It's time for today's TOTALLY SILLY CONTEST!

So I'm doing the web content for MiraGrant.com. Those of you familiar with my main website may have noticed that I have multiple bios, some of them deeply, deeply silly in nature, posted on the site. Since Mira doesn't have quite the history I do, and I haven't had the chance to solicit bios for her from my friends, I need something to guarantee the depth of content to which my readers have become accustomed (OCD cat is OCD). So!

You know Chuck Norris?

That.

I'm looking for UTTERLY INSANE statements about Mira Grant. Things like "Mira Grant isn't afraid of the thing under your bed. Mira Grant is the thing under your bed." Or "Mira Grant goes down to the quarry any time she damn well wants to."

Leave your suggestions as comments on this post. I will collect the best (and weirdest) for posting on Mira's website, because I have no hobbies that don't involve utter insanity. There will be prizes! I don't know what those prizes will be, but they, too, will probably be a little odd. (Sadly, I can't promise a copy of Feed until I've done some local accounting, but there will be something.)

Come on. You know you want to.

(Yes, that is a quote from Spinal Tap. No, I am not ashamed.)

We begin with a fabulous essay about a worst-case scenario that I have yet to encounter, but probably will someday, that being the way the publishing world seems to work: My Horrible New York Times Review. It's funny, it's well-written and well-considered, and it's made me want to read the author's books (Ronlyn Domingue, this random mention in a blog you've never heard of is for you). To quote a bit that seemed particularly true to me...

"My novel is, in fact, one of the worst books some people have ever read. An insipid waste of paper. Readers writhed in agony at florid prose, gnashed teeth at familiar characters, fumed at confusing shifts of time and place, and grimaced at the triteness of it all. There are unsubstantiated reports of eyes bleeding.

"My novel is, in fact, one of the most amazing books some people have ever read. A soulful work of beauty. Readers found peace while grieving lost friends and family, bonded more deeply with people they care about, and enjoyed the story long past their bedtimes because they couldn’t put it down. This book changed lives.

"I'm a horrible writer, and I'm a brilliant writer. Next time, I won't need reviews to reveal this. Lesson learned."

I may print this out and hang it on my wall. Or ask Erin to do it in calligraphy so I can hang it on my wall. Or design a cross-stitch pattern, make a sampler, and hang it on my wall. Or...

You get the picture. Everyone knows, intellectually, that they won't be the first author in history to be universally loved and praised by all that they encounter. There are people who hate Shakespeare. I mean, I could give a whole list of famous people, but let's be serious, here: there are people who hate Shakespeare. If he can't be universally loved, no one can. At the same time, emotionally, every author I've ever known has been quietly hoping that maybe, just maybe, they'll be the exception that proves the rule. I am not leaving myself out, here! No matter how much I say "no, no, not everyone will like my work, I'm braced for that," I'm secretly going "please love me please love me please love me." That's how the human mind works.

Michael Melcher wrote an excellent article on what to do when your friend writes a book, which I also sort of want to hang on my wall. It includes such gems as "Do you think your birthdays are important? Well, to a writer, writing a book is like ten birthdays, maybe twenty." Also, "When things touch our soul, they are beyond logic and practicality. If you have a friend, relative, or distant acquaintance who writes a book, I can guarantee what they want: for you to share their joy. That's it. End of story. Share. The. Joy." Read the article. It's a good one, and very helpful, whether you're a writer or just trying to survive in close proximity with one.

Which brings us around, at last, to the original point: bad reviews. Bad reviews can be useful. They tell me what I did wrong, what I did right but not quite right enough, what people were hoping for, and what I need to improve. I can use bad reviews to become a better writer. Bad reviews can be hurtful. They tell me I'm terrible, I'm talentless, I'm insane for thinking I could write in the first place. I can use bad reviews to justify drinking a lot of cheap port and passing out on the couch while Dinoshark vs. Mega-Croc plays on SyFy. Bad reviews can be hysterical. I had someone write me to ask whether I was aware that my publisher had badly revised my film noir detective story to insert—drumroll, please—icky girly fairies.

Yes. Apparently, DAW rewrote Rosemary and Rue to insert the fae. Good to know, right?

Today's round of contemplation was brought about by a bad review for Feed, which was posted at Fatally Yours, and which falls into the fourth category for me: reviews which are either funny or frustrating, depending, because they are reviewing me on the basis of what I didn't actually write. Sort of like the people who pan Evernight for not being Twilight, or get cranky at Rosemary and Rue because it isn't paranormal romance. (I have a much longer post on the urban fantasy/paranormal romance divide brewing, but it needs a little more time to come together). You know what? A Local Habitation is bad erotica...because it isn't erotica. Discount Armageddon is bad horror...because it isn't horror. And now, to quote this review of Feed:

"To be honest, when the book started reading as an adolescent version of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail with a dash of zombies my interest dwindled. I didn’t want to read about a bunch of politicians having tense meetings in board rooms. I wanted to read about zombies. And if you think that you’re going to offer me zombies and then try to bait and switch me with a bunch of unbelievable and boring political drama and still walk away with a good review, then you’ve got another thing coming.

"So it’s not really a book about zombies.

"It’s a book about politics."

Yes! That is correct. It's a book about politics. It's also a book about zombies, virology, Internet culture, wireless technology, bad beer, brand loyalty, sunglasses, the CDC, and horses. But mostly, it's a book about politics. Politics, zombies, blogging, and how George Romero accidentally saved the world, which is why I tell people it's "The West Wing meets Transmetropolitan meets Night of the Living Dead."

If you're looking for full-scale zombie gore, you probably won't like Feed, and I'm sorry. The zombies are the way they are because that's what they are in this universe. I may someday write a book called The Rising, and set it during the Rising, and that will be full-scale zombie gore, but Feed? No, and if I've somehow given you that idea, I'm sorry.

Bad reviews. Just one more part of this balanced breakfast.

Behold! My first ever starred review! I clipped one sentence for spoilers, but it's otherwise completely intact, as printed by Publisher's Weekly. Look:

Feed, Mira Grant. Orbit, $9.99 (608p) ISBN 978-0-316-08105-4

Urban fantasist Seanan McGuire (Rosemary and Rue) picks up a new pen name for this gripping, thrilling, and brutal depiction of a postapocalyptic 2039. Twin bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason and their colleague Buffy are thrilled when Senator Peter Ryman, the first presidential candidate to come of age since social media saved the world from a virus that reanimates the dead, invites them to cover his campaign. ... As the bloggers wield the newfound power of new media, they tangle with the CDC, a scheming vice presidential candidate, and mysterious conspirators who want more than the Oval Office. Shunning misogynistic horror tropes in favor of genuine drama and pure creepiness, McGuire has crafted a masterpiece of suspense with engaging, appealing characters who conduct a soul-shredding examination of what’s true and what’s reported. (May)

I just want to go around telling people "I shun misogynistic horror tropes in favor of genuine drama and pure creepiness." Hell, I want that on a shirt.

Win. Win and dinosaurs and pandemics and pie.

We are now fifty days out from the release of Feed [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], book one of the Newsflesh trilogy, and my first book writing as Mira Grant. It's my third novel, but thanks to the fact that it's a new genre, a new series, and a new pseudonym, it's managing to feel like my first. Because I needed an extra dose of crazy around here, right?

More seriously, I am, in order, excited, elated, and scared out of my tiny blonde head. I have a better idea of how this game works than I did when I was preparing for the release of Rosemary and Rue [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], but in some ways, that just makes it more paralyzing—I know what can go right, and I also know what can go wrong. "Mira Grant" may be an open pseudonym, but the genre jump means I'm going to be getting placed in front of an awful lot of new readers, and I wind up praying they'll like me all over again.

