Now we come to the fourth in my promised series of five posts about the background and construction of Toby's world, all those little things you might not learn from the main series. The current question is from faithfulcynic, who asks:

"How common is shape-shifting in Faerie? It's been awhile since I've read all the books but I think the only real shapeshifter was an assasin in Rosemary and Rue. Otherwise we have characters like Luna who borrowed someone's shape and Toby who was turned into a fish (and also alters her appearance in the last book) Is shapechanging something everyone can do?"

Shapeshifting isn't something that everyone can do, and is mostly restricted to Maeve's descendants, although you do get shapeshifters descended from Titania; they're just rarer. (Titania's descendants tend to be more skilled illusionists, so there's a trade-off.) It's actually one of the more common powers in Faerie.

There are two kinds of voluntary transformation in Toby's world. Shapeshifting, transforming yourself into something else through your innate power, and skinshifting, using a bond with an item to transform into the indicated form. Shapeshifting is not always dramatic. The Luidaeg is a shapeshifter; she just changes her appearance, usually in relatively subtle ways. She is not an illusionist at all—when she dons a human disguise, she does it by actually transforming the shape of her face.

Most shapeshifters can less malleable, and can turn into one or more distinct forms. Cait Sidhe become cats. Cu Sidhe become dogs. Phouka become horses, or big black dogs that you don't want to meet in dark allies, no really. Roane become seals. (Selkies pull the same trick, but do it through skinshifting, which is a different matter.) Even Piskies are considered a form of shapeshifter, since they can dramatically change their size, going from human-size to pixie-size.

The Piskie-type of shapeshifter—the ones who modify their bodies, but not their overall shapes—are more common in the Undersea, where almost all the denizens can become bipedal, if not fully humanoid. Merrow look very much like Daoine Sidhe in their bipedal forms, and can even be confused with them, when they dress themselves correctly. (The Merrow are pretty much in charge in most of the Undersea, because they can go on land and argue with the air-breathers.)

Even Undine, like Lily, are shapeshifters; she was actually a body of water that could turn itself into a person for short periods of time. April can be viewed as a shapeshifter, since she's made of light, and can transform herself, within reasonable limits, to match whatever she thinks she should look like.

So, the short answer: there are lots, and lots, and lots of shapeshifters in Faerie. It's a very common form of magic, and if there doesn't seem to be much in the books, it's because it's so common that no one really remarks on it most of the time.

Make sense?

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's AWESOME WALLPAPERS AND ICONS by our very own Tara!

Check out the incredible Toby goodness.

Seriously, she just gets better with every book she does this for. Check out the goodies, take what you want, and enjoy the glory that is Tara.

I'm so happy!

This is the third of my five promised posts about the background of Toby's world, and it's addressing two closely related questions. Specifically, from markbernstein:

"There are multiple fae races. Do all of them trace their lineage back to Oberon, Titania, and Maeve? Is there a record of when each separate race came into being, and when was the last time that happened?"

...and kaleidors:

"How do you decide which mythical beings are real in Toby's world? Along with kitsune, are oni, kappa and tengu real? How about jiang shi? What about Abalone Woman from the mythology of northern California? When the fae came from Europe, did they displace or remove natives, or was there no one in California? (I remember talk about settling briefly in the book, but I cannot recall the particulars)."

Interesting questions!

First, the out-universe answer. All fae in Toby's world trace their lineage back to some combination of Oberon, Maeve, and Titania. Some have two of the First in their background, some only have one. The Cait Sidhe have all three, but they're a special case (as they so often are). This means that only mythical creatures whose backgrounds are somehow malleable can be subsumed into Toby's world. Kitsune, Tengu, Bakemono, Tsukumogami, Shi-Shu, Menehune, Nawao, and other creatures who don't have a very firm "and then so-and-so begat..." or who were originally presented as a lone individual and can be made into a race (such as the Blodynbryd) exist in Toby's reality. Other creatures, such as most of those found in Australian mythology, and pretty much all of Inuit or Native American folklore, don't exist, because there's no respectful way to say "and Oberon was your daddy's daddy's daddy, yay!" It's a juggling act. If I were establishing the rules of this universe today, I would probably either keep it more Euro-centric, to avoid possibly disrespecting another culture's folklore, or find a way to incorporate other fae monarchs in other places. I didn't do that when I wrote the first book, and so these are the rules I have to work with. If they're not descended from the Three, they don't exist.

Oh, and jiang shi don't exist because they're very explicitly dead in every accounting I can find. They'll eventually show up in InCryptid, which has very different rules.

Now, the in-universe answer:

We've established that all fae races trace their lineage back to the Three, by way of their Firstborn, who are the immediate descendants (children, although not always in a recognizeable sense) of the Three. The Undine, for example, were wept, not born, but are still children of Maeve. This includes Faerie's various monsters, although, so far as anyone knows, all the monsters are the result of the Firstborn tinkering, not the Three themselves. (This may or may not be true. I haven't decided, and since it's one of my few bits of beautiful indecision, I'm holding it for a while.) Regardless, everything in Faerie finds its way back to the Three, one way or another.

Here's where it gets complicated. The children of the Three are Firstborn, and while they can be similar, they are always entirely unique in all the world. Most of them can blend into their own descendant races, pretending to be what they create, but they'll always stand a little bit apart, no matter how hard they try to disappear. They get good with illusions and minor shapeshifts, because otherwise, they'd never have any peace. No one knows how many Firstborn are still alive. They don't want anyone to know.

The libraries track the lineages and the origin points, when they're known. Good luck getting a pass to the stacks.

Any time a Firstborn takes a new lover and has children, the child or children will begin a new race. Firstborn are more fertile than normal fae, partially because otherwise, no races would ever become established. The Roane Firstborn, for example, had three children, and those three went on to beget all the rest of the Roane. As for when the last time this happened was...

Firstborn still exist. Firstborn may still have children. So maybe it was yesterday. But things move slowly in Faerie, and children are only born so fast. So who knows?

Here's the second post in my promised series of five about aspects of Toby's world that may or may not be covered in the books. Our question, from beccastareyes:

"Are there other geographic divisions among the fae besides those that live underwater and those who live on land? Are there duchies/counties/etc. where one must be able to fly, or ones situated underground, or places of great heat or cold?"

Oh, are there ever.

The simplest way to divide Faerie is by element. You have land fae, water fae, sky fae, and "we live in a volcano, no, you can't come over for dinner, WE LIVE IN A FUCKING VOLCANO" fae (er, fire fae). Most of the Toby books deal with land fae, since Toby herself can't fly, live in lava, or breathe underwater. (Since this is a magical universe, she can do any of those things with help. She doesn't always have help. Or want help. Or hold still long enough to be helped, since "let me throw you in this volcano" is not her idea of assistance.)

That's the simple form.

