Georgia Mason is fighting hard in this year's Unbound Cage Match, and she needs your help.

It's a simple scroll to the bottom and click to vote, and I really want to see Georgia make the finals. Can you imagine the Georgia Mason vs. Harry Dresden snark party? Because I can. Oh, yes, I can.

Please vote if you have a second.

...a signed copy of Rise: The Complete Newsflesh Short Fiction! Win this awesome tome for yourself, for a friend, or for a local library!

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

The fourth giveaway is for a signed copy of Rise: The Complete Newsflesh Short Fiction, published under the Mira Grant byline. This is going to be a random number drawing, because I am not feeling creative right now. So...

1. To enter, comment on this post.
2. If you are international, indicate both this and your willingness to pay postage. Please be aware that this is a LARGE hardcover: the cost of mailing this internationally will be considerably more than the value of the book.
3. That's it.

I will choose the winner at 1PM PST on Sunday, December 11th.

Game on!

ETA: This drawing is now CLOSED.

Feedback, by Mira Grant (me) is now available from fine bookstores and e-retailers in North America and the United Kingdom! This standalone entry in the Newsflesh world follows a new blogging team through a new adventure...and a very familiar period in time. Feedback begins the day Feed begins; it ends the day Feed ends.

It's everything in the middle that's new.

So come. Meet Ash, our Irwin narrator and Irish immigrant. Meet Ben, her Newsie companion and husband-on-paper, who's seen a less privileged side of the post-Rising world. Meet Audrey, Fictional, artist, and girlfriend, who's getting a little tired of waiting for Ash to get her life together. Meet Mat, makeup and maker blogger. Meet a lot of people, and find out how many of them will walk away.

Because Feedback provides a new angle on the original trilogy, I do not recommend picking it up until you've read Feed at the minimum, and hopefully Deadline and Blackout as well. But I hope you'll come to my party. I have so many stories to tell you.

This will serve as your discussion post; expect spoilers in the comments.

Have a look:

The cover for Feedback is now live.

This full-length Newsflesh-universe novel spans the same time period as Feed, following a group of reporters tasked with documenting the Democratic candidate for the presidency. Meet Aislinn "Ash" North, an Irwin Irish expatriate coming to the end of her green card marriage; Benjamin Ross, her Newsie husband, who has just buried his mother and is looking for something new to believe in; Audrey Liqiu Wen, a Fictional with a secret, and Ash's girlfriend; and Mat Newson, a makeup and car repair blogger under the Fictional umbrella. Meet the candidate.

Meet the dangers.

We already know how this ends. Sometimes the journey is what really matters.

I'm so excited!

RISE, by Mira Grant (me) is now available from fine bookstores and e-retailers in North America and the United Kingdom! This brilliantly hefty collection includes the following previously published stories:

Countdown
"Everglades"
San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats
How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea
The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell
Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus

It further includes the following brand new stories:

All the Pretty Little Horses
Coming to You Live

Because many of these stories take place after the original trilogy, I do not recommend RISE until you've read Feed, Deadline, and Blackout, but if you have, boy do I have some tales for you! All pieces are accompanied by a new introduction, written by me, because why would you not do that when you have your own single author short fiction collection?

RISE!

This will serve as your discussion post; expect spoilers in the comments.

We are now exactly fifty days from the publication of RISE, my first short fiction collection--and more, the first collection of short fiction from the Newsflesh universe. This stunning hardcover book will include, in order:

Countdown
"Everglades"
San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats
How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea
The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell
Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus
All the Pretty Little Horses
Coming to You Live

If those last two titles are unfamiliar, it's because they are two all new novellas, written specifically for this collection. Also new to this collection, introductions providing more information about every single story.

I am so excited about this collection, y'all. Copies will be available from bookstores all over North America on June 21st, right before CrossingsCon in New York. I'll be appearing at Borderlands Books, in San Francisco, CA on July 9th as part of the Superhero Team-Up book tour with Sarah Kuhn and Amber Benson, for all your signed copy needs.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support, which has made this book, and so much else, possible.

Rise up while you can.

Ahem:

You might want to click this link and find out my exciting news for next summer.

This beautiful book will include all the Newsflesh short fiction to date, from "Everglades" through to "Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus," as well as two brand-new novellas that no one has ever seen before. I'm super-excited, and I think you will be too, once you see what's in store.

I'm also super-excited because this is my first short fiction collection. Another item checked off the bucket list!

Happy blonde is happy.

When will you rise?

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow will mark the release of "Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus," a new Newsflesh novella focusing on the lab, life, and times of Dr. Shannon Abbey. The novella will be available through the Orbit Short Fiction Program, as well as through a friendly e-book retailer near you.

After release, when some of you have finished the text in fifteen minutes, this will serve as your discussion post. (So basically, starting tomorrow, there will probably be spoilers here.)

Newsflesh!

10. Seattle is beautiful. I know this, because I am currently in Seattle, at least until Monday (the 30th), when I will fly back to California, have my hair done, do my laundry, sleep, and get on a plane to England. I won't be home for more than a day until April 15th. My accountant is thrilled.

9. Emerald City Comic Con is this weekend! I have posted my schedule. It's very packed and very pretty, and I am super excited about all the good things to come. Whee!

8. Before I left California, Kate and I did a massive post office run, and I mailed another huge batch of domestic shirts, as well as about a third of the remaining international shirts. I will try to send another batch before I leave for the UK (although I can't guarantee it). Also, my mother called to let me know that a box from the shirt shop has shown up, which I presume contains the shirts that weren't printed in the initial delivery. Hooray! I won't be able to sort these until after April 15th, but hopefully this means we can finish fulfillment sooner than later. Thank you all for your patience.

7. Still not writing the X-Men. Give me time.

6. Rolling in the Deep comes out next month! On the seventh, to be exact, and it is fancy. Seriously, this may be the fanciest book I have ever written, at least in terms of awesome production values. What a fancy, fancy book. Also it is filled with murderous mermaids and ill-fated ocean voyages, which are two of my favorite things. Because this is a Subterranean Press book, there's no guarantee it will be coming to a bookstore near you, and it may need to be ordered directly from the publisher.

