The 2017 Hugo Awards ballot is now live, and I am stunned and honored and delighted to announce that I am on it not once, but twice.

Every Heart a Doorway has been nominated for Best Novella. This is the book of my heart: this is the one I look at and dare to hope for, because I want it so badly, and I am so touched by its inclusion. Thank you to everyone who has looked at this little book and thought "how far can we help it go?" We have gone so far.

But that's not the stunner.

The stunner is that this year is the first time the Hugos have featured a category for Best Series. It's a trial run, a test, for a way to honor books and settings that work best in the context they create for themselves. Book eleven of something ongoing may not be the best candidate for Best Novel, but it may be part of something that, overall, is just as glorious.

And October Daye is up for Best Series.

I am stunned. I am overjoyed. I am not going to win--but winning isn't always the point. I have been given this honor, and I am not giving it back.

Thank you all so very, very much.

I will do my best not to let you down.

So I am utterly delighted to be returning to Borderlands Books in San Francisco, California this coming Saturday, March 25th, where I will be celebrating the release of Magic For Nothing alongside the fabulous Mishell Baker, who is celebrating the release of Phantom Pains. In my case, that's the new InCryptid; in her case, it's the new Arcadia Project; in both cases, it's guaranteed to be a good time.

With two authors and double the word-y goodness, we're not bringing the full band this event (also, we accidentally scheduled it on top of Consonance, which means most of the band is busy anyway). We will have a raffle, and if the cupcake place gets back to me, we'll have cupcakes (no answer as yet). On the off chance that we don't, remember that the cafe sells delicious baked goods, and would be happy to hook you up with something yummy.

The event will begin at 5pm. If you can't make it, please contact the bookstore ahead of time to place an order for a signed, personalized book: we're happy to hook you up. I'm collecting raffle prizes and packing my bags, and I can't wait to see you all!

TWO NEBULA NOMINEES ENTER. TWO NEBULA NOMINEES LEAVE. IT TURNS OUT THIS IS NOT A DEATH MATCH.

Roll on San Francisco!

Georgia Mason is fighting hard in this year's Unbound Cage Match, and she needs your help.

It's a simple scroll to the bottom and click to vote, and I really want to see Georgia make the finals. Can you imagine the Georgia Mason vs. Harry Dresden snark party? Because I can. Oh, yes, I can.

Please vote if you have a second.

Finally, I am at liberty to reveal a secret I have been keeping and gnawing on for far too long (and which was, in its own way, the reason the current projects posts had to be put on unannounced hiatus):

The Atargatis was lost with all hands. It's time to go back out to sea.

Into the Drowning Deep is a full-length follow-up to my novella, "Rolling in the Deep." Set seven years later, it follows the crew of the Melusine as they set out to discover, once and for all, what really happened when the sea was filled with light and the wind offered no safety.

I am so excited.

I am excited for a lot of reasons. Mermaids; science; murder. The best things in life.

Into the Drowning Deep will be released in November 2017, and can be pre-ordered now from a major retailer or independent bookseller near you.

As of today, Magic For Nothing is officially available from bookstores all over North America, and from import stores all over the world. It's been spotted in the wild from California to New York, with several points between also chiming in to let me know that they've got copies. Hooray!

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

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

DON'T yell at other people who haven't bought the book yet. I know, that's sort of a "why are you saying this?" statement, but I got a very sad email from a teenager who'd been yelled at for not buying A Local Habitation the week that it came out, and I have never forgotten it. So just be chill. Unless you want to buy books for people who don't have them, in which case, don't yell, just buy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you're in the Bay Area, I hope to see you March 25th at Borderlands Books, where I will be reading, signing, and running a raffle for your enjoyment, along with Mishell Baker!

Whee!

Are you a gamer? Do you like things that are fun? Are you planning to attend Emerald City Comic-Con?

I am anchoring a table for this year's Worldbuilder's Charity Party, and there are four seats left for the adventurous.

Come play with me! It'll be a good time. We all need a good time about now.

Yes. Play.

Good.

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.

So here's what happened:

I keep a long list of links to things that interest me. I take it as a good thing that I've moved more and more away from reviews, and more and more toward think pieces and interviews and the like, not because the reviews aren't important--they absolutely are--but as my confidence has grown, I've had less need of them for me, and as my readership has grown, the chances of my needing to send an apology to some blogger because "sorry I dropped a wasp nest on your head, I didn't mean to" have increased. Which sounds, you know, a little hollow when it's my fifth nest in a week. But when I see a link I want to write about, or that I think is relevant, I'll grab it and save it for later.

When I still had a day job (you know, the one I left in January 2015), I would usually do my link-related posts on my lunch hour. The links came in faster than the posts went out, but hey, I was doing my best. Then I got really depressed, because the day job was slowly killing me. Then I quit my day job, and had to carve new routines out of a shapeless mass of time. And a lot of things dropped by the wayside, including dealing with the links I had so carefully curated.

Some of them, I've just deleted. Others have broken or been taken down, becoming irrelevant. Others, though, fall into the "nice people saying nice things about me, and it's a jerk move not to say thank you" category. So...thank you.

Kenda wrote a long and lovely piece about how she doesn't care for books about Faerie, but has learned to love Toby. Kenda has always been an awesome, fair reviewer and a deeply engaged reader, and I really sympathize with her "no, you cannot tell me a book is awesome when you profit from its sales" approach to reading the first book. I'm so glad to have won her over!

