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

Behold the poster thumbnail!



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

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

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

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

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

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

Yay for pretty things!

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

Behold the poster thumbnail!



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

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

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

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

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

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

Yay for pretty things!

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

Behold the poster thumbnail!



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

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

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

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

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

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

Yay for pretty things!

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

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

Yay, graphics!

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.

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

Behold the poster thumbnail!



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

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

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

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

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

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

Yay for pretty things!

Thanks to the graphic magic of Tara O'Shea, there are new wallpapers on the October Daye Wallpaper page, this time allowing you to dress your monitor in the fine, fine image of "In Sea-Salt Tears." You can find the wallpaper here:

http://seananmcguire.com/wallpapers.php#short

I am still, to be honest, a little bit staggered by this story's inclusion in this year's Hugo ballot. Not that I'm not staggered by every single nomination—because I am; for some people I may have become a predictable choice, but for me, this is only the third year that I've been on the ballot at all—but this one is...it's special. It's a purely urban fantasy story, for one thing, and stories in that sub-genre don't often get recognized at this level. And it's about women, just women, two women who loved each other for as long as they were allowed. There's no grand battle or flashy challenge.

There's just women.

People talk about "writing what you know," and the parts of this story that are what I know are the parts with kitchens and farmer's markets and Italian dinners and love. So much love. Love that seems like it could change the world forever, even when you know that it can never really change anything but you.

I got urban fantasy on the Hugo ballot.

I'm a little proud of that.

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

Behold the poster thumbnail!



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

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

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

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

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

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

Yay for pretty things!

It's time to go back to Jonathan Healy and Frances Brown, as they settle down into their lives in Buckley Township, Michigan, and get ready to face what lies ahead. The next step? Marriage, of course, assuming they can make it to the altar...

A new Jonathan and Fran story, "Married in Green," has been posted on the InCryptid short fiction page. It is once again available in ePub, MOBI, and PDF formats, and is free for download. Please download, rather than trying to read locally! We do not want to swamp my server.

All cover graphics are by Tara O'Shea (be sure to admire the awesome cover she did for "Bad Dream Girl," which is new to the page). All electronic conversion thus far has been done by scifantasy. As both of them are awesome, we applaud them now.

Enjoy the adventure!

This post will also serve as the open thread, so expect spoilers in the comments.

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

Behold the poster thumbnail!



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yay for pretty things!

Click the thumbnail to see the details!

Wicked Girls being nominated for a Hugo Award made me stop and think about just how many wonderful, wicked girls I know. This comic is just a few of them. (Seriously. Every girl I drew, I realized two more I had forgotten.)

Top row, left to right: Seanan, Vixy, Erin, Kate, Amy, Patty.
Second row, left to right: Rachel, Kaja, Brooke, Betsy (with Arial).
Third row, left to right: Devany, Teddy, Kirsten, Morgan, Emily, Torrey.
Fourth row, left to right: Jude (with Frost), Tara, Bear (with GRD), Catherynne.
Bottom row, left to right: Beckett, Teddy, Tara, Vixy, Seanan, Amy, Dr. Mary, Kate.

I am sorry I couldn't fit more people into a single sheet of paper. You are all, forever and always, amazing.

I'm trying not to be the all-Hugos, all-the-time channel right now (believe me, it's hard), but there is something I really wanted to talk about, and that's my nomination in the Best Related Works category. Wicked Girls, the CD I released in January 2011, has been nominated for the brass ring. This is the first time a single-artist filk CD has been nominated for the Hugo Awards...except for where it's not a single-artist CD. My name may be the only thing on the cover, but it's not the only name that was involved with the project. And that's what makes this so amazing. Because Wicked Girls is the thing I did with some of the people I love best in all this world, and I think that it shows. I really do.

This is the album where half the songs were written specifically so Vixy could sing them with me, or specifically for Amy's fiddle breaks. This is the album where my "I love you more than fairy tales" songs for my friends all got recorded, "Wicked Girls" and "Mother of the Crows" and "The True Story Here" and so many others. It was an amazing experience, recording this. And I credit that entirely to the people who recorded it with me.

Vixy, who sings with me on almost every track. Amy, whose screaming electric fiddle is the first primary instrumentation on the album. Kristoph, who tolerantly listened to me trying to explain what I wanted, and then gave me a hundred times more. Mary, and Betsy, and Sooj, who took the time to come to the studio and make things amazing. They put the heartbeat into the songs. Paul, who I loved first and best as a guitarist. Tony, who makes magic with strings. Margaret, who harps like it's going to be banned tomorrow. And others, and others, and others, forever.

Tara designed the cover; Beckett designed the liner notes. Mia made the pendants that inspired almost half the songs. Deborah listened, and loved, and helped in a thousand ways, as did Kate, and Cat, and all the members of my scattered family.

After more than thirty years, the filk community has representation on the Hugo ballot, and it's for an album that contains members of Southern filk, Midwest filk, Pacific Northwest filk, and California filk. And that is amazing. I am amazed.

I think I'm going to be amazed for a while.

Because nothing says "Seanan has a lot on her plate right now" like me deciding it's time for a project, I am going back to the printer for a second limited batch of "Wicked Girls" T-shirts. How limited? "The number of orders I receive, plus maybe a few extras, but I don't make any promises"-limited.

The design, thanks to the ever-lovely Tara:



This is a mock-up; the actual shirts will use that design, but will vary a little. We are using the same local shop that we used for the first batch, and they are remarkably flexible about everything. I love them so. Here are some real people wearing real shirts:

http://a.yfrog.com/img864/1994/wdmqi.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahandbrian/6879521872/
http://pics.livejournal.com/tithenai/pic/0005p48p
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/402268_10100181507175304_34311648_43656648_461649944_n.jpg
https://twitter.com/#!/gienahghurab/status/183599757132955652/photo/1

We are offering four types of shirt, as follows:

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

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

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

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

HOW THIS IS GOING TO WORK.

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

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

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

I will add your information to our ongoing spreadsheet, and Deborah will contact you to arrange immediate payment. Shirts are $20 for sizes S through 2XL, and $25 for sizes 3XL through 6XL. Shipping outside of the United States is an additional $5 per two shirts. (So one size S would be $25, two would be $45, and three would be $70.)

Orders will close on May 18th; the goal is to have the order submitted to the printer by June 1st. Anyone who has not replied to three requests for payment will be deleted from the spreadsheet at that time.

ETA: I understand security concerns, but if you want a shirt, you must provide an email address. The actual spreadsheet is being generated by the lovely Deborah, who cannot access any more private mechanism you may decide to use for contacting me. No email address on the entry, no shirt.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's AWESOME WALLPAPERS AND ICONS by our very own Tara!

Check out the incredible Toby goodness.

Seriously, she just gets better with every book she does this for. Check out the goodies, take what you want, and enjoy the glory that is Tara.

I'm so happy!

It's been a while since I posted about the "Wicked Girls" posters. As I still have a lot of posters, and a lot of poster tubes, I thought it was time for another go. This is awesome. This will be more awesome if more people order posters, thus getting them Out Of My House. (This is the cycle of stuff, at least with me. I want stuff; I get excited about stuff; I get stuff; I do my best to make stuff go away AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.) Behold the poster thumbnail!



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

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

1) Reply to this post with your email address, and how many posters you want, of which kind(s). Standard posters are $20, plus $5 for shipping and handling within the United States ($6 shipping and handling internationally). The signed/numbered posters are $25, plus shipping and handling.

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

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

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

The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous. They also frame really, really nicely, as my living room wall can attest.

Yay for pretty things!

In case you missed the memo, I'm one of the Guests of Honor at Convergence 2011 in scenic Bloomington, Minnesota. How soon is this? Well, my plane leaves tonight at six, so...

