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

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

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

I am preparing for the grand summer road trip. Home to San Francisco; San Francisco to Manhattan; Manhattan to Milwaukee; Milwaukee to La Crosse; La Cross to Madison; Madison to Chicago; and then home again, home again, jiggety jig. I am very ready to be gone. I am absolutely not ready to be gone. Before I see my home and bed and cats again, I will visit both my publishers, attend my first BEA, visit a high school that's very excited to see me, and attend my first Wiscon. I will see and hug and adore my Merav and my Diana and my Cat—so many hugs. I will do great things and struggle to keep up with my word count, and whether I succeed or not, I will need a nap before I'm done.

I'm nervous. I admit that. And this is all part of the deal, this is part of the promise you make at the crossroads when you sell your fantasies for your dreams. This is part of what it takes to have what I have always said I wanted...and I was right, and I am not sorry. But sometimes I get tired, and I want to stay home with my cats and my books and my dolls.

I want to write full time. I want to live in a little house in Seattle full of cat trees and more books and too many toys, and I want to paint the walls orange without worrying about my housemates not wanting to live inside a pumpkin. And wanting these things means packing my bags and hitting the road again, because life feeds art feeds life.

But sometimes I get tired.

I hope I will see you if you're in New York, or Wisconsin, and if not, I hope I will see you some other time, when I come to wherever you are. I'm always glad to see people, and you can smell my dirt-based perfume and get shown pictures of my cats (conveniently stored in my phone). And this will be a wonderful adventure, because they always are.

I can't wait to get started. I can't wait to come home.

I love the crossroads prayer that is my life.

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?

At this very moment, the lovely Catherynne M. Valente is in my guest bedroom getting ready for an event of such awesome and awe-inspiring proportions that it has actually stunned my cats into submission! (Okay, it was probably all the scritching that did that. But still...)

Cat is currently on tour for her new YA novel, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. In addition to having the longest and hence most awesome title in this season's young adult releases, The Girl Who... features a girl named after a month of the year, a giant leopard, libraries, fairy queens, and all the other things one needs in a work of truly awesome literature.

Why does this matter to you, you ask me? Because today, and today only, you can see Cat at Borderlands Books in San Francisco, where she will be appearing at three PM to read, give a Q&A, and sign whatever you may happen to shove in front of her (no children that don't belong to you or legally binding contracts, please). She's full of pep and promise, and totally rockin', and you should come.

If you're more interested in Cat's adult work, she will be appearing at Writers With Drinks tonight at 7:30PM, where there will be boozimohol and slightly less YA content. A good time will be had by all, except by those who can't make it.

As a final note, please remember that Borderlands does take online and telephone orders, and that if you contact them before today's event, you can request personalized copies of any of Cat's books that they have in stock. (You can also request personalized copies of my books, but I am not the point today.)

Come out if you can, and help us blow the roof off this house!

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

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

Anyway, here you go:

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

So this has been a week. Yes. That is definitely what it's been. Rarely has a week been so very week-shaped, and so equipped with lots of little pointy days to stick things to. I have thoughts, honest I do, and many of them even make sense, but it's been such a week that I really am essentially reduced to sitting here going "well, yeah, that was a week." So here, have some bullet-points instead.

Writing.
I'm making awesome progress on Blackout, which is up to 115,000 words, which technically puts me a day ahead of target. If I can make my overly-ambitious goals for the weekend, I may be able to get far enough ahead of target that I can actually enjoy LepreCon next weekend without needing to get up in the morning and worry about word count. (I'll get up in the morning and worry about word count anyway. I just won't have to.)

"Rat-Catcher" is also coming along nicely, and I'm about halfway through the story. I'm shooting to finish the first draft by Monday or Tuesday of next week, and then hand it over to the Machete Squad for glorious abuse. It's being written for a specific anthology, but I can't say which one until the story is finished and the editor decides that it's worth printing. Assuming that happens, I'll make sure to share the ordering info, because who wouldn't want a story about Tybalt in London before he was King? Questions are asked, questions are answered, you get to meet the elusive September Torquill, and as a bonus, Tybalt's family is involved.

