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.

The random number generator has spoken, and the winner of copies of Rosemary and Rue and Discount Armageddon is...

ccliving!

Please contact me via my website contact form by 1PM PST on Saturday, December 10th, to claim your prize. Please include your name, LJ handle, and mailing address in the message, so that I will know it is you.

Twelve more days to go!

...a copy of the audio book of Once Broken Faith!

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

The eighth giveaway is for a copy of the audio book of Once Broken Faith, on CD (so physical media, gasp). This is going to be a random number drawing, because I am not feeling creative right now. So...

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

I will choose the winner at 1PM PST on Friday, December 16th.

Game on!

ETA: This drawing is now CLOSED.

...a starter kit for my two longest-running series: signed copies of Rosemary and Rue and Discount Armageddon! Win them for yourself, for a friend, or for a local library!

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

The second giveaway is for signed copies of Rosemary and Rue and Discount Armageddon, the first books in the Toby Daye and InCryptid series, respectively. This is going to be a random number drawing, because I am sleepy. So...

1. To enter, comment on this post.
2. If you are international, indicate both this and your willingness to pay postage.
3. Tell me which series you are more excited to start.
4. That's it.

I will choose the winner at 1PM PST on Friday, December 9th.

Game on!

ETA: This drawing is now CLOSED.

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.

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

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

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

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

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

Tomorrow (Tuesday, September 6th) is my bookday! Happy bookday to me! Very soon, Once Broken Faith will be available from bookstores all over North America, and from import stores all over the world. It has yet to be spotted* in the wild, but I know it's coming. Hooray!

(*One person has informed me gleefully that they were able to talk their local bookstore into breaking street date and selling it to them early. Please don't do that. Please don't try to convince bookstore clerks to break the rules, and if you do, please don't tell me. It's very hard on my nerves.)

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. As always, this is for the folks who want to know--there are always a few people who ask--and not for anyone who doesn't care. At the end of the day, just reading is enough.

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 on Saturday, 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 Kit 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 half a dozen projects, a lot of things are falling by the wayside. Like sleep.

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

Whee!

The Random Number Generator has spoken, and today's three winners of an ARC of Once Broken Faith are...

loree
jjmcgaffey
rustykestrel

Please send an email via my website contact form (www.seananmcguire.com) with your full address and mailing information, and your LJ name, by 9am on Wednesday, August 10th, to claim your prizes.

Congrats to our winners, and thanks to everyone who entered! More to come!

I am home for more than a week, and that means it's time to unearth my postage supplies, finally mail all those posters I've taken requests for, and most of all, time to GIVE STUFF AWAY. Specifically, it's time to give away a couple of ARCs of Once Broken Faith.

You in?

To ease us back into the normal swing of things, today we're going with a random number generator drawing. US-only unless you are able to pay postage. I'm really sorry about that, but having just purchased a house, I am really not in a position to pay to mail things internationally right now. To enter...

1. Comment on this entry.
2. Specify whether you are US or international and, if international, indicate willingness to pay postage.
3. Name one thing you're hoping to see in an upcoming Toby book.

I will draw three winners via random number generator on Monday, August 8th. Game on!

ETA: Entries which do not include all three components, and which do not specifically relate to the October Daye series, are ineligible to win.

ETA2: Now closed, will be announcing our winners shortly.

I live! I write, I cry, I write again!

The move, its associated complications, and my own unavoidable commitments continue to conspire to keep me hopping, hence my current scarceness: I promise I'm not dead, and am still reasonably active on Twitter, even if I'm not managing to keep up with my blog. I'm really hoping that will change soon. I'm sliding toward normalcy one day at a time, I swear. Please let me swearing to something true.

Ahem. But! The disclaimer is not the reason I finally managed to break my silence. No, it's this: the first-ever Quentin-narrated story has been released today! "Full of Briars" is available now from an e-book retailer near you. (US-only at this time. I'm really sorry about that. I don't control the foreign rights, and unlike a story I've released myself, for free, this one I got paid for, and that means the publisher calls the shots.) I am super excited about it, both because a) this fills in a gap that's always bothered me, between Chimes at Midnight and The Winter Long, and b) this is the first time DAW has directly commissioned an e-original from me. IMAGINE HOW MUCH TOBY I COULD WRITE IF THIS IS SUCCESSFUL. The mind boggles, the fingers weep, and the heart rejoices.

A steal at only two dollars, please consider picking up "Full of Briars," if you haven't already, and find out what happened when we weren't looking.

This will serve as your discussion post: please be aware that there will almost certainly be spoilers in the comments.

Whee!

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 )

Every month I make a post to tell folks what I'm working on, a) because it seems polite, b) because it keeps me accountable, if only to myself, and c) so you will understand why I do not have a social life. This is the February 2016 post. It is the shortest month of the year, which means it's already almost over, which is horrifying to me. Where does the time go?

To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the bizarre urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Chaos Choreography, Every Heart a Doorway, Feedback, Once Broken Faith). The Nativity of Chance, "Down Among the Sticks and Bones," and Magic For Nothing are off the list because they're finished and in revisions with the Machete Squad. The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

Not everything on this list has been sold. I will not discuss the sale status of anything which has not been publicly announced. If you can't remember whether I've announced something, check the relevant tag, or go to my website, at www.seananmcguire.com. Please do not ask why project X is no longer on the list. I will not answer you.

( What is Seanan working on now? Click to find out!Collapse )

We have successfully weathered both the release of A Red-Rose Chain and the start of a new year, complete with my birthday (it's my birthday!), which means you deserve a treat. And here it is:

A brand-new story about Patrick and Dianda's first meeting! "Heaps of Pearl" has been posted on the Toby Daye short fiction page. It is available in ePub, MOBI, and PDF formats, and is free for download. Please download rather than trying to read locally; my server will thank you. (It's at the bottom of the page; scroll down.)

This story is best read after The Winter Long if possible, as it contains relationship spoilers through that point in the series. It is a story about meetings, and mermaids, and the terrible strain of living up to expectations. It is narrated by Patrick, because he's less likely to punch people for funsies.

Cover graphics are by Tara O'Shea. All short story electronic conversion thus far has been done by scifantasy. As both of them are awesome, we applaud them now.

Go forth, read, and please feel free to use this as a discussion post, which means there may be spoilers in the comments. Tread carefully.

Enjoy.

The random number generator has spoken, and proven that it is truly random by choosing...1. I've never actually seen that happen before. I was very impressed. Anyway, the winner of copies of The Winter Long and A Red-Rose Chain is...

bree_ramsey314!

Instructions for the winner: Please comment on this post letting me know that you're claiming your prize and send me an email via my website (www.seananmcguire.com) with your mailing information. Both comment and email must be received by Monday, December 14th to be considered valid.

Eight more days to go!

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.

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

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

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

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

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

So tomorrow is my happy bookday, as A Red-Rose Chain drops and everything is awesome. I'll open a talkpost for y'all as early as I can, but I have a morning dentist appointment, so it may not be as early as I'd like. Please do not leave spoilers on other threads; wait for the talkpost to open, for the sake of people who may not be able to read right away, okay? Thank you so much.

I am super nervous. Pocket Apocalypse didn't make the NYT list, and I really, really hope A Red-Rose Chain does. So please forgive a little twitchiness as we go into the final countdown.