I'm super-excited about this convention, where I get to room with one of my favorite people (Tara, my web graphic designer), hug Cat Valente a whole lot (Thomas still wants to know why I let her leave), and generally enjoy the hell out of one of my favorite states. Also, Soundingsea (the lady I named Buffy's blog after) is taking me to Izzy's for ice cream. Om nom nom. Best convention ever! And here, for the curious, is my schedule:

Friday.

Reading, 2:00 PM. What am I reading? I do not know! Suggest something, I'm flexible.

Ask a Writer, 3:30 PM. G'head. Ask me about writing. I dare you.

Signing, 5:00 PM. Specifically, we will be signing Chicks Dig Time Lords and Whedonistas, although let's face it. I'll sign anything you put in front of me that isn't a small child or a legally binding contract.

An Evening With Seanan McGuire and Catherynne Valente, 7:00 PM. Look. We're not kidding when we call this event "An Evening With Kevin Smith, Plus Tits." We are profane. We are bizarre. We will talk about damn near anything that comes into our heads. We are eventually going to become the darlings of the fannish lecture circuit, so you should see us early, while you can still get good seats. Although we'll have to end mostly on time, because...

Whedonistas, 8:30 PM. Ra ra Joss. Ra ra ah-ah-ah, we all got his bad romance, yo.

Saturday.

Happy Writers, Fast Writers, 12:30 PM. Gimme a Diet Dr Pepper and I'm both!

Chicks Dig Live Doctor Who Commentary, 2:00 PM. I did not realize until I was making this list that we're commenting on "The Parting of the Ways." Oh, I am going to need so much boozimohol not to get inappropriate...

Signing, 3:30 PM. Since many of you will doubtless have attended the group signing, this event may be me, my comic book paper, and a lot of inking. And I am okay with that, although I'd love to see you again.

Sunday.

Chicks Dig Comics, 12:30 PM. Yes. Yes, we do.

The SF Squeecast, 3:30 PM. This is going to be our first live recording of our awesome new group podcast, which is getting ready to go live. It will also be the first recording I have done while fully clothed, since again, live. I have now used the word "live" too many times in this panel description.

Closing Ceremonies, 5:00 PM. This is where I get to kill and eat the con.

I hope to see as many of you there as possible, and I plan on having a fantastic time. Hooray for Minnesota!

So it turns out that even being deathly ill doesn't stop the world from continuing to produce awesome things, and that's what we're talking about right now. Specifically, we're talking about the part where Orbit has created an absolutely stunning book trailer for the Newsflesh series—and if you watch to the very end, you might catch a sneak peek at the cover for Blackout! Watch the video, spread links, tell your friends. Let's go VIRAL.

Seriously, this is my first book trailer, and if I weren't so damn sick, I'd be jumping around and screaming. Please, please, check it out, spread it around, and see if we can't convince my publisher that I should always get these. Because they're awesome.

Once you've seen the trailer, why not gussy up your computer with a little bit of home-brewed awesome in the form of icons and wallpapers from the Mira Grant website, created by the ever-fabulous Miss Tara? The site itself is about to get some pretty massive updates (they were planned for this week, and then I slept for two days), but the icons and wallpapers are fresh and sweet and waiting for you right now.

Not quite the same, but semi-related, you can read my thoughts on California's recent unseasonable rains and how they relate to writing speculative fiction at Larissa's Bookish Life, where a guest blog I wrote for her has been posted. It's not as visually striking as the first two items on our list, but hey, I managed to make it vaguely applicable, right?

Oh, and hey, the Blog Critics include Feed in an article on dystopias, alongside 1984 and The Hunger Games. I directed a stage production of 1984 in high school. Seeing my book in a graphic with that book is like...whoa. I win the universe.

That's all for now. I'm going back to bed.

First note: I am still taking orders for Wicked Girls T-shirts, and will be taking them through Monday, May 2nd. Orders will close when I go to bed on Monday, so around 9PM, PST. To place an order, you need to visit the original post. Any orders placed on this post will be deleted.

Second note: I can't close comments on the original entry until after I finish extracting all spreadsheet data and replying to all comments, which will probably take me several days. Much as it pains me to say, any orders placed after the "we are now closed" notice goes up will also be deleted. So please, place your order soon, if you're planning to order at all.

Third note: Because the spreadsheet is being generated manually, it's taking a while. If you haven't received confirmation yet, please don't email asking me where your confirmation is. Needing to stop what I'm doing and email going "you'll get it when your comment comes up in the queue, please be patient" makes me stop dealing with LJ comments, which means your request takes longer to reach. It's a resource management thing.

Fourth note: Once the spreadsheet has been fully generated and orders are closed, my lovely assistant, Deborah, will be emailing you via a new Gmail account we've created for just this purpose. This way, we can a) confirm your order, b) confirm your method of payment, c) get your payment, and d) get your shipping information.

This part is important, so it actually gets to be all bold and crap:

Because this is a limited-batch thing, we cannot go to print until people pay for their shirts.

Not "won't." Can't. I don't have the money to print edging on two hundred shirts for fun, and that means that if you're shirt's not paid for, it's not getting printed. To keep this from stretching on into forever, we're going to start emailing people on May 2nd, when orders close, and stop emailing people on May 16th. You will have two weeks to resolve your order. At the end of that time, we'll delete any that we haven't heard back on, and prep the final file to go to the T-shirt place.

Final note: I am not currently planning another batch of shirts with this design. That may change, I don't know, but right now? It's now or never.

Because nothing says "Seanan is trying to relax" like me undertaking a new project, I am going to be making a limited batch of "Wicked Girls" T-shirts. How limited? "The number of orders I receive, plus maybe a few extras, but I don't make any promises"-limited.

The design, thanks to the ever-lovely Tara:



This is a mock-up; the actual shirts will use that design, but will vary a little. I'm printing them through a small local shop, and they're being wonderfully flexible about everything. There are three types of shirts I can do.

The standard girl-cut T (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in black, dark chocolate, dark gray, indigo, midnight navy, plum, or scarlet, and is available in small through 2XL.

A girl-cut T with a shallow V-neck (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in dark gray, indigo, plum, or black, and is available in small through 2XL.

The larger girl-cut T (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in black, charcoal, dark chocolate brown, dark green, or purple, and is available in small through 4XL.

The unisex T (click here to view the basic shirt) can be printed in black, charcoal, dark chocolate brown, dark green, dark heather gray, navy, or purple, and is available in small through 6XL.

There may be an additional charge for sizes 4XL through 6XL, but it wouldn't be more than a few dollars.

HOW THIS IS GOING TO WORK.

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

a) what you want (size, style, color)
b) how many you want
c) your email address

2. For each shirt you're requesting, stuff $20 in a cookie jar somewhere. Why? Because I will not be asking you to pay for your shirt or shirts until we have a sufficiently large number of requests to print. (This is also why we're not doing baby shirts. If twelve people want to ask for them, then we can talk.)

2b. The $20 is inclusive of postage within North America; outside, please indicate that you are willing to pay additional postage.

3. I will add your information to a spreadsheet, and contact you when we have enough requests.

Orders are now closed. I am still contacting people to add them to the spreadsheet. Thanks to everyone who ordered!

Tara, who is my good and loving and tolerant friend, and who does all the graphics for my website, is also a Barbie customizer. She takes normal, every day dolls and turns them into geek icons, like NCIS's Abby Sciuto, or damn near EVERY CHARACTER EVER to appear in an episode of Star Trek. I? Think this is awesome. And that, friends and neighbors, is why I asked Tara to make me a Barbie.

