The random number generator has spoken for the last time this year, and the winners are...

serverwench wins a copy of Midnight Blue-Light Special
kymellin wins a paperback of Parasite
runiechica wins a MYSTERY PRIZE!!!

Please contact me via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours to provide your mailing information. All information must be received via my website to be considered valid. If I do not hear from you within twenty-four hours, you will no longer be eligible to receive your prize. I plan to start mailing tomorrow, so this is especially important right now.

Please be sure to include something to indicate who you are/what you've won, as I've received a few "hooray, I won!" emails that didn't include any identifying marks.

Whee!

...a copy of Midnight Blue-Light Special!

Welcome to the eleventh 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 eleventh giveaway is for a copy of Midnight Blue-Light Special. This is going to be a random number drawing, because that's working well so far.

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

I will choose the winner at 1PM PST on Saturday, December 27th.

Game on!

It's a sleepy Sunday morning in England, and that means that a review roundup is the best use of my time. Here we go!

Travels Through Iest has posted a review of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and says, "The book is tight and action packed. I give kudoes to Seanan McGuire for not shying away from the fact that when you're playing this game people will get hurt and killed." Aw, yay.

The Nocturnal Library has posted a review of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and says, "As hard as I try to keep them completely separate in my head, for reasons I'd rather not explain, Seanan McGuire and Mira Grant are obviously one and the same. Midnight Blue-Light Special, like no other book published under Seanan's name before it, shows the sharpness and wit I've come to associate with the brilliant and irreplaceable Mira Grant." Can you tell I've reached the MBS section of the link file? (Bonus points for the commenter who says that comparing me to Mira makes my books more compelling. My evil twin haunts me always.)

Angela, at Whimsical, has posted a review of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and says, "Midnight Blue-Light Special is action-packed, and felt even more dangerous and exciting than Discount Armageddon. You'd think that fighting humans instead of 'monsters' would be easier, but apparently not. The pacing is quick, and the humor is snappy–but it isn't without its heart-wrenching moments. Of course, as life usually is, no sooner have you had a breather that something else is happening, and happening fast." Glee.

Deborah at Geekdame has posted a splendid list of five reasons you should read Midnight Blue-Light Special. My favorite bit: "You know, for most of the book, I was just toolin’ along and enjoying the zany characters and thoughtful cryptozoology and just having a laid-back reading experience. AND THEN SHIT WENT DOWN. Shit went down hard, and scary, and suddenly it wasn’t all sexy funtimes and cryptid games anymore. No, it was pain and death and maybe the revision of reality, who knows? Betrayal and loss and life decisions: SUDDENLY ALL UP IN MY BUSINESS." Hee.

Finally for today, She Blinded Me With Library Science has posted a review of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and says, "So I love Seanan McGuire. This is not news, and not a secret, so by that logic this was a bit of a biased book choice on my part. I'm firmly on camp McGuire can do no wrong, and luckily this book didn't disappoint." I love you too, unknown reviewer.

So there are some reviews, and now my link file is a little shorter. (I don't collect reviews as assiduously as I used to, but I feel bad deleting the links I do have, since those reviewers put a lot of work into what they do, and it's nice to acknowledge it. We are an ecosystem.) Join us next week when I accidentally set myself on fire. Again.

So io9 has named Indexing one of their books you can't afford to miss in January. Not too bad for the little serial that could, huh? I love how much support this wacky experiment in being very, very serious about very, very ridiculous things has been able to garner, and while I haven't seen the print edition yet, I have other books from 47North which lead me to believe that it's going to be gorgeous.

(Also, for those of you who have not yet read this particular universe, I note that right now, it's closed: volume one is complete, in and of itself. I left it open for a season two, but there's no commitment involved in buying the book. There is, however, the awesome potential to pay my power bill, which weighs heavy on my mind just now. Once upon a times! Ever afters of all sorts! Magic and bureaucracy! Which I still can't spell! What have you got to lose?)

Meanwhile, over at Ranting Dragon, the editor named Chimes at Midnight AND Midnight Blue-Light Special as two of the best books of 2013. This delights me down to the bottom of my bones. I love both my urban fantasy worlds, and sometimes I worry about favoring one over the other. This tells me that I'm doing it right, and that makes me so happy. So, so happy.

Glee.

I admit it: I messed up.

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

The Midnight Blue-Light Special wallpapers.

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

Fun for the whole family.

...a pair of books! Discount Armageddon and Midnight Blue-Light Special could be yours!

Welcome to the sixth of the Twelve Days of Hogswatch. I am starting a new giveaway every day between now and January 6th (the day after my birthday). Each giveaway has different rules, and a different deadline, although all prizes will be mailed on January 9th, because I am bad at going to the post office.

The sixth giveaway is for the US mass-market paperbacks of Discount Armageddon and Midnight Blue-Light Special. This is going to be a random number drawing. So...

1. To enter, comment on this post.
2. If you are in Canada, indicate a willingness to pay postage.
3. That's it.

This giveaway is for US and Canadian residents only. The cost of mailing two MMPs anywhere else is more than the cost of the books, which I just...I can't. I'm sorry, and I'm trying to keep these giveaways as open as possible, but I can't in good conscience do that, either to you (postage like whoa) or to me (you could have just bought the books for that price). Tomorrow's giveaway will be open to all.

Please remember that all giveaway rules are non-negotiable. Failure to follow the rules of a giveaway will mean that you cannot win, even if the RNG picks you.

I will choose the winner at 1PM PST on Tuesday, January 7th.

Game on!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...VERITY PRICE!

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

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

It's gonna be a party.

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

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

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE.

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

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

I thought so.

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

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

One note from the management:

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

See you Saturday!

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

So remember when I said that I would answer ten questions about the InCryptid universe? I'm almost done, but here's your ninth answer!

tylik asks...

"How frequently have cryptids attended universities? Have many gone for graduate degrees? How has that worked out for them?"

There's this interesting tendency to treat "cryptid" as a catch-all when talking about this universe, much like we use the word "human" as a catch-all. But cryptids are not a single species sometimes divided by race and geography; they're a hundred, two hundred, a thousand different species, with different needs, wants, and desires. How many frickens have attended universities? None, although some may have been dissected there. How many cuckoos have attended universities? More than you'd like to consider.

Whether or not a cryptid chooses to attend university is influenced by a number of factors. Chief among them are...

1. How human do they look? No male wadjet is ever going to get a degree, unless it's through the mail, because they're basically enormous cobras, and that doesn't go over well with the Dean of Admissions. Cuckoos and lilu, on the other hand, can stroll right through the front doors.