You're all amazing. Thank you for being here, and letting me tell you stories.

It means the world to me.

This coming Tuesday is my bookday! Happy bookday to me! Very soon, A Red-Rose Chain will be available from bookstores all over North America, and from import stores all over the world. It has yet to be spotted in the wild from California to New York, but I know it's coming. 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 Rewind, a lot of things are falling by the wayside. Like sleep.

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

Whee!

As stated in this post, I am answering ten questions about Toby's world in preparation for the release of A Red-Rose Chain. Please note that these are questions about the world, not questions about individual people, things which have not yet happened in the series, or what is coming up in the books. I am no longer taking questions in the comments on the original post.

Our tenth and final question comes from heavensgardener, who asked...

"I'm curious about Faerie and trans* people: are there any trans* and genderqueer fae, and if there are, how would this be handled legally/socially/etc? "

This is a great question. This is an important question. And this is a question where I am going to begin my answer with a disclaimer. Namely:

The fae are not human. The reason we have a changeling (Toby) as our primary entrance into the world, with a Cait Sidhe as her main love interest, is because in many ways, the older purebloods of the Divided Courts are so inhuman that they are difficult to explain. Some of them, like the Luidaeg, have spent so much time around humans that they've started thinking like humans do, but for the most part, they are intelligent creatures who are not us. Because of this, when I answer questions about the fae, a) I sometimes need to answer for purebloods and changelings separately, and b) an answer that is about purebloods is not a statement of how I necessarily think things work for real humans, in the real world. Okay? Okay.

So:

There are absolutely genderqueer fae. There are fae, such as the Undine, for whom a human form is a choice, and so they go with whatever they feel. Lily identified as female, so she was almost always female when she talked to Toby; there may have been others for whom she took on a male form, or a completely androgynous one. There are other fae who just don't think it's any of your damn business, and conduct themselves accordingly. The only time anyone will ask them to "commit" to a gender is when it's time to have an heir, which means that if they're not in the direct line of descent, they don't have to worry about it. There have been a few surprises when "Daav you know, Daav, doesn't like pronouns, always sort of assumed they had a penis? Yeah, well, Daav's pregnant," but on the whole, it's no big deal.

It's a bigger deal for genderqueer changelings, who exist at about the same percentage that they do in a human population (maybe slightly higher, as they are more likely to encounter positive genderqueer representation if they're growing up in the Summerlands). Changelings living in the mortal world have to deal with mortal shit. Changelings living in the Summerlands are often being raised by their fae parents, and fae parents can be weirdly gender essentialist about kids. IE, "I have wanted a daughter for three thousand years, you are going to wear that dress if it kills you." Sometimes fae parents do this with no concern for their kid's gender identity, because pureblood parents can be absolute assholes.

Trans fae are somewhat less common than genderqueer fae, and most of them, because they live in a magical world, will just go "well, I want transformation magic now," and have done. The only way to get a permanent transformation spell is to get it from one of the Firstborn, but re-casting once every hundred years can seem like a small price to pay.

Some alchemists have figured out how to make what are essentially the magical version of hormone replacements. This is because alchemists tend to prefer slow, steady, permanent solutions to "wave a wand and it's done."

Fae are very respectful of pronouns and gender declarations. The question of succession is usually handled by either naming a brother or sister's child as heir, or training an heir from a completely different bloodline, or marrying someone with whom a child is possible. (For someone using transformation spells, which would provide a complete biological reweaving, at least in the short term, this is easy. For someone using alchemy, this is harder. For someone who has made a deal with the Luidaeg, this ranges from easy to impossible.)

Trans changelings face many of the issues trans humans do, with the added options of using transformation magic or alchemy (and thus tying themselves more permanently to Faerie).

Selkie skins are interesting, because they transform the wearer from human to seal and back based on what their wearer knows themselves to be. So a Selkie who receives their skin will transform for the first time, and then return to an ideal version of themselves. This can mean a change of visible gender, and a great relief to the young Selkie.

As stated in this post, I am answering ten questions about Toby's world in preparation for the release of A Red-Rose Chain. Please note that these are questions about the world, not questions about individual people, things which have not yet happened in the series, or what is coming up in the books. I am no longer taking questions in the comments on the original post; with just one question left to go, I think we're full up.

Our ninth question comes from marabett, who asked...

"So, this may not be enough of a question to justify a post, but...We've seen a lot of discussion about how low fertility is for non-Firstborn fae, to the point where they'll even take human lovers just to obtain a baby who may later present significant issues of his/her own (the Choice, mortality, etc. etc.). Does this really take precedent over everything else? By which I mean, if you're a Daoine Sidhe having a fling with a rascally Cait Sidhe that you'd rather not have your spouse know about, would you, erm, take steps to ensure that you wouldn't give birth to a baby with a tail? Are there magical ways to block fertility -- after all, there don't seem to be any magical ways to *increase* fertility, or I assume the fae would make use of them...? Or is it as simple as a fae thinking in passing, "A child would be inconvenient," and voila, no offspring? Or...would the spouse in question be delighted at the birth of a child even if he weren't the progenitor, because hey, fae baby!

Are there rules and traditions around the conception of full-fae children totally out of marriage? If two single fae types who are dallying together for fun conceive, do they just start talking marriage without another thought, because it's just a given that proven fertility together is as good a basis for marriage as any other? Or is that so rare that it's just handled on a case-by-case basis? I noticed that we had gotten a lot of interesting information on how full-fae children are viewed in the context of a marriage, and how changelings are viewed, but not a lot of discussion about what would happen if, say, Helen and Raj found out that they were expecting.

Again, sorry if this is too picayune -- as a subfertile member of a species in which fertility is assumed as the default, I end up wondering about a lot of esoteric elements of fertility stuff even in fictional races.

Also, one more question, since we're on the topic of fae fertility...For a fae couple, is there something about managing to conceive one child that triggers increased fertility for a period afterwards? I ask because I've noticed several examples of fae couples who have no children for quite some time, but then have two or more in (relatively) rapid succession. Apologies if this is veering into spoiler territory."

Um, wow. Okay, points for a really detailed question. Also, wow are y'all collectively fascinated by babies. Is this a hint?

Anyway, we're going to break this down. First part:

"Is having a baby, period, more important than what that baby is? Is there birth control?"

Every fae marriage has its own rules. Some include fidelity; others do not. How likely they are to include fidelity is somewhat determined by the rank of the people involved. Two married Daoine Sidhe, for example, hoping for a Daoine Sidhe heir, are likely to practice very strict fidelity until they actually get a kid, because they don't want there to be any question of whether someone else can make a claim to their lands or titles. (Ex: Duchess has an affair, has a child with her seneschal. Child is made heir. Child dies in the absence of any other heir. Seneschal can now claim that their other child, as the sibling of the heir, has a legit claim to the title. Depending on how the local monarch rules, this might actually work. This is the problem with a system of governance wherein the person who wears the crown just does what they want.) Also remember that fae divorce requires the consent of any children; adding a third parent who is not part of the marriage vows only complicates things. Since many fae marry solely for procreation, this doesn't come up very often.