The land kingdoms are divided into temperate areas (IE, anyplace where humans can live without major protective gear), along with frozen kingdoms, high desert kingdoms, and deep forest kingdoms. The elevation divisions—high mountain and underground—are technically considered "land," but are also considered "border zones" (more on this later).

Most of the land kingdoms are inhabitable by most of the fae races, with some exceptions. Land-bound water fae (undine, who are always fresh water, rusalki, who are water fae, but don't do oceans) can't survive in the desert; neither can the true cold fae, like the snow fairies, some of whom would actually melt. True desert fae, like the peri, don't like cold climates, although not all of them would die if subjected to cold. And naturally, most fae who live in a human range, like the Daoine Sidhe, will die of frostbite or dehydration if forced to go out without the proper gear.

The water kingdoms are divided primarily into fresh and salt; the Undersea doesn't include the freshwater fae, most of whom are treated as land denizens, due to lack of a coherent governing body in every single pond. The saltwater kingdoms are divided into the shallows, the middle-sea, and the deeps. Merrow can handle shallows or the middle-sea, but not the very bottom of the deeps. Cephali can handle the middle-sea and the deeps, but become very uncomfortable in the shallows. There are stories about some of the things that live in the deeps. Bad stories. For the most part, no one goes down there, because for the most part, people aren't idiots.

The sky kingdoms are the least divided, because, thus far, no fae have been confirmed capable of breathing in a vacuum. So they live in the clouds and pray no one flies a plane through their living room. Storm fae help with this. Good luck finding the capital city. It drifts.

The fire kingdoms are all very isolated, and very little is known about them, on account of the part where they're ON FIRE ALL THE TIME. They are the only kingdom which does not yet have reliable wireless.

Now, borders.

Every kingdom borders on every other. Land/sea border = shoreline. Land/sky border = mountains. Land/fire border = deep caverns. Sea/sky border = more nebulous; usually weather patterns. Sea/fire border = deep rifts. And yes, there are fae basically everywhere. The land fae are the most accustomed, and adapted, to living with humans, and even they don't tend to like us very much.

Biology: Faerie does it weird.

Yesterday I said that, to celebrate the upcoming release of One Salt Sea, I would once again make five blog posts detailing the background aspects of Toby's reality. This is the first of those posts.

liret asks "Can parents of changelings send their child off to the Summerlands alone and stay with their mortal spouses? I got the impression that Amandine was as stuck as Toby after Toby went through the Changeling's Choice, but I was wondering if arranging for a foster-family and writing the kid off was also possible."

The short answer: No.

The longer-form answer is, naturally, a little more complex.

For those of you who aren't aware, the Changeling's Choice is the process via which changeling children (fae/human crossbreeds) are presented with the two sides of their heritage. Pick fae, be whisked away to Faerie and never see your human family again. Pick mortal, your fae parent has to kill you on the spot. There are no takebacks; this is not something that can be negotiated. The Changeling's Choice is a necessary part of playing fairy bride.

The only exceptions are the weak-blooded fae, like Stacy or Marcia. Their magic was clearly strong enough to have triggered the Changeling's Choice at some point, since they're in Faerie, but if either of them were to have children with a human, there's a fifty/fifty chance that those kids would never manifest measurable magic, which means the Choice would never be triggered. (This is how we wind up with merlins.) Toby slept with Cliff knowing she might get pregnant, and chose to ride the odds as to whether Gilly would fall into that "magic too weak to become visible" sub-category. Since Gilly is still with her mortal family, and they haven't noticed anything unusual about her, Toby's gamble appears to have paid off.

Now, here's the thing: when a changeling is removed from the mortal world, either through abduction or death, they don't just vanish. That would leave too many questions unanswered, and could result in people searching for their children long past the point where it would be safe for Faerie to have them looking. Toby's father found bodies in the remains of the house; Natasha and October Daye were both declared dead, and were buried in Colma. Toby's father is buried next to what he assumed was his wife, but was actually a night-haunt's mannequin.

So could someone send their kid packing and stay with their mortal spouse? Sure, if they were able to convince their liege (and everyone has a liege, even if it's just the local King or Queen) that they could absolutely sell the idea that their child was dead, find a foster family, get the kid to choose Faerie, ship the kid off without getting caught, and manage to weather the aftermath of the "accident" without making any mistakes or getting accused of murder. Hint: this is very, very hard, especially given that most fae are incredibly attached to their children. Many purebloods think of human lovers as nothing more than a convenient way to get a baby, and would never even consider picking a spouse over a child.

In the event that a fae parent somehow convinced their liege that they could pull all this off, and then actually did manage to pull it all off, they would never be allowed to see that child again, and would have a seriously hard time convincing other fae to date them, since they have just proven that they're shitty parents. (I am aware that this is an apparent contradiction, given the fae fosterage system. Most societies are built on minor contradictions, and at least under normal fosterage, you'll eventually get the kid back. You know. When they finish being a teenager.)

So it's logistically hard, emotionally difficult, and culturally frowned upon. Technically, it's possible. Functionally, it's something no fae parent would really consider doing, even if they wanted to.

Since I have a book coming out in a week, I figure it's time to once again offer to answer your questions about the world. So...

I will make five blog posts detailing aspects of Toby's universe. Ask me anything! I will not answer every question, but will select the five that I think are the most interesting/fun/relevant, and will detail them to my heart's content. There's a lot to learn and know, and asking loses you nothing.

Leave your questions on this post. I'm declaring comment-reply amnesty for any that I choose not to answer this time, since otherwise, my wee head may explode.

Game on!

ETA: Things covered last time we did this: inheritance, fosterage, madness, historical records, and Cait Sidhe court structure.

Well, here we are. One Salt Sea comes out in one week, exactly. If past trends hold true*, people will begin reporting sightings in the wild any day now. This will either cause me to clap my hands, cry, hyperventilate, or all of the above. Safe money is, as always, on "all of the above." And so here are seven things you can do to help with this book release!

7. Talk about the book. Are you excited that it's coming? Awesome. Are you excited about the series as a whole? Awesome. Do you plan to use One Salt Sea to fuel your world-buster cannon? Rock on. Word-of-mouth is the best advertising there is.

6. Review the book. Do it on your blog, on Amazon, on Goodreads, wherever you feel comfortable. Reviews help more than almost anything else. (But please, please, do not send me copies of your Amazon reviews. I try to avoid that particular pitcher plant of pain.)

5. Loan copies of Rosemary and Rue to people you think might be interested. The first hit's free!

4. Do not poke at me with sharp, sharp sticks. I am a very thinly-stretched blonde right now, on account of book release and all, and I am neither fast to respond nor particularly well-suited to being jabbed at. Please, be gentle, and understand that right now, you're looking at a longer than normal response time.

3. I love fan mail, and I respond to everything I get, although it can sometimes take a while. Please don't get upset if I don't answer right away.