2. How connected to human society are they? University costs money. No matter how much someone like Istas might want to major in fashion design, waheela simply don't have the funds, or the credit scores, to pay for it. Ryan, on the other hand, comes from a family that's been interacting with humans for centuries, and could probably pay for his entire education up-front, if he chose to pursue it.

3. What good will it do? University campuses in the InCryptid world frequently play host to one or more cuckoos, and are one of the safest places to be during a cuckoo encounter. Cuckoos have two big additions, chaos and math, and they go to school for numbers, not destruction. Basically, they're unlikely to fuck with the students because they don't want it to disrupt their class schedule. Very few of them are actually enrolled, however, because the degrees wouldn't do them any good. They're here to learn equations until they get bored, and then go out and smash shit. You don't need a degree to do that.

So let's assume we're looking only at the human-appearing, well-connected types of cryptid. That still gives us dozens of species, with their own racial needs and desires. Some dragons do attend college, because they understand that if you want to make money, you have to spend money; they're the ultimate financial aid students, because while the Nest will pay their every expense, you can be damn sure they'll explain any drops in their grades or unnecessary electives to their sisters. Bogeymen love college, but usually stick to night school, where they won't stand out as much. Tanuki are big fans. And so on, and so on.

There's no single answer to this question, because there's no single "cryptid" that we can use as our poster child for non-humans pursuing higher education. But in this world, there are more non-human students than most people would think.

Maybe that explains Rush Week.

To celebrate the release of Midnight Blue-Light Special, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book. Judging by the comments I'm seeing, you've had time.

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.

As of today, Midnight Blue-Light Special is officially available from bookstores all over North America, and from import stores all over the world. It's been spotted in the wild from California to New York, with several points between also chiming in to let me know that they've got copies. Hooray!

Since it's release day, 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 today, get the book; if you can get it at my book release party, 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, 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. 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 think 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 of One Salt Sea 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 nag 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. 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 do's and don't's. 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, final edits due on Half-Off Ragnarok, and The Winter Long in need of finishing, a lot of things are falling by the wayside. Like sleep.

Please don't ask me when book three is coming out. I may cry. Plus, the answer is March 2014.

Whee!

So remember when I said that I would answer ten questions about the InCryptid universe? I'm still taking questions, but here's your eighth answer!

vixyish asks...

"What is bogeyman society like? So far on paper we've only met them singly. Are there bogeyman communities, do they live in family groups, that kind of thing, or do they prefer to live alone, each with their own territory? And how do they find mates?"

Bogeymen! Now, remember, that "bogeyman" and "bogeymen" is considered gender-neutral as a species term, much like "human." So while all bogeymen are people, there is no such thing as a "bogeywoman," and you will in fact be gutted stem to stern if you try to use the term. "Bogeyboy" and "bogeygirl" are likewise incorrect, unless you're talking to a bunch of teenage bogeymen who want to piss off their parents. It's a phase. They generally grow out of it. "Bogeydude" is never correct. "Bogeybabe," sometimes correct during courtship, because it's just wrong and naughty enough to be attractive. I do not recommend you try it unless you're dating a bogeyman who has already shown herself to enjoy dirty language. Now, onward to the actual question:

Bogeymen live in a culture of commerce. Everything is based on purchase value and exchange rate, even though much of their commerce is done via barter. Maybe especially because most of their commerce is done via barter. When getting a cookie requires an hour's labor, or two dead rats for the dinner menu, you know the value of a cookie a lot more than you would if it only cost you a dollar. Bogeyman parents begin teaching their children about commerce by the age of two, to prepare them for exiting the family unit and entering society. Note that there is no "hard and fast" line for leaving said family unit: a bogeyman who proves to have no nose for commerce may be kept permanently at home, considered a functional child but protected from the realities of the world, or else sold as a servant to a larger family unit (assuming said bogeyman is a skilled enough laborer to do the work, and is just lacking the skill set necessary to be a free-living, independent member of society).

Family units will generally consist of a "head of household," IE, "whoever put down the most collateral toward purchasing and furnishing the living space," his or her spouse or spouses, and any unmarried siblings with no interest in having children or households of their own. All adults are expected to work for their keep, but this work can include maintaining the house and caring for the children. Anyone who chooses those jobs will be paid by the rest of the household, fairly for their labor, and is thus considered to be contributing fully. Despite being a primarly barter-based economy, bogeymen do covet money, which they will put aside to sustain them in case of illness. Should an adult member of the household fall ill, they will pay their family to care for them. This may seem cruel, from a human perspective, but the bogeymen have spent a long time being hunted, hated, and hurt: they want to know that they are never a burden, and that any time lost caring for someone who should have been able to care for themselves will be repaid. It's a matter of pride. Note that, should someone run out of money, they will go into debt; they will not be turned away. Bogeyman funerals often involve the symbolic laying of debt upon the coffin, releasing any descendants from the burden, and it is considered the height of ill manners to try to enforce minor debts incurred by the dead, unless those debts were incurred in bad faith.

Bogeyman communities can be quite large, and almost entirely subterranean, due to the nocturnal nature of bogeymen as a species and the "kill it with fire" reactions that many humans tend to have. The bogeyman community in Manhattan is numbered in the thousands, as are the communities in Seattle and Chicago. Smaller cities will usually have smaller bogeyman communities, and they will sometimes resort to buying apartment buildings, turning them into "special communities for graveyard shift employees," and then colonizing the individual units. This can result in someone being the only human in a building full of bogeymen, which rarely ends well.

When a bogeyman comes of age to marry, they will sit down with their parents and fairly and logically assess themselves. Skills, appearance, medical history, it all goes into setting their price. Everyone has a price. It's not men buying women; it's couples buying each other. Sometimes parents will make a wedding gift to the couple by making up the difference if one of them can't afford the other. ("But Mom! Daniel costs twice what I do and I really love him!" "Okay, okay, instead of a cake, we'll buy you a husband.") If there's no one local that somebody wants to buy, they may take their assessed value and go traveling, working their way through the local communities while they search for a spouse. Offers of purchase can be refused; some couples are committed but apart for years while they earn the necessary money to start their lives together. It's customary for the parents on both sides to gift the young couple with part or all of their mutual purchase price at the wedding, allowing them to buy a home and begin establishing themselves. In this case, the head of household will almost always be the one with the higher initial cost.

Bogeymen love their children, and will do virtually anything for them. They're very human, in that regard. This does mean that same-sex couples will buy and sell their favors to each other—essentially, "if you get me pregnant, and forswear the child, you can also get my wife pregnant, and keep the child." Bogeymen who don't want children are not treated poorly, as they can add value to other households by providing additional adults to help keep things running smoothly. The population is high enough at this point that some loss of genetic diversity can be endured.

I like bogeymen. They're dishonest with outsiders and very honest with each other, and they take care of their own.

