Just a handy reminder for those of you who may be present at Book Expo America this week:

I (Mira Grant) will be signing at the Orbit booth from four to five PM today, or until people stop coming up and thrusting things at me to have them signed. Will there be copies of Deadline? Statistically speaking, that seems very likely indeed...

Hope to see you there, if you're in the area at all!

Aigh! How is it already mid-May? How is it already past mid-May? Seriously, this isn't cool, people. But since life marches on, here are some random updates about things you may want to know.

Wicked Girls T-shirts.
The spreadsheet has been finished and handed off to my lovely assistant, aka, "Deborah," who is now using our peachy-keen new merchandise email address to send out the order confirmations. So if you requested a shirt, you're going to hear from Deborah! She'll be asking you to verify that we have the right information, requesting shipping information, and setting up things so you can pay. Please, please, remember that we must receive payment to place this order. That's why the original post said "cash in the cookie jar." If you can't pay for your shirts, we may have to remove you from the spreadsheet, depending on how long it takes for everyone else to pay.

Welcome to Bordertown about to hit shelves.
The new Bordertown anthology is just about out, and it's amazing. Mia (chimera_fancies) will be doing pendant sales of special Bordertown pendants soon, and there are contests and giveaways and blog tours, oh my! It's an incredible book. If you love urban fantasy, you should absolutely buy this book. This is the city whose foundations informed us all, and it's finally opening its doors again.

Oh, right. Also, Deadline.
I, too, have a new book coming out. Deadline will be released on May 31st, which makes it technically a June book (ah, the wonders of reporting). So you'll be able to buy it from a bookstore near you, and you totally should, especially if you enjoy my cats being full of catfood, and not full of my delicious flesh. They eat a lot! I'll be in New York for the next week, which sadly limits the number of pre-release blog giveaways I can do (having no books as yet, the current number is "zero"), but I'll be doing fun things up until then. Primarily the ongoing, and increasingly grim, countdown to the Rising. You're welcome.

Book Expo America!
Why am I going to New York? For Book Expo America! This is going to be my first BEA, and I'm mad excited. I'll also be seeing friends, eating artisan frozen treats, and visiting both my publishers for an entire day, thus guaranteeing that they'll be sick of me and give me things in order to make me go away and leave them alone. I'm basically an animate mixed blessing. I'm planning to have a fabulous time, because I always do, and when I leave, I'm heading for...

Wiscon!
It's my first time. Be gentle. I'll be mixing drinks at the Whedonistas party, which is good, since I don't like trying to mingle at these things, but I loooooooooooove making mai tais and mojitos. Donations of strawberries gratefully accepted, because I always need more than I think I will. If you're over twenty-one and planning to be at the convention, you should come see the gleeful mania that is me with a cocktail shaker.

Cats.
Blue. Also, fluffy.

Monster High.
New dolls should be hitting the shelves ANY DAY NOW, and the search is driving me batty. The universe needs to stop taunting the happy fun blonde and gimme already, before my already strained patience decides that the time has come to snap.

...and that's my status for the day. How's by everybody else?

So, um, hey.

Basically, I spent the last weekend at Wondercon, starting every morning when the van came to collect me from my house (door-to-door service!), and ending every night when I collapsed into bed, too tired to think about anything more complicated than convincing the cats to let me have half of the pillow. I had a fabulous time—I always have a fabulous time at Wondercon—but this has left me somewhat behind on silly little things like "keeping up with my blog."

Things I did this weekend:

* Gave a copy of Feed to James Gunn (and did not pass out immediately afterward, although I did feel rather dramatically ill).
* Hung out a great deal with Kaja Foglio, and introduced her to Valencia Street.
* Took Amy Mebberson and her husband, Scott, to Borderlands Books, where they could meet Ash. Ash was incredibly affectionate (especially for her), and provided them with their first real life Sphynx encounter. Jude was charming and gracious, as always, which was especially impressive when you consider that she was also feeling under the weather and suddenly beset by people demanding access to her cat.
* Bought way too many of Amy's fun-size art cards. I have a Rapunzel/Emma Frost mash-up!
* Chatted with Carla Speed McNeil, and Layn, whom I hadn't seen in way too long.
* Donated prizes to the California Browncoats, which they gave away as part of their charity chopstick pull for Equality Now. (I also discussed the Rising, and the fact that, during the outbreak at SDCC, the Browncoats were probably one of two fannish groups that managed to survive without major casualties. May have been the losing side. It's still the one that gets you home alive.)
* Attended the Doctor Who panel, and got an awesome new shirt courtesy of BBCA!

Things I did yesterday:

* Answered lots of email.
* Bought lots of plane tickets.
* Wrote lots of words on Blackout and "Velveteen vs. the Secret Identity."
* Watched Being Human after my orgy of productivity caused me to collapse.

Things I will do today:

* Answer lots of email.
* Buy lots of plane tickets.
* Write lots of words on Blackout and "Velveteen vs. the Secret Identity."
* Prep lots of mailing.
* Start working on my taxes (shudder).

So that's what's consumed my world and time for these last four largely silent days. What's new and strange with all of you?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. Zombies are still love.

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

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

It's Friday. There's barely a weekend between us and Late Eclipses [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], which officially hits store shelves in four days. I can barely believe that it's so close. I'm still a little stunned when I look at my shelf at home, and there's book four, staring at me. But the show must go on, and in honor of that fact, here are four exciting things coming in the next year.

4. Well, naturally, Deadline. The second book in the Newsflesh trilogy is coming out at the end of May, and it's exciting and terrifying and Feed was so well-reviewed that I'm considering disabling my Google spiders and hiding under my bed for a week when this one comes out, just to escape the inevitable comparisons. I think it's a good book. I even think it's maybe a better book. But it's not a sequel in the "do the same, only bigger" sense, and that makes me twitchy.

3. "Through This House" is my first novella set in Toby's world. More, it's my first novella appearing in a Charlaine Harris/Toni Kelner anthology, which still has me a little WAIT WHAT NO WHO IS DRIVING? BEAR IS DRIVING!! HOW CAN THIS BE?!? about the whole thing. I love the story, which bridges the span between Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea, but isn't necessary to enjoy either. And I love that I was somehow lucky enough to be allowed to write it.

2. Book Expo America! This is one of the biggest literary trade shows in the world. It's like, the Emerald City of giant book expos. I've never been before. And this year, I get to go. Lemme hear a "woo" from the crowd! Hell, I'll do it myself. WOO!

1. One Salt Sea. It comes out in September; I'm in final editorial revisions now; it's the book where, well, once again, everything changes. It's also the book I sometimes thought I would never finish, because it required admitting to myself that the series would make it five books, and I never quite believed that. But I did, and it did, and soon, you'll get to read it, and I'm so excited.

And that's four exciting things in the year ahead.

Okay, folks, it's time for the official reminder that the deadline is fast approaching to gain the right to nominate for the 2011 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. This means that if you have an interest in shaping this year's final Hugo and Campbell ballot, you need to fulfill the requirements like, super-soon. And what are those requirements? Simple:

To be entitled to submit a nomination ballot you must join Renovation as a Supporting, Attending, or Young Adult member by January 31, 2011, or have been a Supporting or Attending member of Aussiecon 4, the 2010 Worldcon. Nomination ballots must be received by Saturday, March 26, 2011, 23:59 PDT. Translation: If you didn't go to Aussiecon 4, you need to be a Supporting, Attending, or Young Adult member of Renovation before the end of this month. You have six days left. I'm just saying.

Since I'm basically cribbing from the official announcement anyway, here's the next chunk:

"After the finalists are announced, all Supporting, Attending, and Young Adult members of Renovation (including all members who join prior to the closing date of the final ballot) will be invited to submit ballots to select the Hugo winners. Renovation members will also be eligible to nominate for the 2012 Hugo Awards to be hosted next year by Chicon 7, the 70th Worldcon, in Chicago, Illinois."

See? Two nominating periods for the price of one!

More seriously, every year, I see people complaining about how the Hugos don't represent "their" idea of the best science fiction and fantasy out there. Well, this is your opportunity to put your money where your mouth is, and shape the year to come. You have six days to decide.

And now, the official:

More information about the Hugo Awards, including details about how to submit a nominating ballot, is available from http://www.renovationsf.org/hugo-intro.php.

For additional information, contact hugoawards@renovationsf.org.