5. This morning was the San Diego Comic-Con hotel scramble, and it says something about how stressful this is on an annual basis that I was on the Air B&B site shortly after, looking at local condos and thinking "maybe this wouldn't be so bad." I need help, and the con needs a better way of handling hotel assignments.

4. We are getting pedicures today. Because we are fancy ladies.

3. Speaking of fancy ladies, I am seeing so many of my favorite fancy ladies this coming weekend that I can't even express how happy I am. Like, I try, and all the words go away and then the flailing happens and sometimes I just really love my life, okay? Sometimes my life is best.

2. Zombies are love.

1. I will be going to Disney World for the first half of May, so if I seem a little AHHHHHHHHHHHH for the next few weeks, it's because I am literally three conventions and six weeks away from Disney time, and I need Disney time so bad y'all, I need it so bad I can taste it.

What's shiny and new with all of you?

I am pleased to confirm that my novella (as Mira Grant) "The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell," will be available for purchase on July 15th, 2014. So you can get ready for the Rising in style, with this all-new adventure in the world of Newsflesh.

Purchase details are here. Because Amazon is still not playing nicely with Hachette, there is no pre-order button on the Amazon website, which means the story is not at this time available for Kindle. I honestly don't know if that's going to change: I wish I did, I assume it is, but I cannot confirm. Also, I recommend against reading the summary, as it reveals some of the surprises the novella might otherwise contain for you.

I am so excited to finally tell this story. It's been lurking for a long time, and it's time the truth of what happened at Evergreen Elementary finally comes out. (This is a zombie story set in an elementary school. So, uh, yeah.)

When will you rise?

...a copy of Blackout, by Mira Grant (US edition).

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

The tenth giveaway is for a copy of Blackout. This is going to be a random number drawing. So...

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

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

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

Game on!

...a copy of Deadline, by Mira Grant (US edition).

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

The ninth giveaway is for a copy of Deadline. This is going to be a random number drawing. So...

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

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

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

Game on!

...a copy of When Will You Rise, by Mira Grant.

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

The eighth giveaway is for a copy of When Will You Rise. This is going to be a random number drawing. So...

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

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

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

Game on!

...the German editions of Deadline and Blackout, by Mira Grant.

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

The seventh giveaway is for the German mass-market paperbacks of Deadline and Blackout. This is going to be a random number drawing. So...

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

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

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

Game on!

10. For some reason, people have been sending me Livejournal messages a lot recently. You are totally welcome to do this, but please be aware that I may take months to answer, even years, as they are a lower priority than messages which come in through my website contact form. If you want to contact me for any reason, your best channel is my website, which has a lovely and easy-to-use contact form. These emails go to my PA, who answers some questions herself and forwards the rest on to me. Where they appear in my inbox, impossible to ignore. Where they get answered.

9. Seriously, just use the contact form. I don't really answer messages received through any other channel in any sort of a reasonable time (and I don't answer Facebook messages at all).

8. I am making cioppino tomorrow night! I am so excited about that! Except...

7. ...I'm making it for me and Olivia to eat while we watch "The Quarterback" and cry. I know Glee is a frequently terrible show, but I am genuinely saddened by Cory's death, and this is going to be emotionally devastating.

6. The tip jar is remaining open until tomorrow morning, largely because I forgot to post this reminder yesterday. Thanks to everyone who's chipped in so far, and to everyone who hasn't, too, because sometimes life says "not this time." Y'all are awesome.

5. So awesome, in fact, that I am compelled to make sure you've seen the incredible videos on SymboGen.net. Seriously, this is some of the best marketing ever, and it's for my book. I am overcome with squee.

4. The field of Alice's fucks lies fallow, and I support this.

3. Carrie: The Musical is really fantastic. If you're in the Bay Area, I recommend the Ray of Light production, now playing in San Francisco. If you're not, look around; there are a lot of productions going right now, due to the rights opening up.

2. Zombies are love.

1. HAPPY OCTOBER HALLOWEEN IS COMING.

Links blah blah oh sweet Great Pumpkin SAVE ME FROM THE LINKS. Anyway...

The Telegraph has posted a review of Deadline, and says, "Intelligent and exciting, Deadline raises the bar for the genre." Short, sweet, perfect.

SFFWorld has posted a review of Feed, and says, "Feed is a brilliant novel that embraces the tropes of the zombie story, expands the zombie mythos, speaks to modern fears, plausibly renders a political landscape, and forces the reader to turn the pages to see what happens next." Yay!

Romance Reviews Today has posted a review of One Salt Sea, and says, "If you love fantasy, and particularly urban fantasy, do not miss this series. The author possesses great depth in her vision." Awesome.

Mervi's Book Reviews has posted a review of Late Eclipses, and says, "Once again, McGuire blends action, humor, and pretty dark themes excellently. However, there's again an air of tragedy on the story." Toby is the fairy godmother of tragedy, it's true.

Old Firehouse Books has posted a review of Feed that is deeply personal and very well-balanced. I have no pull quotes from this one, but you should definitely check it out.

This is also where I want to take a moment to note that while I am still cleaning out the old reviews in my link file—I thought they were important enough to save, I'm not going to just delete them—I have gotten a lot less likely to add new reviews, because I am a lot less twitchy on a day-by-day level. This is why there are fewer reviews of newer books. This will change, I'm sure, as I launch new universes, since I'll still be deeply insecure about them.

Reviews!

10. I'm getting ready for the Parasite tour. In the local parlance, "getting ready" means "busting ass on book two, so I don't feel bad about essentially taking a week off while I jet around being fancy." I'm making a lot of progress, although the book is, as always at this stage in the composition, a hot buttered mess.

9. I am also getting ready to do a few more Parasite giveaways. I'm very conflicted. On the one hand, I like the ease of "comment and RNG" giveaways, but on the other hand, I really appreciate it when people put out a little bit more effort, since I have to do a lot of effort on my end, and then I feel like I get to have fun too. I'm still deliberating.

8. Since a few people have asked recently: the tip jar is currently closed, but will be opening on October 1st, since I figure that once every six months is a good way of doing things. I'll make a post clearly stating the situation and what your tips will do when we get to next Tuesday.

7. No, funding a second "season" of Velveteen vs. is not currently on the table. I may be doing something else about that. We shall see.

