To celebrate the release of Magic For Nothing, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book. Judging by the comments I'm seeing, some of you have had time, and I'd really, really rather book discussion (sometimes including spoilers) didn't crop up on other posts.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned. (I will not reply to every comment; I call partial comment amnesty. But I may well join some of the discussion, or answer questions or whatnot.) I will be DELETING all comments containing spoilers which have been left on other posts. No one gets to spoil people here without a label.

You can also start a discussion at my website forums, with less need to be concerned that I will see everything you say! In case you wanted, you know, discussion free of authorial influence, since I always wind up getting involved in these things.

Have fun, and try not to bleed on the carpet.

Here we go again.

So it's no secret around here that I love, love, love my DAW covers, or that showing them off is one of my true pure joys in life. Aly Fell, the artist who does the art for the InCryptid books, has been hugely involved in setting the look of the series, and he just keeps on getting better. Want proof?

Go ahead. Take a peek.

( Cut-tagged for the protection of your friends' list, which really doesn't need something this huge suddenly showing up without warning. But trust me, you should totally click.Collapse )

It's time for some free fiction, and for checking in on Verity and Dominic as they continue their trip from New York to Oregon, with plenty of stops along the way. They've managed to get out of Buckley Township, Michigan with no casualties, and that means they deserve a break, right? It's time for a vacation.

It's time to visit scenic Las Vegas, Nevada.

Now, most of the time, I sort of throw things out and let y'all do with them as you will, but in this specific case, I ask that you please catch up on any previous road trip stories you may have missed before reading onward in the timeline. Because this is a party you want your invitation to.

There's gonna be cake.

You can download the new story now from the InCryptid short fiction page. Please download and save to read locally, rather than trying to read on my poor server.

This also serves as your discussion post.

Sometimes sitting on news is hard.

I mean, part of my job involves not telling people things until I'm given permission. I'm bad at remembering who I've said what to, and so usually, I just tell people everything, sometimes eleven times; that isn't always an option these days. I have to accept that it's not lying when I refuse to talk about embargoed information. Sometimes I have to accept that it's not lying even when it is, when people go "hey, do you know anything about ________?" and then respond to "I'm not allowed to say" with a smug grin and a "that means yes!"

Silence doesn't always mean "yes," but sometimes people thinking they've tricked me into saying something one way or another can mean that the thing doesn't happen, because now I've run my mouth off and can't be trusted and so I'm off the project. So I sit on news, and I say nothing whenever possible, and I tell absence of information lies when I'm backed into a corner, and I twitch a lot.

Here's my latest point of twitchy goodness:

HOLY SHIT Y'ALL I'M A SPECIAL GUEST AT THE 2016 SAN DIEGO INTERNATIONAL COMIC-CON!!!!!!!!

Me! A Special Guest! At the con I've been attending since I was sixteen! Me! I AM A FANCY LADY AND I AM MAKING A NOISE THAT ONLY BATS CAN HEAR!!!

Sitting on this one was hard. But wow, was it worth it.

To celebrate the release of Chaos Choreography, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book. Judging by the comments I'm seeing, some of you have had time, and I'd really, really rather book discussion (sometimes including spoilers) didn't crop up on other posts.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned. (I will not reply to every comment; I call partial comment amnesty. But I may well join some of the discussion, or answer questions or whatnot.) I will be DELETING all comments containing spoilers which have been left on other posts. No one gets to spoil people here without a label.

You can also start a discussion at my website forums, with less need to be concerned that I will see everything you say! In case you wanted, you know, discussion free of authorial influence, since I always wind up getting involved in these things.

Have fun, and try not to bleed on the carpet.

It's time for some free fiction, and for checking in on Verity and Dominic as they continue their trip from New York to Oregon, with plenty of stops along the way. They've weathered their time at the Carmichael Hotel with no fatalities. So where to next?

Why, back to Buckley Township, Michigan.

No tour of the history of the American Price family would be complete without a stop in Buckley. That's where Enid and Alexander settled down; where Jonathan brought home the Fabulous Fran, Star of New Mexico; where Alice Healy met Thomas Price. That's where it began.

It isn't where it ended.

You can download the new story now from the InCryptid short fiction page. Please download and save to read locally, rather than trying to read on my poor server.

This also serves as your discussion post.

I love Kelley Armstrong. I mean, I've only met the actual human being Kelley Armstrong a few times, so I guess what I feel for the real person is strong affection tempered with professional respect, but her work? Her work, I love. So when I was offered the opportunity to co-write a story with her, I died a little bit. Of joy.

Announcing the Urban Allies anthology.

Kelley and I co-wrote a story called "Tailed," in which Verity Price meets Elena Michaels while both are investigating strange events in a New York forest. VERITY MEETS ELENA, Y'ALL. My protagonist and her protagonist kicking ass not...well, not together, exactly, but very close to one another. I'm so excited.

The story itself is non-canon, because reasons, but we had a great time writing it, and Sarah is there being snarky, and it's just amazing, all told. I am so pleased.

July!

Psst. C'mere.

So it's no secret around here that I love, love, love my DAW covers, or that showing them off is one of my true pure joys in life. Aly Fell, the artist who does the art for the InCryptid books, is incredible at capturing and presenting these characters. Want proof?

Go ahead. Take a peek.

( Cut-tagged for the protection of your friends' list, which really doesn't need something this huge suddenly showing up without warning. But trust me, you should totally click.Collapse )

As of today, Pocket Apocalypse 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 week, 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 tomorrow, get the book; if you can get it at my book release party later this month, 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 during release week, 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, and I have never forgotten it. 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 believe 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 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 pressure 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 and talking mice. 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 things. 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 and final edits due on Chimera, a lot of things are falling by the wayside. Like sleep.

If you're in the Bay Area, I hope to see you next Friday night at Borderlands Books, where I will be reading, signing, and running a raffle for your enjoyment!

Whee!

Psst. C'mere.

So it's no secret around here that I love, love, love my DAW covers, or that showing them off is one of my true pure joys in life. Aly Fell, who designs the covers for the InCryptid books, has been everything I could have hoped for in a cover artist. He's incredible. Want proof?

Go ahead. Take a peek.

