Have you always wanted to attend one of my book events? Well, here's your chance!

The Traveling Circus will be reuniting this Saturday, September 18th, for a gala bash at Borderlands Books in San Francisco, California! Festivities will commence at five, and continue until nine, by which point the bookstore will have had more than enough of us, and will doubtless shovel us all out into the street.

Will there be music? Yes, there will be music. With Amy McNally, Michelle Dockrey, Betsy Tinney, SJ Tucker, and Brooke Lunderville in attendance, music has become unavoidable. The musicians will be back in the bookstore this time, leaving the cafe open for the consumption of delicious, delicious beverages, and even more delicious food.

Will there be a raffle? Yes, there will be a raffle. Awesome prizes are being prepared as we speak, tucked into their box with care as we get ready for the big night. All attendees will get a raffle ticket automatically; get another ticket by making a purchase at either the bookstore or the cafe (three tickets per person, maximum).

Will there be cake? Yes, there will be cake. It's Toby's one-year publication "birthday," and cake makes every birthday better.

Will there be pendants? Yes, there will be pendants. chimera_fancies will be in attendance, with a never-before-seen batch of pendants created from an ARC of An Artificial Night. They're some of her best work to date, and will be available for sale throughout the evening. Seriously, you don't want to miss these.

Remember that, if you can't attend, Borderlands is happy to take requests for signed and personalized books, and I'd be thrilled to sign a book to be mailed to you. They have all three Toby books, Feed, The Living Dead 2, and—the last time I checked—one of the last remaining retail copies of Ravens in the Library. So show up if you can, and consider placing an order if you can't!

This message bought and paid for by The Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show, LLC.

So I tend to post about things that make me happy (being a generally happy sort of girl), and that means I've mentioned the Cups and Cakes Bakery in San Francisco a time or two. They make awesome cupcakes which thrill and delight; they're easily accessible on foot or via public transit; and they're just generally awesome people, tolerant of my crazy requests and of things like my publisher asking them to let me film while they make a few dozen brain cupcakes. My love for this bakery has been well-earned, and well-justified.

Last night, after work, I went by the bakery to pick up a dozen cupcakes. It was my sister Rachel's girlfriend's thirtieth birthday, and we wanted to celebrate. (We wound up celebrating primarily by going to the Old Spaghetti Family, because we are hard-core, yo.) Since the flavors hadn't been posted online before I left the office, I called Rachel from the bakery to list off the cupcakes they had in stock.

"Chris said she really wanted Grasshopper* if they had it," she said.

"Well, they don't have Grasshopper," I replied, and kept discussing flavors with her, not really registering the fact that the cupcake ladies had gone into bucket-checking overdrive as they dug through the tubes of existing frosting. We finished our phone call. I went to place my order.

Jennifer, the owner, held up a tube of green frosting. "We can make you some Grasshoppers, if you want."

Yes. The cupcake bakery, without being asked, made my sister's girlfriend her favorite cupcakes on her birthday. Now, they did it because they happened to have the frosting on-hand, but still! How many places will go to that sort of trouble just to make somebody happy? We plied Chris with cupcakes and flowers and balloons and faux-Italian food, and she had about the best birthday of anybody ever, and it was partially due to the wonderful women of Cups and Cakes.

And also the cupcakes were delicious.

I love awesome people.

(*Chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting and a Junior Mint on top. They taste like Thin Mints magically transformed into cake, and they are punch-a-Girl Scout delicious.)

I really, really love commissioning artwork to go with my books. Having something to look at helps me focus in a weird way that's difficult to explain without maddened waving of my hands and possibly a few declarations of "Ice worms, dammit!" One of my favorite artists to commission is the ever-lovely Amy Mebberson, who did the art for my 2008 thank you card. She has since gone on to better and brighter things, becoming an artist for Boom! Studios, which doesn't leave her much time for private commissions...so when she opened briefly for specialized commissions to be picked up at the San Diego International Comic Convention, I jumped on it with both feet. Victory!

...of course, now I had to decide what to ask her for. I settled, after much deliberation, on the lovely Miss Sarah Zellaby, arguably the oddest of the current crop of Healy girls. She was adopted by the Bakers (Evelyn Price-Healy's parents) after being orphaned at an early age—if you can call "losing the host family your biological parents brood parasitized you to" being "orphaned." Sarah would. She was too young to know what she was at the time, and she still misses her human family.

Sarah's a cuckoo. A telepathic, ectothermic (cold-blooded) mammalian parasitic wasp with a decentralized circulatory system (she has no heart). She's also a mathematician, and a bit embarrassed about her species, so her cousins try not to give her too much grief about it. Verity would be dead a dozen times over if not for Sarah. This has not helped Sarah in her quest to get a life that doesn't involve textbooks, tomato milkshakes, and apologies.

I give you...Sarah:



Squee.

So here's the thing: I don't want to be lectured about my reliance on thumb drive technology. I've gone over the pros and cons with a dozen people, and for the most part, my methodology is very safe. I perform frequent backups of the whole drive, as well as doing local file backups and mailing files to off-site readers. I avoid contact with magnets and with other things that seem likely to do me a mischief in the woods. I am a careful person. Internet storage systems don't work for me, for a lot of reasons, and as long as I have a day job, I need to be able to transport my work with me, without being tied to a specific system or reliant on a stable Internet connection.

With all that said, this has been my weekend:

Friday night, I got home, watched an episode of The West Wing, and did my basic household chores. Then I sat down to get some work done. This began with the insertion of my thumb drive into the USB port. "The format of Drive G is not recognized. Format Drive G?"

Uh, no. I removed the drive, blew on it, and tried it in a different port. Same result. I rebooted. Same result. I pulled out my netbook, booted it up, and tried again. Same result. I called Rey in tightly controlled hysterics. He came over, and—after spending about an hour and a half fighting—took my thumb drive away. He's supposed to come back tonight to finish file recovery. I've done basically no work this weekend, but I've only cried myself to sleep once, so that's something, right? Right?!

Oh, Great Pumpkin, I need a drink.

In happier news, there are still pendants created from A Local Habitation available from Chimera Fancies. Not only are these amazing pieces of unique, wearable art, but there are three extra-special pendants currently up for small-scale auction, here:

1. Born to Neverland.
2. Save Faerie.
3. Tybalt's Magic.

These are just incredible. Plus I got to write BPAL-style bumper text for them, which was, like, super-fun, and I will probably be unable to resist doing in the future. I am such a geek. Anyway, pretty shinies to admire and desire and obtain, and you should totally take a look. I love Mia's work so.

More contests next week, more review roundups, and hopefully, more sanity, once I have my files back. I have not had a good weekend.

My friend Mia makes jewelry. She turns recycled books of fairy tales, myths, and legends into incredible transformative jewelry, unlocking stories from the confetti bones of the stories that came before. I own more of her pendants than I care to really admit to, having acquired at least one or two from just about every sale she's done. You've heard all this before. So why am I saying it again?

Because she's posting a new sale tomorrow on chimera_fancies, her jewelry blog...and once again, it's not just any sale. Because after the success of her pendants based off an ARC of Rosemary and Rue, she decided to repeat her glorious experiment, and created pendants from an ARC of A Local Habitation. ARCs are not intended for resale; they're transitory things, unable to stand up to the stress of multiple re-readings. So Mia, mindful of the ARC's tragically short lifespan, took and transformed it into more than sixty gorgeous pieces of wearable art. I'm very serious. These pendants are some of the best work I've ever seen from her. She's growing as an artist with every piece she does, and for this set, she really busted out all the stops.

All pendants have been signed by me, in either black or silver Sharpie, depending on the base color. They'll be going up in three batches, starting tomorrow. You'll be able to request up to two pendants on Friday or Saturday, and then as many as you like of those remaining come Sunday (see her journal for details). All pendants will be $24, which includes postage.

These really are incredible. I couldn't be happier, or feel more honored, to be working with someone who does such amazing things. The announcement post, complete with previews, is here:

Come for the shiny, stay for the spectacular.