There is birth control, for those times when you really don't want to risk pregnancy. It's usually used right before and during long diplomatic missions. These are thankfully uncommon. (Some fae will also use birth control when they have plans for the next nine months/year that they'd really rather not change, viewing it as not tempting fate.)

Second part:

"What happens with full-fae children totally out of marriage?"

Instant divorce!

No, seriously.

Helen is not a pureblood, so I'm going to shift your example to Raj and Chelsea, as they're purebloods of approximately the same age. (Not that they're sleeping together, as Etienne would straight-up murder anyone getting his sixteen-year-old daughter pregnant, Oberon's Law be damned.) If the two of them had a baby, they would not be considered married, but would be considered divorced. This is the one time that the child does not get to choose which side of the family it will belong to. Raj and Chelsea would both be expected to make the case to their respective lieges for why they should (or shouldn't) have custody, and at the end, the baby would belong to one family or the other. There is no child support. There is no taking it back.

Third part:

"Is there a fertility boost following the birth of a child?"

Yes! No one is quite sure why, but having one baby seems to make it easier/more likely that you will have another, leading to clusters of two to four children born within a decade of each other. Most fae think this is very unfair. They are not wrong.

As stated in this post, I am answering ten questions about Toby's world in preparation for the release of A Red-Rose Chain. Please note that these are questions about the world, not questions about individual people, things which have not yet happened in the series, or what is coming up in the books. I am still taking questions in the comments on the original post.

Our eighth question comes from clodia_risa, who asked...

"How are the bloodlines from the Firsts of the fae passed to their descendents? Did the three have many Firsts (multiple Daoine Sidhe) who bred and created the entire bloodline? Or did the "Firsts" of the different kinds have kids with each other, and each of their kids just happened to be much more like one parent than another? 'Rosey' and 'Pumpkin' definitely have some bloodmixing because of their parentage, despite their mothers being Firsts. Was it a different time? Were the Hope Chests involved? Did The Three have something to do with it?"

Well, first off, "Rosey" (names changed to protect the innocent) is not a Firstborn: she is the daughter of the daughter of a Firstborn. Which is not the same thing at all. "Pumpkin" is the daughter of a Firstborn. Both of them are members of their respective fae races; they don't have the genetic flexibility of Firstborn. Anyone they have children with will be members of their race, and will share the traits of their parents.

"Rosey" is an interesting case, because she's not just a mixed-blood, she's a mix of two types of fae who should never, under normal circumstances, have been able to reproduce. She's probably infertile, at least until something changes. "Pumpkin," on the other hand, is just a changeling. Note that Firstborn + human still = changeling. It's only one of the big Three whose blood is powerful enough to overwhelm any trace of humanity. Their children are always purely fae. There are no changelings among the Firstborn.

That being said, each Firstborn will tend to have children who are of similar, if not identical, races, as long as they stay with a partner who is the same, or at least similar. So a female Firstborn, such as the Luidaeg, would need to stay with the same man/find other men of the same derivation. Six kids with the same second First = six kids of the same fae type. Six kids with different Firsts = six different types of fae. Six kids with random Daoine Sidhe = six kids who are so similar that if their children intermarry, they will become one fae type.

(Yes, there is a lot of generational incest in Faerie. I try not to focus on it, but when you can literally say "100% of us are descended from the same three people," it's inevitable. Most of the time, a few centuries without living as family makes it more palatable.)

The Three have something to do with the Hope Chests, and the Hope Chests were once much more common; remember that Toby thought they were a myth.

Times have changed.

As stated in this post, I am answering ten questions about Toby's world in preparation for the release of A Red-Rose Chain. Please note that these are questions about the world, not questions about individual people, things which have not yet happened in the series, or what is coming up in the books. I am still taking questions in the comments on the original post.

Our seventh question comes from greenhafling, who asked...

"How does one inherit a title or fiefdom in the October-verse? Does blood count more than power?"

This question highlights probably the biggest difference between the Divided Courts (Seelie, Unseelie, and Oberon's) and the Court of Cats. Among the Divided Courts, blood counts. Among the Court of Cats, power counts.

Functionally, this means that changelings can never inherit lands or titles from their parents, regardless of Court. The Court of Cats would absolutely respect a changeling Prince or Princess who challenged for the throne, but the chances of a) such an individual existing (there is no record of such) and b) winning are vanishingly small. Really, a changeling could challenge, but would lose, because they wouldn't have the power for it. The power levels necessary to be called "Prince" or "Princess" are not directly inherited; they can appear at random in a bloodline that has never shown that kind of strength. Most Kings and Queens are not related to their heirs.

But oh, the Divided Courts. There, only blood matters. Not power, not fitness to rule, nothing but blood. And changelings can never, never inherit. In the case of multiple potential heirs, such as September, Sylvester, and Simon, the inheritance can be split up. This is why Simon got a title with no land, September got nothing, and Sylvester got his father's sword and a letter of introduction to King Gilad's parents, so that he could prove himself a hero and get the land that he believed he deserved.

Now, hope chests can make this interesting. Let's pretend, for a moment, that a King--call him King Bob--had a changeling daughter and no other heir. In time, the girl has a child. If King Bob uses a hope chest on his grandson, does his grandson (now a pureblood) inherit?

Yes.

There are a lot of reasons that some people dislike changelings, and like merlins even less.

As stated in this post, I am answering ten questions about Toby's world in preparation for the release of A Red-Rose Chain. Please note that these are questions about the world, not questions about individual people, things which have not yet happened in the series, or what is coming up in the books. I am still taking questions in the comments on the original post.

Our sixth question comes from ceitfianna, who asked...

"I know children are important to the Fae and there have been moments of seeing how children are raised differently among the various races. Does this create problems or arguments when Fae are fostered or for those who aren't noble when they interact together or are there certain things that every child learns? I hope that makes sense, basically I'm really curious about childhood among the Fae and how varied it can be. Thank you."

Fae childhood! Fun times!

Okay, so first, we're going to look at pureblood childhoods here, not changeling childhoods. Why? Because for the most part, changelings will have a human childhood until their Choice, and then a really fucked-up childhood after, unless they are being raised in the Summerlands by a pureblood parent who was so desperate for children that they got themselves a changeling, functionally as a pet. Those changeling children will again have a pureblood childhood, right up until they get too old and are discarded. It's depressing and not fun, and I don't want to focus on it. So I don't have to.

The first thing to remember about fae parents is that there is literally no such thing as an unwanted child. Between the low fertility rates and the existence of magic which can be used for fun purposes like "let's not tempt fate, you know I will get pregnant while my husband is on a seven-year quest, contraceptives for all," if there's a baby, it is because someone very much wanted a baby.

Which is not to say child abuse doesn't exist. It does, sadly, in part because a lot of purebloods haven't been around a baby for decades, even centuries. They get confused. Human nursemaids are common, especially in noble houses. Most of these women will never be seen by their mortal families again. It's gotten better since the invention of the printing press, and What To Expect When You're Expecting is surprisingly popular among fae parents.

From infancy to toddlerhood, there's really very little difference between a fae child and a human child. They want the same things, absorb knowledge at a similar rate, and grow like weeds. As Toby has noted, most fae grow at a roughly human rate until puberty, getting through those pesky "small enough to eat" years as fast as they can. These are the nursery years.

