This is not a book review. There may be a book review later, once a) I've finished the book, and b) I've finished being all excited about the book, but right now, this is not a book review. See? It doesn't even have the book review icon. What this is is an excuse to squeal and jump around and clap my hands over Stargazer [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxies], the new book in the epic Evernight Saga from Claudia Gray. (I really like having an excuse to write 'epic saga' in a context that doesn't make me feel all dirty inside.)

Stargazer takes us back to Evernight Academy, where Bianca's problems are just beginning. I'm about halfway through the book, which officially hits shelves tomorrow, and I'm ecstatic. It's smart, savvy, well-paced, well-plotted supernatural romance for the teen crowd that's well-written enough to rock my happy adult world, smoking-hot enough to be enthralling, and yet PG-13 enough not to make my fifteen-year-old niece feel uncomfortable if I see her reading it. It is, in short, made of pure awesome.

(Look. Fifteen-year-olds are going to read smut. I'm not saying this is good, I'm not saying this is bad, I'm just saying this is. That said, when I was fifteen, I would have been seriously tweaked out if I'd seen my Aunt Jennifer reading the same smut I was reading, or having her see me reading it if I knew she knew that it was smut. Reduce discomfort in the teenagers of the world. Label your plot-to-porn ratio clearly.)

Stargazer officially comes out tomorrow. Because The Agent is awesome, she arranged for me to get an early copy, which I am devouring like it were the first pumpkin pie of the Halloween season. I'll doubtless finish it tonight, and do more flailing about how great it is later, after I've had time to let it sink in. For right now:

1. Evernight was awesome.
2. Stargazer is possibly more awesome.
3. Claudia Gray is hence declared to be awesome.
4. Support your local vampire academy by buying Stargazer.

The Evernight Academy Spirit Squad thanks you, and will reward your loyalty by not eating your cat.

Evernight [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxies] by Claudia Gray.
HarperTeen, trade paperback
352 pages, you don't know Evernight Academy like you think you know Evernight Academy gothic fun
Currently in print

( What secrets lurk in Evernight Academy, a school with a uniform most Hot Topic lovers would kill for? Can Bianca survive her time at school? What's up with the dreams? All this and more will be answered, but not everything will be revealed by clicking here...Collapse )

During my wandering and wending through the dark, dank, disturbing sewers of the Internet underworld -- in short, my home town -- I managed to stumble over a, well, let's go with the word 'gentleman' by the name of Anton Strout (antonstrout, for those of you in need of someone else to stalk). For the most part, I made note of his existence, was unwooed by his weirdling ways, and wandered off to do what I normally do, ie, 'poke dead stuff with sticks and see what happens.' Then came the amazing used book bonanza of 2008, which united me with a truly epic number of books both familiar and strange. One of these books was Anton's Dead To Me, about which there will be more later. I read it. I enjoyed it. I added context to his manic capering and moved on, preoccupied by the ongoing surreality of the local madmen.

Then Anton made what was either a fatal mistake, or a majorly good move, and started waving shiny banners in the air, hence attracting my mercurial coyote-girl attention. "What do you want?" I asked. "I want you to be awed by the awesome of my new book," he said. "Hmm," I said. "Also, look, shiny things," he added. "New best friend!" I cried. Because my love is always for sale, ladies and gentlemen; always for sale.

Deader Still is the second adventure of Simon Canderous, a psychometric employee of the New York branch of the Department of Extraordinary Affairs. To semi-quote myself in my upcoming review of Simon's first outing, take one part Men In Black, two parts Bureau 13, three parts 'I can totally see this as a Phil Foglio comic book adventure,' and mix thoroughly. Simon's luck is marginally better than Toby's, in that he spends slightly less of the book knocked unconscious than she tends to, but other than that, he's another bad plan minefield walking through an unsuspecting world.

And it's awesome.

Deader Still officially comes out tomorrow, but you can find it on store shelves already, since it's a sneaky little thing, and it's been escaping from store rooms like a sort of, I don't know, fungal infection. In honor of this fun, frightening event, I present another shot of my resident Pretty Little Dead Girl, this time in her formal role as a member of the Department of Extraordinary Affairs. I recommend staying on her good side, and not submitting to any body cavity searches, as there's no real way of being sure that she's not planning to do something nasty.

I'll be reviewing Dead To Me later this week, and probably doing a review of Deader Still, since Anton was kind enough to send me an ARC of my very own. Because that's just how we roll around here.

Happy new book day, Anton!

1. If you wander on over to my website -- which is getting shinier and more functional every day as the back-end code comes online, all hail porpentine, who has slaved over a hot keyboard for our delight -- you may find a few truly awesome things waiting for you. Specifically, we now have icons and wallpapers, designed by the splendid taraoshea. All icons and wallpapers are free for use! Print them out, stick them to things, do whatever makes you happy. Well, except for posting them to your Deviant Art account and claiming that you made them. That would make the Tara sad, and she knows where I keep the chainsaws.

