...a copy of The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination!

Welcome to the third of the Twelve Days of Hogswatch. I will be starting a new giveaway every day between now and December 25th (some other winter holiday). Each giveaway will have different rules, and a different deadline, although all prizes will be mailed on December 29th, because I am bad at going to the post office (and also, still mailing shirts).

The first giveaway is for a copy of The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination. This is going to be a random number drawing, because that's working well so far. Because this is a hardcover, this giveaway is open only to US residents and those with US shipping addresses. Mailing it internationally would cost more than the value of the book. I'm sorry, I just can't do it.

1. To enter, comment on this post.
2. Indicate that you are in the US/have a US shipping address.
3. That's it.

I will choose the winner at 1PM PST on Wednesday, December 17th.

Game on!

...a copy of Half-Off Ragnarok!

Welcome to the second of the Twelve Days of Hogswatch. I will be starting a new giveaway every day between now and December 25th (some other winter holiday). Each giveaway will have different rules, and a different deadline, although all prizes will be mailed on December 29th, because I am bad at going to the post office (and also, still mailing shirts).

The first giveaway is for a copy of Half-Off Ragnarok, the third InCryptid adventure. What better way to get ready for book four? This is going to be a random number drawing, because I am lazy. So...

1. To enter, comment on this post.
2. If you are international, indicate both this and your willingness to pay postage.
3. That's it.

I will choose the winner at 1PM PST on Tuesday, December 16th.

Game on!

...two copies of The Winter Long!

Welcome to the first of the Twelve Days of Hogswatch. I will be starting a new giveaway every day between now and December 25th (some other winter holiday). Each giveaway will have different rules, and a different deadline, although all prizes will be mailed on December 29th, because I am bad at going to the post office (and also, still mailing shirts).

The first giveaway is for two copies of The Winter Long, the eighth October Daye adventure. This is going to be a random number drawing, because I am sleepy. So...

1. To enter, comment on this post.
2. If you are international, indicate both this and your willingness to pay postage.
3. That's it.

I will choose the winners at 1PM PST on Monday, December 15th.

Game on!

ETA: Multiple people have commented indicating that they'd like to start this series. Please, please do not begin this series with book eight. I know free stuff is awesome, and of course you can win without having read the first seven, but seriously, this book will not be half as good if you have no idea what's going on.

Hello, happy people!

Tomorrow will be the first of the Twelve Days of Hogswatch, my now-annual "Seanan gives things away for twelve days because why not" celebration, and I just wanted to issue a few quick reminders. Namely...

1. Each giveaway will have its own rules. Some will be US-only. (Most will honestly be US-only, because I can't afford to pay international postage at this time. More about this to come.) Others will say things like "your comment must include the word 'banana.'" Failure to precisely follow the rules of a giveaway will mean you cannot win. There is no wiggle room here, at all. This is partially for my sanity, and partially because when I give things away, the free stuff blogs tend to signal boost, and insisting that the rules be followed means that there's enough of a barrier to entry that I can be reasonably sure things are going to people who actually want them.

2. No, you do not need to follow this blog to win. That being said, each entry will say something like "the winners will be posted at X time, and will have until Y to contact me." Every time I do a giveaway, I have folks contacting me days after the stated time, wanting to know if they can still claim their prizes. I fully understand that life happens—I've been the late one before—but the timelines are firm. So if you don't follow this blog normally, I recommend checking in daily until all Hogswatch giveaways are over.

3. In the instances where I am willing to deal with the cost and complication of international shipping, I may say "you must pay postage to receive your prize." If you'd like to volunteer to pay international postage for a giveaway winner, please comment on that day's giveaway to indicate this. Make sure it's a first-level comment, and not a reply to a specific person. (If you're only willing to pay for a specific person, tell them in private, and y'all can work it out without me.)

4. All prizes have already been selected by me, but I will not be revealing them until the day that their drawing begins.

5. You can enter all twelve days if you want to.

And that is all. First entry goes up tomorrow!

Psst. C'mere.

So it's no secret around here that I love, love, love my DAW covers, or that showing them off is one of my true pure joys in life. Aly Fell, who designs the covers for the InCryptid books, has been everything I could have hoped for in a cover artist. He's incredible. Want proof?

Go ahead. Take a peek.

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

Every field has its trade magazines, from Cat Fancy to Fashion Dolls Quarterly. They're an important, unbiased way of sharing developments and keeping people abreast of the news. Also, unlike a website, they can go in the bathtub with you, which is way important. The trade magazine for the science fiction and fantasy world is Locus, which holds the rare distinction of being the only trade mag to ever have me as a cover girl. (Sadly before I started dying my hair in mantis shrimp colors, so clearly I need to convince them to do a "Mira Grant" spotlight sometime, just so people can see my awesomely updated tresses.)

Locus is an awesome resources and a fun read, and I am a big fan, which is why, when they asked me if I'd be willing to tell people about their holiday special, I was totally happy to say "sure." Locus is small, privately owned, and has a dedicated staff working hard to put it out on a monthly basis. As such, they don't do many promotions—this is a great opportunity, and a better deal. To whit:

***

Locus Holiday Special—New Subscriptions Only!

Digital Deal: January-June 2015 Digital Subscription for $15.00 (normally $27.00)

Print Special: Give a 12 or 24 issue Print Subscription, and get a Free Issue! (Get one free issue added to a gift subscription, OR to your own!)

Upon purchase you will receive a PDF holiday gift card suitable for printing or sharing (with art by Francesca Myman). Get more information and make your purchase here:

http://www.lsff.net/holidayspecial/

The perfect stocking stuffer for the science fiction fan or new author on your list! Offer expires December 31, 2014.

***

Check out their website and see if this is maybe something you can get behind. They're a great bunch of people doing good work, and this is an amazing value for an equally amazing magazine.

In December of 2013, we followed Istas and Ryan through "Red as Snow," which appeared in the December issue of Fiction River, subtitled Hex in the City. (Need more details on Fiction River? Look no further than this link.)

In January of 2014, we followed them through "Black as Blood," and met Ryan's family.

It's time to finish things.

Ryan and Istas have been together for a while now, and while he's ready to take the next step in their relationship, she still has a few loose ends to be tied off. Like her father, who became her husband when her mother died, and is still waiting for her at the top of the world.

You can download "White as a Raven's Wing" now from the InCryptid short fiction page. While this story is best read after "Red as Snow" and "Black as Blood," it should stand reasonably well on its own, providing you have any familiarity with the InCryptid setting. (If you don't, there's a lot of short fiction set earlier in the world continuity also posted on that page. Enjoy!)

Please download and read locally, rather than reading on my server.

This also serves as your discussion post.

If you are a creative professional, it is a sad reality that self-promotion is a part of your job. Maybe that wasn't always true; maybe there was a time when you could emerge from your creative chambers, hand your latest piece of deathless art to your agent, and then retreat back into your office fastness to keep creating. But alas, we do not live in that possibly mythic world, and if you work in the arts, at all, you need to be willing to sell yourself to whatever degree, and in whatever manner, you are comfortable.

Maybe it's social media updates. Maybe it's occasional blog posts. Maybe it's setting up a mailing list. There are a lot of ways to do self-promotion, and since I consider sincerity to be the most important thing of all, there's really no wrong way. As long as you're comfortable and happy and not drowning in your update links, you're probably okay.

But here's the thing. There is a line between "self-promotion" and "spam," and while that line is usually pretty visible, it's also easy to cross, even without intending to. I schedule Current Projects posts; make Inchworm Girl posts once a week at max; and try to do sales announcements and convention announcements when it will have the greatest impact. It is thus possible—not likely, but possible—that all three of these things could happen on the same day. That would seem a little spammy, and take away from all three. It would also still be confined to my space, which you can read at your leisure, if you read it at all.

The same goes for Twitter. On and around book release day, I get very "OMG BOOK" for about, oh, 80% of my Tweets. I lose a few followers every time I have a book come out, since the rest of the time, my Twitter is very much "here are pictures of my cats and snarky comments about my doll collection." (Most of those followers come back again about a week later, when the book stuff dies down.) And that's fine! I am shouting and running around within my own space, they aren't interested, they go to the corner store for some milk and bread and come back when things are back to normal. This is all totally awesome.

The trouble, for me, comes when self-promotion begins going into other peoples' spaces without being invited. An example:

Last week I tweeted about how my sister is a nervous flier. Within twenty minutes I had received an unsolicited tweet from a retired commercial pilot who does not normally follow me, with a link to his book on calming fears of flying. Now, this may seem like he's just being helpful, but again, he does not follow me, and I did not ask for advice. This is a stranger who clearly has some standard searches coming across my comment and deciding that he can use it to profit.

