I have mailed all pending poster orders, and better yet, I have found my supply of poster tubes, which means that I can once again offer posters for sale. These are gorgeous pieces of art, and make great holiday gifts. Also if I sell the last of them, I will get that shelf back, and this is very exciting to me right now.

Behold the poster thumbnail!



You can't really read the text at this size, but it's the full lyrics of "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." You can tell that the posters are absolutely gorgeous, thanks to the ever-wonderful graphic skills of my lovely lady Tara. They're 10" by 26", and I couldn't be happier with them.

The posters have a limited run of 500, which sounds like a lot, and yet is shrinking at a truly impressive rate. They aren't programmed into the ordering system on my website, and that's a good thing, since it gives me flow control and allows me to refuse orders when I'm not in a position to take care of mailing. If you wanted to order a poster, here's what to do:

1) Send me an email via my website contact form, telling me how many posters you want. Posters are $20, plus $7 for shipping and handling within the United States ($18 shipping and handling internationally, for which I apologize, but the postage costs are obscene).

2) I can fit up to three posters in a tube, going to the same place. So three to one location is cost of posters + $7/$18, while three going to three locations would be cost of posters + $21/$54.

3) I will email you to confirm the request, and to provide my PayPal information. We can discuss payment by check.

The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous. They also frame really, really nicely, as my kitchen wall can attest. I'm not currently planning to reprint this design; when they're gone, they're gone, and will be replaced by something else (probably a poster based on either "Follow Me Down" or "Stars Fall Home").

Yay for pretty things!

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.

With only five days remaining in the pre-order, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to post here. I AM SOMETIMES A VERY DISTRACTED BUNNY, OKAY?!

Ahem. Presenting:

The very first ever October Daye T-shirt design, by Unicorn Empire.

These shirts are spectacularly gorgeous, and I am over the moon delighted with how beautifully they've come out. They're available in rust and rose gold (both so appropriate), and on the off chance--far from guaranteed--that the design is added to the shop on a longer term basis, only one of the colors will be available for order. So if one color speaks to you more than the other, you should absolutely order it now.

This a pre-sale, not a sale. Why does this matter? Because before I give you the link for the shirts, I'm going to give you the link for how Unicorn Empire pre-sales work. Please, take a moment to read it. Amber, who runs Unicorn Empire, is a fan running a business for fans, out of her garage. She has help, but she's not a huge operation, and her timelines are thus longer than they would be for, say, Hot Topic. She's being awesome doing this for us, and I don't want to cause her any trouble.

There is no extra charge for plus sizes, because Unicorn Empire is awesome that way. The pre-sale is only open until June 20th, so get your orders in soon! (We know international shipping is expensive, so if you wanted to coordinate a group order for Australia or whatnot, this would be a great place to do it!)

Those of you who snagged a Sparrow Hill Road shirt know how good the quality is, and I hope you're all as pleased as I am.

I'm so excited!

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!

I am cleaning, packing, and purging my house, and I am finding things! So many things. Today's finds:

1. I have found three copies of my second chapbook. These are hand-stitched books of poetry, and were originally limited to a run of one hundred. I have my file copy, so I don't need three extra. If you would like to purchase one, please email me through my website contact form and make what you consider to be a reasonable offer, given their rarity and the fact that after this, there aren't any more. Or, you know, offer to bake me a million cookies. I am can often be bribed with baked goods.

I won't decide instantly who gets them, so it's not "first come first served"; I'm about to head for a book event, and Kate doesn't always forward things to me in exactly the order in which they were received. Please be patient with me.

2. I have found two sealed envelopes, presumably from the most recent T-shirt run, both marked "return to sender." I have not opened them, so I don't know exactly what's inside. One of the people has already contacted me, so Sarah Hubbard, if you see this, I think I have something that belongs to you. Please email me through my website contact form to arrange for delivery.

Yay getting things out of my house!

I'm getting ready for some pretty major life changes, and part of that process involves reducing the amount of stuff currently in my house. I have poster tubes; I have posters; let's see about combining them. So:

Behold the poster thumbnail!



You can't really read the text at this size, but it's the full lyrics of "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." You can tell that the posters are absolutely gorgeous, thanks to the ever-wonderful graphic skills of my lovely lady Tara. They're 10" by 26", and I couldn't be happier with them.

The posters have a limited run of 500, which sounds like a lot, and yet is shrinking at a truly impressive rate. They aren't programmed into the ordering system on my website, and that's a good thing, since it gives me flow control and allows me to refuse orders when I'm not in a position to take care of mailing. If you wanted to order a poster, here's what to do:

1) Send me an email via my website contact form, telling me how many posters you want. Posters are $20, plus $7 for shipping and handling within the United States ($18 shipping and handling internationally, for which I apologize, but the postage costs are obscene).

2) I can fit up to three posters in a tube, going to the same place. So three to one location is cost of posters + $7/$18, while three going to three locations would be cost of posters + $21/$54.

3) I will email you to confirm the request, and to provide my PayPal information. We can discuss payment by check.

The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous. They also frame really, really nicely, as my living room wall can attest. I'm not currently planning to reprint this design; when they're gone, they're gone, and will be replaced by something else (probably a poster based on either "Follow Me Down" or "Stars Fall Home").

Yay for pretty things!

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!

You may remember that back in December, I ran a poll to determine the level of interest in Sparrow Hill Road shirts printed and sold by Unicorn Empire. The end result was a definite level of interest: enough that we decided to go ahead and open up the pre-sale! Woo hoo!

Now, this a pre-sale, not a sale. Why does this matter? Because before I give you the link for the shirts, I'm going to give you the link for how Unicorn Empire pre-sales work. Please, take a moment to read it. Amber, who runs Unicorn Empire, is a fan running a business for fans, out of her garage. She has help, but she's not a huge operation, and her timelines are thus longer than they would be for, say, Hot Topic. She's being awesome doing this for us, and I don't want to cause her any trouble.

Without further ado...

The Pre-Sale Is Now Live!

Based on your votes, we made both one and two-color versions of the design, available on T-shirts and tank tops. There is no extra charge for plus sizes, because Unicorn Empire is awesome that way. The pre-sale is only open until February 9th, so get your orders in soon! (We know international shipping is expensive, so if you wanted to coordinate a group order for Australia or whatnot, this would be a great place to do it!)

I'm so excited!

We've talked about Unicorn Empire and how awesome their stuff is. Now let's talk about why it may be relevant to you.

Here is the design I commissioned from Amber for Sparrow Hill Road. A very limited number of shirts were printed, for conventions I was attending. Some people have asked me what they'd have to do to get one. I've spoken to Amber about whether she'd be willing to do a small run, and she's agreed, as long as there's enough interest.

So this is me, checking interest. Note that if we were to move forward with this, all ordering and fulfillment would be done by Unicorn Empire; no waiting for me to go to the post office or fear of cats in boxes. I would also not be the one handling the money. It will go through her store, as with a normal order. This makes me very happy.

And now...the poll. If your answers are conditional, "IE, I will only order if it's not pink" or whatever, please indicate in the comments.

We are deep in the winter holidays, and by now most of you will have finished your shopping, such as it is; after all, unless you're planning to go to the mall (don't go to the mall), things will not likely reach your house before the timer runs out and the presents are being plunked beneath the tree, grievance pole, decorative pig, or other symbol of your holiday. But!

There are other reasons to need gifts. Birthdays, special events, or just the need to have something nice. I frequently lay in presents against the rest of the year, sacrificing storage space for the sake of savings. Or maybe I get myself a nice thing, because it's nice to have nice things. I try not to practice too much retail therapy. That doesn't mean I don't occasionally treat myself.

