslinder

July 15 2014, 15:59:57 UTC 2 years ago

You know what? Don't read the reviews. Don't give a crud about them...

You are releasing book EIGHT! You have 10 books in the pipeline. That means you have so many dedicated readers that publishers offer you contracts few other authors will ever see.

What other reviews do you need?

November 12 2014, 23:58:22 UTC 2 years ago

I do enjoy reviews, a lot of the time!

reynai

July 16 2014, 02:42:47 UTC 2 years ago

*reads comments to make sure no one else has said this already* *clears throat* *sings* "EIGHT DAYES A WEEEEEK..!"

It'll give me something nice and relaxing* to read during all the year-end fun at work!

*reading about dangerous madcap antics is always more relaxing than living your own hectic work schedules.

November 12 2014, 23:58:34 UTC 2 years ago

Hee hee hee.

kyrielle

July 16 2014, 03:30:49 UTC 2 years ago

Eeeeeeee so excited!

November 12 2014, 23:58:51 UTC 2 years ago

Me, too. Always.

lots42

July 16 2014, 04:09:47 UTC 2 years ago

If you tried to kill her, Toby would break through to this reality, kick your ass, then become the next President and Spike the cat would be Vice President.

November 12 2014, 23:59:00 UTC 2 years ago

Seriously.

arcaneblades

July 16 2014, 07:18:06 UTC 2 years ago

And I was just thinking about this today, and when to start the re-reading of the series. I am admittedly a fairly swift reader, so that was when in *August* shall I start re-reading those, but to be fair it came about because I was debating whether there would be time and brain power to reread *twice* before them, because damnnit, I want more Toby now, and the best shot at that was to re-read what I have.

Conga-Rats! and many more books.

November 12 2014, 23:59:12 UTC 2 years ago

Thank you!

knittingwoman

July 17 2014, 14:28:01 UTC 2 years ago

I love lots of the different things I have read by you (can't wait to read more of the Oz material in particular) but the Toby series remains my absolute favorite:) September is my birthday month and is going to start with this book and end with letters to the pumpkin king on my actual birthday which is at the end of the month (I know that somebody has bought this ahead of time for me:))