And the winner of the very first ARC of Late Eclipses is...

georgiamagnolia!

Now, the administrative:

You have twenty-four hours to contact me via my website contact form with your mailing address. If I do not receive your mailing information within this time frame, I will choose a new winner for the ARC. I'm planning to do some pretty massive mailing on Thursday, so there's a lot of potential here for an early January delivery. I'm just saying.

Thanks to everyone who signed up, and watch for more giveaways coming soon!

Yes, it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for: the moment where I give away the first ARC of Late Eclipses, fourth book in the October Daye series. Because I am an enormous dork, I literally waited to open this giveaway until I had my book-specific icon in place. STOP JUDGING ME. I am a dork, I embrace my dorkitude. Anyway...

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 Tuesday, December 21st.

Game on!

Hey blueangelart! You have won a copy of In a Gilded Light by Jennifer Brozek, with an introduction by me! Hooray for you!

The fine print: Please send me your mailing information via my website contact link. You have twenty-four hours. If I don't have an address for you by this time tomorrow, I'll choose another winner. Void where prohibited. Not intended to be taken internally, seriously, or underwater. It's not the wind, and it's not Johnny, either. Don't put that in your mouth, you don't know where it's been. Fun for the whole family!

Okay, bits and pieces, because I am a crispy, crispy cookie right now. Seriously, I wrote ALL THE THINGS last night, AND indexed half a box of My Little Ponies, AND updated my spreadsheets, AND cleaned up after Thomas, who had inexplicably decided to make a horrible mess in the bathtub (I'm sure I'll be dealing with this more in the days to come, and will spare you any further details; at least he did it on an easy-clean surface). Then, this morning, I got up to discover that my transit card had vanished in the night, leading to a pre-6:00 AM shredding of my bedroom. So I am not the bubbliest bunny in the burrow.

So first, Orbit is giving away poster prints of the covers to Deadline and Feed as part of the Epic Loot holiday series. Details are available at the link above, and they're selecting their winner tomorrow, so you should head over there and sign up if you're interested. They're gorgeous pieces. They'd look amazing on your wall.

The best thing about the people that I love is the way that they make me lizard-happy. I'm just saying. Find something (or someone) that makes you lizard-happy, and hug it a whole bunch. Assuming this won't get you slapped with a restraining order, injected with neurotoxic venom, or just plain slapped.

It's no secret that I'm a My Little Pony nut; see also, "regular references to cleaning and sorting and indexing the collection, so that I can figure out which Ponies I still need to either upgrade or acquire." (Hint: The answer is "quite a few.") Well, I'm also a big My Little Demon fan, and wanted to be sure you'd seen these ultimate expressions of my 1980s horror girl heart. I have Sparkle Plague framed and hanging in my bathroom, and I'm looking wistfully at Toxic Popsicle and Voodoo Vixen. It's possible that my home decor is a trifle unnerving.

(I will be working industriously at making it more unnerving in the weeks to come, as I should be receiving my cover flats for Deadline, have received my art prints for Bill Mudron, unearthed a few old commission and art pieces in a drawer, and have a companion piece to my Princess Alice in production. So eventually, people will walk into my house, look at the walls, and run screaming before something eats them. This is a goal.)

I'm trying to get all caught up with the world, but things are slipping a bit just now. So I beg you, be patient with me, and do not force me to devour your soul to demonstrate the foolishness of prodding tired blondes with sticks.

Happy Tuesday!

Item the first: kirylyn, you have won a copy of An Artificial Night in the fourth of my random holiday drawings. Please email me within the next twenty-four hours, using the contact form on my website, to be mailing your book. If I don't hear from you inside this time, I will have to draw a new winner. So I surely do hope I hear from you!

Item the second: I spent most of the day in San Francisco, as The Editor was flying in through SFO, and needed to be picked up and toted to her final destination (for the moment). With a stop at Borderlands Books, naturally, to meet the hairless cats. Sadly, the hairless cats were not in when we swung by, but we got to hang out with Jude, and I convinced a nice lady to buy Carousel Tides for her wife. So life, pretty good, really.

Item the third: Alice is continuing to get better, and has now improved enough to be pushy and imperious when she doesn't get what she wants. Given that at her worst, she was barely interactive, this is wonderful, and I relish being bullied by my big fuzzy baby. She knows it, too, and is taking shameless advantage of me. Oddly, I'm okay with that.

Item the fourth: My bedroom may actually be a black hole. I'm trying to clean up and rearrange in here, and it's dauntingly horrific. I keep finding things I didn't know existed, like a long box half-full of Stars Fall Home. In other news, I now have ten more copies of Stars Fall Home.

Item the fifth: As part of my cleaning efforts, I'm sorting, indexing, and purging my collection of My Little Ponies. When I'm done, I'll actually be able to make a coherent wish list. This is...maybe not such a good thing, really, since I have access to eBay. But hey. Everything has its downside.

How's by you?

It's time for the fifth winter giveaway, and for me to get a little bit odd (yes, even by local standards). See, the book I'm giving away this time is one I didn't write: In A Gilded Light, by Jennifer Brozek. Why am I giving it away? Because I wrote the introduction, which makes this key to having a complete collection, as well as being a just plain awesome book.

