Point the first: If you are a member of Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, who joined before January 31, 2012, you are eligible to submit a nomination ballot for the 2012 Hugo Awards. The nomination deadline is now less than a month away. Please, please, consider nominating for the Hugos if you are eligible to do so. (Note: This is not the same as saying "please nominate me." The ballots are secret, and you can nominate whatever you damn well want. Nominate the best things you saw in 2011.) If you are not eligible to nominate, remember that buying a supporting membership now means you will receive the electronic voter packet, and be eligible to vote on the final ballot.

Point the second: If you're wondering who is or is not eligible, many authors have made convenient posts delineating their eligibility. My eligible works are listed here. Because I am occasionally lazy and do not want to do work that other people have already done for me, I wish to direct you to this fabulously hysterical post by Jim Hines, which helpfully links to a bunch of "what I am eligible for" posts by other people. Sometimes my laziness gives me an excuse to expose others to awesome. My life, so hard.

Point the third: As you know, I watch a lot of television, and hence often have very strong feelings about the Best Dramatic Short Form category (there's a shocker). I sometimes feel like American science fiction television winds up at a disadvantage compared to UK television, not because it's bad, but because the seasons are so much longer that it's far easier for us to "split the vote" during the nomination period, resulting in a ballot with three episodes of Doctor Who and nothing from, say, Fringe, which I would only love more if the producers started arranging for cupcake deliveries to my house every time there was a new episode. (Seriously, the episode "Peter" from season two should have been on last year's ballot, with bells on. It was sheer genius.) So I am asking you, as people who may not watch quite so much television, to consider a specific work for the 2012 ballot.

Specifically, I am asking you to consider Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension, which is within the length-limit for the short form category. It's real science fiction, folks, seriously. Only with songs and a secret agent platypus. This show is inspiring the science fiction fans of tomorrow in a way that very little else currently is, and it inspires me, daily. You can view the whole thing on Netflicks; it re-runs regularly on Disney and Disney XD; and it's available on DVD. Please, if you haven't seen it already, give it a gander, and consider whether it might be worthy of your nomination.

"Every day is such a dream
When you start it with a monotreme..."

—from "Everything's Better With Perry."

I've had a few people emailing me recently, asking questions I can't answer, over and over again. Not "what is the solution to the Riemann Hypothesis?", which is a question I can't answer because I'm not a math genius. Questions like "How long has Tybalt been in love with Toby? Why isn't he courting her?" and "Who are Quentin's parents?" Questions that relate to my books, but are not about things that have yet happened in my books, or about the background of the world. I can explain Cait Sidhe biology until the cows come home. I cannot, at this time, tell you who Amandine's mother is.

And this is a problem for me.

I like answering mail. I'm incredibly slow about it, because I have a thousand other things I need to be doing at the same time, and a message that just says "thanks for writing books" but isn't from a teenager or asking questions may just be smiled at and tucked into my files. At the same time, these questions make me dread opening my inbox.

How do I say "no" without coming off as an arrogant bitch? How do I explain that these are questions I can't answer, because it isn't fair to all the readers who didn't ask me? And most of all, how do I explain that I can't answer because I don't want to lie to you?

Things change. As far as I'm concerned, if something isn't in a book that you can buy on the shelf, it isn't set in stone. I mean that literally: while there have been very, very few last-minute changes, there have been at least two instances where the ARC came out, I did my ceremonial "I will now read the ARC to see how it feels as a book," and have then called my publisher in tears, begging that something be fixed. Even the ARCs can change. If you had asked me who the important characters in the Toby series were going to be before the first book came out, my list would not have included Quentin, Raj, April, Walther, Etienne, or Danny. Danny actually didn't exist until after Rosemary and Rue had been purchased by DAW.

If I say "oh, don't worry, X is happening in book Y," there's a good chance I'm wrong. The original villain of One Salt Sea isn't in the book. At all. The original first chapter of An Artificial Night didn't even make it to my publisher. And those are just the examples I can give that don't come with associated spoilers.

It's really difficult. I have a lot of trouble navigating these questions, and no matter what I say, I wind up feeling like I'm being mean. I'm not, really. I just don't want to spoil any surprises, and I definitely don't want to tell any accidental lies. So please, don't ask those questions. I can't answer them, and it makes me want to cry when they just keep coming.

Bah. Writing is hard.

Hello, internet world!

I have a short story that I'm intending to offer as a free download early next year, to celebrate the release of Discount Armageddon. This means I need the story to be in e-pub format. Anybody got the technical skills to make this for to go? I'll be your best friend, or something (or send you a book, whatever).

It's a pretty short story, about 7,000 words, and will have a cover and an internal dingbat for dividing sections.