Remember when I posted all glowingly about a web comic called Skin Horse, and kept saying everybody should read it?

Remember how one of my big selling points was the first year of strips was now available in convenient dead tree format that you can take anywhere?

Good.

Shaenon and Jeff are now funding volume two through Kickstarter, which is a sort of crowd-funding aggregation service. You say how much you need by what date, and then people kick in what they can to make your project happen. The Skin Horse fund opened yesterday, with a $3,000 goal and an end date of, well, July.

It hit $3,000 last night. See what can happen when people believe that you're real?

Anyway: The volume two Kickstarter sponsorship fund is still open, and comes with some really awesome bonuses for sponsorship, including character sketches, side-stories, and more. The $20 sponsorship level gets you a signed copy of the book, for what would have been the book's cover price anyway—it's basically pre-ordering with a guaranteed signature, which is pretty neat.

If you like Skin Horse, consider sponsoring volume two. If you can't figure out what the hell I'm talking about, go read the comic, and then consider sponsoring volume two.

We're the shadow government.

We're here to help.

The first time I met Cat Valente, I was predisposed to dislike her. I had, after all, just come off a plane (I am never at my most charming when I have just come off a plane), we really hadn't spoken much at all (if at all), and she was waiting for me in Betsy and Dave's kitchen, like a grumpy* trapdoor alligator. I was not in a "meeting new people" headspace, and I didn't really have a way to avoid her, since she was between me and the bed.

The second time I met Cat Valente, it was eight o'clock in the morning, and she was in dire need of coffee, lest worlds should end. I, on the other hand, was bright-eyed and perky, having already been awake for an hour. I believe this was the meeting during which she was justifiably predisposed to dislike me. (I never hold people disliking me in the morning against them. It shows sanity.)

This is a story about Cat, and about me, and about all of us.

Because see, Cat had an idea for a book about a city that existed somewhere outside the bounds of simple cartography. It was a city of the sacred and profane geography of the soul, and it was called "Palimpsest." She wrote its story, because that's what women like her do, and, in the process, she wrote the story of a story: a children's book called The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Boat of Her Own Making. People were enchanted by the very notion of it, and asked when she was going to write it. She said she wasn't, and so of course, she did.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Boat of Her Own Making was originally crowd-funded, posted online for anyone to read. People followed the green wind into the realms of Cat's version of Fairy, and the book sailed away on sails that we all spun together. Since then, print rights have been sold, along with the promise of a sequel...and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Boat of Her Own Making has been nominated for the Andre Norton Award. It's being given tonight at the Nebulas, the day after we sent a shuttle into the sky to become a star.

Pause a moment, and consider this. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Boat of Her Own Making was a dream inside a dream, and it became reality because people said "I want this, and I am willing to help you make it real." It became so real that it's on the ballot for a major literary award. The book of the dream that birthed it, Palimpsest, is up for the Hugo, given the same weekend as the Campbell Award (which I have been nominated for, and yes, have had weird dreams about). We made this real for Cat, and so she made it real for everyone else.

Whether she comes home with the award or not, she's already won, because nothing like The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Boat of Her Own Making has ever made this sort of ballot before. Know that you helped to do this, and be glad.

Oh, and Cat?

I like you now. Even when I'm tired.

(*My screensaver face is one of abject puzzlement. Cat's is one of holy irritation. We're like the Statler and Waldorf of urban fantasy when we're tired and standing next to each other.)

Look! I was the Big Idea on John Scalzi's blog! I'm pretty delighted. Also, his introduction is awesome:

"Oh Noes! It’s the Zombie Apocalypse™! It’s the end of the world! Yes, yes, Mira Grant said, zombies, end of the world, blah blah blah. Been there. Done that. Got the bloody t-shirt. But what comes after the end of the world, when the world actually is still there? One answer: Feed, which takes a couple decades beyond the zombie apocalypse to a world which has, in its way, adjusted to the undead. And Grant (the pen name for current Campbell Award nominee Seanan McGuire) does a pretty good job with it, according to a starred review in Publishers Weekly: 'Shunning misogynistic horror tropes in favor of genuine drama and pure creepiness, McGuire has crafted a masterpiece of suspense with engaging, appealing characters.' Well, then."

Thank you, Mr. Scalzi.

Also in Feed-related news, Indigo has posted her review, and says "I have read everything Seanan has published to date. And while I like and enjoy the October Daye series quite well, my feeling is that Newsflesh: Feed is the beginning of something truly phenomenal." Glee! (She also put up a TV Tropes page for the book. Now that's love. Be careful; there are spoilers.)

ash_of_roses has posted a review of Feed, and says "This is the kind of book you fall in love with. You fall fast enough you don't realize what's even happening until it's much too late. You fall so fast and so hard that you almost forget what the book has promised you it is going to be. When those promises come true you want it to be a betrayal, but it isn't. This book doesn't lie about what it is; from the blood-smeared front cover to the very last page, this book never pretends to be gentle, or kind, or have a happy ending This book does not lie, and it does not apologize—nor should it."

That may be one of the nicest things anybody's ever said about my work. Again, cross-stitch, on my wall, oh, yes.

In case you missed it, check out this utterly bad-ass website that Orbit put together to promote the book, complete with more bells and whistles than a Chuck E. Cheese. Also check out the awesome new wallpaper they've posted (and remember, there's more awesome wallpaper at MiraGrant.com).

That's all for right now. Whee!

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become Real."

Flashback: I was attending the Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco when I came across a table, staffed by a friendly, curly-haired brunette woman in round geek-girl glasses, which boasted a wide assortment of mad science-themed images, all centering around a pretty, realistically-proportioned mad scientist named Helen Narbon. This was relevant to my interests. I grabbed some of the hand-outs, chatted briefly with the brunette—who turned out to be the strip's creator, Shaenon Garrity—and moved on, unaware that I had just discovered a six-year obsession.

Narbonic turned out to be an epic tale of mad science, romance, destruction, and, of course, gerbils. I visited Narbonic Labs every day for six years. When I was in Europe, paying for DSL in exotic cafes staffed by people who liked to dodge the crazy American, I paid about half-a-quid for the privilege of my mad science fix. I have no regrets. And yes, "Oh, Helen" on Red Roses and Dead Things was inspired by this comic strip.

Narbonic eventually had to end, coming to a solid and satisfying conclusion. The strip was collected in dead tree editions, each with lovely bonus features; sadly, some of them are now out of print. Not so sadly, there are plans in the works for a single omnibus edition, which will doubtless blow a whole lot of socks off. In the meantime, the full archives of the strip are available online, along with Shaenon's ongoing Director's Cut (she's going back and adding commentary to every single day). It's so, so worth reading, although I warn you, you're gonna lose some time. (Yes, the art starts out fairly primitive. Watching it improve is one of the true joys of the strip, since the art gets more complex even as the story gets more addictive.)

But that's not the point.

After Narbonic, Shaenon teamed up with Jeffrey Wells on a new project: Skin Horse, the story of a Black Ops Civil Service Agency dedicated to helping—and almost entirely staffed by—non-human transgenic individuals. The main team consists of a genetically-engineered Siberian Husky named Captain's Fancy Valentine Sweetheart, a dangerously unstable and heavily medicated necrotic-American named Unity, a cross-dressing ex-Army psychologist named Tip, and their boss, Gavotte, who is, well, a swarm of bees.

Yes. A swarm of bees.

And did I mention the huggy cobras?

The first year of Skin Horse is available now in dead tree format, and seriously, that was the best fourteen dollars I've spent all year. (Some other amounts may have been equally awesome, but fourteen dollar amounts? Nothing beat it.) Talking lions! Killbots! Opera-singing silverfish! HUGGY COBRAS! Seriously. If you like fun, you'll love Skin Horse. Also, if enough orders come in unexpectedly, Shaenon's head may explode. You like making people's heads explode, right?