May I present the Unicorn Empire holiday sales?

Unicorn Empire Designs is an artist-owned shirt and print design shop belonging to the fabulous Amber Whitney, who has designed some of my favorite shirts (I'm wearing my Steven Universe shirt right now, and seriously considering ordering myself a second "We Are Not Things" tank, because I wear it so damn much that why not?). If you're one of the lucky ones who got a Sparrow Hill Road shirt, she did that design.

It's too late to order from her for holiday delivery, especially if you're not in the US, but her holiday sales are still ongoing. You can get some incredible fannish gift sets, and better yet, free shipping on any orders of $75 or more. Check out her stuff, and see if some of it needs to come home with you.

More seriously: Amber is an independent artist who does incredible things. So incredible that the art theft has, naturally, gotten more and more common as other people went "oh, it's just fan art" and tried to profit off it without compensating her. So if you've been considering a shirt, consider it now, and help give her the happy holiday that assholes attempted to steal away.

Yay, shirts!

I have poster tubes! It's time to get rid of poster tubes! So:

Behold the poster thumbnail!



You can't really read the text at this size, but it's the full lyrics of "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." You can tell that the posters are absolutely gorgeous, thanks to the ever-wonderful graphic skills of my lovely lady Tara. They're 10" by 26", and I couldn't be happier with them.

The posters have a limited run of 500, which sounds like a lot, and yet is shrinking at a truly impressive rate. They aren't programmed into the ordering system on my website, and that's a good thing, since it gives me flow control and allows me to refuse orders when I'm not up for mailing. If you wanted to order a poster, here's what to do:

1) Send me an email via my website contact form, telling me how many posters you want. Posters are $20, plus $6 for shipping and handling within the United States ($15 shipping and handling internationally, for which I apologize, but the costs are obscene).

2) I can fit up to three posters in a tube, going to the same place. So three to one location is cost of posters + $6/$15, while three going to three locations would be cost of posters + $18/$45.

3) I will email you to confirm the request, and to provide my PayPal information. We can discuss payment by check.

The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous. They also frame really, really nicely, as my living room wall can attest. I'm not currently planning to reprint this design; when they're gone, they're gone, and will be replaced by something else (probably a poster based on either "Follow Me Down" or "Stars Fall Home").

Yay for pretty things!

...a Wicked Girls poster!

Welcome to the tenth 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 tenth giveaway is for a copy of the lovely Wicked Girls poster. 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 Friday, December 26th.

Game on!

Every field has its trade magazines, from Cat Fancy to Fashion Dolls Quarterly. They're an important, unbiased way of sharing developments and keeping people abreast of the news. Also, unlike a website, they can go in the bathtub with you, which is way important. The trade magazine for the science fiction and fantasy world is Locus, which holds the rare distinction of being the only trade mag to ever have me as a cover girl. (Sadly before I started dying my hair in mantis shrimp colors, so clearly I need to convince them to do a "Mira Grant" spotlight sometime, just so people can see my awesomely updated tresses.)

Locus is an awesome resources and a fun read, and I am a big fan, which is why, when they asked me if I'd be willing to tell people about their holiday special, I was totally happy to say "sure." Locus is small, privately owned, and has a dedicated staff working hard to put it out on a monthly basis. As such, they don't do many promotions—this is a great opportunity, and a better deal. To whit:

***

Locus Holiday Special—New Subscriptions Only!

Digital Deal: January-June 2015 Digital Subscription for $15.00 (normally $27.00)

Print Special: Give a 12 or 24 issue Print Subscription, and get a Free Issue! (Get one free issue added to a gift subscription, OR to your own!)

Upon purchase you will receive a PDF holiday gift card suitable for printing or sharing (with art by Francesca Myman). Get more information and make your purchase here:

http://www.lsff.net/holidayspecial/

The perfect stocking stuffer for the science fiction fan or new author on your list! Offer expires December 31, 2014.

***

Check out their website and see if this is maybe something you can get behind. They're a great bunch of people doing good work, and this is an amazing value for an equally amazing magazine.

Shirts are here! So many shirts. A terrifying number of shirts.

What happens next.

1. We keep the boxes closed. Seriously, they are sealed. Because I have cats, and they are long-haired cats, and we need to keep the shirts allergen-free as long as possible.

2. On December 7th, which is a Sunday, we unseal the boxes and spend many, many hours stuffing shirts into envelopes.

3. Because December 7th is a Sunday, we begin mailing on Monday, December 8th. Yes, during the holiday shipping season. Yes, I am unhappy about this. No, there is not another way without keeping all these shirts in my house until January, which isn't fair to any of the people involved.

Shirts will be mailed in batches of twenty (packages, not necessarily individual shirts), with no more than five international shirts per batch. This is out of mercy to my post office. There are 402 shirts total. Assuming an average of two shirts per package, this gives us 201 packages, or roughly ten days'-worth of trips to the post office. I'm hoping to be done with mailing by December 19th. This should get them to most US addresses by Christmas.

As noted before, shirts will not be mailed with tracking numbers, and I will not be able to tell you which batch your shirt is in.

Shirts!

Slasher Chicks shirts.

I have opened a new Slasher Chicks tank top sales post right over here. While I won't say with 100% certainty that there's not a shirt mistakenly shoved into a different box, so far as I am aware, the currently posted numbers represent all the remaining stock of this design. Once they're gone they're gone, unless I find a really good reason to reprint, and even if I do, that won't be happening for a year or more (probably more). So check it out! They're great, soft, fitted tanks, stretchy and comfy and cool.

But wait, there's more.

If you do decide to buy a tank top for yourself or as a Hogswatch gift, I will tell you to PayPal an email address, and ask you to send your mailing info via my contact form. What this means is that I need you to PayPal an email address, and send your mailing info via my contact form. My PayPal is connected to a very old email account that doesn't include a graphic mail client, and extracting shipping info from PayPal notifications is borderline impossible. Meaning I won't mail your shirt until I receive an email with your contact info.

More old ARCs!

I have some leftover ARCs of The Winter Long for the crafters and creative people of the world to claim and enjoy. Because they're heavy, I would prefer to only mail them domestically, as I will have to charge postage; basically, it would be cheaper to buy a new paperback and cut that up if you're in a country other than the US. (I say "prefer" because sometimes you really need an ARC for a specific craft. Like the friend in England who turned one of my ARCs into paper roses for her wedding bouquet.)

As I said above, I do need to charge postage this time, so it'll be $5 for an ARC to a US address, and postage to be determined for an ARC to anywhere else. I won't sign them; these are intended for craft use, not collectable use. Comment with your location if you want one.

Shirt status.

Still not on my doorstep.

Monster High status.

Looking for the entire Haunted Line, looking for all Gloom and Bloom except for Jane Boolittle, looking for Freaky Field Trip, not looking for Geek Shriek because fuck that line.

Cat status.

Puffy.

What's new and cool in the land of you?

I'm home from my last convention of 2014, and am selling some more Slasher Chicks tank tops to make room in my staging area. Be a roller derby hipster in a shirt for a team that doesn't exist! With art by the fabulous Sfe Monster, this was our first experiment with printing on bright colors for fun times. All tanks are fitted (no straight cuts this time, I'm afraid).

I am still not 100% sure what I have, and will be posting shirts here as I locate them, so watch here for updates. Currently, we have:

Dark gray, out of stock.

Heather gray, S x2
Heather gray, M x4
Heather gray, L x4
Heather gray, XL x3

(NOTE: This is ALL the remaining shirt stock in heather gray. No further sizes available.)

Orange, S x3
Orange, M x5
Orange, L x4
Orange, XL x3
Orange, 2XL x6

(NOTE: This is ALL the remaining shirt stock in orange. No further sizes available.)

