Many of you are familiar with the Price Family Field Guide to the Cryptids of North America. (Those of you who are not familiar are like, super-lucky, because now you can experience the whole guide for the first time. Hop over and enjoy the madness of the monsters.) What you may or may not realize (but probably do, I just like to cover my bases) is that all illustrations are provided by the lovely and debonair Kory Bing, who has a real flair for drawing monsters. I first discovered her work through the comic, Skin Deep, which is sort of what you'd get if you crossed Finder, the Toby books, InCryptid, and Blue Monday, then set the blender on "frappe" and blew up the kitchen.

You can, and should, read Skin Deep online by clicking here. It is awesome. I love it so.

Right now, Kory is running a Kickstarter to print the latest Skin Deep storyline in beautiful physical form, with lots of spiffy extras. I cannot recommend this project strongly enough. For details, check her link, here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/963152868/skin-deep-exchanges-the-secret-lives-of-monster-pe

It's a great project by a great person who has become such an integral part of InCryptid for me that I can't even imagine trying to continue the Field Guide without her. Take a look, and if you like her work, consider tossing in a few pennies!

Yay, monsters!

So y'all may have noticed the epic awesomeness that is the Price Family Field Guide to the Cryptids of North America (slowly expanding into "Cryptids of the World" as more and more critters make their first appearance). If you haven't, go ahead and click on over. I can wait.

So you may have also noticed the amazing and awesome Kory Bing art that makes these cryptids come to fantastic and occasionally gruesome life! Well, it's time for the next batch of cryptids to join the party...and that's where you come in.

Who wants to sponsor a cryptid? There are literally hundreds in the InCryptid world, and I'd eventually like to see them all in glorious color up in the Guide. If you have $35 to spare and want to add a critter or two to the queue, drop me a line, and I'd be absolutely ecstatic to make it happen. Previously sponsored cryptids include the poison dart fricken, and the hitchhiking ghost (still to come to the guide itself).

Make history. Or at least, make pretty things. Either way, life is good!

If you've heard any of my music, either on one of my finished CDs (perhaps Wicked Girls?), you've heard Amy McNally. If you've been to a filk convention in the last ten years, you've probably heard Amy McNally. If you've been sitting in a filk circle and seen a blue-haired girl with a wicked grin and a fiddle in her hand getting ready to set a reel on fire, that was Amy McNally. She is the fiddler who will be playing the Devil for my soul when that whole crossroad bargain thing comes due, in addition to being my best beloved and one of my favorite people in the world.

Well, Amy has an album coming out Real Soon Now. Hazardous Fiddle, a mixture of traditional and original songs, all of them featuring her astonishing musicality, along with some of the other most talented musicians I know. She has like half the cast of Wicked Girls playing with her, and it's gorgeous.

She's taking pre-orders and sponsorships now, and you can click here to find out how.

I'm so excited for her, and so proud of her, and you should check it out. I promise you won't be sorry. Unless awesome music makes you sorry, and in that case, I'm sorry, too.

Amy's album!

As of five minutes ago, the very last shirt to have been returned to me due to mailing issues (in this case, the person changed addresses) has been re-sent. (If you're wondering if this is you, the initials are "JA.") I now have no shirts from printing #1 waiting to be delivered. The lovely Deborah has emailed everyone who reported non-delivery of their shirts to see whether this has been resolved. As soon as we hear back from them, we'll be submitting printing #2 to the shirt shop for production.

The shipping plans for printing #2 are much more organized than they were for printing #1, because we can be taught. We'll be having an all-day shirt packing party, with typeset labels, culminating in becoming an urban legend at the local post office. ("And then they came in with three hundred envelopes...the horror...") I can't guarantee that we won't have another "some of the shirts are missing" issue, and while the shirt shop dealt with this quickly, it did create some printing delays. Still, I will keep you posted, and the goal is a two-day drop for all shirts.

Thank you very much for your patience, and please let Deborah know if you have any questions or problems.

It's today's helpful shirt update! With an addendum: we have received a few notifications of missing batch-one shirts, and I will be dealing with those as soon as I get home. Since I'm in New York right now, I can't do anything to find out what's up, or whether your envelope has been returned to me. So please continue to be patient, and I'll get on it ASAP. International folks, please continue to wait before reporting a missing shirt, as we asked for a delay of up to May 18th to allow for customs.

And now, Deborah...

Everyone who has confirmed their Wicked Girls shirt order has been sent a final invoice with payment instructions.

There are currently a number of people who have not confirmed their orders; you have until May 18th to do so.

Everyone who placed an order for a Wicked Girls shirt-- and had that order acknowledged-- should have received an order confirmation email.

If you did not receive a confirmation email, please do the following:

1. Check your spam filter. (Related, please make sure seananmerch at gmail is on your approved senders list.)
2. Check your comment on the original post and make sure I didn't need more information from you.
3. Check your comment on the original post and make sure there are no typos in your email address.

If you're missing the email and I need either corrected or more information from you, please respond in the comments on the original post. (Not this post. The original post.)

DO NOT send unsolicited email to the seananmerch email address. Unless we are already in contact, it will get lost in the shuffle for quite some time.

Thank you!

Deborah sent me the following and asked that I post it for y'all to reference. As I am an obliging blonde, I have done so. Here you go!

***

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Everyone who placed an order for a Wicked Girls shirt—and had that order acknowledged—should have received an order confirmation email.

If you did not receive an email, please do the following:

1. Check your spam filter. (Related, please make sure seananmerch at gmail is on your approved senders list.)
2. Check your comment on the original post and make sure I didn't need more information from you.
3. Check your comment on the original post and make sure there are no typos in your email address.

If you're missing the email and I need either corrected or more information from you, please respond in the comments on the original post. (Not this post. The original post.)

DO NOT send unsolicited email to the seananmerch email address. Unless we are already in contact, it will get lost in the shuffle for quite some time.

Payment instructions will begin going out today to those who have confirmed their orders.

On a final note, here's a key for how we've been classifying the shirt styles:

GIRLY STANDARD (or Girly S) = The standard girl-cut T.
GIRLY V = The girl-cut with a shallow v-neck.
LARGER GIRLY = The larger girl-cut T.
STANDARD = The unisex T.

***

Yay, shirts!

The lovely and charming Deborah, who is handling the administrative side of the current Wicked Girls T-shirt batch, has two very important announcements for everyone who has ordered, or is thinking about ordering. Namely:

1. Invoicing will start on Sunday, so no inquiries necessary until after we say they've been sent out.
2. People should check the comments for queries about their orders—there are a couple of people who have been queried without responding, but LJ may be being a tool and not delivering comments.

So basically, you haven't been asked to pay yet because no one has been asked to pay, and you should check your original comment to be sure that Deborah isn't asking you important questions which might delay fulfillment.

And that is all for now.

10. Orders for the second run of Wicked Girls shirts are now open, and will remain open until May 18th. Please read the post carefully, as it includes important ordering information. We're planning a more gender-neutral shirt next, probably saying "My story is not done," but we need to get through this batch, first. In other news, I am a glutton for punishment.

9. A bit of confusion has arisen relating to my East Coast trip. So here's the skinny: I am going to the East Coast, I am not attending any conventions while I'm there, I may or may not be doing any appearances. It's all still up in the air. I'll sign books at any bookstores I stumble over, but that's about all I can guarantee right now.

8. If you're in New York, however, and enjoyed Repo: The Genetic Opera, might I recommend looking at the tour dates for The Devil's Carnival? It's the new project by the same people, and it looks awesome. I'll be attending the 7pm showing in Manhattan on April 26th, and more people always make for a better party. Unless there's a limited amount of cake.

7. One of my favorite comic books, The Boys, is going into its final story arc. I am going to miss it so much when it's gone. On the other hand, I said the same thing about Preacher, which was this creative team's former collaboration, and look what it got me. I'm excited to see what comes next.

6. I am trying not to be nervous about the Philip K. Dick Awards, which happen Friday evening, while I'm, you know, a state away. I have managed not to get my hopes up too high, although I have to admit, it would be awesome to win. It really is just an honor to be nominated.

5. To the two girls dressed as Jean Gray who called the girl dressed as Emma Frost a skank this past weekend at Emerald City: Not cool. We're all geeks here together, and while you may have been giggling in character, she wasn't with you.

4. To the extremely pretty girl dressed as Emma Frost who got called a skank this past weekend at Emerald City: You looked absolutely stunning, and your confidence and poise as you walked made it even better. Don't let people bring you down. You are amazing.

3. And yes, that message would have been the same if it had been two Emmas and a Jean. I only noticed because the costumes caught my eye.