For world domination tips, press one now.

There's something magical about airport departure lounges. They're these strange, impossible liminal spaces, where the world is infinite just because it's so limited. I spend a lot of time in them these days, what with the conventions and the work and everything else. The TSA at San Francisco is starting to know me by name.

I am heading home from Boston, where I just spent a wonderful, terrible, magical, mundane, perfect, flawed, absolutely incredible weekend as a Special Guest of Arisia 2010. The convention was warm and welcoming and filled with people who hugged me and were happy I was there. I had a terrible allergic reaction Sunday morning and spent most of the day sick even unto death. I sat on a stage with Cat and talked about gulper eels and Lord Byron's penis. I tried to make the hotel internet work, to mixed results. I curled up in a warm bed with two of my favorite people sitting nearby, and watched great television. I wandered around unfed and confused.

I had a fantastic convention. I am glad to know that someday, I will go back there. I am so very glad to be going home. And that, really, is the convention experience. You go to a strange place, you enter the airport departure lounge of your soul, and you do your best to fall in love with the people you meet there. And then you all get on planes and go home to your separate places, and you wonder whether you'll ever fly that route again.

My bags are packed. I'm ready to go. The city streets are filled with snow. I hate to wake you up to say goodbye...

But I will. And soon, Great Pumpkin willing, I'll say hello.

Thank you for everything.

As you may or may not remember, I'm going to be a special guest at Arisia 2011 this coming January, in Boston, Massachusetts. This comes with many exciting duties and opportunities, including—drumroll please—BREAKFAST!

So here's the deal: There's going to be a special Breakfast Buffet on Sunday, January 16th. It starts at 11AM, which means we should all be awake. Hooray! But wait, there's more. See, there are twelve tables, and twelve "table hosts," who will be hanging out, chatting, and generally being awesome for the duration. The hosts include Shaenon Garrity, Kelley
Armstrong, Josh Simpson, Rene Walling, Bob Eggleton, Frank Wu, Cecilia Tan, Catherynne Valente, Eric from Eric in the Elevator, Hildy Silverman, Michael Anderson, and, well, me.

If I weren't a table host, I would be having serious emotional conflicts over the question of whose table I wanted to join. Shaenon, for mad science glory? Cat, for, well, The Cat and Seanan Show, Take Twenty? Kelley, for Canadian urban fantasy awesome? But this choice is not mine to make: it is yours.

$35 will reserve your spot at the table of your choice. Each table will seat the host plus seven others, so sign up soon to be sure of getting your preferred placement on the floor. To quote the convention for a change, "Go to http://2011.arisia.org/buffet for more information, ticket purchasing, and bios on all twelve of our hosts. Avoid the crowds in the hotel restaurant, have scintillating conversation with fascinating people, and enjoy a variety of breakfast foods, including meat and vegetarian options. Hurry, tickets are selling rapidly!"

Personally, anything that includes food is cool by me. I even promise to use silverware, and not talk about flesh-eating bacteria at the table. Hope to see you there!

Saturday continued the "early comes the dawn" trend, with Jeanne and I both out of bed by seven. Jennifer and Jeff didn't murder us for our sins against the sleeping, and that's probably a sign that they're in line for sainthood. (Then again, we didn't murder them for snoring, so maybe the scales are just nicely balanced.) This was already shaping up to be my busy day, and just got busier once we got to the convention center and discovered that my three o'clock panel had been moved to noon. Yay for the fluidity of time!

(Footnote: Originally, I was supposed to be on the eleven o'clock panel about female superheroes. For some reason, it wasn't printed on my badge, and I wound up not attending, since once the convention starts, my back-of-badge panel list is about the only thing that can make me change directions. While this was deeply disappointing at the time, all recountings of the panel have made me glad to have missed it, as I might have killed someone. Hint: telling me that there is no sexism in comics is a good way to get your head bitten off. I am a vermicious knid when provoked.)

The time-shifted panel was that glorious old standby, "What Is Filk?", and consisted of me, Bill Sutton, Kathleen Sloan, and Terence Chua. If you want a bunch of people to talk about filk and the definitions of same for an hour, well, you could do one hell of a lot worse. It was a lot of fun, watching all the local filkers realize that no, really, They Are Not Alone. We are filk. We are legion, yo.

I went literally straight from my panel-on-filk into an hour-long two-person panel with Paul Cornell, titled "Fringe: Paranormal Investigations in SF Television." I adore Paul. I adore geeking madly with Paul. And I adore paranormal investigations in science-fiction television. This panel was like the delicious chocolate bonbon of my weekend, and the only way it could have been better is if Jeanne had delivered a ham, cheese, and tomato croissant to me at the panel's end.

Oh. Wait. BEST PANEL EVER.

My signing was scheduled for four, right after Cat's signing. I went over and kept her company for a while, until her line began to form and she was occupied by her fans. Ah, the trials of stardom. Or something. Her signing ended, mine began, and I signed a bunch of stuff (as one does), while inking during pauses between people. Someday, this damn mermaid will be finished.

The AussieCon V filk concert was arranged a lot like the UK Filkcon Main Concert: everyone piled into a single room and performed two or three songs during the multi-hour slot. Kathleen Sloan was my stunt guitarist, and we went on after (among other people) the Suttons, Terence, and Nan Freeman. NO PRESSURE. I performed my own "Wicked Girls," and Vixy and Tony's "Burn It Down," both of which went over very well, before running to get changed for dinner.

Dinner! It was me, Jay and Shannon, Daniel and Kelly, and two people whose names sadly escape me right now (I'm sorry!). We went to a very nice place attached to the casino attached to the hotels attached to the mall, where we spent several hours chatting, enjoying decadently good food, and, in my case, eating a big bowl of bugs. Bay lobster! It's delicious! And looks like a horrible cross between a lobster and a trilobite, which made it EXTRA DELICIOUS.

There was some unpleasantness about the service, but Daniel was able to resolve it with a minimum of fuss, and we all decamped back to the Hilton to resume Barcon. While there, I got to meet Ellen Kushner, and tell her that she's a big part of why I write urban fantasy now. Also, there were cocktails. Which made it easier for me to actually fall asleep when I finally made it back to my hotel, since, well...

Saturday night. That meant it was almost time for the Hugos.

I did not sleep through the night.

The first full day of WorldCon dawned bright and early. Very bright, and very early, since Jeanne and I were both still waking up at roughly six o'clock in the morning. The fact that I did this despite spending a good portion of the night out drinking with my friends was somewhat astonishing to everyone involved, and could be taken as proof that I function on some sort of nuclear power source, rather than actual sleep. Our early rising did net us first shower, which was nice, as fixing my hair* takes a long damn time (which is why I so rarely bother to do it). Now socially acceptable, we hit the street in search of a) breakfast, and b) caffeine.

Breakfast was ham and cheese croissants in the food court attached to the casino attached to our hotel. Yeah, I know, I'm stacking on attachments like a professional spammer, but that's apparently the way they roll in Australia. Unless otherwise stated, assume all meals were in the food court attached to the blah blah blah. It was close, convenient, and (by local standards) reasonably priced, and Jeanne and I were both willing to eat there. Pretty much a victory all the way around.

At the convention center, the poor folks at registration were still waiting on their program books, so we went to see Mary Kay Kare and get my Participant Packet instead. It had invites! To Hugo-related functions! This is about when it all started seeming very real to me, and also when I pretty much gave up sleep for the duration. Expect my sanity to degrade rapidly from this point onward.

We wandered the convention, figured out where everything was, and had an unexpected meeting with Lezli Robyn, my fellow Campbell Award nominee. She was incredibly sweet, and I'm very glad to have met her. After touring the dealer's room and the half-assembled art show, I located Jay Lake and Shannon Page on a comfortable couch, and camped there for a bit, because Jay is cuddly and I was warm. Jeanne pointed out that failure to decamp from Jay would mean I got no caffeine before my three o'clock panel on Supernatural. I knew I'd need caffeine for that one. I decamped.

Thank Heaven for 7-11, yo.

The panel went well, despite some early confusion as to what, exactly, we were talking about. The topic was "Breaking the Fourth Wall: Supernatural and Its Audience." Given my opinions on season five, this could have been a blood bath. It was not, largely because polite tourists don't kill people. (At least, that's what Kate says, and everyone I ask says she's right. Conspiracy much?) And that was...well, that was it. That was my only Thursday panel.