Again, this is a random drawing—leave a comment, potentially win a book. Yes, if you're winning it for someone else, I will happily mail it to them. I'm afraid I can't promise to have it signed for you unless you want to wait until after New Year's for me to mail the book, since Jennifer isn't technically local, but the book remains bad-ass, even sans signature.

Just comment here to be entered in the drawing. A winner will be chosen Monday afternoon. Game on!

Dear shiyiya,

You entered a contest wherein the winner would be chosen by random number. Your number was 112, and guess what the random number generator decided to pick? Wow, you're a good guesser! Anyway, if you go to my website and use the "contact" link to send me an email with your mailing information, I'll mail you a copy of the "Wicked Girls" poster. Spiffy!

The usual administrative foo: If I have not received your mailing information in twenty-four hours, I will choose another winner. This offer void where prohibited. Do not expose Happy Fun Author to direct sunlight. Pregnant women should not go to the abandoned concrete factory with Happy Fun Author. When in doubt, run.

More giveaways to come, and hope you're all having a great December!

Love,
Seanan.

Will faithfulcynic please pick up the white courtesy telephone*? The random number generator has smiled upon you, and you have won a copy of A Local Habitation. Hooray! Life is good, especially when it's Tuesday, and you're winning things.

I'm going to be continuing to post giveaways and do drawings during the weeks to come, because dude, it's December. We need a little shiny happiness that doesn't involve going within a mile of the mall.

More to come!

(*By "white courtesy telephone," of course, I mean "send me your shipping information via my website contact form." Any other means of contact will result in your book not being mailed to you, possibly ever, because I am occasionally a blonde of very little brain.)

And now, for our fourth winter giveaway, we're returning to the expected, and I'm giving out a copy of An Artificial Night (October Daye, book three). We're sticking with what works, because that's about what I have the bandwidth for, so it's going to be a random drawing—leave a comment, potentially win a book. Yes, it will be signed, and yes, if you're winning it for someone else, I will happily mail it to them.

Start reading now, and you'll have time to get fully caught up before book four comes out in March! Or get a copy to give to a friend! The drawing for A Local Habitation is also still going, and will remain open until a winner is chosen later today.

Just comment here to be entered in the drawing. A winner will be chosen Saturday afternoon. Game on!

For our third winter giveaway, I'm going to deviate a little bit from the expected. While I will be giving away a copy of An Artificial Night, I want to make sure I have time to mail today's offering, which takes a little special packing. So...

Today's giveaway is a copy of the "Wicked Girls" poster. I'll be selecting our winner Thursday, and doing my mailing that weekend. The drawing will be random, so just leave a comment if you'd like a chance to win.

There is, however, one catch this time. If you're outside North America, you're still eligible for the drawing, but I will have to ask you to pay postage ($6 US). I just can't afford the shipping. If you decide to enter anyway, please identify yourself as outside North America in your comment. This will not change your chances of winning, it just tells me I have to work out postage payment with you if you win.

Game on!

hvideo, please pick up the white courtesy telephone; you have won a copy of Rosemary and Rue, which I will happily mail to you or to the person of your choice (although if you want this puppy mailed internationally, you're going to need to pay for postage).

Please email me through my website contact link to let me know where to send your book!

For our second winter giveaway, we're just going to stick with what works: the random drawing. Leave a comment, potentially win a book. Specifically, potentially win A Local Habitation, the second book in the October Daye series. Come in at the beginning, and you'll have time to get fully caught up before book four comes out in March! Or get a copy to give to a friend! The Rosemary and Rue drawing is also still going, and will remain open until a winner is chosen on Sunday afternoon.

Just comment here to be entered in the drawing. A winner will be chosen Tuesday afternoon. Game on!

For our first winter giveaway, let's go with a classic: the random drawing. Leave a comment, potentially win a book. Specifically, potentially win Rosemary and Rue, the first book in the October Daye series. Come in at the beginning, and you'll have time to get fully caught up before book four comes out in March! Or get a copy to give to a friend!

Just comment here to be entered in the drawing. A winner will be chosen Sunday afternoon. Game on!

We're about to enter the month of December, and I figure, what the heck, let's be festive! So I'm going to be doing two things throughout the month, namely...

1. Giveaways! I have lots of things to give, including books, CDs, other people's books, and things I find under my bed. Some of the giveaways will be random, some may require effort on your part, but watch this space for news. First up will be a random drawing for Rosemary and Rue, opening tomorrow.

2. Shopping lists! It's the most shopping-oriented time of the year, so I figure I should offer some awesome ideas for your holiday gifting purposes. But! I am not the all-seeing, all-knowing Wizard of Oz. If you have any suggestions, be they books, obscure movies, or Etsy stores full of awesome, please email them to me via my website contact form. I repeat, email. Don't comment on my journal, please. If I can fit your suggestions into a list, you may see them here!

December is upon us. Let's send this calendar year out with a bang.