2. Also? Please don't ask for kitten pictures. Seriously.

1. And the number-one thing you can do to help One Salt Sea have a successful launch is...buy the book. Please, please, buy the book. During the first on-sale week if you possibly can (September 6th through 12th), because that's the week that counts against all the bestseller lists. Making those lists is a long shot, but a girl's gotta dream, right? So if you're planning to buy the book, please, go out and do it. Let's see if we can hit the NYT.

If we do, I promise to faint.

(*Past trends may not hold true. Traditionally, early copies have been spotted at Borders, and Borders is gone. I actually dare to hope that my on-sale date may be accurate this time. That said, I've heard unconfirmed reports of early copies found at Books-A-Million.)

I was asked to write a fragment involving a) Toby and b) a traditional folk or fairy tale for the blog Dark Faerie Tales. Being the easily amused soul that I am, I obliged by combining Toby Daye with the tale of Katie Crackernuts. You can read the original post here, and enter to win a Toby book by leaving a comment.

Unfortunately, somehow, the way the text was posted stripped out the special characters, like quotation marks. So I am posting it again here, for your amusement and edification. Free Toby past the cut-tag!

( Click here for antic silliness, Tybalt, and Toby hating her footwear. Again.Collapse )

I am leaving for the WorldCon in Reno tomorrow, and a little bit horrified by how quickly this year has gone by. Maybe if I started sleeping, time would slow down. Do you think? Yeah, probably not. Oh, well. A girl can dream. Anyway:

Welcome to the August 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving. To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (One Salt Sea, Blackout). The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out!Collapse )

Twenty-five days. That's how long we have between here and One Salt Sea. A dollar for each of those days would buy me a bucket of chicken from KFC, or two new paperbacks (with tax), or two tickets to a matinee, if someone else bought the popcorn. An hour for each of those days would give me time to take a nice long nap.

Twenty-five days.

I'm still amazed that this book is something real, that it's about to be something people can buy and have for their very own. I'm still sort of going "but but but the first one just came out, how can we already be on book five?" I'm writing book six. I'm dreaming book eight. And I'm scared as hell of the fact that book five is about to be on shelves.

I think milestones are always big and hard and scary. But this one is just weird. I am amazed and aghast and a little bit afraid of what comes next.

For Late Eclipses, I provided lists of facts and answered questions to ease people toward for release. What should I do this time? Suggestions welcome.

ETA: Guys, I can't, and won't, do drabbles. Not only are they very brain-intensive (and wouldn't you rather have book six?), but the effort of keeping them from being full of spoilers would explode my head. I've tried to indicate nicely that this isn't an option, and now I'm just saying it.

Words: 8,256.
Total words: 25,668.
Reason for stopping: I have finished chapter seven, and need to finish writing an essay.
Music: mostly Pink, Dar Williams, and Ludo.
The cats: all sacked out on the bed like fuzzy potatoes.

I am...working. I am making progress and I am working and by the standard length of a Toby book (roughly 100,000 to 110,000 words, give or take a chapter), I broke 25% of this book today. Which is incredible.

To be honest, finishing Blackout just killed me. It racked me up one side and down the other, and it's not really over yet; I'm still waiting on the editorial letter from The Other Editor, at which point, the Machete Squad gets to attack the manuscript again while I make the changes he feels are necessary (and he's going to be right, because he's always been right so far, and I trust him, which is wonderful). I was terrified going back into Ashes of Honor. What if I couldn't find my footing? What if I couldn't figure out where I stood?

I didn't need to be afraid. Toby is as natural to me as breathing at this point, and while her stories aren't always easy (on either one of us), they're familiar territory. I like it in her world. I can stay there for as long as I need to. It's comfortable, and it's mine, and it's one of my imagination's true homes.

I think this one is going to be just fine.

So after hoping and praying and telling people to write to Brilliance Audio instead of writing to me, I am absolutely overjoyed to be able to announce that the audio book rights for Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea have been sold. Here are some Amazon links, in case you don't feel like looking for them yourself:

Late Eclipses, the audio book.
One Salt Sea, the audio book.

I am so happy right now. I know that the lack of audio books for book four has been a big deal for people with vision problems, or who like to listen to books while they drive, or who just prefer things in an audio format. Being able to make those readers happy makes me happy.

And now is where I turn to you, or at least those segments of the greater "you" who asked for these editions, and I say: Please, buy these. Brilliance Audio has been wonderful, and the letters you wrote expressing a desire for these books is what enabled them to go back into the studio and make the books happen. But the sales need to be strong if we want them to continue the series; this is not the same as my contract with DAW, and does not have a one-to-one guarantee.

The unabridged audio book of One Salt Sea in MP3 form on a single CD is less than eleven dollars on Amazon right now. If you are one of the people who asked for these audio books, and have an interest in seeing Toby's adventures continue in this format, please, order a copy. This is how we make them keep letting us have nice things.

Audio books!

Since website issues are thankfully limited, I'm going to kick off a second ARC giveaway. This one will be open until Monday, and is one of the ones that requires actual effort (sorry about that). This time, we're going visual! Make icons, do a photo manip, draw a picture, grab some friends and pose, whatever makes you happy. The rules:

1. The image must relate directly in some way to one of my available works. Meaning that both Velveteen and the Rose Marshall stories are eligible. Stage a hitchhiking ghost! Draw a bunny superhero! Or stick with Toby, or the Masons, and have a blast!

2. LOLcats are also eligible.

3. Once your submission is prepared, link or post it on this entry. Feel free to explain what's going on.

4. That's all.

The winner will be chosen Monday, August 15th, via random number generator.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to my journal. I'm pretty sure you know who I am, my name being in the URL and all, but just in case, I'm Seanan McGuire (also known as Mira Grant), and you're probably not on Candid Camera. This post exists to answer a few of the questions I get asked on a semi-hemi-demi-regular basis. It may look familiar; that's because it gets updated and re-posted roughly every two months, to let folks who've just wandered in know how things work around here. Also, sometimes I change the questions. Because I can.

If you've read this before, feel free to skip, although there may be interesting new things to discover and know beyond the cut.

Anyway, here you go:

( This way lies a lot of information you may or may not need about the person whose LJ you may or may not be reading right at this moment. Also, I may or may not be the King of Rain, which may or may not explain why it's drizzling right now. Essentially, this is Schrodinger's cut-tag.Collapse )

So here's the deal. I have two websites, and I maintain them both myself, manually. That means nothing changes unless I go in and change it. The sites are here:

http://www.seananmcguire.com/
http://miragrant.com/

Parts of these sites are quite out of date, because I have been a busy little bee. We are thus going to play a little game.

