If you're in the Seattle area, come to the Wayward Coffeehouse tonight at eight for HEAPING PILES OF AWESOME.

Dude, I dressed Mel like Captain Tightpants for you people. That counts for something, right? And our set list is made of win. And what Betsy does on "Mama Said" will break your heart.

See you there.

Some of you may remember how last year I took my crazy little bluepoint princess, Lilly, to enjoy a memorable meeting with Santa Claus. (She was the first cat this particular pet store Santa had ever encountered "on the job." Interestingly, he declined to return to the store this year, forcing us to go elsewhere for our Yuletide cheer. I can't swear that this is because of my pointy little princess, but when the red velvet hat fits...)

Because I am an equal-opportunity torturer of my cats, I decided that this year, it was Alice's turn to go out and meet the big man. So I called my mother, slapped a temporary harness on my normally collar-free cat, and went haring off for a date with destiny...or at least, a date with the local pet store Santa who hadn't retired due to cat.

The proof is in the picture:



Alice was very well-behaved. She didn't claw, hiss, spit, bite, or try to get away, although she did sing opera to express her displeasure with the time spent in the carrier. (Much like Lilly, she calmed immediately once I got her out of the box and just held her.) This Santa was definitely happier about having a cat in his lap, and admired her at great length.

It occurs to me that last year, I took Lilly to see Santa, said jokingly that I hoped she hadn't wished for a pony, and wound up bringing home a Maine Coon.

I'm scared now.

Borderlands Books in San Francisco, California, is getting ready for the opening of their brand-new Cafe! More, they're celebrating the event and the season in one fell swoop by throwing their first-ever ass-kicking potluck, tonight, from six to eight. There's gonna be a whole lot of hoot, and a whole lot of nanny, and they're going to combine them in a delicious swirl of goodness, like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup designed of geeky awesome.

With food, folks, fun, and one of the best science-fiction and fantasy bookstores on the West Coast right next door, it's basically guaranteed to be a blast. I can't be there, due to more dental work (boo), but you should totally swing by if it's an option, and have a fantastic time.

Herein endith the public service announcement.

Just a reminder: I'll be appearing at Writers With Drinks tomorrow night. The details:

When: Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009, 7:30 to 9:30 PM, doors open at 6:30 PM
Who: Dan Fante, Joshua Mohr, Mark Coggins, Mollena Williams, Meliza Banales and Seanan McGuire
Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd. St. between Mission and Valencia, San Francisco
How much: $3 to $5 sliding scale, all proceeds benefit the Center for Sex & Culture

I'll be reading from something (either the first chapter of Feed, "Dying With Her Cheer Pants On," or "A Citizen In Childhood's Country," depending on the mood by the time it gets to me), and generally being happy to see everybody who drags themselves out to enjoy the show. It would be awesome if I could see you there!

I'm going to be appearing at Writers With Drinks this Saturday, and I need some help deciding what I should read. So—as is my wont—I turn to you. What do you think I should read?



I need to decide by Friday, so as to have time to prepare my reading (or recitation). Sound off, and save me from my own wishy-washy tendencies!

1. I'm taking entries for the pet photography ARC giveaway through the end of the weekend. No horses, snakes, or hermit crabs yet, but I'm holding out hope!

2. There's a shiny new interview with me over at Book Love Affair, discussing the next two Toby books, the first of my books as Mira Grant (Feed), how I keep myself from spontaneously combusting, and various other topics of interest. I'm answering questions throughout the day, so please, swing by, and see if anything sparks your curiosity!

3. I'm going to be appearing December 12th in San Francisco as part of the Writers With Drinks series. To quote the website, "Writers With Drinks combines erotica with literature, stand-up comedy with science fiction and poetry with essays." The show is at The Make-Out Room (3225 22nd. St., San Francisco), from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM. The doors open at 7 PM. I don't know yet just how many drinks this writer will have, but if I have enough, my piece for the evening will probably be the full stand-up version of The Microwave Story. Be there!

4. In case that's not good for you (and it may not be, as not everyone is local to me), I'm also going to be doing a book reading/concert at the Wayward Coffeehouse in Seattle, on December 26th. Vixy and Tony are going to be there to help me blow the roof off, and there will be lots of other exciting goodies throughout the night. It's gonna be awesome.

5. I'm going to go finish Discount Armageddon now.

It's once again time to prepare to fly. My bags are packed (mostly); I'm ready to go (mostly); I don't have a taxi waiting down below, but since my ride to the airport is asleep in the room basically directly beneath me, I'm going to call it close enough for government work. (I like cars-of-friends better than I like taxis, anyway. They don't charge me as much when I suddenly demand we stop for soda.)

It's been a good trip. I didn't get to see nearly as many people as I hoped, on a social basis, but I got a lot of work done, and had a lot of business meetings, and it was good. A distressing number of these business meetings involved feeding me. I will now return to California and live on salad, peas, and carrot sticks for two weeks, while I wait for my body to issue a writ of forgiveness. But! I'm not sorry, because I have eaten cake-and-shake, frozen hot chocolate, some of the weirdest salads ever seen, pepper-encrusted Maine scallops, garlic fries (seriously, these were some high-class garlic fries), baked heirloom apples with homemade apple ice cream, and some of the best chicken and pea curry I've ever had. I have walked and I have wandered, I have pillaged and I've pondered, and I'm happy with the results.

New York is a fascinating place. I really do understand why some people view the concept of leaving as a sort of sacrilege, even as I understand that I'd go crazy and become a bridge troll in Central Park if I ever tried to live here. I like my yearly visits, and I enjoy the chance to see my publishers in their natural habitat, but I also like my world to be a bit greener. (Now, the Jersey Pine Barrens are another matter. I could totally live there. And then the Jersey Devil would eat me.)

It's been a good trip.

I am ready to be home.

So here I am, in New York. (Technically, as I write this, here I am, in New Jersey. It seems like I always wind up staying in New Jersey while here, and commuting to New York. This is because the East Coast is made entirely of tiny little postage-stamp states. Postage-stamp states. I realize and understand that this is a California thing, but really, I don't feel that I should be able to casually wander over state lines and not really notice.) Since arriving...

...the motor on the fridge has decided to die, filling the apartment with smoke, covering the kitchen floor with water, and triggering an impromptu dinner party, complete with enormous and only semi-expected mob. One member of the mob, upon encountering certain jet-lagged idiosyncrasies of mine, wailed, "But my Seanan List* didn't include what to do about the liver hat!" Sometimes it's nice to be me.

...visited the GINORMOUS Manhattan Apple Store, in which a charming young man at the Genius Bar was kind enough to inform me that my iPod was, in fact, dead beyond all reasonable repair. He offered to zombie it for a short period of time, but made it clear that this manner of resurrection was counter-recommended, and would probably result in an army of undead Apple products shambling around the city. As I have things to accomplish this week, I declined, and will be getting a new iPod.

...visited FAO Schwartz, home of the giant piano, and many, many, many toys. I did not actually buy any toys, largely due to their tragic dearth of dinosaurs. I judged their stock most harshly. I judged their stock most harshly with the powers of my mind. (I did not, however, judge their MUPPET FACTORY with anything beyond delight and glee. Because dude, MUPPET FACTORY.)

...went to Serendipity 3 with The Agent. We consumed frozen hot chocolate, which was amazing, and had lunch, which was less "amazing" and more "faintly horrifying." My chef's salad contained a pond's-worth of watercress, an orange, a cup of fruit salad, steamed asparagus, and avocado. This is what those of here in the real world like to refer to as "overkill." We split a sundae after eating. This, too, was overkill, but in the good way, since we received roughly enough hot fudge to replace all the mucus in the average human body.

...ate an apple cider doughnut. What the hell is wrong with some people?

...went to visit everybody at Orbit (Mira's editor). I'd already met my editor (at World Fantasy) and my contact in the marketing department (far more pleasant than Vel's Marketing Department), but it was a real treat to meet all the other folks involved in making the book a reality, including the art director who did the cover design (which is, I must admit, fucking fantastic). After our meeting, The Editor2 took The Agent and I out for lunch in Grand Central Station. Sadly, this involved cutlery and bread service, rather than hot dogs of questionable origin and things scraped off of crusty bakery trays, which is what I think of when you say "hey, let's go eat in the train station."

...passed out cold from a migraine and lost approximately sixteen hours. Because sometimes, jetlag hates me.

(*She was actually equipped with a Seanan List to assist her in surviving our encounter. Presumably this list came with a box labeled "In Case of Seanan Break Glass." The contents of the box are left to your imagination.)

How's been by all of you?

I have landed safely in New York. scifantasy was kind enough to collect me from the airport, and explained many interesting things about fair use during the trip. I am in Jersey City, and we are about to leave for the Apple Store, which is why this post is neither lengthy nor terribly informative.

Back later, please do not burn down the Internet. (Quoth scifantasy, "And if you let Missus O'Grady's cow kick over that lantern again...")

Point the first: I have drawn the winner for the first A Local Habitation giveaway! I literally do this by feeding the number of comments into a random number generator, and then counting (this is very laborious, but worth it). So our first winner is...

asthecrowfly!

Please email me—DO NOT use the LJ messenger function—with your mailing address. I will be mailing the ARC out after I get home from New York (so next week).

Point the second: I am about to shut down my computer, get into the car, go to the airport, and fly to New York City. I'll be online in the evenings, and may even be online from the plane, since I'm going to need distractions while in the air. I have a lot of writing planned for the actual transit portion of the trip, and a lot of business meetings planned while in New York. I'm going to be Seanan and Mira this time. Fun for the whole family. Plus, The Agent is taking me to Serendipity 3. Mmmmmm, frozen hot chocolate.

Point the third: Coyote has decided that I depend too much on modern technology, and my iPod has died. Hard. Like, I spent half an hour on the phone with Apple technical support, and finally got told "I think it's your hardware." No shit, Sherlock. Anyway, I'm going to go to an Apple Store in Manhattan, where hopefully they'll say something like "gee, this is still under warranty, have a new one." If not, I'm going to sell one of Brooke's kidneys (again) or something, because my mental health really hinges on having portable music, and I no longer have my faithful old Sony Discman (it died quite some time ago). My housemate has loaned me his iPod for the duration of my trip, largely, I think, because he was afraid I might eat him if he didn't.

And that's the news from California. There will be more contests and ARC giveaways in the months to come, including the first contest proposed by The Agent, and I'll let you know when I reach New York alive.