Tara has finished the graphic design for MiraGrant.com, and Chris is hard at work getting the CSS we use for my regular site re-skinned to work with the new design. Because I am me, the content will start going live about ten minutes after he gives me the login information. My publisher is one hundred percent behind me, and early reviews are looking good. I still live in fear...but then, fear seems to be my primary motivator, so why change what works?

Fifty days until I destroy the world.

When will you rise?

You may have heard me raving about an anthology called The Living Dead [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], a collection of some of the finest zombie fiction I've ever seen. I read it, I loved it, I told everyone I know who likes zombies that they should join me in buying, reading, and loving it.

Skip to the present, where John Joseph Adams—the original anthologist—has been putting together a sequel, The Living Dead 2, featuring still more of the finest zombie fiction around. The official announcement of the book's table of contents is here, along with the book's truly awesome cover art. The preliminary cover copy:

"Two years ago, readers eagerly devoured The Living Dead. Publisher's Weekly named it one of the Best Books of the Year, and Barnes & Noble.com called it 'The best zombie fiction collection ever.' Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams is back for another bite at the apple—the Adam's apple, that is—with forty-three more of the best, most chilling, most thrilling zombie stories anywhere, including virtuoso performances by zombie fiction legends Max Brooks (World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide), Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), and David Wellington (Monster Island)."

Pretty exciting, huh? But maybe my excitement seems a little odd. After all, I love David Wellington ("Good People" in this volume), Robert Kirkman ("Alone, Together"), and Jonathan Maberry ("Zero Tolerance"). And yes, there's a new Kelley Armstrong story in this book ("Last Stand"). So why am I so thrilled?

Because Mira Grant's new short story, "Everglades," will be making its debut in this volume. Oh, yeah. Not only am I going to be in the sequel to the best zombie anthology ever, I'm going to do it on a table of contents with Kelley Armstrong.

I win at universe.

The Living Dead 2 will be out in September, or you can pre-order your copy now.

Zombies!

Current stats:

Words: 6,330.
Total words: 145,067.
Reason for stopping: The book is over, long live the book.
Music: the Deadline play list and random shuffle.
Lilly and Alice: the tan cat tree and the orange cat tree, respectively.

First draft stats:

Pages: 498
Chapters: twenty-seven, plus a coda
Started: July 26, 2008
Finished: February 20, 2010

Feed took from September 2005 to December 2007 to write—roughly twenty-seven months. Deadline took me nineteen months to write. This is a good learning curve, and hopefully means that I can write Blackout in eleven months (hey, a girl can dream, right?). These are monster-length books, especially when compared to my normal, conservative "101,000 to 112,000 words" word count volumes. But they're necessary words. These books aren't padded at all. They're the length they are because that's the length they need to be.

And it means we get to spend more time together. I really miss and mourn my books when they're finished, and yeah, draft two gets to happen now, but draft two isn't the same. Draft two is about smoothing out the continuity, fixing the pacing, and picking up any dropped threads. Book three is where I get to start making things up again.

I'm amazed and shaky and a little off-balance. I am now going to go eat ice cream and watch Cabin Fever 2 (bought for just this occasion).

Words: 14,029
Total words: 138,737.
Estimated to go: 6,063.
Reason for stopping: This is actually from last night. It was time to stop writing and get some sleep.
Music: Lady GaGa, Glee, the Counting Crows, and the cats complaining about being ignored.
Lilly and Alice: probably asleep right now, the little feline traitors.

So despite my somewhat belated realization that the book was 20,000 words longer than I originally thought it was going to be, things are chugging right along, and I'm on target to finish the first draft this weekend. Luckily, I have Sooj and K showing back up at my place on Monday, thus giving me an excuse to celebrate successful completion with cupcakes. My current estimates say that I'm a chapter and a half and the coda away from being done done done-y mcdonecakes. Whee!

(I also have a list of elements/themes to look for during the revision, and things that either need to be tightened up, redacted for being unnecessary, or reworded to make sense to people who don't think reading about the life-cycle of Ebola is fun. But that's what the second draft is for.)

I feel both insanely accomplished and very sort of shell-shocked, like this is the beginning of the ending. I've grown to really love this world and these characters. I've been a horror girl all my life, and Feed was my first horror novel, and Newsflesh my first horror series. But now book two is ending, and book three will only last a year, and then...

Well, then, I guess it's back to the drawing board to find something else to scare me. Six thousand words to go.

We're almost there.

Words: 21,383.
Total words: 124,708.
Estimated to go: 20,292.
Reason for stopping: ...I appear to have just finished Book IV. I think that makes it time to stop for the night.
Music: random shuffle, heavy on the Rob Zombie. It seems appropriate.
Lilly and Alice: bed and cat tree, respectively.

Holy crap.

That is all.

If you go browsing around my blog today, you may find yourself faced with a few...surreal...changes. For one thing, the tag labeled "deadline" suddenly points to a lot of entries (as opposed to the tag labeled "deadlines," which mostly points to panic attacks). For another, clicking on that tag will take you to a lot of current project and word count posts, going back quite some time.

No, you haven't slipped into a parallel universe. The second book in the Newsflesh trilogy has changed titles, going from Blackout to Deadline, which was originally the title of the third book. The third book is now titled Blackout, bringing us full circle in our ride on the Ferris wheel of what-the-fuck.

No, I didn't do this just to be confusing. While I, personally, wouldn't put that sort of thing past me if I got bored enough, The Other Editor would never let me do it. So why the title change? Several reasons, really. Let me explain.

When I got the new issue of Locus, I saw that Connie Willis had a new book coming out. Now, Connie Willis is an author I very much respect and admire, and I was very excited. She wrote some of my favorite books, like Promised Land and Bellwether. So I looked up the name of her exciting upcoming release...and saw that it was a hardcover titled Blackout. Whoops.

The normal life-cycle for hardcovers has them coming out in paperback six months to a year after the original hardcover release. This seemed to me to be uncomfortably close to the release of the second Newsflesh book, and so I contacted The Other Editor to flail a bit. I'm good at flailing. Once I was finished flailing, we took a critical look at all three titles, and realized that they were wrong anyway. Book two is about racing a deadline you can't see or stop, and book three, well...book three makes a much better Blackout.

Trust me.

Now, I might have been a little more unhappy about the title changes, if I weren't so busy doing the dance of joy. It's pretty common knowledge that deadlines make me crazy. I was thus reasonably concerned about what would happen when I spent an entire year writing a book that was actually titled that. "I have to make the deadline on Deadline" just seems like the sort of statement that's designed to make me start biting people at random. Switching the names means that I just spent an entire year working on a book called Deadline, only I didn't realize it, and hence didn't freak out. Score one for weird psychology.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Newsflesh trilogy:

* Feed, May 2010.
* Deadline, May 2011.
* Blackout, May 2012.

When will you rise?

...lostwind! You have until noon on Sunday to email me your address through my website contact link, at which point I will happily pop an ARC of Feed in the mail for you.

More giveaways to come!

In honor of George Romero's birthday, I am giving away an ARC of Feed to one lucky commenter. This is a random draw giveaway. At noon Pacific tomorrow, I will use my magical random number generator and select a winner. They will then have until noon Pacific on Sunday to send me their mailing information (through my website), or I will pick another winner.

So please! Comment! Tell me your favorite thing about zombies, or why you want to read Feed, or what you'll do if you win, or whatever. (I mean, a comment beyond just "comment" is nice, but not strictly required.)

George Romero gave the world zombies. In honor of his birthday, so do I. Because zombies are love.

When will you rise?