An Alice Price-Healy Barbie. Behold:



Alice! She has the head of an Aquamarine Birthstone Beauty, the right arm of a Hard Rock Barbie, and the body of a Harley-Davidson Barbie. Her shirt is an old, old piece of Ken's wardrobe; her tank top is Barbie Basics; and her hot camouflage pants are proof that she's more awesome than your Barbie. Oh, and did we mention the weapons? She has a shotgun, pistols, grenades, knives, smoke bombs, and a 1:6 scale machete. Yes. BARBIE WITH A MACHETE.



Alice knows what you're thinking. Alice doesn't approve.

My dolls rule!

It's official! Late Eclipses [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] is now available from fine bookstores everywhere in North America, and from many fine bookstores elsewhere in the world! HOORAY!

Here are a few things to help you celebrate:

Firstly, there are gorgeous Late Eclipses wallpapers and icons available now at my website! Dress your computer in its Toby-related finery, and enjoy Tara's increasingly incredible work every time you make a post or minimize your active windows. Wallpapers and icons from previous books are also available.

I've done a shiny new interview over at the Qwillery, and you can win a copy of Late Eclipses! Dust off your Shakespeare and get ready for a good time, or at least the kind of time that involves hearing about my writing process in faintly silly terms.

Because people ask a lot: every sale counts, and if it's a legit sale (IE, not from a guy in a trenchcoat standing behind the 7-11), I get paid for it. In order of "how helpful is this," it goes brick and mortar stores first, because a sale from them often leads to a re-order; online retailers second, since again, they have to restock when they run out; and ebooks third, as those never need to be replenished. Take two, they're small.

Finally, I am going to be at Borderlands Books this afternoon, doing a swing-through stock-signing. If you want a signed book, and will be unable to make my March 19th Borderlands event, you can call the store and place an order any time after 12:00 PST (when they open). I'm also willing to sign the first three books, Feed, Zombiesque, and Tales From the Ur-Bar (also coming out today).

Happy bookday to me!

Let's go in reverse order, shall we? Because sometimes linearity just doesn't cut it. Anyway, the annual Locus Magazine poll for the best speculative fiction has been posted, covering those items published during 2010. Many excellent things are on the list already, and there are write-in slots for excellent things which you feel should have been included there, but weren't. The poll is open until April 15th, and everyone can vote, although votes cast by actual subscribers count for double. (This is one reason, among many, that it is awesome to have a Locus subscription.) Go, take a look, and help paint an accurate picture of what people loved about the speculative fiction of 2010!

I recently did an interview with the charming Katie Babs, who has posted our conversation for everyone to see. Being more sophisticated about these things than l'il ol' me, she even included graphics and other such awesome bells and whistles. It was a fun interview, with good questions, and I highly recommend taking a peek, if only so she'll feel that her site traffic justifies having me back someday!

Why, no. I do not have any pride. Why do you ask?

The cats continue healthy. Alice is a bit heavier than I want her to be, since recovering from her illness included a lot of gooshy food and spoiling, so we're trying to feed lightly for the moment. This might work better if a) Thomas weren't a growing boy, b) Lilly were more willing to be pushy about her food, and c) Alice didn't flop in the middle of the floor wailing about how she's starving to death and I am the WORST MONKEY EVER. Although, to be fair, Alice's flopping would be more believable if she didn't shake the floor when she did it. Yes, yes, you're starving, my little tauntaun. And next time there's a cold snap, I am going to crawl inside you to keep myself warm.

Thomas is growing at a truly staggering rate; it's like he's taken Alice's size as a personal challenge, and is determined to beat her before the next time he sees Betsy (I always assume my cats are trying to impress their breeder with their spectacular awesomeness). He's still the sweetest thing on four feet, which is good, since otherwise, I would be in trouble. He's very smart, and very curious. He's also stubborn as hell. Last night, he was on my lap, trying to play with the popcorn I was eating, so every time he reached for a piece, I would flick his paw. A normal cat would have grown annoyed and stalked off, furious at such callous treatment. Thomas started flicking me back. I love my Maine Coons.

I also love my Siamese. Lilly remains the lickingest cat in the entire known universe, as the patch of skin she licked off the inside my elbow last night while I slept will cheerfully attest. She's a little daunted by suddenly being the smallest cat in the house, but she's dignified enough (in all regards except for the licking) to hold her own against the fluffy tide.

And now...toys. As you may know, I love toys. My bedroom is like a terrifying cross between a set built for the Halloweentown movies and a toy store. I have well over a hundred My Little Ponies (and am collecting more every day), the entire current Monster High toy line, and a bunch of random assorted dolls, action figures, and weird things, including an anime-style Emma Frost, a hungry flesh-eating wasp-woman, and the Impala from Supernatural. It's a fun room to sleep in sometimes.

Anyway, yesterday, I got home to find a box on my porch. And inside that box...PONIES. Lots and lots of lovely Ponies, including Baby Racer (a yellow Baby Brother Pony with blue hair and a race car on his rump) and Applejack and some beautifully ringletted Candy Cane Ponies...

And Oakly. The My Little Pony Moose. Who has been on my Top 10 Wish List for ages. And now? NOW SHE IS MINE.

It's a good week to be a Pony geek.

Tara is making me a Barbie version of Alice Price-Healy, which has given me an excuse to go shopping for lots and lots of 1/6th scale weapons on eBay. This is incredibly soothing. It's shopping with purpose, and that purpose will result in my having the best. Barbie. EVER. The other Barbie she made for me, Lt. Anis Bihari of the USS Rutan, is currently off-site having her uniform tailored. I expect much joy when she returns. Oh, and they just announced the second wave of the Monster High Dawn of the Dance line, which will include two of my favorite dolls (Draculaura and Ghoulia).

It's a good week to be a toy geek, period. I am a happy blonde.

1. I'm still taking entries in my "ask a question, win an ARC" drawing. Remember that two prizes will be awarded, one by our old friend, Random Number Generator (oh, Genny, you're so capricious), and once by me choosing the best question of the bunch. Please, please don't ask for spoilers. Ask questions that would potentially be found in an FAQ, even one as profoundly silly as mine.

2. I'm a Barbie girl! Well. Sometimes. The brilliant Tara O'Shea (who does my website graphics, and isn't she amazing?) does Barbie customs, because she is marginally insane, and is now making me my very own Alice Price-Healy, because I am marginally insane. Tracking down 1/6th scale weapons and camping gear is surprisingly soothing. As is the part where, when I'm done, I get to ship it all off to Tara, and not deal with it until it comes back as a real, live Barbie of one of my characters. My life is so hard sometimes. (This will not be my first custom Barbie. That honor goes to Lt. Anis Bihari of the USS Rutan. She has spots!)

3. According to DAW, finished copies of Late Eclipses now exist, and I should have mine in a week or so. So you can look forward to pictures of Thomas putting the now-traditional toothmarks in the cover of my file copy, right before I start hyperventilating.

4. Yesterday, I went to two flea markets with my mother and youngest sister, both of whom acquired Immense Amounts of Crap. Despite bringing my naked Gloom Beach Draculaura along so that I could try clothes on her (Monster High dolls can wear many Bratz and Moxie Girl fashions), I managed not to buy anything except for a bottle of water. I compensated for this by swinging through the Berkeley Half-Price Books and acquiring yet another sack of books I won't get around to reading for a month or more. I need help.

5. And by "help," I mean "I need someone to come over and shelve things with me for about seven hours solid." Even that may not conquer the leaning piles of literature and restore my capacity to see the floor, but I am occasionally a crazy idealist where such things are concerned.

6. In an effort to not be a total wreck today, I spent about two hours last night sitting on the couch, watching telly. Specifically, the post-Superbowl episode of Glee, which I loved, and the first episode of the North American Being Human, which I loved. So it was a night full of love. That's even before you take into account the seven-month-old Maine Coon draped across my lap, loving me so loudly that I had to turn up the volume on the TV (kid has a purr like a lawnmower).