Pamela from The Discriminating Fangirl also had some fabulous things to say, and I am so sorry it has taken me this long to say thank you.

Thank you.

So I have literally been sitting on this link for more than a year. It's been public that whole time: this isn't me doing the ultimate procrastination tango. It's just that I kept getting distracted, and I haven't been as awesome about non-checklist blogging as I've wanted to be. It feels like it's one of those things that has fallen by the wayside, and for that I am sorry.

Anyway.

If you click the above, you will come to one of the most beautifully impassioned "why you should read the October Daye books" posts ever written by someone who is not me and does not depend on them to pay her electrical bill. I am still, a year after first reading it (a year, time is ridiculous and I do not approve) stunned and touched and delighted.

One of the big things it touches on is the lack of sexual violence in the series, and how much of a relief that can be for readers. It's not that Toby's life is sunshine and roses--a chapter will tell you how much it isn't--it's that something that's become almost a casual signpost for evil in our media is intentionally missing. I admit, I made that choice out of exhaustion and pique. I never expected it to resonate the way it has. But I hear, quite regularly, from readers who feel like the series is safe for them, because they don't have to worry about HA HA SURPRISE DRAMATIC SEXUAL ASSAULT. And I am so glad I can provide that.

I also want to note that there's a discussion in the comments of the kind that becomes increasingly frequent as a series goes on: "When will this be over? I don't want to start until it's over." I really wish you would. The first three books are a decent barometer of whether you'll like it. At this point, Rosemary and Rue seems very rough to me in contrast with what I'm producing now, but you can get a feel for how I handle language, and by the time you reach An Artificial Night, you'll probably know whether the series is for you. That starter kit won't change if the series stops at fifteen or at fifty. I've never missed a deadline; the September 2017 book is finished and turned in, and I'll be starting the September 2018 book as soon as I get my editorial notes. I am about as close to a safe bet as you can get on this sort of thing. And, well. The electric bill.

Anyway. I just wanted to share this with you. And finally close that tab.

It's the little things.

The random number generator has spoken, and the winners are:

Of a copy of Rolling in the Deep...vincentursus!
Of a dazzling MYSTERY PRIZE...alienpenguin!

Please contact me via my website contact form, including your user name and the prize you won, by Friday, December 30th, to claim your prizes.

See you all next Hogswatch!

I usually start these posts with "I am pleased...". I'm not pleased right now. I'm not sure I'll ever be pleased again. Like so many of us, I am sick and scared and sad. I'm wishing I weren't getting so many random apologies from people who found the villain in Feed cartoony and unrealistic, but now find him horrifyingly plausible. I'm wishing a lot of things.

But time passes; the Turtle moves; the work goes on, and my fear and my sadness do not mean I can let y'all miss things you might want to know about. So:

It is my privilege to announce that I (as Mira Grant) am doing another novella with Subterranean Press. Final Girls is a story about virtual reality, psychotherapy, corporate espionage, and figuring out exactly who you are. According to the website...

What if you could fix the worst parts of yourself by confronting your worst fears?

Dr. Jennifer Webb has invented proprietary virtual reality technology that purports to heal psychological wounds by running clients through scenarios straight out of horror movies and nightmares. In a carefully controlled environment, with a medical cocktail running through their veins, sisters might develop a bond they've been missing their whole lives—while running from the bogeyman through a simulated forest. But...can real change come so easily?

Esther Hoffman doubts it. Esther has spent her entire journalism career debunking pseudoscience, after phony regression therapy ruined her father’s life. She's determined to unearth the truth about Dr. Webb’s budding company. Dr. Webb’s willing to let her, of course, for reasons of her own. What better advertisement could she get than that of a convinced skeptic? But Esther's not the only one curious about how this technology works. Enter real-world threats just as frightening as those created in the lab. Dr. Webb and Esther are at odds, but they may also be each other's only hope of survival.

Limited to 1,250 signed, numbered copies, Final Girls is available for pre-order now, and will be shipping in April. This is going to be a gorgeous book. Julie Dillon, who did the cover for Rolling in the Deep, is doing the cover for this one too, and I am so excited. Remember that Rolling in the Deep sold out fast, and is now virtually unattainable unless you're lucky or have a book budget I really envy, and order yours today!

I am awed, honored, and a little staggered to be able to announce that I will be the Guest of Honor at OVFF 2017, to be held over the weekend of October 20th to 22nd.

For those of you in the filk community, I'm sure you understand what a huge honor this is, and why it means so much to me. For those of you not in the filk community, allow me to endeavor to explain.

Filk--science fiction and fantasy folk music, essentially--is a small slice of fandom that enjoys sitting up and singing songs late into the night. We sing about myths and legends and TV shows and comic books and each other (oh, how we sing about each other). It's not a huge community, with maybe a few thousand people worldwide (at best), but it's a tightly-knit one, and we take care of our own. We have the numbers and the ambition to hold multiple conventions throughout the year, in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Germany.

And the biggest of all these conventions is OVFF, the Ohio Valley Filk Festival, in Columbus, Ohio. It is the Worldcon of filk. It is the brass ring. It is the goal. I was already honored to be their Toastmistress in 2005, and to be asked back is...

Well, it's everything.

I am beyond excited, and I am hoping to see so many of you there. I'm going to try to explain a bit more of what filk is over the course of the next year: let's see if I can't make filkers of all of you yet.

I'm Guest of Honor.

It's a dream come true.

