Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

It is now Sunday; Late Eclipses [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] officially comes out in two days. This is terrifying and amazing. This is my fifth book. I mean, seriously, people, what the hell? Did I hit my head? Is this a really weird dream? How have I published five books?!

In honor of really weird dreams, I give you two stories I very much hope I get to tell.

1. I occasionally mention a book called Nativity of Chance. It's what I call my "Tim Powers book," because it's not the sort of book I usually write. It's about alchemy, and math, and language, and second chances, and siblings, and the families we find as opposed to the families we're given. It's about a girl named Dodger who loves numbers like she loves nothing else, and a boy named Roger who loves words like he loves nothing else, and the way they love each other. It's about Oz. It's about finding a place in a universe that loves you like a broken heart loves a last goodbye. I want to write it so bad, and I have to write at least five more books, first, because I'm just not good enough yet. But I can finally see good enough on a clear day, and that's very, very new.

2. The tenth InCryptid book is called Spelunking Through Hell: A Visitor's Guide to the Underworld. It's the story of Alice Price-Healy and Thomas Price and why true love is bad for you, and all the books before it are necessary, in part, to put the pieces in position for this last big story. I desperately want the series to do well enough to let me get this far, to let me show you what it looks like in the forests of my heart. I am good enough to tell this story. I just have to show my math if I want you to love it the way that I do.

It's Friday. There's barely a weekend between us and Late Eclipses [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], which officially hits store shelves in four days. I can barely believe that it's so close. I'm still a little stunned when I look at my shelf at home, and there's book four, staring at me. But the show must go on, and in honor of that fact, here are four exciting things coming in the next year.

4. Well, naturally, Deadline. The second book in the Newsflesh trilogy is coming out at the end of May, and it's exciting and terrifying and Feed was so well-reviewed that I'm considering disabling my Google spiders and hiding under my bed for a week when this one comes out, just to escape the inevitable comparisons. I think it's a good book. I even think it's maybe a better book. But it's not a sequel in the "do the same, only bigger" sense, and that makes me twitchy.

3. "Through This House" is my first novella set in Toby's world. More, it's my first novella appearing in a Charlaine Harris/Toni Kelner anthology, which still has me a little WAIT WHAT NO WHO IS DRIVING? BEAR IS DRIVING!! HOW CAN THIS BE?!? about the whole thing. I love the story, which bridges the span between Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea, but isn't necessary to enjoy either. And I love that I was somehow lucky enough to be allowed to write it.

2. Book Expo America! This is one of the biggest literary trade shows in the world. It's like, the Emerald City of giant book expos. I've never been before. And this year, I get to go. Lemme hear a "woo" from the crowd! Hell, I'll do it myself. WOO!

1. One Salt Sea. It comes out in September; I'm in final editorial revisions now; it's the book where, well, once again, everything changes. It's also the book I sometimes thought I would never finish, because it required admitting to myself that the series would make it five books, and I never quite believed that. But I did, and it did, and soon, you'll get to read it, and I'm so excited.

And that's four exciting things in the year ahead.

And now, ladies and gentlemen...Late Eclipses [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] is officially six days from release. That's less than a week! How am I supposed to get all my freaking out finished in less than a week? Since flailing around screaming that the sky is falling doesn't help with my countdown, here are six things you may not know about me.

6. I love snakes and spiders, have no fear of sharks, and tend to giggle hysterically when I'm on a plane and it hits a patch of turbulence that makes it feel like we're going to fall out of the sky. I am, however, morbidly terrified of pudding. This translates into a fear of any type of slug that isn't so ludicrously colored as to seem like a special effect.

5. I will not go into brackish water, because of the potential for leeches. Even if I am assured that there are no leeches in the entire country, I will not go into brackish water, because of the potential for leeches. Leeches are just not okay. Thank you, Stand By Me. In an attempt to conquer my fear, I kept a jar of leeches in my kitchen for a whole year. Those leeches were okay, because they were behind glass.

4. My collection of My Little Ponies is epic and vast, and contains almost all of the larger buildings from the original 1980s run of the toy line. Yes, including the Paradise Estate, which is roughly the size of a large card table. In that misty, far-off future where I actually have an office of my very own, it's going to wind up evenly divided between research material and plastic horses. Because that's just how I roll.

3. I grew up really, really, really poor, and I read really, really, really fast. These things combined mean that I grew up a dedicated re-reader, and will read books that I enjoy five, ten, or even twenty times. My count on The Stand is somewhere in the mid-fifties. The weirdest thing about my current bounty of available reading material is the lack of re-reading. I haven't read any of my favorites in over a year, and it's making me twitchy.