I sometimes wonder if horror directors go to bed at night dreaming that someday, one of their movies will become a classic; someday, one of their movies will spawn an iconic monster that people will be screaming over for generations to come. Sadly, most of them won't make it. Even the ones who create a truly iconic villain won't necessarily get an iconic monster, because an iconic monster must be somehow generic enough to be used and abused by others, even as the person who first brought it to the screen is generally credited for its creation. The werewolf, the mummy, the vampire, even the mad scientist...they all had to start somewhere. Sure, most iconic horror movie monsters existed before the movies that gave them a terrifying life, but it's the cinematic realities that we remember. At least until the lights go out.

George Romero set out to make a creepy little movie with a social commentary and a shoestring budget. He succeeded in making history.

The concept of the ghoul or walking corpse has existed for centuries—maybe for as long as mankind has been aware that death exists—but it wasn't until Romero that it shambled into the modern age. Night of the Living Dead opened the doors to a new sub-genre of horror, a shambling, biting, hungry sub-genre that wouldn't rest until it had consumed the world. Zombies don't need sleep. They're already dead.

Without Romero, we wouldn't have Night of the Comet, Slither, Night of the Creeps, the Evil Dead trilogy, a large portion of Rob Zombie's musical catalog, or the Zombie Prom episode of Wizards of Waverly Place. We wouldn't have my own Feed, and that would make me a very sad girl indeed. George Romero changed the world. Maybe he did it on purpose, maybe he did it by accident. In the end, it doesn't really matter. He did it.

Here's to you, George Romero. And when you die, we're feeding your corpse into a wood chipper. Just to be sure.

Words: 3,086.
Total words: 103,325.
Estimated to go: 21,675.
Reason for stopping: I fly to Seattle tomorrow, it's time to stop.
Music: the Midnight Blue-Light Special playlist, oddly enough.
Lilly and Alice: cat tree and cardboard box, respectively.

I have reached the irritating and fiddly bit of setting things up before blowing them up. I hate this bit. It's difficult and irritating and also, yes, fiddly. I have also reached the fascinating bit where I can literally see the ending, it's right there, and the book will pay off soon. Hopefully it will pay off big time, and then there can be the finest muffins and bagels in the land. Until then, I shall scowl at the keg of victory, and pack my socks for tomorrow's long-distance voyage.

Whee.

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.

Words: 8,232.
Total words: 100,239.
Estimated to go: 24,761.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter eighteen; hit 100,000 words.
Music: the Midnight Blue-Light Special playlist, oddly enough.
Lilly and Alice: cat tree and bed, respectively.

In case you ever wondered, jumping around punching the air and whooping is a much better idea when you're not recovering from a nasty head cold which has turned into a chest cold (complete with horrifyingly unpleasant-sounding cough). I sound like death under normal circumstances right now, and the circumstances following sudden calisthenics were...unusual. On the plus side, I didn't die, and the cats have calmed down, although things were a little touchy here for a few minutes, on account of my choking and their freaking out.

So I am now 100,000 words into Deadline, and have hit the point where it's about to become all boom, all the time. I have some plans in the next week (movies on Friday, the Burns Supper on Saturday), but I expect that by this time in two weeks, I'll be done with the first draft. I'm on-target for my end-of-January goal. That gives me five months, maximum, to go through revisions and redrafts before my editor would really, really like to see proof that I actually wrote a book, rather than, I don't know, going to Disneyworld for the year. And then, Deadline, the book where I put paid to everything. Everything.

This has been exhilarating and terrifying and amazing and a whole bunch of other things. This is my first trilogy, for all that we sold three Toby books in the first contract; it's the first set of stories that are really just all steps along the road to the same story, pieces of a greater whole, and I couldn't be more excited.

Alive or dead, the truth won't rest. When will you rise?

Words: 4,606.
Total words: 92,007.
Estimated to go: 34,993.
Reason for stopping: done for tonight.
Music: mostly Meat Loaf and selections from Broadway.
Lilly and Alice: on the orange cat tree.

Tonight's word count is less based on "I have achieved some great goal," and more on "I am done for tonight and wanted to actually post about my progress for the first time this year." I've managed to break 90,000 words, which is pretty awesome; as you can see by the new column, "Estimated to go," I have a decent grasp of how much work is still ahead of me, and I'm on target to finish my first draft in a reasonable amount of time.

Deadline is the first book I've written while under contract, which has been an interesting experience for me. I'm used to setting all my own deadlines, creating a feeling of artificial urgency that's really just based on wanting to finish the book before it stops being a friend and starts becoming that house guest that just won't go the hell away. Now I have real deadlines, and real urgency. It's been less jarring than I was afraid it would be, probably because I had already written Feed when we sold the trilogy. I know where I'm going, I know how I'm going to get there, and now all that's left is finding out where I'll be stopping along the way.

I figure that from here, all the territory is familiar and awesome, and that's pretty damn cool. My focus is starting to narrow as I knock the short stories and blog posts off my "to do" list, honing in on what really matters: the end of the world.

When will you rise?

Words: 6,064.
Total words: 87,401.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter sixteen.
Music: Girlyman and Glee.
Lilly and Alice: sleeping in my backpack.

As of this evening, I have managed to break three hundred manuscript pages. Exactly. (To be fair, I cheated juuuuuuust a little, and went ahead and wrote the blog post that opens chapter seventeen. Come on, it was that or walk away at two hundred and ninety-nine pages. That's the kind of choice that leads to getting up at three in the morning to start writing again, and that's just no good for anybody.) I'll probably break 90,000 words by the time I get to Seattle, what with that whole "airplane ride" that I have to take to get there. Great Pumpkin bless my Netbook, that's really all I have to say about that.

My page proofs for Feed have been finished and returned to my publisher. I have cover proofs for the US and UK editions of the book; they keep surprising me when I see them out of the corner of my eye, like "Who wrote that? Who's Mira Grant?" followed by "Oh, yeah. I did. That's me." It's like having a secret identity, only instead of being a superhero, she's a total bad-ass horror movie heroine, ready to kick ass and take names (all while having fabulous hair, naturally).

I estimate I have about another 38,000 words to go on this book, give or take a couple of thousand. That's a lot of wordage...but it's a lot of plot. And then I get to revise, and rewrite, and finally stand on the edge of yet another precipice, looking out over the unexplored country of Blackout. I'm almost there.

When will you rise?

Words: 4,297.
Total words: 81,336.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter fifteen.
Music: Moxy Fruvous.
Lilly and Alice: waiting for me to go to bed.

So I finally broke 80,000 words. In a very short period of time, I will break three hundred manuscript pages (the current manuscript paginates to two hundred and seventy-eight pages). Again going by Feed as my benchmark for "this is how long books in this series will trend," I have less than half the book left to go. I'm looking at about 45,000 to 50,000 more words, to say and do and accomplish everything that's left to say and do and accomplish.

Yes, I can do it.

Yes, it's going to hurt.

Yes, I set a very high bar for myself with Feed...but I think I can actually reach that bar again, with this book. Because some of the places it's going are painful as hell, and with something like this, that's a damn good sign.

Now we must rinse.

So in the last seventy-two hours, I have...

...finished "Good Girls Go To Heaven," the first Sparrow Hill Road story, and returned it to my editor for review. (I like to be early, so that there's time for me to be thoroughly edited.) I'll probably be starting "Dead Man's Party" in a day or so.

...finished "The Alchemy of Alcohol," my first-ever steampunk story (also my first story about Mina Norton, alchemist, bartender, and exceedingly cranky native of San Francisco). It was ludicrously fun to write. Mina is refreshingly annoyed.

...started "Gimme A 'Z'!"—which, as you can probably guess from the title, is the next adventure of the Fighting Pumpkins cheerleading squad. The wearing of little pleated orange and green skirts is clearly dangerous, given the trouble these girls manage to get themselves into.

...started "Slow," a much more viscerally upsetting zombie story. It's a zombie week here at Casa de Blonde.