You can view the strips included in the book at the Skin Horse website totally for free, but you can't take the website in the bathtub (unless you feel like living dangerously). Go, read, enjoy, and experience the HUGGY COBRAS.

Ssssssss.

I got up this morning and checked the AussieCon website almost before I realized what I was doing. I think I dreamt there had been a mistake or something. But there was no mistake, and I'm still on the ballot for the 2010 Campbell Awards. I am no less staggered by this than I was on the day I was asked to accept the nomination. (The comic strip about looking dumbfounded is coming. I was too staggered to ink. Seriously.)

catvalente's story of sex and the city (also sex with the city) is up for the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and her reaction post made me giggle and nod an awful lot, because she's as staggered as I am. Which I guess just proves that the shiny never wears off of the world if you keep applying coats of silver polish. We're going to wear pretty dresses and go to the awards banquet together, because that's just how we roll around here.

(And I am very proud of her. Palimpsest was the little novel that could, even after everyone said it couldn't. The fact that it's on the ballot is amazing, and testifies to all things finding their place, given space enough to shine.)

In further awards-and-Australia news, Grants Pass has won the Australian Shadows Award for best anthology. This award is granted by the Australian Horror Writers Association, and is given to honor the best new Australian horror (Grants Pass was co-edited by an American and an Australian). Jennifer is now an award-winning editor! Hooray! (Also, the judge's report called out "Animal Husbandry" as a stand-out story. I am honored.)

My friends are amazing, and they do amazing things.

What a wonderful world.

My dear friend Adam Selzer (adamselzer) is a professional author, smart aleck, and ghost tour guide. If you've ever wanted to see the haunted side of Chicago, he's your man, and he even promises not to let you go with Resurrection Mary unless you really, really want to. He writes YA and middle grade books which are just an amazing amount of fun, and today, yes, today, his latest masterpiece is available to the masses:

I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy]

It has thrills, chills, comedy, tragedy, and an awesome soundtrack including songs by yours truly, my beloved Vixy, my equally beloved Dr. Mary Crowell, and more. Adam is an awesome dude and an awesome author, and this promises to be an awesome book. No matter what your age is, if you love witty writing, glorious snark, and, of course, zombies, this is the book for you.

Go ye forth, and shamble into glory.

So y'all probably remember my deep and abiding love of the amazing wearable fairy tales made by chimera_fancies. Let's just say that if I have an impractical retail addiction, it's this woman's jewelry. (Also art supplies and BPAL, but that's another matter.) Every piece she makes is unique and incredible, and the fact that she has used my art to create her art makes me believe that the world can be a better place.

Well, starting tomorrow (at 7AM PST), she's going to be doing her Valentine's Day/Spring sale. You can see some amazing preview pictures by clicking here; these are but a small taste of the gorgeous wonder that is to come. To quote the lady herself:

"Like last sale, I'll put up several batches over a couple of days at different times so people in different time zones and on different work/life schedules have a chance to look. Will be first come/first purchased based on email only. Doing this one in plenty of time to get things out for Valentine's, I think. I will mail directly to gift recipients if you like, with notes included if you wish."

Her prices are reasonable, her pieces are amazing (and surprisingly sturdy; note that the cats have as yet failed in their many, many attempts at killing mine), and these are some of the best Valentine gifts I've seen in a long while. Seriously, look and be amazed.

Wow.

Once again, we can celebrate the awesome-ness of the geekery of the world through a spectacular book release counter! Yes, from now through the release of A Local Habitation, we'll be counting down the days to the ultimate awesome, with this totally bad-ass treat.

( Cut because we care. Also to spare your screen from going wicker-kapow.Collapse )

1. I am about to head for the dentist, where I will be undergoing full sedation for the sake of massive surgery. After this, you should get a few months free of my discussing teeth, which will be nice for everybody. Because someone asked: I grew up on welfare, I have naturally not-so-good teeth, and for a long time, I didn't have the money to fix what was wrong. This combination leads to massive work, when you can finally manage to get it done. Thankfully, I'm getting.

2. The Rosemary and Rue pendant sale is going like gangbusters over at chimera_fancies, and it's honestly amazing what Mia's been able to do with this batch. I really recommend swinging by and looking for a favorite. All pendants are signed by me, and made from pieces of a recycled ARC.

3. Because of item one on this little list, the Great Pumpkin only knows whether I'm going to be capable of complicated things like "being awake" or "typing" today, so if you don't hear from me until tomorrow, it's not because I've been eaten by a grue. So don't worry.

4. It's pouring buckets. I am the Rain King.

5. Please remember to enter the A Local Habitation ARC giveaway. It doesn't require your own pets. Use the pets of a friend, or neighbor, or take advantage of your brother the zookeeper and throw your book to the tigers. (I will replace your book if you actually bring me photographic evidence of throwing it to the tigers, providing that happens with zookeeper permission.) Have fun!

You may remember how last year, I commissioned the amazing, fantabulous, incredible Amy Mebberson to create a design for me to use as a "thank you" card. I loved the results so much that I decided I absolutely needed an updated version for this year, since the cast has changed a bit since then. Sadly, Amy is currently working for Boom! Studios, drawing awesome comic books, and is thus not available for commission work (sad for me, not sad for her).

Luckily for me, Bill Mudron—proprietor of Excelsior Studios—is currently open for commissions, and was receptive to my making pleading noises in his direction. This is because Bill is made of hammered awesome, and deserves all good things (and should absolutely be considered for all your commission needs). Bill did the cover for my third album, Red Roses and Dead Things (click here to see the back cover), in addition to several other awesome pieces for me, including Alice Price-Healy from the InCryptid series.

And now I give you...the gang:



From top to bottom (which corresponds roughly to "back to front"), you have Velma "Velveteen" Martinez hanging from the ceiling, Shaun and Georgia Mason flanking me while I attempt to work, Verity Price being friendly with mice, Rose Marshall wearing somebody else's coat and enjoying a nice beer, and October Daye, flanked by pixies and reasonably annoyed by the entire situation.

Ahem. Squee.

That is all.

chimera_fancies is gearing up for the big Rosemary and Rue pendant sale (details and specifics posted here; suffice to say, it's gonna be awesome). To prepare for the sale, and give everyone a chance to get the shiny, she's started by posting three auctions of pendants she feels best represent the book. Click a pendant to go to the associated auction:

1. .

2. .

3. .

Enjoy, and remember, not my auction, so take your questions to chimera_fancies!

1. I have done the mailing! Specifically, I've mailed a paperback to Australia, an ARC of A Local Habitation to our first ALH ARC contest winner, and a comic book to my web designer. (Said comic book has been failing to get mailed since July, which gives you an idea of how behind I am in certain aspects of my daily maintenance.) I probably have more mailing to do—including at least two CD sets—but this is mailing to discover, not mailing to feel guilty about not doing. Victory is mine!

2. Since the first ARC has been mailed out, I'm getting ready to open the second ARC contest. I'll be taking entries for a week or so, and then opening voting for a similar length of time. This is going to be a photography challenge (much like the LOLtest for Rosemary and Rue, but without the captions). Details will be posted later this week.

3. The redesign and relaunch of my website is just about done, which is a huge relief (for my webmaster and web designer, as well as for me, since they get constantly prodded at when I get twitchy). The new look of the site is awesome. We're going from drop-down menus to side menus, the graphics are even slicker and more incredibly cool, and soon, I'll be posting the first batch of icons and wallpapers for A Local Habitation. Also, once my main site is relaunched, we'll be able to focus on getting Mira's site off the ground. Evil twins need websites, too!

4. The Rosemary and Rue pendant sale from chimera_fancies is going to be launching later this week, and these pendants really are Mia's best work yet. I mean, they're just incredible pieces of wearable artwork, and the fact that I was partially responsible for this batch being created is just amazing to me. This is transformative art. From oral tradition folklore to urban fantasy novel to jewelry. Who could ask for a more remarkable series of connections? I'll post some previews of the sale before Mia opens it to the general public, but I'm not administrating it; all questions should go to chimera_fancies.