Oh, wait. What about my Kaffeeklatsche? You know, that thing where I go and have coffee with anyone who wants to sit and talk to me for an hour? That was still coming up, right? Well, yes, and no. Because somebody told the programming desk that I was sick, you see, and they cancelled my slot. I found this out when someone asked me why, if I was sick, I was hanging out in the hall chatting with my friends. I went down to the front desk and whined until they fixed it. GO TEAM MATURITY. After that, the actual Kaffeeklatsche was fine. People drank coffee (I drank Coke Zero), we talked, and a good time was had by all. Jeanne and I trundled off for dinner, after which I returned to the Hilton to spend several happy hours at Barcon, drinking expensive cocktails and feeling the love. I love the love.

Friday, I spent most of the day idly trundling around and visiting my friends, capping it all off with the moment...the myth...the madness..."Seanan McGuire and Catherynne M Valente In Conversation." Also known as "the Snow White/Lily Fair Variety Show." It was, quite seriously, quantum madness. People asked it, we talked about it. Also, Cat brought the My Little Pony I'd given her to be our moderator while we sat on the edge of the stage and made merry for an hour. Worlds were born. Laws of physics were broken. It was awesome. And we're going to do it again in New York, because that is just how we roll.

After the In Conversation, Jeanne and I decamped to collect John Grace (my audio book publisher), Malcolm (Jeanne's friend), and Phil and Kaja Foglio. We trekked back to the alley for dinner. This time, they bribed us with a free bottle of wine for the table! Score. We got a fabulous table, and spent several hours chatting, eating, splitting appetizers, and generally having a fantastic time. Best WorldCon Friday ever. Even with the rain.

Australia is amazing.

(*Yes, it is actually possible for me to not look like a dandelion on the verge of going to seed. It's crazy, I know, but all things are possible with SCIENCE. And a ceramic straightening iron.)

You guys.

This is so hard to write. I've literally started this post eight times, and deleted it every time, and started over, trying to find the words I want. Words are usually something that I find pretty easy—sometimes too easy, as my tendency to never shut the hell up can testify. Not right now. Right now, the words are very hard. So very hard.

I spent most of this year's WorldCon in a cheerful fugue state, throwing myself into things as hard as I could in order to keep from thinking about the Hugo Awards. Jeanne, Cat, Rob, Liz, Paul, Mondy, Jay, Shannon, John, seriously, thank you so much, because if you hadn't been there, I would probably have spontaneously combusted. As it was, it was occasionally difficult not to ask how people could be so damn calm when the votes were in and there was nothing we could do and why couldn't we just know already?

Sunday, Jeanne, Gretchen, and I descended on Cat's hotel room to get ready for the Hugos. Cat met us at the door, and ordered me to close my eyes. I am a trusting blonde; I closed my eyes. She led me into the main room, and let me open my eyes, to find myself facing a bed covered in tiaras. Covered in tiaras. "Because," she said, "your friends wanted to be sure that no matter what, you went home with a tiara."

You guys.

I love you so much.

Susan came to do our hair. We put on dresses and makeup and nail polish and smiles, like nothing about the night mattered...and to a degree, right then, it didn't. We sang along to "Firebird's Child" and "Ship Full of Monsters," and the Night Kitchen in Seattle filled with people watching the live feed and sending all their love across the sea. We were together, and the world was full of magic, and we went to the reception and drank free champagne and had people tell us how amazing we looked, and it was amazing. (Cat and I managed, totally accidentally, to acquire dresses in basically the same colors. I felt like I should have brought her a corsage.)

Then we went to the actual award ceremony. Cat and I sat in the second row; Gretchen and Jeanne sat right behind us. The order of the evening was "opening speech, video presentation, First Fandom Award, Big Heart Award, Campbell Award." Jay Lake and John Scalzi presented the Campbell. They took the stage together, and explained the tiara, and read the nominees, and I clutched Cat's hand like the audience was an ocean and I was going to go under. Kathryn Daugherty came out, holding the award, name turned toward her so no one could see it. John opened the envelope.

"And the winner of this year's John W. Campbell Award for best new writer is..."

And they said my name.

And I sat there, because the room was spinning and I could taste sounds and they couldn't mean me. And Cat pushed me to my feet, and everyone was clapping, and I walked to the stage while the Buffy: the Vampire Slayer theme played and the room spun and tears made everything blurry, and I just said "Oh my God" over and over again, because there was nothing else in the whole world that I could say. And Kathryn gave me the plaque, and John and Jay gave me hugs, and they put the tiara on my head, and you guys...oh, you guys...

I am the Princess of the Kingdom of Poison and Flame. I am the 2010 Campbell Award winner. I am the first urban fantasist to win the Campbell Award. Because they said my name.

I will be more coherent soon. I will write about my acceptance speech soon. I will stop gasping a little every time I see the tiara soon. But oh, you guys.

I won.

I leave for Australia in a week, and WorldCon is two weeks away. You know what that means? SCHEDULE TIME! Here are my programmed events, allowing for easier stalking through the city of Melbourne. (I'm not worried about actual stalkers. By the time we reach the convention, I intend to have assembled my army of spiders.)

Thursday, September 2nd, 3:00 PM: Breaking the Fourth Wall: Supernatural and Its Audience. Given my thoughts on how things went down with Jo and Ellen, this should be a super-fun panel, in the "bring plastic sheeting and pray" sense.

Thursday, 5:00 PM: Kaffeeklatsche. For those of you who have never encountered this strange creature before, basically, I will sit in a room at five on Thursday, and talk to anyone who shows up. Also, there will be coffee. If no one shows up, I will do lots of lovely inking. It's a win-win scenario for me.

Friday, September 3rd, 4:00 PM: Seanan McGuire and Catherynne M Valente In Conversation. Who is driving? Bear is driving! HOW CAN THIS BE?! Cat and I will spend the better part of an hour talking writing, editing, and whatever else comes into our heads. It's the Snow White/Lily Fair Variety Show, and you should totally be there.

Saturday, September 4th, 11:00 AM: Capes and Skirts: The Plight of Female Superheroes. Lo, we are going to sit and talk about female superheroes, why they are awesome, and why they don't get as much love as their male counterparts. This is the best convention schedule ever.

Saturday, 1:00 PM: Fringe: Paranormal Investigations in SF Television. Man, we are gonna tear. This. Up. It's going to be a super-awesome panel full of super-awesomeness, and you should totally come, and I will do my best to avoid discussions of Peter Bishop's fabulous ass.

Saturday, 3:00 PM: What is Filk? This is a fairly standard panel, but a very good one to attend if you want to learn more about filk, what it is, and why we're doing it in your hotel lobby. Not that we do that anymore. Much.

Saturday, 4:00 PM: Signing. I will sign stuff. Super-exciting.

Sunday, September 5th, 3:00 PM: YA Urban Fantasy. Why YA urban fantasy? What's the attraction? What makes it awesome? Let's discuss.

Sunday, 5:00 PM: Post-Apocalyptic YA. Boom, baby. Boom.

Following this panel, I will be going insane for the rest of the night while I deal with getting ready for and attending the Hugos. Please do not blame me for anything I say during this time, although really, I'm expecting the majority of my dialog to consist of "The Turtle couldn't help us" and quotes from Penny Arcade.

Monday, September 6th, 2:00 PM: Reading. What will I be reading? Only the Great Pumpkin knows. I'll figure it out based on who shows up...and if no one shows up, again, inking. It's good to have a backup plan.

I am delighted to announce that I will be attending LepreCon, in Tempe, Arizona as their Music Guest of Honor! For one magical miracle weekend next May, Arizona will be invaded by me, Elizabeth Bear, and a host of others, all at once.

It's going to be such a party.

There will be details as I get them, but this is the announcement part of our program. So I have announced.

ARIZONA!

Item the first: I have updated my website appearances. Go, view, and learn where I'm going to be. I have confirmed appearances in Australia, New York, California, and Oregon. Which brings me to...

Item the second: I am delighted and honored to announce that I have been selected as the Friends of Filk Guest for OryCon 32. This year's theme is "the Darker Side of Fantasy," which is something I feel I can work with quite well. I'll be appearing with Vixy and Tony, which always makes me happy, and maybe I'll even have a brand new album by then! The convention will be held in Portland, Oregon, from November 12th through the 14th. I hope you can make it, if it's even remotely local to you.