Tomorrow night, I will be participating in the fifth annual LitQuake LitCrawl, as one of the featured authors on the second stage of the Crawl. For the full schedule, and details on who else you can catch reading tomorrow, check out the website here:

http://www.litquake.org/category/schedule/

My stage of the crawl will run from 7:15 to 8:15 PM; I'll be showing up at my assigned venue, the lovely and ever-popular Borderlands Books, at around 6:00 PM (6:30 at the latest), so feel free to wander by, get things signed, and get yourself well-positioned for the readings to come. There are three authors reading during our assigned one-hour time frame: myself, John Levitt, and Loren Rhoads. I'm the second author up, but can't tell you exactly when I'm going to start, and I'll be reading a story you have Probably Never Encountered Before (dun-dun-DUUUUUUUUN).

This is a great opportunity to support local authors, support local literature events, and best of all, support your local bookstore. And, on a personal note, not only would I love it if you could come out, but Rosemary and Rue [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] was the best-selling mass-market paperback at Borderlands for the month of September, and it would be awesome if we could finish out October at least in the top five. So if you've been considering nabbing another copy (they make great trick-or-treat prizes!), this would be an excellent time to swing by and snag it. I'll even sign it for you. Or for anybody else you want me to sign it to.

Hope to see you there!

My original plans for today, which centered around bad horror movies and lounging about, fell through when my date for the afternoon was forced to cancel for reasons outside his control (something about "surprise apartment inspection" inspired him to think he should stay home and tidy). Since I'd previously been making grumpy noises about missing the book release party for Gail Carriger's Soulless [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], I decided that this was the universe hinting that I damn well ought to go off and get some books signed already. Thus was it decided: a lazy Sunday in San Francisco for me!

I departed early enough to seek out and indulge in the sweet fruits of Dynamo Donuts, San Francisco's answer to Voodoo Donut. Sadly, they didn't have the pumpkin spice donut, or the bacon donut, but I salved my wounded sensibility with a chocolate rose donut (Luna would approve), and made my way to Borderlands for the event. I made it easily in time, and snagged a few extra copies to have signed for friends (as well as the next two books in the Weather Wardens series, because I am a greedy blonde sometimes). Taking a seat, I settled to enjoy the event.

The author herself was introduced by the inimitable Jude, who punished me for some unspoken slight by calling out my presence in the audience. (It was actually very sweet, as she said that Soulless was one of "only two first novels this year" that garnered huge amounts of excitement, the other being Rosemary and Rue, "whose author, Seanan McGuire, is sitting there looking unobtrusive." So I failed my stealth roll. Probably the bright orange coat didn't help.)

The lovely Ms. Carriger was smartly dressed, witty, and sweet, and read a passage from Soulless before submitting to questions and signing. I had all three of the books I had with me signed, and chatted a bit about editors at Orbit before moving on. She hadn't realized I was also Mira Grant. The world, she is very small. There was a full tea service. I, being me, didn't drink any tea—blech—but did eat some very tasty tea cookies. People hung out for a while, being chatty, and then mostly dispersed, leaving me and a sweet lady named Andrea to chatter at Jude and Jeremy as we helped to tidy and amused the cat.

It was a good, easy Sunday, and I highly recommend Soulless (review to come in a bit; suffice to say that it made me laugh out loud). If you want an autographed copy of your very own, Borderlands does ship, and would be happy to sell you one. Just call the store and ask.

Life, as they say, is good.

October.
So it turns out that October is, well, pretty damn busy. First up, I'm signing books at the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Trade Show on Saturday, October 10th. I've never been to one of these shows before, so it should be really interesting. One week after that, on October 17th, I'll be one of the featured readers at Borderlands Books during the annual LitCrawl! I get a reading slot, followed by signing and socializing. You should totally come. You should also totally buy an extra copy of Rosemary and Rue and tell the bookstore owners that I'm awesome. Just saying.

One week after that, I'll be flying to Ohio for the Ohio Valley Filk Festival, where we will be having an at-con book release party! Unfortunately for my haunted corn maze in Alabama aspirations, World Fantasy 2009 has been shifted to Halloween weekend, so I'm going to be flying back to California immediately after the convention to spend a weekend in San Jose, making friends and influencing people. Or at least staying upright. My editor from DAW is flying out, and I'm hoping to get the chance to introduce her to Lilly, Alice, and Kate. Not necessarily in that order.

November.
I'm spending the second week of November in New York, visiting my publishers. I'll probably try to arrange a group "if you show up here at this time, I'll totally be happy to see you" outing of some sort, if not a full-on book signing or whatnot. After that, I intend to spend the month of November sleeping, petting my cats, and powering through roughly 20,000 words of Blackout, which I'm aiming to finish by end of January.

December.
I'll be appearing at the Writers With Drinks event on December 12th; more information will be provided as it becomes available to me. I'll also be heading to Seattle for my now-annual "harass Vixy and Tony over the holidays" extravaganza. No one knows, as yet, whether this will include any extracurricular activities. I'll keep you posted.

January.
In January, I'm definitely intending to head up to Seattle for Conflikt III, the Pacific Northwest's very own filk convention. Tom Smith will be the Guest of Honor, which is going to be awesome, and I may be able to make my stay long enough to allow for a side-trip to Powells, the CITY OF BOOKS. Everybody wins!

February.
It's looking more and more likely that February will include a trip to the UK, to attend the UK filk convention (where my beloved Vixy and Tony will be the Guests of Honor), meet my UK publisher for the Mason books, and possibly take a side-jaunt over to Germany. Because sleep is for the weak and sickly, my darlings, sleep is for the weak and sickly.

February will also be Wondercon, but exact dates have not yet been announced.

March.
Again, nothing major. Just, I don't know, THE RELEASE OF THE SECOND TOBY BOOK. A Local Habitation will be coming out in the first week of March. Expect flailing, hysterical, and awesome stuff. How awesome? "I've done this before and know what I'm doing now" awesome. Be there. (Just to make things more exciting, the release of A Local Habitation coincides with Consonance, the Bay Area's own filk convention, where Tricky Pixie will be appearing as Guests of Honor. Because I needed my head to explode if at all possible.)

April.
This month is currently completely free. I expect this to change any day now. I have learned my lesson about expecting free time.

May.
In May, the first of the Mira Grant books, Feed, will be hitting shelves. I cannot express how excited I am by this book. I love the world, I love the characters, and sort of like the softer side of Sears, this is a whole different side of my work. Only for "softer," substitute "gory, merciless, scientific, political, and horrific." I really can't wait. I'm trying to pretend that I won't explode.

Also in May, I'll be attending Marcon in Columbus, Ohio as their Music Guest of Honor. The theme is "Necropolis," and the timing couldn't be better (nor the theme closer to my heart). Watch for thrills, chills, and possibly 1940s couture made from horrible zombie-print Halloween fabrics. Also, this is your chance to get up to three of my books signed. WHOA!

The year is filling up fast, and more things are bound to appear as the months draw closer—look at how detailed the next few months are compared to the later ones. If you want me, book early, book often, and bribe.

Whee!

Let's go back in time, to Friday, September 4th. (Feel free to make Wayne and Garth time-travel hands. They're like jazz hands, only awesome.) Rosemary and Rue has been available for purchase for less than a week. My house has been thoroughly invaded by book preparation, and also by Amy, who arrived while I had Martian Death Flu and didn't run screaming. My sanity is at a record ebb, since there's so much that needs to be done.

What a perfect time to have a party.

My first book release party was scheduled to happen at Illusive Comics, a comic book store in Santa Clara, California, owned and operated by my friend Anna. It was nepotism that got me the gig, I make no bones about that, but I really wanted a South Bay appearance, and she really wanted an excuse for a party, so hey, nothing wrong here. (My book release was Anna's first-ever non-comic book event. To say that we were both a little nervous is like saying that millipedes are a little over-equipped in the "legs" department.

While I spent the day at my day job, slogging away and trying not to chew through my fingers, the invasion began. Members of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show poured in from all over the place. Vixy, Tony, and Betsy came from the Seattle area; Brooke came from Vancouver, Canada; Sooj and K came via car from their ongoing magical musical road trip; Mia and Ryan came from Portland, Oregon. (Mia and Ryan, in fact, came at 5:27 AM. Because driving from Oregon to California is awesome.) They slowly filled my house to capacity, frightening the cats and waiting to pounce.

Amy spent the day at Kristoph's, doing awesome fiddle things, and when I called to ask her for an ETA, said that Kristoph would be delivering her to the house. Score! Everything's better with Kristoph.

Mom collected me from the train station, and we arrived home to find it occupied by a Mia, a Ryan, a Brooke, and an Amy. Hugs happened, followed by rapid-fire gathering of the things we'd need for the evening, and then we were off to the hotel where Vixy, Tony, Sooj, and K were staying, to collect the four of them (plus Betsy, who'd initially gone to the hotel when she arrived) and all their musical instruments. Mom had wisely borrowed a van from a friend for the weekend, and we filled that thing to capacity. More hugs were exchanged, and we took off in three vehicles, after a short stop at the 7-11 for provisions. (This is where I mention that my little sister, Rachel, and her girlfriend, Chris, were also in the van.)

We were off! We were running! We were on fire! We were...lost in very short order, leading to my mother stopping at a gas station for directions, while I went into the bathroom to throw up from sheer panic. I don't handle being late very well.

Still, wrong turns and panic attacks aside, we got there only fifteen minutes after the official start, and were met at the curb by the first of what would be many, many bags of candy corn. Inside, the joint was jumpin', and Anna was doing a brisk business in copies of Rosemary and Rue, as well as a few precious copies of Ravens in the Library. (We rapidly sold out of Rosemary and Rue.) The musicians gathered at the back of the store to tune and prepare; I went behind the counter to start signing things and eating candy corn. Blonde does not live by candy corn alone, and Ryan II was dispatched to bring me back delicious samosas. Mmmmmmm, samosas.

I signed more books. Anna looked increasingly wide-eyed as we packed more and more (and more and more) people into her little store. The Magic: the Gathering players set up between us and the bathroom looked more and more concerned that we were going to eat them. My food arrived. I ate my food. Time for music!

