Sometimes I look back at my own teenage years, tangled and tempestuous as they were, and wonder if I knew how lucky I was, musically speaking. The Counting Crows still played at the U.C. Berkeley on-campus club; Heather Alexander was both local and frequently touring; Celtic rock was having a resurgence, with Avalon Rising and Four Shillings Short playing somewhere almost every weekend.

And there was Annwn.

They were weirdos. They were wonderful. They were everything I wanted to be when I grew up. The idea of making Elton or Leigh Anne proud of me was enough to motivate me to do almost anything. I got to have a relationship with them, to know them as humans and artists and creators and people who let their freak flags fly proudly and without fear. I am the adult I am because they were there to be an example for the confused child I was.

Leigh Anne died in 2006. I still miss her. I will always miss her. Annwn died with her. Even if the band had wanted to continue, there was no replacing Leigh Anne. She was absolutely one of a kind.

For a long time, their music has been unavailable. Now, that's changing, and one of their best albums, Come Away to the Hills has been made available for purchase, as has the one album she recorded with Daoine Sidhe, Now and Then, which you can access here.

If you love Celtic rock and folk music, please give a listen.

This is one of the voices that made me.

...copies of Stars Fall Home and Wicked Girls! Start your CD collection right!

Welcome to the seventh of the Thirteen Days of Hogswatch. I will be starting a new giveaway every day between now and December 13th. Each giveaway will have different rules and a different deadline, although all prizes will be mailed on December 30th, because I am bad at going to the post office (and also, I am avoiding the post office as much as possible until that other winter holiday is over).

The seventh giveaway is for copies of Stars Fall Home and Wicked Girls. This is going to be a random number drawing, because I am not feeling creative right now. So...

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

I will choose the winner at 1PM PST on Wednesday, December 14th.

Game on!

ETA: This drawing is now CLOSED.

Hello, glorious people!

It is time to tell you of a wondrous thing.

My dearest, most beloved Dr. Mary Crowell, who you have heard on my CDs Wicked Girls and Creature Feature, if not on her own, absolutely transcendent material, is running a Kickstarter right now to fund the production of her new album of amazing, mythological music. Mary is one of the kindest, most utterly generous musicians I know, and her work is well worth your time. Please take a look at her plan, and if you'd like to hear more, well, you know what to do.

But.

For Mary's birthday this year, I wrote her a short story, because sometimes I am less lazy than I am broke, and my friends need things that make them happy. Titled "Scattering Seeds on the Pomegranate Tour," the story is simultaneously our first Rookery piece and our second Rookery piece: an earlier story was written for the PaulandStorminomicon, which has yet to be released, and this story comes before it, chronologically speaking. This is my Secret Urban Fantasy Setting (tm), because the stories about it always seem to be destined for dark and hidden places.

Not this time.

If you back the Kickstarter at any the tiers which include a USB drive, you'll get a copy of the story, along with all of Mary's albums in digital form and all her recordings from the last year of her Patreon. Quoth Mary: "Tiers that include the UBD drive: $70 Digital Plus, $145 The Harold Tier, $350 Almost the Full Tour, $450 The Full Tour, and $1,000 Pas de Deux."

Furthermore, and quoting Mary again: "Only the three highest tiers ($350 Almost the Full Tour, $450 The Full Tour, and $1,000 Pas de Deux) include a chapbook of your story, 'Scattering Seeds on the Pomegranate Tour.' By chapbook, I mean small hard bound book, because Wesley. (These are limited. He will make no more than 29 of these total. You-Seanan and I-Mary each get one, leaving only 27 to be acquired by pledging to this Kickstarter.)" Wesley, Mary's husband, is a craftsman and a scholar, and the pictures she's shared so far of the books in progress are positively gorgeous (you can see pictures as a part of this update). Basically, after I have been eaten by genetically modified banana slugs, this chapbook will be an incredible collector's item.

Kickstarter!

The random number generator has spoken, and the winner of a copy of Pretty Little Dead Girl is...

mac_arthur_park!

Instructions for the winner: Please comment on this post letting me know that you're claiming your prize and send me an email via my website (www.seananmcguire.com) with your mailing information. Both comment and email must be received by Saturday, December 19th to be considered valid.

Three more days to go!

Many people don't realize this, because it hasn't come up much lately, but I am part of an acapella group. I am, in fact, one of the three founding members of Lady Mondegreen, an all-female filk acapella group with members all over the world (or at least, all over North America and Europe). Because I live on the West Coast and the other two founding members live on the East Coast, we have not actually performed together since 2007. So when ChessieCon asked us to do a concert, we said sure. Why the hell not?

Batya, Merav, and I rehearsed as much as we could while I was in New York, and made our way to the con, where we took the stage for a surprisingly (dauntingly) large crowd. Our set list was as follows:

Sound check:

Theme from Banana In Pajamas
The shunning of Josh (ala Charlie the Unicorn)
Theme from Disney's The Gummi Bears
Theme from Disney's Rescue Rangers

Actual concert:

"The Three Fine Daughters of Farmer Brown" (Eddie From Ohio)
"Bottom of the River" (Delta Rae)
"Lorelei" (The Pogues)
"Flu Pandemic" (The Flying Fish Sailors)
"If I Had a Boat" (Lyle Lovett)
"Mordred's Lullaby" (Heather Dale)
"Lilo" (parody)
"All In Green" (e.e. cummings, music by Batya Wittenberg)
"Anything For You" (Ludo)
"Bedroom Eyes" (Uncle Bonsai)
"Reunion Hill" (Richard Shindell)
"This Side of the Knife" (Talis Kimberley)
"Don't Go Down to the Quarry" (Peter, Paul, and Mary)
"Leaving On a Jet Plane" (John Denver)

Post-concert:

"We are Wyld Stallions!"
"We are Sex B-Bomb!" (Quoth Batya: "I don't want to be Sex B-Bomb.")
"We are Mouse Rat!" (Cue me bouncing up and down singing "Sex Hair/Sex Bears.")

...all in all, not bad for our first show in years.

As I get ready to return to the studio and get back to work on Saint of Thorns (probably coming out some time in 2016; the album for 2015 is Creature Feature, and we're laying out the liner notes now), it occurs to me that some of you may not know how awesome and incredible my recording engineer, Kristoph Klover, actually is.

Let's fix that.

I have one copy of Elbows and Antlers, the latest CD by the band Avalon Rising, of which Kristoph is a founding member. Celtic funk, folk rock, call it what you will, it's amazing. And I am giving this disk away to one lucky winner.

To enter...

1. Comment here.
2. If outside the US, indicate that you will pay postage.
3. That's all.

I will choose a winner via RNG on Monday, January 26th. If you're interested in checking out Avalon Rising before then, here's their website: http://www.flowinglass.com/

I highly, highly recommend all three available Avalon Rising albums, especially if you like my stuff, Vixy and Tony's stuff, or Talis's stuff.

...a copy of Wicked Girls on CD!

Welcome to the ninth of the Twelve Days of Hogswatch. I will be starting a new giveaway every day between now and December 25th (some other winter holiday). Each giveaway will have different rules, and a different deadline, although all prizes will be mailed on December 29th, because I am bad at going to the post office (and also, still mailing shirts).

The ninth giveaway is for a copy of Wicked Girls on CD. This is going to be a random number drawing, because that's working well so far.

1. To enter, comment on this post.
2. If you are international, indicate that you are willing/able to pay postage.
3. That's it.

I will choose the winner at 1PM PST on Wednesday, December 24th. Sorry this one went up so late: I was out of the house all day, actually having fun. I regret nothing.

Game on!

I had never been to Germany before. But since the convention I was going to be a Special Guest at (Filk Continental) was in Germany, it seemed like a good time to show up.

Tom helpfully drove me to the station near the house, where I got a head shake from the station agent, who disapproved of my (admittedly expensive) "take the Heathrow Express from Paddington" plan. I pointed out that I was a clearly foreign woman with a giant suitcase, and that sometimes we pay to not take stairs. He replied that he would have made different choices with his money, and gave me my ticket. Jerk.

Ahem. The Heathrow Express proved to be a quick, pleasant way to get to the airport, and I highly recommend it. Yes, it was more expensive, but the savings in terms of both time and stress cannot be overstated, even if I did promptly get off at the wrong terminal. (This is a big deal in Heathrow, which is one of the largest airports in the world.) I found my way to the right terminal, and then the right gate, and finally the right seat on the right plane, and all was right with the world.

My flight was short and uneventful, and eventually dropped me in Hannover, where I was collected from the arrivals area by Rika and Rachel. I went to sleep in the car. Then I went to sleep on the couch at Rika's lovely apartment. Then I got up for breakfast with some lovely filkers who live in Rika's apartment complex, and whom I would see a great deal of over the weekend (yay!). They had an assortment of cheeses. YAY CHEESES. And then I went back to sleep for several hours. This would prove to be a good thing later.

The drive from Hannover to the convention, which was being held in a lovely little youth hostel near a castle, was lovely, uneventful, and long enough for me to watch two episodes of Leverage. We got there, got checked in, and I went to poke Vixy with a stick, since I had missed her dreadfully during my "out of time zone" adventures. She felt unwell. I still had my cold meds from when I'd first arrived in England. The circle of cold meds closes, and all is complete.

Sunnie and Betsy were in my room when I came back downstairs, making it our room, and the weekend had officially begun.

First up was dinner with the concom, at a local restaurant that had passed their stress test, but did not so much pass the "twenty people would like to be fed and Seanan is about to pass out from low blood sugar" test. Boo. It took about three hours to eat, and by the end of it, I was a murderbunny. I ate half of Betsy's dinner, which helped. Going to bed also helped...although it would have helped more if I'd been able to sleep. Unfamiliar place + thin walls + thin bed = Seanan begins her three-day ordeal of stumbling through life, dreaming of sensory deprivation chambers. Boo.

The next day was Friday, and kicked off the convention. We rehearsed for our various concerts, attended opening ceremonies (awesome), and opening concerts (even more awesome). I went to bed early, in hopes that I would sleep. I did not. Sigh.

Saturday was my concert, followed by Vixy and Tony's concert. Since we both used Sunnie and Betsy extensively, we were basically solid walls of sound, and everything went amazingly. The whole audience stood up and held hands during "We Are Who We Are" (Vixy and Tony's latest song, which is awesome), causing Vixy to wander around looking stunned and asking if that had really just happened. Hee.