( Cut-tagged for the protection of your friends' list, which really doesn't need something this huge suddenly showing up without warning. But trust me, you should totally click.Collapse )

Jonathan Healy and Frances Brown are two of my favorite characters in the InCryptid universe. They're the great-grandparents of the current generation, they're the parents of Alice Healy (later Alice Price-Healy), and they are a joy to write about. I didn't expect to spend as much time with them as I have, but the first story focusing on their part of the timeline appeared in February 2012, and it's not over yet.

Careful readers of the free stories posted on the InCryptid short fiction page may have noticed an odd jump between "No Place Like Home" and "Married In Green," like some grand adventure was missing. Well, that's because it was.

It's not missing anymore.

"Stingers and Strangers" is available now, in the anthology Dead Man's Hand. Find out what happened in that missing stretch, and why it changed the future of the Healy family forever, in more ways than one. Also enjoy a lot more exciting weird West adventure, from some pretty awesome authors.

Dead Man's Hand is available now in the US, and May 30th in the UK. It's a really good book. I'm really thrilled to be a part of it...and more, I'm thrilled to have that missing story finally see the light of day.

We're almost to the end of the trail.

I love comics.

I have loved comics since I was very small, paging through the issues that belonged to older friends of the family (IE, the teenage and pre-teen children of my mother's friends). I was always brutally careful, and fully aware that failure to take care would result in losing my comic privileges. I essentially grew up at Flying Colors, my local comic book store. The owner, Joe, has seen me go from skinny little girl to adult woman in one-week increments, framed by trips to the quarter box and the graphic novel shelves. The idea that comics weren't for girls never occurred to me, and he's part of the reason why. I wish everyone had a local comic guy like Joe Field.

I want to write for comics. That, too, has been true since I was very small. When I first started working with my agent, Diana Fox, she asked me what I wanted out of my career. She was probably expecting "a million dollars" or something else improbable. What she got was "I want to write the X-Men." So yeah, I've been trying to find a way to start writing for comics for a while now.

I found it.

I am proud, thrilled, and terrified to announce that I have signed on with Thrillbent.com to script a new ongoing series titled The Best Thing. We don't have an artist or a release date yet, but I am so, so excited about this concept and this world, and I am going to smash things so hard. The Best Thing is to magical girl titles as Velveteen vs. is to superhero teams, and I am really hoping it lives up to its name.

I'm gonna write a comic book.

It's gonna be the best thing.

I am absolutely delighted to be able to announce that DAW has acquired the sixth and seventh books in the InCryptid series. These volumes will be narrated by the youngest member of the current Price clan, Antimony Timpany Price, and will see publication in 2017 and 2018, respectively. (2015 is Pocket Apocalypse, narrated by Alex, and 2016 is Chaos Choreography, narrated by Verity.) These books are titled, drumroll please...

Magic for Nothing
and
Tricks for Free

Again, it's going to be a little while before we get to Annie and her rampantly gleeful destruction of everything around her, but...the series will continue! Books six and seven!

Everything is awesome!

...it turns out Alex Price is just as popular as his sister!

I am delighted to announce that Half-Off Ragnarok debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List in position #18, a new high for this series. With every book, we inch a little closer to the top ten, and I couldn't be more delighted.

I was very nervous about this book. I announced from the start that InCryptid was going to be a family affair, but it's still hard to switch protagonists, especially when people seem to enjoy the one you already have. I did see some early rumbles from people who were sure that the books wouldn't be any good at all without Verity there to anchor them, and I have been incredibly relieved and delighted to see my readers embrace Alex with open arms.

I love all the members of the Price family, and more, I love the way I can use them to show different things about one another. Verity doesn't see how much her dance career hurts Antimony, who has never been allowed to pursue anything she really loved in the same way, and Antimony doesn't see how much Verity works and sacrifices for the things that seem to come to her so easily. Having both of them onscreen lets me explore both sides of the story. It's wonderful.

Alex has one more book to go, next year's Pocket Apocalypse, and I hope you'll like it just as much as you did this one. Thank you all so, so much.

It's been a lot of fun so far.

Tor.com has posted a lovely review of Half-Off Ragnarok, and says, " One thing that always amazes me about Seanan McGuire is how she can take a theme, and run with it. In this case, it's finding multiple kinds of cryptid who all fit into the overlapping 'snakes' and 'things which petrify you' categories, and making them all seem completely reasonable, if a little irrational. (It roughly compares to that time Jim Butcher worked five different flavors of werewolf into a single book.) Watching her characters deal with such hazardous and bizarre things as basilisks and gorgons, lindworms and more, is kind of like taking a tour through a very deadly theme park made up of alternating parts awesome and terrifying. Come to think of it, that sums up this series quite nicely."

Also...

"Don't go into this book looking for great literature or deep thoughts. Go into it because it's slightly over-the-top fun, a genuinely entertaining good time, an urban fantasy that, despite the title, isn't about the imminent end of the world. The best way to describe this is to say that McGuire writes for a wide audience, and this is an accessible series that doesn't require a lot of commitment. Better still, this book effectively acts as a jumping-on point to those just coming in."

Full disclosure: the reviewer has been a friend of mine since I was fourteen. But he's never let that force him to be nice to me when he didn't want to, so hey, we're all good (love ya, Mike).

Medusa's Library has also posted a review of Half-Off Ragnarok, and says, "This was a delightful book all the way through. Seanan is, herself, a trained herpetologist, and her love for the reptiles shines through. Also, there is an awesome animal called a Church Griffin (cross a Maine Coon cat with a raven) named Crow who I want to wrap up and bring home. The Aeslin mice that featured prominently in the first two books have their own part to play here too. Hail! Hail the subplot of the mice! Hail! (The anthropologist in me desperately wants to interview a colony of Aeslin mice as soon as possible!)"

Yay!

Everything is lovely, nothing hurts, and Half-Off Ragnarok can be yours this coming Tuesday.

I am ecstatic to finally be able to announce that I—as in "me writing under my own name," not Mira, who has a different publishing setup than Seanan does—have acquired a UK publisher! Both the October Daye and the InCryptid books will be coming out from Constable & Robinson, under their Corsair imprint. I AM BEING PUBLISHED BY AN IMPRINT THAT IS ALSO AN X-MEN REFERENCE.

My life is complete.

My page on the Constable & Robinson site is right over here, and will eventually have neat things like book covers (no idea yet what the books are going to look like in the UK market IT'S AN EXCITING MYSTERY). There's also an awesome pre-order page for the UK edition of Discount Armageddon, which will be coming out in April of 2014.