2. In further comic book news, my comic book store tried to incite a Sharks vs. Jets throw-down between Avengers fans and X-Men fans last night. Apparently the Avengers were winning...until I walked in the door. Turns out, I'm a destructive force of nature where my comics are concerned. Who knew, right?

1. Zombies are love.

Because nothing says "Seanan has a lot on her plate right now" like me deciding it's time for a project, I am going back to the printer for a second limited batch of "Wicked Girls" T-shirts. How limited? "The number of orders I receive, plus maybe a few extras, but I don't make any promises"-limited.

The design, thanks to the ever-lovely Tara:



This is a mock-up; the actual shirts will use that design, but will vary a little. We are using the same local shop that we used for the first batch, and they are remarkably flexible about everything. I love them so. Here are some real people wearing real shirts:

http://a.yfrog.com/img864/1994/wdmqi.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahandbrian/6879521872/
http://pics.livejournal.com/tithenai/pic/0005p48p
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/402268_10100181507175304_34311648_43656648_461649944_n.jpg
https://twitter.com/#!/gienahghurab/status/183599757132955652/photo/1

We are offering four types of shirt, as follows:

The standard girl-cut T (click here to view the basic shirt) is available in small through 2XL. We can print with visible text on black, dark chocolate, dark gray, heather gray, indigo, kelly, light olive, midnight navy, plum, purple rush, red, royal, scarlet, shocking pink, or turquoise. We cannot promise visibility on any other color, as white text is hard to read on light-colored shirts.

The girl-cut T with a shallow V-neck (click here to view the basic shirt) is available in small through 2XL. We can print with visible text on black, dark gray, heather gray, indigo, kiwi, or plum. We cannot promise visibility on any other color, as white text is hard to read on light-colored shirts.

The larger girl-cut T (click here to view the basic shirt) is available in small through 4XL. We can print with visible text on athletic maroon, black, cardinal, charcoal, dark chocolate brown, dark green, kelly, navy, orange, purple, red, or royal. We cannot promise visibility on any other color, as white text is hard to read on light-colored shirts.

The unisex T (click here to view the basic shirt) is available in small through 6XL. We can print with visible text on athletic maroon, black, brown, cardinal, charcoal, dark chocolate brown, dark green, dark heather gray, deep marine, fiery red, forest green, kelly, navy, olive, orange, purple, red, rich red or royal. We cannot promise visibility on any other color, as white text is hard to read on light-colored shirts.

HOW THIS IS GOING TO WORK.

If you want to buy a shirt, comment here with:

a) how many shirts you want.
b) which size and style each shirt should be.
c) which color each shirt should be.
d) an alternate color, in case your first choice is out of stock.*
e) your email address.

(*Colors for which we receive fewer than three requests will be automatically considered "out of stock.")

I will add your information to our ongoing spreadsheet, and Deborah will contact you to arrange immediate payment. Shirts are $20 for sizes S through 2XL, and $25 for sizes 3XL through 6XL. Shipping outside of the United States is an additional $5 per two shirts. (So one size S would be $25, two would be $45, and three would be $70.)

Orders will close on May 18th; the goal is to have the order submitted to the printer by June 1st. Anyone who has not replied to three requests for payment will be deleted from the spreadsheet at that time.

ETA: I understand security concerns, but if you want a shirt, you must provide an email address. The actual spreadsheet is being generated by the lovely Deborah, who cannot access any more private mechanism you may decide to use for contacting me. No email address on the entry, no shirt.

Now that all T-shirts have been packed and sent, and I'm beginning the process of contacting people whose orders had issues (there were very few of them, because the shirt company I used is awesome), it's time to plan batch #2. This is less altruistic than you think: while I really don't make any money on this (mailing is expensive), I want a few more Wicked Girls shirts of my very own. So these are a few conclusions I have come to. Some are for me; some are for you.

1. Order = Pay.
This initially took so long because we had to chase down every person who said they wanted a shirt and get them to pay for it. When we do it again, we say "place your order, pay your total, and you'll get your shirt when we hit the minimum order threshold or run out of time, whichever comes later." Pros, no chasing people. Cons, some people may demand refunds if things take too long. Which brings me to...

2. Print labels.
So every step of this process was manual, including addressing the envelopes. And yeah, that added a hell of a lot of time to things. If we print off mailing labels at the local Staples and stick them on, it'll be easier to see how many envelopes we have left to go, and also easier to fill them without worrying about whether you can read the zip code. This one simple thing should reduce mailing time by 1/3rd. You know what else will help?

3. Order mailing supplies when I send in the shirt order.
Again, it seems like a no-brainer, but I was honestly surprised when I ran out of envelopes the first time. And the second time. And the third time. This time, I will count orders, figure out how many envelopes I need, and order them all from the company that sells me mailing supplies. I can be taught!

4. Make it clear that the choices offered are the only ones.
One of the issues we had in the first batch had to do with people going "I want shirt style A, but this color from shirt style B." This, well, wasn't possible, because the shirts didn't exist, but we didn't catch that until Deborah was in the final review of the list. So if we do this again, we need to be very clear on the "what you can get is what we have said was available" issue. This will also streamline shipping, by reducing the number of possibilities.

5. Set a maximum threshold.
This was a super-large order, which also slowed things down a lot. So there needs to be a "no fewer than X, but no more than Y" point.

6. Up the price for 3XL and up.
I hate this. I tried so hard not to reach this conclusion. But...it costs more to print a shirt that's between 3XL and 6XL, and we had a lot of those. I was never expecting to make money on this, and I figured, "well, if someone who orders a S is paying the same as someone who orders a 5XL, it all comes out in the wash." And it did, as far as printing costs was concerned. What I didn't do was calculate for mailing costs. It's about three dollars more to ship a larger shirt, especially if that shirt is not being mailed alone. If I want to be able to afford to print the shirts, and mail the shirts, I need to charge more for the larger ones. I'm so sorry. It's purely financial, and it annoys me deeply.

7. Print more extras.
This time, I ordered three extra shirts, and Amy, who is smart, ordered eight for her bookstore. Amy then did a brisk business selling shirts to filkers who missed the original order, and is a happy little clam. More extras would mean a happier answer to "do you have one you can sell me?" inquires.

Some of these you may have seen before, but now that I'm actually preparing for batch #2, those items bore repeating. Also, these are the three questions I got asked most during this whole process:

1. Why is this taking so long?
See above.

2. Why did you underestimate everything?
Honestly, I was hoping for the twenty-four shirts needed to hit the shirt printer's minimum order. I was overwhelmed, and stayed overwhelmed, after that. I have a nasty tendency to underestimate my own popularity. I'm working on it. Just not very hard, because I'd rather be surprised once in a while than egotistical all the time.

3. Why don't you just use CafePress?
You know what I have? Boobs. You know what lots of other people have? Boobs. Even the "girl cut" shirts on the "print your own" shirt sites tend to be small and unforgiving of boobs. Plus their sizes and colors are very limited, and their print quality isn't as good. If I'm basically "putting my name" on these shirts by using a graphic people associate with me, I'm going to make them the best shirts they can be. That's worth a little trouble.

That's all for now.

A long, long time ago—literally twenty years ago, when the world was a different place, and I was a different person—I met a man named Mike. Mike would go on to become very important in my life. He told me stories; he listened to me when I told him stories; he was one of the first people to read the adventures of a beat-up half-fae detective girl and say "There's potential here." Mike helped me a lot as a writer, because he listened to me when I wasn't good enough for many people to be listening to.

Also, he and his wife took me to Disney World for the very first time ever, and I'd love him forever for that alone. Dude gave me the Tower of Terror for my birthday. How could I not adore him? Anyway...

Mike is currently running a Kickstarter project to help fund an anthology project that's very dear to him, both as an editor and as a human being, titled Scheherazade's Facade. To quote the Kickstarter page:

"History, literature and mythology are replete with stories of those who, for one reason or another, disguise themselves as the opposite gender, or are transformed into that which they are not. Whether it's for love, ambition, or self-preservation, whether it's to challenge the status quo or simply to embrace their true nature, whether it's done willingly or thrust upon them, there will always be those who cross-dress and blur the lines between genders. Scheherazade's Facade takes its inspiration from those themes. From Bugs Bunny's dress-wearing shenanigans, to Mulan's impersonation of her father, from Tamora Pierce's Alanna of Trebond, to M*A*S*H's Klinger, this collection's antecedents are everywhere."

If you'd like a little more information, his full writeup is here.

I don't normally point people at Kickstarters, because there are just so damn many of them that I think are awesome that you'd be "uh, what?" at me over. I'm even planning one of my own, to reprint Stars Fall Home. But this is a good cause by a good friend, with clear goals and results. It's worth taking a look, and if you think this is a book that should be, maybe you could help a fella out a little.