Item the third: If you ever feel the need to quit your job, this is pretty much the way to do it. Style, a sense of humor, and a great way of making your point. (I do wonder what kind of reference she's going to get, but...) Just don't read the comments. The sexism can get a little scary at certain points. But the facial expressions are twenty miles beyond awesome.

Item the fourth: This is what you've all been waiting for, which is a large part of why I've been keeping you in suspense. I'd say that I was sorry, but you'd all know that I was lying through my teeth. So instead, I shall say LOOK! SHINY! Much more effective.

Icons and Wallpapers for An Artificial Night have been posted on my site.

Tara has really outdone herself with this latest batch, and I am absolutely enthralled by her graphic awesome. Some will make more sense after you've read the book, but they're all fantastic now. Go, look, take, have, and join the flailing excitement as you realize...book three is ALMOST HERE.

Gleh.

Having barely returned home (the cats are still in a state of high dudgeon; Lilly evicted the contents of my daily carry-bag last night and inserted herself in their place, assuming I wouldn't notice that a Siamese is not a dayplanner), it is now time for me to depart again, this time for the wilds of Washington. Will I be visiting my Vixy? I will not. Will I be visiting the Tinneys? I will not. Will I be picking blackberries? Great Pumpkin willing, yes, I will.

But what I'll mainly be doing is attending Spocon as their Music Guest of Honor! Along with Author Guest of Honor Tanya Huff and Artist Guest of Honor Michael Whelan, I am coming to rock your socks off through the powers of song, story, and, um...interpretive dance. I am assured that my Muppet-like flailing is very much like interpretive dance of the Cthulhu mythos, so that works.

But seriously, I fly out later this afternoon. I still need to pack, since laundry didn't happen until last night, and I need to figure out whether I'm checking a bag or not, since I need to bring The Big Computer to handle editorial revisions. But these are small things compared to "I am getting on another plane." Whee!

Brooke is going to be rooming with me at the convention, and she and Char MacKay have been drafted to provide stunt musical accompaniment (yay). Brooke is incubating a parasite right now, which is relevant to my interests, as it means that she now goes to bed as early as I do. Also, to quote Brooke's blog:

"Seanan AND Tanya will be guests there, which I've heard means they will combine in to some kind of 12-foot tall DAW super-robot with lasers! Publishing is a dangerous business. For innocent bystanders."

Come see the super-robot! We are less likely to crush you or incinerate your home if you say hello and buy our books.

I'm just saying.

So before we get too far from the convention, a few high (and low) points of San Diego 2010. Because otherwise, y'all will beat me with bricks in a dark alley somewhere, and I just don't have time for that.

This year, I was able to import Tara and Amy (webmistress and fiddler, respectively), and the three of us shared a room with Sunil (media madman) at the Gaslamp Marriott. Not only were we less than a five minute walk from the convention center, allowing us to easily drop things off in our room, but the hotel gave us free candy. Right there at the front desk, free candy. Amy and I decided that we were having the convention experience we would have designed for ourselves at age seven. Except for the drinking, this was probably true for the entire weekend.

Rebecca and Ryan were kind enough to pick me up from the airport; after they dropped me off, Amy and I went to get our badges while the car went back for Tara and Sunil (landing two hours later than I did). Hilarity and admission followed. Tara went off to hang with her friends, while Sunil, Amy, and I went to see an improv performance by Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. They were decent, and the show was fun (especially since Amy got me a Long Island Iced Tea). The only real downside was Sunil accidentally ditching us while we were in the bathroom, but we went and met Rebecca and Ryan for Wendy's, so there was really no bad there.

Thursday was my first panel, The Power of Myth, which was a lot of fun, as was the signing which followed. I gave Amber Benson a copy of An Artificial Night, which she thanked me for, as now she would not be required to steal it. Tara, Amy, and I had lunch with Tanya Huff at the Cafe Diem, because the Cafe Diem is awesome. I also shopped. A lot. I enjoy shopping. I got a White Phoenix Jean Gray doll for my cover designer at Orbit, because I believe in bribery, yo. It was fun!

Thursday evening, Tanya, Tara, and I attended the Brilliance Audio author dinner, which I spent drinking Mai Tais, eating interesting things, and chatting with Phil and Kaja Foglio. My life, so hard.

Friday was my booth signing at Orbit, during which I signed a hundred copies of Feed. In the process, I drew ninety-nine tiny chainsaws, and one tiny Godzilla destroying a city. Again, my life, so hard. I had to miss the X-Men panel to do the signing (wah!), but I was able to attend the panel on James Gunn's Super (he needs to call me), which looks totally awesome. I had a second signing at the SFX booth later in the afternoon, and we gave away another fifty copies of Feed, one to the creator of Being Human. Totally awesome.

Friday evening, Tanya, Amy, and I attended the Penguin FangFest, which I spent drinking pineapple mojitos, eating cupcakes, and chatting with awesome authors. I finally met Charlaine Harris in the flesh, and it was hysterical. Exchange as follows:

Me: "Hi, it's great to finally meet you. I'm Seanan."
Charlaine: *politely blank look*
Me: *displays name tag*
Charlaine: "SHAWN-ANNE!"

*hugging*

I love having a weird name. After that, we went to the Boom! party, where I met Paul Cornell and his lovely wife, Caroline. Paul is one of my favorite humans, as he shares my love of the Black Death and giant flesh-eating lizards. I'm just saying.

Saturday was my second panel, The Rise of Zombie Fiction, which was a) mad fun, and b) reinforced my desire to write up a handbook for people doing panels at this sort of thing. Priscille from Books for Boobs came to the signing in a perfect Delirium costume, and I tried to eat her plush bear. Amy and I managed to catch the Warehouse 13 panel (Allison Scagliotti for Georgia Mason, anybody?), and then went off to dinner with John Grace at a very nice steak house. They served me port. MY LIFE, SO HARD.

Sunday, it was goodbyes and final shopping runs, and Tara and I had breakfast with Paul and Caroline before Amanda and Michael came to carry me away.

It was a good con. This writeup does not include hiding behind Anton, getting awesome swag and buttons from Rae, lots of hugging, accidental soda-based encounters, the dissolution of the Sacred Order of the Deli, ice cream, Gini Koch, late-night sammiches with Tanya, awesome dealer's room finds, free books, cheap books, expensive books, cookies, the art show, or repeat encounters with Felicia Day. But it does include a lot of awesome.

Also, if anyone came away from the con with a spare Sanctuary T-shirt, I am open to trades. Just saying.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Zombies are love.

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

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

What's news with you?

Just a friendly reminder that voting for the Hugo Awards (and the Campbell Award, aka, "ways to crash Seanan's mental operating system like whoa") closes on July 30th. Details are here:

http://www.aussiecon4.org.au/index.php?page=66

This includes a full list of the nominees in their various categories. Remember that you must be either a supporting or attending member of AussieCon 4 to vote; supporting memberships are still available. Details are at the convention's website.

Holy crap it's almost time for Australia.

I am, like, seven years of not yet ready.

July.
Okay, so, like, who authorized it being July already? Who said "golly, 2010's been fun and all, but let's go ahead and shift things around so that it'll be closer to being 2011"? Because whoever that is, I am not okay with them. Anyway:

There are five weekends in July, and I have five appearances in July. Funny how that works out. Three of them are conventions, and the other two are book tour events. We begin with Westercon/ConChord over 4th of July weekend. I'm ConChord's Guest of Honor and Westercon's Music Guest, which a) makes this my first Westercon guest appearance, and b) makes this convention sort of a big deal. Paul Kwinn is their Toastmaster, and between the two of us, there's going to be a whole lot of hoot and a whole lot of nanny. Plus it's in Pasadena, land of Disney, where a good time can easily be had by all.

I'll be spending the second weekend of July in Seattle for the Murder and Mayhem Tour with Jennifer Brozek. We'll be reading at Third Place Books, and then heading to the Wayward Coffeehouse for the Serenity Shindig. Will I be joining Vixy and company on stage? Only one way to know for sure, and that's to be there. Jennifer and I will be getting together again in the third weekend of July, when she comes down to the Bay Area for the second stop on the Murder and Mayhem Tour. We'll be at Borderlands Books, home of all good things, and there will probably be cupcakes.