Sunday was workshops, more concerts, and the final request concert, where Steve Macdonald and Katy Droege did "Cold Butcher" at my request, I did "Still Catch the Tide," and Vixy and Tony closed the con with a repeat performance of "We Are Who We Are." The Dead Dog that night was awesome, and I even stayed up for several hours to enjoy open filk before staggering off to bed.

The next day, Steve and I got a ride home from Syb, while Katy drove Vixy and Tony home. We all met up in Hamburg, where we had a lovely steak dinner before crashing at Steve and Katy's place. The next day, Steve got me to the airport to begin my incredibly long journey home.

But that's another story.

So Chris, who used to drive me all over the place before he got a better job and had to stay in the South Bay more, was cleaning out his old car when he found a CD longbox that had apparently gotten lost in there, like, literally years ago. Many, many years ago. And in that CD longbox (which he returned to me, because he is a good Chris), I found a bunch of copies of the original run of Stars Fall Home. The one with the owl and me on the cover. Yeah, that one.

Wow.

This is the original, crappier version of the album. The version that is currently in print has been fully remastered and has a new track ("Continental Divide"). There's nothing extra on this version; it's literally just older and a little less awesome. But when I recorded it, it was the best thing I had ever done, and it's definitely a different version.

So:

If you are a collector/completest, and would like to own the first edition of my first album, I have fifteen copies. They are $10 if you're going to be in a position to pick them up; $15 inclusive of postage if I have to mail them within the US; and $20 inclusive of postage if I have to mail them outside the US. Email me through my contact form if you want one, and get them back out of my house.

ETA: Please stop asking about Pretty Little Dead Girl. I am selling fifteen copies of Stars Fall Home, first edition, at this time. I am not selling anything else.

This question has been coming up a lot recently, so I thought I'd take a moment to address it in a central place that people could be pointed to. Specifically:

"Why can't I buy your music on iTunes/Band Camp/Amazon MP3/whatever?"

Sometimes the question takes the form of "I have gone all-digital, why do I have to buy a physical CD?", but those are basically the same thing, since "Why can't I buy..." is the flip side of "Why do I have to buy...". And here is my answer:

I will never, barring the closure of all the CD manufacturing companies, be selling my music digitally. If you want to own my music, you will need to either buy and rip a physical CD, or pirate it. I would obviously prefer the former, but since some of my CDs are out of print, I'll understand if you go for the latter.

Why?

Two big reasons. These are...

It's a hobby.

I am not a professional musician. Even if I sell every single copy of every single CD at full "retail price," never selling through filk dealers or sites like CD Baby, I won't turn a profit. Breaking even is the most that I can hope for. Because all CDs are nothing but red ink, they don't further complicate my already incredibly complicated taxes. If I started doing digital sales, which many people view as "money for nothing," I might pass that magical line where I make a profit, and then I would have to figure out how to deal with things.

I don't take enough of a loss for my music to be a tax write-off (yet), but I also don't make any money, and that keeps things simple. If I started needing to religiously track receipts and who paid what where to who, I don't know that the carrot would remain worth the stick for me.

The digital divide exists.

I feel as strongly about physical CDs as I do about physical books. The ability to release things digitally is amazing for people who can't afford a print run, or are doing something incredibly focused, or just want to get themselves out there. I can afford a print run; I have an audience; I am as out there as I need to be. And people like my mother, who doesn't own an MP3 player, and who listens to all music via her CD player, still exist.

Because of the costs of production, I can only afford to produce physical CDs when I'm sure that I'll be able to sell them. If 50% of my audience went to digital downloads, I'd wind up with a lot of unsold CDs, and again, would not be able to justify producing more. And for me, that would be the end of it. I'm not going to pay for recording and mixing and mastering and not have something in my hands when I'm done. I can't afford to produce CDs in units of less than 1,000—and with full "to get this, you must buy physical" buy-in, it still took four years for Stars Fall Home to sell out.

Cover songs.

None of my cover song licenses include digital rights. All my albums would be missing pieces if I put them up for digital download.

And so...

I know that this can create bottlenecks. I know that physical disks come with shipping costs, and that sometimes vendors run out. I know that I'm losing business. These are choices that I made, for the reasons listed above, and while they may be wrong choices, they are mine, and I'm sticking with them.

Thank you.

I'm Guest of Honor at NORWESCON, in beautiful Seattle, Washington! It's time for fun with crows, evergreens, and rain! If you're planning to be in the area, here's where you can find me throughout the weekend:

Thursday.

5:00pm, Guest of Honor Banquet. I am not on the menu! But I believe banquet tickets are still available, and you can put food in your face. Yum!

7:00pm, Opening Ceremonies. We are gonna open the shit out of this convention.

Friday.

1:00pm, Reading. I have copies of Sparrow Hill Road, and I'm not afraid to open them...

3:00pm, Feminism in Fandom. Let's play Bingo!

5:00pm, Lifetime Members' Banquet. Food. Again.

8:30pm, Vixy & Tony concert. Come see the ever-amazing Vixy & Tony in concert with Betsy Tinney and Sunnie Larsen, as well as musical aid from yours truly.

10:00pm (roughly), my concert. I'll be honest here: it's basically the same set-up. There's not going to be a hard line between us so much as "first set list is finished, we pause to pee, second set list begins." I highly recommend attending both. I'll have CDs, T-shirts, and posters for sale.

Saturday.

1:00pm, autograph session. I'll sign shit!

5:00pm, Q&A. Come with your Qs, I'll show you my As.

Sunday.

4:00pm, Closing Ceremonies. Find out who next year's guests will be! Watch this year's guests try not to pass out on the table! Good times.

Hope to see you there!

Filk Continental happens in Germany. It happens in a castle. It is one of the only filk cons I have never attended, because it is very far away, and up until recently, I have had very limited vacation time.

It's still far away. But this year, I'm going...and I'm going as their Special Guest! Yes! After a year off, Filk Continental is gloriously returning, with Vixy & Tony as their Guests of Honor, and me as their Special Guest. A German appearance! A fantastic party! A glorious time!

October 3rd through 5th: the website and details are here: http://www.filkcontinental.de/fc/home/index.php.

I'm so excited!

How about a celebration of his evil works, and the evil works of others? Introducing the latest album from awesome-tastic filk rock band, Ookla the Mok, vs. Evil.

A little background:

Ookla the Mok has been through a couple of incarnations, but has always included Adam English and Rand Bellavia. Their first album, Less Than Art, is one of my all-time favorites. Their comic book themed album, Super Secret, is a filk classic. Both are absolutely worth picking up and adoring. Apart from all that, Rand is a friend of mine, and so when he asked if I wanted an early copy of vs. Evil, I pretty much shrieked, grabbed, and ran.

vs. Evil lacks of the deep emotional content of Less Than Art, but that's actually a good thing in this context, because it lets the true silliness of their subject matter shine. From "Evil I" through "Kang the Conqueror" and "The Lizard," this is a celebration of the mad scientists and evil bastards of comic books and movies. The song "Mwahaha" could play over one of Megamind's exploits and no one would bat an eye. It's awesome.

Here is a link to the album:

http://www.ooklathemok.com/vsevil.php

Here is a wholehearted endorsement of the album:

"vs. Evil warms me to the bottom of my black predator's heart." —me.

Here is a death ray.

Draw your own conclusions.

A wonderful fundraiser has been put together in the name of my beloved friend, Jay Lake, who is currently battling a recurrence of his cancer. The fundraiser is at http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/Sequence-a-Science-Fiction-Writer/38705

To quote the description text:

"Jay Lake is an award-winning American author of ten science fiction novels and over 300 short stories. He is also one of more than a million Americans who have colon cancer. Diagnosed in April, 2008, Jay's cancer has progressed from a single tumor to metastatic disease affecting the lung and liver, recurring after multiple surgeries and chemotherapy courses, and multiplying from single tumor presentations to multiple tumors presentations. Jay is now in his fourth round of chemotherapy, but it's not clear that it's working, and his doctors have little to go on in terms of advising further courses of treatment for him. In short, things are not looking good for Jay. Not at all.

However, a new technology is becoming available—one that may offer his doctors a better option for treating the cancer. We're trying to raise funds to allow Jay to have whole genome sequencing. There is a small possibility that the results of such a test, which is more comprehensive than conventional genetic testing of tumors, may suggest a treatment path that Jay's doctor's may not have considered, and that could be life saving. It's a really small chance, and Jay knows that.

For this fundraiser, we have asked some science fiction and fantasy writers to donate an "Act of Whimsy" which they will share with the community as we reach milestones in our fundraising."

My act of whimsy? DISNEY MAGIC, BITCHES. I have promised an undisclosed act of filking, and here it is: I, and an assortment of the ever-rotating members of my mix and match band, will perform and record a cover of the Disney song of your choice in honor of Jay Lake. Animated movie? Musical? Live action classic? Phineas and Ferb? The possibilities, and the horrors, are endless. "Wreck It Wreck-It Ralph," "Age of Not Believing," "Rollercoaster," "That's How You Know"...whatever.

But first, we gotta pick a song. So! If you have donated ANY AMOUNT, go ahead and comment here with the name of the Disney song YOU want to hear. If the song you want has already been commented, do it again, as I will be using the random number generator to pick a song tomorrow afternoon at 5pm PST. I will NOT tell you what song has been chosen. ONLY TERROR WILL TELL. (Actual recording will have to wait until this cold gives me back my voice.)

This is honor system, guys; please only comment if you've donated, but I won't chase you down demanding proof.

GAME ON!

I am home from Chicago (again), and fighting my way out from the massive piles of paperwork and detritus that built up while I was at Windycon. I had a fantastic time, and I got to rock the house with one of my favorite temporary backing bands, Dead Sexy, which consisted of Wild Mercy, the Suttons, and Dr. Mary Crowell. Seriously, I am the luckiest girl in the world.