Pink, S x2
Pink, M x4
Pink, L x1
Pink, XL x2

(NOTE: This is ALL the remaining shirt stock in pink. No further sizes available.)

Purple, out of stock.

Red, M x3
Red, L x6
Red, XL x9
Red, 2XL x1

(NOTE: This is ALL the remaining shirt stock in red. No further sizes available.)

Yellow, L x4
Yellow, XL x5
Yellow, 2XL x3

(NOTE: This is ALL the remaining shirt stock in yellow. No further sizes available.)

All shirts are $20 + $5 shipping US/$12 shipping International. If you want a shirt, comment here, and I'll provide payment info and all that fun stuff. You must comment here to request a shirt. Do not use LJ messenger or send me email, or anything else. Just comment here. I will be making a mail run next week, so shirts ordered now should reach their recipients before the holidays.

ETA: Folks, the instructions given when you place a request (IE, PayPal to one place and send your mailing address to another) are not optional. I cannot easily extract your mailing info from the PayPal alert. I need you to send it through my contact form. Until you do, even paid-for shirts will not be mailed.

I have just received the email from the shirt shop (like, today) letting me know that the Wicked Girls and My Story Is Not Done shirts are finished! Hooray! This means they should be hitting my doorstep right around, oh, Thanksgiving.

I am not mailing shirts on Thanksgiving.

If you need to update your mailing address, now is the time. I will aim to have the mailing party to get these out in early December. Once we hit the party, your shirt goes to the address we have on file. Because opening the boxes will expose their contents to cat hair, I am not doing any mailing before the party. So I will not crack open five boxes of shirts to find your shirt in specific. I am very sorry about this. I am not going to mail hair-encrusted shirts to all our allergic people just to make a deadline I didn't agree to. This particular batch has taken a long time. Some of that is my fault (two months in Europe); some of it is not (people not responding to email/sending in their payments). Regardless, we're moving right along.

When shirts do start going out, it will be in large batches, without tracking. Tracking was not calculated as part of the initial postage cost, and is not something I can afford to do, either money or time-wise. If you have a huge, specific concern, please contact the merch address; we may be able to arrange for you to pay extra and get a tracking number. This will automatically move your shirt to the back of the queue, as it will require additional time at the post office.

Also, this is the appropriate time to note that I will not be doing further bespoke shirt runs. We've been as upfront as we can throughout this process about the fact that it makes no money, and that all updates will be posted here. If you look back through the "people make things" tag, you'll see that I have regularly updated when there was something to say. This hasn't stopped people from using every avenue they could find to ask for updates. It hasn't stopped people from mailing Deborah over and over again. I understand the need to know what's going on, but honestly, I said "this is the situation," and people didn't listen. I can't do things like this if people don't want to follow the rules and listen to the updates. I'm so sorry that there will not be a fourth print run.

But let's end on a positive note: shirts soon! And they should be gorgeous. I am so excited.

Thank you.

It's almost over, but October is, was, and will be Disability Awareness Month. We all know someone with a disability, whether visible, invisible, or undiagnosed. I've been dealing with back issues and walking issues for most of my adult life, in addition to my OCD. I am always aware of these things. It's nice to have people stop once in a while and talk about how disability impacts them, the people around them, and their lives as a whole.

We need to be compassionate. We need to be understanding. And most of all, we need to be kind to ourselves and others. We're all we've got here.

Teal Sherer is an awesome actress (and appears in my upcoming Mira Grant novella, "Rolling in the Deep," as a professional mermaid). She has written and produced a comedy about being an actress with a disability, and you can watch it on YouTube now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR0E4DVtNEw&feature=youtu.be

Take a few minutes and check out My Gimpy Life. It's fun, it's funny, and it's eye-opening.

Happy October, everybody.

Do you ever feel like you just have too darn much money, and need more places to spend it? Or do you just want to know why you should be shaking down the couch for quarters? Well!

First up, Zombies Need Brains LLC, the force behind the anthology Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens, is doing a second anthology! This one is called Temporally Out of Order, and the Kickstarter is going now! With twenty-seven days to go we're just under halfway funded, for an anthology that's slated to include a lot of really awesome names. Stretch goals include more stories and more money for the authors involved. I'm excited as all get-out for you to have a look!

Secondly, remember last year's awesome nerd nail wraps from Espionage Cosmetics? Well, they're back for another pass, with more awesome nerd makeup and really exciting new nail wrap designs, including one that might seem just a little...familiar...to some of you. There are some gorgeous designs this time, and while the campaign has reached its first goal with eighteen days to spare, the stretch goals are going to have even more exciting goodies. Basically, I need y'all to look at this Kickstarter so that I can dip my nails in unicorn blood. Okay?

Okay.

Awesome things! Remember, the winter holidays are coming soon, and nerd wraps and anthologies make great gifts for the people you love!

Hello!

So right now, Deborah is in the process of emailing anyone who is not marked "paid" on the big T-shirt spreadsheet, to confirm that they have a) sent payment and just not been marked off properly, b) they are planning to send payment within the next week, or c) they would like to cancel their shirt orders.

If a)...

I am in England! Because of this, my email access has been spotty, and my inbox is out of control. This means that it is 1,000% likely that payment notifications have been missed (especially since PayPal doesn't always mark them clearly, which means doing an inbox search for "PayPal" is not always reliable). If you have sent payment and you receive an email, nothing is wrong. Your order has not been deleted. Just reply to Deborah with your confirmation number, and we'll get things updated.

If b)...

We really need to get final payments in so we can submit this order. If you receive an email and have not sent payment previously, please follow Deborah's instructions and get right on that. I'd really rather not have to return a bunch of late payments because we've already sent in the shirt order without you.

If c)...

That's cool! Situations change and stuff moves around and all. Just reply and let Deborah know that you need to cancel your order, and we'll take you off the spreadsheet.

Please remember that I have very little contact with the admin side of things: if you have a question about your order, email the merch address, rather than commenting here.

Shirts soon!

So shirt orders are closed, and this is an update! Specifically, the update is this:

Kate, who is handling the administrative side of this shirt order, just got a new job, and is thus somewhat behind at contacting people to clear up things about their payments, shipping info, etc. She is still doing it. People are being contacted, and payments, once received, are being entered on the spreadsheet. Remember that "we're not making any money" disclaimer? Unfortunately, that means I'm not paying her, which is why she needed the new job, and why she's slow right now.

Everyone's order will be dealt with. Queries should go to the merch address; if you send them through the contact form, they have to go through Kate, and this is what happens:

1. You email.
2. Kate bounces the email to me.
3. I bounce the email to Kate, because I literally know nothing about where she is in the process.

It is not efficient, and it takes time away from her processing the pending orders. I promise, it's happening; we just need to be patient while we work the latest batch of kinks out.

Shirts soon!

LJ Messenger.

So I've been experiencing a real uptick recently in people using LJ's internal messaging system to reach me. I don't know why? I don't know if this is a societal switch toward "let's use one site for absolutely everything, always, and if you ever have to switch tags, that's bad," or if LJ has started giving out free kittens with every message sent, or what, but I am here to beg you to please not do that.

One of the functions of my OCD is that I feel compelled to answer all comments that are not somehow covered by comment amnesty, such as being second-level (a reply to one of my replies) or on a post that's connected to the RNG. This can take a long time. I have over 1,300 unanswered comments right now. I do not mind this! Comments are very rarely time-sensitive, and when they are, such as with the WG orders, I either get help or I leave myself a post-it. But this means that anything that's not on those entries just gets buried. Your message can wait up to a year for me to notice it.