The deal includes all the current books in both series, which means a) non-imported editions for my UK readers, and b) easily available ebooks. Such excitement! Such delight!

I am really over the moon about this, and I'm so happy to be joining the Constable & Robinson/Corsair family of authors. UK publisher!

Bliss.

...meet me down where the river runs red.

I am over the moon to finally be able to announce that "Stingers and Strangers," an original Jonathan Healy and Frances Brown short story, will be appearing in the upcoming Weird West anthology, Dead Man's Hand. To quote the official press release:

"'The weird western is the forefather of steampunk, with a history that includes Stephen King's Dark Tower and Card's Alvin Maker,' editor John Joseph Adams explains. 'But where steampunk is Victorian, weird westerns are darker, grittier, so the protagonist might be gunned down in a duel, killed by a vampire, or confronted by aliens on the streets of a dusty frontier town.'"

"Stingers and Strangers" fits between "No Place Like Home" and "Married In Green." When Johnny and Fran head to Colorado to investigate reports of dead and missing miners, they're in for a whole pile of trouble. It's an engagement not to be taken lightly.

For more information about the anthology, including a full table of contents (Elizabeth Bear! Kelley Armstrong! Ken Liu!), check out the official press release, located here:

http://www.johnjosephadams.com/blog/2013/04/10/new-anthology-dead-mans-hand/

Dead Man's Hand will be released in May of 2014. I'm so excited!

It's time to reduce the link file by posting some of the truly awesome Midnight Blue-Light Special reviews that have shown up recently. Hooray!

Alice the Writer has posted a review of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and says, "If this book were worse, I would be using this space to rail about how Seanan McGuire should spend her time focusing on Toby Daye's adventures so we'd have more of those. Alas, Verity's world is just as well-rounded as Toby's, her monsters and men just as interesting, her allies just as amusing." This is the best complaint ever, and I wish to hug it a lot.

Over the Effing Rainbow has posted a review of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and says, "Right, then. No beating around the bush with this one—the second book in Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series is, in my opinion, possibly one of the most well-written and engaging urban fantasy novels I've read—and I've read every one of the Dresden Files novels several times over by now. McGuire is, for me, an author who is well within Jim Butcher's league for this stuff—her October Daye series continues to improve with every new book, and I can already tell that her pattern is holding true with this series as well." Daaaaaamn.

Badass Book Reviews has posted a review of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and says, "This book will take you through the entire gamut of emotions. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll worry for the characters safety, and you'll cheer their triumphs. As with all Seanan McGuire novels, the writing is top-notch and the world entirely engrossing. Give yourself some time to savor this novel; once you pick it up, you won’t be able to put it down!" Yay!

Michael Jones at Tor.com has posted a review of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and says, "Midnight Blue-Light Special is fun. Even in the darkest moments, when Verity is dealing with ruthless enemies and fighting for her life, when good people are making desperate choices, there’s that sense of whimsy, of magic, of joy, which makes this a book, and a series, well worth checking out. I can’t wait for the next installment." He also calls attention to the amount of As You Know, Bob in the book, which is a fair cop, if not one that I have a clear bead on fixing, since when I cut the AYKB, I get complaints about things being dense and confusing. This is the lesser of two evils, I guess. It's a great review, and Michael Jones pulls no punches, as always.

Fantasy Book Cafe has posted a review of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and says, "Like its predecessor, Midnight Blue-Light Special is humorous and highly entertaining without a dull moment. While I wanted to see the premise of the first book built on a little more in the second book, I thought it did a great job with a kickass main protagonist who had strengths beyond her fighting ability as well as a quieter character with inner strength. I also enjoyed that it got a bit darker and the stakes were higher for the characters, and I’m certainly looking forward to reading more in this series." Woo!

I am pleased with how this book has been received, and I can't wait for y'all to see book three, and meet Alex properly for the first time.

...VERITY PRICE!

Midnight Blue-Light Special debuted at #20 on the New York Times Bestseller List, making it the first book in the InCryptid series to make the print list (the entries on the NYT List that are printed in the paper, rather than just being posted on the website). This is a massive jump from Discount Armageddon, and I could not be happier or more honored.

Thank you all so much for reading, and for following me into this candy-coated heart of darkness. It is an honor, and I am so excited for you to find out what happens next, in Ohio, with Alex.

It's gonna be a party.

Guys guys guys! The Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling* Show is tomorrow! For the eighth time, my band of merry wanderers will descend upon San Francisco, bringing music, chaos, and the excitement of a book release party with us! This time, we're actually not going to be at my beloved Borderlands Books, although they will be selling books at the event: thanks to an opening in the Variety Preview Room Theatre, we're going to be trashing someone else's house for a change! The party begins this coming Saturday at 6:00 PM, at...

The Variety Preview Room Theatre
Hobart Bldg., 1st Floor (use the entrance next to Citibank on Market St.)
582 Market Street @ 2nd and Montgomery
San Francisco, CA 94104

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE.

Delicious cupcakes! Free popcorn, for that circus feeling! A cash bar, including a signature cocktail designed just for us, The Snakehandler! Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff rocking the house, now with special bonus Paul Kwinn and imported bonus Vixy! And this time, I'm not the only author who's going to be taking her turn in the ring. That's right: I have AWESOME BONUS GUESTS. Sarah Kuhn, awesome author of the geek rom-com One Con Glory, will be joining the fray, as will Amber Benson, whose latest Calliope Reaper-Jones adventure, The Golden Age of Death, dropped just two weeks ago.

Three authors. A lot of music. Plenty of sugar. Accessible booze. NOW HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY?

I thought so.

Seating at the Preview Room is limited, so please show up early. We are a kid-friendly circus, although there will probably be swearing (I'm planning to show up, I swear a lot). The doors will open at 6:00 PM to allow for getting drinks and books, meeting people, and generally relaxing into the night; the Circus takes the stage at 7:00 PM. Here is the full schedule for the evening (subject to change):

6:00 PM: Welcome to our party! The doors will open for milling, schmoozing, hitting the bar, and finding seats. AND CUPCAKES!
7:00 PM: Would you like some music?
7:30 PM: Perhaps you would like to win things.
7:40 PM: Now there will be a reading! WHO WILL IT BE? NO ONE KNOWS! (Amber, Sarah, or Seanan.)
8:00 PM: More music?
8:30 PM: More prizes?
8:40 PM: Another mystery reading!
9:00 PM: Last music of the night.
9:30 PM: Q&A and book discussion.
9:50 PM: Thanks and final raffle before we move to the lobby for signing.