5. I know my Current Projects posts can seem huge and daunting and a little unreal, but I really have made amazing strides in Blackout, The Brightest Fell, and Discount Armageddon over the past month, and I'm over-the-moon excited with where they're each going. Working on all three at once is like a delicious block of television consisting of Glee, Supernatural, Wonderfalls, and Veronica Mars. So good, so snarky, and so refreshing for the soul. I know I love what I do, because it makes me less tired, rather than exhausting me.

6. My schedule for 2010 is taking shape and becoming visibly more awesome by the day. At least in part because, well, the more coherent it is, the easier it becomes for me to plan around things like conventions, book releases, and fits of hysterical giggling. My planner pages are also filling up, with a combination of major events and minor, "survive the day, week, month, year, and inevitable zombie apocalypse" items. The more regimented my time appears, the more work I'll get done. According to the planner so far, 2010 is the year I conquer the planet.

7. The first promo comic for A Local Habitation is underway, and looks awesome. I'll post it as soon as it's finished.

What's new in the world of you?

So the fabulous Mia, of chimera_fancies, is one of the most talented fairy tale jewelry makers I know. Her pieces are unique works of art, made from recycled books and magically transformed into something far greater than the sum of its parts. I own more than a few of her pendants. I'm going to wind up owning more than a few more. You've heard all this before. So why am I saying it again?

Because she has a pendant sale coming up, probably starting on or around November 18th (I'll post the exact date as soon as I have it, and so will she). Not just any pendant sale, incredible as her work is. An extra-special, extra-collectible pendant sale. Because, you see, she got her hands on an ARC of Rosemary and Rue. ARCs are not intended for resale; they're transitory things, unable to stand up to the stress of multiple re-readings. So Mia, mindful of the ARC's tragically short lifespan, took and transformed it into more than fifty gorgeous pieces of wearable art. I'm very serious. These pendants are some of the best work I've ever seen from her. She's growing as an artist with every piece she does, and for this set, she really busted out all the stops.

All pendants have been signed by me, in either black or silver Sharpie, depending on the base color. The exact method of pendant sale will be determined by Mia; it may be the random pick method she used for the Halloween sale, it may be something else, but either way, it'll be posted on her journal before the actual sale begins. All pendants will be $22, which includes postage.

These really are incredible. I couldn't be happier, or feel more honored, to be working with someone who does such amazing things.

Behold! The totally awesome chimera_fancies is doing a Halloween pendant sale! Thirty-two amazing, unique bits of fairy tale art are available now for your delight and enjoyment.

I would buy them all if I could. Check out the link to see for yourself why.

SHINY!

This past weekend, I went to see my friends Paul and Beckett in Fremont, largely so that Paul and I could make some beautiful music together. (Paul does a lot of the chording for my songs, because Paul is wonderful that way. I love Paul.) While I was hanging out with Beckett, she showed me some of the gorgeous carved foam pumpkins she's been working on. These things are truly amazing. Don't believe me? Check her Etsy store:

artbeco.etsy.com

They're beautiful, they're ornate, they're sturdy, and they're all basically unique, because even when she uses the same pattern on two pumpkins, they'll come out slightly different. Best of all, they're the sort of thing that can survive for years and years, making your Halloween decorations something special and more fun than one more generic jack-o-lantern. She's still taking orders for this season, and I hugely recommend giving her Etsy shop a look. Not just for pumpkins—she has lots of other kick-ass stuff for sale—but I'm a simple girl, I know what I like, and what I like is pumpkins.

Halloween is coming fast!

So—as you all probably know by now—last weekend was the first-ever assembly of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show, an amazing conglomeration of incredibly talented people who came together, as if by magic, to help make the book release parties for Rosemary and Rue even more awesome than they might otherwise have been. Seriously, it was incredible. It was like I made a wish-list of everything and everyone I could possibly have wanted to be there, and while I didn't get everything I asked for, I got so much of it that it would be insanely greedy to go "but wah, where's my pony?" I felt loved and honored and truly blessed to be surrounded by so much pure hammered awesome.

Actual, physical attendees who traveled more than a hundred miles to run away with the circus included...

* Amy McNally, from the depths of Wisconsin.
* Vixy and Tony, from Seattle, Washington.
* Betsy "Alice's breeder" Tinney, also from Seattle.
* Brooke Lunderville, from Vancouver, Canada.
* Mia and Ryan, from Portland, Oregon.
* SJ Tucker and K, from here, there, and everywhere.

Our parties were confirmed for Borderlands Books, in San Francisco, and Illusive Comics, in Santa Clara. (The third event, at Other Change of Hobbit in Berkeley, was unfortunately cancelled due to staffing conflicts.) Jude and Alan at Borderlands, and Anna at Illusive, were wonderful at helping to set up timing and guidelines before the events, and without their amazing support, our kitchen party wouldn't have been half as good.

But that's not the half of it.

Mia Nutick (copperwise) is the proprietor and creative force behind chimera_fancies, where she recycles old fairy tale books into works of wearable art. Her pendants are incredible, unique, and highly coveted by those of us who know about her—she's like the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab of jewelry, only everything she makes is a Limited Edition, and that edition is limited to one. Her sale days are sort of like watching piranha go for a cow. A pretty, sparkly, amazingly collectable cow.

Because I love Mia, I asked her if she'd be willing to recycle her review ARC (she does book reviews for Green Man) into pendantry for my book release party. Because she loves me, she said yes. And because she loves everyone, she made more than forty pendants from a single ARC, bringing them all with her down the coast to California. Five were selected to be put into the raffle at our Saturday night event. Various others were claimed by members of the Traveling Circus, because we wouldn't have time to peruse the sale table during the event itself. And all of them were signed by me, making them even more amazingly special. Pendants, handmade made from an ARC of Rosemary and Rue, signed by the author? Pardon me while I flail.

Here are a few of the glorious goodies:



Naturally, not many of them went home with Mia. If you're going all wide-eyed and "want," fear not; I sent her home with a slightly battered ARC that had been sent back to me by a reviewer, and she's going to be making a second batch, this one for Internet distribution. You can check the sale rules and price ranges at chimera_fancies; she's going to be shipping me the pendants when they're done, so that they can all be signed prior to the sale, and expects the batch to be available sometime in the next month or so. I'll post sales announcements here. If batch two is anything like batch one, they're going to be gorgeous.

Mia wasn't the only one contributing to making the event incredible. I contacted Dawn, proprietor of Polidori Chocolates, and asked if she might be interested in doing a line of truffles based around the book. Yeah. Toby-themed chocolates. We went there. We went there like it was a gold-star vacation destination with the possible added bonus of a volcano that we could toss people into for fun. And the results were incredible.

Dawn provided four flavors of truffle that were, quite simply, divine. Our truffle-tasting party on Friday night was an exercise in pure decadence. To quote one of the attendees (Book Love Affair) of Saturday's event: "Take careful note of the box of Polidori truffles, because apparently they were made by God himself. Or that's how they tasted anyway. Polidori must mean 'God of Sweet Things' somewhere."

The flavors, themed after characters, were...

Toby. Espresso ganache with cocoa nibs, enrobed in sweet milk chocolate, and tasting of paradise.
Tybalt. Dark chocolate with a mint ganache, topped with a sharp, surprising ripple of lemon.
Lily. White chocolate ganache flavored with green tea, enrobed in chocolate, topped with a whisper of ginger.
Devin. Chocolate enrobed vanilla ganache with a bite of black pepper, warm, spicy, and wicked-tasting.

There are not words for the incredible awesomeness of these chocolates. Polidori's Etsy shop has been closed for the summer, due to the issues inherent in shipping chocolates when you're a small operation, but should be re-opening soon, and will have the Toby truffles available for your decadent enjoyments. Imagine eating a box of these while re-reading your favorite chapter...yum.