As is the custom around here, I now present the Windycon set list, with arrangement notes. It was a great show, and our song choices went as follows:

1. "Counting Crows." (Seanan, vocals; Debbie, Brenda, vocals; Bill, Barry, guitar; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, Sally, Debbie, percussion; Jen, bass.)
2. "The Sealskin and the Story and the Sky." (Seanan, vocals; Debbie, Brenda, vocals; Bill, Barry, guitar; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, Sally, Debbie, percussion; Jen, bass.)
3. "How Much Salt?" (Seanan, Debbie, vocals; Barry, guitar; Mary, piano; Bill, mandolin; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, Sally, percussion; Jen, bass.)
4. "Ten Years." Talis Kimberley cover. (Seanan, vocals; Barry, Bill, guitar; Mary, piano; Jen, harp; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, Debbie, Sally, percussion.)
5. "Fly Little Bird." (Seanan, Barry, Debbie, Jen, Sally, vocals.)
6. "Mother of the Crows." (Seanan, vocals; Mary, piano; Bill, Barry, guitar; Sally, creepy thunder noises; Brenda, percussion.)
7. "Silent Hill." (Seanan, vocals; Mary, piano; Sally, creepy thunder noises.)
8. "Landslide." Fleetwood Mac cover. (Seanan, Mary, Brenda, Debbie, Jen, vocals; Bill, Barry, guitar; Amy, fiddle; Mary, piano; Brenda, Sally, Debbie, percussion; Jen, bass.)
9. "Dare to Dream." (Seanan, vocals; Bill, Barry, guitar; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, Sally, Debbie, percussion; Jen, bass.)
10. "Burn It Down." Vixy and Tony cover. (Seanan, vocals; Bill, Barry, guitar; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, Sally, Debbie, percussion; Jen, bass.)
9. "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." (Seanan, Jen, vocals; Bill, Barry, guitar; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, Sally, Debbie, percussion; Jen, bass.)
10. "My Story Is Not Done." (Seanan, vocals; Bill, Barry, guitar; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, Sally, Debbie, percussion; Jen, bass.)

The bridge for "Wicked Girls":

Brenda beats bodhrans and Vixy's run off with the fairies,
And Debbie will pour you red wine pressed from sweet poisoned berries.
Jen poses riddles and Mary plays tricks,
While Sally makes music by banging with sticks,
And the rules that we live by are simple and clear...

As always: "Counting Crows," "How Much Salt?" "Mother of the Crows," "My Story Is Not Done," and "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves" are on Wicked Girls. "Silent Hill" is on Red Roses and Dead Things. "Fly Little Bird" is on Pretty Little Dead Girl (out of print).

"Ten Years" has not yet been recorded, but you should check out Talis Kimberley's latest album, Queen of Spindles. "Burn It Down" has not yet been recorded, but you should check out Vixy and Tony's latest album, Thirteen.

"The Seal Skin and the Story and the Sky" and "Dare to Dream" have not yet been recorded.

Huge thanks to the sound crew, to the Windycon filk programming department, and to all my wonderful musicians, who uplift me to a level I could never reach without them. I am honored, I am grateful, and I am going back to bed.

I believe we've discussed this before, but: in the filk community, there is a man by the name of Bob Kanefsky. He is also a verb. To "be Kanef'd" is to have one of your songs gripped in the white-hot maw of his evil genius, chewed up, and spat out as something entirely different. If he and Weird Al Yankovic got into gonzo parody battle (probably in an abandoned warehouse somewhere, with lots of exposed beams and weirdly good lighting), Kanef would win with subtlety and horrifyingly accurate internal rhyme.

To be Kanef'd is a rite of passage in the filk community. It is the announcement that yes, you have made it as a songwriter; yes, you have created something good enough to be worth tinkering with.

The first time I was Kanef'd, I like to've died. Literally—I couldn't breathe. And as with most creative people, he's only improved since then. At the Circus on Saturday night, he launched a new parody at me, using Vixy and Tony as his delivery mechanism.

"I get paid to write a fairy tale:
Tinkerbell’s detective daughter,
Fourteen years of unread mail,
Like a fish out of the water..."

Oh, yeah. He went there.

"Deadline: About the Author" is set to the tune of "My Story Is Not Done," and contains spoilers for/references to the Newsflesh trilogy, the Toby Daye books, and Discount Armageddon. And it is hysterical.

Bob Kanefsky, I salute you.

I shall have my revenge.

I'm a little under the weather (and totally exhausted) following Chicon 7, the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention, but that doesn't mean that I get to neglect everything forever. More's the pity. I had a wonderful time, when I wasn't a giant vibrating ball of stress, and I am remain honored and delighted by all the great things people said and did in my presence.

As is the custom around here, I now present the Chicon set list, with arrangement notes. It was a great show, and our song choices went as follows:

1. "The Sealskin and the Story and the Sky." (Seanan, vocals; Vixy Dockrey, vocals; Tony Fabris, guitar; Mary Crowell, piano; Betsy Tinney, cello; Amy McNally, fiddle; Brenda Sutton, bodhran.)
2. "Counting Crows." (Seanan, vocals; Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Mary, piano; Betsy, cello; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, bodhran.)
3. "Mama Said." (Seanan, vocals; Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Mary, piano; Betsy, cello; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, coconut shells.)
4. "The Ghost of Lilly Kane." (Seanan, vocals; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
5. "Dear Gina." (Seanan, creepy vocals; Vixy, extra creepy vocals; Mary, creepy piano; Betsy, creepy cello; Amy, creepy fiddle.)
6. "Still Catch the Tide." Talis Kimberley cover. (Seanan, vocals; Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Mary, piano; Betsy, cello; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, bodhran.)
7. "Dare to Dream." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Mary, piano; Betsy, cello; Amy, fiddle.)
8. "Tanglewood Tree." Dave Carter cover. (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Betsy, cello; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, bodhran.)
9. "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Mary, piano; Betsy, cello; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, bodhran.)
10. "My Story Is Not Done." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Mary, piano; Betsy, cello; Amy, fiddle; Brenda, bodhran.)

ENCORE:

1. "The Seal Skin and the Story and the Sky." Arrangement as above; we did it again for Cat Valente, who had missed the start of the set.
2. "Archetype Cafe." Talis Kimberley cover. (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Mary, piano; Betsy, cello; Amy, fiddle.)

I did not actually get a written copy of the "Wicked Girls" bridge. I'm sorry! But I'm sure it was lovely.

As always: "Counting Crows," "Mama Said," "The Ghost of Lilly Kane," "Tanglewood Tree," "My Story Is Not Done," and "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves" are on Wicked Girls. "Still Catch the Tide" is on Stars Fall Home (out of print). "Dear Gina" is on Red Roses and Dead Things.

"Archetype Cafe" appears on Talis Kimberley's album of the same name, currently available on CD Baby. "Tanglewood Tree" also appears on the Dave Carter and Tracy Grammar album of the same name, currently available from retailers everywhere.

"The Seal Skin and the Story and the Sky" and "Dare to Dream" have not yet been recorded.

Huge thanks to the sound crew, to the Chicon 7 filk programming department, and to all my wonderful musicians, who uplift me to a level I could never reach without them. I am honored, I am grateful, and I am going back to bed.

Wicked Girls: the shirt.

The shirts have arrived from the printer, and they're perfect! Well. Most of the shirts have arrived from the printer: I'd say 95% of the shirts have arrived from the printer, and the last 5% are on back-order but should be with me very soon. And yes, I do mean "with me." Right now, the shirts are a huge stack of boxes in my living room, where the cats eye them with suspicion, because they dislike sealed boxes.

Why are the boxes sealed? The boxes are sealed because we're waiting for the mailing envelopes to arrive, and because we'd like to ship the darker colored shirts without a massive supply of bonus Maine Coon and Siamese hair this time. It's a wacky idea, I know, but work with me here. We've scheduled a packing party after Worldcon, to be held in a cat hair-free location, and will be trying to stuff literally every shirt into an envelope in a single evening. Mailing will commence immediately afterward.

I cannot take requests for early shipping right now, as that would require opening all the boxes and digging through all the shirts to find the right one. And then the cat hair precautions would be for naught. (Also because I'm in final prep for Worldcon, so I'm a little distracted, and only the Great Pumpkin knows what I would actually stuff into your envelope. Maybe it would be a T-shirt. Maybe it would be teeth. Who knows? Not me.)

But soon!

Wicked Girls: the CD.

The reprinted CDs have arrived from Oasis, and they're gorgeous. We fixed the typos from the first run (specifically the misspelling of "Carnival" on the back, and the spelling of Brian's last name throughout). The album is back in stock at CD Baby, at least for the moment; I shipped them 29 copies, and they're already down to 14, after having it in stock for a day. So if you've been waiting to get a copy of your very own, this would be a great time to order, since I have no idea when I'll be in a position to mail them a restock.

Basically, I am locked in a never-ending battle with the post office, and the post office is winning.

And that's the news.

Evil pie!

We open today with Paul Goat Allen's review of the entire Newflesh trilogy, which he calls "an instant classic." He also says, "The narrative supremacy of this trilogy is unquestionable: both Feed and Deadline were nominated for the Hugo Award (in 2011 and 2012, respectively)—and Blackout is arguably the strongest of the three!"

I do not have words for how happy this review makes me. It...if just one person feels this way, I did it right. And that's amazing.

Meanwhile, Calliope's Domain has posted a review of Discount Armageddon, and says, "The writing of this book definitely had a lighter, funner tone than Ms. McGuire's October Daye series that, in my opinion, really let stand out. Heck, if not for her name on the cover, I never would have guessed the same author wrote both series; a true accomplishment, I think, for any author writing multiple series." That is a huge compliment. Thank you so much.

MiB Reviews has reviewed Blackout, and says, "One of the great assets that the Newsflesh trilogy has is the way that every book is a different type of story. Atop the overused backdrop of the zombie apocalypse, we have a novel about a conspiracy to sabotage a political campaign by a fanatic from the point of view of a calm, seasoned journalist; an action-packed romp against impossible odds where the villains just can't help but to blow everything up; and now we have a story where simply surviving and living in peace requires helping genetic experiments escape from labs and uncovering the biggest government conspiracy in US history. There might be another author who's blended zombies and one of these genres together so seamlessly, but I doubt that anyone else has done so as well, or done so three times." This is what winning looks like!

Sigrid Ellis has posted a review of Wicked Girls that calls the album "Hugo-Award-worthy" and says "This is the engagement that makes our beloved fantasy and science fiction world bigger, braver, and stronger for the future. And it’s a good album, besides. Making comparisons to other artists is tricky, because not everyone likes the same things I like. But I found—and this is high compliment—that the lyrics reminded me of a sort of cross between the poetry of John M. Ford and the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim. Bleak and cynical and stupid-stubbornly hopeful, my favorite kind of thing." I...oh my sweet Great Pumpkin. I am so touched.

Tom Knapp rounds out today's roundup with a review of When Will You Rise?, about which he says, "Grant, in just over a hundred pages, creates a fully realized disaster, and readers will understand the science behind it. It's a short, punchy book that makes you want to read more." Everybody dies!