6. Ryan and Amy are visiting! Ryan and Amy are incredibly tolerant humans who understand that time and deadlines wait for no house guest, and thus allow me to retreat into my room and actually get stuff done while they amuse themselves. Best Amy and Ryan are best. Also...

5. I remain too sick to die, although I'm breathing a little better, so a lot of "company" thus far has consisted of "I want soup no not that soup different soup oh gods above and below why is air so hard?" and whining piteously. I hate the human body sometimes.

4. I am super excited about Frozen, but am amused by the fact that—thanks to the current trend of "gender neutral, non-evocative, mentioning no characters, single word" titles—it's hard to sort news about the movie from news about a remarkably wide assortment of books. Disney, perhaps it is time to reconsider your titles...

3. ...says the girl who wrote Feed.

2. Jean Grey is currently not dead and my mother refuses to come into the comic book store because she's afraid I'm going to develop telekinetic powers and burn the place to the ground.

1. Zombies are love.

I have been asked to create an open thread for discussion of "How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea." As it has been out for a week now (gasp! so soon!), this seems reasonable to me. So here you go: here is an open thread.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

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

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

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

It's July, and you know what that means: a new Newsflesh novella! This year's release is "How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea," in which Mahir Gowda travels to Australia and tries to come to terms with the fact that people are people everywhere in the world.

If you've been missing the world of Feed, and have $2.99 to spare, this is the adventure for you! (I know, I know, "if you have three bucks, this is awesome" isn't the best marketing slogan in the world, but it's what I can come up with before eight o'clock in the morning. Work with me.)

Mahir! Air travel! Zombie kangaroos! This novella has everything, and it should have you. Available now in the US and Canada, July 17th in the United Kingdom.

Newsflesh novella, yay!

10. I haven't been posting much recently, and I'm sorry. I could make a lot of excuses, but at the end of the day, it boils down to one thing: I'm tired. I had a lot of deadlines hit all at once, and I've been spending the time that would normally go to blogging trying to "recharge my batteries" by doing things like cleaning out my inbox and re-dressing my many, many dolls. And on the one hand, I feel sort of like I'm failing you guys through my radio silence. But on the other hand, I feel like you'd rather have me alert and peppy than gloomy and drooping, so it'll all come out in the wash. Right?

9. Vericon was lovely; Boston was not, so much, since New England observes this season called "winter," and they celebrate it by leaving huge heaps of snow everywhere. Ev. Ery. Where. There were literally heaps of snow all over the place, and since I am a California girl, my tolerance for snow is basically non-existent. People kept asking me where my coat was. It's adorable how they assume they own one, isn't it?

8. But an old friend of mine showed up at my book signing, and brought me a PAX East scarf and several hugs, and that was lovely. Really, Boston was awesome for people: I saw Shawn, and Dave, and Nora, and Tammy, and Katy, and it was all splendid, and I have no regrets. So many hugs. I love hugs.

7. Oh, and then I found Carrie at the airport, as we were on the same flight home from Boston. She was quite ill. I fed her Pepto Bismol chewables and made her feel better. This is why I carry such things.

6. The cats are done being furious with me over my absence, and are now trying to love me so enthusiastically that I will never leave them again. For Thomas, this means a lot of flinging himself at me and trusting that I'll catch him. I have some really interesting scratches from where one of us misjudged the distance he was going to need to travel. Kitty love is pointy love.

5. My podiatrist has given me a prescription for...running shoes. Because that is the next rehabilitational step, after the walking boot that I've been in for the past month. Basically, they have the support and cushioning that I need, and they'll allow me to continue healing while also walking more normally. I have never been so excited about the prospect of putting my jeans back on, you have no idea.

4. I have so many deadlines in 2013, and some of them have been moved by other people, and it makes me pull my hair and whimper. But! I am triumphant thus far, and thanks to my compulsive list-making and passion for organizing my life, I am confident that I will be able to stay on top of them. As long as I don't get sick or distracted or forget to come home from Disney World in May (which is a genuine risk, let me tell you; Disney World is like a black hole for Seanans).

3. Jean Grey is no longer dead and I am not happy about that fact.

2. Zombies are, however, still love.

1. You all make me very happy, and I am glad that you're still here. I promise to try to be better about staying on top of things. I can't promise to succeed, but everything begins with trying.

I have received my author's copies of When Will You Rise, and they are gorgeous. So it's time for one more giveaway. (Not saying this is definitely the last, just that it might be.) To enter...

1. Leave a comment on this entry.
2. Identify your country.
3. If you are international, state that you are willing to pay postage.

...and that's it! I'll select a winner Friday morning at 9am PST.

PLEASE NOTE: Because these are author's copies, they are signed, but are not numbered. So you will not be receiving one of the 1,000 "real" copies of the book.

Game on!

I have just received confirmation that both When Will You Rise and Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots are now shipping! These books represent my first solo hardcovers, one under each of my names, and like so many good things, they are here for a limit time.

When Will You Rise: Stories to End the World is published by Subterranean Press, and is limited to 1,000 signed and numbered copies. This gorgeously illustrated collection contains "Countdown" and "Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box." If you place an order within the next few days, it should reach you in time for the holidays. Oh, and did I mention that we got a starred review from Publishers Weekly? Because yeah. We totally did.

Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots is published by ISFIC Press, and is also limited to 1,000 copies. You can obtain signed copies directly from the publisher, or by contacting Borderlands Books. If you place an order within the next few days, it should reach you in time for the holidays. This volume contains the Velveteen stories through "Velveteen vs. The Blind Date," along with all-new supplemental material, an introduction by Jim Hines, and a valediction by Carrie Vaughn. I'm really happy with it.

So those are my new hardcovers, and they're beautiful, and I'm totally excited about them. Glee!

So Friday night, I will be appearing at The Booksmith in damp, drizzly San Francisco, California, as part of their Read Until the World Ends Halloween Bookswap. I've never done one of these before, so I turn to their website for details:

"$25 gets you dinner and an open bar, a bookstore all to yourself and forty of your new best friends, discounts and swag, a chance to rub elbows with amazing authors, and tons of surprises. Amy Stephenson hosts."