Honestly, I won at event prep right out the gate, and I cannot thank the people involved nearly enough.

Next up...Friday, getting lost in Santa Clara, herding cats, and too much candy corn!

Bill Mudron—proprietor of Excelsior Studios—is currently open for commissions! Bill is an awesome guy to work with, fast, responsive, and has really reasonable prices. I'm pimping him out because I can't throw any more commission work his way right now (not unless Santa decides to surprise me with a lottery ticket), and he's just plain awesome to work with.

Bill did the cover for my third album, Red Roses and Dead Things (click here to see the back cover), in addition to several other awesome pieces for me. Want to see exactly how bad-ass he is? Check out his latest:



That is, in fact, Alice from the InCryptid series, looking like she's basically getting ready to start shooting and not stop until everything she's shooting at has stopped moving. If you're looking for art, Bill is totally your guy, and I can't recommend him highly enough.

Okay, free stuff, part one:

I belong to the Book View Cafe, a group of over twenty professional authors exploring the wonderful options available to us through the Internet. What does this mean to you? It means, among other things, "free online fiction." Yeah, I thought you might like that one. I'm a Friday girl in the rotation, which means my short stories go online (when they're available) on Fridays—and this week is no different. So take a look at this week's dark fairy tale offering...

Knives.

If you missed last week's story, a little moral fable with vampires in, it's also available to read:

Anthony's Vampire.

Go, read, enjoy, and explore the many wonderful things that the Book View Cafe has to offer.

Free stuff, part two:

There are some truly incredible new icons and wallpapers available on my website icons and wallpapers page. Seriously, these just took my breath away when Tara sent them to me. (Remember, my graphic designer, taraoshea, is available for freelance work! You just can't keep her.) I absolutely could not be happier with these gorgeous giveaways, and they're totally available for you to use on your computer, journal, or whatever.

Happy cat is happy. Free stuff is free.

We didn't get many entries, but the ones we did get were uniformly stellar. After debating, bickering, and poking the various entries with a stick, the following entries have been chosen as our winners. Yes, winners. I couldn't narrow it down to just one (hence the bickering, which swelled to include half my proofing circle), and so...

Winner, Static Media: phoenixechoes.
Winner, Moving Media: galieth.

Congratulations to both our winners! Please email me at my LJ email address, or through my website contact link, to provide an address where your ARC can be sent. Please do not use the LJ "direct message" function, as this will lead to a (potentially substantial) delay in my getting your ARC into the mail.

Thanks to everyone for participating. We're almost there!

...and they'll call us such names, and we really won't care:

talkstowolves has made "Wicked Girls" icons with some of my favorite wicked girls. She's even written a lovely treatise on the source of the phrase "wicked girls saving ourselves," from Mia's original pendant, to her request for a song (during one of my crazy party game phases), to the song itself. It's a glorious evolution, and it makes me ecstatically happy to watch it.

What's especially glorious is that she really gets the song, and the fact that all the girls with actual verses—not the girls in the bridge, of whom she is one, making her sweet word-wine for all of us; the verse girls, the ones who failed—are there as cautionary tales. Dorothy, Alice, Wendy, Jane...they didn't save themselves. To be a girl in a verse is, by definition, to have failed at the goal we're setting ourselves. We remember their names because we have to honor our fallen, but they're the patron saint priestesses of all the lost girls who got found, and they didn't break the chains that bound them.

The rest of us, the Deborahs and the Mias, and the Mandys and the Kaias, and all the other bridge-girls who've taken their turns (and will in the future), we're the ones who still have a chance to be determined. We're going to get out.

Just watch.

I try to avoid posts consisting of nothing but links, I really do. But this made my day so much better that I felt the need to share:

The A to Z of Awesomeness.

Truly the world is a wonderful place.

So my friend tim_pratt is in a bit of a sticky situation, which he has detailed fairly thoroughly. Sadly, this isn't a unique situation right now; a lot of us are in fairly sticky situations. I'm very fortunate in that I am currently able to feed my cats, pay my bills, and buy comic books. Others, not so much.

Tim is lucky, however, in that he comes complete with a personal savior: Marla Mason, the magical bitch-queen badass sorcerer of Felport, who will totally mess you up if you look at her funny (and don't think that she won't). In an effort to make a bad scene a little less bad, Tim is putting up a serialized, donation-funded urban fantasy novella, Bone Shop, in which you can meet Marla, and watch as she grows up to be, well, badass.

Enter the Bone Shop.

Go, check it out, and if you enjoy good urban fantasy, have a party. You, too, can avoid being put on Marla's little list of people who need to be bludgeoned to death with the nearest available brick.

That didn't come out right...

So I have managed to come home from DucKon (which was an absolute blast, and more about it later) with twelve chapbooks remaining in my possession. I am thus putting them up for sale here, because that's what I do. The details:

1. Each chapbook is hand-sewn, with a color cover by Beckett Gladney.
2. Each chapbook contains an assortment of my poetry and an introduction by Michelle "Vixy" Dockrey.
3. Each chapbook is $20, plus another $5 for shipping within the US (outside the US, we have to talk).

To request a chapbook (or hell, to request more than one), comment here; I'll confirm and we can work out payment details. Chapbooks are first-come, first-served; I just want to get them to good homes before Lilly hides them under the bed or something.

Whee.

ETA: All gone for now!

It's time for another ARC giveaway! Because you were starting to think I didn't love you anymore. Now, you may remember that I hinted at this giveaway being a little more "graphic" in nature. I give you...

The LOLtest. Yes, if you hate LOLcats, you probably want to shoot me right about now, but that's okay, because I love the freaky little guys, and I'm not asking people to invade your blog with countless graphics of the things. So what do you have to do to enter? Simple. You have to make a LOL___ and post it here. What do I mean by LOL___?

LOLcats. LOLold fairy tale illustrations. LOLmy cover art. LOLhome photography—if you want to take a tip from A Softer World and take your own pictures, be my guest. (Toby is brunette, fairly pale, and tends to wear sensible clothing. You want to slap a leather jacket on your girlfriend/best friend/self and take pictures solely for captioning purposes, I'm down with that.) For examples of the inimitable LOLcat in its natural habitat, see I Can Has Cheezburger, along with countless other sites in the same vein...and then knock yourself out.

Post your contest submissions on this entry. Because this is a project that could require a bit more effort, I'm going to be taking entries until Friday, June 12th, and then opening the floor for voting. I'll definitely be giving away one ARC through this contest; depending on the number and variety of entries received, I may well increase that to two, as well as putting together a few runner-up prizes (who wants a CD?). This contest is open to everyone, including my mother, my agent, God, and people who have already won ARCs. Bring out your LOLcats, and rock the world.

Game on!

EDIT: To be clear, all LOL___ must be Toby-related to be considered actual entries. Although all LOL___ are cute and make me smile.

First, thank you to everyone who chimed in. I heard some versions of the legend that I'd never encountered before—including one from my own backyard!—and since the hitchhiking ghost is one of my favorite urban legends, this was awesome. Several people cited songs about hitchhiking ghosts, which I thought was even cooler, since I have what is essentially a song cycle about a hitchhiking ghost named Rose.

For the curious, and those who've always, let me tell you about Rose Marshall:

• "Pretty Little Dead Girl." This is the title song of my first album, Pretty Little Dead Girl, and appears on Stars Fall Home. I consider this the "urban legend" version of Rose's story, as well as the "filthy libel" version.


• "Graveyard Rose." The other side of Rose's legend. This is the one they tell in truck stops all across the country, at least inside my head.


• "Waxen Wings." She was a girl with hopes and dreams and prayers of her own, once upon a time. Things didn't turn out well. Things so often don't, for girls like Rose.


• "When I Drive." I've never been sure exactly how Rose died, except that she did it on the road, and she did it in a way that left her stranded. I think she was trying to get away.


• "Counting Crows." When you're eternally sixteen, and eternally trying to hitchhike your way to home, you sometimes get a little lost along the way.