The weekend after that, it's back to Southern California for the San Diego International Comic Convention. Last year when I was there, I didn't have any books in print, and this year, I have three, along with ARCs for the fourth. I'm on amazing panels, and will be posting my schedule soon. I may hyperventilate and die. Only not, because at the end of the month, I have Spocon! In Spokane, Washington, where I'll be the Filk Guest, along with Author Guest Tanya Huff! Ladies of DAW, unite!

August.
Australia awaits. I am so nervous, and so excited.

September.
The release of An Artificial Night! The return of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show!

October.
In October, I will be flying to New York for the New York City Comic Convention (my first one!), to Ohio for the Ohio Valley Filk Festival (not my first one!), and to Alabama for my annual pilgrimage to the haunted corn maze (mmmmmmmm, corn). It's a good thing I can sleep on planes, right? Also, I may be releasing my fourth album...

November.
Sleep.

December.
Seattle, and sleep.

January.
Gafilk! I am the Guest of Honor at Georgia's own filk convention, and I'm bringing my Vixy, and we are going to BLOW THE ROOF OFF, YO. Details to come.

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!

First up, I'm going to be speaking at CoyoteCon this coming Saturday night; schedule details are here. I'm appearing as part of an author conversation, alongside Lucy Snyder, and I'm very excited. Best of all, since this is a virtual conference, I can do it while wearing my jack-o-lantern sleep pants and snuggling my kitties. It's much easier to be professional and authorial when I get to wear pumpkin pants and get kitty snuggles. I'm just saying.

Next weekend, I'm going a bit further afield, and while I could probably do it in my pajamas if I really wanted to, kitty snuggles are not an option. I'm Filk Guest of Honor at Marcon in scenic Columbus, Ohio. I'll be performing in concert with Tom Smith, Dr. Mary Crowell, and the ever-fabulous Amy McNally, and Judi Miller will be signing (so if you've ever wanted to see her do "Wicked Girls," you should really show up). The convention is Friday, May 28th through Sunday, May 30th, and I'm super excited.

I'll post my schedule for the con sometime next week. And oh! I'm bringing Kate as my official handler, so if you've been dying to meet her, again, you should really show up. I have no scheduled bookstore events while in Ohio, but I've met me, and I'm likely to sign any stock that presents itself; I'll try to put up a list of which stores I visit, just in case you can't make the convention, but can make the drive.

This is my first Marcon, and I'd really like to make it amazing. Yes, it does mean I'll be missing BayCon; I'm planning to miss BayCon next year, too, as I'm probably attending Wiscon. The times, they are a'changing.

Marcon!

My mother survived her first day at a comic book convention! Well, mostly: she had to leave early because her back was bothering her (although I suspect the real culprit was my little sister's legs, since my little sister doesn't walk, and none of them believed me about the sheer scope of even a small comic con). She bought a chicken hat and wore it with pride. And people wonder why she admits that I'm her daughter.

I lined up for the Esplanade early enough to get really awesome seats for the sneak preview of next week's Fringe (although this did require sitting through an episode of V, and dude, what the hell?). Sunil came and joined me after he finished shopping, and since I had nothing better to do, I stayed and watched Kevin Smith's Q&A with him. Gotta love any man whose response to "How are you?" is "I'm so glad you asked! I had the best fucking sex of my life last night!" followed by a lengthy explanation of how a fleshlight works. Ah, Kevin Smith, if you weren't real, we'd have to invent you.

Now I'm up, packed, and going back for another day.

We're almost done with the current round of the Fourth Annual BSC Review Tournament. So far, Rosemary and Rue has managed to defeat Heart's Blood, The Warded Man, and Turn Coat, but Toby's having a contested battle against catvalente's Palimpsest. Please consider casting your vote to keep Toby in the tournament. It's fun!

One thing I didn't say before, and will say now (because it hadn't come up before): Please play nicely, whether you vote for me or for Cat, and don't say things that will make the other author feel bad. "It took me a while to get into this" or "It just wasn't my thing" are cool. "This author sucks" or "If I wanted to read _______, I would just go read _______" are not cool. Thankfully, no one who's voted for me has said anything like that, but some of the people playing tourney are starting to get personal, and that makes this a hell of a lot less fun. Someone's always sad when there has to be a winner and a loser, but there's being a loser, and then there's being a loser who's been told they suck at the same time.

Girl fight tonight!

I'm off for Wondercon, in sometimes-sunny San Francisco! I have no official programming this year, but will definitely be attending the following (unless I get bored, or find something else to do, or need lunch):

Friday at 4:30, Fringe screening.
Saturday at 12:00, Disney sneak peeks.
Saturday at 1:45, Resident Evil 4 panel.
Saturday at 2:30, the future of the X-Men.
Saturday at 4:00, Trailer Park.
Saturday at 4:30, Kick-Ass presentation.

I have no specific plans for Sunday, and may or may not attend, depending on my word counts. I'll have my mother and my younger sister (and my younger sister's girlfriend) in tow for much of the weekend; if you spot us, feel free to say hey, and get anything you might be carrying signed. There will be shiny new bookmarks on the freebie table. I'll post when we have a time for the cupcake run.

Whee!

I am pleased and delighted to announce that I will be the Guest of Honor at GaFilk 13 (dun dun DUUUUNNNN) in Atlanta, Georgia. The convention will be held the weekend of January 7th to 9th, 2011, and includes the following exciting guest selection:

Guest of Honor, Seanan McGuire
Toastmaster, Matt Leger
Interfilk Guest, Howard Scrimgeour

This is Georgia's very own filk convention, and I've never been before, so I am like, super excited. It's also going to be the first convention I've attended in Georgia since DragonCon like, ten years ago, and I'm really looking forward to the chance to spend more time in a kick-ass state. Hope to see you there!

January.
It's 2010! That's incredibly freaky! And to make things freakier, the month is already super-busy, because nothing says "love" like keeping me busy. On January 20th, I'll be appearing at the Clayton Books Book Club in Clayton, California. It's a book discussion, rather than a reading or anything silly like that, which really means "this is your opportunity to grill me mercilessly on the Toby books, along with basically everything else. I'm planning to bring cupcakes, because I am possibly certifiably insane. I'm also planning to bring prizes of some sort, because people like prizes, and I try to do things that people like.

I'm also flying to Seattle at the end of the month—yes, again—to attend Conflikt III, the Pacific Northwest's very own filk convention. Tom Smith is this year's Guest of Honor, which is going to be awesome. I love Tom, and I'm really looking forward to performing with him in May. Plus, this gives me the vital opportunity to hug me some Vixy.

February.
In February, I'm planning to write, write, write, and, oh, right, write. I'm nowhere near that dark and troubled country known as the Land of Missed Deadlines, but I fear that country's borders so much that I've set aside essentially all my spare time in February for staying as far from there as possible. Watch for flailing, and send care packages of Diet Dr Pepper and candy corn.

Toward the end of February, the fabulous stealthcello will be showing up (along with awesome bonus Katie) to stay with me pre-Consonance and check out the Bay Area a bit. Because doubling your awesome doubles your fun, Sooj and K will also be showing up, and a good time will be had by all. (There may be some extra awesome during this time period. Watch this space for details.)

March.
Oh, 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.)

On March 9th, we'll be having a reunion of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show, as we invade Borderlands Books to celebrate the release of A Local Habitation. The Borderlands Cafe is now open, and it's going to be twenty flavors of fantastic, including live music, readings, a raffle, and more. There's always, always more.

April.
April kicks off with the glory that is Wondercon, the San Francisco Bay Area comic and cool media convention. Last year at Wondercon, I didn't have any books in print. This year, I'll have two. What a difference a year makes. I intend to wander the dealer's hall with prizes in my pocket, making myself a target for treasure hunters, just like last year. Only this year, I'm bringing a real celebrity with me: my MOM. So here's your chance to meet her while she's too confused to try to drive you somewhere!

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!

June.
June is currently totally free, and that's a damn good thing, because wow, am I going to need the break. Pressing on...

July.
Here's where things get crazy. In July, I have not one, not two, but three conventions to attend, starting with the very first weekend of the month: Westercon, which is combined with ConChord this year. I'm the Guest of Honor at ConChord, which means, y'know, I'm planning to attend, and more, planning to blow the roof off. Paul Kwinn, my frequent partner in crime, is their Toastmaster, and between the two of us, there's going to be a whole lot of hoot and a whole lot of nanny. Plus it's in Pasadena, land of Disney, where a good time can easily be had by all.