7. CD Baby has sent me their restock request, and so I'll be mailing them restock of Wicked Girls, Red Roses and Dead Things, and Pretty Little Dead Girl tomorrow. If you're looking for Stars Fall Home, I really am sold out, but Southern Fried Filk has several, as do many other filk dealers I know.

That's my Monday. What's new in the world of you?

As of today, the last of the paid-for "Wicked Girls" posters have gone out in the mail, and I am once again prepared to cope with buckets and buckets of poster tubes. This is awesome. This will be more awesome if more people order posters, thus getting them Out Of My House. (This is the cycle of stuff, at least with me. I want stuff; I get excited about stuff; I get stuff; I do my best to make stuff go away AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.) Behold the poster thumbnail!



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

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

1) Reply to this post with your email address, and how many posters you want, of which kind(s). Standard posters are $20, plus $5 for shipping and handling within the United States ($6 shipping and handling internationally). The signed/numbered posters are $25, plus shipping and handling.

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

3) If you have a preferred number outside of 1-10, I can try to provide it, although I make no promises. If you give me a range of numbers, you're more likely to get what you want.

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

The posters are printed on sturdy, acid-free, recycled paper, and again, gorgeous. They also frame really, really nicely, as my living room wall can attest.

Yay for pretty things!

It's the holiday season, and nice things are vital to our continued equilibrium. Equilibrium is nice! And so I present you with some nice things, to maintain this blessed state.

First of all, The Toby Wallpapers and Icons page has been updated over on my website. You can now download some basic wallpapers and icons for Late Eclipses, as well as wallpapers and icons for Nebelbann (the German edition of A Local Habitation). Plus there's a fantastic new wallpaper/icon set for An Artificial Night, showing dear Katie, all toned in beautiful blues and whites.

Second of all, the cover for Late Eclipses has been nominated as one of the Beautiful Book Covers of 2011. While I'd love it if you'd go and vote for me, this counts as a nice thing because some of these covers are truly gorgeous, and I hadn't seen the majority of them before. I'm really excited about the books coming out in 2011! It's going to be a banner year for reading.

Third of all, because I am me and I truly do regard this as "a nice thing," here is a list of really cute animals that will seriously fuck you up if given the opportunity to do so. Hooray! Some of these animals are really cute. And all of them are really included to make you wish that you'd never been born. I tend to regard this as awesome.

Happy Wednesday!

Today is Thursday, and things are awesome! Like, seriously, seriously awesome. Why are they awesome? Because they are. I will explain.

First awesome: Conjure Oils is doing a line of perfumes inspired by the Toby Daye books. They debuted at OryCon, and they are amazing. Seriously, I squealed, more than a little. There are seven scents in the initial line, and more coming, some of which I am, like, crazy excited about (the idea of January O'Leary perfume makes me giggle way more than is strictly sane). If you're a BPAL fan, or know someone who is, you could do a lot worse than Toby Daye perfumes for the holidays.



Ahem: squee.

Second awesome: My darling Mia, over at Chimera Fancies, is getting ready for her incredibly massively huge holiday sale, and has put up a preview post of pendants. It seems like every batch is better than the batch before, which is probably part of why my pendant collection is beginning to rival my Pony collection for sheer number of pieces. I mean, damn.

The latest sale begins Friday, November 19th, at noon Pacific time, and if you check out her post, you can find out how to get yourself entered in a drawing for possible free awesomeness. I mean, how much better can it get than free awesomeness?

Third awesome: My mailing tubes arrived last night, and I estimated correctly, meaning that the mailing of the new "Wicked Girls" posters has officially begun. Specifically, I've mailed posters to Tara and to our cover model, but that means I now know exactly what I'm dealing with, rather than just making a highly educated guess. Hooray for math!

For details on the posters, and on how you can currently order them, please see yesterday's post on the subject. I'm planning to package and mail all paid orders from this week on Saturday morning, which means you'd have them by the end of the week in the United States, and by the end of the month in Canada. I also now know what it would cost to mail internationally, so please contact me via my website if you'd like to discuss other mailing options.

Tara bet me five dollars and a cupcake that we'd sell fifty in the first twenty-four hours. There's three hours left, and we're at thirty-eight. Free cupcake!

And those are the things which are awesome. What's awesome in the world of you?

Item the first: I have updated my website appearances. Go, view, and learn where I'm going to be. I have confirmed appearances in Australia, New York, California, and Oregon. Which brings me to...

Item the second: I am delighted and honored to announce that I have been selected as the Friends of Filk Guest for OryCon 32. This year's theme is "the Darker Side of Fantasy," which is something I feel I can work with quite well. I'll be appearing with Vixy and Tony, which always makes me happy, and maybe I'll even have a brand new album by then! The convention will be held in Portland, Oregon, from November 12th through the 14th. I hope you can make it, if it's even remotely local to you.

Item the third: If you ever feel the need to quit your job, this is pretty much the way to do it. Style, a sense of humor, and a great way of making your point. (I do wonder what kind of reference she's going to get, but...) Just don't read the comments. The sexism can get a little scary at certain points. But the facial expressions are twenty miles beyond awesome.

Item the fourth: This is what you've all been waiting for, which is a large part of why I've been keeping you in suspense. I'd say that I was sorry, but you'd all know that I was lying through my teeth. So instead, I shall say LOOK! SHINY! Much more effective.

Icons and Wallpapers for An Artificial Night have been posted on my site.

Tara has really outdone herself with this latest batch, and I am absolutely enthralled by her graphic awesome. Some will make more sense after you've read the book, but they're all fantastic now. Go, look, take, have, and join the flailing excitement as you realize...book three is ALMOST HERE.

Gleh.

So before we get too far from the convention, a few high (and low) points of San Diego 2010. Because otherwise, y'all will beat me with bricks in a dark alley somewhere, and I just don't have time for that.

This year, I was able to import Tara and Amy (webmistress and fiddler, respectively), and the three of us shared a room with Sunil (media madman) at the Gaslamp Marriott. Not only were we less than a five minute walk from the convention center, allowing us to easily drop things off in our room, but the hotel gave us free candy. Right there at the front desk, free candy. Amy and I decided that we were having the convention experience we would have designed for ourselves at age seven. Except for the drinking, this was probably true for the entire weekend.

Rebecca and Ryan were kind enough to pick me up from the airport; after they dropped me off, Amy and I went to get our badges while the car went back for Tara and Sunil (landing two hours later than I did). Hilarity and admission followed. Tara went off to hang with her friends, while Sunil, Amy, and I went to see an improv performance by Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. They were decent, and the show was fun (especially since Amy got me a Long Island Iced Tea). The only real downside was Sunil accidentally ditching us while we were in the bathroom, but we went and met Rebecca and Ryan for Wendy's, so there was really no bad there.

Thursday was my first panel, The Power of Myth, which was a lot of fun, as was the signing which followed. I gave Amber Benson a copy of An Artificial Night, which she thanked me for, as now she would not be required to steal it. Tara, Amy, and I had lunch with Tanya Huff at the Cafe Diem, because the Cafe Diem is awesome. I also shopped. A lot. I enjoy shopping. I got a White Phoenix Jean Gray doll for my cover designer at Orbit, because I believe in bribery, yo. It was fun!

Thursday evening, Tanya, Tara, and I attended the Brilliance Audio author dinner, which I spent drinking Mai Tais, eating interesting things, and chatting with Phil and Kaja Foglio. My life, so hard.