It's that time again! The time when I, and my good friend Random, generate the winners for the latest Toby Daye giveaway. Everybody dance! Anyway, after feeding the range into the random number generator, our winners are...

sasquatch1313, who wins a copy of An Artificial Night!
lyssabard, who also wins a copy of An Artificial Night!
janetmiles, who wins a copy of Rosemary and Rue!

Please use my website contact form to provide your mailing information, and, if you're planning to give the book as a gift rather than treasuring it forever, the name of the person you want me to inscribe it to. Remember, if you try to contact me through any other* mechanism, I may not see it in time, and if I don't hear from you by Monday, I'll pick again.

(*This is not entirely true. If you dispatch a talking pink pegasus to carry me back to Ponyland, I will totally hand-deliver your book before we fly over the rainbow into the glorious embrace of Paradise Valley.)

Winners!

I feel like giving things away (I know you all love it when I do that). Specifically, I feel like giving away copies of the Toby Daye books. Want to win a book? Then come play my game. What game are we playing today?

Six word biography.

It's simple: leave a comment on this entry with a six word biography of yourself. They can be serious, silly, or anything in-between. Here are some examples for me:

"I've always been a cornfield girl."
"Halloweentown princess seeks candy corn, companionship."
"I did it all for dreaming."

Indicate which of the three books you're interested in. On Saturday, I'll use the random number generator to select three winners, one for each book. You can only win once, but you can ask for all three books, if that's what rings your chimes.

Game on!

To celebrate the release of The Living Dead 2 (featuring my/Mira's new story, "Everglades"), John Joseph Adams has arranged a full-on zombie week over at Tor.com, beginning with a massive prize pack associated with a zombie caption contest. That's right; caption a picture, potentially win an incredible amount of crap.

The prize package includes, among other things...

* Both anthologies
* A signed copy of Feed (US or UK edition to be determined)
* A copy of Red Roses and Dead Things
* A DVD of Shaun of the Dead
* A copy of The Zombie Combat Manual

...and lots and lots of other signed books, short stories, and other goodies. Seriously, it's like doing five minutes of work for the potential of a whole lot of pay-out. Give it a go! All you have to lose is your braaaaaaaain.

First up, sageautumn to the white courtesy telephone; sageautumn, please pick up the white courtesy telephone. You are the third and final winner of an ARC of An Artificial Night! To claim your prize, please email me via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours. If I don't hear from you by this time tomorrow, I'll draw another winner.

Secondly, the winners of a free copy of Rosemary and Rue are...

markush
jeffreycwells
dragonsflame71
the_liz666
evaleastaristev

All of you, please follow the directions above. Again, yadda yadda, twenty-four hours OR THE ICE WEASELS COME.

(Administrative foo: No, people cannot win more than once, even if the random number generator wants them to. No, you cannot contact me through any other means. I'm not allowed to unleash the ice weasels without Kate's permission, you can't message me through LJ. If you do, I won't see it, and you'll miss the window.)

cupcakery to the white courtesy telephone; cupcakery, please pick up the white courtesy telephone. You have won an ARC of An Artificial Night. To claim your prize, please email me via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours. If I don't hear from you by this time tomorrow, I'll draw another winner.

(Administrative foo: No, people cannot win more than once, even if the random number generator wants them to. No, you cannot contact me through any other means. I can't subjugate this puny planet to my iron will, you can't message me through LJ. If you do, I won't see it, and you'll miss the window.)

The final winner, and the winners of the free Rosemary and Rue, will be announced later tonight, after they're selected. So you can still enter either of those giveaways. We have time for one more effort-required giveaway before I leave for Australia; if you have suggestions, please post 'em here, and I'll pick what I like best.

Whee!

kerimaya to the white courtesy telephone; kerimaya, please pick up the white courtesy telephone. You have won an ARC of An Artificial Night. To claim your prize, please email me via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours. If I don't hear from you by this time tomorrow, I'll draw another winner.

(Administrative foo: No, people cannot win more than once, even if the random number generator wants them to. No, you cannot contact me through any other means. I can't visit Ireland by flying rainbow dragon, you can't message me through LJ. If you do, I won't see it, and you'll miss the window.)

More to come tomorrow!

With the third book in the Toby series coming up (rapidly), I want to make sure that people who want the opportunity to read the series at all have the chance. So...

I am giving away five copies of Rosemary and Rue. I am unfortunately able to give them to US addresses only; the cost of postage is just too high for me to be able to do this with International shipping on top of everything else. What do you need to do?

1) Comment here, explaining either a) why you'd like a copy of Rosemary and Rue, or b) why I should be giving a copy to someone else (a friend, a relative, that guy who commented right before you...)

2) That's all. I'll pick winners on Sunday evening, when I draw the winners of the latest ARC contest. (Which is still going, by the way, and you have to enter if you want to win.)

Yes, you can enter both. Rock and roll!

I'm too tired to be creative, so it's once more time for everyone's favorite ARC giveaway, the random drawing. To participate...

1) Leave a comment telling me why you like Toby. As a reply to the entry, please, not as a reply to someone else's comment. Replies to other people's comments can't win anything.
2) That's all.