Much of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show had never actually shared a stage before that night, although all of us had played with some combination of the others. We opened with "Wicked Girls," and more than half the room was singing along. I nearly cried. From there, the music was a selection of offerings from each of our musicians—Vixy and Tony's "Thirteen," Betsy's "Wildlife," Sooj's version of "Tam Lin," Brooke's "Rosemary and Rue," and Amy doing mad reels like she thought the night might actually catch flame. Paul Kwinn even joined us for one number, and we did "This Is My Town" live for the first time in years. "Dorothy" was added to the set at the last minute—it turns out Anna, who used to publish the comic that inspired the song, wanted to hear it! Who knew? (This is by no means a complete set list.)

We closed the night with "Alligator In the House," with hugs, with laughter, and without an unclaimed copy of Rosemary and Rue in sight. The Circus was officially underway—and what a magical beginning! Could it get any better?

Actually, yes. It could. Next up, Saturday, San Francisco, slinky Sphynx, and serious sirens seriously invading one of the Bay Area's best independent bookstores. It's time for the Circus to hit Borderlands like a meteorite hitting a cornfield in a horror movie! Yay!

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

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

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

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

But that's not the half of it.

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

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

Here are a few of the glorious goodies:



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

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

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

The flavors, themed after characters, were...

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

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

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

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

Happy Wednesday! I know I promised party reporting, and I intend to keep my word; I am, however, still too tired to do so with any degree of skill or grace, and am thus providing another review round-up, with some party reports from people with more brain than I tossed in just for spice.

First off, TJ over at Book Love Affair (who you may remember from this incredibly sweet and complimentary review) couldn't make the Borderlands party, and sent her husband in her place, because that's just what you do. He responded to this assignment by taking a really crazy number of pictures, allowing her to post a full report. I'm not a fan of having my picture taken—I know, I know, it's not like I'm shy and retiring and hence avoid cameras, but I make a lot of funny faces, and I always seem to have my mouth open when the flash goes off—but as a record of the evening, this is hammered awesome. I hope you can make the next one, TJ!

My dearly beloved artbeco attended the Friday party at Illusive Comics, and, is her wont, took a lot of really fabulous pictures of the evening. I've known and loved Beckett for more than half my life, so having her document this amazing night was really an honor and a joy. I am so glad she could share this with us.

Brooke came for the whole weekend, and decided to write everything up in one amazingly massive post of pure hammered awesome. For those of you who've missed my mother's wacky antics, Brooke is here to help you fill that gaping hole in your heart, because she took transcription. Quote of the weekend from Brooke: "Who's a mighty huntress who is also slightly moist?"

Sunil also made an amazingly massive post of awesome, complete with lots and lots of pictures of people doing things. He even got pictures of Ripley, the resident Sphinx at Borderlands. Go team Sunil!

Now, on to the reviews!

Thea and Ana are the Book Smugglers, a daring duo of book reviewers who fight the forces of bad literature while stealing gems of awesome from the vast crypts of the literary world. Well, the two of them have worked together to break into the text of Rosemary and Rue and carry out a joint review.

Thea says "There are a lot of female sleuth Urban Fantasy novels out there, and October Daye is another supernatural creature to add to the ever-growing pantheon. Ms. McGuire, however, manages to create a very unique character in a stunningly detailed, harsh world of faerie that coexists with our own. I definitely enjoyed this book and will be back to this eerie version of San Francisco very soon." She also says "In terms of world building and the urban fantasy element, Rosemary and Rue shines. My favorite aspect of this debut novel is the setting itself—Ms. McGuire juxtaposes a world of fae courts and magic, unseen by humans in the city of San Francisco. And the fae aren’t just your usual devilish pixies, winter queens or rowan men, either; Toby’s world is populated by Selkies, Undines, the Daoine Sidhe and Cait Sidhe. There are rose goblins and kelpies, doppelgangers and kitsune—and the variation is a wonderful thing to behold."

Meanwhile, Ana says "Regardless of which genre it belongs to, Rosemary and Rue is simply a good story, with great characters and above all, a fantastically entertaining world in which to submerge myself for a few hours. I can hardly believe that this is Seanan’s McGuire’s debut work and I enjoyed it so much that am ready for more. Like, right now." She also says "I started the review expecting to rate it Very Good, but managed to convince myself whist writing it that this rather, a truly Excellent novel and the series has the potential to be one of the Great Ones. I devoured it, I rooted for the main character and I think this is certainly one of the best debuts I read this year."

I win at being robbed!

maverick_weirdo posted a short, sweet review over at his journal, saying that "Rosemary and Rue is an excellent read." Succinct and charming!

Our final review for today is from SFRevu at the Internet Review of Books. Gayle Surrette wrote their thoughtful and well-balanced review of the book, saying "Having read the first two chapters, there was no way I could put the books down," and "This is an outstanding story and Seanan McGuire is a writer to watch." I'm a writer to watch! Watch me! Maybe I'll do tricks!

And that's our round-up for Wednesday. I will now take a nap.

Several people have asked me if, now that I'm past my official launch weekend, I'm planning to take a nap. I have done my best not to point and laugh, because it's an honest question (and also because I would probably just dissolve into hysterical giggles if I did so). So...

Before the end of September, I'll be receiving my page proofs for A Local Habitation (the sequel to Rosemary and Rue, and the second Toby Daye book). I'll also be preparing for the rest of the fall, since things will be hectic for a while before they settle down. See, in October, I'm traveling to Ohio for the Ohio Valley Filk Festival, and will be going straight from there into November and the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose. After that, I'm flying to New York to hang out with my publishers and be underfoot for a little while. (I also have a short story, "Inspirations," appearing at The Edge of Propinquity in November. So that'll be fun.)

In December, I'm going to Seattle to spend the holidays with my Pacific Northwest family, and to pull my now-traditional "work on a Mason book at Tony's kitchen table for eleven hours straight" holiday stunt. I'll probably also be doing my best to arrange some book events, possibly including Powell's. January will see me sleeping (a lot), as well as returning to Seattle for Conflikt, before heading to England, Germany, and the UK filk convention in February.

And then it will be March, and A Local Habitation will be hitting shelves, along with Chicks Dig Time Lords. I don't currently have anything scheduled for April—I don't trust this to last—but in May, Feed comes out. So sleep? No, not so much.

It's just one big kitchen party over here.

Well, I survived the weekend, with the assistance of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show that descended upon my house and made my book release parties extra awesome. I'll be posting detailed recaps of the parties later, after I've finished catching up on all the sleep I didn't get over the course of the weekend. (Seriously, right now, my idea of a recap is something like "and then I ate candy corn, and then I signed some books, and look, a bunny," which leaves out rather a lot of important details.)

My cats also survived the weekend, which was rather more in question, since Lilly doesn't like having large crowds between her and me, and Alice is still young enough to get impressively over-stimulated. Lilly spent the first night of the invasion (when we had Betsy in my room, Mia and Ryan in the spare room, and Amy, Brooke, and I in the back room) sleeping on my chest and growling in the back of her throat, Just In Case someone decided to try slitting my throat in the night. When no one attacked me, she moved on to pissy Siamese stage two, Shunning The Human, and provided a great deal of amusement, since she shuns about as well as I drive (and I don't drive). Alice did me the immense favor of being well-behaved and fluffy in front of Betsy, who bred her, and who needed to see her being happy, healthy, and fluffy.

Today has been pretty cool so far. Everybody seems to be getting home safely (always a concern, if you happen to be me), and my house is gradually returning to normal. Since it's Tuesday, I'll be going to Kate's tonight, to eat tasty Indian food, sleep in the basement, and resume my normal existence. I'm very excited by this fact. I like things that are normal (normal to me, anyway). I'm also going to be swinging through the Other Change of Hobbit to see whether they need any additional stock signed, and to confirm the dates for the rescheduled book release party. More information as it becomes available.

Chicks Dig Time Lords is now available for pre-order! Here's a link to the Amazon page. The brain-child of the lovely taraoshea, Chicks Dig Time Lords is a book of essays about being female in Doctor Who fandom, and what the show has meant to more than a few generations of Gallifrey Girls. It was co-edited by rarelylynne. I really loved being a part of this project, and I'm super-excited about it. Doctor Who has been one of my favorite shows since I was three years old. You can get your own copy of Chicks Dig Time Lords on March 15th, 2010—two weeks after you can get your own copy of A Local Habitation!

I'm exhausted, but I seem to be over the horrible plague that hit me just before book release, which is a wonderful thing (as yes, I did fear a relapse). This weekend, I get to hang out with a huge, merry crew over at the Bohnhoff place, and then head into Berkeley to do the Solano Stroll. And oh, right, it's time to get to work on finishing Blackout.

Welcome to fall. Now the work begins.

Hey, folks! Just a friendly reminder that tonight is the Rosemary and Rue event at San Francisco's very own Borderlands Books! Featuring live music by Kitten Sundae, Brooke Lunderville, and Amy McNally, an awesome raffle of awesomeness, Pollidori Chocolates original truffles, naked cats, and so much more, we're planning to blow the doors off the place.

Tonight's schedule:

5:00 PM: Welcome to our party.
5:40 PM: Perhaps you would like some music.
6:00 PM: Perhaps you would like to win things.
7:00 PM: More music?
7:30 PM: More prizes?
7:45 PM: Assuming people are not too busy eating cookies, Seanan will read something.
8:30 PM: Last music of the night.
8:50 PM: Last chance to give the bookstore money before we say goodnight.
9:00 PM: Last raffle drawing of the night and we close the evening.

You do not have to be present to win, but you do need to have someone holding your ticket and ready to claim a prize for you. Prizes will be on the table, and can be claimed as winners are called.

I hope you can come!

Hey, guys, remember, tonight is the first Rosemary and Rue [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxies] book release party. We'll be at Illusive Comics in Santa Clara, California, starting at 7:00 PM Pacific Time.

Illusive Comics is an awesome mix of comic books, games, and genre fiction, run by the intrepid and delightful Anna Warren, who is presently enormously pregnant. We'll have cake, snakes, and a rare California appearance by Kitten Sundae, one of the most kickin'-cool bands to hail from the Pacific Northwest. Come for the book, stay for the live music, the cool company, and the opportunity to walk away with a "no shit, there I was" story of your very own.

Mia of chimera_fancies will also be in attendance, and the shinies she has with her are the sort you have to see to believe. Plus you can meet my mom, and see just how serious I really am (very).

Hope you can be there!

1) A lot of new folks have been wandering in over the past few days, probably because of this wacky thing I did called "releasing a book." Hi, new people! If you're wondering just what the hell you've gone and gotten yourself into, I recommend either hitting the "welcome post" tag, which leads to my semi-regular welcome posts, or wait until next Wednesday, when I'll be putting up the September welcome post. Yes, I really am that organized. The alternative is hysterical flailing, and that thread is useless without pictures.