Once the kid is old enough to run around, it becomes important to remember that the Summerlands are essentially pastoral, and don't have many monsters. Fae kids run wild. There are few to no schools, because the birth rate is so low: children are tutored at home, and good teachers are in high demand. There may be small "classes," if enough kids are local. This is most common among noble households, once they start bringing in the etiquette and comportment teachers.

Fosterage either begins at birth, and involves sending one child to the location of another, or begins around the age of ten/eleven (most common for trade and blind fosterages). Once they reach the location of their fosterage, they will be assessed (usually by the seneschal) to find out what the holes in their education are.

There's no "everybody gets this" skill set. A lot depends on how traditionalist the parents are. But fae kids get by.

As stated in this post, I am answering ten questions about Toby's world in preparation for the release of A Red-Rose Chain. Please note that these are questions about the world, not questions about individual people, things which have not yet happened in the series, or what is coming up in the books. I am still taking questions in the comments on the original post.

Our third question comes from seraangel, who asked...

"Do the air and fire kingdoms have their own royalty like the sea kingdom or are they beholden to whatever high king/queen rules in that section of the world?"

Yes. They have their own royalty.

Y'all, I really want to keep answering questions, but I'd say more than half the questions I have remaining are either a) spoilery ("Whatever happened to Bob?") or b) yes/no ("Is there a door?"). I really, really need more questions that will encourage elaborate answers. So please! Go! Ask!

(Note that this is not a slap at the remaining questions. But I need things I want to answer, can answer, and have the existing framework to answer. Please ask me questions on the original post.)

As stated in this post, I am answering ten questions about Toby's world in preparation for the release of A Red-Rose Chain. Please note that these are questions about the world, not questions about individual people, things which have not yet happened in the series, or what is coming up in the books. I am still taking questions in the comments on the original post.

Our third question comes from acelightning, who asked...

"How much Fae ancestry (by percentage) does a person need in order to have magic of their own?"

It's the merlins question! So:

If two fae of the same type have a child, the child is a pureblood. They are fully fae, and will inherit the magic inherent in their type of fae. Quentin is a pureblood, as is Tybalt.

If two fae of a different type have a child, the child is a mixed-blood. They are fully fae, and how well they will be treated is somewhat determined by how noble they are. Their magic will be a mixture of their parents'. January was a mixed-blood. Dean is a mixed-blood.

If one fae parent and one human parent have a child, the child is a changeling. They will inherit magic only through their fae parent. Most will be weaker than their fae parent. October is a changeling, as was Chelsea.

If a changeling parent and a human parent have a child, the child is a thin-blooded changeling. They may or may not inherit any clear magical talents from their fae parent. Some will look sufficiently human as to not need illusions, or be offered the Changeling's Choice. Gillian was a thin-blooded changeling. The polite term for them is "quarter-bloods," but "weak-bloods" is more common.

A thin-blooded changeling who does show signs of magic will still be showing it within the "tree" of their fae ancestor. So if Gillian had any magical talents, they would have been things like minor illusions and detecting medical conditions through the taste of blood (not that she had any reason to go around drinking people's blood).

It's in the next generation where things get interesting.

A person with one-eighth fae blood or less is not considered a changeling: they will not face the Choice, they will die of old age (although it may take a long time), their flesh will decay when they do die. The night-haunts will not come for them. Most will have no magical talents at all. One in ten, however, will be the equivalent of Chelsea: they will have stronger magic than anyone expects. And they will have no innate restrictions. Iron doesn't burn them; oaths don't bind them; and most of all, their magic is formless. They get no starting talents or weaknesses.

All their magic will be of the sort Toby calls "hedge magic," using ingredients and rituals to get the desired effect. They are, essentially, wizards, using their natural talents and the rituals of trial and error to bend the world to their will. Or, as they are called by the fae, merlins.

Merlins usually manifest between one-eighth and one-sixteenth fae descent, but once it's in the line, it's there forever. Someone with a fae parent twenty generations back could, potentially, turn up as a merlin. There aren't many of them left these days, and those that exist rarely learn what they can do. They were one of the costs of the fae/human conflicts, since it left them without teachers.

Merlins are wild cards. Most consider them not to be trusted.

As stated in this post, I am answering ten questions about Toby's world in preparation for the release of A Red-Rose Chain. Please note that these are questions about the world, not questions about individual people, things which have not yet happened in the series, or what is coming up in the books. I am still taking questions in the comments on the original post.

Our third question comes from tylik, who asked...

"How does lineage through firstborns work?

I mean, it seems like it's still sexual reproduction, and sometimes both parents are firstborns, but it seems that descent of record is usually tracked only through one (so, maybe dominant descent? Or are their multiple varieties of offspring any given firstborn may have?) But in at least one case there are multiple firstborn, and while firstborns clearly have children by people who aren't firstborn themselves, logic suggests that at some point the mating population was only other firstborn, their parents, and Something Else Altogether."

And then parcae asked...

"A question that a friend at work and I are both curious about: I know you've covered the way children descend from their parents, and the way races descend from the Big Three, but past that -- how do the Firstborn themselves reproduce? If two Firstborn have children, would those children themselves be wholly a separate race, or would they be half of one parent's race and half of the other? Toby is the child of a Firstborn, but since she's also the child of a human, she's still a changeling. And it's come up that the Tuatha de Danann have two Firstborn, each of whom have their own line, and each of those lines have their own scent as far as magic goes, so they can't have reproduced with each other (as far as I can tell the whole inbreeding thing means slightly less to the fae, but if they had then I don't think there would be the two distinct lines with the distinct scents)."

Since these questions are basically the same thing, I'm answering them together. Hooray!

First up, let's do a little weird science. It's weird science because it's weird, and because it's not really scientific. At the same time, it is an absolute constant of the Toby universe, so it counts. So:

Oberon, Maeve, and Titania are considered genetically unstable, to use words that we probably all agree mean what I want. Any time any one of them has a child, that child will be biologically unique. Think komodo dragons. Female komodo can (and do) give birth to parthenogenically conceived male offspring who are distinct enough from them to breed with, without worrying about inbreeding. Because nature is weird. So when Oberon and Maeve have a kid, while that kid is definitely theirs, and while both of them would be weirded out and disgusted by the thought of reproduction with said kid (Oberon is not actually Zeus), biologically, they could immediately wait for the kid to hit adulthood and then have kids with their kid, without concern about what that would do to the genetics. Gross, but there you go. There have almost certainly been cases of "Maeve gets frisky with one of Titania's kids, after the kid is a couple of hundred years old," because that are immortal, inhuman, and easily bored.

Any time one of the Three has a child, with anyone, the child will be Firstborn. The genetic instability that the Three bring to the table will mean that the kid is effectively not related to either parent. They'll inherit a class of magic from their Three parent; they may get traits from their other parent (if it is not one of the Three). They may not. Faerie does not like rules, and gets cranky when they are applied. Blind Michael and the Luidaeg, for example, have the same parents (Maeve and Oberon), and do not share any physical or magical traits. Acacia is Titania's daughter by an unknown father, but most people figure Titania didn't bang a tree. The beat goes on.