Step 1: Go to my website. Either one.
Step 2: Poke around until you see something that could use improvement. A typo, a missing link, an unclear question on the FAQ, even a missing question on the FAQ. (Pages that aren't linked at all, like the Field Guide, or don't exist, don't count. Those are future improvements, not current issues.
Step 3: Post here, suggesting a correction/update.
Step 4: Step away from the website.

I will be making updates and corrections, partially based on this post, for the next week. On Friday, I will use our friend, random number generator, to choose a winner of an ARC of One Salt Sea (US-only, unless you can help with postage). No matter what, everybody benefits, since the end result should be an easier-to-use website.

Game on!

Words: 5,574.
Total words: 17,412.
Reason for stopping: I have finished chapter five, and now it is time for bed.
Music: totally random shuffle; lots of country music.
The cats: all feline locations are currently unknown, which probably ought to worry me a bit.

So I finally got the chance to return to Ashes of Honor, which is good, since that means everything is going according to schedule. And as expected, I opened the file, looked at the text, squinted a little, and promptly wrote an entirely new chapter one, following it up with a shiny new chapter five (which would have been chapter four, if chapter one hadn't become chapter two). My total inability to write the first chapter the first time I try continues unabated!

I am really, really happy to be back in Toby's head. She's a comforting place for me to be, messed-up and bizarre as she can sometimes be. I've known her for a long time, after all, and this is our sixth book together. That, too, is a little bit strange, and a whole lot wonderful. Six books! Back when this was a short story and I was an aspiring novelist, who would have guessed? It really is amazing.

Next week is the WorldCon in Reno, but for right now, it's me and Toby and the gang, and we're going on a wonderful adventure, again, and I couldn't be any happier. Honest.

Would you like fries with that?

After the day I've had, I lack the focus to do anything more involved than a review roundup. And so, with no further ado, I present...the review roundup. Again, it's cut-tagged because it's huge; I'm trying to winnow the list enough to get back to my customary sets of five.

( We cut because we love. Also because we have knives.Collapse )

This is a week full of things! For example, it's full of Home Improvement: Undead Edition, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner. And Home Improvement: Undead Edition is, in turn, full of things. Specifically, it's full of awesome urban fantasy and paranormal romance stories...

...including a brand new October Daye adventure.

That got your attention, didn't it?

"Through This House" is set chronologically between Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea. It is specifically NOT required reading (something I didn't think would be fair in a side story), but it provides a bridge between the two books, and lets you have a sneak peek at Goldengreen as it was when Toby and the gang first came to claim it. See Toby be cranky, May be damp, Quentin be awesome, and Danny be large! Enjoy happy Barghest fun times! And best of all, get a little more Toby for your troubles.

Home Improvement: Undead Edition is available now. I could not be prouder to be a part of this book, you guys. Seriously, being asked was just...was like...it was just absolutely a dream come true, and I remain stunned and happy and just totally amazed that I got to be a part of it.

Things!

The random number generator has spoken, and our latest winner is...

bzarcher!

Thanks to everyone who participated. bzarcher, please submit your mailing address via my website contact form by noon PST on Tuesday, August 2nd. If I do not receive your contact information by this time, I will select another winner.

More giveaways and goodies will be forthcoming, as we approach the official release of One Salt Sea into the world.

Whee!

Who wants to win an ARC of One Salt Sea? Good. I'm going to make it easy on you, because I'm feeling mellow that way. To enter...

1. Comment on this entry. Be sure you're commenting on the entry, not on someone else's comment; only comments left on the actual entry will be eligible.
2. Tell me one thing you think will happen (or hope will happen) in One Salt Sea. You don't have to be serious! Make something up if it amuses you. I love me some silliness.
3. Wait.

I will choose a winner, using our old friend, Random Number Generator, on Monday, August 1st. So yes, this is a very short contest, and you should get in while the getting is good.

Game on!

So here's the deal:

Every time I let my link list get away from me, it gets a little more away from me than it did the last time. At first, it wasn't making it out of the yard, and now it's halfway to Tijuana, and I think it took the car. This will not stand. So while I have a usual rule of "five links to a roundup, to keep things from getting vile," this time, I'm doing fifteen links, and I'm doing them behind a cut-tag. Otherwise, you'll be seeing the One Salt Sea reviews hitting the top of the list right around the time Ashes of Honor comes out, and how useful is that?

If you like the review roundups, click away, and if you don't, don't. I'll have a less review-y post in a little bit.

( Clicky for review goodness and lots of fun!Collapse )

For me, every book has a theme song, one that doesn't always have anything to do with the actual book. It's just the piece of music that gets stuck in my head whenever I start thinking about it. And for One Salt Sea, the song is "Ten Years," by Talis Kimberley.

Here's how it was, after he left me,
Queen of this island, and mother of his child.
I knew the risks—war's always chancy—
Still, I was happy to wait, for a while...

In fifty days—less, if historical stocking oopsies bear out one more time—you'll be able to walk into your local bookstore and pick up a copy of One Salt Sea, the fifth of the October Daye adventures. In fifty days, you'll be able to find out what happens next. In fifty days, you're done waiting, for at least a little while.

I admit it: I'm terrified. Late Eclipses was incredibly well-received, and that makes the stakes even higher for book five. What's more, One Salt Sea is the book that, for a very long time, I couldn't write, because I was so sure that the series would never find a home that I ran out of steam about a quarter of the way into book five, over and over and over again. In a way, I never did write that particular book. The one you'll be able to buy is very different, even though the skeleton is the same. The Brightest Fell, my original book five, may never see the light of day...or if it does, it will show up as something new and strange. And that's okay.

Fifty days. I can barely believe it. We've come so far, so fast, and it's all so strange.

Thank you for coming with me.

Because ten years is a very long time
When there's no guarantee he'll come home,
And the war was so far away,
And I was still Queen...Queen, and alone...

(All lyrics quoted today are by Talis Kimberley, who is awesome.)
(All twitchiness is mine.)

Late, but not forgotten! The winner of the random number casting game is...

thatrainbow! Your entry showed thought, effort, and creativity. So clearly, the random number generator has taste. Please email me, using my website contact form, and give your mailing address. I will then sign an ARC of One Salt Sea and send it off to be your loving buddy.

And the judge's choice bonus prize goes to...psiten! psiten, you may choose any one of my published books (the first four Toby books, the first two Newsflesh books, or the first three Toby books in German), and I will send it to you. For this magical thing to happen, you must first send me your mailing address, via my website contact form, along with the title you want to receive.

Thanks to everyone for playing; the next contest will be slightly lower-impact, as it will be overlapping San Diego, and I will not have the brain.

It's time for ARC giveaway #3...the casting call! Here's how this is going to work:

1. Leave a comment on this post with YOUR DREAM CAST for ANY of my projects. Want to cast the Toby books? How about Feed? Or Sparrow Hill Road? Have the perfect actress in mind for Velveteen? The sky's the limit!