Watching.
So the season premiere of Doctor Who was amazing, and I can't wait for tomorrow night's episode. I love Matt Smith's Doctor so very much, and I really hope we get to keep him at least as long as we kept Tennant. (Young actor, more likely to want to avoid getting typecast. Young actor, more likely to go "This is AWESOME!" and keep doing the show just so he can play with more aliens. So it's a wash, and we'll need to wait and see.) I love Amy, I love Rory, I love that Rory's in the opening credits now, and yes, I even love River Song. Although there is now officially an embargo on characters named "River."

Two episodes remain in this season of Fringe, which is absolutely one of my favorite things on television, bar none. I'm even kind of jealous, since "alternate versions of the main character or characters" is one of my narrative kinks, and it's really, really hard to do when you're working purely in text. I've got some alternates coming up in the Vel stories, but that's about it. The storytelling on Fringe just keeps getting better, and I am so excited and terrified to see where this season ends.

Wandering.
May sort of kicks off my convention season in a big, big way, and next weekend is LepreCon, in scenic Tempe, Arizona. I'm their Music Guest of Honor! Which will be fun, since I'm working with an unfamiliar guitarist and we won't have much time to practice. That means our performance will be, if nothing else, sincere. I'm planning to have a great time, even if it kills me.

Later in the month, I'll have Cat Valente crashing at my place before her event at Borderlands to promote The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, which you should totally attend, and then heading to New York for Book Expo America, followed by Wiscon, with a stop in the middle at a high school in Wisconsin. And all of this should explain why I am quite so passionate about making my word counts every day, even if it kills me. There is no room left for slippage.

Wanting.
The new Monster High dolls have been announced, and to absolutely no one's surprise, I want them all. ALL OF THEM. I am going to need to get a new shelf. "All of them" includes the San Diego International Comic-Convention Exclusive Ghoulia Yelps cosplaying as her favorite superhero. Yes. A ZOMBIE SUPERHERO. I control all things.

What's up with you guys?

LJ appears to be vaguely stable again, which is a nice change. I missed you, LJ! I know that blogging is dead, and it's the age of Farmville or the Tweet or whatever, and I'm on Facebook (technically) and Twitter (avidly), but my heart's true home is here, in Blogland, where I can write full sentences and punctuate them properly without worrying about the number of commas I use. I LOVE YOU, OXFORD COMMA.

Ahem. Anyway...

We're in a vague lull right now, which is nice, since it's letting me catch up on my word counts. I knocked out 2,000 words of Blackout last night, and then turned around and wrote almost as much on "Crystal Halloway, Girl Wonder, and the Truth Fairy's Curse," which sounds like a fluffy cross between Nancy Drew and every Harry Potter knock-off ever, but is, no shit, the most depressingly nihilistic thing I've written in years. Possibly ever. I made a giant spider cry. I have no regrets.

I do have a book event at the Borders in Roseville, California scheduled for next Saturday, and if you're local, it would be awesome if you could drop by. Borders events are much more low-key than the Traveling Circus, and sometimes it winds up just me, sitting at my little "in-store author" table, working on art cards and pretending that I'm not lonely. Help me not be lonely!

Speaking of being lonely, there's been, like, a hugenormous influx of people recently, and I honestly can't tell why. There was a little bump last week, when I posted about my decision to withdraw from Wicked Pretty Things, but since then, it's just been like, WHOA HOLY CRAP I DON'T HAVE THIS MANY PLATES. So if you're new here, hello! Welcome! Can you please tell me who you are and how you got here? I'm totally thrilled to have you, I just like to have some vague idea of what's going on. (Yeah, right. Like that's ever going to happen.)

In other news, water is wet, zombies are love, Jean Grey is still dead, and Thomas is rapidly approaching an improbable size.