But there's a twist! This time, I'm selecting three winners of a signed ARC of An Artificial Night, the third October Daye adventure. The first will be chosen at noon Pacific time on Sunday, August 8th; the second will be chosen at noon Pacific time on Monday, August 9th; and the third will be chosen at eight PM Pacific time on Monday, August 9th. All winners will have twenty-four hours from the time they're announced to provide me with a mailing address before I pick another winner.

The winner will be chosen via random number generation, so going "ooo, ooo, pick me" doesn't improve your chances, it just makes me faintly grumpy. So comment, and let me know why you like Toby—her world, her stories, her as a person, whatever. Maybe you could win an early look!

The first person to answer all questions correctly will win a signed ARC of An Artificial Night! I will notify you via LJ, but you must send me your address via my website by noon PST tomorrow to receive your prize.

You can use both my websites in researching your answers.

( Let the games begin!Collapse )

1. admnaismith to the white courtesy phone, admnaismith to the white courtesy phone; you have won an ARC of An Artificial Night. Please email me with your contact information, using the contact form on my website, before Sunday, or a new winner has been selected. Also, I totally need you to come make me a drink, because damn.

2. Evolution is awesome, and more bizarre than you can possibly imagine. The best thing about real life is the way that it doesn't even need to pretend to make sense. Also, it allows for factual statements like "those little hornless males have giant testicles" and "they change their color pattern and rearrange their tentacles in a more typical female arrangement." How can you not love this world?

3. Actually, you know what's better than evolution? Drunken paleontologists being allowed to name the dinosaurs that they have discovered. Yes. Thanks to the glorious power of beer, the chasmosaurine ceratopsid family has a new member: the Mojoceratops. How can you not love this dinosaur?! It has a heart-shaped frill, people. A heart-shaped frill. This is like, Barbie's Dream Dino. Great Pumpkin, thank you for the drunken paleontologists and their glories. Thank you.

4. Remember that I'll be at Borderlands Books in San Francisco, California this Saturday, appearing with the lovely jennifer_brozek as part of the second stop on the Murder and Mayhem Tour. Also, we'll have delicious cupcakes from Cups and Cakes Bakery, because we all know that's really why you attend my book events with such alacrity. Be there if you can!

5. We're less than a week out from the San Diego International Comic Convention, which, this year, I will be attending with Amy McFiddler and the fantastic Tara in tow. So, y'know, that should be a good time, apart from all the flailing and hysteria. I'll be posting my panel schedule early next week, and if you're going to be at the convention, you should totally let me know. I'd love to see you.

6. X-Men: Second Coming is over. Several characters are dead. I'm sad about some of them, not so much about others (and barely remembered a few). I really want them to get Elixir on the business of growing back the various severed limbs, as, well, this is all a bit grim for an X-book. But hey, Jean Grey is still dead, Emma Frost is still pretty, and we still have three Stepford Cuckoos wandering around. So it's hard not to be happy.

7. Other things that make me happy: Warehouse 13, Eureka, Unnatural History, Leverage, and So You Think You Can Dance. Why yes, I am a media whore. Why do you ask?

8. Zombies are love.

9. In addition to the San Diego International Comic Convention being in less than a week, I'm about two weeks out from SpoCon, where a) I'm the Music Guest of Honor, and b) Tanya Huff is the Writer Guest of Honor. DAW GIRLS IN THE HOUSE! We shall wear our Urban Fantasy Mafia colors with pride, yo.

10. The turtle can't help you, but Alice will be happy to shed on you. Just ask her.

What's news with you?

After much debate (and some random number generation), your contestants are...



Voting is open through July 15th. Vote! Mix drinks for your friends (or bake them pies), and get them to vote! Winner gets an ARC of An Artificial Night.

Game on!

hanabishirecca, you are the winner of an ARC of An Artificial Night! Please contact me with your mailing address via my website before Wednesday evening in order to receive your prize.

Also, I expect that YouTube video now.

The voting will commence...soon.

It's time for another ARC giveaway here in my weird little corner of the world. This time, it's going to be a two-fer. Specifically, we're having both a contest and a random drawing. If you comment at all, you'll be entered in the random drawing for an ARC of An Artificial Night. If you comment and participate in the contest, you'll be entered both in the random drawing, and in the judged portion of the giveaway. Ready? Awesome.

Suggested by talkstowolves, our contest for today is:

"Design signature cocktails or desserts for major characters/places in the Tobyverse."

What does the Luidaeg drink on a Friday night? What's Toby's favorite way to get wasted? How many virgin cocktails can Quentin down before he reaches legal age? Whip up something intoxicating and put it in the comments for the world to see.

The random drawing will be held Monday, July 12th. Voting on the cocktail/dessert competition* will begin the same day, and continue through July 15th. As no actual drinking is involved, you don't have to be twenty-one to enter, and there are lots of websites happy to help you out.

(*If we receive fewer than five entries, I won't do open judging, and the prize will be awarded based on how much I want to drink your cocktail or eat your pie.)

Game on!