1b. Be sure your comment starts its own thread. Only casting choices left on the original post (not as a comment on someone else's comment) will count as entries. You can suggest cast members for someone else's dream team, but they won't be entries.

2. One entry per project per person (so you can cast the Toby books and the InCryptid books in different comments, but not enter twice with different Toby casts).

3. Explain your cast in the comment. Why are they perfect? Why should we agree with you?

And then...GAME ON! I will choose a winner via random number generator on Friday, at 5PM PST. I reserve the right to supply a bonus prize or prizes for the person whose cast amuses me most, or strikes me as the best supported. (Yes, you can use my casting choices, but you do need to explain why you agree with them.)

Go Hollywood or go home!

To the surprise of absolutely no one, and despite strong showings by poodles and doll collections, the winner of the second ARC of One Salt Sea is ladyaraia and her massive group photo recreation of book three! Congratulations, and please get me your contact information by Sunday evening, through the form on my website, or another winner will be selected.

Thanks to everyone who participated, and I'll be opening the next contest on Monday.

Well, it's time; time to vote. Five entries have been selected by the random number generator, and five entries have been selected by me. Now it's in your hands. Choose your favorite, shill for your favorite, whatever works for you. The poll will remain open until Friday afternoon, at which point I will announce who gets an ARC of their very own.

Game on!

It's time for the second ARC giveaway for One Salt Sea, the fifth of the October Daye adventures. As per the usual pattern around here, this is the giveaway that requires a little more effort. To whit:

For this giveaway, we're going visual! Take a copy of one of my books. Take a pet, prop, or even a small child, whatever suits your fancy. An Artificial Night being held by a little girl with a candle in her other hand? A Local Habitation being used to prop up your DSL modem? Late Eclipses being menaced by an army of My Little Ponies? Whatever you can set up and snapshot, I want to see!

Post your pictures (or links to your pictures) here. On Tuesday, July 5th, I will choose my five favorites, and allow the random number generator to select five more. These will go up as a poll, and the world can vote! The final winner will be determined at 8am PST on Friday, July 8th. North American entries only this time, I'm afraid; I just can't afford the international postage right now. I'm sorry about that.

Be creative, be quirky, have fun, and show me what awesome things you can do with a camera, a book, and the desire to own One Salt Sea before your neighbors do!

Game on!

Well, it's a few hours late, but I've selected the winner of the first giveaway ARC of One Salt Sea. The random number generator has spoken, and the winner is...

...jaimecallahan.

Please contact me by noon PST on Sunday, using the "contact" form on my website. Provide your mailing address. If you do not contact me by noon on Sunday, I will choose another winner. Do not expose mermaids to water after midnig—oh, wait, it's unavoidable. Do not enter water when mermaids are present. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

Giveaway #2 will be announced next week. Thanks, everybody!

We are now seventy-five days from the release of One Salt Sea. Two and a half months, basically, before the fifth Toby book hits shelves and people can buy it and it's just out there. In the world. Where people will read it, and talk about it, and do all the things that people do with books, whether they like them or not.

This never gets any less frightening. In fact, right now, it comes with an extra bonus dose of frightening, because this is the last Toby book for a year—my March 2012 release with DAW is going to be the first book in the InCryptid series, Discount Armageddon. So this book has to be amazing enough to keep people from forgetting about me.

It's scary and exhilarating and a little "wait, what?" Because this was always the book I couldn't finish. Book five is where I ran out of steam, because these books were never going to come out, and five finished books was just too much for my heart to take. And now it's about to be on shelves. In seventy-five days.

Remember that I have an ARC giveaway going now, which you can enter through tomorrow afternoon. I'll open my second giveaway next week; it's going to involve photography, since we need to have something slightly less wash-and-wear.

Seventy-five days to high tide.

Wow.

Yes, it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for: the moment where I give away the first ARC of One Salt Sea, the fifth book in the October Daye series. Today seems like a good day to open the contest, being as it's the summer solstice and all. Longest day of the year means free stuff for somebody! So...

Who wants to win an ARC? About what I figured. I'll have some more effort-intensive contests in a little bit, but first up, it's our old favorite, the random drawing. To enter, please do the following:

1) Leave a comment on this entry. Leave it as a comment on the entry, please, not on someone else's comment. Comments left on other comments cannot win.

2) That's all.

Please don't comment going "pick me, pick me," if you could be so kind. I don't pick anyone. The random number generator picks the winner, and it is a cruel mistress which has never yet picked a comment containing "pick me." Instead, why not tell me why you're excited about this book? I'd really love to know.

I will choose a winner at 2PM PST on Friday, June 24th.

Game on!

ETA: Y'all, please remember that I won't answer questions posed on a random number giveaway post. It messes up my ability to cleanly locate a winner, and that just makes things frustrating for everyone.

I am delighted to be returning to my beloved Borderlands Books tomorrow, this time as my urban fantasy-writin', fairy tale-lovin' self, along with the lovely Ben Macallan, who is making his urban fantasy debut. (Ben Macallan is a pseudonym for my darling Chaz Brenchley, who is about as closeted in his pseudonym as I am in mine. It's a wonderful world.)

There will be readings, questions, answers, prizes, and a general good time for everyone. The fun starts at 3:00 PM. This is mostly Ben's party; I'm along to be the plucky comic relief, and the plucky comic relief would really appreciate it if you could show up, since it's no fun being plucky to an empty house. I'll be reading from the new Tybalt novella, "Rat-Catcher," and possibly also from One Salt Sea. And I'll be very glad to see you, as will Ben.

(Also remember that the bookstore takes phone orders, and that I'd be happy to inscribe things for you, as would Ben, if you can't attend.)

I hope to see you there!

You've already heard about these, because you're wonderful and also here, but some of my deal announcements have finally gone public. Hooray! Namely...

The first two books in the InCryptid series, described here by Romantic Times as being about "a family of cryptozoologists who are trying to ensure the survival of endangered mythological species." They also call me "often scary, but always wonderful." I can deal with that as a description, personally.

Books six and seven in the Toby Daye books, which Romantic Times describes as "the adventures of a half-fairy in a dark and dangerous human world." Toby is a little more afraid of Faerie than the human world. At least the human world comes with coffee. A Toby without coffee is like a day without sunshine. Or oxygen. Or gravity.

And that's my next few years all charted out for your amusement. So when you wonder why I'm not coming to your birthday party, well. You can reference this post.

Oh, my stars and garters, the ARCs are here. One Salt Sea is a real book, for real and for true, and I can hold it in my hands.

And it is beautiful.

I am so conflicted and amazed by this book. It's the first Toby book written entirely A.D. (After DAW); the other four were finished, to one degree or another, when I got that very first contract. It's the final book of my second contract; Ashes of Honor and The Chimes at Midnight are actually part of my third contract. It's the book most changed by the improvements in my ability as a writer. The original villain isn't even in the book. The story is tighter, the action is cleaner, and some of the things that happen—some of the things that always had to happen—hurt ever so much more than I ever dreamed they could.