2) Tangentially related, I have my 2010 Franklin-Covey planner pages! There was very nearly hysteria in the Franklin-Covey store, as the clerk who was helping me responded to my request for the Simplicity 2010 daily pages with "Oh, that's been discontinued." When I started to hyperventilate, he mysteriously located my pages in the stockroom. Perhaps he should consider that when you take a job in the OCD porn store, it's not nice to taunt the people who shop there. We're likely to flip out and beat someone to death with a hole punch.

3) The invasion has begun! Amy has been at my house since last week. Over the next few days, Brooke, Vixy and Tony, Betsy, Sooj and K, Rebecca, and Mia and Ryan will all be arriving. (No, they're not all staying with me. I have insufficient house for that sort of invasion.) Alice and Lilly have handled things well so far, what with the pre-invasion cleaning and the imported fiddler. Alice is especially fond of the imported fiddler, and has abandoned me heartlessly to hang out with Amy.

4) When looking for details on upcoming appearances, please remember that all confirmed appearances are listed in great detail on my website Appearances Page. I don't mind answering questions, but especially right now, there can be a pretty lengthy delay between you saying "hey, are you going to be...?" and my actually getting a chance to answer you. Since appearance questions are innately time-sensitive, please, please check the website first. It may save you missing a really awesome party.

5) Again tangentially related, since it's been asked several times: the raffle is Saturday night, at Borderlands. There isn't a raffle scheduled for Friday night, because it wasn't arranged ahead of time (we weren't aware of how many raffle prizes we'd actually have available to us until very recently). So if you want to participate in the raffle, you need to come to the Saturday book party.

6) If you're planning to come to the Saturday book party, remember that you can get an extra raffle ticket by bringing delicious baked goods to share with the rest of the class! Mmmmm, delicious baked goods.

7) Yes, I'll be at OVFF and World Fantasy. No, I won't be at ConChord or Orycon. I have no conventions in 2009 after World Fantasy, and that's a wonderful thing, because I'm intending to take a nap. I miss sleep. My cats miss me sleeping, since they don't have an electric blanket, and without a warm human, they're forced to rely on sunbeams and each other for warmth. Think of the kitties. (Even if Alice is the feline equivalent of a down comforter, she still likes snuggles.)

8) Here's some fun news for you short story and Velveteen fans. First off, I'll have new pieces appearing at the Book View Cafe soon (I had to take a week off, due to book release crazy), including more horror, and maybe even a look at the little town of Rush's Bend, Minnesota. Secondly, "Velveteen vs. the Blind Date" is finally almost finished, and your regularly scheduled dose of superhero strangeness will be rolling into town any day now. I just need to work the last of the bugs (and bears) out before I release it.

9) The turtle couldn't help us.

10) September is only three days old, and already it's been awesome and exhausting and exhilarating and generally terrifying in ways that I've been dreaming of for my entire life. Thank you all for being here, and for not shooting me for all the flailing I've been doing lately. I promise we'll return to normal levels of flail soon.

Now we must rinse.

Yesterday was my bookday birthday, when Rosemary and Rue [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxies] finally hit shelves in stores across the nation. Because we are all mad here, my mother, Amy, and I decided that the best way to celebrate was by taking a trek up the length of California to sign books in every damn bookstore between Concord and Sacramento.

I never said we were sane.

The routine was pretty straightforward. One, find the bookstore. Two, scout the bookstore to see if they had any visible copies of Rosemary and Rue, as this meant we wouldn't be asking anyone to go into the back of the store. Three, find someone who works there, express that I am a local author (for increasingly inaccurate values of "local" as we moved away from Concord), and inquire as to whether I might sign some stock for them. Four, sign stock. Note that nowhere in this progression of events is anything resembling "check ID." By the eighth bookstore, I was seriously tempted to say "Hi, my name is Stephanie Meyer, and I wrote this book..."

The assistant manager at the Barnes and Noble in Albany thanked me for only using my powers for good. She doesn't know me very well.

As we made our way from bookstore to bookstore, we passed through Fairfield, California, home of the Jelly Belly factory. Amy, unwisely, said "I like sugar." My mother took this as a holy mandate demanding that we take the free Jelly Belly factory tour. I don't like jellybeans. I love my mother. I love Amy. I went on the tour. Fear my martyrdom. (Actually, there really wasn't any martyrdom, because Jelly Belly also makes candy corn. Fear me in the candy corn factory.) The Jelly Belly factory was reasonably cool. Amy and I have decided to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool with jelly beans and take people swimming.

The result of all yesterday's labors? Amy has a stomachache, and there is already a "collectible" autographed copy of Rosemary and Rue on eBay for fifteen dollars. Because humanity is awesome that way.

I survived!

(I promise to post about the fact that holy cow, it's my bookday birthday, in a little bit. Right now, I'm just trying to get through the review roundup without my fingers falling off! Holy cow!)

spectralbovine is a good friend of mine, but he's also incredibly media-savvy, and very picky about the things that he likes. So I admit, I was a little nervous when he said he was going to review Rosemary and Rue. At the same time, I knew he'd be fair. Well, his review of the book is up, and he was definitely fair. Quoth Sunil, "Oh yes, I'm going there: this book is like Veronica Mars, Faerie Detective."

I love my friends.

Over at the League of Reluctant Adults, the winner of the "win an ARC and write a review" contest has posted this awesome and erudite review of Rosemary and Rue. Quoth JD, "Rosemary and Rue is a good, solid novel and a fantastic debut. I look forward to reading more about Toby and her world. It really did almost make me believe again in Faeries."

Works for me!

mneme has also posted his review of Rosemary and Rue, calling it "a fun, beautifully written, rewarding urban fantasy that I intend to reread and recommend," while judifilksign's review of the book says "McGuire does a fantastic job of creating an alternate reality that is consistent, believable and not a copy of other writers in the genre." Yay!

Our first Dreamwidth review! It comes from Four-and-Twenty (watch those blackbirds), whose review is posted here. Since I sort of want to quote the whole review, I'll just tell you to go and read it. Don't worry. I can wait.

If you've been around here for more than a few days, you probably already know that vixyish is one of my favorite people in the whole world, part of my Seattle family, and a member of the mighty machete squad, without which there would be a hell of a lot more typographical and logical errors in my books. Well, she is now also one of the reviewers to tackle Rosemary and Rue, which she did with sufficient disclaimers to keep people from looking at her funny. Vixy says "I genuinely and highly recommend Rosemary and Rue to fans of urban fantasy, or murder mysteries, or P.I. novels, or worldbuilding, or complex characters, or folklore, or fairy tales, or Shakespeare, or British folk ballads, or just plain exciting and engrossing stories that are likely to keep you up half the night reading just one more page." I say, again, that I love my friends.

We've had a lot of reviews in the past few weeks, so you might think there's nothing left that can really get me excited. Well, you'd be wrong, because waking up to discover that I'd been reviewed in the MIAMI HERALD OH MY GOD YOU GUYS got me really, really excited. Given how sick I still am, I sounded like a bat being fed into a wood-chipper. Pity poor Amy's eardrums. The MIAMI HERALD OH MY GOD YOU GUYS says "skipping Rosemary and Rue would be a sad mistake" and "first-time novelist McGuire reminds us that even in an overused setting, a well-told story with memorable characters casts magic all on its own." Also, it's the MIAMI HERALD OH MY GOD YOU GUYS.

Wowzers.

In case you're tired of straight reviews, I was lucky enough to get interviewed by Alex for the Book Banter podcast. Here's your chance to hear me, live and (mostly) unedited. (I accidentally swore at one point, and Alex kindly snipped that out, because we appreciate not getting yelled at for profanity.) The interview was recorded in the dining room of Au Couqulet, so you can also hear silverware and dishes, if you listen real close. It was a fun time, and I really recommend giving it a go.

If you enjoy interviews, I also have a fun interview up over at Lurv ala Mode, where Kendra has been just awesome during the whole book release process. Check it out!

If you don't have your copy yet, there's a random giveaway going on over at Fantasy/Sci Fi Lovin'—enter to win, or direct your friends to head on over.

Because a picture is worth a thousand words (and I want breakfast), I leave you with Amy very studiously engaging in literature on a train, and Toby Daye VS. THE VELOCIRAPTORS! Pictures and crazy courtesy of Brooke. Because we didn't have enough crazy on our own.

It's a book!

First up, the bad news: due to circumstances beyond reasonable control, the release party at the Other Change of Hobbit (originally scheduled for this coming Sunday) has been postponed until sometime in October. There are a bunch of factors that went into this, but at the end of the day, it comes down to "no one will be there to run the store" (sort of an issue). I went by yesterday and signed stock, so if you really want a signed copy, but can't make any of the other events, you can get one there. I'll announce as soon as we reschedule.

Now, in somewhat happier news...

Friday night, I'll be at Illusive Comics in Santa Clara (see store website for address and directions). The party starts at seven, and will definitely feature live music and cake, in an awesome, family-friendly comic book store setting. Kitten Sundae will be there, as will Amy McNally, and Mia Nutick of Chimera Fancies (possibly with something AWESOME that you just have to see). There isn't a hard cut-off point, but I recommend coming early, before I've eaten my body-weight in frosting and started climbing the walls.

Saturday, we'll be at Borderlands Books in San Francisco, starting at five in the afternoon (again, check store website for address and directions). As an important note, the Bay Bridge will be CLOSED. If you're not starting in the City, you'll either need to plan to take BART, or find another means of getting there. The bookstore is right between two BART stations, and there's very limited parking anyway, so this actually isn't that big a deal.

Saturday is going to run from five to approximately nine, and will feature live music, readings, and AN AWESOME RAFFLE! Drawings will be held at six, seven-thirty, and nine, and you must be present (or have given your ticket to someone else when you left) to win. The prizes must be seen to be believed. You can get a ticket one of three ways:

1. Show up.
2. Buy something from the bookstore (anything).
3. Bring baked goods (or rum balls, if your name is Joey).

More information to come!

Vixy and Fishy delivered me to the Seattle/Tacoma International Airport approximately ninety minutes before my flight today. There was no line at the Virgin America counter, and effectively no line at security, allowing me to sail straight on through to the concourse. Once there, I checked the airport Borders for Rosemary and Rue (no luck) and checked the airport Wendy's for a vanilla Frosty (lots of luck). Boarding happened on time and in an orderly manner. I got my standard window seat, complete with my standard Grumpy Tall Guy Who Didn't Book Early Enough and Got Stuck in the Middle, and Sullen Girl on the Aisle Who Doesn't Understand Why We Need to Pee. Good times were had by all.

