Wicked Girls updates, both shirts and CDs.

Wicked Girls: the shirt.

The shirts have arrived from the printer, and they're perfect! Well. Most of the shirts have arrived from the printer: I'd say 95% of the shirts have arrived from the printer, and the last 5% are on back-order but should be with me very soon. And yes, I do mean "with me." Right now, the shirts are a huge stack of boxes in my living room, where the cats eye them with suspicion, because they dislike sealed boxes.

Why are the boxes sealed? The boxes are sealed because we're waiting for the mailing envelopes to arrive, and because we'd like to ship the darker colored shirts without a massive supply of bonus Maine Coon and Siamese hair this time. It's a wacky idea, I know, but work with me here. We've scheduled a packing party after Worldcon, to be held in a cat hair-free location, and will be trying to stuff literally every shirt into an envelope in a single evening. Mailing will commence immediately afterward.

I cannot take requests for early shipping right now, as that would require opening all the boxes and digging through all the shirts to find the right one. And then the cat hair precautions would be for naught. (Also because I'm in final prep for Worldcon, so I'm a little distracted, and only the Great Pumpkin knows what I would actually stuff into your envelope. Maybe it would be a T-shirt. Maybe it would be teeth. Who knows? Not me.)

But soon!

Wicked Girls: the CD.

The reprinted CDs have arrived from Oasis, and they're gorgeous. We fixed the typos from the first run (specifically the misspelling of "Carnival" on the back, and the spelling of Brian's last name throughout). The album is back in stock at CD Baby, at least for the moment; I shipped them 29 copies, and they're already down to 14, after having it in stock for a day. So if you've been waiting to get a copy of your very own, this would be a great time to order, since I have no idea when I'll be in a position to mail them a restock.

Basically, I am locked in a never-ending battle with the post office, and the post office is winning.

And that's the news.

Because You Asked: Fire fairies.

To celebrate the upcoming release of Ashes of Honor, I am answering five questions about Toby's world. This is the second.

So gwisteria asks, "Are there fire faeries or would their lifespan too short to warrant consciousness?"

Yes, Virginia, there is a Fire Kingdom.

Fae crop up everywhere in the world, from the depths of the ocean to the hearts of active volcanoes. They have their own culture, their own traditions, and their own creatures (we've seen salamanders, for example). Even most of the Firstborn don't visit the Fire Kingdoms, because unless they're extremely powerful shapeshifters, or just really, really fire-proof, being set on fire is still inconvenient.

Some fire fae do come to visit, but it's mostly the lava-equivalent of Selkies and Kelpies: the liminal fae, the ones who can do just fine in either environment. Peri are considered fire-fae, for example, as are Kesali, and both of those have been known to show up in Land courts. They usually avoid the Undersea, as being doused in water does not make fires of any sort particularly happy. There are doubtless some breeds of fire fae that have never been seen outside the heart of living volcanoes, slow falls of lava that sometimes open strangely human eyes and try to entice you to come just that little bit closer...

It isn't recommended.

Of all the lands in Faerie, the Fire Kingdoms are the most isolate, and the least likely to be visited on a whim. Most fae would die in an instant, and they lack the overlap of the land and sea or the land and air. It doesn't make them bad people, down there in the flames. It just makes them very, very, undeniably alien.