Thanks for reading.

First off, if you're interested, the spoiler-filled book discussion post is continuing to rage on over here, and you're welcome to join in. Read, and come to the party!

I've been blogging for Penguin* all this week, that being something they like to have authors do when they have new books out. So head over to hear my thoughts on cryptids as the fairy stories of the modern era, Toby vs. Verity, round one, fight, and the serious science of cryptozoology. It's fun!

catsittingstill wrote a song about the Aeslin mice. I can now die happy. I won't, because I have things to do, but I can.

I have a bunch of reviews to post, but those should probably go in their own roundup. So I will leave you with the reminder that my book release party, and the latest iteration of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show, will be on March 17th, at Borderlands Books. Hope to see you there!

(*DAW is my publisher, but DAW is distributed by Penguin, which makes it logical for me to blog at Penguin.)

Hey, kids. Wanna see something awesome? Well, this coming Sunday, I will be performing as part of the Geek Fest Concert and Vendor Fair, hosted by the Seattle Browncoats.

Music! From such luminaries as Vixy and Tony, Betsy Tinney, Sunnie Larson, the Doubleclicks, and Eben Brooks (and more! MUCH MORE!). Oh, and me. I'll be performing with my usual Seattle backing band, and it's going to be AWESOME.

Vendors! Are you looking for that perfect gift for your geeky sweetie? Well, this is your chance to buy directly from the creator, cutting out silly little things like "shipping" and "waiting for the mail." Again, it's going to be AWESOME.

Admission is a mere $10 ticket, granting you full access to the concert and the vendors. Food and drinks will be available for sale. The whole shindig is going to be indoors, so we're not going to get rained on, and your admission will go to a great cause. Support geeky pursuits, the Seattle Browncoats, and the randomness of me flying to Seattle for a one-day event, and show up for the Geek Fest!

Hope to see you there!

Saturday night is MAD SCIENCE LADIES NIGHT at Borderlands Books, where that lovely and talented lady of mad science and shadow government, Shaenon Garrity herself, will be hosting the launch party for her brand new Narbonic Perfect Collection.

For those of you unfamiliar with Narbonic, it's a mad science/romance/gonzo journalism/geek culture/time travel comic that ran for six years before coming to an earth-shattering conclusion. All six years are now collected in a single glorious locale, with two mind-blowing volumes available for your perusal. The books are $30 for the set of two, or $17 individually; they'll be available for sale on Saturday.

(And yes, as always, you can contact the store to order your very own signed and personalized volumes, if you can't be there yourself.)

Shaenon will also have volumes one and two of Skin Horse, one of my favorite currently ongoing webcomics; these are $14 each, and so worth it.

The party will be from five to seven PM on Saturday, November 19th. There will be cupcakes and wine (boxed and bottled), and original art available for purchase at the low, low price of $30 a strip. If you've been to my house, you've seen several of these strips framed and hanging in my front bathroom. Fine art for everyone!

We hope to see you there! It's going to be a real good time.

So we survived another iteration of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show (always a risky proposition, what with all those snakes), and now it's time to get back to normal, everyday life. Naturally, for me, this means "now it's time to start packing for Michigan." Because nothing says "restful" like jetting straight off to another convention, right? Right?!

Ahem. A few snapshot statuses, for the interested and alert:

"Wicked Girls" shirts.
Yes! They have arrived! Well...mostly. It turns out the shirt shop was out of certain size/style combinations, so my order was short about fifty shirts, which will be coming along later. How are we finding out which size/style combinations are missing? By trying to pack orders and being unable to find the associated shirts. Naturally. So shipping is being a little bit odd at the moment, and I'm filling as many complete orders as I possibly can. Feel free to email the merchandise address (the Gmail.com account that contacted you for shipping and payment) if you have questions about your specific order, or need to update your address in any way.

Ashes of Honor progress.
I now have approximately 86,000 words written on Ashes of Honor, which means I'm on target to finish my first, deeply flawed draft of the book by the end of October. At which point, the flensing will begin. The flensing has already begun, on a localized level, but the deep flense requires a wider audience. I'm actually pretty happy with the shape of this book. I finally got to bring back a lot of the cast from A Local Habitation, some questions are getting answered, and Toby eats Pop-Tarts. Life is good.

Discount Armageddon approaches.
According to my planner countdown, Discount Armageddon will be released in one hundred and fifty-five days. But, you know. No pressure or anything. I am deeply excited and deeply terrified, and getting ready to rearrange things on my website to make the InCryptid section easier to find and navigate. This means the Field Guide will also be going totally live. You, too, can live in fear of the Apraxis Wasps.

Zombies.
Are love.

Albino banana slug.
ALBINO BANANA SLUG!!!!!! He's like vanilla soft serve with eyes, and I want to love him forever, even though this picture was taken a year ago and so he's probably been eaten by an owl by now. (I know slugs are hermaphrodites. I don't care. I want to name this particular slug "Geoff," and have grand adventures with him. He is my beloved squishy friend.)

HAIL FROGLORD!
This Questionable Content strip speaks to the depths of my soul.

And that's me. What's new with you?

I got the call today from the shirt shop: my "Wicked Girls" shirts are finally finished, and I can pick them up today. (Well, technically, Ryan and Mia can pick them up on their way down the coast from Portland. Details are for wimps.) Since the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show is at my house this weekend, and I'm in Michigan for Conclave next weekend, the mass mailing will not be commencing for at least ten days.

Which brings us to this post.

I realize that some people bought shirts as birthday presents, as holiday presents, or for other time-sensitive reasons. I'd really like to be able to get shirts out to those people as quickly as possible, despite the horror that is mailing out of order. So here's how this is going to work.

If you have an active need to receive your shirt sooner, rather than later, please reply to this post with the name on your order, and the reason that you need to get your shirt(s) at the front of the line. I can prioritize no more than fifty shirts in this manner, so: if I receive more than fifty requests for priority mailing, nobody gets it. Fifty requests is "I can do this," fifty-one is "oh, hell no." So please consider carefully before responding. At the same time, if you have a really legitimate reason to need early shipping, please let me know.

(PS: "I have an eight year old and she really really wants this before Halloween" is a legitimate reason, and one that has been emailed to me already. So just make sure I know what your circumstances are, and hopefully, you can be accommodated.)

In addition, please let me know, again including the name on your order, if you're going to be at Conclave or OVFF. I will be able to do hand-delivery at both conventions.

Shirts!

Hey, gang, this is your friendly reminder that the fifth iteration of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show will be appearing this Saturday, October 1st, at San Francisco's own Borderlands Books. Festivities will commence at five, and will include delicious baked goods, live music, our inevitable raffle, and a Toby Daye Q&A.

This iteration of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show includes, in alphabetical order, Jeff "Heavy Metal Squid" Bohnhoff, on guitar and sound; Maya "Sonic Boom" Bohnhoff, on guitar and vocals; Michelle "Ceiling Cookies" Dockrey, on vocals; Tony "Code Monkey Likes You" Fabris, on guitar and vocals; Beckett "Don't Lick That" Gladney, on harmonica; Paul "The Cute One" Kwinn, on guitar and vocals; Betsy "Living Improbability" Tinney, on cello and vocals; and me, doing my usual mix of vocals and random stage patter.

Kate and Ryan will be running support, because they are awesome, and my mother will be running around like a chicken with her head cut off. Jude and Naamen will be keeping the bookstore from burning down (respect the bookstore). Mia will be on hand for pendant sales, and Victor and Lara will be on hand for AWESOME (and inevitably getting drafted).

It's going to be an awesome time, with signings and questions and cupcakes, and you should come. If you can't attend, remember that you can contact the bookstore to place orders for delivery, and get your books signed by attending our Circus in your heart.

See you Saturday!

I listen to music constantly. Like, constantly. If I'm not playing MP3s on my computer or listening to my iPod, I'm listening to the music in my head. I listen to classic rock and modern rock, folk music of all kinds, filk music, soundtracks, heavy metal, country, indie rock, and goth. I listen to damn near everything I can get my hands on. And with all of that, it's reasonably rare for an album to crawl so far under my skin that it becomes a part of me.

Talis Kimberley's Archetype Cafe is one of those albums.

Many of you have bought Wicked Girls, for which I am hugely appreciative (and not just because it gets them out of my house). Well, that album would not exist without Talis. She inspires and drives my songwriting in a way that very little else does; every lyric I write is put together using lessons I've learned from her. The title track of her album, "Archetype Cafe," posits a gathering place for history's women that would be a perfect fit for my own wild and wicked girls. See for yourself:

"Lady MacBeth said to Helen of Troy
When they finished the wine they'd been drinking,
'I'm all for regicide once in a while, but
Helen, dear, what were you thinking?"
Helen smiled back enigmatically, for she'd
Never much cared what her friends say,
And the Ladies' Historic Society meets
Down at Archetype Cafe on Wednesday..."