What's new with you?

Did you miss the latest iteration of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show? Do you like your events a little more low-key? Do you want to hang out and get things signed? Well, you're in luck on all three counts, because I will be at the Other Change of Hobbit in Berkeley, California this Saturday, from five to seven PM.

Yes, I will read; yes, I will sign; yes, I will answer silly questions. Yes, there may well be music, because I am me, and it is borderline inevitable that there will be music when I go around being me in a public place. Yes, I hope to see you there.

Book events are fun!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's going to be such a party.

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

ARIZONA!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Zombies are love.

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

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

What's news with you?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

November.
Sleep.

December.
Seattle, and sleep.

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

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

Whee!

1. I am almost ready for Marcon! If by "almost" you mean "a packing list has been made, although no actual packing has been done, and hey, look, I have a set list." I'll pack tonight when I get home; tomorrow, I'll decamp to Kate's, since we need to get up at four o'clock Thursday morning if we want to catch our flight. Oh, the things I do for the love of conventions.

2. Last night was one of those "sleep so hard you wake up feeling hung-over" nights. I appreciate this. I don't get many of those nights anymore, and after I get over hating the universe, I tend to be refreshed and peppy. This sometimes creeps people out, as they aren't accustomed to seeing me peppy. Full of pep! There is nothing more dangerous than a truly cheerful blonde.

3. I'm currently cleaning and indexing my room, as part of an ongoing attempt to get my possessions under something resembling control. In the process of so doing, I found three copies of my 2009 chapbook. Now, I was under the impression that I had sold all the copies of my 2009 chapbook, which means either a) I can't count, or b) three people didn't get their chapbooks. If you requested a chapbook and never got it, please let me know, so that we can sort out what happened (and you can finally get your poetry).

4. I've finally updated my Upcoming Appearances page to include appearances through June, as well as the two stops on the Murder and Mayhem Tour that I'm doing with jennifer_brozek. I'll be adding more information to the June/July appearances, but at least now people will basically know where I'm going to be.

5. An Artificial Night is now on Amazon! What's more, it's on Amazon with a release date (September 7th), and actually relevant-to-the-book information (rather than the carry-over description of A Local Habitation that appeared there initially). The cover isn't up yet, but I'll totally scream when it appears, because every time one of my books is actually fully on Amazon, an angel gets its wings. I want my own CELESTIAL HOST, dammit.

6. I've rewritten the first six chapters of The Brightest Fell, and suddenly, without warning, this book has started to actually WORK. It's not uncommon for me to spend a hundred pages or so wandering lost in the wilderness, but The Brightest Fell is a particularly hard book. It's the last of the Toby books that was started pre-publication, which means it's been shelved several times while I worked on more urgent projects. To make matters worse, it's complicated, and changes a lot of things about Toby's world. So it's been kicking my ass, and I have finally started kicking back.

7. Who found a copy of Kelley Armstrong's out-of-print Eve novella, Angelic, while she was at Dark Carnival in Berkeley? Would that be me? Why, yes, I do believe it would be. I'll be doing more book gloating later, but I needed to offer this little snippet now. Because dude.

8. The cats come running when they hear the opening theme from The West Wing, because they know it means I'll be sitting still for at least forty-five minutes. Possibly longer, if the power of their purring is enough to make me start a second episode. Yes, I have managed to train my cats into taking an interest in the democratic process. When Lilly takes the state to court for the right to vote, you have permission to blame me.

9. It's cherry season. You do not want to know how many pounds of cherries I've consumed in the last week and a half...but as a hint, I could probably reforest Utah with my cherry pips, and I am now capable of telling fortunes for the whole of Oregon.

10. Zombies are love.

It's official; convention season is starting. I'm in the process of getting ready for Marcon. Kate and I are on a Thursday morning flight so early that it's effectively a Wednesday night flight, which is always fun, and will either result in my having my usual weird mid-air dreams or in my getting a lot of work done. The jury is still out on which that's going to be. We're coming back to California on Monday.