I told him that what he was doing was spamming, and he asked why I was making such a fuss. The reason is simple: because he came into my space, without my asking him to, and tried to sell me something I had not asked for. He was spamming.

Something I see with much more frequency, although also on Twitter (and, in a modified form, on Facebook), is people @-checking random groups of authors/fans/whatever with "Hey, think about it, Soviet steampunk [link to book]." Again, this is not encouraging me to buy your book, or even to look at it. This is spamming.

It's different when you're doing it in your own space, or when you've been solicited. If I Tweet "What should I be reading?" and you give me a link to your awesome Shakespearean detective erotica, we're all good. If I click over to your feed and it's two-thirds self-promo, that's cool too. But once you come into my space, you'd best be sure you were invited. By the same token, if I'm coming into your space, I'd best be sure that I was invited.

Anything else is likely to turn my serious message into a piece of unwanted lunch meat.

...looking out on Carterha, among the roses green.

So it's basically 2015 here now, with one remaining 2014 publication and no remaining 2014 travel. But there's plenty coming up in 2015! I hope to see you there, as I sleep on couches and in hotel beds all around the globe.

Publications

"White As A Raven's Wing," December 9 (website).

"No Sooner Met," January 6, 2015 (website).
"Broken Paper Hearts," February 14, 2015 (website).
"Animal Husbandry" (reprint), February 24, 2015 (Wastelands 2).
Pocket Apocalypse, March 3, 2015.
"There is No Room For Sorrow in the Kingdom of the Cold," March 10, 2015 (The Doll Collector).
"In Skeleton Leaves," April 7, 2015 (Operation Arcana).
Rolling in the Deep, April 7, 2015 (Subterranean Press, limited edition).
"That Nitro-9 That You're Not Carrying: Violence and the Companion," April 7, 2015 (Companion Piece).
"The Myth of Rain," May 1, 2015 (Lightspeed Magazine).
"The Moon Inside," July 7, 2015 (Midian Unmade).
A Red-Rose Chain, September 1, 2015.
Chimera, November 24, 2015.

"Long Way Down," unknown (Genius Loci).
"Opening Band," unknown (The Paul and Storminomicon).

Conventions/Appearances/Travel

ConNooga, February 27-March 1 2015, Chattanooga TN.
Emerald City Comic Con, March 27-29 2015, Seattle WA.
Eastercon: Dysprosium, April 3-5 2015, London England.
Pike's Peak Writer's Conference, April 24-26 2015, Colorado Springs CO.
BayCon, May 22-25 2015, Santa Clara CA.
Westercon 68, July 2-5 2015, San Diego CA.
San Diego International Comic-Con, July 9-12 2015, San Diego CA.
Contraflow V, October 2-5 2015, New Orleans LA.
Tuscon, October 30-November 1 2015, Tuscon AZ.
Chessiecon, November 27-29 2015, Baltimore MD.

No fixed deadline/being written/unsold:

The Best Thing
"Every Heart a Doorway, Every Word a Prayer"
"Target Practice"
"Waking Up In Vegas"
"Fiber"
"Carry Me Home"
"Pixie Season"
"These Antique Fables"
"Coming To You Live"
"Never After"
"Hit the Boom"
"Love is the Silence Before the Shadow"
Echo

Again, to clarify some recent confusion: some things, especially novel-length things, may appear more than once, on both the "publication date" and "being written" lists. This is because the "being written" list is an aggregate, which also includes "no fixed deadline" (IE, being written on spec or for the website) and "unsold" (IE, being written because I can). So new books will appear there for a long time before they vanish, since books take a long time to write, but may also have pub dates listed higher up.

Look at that list. It's so shiny!

Reminder the first: If you have requested/purchased a tank top from me, I need two things from you. I need payment, following the instructions in my reply to your comment (please, please send it "friends and family," so I can actually afford to ship), and I need you to use my website contact form to send me your mailing address. Putting your mailing address into PayPal does not actually help me. I have a stack of shirts waiting to be mailed, and their information is not in my inbox, my PA's inbox, or my spam filter.

Please, please, help me get you the things you pay for, and if you haven't paid for them, please either pay or tell me you've changed your mind, so that I can release them back into the general stock.

Reminder the second: If you wanted to order signed or personalized books from Borderlands Books in San Francisco, I'm going there on Friday, around five o'clock in the afternoon, to sign whatever's on order. I can't guarantee that I'll get there again before the end of the year, so this is your one shot to get that signed book that will make you a hero in your best friend's eyes!

Please remember that I do not take requests for "send me a book and I'll sign it." Those always pick up around the holidays, and well. I'm just not good enough at going to the post office for things that are not "oh sweet Great Pumpkin get all these boxes out of my living room" to be reliable. Going through Borderlands is the one way to be sure.

And that is all for tonight.

Since Symbiont dropped two days before Thanksgiving, and the open thread for the book consequentially went up while most of us were in heavy holiday prep, here is a reminder:

The open thread for Symbiont discussion is located right over here.

As always, I have partial comment amnesty—I won't be replying to everything, or even to most things, but you can assume that I will be reading them all. If you want to have a discussion free from the potential for authorial interference, the forum discussion link is here. I will not read the forum topic, so you don't need to worry that I'll suddenly reply to you when you just wanted to chat with other readers.

Thanks for reading, everybody. I couldn't do it without you.

(Comments have been disabled, on account of this isn't the discussion post, and I like to keep all the spoilers in one place.)

10. It's December! That is...terrifying and amazing and lots of other things, but mostly, it's a huge relief, because I don't have anywhere to go for the rest of the year. Oh, I have a lot of local commitments, parties and appearances and a doll meet-up, but nothing that requires travel. I get to sleep in my own bed, snuggle my cats, and clean my house for an entire month. I am ridiculously excited about this.

9. A lot of folks are doing their holiday shopping right now, which is swell! I posted the holiday book buying reminder yesterday. You can also contact Mysterious Galaxy, in San Diego, for signed copies of Out of Tune, and for copies of Dead But Not Forgotten signed by Charlaine Harris, Toni Kelner, and a bunch of the authors (myself included). Support independent bookstores this holiday season.

8. Or maybe you're buying stuff from me, posters and T-shirts and the like. If you are, please use the PayPal option for sending money to friends and family. There are a few reasons for this. First off, I am still not a store: I am literally pricing things to cover cost of item + cost of postage. Having huge whacks of money vanish into PayPal fees makes this a loss, and means I have to start charging more to be able to afford to ship things. Secondly, you know how I always say "please send me your shipping info via this other channel"? I have found that people who chose "goods and services" are more likely to ignore that request, because they've already provided a shipping address, and if I were a store, I'd be able to access that data. Not a store. Cannot access easily. Please don't.

7. The new Pokemon game is not making me as happy as I wanted it to. I am sure I will enjoy the post-game, where it's apparently LEGENDARYPALOOZA, but I am not enjoying my Pokemon journey, and that makes me sad.

6. Thomas, who has always been an asshole, has taken his assholing to new heights in his glee that I am home. Lots of purring, lots of cuddling, lots of knocking things off shelves to demonstrate that he is still the boss of all he surveys. Thomas is going to be mittens if he doesn't cut this shit out.

5. I will be doing the Thirteen Days of Hogswatch again this year, beginning on December 12th and continuing until December 24th. The introductory post will go up on December 11th. The prizes, drawing times, response times, and requirements for each day are not negotiable; if I say "I must hear from you by X time for you to win," and you think you might not be able to check your email on, say, Christmas, I am very sorry, but I do mean it. I can't have people claiming prizes weeks after the drawing. I'm just not set up for that. But hey, I am giving away so much stuff.

4. I missed the October tip jar, which means we're running out of prioritized free fiction. I don't want to open a tip jar in December (holidays), but I may go ahead and do it in January. (Or we may have to pay for all the bodywork on Mom's car, in which case, I will not only open the tip jar, I will dance on freeways if that's what it takes.)

3. Oh, yeah: some asshole hit Mom's car on Thanksgiving night. The damage isn't massive, but she was parked at the time, and we didn't see it happen. Now we need to get the bodywork done to fix the dent on the side of her car, before rust sets in and everything gets buckets more expensive. Whee. (Yes, she has insurance, but the deductible is huge, especially if we can't produce another driver.)

2. I'm going to see The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County on Friday! I'm so excited!

1. Jean Grey is not dead right now and it's making me cranky.

That's my list. What's new with you?

Hello, world!

Next week (hopefully on Friday, December 5th), I'm going to go by Borderlands Books to sign anything that is waiting for me to sign it (and that has been paid for, in the case of something that needs to be personalized; I cannot stress enough how important it is to actually pay for things). While I can't guarantee that anything ordered as a holiday gift will get to you before the holidays, I can't say it's impossible, either. So! Do you want to give a signed, personalized book to the person of your choice, after exchanging money for it? Here's how!