2. As you explore the site, you may see that there is now a landing page for the 'Velveteen vs.' stories. Yes, the link currently takes you to the big COMING SOON graphic, but its very existence means that, before too terribly much longer, there will be an online archive of the adventures of Velma 'Velveteen' Martinez as she struggles to survive the foul mechanations of the Marketing Department without giving in to the urge to just kill somebody already. Because the best way to show you care is with random semi-comic superhero stories, you know. My comic book store tells me so.

3. Speaking of my comic book store, the new best thing ever is walking into the place where I go for my weekly fix (I am such an X-junkie) and being greeted by Joe (the owner) with a cheery "Do you have CDs for me?" That moment, right there, was enough to validate my entire musical career.

4. Oh, and as an FYI for those who share my comic book habit -- Monday was a holiday, but it wasn't a shipping holiday. So today is still new comic book day, day of comic book-y goodness. Although according to the release lists, very little has come in that holds any actual interest for me. That's probably for the best, what with Wondercon right around the corner. Ah, sweet Wondercon. I wonder how I've lived so long without you.

5. I spent several hours last night at Borderlands Books, hanging out with Ripley, the freaky demon suede alien kitty-face (aka, 'the elder of the store's two resident hairless cats'). The more time I spend with her, the more I start to think that maybe life with a Sphinx wouldn't be so bad. Sure, they're naked and weird-looking, but they're also smart, friendly, and incredibly soothing to hang out with. This is probably a sign that I need some sort of 'cats are not like Pokemon, you do not need to collect them all' intervention.

6. While I was at Borderlands, I chanced to notice their list of top sellers for January, and jimhines grabbed the #10 slot with The Stepsister Scheme! Way to go Jim! The weird naked cats were very impressed.

7. For those of you who missed the (admittedly rather quietly delivered) memo, I will be leaving California for a short time in March, as I hop on a plane and fly out to New York for more fun with my friends at DAW. I love visiting my publisher, largely because it gives me an excuse to say 'my publisher' a lot, and that's still a sort of shiny-and-new thing for me. I am assured that by the time An Artificial Night (the third Toby book) hits the shelves, I won't find it all quite so exciting, but I really hope not. We all need things that make us irrationally happy. Anyway, my schedule is pretty packed while I'm there, so I'm not going to be looking to host a meet-and-greet or anything, but it's definitely going to represent a break in my standard routine.

8. Zombies are still love.

9. I have now managed to go three months without starting a new novel. For some people, this may seem like an unremarkable 'I just went three months without bursting into flame' or 'I just went three months without unleashing a global pandemic'-type statement, but for me, it's the result of Herculean efforts in the arenas of focus and restraint. I love starting books. The freedom and the scope of it all is just a wonderful thing. But I can be strong. I can be controlled. I can keep myself from getting beaten by my editing pool.

10. This coming Sunday is the official release date for Ravens In the Library, a benefit anthology assembled to help with SJ Tucker's unexpected medical bills. It's got an awesome list of authors, and, on a more personal note, it's got my first official this-is-in-print anthology appearance: my short story, 'Lost,' will be the final piece in the book. I'm very excited.

That's my wending for Wednesday. What's yours?

My favorite book in the entire world -- the comforting, reassuring book that I return to over and over again, because it makes everything better for as long as I'm reading it -- is IT, by Stephen King. This probably explains a lot about me. I've read IT at least once a year since I was nine, more frequently two or three times a year, because when I'm stressed, I want familiar things around me, and my definition of 'familiar things' includes scary evil clowns. (My grandmother had a clown collection. I lived with her for a while, and it's a miracle I never took a hammer to her curio shelves. When she passed away, all the clowns went into boxes, and I never saw them again. I do not miss them, although I sort of wish I knew where they were, so as to remove 'under my bed with knives' from the available options.)

Because I re-read this book so frequently, I've actually managed to imprint on a specific edition, like a baby duck imprinting on a fire-breathing hellhound as its mother. I must have the 1985 paperback edition, or the words are in the wrong places on the page, and the book feels wrong to me. Yes, I recognize how absolutely bizarre this is. It doesn't change the fact that they re-paginated in later editions, and things just don't look right.

It's been getting increasingly hard to find copies of IT in my preferred edition, maybe because it's a twenty-four year old paperback that wasn't all that well-bound to begin with. I've been hoarding them with increasing desperation, knowing that the well is getting closer and closer to running dry. I had fourteen copies, at last count, after giving one to Vixy for Christmas. Well, I found a cardboard box on my porch this week, sent from Merav in New York. She's pretty good about telling me when things are perishable, so I let it sit for a few days before opening it.

