seanan_mcguire | Entries tagged with common questions

Okay, I want to lead off here by saying thank you. Thank you for caring about where book sales will be best for me, thank you for wanting to buy my books, and thank you for asking. I am so excited about Discount Armageddon, and I really want it to do well. I also want to note that I am making this post because I was asked, not because I'm trying to tell you "buy it like I want you to or it's butts to you, sir." Honestly, as long as you buy the book, I'm happy.

That said, here are the best ways to get a copy of Discount Armageddon while also helping my week one sales:

1. Do not buy the book until March 6th. If you see a copy on a shelf somewhere early, don't pick it up. Wait until the actual release date, because that's when sales will start to count against my first week. Anything before then will count toward my overall sales, but will vanish into the ether when it comes to calculating best seller lists. I know, it's weird.

2. Buy brick and mortar. If you possibly can, walk into a bookstore and take a copy off the shelf. Not sure your local store is going to carry it? Now would be the time to contact them and remind them that you'll be wanting to buy, since this way, they have time to place an order (they won't if you come in the day before release). There are a lot of reasons for this, but the two big ones are a) if they sell, they re-order, and that's good for me, and b) most brick and mortar stores report to the NYT list. And I'd love to get onto the list again.

3. If you need to order on the internet, consider Borderlands Books (physical only). Borderlands is my local store; they take international orders, as well as orders within the United States; I will be dropping by on release day to sign books for them, so you can not only get a copy of your very own, you can get it signed. That doubles the awesome factor, and makes up for needing to wait for the postal mail to reach you, right? Plus, well. My book events are big and chaotic, so I like driving business their way. Again, sooner is better than later, as they're going to be hosting my book release party, and need to know how many copies to get.

4. All eBooks are created equal. Sadly, right now, electronic and internet sales don't count against the NYT list, which is why this comes in so far down that list. That said, a sale is a sale, and my royalty rate is the same for all electronic editions, everywhere. So buy from whatever retailer best suits you, in whatever format best suits you.

5. Buy the book. This is the most important thing. My sales, especially in the first week, will tell my publisher what kind of a market they're looking at for the adventures of Verity and company. So please, if you can, buy the book. I want to stay in this world for a long, long time to come.

Thank you.

Current Mood: loved
Current Music: Sara Bareilles, "Bottle It Up."

Shamelessly, I have stolen a very clever idea from John Scalzi at the Whatever, who has posted an excellent, and quite thorough, guide to obtaining signed books from him for the holidays. He has some really spiffy books available right now. You should check them out.

Anyway, I, too, have been receiving emails for about the last month, asking where people can get signed copies of my various books. Since I already have a bajillion shirts to mail (still mailing), "from me" isn't a viable answer. So...

Want a signed book? Signed by me, I mean, and not by that guy who always looks at you sort of funny on the bus? Borderlands Books is here to help. They're located in San Francisco, on Valencia Street, and they see me a lot. Like, a lot. Anyway, they'd be totally happy to take your order, and I would be totally happy to sign and/or personalize those orders. Here's what you have to do:

1. Contact Borderlands. You can send an email via their website (link above), or call their toll-free 888 number, at 1-888-893-4008.

2. Tell them what you want, and how you want the book signed. I will do inscriptions, but they need to be short, as those title pages don't leave me a lot of room to work with.

3. While you're at it, you might want to consider picking up a few books other people have written, since you're already paying for postage, and isn't getting a big box of books always better than getting a small box of books? I'll be posting my holiday recommendations soon, none of which have a damn thing to do with the holidays, but in the meanwhile, there are lots of books out there looking for a home.

3b. I won't sign those books. Unless you really, really want me to.

4. Give them your mailing address and billing information. You must be prepared to pay for inscribed books when you place your order. It's a logic thing. Once I write your name in it, they can't sell it to anybody else.

5. Your books will magically appear at your home! It's amazing!

If you want your books in time for Christmas, I seriously suggest ordering by December 12th. The mail will be insane by that point, so sooner is probably better. I'll visit the store for the last time this holiday season on December 19th (Alice's third birthday!), but I'm leaving for Orlando after that, so any orders placed beyond that point definitely won't reach you before 2012.

Borderlands can ship internationally, but postage will be spendy, and you need to work it out with the bookstore.

In case you need a recap on what's currently available:

TOBY BOOKS (in order): Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses, One Salt Sea.

MIRA GRANT TITLES (in order): Feed, Deadline.

ANTHOLOGIES I AM IN: Home Improvement: Undead Edition (hardcover, Toby story), Tales From the Ur-Bar, Zombiesque, The Living Dead 2 (as Mira Grant, Newsflesh story), Grants Pass, Human Tales.

ESSAYS AND NON-FICTION: Chicks Dig Time Lords, Whedonistas.

If you have questions, let me know...and if you do decide to order, thank you so, so much for helping to support both my endless quest to feed the cats and my beloved local independent bookstore. You are awesome.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Glee, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot/One Way or Another."