The following Saturday (June 5th), I'll be appearing at the Borders Books and Music in Pleasant Hill, California. This is my first-ever Borders event. The Saturday after that (June 12th), I'll be at SF in SF with Deborah Grabien. This is my first-ever SF in SF. Sensing a trend yet?

Somewhere in June, I have to cram in a few rehearsals with Paul Kwinn, my partner in crime, because 4th of July weekend is the combined Westercon/Conchord. I'm Westercon's Music Guest of Honor, and Conchord's Guest of Honor (Paul is the Conchord Toastmaster), and I guess that means we shouldn't suck. July 10th, I'm with Jennifer Brozek at Third Place Books in Seattle; July 17th, I'm with Jennifer Brozek at Borderlands Books in San Francisco. The weekend after that is the San Diego International Comic Convention, which is going to be huge and exhausting, as always, and the weekend after that is Spocon, in Spokane, Washington, where I'm going to be their Music Guest of Honor. (Tanya Huff is their Writer GoH. Urban Fantasy Mafia in the house!)

August is Australia. And the Campbell Awards. And the twitching.

Somewhere in there, I need to finish The Brightest Fell and make some serious headway on Blackout, since they have, y'know, due dates. I only have five more Sparrow Hill Road stories to write, which is a good thing, but they're some of the most important in the series, which is less good. So if I seem a little hyper in the weeks to come, it's just because I have replaced my blood with embalming fluid and espresso.

Whee! Convention season is fun!

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

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

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

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

Marcon!

This Saturday, May 8th 2010, I will be appearing at San Francisco's own Borderlands Books in my guise as Mira Grant to celebrate the release of Mira's first novel, Feed [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy]. Feed is a science fiction dystopian novel of political zombie terror, best described as "Night of the Living Dead meets The West Wing and Transmetropolitan." If that sounds a little weird, well...it is. But if it sounds a little awesome, you should totally swing by.

This is going to be a more traditional event than most of my parties, because Mira's a traditional kind of girl...especially if by "traditional" you mean "fond of machetes, the undead, and things that go bump in the night." We'll be in the bookstore starting at five, and we'll be staying there until nine, providing plenty of time for undead awesomeness. There will be readings, discussion, time for wandering around the bookstore, and, yes, the world's best cupcakes. Some of my best friends from out of town will be attending, so this is your chance to finally check off "Rae" on your Seanan bingo card.

I really hope you can make it, and if you can't, remember that you can contact Borderlands to request a signed/personalized book be set aside for you.

Whee!

ETA: Festivities will begin at 5:00 PM, and continue until 9:00.

Did you want to hang out with cool people, hear cool music, get things signed, and maybe win cool prizes? Well, tomorrow's your chance, since the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show will be rolling into San Francisco's Borderlands Books at five, and staying until they kick us out.

The schedule for the event:

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

Remember that Borderlands will take requests for signed books, so if you can't make it, you can contact the store to request a copy signed for you. I do hope we'll see you there, and I'll post a more detailed reminder tomorrow.

Book release party!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August.
Australia awaits.

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

Whee!

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

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

See you there.

Today is the last day of November, which means we're one month away from running out of 2009 entirely. I'm really not sure how I feel about this. I mean, on the one hand, it's nice to be past some of the more chaotic and horrible parts of the year. On the other hand, it feels a lot like I blinked and the year was over, which is never a particularly pleasant experience.

December is already slated to be a busy, busy month, with two events (one in San Francisco, one in Seattle), one trip out of state (again, Seattle), Alice's birthday, and a fairly hefty word count goal on Blackout. Just to add more hoot to my nanny, I'm also going to have a go at restarting my aerobic workouts, since I really miss Richard Simmons (he's the freaky little glittery monkey man of my heart, yo). On the plus side, endorphins make you happy, and happy authors just don't kill their editors.