Friday was my booth signing at Orbit, during which I signed a hundred copies of Feed. In the process, I drew ninety-nine tiny chainsaws, and one tiny Godzilla destroying a city. Again, my life, so hard. I had to miss the X-Men panel to do the signing (wah!), but I was able to attend the panel on James Gunn's Super (he needs to call me), which looks totally awesome. I had a second signing at the SFX booth later in the afternoon, and we gave away another fifty copies of Feed, one to the creator of Being Human. Totally awesome.

Friday evening, Tanya, Amy, and I attended the Penguin FangFest, which I spent drinking pineapple mojitos, eating cupcakes, and chatting with awesome authors. I finally met Charlaine Harris in the flesh, and it was hysterical. Exchange as follows:

Me: "Hi, it's great to finally meet you. I'm Seanan."
Charlaine: *politely blank look*
Me: *displays name tag*
Charlaine: "SHAWN-ANNE!"

*hugging*

I love having a weird name. After that, we went to the Boom! party, where I met Paul Cornell and his lovely wife, Caroline. Paul is one of my favorite humans, as he shares my love of the Black Death and giant flesh-eating lizards. I'm just saying.

Saturday was my second panel, The Rise of Zombie Fiction, which was a) mad fun, and b) reinforced my desire to write up a handbook for people doing panels at this sort of thing. Priscille from Books for Boobs came to the signing in a perfect Delirium costume, and I tried to eat her plush bear. Amy and I managed to catch the Warehouse 13 panel (Allison Scagliotti for Georgia Mason, anybody?), and then went off to dinner with John Grace at a very nice steak house. They served me port. MY LIFE, SO HARD.

Sunday, it was goodbyes and final shopping runs, and Tara and I had breakfast with Paul and Caroline before Amanda and Michael came to carry me away.

It was a good con. This writeup does not include hiding behind Anton, getting awesome swag and buttons from Rae, lots of hugging, accidental soda-based encounters, the dissolution of the Sacred Order of the Deli, ice cream, Gini Koch, late-night sammiches with Tanya, awesome dealer's room finds, free books, cheap books, expensive books, cookies, the art show, or repeat encounters with Felicia Day. But it does include a lot of awesome.

Also, if anyone came away from the con with a spare Sanctuary T-shirt, I am open to trades. Just saying.

1. admnaismith to the white courtesy phone, admnaismith to the white courtesy phone; you have won an ARC of An Artificial Night. Please email me with your contact information, using the contact form on my website, before Sunday, or a new winner has been selected. Also, I totally need you to come make me a drink, because damn.

2. Evolution is awesome, and more bizarre than you can possibly imagine. The best thing about real life is the way that it doesn't even need to pretend to make sense. Also, it allows for factual statements like "those little hornless males have giant testicles" and "they change their color pattern and rearrange their tentacles in a more typical female arrangement." How can you not love this world?

3. Actually, you know what's better than evolution? Drunken paleontologists being allowed to name the dinosaurs that they have discovered. Yes. Thanks to the glorious power of beer, the chasmosaurine ceratopsid family has a new member: the Mojoceratops. How can you not love this dinosaur?! It has a heart-shaped frill, people. A heart-shaped frill. This is like, Barbie's Dream Dino. Great Pumpkin, thank you for the drunken paleontologists and their glories. Thank you.

4. Remember that I'll be at Borderlands Books in San Francisco, California this Saturday, appearing with the lovely jennifer_brozek as part of the second stop on the Murder and Mayhem Tour. Also, we'll have delicious cupcakes from Cups and Cakes Bakery, because we all know that's really why you attend my book events with such alacrity. Be there if you can!

5. We're less than a week out from the San Diego International Comic Convention, which, this year, I will be attending with Amy McFiddler and the fantastic Tara in tow. So, y'know, that should be a good time, apart from all the flailing and hysteria. I'll be posting my panel schedule early next week, and if you're going to be at the convention, you should totally let me know. I'd love to see you.

6. X-Men: Second Coming is over. Several characters are dead. I'm sad about some of them, not so much about others (and barely remembered a few). I really want them to get Elixir on the business of growing back the various severed limbs, as, well, this is all a bit grim for an X-book. But hey, Jean Grey is still dead, Emma Frost is still pretty, and we still have three Stepford Cuckoos wandering around. So it's hard not to be happy.

7. Other things that make me happy: Warehouse 13, Eureka, Unnatural History, Leverage, and So You Think You Can Dance. Why yes, I am a media whore. Why do you ask?

8. Zombies are love.

9. In addition to the San Diego International Comic Convention being in less than a week, I'm about two weeks out from SpoCon, where a) I'm the Music Guest of Honor, and b) Tanya Huff is the Writer Guest of Honor. DAW GIRLS IN THE HOUSE! We shall wear our Urban Fantasy Mafia colors with pride, yo.

10. The turtle can't help you, but Alice will be happy to shed on you. Just ask her.

What's news with you?

The finished copies of Feed landed on my doorstep yesterday afternoon, where they were promptly rescued from the rain by my mother, who was over at the house doing basic kitchen maintenance (oh, how the cats hate her and her sloshy, sloshy mop). They are...I mean, they're even prettier than the ARC, which I didn't think was possible. The covers are done in this amazing combination of matte and semi-gloss that makes the blood really pop, and they're eye-catching and utterly bleak at the same time. Orbit did a really incredible job with them. I am awed.

Time between opening the box and my mother stealing a copy: Under five minutes. At least she's consistent...

In honor of the arrival of the finished copies, and the oncoming release of the book itself (the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train, it's a flamethrower), I've been making updates to MiraGrant.com. In addition to moving the Horror Movie FAQ to its new home (it was replaced on my main site by the Fairy Tale Survival FAQ), I've added some very important facts about Mira Grant that you should know. Not convinced of the raw danger that you face when you taunt my evil alter-ego? Take a gander at the full list of warnings. These were taken from your suggestions, and they should hopefully do a little to prepare the public for the danger that's to come.

In slightly less silly news, the first batch of icons and desktop wallpapers has been added to the site for you to use and enjoy! Tara really knocked herself out on these, and was aided by Lauren at Orbit, who was awesome enough to let her work from the original cover graphic source. I couldn't be more pleased. Check it out—I bet you'll be pretty pleased, too.

When will you rise?

In addition to writing more books than is strictly good for me*, I write a lot of short fiction and even a few essays. I love the act of writing, the process of editing and finishing something, and some stories want to be shorter than novel length. Some stories need to be shorter than novel length. I really love "Lost," but it would lose a lot of what makes it work (at least for me) if I tried to stretch it out much longer. "A Citizen in Childhood's Country" is the same way. I may go back to that universe, but the story itself is complete and closed.

Anyway, this year, I joined the writing staff of The Edge of Propinquity as one of their universe authors, telling the story of Rose Marshall, whose adventures began the night that she died. I'm currently committed through 2010; after that, Jennifer (the managing editor) and I will look at my time commitments, and decide whether I'll be chasing Rose down the highways of America for a second year. This is actually awesome, because it means I get to treat my twelve stories as a self-contained "season." I keep picturing it as a television show on HBO or maybe the BBC, complete with opening credits and screaming theme music. It's fun.

talkstowolves has posted a long, lovely Rose Marshall retrospective, including a review of the first Sparrow Hill Road Story, "Good Girls Go To Heaven." She says...

"In one short story thus far, Sparrow Hill Road has managed to introduce me to an area of folklore previously unconsidered and left me considering it (i.e. truck-drivers and highway diners); evoked a believable urban legend and made the central figure of that urban legend multi-faceted and sympathetic; and enchanted me and fired my imagination with the intoxicating glimpses of a myriad of Americas, clothed in daylight, twilight, midnight. The other sides. The ghostside."

Also...