To prepare for the release of One Salt Sea, I said that I would answer five questions the world and cosmology of the Toby Daye books, thus preparing us for the fun and the glory of Tuesday's release. This is the last of the five posts.

kippurbird's inquiry was not posed in the form of a question, but is interesting all the same:

"I'd like to know more about merlins."

So would a lot of people, it seems, and it is because of that fact that I will now do as I am bid, and tell you more about merlins.

First off, merlins, small "m," are individuals with a tiny, tiny bit of fae blood—not enough to qualify them as a changeling, or cause them to look other than human-normal—who are nonetheless able to access some measure of fae magic. Merlin, big "M," was one of the first, and most notable, of these crossbreeds. Hence the term "merlin" being applied to the class as a whole.

So how much fae blood does it take to make a merlin? Not much. But if someone has too much, they'll be considered a changeling, which is a whole different ball of worms, and if they have too little, they'll be effectively human. Basically, if a faerie and a human have a kid, that kid will be a changeling (50/50). If that kid and a human have a kid, that kid will still be considered a changeling; just a very weak one (25/75). That kid's kids, however, will stand a very good chance of being merlins, as will their children. After two generations of merlins, sadly, you'll just get humans who maybe live a long time, or have a knack for finding fresh water. It's a short-lived gift.

(Yes, this has led to some families of merlins whose children marry each other, which can keep the magic alive for substantially longer, even if it does eventually lead to inbreeding and unpleasantness.)

Why do merlins matter? They're watered-down changelings, after all. They have little to no innate magic; they can't shapeshift or fly or teleport or do any of the other things that changelings and purebloods can do instinctively. So why don't the merlins just get trampled by their stronger relations?

Because they can use charms, potions, and written incantations, they aren't bothered by iron or bound by rowan, and they have none of the inborn limitations of true fae, that's why. A changeling or pureblood will always have checks and balances written into their very genetics, preventing them from accidentally destroying the world. Merlins don't have anything like that. They work their magic with external tools, and that keeps them from suffering from most of magic's nastier consequences. They are, in short, extremely dangerous. Many of them are also extremely devoted to gaining more power, more magic, more spells and tricks and charms. This can lead to some truly bloody encounters between them and the true fae, since a Puca's wings will fuel a lot of love charms. Not fun.

Most modern merlins keep their heads down and work primarily underground, since the fae are harder to find and faster to attack when actually troubled. But that can't last forever.

Someday, the merlins are going to present a problem.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Taylor Swift, "You Belong With Me."

Now we come to the fourth in my promised series of five posts about the background and construction of Toby's world, all those little things you might not learn from the main series. The current question is from

faithfulcynic, who asks:

"How common is shape-shifting in Faerie? It's been awhile since I've read all the books but I think the only real shapeshifter was an assasin in Rosemary and Rue. Otherwise we have characters like Luna who borrowed someone's shape and Toby who was turned into a fish (and also alters her appearance in the last book) Is shapechanging something everyone can do?"

Shapeshifting isn't something that everyone can do, and is mostly restricted to Maeve's descendants, although you do get shapeshifters descended from Titania; they're just rarer. (Titania's descendants tend to be more skilled illusionists, so there's a trade-off.) It's actually one of the more common powers in Faerie.

There are two kinds of voluntary transformation in Toby's world. Shapeshifting, transforming yourself into something else through your innate power, and skinshifting, using a bond with an item to transform into the indicated form. Shapeshifting is not always dramatic. The Luidaeg is a shapeshifter; she just changes her appearance, usually in relatively subtle ways. She is not an illusionist at all—when she dons a human disguise, she does it by actually transforming the shape of her face.

Most shapeshifters can less malleable, and can turn into one or more distinct forms. Cait Sidhe become cats. Cu Sidhe become dogs. Phouka become horses, or big black dogs that you don't want to meet in dark allies, no really. Roane become seals. (Selkies pull the same trick, but do it through skinshifting, which is a different matter.) Even Piskies are considered a form of shapeshifter, since they can dramatically change their size, going from human-size to pixie-size.

The Piskie-type of shapeshifter—the ones who modify their bodies, but not their overall shapes—are more common in the Undersea, where almost all the denizens can become bipedal, if not fully humanoid. Merrow look very much like Daoine Sidhe in their bipedal forms, and can even be confused with them, when they dress themselves correctly. (The Merrow are pretty much in charge in most of the Undersea, because they can go on land and argue with the air-breathers.)

Even Undine, like Lily, are shapeshifters; she was actually a body of water that could turn itself into a person for short periods of time. April can be viewed as a shapeshifter, since she's made of light, and can transform herself, within reasonable limits, to match whatever she thinks she should look like.

So, the short answer: there are lots, and lots, and lots of shapeshifters in Faerie. It's a very common form of magic, and if there doesn't seem to be much in the books, it's because it's so common that no one really remarks on it most of the time.

Make sense?

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: The Counting Crows, "She Doesn't Exist Anymore."