ETA: While I appreciate the suggestions, if I had the time to do this myself right now, I would. I do not have time, so I am asking for help. Please stop suggesting ways for me to do it for myself.

1. It's Saturday! Which means no day job for me, and twice the word count! DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT. I got up at 8AM (for me, that's sleeping in), watched Criminal Minds while I ate breakfast, wrote and edited for a few hours, watched Criminal Minds while I ate lunch, took a shower, did 5 Things A Room, and now I'm getting ready to head for Borderlands. By arriving several hours before the event, I'll have time to, you guessed it, work.

2. "5 Things A Room" is where I go through the four rooms that contain the majority of my stuff and de-clutter five things, by either putting them away, throwing them away, or shifting them to another room. (Sometimes shifted things can't be put away immediately, due to other things being in the way. This is the issue with having a very, very cluttered house.)

3. Mom and I will be packing the next huge wave of shirts to mail tomorrow; the goal is to get them all packaged for mailing. Before you get too excited: our most recent pack wave revealed that there was at least one size/color/style combination which I didn't receive when I was supposed to, and was unaware was missing. The shirt shop is printing them now, but it means that not all shirts will be mailing, and that I may still be missing some combination I haven't tripped over yet. I'll keep you posted.

4. Remember that "six Velveteen stories in 2011" thing that I promised, and then had people tell me I couldn't do? Well, five of the six are now finished, and the last one will be in the bag before New Year's. So yes, I can so do six crazy superhero romps in a year. They just didn't balance out the way I thought they would.

5. If you're planning to go Black Friday shopping, can you drop me a line and let me know? I'm not going to be shopping that day, but there are supposed to be some new Monster High dolls releasing for the holiday, and I'd really appreciate if you could look for them for me.

6. Zombies are love.

7. There's a lot of shifting and shaking going on at Marvel Comics. The fabulous X-23 has been canceled, which just plain breaks my heart, and I'm not sure what I think of some of the narrative choices being made. I'll stick it out—I'm me—but I'm a little sad all the same.

8. Wilde Imagination is supposed to be announcing a new resin Evangeline Ghastly at IDEX in January. I know, this is relevant to like, three of you, but it's relevant to me. I really want a resin Evangeline, and the last several have been totally unappealing to me. Here's hoping the new one will be as awesome as Cemetery Wedding, which I have thus far been unable to obtain.

9. I'm getting ready to head into the city for the Narbonic Perfect Collection launch party. If you're local, I really do hope to see you there, and if you're not, remember, the bookstore ships.

10. The cats are possessed by demons today, and are following me through the house trilling and fluffing their tails (except for Lilly, who just squawks like she has a duck stuck in her throat). So if I'm never heard from again, it's because they ate me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Please don't ask me when book six is coming out. I may cry. Plus, the answer is September 2012.

Whee!

Well, here we are. One Salt Sea comes out in one week, exactly. If past trends hold true*, people will begin reporting sightings in the wild any day now. This will either cause me to clap my hands, cry, hyperventilate, or all of the above. Safe money is, as always, on "all of the above." And so here are seven things you can do to help with this book release!

7. Talk about the book. Are you excited that it's coming? Awesome. Are you excited about the series as a whole? Awesome. Do you plan to use One Salt Sea to fuel your world-buster cannon? Rock on. Word-of-mouth is the best advertising there is.

6. Review the book. Do it on your blog, on Amazon, on Goodreads, wherever you feel comfortable. Reviews help more than almost anything else. (But please, please, do not send me copies of your Amazon reviews. I try to avoid that particular pitcher plant of pain.)

5. Loan copies of Rosemary and Rue to people you think might be interested. The first hit's free!

4. Do not poke at me with sharp, sharp sticks. I am a very thinly-stretched blonde right now, on account of book release and all, and I am neither fast to respond nor particularly well-suited to being jabbed at. Please, be gentle, and understand that right now, you're looking at a longer than normal response time.

3. I love fan mail, and I respond to everything I get, although it can sometimes take a while. Please don't get upset if I don't answer right away.

2. Also? Please don't ask for kitten pictures. Seriously.

1. And the number-one thing you can do to help One Salt Sea have a successful launch is...buy the book. Please, please, buy the book. During the first on-sale week if you possibly can (September 6th through 12th), because that's the week that counts against all the bestseller lists. Making those lists is a long shot, but a girl's gotta dream, right? So if you're planning to buy the book, please, go out and do it. Let's see if we can hit the NYT.

If we do, I promise to faint.

(*Past trends may not hold true. Traditionally, early copies have been spotted at Borders, and Borders is gone. I actually dare to hope that my on-sale date may be accurate this time. That said, I've heard unconfirmed reports of early copies found at Books-A-Million.)