When I did open it, I laughed myself dizzy. Because inside were seven -- yes, seven -- copies of the correct edition of IT, all neatly stacked and waiting to join the pile. Between her and Joey (who did something similar at my 'hooray, we've sold the first three Toby books' party), I may finally have sufficient copies of IT to get me through my lifetime.

My friends are very strange.

Divalicious! volume one and Divalicious! volume two, by Amy Mebberson and T. Campbell.
TokyoPop, paperback
232 pages, bubblegum bimbo pop princess American manga musical madness
Currently in print

( What's it like to be Tina Young, arguably the most famous pop-star princess in the known universe? And can a comic book about a pop princess really be awesome enough to be worth reading? Absolutely, and you'd be surprised. Click here for details.Collapse )

Because I was curious -- and because I compulsively write everything down, including what I happen to be reading on any given day -- I went through my planner and pulled the data on every book I read during 2008.

Here is the result.

( What did Seanan read in 2008? Care to take a guess?Collapse )

So y'all may have noticed me talking a goodly amount about the works of jimhines lately. This isn't because he bribed me, ironically enough; it's just that I find his books deeply entertaining, and I have a very low threshold for amusement sometimes. And it is in the spirit of my low threshold for amusement that I take this opportunity to remind you that The Stepsister Scheme comes out tomorrow. I haven't posted my full review of the book yet -- although I have posted my mother's -- but I found it to be a fun, fast, flippant take on the classical fairy tale heroines of old. Less 'Joss Whedon does Disney,' more 'Warren Ellis and Steven Moffat do the Brothers Grimm.' (Knowing Ellis and Moffat, they're either doing them in, or doing them some serious physical damage in an alleyway.)

I would happily hand this book to an eleven-year-old girl who likes to read, having been one, and thus having a decent recollection of what I would just skim over because hello, still boring. I would just as happily hand it to any adult friend, male or female, and be like, dude, check it out.

So anyway, The Stepsister Scheme, by Jim Hines, from DAW Books. January 6th, 2009. Help yourself through the post-holiday hangover with some ass-kicking princesses and a whole lot of wacky fun.

In honor of this most exciting event, I present another shot of my resident Pretty Little Dead Girl, this time in full-on Cinderella mode. (I promise you that the only similarity to the book is the archetype. Jim's Cinderella is a lot less likely to slit your throat, empty your pockets, and leave your body by the side of the road for the crows to peck at.) Now that I'm free from the confines of the calendar, I'm finding myself with an assortment of really odd, occasionally really amusing pin-ups. Because my brain does not believe in allowing me to have any of that mythical thing referred to only as 'down time.' Expect more randomness in the weeks to come, although I'm likely to save them until and unless I have something appropriate to post (like, say, this).

Whee!

So there's a used record store near me that will occasionally get estate sale lots of paperback books. I go hunting there for crumbling manuscripts that chimera_fancies can use in her jewelry. This evening, I wandered over and discovered that they had apparently become The Land of Amazingly Old Science-Fiction and Fantasy.

For serious.

( Click here to discover what Seanan just dragged home, giggling madly the entire way.Collapse )

Matt, Michelle and I have a long-standing tradition of passing books around the three of us like red rubber balls during a game of four-square. It started when we were in high school, where we knew what we all liked and didn't have much money to throw around. It's continued into our adult lives, where we still know what we all like, and still don't have much money to throw around. We see each other about once a month, when I take the train up to Sacramento for hanging out and role-playing games. (Yes, I still play with my high school gaming group. No, I don't see a problem with that.)

When I went up to visit in November, I brought Jim Hines's Goblin trilogy* to loan to Matt, and my ARC of The Stepsister Scheme** to loan to Michelle. When I went up this past weekend, Michelle returned The Stepsister Scheme -- she's going to be buying her own copy once it hits the store shelves -- and Matt returned the Goblin books. I began putting things into my bag to take home. Michelle promptly inquired, of the Goblin books, "Are you going to leave those here?"

Hee.

So I left the Goblin books in Sacramento and returned to the Bay Area, where my mother picked me up from the train station and drove me home. Once there, she hung around to chat a bit, and -- as I was unpacking my bags -- caught sight of The Stepsister Scheme. Bet you can guess what happens next, can't you? Good guess. My house is totally devoid of the works of Jim Hines, and I am amused. (My house is also practically devoid of the works of Kelley Armstrong, as Michelle is borrowing everything from Industrial Magic to Living With the Dead, but those had a less entertaining chain of custody.)