2. I have these long, elaborate, lucid dreams that seem entirely real when they're going on, even down to my needing to eat and use the bathroom in my sleep. They always end when someone tells me that I'm dreaming, and while they tend to be very realistic and grounded, they also tend to involve elements of "in a perfect world," like, you know, being published. Part of me spends every day afraid someone's going to tell me I'm dreaming.

1. My childhood idols were Vincent Price, Marilyn Munster, and Doctor Who. Considering that, and considering the way my life has turned out, I don't think I'm doing so bad. And I think they'd be proud of me.

We are now eight days from the release of Late Eclipses [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy]. I've been counting down to the book release with a variety of lists, some directly related to Toby's world, some not. Today is more like a "well, maybe." See, people ask me about my research. And today, I figured I'd acknowledge those questions by listing eight of the reference books I couldn't live without.

Not all of these books are currently in print. I can't stress that enough. I'm not saying "run out and replicate my reference library," I'm saying "these are the books I use." I've provided Amazon links where possible. Enjoy!

8. The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook [Amazon]. The second edition of this book has come out in paperback recently, and it's so, so worth it if you're doing anything with characters who don't have modern American names. I use this book once a story, and sometimes more often. It won't replace the need for independent name research, but it takes a lot of the weight off.

7. An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures [Amazon]. Out of print. If the Toby universe has a folklore Bible, this is it. This seminal work by Katharine Briggs was, and is, regarded as the definitive work on fairy lore of its type. I have learned more from reading her footnotes than I learned in some folklore classes. While out of print, used copies are reasonably easy to find. This is a real must for anyone working with European fairy folklore.

6. The Book of Poisons [Amazon]. This is part of the Writer's Digest series about ways for writers to kill people. It's a beautifully put together and researched volume, and while parts of it naturally became out of date while it was still being edited, the historical and natural poison sections are invaluable. Just, ah, don't read it on the airplane.

5. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads [Amazon]. Is this a five-volume set of song lyrics with footnotes and no sheet music? Yes. Yes, it is. Is it an incredible cornerstone in our understanding of the evolution of English and Scottish folklore, and an absolute must for anyone working in those traditions? Yes. Yes, it is. Francis James Child, I salute you.

4. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable [Amazon]. The Wordsworth reference dictionary collection is one of the most amazing, most frustrating reference sources in the world. They're impossible to find; there's no exhaustive list; even after years of tracking them down, I keep finding titles at used bookstores that I've never heard of before (and need desperately). Despite all that, if there's a Wordsworth in your area of study, get it. They're amazing reference books.

3. The Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology [Amazon]. This book is still in print. It also costs ninety dollars, so unless you're serious about your cryptid reference library, you can probably find cheaper alternatives. That said, I can use this book to kill rattlesnakes, spiders, and possibly home invaders, so it's totally worth it.

2. A Field Guide to the Little People [Amazon]. Nancy Arrowsmith's Field Guide is another of those absolutely priceless references for fairy and folklore, and had I made this list two years ago, I would have needed to add an "out of print" footnote. But not right now! This is a great book, and I'm so thrilled that it's available again.

1. The Monster Spotter's Guide to North America [Amazon]. Is this a serious work of cryptozoology? No. But it can lead you to new research channels, it can suggest cryptids you might want to look into, and it's just plain fun, which makes it a great reference book for the beginner. It's amazing how a fun gateway book can make a dry-as-dirt advanced course worth it.

Happy reading!

We are now ten days from the release of Late Eclipses [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy]. Since this is the fourth book in the series, people who've been following since the beginning have come to know a great deal about Toby and her world. So here is a list of ten things that have surprised me about these books. (Note: These are ten things about the text of the books themselves, not ten things about the publishing process.)

10. Danny. No, seriously. Danny was not originally in Rosemary and Rue; he was added when I revised the book for publication and needed to shuffle the action around a little bit. So I gave this big Bridge Troll a walk-on role, and figured I was finished. The joke turned out to be on me, as Danny gradually became a bigger part of the cast, and is now utterly integral.

9. In the same vein...Quentin. Quentin has been a part of the series since the beginning, but was originally intended to be much more of a mini-me for Etienne. You know, mannerly, proper, well-trained, and regularly scandalized. Then came the revisions on A Local Habitation, and suddenly he had ideas of his own. I love him so much more this way, but wow, was it a shocker.

8. The pixies. They were supposed to be setting. They turned into something a great deal more important, and more fun to write. Even if they don't make sense, as such.

