Awesome artist (is awesome): Bill Mudron taking commissions!

Bill Mudron—proprietor of Excelsior Studios—is currently open for commissions! Bill is an awesome guy to work with, fast, responsive, and has really reasonable prices. I'm pimping him out because I can't throw any more commission work his way right now (not unless Santa decides to surprise me with a lottery ticket), and he's just plain awesome to work with.

Bill did the cover for my third album, Red Roses and Dead Things (click here to see the back cover), in addition to several other awesome pieces for me. Want to see exactly how bad-ass he is? Check out his latest:



That is, in fact, Alice from the InCryptid series, looking like she's basically getting ready to start shooting and not stop until everything she's shooting at has stopped moving. If you're looking for art, Bill is totally your guy, and I can't recommend him highly enough.

Rosemary and reviews: a new beginning.

It's time for the latest Rosemary and Rue review round-up. This keeps me from building up a collection of links the length of my arm. I appreciate not having a collection of links the length of my arm. It's soothing.

To start with, oneminutemonkey has a fair and balanced list of the things that Rosemary and Rue will and will not do for you. I want to add to these lists. For example, Rosemary and Rue will neither cure leprosy nor give you smallpox. See? It's fun!

Meanwhile, Night Owl Romance offers a more serious review. I'm a Night Owl Romance top pick, which is pure hammered awesome in a solid-gold bucket, and means I get extra candy corn tonight with dinner. Anyway, Night Owl Romance says:

"This book is haunting, even after you finish it. I was so impressed with this book that I want to read it again. Faerie and our world exist side by side; this is what urban fantasy is all about!"

Awesome.

Meanwhile, queenlyzard has posted a thoughtful review, based on her getting an early copy of the book at the San Diego Internation Comic Convention. She says:

"It was very good. I won't jump out and say it's the best supernatural mystery I've ever read, and it certainly wasn't the most surprising as far as plot-twists, but it was well-worth picking up."

This actually makes me really happy, since again, it won't cure leprosy. I was even happier to see:

"I didn't catch a single typo or grammatical error, which is both very refreshing and downright amazing in a first novel."

Shout-out to my darlings in the machete squad! Full contact editing is in the house.

Finally, I have a review from Bookpage, wherein they say:

"McGuire successfully blends Robert B. Parker-like detective fiction with love and loss, faith and betrayal—and plenty of violence. The first in McGuire’s planned trilogy, Rosemary and Rue will have readers clamoring for the next genre-bending installment."

I'm always amused by carefully gender-neutral reviews, and even more amused when they call this a trilogy (oh, you have no idea...). But also, yay! I love it when I get to be genre-bending. It makes me feel all warm and fulfilled. Or maybe that's the candy corn I had for lunch.

It's a good day.

Grants Pass signing event in Seattle!

I'm thrilled to make sure everybody knows that this weekend is the first-ever Grants Pass signing and event. Yes! Grants Pass, live and in person! The event details:

SATURDAY, AUGUST 22nd
2:00 to 4:00 PM

http://www.soulfoodbooks.com/OldRoot/
Soulfood Books and Cafe
15748 Redmond Way
Redmond, Washington 98052

...so if you're not going to be in Washington, this may not be the most helpful thing ever, but if you are, wow did you just win the jackpot!



Attending authors include me, Jay Lake, Shannon Page, James Sullivan, and the incomparable Jennifer Brozek, our fearless editor, who first said "what if we threw a plague and everybody came?" We'll be signing books (and bookplates), hanging out, and there will be cake. Also, because I am me, and I always travel with at least fifteen ways to distract myself, there will probably also be at least one copy of Rosemary and Rue to fondle and gaze upon with love in your heart.

This is really exciting. Grants Pass is the first anthology I was ever asked to be a part of, and the first anthology I ever successfully sold a story to (not necessarily the same thing, more's the pity). And Jennifer is a dear friend. So seeing both of them succeeding together is just, well...cake. And cake is good. We like cake. The cake is not a lie.

I hope to see you there!