That's it for right now. Thank you to all readers, and all reviewers, whether I find and link your review or not. I am so honored.

Life is good.

I'm starting to wake up after the sheer awesomeness of Confluence 2012, where I appeared as their combo Author Guest and Filk Guest. I am the peanut butter cup of cool! I had a wonderful time in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the only city to greet me at the airport with a full-sized T. Rex skeleton. These people know how to party. I ate great food, met great people, hung out with Tamora Pierce, Michelle Sagara, and Jonathan Maberry, and basically partied like it was 2399 and human sacrifice had just been legalized on Jupiter's second moon.

I remain totally grateful to have been Confluence's Guest of Honor. It was an honor, and I had a fantastic time. The Confluence set list, with arrangement* notes, was as follows:

1. "The Sealskin and the Story and the Sky." (Seanan, vocals; Rand Bellavia, guitar; Gary Ehrlich, djembe; Kathleen Sloan, shaky things.)
2. "Counting Crows." (Seanan, vocals; Rand Bellavia, guitar; Gary Ehrlich, djembe; Kathleen Sloan, vocals.)
3. "Mama Said." (Seanan, vocals; Rand Bellavia, guitar; Gary Ehrlich, eggs; Kathleen Sloan, vocals.)
4. "Modern Mystic." (Seanan, vocals; Rand Bellavia, guitar; Gary Ehrlich, djembe; Kathleen Sloan, vocals.)
5. "Phantoms of Summer." (Seanan, vocals; Gary Ehrlich, guitar; Rand Bellavia, guitar; Cat Faber, mandolin; Kathleen Sloan, vocals.)
6. "In the Foam." (Seanan, vocals.)
7. "Dear Gina." (Seanan, vocals; Rand Bellavia, guitar; Gary Ehrlich, djembe; Kathleen Sloan, vocals.)
8. "Maybe It's Crazy." (Seanan, vocals; Cat Faber, mandolin; Gary Ehrlich, guitar; Cat and Rand, maniacal laugh.)
9. "What A Woman's For." (Seanan, vocals; Rand Bellavia, guitar; Gary Ehrlich, tamborine; Kathleen Sloan, vocals.)
10. "Evil Laugh." (Seanan, vocals; Cat Faber, mandolin; Gary Ehrlich, guitar; Kathleen Sloan, vocals and shaky things.)
11. "Burn It Down" (Vixy & Tony cover). (Seanan McGuire, vocals; Rand Bellavia, guitar; Gary Ehrlich, djembe.)
12. "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." (Seanan, vocals; Rand Bellavia, guitar; Gary Ehrlich, djmebe; Kathleen Sloan, Cat Faber, Judi Miller, vocals.)
13. "My Story Is Not Done." (Seanan, vocals; Cat Faber, mandolin; Rand Bellavia, guitar; Gary Ehrlich, guitar; Kathleen Sloan, shaky things; everyone on stage, vocals.)

The bridge for "Wicked Girls" was:

Mandy's a pirate, and Judi signs songs for the fairies,
While Deborah will pour you red wine pressed from sweet poisoned berries.
Dee poses riddles, while Erin plays tricks,
And Kaia builds towers from brambles and sticks...

As always: "Counting Crows," "Mama Said," "My Story Is Not Done," and "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves" are on Wicked Girls. "Evil Laugh" is on Stars Fall Home (out of print). "Modern Mystic" and "Phantoms of Summer" are on Pretty Little Dead Girl (out of print). "Maybe It's Crazy," "Dear Gina," and "What A Woman's For" are on Red Roses and Dead Things.

"The Seal Skin and the Story and the Sky," "In the Foam," and "Burn It Down" have not yet been recorded.

Again, I am so very grateful to the Confluence concom for having me. I had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to go back.

(*It was a big band and a lot of skin-of-our-teeth arrangement, so I may get some of my instrumentation notes wrong. I will fix if this is pointed out to me, and mean absolutely no offense of any kind. I am simply a frazzled blonde.)

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

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

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

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

Amy's album!

I'm trying not to be the all-Hugos, all-the-time channel right now (believe me, it's hard), but there is something I really wanted to talk about, and that's my nomination in the Best Related Works category. Wicked Girls, the CD I released in January 2011, has been nominated for the brass ring. This is the first time a single-artist filk CD has been nominated for the Hugo Awards...except for where it's not a single-artist CD. My name may be the only thing on the cover, but it's not the only name that was involved with the project. And that's what makes this so amazing. Because Wicked Girls is the thing I did with some of the people I love best in all this world, and I think that it shows. I really do.

This is the album where half the songs were written specifically so Vixy could sing them with me, or specifically for Amy's fiddle breaks. This is the album where my "I love you more than fairy tales" songs for my friends all got recorded, "Wicked Girls" and "Mother of the Crows" and "The True Story Here" and so many others. It was an amazing experience, recording this. And I credit that entirely to the people who recorded it with me.

Vixy, who sings with me on almost every track. Amy, whose screaming electric fiddle is the first primary instrumentation on the album. Kristoph, who tolerantly listened to me trying to explain what I wanted, and then gave me a hundred times more. Mary, and Betsy, and Sooj, who took the time to come to the studio and make things amazing. They put the heartbeat into the songs. Paul, who I loved first and best as a guitarist. Tony, who makes magic with strings. Margaret, who harps like it's going to be banned tomorrow. And others, and others, and others, forever.

Tara designed the cover; Beckett designed the liner notes. Mia made the pendants that inspired almost half the songs. Deborah listened, and loved, and helped in a thousand ways, as did Kate, and Cat, and all the members of my scattered family.

After more than thirty years, the filk community has representation on the Hugo ballot, and it's for an album that contains members of Southern filk, Midwest filk, Pacific Northwest filk, and California filk. And that is amazing. I am amazed.

I think I'm going to be amazed for a while.

...and between myself-as-me and myself-as-Mira, I am on the ballot four times. Which is the first time a woman has ever been on the ballot four times in a single year. I'm nominated for...

Best Novel, Deadline.
Best Novella, Countdown.
Best Fancast, The SF Squeecast.
Best Related Work, Wicked Girls.

I am both insanely excited and paralyzed with fear, which means I feel sort of sick to my stomach. Thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times to everyone who nominated; it means the world to me, and we have made history this year.

Congratulations to all the nominees, especially Jim Hines (Best Fan Writer), Betsy Wolheim (Best Long Form Editor), the voice of Toby, Mary Robinette Kowall (Best Novella), Paul Cornell (Best Novelette) and my beloved Cat Valente (Best Novella). I'll post the full ballot soon, when I get over the twitching and the nausea.

Thank you so much. This is such an honor. I am so lucky. I can't stop crying.

Thank you.

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.)

I am fresh home from my appearance at Consonance, where I got to shake my money maker as their Ghostmistress, eat a lot of goat at the Indian buffet across the street—I mean a lot of goat—and generally have a wonderful time. I'll do a bit more of a proper con report later, although since I still haven't done my Disney World write-up, "later" may not be here for quite some time. Anyway, I thought I'd try posting the set list for my concert in a timely fashion for once, just to confuse people. My backing band was epic, and encompassed multitudes. I am so blessed.

I remain totally grateful to have been Consonance's Ghostmistress. It was an honor, and I had a fantastic time. The Consonance set list, with arrangement* notes, was as follows:

1. "The Sealskin and the Story and the Sky." (Seanan, vocals; Vixy Dockrey, Maya Bohnhoff, backing vocals; Tony Fabris, guitar; Brenda Sutton, bodhran; Teresa Powell, bass; Dr. Mary Crowell, piano; Amy McNally, fiddle.)
2. "The Ghost of Lilly Kane." (Seanan, vocals; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
3. "Mama Said." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Brenda, coconuts; Amy, fiddle; Mary, piano; Teresa, bass.)
4. "Dare to Dream." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
5. "Small Mended Corners" (Talis Kimberley cover). (Seanan, Mary, Vixy, vocals; Maya, backing vocals; Tony, guitar; Amy, fiddle.)
6. "Rain King/Still Catch the Tide" (Counting Crows/Talis Kimberley cover). (Seanan, vocals; Vixy, Mary, Maya, backing vocals; Jeff Bohnhoff, guitar; Brenda, bodhran; Teresa, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle; Gwen Knighton, harp.)
7. "Landslide" (Fleetwood Mac cover). (Seanan, vocals; Mary, Vixy, Teresa, Maya, backing vocals; Teresa, bass; Jeff, guitar; Amy, fiddle.)
8. "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Brenda, bodhran; Teresa, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
9. "My Story Is Not Done." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Brenda, bodhran; Teresa, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)

ENCORE: "Evil Laugh." (Seanan, Vixy, Amy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Teresa, bass; Mary, piano.)

The bridge for "Wicked Girls" was standard for a change, because we are unpredictable like that.

As always: "The Ghost of Lilly Kane," "Mama Said," "My Story Is Not Done," and "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves" are on Wicked Girls. "Evil Laugh" and "Still Catch the Tide" are on Stars Fall Home (out of print). "Small Mended Corners" is on Talis Kimberley's amazing Archetype Cafe. "Rain King" is on August and Everything After by the Counting Crows.

"The Seal Skin and the Story and the Sky" and "Dare to Dream" have not yet been recorded.

Again, I am so very grateful to the Consonance concom for having me. I had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to go back.

(*It was a big band and a lot of skin-of-our-teeth arrangement, so I may get some of my instrumentation notes wrong. I will fix if this is pointed out to me, and mean absolutely no offense of any kind. I am simply a frazzled blonde.)

Psst. Guess where I'm going to be this weekend. If you guessed Consonance, Northern California's very own filk convention, you're right! Here is the website:

http://www.consonance.org/

I am their Ghostmistress! Or maybe their Toastmistress. Hmm. I'm not quite sure, but I guess I'll find out when I get there, since they'll either hand me a proton pack or a microphone (vote ghosts, ghosts are awesome). Regardless, I have a concert Friday night at 9:00 PM! I'm going to be performing with some of my favorite people: Vixy and Tony, Amy McNally, Dr. Mary Crowell, Jeff Bohnhoff, Brenda Sutton...it's going to be amazing. And you will not believe this set list. I barely believe it. It's like whoa.

It's a weekend packed with awesome. Brooke has a concert! And Amy! And the Three Weird Sisters, all four of them (it's a thing)! And I have a signing Saturday morning! You should totally try to be there. It's going to be amazing.