• "Hanging Tree." Rose falls in love over and over, and they always grow up, and leave her. She's like a dead Peter Pan that way.


• "On Dead Man's Hill." But before they leave her, they love her, at least for a little while; at least until they outgrow her. Someday, maybe one of them will get her home.

I do love my pretty little dead girl. Which brings us to today's special bonus! You may remember that I've occasionally posted really awesome artwork done by the remarkable Amy Mebberson. Amy isn't currently taking private commissions, since she's busy doing art for the official Pixar comic books, but I am equipped with many, many secret hidden goodies. And today, I bring you...

( Let me tell you about Rose Marshall, the sweetest girl that you'd ever see...Collapse )

So when I was in high school -- yes, it's time to date myself -- I used to hang out in various online chatrooms, like so many other high schoolers of my generation. And I wound up spending a lot of time chatting with Some Guy On The Internet. No, not in that way. We talked about poetry, and the books we were going to write someday, and shoes, and ships, and ceiling wax, and yes, cabbages and kings. We had entire email conversations in poetry, some of which was actually decent (and considering the condition of the majority of my high school poetry, this is an impressive statement).

Eventually, we lost touch. Then one day, I got an email from someone asking whether they could publish one of my poems -- not one of the bad ones -- in an online magazine. Yup. It was Some Guy. And that was, in fact, my first professional sale under my own name. I did not frame the check. I considered it. Hard.

A few years after that, I stumbled over a book called The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, written by Some Guy...also known as Tim Pratt (tim_pratt). I was enchanted by the fact that he'd actually managed to get a book published, so I bought it. And read it. And discovered that it was REALLY GOOD. Like, squeal, dance, recommend to your friends, write songs about the book good. Which makes sense, given that he's, y'know, one of the youngest Hugo winners ever.

Why am I telling you all this? Two reasons.

First off, Tim is appearing at Borderlands Books, home of the freaky alien demon suede kittyfaces, tomorrow at three. It's going to be a lot of fun, and if you're local, you should absolutely come out. Support your home town authors and your totally kick-ass local bookstore at the same time.

Secondly, well, I know that not all of you can make it to Borderlands tomorrow. For one thing, the bookstore's not that big. Luckily for you, Tim is running a fiction sale, via which he will happily and enthusiastically hook you up with the sort of books that are well worth the reading. Also chapbooks and 'zines and damn near anything else you might need, all of it fabulous.

Tim Pratt. He used to be Some Guy. Now he's living in fear of my unleashing his ancient poetry on the world. Show the love!

The fabulous raelee decided that we needed a few more icons to fling around the place. Check out the shiny!

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

All icons are totally free for use (naturally); remember that credit is a good thing to give to the icon-makers of the world, as it keeps them being awesome and iconic for the rest of us.

In other news, WHEE!

So, remember that discussion with Amy? The one where we spontaneously did all of Little Red Riding Hood as if done by I Can Has Cheezburger? It turns out that some things in this world really do cry out for illustration in more minds than just mine, and talkstowolves -- an enchanting and erudite woman in her own right; I highly recommend attending to her words, and not just because she likes my books -- has kindly filled this sucking void in our existence:

LOLRed: A Cautionary Tale In Three Panels.

Truly, I live in the best of all possible worlds.

(Please note that the things in my subject header will not necessarily be presented in the order in which they were, um, presented. Don't mind me, I'm very blonde today.)

Travel plans, take one: As many people have been able to put together from my vague rumblings, I'm heading for New York a week from, um, yesterday. Yeep. This is almost purely a business trip, as I'm going out to see my publisher, have lunch with my agent, and generally behave like a grown-up member of human society. (Kate even managed to get me into wool pants. Everybody say 'thank you, Kate.') I'm taking a red-eye flight from San Francisco on Tuesday night, and I'm going to be gone until the Ides of March. Internet access will almost certainly be limited during this time, because dude, I'll be in New York. Also, this is going to be Yet Another Trip to the East Coast during which I don't get to go to Maine. Given the estimated temperature in Maine at this time of year, that's probably for the best.

Travel plans, take two: I'm taking a much shorter trip at the beginning of April, flying up to Seattle to see my dearest darlingest Vixy and Tony, catch the pure hammered awesome that is Sooj in concert, and, oh, right, pick up my brand new kitten from Pinecoon Maine Coon Cattery. Pinecoon is run by Betsy Tinney, who's also serving as one of my subject matter experts for Discount Armageddon. It's weird to think that I'm about to have a cat that isn't a Classic Siamese, but I wasn't able to find any local catteries with kittens -- and I'll be honest, I fell in love with Betsy's cats the minute I walked in. I'm not happy about leaving Lilly alone while I go to New York, but at least I know her only cat status isn't going to last for long. Plus, my kitten? Is awesome.

Number geekery: According to today's count, Rosemary and Rue comes out in 180 days. This is a good number, but I liked yesterday's number better, because 181 is a strobogrammatic prime. A strobogrammatic prime is a prime number that, given a base and given a set of glyphs, appears the same whether viewed normally or upside down. It's one of the only primes that can't be defined with a simple algebraic equation. Also, depending on the way a given language writes its numbers, certain primes change from strobogrammatic to not strobogrammatic. And this is so cool. There just aren't words for the awesome. (I am a total number geek.)

And now, behind the cut, the cool.

( We cut because this graphic is not small, and breaking your browser is rude.Collapse )

...or, to stop paraphrasing Grease II, who might that irritated looking woman with the brown hair, the sensible clothing, and the large knife be?

Does this give you a clue?

In other news, yes, that is the cover illustration for October Daye, book two, A Local Habitation. Not the cover, mind you -- the cover illustration. I'll be posting the book covers here as soon as they're finished and I'm allowed, but since my awesome awesome awesome cover artist has posted the illustration, I'm allowed to link to it. (I'm also allowed to order a print. Because my walls need to have Toby hanging from them. It's a moral imperative.)

Please note that Toby looks better, cooler, and more just plain Toby than I ever dreamed she would be. We used to play this game of 'how bad can it get?' when talking about my eventual book covers. These games usually included words like 'blonde' and 'chain-mail bikini.' Instead, I got a genuine snapshot of the bitchy, curt, wonderful woman who lives inside my head, and now everybody else can see her, too.

I am happier than words can express.

During my wandering and wending through the dark, dank, disturbing sewers of the Internet underworld -- in short, my home town -- I managed to stumble over a, well, let's go with the word 'gentleman' by the name of Anton Strout (antonstrout, for those of you in need of someone else to stalk). For the most part, I made note of his existence, was unwooed by his weirdling ways, and wandered off to do what I normally do, ie, 'poke dead stuff with sticks and see what happens.' Then came the amazing used book bonanza of 2008, which united me with a truly epic number of books both familiar and strange. One of these books was Anton's Dead To Me, about which there will be more later. I read it. I enjoyed it. I added context to his manic capering and moved on, preoccupied by the ongoing surreality of the local madmen.

Then Anton made what was either a fatal mistake, or a majorly good move, and started waving shiny banners in the air, hence attracting my mercurial coyote-girl attention. "What do you want?" I asked. "I want you to be awed by the awesome of my new book," he said. "Hmm," I said. "Also, look, shiny things," he added. "New best friend!" I cried. Because my love is always for sale, ladies and gentlemen; always for sale.

Deader Still is the second adventure of Simon Canderous, a psychometric employee of the New York branch of the Department of Extraordinary Affairs. To semi-quote myself in my upcoming review of Simon's first outing, take one part Men In Black, two parts Bureau 13, three parts 'I can totally see this as a Phil Foglio comic book adventure,' and mix thoroughly. Simon's luck is marginally better than Toby's, in that he spends slightly less of the book knocked unconscious than she tends to, but other than that, he's another bad plan minefield walking through an unsuspecting world.

And it's awesome.