Check out this Barnes & Noble blog about the October Daye series.

Specifically, about seven awesome things about the October Daye series. I think there are many awesome things about the October Daye series, including the way it helps me keep the brain squirrels from eating me alive, but it's always super fun to see what someone else thinks of as the highlights.

What highlights do you think they missed?

I am delighted to announce that Once Broken Faith debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List in position #15, which means we made the extended list and clung to the print edition with our fingernails. Which is, quite honestly, cool by me. (Yeah, I'd like to make the top ten, but I'll take what I can get.)

We're comfortably into act two at this point, and I was nervous about this book, as I am nervous about all of them: at this point, I'm knocking down things I spent ten books putting up, and that's a delicate, anxiety-raising process. But it's working, and I am so happy. Thank you all so much for being here, for trusting me, and for letting you show you how this story goes.

I know I've said this before, but: it has been an honor and a privilege to bring you all with me this far into October's world. I sincerely hope that you will stay with me for as long as it takes to see where the road leads us from here.

Thank you all, so very much.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

It's time for bullet-point updates! Hooray!

* Tomorrow (Tuesday, June 21st) marks the release of RISE, the complete Newsflesh short fiction collection. This book gathers everything from "Everglades" through Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus, along with two never-before-published pieces, All the Pretty Little Horses and Coming to You Live. It's not intended as an introduction to the world--at least four of the novellas are post-the original trilogy, which makes them great whopping slices of spoiler--but I'm incredibly proud of this material, and over the moon about finally having a short fiction collection of my very own. I feel like Stephen King. It's pretty awesome.

* Today is the last day of the Unicorn Empire T-shirt pre-sale for their gorgeous Toby Daye design. Don't miss out!

* CrossingsCon is this weekend! The first ever Young Wizards fan convention, and I'm one of their guests of honor! I keep closing my eyes and remembering standing in my middle school library with So You Want to Be a Wizard in my hand, and I'll be honest: I feel like a wizard right now. In Life's name, and for Life's sake, I feel like a wizard. Because somehow, I have willed the adulthood I wanted into being, and for all that it's not perfect, it's the imperfection that makes it all seem real.

Everything is amazing.

Here we go again.

So it's no secret around here that I love, love, love my DAW covers, or that showing them off is one of my true pure joys in life. Chris McGrath, the artist who does the art for the October Daye books, has been with me since book one, and he just keeps on getting better. Want proof?

Go ahead. Take a peek.

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

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!

We are now exactly fifty days from the publication of RISE, my first short fiction collection--and more, the first collection of short fiction from the Newsflesh universe. This stunning hardcover book will include, in order:

Countdown
"Everglades"
San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats
How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea
The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell
Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus
All the Pretty Little Horses
Coming to You Live

If those last two titles are unfamiliar, it's because they are two all new novellas, written specifically for this collection. Also new to this collection, introductions providing more information about every single story.

I am so excited about this collection, y'all. Copies will be available from bookstores all over North America on June 21st, right before CrossingsCon in New York. I'll be appearing at Borderlands Books, in San Francisco, CA on July 9th as part of the Superhero Team-Up book tour with Sarah Kuhn and Amber Benson, for all your signed copy needs.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support, which has made this book, and so much else, possible.

Rise up while you can.

It's almost time for Marcon, Columbus, Ohio's own genre extravaganza! I'm their Author Guest of Honor this year...but where can you find me? Well.

Friday.

5:30PM, Union C: "Writing Non-Human Characters."

7:00PM, Union E: "You Got Your Song in My Book! You Got Your Book in My Song!"

Saturday.

1:00PM, Battelle South: Seanan McGuire in concert, featuring Dead Sexy! This is one of my favorite iterations of my ever-shifting backing band, and we are going to blow your socks off. Like, seriously, if you only come to one of my events this weekend, this should be the one.

5:30PM, Fairfield: "In Conversation With Seanan McGuire." It's the usual gig: you ask me questions and I will answer them, which means the quality of the event is entirely up to you. Show up, ask me stuff, and find out what kind of ridiculous reptile stories I'll tell while in the grips of an adrenaline crash after my concert.

Sunday.

11:30AM, Regency Ballroom: Autograph Session.

ISFIC will have copies of the new Velveteen book for sale, along with everything else they have to offer; we'll have CDs and some of the remaining T-shirt stock (rarities all!) at the concert merchandise table.

Hope to see you there!

Today is Administrative Professionals Day, which means today is the day we celebrate all those people without whom the printer would never have any paper, the mailing would never get done, and we would probably never know where our keys were. Truly, they are the unsung heroes of our world.

Well, today, we sing them.

I was a receptionist and a secretary and a clerical assistant when I was getting started in my career, before life led me into customer service, and that shit is harder than people give it credit for being. All my admiration, and all my love, to the administrative professionals in my life.

Y'all rock.

...every word a prayer.

Every Heart a Doorway is in the wild and in the world today. It's a beautiful book. Saying nothing about its contents, only about the book as a physical object, it's a beautiful book. The cover, the heft, the whole design, it's just gorgeous. And I made this. Me. This book exists because Lee Harris said "write me a thing," and my response when someone says "write me a thing" is to write a thing. This book exists because Irene Gallo designed it with love and care and attention to detail that takes my breath away.

It's so beautiful. It's something that will exist in libraries and on bookshelves forever. A hundred years from now, someone will still own this book. They will have this beautiful thing. That is just...it's amazing.