Yay, Consonance!

I am home from Conflikt! I got up at 4:08 am this morning in order to catch my commuter flight back to San Francisco, and managed to stay awake long enough to read most of the way through Graveminder by Melissa Marr, after finishing Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear. And this is why Seanans always travel with lots and lots of reading material. Nothing brings on insomnia like having nothing to read.

I'd like to say that it was a good convention, but I'll be honest: I don't know. For me, it was a series of charms strung on a silken cord, and some of them were brilliant, and some of them were bright, and some of them could have used a spot of polish, and very few of them went together in a logical way, because that is what a convention while already exhausted and overworked looks like. I had fun. I am awake enough to be quite sure of that.

But oh, there were amazing things. Talis came, white horse girl all the way across the water, one of the oldest denizens of the Babylon Wood, and she sang "Still Catch the Tide" and "Ten Years" in her concert, and I cried like a very crying thing, as did Vixy. There are very few people in this world who can break my heart like Talis can, or who I love half so much for doing it. And she had her new album! Queen of Spindles, and she put it in my hand like a promise or a prayer, and I listened to it all the way home.

Pin-trading with Jovanie and Anne, and stealing Anne's Companion Cube pillow over and over again. Dinner with Brooke and Judi and Ryan, followed by chocolate books. Lunch with Jennifer. Fringe with Ryan and rooming with Brooke and going to Old Navy (as always). The Suttons, tearing up the stage, and Sunnie's Mama Gitka, and Katie Tinney writing the "Wicked Girls" parody I think I shall everafter love most of them all. And rain, and 7-11, and hugs, and friends, and home. I went home this weekend. I will go back soon.

Perhaps then I will be able to stay.

So this is my charm bracelet of a weekend. It flashes lovely in the light, and I can work the clasp even when I'm tired. Soon I'll go to my bed, and my cats, and my dreams of the wood, but for now, I am still partway on a plane, and I am very very far away from home.

How I want to be right now:

"OH YEAH I AM GOING TO SEATTLE I AM GOING TO ROCK SOME HOUSES AND MELT SOME FACES AND MAYBE IGNITE THE BIOSPHERE WOO!"

How I am right now:

"I need a nap. Or maybe some more caffeine...yeah. Caffeine would probably help. You know. If there are no naps to be had. Can I have that nap instead? Wait, I have to get on a plane? What? Is this optional? Can't I teleport? How about the Jaunt? Is that up and running yet? I promise to let you sedate me..."

So yeah. I am bound for Conflikt, where a) I will have a wonderful time, even as b) I will work my little blonde butt off, toting my laptop from room to room like the Ghost of Deadlines Past. There may be a certain amount of grumbling darkly and threatening to ignite the biosphere. Good times.

The cats did not approve of the reappearance of The Dread Suitcase; Thomas even tried to barricade me in my room this morning. He failed, on account of he may be a bonsai yeti, but I am a human, and hence much larger than he is. But hey, good show him for trying. Lilly just looked despondent, like she had been waiting for this day ever since I returned from Disney World. Sometimes I think Lilly is the smartest of the cats.

I don't know how much internet, if any, I'll have over the weekend; please don't burn down the internet while I'm gone, I'm still using it.

See you in Seattle!

This past weekend, I was in Ohio for OVFF (the Ohio Valley Filk Festival). I go as often as I can, usually every year, and I always have a wonderful time. This year, I was honored to be represented twice on the 2011 Pegasus Ballot, once for "Best Bad-Ass Song," for "Evil Laugh," and once for Best Song, for "Wicked Girls." My beloved Amy McNally, meanwhile, was on the ballot in the "Best Performer" category. It was an exciting year.

It was also a brutally hard ballot. Voting for the Pegasus Awards is never easy, but it's usually a little easier on my heart than this. There was absolutely nothing bad on that ballot, and nothing that I could even really say "well, that's perceptibly weaker than the things around it" about. It was all amazing. The only thing I was sure of was that I couldn't predict the results; the only result I was really praying to the Great Pumpkin for was in the Best Performer category, where I desperately wanted Amy to win.

Best Romantic Song was the first announced, and went to "As I Am" by Heather Dale. We all clapped and cheered, and laughed at her pole-axed acceptance. Best Bad-Ass Song was the second announced, and went to...me. And my dinosaurs. I sort of staggered to the front, blinked a lot, said dinosaurs were cool, and went away. My table clapped and cheered. Best Writer/Composer, S.J. Tucker.

And then...Best Performer, Amy McNally. My table, which had, again, clapped politely when I won, EXPLODED. Literally. Screaming, shouting, applause. Amy wasn't able to attend this year, so Brooke, Vixy, and I went up, announced that we were Amy's Angels, and accepted the SHIT out of that award.

I am so proud of her.

Best Classic Filk Song went to "The Phoenix" by Julia Ecklar. More clapping and cheering. And then Best Song...

Best Song went to "Wicked Girls." Oh, my heart.

I have coveted that award. I won't pretend that I haven't. I've wanted it, very badly, from the day I understood what it was. It is the ultimate "you are an awesome songwriter and you have written an awesome song" of filk, and I wanted it. I did not cry, but only, really, because I was still in shock and full of delight over Amy's win. We are wicked. We are fair. We can all of us save ourselves.

The winners for 2011:

Best Filk Song: "Wicked Girls" by Seanan McGuire
Best Classic Filk Song: "The Phoenix" by Julia Ecklar
Best Performer: Amy McNally
Best Writer/Composer: S. J. Tucker
Best Badass Song: "Evil Laugh" by Seanan McGuire
Best Romantic Song: "As I Am" by Heather Dale

Some interesting facts:

This is the first time the entire Pegasus slate has been won by women. No co-writers were harmed in the granting of these awards. Go team Wicked Girls!

Amy McNally's win marks the first time someone who is primarily an instrumentalist has been awarded Best Performer. So well-deserved.

Julia Ecklar won the John W. Campbell Award in 1991. I won it in 2010. This is the first time, ever, that both Best Filk Song and Best Classic Filk Song have been won by professional authors.

It was a very good year. Thank you to everyone who voted, and thank you to everyone who believed that we could fly.

Oh, and Amy? Congratulations, sweetheart.

I am still sick, which means that my attendance at this weekend's OVFF may be in question. I'm still planning as if I'll be better in time, and so I have a very important question to put to the floor:

Which of my two otherwise identical dresses should I pack for the Pegasus Banquet? The orange, or the green?

It's been a week since my guest slot at Conclave—how time does fly!—and I'm almost back to a state of semi-normal. Michigan was beautiful, and filled with cornfields, which is always a good way to endear yourself to me. (Also endearing: the number of truly awesome meals I was taken for during the convention. I usually under-eat at cons, resulting in low blood sugar and a look of puzzled misery. This con had the opposite problem, resulting in the strong desire to take a nice long nap.) This means that it's time to post the set list for my concert, accompanied with lyric links and helpful notations. My backing band was the truly awesome Wild Mercy, plus the lovely Dr. Mary Crowell. I am a very lucky girl.

I am so grateful to have been Conclave's Literary Guest of Honor. It was, to repeat myself a bit, a true honor, and I couldn't have had a better time. The Conclave set list, with arrangement* notes, was as follows:

1. "Counting Crows." (Seanan, vocals; Barry Childs-Helton, guitar; Sally Childs-Helton, drums; Jennifer Midkiff, bass; Debbie Gates, piano; Amy McNally, fiddle.)
2. "The Sealskin and the Story and the Sky." (Seanan, vocals; Barry, guitar; Sally, bodhran; Jennifer, harp; Dr. Mary Crowell, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
3. "How Much Salt?" (Seanan, Debbie, vocals; Barry, guitar; Sally, drums; Amy, fiddle; Mary, piano.)
4. "Take Advantage." (Seanan, vocals; Debbie, Jen, backing vocals; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle; Jen, harp; Barry, guitar; Sally, drums.)
5. "Build A Chain." (Seanan, vocals; Debbie, Jen, backing vocals; Debbie, piano; Amy, fiddle; Jen, harp; Barry, guitar; Sally, drums.)

BONUS: "The Ghost of Lilly Kane." (Seanan, vocals; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)

6. "Jack's Place." (Seanan, vocals; Debbie, Jen, backing vocals; Debbie, piano; Amy, fiddle; Jen, harp; Barry, guitar; Sally, drums.)
7. "Fly Little Bird." (Seanan, Barry, Sally, Debbie, Jen, Amy, vocals.)
8. "Still Catch the Tide" (Talis Kimberley cover). (Seanan, vocals; Barry, guitar; Sally, drums; Debbie, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle; Jen, harp.)
9. "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." (Seanan, Jen, vocals; Barry, guitar; Sally, bodhran; Debbie, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
10. "My Story Is Not Done." (Seanan, vocals; Barry, guitar; Sally, drums; Jen, harp; Debbie, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)

The bridge for "Wicked Girls" was standard, except for...

"Marnie serves scotches, and Mary plays tricks,
While Amy calls music from wires and sticks,
And the rules that we live by are simple and clear..."

As always: "Counting Crows," "How Much Salt?," "Jack's Place," "The Ghost of Lilly Kane," "My Story Is Not Done," and "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves" are on Wicked Girls. "Take Advantage," and "Still Catch the Tide" are on Stars Fall Home (out of print). "Fly Little Bird" is on Pretty Little Dead Girl.

"The Seal Skin and the Story and the Sky" and "Build a Chain" have not yet been recorded.

Again, I am so very grateful to the Conclave concom for having me. I had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to go back.

(*It was a big band and a lot of skin-of-our-teeth arrangement, so I may get some of my instrumentation notes wrong. I will fix if this is pointed out to me, and mean absolutely no offense of any kind. I am simply a frazzled blonde.)

So I am considering—not yet wedded to, but considering—re-releasing Stars Fall Home, since it's currently all out of print and stuff, and that's no fun. But being me, I'm not willing to do this if I don't feel that I am in some way improving things with a re-release. This means a) that I will probably re-record "Sycamore Tree," to resolve some issues I have with the vocals, and b) include at least one new song, for the sake of, you know, making my lizard brain not freak out about spending time on something I've already done.

This is the link to my songbook. Yes, this link, right here.

If I were to record one song that had not previously been recorded, what would you want it to be? Defend your choice! With two caveats:

* No parodies.
* Nothing mad science or horror. That will eventually be a second theme album.

Tell me what to do!

