Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

So Kate swears that I'm the creepiest thing going at any length less than thirty pages (I suppose because when I'm working under thirty pages, I don't have time for the why-porn to really saturate whatever it is I'm writing). Now's your opportunity to find out if she's right, because "The Tolling of Pavlov's Bells" will be appearing in the January issue of Apex Magazine.

YOU GUYS YOU GUYS I SOLD "PAVLOV'S"!!!! THE STORY WITH LIKE ONLY THE MOST TIPTREE TITLE EVER!!!!

...in case you can't tell, I'm pleased.

"Pavlov's" is the middle piece in what I view as my mad science triptych. The other two pieces are "Laughter at the Academy: A Field Study in the Development of Schizotypal Creative Genius Personality Disorder," and "Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box." (No, you can't read the other two yet; I'm hoping you'll be able to eventually, I just need to get there.) They're sort of my id/ego/super-ego of mad science, and now that they're all written, maybe I can get it out of my head for a little while.

Ha. Ha. Ha. No, really.

But anyway: I finally found a home for "The Tolling of Pavlov's Bells," and it's a totally cool home, and I couldn't be more pleased. And if I ever do a short story collection, the odds are good that it'll be called The Tolling of Pavlov's Bells, so publishing the title story is always a good maneuver.

Mad science, killer viruses, and all that other good stuff can be yours in just one short month! You're welcome.

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. )

Brooke, being Brooke, and hence attracted to anything that involves "science" and "spiders," provided me with a link to a full-sized piece of fabric made from spider silk. Because this was awesome, I promptly shared it with my friend Rae. The following conversation occurred:

raelee: That is a lot of spiders. But very purty silk.
seanan_mcguire: I will put them all in the bed of the next human who vexes me.
raelee: *eyes you* Duly noted.
seanan_mcguire: You rarely vex.
raelee: Still, sharing my bed with a million spiders, while extremely kinky, is not high on the list of activities I'd like to participate in before my death... especially since it has a high probability of leading to said death. Therefore, I'll take the proper precautions so as not to vex.
seanan_mcguire: It'd be like, LEGS LEGS LEGS LEGS LEGS LEGS LEGS *enrobe* *devour* LEGS.
raelee: Yeahhhh, I just freaked out reading that.
seanan_mcguire: ...oooops. Sorry.
raelee: s'ok, everyone needs to have a mini seizure at their desk occasionally.

There are days when I truly feel that being my friend ought to come with a hazard advisory of some sort. Or maybe just a little label that flashes after pictures of horrible things, like botflies and flesh-eating bacteria. "WARNING: Seanan is going to think this is cool, and probably want to discuss it with you. Please begin self-sedation now."

I was invented to make sure you stay fully alert and aware of your surroundings. Lest the million spiders in your bed catch you by surprise.

After an exciting evening chasing around San Francisco, visiting the freaky alien demon suede kittyfaces at Borderlands Books, and helping Kate get her glasses to fit right, I returned to the safety of the East Bay...where my mother promptly abducted me off to meet up with my baby sister, the trucker, in Brentwood. In the parking lot of an Office Max.

Did I mention that it was after nine o'clock by that point, and that I hadn't really eaten anything besides a McDonalds ice cream cone since lunch? Oh, and that my new CD finally arrived today -- at least according to the UPS website, as I hadn't yet had visual confirmation?

Yeah, it was a night.

But now I'm home, and I've confirmed the existence of the CDs. Yes! One thousand copies of Red Roses and Dead Things have joined the general clutter of my home. Actually, right now, they're increasing the specific clutter of my bedroom. Not precisely what I'd call optimal, but as it allows me to sign and number the pre-orders (to the degree that I can manage before a formal shipping party), I suppose I'll cope.

It's a damn pretty CD, too. It came out even better looking than I was hoping it would.

So that's my Friday night. Having signed and numbered the first ten CDs, I will now proceed to my bed, where I will probably dream of being crushed to death beneath a hail of disks. Because that's how this works. Good-night, world.

Since I'm feeling better* today, I'm taking care of all those things which were permitted to slip over the past several days. Specifically...