I feel like this is some of my best work. It's short and it's elegant and it's important in a way that's hard for me to fully articulate. It's about teenagers and trauma and magical doors and the things we are and the things our parents want us to be, and the things that we become.

If you already have your copy, thank you so very, very much. Thank you for helping me to get this book out into the world, thank you for helping me to convince Tor.com that I'm a good bet, and thank you for letting this story live. Stories need to be read to be real.

If you don't have your copy yet, that's absolutely okay. The world is big and has many things in it. If you were thinking of buying one, signed copies can be purchased now from Borderlands Books and The Booksmith, both in San Francisco (both do mail orders). I will also be signing copies for the University Bookstore in Seattle this coming weekend at Emerald City Comic Con.

Thank you all again, so, so much.

This will also serve as your discussion post.

Sometimes sitting on news is hard.

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

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

Here's my latest point of twitchy goodness:

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

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

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

Hey, y'all.

I try not to post too often about things for sale: given that the majority of my blogging is about books or conventions, I already feel a little more like a billboard than I like, and I never want you to feel like you're just being shilled to. That being said, when something has a limited period of availability, there's a little more urgency to the repeated reminders. So:

The Unicorn Empire pre-sale for the current Sparrow Hill Road shirts is currently scheduled to end tomorrow. There's a small chance it will be extended, depending on order volume, but that's never something to count on. If you were waffling over whether or not to get a shirt, now is the time.

If you are also a Steven Universe fan, be aware that there is also a pre-sale going for an amazing two-color Garnet design, and that ordering it means you can use a code for free shipping (US orders only, I'm afraid).

I am so excited about these shirts, and about supporting an amazing fan-owned business doing incredible, unique art. I hope you're excited too, and I can't wait to work with Amber and Unicorn Empire again!

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

Announcing the Urban Allies anthology.

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

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

July!

Seven years ago today, my beloved Maine Coon girl, Alice, came into the world. We met ten days later. It was love at first sight, for me; for her, I was another large, lumbering thumb-beast to trouble her.

Things remain much the same today.

As I type this, Alice is nearby, being vast and content and absolutely at ease with her world. She is Best Cat, and as I often tell her, my very favorite thing.

Here's to seven more, baby girl.

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.

So hey, remember how at the end of Chimes at Midnight, Quentin was all "now you get to meet my parents," and Toby was all "OH FUCK NO," and then we got The Winter Long, but we never got to see the meeting?

We're going to get to see the meeting.

"Full of Briars" is a novelette set between Chimes at Midnight and The Winter Long, narrated by Quentin as he faces that most terrifying moment in a young squire's life: the meeting between his parents and his knight. With bonus "how Quentin sees Tybalt" and "how Quentin and Raj interact when Toby isn't around" (hint: they're glorious shits to one another).

"Full of Briars" will have a price point of $1.99 USD/$2.59 CD, and be released in August 2016, a month before the next October Daye book comes out. The cover art is being done by Tara O'Shea, who does the short story covers for my website. (Right now, it is only available in the US and Canada, because of regional rights issues. I have faith in all y'all's ability to get around that without resorting to illegal downloads. Since wow do I want DAW to let me do more of these.)

Quentin!

Glee.

Hello, happy people!

Tuesday (December 1st) will be the first of the Thirteen Days of Hogswatch, my now-annual "Seanan gives things away for thirteen days because why not" celebration, and I just wanted to issue a few quick reminders. Namely...

1. Each giveaway will have its own rules. Some will be US-only. (Most will honestly be US-only, because I can't afford to pay international postage at this time. More about this to come.) Others will say things like "your comment must include the word 'banana' to be considered a valid entry." Failure to precisely follow the rules of a giveaway will mean you cannot win. There is no wiggle room here, at all. This is partially for my sanity, and partially because when I give things away, the free stuff blogs tend to signal boost, and insisting that the rules be followed means that there's enough of a barrier to entry that I can be reasonably sure things are going to people who actually want them.

2. No, you do not need to follow this blog to win. That being said, each entry will say something like "the winners will be posted at X time, and will have until Y to contact me." Every time I do a giveaway, I have folks contacting me days after the stated time, wanting to know if they can still claim their prizes. I fully understand that life happens—I've been the late one before—but the timelines are firm. So if you don't follow this blog normally, I recommend checking in daily until all Hogswatch giveaways are over.

3. In the instances where I am willing to deal with the cost and complication of international shipping, I may say "you must pay postage to receive your prize." If you'd like to volunteer to pay international postage for a giveaway winner, please comment on that day's giveaway to indicate this. Make sure it's a first-level comment, and not a reply to a specific person. (If you're only willing to pay for a specific person, tell them in private, and y'all can work it out without me.)

4. All prizes have already been selected by me, but I will not be revealing them until the day that their drawing begins.

5. You can enter all thirteen days if you want to.

And that is all. First entry goes up Tuesday!

It's time for CHESSIECON! I will be found this coming weekend in scenic (and increasingly chilly) Maryland, doing my con thing along with some of my favorite humans, including Ursula Vernon, Tamora Pierce, and the lovely ladies of Lady Mondegreen! Where can I be found? Well...

Friday.

Reading: Seanan McGuire 3:00 GS3-5
Signing: Seanan McGuire 4:15 GS3-5
Different Strategies for Attracting Female Readers 6:45 GS3-5
Questions From a Hat 8:00 GS3-5

What will I read? No one knows! What will I sign? Whatever you put in front of me! What the hell is "Questions From a Hat"? WE'RE GONNA FIND OUT.