Item the first: I have run the random number generator against the latest ARC contest, and saladofdoom is our winner. saladofdoom, you have until Sunday, July 4th, to contact me with your mailing information. (This is longer than I usually give, but I'm about to head for Westercon, so I'm not going to be checking mail reliably for a few days.) I can also just bring your book with me when I come up to Seattle next weekend. Let me know your preference, and it shall be done.

Item the second: Yesterday morning, I saw a single crow sitting on the telephone pole next to the bus stop, watching me. "One for sorrow," I thought, and followed it up with, "But where's the sorrow?" Immediately, a car drove through a puddle that shouldn't have been there, it being, you know, July, and spattered me with lukewarm water. The message is clear: do not taunt the crow oracle, yo. You will not enjoy the results one little bit.

Item the third: The editorial revisions of Late Eclipses are barreling merrily along, and reminding me once again that there's a reason we do multiple passes on these things. So far, I've found an appearing/disappearing jacket, an appearing/disappearing car, a totally misnamed architectural feature, and a chunk of dialog that seriously read like it had been pasted in from another book. Thank the Great Pumpkin for the editorial process.

Item the fourth: My mother came by last night with my sister and her wife in tow. They have once again absconded with a very large sack of books, because I am the family lending library. I treated them to the hysterical spectacle that is Alice trying to get me to give her wet food, because I am a cruel, heartless lending library. (Their favorite part was when I picked her up, and she tried to swim through the air to the bowl.) It was nice to see them, even if it did mean I had to save the second half of this week's Leverage for tonight.

Item the fifth: I am watching the second half of this week's Leverage tonight.

Item the sixth: I should have some very concrete information about Wicked Girls super-soon, and it's really shaping up to be amazing. I love working with Kristoph, and I love all the material on this album. Both of my cover songs have been approved ("Tanglewood Tree" and "Writing Again"), and since I wrote the other fourteen, I'm not particularly concerned. I'm so pleased with this whole process. Life is good.

Item the seventh: My dreams last night featured a tank of lionfish that wanted snuggles, two connected houses in a suburb of San Francisco that managed to look exactly like Concord, buying new luggage, trying to fly to Australia while balancing on a bathroom railing, taking a nap, and a visit to the tiara store. I'm reasonably sure this was a big ol' anxiety dream about Australia and the Campbell Award, but I woke up going "awwwwwwwww, cutest lionfishes ever." This proves that not even my own brain is very good at upsetting me.

What's new with you?

Suggested by the lovely valdary:

All Toby books (and in-universe short stories) have titles taken from the works of Shakespeare. There's a lot of Shakespeare out there! So...

To enter for an ARC of An Artificial Night, suggest a quote or quotes that would make a good title for a Toby story. Extra credit if they're quotes not everyone would know (for example, going with An Artificial Night from Romeo and Juliet, rather than something more familiar). Please include the surrounding text in your entry, as well as identifying the scene/sonnet/poem the quote comes from. Entries must be between three and five words.

Example:

Late Eclipses.

"These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend
No good to us: though the wisdom of nature can
Reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself
Scourged by the sequent effects: love cools,
Friendship falls off, brothers divide: in
Cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in
Palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son
And father..." —King Lear.

I'll select the winner through random drawing on Tuesday, June 29th. By entering, you grant permission for me to use your title if I think it's awesome, since Shakespeare is public domain and also, well, I might have issues round about book eleven, when everything has been suggested already.

Game on!

liret to the white courtesy telephone, will liret please pick up the white courtesy telephone? You would appear to have won an ARC of An Artificial Night (October Daye, book three).

Please email me through my website contact form to provide a mailing address. If I don't get one by Sunday evening, I'll have to draw again.

More contests coming, and congratulations!

1. Only four hours remain to enter my random drawing for an ARC of An Artificial Night! It's probably the simplest contest I'm going to have, so what have you got to lose, right? Besides, they're pretty. I like pretty things. I am a simple soul.

2. Speaking of pretty things, remember that the ALH pendant sale will be starting today at Chimera Fancies. I cannot possibly overstate how much I love Mia's pendants. If I were a wealthy woman, I'd just pay her to sit around and make them all day, and keep the bulk of her output for myself. Again, simple soul. Also, occasional magpie.

3. Leverage comes back this weekend! So You Think You Can Dance is back on the air! Cartoon Network has Unnatural History and Total Drama World Tour! Oh, I love you, summertime television. I love you so much, forever.

4. Tomorrow is my last pre-Westercon rehearsal with the fabulous Paul Kwinn, renowned in song and story, master of the meaningful look while wearing a gaudily-patterned shirt, husband of Beckett, whom I love beyond all reason. I'm very excited, despite the fact that I'm still occasionally coughing like I'm on the verge of actual death. It's gonna be awesome.

5. I have my editorial notes for Late Eclipses, and I'm busily incorporating them into the finished manuscript...while, possibly, fixing a few little language issues at the same time. It's been long enough since I touched this book that it appears to have been written by an alien, which is the best time for doing editorial. It's still my baby. It's just my weird alien baby, and that makes it more fun to autopsy.