The one exception to the "nothing from their non-Three parent" is repeated reproduction within a relatively short period of time. If Titania were to have multiple children with the same non-Oberon father during a short span, she would get a cluster of Firstborn who were physically extremely similar, and had complimentary magical gifts. Why? No one knows. One theory is that Faerie is actually guiding the creation of the Firstborn, and doesn't change directions quickly. So Faerie says "I need a type of fae that does _______," puts out the order, and doesn't cancel it fast enough to avoid getting four possibles. This is not a bad thing. Quite a few races have multiple Firsts because of this. (Multiple births can go either way. The Tuatha have two Firsts because the mother of their Firstborn had twins. They were almost, but not quite, identical, and when their children intermarried, the two lines became utterly entangled.)

Firstborn are partially genetically unstable. If Firstborn A has ten children with non-First B, they will all be representatives of the same descendant race. They will also not be biologically related. The DNA gets "scrubbed," for lack of a better term. Fae do have taboos against incest, but only among siblings who actually grew up together. If the same Firstborn goes on to have more children with someone else, whether they get members of the same descendant race, a slightly different descendant race, or a totally new descendant race will be determined partially by the non-Firstborn parent. First + First pairings will always result in consistent descendant races.

Your common scenarios are:

1. Firstborn + member of the Three. Assuming that none of the Three has willingly had children with one of their own children, this still leaves one potential mate for each Firstborn child.

2. Firstborn + Firstborn.

3. Firstborn + other fae.

4. Firstborn + mortal.

5. Firstborn + something else.

Assume the same Firstborn decided, over the course of centuries, to try all five methods. First they breed with one of the Three, and become parent to a descendant race which doesn't thrive. Next they breed with another Firstborn, and become parent to a descendant race that thrives, but in a limited form. Then they breed with another fae, and become parent to a descendant race that spreads and becomes what they are known for. They tarry with a mortal, get a changeling child, and because they cannot find a hope chest, go no further. Finally, they breed with a cloud, and become a parent to a second well-established descendant race.

Faerie is complicated, and Mother's Day cards are confusing.

As stated in this post, I am answering ten questions about Toby's world in preparation for the release of A Red-Rose Chain. Please note that these are questions about the world, not questions about individual people, things which have not yet happened in the series, or what is coming up in the books. I am still taking questions in the comments on the original post.

Our second question comes from rymenhild, who asks...

"How did the divisions of kingdoms and territories come about?"

Hooray, land ownership!

As has been stated several times, the fae are highly territorial. It's not necessarily a choice: they become uncomfortable when over-crowded, and while they enjoy the company of their "own kind," it's oddly enough the presence of that "own kind" that will trigger the territorial urge for most fae. (I say "most" because there are virtually no universal generalizations in Faerie. Cu Sidhe don't become uncomfortable when there are more of them. In fact, Cu Sidhe would like it if there were millions of them. Cait Sidhe don't become territorial until there are multiple potential Kings or Queens in a single Court, and even then, their tolerance is higher than that of, say, the Daoine Sidhe, who view a local population of two hundred as unbearably huge.) There are biological reasons for this! Which we will not go into here. So.

Fae territory #1 has been established for a thousand years, and is getting quite full. A group of young nobles, guessing that their parents are not planning to die or step aside any time soon, decides to go off and seek their fortune. Because the Tobyverse fae inhabit a space that is unique in their world, they do not need to worry about someone else owning the land they, er, land on: the Summerlands there will be open, and the humans are a minor distraction at best. They declare themselves the Kingdom of #2.

Someone is now King. Probably either the person who gave up the highest title to come on this little errand (and thus provided most of the supplies), or the person who's best at doing poisonings. The others look around the Kingdom, carve off bits to be Duchies or Marches or whatnot, and settle down. Depending on how big a Kingdom they were able to claim, there will be a certain amount of "open" land. Because, see, the starting size of a Kingdom is determined by your ambition, but the starting size of a Duchy or March is determined by how much land you think you can hold.

(Some fae, even when present at the birth of a Kingdom, will elect for a County or Barony, taking another layer of bureaucracy in exchange for knowing that someone else's army will keep them safe, or that they won't need as much of a standing army.)

The new King/Queen can then make gifts of open parcels of land, along with the corresponding titles, to anyone who does the Kingdom a service. Gradually, this will whittle away at the open land, especially since it's best, due to that whole "territorial" thing again, to leave open space between Duchies/Marches/etc. whenever possible. Having a mile or so of unincorporated space does wonders at cutting down your intra-Kingdom wars.

The hierarchy goes High Kingdom (Ireland, North America, South America, etc.), Kingdom (The Mists, Silences, Angels), Duchy/March, County, Barony, Homestead.

As stated in this post, I am answering ten questions about Toby's world in preparation for the release of A Red-Rose Chain. Please note that these are questions about the world, not questions about individual people, things which have not yet happened in the series, or what is coming up in the books. I am still taking questions in the comments on the original post.

Our first question comes from marooux13, who asks...

"Can you explain how Oberon claims his children?"

I am going to have to expand this question somewhat, since there's no way to answer it without also addressing the Queens, Maeve and Titania. So!

Everyone in Faerie is descended, in some way, from Oberon, Maeve, Titania, or some combination thereof. The confirmed possibilities are O/M, O/T, any of them alone, and any of them with a non-fae party. Because the Big Three are so much more powerful than their descendants, any of their children, regardless of how they were conceived, will be Firstborn. For an easy comparison, think Zeus and the demigods. Zeus bangs a human, demigod. Zeus bangs a tree, demigod. Zeus bangs the air while thinking of Zeus, demigod. Any time one of the three reproduces, their offspring will be fully fae, not human, and Firstborn.

In Faerie, to prevent all power eventually being centralized in a single family or group of families with extremely careful taste in marriages, children can only inherit from one parent, no matter what the circumstances. This is part of why, when fae divorce, the children must choose which parent they "belong" to. If Patrick and Dianda were to separate, Dean and Peter would be expected to decide which parent they were going to go with. Both could choose one, or they could take one each. The child who chose Patrick would then be heir to County of Twycross. The child who chose Dianda would technically be heir to the Duchy of Saltmist (although the Undersea handles some things differently). Neither would be able, under any circumstances, to claim ownership of the other's inheritance.

What this means for the Firstborn is that, when they reach a certain age, they have to choose a parent to "belong" to. Maeve and Titania do the majority of the child-rearing. Oberon's around, and he doesn't try to be disconnected, he just has other shit to do. So a lot of the kids have chosen their mothers without hesitation. Because he has two wives and two enormous families to deal with, he is actually less likely to have extramarital offspring than either of them; there are very few races that only descend from Oberon (and thus get an automatic "child of ________" in his name). Mostly, it's a matter of picking, and he's not top of very many lists.

Also, sometimes, kids go "I want to be yours" and are quietly dissuaded, either by him or by their mothers. Antigone would have claimed his name, but her younger brothers and sisters needed her, and she couldn't have stayed with them as a Child of Oberon.

All descendants of a particular Firstborn are automatically children of the parent their Firstborn claimed. Fae who perform unusual heroics or run headlong into danger will be referred to as Oberon's, but that's not a legal title.

It's been a while since we've done this, and with A Red-Rose Chain coming up, I figure it's time to once again offer to answer your questions about the world. So...