So remember when I said that I would answer ten questions about the InCryptid universe? I'm still taking questions, and actively need questions that follow the "big, about the world" model as described in the original post, but here's your seventh answer!

acelightning asks...

"The Price family's history suggests that there might be some sort of "paranormal" ability that helps a person detect cryptids, and that this ability is at least partially genetic. On the other pseudopod, it could all be nothing more than empirical knowledge, handed down from one generation to the next with a bit more intensity than Great-Grandmother's kugelhupf recipe."

I'm sort of cheating with this one, because it's not really a question. At the same time, a lot of the questions I've received have been very narrow ("What's Istas's favorite kind of pie?"), and hence qualify as both a) spoilers and b) not very interesting to take apart in detail. So please, submit more questions, and I'll take a moment to ramble about the Price family. For funsies.

There is no paranormal ability that allows people to detect cryptids. Well, that's maybe not entirely true: Sarah, who is a telepath, can probably find other cryptids by reading their minds, and Artie, who is an empath, can point out people who are unduly nervous or unhappy, and Istas can smell the difference between many species (but does not consider having a bloodhound-level sense of smell to be a "paranormal ability," as she was born that way). But for the most part, it's observation, education, and knowing what to look for. The Prices are raised on a steady diet of "And how do we spot a bogeyman?" They take field trips to the local gorgon and harpy communities. They learn early how to spot the "probably not a human" signs, and also how to trick people into identifying their species, even if they can't quite tell what it is. It's science. Behavioral science, field biology, and deduction.

There's also an element of luck, which is where the rumors come in, at least in certain circles. "Healy luck: sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, but it's always interesting" used to be a fairly common saying within the family. No one knows for sure what kind of stock Fran came from, and it's possible that she has jink or leprechaun in her family tree, somewhere. Ditto for the Davies family, which joined the Covenant in the 1700s, a period when many "close enough to pass" cryptids made a bid at hiding in plain sight by signing up with their dearest enemy. So it's entirely possible that luck-manipulator genes have entered the family tree at one or more points. (Whether this has actually happened is something that I'm not saying.) But this is only luck: even if it's a factor, all it's going to do is put people who have it in the path of more cryptids, giving them more opportunities to exercise the deductive skills listed above.

Field biology is a matter of knowing what to look for, knowing where to look, and not giving up. The Prices have these qualities in spades.

So remember when I said that I would answer ten questions about the InCryptid universe? I'm still taking questions, and actively need questions that follow the "big, about the world" model as described in the original post, but here's your sixth answer!

rianax asks...

"If they can't interbreed with humanity, how to these different species met up and have children in the modern world? Is there a cryptid Cupid.com?"

Yay, cryptid breeding! We're going to restrict ourselves to a very anthrocentric approach, for the sake of answering the question as posed: we're only looking at cryptids that can, for one reason or another, live in human settlements. The ones who can "pass," in other words. They're both the ones who are most likely to have issues with humans seeming attractive, and the ones who will have the most "I need to know your species before we can hook up" problems.

Some of these cryptids get around the "accidentally dating humans" issue by not being mammals. For the most part, humans smell "wrong" to them, and are hence not attractive. You do get occasional perverts who like mammal boys or insect girls instead of sticking with good, honest reptile people like their siblings, but for the most part, people are attracted to things they have half a chance of being biologically compatible with. (Science supports me on this.)

A few species of cryptid are cross-fertile with humans. A very few species, and most of them will still choose not to crossbreed, because there's a very good chance their offspring will be infertile, which doesn't help keep the family line going. Lilu, which includes both incubi and succubi, are cross-fertile, and their offspring have a fifty percent chance of being infertile. Fertile crossbreeds will usually have children that are indistinguishable from the species of their mate. So if Elsie, who is half-succubus, were to visit a sperm bank and get some human sperm, she would have a baby who was effectively a very sexy human, rather than a succubus crossbreed. Jinks and leprechauns are similar, and many family links have a little jink or leprechaun blood.

Tanuki are the only known species of therianthrope to be cross-fertile outside of other therianthropes, and they manage this partially by having lots and lots of tanuki babies. As with certain types of frog (no, seriously, science again), they have evolved extremely dominant DNA. If Ryan were to mate with Istas, you wouldn't get half-waheela babies, you'd get unusually colored tanuki. Even when there were more of them, they would often seek out-species mates to get hybrid vigor back into the community. Sorry about what that does for your family line, dearest.

There are dating services for some species of cryptid, ranging from the very communal "let me introduce you, he's a nice boy" social dances of the bogeymen to the more formal courting rituals of the gorgons. There are very few true solitaries, and almost everyone knows where everyone else is. And yes, some of this happens on the internet, although it has to be very carefully masked and monitored; the Covenant can log on, too.

So remember when I said that I would answer ten questions about the InCryptid universe? Well, I'm still taking questions, but here's your fifth answer!

ladymurmur asks...

"I'm not asking for calendar of holidays, but instead have a logistical ponderment - For how many generations to the Aeslin keep their holidays? when the colonies branch off, and begin creating their own new holidays, do the new holidays begin overwriting or supplanting the old holidays so that there is only one or just a few on any given day? Or do they stack, becoming almost an "on this day in history" sort of situation? If there are multiple celebrations on one day, are the celebrated concurrently? consecutively? Do colonies ever rejoin each other, or cross-pollinate in some fashion (an Aeslin exchange program?) and thus share holidays? or are the new colonies more like religious schisms, and ne'er the twain shall meet?"

I decided that I would answer one question about the Aeslin mice this round, because while I love them, they're sort of like bacon: a little bit can go a very long way, and we're way too early in the series to be risking mouse burn-out. This one offered the most opportunities to stick knives into people, so...you're welcome, I guess.

First off, there's a major underlying assumption buried in this question: the assumption that colonies branch off. They used to, but that doesn't happen anymore, because branching really happens only when the population gets too large for the space and resources available. The colony of Aeslin mice currently living with the Price family is the last known Aeslin colony in the world. The elders control birth rates and expansion very carefully, and pray for the younger generation of Prices and Price-Harringtons to marry and settle in homes of their own, because they're trying to avoid an actual schism; they know very well that any groups that leave the family home are extremely unlikely to survive. At the same time, if a schism becomes unavoidable before a new attic or basement or guest bedroom becomes available to them, the schisming mice will no longer exist from the perspective of the colony. Reject the colony, you reject the colony's gods. Reject the colony's gods, reject the colony's way of life. Reject the colony's way of life, you are no longer my child.

