The frost never melts at the top of the world, or at the bottom of a heart.

It's time to start the new year off right: with some free fiction.

Ryan and Istas have been getting serious, which means it's time for the two of them to go through one of the most important rituals in a tanuki's life: meeting the parents. Sure, that means flying cross-country with an apex predator crammed into an airline seat, and sure, there's a reasonable chance that Istas will eat a flight attendant, but these are the risks you have to take for love.

Sadly, there are always risks no one anticipated. Like reputations, and prejudices, and the fact that everyone's definition of "monster" is different.

You can download "Black as Blood" now from the InCryptid short fiction page. While this story is best read after "Red as Snow," it should stand reasonably well on its own, providing you have any familiarity with the InCryptid setting. (If you don't, there's a lot of short fiction set earlier in the world continuity also posted on that page. Enjoy!)

This also serves as your discussion post.

Happy new year!

Seanan's award-eligible work for 2013.

Well, it's that time again: time to inform the world "this is what I did last year, please remember me as you begin filling out your nomination forms." It's a strangely nerve-wracking time, combining "everybody does it" with "but people will still yell at me for excessive self-promotion." And I'll be honest: I really struggled with the question of whether or not I should make a post this year. Not because I think I'm going to be nominated for All The Things, but because last year's fun adventure in "she posted twice, BURN THE WITCH" was basically my definition of anti-fun.

At the end of the day, I decided that I will make my posts, as I have always made them; this is my career, and if you don't want to read about it, you don't have to. But I will also acknowledge, and continue to acknowledge, that two posts and a handful of tweets is not excessive self-promotion: it's doing my damn job. I'm going to keep saying that until people stop trying to say otherwise.

Now, on to the work!

Novels.

Midnight Blue-Light Special
Chimes at Midnight
Parasite (as Mira Grant)

Note that the 2013 Velveteen collection was not eligible for most awards, as it contains stories originally published prior to 2013.

Novellas.

"Hook Agonistes" (co-written with Jay Lake)
"We Both Go Down Together"
"How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea" (as Mira Grant)

Novelettes.

"Bad Dream Girl"
"Married in Green"
"Sweet Poison Wine"
"The First Fall"
"Loch and Key"
"Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea"
"Forbid the Sea"

Short Stories.

"Laughter at the Academy: A Study in the Development of Schizotypal Creative Genius Personality Disorder (SCGPD)"
"Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust"
"Homecoming"
"Train Yard Blues"
"Frontier ABCs: The Life and Times of Charity Smith, Schoolteacher"
"Red as Snow"

Best Related Work.

Stars Fall Home (second edition, blue cover)

This one requires a bit of explanation. Basically, the original album was released in 2007, and was the best we could do at the time. For 2013, we remastered all the tracks; re-recorded some of the instrumentals; totally redesigned the liner notes and album art; and added a bonus track. Because encyclopedias and other works which frequently have multiple editions have been eligible in this category in the past, and because more than 20% of the album was changed, I believe it fits the eligibility requirements for this year's award season.

I will make a post later about things I hope we'll remember as the nominating season gets moving, although I'll say now that I would really love it if people would consider Sheila Gilbert for Best Long-Form Editor and John Joseph Adams for Best Short-Form Editor. They make me better. They make a lot of people better.

That's all for now.