6. Zombies are still love.

7. It's June already. That means we're getting closer and closer every day to my departure for Australia, LAND OF POISON AND FLAME, which I have only been dreaming about for most of my life. I'm so excited it's scary, and not just because I'm on the ballot for the Campbell (although that remains a constant GOTO loop at the back of my brain). I get to go to Australia! I get to breathe Australian air! My life is awesome sometimes.

8. We've entered the final stages of recording Wicked Girls, and it should, I hope, I pray, be able to make the October release date that I so optimistically set for myself. I'll be announcing the pre-orders soon, since that's how I finance mixing and mastering, and I'm really, really happy with this album, as a whole. It's just...it's what I wanted. And that's incredible.

9. I think the cats are stealing my will to leave the house. I just want to sleep.

10. I need more ARC contests! Suggest something. Be silly, be serious, request that I do your favorite all over again, whatever. I need ideas, and so I turn to you, the glorious Internet, to give them to me.

It's Friday!

It's time for everyone's favorite ARC giveaway, the random drawing. To participate...

1) Leave a comment. As a reply to the entry, please, not as a reply to someone else's comment.
2) That's all.

I will select the winner of a signed ARC of An Artificial Night, the third October Daye adventure, at noon Pacific time on Friday, June 18th. The winner will have until Sunday evening to provide me with a mailing address; otherwise, I'll pick another winner. The winner will be chosen via random number generation.

So comment, and tell me why you're excited about book three! Maybe you could win an early look!

I need to do some .PDF conversion for the Hugo/Campbell Voting Packet. Does anybody out there have the capacity and want to help me out? I can look endearing with the best of them, and may even be able to rustle up some sort of prize, assuming you don't mind risking receipt of, y'know, a bat-shaped hair clip or something.

Also, I'm just about done inputting the receipts for the "save a receipt, win a book" Toby contest, and should have a winner Monday. Tuesday is the official release date of Feed, so if you buy the book on or after this date, remember to save your receipt; I'll be having another contest, this one, hopefully, with less confusion on my end.

Keeping this short—Vixy and I are heading back to Kristoph's for a long, hard, glorious day of recording awesomeocity. So I'll catch you soon!

First order of business for today: the winner of our random ARC drawing! Statistically speaking, all numbers are equally likely when you're talking about random selection, but it's always a little bit surprising when the result is between one and ten. So today was definitely surprising, as the random number generator chose "four." So today's winner is apocalypticbob! Bob, please send me your mailing information via my website contact link. You have twenty-four hours. After that, I'll choose another winner if I haven't heard from you!

Second order of business for today: It is now nineteen days to the official "anywhere you go, you will be able to buy a copy of Feed for your very own, and isn't that terrifying?" release of Mira Grant's first novel. In addition to being hugely important in Stephen King's epic Dark Tower saga (say thankee), nineteen is a pretty awesome number in and of itself. It's the eighth prime number, following seventeen and preceding twenty-three. It actually forms a twin prime with seventeen (I like twin primes). It's the seventh seventh Mersenne prime exponent, and the aliquot sum of two odd discrete semiprimes, sixty-five and seventy-seven. All these things are awesome.

Nineteen days. By the time we finish this countdown, Amy will be here to keep me from flipping out on people, the final touches will be put on party planning, and I will hopefully have been able to pick up my Mira wig from the hair shop (I am so the Hannah Montana of horror). The cupcakes will be ordered. My reading will be chosen (yes, there will be a reading this time). Prizes for the raffle will be arranged. And I will hopefully still be breathing. Nineteen days.

When will you rise?

Final reminder: Tomorrow morning, I'll be choosing one winner of an ARC of Feed by random selection. Throw in your lot, and see what happens!

Now, on to the show!

Renee, at Renee's Book Addiction, has posted her review of the A Local Habitation audiobook. Yes, you read that right—she reviewed the audio edition. My first audio review! She says "About halfway through, I thought I had figured out “whodunit”. I was in a state of suspense through the second half of the story wondering if I was right or not. In the end, I was only partially correct, but it was such fun trying to look at the mystery from different angles. The mystery-lover in me really enjoyed this." Also, she loves Mary Robinette Kowal as the narrator. Thank you, Mary!

A Working Title has posted a review of A Local Habitation, and says "A Local Habitation is a great sequel to Rosemary and Rue," and "The blending of technology and magic in the story is fascinating." (She also found January a little flat, something that will hopefully be addressed by the short stories I'm working on. Yay for back story!)

Chrissa at Supernatural Fairy Tales has posted a review of A Local Habitation, and says "Toby's world gives me the shivers as she's wandering down dark roads and flashes of delight as she tells stories about the creatures she's encountered. Following her down just one of those of dark roads makes for an exciting and entertaining read." Oh, I like that.

Finally for tonight, Erika at Jawas Read Too has posted a lovely review of Feed. She says "With Feed, Mira Grant proves she’s an author to be reckoned with. The book may be lengthy (almost 600 pages), but we have to remember it’s the first in a self-contained trilogy. There’s such a large and complex story to tell—a lesser book would not be this involved. If readers haven’t already started paying attention to Seanan McGuire because of her October Daye books, Feed will do the trick."

That's it for right now. Phew.