Please, if you need to reach me privately, use my website contact form. That's what my website contact form is for. I get all that mail. I read all that mail. I answer most of that mail (some things do not require an answer). I do not overlook that mail for a year. Please, do not message me here, or on Tumblr, or on Facebook. Use my contact form. Please.

Slasher Chicks shirts.

I have answered all currently outstanding inquires, and I still have pretty, pretty Slasher Chicks shirts for sale. So pretty! So totally random in terms of color and size! It's an adventure every time I have to look up a size/color combo, and the adventure can be yours.

Old ARCs.

I have two ARCs of Half-Off Ragnarok left over, and I would like to see them go to a good home where they will be turned into art. People periodically need books for art projects, so...anyone out there looking to do some fun papercrafts and need an ARC or two? Please do not ask if you want to keep the ARCs in book form for reading purposes; I'm looking for people who are looking to make things. US addresses only, since postage is expensive and I'd need to ask you to pay it and ARCs aren't worth it (unless you're emulating a friend of mine and making something like a bridal bouquet out of ARCs, because that's a really important and long-term papercraft, and justifies you paying for postage).

Go ahead and comment on this post if you're interested, so other people can see that the ARCs may have been claimed. Again, please, crafters only.

Media stuff.

Surprisingly good: the movie Big Ass Spider.

Also surprisingly good: Girl Meets World.

...and thus do I summarize my entire experience with media in two three-word titles.

More later, but these are the things that mattered right now!

This is your reminder that we will stop taking orders for a new run of Wicked Girls shirts, as well as the first-ever run of "My Story Is Not Done" shirts (for those of you who have asked for something a little more gender-neutral), at midnight PST on Monday, June 30th. So the second it becomes July, we are no longer taking requests.

Instructions on ordering, and what our options are, are all lain out on that initial post. Kate, using the "seananmerch" account, is reaching out now to confirm people's requests. I have no involvement with this part of the process, and emailing me directly (either via my contact form or because you have a contact address) just gets you bounced to Kate.

What does this mean for me?

It means that you must have commented on the original post by midnight June 30th to be included in the order.

But I haven't heard back from Kate!

No one who has commented on the post will be left out. Kate had real life loom on her a bit (as sometimes happens to even the best of us), but she's getting caught up, and everyone will make the spreadsheet. This does mean I won't be submitting the T-shirt order at 12:01am July 1st, but let's be honest: that was never going to happen anyway. For one thing, I was going to be asleep. I like sleep.

Please make sure you have added "seananmerch" to your spam filters.

Kate has been emailing people, but not everyone has gotten back to her to confirm mailing addresses and provide payment. This is a problem, since your shirt will only be printed if you pay for it (that being the nature of this particular ordering process). If you have commented on the original post and received a reply saying that you're on the spreadsheet, that means you should also have received an email. Please check!

We mean it when we say we can't promise delivery before October.

We opened this order period as early as we did because we want to be able to get the shirts back from the printer and shoved into envelopes before I leave for Europe in early August, but there are a lot of moving parts involved, and it's possible the printer will miss the deadline for mailing by as little as a day or as much as two weeks. If the shirts hit while I'm out of the country, they're not going to be mailed until October. We will not give refunds in September because you expected a shirt in August. I'm being really upfront about how long this could take, and this is part of why. Which brings us to...

I am not a store; we are not making any money off of this.

The last two shirt runs have netted cost of shirts + cost of postage and packing materials + one pizza party for the people who pack the shirts to mail. I am not a big shiny clothing manufacturer who prints her own shirts and can afford a shit-ton of extras. Teefury can do $11 shirts because they print their own and have runs well in excess of anything I've ever done. I am fighting to keep from needing to raise prices for these short bespoke runs. This is why I request non-CC PayPal and do my best to avoid transaction fees, which nibble away at the already very narrow overage.

Kate and I are both going to be as open and responsive as we possibly can be; transparency is best in a situation like this one. But please, please don't buy a shirt if you're going to approach it like buying something from Hot Topic. We're not that kind of operation. It'll be a long, long time before we can be.

Thank you.

Look! The new Slasher Chicks shirts are here!

These lovely, colorful tanks allow you to embrace your inner roller girl, while also looking awesome in the hot summer weather. With art by the fabulous Sfe Monster, this was our first experiment with printing on bright colors for fun times. All tanks are fitted (no straight cuts this time, I'm afraid).

Here's the thing: they're all in a big box, and I'm not 100% sure what I have. So I'm going to post shirts a few at a time, and update this post when I add more shirts for sale. First up, we have...

Banana Yellow, 2XL
Banana Yellow, XL
Banana Yellow, S
Purple, XL
Purple, XL
Red, XL
Red, S
Bright Pink, M

All shirts are $20 + $5 shipping US/$10 shipping International. If you're wondering about a color/color family and size, please comment, and I'll happily look it up. If you want a shirt, comment here, and I'll provide payment info and all that fun stuff.

Shirts!

ETA: When I say "use my contact form," I mean my website, not LJ messaging. Please do not use LJ messaging.
ETA2: I really mean it when I say "please do not use LJ messaging." Yes, it's easier, but it means that the odds of my missing your message and your shirt not getting shipped increase by literally 500%. I cannot miss you in my email inbox. I am really good at missing things in my LJ inbox. Please, please, don't do this.

And we are CLOSED. A new post will open when this one is cleared.

All right! We are still taking orders for a new run of Wicked Girls shirts, as well as the first-ever run of "My Story Is Not Done" shirts (for those of you who have asked for something a little more gender-neutral). Instructions on ordering, and what our options are, are all lain out on that initial post. Kate, using the "seananmerch" account, is reaching out now to confirm people's requests.

Now, the notes.

Please make sure you have added "seananmerch" to your spam filters.

Kate has been emailing people, but not everyone has gotten back to her to confirm mailing addresses and provide payment. This is a problem, since your shirt will only be printed if you pay for it (that being the nature of this particular ordering process). If you have commented on the original post and received a reply saying that you're on the spreadsheet, that means you should also have received an email. Please check!

We mean it when we say we can't promise delivery before October.

We opened this order period as early as we did because we want to be able to get the shirts back from the printer and shoved into envelopes before I leave for Europe in early August, but there are a lot of moving parts involved, and it's possible the printer will miss the deadline for mailing by as little as a day or as much as two weeks. If the shirts hit while I'm out of the country, they're not going to be mailed until October. We will not give refunds in September because you expected a shirt in August. I'm being really upfront about how long this could take, and this is part of why. Which brings us to...

I am not a store; we are not making any money off of this.

The last two shirt runs have netted cost of shirts + cost of postage and packing materials + one pizza party for the people who pack the shirts to mail. I am not a big shiny clothing manufacturer who prints her own shirts and can afford a shit-ton of extras. Teefury can do $11 shirts because they print their own and have runs well in excess of anything I've ever done. I am fighting to keep from needing to raise prices for these short bespoke runs. This is why I request non-CC PayPal and do my best to avoid transaction fees, which nibble away at the already very narrow overage.

Kate and I are both going to be as open and responsive as we possibly can be; transparency is best in a situation like this one. But please, please don't buy a shirt if you're going to approach it like buying something from Hot Topic. We're not that kind of operation. It'll be a long, long time before we can be.

Thank you.

For those of you who missed it, we opened orders for a new run of Wicked Girls shirts this past weekend, as well as the first-ever run of "My Story Is Not Done" shirts (for those of you who have asked for something a little more gender-neutral). Instructions on ordering, and what our options are, are all lain out on that initial post. Kate, using the "seananmerch" account, is reaching out now to confirm people's requests.

Now, the notes.

We cannot provide any special mailing options.