It's a real book. I wrote it, and it's real. It's what comes after Late Eclipses, and it's real. I'm honestly a little bit stunned. Part of me never dreamed that I'd make it this far. But I did, and I have, and the books are here, in my hands.

It's amazing.

Again, links eat world. But also, as of today, we are ninety-five days out from the release of One Salt Sea, and that means I need to make sure people remember Toby! So here is today's Toby-centric review roundup.

We start with a review of Rosemary and Rue by Fuzzy Steve, who says, "Damn good. Classic Urban fantasy, with a strong female lead. If you like the Dresden files, you'll probably like these. So give the first book a chance." I like "damn good" as a sales pitch, frankly.

Also Rosemary and Rue-related, although a bit more specialized, here's the Unshelved Book Club review of the audio edition, which says, "My previous attempts to listen to urban fantasy novels left me thinking I needed to read a faerie encyclopedia. But McGuire gave all the background necessary to Daye's world, with all the grit, deception, and intrigue I feel is essential to a mystery. And Kowal voiced the characters—both otherworldly and human—with distinction, personality, and just the right amount of tension." Yay!

Moving on to a later book, Fantasy Literature has reviewed Late Eclipses, and says, "The world-building is great, featuring a plethora of fae beings from folklore, and the political intrigue is always interesting. Late Eclipses has the added bonus of new revelations about the nature of Toby's mother, Amandine, and of Toby herself. Yes, I love these books. Even when they're flawed." She goes on to call out several of these flaws, and they're a fair cop; this is a good review.

It's time for another Book Pushers review! Yay! This time, it's a review of Late Eclipses, and says, "Late Eclipses is a solid and enjoyable entry in the series. Lush mythology and darkly imaginative and tense, I was caught up with the mystery and developments that bring forward ongoing plots and characters. I eagerly await for the next book, to see what else will be unveiled."

Finally, for right now (since I try to stop at five links), the Cookies, Books, and Bikes review of An Artificial Night, which says, "I throughly enjoyed this book. It was completely engrossing and I loved learning more about many of the other characters within this book." Rock and roll.

And that's it for today. More soon.

Am I behind on my review roundups? Yes. Yes, I am. Am I about to drown in links? Yes. Yes, I am. So here. Reviews for you!

First up for this batch, Paul Goat Allen wrote one of the most beautiful explanations of the Toby Daye books I've ever seen over the Barnes & Noble Book Club, and said, "For me, these novels are ultimately about Toby's inner quest—her search to find herself, her place in the world, not some soul mate or better half who will 'complete' her. It’s delicious existential speculation wrapped up in fantastical candy-coated shell. That's why this unique and addictively readable saga resonates so powerfully with me—I identify with Toby as the proverbial outsider, the seeker, the misunderstood hero."

Um. Wow.

The Discriminating Fangirl posted a lovely review of Late Eclipses, and says, "I think this is my favorite book in the series so far. Everything that I loved about the first three books came together in a perfect storm of awesomeness in Late Eclipses. The plot is smooth, engrossing, and terribly exciting." Also: "If you’re already a fan of the Toby Daye series, Late Eclipses definitely won’t disappoint. If you’re a newbie looking for some great, original urban fantasy, get thee to a bookstore and pick up this series. You won’t be disappointed." Victory!

Charlaine Harris listed Late Eclipses as one of her books of the week, and says, "Seanan McGuire is another of my favorites, and Late Eclipses continues her saga of the life of October Daye, a true and acknowledged hero in the world of the fae." Also: "It's impossible not to like Toby." Could someone tell the Queen of the Mists that? It would make book six ever so much easier to write.

Angela over at The Outhouse has posted a review of Late Eclipses, and says, "For the past three books, I cringed at the 1st person narrative that gave little details painstakingly slow about Toby’s life. For the past three books I wanted to grab October by the shirt and ask her why won’t she push farther into her odd standings with Tybalt. For the last three books, I nearly cried when Toby would just bend over and take it from the Fae court. And now here is the fourth fantastic book and it has been worth every little bit of frustrating agony! Seanan McGuire is a sneaky woman, knowing how to play her audience like a fiddle book by delicious book; never giving too much, but making you want a whole of a lot more." I'm a fiddler! Amy would be so proud.

Finally, for right now, it's our requisite LJ review, from ambermoon, who has posted a lovely review of Late Eclipses. She says, "Each novel passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors, and I love the heroine. Toby (short for October) is smart, funny, sarcastic, and believable. She's capable without being either 'too good at everything' or unwilling to accept help. She gets literally carried several times, but I never felt her agency was reduced. She has maternal aspects without that being the source of her strength or relegating her to a caretaker role. She can sometimes be a jerk, and sometimes seems almost deliberately obtuse about personal matters, and she's extremely stubborn. The books are first-person narration so Toby carries all the action, and she doesn't disappoint." Yay!

That's all for today. Next up, Deadline reviews! Yay!

The 2011 BSC Review Book Tournament is over, and An Artificial Night is the winner, stomping The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by a mere 5%! Yes, it was 55/45 when the polls closed, and Mark Hodder's tale of gaslight London and the monsters therein came very close to victory. But in the end, there could be only one, and your tireless devotion to clicking little boxes meant that Toby walked away with the gold!

Also, you know. Some heads. Heads are awesome.

Thank you all for clicking, and for putting up with my random fascination with online contests. It was a lot of fun, and I deeply appreciate it. We now return you to your regularly scheduled nonsense.

This is it, you guys. The final round of the BSC Tournament. The time to nut up or shut up.

The time to vote for An Artificial Night, lest it fall before The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack.

We are mighty. We are legion. We have vanquished some amazing books this year, as Toby clawed her way ever closer to victory, and we must STAND UP AND BE HEARD!

So, y'know. Vote, and stuff. Please? Pretty please? I'll be your best friend. Well, okay, I probably won't be, but I'll be really, really happy.

Vote Toby! Vote victory!

And stuff.

I've been thinking a lot about book covers recently. It started when I saw the concept art for the fifth October Daye book, One Salt Sea, which is a big departure, color-wise, from the rest of the series. (One reader actually commented on this, saying they couldn't decide whether they liked it or not, because it was so different.) This, oddly, made me really look at the series covers as a whole. Then I started looking at the covers of other urban fantasies that I've very much enjoyed, and finally realized what it was that made my covers seem so unusual to me. Aside from the part where they're, you know, mine, and hence I emotionally regard them as practically perfect in every way.

The Toby Daye books are getting gender neutral/male covers.