One note from the management:

"Don’t Drive—Seriously. Parking sucks in this area. Take BART or MUNI downtown, as we are directly adjacent to the Montgomery Street BART/MUNI station! Street parking ($3.50 per hour/coins or meter card, no charge cards) is metered 7 days a week til 6PM. If you have to drive, we suggest parking at the Folsom St. Garage at 3rd & Folsom (cheapest), across from Moscone Center."

See you Saturday!

(*No snakes will be present at the event, which is a shame, because I like snakes. I will content myself with humans. FOR NOW.)

There are twenty-five days remaining before the release of Midnight Blue-Light Special, the second book in the InCryptid series. I am...I'm still not quite sure that I believe it, honestly. This is such a difficult series to explain to people, because it's so silly and so serious at the same time, and I'm still a little bit in awe of the fact that I'm allowed to write it.

Thank you, thank you, to everyone who's taken a chance on this series. Thank you for looking at my pink, pink cover and my silly, silly cover blurb, and going "Sure, this is worth my time and/or dollars." Thank you for reading and reviewing and spreading the word. I honestly couldn't be here without you.

Thank you also to my agent, and to everyone at DAW Books, because let's face it, I can be a little odd sometimes, and when an author who's doing pretty well with a dark urban fantasy series says "I wanna write something with talking mice," you'd be forgiven for being a little, well, hesitant. But they didn't hesitate. They said "Seanan has done good things with strange concepts before, and they let me have my weird little world full of cryptids and blood feuds and secrets.

There are not enough thanks in the world for what I'm feeling right now.

Thank you all.

And the winners are...

bookwyrm86
professor

Please provide your mailing information via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours, so that I can get your books into the mail.

As a footnote, I am not always able to draw winners at exactly when the drawing is officially closed, but anyone submitting their name after that time is ineligible to win. If you're on the wire, feel free to put your name in—I try to be generous with my interpretation of the deadline—but if it's six hours after the fact, all you do is confuse the RNG. You can't win if you didn't follow the rules as written, and that includes time of submission.

Thanks for playing, and we'll have another giveaway soon.

...and, you know, a whole lot of other characters. I am pleased to announce the Kickstarter for Glitter and Madness, an anthology about the "secret nightlife of the 20th century." Raves and roller derby, drugs and debauchery, nightclubs and naughtiness, it's all there, including a brand-new InCryptid novella, "Bad Dream Girl," about Antimony Price and her time with the Slasher Chicks roller derby team. (The other three teams in her league are the Concussion Stand, the Block Busters, and the Stunt Troubles. They're movie-themed. Can you tell I enjoyed myself?)

The Kickstarter is here, packed with lots of lovely goodies:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnklima/glitter-and-madness-the-speculative-nightclub-anth

But wait! There's more! One of the pledge levels gets you a copy of "Bad Dream Girl" as soon as the anthology funds, which means bam, in your inbox, more Price girl goodness. It's a $50 pledge, which isn't for everyone (obviously), but if this story would be enough to motivate you to pick up the anthology, or if the theme and list of AWESOME AUTHORS would be enough, take a look at the tiers, pick your poison, and help us turn the lights on at the club.

Because seriously, any anthology that gives me an excuse to introduce you properly to Antimony, who is quite possibly my favorite of the Price siblings, is a-okay by me.

Roller derby!

The random number generator has spoken, and has selected resolute as our winner! resolute, please send me your contact information via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours, and I will get your book into the mail. If I do not hear from you within the next twenty-four hours, a new winner will be chosen from out the current pool.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated, and watch for a new giveaway opening later today.

It's here it's here it's here guys it's here! I finally finally finally have the ARCs of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and it's gorgeous and wonderful and amazing and oh my gosh it's here!

This means it's time for a GIVEAWAY! We're going to start with everybody's favorite, the random number drawing, because I am sleepy and lazy due to the obscene amounts of rain being dumped on me by the cranky sky gods. I am the Rain King and all, but come on. So...

1. To enter, comment on this post.
2. If you are international, indicate this, and your willingness to pay postage.
3. That's it.

I will choose two winners at 12noon PST on Friday, December 7th, to give the books a chance in hell of getting to their destination before the holidays hit. And that, as they say, is that.

Game on!

I am home.

I am recovered.

I am well-rested.

I am the proud owner of the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Fancast.

YES. YES, I WON A FUCKING HUGO AND IT'S IN MY HOUSE AND IT'S BEAUTIFUL AND IT HAS MY NAME ON IT AND I THINK IT STARTED OUT AS CAT'S (I'M PRETTY SURE WE TRADED AT LEAST ONCE) AND I DON'T CARE BECAUSE IT'S MY HUGO!!!! I HAVE A HUGO!!!! I AM A HUGO-AWARD WINNER!!!!!!!!

...be really glad you can't see my uncoordinated geek dance. You might go blind.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who voted. This truly means the world to me. Y'all gave me a Hugo for never shutting up.

Message received.

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

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

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

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

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

Yay, monsters!

Words: 2,231.
Total words: 10,248.
Reason for stopping: I have a really tight schedule tonight, and it's time to switch books.
The cats: Alice and Thomas, on the hallway floor; Lilly, asleep on my suitcase.
Music: lots of Counting Crows.

I don't actually like stopping mid-chapter when it's not to go to bed or something equally pressing, but I'm flying to Hawaii for a memorial service tomorrow, and that means I have a really full docket tonight. I have made word count on this book, I have two edit files to process and another book to work on, it is time to switch worlds. I'll use the first edit file as a palate cleanser, then work on the other book, then hopefully be awake enough to chunk through the second set of edits before bed. If I can't, I'll work on the plane.

I am happy with where this book is going. It's slow so far, but I'm not very far in, and I figure editing and revisions will tighten that up into something awesome and acceptable. And Alex is having long conversations with the mice.

I am happy.

Words: 2,731.
Total words: 8,017.
Reason for stopping: chapter two is done, and it's time for dinner.
The cats: all cats are currently out of view, which is worrisome.
Music: still the soundtrack to Syfy's Monster Island. I am predictable.