Two orders of business!

First, CD Baby has confirmed receipt of the Red Roses and Dead Things restock. Perfect for Halloween or any other time of year, this is my mad science and horror album. It's not out of print, but it's getting harder to find. Order now if you want to be sure of getting a copy in the next few months.

Secondly, I've re-stacked the CD shelf, which meant sorting and doing inventory on all albums. After putting everything back where it belongs, this is what I have left:

252 copies of Red Roses and Dead Things.
197 copies of Wicked Girls.
12 copies of Pretty Little Dead Girl.

Please be aware that in each case, the remaining stock represents the entire print run of the album. All three can still be acquired from filk dealers, but I'm looking at selling out of Pretty Little Dead Girl in 2011, and probably selling out of Wicked Girls in the same time period.

Wicked Girls will be reprinted when it sells out, but I don't know how long that will take. Ditto Red Roses and Dead Things. Pretty Little Dead Girl was a convention album, and will NOT be reprinted.

This has been your CD updated for today.

Because people have been asking:

CD Baby is out of Red Roses and Dead Things, my mad science/horror theme album. I am mailing the restock for them today. If their normal cycle applies in this case (sometimes they're faster, sometimes they're slower), the CDs should be available on the website in about eight days. They're only asking for sixteen copies right now, so if you've been waiting for this album to be available again, you should probably watch the website.

Because people have also been asking:

There are now fewer than two hundred copies of Red Roses and Dead Things remaining. I will probably do a second printing of this one, because it's managed to sell out so fast, but that will have to wait until I have the money to do it (something which could take a while). If you wanted to get a copy, "sooner" is probably a better idea than "later."

Related:

Stars Fall Home is currently out of print. There are not currently any plans to reprint the album any time in the immediate future. It is not available as a download. I do not know of any filk dealers with stock at this time.

Pretty Little Dead Girl: Seanan McGuire and Friends Live at OVFF 2005 is about three hundred copies away from going out of print. This is the only currently available album with the songs "Sycamore Tree" and "Pretty Little Dead Girl."

Wicked Girls is about two hundred copies from selling out its first printing. This one will definitely be reprinted, but I have no way of saying exactly when, or how many copies will be in the second run.

Most filk dealers have copies of my currently in-print albums; CD Baby has, or will have, copies available via their website.

Administration is hard. Let's have strawberry ice cream.

I am slammed, and so you're getting one of those dense little fudge-like blog posts where everything fits easily in your mouth and also, you probably don't want to eat the whole box. You're welcome. And so...

The Return of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show.

The Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show will be coming together again on October 1st, to blow the roof right off of Borderlands Books! It's going to be a party. This time, the lineup includes Vixy and Tony, Betsy Tinney, Katie Tinney, Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff, Paul Kwinn, and the always-awesome Beckett Gladney. Mia Nutick will be on hand, with pendants. Kate Secor will be on hand, with sticks. Come for the music, cupcakes, readings, raffles, and fun; stay to buy books and make the bookstore like me. Hooray, Circus!

Ashes of Honor.

The sixth Toby book is trekking right along, and is currently on-schedule to have a finished first draft by October 26th. I even have a progressive daily word count goal sheet to prove it. Once the book is done, it goes off to the Machete Squad and The Agent for review and severe physical harm, and I can really buckle down on Midnight Blue-Light Special, a few YA projects, and the next Mira Grant book. This is what we call "Seanan rewards herself for working by creating more work." This is also what we call "Seanan has no social life."

Social life.

Except that I do have a social life, honest! I'm flying to Seattle this weekend for a Counting Crows concert (yes I am flying to another state just for a concert DON'T JUDGE ME I LOVE THEM). The Pirates of Emerson are getting ready to re-open their annual haunted house park, and I'm very excited about that. And I'm already making sure to plan dinners and lunches with the friends I'm going to see during...

My fall convention schedule.

The first full weekend of October (7th-9th), I will be the Literary Guest of Honor at Conclave, in Romulus, Michigan. The weekend after, I will be appearing at the LitCrawl!, this time in the Borderlands Cafe. The weekend after that, I will be flying to Ohio for OVFF, where I will sing in the Pegasus Concert, share a room with Brooke, hug Vixy a lot, and wear a pretty dress.

And after that, I nap.

Too much TV.

All my fall shows are coming back on the air. Right now, as of this week, I'm watching Eureka, Warehouse 13, Alphas, Castle, NCIS, Glee, The New Girl, America's Next Top Model, Fringe, Haven, and Doctor Who. Some of these shows are ending for the season very soon. Others are just getting started. Still others have not yet made an appearance on the schedule. Thank the Great Pumpkin for Tivo.

Toys!

The spring line of Monster High dolls has just been announced. I have acquired the Modern Doll Collector's Convention Evangeline ("Soul Sweeping"), but not the centerpiece doll (which I want very much). I have arranged a proxy for the Halloween convention. I am, in short, insane. But wow, do I have lots of toys staring at you while you try to sleep.

Cats.

Insane.

"Wicked Girls" T-shirts.

At the printer now! Soon, I shall have them, and soon, we shall begin sorting out the shipping process. Since some of you did order them as gifts for the holiday season, I may try doing a "priority boarding" post, where I say "let us know if you need yours soon for any reason," and bump those people to the front of the queue. If I do this, however, I need to trust that only people with real need will ask; more than fifty such requests, and we won't be able to handle them, so no one will get out-of-order shipping. And the spreadsheet is really random, the order in which your request was placed has nothing to do with it.

...and that is all, for right now. More to come later.

I need a nap.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Archetype Cafe is available through CD Baby.

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

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

Love.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hooray hooray, the 2011 Pegasus ballot is live at last! And this is a good, good year.

The ballot for the 2011 Pegasus Awards for Excellence in Filking is now live for voting, and holy cheese, there are some awesome nominees this year! The ballot...

Best Filk Song

"Die Puppen (The Dolls)" by Eva Van Daele-Hunt.
"Joan" by Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps.
"Paper Worlds" by Talis Kimberley.
"Somebody Will" by Ada Palmer.
"Wicked Girls" by Seanan McGuire.

Best Classic Filk Song

"Gone Filkin'" by Tom Jeffers.
"Little Fuzzy Animals" by Frank Hayes.
"Nessie Come Up" by Dr. Jane Robinson.
"The Phoenix" by Julia Ecklar.
"Storm Dancing" by Tom Smith.

Best Performer

Amy McNally.
Playing Rapunzel.
Stone Dragons.
Toyboat.
Tricky Pixie.

Best Writer/Composer

Barry Childs-Helton.
Dr. Mary Crowell.
Phil Mills.
Ben Newman.
S. J. Tucker.

Best Badass Song

"Crispy Danish" by Andrew Ross.
"Evil Eyeball" by Sibylle Machat.
"Evil Laugh" by Seanan McGuire.
"My Brother, My Enemy" by Ada Palmer.
"Tough Titty Cupcakes" by Betsy Tinney.

Best Romantic Song

"As I Am" by Heather Dale.
"One Small Boat" by Marilisa Valtazanou.
"Rain On Berlin" by Eva Van Daele-Hunt.
"Starlight & Saxophone" by Tom Smith.
"Too Many Years" by Bill Roper.

I mean, just look at all that awesomesauce. The Best Song Category alone contains representatives from four nations (America, Canada, England, and Germany), and so many of my favorite people are on this ballot that it boggles the mind. It's like a big delicious biscuit of amazing, and I am overjoyed and honored to be on it. (Also, "Wicked Girls" is up against two of my favorite songs, "Paper Worlds" and "Joan." It's a good year to be a filker.)

The Pegasus homepage has all the song samples and lyrics you could need to educate yourself on some totally amazing music, and some totally amazing people. Check it out for fantastic!

So I just packed a restock of Red Roses and Dead Things and Pretty Little Dead Girl for CD Baby. In the process of doing so, I had to, you know, count the remaining stock. Bearing in mind that I have somewhere between ten and fifty of each title floating around the house, boxless and waiting to be found under a sofa or behind a bookshelf, I have remaining...

* One CD long box of Pretty Little Dead Girl (thirty copies). This means this CD is now officially on the verge of going out of print. It will not be reprinted.

* Seven CD long boxes of Red Roses and Dead Things (two hundred and ten copies). This is somewhat less urgent; I've probably got stock for the next year or so. After that, who knows? I recommend picking up a copy soon if you wanted one, since Stars Fall Home became unavailable shortly after dropping below two hundred. I may or may not reprint, depending on demand.

* Seven CD long boxes of Wicked Girls (two hundred and ten copies). That's...um. That's sort of awe-inspiring, really, when you consider that this album has been out for less than a year. Actually, scratch "awe-inspiring"; go with "terrifying." If you wanted a copy of the first pressing, this would be the time to get one. I'm almost certainly going to do a second run, since I want this to be available for at least two years, but how long that takes will be determined by my available funds.

All three albums are available through CD Baby; I'm mailing the restock on the two currently out of stock titles tomorrow. They are also available through your friendly neighborhood filk dealer.

And that's our status.

The CD Baby newsletter for April has gone out. They always highlight a few albums, including their titles and covers, along with "listen" links. It's a fun way to find new music, and filk albums never show up there.

Only Wicked Girls? Is their top seller for April. And they still have stock, so hopefully people will be able to listen and then order and then I will have fewer CDs sitting around waiting to be adopted.

So, um. I think this may be the first filk CD ever selected as a top seller.

Whoa.

That's all.

I am a filker.

It's an absolute statement of identity; it's been applicable for pretty much my entire life, even if I've only known what it meant since sometime in high school. I filk. I listen to filk. I love filk. It's a passionate, welcoming, supportive community of brilliant, talented, creative people, and I'm proud to call it one of my many homes.

For a long time, if you'd asked me who I wanted to grow up to be, as a lyricist, my answer would have been catsittingstill. Her melodies are delicate and complex, her lyrics are perfectly considered, and as the many people who had to listen to me wandering around singing "Annie" can testify, when her songs tell a story, it sticks with you.

All of which comes as background for why I screamed like a little girl when I found out she'd written songs about my books. Cat wrote songs about my books!!! That's like fulfilling one of the hidden win conditions of life!

The first, "Mayday," is about everyone's favorite Fetch (just ask her).

The second, "Oak and Ash and Rowan and Thorn," is a beautiful post-LE contemplation of events going all the way back to the first book (and was sung by Vixy at the book release party, for those of you who made it).

I win at life.