A few people have offered to pay extra for expedited shipping or tracking, and that's swell, but we can't. We are not a store, and the size of these shirt runs means that we have enough trouble just feeding them through the post office as all-the-same. The only way we would be able to offer other postage options would be to cap the shirt run at something around 50, and a) we've already passed that point, and b) no. I can only handle this about once every two years, and capping things like that would be mean.

We mean it when we say we can't promise delivery before October.

We opened this order period as early as we did because we want to be able to get the shirts back from the printer and shoved into envelopes before I leave for Europe in early August, but there are a lot of moving parts involved, and it's possible the printer will miss the deadline for mailing by as little as a day or as much as two weeks. If the shirts hit while I'm out of the country, they're not going to be mailed until October. We will not give refunds in September because you expected a shirt in August. I'm being really upfront about how long this could take, and this is part of why. Which brings us to...

I am not a store; we are not making any money off of this.

The last two shirt runs have netted cost of shirts + cost of postage and packing materials + one pizza party for the people who pack the shirts to mail. I am not a big shiny clothing manufacturer who prints her own shirts and can afford a shit-ton of extras. Teefury can do $11 shirts because they print their own and have runs well in excess of anything I've ever done. I am fighting to keep from needing to raise prices for these short bespoke runs. This is why I request non-CC PayPal and do my best to avoid transaction fees, which nibble away at the already very narrow overage.

Kate and I are both going to be as open and responsive as we possibly can be; transparency is best in a situation like this one. But please, please don't buy a shirt if you're going to approach it like buying something from Hot Topic. We're not that kind of operation.

Thank you.

Because nothing says "Seanan has a lot on her plate right now" like me deciding it's time for a project, I am going back to the printer for a third limited batch of "Wicked Girls" T-shirts. How limited? "The number of orders I receive, plus maybe a few extras, but I don't make any promises"-limited. We will also be doing the first ever run of "My Story Is Not Done" T-shirts, again limited to the number of orders I receive, plus maybe a few extras.

The designs, thanks to the ever-lovely Tara:



These are mock-ups; the actual shirts will use these designs, but will vary a little. We are using the same local shop that we used for the previous two batches, and they are remarkably flexible about everything. I love them so. Here are some real people wearing real shirts (all "Wicked Girls," since this is our first time with "My Story" shirts):

http://a.yfrog.com/img864/1994/wdmqi.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahandbrian/6879521872/
http://pics.livejournal.com/tithenai/pic/0005p48p
https://twitter.com/#!/gienahghurab/status/183599757132955652/photo/1

We are offering four types of shirt, as follows:

The standard girl-cut T (click here to view the basic shirt) is available in small through 2XL. We can print with visible text on black, dark chocolate, dark gray, heather gray, indigo, kelly, light olive, midnight navy, neon orange, plum, purple rush, raspberry, red, royal, scarlet, shocking pink, teal, or turquoise. We cannot promise visibility on any other color, as white text is hard to read on light-colored shirts.

The girl-cut T with a shallow V-neck (click here to view the basic shirt) is available in small through 2XL. We can print with visible text on black, dark gray, heather gray, indigo, kiwi, midnight navy, neon orange, plum, purple rush, raspberry, or red. We cannot promise visibility on any other color, as white text is hard to read on light-colored shirts.

The larger girl-cut T (click here to view the basic shirt) is available in small through 4XL. We can print with visible text on athletic maroon, jet black, cardinal, charcoal, dark chocolate brown, dark green, kelly, navy, orange, purple, red, or royal. We cannot promise visibility on any other color, as white text is hard to read on light-colored shirts.

The unisex T (click here to view the basic shirt) is available in small through 6XL. We can print with visible text on athletic maroon, jet black, brown, cardinal, charcoal, dark chocolate brown, dark green, dark heather gray, deep marine, eggplant, fiery red, forest green, kelly, navy, olive, orange, purple, red, rich red or royal. We cannot promise visibility on any other color, as white text is hard to read on light-colored shirts.

HOW THIS IS GOING TO WORK.

If you want to buy a shirt, comment here with:

a) how many shirts you want, of which type ("WG" or "MS").
b) which size and style each shirt should be.
c) which color each shirt should be.
d) an alternate color, in case your first choice is out of stock.*
e) your email address.

(*Colors for which we receive fewer than three requests will be automatically considered "out of stock.")

Either Kate or I will add your information to our ongoing spreadsheet, and Kate will contact you to arrange immediate payment, using the "seananmerch" Gmail address. Shirts are $20 for sizes S through 2XL, and $25 for sizes 3XL through 6XL. Shipping is $5 per two shirts within the US, and $10 per two shirts outside the US. (So one size S to a US address would be $25. The same shirt to a UK address would be $30. Adding a second shirt to either order would not increase postage costs; adding a third shirt would.)

Orders will close on June 30; the goal is to have the order submitted to the printer by July 15th. Anyone who has not replied to three requests for payment will be deleted from the spreadsheet at that time. We're going to do our best to get these printed and mailed before I leave for Europe in early August. If this is not possible, shirts will not be mailed until I return in early October. I know that's a long gap, and I'm sorry about that; at the same time, it may be another two years before I do this again.

Because this came up last time: I understand security concerns, but if you want a shirt, you must provide an email address. The actual spreadsheet is being generated by Kate, who cannot access any more private mechanism you may decide to use for contacting me. No email address on the entry, no shirt. You can delete your original comment after you have received a comment from either me or Kate confirming that your information is on the spreadsheet.

Game on!

ETA: Game over. This shirt batch is now CLOSED, and no further orders are being accepted.

Chris came over yesterday, and we spent basically the entire day watching terrible movies on SyFy/recorded off SyFy and preserved on the DVR. We watched The Uninvited, starring Emily Browning's impossibly Disney Princess facial proportions. We watched Drive Angry, starring Nicholas Cage's impossibly plastic face. And then we watched Lockout, starring Guy Pearce as a completely fucks-free zone. Seriously, his character in this film has so few fucks that he is in actual fucks debt to the Fucks Mafia, and it is glorious.

(I keep feeling like we watched another movie in there, but I'm pretty sure that's my hind-brain going "you watched ten minutes of Vikingdom, that's enough suffering to count as a whole film, no really. And in about an hour, I'm going to take a big bowl of ice cream and go watch Blood Lake on Animal Planet. I am a predictable creature, is what I'm saying here.)

Anyway, here are a few updates on things.

Posters.

All emails asking about Wicked Girls posters have been answered. If you received one of these emails, you may notice that it said "please PayPal address A, and then reply to this email (sent from address B) with your mailing address." What this means is "please PayPal address A, and then reply to this email (sent from address B) with your mailing address." I can't harvest mailing information from PayPal with the mail client that I use for address A. Meaning your poster will not be mailed, even if it is paid for, until you follow the instructions in that original email, and tell me where to send it. Fiddly? Yes! But clearly stated, so I don't feel too bad about it.

(If you were wanting a poster, the post with instructions is here: http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/570576.html, and as I just ordered a new box of poster tubes, I am fully capable of shipping more. I will run out of tubes before I run out of posters, so this is a great time to order.)

Considering a book sale.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, at least according to my origins in the fanfic mines. Elizabeth Bear, whom I love dearly, periodically does an "author's copies sale" to try to reclaim her house. I think I may need to do something similar, as I am losing access to my guest room. I will probably set this up shortly after Phoenix Comic Con. In the meanwhile, if you're looking for something specific, please feel free to email me through my website contact form. It never hurts to check.

(I do not have copies of Ravens in the Library, or indeed, most of the anthologies I've been in. Sorry.)

Updates to the Field Guide.