Vixy and I sing "Archetype Cafe" together sometimes, when we do concerts in the same place, and it breaks my heart and heals my heart a little bit every single time.

I'll be honest: even if every other song on this CD were bad, terrible, no good, and wrong, I would recommend it just for "Archetype Cafe" and "Small Mended Corners." But none of the songs are bad, or terrible, or no good, or wrong. They're all different flavors of amazing. If you enjoyed "Wicked Girls," or Vixy and Tony's "Thirteen," this is really an album that you need to hear.

Archetype Cafe is available through CD Baby.

I love Talis madly, but that's not why I'm posting this. I'm posting this because this album is amazing, and you need to know that it's out there. To close this entry, and illustrate my point, have a verse from "Small Mended Corners":

"There are women I've been who you haven't seen yet
There are women I shall be who you've never met
As to who I am now if you're prompted to ask
I'm the ghost of my future and the sum of my past..."

Love.

Three days past the release of One Salt Sea, and everything's still a little damp around here. That's probably going to be true for a while. Anyway, the reviews are starting to come in, and I thought it might be nice to share them. Take a deep breath...

The incredible Cat Faber (catsittingstill) actually wrote her review of One Salt Sea in song form, which is usually the sort of thing I do to people, not the sort of thing that I have done to me. There's an MP3 and everything, and it's incredible. You should go and listen. Seriously.

Kenda at Lurv ala Mode has posted a review of One Salt Sea, and says, "Geeze, how do you keep doing reviews for a series that consistently gets better and better? The books are anything but the same ole this and that, but it makes it progressively harder to pimp the things. Yes, this one was so fracking good—like the last one. Yes, it engaged me emotionally and made me cry—like the last one. YES, IT WAS AWESOME, OKAY? How often do I have to say it? Every time, apparently."

...right, I win at review. Let's all have ice cream. (She also says, "This series is a testament to just how deeply one can—and likes—to be drawn down, deep into a book." Seriously, I win.)

Kelly at Fantasy Literature also posted a review of One Salt Sea, and says, "One Salt Sea is the best October Daye book to date; everything that's great about the series comes together in one book. The plot is strong, the characterization is terrific, the tragedies hurt, a few things that were confusing are explained here, and McGuire's usual beautiful writing and dark humor are present and accounted for. This has become one of my favorite urban fantasy series, and I can't wait to find out what happens next." Yay!

Something to Muse About has posted a review of One Salt Sea, and says, "This series just keeps getting better with each book. Now we must deal with the grueling wait for Ashes of Honor." Short, sweet, and awesome.

Finally (for now) is a post that's half Feed review and half Wicked Girls review and generally just lovely. This Just In: Seanan McGuire is Awesome. Because how could I resist a title like that?

Now grab a towel and dry yourselves off. The waters are still rising.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's AWESOME WALLPAPERS AND ICONS by our very own Tara!

Check out the incredible Toby goodness.

Seriously, she just gets better with every book she does this for. Check out the goodies, take what you want, and enjoy the glory that is Tara.

I'm so happy!

Since website issues are thankfully limited, I'm going to kick off a second ARC giveaway. This one will be open until Monday, and is one of the ones that requires actual effort (sorry about that). This time, we're going visual! Make icons, do a photo manip, draw a picture, grab some friends and pose, whatever makes you happy. The rules:

1. The image must relate directly in some way to one of my available works. Meaning that both Velveteen and the Rose Marshall stories are eligible. Stage a hitchhiking ghost! Draw a bunny superhero! Or stick with Toby, or the Masons, and have a blast!

2. LOLcats are also eligible.

3. Once your submission is prepared, link or post it on this entry. Feel free to explain what's going on.

4. That's all.

The winner will be chosen Monday, August 15th, via random number generator.

It's been a while since I posted about the "Wicked Girls" posters. As I still have a lot of posters, and a lot of poster tubes, I thought it was time for another go. This is awesome. This will be more awesome if more people order posters, thus getting them Out Of My House. (This is the cycle of stuff, at least with me. I want stuff; I get excited about stuff; I get stuff; I do my best to make stuff go away AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.) Behold the poster thumbnail!



You can't really read the text at this size, but it's the full lyrics of "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." You can tell that the posters are absolutely gorgeous, thanks to the ever-wonderful graphic skills of my lovely lady Tara. They're 10" by 26", and I couldn't be happier with them.

The posters have a limited run of 500, which sounds like a lot, and yet is shrinking at a truly impressive rate. The first 100 are numbered and signed, because it seemed like an awesome thing to do. The posters aren't programmed into the ordering system on my website yet, and that's actually turning out to be a good thing, since it gives me flow control. If you wanted to order a poster, here's what you'd do:

1) Reply to this post with your email address, and how many posters you want, of which kind(s). Standard posters are $20, plus $5 for shipping and handling within the United States ($6 shipping and handling internationally). The signed/numbered posters are $25, plus shipping and handling.

2) I can fit up to three posters in a tube, going to the same place. So three to one location is cost of posters + $5, while three going to three locations would be cost of posters + $15.

3) Signed/numbered posters are extremely limited at this point, and I make no promises as to the number you will get. If you wanted a signed/numbered poster, I would recommend ordering it sooner than later.

4) I will email you to confirm the request, and to provide my PayPal information. I can only take personal PayPal (no credit cards), although we can discuss payment by check.

The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous. They also frame really, really nicely, as my living room wall can attest.

Yay for pretty things!

Here's the sitch:

It took us a LOT longer than expected to track down payment from everyone, and some people still haven't made good on their orders. These orders will be canceled as of Sunday, so that I can proceed with submitting the spreadsheet to the T-shirt manufacturers. I don't know how long printing will take, but will let you know once I have an estimate.

After shirts exist, they'll need to be shipped. This is going to mean a MASSIVE shipping party, probably at my house; volunteers will be solicited. Because we'll be doing it all by hand, I expect that mailing everything may take two to three weeks. Again, I'll keep you posted.

But that's the situation. Next time I do something like this, I may require payment immediately, to prevent a few absences from delaying the whole field trip.

Shirts!

It's fan art awesomeness time! shadow71689 has designed some incredible Newsflesh banner art, using my casting choices for Shaun and Georgia as her models. Seriously, this is some high-quality photo manipulation, and I am in awe.

Not only that, but she's cooked up a truly awesome soundtrack for Shaun; I've bought all the songs off iTunes, and I'm rocking to it RIGHT NOW. Check out her work, it's mad cool!

I am a happy blonde.

Today is a day for poetry.

My poem, "Post-Modern Cinderella," has been published in the summer issue of Goblin Fruit, along with many other lovely things, by many other lovely people. Cat is telling Persephone's story all over again (we are forever telling Persephone's story, apples and snow, pomegranates and winter, lilies on a grave), there is Coyote, and Apollo, and a beauty in a tower. You should go and read and be filled with fairy tales, because fairy tales exist to fill the hollow places.

And also and also and also: my darling Mia, of chimera_fancies, who has made me so many beautiful fairy tales to hang on ribbons 'round my neck, is selling little bits of Bordertown for you to take, and wear, and love. They're made from ARCs of Welcome to Bordertown, and they're amazing.

As with all Mia's pendants, each piece is unique, hand-made, and waiting for the right person to claim it. You should take a look; one of them may be singing for you, waiting for you to come and carry it away.

And that is the time, and that is the tide, and there are pomegranate ices in the garden. I'll see you soon.

This one just came in from mimisgrotto, and I wanted to make sure it wouldn't get missed in the grand hullabaloo surrounding the ramp-up to San Diego:

"One from the other side of the tables:

"Please remember that the artists exhibiting are people too, not machines.

"Some artists will fill up their commission lists quickly, others will ebb and flow in waves. We are all trying to be fair and serve people in order they come to us. So if an artist says they're full, don't think that you are any special exception for 'just this one little thing'.

"There are only so many hours in the con day, we need food and bathroom breaks too and some of us actually like to relax and rest after hours instead of be bent over commission art until 3am. If we could accommodate every person who asks for a sketch or a commission, we would. Please understand if we just can't.

"Also, don't use your adorable children to try and get free art. It's awesome that so many parents share the con experience with their kids, but there is the odd entitled parent and we CAN spot you. The denizens of Artist Alley aren't just there to be seen, we've spent lots of money like you to come to Comicon and we're here to earn our living in a very crowded, tough industry.

"So if something free is only an autograph or a quick doodle rather than an hour-long marker sketch, don't get huffy. You get what you pay for.