I'll put up the voting for the best pics-with-pets entries into the A Local Habitation ARC contest later today. There were some really amazing entries, and I'm crazy-glad not to be choosing the winner by myself. I think my head might actually explode if I tried. (Not a pretty sight.) Voting will remain open through Sunday, December 6th, at which point I'll announce the winners and solicit mailing addresses. The usual "if I don't get an address in twenty-four hours, I will move on to the next possible winner" applies, so if you're an entrant, please be sure to either check back here or have someone check for you on Monday, December 7th.

2010 is starting to fill up fast—because there's a real surprise—and I think I may be approaching the official "no more conventions this year, so sorry" point. I now have three during the month of July (the most wonderful time of the year), and that strikes me as a sign that it may be time to take a nap instead. I'll post my full schedule here and on the website shortly.

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend, and that your cats were less clingy and shedtastic than mine.

1. I have done the mailing! Specifically, I've mailed a paperback to Australia, an ARC of A Local Habitation to our first ALH ARC contest winner, and a comic book to my web designer. (Said comic book has been failing to get mailed since July, which gives you an idea of how behind I am in certain aspects of my daily maintenance.) I probably have more mailing to do—including at least two CD sets—but this is mailing to discover, not mailing to feel guilty about not doing. Victory is mine!

2. Since the first ARC has been mailed out, I'm getting ready to open the second ARC contest. I'll be taking entries for a week or so, and then opening voting for a similar length of time. This is going to be a photography challenge (much like the LOLtest for Rosemary and Rue, but without the captions). Details will be posted later this week.

3. The redesign and relaunch of my website is just about done, which is a huge relief (for my webmaster and web designer, as well as for me, since they get constantly prodded at when I get twitchy). The new look of the site is awesome. We're going from drop-down menus to side menus, the graphics are even slicker and more incredibly cool, and soon, I'll be posting the first batch of icons and wallpapers for A Local Habitation. Also, once my main site is relaunched, we'll be able to focus on getting Mira's site off the ground. Evil twins need websites, too!

4. The Rosemary and Rue pendant sale from chimera_fancies is going to be launching later this week, and these pendants really are Mia's best work yet. I mean, they're just incredible pieces of wearable artwork, and the fact that I was partially responsible for this batch being created is just amazing to me. This is transformative art. From oral tradition folklore to urban fantasy novel to jewelry. Who could ask for a more remarkable series of connections? I'll post some previews of the sale before Mia opens it to the general public, but I'm not administrating it; all questions should go to chimera_fancies.

5. I know my Current Projects posts can seem huge and daunting and a little unreal, but I really have made amazing strides in Blackout, The Brightest Fell, and Discount Armageddon over the past month, and I'm over-the-moon excited with where they're each going. Working on all three at once is like a delicious block of television consisting of Glee, Supernatural, Wonderfalls, and Veronica Mars. So good, so snarky, and so refreshing for the soul. I know I love what I do, because it makes me less tired, rather than exhausting me.

6. My schedule for 2010 is taking shape and becoming visibly more awesome by the day. At least in part because, well, the more coherent it is, the easier it becomes for me to plan around things like conventions, book releases, and fits of hysterical giggling. My planner pages are also filling up, with a combination of major events and minor, "survive the day, week, month, year, and inevitable zombie apocalypse" items. The more regimented my time appears, the more work I'll get done. According to the planner so far, 2010 is the year I conquer the planet.

7. The first promo comic for A Local Habitation is underway, and looks awesome. I'll post it as soon as it's finished.

What's new in the world of you?

Well, I'm off to board a giant metal sky-bird and wing my way across the country to Columbus, Ohio, with a stop in the middle to switch planes in Chicago. I'll be in Ohio (and hence on limited Internet access) until Monday, when I come back to California. If you're in the Columbus area, feel free to swing by OVFF to say hello, hear some awesome music, and maybe get a book or two signed.

See you when I get back!

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

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

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

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

It's just one big kitchen party over here.