...written way too much of Blackout, which probably explains why I have so many zombies on the brain right now. I love this series a lot. I'll love it even more when I get about another five thousand words on in the current book, since that will mean it's time to pause, consider, and process edits. (Yes, I really do schedule everything.)

...finished reviewing my page proofs for Feed. Alive or dead, the truth won't rest. Rise up while you can.

My new website will be going live real soon now, which means new material, including the Toby FAQ and the Sparrow Hill Road landing page. Watch this space for details. I am now going to go extract my Maine Coon from my purse.

Words: 6,418.
Total words: 77,039.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter fourteen, time to work on my page proofs.
Music: Eddie From Ohio.
Lilly and Alice: warming my feet.

What does a two hundred page zombie novel do to its author? Anything it wants. I swear, working on this book is like riding a roller coaster with no brakes. The ride operators are evil clowns, and if I sleep, they'll eat me. I get up, go to work, write on the train. Get off work, go home, write on the train. I feel like I'm in a foot race with my own brain. But I really like what's coming out on the other end; it could definitely be worse.

I did the math today, and realized that I'll only have fifty-nine days between the release of A Local Habitation and the release of Feed. That's nowhere near long enough. That's all the time in the world. So in the interests of only going a little crazy during that narrow window, I'm slamming through Blackout as fast as I can without losing my footing, and I'm enjoying every second of this crazy ride.

Plus it's an excuse to contact scientists and ask them horrible questions.

My baby is turning into a real live book, with a real live plot and real live problems, and I couldn't be happier.

Words: 7,217.
Total words: 70,621.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter thirteen. BEHOLD MY PROGRESS!
Music: the Food Network. We all have our process, right?
Lilly and Alice: flanking me here on the couch.

Deadline is now two hundred and forty-four manuscript pages long, which means I'm trucking right along. (Sadly, I'm less excited about potentially hitting three hundred pages than I am about my increasing proximity to 100,000 words. This is because I am a very simple creature in some ways.) I managed to finish one of my favorite action sequences, and now I'm poised to go rocketing into the next stage of the book: blowing more things up. I'm a big, big fan of blowing things up.

Looking at the manuscript for Feed, I'm right around halfway through the first draft. This is a little behind where I'd be if I hadn't been seized with the sudden burning need to finish Discount Armageddon, but a) I'm still on track to finish the first draft by the end of January, assuming I can stick to my daily assigned word counts (without getting sidetracked by another ambush novel), and b) I'm still not sorry, since rather than having two unfinished novels driving me crazy, I now have one unfinished novel driving me crazy, and that leaves me with a lot more sane to aim at the book in question. (The Brightest Fell doesn't count, it exists in its own separate partition of my brain.)

I'm really excited with where this book is going, and not just because there are zombies and lots of lovely excuses to blow things up and talk about viruses and have I mentioned recently that I completely adore this universe? Because I do. I adore this universe. I am the happiest zombie princess.

Alive or dead, the truth won't rest. Rise up while you can.

To begin with, here is today's exciting press release of awesome exciting awesomeness:

The cover graphic for Feed has been officially released by my publisher (Orbit).

Click for the artist's commentary, and then come back to join me in squealing, flailing excitement. Feed is the first of three volumes in the Newsflesh trilogy, all of them being released under my pseudonym, Mira Grant. Feed will be on shelves in May 2010 (yes, the same month as my appearance at MarCon in Columbus, Ohio—when they invited me, they got two guests for the price of one). Which brings us to...

...my page proofs for Feed arrived today, and they are intense. Thank the Great Pumpkin that I have some long stints on airplanes coming up, because otherwise I'd worry about my capacity to finish reviewing a manuscript of this length in the time allotted. As it stands, the folks at OVFF may see a lot less of my smiling face than they were expecting, because I have got a lot of work to do. But it will all be worth it, and it will all be completely awesome when it's done.

The end of the world was just the beginning.

When will you rise?

Words: 6,598.
Total words: 63,304.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter twelve. Time for cold medication.
Music: depressing goth rock.
Lilly and Alice: both sacked out on the bed like plush toys.

Deadline is now two hundred and nineteen manuscript pages long. Can I get a "whoop-whoop" from the audience? Because as milestones go, "breaking two hundred pages" is one of the big, exciting ones. (One hundred pages; 50,000 words; two hundred pages; 100,000 words. You know. The big guns of post-zombie apocalypse manuscript goodness.) Also, I'm into the next internal Book, and I'm approaching one of my favorite set pieces for this volume. So it's been a good next installment, all things considered.

I'm currently shooting for a finished first draft manuscript by the end of January, and am planning to spend a goodly chunk of my holiday trip to Seattle wrestling with my happy little zombie apocalypse. I started—and finished—the first book at Tony's kitchen table; something about being in Seattle just makes me want to work with the Masons on a very deep and detailed level. I don't have a problem with that, especially since the first book, Feed, will be out next May, and it would be good to be hammering on book three before book one is on the shelves. This is the closest to deadline I've ever worked. (Yes, I realize that I still have buckets and acres of time available to me. I also realize that I am very tightly wound where deadlines are concerned.)

The more I work in this universe, the more I fall in love with it, and the happier I become that Newsflesh, unlike the Toby books, is genuinely a trilogy. Because I think these books would break my heart completely if I tried to push them much further than that.

Alive or dead, the truth won't rest. Rise up while you can.

Words: 4,416.
Total words: 56,706.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter eleven. Time for horror movies.
Music: oddly enough, lots of show tunes.
Lilly and Alice: lounging.

I sort of hate to stop where I'm stopping, because Deadline is currently one hundred and ninety-six manuscript pages long, and two hundred pages is another of those super-exciting milestones that I so enjoy. Ah, well. I know that I'll be able to hit it in chapter twelve, and I didn't sleep well last night, so my eyes are sort of crossing now. Continuing to work would be counter-productive, and I shall instead conclude my labors in triumph. I like triumph. It tastes of spending the evening watching shitty horror movies and eating tomato sandwiches.

Pacing is always interesting in the Mason books, because I'm combining a very medical thriller/science fiction plot with, well, zombie apocalypse and massive violence. I need to both make sure the "let's talk about droplet-based transmission" scenes don't dominate the book, and also make sure that I'm not writing a Michael Bay movie. (Not that there's anything wrong with Michael Bay. It's just that if I'm going to write a movie, I'd rather write a James Gunn movie, or maybe a John Carpenter movie. One of the good ones. Not Vampires.) It's a very delicate balance, and it sometimes takes me a little while to find my flow in a given chapter. Well, tonight, the flow was on.

Before it sounds like I'm getting too cocky, remember that the final manuscript for Feed came in at 145,000 words, roughly. So I'm only barely a third of the way there. And that's a good thing, because oh...

...you ain't seen nothing yet.

Words: 3,102.
Total words: 52,290.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter ten, I need to sleep.
Music: angry goth rock.
Lilly and Alice: sprawling on my bed like throw rugs.

It's time to get serious about Deadline, which is due at my publisher in June of 2010, and is only about halfway finished. Luckily for me (and for the way I work), eight months is both sufficient time to finish things cleanly, and sufficiently little time to feel like A Real-and-True Deadline, thus causing my good little girl "turn your homework in early" genes to kick all the way in. Ideally, I'll be most of the way clear of this book by Christmas, and be able to spend my holiday break sitting at Tony's kitchen table, doing cleanup and adjustment. Because that's just how we roll around here, yo.

Anyway, this installment marks two major milestones. First, the book is now more than 50,000 words long. Yay! 40,000 may be the point where a novella becomes a novel, but for me, 50,000 words has a strange, iconic power that I simply cannot deny. Second, the three volumes in the Newsflesh trilogy are novels divided internally into books. This installment marks the end of Blackout Book II (Vectors and Victims), and begins Book III (name to be disclosed when I decide which of the possible options it actually is). Feed is four books and a coda. Blackout is either going to be five books and a coda, or Book III is going to be extremely long. I don't know yet, and I'm really excited to find out.