$25 to share a room with me and an open bar. Oh, the drinks that we'll drink! Oh, the thinks that we'll think! Oh, the giggling as I slowly list gently onto my side and go to sleep! I...okay, that last part wouldn't be very professional of me. So I won't do that. But if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area and looking for a fun way to spend a Friday night, come and spend it it with me in my guise as Mira Grant, and with all the boozimohol the bookstore can provide.

Whee!

The battle to reclaim my link file rages on! Today, some Feed reviews.

Lady Business has some thoughts on the treatment of female characters in Feed. They assume you have some idea of what happens in the book, but they're really interesting, and they reflect some of the issues that I, personally, had with the narrative when it was done. I don't regret any of the characters I chose to include. I sometimes wish I'd handled the non-central females a little better. This is a great exploration/review.

The Monitor has posted a review of Feed, and says, "Feed was a mesmerizing read." Works for me.

Working for the MANdroid has posted a review of Feed, and says, "Feed is an awesome and unusual zombie book, and it actually has a great conclusion that feels like the story is completely wrapped up." Awesome.

.Xpresso Reads has posted a review of Feed, and says, "The very first thing I noticed going into this book was the exquisiteness of the writing. The narration being notably mature and quick-witted makes it an exceptionally smart novel that is just a breath of fresh air." I like it when people think I'm smart!

Inspired Quill has posted a review of Feed, and says, "Even if you aren't a fan of zombies, this is one zombie book that you shouldn't run from." I won't lie: I kinda want this on a T-shirt.

Charles Tan has posted a review of Feed, and says, " I once read a blog entry stating that Neil Gaiman's Sandman was porn for lit majors while Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan was porn for journalists. If that's the case, then Feed is porn for bloggers."

...you know what?

That works for me.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there's some news about When Will You Rise?. Most specifically, Publishers Weekly has given When Will You Rise? a starred review!

Here's a link to the actual review.

Here's a quote from the actual review:

"Grant excels in humanizing her characters and surrounding them with believable science and circumstances. The surefooted storytelling is mesmerizing as all-too-plausible dilemmas snowball into desperation and catastrophe."

I AM THE DESTROYER OF ALL HAPPINESS AND JOY! TREMBLE BEFORE ME! I mean...ahem. Isn't that a nice review? Isn't it nice to get a starred review for a nice book like that one? If you haven't ordered your copy yet, you totally should.

I am happy.

To celebrate the release of "San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats," here. Have an open thread to discuss the novella. It's been out for a week, I figure you've had time.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned. (I will not reply to every comment; I call partial comment amnesty. But I may well join some of the discussion, or answer questions or whatnot.)

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

Have fun, and you can't stop the signal.

Happy, happy day! Because guess what's coming to the United Kingdom? Well, according to Amazon.uk, that would be the Orbit Short Fiction Program. And feast your eyes on this lovely little snippet of internet-y goodness:

An order link for the UK edition of "Countdown."

This is just the Amazon.uk link, not any other platform, but still, this is a huge step forward, and means that soon, it will be a heck of a lot easier for non-US readers to get their hands on my Newsflesh novellas. According to Amazon.uk, the release date is July 2nd.

Hooray!

Hello, boys and ghouls. It's your friendly internet horror hostess with the most...machetes...coming at you with another update in the zombie roller coaster ride that is my work as Mira Grant. Specifically, I want to let you all know that "San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats," is now available for pre-order.

Click here for all the exciting details!

This stand-alone novella follows the events of the last San Diego International Comic Convention after the Rising, and is framed, narratively, by Mahir Gowda's interview of the only known survivor of the event, Lorelei J. Tutt (USCG, Retired). We already know how it ends; we already know how it began. What matters is what happened in the middle.

"San Diego 2014" is being released via the Orbit Short Fiction program, and will be available in just about all ebook formats on July 11th, 2012. The retail cost is $2.99. While Orbit is working on getting the program up and running in other regions, it is currently US-only. I'm sorry about that, and you should contact Orbit if you have any questions.

Zombies!

It's time a "please help me, I can no longer find anything in my rolling note file" review roundup. Always fun!

As an aside, before I get to the notes, I have learned something about myself with Blackout. Normally, negative reviews are interesting and even a little educational for me. They help me learn what I can still improve in a series, even though I cringe a little whenever says something in Book #2 is an "obvious reaction" to criticism about Book #1. (By the time I see reviews of Book #1, I'm working on Book #3, if not Book #4.) But with Blackout, my experience has been very different, because the series is over. I already know what I need to work on as a matter of improving as an author, and I don't want to hear people criticize this story. It's done; my imaginary friends are gone; they're not coming back. It's made collecting reviews a much more careful process this time, as I get way more upset about even mild negativity.

(Please note that I am not saying "No one gets to negatively review the final book in a series/trilogy." I'm saying "I do not benefit from reading these reviews, and they make me sad, so I'm trying not to do it." Honestly, you can, and should, review anything you want, any way you want.)

And now...reviews:

Bea's Book Nook has posted a review of Blackout, and says, "Blackout is a roller coaster ride, with emotion, action, character growth, more action, quirky characters, and not a lot of zombies. I actually would have liked more of them (and I'm not a zombie fan), but when they do appear, watch out!" Hee. She also says that I "take chances," and that makes me happy.

A Reader of Fictions has posted a review of Blackout, and says, "Blackout has the humor and intelligence of the prior books (plus a ZOMBIE GRIZZLY), making a pretty satisfying conclusion to the series. I say 'pretty' satisfying because I really want more. Like right now BUT IT'S OVER. Well, except for some novellas." Any review that gives a shout-out to the zombie bear is awesome by me.

Oh, yay! The Guilded Earlobe has reviewed the audiobook edition of Blackout, and says, "Blackout is full of adventure, betrayal, true love, sacrifice, conspiracies revealed, surprise enemies and allies, fascinating science and of course, zombies. It has everything you want in a series finale, leaving you both utterly fulfilled, and desperately wanting more. Blackout is hands down my favorite Audiobook of 2012, and if it doesn’t top my list at year end, then some miracle of audiobook greatness must have taken place to knock it off its perch." Yeah...that works for me.

Gina Rinelli has posted a review of Blackout, and says, "Do yourself a favor and read these books. I can't say that enough. A couple times during Blackout I stopped and thought I can't believe a person wrote this. It's a level of storytelling that hasn't been matched for me since J. K. Rowling, the way everything fits together to just blow your mind. I may be fangirling at this point. I don't care. You need to read these books." I'm blushing.