"I absolutely cannot wait to see more of this series unfold and discover where Rose Marshall goes. Also, though I am always excited to investigate my best-loved field, I cannot deny that Seanan has provided me with a fresh infusion of enthusiasm for urban folklore."

Meanwhile, over in the Livejournal Doctor Who community, the author and essay list for Chicks Dig Time Lords [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] has been announced. This is my first real non-fiction sale, and I'm thrilled. Especially since Tara, my dear friend and graphic designer, is one of the book's two editors, which makes this very much a "family affair."

Chicks Dig Time Lords is small press, and won't be available in all stores, but can be ordered online, and I hugely recommend it for fans of Doctor Who. Yay!

It's gonna be a fun, fun year.

(*I have three coming out in 2010: A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, and my debut as Mira Grant, Feed. It's a wonder I get any sleep at all.)

Since we're counting down to the release of A Local Habitation—seventy-one* days, but really, who's counting? Beyond, I don't know, me—it seemed like a good time to get some awesome new graphics out into the world, courtesy of the always-spectacular taraoshea. And so, without further ado, I direct you to take a look at the Icons and Wallpapers Page of my website. Go ahead. I can wait.

Now, aren't those amazing? The icon and wallpaper sets at the top are totally new, designed to go with A Local Habitation; we'll be adding a few more in January, but this was just a mind-blowingly awesome start. If you scroll to the bottom (or make use of the handy new navigation bar, of which I am justly proud), you'll find the wallpaper and icon sets for Winterfluch, the German edition of Rosemary and Rue which comes out this January. Tara did a remarkable job of recreating the feel and emotion of the cover without using any part of it in her graphics: that's all stock photography and CGI magic. She also relabeled several of the original Rosemary and Rue icons with the new title, so as to create a wider range of choices (this is going to be standard with non-U.S. releases).

I am beginning to get excited and scared and all that other good stuff. But the new graphics are gorgeous, and I totally recommend taking a peek.

(*Seventy-one is the twentieth prime number, and is the twin prime of seventy-three. It's also the permutable prime of seventeen. This has been your moment of prime number math geekery for the day. Sadly, I feel better now.)

Because "done" is a misnomer around here, the ever-fabulous team of taraoshea (graphic design) and porpentine (back-end code) are hard at work preparing a redesign for SeananMcGuire.com, aka, "my website." We're not getting rid of the current content—we're not insane—but we are trying to make it a little easier to access and navigate, by doing things like shifting the majority of the menus to be down the side of the page, rather than at the top, and by making the drop-downs a little less likely to snap back up while you're trying to browse.

Among other things, I'll be revamping the FAQs, since I really do prefer keeping them as current as possible. I live in a magical cotton candy wonderland where someday, my email volume will be kept under control by the existence of clear, coherent, comprehensive FAQs. So here's the question for the floor:

What isn't currently answered in the FAQs that you want answered?
What answers do you want to see expanded?
What additional questions do you have?
Are there any sections missing? What are they?

I'll be soliciting for questions for a separate Toby Daye FAQ later this month, so please don't suggest Toby-specific questions as yet, unless they're the very general "what's the release date" or "who does your interior dingbat design"-style questions. Right now, I'm just trying to get base data.

As an aside, if you think there's a page missing that's not part of the FAQs, what is it? You never get what you want if you don't tell me what it is!

Thanks, y'all.

1. If you wander on over to my website -- which is getting shinier and more functional every day as the back-end code comes online, all hail porpentine, who has slaved over a hot keyboard for our delight -- you may find a few truly awesome things waiting for you. Specifically, we now have icons and wallpapers, designed by the splendid taraoshea. All icons and wallpapers are free for use! Print them out, stick them to things, do whatever makes you happy. Well, except for posting them to your Deviant Art account and claiming that you made them. That would make the Tara sad, and she knows where I keep the chainsaws.

2. As you explore the site, you may see that there is now a landing page for the 'Velveteen vs.' stories. Yes, the link currently takes you to the big COMING SOON graphic, but its very existence means that, before too terribly much longer, there will be an online archive of the adventures of Velma 'Velveteen' Martinez as she struggles to survive the foul mechanations of the Marketing Department without giving in to the urge to just kill somebody already. Because the best way to show you care is with random semi-comic superhero stories, you know. My comic book store tells me so.

3. Speaking of my comic book store, the new best thing ever is walking into the place where I go for my weekly fix (I am such an X-junkie) and being greeted by Joe (the owner) with a cheery "Do you have CDs for me?" That moment, right there, was enough to validate my entire musical career.

4. Oh, and as an FYI for those who share my comic book habit -- Monday was a holiday, but it wasn't a shipping holiday. So today is still new comic book day, day of comic book-y goodness. Although according to the release lists, very little has come in that holds any actual interest for me. That's probably for the best, what with Wondercon right around the corner. Ah, sweet Wondercon. I wonder how I've lived so long without you.

5. I spent several hours last night at Borderlands Books, hanging out with Ripley, the freaky demon suede alien kitty-face (aka, 'the elder of the store's two resident hairless cats'). The more time I spend with her, the more I start to think that maybe life with a Sphinx wouldn't be so bad. Sure, they're naked and weird-looking, but they're also smart, friendly, and incredibly soothing to hang out with. This is probably a sign that I need some sort of 'cats are not like Pokemon, you do not need to collect them all' intervention.

6. While I was at Borderlands, I chanced to notice their list of top sellers for January, and jimhines grabbed the #10 slot with The Stepsister Scheme! Way to go Jim! The weird naked cats were very impressed.

7. For those of you who missed the (admittedly rather quietly delivered) memo, I will be leaving California for a short time in March, as I hop on a plane and fly out to New York for more fun with my friends at DAW. I love visiting my publisher, largely because it gives me an excuse to say 'my publisher' a lot, and that's still a sort of shiny-and-new thing for me. I am assured that by the time An Artificial Night (the third Toby book) hits the shelves, I won't find it all quite so exciting, but I really hope not. We all need things that make us irrationally happy. Anyway, my schedule is pretty packed while I'm there, so I'm not going to be looking to host a meet-and-greet or anything, but it's definitely going to represent a break in my standard routine.

8. Zombies are still love.

9. I have now managed to go three months without starting a new novel. For some people, this may seem like an unremarkable 'I just went three months without bursting into flame' or 'I just went three months without unleashing a global pandemic'-type statement, but for me, it's the result of Herculean efforts in the arenas of focus and restraint. I love starting books. The freedom and the scope of it all is just a wonderful thing. But I can be strong. I can be controlled. I can keep myself from getting beaten by my editing pool.

10. This coming Sunday is the official release date for Ravens In the Library, a benefit anthology assembled to help with SJ Tucker's unexpected medical bills. It's got an awesome list of authors, and, on a more personal note, it's got my first official this-is-in-print anthology appearance: my short story, 'Lost,' will be the final piece in the book. I'm very excited.

That's my wending for Wednesday. What's yours?

One of the wonderful services provided by my graphic designer, taraoshea, is the production of promotional art for my books. The icons in this post were designed to go with Rosemary and Rue (October Daye book one, coming from DAW Books in September 2009). Matching wallpapers will be available soon on my website. But for right now...icons.

All icons are free for use, although I do ask that you credit Tara and link people back to my website, since the point is to start driving up interest. All icons will also be posted to my website. I'll let you know when.

***

01. 02. 03.
04. 05. 06.

***

It gets a little closer to real every day.

Hey, take a look at my website!

Just to detail the changes...

Landing Page.