I will make ten blog posts detailing aspects of Toby's universe. Ask me anything! I will not answer every question, but will select the questions that I think are the most interesting/fun/relevant, and will detail them to my heart's content. There's a lot to learn and know, and asking loses you nothing. Remember that nothing I answer here is full canon until it appears in a book: I will always reserve the right to change things if the series shifts between now and then.

Leave your questions on this post. I'm declaring comment-reply amnesty for any that I choose not to answer this time, since otherwise, my wee head may explode.

Game on!

I'm putting together my giveaway schedule for August, and I have a lot of copies of The Winter Long. I also know that most of y'all have either a) bought that book, or b) not started the series. So here is my question:

Do we have enough people here who are caught up otherwise who still need a copy of The Winter Long? I don't want to send book eight to folks who've only read books one and two; that's counter-productive and really spoiler-y. At the same time, I want to make sure people with limited book budgets can still read A Red-Rose Chain when it comes out. Thus checking to see whether this would be a valid giveaway plan.

Caveat: I am still not up for international mailing. So this is really a question for my US readers.

Comment amnesty is on for this post. I just need data.

The votes (well, the random numbers) are in! Today's three winners are...

wenhaver
brennye
vulpes484

If you have won, please follow these steps:

a) Comment here, so I know you're claiming your prize.
b) Email me via my website contact form (www.seananmcguire.com).

Both these things need to happen within the next twenty-four hours for you to win. If I see a comment but receive no email, I will reply and we'll figure out another way for you to get me your address. This is a work-around for my current contact form issues. Hopefully the commenting step will be temporary.

It should be noted that the first comment selected by the RNG was ineligible to win, because it was someone commenting about the post itself, and not entering. Please do not comment on giveaway posts for any reason other than entering the giveaway. Had this comment not been left, and the exact same number come up, we would have had an actual winner. Our second winner won because of a discussion on one of the entries. Please, please, don't do this. It's not fair to the people who don't win to screw up the results by leaving unrelated comments on these posts.

Congratulations to today's winners!

It's time to give away a few more ARCs of A Red-Rose Chain. Because we're experiencing issues with the contact form right now, there are a few more steps involved in claiming a prize. Please read carefully.

Because I am broke from all that T-shirt mailing right now, and tired of spending over an hour on every visit to the post office—so both financial and mental health reasons—this giveaway is US only. I am sorry about that, and will try to have an international giveaway sooner than later. To enter...

1. Comment on this entry. Top-level comments only; replies to existing comments cannot win.
2. Indicate that you have a US mailing address.
3. Name your favorite Toby character.

...and that's all. Three winners will be chosen by our old friend, the random-number generator, on Tuesday, July 29th. Winners will then have twenty-four hours to get me their contact info, via my website contact form, and leave a comment on the results post, before their prize is forfeit. If I have received the comment but not the email within the twenty-four hour window, we'll assume a contact form glitch, and find another way to get me the necessary info.

Game on!

Let's have some good and some bad together, shall we? First, the good. Today's winners of an ARC of A Red-Rose Chain are...

jillheather
desolate_noir
mage_cat

Congratulations! Please send me your mailing address via my website contact form (identifying which of our winners you are, since email addresses don't always give it away) to receive your prize! I must receive your information within twenty-four hours, or the prize is forfeit.

Now, the bad. Or well, the confused.

Look, y'all: rules matter. Sometimes they matter because without them you never get your stuff (see the above about sending your mailing info via my website contact form). Sometimes they matter because they're "filter rules"—IE, "are people paying attention to what I ask, or are they just here for the free stuff?" I've been featured on the "this person is giving away free stuff" blogs a couple of times, usually at Hogswatch, and you know what? It sucks. I love giving things to people who care. I hate giving stuff to people who just want it because it's free, or because they think it has good resale value (both things I have been told by folks who found me via the "free stuff here" lists).

So yeah. If the rules say "you must include the word banana," then you must include the word banana, or you cannot win. If the rules say "name your favorite book in the series," then you must name your favorite book, or you cannot win. There were several entries in this most recent giveaway that could not have won, even if the RNG had chosen them, because they did not follow the (very simple) posted rules. (To be clear, the RNG did not pick any of them, so I didn't have to choose between the rules and breaking someone's heart.)

Please, please, follow the posted rules. For everyone's sake, but especially for your own.

The Toby-universe short I probably get asked about the most often is "Rat-Catcher," a novella which first appeared in the Subterranean Press anthology A Fantasy Medley 2, and later in the 2012 Hugo Voters Packet. Mostly what people ask is "Will you send me a copy of this story?" and "Why haven't you posted it for free?"

Um.

So there are two kinds of short stories around here. There are the ones I write for my own amusement/based on the most recent tip jar, which are posted, for free, either here (as in the case of "Velveteen vs.") or on my website (as in the case of the majority of the Johnny and Fran stories). And then there are the ones I write because someone offers to give me money. I like money. It lets me eat; it keeps my lights on. I know it's considered crass for me to say, flat-out, that I enjoy money, but it's true. I grew up incredibly poor. I know what it's like not to be able to keep the lights on. This is much more fun for me, and hence for everyone who has to deal with me ever.

When someone offers to give me money for a story, it's generally because of the assumption that my presence in a publication will help them sell copies of the publication. I have a good relationship with many of the editors who buy my stuff, which means they think of me early in the process, and I am incredibly grateful for that, but it's not all altruism. They keep buying things from me because I continue to help them sell things. That matters. Which is not to say that y'all have a responsibility to buy everything I am published in! That would be...a lot of things. I have copies of everything I've been published in, and at this point, we're talking about five shelves, between the novels and the anthologies and the collections. Sometimes, you're going to have to make choices about your money that do not include supporting my career, and that is more than okay, that is the correct way to do it. Pay your bills before you pay mine.

That being said, because of that initial "Seanan will help us sell things" assumption, I am not comfortable posting stories from paid anthologies for free until those anthologies have become completely unobtainable. The limited edition of A Fantasy Medley 2 is still available from the publisher. Looking at the ordering system, it appears that twenty-five copies remain.

Basically, until those twenty-five copies are gone, I won't post the story anywhere, no matter how often I'm asked.

I have been reluctant to say this, both because a) I don't want people who have already bought the collection to feel cheated; it's a beautiful book, and if you have the money, it's absolutely worth the price, and b) I don't want anyone to say I'm holding "Rat-Catcher" somehow "hostage" to extort people into buying things. I'm not. I don't make any money from sales of the collection at this point; I've already been paid. Yeah, I'd like to be asked to contribute to books in the future, which does sort of inform my position, but more than that, it feels unethical to take money in exchange for helping to sell a book and then turn around and give the goodies away for free. But the question keeps coming up, so it feels like I need to say something.

For those of you who want to read "Rat-Catcher" and can't afford AFM2: please, be patient. Someday, the book will sell out, and I will be able to consider posting the story on my website. In the meantime, it's not essential to understanding or enjoying the series; it's an extra, it's deep background, and while I love it, it's not going to suddenly change everything. I promise.

For those of you who have already purchased AFM2: thank you so much. Isn't it a beautiful book? It's a beautiful book. All the stories are awesome. I treasure my copy.

For those of you with room in your budgets for AFM2, who have been considering a copy: it's a beautiful book. I highly endorse it.

And that is that.