(*Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, and Goblin War, all published by DAW Books, all available now from a retailer near you. Support your local bookstore. Buy more books.)
(**Coming from DAW Books on January 6th, 2009. The day after my birthday!)

This fascinating article in the Baltimore City Paper talks about the books we loved when we were twelve, and how they never ever leave us. It opens with a quote that really resonates with me:

"A girl I once caught reading Fahrenheit 451 over my shoulder on the subway confessed: "You know, I'm an English lit major, but I've never loved any books like the ones I loved when I was 12 years old." I fell slightly in love with her when she said that. It was so frank and uncool, and undeniably true."

I have found books that I love every year of my life. I am a person who reads, I've been a person who reads for almost my entire time on this planet, and I go through a lot of brand new books every month (often to the chagrin of my budget). And yet...

The books I go back to, the books that comfort me when I feel bad, the books that lift me up when I'm feeling down, are largely books I encountered between the ages of nine and twelve. I'll go up one level on that, since that was also the period of my life where Xanth and Dragonlance reigned supreme: they're the books that emotionally moved me between the ages of nine and twelve. Tailchaser's Song. The Last Unicorn. IT. The Stand. War for the Oaks. There are others -- oh, there are others -- and so many of them source back to that same stretch of time.

I'd argue that you can fall in love with the way an author uses language, as much as a specific use of language, and that it's also at its most powerful when it happens between those ages. Hence my total inability to get over my love for Stephen King (not that I really want to). Hence the comic geeks of the world and their insistence on viewing whichever death of Jean Grey happened during their 'imprint years' as the only real time she died. (Personally, I'll take any of her deaths, as long as she promises to stay dead.)

I'd be curious about how universal this is. But is strikes me as being something that's very true for a lot of us, and somehow manages to be practically invisible at the same time. Pretty cool.

Broken, by Kelley Armstrong.
Spectra, paperback
480 pages, dark urban fantasy/supernatural romance, werewolf party people in the house
Currently in print

( In the sixth installment of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, we do something we've never done before: we return to an earlier narrator. Elena and the Pack are back, for what may be their most dangerous adventure yet. Click here for details.Collapse )

Haunted, by Kelley Armstrong.
Spectra, paperback
528 pages, dark urban fantasy/supernatural romance, life doesn't end with death
Currently in print

( In the fifth installment of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, we switch narrators for the second time, moving from Paige -- bye, Paige! -- to Eve Levine, half-demon, witch, and oh, right, entirely dead. Time to see just what the dead can do.Collapse )

We're back! Welcome to number fourteen in my ongoing series of essays on the art and craft of writing. There will eventually be fifty essays in this series, all of them based on my fifty thoughts on writing. This proves that I have no hobbies. All fifty thoughts were composed in a single heated, Diet Dr Pepper-powered session, which probably goes a long way towards explaining the number of seriously weird metaphors involved. I'm reasonably easy to bribe and distract, so if there's something you've been hoping I will -- or won't -- discuss, remember, if it's orange, I probably adore it.

Here's our thought for the day:

Thoughts on Writing #14: Know Your Territory.

While the thought at the core of today's essay is a bit more publishing-oriented than many of them have been (or will be), it can still apply to writers of all stripes, whether you're writing for fun or writing with the goal of eventually becoming the next big best-selling author. This is another essay that's just as much about being a reader as it is about being a writer; hopefully, if I write enough of these, people will realize that I genuinely mean it when I say that without reading, writing starts going a little bit stale. Here's today's expanded topic of discussion:

Even if you're not publishing right now -- even if you're just hoping to publish someday -- make sure you're reading as much as you can of the genres where you're writing or planning to write. The line between 'new and hot' and 'played-out and cliche' is a thin one, and while I'm not saying 'throw away your baby because somebody else got there first,' you need to know where that line is at any given moment, because you need to be able to defend your work from an informed perspective.

Now, you will hopefully remember that we discussed genre and what it means in essay thirteen, 'Reading Outside the Box,' and I can thus continue without going over old ground. If you don't remember that essay, or if you want a refresher on its contents, that's okay. We can wait right here while you get caught up. Once you're ready, we can continue.

All set? Excellent. Let’s begin.