The new back-end interface for the front page updates is in place; I can now make changes to the news, welcome box, and appearances box without anybody helping me out. This means the news will stay up-to-date, the welcome box will stay topical, and new appearances will be appearing as they, well, appear. I didn't really think that sentence through, did I? (As a side note, clicking 'more information' in the appearances box will do exactly what it claims, and provide you with more information about the appearances themselves. Footnotes and surprises will often be buried there. You have been warned.) We've also increased the font size, and reduced the number of news items visible at any one time to three. Recently posted news items can still be viewed by clicking 'read more,' and that will also take you to the news archive.

Bio Page.

Check it out -- we have one! Currently, it contains a self-written bio, and a bio that was written for me in 2007 by Zander Nyrond, when my vocal group, Lady Mondegreen, attended the UK filk convention as Guests of Honor. (Plurals and Lady Mondegreen are always confusing.) We're going to be adding a bio by Michelle Dockrey, and a link to a deeply goofy little survey-style bio that I started writing during last night's episode of NCIS.

We're also going to be adding photo credits; their current absence is my fault, as I went to bed before telling Chris where they should appear on the page. For right now, the black and white headshot is by Beckett Gladney, and the color picture in the pumpkin patch is by Carolyn Billingsley.

Coming Soon!

All links that don't actually lead to their anticipated content now lead to a 'COMING SOON' page, which proves that, y'know, we're planning on getting them updated ASAP.

Feedback is welcome, and the current plan is the have the entire website functional and live by March 10th. Some things have already moved to new places on the page, and other things will be moving in the near future. Big, big thanks to porpentine and taraoshea for all their hard, secret work.

Woo-hoo!

Well, let's see. So far today, I've...

...processed buckets of edits for Discount Armageddon, which I'm planning to get back to work on real soon now. I spent a few hours last night picking stealthcello's brain about competition-level ballroom and tango dancing (hint: it's complicated stuff), and I now feel much more equipped to write the next chapter, which involves an Argentine tango competition, Verity in a very skimpy dress, and, yes, knives. Almost any chapter that involves Verity involves knives. She's comfortably predictable that way.

...received a new blurb for Rosemary and Rue, resulting in squealing and jubilation. I am so seriously stoked about the blurbs I've managed to collect so far, all of which are wonderful and perfect and totally different. It's like kittens. No two kittens are alike, but as soon as they're your kittens, they become the most magical, wonderful things ever to wander across the face of the planet. I like kittens.

...also received the second icon and first wallpaper for the Rosemary and Rue promo set. All icons and wallpapers in this set are being designed by the ineffable taraoshea, who is really a goddess of graphic design. I am totally ecstatic, and can't wait to make them public for your enjoyment and (hopeful) use. Remember, nothing says 'love' like a blood-drenched San Francisco skyline!

...packed all pending pre-orders through 190, and signed and numbered through 200. So there's a max of 100 CDs left to go (I'm still taking increasingly mis-named 'pre-orders' via the website, because it's all about paying my engineer). If I finish the list before hitting 300, we'll just close out the pre-order run early, thus making the numbers even more surreal in future years. (Also creating the opportunity for funny, funny hoaxes on the part of inventive people with pens and copies of my CD.)

...watched two more episodes of my crazy Australian mermaid show.

What's up with you?

10. I appear to have started doing art cards. (Because, as Brooke said, I need something to do with all that spare time that I had just lying around.) For those of you who are unfamiliar with the art card 'concept,' they're little pieces of original artwork, done on 2.5"x3.5" cards. Mine are Micron and Prismacolor on bristol paper. I've done three so far, one to go with Grants Pass, one to go with Ravens in the Library, and one of Velveteen and Sparkle Bright during their first year with the JSP. I figure I'll use them as book giveaways. Right now, they're just being colorful and soothing; two things that I need more of in my life.

9. My reboot on Late Eclipses of the Sun appears to have done exactly what I was hoping it would do; the new first chapter is about ten times stronger, faster, better, and generally bionic in all possible regards. Now I'm working on the revisions to chapter two, just to really lock down the changes to the continuity, and once that's done, I can start processing my editor's notes on An Artificial Night. I'm spending so much time with Toby these days that we should really start charging her rent, I swear.

8. I write more poetry than is strictly healthy, sometimes in batches of two to five hundred poems at a time. (These batches are called 'Iron Poet' rounds, and are a variation on a standard writer's workshop exercise. They make me happy. I may be crazy.) I managed to write five poems yesterday, including a counted devan (although I skipped the internal rhymes on the zipper, because I didn't feel like giving myself a migraine) and a counted technical terza rima. Take that, everyone who said there was no use for structured poetry in the modern world!

7. My story in Ravens In the Library is getting an accompanying illustration. This is...this is amazing. Not just because the illustration itself is amazing -- I saw the sketch, and it is -- but because I didn't expect an illustration at all. It made me cry. More and more, I begin to believe that 2009 is the universe giving me one big incredible birthday present.

6. It's not entirely visible to the naked eye, but my website continues to creep closer and closer to being entirely done. We should be getting the first few essays up there soon, and Chris is working on the functionality that will allow me to update and edit the front page all on my lonesome. Meanwhile, Tara works secretly behind the scenes on Wonderful Surprises that only a golden graphics girl could possibly provide. Prepare to be amazed.

5. I get to spend the weekend working on Discount Armageddon! (Quoth Dan: "I don't know anybody who gets as excited about being told what to work on as you do.") I love deadlines, I love directions, and I love Verity. She's so happy to see you. And so happy to kick you in the head. Pleasantly, I just put together my Verity playlist last night, consisting almost entirely of dance music and things with a BPM of over 120. Because Verity just looooooves the beat, yo.

4. It's new comic book day! Always the most wonderful day of the week. At least in theory -- other days are sometimes surprisingly awesome.

3. All my television is coming back on the air. I'm a huge TV freak. It's what lets me decompress after a hard day of working and writing and worrying about working and writing; it's also what I do with the other half of my concentration when I'm inking. (Most of the shows I watch are more verbal than visual, and have clear cues when I actually need to be paying attention to the screen.) I really appreciate the fact that the things I watch are staggered enough to make sure I almost always have something new.

2. This time next week, I will be heading for the airport, heading for the sky, and heading for Seattle, baby.

...and the number one good thing about today...

1. Oasis just called me, and THE CDS ARE DONE!!!!! They're mailing them out from the Oasis warehouse today, and they should supposedly hit my doorstep on Friday. This gives me time to actually arrange for CDs to reach Seattle, prep the first batch of pre-orders to mail out (probably the first twenty or so, more if I can possibly swing it), and generally get my hysteria out of the way. It also gives me time to use the CD boxes to build myself a little fort and crawl inside it to hide from the universe.

What's new and awesome in the world of you?

Well, what happened around here in 2008? Let's see...

1) I signed with the eternally delightful dianafox, who has shown a remarkable capacity for taking the things I say (some of which make very little sense, filtered as they are through my sunshine-and-zombies Pollyanna worldview) and doing something functionally useful with them. Everybody needs a personal superhero.

2) I started this journal. Because everybody needs their sunshine-and-zombies updates as regularly as possible. No, seriously. How can you know what's happening in their magical playland if somebody isn't making a point of telling you on a regular basis?

3) I arranged to have my website fully revamped, thanks to the design talents of taraoshea and the technical can-do of porpentine. Now it's glorious, it's gorgeous, and it's changing pretty much daily as we hammer the text into place and start getting the various sections hammered into their desired configurations. Which matters because...

4) I sold the first three Toby Daye books to DAW! Yes! Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, and An Artificial Night have all been sold, after so many years in my head that it's really not even all that funny. Soon, the world will understand why I love these people so much. I hope.

5) I finished writing or revising six books in 2008. The three mentioned above, along with Late Eclipses of the Sun (Toby, book four), Newsflesh (The Masons, book one), and Lycanthropy and Other Personal Issues (Coyote Girls, book one). So that's, y'know. Pretty productive of me.