We have successfully weathered both the release of The Winter Long and the start of a new year, complete with my birthday, which means that you deserve a treat. And here it is:

A brand-new story about Tybalt, Toby, and their first real date. "No Sooner Met," has been posted on the Toby Daye short fiction page. It is available in ePub, MOBI, and PDF formats, and is free for download. Please download rather than trying to read locally; my server will thank you.

This story is best read after Ashes of Honor if possible, since it is set very shortly after that book, and contains unavoidable spoilers for the series up to that point. It is a story about falling in love, and cats, and how to get a really good steak in San Francisco. It is narrated by Tybalt, because he's the romantic in this relationship.

Cover graphics are by Tara O'Shea. All short story electronic conversion thus far has been done by scifantasy. As both of them are awesome, we applaud them now.

Go forth, read, and please feel free to use this as a discussion post, which means there may be spoilers in the comments. Tread carefully.

Enjoy.

Every month I make a post to tell folks what I'm working on, a) because it seems polite, b) because it keeps me accountable, if only to myself, and c) so you will understand why I do not have a social life. This is the December 2014 post, and the last post of the year.

To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the bizarre urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Pocket Apocalypse). A Red-Rose Chain, Chimera, and Chaos Choreography are off the list because they're finished and in revisions with the Machete Squad. The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

Not everything on this list has been sold. I will not discuss the sale status of anything which has not been publicly announced. If you can't remember whether I've announced something, check the relevant tag, or go to my website, at www.seananmcguire.com. Please do not ask why project X is no longer on the list. I will not answer you.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out!Collapse )

...two copies of The Winter Long!

Welcome to the first 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 first giveaway is for two copies of The Winter Long, the eighth October Daye adventure. This is going to be a random number drawing, because I am sleepy. So...

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

I will choose the winners at 1PM PST on Monday, December 15th.

Game on!

ETA: Multiple people have commented indicating that they'd like to start this series. Please, please do not begin this series with book eight. I know free stuff is awesome, and of course you can win without having read the first seven, but seriously, this book will not be half as good if you have no idea what's going on.

Every month I make a post to tell folks what I'm working on, a) because it seems polite, b) because it keeps me accountable, if only to myself, and c) so you will understand why I do not have a social life. This is the October 2014 post.

To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the bizarre urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Symbiont and Pocket Apocalypse). A Red-Rose Chain, Chimera, and Chaos Choreography are off the list because they're finished and in revisions with the Machete Squad. The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

Not everything on this list has been sold. I will not discuss the sale status of anything which has not been publicly announced. If you can't remember whether I've announced something, check the relevant tag, or go to my website, at www.seananmcguire.com. Please do not ask why project X is no longer on the list. I will not answer you.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out!Collapse )

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.

It's review roundup time! The time where the points are made up and the prizes don't matter. Today's reviews are all blasts from the deep past, beginning with...

From 2012, Fangs For the Fantasy has posted a good, thorough review of An Artificial Night, and says, "Relatedly, Toby is a much stronger, more active participant in this book. She isn't being constantly injured and recovering (though she is injured) nor is she flailing around without seeming to know what to do next and letting events happen. She's more active, she’s leading the plot, she's directing the plot and she's resolving the plot very much on her terms." There's also some excellent, spot-on commentary about diversity in the cast as of this point in the series.

From 2011, SFFWorld has posted an excellent, if spoiler-heavy review of Deadline. Not recommended unless you've read Feed. The review says, "The Newsflesh Trilogy is turning into one of my favorite SF stories and one that is continuing to surprise me&mdsp;up until the very end of Deadline. This second installment raises the stakes considerably and brings new players into the game, while maintaining the blistering pace of Feed, its predecessor. I can’t say enough good things about this novel, which has made the concluding volume Blackout, quite possibly my most anticipated novel publishing in 2012." Yay!

From 2012, Cannonball Read has posted a review of Late Eclipses, and says, "While I’ve enjoyed the previous three October Daye books, and especially admired the world building, this is the first one I actually had trouble putting down." Neat!

Also from 2012, Cannonball Read has posted a review of One Salt Sea, and recommends you not start at this point in the series. I love this sort of recommendation.

Finally (for now), from 2012, Fangs For the Fantasy has posted a review of One Salt Sea, and says, "All in all, this book got so much right. The balance between emotion and plot, the pacing, the main character and the rich, amazing world that it not only continued a great series in the same line but took it a step higher as well. I loved this book and am eager to read the second one&mbspthis series is heartily recommended." I'm assuming "second" means "next." She also fairly called me out on "crazy" as shorthand in the early Toby books, and I've tried to unpack more about what's actually going on with fae biology and behavior because of critiques like this one.

You may have noticed that all these reviews are old, and that newer reviews are getting rare. There's a reason for that. Whether I'm more secure (I don't feel like I am), more exhausted (I do feel like I am), or whether more bloggers have just moved to Goodreads and Amazon, I don't pull as many review links as I used to. That may change when I finish clearing the backlog, or I may decide that this ship's time has sailed.

We shall see.

Every month I make a post to tell folks what I'm working on, a) because it seems polite, b) because it keeps me accountable, if only to myself, and c) so you will understand why I do not have a social life. This is the September 2014 post.

To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the bizarre urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing." I missed the August post, because I was in Ireland at the time, but we're back to normal now.

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Symbiont and Pocket Apocalypse). A Red-Rose Chain and Chimera are off the list because they're finished and in revisions with the Machete Squad. The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

Not everything on this list has been sold. I will not discuss the sale status of anything which has not been publicly announced. If you can't remember whether I've announced something, check the relevant tag, or go to my website, at www.seananmcguire.com. Please do not ask why project X is no longer on the list. I will not answer you.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out!Collapse )

I am delighted to announce that The Winter Long debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List in position #12, a new high for this series (and for me as a whole). With every book, we inch a little closer to the top ten, and I couldn't be more delighted.

I was very nervous about this book. This was the one where everything changed, where I started pulling strings and showing why certain things never quite seemed to line up. If this series were an episode of Leverage, this book would have been the moment in act three where the con turned and everything suddenly fell into place. Which means, being me, that I have been consumed with terror over the idea that people would think I had somehow cheated.

(It is exhausting, living inside my head. I do not recommend it.)

It has been an honor and a privilege to bring you all with me this far into October's world. All the pieces are in place for the beginning of act two, and 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 is with the utmost delight and no small amount of profound relief that I announce that the next three October Daye adventures have been acquired by DAW Books. That takes us all the way to thirteen, a benchmark I dreamt of but never thought I'd really reach.

The next three books are:

The Brightest Fell
Night and Silence
When Sorrows Come

(For the curious, the titles this time are from "Macbeth," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and "Hamlet.")

I am...I am over the moon. This gets us through some really major story beats that I've been really looking forward to, and moves us toward the conclusion of as "act two" of the whole series (act one officially concluded with The Winter Long). There are two more books to come before I start on this new set, A Red-Rose Chain and Once Broken Faith, and having the security of knowing the story will go on is just incredible.

Thank you, DAW, for having faith in me.

And thank you all, for reading.

(Comment amnesty is ON, ye gods and little fishes.)

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

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

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

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

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

The Winter Long comes out on Tuesday, to my terror and delight, and the early reviews are beginning to filter in.