So here's the deal. I have two websites, and I maintain them both myself, manually. That means nothing changes unless I go in and change it. The sites are here:

http://www.seananmcguire.com/
http://miragrant.com/

Parts of these sites are quite out of date, because I have been a busy little bee. We are thus going to play a little game.

Step 1: Go to my website. Either one.
Step 2: Poke around until you see something that could use improvement. A typo, a missing link, an unclear question on the FAQ, even a missing question on the FAQ. (Pages that aren't linked at all, like the Field Guide, or don't exist, don't count. Those are future improvements, not current issues.
Step 3: Post here, suggesting a correction/update.
Step 4: Step away from the website.

I will be making updates and corrections, partially based on this post, for the next week. On Friday, I will use our friend, random number generator, to choose a winner of an ARC of One Salt Sea (US-only, unless you can help with postage). No matter what, everybody benefits, since the end result should be an easier-to-use website.

Game on!

Remember when Feed was named one of NPR's Top 100 Killer Thrillers? So do I. Good times, my friends, good times.

Now NPR is looking for the Top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy Titles. And the Newsflesh trilogy, by Mira Grant, is on the list.

To be fair, this is a popularity contest. Some amazing books are missing. There's a heavy bias toward titles published in the last five years. But still. Wouldn't it be nice to make the list?

Go ye forth, and vote!

Today is July 31st; voting for the 2011 Hugo Awards closes today.

The details on the awards can be found here; you must be an attending or supporting member of Renovation to vote. And yes, at this point, it's probably too late to buy a membership just so you can vote.

As anyone seeing this post is probably aware, Feed is up for this year's Best Novel Award. And yes, I would like to win. Who wouldn't? But more, I would like to look at the voting results when all is said and done and go "wow, we had a record voter turn out; more members of the community shared their opinions than ever before, and most of them thought that X, or Y, or Z was a better book than mine." I mean. I want the Hugo. Who gets nominated for one of these things and doesn't want it? If I win, I will have Kate knit little hats for it, and probably carry it around for a month, just so everyone can see it. I will take pictures of my Hugo in ridiculous places. But I want whoever gets the Hugo to get it fairly, and because everyone voted.

If you have the right to vote in this particular pool, please, remember that today is your cutoff. If you want to influence the 2011 Hugo Awards, this is where it has to happen.

Thank you.

I'm tired.

I don't mean "Seanan needs a nap." I mean "crying at the slightest provocation, reciting primes to keep myself motivated to finish taking a shower, ready to curl up in a ball and die." So please. I am begging you here. I mean literally, I'm begging. Please...

...don't email me and then get angry when you don't get an instantaneous reply.

...don't ask why you can't have the next book NOW RIGHT NOW. I mean, unless your goal is seeing me cry. In that case, knock yourself out.

...don't tell me I'm neglecting my friends/social life/sanity when I don't come to your party. You know what? I know I'm neglecting those things. You know what else? I don't have a choice right now. I'm sorry. I wish I did. But I don't.

I am out of go. My candle is burning at both ends, and starting to melt in the middle. So handle me gently, do not prod me with sticks, and do not tell me I need to "take time for me." If the time existed, I would take it. It doesn't exist for me to take.

I'm tired.

In the interests of not turning a PSA into another source of stress, I will not be answering comments on this entry. Thank you for understanding.

Ladies and gentlemen of the 2011 World Science Fiction Convention membership...have you remembered to cast your vote for this year's Hugo Awards? Because if you haven't, you're sort of running out of time; July 31st is your last day to vote.

I am reasonably sure that each and every person on that ballot wants to win. I am no different. But almost as much as I want to win, I want to know that if I lose, it will be because every possible voter looked at the works up for consideration, looked at their ballot, and made their choice fairly and well. I want you all to vote. I want to lose because I lost, not because there was a sale at Ben and Jerry's and we all got rightfully distracted because dude, ice cream.

Please. If you are eligible to vote, it has never been easier to get a clear view of the entire ballot. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Hugo committee, we have an electronic voting package that is a bibliophile's dream; you can read and consider absolutely everything that's asking for your vote. And if you're not a member yet, but were thinking about it, you can still register with full voting rights if you do it soon.

Make this year's Hugo winners the ones you think deserve those shiny rocket ships.

Vote.

Thanks to everyone for your kind words and support leading up to the release of Deadline, the second book in the Newsflesh trilogy. I'm both excited and terrified about the idea of this book hitting shelves. I'm also about to go mostly offline—yes, even more than I have been since I left for New York—as I attend Wiscon, in Madison, Wisconsin. So here is the obligatory "ways you can help this be awesome, or at least non-traumatic."