Once again, I am proving the old adage that all it takes to get me writing again is a finished manuscript and the sucking terror that comes from having nothing immediately demanding my attention. (These are things I needed to be writing anyway, mind you. It's just that Parasite was such a huge chunk of text that it sort of blocked the pipeline for pretty much everything else.) So now here I am, once more hip-deep in InCryptid and loving every mucky, slime-covered step.

Half-Off Ragnarok is really interesting so far, because it's the first book from Alex's perspective. I can't help looking at the text and thinking "gosh, the Machete Squad is going to kill half of this," and at the same time, I can't tell you which half they're going to target, so I have to write it all. That's a good thing, honestly. It forces me to get used to Alex's voice, and the little quirks and oddities of his personality. He's my first (and so far, only) male narrator in this series, and so it's important to me that I get him right.

I am very excited about this expansion of my universe. You get to meet Grandma and Grandpa Baker properly, and see more of the actual ecology of the non-sapient cryptids and how they're able to remain under the radar of modern science. It's going to be a fun ride.

Whee!

Like, seriously. How else do you explain Blackout being the first of my books to make the print New York Times list (in position #15 on the Mass Market Paperbacks sub-list) and now making NPR's list of the best science fiction and fantasy of the summer?

In other news, HOLY CORN MAZES, YOU GUYS, BLACKOUT IS ON THE NPR LIST OF THE BEST SCI-FI OF THE SUMMER!!!!!!!

Ahem.

I am very, very excited, as is only natural when INCREDIBLY AWESOME THINGS of INCREDIBLE AWESOMENESS decide to happen. This is so amazing. I am so amazed. Also, there have been confirmed sightings of the Newsflesh trilogy at WalMart, and no matter what you think of WalMart, that's a lot of eyes potentially falling on (and maybe even buying) my books. Dear world: please buy my books. I have a lot of cats to feed.

NPR! NYT! OMG!

Squee.

It is with the utmost delight and no small amount of profound relief that I announce that the next three October Daye adventures have been acquired by DAW Books. That takes us all the way to ten, a benchmark I dreamt of but never thought I'd really reach.

The next three books are:

The Winter Long
A Red-Rose Chain
Once Broken Faith

(For the curious, the titles this time are from "A Winter's Tale," "Venus and Adonis," and "King Henry VI, Part iii.")

I am...I am over the moon. This gets us through some really major story beats that I've been patiently setting up since book one, and moves us very solidly into what I think of as "act two" of the whole series (act one concluded with One Salt Sea). There are two more books to come before I start on this new set, Ashes of Honor and Chimes at Midnight, and having the security of knowing the story will go on is just incredible.

Thank you, DAW, for having faith in me.

And thank you all, for reading.

It is with extreme pleasure and with no small degree of squeaky joy that I announce that the next three InCryptid books have been acquired by DAW Books. I KNOW RIGHT?! The next three books are:

Half-Off Ragnarok
Pocket Apocalypse
Professional Gore-eography

Cryptids and cuckoos and field guides, oh my! Words really can't express how insanely happy I am right now. I'm going to be working with the same team at DAW, which means I know I will have great editorial, fantastic in-house support, and a whole lot of sheer bonus fun. I'm so excited that this story gets to continue; you get to meet more of the family, and see where things go next. You get to hang out with Alex! And go to Australia! And and and...

And now, in the words of the Aeslin mice...

CHEESE! AND! CAKE!

It's time to go back to Jonathan Healy and Frances Brown, as they make their way across America, heading for Buckley Township, Michigan. Only this time, it seems they've reached their destination, which begs the question...what comes next?

A new Jonathan and Fran story, "No Place Like Home," has been posted on the InCryptid short fiction page. It is once again available in ePub, MOBI, and PDF formats, and is free for download.

All cover graphics are by Tara O'Shea (be sure to admire the awesome cover she did for "Flower of Arizona," which is new to the page). All electronic conversion thus far has been done by scifantasy. As both of them are awesome, we applaud them now.

Enjoy the adventure!

So very tired cat is so very tired. Tired enough that the effort of packing a suitcase for a trip to New York seems to be unendurable. Consequentially, I am updating my blog, because I can generally manage that...but I am too tired to say anything useful. So here. Have a Discount Armageddon review roundup.

Book Devourer has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "Discount Armageddon was something kind of like an impulse buy, but I’m so pleased to have bought it. It was enjoyable and entertaining with interesting characters and fast pacing that just keeps you glued to the book for hours on end. I’ll definitely be looking forward to the next books in this series!" Awesome.

Dark Faerie Tales interviewed me about Discount Armageddon, and we had a lot of fun. Check it out.

janicu has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "A refreshing urban fantasy that does not take itself too seriously. Discount Armageddon is full of fun and humor, but is balanced with just the right amount of grit. I thoroughly enjoyed Verity's dynamo presence and her enthusiasm for being in the Now. She's a kick-ass UF heroine who isn't angry or angsty, doesn't have a painful past, and comes with a supportive family. I recommend this one for urban fantasy fans that are looking for something that approaches the genre from a different angle." What a great summation!

One Good Book Deserves Another has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "I loved this book. It's original, funny, creative, and while there's room for more complexity in the plot and more detail for the secondary characters, Verity herself was highly enjoyable and carried the book well. I'd love to meet her sister, though." Oh, don't worry. You will. Heh heh heh.

Impressions of a Reader has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "Discount Armageddon is fun and refreshing, full of wonderful characters, and I love this world. I can't wait to meet Alex and Antimony, or to find out what the heck is up with Dominic. And of course, Hail Verity!" I love how much everyone wants to meet her siblings.

Finally for right now, calico_reaction has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "This is just a wonderfully fun book to read, and rather utterly different that McGuire’s other work, namely her October Daye series and NewsFlesh series, with one exception: as always, the world-building is utterly full and vivid. But where the InCryptid series deviates so far is the humor, and this book had me giggling and entertained the entire time I read it. There’s a lot of crazy ingredients to the story, and some might mix well better than others, depending on the reader, but if you’re looking for a fun, creative story, look no further."

On that note, we wrap for now.

Goodnight, moon.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...

Tomorrow's Party Schedule!

5:00 PM: Setup, sound check, and final details. You can show up, but we may ignore you if you do. Sorry about that.
6:00 PM: Welcome to our party. We're done ignoring you now. Would you like some music?
6:30 PM: Perhaps you would like to win things.
6:40 PM: Now there will be cupcakes and autographing.
7:00 PM: More music?
7:30 PM: More prizes?
7:40 PM: Q&A and book discussion.
8:10 PM: Last music of the night.
8:40 PM: Let's raffle some more stuff off.
8:50 PM: Thanks and final questions before we close the evening.