( My thoughts are not your thoughts; my process is not your process; my ideas are not your ideas; my method is not your method. All these things are totally right for me, and may be just as totally wrong for you. So please don't stress if the things I'm saying don't apply to you -- I promise, there is no One True Way. This way for my thoughts on reading inside the genre, why this is an important thing to do, and why we sometimes have to defend our work.Collapse )

Industrial Magic, by Kelley Armstrong.
Spectra, paperback
560 pages, dark urban fantasy/supernatural romance, everybody loves a witchy girl
Currently in print

( In the fourth installment of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, we go back for a second Paige in my favorite narrator's story. Definitely do not read this book, or this review, without first reading the third book in the series. For details on the continuing adventures of Paige Winterbourne, witch, click here.Collapse )

Dime-Store Magic, by Kelley Armstrong.
Spectra, paperback
448 pages, dark urban fantasy/supernatural romance, welcome to the witching hour
Currently in print

( Welcome to the third book in Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, when we finally hook up with our second awesome narrator (in what will become a long string of awesome narrators) and get a look at more of the supernatural world. This is a decent starting point for the series, although I still recommend starting with book one. For details on the adventures of Paige Winterbourne, witch, click here.Collapse )

Stolen, by Kelley Armstrong.
Plume, paperback
480 pages, dark urban fantasy/supernatural romance, werewolf-centric awesome
Currently in print

( And now, a disclaimer: this is a review of the second book in Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, and will, by its very nature, contain spoilers for the first book. You should really read the first book before reading this review. Actually, you should really read the first book, period, because it's awesome. Still, if you're wondering what's up with Elena Michaels, the world's only female werewolf, go ahead and click here for details.Collapse )

Bitten, by Kelley Armstrong.
Plume, paperback
448 pages, dark urban fantasy/supernatural romance, werewolf-centric awesome
Currently in print

( Is it possible for the only female werewolf in the world to ever find a way to balance what she is with what her human upbringing tells her she should want to be? Can she forgive the man who bit her in the first place? And what kind of body count are we talking? Women of the Otherworld, book one, is ready to answer all these questions and more! Click for details.Collapse )

The Blue-Haired Bombshell, by John Zakour.
DAW Books, paperback
368 pages, science fiction comedy detective spoof noir weirdness blue-haired telepath party
Currently in print

( Is the last private detective on Earth actually immortal? Because that might be the only way he's going to survive Moon-based telepaths, assassination plots, and his own assistant. From the Earth to the Moon, it's time for more fun with Zach. How is it? Click for details.Collapse )

The Frost-Haired Vixen, by John Zakour.
DAW Books, paperback
352 pages, science fiction comedy detective spoof noir weirdness sexpot Santa
Currently in print

( So what happens when the last private detective on Earth is called upon to save the holiday, contend with a hyper-sexual Santa of the future, and get abused by elves? More, what happens when one-half of an intrepid writing duo goes it alone? Click for details.Collapse )

Boredom does strange things. So does anxiety. Combine the two, and you're likely to end up with things like...

Limericks About Books Seanan Loves Dearly.

IT:
Poor Georgie ran after his boat;
The clown said 'down here, we all float'.
Now Stuttering Bill
Has a monster to kill,
Or It's certain to tear out his throat!

Fire and Hemlock:
Don't put a book down on its face,
Or trust men who come from That Place.
Gran tried hard to advise,
But our Pol wasn't wise,
And got caught in a fairy-time race.

The Stand:
A sniffle, a cough, and a sneeze,
And the whole world is brought to its knees.
God said 'no more rain,'
But why should he refrain
From deluging the world with disease?

The Dark Tower (full series):
No mortal hands this Tower rose
In the fields where the universe grows.
Now Roland must wander
From home to the yonder
To learn what he already knows.

Mirabile:
Don't tie DNA up in bows;
You can't control just where it goes,
And you will be vexed
When you're Kangaroo Rex'd.
Genetics should not be freak shows.

On Writing:
Slaughter your darlings, my friends;
Let adverbs seek swift, messy ends.
Whatever is uttered,
Use 'said' and not 'muttered,'
And follow the tale where it bends.

Limerick me! I want to see what the twisted minds of the rest of the world can produce. Also, I find this funny.

All right, so here's the thing:

The American economy sucks right now. You know it, I know it, the guy who changes money at the airport knows it, hell, my cat knows it (the number of pre-approved credit cards Lilly receives in the mail has declined sharply in recent months). This means we're eating out less, going to fewer movies, and yes, buying fewer books. Tragedy. And when we do buy books, well, it's much easier to just give in to the retail therapy when it's three clicks on Amazon and no actual inconvenience, as opposed to going out and going shopping in an actual retail environment. We all do it. I do it, Bob over there does it, I'm pretty sure Lilly does it when I'm not home.

But.

Especially right now, with people's disposable income dwindling as rents and utility costs continue to rise, we really need to remember that our retail dollars also go partially to buy the places that we spend them. I buy all my comic books from Flying Colors Comics and Other Cool Stuff because I adore having a large, diverse comic book store within a short bus ride of my house. Could I get many of those same comics off the rack at Borders? Yes, but there are even more that I couldn't. I would never have discovered Hack/Slash, The Boys, or Finder if I was confined to the chain stores, and that would make me sad.