There have been some updates to the InCryptid Field Guide. You can find it here:

http://seananmcguire.com/fieldguide.php

There are more updates to come, as I'm trying to get all the existing entries posted before I go back to Kory for more. Hooray, the field guide!

Pokemon.

Efforts to breed a Shiny Eevee continue unabated. I am destroying the local ecology by releasing so many newborn Eevees back into the wild. Even if most of them are eaten by the resident Gyrados and Svipers, there should still be enough to cause a major ecological crisis. Whee!

And that is all.

Shirts.

Okay: it looks like there is sufficient interest in a second run of Wicked Girls shirts, and we will be doing a third run. The ordering period will run from May 31 through June 30, since that may allow me to receive and ship shirts before I leave for six weeks in Europe. (If it does not, we will explore other shipping options, including sending all the stock to Seattle and making Vixy ship it. That way, you should have your shirts before Halloween, which always strikes me as a good goal.) Details will be provided in the ordering post; please don't ask for them here.

Cats.

The cats have almost recovered from my last trip, which is nice. Alice is still prone to flinging herself into my lap while trilling dramatically, and it's rare for me to not have at least two of them in the room. Naturally, this means...

Cons.

...that it's time for me to head out again. I'll be at Phoenix Comic Con next weekend, having a splendid time, and—most exciting of all—performing with Paul and Storm. Yes! I get to perform with them! I am super-excited, and I really can't wait. I hope all of you who have the opportunity will come out and see us.

Albums.

I just sent in a restock of Wicked Girls to CD Baby. I know, right? They're only receiving seven copies, so if you've been waiting for the chance to order one, watch their site over the next week or so. They still have Stars Fall Home in stock, and I'm hoping they'll run out before I leave for Europe, so I can get that restocked as well. They make great gifts!

Posters.

I am still replying to email about posters. I'm about to run out of poster tubes, which is why it's going slowly; I don't want to receive payment and then go "sorry, it'll be a week before I can send you anything." On the plus side, yay demand. On the minus side, I can't magic up postal supplies yet. I do still have posters left, so if you'd been thinking about ordering, feel free to email me.

Godzilla.

I highly recommend the new movie. I have...thoughts...about it, but I really enjoyed every moment that Mr. Zils spent on the screen, King of Monstersing his way around. A+ kaiju would destroy again. Also now I want to write a kaiju novel. Dammit.

Cake Bake Betty.

Their new album, Songs About Teeth, is awesome. Like a femrock Ludo with folk influences.

That is all.

Apparently, I have too much free time on my hands, because I'm thinking of doing another run of Wicked Girls shirts. The last run was two years ago, and it seems like it's time. My shirt company is still in business, and while their rates have gone up slightly, they haven't gone up so much as to make things impractical. So! I have two questions.

First question, is there interest?

Second question...how do we handle international orders? I don't want to say "sorry, US and Canada only," but at the same time, recent increases in postage fees mean that shipping to anywhere else is going to be disgusting. Like, "at least ten dollars for a shirt, and fifteen for two" levels of disgusting (and even then, I'm averaging things out and will be eating some of the cost). There's not much margin on these shirts: because of the way we do them, I basically make cost + shipping materials + pizza party for the people who pack the shirts to ship. That means I can't afford to ship unless I charge what it actually costs. But I also cringe at the idea of charging what it actually costs. Fun for the whole family!

As with the last run, there will be a small surcharge for sizes 3xl and up, both because I pay more for the shirts themselves, and because they cost more to ship. I'll keep it as low as I can, again, if we do this.

So.

Do we do this?

Even computers like to look pretty sometimes, right? Well, visit the InCryptid wallpapers and icons page on my website to download the latest crop of awesome offerings from the fabulous Tara O'Shea, who has once again risen to the challenge of making this world of wonders and terrors seem a little more real.

Please feel free to save and use any of the icons or wallpapers from this site, which also contains some great graphics from earlier books in the series. I'm so excited to be able to offer these to you all.

Yay, graphics!

As promised, here is the Half-Off Ragnarok art and pictures giveaway!

How to enter:

Post a comment either containing or linking to fan art, photography, or other visual awesomeness inspired by or related to this series. Because LJ lists all links as spam, your comment may appear to disappear. I will be manually unspamming all these comments, have no fear.

Please link only to your own work, not to Aly's awesome covers or to someone else's fan art (it does exist). Please indicate in the original comment whether you're in the US or international.

How to win:

I will be using the RNG to choose a winner at noon PST on Monday, February 10th. Please watch this space, as I will be requesting that you send me your address pretty quickly, so that your prize can be mailed before I fly to New York for the remainder of the month.

Game on!

Happy Superbowl Sunday, if you like the sports, and happy Superb Owl Flight Day, if you don't like the sports. May your favorite team do the thing and win the points, and may the Superb Owl soar above your home without pausing to claim tribute in His mighty talons. It's random crap time!

So I realized that I never posted this awesome photo set by my darling Ryan. He took many, many awesome pictures of my custom Alice Price-Healy doll, repainted by the incredible talent over at Retrograde Works. I cannot praise either of their work highly enough. The pictures take my breath away. So does the doll.

Here is an old but beautifully informative post on word counts and how long your novel should be. Naturally, there will always be exceptions, but this is a good way to make yourself pause and go "why is my YA really 120k?" or "is my epic fantasy really done at 75k?" Fun for writers of all ages!

I genuinely want this board game to exist. Except for the part where all play sessions would end with hysterical sobbing and a mysterious lack of alcohol. WHERE HAS THE RUM GONE?!

If you're reading this today—yes, today, the day I posted it, not some weird day in the future that has become "today" through the alchemy of time—you should know that Feed is a daily deal on Amazon. You can get the eBook for $1.99, which is pretty damn amazing. If you've been waiting to pick it up, now's the time!

And that, as they say, is that. Hope you're all well. Hope the Owl doesn't carry you away.

Because the Owl just might, you know.

I admit it: I messed up.

The initial assets from Tara (who is amazing in all ways) were missing the .GIF files that allow for previews, and I didn't tell her, because I was stressed out. And then I told her, and she got them to me, and I still didn't post, because I was still stressed out. And now, almost a year later, here they are:

The Midnight Blue-Light Special wallpapers.

Enjoy! Adorn! And eagerly anticipate the coming flood of awesome graphics for Half-Off Ragnarok and Sparrow Hill Road.

Fun for the whole family.

1. So I already wrote this entry once, and it was long and chatty and fun, and then I hit a button I didn't even realize existed and it all went away. I am thus suddenly grumpy, and my original tone may have changed a bit. Stupid buttons.

2. Amy Mebberson made a thing and you should all go admire it. I ordered mine so fast when it went up for sale that I actually got #1 of 50. That is love.

3. If you don't have a budget line item for Amy's art (which, let's face it, is a weird line item to have in a budget, and yet), take a look at Renee Nault's incredible watercolor mermaids. She has prints and calendars for sale, and has an incredibly diverse undersea world waiting for you to dive in. So pretty. So cool.

4. Starting Christmas Day, and continuing all the way through my birthday festivities, I will be doing a chain of twelve giveaways, for everything from ARCs and printed books to cover flats, posters, and special surprises. Each giveaway will have its own rules; watch this space for details.

5. Omnivoracious posted a super-fun thing about books at San Diego Comic-Con, including a picture of me in my Umbrella Corporation blue dress, standing in front of the Umbrella Corporation red cover for Parasite. I look very smug. You would, too, if that were your cover.

6. Alice and I did the Macarena this morning. I enjoyed it more than she did.

7. The year is almost over, but there are still some fun surprises to come: watch this space for details, and watch the sky for alien invasions. Darn those alien invasions.