Saturday.

Seanan and Ursula Have a Chat (Maybe About Frogs) 11:15 GS3-5
In Conversation with Seanan McGuire 1:45 GS3-5
Concert: Lady Mondegreen 5:30 GS3-5
Group Book/Art/CD Signing 6:45 Atrium

Apparently, I am going to talk a lot. And then I'm going to sing! This will be the first time the three founding members of Lady Mondegreen have performed together on stage since 2007. So come see the trainwreck!

Sunday.

KaffeeKlatch: Seanan McGuire 11:15 C6
A Princess With a Sword Is Still a Princess: Modern Adaptations of Fairy Tales Sunday 12:30 GS3-5

...it's gonna be a fun con, and I hope to see many of you there. I will have a limited number of albums for sale (limited because I can only carry so much).

New York is exhausting.

I have been running hither and yon for the past two weeks; people keep being surprised that I'm still gone, and sometimes "people" involves me. I just woke up from a nap where I dreamt that Thomas had been here in New York with me this whole time (just Thomas; even my subconscious can't imagine putting Alice recreationally on a plane), and I nearly cried when I opened my eyes, because I just needed my kitty.

But I am having a wonderful time. I went to a cheese and champagne party in my honor (mine! As if I were a cheese and champagne event!), spent two days at DAW lounging and reading and being home, saw Fun Home and Hamilton on Broadway (and lost my shit when I realized that September from Fringe was playing Bruce Bechdel in Fun Home), and did lots of other good things. And I still have almost two weeks and a convention to go.

I'm trying to get back into the habit of blogging. I've fallen out of it for a lot of reasons, some good and some bad and some just overwhelmed, but I'm trying. I think I need some balance, and writing things down helps. So expect another post about Fun Home, and one about Hamilton, and one about the life-sized T. Rex at the Times Square Toys R Us, and please remember that I am not home until December 2nd, so communications will continue to be slow and unwieldy, but I am trying, and trying is a lot.

That is all.

Psst. C'mere.

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

Go ahead. Take a peek.

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

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...

Tomorrow's Party Schedule!

The Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show is returning to our home of homes at Borderlands Books, and we couldn't be happier about it. SEE! The Amazing Amy, imported all the way from Wisconsin to enchant you with her wicked ways! HEAR! The Incredible Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff, masters of the rocking arts! GAZE IN AWE! At Paul and Beckett, guitar and harmonica, as they ensnare your senses! And I'll be there, of course.

Our evening...

4:00 PM: Setup, sound check, and final details. You can show up, but we may ignore you if you do. Sorry about that.
5:00 PM: Welcome to our party. We're done ignoring you now. Would you like to say hello?
5:15 PM: How about some music?
5:45 PM: Perhaps you would like to win things.
6:00 PM: Now there will be cupcakes and autographing.
6:30 PM: More music?
7:00 PM: More prizes?
7:10 PM: Q&A and book discussion.
7:40 PM: Let's raffle some more stuff off.
7:50 PM: Thanks and final questions before we close the evening.

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

All performing musicians will have CDs for sale, because we're predictable like that. There may also be T-shirts. There will be cupcakes provided in the bookstore as part of the party, and a whole cafe full of delicious things to purchase and enjoy. If you can't come, remember that the store does phone and email orders, and will be happy to provide you with a signed book.

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

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow will mark the release of "Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus," a new Newsflesh novella focusing on the lab, life, and times of Dr. Shannon Abbey. The novella will be available through the Orbit Short Fiction Program, as well as through a friendly e-book retailer near you.

After release, when some of you have finished the text in fifteen minutes, this will serve as your discussion post. (So basically, starting tomorrow, there will probably be spoilers here.)

Newsflesh!

...remember the Old Ones. The Old Ones are here.

I am really delighted to be able to announce that I will be a part of the anthology The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft, edited by Aaron J. French and published by Journalstone Press. For this collection, twelve authors (including my darlings Jonathan Maberry and Rachel Caine) were approached and asked to write novelettes about the main deities of Lovecraft's world.

I got the Deep Ones.

My story, "Down, Deep Down, Below the Waves," is about grad students and experimental ethics and coming home, and I am very, very proud of it. The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft will be available in December 2015.

When the stars are right.

Twenty years ago, I built my world around BayCon from January through May, with flashes scattered throughout the rest of the calendar. I hung my social engagements and scholastic achievements in the spaces between meetings and convention duties, and I felt privileged to do it. In many ways, this is the convention that built me.

It's not that convention anymore. Like everything else in my world, like me, BayCon has changed.

This past weekend, I was privileged to do one of the things I would never, as a teenager, have believed I would one day do: I was BayCon's Author Guest of Honor. (This makes me the only person ever to have been the convention's GoH, Toastmistress, and Chair. In different years, but still.) It's a smaller con than it used to be. They do some things radically differently, to the point that I had to step back and go "this is not your con, even though it has the same name" before I could enjoy myself. That doesn't mean they do things badly, or wrong; it was just like visiting a house where I used to live and seeing what color they had painted my room.

This past weekend, I hung out with friends. I did panels. I gave a concert. And sometimes, for a moment, when the light was right, I went back in time.

Not bad for a girl who started in the Music Department.

And speaking of music, my set list. I was accompanied by Paul Kwinn and Kristoph Klover on guitar; Beckett Gladney on harmonica; and Margaret Davis on flute and harp.