Squee.

This past Saturday was my fourth Toby-related book event at San Francisco's Borderlands Books, home of naked cats, tolerant employees, and, every six months or so, the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show. We've appeared in other locations, but Borderlands is the one we keep going back to; Borderlands is the home base for this particular flavor of insanity. Why? Because we like them.

This particular party was slated to start at six and run until nine, giving us three hours in which to sell books, answer questions, make music, and feed people vast quantities of sugar. We arrived at the bookstore en masse around four-thirty, while the prior event was tearing down, and toted ALL THE THINGS inside. Seriously, when we go into carnie mode, we're a scary mob of ALL THE THINGS. It looks like we're planning to actually move in. Wisely, people scattered; just as wisely, Kate (who met us at the bookstore) hauled me away to put food in me, since I'm about as much help during setup and tear-down as a Gila monster with a machine gun.

People began showing up around five-thirty, while we were in the midst of final touches, final placements, and soundcheck. Jeff ran our small but spunky sound system, while Kate worked the raffle table and ensured (along with Mom) that everyone got a ticket of their very own. Six o'clock hit, heralded by the arrival of my cupcakes, and we got that party started.

As always, the festivities were divided between music, Q&A, baked goods, and drawing prizes in our raffle. The questions were new and different, the raffle prizes were an awesome mix of standard and surprising (including some special additions by the bookstore, which made things even more spectacular), the cupcakes (from Cups and Cakes Bakery) were delicious, and the music was rocking. The set lists:

SET ONE:
1. "Thirteen." Michelle "Vixy" Dockrey, lead vocals, tambourine; Maya Bohnhoff, Seanan McGuire, backing vocals; Tony Fabris, guitar; Betsy Tinney, cello.
2. "Dear Gina." Seanan, lead vocals; Vixy, backing vocals; Tony, guitar; Betsy, creepy creepy cello.
3. "High Desert." Maya, lead vocals; Jeff Bohnhoff, guitar; Kristine Bohnhoff, backing vocals; Vixy, backing vocals; Betsy, cello.
4. "Pocket Man." Maya, vocals; Vixy, backing vocals; Jeff, guitar; Betsy, cello.
5. "We Can Be Anything." Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Betsy, cello.

SET TWO:
1. "Radio Free Luna." Maya, lead vocals; Vixy, backing vocals; Jeff, guitar; Tony, guitar; Betsy, cello.
2. "Manhattan Sleeps." Maya, Kristine, vocals; Vixy, backing vocals; Jeff, guitar; Betsy, cello.
3. "Tam Lin." Vixy, Maya, Seanan, vocals; Jeff, guitar; Tony, guitar; Betsy, cello; Vixy, djembe; Maya, shaker.
4. "Walmart." Maya, lead vocals; Vixy, backing vocals; Jeff, guitar; Betsy, cello; Vixy, tambourine.
5. "Oak and Ash and Rowan and Thorn." Vixy, lead vocals; Maya, backing vocals; Vixy, djembe.

SET THREE:
1. "Alligator in the House." Vixy, lead vocals; Maya, backing vocals; Tony, guitar; Betsy, kick-ass cello.
2. "Tanglewood Tree." Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Betsy, cello.
3. "Apprentice." Vixy, lead vocals; Maya, backing vocals; Jeff, Tony, guitar; Betsy, cello.
4. "Got to Fly." Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar.
5. "Wicked Girls." Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Betsy, cello.

"Thirteen" and "Apprentice" are on Vixy and Tony's first album, Thirteen.
"Dear Gina" is on Seanan's third album, Red Roses and Dead Things.
"High Desert" and "Radio Free Luna" are on Jeff and Maya's fourth album, Möbius Street.
"Pocket Man" is on Jeff and Maya's third album, Aliens Ate My Homework.
"Manhattan Sleeps" is on Jeff and Maya's second album, Manhattan Sleeps.
"Tam Lin" and "Alligator in the House" are on Tricky Pixie's first album, Mythcreants.
"Tanglewood Tree" and "Wicked Girls" are on Seanan's fourth album, Wicked Girls.
"Got to Fly" is on Marian Call's second album, Got to Fly.

A good time was had by all. We raised the roof; I signed more books in a single sitting than I ever have before, even at Comicon; the cupcakes lasted eight minutes, tops; nothing got broken. We're already making plans and getting our ducks in row for the next time that the Circus comes to town.

Thanks to everyone who attended, and to everyone who didn't...see you next time!

It's a Wicked Girls day here in sunny California, where I've just received the confirmation that Wicked Girls is now available for order on CDBaby.com. If you missed the pre-order period, or just need another copy, this is your chance! We're probably going to sell out their available stock pretty quickly, but that's okay; they'll ask me for more, which I will dispatch promptly, and showing them the level of demand will help to set the tempo of their restock requests.

Theodora Goss has written a beautiful contemplation on what it is to be a wicked girl. People I've never met are taking this up as a rallying cry, and that warms my heart and gives me hope.

Emily Gilman has also posted her contemplations on being wicked and lovely, and not living in fear, and these are two brave, bold women I've never met, talking about what it takes to fly.

Be brave. Be true. Fly.

That's all I'll ever ask of you.

ETA: CDBaby now says "out of stock," but will take requests anyway. That's fine. Go ahead and place your order now, and I should have a restock request from them by Monday, at which point they'll have more CDs, and I'll have less.

Welcome to the second, and hopefully final, portion of my not-a-con-report for Arisia. I really did have a wonderful time in Boston, snow and all, and I'm definitely going to be going back. Eventually. After I've had the opportunity to take a nice nap, and maybe watch a whole lot of really, really dumb television. Anyway, here are the summarized highlights (and lowlights), for your amusement and edification.

My candy corn hat! The Agent knows me too, too well, it seems, and when the time came to give me the last piece of my holiday gift, she led me to the dealer's hall and purchased me a felt candy corn hat from one of the local vendors. Yes. I now have a hat that looks like a piece of candy corn. TREMBLE WITH FEAR, MERE MORTALS. I wore this hat to almost every serious panel I had during the weekend, and proclaimed proudly that wearing it provided that I was a professional. I never said what kind of professional.

The Mad Science song circle! I didn't make it to very many filk events this year, sadly, because I was busy with other programming and also wound up spending most of Sunday vilely ill (more on this in a moment). But the Mad Science circle was awesome, and Ben Newman sprung a positively wicked new science parody on me. It was a very cool circle, and I'm so very glad I got to go.

Alice and Josh! My life is better when it contains large quantities of Alice, and since I had to leave my beloved Maine Coon in California, I supplemented diet of Alice with a local fan and acquaintance of mine from this blog. She and her husband took me to dinner, where I ate, unsurprisingly, shepherd's pie, and then she and I sat and talked for like an hour and a half while he ran off to a panel. It was a really nice, relaxing way to spend an evening, and I had a wonderful time. Since they didn't run screaming, I assume they did, too.

Meeting Toni! My friend Toni lives near Boston, and was able to come out to the convention on Saturday, transforming herself from "my Internet-only friend Toni" to "my friend Toni, whom I have met in real life." She brought her husband, who was witty and fun to talk to, and I brought Diana, who was witty and fun to talk to and bought me chicken fingers. There were exchanges of books and hugs, and life was very good. It's nice to have people transform from words on a screen into actual humans. It makes me happy.

The Guest Breakfast! Arisia had a special breakfast event on Sunday, where people could buy tickets to have a special, intimate breakfast with the Guests of Honor and Special Guests. Each of us had a table of our very own. Sadly for me, someone at the next table over was wearing a mango-based perfume, and the breakfast went rapidly from "yum yum, free fruit" to "quietly excusing myself, walking to the bathroom, vomiting copiously, and walking back to my table to resume being entertaining." I would become progressively sicker for most of the day. It was so much fun. My poor roommates had to deal with my basically being a creepy dead girl from a horror movie. How I try their patience.

Cat and Seanan strike back! Cat and I are getting pretty good at our urban fantasy girl version of "An Evening With Kevin Smith." Every time it happens, the crowd gets a little bigger, the questions get a little smoother, and our comfort levels get a little higher, which leads to, you know, more swearing, more craziness, and more references to Lord Byron's penis. It's a victory for everybody! This installment of the Cat-and-Seanan Show was pure hammered awesome, and we only had to decline one question, which is possibly a record. More impressively, I wasn't even able to walk without throwing up an hour before the panel. So this is what I do for love.

Better Off Ted! Diana and Cat introduced me to this show, and Cat's Netflicks account allowed us to wallow in it each night before bed. I now require the box sets. And maybe a meat blob.

Post-antibiotic science fiction gone wild! My final panel was on Monday morning, and was all about post-antibiotic science fiction. It turned into "Seanan defends her thesis on causative agents for the Black Death" for about twenty minutes, which seemed to be fun for everyone, if a little more mentally rigorous than I had wanted to be that early in the morning on the last day of a convention. I recommended not licking things as a way to avoid infection. You're welcome.

Flying home! Actually, the flight was pretty lousy. But my cats made up for it.

See you next time!

I am home from Georgia and Massachusetts! I am no longer stranded in the snowy South or New England! This is awesome. Also awesome: the traditional posting of the set list from my most recent filk convention, accompanied with lyric links and helpful notations. My backing band was a little unusual, since it was assembled at the Absolute Last Minute, with lots of awesome people stepping up to make sure that my guest of honor concert wasn't a total disaster. Big, big thanks to Dr. Mary Crowell, Amy McNally, Bill and Brenda Sutton, Dave Rood, and Jodi Krangle, for saving my bacon.