"Be courteous and pleasant and GET THE HINT that if an artist is REALLY focused on their work rather than enraptured by your verbatim recount of your Favorite Episodes of Dr Who, it's time to move on and leave them to it."

One of my favorite things about attending conventions in person is having the ability to commission artwork from artists I adore. My walls can attest to this habit. But seriously, it's like a win-win party scenario. I get amazing art that no one else has; the artists I love get to keep their lights on; and best of all, by putting dollars in their pockets, I keep them coming to the conventions. I love it! That being said...

Artists are working. You may be at the convention to play, but they? Are at work. Do you want me to come up to Amy's table and distract her while she's trying to draw your awesome Muppet Rose Tyler? No? Then why would I want you to come up and distract her while she's trying to draw my Emma Frost?

Things that are not distractions for most artists:

* Looking through folders.
* Looking at prints.
* Having a brief, friendly conversation.
* Giving them money.
* Asking if the commission lists are open.

Things that are distractions, all of which I have witnessed at one time or another:

* "Can I get a free one? I'll tell all my friends about you."
* "Oh, hey, let me see what you're working on."
* "You're really hot. Do you have a boyfriend?"
* "Oops, sorry, I/my small child didn't mean to rip that." (Not followed by payment in this instance.)
* "Have you seen Firefly? There's this one episode where..."

Visit Artist's Alley! Take this amazing opportunity to see and purchase artwork, some of which can be created just for you. But remember that the artists are there to make a living, and that trying to bargain that $50 sketch down to $20 because you think it's fun is potentially going to get you stabbed with a colored pencil. (Also, I highly recommend visiting Amy Mebberson and James Silvani, who will have EPIC mashups of EPIC EPICNESS.)

See you in San Diego!

1. Deborah (the Lovely Assistant for the Wicked Girls shirt project) is now contacting anyone whose payment hasn't been received via LJ comment, in an effort to give folks every possible chance to complete their order before we go to press. Remember, this is a limited-run thing, so we're not making more shirts than have been paid for, at least not for general sale (I may make and squirrel away a few extras, but that isn't going to help you if you haven't checked your email for her payment request). So if you're still trying to complete your order, please do so ASAP.

2. Speaking of completing things...my LJ comments got a little bit away from me, with over 600 waiting in the queue at one point. I've managed to peck and pick them down to 74 comments in need of answers, and I'm going to be trying to get to all of those this week. If you left me a comment and didn't hear back, and you thought I was ignoring you, I wasn't. (This applies to first comments only; I don't reply to all replies, I would lose my mind. Also remember that I declared amnesty for all comments left on the countdown, and will not be answering those.)

3. I am still waiting to hear back from all winners in Friday's Deadline drawing. Specifically, I have not yet heard back from irish_ais. If I do not hear from you by 5PM PST tonight, I will be choosing a new winner. Sorry about that.

4. I'm going to be doing my first giveaway of an ARC of One Salt Sea (Toby Daye #5) later this week. Watch this space for details.

5. Here is a lovely interview with Elizabeth McClellan which mentions, among other things, "Wicked Girls," Sooj, Amal's splendid Honey Month, and Cat Valente. Go, read, be delighted.

That's all for right now. What's new with you?

So it turns out that even being deathly ill doesn't stop the world from continuing to produce awesome things, and that's what we're talking about right now. Specifically, we're talking about the part where Orbit has created an absolutely stunning book trailer for the Newsflesh series—and if you watch to the very end, you might catch a sneak peek at the cover for Blackout! Watch the video, spread links, tell your friends. Let's go VIRAL.

Seriously, this is my first book trailer, and if I weren't so damn sick, I'd be jumping around and screaming. Please, please, check it out, spread it around, and see if we can't convince my publisher that I should always get these. Because they're awesome.

Once you've seen the trailer, why not gussy up your computer with a little bit of home-brewed awesome in the form of icons and wallpapers from the Mira Grant website, created by the ever-fabulous Miss Tara? The site itself is about to get some pretty massive updates (they were planned for this week, and then I slept for two days), but the icons and wallpapers are fresh and sweet and waiting for you right now.

Not quite the same, but semi-related, you can read my thoughts on California's recent unseasonable rains and how they relate to writing speculative fiction at Larissa's Bookish Life, where a guest blog I wrote for her has been posted. It's not as visually striking as the first two items on our list, but hey, I managed to make it vaguely applicable, right?

Oh, and hey, the Blog Critics include Feed in an article on dystopias, alongside 1984 and The Hunger Games. I directed a stage production of 1984 in high school. Seeing my book in a graphic with that book is like...whoa. I win the universe.

That's all for now. I'm going back to bed.

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?

First note: I am still taking orders for Wicked Girls T-shirts, and will be taking them through Monday, May 2nd. Orders will close when I go to bed on Monday, so around 9PM, PST. To place an order, you need to visit the original post. Any orders placed on this post will be deleted.

Second note: I can't close comments on the original entry until after I finish extracting all spreadsheet data and replying to all comments, which will probably take me several days. Much as it pains me to say, any orders placed after the "we are now closed" notice goes up will also be deleted. So please, place your order soon, if you're planning to order at all.

Third note: Because the spreadsheet is being generated manually, it's taking a while. If you haven't received confirmation yet, please don't email asking me where your confirmation is. Needing to stop what I'm doing and email going "you'll get it when your comment comes up in the queue, please be patient" makes me stop dealing with LJ comments, which means your request takes longer to reach. It's a resource management thing.

Fourth note: Once the spreadsheet has been fully generated and orders are closed, my lovely assistant, Deborah, will be emailing you via a new Gmail account we've created for just this purpose. This way, we can a) confirm your order, b) confirm your method of payment, c) get your payment, and d) get your shipping information.

This part is important, so it actually gets to be all bold and crap:

Because this is a limited-batch thing, we cannot go to print until people pay for their shirts.

Not "won't." Can't. I don't have the money to print edging on two hundred shirts for fun, and that means that if you're shirt's not paid for, it's not getting printed. To keep this from stretching on into forever, we're going to start emailing people on May 2nd, when orders close, and stop emailing people on May 16th. You will have two weeks to resolve your order. At the end of that time, we'll delete any that we haven't heard back on, and prep the final file to go to the T-shirt place.

Final note: I am not currently planning another batch of shirts with this design. That may change, I don't know, but right now? It's now or never.

A kind soul who dislikes my ability to sleep helpfully compiled a list of the weirdest Pokemon ever. And for "weirdest," read "most horrifically fucked-up and likely to cause you to have nightmares which rock the very foundations of your soul. Seriously, Pokemon is totally breeding the horror writers of tomorrow, today. It's awesome.

Speaking of horror, "Everglades" made the Honorable Mentions list for The Year's Best Horror. Yay! Maybe "Pavlov" or "The Box" can make the actual cut in 2011. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Zombies are the new black. If you've been here for a while, you probably already knew that, but this is a fun article, and I contributed a quote, so hey. No loss here.

Tentacle pot pies. Yeah, you're welcome. I want to make an adorable Lovecraft theme dinner, and have everything be a) cute, and b) horrifying if you think about it too hard.

Speaking of horrifying, this was not designed for me. Or maybe that's not so much "horrifying" as it is "proof that life isn't fair." Woe to me, that I do not have this dress.

And yet Amy Mebberson drew Amy Pond as a My Little Pony to make me happy, so maybe the world isn't such a horrible place after all.

...that's all for right now. I still have roughly a metric ton of links to post, but most of them are reviews or things which require actual thought. So I leave you with this lovely dish o' random to get you through this gloomy Wednesday night.

See you tomorrow!

Because nothing says "Seanan is trying to relax" like me undertaking a new project, I am going to be making a limited batch of "Wicked Girls" T-shirts. How limited? "The number of orders I receive, plus maybe a few extras, but I don't make any promises"-limited.

The design, thanks to the ever-lovely Tara:



This is a mock-up; the actual shirts will use that design, but will vary a little. I'm printing them through a small local shop, and they're being wonderfully flexible about everything. There are three types of shirts I can do.

The standard girl-cut T (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in black, dark chocolate, dark gray, indigo, midnight navy, plum, or scarlet, and is available in small through 2XL.

A girl-cut T with a shallow V-neck (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in dark gray, indigo, plum, or black, and is available in small through 2XL.

The larger girl-cut T (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in black, charcoal, dark chocolate brown, dark green, or purple, and is available in small through 4XL.

The unisex T (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in black, charcoal, dark chocolate brown, dark green, dark heather gray, navy, or purple, and is available in small through 6XL.

There may be an additional charge for sizes 4XL through 6XL, but it wouldn't be more than a few dollars.

HOW THIS IS GOING TO WORK.