1. "This Is My Town."
2. "Phantoms of Summer."
3. "Maybe It's Crazy."
4. "Preston Miller."
5. "Dear Gina."
6. "Mama Said."
7. "Vampire Slayer Blues."
8. "Death Danced at My Party."
9. "Wicked Girls."
10. "My Story Is Not Done."

Encore: "Jack's Place."

"Preston Miller" is by Dave Carter. "Death Danced..." is by Talis Kimberley. Everything else is by me. We had a preschool dance party and sold T-shirts from a table at the back of the room, and it was an amazing end to a lovely con.

I will always miss being sixteen and thinking it was the center of the world.

BayCon is here! I am now officially the only person to have been BayCon Guest of Honor, Toastmistress, and Con Chair! It's a useless accomplishment!

So where can you see me?

Friday.

Opening Ceremonies, 10am. Come see us open the con!

Fan Guest of Honor interview, 10:30am. Thrill as I interview Caradwen Braskat-Arellanes. Because I can.

Breadth of Filk, 1:30pm. Quote, "Just as fanzines has escaped from its fannish roots, filk songs can now cover topics outside of science fiction and fantasy, such as cats, popular culture, and politics. The panelists discuss where you can find filk outside of cons." So, uh...filk!

Meet the Guests, 7pm. We exist!

Saturday.

Writer GoH Interview, 10am. Amber is going to interview me. This should be fascinating.

Researching your Biotech Thriller, 1pm. Quote: "A popular sub-genre that often gets published as mainstream fiction but ought to be viewed as science fiction is the biotechnology thriller, exemplified by Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. The panelists talk about the behind-the-scenes research that goes into making fictional biotech believable." SCIENCE!

Biology of Mythical Creatures, 2:30pm. Quote: "The storytellers who originally invented the mythical creatures of legend didn't have an understanding of biology, genetics, or evolution. When writing a mythical creature into a new story for a modern audience, how far does a writer have to go in re-imagining the creature's biological backstory? Does providing biological details add to the story, or does it throw off readers because those details clash with their expectations? What are some successful examples of mixing realistic biology with mythic animals?"

Variety Show, 7pm. There will be a variety! It will show!

Sunday.

Toastmistress Interview, 11:30am. Now I get to interview Amber! Mwahaha!

Short Stories, 2pm. It'll be short!

Constructing Urban Fantasy, 4pm. I'll build some stuff.

Concert, 8:15pm. I will be taking the stage with Paul Kwinn. Come hear us sing some stuff.

Psst. C'mere.

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

Go ahead. Take a peek.

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

Popping in from Florida to make a quick announcement, namely that the table of contents for Press Start to Play, edited by John Joseph Adams and Daniel H. Wilson, has been announced.

Check it out for some familiar names.

My story in this one, "Survival Horror," is about Artie, Antimony, and a rather...challenging...game in the vein of The 7th Guest. Thrill to their adventures, and to the many awesome stories that surround them, this coming August.

Back to Disney!

This time tomorrow, I will not only be at Disney World, I will have been there for three hours. So you'll please excuse me if my current connection to linear reality is, um, not so solid. Nope. Not really. Here are things you'll need to know!

To anyone who wants anything from Seanan between now and May 13th:

I am very, very, very much in need of a break, and that is why I am boarding a big metal sky-bird and soaring off to the House of Mouse, where no one who isn't actually in my party will be able to find me with any reliability. I will have Wifi, and I will have my phone, but I will not be tethered to them as I am in the real world, and I won't be home, which is where things like "the mailing supplies" live. At this time, all giveaway prizes and contracts have been mailed, and there are still about twenty shirts pending (not counting the ones omitted from the original delivery). Two shirts have been returned to me due to address issues. This will all be dealt with when I get back.

Mail sent through my contact forms will go through Kate and Vixy, as always, with a catch: Vixy is going to Disney World with me. So if you're using the www.miragrant.com contact form, please expect delays all around.

To anyone who thinks it might be fun to rob my house:

They say not to tell the internet when you're traveling, because it tempts thieves. I get that. I also get that the nature of my life makes it hard to hide when I do something like "I'm going to drop offline for thirteen days and fill my Twitter feed with pictures of Disney World." So...

Please don't rob me, nebulous internet baddies. I have a housemate, a large dog, and a house-sitter. More, I really don't have anything valuable in the traditional sense; my only real electronics will be in transit with me, and most of my dolls are haunted. Save yourself. Stay away.

To anyone who thinks it's weird for an adult to be this excited about Disney:

I think it's weird how excited adults get about professional sports, but you don't see me coming into their space and harshing their squee. I even let Shawn tell me how the Red Sox are doing every season, despite my total lack of fucks to give. So please don't tell me my passions are strange or immature. I don't care.

Disney time! See you all on the rested, refreshed, wind-blown, sunburnt flip-side!

I am overjoyed and overwhelmed to finally—after a year of work and email exchanges and hoping and working some more—be able to say this to you all:

The Best Thing is now live at Thrillbent.com.

The Best Thing is a story about magical girls, and what suddenly discovering that you're a chosen warrior does to you. It's about powers with no instruction manual, lives that don't come with helpful animal sidekicks or prophetic dreams. It's about Ashley, and Takala, and Nikki, and Dani, and Crystal. Five girls who find out they're so much more, and proceed to burn the world.