And now the time has come. The time to give away an ARC of Feed via that time-honored tradition, the random draw. So...

1) Comment here.
2) Tell me your favorite thing about zombies, if you like.
3) Or you can tell me you're excited about the book. Whatever.
4) That's all.

I will draw a winner Monday morning (April 12th); entries will be accepted until then. This contest is open to all countries, because postage is spendy, but zombies are love. One entry per person, please.

Game on!

After consulting with a wide array of judges who didn't have a horse in this race, the winners have been chosen. They are...

* antigoneschase for "If I went any further..." and "I keep breaking my dates." antigoneschase wins a set of my CDs!
* ravenclawed for drunken changelings. ravenclawed wins a signed copy of Rosemary and Rue!
* snowishness for "Angels come to fall." snowishness wins a signed ARC of Feed!
* talkstowolves for her many wicked girls icons. talkstowolves wins a signed copy of A Local Habitation!

Would all winners please email me via my website contact link to provide a mailing address? If I do not receive your address by Friday, April 9th, you will forfeit your prize.

Thanks to everyone who participated; we'll definitely do this again at some point in the future.

To celebrate the announcement of the fourth and fifth books in the Toby Daye series, we're having a little contest! Namely...

1. If you have purchased either Toby book since the official release of A Local Habitation (March 2nd, 2010), post or email me* a picture of your receipt. Make sure I can tell which book it was for.

2. I will put your name in a spreadsheet.

3. On April 1st, I will choose five names at random from the spreadsheet. Those five people will win the book they didn't send me the receipt for.

What does this mean? Well, it means you could win a signed copy of either book. Or, if you've been looking at the series and wondering whether you're ready to jump in, you can pick up a copy of Rosemary and Rue and potentially get a copy of A Local Habitation right about when you're really starting to yearn for more Toby. Or you can direct your friends over here as a chance to get a foothold in a new series. Whatever makes you happy.

Also, to clarify a few points: In this instance, the contest is hard-copy book purchases only, since that's what I have to send as prizes, and is US/Canada only. I do lots of "no purchase required" contests, so we'll just roll with this one being a little specialized, okay?

Game on!

(*This is a paid Livejournal. You can email to my-journal-name at livejournal-dot-com. That allows attachments.)

I feel like having a contest. A contest wherein people who feel creative get to make things. And snowishness just posted a huge, amazing batch of icons based on my song lyrics, which made me think. So...

Here is my first ever ICON CONTEST. You enter by making ICONS (100x100 images intended for use on sites such as this one). By entering an icon in the contest, you grant other people the right of use, with credit. You can enter icons which you have previously posted, either here or on your own journal. All icons must be based on something I have created, from Toby to song lyrics to Feed to the Velveteen or Sparrow Hill stories.

Post your entries here, as comments on this post. Please make all entries their own thread, so that I can find them for voting purposes. You can enter multiple times. Please indicate what prize you are entering to win. Prizes available:

1) Signed copy of Rosemary and Rue.
2) Signed copy of A Local Habitation.
3) Signed ARC of Feed.
4) Set of my CDs.

Please make your entries by including your entry in the BODY of the comment. Be sure to specify which prize you want. Lack of specification means I decide you're just showing off, and do not want to win.

There will be between one and four winners, depending on the number of entries received (I'll make this determination later). Entries will be taken for one week, starting now. If you are taking one of the contest entries for personal use, please comment to let the creator know. Don't post icons that other people made.

Game on!

Drumroll please...

And the winners are:

sheistheweather for "The Winterrose..."!
keristor for "Still Not King"!

Please email me your mailing information through my website contact link, and I'll get things in the mail for you.

And now, chosen by random number draw, our entries for voting:



Voting will close Wednesday, when I will announce who has won an ARC of A Local Habitation. Please pick your favorite, and thank you all so much for playing.

Tonight's winner, for amusing our panel of extremely giggly judges, is kittikins! She's won an ARC of A Local Habitation for awesomeness in fake casting.

The LOLtest is still open through Sunday. Thanks, all!

I'm bored, and this is dangerous. So...

Cast your movie version of Rosemary and Rue! Tell me who you'd pick to play the major roles, and why. The cast list I find the most utterly delightful will win a signed ARC of A Local Habitation.

To get you started, here are some main characters to consider:

* October "Toby" Daye
* Sylvester and Simon Torquill
* Devin
* Dare
* Tybalt
* Connor O'Dell
* Danny
* Luna Torquill
* Rayseline Torquill

Game on!

ETA: ...and a winner has been chosen. Feel free to keep on casting, though, this is hysterical!

It's time for another ARC giveaway! Because you were starting to think I didn't love you anymore. I really enjoyed this contest the first time it came around, and so I give you...

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

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

Post your contest submissions on this entry. I'll take entries until Sunday, February 21, and then opening the floor for voting. I'll definitely be giving away one ARC through this contest; depending on the number and variety of entries received, I may well increase that to two, as well as putting together a few runner-up prizes (who wants a CD?). This contest is open to everyone, including my mother, my agent, God, and people who have already won ARCs. Bring out your LOLcats, and rock the world.