1. Contact Borderlands Books (http://borderlands-books.com/) in San Francisco, California. You can contact them by either email or phone; check the website for specific options.

2. Order books! You have to tell them which ones, naturally, and whether you want them signed and personalized, or just signed. Personalized books must be paid for up-front. You can request a specific inscription. Some inscriptions (ie, my phone number) will be refused, although your book will still be signed.

3. While you're at it, order anything else that you'd like to get. I mean, hello, bookstore, and you're already paying for shipping, so why the heck not? May I recommend The Girl With All the Gifts, by M.K. Carey? Or Libromancer, by Jim Hines? Or Unbound, by Sarah Reese Brennan (sequel to Untold)?

4. Give the store any information they need, like shipping address and billing and stuff.

5. The store will contact me, and I'll go in and sign things!

But wait, you cry! What books are currently available?

TOBY: Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses, One Salt Sea, Ashes of Honor, Chimes at Midnight, and The Winter Long.

INCRYPTID: Discount Armageddon, Midnight Blue-Light Special, and Half-Off Ragnarok.

NEWSFLESH: Feed, Deadline, Blackout, the Newsflesh box set, When Will You Rise.

VELVETEEN: Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots and Velveteen vs. The Multiverse.

OTHER: Parasite, Symbiont, Sparrow Hill Road.

ANTHOLOGIES: The Living Dead 2 (Newsflesh-universe story); Home Improvement: Undead Edition (Toby-universe story); Zombiesque; Westward Weird (Incryptid-universe story); Tales From the Ur-Bar; Human For a Day; The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity; Other Worlds Than These; Human Tales; Grants Pass; The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination; Glitter & Mayhem (Incryptid-universe story); Raygun Chronicles; Carniepunk (Incryptid-universe story); Oz Reimagined; Coins of Chaos (Rose Marshall story); Women Destroy Science Fiction; Dead Man's Hand (Incryptid-universe story); Dead But Not Forgotten; Shattered Shields (Toby-universe story); Games Creatures Play (Incryptid-universe story).

Because Borderlands does not carry non-fiction, none of the Mad Norwegian Press titles are available from them.

Any questions?

(Post concept gleefully stolen from John Scalzi. I love you, John!)

To celebrate the release of Symbiont, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book. Because nothing says "Thanksgiving" like "tapeworms." Judging by the comments I'm seeing, some of you have had time, and I'd really, really rather book discussion (sometimes including spoilers) didn't crop up on other posts.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned. (I will not reply to every comment; I call partial comment amnesty. But I may well join some of the discussion, or answer questions or whatnot.) I will be DELETING all comments containing spoilers which have been left on other posts. No one gets to spoil people here without a label.

You can also start a discussion at my website forums, with less need to be concerned that I will see everything you say! In case you wanted, you know, discussion free of authorial influence, since I always wind up getting involved in these things.

Have fun, and try not to bleed on the carpet.

...I fell hard, head over heels.

This is the remainder of my 2014, with travel dates and everything. Beautiful travel dates. Hope to see you in the months to come! We are now solidly into 2015, as 2014 slides toward leaving. Which is terrifying in its own right, if you think about it.

Publications

"White As A Raven's Wing," December 9 (website).

"No Sooner Met," January 6, 2015 (website).
"Broken Paper Hearts," February 14, 2015 (website).
"The Happiest Place...," February 24, 2015 (Wastelands 2).
"Animal Husbandry" (reprint), February 24, 2015 (Wastelands 2).
Pocket Apocalypse, March 3, 2015.
"There is No Room For Sorrow in the Kingdom of the Cold," March 10, 2015 (The Doll Collector).
"In Skeleton Leaves," April 7, 2015 (Operation Arcana).
Rolling in the Deep, April 7, 2015 (Subterranean Press, limited edition).
"That Nitro-9 That You're Not Carrying: Violence and the Companion," April 7, 2015 (Companion Piece).
"The Myth of Rain," May 1, 2015 (Lightspeed Magazine).
"The Moon Inside," July 7, 2015 (Midian Unmade).
A Red-Rose Chain, September 1, 2015.
Chimera, November 24, 2015.

"Long Way Down," unknown (Genius Loci).
"Opening Band," unknown (The Paul and Storminomicon).

Conventions/Appearances/Travel

Small Business Saturday at Mysterious Galaxy Books, November 29, San Diego CA.

ConNooga, February 27-March 1 2015, Chattanooga TN.
Emerald City Comic Con, March 27-29 2015, Seattle WA.
Eastercon: Dysprosium, April 3-5 2015, London England.
BayCon, May 22-25 2015, Santa Clara CA.
Westercon 68, July 2-5 2015, San Diego CA.
Tuscon, October 30-November 1 2015, Tuscon AZ.
Chessiecon, November 27-29 2015, Baltimore MD.

No fixed deadline/being written/unsold:

The Best Thing
"Target Practice"
"Waking Up In Vegas"
"Fiber"
"Carry Me Home"
"Pixie Season"
"These Antique Fables"
"Coming To You Live"
"Black Out"
"Untold Truths"
"Mirror's Face"
"Never After"
"Velveteen vs. The Thaw"
"Hit the Boom"
"Love is the Silence Before the Shadow"
Echo

Again, to clarify some recent confusion: some things, especially novel-length things, may appear more than once, on both the "publication date" and "being written" lists. This is because the "being written" list is an aggregate, which also includes "no fixed deadline" (IE, being written on spec or for the website) and "unsold" (IE, being written because I can). So new books will appear there for a long time before they vanish, since books take a long time to write, but may also have pub dates listed higher up.

Look at that list. It's so shiny!

As of today, Symbiont is officially available from bookstores all over North America and the United Kingdom, and from import stores all over the world. It's been spotted in the wild from California to New York, with several points between also chiming in to let me know that they've got copies. Hooray!

Since it's release week, I figured it was time to once again answer the wonderful people asking how they can help. So here are a few dos and don'ts for making this book launch awesome.

DO buy the book as soon as you can. Sales during the first week are very important—think of it as "opening weekend" for a movie—but they're not the end-all be-all. If you can get the book tomorrow, get the book; if you can get it at my book release party next month, get it at my book release party. Whatever works for you. Brick-and-mortar store purchases are best, as they encourage reordering. If you've already bought the book, consider buying the book again during release week, as a single copy might get lonely. They make great gifts!

DON'T yell at other people who haven't bought the book yet. I know, that's sort of a "why are you saying this?" statement, but I got a very sad email from a teenager who'd been yelled at for not buying A Local Habitation the week that it came out. So just be chill. Unless you want to buy books for people who don't have them, in which case, don't yell, just buy.

DO ask your local bookstore if they have it on order. If your local store is part of a large chain, such as Barnes and Noble, the odds are good that the answer will be "yes," and that they'll be more than happy to hold one for you. If your local store is small, and does not focus specifically on science fiction/fantasy, they may have been waiting to see signs of interest before placing an order. Get interested! Interest is awesome!

DON'T berate your local bookseller if they say "no." Telling people they're overlooking something awesome doesn't make them go "gosh, I see the error of my ways." It makes them go "well, I guess it can be awesome without me." Suggest. Ask if you can special-order a copy. But don't be nasty to people just because their shelves can't hold every book ever written.

DO post reviews on your blog or on Amazon.com. Reviews are fantastic! Reviews make everything better! Please, write and post a review, even if it's just "I liked it." Honestly, even if it's just "this wasn't really my thing." As long as you're being fair and reasoned in your commentary, I'm thrilled. (I like to think you won't all race right out to post one-star reviews, but if that's what you really think, I promise that I won't be mad.)

DON'T get nasty at people who post negative reviews. You are all people. You all have a right to the ball. That includes people who don't like my work. Please don't argue with negative reviewers on my behalf. It just makes everybody sad. If you really think someone's being unfair, why don't you post your own review, to present an alternate perspective? (Also, please don't email me my Amazon reviews. I don't read them, I don't want to read them, and I definitely don't want to be surprised with them. Please have mercy.)

DO feel free to get multiple copies. No, you probably don't need eight copies for your permanent collection, but remember that libraries, school libraries, and shelters are always in need of books. I'm donating a few of my author's copies to a local women's shelter, because they get a lot of women there who really need the escape. There are also people who just can't afford their own copies, and would be delighted. I wouldn't have had half the library I did as a teenager if it weren't for the kindness of the people around me.

DON'T feel obligated to get multiple copies, or pressure other people to do so. Seriously, we're all on budgets, and too much aggressive press can actually turn people off on a good thing. Let people make their own choices. Have faith.