I felt this book come all the way to life tonight. For a zombie novel, that's a good thing. The engine's on, and the car is purring.

Let's see what kind of damage we can do.

So here's the thing.

I have three albums currently available. You can read about all three of them on my website's albums page. I'm very fond of all three. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, they each represent something different in my musical growth, and they each make me happy. Right now, only Red Roses and Dead Things is available through my website; the other two are available through CDBaby.com.

As of August 1st, Red Roses and Dead Things will be transitioning to CDBaby.com, and will no longer be available through my website.

There are a lot of reasons for this, and most of them have to do with time. I just don't have the time to monitor the order database, and people keep trying to order the other two albums, which requires even more time to unsnarl. So everything's being out-sourced, as part of an effort to save my sanity. Why am I announcing this? Well, because I'd rather not flood CDBaby right off the bat, thus forcing me to do still more mailing. So:

If you have been waiting to order Red Roses and Dead Things, now would be a good time. I commit to shipping all paid, pending orders during the first week of August, after which I will be contacting any unpaid pending orders, directing them to CDBaby, and deleting them from the system. The ordering system will then go down until we have to take pre-orders again.

So there's the thing. If you want to order Red Roses and Dead Things, now is a good time; it will be unavailable for the first week of August, while the transition is going on. Thank you for understanding.

We knew from the day we started shopping the Newsflesh trilogy that they would probably need to be published under an open pseudonym. There are a lot of reasons for that. The easiest to spot is "avoidance of over-saturating the market"—after all, as a relatively untried author, it's probably best if I not compete with myself.* Oddly, this isn't the biggest reason, just the first.

(*Before there's a general hue and cry of "but I'm planning to buy both," I should probably explain. I know that the readership of this journal is highly likely to buy both. This is one of the main reasons that I love you. The Internet readership I already have is a large portion of why we knew it would have to be an open pseudonym. It's the random bookstore browsers we're trying to avoid frightening away, the ones who won't know me from Adam until they get their hands on a copy of Rosemary and Rue or Feed.)

Genre separation is a much larger part of why I was happy to agree to writing under a pseudonym. Rosemary and Rue is fairy tale noir. It's dark, it's gritty, and it's occasionally brutal...but I would still hand it to a savvy teenager without fear that their parents would beat me to death with a baseball bat later. You could adapt the Toby books into PG-13 movies without gutting them. I won't cringe when I see high school students discussing them on my forums. Feed, on the other hand, is distopian political science fiction/horror. It has a high body count. There's gore, there's sex, there's bad language. I love it to death and consider it one of the best things I've ever written, but I so don't want you to buy it for your niece who loved Toby on the basis of my name alone. Putting a different author's name on the cover is a screaming neon sign that maybe the contents are also going to be different.

Do I expect the name to hurt sales? No. My publisher is savvy and good at what they do, and I'm really hoping this book will build a reasonable level of pre-release excitement, since it's going to be incredibly fun to do the viral marketing for. But I do expect it to make people pause and read the back cover before giving in to expectations.

So we knew I'd need a pseudonym, and after the trilogy sold to Orbit, they confirmed it. That meant we needed to pick one.

There are a lot of factors that go into selecting a good pseudonym. First off, it should be pronounceable (thus knocking my real name cheerfully from the running), and it should fall within the first half of the alphabet. That gets you a good spot on the shelf, which is important for catching the eye of the casual browser. People aren't tired of looking for something to read when they get to you. Who is Aaron Aardvark? Probably a best-seller. Your pseudonym shouldn't sound too much like the name of an author already working in your genre. We're not porn stars here. Calling myself "Maya Bone-hoff" or "Jane Hinds" isn't going to increase my sales, although it might get me slapped.

Your pseudonym should also be something you're willing to answer to in public, and don't hate. You should know what it means, since no one wants to choose "Variola Majors," thinking it's pretty, and discover later that they've just named themselves "smallpox." The Agent and I sat down and came up with a list of about twenty options, some mix-and-match, some not, all of which I was willing to live with (and all of which were somehow a complicated horror movie or television joke), and sent them to The Editor II. He gave us his preferences, we winnowed, we argued, and we settled on "Mira Grant."

"Mira" is an interesting name, in that it appears in a great many languages, always with a different meaning. The version I was looking at was from the Romany, meaning "little star." It isn't short for anything, despite its resemblance to "Miranda," and I will answer to it in public. Plus, since my real signature includes both a capital "M" and a capital "G", I shouldn't have issues during signings.

And that's why I am Mira Grant. First person to catch the horror movie in-joke in my pseudonym wins a prize (and if you already know, no hinting!).

It begins today.

At 11:53 AM, CDT, in the city of Peoria, Illinois, a man named Jonathan Dowell will be hit by a car while crossing at a busy intersection. Despite flying more than three yards through the air and hitting the ground with a bone-shattering degree of force, the man will proceed to get up again, to the general relief of bystanders. This relief will turn to bewilderment and terror as he lunges at the crowd, biting four people before he is subdued. By nightfall, the first Peoria outbreak will be well underway.

At 10:15 AM, PDT, in the town of Lodi, California, a woman named Debbie Goldman will be jogging along her usual route, despite the record-breaking heat and the recent warnings of her physician. Her explosive cardiac event will go entirely unwitnessed, as will her subsequent revival. As she makes her way along the road, she will find a group of teenagers out for a walk; in the struggle that follows, three of the six will be bitten. The Lodi outbreak will begin to spread shortly after two o'clock that afternoon.

At 11:31 AM, MDT, in a research laboratory just outside Denver, Colorado, two of the test subjects currently being treated with Marburg Amberlee will go into spontaneous viral amplification as the live virus bodies being pumped into their systems encounter the resting viral bodies already there. The details of this outbreak are almost entirely unknown, as the lab will be successfully sealed and burned to the ground before the infection can spread. Denver will be spared the worst ravages of the Rising until the second wave begins, on July 26th. Some will say that the tragedy which follows will come only because of that temporary reprieve; they weren't prepared.

The Rising begins today.

Are you prepared?

Words: 4,937.
Total words: 44,959.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter eight finally accomplished.
Music: random shuffle and the book-specific playlist.
Lilly and Alice: on the bed, lazing about at an Olympic level.

Well, after another unplanned hiatus (this time sponsored entirely by the fourth Toby Daye book), a series sale (the Masons are coming to a bookstore near you!), and a name change (welcome to Blackout, formerly known as The Mourning Edition), I've managed to pass two fairly serious, fairly scary milestones.

Milestone #1: Chapter eight is finished, which means that things are about to start getting a lot more hectic and unsettling for my poor protagonists. Also, if this book follows the pattern set by the first one, this means I am close to a quarter of the way through the book. That's a pretty big deal.

Milestone #2: According to the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) Nebula rules, something is a novella right up until it hits 40,000 words and becomes a novel. By that definition, Blackout has ticked fully over into "novel" territory. Oh, it's a really short novel at the moment, and it doesn't actually have a complete plot...but it's a novel, not a novella, and it's just gaining steam from here. This is a book that's going places. Dark, scary, unsettling places. Luckily, the book has a chainsaw.

I am so excited, I can't even say.

Well, my editor—Mira's editor—somebody's editor said very nice things about acquiring the Newsflesh trilogy. I am pleased and flattered.

Meanwhile, over on InevitableZombieApocalypse.com (which may be the best domain name ever), word is being spread, although they credit me, not Mira, as the author. Can one's own pseudonym come stalking in the night to wreak vengeance? It bears consideration. (They got their info from Media Bistro, which has a somewhat larger piece.)