8. Zombies are love.

9. I will be making my last pre-Christmas stop at Borderlands Books this afternoon. At this point, anything ordered won't reach you before the holidays, but you can still get signed and personalized books if you contact them before 2pm PST. After that, I don't guarantee another swing-through until sometime in January.

10. Finally for right now, Jill is still accepting donations to fund her surgery. As I said when she first started this campaign, we could buy her a future for Christmas, and that's amazing. If you've been looking for a tip jar to shove a couple of dollars into as a karmic investment for the year to come, please swing by and take a look at her plea.

I hope that you're all having the merriest holiday possible; I hope you're warm and safe and content, even if you're not in a place where you can be happy; I hope you're taking care of yourselves.

Let's get through these holidays together.

I have mailed ALL THE POSTERS! (I am in the process of mailing ALL THE THINGS, but that's taking more than one trip to the post office.) Any and all "Wicked Girls" posters which have been bought and paid for have finally, finally been mailed, and I still have poster tubes! So:

Behold the poster thumbnail!



You can't really read the text at this size, but it's the full lyrics of "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." You can tell that the posters are absolutely gorgeous, thanks to the ever-wonderful graphic skills of my lovely lady Tara. They're 10" by 26", and I couldn't be happier with them.

The posters have a limited run of 500, which sounds like a lot, and yet is shrinking at a truly impressive rate. They aren't programmed into the ordering system on my website, and that's a good thing, since it gives me flow control and allows me to refuse orders when I'm not up for mailing. If you wanted to order a poster, here's what to do:

1) Send me an email via my website contact form, telling me how many posters you want, of which kind(s). Standard posters are $20, plus $5 for shipping and handling within the United States ($13 shipping and handling internationally, for which I apologize, but the costs are obscene).

2) I can fit up to three posters in a tube, going to the same place. So three to one location is cost of posters + $5/$13, while three going to three locations would be cost of posters + $15/$39.

3) I will email you to confirm the request, and to provide my PayPal information. I can only take personal PayPal (no credit cards), although we can discuss payment by check.

The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous. They also frame really, really nicely, as my living room wall can attest. I'm not currently planning to reprint this design; when they're gone, they're gone, and will be replaced by something else (probably a poster based on either "Follow Me Down" or "Stars Fall Home").

Yay for pretty things!

If you've read "Bad Dream Girl," you already know that Antimony Price is a derby girl. But did you know that her team, the Slasher Chicks, has team shirts?

Well, now you do.

Originally printed for the San Antonio Worldcon, we have some shirts left over, and I am going to be selling them here in batches of three. For examples of what they look like, check these two links:

https://twitter.com/priscellie/status/369568694038310912/photo/1
https://twitter.com/seananmcguire/status/368529320907522048/photo/1

Both pictures are of the tank top, not the T-shirt, but you can see the logo clearly. All overruns (tank and T) are white ink on black fabric. T-shirts will be $20 for standard sizes. To purchase, please comment here, and upon confirmation, email me via my website contact form so that we can work out payment and shipping ($5 for domestic, $10 for international).

The current batch:

1. Girl-cut T, Medium.
2. Girl-cut T, Large.
3. Girl-cut T, XXL.

The reason for the small batches is simple: I have to hand-carry to the post office. I reserve the right to update the sale structure if I have the opportunity to carry a larger batch. I will update this post as time goes on.

I am a total geek. I have never tried to conceal my geekiness, choosing instead to embrace it for the wonderful thing that it is. Without my geeky pastimes, I wouldn't have the same friends, the same toys...the same life. I don't define myself by my geeky passions, but I can't pretend that they haven't defined me throughout my existence. Much like a bonsai is shaped by wire and scissors, I have been shaped by the X-Men and horror movies and roleplaying games and mythology, and I like me this way.

All things considered, it's probably not a surprise that when I was offered the chance to blurb Michael Underwood's Geekomancy, I said "sure, why not." A magic system based on and powered by the geeky joys that run my universe? Yes, please. And to no one's shock or amazement, I adored it. It's fun, it's peppy, it's about people I recognize, because they're the kind of people I voluntarily surround myself with every day of my life. The sequel, Celebromancy, came out recently, and is even more fun.

But here's the thing: these books are e-only, which means they miss out on bookstore browsers and surprise eyes, and too many of the awesome geeky people I know haven't encountered them or had the opportunity to give them a try. So I asked Michael's editor if I could do an e-book giveaway for the first book, to get people hooked on the series, and he said sure (after he finished blinking at me a great deal). And so I now present...

SEANAN GIVES AWAY SOMEONE ELSE'S BOOKS FOR A CHANGE!

This giveaway is for three electronic copies of Geekomancy by Michael Underwood. The limitations:

1. You will need to get the book through a specific channel (the publisher's website), because what I have are download codes.
2. The book is not going to be "Kindle ready," and may not be transferable onto a Kindle without evil magic.

To enter, leave a comment with your geekiest moment. No geek is too great! I, and the Random Number Generator, will select three winners on Friday, June 28th. Open to US residents only (sorry), please leave your comment on the entry itself; comments on comments will not be eligible to win.

Game on!

Okay, so:

The Kickstarter for Skin Horse, volume 4 is still going, with newly unlocked backer levels, including "Black Ops Foster Parent," which will come with a page of original art from the story "For Always" which I penned for this collection. All pages will be signed by Shaenon Garrity (the artist) and me (the author). Which means that if you want to have something completely unique—a page of original art from my first published comic story—this is the party for you.

(Hey, after they finally wise up and let me write the X-Men, that's going to be worth bank.)

There are six slots left at the Black Ops Foster Parent level, and I can guarantee that Shaenon will not have any pages left for sale after the Kickstarter finishes, as any that are not claimed by backers, I fully intend to buy for my own collection. So this is your one chance to both support an awesome web comic and keep me from adding more crap to the endlessly growing tide of stuff that threatens to consume my home.

Hooray for comics!

Guys guys guys guys!

The Kickstarter for Skin Horse, volume 4, is now live! What's more, the fools who run this comic book—you know, the ones who let me write the introduction for volume 3—have grown extra foolish, and allowed me to write an original Skin Horse story for the book! YES! I AM BECOME BONUS STORY!

The story, titled "For Always," is about Black Ops Foster Care, and it's short and sweet and awesome, and I am super excited. You should check out the Kickstarter and totally back it, because maybe there will be super secret stretch goals...

(Also yes, I will be at the tiki party. In case that matters.)

The ARCs of Chimes at Midnight arrived last night, and gosh and golly, they are amazing! So pretty. So real and in my hands. I am overcome with delight. And naturally, I am already starting to go "oh jeez get them out of my house, there are so many of them, get them out of my house."

So...

ARC giveaway! This first dance with the free stuff wolves will be the ART CHALLENGE. Post your Toby-inspired art (drawing, painting, manipulated photo, cosplay, animated .gif rendered funny by context, jewelry, anything that is visual and artsy) on this entry, or post links if your material is hosted elsewhere, and indicate whether you are in the US or international (and if international, whether you will pay postage).

On May 28th, having returned from the wilds of Disney World, I will select two winners: one via our old friend, the RNG, and one by going "that one is my favorite, it should have a book."

Game on!

I have mailed ALL THE POSTERS! (Actually, for this brief instant, I have mailed ALL THE THINGS. It's a little weird.) Any and all "Wicked Girls" posters which have been bought and paid for have finally, finally been mailed, and I still have poster tubes! So:

Behold the poster thumbnail!



You can't really read the text at this size, but it's the full lyrics of "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." You can tell that the posters are absolutely gorgeous, thanks to the ever-wonderful graphic skills of my lovely lady Tara. They're 10" by 26", and I couldn't be happier with them.