DO check with your local library to be sure they have a copy of on order. If they don't, you can fill out a library request form. Spread the paperback love!

DON'T forget that libraries need books. Many libraries, especially on the high school level, are really strapped for cash right now, and book donations are frequently tax deductible. If you have a few bucks to spare, you can improve the world on multiple levels by donating books to your local public and high school libraries.

DO suggest the book to bookstore employees who like bio-medical science fiction. Nothing boosts sales like having people in the stores who really like a project. If your Cousin Danny (or Dani) works at a bookstore, say "Hey, why don't you give this a try?" It just might help.

DON'T rearrange bookstore displays. If the staff of my local bookstore is constantly being forced to deal with fixing the shelves after someone "helpfully" rearranged things to give their chosen favorites a better position, they're unlikely to feel well inclined toward that book—or author. It's not a good thing to piss off the bookstores. Let's just not.

So those are some things. I'm sure there are lots of other things to consider; this is, at least, a start. Finally, a few things that don't help the book, but do help the me:

Please don't expect immediate email response from me for anything short of "you promised us this interview, it runs tomorrow, where are your answers?" I normally make an effort to be a semi-competent correspondent, but with a new book on shelves and final edits due on A Red-Rose Chain, a lot of things are falling by the wayside. Like sleep.

If you're in the Bay Area, I hope to see you tonight at 7PM at Borderlands Books, where I will be reading, signing, and running a raffle for your enjoyment!

Whee!

Shirts are here! So many shirts. A terrifying number of shirts.

What happens next.

1. We keep the boxes closed. Seriously, they are sealed. Because I have cats, and they are long-haired cats, and we need to keep the shirts allergen-free as long as possible.

2. On December 7th, which is a Sunday, we unseal the boxes and spend many, many hours stuffing shirts into envelopes.

3. Because December 7th is a Sunday, we begin mailing on Monday, December 8th. Yes, during the holiday shipping season. Yes, I am unhappy about this. No, there is not another way without keeping all these shirts in my house until January, which isn't fair to any of the people involved.

Shirts will be mailed in batches of twenty (packages, not necessarily individual shirts), with no more than five international shirts per batch. This is out of mercy to my post office. There are 402 shirts total. Assuming an average of two shirts per package, this gives us 201 packages, or roughly ten days'-worth of trips to the post office. I'm hoping to be done with mailing by December 19th. This should get them to most US addresses by Christmas.

As noted before, shirts will not be mailed with tracking numbers, and I will not be able to tell you which batch your shirt is in.

Shirts!

PA the First (Kate) informs me that she has sent over all the mail submitted via the contact form.

I am missing the shipping info for several tank tops.

Y'all, if you have purchased a tank top from me, I really, truly, genuinely need you to go to my contact form, located here:

http://seananmcguire.com/contact.php

...and use it to send me a) your mailing address, and b) the handle associated with your request, as noted on my reply to your initial comment. I can't reliably get address info from PayPal, on account of not being a store and not using a graphic browser for that email address. Please. I can't send your stuff until you tell me where to send it, and I want these shirts to go away.

Please.

Slasher Chicks shirts.

I have opened a new Slasher Chicks tank top sales post right over here. While I won't say with 100% certainty that there's not a shirt mistakenly shoved into a different box, so far as I am aware, the currently posted numbers represent all the remaining stock of this design. Once they're gone they're gone, unless I find a really good reason to reprint, and even if I do, that won't be happening for a year or more (probably more). So check it out! They're great, soft, fitted tanks, stretchy and comfy and cool.

But wait, there's more.

If you do decide to buy a tank top for yourself or as a Hogswatch gift, I will tell you to PayPal an email address, and ask you to send your mailing info via my contact form. What this means is that I need you to PayPal an email address, and send your mailing info via my contact form. My PayPal is connected to a very old email account that doesn't include a graphic mail client, and extracting shipping info from PayPal notifications is borderline impossible. Meaning I won't mail your shirt until I receive an email with your contact info.

More old ARCs!

I have some leftover ARCs of The Winter Long for the crafters and creative people of the world to claim and enjoy. Because they're heavy, I would prefer to only mail them domestically, as I will have to charge postage; basically, it would be cheaper to buy a new paperback and cut that up if you're in a country other than the US. (I say "prefer" because sometimes you really need an ARC for a specific craft. Like the friend in England who turned one of my ARCs into paper roses for her wedding bouquet.)

As I said above, I do need to charge postage this time, so it'll be $5 for an ARC to a US address, and postage to be determined for an ARC to anywhere else. I won't sign them; these are intended for craft use, not collectable use. Comment with your location if you want one.

Shirt status.

Still not on my doorstep.

Monster High status.

Looking for the entire Haunted Line, looking for all Gloom and Bloom except for Jane Boolittle, looking for Freaky Field Trip, not looking for Geek Shriek because fuck that line.

Cat status.

Puffy.

What's new and cool in the land of you?

I'm home from my last convention of 2014, and am selling some more Slasher Chicks tank tops to make room in my staging area. Be a roller derby hipster in a shirt for a team that doesn't exist! With art by the fabulous Sfe Monster, this was our first experiment with printing on bright colors for fun times. All tanks are fitted (no straight cuts this time, I'm afraid).

I am still not 100% sure what I have, and will be posting shirts here as I locate them, so watch here for updates. Currently, we have:

Dark gray, out of stock.

Heather gray, S x2
Heather gray, M x4
Heather gray, L x4
Heather gray, XL x3

(NOTE: This is ALL the remaining shirt stock in heather gray. No further sizes available.)

Orange, S x3
Orange, M x5
Orange, L x4
Orange, XL x3
Orange, 2XL x6

(NOTE: This is ALL the remaining shirt stock in orange. No further sizes available.)

Pink, S x2
Pink, M x4
Pink, L x1
Pink, XL x2

(NOTE: This is ALL the remaining shirt stock in pink. No further sizes available.)

Purple, out of stock.

Red, M x3
Red, L x6
Red, XL x9
Red, 2XL x1

(NOTE: This is ALL the remaining shirt stock in red. No further sizes available.)

Yellow, L x4
Yellow, XL x5
Yellow, 2XL x3

(NOTE: This is ALL the remaining shirt stock in yellow. No further sizes available.)

All shirts are $20 + $5 shipping US/$12 shipping International. If you want a shirt, comment here, and I'll provide payment info and all that fun stuff. You must comment here to request a shirt. Do not use LJ messenger or send me email, or anything else. Just comment here. I will be making a mail run next week, so shirts ordered now should reach their recipients before the holidays.

ETA: Folks, the instructions given when you place a request (IE, PayPal to one place and send your mailing address to another) are not optional. I cannot easily extract your mailing info from the PayPal alert. I need you to send it through my contact form. Until you do, even paid-for shirts will not be mailed.

Title: Velveteen Presents The Princess vs. Public Relations.
Summary: And now for something completely different. Velveteen is gone, and the Princess still has a job to do. No matter how much she doesn’t want to do it.

( The Princess scowled at her reflection. Her reflection scowled back...Collapse )

I have just received the email from the shirt shop (like, today) letting me know that the Wicked Girls and My Story Is Not Done shirts are finished! Hooray! This means they should be hitting my doorstep right around, oh, Thanksgiving.

I am not mailing shirts on Thanksgiving.

If you need to update your mailing address, now is the time. I will aim to have the mailing party to get these out in early December. Once we hit the party, your shirt goes to the address we have on file. Because opening the boxes will expose their contents to cat hair, I am not doing any mailing before the party. So I will not crack open five boxes of shirts to find your shirt in specific. I am very sorry about this. I am not going to mail hair-encrusted shirts to all our allergic people just to make a deadline I didn't agree to. This particular batch has taken a long time. Some of that is my fault (two months in Europe); some of it is not (people not responding to email/sending in their payments). Regardless, we're moving right along.

When shirts do start going out, it will be in large batches, without tracking. Tracking was not calculated as part of the initial postage cost, and is not something I can afford to do, either money or time-wise. If you have a huge, specific concern, please contact the merch address; we may be able to arrange for you to pay extra and get a tracking number. This will automatically move your shirt to the back of the queue, as it will require additional time at the post office.

Also, this is the appropriate time to note that I will not be doing further bespoke shirt runs. We've been as upfront as we can throughout this process about the fact that it makes no money, and that all updates will be posted here. If you look back through the "people make things" tag, you'll see that I have regularly updated when there was something to say. This hasn't stopped people from using every avenue they could find to ask for updates. It hasn't stopped people from mailing Deborah over and over again. I understand the need to know what's going on, but honestly, I said "this is the situation," and people didn't listen. I can't do things like this if people don't want to follow the rules and listen to the updates. I'm so sorry that there will not be a fourth print run.