Buy the book.
For bonus points, buy the book on or after Tuesday, when it is officially in stores. Any copies purchased before the release date don't count against my first week numbers, and those are the numbers that get a person onto the New York Times list. I would like to make the print list. I would have it framed, and then carry a picture of the framed list to show to anyone who says that girls don't like zombies. It would be brilliant. So please, buy the book, and if you can make yourself hold out, buy it once it's actually supposed to be on that shelf.

Write a review.
Amazon, Good Reads, your own personal blog, wherever. Word of mouth counts for a lot, especially during release week, and having reviews reminds people that a thing is worth reviewing, if that makes sense. I'm not saying "only post good reviews," because dude. But any review would be awesome.

Check your local library.
Most library systems allow you to request that they carry books. This is one of them.

Rise up while you can.
We only fail if we're afraid.

We have reached the last round of the BSC Review Book Tournament. It has been a hard battle; Toby has faced both strangers and friends on the road to the finals, and now only Springheel Jack stands between her and victory.

Springheel Jack is technically a monster. Toby knows what to do with those.

So go forth! A vote for Toby is a vote for a world where the monsters don't eat us in our beds!

Seriously, though, if you could take a moment to vote, I would appreciate it. Toby and I are both counting on you, and right now, we're losing.

To victory!

Hey, gang:

Just a quick reminder to let you know that I will be at the Borders Books and Music in Roseville, California from one to four tomorrow afternoon. The store has made sure to get in copies of all my books, including the distressingly elusive A Local Habitation, and I'll have interesting things for show-and-tell, like copies of the German A Local Habitation, and cover flats of One Salt Sea.

The store address is:

Borders #130
2030 Douglas Blvd, Suite #9
Roseville, CA 95661

Big bookstore signings are always sort of hit or miss, and I hate it when I wind up sitting alone, trying not to stare at the shoppers like a hungry pug tied up outside the window of Starbucks. Please come and save me from the terror of having my eyes bulge out of my head with boredom. (I am excited to be appearing at this Borders, mind; I've never been there before, and it's an excuse to drive to Sacramento, which my perverse little soul regards as "fun.")

Hope to see you there!

Remember last week, when I was all "let's get ready to rumble," because the BSC Book Tournament was getting underway, and Toby needed help to stay in the game? Well, your help totally helped, because Toby CRUSHED her competition, taking 93% of the vote. Wowie!

That means she's moving on to Round Two in the competition, where she's going up against Imager's Intrigue by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. Again, I haven't read the book she's pitted against, but I'm sure it's awesome if it managed to win its previous round.

So here is my plea: please, go, vote! Keep Toby from getting her ass kicked on the literary playground as things get ugly! Victory is just a (whole bunch of...) click away.

GO TOBY GO!

It's that time again: that time when the air is sweet, the daffodils are blooming, and a young girl's fancy turns to thoughts of BLOODY INTERNET SMACKDOWNS. Specifically, it's time once again for the BSC Review Book Tournament, wherein books published during the last year BEAT THE HOLY CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER for your amusement. See how much we love you?

Currently, An Artificial Night is up in the first round of the Westeros Bracket, and Toby needs your help! She's up against Wizard Squared by K. E. Mills (which I have not read, but which I am sure is a fabulous book in its own right), and if you don't step in, she could get schooled.

So come on! Let's indulge in some good, old-fashioned schoolyard brawling. Because it's fun.

I am so easily pleased sometimes.

You all remember sweet little Rosie Marshall, the girl who crashed and burned on Sparrow Hill Road, don't you? Well, Rose's story is done now, but that doesn't mean that there aren't pieces missing.

I'm in the process of taking the twelve stories written during 2010 and turning them into a single episodic narrative. This is basically the "novel length" Sparrow Hill, and like any good expansion, it needs a little bonus content. So.

I need one more story to tell; one more episode or incident from Rose's world. It can be a flashback, but I should be able to fit it somewhere in the middle of the overall narrative—so before "Faithfully" and "Thunder Road," but somewhere after "Last Dance With Mary Jane."

What do you want to see? I can't promise to take your request in specific, but if you tell me where you think the holes are, there's a chance I can fill the one that's most important to you.

So wow. February is more than halfway over, and I'm trying to clean everything up on my end of things, in the hopes that doing so will enable me to, you know, accomplish something for a change. Because I've just been sitting around doing nothing up until now. So...

1. All the damaged Wicked Girls CDs have been claimed, although some are still pending payment. It's highly unlikely that any more damaged CDs will show up; Mom and I have checked the boxes thoroughly at this point, and it looks like the unpleasant surprises are over. Thank the Great Pumpkin.

2. I am mailing the last of the paid-for "Wicked Girls" posters tomorrow. This means that, if you are waiting for a poster, you should have it in approximately a week (all the posters being mailed are going to US addresses). If you have requested a poster but not yet paid for it, you have ten days before I delete your name from the list, and release any held numbers back into the wild. If you're not sure whether you've paid or not, you can always contact me.

