Earlier this week, I pointed you at a teaser for an upcoming review by the Book Zombie (still the best name ever). Well, her full review has been posted, and it was just as awesome as the teaser implied that it was going to be. I realize that I'm still in the rosy glow of "all my reviews have been positive ones," and that this doesn't last forever, but that doesn't change the part where this review is just absolutely gorgeous, and warms me down to the tips of my tippy-toes.

jennifer_brozek has also posted her review of Rosemary and Rue over on the Apex Books blog. This, too, is a splendid review, and I'm struck once again by how many people love such different things about the story. I've been in love with Toby for so long that it's a little odd to watch other people meeting and loving her, too. Although Jennifer's right; if I ever met Toby on the street, she'd totally break my nose. She wouldn't even hesitate.

In other exciting news, A Local Habitation is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com. I just found this out this morning, and I am over the moon about it. Look! Book two! Right there, on the screen, with an ISBN!!!!! Maybe I'm just a total nerd, but having an ISBN is so exciting to me, in so many ways, that it's difficult to express in words. The cover art hasn't been posted yet, but it should be coming along in due course.

We're getting closer every day.

Item the first: remember that tomorrow is going to be the drawing for the final ARC giveaway for the month of June. All you have to do to enter is go to the entry and leave a comment. That's it. Nothing more complex than that. Tomorrow, I'll be flicking on the random number generator and letting it tell me who our lucky winner will be. So take a chance! All it'll cost you is thirty seconds and a couple of clicks!

Item the second: the Book Zombie—and isn't that just about the best name ever? It makes me want to adopt her and cover her in puffy blue cats—is working on her review of Rosemary and Rue. You can see a little sneak peek of what's coming over at her blog. I'm all excited and jumpy and stuff. I love seeing new reviews come out. (This probably won't last, once we get into wider reviews and I become totally overwhelmed and start hiding under my desk. But right now, I love them like I love pumpkin pie. Sweet, sweet pumpkin pie.)

Item the third: I'm currently updating and finalizing my appearances for the next several months. As a reminder, you can always see which conventions I'm planning to attend by hitting my website, and I try to update the information with panel times and details on readings just as soon as I possibly can. I'll be in Seattle on August 22nd for the Grants Pass release party (and yes, some discussion of a house concert has occurred, but there's nothing concrete). There are currently three official Rosemary and Rue release parties scheduled for early September, all of them in the San Francisco Bay Area; I'll keep you posted if we wind up scheduling appearances anywhere else.

(There will be a release party at OVFF, in Columbus, Ohio, in late October. You'll need to be a member of the convention to attend. But there will be cake.)

More to come later, but those are the memos for the morning. In other news, I have sufficient Diet Dr Pepper. You may all live.

Whee.

I went to sleep last night with a puffy blue Maine Coon guarding my doorway and a sleek blue Siamese stretched next to me on the bed. The Siamese was using a plush blue-ringed octopus as a pillow, and back-dropped by Halloween pillowcases. When I woke, the Maine Coon was puddled on the bright pumpkin-fucker orange cat tree.

I have the life I always said I'd have someday.

Oh, it has complications I didn't necessarily bank on when I was plotting it out, since I didn't understand things like "herniated disks" and "actually having too many books" when I was nine, but for the most part? I sleep in a room that looks like the inside of a pumpkin, I have four shelves of My Little Ponies and two shelves loaded with stuffed toys, I own so many books that re-reading steadily for a year wouldn't mean getting through them all, and I have both the cat I've always wanted (Lilly) and the cat I never knew I needed (Alice). And I write books, and people read them, and it's amazing.

For example, kyrielle read Rosemary and Rue.

I was chatting with my friend Adam last night (his books, How to Get Suspended and Influence People [Amazon] and Pirates of the Retail Wasteland [Amazon] are delightfully accurate flashbacks to my own days in the public school honors system), and he said that reviews never cease to be scary, since you don't know until you read them whether they'll be positive, negative, or written by angry mushroom people from Dimension X. But they never cease to be exciting, either.

Life is pretty damn good. How's yours?

Look! More reviews!