But let's end on a positive note: shirts soon! And they should be gorgeous. I am so excited.

Thank you.

I am extremely excited to remind you all that I-as-Mira Grant will be returning to San Francisco's own Borderlands Books on Tuesday, November 25th, to celebrate the release of Symbiont.

In this sequel to 2013's Parasite, everything that was bad already gets much, much worse, with the war between the humans and the tapeworms reaching a horrifying new peak. As a reminder, this is a trilogy now: I couldn't wrap everything up in just two volumes, and Chimera will be coming out in 2015. So while I really, really want you to buy this book and feed my cats, I can't promise to put a tidy bow on things just yet.

Actually, I can promise the exact opposite.

On a sideways but related note, Borderlands also has a limited number of copies of Harvest Season, the new anthology from the SF Squeecast. With cover art by the lovely Ursula Vernon, this book boasts three never before seen novellas, two short stories, and a poem. The copies in the store are also signed by all the authors, and the cover artist. So they're super-special, and way pretty, and make great gifts. (Because copies are so limited, they are not on the Biblio page: you need to contact the bookstore directly. Retail is $25 USD.)

I hope to see you next week!

Every month I make a post to tell folks what I'm working on, a) because it seems polite, b) because it keeps me accountable, if only to myself, and c) so you will understand why I do not have a social life. This is the October 2014 post.

To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the bizarre urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Symbiont and Pocket Apocalypse). A Red-Rose Chain, Chimera, and Chaos Choreography are off the list because they're finished and in revisions with the Machete Squad. The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

Not everything on this list has been sold. I will not discuss the sale status of anything which has not been publicly announced. If you can't remember whether I've announced something, check the relevant tag, or go to my website, at www.seananmcguire.com. Please do not ask why project X is no longer on the list. I will not answer you.

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

FRIDAY.

I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue, 4:00 PM, Lilac C. The antidote to panel games. Two teams enjoy a battle of wits and are given silly things to do by the moderator. Come and place your bets on SF Squeecast versus SF Squeecast. With game host Heath Miller. Me, Heath, Lynne and Michael Thomas, Catherynne Valente, all the fucks I have to give. ALL THE FUCKS.

Opening Ceremonies, 7:00 PM, Junior Ballroom BC. Quote, "Don't miss out on this rare chance to see all of our Guests together in one room! Join us as we kick off the convention weekend!" So, you know, there we shall be.

ISFiC Press Book Launch Party , 9:00 PM, ISFiC Suite. Come by for the official release of the SF Squeecast's new anthology from
ISFiC Press, Harvest Season. The authors will be there and there will be cake. What's not to like? Also, this is the best place to obtain our brand new book, with a brand new Fighting Pumpkins story! Hooray!

SATURDAY.

SF Squeecast Podcast, 11:30 AM, Grand Ballroom GH. We're recording the Squeecast! You can come and watch! It'll be fun, we promise.

Reading, 2:00 PM, Boardroom. I'm reading stuff. I'm probs reading from Harvest Season. Come and read along!

Seanan McGuire & Friends Live In Concert, 4:00 PM, Junior Ballroom BC. Did you know I was a musician? Did you know I knew a lot of musicians? Did you know I was dating a musician, who will probably have to fiddle the Devil for my soul very soon? Yeah. Come see the concert, maybe buy some CDs and T-shirts, enjoy music, watch Amy make the fiddle-bliss face. It'll be fun! It will also be followed immediately by Bill and Brenda Sutton in concert, so hey, you don't have to move again until it's time for Barfleet!

SUNDAY.

Autographs, 11:00 AM, Autographing Tables. I am signing! I am signing with P.D. Anderson, J.L. Nye, and M. Resnick. Yay!

Closing Ceremonies, 2:00 PM, Junior Ballroom BC. Again, to quote: "This is your last chance to see all of our amazing guests. The party award winners will be announced, and you will find out what we have in store for you next year!" See you there!

I am pleased as punch to let you all know, if you didn't know already, that pre-orders for Rolling in the Deep are now open. This gorgeous hardcover Mira Grant novella has never appeared anywhere else, and introduces a whole new world of submarine terror. What if there were mermaids? What would they look like?

What would they eat?

The signed and numbered edition which is currently being offered is limited to 1,000 beautiful copies, and will make a fantastic Hogswatch gift. I'm so excited!

Now, to answer a few questions:

Will there be a cheaper edition?

I do not know, for I am not the publisher. Probably, going by the way they usually do things, but it's not my call. Please do not complain about the cost of the hardback. It's a gorgeous book, I understand that not everyone can afford it, and that's part of why it's set in a new world, not a pre-existing one.

Will there be an ebook edition?

The publisher has indicated that there will, but this is 100% of the information I have. Please direct any questions about timing or price to the publisher.

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

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

Anyway, here you go:

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

I (as Mira Grant) was asking to put together a list of potential pandemics for Buzzfeed. I like anything that gives me an excuse to wallow in delicious virology, so...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/orbitbooks/10-epidemics-waiting-to-happen-that-you-wonat-e-16hk

Enjoy, and remember, medical science is more interested in keeping you alive than it is in cutting you up and reassembling you as a shambling horror.

Most of the time.

Have you ever wanted to know more about the Luidaeg before she changed her name? To see Blind Michael before he turned away from the light he had never been able to see? Have you ever wondered how the old world of Faerie faded into the new world of Men?

There are some answers to be had, if you know where to look.

I am pleased to announce that my short story, "The Fixed Stars," featuring Antigone of Albany in the long, dark days of her youth, is available now in the anthology Shattered Shields, edited by my well-beloved Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt. Tales of military fantasy! War, barbarous and bloody!

Glory, glory.

Pick it up; give it a read. And if you're feeling really ambitious, I'm going to be swinging by Borderlands Books tomorrow on my way to the airport, so if you called them and ordered a copy tonight, you could even get it signed.

War is a science.

Antigone was a scientist.

It's review roundup time! The time where the points are made up and the prizes don't matter. Today's reviews are all blasts from the deep past, beginning with...

From 2012, Fangs For the Fantasy has posted a good, thorough review of An Artificial Night, and says, "Relatedly, Toby is a much stronger, more active participant in this book. She isn't being constantly injured and recovering (though she is injured) nor is she flailing around without seeming to know what to do next and letting events happen. She's more active, she’s leading the plot, she's directing the plot and she's resolving the plot very much on her terms." There's also some excellent, spot-on commentary about diversity in the cast as of this point in the series.

From 2011, SFFWorld has posted an excellent, if spoiler-heavy review of Deadline. Not recommended unless you've read Feed. The review says, "The Newsflesh Trilogy is turning into one of my favorite SF stories and one that is continuing to surprise me&mdsp;up until the very end of Deadline. This second installment raises the stakes considerably and brings new players into the game, while maintaining the blistering pace of Feed, its predecessor. I can’t say enough good things about this novel, which has made the concluding volume Blackout, quite possibly my most anticipated novel publishing in 2012." Yay!

From 2012, Cannonball Read has posted a review of Late Eclipses, and says, "While I’ve enjoyed the previous three October Daye books, and especially admired the world building, this is the first one I actually had trouble putting down." Neat!

Also from 2012, Cannonball Read has posted a review of One Salt Sea, and recommends you not start at this point in the series. I love this sort of recommendation.

Finally (for now), from 2012, Fangs For the Fantasy has posted a review of One Salt Sea, and says, "All in all, this book got so much right. The balance between emotion and plot, the pacing, the main character and the rich, amazing world that it not only continued a great series in the same line but took it a step higher as well. I loved this book and am eager to read the second one&mbspthis series is heartily recommended." I'm assuming "second" means "next." She also fairly called me out on "crazy" as shorthand in the early Toby books, and I've tried to unpack more about what's actually going on with fae biology and behavior because of critiques like this one.

You may have noticed that all these reviews are old, and that newer reviews are getting rare. There's a reason for that. Whether I'm more secure (I don't feel like I am), more exhausted (I do feel like I am), or whether more bloggers have just moved to Goodreads and Amazon, I don't pull as many review links as I used to. That may change when I finish clearing the backlog, or I may decide that this ship's time has sailed.

We shall see.

With Nanowrimo in full swing, I thought it was time to break out a few helpful links for those few, those brave few, those band of frumious bandersnatches who were fighting their way through this tulgy wood.

This is a blog post from 2011, from Literary Lab, and you should read it. Regardless of whether you're doing Nanowrimo, really, because it has some very helpful things to say.

You can read my original fifty thoughts on writing here. I still need to finish the essay series that goes with it, but the thoughts are solid, and I continue to stand by them.