Rob Bedford has posted a review of Blackout, and says, "Blackout is both fine novel and a fine conclusion to the Newflesh Trilogy. I enjoyed the random zombie novel here and there, but when I read Feed I was totally blown away, which set the bar high for Deadline. That bar was met and with Blackout and the whole Newsflesh Trilogy, Mira Grant has completed what should be considered the quintessential zombie narrative for the early 21st Century."

On that note, have a great day, and don't get eaten by dead things.

Here's a reminder for all you Mira Grant fans out there:

I, and by extension, she, will be appearing at Borderlands Books this coming Saturday, June 2nd, at 6:00 PM. Why? To celebrate the release of Blackout, naturally! There will be Q&A, cupcakes, and a reading from "San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats."

As an extra added bonus, if you come early, Mary Robinette Kowal, also known as "the voice of October Daye," will be at the story at 3:00 PM, reading from and promoting her awesome new book, Glamour in Glass.

Borderlands events are free of charge, and the store is more than happy to take orders for signed and inscribed copies, if you can't attend.

I hope to see you there!

To celebrate the release of Blackout, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned. (I will not reply to every comment; I call partial comment amnesty. But I may well join some of the discussion, or answer questions or whatnot.)

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

Have fun!

Blackout is on store shelves today. After more than six years of work, and after three years of publication dates, the trilogy is over.

I may have seemed a little quiet lately. That's honestly because I'm sort of in shock. I just can't believe it's over. I've been living with these people for so long that knowing that their book is closed is just...it's stunning. It's difficult to wrap my head around.

It's finished.

When I finished Feed, it was the best thing I had ever written, and I truly believe that writing it is what enabled me to grow enough as an author to become publication-ready (the final revision of Rosemary and Rue happened after the first draft of Feed). Each subsequent book has stolen that title from its predecessor. I am proud of these books. I am amazed by them. And no, I am not ashamed to say that. It's my book-day. I get to be proud.

This trilogy has earned me two Hugo nominations (three, if you count "Countdown"), a place on the Publishers Weekly Best Books list, and so much more. It has brought me into contact with amazing people from around the world. It has allowed me to indulge my passion for viruses and pandemic preparedness without freaking people out (too much). It has changed my life forever, and I am so grateful, and I am so pleased that you have all been here with me.

I'll open the discussion thread for Blackout tomorrow or Thursday, after more people have had time to finish the book; please, no spoilers here. But...thank you.

Thank you all so much, forever.

Rise up while you can.

I've spoken before about my love of fanfic, and how it allows you to do things you can't necessarily do "in canon." One of those things, one of my favorite things, is the alternate universe. What would have happened if Toby had never become a fish? If Thomas had convinced Alice to go back to the Covenant with him, instead of leaving it for her?

If someone else had been the first to die?

I have written an alternate ending to Feed, picking up at what was originally chapter twenty-five. It's called Fed, and I'm very pleased with it, in part because it shows that no, the original ending wasn't the worst possible outcome. This was.

Fed is kindly being hosted by Orbit, thus preventing me from becoming a blibbering mess in the week leading up to the release of Blackout, and for right now, you can download and read by liking the Facebook page they've set up specifically for this purpose. (It's getting a one-week Facebook exclusive for marketing purposes, and I surely would appreciate it if you went and hit the "like" button.) This is full of spoilers, so I recommend against reading it if you haven't read Feed.

Rise up while you can.

...cmsieg! If I do not receive an email from you by 9:30 PST tonight, I will choose a new winner for the early copy of Blackout!

Please email me. :(

Which of these things is not like the other:

* Surviving IN SPACE.
* Surviving IN THE DESERT.
* Surviving BEING BITTEN BY VENOMOUS REPTILES.
* Surviving YOUR SUDDEN AND INEVITABLE POP STAR LIFE.

I...what?

A little context for you, because context is to my crankiness as the Great Pumpkin is to the Sacred Patch: yesterday was Wednesday, better known around these parts as "Seanan goes to the comic book store" day. We went to the comic book store. I picked up my books (new issues of The Boys and Hack/Slash, new trades of Chew and American Vampire), and prowled the shelves, looking to see what else had arrived.

In the "family friendly" section, I found two books I hadn't seen before: Boys Only How To Survive Anything, and its natural mate, Girls Only How To Survive Anything. They were, naturally, somewhat pink and blue, but I don't have a moral objection to pink, and if they were going to be all gendered about things, I supposed having "gender appropriate" colors made sense. I picked up Boys Only and flipped through it.

Surviving disasters, natural and man-made. Surviving conflicts and accidents and on the space shuttle and monsters. Surviving, you know, shit that can kill you. Works for me. I put down Boys Only and picked up Girls Only. Where I learned to survive...

Breakouts. Becoming a pop star (and the inevitable carpal tunnel from signing all those autographs). Saying I'm sorry (with homemade lip balm). Identifying a frenemy. Surviving, you know, shit that generally doesn't leave you dead.

Can you guess when I started seeing red?

Now look. I get that we're a culture that thinks boys and girls should always like different things, and that we start reinforcing that from a very early age. I get that to some degree, on average, boys and girls do like different things. It's by no means universal, but things like the Brony movement aside, you do have gendered majorities for many activities and interests. Fine. But you know where that breaks down? When we tell girls, through implication, that they shouldn't know how to survive in the desert. Knowing how to handle, gasp, pimples is so much more important.

Not every girl needs to know how to deal with venomous reptiles, just like not every boy needs to know how to base jump. Because of differing interests and activities, I could have believed as much as 40% deviation between the books. Teach the boys how to tie a tie, and the girls how to fix runs in the nylons, fine. It's cisgendered and assumes so much, but it makes societal sense, if you're dividing the books by gender (and I'm almost in favor of that, just so that they don't give all the action illustrations to boys, and all the pretty or panicked illustrations to girls). Understand that gendering is problematic and try to be reasonable.

But we are talking 95% deviation. The only activity they had in common? Escaping from a zombie. Because...fuck, I don't know. Because zombies are the only truly gender-neutral threat in the world, apparently. Deserts only fuck you up if you have a penis. Frenemies (how I hate that word) only endanger your reputation if you have tits. But zombies? Man, they will fuck you up, no matter what you've got.