1. If you want to buy a shirt, comment here with:

a) what you want (size, style, color)
b) how many you want
c) your email address

2. For each shirt you're requesting, stuff $20 in a cookie jar somewhere. Why? Because I will not be asking you to pay for your shirt or shirts until we have a sufficiently large number of requests to print. (This is also why we're not doing baby shirts. If twelve people want to ask for them, then we can talk.)

2b. The $20 is inclusive of postage within North America; outside, please indicate that you are willing to pay additional postage.

3. I will add your information to a spreadsheet, and contact you when we have enough requests.

Orders are now closed. I am still contacting people to add them to the spreadsheet. Thanks to everyone who ordered!

Oh, happy day! I am now chortling in my joy, because I have an AWESOME ANNOUNCEMENT to share with everybody: Conjure Oils is now offering sampler pips of the current Toby Daye perfume line. There are TWENTY-ONE scents available, including "Toby Daye" (cut grass and copper), "April O'Leary" (ozone and electricity), and even "January O'Leary" (ozone and pine). These things knock my socks off. Seriously, they are all amazing, and so, so perfect.

Since not everyone wants to gamble on a 5ml bottle of a perfume they haven't smelled before, Conjure Oils is now allowing orders of seven "pips," little 1/32 oz. sampler vials that let you play with a perfume without taking the full risk. This is a truly awesome thing, and it shows a lot of faith in the line as a whole. Hooray!

I am so excited. And I smell like May Daye.

The random number generator has spoken! And it says the winners of Whedonistas are...

firebirdgrrl
jeffreycwells

Congratulations! Please send me your mailing information via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours to receive your prize. If I don't hear from you by the time I rise from the depths of sleep tomorrow morning, I'll choose a new winner. For which I apologize, but well, that's the only way to maintain order around here.

For those of you who are waiting for me to mail you something: I will be packing posters for mailing out tonight, and doing the mass mailing on Monday. I currently have four paid posters pending (say that five times fast). If you wanted to order a "Wicked Girls" poster, now would be a good time to do it, as it would get you into a guaranteed mail batch (IE, Monday). I will be deleting all unpaid poster requests on Monday the 21st, which should free up several numbered posters. Again, I apologize, but I can't hold things forever. If you have not received a poster, and think you've paid, feel free to email me.

Interview and giveaway over at My Bookish Ways! I'm mailing the prizes, so they will be signed. Go ye forth, and participate. Or point people at the interview, and let them participate. I'm pretty easy, as such things go.

Descended From Darkness, Volume II is now available from the Apex Book Company, and contains my story, "Dying With Her Cheer Pants On," a Fighting Pumpkins adventure that first appeared in Apex Magazine. If you're trying to acquire the whole pumpkin patch, this book is a must. Also, you know. Rah rah supporting Apex, lots of other awesome stories (seriously, some of them blew my socks off), go team. But it's early in the morning where I am, so "GO PUMPKINS!" is about the extent of my brain.

What's news with you?

Tara, who is my good and loving and tolerant friend, and who does all the graphics for my website, is also a Barbie customizer. She takes normal, every day dolls and turns them into geek icons, like NCIS's Abby Sciuto, or damn near EVERY CHARACTER EVER to appear in an episode of Star Trek. I? Think this is awesome. And that, friends and neighbors, is why I asked Tara to make me a Barbie.

An Alice Price-Healy Barbie. Behold:



Alice! She has the head of an Aquamarine Birthstone Beauty, the right arm of a Hard Rock Barbie, and the body of a Harley-Davidson Barbie. Her shirt is an old, old piece of Ken's wardrobe; her tank top is Barbie Basics; and her hot camouflage pants are proof that she's more awesome than your Barbie. Oh, and did we mention the weapons? She has a shotgun, pistols, grenades, knives, smoke bombs, and a 1:6 scale machete. Yes. BARBIE WITH A MACHETE.



Alice knows what you're thinking. Alice doesn't approve.

My dolls rule!

It's official! Late Eclipses [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] is now available from fine bookstores everywhere in North America, and from many fine bookstores elsewhere in the world! HOORAY!

Here are a few things to help you celebrate:

Firstly, there are gorgeous Late Eclipses wallpapers and icons available now at my website! Dress your computer in its Toby-related finery, and enjoy Tara's increasingly incredible work every time you make a post or minimize your active windows. Wallpapers and icons from previous books are also available.

I've done a shiny new interview over at the Qwillery, and you can win a copy of Late Eclipses! Dust off your Shakespeare and get ready for a good time, or at least the kind of time that involves hearing about my writing process in faintly silly terms.

Because people ask a lot: every sale counts, and if it's a legit sale (IE, not from a guy in a trenchcoat standing behind the 7-11), I get paid for it. In order of "how helpful is this," it goes brick and mortar stores first, because a sale from them often leads to a re-order; online retailers second, since again, they have to restock when they run out; and ebooks third, as those never need to be replenished. Take two, they're small.

Finally, I am going to be at Borderlands Books this afternoon, doing a swing-through stock-signing. If you want a signed book, and will be unable to make my March 19th Borderlands event, you can call the store and place an order any time after 12:00 PST (when they open). I'm also willing to sign the first three books, Feed, Zombiesque, and Tales From the Ur-Bar (also coming out today).

Happy bookday to me!

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody! I've got two awesome things to share with you from our buddies at Conjure Oils.

First up, lm is doing a decant circle of ALL the Toby Daye scents. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the decant circle concept, this means she's going to order full bottles of the various perfumes, make little "tester" vials of perfume, and then send them out to the circle's paid participants. This is a great way to sample a lot of different scents without committing yourself to a whole bottle. Follow the link above for more information, and her specific rules.

(Note: This decant circle is not specifically affiliated with either me or Conjure Oils. So you'll need to go through lm with any questions or comments. I'm just sharing the love.)

Meanwhile, over at Conjure Oils, Varja has very kindly made the Toby scents available as products from the Oddment Emporium. It's a special order, so you'll need to let her know what you're asking for. Did you want Toby Daye soap? May Daye sugar scrub? Well, for the first (and possibly only) time, you can have it. Be still my heart.

And that's your cosmetic update. Have a joyous Lupercalia!

As of today, we are less than a month (twenty-nine days) out from the release of Late Eclipses. Since February is so short, I'm kicking off the pre-release month of fun now, and beating the rush. Also, that might do a little to preserve my sanity, and I'm fond of my sanity. It's my cuddly mental buddy.

To start our pre-release month right, here's an exciting announcement: Conjure Oils has released the rest of the current Toby Daye perfume line. There are now TWENTY-ONE scents available, including "Toby Daye" (cut grass and copper), "April O'Leary" (ozone and electricity), and even "January O'Leary" (ozone and pine). I don't have my sample packs of the new scents yet, but if they're half as awesome as the original seven, they're going to knock your socks off.

The Toby perfumes are available only in the 5ml bottles, but if people express interest in doing a decant circle, I will open a space in my website forums for you to set things up. (I can't run it myself, I can enable it for all of you.) These are open-ended, so there's no need to rush right out, act now, etc., and they make an awesome gift for the BPAL-lover in your life. Also, if we collectively buy enough of these, maybe she'll make more.

I live a fairy tale life, I swear. And I wouldn't want it any other way.

Point the first: the winner of our random drawing "picture of your pet with one of my books" contest is...the_liz666! Please contact me via my website contact link within the next twenty-four hours to claim your prize. If you don't, I will choose another winner. Also, can I just say, I am SO VERY GLAD this was an explicitly random number-based contest? If I had to choose from the awesome, awesome entries, my head would have exploded. There was Perry the Platypus! And cats! And videos! And fish! AND A FRIKKIN' TIGER! I have the best fans in the whole world.

Point the second: I recently received some old ARCs from my publisher, found during one of the rare but vital "let's clean all the things" sessions. Is anyone out there doing cool art projects with books right now? I have two copies of A Local Habitation and three of An Artificial Night, and I'd love to see them turned into something awesome. Let me know if you have any ideas about where these books could go. (Donating them to a women's shelter doesn't work very well, because they're ARCs; they don't stand up well to repeat reading. Turning them into art, on the other hand, is both awesome and forever. Everybody wins!)

Point the third: I need to do a few more contests, naturally, before finished copies of Late Eclipses start showing up. Does anybody have any cool suggestions? And no, "Just give it to me" doesn't could, and may get you swatted at.

As of today, the last of the paid-for "Wicked Girls" posters have gone out in the mail, and I am once again prepared to cope with buckets and buckets of poster tubes. This is awesome. This will be more awesome if more people order posters, thus getting them Out Of My House. (This is the cycle of stuff, at least with me. I want stuff; I get excited about stuff; I get stuff; I do my best to make stuff go away AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.) Behold the poster thumbnail!