There are a lot of resources out there to help you, and I hope you have the best November ever. I hope every one of you hits the finish line with a glorious and resounding "gong." I also hope that if you don't make your final goal, that you won't give up on your new project (or the old one you dusted off for this exercise). I don't often finish books in a single month, and I am essentially a word Olympian right now, constantly in training, constantly trying to beat my best time. So however far you get in this sprint, it is amazing and you are amazing, and you should feel good about yourself.

Happy Nanowrimo, and happy November to all of you.

...the worst is just around the bend.

This is the shape of my 2014, with travel dates and everything. Beautiful travel dates. Hope to see you in the months to come! We are now solidly into 2015, as 2014 fades into winter and slides toward leaving. Which is terrifying in its own right, if you think about it.

Publications

"The Fixed Stars," November 4 (Shattered Shields).
"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Numbers," November 11 (Chicks Dig Gaming: A Celebration of All Things Gaming by the Women Who Love It).
"Turn the Year Around," November 14 (Harvest Season).
"Driving Jenny Home," November 17 (Out of Tune).
Symbiont, November 25.
"Knit A Sweater Out of Sky" (print edition), November 25 (Dead But Not Forgotten).
"White As A Raven's Wing," December 9 (website).

"No Sooner Met," January 6, 2015 (website).
"Broken Paper Hearts," February 14, 2015 (website).
"The Happiest Place...," February 24, 2015 (Wastelands 2).
"Animal Husbandry" (reprint), February 24, 2015 (Wastelands 2).
Pocket Apocalypse, March 3, 2015.
"There is No Room For Sorrow in the Kingdom of the Cold," March 10, 2015 (The Doll Collector).
"In Skeleton Leaves," April 7, 2015 (Operation Arcana).
Rolling in the Deep, April 7, 2015 (Subterranean Press, limited edition).
"That Nitro-9 That You're Not Carrying: Violence and the Companion," April 7, 2015 (Companion Piece).
"The Myth of Rain," May 1, 2015 (Lightspeed Magazine).
"The Moon Inside," July 7, 2015 (Midian Unmade).
A Red-Rose Chain, September 1, 2015.
Chimera, November 24, 2015.

"Long Way Down," unknown (Genius Loci).
"Opening Band," unknown (The Paul and Storminomicon).

Conventions/Appearances/Travel

Windycon, November 14-16, Chicago IL.
Book release at Borderlands Books, November 25, San Francisco CA.

ConNooga, February 27-March 1 2015, Chattanooga TN.
Eastercon: Dysprosium, April 3-5 2015, London England.
BayCon, May 22-25 2015, Santa Clara CA.
Westercon 68, July 2-5 2015, San Diego CA.
Tuscon, October 30-November 1 2015, Tuscon AZ.
Chessiecon, November 27-29 2015, Baltimore MD.

No fixed deadline/being written/unsold:

The Best Thing
"Target Practice"
"Decay"
"Fiber"
"Carry Me Home"
"Pixie Season"
"These Antique Fables"
"All the Pretty Little Horses"
"Coming To You Live"
"Black Out"
"Untold Truths"
"Mirror's Face"
"Velveteen vs. The Thaw"
Echo
Chimera

Again, to clarify some recent confusion: some things, especially novel-length things, may appear more than once, on both the "publication date" and "being written" lists. This is because the "being written" list is an aggregate, which also includes "no fixed deadline" (IE, being written on spec or for the website) and "unsold" (IE, being written because I can). So new books will appear there for a long time before they vanish, since books take a long time to write, but may also have pub dates listed higher up.

Look at that list. It's so shiny!

It's time for some free fiction. Hooray! Halloween may be over, but there's always time for one more trick and one more treat before the sun sets on the holiday for another year.

In "Snakes and Ladders," Frances Healy is preparing to take her little girl out for a fun night of trick or treating. Of course it's safe. How could it be anything but for young Alice, when she has her heavily-armed mother and her ghost babysitter right there by her side? Unfortunately, some people have other plans for the holiday, and those plans aren't nearly as sweet as candy...

You can download the new story now from the InCryptid short fiction page.

This also serves as your discussion post.

Title: Velveteen vs. Global Warming.
Summary: The trials of a formerly retired superheroine are destined never to be done, especially when the heroine in question was foolish enough to agree to serve the seasonal lands...

( Time ran differently in the Winter...Collapse )

I was delighted when John Joseph Adams asked me to be the guest editor for the special Queers Destroy Science Fiction issue of Lightspeed Magazine, following on last year's incredibly awesome and successful Women Destroy Science Fiction. (And I admit, I paused before saying "yes," since being the editor means I can't submit.) But in the end, the opportunity to be a part of making this a real thing in the world was too much for me to pass up.

We just opened for submissions.

The submission portal is here, and includes links to the overall guidelines: http://submissions.johnjosephadams.com/queers-destroy-sf/submit/

It's important to remember that while we do not require the stories to have queer content, we are actively seeking stories by queer (QUILTBAG) authors. It's my great hope that we will have representation from most of the letters in the acronym and beyond, since demisexual and pansexual authors are also queer. ("A" is for "asexual," not for "ally.") All stories must have science fiction content.

Submissions are open through February, which is also when I and my team will be making final decisions. Don't rush to submit; make sure your story is awesome and ready to rock. I want to see the widest possible range of stories and authors.

This is our issue. Let's rock it.

Happy Halloween, everybody, and Happy New Year's Eve to those of you who share my particular calendar. May the Great Pumpkin smile upon you tonight, bringing you candles which burn brightly, candy that never goes stale, corn mazes as complicated as the twisting choices of the heart, and costumes that are inventive, interesting, and warm enough to keep you comfortable through all the long, dark hours of the evening.

I measure my life from Halloween to Halloween, instead of in candle-ends and coffee spoons. It's odd, but it works for me, and it's been one hell of a year, hasn't it? I left my day job (and still have no regrets; the tighter finances are more than balanced by the fact that I can finally sleep, I can finally be productive; it's amazing). I roved through Europe, eating all the cheese that I could get my hands on (and losing twenty pounds in the process, all hail the lack of high-fructose corn syrup in European breads and deli meats). I announced several awesome projects, and pursued several more.

I buried some beloved friends. I don't know that I'll ever stop wanting to call them, or reach for them. Lilly has joined the legion of cats that I try to cuddle in the middle of the night, when my dreams turn melancholy. Human or animal, I wasn't ready to let any of them go. Yes, death is a part of life, but that doesn't make it hurt any less.

I hope that all of you out there are ready to have a happy Halloween, full of all the thrills, chills, spooks and spills that you desire. I hope that you've had a glorious year, and are looking forward to a wonderful holiday season. Most of all, I hope that you're well.

Thank you for sharing this past year with me.

When I say "these are the rules for a giveaway," what I mean is "these are the rules for a giveaway," not "some of these rules are negotiable or can be ignored." If you do not follow the rules exactly as stated, you will not be eligible to win.

When I say "please use my contact form," what I mean is "please use my contact form." Not "please dig up a personal email that you have for me from some point in the past." Not "please use the contact form at miragrant.com." If I meant either of those things, I would say so. They would look like "you can only win if you already know how to reach me ha ha" and "please use the contact form at miragrant.com," respectively. If you do not use my contact form, at the seananmcguire.com website, you will not be eligible to receive your prize.

Sometimes the rules by which I live my life may seem fiddly or arbitrary, but there are always reasons. Please, if you want to receive something free from me, follow the rules which I have set for that reward.

Thank you.

It's almost over, but October is, was, and will be Disability Awareness Month. We all know someone with a disability, whether visible, invisible, or undiagnosed. I've been dealing with back issues and walking issues for most of my adult life, in addition to my OCD. I am always aware of these things. It's nice to have people stop once in a while and talk about how disability impacts them, the people around them, and their lives as a whole.

We need to be compassionate. We need to be understanding. And most of all, we need to be kind to ourselves and others. We're all we've got here.

Teal Sherer is an awesome actress (and appears in my upcoming Mira Grant novella, "Rolling in the Deep," as a professional mermaid). She has written and produced a comedy about being an actress with a disability, and you can watch it on YouTube now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR0E4DVtNEw&feature=youtu.be

Take a few minutes and check out My Gimpy Life. It's fun, it's funny, and it's eye-opening.

Happy October, everybody.

Sorry for the delay—there were some technical issues—but here are the winners of a signed paperback copy of Parasite:

signy1
grassrose
belegwen
bayushi
themadfish

If your name is on this list, please contact me via my website contact form by 12PM PST on Friday, October 31st, to receive your prize. I will need a) a mailing address, and b) who the book should be signed to, if you want it personalized.

Happy Halloween!

...ringing your bell, it fell to your hands.

This is the shape of my 2014, with travel dates and everything. Beautiful travel dates. Hope to see you in the months to come! We are now solidly into 2015, as 2014 fades into winter and slides toward leaving. Which is terrifying in its own right, if you think about it.