3. I'm going to be setting up my final pre-release giveaways over the next week or so. Finances are forcing me to restrict them to US addresses/international addresses only if you're willing to pay for postage. I'm really sorry about that. It's just that it costs me approximately three dollars to mail a book inside the US, and outside gets very spendy, very fast. Specific rules to come.

4. I'll doubtless be saying more about this later, but as we're getting into the period where people start getting excited about Deadline: I do not have ARCs. I am not going to have ARCs. Please don't ask me for them, please don't comment on other giveaway posts saying you'd take an ARC of Deadline instead of the stated prize, just please, please, don't. There are no ARCs of this book. I'm not holding out on you, I just don't got the goods.

...and that's our administrative junk for the night. Join me next week, when "administrative junk" will probably include port and drunkenly yelling at my rambunctious kitten.

With two books coming out soon (and one of them being the sequel to Feed), I'm getting a lot of contacts, in a lot of forums. So here's the periodic reminder about reaching me:

1) My website has a "contact" form. Actually, both of them do. You can contact Seanan-me or Mira-me, and both of them go straight to me. I answer Seanan-mail a little faster, because it dumps into my main inbox, but either one will do the job.

2) My LJ is paid! Which means you can email me @livejournal.com. It's true! That, too, will drop you into my main inbox, which is a warm, comfortable place to be. You should try it.

3) Sending me messages through the LJ inbox, on the other hand, makes me sad inside. I'm serious. If I could block it without screwing up my comment notifications, I would. As it stands, I make absolutely no guarantees about answering you. Ever. Messages sent to inboxes I've asked not be used are the only ones I don't feel obligated to reply to.

4) The same goes for Facebook. I use Facebook to play stupid clicky games and occasionally check on my friends. I do not use it for mail. So if you send me messages there? I may never get back to you.

So seriously, if you need me? Email. Email is the ONLY WAY I can guarantee a reply. Even there, please be aware that I am about twenty feet underwater at all times right now; it may take several days, or even weeks, before I reply, unless your message is somehow time sensitive (like "Please come over here and eat this cupcake").

Thank you!

Today is Kaja Foglio's birthday! If you don't know Kaja, she's one-half of the creative team behind Girl Genius, along with her husband, the interminable Phil Foglio. Together, they won the 2010 Hugo for Best Graphic Novel. Also, they fight crime.

I'm just saying.

This month, the Foglios unleashed their unspeakable powers on a new arena: the novel. While Phil has written book-length prose before (most specifically Illegal Aliens, co-written with the awesome Nick Pollotta), this is Kaja's first foray into this particular medium. Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] is a novelization of the first two volumes of the Girl Genius graphic novel. Meaning what? Meaning that if you already read the comic, this isn't new story, per se, but it's deeper story, more intricate story. It enriches and expands on what you already know. And if you haven't read the comic, well, why not? It's available for free online. Yes, all of it. Yes, the Foglios make a living giving away their product. Why? Because it's that good.

Why am I telling you all this? Because it's Kaja's birthday, and what she asked for this year was, well, that we talk about her book. If you were considering picking up Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], why not do it today? Give Kaja a book sale for her birthday, and help the Foglios ring the bells on Amazon (or at your local independent bookseller—I note that Borderlands Books has the book in stock, as, I'm sure, do many others).

The Foglios are great people, and Agatha Heterodyne is a great book. If you like steampunk, gaslamp fantasy, wacky science, mad science, cute blonde girls in corsets, and making my friends happy, give Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] a look! Statistically speaking, if you're reading my journal, you'll probably be glad that you did.

People of the Internet, please, please, please, when you use my website contact form to get in touch with me, please include an address so I can respond to you? Sending me messages with blank "from" lines just means...

a) I can't answer, even if you ask direct questions, and
b) I get really frustrated, because I at least try to answer all my mail.

So please, please provide me with an email address so I can answer you. It makes things a lot more stressy when you don't.

Thanks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*hugging*

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

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

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

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

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

So this Saturday is going to be my very first SF in SF (Science Fiction in San Francisco), and I am both elated and terrified. This is a combination that only remains fun for short periods of time, so I'm calling on all local people to please, please come and help. How can you help? By attending.

I'll be appearing with the fantastic Deborah Grabien. There's going to be a reading, followed by a question and answer session/interview moderated by Terry Bisson. So that should be a lot of fun. The doors open at six, and there will be book sales (courtesy of Borderlands Books), as well as refreshment sales (because boozy authors are more fun than the sober kind).

The event is going to take place at The Variety Preview Room, at 582 Market Street, in the first floor of The Hobart Building. It's literally right next to the Montgomery Street BART Station, so it's totally accessible and awesome. There will be audience participation for the Q&A, and time for hanging out and signing books in the lounge before the event ends at nine-thirty.