I'll barely have time to return to the Bay Area before it's back to Southern California for the San Diego International Comic Convention, where again, last year I didn't have any books in print, and this year I'll have three, as well as probably having ARCs for the fourth. I may hyperventilate and die. Only not, because at the end of the month, I have Spocon! In Spokane, Washington, where I'll be the Filk Guest, along with Author Guest Tanya Huff! Ladies of DAW, unite!

August.
Australia awaits.

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!

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!

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!

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!

...needs a roommate for OVFF. Preference is for female, non-smoking, non-snoring, and capable of not hitting me with a brick when on the way to bed. I tend to be an early-to-bed, early-to-rise sort of a filker, but I'm very quiet when creeping out in the morning, and I wear earplugs.

I know the room block is selling out. Oops!

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!

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.

Item the first: at least four—yes, four, which is a number higher than two, so yay—reviewers/bookstores have received their ARCs of Rosemary and Rue, along with the snazzy watercolor cards that Alice so helpfully "helped" me finish. Thank you, Alice. Thank you so very, very much. (As an Alice-related sub-item, my puffy Halloween ball of trouble turned twenty weeks old yesterday, and celebrated her failure to get sucked into the vacuum cleaner by falling off the cat tree. Again. Maine Coons, unlike boa constrictors, have gravity.)

Item the second: Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon will not be attending BayCon this year, due to being really, really sick. Nobody's dying, I don't have all the details, and also, I didn't do it. If I were going to start the pandemic, there are other people I'd target first, and I'd have published my cackling manifesto by now. "Yay, swine flu!" does not count as a cackling manifesto, it counts as a really weird idea of what constitutes entertainment.

Item the third: speaking of entertainment, Kate and I watched the season finales for two of our season-pass shows last night—America's Next Top Model and Fringe. (Never let it be said that I am ashamed of my taste in anything.) One of the girls on this season of ANTM was totally a Toby-universe Daoine Sidhe, I swear. Real people aren't supposed to have ElfQuest eyes, but she somehow managed to pull it off. I will miss you, freaky alien-elf-eyed girl! Although I won't miss the nightmares you gave me about Toby tracking me down with a pair of pliers and a smile!

Item the fourth: So You Think You Can Dance returns to television tomorrow night. In supposedly unrelated news, I'm getting ready to get back to work on Discount Armageddon. Hmmmm...

Item the fifth: Dawn Metcalf to the white courtesy phone, dawn_metcalf to the white courtesy phone. It has now been forty-eight hours, and I still don't have a mailing address for you. If I don't hear from you within the next twenty-four hours, I will be choosing a new winner for the signed cover flat of Rosemary and Rue. In actually related news, the poetry contest to win an ARC of Rosemary and Rue is still going. Please drop by and vote, if you haven't already.

Item the sixth: I am still the Rain King.

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!

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!

Am home from day two of Wondercon, subtitled 'Seanan wanders around a lot, misses her panels, delivers some CDs, goes to the movies with Jeanne, and acquires a bunch of free stuff.' It's a long subtitle, but it's still fairly concise for everything that it needs to cover.

One nice thing about the convention being a straightforward train ride from my home: when I finish this entry and find the strength to move, I'm going to bed. In my bed. Not a hotel bed. Mine. Where I will sleep with my plush toys, and my pointy blue cat. Not those hotel plush toys and hotel pointy blue cats.

I appreciate this convenience.

In other news, yes, I'll be back at the con tomorrow; yes, I still have art cards, although the number is dropping; yes, I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have about Rosemary and Rue, including my new favorite, 'what's rue?' (How people surrounded by mad scientists can avoid knowing even one meaning of the word 'rue' is something I hope to never know...)

I'm attending a bunch of panels tomorrow, and my head hurts. So, y'know. Bed now.

1. Home from Friday at Wondercon.

2. Friday at Wondercon was every bit as awesome as I'd hoped! I wandered the floor, saw old friends, made new friends, bought cool shit -- I mean, seriously, comic book conventions are where I go to discover cool shit that I didn't know I was incapable of living without -- attended a panel on the future of Marvel's Ultimate Universe (it's not pretty, but it should be awesome), and managed to land on the commission list of an artist I admire. Major wins all around.

3. Alas, some other artists and authors I was really hoping to see didn't make this year's convention, for reasons ranging from 'the economy sucks' to 'twisted his ankle and didn't want to make with the massive lugging of crap through a crowded convention center.' So that's a little bit disappointing. Fortunately, most of them are scheduled to attend San Diego, so I'll get to see them there.

4. As an addendum to the last, I finally got the professional registration information for San Diego, and it's going to be my very first mass-media convention as an actual attending pro. Signing things. Things like, I don't know, maybe things related to Rosemary and Rue. You could actually get your hands on actual text, maybe. If you came looking for it...

5. I do still have art cards, and they will still be distributed first come, first serve throughout the remainder of the con, or until I run out, whichever comes first. Also, since I've been asked, I'll probably wind up selling whatever's left over, thus fueling my eternal need for more art supplies (and more cool crap I only seem to find at comic book conventions).

That's all for now. Now we must rinse.

Since tomorrow is the official beginning of Wondercon, this seemed like a good time to go ahead and post the remaining four cards. (In addition to forcing myself to be strong and not do 'one little replacement card,' I had to keep reminding myself that ten was a nice, round number of cards, even if it didn't give me a nice, even number in the two scans. Sometimes living inside my brain can be a real merry-go-round of mathematical fun.)

As always, clicking the image will take you to a bigger version. I give you the final four cards:



Just to restate the rules, cards will be available for the first ten people who find me at the convention and ask about Rosemary and Rue [Amazon][Mysterious Galaxies]. I'm intending to be at-con for at least part of all three days. And yes, after you ask me about the book, you do actually have to stand there and listen to me talk about it before I'll let you have your card. No reservations for specific cards are being taken.

Let the games begin!

Remember those convention-special art cards I've been threatening to do for Wondercon? Well, they're all done, and I love them all, to the point that I've had to talk myself out of just doing 'one little replacement card' several times now. Since I'm still planning to be at the con, I thought I'd offer a little preview of the goodies to come.

As always, clicking the image will take you to a bigger version. I give you the first six cards:



Cards will be available for the first ten people who find me at the convention and ask about Rosemary and Rue. I'm intending to be at-con for at least part of all three days.

Let the games begin!

I appreciate my privileges, really I do, but right about now, the idea of expressing myself in an entirely coherent and cohesive manner is pretty much entirely beyond me. Conflikt was wonderful, magical, and completely exhausting, in the way that a good working convention essentially always is. There was music, there was laughter, there was passing out in the con suite and complicating the judging of the songwriting contest...the usual things.

(Having now been a Guest of Honor, as well as a Toastmistress -- which is a much more common gig for me -- I have to say that I was right all along; Toastmistress is a far more tiring position. Although all those laps around the hotel probably contributed a lot to my end condition.)

Last night was a post-convention gathering for fire-spinning, fondue, cuddling with kittens, and generally existing as happy people in a happy people world. I was prompted to tell the story of my crazy uncle and his ravens, since Batya and Merav went and wrote them into a parody; Sooj and Betsy did their version of 'Tam Lin' for a deeply appreciative audience; we broke out 'Wicked Girls' and rocked the house. The usual assortment of wonders. And then I spent essentially the entire day in transit, resulting in me hauling my broken, battered carcass over the threshold to be mugged by Siamese cats.

All but one of the pre-orders designated for at-con delivery actually got delivered (I'm going to mail the last one). Only about half the chapbooks were complete by the con, due to unexpected issues with chickenpox, and they sold out with astonishing speed; the rest will be made available when they're finished (thus actually allowing people who got the first chapbook, but weren't there this weekend, to have a shot). I have bunches of new art cards in need of coloring; right now, I doubt I could stay inside the lines if you paid me.

Bed now. Coherence later.

Here's a final reminder, my Pacific Northwest-ian darlings, that this weekend is Conflikt II, the second ever Washington/Pacific Northwest filk convention! It starts today at the Holiday Inn Seattle-Renton, located in scenic Renton, Washington, and I've been imported solely to serve as their Guest of Honor. I even brought an earthquake, for that true California touch. (I then proceeded to sleep through it. Thus proving that I have lived in California for too long.)