The odds that I sold my soul at the crossroads for fame and fortune seem to be getting higher. On the plus side, it means the constant attendance of the Everything You Ever Wanted Fairy; I am hence not particularly disturbed.

Whee.

It is my considerable pleasure, absolute delight, and no small amount of awed bafflement, to announce that the Mason trilogy has been sold in a three book deal to Orbit, with concurrent publication by Orbit UK. They will be published beginning in 2010, with Feed (working title: Newsflesh) coming out sometime mid-year. All three books will be published under the name "Mira Grant," my shiny new open pseudonym. I have a pseudonym and a horror series. You have absolutely no concept of how much this makes me feel like Stephen King right now.

We sold the Mason books. Alive or dead, the truth won't rest.

Rise up while you can.

(PS: Please don't ask "why the title change" or "why the pseudonym" on this post. I'll post explaining both when I get over sitting here looking stunned and giggling to myself.)

1. The Rosemary and Rue ARC giveaway is still running, from now through Whenever I Happen To Get Up Tomorrow Morning. So assume that I'll be announcing the winner sometime between five and eight AM PST (which is when I'll be coherent enough to deal with complex things like "the random number generator" and "counting").

2. Because I'm doing the drawing so early in the day, if you win, and you're able to get me your mailing address with reasonable alacrity, your ARC may actually go out in tomorrow's mail. I'm just saying.

3. Late Eclipses continues to be finished, which has me rather at lost ends. I figure I'll finish this zombie short story that I'm working on, and then crack open Discount Armageddon, see what Verity and the gang have been up to while I was away. Nothing says "relaxation" like "getting straight to work on a different book."

4. I am officially sick. Thank you, coughing people on my plane and annoying small child whose parents refused to make you stop kicking the back of my seat. Thank you so much.

5. My play list consisting of nothing but versions of the song "Rain King" by the Counting Crows is now two hours long, and incredibly soothing. If you've ever wondered why that song was my current music so much of the time, well...this is why.

6. Zombies are still love.

10. Betsy -- aka "the breeder from whom I am purchasing my new Maine Coon" -- emailed me last night to get the last of the information she needs to fill out Alice's health certificate. (The airlines require you to have a health certificate for any animal you wish to carry onto a plane; something about not really wanting to deal with a rabies outbreak at thirty thousand feet. This just shows that they don't want me to have any fun.) So it's officially official, and I'll be bringing home my new baby girl this weekend. Perhaps then Lilly will allow me to sleep through the night. Unlikely, but a girl can dream, right?

9. The word counts have been missing lately because I've been continuing to hammer on the reboot to Late Eclipses, trying to yank the book into alignment with the awesome I know it truly has the potential to be. I'm about a quarter of the way through the text at this point, and things really are becoming visibly more and more awesome. We haven't reached the point in the revisions process where I can no longer make fair and measured assessments of quality, and that's good.

8. People everywhere are getting their copies of Ravens In the Library, and while I haven't seen any full-length critical reviews, I'm generally seeing positive reactions to the book itself. (I am, of course, primarily interested in seeing the book do well, because it's for an excellent cause, and in being my usual neurotic little blonde self about reactions to my story. But at least I'm up-front about it, which makes it a little less crazy-making.) Remember, the book will only be available until Sooj's medical bills are fully covered.

7. I have registered for World Fantasy, booked my hotel room for San Diego, applied for professional membership to San Diego, and arranged for hotel space in Montreal. I am, in short, basically done with my convention arrangements between now and August. (BayCon is local enough to require little pre-planning on my part, while Duckon is taking care of all the arrangements for me, on account of I'm one of their guests. It's nice.) I'm always happier when I know that things have been set up as far in advance as humanly possible.

6. Zombies are still love.

5. In the last several weeks, my website has gone from "idle" to "awesome," with almost all our functionality now up and online. The only things still pending are the forums and the mailing list, and both these are being held up by issues on the server side, which we're working to resolve. (Getting the forums up and functional now gives my mods time to try to break them before I'm banned from that part of the site nigh-completely. Planning ahead. It's what's for dinner.)

4. While I'm still not sleeping nearly enough, thank you Lilly, I feel somewhat less like a corpse today than I did yesterday, probably at least in part because I forced myself to go to bed immediately after Big Bang Theory last night. Nothing says "a good night's sleep" like adorable physics geeks and inking before turning in. Although losing my pencil for half the episode really didn't help.

3. I have seriously not read a book that was anything short of awesome in the past week. They were YA and adult, mainstream, fantasy, horror, and science fiction, and all made of pure, unadulterated awesome. If all books were as good as the ones I've been reading, the bar would be set so high we'd need a telescope to see it. I couldn't be happier with my recent reading choices. I really couldn't.

2. In two days, I go to Seattle. In three days, I see my Vixy. In four days, I see Kitten Sundae live and in concert. And in five days, I get to take Alice home with me, thus ruining everything, in the nicest way. (Obligatory Jonathan Coulton reference for the quarter!)

...and the number one good thing about today...

1. My life is so wonderful right now. I'm tired, I'm grumpy, and I'm inclined to smack anyone who pokes me with a stick, but at the end of the day, even I can't pretend that my life isn't amazing. Rosemary and Rue is well on its way to publication, and according to Amazon, 90% of the people who visit the page are buying the book. Lilly and Alice are both healthy. My back is behaving itself remarkably well, and spring is springing up all around me, making my normal walking habits much less crazy. I have the best friends in the world -- everyone should have the best friends in the world, because it makes everything better -- and I own more bad horror movies than I could watch in a lifetime. The world is wonderful.

I think we're gonna be all right. So what's new and awesome in the world of you?

So when I originally approached the readership of this journal and said 'lo, what should I include in my site FAQ section?', roughly half the people who responded said 'horror movie survival.' So yes, there's an actual section on getting out of a horror movie with your skin and sanity reasonably intact.

Feel proud of yourselves.

So now that the horror FAQ is underway, I ask you...what all should be included? What burning questions do you have about the things out there that want to make you die -- and maybe more important, what questions do you have about staying alive? Remember, only you can defeat the crawling terror from beyond the stars. Unless, y'know, it eats you first.

Words: 5,372.
Total words: 39,995.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter seven, head is spinning.
Music: random shuffle and the book-specific playlist.
Lilly: not entirely sure, which is a little worrisome.

After an unplanned hiatus sponsored entirely by the Toby Daye series, chapter seven of The Mourning Edition is finally finished. Take that, zombies! Take that, journalists! Take that, actual structured narrative! This was very soothing, once I managed to get back into the swing of things. I've been editing so much in 2009 that I've been doing very little 'new' writing, so it was nice to just spend a day chasing people with the living dead.

Like any good zombie adventure, The Mourning Edition occasionally has to slow down and take a deep breath before charging into the next glorious Guignol on the docket. This was one of the slower chapters, and while those can often be the most difficult to write -- oddly, it's easier to blow stuff up than it is to tell a story; perhaps this explains most summer blockbusters -- they're also the most gratifying to finish. I always feel like I've really moved things along with these pieces.

According to the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) Nebula rules, something is a novella right up until it hits 40,000 words and becomes a novel. By that definition, The Mourning Edition is about fifty-five words from leveling up again. I'm not going to mess with it tonight, however. I know when it's time to shut down and watch some Tales From the Darkside to celebrate.

We done good.

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?

Words: 3,573.
Total words: 34,573.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter six, time to move on.
Music: Emilie Autumn, rocking the goth.
Lilly: asleep in the middle of my coat.

Chapter six of The Mourning Edition is finished! Ha! I bet you thought I forgot, didn't you? That I'd wandered off to greener pastures? Not this zombie girl! The living dead continue to be one of my life's great joys. It's just that sometimes, those great joys get faintly derailed by the need to battle Toby to a stand-still. Something about the girl having her own series already under contract makes her all pushy. I have no idea where she gets that...