My local genre bookstore is The Other Change of Hobbit, practically a Berkeley institution. It's everything I believe a bookstore should be -- full of aisles made of shelves, hidden treasures, out-of-print books, and bookstore cats. (Two loaner cats, Clearsword and Patch, and two newly-acquired, formerly feral kittens, Trouble and Sam.) The staff knows their material, and can argue the merits of cover artists, short story collections, and the 'plot vs. porn' divide in current urban fantasy happily, for hours. It's a bookstore run by book people. And no, you won't get 30% or buy one get one free if you shop there...but you'll be able to find twenty-year-old paperbacks, make special order requests, and get recommendations for authors you might not otherwise have heard of.

Please, if you can, take your business to your local stores. Go to Other Change, or to your local equivalent thereof. When the economy is bad, it's these little stores that feel the hit first and hardest, and if we lose them now, we're unlikely to get them back. The super-stores make it too difficult to get established, and the little stores are the places that will keep your favorite author's entire back catalog on the shelf, arrange for signings, throw book release parties, and generally encourage your community.

You'd miss them if they were gone.

Also, as a side note that I couldn't find a way to naturally tangent into: when making small purchases at your local stores, try to pay cash when you can. Small stores can pay anywhere from 4% to 8% on credit card transactions. That may not be a big deal when you're getting more sales, but when sales drop off, that little bite can add up in a big way. Every little bit helps keep the stores that support our genre open and ready to welcome a new generation of readers. And that's awesome.

Questions I'm sure jennifer_brozek probably wasn't expecting to answer today:

"Is your drug resistant bubonic plague actually yersinia pestis, or a mimicking virological agent?"

Because that's a totally reasonable thing for me to ask, right? I mean, bubonic plague is wiping out Texas, I want to know what its rate of spread is, how it's transmitted, whether the speed of spread is retarded by some animal infector (as in the original bubonic plague, where your spread is limited to the presence, health, and density of rat fleas available to spread the bacteria). You may all applaud Jennifer, because she had a quick and reasonable response, and did not threaten to smack me with the nearest available cat if I didn't stop being a geek.

(Jennifer is editing an anthology called Grant's Pass, set roughly fourteen months after a series of biologically engineered pathogens wiped out the bulk of the human race. Clearly, Jennifer loves me. Amusingly, Jennifer didn't know me when she came up with the idea for the anthology. So clearly, great minds think alike. Sadly for Jennifer, this means I have a totally valid reason to ask her questions about terrible diseases. I do so love it when people volunteer to be my cat toys.)

I've actually finished two lovely books on historical diseases in the last week -- The Speckled Monster (all about smallpox) and The American Plague (all about the yellow fever). Here's a handy tip: pandemics are scary. Here's another handy tip: try not to get stuck in the middle of one. I learned many things that I didn't know before, like 'smallpox dictated English succession several times' and 'yellow fever wiped out much of Memphis.' Also, the CDC views a single case of yellow fever as an epidemic. Pretty spiffy!

As I am flying to Seattle on Friday, no more plague books for me right now; I really don't feel the need to attract the attention of Homeland Security or the TSA just because I couldn't do without my daily dose of death. Also, after the premiere episode of Fringe -- which I loved blazingly -- I'd probably get myself lynched by my fellow passengers.

Yay, plague!

Smoke and Shadows, by Tanya Huff
DAW, paperback
416 pages, urban fantasy
Currently in print

Smoke and Mirrors, also by Tanya Huff
DAW, paperback
416 pages, awesome urban fantasy haunted house
Currently in print

Smoke and Ashes, still by Tanya Huff
DAW, paperback
416 pages, urban fantasy with cough syrup
Currently in print

( Do you like wizards? How about vampires? How about living shadows, haunted houses, demons, and network television? How about urban fantasy? How about really excellent writing? If you answered 'yes' to any or all of the above, I think you'd like to click here and learn a little more about the adventures of Tony Foster. Three books, no waiting!Collapse )

I am enormously lucky in that there is a fabulous genre-oriented bookstore, The Other Change of Hobbit, within a reasonable distance of my home. (I'm also enormously unlucky in this regard, because I enjoy being able to pay my mortgage, but that's another story.) As it's basically a straight shot from OCoH to Kate's place, I tend to stop in once or twice a week to pet the cats and chat with the staff. Last time I was in the store, I noticed that they had a copy of Threshold, by David Palmer, on the used shelf.

Now, I've never read Threshold, and I've never particularly wanted to -- no judgment intended or implied, the concept just doesn't grab me and I have too much to read already -- but my housemate was looking for a new copy. So I asked him if he wanted me to snag it for him the next time I was in the store. He answered in the affirmative, and I stopped in on my way to Kate's.