I hate this increasing insistence that boys and girls are alien species, coming together only to do icky romance dances of ickiness, and make more boys and girls to never understand each other at all. Girls can like snakes. Boys can like looking nice for dates. And that doesn't mean a damn thing but "we are all individuals, we will all like and want and do different stuff."

At least we're all allowed to know how to fight zombies.

Don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer, 'cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hand, and the two winners of an early copy of Blackout are...

cmsieg
amberswansong

The rules!

You must send an email with your mailing information via my website contact form (mine, not Mira's) within the next twenty-four hours. If you do not, I will be forced to choose another winner. This contest was open only to the US, UK, and Canada. If you do not live in one of those places, please let me know, so I can select another winner.

Your books will be sent by Orbit, not by me. So I just need addresses, and then it's out of my hands.

Congratulations to our winners, and more giveaways to come!

Submitted for by my publisher for your approval...

***

Yesterday, io9 published an excerpt of Blackout, the final book in the Newsflesh trilogy. Today, an intrepid Newsie hacked into the CDC computer system and liberated another file. For this one, though, you'll have to do a little digging...

Below is a puzzle whose answer reveals one of the five codes you'll need to access the second, top-secret document.

( Click here for the party.Collapse )

The official notice of sale, ladies and gentlemen:

"Seanan McGuire writing as Mira Grant's Parasitology and Symbiogenesis, a duology of science fiction medical thrillers in the tradition of Frankenstein and Jurassic Park, in which parasites intended to bolster human immune systems rebel against their hosts, along with three novellas set in the universe of the Newsflesh series, to Tim Holman at Orbit, with Tom Bouman editing, by Diana Fox at Fox Literary (World English)."

I think of them as a bit more in the tradition of "The Only Really Neat Thing to Do" and Carnisaur, but that's why I don't write the announcements. The novellas included in this deal are...

"Countdown"
"San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats"
"How Green This Land, How Blue This Sky"

I also sort of want to do "The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell," which is the origin story of a character you haven't met yet, but that's not a part of this deal, which is to say, I have sold two more books as Mira, and three novellas (one of which has already been published), and I am very happy, and you should be, too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am very pleased to be able to properly and formally announce that my very first ever book with the awesome Subterranean Press will be coming out this fall. Presenting...

When Will You Rise

This gorgeous hardcover will be 144 pages long, and contains "Countdown," my novella of how the Rising began, as well as the first print edition of "Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box." It will be illustrated, inside and out, by Lauren K. Cannon. Limited to 1,000 copies, all signed, which is also pretty much hammered awesome.

I am so excited about this book. So excited. I hope it does really well and everyone loves it and Subterranean lets me do lots more beautiful books with them, because wow.

When will you rise?

I guess we'll finally know.

Now is the time on Sprockets where we continue trying to murder the link file, in part because the remains of this cold have left me cotton-headed and glassy-eyed. Now is not the time for deep thoughts. Now is the time for links and listlessness. And so...

Look! It's the Salon Futura interview I recorded immediately after winning the Campbell! Just in case you were starting to think I was exaggerating about the size of this file. Sniff. I miss my tiara...

And here's another interview, this time with Fantasy Faction. There were some interesting capitalization and punctuation choices made in the transcription of this interview. Read it, and marvel!

The Guilded Earlobe did seven questions with Mira Grant. Thrill as I defend zombies as being for everybody, not just for the boys, and explain why I should have a tank. You think I should have a tank, don't you?

The wonderful Kenda at Lurv ala Mode had me stop by to explain a bit about surviving Faerie; I may eventually use this format again, because it was disturbingly fun. Seriously. Best guest post ever.

Oh, right, I promised you some reviews. Here's Fantasy Faction's review of Feed, which says, "To be blunt, I find Feed to be one of the best novels about zombies that I have ever read." Moving on! To...

The Fantasy Faction review of Deadline, which says, "I don't think that Grant should have done anything differently with Deadline. This book was amazing, and an excellent continuation of the Newsflesh trilogy. I know that I will be reading this book, and Feed, again before Blackout releases next year. Probably a few times, if I'm to be honest. I'm looking forward to the conclusion of the story, but at the same time I'm so sad for it to come to an end."

I am, too.

And that ends this roundup.

My link file isn't "out of control," it's totally in control...of everything. Including, possibly, the laws of physics. Here is a ten-link roundup focusing on Mira and Mira's books, to try and get the file back down to size. Not that it's going to work.

( We cut because we care.Collapse )

10. Well, that's that: I am officially out of "skip days" until after March. My friend Debbie rather unexpectedly pinged me Tuesday to say that she would be in San Francisco starting Wednesday and would I have dinner with her? So we had dinner (and I dragged her along on the usual round of Wednesday errands, because there's "taking a skip day" and then there's "committing professional suicide"), and now I have to make word count every day from now to March 15th. Yes, that includes the days when I'm at conventions. I have no regrets.

9. ...okay, I have one regret: I am so far behind on everything I watch that it's not even funny. The only shows I've managed to keep up with are Fringe and Glee, and that's because I prioritize them in bitey, bitey fashion. Because I have to preserve my questionable sanity somehow.

8. I'm pondering a post on the financial realities of the Hugo Awards and the electronic voting packet, but for the moment, if you are eligible to nominate for the 2012 Hugos, and you haven't, why not nominate now? WorldCon isn't getting any further away.

7. Tax time is approaching. This means I need to clean my entire house, so that I can get my receipts into something vaguely approximating order. Oh, goodie. It also means it's time to make my annual pledge to set up a better filing system than "the bottom of my purse is full of receipts and Luna Bar wrappers, look in there." Although my faintly peanut butter-scented receipts are always nice.

6. Ryan is coming to visit! Which is wonderful, and will lead to much hugging and adoration (and also to the dry cleaning of the guest room duvet). Also much doll photography, since Ryan has promised to take some pictures of my unnervingly glossy-eyed collection for the edification of all those who think it can't possibly be that bad trying to sleep in my room.