This iteration of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show will be in the cafe; the bookstore will be open throughout the evening. The cafe will also be open, and they've promised to have plenty of bread and delicious pastry this time. Raffle tickets will be available through the two standard methods: show up, or buy something from the bookstore.

All performing musicians will have CDs for sale, because we're predictable like that. There will be cheese and cupcakes provided in the bookstore as part of the party, and a whole cafe full of delicious things to purchase and enjoy.

It's gonna be a good night. Hope to see you there.

VERITY PRICE!!!!!!

Ahem. Discount Armageddon has debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list, in position #35. This is otherwise known as "the best position," because it is mine, and I love it. I am...I am overjoyed. I am SO EXCITED I COULD DIE. This is my second time on the list (my first was with Late Eclipses), and to make it with my very first book in a brand new series is like a dream come true.

This is my crazy little book about a ballroom dancing cryptozoologist cocktail waitress with talking mice in her closet and nothing in her fridge, and it's on the New York Times Bestseller list. I can't believe it.

Thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you to everyone who bought this book during release week. I am so glad, and so grateful, and so excited. Above everything else, I am so excited.

Discount Armageddon made the list.

It is with great pleasure that I remind you all that the latest iteration of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show will be assembling this Saturday at San Francisco's own Borderlands Books. We'll be getting underway at 6pm, and rocking the roof until closing time comes and they kick us all out! Why are we partying?

To celebrate the release of Discount Armageddon, naturally.

There will be cake! There will be cheese! There will be music and a raffle and reading and some Q&A, and it will be a hootenanny of a good time, with a whole lotta hoot AND a whole lotta nanny! Bring your kids! Bring your siblings! Bring your slime monsters! We totally hope to see you there.

Oh, and: Caitlin Kittredge and Ben Macallan, both of whom are made of hammered awesome, will be at the bookstore before the Circus comes to town! Their event starts at three. Come early, and make a day of it!

Remember that Borderlands does take telephone and email orders, and would be happy to send you books signed by any of the lovely authors who will be haunting the store that day. Get a book already touched by pure awesome. Or, you know. Ink. The party starts Saturday at 6pm!

Cheese! And! Cake!

Not gonna lie, here: I'm exhausted and cranky from Daylight Savings Time, and I have 600+ comments waiting to be answered (I'm trying not to think about my inboxes), so I'm settling for the low-effort embrace of a review roundup. Which comes with the added bonus of reducing the size of my link file. Everybody wins! And so...

Living Vicariously (Through Books) has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "I honestly really think Seanan McGuire (/Mira Grant) is my current favorite author. I thought that before this book, but this book did not change that thought at all." Also, "This world has a lot going for it, I think. There’s a lot of potential investigation, multiple built in antagonists of various types, and Verity is good at what she does and comfortable with herself. I am definitely on board for the second book." Yay!

From My Wandering Mind has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "It is, in fact, awesome. Well, awesome if what you are looking for is urban fantasy about a professional ballroom dancer and cryptozoologist, who also has to work as a cocktail waitress to pay the bills. It is hilarious and fun and action-packed and McGuire has put a HUGE amount of effort into creating extremely detailed and, dare I say, realistic descriptions of all sorts of mythological creatures, now just trying to live amongst humans peacefully." Yes. That is my idea of awesome.

Urban Fantasy Investigations has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "There was a great amount of action throughout the book. The cast of characters was vast and imaginative. The plot was fun and I had a great time reading the book from start to finish." Five stars! HAIL THE REVIEW!

Book Yurt has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "With machetes, ballroom dancing, parkour, romance, and oodles and oodles of snark, Discount Armageddon is a smorgasbord of fun. It's six parts Buffy, one part Princess Bride, with a generous sprinkle of Strictly Ballroom on top—or that's the closest I can come to describing it, anyway. I chortled, snickered, and at times laughed out loud while reading Discount Armageddon—not to mention I'm a huge parkour and martial arts fangirl, so the action was exactly my cup of tea—and I finished this book with a huge, rather silly grin on my face. It's been a long, long time since I've enjoyed a new UF series this much." Best. Description. Ever.

Sigrid Ellis wrote a lovely, and very sweet summation of why she enjoyed Discount Armageddon. No good pull quotes, but very much worth reading.

Oh, and you know how sometimes people go "What's the big idea?" Well, thanks to John Scalzi, I was able to explain exactly what the big idea was. Take a look.

That's all for now. I will now resume staring dully at my inbox. Whee!

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

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

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

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

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

To celebrate the release of Discount Armageddon, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned.

You can also start a book discussion at my website forums, with less need to be concerned that I will see everything you say! In case you wanted, you know, discussion free of authorial influence, since I always wind up getting involved in these things.

Have fun!

As I am making this post, I am realizing that it's one of the last times I'll have the awesome Discount Armageddon cover icon as my default. It always changes to reflect my upcoming book, and DA isn't the new baby anymore. It's a bittersweet feeling. I'm so excited to have this book out in the world, and yet.

And yet.

I've been doing lots to get ready for this book release. I've been giving interviews—one with Chuck Wendig, at Terrible Minds, wherein I say "fuck" a lot, and one at My Bookish Ways, wherein I say "fuck" substantially less. (The My Bookish Ways interview is in conjunction with a giveaway, open to international entries. Just saying.) I've been distributing ARCs and author copies. I've been hyperventilating.

Okay, I've actually been hyperventilating a lot. Because starting a new series is scary, and introducing the world to a whole new cast of characters is scary, and a whole lot of things involved with this book are scary, and I am generally just a frozen ball of fear.

But the book is out now. In both physical and electronic editions, and you can order it at will. I'm going to swing by Borderlands and sign pre-ordered copies after I get off work, and then I'm going to go to Kate's and eat Indian and maybe demand a trip to Toys R Us.

The book is out now.

HAIL!

It's almost time for Discount Armageddon (which is why this blog, like my life, is currently the "all InCryptid, all the time" channel; while I am doing other things, they're just mostly intended to distract me, and thus involve port and Kingdom Hearts 2). And as is always the case during the final run-up to a new book, the reviews are starting to appear, like beautiful mushrooms on a pristine lawn! Are they delicious mushrooms, full of woodland goodness? Or are they the dreaded amanita, so lovely to behold, so deadly to touch? There's only one way to find out!

