Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

It's time for another ARC giveaway! Because you were starting to think I didn't love you anymore. Now, you may remember that I hinted at this giveaway being a little more "graphic" in nature. I give you...

The LOLtest. Yes, if you hate LOLcats, you probably want to shoot me right about now, but that's okay, because I love the freaky little guys, and I'm not asking people to invade your blog with countless graphics of the things. So what do you have to do to enter? Simple. You have to make a LOL___ and post it here. What do I mean by LOL___?

LOLcats. LOLold fairy tale illustrations. LOLmy cover art. LOLhome photography—if you want to take a tip from A Softer World and take your own pictures, be my guest. (Toby is brunette, fairly pale, and tends to wear sensible clothing. You want to slap a leather jacket on your girlfriend/best friend/self and take pictures solely for captioning purposes, I'm down with that.) For examples of the inimitable LOLcat in its natural habitat, see I Can Has Cheezburger, along with countless other sites in the same vein...and then knock yourself out.

Post your contest submissions on this entry. Because this is a project that could require a bit more effort, I'm going to be taking entries until Friday, June 12th, and then opening the floor for voting. I'll definitely be giving away one ARC through this contest; depending on the number and variety of entries received, I may well increase that to two, as well as putting together a few runner-up prizes (who wants a CD?). This contest is open to everyone, including my mother, my agent, God, and people who have already won ARCs. Bring out your LOLcats, and rock the world.

Game on!

EDIT: To be clear, all LOL___ must be Toby-related to be considered actual entries. Although all LOL___ are cute and make me smile.

Today is June 1st. According to my big list of holidays, it's Dare Day. Fitting, I suppose. It's also three months, exactly, to the release of Rosemary and Rue, which means it's probably two months to the actual physical production of Rosemary and Rue, and time to start the giant "When will Seanan have her first nervous collapse of the year?" betting pool. (Much as I'm complaining about convention season, it's actually a very, very good thing. Convention season keeps me focused. True, what I'm focused on is primarily "get in and out of the next convention alive and without being brought up on murder charges," but any focus is better than no focus. I flail a lot when I have no focus. I flail a lot regardless of focus; it's just that focused flailing is less destructive and more amusing for the people around me.)

I keep looking at the numbers on my "countdown to book release" and thinking "that can't be right..."

In case you were curious, the date on the short story that marks the first-ever appearance, in any form, of October Daye, is...Friday, June 27th, 1997. So if I seem a little flipped-out about Rosemary and Rue coming out, just remember that from where I'm sitting, it's been a long, long journey. A long, long journey that is, in a very real way, just getting started.

Three months. Good ye gods.

I need some candy corn.