You can't really read the text at this size, but it's the full lyrics of "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." You can tell that the posters are absolutely gorgeous, thanks to the ever-wonderful graphic skills of my lovely lady Tara. They're 10" by 26", and I couldn't be happier with them.

The posters have a limited run of 500, which sounds like a lot, and yet is shrinking at a truly impressive rate. The first 100 are numbered and signed, because it seemed like an awesome thing to do. The posters aren't programmed into the ordering system on my website yet, and that's actually turning out to be a good thing, since it gives me flow control. If you wanted to order a poster, here's what you'd do:

1) Reply to this post with your email address, and how many posters you want, of which kind(s). Standard posters are $20, plus $5 for shipping and handling within the United States ($6 shipping and handling internationally). The signed/numbered posters are $25, plus shipping and handling.

2) I can fit up to three posters in a tube, going to the same place. So three to one location is cost of posters + $5, while three going to three locations would be cost of posters + $15.

3) If you have a preferred number outside of 1-10, I can try to provide it, although I make no promises. If you give me a range of numbers, you're more likely to get what you want.

4) I will email you to confirm the request, and to provide my PayPal information. I can only take personal PayPal (no credit cards), although we can discuss payment by check.

The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous. They also frame really, really nicely, as my living room wall can attest.

Yay for pretty things!

A little while ago, Lauren (who designed the fantastic covers for Feed and Deadline) emailed to ask if I might have a parody of "The Night Before Christmas" that related to dead things just, you know. Lying around. I did not. But I did have a history in filk, and access to the original poem. So fifteen or so minutes later, "I do not" became "sure!" and I was able to send Lauren a nice, zombie-filled bit of Christmas fear.

Because Lauren is insanely awesome, she promptly turned it into a poster. And because Orbit is insanely awesome, you can now download this gruesome collaboration in a variety of exciting formats. It's suitable for use as an e-card, a computer wallpaper, or even a printed holiday letter.

So from all of us to all of you, have yourself a scary little Christmas now.

I've sort of fallen down on the shopping list goodness this year, and for that, I apologize most profusely...although in my defense, I've sort of been busier than the Great Pumpkin in the second week of October, so I guess it was only natural that a few things would start slipping, here and there. Anyway, here are the links I received in answer to my general call for shiny things made by my readers which might appeal to people who don't know about them yet.

First up, naturally, is the scented goodness of Conjure Oils, the only place you can find the Toby Daye perfume line. That's not all they have, however, and if you're a fan of fine perfumes, you can probably find something here to delight you. Take a look at their selection (although I totally recommend the Toby stuff, because dude).

Next up, Unorthofox Trinketries is here to answer your jewelry needs. The current selection has a heavy focus on mermaids. I heartily approve. Meanwhile, Om Shanti Handicrafts is a great source for all-natural vegetarian bath and beauty supplies. Any company that offers an unscented body wash is a-okay by me.

Here's a handy roundup of different independent artists that might be of interest to you. I love it when other people do the bulk of the work for me, don't you?

THE FOKS OMG DEADLY CUTENESS. Seriously, if my cats wouldn't eat them, I'd fill my house with these things. Or, if you like your fabric animals to be more practical, Creature Comforts offers animal-shaped tea cozies. Oh, Etsy, is there anything you can't do?

Silver Owl Creations is just an amazing source of unique key-based jewelry; I own the key to Goldengreen, thanks to Vixy, and it came from this crafter. The non-key works are fabulous, too.

That's all for now. Happy shopping!

Bill Mudron, who is an incredible, amazing artist, and has done quite a lot of commission work for me over the years, has put up some absolutely drop-dead gorgeous prints for sale. Specifically, he's put up a pair of incredible Doctor Who prints themed after the world of Alphonse Mucha, showing Amy Pond and River Song in a whole new light.

You can view and order the prints here, should the desire strike you. I've already ordered mine, and I intend to have them framed and hang them in a place of honor. Assuming a place of honor can still be located on my increasingly-cluttered walls...

Anyway: Beautiful art! Supporting small artists! Absolutely unique gifts! And, you know.

Stuff.

Today is Thursday, and things are awesome! Like, seriously, seriously awesome. Why are they awesome? Because they are. I will explain.

First awesome: Conjure Oils is doing a line of perfumes inspired by the Toby Daye books. They debuted at OryCon, and they are amazing. Seriously, I squealed, more than a little. There are seven scents in the initial line, and more coming, some of which I am, like, crazy excited about (the idea of January O'Leary perfume makes me giggle way more than is strictly sane). If you're a BPAL fan, or know someone who is, you could do a lot worse than Toby Daye perfumes for the holidays.



Ahem: squee.

Second awesome: My darling Mia, over at Chimera Fancies, is getting ready for her incredibly massively huge holiday sale, and has put up a preview post of pendants. It seems like every batch is better than the batch before, which is probably part of why my pendant collection is beginning to rival my Pony collection for sheer number of pieces. I mean, damn.

The latest sale begins Friday, November 19th, at noon Pacific time, and if you check out her post, you can find out how to get yourself entered in a drawing for possible free awesomeness. I mean, how much better can it get than free awesomeness?

Third awesome: My mailing tubes arrived last night, and I estimated correctly, meaning that the mailing of the new "Wicked Girls" posters has officially begun. Specifically, I've mailed posters to Tara and to our cover model, but that means I now know exactly what I'm dealing with, rather than just making a highly educated guess. Hooray for math!

For details on the posters, and on how you can currently order them, please see yesterday's post on the subject. I'm planning to package and mail all paid orders from this week on Saturday morning, which means you'd have them by the end of the week in the United States, and by the end of the month in Canada. I also now know what it would cost to mail internationally, so please contact me via my website if you'd like to discuss other mailing options.

Tara bet me five dollars and a cupcake that we'd sell fifty in the first twenty-four hours. There's three hours left, and we're at thirty-eight. Free cupcake!

And those are the things which are awesome. What's awesome in the world of you?

And now, the secret project is unveiled, with all associated pomp and circumstance: the "Wicked Girls" posters. Behold the thumbnail.



You can't really read the text at this size, but it's the full lyrics of "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." You can tell that the posters are absolutely gorgeous, thanks to the ever-wonderful graphic skills of my lovely lady Tara. They're 10" by 26", and I couldn't be happier with them.

The posters are limited to a run of 500, with the first 100 being numbered and signed, because I can. We don't want to confuse the ordering system by giving it something else to deal with while we're still doing CD pre-orders, so if you wanted one of these, say, for the holidays, here's what you'd do:

1) Reply to this post with your email address, and how many posters you want, of which kind(s). Standard posters are $20, plus $4 for shipping and handling. The signed/numbered posters are $25, again, plus $4 for shipping and handling.

2) I can fit up to three posters in a tube, going to the same place. So three to one location is cost of posters + $4, while three going to three locations would be cost of posters + $12.

3) If you have a preferred number outside of 1-10, I can try to provide it, although I make no promises.

4) I will email you to confirm the request, and to provide my PayPal information. I can only take personal PayPal (no credit cards), although we can discuss payment by check.

North American orders only for right now; I'll go overseas once I've sorted the cost of shipping. Orders will move to my website after the Wicked Girls pre-orders close, since again, trying not to confuse the database. The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous.

Yay for pretty things!

Back in mid-September, Borderlands Books in San Francisco played host to the third Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show, assembled to celebrate the release of the third (yes, already) October Daye book, An Artificial Night. Yay! I love Borderlands, I love the Circus, and I love book release parties, so this was like a whole casserole baked entirely out of pixie dust and joy. PIXIE DUST AND JOY.

We began with me, Amy, Brooke, Ryan, and Mia at my house, getting ready for the day ahead of us. This largely consisted of "putting on clothes" and "packing the event kit," a large orange plastic box that carries all the non-perishables needed for a big book party (raffle tickets, raffle prizes, bookmarks, paper plates, pens for signing stuff, occasionally one or more of the cats if we don't seal it fast enough). Ryan and Mia drove off with Amy. Mom picked the rest of us up, along with my youngest sister* and her girlfriend, and we drove to San Francisco, only stopping off to buy classy, classy cake from the warehouse store.

We got to the bookstore hours early, and stowed our stuff in the bookstore before scattering to find food. Amy, Brooke, and I would up going to a tacqueria down the street, which fed us delicious Mexican food, and kept Brooke from killing and eating us all. I ate a chicken burrito, nom, and we walked back to the bookstore to find a Kate sitting outside, reading a book, and the rest of the descending Circus waiting inside. Hooray! CIRCUS TIME! The entire Circus was wearing orange and black and green. ORANGE GIRLS OF THE WORLD, UNITE. Seriously, it was MAD AWESOME.

