Hey, awesome! Aphelion!

So you know that series of essays based on my thoughts on writing that's been appearing here? Well, it turns out that the folks at Aphelion -- a science-fiction and fantasy-oriented webzine with a history of scholarly articles -- like those essays so much that they've decided to reprint them! (With my permission, of course, not being the sort of folks who really want to be attacked by an army of plague bats.)

Only the first of the reprinted essays is up so far, but be sure to drop by and check out the rest of the 'zine. It's pretty spiffy. And obviously, they have really excellent taste in columnists.

Ordering CDs -- so you want a little music?

Having been asked several times recently, I thought I'd give a quick CD FAQ. The short form: yes, I have recorded and released two CDs, and am currently in the middle of recording a third. My first two CDs remain currently available, although supplies are falling fast. When they're gone, they're gone; I'm not planning to re-release either of them any time soon.

The first CD, Pretty Little Dead Girl: Seanan McGuire and Friends Live at OVFF 2005, was recorded live at, yes, OVFF 2005. Eleven tracks of totally live performance goodness, including the explosion of cheers from the audience when I started taking off my clothes (during 'Maybe It's Crazy,' track five on the album). Several of the songs on this CD exist only on this CD, and probably won't ever be recorded elsewhere.

The second CD, Stars Fall Home, was recorded primarily by Kristoph Klover at Flowinglass Music, with additional tracks recorded everywhere from England to Seattle, Washington. This album features performances by some of my very favorite people, and an incredible amount of raw musical talent. It's a great big sampler box of a CD, with songs ranging from the very, very serious, to the very, very silly. I love it so.

You can listen to samples from both CDs at: http://seananmcguire.com/albums.php

You can order either or both at: https://www.seananmcguire.com/secure_order.php

Both CDs are $17.00 (USD) -- that includes shipping and handling. (That cost is per CD, just to clarify.) International orders are available for an additional $5.00, to cover additional shipping costs.

If you have questions about any of my albums, including the one that's yet to be released, please let me know!

Word count -- The Mourning Edition.

Current stats:

Words: 1,050.
Total words: 12,310.
Reason for stopping: I've reached the end of chapter two.
Music: mostly Broadway soundtracks, that being my current crazy.
Lilly: loafed up next to my chair, guarding me from the scary, scary hallway.

This brings me to the second of my major milestones on this book. Milestone number one was ten thousand words. Milestone number two was reaching the end of chapter two, which would give me sufficient 'book' for me to feel like it was time for me to send the text-to-date to my proofing list for its very first review. This is the point where my baby gets to leave my hands for the very first time, and as always, it makes me sad and jubilant and a little scared. But excited, too. Because I love all my literary children, and it's wonderful to set them free.

I'm really excited about this universe, which is good, since I'm really only getting off the ground with book two of a planned three book series -- losing my enthusiasm for the world now would really suck for me. And for the people who want to know what happens next. I think they'd beat me with my own machete until I stopped screwing around and gave them their zombies already. Which is pretty damn awesome, when you really stop to think about it.

Working on this in tandem with the revisions to Lycanthropy and Other Personal Issues is actually a really good thing, because it lets me 'cleanse my palate' between chapters, as it were. From zombie adventure to frothy horror chick werecoyote adventure in two easy steps.

Life is pretty good right now.

Proofreader spotlight: Sunil.

Quietly he lurks, sharpening his knives, sharpening his wits, and booby trapping his escape routes, lest one of his cuttingly funny, cuttingly accurate comments causes me to bay for his blood. He is...SUNIL, SECRET NINJA PROOFREADER.

And he has just made me laugh so hard that peas came out of my nose. Actual peas, out of my actual nose.

This hurt.

Sadly, it's difficult to quote Sunil's edits directly, despite the fact that they are some of the funniest shit I've encountered in days, because, well, they're very dependent on the text around them. But he's hysterical. You gotta take me word on this one. I meant to just check to make sure he'd used one of my standard editing formats, and wound up processing eight chapters of commentary, because it was too damn funny to stop going through.

One of the best things about becoming a better writer has been the change in the kind of edits that I tend to get. Because, you see, when I no longer need regular lectures on pacing and character development, it becomes possible for my editors to focus on more important things, like causing me to breathe vegetation.

Best end to a Monday night ever. All hail Sunil!