Kelley Armstrong is one of my favorite urban fantasy authors, and yet more proof that All Good Things Come From Canada.* She was the second person to officially blurb Rosemary and Rue, for which I will love her forever. (The first person was Tanya Huff, and for this, I potentially owe her a kidney.) I mean, really, the only thing that could make Kelley better would be for her to suddenly become local.

OH WAIT WHAT'S THIS? Kelley Armstrong will be appearing at San Francisco's own Borderlands Books tonight at seven? The best bookstore in the world has one of my favorite authors ever? Also one of my mother's favorite authors** ever? Is there anything about this which is not TOTAL WIN?

No. There is not. I hope to see you there, and remember, you can always contact the store to request signed/personalized books, because they are JUST THAT AWESOME.

Whee!

(*Okay, maybe not all good things, but since Canada gives me Brooke, Tanya, Urban Tapestry, Coffee Crisp bars, and ReGenesis, as well as the production of ninety percent of the television I love, I'm willing to give them some extra credit for awesome.)

(**Mom goes Jim Hines, Kelley Armstrong, me. When I eventually slay Jim and Kelley*** on the field of battle, this will be why.)

(***Accidental portmanteaus of Jim and Kelley include "Kim" and "Jelley." I now want to write a series of YA stories about Kim and Jelly, UNDERWORLD EXPLORERS. They would have wild adventures and wear silly hats. Kim is from a secret steampunk under-society built beneath the sewers of San Francisco, using the 1906 earthquake as cover. Jelly is a clone-construct originally intended as an organ farm for his creator. They probably fight crime.)

Pause a moment. Consider that. My mother is on Facebook. The land of faces and geeks now contains my crazy-train mom. Which is very much a 'what the fuck?' moment for me. (Also a sort of hysterically awesome one. She's Micki McGuire. Feel free to go over and say howdy. She's unlikely to tell you any embarrassing stories about me that I wouldn't happily tell you myself, but wow will she be perplexed if she starts getting friend requests from people who enjoy her book reviews.)

Yesterday in the Other Change of Hobbit, I was faced with an issue of Locus Magazine which listed -- under the DAW Books section of the 'Upcoming Releases' article -- Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire, coming to shelves in September 2009. So there I am, standing in the store where I've been buying books for most of my life, staring at my name in Locus. Fortunately, the store comes equipped with several cats on which to dry my tears. (I'm going to Borderlands tonight, where they also have cats, but the cats are genetically insufficient tear-dryers, on account of not having any fur.)

Today is January 23rd. Ravens in the Library comes out on February 22nd, and contains stories by several authors with whom I was greatly besotted in high school. That's less than a month from now, and the time between then and today is so full that it's going to be over before I have a chance to think.

The world is getting smaller by the hour. Good thing I'm not claustrophobic.