Drawn by Erica Henderson (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl) and written by me (lots of stuff, if you're here, you know the drill), The Best Thing will be updating every Monday over at Thrillbent. Please consider subscribing and supporting my burgeoning comics career, so that they give me the X-Men and I can spend all my money buying original art.

Comics!

For justice!

I will be a Special Guest at the upcoming Emerald City Comic-Con (ECCC). But where, you may wonder, will that put me?

Friday.

Signing. 12:00-1:00PM, location TBA. Me, Myke Cole, and Django Wexler will be signing copies of Operation Arcana, the new, awesome military SF anthology from John Joseph Adams

Hard Sci-Fi Made Easy. 1:30-2:20PM, Hall B (WSCC 602-603), moderated by John Lovett. Join me, Sarah Remy, Dave Boop, and Kevin J. Anderson as we have a SCIENCE PARTY. To be followed by a signing at JJ 10/11. Books will be available for sale from the University Bookstore, located at booth 2803.

Saturday.

Defense Against the Dark ARCs: Dealing With Trolls, Controversy and Criticism. 3:30-4:20PM, Hall B (WSCC 602-603). I will be discussing the darker side of life in the Internet age, alongside Emma Michaels, Patrick Rothfuss, Isaac Marion, and Heather Reasby. To be followed by a signing at JJ 10/11. Books will be available for sale from the University Bookstore, located at booth 2803. Up against the Rat Queens social club, so I will totally not blame you if you're not there.

Sunday.

Transmedia Storytelling. 12:30-1:20PM, Hall B (WSCC 602-603), moderated by John Lovett. It's the transmedia panel! Join me, Holly Black, Frank Beddor, and Myke Cole, and thrill as Holly and I insist that talking about our cats for an hour is TOTALLY TRANSMEDIA. To be followed by a signing at JJ 10/11. Books will be available for sale from the University Bookstore, located at booth 2803. (I cannot recommend picking up Holly's The Coldest Girl in Coldtown strongly enough.)

When not on a panel, I can usually be found at my table, located at KK10, right between Myke Cole and Isaac Marion. Look for the mantis shrimp hair if you're not sure which one of us is me.

If you can't find me, why not visit some of my friends and colleagues and favorite humans?

Amy Mebberson and James Silvani will be at I-09, and taking commissions daily.
Espionage Cosmetics will be at 303 / 2811—visit them for awesome nail wraps, including Mira Grant designs!
Optimystical Studios will be at 306, and will have new, original, highly limited Toby Daye and InCryptid jewelry.
Unicorn Empire will be at 1221, with great fannish designs.
Kory Bing will be at 310, and has all the InCryptid Field Guide post cards available for sale.
Dylan Meconis will be with Erica Moen at 1318; visit them both for big wows.
Girl Genius will be at 704, for SCIENCE.
Randy Milholland will be with Danielle Corsetto at 1312. I like Randy. He sends me cat pictures. Adore him.

Torrey, who allows me to use her kitchen, would like me to also remind you all that Comic Book Characters For Causes will be doing photo ops to raise money for Camp GoodTimes this year. Camp GoodTimes is a no-cost summer camp for children with cancer, and it's a great cause. Meet an awesome superhero (and there's a cornucopia to choose from), have your picture taken by a professional photographer, and be able to tell anyone who thinks that shot of you and Captain Marvel is a little weird that you did it for charity. They also have calendars and T-shirts for sale, and can be found at the Cospitality Lounge, located in the Skybridge Lobby. Do good with do-gooders this year.

Psst. Hey. Check out the inaugural Tor.com publishing announcement. See those names? Lovely names. See my name, in amongst all the others? Lovely names.

So lovely.

I am excited to be sharing this press release and program with some of my favorite Earth residents, like Paul Cornell (probably from a planet somewhere near Betelgeuse), Mary Robinette Kowal (voice of Toby, originally from Deep Faerie), and Michael Underwood (traveler from a parallel dimension where saddle shoes are still cool). And all those debut authors! It's super-exciting, and I can't wait to read them.

My novella, "Every Heart a Doorway, Every Word a Prayer" is basically "Wicked Girls" meets Clue, and I think you're going to really enjoy it. I'll announce the pub date as soon as I have it.

Onwards and upwards, for awesome!

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.

There are people in the world with tattoos inspired by my words. This will never fail to amaze me.

But this is the first time someone has tattooed me and Vixy on their body.

Look at this beautiful ink. What an amazing honor.

I am amazed.

Today is Alice Price-Healy Little Liddel Abernathy McGuire's sixth birthday.

Alice is a blue classic tabby and white Maine Coon, bred by Betsy Tinney of Pinecoon Maine Coons in Seattle. She was my first Maine Coon (although not my only for very long), and I'm not kidding when I say that it was love at first sight. It still is.

Alice is stubborn, sweet, intractable, opinionated, devoted, loving, my little angel, my little devil, and often threatened with becoming mittens. Like a toddler, she never wants love more than when I get on the phone. She's sassy and awful and sometimes takes showers with me, and she's probably the best cat I've ever had. A year with Alice is worth five with any other cat, and I've had six of them.

Happy birthday, my terrible girl. Let's have at least ten more.

Psst. C'mere.

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

Go ahead. Take a peek.

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

10. It's December! That is...terrifying and amazing and lots of other things, but mostly, it's a huge relief, because I don't have anywhere to go for the rest of the year. Oh, I have a lot of local commitments, parties and appearances and a doll meet-up, but nothing that requires travel. I get to sleep in my own bed, snuggle my cats, and clean my house for an entire month. I am ridiculously excited about this.