Deader Still officially comes out tomorrow, but you can find it on store shelves already, since it's a sneaky little thing, and it's been escaping from store rooms like a sort of, I don't know, fungal infection. In honor of this fun, frightening event, I present another shot of my resident Pretty Little Dead Girl, this time in her formal role as a member of the Department of Extraordinary Affairs. I recommend staying on her good side, and not submitting to any body cavity searches, as there's no real way of being sure that she's not planning to do something nasty.

I'll be reviewing Dead To Me later this week, and probably doing a review of Deader Still, since Anton was kind enough to send me an ARC of my very own. Because that's just how we roll around here.

Happy new book day, Anton!

1. If you wander on over to my website -- which is getting shinier and more functional every day as the back-end code comes online, all hail porpentine, who has slaved over a hot keyboard for our delight -- you may find a few truly awesome things waiting for you. Specifically, we now have icons and wallpapers, designed by the splendid taraoshea. All icons and wallpapers are free for use! Print them out, stick them to things, do whatever makes you happy. Well, except for posting them to your Deviant Art account and claiming that you made them. That would make the Tara sad, and she knows where I keep the chainsaws.

2. As you explore the site, you may see that there is now a landing page for the 'Velveteen vs.' stories. Yes, the link currently takes you to the big COMING SOON graphic, but its very existence means that, before too terribly much longer, there will be an online archive of the adventures of Velma 'Velveteen' Martinez as she struggles to survive the foul mechanations of the Marketing Department without giving in to the urge to just kill somebody already. Because the best way to show you care is with random semi-comic superhero stories, you know. My comic book store tells me so.

3. Speaking of my comic book store, the new best thing ever is walking into the place where I go for my weekly fix (I am such an X-junkie) and being greeted by Joe (the owner) with a cheery "Do you have CDs for me?" That moment, right there, was enough to validate my entire musical career.

4. Oh, and as an FYI for those who share my comic book habit -- Monday was a holiday, but it wasn't a shipping holiday. So today is still new comic book day, day of comic book-y goodness. Although according to the release lists, very little has come in that holds any actual interest for me. That's probably for the best, what with Wondercon right around the corner. Ah, sweet Wondercon. I wonder how I've lived so long without you.

5. I spent several hours last night at Borderlands Books, hanging out with Ripley, the freaky demon suede alien kitty-face (aka, 'the elder of the store's two resident hairless cats'). The more time I spend with her, the more I start to think that maybe life with a Sphinx wouldn't be so bad. Sure, they're naked and weird-looking, but they're also smart, friendly, and incredibly soothing to hang out with. This is probably a sign that I need some sort of 'cats are not like Pokemon, you do not need to collect them all' intervention.

6. While I was at Borderlands, I chanced to notice their list of top sellers for January, and jimhines grabbed the #10 slot with The Stepsister Scheme! Way to go Jim! The weird naked cats were very impressed.

7. For those of you who missed the (admittedly rather quietly delivered) memo, I will be leaving California for a short time in March, as I hop on a plane and fly out to New York for more fun with my friends at DAW. I love visiting my publisher, largely because it gives me an excuse to say 'my publisher' a lot, and that's still a sort of shiny-and-new thing for me. I am assured that by the time An Artificial Night (the third Toby book) hits the shelves, I won't find it all quite so exciting, but I really hope not. We all need things that make us irrationally happy. Anyway, my schedule is pretty packed while I'm there, so I'm not going to be looking to host a meet-and-greet or anything, but it's definitely going to represent a break in my standard routine.

8. Zombies are still love.

9. I have now managed to go three months without starting a new novel. For some people, this may seem like an unremarkable 'I just went three months without bursting into flame' or 'I just went three months without unleashing a global pandemic'-type statement, but for me, it's the result of Herculean efforts in the arenas of focus and restraint. I love starting books. The freedom and the scope of it all is just a wonderful thing. But I can be strong. I can be controlled. I can keep myself from getting beaten by my editing pool.

10. This coming Sunday is the official release date for Ravens In the Library, a benefit anthology assembled to help with SJ Tucker's unexpected medical bills. It's got an awesome list of authors, and, on a more personal note, it's got my first official this-is-in-print anthology appearance: my short story, 'Lost,' will be the final piece in the book. I'm very excited.

That's my wending for Wednesday. What's yours?

One of the wonderful services provided by my graphic designer, taraoshea, is the production of promotional art for my books. The icons in this post were designed to go with Rosemary and Rue (October Daye book one, coming from DAW Books in September 2009). Matching wallpapers will be available soon on my website. But for right now...icons.

All icons are free for use, although I do ask that you credit Tara and link people back to my website, since the point is to start driving up interest. All icons will also be posted to my website. I'll let you know when.

***

01. 02. 03.
04. 05. 06.

***

It gets a little closer to real every day.

Well, I'm home from a day spent in Fremont (for those of you who aren't Californians, read 'an hour's train ride away from my small-town home, and a much more urban place than I normally spend my afternoons') stitching chapbooks with Beckett, who is quite possibly the most elegantly artistic person I know. She makes art happen the way I make song lyrics -- with an incredible amount of diligence, practice, and carefully-earned skill that looks entirely effortless from the outside.

In 2005, Beckett graciously helped me make a chapbook, Leaves From the Babylon Wood, for that year's Ohio Valley Filk Festival, at which I was the Toastmistress. This year, she agreed to help me make a followup chapbook, titled Paths Through the Babylon Wood, for Conflikt, where I'm going to be the Guest of Honor.

(Someone asked what it's going to take for me to make a third chapbook, I think because they forgot that it's never a good idea to ask about a new project when the wounds from the current one are still bleeding. I replied that it would almost certainly need to involve a convention with the word 'World' somewhere in the name. Because man.)

When Beckett does chapbooks, she doesn't screw around. Hand-printed, hand-stitched -- these ones have a gorgeous photographic cover, in full color, as well as roughly seventy-five pages of poetry. (And surprisingly few printing errors -- a comment not on Beckett's skill at layout, but on my skill as a proofreader. Seriously, the woman's a goddess.) I spent the day happily folding sections, collating piles, and just talking to her. I love spending time with Beckett. It makes things better. (And it's deeply reassuring to talk to someone who understands what I mean about the quality meter breaking on the sixth, or seventh, or twenty-first revision of the same thing.)

I am home. I am safe. I am overcome by the wonder that is my friends. And I am ecstatic over these chapbooks, because they're gorgeous.

Life is good.

The Ravens in the Library Project, in connection with "Give A Healthy Dose of Sooj" and "Save Our Sooj" presents

RAVENS IN THE LIBRARY: MAGIC IN THE BARD'S NAME

A Limited Edition Collection of Stories and Art dedicated to the health of S.J. Tucker.

This special VERY limited edition has been compiled to defray the medical expenses and recovery of musician S.J. Tucker.

The collection will NOT be released in stores, and it is NOT downloadable!

It will be available only as long as those expenses remain unresolved.

After that, RAVENS IN THE LIBRARY will disappear.

Order your advance copy today... Before they fly away forever!

$25.00 includes shipping & handling within the continental United States

Anticipated Release Date*: Feb. 22, 2009

Trade Paperback format
Color covers, B&W interiors
Self-Published by The Ravens in the Library Project
With Heartfelt Thanks to Ellen Datlow and all contributors.

* - barring delays in printing or production.

Article the first: New icon! The ever-engaging taraoshea made this for me as a sort of answer to my Commandments of Coyote, because Coyote needs his beer, yo. How I do adore her. Also, she's completely out of her tree. But that's probably why we get along so well, so hey.

There's a permanent account sale coming up, and I looked at it thoughtfully, because I'm a total whore for anything that allows me to have more user icons (yes, I know, I probably need help). The trouble is, the math no longer works out. There was a time when buying a permanent account was cheap enough that it would balance out the cost of paying for your journal, plus extras, in roughly four years -- forever in Internet terms, but still a reasonable investment. The folks who run the site basically know that they've hit the upper limit in terms of what people will pay for bells and whistles on a blogging site, and at $20 a year (if you're doing auto-pay), it just doesn't balance out the $175 for a permanent account. Not even if you're buying extra user icons. Alas, price structure, how you have betrayed us.