5. I fly to Seattle tomorrow for Conflikt, where I am doing absolutely nothing official. It's going to be great. I get to spend the weekend hugging my friends, working on the books I have coming due, and going to Barnes and Noble to sign books. Plus the hotel is walking distance from the airport, so no one has to get up at four a.m. to drive me. That'll be nice for everybody. Well, except me. I still have to get up at four a.m.

4. I want to go back to Disney World. I find myself grumbling slightly at my taxes because I know that self-employment income (i.e., "writing") means that I'll be paying more than the cost of a really nice Disney World vacation. I actually like paying taxes, except for the "finding my receipts" part, but sometimes the sheer amount of tax that I have to pay makes me weep for Babylon.

3. Mailing is ongoing! At this point, there are only a few shirts I can't find, and I'm hoping they're buried under the more popular styles/colors. I got a list of inquiries on status from Deborah this morning, and I'll be answering her tonight, but really, patience is king. I'm doing this alone. Any future batches of shirts will be super-limited, because even aside from the part where some people are annoyed (and I'm sorry about that), I just can't process 300+ shirts in 30+ size/color/style combinations in anything resembling a timely manner. Like, it is physically impossible to do that and go to my day job and not miss my deadlines. And sadly, "pays the mortgage" and "makes my publishers happy" beat everything else.

2. I have been playing a little tappy game called "Pocket Frogs" during my admittedly limited free time. I don't think the game's designers intended it to be played quite like this, since I have a very "gotta catch 'em all" approach, but it makes me happy. As does slowly watching the breed counters go to 100% as I breed all 368 possible individuals.

1. Zombies are love.

Apparently, "December" is synonymous with "that month where Seanan is too busy and/or distracted to remember to update her journal, even when she thinks she really ought to." Super-fun! Also, I'm sorry. Also, I need a nap. So here are some bullet points to soothe your abandoned souls, while I try to find my head:

1. Human For a Day is available now at a bookstore near you! This awesome anthology contains "Cinderella City," my second Mina Norton story (the first, "Alchemy and Alcohol", appears in Tales from the Ur-Bar). I've read through the whole book, and it's excellent, easily passing my "should I keep this" test for anthologies even without taking into account the whole "I have a story in there" aspect. You should totally pick it up.

2. Speaking of picking things up, my beloved Borderlands Books has published their holiday gift guide, which is insightful and lovely, and lists my Mira Grant books as great presents, thus providing that it's also brilliant and worth listening to. If you're wondering what to buy for the reader in your life, or for yourself, check it out.

3. Also, I was three of the top ten paperbacks for November. Feed came in at number three, One Salt Sea at number eight, and Deadline at number nine. I am well pleased.

4. As of right this second (this will change), I have all the Monster High dolls (except for 2010 SDCC Frankie, and I'm not paying that much for a doll I wouldn't be willing to take out of the box). I'm missing one fashion pack, and that's it. Since there are six more characters confirmed on the horizon, and the eternal looming rumor of a basic Jackson Jekyll, I intend to enjoy this rare moment of completeness while it exists.

5. Geek Fest in Seattle was absolutely wonderful. I met awesome musicians, made music with some of my favorite people, and discovered how much cranberry sauce constitutes "too much" (hint: I multiplied the recipe by a factor of six). Also I got to see some of my favorite people meet and hang out with others of my favorite people, and a good time was had by all.

6. Still loving Criminal Minds, woefully behind on everything else except for Glee, New Girl, and Bones, probably going to get lynched by my housemate if I don't clear some things off the DVR soon.

7. You know what? Seriously, go pick up Human For a Day. It's my good friend Jennifer's first editorial job with a big six publisher, and I really want her to be able to do more of these, because she really does a fantastic job. She brings a degree of integrity and focus to the table that really shows in the finished product, and I want to see her wind up becoming a name on a level with John Joseph Adams or Ellen Datlow, where anthology construction is concerned.

8. The new Glee soundtrack has been released, with the end result that I now have "Red Solo Cup" so firmly wedged in my head that I would need a crowbar to get it out. I don't dislike the song, but I didn't sign up to have it permanently melded with my skull. Bah.

9. Oh, hey, skulls! Have any of you read Dawn Metcalf's debut YA novel, Luminous? Because it's about skeletons. And stuff. And I need to do a proper review, because it was awesome. And while we're all talking about diversity in YA, this book has: a Hispanic heroine (who is sometimes a skeleton), an Orthodox Jewish character not presented as being misguided or odd, at least one character who isn't skinny and doesn't want to be, real consequences, real concerns, and characters of multiple non-Caucasian races, apart from the protagonist. This is an awesome book.

10. Zombies are love. Anyone who tells you different is selling something. Probably anti-zombie security measures.

1. It's Saturday! Which means no day job for me, and twice the word count! DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT. I got up at 8AM (for me, that's sleeping in), watched Criminal Minds while I ate breakfast, wrote and edited for a few hours, watched Criminal Minds while I ate lunch, took a shower, did 5 Things A Room, and now I'm getting ready to head for Borderlands. By arriving several hours before the event, I'll have time to, you guessed it, work.

2. "5 Things A Room" is where I go through the four rooms that contain the majority of my stuff and de-clutter five things, by either putting them away, throwing them away, or shifting them to another room. (Sometimes shifted things can't be put away immediately, due to other things being in the way. This is the issue with having a very, very cluttered house.)

3. Mom and I will be packing the next huge wave of shirts to mail tomorrow; the goal is to get them all packaged for mailing. Before you get too excited: our most recent pack wave revealed that there was at least one size/color/style combination which I didn't receive when I was supposed to, and was unaware was missing. The shirt shop is printing them now, but it means that not all shirts will be mailing, and that I may still be missing some combination I haven't tripped over yet. I'll keep you posted.

4. Remember that "six Velveteen stories in 2011" thing that I promised, and then had people tell me I couldn't do? Well, five of the six are now finished, and the last one will be in the bag before New Year's. So yes, I can so do six crazy superhero romps in a year. They just didn't balance out the way I thought they would.

5. If you're planning to go Black Friday shopping, can you drop me a line and let me know? I'm not going to be shopping that day, but there are supposed to be some new Monster High dolls releasing for the holiday, and I'd really appreciate if you could look for them for me.