Dave was at the desk. Dave tends to have an encyclopedic knowledge of what's in the store at any given time. Dave is scary like that. So I stopped, on a whim, to ask whether he thought there was a chance in hell of them having a copy of Emergence in the store. Emergence was David Palmer's first book. It's been out of print since it was first published in 1984, and used copies start on Amazon at almost fifty dollars (before shipping). Why?

Because it's damn good, that's why. I went to look at the book's Amazon page just now, and almost all the reviews are five stars. Not unusual, except that all the reviewers have so clearly read and loved the book. I think that the reviewer who says the science doesn't stand up is right...but this book was never about the science for me. This book was about being made of awesome. And it does a very, very good job of that.

Dave laughed at the foolishness of my question, but -- in a rare gesture of quantum helpfulness -- called down to the basement to see if they might have a copy.

They had a copy. Just one copy. Just one copy of that original 1984 printing.

I'd never even seen a copy of the original 1984 printing before.

I paid twenty-five dollars for a twenty-year-old paperback today, and I feel neither regret nor remorse at this action. Because now I have a copy of one of the most overlooked and under appreciated gems of speculative fiction, a book that makes me happy in every possible way, and I am consumed with joy. If you have the chance to read Emergence, you totally should.

What book fills this role in your personal ecosystem of the fabulous?

Goblin Hero, by Jim Hines
DAW, paperback
352 pages, goblin ho-down fantasy
Currently in print

Goblin War, also by Jim Hines
DAW, paperback
352 pages, seriously deranged fantasy
Currently in print

( It's a trip back to the world of Jig the Goblin for two -- yes, count 'em, two -- exciting adventures in exactly what happens when you take all those classic fantasy tropes and slam them as hard as you can against a small, blue, easily bewildered object...like, say, our hero. Unavoidable spoilers for 'Goblin Quest' included. Go read that, and then click back to me.Collapse )

Goblin Quest, by Jim Hines
DAW, paperback
352 pages, crazytrain fantasy
Currently in print

( What happens when you look at the classical fantasy quest -- with its heroic princes, dangerous wizards, stoic dwarves, and untrustworthy thieves -- from the other side of the dungeon? How do you define 'monster' when you're the one raiding the dungeon? It's a hard question; there are some hysterical answers this way.Collapse )

Hot Lunch, by Alex Bradley.
Dutton Juvenile, hardcover (the paperback is due in March 2009)
272 pages, young adult fiction
Currently in print

( What happens when you take one blue-haired outsider, mix with a perky blonde nemesis, mix liberally with school lunches, dessert recipes, and social change, and allow to bake for a little under three hundred pages? You get something really nifty, that's what. Take a look.Collapse )

The Summoning (Darkest Powers, Book I), by Kelley Armstrong.*
HarperCollins, hardcover
400 pages, urban fantasy/horror/young adult romance
Currently in print

( What happens when Kelley Armstrong decides to turn her attention from the adult Women of the Otherworld and take a look at what life is like for the teens just realizing what their true natures really are? Welcome to teen angst, the really, really hard way. No prior knowledge of the Otherworld required...but you want to meet these people.Collapse )

(*A brief footnote: when I review books, I provide links to their Amazon.com page, largely so that you can see what the cover looks like and get an idea of what other people -- who will presumably have biases that don't exactly match mine -- are saying. Please, support your local bookstores. If you're lucky enough to have specialty shops, shop there. That's what keeps them around, and gives authors like me -- and the ones I review -- a place to do signings and readings and other awesome stuff. Also, many independent bookstores have store cats, and you wouldn't want to make them sad, would you?)

Ink Exchange, by Melissa Marr.
HarperTeen, hardcover
336 pages, urban fantasy/dark fairy tale/young adult romance
Currently in print

( What happens when you return to the land of Melissa Marr's Faerie to see how things are continuing, with a healthy dose of darkness, betrayal, tattooing, and the consequences of choices? You get this. And this is worth reading. Click for more, and beware unavoidable spoilers for WICKED LOVELY, which you should read first.Collapse )

The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange, by Mark Barrowcliffe.
Soho Press, hardcover (US edition)
Macmillan, hardcover (UK edition)
288 pages/240 pages, memoir/comedy/let's slag on D&D for several hundred pages 'cause it's fun
US edition coming November 1st, UK edition available now

( What do you get when a humorist and recovering D&D junkie decides to write an accounting of his childhood? You get this, also known as 'the first negative book review posted in this journal.' Click at your own peril.Collapse )

I love books.