Aeslin mice are pathologically religious. They can't fight the urge to worship. It's tied to their survival instincts; while a colony that worships a cat is likely to be eaten, a colony that worships a tree will have a stronger tendency to stay together and stay safe, because they need to be healthy to properly tend to the needs of their god. They're capable of teamwork and very complicated thought, but they're still mice. Talking mice. The Covenant wiped them out easily as sports of nature and demonic imps. People who found them in their homes captured them and sold them to circuses or traveling shows. Cats, dogs, foxes, snakes...it's a big, scary world for an Aeslin mouse, and it's entirely possible that the colony found by Caroline Davies, mother of Enid Davies (later Enid Healy), was the last one there was. She saved them. She gave them something to believe in.

She gave them her family.

Now, on to the more time-based questions. "For how many generations do the Aeslin keep their holidays?" For as many as they keep their faith. If they worship a tree, then hundreds of generations could pass before their god withers and dies. If they worship a mayfly, they'll need a new god by the end of the summer. The Price family Aeslin still celebrate the Sacred Ritual of I Don't Care What You Say, They're Harmless Little Things and They Need a Home, They're Not Monsters, They're Mice, better known to the family as "the day Great-Great-Great-Grandma Caroline found the mice in the barnyard." Nothing is ever forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten. To forget anything would be to shame the gods, and to be less than Aeslin.

The Aeslin calendar does not exactly match the human calendar; it has more months, for one thing, and the number seems to increase periodically, although no one human understands how or why that happens. While the feast days and celebrations will always match up to their original places on the human calendar, how often they are observed is determined by a number of factors, including their place on the Aeslin calendar, how resource-intensive the observation is, and how much they like the festival. (The Festival of Giving a Mouse a Cookie, way more popular than The Remembrance of the Violent Priestess, Who Never Learned to Be Careful.) They can, and will, perform any liturgical rite on request, but when they come around naturally doesn't follow a human logic pattern.

The mice who travel with Verity, Alex, and the others aren't considered new colonies; they're still part of the central colony, and will remain so for as long as they share gods. The mice very much enjoy coming back together to consolidate their observances of the family, share rituals, and remind themselves that they are still united.

As long as there are Prices, there will be Aeslin.

The same is not quite as certain in reverse.

So remember when I said that I would answer ten questions about the InCryptid universe? Well, I'm still taking questions, but here's your fourth answer!

geekhyena asks...

"A clarification of my earlier comment (since I realized I didn't word it as clearly as I had intended): Why do some cryptids from very reclusive/rural-oriented and/or endangered species (such Waheela/Gorgons/etc) choose to live in cities, as opposed to others of their species? Herd immunity (so to speak)? Cultural reasons? Genuinely curious here. (As to how Istas got involved with the Goth and/or Lolita subculture(s) )"

Well, first off, I'm not going to tell you how Istas got involved with the Goth and/or Lolita subcultures. If you look at the original post (which I'd like you all to do, since I need to do six more of these Q&A posts before the book comes out), you'll see the bit where I said "no spoilers." That applies to "how did character X wind up in situation Y" questions, since hey, I may want to write that someday. You'll like it better if I'm allowed to think about it longer, I promise.

Which brings me to the core question of "why do some cryptids who aren't considered specifically urban, like bogeymen (who hate living in the country), sometimes choose to live in cities?" Well!

First off, we have to remember that sapient cryptids, while not human, are still people, and every person is different. Istas is a serious social butterfly, for a waheela. Ryan is considered a little stand-offish, for a tanuki. Sarah is remarkably pleasant and non-destructive, for a cuckoo. And so on, and so on. You can make blanket statements about a species, like "waheela are generally territorial" and "tanuki generally live in family groups," but those will never be universal, any more than "humans are often suspicious and aggressive" applies to every single member of the human race. For someone like Istas, who actually likes things like fashion, cooked food, shoes, and having conversations with people she's not about to eat, living in the frozen Canadian tundra is just this side of hell. For a normal waheela, living in Manhattan would be just as bad.

Secondly, we have to remember that cities offer some opportunities that country living just doesn't, especially now that the world doesn't really believe in barter economies. If you belong to a species that can "pass" for human during part or all of your life, spending a few years in Orlando working at Disney World and sending money home to the rest of the family is just the sensible, responsible thing to do. Think of it as the cryptid equivalent of the popular interpretation of the Amish rumspringa: go to the city, live and work among the humans, figure out how dangerous and frightening they are, come home where no one's going to skin you and wear you as a fashionable coat.

It's surprisingly easy to be reclusive in the big city. In a small town where everybody knows your name and notices if you don't show up to check your PO Box on Wednesday afternoon, you're going to have a lot of trouble explaining where you went for those two months when you were hibernating. In San Francisco or Chicago, as long as your bills are paid, you can probably get away with it. Also, just like some humans don't like people but do like tigers/alligators/gorillas/whatever, some cryptids don't like their own species, but do like humans, regarding us as adorable and bizarre at the same time, and hence enjoy spending time with us, while still considering themselves "isolated" and "alone."

Finally...where else are they supposed to go? It's increasingly hard to live in a little house in the middle of a deep, dark forest without worrying that you're going to have a Wreck-It Ralph eminent domain situation on your hands. Much like most humans can't imagine going back to living with outhouses and no electricity and shoes only on special occasions, most sapient cryptids aren't overly excited by the "go live in a cave already" concept. There are rural cryptids, and cryptids who survive quite happily in places that humans still regard as uninhabitable, but for all the ones who evolved and adapted to climates similar to the humans around them, it's cities or suckage. So they choose cities. It's not their favorite option; thanks to us, it's the one that they have.

So remember when I said that I would answer ten questions about the InCryptid universe? Well, I'm still taking questions, but here's your third answer!

professor asks...

"Given that the Covenant is a centuries-old organization that worships tradition and conformity, how do gender and racial identity politics within the Covenant work?"

I find it interesting that when we hear the phrase "hide-bound" or "traditional" in reference to an organization like the Covenant, whose stated mission is killing monsters, we immediately assume that they must be an organization completely dominated by white cisdudes. And I'm including myself in that "we": when I first started working on the organizational structure of what would become the Covenant of St. George, it was extremely old white cisdude-centric.

At one time, that was probably an accurate view of the organizational makeup. While they are no longer particularly religious in nature, or sanctioned by any major church, they did start out with strong church ties, and the church in the Middle Ages was pretty firm on its whole "gotta be a dude with a penis to come to the party." Add in the fact that large portions of the Covenant's leadership settled in Italy, France, and the United Kingdom, and you'd get a very white cisdude party. But here's the thing: the Covenant was good at their job. They still are, as much as they can be; remember that today's cryptids are the descendents of the ones who learned to hide from the raids and the cleansings. One by one, the big flashy monsters were killed off or driven into the shadows, and it got harder to be picky.