Picture a generic urban fantasy cover. The odds are good, unless you were thinking of the Dresden Files or the Simon Canderous books, that you pictured a woman in tight pants and a skimpy top, probably looking exotic and dangerous at the same time. She may or may not be holding a knife. If she is, it doesn't really look like it would do all that much damage when used to stab someone, although it might use all of its extra flourishes and points to get stuck on their clothing. Despite being in mortal peril, her hair is perfect, and her makeup is expertly applied. She may or may not bear any resemblance to the woman on the other side of that cover, but by the Great Pumpkin, she is Urban Fantasy Babe, and she will cut you with her richly saturated color palette.

(To be clear, I don't think there's anything wrong with these covers, and I'm sort of hoping to get one for Discount Armageddon, since Verity does wear impractical shoes, skimpy clothes, and makeup. Although she wouldn't be caught dead with a knife that couldn't be used to gut a rhino, should the need arise. She is a deeply practical impractical girl.)

Now picture an urban fantasy cover for a book with a male lead. Again, the odds are good that what you're seeing is a man dressed in dark clothing, against a moody, atmospheric background. There is no random lightning; nothing is inexplicably on fire; he's probably not wearing any makeup, and his hair may very well look like he forgot to brush it last Tuesday and hasn't remembered to catch up since. If he has weapons, they're practical ones. Ditto his shoes.

Now take a look at the five currently available Toby covers. In all five, she's wearing dark clothes, including a leather jacket that, while comfortable, doesn't exactly make her look like a bad-ass leather biker babe; more like a girl raiding her boyfriend's closet because it's cold outside. On three of the five, she's wearing jeans. On one, she's wearing a dress that leaves absolutely everything to the imagination, since it's basically full medieval formal gown. On another, she has no jeans because she has no legs, but does have a black top and, again, a leather jacket. In three of the five, she's visibly, and accurately, armed. There are no poses; there are no seductive looks; there's definitely no makeup. If you ignore the fact that Toby is female, they're the kind of covers that usually go on urban fantasies with male leads.

This could not delight me more.

Toby's covers are an accurate portrayal of what you're going to find between them. If she was posed more like our friend, Urban Fantasy Babe, people would be justified in getting annoyed when Toby didn't act like her. Instead, she's posed the way the men of urban fantasy are normally posed, and she acts a lot like them, too. There may be some people who don't pick up the books because they want something sexier, but I think the people who do pick them up get what they're expecting, and I think that helps, in the long run. Truth in advertising is fun!

Thoughts?

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. Zombies are love.

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

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

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

We have reached the last round of the BSC Review Book Tournament. It has been a hard battle; Toby has faced both strangers and friends on the road to the finals, and now only Springheel Jack stands between her and victory.

Springheel Jack is technically a monster. Toby knows what to do with those.

So go forth! A vote for Toby is a vote for a world where the monsters don't eat us in our beds!

Seriously, though, if you could take a moment to vote, I would appreciate it. Toby and I are both counting on you, and right now, we're losing.

To victory!

Pardon me for profanity, but how the fucking fuck are we already at the April list of current projects? This implies that we have somehow already consumed 1/3rd of 2011, and I, for one, am NOT OKAY with this idea. Seriously, I have Shit To Do in 2011, and not enough of it has been finished, which means that it can't be April yet. Okay? Okay. Come on, universe. Fix yourself.

...or not. Since I don't control time, welcome to the April 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving. To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Deadline and One Salt Sea). The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out!Collapse )

Oh, happy day! I am now chortling in my joy, because I have an AWESOME ANNOUNCEMENT to share with everybody: Conjure Oils is now offering sampler pips of the current Toby Daye perfume line. There are TWENTY-ONE scents available, including "Toby Daye" (cut grass and copper), "April O'Leary" (ozone and electricity), and even "January O'Leary" (ozone and pine). These things knock my socks off. Seriously, they are all amazing, and so, so perfect.

Since not everyone wants to gamble on a 5ml bottle of a perfume they haven't smelled before, Conjure Oils is now allowing orders of seven "pips," little 1/32 oz. sampler vials that let you play with a perfume without taking the full risk. This is a truly awesome thing, and it shows a lot of faith in the line as a whole. Hooray!

I am so excited. And I smell like May Daye.

1. I have been blazingly ill since Sunday afternoon, and spent most of yesterday and Monday in a cold medication haze. I am thus behind on LJ comments, email, snail mail, passenger pigeon mail, Facebook mail (well, I'm always behind on Facebook mail), sending out the mail, opening the mail, and anything else that required actual effort on my part. If you're waiting for a response from me, please, be patient. If your request is urgent, please, mail again. If I do not consider your request to be actually urgent, like you're asking for kitten pictures or something, I reserve the right to delete your email and scowl in your general direction.

2. Despite being blazingly ill, I managed to make my word counts on Blackout both days, and am on track to hit 100,000 words on April 23rd. This is good, since it means I may actually finish the book, you know, on time. I love finishing things on time. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and slightly less completely deranged.

3. Saturday night was GP's birthday party! I did not come home that night, as it was late and we were all exhausted and sort of drunk (and yes, this may have dealt my immune system the fatal blow). Thomas showed his disapproval by climbing onto my computer desk, gently nudging aside the dolls on the second shelf, pulling down the jar in which I store my earplugs, opening the jar, dumping out the earplugs, and eating half of them. I do not know why he is so obsessed with eating the damn things, but he's why I bought that jar in the first place. Now he shits little pink bullets, and looks smug.

4. My vet has confirmed that this won't hurt him, but is also sub-optimal. I have moved my earplugs.

5. The first draft of "Crystal Halloway, Girl Wonder, and the Terror of the Truth Fairy" is finished and being hacked at by the Machete Squad. This is seriously the most depressing, nihilistic story I think I've ever written. Which makes it appropriate that I wrote it while I was sick even unto death. This thing reads like the prologue to a Vertigo comic series.

6. I am not writing a Vertigo comic series. Unless, of course, DC asks me to.

7. I also got started on the first draft of "Rat-Catcher," a Tobyverse story set in London, in 1662 (yes, only a few years before the Great Fire, and the Great Plague). In it, a young Prince of Cats named Rand must stop playing theater cat at the Duke's Theater long enough to find a way to deal with his father, keep his sister from doing something monumentally stupid, and oh, right, maybe save the Cait Sidhe of London from a fate worse than death. Is this Tybalt's origin story? Why yes. Yes, it is.

8. Things already pulled from my research shelf in service of "Rat-Catcher": The Writer's Digest Guide to Character Naming (second edition), London: A Biography, Sex and Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, and The Wordsworth Dictionary of Shakespeare. Make of this what you will.

9. Being sick did allow me to catch up on some of my cache of SyFy Original Movies, including the second half of Meteor with Marla Sokoloff. This was a disturbingly good, surprisingly high-budget feature, especially for a SyFy Saturday. Also, not only were women competent and realistic characters, they didn't all die. Well done, SyFy. Keep up the good work.