Game on!

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

Our lovely original winner, antigoneschase, has decided that since she won an ARC of Rosemary and Rue, she'd like to spread the love around, and asked me to draw again. So I did, and our new winner is...

...shawntutt!

Sorry for the delay; work got crazy. Anyway, the third and final winner of our ARC Valentine's giveaway has been selected. Congratulations to...

...antigoneschase! Please email me your shipping information via the contact link on my website (www.seananmcguire.com), and I'll get your ARC in the mail by early next week!

Thanks to everyone who participated, and watch this space for more giveaways and excitement as release date approaches.

Yup. It's that time again. The time when my collection of links has become ludicrously large enough to force my hand and generate a post of review and interview links. In fact, let's start with the interview links, since I'm in pre-release madness right now. Fun for the whole family!

The delightful Realm Lovejoy not only interviewed me, she drew a picture of Toby. Wow! She'd previously interviewed my agent, who introduced the two of us, and I couldn't be more pleased with the interview as a whole. (I may have already linked this. I can't remember, and in the case of data failure, it's best to take a second shot.)

Book Bound invited me over for an interview, and we had a dismaying amount of fun. Check it out, and learn more about my writing habits, what I think one should do with canned peas, and, naturally, my cats. This was a cheery, macabre conversation, and I'm happy to share it.

In the "reviews" division, Jennifer Brozek has reviewed A Local Habitation for Flames Rising. She says "This is an excellent standalone book that may be read without reading the first book in the series while still fitting into the supernatural world McGuire has created to overlay the San Francisco Bay Area," and "Over all, A Local Habitation is an excellent book that continues October Daye's story after a fourteen year curse, a hell of a wake up, the murder of her only friend and her attempts to make sense of a life that refuses to cooperate. This is my favorite urban fantasy series to date and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next installment." Yay!

Jenn at I Read Good has posted her review of Rosemary and Rue, and says "Rosemary and Rue is the great book set in the world of Faerie." She also says "Seanan McGuire has put together a great book. Toby's an interesting protagonist and you really want her to succeed in her mission." Rock on.

AJ reviewed both books in one huge, delicious sandwich. AJ says "At last, urban fantasy done right! Oh, I'm sure there's plenty of good urban fantasy out there, but it's hard to find amongst the books that feel more like mis-shelved romance novels. Seanan McGuire's October Daye series gives us that perfect melding of "real world" and magic, with just a dash of romantic subplot, enhancing the main story rather than derailing it." Of Rosemary and Rue: "It's a pretty fast-paced page turner and kept me in the dark about who the killer was until the end." Of A Local Habitation: "I enjoyed this one even more than the first, as Toby and a young faerie squire named Quentin find themselves investigating a series of mysterious deaths—in a software company run by faeries. Finally! Faeries not just able to use technology, but outright embracing it."

The Discriminating Fangirl has posted a review of Rosemary and Rue, and says "I'd been waiting for this book for quite a while. It was worth the wait." At more length: "McGuire's grasp of dialogue is realistic, with different quirks of speech for each different character; I’ve read a number of books lately where everyone talked exactly alike, so much so that each exchange could have been stamped out with a cookie cutter. The description here is lush and decadent, vividly describing both the mundane setting of San Francisco and the otherworldly vistas of the faerie realm. The action sequences and plot twists were fast-paced and kept my heart pounding. The mixture of noir detective story elements (reminiscent of the best work of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett) with the urban fantasy setting makes Rosemary and Rue stand out from the crowd of other urban fantasies."

Whee!

Finally for this roundup, it's not too late to potentially win a free copy of Rosemary and Rue! Hie ye over to the Confessions of a Wandering Heart and find out how.

Congratulations to...

...ttamsen! Please email me your shipping information via the contact link on my website (www.seananmcguire.com), and I'll get your ARC in the mail by early next week!

One more winner will be drawn! To enter, comment on this post with your favorite character in Toby's world. I'll be choosing the last winner at noon Pacific Friday.

Rock on!

Congratulations to...

...bookblather! Please email me your shipping information via the contact link on my website (www.seananmcguire.com), and I'll get your ARC in the mail by early next week!

Two more winners will be drawn! To enter, comment on this post with your favorite character in Toby's world. I'll be choosing winners at noon Pacific on Thursday and Friday.

Rock on!

To celebrate Valentine's Day (and the excuse that it provides—I might as well be celebrating Champion Crab Races Day on the 18th), I've decided to do something truly awesome: a three stage ARC giveaway. Yes! Three ARCs of A Local Habitation will be awarded to three lucky entries over the course of the next week!

Here's how it works:

1. Comment on this entry telling me who your favorite character in Toby's world is, and why. Be as detailed as you want. (Yes, technically, this does make the contest open only to those who've read Rosemary and Rue. As this is a sequel, I don't feel bad about that.)
2. ...that's all, actually. Your part in things is now done.

I will select winners via random number draw tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. All winners will be selected at noon PST. All winners must contact me via my website "contact" link before eight PM PST on Sunday, or another winner will be selected, and I will shake my head in sorrow.

Game on!