There was a time when any village in Europe would have been proud to have a son chosen to work with the Covenant of St. George. By the late 1500s, most of those same villages considered the Covenant a fairy tale, and would never have dreamed of giving away their sons. The Covenant began doing their recruiting from people who had actually encountered cryptids, who could actually see the value in fighting against them. This meant dropping virtually all restrictions against girls serving active roles, because sometimes, it was the girls who survived.

Most of the Covenant's early female recruits provided backup and support for the field teams, having not been trained to fight before they came to the Covenant. At the time, it was not standard within the Covenant for all recruits to receive field training. This changed in the mid-1600s, following the last successful attack on a Covenant stronghold. Half the support staff were killed, as were most of the children currently being housed in that location. After that, it became a prerequisite that all recruits learn to fight, even if they were not constitutionally equipped for field positions.

Resistance to women in the field continued for quite some time, although it had less to do with "women can't handle it," and more to do with "we're not really a powerful political or religious force anymore, and we don't want our male operatives arrested for traveling with women they're neither related to nor married to." Field team marriages became very common, because it was a way for women to get "out of the office" and out doing what they did best. Killing stuff. By the mid-1800s, women had a completely equal voice in Covenant activities.

If this seems like it took a really long time, please compare it to real-world history. The Covenant was surprisingly enlightened, largely out of necessity.

But that only addresses female equality, not race or gender identity. Race was actually addressed somewhat earlier, when the Covenant followed the various explorations, Crusades, and invasions of the rest of the world, either forming or making contact with similar groups around the world. Most local groups were sadly largely absorbed into the Covenant, because the Covenant had the resources and the manpower to make joining forces seem appealing. Those who weren't absorbed are still considered part of the Covenant today, and are not spoken of much outside the regions where their methods dominate. And here's the thing: since the Covenant, and its sister organizations, focused so strongly on "humans first," they didn't bother as much with racial divides. There would be time for those later, when the monsters were all gone. To be fair, if the Covenant had successfully wiped out the monsters in the 1600s, they would probably have turned around and started ethnic cleansing. But they didn't, and they didn't, and they wound up a fully integrated organization by the mid-1800s. They understand racism, and will use it to their advantage when possible, but the Covenant as an institution does not tolerate racial discrimination. Humans gotta stick together.

Sexuality and gender identity are harder, in part because the Covenant relies on "legacy children" for so much of its membership. You're really expected to have kids if you possibly can. While this isn't a law or anything, you'll get a lot of the "Have you tried not being a ________?" routine, especially if you were already slated for inclusion in the breeding program. But at the end of the day, again, they need trained members more than they need to be prejudiced, and have been QUILTBAG inclusive since the early 1900s.

Seriously, there was a time—a long time—where if you were a strong-willed woman who wanted to make your own choices, a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transsexual teen, or of any race that didn't match the locally dominant racial type, the Covenant was your best route out of that life. If you heard about them, if you heard that they could save you, you took that chance. And the people who took that chance tended to become very loyal, because they were given lives that they could otherwise have only dreamt of.

The modern Covenant is very enlightened, except for the part where anything that isn't human is a monster. There's no room for discussion on that front. And really, that's the problem.

So remember when I said that I would answer ten questions about the InCryptid universe? Well, I'm still taking questions, but here's your second answer!

ashnistrike says...

"I'm going to deviate from all the Aeslin obsession above and admit to a cuckoo obsession (much less healthy). When I see something like this—a species that has almost all gone mad around their basic biological set-up—my assumption is that at one point they were more sane and adaptive, and something changed in their environment so that once-adaptive characteristics led to problems. And yes, I realize that they are still adaptive in the purely biological sense in spite of being sociopaths. But it still seems likely that they haven't always been that way. So, question—what's the original environment in which their parasitic telepathy evolved? What changed? Were they ever less completely destructive to their hosts? Symbiotic? Have they ended up, as parasites often do, in biological/telepathic arms races with other cryptid species?"

YAY I GET TO TALK ABOUT JOHRLAR YOU'RE ALL GOING TO BE SORRY!!!!

...ahem.

So the cuckoos are more properly called "Johrlac" (species name Johrlac psychidolos), and they are not from around here. I would call this a spoiler, since it hasn't come out in the series proper yet, but it's something that I talk about on panels, and it's something that anyone who's performed any sort of physiological examination of a cuckoo has probably guessed. Still, your personal perspective on spoilers may make this sensitive information, so I'm going to cut-tag.

( Here be dragons. Worse yet, here be cuckoos. Proceed at your own risk.Collapse )

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

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

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

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

Thank you all.

So remember when I said that I would answer ten questions about the InCryptid universe? Well, I'm still taking questions, but here's your first answer!

ebartley asks...

"Why hasn't the Covenant squashed the Prices? They aren't that well-hidden."

Normally, this is the type of question that would get a raised eyebrow and a somewhat disappointed cry of "Spoilers!" But in this case, the answer ties so closely into the family history that I've been unpacking for you, one short story at a time, that it seems like a reasonable place to start.

Understanding the Covenant of St. George requires taking an almost denialist viewpoint on the universe. Absolute truth: Humans are the best thing. Like, no matter what else there is in the universe, no matter what wonders we may eventually come to discover, humans are the best thing. Conclusion: anything humans think is cool is pretty much guaranteed to be totally cool, because humans—remember, the best thing—thought that it was cool. Anyone or anything trying to tell you that this line of reasoning is flawed and contains several internal logical fallacies is lying, and a stupid-head, and probably an enemy of the human race. You do not need to feel bad about hating them. And if you don't need to feel bad about hating them, you don't need to feel bad about anything your hatred eventually leads you to do.

Second absolute truth: anything that harms humans is bad. It doesn't matter what the thing is, or why it's harming humans. It doesn't matter if the humans who are being harmed brought it upon their own heads. If something is harming humans, it is bad. It is evil. The world is black and white, and you are on the side of white, because humans are the best thing, and all you're doing is stopping things that would hurt humans.

Third absolute truth: you are always right. Because if you were wrong, if it were possible for you to be wrong...well, then, maybe all those "monsters" that you chased down and slaughtered in cold blood were actually people who just didn't look the way that you had arbitrarily decided that people were supposed to look. Maybe you've done bad things. Maybe you're a murderer. And if you're a murderer, well. That sort of calls your whole "humans are the best thing" philosophy into question.

That's the starting point for the Covenant: they are a bunch of arrogant absolutists who have, over the course of centuries, locked themselves into a pattern of thought that allows for absolutely no deviation. To deviate, even in the slightest degree, is to no longer be truly Covenant. Once you start questioning things, there's every chance that the entire house of cards will come crumbling down.