From k_crow, we have a lengthy review that's been cross-posted nigh unto everywhere. This makes me happy, as the review is made of win.

From Becky, owner of Village Books, we have an awesome bookseller review, complete with being written by someone I've never met.

Finally (for now), from s00j, we have a long, sweet, poetic review that says many nice things. She used the LJ tag "that which does not suck." The review falls into the same category.

Given that it's June and the book comes out September 1st, I think reviews are starting to arrive at a very good pace.

Life is awesome.

ladyqkat has posted a bubbly and enthusiastic review of Rosemary and Rue, which is something that pretty much always makes me happy.

canadianevil has posted a slightly longer and more detailed review, which is something else that pretty much always makes me happy, and hopes we'll be seeing more of the less-central fae races in the books to come. O people of the world, you so have no idea...

These things are pleasing unto me, and a good way to begin a morning. Also pleasing unto me: this Diet Dr Pepper.

It's good to be easy to please.

Look! People are enjoying our pandemic!

Seeing the early reviews come in for Grants Pass is incredibly exciting for me, because while this may be my second anthology by publication (Ravens in the Library was first), it's my first anthology by invitation, acceptance, and—most importantly of all—"normal" publication process. Ravens was slammed together in an incredibly short amount of time, and never had the normal cycle of ARCs, reviews, and nail-biting. Grants Pass is letting me experience the process in all its glory.

This is the second review I've seen. It's also the second review to point out my story, "Animal Husbandry," as being made of win. So that's a pretty encouraging sign that perhaps my compulsive neurosis has served my short fiction well. I'm really excited to see this book. The editors were amazingly cool to work with, the entire process has been a joy, and the author list is super-exciting. I'm still a little stunned to be on it.

Grants Pass is so gonna rule, I swear.

Hooray, hooray, the...um, well, the end of May. But we're celebrating the glorious end of a glorious month with something truly glorious beyond all measure:

The first officially published review of Rosemary and Rue!

Look at it. Isn't it preeeeeeetty? I just sort of want to cuddle it and love it and call it "George." Or maybe "Dave." Or maybe "to come over for drinks," although that could just be my inner Jane speaking. Big, big thanks to Rae for both reviewing the book, and for admitting to her biases right up front, thus making her a responsible reviewer who can be believed. Because nothing says "love" like being up-front about the things that could potentially

sway your hand.

(To be quite clear, I actually do trust Rae to be objective, because I've seen her savage things by creators she loves. She's like a cuddly wombat, totally harmless until she transforms herself into a WHIRLING BLENDER OF TOOTHY DEATH. I appear to have missed the "frappe" setting, and for this, I am truly glad.)

Book reviews. They, like milk, make a body glad.

The release of Grants Pass is fast approaching, and the first reviews of the anthology as a whole are starting to be released into the wild. Did I get name-checked as being a slice of awesome from a sweet, sweet pandemic pie? Why yes. Yes, it would appear that I did.

(Me to Brooke: "Look!"
Brooke to me: "Should I be surprised that you excel at plague?")

This book is going to be so cool, and not just because it has a truly epic body count. I'm really excited about the author list, and Jennifer has been a treat to work with. Plus, I essentially hinted my way into getting an invitation ("It's about pandemics? Gosh, what a coincidence. I like pandemics..."), so it's nice to see that I won't be dragging her nice little story collection down.

Meet me in Grants Pass, if you can.

( And now, to encourage you to show up, a poem.Collapse )

The ever-lovely talkstowolves decided to do a review of Ravens in the Library, the benefit anthology assembled for SJ "Sooj" Tucker following her sudden acquisition of several thousand dollars in unwanted medical debt. (Sometimes the medical system itself makes me ill, and then where am I?) It was a glorious idea, and a glorious reality, and it's great to see people really digging into the book enough to fully review it.

Part One of the review, in which half the stories are explored.
Part Two of the review, in which we run out of stories.
Part Three of the review, in which there is a great deal of artwork.

The sheer detail and consideration of this set of entries delights me. True critical thinking is always a joy, and even when I disagree with it, it makes me think. Well worth the price of admission.