Here's the second post in my promised series of five about aspects of Toby's world that may or may not be covered in the books. Our question, from

beccastareyes:

"Are there other geographic divisions among the fae besides those that live underwater and those who live on land? Are there duchies/counties/etc. where one must be able to fly, or ones situated underground, or places of great heat or cold?"

Oh, are there ever.

The simplest way to divide Faerie is by element. You have land fae, water fae, sky fae, and "we live in a volcano, no, you can't come over for dinner, WE LIVE IN A FUCKING VOLCANO" fae (er, fire fae). Most of the Toby books deal with land fae, since Toby herself can't fly, live in lava, or breathe underwater. (Since this is a magical universe, she can do any of those things with help. She doesn't always have help. Or want help. Or hold still long enough to be helped, since "let me throw you in this volcano" is not her idea of assistance.)

That's the simple form.

The land kingdoms are divided into temperate areas (IE, anyplace where humans can live without major protective gear), along with frozen kingdoms, high desert kingdoms, and deep forest kingdoms. The elevation divisions—high mountain and underground—are technically considered "land," but are also considered "border zones" (more on this later).

Most of the land kingdoms are inhabitable by most of the fae races, with some exceptions. Land-bound water fae (undine, who are always fresh water, rusalki, who are water fae, but don't do oceans) can't survive in the desert; neither can the true cold fae, like the snow fairies, some of whom would actually melt. True desert fae, like the peri, don't like cold climates, although not all of them would die if subjected to cold. And naturally, most fae who live in a human range, like the Daoine Sidhe, will die of frostbite or dehydration if forced to go out without the proper gear.

The water kingdoms are divided primarily into fresh and salt; the Undersea doesn't include the freshwater fae, most of whom are treated as land denizens, due to lack of a coherent governing body in every single pond. The saltwater kingdoms are divided into the shallows, the middle-sea, and the deeps. Merrow can handle shallows or the middle-sea, but not the very bottom of the deeps. Cephali can handle the middle-sea and the deeps, but become very uncomfortable in the shallows. There are stories about some of the things that live in the deeps. Bad stories. For the most part, no one goes down there, because for the most part, people aren't idiots.

The sky kingdoms are the least divided, because, thus far, no fae have been confirmed capable of breathing in a vacuum. So they live in the clouds and pray no one flies a plane through their living room. Storm fae help with this. Good luck finding the capital city. It drifts.

The fire kingdoms are all very isolated, and very little is known about them, on account of the part where they're ON FIRE ALL THE TIME. They are the only kingdom which does not yet have reliable wireless.

Now, borders.

Every kingdom borders on every other. Land/sea border = shoreline. Land/sky border = mountains. Land/fire border = deep caverns. Sea/sky border = more nebulous; usually weather patterns. Sea/fire border = deep rifts. And yes, there are fae basically everywhere. The land fae are the most accustomed, and adapted, to living with humans, and even they don't tend to like us very much.

Biology: Faerie does it weird.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Talis Kimberley, "One Big Sea."

Yesterday I said that, to celebrate the upcoming release of One Salt Sea, I would once again make five blog posts detailing the background aspects of Toby's reality. This is the first of those posts.

liret asks "Can parents of changelings send their child off to the Summerlands alone and stay with their mortal spouses? I got the impression that Amandine was as stuck as Toby after Toby went through the Changeling's Choice, but I was wondering if arranging for a foster-family and writing the kid off was also possible."

The short answer: No.

The longer-form answer is, naturally, a little more complex.

For those of you who aren't aware, the Changeling's Choice is the process via which changeling children (fae/human crossbreeds) are presented with the two sides of their heritage. Pick fae, be whisked away to Faerie and never see your human family again. Pick mortal, your fae parent has to kill you on the spot. There are no takebacks; this is not something that can be negotiated. The Changeling's Choice is a necessary part of playing fairy bride.

The only exceptions are the weak-blooded fae, like Stacy or Marcia. Their magic was clearly strong enough to have triggered the Changeling's Choice at some point, since they're in Faerie, but if either of them were to have children with a human, there's a fifty/fifty chance that those kids would never manifest measurable magic, which means the Choice would never be triggered. (This is how we wind up with merlins.) Toby slept with Cliff knowing she might get pregnant, and chose to ride the odds as to whether Gilly would fall into that "magic too weak to become visible" sub-category. Since Gilly is still with her mortal family, and they haven't noticed anything unusual about her, Toby's gamble appears to have paid off.

Now, here's the thing: when a changeling is removed from the mortal world, either through abduction or death, they don't just vanish. That would leave too many questions unanswered, and could result in people searching for their children long past the point where it would be safe for Faerie to have them looking. Toby's father found bodies in the remains of the house; Natasha and October Daye were both declared dead, and were buried in Colma. Toby's father is buried next to what he assumed was his wife, but was actually a night-haunt's mannequin.