9. A lot of folks are doing their holiday shopping right now, which is swell! I posted the holiday book buying reminder yesterday. You can also contact Mysterious Galaxy, in San Diego, for signed copies of Out of Tune, and for copies of Dead But Not Forgotten signed by Charlaine Harris, Toni Kelner, and a bunch of the authors (myself included). Support independent bookstores this holiday season.

8. Or maybe you're buying stuff from me, posters and T-shirts and the like. If you are, please use the PayPal option for sending money to friends and family. There are a few reasons for this. First off, I am still not a store: I am literally pricing things to cover cost of item + cost of postage. Having huge whacks of money vanish into PayPal fees makes this a loss, and means I have to start charging more to be able to afford to ship things. Secondly, you know how I always say "please send me your shipping info via this other channel"? I have found that people who chose "goods and services" are more likely to ignore that request, because they've already provided a shipping address, and if I were a store, I'd be able to access that data. Not a store. Cannot access easily. Please don't.

7. The new Pokemon game is not making me as happy as I wanted it to. I am sure I will enjoy the post-game, where it's apparently LEGENDARYPALOOZA, but I am not enjoying my Pokemon journey, and that makes me sad.

6. Thomas, who has always been an asshole, has taken his assholing to new heights in his glee that I am home. Lots of purring, lots of cuddling, lots of knocking things off shelves to demonstrate that he is still the boss of all he surveys. Thomas is going to be mittens if he doesn't cut this shit out.

5. I will be doing the Thirteen Days of Hogswatch again this year, beginning on December 12th and continuing until December 24th. The introductory post will go up on December 11th. The prizes, drawing times, response times, and requirements for each day are not negotiable; if I say "I must hear from you by X time for you to win," and you think you might not be able to check your email on, say, Christmas, I am very sorry, but I do mean it. I can't have people claiming prizes weeks after the drawing. I'm just not set up for that. But hey, I am giving away so much stuff.

4. I missed the October tip jar, which means we're running out of prioritized free fiction. I don't want to open a tip jar in December (holidays), but I may go ahead and do it in January. (Or we may have to pay for all the bodywork on Mom's car, in which case, I will not only open the tip jar, I will dance on freeways if that's what it takes.)

3. Oh, yeah: some asshole hit Mom's car on Thanksgiving night. The damage isn't massive, but she was parked at the time, and we didn't see it happen. Now we need to get the bodywork done to fix the dent on the side of her car, before rust sets in and everything gets buckets more expensive. Whee. (Yes, she has insurance, but the deductible is huge, especially if we can't produce another driver.)

2. I'm going to see The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County on Friday! I'm so excited!

1. Jean Grey is not dead right now and it's making me cranky.

That's my list. What's new with you?

I am pleased as punch to let you all know, if you didn't know already, that pre-orders for Rolling in the Deep are now open. This gorgeous hardcover Mira Grant novella has never appeared anywhere else, and introduces a whole new world of submarine terror. What if there were mermaids? What would they look like?

What would they eat?

The signed and numbered edition which is currently being offered is limited to 1,000 beautiful copies, and will make a fantastic Hogswatch gift. I'm so excited!

Now, to answer a few questions:

Will there be a cheaper edition?

I do not know, for I am not the publisher. Probably, going by the way they usually do things, but it's not my call. Please do not complain about the cost of the hardback. It's a gorgeous book, I understand that not everyone can afford it, and that's part of why it's set in a new world, not a pre-existing one.

Will there be an ebook edition?

The publisher has indicated that there will, but this is 100% of the information I have. Please direct any questions about timing or price to the publisher.

Have you ever wanted to know more about the Luidaeg before she changed her name? To see Blind Michael before he turned away from the light he had never been able to see? Have you ever wondered how the old world of Faerie faded into the new world of Men?

There are some answers to be had, if you know where to look.

I am pleased to announce that my short story, "The Fixed Stars," featuring Antigone of Albany in the long, dark days of her youth, is available now in the anthology Shattered Shields, edited by my well-beloved Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt. Tales of military fantasy! War, barbarous and bloody!

Glory, glory.

Pick it up; give it a read. And if you're feeling really ambitious, I'm going to be swinging by Borderlands Books tomorrow on my way to the airport, so if you called them and ordered a copy tonight, you could even get it signed.

War is a science.

Antigone was a scientist.

I was delighted when John Joseph Adams asked me to be the guest editor for the special Queers Destroy Science Fiction issue of Lightspeed Magazine, following on last year's incredibly awesome and successful Women Destroy Science Fiction. (And I admit, I paused before saying "yes," since being the editor means I can't submit.) But in the end, the opportunity to be a part of making this a real thing in the world was too much for me to pass up.

We just opened for submissions.

The submission portal is here, and includes links to the overall guidelines: http://submissions.johnjosephadams.com/queers-destroy-sf/submit/

It's important to remember that while we do not require the stories to have queer content, we are actively seeking stories by queer (QUILTBAG) authors. It's my great hope that we will have representation from most of the letters in the acronym and beyond, since demisexual and pansexual authors are also queer. ("A" is for "asexual," not for "ally.") All stories must have science fiction content.

Submissions are open through February, which is also when I and my team will be making final decisions. Don't rush to submit; make sure your story is awesome and ready to rock. I want to see the widest possible range of stories and authors.

This is our issue. Let's rock it.