I love the feeling of them, the weight of them, the smell that you only get when you have a sufficient density of books in a room. I love the reality of them. I'm never going to be one of those people who makes the transition to electronic books, because they just aren't real enough for me. I say this as someone who writes books on a computer, and rarely, if ever prints them out before they hit the final draft; I realize it's not a rational way to be. It's just how I'm wired. It doesn't help that I'm an obsessive packrat who collects basically everything you can think of. When Pokemon was big, the core philosophy -- 'gotta catch 'em all' -- made total sense to me. I just chose to apply it to books.

All my life I've wandered through used bookstores, looking at the shelves and wondering how anyone could ever, ever let some of those volumes out of their hands. I've seriously theorized that certain books must have come from estate sales following the tragic deaths of their owners, because otherwise, how could they have wound up on that shelf? There's just no way the parting was voluntary. The knowledge that someday, my books will be on those shelves, books with my name on them, cast into the chilling world of the second-hand tome, just doesn't compute. Once you own a book, it's yours forever, right?

Right?

Recently, the rapidly shrinking floor space in my home has forced me to take a long, hard look at this philosophy, and admit that, perhaps, there are things in life more important than owning every book ever published by Leisure Horror. Like, y'know, being able to find my way to the bathroom. And not being one of those 'human interest' stories about the woman found a week after the big earthquake, smothered under the weight of her own toppled anthology collection. Also, I'm trying to raise money to go to WorldCon in Australia in 2010, and selling some of the books I have no intention of ever reading again seems like a good way to start. And I have books I'm never going to read again. I try to pretend that I don't, but I do. There are books I only get the urge to read every six or seven years, and that's one thing. There are reference books, and that's another thing. But works of fiction whose contents have long since ceased to appeal to me in any meaningful way? Yeah, those can go.

Getting rid of books is at once entirely alien to me and deeply cathartic. This book I didn't like? I'm not obligated to keep it. This book I liked just fine but haven't read since 1992, and wow, the idea of reading it now ceases to appeal after three pages? It can go. This book here that was the literary equivalent of a bad Science-Fiction Channel Original Movie? It was fun once, I'm not buying the DVD, the novelization can go. Suddenly, it's possible that I might be able to put the books I actually want back on the shelves. Suddenly, I can see the floor.

It's all very strange.

But kinda cool.

Wicked Lovely, by Melissa Marr.
HarperTeen
352 pages, urban fantasy/dark fairy tale/young adult romance
Currently in print

( What happens when you combine a dark and detailed realm of Faerie with the cold realities of the life of a modern teenager, presented with neither filters nor blinders? You get this. And this is worth getting. Click for more.Collapse )

The Plutonium Blonde and The Doomsday Brunette, by by John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem.
DAW Books, paperback
352 pages and 368 pages, respectively, science fiction comedy detective spoof noir weirdness with monkeys
Currently in print

( So what happens when a dame walks into the office of the last private detective on Earth -- a dame with gams that go all the way up, hair the color of neon bar lights reflecting through fine whiskey, and a smile that spells 'trouble' with a capital 'T,' and that rhymes with 'P,' and that stands for 'private detective?' Lots of things, most of them awesome. Click for details.Collapse )

Mathematicians in Love, by Rudy Rucker
Tor Books, trade paperback
364 pages, science fiction/magical realism/gonzo mathematics
Currently in print

( What do you get when you cross alternate realities, higher mathematics, insane grunge rock-and-roll, the blog community, and giant alien cone shells? Throw in a love triangle and a political conspiracy, and what you get is a hell of a lot of fun. Click for details.Collapse )

Jon, upon entering the living room to find me reading How To Be A Villain: Evil Laughs, Secret Lairs, Master Plans and More!!!:

"Should I be worried that you're reading that?"

Me, being a sensible soul who does not believe in vague disclaimers:

"Yes."

Having now skulked around the house for an hour, I'm about to go and start getting ready for a day of facing Manhattan, followed by an evening of facing Queens. It's me and Diana versus New York for much of the day, during which we promise to do less damage than the monster from Cloverfield, and then me, Merav, Batya, Alex and Jon versus The Exotic Mushroom Collection tonight, after which we will hopefully not all die of surprise mushroom poisoning.

It is perhaps sad that my idea of 'doing touristy things in New York' includes such exciting activities as 'going to the neat cosmetic supply shop where they have the day-glo orange nail enamel' and 'going to Journal Square for goat curry.' Then again, it means I get to avoid the scary crowds of gawking people that seem to throng throughout the region, and I have serious trouble viewing that as a bad thing. (I love travel, I love traveling, I even love tourists, right up until they're gathered in a mob so vast that they would, were they granted wings, black out the sun. Although the idea of turning all the tourists in Times Square into flying monkeys is sort of awesome.)

I'll be back around later; please do not burn down the Internet while I'm away, as I'm still using it for a wide variety of things. Expect a post on not writing sometime later this week, and why it is occasionally good for you.

Whee!