So anyway, The Mourning Edition continues apace, and my understanding of the world is continuing to expand. Chapter six actually took as long as it did to finish because I kept back-tracking, ripping things out, and planting them later in the text. (Also because I got distracted perfecting my story for Grants Pass, but come on, the nice people invited me to their pandemic. They deserve the best I can possibly give them.)

I'm heading to Seattle for the holidays again this year, and while there's going to be a lot of rehearsal crammed into a reasonably small stretch of time, I'm also expecting long days where everybody else is off at work, and I can just write. If this goes anything like last year, I'm basically going to power through fifty thousand words and then look faintly confused.

And now, bed.

* I'm writing my world description outline for the InCryptid books, which is a lot of fun, since it lets me make statements like 'insect-derived exothermic placental mammals with a decentralized circulatory system' in a completely serious, sincere way. (I love my insect-derived exothermic placental mammals. They're so wonderfully creepy. Also, I would not want them in my house, and neither do you.)

* The Brightest Fell -- also known as 'Toby Daye, book five,' also known us 'uh, Seanan, isn't book one due out next year?' -- is now well underway; I finished chapter seventeen last night, with a great deal of giggling and clapping of my hands. This is also why I haven't been posting many word counts recently, since every time I think 'well, I'll just hop projects now,' The Brightest Fell slaps me upside the head and drags me back in. I think this is because the book really, really wants to be finished. And who am I to argue? I like it when books want to be finished. It makes me feel productive.

* I am seriously considering writing a book about zombie virology. Just because it would give me an excuse to go and hang out at the CDC asking weird questions without getting looked at funny. Also, if you haven't read Zombie CSI by Jonathan Maberry, you totally should. The slowly developing zombie non-fiction genre for the win, yo. (It's true facts about fictional things. This makes it, bizarrely enough, non-fiction. I love the world sometimes.)

* Lilly's best silly parlor trick is once again seasonal: yes, my cat will sing 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' as a duet if you simply start the song and pause at the right places. Behold the beauty of the Siamese. Unfortunately, this means she gets pissed off if you try to sing the duet with another person. The point in Elf where Will Farrel and Zooey Deschanel sing it together drives her into a furious rage. Which is actually really adorable, as long as she's not in your lap when it starts.

* Yes, I am intending to clip her claws before we go to see Santa, in the hopes that this will prevent her from clawing Santa's balls off. Be good to Santa. Let him keep his balls.

* I have decided to use Zip-a-tone on the Conflikt program book cover, to give it that little extra 'zing.' I haven't actually used Zip-a-tone in years, since digital coloring has largely eliminated the need for it, but really, who doesn't love an art supply that requires use of an exacto knife? I'm gonna have me a slice-and-shade party, and it's going to be awesome. The awesome doubles if I don't have to go to the emergency room afterwards. I'm hoping for double awesome.

* The second Hack/Slash omnibus comes out this month, along with a reprint of the first omnibus edition. Hack/Slash is the ongoing story of Cassie Hack, a horror movie final girl who fought back and then kept on fighting. Imagine Buffy if she'd been created by James Gunn and Vincent Price instead of Joss Whedon. And if they'd been doing acid at the same time. This is pretty much my favorite currently on-going comic book, and I highly recommend it. A Christmas gift for the ages!

* Evil Dead: the Musical opens in Martinez, California on January 6th, 2009. Tickets are $25 for cabaret seating, $30 for splatter zone seating. The splatter zone is awesome, but make sure you finish eating (it's a dinner theater) before the song 'Look Who's Evil Now,' as the fake blood tastes terrible. It also smells weird, which could totally kill your appetite.

* The growth of my website continues. It's like an evil alien weed, come to destroy all within its path. The latest addition: you can now access the 'review' page from the discography. Yes, there's a lot of text there right now. I'm going to trim it down to about half that, and increase the font size. We're just getting what exists in place before we start messing with content.

And that's my today. What's yours?

The tiny little part of my tiny little blonde head that controls essential tasks—those things that have to be done, but which I absolutely dread and abhor doing, like formatting submissions, writing cover letters, and outlining projects—decided that the perfect time to write the series outline for the Mason Trilogy* would be while I was all hopped-up on cold medication. Because my brain is special.

Series outlines are the bane of my existence. Basically, they're your "short pitch," your chance to try to sell your story in a format that's longer than a cover letter, but shorter than the whole manuscript. Series outlines are sort of like high school book reports: they're packed with spoilers, and they strip out most of the detail of a story. "A young girl travels to a foreign land, kills the first person she meets, and teams up with three strangers" levels of stripping out the detail.

Feed is over five hundred pages long. Deadline is on track to be just as long. I have no real idea about Blackout, but I'd be astonished if the last book in the series was somehow shorter than the first two. I managed to condense all three volumes to nine pages. My agent loves me right now.

Fear me. And now? I'm going back to bed.

(*This may or may not be the official name of the series, but since all three books are about Shaun and Georgia Mason and their exciting journalistic adventures, it's as good a name as any. My original name for the project was "a good excuse to study virology and talk about zombies a lot," so this is really a pretty big improvement, marketability-wise. I'm great at naming books. I'm terrible at naming series.)

Current stats:

Words: 4,760.
Total words: 28,570.
Reason for stopping: chapter five and book one are finished.
Music: oddly enough, lots of folk music.
Lilly: queen of everything atop her cat tree.

As predicted, the end of chapter five of The Mourning Edition was also the end of Book I! Woo-hoo! So now I can honestly answer "How's the book going?" with "Oh, I finished it yesterday, I'm working on the next one now." (This is fun because of the looks it makes people give me. I adore confusing my friends.) Also, the end of Book I brings us past the magical hundred-page mark. Yes! This book is now over a hundred pages. The magical stamp of 'I can be a real novel when I grow up' has been applied. Since Newsflesh came in at just under 150,000 words, I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that I am now 20% of the way to 'done.' So that doesn't suck, either.

(Book I, for the curious, was titled 'Point of Infection.' Book II is titled 'Vectors and Victims.' Telling you the titles of the various books really doesn't give anything away unless you have the actual text to provide some much-needed context. Because I'm just sneaky that way. Also, zombies.)

The Newsflesh/Mourning Edition universe is an incredibly fun one to play around in, even though each individual book has a body count that basically equals what I've managed in five volumes of Toby. (The series really needs a better title. I usually just call them 'the Mason books' and figure people know what I'm talking about.)

Zombies.

Yay.

First, pick your genre. What, you thought you already had? Oh, no. There are four major types of horror movie:

1. The Psycho. A killer hunts and slaughters people -- usually attractive teens, although some killers have been known to branch out along other specialized lines. Usually difficult or impossible to kill, sometimes ironic in method of death, prone to sequels.
2. The Creature. This genre divides into 'big' and 'lots': either your creature is ginormous for some reason, or there's a swarm. Sometimes, the over-ambitious combine the two, and have a swarm of giant whatever-it-is trying to eat mankind. This is generally a winning approach.
3. The Supernatural. Ghosts, witches, warlocks, a killer Santa Claus taking back all the toys he's distributed over the generations, it all gets filed under the generic catch-all of 'supernatural'. Sometimes, your psycho or your creature is supernatural, too.
4. The Outsider. Aliens and extra-dimensional entities go here. Sometimes, your psycho or your creature is from outside, in addition to being, y'know, bad for your health. Mostly, though, aliens get their own designation.

Now, pick your setting. Your options are:

1. Rural. Small towns are great for zombie invasions, crash landings of carnivorous alien lifeforms, and anything involving a meteorite.
2. Urban. The big city is good if your zombies are viral, or if you want a serial killer. No cornfields, though, which kinda sucks.
3. Wilderness. If it makes you happy to have crazed killers chasing co-eds through the woods, this is the place for you.
4. Transit vehicle of some sort. Big boats, RVs, trains, spaceships, and orbiting space stations, those get filed here.