The in-flight entertainment allowed me to watch Eureka returns while I worked on The Brightest Fell (now through chapter twelve). I adore my Netbook, it allows me to actually work on planes, rather than pretending to work until I want to stab the person reclining their seat onto my laptop with a plastic swizzle stick, then sleeping bitterly. Sure, I'm a lot more tired when I reach my destination, but wow, do I get a lot of work done.

Seeing the reports of where Rosemary has been seen continues to absolutely delight me; thank you so much for the pictures and for sharing. And now I shall bow to the demands of my cats and go to bed, before they decide to take matters into their own paws and force the issue.

I have arrived safe and sound in Seattle, Washington, where my beloved vixyish collected me from the airport (with two bottles of Diet Dr Pepper in her hands, Great Pumpkin, I love that woman) and toted me back to the welcoming confines of the Agora, home of the better part of the zoo. There was chatter and cheer and hanging out with her, Tony, and Torrey before everyone went hieing themselves off to bed in their respective soft flat places, and many hours of darkness descended over everyone.

As I type this, I am, once again, the only person even remotely awake in my general vicinity; ah, the perils of being a morning person. I've got The Brightest Fell open in another window, and will sit on the downstairs sofa, contentedly plugging away, until it's time to go to the Farmer's Market and begin a whirlwind Seattle Saturday.

Hope your day looks to be as wonderful and filled with love and light as mine is, and if not, hope you at least get cake. Mmm, cake.

I'm thrilled to make sure everybody knows that this weekend is the first-ever Grants Pass signing and event. Yes! Grants Pass, live and in person! The event details:

SATURDAY, AUGUST 22nd
2:00 to 4:00 PM

http://www.soulfoodbooks.com/OldRoot/
Soulfood Books and Cafe
15748 Redmond Way
Redmond, Washington 98052

...so if you're not going to be in Washington, this may not be the most helpful thing ever, but if you are, wow did you just win the jackpot!



Attending authors include me, Jay Lake, Shannon Page, James Sullivan, and the incomparable Jennifer Brozek, our fearless editor, who first said "what if we threw a plague and everybody came?" We'll be signing books (and bookplates), hanging out, and there will be cake. Also, because I am me, and I always travel with at least fifteen ways to distract myself, there will probably also be at least one copy of Rosemary and Rue to fondle and gaze upon with love in your heart.

This is really exciting. Grants Pass is the first anthology I was ever asked to be a part of, and the first anthology I ever successfully sold a story to (not necessarily the same thing, more's the pity). And Jennifer is a dear friend. So seeing both of them succeeding together is just, well...cake. And cake is good. We like cake. The cake is not a lie.

I hope to see you there!

I'm about to head for Canada, and I understand that some people have a vested interest in knowing where I am. Hopefully, this is not because they want to throw things. Anyway, in the interest of being A Helpful Blonde (tm), here is my current schedule for the week of WorldCon:

THURSDAY.

2:00 PM: Improv Workshop. Step one, land in Canada. Step two, get off the plane. Step three, conduct an improv workshop. Oh, this should be fascinating. There's a good chance that I may fall asleep while pretending to pretend to be a tree. Which is potentially a good reason to both a) attend and b) bring a video camera.
4:00 PM: Did You Know...? Filk trivia with me and Mark Bernstein. And my jetlag. I can essentially guarantee that my jetlag will be an active participant. It'll be interesting, even if it isn't terribly coherent.

SATURDAY.

3:30 PM: The Future of Horror Movies. They're going to let me sit on a panel and talk about horror movies. In a professional capacity. Have I mentioned recently that I control the universe? Because by the way, I control the universe. Being nice to me is definitely in your best interests.

SUNDAY.

10:00 AM: Author Signing. Behold! If you bring me things, I'll sign them! Hopefully, they'll be things with which I am at least tangentially involved, although if you really want me to sign your cat, I can give it a go. Shaving and a Sharpie may be involved.
12:30 PM: Author Reading. Ninety-minute group reading with Laura Anne Gilman, Margaret Ronald, and Stephanie Bedwell-Grime. Odds are good that I'll wind up reading some really weird short fiction.
2:30 PM: Concert: Stone Dragons and Seanan McGuire. Each group will have a forty-five minute set. I believe the Stone Dragons are going first, which puts me on at 3:15 PM. Dave Weingart is my stunt guitarist. Yes, we have a set list. No, you can't have it.
10:00 PM: The Living Dead. I GET TO TALK ABOUT ZOMBIES MY LIFE IS ESSENTIALLY PERFECT RIGHT NOW OMG!!!!!! Ahem. Also, I am cool, calm, collected, and a total professional. Yeah.

MONDAY.

12:00 PM: Songwriting Workshop. We're going to be talking about songwriting, different approaches to songwriting, and other musical things. And then I'm going to be running to the airport like my tail feathers were on fire.

Woo-hoo Montreal!

I staggered into my house at about half-past eight last night, where I was promptly accosted by angry blue cats who wished me to understand that I Had Sinned, and Must Be Punished. (My punishment consisted primarily of petting the cats, petting the cats some more, and giving Alice a good brushing. Mom had been brushing her in my absence, but Alice wasn't entirely willing to let Mom near her nethers, and as a consequence, there was need for some serious Maine Coon repair before she could really be said to be at her best.) I even managed to partially empty both my suitcases before toppling into the bed like a felled dragon toppling on a poorly-placed knight errant.

The trip home from the convention was reasonably painless. Amanda and Michael delivered Jeanne and I to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and we meandered our way through security and onto the airplane (after a considerable delay, since we were two hours early). I spent most of the flight either dozing fitfully or watching Hannah Montana on the in-flight entertainment system. I should probably have been working on my copy-edits for Feed, but let's face it: there is an event horizon past which all work becomes crap, and I had passed that horizon quite some time previously. Shaun and Georgia should never have a crossover with the cast of Babylon Archer and the Caverns of Ice. I'm just saying.

My mother met me at the airport, and despite horrific traffic on the roads between San Francisco and home, we did not die in a horrible fiery crash. We had dinner at the Wendy's, because we were frankly both too far gone to deal with anything else. (Proof that I was tired: for about half the drive, I was convinced I'd managed to lose my phone. After finding my phone, I lost my credit card. I still can't find my keys.)

Tonight's plan involves taking Toby promo bookmarks to Borderlands Books, along with a stack of the DAW summer samplers, and then going home and getting to work on the heaps and heaps and heaps of stuff that's managed to pile up over the last week. Oh, and another twenty pages of copy-edits for Feed.

My next scheduled nap is in November.

I love travel.

Oh, I stress and I flail and I wave my hands around and I wail about how much time it's going to kill, but at the end of the day, I love travel. I love that moment of weightlessness when the plane leaves the ground, when you realizes you're no longer strictly under gravity's command. I love knowing that when I land, I'll be breathing different air, in a different city, where the rules are different. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I tend to be crazy-productive on planes.

(I am, however, seriously considering bringing CASH-MONEY BRIBES on my flight to Montreal. "Hi. I'm a working author, and I have deadlines. I will give you twenty dollars to not recline your seat on my laptop for the first three hours of this trip.")

My bags are packed for San Diego. I'm not sure whether I'll have Internet, but if I do, I'll keep you posted as to what's going on. If you're going to be there, you need to come to Saturday night's panel. Trust me on this one. You'll be sorry if you don't. If you're not going to be there, I'll miss you, I'll see you when I'm back, and I'll be awesome.

Because I can. Because that's what it means to be a Disney Halloweentown Princess.

Watch me.

Hey, San Diego-bound lovelies!

This Saturday night at 8:00PM, I'm going to be participating in a panel discussion and book signing at the Borders right by the convention center in the Gaslamp District. Specifically, I'm going to be participating in a panel discussion and book signing with Patrick Rothfuss, Amber Benson, Rob Thurman, Thomas Sniegoski, Jeanne C. Stein, and Kat Richardson.

1. Dude, that's awesome!
2. Holy cats.
3. Come out and boost my numbers!

Seriously, I am, like, hugely outnumbered by awesome panelists of awesome (and our awesome moderator of awesome, Morgan Burns, who bought my love with beercan chicken). This is your chance to hear cool things, get your questions answered, learn about cool authors you may not already know, and oh, right, potentially learn more about that "Rosemary and Rue" thing I keep talking about. There's even a chance that you could score some free stuff...

The Borders is located at 668 6th Avenue, between Market and G, and we're starting at 8:00PM, which means you may want to get there a little early. This is a Babel Clash live event, and you can learn more at http://bordersblog.com/scifi/

I really hope I'll see you there!

I've been asked "Gosh, Seanan, where are you going to be during the Montreal WorldCon?" Since "Canada" isn't actually a helpful reply, here is my initial schedule. It's still subject to change, and I'll post again closer to the convention.

THURSDAY.

2:00 PM: Improv Workshop. Step one, land in Canada. Step two, get off the plane. Step three, conduct an improv workshop. Oh, this should be fascinating. I may fall asleep while pretending to pretend to be a tree.
4:00 PM: Did You Know...? Filk trivia with me and Mark Bernstein. And my jetlag. My jetlag will be an active participant. It'll be interesting, even if it isn't terribly coherent.

SATURDAY.

7:00 PM: Panel in the Pool. The description reads "What would dolphins do? What side of the road would cephalopods prefer? Do they make screwdrivers for right-handed octopuses? The panel, in the deep end with lead boots, discusses aquatic intelligences." I'm hoping they don't actually intend to drown me, as I believe murder is illegal in Canada, but I'm happy to talk about squid for an hour. I'm a cheap date like that.

SUNDAY.

10:00 AM: Author Signing. Behold! If you bring me things, I'll sign them!
12:30 PM: Author Reading. I'll be participating in a ninety-minute group reading with Laura Anne Gilman, Margaret Ronald, and Stephanie Bedwell-Grime. I've never met two of the three before. This should be fun.
2:30 PM: Concert: Stone Dragons and Seanan McGuire. We each get a forty-five minute set. I think the Stone Dragons are going first, which puts me on at 3:15 PM. Dave Weingart is my stunt guitarist.
8:00 PM: The Future of Horror Movies. Heh. Heh. Heh...