Publications

"Snakes and Ladders," October 28 (website).
"The Fixed Stars," November 4 (Shattered Shields).
"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Numbers," November 11 (Chicks Dig Gaming: A Celebration of All Things Gaming by the Women Who Love It).
"Turn the Year Around," November 14 (Harvest Season).
"Driving Jenny Home," November 17 (Out of Tune).
Symbiont, November 25.
"Knit A Sweater Out of Sky" (print edition), November 25 (Dead But Not Forgotten).
"White As A Raven's Wing," December 9 (website).

"No Sooner Met," January 6, 2015 (website).
"Broken Paper Hearts," February 14, 2015 (website).
"The Happiest Place...," February 24, 2015 (Wastelands 2).
"Animal Husbandry" (reprint), February 24, 2015 (Wastelands 2.
Pocket Apocalypse, March 3, 2015.
"There is No Room For Sorrow in the Kingdom of the Cold," March 10, 2015.
"In Skeleton Leaves," April 7, 2015.
Chimera, November 24, 2015.

"The Moon Inside," unknown.
"Long Way Down," unknown.
"Rolling in the Deep," unknown.
"Opening Band," unknown.

Conventions/Appearances/Travel

Windycon, November 14-16, Chicago IL.
Book release at Borderlands Books, November 25, San Francisco CA.

ConNooga, February 27-March 1 2015, Chattanooga TN.
Eastercon: Dysprosium, April 3-5 2015, London England.
BayCon, May 22-25 2015, Santa Clara CA.
Westercon 68, July 2-5 2015, San Diego CA.
Tuscon, October 30-November 1 2015, Tuscon AZ.
Chessiecon, November 27-29 2015, Baltimore MD.

No fixed deadline/being written/unsold:

The Best Thing
"Target Practice"
"Decay"
"Fiber"
"Carry Me Home"
"Pixie Season"
"These Antique Fables"
"All the Pretty Little Horses"
"Snake in the Glass"
"Holly Tree"
"Black Out"
"Untold Truths"
"Mirror's Face"
Echo
Chimera
Chaos Choreography

Again, to clarify some recent confusion: some things, especially novel-length things, may appear more than once, on both the "publication date" and "being written" lists. This is because the "being written" list is an aggregate, which also includes "no fixed deadline" (IE, being written on spec or for the website) and "unsold" (IE, being written because I can). So new books will appear there for a long time before they vanish, since books take a long time to write, but may also have pub dates listed higher up.

Look at that list. It's so shiny!

I had never been to Germany before. But since the convention I was going to be a Special Guest at (Filk Continental) was in Germany, it seemed like a good time to show up.

Tom helpfully drove me to the station near the house, where I got a head shake from the station agent, who disapproved of my (admittedly expensive) "take the Heathrow Express from Paddington" plan. I pointed out that I was a clearly foreign woman with a giant suitcase, and that sometimes we pay to not take stairs. He replied that he would have made different choices with his money, and gave me my ticket. Jerk.

Ahem. The Heathrow Express proved to be a quick, pleasant way to get to the airport, and I highly recommend it. Yes, it was more expensive, but the savings in terms of both time and stress cannot be overstated, even if I did promptly get off at the wrong terminal. (This is a big deal in Heathrow, which is one of the largest airports in the world.) I found my way to the right terminal, and then the right gate, and finally the right seat on the right plane, and all was right with the world.

My flight was short and uneventful, and eventually dropped me in Hannover, where I was collected from the arrivals area by Rika and Rachel. I went to sleep in the car. Then I went to sleep on the couch at Rika's lovely apartment. Then I got up for breakfast with some lovely filkers who live in Rika's apartment complex, and whom I would see a great deal of over the weekend (yay!). They had an assortment of cheeses. YAY CHEESES. And then I went back to sleep for several hours. This would prove to be a good thing later.

The drive from Hannover to the convention, which was being held in a lovely little youth hostel near a castle, was lovely, uneventful, and long enough for me to watch two episodes of Leverage. We got there, got checked in, and I went to poke Vixy with a stick, since I had missed her dreadfully during my "out of time zone" adventures. She felt unwell. I still had my cold meds from when I'd first arrived in England. The circle of cold meds closes, and all is complete.

Sunnie and Betsy were in my room when I came back downstairs, making it our room, and the weekend had officially begun.

First up was dinner with the concom, at a local restaurant that had passed their stress test, but did not so much pass the "twenty people would like to be fed and Seanan is about to pass out from low blood sugar" test. Boo. It took about three hours to eat, and by the end of it, I was a murderbunny. I ate half of Betsy's dinner, which helped. Going to bed also helped...although it would have helped more if I'd been able to sleep. Unfamiliar place + thin walls + thin bed = Seanan begins her three-day ordeal of stumbling through life, dreaming of sensory deprivation chambers. Boo.

The next day was Friday, and kicked off the convention. We rehearsed for our various concerts, attended opening ceremonies (awesome), and opening concerts (even more awesome). I went to bed early, in hopes that I would sleep. I did not. Sigh.

Saturday was my concert, followed by Vixy and Tony's concert. Since we both used Sunnie and Betsy extensively, we were basically solid walls of sound, and everything went amazingly. The whole audience stood up and held hands during "We Are Who We Are" (Vixy and Tony's latest song, which is awesome), causing Vixy to wander around looking stunned and asking if that had really just happened. Hee.

Sunday was workshops, more concerts, and the final request concert, where Steve Macdonald and Katy Droege did "Cold Butcher" at my request, I did "Still Catch the Tide," and Vixy and Tony closed the con with a repeat performance of "We Are Who We Are." The Dead Dog that night was awesome, and I even stayed up for several hours to enjoy open filk before staggering off to bed.

The next day, Steve and I got a ride home from Syb, while Katy drove Vixy and Tony home. We all met up in Hamburg, where we had a lovely steak dinner before crashing at Steve and Katy's place. The next day, Steve got me to the airport to begin my incredibly long journey home.

But that's another story.

Leaving Wroughton was sad. I didn't want to leave Wroughton. Talis rode the train with me to London, because she is a wonderful Talis, and that made me a little happier about leaving. We sat in Waterloo Station and had lunch (bagel for her, pasty for me) before riding to Wimbledon, my final destination, where Talis turned around to go home and I caught a cab to Teddy and Tom's.

Teddy and Tom are good friends of mine, met originally through the filk community, who live about a mile's walk from the Wimbledon Station. Their home makes the perfect base of operations for me when I'm in London. Normally, I sleep in the upstairs guest room. This time, due to concerns about my foot, Teddy had set up the camp bed for me in the sewing room downstairs. Tom was home when I arrived. He let me in, showed me where to put my things, introduced me to their newest second-hand cat (Edward, who creaked like a rusty gate and deigned to allow pettings), and unleashed me on Wimbledon, where I promptly reacquainted myself with the important things, IE, where the grocery store was, and how to get to the station. Teddy came home that night, and there was ever so much hugging and joy. There was also an Extra American, Cynthia, who was staying a few days, and would be sleeping in my usual bed. A full house!

Speaking of beds: the front legs of the camp bed did not lock properly, and the bed dumped me on my head three times in the night. Good times!

The very next day was my publisher visit with Orbit UK and Corsair, who publish Mira and Seanan in the UK, respectively. We had a lovely lunch at an Italian place that was very tolerant of the loud table that wouldn't stop talking about spiders. And then it was time for my very first ever appearance at Forbidden Planet, the largest science fiction bookstore in the United Kingdom. So many books were signed! A wonderful man brought me cheese! Sarah and Hisham joined us for dinner! And we made plans to meet up with Anna and Emily on Saturday, for lunch and goodness.

(There is a cheese shop near Forbidden Planet. You'd best believe I went there and bought cheese. So much cheese.)

The next few days were pleasantly non-eventful. I spent time with Teddy, Tom, and Cynthia; we went to the grocery store and bought a leg of lamb; we bid Cynthia a fond farewell. (It turns out she lives in Berkeley and is the cousin of a good friend of mine who passed away a few years ago. I sent her home with my swimsuit and some yarn, as part of my constant curation of my suitcase.) On Saturday, Anna and Emily came, and we enjoyed a cheese party for lunch, followed by roast lamb for supper. We also went to the local Toys R Us, where I found the new Wydowna Spider doll. Bliss.

Sunday, Teddy and I went to a ball-jointed doll meet, followed by meeting my friends Ephemera and Fawn for rose lemonade at an adorable miniature cafe. We talked for a very long time, and it was lovely.

Monday I met up with my foreign sales agent for lunch and a chat.