Every category contains a multitude of options, from 'houseboat' to 'swamp', but these are the basics. And, of course, you're going to need a hero:

1. Teenager. Cheerleader, jock, geek, hacker, whatever.
2. Authority figure. Local sheriff, local cop, President of the United States. However, don't cross into...
3. Military dude. This covers male and female members of all branches of the military.
4. That guy from 'Clerks'. There's a good chance your hero wasn't even supposed to be here today.

( Let's make a horror movie!Collapse )

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.

seanan_mcguire: Was Hawaii gorgeous?
jennifer_brozek: It was. Very.
seanan_mcguire: Were there lizards?
jennifer_brozek: Many. Most hanging out on my front porch.
seanan_mcguire: Did you bring me one?
jennifer_brozek: Hell no. Kate would kill me.

Behold the power of Kate. When the world ends in zombies rather than in plague-bearing dinosaurs created through use of a horrible mockery of science, you'll know who you have to thank.

...I learned from Marilyn Munster.

There is nothing wrong with being a little bit unusual. * It doesn't matter what other people think about what you love; it's what you think that really matters. * It's okay to be the blonde one sometimes. * Monsters are people, too. * Being black and white doesn't mean you can't be pink inside. * Loyalty counts. * The people who really care about you will continue to care, no matter how much of a freak you are. * Start every day with a smile. * There is magic in the petulant head-tilt. * Always run towards the explosions. * If everyone is screaming, things are probably about to get interesting. * You can hide lots of knives in a ruffled gown. * No one gets to define what's normal for you. * Stereotypes are funny. * Life is good, so enjoy it while you can. * Other people's prejudices are not actually your problem. * Some people only see appearances. It's best to feel sorry for them. * When someone leads an angry mob to your doorstep, it's okay to scold them for carrying lit torches in a residential area. * Be comfortable with your surroundings. * It is perfectly possible to be a horror movie girl while wearing pastels. * White pancake makeup is totally optional. * Blood is actually good for hair; it strengthens the follicles. * Never underestimate the power of big blue eyes. * Or having a seven foot tall uncle who looks like he was raised from the dead. That doesn't hurt either. * Family counts for everything. * Running in high heels is a life skill. * Hydrogen peroxide gets blood out of almost anything but taffeta and white cotton. * A good wardrobe is key. * Be yourself. In the end, that's what actually matters.

What important lessons did you learn from your personal media icons?

Today is World Virus Appreciation Day, the day when we give our most dearly beloved pathogens just that extra little bit of love that they so richly deserve. In honor of this infectuously awesome holiday, I'm offering my favorite entries in the fields of horrible diseases. Namely, some lists. How I adore lists. Especially lists of ten things.

( Click for Seanan's ten favorite movies about disease, books about disease, and, well, diseases. Because sharing is super-fun.Collapse )

Happy World Virus Appreciation Day! What's your favorite virus?

How better to begin celebrating my favorite month -- the month that contains Halloween -- than with this announcement:

Pre-orders for Red Roses and Dead Things, my first themed studio album, are now officially open! Pardon my squealing, and with big, big thanks to porpentine, who has made the magic go once again. Featuring performances by Paul Kwinn, Tony Fabris, Michelle Dockrey, Amy McNally, Jeff Bohnhoff, Maya Bohnhoff, Tom Smith, and probably several other people that I've managed to temporarily forget, this is a solid star-studded adventure in the worlds of mad science and horror. It brings the creepy. It brings the silly. And it brings the AWESOME.

To place your order, go to:

https://seananmcguire.com/secure_order.php

Pre-orders follow this price scale:

* $17.00 USD: Domestic pre-order (US and Canada)
* $22.00 USD: International pre-order.

(Basically, all pre-orders are a base cost of $15.00, plus shipping.)

We're taking three hundred total pre-orders, then closing it down; depending on how fast they come, and when we hit three hundred, there may be a small overage, but not much. All pre-orders will be given access to an exclusive download version of 'What A Woman's For' (which may or may not be released more widely into the wild after the album is released). Since we also need to pay mixing costs, we're taking album sponsors; to donate for sponsorship, click here:

All sponsors will be included in the liner notes. You can view the potential track list here:

http://seananmcguire.com/albums.php

The track order is by no means finalized, and I'll probably be doing some canvassing soon, to get an idea of other people's opinions on what should come first, last, where, and when. We may have to cut a song, depending on final track lengths; we don't know yet.

Questions? Comments? Glee!

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.

Current stats:

Words: 6,080.
Total words: 23,810.
Reason for stopping: I'm done with chapter four!
Music: mostly Rob Zombie. Hey, it's topical.
Lilly: dead to the world in the middle of my glow-in-the-dark spiderweb pillow.

Like Newsflesh, The Mourning Edition is a novel internally divided into 'books.' (Hey, it's a fun structure to play with, and my happy zombie wonderland was the first chance I really got to take advantage of it. Besides, it's nicely confusing, because it makes the answer to "How's the book going?" entirely unpredictable.) I am now four chapters into Book I, and it looks like Book II is going to start with chapter six. I'm one chapter away from the end of Book I. Also, since the chapters are averaging roughly twenty pages each, I'm one chapter away from hitting the hundred-page mark.

Excuse me while I blink a lot and go 'um, dude.' It's interesting: I understand that I write a lot, and I understand that my 'rotate projects so that everything stays fresh and engaging and you get more done' method of approaching books means that they gain page count at a scary rate, but I'm always a little tweaked when I hit a hundred pages. That's my internal watermark for 'sorry, you've devoted too much time; can't walk away now.'

It's too late to walk out on this book.

Secretly, I'm glad.

Current stats:

Words: 5,420.
Total words: 17,730.
Reason for stopping: chapter three is finished.
Music: Science Groove! Also, really weird cover songs.
Lilly: prowling around the room and spelunking in my dresser drawers.

This book remains both very comfortable -- it's a return to the world of Newsflesh! How could it be anything but comfortable? I love that world like burning -- and very complicated, since it's been a while since I first pulled Newsflesh off the ground and sent it racing downhill. And it's very weird to be doing this in tandem with the rewrite on Lycanthropy and Other Personal Issues, because of the differences in scale. 'Barely started' for The Mourning Edition is the same as 'a third of the way' in Lycanthropy.

Soon, I get to start sinking my teeth into my gonzo zombie-verse virology in a big, big way, and that delights me all the way down to the bottom of my incurably geeky little soul. Also, I'm making substantially faster progress on this book than I did on the first one of the series, which I consider to be an awesomely good sign.

I'm king of the dead! Er, queen. Er...something.

Current stats:

Words: 1,222.
Total words: 11,260.
Reason for stopping: if I don't go to sleep, I am literally going to pass out.
Music: random things, including a small child telling me about her day.
Lilly: presumably back in Concord, unless she's gone looking for me.

I'm at David and Michelle's for the weekend, but would have felt bad if I didn't at least pretend to do some work on The Mourning Edition. So I pretended my way through a thousand words and a big chunk of the current chapter, which is, y'know, pretty impressive, if a little bit unnerving. I should pretend more often.

Please note that as of this entry, The Mourning Edition has its own icon. That means it's a real book. Also, that means I got my Photoshop working for a little while today. All things come with time and with grace. (I have no idea what I'm going to use as a Discount Armageddon icon, I really don't.)

Progress is pleasing unto me, and I really like where this book seems to be going. We're still in setup, but it's very solid and substantial setup, and it makes me happy. Also, I got to map the driving route between Birds Landing and Berkeley, and that confused Google Maps to no end. Life is good.

Zombies improve everything.