(This isn't to say that all members of the Covenant are idiots: they're not. They're just trained and drilled and schooled very firmly on one specific method of thought, and it's one that happens to come with a clear and easy "us vs. them" that can be demonstrated using flash cards. There are a lot of very smart people in the Covenant. That's what makes them dangerous.)

Now we must travel back three generations in the family history, to a time when there were only three Prices standing: Thomas Price, who had defected from the Covenant when his personal house of cards got knocked over, rather decisively, by his own experiences, as well as through extended contact with the Healys; Alice Price-Healy, who may well be the single most bloody-minded scion of the Healy line, which is saying something if you've met anyone with Healy blood in them; and Kevin Price, who was too young to be a factor in the actual fight, but whose presence spurred his parents to win by any means necessary.

The Covenant numbered in the thousands. The Prices numbered in the threes. There was no way for them to win a fair fight.

"Fuck a fair fight." —Alice Price-Healy

Without going into excessive detail (because I really do intend to write this one day, and a girl has to keep some secrets), the Prices basically pulled a con on the Covenant, and left them firmly convinced that yes, they had killed three people on that day, and yes, there was no possible chance that anyone could have survived. Now, remember our third absolute truth: the Covenant is always right. The Covenant rode into righteous battle, the Covenant killed three people, the Covenant won, and the Covenant is always right.

The current Price family is still recovering from that specific instance of the Covenant always being right. Alice and Thomas would have one more child before Thomas himself disappeared; both Kevin and Jane were largely raised by friends of the family, because Alice, the only remaining recognizable member of the Price-Healy clan, was off trying to find her husband. Two small children being shuttled around the country didn't attract much attention, and it was only the intervention of more friends of the family that Kevin and Jane didn't wind up growing up completely unaware of the complicated network of blood feuds and favors their ancestors had constructed to protect them.

The Covenant, which is always right, did not go looking for these children. Those children could not possibly exist.

Kevin and Jane grew up, got married, and had children, always holding to their new guiding law: Do Not Get Found. Because now, their existence would be an insult to the Covenant, as great a deviation from the laws of nature as any cryptid that had ever existed. Yes, they stayed in the family business, but they did it in ways that the Covenant wasn't looking for. The Covenant, by nature, is overt. The Price family, in their current incarnation, is covert, and they use whatever means necessary to keep themselves that way.

Why hasn't the Covenant squashed the Prices?

Because the Prices don't exist. It doesn't matter how well-hidden a thing is or isn't; when you refuse to let yourself admit that it could possibly be real, you're not going to find it.

Heaven help us all if the Covenant ever stops lying to itself.

With Midnight Blue-Light Special approaching fast (and Half-Off Ragnarok just put to bed), I am naturally spending a lot of time thinking about InCryptid, and blogging about InCryptid, since I want everyone to be as excited as I am. So here is your invitation:

Ask me a question. Ask me a big question. Like when I posted about the rules governing fae marriage. The ones that require serious thought, and a genuine desire to know.

What can cuckoos really do? What was the straw that broke the camel's back for Alexander and Enid? How do cryptid communities conceal themselves in human cities? Questions too big, and too complicated, to answer in the FAQ. Now, because I apparently wasn't clear enough the first time, I WILL NOT GIVE SPOILERS. Please don't ask me where someone is, or whether someone else is coming back, or whether I'll post a full calendar of Aeslin holidays (because I never, ever will). Ask me about laws and rules and universe, about etiquette and speciation and trends in fashion.

The ten best questions will get full blog posts about them, explaining whatever facet or facets of the InCryptid world they touch on. I get to determine "best," although you're all welcome to weigh in or ask secondary questions.

I have comment amnesty for any questions I do not choose to answer during this particular publication lead-in, because I want my brain to not dribble out of my ears.

Game on!

And the winners are...

bookwyrm86
professor

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

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

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

It's time for another giveaway of Midnight Blue-Light Special, because I really and truly miss having a bedroom floor that I could sometimes see, rather than walking atop a tide of books and papers and heavily-armed dolls.

So it's time for a return of everybody's favorite, the random number drawing, because I am sleepy and still a little sick, which means all my creativity is being channeled into actually getting work done (a dangerous pastime, I know). So...

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

I will choose two winners at 12noon PST on Monday, January 28th, so that we can see this month out with a bang (and yet another trip to the post office).

Game on!

As of today, we are fifty days from the release of Midnight Blue-Light Special, the second book in the InCryptid series. I am...honestly, I am sort of in shock over here, still. This is one of those series that I desperately wanted to write, and never thought I'd be allowed to. Multi-generational family epic with talking mice and telepathic mathematicians? Seriously? But DAW believed in me, or maybe wanted to see if I'd actually produce the book I was talking about, and somehow that turned into a five book contract and a lot of time spent with the Price family.

I am so blessed, I can't even begin to express it. The fact that I can tell these stories at all is an honor. The part where I get paid for it is like...what? Are you sure? Really? But I do, and it's amazing.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do as a pre-release countdown this time. I did the alphabet for Discount Armageddon, but that really only works once. Suggestions are totally welcome! And of course, we'll have another new short story going up on the website around the time the book comes out, featuring another Johnny and Fran adventure. Lots of things brewing here in Chez McGuire.

Thank you all, so much. Thank you for allowing me to tell these stories. Thank you for being here. And thank you for buying my books. This was a series that had a very narrow market when it started, and you bought enough copies to make DAW see that it had an audience, and that I should get to continue. Soon, we'll break through the candy shell and expose the true darkness of what people keep assuming is my fluffiest universe. Soon.

I can't wait.

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

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

I have been tagged by the ever-lovely NK Jemisin to do the "next big thing" meme that has been floating around, and as I am an amenable soul (when I want to be), I thought I'd give it a go. So...

1. What is the working title of your next book?

Midnight Blue-Light Special. Which is probably the final title at this point, since the ARCs have been printed and I don't enjoy having things thrown at me by my publisher. They're generally amiable over at DAW. I try not to push it.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

At the end of Discount Armageddon, Verity was in a pretty good place as re: basically everything. She defeated the bad guy, solved the mystery, kissed a pretty boy, and pretty much won at life. So I started from the position of "how can I ruin her day?", and it all went downhill from there.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Urban fantasy, with just a hint of paranormal romance. The CW, rather than HBO.

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Can I have a TV show instead? If I could have absolutely anyone, no barriers, I'd cast Alona Tal (Jo from Supernatural, Meg from Veronica Mars) as Verity, and Ryan Cartwright (Mr. Nigel-Murray from Bones, Gary from Alphas) as Dominic. And I think Amber Benson would make an amazing Sarah.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When cryptozoologist Verity Price finds herself dealing with a Covenant purge of Manhattan, she quickly has to redefine her idea of "bad situation."