Wednesday I flew to Germany, which will be covered in my next flashback. All told, a lovely visit to London, and I'm so glad to be going back next year.

I try not to post about Kickstarters too much. I'm a short fiction addict, both as a reader and a writer, and if I started posting about every anthology KS that came along, y'all would start pelting me with rocks in fairly short order. I do not like being pelted with rocks. It hurts.

That being said, sometimes there's a need. I'd like to tell you about Ghostwood Books. A small press with five years of experience, they're looking to fund an entire year of amazing new fiction through the crowd-funding platform. Self-serving memo: they asked me to be in one of their anthologies. Even more self-serving memo: that's the only one of their books that I would be involved with, meaning I would get to read the rest.

They have sixty-eight hours to hit their goal, and they're less than halfway there. Please, take a look. Something just might catch your fancy.

Every month I make a post to tell folks what I'm working on, a) because it seems polite, b) because it keeps me accountable, if only to myself, and c) so you will understand why I do not have a social life. This is the October 2014 post.

To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the bizarre urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Symbiont and Pocket Apocalypse). A Red-Rose Chain, Chimera, and Chaos Choreography are off the list because they're finished and in revisions with the Machete Squad. The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

Not everything on this list has been sold. I will not discuss the sale status of anything which has not been publicly announced. If you can't remember whether I've announced something, check the relevant tag, or go to my website, at www.seananmcguire.com. Please do not ask why project X is no longer on the list. I will not answer you.

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

The paperback of Parasite by Mira Grant is out now in the North American territories, and I'm celebrating with a giveaway!

Because Parasite was originally released in paperback in the United Kingdom, Australia, and elsewhere, this giveaway is open only to American and Canadian readers. There will be additional giveaways for Symbiont once I have it (although due to cost of postage, I may do a hardcover giveaway in the US and a UK-edition paperback giveaway for elsewhere; I don't know yet).

To enter...

1. Comment on this post.
2. Include your country of origin.
3. If you are in Canada, please indicate your willingness to pay postage. I'm really sorry about this, I just can't afford it right now.

That's it. This is an RNG giveaway, and I am giving away five copies, because I need to make room for the incoming copies of Symbiont. All winners will be selected on Monday, October 20th, at 6:00pm PST.

Game on!

So from the day I arrived in Europe, when people asked for my itinerary, it included Swindon. And from the day I arrived in Europe, "I'm going to Swindon for two weeks," was greeted with "why?"

At the end of my (glorious, exciting, restful) stay in Glasgow, Stuart drove me and Amal to the train station, where she walked me through the process of getting my ticket and locating my train. This is more complicated than you might think, especially when it's happening in a country where you don't actually happen to live, and which is hence perpetually confusing. My friend Hisham had assisted me with the booking process and told me how to find my seat (also more confusing than you might think), and in short order I was squared away on the train, where I hugged Amal goodbye several times before settling down to watch Leverage for most of the duration of the six-hour trip.

(Kate's old iPad basically saved my sanity on long stretches of this voyage, I swear.)

I was about two hours in when a hand tapped my shoulder and there was Hisham, who had hopped on to ride with me for a while (he works for the trains). He brought me Coke Zero and cookies, thus cementing his position as one of my favorite humans. He also brought me Pokemon, and we passed a pleasant hour or so trading electronic monsters and chatting about all manner of things. It was awesome, and I enjoyed it a lot. I like friends on trains. It makes the time go faster.

Alas, eventually he had to leave me, and I finished the rest of my journey in electronic silence, pulling into the stop at Bristol Parkway about five and a half hours after I left Glasgow. Talis was waiting for me there, wearing a splendid scarf printed with bees. After hugs and happy exclamations, she helped me transfer my suitcase to my second and final train, and we rode on to Swindon, where we caught a cab to my true destination: the village of Wroughton.

Wroughton is close enough to Swindon that it was easier to say I was going there, but in reality, it's a lovely little village where everything is within walking distance (except for the big new Waitrose), and where everyone knows Talis, who has been getting more and more active in local politics over the years. I was staying in her upstairs guest bedroom, on a narrow bed that looked like an ascetic's cot and felt like the clouds of heaven. Her husband, Simon, was in France when I arrived, meaning it was just me, Talis, and their lovely daughter, Pippa, who I hadn't spent any real time with since she was a toddler.

Even the highlights of my time in Wroughton seem so big and complex that they're hard to wrap my mind around. I went to country market. I performed with Talis at the Greener Gloucester Festival. I went to two folk clubs with Talis and her singing partner, Chantelle. I ate a lot of Victoria sponge, and drank a lot of rose lemonade. I made chicken stock and then chicken soup, which was delicious. I went to Cheddar, and saw cheese being born. I stroked the two resident black and white magpie boycats.

I chased and caught so many frogs and toads, and ate eggs I had pulled from under chickens, and harvested raspberries and blackberries from the vine into my mouth, and it was wonderful. It was restorative and peaceful and glorious and perfect, and I am so grateful. So, so grateful.

I love my friends. I love my life. And I loved the frogs.

I'm going back next year.

...home.
...safe.
...covered in cats.

Goodnight, moon.

It's fifty days to the release of Symbiont, book two in the Parasitology trilogy. (Book three, Chimera, will follow in 2015.)

Parasite was my first hardcover, and my first non-Newsflesh work as Mira Grant. The reception it's received has been amazing, and I cannot wait for people to get their hands on the second book. Vixy says it's better than the first one. Trust Vixy. Fox girls never lie.

Fifty days. That isn't long at all.

It's long enough to be the world.

I am pleased as punch to report that I will be appearing at the Forbidden Planet super-store in London on Wednesday evening, beginning at 6PM and continuing until they throw us out!

I will be signing whatever people have to hand, although the event is specifically celebrating the release of the first three InCryptid books in their beautiful new UK editions from Corsair Books. There is no charge to attend, although the bookstore would, as always, appreciate it if you bought something. Bookstores are like that.

This is my first big London event, and I really hope to see you there!

When last we left our intrepid heroine (me), I was on a plane to Scotland, to visit Amal and Stuart for a week. Basically exactly a week, which was simultaneously a long, long time to go stay with someone I had never stayed with before, and nowhere near long enough to stay with a dear friend in a city I had never visited.

My flight was smooth and uneventful, and landed in Glasgow a little early, which was good, since it had been marred by navigation issues which caused the cabin crew to say "all electronics must be off, yes, even your Pokemon machine, yes, even your iPod." It was a sad, sad situation for a Seanan. When I landed, it became even sadder, as my phone had run out of minutes while I was in Ireland, and I thus could not call Amal to let her know I was there. I mooched back and forth in the airport for a while, sadly, until she materialized, all smiles and hugs and help with my luggage, and got me out of there.

When we arrived at the apartment, everything smelled like home. There was a chicken roasting in the oven and a pot of stock simmering on the stove, and I promptly decided that this was the best of all possible worlds. I was set up in the guest room, added to the wireless, and introduced to the two fabulous resident magpie cats. Amal quickly discovered that she could thrust things at me, and that I would then read them. This became a popular party game over the next few days.

Oh, the places we went! Oh, the things that we did! We visited the two biggest cheese shops in Glasgow, and assembled two glorious cheeseboards, including Bonnet (goat), Isle of Mull Cheddar (yellow), VJ Cabrales (DEATH BLUE), Old Lochnagar (cheddar-ish), and Dunsyre Blue, all from I. J. Mellis, and Isle of Mull Cheddar (white), Killeen (goat-gouda), Basajo (white-wine blue with grapes!), and Coulommiers (Brie), all from George Mewes. There was not a bad bit of cheese in the bunch.

I must, however, take a moment to focus on the Cabrales. This cheese was given in response to my request for an aggressive blue. "Aggressive" does not begin to cover it. This cheese was the Ghost Rider of cheeses, judging your sins and refusing to forgive them. It was so strong it was physically painful to eat more than a sliver at a time. I am in love. I want twenty pounds of it.

Amal and I walked Glasgow, enjoyed cake at Once Upon A Tart, and bought heather gems. She saw me have my first Victoria tart and my first rose lemonade, both of which engendered bliss face. We watched Doctor Who and made plans for the future and chatted about anything and everything, and it was lovely. I cooked her and Stuart goat. I snuggled their cats.

On Friday, we drove two and a half hours to Amal and I could hike off into the fields of Carterha and touch Tam Lin's well. This will be a post all of its own, and soon.

On Saturday, we went to the Scottish Owl Centre, which was perfect and sublime and like nothing I had ever done before. I want to go back.

Sunday we shopped, rested, ate, and made our farewells, and Monday morning, I got on a train bound for Swindon. It was nowhere near long enough. It was the perfect length of time. Scotland was beautiful, and its people even more so.

I want to go back.