So could someone send their kid packing and stay with their mortal spouse? Sure, if they were able to convince their liege (and everyone has a liege, even if it's just the local King or Queen) that they could absolutely sell the idea that their child was dead, find a foster family, get the kid to choose Faerie, ship the kid off without getting caught, and manage to weather the aftermath of the "accident" without making any mistakes or getting accused of murder. Hint: this is very, very hard, especially given that most fae are incredibly attached to their children. Many purebloods think of human lovers as nothing more than a convenient way to get a baby, and would never even consider picking a spouse over a child.

In the event that a fae parent somehow convinced their liege that they could pull all this off, and then actually did manage to pull it all off, they would never be allowed to see that child again, and would have a seriously hard time convincing other fae to date them, since they have just proven that they're shitty parents. (I am aware that this is an apparent contradiction, given the fae fosterage system. Most societies are built on minor contradictions, and at least under normal fosterage, you'll eventually get the kid back. You know. When they finish being a teenager.)

So it's logistically hard, emotionally difficult, and culturally frowned upon. Technically, it's possible. Functionally, it's something no fae parent would really consider doing, even if they wanted to.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Talis Kimberley, "Sparklehorse."

Since I have a book coming out in a week, I figure it's time to once again offer to answer your questions about the world. So...

I will make five blog posts detailing aspects of Toby's universe. Ask me anything! I will not answer every question, but will select the five that I think are the most interesting/fun/relevant, and will detail them to my heart's content. There's a lot to learn and know, and asking loses you nothing.

Leave your questions on this post. I'm declaring comment-reply amnesty for any that I choose not to answer this time, since otherwise, my wee head may explode.

Game on!

ETA: Things covered last time we did this: inheritance, fosterage, madness, historical records, and Cait Sidhe court structure.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Death Cab, "Codes and Keys."

So people have been asking a lot lately "Why can't people outside the US buy the e-book edition of X?" (In this case, X = any given work that is unavailable in a specific region. Most often "Countdown," since it lacks a physical edition, but almost everything has fallen into this category at one point or another.)

The answer, sadly, is simple, and not something that's easy to fix. Basically, when I sign a contract with a publisher, they acquire certain territorial rights. DAW owns the US distribution rights for Toby and InCryptid. Orbit owns the US and UK distribution rights for Newsflesh. Other publishers own my distribution rights in other regions. The pieces I have sold to the Orbit Short Fiction Program ("Apocalypse Scenario #683" and "Countdown") were sold under a contract which, at present, covers only US territorial rights. Meaning that my publisher can't make those properties available outside the United States. They aren't allowed. And buying the rights for every possible market, in every possible region, would make the work fiscally unsustainable for them.

Part of this is tied to the intrinsic value of a property. Say, for example, that we want to sell the InCryptid books to a UK publisher, for a UK edition. This would make the physical books cheaper for UK customers, since they wouldn't need to pay import costs. This would mean I got paid (foreign rights sales are a good chunk of my income in a given year, since it's a way to keep a book that's already been sold paying my electric bill). But if we tell a UK publisher "oh, and by the way, we sold the ebook rights to that series to someone else," that publisher isn't going to buy the series. There's too much tied up in ebooks right now for that to be fiscally wise of a publisher.

Orbit is working on making the short fiction pieces available outside the US; if you check the Short Fiction landing page, they note the problem exists, and that they're looking for a solution. But the solution is never going to be "sell global ebook rights to the US publisher," because if authors did that, the foreign rights market would collapse. Books would remain import-expensive, non-English readers would lose a lot of diversity, and my cats would get very hungry.

It sucks that it works this way, just like it sucks when I can't get the British or Australian TV shows I want on the right region format immediately. It may change someday. But for right now, this is why things are the way they are.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Smithereens, "Blood and Roses."

Here's the sitch:

It took us a LOT longer than expected to track down payment from everyone, and some people still haven't made good on their orders. These orders will be canceled as of Sunday, so that I can proceed with submitting the spreadsheet to the T-shirt manufacturers. I don't know how long printing will take, but will let you know once I have an estimate.

After shirts exist, they'll need to be shipped. This is going to mean a MASSIVE shipping party, probably at my house; volunteers will be solicited. Because we'll be doing it all by hand, I expect that mailing everything may take two to three weeks. Again, I'll keep you posted.

But that's the situation. Next time I do something like this, I may require payment immediately, to prevent a few absences from delaying the whole field trip.

Shirts!

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Brooke Lunderville, "My Time Again."

Since I'm currently trying to clear out all the older reviews from my link file, thus enabling me a) to post reviews of newer books while they're still, you know, new, and b) to find the non-review links I saved because I wanted to write about them, I thought I should take a moment to explain my position on reviews. Namely...

1. I don't link to every positive review I find.
Yes, good is good, and everybody likes a little good news, but some reviews are very brief, or don't say anything especially new. I appreciate and am honored by every review that I receive. That doesn't mean I want to subject people to the all-reviews, all-the-time channel. That's a good way to get myself hit.

2. I don't go looking for reviews.
I'm way past the point of ego-surfing looking for reviews of my books, and I've found that, on the whole, I'm happier if I only read the things people email me links to, or that are found by my Google spiders. So if I don't post about your awesome review full of witty comments and deep thoughts, it may be because I never saw it. Or it may be because, as now, I'm three books behind in the file. Both things can happen.