7. The fae being nocturnal. In the original drafts of the first few books, almost everything happened at night, but it was never explicitly stated that the fae were nocturnal. Despite their magic being damaged by sunrise, and despite midnight being explicitly stated as "fairy time." Luckily, I caught on before anything saw print.

6. The Luidaeg. Like Danny, she was supposed to be a one-time character, someone who showed up, did what she needed to do, and then left. But Toby just had to start bringing her bagels...

5. April.

4. The naming structure of the months. All the fae with month names have those month names for a reason. It's even a good one. But I never dreamt that the series would include more than just October herself, much less the sheer number of them to have fetched up at this point.

3. The names of the books themselves! The original name of book one was Hope Springs Eternal, to be followed by The Fall Won't Kill You and Winter of Our Dismemberment. Yes, it was a seasonal theme. No, I don't know what I was thinking. Yes, I like these names better.

2. The importance of geography. I know most of the Kingdoms in North America, and most of the Duchies and large political divisions on the West Coast. I never thought this would be important. I am an idiot.

1. Toby's diet. I have no idea why she eats some of the things she eats. At least she's happy? Also, ew.

We are now twelve days from the release of Late Eclipses [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy]. I'm starting to freak out, and that means it's time to talk about things that make authors freak out. Here are twelve things about authors.

12. Asking an author who has just released a book (or is in pre-release for a book) "When's the next one?" is like asking a woman who's nine months pregnant "When's the next one?", only the author is probably not nine months pregnant, and is thus more likely to hit you. I am aware that this metaphor makes me out to be one of those faintly frightening women with twelve children, planning for twelve more. It's still true.

11. Most authors don't know where their ideas come from. Which doesn't mean you shouldn't ask; I seriously doubt I could be the one who killed that question in the hearts and minds of readers everywhere (although if I was, SFWA would probably saint me). It just means that when we answer you, we're probably lying.

10. No, that nice author you met on the bus once doesn't want to read your manuscript. I'm sorry. That nice dentist you met on the bus once doesn't want to clean your teeth for free, either.

9. An author on deadline is faintly neurotic, faintly obsessive, faintly hysterical, faintly depressed, and faintly insane. Sometimes just one of these; sometimes all five. Poke at your own risk.

8. Most authors are writing the genres they're writing because they love them. Telling a romance writer he or she should write a real book is a good way to find out how heavy that romance writer's satchel or purse really is.

7. I would do anything for love, but I won't do that. I would, however, do that for research, especially since research, unlike love, is tax-deductible.

6. Authors who say "I'm staying home to write on Friday night" aren't saying "I am lonely, please save me from myself." They're saying "I'm staying home to write on Friday night." This goes double for authors with day jobs.

5. I dare anyone who says writing isn't work to copy-edit and revise a three hundred page manuscript in under a month. Oh, and it has to be better when you finish than it was when you started. If you can do that, you can say anything you want.

4. Authors tend to be fiscally conservative, because there's rarely a guarantee of when the next check will come. This makes us dangerous in warehouse stores. We really do go "I could totally buy enough toilet paper wholesale to survive nuclear winter." Never look in an author's pantry.

3. Ways not to introduce yourself to a working author: "Nice to meet you. I read your last book, and it was shit." If you do that, please expect to get "Nice to meet you. I hope you have medical insurance," as a reply.

2. Everything eventually shows up in a book. Everything. Yes, even that. No, we're not trying to be mean. It's just how our brains work.

1. Authors write because we have to. It's how we're made. So please forgive us for those Friday nights, okay?

(This post was supposed to go up yesterday, when we were fifteen days from the official release of Late Eclipses. I was ill, and so it didn't get posted, and you are thus getting a double-dip today. Either I'm sorry or you're welcome, depending on your point of view.)

15. Formal courtship is still alive and well in Faerie, and involves a great deal of poetry, flowers, and elaborate ritual. It is customary for the person being courted to thank the person doing the courting for each step after the first, to remind them that they have an obligation to finish what they've started. If you see a couple of moon-struck young fae thanking each other a lot, they're engaged in a formal courtship.

14. Most purebloods speak and utilize the ritual language of flowers when courting; every bouquet is a poem in and of itself. Never buy a Daoine Sidhe flowers from Safeway, you'll just confuse them.

13. The majority of fae marriages do not result in children, and are dissolved without issue by the participants. In these cases, it's not even really considered a "divorce," so much as a parting of the ways, and there is almost always no resentment between them. In some cases, people will even dissolve a marriage, and then turn around and marry the siblings of their former spouses, just because they're bored, but enjoy the overall dynamic of their extended family.