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

Tonight's schedule:

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

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

I hope you can come!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9) The turtle couldn't help us.

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

Now we must rinse.

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

Now, in somewhat happier news...

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

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

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

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

More information to come!

In twenty-six days, Rosemary and Rue will be available on shelves all across the country. Anyone who's pre-ordered from Amazon will be receiving their copy. This includes, I know, a great many people outside my home country. So in twenty-six days, Toby will be on her way around the world.

I fully expect to be finished with my first editorial pass-through on Feed by the end of the weekend. The book has become tighter, faster, slicker, and yes, even better than it was when I started. I should need another week or so to get edits back from the early-reader pool and do my serious editorial rewrites (some of which have been tabled for now, to preserve momentum), and then I'll be ready to turn it in. Which is good, because that leaves me free to go crazy over Rosemary.

In six months, twenty-seven days, A Local Habitation will be following Rosemary and Rue onto store shelves. You'll be able to walk into a bookstore and say "I want Seanan McGuire's book," and the response will be "which one?"

In two and a half weeks, I'll be flying to Seattle to appear with a whole bunch of awesome authors in the official Grants Pass book launch extravaganza. I will sign books. Books that were available in stores. I will eat cake. I will not cry.

In a few minutes, I'll zip my suitcase, load it into my mother's station wagon, and take off for Canada, where I'll be attending WorldCon not as a fan, not as a convention organizer, but as an honest-to-the-Great-Pumpkin professional writer. I'm allowed to have professional opinions now! I'm going to be on panels where I get to talk about them, even, and I get to wear my pumpkin-orange LA Confidential dress again, and hug my editor, and generally be a Halloweentown Princess to the stars.

Here I go again.

See you soon.

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

THURSDAY.

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

SATURDAY.

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

SUNDAY.

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

MONDAY.

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

Woo-hoo Montreal!

Hey, San Diego-bound lovelies!

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

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

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

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

I really hope I'll see you there!

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

THURSDAY.

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

SATURDAY.

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

SUNDAY.

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

MONDAY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whee!

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

FRIDAY.

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

SATURDAY.

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

SUNDAY.

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

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

See you there!

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

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

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

Marcon!

It's gonna be a party.

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

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

SATURDAY.

11:30 AM: Zombies Are Coming!

SUNDAY.

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

MONDAY.

1:00 PM: Writing For the Long Run

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How's been by all of you?

So as most of you hopefully know by now (or will be delighted to discover), I'm about to be the Music Guest of Honor at DucKon 18. The convention is legal this year! It can now vote, get drafted, and buy cigarettes for my mother. DucKon will be happening in Naperville, Illinois, from June 12th through June 14th, and you should totally come. Why? Well, it's gonna be awesome, for one thing. I'm updating my appearances page as details are confirmed, but here are the things I can promise you:

1. I will be there.
2. My fantastic agent, Diana Fox, will be there, as the Agent Guest of Honor. Meet my personal superhero!
3. Tara O'Shea, who does my website's graphic design, will be there.
4. My concert will be OFF THE SCALE in AWESOME. Why? Why do I say this egotistical thing?

Because the DucKon Filk Fund allows their Music Guest of Honor to invite a guest of their very own, to help them with their concert. And I, just like the girl on America's Next Top Model who chooses to share her prize with the people who can help her look amazing, have selected Vixy and Tony. Yeah. ME AND VIXY AND TONY, LIVE IN CONCERT, IN THE MIDWEST, FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!

Oh, and did I mention that Amy "The Fiddler" McNally will be there, too?

So here are two requests from me, if you would be so kind. First, take a look at the DucKon Filk Fund website, and see if there's anything there that catches your eye. They have some pretty spiffy stuff for sale, and some of it is totally not available anywhere else. Tell your friends. Help replenish the fund after they have so generously and wonderfully allowed me to bring two of my favorite people (and favorite performers) along for the ride.