Whatchamacallit reviews has posted a review of The Winter Long, and says, "The first thing I have to say about Seanan McGuire is that her October Daye series gets better with each book. While I've liked each book, I've found that with each successive book in the series the overall series and each book got better, to the point that now when a new book in the series comes out I have to immediately go buy a copy and often finish it that day."

Also: "McGuire has done something I've seen only a precious few other authors do successfully, turn their entire world upside down. That's what The Winter Long is, it's a complete reversal from everything readers and fans of the series have known from the first book in the series. This is the turning point and while McGuire has built upon changes created from previous books in the series, she executed a perfect shift for the others leaving readers utterly unable to control their collective jaws from dropping."

Ta-da!

My Bookish Ways has posted a review of The Winter Long, and says, "Seanan McGuire mentions in her acknowledgements that this is the book that all others led up to, that everything she's done until now was for the sake of getting here. Indeed. What she manages to do is make it very clear how intricate Toby's story is, and the richness of Toby's world is a thing of genius. And don't worry, while The Winter Long clears up a TON of stuff, it’s made clear that Toby's story is far from over. This is a good thing. The Winter Long is a testament to McGuire's ability to take so many threads and pull them together into a harrowing, and believable tapestry, and it's all Toby’s own. While there's plenty of action, this is one of the most introspective books in the bunch, and of course, another great book in the Toby-verse."

Now that the reviews are out of the way, I have two requests. I promise they're small.

The first is to please remember how stressful and upsetting I find it when people put books out for sale early. The Winter Long comes out on Tuesday. While you are absolutely welcome to buy it if you find it before then, and may not have a choice (some retailers ship early), I am begging you, please don't tell me. My chances of making the New York Times list, which is still a big deal in finding out whether a series will continue, ride on that first Tuesday to Tuesday window. So if you can refrain from buying until the book is officially out, please do, and if you can't, please, for the love of the Great Pumpkin, don't tell me you got the book early.

The second is to please wait until I open the official discussion post before you begin your book discussion. I'll be in Scotland at the time, so it should be open very early indeed on the 2nd. But just in case something goes wrong, please don't start discussing here, or elsewhere on this blog. Spoilers are a big, big thing with this particular book.

It's almost here!

Fifty days. That's how long we have before The Winter Long will be on bookstore shelves (US on-sale date is September 2nd). Book eight. We made it to book eight. I remember when I was just caught in a loop, rewriting books one through four over and over again, making grandiose plans for book five, but never quite managing to break free and do anything new. Now I'm getting ready to start on book ten, and the path is very clear ahead of me.

Fifty days and five years: that's the distance between Rosemary and Rue and The Winter Long. At an average of 350 pages a book (average; please don't comment to say "but this one was only 338..."), that's almost 3,000 pages of Toby, with more to come. Honestly, I'm amazed she's lived this long, given everything that I've put her through. She's too stubborn to die and too fun to kill, which is probably the only thing that's saved her.

Fifty days and you get to find out everything I haven't been saying since book one. This is the volume where a lot of chickens come home to roost: it's always been planned as the game-changer for act one of the series. I think I managed to accomplish that. Early review copies are out in the world, and thus far there have been no spoilers, for which I am very grateful. I really like it when people can discover what I've done for themselves.

Fifty days. I'll be somewhere in Europe when this book drops (probably in Edinburgh, with Amal, hiding under whatever piece of furniture I can wedge myself beneath), twitchy and waiting for the reviews to come in, yet terrified of reading them. I wish I could be here to do my normal release day funtimes. I'm glad I'll be far away. Somehow, both emotions are succeeding in existing at the same time.

Fifty days. That's so long.

Fifty days. That isn't long at all.

So it turns out that there are some admin tasks that I was really good at when I had a day job, but am not so good at when "wander away from the computer and watch an episode of Law & Order" is on the table. The review roundup is one of these tasks. I will strive to do better, if only because my notes file is becoming impossible to navigate. This is the first step toward doing better.

Brewing Tea & Books has posted a review of Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots, and says, "This book is in one word: Fun." The review goes on to say "But if I have to write a bit more, since one word reviews aren’t very interesting now are they. The book is not only very entertaining and funny, it is also very intelligent and thought-provoking." (Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots is available now from ISFic Press, or via Borderlands Books in San Francisco; they should be getting a shipment soon, and books ordered from them can be signed or personalized.)

Jennifer Brozek has reviewed Half-Off Ragnarok, and says, "Half-Off Ragnarok is my favorite book in the InCryptid series thus far. I thought Verity was interesting but I’m half in love with Alex. The whole Price family is a hoot and Shelby is an interesting wild card in the mix. If urban fantasy, intriguing animals, and fast-paced adventure is your thing, you’re going to love Half-Off Ragnarok. Highly recommended." Woo!

Vampire Book Club has reviewed Ashes of Honor, and says, "Let’s cut to the chase. Ashes of Honor is THE book." I'm...just going to leave that there and wander off. Because dude.

Amazing Stories has reviewed Chimes at Midnight, and says, "Urban fantasy novels are big right now and it’s hard not to love Toby Daye, the unlikely knight and changeling protagonist of Seanan McGuire's popular series set in magic-rich San Francisco. Chimes at Midnight is book seven in the on-going series and, now we’ve met the characters and had hints dropped about the history of the Kingdom in the Mists, the story is getting fascinating." Woo!

Finally for today, Whatchamacallit Reviews has reviewed Games Creatures Play, and had this to say about my story: "Seanan McGuire takes readers into her Incryptid world. Fans of the series will enjoy reading a fun roller derby story from the youngest sibling (and only sibling not to get a book yet) Antinomy’s POV. Readers who have not read the series should read the series, not because they need to in order to understand this short story, just because it this is a fun and entertaining series."

That's all for now: more to come, including a focused roundup about Sparrow Hill Road, shortly.

Psst. C'mere.

So it's no secret that I love the covers DAW gives me, and that showing them off is one of my true pure joys in life. Chris McGrath has been designing Toby covers for eight books now, and he's amazing. Like, seriously amazing. 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 )

Reviews! Interviews! All the 'views!

I did an interview with Drey's Library about a million years ago (as in, "talks about Ashes of Honor as the upcoming Toby book"), and now you can read it, because I finally remembered to link things. Sometimes I am slow.

The Discriminating Fangirl chose some of my books as their Best of 2011! I am honored and...yeah, really, really slow. I am almost ashamed of this roundup. Holy crap.

Larissa's Life has posted a review of One Salt Sea. No good pull quotes, some minor spoilers, overall awesome review. Thanks, Larissa!

One Good Book has posted a review of One Salt Sea, and says "I can't say that this book was my favorite in the series, but it had many more moments that thrilled me than didn't, and it tied up a few loose ends that I felt had been dangling too long. It was a fully entertaining read that left me highly anticipating the next installment." Fair enough!

Boat Girl has posted a review of One Salt Sea, and says "For me, it was a really satisfying book in that it tied up some long dangling loose ends." Yay! I really do view One Salt Sea as the end of Act I, and it's nice that people see it that way.

So, yeah. I am trying to catch up on my roundups, because the age of these links is just embarrassing. But the links themselves are awesome. Thanks to all the reviewers I've linked, and those I've missed (or haven't gotten to yet).