This weekend promises chills, thrills, spills, shrills (when the sporanos hit a note from the wrong angle), shills (when the Interfilk auction really gets rolling), trills (from all and sundry), and hopefully a minimum of ills, as I have not scheduled the global pandemic to coincide with the convention. Also, in a rare real-life sighting, my mother is going to be showing up for the con. Bring cameras, and move slowly, she's shy.

If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, or can't afford the entire weekend, I recommend swinging down for the Saturday night extravaganza. My concert is at nine o'clock, and evening memberships are available. Saturday night will also include appearances by Frank Hayes and Marian Call, thus making the entire experience MADE OF PURE WIN. So even if you can't come and share our entire madcap adventure, you should at least swing by for a few hours.

Copies of all three of my albums are available at the con, as are many more truly awesome and spectacular recordings. (I can make recommendations. Usually while bouncing and squeaking. It's fun, and, I am told, slightly unnerving.)

Hope to see you there!

I have packed my suitcase, checked my carry-on, spoken to my editor, and answered all my major pending email (as in, I still have what is most politely referred to as 'a fuck-ton' of email to answer, but none of it is actively on fire at this specific moment in time). I have verified the location of my photo ID, verified the airline and the airport I'm destined for -- I have a nasty tendency to remember when I fly, but not remember where I'm flying from -- and picked up my comics from the comic book store.

I have given Joe Fields, the owner of my comic book store, a copy of Red Roses and Dead Things, because it made him laugh, and I think anybody who's lucky enough to have a comic store guy like Joe should make him happy whenever it's possible. He's just awesome. I have packed food for the journey, since I have to leave my house at four to catch a seven-thirty plane to get to Seattle by nine-thirty, and that's a bit long to depend on airport food and Tootsie Pops.

I have packed emergency Tootsie Pops.

This is my first convention of 2009; the beginning of what currently promises to be a terrifyingly exciting, action-packed adventure of a year. As I was discussing with Vixy the other day, the Everything You Ever Wanted Fairy doesn't just show up with a few of the things you've casually wished for over the years, she shows up with everything, and you'd better be ready to cope. Perhaps I should have requested the attention of the Some Of The Things You've Ever Wanted Fairy. But I think that, in the end, I'm genuinely happy with the one I have.

All right, 2009; I'm going to leave the house real soon now. And in the interests of being a proper Halloweentown Disney princess coyote girl, I say...

...bring it on.

10. I appear to have started doing art cards. (Because, as Brooke said, I need something to do with all that spare time that I had just lying around.) For those of you who are unfamiliar with the art card 'concept,' they're little pieces of original artwork, done on 2.5"x3.5" cards. Mine are Micron and Prismacolor on bristol paper. I've done three so far, one to go with Grants Pass, one to go with Ravens in the Library, and one of Velveteen and Sparkle Bright during their first year with the JSP. I figure I'll use them as book giveaways. Right now, they're just being colorful and soothing; two things that I need more of in my life.

9. My reboot on Late Eclipses of the Sun appears to have done exactly what I was hoping it would do; the new first chapter is about ten times stronger, faster, better, and generally bionic in all possible regards. Now I'm working on the revisions to chapter two, just to really lock down the changes to the continuity, and once that's done, I can start processing my editor's notes on An Artificial Night. I'm spending so much time with Toby these days that we should really start charging her rent, I swear.

8. I write more poetry than is strictly healthy, sometimes in batches of two to five hundred poems at a time. (These batches are called 'Iron Poet' rounds, and are a variation on a standard writer's workshop exercise. They make me happy. I may be crazy.) I managed to write five poems yesterday, including a counted devan (although I skipped the internal rhymes on the zipper, because I didn't feel like giving myself a migraine) and a counted technical terza rima. Take that, everyone who said there was no use for structured poetry in the modern world!

7. My story in Ravens In the Library is getting an accompanying illustration. This is...this is amazing. Not just because the illustration itself is amazing -- I saw the sketch, and it is -- but because I didn't expect an illustration at all. It made me cry. More and more, I begin to believe that 2009 is the universe giving me one big incredible birthday present.

6. It's not entirely visible to the naked eye, but my website continues to creep closer and closer to being entirely done. We should be getting the first few essays up there soon, and Chris is working on the functionality that will allow me to update and edit the front page all on my lonesome. Meanwhile, Tara works secretly behind the scenes on Wonderful Surprises that only a golden graphics girl could possibly provide. Prepare to be amazed.

5. I get to spend the weekend working on Discount Armageddon! (Quoth Dan: "I don't know anybody who gets as excited about being told what to work on as you do.") I love deadlines, I love directions, and I love Verity. She's so happy to see you. And so happy to kick you in the head. Pleasantly, I just put together my Verity playlist last night, consisting almost entirely of dance music and things with a BPM of over 120. Because Verity just looooooves the beat, yo.

4. It's new comic book day! Always the most wonderful day of the week. At least in theory -- other days are sometimes surprisingly awesome.

3. All my television is coming back on the air. I'm a huge TV freak. It's what lets me decompress after a hard day of working and writing and worrying about working and writing; it's also what I do with the other half of my concentration when I'm inking. (Most of the shows I watch are more verbal than visual, and have clear cues when I actually need to be paying attention to the screen.) I really appreciate the fact that the things I watch are staggered enough to make sure I almost always have something new.

2. This time next week, I will be heading for the airport, heading for the sky, and heading for Seattle, baby.

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

1. Oasis just called me, and THE CDS ARE DONE!!!!! They're mailing them out from the Oasis warehouse today, and they should supposedly hit my doorstep on Friday. This gives me time to actually arrange for CDs to reach Seattle, prep the first batch of pre-orders to mail out (probably the first twenty or so, more if I can possibly swing it), and generally get my hysteria out of the way. It also gives me time to use the CD boxes to build myself a little fort and crawl inside it to hide from the universe.

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

January.
We're pretty solidly into January at this point, but the month's not over yet -- Conflikt II is still to come, and you haven't missed the opportunity to come and marvel at my very first Guest of Honor slot. My build-a-band for the occasion includes Vixy and Tony, Paul Kwinn, Alisa Garcia, and Luis Garcia (whom you may also know as several of the members of Puzzlebox), and the illustrious Amy McNally, fiddler to the stars. The set list is gorgeous, the company is glorious, and we are going to rock. The. House.

February.
February both begins and ends with a convention. Conflikt II starts the month, as the tail-end of the convention catches the beginning of February, and Wondercon ends it. Sometimes being a geek is truly a fantastic thing. Also, Wondercon will be my first 'industry convention' with a publication date and business cards in hand. You may even catch me wearing the Halloweentown Disney Princess super-suit! Truly an opportunity not to be missed.

February will also see the release of Ravens in the Library, which includes my short story, 'Lost,' written specifically for the anthology and never seen anywhere else. It's an all-star lineup for a very good cause. I'm very excited.

March.
March finds me running the music department for Consonance, the San Francisco Bay Area's very own filk convention. Our guests this year are absolutely first rate, and I don't just say that because most of them know where I live. It's going to be fantastic. You should totally come.

April.
It's a gap! In my schedule! During which I might actually do silly little things like sleeping, eating, and writing! Sometimes life is good. Sometimes life allows to actually plan for my nervous breakdowns.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

A clip of me speaking during my BayCon 2006 concert (the year I was Toastmistress) just came on my iTunes, which is eternally set to shuffle:

"To say that we're eclectic is a little bit of an over-statement...understatement...it's a statement. I'm wearing three-inch heels and I just ran through the whole hotel in them, so really, I get to make any statement I want."

Sometimes it's good to be a Halloweentown Disney Princess. In other news, word of my publication date is spreading like wildfire, and the response has been incredibly awesome. If book sales are anything near as healthy and enthusiastic as congratulations, I'm going to be writing book nine before I know it!

Glee.

It has recently come to my attention that a great many people aren't really sure what this whole 'convention scene' is all about. Because I am a helpful blonde, I thought it might be a good idea to offer a few tips on the nature of the beast, including methods of keeping it from eating you. I may be relatively new to the world of being a professional author, but I'm like the Steve Irwin of science fiction fandom. Only female and not actually dead.