Secondly, if you would be interested in being able to purchase a DVD of my DucKon concert, please take this DucKon survey indicating your willingness to acquire such a thing. The Filk Fund is willing to set up a pre-order system if there's enough interest, and just to make things a little more tempting, if...

...there is sufficient interest that they make pre-orders available...
...you pre-order...
...you comment on a post I will set up for this very purpose, telling me you've pre-ordered...

...I will include your name in a random drawing. The winner of this drawing will be emailed with the list of songs that we have prepared to play together, and allowed to pick a song. That song WILL be in the set list. So not only do you get the DVD, you know for sure that your favorite will be on there.

Thank you buckets.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trust me.

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

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

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

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

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

Whee!

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

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

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

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

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

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

June.
June is Duckon! The convention where you can see me and Jim Butcher duke it out over...well, whatever the programming division tells us to duke it out over. The convention where you can catch me, Vixy, and Tony all on stage at the same time! The convention where you can watch me perplex my handlers by demanding to walk to 7-11 every morning! This is going to be such a blast.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whee!

Yesterday, I...

...did a lot of fussing about, did a lot of reasonably important (if not entirely time-sensitive) email inbox cleanup, did some work on The Brightest Fell, and finally, attended a multi-hour rehearsal to get ready for my Guest of Honor concert at Conflikt II, as well as the house concert that I'm going to be performing in tomorrow night. If you're even remotely local, and have been considering attending either event, I highly recommend it. If you've never seen me live before, here's a nice quote from one of the conventions I've been featured at:

"Seanan wraps together deep, poetic lyrics and complex melodies, a soaring voice, and an exhilarating hold-nothing-back performance style."

See? Isn't that sweet? The house concert is actually a Vixy & Tony gig to which I have kindly been invited, and we're going to be doing some awesome stuff. We finally hit 'Tanglewood Tree' (a Dave Carter cover) at exactly the right angle last night. When I have tears in my eyes at the end of a rehearsal, that's when you know that you're doin' it right. And the convention, of course, is going to be one of my usual 'but what if we threw a concert and everybody came extravaganzas. I'm even packing the prom dress. Just in case.

Today, I...

...got out of bed, sat down, and wrote the first song of 2009 ('My Story Is Not Done'). To quote the lyrics:

I was born into a fairy tale,
Cinderella's dust-bin daughter.
Seemed like I was meant to fail,
Turning wine back into water,

Mama's slippers shattered when
She turned around to run,
But I never thought that mattered and
My story is not done.

My brain, ladies and gentlemen. Studies are even now underway. That done, I wrote three poems, updated my 'Velveteen vs.' continuity guide, and processed some edits to The Brightest Fell, which I'll get back to just as soon as I finish this entry. Once Fishy wakes up (allowing me access to my suitcase), I'll be getting dressed and going out for lunch with the wonderful folks from Team Seattle. And tonight, of course, we're rehearsing one more time for tomorrow's concert, in a setting which I have been promised will provide both ice cream and kittens. My life, so hard.

Tomorrow, I...

...will be appearing in the house concert I've been nattering on about so much above. Because love means never having to listen to me talk about one thing for all that long.

Hope everything is awesome in the worlds of you -- what's going on?

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

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

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

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

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

May.
May will find me attending BayCon -- my second-ever BayCon as an actual working novelist. I intend to wander around giggling hysterically and looking starry-eyed. It's fun!

June.
June is Duckon! The convention where you can see me and Jim Butcher duke it out over...well, whatever the programming division tells us to duke it out over. The convention where you can catch me, Vixy, and Tony all on stage at the same time! The convention where you can watch me perplex my handlers by demanding to walk to 7-11 every morning! This is going to be such a blast.

July.
Oh sweet, sweet San Diego ComiCon, how I've missed you. How I've longed for you. And how happy I am that I finally get to come back to you this year. I promise I will never leave you again.

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

September.
Nothing yet. But it's a long way away, and the universe likes to toy with me. Watch this space for developments.

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

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

December.
Sleep.

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

Whee!