6. Zombies are love.

7. There's a lot of shifting and shaking going on at Marvel Comics. The fabulous X-23 has been canceled, which just plain breaks my heart, and I'm not sure what I think of some of the narrative choices being made. I'll stick it out—I'm me—but I'm a little sad all the same.

8. Wilde Imagination is supposed to be announcing a new resin Evangeline Ghastly at IDEX in January. I know, this is relevant to like, three of you, but it's relevant to me. I really want a resin Evangeline, and the last several have been totally unappealing to me. Here's hoping the new one will be as awesome as Cemetery Wedding, which I have thus far been unable to obtain.

9. I'm getting ready to head into the city for the Narbonic Perfect Collection launch party. If you're local, I really do hope to see you there, and if you're not, remember, the bookstore ships.

10. The cats are possessed by demons today, and are following me through the house trilling and fluffing their tails (except for Lilly, who just squawks like she has a duck stuck in her throat). So if I'm never heard from again, it's because they ate me.

My planned Newsflesh novella for 2012 is a little piece entitled "San Diego 2014: The Last Stand and Final Fall of the California Browncoats." It's the story of what really happened when the Rising came to the San Diego International Comic Convention. Blood will spill, heads will roll, and a wonderful time will be had by all. The story will be set largely in 2014, with some modern-day narration and stitch-together from Mahir Gowda and Lorelei Tutt.

Where do you come in? Well...

The California Browncoats are auctioning off two Tuckerizations in this story, to benefit Equality Now. You can find details, and a link to the auction, in their original post. The first Tuckerization auction is live now; the second will be going live on November 20th.

What do you get if you win? Well:

1. I will write you into the story.
2. You will die horribly.
3. It will be awesome.

Also, if there is ever a printed edition of "San Diego 2014," I will supply two copies to the California Browncoats, signed, to be delivered to the winners of these auctions. This is one of the biggest tragedies in the history of the Newsflesh universe, and you have a chance to be a part of it. Literally. I mean, you can die.

Questions? Ask 'em here! And consider wanting a little zombie mayhem for your holiday season.

Welcome to the November 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving, and time is the gift that keeps on taking. To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

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

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

I am absolutely delighted to announce that I will be the Guest of Honor at Windycon 39, to be held November 8-11 2012 in Lombard, Illinois (right near Chicago). The theme of the convention is ZOMBIES, which makes me basically the perfect guest in every possible way (no false modesty here). Even better, my beloved Amy McNally is their music guest, which means that Windycon 39 will be a veritable PERFECT STORM of SHEER AWESOME.

I am very excited, and I hope to see you there!

Also: a few people who knew about this early (not from me) spilled the beans, and I started getting cranky emails from people who wanted to know why I wasn't announcing the convention here or updating my website to reflect that I was going to be attending. The answer? I wasn't allowed. Please remember that regardless of what you know, I can't acknowledge things I don't have permission to talk about yet, and that includes convention guest invites that haven't been announced or confirmed by the con in question.

I can't wait to see you all in Illinois...and that's why I haven't been saying anything up until now. It's been a secret.

Why cut-tagged? Because I am trying, vainly, to slaughter a little bit more of the standing file, and I think it's unfriendly to make you look at more than five links at a go. (I know that for some of you, these roundups are a necessary evil, and I thank you for your patience. For me, they're housekeeping and a way of putting things where I can find them again if I need them later.)

Reviews!

( We cut because we care, and because boy howdy, do I have a lot of links.Collapse )

Things are insane around here (which is ironic, given that I'm finally between conventions), so here are the updates and events du jour, presented in convenient bite-sized fashion.

Science Crawl.
Tomorrow night (Friday, November 4th) the Bay Area Science Crawl will be at Borderlands Books from 7:15 until 8:15 PM. Quote: "The Bay Area Science Festival is proud to present the first ever Sci-Crawl, a coordinated takeover of venues throughout San Francisco’s Mission District, showcasing the science inherent in the neighborhood." I'll be appearing as Mira on a panel discussing the Science of Science Fiction, along with Jeff Carlson and Scott Sigler, and moderated by Brian Malow. The event is free, and should be super-fun. Come and join the geek!

Dental horrors.
Yesterday, I had dental surgery. Yes, again. This time, I managed to somehow break a titanium post inside my mouth. SUPER FUN. Without going into details, largely because they would freak me out, I shall simply say that I am rarely given that many pharmaceuticals during a twenty-four hour period, and I can still taste colors. No fun at all. I basically lost a day and a half to a great gray pit.

T-shirt mailing.
According to my spreadsheet, there are still over a hundred shirts that have not been introduced to envelopes. Over a hundred means that one in three, roughly, has not been mailed. Unless you have reason to think that gnomes have stolen the contents of your mailbox, please don't email yet asking where, specifically, your shirt is located. I'm packing and mailing them just as fast as I possibly can, and this being such a manual process means that it's very hard to track specific list items. Also, because there is such a variance of colors and styles, sometimes the only way to find a shirt is to remove all the shirts around it, which makes it impossible to go "oh, you mean this one? Yeah, it's right here." So I plead for patience. All you do by poking without good cause is make me, and Deborah, sad and grumpy.

Cats.
We're coming up on the one-year anniversary of Alice getting so very, very sick, and she has realized that this means she can basically get away with anything, just by doing while Not Being Sick. This morning, she hit my abdomen like a fuzzy bowling ball, shoved her wet feet up my nose, and trilled happily, only to receive hugs and love, because She Wasn't Sick. Am I setting a bad precedent? Yeah, probably. Do I care? Not one damn bit. Alice isn't sick, and that's really what I need out of life.

Television.
All the shows are coming back on the air. ALL THE SHOWS. Bones starts up again tonight, and I'm gamely plugging through season two of Criminal Minds, which means I may be catching up to watching it live before too much longer. It may seem counter-productive to watch this much TV while also trying to get writing done, but it actually speeds me up, by giving me something to finish for. Speaking of which...

Writing.
Ashes of Honor is done, and I'm getting ready to go into draft two. Midnight Blue-Light Special is finally moving at what I'd call a reasonable pace, and I'm about a quarter of the way through the projected text. And there are various other projects kicking around, including the second installment of the latest Vel story, which will take us to four for the year I can so make my goal. Hah.

Zombies.
Are love.