3. I don't read Amazon or Goodreads reviews at all.
This is a hard rule. For serious. Some of the reviews posted on those sites seem to have been written by people who think authors don't have feelings, and while I try to say "judging the work, not judging me," it's really hard when people get personal. So I just don't go there, and everyone stays happier.

4. I don't generally link to negative reviews unless they have something really interesting to say.
I've had a few people say, somewhat sharply, that I'm a Pollyanna when it comes to reviews; I just post the good ones. This is largely true. There are two reasons for this: one is selfish, and one is altruistic. Selfishly...this is my journal. Why should I link to people saying bad things about my stories? I love those stories. They're my babies. Altruistically, most of the people who read this journal are here because they love those stories, too. I don't want to unleash a swarm of flying monkeys on some blogger who was just having an honest opinion, and then found themselves unexpectedly linked to by the author. It's not nice, it's not fair, and I'm not that kind of a girl.

5. I make no promises as to the timeliness of my links.
I have had one reviewer—just one—email and yell at me because their long, thoughtful review hadn't been linked to three weeks after it was posted. It's August, and I'm posting reviews from October. I love linking to reviews. It makes me happy. But wow, are there no guarantees as to when it's going to happen.

A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend!

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: SJ Tucker, "Ravens in the Library."

So there's been a spate recently of people going "What's the status on _________?" or "Where can I buy _________?" This is usually referring to either the Lycanthropy books or the print edition of Sparrow Hill Road, although I've also had a somewhat surprising number of inquiries about print editions of "Velveteen vs." Here, then, is my across-the-board answer:

If I am able to give the status on a project (sold, in print, not yet shopping, not yet finished), I will. I am not in any way shy about going "OH MY GOD YOU GUYS GUESS WHAT?!" I will probably give you this status whether you want it or not, whether you care about it or not, and whether you ask me or not. And just to live up to this statement, my confirmed publications for the remainder of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 are...

One Salt Sea, novel, September. Toby Daye book five.
"Cinderella City," short story, in the collection Human For A Day, December.
"Flower of Arizona," short story, in the collection Westward Weird, February.
Discount Armageddon, novel, March. InCryptid book one.
"We Will Not Be Undersold," short story, in the collection The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity, March.

The third Newsflesh book, Blackout, will be published in May 2012.

I have a few other short stories slated for publication, but don't have release dates and/or permission to announce them yet. See, once something is sold, I am unable to tell people until I am given permission from the publisher—it's part of the standard contract. So if I'm not telling you where you can buy something, it's because there's a "can't" involved. Either you can't buy it, or I can't tell you. Either way, please, please believe me when I say that anything I am allowed to share, I share as quickly as I can, to keep my own head from exploding. This includes information about audio books and foreign editions.

Thank you for understanding. And stuff.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Christian Kane, "House Rules."

1. I don't know why this needs to be repeated, but here you go: If you friend this journal, I will friend your journal in return, so that you can see any friend-locked contests or giveaways (they're rare, but they happen). I will not necessarily read your journal, as I am very, very outnumbered, and I need to sleep occasionally. Assume I don't see anything you post unless you point it out to me explicitly. If you unfriend this journal, I will unfriend your journal in return. This is not a personal thing. This is just mirror-image reciprocity.

2. If you're looking for book release dates, or want to know when/where a story will be appearing, check my bibliography page. I update it regularly, and while not all recently-sold stories will be present (since I don't add things until they have a firm release date), this will answer ninety percent of the "when can I get...?" questions.

3. If you want to know where I'm going to be and when I'm going to be there, check my appearances page. It, too, is updated frequently (although I'm not as good about editing past appearances to put them in the correct tense as I would like to be). I'll usually post about an upcoming appearance here, but long-range planning is rendered easier by the actual appearances page.

4. If I was supposed to mail you something—a poster, a CD, a book you won in a contest, a severed human head—and you haven't received it, the appropriate channel for letting me know is via email. My website contact link is easy to find and easy to use, and if I don't know you don't have something, I can't look into it. I don't use mail confirmation when I send things; the additional postage cost is simply not an option. So please, please, if you don't have something you think you should have, email me!

5. Zombies are love.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Decemberists, "Song for Myra Goldberg."

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions for my latest wacky ARC giveaway. The random number generator has spoken, and our first winner is...

...

alicetheowl! Alice, please email me via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours to claim an ARC of Late Eclipses for your VERY OWN. Blah blah failure to contact me will be taken as not wanting your prize, blah blah picking a new winner, blah blah do not taunt happy funball, blah blah YAY YOU'RE A WINNER NOW LET ME MAIL YOU THINGS!

Our second winner, selected by using the random number generator again, this time on a list of my favorite questions, is...