Please note that this guide is limited by my own experiences, and may not apply in all circumstances. Please also note that I'm talking specifically about conventions, and not conferences, which have different standards, traditions, and expectations. (Also, I've never been to a literary conference, and somehow I doubt that my experiences with herpitological conferences will translate over one-to-one. As an example, I have never heard of a romance writer's conference being forced to evacuate a meeting hall because somebody's taipan managed to get out of its enclosure.) This guide is geared towards attending conventions as a professional and/or participant, although large swaths of it will apply to everybody. This guide will include information on:

* What a convention is, exactly.
* Finding the convention that's right for you.
* Reaching the convention alive.
* Getting a hotel room.
* Enjoying/surviving the con.
* Packing.
* Not looking like a total tool.
* Panels.
* Things to do.
* Eating food.
* Staying healthy and sane.

It will also be heavily biased towards my own opinions on all these things, because hello, so totally me. But I'm honest about my biases, and I'll be factual whenever it's fact, rather than opinion. (In short, don't expect me to falsify hotel room rates to suit my own ideas of 'fair,' but don't expect me to suggest a good anime con, either.) Ready? Let's rock.

( Click here for Seanan's handy-dandy convention survival guide, 2009 edition! Read and be enlightened in all the ways that matter, which is to say, all the ways that Seanan actually thought of.Collapse )

January.
I'll be starting the month of January in the Pacific Northwest, where I'm staying with Vixy and Tony, both a) because I can, and b) to rehearse for Conflikt II at the end of the month. Remember, I'm this year's Guest of Honor, and we are going to rock. The. House.

After I return to California, I'll be going to see Evil Dead: the Musical in its second run at the Campbell Theater. I may be having my birthday party there. We'll see. Oh, and also? I'm putting out a new album this month.

February.
February both begins and ends with a convention. Conflikt starts the month, as the tail-end of the convention catches the beginning of February, and Wondercon ends it. Sometimes being a geek is truly a fantastic thing.

March.
March finds me running the music department for Consonance, the San Francisco Bay Area's very own filk convention. Our guests this year are absolutely first rate, and I don't just say that because most of them know where I live. It's going to be fantastic. You should totally come.

April.
It's a gap! In my schedule! During which I might actually do silly little things like sleeping, eating, and writing! Sometimes life is good.

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!

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.

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 finally get to come back to you this year. I promise I will never leave you again.

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 yet. But it's a long way away, and the universe likes to toy with me. Watch this space for developments.

October.
The Ohio Valley Filk Festival! Potentially followed by another trip to Alabama, because dude, haunted corn maze. (And no, this isn't a surprise to Mary, she asked if I wanted to come back.)

November.
World Fantasy is in San Jose in 2009. Pretty sure I'm morally, if not legally, obligated to go. Just sayin'.

December.
Sleep.

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!

Dear Great Pumpkin;

I have been a very good girl since last Halloween. I have given cookies and candy and cake to people who needed them. I have been kind to spiders. I have revered the pumpkin in all its forms. I have not drowned anyone in a well. I have not unleashed an army of the living dead, obedient to my every whim, and commanded them to destroy all that which might oppose me. Also, I have not called down the pandemic. So clearly, I have spent the entire year on my very best behavior.

This year, Great Pumpkin, I am asking for the following gifts:

* Awesome cover art. Please, Great Pumpkin, make sure that the cover art for Rosemary and Rue is made entirely of wonderful, and save me from the terrible specter of the bimbo on the cover of my book. (To quote the Bohnhoffs: “She is sultry, she is sexy, she is nowhere in the text, she is the bimbo on the cover of my book.”) I have great faith in my cover artist and my publisher, but it never hurts to plead for supernatural aid from the most superior of all squash.

* A fantastic convention season. I’m going to be the Music Guest of Honor at Duckon, Great Pumpkin, and Jim Butcher is going to be the Author Guest of Honor. Please help me to be the very best Disney Halloween Princess that I can possibly be, and smite those things which might attempt to oppose me. Please assist me in winning the hearts of all those who meet me, and all me to position myself well for a best-selling novel. Also, please make sure there’s edible food within walking distance of the convention hotel.

* The perfect kittens. My oldest cat is very old, Great Pumpkin, and in the interests of keeping my younger cat from going insane, I am in the market for Siamese kittens. I am looking for a chocolate and a lilac, both Classic, both with the sweet temper and massive size that I associate with the breed. They need to be sturdy, or Lilly will devour them while I sleep, and that will both make me sad and force me to go looking for new kittens. I don’t have time to go through this twice, so please help me get it right the first time.

* Quick, successful sale of the InCryptid series, wherein the various members of the Price family alternately protect and pummel cryptid ass for the sake of the ecological balance of the planet. If you give me this, Great Pumpkin, I promise to find a way to work you into the narrative, either as a benevolent protector of the pumpkin patch, or as a destroyer of the weak. The choice is entirely yours. Also, if you can, could you make sure the contract is for the first four? Because I really want an excuse to write them all.

* Happiness for my entire family, including my recently-married baby sister and her wife. I am very tired of people trying to say that my baby sister’s marriage is in some way dangerous, Great Pumpkin. She’s happy for the first time, and it’s wonderful to watch, and if anything, her joy is a testament to why people get married at all, not a sign of the marital apocalypse. Please make the stupid go away, Great Pumpkin, so we can all stay happy.

* An army of velociraptors, genetically-engineered to obey only my commands, and equipped with lasers on their forearms. I promise I will only use them to bring glory to your name, Great Pumpkin, and that I will leave enough of the world’s population alive to properly honor you on the next Halloween.

I remain your faithful Halloween girl,
Seanan.

Hey, look at that! The wonderful folks responsible for throwing the party known as Duckon 2009 have decided that since they were awesome enough to invite me as their Filk Guest of Honor, I should have a profile page to tell people who I am. That was sweet of them, don'cha think? (It probably has something to do with wanting people to come to their convention, but hey, I am not a picky person about anything but food.)

The picture that accompanies the profile is from our Red Roses and Dead Things photoshoot. You can tell because I'm wearing lipstick. All the rest of it could really just be a shot from any day in the life.

Pre-reg prices have gone up at this point, so you should really consider grabbing your slot before they jump again. You know you want to watch me talk folklore with Jim Butcher. You know you also want to see what kind of crazy we're going to cram into the concert. (Hint: I'll have just come out with a mad science-themed album, I own a lab coat, I've been known to do on-stage stripteases...) It's going to be a fun time all around!

Seanan vs. Illinois. Round one, fight.

Now, y'all have heard me do a bit of squealing about this before, but since I have new information to share, and because it is awesome, it's time for me to remind you that I'm going to be appearing at Duckon 2009 as their Filk Guest of Honor. This is a fabulous enough thing that I'm actually planning to spare the Duckon concom when my army of plague-bearing dinosaurs conquers this puny planet in my name. See how simple it is to buy yourself salvation? Some things, money can't buy. For everything else, there's Evil MastermindCard.

Duckon is in Naperville, Illinois, which is approximately twenty-five miles outside of Chicago -- far enough that we're unlikely to get devoured by the radioactive hamsters almost guaranteed to arise when you put me and Author Guest of Honor Jim Butcher in the same place, but might still be able to work in a dinner run at Buddy's, home of the all-you-can-eat fried chicken OF THE GODS. Mmmmmmm. Fried gods. Who else is going to be in that hotel? Who knows?!? I'll be announcing the other guests -- such as Special Guest of Honor Shannon K. Butcher -- as they're announced. Because sometimes I'm just nice that way. Personally, I'm just waiting to hear who the Mad Scientist Guest of Honor will be. Oh, Dr. Brundle...

The convention will be running from June 12th-14th, 2009, and I'll be providing more information as I get it. Today's helpful and informative post is designed to point out that early pre-reg is available now from the Duckon website, but that it won't last much longer. The current pre-reg rate of $30 is available only through June 30th; once we hit July 1st, it jumps to $40. Registering now could save you ten dollars! If you have ten dollars, you can take me to Starbucks! Register now. Beat the rush.

I will definitely have Red Roses and Dead Things by Duckon (we're aiming for a Conflikt release), and there's a chance, depending on how things go, that I will also have Rosemary and Rue. Also, if I have my first novel in hand at a convention where Jim-frikkin'-Butcher is the Author Guest of Honor, I may fall off my incredibly swanky gradient orange and black Mary Jane heels.

Hope to see you there!