6) I started work on three more books -- The Mourning Edition (sequel to Newsflesh), The Brightest Fell (Toby, book five), and Discount Armageddon (InCryptid, book one).

7) I recorded an album. Scaaaaaary. You can still place pre-orders for Red Roses and Dead Things at my website. I promise that it will be awesome. And filled with corpses.

So it's been a huge, exciting, amazing year, and next year is just going to be a bigger, more exciting, more amazing year. Thanks for being here, and I really can't wait to see what happens next.

So after months of hard work, discussion, and objections to my questionable belief that orange and green are always automatically complementary colors, my new website has launched! All credit to taraoshea for gorgeous graphic design, and to porpentine for skillful implementation. Take a look:

http://seananmcguire.com/index.php

You will note that most of the links don't work, and that the text in the 'Appearances' box is still completely out of date. We're working on that, and I'll be posting here as things go live. (We should get the disclaimer and appearances updates done today, and then Chris is going to work on swapping over the Songbook and setting up the first of the FAQ pages.) All shame for missing text should be directed towards me, as I've been terribly lax in actually turning it in before the site was ready to go live. I need to actually be able to see how it's going to look on the page. This is the danger of having a visual mind.

But isn't it pretty? I'm just as pleased as punch, and I'm only going to get happier as more sections of the site go live. Chris is even fixing it so I can update more parts of it myself, which means it'll get fussed with daily, just like everything else I can put on a to-do list.

Squee.

Life is good.

Article the first: New icon! The ever-engaging taraoshea made this for me as a sort of answer to my Commandments of Coyote, because Coyote needs his beer, yo. How I do adore her. Also, she's completely out of her tree. But that's probably why we get along so well, so hey.

There's a permanent account sale coming up, and I looked at it thoughtfully, because I'm a total whore for anything that allows me to have more user icons (yes, I know, I probably need help). The trouble is, the math no longer works out. There was a time when buying a permanent account was cheap enough that it would balance out the cost of paying for your journal, plus extras, in roughly four years -- forever in Internet terms, but still a reasonable investment. The folks who run the site basically know that they've hit the upper limit in terms of what people will pay for bells and whistles on a blogging site, and at $20 a year (if you're doing auto-pay), it just doesn't balance out the $175 for a permanent account. Not even if you're buying extra user icons. Alas, price structure, how you have betrayed us.

Article the second: Lilly has managed to get out of the house twice in the past few months, which has made me paranoid enough to finally do something I'd previously resisted, and buy her a collar already. I picked it up during my cat litter run -- a spiffy little black number with silver moons and stars on it, very goth-girl, which is ideal for my Siamese sweetie. It also has a bell. I already hate the bell.

Now, I brought the collar home anticipating some great, epic battle for my life against an irritated Siamese cat, something to remember throughout the ages. My housemate was anticipating the equivalent of a land war in Asia. I approached the cat with the collar. I pulled the collar over the cat's head. The cat squirmed a little. I stroked the cat. The cat stopped squirming. I tightened the collar. Game over. Where is the drama? Where is the excitement? Where is the pathos? (I know where the cat is. I hate that bell.)

Tune in next week, when Lilly utterly fails to react in any noticeable way to getting microchipped. I swear, my cat is on Valium or something.

Article the third: Plans are in the works to get my little sister down from Sacramento for Thanksgiving, officially making this the closet thing to a family Thanksgiving that we've had in years. The last time we tried this, I wore Melissa's tarantula as a broach just to see if it would freak Mom out (it did). This should, at least, be more entertaining than putting a collar on the cat.

My website and I have a love/hate relationship. I love having a website. I love my existing design, which was done by porpentine when the site was primarily intended to display my filk music and poetry. I love my new design, which was done by taraoshea and will be going live any day now. I love that my website is orange and green, just like a pumpkin patch that belongs specifically to me. I have a virtual pumpkin patch, filled with good things that I get to plant.

(Does that sound twee? That sounds twee. At the same time, I'm wearing jack-o-lantern pajama pants, socks that look like candy corns, and a fuzzy orange sweater that really makes it look like I've been hunting and slaughtering Muppets for their pelts. So right now, I'm actually allowed to be twee. I have the wardrobe pass to twee.)

I hate updating my website. I hate the fact that I always feel like I'm forgetting something when I turn my updates in. I hate the feeling of running uphill. I am not a fan of running up hills. It makes my calves hurt. I hate that my website makes my calves hurt. I hate sitting here being neurotic over whether or not these shoes make my website look twiggy. I hate, in short, the process of making the website functional. Seriously, if it weren't for Chris and Tara, my site would consist of 'PLEASE BUY SEANAN'S BOOKS SO SHE CAN FEED THE CATS' in big flashing black letters, and I'd be done.

In closing, I need to go watch some television and eat some popcorn, and tomorrow, I'll find something new to sit here and twitch over. PS: it's likely to involve my crazy-train Siamese cat. Lilly, who cures crazy by causing more.

So we've been working for a while now -- and by 'we,' I mean taraoshea and porpentine -- at giving my website a total overhaul. Because of the way my brain works (which is not like your Earth brains), this means Tara designs the new graphics and layout, Chris implements them, and then I start doing the new site text, because I can't 'see' where the new text should go until I have the old text in place on the shiny new layout. So poor Chris is going to do a huge amount of heavy lifting and then immediately get hammered with textual updates. Feel for him.

In an effort to keep him from killing me, I figure I should start prepping some of the text now, while I still have a little wiggle room. So I present to you...

What goes into my FAQ?

Obviously, there needs to be a section on filk, as well as the absolutely required section on writing. What do you want to see there? What makes sense? What have you always wanted to know, but been afraid to ask? What have you put into your own FAQs?

Help me keep Chris from killing me.

Okay, now we REALLY have to have a dino dance party. Why, you may wonder? Why, you may ask yourself? Because I have just finished my first post-editorial pass through A Local Habitation, book two in the Chronicles of October Daye. And I have turned that puppy in. Yes! No longer is my manuscript malingering around on my thumb drive, looking lost and lonely and wondering whether it ever gets to go anywhere! It's gone, off to the magical wonderland of sunshine and zombie ponies that is DAW Books. (I've seen the offices at DAW. They're totally filled with sunshine and zombie ponies. I swear. Okay, not really, but wouldn't that be lovely? Zombie ponies for all!)

I kinda completely love this book right now. I mean, I kinda completely love this book all the time, because hello, my baby, all grown up and ready to go play with the big books, but also, I've just gotten up close and snuggly with all its little bells and whistles, and this has resulted in me kinda completely loving it. This is sort of awesome, as I have a very love/hate relationship with my books while I'm working on them.

I'm reasonably sure all this glowing happy 'yay my books are finished yay' is just the endorphin rush before the inevitable and soul-consuming crash. I'm basically okay with that.

Meanwhile, off in the land of 'people doing arcanely productive things that I don't understand but which fill my universe with buckets and buckets of awesome,' Tara is mostly finished with my website redesign, and Chris continues to keep the site itself alive and not eating people who happen to be passing randomly on the street. Let's be clear, here: my skill with HTML basically extends to the cutting-edge of 1997. I can close a tag with the best of them, as long as it's not, y'know, a hard tag. Once it gets difficult, I crawl under my desk and hide until Chris manfully rescues me. So credit for every ounce of visual and functional awesome? Goes to Chris and Tara, rather than to me.

Plans for this weekend include a lot of house cleaning in preparation for Terence's upcoming visit, a family funeral, and probably starting to dig myself into The Mourning Edition (which is the sequel to Newsflesh). I may also head for the Starbucks and spend a few peacefully isolated hours inking, as that's the best way to get ahead of myself.

I have finished this week in triumph.

DINO DANCE PARTY!