I am so grateful to have been GaFilk's Guest of Honor. It was, to repeat myself a bit, a true honor, and I couldn't have had a better time. The GaFilk set list, with arrangement* notes, was as follows:

1. "The Sealskin and the Story and the Sky." (Seanan McGuire, vocals; Bill Sutton, guitar; Brenda Sutton, bodhran; Dave Rood, bass; Dr. Mary Crowell, piano; Amy McNally, fiddle.)
2. "Counting Crows." (Seanan, vocals; Bill, guitar; Brenda, bodhran; Dave, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
3. "Mama Said." (Seanan, vocals; Bill, guitar; Brenda, coconut shells; Dave, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
4. "Mother of the Crows." (Seanan, vocals; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
5. "Still Catch the Tide" (Talis Kimberley cover). (Seanan, vocals; Jodi Krangle, backing vocals; Bill, guitar; Brenda, bodhran; Dave, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
6. "The Ghost of Lilly Kane." (Seanan, vocals; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
7. "Dear Gina." (Seanan, Katie vocals; Mary, piano, creepy demon vocals; Amy, fiddle.)
8. "Silent Hill." (Seanan, vocals; Mary, piano.)
9. "Dare to Dream." (Seanan, vocals; Bill, guitar; Brenda, bodhran; Dave, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
10. "Evil Laugh." (Seanan, vocals; Bill, guitar; Brenda, dinosaur shaker; Dave, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, Merav, backing vocals.)
11. "Burn It Down" (Vixy & Tony cover). (Seanan, vocals; Bill, guitar; Brenda, bodhran; Dave, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
12. "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." (Seanan, Jodi, vocals; Bill, guitar; Brenda, bodhran; Dave, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)
13. "My Story Is Not Done." (Seanan, vocals; Bill, guitar; Brenda, bodhran; Dave, bass; Mary, piano; Amy, fiddle.)

The bridge for "Wicked Girls" was...

"Now Brenda beats bodhrans, and Vixy's run off with the fairies,
And Deborah will pour you red wine pressed from sweet poisoned berries.
Autumn signs secrets, and Amy plays tricks,
While Sunnie calls music from wires and sticks,
And the rules that we live by are simple and clear..."

As always: "Counting Crows," "Mama Said," "Mother of the Crows," "The Ghost of Lilly Kane," "My Story Is Not Done," and "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves" are on Wicked Girls. "Evil Laugh," and "Still Catch the Tide" are on Stars Fall Home (out of print). "Dear Gina" and "Silent Hill" are on Red Roses and Dead Things.

Again, I am so very grateful to the GaFilk concom for having me. I had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to go back.

(*Dave Rood was actually moving around behind me quite a lot, so if I accidentally left him off something, or added him to something incorrectly, please let me know. Assuming you know. Which you may not.)

Okay! So here, in conveniently numbered form, is the status on the mailing of Wicked Girls CDs, and the ordering thereof.

1. All paid-for pre-orders have been shipped.

2. Because of high holiday traffic at the post office, it is entirely possible for you to have received your "it has been shipped" email during the last week of December, and then for your CD to have not been sent until the first week of January. This is because "it has been shipped" really means "it has been stuffed into an envelope and also we were able to find it on the checklist."

3. Ironically, since I'm still working my way through the checklist, this also means you could have your CD well before you receive your "it has been shipped" notice. Sorry about that.

4. I do not have tracking information on any of the CDs. They were all sent either first class or media mail (whichever was cheaper for that specific package), with no bells or whistles of any kind. Why? Because confirmation would require another dollar per package, and a lot more time per package, at which point I sadly don't have time to mail more than three at once, and you're still receiving CDs into 2012.

5. There's an awful lot of weather hitting North America right now, and this, unfortunately, means that quite a few packages are being delayed. I do not control the weather. I mean, besides the rain. I control the rain. But it's not the rain that is causing mail stoppages and slow deliveries. So please have patience until the horrific weather stops keeping you apart from your precious CD. Waiting makes the payoff all the sweeter, right?

6. If you need to verify the address your CD was sent to, you can email me. I will then grumble at you for making me remember where I left the database, and go and look it up. I do not have a time machine, so I can't change where the CD went, so please don't tell me today that you meant to get me an address correction last month. I can arrange to re-ship the CD when the post office returns it to me, but I'll have to ask you to pay postage again.

7. If your CD has absolutely, positively, "it's been a month and I have nothing" gone missing, email me, and we'll see what we can do. I don't control the mail, but that doesn't mean it should be messing with people, either.

8. Right now, you can obtain copies of Wicked Girls from either Southern Fried Filk or from Bill Roper (at-con sales only). I'll be getting the album up on CD Baby sometime in the next month or so; there just hasn't been time, and I wanted to make sure that all pre-orders were sent out before I started supplying the vendors.

9. No, I really can't take direct sales until then.

10. No, I am not recording a fifth CD. Yet.

If you have any other questions, comments, concerns, or cuckoo birds, feel free to share them here. I just wanted to try to get the big ones out of the way in a centralized manner, because I am currently crap at answering my email.

Note the first:

I automatically friend back anyone who friends this journal, because it seems the polite thing to do. However, as noted in my user information, I don't have time to read everyone who friends this journal. I might have been better off going with a "don't friend anyone, ever" policy, I don't know, but I didn't, and it's too late now. So if you've posted something and you wanted me to see it, you need to tell me directly, rather than just assuming I'll come across it on my own. Being shirty with me because I haven't seen it will just get you looked at blankly. I do a very good blank look.

Note the second:

Yes, Wicked Girls has arrived at my house, and yes, I have started mailing them. That being said, there are 300 to be mailed, and there's only one of me. I've managed to get one batch packed and to the post office, with another batch ready to go out today...leaving only 220 in the database to be dealt with. Asking me where your CD is will only make me cry. You should receive an email when your order is officially ready to go to the post office, and it will be sent within twenty-four hours (or so) of that email being sent. If you really, really need to update your address information, you should mail me yesterday, and be prepared for bribery.

Note the third:

Yes, I am still mailing "Wicked Girls" posters, although I can only carry a very limited number to the post office each day. At present, all but six paid orders have been mailed, and I have eight more orders pending unpaid. If you have a question about your order, please feel free to contact me. When I say "please send your shipping information to this address as a reply to this message," I mean it; don't include it in your PayPal receipt. Shipping information in a PayPal receipt will not be seen or captured.

And that's the administravia for today.

The pre-order period for my third studio album, Wicked Girls, will officially be closing at the end of this week, as we are basically ready to go to the printer—I just need to get the final liner note files and contact my project manager at Oasis, and we're in business. For details on the album, please check out my albums page, where you can find the track list, lyrics, some details on our featured performers, and the truly kick-ass cover art.

To place your order, go to:

https://seananmcguire.com/secure_order.php

Pre-orders follow this price scale:

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

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

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

(Basically, all pre-orders are a base cost of $15.00, plus shipping. Please be aware that if you order two CDs at the same time, they will be sent to the same address.)

Since we also need to pay mixing costs, we're taking album sponsors; you can submit sponsorships through the order form. 285 pre-orders have been sold out of a possible 300, meaning that 15 pre-orders remain. All pre-ordered CDs will be signed and numbered. Because it is so late in the year, only pre-ordered CDs will have a chance of arriving before the holidays. I can't make any promises, but I'm going to try to do the majority of the mailing in time for Christmas. I will not be getting stock to filk dealers or CD Baby until after the first of the year.

Questions? Comments? Glee!

While there will be a slightly more detailed con report later, right now I'm too tired for anything but the standard "here is my set list, isn't it beautiful?" I had some incredible backing musicians: Tony Fabris on guitar, Vixy on vocals, and Sunnie Larsen on fiddle. Autumn signed pretty much the whole thing, and added a beautiful dimension to the performance. Thanks to all of them, and I am so very grateful to have been OryCon's Music Guest of Honor. As is the standing tradition around here, I now present my concert set list, including annotation and lyric links, because that's what makes it useful.

The OryCon set list, with arrangement notes, was as follows:

1. "Counting Crows." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony guitar.)
2. "Mama Said." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony guitar.)
3. "Preston Miller" (Dave Carter cover). (Seanan, vocals; Vixy, vocals; Tony guitar.)
4. "Carnival Glass." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar.)
5. "Dear Gina." (Seanan, Katie vocals; Tony, guitar; Vixy, creepy demon vocals we're all gonna die.)
6. "Paper Moon." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Sunnie, fiddle.)
7. "Evil Laugh." (Seanan, vocals; Tony, guitar; Vixy, backing vocals.)
8. "Tanglewood Tree" (Dave Carter cover). (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Sunnie, fiddle.)
9. "Still Catch the Tide" (Talis Kimberley cover). (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar.)
10. "Archetype Cafe" (Talis Kimberley cover). (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar.)
11. "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." (Seanan, Vixy, vocals; Tony, guitar; Sunnie, fiddle.)

The bridge for "Wicked Girls" was...

"Now Lauren's a ninja, and Torrey weaves silk shrouds for faeries.
Angelica pours you red wine pressed from sweet poisoned berries.
Autumn signs secrets, and Amy plays tricks,
While Sunnie calls music from wires and sticks,
And the rules that we live by are simple and clear..."

As always: "Counting Crows," "Mama Said," "Carnival Glass," "Tanglewood Tree," and "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves" will be on Wicked Girls. "Paper Moon," "Evil Laugh," and "Still Catch the Tide" are on Stars Fall Home. "Dear Gina" is on Red Roses and Dead Things.

This was a very cover-intensive set. "Archetype Cafe" appears on Talis Kimberley's CD, Archetype Cafe. "Tanglewood Tree" appears on Dave and Tracy's CD, Tanglewood Tree. "Preston Miller" appears on Tracy Grammar's CD, Flower of Avalon.

Two quick CD notes: I actually did fine a mis-shelved box of Stars Fall Home...and after this weekend, it's all gone. Most filk dealers still have a few copies left in stock; CD Baby has three. I have about eight, and they're all going to GaFilk with me, since I'd like to have them when I'm Guest of Honor. So that's it. Get them before they're gone.

We have sold 258 of a possible 300 pre-orders for Wicked Girls, leaving 42 pre-order slots remaining. I'm hoping to go to print in time for the holidays, but I can't promise anything yet. Please order soon if you were planning to, so I know how many envelopes to buy.

See you next con!

We're almost at the end of the pre-order period for my third studio album, Wicked Girls. Yay! Only 48 pre-order slots remain out of a possible 300, which, I must admit, is not bad at all. For details on the album itself, please check out my albums page, where you can find the track listing, several of our featured performers, and the truly kick-ass cover art. Pre-orders are being sold to pay for duplication and mastering, and the album will not go to press until they have closed. Which is also why you keep seeing status updates.

To place your order, go to:

https://seananmcguire.com/secure_order.php

Pre-orders follow this price scale:

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

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

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

(Basically, all pre-orders are a base cost of $15.00, plus shipping. Please be aware that if you order two CDs at the same time, they will be sent to the same address.)

Since we also need to pay mixing costs, we're taking album sponsors; you can submit sponsorships through the order form. 252 pre-orders have been sold, out of a possible 300, meaning that 48 pre-orders remain. Don't miss your chance to pre-order! All pre-ordered CDs will be signed and numbered.

Questions? Comments? Glee!