MONDAY.

12:00 PM: Songwriting Workshop. We're going to be talking about songwriting, different approaches to songwriting, and other musical things. And then I'm going to be running to the airport.

So I'm presently rather lightly scheduled, and that suits me juuuuuust fine. I may wind up added to additional items; if that happens, I'll sing out and let you know.

July.
Oh sweet, sweet San Diego ComiCon, how I've missed you. How I've longed for you. And how happy I am that I get to come back to you this year. I promise I'll never leave you again. There are rumors of some exciting Rosemary and Rue-related happenings at the convention—happenings which may rock you all the way down to the tips of your toes. I recommend stopping by the Penguin Books booth to learn the whole story...where again, you can see me in Halloweentown Disney Princess mode. Always scary, always amusing. Plus, I'm almost certainly going to have convention-exclusive art cards again, because That's Just What I Do. I'm on the Escapist Fantasy panel on Thursday morning at 11:00 AM, and I'll be signing afterward. Please come by!

July will also see the release of Grants Pass, a post-apocalyptic anthology from Morrigan Books. It includes my short story, "Animal Husbandry," written specifically for the project and never seen anywhere else. This was my first anthology sale. Words can't begin to express how thrilled I am.

August.
It's blonde vs. Canada as I make my way to the Montreal WorldCon. Who will win? Probably the fries with gravy. I'm going to be appearing on panels at the convention, and will be giving a concert, with the fabulous Dave Weingart as my stunt guitarist du jour. I should have copies of all three albums with me, but they'll be limited by my suitcase space.

Later in August, I'll be flying up to Seattle for a special Grants Pass appearance on the 22nd. It's your chance to have the anthology signed by more of the authors than is technically legal!

September.
Nothing major. Just, I don't know, the OFFICIAL RELEASE of MY VERY FIRST FULL-LENGTH NOVEL, Rosemary and Rue. I've been living with October "Toby" Daye as an invisible roommate for so long that I barely remember life without her, and now the whole world gets to be properly introduced. I'm excited beyond words. I've actually been crying, I'm so happy. I think you're gonna like her, and the reviews we've had so far support that.

We're starting to confirm the dates for my various Bay Area signings and events; trust me when I say that you absolutely, positively, CANNOT MISS my book release party at Borderlands Books in San Francisco. How awesome is it going to be? So awesome that the Earth may shake. Trust me. There are also events scheduled at the Other Change of Hobbit (Berkeley) and Illusive Arts (Santa Clara).

October.
I will be participating in the annual LitCrawl! at Borderlands Books on October 17th. I get a reading slot, followed by signing and socializing. You should totally come. You should also totally buy an extra copy of Rosemary and Rue and tell the bookstore owners that I'm awesome. Just saying.

October is also home of the Ohio Valley Filk Festival, where we will be having an at-con book release party! Unfortunately for my haunted corn maze aspirations, World Fantasy 2009 has been shifted to Halloween weekend, so I'm going to be flying back to California immediately after the convention to spend a weekend in San Jose, making friends and influencing people. Or at least staying upright.

November.
I like sleep. I understand people do it sometimes. Also, I understand that cats appreciate it when their owners sit still. So I'm going to try these things, and see if they keep me alive a little longer.

December.
I'll be appearing at the Writers With Drinks event on December 12th; more information will be provided as it becomes available to me.

January.
In January, I'm definitely intending to head up to Seattle for Conflikt III, the Pacific Northwest's very own filk convention. Tom Smith will be the Guest of Honor, which is going to be awesome, and I may be able to make my stay long enough to allow for a side-trip to Powells, the CITY OF BOOKS. Everybody wins!

February.
It's looking more and more likely that February will include a trip to the UK, to attend the UK filk convention (where my beloved Vixy and Tony will be the Guests of Honor), meet my UK publisher for the Mason books, and possibly take a side-jaunt over to Germany. Because sleep is for the weak and sickly, my darlings, sleep is for the weak and sickly.

February will also be Wondercon, but exact dates have not yet been announced.

March.
Again, nothing major. Just, I don't know, THE RELEASE OF THE SECOND TOBY BOOK. A Local Habitation will be coming out in the first week of March. Expect flailing, hysterical, and awesome stuff. How awesome? "I've done this before and know what I'm doing now" awesome. Be there.

The year is filling up fast, and more things are bound to appear as the months draw closer—look at how detailed the next few months are compared to the later ones. If you want me, book early, book often, and bribe.

Whee!

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

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

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

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

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

Whee.

I'm almost finished packing for DucKon; sometime in the next hour, my mother will be showing up to whisk me away to the San Francisco International Airport, where I will board a shiny silver skybird and soar across the country to Illinois, hence to have exciting adventures. The cats know something is up, but aren't entirely clear as to what it is. I expect them to get seriously pissed in a few hours, when I go away and don't come back. And that's okay.

My schedule is posted both here and on my website. I will have ARCs of Rosemary and Rue with me all weekend, so you can see them in all their glory. I'll also have copies of all three albums, and the complete remaining run of the new chapbook. So, y'know, you can take a little piece of me home with you, if you really want to.

I'll be back and back to normal on Tuesday. I may or may not be around much this weekend, depending on Internet availability and how much sleep I manage to get. Amy is bringing pumpkin vodka to the convention; The Agent is already in the air; I'm really having a pretty damn fabulous day, all things considered. And Jean Grey is still dead.


Sometimes I love my life.

So you may be wondering what my schedule is this weekend at DucKon. Or you may not be. Whatever. I'm going to tell you anyway.

FRIDAY.

7:00 PM: Opening Ceremonies. Rumor is now indicating that I may a) wear a corset, b) sing, and c) do the Time Warp. Rumor is seriously leading an interesting life.
8:00 PM: Whose Line Is It Anyway? The classic improv game goes convention crazy! With Tom Smith, Gretchen Roper, and others. Music provided by Toybox.
10:00 PM: Sing A Song of Dead Things. Themed filk with corpses in. I will be your lovely, loony moderator. I will also be half-asleep. Bring a poking stick.

SATURDAY.

10:00 AM: Plagues Past, Present, and Future. LET'S GET READY TO RABIES!
12:00 PM: The Business of Writing. With Diana Fox and Shannon Butcher.
3:00 PM: Vixy & Tony Concert.
5:00 PM: Seanan McGuire, Undead in Concert! Featuring Vixy and Tony, Amy McNally, and probably others. It's going to be awesome.
8:00 PM: Urban Fantasy. With Jim Butcher and Jody Lyn Nye. Because I'm always at my most-coherent post-concert. I should have time to change, at least.

SUNDAY.

11:00 AM: Reading. Reading what? Who knows! Please, please, let me know if I have something you're just dying to hear, or it's likely to be another random assortment of my short fiction.
12:00 PM: The Award-Winners Concert. If you want to hear some real, live Pegasus Award winners and nominees, this is where you should be.
1:00 PM: X-Men Comics. For those of you who aren't aware, Jean Grey is still dead, and I totally approve.
3:00 PM: Closing Ceremonies.

I will have copies of all three of my albums at the convention, available for sale and signing, as well as the complete remaining run of my second limited-edition poetry chapbook. Which will not be re-issued, because dude, Beckett had to hand-sew the entire run of books, and I know when not to press my luck.

See you there!

Well, the cat's out of the bag, and I can now gleefully announce that next Memorial Day Weekend, I'll be in Columbus, Ohio, serving as the Music Guest of Honor at Marcon! (I was waiting to say anything until it was public knowledge. As it was printed on the back of the program books, it's public knowledge.) The full guest slate is as follows:

Author Guest of Honor: Wen Spencer.
Artist Guest of Honor: Billy Tackett.
Science Guest of Honor: Central Ohio Paranormal Society.
Costuming Guest of Honor: Tom Saveny.
Music Guest of Honor: Seanan McGuire.

So...Billy Tackett, who draws some of the best zombies in the business, the Central Ohio Paranormal Society, and me. I'm not familiar with the works of Wen Spencer or Tom Saveny, but I can already tell that we're going to have a pretty high "dead things" level at this convention. Somehow, this fails to bother me in any meaningful way.

Marcon!

It's gonna be a party.

Having been their Toastmistress (in 2007) and their Chairman (in 2003), I'm really dead thrilled to be attending BayCon 2009 in San Jose, California as a published author (May 22nd-25th). Think of it as sort of like showing up for your high school reunion after conquering Madagascar. I'M THE LEMUR QUEEN, BITCHES. Er, ahem. Or something like that, anyway. Besides, my beloved jennifer_brozek is this year's Toastmistress, which should be awesome. (Jenn is editor of Grants Pass, aka, "what if we threw a plague and EVERYBODY came?", and owns three of the craziest cats I've ever met.)

I'm reasonably lightly-booked this year, which is a nice change, and my scheduled panels so far include...

SATURDAY.

11:30 AM: Zombies Are Coming!

SUNDAY.

11:30 AM: Iron Poet.
1:00 PM: What's Your Post-Apocalypse Plan?

MONDAY.

1:00 PM: Writing For the Long Run

As always, I'm assuming that there may be some last-minute additions and subtractions to this slate, but that should give you a reasonably good idea of where I can be found. I won't be giving a concert this year, sadly, as there just wasn't time to get together with any of my assorted guitarists and rehearse, but I will have copies of all three CDs, both in the dealer's hall and on my person.

I'll be bringing a few precious copies of the Rosemary and Rue ARC with me to the convention for the adventurous to wheedle out of me (clues on how to do your wheedling are yet to come). Hope to see you there!

PS: Remember to vote your favorite poem in the ARC giveaway!

It's one month to DucKon (http://www.duckon.org/)! The biggest hootenanny of the summer, packing a whole lot of hoot and a whole lot of nanny into one short weekend in Naperville, Illinois. (Urge to parody "One Short Day In the Emerald City" rising...) You can view an early draft of my schedule on my appearances page; I'll also be posting it here when we're a little bit closer to the convention, but you can at least start planning your exciting adventures now. Remember, online registration closes this Friday at midnight Central, so if you've been waffling, now's the time to square up your affairs and put your irons in the fire.

...I promise that's the last waffle pun I will attempt to make this year.

This convention is gonna be a blast. Not only do you get to see me going head-to-head with Jim Butcher (potentially world-ending), not only do you get to see me geeking out over pandemics and the X-Men—basically my drugs of choice—but you get to see me live and in concert with Vixy and Tony, Amy McNally, and Possible Special Guests. And there will be a reading. And there will be galleys, although the exact distribution mechanism has yet to be determined (pretty sure Kate won't let me play Pee-Wee's Playhouse and choose a second word...but she might let me play Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, and demand that you spin the Wheel of Fun).