Travels Through Iest has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "It is early days, but Discount Armageddon is one of the most amusing urban fantasies I’ve ever read, packed with fresh ideas and plenty of scope to expand. Hopefully sales will be strong and we readers will get to see a lot more of Verity, the Price family and the cryptids. Cheese! And Cake!" Awesome!

Travels Through Iest also reviewed Westward Weird, an anthology which contains the chronologically earliest InCryptid story currently extant (it's the story of how Alice's parents met). This review says, "The standouts for me were Seanan's story (I'm sure that's a huge surprise), but I'm a sucker for anything that features the Aeslin Mice and 'The Flower of Arizona' does that." I shall build my future on the backs of talking mice. Hey, it was good enough for Disney...

Un:Bound has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "Discount Armageddon is top notch urban fantasy treated with a sense of humor and lightness that manages to enhance rather than undermine the sense of adventure and investigation." Also: "An unusual treatment of some well trodden tropes, lots of really original ideas and an explosive start to a new urban fantasy series I am really excited about." No poisonous mushrooms here!

Lurv ala Mode has posted a lovely review of Discount Armageddon, with some call-outs that had me giggling. How can you not love a review that cites the heroine's love of jumping off tall buildings as a selling point? She says: "People. People, listen. Look, this is a really good book. I'm just going to say that I just about loved it to pieces, like the kinds of pieces one gets when they hug something breakable with super human strength and, oh, oops, there I went and broke that awesome thing. Guess it's a good thing this wasn't on the Kindle, then. Paperbacks are actually pretty forgiving when it comes to ridiculously overzealous hugs." Hee hee hee. Also, and more seriously: "As much as I moan and groan sometimes about yet another series to keep up with, I feel no such qualms about the InCryptid books and will gladly add them to the few I even bother to pre-order. If you're a fan of urban fantasy looking for something different, I can't recommend this one enough." So much glee.

Scribbles From an Abstract Mind has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "This is an enjoyable beginning to what promises to be an enjoyable series, and is to be looked forward to by all fans." Works for me.

Fantasy and Sci-Fi Lovin' News and Reviews has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "If you're a fan of urban fantasy that is light on the angst and drama and strong on action and fun then I can easily recommend Discount Armageddon." Hooray!

Finally for right now, Alice at Tales of an Intrepid Pantser has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "I loved it. I have refrained in the past from declaring any authors my favorite, because it depends on my mood, or what they've recently published, or what I feel like reading. With this book, though, Seanan McGuire cements herself as my favorite author."

...let's just leave it at that, shall we? Mushroom stew for everybody, and not a drop of poison in sight!

Glee.

We are now, Amazon's reindeer games notwithstanding, nine days from the release of Discount Armageddon. I am surprisingly calm, I think because I got all my hysteria out of the way early last week, when I got dogpiled by trolls. It's kind of amazing how that will burn the fretting right out of a girl. Book's out in nine days? Anyone calling me things I can't bring myself to repeat in front of my mother? No? Then we're totally cool.

It's interesting to contrast right now with nine days to Rosemary and Rue, when I was, well...let's just say that food and I were not long-term acquaintances during the few weeks right before that book came out. I was a screaming puddle of neurosis. I still am, to a certain degree; I'm not going to pretend that I'm not worried. Will people like this book? Will they like the world? Will they understand why I needed to start this series now, rather than waiting another x years to finish Toby?

(I got so annoyed at Joss Whedon when he left Buffy to work on Firefly, and I still think both shows would have been better served if he had stuck out the end of Buffy Summers and her story before moving on. So I get that particular "hey!" reaction. But books and TV are different, and this is only slowing Toby down a little bit, not leaving her entirely without supervision.)

I want this book to do well, partially because, well, no one writes a book they're hoping to see fail, but also because I want to spend so much time in this world. I want to write the full stories of four different generations, and that's going to take time. That's going to take commitment, and not just from me.

But oh, I love this world. And in nine days, reindeer games aside, you get the chance to maybe hopefully love them, too.

Nine days.

One thing I've tried to make very clear about InCryptid is that it's not the story of Verity Price and how she did lots of neat stuff and maybe saved the world a few times. It's the story of the Price family, and the Healy family, and how they did lots of neat stuff and maybe saved the world a few times. There are lots of stories, many of which happened before the books begin.

Never let it be said that I missed the chance to tell a story.

The InCryptid short fiction page is now live, and features the brand new Jonathan and Frances adventure, "One Hell of a Ride." The story is available for free download in three formats. I'll add information on "The Flower of Arizona" as soon as we have a finalized cover (and will include purchase data for that one, since it's in an anthology).

Welcome to the family tree, and I hope this helps to keep you excited for the upcoming release of Discount Armageddon!

M is for MICE.

Oh, the mice.

Aeslin mice are highly religious. They want to believe. They need to believe. Their mental health depends on it. So they find something they can believe in, and they believe in it with all their might, for as long as that thing endures. Sometimes it's an object, or a place. Other times, as with the colony that currently lives with the Price family, it's a bloodline. To the Aeslin mice, the women of the Price family are priestesses, and the men? The men are Gods.

The Catechism of the Mice begins with Caroline, the Compassionate Priestess, and continues through the generations to the present day. They have celebrated every birth and mourned every death. They have given their lives in the name of the family. They have given their hearts in the honor of the family. They have given everything they are, and in return, the family has cared for and protected them, and has sworn to continue doing so for as long as family, and colony, endure.

Aeslin mice never forget anything. If they have heard it, or seen it, they recall it. There are divisions within the central family colony, each dedicated to preserving the teachings of their specific Priestesses to future generations. While the colony that lives today will learn the present en masse, in the future, Evelyn, Verity, and Antimony will be remembered by their own branches of the Aeslin priesthood. Nothing is ever forgotten. Nothing is ever left behind.

All Prices are remembered forever, in the rituals of the mice. No one ever leaves for good. As long as there is a family, the colony will endure.

Current stats:

Words: 8,464.
Total words: 101,114.
Reason for stopping: I sort of, well, ran out of book.
Music: lots of things, mostly Dave and Tracy.
Lilly, Alice, and Thomas: bed, orange cat tree, and beige cat tree, respectively.