* I've gone through and checked checks against orders in my ordering database, so that I could correctly mark off those people I don't need to harass into paying me. I'm a very polite harasser, really, but the major down-side of doing CDs the way I do -- IE, 'the pre-orders pay for the production costs' -- is that when people don't pay me, I have real trouble making the albums actually exist. In other news, I now have 212 pre-orders in the system. I feel special.

* I've reviewed the final mastered tracks for Red Roses and Dead Things, confirming that they are MADE OF AWESOME. I am, of course, hyper-critical of my own performances, but that's my nature, and everything I can be objective about on the album is fantastic. Michelle Dockrey, Maya Bohnhoff, and Tom Smith are all super-cool in their appearances, and Tony Fabris just blows me out of the water with his mournful Dave Davenport. I'm so glad this album is about to exist.

* I've also written the back page for the liner notes, which is sort of like the acknowledgments page in a book, only with a lot more references to James Gunn and his pressing need to call me. And yes, I will be sending him a copy of the album. He's on the extremely short 'freebie' list. (It consists of James Gunn, Stephen King, and Eric Kripke, for this album. Because I am a good little horror girl.)

* Since I like not being clubbed to death by The Agent for getting nothing done**, I've also been plugging away on The Brightest Fell. The goal du jour is hitting three hundred pages, and then breaking to hammer on The Mourning Edition for a little while. I find it hysterical -- and also annoying -- that I have, like, two books in my entire 'write this' list that start with the word 'the,' and I'm working on them both at once. Bah.

* Also, I keep stopping to poke at Facebook, and its addictive little clicky-clicky vampire game. You know you're hooked when you consider soliciting total strangers to join your clan. Again, bah.

More to come, after I find my desk under this pile o' crap.

(*Local values of 'better' include 'capable of moving around under own power without feeling the intense need to stop and yark up everything consumed in the past hour' and 'capable of stringing six coherent words together in a line.' We've lowered our standards, now up yours.)

(**My definition of 'getting nothing done' is a very specialized one. I know this thing.)

How better to begin celebrating my favorite month -- the month that contains Halloween -- than with this announcement:

Pre-orders for Red Roses and Dead Things, my first themed studio album, are now officially open! Pardon my squealing, and with big, big thanks to porpentine, who has made the magic go once again. Featuring performances by Paul Kwinn, Tony Fabris, Michelle Dockrey, Amy McNally, Jeff Bohnhoff, Maya Bohnhoff, Tom Smith, and probably several other people that I've managed to temporarily forget, this is a solid star-studded adventure in the worlds of mad science and horror. It brings the creepy. It brings the silly. And it brings the AWESOME.

To place your order, go to:

https://seananmcguire.com/secure_order.php

Pre-orders follow this price scale:

* $17.00 USD: Domestic pre-order (US and Canada)
* $22.00 USD: International pre-order.

(Basically, all pre-orders are a base cost of $15.00, plus shipping.)

We're taking three hundred total pre-orders, then closing it down; depending on how fast they come, and when we hit three hundred, there may be a small overage, but not much. All pre-orders will be given access to an exclusive download version of 'What A Woman's For' (which may or may not be released more widely into the wild after the album is released). Since we also need to pay mixing costs, we're taking album sponsors; to donate for sponsorship, click here:

All sponsors will be included in the liner notes. You can view the potential track list here:

http://seananmcguire.com/albums.php

The track order is by no means finalized, and I'll probably be doing some canvassing soon, to get an idea of other people's opinions on what should come first, last, where, and when. We may have to cut a song, depending on final track lengths; we don't know yet.

Questions? Comments? Glee!

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, and you're probably not on Candid Camera. This post exists to answer a few of the questions that I get asked on a semi-hemi-demi-regular basis (currently, approximately every two months). It may look familiar; that's because it gets reposted every time the answers change, and to let new people know how we roll around here. (I will make no more Clueless references in this post, I promise.) 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. )

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, and you're probably not on Candid Camera. This post exists to answer a few of the questions that I get asked on a semi-hemi-demi-regular basis. It may look familiar; that's because it gets reposted every time the answers change, and to let new people know how we roll around here. (I will make no more Clueless references in this post, I promise.) Also, sometimes I change the questions. Because I can.

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. )