10. Zombies are still love.

What's up with you?

Hey-ho! Let's go!

So Toby has managed to rise to the semi-finals, battling strangers and friends alike in her fight for survival. Now An Artificial Night is up against N.K. Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms for the right to proceed to the finals and maybe...just maybe...walk away alive.

You know what you have to do.

The tournament semi-finals are here, and are open now for voting.

Shop smart; shop S-Mart. Vote fae; vote Toby Daye.

And now, my horrible horrible cold and I are going back to bed.

Psst. C'mere. Wanna see something really pretty? I mean, really pretty? I'll give you a hint: if you're a Toby fan, it's something you've been waiting for ever since the cover to Late Eclipses was released. I think you'll be pleased. I know I'm pleased.

Go ahead. Take a peek.

( Cut-tagged for the protection of your friends' list, which really doesn't need something this huge suddenly showing up without warning. But trust me, you should totally click.Collapse )

Toby has managed to navigate the wilds of the Kingdom of Prestor John, smacking down The Habitation of the Blessed in round three of the BSC Book Tournament and proceeding to the quarterfinals, where it's An Artificial Night against Elizabeth Bear's Chill. Bear and I have been enthusiastically attacking each other on Twitter in anticipation of this match (I have predatory dinosaurs, she has balrogs and the forces of logic), and now it's finally here!

You have what you have to do.

Go ye forth, get thee funky, and vote like your life depended on it! Which, given the number of monsters we have merrily marching around here, it just might. Toby has smacked the crap out of three challengers in three different bouts. This is your chance to help her smack the crap out of challenger number four, and proceed to the semifinals, where she can begin to merrily swing her sock full of butter* at challengers from different brackets.

(*Sock full of butter: makes a great bludgeoning weapon, and when you're done, you have a sock full of nicely softened butter, ready to be turned into cookies. Everybody wins! Except maybe the people you hit with the sock full of butter.)

The second round of this year's BSC Book Tournament has closed, and Toby is still standing, since An Artificial Night managed to crush the competition handily. That's good!

Now I am up against Cat Valente's Habitation of the Blessed. That's not so good. Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth to follow. But still, I entreat that you should vote, regardless of your choice in this round, and hope only that Toby will prevail. Why? Because it amuses the living crap out of me, naturally, and I am a simple blonde.

I'll add the voting link as soon as it goes live. Vote your heart. Vote your champion. Vote for MAXIMUM CARNAGE.

Girl fight tonight!

ETA: As promised, here is the actual voting link for the contest. Now get your smackdown on!

Hello, world! It's the Thursday before Wondercon, and I'm trying to take care of all the little rags and tags of reality that build up over the course of a week like cat hair on velvet pants. So anyway...

1. The fight is still raging in the BSC Review tournament! This round closes Sunday morning, at which point, eight books will be reduced to four, and those four will duke it out for the right to do to the bracket semi-finals. Cat and I both still have horses in this race, so please, help keep Toby swinging!

2. Speaking of Cat, her new book, Deathless, came out this week. Hooray for book release! There's a lot of neat free stuff to have and enjoy and be amazed by; my darling talkstowolves has made a big post collecting it all into one place. I even drew a Pretty Little Dead Ghoul for the occasion. Feel the love!

3. My new phone is lovely, and allows me to do exciting things like "take pictures of my cats" and "access Twitter from the train." It also allows me to answer email when I'm not at home, which is going to be a huge, huge relief as time goes on. It's already taken some of the weight off, since I've been able to respond to things while in transit.

4. Thomas and Alice have started working against me. Thomas jumped onto the back of my knees at four o'clock this morning, jarring me INSTANTLY AWAKE, at which point Alice began pushing their ceramic food dishes back and forth in the feeding tray. Scrape. Scrape. Scraaaaaape. So yes, I got up, and I fed the cats. I am so doomed.

5. The full-length trailer for the new season of Doctor Who has been released, and is so intensely awesome as to cause me to sit, weak-kneed and gaping at my monitor, for several minutes before hitting "play" again. I remain overjoyed and giggly over the fact that this show, my show, is back.

6. Also, there's a new My Little Pony cartoon that doesn't suck. I clearly control the universe. You can place your requests with Kate, who will only allow me to fulfill the ones that don't involve diseases or amphibians.

7. I'm getting ready to do a massive post office run, so I am once again taking orders for "Wicked Girls" posters. According to my files, if it's been paid for, it's been sent out; please email me if you don't have yours. Comment either here or on the original post if you'd like to request a poster, and we'll coordinate.

8. I will be mostly offline this weekend, as I will be attending Wondercon. I'll have my awesome new phone with me, but let's face it, when given a choice between answering email and staring raptly at James Gunn, James Gunn wins without a contest. I'll definitely Tweet my location at various points throughout the weekend, and if you find me, you could win a prize. Or not. I may be out of prizes.

9. Zombies are still love.

10. I get to see Amy this weekend (Mebberson, not McNally)! And Kaja! And Phil! And there will be cupcakes, and hugging, and artwork, and Mom will probably wear her chicken hat, and I'm so excited!!!!!

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

I am a filker.

It's an absolute statement of identity; it's been applicable for pretty much my entire life, even if I've only known what it meant since sometime in high school. I filk. I listen to filk. I love filk. It's a passionate, welcoming, supportive community of brilliant, talented, creative people, and I'm proud to call it one of my many homes.

For a long time, if you'd asked me who I wanted to grow up to be, as a lyricist, my answer would have been catsittingstill. Her melodies are delicate and complex, her lyrics are perfectly considered, and as the many people who had to listen to me wandering around singing "Annie" can testify, when her songs tell a story, it sticks with you.

All of which comes as background for why I screamed like a little girl when I found out she'd written songs about my books. Cat wrote songs about my books!!! That's like fulfilling one of the hidden win conditions of life!

The first, "Mayday," is about everyone's favorite Fetch (just ask her).

The second, "Oak and Ash and Rowan and Thorn," is a beautiful post-LE contemplation of events going all the way back to the first book (and was sung by Vixy at the book release party, for those of you who made it).

I win at life.

Squee.

Remember last week, when I was all "let's get ready to rumble," because the BSC Book Tournament was getting underway, and Toby needed help to stay in the game? Well, your help totally helped, because Toby CRUSHED her competition, taking 93% of the vote. Wowie!

That means she's moving on to Round Two in the competition, where she's going up against Imager's Intrigue by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. Again, I haven't read the book she's pitted against, but I'm sure it's awesome if it managed to win its previous round.

So here is my plea: please, go, vote! Keep Toby from getting her ass kicked on the literary playground as things get ugly! Victory is just a (whole bunch of...) click away.

GO TOBY GO!