First draft stats:

Pages: 347
Chapters: twenty-five, plus a prologue and an epilogue
Started: November 2, 2010
Finished: February 18, 2012

So it turns out that finishing a Toby book and a Mira Grant book and doing lots of conventions and writing another Toby book and a couple of Mira Grant novellas and not sleeping makes me slow. Which is why this book took fifteen months to write (the first one took fourteen months, and I swore that this one would go faster). And yet. I am done with the first draft of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and Discount Armageddon is not yet on shelves, and that means I win.

I am so tired. I am physically and emotionally exhausted, and my eyes hurt because I cried through the last two chapters. But I am done. I am finished.

I will deal with a few pending edits and send the first draft to the Machete Squad tomorrow. But for right now? I sleep.

For right now, I win.

Words: 35,287.
Total words: 92,654.
Reason for stopping: I need to eat a food.
Music: lots of dance music and modern country.
The cats: Alice, bed; Thomas, who knows; Lilly, guest bed.

So, uh. Yeah, I did not do all that in one night, but apparently I missed a few word count posts, so this is sort of getting me back into alignment. I actually wrote about 6,000 words tonight, after finishing my word count for "San Diego 2014" and realizing that I finally knew how to make the ending fall together the way that it's supposed to. Tomorrow night, I'll do the same thing (work on the project with a closer due date first, and then slide back into Verity's shoes for a little tango), and then this weekend, I'll probably type "THE END" on the draft as a whole.

It feels weird. Like, really weird. It's weird that I haven't finished it yet, and it's weird that it's so close to ending, because right now, this is it. I do not have a contract for book three, and whether I get one will be determined partially by how Discount Armageddon does. So this could be the end for me in this universe, and I'm not ready yet. I don't want to go. But the ending is here, and I have to let it be honest. I don't cheat. Not with things like this.

But it feels so weird. So, so weird.

I hope this isn't the end.

E is for ENID.

Enid Healy was a loyal member of the Covenant of St. George. She fought the things they told her to fight, she thought the things they told her to think, and when the time came, she married the man they told her to marry. But Enid had a secret. She was harboring a colony of cryptid mice, passed down to her from her grandmother, and viewed their protection as more important than the Covenant's edicts. When the time came, she revealed them to her husband, and together, they decided that their association with the Covenant was no longer in their best interests. They left for America...leaving their eldest son, who was loyal to the Covenant, behind. Not everything in life can go the way we plan.

Enid spent the rest of her life in Buckley Township, Michigan. She raised her younger son, Jonathan, and taught him everything she could to keep him alive. She saw the mice through several generations. She stood proud at her son's marriage to Frances Brown, late of Arizona, and she assisted in the birthing of both her grandchildren. She wept like any grandmother would when they buried her grandson, the first member of the Healy family to be lain to rest in Michigan's soil.

He wouldn't be the last.

While she lived, Enid was the best shot in Buckley. She tended her garden, tended her family, and saw her granddaughter grow into a woman. She died with regrets, because she was only human, but she died glad of the life she'd lived, and secure in the knowledge that she'd done the best she could. The mice remember her as the Patient Priestess, and like all Healy women, Enid rests easy in the immortality of the mice.

Today marks the publication of Westward Weird, a new DAW anthology of, yes, Weird Wild West stories. Here's the book's official landing page on the Penguin* site. The table of contents:

1. "The Temptation of Eustace Prudence McAllen" by Jay Lake
2. "The Last Master of Aeronautical Winters" by Larry D. Sweazy
3. "Lowstone" by Anton Strout
4. "The Flower of Arizona" by Seanan McGuire
5. "The Ghost in the Doctor" by Brenda Cooper
6. "Surveyor of Mars" by Christopher McKitterick
7. "Coyote, Spider, Bat" by Steven Saus
8. "Maybe Another Time" by Dean Wesley Smith
9. "Renn and the Little Men" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
10. "Shadowdown at High Moon" by Jennifer Brozek
11. "The Clockwork Cowboy" by J. Steven York
12. "Black Train" by Jeff Mariotte
13. "Lone Wolf" by Jody Lynn Nye

Let's take a moment to focus on story #4, "The Flower of Arizona," shall we?

Discount Armageddon is the story of Verity Price, latest in a long line of cryptozoologists and monster hunters. Her father, Kevin Price, was the son of Alice Price-Healy and Thomas Price (late of the Covenant of St. George). And Alice was the daughter of Jonathan Healy and Frances Brown (late of the Campbell Family Circus, darling of the Arizona rodeo circuit).

"The Flower of Arizona" is the story of how Jonathan and Frances first met, a long time before their daughter met and fell in love with a man from the Covenant, and an even longer time before their great-granddaughter went and got a book of her very own. This is literally the chronologically earliest Price family story I have ever written. See Jonathan when he had a sense of humor! Learn how much Verity takes after her ancestors! Listen to the mice hail things inappropriately!

In all seriousness, this is a great introduction to the InCryptid universe...and, as a bonus, I'm going to be putting up another story featuring Jonathan and Fran for free download later this month. "One Hell of a Ride" takes place immediately after "The Flower of Arizona," and will make more sense if you've read them both. Plus, it's a fabulous anthology, so you get lots of bang for your buck.

Mama rode the rodeo; they say she was the best...

(*DAW is distributed by Penguin, although they are a distinct publishing entity. Supply chains are weird.)

So, uh. That happened. Deadline—the second installment in the Newsflesh trilogy—has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. This is a juried award, and, to quote the website, "The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States."

Distinguished science fiction. Screw winning (although naturally I'd like to win; I am only human, and pretending I don't dream of winning the things I'm nominated for seems needlessly coy and a little idiotic): I have been nominated for an award because I wrote something that's regarded as distinguished science fiction.

Dude. What.

Orbit, which has three books in the list of seven, has already posted a gleeful post of gleeful congratulations, which made me feel very loved. I'm seriously over the moon about this.

The full ballot for this year:

The Company Man, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
Deadline, Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Other, Matthew Hughes (Underland)
A Soldier’s Duty, Jean Johnson (Ace)
The Postmortal, Drew Magary (Penguin)
After the Apocalypse, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer)
The Samuel Petrovich Trilogy, Simon Morden (Orbit)

I am very excited, and very flattered, and yeah, a little hopeful, because who wouldn't be? This is amazing.

Yay.