Article the second: Lilly has managed to get out of the house twice in the past few months, which has made me paranoid enough to finally do something I'd previously resisted, and buy her a collar already. I picked it up during my cat litter run -- a spiffy little black number with silver moons and stars on it, very goth-girl, which is ideal for my Siamese sweetie. It also has a bell. I already hate the bell.

Now, I brought the collar home anticipating some great, epic battle for my life against an irritated Siamese cat, something to remember throughout the ages. My housemate was anticipating the equivalent of a land war in Asia. I approached the cat with the collar. I pulled the collar over the cat's head. The cat squirmed a little. I stroked the cat. The cat stopped squirming. I tightened the collar. Game over. Where is the drama? Where is the excitement? Where is the pathos? (I know where the cat is. I hate that bell.)

Tune in next week, when Lilly utterly fails to react in any noticeable way to getting microchipped. I swear, my cat is on Valium or something.

Article the third: Plans are in the works to get my little sister down from Sacramento for Thanksgiving, officially making this the closet thing to a family Thanksgiving that we've had in years. The last time we tried this, I wore Melissa's tarantula as a broach just to see if it would freak Mom out (it did). This should, at least, be more entertaining than putting a collar on the cat.

So earlier this year, I commissioned the amazing, fantabulous, incredible Amy Mebberson to create a design that I could use as a 'thank you card' to be sent to people who needed book-specific thanks (my editor, my agent, my proofreaders, all those nice people who've said nice things about my book -- the usual). Since all the cards have now been sent, and most of them have been received, I thought I'd finally post the card and share its awesome with the world. See?



(Clicking the picture will take you to a larger version.)

From left to right, that's Georgia and Shaun Mason (Newsflesh), Clady Porter (Lycanthropy and Other Personal Issues), me (hence my default icon), October 'Toby' Daye (Rosemary and Rue), and Corey Markham (Upon A Star). I'll eventually be putting a wallpaper version of this up on my website, once the retool hits that point. Aren't they awesome? Truly, this is the definition of glee. Glee! And yeah, I'm already contemplating a 2009 version...

Art is awesome.

And now, the lovely raelee brings us proof that I have grown up to be a real author: a jack-o-lantern carved to recreate a scene from one of my books (specifically Newsflesh).



You know you're doing something right with your life when zombie pumpkins are being carved in your honor. I'm just saying.

jimhines is a great guy, an awesome author, and generally just a neat person. This auction is a chance to get an advance copy of his upcoming book, The Stepsister Scheme -- which sounds bad-ass cool -- and help a good cause at the same time.

Things like this are why fandom is such an incredible thing.

Look what the amazing, fantabulous, incredible Amy Mebberson made for me! (PS: You totally want to track down and buy her comic book, Divalicious. I'll review it properly when I have time, but for right now, it's two volumes -- a mere twenty dollars! -- of sheer awesome, incredibly well-drawn, and fully rockin'.) But anyway:



That's Verity Price, front and center, looking like she's about to go and kick some serious cryptid butt. The three women behind her are the three generations that came before her. In red, plaid, and a rather rabid expression (she has grenades), we have her grandmother, Alice. In green, curls, and a deceptively placid expression (she has grenades, too), we have her great-grandmother, Fran. And in yellow, ruffles, and a manic grin (her husband has grenades, she has an army of devoted followers), we have her mother, Evelyn.

Did I mention that the cast of InCryptid is sort of scary?

Art is awesome.

Me: "We should really have some political icons."
Rae: "For what?"
Me: "The Ryman/Tate ticket."
Rae: "But what would they say?"
Me: *provides various campaign slogans*

*long pause while everyone else in the world realizes what's going on*

Rae: "Check your email."
Me: *makes noises only bats can hear*

In other news, behold my fantabulous new Ryman/Tate campaign icon! Because I support a future in which somebody else's dead aunt doesn't eat me as I'm trying to go to the store for another bottle of Diet Dr Pepper. Also because it makes me giggle.

The world needs to contain beautiful things. They make people happy, they make the world better, and sometimes, they can inspire us in amazing ways. And if you happen to be someone like me, periodically, 'the world needs beautiful things' actually means 'I need beautiful things.' It's just a thing, y'know? A beautiful one.

Sometimes, people recognize the lack of beautiful things in the world, and they decide to go forth and make there be more beauty. I consider this awesome. Not everything has to be pretty in this life, but it's good to have folks out there balancing out the ugliness by making a few things that are lovely for the sake of, well, just plain being lovely.

If we're really lucky, sometimes these people decide that they should go ahead and share their pretty things with the world. Because the awesome is just too much to contain. And that's the point of this post.

chimera_fancies is the sale journal of Mia, whom you may hear me mention now and again; she reads for me, advises me, and generally rocks my tiny world. But also? She makes beautiful things, recycling old books and bits of fairy tales into entirely unique wearable art. She started doing this earlier in the year, and her pendant sales have become one of the high point events that I look forward to with utter glee. Every piece is unique, and while not every piece sings to every person, they all seem to sing to someone.

If you're intrigued, you're also in luck, because there's a sale coming this Monday -- yes, Labor Day -- at noon Pacific time. You should be aware that the term 'feeding frenzy' isn't entirely out of line when describing one of Mia's sales; pictures of the pendants will be posted Sunday for people to browse through, but once bidding starts, if you want something specific, I recommend being poised and ready.

The pendants are individual, lovely, and incredibly sturdy -- I've put mine through the washing machine, and while I don't recommend it, it hasn't hurt them yet. Also, Lilly adores them, too, and steals them constantly.

chimera_fancies!

The first fabulous thing: note the icon on this entry. Is that an icon for An Artificial Night? Why, yes. Yes, it is. And was it made by the amazing noelia_g, who made my Rosemary and Rue icon? Why, yes. Yes, it was. She has also kindly made an icon for A Local Habitation which is just gorgeous. So now I can tag all my Toby posts accurately. Or at least all my Toby posts about the first three books, and right now, those are what matter, right?

The second fabulous thing: I think I get, quite possibly, the funniest mail in the world. At the end of an inquiry I recently received:

Thank you for your attention (and please don't engineer a flesh-eating bacteria just for me).

I have the best correspondents in the world. Also, they have amazing faith in my ability to synthesize flesh-devouring bacteria without a lab or access to trained support staff, which is actually seriously awesome in and of itself.

The third fabulous thing: I'm still basically floating from knocking out ten thousand words on The Mourning Edition over the weekend. Yeah, I know, it's just the beginning, but y'know what? It's my beginning. And even if the book runs to 200,000 words, which seems rather unlikely, it's 5% of the full text. It's a good beginning. I'm happy.

What's fabulous in your world today?

Hey, look, I'm in Dear Author! I'm assuming I fall under the category of 'leaves me completely unmoved' for the blogger, but that's okay, because it just gives me a lot more room to be a total DINO NINJA SURPRISE ATTACK. For serious. I will come out of nowhere and blind the world with science!

Oh, and hey, I found my official genre acquisition announcement. It reads:

"Seanan McGuire's ROSEMARY AND RUE, the first book in a new urban fantasy series featuring a half-human, half-fae private investigator, to Sheila Gilbert at DAW, in a three-book deal, by Diana Fox at Fox Literary (world)."

...have you ever noticed how almost everything sounds bland when you boil it down to a single sentence? Must. Blind. World. With. Science. Well, in this case, must blind world with folklore, magic, and an insanely intricate plot. But still. I have an announcement!

From seferin: Animated icons of my horror movie alphabet. Because dude, there is no world in which that is not awesome. Also because dude, there is no world in which this is not all very good advice. (Mike wants to make a calendar of the horror alphabet. I admit to being enormously tempted by the idea of an illustrated comic. And the beat goes on.)

What's new and awesome in the world of you?