The posters have a limited run of 500, which sounds like a lot, and yet is shrinking at a truly impressive rate. They aren't programmed into the ordering system on my website, and that's actually a good thing, since it gives me flow control and allows me to refuse orders when I'm not up for mailing. If you wanted to order a poster, here's what you'd do:

1) Send me an email via my website contact form, telling me how many posters you want, of which kind(s). Standard posters are $20, plus $5 for shipping and handling within the United States ($10 shipping and handling internationally).

2) I can fit up to three posters in a tube, going to the same place. So three to one location is cost of posters + $5/$10, while three going to three locations would be cost of posters + $15/$30.

3) I will email you to confirm the request, and to provide my PayPal information. I can only take personal PayPal (no credit cards), although we can discuss payment by check.

The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous. They also frame really, really nicely, as my living room wall can attest. I'm not currently planning to reprint this design; when they're gone, they're gone.

Yay for pretty things!

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.

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

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

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE.

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

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

I thought so.

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

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

One note from the management:

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

See you Saturday!

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

This is one of those days that calls to mind the opening line of Clive Barker's classic The Thief of Time: "The great gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive." February is a monster, and we're all being digested. In an effort to slow the process, here are a few interesting things from my link file.

Susan, who is splendid, and who makes amazing hand-crafted leather goods, is making leather wrist straps with the Ashes of Honor ding bat on them (with my permission, naturally). That's not all she has to offer (my cats love her catnip toys, for example). Check her out!

Here are some rejected warning signs for you. I basically want to put these all around my house, especially "Annnnnnnnd...you're infected." That, and "We Apologize For What is About to Occur," which may eventually be the title of one of my books.

Publishers Weekly did a profile on me and it's pretty much amazing. I'm just saying.

Also I went on the SF Signal Podcast and spent like, an hour talking about television and how the Syfy Channel Saturday night movies have lost their integrity. You can listen to the whole thing here. Warning: It turns out I swear a lot. Who knew?

In other news, I really need to do a couple of mega review round-ups; my link file is currently threatening to eat my soul in the night, and that would be bad.

Happy Wednesday!

I have mailed ALL THE POSTERS! (Not, mind you, ALL THE THINGS. I have things left to mail, including some of the international T-shirts, which got kicked back to me for failure to correctly fill out the customs forms. But still, it's something.) Any and all "Wicked Girls" posters which have been bought and paid for have finally, finally been mailed. This forced me to assess my postage supplies, and I discovered that I have six poster tubes left. So!

Behold the poster thumbnail!



You can't really read the text at this size, but it's the full lyrics of "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." You can tell that the posters are absolutely gorgeous, thanks to the ever-wonderful graphic skills of my lovely lady Tara. They're 10" by 26", and I couldn't be happier with them.

The posters have a limited run of 500, which sounds like a lot, and yet is shrinking at a truly impressive rate. The first 100 are numbered and signed, because it seemed like an awesome thing to do. The posters aren't programmed into the ordering system on my website, and that's actually turning a good thing, since it gives me flow control. If you wanted to order a poster, here's what you'd do:

1) Send me an email via my website contact form, telling me how many posters you want, of which kind(s). Standard posters are $20, plus $5 for shipping and handling within the United States ($6 shipping and handling internationally). The signed/numbered posters are $25, plus shipping and handling.

2) I can fit up to three posters in a tube, going to the same place. So three to one location is cost of posters + $5, while three going to three locations would be cost of posters + $15.

3) Signed/numbered posters are extremely limited at this point, and I make no promises as to the number you will get. If you wanted a signed/numbered poster, I would recommend ordering it sooner than later.

4) I will email you to confirm the request, and to provide my PayPal information. I can only take personal PayPal (no credit cards), although we can discuss payment by check.

The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous. They also frame really, really nicely, as my living room wall can attest. Because I only have six tubes, I will only be taking the first six orders I receive (which could be for up to eighteen posters, as detailed above). I'll be using the money from this batch of poster sales to buy more poster tubes.

Yay for pretty things!

My darling Ryan is trying to get started as a professional photographer, and he's good. You can see his photo blog here, for examples of his work: http://pokingbadgers.com.

Right now, he's partnering with A Rising Tide to sell his first prints. To quote Ryan directly, "I currently have four prints available for purchase and all are printed on high gloss archival-quality Hahnemuehle Satin paper that will maintain its integrity for years to come." So that's what's what! Here's the info on his currently available material:

Blue Moon.
(http://arisingtide.org/collections/tanuki-photography/products/blue-moon)

16x11 for $79.00
32x22 for $149.00

Suzalo Library.
(http://arisingtide.org/collections/tanuki-photography/products/suzalo-library)

15x22 for $79.00
30x44 for $149.00

It's Full of Sparks.
(http://arisingtide.org/products/its-full-of-sparks)

10x15 for $99.00
15x20 for $149.00
30x40 for $229.00

Breath.
(http://arisingtide.org/collections/tanuki-photography/products/breath-30x40)

10x15 for $99.00
15x20 for $149.00
20x30 for $229.00

They're spendy, but also a) gorgeous, and b) huge. So if you're looking for holiday gifts for the art-lover in your life, take a look!

ETA: A message from the proprietor of A Rising Tide:

Hi guys.

I'm Tim, the proprietor of arisingtide.org. To thank you guys for all the page hits, I'd like to offer 15% discount. The discount code is: friendsofseanan and will be active until the end of November.

Thanks so much for looking at these beautiful pieces.

So that's pretty spiffy!

T-shirt update.

Shirts are being mailed! But in the interests of not being stoned to death by the other people who use my small local post office, they're being mailed in batches of twenty to thirty at a time. What does this mean? It means that if you have not yet received your shirt, it probably hasn't been mailed, but is instead sitting in a large sack in my living room. If you ordered three or more shirts, there is a good chance that your order is coming in more than one envelope. Breathe deeply, and it will be with you soon.

CDs and stuff.

I have sent a restock of both Wicked Girls and Red Roses and Dead Things to CD Baby. I estimate that I have roughly a hundred copies of Red Roses left, after which the CD will be out of print. I'm not currently planning a reprint, so, y'know, get it while it's available.

My cats are weird.

This morning, Thomas decided that he was going to accompany me to work, and attempted to accomplish this by stuffing himself into my backpack. It astonishes and terrifies me that he can fit inside my backpack; he's a lot of cat, and there are other things inside that bag. But he did it! And if he'd remembered to pull his tail inside, he might have made my day a lot more exciting than I ever wanted it to be.

The Pirates of Emerson.

Just a reminder to my Bay Area friends: the Pirates of Emerson have opened their annual haunted theme park at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Five awesome haunted houses, two mazes, the Bumpkin Patch, live entertainment, games, and more, all presented by spooky-ass pirates who leer and go "arrrrrrr" whenever provoked. It's a lot of fun, it's super reasonably priced for what you get, and I highly recommend it.

(I do not, however, recommend it for kids under twelve, or even for easily frightened kids under thirteen. You can still take them if you want, but you can't blame me for the night terrors and bedwetting that may follow.)

Best shirt ever.

My friend Craig sent me an official CDC Zombie Preparedness Task Force shirt, and it is the best shirt ever. I am the happiest disease/zombie fangirl in the whole wide world right now.

One con more...

I have only one convention left in 2012: WindyCon in Chicago, this coming November. After that, I am blissfully home free for the (admittedly short) remainder of the year. Which means a) if you wanted to catch me at a con, Windy is your last chance this year, and b) I might actually take a nap.

Although that's unlikely.

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.

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.