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I am represented by Diana Fox, of Fox Literary. Midnight Blue-Light Special will be published by DAW Books.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

About six months, give or take a trip to Disney World.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

It has a similar structure to Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld, and a similar snappy feel to Tanya Huff's Keeper Chronicles or Gale Girl books.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Honestly, Verity did. The character has a lot of momentum behind her. At this point, I just point her at things and watch what happens.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

Talking pantheistic cryptid mice worship the main character as a living conduit to the gods. And also to the baked goods section at Safeway.

Because I'd like to have my bedroom back someday, I'm going to kick off a second ARC giveaway for Midnight Blue-Light Special. This one will be open until Monday, and is one of the ones that requires actual effort (sorry about that). This time, we're going visual! Make icons, do a photo manip, draw a picture, grab some friends and pose, whatever makes you happy. The rules:

1. The image must relate directly in some way to one of my available works. Meaning that both Velveteen and the Rose Marshall stories are eligible. Stage a hitchhiking ghost! Draw a bunny superhero! Or stick with InCryptid, or Toby, and have a blast!

2. LOLcats are also eligible.

3. Once your submission is prepared, link or post it on this entry. Feel free to explain what's going on.

4. That's all.

The winner will be chosen Monday, December 17th, via random number generator.

And the winners of our first Midnight Blue-Light Special drawing are...

theironchocho

...and...

Glam Kitty!

Please email me via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours to have your prize sent to you. If I don't get an email within that time, a new winner or winners will be chosen.

More giveaways coming soon! Thanks to everyone who participated, and congratulations to the winners!

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

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

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

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

Game on!

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. And this one is really pretty, guys. I mean it's really, really pretty. I could not be happier if I tried.

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 )

And now, the May 2012 current projects post, which makes me a little sad, because I made the April post from Cat's place in Maine, and I am not in Maine now. Oh, well. This is the post in which I tell you what I'm working on, and you finally understand why I don't have time for tea. 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 crazy 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 (Blackout, Ashes of Honor). 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. Please don't ask.

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

1. To clarify a point from all the shirt posts: please don't email now asking if your shirt has been mailed. Your shirt has been mailed. I don't know where it is anymore. The post office does what it will do, but as we have not, thus far, had anything vanish while in transit, I am relatively confident that your package will get to you. It can take up to a week within the US, and up to three weeks outside the US. If you are in the US and don't have a shirt by April 15th, or outside the US and don't have a shirt by May 1st, that's when we should become concerned. (That's a lot of time on purpose. I want to give the post office the chance to find things.)

2. Texas was gorgeous, and College Station was amazing. I realize the state's unusual weather meant that it was basically all dressed up for my West Coast eyes—it rained for several weeks before my arrival, so everything was green and covered in wildflowers—but first impressions matter, and my first impression was "This place is gorgeous." Definitely an E-ticket of a state.

3. Midnight Blue-Light Special has been turned in to The Editor, which means I can focus on all the other things that I'm supposed to be writing right now. No, it never ends. Which is also kind of awesome, even if right now, all I want to be working on is InCryptid. Stupid muse and her stupid laser focus. Oh, well.

4. Thanks to trusting the travel gods to see me safely home on Sunday, I managed to upgrade my two flights in coach to a single through flight in first class. Let me tell you, first class is a nice way to fly home. Also, there was free digital cable on the flight, so I watched Jennifer's Body, Zombieland, and Pandorum. Awesome, even more awesome, what the fuck were these people thinking.

5. Also on the topic of first impressions, thanks to this lingering cold, College Station's first impression of me was "scratchy-voiced, foul-mouthed, evil pixie." I can definitely settle for that.

6. Tonight, I do laundry; tomorrow, I pack for Emerald City Comic Con. Because it never really ends once it begins around here. I'm super-excited to see my Seattle family, go to my first ECCC, and hug Amy Mebberson lots and lots. My life is empty if I don't hug an Amy once a month. True fact. And my beloved Amy McNally went home after Consonance.

7. The cats are filled with hate, because the suitcases will not go away. I begin to fear retribution. On the plus side, their "retribution" usually takes the form of sleeping endlessly atop the objects of their annoyance.

8. The new Monster High characters are starting to ship, and my local Toys R Us is once again seeing me two and three times a week as I check in, looking for Rochelle Goyle and the basic Jackson Jekyll (he previously appeared in the beachwear line, Gloom Beach, which means this is the first time he's been available with all his accessories). Luckily, I have a tolerant mother, and tolerant friends.

9. For those of you in the UK, I have a column in this month's issue of SFX Magazine! Or, well, Mira does. I wrote an article about why The Stand is a classic and you should read it. US folks, you'll be able to pick up the issue next month. I'm really pleased with it.

10. Jean Grey is still dead, zombies are love, and the Great Pumpkin watches over us all.

Current stats:

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

First draft stats:

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

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

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

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

For right now, I win.

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

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

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

But it feels so weird. So, so weird.

I hope this isn't the end.

It's the 15th of the month, and that means it's time for the February 2012 current projects post, in which I tell you what I'm working on, and you finally understand why I don't have time for tea. 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 crazy 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 (Blackout). 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.

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

Welcome to the first current projects post of 2012. That's...daunting. Anyway, these posts are made because I am the gift that keeps on giving, and time is the gift that keeps on taking. 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 crazy 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 (Blackout, Ashes of Honor). 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.

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

Welcome to the final current projects post of 2011. Wow. These posts are made because I am the gift that keeps on giving, and time is the gift that keeps on taking. 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 crazy 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 (Blackout, Ashes of Honor). 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.

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

Words: 12,732.
Total words: 57,367.
Reason for stopping: chapter fourteen is finished.
Music: lots of dance music and modern country.
The cats: Alice, bed; Thomas, floor; Lilly, cat tree.

I'm pretty sure I was actually supposed to work on something else today. In fact, I'm practically certain of it. But I kept going "oh, just another hundred words," and "oh, I'm almost to the end of this chapter," and the story kept rolling on, and then it was the end of chapter fourteen, and the day was basically over. This is what we call "writing what needs written," rather than "writing what the schedule says." It doesn't happen to me often, but oh, when it does...

When it does, it's magical.

Anyway, not much with the mice in this segment, so I don't have a new exultation, but I do have a lot more words (more than half a book now!), and I do feel pretty darn good about the whole situation. Soon, the second adventure of Verity Price and her insane friends will be in the bag. And that's awesome.

Words: 19,428.
Total words: 44,635.
Reason for stopping: through chapter eleven, it is a WORLD of bedtime.
Music: mostly folk and Glee soundtracks.
The cats: all three unknown, which is worrisome.