...

seawench! Congratulations! Lady of the Waters, please email me via my website contact form within the next twenty-four hours to claim an ARC of Late Eclipses for your waterlogged enjoyment (book is not waterproof, management is not responsible for damages stemming from attempting to read in your submerged living room). Again, blah blah blah blah follow the rules or I'll have your voice and it'll be NO LEGS YOU FOR, YOUNG LADY.

And that's our giveaway! More to come, because I like giving out prizes when I'm twitchy (and wow does waiting for a book to drop make me twitchy). Thanks again for participating, everybody, it was super fun!

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: The Decemberists, "January Hymn."

With Late Eclipses approaching fast, I am naturally spending a lot of time thinking about Toby's world, and blogging about Toby's world, since I want everyone to be as excited as I am. So here is your invitation:

Ask me a question.

This has no connection to the current ARC giveaway, which asks you to ask simple, FAQ-style questions that don't require extensive spoilers or flowcharts. What this is connected to is, well, the big questions. Like when I posted about the rules governing fae marriage. The ones that require serious thought, and a genuine desire to know.

How does fae marriage work? Where did the Changeling's Choice begin? What happened to the Roane? Questions too big, and too complicated, to answer in the FAQ. Now, because I apparently wasn't clear enough the first time, I WILL NOT GIVE SPOILERS. Please don't ask me where someone is, or whether someone else is coming back, or whether you're ever going to see Gillian again (a question which has started to make me clench my teeth). Ask me about laws and rules and universe, about etiquette and speciation and trends in fashion.

The five best questions will get full blog posts about them, explaining whatever facet or facets of Faerie they touch on. I get to determine "best," although you're all welcome to weigh in or ask secondary questions.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Taylor Swift, "Long Live."

Whee! Time for another ARC giveaway! Once again, I'm giving away an ARC of Late Eclipses, the fourth book in the October Daye series, which comes out in twenty-seven days. So you could get an early chance to find out what's going on! Also, I'm actually giving away two books this time. Curious? Read on!

If you've been to my website recently, you may have noticed that my Toby FAQs are a trifle, well, sparse. Whole books are missing. Since I'm getting ready to shuffle things around to make room for InCryptid, I'd like to fix this. So here's what you need to do to enter today's ARC giveaway:

1) Leave a comment on this entry containing a suggested question for one of my FAQs. FAQ-type questions only, please, like "Is the date at the beginning of An Artificial Night correct?" or "Why has Quentin's hair changed color?", not "Will Toby and Tybalt ever get together?" or "Is there going to be a movie?"

2) Leave the comment on its own, please, not as a reply to someone else's comments. Comments on comments can't win, even if they have the BEST QUESTION EVER.

3) That's all.

Now here's the twist: I will be choosing two winners. One will be chosen by the random number generator, cruel mistress that it is, and the other will be chosen by me, based purely on my personal "that's the BEST question" reaction. Also, I will use your questions to improve the FAQ, so really, everybody wins.

I will choose a winner at 2PM PST on Tuesday, February 8th.

Game on!

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: BoA, "Duvet."

Okay! So here, in conveniently numbered form, is the status on the mailing of Wicked Girls CDs, and the ordering thereof.

1. All paid-for pre-orders have been shipped.

2. Because of high holiday traffic at the post office, it is entirely possible for you to have received your "it has been shipped" email during the last week of December, and then for your CD to have not been sent until the first week of January. This is because "it has been shipped" really means "it has been stuffed into an envelope and also we were able to find it on the checklist."

3. Ironically, since I'm still working my way through the checklist, this also means you could have your CD well before you receive your "it has been shipped" notice. Sorry about that.

4. I do not have tracking information on any of the CDs. They were all sent either first class or media mail (whichever was cheaper for that specific package), with no bells or whistles of any kind. Why? Because confirmation would require another dollar per package, and a lot more time per package, at which point I sadly don't have time to mail more than three at once, and you're still receiving CDs into 2012.

5. There's an awful lot of weather hitting North America right now, and this, unfortunately, means that quite a few packages are being delayed. I do not control the weather. I mean, besides the rain. I control the rain. But it's not the rain that is causing mail stoppages and slow deliveries. So please have patience until the horrific weather stops keeping you apart from your precious CD. Waiting makes the payoff all the sweeter, right?

6. If you need to verify the address your CD was sent to, you can email me. I will then grumble at you for making me remember where I left the database, and go and look it up. I do not have a time machine, so I can't change where the CD went, so please don't tell me today that you meant to get me an address correction last month. I can arrange to re-ship the CD when the post office returns it to me, but I'll have to ask you to pay postage again.

7. If your CD has absolutely, positively, "it's been a month and I have nothing" gone missing, email me, and we'll see what we can do. I don't control the mail, but that doesn't mean it should be messing with people, either.

8. Right now, you can obtain copies of Wicked Girls from either Southern Fried Filk or from Bill Roper (at-con sales only). I'll be getting the album up on CD Baby sometime in the next month or so; there just hasn't been time, and I wanted to make sure that all pre-orders were sent out before I started supplying the vendors.