Proceeds from the events go to the Variety Children’s Charity.

And while we're on the topic...what do you think I should read? Seanan-style writings only, please; anything by Mira Grant is off the table for this specific event.

Hope to see you there!

YOU: Sent me a copy of A Local Habitation, along with return postage and copies of your own books. Said books have since vanished into my bedroom, victim of very large, very irritated blue cats.

ME: Confused urban fantasy author baffled by the lack of a return address on the envelope containing said return postage, and really hoping that you'll see this and email me with your information, so that I can send your book away before one of the cats eats it.

EVERYONE ELSE: When sending me a book to be signed (which you should never do without asking me first, as I am sometimes really, really bad about getting to the post office, and I refuse to be yelled at if I didn't commit to a timeline), please be sure to include a piece of paper including the proper spelling of your name and your full mailing address, along with any return postage we may have agreed upon. This will really speed up the process of getting your book back to you. Unless, of course, you're just sending me spare copies of my own books, in which case, gee, thanks! I can always use more books.

ALICE: Lurks in wait, hungry for your envelopes.

I need to do some .PDF conversion for the Hugo/Campbell Voting Packet. Does anybody out there have the capacity and want to help me out? I can look endearing with the best of them, and may even be able to rustle up some sort of prize, assuming you don't mind risking receipt of, y'know, a bat-shaped hair clip or something.

Also, I'm just about done inputting the receipts for the "save a receipt, win a book" Toby contest, and should have a winner Monday. Tuesday is the official release date of Feed, so if you buy the book on or after this date, remember to save your receipt; I'll be having another contest, this one, hopefully, with less confusion on my end.

Keeping this short—Vixy and I are heading back to Kristoph's for a long, hard, glorious day of recording awesomeocity. So I'll catch you soon!

The Hugo voting packet is being assembled, and they want items from the Campbell nominees to allow voters to make a more informed choice. Since I want the tiara, I naturally want to put my best foot (and chainsaw) forward. We're submitting the first four chapters of Rosemary and Rue—what else should go in?

My bibliography is here, and up to date. It contains everything but the "Velveteen vs." series, which is archived elsewhere.

So...suggest. What should I send in? Justify your choices.

Help?

Hey, guys—

I'm currently answering questions and chatting with people over at Bitten By Books. Here's the link:

http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=21204

Please drop by, so I don't feel like I'm talking to my stuffed animal collection about how honored I am to be considered for enrollment in the Starfleet Academy?

Dear Great Pumpkin;

In the days since I last wrote to you, I have continued to be reasonably well-behaved, within the limits of my circumstances. I have comforted those who needed comfort, and refrained from feeding those who caused them to need comfort into any wood-chippers that happened to be sitting around. I have listened to the troubles of others. I have shared my ice cream, willingly, without being blackmailed. I have not summoned the slumbering Old Ones from their beds beneath the Pacific, or commanded them to destroy all humans. I have continued to make all my deadlines, even the ones I most wanted to avoid. I have not talked about pandemics at the dinner table. Much. So obviously, I have been quite well-behaved, especially considering my nature.

Today, Great Pumpkin, I am asking for the following gifts:

* A smooth and successful release for A Local Habitation, with books shipping when they're meant to ship, stores putting them out when they're supposed to put them out, and reviews that are accurate, insightful, and capable of steering people who will enjoy my book to read it. Please, Great Pumpkin, show mercy on your loving Pumpkin Princess of the West, and let it all be wonderful. I'm not asking you to make it easy, Great Pumpkin, but I'm asking you to make it good.

* Please help me finish Deadline in a satisfying, explosive, timely way, hopefully including lots of zombies and horrible perversions of medical science. I'm about twenty thousand words from the end of this book, which is both not nearly enough, and way too many for me to be happy about it. I want to bring this book to a close, so I can get back to work on the fifth Toby book and start working on the third Newsflesh book. What I have is good. Please let the rest be amazing.

* While I'm asking for miracles, please let the rest of The Brightest Fell suddenly come clear to me, so that I can begin working at my usual disturbingly rapid speed. I was hoping to have this book finished before A Local Habitation hits shelves. That's obviously not going to happen, which means I've already been punished for my hubris, and deserve to have things start moving again. Right, Great Pumpkin? The more time I have to spend stressing out over this book, the less time I spend preaching your gospel to the unenlightened, or lurking in corn mazes scaring the living crap out of tourists. You like it when I scare the crap out of tourists, don't you, Great Pumpkin?