So, I, uh, forgot my word counts for a little while, which is why today looks like a SUPER PRODUCTIVE OMG day, when it's really just a majorly productive day. My apologies for the chicanery. I shall try to not let it happen again. But regardless, I am now almost halfway through with the book, which is amazing and awesome, and I am so very excited. Especially since I'm working on eight other things at the same time. How Seanan Got Her Groove Back, yo.

The mouse exaltation of the day is worthless without context: "HAIL ISTAS!" Sadly, you cannot have context. Context, you cannot have. But soon! Soon, all these people will begin making sense to you, and you can rejoice with me (and the mice)!

Alice has just appeared, and is demanding I go to bed and pet the cat until the cat is done being petted, which should be next week. Oh, and I did manage to buy myself the free space to write the next Jonathan and Frances Healy adventure, "Hell of a Ride." It's going to be a free download on my website, between the release of Westward Weird (January) and Discount Armageddon (March). Whee!

Cheese! And! Cake!

Welcome to the November 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving, and time is the gift that keeps on taking. 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 crazy 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 (Blackout). 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.

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

So last night, my body decided it was time to hit the shiny red STOP button on my life, by bringing on a bell-clanging migraine of the sort that I only have once or twice a year. I went to bed at six o'clock, figuring I'd sleep until eight or nine, and have trouble going to bed, but feel much better. Instead, I slept until seven the next morning, and woke up groggy, dehydrated, and feeling faintly like I'd been hit by a truck.

Needless to say, I did not go into the office today.

Instead, I have done ALL THE WORK here at home, and written ALL THE WORDS, in-between unplanned naps and episodes of Criminal Minds. I'm on season three now, which is very comforting and reassuring. By season three, most shows have found their feet, settled in for the long haul, and stopped shifting their perspectives without warning. It's a nice place to be. And serial killers make me feel better.

I'm hammering away on Midnight Blue-Light Special, hoping to buy myself Sunday as a free day for processing edits on Ashes of Honor, since every little bit counts. I'm also working on the page proofs for Discount Armageddon, and writing another John/Fran story set decades before the start of the series. Literally decades; they're the parents of the POV character's grandmother. It's one of my favorite universes, because it's both very open and accessible, and very close and snug. I love that sort of narrative contradiction.

The cats have loved this last day. Thirteen hours in bed, followed by hours and hours without leaving the house? Feline bliss. They'd be happier if I would feed them more than twice, but right now, they're taking what they can get, and what they're getting is my total attention. I'm a little vexed about today being a no-mail holiday, since I wanted to both send and receive mail. Since I didn't make it outside, I should probably let the vexation go.

And that's my Friday. Hope you're all gearing up to an amazing weekend!

Welcome to the October 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving, and time is the gift that keeps on taking. 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 crazy 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 (Blackout). 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. There has been very little change between this month's list and last month's list, as I've been trying to hammer through Ashes of Honor.

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

Welcome to the September 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving, and time is the gift that keeps on taking. 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 crazy 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 (Blackout). 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.

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

Wow, it's been a while since we've had one of these, hasn't it? The proofer spotlight is my way of publicly of thanking the tireless workers in the Machete Squad, who go through endless reams of bad prose and bizarre typos so that you won't have to. Seriously. I would have a lot more problems on the publisher end if I didn't travel with a trained squad of comma-killing, modifier-munching bad-asses. Hail to the Machete Squad!

It used to be a lot easier to get new proofreaders, because I didn't need to find people with the time, appropriate skill set, interest, and proven ability to keep their mouths shut until publication. I could literally just throw thirty people at a project, let them winnow themselves out, and keep whoever survived. Now I need to practice care and...gulp...discretion. But once in a while, someone new comes along.*

Enter Lauren and Priscilla.

Lauren has an amazing eye for time. She actually catches flow and logical progression in a way that none of the other currently active Machete Squad members tends to manage, which makes her invaluable to our cause. She also does line edits and presents herself with a dry, entertaining wit (I like funny in my critique). She's worked on Blackout, One Salt Sea, and Ashes of Honor, and she's amazing.

Priscilla is great with dialogue, flow, and detail work. She's one of my Manhattan-area subject matter experts, which is good; she's also a keen eye applied to general editorial matters, which is great. She's fun, she's funny, she's accessible, and she's enthusiastic, which is not something to be overlooked in measuring the value of a proofreader. She's worked on Discount Armageddon and Midnight Blue-Light Special.

And those are my newest proofers. Look upon their works, oh ye mighty, and rejoice!

(*Please do not comment here volunteering to read for me. I just wind up feeling awkward when I have to turn you down. I don't solicit readers in public, and I don't currently have any openings in need of filling. Thanks for understanding.)

I am leaving for the WorldCon in Reno tomorrow, and a little bit horrified by how quickly this year has gone by. Maybe if I started sleeping, time would slow down. Do you think? Yeah, probably not. Oh, well. A girl can dream. Anyway:

Welcome to the August 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving. 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 crazy 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 (One Salt Sea, Blackout). 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.

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

Right: this is officially NOT OKAY. I did not sign up for a year that went by so fast that I would blink and be missing a year. I did not approve of the theft of the entire first half of 2011. I would like it back now. I would like it back right now, if you would be so kind. Now gimme.

Please?

...oh, fine. As the universe is not bending itself to my will, welcome to the July 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving. 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 crazy 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 (One Salt Sea). 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.

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

It wasn't until I went to my "current projects" tag to pull the format for this entry that I realized just how hectic and insane May really was: I didn't do a current projects post. That's like, earth-shaking busyness, and sort of terrifying. Almost as terrifying as the fact that it's June now, meaning that the year is officially half over. Already. Who the hell authorized this?

Anyway. Since I don't control time and hence can't reset us to February, welcome to the June 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving. 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 crazy 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 (One Salt Sea). 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.

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

Pardon me for profanity, but how the fucking fuck are we already at the April list of current projects? This implies that we have somehow already consumed 1/3rd of 2011, and I, for one, am NOT OKAY with this idea. Seriously, I have Shit To Do in 2011, and not enough of it has been finished, which means that it can't be April yet. Okay? Okay. Come on, universe. Fix yourself.

...or not. Since I don't control time, welcome to the April 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving. 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 crazy 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 (Deadline and One Salt Sea). 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.

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

And now, the moment we've all been waiting for: the one time in the year where I get to intone BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH and be topical, not, you know, weird. So! BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH, and beware also the March current projects post, wherein I will make it perfectly clear why I'm not coming to your birthday party. This is the March 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving. And yes, the date is there for a reason. Largely so you can find the right post, if you insanely want to reference them.

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 crazy 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 (Deadline and One Salt Sea). 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.

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