12. Same-sex marriage is relatively common, and even well-regarded, especially by families who do not have titles of their own; long-term fostering leading to formal adoption will usually provide these couples with an heir, and provide the foster's original family with a closer tie to the nobility.

11. Setting quests for a suitor is acceptable, if currently somewhat out of fashion for anyone lower in rank than the heir of a Duke.

10. Because sexual relations with a mortal are not considered infidelity, many married couples will take human lovers from time to time, just to break up the tedium.

9. Marriage to a human is not considered legal or binding under fae law. Consequentially, all changelings are considered bastards.

8. Purebloods have access to incredibly rich, complicated foods in the Summerlands. Their wines are beyond mortal comprehension, their cakes a doorway into divinity. This does not prevent them really, really liking Hershey's chocolate. Many otherwise expensive courtships are heavily centered around Mr. Goodbar. No one knows why.

7. Arranged marriage still occurs among some races of fae. This is a hold-over from when Faerie was very young, and they needed to make sure people were as distantly related as possible. (Fae genetics are weird and not the topic here, and all members of any given race are descended from the same First, but they still wanted to avoid marrying their sisters when possible.) The underground races are especially fond of arranged marriage.

6. But not the Gremlins. Gremlins marry for love, or because you have a really big...forge. There's nothing a Gremlin girl likes better than a man with a really big forge.

5. There are different rules for courtship between a man and a woman, two men, two women, a man and two women, or a woman and two men. Beyond that, they sort of make it up as they go along.

4. Yes, group marriage occurs. It's especially common among Centaurs, Satyrs, Cetacea, and Gremlins. As a rule, we don't ask. Especially not about the Gremlins.

3. It is considered exceedingly rude to break off a courtship in the middle for anything short of "My liege has arranged a marriage for me" or "We're going to war." Once the courting period has been finished and you're just dating, it becomes a lot more acceptable.

2. Watching really traditional purebloods try to court their human lovers is funnier than anything currently on weeknight TV.

1. The fae believe in true love. Even when it hurts them. And because they're going to live forever, they're usually willing to wait until the time is right to buckle down and pursue it. This can make them infuriating to humans and changelings, because they're so damn slow...but when they marry for love, it tends to be forever.

Tomorrow, Feed is officially released. That's one. Saturday, Feed is guaranteed to be on sale everywhere. That's five. Numbers, numbers, numbers. I am defined by numbers. Numbers are my bread and my butter, and the things that keep me from going crazy in a bad way.

Both of these are prime. That's something.

I'm a lot mellower about this book release than I expected to be. This may be because I'm getting better at this whole "book release" thing, or it may just be that I'm still completely exhausted following all the crazy surrounding A Local Habitation and finishing Deadline, and simply lack the energy to be insane. I still teared up the first time I saw it on an actual shelf in an actual store (the Borders in Pleasant Hill). Which reminds me, these are the locations where you can buy a signed copy, right now:

* Borders, Pleasant Hill
* Barnes & Noble, San Bruno

Both stores also have signed copies of the Toby Daye books. If you're not local, or want something personalized, remember that I'll be appearing at Borderlands Books on Saturday, May 8th. The store does take requests for personalized books to be mailed basically anywhere on this planet. You can email or call them, and I'd be just tickled to sign a book for you during the event. (Plus, well, if you can't support your local by buying a signed book, be a sport and support my local.)

One day, five days, and my second book release of the year is fully and finally underway, the next grand adventure off and running. I am elated and terrified, and tired.

I need a nap.

When will you rise?

(Since there's some unclarity surrounding the release date for Feed, which Amazon insists is April 27th, and my publisher insists is May 1st, here's my official party line: The book comes out May 1st. It may actually come out earlier than that; it won't come out later. I am reserving my panic for May 1st, that being a good day for freaking out, and fully expect to be hyperventilating by late April regardless. But May 1st is the date that sits at the end of my countdown.)

The little "days until Feed comes out" counter on today's planner page reads "25." If I had a penny for every day between now and book release, I would have...a quarter. Which is still enough to buy a super high-bounce ball from a vending machine, or maybe some cheap generic M&Ms that look kind of like candy-coated bunny turds. Quarters are cool. I like quarters.