* My cats are fantastic, Great Pumpkin, and I'm so very grateful. Alice is huge now, and has truly grown into her birthright as your spiritual, if not literal, daughter. When she runs through the house, it's like watching a burning cornfield through thick smoke. Lilly is smug and satisfied, as is only right and proper for a Siamese, and watches her sister with easy disdain. Please let them stay healthy, Great Pumpkin, and please let them stay exactly as they are. I couldn't be more appreciative of their glory.

* Well-staggered and easily-managed deadlines for my various anthology and short story projects through the next six months—and while I'm making requests, please let me keep getting anthology invitations, as they are sort of the ultimate literary trick-or-treat adventure. I have written you two of the three short stories with the Fighting Pumpkins cheerleading squad that I originally promised, and I'm planning the origin stories for Hailey and Scaredy for this Halloween. I keep my promises. Now please keep giving me reason to promise you things.

* A successful launch for Mira Grant, my evil twin, Lady of the Haunted Cornfield, Halloween Trick to my Halloween Treat. The books I will be publishing under her name are incredibly dear to me, and I hope and pray that they become equally dear to the rest of the world. I am an old-school horror girl, Great Pumpkin, and these are my offerings to the holy genre. Let others love them as I do, and let Mira be welcomed by the readers with open, eager arms. I want to conquer the world in your name, and this is a very important step.

I remain your faithful Halloween girl,
Seanan.

PS: While you're at it, can you please turn your graces on InCryptid? I really love these books. I want to be able to write more of them.

Mary Robinette Kowal—who is fantastic and awesome and incidentally, the person reading the Toby Daye audio books, which means hers is a voice I'm going to be hearing quite a lot of—made a blog post previewing the upcoming fantasy movies of 2010. It's a good post, which is no surprise, since she's a good author and a great lady. But one line, talking about Disney's upcoming Rapunzel, sort of hit me the wrong way:

"Hey! Disney's doing another classic fairy tale. While I could wish that the princess here weren't your cliche blond, I also have to acknowledge that this is true to the Brothers Grimm story."

I'm blonde. This is a choice now, since I'm old enough to dye my hair, but when I was first forming my self-image, it was just a biological reality. I've spent my entire life being bombarded with Barbie and bimbo stereotypes, from Kelly Bundy on Married...With Children to an endless procession of evil stepmothers and nasty girlfriends on the silver screen. That wasn't always the case; "America's sweethearts" used to be almost exclusively blonde girls, who might not be smart or independent, but they were plucky and beautiful and they got the guy, so hey, let's rock with that, okay? But the age of the blonde as leading lady ended before I was born, and except for Barbie—who seems to be basically unkillable—it hasn't really shown much sign of coming back. Gwen Stacy was replaced by Mary Jane. Supergirl's comic got canceled on a regular basis. Maybe it's because all the science fiction I watched was supposed to be about the male hero, so they didn't want to make the women too "flashy," but all the smart, interesting, active women on television seemed to be brunette...unless they were all about their sexy hot bodies of sexy hotness, in which case, they could be blonde, but don't forget, unless you're hot and blonde, you don't count.

Growing up, I was able to find exactly three smart, blonde, accessible fictional characters to idolize as role models: Marilyn Munster from The Munsters, Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four, and Terra of the Teen Titans. Terra eventually turned out to be totally evil (and hence got dropped from the list), only to be replaced by Illyana Rasputin, who...promptly died. Whoops. Marilyn and Sue endured, and even if Sue was occasionally a soccer mom, they remained blonde and awesome. (Marilyn was also the first firm indication I got that it was okay to like monsters and frilly pink dresses. I owe a lot to Marilyn Munster.) Like every kid, I wanted some reassurance that I was okay the way I was, and a lot of what I got from the media was that I would only be okay if I either suffered severe head trauma or dyed my hair.

This? Sucked.

The ongoing transition of the blonde from girl-next-door and America's sweetheart has continued, and now she's not just the bimbo, she's the bad guy. I started making lists of movies and television shows with blonde characters, and nine times out of ten, if you have a blonde at all, she's evil. If she's not evil, the bad guy? Is also blonde. Movies that break this trend: Legally Blonde (where all the blondes are presented as well-meaning ditzes who are smart despite the satin-finish manicures, or dumb but sweet), and Jennifer's Body (where Needy is Hollywood ugly-pretty, and plays the foil to an evil brunette sexpot). There are more blondes on television (thank you, Veronica Mars, thank you), but they're still very rare in-genre, and there, they're usually cannon fodder.