Meet me! Meet my agent! Meet my musical dream team! Meet my graphic designer! And watch me baffle my handlers with my constant demands for more caffeine! Fun for the whole family.

If you can't make it to DucKon, I will be at BayCon next weekend in San Jose. Details to come when I've got them.

My flight from SFO was both exceedingly eventful and completely uneventful, which is always a fun combination (I'll explain in a second). I was flying Northwest—despite having originally thought that I was flying American, which, it turns out, is actually my airline for DucKon; this is why I try to stick with Virgin America whenever possible—out of SFO. "Northwest out of SFO" is another way of saying "Northwest out of the Torture Terminal." Seriously. There is one crappy coffee shop at the end of the terminal, and there are way more passengers than seats. Pretty much everyone who was taking my flight had to stand until they let us on the plane.

I had a Rice Krispie Treat and a Diet Coke for breakfast. This is how dire the terminal was. I did, however, see a woman with an electric orange and green messenger bag while I was going through security, and I was able to catch up with her to go "I covet that, where did you get it?" Turns out she got it from Timbuk2 in San Francisco, which will make you a bag in any color combination you want. They're not cheap, but I now have a total target for the next time I decide to splurge on something.

(Last year, I splurged and bought an iPod. This year, I splurged and bought a kitten. Next year, who knows? I am the worst impulse shopper in the world—I actually schedule my impulse buys a month in advance.)

On the plane, I was seated next to a very tall woman from Canada. I asked where in Canada, which turned out to be the perfect conversation starter, because we chattered for three hours. Want proof that I exist in a reality-warp? She's works in pandemic planning and preparedness. Seriously! (It wasn't until much later that either of us realized that maybe discussing immunodepressant smallpox, the Black Death, pandemic flu, and how many bodies you can fit in a hockey rink could have gotten us reported as international terrorists. I swear we're not, Homeland Security Monitor Guy. We're just weird.)

My hotel is small, cozy, and conveniently close to downtown. Since I woke up at seven this morning—jet lag? What's that?—being able to go and get a salad and a soda before most of the world was awake was a real blessing. I also found Borders store number one, and bought Queen of Babble Gets Hitched and In the Forest of Hands and Teeth for the flight home. (Did I read everything I brought already? Yes, I did. I swear, my reading speed accounts for more frantic bookstore visits than I like to think about.)

I will now go put on my Disney Halloweentown Princess Pants and get ready for my business meetings, which should be interesting (they always are). And then I meet with Jim and fly on home. I'll be trying to finish Late Eclipses on the plane. So...close...

Catch you soon!

Well, I'm about to get going; I've got a few last non-computer things to do around the house, and then I'll be off to catch the bus to get to the train station to take the train to get to the airport to board the big metal sky-bird and fly to Michigan. I'll be in Ann Arbor for the next two days for business reasons, getting back to California late Wednesday night.

(If I'm very, very lucky, I'll make it to my hotel in time for Fringe tonight. But I'm not counting on it.)

Entries will be taken for the random draw Rosemary and Rue giveaway through Friday morning, when I'll be selecting the winner. Remember, if your number comes up, you'll have seventy-two hours to claim your prize before I give it to somebody else, so it's a good idea to keep an eye on what's going on over here. There will absolutely be other giveaways over the next several months, since it's a great way to get copies out there into the world. Also, if you're attending the San Diego Comic Convention, word is we'll have a stack of the lovely things for handing out. A stack. How cool is that?

There have been a few alterations to the Appearances Page over at my website. The lovely folks from DucKon will be getting me my panel schedule in the next week or so, so you'll have plenty of time to plan our awesome adventures in discussing _________. I'm hoping for a nice plague, and maybe something that's dead, but still moving around.

I'm going to miss my cats, but I get to meet jimhines in the flesh for the first time. In all things there are balance.

See you when I land.

Dear Great Pumpkin;

I have continued to be a very good girl in the days since I last wrote to you. I have provided places for tired people to sleep, liquids for thirsty people to drink, and food for hungry people to eat. I have shared my ice cream and my candy corn. I did not spike the liquids for the thirsty people with interesting poisons. I have purchased and erected a cat tree so virulently orange that it sears the eyes of the unbelievers. I have not summoned the elder gods from their eternal dreaming. I have not purchased a chainsaw. Also, the swine flu isn't my fault. So clearly, I have been on my very best behavior for quite some time now.

Today, Great Pumpkin, I am asking for the following gifts:

* Freedom from typos, printing errors, and other plagues of the written word. Please, Great Pumpkin, guide my red pen through my page proofs and allow me to present Rosemary and Rue as the best book that it can possibly be. Please let all the errors be mine, and let them be reasonably small ones, so that I won't be forced to throw myself on my own machete. That would make me sad. Also, that would be messy.

* Wonderful author appearances, following a fantastic convention season. DucKon is approaching fast, Great Pumpkin, and so is the San Diego Comic Convention, which I'm going to be attending in full-on Disney Halloween Princess-mode. After that comes WorldCon in Montreal, and after that...after that, my book comes out, and I'm doing signings and raffles and all sorts of other things, many of them for the first time. Help me represent the orange, black, and green with honor, with dignity, and without overdosing on candy corn.

* Continued health for my cats. I have to admit, Great Pumpkin, you came through big time with that whole "perfect kitten" thing that I asked you for. I was dubious at first, since "Maine Coon" and "Siamese" are not the same thing, but Alice is amazing, and has won Lilly over completely, which is really what matters. (And if you think I don't know you had a hand in this, you're out of your gourd. So to speak. Betsy hasn't had a blue in years, and don't think I missed those smoky orange undertones. You are a very cunning supernatural force. I bow before the sanctity of your patch.)

* The perfect house for Newsflesh, wherein the Mason twins deal with politics, the Internet, blogging, dead stuff, each other, and their completely insane co-workers as efficiently and politely as possible. "Polite" usually means "with bullets and bitching." If you give me this, Great Pumpkin, I promise you at least three more short stories featuring the Fighting Pumpkins cheerleading squad, and another Velveteen adventure involving the denizens of Halloween. If you give me a trilogy sale, I'll actually do the origin stories for Hailey and Scaredy.

* A lack of total meltdown over this swine flu thing. I know it's not the slatewiper pandemic, Great Pumpkin, because you would never do that to me this close to my first book's release date. So clearly, this is just a minor plague, meant to remind the world that we need to wash our hands more often. Please let people remember to wash their hands and cover their mouths and take deep breaths (okay, maybe not that last one), so that we can get through this without anybody setting anybody else on fire.

* My galleys. Please let them come today, Great Pumpkin, as my twitchiness is beginning to bother people. I think some of them are becoming concerned that I may destroy the planet in a fit of pique, and frankly, I share their concern. Please, Great Pumpkin, help me to leave enough of the world's population alive to properly honor you on the next Halloween.

I remain your faithful Halloween girl,
Seanan.

PS: You did an amazing job with the cover thing. Thank you so much.

MONDAY: Monday, Monday, Monday. Monday was a day of Getting Things Done. On Monday, I submitted my latest short story—fetchingly titled "Dying With Her Cheer Pants On" (although I sadly suspect that even the most tolerant of editors may ask me to change to one of the possible alternate titles, because I am not James Tiptree)—to the anthology it was hopefully written for, chopped up lots of vegetables for stew, used an entire bottle of red wine in setting up my marinades (I felt quite decadent doing this), processed a truly epic number of edits, and actually went to bed on time (not a theme of the week). I also put my tax paperwork where I'd be able to find it again later. Behold! For now I wear the human pants!

TUESDAY: Tuesday was a "hit the ground running" sort of a day. I got up, only to start rabbit stew in the smaller crock pot, and goat stew in the larger crock pot. (I know in my heart that my crazy poacher ancestors are very, very proud of me right now. They would be more proud if I'd obtained my weird meats with either a gun or the front-grill of a moving car, but my family's ancestral spirits take what they can get.) After work, I hit the Farmer's Market for the rest of the fixings for a big dinner, and went home to wait for my house guests to arrive.

(For those who missed the memo, catvalente and s00j are currently on the West Coast leg of the Palimpsest [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxies] tour, a mixture of music and readings from the book. Since they're traveling with their sweeties, as well as a large trailer, they needed a lot of house to crash in. I have a lot of house. Since I needed to do spring cleaning anyway, this seemed totally reasonable. Also, the last Bay Area stop is tonight, at the Other Change of Hobbit, and I will totally be attending.)

The drive took longer than expected, so they arrived a bit after my bedtime. I hastily showed them where the towels were, introduced them to the cats, pointed them at the stew, and went to bed. "Going to bed" has been a theme of the week, really. I like my bed. It's where I keep the sleeping.

WEDNESDAY: Wednesday consisted mostly of swearing at Late Eclipses and showing Cat et all around San Francisco. We went to Borderlands Books so they could meet Jude and the freaky demon alien suede kittyfaces before the show (which was last night), and from there, proceeded on a tour of weird and wonderful San Francisco, culminating in a trip to Fisherman's Wharf, during which we saw sea lions and ate tasty foods. (Also, I shattered a tooth. Not so much fun, and seeking a dentist who suits my needs is proving to be exciting. My phobia of dentists is so severe the signs sometimes make me sick to my stomach. Maybe watching Little Shop of Horrors every day for a year when I was nine wasn't such a good plan.)

THURSDAY: Thursday brought back Supernatural, gave me an excuse to go to the art supply store for actual business reasons, and tasty, tasty Indian food, followed by tasty, tasty ice cream, and tasty, tasty sleep. Also, I swung through the comic book store, and found a Tulip action figure on the discount table for only fifty cents. It will take very little customizing to turn her into an awesome Alice Price-Healy (from the InCryptid books) action figure. She will inspire me with her plastic menace!

How's been by all of you?

Cat and Sooj and Dmitri and K are here and safe and not dead, and now I am going to go to bed.

Thud.

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

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

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

Why am I telling you all this? Two reasons.

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

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

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

So as most people probably noticed, I spent the last several days in Seattle, Washington. Why did I go to Seattle? Well, it let me spend time with my beloved Vixy and Tony, meet Cat Valente for the first time -- an important introduction, given that she's going to be staying with me later in the month -- hang out with SJ Tucker and the fabulous K, do an author photo shoot with Ryan, and talk venison with Dimitri. I even got to join Kitten Sundae for two numbers during their Saturday night concert (Vixy and Tony's "Thirteen," and my own "Evil Laugh"). But none of these things were the point of my trip.