9. No, I really can't take direct sales until then.

10. No, I am not recording a fifth CD. Yet.

If you have any other questions, comments, concerns, or cuckoo birds, feel free to share them here. I just wanted to try to get the big ones out of the way in a centralized manner, because I am currently crap at answering my email.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Florence and the Machine, "The Dog Days Are Over."

So the discussion on my latest book piracy post is fascinating, and I fully intend to answer comments. However, right now, I'm not feeling terribly awesome, so I'm going to take some cold medication and go lay down. I just wanted to address a few high-level points first. Forgive the brevity, I really feel like crap.

Point the First: "Not everyone who illegally downloads your book would have bought it, so you shouldn't act like they would have."

True! That being said, I know enough people who have illegally downloaded books and then bought them, or have told me to my face (or via email) that they were planning to buy the book, only then got it for free, that I feel some consideration of the number of illegal copies is warranted. Just going off what I do know, I tend to assume about one person in ten represents a "lost sale." This accounts for new readers only, not people downloading copies of books they already own.

Point the Second: Downloading copies of books you already own is a morally gray area.

True. I completely understand and sympathize with people who download virtual copies of books they already own. Unfortunately, a) I don't own the e-book rights to my books right now, and thus can't say "sure, have a PDF with proof of purchase," and b) the methods for getting those downloads are non-legal. There's not a private literary speakeasy where you have to send in a photo of yourself with your legal physical copy before you get the download link. And so while I can understand the moral ambiguity of it all, I can't endorse the practice.

Point the Third: It's not piracy, it's copyright infringement.

Okay, true. For precision of language, I should call it copyright infringement. But the people who sometimes post intentionally inflammatory things on message boards aren't actually trolls, they're just being mean. In some cases, the prevailing language of the land is going to win out over precision. I apologize for any confusion.

Point the Fourth: "Does this mean you don't like me because I initially read your book in a sub-legal format?"

Did you buy the book? I mean, really, that's where my concern is here: In whether I can feed the cats. I first discovered the X-Men because my friend Lucy had an older brother who wasn't careful with his comics, and I didn't pay for those, either. As I said above, I can't condone illegal downloading, but once you've paid for the material, I lose all personal animosity.

Point the Fifth: Books and music aren't the same.

Most the research on illegal downloads has been in the music arena, and the numbers aren't the same. According to iTunes, the single song I have listened to the most often is the cover of "Livin' La Vida Loca" by Spork, which I have listened to 342 times. The single book I have read the most often is IT, by Stephen King, which I have read, if guessing generously, eighty times in the last twenty years. Many people don't re-read, or do so only sparingly. So saying that illegal downloads increase sales when you're only looking at music is like saying that breeding mice increases the elephant population.

Point the Sixth: Cory Doctorow does it.

Cory Doctorow is also recognized by my spellchecker, which doesn't recognize my name. He chose to distribute over the Internet, and it worked out awesomely for him. He's also doing Internet-savvy fiction, with a keen edge of interest for the online crowd. I write urban fantasies about women with silly names. We don't have the same target audience; it's mice and elephants again.

I'll come back and participate in the discussion more one on one later. Now? DayQuil and sleep.

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Alice purring loudly because I'm home.

So there's been a spate recently of people going "What's the status on _________?" or "Where can I buy _________?" This is usually referring to either the InCryptid books or the Lycanthropy books, although I've also had a somewhat surprising number of inquiries about print editions of "Velveteen vs." and Sparrow Hill (hint: even if I'm able to arrange for a print edition of Sparrow Hill, it won't be until well after the virtual edition has finished, since TEoP gets first crack at the series). Here, then, is my across-the-board answer:

If I am able to give the status on a project (sold, in print, not yet shopping, not yet finished), I will. I am not in any way shy about going "OH MY GOD YOU GUYS GUESS WHAT?!" I will probably give you this status whether you want it or not, whether you care about it or not, and whether you ask me or not. And just to live up to this statement, my confirmed publications for 2011, so far, are...

"Gimme a 'Z'!," short story, in the collection Zombiesque, February.
Late Eclipses, novel, March. Toby Daye book four.
"Alchemy of Alcohol," short story, in the collection After Hours: Tales From the Ur-Bar, March.
"The Girls Next Door," essay, in the essay collection Whedonistas, March.
Deadline, novel (as Mira Grant), May. Newsflesh book two.
One Salt Sea, novel, September. Toby Daye book five.

The third Newsflesh book, Blackout, will be published in 2012.

I have a few other short stories slated for publication, but don't have release dates and/or permission to announce them yet. See, once something is sold, I am unable to tell people until I am given permission from the publisher—it's part of the standard contract. So if I'm not telling you where you can buy something, it's because there's a "can't" involved. Either you can't buy it, or I can't tell you. Either way, please, please believe me when I say that anything I am allowed to share, I share as quickly as I can, to keep my own head from exploding.

And stuff.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Glee, "Rehab."

First up,

calico_reaction has selected Feed as her October book club selection, and is currently moderating a vigorous discussion of the book. She does good, critical review, and you should check her out.