And then there are the princesses. See, the reason this comment bothered me in the first place is that I've heard it before, many times. "Oh, at least Disney's new princess isn't blonde." "Oh, it looks insipid, but at least the princess isn't blonde." Well, excluding animals (so Nala doesn't count), there have been four blonde Disney protagonists: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Alice, and Eilonwy. Oh, and Tinker Bell, who sort of exists in her own little bubble. The most recent of these characters, Eilonwy, was created in 1985, when The Black Cauldron flopped at a theater near you. Prior to that, we had Sleeping Beauty in 1959. Princesses/protagonists in the last twenty years have been brunette (Belle, Jane), black haired (Jasmine, Pocahontas, Esmerelda, Mulan, Lilo, Nani, Tiana), redheads (Megara), or white haired (Kida). (Ariel just misses this cut, as The Little Mermaid came out in 1989. Redheads are really under-represented, by the way, unless you count Giselle from Enchanted and Penny from Bolt, and then they just wind up in the boat with the blondes.)

Blonde girls deserve a smart, savvy, modern Disney princess with agency. We didn't use up all our princesses when we got Cinderella and Aurora, and the fact that they left Alice blonde doesn't make up for turning Dorothy brunette. So instead of wishing this princess weren't blonde, how about we say "yay, about time," and keep making it okay for blonde girls to be smart, just like everybody else?

So as you may have noticed, I love FAQs. I love writing them, I love updating them, and I love pointing people to them. With that in mind, we come to our second giveaway for the day:

Here is the current October Daye FAQ. You may notice that it's pretty sparse. That's why I'm turning to you, my best-beloved people who live free things, to ask for more questions. Be creative, be specific, be general, be pedantic, be whatever makes you happy, but ask questions.

I will be adding the best questions to the FAQ. I will also be selecting two winners from out those questions. One will receive a signed copy of Rosemary and Rue (and if you already have one, I can send a copy to your local high school or library).

One will receive a signed ARC of A Local Habitation.

I'll take entries until tomorrow morning. Now please, please, question me! Get rewarded! Flesh out my website! I'll be your bestest blonde if you will...

Or, well, a message from one of my many editors. In this case, Jennifer Brozek, one of the editors from Grants Pass:

"Members of the HWA may recommend the anthology "Grants Pass" edited by Amanda Pillar and Jennifer Brozek to the Stoker Committee for its consideration in the anthology category. It is currently tied for sixth place. The short list has only five slots. We need at least three more recommendations to get into that top five nominations. Active and Associate HWA members may recommend, while only Active HWA members may vote in the final ballot. I am happy to send out a PDF of the GRANTS PASS anthology for HWA members' consideration. All recommendations must be received by January 15th on the official HWA site."

So there you go. If you belong to the Horror Writers of America, and would like to consider Grants Pass for inclusion on the Stoker ballot, please feel free to contact jennifer_brozek to request a .PDF of the book. It really is an excellent anthology, and I had a fantastic time with my story ("Animal Husbandry," which involves plague).

Thanks, all.

I need to design a graphic family tree for the InCryptid books, since family is such a central (and unavoidable) concept. Does anybody have any recommendations for ways to do this, or want to help me by putting a tree together? I won't promise to be your best friend, but I will look endearing and mention you in the acknowledgments...

So as I sit here, a safe seven months from my release date, I'm watching various friends and acquaintances as they madly dance through the steps required to promote and advertise a new book. It's important, especially for newer authors, to do something beyond just saying 'I have written a book and my mommy says it's awesome' when they have something hitting the shelves. (Although 'I have written a book and Seanan's mommy says it's awesome' seems to carry a surprising amount of weight for everyone but me. Does anybody else out there have a tattooed, foul-mouthed mother who'd be willing to fill that particular role for me?)

So the question becomes, what works? Book giveaways are obviously good things, but also somewhat self-limiting, as I sort of want people to buy things. (Oddly enough, I don't feel like earning back my advance all by myself.) Competitions are also good, providing the prizes are interesting -- and heck, prizes are just lovely things to offer. So what do you think would be a good idea? What kinds of promotion would you like to see? We have seven months to put even the strangest of plans into motion, so sing out!

Operators are standing by.

All right, so here's the thing:

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

But.

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

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

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

You'd miss them if they were gone.

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

So we've been working for a while now -- and by 'we,' I mean taraoshea and porpentine -- at giving my website a total overhaul. Because of the way my brain works (which is not like your Earth brains), this means Tara designs the new graphics and layout, Chris implements them, and then I start doing the new site text, because I can't 'see' where the new text should go until I have the old text in place on the shiny new layout. So poor Chris is going to do a huge amount of heavy lifting and then immediately get hammered with textual updates. Feel for him.

In an effort to keep him from killing me, I figure I should start prepping some of the text now, while I still have a little wiggle room. So I present to you...

What goes into my FAQ?

Obviously, there needs to be a section on filk, as well as the absolutely required section on writing. What do you want to see there? What makes sense? What have you always wanted to know, but been afraid to ask? What have you put into your own FAQs?

Help me keep Chris from killing me.