Borderlands Cafe opens tomorrow! Borderlands potluck tonight!

Borderlands Books in San Francisco, California, is getting ready for the opening of their brand-new Cafe! More, they're celebrating the event and the season in one fell swoop by throwing their first-ever ass-kicking potluck, tonight, from six to eight. There's gonna be a whole lot of hoot, and a whole lot of nanny, and they're going to combine them in a delicious swirl of goodness, like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup designed of geeky awesome.

With food, folks, fun, and one of the best science-fiction and fantasy bookstores on the West Coast right next door, it's basically guaranteed to be a blast. I can't be there, due to more dental work (boo), but you should totally swing by if it's an option, and have a fantastic time.

Herein endith the public service announcement.

A few awesome announcements.

First up, my short story, "Let's Pretend," will be appearing in the anthology Ladies of Horror, coming out in 2010. "Let's Pretend" originally appeared at The Edge of Propinquity (where my Sparrow Hill Road series will be launching in January). It's one of my rare vampire pieces, and is...nasty.

(It's also one of those stories that really makes me want to write "DVD extras" for a lot of my work. The first draft was written during a game of Three Beers and a Story. How do you play? Well, you drink three beers. And you write a story. Personally, I prefer Three Long Island Iced Teas and a Story, but that's sort of the X-Games variation.)

Secondly, the Orbit catalog for Spring/Summer 2010 is live, and includes the official press release on Feed. The book is available for pre-order now, and I am beginning to accept its reality, which is both exciting and terrifying. How did I get here? Where are we going? And why are we in this handbasket?

Finally, because it is THE MOST AWESOME OMG, Barnes and Noble has named Rosemary and Rue [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] as one of the best urban fantasy releases of 2009. You'll pardon me while I scream like a girl, won't you?

2009 is drawing to a close; the number of days it has left to present me with awesome things is dwindling steadily. But this is a year that brought me my first anthology, my first novel, my first book release party, the first gathering of the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show, my first Maine Coon, my first solicited artwork-for-pay that wasn't a personal commission, my first solo guest of honor slot, and so much more. 2009 is going down in the record books as a pretty good year to be a blonde.

Thanks for being here.