• Mood: happy
• Music: Hanson, 'Where's the Love?'

Tim Pratt: Because Everybody Likes Books.

So when I was in high school -- yes, it's time to date myself -- I used to hang out in various online chatrooms, like so many other high schoolers of my generation. And I wound up spending a lot of time chatting with Some Guy On The Internet. No, not in that way. We talked about poetry, and the books we were going to write someday, and shoes, and ships, and ceiling wax, and yes, cabbages and kings. We had entire email conversations in poetry, some of which was actually decent (and considering the condition of the majority of my high school poetry, this is an impressive statement).

Eventually, we lost touch. Then one day, I got an email from someone asking whether they could publish one of my poems -- not one of the bad ones -- in an online magazine. Yup. It was Some Guy. And that was, in fact, my first professional sale under my own name. I did not frame the check. I considered it. Hard.

A few years after that, I stumbled over a book called The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, written by Some Guy...also known as Tim Pratt (tim_pratt). I was enchanted by the fact that he'd actually managed to get a book published, so I bought it. And read it. And discovered that it was REALLY GOOD. Like, squeal, dance, recommend to your friends, write songs about the book good. Which makes sense, given that he's, y'know, one of the youngest Hugo winners ever.

Why am I telling you all this? Two reasons.

First off, Tim is appearing at Borderlands Books, home of the freaky alien demon suede kittyfaces, tomorrow at three. It's going to be a lot of fun, and if you're local, you should absolutely come out. Support your home town authors and your totally kick-ass local bookstore at the same time.

Secondly, well, I know that not all of you can make it to Borderlands tomorrow. For one thing, the bookstore's not that big. Luckily for you, Tim is running a fiction sale, via which he will happily and enthusiastically hook you up with the sort of books that are well worth the reading. Also chapbooks and 'zines and damn near anything else you might need, all of it fabulous.

Tim Pratt. He used to be Some Guy. Now he's living in fear of my unleashing his ancient poetry on the world. Show the love!