No, the point of my trip was seeing Betsy and Dave Tinney, the owners of Pinecoon Maine Coons. Dave is the Master of the Salad of Doom; Betsy is, in addition to being one of my favorite wicked girls, and a subject-matter expert for the ballroom sequences in Discount Armageddon, the cello player for Tricky Pixie and Kitten Sundae. They're wonderful, enjoyable, delightfully multi-talented people...

...and they had my kitten. Alice -- short for Alice Price-Healy Little Liddel Abernathy McGuire (points if you can source all the names). A blue classic tabby with white, Alice is my first Maine Coon. We flew home this morning, and while she wasn't an angel on the plane, she wasn't a devil, either. She only cried during takeoff and landing, and is now merrily exploring the room, having had a snack, a drink, a nap, and an exciting adventure with the pumpkin-fucker orange cat tree.

I have two cats again.

Because Lilly and Alice are "unusual breeds" for many people, despite being gorgeous representatives of two of the most popular breeds of cat in the country (the most recent rankings put the Maine Coon at number two, and the Siamese at number three), they now have their own page on my website, giving a breed overview as well as a quick overview of the cats themselves.

They've met briefly, and while they weren't immediate soulmates or anything, they also didn't attack each other. So I'm calling it a win for now. We're home, we're safe, and the world is good.

Yay.

After a completely uneventful flight -- my in-flight entertainment deck was busted, so I put on my iPod, cued up my "all 'Rain King,' all the time" playlist, which is ninety-plus minutes of versions of the same song, put my head down, and passed out -- I landed safely in Seattle at a little past eleven o'clock last night. I was promptly met by Satyr and Sandi, the editors of Ravens in the Library, as well as good friends of mine, who bore me boldly off to Chez Tinney, hence to be united with my new giant feline companion.

(Alice is, in fact, giant. She's more than doubled in size since the last time I saw her, and may actually be bigger than my mother's new puppy, Smudge. She's also fluffy as hell, and possessed of the world's plumiest tail. I'm afraid there may be truth to my mother's accusation of my desire for a Maine Coon being born partially out of tail withdrawal.)

Today, my plans include "finishing the new Vel story" and "dealing with kitten contracts," as well as a healthy, happy dose of "work on art cards." Life is pretty good. I'll be here in the Pacific Northwest through Sunday, when I'll fly home to begin the laborious process of introducing Lilly and Alice to one another. Since they're both pretty mellow cats with vast amounts of fur, I'm not anticipating much trouble, although you should be anticipating kitten pictures sometime early in the next week.

Oh, and since I seem to have forgotten to announce it -- my mother got a puppy! Her name is Smudge, after jim_hines's fabulous fire spider, and she's gorgeous. She's half Malamute, half Rottweiler, and has those amazing crystal blue Malamute eyes. She was taken from her mother too young, but I've hand-raised kittens, and was able to bully my mother into going to the pet store for puppy formula. (I try not to bully my mother. But when the puppy's too young, we buy it the formula. This is how the game works.) Smudge is doing fabulously, and she's getting bigger by the day. We're introducing her to Lilly a little at a time, since she's likely to accompany my mother when Mom comes over to clean at my place.

So I'm safe, alive, and doing just fine, thanks to the wonderful people at Virgin America and their wonderful flying machines. How's everybody else, out there in the world? I lack deep thoughts today. Give me yours.

April.
April will be kicking off with a flight to Seattle, where I will sign many copies of Ravens in the Library -- still available for purchase, at least for right now, although I can't guarantee how long that's going to be the case -- and attend a fabulous Kitten Sundae show. Kitten Sundae is Vixy and Tony (Vixy is the topic of my song 'Oh, Michelle,' as well as being the reason for the Alice verse in 'Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves'), SJ Tucker, and Betsy Tinney, and I'm very excited to have the opportunity to see them live and awesome.

While I'm in Seattle, I'm going to be picking up the latest addition to my feline family from the Pinecoon Maine Coon Cattery. Her name is Alice, she's a blue tabby, and she's incredibly gorgeous. I'm very, very excited. And not just because having somebody else to play with may cause Lilly to start allowing me to sleep through the night again.

May.
May will find me attending BayCon -- my second-ever BayCon as an actual working novelist. I intend to wander around giggling hysterically and looking starry-eyed. It's fun! Also, my friend Jennifer Brozek is the Toastmistress, so there's some exciting wackiness basically guaranteed.

June.
June is Duckon! The convention where you can see me and Jim Butcher duke it out over...well, whatever the programming division tells us to duke it out over. The convention where you can catch me, Vixy, and Tony all on stage at the same time! The convention where you can watch me perplex my handlers by demanding to walk to 7-11 every morning! This is going to be such a blast. The blast radius is just made bigger by the addition of a huge percentage of my posse: The Agent will be in attendance, as the convention's Agent Guest of Honor, and so will Tara O'Shea, my incredibly talented graphic designer and webgrrl. I'm always at my Halloweentown Disney Princess Best when I have my support staff to distract me with shiny things. We're going to rock Illinois so hard.

July.
Oh sweet, sweet San Diego ComiCon, how I've missed you. How I've longed for you. And how happy I am that I get to come back to you this year. I promise I'll never leave you again. There are rumors of some exciting Rosemary and Rue-related happenings at the convention -- happenings which may rock you all the way down to the tips of your toes. I recommend stopping by the Penguin Books booth to learn the whole story...where again, you can see me in Halloweentown Disney Princess mode. Always scary, always amusing. Plus, I'm almost certainly going to have convention-exclusive art cards again, because That's Just What I Do.

July will also see the release of Grants Pass, a post-apocalyptic anthology from Morrigan Books. It includes my short story, 'Animal Husbandry,' written specifically for the project and never seen anywhere else. This was my first anthology sale. Words can't begin to express how thrilled I am.

August.
It's blonde vs. Canada as I make my way to the Montreal WorldCon. Who will win? Probably the fries with gravy.

September.
Nothing major. Just, I don't know, the OFFICIAL RELEASE of MY VERY FIRST FULL-LENGTH NOVEL, Rosemary and Rue. I've been living with October 'Toby' Daye as an invisible roommate for so long that I barely remember life without her, and now the whole world gets to be properly introduced. I'm excited beyond words. I've actually been crying, I'm so happy. I think you're gonna like her. We're starting to confirm the dates for my various Bay Area signings and events; trust me when I say that you absolutely, positively, CANNOT MISS my book release party at Borderlands Books. How awesome is it going to be? So awesome that the Earth may shake.

Trust me.

October.
The Ohio Valley Filk Festival! Unfortunately for my haunted corn maze aspirations, World Fantasy 2009 has been shifted to Halloween weekend, so I'm going to be flying back to California immediately after the convention to spend a weekend in San Jose, making friends and influencing people. Or at least staying upright.

There are no signings or book-related events confirmed for my October visit to the magical Midwest, but I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them decided to materialize. Just saying.

November.
I like sleep. I understand people do it sometimes. Also, I understand that cats appreciate it when their owners sit still. So I'm going to try these things, and see if they keep me alive a little longer.

December.
Prepare for 2010. How did we get here already?

The year is filling up fast, and more things are bound to appear as the months draw closer -- look at how detailed the first few months are compared to the later ones. If you want me, book early, book often, and bribe.

Whee!

I am safely at Jon and Merav's place in Jersey City, where Jon and Aaron are playing LAN Party with me on the kitchen table, preparatory to my handing them my thumb drive, saying 'I trust you,' and walking away to have quiet hysterics in another room. Hopefully, this means they'll be able to recover my data, and I won't have to cry on the plane.

Also, I have a brand new thumb drive from the Best Buy near where I met Diana for lunch on Wednesday. It is soothingly bright orange, and glows when inserted in the computer. Everything should glow when inserted in the computer. It's like a law or something.

They've discovered nineteen new species in Australia (mostly in Western Australia). These range from a spider-eating wasp to some truly horrific-looking new species of spider, as well as an eyeless crustacean thing and something they call a 'pseudoscorpion' due to its lack of a deadly stinger. This proves once again that Australia is awesome.

My visit to the New Jersey Pine Barrens was totally awesome, although I didn't spot the Jersey Devil. (There's always the possibility that he spotted me...) I also didn't spot any deer ticks, so I'm going to call this trip an overall win.

My mother is picking me up at the airport tomorrow, which should be...interesting, considering that she's never been to SFO before, and never tried to collect anyone from the International Arrivals Terminal of any airport. New experiences are good things for everybody, right? I certainly hope that's right, or there's a possibility that I'm never going to be seen again.

My duties have all been discharged; my visit to New York has gone stunningly well; and now we must rinse.

1. I'm not dead! Since it wasn't widely advertised before I went away, I'm in New York for Business Purposes (tm) this week, hanging out with the wonderful crew at DAW, meeting other fabulous people (hi, Colleen!), and generally being A Good Little Author. This has resulted in some truly fantastic things, many of which I'll be sharing when I'm not so tired that I just want to fall down and sleep for a month or more.

2. No, I haven't had a chance to try data recovery tricks yet -- I haven't had a chance to sleep. My flight landed at 7:05 AM on Wednesday, and I've basically been running since then (witness this being my first opportunity to get to the Internet). I'll be at Jon and Merav's on Saturday, and Will will be there; between Geek Thing One and Geek Thing Two, if it can be fixed, it will be fixed. I'll keep everyone posted.

3. On a similar note, while I try to answer every comment made on this journal, I'm not even going to pretend to bother with the data loss post. There's lots more of you than there is (are?) of me, and I'm tired enough that I'd start quoting nursery rhymes and giggling a great deal. Not actually attractive or entertaining. Well, potentially entertaining for you guys, but...

4. There's news on the Ravens in the Library front: while there have been printing delays, the editors are expecting books Real Soon Now. So if you were planning to order a copy before you missed the first wave, now's the time. Remember, I'll smile pretty and even sign it for you if ask me to.

5. Tomorrow, Sheila (my editor) and I are going to go to the New Jersey Pine Barrens, land of cranberries, blueberries, and cut-rate horror movies. I'm very excited about this, because I'm, well, still me.

That's all for right now; the good stuff gets to wait until I'm awake. I miss everybody. Be home soon.