The night was divided into five distinct activities: music; raffle drawings; cake; reading; Q&A. We had breaks between activities, so people could mill, visit, use the bathroom, and shop (being as we were in a very large, enticing bookstore and all).

MUSIC: Musicians from everywhere! Alphabetically by instrument, we had Brooke Lunderville on banjo, Betsy Tinney on cello, Amy McNally on fiddle, SJ Tucker on guitar and vocals, Michelle "Vixy" Dockrey on vocals, and me on occasional "flustered author is flustered" vocals. (We did close with "Wicked Girls," so that's all right.)

RAFFLE: You got one ticket for showing up, one ticket for a purchase from the cafe, and one ticket for a purchase at the bookstore, for a maximum of three tickets per person. The drawing included everything from books to pendants to toys, and was fun, as always, with the usual amount of fuss and cheering for the winners. Buckets of fun.

CAKE: We had two cakes, and no cake cutting device. So Alan, glorious Alan, cut the cake with a gladius. I love having events at Borderlands. I love it SO DAMN HARD.

READING: Because I didn't want to read from the third Toby book, I read "Lost" from Ravens in the Library. When I started the story, the store had three copies left in stock. When I finished it, they had...zero. Literally, I started to say "I think this may be the last one," and Jude signaled that no, it had been sold while I was reading. Super-fun! Also, I made Vixy cry. Flawless victory.

Q&A: The Q&A was, as always, insane. You should come to one sometime.

During the milling sections, people talked, bought books, bought pendants, and bought copies of Sooj's new album, Mischief. (We wound up selling out of that, too.) Many books were sold, many hugs were given, and at the end of the night, we bid the bookstore a fond farewell and went down the street to Fritz, where we ate fries and mussels and crepes, and were joyful.

Everybody loves a night at the circus. Don't you?

(*The one who looks like a zaftig gothic Betty Page.)c

Check out this incredible piece of Toby/Tybalt fan art by irrel:

Follow the clicky link to the pretty!

I am delighted beyond words.

Gosh and golly.

I like mai tais. I find them pleasant, entertaining, and charmingly garnished with obscene amounts of fruit. I also like the process of making cocktails. It's like a fabulous combination of chemistry, alchemy, and, y'know, booze. Plus, it's fun. I like things that are fun. So I decided, what the hell, why not learn how to make mai tais?

This is how my brain works. Be glad you don't have to live with me.

First up, I had to find a recipe for mai tais. I like them with pineapple. Thankfully, Wikipedia is always willing to save the day, and provided me with a page that contained more recipes for the mai tai than one woman will ever need. I settled on recipe #5, the pineapple variation, as my "Mai Tai Scripture," the one true recipe against which all other recipes would be measured. At least until I got bored.

According to the recipe, I needed light rum, dark rum, grenadine, orange, pineapple, and lime juices, and triple sec. (The recipe didn't say that I needed a pineapple, maraschino cherries, a lime, or little paper umbrellas. I figured that part out on my own.) So step two was clearly a trip to BevMo. Yay BevMo!

Now, to work at BevMo, one needs a) a decent understanding of alcohol, and b) a sense of humor. Both these things were possessed by the clerk who came over to assist me in my quest. She found me in the rum section, squinting bemusedly at the assortment of bottles. "What are you trying to make?" she asked.

"Mai tais."

"The mai tai mix is over here."

"From scratch."

Beat. "Are you from the university?"

When in doubt, claim college hazing. "Yes."

"Well, then, you'll want this, and this—"

She was awesome, and quickly helped me assemble everything I'd need to make a truly epic mai tai. She also reminded me to buy the little paper umbrellas, without which, the mai tai could bring only shame upon my household. ALCOHOLIC SHAME. So, y'know, thank you, helpful BevMo clerk! You were truly awesome.

After a stop at Safeway to acquire fruit (and fruit juices), I went home, and discovered that putting all my liquor on the counter meant that I couldn't put my laptop there. My laptop, you know, with the recipe. So I did the next best thing, and called Vixy at home, making her read me the recipe. I started off by telling her the wrong recipe, leading to hilarity when she started asking me to put things I didn't have into the cocktail shaker. Oops. We recovered quickly, and I managed to combine all the correct ingredients. Only...I needed ice, and my ice was frozen solid. Cue me smacking the ice with everything I could find in an effort to chip off enough to fill my shaker. More hilarity.

Somehow, I escaped the ice without injury, and was finally able to properly mix my drink. I put it into a glass. I added lots of fruit. And I called it good.

Mai tai! (And My Little Pony, specifically, Wave Runner from the Sunshine Pony assortment. Not that I, uh, knew that or anything.)

Therein endeth the lesson.

My darling Mia at chimera_fancies is running a set of truly awesome sales right now. Six, all told, when you add up the auctions and the rest. It's an embarrassment of riches, one which awes and delights.

First up, the pendants she made from An Artificial Night are now available for sale. This is just the first batch; the second will be going live tonight. They're made from pieces of an ARC of the book, and all of them are signed by me. I honestly think this is Mia's best work yet. I'm honored and delighted to have been a part of it (and not just because it meant I got to see the pendants before anybody else did).

She also made three special pendants for auction sale. These are pressed under glass, with charms and extra glitter, and to make things extra-special, she had me write blurbs for all three.

"When one seeks advice on love, matters of the hearth, children, gardens, or the maintenance of apple orchards, ask the sun. When one seeks advice on wishes better left unwished, quests better left untaken, the mathematical definitions of the universe, or the maintenance of cherry orchards, ask the stars. When one seeks advice on kisses, on candles, on secrets, on fairy tales, on riddles, or on the maintenance of the peaches of immortality...ask the moon. If you word your question well enough, the moon may even answer." —Pendant #1: Ask the Moon.

"There are rules that bind transactions in the magical world, forms that must be followed, customs that must be obeyed. In time, one learns the tricks that allow these rules to be suspended, if only for a time. Make contracts with frog princes only when the moon is new; barter with small, nameless men only in perfectly round rooms with windows facing east. Do not trust cakes baked by women made of flowers, or wine pressed by men made of stone. There are ways to slip past every rule, if you are clever. Now come, bearing all these things in mind, and raise your hand, and dare the sea witch's door. —Pendant #2: Bargain With the Sea Witch.

"On the eve of her execution, the Princess Calendra—condemned by her own silence, and by the words of her father, who named her as a witch—stood before the pyre, squared her shoulders, and said, "In a Kingdom of men who fancy themselves as heroes, not a one has come to save me. In a world of stableboys and swineherds who dream of working wonders, not a one has come to my defense. In a time of so much pride, so much smug reliance on the words of storytellers, one man should have come...but instead I stand here, wicker maid and sacrifice to the harvest of your cowardice. Very well. If you will not save me, the time has come, I fear, to save myself." They say she vanished then, that she and her handmaids—who had been loyal, held in chains even as she was—rose on black white owl wings and flew away into the night. And where they went, none know...but the owls ask, always, who? Who will save you, little one, with your silence and your sorrows? Will you wait for a hero who may never come, or will you rise, and save yourself?" —Pendant #3: Then I'll Save Myself.

Now, if you, like me, already have a great many pretty things, you may be dreaming of jewelry boxes. This need, too, can be met. More than once, even, and for auction. I love it when the world meets our needs.

Beautiful things. Thank you, Mia!

Here is your weekly status on the pre-orders for Wicked Girls, my third studio album (and the official follow-up to Stars Fall Home). For details on the album itself, please check out my albums page, where you can find the track listing, several of our featured performers, and the truly kick-ass cover art. Pre-orders are being sold to pay for duplication and mastering, and the album will not go to press until they have closed.

To place your order, go to:

https://seananmcguire.com/secure_order.php

Pre-orders follow this price scale:

* $18.00 USD: First domestic pre-order.
* $16.00 USD: Second domestic pre-order.

* $20.00 USD: International pre-order.
* $16.00 USD: Second international pre-order.

This is because of the way the mailing costs work. A third CD would cost the same as a first; this assumes that the CDs are being shipped together. So two CDs to the same US address would be $34.00, but two CDs to two different US addresses would be $18.00 each. Hope that's not too confusing.

(Basically, all pre-orders are a base cost of $15.00, plus shipping.)

Since we also need to pay mixing costs, we're taking album sponsors; you can submit sponsorships through the order form. We'll do our best to include all sponsors in the liner notes, although late sponsorships may not be included.

We have sold 168 pre-orders out of a possible 300, meaning that 132 pre-orders remain. Don't miss your chance to pre-order! All pre-order CDs will be signed and numbered.

Questions? Comments? Glee!