Second up, I'm linking to this in part because other people keep pointing it out to me, often with a "hey hey you should go participate in the discussion" rider. So I wanted to take a moment to explain why I'll read reviews*, but won't read or participate in book discussions.

Having an author join a discussion of their own book often has the unintentional effect of both censoring and stilling the dialog. Which is not to say that people won't happily say "you suck" when they know I'll see it...but people who think that's fun aren't usually the sort of people who really want to do critical analysis, and people who really want to do critical analysis sometimes get uncomfortable critically analyzing someone who's standing right there. This goes double for readers who are also friends of mine. It's way harder to be harsh on a book, or critical of a plot point, when you're worried about hurting the feelings of a friend.

Plus, anything I say about what I meant—not how the text was interpreted—sort of sounds like holy writ. "No, no, you have that wrong..." is not something you want to hear from an author during a book discussion. Ever. It can be really easy for an author to come off as a condescending brat when they chime in on this sort of thing.

Lastly...the "book as child" comparison doesn't stand up for me, most of the time. My books don't need to be fed, don't get the stomach flu, and don't wake me up at two in the morning to look for monsters in their closets. But there are times when the comparison holds. Imagine putting a small child in a room with two-way mirrors all the way around it, like a zoo enclosure. The child doesn't know you're out there, which is good, because you and your friends have gathered to rip that child apart.

She's funny looking. His clothes don't fit. She has too many freckles. His toes are weird. She's not smart enough. He's not cute enough. She's too tall. He's too short. She doesn't play with her dolls the way you think she should. He keeps sticking Lego pieces in his mouth. And so on, and so on, until every possible flaw, real or perceived, has been picked apart in detail. Someone will opine that the child should never have been born. Someone else will opine that the world would be better if the child had been taken behind a barn and shot.

Now imagine that the child's mother is standing right there, listening to every word you say, but unable to defend her child from you in any useful way—in fact, attempting to defend the child will just result in her being attacked as a bad mother on top of everything else.

And this is what it's like to be an author at a book discussion, even a good, civilized, totally bitchin' one like

calico_reaction's tend to be. Which is why I don't read or participate in them.

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle! The other half involves airborne rabies hybrids and a hand-held mister.

(*That aren't posted on Goodreads or Amazon.)

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Train, "Drops of Jupiter."

(A note: This was supposed to go up on the 9th, but I got distracted by banana slugs, Canadians, roadkill, and my mother. We'll be resuming the normal posting dates after today's interjection. Sorry for the confusion)

Hello, and welcome to my journal! I'm pretty sure you know who I am, my name being in the URL and all, but just in case, I'm Seanan McGuire (also known as Mira Grant), and you're probably not on Candid Camera. This post exists to answer a few of the questions I get asked on a semi-hemi-demi-regular basis. It may look familiar; that's because it gets updated and re-posted roughly every two months, to let folks who've just wandered in know how things work around here. Also, sometimes I change the questions. Because I can.

If you've read this before, feel free to skip, although there may be interesting new things to discover and know beyond the cut.

Anyway, here you go:

( This way lies a lot of information you may or may not need about the person whose LJ you may or may not be reading right at this moment. Also, I may or may not be the King of Rain, which may or may not explain why it's drizzling right now. Essentially, this is Schrodinger's cut-tag. )

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Little bits and pieces of just about everything.

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Seanan McGuire Online

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Because people have asked: Where To Buy My New Book.
The signing of books is a difficult matter; it isn't just one of your holiday games...
Because You Asked: Merlins.
Because You Asked: Shapeshifters.
Because You Asked: Geography and Biology are the same in Faerie.
Because You Asked: The Changeling's Choice.
Question time! Toby Daye trivia is fun.
Why can't I buy the ebook of X outside the US? A brief territory explanation.
Wicked Girls shirt update.
My policy on reviews.
A brief note on full disclosure.
Administrative bits and pieces.
And the winners are...
What do you want to know?
LATE ECLIPSES ARC giveaway #3: Just the FAQs.
In which Seanan controls neither the weather nor the mail.
A few quick points...
A brief note on full disclosure.
FEED book discussion link, and why I'm not attending the party.
The periodic welcome post.

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Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

The Journal of Seanan McGuire

Entries tagged with common questions

Because people have asked: Where To Buy My New Book.

The signing of books is a difficult matter; it isn't just one of your holiday games...

Because You Asked: Merlins.

Because You Asked: Shapeshifters.

Because You Asked: Geography and Biology are the same in Faerie.

Because You Asked: The Changeling's Choice.

Question time! Toby Daye trivia is fun.

Why can't I buy the ebook of X outside the US? A brief territory explanation.

Wicked Girls shirt update.

My policy on reviews.

A brief note on full disclosure.

Administrative bits and pieces.

And the winners are...

What do you want to know?

LATE ECLIPSES ARC giveaway #3: Just the FAQs.

In which Seanan controls neither the weather nor the mail.

A few quick points...