This is my third book release and my first book release at the same time, which isn't exactly an experience I was ever anticipating having. I mean, half of me is like "I should be so zen right now," and the other half is going "HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT I AM RELEASING A BOOK WHY IS THE ENTIRE WORLD NOT FREAKING RIGHT THE FUCK OUT?!" Then the zen half is forced to punch the hysterical half in the face, thus increasing the hysteria while reducing the zen, and eventually I just slink away to play with my My Little Ponies until the screaming in my head stops. Also, there is a lot of television involved in this particular healing process. Without cable, the world would be in serious danger right now, that's all I'm saying. Only Fringe and America's Next Top Model stand between you and the death of all mankind.

It's very difficult to yank my brain from fairy tale mode into politics-and-zombies mode, despite the fact that I'm currently ass-deep in edits for Deadline (and sinking deeper every day). It doesn't help that I can't do my normal "carry your netbook and work while commuting" routine, since my back is giving me trouble, and that means I need to minimize what I'm carrying. My netbook is small, yes, but it's dense, and it represents a fairly substantial carrying-capacity commitment, especially when I'm also toting around my purse, my lunch, and reading material for the day. Right now, my writing time is confined to those moments when I am sitting in front of an actual computer. And yes, it's driving me batty. But that's really nothing all that new, now, is it?

It all seems a little break-neck and terrifying, because Feed has been such a fast journey for me. I finished it and sold it inside of six months; the second two books in the trilogy were sold before they were even written. It's a trilogy, which means there's a beginning, a middle, and an end, unlike Toby, where the story gets to go as long as I think it needs to (and I think it needs to go a long, long way). This is the first time I've told a story this big that actually knows where to stop, rather than continuing to spread and grow. I've lived with the Masons for a few years now, but in the grand scope of things, those few years haven't been that long. And now I get to share them. And it's scary. And it's wonderful.

Alive or dead, the truth won't rest.

Rise up while you can.

I am not a Triskaidekaphobe; if anything, I'm more of a Triskaidekaphile. I love the number thirteen. I spent the entire year that I was thirteen wandering around feeling lucky (and even extended it into my fourteenth year by quite a bit, insisting that I needed to get thirteen months, weeks, days, and hours of being thirteen). I've always considered Friday the 13th to be "my lucky day," and I love years like 2009, where the stars align just right and we get three Friday the 13ths in a single calendar year. (This year, 2010, the stars have not aligned just right, and we're only getting one, in August. I hope to spend it in Australia, where I will use its potent payload of sheer good luck to not die horribly.)

But why is Friday the 13th unlucky? One could argue that it has become unlucky because so many people believe it is, and there's value in that position, but what started it? Here's the fun part: no one really seems to know for sure. It's a combination of unlucky thirteen and unlucky Friday, and it just bumbles around being baleful at all the other days on the calendar.

So why is thirteen unlucky? Some people claim that Judas was the thirteenth person to join the table during the Last Supper (which doesn't explain why "thirty" isn't unlucky, too, that being the number of pieces of silver he's supposed to have received). Others think it came from the Norse, where alternately, Loki was regarded as the thirteenth god of the pantheon, or just the thirteenth person to show up at Baldr's funeral, having also arranged Baldr's death. (So you know, if you arrange my death, you're not invited to my funeral.) There's an old superstition that says that when thirteen people gather, one of them will be dead within the year, which is statistically viable in certain cases, and not so much in others.

There are also a lot of cultures that hold thirteen to be lucky, one way or another. The Torah describes the thirteen attributes of mercy, and boys become men on their thirteenth birthdays. Italy considers thirteen to be a lucky number, as does Colgate University. Thirteen is when kids can see PG-13 movies unaccompanied, and believe me, that is incredibly lucky when it happens. Also, thirteen is a prime number, which always leaves me well-disposed.

So maybe it's all Friday's baggage. Sure, we tend to regard Friday as lucky in the modern era—it's the last day of the work or school week, it's the day when all the new movies open, and it's the day when bedtime is suspended—but for a long time, Friday was viewed as unlucky. Maritime folklore holds that it's a bad idea to start a long voyage on a Friday. Jesus may or may not have been crucified on a Friday, and "Black Friday" either means "day of horrible disaster" or "the day after Thanksgiving, when we create horrible disasters in the mall parking lot." Who knows?

The theories on why we've decided Friday the 13th is singularly unlucky range from the ancient (Frigga is pissed off about Christianity) to the political (the early Christians made thirteen unlucky because the pagans considered it lucky) to the osmosis of popular culture (Thomas W. Lawson's 1907 novel, Friday, the Thirteenth). Regardless of why it happened, it's unlikely to unhappen any time soon, especially not if Jason and his machete have anything to say about it.

Happy Wednesday the thirteenth! Try not to walk under any ladders.